[287] Story Discussion--Rabbit Warren

[Count Casimir]

Do I get to post a story discussion? I do! I do!

Early Update:

www.drunkduck.com/Gunnerkrigg_Court/index.php

Anyhoo, I'm liking this page. Especially Coyote's use of the word "abalone"

Nothing seems to have been especially resolved though. Is a visit to the forest next?

[Ptollu Vux]

Well, swordsman is obviously Eglamore, but absolutely nothing has been accomplished. :l

[fjodor]

I like Annie's sense of humour. And I'm sure she wil look good in trousers.

[UbiquitousDragon]

Hehe, I love Annie!

Though, I don't understand the use of the word "abalone". I don't know what it means :S

[Ed130]

Abalone is a type of shellfish

I thought he meant Paua but

Abalone (from Spanish Abulón) are a group of shellfish (mollusks) in the family Haliotidae and the Haliotis genus. They are marine snails, and are part of the large class Gastropoda. There is only one genus in the family Haliotidae, and about four to seven subgenera. The taxonomy of the family is still somewhat confused. The number of species recognized world-wide ranges from about 100 to 130 (due to the occurrence of hybrids).

Abalone shells have a low and open spiral structure, and are characterized by several respiratory holes in a row near the shell's outer edge. The innermost layer of the shell is composed of nacre or mother-of-pearl, which in many species is highly iridescent, giving rise to a range of strong and changeable colors which make them attractive to humans as a decorative object. Abalone are also called ear-shells, ormer in Jersey and Guernsey, perlemoen in South Africa, and pâua in New Zealand. The meat of abalone is considered by many to be a desirable food.

(I nicked this off wikipedia)

He (Coyote) may be referring to the way Annie keeps a "shell" on her feelings with several little holes poking through aka her friendships with Kat etc...

Of course I could be on the wrong track entirely

P,S, Nice signature UbiquitousDragon

[nikita]

I wonder why Coyote did all this. I guess we'll know at some point.
Since he wants Eglamore as an "escort", I guess he'll try to trick him into doing something too, like he tried with Annie.

[todd]

My suspicion (as I mentioned before) is that the real purpose of the embassy (from Coyote's perspective) was to find out what was going on with Reynardine at the Court. It was an ingenious scheme. Coyote has apparently suspected (correctly) a link between Annie and Reynardine (probably thanks to the events at the bridge), and so comes to the school with Ysengrin (who, I suspect, was kept in the dark about Coyote's true intentions), making it look as if his reason for coming there was to protest or investigate Annie's actions. Reynardine, believing that Coyote and Ysengrin had come because of those same actions of hers (particularly in light of his remarks at the end of Chapter Twelve), shows himself in the hopes of distracting Coyote from Annie's connections to the Tic-Toc Bird - not realizing that that was exactly what Coyote wanted him to do. Coyote then hit on Annie in the hopes of provoking enough of a skirmish to satisfy his suspicions about the link between Annie and Reynardine, and having discovered what he wanted to know, has therefore decided to head back to the forest, mission accomplished.

(Or almost. Though he still shows enough interest in her to attempt to lure her out into the forest. Fortunately, Annie knows better than to trust this guy. Maybe she eventually will try to get some answers from him - but I doubt that it'll be for a long time.)

Annie's "trousers" line is a delight. (We haven't seen her wearing them too often; the one definite occasion that I can think of was the spacemonaut uniform. Though I think that she was also wearing them in the special Christmas picture. Other than that, she generally wears skirts - except when she's at gym and has gym shorts.)

I don't think that we need to find any deep significance in Coyote calling her "Abalone"; it was simply a case of getting her name wrong for comical effect.

[Mezzaphor]

I thought Coyote's "Abalone" line was just because he thought that was her name. After all, he can't remember human lifespans or human clothes, either.

Well, he did have the decency to apologize to Annie (and Rey concurs about his nose having a mind of its own, huh). Or maybe he was just being manipulative, setting up his very next line.

I worry about this driving a wedge between Annie and the Court. She's not foolish enough to just accept Coyote's word, but I think Annie already distrusts some of the faculty.

I love Annie's lines in panel 3. She doesn't get snarky often, but she does it well.

And the image of Coyote carrying Ysengrin in his jaws just rocks.

EDIT: Ah, confirmation from Tom on the comments page:

My friends, "abalone" sounds like "Antimony". There is no dark mystery behind this.

[todd]

We know that, when a chapter is drawing near to an end, Tom puts up a link to it at the bottom of the page in the "chapters section". Since he hasn't done this with Chapter Fourteen yet, we can assume that there are still some pages to go in it - even though, with Coyote's departure, there oughtn't to be that much left.

I wonder what the remaining pages will cover. My suspicion is: either Eglamore escorting Coyote and Ysengrin back to Gillitie Wood(with a couple of incidents to whet our appetite for what will happen next, a la the "arm-planting" scene at the end of Chapter Nine), or what Annie does after the meeting. Or possibly both.

[aoeniac]

Oh man, Abalone? Tom you're making me hungry.

[fuzzysocks]

Honestly... I think he just said it because he forgot Antimony's name.

ed130 said:

Abalone is a type of shellfish

I thought he meant Paua but

Abalone (from Spanish Abulón) are a group of shellfish (mollusks) in the family Haliotidae and the Haliotis genus. They are marine snails, and are part of the large class Gastropoda. There is only one genus in the family Haliotidae, and about four to seven subgenera. The taxonomy of the family is still somewhat confused. The number of species recognized world-wide ranges from about 100 to 130 (due to the occurrence of hybrids).

Abalone shells have a low and open spiral structure, and are characterized by several respiratory holes in a row near the shell's outer edge. The innermost layer of the shell is composed of nacre or mother-of-pearl, which in many species is highly iridescent, giving rise to a range of strong and changeable colors which make them attractive to humans as a decorative object. Abalone are also called ear-shells, ormer in Jersey and Guernsey, perlemoen in South Africa, and pâua in New Zealand. The meat of abalone is considered by many to be a desirable food.

(I nicked this off wikipedia)

He (Coyote) may be referring to the way Annie keeps a "shell" on her feelings with several little holes poking through aka her friendships with Kat etc...

Of course I could be on the wrong track entirely

P,S, Nice signature UbiquitousDragon

[todd]

I spoke too soon; the link to Chapter Fourteen is on the main page now, meaning that this chapter is indeed almost at an end after all. Then again, with the meeting over and Coyote leaving, there wouldn't be much left of the chapter to tell.

I wonder whether the next chapter will cover Annie's experiences during the summer (I assume that she'll still be spending it at the Court, in case Anthony shows up), or if it'll fast-forward to the beginning of the next school year. We'll probably find out soon.

[Ed130]

I was on the wrong track after all, sorry

[pudgimelon]

todd said:

My suspicion (as I mentioned before) is that the real purpose of the embassy (from Coyote's perspective) was to find out what was going on with Reynardine at the Court. It was an ingenious scheme. Coyote has apparently suspected (correctly) a link between Annie and Reynardine (probably thanks to the events at the bridge), and so comes to the school with Ysengrin (who, I suspect, was kept in the dark about Coyote's true intentions), making it look as if his reason for coming there was to protest or investigate Annie's actions. Reynardine, believing that Coyote and Ysengrin had come because of those same actions of hers (particularly in light of his remarks at the end of Chapter Twelve), shows himself in the hopes of distracting Coyote from Annie's connections to the Tic-Toc Bird - not realizing that that was exactly what Coyote wanted him to do. Coyote then hit on Annie in the hopes of provoking enough of a skirmish to satisfy his suspicions about the link between Annie and Reynardine, and having discovered what he wanted to know, has therefore decided to head back to the forest, mission accomplished.

(Or almost. Though he still shows enough interest in her to attempt to lure her out into the forest. Fortunately, Annie knows better than to trust this guy. Maybe she eventually will try to get some answers from him - but I doubt that it'll be for a long time.)

Annie's "trousers" line is a delight. (We haven't seen her wearing them too often; the one definite occasion that I can think of was the spacemonaut uniform. Though I think that she was also wearing them in the special Christmas picture. Other than that, she generally wears skirts - except when she's at gym and has gym shorts.)

I don't think that we need to find any deep significance in Coyote calling her "Abalone"; it was simply a case of getting her name wrong for comical effect.

Good points, all. I agree.

The "abalone" comment is just true to form for a personality like the Coyote. He sticks his nose up her skirt and then nicknames her "Clam", so he's: a ) rude, b ) a total perv, and c ) hysterically funny.

Coyote's playing a deep game and it's pretty clear he's just using Ysengrin while keeping him in the dark too. He provokes the attack, but then cuts it short (brutally) when he learns what he came to learn.

Ysengrin probably misread the situation and figured Coyote wanted the girl or Renardine DEAD. But so far, Coyote's only shown an interest in abducting Renardine. He's also shown absolutely no regard for Annie in doing so.

Given that, he's probably absolutely right. The Court can't be trusted. The best deceit, after all, is woven with threads of the truth. But just because the Court is more than what it seems doesn't mean that Annie should trust Coyote either.

If she goes into the forest, she'll take Renardine, and that's EXACTLY what Coyote wants. Once there, he may not "harm" Annie, but he might decide to "improve" her by infecting her with the same "seeds" he used on Ysengrin and Robot or he might let a glass-eyed man possess her (technically not harming her body).

Whatever he does, his focus will be on Renardine, and Annie will be lucky to avoid permanent consequences.

I wondered why Coyote hasn't searched for Renardine before, but it occurs to me that Robot may have been the first bit of Court technology to enter the forest in a long time.

It's also interesting to see how Robot had to be "infected" with Nature (just like the Tic-Toc infected the forest with technology), before the Shadow Man could take control of him.

Unlike Renardine, they cannot possess anything with eyes. They probably needed the tree arm to infect him first before he was vulnerable to their power.

Annie with a tree arm? Scary thought! Let's hope she gives an adventure into the forest some serious thought!

[Marque]

pudgimelon:
Reply to your last comment at the bottom of your post; She probably will still go their. Knowledge over her well-being!

[todd]

I don't think that we need to read anything deep into the "abalone" bit. Tom mentioned that it was just a case of Coyote getting Annie's name wrong, with "abalone" sounding similar to "Antimony".

Annie is correctly suspicious of Coyote. I don't know if she'd actually dare venture into Gillitie Wood just to find out; while she is curious, her excursions have usually had something more than a desire to find out more in them. She ran out onto the bridge because Robot had paused in the middle of it and she thought that there might be something wrong with him; she broke into the robot part of the school to rescue his remains. I think that what it'll take to draw her out into Gillitie will be something more than just Coyote claiming to have answers (after his actions, she'd have good reason to believe that his request was not an altruistic one). Though the way that stories work, she probably will eventually venture out.

The interesting thing is that the impending conflict, which we thought was actually between Gunnerkrigg and Gillitie (i.e., Technology versus Nature), may actually be between Reynardine and Coyote instead, with Gunnerkrigg involved only because Reynardine is currently living there. Typical of trickster-gods, pulling everyone else into their private quarrels.

[ceezedby]

pudgimelon:

Annie with tree arms? <a href="http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/art/halloweena800.jpg">Tom's already been there</a>

[ceezedby]

Dammit. Must not attempt typing with toddler in lap.

[Mezzaphor]

todd said:

I don't know if she'd actually dare venture into Gillitie Wood just to find out; while she is curious, her excursions have usually had something more than a desire to find out more in them. She ran out onto the bridge because Robot had paused in the middle of it and she thought that there might be something wrong with him; she broke into the robot part of the school to rescue his remains.

But in chapter three, when Annie decided to sneak out and find Reynardine, curiosity wasn't her only reason, but it was the determining one.

[rastarogue]

I think she snuck out in that case because she felt guilty after promising Reynardine to stay and then fainting.

In this case, I doubt that she will go to Gillitie Woods without some serious precautions.

[todd]

rastarogue said:

I think she snuck out in that case because she felt guilty after promising Reynardine to stay and then fainting.

"Losing consciousness due to a head injury" would be a more accurate description of it. (It says a lot about Annie that this was what it took to have her pass out, rather than seeing a dragon-like creature on the roof.)

[rastarogue]

todd said:

rastarogue said:

I think she snuck out in that case because she felt guilty after promising Reynardine to stay and then fainting.

"Losing consciousness due to a head injury" would be a more accurate description of it. (It says a lot about Annie that this was what it took to have her pass out, rather than seeing a dragon-like creature on the roof.)

Well, if you had been seeing odly shaped people, invisible to the rest of the world, from a very early age a large talking dragon might not scare you. And it would also covince you to search him out even when your best friend says you were probably hallucinating.

[todd]

A couple of further thoughts that I had about the events on this page:

1. Coyote has good reason for whispering his invitation to Annie, beyond just the fact that he wouldn't want the faculty to know that he wants her to visit him in the forest. He'd also want to keep his remarks about the staff secret from them, so that they won't realize that their actions are making it easier for Annie to distrust them (which, in turn, may help overcome Annie's prudence enough for her to sneak out into Gillitie for a meeting with him, even though she knows that Coyote's not very trustworthy either).

2. Could Coyote want Eglamore to walk with him back to the forest to engage in some similar whispered conversation, of a sort that might subtly influence Eglamore to do things that would benefit Coyote (as in, say, behaving in such a way as to help convince Annie that the faculty are up to no good)? I think that it would be just like him to adopt a "divide and conquer" strategy.