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Post by Gotolei on Aug 29, 2014 8:38:27 GMT
Random thoughts.
Jack's along for the ride. Can the ship, and its ai, be shut down?
How are the sailorbots networked? Are they autonomous and it's just a communication channel, or would they drop like federation droids should the central ai be disabled?
(assuming there's emergency foodstuffs etc on a ship as large as this one)
If there aren't any adults on board (which is entirely possible), they'll want to contact the Court somehow.
Would Lindsey be able to quickly get back to the Court if Annie notified her? Would she willingly leave the ship full of kids alone?
Did Annie bring Elgamore's distress beacon? Would it work from wherever they are?
Might the Donlans have given Kat a key to the family computer?
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Post by jasmijn on Aug 29, 2014 8:46:57 GMT
They brought Zimmy into the mix? Now it's a perfect storm.
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Post by arf on Aug 29, 2014 8:50:54 GMT
Why are the robots holding Gamma and Zimmy? We haven't seen them hold anyone else, I guess the robots know about her powers? Were they planning on using Zimmy to alter reality? Also, I can't tell if Zimmy is reacting to the mention of the etheric generator, or just to being held by the robots. As said, Gamma's proximity (usually) holds Zimmy in check. By separating them, the robots have just done the equivalent of yanking out the graphite rods... |
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Post by KMar on Aug 29, 2014 8:55:49 GMT
Random thoughts. Jack's along for the ride. Can the ship, and its ai, be shut down? How are the sailorbots networked? Are they autonomous and it's just a communication channel, or would they drop like federation droids should the central ai be disabled? (assuming there's emergency foodstuffs etc on a ship as large as this one) If there aren't any adults on board (which is entirely possible), they'll want to contact the Court somehow. Would Lindsey be able to quickly get back to the Court if Annie notified her? Would she willingly leave the ship full of kids alone? Did Annie bring Elgamore's distress beacon? Would it work from wherever they are? Might the Donlans have given Kat a key to the family computer? I think it was established in the previous page that they're mere limbs (or if you prefer, "dummy terminals") of the ship? |
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Post by fish on Aug 29, 2014 9:09:20 GMT
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kralex
Junior Member
Posts: 95
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Post by kralex on Aug 29, 2014 9:27:40 GMT
Sigh... kids these days. In my time, we just dropped some acid if we wanted to alter reality at a party.
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kralex
Junior Member
Posts: 95
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Post by kralex on Aug 29, 2014 9:37:45 GMT
Random thoughts. Would Lindsey be able to quickly get back to the Court if Annie notified her? By now I wonder whether Lindsey is in on it. She invited everyone on the cruise after all, including Zimmy. We had sexual identity sub-plots before, the most recent one being an animal becoming human, including a sex change in the process. This one is about machine becoming living being. It's all wacky enough that it might as well all be Lindsey's idea. |
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Post by arf on Aug 29, 2014 9:40:50 GMT
Random thoughts. Would Lindsey be able to quickly get back to the Court if Annie notified her? By now I wonder whether Lindsey is in on it. She invited everyone on the cruise after all, including Zimmy. We had sexual identity sub-plots before, the most recent one being an animal becoming human, including a sex change in the process. This one is about machine becoming living being. It's all wacky enough that it might as well all be Lindsey's idea. I have also had this thought. I put the probability as low, but it's still a thought. |
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Post by zimmyzims on Aug 29, 2014 9:59:19 GMT
Ouch, good find. And suits the prophecy so perfectly. This is getting out of Kat's hands, but now some big damage is needed to also push Kat completely to those rails, and there are definitely good circumstances for some big damage to happen here. |
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Post by Ophel on Aug 29, 2014 10:11:58 GMT
This is where things get more colourful, I'm guessing.
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Post by eightyfour on Aug 29, 2014 10:25:09 GMT
Can the ship, and its ai, be shut down? Shutting it down, making it drift without any kind of control in the middle of the storm is not really an option. That's sawing off the branch you're sitting on. "Dramatically appropriate" my ass. More like a really smart move. |
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Post by todd on Aug 29, 2014 10:52:40 GMT
Random thoughts. Would Lindsey be able to quickly get back to the Court if Annie notified her? By now I wonder whether Lindsey is in on it. She invited everyone on the cruise after all, including Zimmy. We had sexual identity sub-plots before, the most recent one being an animal becoming human, including a sex change in the process. This one is about machine becoming living being. It's all wacky enough that it might as well all be Lindsey's idea. Given that she's happily married, I doubt it. And I definitely wasn't expecting this to be how Zimmy's abilities break loose. Seasickness amplifying them beyond Gamma's abilities to block or Gamma being tempted away from Zimmy to join the dance, yes - but not this. (And it really makes you wonder what the robots can be thinking - yes, Zimmy's the etheric generator they need, but her nightmares bleeding through into reality - as I said before "The trouble with artificial intelligence is it's artificial".) Anyone besides me suspect that if the students get out of this one alive (well, they'd have to if this isn't going to be the last chapter, and there are still too many plot threads unresolved), Kat's going to be in a lot of trouble with the Court? Yes, she didn't know that she'd given the robots the wrong idea about her (and the bulk of the blame goes to Robot himself), but her experiments did give them that impression. Unfortunately, even if the Court shuts down her workshop, the damage has been done and can't be undone. Not to mention whether Annie and Kat's friendship with Robot is going to cool after this - though Robot might not have anticipated that the ship would respond that way to his sermons. Looks like the robot community had the right idea in, first dissembling Robot and sticking him in a closet, then recycling him into paper clips, after all. |
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Post by eyemyself on Aug 29, 2014 11:03:09 GMT
Them bots are toying with forces of which they know nothing about. They are still so childlike. Wonder if they will grow up, by the end. On the contrary I think the bots probably have access to the court's files on Zimmy, which gives them just enough background to make REALLY dangerous decisions about involving her. Sometimes knowing just a little bit is worse than knowing nothing at all. |
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kralex
Junior Member
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Post by kralex on Aug 29, 2014 11:43:01 GMT
By now I wonder whether Lindsey is in on it. She invited everyone on the cruise after all, including Zimmy. We had sexual identity sub-plots before, the most recent one being an animal becoming human, including a sex change in the process. This one is about machine becoming living being. It's all wacky enough that it might as well all be Lindsey's idea. Given that she's happily married, I doubt it. I mostly doubt it, too, but part of me wonders. Jack's question "What were they thinking?" seems really quite appropriate. Something or someone made Lindsey think it was a good idea to stick Zimmy and Gamma on that cruise ship and send them out to sea, and I wonder what or who that was. |
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Post by todd on Aug 29, 2014 11:58:03 GMT
Given that she's happily married, I doubt it. I mostly doubt it, too, but part of me wonders. Jack's question "What were they thinking?" seems quite appropriate. Something or someone made Lindsey think it was a good idea to stick Zimmy and Gamma on that cruise ship and send them out to sea, and I wonder what or who that was. How do we know it was Lindsey's idea? It could have been the human administration at the Court (which raises the question of what *they* were thinking, but presumably they assumed that Gamma would be able to step in). |
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Post by eyemyself on Aug 29, 2014 12:12:09 GMT
I mostly doubt it, too, but part of me wonders. Jack's question "What were they thinking?" seems quite appropriate. Something or someone made Lindsey think it was a good idea to stick Zimmy and Gamma on that cruise ship and send them out to sea, and I wonder what or who that was. How do we know it was Lindsey's idea? It could have been the human administration at the Court (which raises the question of what *they* were thinking, but presumably they assumed that Gamma would be able to step in). Or it could be that the robots contrived a way to plan the whole thing so they could get all the players they wanted for their plan in place and isolated from the court. I have a theory about the S models being much more sophisticated than they come across and intentionally playing the fool around humans. |
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Post by cu on Aug 29, 2014 12:15:25 GMT
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Post by arf on Aug 29, 2014 12:43:03 GMT
An aside: this has got to be the most animated we've seen Gamma (who usually has a laid back, zen-like quality to her)
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Post by Neon_Knight on Aug 29, 2014 12:43:25 GMT
Calling it, at the end of the chapter, the ship is going to be turned into paper clips and the surviving robots will be dismantled. Or the other way around.
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Post by zimmyhoo on Aug 29, 2014 13:02:19 GMT
Calling it, at the end of the chapter, the ship is going to be turned into paper clips and the surviving robots will be dismantled. Or the other way around. I would be more surprised if that happened than if the ship is left to wander Zimmyville for eternity. I'm really concerned about what is going to happen when an entire cruise-ship-full of students floats through the torn sea and into whereever Zimmy's created. This is not going to go well, and I'm starting to have serious concerns if the threads of this chapter will be resolved by the end. It smells like two-parter to me. |
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freeman
Full Member
That 70's Coyote!
Posts: 242
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Post by freeman on Aug 29, 2014 13:03:13 GMT
Oh dear, this on of those ships that runs on nightmare fuel.
I don't get why people assume that Annie is the only one aetherically strong enough to alert Lindsay about the situation, specially If the whole Queslett is on board.
At least she can get near Zimmy to help her keep things straight if the robots are trying to keep Gamma away, though the robots may actually be aetherically preset, so they could sense that. You know, that extra part that S13 at least had (http://gunnerkrigg.com/?p=220) might actually be something like "atherics coprocessor", that only the Seraph models have.
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Post by philman on Aug 29, 2014 13:09:06 GMT
Calling it, at the end of the chapter, the ship is going to be turned into paper clips and the surviving robots will be dismantled. Or the other way around. As long as they let the students get off first. |
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Post by Deepbluediver on Aug 29, 2014 13:29:57 GMT
PANIC! EVERYONE, NOW IS -ABSOLUTELY-THE TIME TO PANIC. What are you talking about? I see absolutely no way this could possibly end badly.  |
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Post by zimmyzims on Aug 29, 2014 13:47:46 GMT
Calling it, at the end of the chapter, the ship is going to be turned into paper clips and the surviving robots will be dismantled. Or the other way around. I would be more surprised if that happened than if the ship is left to wander Zimmyville for eternity. I'm really concerned about what is going to happen when an entire cruise-ship-full of students floats through the torn sea and into whereever Zimmy's created. This is not going to go well, and I'm starting to have serious concerns if the threads of this chapter will be resolved by the end. It smells like two-parter to me. Also, when that entire ship, filled with students, becomes flesh. Where are the students then? And what will happen to them? |
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Post by eyemyself on Aug 29, 2014 13:58:39 GMT
I would be more surprised if that happened than if the ship is left to wander Zimmyville for eternity. I'm really concerned about what is going to happen when an entire cruise-ship-full of students floats through the torn sea and into whereever Zimmy's created. This is not going to go well, and I'm starting to have serious concerns if the threads of this chapter will be resolved by the end. It smells like two-parter to me. Also, when that entire ship, filled with students, becomes flesh. Where are the students then? And what will happen to them? They'll need to get all that flesh from somewhere. |
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Post by Fishy on Aug 29, 2014 14:07:16 GMT
What with being an uncontrollable etheric superpower, I tend to forget that Zimmy is still mostly human and can be apprehended by a robot that's two thirds of her size. Hm. Food for thought. Also, so long as it's relevant, I wonder what the maximum range to Zimmy that Gamma has to remain before bad things start happening. I foresee them being separated. Or Gamma hurt.
On an off note... Zimmy probably COULD do that though. Make the ship flesh, that is. I doubt it'd be an intended effect considering most everything she does are unintended effects, but still, things might get squishy in the coming pages.
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lit
Full Member
Posts: 201
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Post by lit on Aug 29, 2014 14:14:31 GMT
Random thoughts. Would Lindsey be able to quickly get back to the Court if Annie notified her? By now I wonder whether Lindsey is in on it. She invited everyone on the cruise after all, including Zimmy. We had sexual identity sub-plots before, the most recent one being an animal becoming human, including a sex change in the process. This one is about machine becoming living being. It's all wacky enough that it might as well all be Lindsey's idea. I didn't think Lindsey personally invited every student. I figured that Lindsey only invited the students of the dorm she supervised. I don't know how the dorms are divided up, but we know that Bud supervises the QN (and QS?) boys so it's likely he was the one to invite them on the cruise. I figure Foley and Chester at least must be in different dorms, or we would see Red, Zimmy etc running into Annie around the dorms instead of solely in other locations. So if all the classes are in different dorms, they probably have other folks supervising the dorms of the other classes. And would probably have those dorms supervisors invite the students on the cruise instead of some weird crab lady they don't even know. I don't know. I guess I am a little curious about the infrastructure. We saw in chapter one that there were at least thirty bunks, but we sure haven't run into 30 distinct female students in Annie's Questlett year, which could suggest that other classes share the dorms. However - I have a feeling that Tom initially planned the houses to be quite large and then they gradually sort of shrank in both his and the readers' perspectives when he decided to only focus on a handful - which, if I recall correctly, also sort of happened in Harry Potter. I think Rowling didn't initially intend there to be only eight students in Harry's year of Gryffindor (five boys and three girls) but only ever mentioned eight and later cut the ones that didn't have names. I think I read that somewhere. And I think I read about Tom making a similar decision but I don't remember where. I wonder if Bud came along like Lindsey did, or if the other dorm administration are also sea creatures that could conceivably swim along. I feel like we would have seen them though. Why would only Lindsey follow if Bud could swim as well? Can the ship, and its ai, be shut down? Shutting it down, making it drift without any kind of control in the middle of the storm is not really an option. That's sawing off the branch you're sitting on. It's a stretch, but maybe there's a backup AI that could be loaded. |
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Kuraru
Junior Member
The mind is just a plaything of the body, is it not?
Posts: 75
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Post by Kuraru on Aug 29, 2014 14:20:14 GMT
They're quite isolated on that boat, and people have speculated as to whether Lindsey could step in, or whether Annie has Eglamore's magical summoning stick, or whether the Court could be contacted, but no one seems to have remembered that they know someone who can teleport and someone else who can cause them to teleport to exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
There's been no hint that Parley and Smitty will turn up yet, but it seems like an easy solution to the "we're isolated and can't contact anyone/get outside help" problem.
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Post by Deepbluediver on Aug 29, 2014 14:36:23 GMT
Also, when that entire ship, filled with students, becomes flesh. Where are the students then? And what will happen to them? Well, if the ship is transmuted into living, organic tissue, then logically* the living people inside will become robots, and essentially act like nano-bots (because the ship is so huge by comparison) would in a person. * your idea of "logic" might differ from mine |
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Post by csj on Aug 29, 2014 14:36:51 GMT
Today's page theme song is: runner-up: SOS |
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