Ombre
New Member
Posts: 21 
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Post by Ombre on Aug 10, 2015 9:20:36 GMT
Doubt it, Ketrak is a Psychopomp and knows Annie. Those remind me of a certain wasp... Same here. This is the same level of creepy, that is to say, some of the worst entities we've seen in GC's universe so far. (Until Tom shows how they in fact do possess some softer sides and troubles away all the manicheism, of course  ) |
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Post by scalesandfins on Aug 10, 2015 9:51:09 GMT
I thought these guys were kind of cute; isn't the one on the left a Pratchett shoutout? The Death of Rats? Maybe Moles?
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Post by ninjaraven on Aug 10, 2015 9:54:33 GMT
Hm. I know we're privy to the knowledge that Annie knows the psychopomps, but I don't know if Tony fully understands the nature of Surma's relationship to the psychopomps - he may have thought it was part of her job as Medium to the Forest, not an inherent trait that would be passed on through the generations.
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Post by justcurious on Aug 10, 2015 10:00:19 GMT
"I saw things I'd never have believed had I not seen them with my own eyes." Is he aware that Annie grew up seeing things in that category literally on a daily basis? Apparently not judging by how he referred to the psychopomps. Aside from the sad neglect aspect of this, Anthony's relationship with Etheric things is seeming stranger and stranger. He knows Renard exists; he grew up around Anja's magic; Surma told him what would happen when she had a child; but he's really so much of an empiricist that he didn't believe in his wife's "business" until he personally witnessed it? By what looks like contacting psychopomps via self-induced near death experiences? I mean, the Omega Project is probably Tom's original idea that Zimmy and Gamma came from that predates Annie's invention as a character, and it's probably the Court's attempts to build a machine that can do what Zimmy can do, so I *guess* Tony seeing this stuff as quantum physics instead of a world with people in it makes sense, but dude??? Really??? Actually he's not much of an empiricist at all. It took Surma's death to get him to take approaches that he had been uncomfortable with despite having seen their results. The Donlons are the real empiricists. They are uncomfortable with the term "magic" but do empirically study the phenomena. |
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quark
Full Member
Posts: 137
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Post by quark on Aug 10, 2015 10:14:45 GMT
Goddamnit, Tony. How did you manage to age so much in just a year?
I think the bone laser thing comes later (he still has his hand here), and the idea that the 'omega' device has something to do with Gamma and Zeta would fit with the naming scheme. Still. It's astounding how much suffering he could have spared both if he'd just told Annie why he went away three years ago.
Donalds plan to inform Annie about all of this might work, surprisingly. It might help her see that despite his arrogant and condescending treatment of her, he's no better. He went through a million obstacles to do what Annie did as a child, barely old enough to go to school, in the hospital they both were at the time. It's kind of what Jones said - she made contact with etheric beings on her own, befriended them on their own. That is a wonderful power for anyone, especially a court medium. All the homework in the world couldn't have taught her that, and Anthony hasn't been able to do it without tremendous sacrifice.
Both need help where they are weak, but it equalises them. Anthony isn't perfect any more - he's better at some things, just as he sucks at other, equally important things. Annie might even teach him, which would be hard for Anthony to take, but it would help Annie so much.
No matter if Anthony grows up now, Annie might - she might notice that while he's her parent, he doesn't own her. And that he did an incredibly bad job at being a parent, no matter what his motives are, and that it's okay to not do what he wanted. It's what she has to do, if she loves herself and has any sense of responsibility at all (it's not only her well-being that's at stake - she's the forest medium, and with her and Smitty working together, the forest and the court could really get closer, after all those years of cold war)
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Post by ed1300 on Aug 10, 2015 10:42:25 GMT
Doubt it, Ketrak is a Psychopomp and knows Annie. Those remind me of a certain wasp... Same here. This is the same level of creepy, that is to say, some of the worst entities we've seen in GC's universe so far. (Until Tom shows how they in fact do possess some softer sides and troubles away all the manicheism, of course ) Plus Tony's statement in panel three: "I thought I found what I was looking for" |
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Post by justcurious on Aug 10, 2015 10:48:00 GMT
It's what she has to do, if she loves herself and has any sense of responsibility at all (it's not only her well-being that's at stake - she's the forest medium, and with her and Smitty working together, the forest and the court could really get closer, after all those years of cold war) I think Coyote was fostering a rapport between Annie and Ysengrin so that she would become more effective as a medium and less likely than her mother to do something hostile to the Forest on the Court's behalf. When the Court chose Andrew, possibly to sabotage this, he then took the opportunity to choose Annie knowing that she had that rapport with Andrew. |
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Post by Angry Individual on Aug 10, 2015 10:54:07 GMT
Geeze.
Couldn't have shown some leg or something instead?
Also well now we know why he looks like he hit every branch while falling down the ugly tree.
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Post by Trillium on Aug 10, 2015 11:22:14 GMT
Jesus. Aged before his time in a world that isn't quite, but is terrifyingly, real, that can't be got to via physical travel... I am becoming convinced the Omega project has to do with Zimmy and finding out how Zimmy's world works, and that the Court managed to convince Anthony (perhaps cynically) that Zimmy's power had something to do with Surma (if they see etheric power as some sort of homogeneity, they may believe that ALL power is interrelated). I bet he really did think Antimony WAS the girl who punched his lights out, whether he knew about Zimmy or not. I am looking forward to any meeting between Anthony and Coyote. This is not necessarily a nice thought. Coyote has the ability and possibly the motivation to squash Anthony like a bug in ten well-chosen words and a careless laugh. I'm seeing something very Lovecraftian in Anthony right now (like who isn't). He's that identical nasty little bastard who typically figures as the hapless, overwhelmed protagonist in so many of Lovecraft's stories, subjected to Things That Shall Not Be Named. All he needs is to start gibbering something about Yog-Sothoth. I'm also reminded, somehow, of the character Weston in C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy (though the motivations of the character Weston resemble the Court more than any single person in it, and I cringe at taking the comparison as far as That Hideous Strength). Seconding the recognition of the art in these pages. Awesome stuff. We don't know what Anthony saw. In the first panel whatever he is looking at is seems surrounded with light. In panel three we start looking through Annie's Blinker Vision. That is when we start sliding into Lovecraft territory. Poor Tony did not have a clue what he was getting into. In the last panel I thought he was throwing up blood but getting to a larger screen it looks like that blood is coming from his eyes and ears. These are not the guides you are looking for Tony, really these are not the guides. I am in agreement with the 'this is some awesome stuff' vote. Well looking at this again after getting more sleep I was mistaken. I think Tony did see all this. |
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Post by linchie on Aug 10, 2015 12:12:46 GMT
Tony looks so different in the first panel, not only younger, but with different face features?
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Post by aline on Aug 10, 2015 12:30:58 GMT
Is he aware that Annie grew up seeing things in that category literally on a daily basis? Apparently not judging by how he referred to the psychopomps. Aside from the sad neglect aspect of this, Anthony's relationship with Etheric things is seeming stranger and stranger. He knows Renard exists; he grew up around Anja's magic; Surma told him what would happen when she had a child; but he's really so much of an empiricist that he didn't believe in his wife's "business" until he personally witnessed it? By what looks like contacting psychopomps via self-induced near death experiences?[/quote] Of course he believed his wife's "business", he wouldn't have worked so hard to see the psychopomps if he didn't believe they exist. But just because you know that something exists in the world desn't mean you understand how that's relevant to your problems. How many of us, who keep speculating for hours, thought of how the psychopomps might be involved in all this? Think of how Kat sees the world. She can't see the ether. She can see some of its manifestations, but rather than just calling it magic, she wants to understand how it works like any other physical process she might witness. If Kat tried to heal Annie, wouldn't she try and fix her body, since that's the part of her that's actually dying? Also, Tom also once said that Annie never spoke of the psychopomps with her dad. It's quite possible that he never knew his daughter had this ability. |
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Post by todd on Aug 10, 2015 12:41:12 GMT
Moreso, if he is not in fact the cause of the events in Divine, it begs the very portentous question of who did, and how Zimmy managed to be confused into believing it was Anthony. When that chapter came out, I wondered whether what had sent Annie into the coma was the psychological effect of hearing from her father, rather than anythng he was doing after he received the supplies. (If that was so - though I'm not certain now whether it was or not - that could account for Zimmy believing Anthony was responsible - he was connected, but not in the way she thought.) |
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Post by wombat140 on Aug 10, 2015 12:46:40 GMT
I just keep thinking about how simple it was for Annie to summon Ketrak, and through him Muut. I feel like it's going to be ridiculously hilarious when he finds out that if he'd paid even a LITTLE attention to Antimony, he could have saved an absurd amount of time and energy. I was gonna say. Girl could've spared you a lot of trouble. That actually makes sense perfectly in the context, though. That's the whole problem: Tony doesn't talk to ANYBODY. And I agree with ed1300 and Trillium - the I-caused-it-I-have-to-deal-with-it-alone ethos may have been a really bad idea here... Looking forward very much to finding out what happens next! |
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Post by csj on Aug 10, 2015 13:00:44 GMT
Tony drew a whole lot of Omen Cards to get this far.
Shame he's maxxing out knowledge in favour of sanity though.
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Post by Daedalus on Aug 10, 2015 13:04:17 GMT
This is the same level of creepy, that is to say, some of the worst entities we've seen in GC's universe so far. (Until Tom shows how they in fact do possess some softer sides and troubles away all the manicheism, of course ) Hmmmm, no, I think that purely based on appearance this guy might still take the cake. Wait. What if one of the tolls he had to pay WAS his arm and that's the reason he needed Antimony and Donlan to send him the scalpel? Then it's relatively likely that he did not in fact perform the Bone Laser surgery (reasonably assuming he would need to recover before doing something that presumably complex), and the mob of Team Tony users here will have a victory dance around the the raging bonfire that is my corpse. Moreso, if he is not in fact the cause of the events in Divine, it begs the very portentous question of who did, and how Zimmy managed to be confused into believing it was Anthony. Let's not jump to conclusions. We have no reason to doubt that yet. "Last year" could still leave him almost a year to recover before the surgery. This page makes it unclear on whether this is where he loses his arm, though it seems likely that at least some of his facial scars happen here. I mean, I still think we saw his bones in Divine. He could lose all of the flesh on his hand, and still be able to use the Bone Lasers. Hypothetically. I eagerly anticipate Wednesday's comic...which is something I haven't said for a while with all of this pathos floating around for the last few months. |
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Post by wombat140 on Aug 10, 2015 13:09:35 GMT
Somebody suggested that the "bone lasers" (who started calling them lasers, by the way?) were actually MADE out of Tony's cut-off hand. That sounds like just the delightful kind of magic that would appeal to the things in the bottom panel. We'll have to see. Might have been said before but I completely understand Annie's unwillingness to confront her father if he changed so much in a year, and I'd understand Donnie's belief that something wrong happened to Tony rather than "something is wrong with Tony". His harsh questions during diner look like they were not calculated as I had previously thought and just an emotional response to not getting any news from his friend for years and seeing him look like a shell of his previous self. So from Annie or Donnie there's a lot of resentment ("Why are you hurting us this way oh god please communicate something else than Blankface") but they're also worried sick. If Tony's story just end up on the depressing note that is "I joined a bad cult of hack psychopomps and learned nothing, Idk why, magic is a mystery to me Donnie if only there was a wonderland of knowledge about all this", he should still talk to Annie after /and/ get constant emotional support from someone else, which probably will end up being Donnie. I wonder if Tony's ignorance on magic is a direct result of prejudice rather than personal stubbornness. Young Anja was scared that Donnie would think she's "a freak" - maybe it was a taboo subject, even for Surma. Crossed in the post. I think you're right about Tony's ignorance, it's not just Tony, most of the Court adults seem to be like that. They behave as if they think that if they build enough machines they'll discover all they need to without actually having to listen to anyone from the magical side. For me the classic example is Jones saying that Zimmy is the way she is because she draws in etheric energy, like the Court's ether station - and thinking that's an explanation. Jones, at least half of Year 10 draw on etheric energy in one way or another. It's like saying that a computer works because electricity goes into it, and thinking that you've discovered how computers work. The Court's modus operandi seems to involve collecting a lot of magical beings (Chesney and Foley Houses seem to be reserved for this purpose) and studying them, from their position of total ignorance, but never dreaming of actually asking for information. Actually, put that way, we seem to have a severe case of "as above, so below" going on in this plot - Tony is the living, breathing representative of the way the Court thinks. NICE ONE TOM! I'm dazzled by the way you make your plots interlock like this. ...And that being so, maybe the Court ought to take warning from the state Tony's arrived back in. As for Tony's story, I have a feeling that it's NOT going to be as simple as "well that was a dead end"... |
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Post by pxc on Aug 10, 2015 13:38:41 GMT
Somebody suggested that the "bone lasers" (who started calling them lasers, by the way?) were actually MADE out of Tony's cut-off hand. That sounds like just the delightful kind of magic that would appeal to the things in the bottom panel. We'll have to see. That sounds about right. I had assumed the facial scars were from Zimmy moreso than the lost limb. So if those appear to be from his time in etheric Nightmareland it would make sense to look for another explanation for the dismemberment, and this suggestion would make a lot of sense. Looks like Tony has experienced quite a bit of suffering. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Aug 10, 2015 15:49:33 GMT
"...and when I woke up, the strange beings were gone and I was no closer to an answer than before. My backpack was also gone, as were my shoes, phone, and wallet..."
Moral: Don't trust just anyone who walks up to you with an insect face. That goes double when they mention tolls and tell you to follow you into a dark canyon, a cave, or under a bridge.
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Post by Trillium on Aug 10, 2015 15:54:29 GMT
Somebody suggested that the "bone lasers" (who started calling them lasers, by the way?) were actually MADE out of Tony's cut-off hand. That sounds like just the delightful kind of magic that would appeal to the things in the bottom panel. We'll have to see. The term "bone lasers" may have been used for the first time back in May of 2012 by exuberancium. People were discussing Ch: 38 Divine, page 1043, thread heading: Her Dad? May 25, 2012 at 12:09am exuberancium said: My first thought was that Microsat 5 is actually a weapon that shoots etheric bone lasers. I quickly abandoned that theory.Shortly after that Moderator GK Sierra responded: "I'm not taking etheric bone lasers off the table just yet. Part of me can't believe Tom would get this metaphorical, with the bones representing her emotional trauma at her fathers unavailability, or any number of the other options postulated on this forum."
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Sadie
Full Member
I eat food and sleep in a horizontal position.
Posts: 146
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Post by Sadie on Aug 10, 2015 16:05:29 GMT
Well shit, Tony.
"And last year" -- 'Divine' was a good 12 chapters + Summer timeskip ago, so it being almost a year since then would fit nicely.
You know, if the Omega Device is something related to Zimmy and Gamma (not removing souls like in Totem... or maybe both somehow) and Tony utilized it either intentionally or unintentionally in his quest for the psychopomps, that would go a long way to explaining (to me) why Zimmy got involved in the whole 'Divine' incident to begin with. I realize that she chose to do it, but this was only after some aspect of Annie's was etherically pursuing her/she was starting to become Annie again. I'd always wondered why.
Wouldn't it be great if Anthony had pulled himself into Zimmy-world and saw fake psychopomps?
The pieces of this conversation aren't fitting together completely with events we know about though, so it could still go somewhere entirely different.
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Post by jda on Aug 10, 2015 16:14:10 GMT
In which Tony meets Full Metal Alchemist and trades his arm for a failed Surma resurrection.
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Post by Trillium on Aug 10, 2015 16:24:14 GMT
In which Tony meets Full Metal Alchemist and trades his arm for a failed Surma resurrection. Human transmutation always fails. |
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loner
New Member
Posts: 5
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Post by loner on Aug 10, 2015 16:24:44 GMT
Hmmm... To me, it looks like Tony is losing his hand right now. There's a black thing dripping from his arm/wrist. His hand may be a little paler than the other, and the ends of his fingers looks a little necroded (how do we spell it in english ? Necrosed ? Rotten ?), like blood was not circulating anymore - but the cuts on his face looks pretty fresh, the blood is bright red.
I don't know if its just the lighting or if Tom really meant to make Tony's hand look like it is necrosed and needed to be amputated. Then again, i may be wrong, but there's still a weird hole on his wrist, and black thingy running down his arm.
I don't really understand why would some weird cuts on the face and maybe black blood on right hand be helpful for anything. I don't get how it would be useful in any ritual of some sort. FakoPsychompomps, you don't really make sense.
Also, i don't get how, if "they lived in places unreachable trough physical travel", some physical tolls would help. Did he meant, by "physical travel", walking, running, this sort of thing ?
(I'm really sorry for my bad english )
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Post by Jelly Jellybean on Aug 10, 2015 16:27:02 GMT
I eagerly anticipate Wednesday's comic...which is something I haven't said for a while with all of this pathos floating around for the last few months. Wednesday of which week/month? ;-) I love the way Tom is using sweeping artwork across multiple pages. It is beautiful even if it is excruciating to wait for more pages. |
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Post by nero on Aug 10, 2015 16:27:22 GMT
What made Anthony think he could trust those guys?
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Post by linchie on Aug 10, 2015 16:30:15 GMT
Hmmm... To me, it looks like Tony is losing his hand right now. There's a black thing dripping from his arm/wrist. His hand may be a little paler than the other, and the ends of his fingers looks a little necroded (how do we spell it in english ? Necrosed ? Rotten ?), like blood was not circulating anymore - but the cuts on his face looks pretty fresh, the blood is bright red. I don't know if its just the lighting or if Tom really meant to make Tony's hand look like it is necrosed and needed to be amputated. Then again, i may be wrong, but there's still a weird hole on his wrist, and black thingy running down his arm. On the central frame it looks like his arm is broken, or it might be a weird shape of his sleeve |
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Post by speedwell on Aug 10, 2015 17:44:53 GMT
That is a remarkably astute insight.
To "take a toll on something" means that the "something" is worn down or damaged in the process. "That 20K run really took its toll on my running shoes", for example. Anthony is saying that the journey was metaphysical, not something that you could travel by foot or horse or car, but it still caused damage to his body. Perhaps he had to sacrifice some "mana" or "qi" and his health suffered for it.
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Post by antiyonder on Aug 10, 2015 18:34:16 GMT
Donalds plan to inform Annie about all of this might work, surprisingly. It might help her see that despite his arrogant and condescending treatment of her, he's no better. He went through a million obstacles to do what Annie did as a child, barely old enough to go to school, in the hospital they both were at the time. It's kind of what Jones said - she made contact with etheric beings on her own, befriended them on their own. That is a wonderful power for anyone, especially a court medium. All the homework in the world couldn't have taught her that, and Anthony hasn't been able to do it without tremendous sacrifice. It's like I touched on before, academic skills is important, but those aren't the only useful skills to have when paying the bills. Heck, for a more comedic example, look at the first Pinky & The Brain cartoon, "Win Big". In short, Brain decides to get the money to fund a recent idea for taking over the world by going on a Jeopardy type show. And because of his intellect, he's basically guaranteed a win. Or he would have if he took into account that game shows will ask questions on things like an old television sitcom. Oops. I wonder if Tony's ignorance on magic is a direct result of prejudice rather than personal stubbornness. Young Anja was scared that Donnie would think she's "a freak" - maybe it was a taboo subject, even for Surma. In all honesty, I think arrogance and stubbourness can be factor of prejudice. |
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Post by Sky Schemer on Aug 10, 2015 22:53:35 GMT
I have to wonder if, when he thought he had figured out what was up with Surma and Annie, his psychic-etheric-bone-laser surgery had to be done with the assistance of whatever creatures or beings he was hanging with at the time. I doubt Tony has any etheric talent of his own. This could explain the need for Microsat 5, and for him to request so many fairly ordinary objects from Donny: he's on the edge of nowhere in strange lands with strange beings. Not an ideal place to go shopping for surgical supplies...unless you happen to have a satellite delivery service in your back pocket.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Aug 10, 2015 23:40:23 GMT
To "take a toll on something" means that the "something" is worn down or damaged in the process. "That 20K run really took its toll on my running shoes", for example. Anthony is saying that the journey was metaphysical, not something that you could travel by foot or horse or car, but it still caused damage to his body. Perhaps he had to sacrifice some "mana" or "qi" and his health suffered for it. When I first read the comic I imagined Anthony falling into a Land of the Lost portal and breaking his fall with his face. And one arm. |
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