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Post by jda on Jul 25, 2022 7:05:40 GMT
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Post by Sky Schemer on Jul 25, 2022 7:12:05 GMT
Seems to be more shock and amazement than fear.
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Post by madjack on Jul 25, 2022 7:14:20 GMT
This has to be the snare. Something so fundamentally awe inspiring that anyone who learns it can only just stand there trying to process it. The truth about the Seed Bismuth?
She's going with them, 100% now, for a chance to be a part of whatever this is.
Wildspec: Is the Court going to try growing a whole new planet or something?
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Post by blahzor on Jul 25, 2022 7:19:40 GMT
This is all the hopes and dreams of the Court (also why would it be a ocean the Court never seemed to be on a coast to be easily spotted and all it's higher than usual tech it has
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Post by jda on Jul 25, 2022 7:20:30 GMT
/SawAnOpportunity "This... is smashing!"
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Post by madjack on Jul 25, 2022 7:21:55 GMT
(also why would it be a ocean the Court never seemed to be on a coast to be easily spotted and all it's higher than usual tech it has There's no way the Court could ever exist in the real world. I hope we get at least some light shed on what exactly it is now. |
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Post by philman on Jul 25, 2022 7:35:38 GMT
So what HAVE they been swimming in all this time? Molton Bismuth doesn't seem a very suitable ocean material given it melts at 271.4°C
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Post by Angry Individual on Jul 25, 2022 7:44:01 GMT
I think this really makes a lot of sense with how the factory worked.
It must be one giant "ocean" of ether. That is the only explanation I can think of where it was essentially "siphoning" it and releasing it into the air to breach "reality".
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Post by theonethatgotaway on Jul 25, 2022 7:49:51 GMT
I think this really makes a lot of sense with how the factory worked. It must be one giant "ocean" of ether. That is the only explanation I can think of where it was essentially "siphoning" it and releasing it into the air to breach "reality". The girl's dormitory was submerged in this. Lizzy SWIMS in it! They sent the kids out on a CRUISE SHIP in this thing! What. The. FRICK!? |
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Post by stef1987 on Jul 25, 2022 7:50:14 GMT
another cliffhanger  |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Jul 25, 2022 7:54:44 GMT
Where Kat speculated before that this was the Atlantic ocean: #1384So if it isn't an ocean it is a big body of water, as we saw in Ch.49 when they were sailing around on the cruise ship. If Kat thought it was an ocean it should be saline or at least brackish. We did meet that floating octopus who went back to "the ocean" but we don't have any context for which ocean this was beyond some elevation and lack of man-made structures, or what counts as an ocean, so I'm going to speculate the octopus didn't go to this body of water. So, maybe this is wherein the Annan emptied. Jeanne apparently believed the Annan was an escape from the Court and we seem to be looking at some of the normie Court personnel leaving via boat. I can't find it because apparently the Proboards search doesn't work on older posts but I think it was Q'd2T that the only way into the Court was flying so if you sail far enough away from the Court on these waters you come out somewhere else that is salty, but you can't enter this way? Or maybe that was a misdirection because the Court controlled entry and they were only flying people in and out at the time. Or possibly something more complicated is at work; maybe this is just a giant salt lake inside the greater Court/Gillite zone that takes you to some other exit, or a second airport? Remains to be seen, I guess. [edit] Where Ship, who you'd think would know what an ocean is, called the body of water it was in an ocean: #1416 Okay now I'm thinking that it actually is a sea that may or may not be landlocked, but is not any of the oceans that Kat learned in normal Earth geography class; it's a sea exclusive to the Court/Gillite that exits other places, probably including at least one ocean. It's an etheric place but I don't think sailing into it counts as going into the ether (even temporarily). But who really knows. [/edit] |
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Post by speedwell on Jul 25, 2022 8:17:28 GMT
Where you have fire elementals and (arguably, if you look at Jones just so) earth elementals, you presumably have the alchemical elements of air and water. Rather than being literal fire, earth, air, and water, furthermore, they are the qualities of fire, earth, air, and water that combine to make all that exists. In physical science, elemental particles and all that they combine to produce, including the basic forces, are defined by - really, consist of little more than - mathematical formulae and their implications. In the context of Gunnerkrigg being a simulation, this could mean that Kat was able to see (or was actually shown) past the appearance of an ocean to the basic programming. After all, the fact that appearances are unreliable is one of the chief themes of the whole comic.
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Post by arf on Jul 25, 2022 8:19:25 GMT
I had simulation vibes from very early on.
I suppose it can't be an ocean unless it's at the end of a lane.
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Post by Viridian on Jul 25, 2022 8:22:17 GMT
holy...
Gunnerkrigg never fails to blow my mind
I have no idea what this means but I am so here for it
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Jul 25, 2022 8:28:38 GMT
On the offchance this sea/lake/whatever proves to be an elemental plane of water that connects to other seas and oceans, that suggests other elemental realms could be reached through the Court/Gillite and if so, I have a new theory on where Antimony's ancestor came from and where she met and fell in love with a human.
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Post by speedwell on Jul 25, 2022 8:53:20 GMT
"The thing's hollow -- it goes on forever -- and -- oh my God! -- it's full of stars!" |
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Post by silicondream on Jul 25, 2022 8:57:23 GMT
"This isn't an ocean...it's a lake! We were in Michigan all along!" I have nothing useful to contribute, but I wonder whether the meeting had to take place at the water's edge because that's where Loup's dominion ends. So what HAVE they been swimming in all this time? Molton Bismuth doesn't seem a very suitable ocean material given it melts at 271.4°C It's probably still ordinary water. The Court was already using a lake as an etheric battery several years ago, and when the Seraphs used the same technology in "The Torn Sea," it turned the sea a similar purply shade. Paz and Lindsay were still fine swimming in it, though. I would guess the Court has simply scaled up its technology since then. They must be evaporating a hell of a lot of water to drop the entire not-ocean's level like that. Are we about to see a bigger version of the artificial rainstorms that Zimmy hates? A de-etherized flash flood could be a pretty effective weapon against, say, Loup in Living Forest mode. Come to think of it, maybe this is why Tony spends so much of his time charting weather patterns. He's predicting the environmental impact if the Court starts generating antietheric acid rain on a continental scale. P.S. Apparently I've come up with the most boring interpretation of this page in the entire thread. All y'all talking about seas of computronium and metaphysical idealizations of oceanhood and elemental planes of water and whatnot. If I'm right I want a particularly prosaic cookie--one of those graham crackers they give to kindergarteners, let's say. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Jul 25, 2022 9:32:59 GMT
They must be evaporating a hell of a lot of water to drop the entire not-ocean's level like that. I do not believe this sea/lake/whatever is the same body of water the power station was in. That lake was more-or-less completely ringed with a wall and I think it was somewhere 'sprung, 'tubed, or Q'd that it was man-made, but I may be wrong on that count. I did find a post where Mr. Siddell said the students didn't have access to the lake with the power station and they appear to have access to this sea/lake/whatever (no walls, obstacles, they go on cruises). [edit] Whoops, on second read not sure you were suggesting it was. [/edit] |
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Post by blahzor on Jul 25, 2022 9:52:48 GMT
I think this really makes a lot of sense with how the factory worked. It must be one giant "ocean" of ether. That is the only explanation I can think of where it was essentially "siphoning" it and releasing it into the air to breach "reality". The girl's dormitory was submerged in this. Lizzy SWIMS in it! They sent the kids out on a CRUISE SHIP in this thing! What. The. FRICK!? Can't drown if it's not water. Checkmate |
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Post by mordekai on Jul 25, 2022 12:20:13 GMT
Maybe both the Court and the Forest are in a bubble inside the Ether? A false space, similar to The Realm Of The Dead's headquarters... and the ocean is the Ether itself, disguised by an illusion...
That would explain why Coyote and the other magical beings aren't wreacking havoc in say the middle of London... their power is limited outside the Ether...
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Post by Bo No Bo on Jul 25, 2022 12:20:28 GMT
We know the rest of the world still exists because Kat, Paz, other students *HAVE* visited and talked about it, and we've SEEN Kat visit what is presumably a real ocean. So do we take this? I'm not sure.
But it somehow *does* recall Ch. 75: She Gave Us An Ocean, where the ocean was not really an ocean at ALL, but as metaphor for the robots' journey in self-expansion and self-expression towards becoming 'New People. The fact that our Robot features so heavily as an avatar in that chapter, and comes back here, seems purposeful.
Is Kat being shown the subatomic, even quantum components of the water before her, making it 'so much more' than an ocean? Is this possibly the 'Omega Device' we've heard so much about? Or is it again, that this seemingly real and interactable body of water is again a metaphor.
Unrelated- I love the commitment to keeping Annie's fingerprint on the moon, instead of say, doing what the Sonic Team did after the surface of the moon was hit by a laser, and simply not showing the damage while claiming on social media that "the moon is always facing the other way when you see it now".
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Post by noone3 on Jul 25, 2022 12:39:47 GMT
"The thing's hollow -- it goes on forever -- and -- oh my God! -- it's full of stars!"That its exactly what it vibes like. Also Tom pulled of an enormous cliffhanger without hanging anyone off a cliff. Again. |
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Post by Sky Schemer on Jul 25, 2022 13:09:39 GMT
Okay now I'm thinking that it actually is a sea that may or may not be landlocked, but is not any of the oceans that Kat learned in normal Earth geography class; it's a sea exclusive to the Court/Gillite that exits other places, probably including at least one ocean. I don't think we're being treated to a hydrography lesson here. My money goes on this being the elemental plane of water or something similar. We have collectively hand-waved the fact that the Court can't exist in the real world, even though it most certainly interacts with it. It would not surprise me to learn that it sits at a nexus point of multiple planes/realities/worlds, only one of which is our own. |
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Post by speedwell on Jul 25, 2022 13:37:34 GMT
"This isn't an ocean...it's a lake! We were in Michigan all along!" I have nothing useful to contribute, but I wonder whether the meeting had to take place at the water's edge because that's where Loup's dominion ends. (snip)
P.S. Apparently I've come up with the most boring interpretation of this page in the entire thread. All y'all talking about seas of computronium and metaphysical idealizations of oceanhood and elemental planes of water and whatnot. If I'm right I want a particularly prosaic cookie--one of those graham crackers they give to kindergarteners, let's say. I lived in Chicago for a while as a child and the Lake Michigan crack made me laugh 😂 Also, I don't think your explanations are prosaic at all, just relatively conservative and pragmatic. If you are correct you will be awarded a box of Scottish shortbread, simply flour, butter, and sugar, and the very best cookie that ever was. |
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Post by Gemminie on Jul 25, 2022 14:22:55 GMT
(As usual, replying without seeing anyone's responses or speculations first)
I'm catching up on Friday too – after witnessing Robot and Loup's bargain, we're back to Annie and Renard, walking back home. In view of the sea, the full moon in the sky, complete with fingerprint, they see a number of people both standing on the beach and wading in the water. One of them appears to be Kat, while the rest are a nondescript gray. It's Renard who spots them first, but Annie sees them too, wondering whether the meeting is over and thus clearly speculating that these are the people who went to the meeting. The people drawn in gray may be actually gray faceless people, but it's more likely that they're background characters we're not meant to focus on as Annie isn't looking at them.
Annie and Renard approach Kat; we can see that her shoes and the cuffs of her pants are wet from standing by the water. The water is drawn in a way that suggests that it isn't moving as ordinary water would, forming loops and seemingly defying gravity. They ask Kat what is going on, and she turns and replies that what she and the others are standing in isn't an ocean. Her expression is wide-eyed, as if in astonishment. And the chapter ends with the antimony symbol.
This does, of course, raise the question of what exactly it is, if not an ocean. Some form of snare, perhaps, given the chapter title? Water has been used before – the Annan Waters once separated the Forest and Court, rain gives Zimmy relief, and the Court siphons etheric energy from water using its Ether stations. There's a clear line drawn between "real" rain that gives Zimmy relief from her stress and other falling water that doesn't, such as a shower or the rain released after an Ether station has drawn the Ether out of it. Perhaps what Kat means is that this isn't a "real" ocean, that the Court has drawn all the etheric essence out of it, so it's no longer natural water. Perhaps that's the source the Court has turned to for the great amount of etheric energy it needs? Conversely, perhaps this pseudo-ocean is actually a reservoir for all the etheric energy the Court has managed to procure, which might explain why they're keeping Zimmy pretty far from the "ocean." What's in there isn't actually water at all but pure etheric energy. However, we have seen boats on it.
Then there's the question of why these people are standing there, wading in it or at least standing nearby on the beach, facing outward toward the horizon. They're apparently not entranced or unaware that they're doing this; Kat was easily able to turn away to talk to Annie. There must be some fascination that it holds. Is the Court forming some sort of group mind, and is this "ocean" the medium by which people connect with it? The mind was likened to an ocean during the robot transfer process; is this a similar metaphor, being given an even larger ocean for the mind to explore?
This chapter has gone to a lot of places, and it fits one more place in here at the end, not really telling us much about it.
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Post by ctso74 on Jul 25, 2022 14:26:05 GMT
Wow and jinkies! Great cliffhanger, and contradiction to what the Angel gave the NPs. Good job, Tom!
A sea of nanites? Maybe, they act as a giant RAID10, and it's the storage for the new Court simulation. Or pure liquid Ether.
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Post by blahzor on Jul 25, 2022 14:27:35 GMT
Maybe both the Court and the Forest are in a bubble inside the Ether? A false space, similar to The Realm Of The Dead's headquarters... and the ocean is the Ether itself, disguised by an illusion... That would explain why Coyote and the other magical beings aren't wreacking havoc in say the middle of London... their power is limited outside the Ether... except that Coyote seems to be immune to all systems and logic of the ether so he probably has powers outside of it. Coyote has Admin prilevages |
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Post by blahzor on Jul 25, 2022 14:31:19 GMT
what are ocean myths this could be? the falling off the edge of the earth one? would explain it's endless feel¿
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Post by dotdotdot on Jul 25, 2022 15:20:10 GMT
I'm... not disappointed or surprised, but rather amused that no one has made a Truman Show reference yet.  |
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Post by drmemory on Jul 25, 2022 15:44:04 GMT
I'm really worried about the huge Kat eyes. What she's been told and what she's saying may not be true. She doesn't look like herself. Still, if we are to take what she just said at face value, my guess is that that huge ocean there is really made of Bismuth Goo. Which would imply that the Court's need for ether power is so they can shape it into a new Court. Pretty hypocritical if they are really going to just duplicate what was done with the seed Bismuth, while excluding non-humans...
Still, I don't like that "new cult member stare".
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