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Post by silicondream on Feb 22, 2023 15:11:30 GMT
For real though my husband is a cloud systems engineer and I absolutely would not put it past him to upload his consciousness into a janky network if he thought it'd be the most efficient way to work. Figuring out how to get back into the empty husk of his body would firmly be a tomorrow problem. And he doesn't even have the option of fabricating a superior neorganic body to return to! Kat's almost being too cautious when you think about it. Seriously, it's no worse than Annie's rescue strategy for Jeanne, which relied on Kat successfully hacking an unknown ancient technomagical device on her first try while everyone else fought an invincible murder ghost. I can't believe Gunnerkrigg Court's Kat Donlan is fudging dead. You do know that we don't know that, right? I do indeed, but memes gotta meme. Edit: This seems like a good time for Annie to go astral. If Kat's consciousness really is displaced, Ethervision has the best chance of making that clear. It’s not the sort of thing Annie would normally see. People who are not magic-active are just all grey for her “ether vision”. Including Donald, even though he has Anja’s tattoo somewhere on him (currently inactive). Well, Annie was able to enter Diego's arrow through the ether and then perceive Kat's presence and interaction with it. If the chip is linked to the arrow or derivative technology, she could conceivably do the same thing here. But you're right, Annie typically sees nothing of people's thoughts or emotions through the ether…which is interesting, considering that Coyote & Loup, ζ & γ, and the Wisps all have talents in that area. Instead I am pondering where the glove on Annie's left hand has gone, how an explosion that completely pulverizes a magnetic coil does not leave any visible damage on Kat's skin, hair or clothes but makes her topple over like a ragdoll Annie probably got sick of us dissing her lab safety skillz and decided to pocket the gloves for the rest of the scene. And I would guess that she's toppling over from the neurological effect of the chip rather than the impact of the explosion…but yes, you'd think a blast with enough concussive force to blow her hair back and knock away her hand would also have dangerous shrapnel. Or just, like, debris. That thing exploded like an Acme product. |
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Post by silicondream on Feb 22, 2023 15:19:07 GMT
Maybe this wasn't really an explosion, just the fabric of reality being torn and reassembled in a new way. Another department upset with Kat's shenanigans. Oooh, wait, what if this breaks her terms and conditions and that's why the splodey happened? Locked-in syndrome would qualify as an ambiguously physical "jail".... |
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Post by Tenjen on Feb 22, 2023 15:53:39 GMT
Im glad this came out on a wednesday cause having a longer wait wouldve driven me up the wall
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Post by ctso74 on Feb 22, 2023 17:12:14 GMT
Well, this could be fate's way of power-cycling Kat.
I'm not sure how well "turn it off and on" will work for a human, though.
In my head, I just had the image of Annie about to cut in, and Kat's hand snapping back, clamping down, and stopping her.
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Post by martello on Feb 22, 2023 17:14:55 GMT
So Omega is taking over Kat.
It's not Kat who's killing Zimmy with Omega, it's Omega using Kat.
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clover
Junior Member
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Post by clover on Feb 22, 2023 17:15:45 GMT
So, kat's the ghost out of the shell now?
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Post by netherdan on Feb 22, 2023 17:25:58 GMT
The eerie thing would that it WOULD! Right? Imagine if it was designed to violently sever brain/spine connection and then reform to replace it with her biotech, all that without mentioning to her friend and girlfriend I'm not trying to build up to a told-you-so moment, but that "Cut it out!" reaction is totally implying it's actively growing on her neck. Otherwise the proper reaction would be "call help" or "take her to a hospital" (or equivalent), not "shit went wrong, let's make it worse by running a scalpel over her spine again" |
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Post by atteSmythe on Feb 22, 2023 17:47:22 GMT
I don't think this is what first aid training would recommend. Within the limits of what we know, it’s congruent with my first aid training. Stop, assess the situation. If the scene is unsafe and it is safe to do so, render it safe. If the victim is in danger and it is safe to do so, move them to safety. Call emergency services. Triage, treating the most critical injury first. The chip’s function is unknown, rendering the scene unsafe. It’s smoking, continuing to harm the victim. Deal with it first. Of course, I guess there’s basically zero chance that they will then call emergency services and get real help on the way. But stranger things have happened. Maybe they learned from the Jeanne debacle. |
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Post by Gemminie on Feb 22, 2023 17:52:01 GMT
Kat collapses limply to the floor, her eyes vacant, possibly unconscious or even dead (though of course we hope not). This is drawn with a Dutch angle, and we see both Paz and Annie standing with surprised stances and expressions. In the previous frame (by which I mean the last frame on the previous page) Annie was facing away from Kat, so there's been enough time for Annie to spin around. Kat's wrist is at a bad angle; it may be broken. Kat's neck seems long, but this may be drawn to emphasize the emotional impact of the scenario rather than its physical reality.
Kat somehow goes from collapsing mostly straight forward onto the floor with her head at a right-facing angle into a fetal position on her right side, suggesting that she has some rightward momentum that causes her to fall and then roll. It isn't clear how her right arm would move from straight out behind her to up and in front of her as this happens, especially if she's unconscious or dead, so this may be a sign that she's actually neither. Her left arm is apparently obscured by her legs. Paz shouts Kat's name twice as she rushes to her side. Annie isn't far behind; we get a clearer view of the bandage on the back of Kat's neck. Paz shouts that they must remove the chip from Kat's neck, as there's smoke rising from the bandage. With a clatter, Annie grabs a scalpel from the tray of tools, not bothering with surgical gloves this time (bacterial infection is the least of their worries at this point). Her intent is clearly to cut the chip back out again, as Paz says.
The frame boundaries have changed from rectilinear to slanted on this page, adding to the frenetic feel of the action.
I think this page pretty well scotches the theory that Annie or Paz (or both acting together) sabotaged either the chip or the activation device; they're too surprised by what's happened. Will Annie succeed in removing the chip, or will Kat recover and prevent her? Or has the chip, by Kat's design, already extended microfibers into her medulla oblongata, integrating itself with her nervous system and leaving the original package an empty shell? That's right, I still consider that there's a possibility that this will still work as intended – Kat obviously wasn't able to test this device on herself first (this is the test), so it didn't react quite the way she intended, but it might still have worked. There's also the possibility that Kat's body is now dying, but her brain is currently being uploaded into her new computer. We'll have to see what happens next!
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Post by Daedalus on Feb 22, 2023 18:03:52 GMT
What in the name of Coyote is going on in this comic recently
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Post by Gemminie on Feb 22, 2023 18:11:41 GMT
I'm a little sad that the only emotion I can feel is mild bemusement, while the author's intention was probably to make us feel worried for Kat. But the past pages have all been so weird that I can't take any of this seriously. Instead I am pondering where the glove on Annie's left hand has gone, how an explosion that completely pulverizes a magnetic coil does not leave any visible damage on Kat's skin, hair or clothes but makes her topple over like a ragdoll, and what cutting out the chip is supposed to achieve instead of, I don't know, maybe applying first aid? I get that Paz and Annie are panicking (unlike when Andrew had a dagger in his chest, where Annie didn't panic at all), but I really struggle to find the mental connection that would make anyone think Kat will magically get up again after they remove the chip. I can feel that the mood here is definitely "something bad just happened," but that's overlaid on top of the general feeling of "WTF is going on" that permeates GKC at all times. I'm not sure what just happened, really. I mean, the hand-held activator device seems to have been made of compressed talc, starched pocket lint, or something else that explodes into dust at the slightest provocation. The chip appears to have caused Kat to immediately go unconscious upon activation, at which point she just crumpled to the floor. First aid would seem to require some kind of visible injury, and from what we can see there isn't one, except perhaps bumps and bruises from hitting the floor. There's smoke coming from the chip, which is probably what causes Paz to jump to the conclusion that they need to cut it out. Annie's just acting on that idea, since it's the only course of action anyone has proffered at all. If I had to guess, Paz's train of thought has seemingly been "I don't like this chip, but Kat wants it so I guess that's what we're doing now," and now it's "the thing exploded and Kat collapsed, but there don't seem to be any skin burns while the thing in her neck is emitting smoke, so let's get it out of there before it burns a hole in her brain." Annie's is more like, "What happened? There was a bang, I turned around, and now Kat's falling to the floor, and Paz says we need to cut the chip out, and wait, smoke is coming from the bandaid I just put there, so that's definitely a sign that something's wrong with the chip thing and it needs to come out." I don't think the idea is that she'll get back up when they remove it; I think they want to take it out before it does more damage than it obviously (to them) already has. |
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Post by maxptc on Feb 22, 2023 18:36:31 GMT
What in the name of Coyote is going on in this comic recently Looks to me like the transition from rising action to climax on freytags pyramid. |
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Post by drmemory on Feb 22, 2023 18:45:41 GMT
Honestly, to me Kat looks kind of empty right now. I bet her mind has been uploaded, probably as a side effect of the overload.
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clover
Junior Member
Posts: 79
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Post by clover on Feb 22, 2023 18:55:19 GMT
If nobody else made the prediction, I feel like paz did it. Like, didn't mean for it to go like THIS, but definitely tried to sabotage the chip for some reason.
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Post by Per on Feb 22, 2023 22:11:43 GMT
Seriously, it's no worse than Annie's rescue strategy for Jeanne, which relied on Kat successfully hacking an unknown ancient technomagical device on her first try while everyone else fought an invincible murder ghost. It's worth remembering from time to time that there haven't been a lot of chapters where something couldn't have, written a bit differently, gone "BANG!" or some bloody equivalent thereof and taught everyone involved a dark lesson about assembling rogue robots/venturing into dens of raging man-bulls/joining rampage dragons on the roof/holy crap it's an actual ghost/just going a single step too far whichever supernatural way. In the beginning, the fact that it didn't was a charming and distinguishing feature of the comic. If it hadn't over time developed the capacity and intent to explode things in the protagonists' faces, it probably wouldn't have kept going and sustained interest for so many people for as long as it has. Still, those protagonists could be forgiven for feeling a pang of thematic whiplash every now and then. Also: Annie, you fool! That's the only thing keeping her alive! It's just got fourteen trillion gigabauds per watt-minute running through it during initialization, any device would explode from the induction! Also, Serval. So f****** dead.  |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Feb 22, 2023 23:57:52 GMT
Since other people have brought it up, I'll chime in by saying that I'm not sure what the correct course of action for Antimony and Paz would be in this situation. The comic just doesn't provide enough information. Probably the most crucial thing is what happens between panels 1 and 2. Kat's falling and presumably hits the ground left shoulder first but she's right shoulder down in the next panel. She's moved or is moving, at least previous to panel 3, but in what manner? Was the "BANG" from the previous page so forceful that she bounced (I'm thinking no but can't say for sure). Is she cradling a possible burn to her right hand? Was she twitching or rigid? Is she now limp? I'm genuinely unsure if this is an emergency where seconds matter or a case where one should just stare at the potential patient until they stand up again, possibly while poking them with a stick to cause a response/faster recovery.
In absence of other information I think the important thing to do is check and see if Kat is breathing. If no, one girl should position Kat on her back while the other gently holds Kat's head in proper alignment; one girl does CPR while other gently holds Kat's neck immobile. If Kat is breathing but unresponsive, it's probably best to leave her as she is for the moment; maybe check pupils, then scope out nearby science stuff to see if anything could be used to splint her neck in case she seizes/spasms or if there's a need to move her. The latter may be a good task to set Paz on to help keep her calm. That may be a scorch on the bandage (which might mean there's still burning chemicals in/on it) which means pulling it off may be in order but until/unless I see smoke/steam still coming from it or the incision next page I think it's probably okay to leave it. I think the smoke we see in panels 1 and 4 is just residue from the coil's battery going up. In absence of ongoing arcing from the chip, or smoke or steam from the incision, I feel removing the chip is a sub-optimal move at best even if it's clearly the chip that's keeping her unconscious (which would be the case if the "BANG" and fall were too mild to cause Kat to be unconscious). They/we don't know if it's supposed to be doing that so removing it might well make things worse. If the chip is causing arcs or steam/fire from the incision, Kat's current position is probably fine for its removal though Antimony should probably take a second to collect herself as well as move the tray closer to Kat instead of just having at it with only a scalpel. That extra second most likely wouldn't make any burn injury significantly worse and could prevent mistakes. If it has to come out, it should be done carefully. Sudden movements now that it's active might make it less accurate with how it interacts with Kat's brain. Also, I'd expect Kat would have put some protocol in place to prevent unauthorized removal; I'm not sure that particular protocol would be active yet but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the scalpel get teleported away next comic. Additionally, Kat may have a burn on her right hand (though maybe not depending on how the case for the coil failed) but if so that's very low priority at the moment... but looking for ice/cold compress/water/whatever could be something for Paz to do instead of standing around freaking out, urging Antimony to do ill-advised stuff.
IRL people should call for emergency services immediately if there's a serious injury, especially head, neck, and spine ones... but I'm not sure this is serious. Assuming the "BANG" and fall didn't look that bad and Kat is still breathing I could go along with taking a wait-and-see approach about calling emergency services, at least for a few minutes, since none of them want the Court to know about this. They're arguably accessories in the (attempted?) hacking of Omega which I guess would be the equivalent to hacking the Pentagon or something and if the Court finds out about the chip they may find out about the hacking one way or another... but I don't think Antimony and Paz are weighing such things rationally at the moment. If people are freaking out and unable to rationally asses the situation then calling for help immediately is probably a good default move. Of course, that's assuming they have phones and they're reasonably sure they'd rather deal with being in trouble then Kat risk being dead/braindead/paralyzed/whatever. They may not have phones, or may have left them home so they couldn't be tracked here. The Court's punishment for (attempted?) hacking Omega might be pretty severe, considering they're willing to memory wipe people to etherically insulate their move to the really real planet they're going to. It also occurs to me that blaming Kat et al for Omega's problems might be politically useful so the punishment might be disproportionate to what they've actually done.
So yeah, not really sure. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
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Post by Runningflame on Feb 23, 2023 2:49:37 GMT
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Post by Angry Individual on Feb 23, 2023 2:58:51 GMT
 In all seriousness, it feels like Kat's inability to consider the downsides of things strikes again. |
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Post by mwr2022 on Feb 23, 2023 3:16:57 GMT
I'm a little sad that the only emotion I can feel is mild bemusement, while the author's intention was probably to make us feel worried for Kat. But the past pages have all been so weird that I can't take any of this seriously. Instead I am pondering where the glove on Annie's left hand has gone, how an explosion that completely pulverizes a magnetic coil does not leave any visible damage on Kat's skin, hair or clothes but makes her topple over like a ragdoll, and what cutting out the chip is supposed to achieve instead of, I don't know, maybe applying first aid? I get that Paz and Annie are panicking (unlike when Andrew had a dagger in his chest, where Annie didn't panic at all), but I really struggle to find the mental connection that would make anyone think Kat will magically get up again after they remove the chip. Annie sometimes seems to alternate between panic / calm in a crisis depending on what moves the plot forward. She shut down or disassociated at her father’s return (which situation was not resolved to my satisfaction and I took a break from reading for a while after). Thinking through this more. Annie tends to be calm in dire situations, like Jack with the spider, Andrew getting knifed in the chest, robots taking over a boat, etc. She panics in emotional situations like her father returning, Renard taking her to task on homework, Kat being angry at her about the forest, and even Jack and Jenny yelling at her about harming Zimmy. No physical danger, just emotional danger. This whole chapter has felt abrupt and disjointed. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be all a dream or the plot being pushed in a certain way quickly. |
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Post by TBeholder on Feb 23, 2023 3:30:59 GMT
Instead I am pondering where the glove on Annie's left hand has gone, Hopefully, next to the right glove. But possibly on the floor. how an explosion that completely pulverizes a magnetic coil does not leave any visible damage on Kat's skin, hair or clothes but makes her topple over like a ragdoll, Er… why “completely pulverizes”? Also, we don’t see much of the skin on the back of her neck, or hair. The collar went up. Thus we see the bandage over incision (over which the interface was) only partially in panel #3. But it seems less than pristine, especially lower, so looks like some soot or burning fragments stuck on it. Kat’s clothes seem to have a circular scorch mark in panel #2. Her neck is trailing smoke in the panel #1 and is still smoking even in panel #4, so presumably some smoldering fragments stuck either to her neck or to the tape. Or maybe her hair is smoldering. It looked like Kat was either thrown or more likely strongly flinched at the explosion (or convulsed at the activation of her chip, result’s the same). Either way, remnants of her souped up RFID reader probably marred some wall on the other side of the room. An impact to the back of the skull doesn’t need to be very strong for a knock down. Or maybe it was shock from whatever the chip did in such abnormal circumstances. What would you expect her to do once she is moving and unconscious — gently topple over in a funny pose? And then her head hit the floor, so she is knocked out. and what cutting out the chip is supposed to achieve instead of, I don't know, maybe applying first aid? I get that Paz and Annie are panicking That chip was the last thing Paz worried about, so in confusion she defaults to focusing her panic on it rather than unknown unknowns. Annie panicked and seems to follow panicked suggestion from Paz. This doesn’t need to be any more complicated. Since other people have brought it up, I'll chime in by saying that I'm not sure what the correct course of action for Antimony and Paz would be in this situation. To not panic. Not that it’s a choice. The comic just doesn't provide enough information. Probably the most crucial thing is what happens between panels 1 and 2. Kat's falling and presumably hits the ground left shoulder first but she's right shoulder down in the next panel. She's moved or is moving, at least previous to panel 3, but in what manner? Yes. Most likely, either tried to land better right before falling on her skull, or flinched again. In absence of other information I think the important thing to do is check and see if Kat is breathing. If no, one girl should position Kat on her back while the other gently holds Kat's head in proper alignment; one girl does CPR while other gently holds Kat's neck immobile. If Kat is breathing but unresponsive, it's probably best to leave her as she is for the moment; maybe …make sure all fires are extinguished? IRL people should call for emergency services immediately if there's a serious injury, especially head, neck, and spine ones... but I'm not sure this is serious. Assuming the "BANG" and fall didn't look that bad and Kat is still breathing I could go along with taking a wait-and-see approach about calling emergency services, at least for a few minutes, since none of them want the Court to know about this. From medical point of view, removal of a chip that requires an interface like this is the least urgent thing to do, unless it causes convulsions or something. From security point of view, the medical problem may be not the most life-threatening here, considering their… precarious situation within precarious situation within yet another precarious situation. So if Kat is breathing, but remains unresponsive, making sure nobody else can take the chip would indeed make sense. By now even Annie must admit that Anthony is great and all, but these “inner circle” people played him like a fiddle, and there’s no reason to assume they cannot do this again in some other way, thus while can be trusted as a surgeon, trusting him with their secrets is another matter. And they don’t really know any other. Which is why she did agree to play the surgeon, after all. As such, removal would be Annie’s responsibility as well. But of course this does not matter — they are in panic and are not thinking straight. |
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Post by drmemory on Feb 23, 2023 5:23:16 GMT
Jumping directly to "cut it out" seems like SUCH a bad idea. If nothing else, if the chip *poofed*, it's probably harmless now. You can't blow up a hand grenade after it's already exploded! A better plan would be to not panic, and consider it from a medical view or even summon a doctor. Both Annie and Paz seem to know a fair amount about bio stuff, so why panic and start cutting? I agree with what others have said - removing the chip ought to be really low priority. If anything, the attempt could easily make things worse! Let's hope at least one of the girls keeps her head. Even just waiting to see if Kat wakes up would be better than slicing her open again, and less likely to make her really mad when she wakes and discovers that her chip has been removed.
Addendum: One of Tom's current themes seems to be getting everyone pissed at Annie, unjustly. I can easily imagine her attempting a hasty surgery here, caused by the panic-stricken and immature girlfriend, and being blamed for the outcome... Maybe with Kat mad at her for removing the chip and Paz for doing the surgery without all precautions being taken? Hard to say what will go wrong, with so many options, but I'm confident that Annie will be blamed for it.  |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Feb 23, 2023 6:40:09 GMT
Since other people have brought it up, I'll chime in by saying that I'm not sure what the correct course of action for Antimony and Paz would be in this situation. To not panic. Not that it’s a choice. It's not a choice for Paz. I wonder if it is for Antimony. Antimony's been in life-and-death situations a few times now. Yes, she's still a kid but panic-inducing situations are less unfamiliar for her. Even if she's tried to block out stuff that happened in the past I would expect she's reflected on some things she could have done differently, or ways she could have behaved differently. In My Humble Opinion all it really takes is recognizing that less-unfamiliar feeling and making a choice (conscious or not) to stop and take a second to process what's happening. Most people spend the majority of their lives not panicking and if they just take that second's pause they can (not always but can) accidentally slip back to rationality, and if they can just achieve that once (even by accident) they may (not always but may) notice that it can be done and they can try to do it again if they choose. Antimony may have zero training to fall back on... or maybe she is falling back on her training in a sense, as she knows something about making incisions and it looks like that's what she's going to try to do to make things better (choosing DO NOW instead of stop and think) but Antimony herself isn't in immediate danger so she not only has that second but could probably take several seconds to process the situation and the environment before Paz starts screaming at her. She is the protagonist, after all. She just might be able to do it. The comic just doesn't provide enough information. Probably the most crucial thing is what happens between panels 1 and 2. Kat's falling and presumably hits the ground left shoulder first but she's right shoulder down in the next panel. She's moved or is moving, at least previous to panel 3, but in what manner? Yes. Most likely, either tried to land better right before falling on her skull, or flinched again. Honestly I don't even know if she's unresponsive. She doesn't respond in panel 3 but that's not the same thing. …make sure all fires are extinguished? You have a point. Initially I thought of that but dismissed it as not an immediate priority because this is a warehouse/workshop that probably doesn't have much in the way of flammables around as I commonly think of such... but growing robot bodies likely does require flammable inputs and they may be stored in quantity around here. If it was just the coil itself that blew up then it's likely as burned as it's going to get but I think the explosion was too big for that. The explosion seemed to be centered around the coil proper (and the coil probably did fail) however I think the most likely scenario is that the energy the coil caught caused the power source (probably a battery) to explosively combust and the device exterior casing failed where it narrowed, where the handle meets the coil, which would line up with the position of the device relative to the blast. That may be the majority of the magnetic coil's case flying off between Kat's hand and the "NG" in "BANG" in the last panel of the previous page. Where the remains of the handle wound up is probably where the remains of the battery (or whatever) are still burning, and if left untended the presumably-plastic case could catch fire. That could and likely would burn hot enough and long enough to catch something else on fire if close enough or under something. Wood or cardboard boxes and crates would cause smoke and maybe force them to move Kat when they shouldn't, but containers of chemicals catching fire could be an immediate disaster. I still have to put that second to checking to see if Kat's still breathing, though. |
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Post by Per on Feb 23, 2023 8:01:21 GMT
This whole chapter has felt abrupt and disjointed. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be all a dream or the plot being pushed in a certain way quickly. I think some care should be taken to separate the experience when reading the comic from a book or the archive, where one can immediately turn a page for additional developments and context, from that of pages slowly filtered through the forum, where fourteen people each grab a handful of speculation balls and run off in their various directions then complain the storytelling is sprawling. |
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Post by makiofspring on Feb 23, 2023 8:35:09 GMT
Oh dear, looks like she's gone...
...Kat-atonic
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Post by pyradonis on Feb 23, 2023 9:29:47 GMT
Er… why “completely pulverizes”? I thought so because there is no debris to be seen. I admit the remains could have been blown so far away they're not inside the view any more, although nothing is seen flying away on the panel with the explosion either. I see what you mean in panel 2, but in my interpretation those lines are meant to be wrinkles in her overall, since on panel 3 we see the same part of her clothes from the other side and closer, and there are no scorch marks to be seen. You have a point with the smoke though. I also didn't think of the possibility that it was the chip's activation that caused her unconsciousness. This whole chapter has felt abrupt and disjointed. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be all a dream or the plot being pushed in a certain way quickly. I think some care should be taken to separate the experience when reading the comic from a book or the archive, where one can immediately turn a page for additional developments and context, from that of pages slowly filtered through the forum, where fourteen people each grab a handful of speculation balls and run off in their various directions then complain the storytelling is sprawling. I agree with what you said in general... but I disagree with it as a reply to what mwr2022 said. Seeing the characters jump from not wanting to do something to doing it without complaint on the next page, to crying on the next page and then smiling on the next page feels weird and disjointed whether it's read with to days of pause between the pages or not. Not to mention that at this point one is still trying to make sense of the end of the previous chapter. I can feel that the mood here is definitely "something bad just happened," but that's overlaid on top of the general feeling of "WTF is going on" that permeates GKC at all times. I just can't help but keep on comparing this to the two chapters in which Jeanne was freed. That story also had surprises, strange happenings and people making mistakes, but I was so invested in reading it. It was suspenseful and fun, and what the characters did was (at least mostly) planned, or at least made sense considering their personalities. When things happened like Andrew getting knifed, Ayilu seemingly being killed, Jeanne realizing someone was touching the arrow... I was on the edge of my seat, yelling "Holy sh...!" I couldn't wait for the next page for months. And right now it's just "What's going on here? Is any of this even happening? Are some pages missing in between? Who are all these people?" That makes sense, at least. Though regarding the question of first aid, giving it doesn't require a visible injury. The first things you do are checking for consciousness, breath, a pulse... But both Paz and Annie seem to just skip that and go straight for the chip. So maybe let's just hope Kat is actually still breathing and has a heartbeat, and they are not wasting valuable time in which they should be administering CPR.
We saw Annie in the process of taking the glove (improperly) off, so apparently she took it off. We don't get a good look at the back of Kat's neck, but from what I can see on panel two, there are some marks there. You can't take off a latex glove that quickly pulling on a single finger. And when Annie turns around as Kat is falling, the glove is already gone. She might have pulled it off in the proper (and quicker) way while turning around, but that's not really what goes through one's head when you just witnessed an explosion next to your best friend's neck... in my opinion at least, but most other things that have happened in this chapter so far didn't seem to make much sense either (in my opinion, again), so who knows. And yes, panel 2 shows something that could be meant to be scorch marks, but panel 3 shows the same spot on Kat's clothes, and they appear undamaged there. Unless the scorch marks went to the same mysterious dimension that the glove did... |
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Post by saardvark on Feb 23, 2023 16:17:09 GMT
So Omega is taking over Kat. It's not Kat who's killing Zimmy with Omega, it's Omega using Kat. wild-spec-y: ...and perhaps Zimms doesn't actually die, but is left as not-the-Zimmy-we-know anymore. A metaphorical death. Omega, in the process of interacting with her, robs her of her etheric absorption "ability", and Zimmy becomes a mundane, standard human. |
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Post by mwr2022 on Feb 23, 2023 18:22:03 GMT
This whole chapter has felt abrupt and disjointed. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be all a dream or the plot being pushed in a certain way quickly. I think some care should be taken to separate the experience when reading the comic from a book or the archive, where one can immediately turn a page for additional developments and context, from that of pages slowly filtered through the forum, where fourteen people each grab a handful of speculation balls and run off in their various directions then complain the storytelling is sprawling. Generally I agree, but I don’t see how that would work in this chapter and the end of the last one. The last chapter wasn’t abrupt and disjointed as read page by page. The end with Annie being turned on by Jack and Jenny felt abrupt and disjointed from what came before. Jack and Jenny were calm in a crisis on the boat, but suddenly they won’t let Annie explain? Then this chapter started with Kat asking the two characters closest to her to implant a chip. Their expressions are horrified but they just agree to do it without much discussion. They smile widely at each other after Paz crying a page before. Kat’s device goes “BOOM” and Paz and Annie panic. That doesn’t seem like Annie but I guess it’s a continuation from her being ripped into last chapter by Jack and Jenny. Is Annie going to be blamed by Paz, Kat, her father, the Donlans, and the entire court for the outcome of this? Why not, it’s blame Annie year in the comic. Maybe Renard and Eglamore can get in some digs at her too. |
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Post by rabbit on Feb 23, 2023 21:03:30 GMT
So, kat's the ghost out of the shell now? Well, if she is not dead at this point, then maybe the ghost on the half-shell right now.
Mort, on the other hand, is the ghost who got shelled.
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Post by eyemyself on Feb 24, 2023 5:09:39 GMT
So Omega is taking over Kat. It's not Kat who's killing Zimmy with Omega, it's Omega using Kat. wild-spec-y: ...and perhaps Zimms doesn't actually die, but is left as not-the-Zimmy-we-know anymore. A metaphorical death. Omega, in the process of interacting with her, robs her of her etheric absorption "ability", and Zimmy becomes a mundane, standard human. The deeper we get into this storyline - the more I’m starting to think Kat /is/ Omega. That it’s even possible she’s always /been/ Omega. Much like her bird always existed because it needed to exist to save Annie. Her ability to make sense of etheric smoke and mirrors. Her monstrous appearance to Zimmy, and now Annie. Her “gift” with technology evolving closer and closer to creating life. Especially after exposure to the Zimmyverse during the boat trip. The court wants her to come with them across the star ocean. We know that boat trip was one of their experiments - they had to know what she built when Zimmy activated. It’s possible the robots aren’t as autonomous as they appear, either, and the courts been pulling the strings of the whole “goddess” thing, too. There is a lot going on here. |
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Post by rafk on Feb 24, 2023 8:52:11 GMT
You forget to check GC for ONE Monday and all hell breaks loose. I reckon Kat's mind is now in the computer; the Ghost In The Machine. If so I wonder if they can make a robot body for her to control... Not like I was the only one to guess this but... |
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