[2823] Still here [within the distortion]...

[imaginaryfriend]

So, it's our first look around inside the distortion.

I sincerely hope none of you suffer from trypophobia, genteel forum-goers.

[madjack]

This looks like a Treatise page.

Could be something a whole lot more unnerving than Zimmingham coming up.

Edit: VVV Snap.  

[arf]

My first impression is that the last treatise was remarkably prescient in style.

[.. ninjad!]

[blahzor]

Every orgin lore is coming

[arf]

Given the treatise vibe... are those hills in the background to the right, or a very distorted face?

[blahzor]

I hope Annie is smart enough to walk towards the correct moon to find Kat (who's not actually in the distortion)

[stci]

This must be the commuter belt of Zimmingham.

Why are there holes in the trees? And why are they repeated in the cliffs on the left?

And two moons, neither of whose phases have anything to do with the position of the sun.

[imaginaryfriend]

Tough to say for sure but going by the shading and shadows I think there's at least one more big light source (sun, moon, or something else) in that last panel that isn't pictured.

Also, something may be going on with Antimony's hair... not sure if that's the darker green from the layer behind her showing through or a falling leaf, or possibly just a lock of her hair separated from the rest to show sudden movement of her head as she turns to her left to see all of this glorious... whatever around... though I think her head is/should be too big for that last option.

Aug 14, 2023 7:29:15 GMT stci said:

Why are there holes in the trees? And why are they repeated in the cliffs on the left?

My best guess at the moment is that they're an artistic representation of the disquieting nature of the inside of the distortion and they're only sometimes actually present from the perspective of the individual characters. Or, to put it another way, they're semi-metaphorical holes.

[philman]

Not sure what I expected the merged zimming-coyote-loup-ham to be, but this is definitely much prettier than I thought it would be. This probably means it is also much more dangerous though...

Aug 14, 2023 7:29:15 GMT stci said:

This must be the commuter belt of Zimmingham.

Why are there holes in the trees? And why are they repeated in the cliffs on the left?

And two moons, neither of whose phases have anything to do with the position of the sun.

And the crescent one is an "impossible" moon with a star inside the shadowed out circle where the rest of the moon should be.

[blahzor]

Aug 14, 2023 7:32:00 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Tough to say for sure but going by the shading and shadows I think there's at least one more big light source (sun, moon, or something else) in that last panel that isn't pictured.

Also, something may be going on with Antimony's hair... not sure if that's the darker green from the layer behind her showing through or a falling leaf, or possibly just a lock of her hair separated from the rest to show sudden movement of her head as she turns to her left to see all of this glorious... whatever around... though I think her head is/should be too big for that last option.

Aug 14, 2023 7:29:15 GMT stci said:

Why are there holes in the trees? And why are they repeated in the cliffs on the left?

My best guess at the moment is that they're an artistic representation of the disquieting nature of the inside of the distortion and they're only sometimes actually present from the perspective of the individual characters. Or, to put it another way, they're semi-metaphorical holes.

The sun doesn't even seem to be a light source. It's not even reflected in the water nor on the darkened Court but the moon is and giving off light. The 2nd moon is also giving off light but not as much.

[blahzor]

The holes in things represent the ants? Which in coyotes story are humans. The ones in the trees are the elfs as Coyote probably sees little different between the humaniods

[imaginaryfriend]

Aug 14, 2023 8:00:50 GMT blahzor said:

Aug 14, 2023 7:32:00 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Tough to say for sure but going by the shading and shadows I think there's at least one more big light source (sun, moon, or something else) in that last panel that isn't pictured.

The sun doesn't even seem to be a light source. It's not even reflected in the water nor on the darkened Court but the moon is and giving off light. The 2nd moon is also giving off light but not as much.

Not sure but I think that yellow thing's another moon. The white full moon probably belongs to the mesa scene, I think it's supposed to be a moon high in the sky where the yellow full moon is yellow from being nearer the horizon as part of the city-scape. There's a couple of stars visible where the dark part of the crescent moon should be blocking them out but that could be a satellite I guess.

Then there's the backlighting on the buildings/objects/landscape. The lighting below the right branch (above where it goes into the building) should be impossible unless the building's somewhat transparent.

Then there's the shadows of the people (Antimony, Renard +2 Noobmenz) in the foreground. The closer two Noobmenz shadows seem to extend to both the left and right. The closest people, Antimony and Renard, have scribble-shadow that extends a bit to the right and left but also back away from the moon cluster. I think that (the consistent left and right stuff) should indicate another light source somewhere off to the right that we can't see, maybe another moon, maybe a sun or sun-cluster). [edit]That could be a sun reflected in the waterfall which would be consistent with a light source to the right.[/edit]

It's tempting to say cityscape - Zeta, deep woods - "Loup", and mesa/plains - Coyote, but it's a bit early to jump to such a conclusion except recreationally. Some of this could be the actual Court and Wood blending in, or something else entirely.

[worldsong]

Aug 14, 2023 7:09:39 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

I sincerely hope none of you suffer from trypophobia, genteel forum-goers.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

"Oh dear, someone's going to see those holes and feel very disturbed."

[Corvo]

That's a lot of moons. You can tell they're fake because there is no fingerprint, like on the real moon.

[laaaa]

Hey, that's not bad!

[Geekette]

And now we're IN the comic.

[Per]

Aug 14, 2023 7:57:49 GMT philman said:

And the crescent one is an "impossible" moon with a star inside the shadowed out circle where the rest of the moon should be.

They had one of those in episode 1 of the Dark Gathering anime. :P

[ctso74]

Rey: "You know, if it wasn't for the disembodied lungs, walking over there, it would be a really nice place."
Annie: "When looking at them, my eyes want to laugh. How do eyes even laugh?..."

[Gemminie]

The chapter begins! When last we saw Annie and Renard, she was holding tightly onto him as the distortion expanded to engulf them. And now, they're in exactly that position, Annie's eyes tightly closed. We focus on her face, drops of sweat visible on her forehead and cheek. She opens her eyes, looking suspiciously at whatever she's going to encounter ...

And what she and Renard see is not particularly dark; it's a fantastic and impossible conglomeration of scenes. In the upper left we see a faraway coastline of either buildings or rocky outcroppings against a starry sky containing both the sun (yes, in a nighttime sky) and a full moon (yes, right next to each other); directly below it, the sea fades into a blue daytime sky over a Badlands-like landscape of reddish-brown terrain and tall mesas; in the foreground to the left is a waterfall coursing past a tall rock promontory with vegetation atop it, and in front of that there's a rocky cliff with a forest atop it. To the left of all of this, a foreground tree grows from (apparently) somewhere near Annie and Renard and up into the sky. In the middle of the frame, another of these tall trees separates the scenes to the left from a series of darkened buildings, similar to the buildings in the Court ruins with the tree and other wood or dirt fusing into them, with either bare gray rocks or possibly dark clouds mounting up in the background, with a starry sky with a crescent moon (yes, another moon) shining above them. A third tree stands toward the right of the frame. The second and third large foreground trees seem to have patterns of holes leading up their trunks in places; a similar pattern appears in the rock promontory to the left.

We don't see Annie and Renard's expressions, as they're facing away from us, looking at this bizarre combination of locations. Two New People stand in the middle distance to the right, looking away from us as well. Near them are what look like three sprouting gray potatoes on the ground, and what may be other gray sprouts or plants growing. There are three other figures even farther away; they're gray and indistinct.

This almost looks like a treatise page drawn within the story continuity, with various natural scenes to the left and the Court to the right, but more chaotic – the nature scenes are shown from at least four different perspectives. It's difficult to tell from one still frame whether any of what they're seeing is changing – are the buildings still turning into trees, or is that stable now? Are the boundaries between the nature scenarios shifting or static? Perhaps that will become clearer in the pages to come, now that we've had the initial reveal here. But who isn't here? Zimmy, Gamma, Coyote, or Loup. We don't see them anywhere. It's possible that the Coyote/Loup fight is manifesting itself in this clash of different perspectives. But things don't look dark or foreboding as they usually look in Zimmy's scenarios. Not that there isn't anything foreboding here, but it just isn't the usual kind of foreboding.

[Gemini Jim]

Seriously though, I love how the trees frame the Zimmy-Treatise perfectly into pictures.

It really adds to the "we've walked into a book/ webcomic about Gunnerkrigg" effect.

[artemis]

OH HECK, IS ZIMMY THE SEED BISMUTH???

[artemis]

My two cents on the tree holes: I think it’s supposed to be in a weird transitional stage between building and tree. That is, the holes are like building windows.

Also I’m pretty trypophobic but I feel like these holes are low-res enough that they are…tolerable. As long as I don’t stare at them too long. And continue to remind myself that the holes are just turning into building windows. If the shading was more detailed than just black spots on a tree, I might be noping out of this page. They’re kind of like a net.

Well, now I’ve thought about them for too long and the hairs on my arms are standing on end XD kill me

[pyradonis]

I'm not really sure why I was seriously hoping to come online 12 hours after the page was posted and be the first to say that this looks like Annie & Renard ended up in a treatise.

[TBeholder]

This probably means they are even deeper in than the usual Goth Town, doesn’t it…

[todd]

This page struck me as a testament to Tom's ability to surprise his readers. I was expecting something straight-out nightmarish, as we've encountered with Zimmy in the past; what we've got might be unsettling in parts, as people have pointed out, but much of it (such as the waterfall) is spectacularly beautiful.

[Gemini Jim]

We know that Coyote can definitely break the Fourth Wall. And he loves stories.

It's possible that this whole Treatise comic page thing, instead of the "normal" Zimmyverse is due to Coyote's influence. *shrug*

[gpvos]

todd: Well, you're in good company: Annie expected the same.

[gergle]

Coyote has gone after Kat, found Zimmy and mistook her for the Robot God. Resulting commotion is going to disturb Kat at whatever God-Work in which She is engaged. Unfortunately for Coyote, Kat is going to find him.

[drmemory]

Agree with all who said this is reminiscent of a treatise page. It is! But what does that mean? Those are usually somewhat symbolic - they can provide information but it requires interpretation. Also, I don't remember any of it ever being officially clarified.

A couple of random observations:

Annie is usually associated with the sun (on the left here) and Kat with the moon (on the right). The left is also nature stuff, assuming you take the ocean at face value rather than thinking about star oceans and such. The right is obviously the court, but with some additions. New People! In the distortion! Awesome!

Also some odd-looking trees. At first I was thinking they had things living in them, like the illusion wasps or whatever they were called, but the more I look at it... the trees and the buildings merge. So I suspect what we're seeing is "things made out of Kat Goo". Pretty interesting that neither part looks like the usual Zimmy city.

I'm not going to micro-analyze the rest as it's all speculation anyway, but I can't wait to see what happens next!

BTW, is that really Annie and Renard, and if so, are they the same ones we just saw being engulfed by the growing distortion?

[hp]

Aug 14, 2023 17:55:34 GMT artemis said:

My two cents on the tree holes: I think it’s supposed to be in a weird transitional stage between building and tree. That is, the holes are like building windows.

Also I’m pretty trypophobic but I feel like these holes are low-res enough that they are…tolerable. As long as I don’t stare at them too long. And continue to remind myself that the holes are just turning into building windows. If the shading was more detailed than just black spots on a tree, I might be noping out of this page. They’re kind of like a net.

Well, now I’ve thought about them for too long and the hairs on my arms are standing on end XD kill me

I was about to say the same. This page seems to be showing an unholy mess made of Woods, Court and maybe Zimmingham as a result of the run-in between Zimmy, Coyote and Loup at the Court. The holes in the trees resemble the building windows in the right, like nature and architecture mixed together.

If I recall correctly, Coyote used to say the sun and the moon were his eyes. The excess moon has probably something to do with this place being an expression of himself but also Loup and Zimmy