[2853] "Did you notice?"

[imaginaryfriend]

That girl with the black hair seems to be getting an awful lot of screen time. Might be Zeta. Or a Zeta.

Comic up early again, was showing for me at 2:57est

[Corvo]

First one to see the spider, first one to see the light, first one to see the wolf, first one to see the bridge. Well played, Tom. Well played.

[blahzor]

You a real one black hair girl

[blahzor]

Oct 23, 2023 8:22:46 GMT Corvo said:

First one to see the spider, first one to see the light, first one to see the wolf, first one to see the bridge. Well played, Tom. Well played.

How does Tom keep knowing the story before us! He must get the info from Tea

[arf]

New Zimgirl first appears in last panel of page 13, with one of the other NP looking a bit surprised to see her.

... expression-wise, she also looks a bit like Lana.

[arf]

...also the first one to see the praiyote dog.

[louisxiv]

Oct 23, 2023 10:58:39 GMT arf said:

New Zimgirl first appears in last panel of page 13, with one of the other NP looking a bit surprised to see her.

... expression-wise, she also looks a bit like Lana.

I don't think the NewPerson in 2834 is the maybe-Zimmy. They have darkish blue-gray hair rather than the strong black of the maybe Zimmy character who first appears from 2836. NP Blue-Gray hair also turns up in 2845, 2846, 2852, at the same time as Black Hair.

[ctso74]

So, do all NPs have a purplish auras, or is that a red flag?

[yellowb]

Oct 23, 2023 10:58:39 GMT arf said:

New Zimgirl first appears in last panel of page 13, with one of the other NP looking a bit surprised to see her.

... expression-wise, she also looks a bit like Lana.

There's no black-haired girl on that page.

[Gemminie]

After following the New People onto what appears to be a recreation of the old bridge between the Forest and Court across the Annan Waters, Annie and Renard converse via the Ether. They realize that the NP with the long black hair, the one who found the way out of the dark monster-infested cityscape into the Coyote desertscape and also just found this bridge, looks a little like Zimmy. She's pictured in the center of the page, which is frameless, with a purple aura around her similar to what Annie saw earlier in the chapter when looking at the NP in the Ether. No bismuth crystal heart, however. It doesn't seem as if Annie and Renard are concluding that she actually is Zimmy, but they do agree to see where she takes them.

Now, after the black-haired NP (I'm going to call her Brenda for this post because "the New Person with long black hair" is getting long) found the way to the Coyote desertscape, Annie called Kat and learned that they hadn't actually moved physically. It could be that Annie moved them physically but then Brenda moved them back, I suppose, but there's no evidence supporting that. Brenda did move them from one distortion region to another, though, and has done so twice. Annie has also done so twice, I suppose: once to the dark cityscape and once to the Forest region. If Annie's concerned about moving physically, she should be checking with Kat more often. Is she going to check with Kat once they cross the bridge and find that they haven't moved, concluding that nothing they're doing is working, when in fact she's only been checking after the group follows Brenda?

I also question how much of Brenda is Zimmy. She still has the purple aura in the Ether, and as soon as we start questioning whether Annie's experience in the Ether is real we start questioning whether anything she experiences is real and therefore whether anything we see or anything anyone says in this chapter is real – she's also seeing Renard in the Ether and communicating with him, so is none of that real, then? Brenda might be a Zimmy or even Coyote creation, but she might also just be a NP who's being influenced by Zimmy, or even by Coyote. There have been various NP in the background since Annie, Renard, Kat, Lana, and Jerrek went to the ruins, and although we didn't see one who looked exactly like Brenda until after the distortion hit, there are others we've been seeing repeatedly who hadn't been seen before then either. So there's no real proof that I can see that she's a new creation, or that she isn't.

So I guess we'll see where she takes them, just as Annie and Renard are doing.

[kalechibki]

Oct 23, 2023 13:48:53 GMT ctso74 said:

So, do all NPs have a purplish auras, or is that a red flag?

Looks like they all do - but when Annie and Ren first see them, it's their heart that is distinguishable As seen in comic 2825. ZimGirl looks like someone who is trying to blend in but doesn't fully grasp the full effect of the ether in their lives.

Looks to me like she first shows up in comic 2836.

The aforementioned spider

Getting out of the city - the light

The erstwhile Prayoite Dog

The Alien Landscape

The heretofore mentioned wolf

And of course, the bridge.

In going through the exercise, I will also note that it's now really obvious that she didn't see the elves, the moss ogre or the fire elemental first. While it may have felt forced for her to see all of this first, the absence feels notable at this point.

[Gemminie]

After some looking back by arf, louisxiv, and yellowb, I'm going to do my usual OCD thing and take an inventory of the NP in this chapter.

Page 2823 introduces the dark-skinned NP with semi-flat-top hair (calling him Alvin, going alphabetically) and the light-skinned NP with shoulder-length light brown hair (Becky – not Becky Ground, NP Becky).
Page 2825 features Alvin and Becky again, and we see what they look like from Annie's Ether perspective.
Page 2826 has Alvin and Becky again.
Page 2827 has Alvin and Becky again, and introduces one with light skin and reddish brown hair in a ponytail (Christine) and another light-skinned one who is bald (Dan).
Page 2828 shows Alvin, Becky, Christine, and Dan.
Page 2829 also shows those four.
Page 2830 seems to show Alvin, Becky, and Dan, though they're drawn kind of small.
Page 2831 shows a sad Alvin and Becky.
Page 2833 shows Alvin and Dan in the background.
Page 2834 shows Alvin, Becky, and Dan, but no Christine, and it introduces a light-skinned one with dark brown hair in a bun or high ponytail (Emma) and one with long blue-gray hair (Faye). There's another one behind Alvin's dialogue balloon, but I can't see much of them, and there are several silhouetted ones.
Page 2835 shows Dan, and several others in the distance as near-silhouettes, and a couple of others seen from behind so it's hard to tell.
Page 2836 shows Alvin, Becky, Dan, the first unambiguous appearance of the light-skinned one with long black hair (I called her Brenda in another post, but if I'm going alphabetically I'd better call her Gina), and a light-skinned one with spiky dark brown hair (Harold).
Page 2837 shows Alvin, Dan, Gina (notices the spider thing first), and probably Harold.
Page 2838 has an aerial perspective from behind that makes the NP difficult to distinguish, but I think I see Becky, Dan, and maybe Harold there.
Page 2839 shows Alvin, Becky, Dan, and Gina (spots the light first) and others difficult to distinguish.
Page 2840 shows Alvin, Becky, Dan, Gina, possibly Harold, and others as distant silhouettes. One with a ponytail might be Emma or Christine.
Page 2841 shows Alvin, Becky, Christine, and Gina (spots the Coyote groundhog first). There's a light-skinned one with short dark brown hair, mostly seen from behind (Ian).
Page 2842 shows Alvin and Gina; others are silhouettes.
Page 2844 shows Gina; others' legs and feet are seen.
Page 2845 shows Alvin, Becky, Dan, Faye, Gina (spots Ysengrin first), maybe Harold, maybe Ian, and maybe a new one but it's hard to tell.
Page 2846 shows Alvin, maybe Becky, Dan, maybe Faye, Gina, and Ian.
Page 2847 shows probably Becky and Dan.
Page 2848 shows Alvin.
Page 2851 shows Gina (first to discover the bridge).
Page 2852 shows Alvin, Becky, maybe Christine, Dan, Faye, Gina, and maybe Harold.
Page 2853 shows Gina (Ether-enhanced).

Gina's been doing a lot of prominent things. All those things that she spots first, before anyone else ... is she seeing them, or is she causing them to appear?

[pyradonis]

Huh, and here I was just starting to ask myself why this no-name NP did get so much screentime.

[csj]

And then, Zimmy remembered that she was also Coyote

[Gemini Jim]

It won't be black-haired girl. Or if she is somebody important, she will be Gamma.

Especially if Annie accuses her of being a ZimBot, she will definitely not be Zimmy.

("Black-Haired Girl was not an Imposter. There is still one ZimBot left.")


If Zimmy is one of the NPCs, she'll be one of the ones who hasn't said much, or one that we haven't paid attention to, with the possible excuse that she wanted to stay hidden from Coyote. Like bald guy, or the blue-gray haired girl.

Hopefully Tom won't pull the old unfair mystery novel trick of introducing a character who wasn't there in any previous panel.

[drmemory]

Very interesting that a Zimmy version of an NP looks right in the ether! Don't think we ever saw Annie look into the ether before this storyline.

I'm sure someone will promptly correct me if that's not true.

[guntherkrieg]

The fact that the characters are speculating in-universe means there's a twist coming.