[2863] Halt!

[justhalf]

Seems like there is yet another ghostly person joining the scene.

[Timberwere]

Nov 15, 2023 8:01:44 GMT justhalf said:

Seems like there is yet a new ghostly person joining the scene.

I could imagine it's Muut not wanting to let Sam through to the ether.

[imaginaryfriend]

You're probably right but I'm really hoping it's an Eglamore coming out of his office to call Antimony dumb.

[edit] Comic up about 4 minutes early again, btw. [/edit]

[shadow3]

♬ IN THE NAME OF LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE ♬

♬ BEFORE YOU BREAK MA HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRT ♬

[arf]

I also thought it was the shoulder of some transparent being but, looking closer, I think it's a crack in the panel!

Is it Annie's Dad?

[gpvos]

Nov 15, 2023 8:04:49 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

[edit] Comic up about 4 minutes early again, btw. [/edit]

Not for me. It appeared sharp on the hour.

[stclair]

"Look, do you want me to do this job or not?"

[Gemini Jim]

Oh god, they broke the Fourth Wall in the final panel. Annie is looking right at you.

(as is totally not Imposter black-haired NPC - but Sam is looking in the direction of the speech bubble)


anyways, he looks more like an Elmer than a Sam. *ba-dum tss*

[jda]

Welp, I was trying to find who has said "Halt!" before, but The Index does not cite any, so I followed a half-remembered reference, and found this.

[philman]

Nov 15, 2023 9:03:21 GMT jda said:

Welp, I was trying to find who has said "Halt!" before, but The Index does not cite any, so I followed a half-remembered reference, and found this.

My first thought was doorbot and the other robot security teams too, but that doesn't necessarily chime with the image in that last panel.

Still trying to decide if that last panel is a close up of a crystalline entity, or a broken 4th wall panel

[Eily]

My guess would be that the broken panel is a psychopomp or someone from the rotd bursting into the distortion from outside.

Or Kat

[Coyoty]

Maybe there's an issue of ownership again. Sam may still be categorized as an electrical appliance. Annie can argue that his body was a container for his soul, and containers are not the same as their contents.

[Rasselas]

I don't think Sam is hers to escort over to the ether, if we remember the psychopomp dispute back in "A Ghost Story."

www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=339

[Geekette]

I'm reminded of the guard-bots from way, waaay back.... but if I had my way, this would be Boxbot. Vote YES for Psychopomp Boxbot.

[guntherkrieg]

Nov 15, 2023 9:27:32 GMT Eily said:

My guess would be that the broken panel is a psychopomp or someone from the rotd bursting into the distortion from outside.

Or Kat

I think this is the safer bet. GC dun't rilly go for 4th wall breaking. 

[hnau]

So many possibilities:

Etheric Departments

• A psychopomp
• The ROTD
• Arbiter Saslamel
• Temporal Affairs
• Some other etheric department

Root of the Distortion

• Zimmy
• Loup
• Coyote
• Ysengrin
• Lana
• A Fusion of any of the above
• Another message/messenger from Loup or Coyote

Court Institutions

• Kat "The Angel" Donlan
  
• Tony "Broken Man" Carver
• Robot Police
• Seraphs
• Robot King
• One of Diego's original robots
• The Shadow Men
• Memory Block Suit Man

Unlikely but Famous

• Eglamore
• Boxbot
• Basil
• Jones
• Jeanne's Green Guy
• An ashray or some other forest creature
• A 3rd Annie
  

4th wall

• The reader
• Tea and Tom

Probably, the speaker is none of the above.

[atteSmythe]

Nov 15, 2023 9:03:21 GMT jda said:

Welp, I was trying to find who has said "Halt!" before, but The Index does not cite any, so I followed a half-remembered reference, and found this.

[Per]

It's Mr Glass from the holodeck superhero scenario.

[madjack]

It's gonna be clippy, isn't it.

Can't be an NP or a robot, the speech bubble/tail isn't the right shape.

[ctso74]

I'm betting Clippy, but what if it's something to do with Diego?

[drmemory]

Uh oh. Cheese it, it's the Soul Police!

[Gemini Jim]

To be honest, I have doubts about my own Fourth Wall joke, but it would be awesome - if extremely weird, but this is a Distortion, after all.

Leaving aside the possibility of an actual, factual Fourth Wall break, it could be the Distortion itself "breaking"

or......

Coyote. He has that "We're all stories in the end, just make it a good one, eh?" vibe. And he's partially responsible for the Distortion in the first place....



I like the idea of an pomp/ Salami Mel arbiter dispute, though. That seems to be the most logical, but the Distortion doesn't run on logic...

[jda]

Nov 15, 2023 16:14:59 GMT drmemory said:

Uh oh. Cheese it, it's the Soul Police!

You mean...

[jda]

Nov 15, 2023 16:57:10 GMT Gemini Jim said:

Salami Mel

[TBeholder]

Who is in habit of interfering with the psychopomps, again? Right.
It looks like hnau will claim a cookie this time.

Nov 10, 2023 8:15:15 GMT hnau said:

Fortunately, there is an opening at Gunnerkrigg Court.

[Gemminie]

Annie holds the New Spirit's hand, a sign that she can not only see but also touch the spirits of the dead, and tells him that he doesn't have to worry about the CPU box anymore; Annie and the living NP will look after them. Nobody seems to be blaming Annie for the attack – which is good, because she's not really to blame for it in my opinion.

As the New People pick up the fallen CPUs and put them back into the box, Annie asks the spirit his name, and we finally learn that he's called Sam. She tells him that she can escort him into the Ether. But then, in the final frame, a mysterious and seemingly transparent figure shows up to nip that in the bud. We see what might be a shoulder of the figure in the foreground, but it's hard to say. Through them we can see Dan and Annie, looking astonished, and farther away we see the dark-haired NP, also looking in amazement, so whoever this is, she can see them too – or possibly hear them; it's conceivable that she could be looking at the empty air where a disembodied voice seems to be coming from.

Is this one of the psychopomps? Perhaps they don't think the NP should go into the Ether? Is there some sort of reason why they shouldn't? One would think that if they simply couldn't go into the Ether, there'd be no reason to object – so they can; someone just has a problem with it. Maybe the NP already have a spirit guide? Maybe this is a character from the scenario they're in, like a version of Shell or Aata from Annie's memories? We'll have to wait and see ...

[Runningflame]

Nov 15, 2023 9:03:21 GMT jda said:

Welp, I was trying to find who has said "Halt!" before, but The Index does not cite any, so I followed a half-remembered reference, and found this.

State your name and the name of your hairdresser!

[Runningflame]

I really, really hope this is the RotD.

1. They're past due for a re-appearance.
2. They're always interrupting when the psychopomps are just tryin' to do their job.
3. They weren't that impressed with Annie's prior work. This could be her chance to get it right.

(Yes, I know she did get a final record from Mort, but then she totally spaced it off again with Jeanne and her guy. You're 1 for 4 here, Carver.)

[arf]

Next page shows through cracked pane the vast form of Tom's goblin uttering strange noises.
Tea is doing the translating.

Annie: "Oh, so *that's* who that weird guy was?"

[Sky Schemer]

"Halt!" isn't really something the psychopomps say. It is more of a seraf robot thing, but the speech bubble is the wrong color for a robot. So I'm guessing ROTD.