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Post by bedinsis on Dec 11, 2023 8:00:58 GMT
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Post by itrogash on Dec 11, 2023 8:12:25 GMT
He seems admirably unperturbed for someone who just died.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 11, 2023 8:14:25 GMT
And here I thought Skippy and Saslamel fobbed their problems off onto another arm of the etheric bureaucracy. Looks like they actually stuck Kat with the bill. That's why you should always read the TOS in adhesion contracts. Another god probably wouldn't have fallen for it.
By The Way I don't think this makes Kat a psychopomp, just responsible for retaining the services of one. In this case, a redheaded one. I do wonder what would happen if Antimony were indisposed, though. I don't think Kat can do it herself so she'd have to hire someone else who'd probably ask for compensation... but what would that compensation consist of?
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Post by hnau on Dec 11, 2023 8:15:33 GMT
"... to the spirits ..."
Plural?
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Post by Gemini Jim on Dec 11, 2023 8:17:36 GMT
I had to re-read Clippy's first line, because I initially thought that "spirits" meant that Saitama had more than one, and that made no sense.
But I'm assuming/ hoping that it means all of the NPC spirits, of which Saitama has one.
I never really trusted the little snot, but surprisingly Clippy doesn't seem to be saying anything too unusual or suspicious here. It's almost too straight-forward. "You created life, he died, you pomp him" There's got to be another shoe to drop here somewhere.
EDIT: The other shoe being, "what do you mean dead? he's not dead". or maybe "I don't know how to pomp him, Annie you do it, you've done this before"
Also, nice that Lana gets a shout-out, even if Annie isn't quite sure what happened with her. When all of this is finished, Annie ought to talk with the trickster about his latest trick.
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Post by madjack on Dec 11, 2023 8:20:56 GMT
Well Annie can either walk her through the process here or perhaps Kat can/will delegate that job to her?
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Post by basser on Dec 11, 2023 8:40:25 GMT
Low-key want Kat to be like "nah fam" and just toss that dude in a new body. What's J.D. Wall here gonna do about it? You really about to watch some kid bust the fabric of reality itself just tryna get in the room with you and act like you've got any way to enforce a contract?
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Post by stclair on Dec 11, 2023 8:48:04 GMT
all this is most irregular.  |
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Post by worldsong on Dec 11, 2023 9:30:20 GMT
I imagine that Kat can employ Annie for the task of guiding the dead New People into the Ether. She's got the qualifications for it.
As for putting the soul into a new body... I imagine that it would be against the rules and while someone like Coyote can break the rules it's probably a bad idea to imitate him.
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Post by gpvos on Dec 11, 2023 9:30:38 GMT
So the gods basically outsource some of their responsibilities to the psychopomps, for compensation. And so Kat is supposed to compensate Annie for her work, and possibly give her some powers such as multiple presence and controlling her visibility to others?
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Post by blahzor on Dec 11, 2023 9:52:06 GMT
Lana eaten
But not stirred
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Post by blahzor on Dec 11, 2023 9:52:51 GMT
He seems admirably unperturbed for someone who just died. You may stab him, but you can never stab his spirit |
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Post by blahzor on Dec 11, 2023 9:53:49 GMT
And here I thought Skippy and Saslamel fobbed their problems off onto another arm of the etheric bureaucracy. Looks like they actually stuck Kat with the bill. That's why you should always read the TOS in adhesion contracts. Another god probably wouldn't have fallen for it. By The Way I don't think this makes Kat a psychopomp, just responsible for retaining the services of one. In this case, a redheaded one. I do wonder what would happen if Antimony were indisposed, though. I don't think Kat can do it herself so she'd have to hire someone else who'd probably ask for compensation... but what would that compensation consist of? Gilmore girl DVD box sets |
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Post by Isildur on Dec 11, 2023 10:10:05 GMT
Sam: "'Buddy'? Well, there goes my hope at least *she* knew my name. And I put so much thought into it, too."
(His name was Sam Paulson. His name was Sam Paulson...)
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Post by silicondream on Dec 11, 2023 11:45:31 GMT
I imagine that Kat can employ Annie for the task of guiding the dead New People into the Ether. She's got the qualifications for it. As for putting the soul into a new body... I imagine that it would be against the rules and while someone like Coyote can break the rules it's probably a bad idea to imitate him. Yeah, especially if potential punishments could land on the New People as well. Kat may not much care if she's threatened with jail, but what if voiding the contract cuts all the NPs loose from their bodies or something? OTOH, Kat's a lot more likely than the average guide to ask Sam where he wants to go, and I doubt she'd toss him into the Ether against his will. Might be time to quickly negotiate a visa program with the ROTD.... |
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Post by Gemminie on Dec 11, 2023 14:58:15 GMT
Now that Kat's here, the Interpreter (presumably speaking on behalf of Saslamel) tells her why she has to be here: the contract she signed makes her responsible for conveying the New People's spirits into the Ether when they die. It is, of course, a surprise to Kat that another one of the New People has died. She's very sad, but this confirms that she's able to see Sam's spirit. She asks him what happened, and he thinks he was killed by a ghost. (Technically he was killed by a distortion-created replica of a ghost, so does that count as a ghost?)
Kat then realizes that if Sam's the first, that could mean that Lana's still alive, and she turns to Annie, but Annie doesn't really know either. If Lana's alive, nobody present knows where she is.
So does this mean that Kat will play psychopomp for Sam? Will she have to do this for all New People who die, whether it's sooner or later? Or will something else happen? Will the 'pomps show up and press Annie into service?
And meanwhile, that's several times that Lana's continued survival has been teased now. If she's around, she's probably with Coyote right in the middle of the distortion, which means that she could be affecting things too. This adds another possibility to the list for the NP with the long black hair. She could be Lana, bits of Lana combined with bits of Zimmy, or various other combinations that now involve Lana.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 11, 2023 15:00:54 GMT
And here I thought Skippy and Saslamel fobbed their problems off onto another arm of the etheric bureaucracy. Looks like they actually stuck Kat with the bill. That's why you should always read the TOS in adhesion contracts. Another god probably wouldn't have fallen for it. By The Way I don't think this makes Kat a psychopomp, just responsible for retaining the services of one. In this case, a redheaded one. I do wonder what would happen if Antimony were indisposed, though. I don't think Kat can do it herself so she'd have to hire someone else who'd probably ask for compensation... but what would that compensation consist of? Gilmore girl DVD box sets |
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Post by pyradonis on Dec 11, 2023 15:26:16 GMT
So the gods basically outsource some of their responsibilities to the psychopomps, for compensation. And so Kat is supposed to compensate Annie for her work, and possibly give her some powers such as multiple presence and controlling her visibility to others? So far nobody said anything about compensation... |
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Post by hnau on Dec 11, 2023 15:39:05 GMT
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Post by ctso74 on Dec 11, 2023 17:27:23 GMT
Kat, solemnly: "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb"
The "b" is for Buddy.
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Post by gpvos on Dec 11, 2023 17:44:03 GMT
So far nobody said anything about compensation... True, but it has been clearly implied that the 'pomps are getting something out of it. I'm assuming there is more at play than mere compulsion. |
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Post by Nnelg on Dec 11, 2023 19:08:29 GMT
the contract she signed makes her responsible for conveying the New People's spirits into the Ether when they die. What contract are we talking about, here? I don't recall Kat signing any contracts sith supernatural entities. Am I just forgetting something important, or is the Arbiter assuming some sort of "you brought them into this world, so you're obliged to take them out of it" situation, here? If it's the latter case, or if Kat made some agreement that didn't explicitly cover psychopomp duties, I'd like to see her flat-out ask what happens if she refuses to take his soul away. Wouldn't that mean he can't die? Particularly if nothing is physically wrong with his body, perhaps Kat can just shove his soul back into it. And if that's the case... Could that make all the New People immortal? Because the first to die must be taken by Kat, she can continually refuse to take their souls and instead repair whatever damage happens to their bodies, before "rebooting" them. ...Exactly like she did with the Golems. Huh. EDIT:I found where the contract was, the chapter titled "New Contract". Kat clicked "Accept" to all the terms and conditions without reading them, which IRL would make her legal ability to accept the contract a bit dubious, but that doesn't really matter since the Arbiter still has the threat of force to use if she doesn't comply. Although... I do wonder if perhaps Kat has grown powerful enough that she could fight back against whatever etheric juju the Arbiter can muster against her. After all, Deigo's arrow managed to break his system, and Kat still has that somewhere in her computer, which is now wired directly into her brain. |
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Post by blazingstar on Dec 11, 2023 20:23:34 GMT
So far nobody said anything about compensation... True, but it has been clearly implied that the 'pomps are getting something out of it. I'm assuming there is more at play than mere compulsion. I don't think that implication has been so clear. It's a pretty big assumption to say they're all doing a job because they personally get something out of it. Those of us who were raised in a transactional culture might presume such, but not all cultures think that way. Maybe psychopomps are driven by a sense of duty, a collective responsibility in helping the world to keep spinning. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 11, 2023 20:35:15 GMT
Haven't extensively thought about this from a legal perspective but I'll throw some thoughts up here, and revise my positions later if I change my mind... Kat clicked "Accept" to all the terms and conditions without reading them, which IRL would make her legal ability to accept the contract a bit dubious, but that doesn't really matter since the Arbiter still has the threat of force to use if she doesn't comply. An adhesion contract (aka "standard form" contract) is generally treated the same as any other contract. There are a number of defenses Kat could raise but I think they're weak. imho the strongest are fraud, impossibility, capacity, and unconscionable terms. We haven't seen any evidence that Saslamel or Skippy misrepresented themselves or the agreement. That doesn't necessarily mean it didn't happen. Maybe it's the case that they fudged the truth a little when describing the situation to everyone. For example, Kat arguably received compensation in the form of a plea deal with Saslamel but if it isn't the case that he could, as he represented, rightfully imprison her for using the arrow to break contracts then she could raise fraud as a defense... but that probably isn't the case. Now, Kat could argue that she's not a god and doesn't have the ability to safekeep souls and that'd be an interesting point of fact to hear arguments on. She had the ability to make a new type of people, though, and I think that sinks her case. A smart lawyer could attack that by having Kat say that no, she really didn't, she just put the finishing touches on a project that started hundreds of years ago, et cetera, but I think the rebuttal is that she in fact does have sufficient knowledge and ability (with her system) to figure it out. One thing that's probably inarguable is that Kat is underage. Minors have a lot of protection in most systems of law, in some places limiting the types of contracts they can make... but I don't think the etheric bureaucracy gives a crap (see Ally v. Bird et al) about the number. She's old enough to understand. A non est factum defense is not appropriate because Kat had capacity, familiarity with other adhesion contracts, and knew she was agreeing to stuff (even though she didn't read it) and clicked accept anyway, and received compensation in form of her plea deal. Ignorance of the implications of what she was agreeing to also isn't an excuse. Lastly, the terms of the contract as I infer them are probably pretty standard for the GCU. Soul-reaping agreements may even be older than the general contracts of ownership of other stuff since animals died long before private property was a thing. There's lots of 'pomps and gods doing a lot of reaping so it's very commonplace. Since 'pomps fight over souls/lives it may not even be seen as damaging to Kat and/or whoever she has 'pompin' for her. It may be the case that 'pompin' ain't easy but that isn't enough to get Kat out of responsibility for it, methinks. |
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Post by silicondream on Dec 11, 2023 21:21:08 GMT
So the gods basically outsource some of their responsibilities to the psychopomps, for compensation. And so Kat is supposed to compensate Annie for her work, and possibly give her some powers such as multiple presence and controlling her visibility to others? So far nobody said anything about compensation... Doesn't seem like Surma got compensation or special powers either. |
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Post by grahamf on Dec 12, 2023 1:21:44 GMT
Kat, solemnly: "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb" The "b" is for Buddy. Shouldn't it be "dd if=/dev/sdb/* of=/dev/null"? Also this seems to imply that Lana is either not dead or something different. |
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Post by blahzor on Dec 12, 2023 2:46:46 GMT
So far nobody said anything about compensation... Doesn't seem like Surma got compensation or special powers either. She got to meet Tony |
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Post by arf on Dec 12, 2023 5:50:36 GMT
At least Kat has the RotD part sorted.
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Post by pyradonis on Dec 12, 2023 8:31:57 GMT
True, but it has been clearly implied that the 'pomps are getting something out of it. I'm assuming there is more at play than mere compulsion. I don't think that implication has been so clear. It's a pretty big assumption to say they're all doing a job because they personally get something out of it. Those of us who were raised in a transactional culture might presume such, but not all cultures think that way. Maybe psychopomps are driven by a sense of duty, a collective responsibility in helping the world to keep spinning. Coyote also implied this when he explained "this is their important work", and yet, if their sense of duty to keep the world spinning was the only thing driving them, then why do Guides come into conflict about who gets to escort a soul into the Ether instead of just being content that someone does it? I thought about if maybe they are required to escort a minimum number of souls per time period, but that also doesn't fit with Ankou complaining about not getting to take Mort's soul during the "busy times" of a world war. So while I also believe they do feel a sense of responsibility, there must be more at play. |
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Post by arkadi on Dec 12, 2023 10:03:41 GMT
"We're still figuring things out."
Aren't we all, Annie, aren't we all...
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