[2891] "I just need you to think of your angel."

[imaginaryfriend]

Antimony getting the Noobs to help with the being elsewheres they want to be is an excellent development.

[silicondream]

*cue everyone drowning in their Ocean*

[philman]

So if they are now thinking of the Angel and where they first began, this will bring them to Kat, or Kat's workshop, leading whoever is actually the dark haired girl (I still think Coyote) directly to her, their target.

[blahzor]

the thought version of "LEND ME YOUR SPIRIT" by Goku speech

[TBeholder]

Hello, illusion of Kat.
Of course, this would still be a step up from this place.

[arf]

Jan 19, 2024 8:06:38 GMT silicondream said:

*cue everyone drowning in their Ocean*

Well, that is where many of them first met an angel, even though Robot said he wasn't.

He did describe himself as a guide, though.

[silicondream]

Jan 19, 2024 11:21:40 GMT TBeholder said:

Hello, illusion of Kat.

So, this Kat?

I wonder if they'll remember her with or without Paz.

[morrahadesigns]

So, I went back to the previous page again, and the Not-Zimmy was upset about having not seen anything when Sam died. And I recall that one of the reasons Coyote pulled all of this was that he wanted to know what it felt like to die.
But, since Ysengrin basically ate Coyote and then turned into Loup I am thinking that Coyote didn't really fully die, and hasn't experienced the "afterlife" or returning to the ether. So he (in the guise of not-zimmy) is pissed that he missed a chance to see what was happening.

[Gemini Jim]

So, we're just going to skip over black-haired NPC for now. Unless she decides to hijack this Distortion RPG gaming session.

I get the feeling something will go wrong, but I can't figure out what. It won't be where they expect to go, the Kat will be a fake Distortion Kat, or something.

It ought to be fun.

EDIT: The Distortion was caused by a conflict (Coyote vs. Loup, plus Zimmy), and they've had to deal with ... Zimmy spiders, Riddle Hamster (a mental test), an angry forest creature, attacking Robot, and deadly ghost Jeanne.

If it is Kat next, it will be Evil Illusion Kat.

"You're all failures, and I'm going to dismantle the lot of you with my Angel powers."


*two minutes later*


Clippy: "Aw cripes, just pick a robo-pomp already."

[TBeholder]

Jan 19, 2024 10:25:07 GMT philman said:

So if they are now thinking of the Angel and where they first began, this will bring them to Kat, or Kat's workshop, leading whoever is actually the dark haired girl (I still think Coyote) directly to her, their target.

The dark-haired girl most likely is just a kid pouting she missed all the interesting stuff.
Coyote fragment might be lurking, however. But most likely the NP (with Coyote or not) will jump to an illusion of Kat now, and the attack (if any) will be aimed at a decoy.
Also, this particular moment offers an unique window of possibility. Annie lets the NP lead. They all have strong beliefs about Kat. But right now Annie is the only mortal with very recent and very exclusive knowledge of what Kat is doing and what she is going to have around. So she does it in a way that could maximize probability of hitting an illusion, while keeping up her sleeve a good solution for immediately confirming what goes on.
(edit: clarity)

[Gemminie]

After the black-haired mystery New Person seems miffed that she didn't get to see the Angel, she doesn't appear on this page at all – the other NP look down sadly at Sam, and at least one has difficulty accepting that he's really dead. One plans to carry his body back to the Angel, but another wonders how they even get there.

But Annie made mention previously of having an idea about how to get to Kat. Here she explains it. She urges the NP to think about their Angel and a very important memory they all have – the moment they awoke in their new bodies. Two of them in particular start doing just that, one of them calling that moment "the beginning of our lives," as if they didn't have lives before that, or perhaps weren't technically "alive" before then. And there are some blurry blue, black, and gray colors as the page ends, suggesting that they're transitioning to a new place.

But will it be the place Annie and the NP want to go to? We'll find out. But Annie has already seen that it's possible to see places that are not as they are today – even deadly threats like Jeanne that no longer exist can be recreated and can be quite deadly even now. Will they all go to a version of Kat's lab where they're all just being reborn? Will they see their own rebirths? Will they experience their own rebirths? More importantly, will there be a Kat there who isn't the real Kat but a recreation of an earlier Kat who doesn't remember what just happened? The plot development is the only thing that I can be sure is real at this point. I'm pretty sure that Annie and Renard are real; I'm pretty sure that the Arbiter and Interpreter were real, and I'm pretty sure that the Kat who appeared was real – she didn't use any of her new black-eyed techno powers, but that could well be because the distortion's cutting her off from her computer and there were no technological devices around (or at least no non-frozen ones). Considering their prolific multiplication during the journey, I'm not sure that all the NP are real, but I think Sam was at least, and the others Annie started with. The mystery dark-haired one is probably real, but also probably an impostor of some sort.

And that's our status report. We'll find out Monday where they end up, I'm assuming.

[Runningflame]

Jan 19, 2024 12:38:28 GMT silicondream said:

Jan 19, 2024 11:21:40 GMT TBeholder said:

Hello, illusion of Kat.

So, this Kat?

I wonder if they'll remember her with or without Paz.

Ha! Here I thought you were going to link to this Kat.

[silicondream]

Jan 19, 2024 21:57:29 GMT Runningflame said:

Jan 19, 2024 12:38:28 GMT silicondream said:

So, this Kat?

I wonder if they'll remember her with or without Paz.

Ha! Here I thought you were going to link to this Kat.

I don't think they see her that way normally. That little weatherbot commented on tears spilling from her eyes, so they must at least perceive her as a human! But who knows whether they register her machine form subconsciously.

[blahzor]

Jan 20, 2024 5:01:05 GMT silicondream said:

Jan 19, 2024 21:57:29 GMT Runningflame said:

Ha! Here I thought you were going to link to this Kat.

I don't think they see her that way normally. That little weatherbot commented on tears spilling from her eyes, so they must at least perceive her as a human! But who knows whether they register her machine form subconsciously.

They have to see some of her mecha form to me because they accept it so easily. It's probably a ghost image around her all the time from at least the tomb was found and at latest the code reading

[jasmijn]

Hm have we heard Annie use phrasing like "your angel" for Kat before?

[TBeholder]

Jan 20, 2024 15:26:02 GMT jasmijn said:

Hm have we heard Annie use phrasing like "your angel" for Kat before?

I don’t think so.
Which is one more reason to suspect Annie is up to some deviltry again and wants the next stop to be illusionary Kat. I mean, it took turn into the opposite direction from “now remember Kat as you have seen her back when…”. She is encouraging them to let their wishful thinking and myth building sides run rampart, not keep at least one foot firmly planted on the ground.

[silicondream]

Jan 20, 2024 19:42:14 GMT TBeholder said:

Jan 20, 2024 15:26:02 GMT jasmijn said:

Hm have we heard Annie use phrasing like "your angel" for Kat before?

I don’t think so.
Which is one more reason to suspect Annie is up to some deviltry again and wants the next stop to be illusionary Kat. I mean, it took turn into the opposite direction from “now remember Kat as you have seen her back when…”. She is encouraging them to let their wishful thinking and myth building sides run rampart, not keep at least one foot firmly planted on the ground.

I mean, she's probably just looking for a safe spot to stash them so she can go off and deal with the Coyote/Loup/Zimmy craziness.  If they're trapped in the distortion until it's over, they may as well shelter in a reconstructed memory of the time and place in which they felt most loved and secure.

(That's actually a basic skill you learn in trauma therapy, so it's kind of cool to see Annie teaching an etheric version here.)

So I think mentioning "your angel" is less about encouraging them to fantasize and more about acknowledging that that's what Kat is to them.  If they're going to protect themselves with strong positive emotions about her and memories of her, they're going to be doing it through that lens.

[Hatredman]

Jan 19, 2024 17:17:07 GMT TBeholder said:

The dark-haired girl most likely is just a kid pouting she missed all the interesting stuff.

To evaluate that, we need to determine if Tom is a beliver of Checkhov's Gun, or if he opposes it.

If he is "pro-gun", the non-Zimmi-non-Coyote dark hair girl *must* be somewhat important (even if she is not Coyote or Zimmy or Lana).

If he is "anti-Checkhov", then the girl is just a decoy to distract us.

But definetly, after her pissed-off panel, she is not just part of the background. She is not a flat character, she is important somehow.

[pyradonis]

Jan 20, 2024 15:26:02 GMT jasmijn said:

Hm have we heard Annie use phrasing like "your angel" for Kat before?

"Make sure they understand... their angel is in trouble!"