The Perilous Realm

[todd]

We've all noticed how Annie has changed, that she's no longer quite the solemn, seemingly emotionless girl of the early chapters. And the obvious reason for that is the influence that Kat's friendship has had on her. But I recently wondered if there was another, more subtle reason.

Annie was familiar with the etheric world from the time she spent with the Guides at Good Hope, so that the strange goings-on at Gunnerkrigg would have been no surprise to her. But also, her acquaintances in that world when she arrived were the Guides, whom she looked upon as friends - at least, until the rift (probably caused by Surma's death) grew between them. Furthermore, the Guides seem to have welcomed Annie's company, without any top-loftiness (look at Muut's response to the younger Annie walking up to him and saying "I like your face!"). Even after Annie becomes colder to the Guides, there's no trace of fear in her tone towards them.

So Annie might well have assumed that all etheric beings were like the Guides - and the first two that she met at the Court (Shadow2 and Basil) indeed were. Then she meets Reynardine, who also seems friendly at first, but then tries to possess her. For the first time, an etheric being has endangered her. Reynardine winds up stuck in her toy and under her power, which diminishes his threat to her - and Annie's next etheric encounter, with Mort, does match the tone of her meetings with Shadow2 and Basil. But after Reynardine, she meets other etheric beings who are indeed hostile towards her - such as Jeanne and Ysengrin; maybe even the possessed Robot at the bridge. (Not to mention that she isn't even able to handle them; each time, she survives not out of her resourcefulness and politeness, but because of the intervention of others.)

Has Annie realized that the etheric world is more dangerous than she thought, and something that she can't handle just by walking up to one of its denizens, holding out her hand, and introducing herself? Could much of her initial calmness in the webcomic have stemmed from her old assumptions about it, assumptions that she must realize now don't hold true? I don't know for certain if that's the case or not, but it's worth pondering.

[Babble-jargon Bill]

I think at this point Annie had definitely woken up to the fact that not all etheric beings are friendly, misunderstood people who just need a friend. For this reason she probably feels much more wary of them now more than ever, and it will take more than just appearing friendly for any etheric creature to get on Annie's good side. Maybe she'll make them pass a sort of "prove you don't want to kill, wound, maim, or possess me" test for etheric beings she hasn't already met.

As for Annie's calmness, I think she regarded etheric beings as a whole to be like the ones in Good Hope, that is, friendly and peaceful. After all, the first ones she ever met were ones that escorted people to the after life. So to Annie there was no such thing as an "evil" etheric. It must have been quite a shock to have Sivo try and kill her after sympathizing with the demon. Look at it this way: any person that has lived their life around people who are, for the most part, friendly and kind people are going to be naturally more trusting of strangers and just society in general. But someone who has spent their lives living in the streets, or jail, is, with very good reason, only ever trust one person, and that is themselves. How a person looks at others depends on how others have treated them. So naturally Annie would think all etherics are good-natured beings. She has since then become much, much smarter than that.

[Mezzaphor]

Interesting thoughts. They sort of run parallel to something that I had been considering for some time: How the lack of etherically-knowledgeable adult humans (besides Surma) at Good Hope seems to have made Annie reflexively distrustful of all "normal" authority figures. This, I think, is why she's keeping so many secrets from the Court staff.

Now, Annie's taken Kat into her confidence; that's one human friend. And she's taken slight, slight steps toward opening up to Jones (she's asking Jones questions, which is more than she's done with any other faculty), perhaps because she sees the stoic Jones as a kindred spirit.

So at the same time that Annie is learning that Ethereal beings aren't all to be trusted, she's also learning that some humans know what's going on and can be trusted.

[todd]

I wonder if Jack will provide her with another confidant - at least, once Annie has the opportunity to find out more about his etheric background.

I suddenly have the vision of Annie and Jack talking a lot about the various weird experiences in their lives, while Kat starts to get some idea as to what it was like for Annie when she and Aly were doing all that chatting about their favorite movies, bands, and games.