[516]Why don't we go talk in the office?

[edzepp]

I wouldn't leave that lying around, Annie.

Not with that guy alone in the room.

[Refugee]

I think she left it deliberately, like a little security camera.

More, I think Rey has accepted her as his Mistress. He would die for her.

[sebastian]

Jan 30, 2009 8:09:28 GMT Refugee said:

I think she left it deliberately, like a little security camera.

More, I think Rey has accepted her as his Mistress. He would die for her.

If you can't lose a blinker stone then probably it can't be stolen either. It (probably) works only with its legittimate owner, i,e someone that bought it, had it as a gift (like Annie) or found it when it have no previous owner.

I agree on the security camera idea, BTW.

[eightyfour]

"Go talk in the office", because there Reynardine won't be able to listen in, or just because it's a more comfortable space to have a chat, with chairs and such?

But c'mon Anja, you really didn't see this coming? Naturally, Annie was going to ask questions like this, sooner or later.

[tetsamaru]

Ya i doubt it can be stolen. Only if the owner actually gives it to someone of their freewill.

Time for the "Talk"!!!!

[fjodor]

Sheesh... talking about a cliffhanger page. But Monday will begin with the promise of important answers! (or another cliffhanger.)

[mudmaniac]

Its times like these i wish i had the willpower to stay away from the site until an entire issue is done. then read it at one go.

[penguinfactory]

I smell information coing up!

Can't wait until monday.

[Trism]

Do you think the stone works backwards?

Also: whats this?! Blatent answers!?

[todd]

I think it does make sense that Anja would start giving Annie some real answers - indeed, I think that she and the rest of the faculty (or those members of it familiar with Annie) might see it as the wisest course to take.

Most of the children enrolled at Gunnerkrigg aren't (so far as we can tell) poking and prying into the Court's true nature. Occasional excursions (like sneaking out at night to watch the power station experiments - but more because it looks exciting than to figure out why they're doing it), yes, but that seems about it. And it's not so surprising; they probably find it exciting enough to be at a school with such activities as Dr. Disaster's classes that they simply enjoy it, and let it go at that.

But Annie's childhood was different from that of her classmates, producing a different result. As a precocious girl raised by etheric beings, she suspects that there's something more going on, and is determined to find out what. (The only other student at Gunnerkrigg with such an unchildlike childhood is Zimmy, and she's too focused on her own problems and her link with Gamma to care about what goes on at the Court unless it affects her directly, like the power station experiments.) And the faculty now know that Annie's engaged in some meddling (Reynardine, and the incident at the bridge). They also know how dangerous the results of that can be.

So it's likely that they see the best way of counteracting that (a situation that they probably never had to deal with before, since the circumstances that produced someone like Antimony would be rare) would be to start bringing her in - maybe hoping that she'll have less reason to go prying and meddling that way. That could be one of the big reasons for the medium and blinker stone lessons, indeed (note that Annie got the offer for both of them in Chapter Fourteen - when it became apparent that her actions at the bridge had stirred up the forest-folk).

[Mezzaphor]

Seeing as Anja feels the need to go someplace more private before answering Annie's questions, I wonder if this means that the answers are of a particularly sensitive or dangerous nature.

[todd]

Probably, particularly since they don't bring Reynardine along with him (and I can't say that I blame them; even though we know now that he's more than a body-snatching demon, I still wouldn't trust him that much - even less when he was willing to possess the daughter of the very woman whom he'd fallen in love with, knowing at the time that she was Surma's daughter).

[ding]

"..."

Nice contribution, Reyardine...

[cenit]

I wonder... was Anja looking at Rey when she asked about the pendant and all... almost give me the impression if Anja was wondering that Rey hasn't share some information

... or the other way around, Rey has been all awkward cause he believes that Coyote might have said something about his past (and his crush on Surma), and now Anja comes and she's going to shed some light in the whole Rey past...

this is about to get real interesting

[Chrome]

Ya know, I hadn't plugged something together till now.

What if this eye-pendant "group" Anja belongs to is why she and Donald are able to do those binding and other spells? Notice that had the eye symbol on the blindfold over Rey?

That wouldn't make them magicians, but rather users of some specific...thing or energy. Which would make things a lot more complicated, and probably confuse poor Kat even more than Annie. It'd explain why she wants to talk to Annie alone (and also without Reyn around, the gods forbid he find out ways around their methods?).

[snes]

I still don't get why Annie feels this is something that must be addressed. Or why Anja is so hesitant to come right out and say that she can use magic.

[Max]

Robot's never gonna get a new body at this rate

I think that were are going to get some major story development here. Previously, Tom posted a treatise every 7 chapters, and they always occurred after something big (Annie falling in the river, the visit from Coyote and Ysengrin). Now we are on chapter 21, so if this pattern holds true...

[Mezzaphor]

Jan 30, 2009 17:46:17 GMT Max said:

I think that were are going to get some major story development here. Previously, Tom posted a treatise every 7 chapters, and they always occurred after something big (Annie falling in the river, the visit from Coyote and Ysengrin). Now we are on chapter 21, so if this pattern holds true...

Tom says that the treatise pages only come at the end of the books. (Before Tom had his deal with Archaea, he published the first 7 chapters of GC as a paperback through Lulu.com, hence the Treatise after ch7.) So ch21 will get a Treatise page if Tom decides to make this the last chapter of Gunnerkrigg Court: Volume II.

[todd]

Jan 30, 2009 15:58:06 GMT snes said:

I still don't get why Annie feels this is something that must be addressed. Or why Anja is so hesitant to come right out and say that she can use magic.

Annie seems bent on finding out just what's going on at the Court, and has been for some time. I don't find anything surprising about her question.

[Babble-jargon Bill]

My god, we are finally gonna learn what exactly allows the Donlan's to do those spells, for lack of a better term. And for that matter, wasn't that first shown all the way back in chapter 7?! Honestly I can't complain since I only first read the story a month ago, but I still am absolutely getting immolated by my anticipation for more knowledge into the GC world.

[tdellaringa]

Wow. I just read the whole archive today, start to finish. What a great story, great art and characters. This one is at the top of my list. Really looking forward to seeing what's next - especially with this meeting.

Great comic, Tom.

[motbob]

Isn't she doing that to let Reynardine listen in to the conversation? It's either that or Reynardine will use the stone to listen in without her permission. There's no other reason for him to be in the scene.

[todd]

Feb 1, 2009 8:12:56 GMT motbob said:

Isn't she doing that to let Reynardine listen in to the conversation? It's either that or Reynardine will use the stone to listen in without her permission. There's no other reason for him to be in the scene.

It's already been made clear that the "listening in" capacities of the blinker stone work for its owner when the owner is somewhere other than the stone - so Annie could use it to see what's going on in the room where she left it, but nobody in the room could use it to eavesdrop on Annie. Besides, Annie doesn't trust Reynardine enough to let him listen in - especially not after what she learned from Coyote.

There are other reasons why Reynardine might be present in this chapter - to show that he regularly accompanies Annie and Kat to the workshop as a bodyguard (as in Chapter Eighteen), to show how Annie's more uneasy about him after her talk with Coyote, to show that he also notices Anja's amulet (and would recognize the symbol because it was painted on the walls of his prison) - or something else that we don't know yet (remember, we're still in the early stages of the chapter; who knows what might happen?).

[fjodor]

Anja said the stone functions as a lens, and normally a lens works both ways. But if Annie wanted to let Rey listen in, she would have taken the stone eith her. Maybe she wants to make sure that Rey cannot use the stone to eavesdrop?

[Dominic]

I think she's curious as to what Reynardine will do. OTOH, Rey's not stupid - he should be fully aware of the peephole.