Set Adrift 2013-07-01

[shadowinthelight]

Thought: Lily was the only one of the six women in the desert who became a vampire because they died one by one until she was the last one left. Her memory kept the others from turning but there was no one left to remember her.

[MerchManDan]

Ooooh, good thinking, shadow!

Another thing. Why did Brandi wait 885 years "for things to clear up?" The cataclysm she predicted never occurred. There was nothing to clear up.

You mean this cataclysm?

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/kikai-caldera/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/there-were-earthquakes/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/my-location/

Finally culminating here:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/sweet-dreams/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/a-mortal-descendant/

[TheSkulker]

Re Atsali's display of eye-glyphs... we've seen that she's an excellent student and a quick study, and now we've seen she's an amazing pupil as well!

Or rather, HAS amazing pupils... LOL

Well, that's what I was aiming at.

Actually, as you are one of the major contributors to the pun jar, I find that extremely hard to believe.

"She's" is actually a valid contraction for "she has" in some American colloquial dialects - it's less common than using it for "she is" but you do still hear it used that way occasionally. I think it's more common in old New England styles than elsewhere but I could be wrong about that. "She's got great hair" or "He's a new job" and so forth.

I guess I have never given it much thought but, as one who grew up in upstate NY, to me it quite naturally takes on whichever meaning fits: "He's fast", "He's got great legs", "It's salty", "It's gotten sour", "She's late", "She's got to hurry", etc. Unless you mean to say that the apostrophe is short for "has" without including the "got" - such as: "He's great legs". Now, that would sound very strange!

[Aleister Crow]

Thought: Lily was the only one of the six women in the desert who became a vampire because they died one by one until she was the last one left. Her memory kept the others from turning but there was no one left to remember her.

It's a good theory, but they lost each other in a dust storm. Lily died after she was separated from the rest. We don't know what happened to the others; for all we know, they lived. In fact, their survival would go a long way to explaining the connection between the Etheitians and the Anasazi.

[Dave]

Unless you mean to say that the apostrophe is short for "has" without including the "got" - such as: "He's great legs". Now, that would sound very strange!

Precisely... it can be, and is used in exactly that way. Yes, it does sound a bit strange to most people who speak "mainstream" American dialects, where "he's got" is used as a way of distinguishing the "he has" contraction from "he is".

Linguistically I think it's a natural enough contraction... a verbal shortcut. Probably evolved over time via slurring... "He has a new job" slurred into "He-us a new job" and then "He's a new job". In some dialectic groups the "got" was added (or may have been used in the original phrase) while among some other people it wasn't. (May I dare, without intending any insult at all, refer to the latter group as "gotless wonders"?)

I'm going to guess that the shorter usage was probably present in the regional dialect of one area or social group in England, and that it has survived to some extent after immigration into the United States. Many traditional English regional dialects sound rather odd to the American ear. For example, one dialect from southwestern England was likely the origin of what most Americans think of as the "pirate" accent.

[eee]

Also, I think the succubus may be more evil that the Lanthian priests. They just wanted power.

I think the succubus is just an embodiment of rage more than it is evil. The priests wanted power and it cost the baby it's life, creating the Nu Gui, which in turn seems to be trying to strip the priests and all their people and descendants of every last bit of power that they have.

Not merely power. She wanted them all dead. She couldn't kill them outright because of Brandi, but she could set up things so that all the Lanthian descendants would be stored in crystals, and then rig it so that anyone released from the crystals would wind up in unsurvivable situations. Using Kath and Atsali as catspaws she intended to destroy almost all of the ones left, and she would have pulled it off if Brandi hadn't become suspicious and set up a counter trap.

It makes you wonder what she intended for Lily. If the Nu Gui's plan had worked Lily would have been the last 'living' Anasazi, and I can't see such all consuming rage and hate stopping until it had made a clean sweep. It DOES make those strips where SDO was talking so nicey-nicey with Agent Pratt outside Agent McBride's apartment... really creepy...

[Julie]

totally off topic, but does anyone ELSE hear Atsali's voice as it was done by Majel Barrett, as the voice of the Enterprise Computer in Classic Star Trek? [Computer, i'd like a cup of coffee... "WORKING... bzzt, bzzt... swoosh (replicator door slides open)"] the whole "WORKING" just clicks for me... and whenever she talking in her normal non-computery voice, i hear Reba McEntire...

...Nah. GlaDOS.

This! Definitely this (and my opinion is not at all impacted by my love of that character or the fact that my husband is currently replaying the games for me ).

Thought: Lily was the only one of the six women in the desert who became a vampire because they died one by one until she was the last one left. Her memory kept the others from turning but there was no one left to remember her.

Brilliant thought! That makes a lot of sense.

As for my own thoughts on today's page...it's just sad...heartbreakingly sad.

[Dave]

It DOES make those strips where SDO was talking so nicey-nicey with Agent Pratt outside Agent McBride's apartment... really creepy...

Uggh... yeah... Oduya was mentioning her own ability/reputation for being able to manipulate people into doing terrible things to themselves. It would have been very much in character for the Nu Gui to be setting up Lily for exactly that sort of fate, and (in a very subtle and covert fashion) telling her in advance just what was going to happen to her.

Perhaps Lily was only supposed to make the connection when it was too late (e.g. after she'd been tricked into helping wipe out all of the other Etheitians) and there was nothing she could do in order to avoid whatever Oduya had set up. Realizing "Oh my God, I was set up, I'm about to take the fall, and she told me she was going to do it and I didn't realize it!" would just add salt to the wounds... it would be like throwing psychological acid in Lily's face.

A fine (*shudder*) end to 10,000 years of revenge.

Yeah, the Chessmaster is/was quite a nasty piece of work.

[Wdot]

Well, as long as we're talking about Atsali's computer voice, I'm gonna say I hear SHODAN. I hope that's not a sign that it's not a friendly computer.

So Pratt is 1/6 Katherine's mother. Maybe that will be good for Pratt to have someone related to her. Might be good for Katherine and Atsali as well.

I wonder if the Nui Gui is a combination of demons like a certain shopkeeper, rage, jealously and some others.

I have been enjoying this, but what a dark story when you think about all the dead--- even though Atsali said they were crazy before they were put into the crystals. And babies adrift at sea, that is a nasty death. Poited into the sea they would have drowned, adrift = slow death. Atsali is young to deal with this and it doesn't help that Pratt is old either. I wonder if this is to kinda ease what is going to happen to the succubus, cause I don't think it is going to be pleasant.

[Yamara]

It makes you wonder what she intended for Lily. If the Nu Gui's plan had worked Lily would have been the last 'living' Anasazi, and I can't see such all consuming rage and hate stopping until it had made a clean sweep. It DOES make those strips where SDO was talking so nicey-nicey with Agent Pratt outside Agent McBride's apartment... really creepy...

Well, she'd probably need a human to invite them into a home... which could be set as a trap by sealing the exits and then disinviting them. But a third party human would have to be in on that, so as per narrative and chessmaster rules, that's unlikely.

But if Brandi could do that simply as she was, it would indicate that a nu gui is a deformed soul, something we already suspect.


Much more importantly, the nature of vampires as revealed in McBride's soliloquy reveals almost everything we need to know about what a soul is in Wapsi Square. I think we'll all be mighty impressed with Paul when he finally turns over all the cards.

[Yamara]

Atsali's intro suggests a British schoolgirl voice, which would be fine, but most of the rest of her idiom suggests an American schoolgirl.
(Too much Britvid + Barbara's always in London + British writer ex-gf × John Allison ≠ my hearing Atsali's dialogue)

As for Majel, she's far too sexy to voice an underage teen. Shame on all of you.

[KnightDelight]

Ooooh, good thinking, shadow!

Another thing. Why did Brandi wait 885 years "for things to clear up?" The cataclysm she predicted never occurred. There was nothing to clear up.

You mean this cataclysm?

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/kikai-caldera/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/there-were-earthquakes/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/my-location/

Finally culminating here:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/sweet-dreams/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/a-mortal-descendant/

But what Kath said about several super volcanoes erupting all over the world back then never happened. There is no archeological evidence of it. Kikai went off and caused local devastation but that's about it. There was no extinction level event which occurred at the same time Kakai exploded. There was no "nuclear winter." It didn't take over 800 years for even the Kikai dust to settle. So there was no reason to wait 885 years, historically speaking. I know that's what the plot is, but it doesn't fit with actual history, and Paul, at least, tries to do that. SDO may have waited 885 years to try to unfreeze everyone, but not for any dust-settling/earth-livable-again reason. All I can figure is that the computer didn't know any different and so it said what it did (through Atsali).

[kingklash]

So, Kat's a composite clone, like GI Joe's Serpentor?

[dex drako]

right even SDO said there was no cataclysm

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/kikai-caldera/

only one volcano erupted that day and there was no nuclear winter or mass extinction event.

[dex drako]

So, Kat's a composite clone, like GI Joe's Serpentor?

composite yes

clone no

my best guess is Kat's a biological chimera ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics) ), the 6 eggs grow into each other forming one body with cells of 6 different DNA lines.

[Dave]

So, Kat's a composite clone, like GI Joe's Serpentor?

It appears that she's a human chimera, although we don't know for sure yet whether the melding of the six donors was at a cellular level (as in human chimeras, who aren't all that terribly rare) or at a deeper (genetic or spiritual?) level.

I'm not sure I'd call her a "clone", since there's no indication that the six individuals who contributed to her creation had any separate existence at all after that point. I guess that's a matter of terminology, though, in an area where there probably isn't a terminology standard yet

[Fairportfan]

And babies adrift at sea, that is a nasty death. Poited into the sea they would have drowned, adrift = slow death.

Ah - but then SDO would have killed them herself, rather than sent them somewhere where they might accidentally wind up dead.

Always examine any dealings you have with the supernatural to make sure you understand what the terms of the deal actually mean, no matter what they sound like they mean.

[Fairportfan]

Well, she'd probably need a human to invite them into a home... which could be set as a trap by sealing the exits and then disinviting them.

Not necessarily - Wapsi vampires are so different from Hollywood-type vampires that until Paul tells us they need an invitation to enter, we can't assume it. Doing so might be a Very Bad Idea.

Like the old Dr Who episode where the Doctor and his current companion, pursued by a Dalek, ran up a flight of stairs and then turned to go nyah-nyah-nyah

... and the Dalek began levitating.

[Dr. Otter]

The ghostly sea in panel two was very well done and even creepier to me than usual. I'm reading In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. I'm right where they are at their thirstiest while adrift in the central Pacific. It made the panel doubly unsettling. Yeeesh!

Well, she'd probably need a human to invite them into a home... which could be set as a trap by sealing the exits and then disinviting them.

Not necessarily - Wapsi vampires are so different from Hollywood-type vampires that until Paul tells us they need an invitation to enter, we can't assume it. Doing so might be a Very Bad Idea.

I think he already told us that they need an invitation.

[Fairportfan]

The ghostly sea in panel two was very well done and even creepier to me than usual. I'm reading In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. I'm right where they are at their thirstiest while adrift in the central Pacific. It made the panel doubly unsettling. Yeeesh!

Well, she'd probably need a human to invite them into a home... which could be set as a trap by sealing the exits and then disinviting them.

Not necessarily - Wapsi vampires are so different from Hollywood-type vampires that until Paul tells us they need an invitation to enter, we can't assume it. Doing so might be a Very Bad Idea.

I think he already told us that they need an invitation.

oops