The Only Way 2015-02-06

[oldmanmickey]

However, Tsillah showed up and tsillahed all over the moment, so Atsali never got a chance to say anything back to Nadette.

I'm going to have to incorporate that verb into my vocabulary.

And Nadette's resolve to not get between Atsali and Whatshisface lasted all of what? 5 minutes?

Arguably not between if she is OK with sharing.

He might be ok with sharing to, who knows. I am sure once Nadette explains the plan is to create enough emotional power to overwrite the imprints in the stone Atsali will see the wisdom. May even take multiple overwrites to make sure its nonretrivable.

[Akeche]

Or "Finish what you started!" But I think you are closer to being right. Though maybe not. Paul has introduced same sex pairing to the strip so who knows.

Well, one thing to consider is we're not entirely sure whether or not Atsali appreciates the advances or not. She's not outright said she has the hots for Nadette too, just been understandably embarrassed.

She did have the wing-boner, so that seems to be a point in Nadette's favor. However, Tsillah showed up and tsillahed all over the moment, so Atsali never got a chance to say anything back to Nadette.

And Nadette's resolve to not get between Atsali and Whatshisface lasted all of what? 5 minutes?

I actually have got to agree with you for once, the pacing of things all comes off as a little bit odd. Truth be told the entire arc so far with the library thing is going a completely different direction than I expected. I thought Jacob would get pulled into the whole thing somehow, whether by Atsali or perhaps even through the MIB. And that particular page... Yeah I'm almost convinced that this must be Nadette thinking an intense emotional response might do something to the stone, she generally seems far too collected for this sort of thing.

Basically, in my opinion so far the whole thing between the both of them has been like Paul doing this for odd reasons:

[Sidhekin]

Both ears and tail!!!

Yes, indeed. Atsali is awarded both ears and the tail!

¡Olé!

Rover was killed by a Pontiac. And it was done with such grace and artistry that the witnesses awarded the driver both ears and the tail - but I digress.

[Thor]

Both ears and tail!!!

Yes, indeed. Atsali is awarded both ears and the tail!

¡Olé!

Rover was killed by a Pontiac. And it was done with such grace and artistry that the witnesses awarded the driver both ears and the tail - but I digress.

Ah, the good Dr. Lehrer. For most Americans, he has provided the entirety of their knowledge of bullfighting. (And base 8 mathematics.)

[Yamara]

I know from experience that Fate and Doom are serious turn-ons all by themselves. So Nadette, being a seer, is not only getting the rise from that, Atsali has probably just explained a lot about why she's seeing the course of events unfold as they do, which is a burden off of Nadette's mind. And then throw in "no one must ever know, or know I know", and being trusted with that? Darn tootin' you get face hugged.

It appears that Sali admits that she retained a lot more information from the download than others realized. But this maybe conflicts with what happened after she got to the library after the adventure. She desperately wanted the information removed. The implication from then was that it was removed because it was causing Sali to mentally melt down. But now it appears that she did not melt down and retained a large amount of the information as well. This doesn't quiet jib.

Her words at the time were "I'm fine. It's all gone." But, this was said only moments after she'd been in the throes of an "I'll have to tear my skin off to make this stop" overload and meltdown. Back at the Library, she was immediately self-composed and emotionally comfortable again.

So, "It's all gone" might refer to the torment... the sheer overwhelming immediacy of all of those personal memories of the Ethetians' madness flooding through her. It might not have referred to the abstract knowledge of their civilization.

Whn Lily asked her how much she remembered of it, she said "Almost all of it, but not as noisy as at first."

Hence, it looks as if the Library's download from her "de-personalized" the Ethetians' memories, but didn't erase the factual knowledge Atsli had gained.

I'm thinking that what was driving Atsali insane was the sheer number of individuals of the entire Ethetian race that was stored in the crystals. As far as they knew, they were still alive, though not able to take form. The millennia in "cold storage" so to speak drove them mad but didn't kill them. It was that insanity and the fact that they were still alive inside the crystals to try and imprint themselves on Atsali that drove her crazy. Poor kid.

I think it's the degree of the experience that the Library altered. Atsali knew the difference between adventure stories and having her parents die and being thrown into the orphanage. The Etheitians delivered their lived experience directly into her mind, the Library turned it into a book she knew by heart.

It's the difference between knowing it's the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, and having lived experience of "every stinking thing" of their long march into the desert.

I am sure once Nadette explains the plan is to create enough emotional power to overwrite the imprints in the stone Atsali will see the wisdom. May even take multiple overwrites to make sure its nonretrivable.

Uh, yeah, no. Making a sex tape does not make all the beheading videos go away. Deliberately having sex at the site of an atrocity is not really the way to respect the danger of it happening again. And one other rather titanic thing.

This is the Chimera technology we're talking about here. Here, in the walls. That's what a Stone Tape is. It's not Read Only.

It Writes.

[AnotherFairportfan]

And Nadette's resolve to not get between Atsali and Whatshisface lasted all of what? 5 minutes?

Arguably not between if she is OK with sharing.

Between, over, under, next to...

[zachariah]

I am sure once Nadette explains the plan is to create enough emotional power to overwrite the imprints in the stone Atsali will see the wisdom. May even take multiple overwrites to make sure its nonretrivable.

This is sorta jumping ahead of the story. What we know now is that Sali is assuming the stone tape exists in the rock. There is no proof of that, just an assumption by Sali. She is making a decision based upon little evidence. As to overwriting no one knows if that will work either. Even though I suggested it you jumped from tossed off witticism to accomplished fact.

[AnotherFairportfan]

I am sure once Nadette explains the plan is to create enough emotional power to overwrite the imprints in the stone Atsali will see the wisdom. May even take multiple overwrites to make sure its nonretrivable.

This is sorta jumping ahead of the story. What we know now is that Sali is assuming the stone tape exists in the rock. There is no proof of that, just an assumption by Sali. She is making a decision based upon little evidence. As to overwriting no one knows if that will work either. Even though I suggested it you jumped from tossed off witticism to accomplished fact.

No -to ascribing Machiavellian cunning to Nadette.

[eee]

And we see that Nad' has a thing for strong, decisive women...

I hope Atsali IS just determined and not fanatical about keeping Chimera technology out of people's hands. Fanaticism can lead to excessive reactions...

And Nadette's resolve to not get between Atsali and Whatshisface lasted all of what? 5 minutes?

She's foreseen they're not going to be together forever. She might be laying the groundwork for what comes after.

[zachariah]

If their romantic interlude does overwrite the record in the wall we can say they did it by setting off the siren and seering the walls.

"Danger, Danger Will Robinson. Unknown energy source is in the cavern ahead."

[analyst]

The addition of the tail to Nadette may be the closest the comic ever comes to having a "bear" butt. (c8

[meisdadoo]

I think its going to turn out that what the library removed was what hadn't imprinted yet. There has to be a limit to what the brain can store and she had went way past max with a whole civilizations worth. There is no telling what all she knows at this point.

I thought it was a filter crystal in the gate that kept her brain from melting -- all the AAUUUUGHHHHH!!!!! got filtered out when she transported to the library

And no, now is not the time for tonsil hockey. if you are going to do that you need to hide behind the chainsaws. . . .

[Akeche]

The addition of the tail to Nadette may be the closest the comic ever comes to having a "bear" butt. (c8

Pun jar!

But no, we've seen Bud's bottom... Hell, both Bud AND Shelly's when Monica had enough of their shit and poited them naked into the mall.

[Sidhekin]

Come to think of it, Atsali is the only one (now) confirmed to have this knowledge.

Maya had it, obviously, but can the ditz that spent 58 cycles in the demon world remember all that shit? Well, she did remember enough to reboot Jin, at least. I'd say she's a very probable.

The Library is another candidate. It did something to Atsali, regarding her memory dump. Or maybe it was Brandi's gate hacking that did it? Yeah, I'm not convinced the Library got its info, but if it did, it would explain why it seems to manoeuvre Atsali into command of the current venture. I'd say it's somewhat probable.

Brandi may be another candidate. Her designation in service of the Etheitians seems to have been "tech". They may have kept this particular piece of tech from her though, and even if they didn't, the Nu Gui just might. She's a maybe?

And then, there's the "surviving" Etheitian: Lily. Do we even know what she did for a living, while among the living? She's a long shot?

Anyone else I can think of is way into the long shot category, remotely possible, but not remarkably plausible. Or did I miss any?

[Warrl]

I think its going to turn out that what the library removed was what hadn't imprinted yet. There has to be a limit to what the brain can store and she had went way past max with a whole civilizations worth. There is no telling what all she knows at this point.

I'm thinking that she retained, more or less, what was common knowledge. But - for the most part - not specialized knowledge.

I'd bet the average Lanthian rice-farmer knew essentially nothing about making and controlling golems... but was aware that some specialists in a temple (aka "laboratory") somewhere knew, or at least thought they knew, a great deal more on the subject. So if Atsali has that common knowledge, combined with knowing what the golems did, she'd know that a record of those specialists' knowledge or data would be a very good thing to turn into a fine powder.

I know from experience that Fate and Doom are serious turn-ons all by themselves. So Nadette, being a seer, is not only getting the rise from that, Atsali has probably just explained a lot about why she's seeing the course of events unfold as they do, which is a burden off of Nadette's mind. And then throw in "no one must ever know, or know I know", and being trusted with that? Darn tootin' you get face hugged.

Better Nadette than Sam Starfall.

What we know now is that Sali is assuming the stone tape exists in the rock.

No, she isn't. She said "if we determine that we have a stone tape, you and I need to destroy this place".

[Yamara]

Come to think of it, Atsali is the only one (now) confirmed to have this knowledge.

....

Anyone else I can think of is way into the long shot category, remotely possible, but not remarkably plausible. Or did I miss any?

Atsali may be the only living mortal with this knowledge.

The Chimera was said to have been built as a "Titan-like creature"; I've long assumed this information was passed to humans from Titans, since Prometheus has been name-checked, and fire seems to be a major component of the Chimeric arsenal.

Nadette's claim that the Etheitians were a "civilization that never wrote anything down" is interesting, though. Aren't Glyphs written into the bodies of golems? Phix said reading Glyph was not the same as being a Glyph Reader. Can the Library not copy Glyph remotely?

What, then, is Glyph?

[AnotherFairportfan]

Nadette's claim that the Etheitians were a "civilization that never wrote anything down" is interesting, though. Aren't Glyphs written into the bodies of golems? Phix said reading Glyph was not the same as being a Glyph Reader. Can the Library not copy Glyph remotely?

What, then, is Glyph?

Um. I've lost track - are the Etheitians and the Lanthians the same? Because i think the glyphs are Lanthian.

[Dave]

Um. I've lost track - are the Etheitians and the Lanthians the same? Because i think the glyphs are Lanthian.

The Ethetians were survivors of the Lanthian civilization... among those who survived the devastation caused by the Chimera.

They apparently inherited at least some of the Lanthian technology, considering that they were continuing to work towards the ability to create golems (en masse).

[AnotherFairportfan]

Um. I've lost track - are the Etheitians and the Lanthians the same? Because i think the glyphs are Lanthian.

The Ethetians were survivors of the Lanthian civilization... among those who survived the devastation caused by the Chimera.

They apparently inherited at least some of the Lanthian technology, considering that they were continuing to work towards the ability to create golems (en masse).

Mayahuel brought them that tech, didn't she?

[Dave]

Mayahuel brought them that tech, didn't she?

Mayahuel provided them the golemizing tech, yes, and also the Calendar Machine tech IIRC.

I'm not clear as to whether the specific tech which was used to create the Chimera was entirely Mayahuel's, or whether some of it was developed by the Lanthians as an extension of her work.