Batter Up 2014-03-04

[Sidhekin]

All I can think of is Bud is angry about the nightmares. Well, in addition to all else Bud knows about Bia ... she reacted badly just hearing the name, which was a few pages before she recognized the little girl from the nightmares.

As for Bia doing damage, well, she'll need permission to leave, so the question is if she dares making it a game of ... dare ...

[scantrontb]

I are cornfuzzled, a little. I can mostly understand why Connie is mad at Bia, because Bia hurt Shelly. But why is Bud so angry? Yes, she saw Bia apparently being killed when the chimera destroyed Lanthis, but why would Bud blame Bia for that? Guilt? I fail to comprehend.

I think it's more a case of she's pissed at Bia for all the stuff she's done AFTER that, all the way up to NOW... including the morph into a little kid again... she was all set to clock her one until Tina said that it WASN'T a trick but a punishment from her dad... that's what stopped her, Connie however... yeah, she's still pissed at mom... remember, that's WHY Shelly went on her vision-quest in the first place...

[Catawampus]

Well, Jiminy Cricket!

Yeah, I think that Connie is the character with the most connection to Bia (that we are aware of at this point). Bia is the mother of Shelly, Connie's. . .host or whatever the appropriate term would be. Bia is the great-grandmother of Connie's soul source, Tina. Bia faking her death is what directly led Shelly to die, thus creating Connie.

[eee]

Connie, for the WIN!

I are cornfuzzled, a little. I can mostly understand why Connie is mad at Bia, because Bia hurt Shelly. But why is Bud so angry? Yes, she saw Bia apparently being killed when the chimera destroyed Lanthis, but why would Bud blame Bia for that? Guilt? I fail to comprehend.
Also, while she might be a child now, Bia is still the embodiment of Force, and is still a Titan. I seriously doubt that any of them could kill her, though they might hurt her quite a bit, and if she does get angry enough, I imagine that she could still do some damage to any or all of them. After all, Phix and Nudge are not in the Library now, so they are vulnerable, and Bia has reason to be pissed at both of them.
I honestly think that she wants to make peace. She is not an evil being, just one with tunnel vision and set on achieving what she feels needs to be done, at any cost necessary.

We don't have the details yet. But Bud is thousands of years old, and Bia is apparently one of the few gods who can get through Brandi's barrier and still mess with things on Earth. It is hardly impossible that, over the years, Bia has severely caused problems for the GGG and the people they care for and want to protect, and Bud has built up a massive amount of rage over this without ever having the chance to 'explain' her feelings to Bia. And now, there she is, in reach. And while her current form may keep Bia from being punched in the mouth by anyone but Connie, spanking is an option.

Any Bia attack directed at Phix or Nudge, on the other hand, would probably remove that restraint. And while it's not clear if even Bud and Brandi could kill her, I suspect they could lay a beating on her continuously for the next 10,000 years that she'd feel.

Besides, IF Bia does want to make peace and try to reduce the amount of anger towards her, attack should be the last thing she'd try. Right now she needs to explain herself and what she's been doing. And grovel in apology.

Shelly will have to pull Connie back, first...

[Julie]

WOW! That was the last thing I expected to see today. Good job Bud in restraining yourself...and well done Connie with the sneak-attack!

Okay, fess up ladies, this is par for course at Girl Scouts camp, right?

Not any Girl Scout camp I remember attending. I remember horseback riding/animal care training, crafts, sports, campfires, and a little "survival" swimming training (treading water and floating without a life preserver for a length of time), but actual fighting may have been discouraged.

Why is Connie throwing down on Bia? I mean aside from the fact that Connie is/was a part of Shelly and Bia basically took a dump on Shelly as she was growing up, what has Bia done to Connie since Connie was created after Bia's "death" of a heart attack?

Tina 1.0's soul is part of Connie (or so I believe is the most likely possibility).

We've never known who "set up" the "accident" that killed Tina, or who persuaded the various demons (Tina's and Shelly's) to break the rules... leading to all of them losing their memories, and to Connie's creation. Neither Connie nor Tina 2.x remembers.

If Connie has concluded that Bia was responsible, she might resent having been "set up"... the human soul which is part of her, would have died (or "died") because of Bia's manipulations. Connie has very few demon memories left, but who knows what her human Tina 1.0 soul might have hidden away that could have floated to the surface?

EDIT: the other possibility is that Connie, who is in some respects an avatar of Shelly at the age of 14, is expressing the rage that Shelly-at-14 would have felt at having been deliberately abandoned by her mother, whose "death" was a cruel sham. She's expressing that which Shelly, the 80,000-year-old Sage of the Forest, will not.

I was thinking something more along the lines of being angry on Shelly's behalf due to her connection to Shelly and how Bia's actions caused Shelly pain AND just learning that she now has an additional layer of connection to Bia by virtue of having Tina 1.0's soul. In a (very brain-busting and convoluted) way, she's just as much Bia's great-granddaughter as our Tina since our Tina has the body/shell which has the genetic lineage, and Connie has the soul which inhabited that shell. Learning that on top of dealing with Shelly's pain over learning the truth of her own lineage would be enough for me to want to throw a few punches. *shrugs* Just sayin'.

[zachariah]

While Connies attack could be anger it doesn't look like it. Her expression is more focused determination that anger. She is doing this for a reason that we don't know. It could be for what happened to Shelly, or what happened to Tina, or the time in the forest, or other things. Clearly she feels she has reason. I expect tomorrow we will find out which and why.

[Dave]

I was thinking that young Bia was an innocent bystander at that event.

Now I'm wondering, could Bia have been involved, triggering the Golem Girls attack somehow?

Maybe by accident? Or unintended consequence of something she did?

See some speculative discussions here. I've never been convinced that we know the full, true story as to why the Chimera was created in the first place.

If the Lanthian priests had been trying to create the Chimera as a weapon which could have been used against the Elder Gods and the Titans, then it might be that it was able to sense Bia's presence. This might have help trigger a "battle reflex" which, when added to the massive rage that Bud was feeling, was what broke the priests' control over the Chimera and set it free to melt Lanthis down into a puddle of glass.

If Bia was (even inadvertently) a catalyst for the destruction of a continent (Charon insisted on getting her away quickly afterwards) and she learned this at some point, she might have felt guilt... enough to lead to an obsession with the idea that she must repair the damage and set things right per the prophesy.

EDIT: (and, if that's the case, learning that the Chimera was programmed to attack in the presence of a Titan might relieve some of the guilt that Bud feels about the destruction. Even though she had no free will at the time, she blames herself for the rage and anger which triggered the holocaust... knowing that there was more to it than just her emotions could help take her off the hook a bit.)

[Wdot]

I've gone on record stating that I didn't think Bia was an evil character, but driven by her awful experience when the civilization was wiped clean off the face of the Earth by the Chimera. I've always thought that Bia was trying to do the right thing no matter that it was difficult or morally ambiguous at best, kinda like Shelly spiking Monica's head. A terrible choice she was forced to make and at the time hopefully the right one. Bia's seems to be on a timescale of a much longer duration than Shelly's moment of decision to spike Monica... no wonder she has gathered such a crowd of naysayers and victims. Hopefully it will turn out as well as Shelly's decision.

Oh, and I don't think Bia is reduced in power much if at all. If anything she is probably more dangerous in the fact she doesn't have the precise control that a more mature body would give.

I put up a colored picture of Bia from long ago in case anyone wants a look.

[kingklash]

Yeah, those little Comanche girls can be ornery.

Remember, Shelly is Aw-day Maw-tawn (only girl),and the youngest as well. Her brothers most likely taught her a few things about defending herself as a kid. So Connie would know how to throw a punch.

When my Ma was about Connie's age, her dad was killed in a bad car accident, and while growing up without her dad, some of her male cousins decided she wasn't going to fight "Like a sissy" and since several of them were in the Golden Gloves program, taught her a lot of boxing maneuvers. Ma was a scrappy little booger to begin with, but the training she picked up from her "brothers" helped a lot with tempering her teen frustrations.

[meisdadoo]

Whoa, I thought Acacia would crush Bia into a diamond but she showed restraint. I didn't think Conscience (aka Creepy Girl ) would make First Contact. Thats a twist.

Not such a twist if you remember that "Conscience" is a job title/personality description, not just a name. The main purpose of "Conscience" is to make you regret bad decisions so you will learn to make good decisions--which is why Bia is now a little girl in the first place.

[Dave]

.Oh, and I don't think Bia is reduced in power much if at all. If anything she is probably more dangerous in the fact she doesn't have the precise control that a more mature body would give.

If you're correct, then it's a very fortunate thing that Pallas didn't overdo it, and turn her back into a two-year-old. A turbulent Titanic temper tantrum would be truly too terrible.

I put up a colored picture of Bia from long ago in case anyone wants a look.

That's really nicely done! I especially like the way you retained the "averted glance" in her eyes' pupils, while reflecting the reddish glow of the firestorm of plasma in her sclera.

[KnightDelight]

I don't think Bia had much raw power as a child. She was invulnerable, but not all that powerful. After all she was unable to turn away either the first firestorm or the second, for which she was better prepared. Nor did she attack the chimera to stop it. She was even cowered behind a rock or wall section. Likewise, I don't think she has adult titan powers now. Her father isn't taking a chance on her life since she probably can't be killed, even by a golem. But she can't really fight back either.

The theory that the attack was at least partly precipitated by Bia's mere presence is in interesting one. That the Chimera was a weapon more against the gods and titans than people is a good possibility and makes lots of sense. The priests may have felt it was their only option to finally be free of their dominance. Make a god-like being under their control is better than having to beg the gods to treat the people kindly. Like Bia and her manipulation of generations of human(well sort of human) puppets, the priests felt the ends justified the means. Search out and find just the right girls to make their weapon. Their mistake was to throw in another one, at the last moment, in their anger at her (Jin's) actions. Apparently, however, it would not have worked out in the end, given the fact Bia emerged without so much as a cut finger. OTOH, they might have figured the Chimera could punch them to the moon/another planet/a galaxy far, far away, whatever, and be rid of the gods that way.

[Fairportfan]

Monica is still calling Bud "Acacia", even though things are a bit calmer.

A bit.

[sheik]

I was thinking that young Bia was an innocent bystander at that event.

Now I'm wondering, could Bia have been involved, triggering the Golem Girls attack somehow?

Maybe by accident? Or unintended consequence of something she did?

See some speculative discussions here. I've never been convinced that we know the full, true story as to why the Chimera was created in the first place.

If the Lanthian priests had been trying to create the Chimera as a weapon which could have been used against the Elder Gods and the Titans, then it might be that it was able to sense Bia's presence. This might have help trigger a "battle reflex" which, when added to the massive rage that Bud was feeling, was what broke the priests' control over the Chimera and set it free to melt Lanthis down into a puddle of glass.

If Bia was (even inadvertently) a catalyst for the destruction of a continent (Charon insisted on getting her away quickly afterwards) and she learned this at some point, she might have felt guilt... enough to lead to an obsession with the idea that she must repair the damage and set things right per the prophesy.

EDIT: (and, if that's the case, learning that the Chimera was programmed to attack in the presence of a Titan might relieve some of the guilt that Bud feels about the destruction. Even though she had no free will at the time, she blames herself for the rage and anger which triggered the holocaust... knowing that there was more to it than just her emotions could help take her off the hook a bit.)

As the embodiment of force or violence Bia might well have been responsible, in her own way, for the creation of the chimera in the first place by inspiring the Lanthian's ambition to build it.
Since we first saw Bia in child form, it could easily be that Daddy was already punishing Bia for _that_ piece of mischief.

[Radical_Knight]

Two young'uns... A Kitty fight?

[shadowinthelight]

A turbulent Titanic temper tantrum would be truly too terrible.

I think the alliteration amphora is waiting for payment.

[Grantwhy]

If Bia was (even inadvertently) a catalyst for the destruction of a continent (Charon insisted on getting her away quickly afterwards) and she learned this at some point, she might have felt guilt... enough to lead to an obsession with the idea that she must repair the damage and set things right per the prophesy.

EDIT: (and, if that's the case, learning that the Chimera was programmed to attack in the presence of a Titan might relieve some of the guilt that Bud feels about the destruction. Even though she had no free will at the time, she blames herself for the rage and anger which triggered the holocaust... knowing that there was more to it than just her emotions could help take her off the hook a bit.)

That or Bia walked into the the lab that created the Golem Girls and said "What does this button do?"



I don't know, but looking at Bud's reactions + her comment about the nightmare, I just get the feeling that young Bia somehow caused the 'incident' but looking back at her reaction at the time (link that is a look of horror), I think it was unintentional on her part.

[Dave]

A turbulent Titanic temper tantrum would be truly too terrible.

I think the alliteration amphora is waiting for atonement.

Fixed that for you

(Places some smoked salmon in the amphora, knowing that the sheep are nearby. It's the flock's lox box.)

[Prester Fred]

A turbulent Titanic temper tantrum would be truly too terrible.

Now say "Titus the Tailor told ten tall tales to Titania the Titmouse."

[Atomic]

"The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick."

Nyah.