Wapsi Square Forum

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/happening-right-now/


Wow. Nadette is really living it... no wonder she's panicking...

Does that make her like the read/write head on a hard drive? So she's able to read the contents of the stone tape?


[Edited for correct hard drive component name]

Okay, now we know who is looking at what and what each can see. That's good.

Reactions to the romantic overtures? Still a cat toy!

I am surprised that one of my guesses about the shadows was right yesterday. They are from the time of cataclysm. I think what Nadette is seeing is from that time and her seer abilities is what is making that happen. Sali can now see the shadows but she is NOT seeing them as clearly as Nadette does. This is a usual problem for seers. They can get totally drawn into their visions and loos track of the world around them. That has happened here. Sali is trying to drag her out of the vision and back to her. Somehow I kinda doubt a stone tape would contain that much emotional information and I'm gonna lead towards the area is a conduit for the dead to talk to the living. A seer would make a perfect being to talk through. The shadows are express their agony at what is happening.

Well obviously, there's only one way for Atsali to snap Nadette out of this:
Vigorous tongue wrestling.

Well, Atsali DID say she needed Nadette's eyes ... and NOT to gaze into... but it does seem that the seer GOES THERE when presented with the material that the rocks contain... Sali might have to slap her a few times to get her attention... who knows, Nadette might even like that...

Sgt. Howard wrote:Well, Atsali DID say she needed Nadette's eyes ... and NOT to gaze into... but it does seem that the seer GOES THERE when presented with the material that the rocks contain... Sali might have to slap her a few times to get her attention... who knows, Nadette might even like that...

We have seen this before. When Nadette saw into Cricket's past and the shadow friends. At that time she was lost in the vision and had little or no awareness of what she was saying. This too is common to seers. I wonder if Nadette does look deeply into Sali's eyes she will see into Sali's past and tell what she sees, just like she did with Cricket. What will she reveal? Too bad this is neither the time or place for this to happen.

lake_wrangler wrote:Wow. Nadette is really living it... no wonder she's panicking...

Does that make her like the read/write head on a hard drive? So she's able to read the contents of the stone tape?

I would compare her more to an antenna that resonates with ambient signals.

Atsali has the memories of the Ethetian society (or quite a bit of them) still imprinted on her brain. That is lucky in this case because she knows what Nadette is seeing happened thousands of years ago she has no need to panic. One level head here can help immensely and Nadette needs Atsali right now (not like that...).

Atsali has matured so much since we first met her.

reminded me more of a police scanner. just hitting on different signals and stuck till they finish.

Nadette is seeing this as the people who experienced it saw it, Atsali knows this is just a recording, a very realistic and immersive recording, but not-real-time. Or to put it another way Atsali has already experienced this and knows it to be in the distant past. Far, far, far distant past for a teen-ager.

Nadette's the Playback, and Atsali's the Index?


Dark Helmet: What the hell am I looking at?! When does this happen in the movie?!
Colonel Sandurz: "Now". You're looking at "now", sir. Everything that happens now [indicates himself and Helmet] is happening "now". [Indicates the screen]
Dark Helmet: What happened to "then"?
Colonel Sandurz: We passed "then".
Dark Helmet: When?
Colonel Sandurz: Just now. Were at "now," now.
Dark Helmet: Go back to "then"!
Colonel Sandurz: When?
Dark Helmet: Now!
Colonel Sandurz: Now?
Dark Helmet: Now!
Colonel Sandurz: I can't.
Dark Helmet: Why?!
Colonel Sandurz: We missed it.
Dark Helmet: When?!
Colonel Sandurz: Just now.
Dark Helmet: ... When will "then" be "now"?
Colonel Sandurz: Soon.
Dark Helmet: [backpedals in shock] How soon?
[Corporal rewinds the tape back to a scene showing protagonists wandering in desert]
Corporal: Sir!
Dark Helmet: What?!
Corporal: We have identified their location.
Dark Helmet: Where?!
Corporal: It's the moon of Vega!
Colonel Sandurz: Good work, set a course and prepare for our arrival!
Dark Helmet: [increasingly panicked] When?!
Corporal: 1900 hours, sir!
Colonel Sandurz: By high noon tomorrow, they will be our prisoners!
Dark Helmet: WHO?!! [mask falls down]

DilyV wrote:Atsali has matured so much since we first met her.

Yes she has. Such a pity.

grammar mixed up it is , in the first pane... Yoda hand he is giving???

"are they moving away?"

illiad wrote:grammar mixed up it is , in the first pane... Yoda hand he is giving???

"are they moving away?"

Heh!

"are they caused by us moving?"

Yeah; "are they from us moving?"

Yoda indeed... (edit: wondering, after the fact if the word jumble is a side affect of the environment and/or experience...)

I wonder if these two are going to be the only principals in the current arc, maybe there will be 'Katherine to the Rescue!' (with pigeons loosened and appropriate fanfare, heh heh...)

Hey, random thought-

PROM.

we will have to wait for Paul....

KnightDelight wrote:

DilyV wrote:Atsali has matured so much since we first met her.

Yes she has. Such a pity.

Don't fret. She may have become a veteran at cleaning up after ancient civilizations, but there's still lots of things that she's still going to be flailing about for.

zachariah wrote:We have seen this before. When Nadette saw into Cricket's past and the shadow friends. At that time she was lost in the vision and had little or no awareness of what she was saying. This too is common to seers. I wonder if Nadette does look deeply into Sali's eyes she will see into Sali's past and tell what she sees, just like she did with Cricket. What will she reveal? Too bad this is neither the time or place for this to happen.

Nadette looked into Cricket's past and saw it clearer than Cricket herself. Perhaps that is what is going on here. Nadette looked deeply into Sali's eyes (very deeply, in fact) and read the Ethetian memories without the "noise" Sali experiences.

Dr. Otter wrote:

zachariah wrote:We have seen this before. When Nadette saw into Cricket's past and the shadow friends. At that time she was lost in the vision and had little or no awareness of what she was saying. This too is common to seers. I wonder if Nadette does look deeply into Sali's eyes she will see into Sali's past and tell what she sees, just like she did with Cricket. What will she reveal? Too bad this is neither the time or place for this to happen.

Nadette looked into Cricket's past and saw it clearer than Cricket herself. Perhaps that is what is going on here. Nadette looked deeply into Sali's eyes (very deeply, in fact) and read the Ethetian memories without the "noise" Sali experiences.

I was thinking about it, after reading zachariah's comment, last night... I think Dr. Otter's hypothesis on what triggered it is interesting, as well (though I'm not convinced...)

But I do see one major difference between the two "readings" we have now seen: when she was reading Cricket, she was an outside observer. The whole thing came to her at once, she was mesmerized by it, and could not contain it, she had to spill it all out. But she was still outside of it. (You did this, you did that, they did that to you, etc.)

This time, on the other hand, she is participating. She not only sees, but seems to believe herself to be a participant, to the point of asking Atsali "Can't you hear the city alarm?" The rest of that speech bubble is very telling, too. She is verbally repeating ancient history, but in an inclusive manner: not "they tried to warn", but "we tried to warn"... She is consciously talking to Atsali, but as if they were both in the events which she was reading.

To be honest, I don't think she has ever experienced something like this, before. The panic is evident and quite real.

lake_wrangler wrote: But I do see one major difference between the two "readings" we have now seen: when she was reading Cricket, she was an outside observer. The whole thing came to her at once, she was mesmerized by it, and could not contain it, she had to spill it all out. But she was still outside of it. (You did this, you did that, they did that to you, etc.)

This time, on the other hand, she is participating. She not only sees, but seems to believe herself to be a participant, to the point of asking Atsali "Can't you hear the city alarm?" The rest of that speech bubble is very telling, too. She is verbally repeating ancient history, but in an inclusive manner: not "they tried to warn", but "we tried to warn"... She is consciously talking to Atsali, but as if they were both in the events which she was reading.

To be honest, I don't think she has ever experienced something like this, before. The panic is evident and quite real.

I think she has. It would depend on the strength of the emotional content, or power, of the event she saw. During the cataclysm the power would be very intense. I think she knows this and that is why she avoids places she could encounter events, or spirits, where strong events have occurred. Those places are where she would most likely be drawn into a powerful vision/trance as a seer. That is why she avoid haunted houses as it may draw spirits from truly terrible events she doesn't want, or need, to experience. It is very likely Berdete is supposed help pull Nadette out of these visions if she gets stuck in the wrong ones.
Sali is doing the right thing by trying to get Nadete focused on her and drawn Nadette attention, and seer power, away from the vision she is seeing. I suspect that Nadette has very little conscious control of her power, but most seers do not.