Okay, so it’s a split personalities thing. Now the question is… are these aspects of _virginia_’s personality or someone else’s? (yes I’m dense it took me this long to realize.)
At this point, hypotheses include: Virginia’s mind, the Unity-fragment-inside-Virginia’s mind, GODOT’s mind, some other AI’s mind, Pavane’s mind, and Gavotte’s mind.
I’m thinking Gavotte’s, myself. How would a gestalt entity behave in such a situation, after all? We’ve seen the beehive in the exact same simulation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only way they can appear. And a gestalt entity would be well-suited to having multiple frames of reference, simultaneously.
And bees certainly wouldn’t go for unsweetened tea.
(I am bee as you are bee and she is me and we are all together…)
As long as we’re considering fragmented gestalt minds (as one does), consider the following:
1) Ginny was in an Anasigma location when she was taken.
2) The extirpation VR (or a system that accesses it) is almost certainly housed in the same location.
3) The only gestalt mind that we know Anasigma actually held captive for an extended period of time was the Cypress.
4) While they might not have been able to control the Cypress herself, Anasigma might have experimented with splitting off more controllable daughter swamps.
5) Could attempts at controlling swamp-gestalts have included putting them in a (separate from the extirpation) VR?
Random bonus notion: What would happen if an intelligent bee-swarm combined with a swamp gestalt somehow?
Ooh, and what if you combined intelligent nanite goop with a swamp gestalt? And then combined that with an intelligent bee swarm? Or maybe the other way around?
There are so many fascinating horrific possibilities!
Probably the green goo that we saw in the alternate universe that was taking over half the country and using U.N.I.T.Y. as a spokes . . . being. Which means melding the four of them together might be either the best or the worst thing to do for the future.
I am sure Ira would agree that the ladies need to spend more time in VR learning to work together for the benefit of humanity. Stay a while. Stay forever! Also, I initially assumed the name Madame Delphi was sufficiently self explanatory that it didn’t need any secondary significance, but I was wrong.
1: No idea. Presumably to make everything more orderly and proper, and keep everything as such, if we presume this is a fractured psyche, she is what she appears to be, the old lady of the psyche, there to keep everything together properly.
2: Apis, which is a fancy (read: scientific) word for honey bee, if I had to wager. It’s close enough for reasonable room for mockery.
“Ape”, pronounced “ah-peh”, is bee in Italian. So her name could actually be Mrs. Ape and yet it would still be rude to pronounce it as “ape”. (I see Kaymyth got there first.)
Also, I think that now makes it virtually a given that this is either a fractured Gavotte or Pavane. I’m betting on Gavotte as Pavane was coherent when she showed up in VR with Sweetheart.
It sounds like you have either a browser or an ISP problem. The only time I’ve ever had a problem posting a link is when I tried to put more than one link in a single comment. Apparently that’s been disallowed to prevent spam, or so I guess.
[I’m guessing the comment system doesn’t like the link? How much do I have to mangle it?]
I was a little reluctant to buy off on the Gavotte hypothesis, because we’ve seen what Gavotte looks like when her swarm count is lowered, and it’s all Drunk Cockney. So maybe something else is going on?
But during an archive browse a certain strip caught my eye:
[paste “todays-comic-397” after “comic” in your url bar; comic for October 9, 2010]
Look at the teacup and teapot with the floral pattern. It’s not in color, and they don’t look exactly the same in the flower placement, but I suspect that what Mrs A is using is meant to look like it.
Is there a strip or two missing? The transition from “No tea for you!” to calm conversation is very abrupt.
I think that’s just basically what this place is like.
I got the impression that there was more of a time gap between this strip and the previous.
Besides, Dr. Lee doesn’t have any tea.
If “Mrs. Ape” isn’t her real name, I wonder how Melanie derives it. Could it be from “A. P.”? Aggressive Pruning?
Mrs. Apis, one might think.
Not necessarily melliflora though.
Her real name could be “Gorilla” or something
It’s worth pointing out that “ape” in Italian (pronounced AH-pay) means “bee”.
I bet it has a non-zero amount to do with APE-AID. http://narbonic.com/comic/ape-aid/
Okay, so it’s a split personalities thing. Now the question is… are these aspects of _virginia_’s personality or someone else’s? (yes I’m dense it took me this long to realize.)
The popular candidates are Virginia and Gavotte.
At this point, hypotheses include: Virginia’s mind, the Unity-fragment-inside-Virginia’s mind, GODOT’s mind, some other AI’s mind, Pavane’s mind, and Gavotte’s mind.
Well, GODOT’s mind would currently be a fragment inside Unity’s mind.
I’m thinking Gavotte’s, myself. How would a gestalt entity behave in such a situation, after all? We’ve seen the beehive in the exact same simulation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only way they can appear. And a gestalt entity would be well-suited to having multiple frames of reference, simultaneously.
And bees certainly wouldn’t go for unsweetened tea.
(I am bee as you are bee and she is me and we are all together…)
Addendum to comment: All of the hidden-eye characters are wearing flower-patterned attire. Hmmm.
Oh, beehive! – Austin Powers, IMoM.
It’s Gavotte. It has to be. Mrs. Ape is the key. Go plug “ape” into Google Translate from Italian to English and see what happens. 🙂
Really hope it is Gavotte, because I miss her. Wonder how you plug a swarm of bees, or any gestalt entity into a virtual reality though.
A whole lot of really tiny headsets is my guess…
I still haven’t realized it
I’m inclined to go along with *some* connection with bees. The Oracle at Delphi does have a mythological link to bees.
And we’ve got Bee-atrix and Mel-anie, and miele means honey, as does melissa.
As long as we’re considering fragmented gestalt minds (as one does), consider the following:
1) Ginny was in an Anasigma location when she was taken.
2) The extirpation VR (or a system that accesses it) is almost certainly housed in the same location.
3) The only gestalt mind that we know Anasigma actually held captive for an extended period of time was the Cypress.
4) While they might not have been able to control the Cypress herself, Anasigma might have experimented with splitting off more controllable daughter swamps.
5) Could attempts at controlling swamp-gestalts have included putting them in a (separate from the extirpation) VR?
Random bonus notion: What would happen if an intelligent bee-swarm combined with a swamp gestalt somehow?
Ooh, and what if you combined intelligent nanite goop with a swamp gestalt? And then combined that with an intelligent bee swarm? Or maybe the other way around?
There are so many
fascinatinghorrific possibilities!Probably the green goo that we saw in the alternate universe that was taking over half the country and using U.N.I.T.Y. as a spokes . . . being. Which means melding the four of them together might be either the best or the worst thing to do for the future.
I am sure Ira would agree that the ladies need to spend more time in VR learning to work together for the benefit of humanity. Stay a while. Stay forever! Also, I initially assumed the name Madame Delphi was sufficiently self explanatory that it didn’t need any secondary significance, but I was wrong.
Destroy him, my robots! So fitting – now my braincanon has Madblood, grown old, as the antagonist in Impossible Mission.
2 things of interest worth asking:
1. What *are* Mrs. Ape’s goals?
2. What is Mrs. Ape’s actual name? o_O
1: No idea. Presumably to make everything more orderly and proper, and keep everything as such, if we presume this is a fractured psyche, she is what she appears to be, the old lady of the psyche, there to keep everything together properly.
2: Apis, which is a fancy (read: scientific) word for honey bee, if I had to wager. It’s close enough for reasonable room for mockery.
So what is your real rude name, Mrs. Ape?
“Ape”, pronounced “ah-peh”, is bee in Italian. So her name could actually be Mrs. Ape and yet it would still be rude to pronounce it as “ape”. (I see Kaymyth got there first.)
Also, I think that now makes it virtually a given that this is either a fractured Gavotte or Pavane. I’m betting on Gavotte as Pavane was coherent when she showed up in VR with Sweetheart.
Weird thought – suppose Virginia gets all of them together to dance together…
Can I post anything at all?
I kept getting “Invalid security token”. Will this comment go through?
It sounds like you have either a browser or an ISP problem. The only time I’ve ever had a problem posting a link is when I tried to put more than one link in a single comment. Apparently that’s been disallowed to prevent spam, or so I guess.
[I’m guessing the comment system doesn’t like the link? How much do I have to mangle it?]
I was a little reluctant to buy off on the Gavotte hypothesis, because we’ve seen what Gavotte looks like when her swarm count is lowered, and it’s all Drunk Cockney. So maybe something else is going on?
But during an archive browse a certain strip caught my eye:
[paste “todays-comic-397” after “comic” in your url bar; comic for October 9, 2010]
Look at the teacup and teapot with the floral pattern. It’s not in color, and they don’t look exactly the same in the flower placement, but I suspect that what Mrs A is using is meant to look like it.
Just for the sake of trying, I’ll post it myself…
http://skin-horse.com/comic/todays-comic-397
Good catch on the tea pot, by the way.
So, I’m wondering if all these people are parts of Dr. Lee’s mind. Like various manifestations of herself.