It’s sounding more and more like it could be Tony & Merc and the Groovitron, rather than the Cure.
Although now that Tip uses the phrase “mind control”, I do recall that A-Sig had purchased Whimsy’s software, in addition to doing experiments with the Cure. So they’re all sorts of mind games — and none of ’em good.
But why? Do they actually have something to gain by making these people reality-blind? Or is this just a large-scale test of the software and/or the Cure?
It’s still just about possible that it was the Cure, administered before or during the session, perhaps in drinks or via air-conditioning. If the minutes-taker was one off the first to be affected, they may have censored out / altered all talk of non-human sapients by delegates who hadn’t been hit by reality-blindness yet.
maby being hooked up to the groveatron made tip immune to whatever is causing this, maby the grveatron is like a reverse cure in that it gets rid of reality blindness
I would consider that particularly poor writing myself. The Whimsy mind control software could influence people subtly while they were jacked in to a full immersion VR simulation. The difference between that and affecting a whole town with no vector is immense.
Not to mention that Tip was bitten by a werewolf and injected with Extract of Unity. And who knows what he was exposed to when he was dealing with the basement dwellers at Annex 1. So he’s not exactly 100% human any more himself.
I don’t know if him being partly nonhuman himself would actually matter, especially if it’s only a tiny bit. Remember Phil the Mynah who thought that he was human? It’s hardly difficult to imagine him being reality blind on top of that.
Yeah. I wonder how a swarm of bees jacks in to a VR. Unless they aren’t Gavotte’s _biological_ daughter, but something more complicated, which could be the case.
Probably not all that differently than how anyone else does it. It would have to hijack certain sensory paths in the brain, and it would likely be easier to do this with a gestalt once you understand how they communicate with themselves. You could access their “brains” without having to worry about that pesky skull in the way. No need to do it remotely or perform any surgery.
I don’t agree. I think Artie could easily say it without any hubris, and possibly Konstantin or Tigerlily as well, although those two are both pretty arrogant at times.
As someone else noted, Tip implies that they stopped debating only non-human rights, not that they stopped debating altogether.
I imagine seeing everyone’s face going blank, their eyes glazed over, and then all glancing around the room for a second in that bewildered way that says “what just happened?” And then carrying on with the next piece of business. The minutes still shows everything because the secretary likely couldn’t even see that they had typed anything weird.
Here’s what I don’t get… I thought H.T. was at that Coucil meeting. Yet he acts like he doesn’t know about this happening. He would have witnessed it firsthand.
He was… for a time. He didn’t stay for the entire thing; as soon as Tip walked out, he went to threaten Tip. And after that, he probably went to his base to plot his next move, because Tip’s meddling was going to derail any progress he would have made at the council meeting.
He didn’t see any point in staying after things had gone so far off the rails. If he had stayed, he would’ve been a very great disruption…
Hmmm. Perhaps this is the Whimsy mind control in some form, rather than The Cure.
Does anyone still listen to The Cure anymore?
Yes, I do.
Did anyone listen to The Cure back then?
It’s sounding more and more like it could be Tony & Merc and the Groovitron, rather than the Cure.
Although now that Tip uses the phrase “mind control”, I do recall that A-Sig had purchased Whimsy’s software, in addition to doing experiments with the Cure. So they’re all sorts of mind games — and none of ’em good.
But why? Do they actually have something to gain by making these people reality-blind? Or is this just a large-scale test of the software and/or the Cure?
It could indeed be a test, a la the Death Star.
“You may fire when ready.”
It’s still just about possible that it was the Cure, administered before or during the session, perhaps in drinks or via air-conditioning. If the minutes-taker was one off the first to be affected, they may have censored out / altered all talk of non-human sapients by delegates who hadn’t been hit by reality-blindness yet.
maby being hooked up to the groveatron made tip immune to whatever is causing this, maby the grveatron is like a reverse cure in that it gets rid of reality blindness
Dang – I like that one!
I would consider that particularly poor writing myself. The Whimsy mind control software could influence people subtly while they were jacked in to a full immersion VR simulation. The difference between that and affecting a whole town with no vector is immense.
It was the turtles, they have become the Turtle Overlords.
That would be turtley awesome, if a little terrapinfying.
Congratulations! You’ve tortoise some new puns!
He isn’t cured!! Thank you Shaenon and Jeff!
Reality Blindness can only affect those who still have a shred of disbelief that this could happen.
Tip has worked with Skin Horse for so long that he’ll never be affected by it again, if he ever was to begin with.
(Or at least, that’s my take on how it works.)
Not to mention that Tip was bitten by a werewolf and injected with Extract of Unity. And who knows what he was exposed to when he was dealing with the basement dwellers at Annex 1. So he’s not exactly 100% human any more himself.
I don’t know if him being partly nonhuman himself would actually matter, especially if it’s only a tiny bit. Remember Phil the Mynah who thought that he was human? It’s hardly difficult to imagine him being reality blind on top of that.
Recall also that one of the possums mentioned Pavane, whose only appearance to date was in a VR simulation…
This was supposed to be below Kadrien’s comment. Gah…
Yeah. I wonder how a swarm of bees jacks in to a VR. Unless they aren’t Gavotte’s _biological_ daughter, but something more complicated, which could be the case.
Probably not all that differently than how anyone else does it. It would have to hijack certain sensory paths in the brain, and it would likely be easier to do this with a gestalt once you understand how they communicate with themselves. You could access their “brains” without having to worry about that pesky skull in the way. No need to do it remotely or perform any surgery.
Tip’s last line would be hubris coming from anyone else.
I don’t agree. I think Artie could easily say it without any hubris, and possibly Konstantin or Tigerlily as well, although those two are both pretty arrogant at times.
Incomplete minutes, and the first thing Tip thinks of is mind control? Can he tell himself he’s not crazy?
You’d see much the same result if a swarm of bees was to fly into the council chamber towards the end of the day.
They stopped mid-sentence debating non-human rights. They didn’t stop debating.
Remember the baseline weirdness of their jobs.
Just because nobody else posted it, and just for Sweetheart and HT…
https://youtu.be/Od6hY_50Dh0
Oh, good call. Reward yourself with a can of tuna.
Also, Tip is still wearing his clothes from the night before. Odd, that.
For all sorts of reasons.
He probably had to trade the majority of his previous wardrobe for it.
Well, when you hook up with someone and go to their place…
Or the cartoonist just wants to squeeze more mileage out of suited Tipp.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Crown has been deployed. The New War has officially begun.
To the laboratories, lairs, and secret bunkers. This is not going to be fun.
For *them*, anyway. I got popcorn and a popper waiting, myself…
It needn’t be the town council who stopped in mid sentence. It could just be the stenographer.
As someone else noted, Tip implies that they stopped debating only non-human rights, not that they stopped debating altogether.
I imagine seeing everyone’s face going blank, their eyes glazed over, and then all glancing around the room for a second in that bewildered way that says “what just happened?” And then carrying on with the next piece of business. The minutes still shows everything because the secretary likely couldn’t even see that they had typed anything weird.
Here’s what I don’t get… I thought H.T. was at that Coucil meeting. Yet he acts like he doesn’t know about this happening. He would have witnessed it firsthand.
He was… for a time. He didn’t stay for the entire thing; as soon as Tip walked out, he went to threaten Tip. And after that, he probably went to his base to plot his next move, because Tip’s meddling was going to derail any progress he would have made at the council meeting.
He didn’t see any point in staying after things had gone so far off the rails. If he had stayed, he would’ve been a very great disruption…
Plot twist: they had been mind-controlled until that point and were just being suddenly released!
That last panel reminds me of PKD’s The Golden Man. Tip has the oldest adaptation, and is likely rapidly breeding human intellect out of the world.
(Also, Frank, PKD and Lem both already did your idea, and with a Cure-like chemical nonetheless.)