I wasn’t expecting to see *her* again!
On the other hand, I was expecting some sort of twist on the seemingly obvious “VR Hell” scenario, so there’s that.
Obviously the next step would be to see what happens if you try to leave this place to go back to the beach town. Taking Phoebe along might not be a bad idea since she’s the first NPC to have revealed her eyes. ^_^
Or only NPCs have their eyes covered at all times. My takeaway here is that the work camp is staffed by extirpated Anisigma ex-employees, who are all real people.
It’s kind of hard to tell with just the eyes and half of the haircut but that guy looks like he might just be Andrew Farago, which would mean we can’t really read into his appearance.
Before the time I hooked up with this series. I was drawn in by Jonah Yu’s “Choose Your Own Adventure” sequence so I really should go back into the archives and start reading. Thanks for the incentive. ^_~
Perhaps this is evidence of my warped mind. There’s something inside me that takes amusement in the idea that all the prisoners at this work camp were told something like “You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave!” and were indeed unable to leave because they all duly believed what they were told and never thought to put it to the test or else were afraid to if they did.
In support of this theory, unlikely though it may be, I will invoke the fact that Ginny was apparently able to walk in on this camp without encountering any security is in the middle of it without being challenged or arrested and has yet to meet anyone even as vaguely official as a prisoner orderly. Maybe it’s just mental conditioning but I think the prisoners don’t leave because they “know” they can’t escape and that’s all the security this camp has really ever needed. @_@
I think it’s a bit worse than that. I’d say that the labor camp exists only because people felt like extirpation couldn’t possibly refer to the beach town, or wherever else they first found themselves. They created something that felt more familiar.
Building on that, since Ginny Lee seems to be able to pass between areas freely, either due to incipient madness or lack of the same mental blocks the others have, then she might be able to unite the various camps, “fixing what was broken”, allowing all of the prisoners to escape.
Most people don’t shine their shoes at all, which is itself also a decision.
You can choose to do something well, or you can choose to do it poorly, or you can choose to not do it at all. Life is full of decisions to be made. Of course, most people’s decisions — even poor ones — don’t result in extirpation.
Careful, for that way lies madness. In a strict interpretation everyone is continuously making choices instant by instant, “shall I get up to go get lunch right now? – no, not yet – okay how about now? – no – how about now? – no – now? – NO!” style. That’s not how people think though – they do or they don’t, and then no more deciding occurs for a while even though they _could_ get up ad go at any instant in-between.
Even more strictly speaking, if one were to adhere to a strictly materialistic view regarding free will, then try following a many-worlds interpretation to its logical conclusion one would realize that “decisions” or “splits” on a quantum level don’t happen on a “is the cat dead or alive right now, has the radioactive particle decayed yet?” time scale, every now and then, but by the trillions of trillions each nanosecond even on a scale local to of a single individual, inducing the minute changes linking one instant to the next one atom by atom. That is not a meaningful framework to think in about anything due to its sheer massiveness.
So personally I much prefer only calling explicit conscious choices “a decision”. If you ever pondered “should I shine those shoes or are they fine the way they are?”, then sure, that would be one. But if that never even occurred to you, that’s not a “decision” in my book, even though at some point in the past you could have acted differently to reach a different outcome.
Anyway, this sort of pondering is best done accompanied by lots of alcohol and it’s too early for that so all I have is coffee – sorry for the wall’o’text; see, that’s what happens when you accidentally push one of someone’s buttons… 😛
Yeah, I get it. People are constantly pushing my buttons, too. Usually, it’s the “Don’t bother explaining–their mind doesn’t work the same as yours” button. Of course, half the time that button doesn’t work, and I explain it anyway. 🙂
Since all of my previous speculation has gone nowhere, here’s another idea that is probably all wet:
The reason we see no guards or fences is because they aren’t needed. Everyone who is extirpated gets a personal rain cloud. The rain will lighten to a mild drizzle or fine mist if the subject follows the rules, and gets heavier and heavier if they misbehave, especially if they try to leave. If they get beyond a certain distance from the designated proper area, there are lightning strikes. The clouds enforce checks on behavior so that the subjects don’t become too deranged.
Who knows? Maybe she would have met him earlier, through an online gaming group. And she may have still inspired him to be a better man. And then he wouldn’t have been chosen for the Whirligig project. And then they could be banging now, instead of just wishing that they could.
What if this isn’t simply some weird hell but a retraining course? The mind games keep going and going, with people rotating in and out of various hells or relative heavens, all designed to instill a company-appropriate values without the subject ever realizing it?
Virginia leaving the beach sort of reminds me of an old story. I’m getting all the details wrong and making it stink. Maybe somebody remembers the source or has a better version.
A guy finds a bell in a pop-up cursed curio shop at the mall. The clerk says it’s a magical bell that changes your life, but it’s cursed and you should never ring it. But also it’s free, and it would look great on his tchotchke shelf, and the guy takes it home, because only very good salesmen can make a living selling cursed items for free.
A few years go by and the first guy is poor and lonely. So he says, screw it, I’m ringing the bell. The next day he meets a woman, and they fall in love, except they have no money. After a year or two they’re barely surviving, so he rings the bell again, and he gets a nice new job, and the two of them have kids, and they’re pretty content. But he’s still thinking about the bell, so he rings it a third time. And his family disappears, the job disappears, and the bell disappears.
Hmmm…. Maybe Tip’s Mojo is “that which is broken”, and together Virginia and Phoebe can heal it. Virginia has demonstrated that she has her own Mojo, so she may be able to use it to jump them both out of here.
I wasn’t expecting to see *her* again!
On the other hand, I was expecting some sort of twist on the seemingly obvious “VR Hell” scenario, so there’s that.
Obviously the next step would be to see what happens if you try to leave this place to go back to the beach town. Taking Phoebe along might not be a bad idea since she’s the first NPC to have revealed her eyes. ^_^
But she’s not an NPC! She’s the Anasigma agent from the “Come Swing From My Branches,” who had pangs of conscience, only to run afoul of Violet Bee.
Also, that chap in the foreground of Panel #1 definitely seems to have his eyes uncovered.
Good catch. Obviously this locale plays by a different set of rule. ^^
Or only NPCs have their eyes covered at all times. My takeaway here is that the work camp is staffed by extirpated Anisigma ex-employees, who are all real people.
…and the ones in the background in panel four, too.
It’s kind of hard to tell with just the eyes and half of the haircut but that guy looks like he might just be Andrew Farago, which would mean we can’t really read into his appearance.
Before the time I hooked up with this series. I was drawn in by Jonah Yu’s “Choose Your Own Adventure” sequence so I really should go back into the archives and start reading. Thanks for the incentive. ^_~
Yeah, if you’ve never read the whole thing from the beginning, you’re really missing out on a lot of great stuff.
Of course, some of us obsessive types who’ve read the whole thing a few hundred times are missing out, too….. on sleep.
*rereads the whole “Come Swing From My Branches” arc*
Okay. That Phoebe.
Can she leave? One would think people would flee Walnut Hell if they could. On the other hand, perhaps there are worse places…
Perhaps this is evidence of my warped mind. There’s something inside me that takes amusement in the idea that all the prisoners at this work camp were told something like “You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave!” and were indeed unable to leave because they all duly believed what they were told and never thought to put it to the test or else were afraid to if they did.
In support of this theory, unlikely though it may be, I will invoke the fact that Ginny was apparently able to walk in on this camp without encountering any security is in the middle of it without being challenged or arrested and has yet to meet anyone even as vaguely official as a prisoner orderly. Maybe it’s just mental conditioning but I think the prisoners don’t leave because they “know” they can’t escape and that’s all the security this camp has really ever needed. @_@
This is the theme of “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri. People are in the various places because that’s where they feel they should be.
I think it’s a bit worse than that. I’d say that the labor camp exists only because people felt like extirpation couldn’t possibly refer to the beach town, or wherever else they first found themselves. They created something that felt more familiar.
Learned Helplessness
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2015/06/24/yanss-052-how-we-learn-and-unlearn-to-be-helpless/
Building on that, since Ginny Lee seems to be able to pass between areas freely, either due to incipient madness or lack of the same mental blocks the others have, then she might be able to unite the various camps, “fixing what was broken”, allowing all of the prisoners to escape.
Ah, you could have something there.
Welp, now I’m feeling all gaslit.
Isn’t that kind of why anyone gets extirpated? Making terrible decisions? I mean, from management’s viewpoint, that’s really what it boils down to.
Also people who make good, sensible decisions which turn out terribly wrong, I suspect.
Well, I guess you _could_ call poorly shined shoes a “decision” but most people would not think of it that way…
Most people don’t shine their shoes at all, which is itself also a decision.
You can choose to do something well, or you can choose to do it poorly, or you can choose to not do it at all. Life is full of decisions to be made. Of course, most people’s decisions — even poor ones — don’t result in extirpation.
Careful, for that way lies madness. In a strict interpretation everyone is continuously making choices instant by instant, “shall I get up to go get lunch right now? – no, not yet – okay how about now? – no – how about now? – no – now? – NO!” style. That’s not how people think though – they do or they don’t, and then no more deciding occurs for a while even though they _could_ get up ad go at any instant in-between.
Even more strictly speaking, if one were to adhere to a strictly materialistic view regarding free will, then try following a many-worlds interpretation to its logical conclusion one would realize that “decisions” or “splits” on a quantum level don’t happen on a “is the cat dead or alive right now, has the radioactive particle decayed yet?” time scale, every now and then, but by the trillions of trillions each nanosecond even on a scale local to of a single individual, inducing the minute changes linking one instant to the next one atom by atom. That is not a meaningful framework to think in about anything due to its sheer massiveness.
So personally I much prefer only calling explicit conscious choices “a decision”. If you ever pondered “should I shine those shoes or are they fine the way they are?”, then sure, that would be one. But if that never even occurred to you, that’s not a “decision” in my book, even though at some point in the past you could have acted differently to reach a different outcome.
Anyway, this sort of pondering is best done accompanied by lots of alcohol and it’s too early for that so all I have is coffee – sorry for the wall’o’text; see, that’s what happens when you accidentally push one of someone’s buttons… 😛
Yeah, I get it. People are constantly pushing my buttons, too. Usually, it’s the “Don’t bother explaining–their mind doesn’t work the same as yours” button. Of course, half the time that button doesn’t work, and I explain it anyway. 🙂
The having eyes thing might be a way to tell the “Prisoners’ from the “Jailers” or this could be just another “Red Herring”.
There is a poster in the background that looks like it says “The Rules”. That must be filled with fun and informative clues.
“Questions are a burden for others, answers a prison for oneself.”
Seems like she’s transitioned from torment for the mad to torment for the banal.
The banalty of evil.
Guy in the panel 1 foreground looks a lot like Andrew Farrago to me. He gets around 🙂
Honestly, it looks like Sergio to me.
My first thought was Sergio, too. But unless A-Sig just happened to find him holed up wherever he got off to, they should still assume that he’s dead.
Since all of my previous speculation has gone nowhere, here’s another idea that is probably all wet:
The reason we see no guards or fences is because they aren’t needed. Everyone who is extirpated gets a personal rain cloud. The rain will lighten to a mild drizzle or fine mist if the subject follows the rules, and gets heavier and heavier if they misbehave, especially if they try to leave. If they get beyond a certain distance from the designated proper area, there are lightning strikes. The clouds enforce checks on behavior so that the subjects don’t become too deranged.
Yes, Virginia, there is a sanity cloud.
Forecast calls for a hail of puns
Here, the eyes have it.
She did make a terrible decision. She took a job at Anasigma.
Robert Nowall: How is that terrible? If she hadn’t joined Anasigma, she’d never have met Nick.
Personally, I don’t think her parents would be thrilled by that.
Who knows? Maybe she would have met him earlier, through an online gaming group. And she may have still inspired him to be a better man. And then he wouldn’t have been chosen for the Whirligig project. And then they could be banging now, instead of just wishing that they could.
What if this isn’t simply some weird hell but a retraining course? The mind games keep going and going, with people rotating in and out of various hells or relative heavens, all designed to instill a company-appropriate values without the subject ever realizing it?
That smacks of the kind of subtlety that Anasigma has never really been known for.
Virginia leaving the beach sort of reminds me of an old story. I’m getting all the details wrong and making it stink. Maybe somebody remembers the source or has a better version.
A guy finds a bell in a pop-up cursed curio shop at the mall. The clerk says it’s a magical bell that changes your life, but it’s cursed and you should never ring it. But also it’s free, and it would look great on his tchotchke shelf, and the guy takes it home, because only very good salesmen can make a living selling cursed items for free.
A few years go by and the first guy is poor and lonely. So he says, screw it, I’m ringing the bell. The next day he meets a woman, and they fall in love, except they have no money. After a year or two they’re barely surviving, so he rings the bell again, and he gets a nice new job, and the two of them have kids, and they’re pretty content. But he’s still thinking about the bell, so he rings it a third time. And his family disappears, the job disappears, and the bell disappears.
How long before Ginny and Phoebe find out that they have Tip in common?
Hmmm…. Maybe Tip’s Mojo is “that which is broken”, and together Virginia and Phoebe can heal it. Virginia has demonstrated that she has her own Mojo, so she may be able to use it to jump them both out of here.
This idea has potential.