Unless May opts for mortality early. But still, this difficult decision doesn’t have to be made instantly.
One wonders why this wasn’t forced on the GGs back in the day when their handlers just wanted them shut down. It is likely a backdoor known only to May, who held it close until she could retrieve her daughter.
ah didnt see your post. was too angry when i posted mine.
i totally agree.
and i am inventing more nice new words to describe the lanthians AND the immortals because of this
of cause none of them can be repeated in nice company but still….
Because ONLY a Glyph Reader can do it, and Glyph Readers are pretty rare. The handlers probably didn’t have access to the required knowledge, or the necessary specialist.
Additionally, May probably didn’t teach the specific Glyphs to too many people.
Actually, looking back, Monica is now effectively immortal, because she’s become the Phoenix – if she dies, she just bursts into astral fire and resets back to age 29 (or so – the age she was when they took out tbe Calendar Machine).
(Except a lot healthier and with all the little scars you pick up in a lifetime vone.)
Though one wonders just how bad being immortal will be. In Wapsiverse, there are apparently numerous immortal beings. Tepoz, Nudge, Sphinxes (or maybe they’re just crazy long-lived), Demons.
Seems like it’s not quite so bad in Wapsiverse to be immortal as it would be in a more ‘finite’ universe like our own.
Your question reminded me of Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged. Whilst the GGs were not born to it they, unlike Wowbagger, got used to it.
Trying to work out who out of Bud and Brandi would prefer to be mortal and who immortal makes my head spin.
Bud:
Likes idea of being “normal”
Talks about undoing the damage she did
So on first sight it seems that Bud would be one/the one to choose to be human. Then again it was Bud who covered Monica when she went to Egypt. She might not be able to do that as a human.
Brandi:
Described as a mother to them all
Does not talk about the past
She definitely acts the responsible one and the one that smooths over fights
On first sight it seems that Brandi’s sense of responsibility would make her one/the one to refuse to do it. However, I suspect that she’s tired of the responsibility and I also suspect that she may yearn to be a real mother (which she can’t be as a GG — even if it was technically possible she would not, as shown above, be able to cope with the idea that she would outlive her child).
If I were to place bets I would see Brandi taking the option to become human and Bud being tempted but ultimately deciding that she likes who she’s become despite her complaints and her fears.
This, of course, assumes that they choose different options. I can’t see both of them deciding to be human. Bud wouldn’t want to leave May alone for one.
The might both decide to stay as they are but Brandi seems to have disconnected/been kept out of the loop with the others so I can’t see her staying.
Which then raises the obvious question of can one exist in any form of calm/enjoyment without the other?
Jin was always the loner of the GGG, very rarely engaging with Bud or Brandi, even before the moment the cycle loops began. As such, while Jin’s absence may shock both of them, in the end it’ll be no bigger than Monica’s eventual demise.
Bud and Brandi, however, only manage to exist with what little joy they maintain by having one another. Until Bud’s recent strides to independence, to two were practically joined at the hip, and as we saw two weeks ago, still come back to each other whenever shit hits the fan.
And let’s not forget how Brandi reacted to the possibility of loosing Bud during the Calendar machine instance (almost killing Shelly and Monica in the vein panicked hope it would help).
Their shared trauma, sins, and longevity have effectively made the two closer than any friends, spouses, or family members ever could be. Which is, as you indicated, part of the reason why Brandi feels so betrayed by Bud for being kept out of the loop.
Just interesting to see how this develops. My bet would be neither take it, but Brandi takes time to overcome the blow this revelation causes to her definition of what she is.
I was also thinking of Elrond and Elros having to choose between elvish immortal life in this world, and human life that can go beyond this world–as half-elves they were not designated either way, but had to choose–and their choice bound their descendants.
Wowbagger seems to forget that one of those whom he insults could have him sealed up in something forever. Immortality may not be pleasant, but immortality in a small, dark, impregnable coffin would be much, much worse.
I think Wowbagger carefully chooses his ‘victims’ and full ‘easy escape’ plans.. if you have all of time, you can pick up any ‘super-tek’ you want, so his victims will not have a chance..
I think its not that bad being immortal *and* indestructible.. ‘Wowbagger’ has a good point, though… 🙂
I think the real thing that has ‘messed’ up the girls, is seeing the *same* thing go past you every few thousand years… and getting desperate about trying to change the fate of certain people..
Now that the CM has gone, I guess they want a good long time to relax a bit, and hope their best friends are around to help smooth out their fried brains..
And a 3rd thought, I wonder how Tina would weigh on this subject.
Tina is essentially an immortal being that’s never faced the concept of not only mortality, but oblivion thereafter, and from what we’ve seen, that perplexes (and possibly scares) her.
Jin = Former immortal doomed to die.
Tina = Former immortal unsure if she can now die.
As I said, curious how Tina will swing regarding Jin’s fate and the decision that Bud, Brandi, and May have to face (albeit, May might have made her decision for immortality long ago given her knowledge).
Now when Tepoz comes back for a visit, he’s going to find out all his charges are on the path to dying, meaning Kukuklan’s going to reassign him, and the vacation he’s enjoyed thanks to Monica is coming to an end.
I’d guess that most of un humans have to come to terms with the idea of our own mortality, and some of its implications, when we’re in our twenties or thirties.
Brandi and the other GGs were robbed of that chance… they were murdered at an age probably too young for that concept to have really sunk in. They’ve spent millennia as immortals, and I suspect Brandi has never thought through the issue…
… until now. Eons of deferred emotional growing up, coming due all at once. Gotta be a tough experience… seriously unsettling.
I hope–for Monica’s spine, if nothing else–that it doesn’t take her all that long to come to terms with the new option as it did to come to terms with her old life.
I think I recall someone (M?) saying that they were 18-year-olds. I’m not certain whether that was a reference to their age at death, or their “apparent” emotional age at the time Tepoz summoned them.
Again, if I recall correctly, several characters referred to them as “girls” rather than “women”, which suggests some level of not-yet-adult-hood at the time of their death-and-golemization.
Dave, I think when the process of golem creation began, they were innocent. After the horrors done to them to create the chimera, none of them are innocent. That Bud and Brandi have achived any kind of peace at all speaks volumes about thier inner strength. I think that peace is fragile though. Bud and Brandi had accepted what they are and had come to terms with it. This throws a whole new wrinkle into the mix. Now both of them have to re-evaluate who they are and who they want to be.
So to turn off Jin’s immortality you need to hunt an artifact and all that jazz and now it’s a simple off-switch that any glyph-educated mortal can flick?
Isn’t that a bit too simple? I thought they spent the artifact on Jin, so why isn’t it needed for the others?
If I understand correctly, the artifact was necessary to re-power Jin in a way which corrected her mental instability… as May had originally thought the calendar machine could do… IIRC that was her original motivation for creating it.
The Glyph of Mortality seems to have been a separate issue… May told Bud that it, and not the installation of the artifact, was what reprogrammed Jin to be quasihuman.
Yep, that seems the logical answer. The trouble with Jin wasn’t her immortality, but her off-sync state…
Also, this means, i9t was not absolutely necessary to make her human in the process – even though that seemed to be her original wish (Will anyone look up the strip where she’s talking about growing old and dying to Alan?)
I’m not certain about that. The artifact was a power controller, not a power source as such. It reduced the power available to Jin to a normal human level. This had the effect of making her vulnerable and human-like, as well as, somehow curing her time shift problem. The new symbol seems to be what gave her a lifespan as well.
It is not totally clear if both are needed to give the overall desirable effects. That is to say, would the symbol alone have provided a lifespan, or is the power controller needed as well? Could Monica simply paint it on and do the job? Given todays dialog that would seem to be the case. They would still be super powerful and invulnerable, just no longer immortal. One day they would simply keel over, dead (again).
I thought it was the glyph at first, but when Bud told Brandi that Jin was human again, Brandi somehow knew that a power cell was involved. I think it’s supposed to be a mystery.
What they said. In short, Jin’s suicide messed up the creation of her Golem, causing both the cultists to be unable to control the Chimera and Jin’s mental instability. Jin’s mental instability was negated as a side effect of the Calendar machines presence on Earth (radiation? magic rays? good vibrations? whatevers it did). Once Bud destroyed the Calendar machine, Jin no longer had that counterbalance, and her mental instability grew worse and worse as time progressed (almost like a withdrawal of sorts).
The Celtic Cross provides that counterbalance to Jin again. Jin’s mortality has nothing to do with the Celtic Cross, but with May (who’s off her rocker, remember) taking advantage of the moment to rewire Jin so she was a mortal golem, fulfilling a wish her daughter’s expressed numerous times (to finally be able to die).
In short, we don’t need anymore Celtic Crosses fueled by yellowcake uranium and 56 dead Shellys
If Bud and Brandi don’t want to die they just need to keep their hatches closed when May’s around.
… and if that’s not symbolism (intentional or not) for female virginity and chastity, I don’t know what is.
Ooo…I like that, W! 🙂 I have too many memories of sitting in a room with an English teacher who was trying to tell me what my half-assed attempts at poetry in high school symbolized…it actually made me hate the subject for many years.
That said, Sonic Thunder has a point. It could be used or interpretted as an interesting symbol of antiquated thinking regarding female virginity…especially given the “don’t let them in the hatch and live forever” vs “let someone in the hatch and live a shorter life subject to pain and ailments and eventually death” options that are being presented.
those damn idiots at the begining were messing with stuff they didn’t understand.
may might be a mad scientist but she does seem to have back-ups
(this convinces me even more may asked Jin to be a back-up when may decided to attack the calender machine directly)
Topez is the true golem, a living artifact created from scratch. There were no humans sacrificed to make up his matrix. I have no idea what a glyph of mortality would do to him. I suspect it would not be good.
what if May pulled a “Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde” when she created Tepoz? He seems rather logical and rational to me, whereas May is a ditzy Loon… maybe during the process of “programming” Tepoz to be human, she accidentally transferred her logic thinking mode into him instead of just copying it into him? I’m thinking along the lines here of the movie “Lost In Space” a few years ago where the kid had to reprogram “Robbie the Robot” via direct mental link. Robbie ended up really, liking baseball for no logical reason… what if May had to do something similar to get Tepoz up to a Human level of mental activity, and she went too far? that could explain why she’s such a ditz and not really completely thinking things thru from our perspective.
as for the Glyph… i imagine it could possibly fix his “curse” from the Aztec’s where he turns back into a statue every year unless he gives a favor to Monica. then again, maybe it wouldn’t do anything to him other than make him a tiny blue guy that’ll die sooner or later. I’ll bet the whole “curse” is a “screensaver mode” that the Aztecs accidentally figured out how to change the timeout settings on 😉
I understood this to be May: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/betterprotection/
Not what I’d characterize as a “ditzy loon”.
Of course, that was before she spent all that time
exiled from the universe.
Next few episodes are touching ‘funeral of Monica’ episodes.
Brandi decides to undergo it just so she can end the guilt of having hugged her friend into diamonds.
Well that does put an interesting spin on that phrase…
Then again, turning loved ones into diamonds is already a thing. Granted, the loved ones in the link are already dead and not just squished into oblivion…
ooh now i REALLY hate the guys in charge and those damn lanthians (and i hadnt thought i could dislike THOSE guys more!!)
they seperated the girls
they kept them imprisioned within their golem state for frikken forever
they continued to basically torture three young girls for centurys simply to save themselves
tepoz was the only one who was nice to them
AND THEY COULD HAVE STOPPED IT AT ANY POINT HAD THEY NOT BEEN MESSING WITH CRUD THEY KNEW NOTHING ABOUT
Some times evil does evil for the sake of the greater good. The world would still be stuck in a loop. A greater evil of demons might be lost in the world. Monica, Shelly and all the others would not have found thier place in this world.
Condemd these men yes, but remember that these girl’s sacrifice and suffiering was not in vain, no matter how terrable.
May is the one who used something beyond her grasp. Like a scorpion, the priests just did what they did because of who they were. You don’t hate a scorpion because it stung you. At least not if you realize it was your fault for picking it up in the first place. May had the best of intentions, but knowingly made a deal with the devil. She even murdered a few people just to make a point. Anyone who bargains with the devil, providing great power in the process, and then condems him/her/them for doing evil with it just doesn’t have a grasp of the situation. May is the root of this whole tragedy. It is she who did nothing to personally clean up the mess when she had the chance. Hoping Jin-the-vulnerable-immortal could cover her mistakes was not a good plan.
darnit.
i was writing a whole speil about how may loved jin and thats the main difference when i realised
we have no idea what society was like for the lanthian males.
may was a powerful intelligent woman.
what if the other women were like that and they actually abused the males in charge.
the males might get so desperate that they would end up doing horrific things to change your situation…
May did try to do something to clean up the mess. The Chalender Machine was originaly made to help Jin with her Psychological problems. Once set in motion it made May, Jin, the Time keepers and several VIPs Imortal. Once May figured out what the CM was doing to our galaxy she tried to figure out a better way to help her daughter.
Although May and Jin were imortal they could still be killed. May found a way to keep her self from harm. She had her self burned alive and made a golem to basicly be come invulrable. I believe she needed this for two reasons. One, we know that the power source for the cross that finally fixed Jin was radioactive, so that could still kill her. Also its stated earlier that all the time keepers were killed with the exception of May. My guess is that May killed them so she could destroy the CM. She was also probably sure that the CM would have a way to defend it’s self, so she had to have the power to destroy it.
The same problem that keeps coming up is that May doesn’t think things through. Like the a-typical Mad Scientist she gets an idea and jumps on it without thinking. The Calander Machine, turning into a Golem, trying to destroy the CM. Everything was done for a good reason, but she didn’t think through what would happen.
Good or Bad everything May did was for her daughter. She did some horrable things it give her daughter a good life. And she made several mistakes, but without doing each step she would not have been able to give the most important person in her life something to live for.
The thing is, May had the CM created to fix Jin, not to clean up any mess associated with her providing the priests with the formula for creating golems. That all came later. For her part, May skipped town with the CM, leaving Jin holding the bag. Jin tried her best to stop the making of the chimera, but failed.
There is no evidence May killed the other timekeepers. The story simply says they eventually died, one by one, over the ages. Regardless, May ended up being responsible for the deaths of thousands/millions. Untold suffering for who knows how many as the priests experimented with the golem making process. I doubt they hit upon the correct method right off the bat. They went to great lengths to select these 3 girls for the process. There must have been a reason and I think that reason was failed experiments with other people.
Her good motives notwithstanding, May is the seed responsible for great evil. If someone accidently
set off a terrible plague while trying to create something to help their child, would we be praising that person for his/her good intentions?
Ya never know. People contented with the status quo don’t rise up to revolt. Something was wrong. And who is to say, even if the matriarchy were still in place when May did her mischief, that things would have turned out any differently in the end. I’m sure even the matriarchy had it’s problems with the neighbors waring against them. Some in that society may have felt a superweapon was the right course of action and did the same things to create the chimera “for the greater good” of the realm. Women in positions of great power have shown themselves no less prone to empire building and making wars as men. Not to mention torture and murder.
The also waged wars and killed and enslaved many people. It wasn’t just the three GGGs who suffered because of them. But at the same time, you have to wonder about Jin. She was a glyph reader herself and managed to do her own thing, at least to some extent.
I thought that Phix said that she wasn’t a Glyph reader. Don’t remember the comic but I think it went something like, “There are others that can read Glyphs, but that doesn’t make them Glyph Readers.”
The “can read glyph, but that doesn’t make them glyph readers” comment would apply to Brandi and Bud, I think. I don’t really understand the distinction, though.
Ah, but when Lanthis fell, the survivors had to hide. That may be from retribution, but even that implies there is another country out there strong enough to strike back…
What an intriguing twist in the tapestry. I wonder if any of the others will choose to become human any time soon… and what powers do they get to keep?
I can imagine Brandy is torn between her sense of responsability, i.e. being able to protect those around her, being superstrong and completely invulnerable- and her wish to become human again, have a ” normal” life, eventually raise a family.
I wouldn’t mind being an indestructible, superstrong, ever-living golem.
Strange as it may sound, but I have not a whole lot of family left. Yes, outliving my friends would be unpleasant, on the other hand, frirnds can be found anew. Family is a one-time affair. They pass away, you’re alone. They are not coming back.
they won’t come back for sure but you might go be with them.
no one knows what happens when we die
we just hope
if we become immortal we loose that hope to see those who have gone before.
its nasty but i think that’s important.
– and should you get your wish and become a ever living powerful golem please be sure to tag ‘unageing’ to it also. ageing whilst being ever living = ughhhhhhhh
think – indiana jones and the holy grail = death of nasty man … but y’know … longer.
Luckily I imagine ” immortality” and “invulnerability” go hand-in-hand with “not ageing.
If not…well.. Meryl Streep & Goldie Hawn come to mind in that weird& funny movie where they gain immortality, but forgot to ask for invulnerability.. Brrrr
Yet, as a non-believer, this whole ” hereafter” -thing of religious people doesn’t mean a thing to me.
People apparently gain the fortitude to think about dying on a “manageable” level through religion and spirituality.
I don’t mind. If it works, it works. I am not the one to critisize, but to me, the end is just that.–> no more power in the synapses, end, not even blackness, for that requires someone to be able to observe said blacknes, nope, to me, the end is the end.
Yes. Still. People were still alive though, despite being an advanced duracell.
I could, admittently, envision a way to store a personality and it’s memories. I have no clue as to what the experience would be like. Maybe one wouldn’t notice the difference between living on a FDD or “real life”
As posed by many people, far more versed in philosophy: Would you be able to tell?? 😛
Ah but that gets into the essence of being. Simply storing what is in one’s brain does not mean the “person” is also stored. You could put that data in a clone with a blank brain, but it would not be the individual, just a copy of them. The individual will not see through the clone’s eyes. If killed, they will not “wake up” in the clone. It’s that essence that is the elusive quality which cannot be stored as data, yet does reside in the brain, since transfering the brain into a clone will cause the individual to wake up in the clone’s body.
Choices. Sometimes the worst curse of all. As long as Brandi had no choice in who she was, she could come to terms with it and go right along. What if Bud chooses to go? She would no longer have the one constant in her eternal life. I think, for each others sake, they would both need to make the same decision. They also have to wonder if there will always be glyph readers around to put on the symbol. There is no guarantee of that through the eons to come either. Even Tepoz might decide to have the Lifespan 1.0 mod installed.
Seriously, how small is Monica? I imagine Monica is the type of girl you can grab by the waist with both hands, and have your fingers tips touch! Now that’s tiny!
The sense of gravitas behind the words of “It’s your choice.” is massive. Brandi was never offered a choice on who she became. Now it’s a world of difference to be offered that choice.
As for “parents shouldn’t outlive their children”… that position is always a problem when you have immortality and time travel involved. Since May’s age can no longer be expressed by math, Jin’s hundred thousand years might already make her older than her mother. Or if we assume these two existed through all the time loops (like the rogue demons) in parallel to one another, then their difference in age is microscopic. Appeals to generational succession or leading a full life no longer apply.
Then there’s the issue that they all died already (in the proper generational order), and that the golem form is merely a sophisticated copy.
And back in the real world there’s Darwin and y’know, war. Not really respecters of whether the young should die first.
So while Brandi’s sentiment is pure, that ultimately has no bearing on the argument. Jin had had enough, and wanted to rejoin the mortal coil, and her mother understood this.
“Then there’s the issue that they all died already (in the proper generational order)…”
IIRC there wasn’t any indication that Brandi’s or Bud’s parents were killed when Brandi and Bud were kidnapped. Bud, at least, was at a well, so it was probably easier to just grab her and go.
“And back in the real world there’s Darwin and y’know, war. Not really respecters of whether the young should die first.”
And Brandi was was apparently part of the wars and killing in the New World. At a minimum she was a tool of those who were responsible. She also knew what Jin wanted. She apparently was too much of an airhead to think things through until now, but I can’t blame her for not wanting to do it.
Good point about Bud & Brandi’s parents, though Brandi is referring specifically to May.
Come to think of it, Bud and Jin have expressed specific memories of destroying their homes and families. But not Brandi. Still so many unanswered questions about that girl.
Just realized something — either Brandi is holding Monica by her waist up in mid air (for their heads are level), or Brandi is down on her knees, to get down to M’s level. (Yesterday she was towering over M.)
DECISION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, not at all. At least one of the glyph readers is herself an immortal. Brandi has many years to think it over. Centuries, if she wants them.
Unless May opts for mortality early. But still, this difficult decision doesn’t have to be made instantly.
One wonders why this wasn’t forced on the GGs back in the day when their handlers just wanted them shut down. It is likely a backdoor known only to May, who held it close until she could retrieve her daughter.
ah didnt see your post. was too angry when i posted mine.
i totally agree.
and i am inventing more nice new words to describe the lanthians AND the immortals because of this
of cause none of them can be repeated in nice company but still….
deary me…. 😮
repeat after me…
its only a story, its only a story… 🙂
and hope that one day you will have the skill and abilities of Paul, the author.. 🙂
Because ONLY a Glyph Reader can do it, and Glyph Readers are pretty rare. The handlers probably didn’t have access to the required knowledge, or the necessary specialist.
Additionally, May probably didn’t teach the specific Glyphs to too many people.
Actually, looking back, Monica is now effectively immortal, because she’s become the Phoenix – if she dies, she just bursts into astral fire and resets back to age 29 (or so – the age she was when they took out tbe Calendar Machine).
(Except a lot healthier and with all the little scars you pick up in a lifetime vone.)
So, now we see who stays immortal and who’s ready to die.
Who wants to bet Brandi and Bud pick opposite sides?
Though one wonders just how bad being immortal will be. In Wapsiverse, there are apparently numerous immortal beings. Tepoz, Nudge, Sphinxes (or maybe they’re just crazy long-lived), Demons.
Seems like it’s not quite so bad in Wapsiverse to be immortal as it would be in a more ‘finite’ universe like our own.
Your question reminded me of Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged. Whilst the GGs were not born to it they, unlike Wowbagger, got used to it.
Trying to work out who out of Bud and Brandi would prefer to be mortal and who immortal makes my head spin.
Bud:
Likes idea of being “normal”
Talks about undoing the damage she did
So on first sight it seems that Bud would be one/the one to choose to be human. Then again it was Bud who covered Monica when she went to Egypt. She might not be able to do that as a human.
Brandi:
Described as a mother to them all
Does not talk about the past
She definitely acts the responsible one and the one that smooths over fights
On first sight it seems that Brandi’s sense of responsibility would make her one/the one to refuse to do it. However, I suspect that she’s tired of the responsibility and I also suspect that she may yearn to be a real mother (which she can’t be as a GG — even if it was technically possible she would not, as shown above, be able to cope with the idea that she would outlive her child).
If I were to place bets I would see Brandi taking the option to become human and Bud being tempted but ultimately deciding that she likes who she’s become despite her complaints and her fears.
This, of course, assumes that they choose different options. I can’t see both of them deciding to be human. Bud wouldn’t want to leave May alone for one.
The might both decide to stay as they are but Brandi seems to have disconnected/been kept out of the loop with the others so I can’t see her staying.
Which then raises the obvious question of can one exist in any form of calm/enjoyment without the other?
Jin was always the loner of the GGG, very rarely engaging with Bud or Brandi, even before the moment the cycle loops began. As such, while Jin’s absence may shock both of them, in the end it’ll be no bigger than Monica’s eventual demise.
Bud and Brandi, however, only manage to exist with what little joy they maintain by having one another. Until Bud’s recent strides to independence, to two were practically joined at the hip, and as we saw two weeks ago, still come back to each other whenever shit hits the fan.
And let’s not forget how Brandi reacted to the possibility of loosing Bud during the Calendar machine instance (almost killing Shelly and Monica in the vein panicked hope it would help).
Their shared trauma, sins, and longevity have effectively made the two closer than any friends, spouses, or family members ever could be. Which is, as you indicated, part of the reason why Brandi feels so betrayed by Bud for being kept out of the loop.
Just interesting to see how this develops. My bet would be neither take it, but Brandi takes time to overcome the blow this revelation causes to her definition of what she is.
I was also thinking of Elrond and Elros having to choose between elvish immortal life in this world, and human life that can go beyond this world–as half-elves they were not designated either way, but had to choose–and their choice bound their descendants.
Wowbagger seems to forget that one of those whom he insults could have him sealed up in something forever. Immortality may not be pleasant, but immortality in a small, dark, impregnable coffin would be much, much worse.
I think Wowbagger carefully chooses his ‘victims’ and full ‘easy escape’ plans.. if you have all of time, you can pick up any ‘super-tek’ you want, so his victims will not have a chance..
I think its not that bad being immortal *and* indestructible.. ‘Wowbagger’ has a good point, though… 🙂
I think the real thing that has ‘messed’ up the girls, is seeing the *same* thing go past you every few thousand years… and getting desperate about trying to change the fate of certain people..
Now that the CM has gone, I guess they want a good long time to relax a bit, and hope their best friends are around to help smooth out their fried brains..
And a 3rd thought, I wonder how Tina would weigh on this subject.
Tina is essentially an immortal being that’s never faced the concept of not only mortality, but oblivion thereafter, and from what we’ve seen, that perplexes (and possibly scares) her.
Jin = Former immortal doomed to die.
Tina = Former immortal unsure if she can now die.
As I said, curious how Tina will swing regarding Jin’s fate and the decision that Bud, Brandi, and May have to face (albeit, May might have made her decision for immortality long ago given her knowledge).
I also wonder what Tina’s reaction to Jin’s aura is.
“Owie”, perhaps?
She’ll probably be shocked that she has one.
Now when Tepoz comes back for a visit, he’s going to find out all his charges are on the path to dying, meaning Kukuklan’s going to reassign him, and the vacation he’s enjoyed thanks to Monica is coming to an end.
his owneris back
she would outrank that guy any time 🙂
may will let him relax 😀
…and the betting pool is now open. Place yer bets!
*Starts singing* “Who wants to live forever?”
Eeek.
That creaking sound you hear is Monica’s spine and ribs.
And the Busty Mom Hug from M seems to have done nothing for Brandi. I think it’s safe to class this as a major freak-out.
I’d guess that most of un humans have to come to terms with the idea of our own mortality, and some of its implications, when we’re in our twenties or thirties.
Brandi and the other GGs were robbed of that chance… they were murdered at an age probably too young for that concept to have really sunk in. They’ve spent millennia as immortals, and I suspect Brandi has never thought through the issue…
… until now. Eons of deferred emotional growing up, coming due all at once. Gotta be a tough experience… seriously unsettling.
I hope–for Monica’s spine, if nothing else–that it doesn’t take her all that long to come to terms with the new option as it did to come to terms with her old life.
dave: ugh, I had forgotten.. had the girls got past ‘the awful teens’ yet???
bmonk: look below! 😀
I think I recall someone (M?) saying that they were 18-year-olds. I’m not certain whether that was a reference to their age at death, or their “apparent” emotional age at the time Tepoz summoned them.
Again, if I recall correctly, several characters referred to them as “girls” rather than “women”, which suggests some level of not-yet-adult-hood at the time of their death-and-golemization.
My sense: they were murdered as innocents.
Dave, I think when the process of golem creation began, they were innocent. After the horrors done to them to create the chimera, none of them are innocent. That Bud and Brandi have achived any kind of peace at all speaks volumes about thier inner strength. I think that peace is fragile though. Bud and Brandi had accepted what they are and had come to terms with it. This throws a whole new wrinkle into the mix. Now both of them have to re-evaluate who they are and who they want to be.
Fairportfan: ROFL ROFL… do a google on ‘that’ subject, there is plenty and more in RL!!! 😀 :p
I’m thinking Brandi’s “Worried GG Hug” hurts a hell of a lot more than Monica’s “Busty Mom Hug” from yesterday.
Wait, what?
So to turn off Jin’s immortality you need to hunt an artifact and all that jazz and now it’s a simple off-switch that any glyph-educated mortal can flick?
Isn’t that a bit too simple? I thought they spent the artifact on Jin, so why isn’t it needed for the others?
If I understand correctly, the artifact was necessary to re-power Jin in a way which corrected her mental instability… as May had originally thought the calendar machine could do… IIRC that was her original motivation for creating it.
The Glyph of Mortality seems to have been a separate issue… May told Bud that it, and not the installation of the artifact, was what reprogrammed Jin to be quasihuman.
Yep, that seems the logical answer. The trouble with Jin wasn’t her immortality, but her off-sync state…
Also, this means, i9t was not absolutely necessary to make her human in the process – even though that seemed to be her original wish (Will anyone look up the strip where she’s talking about growing old and dying to Alan?)
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/grow-old-togethe/
Yep, that’s the one. I knew I could depend on you guys 🙂
I’m not certain about that. The artifact was a power controller, not a power source as such. It reduced the power available to Jin to a normal human level. This had the effect of making her vulnerable and human-like, as well as, somehow curing her time shift problem. The new symbol seems to be what gave her a lifespan as well.
It is not totally clear if both are needed to give the overall desirable effects. That is to say, would the symbol alone have provided a lifespan, or is the power controller needed as well? Could Monica simply paint it on and do the job? Given todays dialog that would seem to be the case. They would still be super powerful and invulnerable, just no longer immortal. One day they would simply keel over, dead (again).
I thought it was the glyph at first, but when Bud told Brandi that Jin was human again, Brandi somehow knew that a power cell was involved. I think it’s supposed to be a mystery.
What they said. In short, Jin’s suicide messed up the creation of her Golem, causing both the cultists to be unable to control the Chimera and Jin’s mental instability. Jin’s mental instability was negated as a side effect of the Calendar machines presence on Earth (radiation? magic rays? good vibrations? whatevers it did). Once Bud destroyed the Calendar machine, Jin no longer had that counterbalance, and her mental instability grew worse and worse as time progressed (almost like a withdrawal of sorts).
The Celtic Cross provides that counterbalance to Jin again. Jin’s mortality has nothing to do with the Celtic Cross, but with May (who’s off her rocker, remember) taking advantage of the moment to rewire Jin so she was a mortal golem, fulfilling a wish her daughter’s expressed numerous times (to finally be able to die).
In short, we don’t need anymore Celtic Crosses fueled by yellowcake uranium and 56 dead Shellys
If Bud and Brandi don’t want to die they just need to keep their hatches closed when May’s around.
… and if that’s not symbolism (intentional or not) for female virginity and chastity, I don’t know what is.
I just don’t know about the symbolism part of your comment. Sometimes the curtains are just blue.
Thanks for the link, W. I really needed a laugh this morning.
Ooo…I like that, W! 🙂 I have too many memories of sitting in a room with an English teacher who was trying to tell me what my half-assed attempts at poetry in high school symbolized…it actually made me hate the subject for many years.
That said, Sonic Thunder has a point. It could be used or interpretted as an interesting symbol of antiquated thinking regarding female virginity…especially given the “don’t let them in the hatch and live forever” vs “let someone in the hatch and live a shorter life subject to pain and ailments and eventually death” options that are being presented.
Was the problem what the English teacher said, or their horrified expression while they were saying it? 😉
There is nothing worse for a teenager than for an adult to act like they understand them too much. 😀
To be fair, unlike the lit profs, SonicThunder said “intentional or not”.
Another possibility: May only developed the mortality glyph itself after the GGs were separated.
If you were an immortal wizard trapped in a timeless Demon World, what would you be working on?
That was totally supposed to be in response to Paula’s post in the first comment string.
Stupid iPhone. Where’s a Glyph Reader when you need one?
A way out.
those damn idiots at the begining were messing with stuff they didn’t understand.
may might be a mad scientist but she does seem to have back-ups
(this convinces me even more may asked Jin to be a back-up when may decided to attack the calender machine directly)
this means tepoz can die if he wants too right?
Topez is the true golem, a living artifact created from scratch. There were no humans sacrificed to make up his matrix. I have no idea what a glyph of mortality would do to him. I suspect it would not be good.
i thought he was a weasel or ferret?
That was implied.
what if May pulled a “Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde” when she created Tepoz? He seems rather logical and rational to me, whereas May is a ditzy Loon… maybe during the process of “programming” Tepoz to be human, she accidentally transferred her logic thinking mode into him instead of just copying it into him? I’m thinking along the lines here of the movie “Lost In Space” a few years ago where the kid had to reprogram “Robbie the Robot” via direct mental link. Robbie ended up really, liking baseball for no logical reason… what if May had to do something similar to get Tepoz up to a Human level of mental activity, and she went too far? that could explain why she’s such a ditz and not really completely thinking things thru from our perspective.
as for the Glyph… i imagine it could possibly fix his “curse” from the Aztec’s where he turns back into a statue every year unless he gives a favor to Monica. then again, maybe it wouldn’t do anything to him other than make him a tiny blue guy that’ll die sooner or later. I’ll bet the whole “curse” is a “screensaver mode” that the Aztecs accidentally figured out how to change the timeout settings on 😉
I understood this to be May:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/betterprotection/
Not what I’d characterize as a “ditzy loon”.
Of course, that was before she spent all that time
exiled from the universe.
Anyhoo, facing a choice like that is definitely scarier – one might need another boob-hug.
Try not to break her, please.
CRACK!
Oops. One less glyph reader in the world.
Also, most surprising character death ever.
Next few episodes are touching ‘funeral of Monica’ episodes.
Brandi decides to undergo it just so she can end the guilt of having hugged her friend into diamonds.
Meh. None of the 5 Gs running about have exactly been ‘gentle’ with Monica. It was doomed to happen eventually.
Tepoz: Poits entire Turkeys into her digestive track at random.
May: Haunts her throughout her life, making her suicidal at times.
Bud: Exposes Monica to a hail of gunfire and explosives, and convinces her best friend to stab her in the brain with a knife.
Jin: Detonates a room with Monica inside of it.
Brandi: Superstrength panicked bearhugs and teleports Monica to potentially homicidal Sphinxes’ homes.
Hugging your friend to diamonds is definitely a new way to go…
I don’t know about being hugged to diamonds, but it may have solved her “growing” problem. 8)
It gives a whole new meaning to “Diamonds are (were) a girl’s best friend.”
😀
Well that does put an interesting spin on that phrase…
Then again, turning loved ones into diamonds is already a thing. Granted, the loved ones in the link are already dead and not just squished into oblivion…
Hmmm. That could be either very touching and sentimental, or very creepy and controlling, depending on the state of the relationship.
“You can’t hide, you’re diamondized…” (with some slight apologies to The Eagles).
ooh now i REALLY hate the guys in charge and those damn lanthians (and i hadnt thought i could dislike THOSE guys more!!)
they seperated the girls
they kept them imprisioned within their golem state for frikken forever
they continued to basically torture three young girls for centurys simply to save themselves
tepoz was the only one who was nice to them
AND THEY COULD HAVE STOPPED IT AT ANY POINT HAD THEY NOT BEEN MESSING WITH CRUD THEY KNEW NOTHING ABOUT
grrrrrrrrrr
Some times evil does evil for the sake of the greater good. The world would still be stuck in a loop. A greater evil of demons might be lost in the world. Monica, Shelly and all the others would not have found thier place in this world.
Condemd these men yes, but remember that these girl’s sacrifice and suffiering was not in vain, no matter how terrable.
May is the one who used something beyond her grasp. Like a scorpion, the priests just did what they did because of who they were. You don’t hate a scorpion because it stung you. At least not if you realize it was your fault for picking it up in the first place. May had the best of intentions, but knowingly made a deal with the devil. She even murdered a few people just to make a point. Anyone who bargains with the devil, providing great power in the process, and then condems him/her/them for doing evil with it just doesn’t have a grasp of the situation. May is the root of this whole tragedy. It is she who did nothing to personally clean up the mess when she had the chance. Hoping Jin-the-vulnerable-immortal could cover her mistakes was not a good plan.
darnit.
i was writing a whole speil about how may loved jin and thats the main difference when i realised
we have no idea what society was like for the lanthian males.
may was a powerful intelligent woman.
what if the other women were like that and they actually abused the males in charge.
the males might get so desperate that they would end up doing horrific things to change your situation…
phooey…..
May did try to do something to clean up the mess. The Chalender Machine was originaly made to help Jin with her Psychological problems. Once set in motion it made May, Jin, the Time keepers and several VIPs Imortal. Once May figured out what the CM was doing to our galaxy she tried to figure out a better way to help her daughter.
Although May and Jin were imortal they could still be killed. May found a way to keep her self from harm. She had her self burned alive and made a golem to basicly be come invulrable. I believe she needed this for two reasons. One, we know that the power source for the cross that finally fixed Jin was radioactive, so that could still kill her. Also its stated earlier that all the time keepers were killed with the exception of May. My guess is that May killed them so she could destroy the CM. She was also probably sure that the CM would have a way to defend it’s self, so she had to have the power to destroy it.
The same problem that keeps coming up is that May doesn’t think things through. Like the a-typical Mad Scientist she gets an idea and jumps on it without thinking. The Calander Machine, turning into a Golem, trying to destroy the CM. Everything was done for a good reason, but she didn’t think through what would happen.
Good or Bad everything May did was for her daughter. She did some horrable things it give her daughter a good life. And she made several mistakes, but without doing each step she would not have been able to give the most important person in her life something to live for.
Wow, that was a lot longer than I expected it to be. 🙂
I know the feeling. 😆
And it doesn’t help that the column gets so narrow. . . .
The thing is, May had the CM created to fix Jin, not to clean up any mess associated with her providing the priests with the formula for creating golems. That all came later. For her part, May skipped town with the CM, leaving Jin holding the bag. Jin tried her best to stop the making of the chimera, but failed.
There is no evidence May killed the other timekeepers. The story simply says they eventually died, one by one, over the ages. Regardless, May ended up being responsible for the deaths of thousands/millions. Untold suffering for who knows how many as the priests experimented with the golem making process. I doubt they hit upon the correct method right off the bat. They went to great lengths to select these 3 girls for the process. There must have been a reason and I think that reason was failed experiments with other people.
Her good motives notwithstanding, May is the seed responsible for great evil. If someone accidently
set off a terrible plague while trying to create something to help their child, would we be praising that person for his/her good intentions?
Ya never know. People contented with the status quo don’t rise up to revolt. Something was wrong. And who is to say, even if the matriarchy were still in place when May did her mischief, that things would have turned out any differently in the end. I’m sure even the matriarchy had it’s problems with the neighbors waring against them. Some in that society may have felt a superweapon was the right course of action and did the same things to create the chimera “for the greater good” of the realm. Women in positions of great power have shown themselves no less prone to empire building and making wars as men. Not to mention torture and murder.
The also waged wars and killed and enslaved many people. It wasn’t just the three GGGs who suffered because of them. But at the same time, you have to wonder about Jin. She was a glyph reader herself and managed to do her own thing, at least to some extent.
I thought that Phix said that she wasn’t a Glyph reader. Don’t remember the comic but I think it went something like, “There are others that can read Glyphs, but that doesn’t make them Glyph Readers.”
Yes, Phix said that, but she said that Jin was a glyph reader here. Your quote is on the following page.
The “can read glyph, but that doesn’t make them glyph readers” comment would apply to Brandi and Bud, I think. I don’t really understand the distinction, though.
Ah, but when Lanthis fell, the survivors had to hide. That may be from retribution, but even that implies there is another country out there strong enough to strike back…
What an intriguing twist in the tapestry. I wonder if any of the others will choose to become human any time soon… and what powers do they get to keep?
which powers would you want to keep 🙂
i’ve been thinking that since jin became humanish.
poiting for sure.
what else?
Hey who needs a car when you can ‘POIT’ to wherever you want to be. ….. Late for work? *poit* I think Not!
Hmm..
I can imagine Brandy is torn between her sense of responsability, i.e. being able to protect those around her, being superstrong and completely invulnerable- and her wish to become human again, have a ” normal” life, eventually raise a family.
I wouldn’t mind being an indestructible, superstrong, ever-living golem.
Strange as it may sound, but I have not a whole lot of family left. Yes, outliving my friends would be unpleasant, on the other hand, frirnds can be found anew. Family is a one-time affair. They pass away, you’re alone. They are not coming back.
they won’t come back for sure but you might go be with them.
no one knows what happens when we die
we just hope
if we become immortal we loose that hope to see those who have gone before.
its nasty but i think that’s important.
– and should you get your wish and become a ever living powerful golem please be sure to tag ‘unageing’ to it also. ageing whilst being ever living = ughhhhhhhh
think – indiana jones and the holy grail = death of nasty man … but y’know … longer.
Luckily I imagine ” immortality” and “invulnerability” go hand-in-hand with “not ageing.
If not…well.. Meryl Streep & Goldie Hawn come to mind in that weird& funny movie where they gain immortality, but forgot to ask for invulnerability.. Brrrr
Yet, as a non-believer, this whole ” hereafter” -thing of religious people doesn’t mean a thing to me.
People apparently gain the fortitude to think about dying on a “manageable” level through religion and spirituality.
I don’t mind. If it works, it works. I am not the one to critisize, but to me, the end is just that.–> no more power in the synapses, end, not even blackness, for that requires someone to be able to observe said blacknes, nope, to me, the end is the end.
You mean Death Becomes Her?
Ah! Yes. That’s the one. Never laughed so hard about someone falling from the stairs.
But!! 🙂 have you seen ‘the matrix’ ???
Yes. Still. People were still alive though, despite being an advanced duracell.
I could, admittently, envision a way to store a personality and it’s memories. I have no clue as to what the experience would be like. Maybe one wouldn’t notice the difference between living on a FDD or “real life”
As posed by many people, far more versed in philosophy: Would you be able to tell?? 😛
Ah but that gets into the essence of being. Simply storing what is in one’s brain does not mean the “person” is also stored. You could put that data in a clone with a blank brain, but it would not be the individual, just a copy of them. The individual will not see through the clone’s eyes. If killed, they will not “wake up” in the clone. It’s that essence that is the elusive quality which cannot be stored as data, yet does reside in the brain, since transfering the brain into a clone will cause the individual to wake up in the clone’s body.
Choices. Sometimes the worst curse of all. As long as Brandi had no choice in who she was, she could come to terms with it and go right along. What if Bud chooses to go? She would no longer have the one constant in her eternal life. I think, for each others sake, they would both need to make the same decision. They also have to wonder if there will always be glyph readers around to put on the symbol. There is no guarantee of that through the eons to come either. Even Tepoz might decide to have the Lifespan 1.0 mod installed.
Ahhhhh! Brandy! The Girls! YOUR CRUSHING THE GIRLS!!!
Sorry Brandi – with an ‘I’.
…and “you’re”, with an apostrophe.
One shoul’d alw’ays’ kee’p ‘a’n extra box of ‘apostrophes ha”ndy. The’y’ are v’ery us’ef’ul and ‘a’r’e’ not at” a’l”l”’ exp’ensive.”
I think the local grocery store has a plentiful supply.
They always seem to be selling apple’s and orange’s–but never explain what of the fruits assets they are selling.
Seriously, how small is Monica? I imagine Monica is the type of girl you can grab by the waist with both hands, and have your fingers tips touch! Now that’s tiny!
Well, her chest, not counting her breasts, is only 26 to 28 inches around. Her waist is probably in the teens. She’s tiny.
Not Quite Symmetrical Docking!
Brandi finds herself confronted with a choice now.
Regain the mortality that was taken from her or continue on forever frozen in time watching those she’s come to know pass on when their time comes.
The sense of gravitas behind the words of “It’s your choice.” is massive. Brandi was never offered a choice on who she became. Now it’s a world of difference to be offered that choice.
Gah.. Gasp! OK, still Warm & feminine, not so soft and definitely NOT HEAVEN!!! (again blacking out….)
As for “parents shouldn’t outlive their children”… that position is always a problem when you have immortality and time travel involved. Since May’s age can no longer be expressed by math, Jin’s hundred thousand years might already make her older than her mother. Or if we assume these two existed through all the time loops (like the rogue demons) in parallel to one another, then their difference in age is microscopic. Appeals to generational succession or leading a full life no longer apply.
Then there’s the issue that they all died already (in the proper generational order), and that the golem form is merely a sophisticated copy.
And back in the real world there’s Darwin and y’know, war. Not really respecters of whether the young should die first.
So while Brandi’s sentiment is pure, that ultimately has no bearing on the argument. Jin had had enough, and wanted to rejoin the mortal coil, and her mother understood this.
“Then there’s the issue that they all died already (in the proper generational order)…”
IIRC there wasn’t any indication that Brandi’s or Bud’s parents were killed when Brandi and Bud were kidnapped. Bud, at least, was at a well, so it was probably easier to just grab her and go.
“And back in the real world there’s Darwin and y’know, war. Not really respecters of whether the young should die first.”
And Brandi was was apparently part of the wars and killing in the New World. At a minimum she was a tool of those who were responsible. She also knew what Jin wanted. She apparently was too much of an airhead to think things through until now, but I can’t blame her for not wanting to do it.
Good point about Bud & Brandi’s parents, though Brandi is referring specifically to May.
Come to think of it, Bud and Jin have expressed specific memories of destroying their homes and families. But not Brandi. Still so many unanswered questions about that girl.
Bud’s family was alive when she was kidnapped. As she said once, “All my loved ones were vaporized in an instant by…me.”
And here’s Jin’s:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/smell-of-burning-pine/
But as you pointed out in March, Wyvern, we don’t know the story of Brandi’s family. Perhaps it will have some relevance.
Just realized something — either Brandi is holding Monica by her waist up in mid air (for their heads are level), or Brandi is down on her knees, to get down to M’s level. (Yesterday she was towering over M.)
She’s holding her up, which is also giving a boost to her bust.
Well, as if Monica’s boob-size wasn’t causing her some back problems before, now she’s got some herniated discs to work with too.
…Unless you squeeze your friendly glyph-reader in half. Then the number of choices shrinks considerably.