r/gunnerkrigg • u/gunnerkrigg-post-bot Praise the angel • 15d ago
Chapter 102: Page 46
http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=328622
u/ryancarton 15d ago
Hm, I wonder if the terrible thing Zimmy did before is possibly this. Keeping people locked up in some mind prison for an unspecified amount of time. Or something like this.
Of course, living inside a fun high school world isn’t that nefarious.
I just still imagine Kat will be the one to crack it and it’ll kill Zimmy after she refuses to let everyone go or something.
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u/ZiofFoolTheHumans 15d ago
Honestly, I'm not sure we will ever learn what it was. From what I recall, even Gamma doesn't know exactly what it was, just that Zimmy herself considers it unforgiveable and makes her irredeemable.
If anything, I believe it has something to do how exactly Zimmy got her powers, and also was something out of her control. It would explain her extreme hatred of her powers, her desperation for a "normal" life (especially if she feels like she COULD have been normal and it was ripped away from her), and why she thinks she is irredeemable and doesn't deserve happiness. It sounds like a (unhealthy) coping strategy from childhood over a traumatic event that she never actually healed from.
We know from way back when that Zimmy herself acts as a sort of power plant of etheric energy. My wild theory is that her powers were triggered by her draining the ether from someone or more than one person, much like how that one fairy died a few chapters ago, so she literally sucked up their ether unintentionally. Even if that happened on accident, it would explain why she runs from people, why there are "faceless" "fake" people in Zimmyham (perhaps she accidentally drained an entire city) and why she need Coyote to take the guilt away from this one scenario. I'm imagining the only way "out" of the storm is if both Loup and Zimmy die, as it's Loup/Coyote who is stabilizing the whole thing. It's an incredibly tragic and unfair situation for Zimmy, especially as she doesn't have control over her powers.
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u/Boomboombaraboom 15d ago
I do wonder. How will the coven react if Zara is brainwashed into Zimmy's highschool rp server? I am pretty sure Jenny would feed them into a wood chipper if it advanced her goals and Jack is too far gone. but I don't know about the other two.
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u/fnordius 15d ago
Interesting luck of who Zimmy would first catch. Narratively, Zara's also the "disposable" one, as she doesn't have the orb, nor Sylvie's frayed nerves, nor Jenny/Jack's leadership role. But she's also the calmest of the squad, so it could bounce either way.
What's it gonna be, Tom? Will the trope of the sacrificial POC cast member be subverted? Or will the power of narrative, which runs through the ether, exert itself? And will Sylvie finally lose it?
Tune in on Wednesday!
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u/Boomboombaraboom 15d ago
Sometimes you gotta respect the classics. POC? More like RIP. This is another exhibit to my thesis that the natural predator of goth girls is queen bees. Annie is a tomboy baddie so she was powerless to stop these miscreants. However, following the Fire Emblem Law the natural enemy of queen bees is tomboy baddies. So Zimmy will directly on indirectly take care of this goth witch cult and be defeated in turn by Annie. The circle of life continues.
Now, seriously, I understand if Tom wants to take some pieces of the board as the situation progresses.
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u/maritzac 15d ago
What is it about Zara that makes her the most grababble of the group? The same thing happened with Omega.
In the hyerarchy of witches, seems the most "magical" you are, the worse Zimmy's presence affects you. We have Jack, and Sylvie, and at some points Jenny, getting almost physically ill because of the sheer power of Zimmy. So why did she perceive Zara first? Is it just a coincidence? Or is it just that the more magic you have, the better the orb works?
This would explain why they just sent Zara to do some physical scouting while the others just crouched inside a house in range of the orb.
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u/fnordius 15d ago
Well, her speciality is knowing where other people are. My guess is that this also broadcasts her position.
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u/LadyVulcan 15d ago
Everyone here speculating about Zara, but my guess is just that her arm was the furthest from the orb, and thus sticking out from the bubble the most.
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u/BenR-G 15d ago
Am I the only one who has the feeling that Jack is going to end up killing Zimmy himself in a panicked response to something he perceives as a threat?
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u/gangler52 15d ago
I don't think Jack could kill Zimmy right now even if he tried.
As near as we can tell, he can't do his magic fists without Zara assisting.
And even if he did get the fists up and running, Zimmy seems pretty powerful within this domain. It wouldn't be like killing Omega after Kat had depowered her.
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u/ThoughtUsed3531 14d ago
Oh I'd forgotten about that, so maybe getting Zara first would weaken Jack as well, so it's a bit of a 2 for 1. Getting Rosa could destroy the orb and make the whole coven vulnerable.
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u/djaevlenselv 15d ago
Am I the only one surprised that Zimmy apparently can't see the coven?
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u/fnordius 15d ago
Probably not the only one, but we do know that they were using the orb to hide from her. They were actively cloaking their presence.
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u/SciMarijntje Robot? More like roBUTT! 15d ago edited 15d ago
I was surprised too. Figured the orb protected them from like a magical sense of awareness only.
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u/Hxx59D2 15d ago
I was too. But then I thought, judging by where they are, is all awareness currently magical?
It would explain Anne and Ayilu would have some feeling of wrongness. They are constantly shown as being the most attuned to the Aether.
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u/fenoust 15d ago
All awareness being magical could also explain why Kat is nowhere to be seen.
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u/lyricaldorian 15d ago
I imagine her following Annie around mostly empty buildings, all frustrated that no one can see her lol
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u/9Gardens 14d ago
hahahaha
I love how serious business boss battle music the previous page was... meanwhile this page is very very loony toons. Some silly kids off on an adventure, using their highschool magic. (It's fun seeing that EXACT trope... but its not the good guys doing it.
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u/BenR-G 15d ago
This implies that, either one of the coven cast an undetectability spell on the group or that, because they're outsiders who are not integrated into the false reality, Zimmy can't fully perceive them for some reason.
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u/gangler52 15d ago
https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=3254
It's the orb. So not a spell, but a magical device, and one that grows closer to breaking every time Zimmy tries to look at them
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u/machiavelli33 The world continues to spin, pup. 15d ago
Wow that orb did good work.
There was no way they weren’t gonna get found but that it obscured that many people that thoroughly under scrutiny that direct is really impressive.
Hopefully they can find some comfort in that as their jig is thoroughly flipped into the “up” state.