Author Topic: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat  (Read 383560 times)

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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2565 on: July 31, 2017, 06:19:25 AM »
To the ship, shouldn't have been a problem. Onto the ship while already showing symptoms, much less back off a quarantine ship when infected at all, no.

Page 698 suggests that the ship could have taken her after symptoms started showing, and its crew is keeping tabs on Tuuri's health status so they know to take the appropriate measures as soon as they know they are needed. But these appropriate measures may indeed include not planning to let her off the ship.
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thorny

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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2566 on: July 31, 2017, 09:00:51 AM »
Unless they have reason to do further study of the progress of the disease, I can really only think of one form of "uh, medical attention" that would be useful; and given that she was showing symptoms it would have made more sense to do that before they ever let her on the ship. Even in quarantine, a troll would require significant work to handle, and pose a risk to everyone on the ship if something went wrong and the troll got loose. It's not as if they had a cure waiting if they could just get her back home; and apparently once the process starts nobody recovers. And the process is both physically painful and mentally distressing. So why, to be blunt about it, would they have kept her alive?

Time to say goodbye is another issue; and they might well have expected that. But the only reason I can think of that they would have let a symptomatic Tuuri on the ship would be possibly to use the ship's radio for that purpose; and I don't know whether they'd have taken the risk -- or whether, by the time the team and the ship meet up, she'd still have been in condition to do so.

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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2567 on: July 31, 2017, 09:59:13 AM »
Trollification is quite rare, or at least it was during the initial outbreak. (My personal headcanon on how trollification works would make it more likely to happen among the surviving non-immunes, so I'm considering this could have changed over time) When trollification doesn't happen, then what you have is a person who is dying. In addition, as mentioned earlier, one of the signs of future trollification is the symptomatic phase lasting longer. My guess is that there is now an established number of days beyond which, if the patient hasn't died yet, they are 99% sure to start transforming eventually, and that it's standard procedure to euthanise anyone who makes it past that threshold.
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thorny

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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2568 on: July 31, 2017, 10:45:35 AM »
One of her symptoms was hearing troll voices; another was that Kitty was afraid of, and attacked, her.

Would either of those things have happened if she were only going to die?

I took them as signs that she was in early stages of trollifying; but I don't know for sure whether some people have both those symptoms but then only die.

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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2569 on: July 31, 2017, 12:13:13 PM »
The Year 0 cure seems to have made 100% of its recipients into murder-ghosts, who are able to basically become the ghost version of giants. Only a small portion of the recipients would have become trolls if the disease had followed its natural course. This indicates that some of the effects on the soul start kicking in during the symptomatic phase regardless of whether the patient ends up becoming a troll or not. Kitty may have been detecting that. Otherwise, there hasn't been a recap of the symptoms since the part of the prologue where trolls weren't a thing yet, so the troll voices may not necessarily mean future trollification and be a normal part of the symptomatic phase that's only noticeable if one is close enough to trolls.
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thorny

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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2570 on: July 31, 2017, 02:12:00 PM »
We don't know whether the failed cure which created the murder ghosts was given to people who were only dying, however. It may have only been given to people who were trollifying.

But then, we also don't know whether there was a stage at which the people not yet infected could tell the difference.

I was just speculating; I agree we don't know just what the cats are detecting, or what it means for those who couldn't previously to become able to hear the voices, or what the difference is between those who trollify and those who die.

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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2571 on: July 31, 2017, 06:31:44 PM »
We don't know whether the failed cure which created the murder ghosts was given to people who were only dying, however. It may have only been given to people who were trollifying.

But then, we also don't know whether there was a stage at which the people not yet infected could tell the difference.

It was given to people who only had an early stage of the disease, as per Mikkel in Amalienborg, so it shouldn't have been apparent yet whether they were simply dying or trollifying. At least during the creation of the cure, the only indicator seems to have been the resilience of the infected.

Quote
I was just speculating; I agree we don't know just what the cats are detecting.

I keep thinking of the safety measures in Mora - they had cats sniffing the luggage there, and it feels more likely to me that they were checking for traces of infection, e.g. in an infected person's clothes, than for, say, Rash beasts that got into the luggage or that someone might have tried smuggling into the safe zones. So I'd guess they can detect the Rash itself, not merely trollified creatures.
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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2572 on: July 31, 2017, 08:59:48 PM »
It was given to people who only had an early stage of the disease, as per Mikkel in Amalienborg, so it shouldn't have been apparent yet whether they were simply dying or trollifying. At least during the creation of the cure, the only indicator seems to have been the resilience of the infected.

I keep thinking of the safety measures in Mora - they had cats sniffing the luggage there, and it feels more likely to me that they were checking for traces of infection, e.g. in an infected person's clothes, than for, say, Rash beasts that got into the luggage or that someone might have tried smuggling into the safe zones. So I'd guess they can detect the Rash itself, not merely trollified creatures.

In the absence of Word of God, I'm going to offer a different point of view. 

I'm assuming that by "the Rash itself" you mean infectious particles outside a host body -- though please correct me if I'm wrong. 

Minna has said the Rash agent (virus, bacteria, prion, fungus spore, or ???) doesn't survive long outside a host.  That's why Lalli, after his first scouting mission, had his clothes put in the Cattank's ultraviolet-light disinfector -- though he could have just been made to stand in the sunshine for a couple of hours.  The Mora government washes and sterilizes the clothes people are wearing -- though we didn't see how they handle shoes and accessories such as jewelry, hats, hairclips, wallets, etc.  But it doesn't extend that treatment to the contents of bags, which are merely inspected.  (It seems like either the Mora authorities or Minna herself didn't consider the possibility that someone might have taken off something s/he was wearing and put it in a bag -- or else they assume the infectious agent never outlives the check-in process.) 

So to my mind, the small amount of Rash contaminant a person could pick up in casual contact with a infected environment is not what the cats are there to detect.

HOWEVER, all non-feline mammals can carry the Rash if they're not immune.  In some ways, the smallest mammals (mice, voles, etc.) pose the biggest infection risk because they can creep in anywhere.  I think the cats are there to detect the threat of live but infected critters sneaking into baggage (and/or very small Rash-beasts if you don't consider those literally "alive") -- as well as people/pets/livestock who are infected (the way Kisu reacted to Tuuri). 

This still leaves the possibility that a malicious or crazy person might try to smuggle in a chunk of a Rash-beast.  (Is anyone in the Known World naive enough to think of a dead, preserved Rash-creature as merely a trophy, like the "shrunken heads" soldiers brought home from the South Pacific?)  We don't know how long severed tissue stays infectious; it does at least seem to lose the ability to move and/or regenerate once the Beast/Troll is killed.  It seems plausible to me that cats could detect that, too. 
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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2573 on: July 31, 2017, 10:27:46 PM »
I was thinking perhaps the cats simply detect it by scent? Sure, there is likely some magical sensing going on, as I believe that was shown with the murderghosts' first attack on the tank. But I figure that since the Illness causes a change is a person's tissue, there would probably be a change in smell that cats could detect and react to, even if the person is fated to die, not trollify. Kitty probably recognizes it as dangerous either way.
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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2574 on: July 31, 2017, 10:49:01 PM »
I was thinking perhaps the cats simply detect it by scent? Sure, there is likely some magical sensing going on, as I believe that was shown with the murderghosts' first attack on the tank. But I figure that since the Illness causes a change is a person's tissue, there would probably be a change in smell that cats could detect and react to, even if the person is fated to die, not trollify. Kitty probably recognizes it as dangerous either way.

Some research suggests that dogs can smell the presence of certain diseases (including cancer) on affected individuals.  The SSSS Known World includes that most elusive of beasts, the trained cat, that seems to have the same ability.
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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2575 on: August 01, 2017, 12:29:23 AM »
Alright this might be an odd comment, but for some reason the last few pages have been making me think of a very specific music.

https://youtu.be/yhnpYF5YjXY?t=52s

I didn't know the title until I looked for it. As far as I was concerned, it was simply ''sad Tintin music''. But idk. There just something about what has been happening for the last few pages that reminded me of this.
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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2576 on: August 03, 2017, 12:26:31 AM »
Latest page shows the pilot and co-pilot of the tank had office chairs and not dedicated chairs.... I think.
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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2577 on: August 03, 2017, 02:49:45 AM »
Actually, seeing a similar comment on Disqus got me thinking, and it may not actually be as dumb as it first looks.
1) There seems to be a grand total of two movable chairs in the entire tank (the couch seems to be another story), so this lets the diver's seat be used for something else when they are not on the move.
2) This a vehicle that is bound to change drivers frequently, so not having a permanent chair and enabling the current driver to put whatever suits them best in that space may be more practical and cheaper than putting a permanent adjustable seat in.
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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2578 on: August 03, 2017, 03:56:37 AM »
Actually, seeing a similar comment on Disqus got me thinking, and it may not actually be as dumb as it first looks.
1) There seems to be a grand total of two movable chairs in the entire tank (the couch seems to be another story), so this lets the diver's seat be used for something else when they are not on the move.
2) This a vehicle that is bound to change drivers frequently, so not having a permanent chair and enabling the current driver to put whatever suits them best in that space may be more practical and cheaper than putting a permanent adjustable seat in.

Or alternatively it's another "unique feature" of the decidedly second-hand Cat Tank...

"The driver's chair mount has completely rusted through!"
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Re: Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat
« Reply #2579 on: August 03, 2017, 03:15:41 PM »
Latest page shows the pilot and co-pilot of the tank had office chairs and not dedicated chairs.... I think.
Actually Emil moved the driver's seat away from the steering wheel a bit (to where it should be in the door leading to the office/radio compartment) so as to make room for him on the floor. The actual passenger-side seating in the driver's cab is a fixed, L-shaped bench that could probably accomodate three.
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