Copenhagen - Chapters 5-8

[NightMareMage]

I completely missed that Lalli could not walk on water by himself! I thought for sure that he did, but I checked the earlier pages, and nope. He does not.

A few things make a bit more sense now.

[JoB]

It makes sense to have help, especially with the initial hose-down. And because they are not just washing but decontaminating, where it is important to get at every little fold and corner.

And then again, when Lalli returned from his scouting in Kastrup, all the decontamination Mikkel insisted on before letting Tuuri hug Lalli (though still with a mask on) was a couple spritzes from his "water"bottle. Not to mention Reynir and Mikkel being in the same room while Mikkel gave some clothes a thorough scrub as the Cat-Tank was heading into Copenhagen proper.

[Jitter]

The laundry is just against the clothes getting dirty, the infectious material doesn’t survive outside a host body. This is discussed (in relation to the washing JoB just mentioned) on pages 373 and 375.

[Róisín]

Yeah, being out in the sunlight and/or the cold also kills the infective agent.

[NightMareMage]

Returning to pages 318-334 for a moment.

On page 326, Lalli punches Reynir and on page 328, Onni forces Reynir against a tree, threatens him, and seems to be preparing a magical attack. Lalli’s violence was unnecessary, though it was understandable he would be upset with Reynir. Onni thought that Reynir was a spirit come to attack him, so violence was understandable, even if it was just a misunderstanding.

I wanted to bring this up because Reynir is physically hurt by others multiple times in A1. In A2, we learn that his mother is physically abusive, which on reread makes this all extra uncomfortable for me.

I have not seen people actually talk about any of this either. I have seen it acknowledged but only in jokes. I have never seen it discussed.

[thorny]

In A2, we learn that his mother is physically abusive, which on reread makes this all extra uncomfortable for me.

Can you point to the particular page(s)? I'm trying to remember the incident.

[NightMareMage]

A2, pages 18-19. I believe that is everything for physical abuse from Reynir's mother but I could be forgetting something.

[Jitter]

I think there’s just the one ear grabbing incident, but given how he’s a grown man already and they are right in front of a big audience, it does seem like it’s not something she’d feel shy about. Also the way they have lied to him about not being allowed to leave, effectively forcing him to stay home as free labour can be considered to not be exactly healthy.

Btw NightMareMage there’s cake for you in the Promotions thread

[NightMareMage]

335-345
I feel like Sigrun should have heard something. Maybe she could not hear Emil and the dog running past her, or them running in the other direction once they were in the same hall. But Emil shoots at the dog twice, each time firing several bullets.

346-354
Something about Mama Cat I don’t think anyone talked about was her age. Cats can reproduce at four mouths and are fully grown at two years. Feral cats in real life have a life expectancy of under two years. I would guess that cats in the Silent World would have an even shorter life expectancy. Assuming she is fully grown, she has lived longer than most cats in her environment, while hardly being an adult. And if cats are not uncommon in Silent Denmark, or at least the area she lived in, this is likely not her first litter.

For Kitty’s age, I am not sure. Cats can start eating solid food at four weeks but should be nursed for about eight. I would guess she is somewhere between four and eight weeks old.

Pages 353, I am not sure how they are treating Kitty. I can tell they are getting her warm and presumably dry, but I don’t know what is in the bowl or what Emil is doing. Maybe they are not drying her but using hot water and towels to warm her, with could explain the bowl, but not what Emil is doing.

355-363
On page 356, panel 2, at Mama Cat’s funeral, Emil tells Lalli to get any death rites he may have over with. A little bit of foreshadowing for the next chapter, where Lalli does a death rite for the dog, to the horror and confusion of Emil.

There is a lot of great character work in this chapter, especially from Emil, but I do find that it loses some bite on reread. In A2, Emil comments on having a thing about dog beasts. Which is fair, but it just makes me think about how inconsistent trauma is handled in SSSS (mostly in A2). So for me, rereading this makes me think about my frustrations with SSSS (again, mostly A2).

That said, YMMV, but I think SSSS A1 was very good at balancing the tone. Letting there be heavy moments, but giving levity while not undermining the tone is not an easy feat. (The ending of A1 is more dramatic but there is still levity and it ends on a high note.)

[Róisín]

I think what they are feeding Kitty is some of the canned tuna, possibly warmed.

[Daywalker]

Oh hey, look, the page I got my icon of Lalli from is in this section of the re-read! (366 if you want to look at the full page's context)

From chapter 7 and beyond, they always get me in my emotions (and overthinking the anatomy of these beasts and trolls). Chapter 7 is such a nail for me to read through, no matter how many times I have.

These comments are during Chapter 5 specifically
Though literally the first page of Chapter 5 (224), i just want to appreciate Sigrun's instant jump to action the moment their radar detected something approaching the Cat-Tank. Even though she just awoke from her sleep, she instantly throws a mask to Tuuri and grabs what I believe is a rifle to investigate. (also Tuuri's face in that bottom left panel is hilarious).

(225) - Is it worth concern over the way Sigrun checks that door through a peep-hole? Or more specifically that you have to shove your eye up to a small part of it to see who's on the other side. I'd hope its reinforced with the rest of the Cat-tank, else that'd not be fun to get jabbed in the eye by some thing that lurks out there just to check.
And with the comments, it must take skill for Lalli to scritch-scratch in a question mark.

(228) - Can I say how scared of these radio transmissions I am? Over the course of both adventures, I'm not sure how many times it's happened but it's been eating away at me what it'd even sound like. Despite loving horror, I am both scared easily and scare myself even easier. I'd avoid ever using a radio if I could help it because of.. that.

It just goes from static, to pure screaming or even distorted begging of trollified things. It happened awhile back in the murder-train as well. (157 specifically, eugh! it was worse than I rememberd! why'd she leave it on so long?) I'm to assume they're picking up on the transmission devices left out in the Silent World's claims, though I admit I don't have a perfect understanding of how it works. But if it is picking up on, say, someones hodge-podge'd radio, oh dear me that's terrifying. But also why are they still screaming, it's probably been decades since.. yknow, illness overtook them... Do trolls just, constantly scream? Isn't it.. pretty quiet out there? Then what's picking up those noise/voices? I have questions and I'm scared of their answers.
But ohh, I don't have words for how creepy the sometimes-re-occuring-radio-screaming is to me.

There's so much to talk about, and probably not enough space for it all in a single post (i want a word with whoever designed that train) so I should probably leave it here for now before I just go through every page of Chapter 5 and subsequently 3, hah!

[JoB]

(225) - Is it worth concern over the way Sigrun checks that door through a peep-hole? Or more specifically that you have to shove your eye up to a small part of it to see who's on the other side. I'd hope its reinforced with the rest of the Cat-tank, else that'd not be fun to get jabbed in the eye by some thing that lurks out there just to check.

The panel showing what she sees of Lalli outside displays a pronounced fisheye lens effect, so I'd guess that there are at least optics - read, glass - inserted into the hole. (Also, a plain hole in an even moderately armored hull would not allow you to see anything at all ... unless it's already making a friendly visit to the inside! )

(157 specifically, eugh! it was worse than I rememberd! why'd she leave it on so long?)

For the benefit of us readers, of course! (A.k.a. "show, don't tell". IIRC nobody ever cared to explain the Black Radio in-universe, unless the Black Speech mages constantly hear is supposed to cover it as well.)

I'm to assume they're picking up on the transmission devices left out in the Silent World's claims, though I admit I don't have a perfect understanding of how it works.

That would necessitate that there still is electricity in the Silent World, wouldn't it? I don't think that the fandom ever believed Black Radio to emanate from anything other than the trolls (!, because speech!) and/or the magic connected to them.

But also why are they still screaming, it's probably been decades since.. yknow, illness overtook them... Do trolls just, constantly scream?

Yes - but not in a way that Joe Muggleson's ears can perceive. It is established in canon that at least the Finnish mages can "hear" them wailing, thanks (erm ...) to their affinity to magic.

[thorny]

OK so this is on portions of chapter 8 --

Re the abusiveness: I wonder a bit about Minna's life because there does seem to be a good bit of it, and in terms of more than one character. Maybe Minna's just trying to show harsh conditions in general and meant to make a point of abusive behavior being abusive and then just never got to it, but it seems to mostly just be taken for granted as within the range of normal behavior. Note on p382 Tuuri's being rather verbally abusive of Lalli -- and what's more she knows why that's bound to be a really sore spot, she was there, p387. Though admittedly she wasn't there for Onni's similar lecture on p390.

Also note on p390 the first reference to Grandma's one mistake - and at least a couple of people puzzling over it in the comments. I don't read all the comments, too many of them.

And note on p387 3 other scouts under 15 also apparently just say Mrrrr. (Lalli's already out the door.) Is this a common sort of communication problem among scouts?

And what (presumably)-adult looked at a scout's report before sending a team out, saw one that just said "yes", and didn't say "yes what? yes safe or yes trolls?" and check further before sending the team?! It's their fault, too -- and there's no mention of extra training for whoever did that. I wonder whether that's the job of the person making the announcement about additional training for young scouts (p388), and if so if that's why they brush off a multi-person error that caused four deaths plus serious injuries as no big deal -- and don't mention that it wasn't only the scout who screwed up.

I like pea soup! -- as, I note, does the first commenter I see on the page. (this is re Minna's comment on p388.)
   

[lwise]

Re the abusiveness: see page 90 when Tuuri kicks Lalli to make him come up and look at the view: "You can be sick and miserable later."

[Jitter]

I’m still puzzled about the one mistake. Which one was it? Letting the Package slide? Thinking she can take out Hiljatroll and thus falling prey to the Kade? Not noticing Hilja’s suspicious behavior?

Hopefully  it’s not ”letting the entire village be destroyed” as that was the responsibility of many people. Although it would seem like a  Hotakainen thing to do, consider herself the only one and driving it into Onni and Lalli that ithe buredn will be upon them and them aline when she gets too old.