Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[urbicande]

Given that she was shown to be sitting right next to Kitty, who was visibly relaxed, I don't think we have anything to worry about quite yet.

...then again, we have yet to get any confirmation of exactly when cats start reacting. When the person first develops a rash? When they first start mutating? Or not until they become a full-blown troll?

...I'm not doing a very good job of selling this, am I?

We don't know.  So don't take Purrito's calm too seriously yet

[Minutia_R]

Speaking of denial and self-knowledge and so on, I can't help but feel that Reynir is indulging in a little bit of personal-history-revisionism here.  He certainly seemed interested in having dangerous adventures when his siblings were describing theirs.

[Ilral]

Okay, now it looks like Tuuri in scratching the top of her back with both hands... not liking this at all...

I've been doing this exact thing because I have a rash on my back. I'll call you if I start feeling the urge to cApitalize raNdoM leTTERS

[Grade E cat]

I've been doing this exact thing because I have a rash on my back. I'll call you if I start feeling the urge to cApitalize raNdoM leTTERS

That's not a complication from the Rash, just one from advance stage Minnionitis.

Spoiler: A little moment of self-deprecation • show

Uh oh, now Reynir is touching the back of his neck...

[JacobThomsen]

Yay the Cattank is getting closer and closer to my home, but now the question is if the crew drive north or west to get to where the Icelandic ship will pick them up

[Miriam]

Yay the Cattank is getting closer and closer to my home, but now the question is if the crew drive north or west to get to where the Icelandic ship will pick them up

How do you know where they are driving to, do you recognise the bridge?
I am so lost...

[Purple Wyrm]

How do you know where they are driving to, do you recognise the bridge?
I am so lost...

The current consensus is that it's the Little Belt Bridge between Funen and Jutland

[urbicande]

I'm kind of surprised that all the traffic is on only one side.  I'd have expect the fleeing populace to have used both sides.

Of course, then the Cat-tank couldn't drive on the bridge.

[Sc0ut]

I'm kind of surprised that all the traffic is on only one side.  I'd have expect the fleeing populace to have used both sides.

Of course, then the Cat-tank couldn't drive on the bridge.

I'm more curious about what made everyone abandon their cars there. Having the traffic on just one side can be explained if they were convinced that aid is coming in - in that case they would keep one side free for incoming traffic, since it's likely that not everyone cold evacuate, so there were vulnerable people left behind. (Or, if you want a darker and even more convincing reason, imagine armed military at both ends of that bridge directing traffic. It's not unlikely that it got there at some point.) But... why all the abandoned cars?

[thorny]

Yeah. I can imagine scenarios in which people would have left the other lane clear; and I can imagine scenarios in which they either abandoned their cars, or died in them. I'm having trouble imagining one in which both of those things happened.

-- on the other hand, as has been pointed out, if there weren't a lane clear the cat tank wouldn't be able to get through.

OK, trying hard: there was still enough sense of order, or enough police presence, to keep the other lane clear for some time; but there was such a traffic jam that people ran out of gas, and once enough cars had done so that it was clear the lane wasn't moving, people climbed out and walked. By the time order/police presence broke down enough that later arrivals moved into the other lane, there were very few people left who were still in shape to drive and who could manage to get there, and those few succeeded in crossing the bridge, so they're not there to block the lane.

ETA: I still don't think that's very likely. But I suppose it's just barely possible.

[Yuuago]

there was such a traffic jam that people ran out of gas, and once enough cars had done so that it was clear the lane wasn't moving, people climbed out and walked.

This is exactly what I think happened here.

Petrol wouldn't necessarily be easy to obtain at this time, so chances of running out of gas would be higher than typical. And some people might be surprised at how quickly gas stations can run out of gas even when the situation is not as bad as this. So, if you aren't able to fill up before you leave, and the traffic is slow enough and the jam prolonged enough, you do get lines of cars on the side of the highway. And people walking alongside.

[Róisín]

Yeah, petrol runs out astonishingly fast in a disaster. As does everything. Most cities might have as much as a week's provision on hand for their population, and many not even that. So people might abandon cars and walk. Also, we don't know yet how fast trollification can take place once it starts. So maybe someone has their sick kid in the car, maybe concealing their illness because surely there will be better medical help wherever they are going, or not realising or admitting that it is the Rash, and they are sitting in that traffic jam when the troll reaches over from the back seat and tears their head off....... Imagine how fast the rest of the queue could be out of their cars and running if that happened.

Plus, as you mentioned, there might well be armed police or military trying to control the exodus.

[Keeper]

It's also possible that there is a car accident that we don't see, ahead on the road, and no resources were available to clear it, which forced people to abandon their cars. Although I'm not sure how that would affect leaving the other side empty, since I can't tell if there is a divider on the bridge.

[thorny]

Yeah, petrol runs out astonishingly fast in a disaster. As does everything. Most cities might have as much as a week's provision on hand for their population, and many not even that. So people might abandon cars and walk. Also, we don't know yet how fast trollification can take place once it starts. So maybe someone has their sick kid in the car, maybe concealing their illness because surely there will be better medical help wherever they are going, or not realising or admitting that it is the Rash, and they are sitting in that traffic jam when the troll reaches over from the back seat and tears their head off....... Imagine how fast the rest of the queue could be out of their cars and running if that happened.

Plus, as you mentioned, there might well be armed police or military trying to control the exodus.

I think it is necessary to posit some sort of force keeping the other lane open, unless there's a divider between the lanes impassable by even high-clearance cars; as otherwise I would expect that in either of those cases both lanes would wind up blocked, because people who still had gas would try to pull out around cars that weren't moving, and some of the people in panic about a possible troll on the bridge would do likewise; but the other lane would rapidly also jam for the same reasons that the first one did.

Whether having possibly been told that emergency vehicles would be trying to get in would be enough to cause the effect, or whether military/police force would be needed, is another question -- at least, if the issue's running out of gas. I would think that trolls on the bridge would cause at least some people to try to drive out of danger by using the other lane, whatever they'd been told.

[Jharad17]

The other possibility is that both lanes were blocked at the time of the exodus, but that at some later date, say during a Danish Reclamation attempt, vehicles were removed by the military so they could get their own vehicles through. And since the team is heading to one of the Reclamation attempt ports, according to the Home Crew, having already been through the last stand point of Copenhagen, it's likely the Danish Army did some bridge clearing in addition to airport clearing, etc. at that time.