M95 the Liveblogger

Hello. Welcome to my humble Tumblr page. Here, I intend to post my liveblogs of whatever I feel like. Said liveblogs are:

Gunnerkrigg Court (link)

As for some questions you may have:

Q. Do you take suggestions for liveblogs? A. Yep! It's ultimately my choice what I do or don't liveblog, but I'm all ears for suggestions.

Q. On what days do you post? A. Whichever days I feel like posting. Look, I have school, family, and all sorts of other things that mean liveblogging on Tumblr isn't my top priority. While this may be inconvenient for readers, there's no way I'd be able to commit to any schedule I give myself for this blog.

Chapter 29 opens with Kat in a workshop getting frustrated as she tries to fix a robot (29.744). Then, she hears a squacking baby bird outside on the ground, tries to leave it be, but gives up and brings the baby bird inside when their parents are nowhere to be seen (29.746-747). With all due respect, they're an ugly little guy, that bird.

Kat takes the bird to a Hispanophone friend of hers named Paz, who confirms that it's a baby pigeon and that baby pigeons just look like that (29.750). They were on the ground because they had a twisted leg, according to Paz's robot assistant Bobby (29.751).

Kat notices some mice aroung the building Paz works at, and then gets upset when she learns about animal experimentation done by the Court (29.752-753). We all do, Kat. Paz doesn't like it, but what can she do as just one person? Paz explains to Kat that she works here at this Court-adjacent building to lessen the harm done in the world, to be a check and balance on others (29.754).

After picking up the injured baby pigeon, Kat's supernatural spidey-senses detect something in the wing (29.755):

We get no explanation (yet) of what that was.

Kat gets back to her workshop where she meets up with Annie and informs her of what just happened (29.757-758). The chapter ends with a bit of a cliffhanger as Kat says she has an idea (29.759).

* * *

Chapter 30 opens with Kat and Annie trying to throw her blinker stone down into the ravine. After much failure, they ask a nearby Andrew to do it; he hits a bird in the process, and that somehow does the trick (30.764-765).

When the blinker stone makes it down there, the ghost of Jeanne catches it, and Annie can't telepathically get it back anymore (30.766). How strange. I guess ghosts can do that?

Parley decides to say something to Annie while she's reaching for the stone. When Parley touches Annie's shoulder, she somehow gets hooked up to the telepathic vision being experienced (30.769).

What follows is sevenn pages of textless visions (30.770-776). Here's what I can decipher from it: A blonde woman, presumably Jeanne, falls in love with a green man from the woods; they are separated from one another, with Jeanne trapped in the Court, presumably by Diego; she somehow escapes, goes down the ravine, and watches the green guy get shot by something in the river. See also Chapter 25.

The ghost of Jeanne speaks for once, informing us that her heart died that day, and her physical body decayed with time, leaving only her spirit to be the bitter, hateful guardian of the waters. Very metal. She also points a ghostly sword at Parley's neck (30.777). Annie intervenes to telepathically save Parley's life, ending the vision sequence (30.779).

Since Parley is (understandably) shocked by the whole thing, Kat and Annie give her the exposition she needs to understand; they then decide against telling the Court higher-ups about what just happened (30.782).

I promise I'm getting back to my "two chapters per post" policy today. Actually, I'll go above and beyond by doing three chapters in one post (two of these chapters are connected so I kind of have to).

Chapter 26 opens with Annie and Mr. Elgamore practicing magic in a woodland clearing, when suddenly a little green elf-boy named Jolly Elfsberry jumps out of a bush and introduces himself in a saccharine manner (26.664-665). Yes, Jolly is referred to with he/him pronouns (22.666), I thought he was a girl at first. Mr. Elgamore gently pushes Jolly away with his huge Guts-like sword and tells Annie not to go with him.

Annie then ignores his advice and leaves the clearing with Jolly anyways, saying that Jolly is Coyote's friend. Except that we soon see that Jolly is actually Coyote himself, shapeshifting (22.667). The reason Coyote brought Annie away is to snoop together on Ysengrin, the tree-canine hybrid guy from earlier chapters. Except we learn that Ysengrin is no hybrid at all (22.669):

Turns out he's not an anthropomorphic dog, just a plain-old talking dog. With tree-telekinesis.

Coyote does a pro-gamer move by throwing Annie out of the bush she's hiding in, so that Ysengrin can get mad at her and nearly attack her (26.670-673); don't worry, Coyote rescues her lickety-split anyways, with a non-angry Ysengrin following them.

Coyote transports Annie over to do some more sight-seeing: an orange sleeping fox that Coyote says is Renard's "body," preserved here for Renard to return to it (26.675). Coyote encourages Annie to use her stone to peer into the ether. Turns out it's worth it, because using the blinker stone in Coyote's presence allows Tom Siddell to flex his art skills (26.677):

In this high-quality-art-land, Coyote teaches Annie some basic telepathy that she can practice for later (26.678-681). This is a surprise tool that will help us later (probably).

Annie gets transported out of this part of the woods and back to Mr. Elgamore, doing some chit-chat with Coyote and Ysengrin along the way (26.682-687). During this chit-chat, Coyote gifts Annie "the keenest blade you will ever find," capable of cutting the earth itself (26.686). She reunites with Mr. Elgamore and walks her way back to the court. The end (of the chapter)!

* * *

Chapter 27 starts with Jack Hyland sliding down the stairs to give something to Kat and Annie (27.690-691), before jumping out of a window. What he gives to them is a message, asking Annie and Reynardine to meet in a building by the lake at 10:00 tonight (27.693).

OK, little tangent: Brits, do you use the 12-hour or 24-hour clock? Because I keep hearing that you use the 24-hour clock, only to see things like this talking about "10:00" at night (Tom Siddell is British and GC is set in Britain).

Annie and Rey go there (not without noting that Kat has been "callous" since learning about Jeanne; 27.695), and when they meet up with Jack, he leads them to cross the water to the power station so he can investigate what happened to Zimmy (27.697-698) back in Chapter 19.

While crossing the water, we learn some things about Jack. For example, he accessed the school computer and now knows a bunch of things about Annie and Rey and others at the Court (27.700). He's also on the run from the Court's authorities and hasn't eaten anything in days (27.701).

Once inside the power station, Jack murders a robot, much to Annie's horror (27.704). They enter a control room, which Jack came here for, and learn that it's called an Ether Station; apparently its purpose is to purify ether (27.707-708). Jack activates the entire power station in order to get the attention of some "she" (27.709-710).

But somehow, a bunch of people on a boat land at the station's entrance, and Jack figures that the people he's been running from are on to him (27.711).

He scrams, uses a magic thingy to attack Rey (27.713), and then leaps out of a window in such a way as to demonstrate that he is what the English call a "wrong'un" (27.715). That's when those people on the boat enter the room and ask Annie what's going on, while the bottom-right has a "To be continued" tag.

* * *

Chapter 28 is obviously meant to be read right after Chapter 27, so I'll do that.

We open with "those people" from earlier cornering Annie to ask questions. One of them is actually Ms. Jones, who reveals that she had manipulated these events to help track down Jack Hyland (28.720). Annie tries to be smooth and pretends that she knew about this.

Jones and Annie discuss the situation on the boat ride back (28.722-724). From this dialogue, we learn that: Jones is letting Jack escape to see what he does next; the power station extracts ether from the earth for experiments; Zimmy basically has something like the power station in her brain, hence her general weirdness; Gamma helps relieve the stress; the Court has Zimmy here as an "interesting anomaly" to be researched; and the Court can in fact track people through their food.

The narrative reminds us that Jones is a being of inhuman strength (28.725) before Annie and Jones get back inside the Court. There, Annie opens a door and instantly bumps into Zimmy (who runs away) and Gamma (who, for some reason, thinks Annie is Zimmy; 28.727).

This whole thing seems to be Zimmy having one of her ether-induced episodes. But it's worth noting that, while Annie isn't Zimmy, she seems to be slowly starting to resemble her (28.729):

But I can confidently say that she isn't Zimmy, because the next page, we see Zimmy hanging out with Jack; or rather, a fake memory version of him (28.730). And then, uhh... another Jack kidnaps the fake Jack (28.731)? OK, please keep in mind that this is one of Zimmy's episodes, where everything is weird and dream-like.

There's a sequence where Annie follows Jack, in an effort to "help" him, into a big scary building with spiders and cobwebs and clones of Jack, while Zimmy and Gamma follow Annie in an effort to help her (28.732-734). Deep inside the building, Annie confronts two of the Jacks before, suddenly, getting mad at Zimmy and/or Gamma and going berserk in a Zimmy-like manner (28.735):

Then -- thank goodness -- the water comes down, ending Zimmy's episode and revealing that we were outside across from the power station the entire time (28.736):

Zimmy cleans up the real Jack a little, who passes out soon after (28.737). Zimmy also seems under the impression that Annie and Jack are GF and BF (28.739). Ms. Jones comes back, with Reynardine, to see the unconscious Jack and chat with Annie (28.740-741). Jones reveals that she has the power to create rain.

The chapter ends with a funny burn, as Renard says "A demon is what she is" ("she" being Zimmy), with Jones replying with "A label commonly applied to what is feared and misunderstood. Don't forget, you are known as 'the demon Renard' to many people" (28.741).

Chapter 25 begins with a robot and Shadow(?) chatting, with robot insisting that Kat is an "angel" meant to guard Jeanne's tomb (25.633-635). They meet said "angel" in the workshop from back in Chapter 18; there, Kat is interested to see a robotic grasshopper accompanying the bigger robot (25.636).

Confession: I can't tell if the grasshopper is Shadow (who I saw back in 25.635), or if the big robot is Shadow, or if neither of them are Shadow.

Regardless, big-bot and grasshopper go downstairs to look at the portrait of Jeanne (25.639) before the latter flies back upstairs.

Annie joins the group with exposition/gossip about Andrew and Parley (25.641). They are soon interrupred by the arrival of, well... this (25.642):

King-bot (that's what I'm calling him) demands to see Jeanne's tomb/painting; he then goes down stairs to lay his mechanical eyes on it, and then explains to Kat and Annie that "robot society has been in turmoil" for a very long time (25.643-645). King-bot takes the girls further into robot society to show them the last remaining robot made by Diego the mechanic (25.647). This robot then plays for them a video of Diego and Jeanne, which goes on for ten pages (25.648-657).

To sum up the ten-page video: Diego makes for Jeanne a bunch of robots to win her heart while she mourns the decline of the forest; Jeanne isn't having it and lashes out at Diego in anger before storming out; Diego mourns that Jeanne still loves "that traitor" instead of him (25.650-652). Diego and various other officials at what is presumably Gunnerkrigg Court discuss their plans to "sacrifice" someone to "fortify the Annan waters" (25.654). The "sacrifice" in question turns out to be Jeanne, who is killed right by the waters (25.656), a fact which is to be erased from the historical record. The video ends with an elderly Diego mourning his role in the sacrifice of his beloved Jeanne before passing away himself (25.657).

Back in the present, the robots then ask Kat and Annie why Diego did this; the chapter ends with the grasshopper explaining what Kat told them to a crowd of yet more robots, implying that Kat told them that Diego "was not a nice man" and that "Love makes you act in strange ways" (25.658).

Chapter 24 starts with Annie telepathically communicating to Renard on a train, which (after their conversation is done) we learn is taking Annie and Kat to go camping at a park in the Court (24.597-598). The train takes the Court's students to Young's Park: a green, forested area overseen by an elderly couple, Bob and Marcia Sutton (24.599; their surname is given on 24.616). And yes, this is a camping trip in the woods, where they have to set up tents and everything.

The park also has cows, and by "cows," I mean robotic cows with laser-eyes. To trim the grass, of course (24.602). Of course!

You know what else this park has? It has Mr. Elgamore (24.600), here to give some exposition. This place is named after one Sir Young, who apparently had an "Orjak" named Nehvita (24.605). Did they ever mention what an "Orjak" was? I know they mentioned it in Chapter 22, but did they ever explain what it was?

Never mind. Then we get a callback if there ever was one, back to Chapter 6, specifically the part where Kat and Annie bumped into a shadowy stranger when goofing off under a tree (see 6.91-92). But in this chapter, we learn that the stranger in question was actually Bob himself (24.606). Then we get some exposition about what those giant nature-simulating rooms are for (24.607).

Once night hits, there is a funny incident where the robo-cows prevent a fire from being started, but Annie uses her blinker stone to make non-cow-detected fire (24.609-610). As a result of this, when the next day comes, Jack has her stone (24.611).

Next morning, an unspecified emergency pulls Bob and Elgamore away from the camp, leaving the kids in Marcia's care (24.614); and apparently, there's a ghost that she doesn't want to deal with (24.615). Oh, and Marcia seems to be something of a grouch.

Kat and Annie confront Jack about him stealing the stone, with limited success (24.617-618).

Some shadowy thing, seemingly the ghost, is kidnapping people around the camp (24.621; cf. 24.616). Elgamore was apparently summoned to deal with the ghost, but with him gone, the ghost is doing their thing.

The kids deduce that the whole "ghost" thing might be a giant fake, and that Mr. Elgamore is actually making people disappear as part of the lesson. To test this theory, they decide to use Kat as bait for a trap, since she's so enthusiasic about getting kidnapped by Mr. Elgamore (24.622). Did I mention that Kat is crushing on him? Yeah, she's doing that sarcastic "Oh no, I hope X doesn't happen, wink-nudge" thing, too (24.623):

The trap actually involves using the blinker stone to create a fake fire (24.625-627) that will alarm Marcia, since she cares a lot about the trees. It works. Also, Annie uses this to deduce that Marcia is a dryad, spiritually connected to the forest she cares about so much. Which is a reasonable conclusion in Gunnerkrigg Court, if nowhere else. Also, the guess about the whole "ghost" thing being an educational ruse was correct (24.628).

Chapter 23 opens with a pulpy movie poster reading "Terror Castle of the Jupiter Moon Martians" (23.570). We saw something like this back in Chapter 10, and there we learned that it was all a simulation. This is a simulated adventure, too; only this time, apparently the simulation bugged out and ended early (23.572-574). But Ms. Jones seems pretty confident that the simulation went fine as is.

Oh, and apparently, Andrew is a total dormat around Parley (23.576-577).

Next up, Ms. Jones takes Annie, Andrew, Parley, and Renard to a lesson where they go back to the origins of Gunnerkrigg Court itself (23.580):

The Court began with a seed bismuth (23.581), and apparently, we do not know what the humans were fleeing from when they came to the Court (23.582).

Andrew tries to get a little flirty with Parley (23.584), which causes everyone to teleport to Parley's bedroom, much to her chagrin (23.585-586). Parley has the power to teleport, apparently.

As everyone goes their seperate ways, Ms. Jones asks Annie why she asked about a "Jeanne" during the lesson (which she did), to which Annie clarifies that she heard it somewhere; Ms. Jones informs her that a lot of info about the Court's history is lost, so if Annie thinks she has something, she should ring her up (23.588).

Annie and Renard chit-chat in the halls when they encounter a lad named Jack (23.591-594), who asks them about what Zimmy's whole deal is (see Chapter 19). He sounds rather worried asking, but before Annie could answer him, Renard transforms into a big scary wolf to scare Jack into shutting up. That's how the chapter ends.

Chapter 21 opens with Annie and Kat at work in a warehouse (presumably the one from Chap. 18), where they have gotten a whole load of robotic minions working for them (21.504-507). Mrs. Anja Donlan joins them, and she observes that the robots are fixated on the painting of Jeanne (21.508). Anja also explains to Annie that she can never lose her blinker stone (the ruby-looking thing), it'll always appear back in her hands, and that it can be telepathically brought back to Annie just by thinking about it (21.509-513).

Fascinated by all this, Annie asks Anja if she's a magician. Anja de facto says "yes," and begins exposition on the topic of "etheric sciences," aka alchemy, aka magic (21.515):

This is apparently something of a magitek setting, since as Anja explains, that alchemical eye symbol they used to imprison Renard is connected to a computer (21.516-517). Oh, and Renard gently tells Annie that "spying with a blinker stone is not recommended" (21.518). Oh, and then, Anja implies that Annie and Mort may or may not be a couple (21.521). A lot of casual lore drops, I know; there are other things I'm leaving out because I can't parse the relevant from the non-relevant all that easily.

Back at the Court, Annie is actually upset at the implication that Mort the Ghost was hitting on her by giving her the blinker stone (21.522-523). But then, Mort explains that he was actually giving it to Annie on behalf of Muut, the bird-headed psychopomp (21.524).

Annie then contacts Muut himself (21.527), who explains that he gave Annie that blinker stone because he needed her help with Jeanne, the ghost-lady (21.528). Everything's coming together! Also, we learn why Annie has a slight grudge with Muut (21.530):

The chapter then ends with Annie sending a host of monstrous creatures to give an apology letter to Mort (21.532-533). How thoughtful of her.

* * *

Chapter 22 is one, giant flashback episode, where we see the older generation of characters in their youth. There are six characters getting their photos taken at school (22.536-541):

Surma or "Sushi" (Annie's future mom, with the red hair);

Tony (Annie's future dad, with the well-groomed brown hair);

Anja (Kat's future mom, with the black hair);

Donny (Kat's future dad, with the glasses and black hair);

Jimmy (future Mr. Elgamore, with the messy brown hair); &

Brinnie (idk who she is in the future, but she has brownish-blonde hair).

There is some gossipping between them at the start, until Brinnie says she has to leave. And she makes a flashy, (literally?) magical exit (22.539):

Seeing this, some kid named Hyland makes casually alchemo-phobic remarks about our protagonists being "freaks" and "weirdos"; in response, Jimmy punches Hyland in the face (22.540) and starts a fight. A giant, towering man of a school official breaks the fight, chastizes Hyland, and calls Jimmy Elgamore to his office (22.541).

In the girls' washroom, Surma explains to Anja that they shouldn't be so ashamed of using their magic powers just because other people aren't used to them, and that they don't need to hide to fit in (22.542-544).

In that super tall guy's office, the tall guy explains that he's intentionally being lenient to Jimmy, given that Hyland is such a jackass, but that Jimmy nonetheless needs to keep his temper in check (22.545-546). Oh, and then the tall guy reveals a suit of armour and starts talking about some "Rogat Orjak":

Man, these new Soyjak variant names are weird. I kid.

Back in the hallways of the school, there is currently a "situation" as a giant tree-dog-monster-thing is crashing through while some tiny robots incompetently try to prevent the kids from watching it (22.547-550). Regardless, the kids watch a fight between the tree-beast and some other robots from a nearby roof, and Anja can sense that the tree-dog is being remote-controlled (for lack of a better term) by someone/thing in the Forest (22.552).

In our last episode, we learned a slight bit more about Annie and Kat's mums. As for today, Chapter 19 begins with Annie and Kat planning to sneak out at night to hang out with some boys (19.442)... no, not like that, ya weirdo.

De-activating the school's motion detectors (19.445), our gang (with two other girls) meets up with a bunch of boys to sneak up onto the roof of their building (19.447) to get a view of a big power station across the lake (19.448). One of the boys, Jack, is apparently a bit of an explorer, because he found this place all on his own (19.449).

They are interrupted by Zimmy and Gamma, who apparently came up here because the big power station is "screwin' with" Zimmy's head (19.452).

Meanwhile, some H2O from the lake gathers around in clouds around the power station, which then shoots out a load of electricity across the lake (19.454-455):

This is enough to activate poor Zimmy's condition (for lack of a better term), teleporting her (and Annie, somehow; 19.458) to a narrow city street (19.457):

In this eldritch realm, Zimmy and Annie encounter "nobodies": people-shaped entities without faces (19.459) that need to be cleared out of the way. There is a moment where Zimmy gets angry/distressed that Annie called her condition a "gift" (19.461). Kat joins the group (19.463), and they search for Gamma together; Zimmy leads them to an abandoned building where they do, indeed, find Gamma lying on a pile of plush animals (19.466).

Soon, they teleport back to the "real" world on the roof (19.468). It appears to be implied that Jack was in Zimmy's "zone," too (19.469). The chapter ends on a cliffhanger of Annie saying she thinks she knows someone with "answers" about Gunnerkrigg Court (19.471).

Given that this chapter appears to have been a way to learn about Zimmy, let's go over some details about her we learned:

Her condition appears to be caused, or at least intensified, by the power station somehow (19.452);

It involves teleporting to this weird eldritch realm (19.457), where anything that happens "only as real as you let it be" (19.468);

Rain can stop it (something we already knew; 11.196), but it doesn't always stop it (19.464);

Gamma usually helps Zimmy through it (19.459).

* * *

Given that Chapter 20 is called "Coyote Stories" (20.473), it would seem that the "someone" Annie was talking about last chapter's cliffhanger was Coyote. We start with Annie getting dressed up to go to Gillitie Forest to meet the Coyote. Also, the first page has some trivia about Raynardine's stuffed animal body being made by Surma, Annie's mum (20.474). Thought that was worth noting.

Annie is going alongside Mr. Elgamore, who is very concerned for her well-being in these woods (20.476), which is emphasized by the almost-comical level of armour and weaponry he brings for the trip (20.478-479).

Is that a motherf**king Berserk reference? I kid, I kid.

They make it to the woods, guarded by Ysengrin, who refuses to let Elgamore in, meaning that Annie goes in alone (20.481-482). Tom Siddell flaunts his skills at drawing forests (20.483). We meet Coyote, who, in his natural habitat, proves himself to be a silly billy (20.485):

Coyote humble-brags about putting the stars in the sky (20.486), and expresses a desire to be Annie's friend now that Surma is gone (20.487).

In case his dialogue this chapter can't give it away, Coyote is a downright cosmic entity, and Tom Siddell gives us so much art to make that point clear that I can't pick just one bit of awesome art to show you. Actually, never mind, I can; here's Coyote literally plucking the moon out of the sky (20.490):

We also get some neat exposition: Coyote came to these woods with "Renard" (Raynardine?) and Ysengrin (20.488); he is the one who created the waters and ravine dividing Gillitie Wood from Gunnerkrigg Court (20.489); and Gillitie Wood is a place where humans go to abandon their human bodies and become forest-critters (20.492).

Also, apparently "Renard" declined to have power because he had human friends in the Court... but he's currently trapped in the Court for killing one of those human friends (20.493). Coyote assures Annie that Renard doesn't usually like killing people, and that he was once in love with Surma; this view of Renard seems to be in sharp contrast to the one Annie has, which is of a guy who tends to kill people (20.494). Oh, and we have Coyote to thank for Renard/Raynardine's ability to possess people (20.495).

When Annie asks Coyote what exactly Gunnerkrigg Court is, he gives an answer that is so important that I have to bold and italicize it: "It is Man's endeavour to become God!" And then Coyote refuses to explain what he means by that (20.497). Quite literal Gigachad behaviour from Coyote here.

Chapter 17 opens with Kat and Annie studying, when Annie is pulled aside by Miss Jones to talk one-on-one (17.364). Annie identifies Miss Jones as "from the meeting with coyote," and if you look back to Chap. 14, she did indeed appear back then (14.267).

Miss Jones is here to teach Annie how to be a medium (17.365). Apparently, Annie's mum was the last ever medium at Gunnerkrigg Court; meanwhile Annie didn't even know her mum worked at Gunnerkrigg, something Jones blames Annie's dad for (17.367).

Once they make it to a fencing stadium, Jones explains to Annie how Gunnerkrigg Court was founded on (in layman's terms) a union of science and magic (17.370); tension between humans and the creatures of Gillitie Wood at the Court's founding led to a wall of separation being set up between the Court and Woods (17.371). The purpose of mediums, we are told, is to negotiate between the Court and Woods (17.372).

We get to see a fencing match between Jones and Mr. James Elgamore, after being informed that Jones is a being of incredible power who doesn't even need a sword to obliterate James (17.375-376). What the heck does that mean in practice? Well, Timmy, like this (17.379):

After the fencing match, we get a discussion of the powers that the three mediums-in-training (Annie, Andrew, and Parley; cf. 14.268) have. Annie can talk to supernatural beings, Andrew can "subconsciously create order" (17.382-383), and Parley's powers are currently unknown. Also, remember when I said we didn't know Parley's surname? Turns out Parley is her surname, and her given name is George; her dad thought she was going to be a boy, and when it turned out George was a girl, he kept the name for the lulz (17.385). Turns out a woman doesn't need to be transgender to be "assigned male at birth"!

Jones informs us that, when the Court and the Woods butt heads, both sides are equally cringe; she also gives our students a "being of the etherium" to learn communication from, and... it's Mort the Ghost (17.387). Yes, from way back in Chap. 4, that Mort.

They have some fun. Parley's poor communication skills quickly become an inside joke between her and Mort (17.388-389, 391). After the lesson, we learn that this class is one where Annie is expected to learn at her own pace (17.393). That's nice!

* * *

Chapter 18 sees Kat and Annie, with the former's parents' permission, go out to an old unit to build a robot (18.397), and Kat's mum kind of wishes she could go with them (18.399). Oh, to be young again. At the workshop, Kat explains to Annie that Mr. James Elgamore was her "Uncle Jimmy" (18.400).

At school, Kat's self-esteem is down since people think she's cheating on her projects (18.403). After class, Kat and Annie walk (with Raynardine in Annie's pocket) down to the tram station. Annie faces some appropriately-dressed hecklers (18.404):

Subtlety is my passion.

Raynardine defends the honour of his associate/lady/gaoler the way any reasonable Entity would (18.405):

Don't worry, he doesn't actually maul any of them, he just spooks them off. Annie, nevertheless, suspects that she's probably not allowed to let Raynardine do that, but whatever.

Kat, Annie, and Raynardine make it to the Empty Warehouse of Fun, where they meet up with Shadow 2 and their talking mouse robot (18.407). Inside the warehouse, our pals find a mysterious stairway to some dark dungeon, which they decide to explore, as one might expect from two teenagers/preteens (18.409-411). Eventually, they find a big arena full of robots (18.415):

Cool, right? Wrong! Because as we soon learn, none of these robots have enough wiring in them to actually do anything (18.418).

In the basement, the chapter title "S1" becomes important, as they find the original model of Robot, named "S1" (18.417); note that "S" stands for "Seraph."

Kat puts Mouse-Robot's CPU into the empty S1 bot, and suddenly, S1 is running around yelling about "Jeanne!," a woman who apparently died and that he feels great remorse over (18.420-421). Another giant robot emerges out of nowhere (18.422), and S1 gets into a swordfight with this giant robot (18.424):

Raynardine astutely observes that this whole "fight" seems really scripted (18.426). He appears correct as the other robots applaud the show, and S1 escapes into a little gateway to the side of the arena (18.427-428).

Inside this hole to the side, we find a gigantic portrait of "Jeanne," who Annie identifies as the ghost she saw in the Woods way back when (18.429).

These robots appear to have been made by one "Diego," and as Raynardine observes, Diego probably felt such guilt over Jeanne's death that he made these robots to live out a fantasy of her being saved (18.431).

Robot gets his mouse-body back, and our protagonists go on their merry way, sure that they've solved at least a little bit of this webcomic's mysteries (18.432-434).

Hey readers, today I'm doing something a bit daring: I'm including two Gunnerkrigg chapters in one post. Hopefully, if I can adopt this model going forward and combine it with my previous "minimum of one post a month" pledge, I can actually make it though this webcomic instead of constantly procrastinating.

Chapter 15 is titled "Red Returns" (15.305). All throughout her introduction to the fact that summer is over and it's a new year at school, we see her accompanied by Shadow 2; it would appear that Shadow 2, Raynardine, and Robot have been normalized as Annie's friends, or at least associates (15.312). Annie's narration tells us that she used to live in a hospital called Good hope (15.306). As she catches up with a tanned-up Kat in her dorm room, Annie mentions that "he," presumably her father, didn't contact her back yet (15.310).

At school proper, we encounter a pointy-eared ginger girl shouting "It's you!" at Annie and Kat (15.312). I assume this is the "Red" from the chapter title?

(Also, tanned Kat is something I didn't know I needed, so here's a screenshot with her too.)

Annie manages to identify her as "the fairy from the river" (15.313). This is a call-back to Chapter 8, where we first saw a fairy that kind of resembles this girl in the wooded area outside the school (see 8.128). Honestly, they don't look too similar to me (different shades of red for the hair, for starters), but since Red implies Annie was right, I'll just roll with it.

Apparently Red hates having a human, non-fairy body, and feels like her blue-haired fairy friend (who also has a human body, now with black hair and dark skin) is no longer her friend for whatever reason (15.315).

Because Red is so insecure about her human hair, Annie and Kat introduce her to the concept of haircuts (15.316). They board a metro (or "subway" for us North Americans), where Red grumbles some more about human existance (15.318).

No offense to the nation of Scotland, but I am mentally reading everything Red says in a Scottish accent.

In town, Red explains that Ysengrin from Chapter 14 knew about the metal bird in the ravine months before Annie thought he did, which leads Annie to conclude that Ysengrin was lying (15.320-321).

At the haircut place, Red has an absolute blast styling her hair (15.323-325). Then, back at school, Kat and Annie try to explain to Red that if she wants her old friend's friendship back, she has to actually be nice, and that her hair, no matter how awesome, can't do that alone (15.327). However, they are instantly proven wrong when Red's old friend comes in, sees her hair, and instantly wants to be her friend again (15.328). Ha!

* * *

Next up, Chapter 16 is titled "A Ghost Story" (16.331). In this chapter, we are introduced to psychopomps; as Kat and Annie sit under a tree (not k-i-s-s-i-n-g), we are told that Ketrak, a psychopomp for insects, is there, though we never actually see this Ketrak themselves (16.332-334).

Annie apparently can see psychopomps, and apparently, the first one she ever saw was an owl-headed fellow named Muut (16.335).

Having checked my older blogs, I can say that this isn't the first time we've seen Muut. On the contrary, we saw him in the woods in Chapter 8, where he gave Annie a blinker stone, and again in Chapter 9, doing the exact same thing we see him doing in this chapter.

This next part has Annie describe her childhood encounters with Muut, back in the hospital Good Hope, back when Annie's mum was alive. Muut would apparently take young Annie to visit "friends" (presumably folks on their deathbeds). But one day, Annie's mum actually asked her to help settle a dispute between two psychopomps, Mallt-y-nos (an old lady) and Moddey Dhoo (a terrifying dog-like entity), who both want to claim the same soul belonging to a recently-deceased young boy (16.339-341).

Before this, we actually saw M&M (that's what I'm calling them now, don't @ me) argue with Annie's mum that Annie should be present around psychopomps for some reason (16.338); "All she got to do is be there," Moddey Dhoo says. Why exactly a small child needs to accompany supernatural entities is probably one of those "big questions" of the webcomic.

Anyways, Annie is sent by M&M into the late boy's ward to get his ghost out; and apparently, the late boy doesn't know he's a ghost. We learn later on that ghost-boy is named Martin (16.355).

When Annie comes into Martin's room, what happens for the next ten pages (16.343-353) is honestly really, really hard to explain. It starts with Annie trying to explain to Martin that M&M are friendly (16.344), but then does something to him by touching his arm that makes him disappear into darkness (16.345); only for Martin to come back with a fish-eyed abomination that bites his arm (16.347), turns the room's walls into screaming flesh (16.349), and starts a fire while trying to snatch them (16.351). Annie is scared at first, but she pulls herself together, remembers her mums words, and casts the flaming lizard abomination away (16.352-353).

TLDR: the feces hits the proverbial fan, but Annie somehow manages to calm everything down. Thankfully, there's a scene after all this that seems to tie it all together: Kat asks if "that boy burned his house down" and Annie says he did (16.536).

Okay, what I think happened is that the lizard-abomination was symbolic of the fire that killed Martin's family. But because "supernatural afterlife shenanigans," that metaphor actually became real. I think.

Whatever happened, Annie takes Martin over to M&M to be transported to the next life (16.355), and everybody lived I mean, existed postmortem happily ever after.

Back in the present-day, Kat and Annie's conversation moves on to mention a ghost lady from Annan Waters (16.357-358); that's the river from the woods. I was originally going to say we've never seen this ghost lady before, but after checking my older blogs, it turns out we have back in Chapter 8. They speculate that the ghost lady might be trapped in a limbo, unable to reach any psychopomps.

Either way, the chapter ends on a neat note. Remember when I said that Annie "remembers her mums words" during a fight? Well, we never actually know what those words are, until the chapter's very last page (16.359):

Hello, and welcome back to Gunnerkrigg Court. Chapter 14 has the incredibly kickass title of "The Fangs of Summertime" (14.258), and it starts with a fittingly kickass preview of what is to come (14.259): firstly, summer has begun, and secondly, "a god emerged from Gillite Wood."

Confession: I knew beforehand that Gunnerkrigg Court has a coyote. I don't know anything about the coyote or why it's important, as I have conciously avoided anything resembling a spoiler; but my abilities are not perfect, hence why I already know that there's a coyote that is important for whatever reason.

We begin with Annie visiting Kat's parents, the Donlans (cf. Chap. 7). Mrs. Donlan decides to take the girls to the roof of the building to show them a big, green glowing thing in the sky, which Mrs. Donlan tells us is "a signal from the forest"; she takes Annie's blinker stone around her neck and throws it into the sky to make a big red glowing thing (14.261-262). This manages to get the attention of... Mr. James Elgamore, of all people, who jumps onto the roof from who knows where (14.263).

Also, at the start, Annie mentions that she's expecting to hear from her father (14.260), who -- correct me if I'm wrong -- I don't believe we've heard from directly so far.

Later, a gathering in the school's hall takes place (14.267); and back on the roof, Mr. Elgamore told Annie to bring Reynardine to this event (14.265), so I suspect that he'll be relevant soon. We are introduced to two bickering lovebirds of students named Parley (surname not given) and Andrew "Smit" Smith, the former of which berates Annie, "Surma Stibnite's kid," for that thing she did with the bridge (14.268; cf. Chap. 7, again).

Suddenly, the doors to the hall open up, and through them walk the hooded figure and coyote we got a preview of when the chapter started; the hooded individual, here addressed as "General," removes his hood and shows us his face (14.270).

*Gasp!* It's a furry!

In seriousness, this doesn't appear to be the General's "normal" state, given how he's addressed. We later learn that his name is Ysengrin (14.274), so that's what I'll call him. Ysengrin is displeased that Parley and Andrew are his mediums (14.271), seemingly implying that he needs specialized people to do something for him. In the meantime, the coyote gets Annie confused for her mum, and gives a big fat "LOL" when they learn the truth (14.272-273). Annie, for her part, seems to already know about this coyote, asking "Are you really the coyote?" and recounting an old story she heard about them (14.273-274). Given how this story (which the coyote confirms to be true) has the coyote trying to create humans, I suspect that this is more of a demigod-like spirit than a garden-variety talking animal.

Ysengrin is upset that a mechanical bird fell into Gillite Wood, where it apparently corrupted the natural landscape with its technological tendrils (14.276).

Either the bird was designed to do this, or the supernatural woods are weak to technology like the plague. 50/50, I say, until it's further clarified.

Regardless, Annie takes responsibility for the intrustion of this infectious robo-bird, but denies that she planted it there on purpose (14.278-279). At that point, Raynardine (mentioned way back) shows up as a wolf. He has some banter with his coyote "cousin" (14.281), and once the coyote does something mildly pervy to Annie... it's fight scene time (14.282-284), with Reynardine, Mr. Elgamore, and the coyote casting spells while Ysengrin casts punches.

When the fight ends, Ysengrin and the coyote leave (14.285). The school staff suspect that the whole fight was a ruse, noticing that Ysengrin left behind some green seeds on the ground (14.286).

Fast-forward to after this whole affair, and we see Annie and Kat chilling in a bedroom together; as it turns out, Annie expects to be with Reynardine until her father contacts her (14.288).

Our chapter ends with Annie back in her own room, hanging out with Reynardine (14.290-292). The last sentence of the chapter (narrated by Annie) is worth copying and pasting: "Thus ended my first year at Gunnerkrigg Court. And so did I wait for word from my father. Unaware that I would not hear from him for over two years." Sooo... looks like we're not seeing Annie's father any time soon?

I spent the past year knowing there was something I was forgetting to do. As it turns out, there was a webcomic I was supposed to be liveblogging. I wish there was an excuse for this beyond sheer forgetfulness and procrastination, but I have none, apart from me having other things going on in my life that pushed this to the back of my mind.

Now, in order to prevent stuff like this from happening in the future, I'm creating a new rule for myself, in two parts:

Try to do one liveblog per month at least; and

Aim to surpass the bare minimum set above whenever I have the time and will to do so.

Hopefully, I can motivate myself to actually finish this webcomic, or at least make it beyond the first half of it.

Anyways, Gunnerkrigg Court time.

Chapter 13, titled "A Week for Kat," opens one Monday with Kat noticing a boy in class who isn't in a school uniform (13.229). The new kid is named Alistair, aka Aly (13.231), and he is indeed supposed to be in this classroom. We then get a montage of Annie, Kat, and Aly bonding on (13.233):

Kat is smitten, Annie isn't (13.234), and after a day of friendship, we learn that Aly is only here for a week (13.235) and doesn't know what happens to him afterwards; Kat finds this weird in the "haha, weird" way and Annie finds it weird in the "I'll stare nervously but quietly" way.

On Wednesday, Willie teases Aly during basketball (13.236), only for Aly to slam-dunk a shot (13.237).

While much of the school (namely Kat) is admiring Aly's sudden moment of kickassery, Annie is getting tired of his "mysterious and vague about his reason for being here" thing and does what any "reasonable" person would do (13.239):

Annie, being the scientifically-minded young lady she is, observes that Aly was unusually light; and Kat, being the socially-minded young lady she is, observes that Annie is completely unreasonable (13.240).

On Tuesday, Annie gives Kat a lesson in "you're fine just the way you are" (13.241-243). At the library, we are reminded that Aly is leaving tomorrow (13.246).

When "tomorrow" aka Friday comes, Aly explains to a heartbroken Kat that they don't have phone or email where he's from, and that he has to leave (13.247). Once he leaves, Kat spends the day acting so gloomy that Annie decides that they're going out to look for him before he leaves the school grounds (13.248). They find his room, Annie shoves Kat in, and something is finally confirmed to us: Aly isn't 100% human (13.250).

That's not all. We are introduced to Aly's parents, who happen to be birds -- not just humanoids with bits of bird, no, but full-on birds. Turns out they used to be humans and got new bodies after "some kind of test" (13.251). Aly actually agreed to take part in this transformation, though I don't know if this counts as informed consent (13.252):

Kat says her goodbyes to her beloved Aly, who then completes his transformation into a bird right before their eyes (13.254). And then, Aly the bird flies off (13.255):

"She never saw him again"? That's too bad. I was hoping that Aly the bird would be a recurring character!

Kat herself seems OK, as she gives Annie a big hug (13.257). Thus ends our chapter.

Ah, it's good to have university off my plate for the next little while. I should probably check my email for notifications to see what's...

Oh.

I thought I had forgotten something over the past... nine months. I'm sorry.

But the best way to make up for my absence isn't to just say sorry, it's to actually be present for a change. So let us pick up Gunnerkrigg Court where I last left off.

Chapter 12 is titled "Mainly Involves Robots" (12.200), and I assume that it at least partially involves robots. It begins (12.201) by having Annie discuss some things she's learned about Shadow 2 (c.f. Chapter 8 for who that is):

And not only that, but Kat even made a machine that gives Shadow 2 a voice (12.202). Good work, Kat!

After this, we finally get to the robots we were promised in the chapter's title. Annie discusses her past attempts to speak with the robots she encountered on the bridge (c.f. Chapter 7 for what that's about). I also must admire the robots' "ability" to keep their door hidden from the curious public (12.205):

Genius. But when Annie decides to go up to the door again, this time with Reynardine by her side, she comes up with an even more genius idea (12.209):

Truly, this is a battle of wits.

Of couse, this works perfectly, and Annie is let inside. She requests to see "Robot 13," apparently more properly called "S13," but unfortunately, it appears that S13 has been disassembled as a criminal, but his AI survives (12.212), so Annie goes to see it. It's a long hallway, so Reynardine turns from a plushie into a full-blown beastie (12.214). I... didn't know he could do that.

They finally get to their destination, and Reynardine smashes open some glass where S13's CPU is being stored (12.216). This triggers a security system to respond, forcing Annie to run away with the stolen CPU in hand (12.217).

I love how politely naive these robots are. As they escape, the next page (12.218) indicates that all of the robots here think like this.

Once they make it back, Kat analyzes the CPU her friends stole for her (12.220), and plugs it into a device that can allow the late Robot 13 to speak to them. It works, and S13 begins referring to Annie as "mommy." Annie asks what happened to S13 on the bridge, and they (I'll go with "they" until I see different pronouns in-universe) explain how they lost an arm, ran off into the forest, got a seed planted in the hole where their arm was, woke up months later, got possessed by a "shadow man," and then interacted with Annie on that bridge (12.223).

Reynardine, upon hearing this, starts explaining that Annie might have started something bad with that little trip to the woods (12.224):

He warns that his "fool cousin" might retaliate, but when Annie asks what he's talking about, Reynardine retvrns to plushie (12.225).

Annie, Kat, and S13 have one somewhat heartwarming moment (12.226), and with that, the chapter ends!

Here's to hoping I can post more often.

We are on the 11th chapter aka "Dobnaroc, Gamma" (11.181). We start off with Annie and two other girls (11.182):

WAIT, WAIT! Oh, this webcomic is really testing my memory, but I know these two! Their names are... uhhhh... [*checks one of my old posts*]... OK, the one on the left is Zimmy, and the one on the right is Gamma! Did I pass the exam?

But either way, Zimmy is for some reason angry at one of those weird green birds (11.183).

Fast-forward around 9 hours later (11.184), when Kat and Annie bump into Zimmy and Gamma in the library. The latter two ask for Annie's help (11.185). Then, um (11.186)...

Okay, obviously something non-right is happening with the hours and minutes here.

Then, in 8 hours (11.187) (I don't know if that's 8 hours later or if it's 8:10 AM or PM or whatever), Zimmy explains that Gamma doesn't get any sleep because she tries to stay awake with her, but unfortunately Zimmy doesn't sleep, like, ever. Zimmy explains (11.189) that being around Gamma helps to get the "static" out of her head, as some unusual "stuff" happens within Zimmy's proximity.

I should note that, in-between all of this, we've been getting what I assume are flashbacks of Zimmy and Gamma's past. But suddenly we see that present!Zimmy is phasing into her flashback phase again (11.192) as "the storm" is coming.

I am only now (11.193) realizing that the hours and minutes is (most likely) a clock counting down to Zimmy's episodes. Okay, makes sense.

In that case, we are now (11.194) in the scene where the chapter started, as Zimmy throws her stick (11.183). Ah, so they were doing an in media res thing. But at least now, we have an explanation as to why Zimmy hates those green birds: it's a "thousand eyes" and it can see her.

But eventually, it starts to rain, and Zimmy seems to be having fun for the first time (11.196). Not only that, we actually see her true eyes for once:

Okay, still kinda creepy, but less so. And here I was thinking Zimmy just didn't have eyeballs.