#like a clock

So, wow, huge plot twist in Gunnerkrigg Court: The Tic-Toc birds were created by Kat, just now, and their appearance earlier in the comic is apparently some form of TIME PARADOX. This is a great twist, because this knowledge makes us go back and see things that happened in a new light. Let’s baselessly speculate! 

For instance, after sitting around being creepy and going Tic-Toc for the first six chapters, the birds finally do something when Annie is attacked on the bridge. One goes BEEEEE!. Initially, you’d thing that the BEEEEE! was to indicate an alarm like all the other Court alarms that were going off (and if you were clever, you might thing to revisit that assumption when it’s later revealed the Court didn’t make the birds and doesn’t know how the work). 

But now we know the birds knew Annie was about to fall, and the BEEEEE! is a signal to get ready to catch her, and bring her to the far side of the river. But why the time travel? Well, what brought on this revelation in Kat? 

Well, it turns out that neither Court Annie nor Forest Annie should exist in this timeline. Hm. Anyway, what happens after Annie falls off the bridge in Chapter 7?

 Annie has a flashback to dropping a glass and breaking it, and her mom’s all 

(Annie gets cut later in this chapter, so maybe the drop is something to be concerned about after all!)

And then the birds take her to the forest side of the ravine. Why do they take her to the far side? Well, Jeanne’s on the Court side, so there’s that. What else happens.

She meats Red and Ayilu, who are trying to die but can’t (hmm....). But perhaps more interestingly, 

This is where the pyschopomps are introduced. There’s one down in the ravine waiting for her, and expresses that she shouldn’t be in “this place” (how vague, in retrospect). We never did find out what his business was.

What an interesting ellipses there before “current situation”, as if he’s not talking about being wet and cold.

So, I’m starting to form a theory here. Annie was Muut’s business, and not just because he wanted to give her a blinker stone. Antimony Carver fell off that bridge and died.

Or she would have, of course, had the Tic Tocs not rescued her, which is why neither Annie belongs in the timeline. She’s supposed to be dead.

So, Kat created the Tic-Tocs. We really should have seen that one coming, because the robots said the Tic-Tocs were created by “a divine being”, and there’s only one being the robots think is divine

(Indeed, if there’s time travel involved, we’re starting to formulate some theories as to why the robots are inclined to think of Kat as an angel)

Okay, so we’re forming a theory. Kat created the Tic Tocs and at some point sends them back in time. Why? To save Annie. Next question: How? 

Well, setting up time paradoxes is possible with the Ether

And like ten seconds after we learn this we’re reminded that the Court is building machines that control the Ether

On November 5th, 1993, I was born.

On November 17th, twelve days after, Seran was born.

On November 27th, 2017, I got a black and white tattoo of a spiritually important animal symbol on my left forearm.

On December 9th, 2017, twelve days after, Seran got a black and white tattoo of a spiritually important animal symbol on his left forearm.

Fate plays too much.