Alice Grove MCDT - April 2015

[Zebediah]

He actually had clothes a while back, but appears to have abandoned them.

[Half Empty Coffee Cup]

We've learned two things here.

1. Alice is a few thousand years old. This is the less interesting of the things we've just found out.

2. For all the technological wonder of the civilization that Ardent and Gavia are now estranged from, such longevity is rare, if at all heard of.

Score. Ages in the multi-millenia range, (mostly (Thanks, Alice)) debunked.

[Kugai]

Ahhhh kids

[BenRG]

I can already see Alice trying to break this up whilst not too obviously laughing her butt off. I wonder just where this may go and whether the blond kid will insist that Ardent is his pet because "I caught him an' everthin'!"

Now... why does the phrase 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' jump into my mind?

BTW - Gavia is right that Alice doesn't seem the sort to joke about stuff. Lie outright on the other hand? That's plausible!

[TinPenguin]

Lie? When did she lie? She never said "I am Alice, I am eternal, tremble ye nations." Gavia asked a question, and Alice implied the answer was obvious.

Consider:
"How would you know that giant redwood tree is thousands of years old just by observation?"
"Think about it."

[BenRG]

The more I look at this strip, the more I think the blonde who lassoed Ardent is a girl but it's difficult to be sure as I think they're all 10 years old or younger when sexual dimorphism is a lot less distinct.

I expect Gavia to block the big kid's attack with her nano-shield (impressing all three kids - "Woooaaahhh! Coooooolll!").

I suspect that the kids will insist that they have 'captured' the two space-teens and that they have to come back to town as 'prisoners' and that is how they get back to the town. Here's a thought: I don't think that Ardent and Gavia have ever been kids. I suspect that technology and social sophistication has slowly whittled childhood away to almost nothing in their world. So, I suspect that they may end up enjoying interacting with the Town's children in an innocent way.

Lie? When did she lie? She never said "I am Alice, I am eternal, tremble ye nations." Gavia asked a question, and Alice implied the answer was obvious.

I'm talking about Alice's general demeanour. I have no problem believing that selected portions of her exposition in the chapter was potentially baldly untrue and in line with an agenda to frighten the Vicissitudes into compliance.

[osaka]

If you're going to "get the demon", I'm pretty sure that the absurdly pale floaty girl with red eyes looks more like the demon than the blue guy with a tail. Although the tail will imply some demonhood.

Please Gavia don't hurt 'em

[Zebediah]

Plus the floaty red-eyed girl is the one who firebombed the town. Definitely the demon.

[eschaton]

Ardent's use of the term "baseline human" is straight out of Orion's Arm. 

Of course, since it seems to have been established that there is no strong AI in this series (which leaves me wondering what the Praeses are exactly) we know it's not Orion's Arm itself. 

[BenRG]

Of course, since it seems to have been established that there is no strong AI in this series (which leaves me wondering what the Praeses are exactly) we know it's not Orion's Arm itself.

Actually, all we've established is that Gavia believes that an AI distributed through a community of nano-machines is impossible. That's not entirely the same thing.

[FunkyTuba]

yeah, I don't think anything's quite Established yet at all, certainly not the non-existence of anything 

Alice herself is still a significant wildcard, we won't know her true limitations or the real parameters of her Grove and its position in the universe until a situation comes up that she can't handle (if it does)

[pwhodges]

until a situation comes up that she can't handle (if it does)

Oh, it has.  She said she can't send Ardent and Gavia back.

[Method of Madness]

Can't or won't?

[BenRG]

She was annoyed enough with Ardent that I'm leaning towards "can't". If that was just a show, she's a very, very good actress.

[FunkyTuba]

until a situation comes up that she can't handle (if it does)

Oh, it has.  She said she can't send Ardent and Gavia back.

Fair enough... that's one stated limitation, but it's also predicated on her pre-Gavia understanding of her situation. I'm thinking even Alice's bets are off at this point given their "specialest snowflakes" status and the IMPLICATIONS that derive from it.

[Gladstone]

Breaking News: Gavia still hasn't learned anything, also is not a piñata.

[Zebediah]

But Ardent HAS learned something. Sort of. A little bit.

[Kugai]

Bad Gavia, bad.

At least Ardent knows how to wield a Smackystick.

[hedgie]

Sadly, it's not thick enough to be a clue-by-four.

[Energia]

2 bops until she emits an 'Ow!'  She must have really been in the moment!

[Energia]

... and why is Hanners in the first panel? 

[BenRG]

This may be just me but, either Gavia was playing along and got carried away or she has a wee bit of an anger management issue. If it's the latter, then we may have a clue as to why the Vicissitudes were marooned. I mean... she looked like a different person! DID or something?

Jeph did say that, sometimes, humour demands to take precedence over story. I get that but the insert panels were a bit too animé for me.

[Is it cold in here?]

Her first appearance makes it easy to believe she has an anger management problem.

[Neko_Ali]

She just really likes using her powers. It half seems to me that it's like she just got them, so she wants to do everything with them. That, or she's had them so long she just doesn't really remember how to do things without.

[Kugai]

I think it's a bit of both.

Gavia's so used to using her abilities and has, I feel, probably gotten just about everything she wants with them she knows no other way.

I think she's more the spoiled brat of the duo.

[jwhouk]

More, of course, being a relative thing.

[SubaruStephen]

It's official, Alice is better with kids than I am.

[Is it cold in here?]

It reminds of Morticia Addams volunteering to read stories to children at the library.

[improvnerd]

Seems like scaring the crap out of kids might be the best thing Alice can do for them. Gavia has tried to set people on fire when threatened in the past, and it looks like she would have again if Ardent hadn't got out his bopping stick.

It also underscores the more general message that you don't mess with Alice stuff. If it's Alice stuff, it's off limits for a very good reason.

[improvnerd]

Also, how do we know Alice isn't speaking from experience?

She may have lived for thousands of years, but that doesn't mean she hasn't died lots of times.

[Kugai]

Alice

Proud Award Winning Childcare Worker.

[ChaoSera]

Does anybody else think the blond kid looks like a young Hanners?

[BenRG]

Some people just don't have an instinct for children; Alice is clearly one of them! You can tell that this is not meant to be threatening by her body language. She's trying to be a kind, wise and maternal sage... and failing!

I'm also fairly sure Alice thinks that this whole incident is cute!

Notice that she didn't correct them about Gavia being a 'demon'. Psychology or possibly her own opinion on the girl? Gavia does have entitlement and anger issues as well as a homicidal side, after all!

Does anybody else think the blond kid looks like a young Hanners?

Not really, beyond being a blonde girl.

[Half Empty Coffee Cup]

Some Real Talk from Alice. If you intend on attacking the person who has firebombed your town with sufficiently advanced technology, the only thing saving you is that person's patience.

[Welu]

I love that last panel. Alice's gentle smile compared to the children's horrified expressions is brilliant.

[Energia]

Does anybody else think the blond kid looks like a young Hanners?

Yep.  Even moreso in the previous comic. 

[BenRG]

Potential future moment:

ALICE: "Children, it's obvious to me that you won't understand the dangers inherit in certain people until you are familiar with them. That's why you're going to be accompanying Miss Gavia and helping her to acclimatise to the town. Until I say differently."

KIDS and GAVIA: "Aaawww!"

[explicit]

I mean, my company would hire her as a teacher...

[osaka]

Alice is my spirit animal now.

[FunkyTuba]

Some Real Talk from Alice. If you intend on attacking the person who has firebombed your town with sufficiently advanced technology, the only thing saving you is that person's patience.

Actually in this case it was that person's brother's BOPs

[osaka]

Well, nobody likes getting bopped.

[Wildroses]

I do think Alice is good with kids. I mean, I don't think she could have said anything better to completely discourage them from attacking Gavia ever again. That's real horror on those three little faces.

It also helps my theory that Alice is not taking the terrible twosome to town more because she is trying to protect them from the townsfolk rather than vice versa. It's possible their society traditionally reacts to the non-standard by utter destruction in the name of staying perfectly balanced. I have another theory that this society is descended from people who were deeply traumatised by science.

It is certainly supposed to be Alice's job to deal with the unusual though. The farmer instantly sent Jack to find her when they found Ardent, and later when Ardent was surprised the townsfolk weren't coming to see him Alice said it was because he was with her and so none of their business.

[hedgie]

Well, nobody likes getting bopped.

Obviously, you don't have a fetish for head-trauma.  But sometimes, we are stranger creatures than any alien.

[DSL]

Does anybody else think the blond kid looks like a young Hanners?

Specifically, young Hanners the first time she tried to show someone how to draw a kitty.

[osaka]

Of course I don't, that shit hurts a lot.
These people and their fetishes foken ell.
Stop the earth, I'm getting down here.
Buncha weird motherfuckers
Fuck is wrong with these people

[tywren]

Specifically, young Hanners the first time she tried to show someone how to draw a kitty.

Except that's not what young Hanners looks like, it's what current Hanners looks like. For a view of young Hanners, check out the flashback in the Station arc.

[Aziraphale]

Also, how do we know Alice isn't speaking from experience?

She may have lived for thousands of years, but that doesn't mean she hasn't died lots of times.

Plot twist: She's a Trill.

[TinPenguin]

Specifically, young Hanners the first time she tried to show someone how to draw a kitty.

Except that's not what young Hanners looks like, it's what current Hanners looks like. For a view of young Hanners, check out the flashback in the Station arc.

And young Hanners had demons aplenty of her own to defeat.

[ZoeB]

I'm not sure being burned is the most painful way of dying. Breathe the fire in, and you suffocate quite soon. And 3rd degree burns stop hurting when the nerves get destroyed.

It's *not* dying by fire, but keeping yourself alive, seriously but not fatally burnt that stings a bit.

As I said to the nurse in the resus ward who was testing my arm for sensitivity "Yes, it hurts, that's good, nerves still exist". She felt a lot better about having to do it when she realised I knew why it was being done, and wanted it to be done. I could tell she was in intense distress about it beforehand - who wouldn't be? Fortunately it looked worse than it was. No permanent damage to airways, eyes or structures (nose, lips, eyelids etc), just upsetting to look at. Though I have to say that despite the warnings, when I looked in a mirror I felt relief that all I'd lost was my skin. It looked a mucky mess, but appearances were deceptive. Everything was healable in time, it just...stung a bit. Significantly uncomfy, especially since I have a bad reaction to morphine. Had I been fatally hurt, it wouldn't have been nearly so unpleasant. I prefer Life though.

I'm not saying being a serious burn victim is better than having to treat one - just psychologically easier. I'm not sure I could have done her job, so anything I could do to relieve her burden was needful.

Telling the children a little white lie that might stop them from getting into real trouble was responsible. And it is uncomfy, after all.

[Kugai]

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