Topic: Alice Grove MCDT July 2015 (Read 72226 times)

Kugai · « **on:** 01 Jul 2015, 14:16 »

Another month, another Poll

Aegir · « **Reply #1 on:** 01 Jul 2015, 14:43 »

so when is the next update anyway?

jwhouk · « **Reply #2 on:** 01 Jul 2015, 17:13 »

Boy, you wouldn't blame Jeph if he forgot about AG...

Kugai · « **Reply #3 on:** 01 Jul 2015, 17:32 »

I actually suspect we may not see an AG Update for at least another week or so.

improvnerd · « **Reply #4 on:** 01 Jul 2015, 18:58 »

"Alice Grove will update Thursday and Friday this week!"

https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/615721073913499648

SomeCanadianWeirdo · « **Reply #5 on:** 01 Jul 2015, 19:38 »

New comic up. Not surprising to see Gavia freaked out, and once again we see Alice is not a people person.

Kugai · « **Reply #6 on:** 01 Jul 2015, 20:07 »

Nice to know I can be wrong on occasion

Careful Gavia, your head may explode.

SubaruStephen · « **Reply #7 on:** 01 Jul 2015, 20:10 »

I foresee that last panel becoming a meme.

BenRG · « **Reply #8 on:** 01 Jul 2015, 23:09 »

I'm pretty sure that Alice has said all that she wants to say. I get the impression that she prefers people to take stuff on faith when it comes to her story. That said, I don't think that it is going to be possible for her to leave it here. Gavia isn't her normal sort of audience, after all! If she won't say more, Amos (who seems to know at least his faction's version of the whole story) will say more.

Pilchard123 · « **Reply #9 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 00:12 »

Quote from: SubaruStephen on 01 Jul 2015, 20:10

I foresee that last panel becoming a meme.

I HAVE SO MANY ISSUES WITH THIS.

amykathleen · « **Reply #10 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 06:56 »

I hope that Gavia's reaction is an indicator that we (and Gavia, I guess) will receive more explanations soon!

Method of Madness · « **Reply #11 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 12:26 »

Gavia's actually taking this extremely well, when you think about it.

ReindeerFlotilla · « **Reply #12 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 13:50 »

Yeah. Alice is being a bit harsh. On the other hand, when isn't Alice a bit harsh?

Given all the "your world is not what you think" the first words out most people's mouths would tend yo be "you are so full of shit." Gavia's first words are basically "I have issues." That's either really diplomatic or really narcissistic, depending on what she means

cesium133 · « **Reply #13 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 18:26 »

Alice must eat a lot of peanut butter.

SomeCanadianWeirdo · « **Reply #14 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 20:05 »

Alice is made of peanut butter, concealed behind a nanotech shell.

Kugai · « **Reply #15 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 20:20 »

No, the secret to eternal life is Coffee and Pancakes

pwhodges · « **Reply #16 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 22:14 »

It's frustrating that there is still no hint of what Alice is, though!

BenRG · « **Reply #17 on:** 02 Jul 2015, 22:59 »

So, now we know. Alice did try to tell the truth. However, as sages throughout history have learned, people prefer their own 'truths' to the facts. After a while, Alice just gave up and let people instead cling to the stories and 'truths' that gave them the most comfort and happiness. What harm did it do? What did it change?

Instead, she's simply tried to live her life and be a force of good whenever she could. I think that she's isolated by choice and intervenes only in limited ways and if it is clear it is necessary.

It's sad in a way; it must be a tremendously lonely and frustrating life to live.

[EDIT]
Further to that last point... Maybe I'm reading too much into it but Alice seems so distant in panel 4. In so many ways, she is the loneliest person on Earth. A living relic of a vanished epoch of human civilisation; born (or created) in a different time to a civilisation that barely even exists as a myth or legend anymore. Even its last physical relics long since gone to rust and dust. All that is left is her - a constant in a world changed beyond recognition.

No wonder she is so harsh and unsocial. Losing everything and everyone and then being condemned to live on in a world so different from the one in which she was born amongst people who can barely understand you and your nature must have worn at her sanity over the tens of centuries.

Thus is the fate of an immortal in the mortal world.

Zebediah · « **Reply #18 on:** 03 Jul 2015, 05:15 »

More and more I'm thinking that Alice started off as an ordinary human, and that for some reason the Blink made her immortal. It wasn't her idea, and she'd rather not be. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that she went through a suicidal phase a couple of thousand years ago but couldn't figure out how to pull it off - she kept regenerating no matter what she did to herself.

SubaruStephen · « **Reply #19 on:** 03 Jul 2015, 17:46 »

Quote from: pwhodges on 02 Jul 2015, 22:14

It's frustrating that there is still no hint of what Alice is, though!

It's pretty obvious now, she's the product of the faction that favored genetic modification. She's the "perfect" human, incredibly strong, highly intelligent, and nigh immortal.

Quote from: Zebediah on 03 Jul 2015, 05:15

More and more I'm thinking that Alice started off as an ordinary human, and that for some reason the Blink made her immortal.

Nah, she would've had to come out of womb (incubation machine?) the way she is. Dna modification at that scale would probably liquefy someone who was already alive.

Quote from: BenRG on 02 Jul 2015, 22:59

[EDIT]
Further to that last point... Maybe I'm reading too much into it but Alice seems so distant in panel 4. In so many ways, she is the loneliest person on Earth. A living relic of a vanished epoch of human civilisation; born (or created) in a different time to a civilisation that barely even exists as a myth or legend anymore. Even its last physical relics long since gone to rust and dust. All that is left is her - a constant in a world changed beyond recognition.

No wonder she is so harsh and unsocial. Losing everything and everyone and then being condemned to live on in a world so different from the one in which she was born amongst people who can barely understand you and your nature must have worn at her sanity over the tens of centuries.

Thus is the fate of an immortal in the mortal world.

Have you played Lost Odyssey for the Xbox360? That's basically the backstory of the main character. (Excellent game, I highly recommend it)

Method of Madness · « **Reply #20 on:** 06 Jul 2015, 20:31 »

I wonder how many thousands of years old Alice is. I wonder if the Blink is what made her immortal, or if she was already immortal (and hundreds or thousands of years old even then).

Kugai · « **Reply #21 on:** 06 Jul 2015, 20:50 »

I do believe our acerbic immortal is kinda a wee bit happy to have them there

Not that she'll admit it under anything less than direct torture.

BenRG · « **Reply #22 on:** 06 Jul 2015, 23:03 »

I'll go one step further. Alice has been progressively isolating herself for some time, becoming ever more detached from the mortals' everyday lives and only getting involved when either she happens to be there at the time or something big happens. However, she's still human, or at least so psychologically alike a human to be indistinguishable from one. She gets lonely and that can drive you mad in time. She's glad to have house-guests; she's glad to have someone she can talk to.

This is the thing that neither Gavia nor Alice are ready to address yet: She's reaching out to them. She wants to have a closer relationship with someone and she's interested enough in her two visitors for it to be them.

Poor Gavia, though! She's going to spend this volume jumping from culture shock to culture shock, I think!

improvnerd · « **Reply #23 on:** 07 Jul 2015, 00:06 »

Does this remind anybody of an ABC Family sitcom?

Alice the witch is a thousand years old.
Her loneliness was a thing to behold.
Then two spacebornes came a long way,
Now it looks like they're here to stay!

Looked for adventure,
Found a whole treasure trove.
With Allllice Grooove.

improvnerd · « **Reply #24 on:** 07 Jul 2015, 00:11 »

Ardent the spaceboy was first down the trail,
With bright blue skin and de-lightful tail.
Then came Gaiva with her nanotech.
If she balls her hands, then you hit the deck!

improvnerd · « **Reply #25 on:** 07 Jul 2015, 00:14 »

Margaret Wheelwright is a real cutie.
With pretty bonnet and enormous booty.
Ardent spied her, thanked his luck.
She slapped his face when he said...

Method of Madness · « **Reply #26 on:** 07 Jul 2015, 06:53 »

..."aw, shucks!"

ReindeerFlotilla · « **Reply #27 on:** 07 Jul 2015, 21:52 »

If a webcomic is gag based (comedy) and story based (a situation) it's a situation comedy.

A sitcom.

Just sayin'

Energia · « **Reply #28 on:** 09 Jul 2015, 22:54 »

7000 years = 28 characters => 250 years per character, or 1250 to spell out Hello. Did she wait to see if that was enough? Was she worried about the kind of message she'd be sending after only 1000 years! What on Earth do time, memory, emotion and endeavour mean to an immortal? OK. Now I need to find my log-in details to update the wiki with a new plot point. Things are finally moving.

BenRG · « **Reply #29 on:** 09 Jul 2015, 23:40 »

Ooh, so now Gavia is going to badger Alice into telling her about her relationship with 'Up'! That should be interesting as well as explaining why she doesn't like the Praeses.

Quote from: Energia on 09 Jul 2015, 22:54

7000 years = 28 characters => 250 years per character, or 1250 to spell out Hello.

Seven hundred, not seven thousand. Still a monumental endeavor. It tells us a lot about Alice's strength of will, personal determination and ability to see things through. I wonder if she was initially trying to get help after what she perceived as a disaster? Or was she just trying to build communication bridges and trying to find someone to talk to other than the descendants of the Low-Tech faction?

Energia · « **Reply #30 on:** 10 Jul 2015, 00:05 »

I'm not sure why I read it as 7000 years, but as you say, an almost literally monumental task. However, at least the builders of prehistoric monuments would have been able to speak to one another. 25 years to complete a 1km character would be within the scope of a mad dreaming human. For her to have kept going past the first word puts her mental processes beyond my ken. It's a clever line by Jeph, whether or not it's a throw away one.

greywolfe · « **Reply #31 on:** 10 Jul 2015, 00:22 »

At least she was polite. She could have carved "WE APOLOGISE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE".

Energia · « **Reply #32 on:** 10 Jul 2015, 00:44 »

A bit expensive in petrol though!

Kugai · « **Reply #33 on:** 10 Jul 2015, 16:11 »

WE APOLOGIST FOR THE INCONVENIENCE

amykathleen · « **Reply #34 on:** 10 Jul 2015, 18:54 »

Is Alice non-sequituring to get Gavia to shut up, or is this meant to actually answer the question? I ask because I think kilometer-high letters still wouldn't be big enough to be seen from space, much less read from orbit - a kilometer's really not that big, and spacecraft in orbit have to move extremely fast in order to stay there.

jwhouk · « **Reply #35 on:** 10 Jul 2015, 20:52 »

I think she's joking.

improvnerd · « **Reply #36 on:** 10 Jul 2015, 23:24 »

Quote from: amykathleen on 10 Jul 2015, 18:54

I ask because I think kilometer-high letters still wouldn't be big enough to be seen from space, much less read from orbit

Depends on how how high an orbit the habitats are in, and whether they have telescopes. For example, the latest commercial SPOT satellites, orbiting at 694 kilometers can resolve objects down to 1.5 meters.

Of course, we don't even know if the habitats have windows.

jwhouk · « **Reply #37 on:** 11 Jul 2015, 02:17 »

I'm betting they all run on Linux, actually.

(HeeeeeeeeeSHOOOTSandSCORESSSSS!)

ReindeerFlotilla · « **Reply #38 on:** 11 Jul 2015, 13:39 »

I'm thinking sarcasm. The Author has hit the end of his info dump (but not the end of his info), There's something Alice doesn't want to share with Gavia about her relationship with the trees.

Remember, Alice has demonstrated not only knowledge of them, but contempt. If Alice were just a person who happened be at the blink, she'd probably know less about them.

Either she dealt with them before the blink, and had a disagreement so intense that it hasn't mellowed after a millennium, or she's been in contact more recently.

Kugai · « **Reply #39 on:** 11 Jul 2015, 16:23 »

On a side note, anyone get a Threat Warning from their Anti-Virus when they go to Tumbler

Just went to the comic and my AV went a little nuts.

hedgie · « **Reply #40 on:** 11 Jul 2015, 19:23 »

What's an "Anti-Virus"? </linux snob>

Kugai · « **Reply #41 on:** 11 Jul 2015, 20:41 »

hedgie · « **Reply #42 on:** 11 Jul 2015, 21:00 »

Even worse, I was a Mac-head when I could still afford the bloody things. Oddly enough, I was actually better with a CLI on a Mac, since it was the only way you could really get anything done due to Apple's idiot-proofing.

BenRG · « **Reply #43 on:** 12 Jul 2015, 00:33 »

Quote from: Kugai on 11 Jul 2015, 16:23

On a side note, anyone get a Threat Warning from their Anti-Virus when they go to Tumbler

Just went to the comic and my AV went a little nuts.

I have had ransomware appearing in some ads; it might be that.

osaka · « **Reply #44 on:** 13 Jul 2015, 19:55 »

So Ardent has the same food input capabilities as say myself. I believe that's what Drake meant with "If you're reading this it's too late".

improvnerd · « **Reply #45 on:** 13 Jul 2015, 19:59 »

He's a teenage boy, so no surprise there.

osaka · « **Reply #46 on:** 13 Jul 2015, 20:03 »

There's levels to food input even as a teenage boy.

Ardent would be happy in Asturias anyways.

BenRG · « **Reply #47 on:** 13 Jul 2015, 23:46 »

Yeah, that's the rub, isn't it? In the end, some things just need to be taken on faith. The thing is that Alice doesn't gain anything by making up this story. So, why not take it on face value? It makes a lot more sense than most of the alternatives. That said, 'how' and 'why' remain mysteries for now!

Panels 2 and 3 have funny background events. Gavia is trying to emulate some of Alice's behavior! Curiosity or isshe starting to imprint on the strongest adult role model that she's ever met?

Kugai · « **Reply #48 on:** 14 Jul 2015, 15:04 »

You picked the wrong stalk Gavia

And if it's been an hour, it's definitely too late for Amos' food supplies.

jwhouk · « **Reply #49 on:** 14 Jul 2015, 18:30 »

Unless the peanut butter had a negative effect on the roof of his mouth...

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Poll

What will this month bring?

Author Topic: Alice Grove MCDT July 2015 (Read 72226 times)