All Night Laundry - In which you just have to press down hard - 2019 12 19

At this point I am largely wondering why people seem convinced that Gregor's Green Lady is the Botfly. A conversation occurred in story about how the Botfly couldn't communicate directly with people, except for Gregor?? It feels a lot more likely to me that the Green Lady is not the Botfly. A big gap so far is that the earliest Bina we know of is B3. B3 herself said she had no idea what loop she was, though I think she concluded it was most likely to be 3 due to ~physics~. I would guess that, given her mathematical mindedness, in her numbering system there was a B0. That's three whole Binas who might be the Green Lady!

If I were to guess at motives, it would be that somehow all this mess is necessary to stop the Botfly from devouring all of space and time.

Sorry if I'm rehashing old discussions! Like I said, just finished reading all of the posts on the website for the first time.

Edit: I guess abducting people to give attention to the Botfly doesn't seem like a very anti-Botfly agenda.

Edit2: Gregor communicates with the Green Lady through a device. Did he build it himself? Seems unlikely! The Botfly doesn't do things directly. Who built it??

Yep, he's absolutely right. If this is Amie's scenario, then the Companion is the character viewers are meant to identify with.

She will be fine, as long as this isn't the end of the season.

Uh ... it's not, is it? How can we determine that? By intentionally leaving something unresolved so the story has to continue?

This is the thirteenth (fourteenth?) loop, neither of which are unusual numbers for episodes in a Dr. Who season. It's also the last possible stable loop, supposedly. Sounds pretty season-endy to me!

I always believed that the Lady was the Television in the laundromat, which could very likely also be the same Television that Josephine made and the one in the Astre Sugar dream.

"Gregor seems confused, but answers that the basement is where the Green Lady lives, and the Green Lady is very lonely and sick. People must go to her so, so she can get better." post 117

"He says that she should not be being afraid. He knows this is much confusing yes? He was confused too when Green Lady is touching him, too. Confused for many days.

Do not be worry. The confusion, it goes away. Everything becomes clear." post 129

"The Green Lady, she says you are her most special friend. I am to take you to see her. She very much wants to meet you." post 454

These suggest to me that the Green Lady is the botfly, and is not a Bina. By no means is this definitive proof. At one point people thought that B3 was the Green Lady.

It was not that the botfly couldn't communicate with anyone else, but that it didn't. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
B3 chose three because "It's a good number, and it's no more or less wrong then any other number." All she knows is that "there have been at least a few before me, possibly quite a few". Physics had less to do with it than preference. (post 808)

Don't you sort of have to do this without looking at the light?

Kendra: Be careful.

UPDATE - 1108 - In which Amie takes a peek

Are you sure it's not just ONE really big Naught?

(barf)

UPDATE - 1109 - In which we get a good long look

Holy hell, I finally made it and it has been a well worthwhile journey.

This is marvellous stuff, and all the more incredible when I realise it's been three diligent years in the making. I can totally understand it taking four years to write a novel to completion. Having said that, it's telling that this didn't feel like I'm reading a story that the author's 70% done with, more like I got 70% through a good book, and now I'm going to put it down, go do something else for a bit, and pick up the story later. I'm not even completely sure if we're at 70% through the story, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest when I'm in such safe hands, so to speak.

The pacing's not perfect, which is weird to say considering: I can't remember a scene which overstayed its welcome while I was in the process of reading. Maybe because I knew I was reading a forum adventure and was mentally prepped for that? I'm not sure if you want to do any editing once it's over and trim scenes which end up overlong compared to the finished whole, this being a web"comic" (illustrated serial story, Online Edition?) and not your first draft for a different medium.

I love your characters to pieces as well (so many fantastic ladies in so many... genuine? non-lazy? configurations of Powerful yet Flawed), but I'm a sucker for empathic and understanding main characters soooooooo

Literally the only time reading this felt like a slog was getting my head around High-Density Time Bullshit. I'm not well-versed enough to make calls on whether it "makes sense" in any meaningful version of the expression, so I can quite happily take it as a slightly-less-understood-yet-narratively-credible source of challenges to overcome (and the tools to master so they might overcome said challenges).

tl;dr this is great stuff and I've no regrets that this is how I've spent the last two and a half work days. Keep up the wonderful work!


Also: I dunno how many others got this vibe but I got a really strong Mutewood (one of the earliest (completed!) adventures on MSPAFA) feeling from your art switch when we landed in the hospital. Really added to the sense of dread, much of a given as it was that things were going to go pear-shaped, and fast.

Somebody is hiding, either inside the bin or up in the chute.

Seems like naughts would crawl up the chute after them, so I'm guessing bin? Though this is odd behavior for naughts, to just gather in a quiescent cluster like some sort of freakish Beard of Bees.

What's the naught equivalent of royal jelly? Unlight? Who else can wield unlight besides Bina??

UPDATE - 1110 - Also known as 'people peer around door-frames'

@Schazer: Thanks again! That was really nice of you to say all that! I haven't read Mutewood. Are they on the mirror site or did they disappear with the forums?

nope, it's one of the earliest adventures, before the mirror really got going. It also would have a habit of posting multiple black panels, each under its own spoiler, and the last one had creepy eyes/teeth on it, so I'm not sure how well that would've translated to the single-panel-and-chatlog format of the mirror anyway.

The main similarity was the visual represtation - isometric room interiors - Akumu or btp'd know what I'm on about to make up for the complete lack of archived content to illustrate my point.

Here is an example panel from Mutewood:



You can actually read what I think is the whole thing on an archived page on archive.org.

> How long would it take to get to the laundry drop on the next floor?

Signal by flashing the flashlight.

Everybody knows Morse Code, right??

UPDATE - 1111 - In which only one person knows Morse Code

OK, Mutewood actually looks very cool, but I can't find the later pages on the archive. :(

Oh crap! Is it three flashes for "maybe"??

UPDATE - 1112 - In which Amie doesn't listen to directions

Distract naughts with an impromptu vaudeville routine.

^this

UPDATE - 1113 - In which Elizabeth takes charge

I still think a little soft-shoe and a rousing rendition of "Hello ma baby, hello ma honey, hello ma ragtime gal..." would really turn the tables on this situation, but okay. We'll do it Elizabeth's way.

FOR NOW

UPDATE - 1114 - In which we listen to someone talk

There might be a way to save her. Piss off the things, make them chase you instead. Just have a exit plan first.

Looks like Kendra isn't en route to her sister, then. Maybe someone should tell her before she springs a trap.