Chapter Nineteen Pages 22-23
Dec05
In which Patrick’s trauma is intense enough to get a full two-page spread.
If it’s hard to read, click the thumbnail to zoom in:
(SCOOT)
Patrick: Hold on — maybe think about this —
Cohen: Hey! No tryin’ to run off. Stay.
Patrick: Please stop!
(GRAB)
Cohen: Let go of me. Why’re you all of a sudden questioning Master’s orders, huh?
Patrick: Please don’t. Please, please, please —
(tremble)
Cohen: If you can’t go along w’this peacefully, at least do it quietly.
(CHOKE)
(SMUDGE)
Patrick: AIIIIEEEEEEEEEE
Cohen: I said quietly! Stop hurting! I’m gonna fix it, okay, so stop screaming —
(SCHLORP)
(whimper)
(FLEE)
WHY COHEN. WHY?!?! Also, it seems that some part of the beings “coding” allows them to resist the orders of their masters in order to maintain the contract. This may become relevant later.
I don’t know that ‘stop hurting’ is a valid order. In fact it will never be a valid order. Cohen you JERK.
To be fair, dude, he is drunk. It’s probably NOT a valid order.
But beings are noted as following any orders period, so it’s possible that this is some kind of defense mechanism?
It has been shown that if an order is a paradox, or is physically impossible for the Being to perform under those conditions, the order won’t be carried out. See Camellia and Reseda’s experiments.
Ah, I know why! Cohen erased his name, broke the contract and from then on, Patrick does not follow his orders anymore because he’s not his master anymore. So at that moment the involuntary response of screaming at the pain comes back! And “Stop hurting” is an order that has no effect.
Ah, add on: So I think “Stop hurting” is probably normally a valid order (though… I would think it is a dangerous and reckless order to stop a pain response) but it is not rn because Cohen is not able to give any valid orders
I will confirm that Beings have plenty of physical limits and responses which they can’t control. Having a Master give a “control this!” order isn’t going to give them new abilities — it’s just going to make them distraught that they can’t fulfill the order properly.
Ah, I didn’t realize that! I think in one battle it seemed to me when Miranda used the “magic” Bianca gave an order that basically trumped that. I figured that the owners will could have a great impact on beings and in some way the mre determined/ready to believe their being could do a thing they were, the more powerful the being was.
I think the point of the “magic” when applied to beings is that it is essential giving them a sort of subconscious order, which is overridden by the orders of their master. For example, the sigils over the rabbit’s cell would be telling the rabbit, “be afraid, avoid these sigils” and are thus rendered ineffective when her master orders her not to be afraid.
Idk, I kinda saw them on the same level. We’ve seen them working on humans after all, so they certainly can shape reality outside humans. I was more thinking of the sigils transforming the walls into off-limits/indestructible by beings. Maybe some of them are psychological, but I do think they can have physical impact.
All the hugs to Patrick. I used up my seething resentment Friday so there is none left for Cohen.
And no wonder Poe flipped his shit, if this is what Miranda told him.
Well shit.
I was really sympathetic to Cohen (still am, in a way) but… He *really* went too far here. Crossed a line. And being drunk may be an explanation, but it is no excuse.
This was difficult to read.
Very.
Took more effort than usual to draw, too.
A thought from the future.
Stu’s last act with Patrick… is taking away the first thing he ever gave The Dog.
Cohen, you monster.