A Girl and Her Fed

[Traab]

First off, link is here (http://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.1.html) Second of all, I love this comic. Its multiple years old and updates twice a week. The story, dear god the story, its so hard to explain how insane it gets without massive spoilers so I will basically spoil the first comic as it makes for a good setup. A young woman who sees the pixie ghost form of benjamin franklin realizes she is being spied on by the government. Hijinks will ensue. Its a story instead of a gag a day comic strip but even so it has plenty of humor in it. There are so many twists chubby checkers needs to take a nap. It has action, drama, a bit of angst, intrigue, humor, and a fairly rich bit of world building.

[Graypairofsocks]

First off, link is here (http://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.1.html) Second of all, I love this comic. Its multiple years old and updates twice a week. The story, dear god the story, its so hard to explain how insane it gets without massive spoilers so I will basically spoil the first comic as it makes for a good setup. A young woman who sees the pixie ghost form of benjamin franklin realizes she is being spied on by the government. Hijinks will ensue. Its a story instead of a gag a day comic strip but even so it has plenty of humor in it. There are so many twists chubby checkers needs to take a nap. It has action, drama, a bit of angst, intrigue, humor, and a fairly rich bit of world building.

This is some weird ass ****.

Seems pretty interesting.

[Traab]

Yeah that describes it pretty well. Feel free to post random thoughts as you go through it. There is one thing that might be jarring though. The author at one point was actually going through the early comics and updating them. Improving the art, adding color, etc. You will hit a patch where it goes to black and white and far simpler drawing for awhile, but it will eventually go back to "normal" Unfortunately it looks like the effort to recolor the comics was stopped so its kind of a strange stretch.

[halfeye]

I've been reading this for several years, thanks for last nights archive binge, I wanted that.

It is wierd though.

I do like it, but at the moment not much seems to be happening.

What's most puzzling is that, it keeps opening doors and giving us a peepshot, then forgets about them, as if they were complete red herrings with no implications at all, and that is frustrating.

Some examples of unresolved issues, that seem to be important but that so far there are no updates on:

1/ Clarice keeps on about the antagonist ghosts having a battery, but so fat we don't know what that is, and she first mentioned it within the first year of her appearance, which must be getting on for five years ago now.

2/ When Clarice hijacked Hope (protagonist) at the party a couple of years ago, she was talking about "your room", but then apparently dumped her back where she was found. Is the Hope that's running around doing stuff a clone?

3/ If the Hope that's running about doing stuff is a clone, how is her memory of the real Hope's past so good and why isn't she making more blunders?

4/ Presumably 1/ and 2/ are related, but so far the protagonists aren't even looking for clues that they ought too be looking for clues to either of them.

5/ The admiral (who incidentally is really a very low ranking admiral to be in any way important) had Clarice as an assistant for five years without recognising her, I mean hypnotism (or similar) probably answers how, but nobody is interested in why, and that is supremely odd. I mean sure she was hiding, but she was suely doing something else as well.

The author says she hates a couple of the characters, and that doesn't seem right to me, they are in some sense all a part of her, and you shouldn't hate parts of yourself.

The update shedule is supposedly Mondays and Thursdays, but it's actually Mondays and some random Thursdays or sometimes Fridays, and any updates that are missed are forgotten, so it must be something like 80 updates a year, or possibly even fewer.

[Traab]

I've been reading this for several years, thanks for last nights archive binge, I wanted that.

It is wierd though.

I do like it, but at the moment not much seems to be happening.

What's most puzzling is that, it keeps opening doors and giving us a peepshot, then forgets about them, as if they were complete red herrings with no implications at all, and that is frustrating.

Some examples of unresolved issues, that seem to be important but that so far there are no updates on:

1/ Clarice keeps on about the antagonist ghosts having a battery, but so fat we don't know what that is, and she first mentioned it within the first year of her appearance, which must be getting on for five years ago now.

2/ When Clarice hijacked Hope (protagonist) at the party a couple of years ago, she was talking about "your room", but then apparently dumped her back where she was found. Is the Hope that's running around doing stuff a clone?

3/ If the Hope that's running about doing stuff is a clone, how is her memory of the real Hope's past so good and why isn't she making more blunders?

4/ Presumably 1/ and 2/ are related, but so far the protagonists aren't even looking for clues that they ought too be looking for clues to either of them.

5/ The admiral (who incidentally is really a very low ranking admiral to be in any way important) had Clarice as an assistant for five years without recognising her, I mean hypnotism (or similar) probably answers how, but nobody is interested in why, and that is supremely odd. I mean sure she was hiding, but she was suely doing something else as well.

The author says she hates a couple of the characters, and that doesn't seem right to me, they are in some sense all a part of her, and you shouldn't hate parts of yourself.

The update shedule is supposedly Mondays and Thursdays, but it's actually Mondays and some random Thursdays or sometimes Fridays, and any updates that are missed are forgotten, so it must be something like 80 updates a year, or possibly even fewer.


I cant answer much of that but

1) Wasnt the battery lincoln? The whole point of meeting honest abe was to try and convince him to stop fueling these ghosts with power, and it failed. Abe basically said he would cause them beurocratic issues of some sort or something like that, but wouldnt stop giving them power.

[The Glyphstone]

I love AGahF, and yeah, it can be incredibly surreal at times.

[halfeye]

I cant answer much of that but

1) Wasnt the battery lincoln? The whole point of meeting honest abe was to try and convince him to stop fueling these ghosts with power, and it failed. Abe basically said he would cause them beurocratic issues of some sort or something like that, but wouldnt stop giving them power.

I think as an electrical analog Lincoln would be a dynamo or maybe a windmill or water turbine.

Besides which, she says "have", not "can tap into if they don't rock the boat too hard". The rogue senator (the ex-spy's husband) is the sort of guy who might just set up the whole operation with the intention of killing the crew for his profit. I think it's possible that all the people we know from the project are clones, and their originals are in comas in some facility on drips. Which would be horrific, but then you have the scene of Clarice smashing a glass and using the stub to draw blood from Hopes hand, then putting broken glass in the wound, which isn't a mortal wound to be sure, but it is horrific behaviour, and given that I don't think anything much is out of bounds in this comic. Also note for the clone idea, when Hope was recovered, there was no mention of that wound.

[Traab]

I think as an electrical analog Lincoln would be a dynamo or maybe a windmill or water turbine.

Besides which, she says "have", not "can tap into if they don't rock the boat too hard". The rogue senator (the ex-spy's husband) is the sort of guy who might just set up the whole operation with the intention of killing the crew for his profit. I think it's possible that all the people we know from the project are clones, and their originals are in comas in some facility on drips. Which would be horrific, but then you have the scene of Clarice smashing a glass and using the stub to draw blood from Hopes hand, then putting broken glass in the wound, which isn't a mortal wound to be sure, but it is horrific behaviour, and given that I don't think anything much is out of bounds in this comic. Also note for the clone idea, when Hope was recovered, there was no mention of that wound.


As far as the big c word goes. This (http://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.885.html) entry implies that no, they didnt body swap her for a clone. They ported her twice to shut her mind down, THEN took blood samples for testing, because clarice is trying to scientifically quantify everything to do with ghosts and those who can see them and hope is a super powerful psychic who ISNT a member of an old family, (I dont think) which means she is an anomaly that needs studying. And there WAS a mention of her hand, like way later at the end of the chapter. Hope is thhe one who brings it up. It just got healed with her teleportation illness.

[halfeye]

As far as the big c word goes. This (http://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.885.html) entry implies that no, they didnt body swap her for a clone. They ported her twice to shut her mind down, THEN took blood samples for testing, because clarice is trying to scientifically quantify everything to do with ghosts and those who can see them and hope is a super powerful psychic who ISNT a member of an old family, (I dont think) which means she is an anomaly that needs studying. And there WAS a mention of her hand, like way later at the end of the chapter. Hope is thhe one who brings it up. It just got healed with her teleportation illness.

Erm, right, but:


on the page two pages before that:

http://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.883.html

When Clarice says:


we've got your room ready.

You'll positively adore it Hope. It's practically made of medical equipment.

Then, a little later but still on the same page, Speedy says:


Or if she puts you in a coma? can he find you then?

Notice that when Clarice was taking blood the room wasn't anything like a medical ward.



If that's not lampshading, I'm the proverbial monkey's uncle.

[Traab]

Erm, right, but:


on the page two pages before that:

http://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.883.html

When Clarice says:



Then, a little later but still on the same page, Speedy says:



Notice that when Clarice was taking blood the room wasn't anything like a medical ward.



If that's not lampshading, I'm the proverbial monkey's uncle.


Im pretty sure she was threatening her, because earlier, hope and speedy are all like, "Yeah, you are toothless and cant do jack squat to us, ha ha, empty threats from an empty head." And she goes, "Oh yeah? How about this?" Then she proceeds to have them teleported away, then teleported right back. She even says she was teleported twice and is ticked hope didnt pee herself. THEN she goes on to monologue to the catatonic hope about her plans and how pathetic she is and whatnot. Why do that for a clone? Why take blood from a clone? Unless your idea is somehow the clone has all hopes memories and personality and thinks she is the original only for a big reveal where she tries to convince everyone that she has the real hope while they have a clone?

[halfeye]

Im pretty sure she was threatening her, because earlier, hope and speedy are all like, "Yeah, you are toothless and cant do jack squat to us, ha ha, empty threats from an empty head." And she goes, "Oh yeah? How about this?" Then she proceeds to have them teleported away, then teleported right back. She even says she was teleported twice and is ticked hope didnt pee herself. THEN she goes on to monologue to the catatonic hope about her plans and how pathetic she is and whatnot. Why do that for a clone? Why take blood from a clone? Unless your idea is somehow the clone has all hopes memories and personality and thinks she is the original only for a big reveal where she tries to convince everyone that she has the real hope while they have a clone?

Yes I am expecting that eventually there will be a big reveal. If the reveal is made by Clarice it may not be intentional (though she likes talking enough that I can't entirely rule it out, even though it would be idiotic). I think that blood was taken from the real Hope, and all that bragging was to the real Hope, we just didn't follow them to whatever the facility is where Hope and the others are being held. Then when Clarice showed up at the club again, that was with the clone, and the real Hope's blood on her hand with which she made a mark on Sparky's arm. How Clarice got Hope's memories into the clone is a problem, but she had a lot of disaffected ghosts with a lot of power, so they did something, I don't know what. We know Ben can mess with memories, but he's a good guy so he doesn't do much.

Clarice seems to be planning on killing a billion people, so I think putting 500 into comas would be small beer for her. I think Clarice didn't originate the plan, that was firstly the disaffected ghosts, then Hanlon (if I have his name right?), Clarice was a late but enthusiastic supporter of the plan, unlike Smithback, who was a dupe, but did what was wanted out of misplaced trust in his superiors.

The big reveal, if Clarice doesn't blab, probably comes when the good guys bust into a big facility and find a lot of their own bodies in comas on life support, and wonder why and how, then it turns out these are their original selves, maybe now mindless, maybe not.

[Traab]

Yes I am expecting that eventually there will be a big reveal. If the reveal is made by Clarice it may not be intentional (though she likes talking enough that I can't entirely rule it out, even though it would be idiotic). I think that blood was taken from the real Hope, and all that bragging was to the real Hope, we just didn't follow them to whatever the facility is where Hope and the others are being held. Then when Clarice showed up at the club again, that was with the clone, and the real Hope's blood on her hand with which she made a mark on Sparky's arm. How Clarice got Hope's memories into the clone is a problem, but she had a lot of disaffected ghosts with a lot of power, so they did something, I don't know what. We know Ben can mess with memories, but he's a good guy so he doesn't do much.

Clarice seems to be planning on killing a billion people, so I think putting 500 into comas would be small beer for her. I think Clarice didn't originate the plan, that was firstly the disaffected ghosts, then Hanlon (if I have his name right?), Clarice was a late but enthusiastic supporter of the plan, unlike Smithback, who was a dupe, but did what was wanted out of misplaced trust in his superiors.

The big reveal, if Clarice doesn't blab, probably comes when the good guys bust into a big facility and find a lot of their own bodies in comas on life support, and wonder why and how, then it turns out these are their original selves, maybe now mindless, maybe not.


Honestly? My biggest problem with that scenario is aside from the chip itself, and clarice's stupid arm, the tech level of this place is not much higher than what we ourselves have. There is no sign that full human cloning is even possible. It would just be sort of out of left field if they suddenly go, "Oh and yeah, we totally cloned all of you, gave your clones your memories, then released clones that would act exactly like the originals out into the world to try and track us down. Because that makes WAY more sense than brainwashed clones we control behind the scenes, or just freaking "disappearing" the small handful of agents with any real knowledge of whats going on and keeping them in medical comas." Its just.... way too involved and pointless. Take out hope and sparky and the entire resistance to clarice's plans is gutted. Hardly anyone knows much about what they are after, heck, only a small number of the agents are even aware that ghosts exist.

Honestly, I think the issue is, clarice and her ghost backing arent really sure exactly what team good guys are capable of. Thats why they havent done anything permanent yet. She is still trying to science everything out till she can quantify their abilities and counter them. Meanwhile she is staying mostly off the radar and moving whatever her plan is forward.

[halfeye]

Honestly? My biggest problem with that scenario is aside from the chip itself, and clarice's stupid arm, the tech level of this place is not much higher than what we ourselves have. There is no sign that full human cloning is even possible. It would just be sort of out of left field if they suddenly go, "Oh and yeah, we totally cloned all of you, gave your clones your memories, then released clones that would act exactly like the originals out into the world to try and track us down. Because that makes WAY more sense than brainwashed clones we control behind the scenes, or just freaking "disappearing" the small handful of agents with any real knowledge of whats going on and keeping them in medical comas." Its just.... way too involved and pointless. Take out hope and sparky and the entire resistance to clarice's plans is gutted. Hardly anyone knows much about what they are after, heck, only a small number of the agents are even aware that ghosts exist.

Honestly, I think the issue is, clarice and her ghost backing arent really sure exactly what team good guys are capable of. Thats why they havent done anything permanent yet. She is still trying to science everything out till she can quantify their abilities and counter them. Meanwhile she is staying mostly off the radar and moving whatever her plan is forward.

It's a conspiracy theory world.

Tech we aren't told we have, we might not be told about because we don't have it, or because conspiracy.

It's not really the tech that's different, it's the combination of ghosts with tech. Clarice's arm? When she dangled that guy out of the window, the leverage should have taken her out after him, even if the arm was strong enough to hold him.

There may be no sign of human cloning being possible, but there's no real sign that it isn't either, and Dolly the sheep is probably dead of old age by now, though I think I might remember she died earlier of complications.

The cloning thing is not pointless, the point is a huge battery for the disaffected ghosts. Think of it as "The Matrix" but the power being generated isn't electricity (which was always a stupid concept, but that's films), but is psychic power which can otherwise only be derived from fame and natural ability, which the disaffected ghosts don't have. The original plan went off the rails when Sparky was freed by Ben, then more or less totally when the other agents pocket presidents were neutralised, but it's still secret from the protagonists.

The agents who were killed were all cloned first, it was the clones who died, the originals are in comas.

Obviously, this is all a hypothesis, but if the cloning thing is right, I'm 100% sure the dead agents were clones, less so about Hope and Sparky (though the fact that the ghosts were happy to let Clarice kill him at the time of the "safe house" incident implies to me that Sparky is cloned and was next in line for offing), with the other live agents less certain of being clones than those two. There's some risk that the plan was going forward slowly, and not all the agents were cloned by the time Ben freed them. I would still put the odds of most of the surviving agents now being clones at over 50%.

It's strange to me that the famous people are all USAian politicians or women.

[Traab]

It's a conspiracy theory world.

Tech we aren't told we have, we might not be told about because we don't have it, or because conspiracy.

It's not really the tech that's different, it's the combination of ghosts with tech. Clarice's arm? When she dangled that guy out of the window, the leverage should have taken her out after him, even if the arm was strong enough to hold him.

There may be no sign of human cloning being possible, but there's no real sign that it isn't either, and Dolly the sheep is probably dead of old age by now, though I think I might remember she died earlier of complications.

The cloning thing is not pointless, the point is a huge battery for the disaffected ghosts. Think of it as "The Matrix" but the power being generated isn't electricity (which was always a stupid concept, but that's films), but is psychic power which can otherwise only be derived from fame and natural ability, which the disaffected ghosts don't have. The original plan went off the rails when Sparky was freed by Ben, then more or less totally when the other agents pocket presidents were neutralised, but it's still secret from the protagonists.

The agents who were killed were all cloned first, it was the clones who died, the originals are in comas.

Obviously, this is all a hypothesis, but if the cloning thing is right, I'm 100% sure the dead agents were clones, less so about Hope and Sparky (though the fact that the ghosts were happy to let Clarice kill him at the time of the "safe house" incident implies to me that Sparky is cloned and was next in line for offing), with the other live agents less certain of being clones than those two. There's some risk that the plan was going forward slowly, and not all the agents were cloned by the time Ben freed them. I would still put the odds of most of the surviving agents now being clones at over 50%.

It's strange to me that the famous people are all USAian politicians or women.

Too be fair, starting from the end, we are getting into why everything is usa centric. Its because, so the theory goes, that each culture basically has its own wavelength of spiritual energy. It also seems confirmed, like when abe mentioned that he is weaker in australia than in america, that ghosts cant go globe hopping for the most part. Only the REALLY strong ones can pull it off, and it probably makes it harder for them to use their power there. So anyways, since the story is based in america, thats why all the ghosts are american politicians and some women. Because these presidents and such are the known names, part of our history and all that, and the women who went out and did awesome things like amelia earhart, are ALSO big names, because what they did was so unique that it has stuck in our culture's mind for generations. Noone is going to forget her, just like noone is going to forget benjamin franklin.

As for the clone idea.... it sort of works, but im pretty sure that you have to die before you can become a major psychic battery, and if you do, its highly unlikely that ghosts as strong as hope or sparky would be easily held back from contacting the living, or making contact with the many dead on their side somehow. Im not saying its impossible, in fact its an interesting idea. Maybe they are using them as half assed batteries while alive. Like, they produce a certain amount of power just by being the living freaks they are and that can be siphoned, though it would be entire magnitudes stronger if they were dead and reduced to pure spirits. Of course, then you have the implications of, if sparky and hope are clones, yet have all their abilities, personality, memories, etc, then arent there now two groups that when dying will become ultra powerful spirits? None of whom will be fond of their captors.

I still say the kidnapping hope angle is ropey though, Clarice was taking her blood and cackling like a mad creature at the bar, they hadnt gone anywhere. What I took from that is, her ghosts ported hope twice really fast to break her mind for a bit, to send a message or whatever, and also to test if benny could sense it happening, which it seems he couldnt. Clarice didnt go anywhere because teleporting wrecks your freaking mind, even hers. And they didnt switch her out with a clone because she specifically was ticked that porting her twice wasnt enough to make her pee herself. So unless they did some off panel porting, which is possible I suppose, that almost has to be the original hope.

[halfeye]

Broken up to replay to paragraphs separately.


Too be fair, starting from the end, we are getting into why everything is usa centric. Its because, so the theory goes, that each culture basically has its own wavelength of spiritual energy. It also seems confirmed, like when abe mentioned that he is weaker in australia than in america, that ghosts cant go globe hopping for the most part. Only the REALLY strong ones can pull it off, and it probably makes it harder for them to use their power there. So anyways, since the story is based in america, thats why all the ghosts are american politicians and some women. Because these presidents and such are the known names, part of our history and all that, and the women who went out and did awesome things like amelia earhart, are ALSO big names, because what they did was so unique that it has stuck in our culture's mind for generations. Noone is going to forget her, just like noone is going to forget benjamin franklin.

Yeah it's USAian, but I remember the howl around the world when Kennedy was shot. I know the author probably wasn't alive then, but Kennedy was Lincoln class in terms of being liked by people. Then again, what about Elvis, Lennon, Sinatra, Munroe, Mae West, Eroll Flynn or Bogart?


As for the clone idea.... it sort of works, but im pretty sure that you have to die before you can become a major psychic battery, and if you do, its highly unlikely that ghosts as strong as hope or sparky would be easily held back from contacting the living, or making contact with the many dead on their side somehow. Im not saying its impossible, in fact its an interesting idea. Maybe they are using them as half assed batteries while alive. Like, they produce a certain amount of power just by being the living freaks they are and that can be siphoned, though it would be entire magnitudes stronger if they were dead and reduced to pure spirits. Of course, then you have the implications of, if sparky and hope are clones, yet have all their abilities, personality, memories, etc, then arent there now two groups that when dying will become ultra powerful spirits? None of whom will be fond of their captors.

I'm assuming the idea is the clones don't have seperate ghosts, so if they keep the original alive, then they get to syphon off the psychic energy. The point wouldn't be that these people were powerful, they were unknown non-psychics before the chip, it would be that there were 500 of them. In so far as a person believes in the existence of evil, then this is an evil plan.


I still say the kidnapping hope angle is ropey though, Clarice was taking her blood and cackling like a mad creature at the bar, they hadnt gone anywhere. What I took from that is, her ghosts ported hope twice really fast to break her mind for a bit, to send a message or whatever, and also to test if benny could sense it happening, which it seems he couldnt. Clarice didnt go anywhere because teleporting wrecks your freaking mind, even hers. And they didnt switch her out with a clone because she specifically was ticked that porting her twice wasnt enough to make her pee herself. So unless they did some off panel porting, which is possible I suppose, that almost has to be the original hope.

Clarice isn't rational, the ghosts are. Clarice turning up at the bar for some random aggro is totally in character for her, for the ghosts? Nope. Something big had to be going on, and I think it was a switch of Hopes, because Hope was certainly a big part of it.