What has been determined about Kusari? The hoof-like feet and the horny headgear does make her look rather demonic in today's strip.

Note: I wasn't sure whether saying she looked like a demon would count as spec. So I posted here rather than in the topic for the day.

Not much, if anything definitive. It is strongly implied Kusari is a series of clones, but of who or what remains a mystery.

I guess I'll put down what I think Kusari (and some Oasis) is from the various little bits that have been gleaning from the strip.

She and Oasis are "sisters" since she is an Oasis clone, that when she dies she transfers to another clone. Unlike Oasis who can transfer to a new body of anyone and alter their appearance. Or just forms a new body out of the aether. Though the "body snatching" sounds more likely due to how her mental state seems to be slightly different each time as if the "host's" personality is not completely subsumed in the process.

As for Kusari, she is totaly loyal to Hereti Corp but she needs to have a clone that is prepared a specific way otherwise she can't come back when she dies until then. I remember one time after she died, Dr. Chen said, "I'm *still* waiting for word on a replacement Kusari!"

Some have noted Kusari's amazing regenerative abilities. She may receive serious injuries and the next day she would be walking around as if it never happened. I don't think her ability to heal is any better that anybodies else. Just toss the current one in the trash and a pop a new one out of the packaging. There, just like new...well, new hardware but old software.

As to healing, there is always nano-tech to consider. We know it gets perfected in 4U. (I've always thought Harbinger's recuperative abilities were nanite based)
Schlock was a pupil of Dr Crabtree after all.

This is probably just me babbling... I'm not sure that I want to stick my neck out and consider it spec...

To me, Kusari resembles one character. The resemblance seems obvious, so I did a search to see if anyone else had said it before and came up empty. Really? I could have sworn someone else said this long before I'm about to babble it....

Kusari looks a lot like Mosp. There are significant differences between the two, but Mosp is from a different dimension... However, Kusari appeared in this dimension long before the squid on the stick did... So don't try to argue against me, as I said, I'm just babbling at this point.... Not really making a suggestion, let alone spec...

It's possible that Oasis 'body snatching' is Nanite based. They may reconfigure the new host and then reboot from snapshot to restore personality.

Here's an idea then.

What if in 4U City (DoR), Oasis never existed. Wait, wait, let me elaborate.

They had someone called Harbinger, who looks like and acts like Oasis, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is Oasis. She is more like Kusari in how loyal she is, but the more perfect assassin/enforcer. Hereti Corp wanted to make the perfect soldier. But as always, you are always tinkering to make something even more perfect.

Nanites could of come about because of the Harbinger Program. But why stop there? Now once you know you can do great damage to the subject and it will come back, why not not try other things that could enhance how lethal or intimidating by trying to infuse them with some type of extra ability. Pyrokinesis for example...

Though tinkering in these areas, you may find that you have many failures that are not optimal. Or that it may show that things will be more unstable towards you or even become detached form reality...

So you humanly flux these young subjects to some random dimensions instead of killing them. Hey, not like someone will find these orphans and figure out how to reverse-engineer the alterations and jump start their own Harbinger Program decades ahead of yours...


The short version: 4U City Harbinger is an advanced Kusari. Oasis is failed "enhanced" Harbinger fluxed to Sluggy Prime.

I like this theory because it
a) makes sense
b) turns everything puside down - especially regarding expectations and order of introduction.

As far as I remember, the comic first introduced Oasis, then Kusari, then Harbinger. So in the twisted way of Sluggy, it is only natural that Harbinger was first, Kusari is the direct connection and Oasis more or less is just a sidenote.. It perfectly fits with Bunbun and the God of power being in Timeless Space and the comic following the "other" one.

However, such a procedure should have been in the 4U-archives - and even if only available to his Masterness, Riff should have gained access to it after the Riffolution. I doubt he didn't see that Harbinger and Oasis might be connected - he would have looked this up. That's very important information to share to the rest of the main crew - especially considering he knows the danger that is Oasis.

I'm also very suspicious that we didn't get more information on Harbinger during 4U-city - which brings me to the faint idea that Riff *did* look up information and we will learn about it in a flashback - some point in the future. Riff might not know the Oasis is Queen and will/could get involved in this whole operation so he didn't tell, yet.
As for why he didn't waterfall everything known right after his comeback: There were other things to take care of, first, and everything Oasis-related was not first priority - similar to how Bunbun still has a thread about Wayang Kulit an open (AFAIR). Also, after Riff learned that Dr. Schlock is the opposite of an ally, he might have been paranoid to trust someone with the information - I'm not saying that he suspected Sasha.

Regards,

TCC

Well, Harbinger was mentioned a bit by Riff...

Interresting proposal with Oasis being fluxed Kusari.
But remember that Old-Riff was betrayed by Schlock in the same way as our Riff.
There might be subtle differences, but then what other than a fire-wielding Oasis could trigger the death of DoR-Zoë after an emergency DFA?

Anyway, Old-Schlck should have known what Harbinger was. Old-Riff would have had the opportunity to ask him, and our Riff could ask Again.
The "no data about Harbinger" seems a bit like a cop-out.
But there might be a good reason why someone decided to keep secrets

I think we might be finding out just who (or what) is under Kusari's mask in the next 3-4 weeks.

Seem likely, although given Pete's glacial plotting pace of the past several years, I would go more for 8-12 weeks.

Why are both of you spelling the word "years" so strangely?

It occurs to me that this pretty much kills the Sasha = Kusari spec. Unless there really are multiple ones.

That spec was DOA - not sure why it keeps getting resurrected...