Hmmm.... I wonder where Frog is....

I was excited when Frog originally came along with them. But Pete has had him do absolutely nothing. :(

I think that the 'Thing' that was done by Gwynn for Torg was taking the DFA for some reason. That would explain the lack of response from Kiki.

Aha! This would explain everything. My concern about who even knows about a dee-eff-ayy is in this world. And why kiki's unnatural behaviour was so weird.

I'm adopting this theory.

Welp, today's update addresses both of these posts! haha

You know, there's an alternate conspiracy theory that's plausible, instead of harvesting anima chunks for energy. I've speculated previously that the red guys were the Animus, and if so, everyone should have one. Well maybe everyone does, except they're suppressed at birth via some mystical means (probably involving the blue moon, and then in the short period when the moon eclipses it, you get red guys). If so, then these elective surgeries would be a great way to a)investigate this theory, b) secretly collect your findings if you're a shady organization, c) use this as a means to curate who is and isn't a "bedevil" - consider that if you could turn a surgically altered blue guy into a red guy on a whim, and having a red guy automatically makes you an outlaw, that's an incredibly powerful way to control your citizens.

At least, I'd sure hope the Enchantress class would've figured out whether or not this is possible in the last 5,000 years, since they're almost certainly who perform the surgeries.

That also explains why Gorf got so angry that he threw the lamp. He (well, Frog) needed the tech now, but it wasn't there anymore since Gwynn took it before they arrived.

I am also adopting this theory.

It take's a village to raise a theory.

And one stray Pete to burn the village to ashes. HIDE THE CHILDREN!

Dammit. The one time that I spec correctly would be the one time I decide to be coyly obtuse - too obtuse to be able to claim spec credits.... Oh well....

Hum. All the 'outsiders' escape 'poof'. Let's face it, it's not disappeared, it's escaped. That's something that Torg would do.

Benefit of the doubt is a wonderful thing.

I never once considered where he might be. Just figured pete forgot to use him much since he wasn't prominent in any of the previous time, periods, either.

This time period may finally be ramping up to something though.

I think that "outsiders" are outsiders, at least in part, because they refuse to conform and just let their true feelings show. Most others modify their anima to hide what they really feel, which lets them trick people. (Or they're just honest folk like the Our Heroes.)

LOL, well, sweet of you to give me the benefit of the doubt, but it looks like I merely speculated what Pete's distraction was going to be, not what actually happened (which, to be honest, was why I was being coy about it; I had a feeling that Frog wasn't actually leaving all by his lonesome ('cuz then how would our heroes return home?)).


I don't think so. That is, I don't think that altering how an anima looks actually alters how the animas betray feelings. But I think that you're on the right track otherwise: I think the "outsiders" are such because the transparency that their animas provide doesn't stop them from acting out (or not acting, as in not doing work). They are apparently immune from the societal pressures to conform that comes from such transparency.

Hmm... What you say about the nature of the anima and the effects of the alteration being merely cosmetic does make sense. I had been thinking, since we were first shown that Zoe can see the scars, that the surgery could in fact affect how the anima reveal the emotion of their person, or frog. The anima certainly looked like what was under their surface I was in pain, though I know not all agree.

However, seeing frog and how, in spite of the alteration, his anima shows his feelings, I'm considering your idea.

I wonder and if the pain seemingly behind the scars is the animas' own pain. Maybe they are, or are becoming, their own separate sentient beings, still attached to their host, so to speak, who is hurting them. This might fit in with this chapter's title of Revelation. What bigger Revelation for a society then something they've always thought of as belonging to them is its own thing?

All Good points. Either way, really creepy results.