- Scarlet: In Milik, in the cellar of my parents’ house, there’s a secret passageway!
- Scarlet: It leads to a crystal cave that houses a giant machine. A machine that, once turned on again, will finally bring warm weather to Lavarel again.
- Scarlet: … The Machine of Eternal Summer!
Machine Girl 011
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32 thoughts on “Machine Girl 011”
bh
They have a statue of a Rubik’s cube in the town square?
SadBeaver
From the Glossary page:
“Cube of Kirkiok – A white cube on display on the market square of Kirkiok with flashing colored lights on its surface. Its creator and purpose are unknown.”
Briefly seen before in the 4th panel of “A Sky Full of Stars 004”.
Cirom
I just assumed it was a subtle Gaia reference. It looks kinda like those little teleportation cubes.
Vicious Sand
It looks like a Dance Dance Revolution mat, just in cube form.
Zenzi
I can heat their thoughts: „Poor girl. The famine must’ve gotten her brain.“
But who knows? Eventually somebody might believe her and support her?
In any case: I’m glad that she’s better now.
Kitsune
I just wanted to say that this wouldn’t happen in real life and it’s unrealistic, but then I realized I said something that was contrary to people’s belief and was attacked, insulted, called a liar and that I lost my mind, because I definitely had to mix something up. And not even once. Because once people don’t want to believe in something, they won’t, no matter what.
Some guy in the Midwest
Regarding the idea that “once people don’t want to believe in something, they won’t, no matter what.”… I’d suggest “it depends.” I’m a licensed mental health therapist in the US in an acute clinic setting who treats things like trauma, hopelessness (e.g. thoughts of not wanting to be alive), and addiction. Most people come because they want to feel better, but some don’t… I’ve seen people who are really invested in a certain set of negative beliefs to the extent they don’t want to get/feel better, and will often actively affirm their own negative thoughts and painful emotions. Every now and then, once they work on values identification or goals development, their fixed beliefs begin to change. They change their “want” when they invest in other priorities, even if they’re going through the motions and don’t truly believe in their own recovery at first.
Some guy in the Midwest
What I’m saying is that someone like Scarlet.. Maybe she’s the kind of person who will help them snap out of the “oh well, this is how it is.” Maybe she can actually inspire some attitude change.
HKMaly
People are desperate. There is DEFINITELY possible someone will trust her. Although I suspect the kind of people to trust her wouldn’t be that useful …
'phoon
You mean people like Tibor?
Vicious Sand
Hopefully, they’ll mistake it for a poetry recital, and not a reason to pelt her with tomatoes. Or fire beets. Proof, girl, proof.
At least she hasn’t forgotten the plot.
HKMaly
I don’t think there is single tomato on whole planet, and after the famine, even fire beets are considered too previous to waste them like this.
Borg
Scarlet, dear, with all due respect, I’ve heard more plausible public speeches from people who definitely had untreated schizophrenia.
Melkior
Scarlet decided to go for broke. At least the people don’t seem to be mocking her… yet. Who knows… maybe some of them will even believe her?
Icarus
I fear the chapter title says otherwise.
BYM!
Well, religions have been started over less.
Vicious Sand
Religion is just an excuse to stone people.
Jude
I’m curious to see if Baako, Iona and Vreni will stick beside her and not avoid her. I don’t think they’re that shallow, especially Vreni. I hope they will stay with her since they went to the extra effort to befriend and encourage her. I don’t want her to lose her friends again. Whether any of the three will believe her might be different though. With Tibor backing her up, it might be all the impetus she needs to not give up like she did before.
'phoon
Ah, so that explains the chapter title. There she is, the crazy machine girl. Tibor told her again and again but she chose not to listen. Let’s hope that her asking for reconquering Milk will not be interpreted as warmongering by officials.
ME
Maybe she’s seen Life of Brian.
Hegel-Marx
Scarlet takes the inevitable step and becomes a preacher.
I wrote a year ago in “Time to Speculate”:
https://www.sandraandwoo.com/scarlet/2024/03/25/time-to-speculate/#comments
„Against the inevitable official ridicule and rejection, she could gather a group of followers. In a world that is sinking into ruin, you can certainly find humans, foxes and wolves who will believe in the idea that a girl will bring them salvation.“
And later, in the commentary for SFOS 071:
https://www.sandraandwoo.com/scarlet/comic/a-sky-full-of-stars-071/#comment-2120
„To find the Machine of Eternal Summer, Scarlet will have to be an action heroine. She will need followers, so she must be a spiritual leader. To turn the Machine on, she will have to be a Sage. Boudica, Joan of Arc and Hypathia rolled into one.“
She already had her first experiences as a warrior (Boudica). She worked hard to become a sage (Hypatia), although IMHO she progressed less on that path than she thinks (however, she is aware that arrogance is her main weakness!). And she has to start preaching, in order to attract followers, who will accept her as a spiritual leader (Jean of Arc).
(However, I’m already in love with her!)
ME
So you’re saying she’s working to harness the prophet motive?
Hegel-Marx
Well, yes, “prophet” is a better world then “preacher”. English is not my native language.
ToBeFree
Parents Apostrophe, not Parent Apostrophe s
ME
Sorry, it’s an English pun. “Prophet” means a particularly visionary religious figure. “Profit” means the money you earn in business (or any other way). Both are pronounced the same. A basic concept in English-language economics is the “profit motive”, meaning that people are motivated by the opportunity to make money. Here I punned on that by suggesting that Scarlet is attempting to motivate people via the “prophet” motive, in other words through some form of visionary revelation.
The best jokes are always the ones you have to explain, but sorry for the confusion as a non-native speaker!
ME
Argh, this was meant as a reply to Hegel-Marx above. I don’t know why this comment system misplaces responses sometimes.
Hegel-Marx
I didn’t see that prophet/profit connection. But the truth is that in my first sentence: „Scarlet takes the inevitable step and becomes a preacher“, it should srand a word „prophet“ and not „preacher“.
Here is what Gemini LLM says: „A preacher primarily focuses on teaching and interpreting existing religious doctrines, while a prophet speaks messages believed to be directly from a divine source, sometimes including new revelations or predictions.“
According to what Novil says in „setting/#religion“, there seems to be no organized religion on Lavarel at all. Religious sentiment is weak and the underlying feeling is despair: „common belief is that the gods have abandoned Lavarel, probably for some unspeakable sin conducted by the inhabitant’s forefathers“. A new prophetess may bring hope, and that is one of the main functions of religion.
ME
Oh, I agree, “prophet” is closer to your intended meaning. That’s why the pun came to my mind.
Novil
Fixed.
ToBeFree
Thank you very much!
Werwolfe
That must’ve been some beet!
Ike
Oof. sounds like she´s looking for motivation to give up on her quest… -.-
Characters
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