Paranatural

How can you only now be starting to like Johnny?

I was indifferent to him earlier, but thought he was pretty funny. I just thought that he was gonna end up generic bully stereotype i guess.

Hitball changed that all though.

Whose internal monologue is that? Also, Dmitri confirmed stone-cold badass. Anyone notice Max is wearing polarity wristbands?

Dimitri's. Different characters have different borders for their thought bubbles and this particular border is Dimitri's.

I did not notice the polarity wristbands. I also didn't realize until just now that RJ has the Golden Switch. Noticing things is hard.

Is this chapter confusing the hell out of anyone else? There's just a ton of stuff going on and I have no idea what any of it is. I mean, we have Jeff being possessed by the Squeak Dog, but he's not actually possessed apparently, so what the hell? Also, Dimitri clearly knows what's up (and include himself in with a spectral and a medium) and apparently is pretty damn badass himself... but doesn't use any obvious spectral energy (or the Activity Club kids would be able to see it), so there's something else going on.

Actually, looking through everything like that, the only real questions are "what's the deal with Jeff" and "what's the deal with Dimitri". But still, I had to reread the chapter like three times to realize that.

There's also "what's the deal with the teachers," which encompasses which one of them it is, what that means, and what that has to do with the brain-groping puppets on the title page.

Given that it's set up as a mystery chapter - with the title page mouseover text talking about scouring for leads - and, in-universe, the deal with Jeff is weird and mysterious, I think having no idea what's going on at this point is the way you're supposed to be feeling. Which you can still be annoyed at if you don't like not knowing what's going on, of course.

Yeah, re-reading it pretty much sorted things out for me, but I was confused in the sense of "I literally have no idea what's going on" rather than "I have so many questions but that's normal for this part of the plot". (That's why I didn't mention the teacher thing — that was a pretty standard In Media Res that I realize we're not supposed to understand yet.)

The tldr version is that it seems like Jeff (and possibly Dimitri) are some new (to the readers, at least) sort of supernatural thing that doesn't involve spectral energy. Given that spectral energy is the basis of all the supernatural abilities we're aware of right now, that's Kind Of A Big Deal.

Then again, I've been completely wrong about shit in Paranatural before. I was convinced for quite a while that Spender's remark about Max's spectral energy being black was "fairly common, actually" was Spender deliberately withholding information from the kids because that's what Spender does. I can't recall what finally made me change my mind, actually.

edited 18th Aug '15 8:48:55 PM by NativeJovian

I'm just enjoying the sheer absurd comedy and action while waiting for the plot to unfold. In other words, Paranatural. Though this chapter has been suspiciously low on spirits giving monologues about ethics.

Well, there's Muse talking bravery and friendship and suchlike. That's kind of like ethics.

This random chick with black spectral energy in panel three, maybe?

it took me checking out your links to realise that Dimitri may not be showing hubris, but being literal when he said "I'm as smart as two people" which would either pinpoint him as a medium, or capable of the same spectral powers as jeff even though he's not possessed through some hitherto unknown spectral mechanism

edited 19th Aug '15 2:00:43 AM by nihtay

Damn, you're right, I forgot about that one.

My guess is that the puppeteer spirit has a power that lets it control people from a distance, and it takes more than an off the cuff spectral hammer to cuts its strings. It doesn't even have to be that far away—it could easily be hiding in the crowd of spirits watching the game from the ceiling.

Likewise, pretty sure the thing at the beginning of the chapter with the teachers is the kids realizing that one of them is being puppeteered.

Finally, I'm sure Dimitri is just a normal spectral, probably a medium. I'd guess we haven't seen his spectral energy because he only used his powers once so far, and only for a second. There's a lot of dust around when he does the vibrating thing, so that could be hiding any small amount of energy he's producing.

He could be something new, I suppose. Maybe he's one of those Cousinhood guys.

Of course, my theory for them is that they eschew Tools and Mediums entirely, only using their natural Spectral energy, so I don't know if it stacks up.

I'm also still pushing my theory that Violet is working for one of these other factions until I've been thoroughly disproven.

There's also the possibility that spectral mist only appears when you are being emotional (demonstrated best by Max and Isaac). Spender for most parts do not have much mist when he's with the kids, showing how much he tends to control emotions around them, while with the Consortium members and in the Forge battle has it flaring up like haemorrhoids.

This would mean that Dimitri is in an almost perpetual state of zen, in accordance with his "I'm all brains instead of brawn, and completely logical" character archetype

I also agree with the puppeteer powers theory. Remember how it was said that some spectral energy are purely spectral while some can manifest physical? Isabel's pikohammer not working could be explained by this. That would make the speech bubbles either not belong to Jeff, or imply that the puppeteer is DIRECTLY tampering with Jeff's brain to manipulate his thoughts

Also it would make this whole thing with the vice principal a nice bit of foreshadowing. Maybe Jeff will break free of the puppeteer later in the plot? (Maybe seeing Cody hurt or something)

edited 19th Aug '15 2:01:02 AM by nihtay

Spectrals don't need to ooze spectral energy when using a spirit's power. [1] [2] [3]

Good catch.

The thing is though, sometimes they DO. and knowing Zack and how he says he likes to be geeky about his worldbuilding, there has got to be a reason why, just that we're not privy to that yet and have to speculate based on all current evidence

...Neither of those pages shows that, though. Isaac is glowing when he isn't using his power, as is Max. Only Spender counts, and his powers explicitly use light and darkness so it might not be spectral energy at all.

I hadn't noticed each character had their own thought bubble.

I still think considering the deal with Max's pseudo-possession, when something spoke to Doorman through him, should be remembered here.

It might be a similar kind of thing?

I don't recall, did Max show any spectral energy when possessed?

He leaks black and is standing in darkness. Your guess is as good as mine.

Nothing visible, but he is shrouded in darkness that would make black energy a little hard to spot. (Said darkness was present on the previous strip, when he was shown, unpossessed, at that same angle, so that doesn't seem to be an effect of... whatever that deal actually is.)

The last panel seems to imply he wasn't leaking it in the earlier panels to me, since it is shown then but not before, but I could see someone taking it to mean that he was leaking it all the while. Make of that what one will, I guess.

For the most part.

edited 19th Aug '15 4:52:03 PM by RaichuKFM

Maybe whatever spirit is controlling Jeff isn't doing it by possessing him, but through some remote power that's passed by contact. So the hammer didn't work because the spirit isn't here right now.

Yeah, like Discar was saying about puppeteering. It certainly fits with both the imagery on the cover page and the way the thing looks.