Magick Chicks 10-05-13 One of your friends

[Azrael]

Hmmm, Skye doesn't apparently recognize Cerise here. Is she not seeing Cerise at all, I now wonder.

All she sees is a doorway with blackness behind it, remember?? To the point of not noticing that it has appeared, floating, in the middle of a hallway...

Well, certainly. However, I was under the impression that Skye was through the door here and face-to-face with The-Entity-Formerly-Known-As-Cerise. But seeing this one I now speculate that she is still in total darkness never mind what we see.

[TBeholder]

Symbiote theory seems to be correct.

How so?

Though we still don't have a solid confirmation that Cerise's mind is being taken over, it sure looks like it in the last panels (panel 3 and 4 she's confused and seemingly thinking "what's happening to me?" and in panel 5 she seems totally evil-looking). As Razmos suggested in the previous thread, this is enough to explain the apparent change in tone (from kind to confused to manipulative) during this discussion.

That is, on the previous page tone apparently changes all the way "from kind to confused to manipulative". A-a-and on this page tone apparently changes all the way "from kind to confused to manipulative"...

Now we must wait for confirmation that this is really what's happening

Do you really expect we'll have this spoon-fed to us, after... uh... the whole Cutie-verse from the first page of EC, really?

(plus the big questions of "is the Symbiote the Corruptor?"

Er... what is what? To me, it's kind of like seeing a bridge being built between the roofs of two cloud-castles right now.

What happens then is anyone's guess, possibly she forgets about Mr. Inky fro a sec and tries to help Cerise, who then "infects" her and somehow also send her back in time (minus a few days or so)...

Or maybe Hekate will.

[Bloody Vikings]

"jowl-at-the-Moon" Skye

She has a little more curve than Cerise, but I wouldn't consider her fat.

I hate predestination paradoxes.

You've always said that... ;)

[CFT]

@ Tenjen: that's the big debate isn't it? (to use some examples from other similar and similarly "controversial" stories: in X-Men, was Jean Grey in control - and thus responsible - for her actions as Dark Phoenix? or in Starcraft, was Kerrigan's evil deeds the result of what the Zerg did to her -plus the newly retconned in Dark Voice's corruption- or was it all just her finally having enough power to get revenge upon the world?) For your information, in these particular cases I'm more in favor of the "they were responsible" interpretations, because I find the alternative to be a cop-out for the writers. But my judgement applies to these specific cases, given how they were presented, and it is not a blanket statement that applies to all such stories. Here, for example, I prefer the (partial) involvement of an external agent because if there isn't one Cerise's "redemption" will be heavily "forced" (and I don't want to consider the possibility of a 15-year old being "unredeemable").

In our case, whatever comes next, it will as well be a subject of hot debate.
Just note the following:
- We really don't yet KNOW what's going on exactly. We've got some clues (change of apparent "tone" - and - facial expressions of Cerise in mid-conversation) that allow us to assume some parallels to classic stories (Spiderman's Symbiote, etc.) but we may be way off.
- We still don't know the nature of the black ink (nor of the Corruptor, and how/if they are related), and by "nature" I include origin, power, intent (if any). Again, I tend to assume it actually means the involvement of an external agent, but it could be as little as "symbolism" of Cerise's own -dark- thoughts taking over her, and shutting her kinder feelings away.
- And finally, we're also clueless about how things will turn out back in the "current" timeline, what will Skye do (or be forced to do), what will happen to Cerise's physical body, what will Hekate do/say? etc.

[Don Alexander]

Well, certainly. However, I was under the impression that Skye was through the door here and face-to-face with The-Entity-Formerly-Known-As-Cerise. But seeing this one I now speculate that she is still in total darkness never mind what we see.

If you look at the "Lots of friends" comic I linked and this one, you will see the events are happening exactly as before, just that we are now seeing it from Cerise's side. In none of the panels is Skye already through the door. Just look at the other comic, compare speech bubbles and the placement of Skye's hands. Cerise is still seeing her through the "dimensional window". The only thing which seems to be different is Skye's expressions, which look much more menacing now, but I think Cerise's vision is warped.

Cerise sees Skye.

Skye does not see Cerise, just the door with blackness inside.

And, as I stated above, she will likely never see Cerise like this, but just step through the door into Cerise's room where Cerise is hovering in the air, dying, while Hekate looks on.

- We still don't know the nature of the black ink

................ Phyrexia!!!

[Shaows]

I think "Wild" Skye is actually "Mr. Inky" Cerise possessing Skye's body in order to hit on herself in the past.

[Don Alexander]

Man, she's taking that lesbian thing far too far, then.

[thebitterfig]

I hate predestination paradoxes.

A SFW Oglaf is apropos.

[CFT]

@Don: again I totally agree with everything in your post (lol, and wait until we'll just be proved wrong with the next update!), except one small thing: you say about Skye's "menacing" expressions. What panel are your referring to? Because the only menacing expression Skye is in the 5th panel and that's because it's only a depiction of Cerise "remembering" DarkSkye there, not what corridorSkye looks like.

Phyrexia indeed! Don't tell me you're a Magic: The Gathering player! (I used to be for over a decade, but I've quit now)

[Don Alexander]

Yes, I know it's a memory. In the other comic I linked, we see the sequence as it really was. I'm not sure it's an imprint of "Dark Skye" upon the memory, or if Cerise is generally starting to corrupt everything (or have it corrupted) in her head. Yeah, ok, I kind of had the last panel wrong in my head, strike the "Cerise's vision is warped" comment.

And if you were to look into the "Gamer's Lounge" thread over in General Discussion, you'd see I produce a terrible amount of text about MtG. I'm mostly a collector right now, but actively play sealed tournaments. I had a long pause but was first active 1995 - 1998, and now 2011 - today.

[TBeholder]

I think it's even simpler: Cerise remembers Skye in variety of clothes.

"jowl-at-the-Moon" Skye

She has a little more curve than Cerise, but I wouldn't consider her fat.

Ouch-kay, one "gotcha" point to you.

I think "Wild" Skye is actually "Mr. Inky" Cerise possessing Skye's body in order to hit on herself in the past.

Ladies, gentlemen and fellow arthropoda! I think we can safely say that the wildest speculation in this thread was already done and there's no point to try and outdo it.

you say about Skye's "menacing" expressions. What panel are your referring to? Because the only menacing expression Skye is in the 5th panel and that's because it's only a depiction of Cerise "remembering" DarkSkye there

Skye's wildly grinning face on the right, that got into the thumbnail? To me, still looks adorable - in much the same way Tiffany's craziest expressions are.

[Fluffy]

Why do folks assume this is a case of symbiosis? It's isn't.

For it to be that way, the black magic that Hekate presented to Cerise would have to have a conscious of it's own - which it doesn't. All it is is raw magic/power that was not meant for the human world and could not be possessed by a mortal unless they could properly channel it.

Cerise isn't possessed by another entity; her mind is being corrupted by the dark magic she ingested. Now, when Cerise uses Skye as her familiar/channel, that will be a form of symbiosis (as Cerise is consciously infecting Skye with this dark power, thus forcing her to change into something else).

[Mr. Bee]

I'm still not sure on how to read Cerise here. On one hand she could be turning wicked and evil and manipulative, but on the other hand, she might just be getting desperate and needing to hurry things up since the corruption keeps spreading and changing her.

[Luzahn]

Ok, I take it back Artemis. I take it back forever.

Go hunt some witches, cryptids, xenos, what have you. Just stop things like this.

[CFT]

@Fluffly: I don't think we're arguing for symbiosis in the literal sense of the word, more like an "external corruption of the mind" (we just used the example/analogy of how Spiderman was "corrupted" and had a personality change because of an alien entity messing with his brain and body).

Now, that speculation (that there is an "external"/independent source of corruption and it's not all "Cerise drank in power" doing it) can be way wrong and Fluffy can be 100% right, but it is a speculation not totally unfounded either. For me personally, there are three things that point towards that theory:
- I interpret Melissa's "prophecy" at the pool party quite literally (straightforwardly, no "twisted" meanings), which means that: two seperate "beings" exist, one is the Corruptor, he is male (..."his" agent...) and not present at the pool party, but the girls must beware of him, the second being is the Corruptor's Agent, who IS present at the pool party (my interpretation of the adjective "near") and we don't know his/her gender yet. It's also natural to assume that the Agent is one of the named characters that were actively shown to be at the pool party (no Skye included for example), and thus the best explanation (which can be wrong of course) is that Cerise is the Agent and there is a Seperate Being who is the Corruptor.
- I don't think the black magic that Hekate gave her was conscious on its own either, because Hekate never even hinted to anything like that. But wait, she also never hinted that the black magic could have potential time-traveling abilities either, so where does the time travel come from? As we said again, It CAN be a side-effect of just too much power (a lot of power could mean control over time as well in this universe), it CAN be some inherent ability of Cerise that was awakened by her power surge, but it can ALSO mean that there is a time-travelling-capable being (or one that exists outside of time itself) "hijacking" on Hekate's power for its own purposes. It's only a hint, but it is as viable an assumption as any other at this stage yet.
- In this update we visually see Cerise being "taken over" by something. Again, it CAN be a visual symbolism of her darker thoughts and ambitions taking over her more kind self, but it DOES seem like something is physically taking her over (like Spiderman's Symbiote, the Phyrexian oil corruption, Blue Beetle being taken over by his Scarab, and many other examples in fiction), as her expressions change from sadness and care for Skye (in the previous update) to ones of confusion ("what's happening to me?") and finally manically evil-looking at the end, which seems quite weird if it's only "her mind being corrupted by the dark magic she ingested", a dark magic we all agree "doesn't have a conscious of it's own", instead of her mind being corrupted by something else that DOES have a conscious mind. and a plan/goal.

To summarize:
- Mel's pool party-prophecy seems to indicate the existence of a (male) Corruptor Being (that is different from Cerise)
- Time traveling still needs to be "explained"/attributed to someone/something that can do that.
- Visual clues in the latest updates indicate a potential hostile takeover of Cerise

For the above, I still side in favor of a theory that we haven't yet been fully introduced to the true villain orchestrating everything going on in the current arc and that not everything is done by various aspects of Cerise. Can I be wrong? Of course, a million times. But I believe I demonstrated I do have legitimate reasons to consider that possible.