These past couple pages make me wonder what exactly Shorthill was studying in those trials
I’m sure they started out as your typical stage 3/4 clinical trials to see how effective it was at treating those children, but the way they devolved makes me think that the data he was collecting was no longer about the patients’ health
I’ve been thinking for a while now that what’s happened to Allison with Nosilla has been exactly the sort of thing he was trying to provoke with the medical trials, and that she was probably dosed on the sly on the few times they met. https://brainchild.suzannegeary.com/comic/chapter-3-page-8/
It was never about fixing the kids, the symptoms the kids presented meant they were sensitive/susceptible to the Monster World or whatever you want to call it.
Shorthill’s murders were probably him being resentful at being held back in his pursuit of knowledge by the higher-ups in the conspiracy and so he acted alone and pushed the kids too far, to their deaths. Or, maybe, the true trial is still going with people like Allison and Derek being watched in the wild for signs of development.
I’m not sure yet if Ribaldi didn’t actually know what the purpose of the trials were, or if he’s actually just a very skillful liar.
I have a wild theory that the “monsters” are really the physical manifestation of a person’s mental self.
Carrie’s monster self has that long neck; and despite her short stature in human form, Her monster form can easily stand taller than others. This can also have some connection to her personality as well. On ch 1 pg 19 Carrie states that Lydia, her ex, had a real knack for seeing through her bullshit and that she hated it. With her long, flexible neck, she can look down on others around her, but she doesn’t need to. She could easily bend her neck down to be on the same level as everyone else.
Derek’s monster self is only half monstery. This seems to make him an outlier, but when you remember on ch 3 pg 34 he says “It’s all fine and dandy to be involved, but not really involved. Like me.” This reflects onto his monster self by showing him as both a monster and not at the same time. Depending on how you look at him, he could be normal and boring, or different and interesting.
There’s likely more, that can be Guessed, but we’d need to see more of their personalities.
Which now brings us to Nosilla. Is she Allison’s self somehow separated from her? Unlikely considering she wasn’t involved in the trails at all. No, what I think is that Nosilla is likely Patrick.
It’s a bit strange that Nosilla, who has said she doesn’t pay attention to Allison’s life, knew about Dr. Ribaldi when Allison had never heard of him before signing up for his class. Allison didn’t even know he was a witness in the trail, and thus possibly involved in her brother’s death. So how did Nosilla know that name? If she was one of the children in the study, she would very well have heard his name or even been introduced to him.
And the outfit she’s wearing. If she were Allison, you’d think she might wear the same clothes as Allison, but she’s not. But I guess we’ve never seen Patrick wearing that outfit either. Nosilla is wearing a green jacket over a plain white shirt and dark pants. We haven’t seen Patrick wearing anything like that, especially not on pages 5-6 of the prologue, which is just before we get our first glimpse of Nosilla. Nope. No sir.
Why go with the “Shorthill is a murderer” theory when he’s far more likely to have been a misguided do-gooder convinced that he was doing the right thing right up until the kids died. Hence his subsequent suicide. Evil people never kill themselves out of remorse. A conspiracy like this would have to rely on do-gooders, truly evil people are too unreliable as they are only out for themselves.
Oh, I don’t think it was out of remorse. I believe his suicide was more a mix of dodging consequences in this world while trying to get himself to the Other Side that we see in the first chapter when he’s seen that things are going south for him. I suspect that he dosed himself pretty heavily with the drug before his death and that this detail hasn’t been learned by our protagonists.
And to be clear, I used the term ‘murder’ because that’s how it’s been characterized in the story so far, not because I think that he wanted to kill the kids. I think his pursuit of knowledge and causing their death was an accident on his part. “pushed the kids too far” Altogether his suicide was a hastily assembled plan to salvage things and not what he actually wanted.
We’re told (through that link in this page’s creator comment) that he shot himself in the basement of the hospital, but I suspect it was specifically in the hospital’s morgue to better connect to the Other Side.
I just finished reading for the first time, and I really love everything that is going on. I wanna know what’s up the monsters and Nosilla, and the whole conspiracy thing. It’s all so intriguing, and your art really is so beautiful. I’m definitely going to follow this story, and I cannot wait to see where you’re taking us!!
These past couple pages make me wonder what exactly Shorthill was studying in those trials
I’m sure they started out as your typical stage 3/4 clinical trials to see how effective it was at treating those children, but the way they devolved makes me think that the data he was collecting was no longer about the patients’ health
I’ve been thinking for a while now that what’s happened to Allison with Nosilla has been exactly the sort of thing he was trying to provoke with the medical trials, and that she was probably dosed on the sly on the few times they met. https://brainchild.suzannegeary.com/comic/chapter-3-page-8/
It was never about fixing the kids, the symptoms the kids presented meant they were sensitive/susceptible to the Monster World or whatever you want to call it.
Shorthill’s murders were probably him being resentful at being held back in his pursuit of knowledge by the higher-ups in the conspiracy and so he acted alone and pushed the kids too far, to their deaths. Or, maybe, the true trial is still going with people like Allison and Derek being watched in the wild for signs of development.
I’m not sure yet if Ribaldi didn’t actually know what the purpose of the trials were, or if he’s actually just a very skillful liar.
I’m pretty sure all the grinning doctors are in on it. Personally, I’m not sure they’re actually human.
And I’m pretty sure that FBI investigator Mr. Pleasance (sp?) is among them. I think you can see the top of his head in the mug/ID shots.
https://brainchild.suzannegeary.com/comic/chapter-2-page-29/
https://brainchild.suzannegeary.com/comic/chapter-3-page-18/
Granted, that might just be another dark-skinned, bald(ing) head, but I’m not ruling out that it could be the same guy.
And yeah, I suspect that something like seeing the monsters and/or creating Nosilla was more than likely the REAL point.
I have a wild theory that the “monsters” are really the physical manifestation of a person’s mental self.
Carrie’s monster self has that long neck; and despite her short stature in human form, Her monster form can easily stand taller than others. This can also have some connection to her personality as well. On ch 1 pg 19 Carrie states that Lydia, her ex, had a real knack for seeing through her bullshit and that she hated it. With her long, flexible neck, she can look down on others around her, but she doesn’t need to. She could easily bend her neck down to be on the same level as everyone else.
Derek’s monster self is only half monstery. This seems to make him an outlier, but when you remember on ch 3 pg 34 he says “It’s all fine and dandy to be involved, but not really involved. Like me.” This reflects onto his monster self by showing him as both a monster and not at the same time. Depending on how you look at him, he could be normal and boring, or different and interesting.
There’s likely more, that can be Guessed, but we’d need to see more of their personalities.
Which now brings us to Nosilla. Is she Allison’s self somehow separated from her? Unlikely considering she wasn’t involved in the trails at all. No, what I think is that Nosilla is likely Patrick.
It’s a bit strange that Nosilla, who has said she doesn’t pay attention to Allison’s life, knew about Dr. Ribaldi when Allison had never heard of him before signing up for his class. Allison didn’t even know he was a witness in the trail, and thus possibly involved in her brother’s death. So how did Nosilla know that name? If she was one of the children in the study, she would very well have heard his name or even been introduced to him.
And the outfit she’s wearing. If she were Allison, you’d think she might wear the same clothes as Allison, but she’s not. But I guess we’ve never seen Patrick wearing that outfit either. Nosilla is wearing a green jacket over a plain white shirt and dark pants. We haven’t seen Patrick wearing anything like that, especially not on pages 5-6 of the prologue, which is just before we get our first glimpse of Nosilla. Nope. No sir.
Why go with the “Shorthill is a murderer” theory when he’s far more likely to have been a misguided do-gooder convinced that he was doing the right thing right up until the kids died. Hence his subsequent suicide. Evil people never kill themselves out of remorse. A conspiracy like this would have to rely on do-gooders, truly evil people are too unreliable as they are only out for themselves.
Oh, I don’t think it was out of remorse. I believe his suicide was more a mix of dodging consequences in this world while trying to get himself to the Other Side that we see in the first chapter when he’s seen that things are going south for him. I suspect that he dosed himself pretty heavily with the drug before his death and that this detail hasn’t been learned by our protagonists.
And to be clear, I used the term ‘murder’ because that’s how it’s been characterized in the story so far, not because I think that he wanted to kill the kids. I think his pursuit of knowledge and causing their death was an accident on his part. “pushed the kids too far” Altogether his suicide was a hastily assembled plan to salvage things and not what he actually wanted.
We’re told (through that link in this page’s creator comment) that he shot himself in the basement of the hospital, but I suspect it was specifically in the hospital’s morgue to better connect to the Other Side.
with the little information we have so far and the indication of a larger cover-up, I’m not necessarily convinced he killed himself.
I haven’t read the comments here all that much but was it ever proposed that Nosilla is, in fact, Patrick?
I did a couple of pages prior
More specifically, that Patrick’s conciousness was inside Allison’s monster self as Nosilla
But I’m more convinced that Nosilla is, more simply, Allison’s monster self separated from her (as proposed above)
I just finished reading for the first time, and I really love everything that is going on. I wanna know what’s up the monsters and Nosilla, and the whole conspiracy thing. It’s all so intriguing, and your art really is so beautiful. I’m definitely going to follow this story, and I cannot wait to see where you’re taking us!!
i’m so gdamn ready for more
Little Allison is the cutest thing