That reminds me: Some doctors say, that when a patient stops focusing on a bad cold, and starts focusing on something else, [like complaining about stuff], then they’re starting to feel better.
I don’t know if that’s what’s happening with Julia, but I think she wants to change stuff, right now.
Oh Julia… I can TOTALLY understand what she’s going through. She’s hurting. Not just because of the infection, but… Mel = Home. Mel = Safety. To be so close and yet so far. This is heartbreaking.
This has me wondering if the version of the idol infecting Julia is it in a ‘blank slate’ state. The Idols all have a core directive (Survive, infect others) but they take their initial set of goals from the first being they encounter and consume.
Some still lust for power.
Others just want to devour everything.
Others still are basically the feral animal they were when they were taken.
Someone infected by an existing Idol just gets consumed, overwritten by the desires of the ‘original’ victim. Julia was infected by the water on that world, I believe? A nascent Idol seed that started working over her after that point but with no goals of its own other than ‘infect’.
Julia still just wants to get home to Mel. In previous panels when Julia looks away from Mel at the glass, the multiple eyes follow Julias gaze. To me that says Julia is the one in control, even if she’s scared, alone, angry and probably in tremendous pain.
I have similar thoughts. Perhaps the previously encountered instances of the Black Idol had consumed cultists dedicated to them, and picked up their fanaticism. But in Julia’s case, she ingested BI cells that were in an unorganized state, and those cells are having to mentally and physically organize themselves and assimilate Julia, mentally and physically, at the same time.
Perhaps the BI by itself has no greater goals than survival and propagation.
I’m thinking something similar (issue-18-page-12/#comment-3269). This instance/colony of the Black Star has developed from nearly nothing, under the influence of only one single mind for possibly light hours around.
The visible changes, I now assume, were progressing steadily, but Julia was unaware of them. They stopped once Baby Tentacle got feedback from the more mature parts of “their” mind that the changes were undesirable.
Might be that Specimen 5 is now Julia’s mind dealing with the overwhelming experience of having senses she was not genetically adapted to having, and being left without as much as a book to read as an alternative to stewing on her condition and maybe (unsuccessfully) willing herself to die, since she now embodies Mel’s most traumatizing experience.
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That reminds me: Some doctors say, that when a patient stops focusing on a bad cold, and starts focusing on something else, [like complaining about stuff], then they’re starting to feel better.
I don’t know if that’s what’s happening with Julia, but I think she wants to change stuff, right now.
Oh Julia… I can TOTALLY understand what she’s going through. She’s hurting. Not just because of the infection, but… Mel = Home. Mel = Safety. To be so close and yet so far. This is heartbreaking.
so sad that they cannot afford to let Julia touch Mel….. Risk of Infection is too high.
This has me wondering if the version of the idol infecting Julia is it in a ‘blank slate’ state. The Idols all have a core directive (Survive, infect others) but they take their initial set of goals from the first being they encounter and consume.
Some still lust for power.
Others just want to devour everything.
Others still are basically the feral animal they were when they were taken.
Someone infected by an existing Idol just gets consumed, overwritten by the desires of the ‘original’ victim. Julia was infected by the water on that world, I believe? A nascent Idol seed that started working over her after that point but with no goals of its own other than ‘infect’.
Julia still just wants to get home to Mel. In previous panels when Julia looks away from Mel at the glass, the multiple eyes follow Julias gaze. To me that says Julia is the one in control, even if she’s scared, alone, angry and probably in tremendous pain.
I have similar thoughts. Perhaps the previously encountered instances of the Black Idol had consumed cultists dedicated to them, and picked up their fanaticism. But in Julia’s case, she ingested BI cells that were in an unorganized state, and those cells are having to mentally and physically organize themselves and assimilate Julia, mentally and physically, at the same time.
Perhaps the BI by itself has no greater goals than survival and propagation.
I’m thinking something similar (issue-18-page-12/#comment-3269). This instance/colony of the Black Star has developed from nearly nothing, under the influence of only one single mind for possibly light hours around.
The visible changes, I now assume, were progressing steadily, but Julia was unaware of them. They stopped once Baby Tentacle got feedback from the more mature parts of “their” mind that the changes were undesirable.
Might be that Specimen 5 is now Julia’s mind dealing with the overwhelming experience of having senses she was not genetically adapted to having, and being left without as much as a book to read as an alternative to stewing on her condition and maybe (unsuccessfully) willing herself to die, since she now embodies Mel’s most traumatizing experience.