Head and Hands

Please be as honest as you can: how am I doing?

Because fuck, it's confusing in here.

Each thread replying to this entry will deal with a particular strip, beginning with the first-published appearance of Kimiko Ross and progressing from there, excluding ones in which she does not appear. This is to save my sanity.

Before we begin, let us make a few things quite clear:
This will all likely make no sense. I'm doing my best to be coherent, but I'm only human.
This will all likely make no sense. The subject matter is insane.
I will make mistakes. I am not perfect.
I will make factual errors. I am willing to fix these as they are pointed out to me, as I can.

Got it? Excellent.

The rules of this exchange are a bit hazy to me, but I'll be doing my best to identify the following in each page/strip/whatever:
Physical Location
Persistent Details (things that are noticed or mentioned upon by those other than Kim herself)
Supernatural Shenanigans
Potential "dream sequences" or other illusory elements
Things that make no damn sense and are never mentioned again
Death Count


According to Aaron Diaz, the author of the series:

" As for which strips are “real,” for all intents and purposes they all literally happened. I wouldn’t overthink it. "


This is Word of God, but we'll still be disregarding the last part. Overthinking it is what this is for.

So.

[Yknow what? Dying isn't informative. Not even a little. Vincent you owe her a new outfit so hardcore— but she'll never ever ask for it.]

Who wants to help me out with a project? I need people who can fight. And not die.

...

Like anyone needs to ask.


[[ ooc: Vincent killed Kimiko! She's lost the following items: shirt (t-shirt, w/hood), undershirt (longsleeved), jacket (denim), vest (many pockets), bra (sporty), panties (skimpy), necklace (is actually a locket w/photo of Kim and friends) claimed by Reno, gloves (leather), pants, boots (knee-high), socks, skirt (also denim) claimed by Alice, and a one-eyed goggle. claimed by Vincent!

KIMIKO WOULD NEVER ASK FOR THESE THINGS BACK. She is too proud. But she wants them. ]]

[Kimiko has been thinking about trying to get drunk. Y'know, purely as a...scientific exercise.

Actually, scratch that, Kim is currently engaged in trying to get drunk. As a result she is at least half as neurotic and twice as surly as usual, at least until she gets a few more in her. If you care to toddle this poor lightweight off to her room— or better yet, help her find the floor with her face and an empty bottle for company— feel free to encounter her in one of the more frequented bars on the ship.]

I wonder...if...

I'd like to talk to someone else who's 'died,' please.


...


Hi. New...people. I'm Kimiko.

[Man, screw being friendly. It's hard.]

Hullo, telly-phone. I would like to find my mum.

[Oh, such an adorable little child, with such an adorable little british accent.]

My name is Kusanagi Kimiko and I live at the Kusanagi genomics building, in Honduras. If you kidnapped me, then it's okay.

I'm not mad.

My daddy will save me.

The convention in science fiction is that any artificially intelligent beings would naturally adopt the same drives and goals as Homo sapiens. That is, they’ll fight to survive, seek to gain understanding, desire to relate to others, and endeavor to express themselves.

So, more or less, Maslow's Hierarchy of needs.

We are routinely shown examples of fictional robots who want to make friends, have emotions or indulge in daddy-issue-inspired neurotic hang-ups. It's presented as the matter-of-course that with sentient machines come the robot uprising and the potential end of human civilization. I mean, if that were the case, they'd be right, but...

It’s possible to have an intelligent being – something that can reason – that doesn’t really care to relate to others. Or that doesn’t care if it lives or dies. “I think therefore I am” doesn't necessarily lead into “I want to be."

What I mean is, if we gave AI the same drives that human beings have (replacing our biological needs to eat with a more machine-appropriate goal of “recharge yourself” or something) then the robot uprising would be inevitable. Supporting evidence: Every single war and violent crime in the history of our species.

I watched a movie today. Is the lesson I'm supposed to get from "I, Robot" that if I'm a complete, illogical jackass then things will work out without any real, useful help from my end of things?

The U.S. standard railroad gauge is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.

[And now it's time to play the 'lets pretend that never happened' game!]

That's actually a pretty odd number to use. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the U.S. railroads were built by English expatriates. The first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. In addition, the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

The first really long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. The ruts in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for, or by, Imperial Rome, they were naturally all standard in the matter of wheel spacing. The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

...

There's a reason why I'm officially banned from philosophy conferences.

Someone tell me we have painkillers. Like Morphine. Vicodin at least.

[Grooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan fuck this whole gender idea and everything that comes with it]

This is the worst hurt. I want to kill everyone in the entire world, and no jury would every convict me.

[Thud. Forehead meet desk. When Kim continues, it's a bit muffled.]

Because they would be dead too.