OH! THIS is where he recognized her from. Us as the viewers saw Mars as the parallel, but Achilles is too literally minded for that kind of analysis. Instead he literally saw a rough draft of her and filed it away, both fugitively and literally!
:achilles-jolt:
Achilles is terrible at putting information together, but this has got to make something click in his head, right?
So what information do we have?
-Clair has a drawing of Ares.
-The drawing depicts her without her injuries and in nicer clothes.
-There are a bunch of names next to her that aren’t ‘Ares’
Achilles isn’t going to put together that Ares was made by Clair. He can probably tell from this that Clair knows Ares. So how’s he gonna square the other two pieces of information? The simplest answer is that he won’t, Achilles normally kinda accepts that some things are weird and he doesn’t understand them. But if pressed:
-Clair drew Achilles without a nick in his ear initially on accident when she made him a drawing. This ‘is just like that’.
-Clair is apparently bad at remembering names and only remembers that Ares’ name starts with ‘A’.
With how literal-minded Achilles is, I wouldn’t be shocked if he took this to mean Ares had commissioned a drawing from Clair at some point…though he might be confused as to why Ares wouldn’t buy it with her unlimited funds (unless he explicitly understands Ares was robbing the bank?)
I’m curious as to what Clair would say if he asked about it, though. I’d love to see the other residents filed away in that cabinet. I have to wonder just how many villagers Halo Head’s been though that Clair has trouble with names.
Oh hey she even has the eye scar design here. I always wondered if that was from her layer getting erased or a fight or what. I wonder what it means that it’s been there from the beginning. Feels very loaded imagery with Clair’s eye on the same side being closed. (See also, imagery of Clair closing Chloe’s right eye being a repeat motif in Batty’s art of Clair and Chloe, and on page 105)
A realization just occurred to me. She’s stretched out like plum before she went through the hydraulic press. Perhaps intentionally designed to evoke some of batty’s older character designs?
– The diamond shapes on Achilles’s hair in panel 2
– The more intricate shading in panel 2 depicting how close he is to the folders (and, figuratively, how close he is to the hidden secrets of Halo Head)
– There’s a lighter purple square on the inside of the dark purple folder; it ties into the squares vs. diamonds motif, maybe alluding to a time in when Ares and Clair coexisted on the same layer, though it also reminds me of how Pepper sees Ares’s lighthouse in his dreams, with all the squares on the floor and ceiling.
so this confirms for achilles pepper’s hunch, that ares was talking about clair. it’s a direct link between clair and ares. or, I guess technically there is room still to deny that ares was talking about clair. but it’s a link that’s hard to ignore, given the points pepper made of clair having power of some kind over them.
tldr I think achilles is going to peek into her secret room and see some magic happening.
so I’m thinking like, what’s achilles gonna do next? I could see him thinking and doing lots of things about this. or nothing. it kind of depends on how motivated he is. he hasn’t been very motivated to dig deeper into the mystery of their reality so far.
I see achilles being concerned at the idea that clair would do harm, but I think he knows clair well enough to trust that there is a deeper thing going on, that she’s not just like some bad guy. but I think he’ll be motivated to get some more info no matter what, because he really likes clair, and it might hurt to find out she’s not who he thought she was. I don’t see achilles confronting clair though. but maybe at least, taking a peek into her mysterious room?
he could talk to pepper about it, and I wonder what pepper would think or do? pepper would probably want to find out as much info as possible I guess. I don’t really see achilles helping him do that though. uproot his whole life and progress with mars. and I don’t see achilles running off eagerly to pepper to proclaim that pepper was right.
achilles also made a promise to ares to go back, though I feel like that’s something we won’t see until way later. though, if he DID want more info about how to feel about clair, going back would be a very direct way to do it. I could see him going back. not telling anyone, just going. but I don’t really think he’ll do that right now.
and I don’t think this next idea will really pan out at all, but I could also see achilles “siding” with clair in some way, given his defense of her before when he and pepper were making steak. maybe he will kind of conflictedly choose to keep clair’s secrets, “do her bidding” in a way? sabotaging someone else’s efforts (pepper) if they know too much? I don’t really think this theory will pan out, because like how much bidding does clair even have to do besides paperwork? but I could kind of see him misguidedly wanting to defend the status quo, to try and keep the happy thing he has with mars going. and this would involve him being like taken under clair’s wing, learning her secrets, but with the provision that he would HAVE to keep them for her. moving more to the clair side.
re-reading the steak scene also reminded me of the oyster thing, how someone we don’t know taught achilles “halo head is your oyster.” where did he get that shit from?
oh yeah also other things he could do I guess are just go to mars cuz why not. mars would probably be kind of interested to hear about why clair called her ares one time. but I see mars being extremely confrontational about it.
he could also root through more files for more info that way, which could be EXTREMELY juicy for us readers. but he’s already probably seen a lot of it? the drawers probably don’t contain THAT many hard-hitting secrets if she’s letting achilles crawl all through them. so like I wonder if this drawing was special to clair then, to compel her to keep it?
On the real, this page made a bunch of things click for me at the same time. Are’s old design on 445, getting cut with scissors. Chloe’s bit on 431-2 with horror movies about hands, including “Mad Man Snips Hands Too. Scissor fight into haircut on 447. Clair mentioning she could fix the “mistake” on Achilles’ design, 147. The reference to declawing on 363. The effect of blood dripping down Are’s arm, 249. Every single drawing of Ares post-incident hiding the tips of her left hand.
It’s been built up for a while, but I’m sure at this point that Ares lost part of her hand. I wonder if she got in a for-real fight with Clair or Chloe, and got forcibly declawed after? It would certainly explain why the animals of the current layer are small and diminutive in comparison. I had wondered for a while if maybe Ares had just aged up over the years (209), but this page reveals quite conclusively she’s been that size from the beginning.
If I’m right that Ares got declawed, that the fallout from that incident might just have been what caused that layer to become abandoned. On another note, I think it’s eyebrow raising that Ares on 445 and this page has a design with a t-shirt and a thermal top. Present day Ares has what is unmistakably Chloe’s tank top. The implications are astounding.
Oh hey she even has the eye scar design here. I always wondered if that was from her layer getting erased or a fight or what. I wonder what it means that it’s been there from the beginning. Feels very loaded imagery with Clair’s eye on the same side being closed. (See also, imagery of Clair closing Chloe’s right eye being a repeat motif in Batty’s art of Clair and Chloe, and on page 105)
I think you mean her right hand, which is on our left when we’re facing. But wow, what an amazing catch, that really becomes conspicuous once you’re looking for it.
Maybe Ares was precious to Chloe, and she made an effort to preserve her, which also resulted in Ares ending up with the tanktop.
The effect in doesn’t read as blood to me, more uh, fabric-y. Like skin. Maybe Ares got degloved? Curiously, Mars’ fur pattern on her hands is red like Ares’, and her tail’s Jagged on the end. Almost like her design is a recreation of how Ares ended up. Mars’ original ripped hotpants and tank top are also shaped similarly to what she’s currently wearing.
Iunno if Mars is short to make her less dangerous. Clearly Mars could’ve given Achilles a concussion if she tried, and she still has claws.
oohhhoo hoo hoooo
You bastard, you’ve done it again
OH! THIS is where he recognized her from. Us as the viewers saw Mars as the parallel, but Achilles is too literally minded for that kind of analysis. Instead he literally saw a rough draft of her and filed it away, both fugitively and literally!
:achilles-jolt:
Batty’s playing 4D chess over here while we’re still trying to master tick tack toe
AND THE SHADOW!!! BATTY YOU GENIUS!!!
Her tail and even parts of her pants are cut off in the shadow here
On no oh God oh man. Achilles once again being the cat among the pigeons.
I nearly forgot, congratulations on the half-milestone, batty :hearts:
Achilles is terrible at putting information together, but this has got to make something click in his head, right?
So what information do we have?
-Clair has a drawing of Ares.
-The drawing depicts her without her injuries and in nicer clothes.
-There are a bunch of names next to her that aren’t ‘Ares’
Achilles isn’t going to put together that Ares was made by Clair. He can probably tell from this that Clair knows Ares. So how’s he gonna square the other two pieces of information? The simplest answer is that he won’t, Achilles normally kinda accepts that some things are weird and he doesn’t understand them. But if pressed:
-Clair drew Achilles without a nick in his ear initially on accident when she made him a drawing. This ‘is just like that’.
-Clair is apparently bad at remembering names and only remembers that Ares’ name starts with ‘A’.
With how literal-minded Achilles is, I wouldn’t be shocked if he took this to mean Ares had commissioned a drawing from Clair at some point…though he might be confused as to why Ares wouldn’t buy it with her unlimited funds (unless he explicitly understands Ares was robbing the bank?)
I’m curious as to what Clair would say if he asked about it, though. I’d love to see the other residents filed away in that cabinet. I have to wonder just how many villagers Halo Head’s been though that Clair has trouble with names.
Oh hey she even has the eye scar design here. I always wondered if that was from her layer getting erased or a fight or what. I wonder what it means that it’s been there from the beginning. Feels very loaded imagery with Clair’s eye on the same side being closed. (See also, imagery of Clair closing Chloe’s right eye being a repeat motif in Batty’s art of Clair and Chloe, and on page 105)
drat i spaced out and replied to the wrong comment again. my b
And this why you don’t recycle OCs :clair-what2:
I wonder if Achilles’ own draft is in this folder as well.
A realization just occurred to me. She’s stretched out like plum before she went through the hydraulic press. Perhaps intentionally designed to evoke some of batty’s older character designs?
Lots of really neat details in this one:
– The diamond shapes on Achilles’s hair in panel 2
– The more intricate shading in panel 2 depicting how close he is to the folders (and, figuratively, how close he is to the hidden secrets of Halo Head)
– There’s a lighter purple square on the inside of the dark purple folder; it ties into the squares vs. diamonds motif, maybe alluding to a time in when Ares and Clair coexisted on the same layer, though it also reminds me of how Pepper sees Ares’s lighthouse in his dreams, with all the squares on the floor and ceiling.
so this confirms for achilles pepper’s hunch, that ares was talking about clair. it’s a direct link between clair and ares. or, I guess technically there is room still to deny that ares was talking about clair. but it’s a link that’s hard to ignore, given the points pepper made of clair having power of some kind over them.
tldr I think achilles is going to peek into her secret room and see some magic happening.
so I’m thinking like, what’s achilles gonna do next? I could see him thinking and doing lots of things about this. or nothing. it kind of depends on how motivated he is. he hasn’t been very motivated to dig deeper into the mystery of their reality so far.
I see achilles being concerned at the idea that clair would do harm, but I think he knows clair well enough to trust that there is a deeper thing going on, that she’s not just like some bad guy. but I think he’ll be motivated to get some more info no matter what, because he really likes clair, and it might hurt to find out she’s not who he thought she was. I don’t see achilles confronting clair though. but maybe at least, taking a peek into her mysterious room?
he could talk to pepper about it, and I wonder what pepper would think or do? pepper would probably want to find out as much info as possible I guess. I don’t really see achilles helping him do that though. uproot his whole life and progress with mars. and I don’t see achilles running off eagerly to pepper to proclaim that pepper was right.
achilles also made a promise to ares to go back, though I feel like that’s something we won’t see until way later. though, if he DID want more info about how to feel about clair, going back would be a very direct way to do it. I could see him going back. not telling anyone, just going. but I don’t really think he’ll do that right now.
and I don’t think this next idea will really pan out at all, but I could also see achilles “siding” with clair in some way, given his defense of her before when he and pepper were making steak. maybe he will kind of conflictedly choose to keep clair’s secrets, “do her bidding” in a way? sabotaging someone else’s efforts (pepper) if they know too much? I don’t really think this theory will pan out, because like how much bidding does clair even have to do besides paperwork? but I could kind of see him misguidedly wanting to defend the status quo, to try and keep the happy thing he has with mars going. and this would involve him being like taken under clair’s wing, learning her secrets, but with the provision that he would HAVE to keep them for her. moving more to the clair side.
re-reading the steak scene also reminded me of the oyster thing, how someone we don’t know taught achilles “halo head is your oyster.” where did he get that shit from?
oh yeah also other things he could do I guess are just go to mars cuz why not. mars would probably be kind of interested to hear about why clair called her ares one time. but I see mars being extremely confrontational about it.
he could also root through more files for more info that way, which could be EXTREMELY juicy for us readers. but he’s already probably seen a lot of it? the drawers probably don’t contain THAT many hard-hitting secrets if she’s letting achilles crawl all through them. so like I wonder if this drawing was special to clair then, to compel her to keep it?
also this is the filing system that clair said achilles understands better than her. clair’s diabolical system: a l p h a b e t i c a l
It does raise the question of what Achilles was about to say here. “With all the…” what? Animals?
ARES FINGERTIPS REVEAL
On the real, this page made a bunch of things click for me at the same time. Are’s old design on 445, getting cut with scissors. Chloe’s bit on 431-2 with horror movies about hands, including “Mad Man Snips Hands Too. Scissor fight into haircut on 447. Clair mentioning she could fix the “mistake” on Achilles’ design, 147. The reference to declawing on 363. The effect of blood dripping down Are’s arm, 249. Every single drawing of Ares post-incident hiding the tips of her left hand.
It’s been built up for a while, but I’m sure at this point that Ares lost part of her hand. I wonder if she got in a for-real fight with Clair or Chloe, and got forcibly declawed after? It would certainly explain why the animals of the current layer are small and diminutive in comparison. I had wondered for a while if maybe Ares had just aged up over the years (209), but this page reveals quite conclusively she’s been that size from the beginning.
If I’m right that Ares got declawed, that the fallout from that incident might just have been what caused that layer to become abandoned. On another note, I think it’s eyebrow raising that Ares on 445 and this page has a design with a t-shirt and a thermal top. Present day Ares has what is unmistakably Chloe’s tank top. The implications are astounding.
Oh hey she even has the eye scar design here. I always wondered if that was from her layer getting erased or a fight or what. I wonder what it means that it’s been there from the beginning. Feels very loaded imagery with Clair’s eye on the same side being closed. (See also, imagery of Clair closing Chloe’s right eye being a repeat motif in Batty’s art of Clair and Chloe, and on page 105)
(reposting in the proper place)
I think you mean her right hand, which is on our left when we’re facing. But wow, what an amazing catch, that really becomes conspicuous once you’re looking for it.
Maybe Ares was precious to Chloe, and she made an effort to preserve her, which also resulted in Ares ending up with the tanktop.
The effect in doesn’t read as blood to me, more uh, fabric-y. Like skin. Maybe Ares got degloved? Curiously, Mars’ fur pattern on her hands is red like Ares’, and her tail’s Jagged on the end. Almost like her design is a recreation of how Ares ended up. Mars’ original ripped hotpants and tank top are also shaped similarly to what she’s currently wearing.
Iunno if Mars is short to make her less dangerous. Clearly Mars could’ve given Achilles a concussion if she tried, and she still has claws.
Alternative explanation for Ares’ right hand: The obfuscation is hiding a ring, cause Ares and Chloe… got married! :peachy-menacing:
OH IT’S ABOUT TO GET BAD ISN’T IT
The price to pay for a cute moment :sailors-valentine:
I had a suspicion
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xb2fjZa_L74
You can see the gears turning
UH OHHHHH
HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK
Couldnt end the year with any of them being happy, baby needs to see the horrors :batty-bloody:
AAAAAA IT’S MY GIRL!!!!!!!!
o h. my god clair why would you keep that there. yooooo :pepper-surprise:
DUN DUN DUN!! 🙀
Nooooooo. He just wanted to look at his drawing, and now he is in the deep end of a conspiracy! :clair-despair:
CLAIR YOU BUNGLER :mars-shout:
clair tf is this shit opsec