apparently there's some kind of archaeological site west of the town of "Silverdalen" (again, that's just an odd name to me, and reminiscent of Silverdale, WA) and the body was found there. no sign of physical trauma

Lomax suggests the news is almost teasing people into checking out the site for themselves. "don't do that," says dad from the couch. Lomax is on edge and wonders to themself why dad would even bring the idea up. "I've never been a troublemaker."

anyway, Lomax has "things to do". they ride a bus to a place called "King's Park"

like Chara, I too am dedicated to continuity :=D

so, page forty

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-40

Lomax is strolling around King's Park and complaining of photophobia. "normally I like the sun but today it hurts my eyes" (remember they complained of their vision not being right after the whole, uh, pink lozenge henshin thing)

and then boom they accidentally walk into the back of a weird person who genuinely looks like the sort of weird guy you'd run into, in a toku show

dark brown topcoat and matching hat, pale pink tie, white hair, white beard neatly sculpted to a point. somehow I'm reminded of the character of Dr. Augustus Frost, from "That Hideous Strength", a little-known C. S. Lewis novel

Lomax stares blankly at the stranger and then makes a break for it. something about the encounter has scared the shit out of them

they run and run and run, apparently not stopping until they're out of breath and back at their school

page forty-one

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-41

Lomax is out of breath, panting and drooling a bit as you do. they apparently made it to the parking lot of the school, because they spot Dr. Rodgers, whistling and getting into (or out of) their sensible compact car

so is it "Rodgers" or "Rogers"? I dunno if the comic knows for sure, haha

"MR. ROGERS [sic] I NEED TO TALK ABOUT--"

Rodgers instantly shushes Lomax, and says some words meant to reassure

"look, I know this is scary and confusing"

then at the bottom half of the page, Prof. Rodgers (I'm sticking with the contention that he's Paul Rodgers's cousin or something) gets Very Serious[tm] and the frame goes purple for some reason and promises that answers are coming. in _private_. how reassuring!

then Rodgers grabs Lomax's shoulders (also reassuring!) and says, basically, "see me in extracurricular class" and walks off

Rodgers leaves Lomax standing there, very much lacking in assurance. "I need to...talk..." that's it

well I know THAT feeling

finally at the most important page, page forty-two. surely this page will answer all the questions

of course it doesn't

(Chara, or Kara rather, arrived at the knowledge she was trans, at the age of forty-two, how's that for a coincidence)

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-42

Lomax sighs, grumbles about not being able to think straight, and tries to slog through their course load. math, chemistry, language come and go, while Lomax's gloom deepens

oh, forgot Biology class. we get a clip of the professor's introduction to her lecture here, giving Lomax and the other students a bright cheery introduction to the world of "Bacterica" [sic], which she later correctly names as the bacteria

(sorry, my eye goes RIGHT to little slips like that)

the biology prof mentions that without our symbiotic relationship with bacteria we would not even be alive and I'm sure this passage is not meant to symbolize a thing to us

all the fun's gone out of this. but we're not in this for fun

you know

I haven't any clue really what's been up with us. whether anyone we've known personally has been _involved_. got nothing to go on really

we've felt like it's been plausible to assume that these people who've collectively hurt us so many times have been making a kind of GAME of it all. having fun pushing us around

maybe because they feel threatened somehow

we've been on the receiving end of a lot of weird misdirected _rage_. and never gotten one solid hint that anyone involved, INCLUDING the authors of this fucking thing I'm working through right now, have changed their minds about Chara and the rest of us

so far as I know, guys, you all still fucking despise the lot of us and still think you have reasons to hurt us. and you know what? we're hurting, all right

and if that's NOT all you assholes' fault, in some way--because honestly I can't think of anyone else in town who'd have both the ability and the motive to do some kind of magical woo on us that would cause us lots of pain--then well you're always free to tell us that directly

stop being such fucking cowards and we'll start having nicer things to say about you and your shit

well

with that out of the way let's get back to routine

page forty-three

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-43

Lomax goes to the "extracurricular" class, which I guess is some kind of review section or study hall or whatever. detention, but for college kids. Prof. Rodgers is there and Lomax immediately tackles him: "I need some answers." but Rodgers nods to the one other student there and shuts the conversation down.

Lomax sits at a desk, fuming, and Rodgers says something about help with math

"it was worth a try," thinks Lomax, as Rodgers gives them a look (that we can't see all of, because the frame cuts off Rodgers's eyes, in a way that's I'm sure not meant to symbolize anything)

Lomax sits. time wastes away till it's 5 pm

page forty-four. I'm up to Chara's current age, hahaha

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-44

the other student leaves detention with a smile and a cheery "bye Mr. Rogers [sic]!"

*sighs* okay at this point I'll just have to write off the earlier "Rodgers" spelling as a slip

fine, it's Prof. Rogers now. anyway. Lomax tentatively approaches Rogers about having that confidential talk and Rogers says sure! they'll talk at Rogers's _home_

Lomax is...less than pleased at the prospect

Lomax thinks to themself that the last thing they wanna do is go to the creepy guy's house but they need answers so *shrugs*

in the parking lot Lomax calls the parents with some kind of bullshit excuse for coming home late. meanwhile we see Rogers at his sensible compact car

page forty-five

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-45

from the interior of Prof. Rogers's sensible car we see that Lomax is huddled in the back seat, like you do when you're in a stranger's car and you don't wanna get too close. Rogers comments on this, with a smile

"how far is it to your place?" Lomax asks. Rogers explains that he lives out in the suburbs west of Silverdalen (west again, huh), and we see the city in an establishing frame

so "Silverdalen" is big enough to have suburbs, and what we see in the frame makes the city look fairly sizeable. that makes sense given the authors, honestly; they're big city folx, like me. but Silverdalen is hemmed in by high mountains, in a way that Seattle isn't

in a center strip we see some lyrics for Kenny Loggins's "Danger Zone". Lomax asks what the hell the music is

finally we arrive, with Rogers, at a small single-family home. Rogers's home

more shitty '80s rock. this is your territory, Chara

🔴 bleh whatever

on to forty-six

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-46

inside Prof. Rogers's home. it looks boring and suburban, but to Lomax it "feels off". and who knows, maybe there's something a little too pristine and neat about it

Rogers is being effusively polite, offering food or drink, Lomax at last accepts tea and Rogers goes off to the kitchen to prepare it. sitting in the living-room, Lomax notices what looks like a plain gold ring. dun dun DUN

Lomax picks the ring up from the coffee table and looks at it, wondering why it's been left out.

Rogers comes back with tea and snacks, sees that Lomax is handling the ring, and is plainly nonplussed. "ah", he says, with a frozen smile

forty-seven

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-47

"you found my old wedding ring!" Rogers says, with dubious sincerity. Lomax is flustered: "I didn't know you were married." Rogers corrects them: he _had_ been married, he says, but has been a widower for seven years now. but it's OK, he reassures the alarmed Lomax!

"I'm living."

then it's down to business. Rogers knows that Lomax wants an explanation for the strange "dreams" or whatever happened with the henshin sequence and after

forty-eight.

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-48

this page is mostly infodump and rather standard stuff, especially for a toku nerd like me. so Rogers reveals the result of Lomax's scared phone call at the end of the henshin sequence that completes chapter one (chapter zero?) of this comic. apparently Rogers instructed Lomax in how to take the "raiment" off, the lozenge-themed garb that Lomax was wearing after the henshin and couldn't get off themself

blah blah magical attire blah blah special powers blah blah "I was its keeper" blah blah "it chose you" etc. etc.

oh and one final line: "if it were up to me I wouldn't have just dumped it on you like that". well fine

okay, things pick up a bit on page forty-nine.

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-49

more exposition, but it's getting chewier. Rogers claims that the city of Silverdalen is built in an area that's magically powerful

🔴 the way I prefer to think of such things is that a land of great extremes produces a lot of steep gradients in potential energy that can be exploited, that generate more chaos and turbulence in the systems that arise in such areas

🔴 cos "magic" isn't really your thing, Alyx, but just remember that "magicians", whether or not what they do _works_ or not, gravitate instinctively towards chaotic systems. magic is habitually found in unpredictability. and an area like you see in the comic, where there's a tight concentration of humanity hemmed in on all sides by tall mountains and deep forests...that's prime territory, right there

you done, genius?

🔴 yeah that'll do for now I think

anyway! this is my thing, Chara, you get to butt in only a line or two *blows raspberry

so Rogers says Silverdalen is such an area, and Chara's saying "yeah checks out". so there's that

"it's not harmful in itself" well that checks out too, if it's just a complicated energy surface

"but a group of bad people have been using it"

"to make MONSTERS"

welp

that's enough to satisfy toku nerd Chara, but I wanna see how well this works out

🔴 I'm gonna interject the comment that while "Silverdalen" isn't any particular place, it's _also_ probably Seattle to an extent, and as you've pointed out "Silverdale" is a name a Seattle denizen would know. there's enough local flavor

🔴 I've long felt like this place kinda hates us being here. why wouldn't it? Seattle is a city founded by some of the worst people in the world, coming here for the worst reasons. this state's been cheap wood, cheap energy for capitalism

🔴 of course there's _power_ here, unseen, why wouldn't there be? how many secrets and crimes does Seattle hide and continue to hide

🔴 and I feel like it makes a lot of more, I dunno, attuned or sensitive people go a bit loopy. people get mixed up in straaange shit here. guess I'm letting my Heaven's Gate experiences color me a bit too

🔴 I've seen enough with my own eyes to make me worry what *else* is going on, in "real" life not just a webcomic

more exposition on page fifty

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-50

we see a pic of the tall, humanoid-ish, cube-headed creature whom we saw for the first time in the "dream" of Lomax's that began this chapter

Prof. Rogers calls them "Matter-Horners", in an obvious pun on the Matterhorn, the famous high mountain in the Swiss Alps, straddling the border with Italy. it's claimed many climbers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matterhorn)

"horners of matter" is evocative. it suggests "horning in"

("horning in", an idiomatic expression meaning to intrude, e.g. to "horn in" on a conversation.)

these "Matter-Horners" are, according to Rogers, dangerous to humans, though nobody's been hurt _yet_

these creatures appeared near Silverdalen and shortly afterwards Lomax also appeared, transferring into the school I would guess. (there were the hints that they've moved around frequently, for reasons yet unknown)

"I had to act," says Rogers, at the behest of the "raiment"

Rogers closes with a warning that everything is going to get worse and the only person who can possibly help is Lomax

welp

page fifty-one. almost to the magic number 52, haha

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-51

Lomax gets to the point. if they're so important, if their help is needed so badly, why didn't Rogers get to the point? why didn't he just _tell_ Lomax what was up directly instead of giving them a bunch of talk about DETERMINATION (there's that damn word again, Chara) and getting stronger?

Rogers dodges the question, hinting only that he couldn't be more direct

after all, Rogers points out to Lomax, you're not powerless any more! "this is a burden" (YA THINK??) but good will come of it, Rogers promises. good for the city, good for Lomax themself

fifty-two page pickup

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-52

Lomax asks another obvious question: can I ditch the power-up somehow

"that's up to the 'raiment'" says Prof. Rogers. as long as the city's in danger, he surmises, Lomax isn't off the hook.

Lomax's reply: "..." basically

but Rogers promises Lomax they're not alone and that he'll help as best he can. how reassuring

page fifty-three

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-53

Prof. Rogers finishes with an assurance.

"You're not alone in this"

yeah right

...

"would you mind trying to put on your 'raiment' again, Lomax?"

page fifty-four

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-54

huh. wasn't sure what I was expecting to be on this page, but it wasn't this

looks like Prof. Rogers is talking Lomax into doing the henshin thing again, with the glass lozenge. Rogers is assuring Lomax that the headaches etc. aren't a permanent thing

they're outside in the second half of the page. among trees

Rogers reminds Lomax that they had to speak a password