37 thoughts on “[2.9 Spoilers] – End of the Trail”
Text description:
A series of narrow images:
1: A number of brown branches lying on a dark floor. Bright red ribbons are tied to them.
2: On a black background, blue text: ‘I still want to negotiate. You’re leaving?’
Red text, shaky: ‘No.’
3: A woman in a bright red dress is seen with her back turned, walking down a dark path with black and dark brown leafless trees. Some shadowy mannequins and mannequin pieces are set by the wayside. Bright red ribbons hang from most or all branches.
4: Blue text, fading: Miss. Miss. Miss.
Blue text, brighter and underlined: Please.
5: As image 3, but the woman is now crouched down, viewed from the side.
6: Blue text: What is the wolf even doing? Miss, I know you said you couldn’t, but I don’t know what to do.
Faint grey text: Gnaw, crunch.
7: Blue text: No Miss then. John Stiles. Please.
More, brighter grey text: Gnaw, crunch, gnaw, crunch, chew.
8: Black box, nothing depicted.
9: Blue text: Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. Verona, Verona Verona.
10: Black box, nothing depicted.
11: Red text, shaky: Ha ha hee hee. Nobody’s come?
12: Blue text: no
Red text, shaky: It’s just you and me, Avery Kelly.
13: Blue text: what- what were you doing over there?
14: Red text, shaky: Hee hee.
15: The same image as the first, with the scattered branches. A branch that lacked a ribbon is missing, devoured.
Interesting. So we’re meant to scrutinize every pixel. I must admit that is more dis- than incentive for me, but we’ll see! Maybe the fascinating insights yielded by zooming in on every single bit of every single image will improve the reading experience enough to justify the effort. I don’t usually consume this sort of content that way, but I genuinely appreciate the chutzpah of the attempt. Lord knows there is plenty of precedent for that. I also dropped off after 50 pages of Finnegan’s Wake because I couldn’t tolerate the excess of ambition, but I appreciate the trans-media goals you’ve demonstrated so far.
Nah. When you note two nearly identical images and want to find the differences, you can just right-click on both images and open them in separate tabs. Switching back and forth between those tabs makes the changes jump right out without any special scrutiny.
What in the fresh fuck is the wolf chewing? It starts while Avery begs Miss to show up, but I don’t know what it could be eating. I hope it wasn’t Snowdrop.
Wait.
How do we know it’s the Wolf that’s chewing? Wildbow’s comment doesn’t actually clarify who’s chewing, just what isn’t being chewed.
God this story is full of paranoia fuel. I love it.
I hadn’t noticed that a branch was missing on the last pic; the image descriptions are super useful.
My interpretation is that Avery is this missing branch, that lost (Lost?) her connections. Or perhaps, the branches on the floor are Avery, and the wolf took away part of her in this comic.
Also wtf, WB :< Man this is one cruel wake-up for the girls… Well, I guess they did see their friend die.
The branch without the ribbon was the branch that represented the detour, which was a potential escape for Avery. The Wolf has prevented Avery from using the detour and escaping that way.
Gung’f jung jr gubhtug nobhg Oynxr, gbb. But magic, uh, finds a way. Nirel jba’g or gur fnzr Nirel—fur zvtug unir rira ybfg ure anzr, yvxr Zntf qvq—ohg fur’yy or fbzrguvat. And that’s better than nothing.
This is absolutely terrifying. I’m… I’m not sure we will be getting Avery back after this but she certainly won’t be the same… oh my god, the wolf gets to eat her now doesn’t it? Wildbow is so good at putting his characters through situations I see no way out of… I’m holding on to hope that Avery can find the loophole I can’t. 😭
I don’t think Avery is completely doomed, yet. Sure she’s mostly blind and she can’t bypass the Wolf anymore, but nothing says the negociations are over. Actually, there’s so little context here that we could well be seeing the aftermath of the negociations, the part that Avery won’t remember. I still have a kernel of hope.
Oh well, there goes the detour. What options left for Avery, even? No Snowdrop to give to wolf in her place, no running away through detour (even if she regains her sight with “spare” eyes)
At the end of 2.9 I assumed the next chapter would be “Avery, again”. But this comic changes that. Now I think we’re going to switch to one of the other girls, as they begin to realize Avery’s not coming back.
This kind of comic-book sequence isn’t what I’d expect from the Thursday imagey supplementary stuff, but I like it. Also, kudos to whoever’s doing the art.
That’s what I was thinking. Next chapter we find out Avery made it out, and in like a hundred chapters we find out what happened at the Forest Ribbon Trail.
And it turns out “Avery” for thr last who knows how many chapters was a fae bewitched to think it was actually Avery or something.
Pale 
Text description:
A series of narrow images:
1: A number of brown branches lying on a dark floor. Bright red ribbons are tied to them.
2: On a black background, blue text: ‘I still want to negotiate. You’re leaving?’
Red text, shaky: ‘No.’
3: A woman in a bright red dress is seen with her back turned, walking down a dark path with black and dark brown leafless trees. Some shadowy mannequins and mannequin pieces are set by the wayside. Bright red ribbons hang from most or all branches.
4: Blue text, fading: Miss. Miss. Miss.
Blue text, brighter and underlined: Please.
5: As image 3, but the woman is now crouched down, viewed from the side.
6: Blue text: What is the wolf even doing? Miss, I know you said you couldn’t, but I don’t know what to do.
Faint grey text: Gnaw, crunch.
7: Blue text: No Miss then. John Stiles. Please.
More, brighter grey text: Gnaw, crunch, gnaw, crunch, chew.
8: Black box, nothing depicted.
9: Blue text: Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. Verona, Verona Verona.
10: Black box, nothing depicted.
11: Red text, shaky: Ha ha hee hee. Nobody’s come?
12: Blue text: no
Red text, shaky: It’s just you and me, Avery Kelly.
13: Blue text: what- what were you doing over there?
14: Red text, shaky: Hee hee.
15: The same image as the first, with the scattered branches. A branch that lacked a ribbon is missing, devoured.
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oh damn
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Well, that’s a dog tag that Avery isn’t getting back.
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It’s not the dog tag that was eaten (the crunching starts before the tag is tossed, faint).
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I think Ganurath is maybe thinking more about the fact that she’ll have some trouble recovering it now that it’s on the trail and she’s blind.
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Interesting. So we’re meant to scrutinize every pixel. I must admit that is more dis- than incentive for me, but we’ll see! Maybe the fascinating insights yielded by zooming in on every single bit of every single image will improve the reading experience enough to justify the effort. I don’t usually consume this sort of content that way, but I genuinely appreciate the chutzpah of the attempt. Lord knows there is plenty of precedent for that. I also dropped off after 50 pages of Finnegan’s Wake because I couldn’t tolerate the excess of ambition, but I appreciate the trans-media goals you’ve demonstrated so far.
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Nah. When you note two nearly identical images and want to find the differences, you can just right-click on both images and open them in separate tabs. Switching back and forth between those tabs makes the changes jump right out without any special scrutiny.
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pizzasgood makes a good suggestion – you can also just read Wildbow’s text description comment if you’re afraid of missing details!
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No it’s even scarier because she starts chewing before Avery throws the dog tag
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What big teeth you have, Grandmother.
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What in the fresh fuck is the wolf chewing? It starts while Avery begs Miss to show up, but I don’t know what it could be eating. I hope it wasn’t Snowdrop.
Wait.
How do we know it’s the Wolf that’s chewing? Wildbow’s comment doesn’t actually clarify who’s chewing, just what isn’t being chewed.
God this story is full of paranoia fuel. I love it.
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The wolf just ate the stick without a ribbon. Look at the bottom of Wildbow’s transcript. “A branch that lacked a ribbon is missing, devoured.“
The ribbonless branch denotes the detour, a potential escape. The Wolf has just removed that option.
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The only other character around is Avery, and she’s too polite to talk with her mouth full.
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I hadn’t noticed that a branch was missing on the last pic; the image descriptions are super useful.
My interpretation is that Avery is this missing branch, that lost (Lost?) her connections. Or perhaps, the branches on the floor are Avery, and the wolf took away part of her in this comic.
Also wtf, WB :< Man this is one cruel wake-up for the girls… Well, I guess they did see their friend die.
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The branch without the ribbon was the branch that represented the detour, which was a potential escape for Avery. The Wolf has prevented Avery from using the detour and escaping that way.
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The missing branch is one key to the ritual. Avery was searching for it last chapter.
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Avery’s absolutely fucked now, no way out
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Gung’f jung jr gubhtug nobhg Oynxr, gbb. But magic, uh, finds a way. Nirel jba’g or gur fnzr Nirel—fur zvtug unir rira ybfg ure anzr, yvxr Zntf qvq—ohg fur’yy or fbzrguvat. And that’s better than nothing.
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This is absolutely terrifying. I’m… I’m not sure we will be getting Avery back after this but she certainly won’t be the same… oh my god, the wolf gets to eat her now doesn’t it? Wildbow is so good at putting his characters through situations I see no way out of… I’m holding on to hope that Avery can find the loophole I can’t. 😭
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Welp, so much for Avery.
Two tries left.
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I don’t think Avery is completely doomed, yet. Sure she’s mostly blind and she can’t bypass the Wolf anymore, but nothing says the negociations are over. Actually, there’s so little context here that we could well be seeing the aftermath of the negociations, the part that Avery won’t remember. I still have a kernel of hope.
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Oh well, there goes the detour. What options left for Avery, even? No Snowdrop to give to wolf in her place, no running away through detour (even if she regains her sight with “spare” eyes)
(I hope next chapter will be Avery POW)
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At the end of 2.9 I assumed the next chapter would be “Avery, again”. But this comic changes that. Now I think we’re going to switch to one of the other girls, as they begin to realize Avery’s not coming back.
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That’s why I hope that in spite of this comic it would be “Avery, again”. But the chances are slim indeed.
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Jryy, Oynxr ybfg uvf pbaarpgvbaf va Cnpg naq jr bayl unq na nep be gjb njnl orsber jr tbg gb frr jung Bgure furanavtnaf ur unq tbggra hc gb. Naq guvf gvzr jr xabj gung Nirel vfa’g npghnyyl qrnq (gubhtu abg jurgure gung’f tbbq be onq) nurnq bs gvzr. Fb url, puva hc.
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Gvzr sbe n Orynatre CBI vagrezvffvba! Yrg’f yrnea nyy nobhg ubj naq jul fur orpnzr n cenpgvgvbare, naq jung na nofbyhgr ahvfnapr gur cerivbhf cebgntbavfgf ner orvat.
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Oh… and I guess now we know what Stolen Away means.
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Ack, Red Text! That could be boding better.
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Wolf: eating the Detour
Avery: What’s that in your mouth
Wolf: starts chewing faster
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Reminds me of Hee rngvat (zbfg bs) vgf anzr fb Oynxr pbhyqa’g ovaq vg. Only, you know, more terminal.
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Avery’s not a groundskeeper, but she’s a redhead so… wrestling time ?
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This kind of comic-book sequence isn’t what I’d expect from the Thursday imagey supplementary stuff, but I like it. Also, kudos to whoever’s doing the art.
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It looks very much like the art used in the top-of-page banners for Pale and Twig. I’m assuming it’s the same artist.
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So… I’m just wondering… if Avery SAW the stick, before going blind, can she still take it?
There’s nothing saying the stick still has to be there. Alternatively, if the stick is inside the wolf, can she just jug past the wolf to freedom.
… probably far fetched, but It does seem a possible exit for her to go “Lols, I saw the stick before”.
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Hmm I wonder if this takes place over a long but forgettable hour…
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That’s what I was thinking. Next chapter we find out Avery made it out, and in like a hundred chapters we find out what happened at the Forest Ribbon Trail.
And it turns out “Avery” for thr last who knows how many chapters was a fae bewitched to think it was actually Avery or something.
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Well that’s f***ing ominous
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