This is a recording, isn’t it? Gog-Agog’s whole monologue, the whole song and dance, has been repeated a googol or so times. But I’m betting she’s given it to Zaid in every other iteration of this loop.
Could be, but I think Gog senses that Allison may be different and could be the key to breaking the cycle. It’s the reason that Gog is her biggest fan!
I think she’s only given it to Zaid about 100 times.
I calculated the approximate population of every fit, fighting age male in the multiverse, on average, at this time, at about 900 trillion, ONLY males. Jaggonoth gave a strong hint that Zoss has stubbornly refused to pick any woman before Allison, which means Zoss had to have reused them all about 100 time or so.
Still, now that I think about it, having the FIRST woman ever solve what all males of her generation could not solve, is just a BIT too on the nose preachy. I’m hoping it isn’t that simple.
She implies that Allison has been around in the previous times, which in turn implies there being a female Heir before. Jagganoth doesn’t have perfect memory of the events unlike her, after all, so his account could be colored by his own views.
Given that there are roughly 1 billion grains of sand in a cubic foot of sand, 1000 cubic miles of beach (just to pick a large number) is 1.472E14 cubic feet. Makes gog ~1.472E25 years old. Which is ~ a quarter of the theorized amount of time it takes for our universe to fall into heat death ~1.7E106
Let’s say that 13.8B years is the relative age of the universe in the story given Allison’s apartment in the first chapter and everything is about to blow up and reset. Gog has done this 1.06 quadrillion times.
Strictly speaking, the Prime Angels guarded throne for 30 Kalpa before Zoss breached the firmament and became the Conquering King. A Kalpa is about 4.82 billion years, so the relative age of the universe is about 144B years at minimum. Which means Gog may have done this only 0.106 Quadrillion times. Or maybe Zoss doesn’t reset to the beginning of the universe and this has happened many, many more times.
Actually…I remember that, in the page where we are told about the prime angel’s guarding period, there was a comment explaining what’s a kalpa in nearly the exact same way gog’s explained her lifetime here, although with a mountain instead of a Beach. I have no idea if this means anything, but just saying.
Gog-Agog, who poops on the face of GOD, and has the ability to claim Royalty but also does not seem to want it…Is this worm bucket the manifestation of Aesma as a demurge? or Prim? I know they exploded themselves but what if one of them survived? Their EGO too strong to be truly destroyed?
What is so surprising that the worm does not want the crown? If this tragic tale of Al-Yisun teaches everything, it is that no-one who comprehends Royalty desires it. All who claimed fragments of the crown desire only freedom from that weight. Yisun chose divine suicide to escape the horror of godhood.
The more one considers the concept of infinity, the more one comes to understand the painful irony contained within it. Infinite possible songs, yet how many can truly be called such, and how many are merely discordant noise? Infinite grains of sand, but how many must one examine before they have seen every possible atomic configuration of minerals, every color, shape, and size? How many stories, before every last syllable becomes a tired old trope?
After the Dc’s JLA “Rock of Ages”, I love Grant Morrison like some men love their momma, but he can stretch his imagination so much that 90% of the readers either struggle to keep up or quit form the pretentiousness.
Kudos.
Gog’s pastiche of Harley Quinn, Lady Delirium, and every fictional hive-mind monster makes her the most entertaining demiurge so far, even with Jim Carrey/Jack Nicholson horror popping up occasionally.
It’s interesting to hear valley goofs mature & become self aware of how silly they had been sounding. I realized something interesting: MOST of their grandparents & great grandparents had been trained in the artificial “Mid Atlantic Accent” after moving to California from all over from 1920-1960 (when they finally gave up requiring it). Kids were raised on it but didn’t quite pick it up properly, as the formal training had ended, a failed linguistic experiment, like Esperanto. It turned into that odd thing we all know and laugh at, but when they get control of themselves, stop saying “like” & “totally” in every sentence, the traces can be picked out.
It’s only natural, actually. Zoss and Jadis lost all control of the Wheel (and of anything else at all in the latter’s case) precisely because of their knowledge of its fated course. What hope is there for one who also remembers its innumerable past turns?
Dang, Gog’s entire character just came together. Easily the strongest of the demiurges, reduced to just not giving a shit after going through this all again and again and again.
I can almost hear the shift in tone of Gog Agog here- I imagine that when she speaks normally* that it has an echo, something like the sound of many many voices overlayed on each other. That moment when she looks allison in the eyes and Locks In to just one voice would be so jarring to hear. There are just some scenes that would work perfectly with voice acting.
*I use the word “normally” very loosely here…. it is Gog Agog, after all.
In Ancillary Justice, Anaander Mianaai fragmented themselves to rule their ever-expanding empire. They just couldn’t physically do it with one body anymore. Except that over time, of course, there got niggles, little de-sychronisations, into their system, until there wasn’t just one Anaander anymore, but Anaander at war with themselves …
That does make me wonder. Probably not relevant. But maybe.
I would please like to know, Bearer of the Word BEAST, what you would have done if Mother Om had spoken kindly to you when beseeching your help against Jagganoth? Would you have taken up the battle against him? Or did you think it pointless either way?
I think she knew Mottom’s character (or those of the demiurges generally) well enough after countless cycles to know that would be her response to Gog’s demand, but was still a bit stunned that she was, in fact, stupid enough to fulfill her expectations. I wonder how many times before she had asked them for acknowledgement and left disappointed but unsurprised
Maybe not many times at all. As far as most of the inhabitants of the multiverse remember, this is the first time Allison has been chosen instead of Zaid and thus this was a new situation for Gog, maybe.
So if she’s become a huge mass of flesh in order to preserve her memory, how does that memory survive from cycle to cycle? If the world ends, all her flesh should get destroyed, no?
At this point I wonder if she’s the real reason the universe keeps getting a reset.
The text under the comic, a few pages back, told the tale of some caravan guards coming upon a forgotten ruin, in which some of the stones showed the sign of having once contained something snake – or worm – like in form, “older than time itself”. So (it is strongly implied) Gog has found some way of preserving at least some of their mass from one cycle to the next.
And here we get the other piece of that: they had to become a massively-distributed entity because their flesh is the only thing they can write upon that won’t get wiped away with the next reset. Because it’s all “them”, and thus partakes of their power, their unique? immunity.
Still, you’d think Zoss might notice a giant, writhing mass of worm flesh hanging out in the nothingness of infinity before creation is born. idk. hope it’s explained properly.
Holy fucking shit, I think this might be my favorite chapter so far. If not, it’s at least top 3. But the complete 180 of my perspective on Gog Agog – from disliking them to loving/being fascinated by them – is incredible. Thank you so much for writing this! I actually think Gog Agog is the only non-one-dimensional demiurge, which is hilarious.
Have we. Considered the possibility that she has some fourth wall awareness? The manipulating of the title card and her describing this all as an act. I know it’s very unlikely, but still.
The “Manipulation of the title card” 71 Ascends on Wings of Fire is referencing was actually two pages ago(g)! That was two whole gog agogs agog, though, so I can understand why you don’t remember it. Oh gog agog, now gog’s happening to gog agog as well – the gog agog’s inserting gogagogs in gog agog just like GOGAGOGGOGAGOGOGGO-
This is a recording, isn’t it? Gog-Agog’s whole monologue, the whole song and dance, has been repeated a googol or so times. But I’m betting she’s given it to Zaid in every other iteration of this loop.
Could be, but I think Gog senses that Allison may be different and could be the key to breaking the cycle. It’s the reason that Gog is her biggest fan!
Also, it doesn’t seem like Zaid was always the Heir before now. Most likely it has been different people every time (the roles all twist and change).
I think she’s only given it to Zaid about 100 times.
I calculated the approximate population of every fit, fighting age male in the multiverse, on average, at this time, at about 900 trillion, ONLY males. Jaggonoth gave a strong hint that Zoss has stubbornly refused to pick any woman before Allison, which means Zoss had to have reused them all about 100 time or so.
Still, now that I think about it, having the FIRST woman ever solve what all males of her generation could not solve, is just a BIT too on the nose preachy. I’m hoping it isn’t that simple.
She implies that Allison has been around in the previous times, which in turn implies there being a female Heir before. Jagganoth doesn’t have perfect memory of the events unlike her, after all, so his account could be colored by his own views.
Given that there are roughly 1 billion grains of sand in a cubic foot of sand, 1000 cubic miles of beach (just to pick a large number) is 1.472E14 cubic feet. Makes gog ~1.472E25 years old. Which is ~ a quarter of the theorized amount of time it takes for our universe to fall into heat death ~1.7E106
Let’s say that 13.8B years is the relative age of the universe in the story given Allison’s apartment in the first chapter and everything is about to blow up and reset. Gog has done this 1.06 quadrillion times.
Strictly speaking, the Prime Angels guarded throne for 30 Kalpa before Zoss breached the firmament and became the Conquering King. A Kalpa is about 4.82 billion years, so the relative age of the universe is about 144B years at minimum. Which means Gog may have done this only 0.106 Quadrillion times. Or maybe Zoss doesn’t reset to the beginning of the universe and this has happened many, many more times.
Actually…I remember that, in the page where we are told about the prime angel’s guarding period, there was a comment explaining what’s a kalpa in nearly the exact same way gog’s explained her lifetime here, although with a mountain instead of a Beach. I have no idea if this means anything, but just saying.
Isn’t a kalpa supposed to be hundreds of millions of years? Still a mind bogglingly long time.
1E25 is not a quarter of 1E106, it’s not even a quarter of 1e26. (Remember, every time you go up an E, you’re multiplying by 10.
that amount of time would *also* make me want to become worm
Gog-Agog, who poops on the face of GOD, and has the ability to claim Royalty but also does not seem to want it…Is this worm bucket the manifestation of Aesma as a demurge? or Prim? I know they exploded themselves but what if one of them survived? Their EGO too strong to be truly destroyed?
Hansa, god of cynics, was eaten by worms, remember?
What is so surprising that the worm does not want the crown? If this tragic tale of Al-Yisun teaches everything, it is that no-one who comprehends Royalty desires it. All who claimed fragments of the crown desire only freedom from that weight. Yisun chose divine suicide to escape the horror of godhood.
The more one considers the concept of infinity, the more one comes to understand the painful irony contained within it. Infinite possible songs, yet how many can truly be called such, and how many are merely discordant noise? Infinite grains of sand, but how many must one examine before they have seen every possible atomic configuration of minerals, every color, shape, and size? How many stories, before every last syllable becomes a tired old trope?
“–It was ME.”
Thank you for not going full Grant Morrison and having Gog declare they’re all just comic book characters.
After the Dc’s JLA “Rock of Ages”, I love Grant Morrison like some men love their momma, but he can stretch his imagination so much that 90% of the readers either struggle to keep up or quit form the pretentiousness.
Wait, this is a comic book?? Abbadon, you lied to me!
“the worm remembers everything, even being penciled for rough drafts, anyway do you wanna make out or something?…”
Kudos.
Gog’s pastiche of Harley Quinn, Lady Delirium, and every fictional hive-mind monster makes her the most entertaining demiurge so far, even with Jim Carrey/Jack Nicholson horror popping up occasionally.
Who?
Gog:…ugh, shoot, I forgot!
Audience of Gogs: *Canned laugh track*
Hey, at least that gum she likes is coming back in style 😀
Unfortunately, Alison is all out of gum.
“is crystal pepsi back in this go-around? No? How about 3-Doritos?…”
I had a whole lot of fun narrating this page to my daughter. Gog Agog is surprisingly to me at least, British. Alison is a valley hick.
It’s interesting to hear valley goofs mature & become self aware of how silly they had been sounding. I realized something interesting: MOST of their grandparents & great grandparents had been trained in the artificial “Mid Atlantic Accent” after moving to California from all over from 1920-1960 (when they finally gave up requiring it). Kids were raised on it but didn’t quite pick it up properly, as the formal training had ended, a failed linguistic experiment, like Esperanto. It turned into that odd thing we all know and laugh at, but when they get control of themselves, stop saying “like” & “totally” in every sentence, the traces can be picked out.
you’d think someone with all that knowledge could mess with things to avoid the same end. apparently not.
It’s only natural, actually. Zoss and Jadis lost all control of the Wheel (and of anything else at all in the latter’s case) precisely because of their knowledge of its fated course. What hope is there for one who also remembers its innumerable past turns?
all in all youre just another,
worm in the mall
Dang, Gog’s entire character just came together. Easily the strongest of the demiurges, reduced to just not giving a shit after going through this all again and again and again.
Dim the lights, let the audience rapturously behold the unsurpassed spectacle of the Dance of the Worm.
Remember the poor devil. Trapped forever in a prison at least partly of its own making.
oh, lead or follow. i get it
Conquering King?? No… CONQUERING WORM
All of life is a play. We put on performances at all times to be who we think we should be. Google ego and superego.
No
I can almost hear the shift in tone of Gog Agog here- I imagine that when she speaks normally* that it has an echo, something like the sound of many many voices overlayed on each other. That moment when she looks allison in the eyes and Locks In to just one voice would be so jarring to hear. There are just some scenes that would work perfectly with voice acting.
*I use the word “normally” very loosely here…. it is Gog Agog, after all.
The speck of drool after she shakes her head is an incredible tiny touch. Gods, she’s so much scarier when she’s keeping it together.
In Ancillary Justice, Anaander Mianaai fragmented themselves to rule their ever-expanding empire. They just couldn’t physically do it with one body anymore. Except that over time, of course, there got niggles, little de-sychronisations, into their system, until there wasn’t just one Anaander anymore, but Anaander at war with themselves …
That does make me wonder. Probably not relevant. But maybe.
I would please like to know, Bearer of the Word BEAST, what you would have done if Mother Om had spoken kindly to you when beseeching your help against Jagganoth? Would you have taken up the battle against him? Or did you think it pointless either way?
I think she knew Mottom’s character (or those of the demiurges generally) well enough after countless cycles to know that would be her response to Gog’s demand, but was still a bit stunned that she was, in fact, stupid enough to fulfill her expectations. I wonder how many times before she had asked them for acknowledgement and left disappointed but unsurprised
Maybe not many times at all. As far as most of the inhabitants of the multiverse remember, this is the first time Allison has been chosen instead of Zaid and thus this was a new situation for Gog, maybe.
It wouldn’t have made a difference. Gog-Agog never helps the demiurges, because we know the demiurges always fail.
Mottom could have gotten on her knees and begged and Gog-Agog would have just laughed and done the worm.
its my birthday, a two page update is all I wanted 🙂
So if she’s become a huge mass of flesh in order to preserve her memory, how does that memory survive from cycle to cycle? If the world ends, all her flesh should get destroyed, no?
At this point I wonder if she’s the real reason the universe keeps getting a reset.
The text under the comic, a few pages back, told the tale of some caravan guards coming upon a forgotten ruin, in which some of the stones showed the sign of having once contained something snake – or worm – like in form, “older than time itself”. So (it is strongly implied) Gog has found some way of preserving at least some of their mass from one cycle to the next.
And here we get the other piece of that: they had to become a massively-distributed entity because their flesh is the only thing they can write upon that won’t get wiped away with the next reset. Because it’s all “them”, and thus partakes of their power, their unique? immunity.
Still, you’d think Zoss might notice a giant, writhing mass of worm flesh hanging out in the nothingness of infinity before creation is born. idk. hope it’s explained properly.
Holy fucking shit, I think this might be my favorite chapter so far. If not, it’s at least top 3. But the complete 180 of my perspective on Gog Agog – from disliking them to loving/being fascinated by them – is incredible. Thank you so much for writing this! I actually think Gog Agog is the only non-one-dimensional demiurge, which is hilarious.
apparently this is allison’s first dance…. cute
Have we. Considered the possibility that she has some fourth wall awareness? The manipulating of the title card and her describing this all as an act. I know it’s very unlikely, but still.
I don’t see manipulation of the title card? She kind of IS the breaking of the fourth wall, the closest you get to having external knowledge.
The “Manipulation of the title card” 71 Ascends on Wings of Fire is referencing was actually two pages ago(g)! That was two whole gog agogs agog, though, so I can understand why you don’t remember it. Oh gog agog, now gog’s happening to gog agog as well – the gog agog’s inserting gogagogs in gog agog just like GOGAGOGGOGAGOGOGGO-
IT WAS ME, DIO!!!!!