Annotated 19-9
Phil tried to correct this page’s use of “wood dwarf,” but I kept it in with a note I’ll paraphrase here: “Shanna is not merely unfamiliar with the lore of fandom; she seems to take a perverse PRIDE in getting these things wrong. It’s not LOTR, it’s ‘The Lords of the Rings’ or ‘The Sword and the Things.’ This kind of willful malapropism not only messes with the geeks, it quiets her fears that she’s actually one of them.”
And if it’s not clear yet why she’d be so afraid of that, well, we’ll get there. But maybe it’s worth noting how easily she slips into live-action role-play as long as she can tell herself it’s “just part of the job.”
Probably should’ve taken another pass at her first few captions here. They’re a bit confusing, as she is using a fake name. The real point is that whatever name she’s using, she’s got to make sure she doesn’t give off a “reporter vibe” if she doesn’t want to alert a large and powerful company to the fact that she’s investigating its apparent murders.
Yep. Between this and her earlier judgement of the morality of working for a game company, I had filed her alongside Jack Thompson.
“Magic-aided total immersion virtual reality? In this day and age? On this planet? Localized entirely within your basement?”
“Yes!”
“…May I see it?”
“No.”