PrimordialRageChick on page 412
OMG IT MAKES SENSE YES THIS IS AMAZING

Alien Hunter on page 412
Wow, thank you!
See, that tied everything together! Now I get it! Yay!
Except that Memnon is the one who killed Charlie anyway... I don't get that.
And his child looks a lot like Charlie... I don't get that.
And I'm not sure when we left the virtual reality that EOS discovered/created....I don't get that.
OK, I'm lost again: Memnon goes to the past to send Charlie to the future so that Charlie won't be killed--since Charlies death in the past would lead to Memnon's creation, and Memnon is the one who kills Charlie in the present anyway?
Wait, wait, I'm talking it out as I type: EOS creates Memnon--but only after Charlie's death in the present! Right?
So...Charlie's death, past or present, would still have led to EOS creating Memnon, an artificial intelligence/virtual reality construct who falls in love with her and avenges her death by destroying everyone on earth?
BUT, he's actually living in the real world, since he can interact with it and have his own children and need protection from the now nuclear-destroyed world?
My head is spinning. I need someone to explain! I love this strip but it's leaving me behind...

Alien Hunter on page 412
I just went back and read the comments for July 11. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is lost. However, I won't give up on the strip. I may end up having to go back and read it all from the beginning (I've done that twice) to understand it, though.
I think I see both side's of the arguments in the comments from yesterday. Yes, the comic is free and no one is being forced to read it. On the other hand, it began as a highly-engaging story with a deep mystery, and readers became invested in it. Probably most of us are used to complex story lines, expecting periodic "payoffs", so they feel a little nonplussed at what's happening here. Most of us probably remember "Twin Peaks"...
I think we just need to trust the author. Soo...let's go!

Kid Cthulhu on page 412
Interesting...

Dafuq on page 412
Looks like I may have been right... causal loop

Fish on page 412
Okay, Eos who wanted kids, couldn't have kids because infertile thus created Mennon the A.I.
I'm going to guess now that the little girl is a clone.

Mr. Jones on page 412
I see. I believe I see. It's a Star Trek-esque time travel plot where the people actively changing the past are observed until they no longer exist. Not how travel in to the past works, but I like watching these kinds of stories unfold.

Jono on page 412
Well if it's not going to matter.... save game, kill everyone, loss save

Jono on page 412
Meant load not loss

Yattsume on page 412
@Alien Hunter: Tober has already explained Memnon wasn't the one who killed Charlie. That was Rothwell, they're different characters.

Das Jojoba on page 412
Though I too miss the interplay between Charlie and Ash, the pacing, etc, I'm digging this. It's definitely taken a left at Albuquerque, and I'm intrigued to see how it plays out.
Thanks for creating, and keeping up this strip. I look forward to reading the newest every time you update.

jimothy on page 412
@das jojoba
well, this certainly isn't Pismo Beach...

SenpaiSizzle on page 412
So... either there's gonna be a fun paradox, or Memnom gets corrupted when going back in time.

The Frog Master on page 412
wait, so lemme get this straight.
1) Charlie is shoved forward in time by memnon
2) Charlie is hunted by Chrono-Assassin (rothwell?)
3) Charlie gets killed by (Rothwell?)
4) Eos gets idea
5) Eos inexplicably THOOMs (rothwell?)
6) Eos makes idea reality and creates Memnon through apparently-not-virtual reality
7) Eos dies
8) Government... cracks vr?
9) Memnon procures child and lives in bunker.
Is this right? can anyone make this clearer?

Dazed on page 412
Maybe it's a predestination paradox.
1.) Rothwell, from the future is hunting Charlie for some reason.
2.) An individual from the military, fighting against Rothwell, or whoever he represents is sent to the far past to protect Charlie by displacing him in time.
3.) Rothwell hunts down and kills Charlie in front on Eos (probably from the future and there to hunt Rothwell), who is crippled in the process.
4.) Eos creates a virtual world, and Memmon. Partially to get her life back and partially out of guilt for Charlie's death.
5.) Military freaks out about Memmon, kills Eos.
6.) Memmon goes ballistic, creates a body to work in the real world and levels everything.
7.) Memmon regrets his actions, and decides that in order to make things right he has to prevent the thing that drove Eos to create him.

Volk0v on page 412
So I guess this child was made from Eos... and maybe Memnon? Making the girl the same way he was made would explain the hair and stuff. Or maybe she's like Eos and Memnon DNA incest offspring from a tube. TIME WILL TELL

caribouchat on page 412
@Alien Hunter: I was also confused with Memnon and Rothwell, but I read all the comic once again, and found some differences. Memnon is quite taller than Rothwell, usually has green eyes (Rothwell's are red-brown), and straight hair (Rothwell's are curly).
I'm wondering though, where, when, how, reality and virtual world are bounded.
I thought Mem was a virtual kid Eos created, and so Emi could be a virtual kid Mem created, in the same virtual world. I understand he can make the bomb explode from the virtual world, computer-wise. But how they could get 'bodily' in the real world is what baffles me. Looking forward to having more information!

Alien Hunter on page 412
@Yattsume and @caribouchat: OK, I think that helps, but now I'm going to have to re-read from the beginning again, with Memnon and Rothwell as two separate characters...
Wow, isn't this amazing that this comic has inspired such discussions and comments!

caribouchat on page 412
@Alien Hunter: agreed!
It's really worth reading it again from the start...
And thanks so much, Tober for making us wonder and wait impatiently (Hrn. By the way, here's another question: why do Tober represent themselves with Ash picture in the cast page?).

Charidan on page 412
I think we should also keep in mind that this seems to be a non-iterative "parallel world" causality, like Continuum. Changes to the past do not effect the future, they create a new and separate timeline. This is evidenced repeatedly with Sam not remembering any of the stuff Charlie did, especially given that Sam outlives Charlie, who in an iterative causality would be his younger self.

Inspector Hound on page 412
@Charidan: possibly, but the final scene with Charlie, where the killer "dithers" between killing and not killing Charlie, seems to me to have some causality-related influence, as though his instructions from the future were changing with every panel.
Obviously we don't have direct causality here (as you pointed out, Sam outlives Charlie, and in any event direct causality in a time travel story is ridiculous), but I can't rule out its effects, however minor compared to everything else.
Which means I'm arguing against a parallel world scenario too. Hmm. Okay, I'm coining a new term, "fuzzy causality", analogous to fuzzy logic. Let's see how this plays out.

Some Physicist Guy on page 412
I am just catching up from not reading this for almost 2 weeks. So a bit has changed. I think the main point here is that Memnon and Rothwell are not playing for the same team, despite physical similarities. It could be that Roth is an offshoot of Memnon, a part of himself that still wants to kill all humans. (queue Flight of the Concords, "The Humans are Dead")

caribouchat on page 412
@Inspector Hound:
I'm not sure he "dithers". I rather thought that he tried to avoid killing Charlie while he still had the possibility to bring him somewhere or maybe somewhen... maybe back where he came from -maybe to kill him then, in his original timeline or parallel world, and not "now"...
But then Eos came and made it impossible for him to bring Charlie with him so he killed him right away.
By the way, what became of Rothwell after he killed Charlie?

Deof Movestofca on page 412
Great Scott, Memnon! Where's the DeLorean?

Weirded weirder on page 412
AI to real world transfer hasn't been explained :(
Some sort of organic capable 3D printer?

Db3 on page 412
Guys, if Eos could go into that world so could this guy, right? He might not be AI.

The Frog Master on page 412
@Dazed ah, it's starting to make sense... thanks!
I would probably understand that more had S5 of Doctor Who not utterly fried any temporal reasoning I previously possessed :)

jimothy on page 412
@the frog master
damned pandorica, f**king up minds for years to come.

wheelbarrow full of surprises on page 412
@Volk0v
"Offspring from a Tube" would make a great album name