Paper XI
14-year-old Maya survives a terrible train accident only to find herself in a strange world where people, places, and souls are made of paper. Now, hunted and alone, she has 11 days to find the bodies, reconstruct the accident, and return home.
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Red-Hooded Girl… Where are you going? |
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At least that's how the comic is described on its archive page.
In reality, it's much more surreal, unsettling, and vague than this would make you think.
Created by Clone.Army, the authors of Nana's Everyday Life. The complete comic can be read or downloaded here. If you'd like an interpretation, this one seems to be very accurate, though you should definitely read the comic first.
This comic provides examples of:
- Affably Evil - The white-haired girl can actually be very pleasant.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Maya, very literally.
- Amazon Brigade - The main cast spends a lot of time kicking ass.
- Attempted Rape – Or whatever’s going on here.
- Badass Bookworm – The white-haired girl spends a lot of time reading.
- Bandage Babe – Maya, sometimes.
- Because Destiny Says So – Here.
- Body Horror - Here. But really, it’s everywhere.
- Cosmic Plaything - Poor Maya...
- Creepy Child – The white-haired girl.
- Curb Stomp Battle – Maya attacks the white-haired girl with two javelins. The white-haired girl makes Maya’s arms explode with the power of her mind.
- Cute Mute – Maya some of the time.
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu? – When Maya is captured by the Cloth Man, she’s not harmed at all, and she actually has a (relatively normal conversation with him at one point.
- Technically, any normal interaction Maya has with the white-haired girl counts as this.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? – Maya stabs the white-haired girl, who is in god mode, through the eye with a javelin, after seeing several of her extras telepathically eviscerated. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- Downer Ending
- Eldritch Abomination – The Cloth Man, and those giant worm things at the beginning.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness - Tower 27
- Grimmification – Of Little Red Riding Hood.
- Improbably-Female Cast - There are no male cast members aside from the Cloth Man and a few one-offs.
- Physical God – The white-haired girl gets dangerously close.
- Sailor Fuku - The white-haired girl wears it, as well as two other survivors.
- Splash of Color - The entire comic is in black and white, with occasional blood red, except this page.
- Staying Alive - Maya is immortal due to the white-haired girl's constant rewrites.
- Surreal Horror
- Teenage Wasteland
- The Omniscient – The white-haired girl knows exactly what’s going on, all the time.
- The Unintelligible – Here.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia – While never explicitly stated, Maya seems to have this regarding the train accident.
- White-Haired Pretty Girl – The white-haired girl.
- Wise Beyond Their Years – The white-haired girl.