Voices
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"I am alone, yes. Never lonely. Not since she left. Always a conversation to be had. Rarely the kindest or most well mannered, admittedly; my friends are sometimes very confusing and may become cross with each other when their views conflict. I think that is good, though. I see each situation in many different ways, where others only hear their own singular perspective. It is a gift, really. —Osiris, Page 1.
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Voices is a web comic defined for the most part by an ongoing dialog between its primary protagonists and the readers. Posts made on the corresponding forum manifest as voices in the characters' heads, allowing readers to vastly affect the story in real-time.
A man appropriately locked in an insane asylum is the first hero to be introduced. Following that, a rational woman who lives by herself on the edge of a cliff, with a cat, an emotive Space Pirate, and a girl who can't speak but has strange and easily-controllable powers have since joined the group.
These four (with five more hinted at) are called the Gifted, and destined to do something involving the Xern Corporation, which controls every decision of the global government of future Earth, and its Executives. It is proving to be more complicated than that, however.
The comic had its start on the MS Paint Adventures forums, but has since moved to its own site. The characters can be spoken to on the official forum and the updates can be viewed on the website.
Unfortunately, due to pressure from real life that stifled its update rate, it has been discontinued.
- Art Evolution: The art is still scratchy and not entirely realistic, but now looks good, unlike when the series started.
- After a recent donation drive, the Professor announced his intention to go back and redraw the early comics.
- Awesome but Impractical: the railgun in Peregrine's Mini-Mecha takes too long to take out to use in actual combat. It's more of an artillery strike.
- BFG: Peregrine has a railgun. When he loses it, he gets a bigger one.
- Bald of Awesome: Peregrine. He often covers it up with a Nice Hat, though.
- Big Bad: Peregrine refers to the Xern executives with this term.
- Bilingual Bonus: Greek (letters for English text), Chinese, and probably more as the story goes on.
- Cast Calculus: As more characters are certainly going to be added to the main cast as time goes on, Sixth Rangers are inevitable. In the meantime, the four that are currently available don't really fit the Four-Temperament Ensemble, instead looking a lot more like a Brains and Brawn team (Teiuc and Peregrine) with The Loonie and The Tagalong Kid taped carefully to either side.
- Cast of Snowflakes
- Character-Magnetic Team
- Chekhov's Gun: Osiris makes a face at a security camera. After the gifted kill Di Yu, the image is broadcast around the world.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Osiris. Just because it was probably Xern that put him in the mental hospital doesn't mean he didn't initially need to be there.
- Cool Airship: The Empyrian.
- Cute Mute: Violet.
- Cyborg: The crew of the Empyrian, including Peregrine.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Initially, Osiris' narration seems to be an internal monologue. It's not. People keep pointing it out, but he doesn't stop.
- Fan Nickname: Threeof the Four gifted introduced so far are known only by these. Osiris didn't remember his name, so he let the Voices name him, leading to him taking the title of "Osiris Elvis Maxwell Ozymandias Bulkhead T. Gale, god king musician of the lumberjack dead, judge and ruler over ye despairing mighty." Radical Peregrine is just the codename the Voices suggested for III before his rebel attack. Violet, meanwhile, might have a name, but she hasn't said.
- Hearing Voices: The gifted and anyone Peregrine uses Metapathy on. The good kind.
- Heroic Sociopath: Osiris showed signs of this at first, but after befriending the other gifted, he's been much more balanced, though he's still a Cloudcuckoolander.
- How Do I Shot Web?: The Voices did a few initial experiments, like trying to show the characters a picture, to test out their limits. Similarly, some people initially tried to get Osiris to create light. He can't.
- Interface Spoiler: Yes, in a Webcomic. Some of the art showing the numbers of the various voices has indicated that there are nine gifted. The silhouettes for V-IIX (not a typo, it's apparently important that 8 is written that way) have since been revealed.
- Lotus Eater Machine: Sheol's prison includes one.
- Mind Rape: Sheol has apparently been doing this since early childhood.
- More Dakka: Oh, what's that, Peregrine lost his railgun? It's okay, he'll just get a Mini Mech with a gun about ten times the size of the old one built in.
- Most Definitely Not a Villain: One billboard says "Xern Inc: Definitely Not Villains."
- Nice Hat: Peregrine has gone through a few.
- Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The top four executives, in conjunction with someone the author uses as an avatar (the forum kind. No word on whether he's an Author Avatar), are doing . . . something.
- Only Sane Man: Teiuc is definitely the most normal of the group.
- Ontological Mystery: Starts as this.
- Psychic Powers: The gifted, possibly also the Prophet.
- Resigned to the Call: Teiuc isn't particularly enthusiastic about helping the voices, but goes along with what they say anyway. She gets a bit more into it after Xern arrests her.
- Shiny New Australia: Chapter 2 is set in an Australia that has become the world's prison colony under the ownership of the Xern executive Sheol.
- Slasher Smile: Osiris is prone to this. Try picking him out of the Gifted lineup at the top of the page.
- The Power of Friendship: Osiris was pretty scary at first, and some fans were initially worried that they'd helped a Complete Monster escape from an insane asylum. After meeting the other gifted and talking more with the Voices, he's still a Cloudcuckoolander, but he's developed some actual morals.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the gifted so far have been overly concerned about the voices in their heads, even before confirming that the others could hear them too. The least positive reaction thus far is Teiuc's annoyed "What, are you guys the new round of crazy this season? Fantastic. Well, mind keeping it down?"
- We Need a Distraction: Peregrine is good at this, whether with his powers or through the more old-fashioned "storm the gates in a mech" style.