Peeka-Boo – Chap. 5, Act 3, Strip 16

Wait – what is that?!? We just saw Snuka with the Professor, and now he’s somewhere else – and apparently has been for a while! How is that possible? Could it be that there are two Snukas? That’s the most shocking swerve ever!

*cough* Alright, it was pretty obvious that that gal that hangs out with the Professor and Gregory at the moment wasn’t the real Snuka, so let’s catch up on the original. Not only is she the “classic” Snuka, she’s also suffering from the right kind of injuries for a fictional character who flew head-first into a rocky outcrop at high speed: She was unconcscious for a while, and now she’s sporting a rather decorative bandage around her head. That’s still far away from the kind of injuries you’d realistically expect her to have suffered, but at least she’s not completely uninjured.

As an experienced fictional character, Snuka immediately – and correctly – reads the situation. Opening her eyes for the first time after a stretch of unconciousness, there are only a few kinds of sights that could have greeted her: either a closeup of the worried face of a kindly old man/woman, which would indicate that she’s been rescued by friends, or figures towering over her with their faces in shadow, which would clearly indicate that she’s fallen into the clutches of the enemy. In a rare variation, it could have been the curious face of a cheerful, blonde child, which would have pushed the actual revelation of the circumstance down the road a bit. The worst option would have been waking up in an empty room (or tent, in this case), however – for this wouldn’t have been a case just of nobody being in the room when she wakes up (statiscally plausible in reality, unheard of in fiction), it would have meant that some sort of horrible surprise was lurking right around the corner.

Having dodged the ’empty room’ bullet, her next priority will likely be trying to avoid the ‘shooting squad’ thing. Firearms are still at an early stage of development in that time and place, but a dozen bullets are still harder to dodge than a single one. Especially since she’s likely going to suffer from dizzyness and nausea once she gets up – those are inevitable side-effects of wearing a bandage on your head if you’re a fictional character.

More on Monday.

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