Editing 266: Choices: Part 3

{{comic
| number    = 266
| date      = May 23, 2007
| title     = Choices: Part 3
| image     = choices_part_3.jpg
| titletext = Wait, this is space -- how are you talking to me? And, as an afterthought, what's up with the hole in reality?
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] is very unsure about what to think of her situation. Is it a dream? Is she in danger? She should be scared but isn't, and it does not feel like a dream, i.e. it feels real even though she suspects it is a dream. This would usually never be the case. If your dream feels realistic, you do not usually consider that you are dreaming. Suddenly someone talks off-panel and tells Megan that she has been found. When Megan asks the speaker who it is, reality becomes even more distorted, and suddenly she finds that she is looking at herself outside the sphere. And the two Megans say hi....

This could be an allusion to The Matrix. The Megan outside the sphere was looking for and has found the Megan inside the sphere, as in The Matrix, Morpheus has been looking for and has found Neo; then Morpheus/outer Megan pulls their target out of the target's reality and comment similarly on how this experience is likely to feel. Outer Megan, as she manifests before Inner Megan: "This next part might be a little weird"; Morpheus, as he is about to plug in Neo for the first time and explain what the Matrix is: "This will feel a little weird." If true, this would not be the only time [[Randall]] used The Matrix in xkcd (<em>e.g.</em>, [[566: Matrix Revisited]]).

In the title text, she realizes that if she were in real space, she wouldn't be able to hear any {{w|sound}}, like the voice talking to her, due to the lack of atmosphere. As an afterthought, she decides to ask about the hole in reality (which many people would consider to be more unusual than sound in space).

This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week. These are all the comics in [[:Category:Choices|Choices series]]:
* [[264: Choices: Part 1]]
* [[265: Choices: Part 2]]
* [[266: Choices: Part 3]]
* [[267: Choices: Part 4]]
* [[268: Choices: Part 5]]

==Transcript==
:[A white Megan floats in a bubble against a dark blue space backdrop. She is at the top of the bubble. Her thoughts (not connected to her by a speak line) are shown above her in white.]
:Megan (thinking): I should feel scared.

:[She falls from the top of the bubble, the bubble rises or both.]
:Megan (thinking): But I don't.

:[She hits the bottom of the bubble, and the bubble begins to fall down.]
:Megan (thinking): Maybe this is a dream.

:[She floats over the top of the now still bubble.]
:Megan (thinking): But it doesn't feel like one.

:[She now floats in the middle of the still bubble, in a larger panel. The sky behind her now has many stars and light effect. A voice speaks from off-panel above.]
:Voice (off panel): Okay, found you.
:Megan: Who are you?
:Voice (off panel): Er, hang on. 
:Voice (off panel): This next part might be a little weird.

:[Beat panel, where Megan just floats in her bubble on the same background, but in a smaller panel.]

:[A large panel where Many distorted copies of Megan whirl around the original Megan in her bubble; She also bends backwards. The stars and light display in the background is more clear around her bubble, that now creates a lens effect, that even distorts the distorted Megans even more. Around her bubbles edge and the lens edge there are three places where brown lines appear on both these edges.]

:[All the copies have disappeared except for one who is hanging suspended outside Megan in her bubble. The new one is almost a mirror image, but not quite. The background is more dark blue, with less features.]

:[The Megan copy raises her hand and speaks. There are again more stars etc. in the background.]
:Megan copy: Sorry — hi, me.
:Megan: ...Hi.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Choices]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Choices]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Physics]]