Author notes

18

alejkhan

on Nov. 5, 2007

Ah, so that's what was wrong. Here we have Rachel (to the left) and Regan (to the right) with their cameo appearances. Rachel is adjusting Richard's eye while Regan gently holds back his hair. Of all the Everard kids, Regan is the most like their father in her attitude and appearance. Rachel is the only one of the girls who is particularly "girly". She is also the model/announcer for the video guide to the Institute.


For a more detailed explanation of Richard's condition:

Richard was born with a normal nervous system, however his brain developed improperly. To explain by example, if you touch something, you feel it. This is the sense of touch. Nerves in your skin register pressure, texture, etc. and this is interpreted by the brain. That interpretation is something like, this is soft, fluffy and a little stringy, oh these are cotton fibers mashed up into a ball. Now, Richard's skin would feel the cotton balls, but when that information would get to his brain for interpretation, his brain didn't know what to do with it. He could feel but he just didn't know it. Same went for sight and hearing. His taste buds and sense of smell were fine, however. (It never occurred to anyone to feed him other than intravenously, so this fact was not discovered! Those silly peoples.)

Once John figured this out, he was very easily able to develop various implants in the form of micro computer processors to perform the functions the brain normally would perform. The eyes are a little bit of a special case because: 1. They deteriorated from lack of use, and 2. John thought it would be fun to give Richard superior robot eyes.

Because of Richard's unique condition, he can do fun things like turn off individual implant functions with an oral command code and, for example, make himself completely impervious to pain (something he cleverly did after Edwin punched him). This was also helpful when he decided for his halloween costume to remove his hand and replace it with a fun robot hand his dad made (a prototype implant he was playing around with to give Richard a better sense of touch.) Incidentally, limb reattachment and regrowth is a specialty of the Everard Institute medical research division, which is run by Jane.

And after that long and convoluted explanation of things that couldn't fit in the comic itself, I bid you adieu. Only one more page and then onto the next Week.

Thanks for reading.