I knew it!

Ohhhhh my.

I'm confused by this. Wasn't Nicky just shopping with Miv? I don't get the context to this page.

I'm interpreting this as a momentary flashback to something before Daniel entered the big metaphysical side of things. Before he found the bat that turned out to be Nicky.

It appears that death is an important part of transitioning into the group that Endervine and Secretin are part of, as well as letting go of humanity and emotions. It appears that Secretin may have had a little feline companion called "Nicky" that was preventing him from fully 'letting go', and so some entity named "Ept" decided it would be best to remove that obstruction. Only it appears to have had an opposite effect. In turn, it is seems that Secretin was somehow keeping some miniscule spark of emotion or humanity alive in Endervine, making him sting a little seeing (maybe even feeling?) Secretin's reaction.

"Nicky" was an important name to Secretin, and we know that something strange happened to him, perhaps on some kind of weird existential regression level. Losing your memories and your identity, it would make sense that a name like "Nicky" may be one of the first things to resurface.

Again, this is just how I'm seeing it. It's always easy to miss things given how otherworldly the story tends to be!

Have you forgotten of the earlier insight? This had been shown in quick and short nature. It simply has been shown in deeper inspection. Use your mind, think further back and keep in mind what is currently established.

This is the most verbose and elegant way anyone has ever said "read the previous page, noob".

I apologize for having perturbed you.

Perturbed? You misunderstand. I simply ask that you look further back and recollect. Consider it none an aggressive nor negative setting.

I am deeply saddened by this. Nicky was the name of Secretin's pet cat? he's flying off the handle in this page.... he's absolutely hysterical. he must have really really loved that cat. I'm guessing Endervine had promised not to kill Nicky, but broke that promise.

there's all kinds of sad and tragic going on here. I'm unsure I can handle it, but I crave it so much. this is really good stuff, Shane. really good stuff. high-quality feels, right here.

Poor thing explains his choice of disguise