Girl Genius

I think it might be about to become essential. Whatever Higgs is he a) knows more about Jägers than Gil does, which means that if this experiment is a terrible idea for reasons beyond being unethical (which he's already given Gil a reminder of) he'll be able to tell Gil and will probably have to b) appears to feel responsible for even an ex-Jäger and doesn't want Vole hurt, something else he might have to explain to Gil.

edited 25th Jul '14 3:37:22 PM by khil

There is also the other detail: Common knowledge is there for a reason and there are things in the Folklore that have heavy truths in them. Gil just got the recall on that one.

I get a sort of feeling Vole's a guinea pig in a way. I can't justify it, it's just a gut feeling.

Higgs wasn't around when DK (pre-wipe and restore) was explaining a little about the Dyne and the Jaegerdraught... but Gil was. How much attention he was paying, between being aggravated with Tarvek and being sick, is another matter.

A gut feeling? Of course it's Vole in there being experimented on. Who else would it be?

edited 25th Jul '14 10:46:47 PM by Geoduck

He even lacks the sense of humor, as best I can tell.

I think Candi meant as in "whoops: didn't expect Jäger from just that combo of things done separately — how're you holding out, buddy?".

It'd explain why the troth doesn't mean a thing to him, if he kind of got whacked with the Jäger stick without much say-so to start with.

edited 25th Jul '14 11:07:51 PM by Euodiachloris

I read it as Gil about to go tinkering.

I am getting a little frustrated with exposition — I want the story to move, and here we are getting Jaeger 101. But at the same time I really admire how tidily they're doing it. Gil sums up what old readers already know with "Common knowledge!" while simultaneously informing new readers what they just learned is common knowledge. That is masterful, right there! Or maybe I'm just so desperate for something to chew on that I'm overanalyzing things...

The true test of desperation: how badly do you want Othar back?

Oh... Gah. Tough call.

I... I... I'm gonna go with more exposition...

Sorry. I meant that Vol was pulled with the express purpose of being a guinea pig.

Bring back Othar! Bring back Othar!

Why is Gil conducting these experiments? He believes Agatha is elsewhere? He's given a clever excuse for getting Vole out—but is that the real reason?

Ahk! No! ;)

I wonder about that, too. It seems he using Vole to experiment with manipulating the field, but I'm not entirely certain that's the full extent of it.

I wouldn't balk at some exposition, provided it continues on past Common Knowledge and into New Info territory.

edited 26th Jul '14 7:46:02 AM by WrittenEmber

I presume he has shifted priorities and is now attempting to save the universe. Or at least Mechanicsburg and his father.

There's Tarvek. Then there is his father. Plus, for all its idiosyncrasies, Mechanicsburg has keys to understanding (and hopefully, destroying) Lu and is not just useful for getting on Agatha's good side. Now he's got the Clock Roaches on top of all that. I'd say he's got plenty of incentive to try finding stuff out by fiddling with Vole. <_<

Still even with the idea of the clock roaches nearby I can picture that the usage of his pet Jager has more meaning than that.

edited 26th Jul '14 8:03:48 AM by mauri

It surprises me that no one has mentioned the shout out to Dr Who, the Daleks, and Davros.

Hopefully some Higgs related revelations on Monday.

It'd be about damn time.

(You can't have a character being simply mysterious again and again for long before it becomes empty and boring.)

Since there was speculation about Higgs' relation to the Jägers (even about him being a modified Jäger or the last General himself), this'd be an excellent opportunity to spill some beans.

Now I don't expect some biig revelation, but finally some Higgs information would be nice.

Gil is under a lot of stress with his empire, in addition to being a spark, so I am not surprised that he has few qualms to use Vole as a guinea pig. I doubt he likes him much anyway.

And except for Bang, he's in good company!

I'm wondering how Higgs is planning to get away and talk to Agatha, like the Castle commanded.

How is he going to get away from his post?

I wonder if Higgs would be willing to? He wouldn't be leaving either Vole or Gil in a good state, and it seems like Gil's come to rely on him quite a bit.

It's unlikely Higgs knows just where Agatha is at the moment. So that is probably on the backburner until Higgs knows that he can nip out, contact her, then nip back in a relatively short amount of time.

Of course, if Big Robot Suit Guy and his army of bears don't keep it down, Gil may find out where the train is in a hurry before long.

Worst case scenario at the moment: Bang walking into the lab.

Vole is a creation that turned on its creator. The Wolfenbachs spend a fair amount of time cleaning them up.

Yesssss, but I get the feeling their sympathy is usually with the creations. Sparks tend to be pretty awful to them, so the Wulfenbachs usually offer them a job after dealing with said creator. I think Vole would be the only creation where they'd be unwilling to blame Bill and Barry for being turned on.