Girl Genius

Agent: I'm looking for a man.
Bartender: Lots of men come through here, can't remember them all.
Agent: This one had four arms.
Bartender: Right, him. He came in at 11:22 Tuesday night, I remember distinctly because he had four arms, and...

It shouldn't be too hard for him to keep his arms hidden, provided he wears loose clothing with the normal complement of sleeves.

If this world can't figure out how to remove or hide a couple extra arms, it's not living up to its potential.

Spinnerette addressed this problem.

(looks at link) And Boris could definitely use the backpack option.

Page[1] Cue dramatic music . . .

Monday! The Book and the Key — and the key to Uncle Tick-Tock's office? So, is Zardilev also a Storm King Heir? Does he carry some Andronicus genes?

edited 7th Sep '15 2:35:30 PM by GreybeardFan

I adore the little Tarvek and Violetta in the flashback. I wonder what notebook he's looking for? Perhaps the one Gil stole? It can't be Moxana's Van Rijn notes, as we never saw Prof Z. before.

A trip to the Black Market sounds like fun. I hope we still go to the party. I've decided that even though Hoffman is cute, he doesn't have the initiative to keep up with Agatha's other suitors.

The party knows. And now we try the subtle. Will the others catch on, will Agatha be able to get away with this?

Also, is that pallor due to sudden revelation or a need for the weasel?

The weasel approves of him, though.

Uncle Tick Tock is missing for 1.5 years. Unless Marge was on the run for the same time, it can't have been her book and key.

edited 7th Sep '15 3:22:14 PM by blauregen

Nah, the weaselpiller is riding around on Hoffmann. That's close enough for the effect to work. I think the pallor is a physical manifestation of a giant, "Uh-oh!"

Agreed. That was a case of "penny-drop pallor", I think.

Also, I love it when the weasel is happy.

The name seems to fluctuate between Zardeliv and Zardilev. We already had this with Marge. The Sturmvoraus-family (also known as the Sturmvarious-family) seems to be affected by a kind of nominal uncertainty principle.

The closer you come to finding out what they are up to, the more difficult it becomes to determine who they are.

edited 7th Sep '15 4:28:19 PM by blauregen

Hmm. "One of his nephews lost." IOW, it was never his book. Could be anything, really. Including the one Agatha picked up from the late Miss M.

edited 7th Sep '15 4:32:29 PM by DeMarquis

Of course it's Van Rijn's notebook they're talking about.

Weirdly high number of typos in this one.

But, anyway.

THE BOOK! Oh, sweet tenterhooks...! Finally, finally! Hooray! The Book and The Key and The Muses...

No, wait. We're going to switch back to Gil now, aren't we?

Mona either that or Seffie and her party preparations....which could include her fiance too.

Nah, switching back to Gil is too much fun to be properly frustrating. Possibly even for Tarvek partisans, currently, given the last thing we saw him talking about.

Edit: Okay, if he was actually stupid enough to get engaged to a von Blitzengaard, that would be frustrating.

edited 7th Sep '15 5:34:46 PM by Schefflera

That's true, actually. Gil's got a lot of his own dangling threads. I was annoyed when we switched away to Paris, because he was more interesting at the time.

Seffie would be interesting, too. As would Krosp.

Are there really no bad choices here? Time for Othar to turn up? ;D

ETA: the engagement notion amuses me tremendously. Gil would never agree to it, but Seffie could unilaterally announce it. I don't think she would; she's more ingratiating than that (in the "deliberately gaining favor" vs the fawning/sycophantic sense), plus Martellus would probably stab her. But her family seems to have enough clout that it'd be a tricky diplomatic situation for Gil.

edited 7th Sep '15 6:30:36 PM by mona.soyun

Maybe it'll be an announcement of an alliance with The Queen of the Dawn? Though I can't imagine the Queen herself would (yet) dare show her face in Paris...

I like the way the Foglios tell so much of the story through the eyes of their characters.

"Papa would never try to kill a professor and fail." No question that she is truly The Master's daughter.

I loved that line. If the Master wants you dead, you may as well go dig a hole and lie down in it because you won't be walking around much longer anyway.

The specificity of "a professor" versus "someone" or "a person" amuses me most.

Maybe in a big city like Paris, Sparky Professors need to be killed more frequently than your average joe.

I have to wonder -how many Books and Keys (that are plot-relevant) could be running around at the moment?

And could the Van Rjinn notes have been bound up in a folio with other Very Important Works, resulting in a mega-Super Important Book?

But Agatha's got the "Vi'sauntdroppedabookandkeythey'relookingforabookand keyIneedtolookintothisNOW!" expression, definitely.