Girl Genius

Swift? Are we sure he actually crushed them? My first impression was that he sealed them in and buried them alive...

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

The blotches of liquid on the outside of the stones would tend to indicate "squished" rather than "enclosed".

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I just had a quote from The Simpsons pop into my head, and it's an awful (yet funny) way to cap today's comic - "You have 30 minutes to remove your cube."

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

A good magician never reveals how a trick is done. An EVIL magician never leaves any evidence that there WAS a trick in the first place. So- which am I going to have to be TODAY?

I assume the geisters have at least one more trick up their sleeves as well. Otherwise: (1) operating in Paris is an astonishing risk and (2) team Agatha won't have much to do when they get there.

There's probably more of them somewhere else, at least. After all, there are a lot of geisters and the Master got maybe 30. Even if this is their only plan - which I doubt - I suppose you could make the excuse that they didn't anticipate the Master's power once he fully took control of Paris again.

EDIT: Finally worked up the energy to check, and he got 42 in the cube, by my best count.

edited 17th Feb '17 8:38:07 AM by Incognitoburrito

It was going so well until it exploded.

Dont forget the mobs of revenants.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Remember, didn't we (and Martellus) assume that this initial Geister attack was supposed to be a diversion / scheme / act in the first place, just scary and formidable enough for the planned narrative to plausible, i.e. the 'Storm King' heroically saves the day with the help of the Queen of the Dawn? (Or other way around, no help, just saves the Queen-damsel in distress?)

edited 17th Feb '17 10:42:41 AM by maus42

Oh definitely. Which, of course, will swiftly turn into a Gambit Pileup.

Since I believe he knows who she is, through Grandma's intelligence network, now that she's been pretty much stripped of her attack resources there's only the Revenants to deal with. Somehow, I suspect that Master Voltaire is up to that. Beausoliel may wish he'd never been manufactured.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:32:23 PM by AnotherBear

If it moves, eat it. If it doesn't move, kick it—then eat it!

Well, he's been well and truly schooled twice in what he likes to think of as his ecological niche. Once by DingK — who, even as just this fragment, has been living in the clockwork digital for many, many decades; and, now by Voltaire (who made this particular environment in the first place).

Newbie is new.

edited 18th Feb '17 6:20:21 AM by Euodiachloris

The card's associated with stuff like initiative and willpower and self-confidence, the sort of things one needs to effectively control Paris for generations. The Magician's also the guy who gets the Fool started on his journey, which seems to fit with all those young adventurers getting their start in Paris's colleges.

Comic for Monday, February 20, 2017: sneaky gate permalink

This is an automated program that checks the Sneaky Gate every 5 minutes. source code

Well for all the ones who did joke with me around the wine.... it might be needed.

Well here goes nothing

At least Grandmother finally got a name.

http://www.mansionofe.com

Oh, that does fit well, thanks, Rikalous!

That last panel is sort of a "d'awww" moment.

And that whispered comment by Queen D... uh huh.

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett

I'm getting a bit of a Ridcully & Grandma Weatherwax vibe between those two.

So it seems that Zola was not allied with those Geister after all ... but then, why were there "Queen of the Dawn" banners all over the Opera?

I'm glad to see the party *seems* to have resumed, I hope we'll get more socializing of people in costumes who may or may not be various major characters in disguise...

Also, I bet that one of those "entities" (the "intruder?") that Collette perceived in the city network is "the same kind of thing" as Castle Heterodyne (an early copy? one is inspired by the other?).

Now that you guys mention the bit about grandma's name... or is it me or is it a veiled reference to Bridge To Terabithia or am I terribly wrong?

Well here goes nothing

I'm guessing that their objective was to get all the important people of the continent packed in the same room.. Thus far they had failed, until they made enough noise for the Master to finally show up in person.

Is Queen of Dawn's smug satisfaction Lucrezia, or Zola? I'm still thinking about the possibility that Zola is looking to change sides, and expecting Lucrezia's plan to fail. Of course we shouldn't underestimate The Other...

Nomophilos, Kayeka:

I wouldn't rule out the Geisters being loyal to/commanded by the Queen of the Dawn. Folks in this universe are entirely capable of betraying and sacrificing their minions for a purpose. If the Queen really is Zola, that kind of ruthlessness wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

Mauri: Yeah, Bridge to Terebithia was my first thought too. Though IIRC that was a reference in-universe to The Chronicles of Narnia: there's an island east of Narnia called Terebinthia. (And terebinth is a kind of tree.)

edited 20th Feb '17 6:44:04 AM by scionofgrace

It wasn't in-universe, but Katherine Peterson, who wrote Bridge, admitted that she probably subconsciously lifted the name from Lewis.

I guess the Narnia books are mentioned in the novel, but it's never stated that was where the name was taken from.

edited 20th Feb '17 1:04:37 PM by Geoduck

http://www.mansionofe.com

Huh. I could've sworn the characters named the place after VoDT, but it's been a long time since I read it.