Book 2 – Page 41

[balder]

New One is up.

[Pebot]

haha behind the potato.

Love it. Would be curious of what Charlie actually thinks about Parson. Obviously he is a little worried about him.

[Trotsky]

Did Charlie add the glasses to Tram? if not, where did they come from?

[Knight13]

Trammenis looks good in tiedye and shades.

Also, I think his tune is going to change really fast when he finds out that Parson is the one that defeated the last Royal Coalition.

[Trotsky]

Also, Tramennis can multiply, which means simple math at least ins't limited to mathamancers.

[gaiaswill]

Charlie willing to pay big bucks to stop Parson. Arbitrary bounties, free intel, the works.

Nice to see the potato scare up some fear.

[Direcoyote]

I wonder if Charlie will botch the sale here? I get the feeling that he's failing the coy act about now. Poor Charlie. Tramennis on one side and Parson on the other. Why do I get the feeling that he'll throw back in with Jillian just to have someone who he can easily manipulate?

[Lamech]

Hmm... I wonder if Tram will trust Charlie enough to listen too him. What if he suspects Charlie is trying to keep him from a crucial piece of information?

[gameboy1234]

"Behind the potato?"

Oh, Trem, how you will regret that witticism....

[Toolbreaker]

I think Charlie is going to be doing a serious face palm after this one. It may very well be that he expected to give away certain information for services but Tramenis seems quite skilled at extracting that extra little bit and doesn't quite fall into the traps laid out for him.

Very good update

[zbeeblebrox]

Heh, it's interesting to see the Charlie and Tremmenis conversation happen similarly to the Charlie and Jillian conversation but in reverse. See what happens when you assume everyone's in it for the bottom line, Charlie? This is why people don't like you.

[sirroman]

Am I the only one that sees this as the single biggest threat to Parson? Tramm really knowing about Parson?

Maybe Tramm won't want to waste too much time, maybe he suspects and won't believe in Charlie word-of-wisdom, but he is a skilled negotiatior, maybe he can make Charlie slips some unwanted info.

I took for sure that Tramm would Parley with Parson because that's what he is *good* at, so he would want to try it to get some info or just for fun, but now I'm not so sure. Will he be so head-strong to ignore Charlie? Let's hope so?

[ftl]

Yeah, it doesn't look like Charlie is doing that great at manipulating Tram. Looks like at *best* (for Charlie), he'll have to come clean and actually show how his interests align with Jetstone's at the moment - hopefully. Unless this strip is also an act.

Parson inspires what seems to be abject terror in Charlie. Is there more to Parson besides perfect-warlord-ness? What else does Charlie fear from him? Or is being a brilliant warlord enough to terrify charlie like that?

I'll repeat my hopes from before - I hope Tram does well this battle on his own, rather than Charlie doing all the "getting things right" and Tram doing the not-listen-to-Charlie-and-get-pwned-because-of-it. Or Charlie telling Tram exactly what to do and Tram succeeding only because of that. But it does look to be shaping up that Tramennis knows what he's doing, and I hope it continues that way.

[Lord Kasavin]

Heh, best part of the comic was the slow transformation from Tremm's Little Ceasar's outfit to the hippy wear.

I wonder if it symbolizes Charlie playing mind games and casting some subtle suggestion spell on Tremm.

Still, I would guess Charlie has footage of Parson "surrendering" to Ansom, and this would get Trem to back off the parley. After all, his bonuses probably provide Jetstone a sizable boost at present, and he would have to be Parson's number 2 target after Slately himself.

On another note, how did Charlie know Parson was promoted?

[DunkelMentat]

Oh man awesome. So we finally know for sure now what Charlie's biggest concern here is. I should have known...

[enthar]

Im a little confused when Tremmanis says "right, so you dont know". I dont know what he is referring to by that statement, and I guess I am too slow to figure it out.

Also, PROOOOOOOOOOF that charlie can hack thinkagrams. And he broke operation security telling Tremmanis. Charlie had better hope to the Titans that Jetstone wins because if Tremmanis is decrypted and GK finds out...

How much are people willing to bet that Slately screws it all up by insisting on pro-forma parley "to maintain the dignity of the Royals"?

Edit: Also, why does T change raiment towards the end? Evidence of Charlie getting into his head? Charlie was able to put Parson in a Mork outfit, but T originally started out in his normal armor.

Enthar

[BCCroaker]

I wonder if the shades on Tram are from Anne Robinson in the Weakest Link since they appear when he is at is most questioning? Still, it seems that narratively Tram is here to stay from the amount of airtime he's getting.

[Krennson]

On another note, how did Charlie know Parson was promoted?

couple of theories.

1. Charlie has agents in the Magic kingdom, and one of them heard about sizemore's new bonus.
2. charlie has archons observing a Gobwin Knob unit somewhere, and archons are able to see enemy unit stats.
3. Charlie has the ability to "ping" major leaders of any and all sides, to determine how to communicate with them. Thus, he now knows that if he wants to call up the chief warlord of gobwin knob, he will be speaking to parson.
4. Charlie can intercept thinkagrams.

[Almaseti]

Charlie is scared of Parson because Charlie is SMART. Parson is incredibly inventive and perceptive and now GK is actually using his potential. I'm just wondering if Jillian has told Charlie what Wanda told her about Parson - that he was summoned by the Predictamancy/Findamancy thing but it went wonky. I'm guessing that's something Charlie would want to know, but he wouldn't think to ask Jillian and Jillian wouldn't think to mention.

Also, the parley thing - remember what happened to Ansom both time pre-decrypt that he talked to Parson? Parson nearly played him like a fool by thinkagram, and then the fake surrender killed him. Parson tricked a lot out of Charlie too, many things he's kicking himself over. Nothing good comes out of talking with Parson.

[kagato23]

Im a little confused when Tremmanis says "right, so you dont know". I dont know what he is referring to by that statement, and I guess I am too slow to figure it out.

Trem asked charlie about turning back decrypted units. He gave a vague answer about wanting his Archon's back for money, clearly a bit of a distraction. Trem rightly guesses based on this that Charlie is pretty unsure. He'll want to try, no doubt. But he doesn't know, and doesn't want to actually admit that. But Trem's too smart to play the game, and is just going blunt here.