Book 2 – Page 94

[Oberon]

Oh and Oberon: awesome

I know, right?! And it's not even April 1st!!

[BLANDCorporatio]

The casters are making up arbitrary rules like a bad Dungeon Master...But the #1 problem that this comic has had since the start is that enemies keep pulling manufactured rules lawyering out of their behinds to get away with murder and stall the hell out of the plot.

...you do realise that this is exactly how Erfworld is supposed to work, right? It's a world that works on tabletop game rules. Of course there's going to be "the bad DM making up rules to railroad things" - that's how the universe works.

Wait, so the Erfworld universe working as a badly-run RP session is a good thing? I may be misunderstanding your point though so please clarify.

What Bushranger, and Oberon, and I, and a few others, would like to see is some kind of bloody progress already on this story line of Parson/Portal. It's like the longest teased slashfic ever. Look, at some point you need to earn the M rating and let the two have their fun. Get Parson into the Portal NAO!

Kaed is the most gentle, benevolent, and beloved member of the forum community!

And the day of paradoxes continues, as Ohberon and I remain in 100% agreement.

Why thank you sirs.

You naughty boy. You substituted the correct name in that post. It starts with K, but that's the only thing you got right.

[Kaed]

You naughty boy. You substituted the correct name in that post. It starts with K, but that's the only thing you got right.

You're right, I'm deeply ashamed. I shall endeavor to address our lord and master with proper respect in the future.

ALL HAIL LORD KREISTOR

[sheepfly]

I am very confused: not allowing Wanda and Jack seems like a HUGE, arbitrary gamebreaker. They cannot go back because potatoe?

Yes, because potatoe. And it's a wonder that the Great Minds have not defeated Charlie already with their vastly superior reasoning.

I wonder if the chief Thinkamancer of Great Minds is under the influence of Charile. That declaration that only Parson could pass through is a little too convenient.

That's what I've been saying. If Charlie is not actually controlling the Great Minds, he at least is more able to profit from their decisions than they are! (Could just be that he knows exactly what they're up to and how to turn the situation to his advantage, but I have my doubts there.)

Otoh, Jack could be up to his tricks again. I doubt he would have spent the absolute last of his juice on his entrance into MK. There are also several casters that were behind Parson that are no longer there. And Wanda went from way behind Parson to in front of him. That could all be a veil. Some other caster gets veiled as Sizemore, another as Wanda, and another as Jack. The three originals go ahead through the portal ahead of Parson, but everyone present see them still standing there.

If you look closely and compare, there are two casters missing: brown coat/glasses Predictamancer, who was standing next to Wanda, and Jack. My guess? We're going to have a "Wait, where's the foolamancer?" moment after Parson goes through the portal, and then the Wanda-veil will dispel to reveal the missing Predictamancer. Which would make it Jack 2, Magic Kingdom 0.

Having Sizemore in Spacerock would be incredibly useful, but seeing as how he didn't like the plan to begin with, I strongly doubt that he'll go through unless Parson specifically orders him to.

[Oberon]

What Bushranger, and Oberon, and I, and a few others, would like to see is some kind of bloody progress already on this story line of Parson/Portal. It's like the longest teased slashfic ever. Look, at some point you need to earn the M rating and let the two have their fun. Get Parson into the Portal NAO!

Close, but that's not my beef summarized corectly. I'm not asking for "progress", however that might be defined. What I and at least YRM_DM, Chadim and Sheepfly are concerned about is the fact that Isaac at first insisted upon placing Parson "under the protection of the GMTTA", and now he's going to allow Parson to enter the portal, but under the most hazardous conditions possible: Without his Killamancer and his Poopamancer and his Loonamancer. And certainly without the Psychicreadingamancers who are currently stacked with him.

It's such a reversal and such a departure from his prior position, and it far more greatly endangers his hopes for Parson to be used as a weapon against Charlie that it just boggles the mind. And why did he change his mind? He changed his mind because Maggie repeated herself, only louder. Baffling!
It just doesn't make sense under any conditions which seem realistic: Is he concerned about the MK being viewed as being no longer neutral? Allowing Parson to go through either alone or accompanied by GK casters is all the same as far as that is concerned. Is he convinced by Maggies louder voice that Parson needs this? Well, if he does that doesn't mean he needs to do this alone. Parson was going to go join Wanda and Jack and the rest of the GK forces, so it's not at all about Parson doing this solo. Parson never intended that, so why is Isaac forcing this on him?

Things may become more clear in the future, but right now they kinda stink.

[technojunkie]

What I find funny at this point is that the MK isn't neutral. All this talk of preserving neutrality and acts of war are completely baseless. The Thinkamancers are at war with charlie, the hippimancers are waging a proxy war on war, and I dunno what the predictamancers are up to.

It would be amusing at this point for Isaac to speak up and say that neutrality has already been lost and that the MK is at war and the rest of them don't know it yet.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Close, but that's not my beef summarized corectly. I'm not asking for "progress", however that might be defined. What I and at least YRM_DM, Chadim and Sheepfly are concerned about is the fact that Isaac at first insisted upon placing Parson "under the protection of the GMTTA", and now he's going to allow Parson to enter the portal, but under the most hazardous conditions possible.

Oh. Oops. Got to admit that right now, I'm not being too picky about how Parson gets to actually do anything ...

It's such a reversal and such a departure from his prior position, and it far more greatly endangers his hopes for Parson to be used as a weapon against Charlie that it just boggles the mind.{snipped for brevity}

... but maybe I should. That snipped out bit won me over, finally. So yeah, that 'compromise' does look weird.

After all, a better 'compromise', if that's what we were after, would be to boot Jack/Wanda back at Spacerock and Parson at GK, no one gets to cross the MK to go to another place than that from whence they came, neutrality preserved.

[Radagast]

I'm going to agree with Wanda being veiled and Jack posing as Wanda. It in fact may not even be Jack doing it, perhaps it was part of the deal with Isaac. Parson wants to lead, he doesn't want to die and he knows GK has no hope of holding Spacerock against the surviving RCC2 forces in the vicinity without further decryption.

[BLANDCorporatio]

What I find funny at this point is that the MK isn't neutral. All this talk of preserving neutrality and acts of war are completely baseless. The Thinkamancers are at war with charlie, the hippimancers are waging a proxy war on war, and I dunno what the predictamancers are up to.

-Are- the Thinkamancers in open war with Charlie? Or is it more a case of each side trying to more or less covertly undermine the other via proxy ops?

And yeah, that's the thing with neutrality as seen in Stupidworld as well. Often, it isn't.

[Finn MacCool]

heh, that guy just had to be named "phil(lip)".

[Oberon]

And yeah, that's the thing with neutrality as seen in Stupidworld as well. Often, it isn't.

Right. The US was 'neutral' at the start of WWI, but shipped massive amounts of support to England. So German U-boats started poaching our shipping. And the rest is history.

Yeah, there's a lot more to it than that. This is the grade school history book version. The point being valid all the same: When A and B are fighting, if C keeps handing B another stick while claiming to be neutral, sooner or later A is going to call bullshit on C's so-called neutrality.

[memnarch]

...

We pretty clearly see that the Great Minds functionally OWN the MK. If they say this is going to be the deal, nobody besides the carnies are going to defy it. ...

Regarding this, is yellow trench coat man part of the group of carnymancers? He wasn't with the group that came back with Jojo on page 81, but he seems like he's siding with them all the same.

[bladestorm]

...

We pretty clearly see that the Great Minds functionally OWN the MK. If they say this is going to be the deal, nobody besides the carnies are going to defy it. ...

Regarding this, is yellow trench coat man part of the group of carnymancers? He wasn't with the group that came back with Jojo on page 81, but he seems like he's siding with them all the same.

He was mentioned before. I think he may have been deemed a lookamancer or something. I'll see if I can find the article that mentions him. He was supposed to be several other characters, but ends up looking like Dick Tracey.

[nargbop]

Whatever has Jojo been told to do? Here's a possibility :
He's been ordered to keep Parson alive in the same manner he once kept Sylvia alive.

Most of the story-asides reveal an important mechanic, along with creating the involved characters' stories. That's exactly what happened with Sylvia's flashback. It's the establishment of a rule that will eventually release Parson as a free agent.

There are other possibilities. But what other Thinkamancers are going to be contacting Jojo at this time? Could Jack create a Foolamancy effect good enough to fool Jojo into thinking it's a Thinkagram? Are there other effects that only Jojo would be aware of?

[bladestorm]

He was mentioned before. I think he may have been deemed a lookamancer or something. I'll see if I can find the article that mentions him. He was supposed to be several other characters, but ends up looking like Dick Tracey.

Nevermind. According to this, he is a Carny.

[MeyersFTW]

anyone else notice Avatar Aang in the last panel?

[MeyersFTW]

I am very confused: not allowing Wanda and Jack seems like a HUGE, arbitrary gamebreaker. They cannot go back because potatoe?

Yes, because potatoe. And it's a wonder that the Great Minds have not defeated Charlie already with their vastly superior reasoning.

I wonder if the chief Thinkamancer of Great Minds is under the influence of Charile. That declaration that only Parson could pass through is a little too convenient.

That's what I've been saying. If Charlie is not actually controlling the Great Minds, he at least is more able to profit from their decisions than they are! (Could just be that he knows exactly what they're up to and how to turn the situation to his advantage, but I have my doubts there.)

Otoh, Jack could be up to his tricks again. I doubt he would have spent the absolute last of his juice on his entrance into MK. There are also several casters that were behind Parson that are no longer there. And Wanda went from way behind Parson to in front of him. That could all be a veil. Some other caster gets veiled as Sizemore, another as Wanda, and another as Jack. The three originals go ahead through the portal ahead of Parson, but everyone present see them still standing there.

If you look closely and compare, there are two casters missing: brown coat/glasses Predictamancer, who was standing next to Wanda, and Jack. My guess? We're going to have a "Wait, where's the foolamancer?" moment after Parson goes through the portal, and then the Wanda-veil will dispel to reveal the missing Predictamancer. Which would make it Jack 2, Magic Kingdom 0.

Having Sizemore in Spacerock would be incredibly useful, but seeing as how he didn't like the plan to begin with, I strongly doubt that he'll go through unless Parson specifically orders him to.

i think the potatoe was in fact actually a way of protecting hamster from being followed in by other casters of the MK

[Chit Rule Railroad]

Jojo could be about to say, "I've made an arrangement with Charlie, and he's confident he can make sure Parson croaks in Spacerock. Let's not have a dangerous fight here when we can delegate it." (Letting everyone have the impression that he initiated the thinkagram, rather than Charlie already knowing what's going on.)

Just because Jack said that he's out of juice doesn't mean that he's out of juice.

There's also the possibly of scrolls.


Tin-foil hat theory: The GMTTA are in on a con to let GK casters sneak through. They feel breaking the MK's ostensible neutrality is "reckless and unnecessary", but none of them seem to regard it as personally taboo. Since they need to appease the rest of the MK, they want it to look like there was compromise. Jack is not visible because he is using the juice from a duo-link (with a GMTTA member) to make himself look like Wanda and to make Wanda invisible.

vintermann is probably right that GMTTA want a hostage to ensure that Parson will return, but if there were a link, the thinkamancer could monitor who Jack was and was not sneaking through. In particular, Jack would make sense as the hostage, since he's probably out of juice and Stanley typically doesn't have much use for him back in GK. Due to the veil, it would look like Wanda was the hostage, which would save Wanda or X-veiled-as-Wanda from being exposed to assassination on the way back to GK.

Then we could have a text update where Jack and Isaac compare notes on conducting experiments. That would be cool.


On the other hand, from the characters' positions (Wanda was in back with Jack and is now up front), it does seem more likely that the rectangular-glasses Predictamancer is veiled as Wanda, and that both Jack and Wanda are probably invisible. I mostly want the GMTTA to be in on it so they don't look stupid and inconsistent.

Nevermind. According to this, he is a Carny.

No, that's saying that Mal was going to be a carny, but then the carny became Sean Mattox and Mal became the "caster who wants to know about the warlord" before Mal was replaced with Dick Tracy. So Dick Tracy is a nosy, opinionated caster who is probably not a carny.

[Drasha]

The best move at this point is to get wanda back through the portal. Since we can't see jack I assume he must have had some juice left and if I was parson I would use foolamancy on wanda to get her through the portal since she is the biggest bonus they can get and there is no way any one would let her back through the portal because at least the predictamancers and hippymancers want "him" through and if he cuts a deal with the predictamancers to help wanda back through the portal if he stays she would have good odds. Naturally after jojo does what ever hes planning on doing and "parson" gets through the foolamancy will break in the chaos and the jaws of the trap will slam down with wanda on the other side granting a massive bonus to the troops that charlie didn't expect.

Then again parson could think of some other crazy way to out play them all.

[Aquillion]

And this is why you don't try to pull a surprise on people who can see the future.