Story: Monday April 18, 2016

[Schol-R-LEA 0]

7 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Voltaire? Blow that for a game of soldiers. To me, he will always be Colonel Sanders. With his Amazing Chicken Power.

<geek>Is that related to the Super Cow Powers of the apt-get utilities?</geek>

[The Old Hack 2,448]

39 minutes ago, Schol-R-LEA said:

<geek>Is that related to the Super Cow Powers of the apt-get utilities?</geek>

It's a reference to superhero tabletop RPGs I once played in, Champions in particular. If a supervillain had some sort of power that automatically let him escape the heroes at any time, it was called an Amazing Chicken Power.

[ijuin 572]

2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

"Blow that for a game of soldiers"??  Never heard that one before!

I believe that it is a British expression, loosely equivalent to Eric Cartman's "Screw you guys; I'm going home." I have also seen the expression used with other profanity besides "blow" as the initial word.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

46 minutes ago, ijuin said:

I believe that it is a British expression, loosely equivalent to Eric Cartman's "Screw you guys; I'm going home." I have also seen the expression used with other profanity besides "blow" as the initial word.

Another variant I learned from the much-beloved late Mr. Pratchett: "Bugger this for a lark." They are essentially the same expression, with 'lark' and 'game of soldiers' used interchangeably.

I confidently expect the character Jon Snow from a certain popular TV show to open the next season by emerging from mortal peril with the words "Blow that for a game of thrones."

[Don Edwards 548]

When all I could see was the first row, I was wondering if the detective was Jerry. (Now I'd be rather surprised if it is.)

8 hours ago, ijuin said:

8 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

Voltaire could be a reference to a French writer, or a musician.

Which now has me picturing him talking with the same voice as the musician...

Indeed he could be, but if the Immortal named himself for the musician, then he is pretty young.

Or changed his name recently. Magus gave Pandora the name "Chaos" and she decided to add it into her name.

But yeah, I think he's named after the writer.

What's interesting is the assumption that Helena and Demitrius were BOTH watching Elliot 24/7. Together. Every moment. Aside from being obviously unnecessary, we know it isn't true and they even say they're only "keeping tabs" on him. Even if they intended to maintain a 24-hour on-the-spot guard, it wouldn't require both of them at every moment.

[Wildcat 37]

5 hours ago, Schol-R-LEA said:

Are we certain that Abner isn't an Elf? It would make sense, especially if Sirleck hasn't met him in person, and thus thinks he's human.

I hope he's not an elf. He looks too much like Raven. For comparison

[SeriousJupiter 49]

Voltaire, eh? Well, now we know he's definitely evil.

So, it was Whitey- er, Volty who let Sirleck know that H&D are no longer watching Elliot all the time. I understand his need for a middle man - if Sirleck knew that other immortals are aware of him, he'd immediately try to cancel the plan because he would know that he's dead meat no matter what. It would seem that Volty's Plan CM involves Magus gaining control of Elliot's body, but I don't see how that would help him stop Pandora, especially since Pandora used to help Magus in the past too. Then again, there are probably many ways he could manipulate someone into attacking Elliot if they believed that would break Magus's hold on him or something. As for Sirleck, he's not getting what he wants, that's for sure. Since he apparently exists purely on the spirit plane, I'm sure Volty could get rid of him by snapping his fingers as soon as he's not useful to him anymore.

Speaking of which, Abner seems like a cool dude, so I hope Volty doesn't plan to get rid of him too as soon as he's no longer useful. I'd hate to see Abner kick the bucket on the next page.

13 hours ago, ijuin said:

Note Sirleck's facepalm--while having Helena and Demetrius distracted from Elliot is a good thing for his plan, having them over-focused on hunting Aberrations obviously makes him more vulnerable.

I actually think he's facepalming because he thinks the PI he hired found out what he needed to know in such a silly way and then told a vampire that vampires are real. Of course, we know that Abner was just trolling him with that remark.

13 hours ago, ijuin said:

So, "Plan CM" apparently begins with inducing Sirleck (and Magus) to make a move. Either Voltaire has set a trap for them, or else stopping Magus/Sirleck's plans was not Voltaire's motivation for needing Elliot dead for "Plan A". I still think at this point that Voltaire's motive for killing Elliot was for the emotional effect that it would have on Tedd, Nanase, and the rest of "the pawns of Chaos" (i.e. all of our friends who were Marked or otherwise manipulated by Pandora).

I believe it's a trap and I also think Voltaire needs Elliot dead because he's somehow crucial to Pandora's master plan. Of course, emotionally upsetting all of Elliot's friends would also help Volty, I'm sure.

12 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Exactly. How chummy-chummy are Abner and Voltaire, and how did they get that way? Did Voltaire give Abner one of the Symbols On The Back that haven't all been accounted for yet? Which one?

Good questions. Abner seems to be a magical PI, which means he's either magical himself, only does PI work for magical clients or both. He might have gotten magic all by himself or he could have been marked by an immortal. As for how these two know each other, it could be as simple as Volty hiring him for this one job a few months ago. They're not necessarily old friends or anything. In other words, we don't know anything about these two yet and anything is possible. However, I don't think Abner is an elf.

9 hours ago, Scotty said:

Still I did not expect Whitey Sanders informing Sirleck in this way. It's still confusing though, Voltaire wants Elliot dead for some reason, Sirleck wants Elliot alive because Magus needs him alive, what does Voltaire plan to do when Sirleck gets a hold of Elliot?

Sirleck does not want to possess Elliot. That would be incredibly stupid of him. Like I said, I think Voltaire is most likely leading Sirleck into a trap. As for Magus, who knows? Volty might not care if Magus survives as long as Elliot doesn't.

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

What's interesting is the assumption that Helena and Demitrius were BOTH watching Elliot 24/7. Together. Every moment. Aside from being obviously unnecessary, we know it isn't true and they even say they're only "keeping tabs" on him. Even if they intended to maintain a 24-hour on-the-spot guard, it wouldn't require both of them at every moment.

Good point. I've never even thought of that before. I guess they're just used to doing everything together.

[Scotty 1,061]

15 minutes ago, SeriousJupiter said:

Sirleck does not want to possess Elliot. That would be incredibly stupid of him. Like I said, I think Voltaire is most likely leading Sirleck into a trap. As for Magus, who knows? Volty might not care if Magus survives as long as Elliot doesn't.

Why else would Sirleck suddenly change his mind about not helping Magus if not to take advantage of turning a powerful wizard into a new host?

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

32 minutes ago, SeriousJupiter said:

Sirleck does not want to possess Elliot. That would be incredibly stupid of him. Like I said, I think Voltaire is most likely leading Sirleck into a trap. As for Magus, who knows? Volty might not care if Magus survives as long as Elliot doesn't.

Why else would Sirleck suddenly change his mind about not helping Magus if not to take advantage of turning a powerful wizard into a new host?

possessing Magus ≠ possessing Elliot.

Magus is appealing not because he has magic, as that would have drawn Sirleck's attention much earlier in the conversation, Magus is appealing because nobody knows him; Sirleck didn't show an interest until after Magus admitted he was alone, that Sirleck was the only person he knew in this world.

Elliot is entirely the opposite of that. he is surrounded by people who know him quite well that could easily dispatch Sirleck. The bodysnatcher likely won't make his move until after Elliot and Magus have parted ways.

[989fox989 1]

Abner, possibly Susan's (biological) dad?  The two look really similar.  And for the people saying that he looks more like Raven, remember this?

[Scotty 1,061]

Actually, Abner's hair reminds me of Nanase's hair after the watch mishap.

[hkmaly 490]

18 hours ago, ijuin said:

Anyway, his choice of the name "Voltaire" probably implies that he is not one of those who is far into the age-related insanity. The famed French writer named Voltaire (after whom this Immortal presumably named himself) was not prominent before around 1730, so this places an upper limit on when this Immortal chose then name. The choice of the name also makes it sound like he believes himself to be more "enlightened" than other Immortals.

While not comparable to Pandora, 280 might be crazy enough.

18 hours ago, ijuin said:

Note Sirleck's facepalm--while having Helena and Demetrius distracted from Elliot is a good thing for his plan, having them over-focused on hunting Aberrations obviously makes him more vulnerable.

I though the facepalm was "Yes I'm aware vampires exists, I'm almost one of them."

17 hours ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

So, we can settle last weekend's discussion by saying that Voltaire Sanders was the spy, but he is feeding Sirleck information with a human go-between.

Well, I totally called that Sirleck is not aware that the informations are coming from another immortal and that the person on phone totally didn't sounded like Voltaire.

5 hours ago, Wildcat said:

11 hours ago, Schol-R-LEA said:

Are we certain that Abner isn't an Elf? It would make sense, especially if Sirleck hasn't met him in person, and thus thinks he's human.

I hope he's not an elf. He looks too much like Raven. For comparison

His ears LOOK round ...

5 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

Speaking of which, Abner seems like a cool dude, so I hope Volty doesn't plan to get rid of him too as soon as he's no longer useful. I'd hate to see Abner kick the bucket on the next page.

Get rid of him HOW? Empower and guide, remember. Arranging some accident would likely be too much work.

5 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

They're not necessarily old friends or anything. However, I don't think Abner is an elf.

Well they certainly can't be old friends if Abner is mortal.

3 hours ago, 989fox989 said:

Abner, possibly Susan's (biological) dad?  The two look really similar.  And for the people saying that he looks more like Raven, remember this?

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Actually, Abner's hair reminds me of Nanase's hair after the watch mishap.

... and if Dan didn't wanted us to speculate like this, he shouldn't make Carol Sarah's sister. (Although ... isn't he too young to be Susan's father? ... maybe he's her older brother. And regarding Nanase, he doesn't look asian.)

[Scotty 1,061]

4 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

... and if Dan didn't wanted us to speculate like this, he shouldn't make Carol Sarah's sister. (Although ... isn't he too young to be Susan's father? ... maybe he's her older brother.)

I actually wonder, if Dan plans of keeping Abner around for a while, if he and Carol would at some point get involved, like Abner being a source for some of Carol's news reports. And yeah, he looks more like he could be Carol's age, like mid-late 20's.

[hkmaly 490]

8 minutes ago, Scotty said:

I actually wonder, if Dan plans of keeping Abner around for a while, if he and Carol would at some point get involved, like Abner being a source for some of Carol's news reports. And yeah, he looks more like he could be Carol's age, like mid-late 20's.

Hmmm ... involved ... Carol is still single as far as we know, right? ... would she be enough femme fatale for noir?

[Scotty 1,061]

Who knows, Dan did recently watch some film noir:

And it was just prior to mentioning the need to create Abner:

So I wouldn't be surprised if he takes it further that just this.

[poizan42 0]

14 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Maybe he got the bisected circle one, which allows him to have Agent Cranium's power to see what's on the other side of walls. Perhaps?

I think you missed out on this: http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=268

[Scotty 1,061]

4 minutes ago, poizan42 said:

15 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Maybe he got the bisected circle one, which allows him to have Agent Cranium's power to see what's on the other side of walls. Perhaps?

I think you missed out on this: http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=268

Sarah's mark was literally a question mark and was so because Pandora was being trolly. And we still don't have confirmation that Sarah's spell is the same as Craniums.

I don't believe Abner is marked, if anything he's likely been awakened for some time if he has any magic. He seems like he's been "in the know" about magic and Immortals for some time. The stuff that happened at the mall, vampires, Immortals, all don't seem to phase him, so what kind of background would he have? Would he have worked for DGB at some point? Maybe there's a market for paranormal private investigators, if so then Charlotte might be able to make a career out of her spooky mystery stuff.

 

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

I wonder if Magus's plot is all needlessly complex, that if he had just told Helena and Demetrius that he needed some help instead of running from them, this would all be avoided. Of course, Pandora probably told him that they would kill him if they ever caught him.

[partner555 170]

4 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

I wonder if Magus's plot is all needlessly complex, that if he had just told Helena and Demetrius that he needed some help instead of running from them, this would all be avoided. Of course, Pandora probably told him that they would kill him if they ever caught him.

There is also the possibility that Pandora may have told Helena and Demetrius that Magus is dangerous and thus they need to kill him.

Edited April 19, 2016 by partner555
Clarification

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

26 minutes ago, partner555 said:

31 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

Pandora probably told him that they would kill him if they ever caught him.

There is also the possibility that Pandora may have told Helena and Demetrius that Magus is dangerous and thus they need to kill him.

or both. that way if one side didn't believe her the other side would "prove" her "right".

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

6 hours ago, Scotty said:

Sarah's mark was literally a question mark and was so because Pandora was being trolly. And we still don't have confirmation that Sarah's spell is the same as Craniums.

What he said. ^^^

[AFNB 39]

So, Dan's a fan of film noir, huh? No wonder he likes The Dresden Files.

[SeriousJupiter 49]

16 hours ago, 989fox989 said:

Abner, possibly Susan's (biological) dad?  The two look really similar.

Haha, what is with everyone suddenly being related to main characters? But seriously, nah. He's too young.

12 hours ago, hkmaly said:

I though the facepalm was "Yes I'm aware vampires exists, I'm almost one of them."

"Almost?"

12 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Well they certainly can't be old friends if Abner is mortal.

Not THAT old friends. Still, they might have known each other for a few years. Like I said, anything's possible.

12 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Hmmm ... involved ... Carol is still single as far as we know, right? ... would she be enough femme fatale for noir?

...I could ship it. 

[Vorlonagent 442]

"I knew she was trouble the moment she walked into my office.  Legs that went on forever, a body that won't quit topped with hair the color of spun gold.  I said to myself 'Abner, this is your lucky day.'  I just wasn't sure if it was good luck or bad luck.  My business, the luck's usually bad..."

[hkmaly 490]

16 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

16 hours ago, partner555 said:

17 hours ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

Pandora probably told him that they would kill him if they ever caught him.

There is also the possibility that Pandora may have told Helena and Demetrius that Magus is dangerous and thus they need to kill him.

or both. that way if one side didn't believe her the other side would "prove" her "right".

Also, we are still not sure if his plan wouldn't have some sideefect which will be really dangerous (and good for Pandora). Helena and Demetrius may be able to identify that sideefect.

7 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

20 hours ago, hkmaly said:

I though the facepalm was "Yes I'm aware vampires exists, I'm almost one of them."

"Almost?"

In the "body snatcher is worse kind of aberration than vampire" sense.