Story: Wednesday, April 20, 2016

[Howitzer 32]

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2183

The plot thickens!

[Stature 96]

Curiouser and curiouser..

Hey, this is not a comic noir nor a 1920's speakeasy detective! 

Colonel Voltaire, who do you think you even are?!?!?

[Vorlonagent 442]

Plan CM has begun...

[Scotty 1,061]

So, we got Pandora wanting to remake the world to where magic is free to everyone, Colonel Volty wants to remake another way.

Seriously, if Voltaire wants to prevent Pandora from succeeding, why go to such extremes like killing Elliot, he could just go about giving the main eight hints and clues just like Disco Wizard was with Grace, or the Whale with Tedd.

No, Voltaire has his own agenda that specifically has Elliot targeted, but he's involving himself in Magus' and Pandora's plans to see to it that Elliot dies.

[hkmaly 490]

Hmmmm ... Volty shouldn't be ALLOWED to remove his head ... and Sirleck will probably not risk coming in Moperville to do it. How much does Abner really know? Wait. He doesn't even know what Sirleck is. That's really "blinders on".

8 minutes ago, Scotty said:

So, we got Pandora wanting to remake the world to where magic is free to everyone, Colonel Volty wants to remake another way.

Is there someone who wants it to stay the way it is?

Frankly, Pandora's idea doesn't sound THAT bad. Except the strong hints that something will get very wrong with that plan.

10 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Seriously, if Voltaire wants to prevent Pandora from succeeding, why go to such extremes like killing Elliot, he could just go about giving the main eight hints and clues just like Disco Wizard was with Grace, or the Whale with Tedd.

There may be no way how can Elliot prevent Pandora from succeeding. On the other hand, if that is the case, why should killing him help?

Whale ... are we sure whale is not another immortal in disguise?

 

[Scotty 1,061]

13 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Hmmmm ... Volty shouldn't be ALLOWED to remove his head ... and Sirleck will probably not risk coming in Moperville to do it. How much does Abner really know? Wait. He doesn't even know what Sirleck is. That's really "blinders on".

Anyone get the feeling that Abner might get curious and do a bit of digging on his own to find out both what Sirleck wants Elliot for, and what Voltaire wants Elliot for?

[Don Edwards 548]

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

-- C.S. Lewis

[hkmaly 490]

9 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Anyone get the feeling that Abner might get curious and do a bit of digging on his own to find out both what Sirleck wants Elliot for, and what Voltaire wants Elliot for?

He is already curious. Question is if he will be curious enough to try some digging. Not having any other job might help.

7 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

-- C.S. Lewis

Which volume of Narnia he wrote it in?

(Yeah, I know: God in the Dock)

[partner555 170]

31 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Hmmmm ... Volty shouldn't be ALLOWED to remove his head ... and Sirleck will probably not risk coming in Moperville to do it. How much does Abner really know? Wait. He doesn't even know what Sirleck is. That's really "blinders on".

 

 

Volty did just try to manipulate Tara to murder Elliot, so Voltaire may try to kill Abner indirectly.

Also, I'm getting self-righteous extremist vibes from him. Stronger than when he said the pawn of chaos thing. This kind of person disgusts me.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Are we sure that Voltaire is not just Pandora in disguise?

[hkmaly 490]

33 minutes ago, partner555 said:

Volty did just try to manipulate Tara to murder Elliot, so Voltaire may try to kill Abner indirectly.

He may TRY. He failed with Tara.

34 minutes ago, partner555 said:

This kind of person disgusts me.

17 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Are we sure that Voltaire is not just Pandora in disguise?

Disgust ... disguise ...

We are not SURE. But his behaviour is very different.

[Renadt 1]

I was thinking that Volty might = Pandora, but due to some compelling evidence, I think that is not the case.

 

With that said, holy carp!

[Aura Guardian 57]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

So, we got Pandora wanting to remake the world to where magic is free to everyone, Colonel Volty wants to remake another way.

Seriously, if Voltaire wants to prevent Pandora from succeeding, why go to such extremes like killing Elliot, he could just go about giving the main eight hints and clues just like Disco Wizard was with Grace, or the Whale with Tedd.

No, Voltaire has his own agenda that specifically has Elliot targeted, but he's involving himself in Magus' and Pandora's plans to see to it that Elliot dies.

You're probably all gonna jump on me for saying this, but... Lord Tedd. What if Volty thinks that Lord Tedd's world is actually good, and wants to drive Tedd to create such a world... remember Tedd's nightmare of visiting a grave, then using the gauntlet? What if making this world's Tedd unhinged enough to conquer, or SOMETHING is his goal?

[Matoyak 51]

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

So, we got Pandora wanting to remake the world to where magic is free to everyone, Colonel Volty wants to remake another way.

Is there someone who wants it to stay the way it is?

Magic.

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Anyone get the feeling that Abner might get curious and do a bit of digging on his own to find out both what Sirleck wants Elliot for, and what Voltaire wants Elliot for?

Seems likely to me. I like the idea that Abner ends up as the (character) Deep Throat to the Main Eight's (Elliot's?) Mulder. (Wonder which character best fits that analogy...).

Who would the Cigar Smoking Man be?

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

So, we got Pandora wanting to remake the world to where magic is free to everyone, Colonel Volty wants to remake another way.

Is there someone who wants it to stay the way it is?

Frankly, Pandora's idea doesn't sound THAT bad. Except the strong hints that something will get very wrong with that plan.

pandora isn't so much evil as actively throwing caution to the wind for shits n' giggles, while trying to do something that has unfortunate side effects she may or may not be aware of.

[Scotty 1,061]

14 minutes ago, Aura Guardian said:

You're probably all gonna jump on me for saying this, but... Lord Tedd. What if Volty thinks that Lord Tedd's world is actually good, and wants to drive Tedd to create such a world... remember Tedd's nightmare of visiting a grave, then using the gauntlet? What if making this world's Tedd unhinged enough to conquer, or SOMETHING is his goal?

Well I did speculate a while back that maybe Lord Tedd was the way he is because the Elliot in his reality was killed. I dunno how aware Immortals are of other realities though. Still, Lord Tedd did have the goo attempt to kill Elliot because he was in the way of killing Tedd so I don't think that's the case.

6 minutes ago, Matoyak said:

Seems likely to me. I like the idea that Abner ends up as the (character) Deep Throat to the Main Eight's (Elliot's?) Mulder. (Wonder which character best fits that analogy...).

Who would the Cigar Smoking Man be?

I think it was already established who was who.

[Wildcat 37]

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Whale ... are we sure whale is not another immortal in disguise?

No. But I don't think they are. 

1 hour ago, partner555 said:

Also, I'm getting self-righteous extremist vibes from him. Stronger than when he said the pawn of chaos thing. This kind of person disgusts me.

Least favorite immortal. Let's sick Pandora on him.

Which, if I'm right and Pandora is doing this for Tedd as well, may happen.

40 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

57 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Are we sure that Voltaire is not just Pandora in disguise?

Disgust ... disguise ...

We are not SURE. But his behaviour is very different.

Yeah, Pandora doesn't seem to be under the impression that what she's doing is right or even better. Just what she wants

 

[Scrapyard_Dragon 5]

Ok, complicated theory/speculation time.

Voltair wasn't trying to get Elliot killed, he was trying to get Tara (or maybe Andrea) killed BY Elliot. Why? Presumably so that Elliot & co wouldn't find out about the whole alternate universe/world deal. My guess is that he is trying to merge (or something similar) the worlds and the clog is a part of that. The problem now is that because Elliot, and likely the rest of the main 8 knows, they won't play along with Voltair's plan. Thus we come to plan complicated mess.

Plan C.M. is going to be be using magus for whatever he planned to use Elliot/Other main character(Maybe Tedd?) for, hence why he referred to it still being an option what with Elliot still being alive, and not giving the info to Sirleck (and thus magus himself) earlier. Now why not start with Magus? The guy is a powerful mage and knows that alternate universes exist(Maybe being form the griffons world itself) it would seem he would be more useful. The problem is that due to his whole falling out with Pandora the odds of him trusting another immortal are rather slim, and Voltair likely knows this. Thus the complication is both actually getting the guy a body and convincing him to play along afterwards (Plus keeping Sirleck off of him if that theory is true).

TLDR: Voltair was going to use one of the main characters to do some universe reshaping stuff (that will somehow fit into his view of a better world) but now that the main crew know about the alternate world they won't play along, so he needs to use magus instead, which requires that he gets the guy a body, hence giving info to sirleck, and then he needs to get magus to cooperate.

[Alwaysnewguy 26]

5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Frankly, Pandora's idea doesn't sound THAT bad. Except the strong hints that something will get very wrong with that plan.

Yeah, except for the hundreds of not-Tengus that will emerge. Pandora wants to make magic an everyday thing; if magic doesn't rewrite the rules, then every bully, bigot, manipulative jackass, socio/psychopath, serial killer, etc. will be able to develop powers that reflect who they are. Technically, they can do that now, but no one knows how easy it actually is to develop magical abilities. If Pandora's idea worked, everyone would know how easy it is to get magic, and then the world would start to fill up with supervillains, with few superheroes to counter them.

[RainbowWizard 35]

Dammit now I want to listen to the band Voltaire.

 

Also, that last panel... Getting a strong "you'd be surprised what you can live through" vibe.

 

Good, but for whom?

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

58 minutes ago, Alwaysnewguy said:

for the hundreds of not-Tengus that will emerge. Pandora wants to make magic an everyday thing; if magic doesn't rewrite the rules, then every bully, bigot, manipulative jackass, socio/psychopath, serial killer, etc. will be able to develop powers that reflect who they are. Technically, they can do that now, but no one knows how easy it actually is to develop magical abilities. If Pandora's idea worked, everyone would know how easy it is to get magic, and then the world would start to fill up with supervillains, with few superheroes to counter them.

well she did want to give raven a cause he could fight for with out having to hide...

[PSadlon 88]

I'm a bit proud of Abner there. Best to not just blindly follow.

That said I think Voltaire might be a bit beyond his best by date.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

20 minutes ago, PSadlon said:

I'm a bit proud of Abner there. Best to not just blindly follow.

I rather like him. Mercenary, but with at least a bit of heart. He might not be uncomplicated good guy but even if he ends up being an antagonist I feel that this sort of complexity greatly adds to their interest factor.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Gotta agree that Abner is very Humphrey Bogart, a la "The Maltese Falcon." I fear that this might be his only appearance, though.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

5 hours ago, Alwaysnewguy said:

Yeah, except for the hundreds of not-Tengus that will emerge. Pandora wants to make magic an everyday thing; if magic doesn't rewrite the rules, then every bully, bigot, manipulative jackass, socio/psychopath, serial killer, etc. will be able to develop powers that reflect who they are. Technically, they can do that now, but no one knows how easy it actually is to develop magical abilities. If Pandora's idea worked, everyone would know how easy it is to get magic, and then the world would start to fill up with supervillains, with few superheroes to counter them.

Not exactly.  The world would hopefully start filling up with *inexperienced* superheroes just as fast as it does with *inexperienced* supervillains, perhaps even faster if you subscribe to the "more good people than bad" outlook.  People seem to be quick to point out how many bad guys might get powers, but then assume that they'd somehow be more competent more quickly than their good-guy counterparts.