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Story Wednesday July 5, 2017

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It is possible that Liefeld believed Edward would not agree with Arthur's plan.  So when the Abraham incident happened, Liefeld used it as a pretext for moving Edward to a position which would not interfere with Arthur's plan.  If this is the case, and Edward did everything "by the book" with Abraham, Liefeld would have just found another excuse to transfer Edward.

As for Carol Brown in the gym?

First, this is most likely an exercise room at the Agency.  It would not be unusual for an agent to interrupt the boss's work out at the agency gymnasium.  Much more noticeable at a commercial health club.

Second.  Carol Brown is not the only attractive blonde in the world.

Third...

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

isn't that Carol Brown at the far left of the second panel

I think your left is not right.

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2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

I think your left is not right.

I think your sense of direction is annoyingly accurate.

2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

First, this is most likely an exercise room at the Agency.  It would not be unusual for an agent to interrupt the boss's work out at the agency gymnasium.  Much more noticeable at a commercial health club.

Second.  Carol Brown is not the only attractive blonde in the world.

I think that Dan went to the trouble of drawing all that exercise equipment  he complains about because he wanted this scene to take place at a public gymnasium to give an excuse for Carol Brown to overhear the discussion. Notice that in the first panel when Arthur is telling Leifeld that this gym isn't the most secure location for the discussion while looking to his left. When the view widens to show the gymnasium, Arthur is still looking to his left, and he seems to be looking at Carol Brown, whose eyes have widened, unlike the dude that Leifeld is checking out.

Edited by Tom Sewell
Added link, clarifying text.

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21 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Notice that in the first panel when Arthur is telling Leifeld that this gym isn't the most secure location for the discussion while looking to his left. When the view widens to show the gymnasium, Arthur is still looking to his left, and he seems to be looking at Carol Brown, whose eyes have widened, unlike the dude that Leifeld is checking out.

Chicago being home to the International Mister Leather competition, I find myself making certain speculations about a very muscled guy who keeps looking at another muscled guy working out....  ;-)

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53 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

International Mister Leather competition

I think this is worthy of a link, especially since it's a factoid I was ignorant of. If you haven't noticed, I have a rather large collections of factoids rattling around in my head. Some are even true.

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

Much more noticeable at a commercial health club.

Yes, but perhaps a better place for Assistant Director Leifeld to check out young dudes.

Now to move into the familiar realm of amazing crackpot plot theories, I'm wondering if there is a connection between Sirleck and Arthur, either directly or through Voltaire. What's raising my suspicion now is that Arthur's policy of protecting the secrets of magic using a strategy destined to backfire, refusing to send aid to protect the public from the bulldog dragon, and the way Arthur seems to have totally missed out on the vampire activity and the repeated griffin sightings that attracted Charlotte's attention. After all, Charlotte's supposed to be a just bright college freshthing. It all seems to mesh so well with Sirleck and Voltaire's plans.

There's another factor: Arthur once tried to deport Adrian to Russia. Why would Arthur have tried to deport Adrian so long ago? Possibly professional jealousy at the time. It's implicated that Adrian has had a relationship with the branch Edward and Noriko eventually joined, maybe because Adrian encouraged them. Being replaced by the protege of a rival doesn't exactly foreshadow a happy retirement.

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5 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

I suspect Leifeld used the Abraham incident as an excuse to remove Edward from his job of covering up the truth about magic. Take another look at the gym scene where Leifeld and Arthur are talking. Just how long ago did Arthur float his plan to solve the problem "for decades" go back? How long have Leifeld and Arthur been conspiring to bring on the magical reset? 

There's no question that Arthur knows that Magic can change if too many people learn about how to use it, Arthur's statement to Cranium about why he didn't want agents going out to deal with the bulldog dragon was that paople knowing that magic existed wasn't as important to keep secret, but keeping people convinced that it was rare and hard for people to get magic was the priority. That doesn't sound like Arthur wants Magic to change, but he's quite aware of how close it is to changing, and he's probably given Leifeld a heads up about it.

The question is, what kind of contingency plans do they have if Magic does change?

5 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

And speaking of that gym scene, isn't that Carol Brown at the far right of the second panel totally hearing Leifeld and Arthur's conversation?

If that was Carol, Dan would have done more than just showed her for 1 panel. As it is, I'm certain that was just some random sexy blonde woman providing eye candy for Arthur while the male walking away provided eye candy for Leifeld.

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44 minutes ago, Scotty said:

I'm certain that was just some random sexy blonde woman providing eye candy for Arthur

I'm not. Take another look at Arthur's personal assistant. If he likes female eye candy, the blonde would not seem to be his favorite flavor. Also, the blonde not only has blonde hair but pretty much the same hairstyle as Carol Brown in both So a Date at the Mall and Question Markexcept for the sweatband.

Y'all owe me a cookie if it turns out I'm right about this one.

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33 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

I'm not. Take another look at Arthur's personal assistant. If he likes female eye candy, the blonde would not seem to be his favorite flavor. Also, the blonde not only has blonde hair but pretty much the same hairstyle as Carol Brown in both So a Date at the Mall and Question Markexcept for the sweatband.

Y'all owe me a cookie if it turns out I'm right about this one.

Either the assistant was supplied to him by HR, or he hand picked her, and just because he hand picked her doesn't mean it was because he prefered the way she looked, she could have been someone he knew personally and gave her the job because he knew she'd do it well, or maybe he picked her to give everyone else the impression that he wasn't the kind of person that would watch ladies exercising in the gym.

Also I'm pretty certain the woman in the gym has longer and thicker hair than Carol. Also the bangs go the opposite way, the part in Carol's bangs are more to her left where the part in the woman's is more to her right.

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The assistant could also be something like his niece, his daughter, his granddaughter, or even his wife. And that would tend to support my case or at least not disprove it. If he's not taking the opportunity to check out the bod on the blonde on the treadmill, but he's still staring at her, he must have another reason--like for instance recognizing Carol Brown from watching videos of the reports she made about the fire guy at the comic shop, the aftermath of the dragon incident, and the griffin and floating Jesus at the mall a few days ago (Moperville time, of course). My favorite concept of what could have happened before the first panel of the gym page is that Arthur recognized Carol before tactfully suggesting that it wasn't a good idea to continue their conversation in such a public place rather than blurting out, "That's a flipping reporter right over there, you musclebound overpromoted moron!"

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2 hours ago, Scotty said:

The question is, what kind of contingency plans do they have if Magic does change?

That's what I'm wondering. The agency has a bunch of trained and experienced mages who would lose their magic. Any police-type organization relies heavily on being able to bring more training and experience to bear on a problem than nearly-any of the people causing the problem have, and a reset will take that away. The agency will have to find the new magic-users, scope them out, recruit them, and then give them any necessary procedural and teamwork training, while the newly-developed versions of Not-Tengu will simply start magically doing evil.

Do they think they already have a convenient number of seers on tap? Remember, seers, while not unique, are rare. It isn't known that the agency has even identified Tedd as a seer, and they have more data on him than on most people that apparently have no magic.

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7 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

It is possible that Liefeld believed Edward would not agree with Arthur's plan.  So when the Abraham incident happened, Liefeld used it as a pretext for moving Edward to a position which would not interfere with Arthur's plan.  If this is the case, and Edward did everything "by the book" with Abraham, Liefeld would have just found another excuse to transfer Edward.

It is also possible Liefeld didn't agreed with Arthur's plan until the Abraham incident convinced him it's needed / worth it.

Also, regarding "other excuse" ... it's possible he would WAIT for other excuse. He might've already be waiting for some time.

4 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:
7 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

First, this is most likely an exercise room at the Agency.  It would not be unusual for an agent to interrupt the boss's work out at the agency gymnasium.  Much more noticeable at a commercial health club.

Second.  Carol Brown is not the only attractive blonde in the world.

I think that Dan went to the trouble of drawing all that exercise equipment  he complains about because he wanted this scene to take place at a public gymnasium to give an excuse for Carol Brown to overhear the discussion. Notice that in the first panel when Arthur is telling Leifeld that this gym isn't the most secure location for the discussion while looking to his left. When the view widens to show the gymnasium, Arthur is still looking to his left, and he seems to be looking at Carol Brown, whose eyes have widened, unlike the dude that Leifeld is checking out.

First, even agency gymnasium might be mostly containing people with LOWER clearance than Arthur Arthur and Liefeld - higher than public gymnasium but not on the super top secret level they speak on. Second, I would still say she's not Carol Brown. Third, he's looking at her ass.

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Now to move into the familiar realm of amazing crackpot plot theories, I'm wondering if there is a connection between Sirleck and Arthur, either directly or through Voltaire. What's raising my suspicion now is that Arthur's policy of protecting the secrets of magic using a strategy destined to backfire, refusing to send aid to protect the public from the bulldog dragon, and the way Arthur seems to have totally missed out on the vampire activity and the repeated griffin sightings that attracted Charlotte's attention. After all, Charlotte's supposed to be a just bright college freshthing. It all seems to mesh so well with Sirleck and Voltaire's plans.

There's another factor: Arthur once tried to deport Adrian to Russia. Why would Arthur have tried to deport Adrian so long ago? Possibly professional jealousy at the time. It's implicated that Adrian has had a relationship with the branch Edward and Noriko eventually joined, maybe because Adrian encouraged them. Being replaced by the protege of a rival doesn't exactly foreshadow a happy retirement.

Note that Voltaire MIGHT be less obvious than when he was stopping Ashley helping Elliot. His plan with Dex, for example, didn't involved giving out his identity, much less plans.

And yes, deporting Adrian might've been professional jealousy. Or, like, learning jealously? I mean, he might've been jealous he didn't had as good teacher when he needed him (or EVER).

Or he just considered elf to be too risky person to have around.

1 hour ago, Scotty said:
2 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

I'm not. Take another look at Arthur's personal assistant. If he likes female eye candy, the blonde would not seem to be his favorite flavor. Also, the blonde not only has blonde hair but pretty much the same hairstyle as Carol Brown in both So a Date at the Mall and Question Markexcept for the sweatband.

Y'all owe me a cookie if it turns out I'm right about this one.

Either the assistant was supplied to him by HR, or he hand picked her, and just because he hand picked her doesn't mean it was because he prefered the way she looked, she could have been someone he knew personally and gave her the job because he knew she'd do it well, or maybe he picked her to give everyone else the impression that he wasn't the kind of person that would watch ladies exercising in the gym.

Even if he hand-picked her, he had limited options. There may not be anyone more attractive with required clearance. Or, maybe he picked her BECAUSE he know that when he picks blonde he would be too distracted to work properly.

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

If he's not taking the opportunity to check out the bod on the blonde on the treadmill, but he's still staring at her, he must have another reason--like for instance recognizing Carol Brown from watching videos

Despite lot of jokes, I don't think recognizing people by their asses or other parts of bodies is effective. It's the face which makes recognizing easiest, we evolved that way.

25 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:
3 hours ago, Scotty said:

The question is, what kind of contingency plans do they have if Magic does change?

That's what I'm wondering. The agency has a bunch of trained and experienced mages who would lose their magic. Any police-type organization relies heavily on being able to bring more training and experience to bear on a problem than nearly-any of the people causing the problem have, and a reset will take that away. The agency will have to find the new magic-users, scope them out, recruit them, and then give them any necessary procedural and teamwork training, while the newly-developed versions of Not-Tengu will simply start magically doing evil.

If most magic-users in agency have actual talent/affinity, they will lose the spell but not magic - so they won't need to recruit new ones, just re-train the ones they have. Still doesn't seem like good idea.

Maybe they expect the wands will keep working? Even if it's not true, there may be some reason for them to expect that. Like, if magical items certainly older than last reset still works, they may expects wands to work as well.

27 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Do they think they already have a convenient number of seers on tap? Remember, seers, while not unique, are rare. It isn't known that the agency has even identified Tedd as a seer, and they have more data on him than on most people that apparently have no magic.

Yup, IF the agency would have some seer, they would know enough about him to recognize Tedd as being one as well. And I think Edward has clearance high enough to know about it AND enough personal connections they wouldn't consider not telling him for conflict of interest being good idea.

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4 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Or, maybe he picked her BECAUSE he know that when he picks blonde he would be too distracted to work properly.

A good point. Arthur seems to me to be a past master at bureaucratic politics to me, hardly the type to tolerate any underling he doesn't find satisfactory for very long. Arthur seems to be doing a good job of finessing his putative superior Leifeld to do what Arthur wants.

While I am really dubious about Arthur's true motives, I think what he's selling is the idea that losing all access to magic to the agency for a long time is a better alternative to letting the enemies of the agency's enemies know what they've really been up to. Leifield is really a musclebound overpromoted moron if he doesn't see that losing access to magic basically makes his job obsolete. Either he believes his people will be able to keep some access to magic, or he's more afraid of being prosecuted if a Congressional investigation starts poking into into his administration of a super-secret agency with really ridiculous opportunity to get away with almost anything. Real concern for public welfare? Not much I think.

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1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

Either he believes his people will be able to keep some access to magic, or he's more afraid of being prosecuted if a Congressional investigation starts poking into into his administration of a super-secret agency with really ridiculous opportunity to get away with almost anything. Real concern for public welfare? Not much I think.

I think that the idea is that magic is too dangerous to be available to general public is

1) Considered really important in DGB - no matter if true, their fears of being overwhelmed by lot of bad guys getting dangerous spells seems real

2) Hard to explain to said public, considering everyone would quickly find out several ways how magic can help the public even if it wouldn't be him getting it.

3) Also, keeping magic secret might be (declared by Supreme Court to be) against first AND second amendments.

Even if Leifield didn't do anything "unofficial" he wouldn't want to get public, he may be high enough for being endangered if the basic premises of organization would be found unacceptable. In fact, even Arthur Arthur might be high enough.

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6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Y'all owe me a cookie if it turns out I'm right about this one.

I'm sorry.  My computer does not accept or give cookies.

5 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

blurting out, "That's a flipping reporter right over there, you musclebound overpromoted moron!"

That quote is from a future scene when Catalina joins the agency.  Although I think there would be one more descriptive label.  I just can't recall the word right now...

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15 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Do they think they already have a convenient number of seers on tap? Remember, seers, while not unique, are rare. It isn't known that the agency has even identified Tedd as a seer, and they have more data on him than on most people that apparently have no magic.

I am thinking that maybe they don't have any.  The magic analysis wand registered near zero for Tedd, whereas Luke's magic prowess detection spell obviously detected something amazing about Tedd (even if it was just that he has enough power to create feedback in the detection).  It would seem the Agency might not have the technology to detect Seers.  You would think if they had one, they would be studying him or her to figure out how to find more.  Just a thought.

Honestly, they  might not even know that Seers exist.

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On 7/4/2017 at 11:26 PM, mlooney said:

I'm hoping that Pandora in channelling her inner Elf Queen, and like will return to normal in the next sentence.

Maybe she just needs a hug.  C'mon Tedd, give your Grand-godmother a hug!

Hah, if I saw Pandora doing that, I would be running the other way.  Seriously, she has tried, but maybe if got a jolt to remind her that she is dealing with family, that she is being frightening, and this is opposite of the good she was trying to do, maybe she would snap out of it.

Also, given how hair-trigger she is, at what point will she realize that enough is enough, and that it's time to move on to a new incarnation?

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4 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:

Honestly, they  might not even know that Seers exist.

Pandora must have known that Tedd had some great power or she wouldn't have given that inaudible warning to Luke. But Voltaire is obviously very interested in Tedd, and I think he's been observing Tedd for quite some time. I think Voltaire believes he's found out Tedd's second, secret purpose. Of course, he could be wrong. How can we know? Dan hasn't revealed it to us yet.

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18 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:
On 7/5/2017 at 10:52 PM, Tom Sewell said:

Y'all owe me a cookie if it turns out I'm right about this one.

I'm sorry.  My computer does not accept or give cookies.

The fact you are logged in on this forum proves that's not true.

8 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:
23 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Do they think they already have a convenient number of seers on tap? Remember, seers, while not unique, are rare. It isn't known that the agency has even identified Tedd as a seer, and they have more data on him than on most people that apparently have no magic.

I am thinking that maybe they don't have any.  The magic analysis wand registered near zero for Tedd, whereas Luke's magic prowess detection spell obviously detected something amazing about Tedd (even if it was just that he has enough power to create feedback in the detection).  It would seem the Agency might not have the technology to detect Seers.  You would think if they had one, they would be studying him or her to figure out how to find more.  Just a thought.

Honestly, they  might not even know that Seers exist.

They might know they exists from historic books but not know enough about them to know how to identify them. Would be funny if they would be searching for seer and actually HAD one and just not realizing it.

7 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:

Maybe she just needs a hug.  C'mon Tedd, give your Grand-godmother a hug!

Hmmm ... she just said Tedd has exceptionally good spell resistance. Maybe he can ...

8 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:

Also, given how hair-trigger she is, at what point will she realize that enough is enough, and that it's time to move on to a new incarnation?

As long as the only thing of her which is on hair trigger are dramatic speech it's manageable. Of course, I suspect it already isn't the only thing ... but we didn't saw anything worse yet, not counting the case with werewolves.

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Pandora must have known that Tedd had some great power or she wouldn't have given that inaudible warning to Luke.

Remember that she described Tedd to Heka - she knew lot about him for long time, including the "lots of energy" part.

 

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11 hours ago, hkmaly said:

The fact you are logged in on this forum proves that's not true.

To elaborate on the above for those unaware: when you log in to a site, what actually happens is that you get assigned a "session cookie", which basically contains an authorisation token which the site generated and will accept as ID for a specific user. This is instead of having to type your username and password every time you want to comment or change any preference.

It will still require your password if you want to change your password, but that's to stop people who might access your computer or otherwise obtain use of your session cookie (e.g. via spyware) from then changing your password to something they know and you don't.

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1 hour ago, HarJIT said:
12 hours ago, hkmaly said:

The fact you are logged in on this forum proves that's not true.

To elaborate on the above for those unaware: when you log in to a site, what actually happens is that you get assigned a "session cookie", which basically contains an authorisation token which the site generated and will accept as ID for a specific user. This is instead of having to type your username and password every time you want to comment or change any preference.

It will still require your password if you want to change your password, but that's to stop people who might access your computer or otherwise obtain use of your session cookie (e.g. via spyware) from then changing your password to something they know and you don't.

Little crude but yes. Except 910cmx actually sends several cookies instead of just session one: ips4_hasJS, ips4_IPSSessionFront, ips4_ipsTimezone, ips4_member_id and ips4_pass_hash. And browser is sending those cookies back with every request ...

For those who want to actually fix their unawareness:

 

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17 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:
21 hours ago, hkmaly said:

For those who want to actually fix their unawareness:

No.  I want my unawareness to reproduce,  Multiply until the world is filled with unawareness.

World is ALREADY filled with unawareness. Yours will have it hard against all the competition.

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