Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19

[Dave11]

VEI7. Oh my. So Brandi set up Mazama, then?

Cubic kilometers of mass ejected. Wowza.

Oh, and the scale is open-ended, but logrithmic. So a VEI17 is possible, but would eject the approximate volume of the Earth from the volcano - inside out planet?
(Math: VEI8 is 1E3 cubic km, VEI17 would be 1E12 cubic km, Volume of Earth (from Wikipedia) is 1,083,210,000,000 cubic km (1.083E12)

[Aleister Crow]

VEI7. Oh my. So Brandi set up Mazama, then?

Cubic kilometers of mass ejected. Wowza.

Oh, and the scale is open-ended, but logrithmic. So a VEI17 is possible, but would eject the approximate volume of the Earth from the volcano - inside out planet?
(Math: VEI8 is 1E3 cubic km, VEI17 would be 1E12 cubic km, Volume of Earth (from Wikipedia) is 1,083,210,000,000 cubic km (1.083E12)

Second Asteroid belt, this one between Venus and Mars. The moon would blown to chunks as well.

Really gets you thinking about Yellowstone Caldera. Won't blow up the planet, but I'd still want to be on a different one when it finally goes.

[Julie]

Well, I'm really glad that Boxilar made his announcement about staying put in my flat in Confusion Couch Corner. I can tell that my brain is going to be a bit mushy after this next chunk of the ride.

[Dave]

Um - i hesitate to ask, but if the World Grid is supposed to block Titans ... how did Shelly get here?

Evil grin. =) Oh and just for reference, read THIS comic and the next week's worth after.

Ouchie. "Glass tubes."

As I said in the Comments section at the time... Paul, you really do have a way with words.

//shudder//

[lake_wrangler]

Well, I'm really glad that Boxilar made his announcement about staying put in my flat in Confusion Couch Corner. I can tell that my brain is going to be a bit mushy after this next chunk of the ride.

See? I told you not to worry about some bout of temporary sanity...

[Dave]

Um - i hesitate to ask, but if the World Grid is supposed to block Titans ... how did Shelly get here?

Well, when a daddy Human-Sphinx hybrid and a mommy Titan love each other very much...

[Wdot]

Bia, was already on Earth. She was there when the Chimæra decided there needed to be a parking lot. She was also a kid and probably was traumatized by the event. She knows she isn't quite all right. There sure as heck weren't any child councilers to help her through her healing process. However she was given a prophecy and she wants to counteract that outcome. I think even though she comes across badly she is trying to do the right thing. I picture her like Sarah Conner from the Terminator series. She knows the world is ending and it's her duty to keep her son alive until he can fight for humanity. If the average person would have seen Sarah in the mental institution they would have thought she was a horrible person or pitied her. Just sayin'. My $.02.

[wratgaf]

Ummm, that SPLORT you just heard was the plot thickening, methinks.

[kingklash]

I would think that an event like that would be more of a BLAMMO than BLOOEY.

[Boxilar]

The way I see it, there are a number of possibilities. The easy explanation for Shelly being able to come and go from alternative dimensions is her hybrid nature. She's a Titan, but she's also a Sphinx. That explanation is almost to easy though.

A better explanation would be that the Viama cell harmonized with the world barrier, transporting her to the Time Forrest, and only the completed cell that Shelly1 put the plutonium core into could bring her back through the barrier..

As far as Bia, that gets more complicated. Discounting the CM cycles, Brandi brought the the world grid online 6366 years ago, but Bia would have had free reign before then to come and go as she liked.. We know that somewhere around that time, Nudge gave Oedipus the book to use against Phix, trapping her there as librarian and guardian. We've seen Bia enter the library and we know the library can access earth. A Sphinx is invulnerable in her place of power. Not even a Titan, can challenge her there. Phix is basically earth's defacto gate keeper.
What's more, I'm betting Bia engineered it that way. She knew the barrier was going up. She wanted a Sphinx, Phix in particular, to take up the role of gate keeper. Which is why Bia's betrayal hit Phix so hard. She was probably the one Titan Phix trusted, and the only one of the old order Phix let come and go freely through the library.

[nerf-dweller]

Bia, Charon, all the OTHER Titans, etc, were ALREADY here, and while i'm sure that from ~12000 BC (or 80K BC depending on how you're counting) to 4354 BC (in EACH CM Loop TOO) there have been PLENTY of chances for more Titans to either arrive and/or depart once it was determined what Brandi was doing, but before she completed the World Grid.

Why bother building something to keep Titans out if they're already in?

The World Grid keeps ALL of the ancient gods out. In the sequence of strips mentioned above, Euryale mentioned how the Grid worked in keeping interdimenional travelers out like Amun and Shiva.

[Fairportfan]

Why bother building something to keep Titans out if they're already in?

The World Grid keeps ALL of the ancient gods out. In the sequence of strips mentioned above, Euryale mentioned how the Grid worked in keeping interdimenional travelers out like Amun and Shiva.

But she specifically mentioned Titans.

[Dave]

Why bother building something to keep Titans out if they're already in?

The World Grid keeps ALL of the ancient gods out. In the sequence of strips mentioned above, Euryale mentioned how the Grid worked in keeping interdimenional travelers out like Amun and Shiva.

But she specifically mentioned Titans.

Pratt said "... you would block Titans and the Elder Gods from ever reaching Earth again."

Euryale's wording was "[Brandi] isolated the world from interdimensional travelers. That's why you don't see Shiva or Amun around much."

Both of these statements imply that the world grid would prevent Titans (and Elder Gods, and perhaps others) from traveling to Earth, via interdimensional means.

Neither implies that the world grid would repel or expel a Titan or other paranormal or divine being who was already here... there's no implication that the grid would prevent a Titan from living on Earth.

Inference: although some Titans (presumably including Bia) were present on Earth at the time the grid went on-line, there were probably Titans and other Powers who were not here at the time (out of ambit on a picnic, perhaps) and can no longer return. The Valhalla-to-Earth express train has had its tracks blocked. Those who were here, can stay (and might even be stuck here, or have to find less direct ways to leave such as via the Library), while those outside the shield cannot easily come here (Euryale said "don't see [them] around much", so maybe some visits are possible but difficult?)

[Fairportfan]

Pablo's "Evil Grin" comment leads me to Suspect That Perhaps It's More Complicated Than That.

[jwhouk]

Uh, we're forgetting something:

Shellys 2-57 all died when they got to the time forest.

Shelly Prime first came to the time forest (presumably) before the Vimana grid was set up - but after the Lanthians blew their continent to smithereens.

By the way: the fact that Pablo is directly mentioning the Kikai Caldera would indicate to me that "Lanthis" was probably located somewhere to the West of the New World - not the East like everyone and their brothers believe.

[Julie]

Uh, we're forgetting something:

Shellys 2-57 all died when they got to the time forest.

Shelly Prime first came to the time forest (presumably) before the Vimana grid was set up - but after the Lanthians blew their continent to smithereens.

Wait...what?? I thought that the Time Forest ran backwards, and Shelly 57 was the one who didn't die and was able to leave. Shelly Prime would have been the Shelly who we watched die from radiation exposure.

That said, you're statement that Shelly Prime got to the Time Forest before the Vimana grid was set up might hold water. After all, since the Vimana grid was set up after the Calendar Machine's creation it wouldn't necessarily have existed in all prior time loops. We only know for certain that it exists in the current loop.

Aaaand that's all my brain can manage right now. I'm going to sit back and let the motor cool down until tomorrow.

[Wyvern]

By the way: the fact that Pablo is directly mentioning the Kikai Caldera would indicate to me that "Lanthis" was probably located somewhere to the West of the New World - not the East like everyone and their brothers believe.

Not necessarily; resonance effects can work in funny ways, and we already know that the vimana cell network needed nodes all over the world. Maybe the last unit to go online was near the Hawaiian Islands, maybe not. As for the location of Lanthis, you might think about the etymology of the name Atlantic Ocean. The lost continent in the Pacific is generally called Mu (the 19th century writer Augustus Le Plongeon claimed that people from Mu were involved with several ancient civilizations, particularly in Egypt and Mesoamerica - maybe in the Wapsiverse he really knew something). Lemuria was originally supposed to be a lost continent in the Indian Ocean but is sometimes confused with Mu.

[Wyvern]

Oh, and the scale is open-ended, but logarithmic. So a VEI17 is possible, but would eject the approximate volume of the Earth from the volcano - inside out planet?
(Math: VEI8 is 1E3 cubic km, VEI17 would be 1E12 cubic km, Volume of Earth (from Wikipedia) is 1,083,210,000,000 cubic km (1.083E12)

Ouch. Not quite a VEI-17, but for an inside-out planet consider the Venerian global resurfacing event, which was exactly what it says on the tin. The best guess is that Earth's plate tectonic cycle keeps this from happening here; it would be nice to know more, since it's really the kind of thing that only has to happen once...

[Dave]

Uh, we're forgetting something:

Shellys 2-57 all died when they got to the time forest.

Shelly Prime first came to the time forest (presumably) before the Vimana grid was set up - but after the Lanthians blew their continent to smithereens.

Wait...what?? I thought that the Time Forest ran backwards, and Shelly 57 was the one who didn't die and was able to leave. Shelly Prime would have been the Shelly who we watched die from radiation exposure.

That said, you're statement that Shelly Prime got to the Time Forest before the Vimana grid was set up might hold water. After all, since the Vimana grid was set up after the Calendar Machine's creation it wouldn't necessarily have existed in all prior time loops. We only know for certain that it exists in the current loop.

Aaaand that's all my brain can manage right now. I'm going to sit back and let the motor cool down until tomorrow.

Well... it depends how the various timelines are synchronized and overlaid.

As I understand it: the Calendar Machine was originally created during Lanthian or pre-Lanthian times - well before the Chimera incident which destroyed Lanthis, and thus well before Brandi was in a position to create the world grid. It didn't begin looping time until Mayahuel tried to destroy it (shortly before 500 AD??). This was just over 1500 years ago (as we see it)... which was thousands of years after the world grid was activated.

Each "Shelly" (or her analog) was born, lived, and entered the Time Forest from a period near the end of a CM loop, covering a few decades just prior to the end of the loop and the "time reset". As far as I can see, no Shelly was born outside of a looped (or to-be-looped) stretch of time.

Each "Shelly" entered the Time Forest at a different point in the Forest's timeline (which flowed backwards relative to ours, and over an 80,000 period in its own frame of reference). However, I don't think that we can say that this caused any "Shelly" to exist prior to the world grid - each instant of Time Forest time appears to have corresponded to a specific instant in the 56 (or is it 57?) CM-looped 1500-year cycles.

And, Julie, I agree with you - as I understand it, Shelly 1 died of radiation exposure, Shelly (or analogs) 2 through 56 either never arrived in the Time Forest or died there through some other cause, and Shelly 57 ("our Shelly") entered "first" but from the "last" CM loop, survived, became a sphinx, and returned to "our Shelly's" timeline when she picked up the completed Vimana cell and the timelines converged.

So, I just don't see a scenario in which we can say that any Shelly was born on Earth prior to the establishment of the world grid. In all of the CM-looped frames of reference, the grid went on-line in 4354 BC - a time which was prior to the startup of the looping and thus common to all of the looped CM cycles.

[chibichibi01]

Can someone let me into the confusion corner? I've finally gone over the edge with this.

An explanation, oh God, would be helpful D: