Awful Convenient 2013-04-23

[Fairportfan]

So I grudgingly admit, the real question is: How many Brandis ARE there, anyway?

Most evenings, I would not be against a couple of Brandi's before bed...

Before bed?

[Fairportfan]

Sali's is being a smartass. The fries comment is really a good one. So I guess at least one end of her has to be smart.

Oh, I think both ends of her are quite smart.

Sensible, now? Well, that's another question entirely.

Having intelligence, having knowledge, and having the common sense that God gave a goose are three different things. (Substitute "wisdom" or "good judgement" for "common sense" if you prefer... same idea, mostly).

Oh, i think Atsali is picking that stuff REAL quick. I can see Katharine and Atsali being recruited as a troubleshooting team.

Kind of on the Dirty Pair model, going by current circumstances, but sometimes you just gotta break stuff to get things done.

[davids4250]

If Brandi truly has no knowledge of what has happened, then I apologize to her for my tirade yesterday. Today, I am leaning more toward the "this is not Brandi" theory. Brandi has already met at least one of the vamps. I doubt a couple of new agents would be recruited without a thorough review by her, so the one that met Lily was the real Brandi. Also, how did the Library know to have her meet our adventurers here? They didn't know they would be here until very recently! This arc is starting to have more twists, turns, ups and downs than the roller coaster we've already been on.

Staggers to the Corner for a muffin and tea.

[Jabberwonky]

So I grudgingly admit, the real question is: How many Brandis ARE there, anyway?

Most evenings, I would not be against a couple of Brandi's before bed...

Before bed?

To give my 'A' game, I like to get started long before we're in the bedroom...

[ChattaStarhawk]

Oh, i think Atsali is picking that stuff REAL quick. I can see Katharine and Atsali being recruited as a troubleshooting team.

Kind of on the Dirty Pair model, going by current circumstances, but sometimes you just gotta break stuff to get things done.

Oh Gawd, I hope not! Given the effect the 'Lovely Angels' had on their universe I don't think the Wapsiverse could handle that level of destruction. (True, it was never the Pair's fault - but the probability field effect around the girls caused random actions to cascade to maximum damage.)

[Fairportfan]

Yep, Atsali is learning quick like a bunny that sentences that begin "I'm from the government and ..." (or an equivalent) are suspect, to say the least.

[Jay-Em]

That....smile...
So, it's not Brandi manipulating stuff here. I stand corrected. Still.
She knows waaaaaaay more than she lets through.

And why the sudden emergence of " the multiple Brandis"-idea? Far too convenient "Marvel plot twist" To me there's nothing that points to that. Although, the last frame's smile has a certain "Nudge-ness" to it. Buuut, Nudge had already trouble enough to make her "slightly round curly top" persona, I very much doubt she's able to perfectly emulate Brandi's look.

If the library is pulling the strings, maybe it sent Brandi as a body-guard/protector for Kat and Sali because there's something bad behind the stargate?

Ugh! Retreating to the Confusion-Corner here....

[Jay-Em]

Yep, Atsali is learning quick like a bunny that sentences that begin "I'm from the government and ..." (or an equivalent) are suspect, to say the least.

Well, luckily I am required to clearly show mi I.D. and state my name, before I utter that wretched sentence. If I fail to do that... Well, suffice to say my manager doesn't suffer those that skirt the rules lightly...

But then again. It's apparently an American thing to distrust government to the umpteenth degree. Understandable, Our tiiny country by the sea didn't have characters like Tricky Dick, or that utterly scary guy Cheney...(yet. Everything that happens in The States, happens here with a delay of about 30 years.. )

(Sorry, don't want to start some political debate, but the "government is the root of all evil"- thing kind of nags at me, being a civil servant trying to be just thát :a servant of "the people", and not of some ego's high-up.)

[Julie]

If we take what Brandi says at face value, then she was out of the loop and responded to the Library's summons, and doesn't know that the Library sent McBride and Pratt out to meet Katherine. Which is odd, since she's the one who talked to Pratt about Mapami. To me this leaves three likely scenarios, and one more outlandish one that popped into my head

1. Brandy is lying her ass off and is fully aware of what is going on.

2. One of the Brandis we've seen, probably the "Senior Director" that talked to Lily is a shape shifter playing the role of Brandi. Possibly Nudge.

3. Brandi "doesn't like who she is when she lets herself think" and has compartmentalized "Senior Director Adoya" into a seperate and distinct personality that is different from the Sweet Brandi who has resumed a (mostly) normal human life. Sweet Brandi may be only partially aware or may be even completely uanaware of what the Senior Director is up to.

The hare brained outlandish idea that is completly unsuppourted by any evidince is that Brandi 56 took refuge in the Library just before the last Calander reset and survived intact with all of her memories, effectively becoming an alternate reality Brandi who has been manipulating events from a distance and adjusting plans to fit events as they happen with full knowledge of what went before. It explains some of the crazier stuff, like the sub Stinky found in the Bermuda Triangle having the artifact just when they needed it. Past Brandi wasn't manipulating events from 1400 years ago. She was doing it in real time. And she's been running around doing the MiB thing and generally keeping things on track while Brandi 57 enjoys being (mostly) human again.

As I said it's an out landish idea and there isn't really any evedence to suppourt it, but it popped into my head and I thought I'd share.

I think that these theories make the most sense (of the ones I've seen so far).

I have to be honest though...I didn't even catch the whole "meet the new MiB agents who supposedly will recognize me" bit and question it until I started reading through the forum posts...then I had to go back and re-read the page. I'm still inclined to think that Brandi isn't a liar (though I would never be comfortable enough with my feeling to state it as plainly as zachariah did ), so I'm going to vote against option 1 for now. Number 2 makes a fair amount of sense...moreso than Number 3 (imo)...but Number 4 (the hare-brained one) sounds like loads of fun. Soooo if I'm going to pick any "conspiracy theory" ideas, I think I'm going to vote (in order of probability) 2, 4, 3, and then 1.

We'll see though...I'm a bit more inclined to think that Brandi doesn't know that the Library dispatched Pratt & McBride to the Mesa Verde area. She may have sent them on a mission to Mapimi, but that's not near Mesa Verde...so it's fair to assume she wouldn't know that they got redirected while they were en route.

[Aleister Crow]

Nope, Kath's not buying it. For someone who's supposed to be the ultimate chessmaster, this is some blatantly clumsy manipulation. So clumsy, one might think it was deliberate...

We'll see though...I'm a bit more inclined to think that Brandi doesn't know that the Library dispatched Pratt & McBride to the Mesa Verde area. She may have sent them on a mission to Mapimi, but that's not near Mesa Verde...so it's fair to assume she wouldn't know that they got redirected while they were en route.

Except for Pratt and McBride just got a call telling them that Senior Director is on her way to Mesa Verde, and they need to meet her there.


BTW, what happened to the cut on Kath's head?

[RunningBull]

If what Brandi says is true, and she really doesn't know anything about the mine explosions, then I figure the girls may be in for another rude welcome when they get to Mapimi.

[bmonk]

Hummm. It really sounds like it was the library pulling the strings on this. So did it do it on it's own, or is it lending a hand to Phix. I'll lean towards the library is the one running the show. Brandi is only the errand girl in this one.

Maybe the library is lending a hand to Nudge? She is co-Librarian, after all.

[Sidhekin]

Hare brained outlandish ... and really intreaguing ... I'm not convinced ... but I'm getting there.

Not just Jin (who was a known exception), but also Brandi seems to have been at work while Tepoz had them hid away. She seems to have set up Tina with the key/blade. It is even explicity "a past Brandi": http://wapsisquare.com/comic/underjinsnose/

Shelly told Tina 2.0 that "Tina" had been working with "a past Brandi". I first assumed it was "a past Tina", though not stated ("Brandi worked with demons", so any plans they made, may have carried over to the "next Tina"), and that may still prove to be the case, but considering how "a past Brandi" seems to have managed to set this Tina up with the key (too tangible for demons to manage, I suspect), it may run deeper than that. If nothing else, Bia should be involved there – but Shelly ascribes this to Brandi working with demons, not titans. So, if "current" Brandi didn't know the plan, and the demons couldn't carry it out, and no one else is implied, it points at "a past Brandi" acting on "current" Earth.

And then, there's the MiB. There seems to be somewhat short time for the MiB to be set up after the girls were set free. In an alternative explanation, Brandi and Bud were active, and for some or other reason in the USA. Meanwhile Tepoz, to the best of his knowledge, had both girls hid away, and none of them had at the time any idea of time loops or who Monica was. Who could, under those conditions, have put Brandi and Bud up to starting the MiB? And why? It makes no sense. If Bud and Brandi did not set up the MiB after they were set free, it seems easier to think that the MiB is the work of "a past Brandi" (possibly with partner).

And now, "supposedly", the new MiB agents will know Brandi when they see her. Yeah, I suppose they will.

[zachariah]

Pratt and Lily were told to meet BRandi. We are assuming that it was Brandi talking to them on the phone. I don't think so. The wording by Lily would be different, and her reaction as well, if she had actually been talking to Brandi. Like snapping to attention and stuttering. So Brandi can very easily be out of th eloop on who was sent by the library.

Who ever told Brandi that she would be meeting new agents did not know Brandi had already met Lily and did not provide th names of the agents she was to meet. If they had Brandi would know who she was to meet.

The library set of a fire alarm and that triggered the MIB response. Lily and Prat were the agents on hand so they got sent. Tisalia was their boss and is probably the one who passed the info to MIB. This means Brandi only has half the story.

Brandi's word about Phix and Monica are back at the library lends support that it is the library running this circus. Just who is giving orders to the library. It is possible the library is the one giving the orders.

What I think is confusing all of us is that there are three sets of players and each one only has part of the story. So as we try and piece it together we get conflicting images of the structure. This is common in eye witness reports so why not from people acting from different starting points? The issue is we cannot assume that this thing is coordinated because it is beginning to look like it is not. But the threads are starting to come together.

[sonicthunder]

But what 'forces' Kat to do what Brandi or the Library say? Kat has no ties to the supernatural/paranormal world outside of knowing a few members personally. She's not under employ of Brandi's MiB or the Library, there's no real objective for her to accomplish beyond simple curiosity (nothing like Calendar Machine or fixing Jin), and to date she's never had a supernatural bully her into compliance (aka like Shelly or Tina a few times).

So really, Kat could just ignore Brandi's request, or (if she's feeling particularly brazen and a touch suicidal) tell her to go stuff it. Kat only has her own curiosity to force her to comply in the least.

[sheik]

Yep, Atsali is learning quick like a bunny that sentences that begin "I'm from the government and ..." (or an equivalent) are suspect, to say the least.

Well, luckily I am required to clearly show mi I.D. and state my name, before I utter that wretched sentence. If I fail to do that... Well, suffice to say my manager doesn't suffer those that skirt the rules lightly...

But then again. It's apparently an American thing to distrust government to the umpteenth degree. Understandable, Our tiiny country by the sea didn't have characters like Tricky Dick, or that utterly scary guy Cheney...(yet. Everything that happens in The States, happens here with a delay of about 30 years.. )

(Sorry, don't want to start some political debate, but the "government is the root of all evil"- thing kind of nags at me, being a civil servant trying to be just thát :a servant of "the people", and not of some ego's high-up.)

No offense taken.
We know there is a price for being on the bleeding edge of social evolution in the Darwinian sense. Overly enthusiastic trial-and-error has become a national trait, and sometimes the lessons actually sink in for a while.
Take our national rejection of Communism for instance. The American historical landscape, short as it is, is littered with the corpses of uncounted failures in command economies, so we knew what to expect.
Now we are in the process of learning about A) "land wars in Asia", and B) Government financing by Ponzi scheme, among other things.
The fact is, although the Founding Fathers could, and did, learn a great deal from the past lessons of history when forging the U.S. Constitution, the populace seems to have to learn the hard way by sufficient loss of Life, Liberty, and Property.
Fortunately or unfortunately, take your pick, we are also, generally speaking, notorious optimists and workaholics.
Don't think we are somehow hateful of the Civil Servant. We simply know that Civil Servants are just a cogs in a mindless machine made out of people, and it's the haphazard operations of the Machine we resent.
Sorry about the rant.

[DilyV]

I have to admit... This is definitely starting to feel a bit Nudge-ish... That grin and look "Brandi" is giving Kath, and her statement that "I'm supposed to meet the new MiB Agents at Mesa Verde, I'm told they'll recognize me" flies in the face of what we already know. Brandi... "Senior Director Oduya has already met Lily (Agent Pratt) and would know she's on that mission based on the questioning at their first meeting starting here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/follow-me/ continuing here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/kikai-caldera/ and here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/just-a-vampire/


Brandi knows Lily and Suzi... Why would she say what she said today? I hate to say it but 2+2=3 at the moment.... Something just isnt adding up.

[jwhouk]

I suspect that there may be a connection between Tina 2.0, Brandi's apparent schizophrenia, Jin's issues, and May's occasional off-the-wall-ness.

And I think it's in reverse order: May tried to help Jin, developing a machine that she thought would help separate her daughter's demons from her - and it went kablooey; in attempting to help May, Brandi managed to refine it (to the point where she can at least control it), but she couldn't help Jin directly. Unfortunately, the only person who could get the last key to work was Tina, and that was because she had a demon army that made Monica's little flock look like a peashooter.

The two key things is, this "schizophrenia" is something that deals with the demonic world - and it's something that the supernaturals (Bia, Phix, etc.) are scared spitless of.

How Kath fits in to this is the mystery.

[kingklash]

To paraphrase an old Popeye cartoon, "If it isn't Brandi, then who is it? And if it isn't her, then why does she look like Brandi?"

There are two girls so far that can smile like that, and they are both Mythics, Shapeshifters, and call each other Sister. Their connections to the Library can usually go without saying.

[jwhouk]

Nudge and Tsillah, I take it?