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Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:34 am
by MerchManDan
Be right back,
looking up "VE17 eruptions..."
...holy SMOKES.

Considering the
Volcanic Explosivity Index only goes from 0 to 8, that's a hell of a "blooey" indeed.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:37 am
by Atomic
Ask and you shall receive!
Kikai Caldera
Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) - level 7 == biggie!
Mt St Helen's and Vesuvius were a 5, Krakatoa a 6, FYI.
Bud's Chimera Rage was probably an 8...
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:39 am
by MerchManDan
Oooh, that's a letter I, not a number 1. My mistake.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:40 am
by NOTDilbert
Hm. Maybe 'cause I was leaning more toward petroleum exploration at the time, we didn't cover Volcanic Exlosivity Indices when I was in school. But Wiki was enlightening.
I LOVE reading-for-fun that also teaches me something. Pushes the Circle of Darkness back a little further.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:41 am
by Fairportfan
Um - i hesitate to ask, but if the World Grid is supposed to block Titans ... how did Shelly get here?
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:44 am
by zachariah
That sounds like the fall of the minoian civilization but 1000 years earlier than current estimates place it. Interesting. One that big should have been better remembered by historians. No wonder she was upset when a Vimana cell was found and used without her being told. Obviously the world grid isn't working either. Otherwise Bia could not have become Shelly's mother.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:47 am
by Mark N
Fairportfan wrote:Um - i hesitate to ask, but if the World Grid is supposed to block Titans ... how did Shelly get here?
Bia and the others were already here. The grid prevents anyone from the "Old Country" showing up.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:48 am
by nerf-dweller
Fairportfan wrote:Um - i hesitate to ask, but if the World Grid is supposed to block Titans ... how did Shelly get here?
Bia was already on Earth when Brandy activated the World Grid.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:49 am
by MerchManDan
I'd guess that Bia was already on Earth when the Grid was activated, and she became trapped here.
Ba-boom, ninja'd by Mark N and nerfdweller.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:57 am
by Wapsi
Fairportfan wrote: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.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 3:02 am
by Fairportfan
Wapsi wrote:Fairportfan wrote: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.
I
really don't wanna see the inside of Brandi's head.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 3:05 am
by Jabberwonky
Fairportfan wrote:I really don't wanna see the inside of Brandi's head.
Eh, it'd be like a Chia Pet before you start it...
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 3:22 am
by Fairportfan
Jabberwonky wrote:Fairportfan wrote:I really don't wanna see the inside of Brandi's head.
Eh, it'd be like a Chia Pet before you start it...
I was referring to the sequence that Pablo referred to in his post.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 3:52 am
by Bathorys Daughter
So, there seems to be something amiss with the grid. Wonder if the presence of the grid radiation has anything to do with the creation/existence of vampires? Would they all drop dead if the plug was ever pulled on it?
One thing that always puzzled me about that sequence of strips was the fact Brandi didn't seem to know Shelly was a sphinx until Monica mentioned it. Did she think Shelly somehow survived 80,000 some odd years there as a human? She knew Monica and Tina would be dead if Shelly had not gone there, yet she didn't know about the sphinxy thing?
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:13 am
by scantrontb
Fairportfan wrote:Um - i hesitate to ask, but if the World Grid is supposed to block Titans ... how did Shelly get here?
Well, when a man loves a woman very much, and the woman loves him too, and they !@#$!#$ like rabbits ... do we REALLY need to explain the "bird's and bees" to you?
now for the real answer... um, given out by a whole bunch of others already, 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.
Personally i think that Bia only stuck around this long in order to to regain the Power and Influence she had as a Titan, that and to make sure of the outcome of that prophesy that Charon told her about, here whole "do what you want because you're a TITAN" speech leads me to believe she is one arrogant smug, well, bitch... and that likes it when us mortal playthings come crawling, etc... though like the prophesy of the Chosen One from Star Wars, i think it'll backfire on her, just as it did on the Jedi... Think about it, the Jedi were "sure" they had "wiped out the Sith" over a thousand years ago... OK, that means that "good" has been the only game in town... so, to "bring balance to the Force" what HAD to happen... yep you guessed it, enough EVIL to counter a thousand year GOOD streak and the Jedi losing the "Top-Dog" spot... so I'm thinking that something similar is going to happen here. Bia is hanging around in order to regain her lost influence/power over us mortals, but what i think is really gonna happen is that Shelly's gonna kick her out of here and bring balance back that way... by balancing the playing field again WITHOUT the Titans involved anymore and it'll be done by a descendant of herself! ... though what that'll mean for the burgeoning Shelly/Justin romance, as technically Justin still IS a Titan even though he can't remember it, no clue...
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:18 am
by davids4250
Wondering what connection there is between the grid and MIB removing a body from Suzy's apartment. Is the grid failing? Was the body being removed Jane Doe? Where is Suzy? And finally, where are we going, and why are we all in this hand basket? (Thanks to Gary Larson!)
edit to fix typos.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:30 am
by scantrontb
Bathorys Daughter wrote: She knew Monica and Tina would be dead if Shelly had not gone there, yet she didn't know about the sphinxy thing?
the way i read that was that if SHELLY hadn't gone there and that Tina or Monica HAD gone in her place, then THEY would have died... via Shelly 57 the "Executioner" AKA Janitor sphinx, with zero info getting back to the Prime Material Plane as it were... and because all that was happening AFTER the CM was destroyed, Brandi wouldn't have been able to read about it due to the CM Loop Resets, so all our Brandi knew was that Shelly HAD to go, (in order to keep Monica and Tina alive) and that even when she did, she must have died wherever she went, because NONE of the 56 OTHER Shelly's (or Janet's, or Michelle's, names from those 5 ripped out pages) EVER came BACK like "our" Shelly did, ergo... her statement and her lack of knowledge of her being a sphinx, until M told her.
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:59 am
by Fairportfan
scantrontb wrote:Fairportfan wrote: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?
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:12 am
by Yamara
Wapsi wrote:Evil grin. =)
HE IS RETURNING
T minus 2 days
Re: Kikai Caldera 2012-12-19
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:24 am
by Yamara
Wapsi wrote:Fairportfan wrote: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.
The World Grid has weak points, or areas of interference at least, such as the Bermuda Triangle. These may just be Roach Motel entrances for the unwary, though. A proto-vimana cell got caught there once, for instance.
But the passage through the Library in Limbo is well established. This would seem to indicate that the Library itself is an essential decision-maker, and its choice of invulnerable gate-keepers a very important one indeed.
If Bia's behaviour is at all average for Titans, then Brandi made a good call, as half of them would have to be worse. And Bia's wrestling with her "dysfunction" suggests she's one of the better ones.