Wapsi Square Forum

Lily is not dealing well with this stress...

I hope we and she are going to find out what happened 5000 years ago. And that it gives her peace. Or at least calms her down to the point she stops shooting Suzie.

To me, there is a decided sense of Brandi-at-work here.

Brandi needs her agents to be balanced and predictable. When there is some trauma simmering júst below the surface, people get unpredictable.

"Unpredictable" in the sense that here is a danger that, said, trauma interferes with someone's behavior on an inconvenient moment.
In that case, a confrontational way of, well, "therapy" could very well purge it. No guarantee, but letting someone face what traumatized them, but in secure, relatively safe surrounding, hás a habit of straightening things out.

The way the several actors here get placed in situations where they get to sortof re-live the things that haunt them, but get a way out(!) offered too, reeks of manipulation to the umpteenth degree. Thusly (TP1+ CS1 ) x (TS2 + CoS ) + FC = PBT ergo: Typically the formulaic way Aspergers reason, if only to have sóme sense of controlling a situation. I.e. Brandi.

Where TP stands for Traumatic Past, CS for current situation, TS for Traumatic Situation, CoS for Controlled Situation and FC for Forced Confrontation. The PBT stands for "Purged Bottled Trauma"

Yes, it's fake mathematical gobbledigook, but one does nót study Philosophy without getting indoctrinated into trying to logically reason with the help of formula's.

Bottom-line: Something big is up. Brandi being Brandi, she will have already run various scenario's that cover the coming events, calculating in the fact that she already missed one artifact (the thingy Jin got stuffed up her sternum, what was it called?) of several she had placed around the world to keep the elder gods out.

Brandi is playing chess again, and needs the best of the best, and she needs them stable, predictable, having either worked through their trauma's, or having blossomed into their current titan/sub-titan state, so they can fulfill their respective roles in the coming game. If it works at all, is a secondary problem. Brandi cán be upended, but apparently Bud is the only one capable of that.(remember Bud's little trick to save Mayahuel?) hence my guess that Brandi is trying to weed-out uncertainty to an unmeasurable degree.

I could be wholly off to a place where no bus stops, but I strongly feel that all this exposition of the last months is a build-up to something rather large....

And The Library? Guess who is Brandi's Superior? Or, maybe, Brandi and The Library are working together closely as kind of co-CEO's

Who knows?

At least Gibbs doesn't leave a hole when he smacks 'em.

Way to make your (bullet) point, lady!

*drops a Requiem Blaster, Golden Gun, and a Flexible Bullet into the Pun Jar*

kingklash wrote:Way to make your (bullet) point, lady!

*drops a Requiem Blaster, Golden Gun, and a Flexible Bullet into the Pun Jar*

And, if I may be forgiven for using cliched and somewhat non-PC stereotypical phrasing in response, I would suggest that a Native American resident in that area looking on from afar might turn to his companion and say "Vampire detective apply stern-um discipline to partner."

(Drops a silver bullet into the Pun Jar)

Jay-Em wrote:To me, there is a decided sense of Brandi-at-work here.

<snip>

The way the several actors here get placed in situations where they get to sortof re-live the things that haunt them, but get a way out(!) offered too, reeks of manipulation to the umpteenth degree. Thusly (TP1+ CS1 ) x (TS2 + CoS ) + FC = PBT ergo: Typically the formulaic way Aspergers reason, if only to have sóme sense of controlling a situation. I.e. Brandi.

Where TP stands for Traumatic Past, CS for current situation, TS for Traumatic Situation, CoS for Controlled Situation and FC for Forced Confrontation. The PBT stands for "Purged Bottled Trauma"

Yes, it's fake mathematical gobbledigook, but one does nót study Philosophy without getting indoctrinated into trying to logically reason with the help of formula's.

<snip>

Brandi is playing chess again, and needs the best of the best, and she needs them stable, predictable, having either worked through their trauma's, or having blossomed into their current titan/sub-titan state, so they can fulfill their respective roles in the coming game. If it works at all, is a secondary problem. Brandi cán be upended, but apparently Bud is the only one capable of that.(remember Bud's little trick to save Mayahuel?) hence my guess that Brandi is trying to weed-out uncertainty to an unmeasurable degree.

<snip>

And The Library? Guess who is Brandi's Superior? Or, maybe, Brandi and The Library are working together closely as kind of co-CEO's

Who knows?

Well.

Wapsi wrote:Lily actually uses the Beretta 96 in .40 cal. =)

Something has penetrated but not passed through. It's lodged inside, and will have to work its way out.

Golems' reaction to poor input data is "garbage in, annihilation." Tepoz is only strong enough to manage "garbage out"; Jin was put into a position where annihilation became a joke played on Bill Murray, but she is now repaired and... deactivated. But the other three are still quite capable of losing it, if the parameters for tolerance are exceeded.

Lily is in the position of having direct orders from the legendary master manipulator. That's quite different than working with diplomats or spies or detectives, or even philosophers. That's operating with the ongoing awareness (especially at Lily's age) that your actions are being ordered by the Fates.

Basically, anything that happens can be considered to be meant to happen. Including one's own constant and direct consciousness of that fact.

So Lily has lost a couple multimillion dollar machines, and is reliving the nightmare of her death and rebirth with a glib kid 1/33rd her age, while the evidence and people she's there to protect have vanished or been killed. That's just the set dressing for what is really on her mind.

zachariah wrote: Yeah but Lily was just venting. Both herself and Suzy.

I'm shocked the rest of the forum has let you get away with that for so long! Perhaps you owe the Pun Jar a small window frame or set of louvers?

notStanley wrote:

zachariah wrote: Yeah but Lily was just venting. Both herself and Suzy.

I'm shocked the rest of the forum has let you get away with that for so long! Perhaps you owe the Pun Jar a small window frame or set of louvers?

They were so busy discussing whether the bullet would knock Suzy over it prevented them from catching it. I knew someone would eventually air the subject.

Drops a GSR detecting kit into the Jar.

Brandi is not manipulating everything that happens. Ever since she had the Chess Master title hung on her we seem to think she is responsible for every tricky plot twist that happens. She is not. Lily and Suzy were assigned to the library as support staff to respond to it's needs. In that position they act on the library's orders and just notify MIB of what they do afterwards. Lily had no reason to lie about it either. There are a lot of players in the strip of which Brandi is only one. There is Phix, Nudge, Bia, the Library, the politicians, Jin, May, and the biggest of all Paul. SO before we lay everything at Brandi's door we need some more leads than we have currently. Since all of this arc came out of the library that narrows the field down a bit.

Hm. I'm usually a silver-lining kind of guy, but maybe I'll tone down that aspect of my personality if I'm ever around somebody with rage issues & a firearm.

jeffepp wrote:Careful, your shooting close to the parts your partner uses to think. Aim about 8 or 10 inches higher. Nothing vital up there.

Ex-CUSE me?? If that was meant to be a joke, it was in particularly bad taste.

jeffepp wrote:Careful, your shooting close to the parts your partner uses to think. Aim about 8 or 10 inches higher. Nothing vital up there.

Not funny.

It occurs to me that in order to trace Katheryn they are going to need an archeologist who can read the runes, to figure out the operating instructions for the portal, so Monica may be showing up next. The three of them are supposed to be working together. http://wapsisquare.com/comic/working-together/

Then all they need is to stumble on some lost tribe of the Aztecs. Now, if the tribe is intent on making a sacrifice out of the interlopers Monica might volunteer to go first, wonder how they would respond when she comes back as Jaguar Girl. Hope she gets to take her bra off first.

Wapsi wrote:

jeffepp wrote:Careful, your shooting close to the parts your partner uses to think. Aim about 8 or 10 inches higher. Nothing vital up there.

Not funny.

Agreed.

My2Cents wrote:It occurs to me that in order to trace Katheryn they are going to need an archeologist who can read the runes, to figure out the operating instructions for the portal.

Ain't gonna happen. Pictographs go boom. To read them now you would need a super jigsaw puzzle expert and several years.

Effectively Kathy evaded the suits and lost them. The only hope Lily and Suzy has is the cell phone they gave to Kathy. If they can trace it's signal they could find them. That is if there is cell coverage where Kathy is and she uses it. I wonder if Sali will use it to order pizza when she gets hungry and lead MIB back to them. It's something she would do.
It's been awhile for both the girls since they last had anything to eat or drink. I wonder why these adventure always ignore the daily needs of the people. They need food, water, shelter, sturdy clothes, and other facilities. But do they appear? NO. By now Kathy should be ready to kill for a bath. She can't use the local streams either. Man, or woman, eating fish you know.

If you go back and look at the timeline, it would take a little padding to stretch it out much past a couple of hours.
Even at that, I bet Kath wouldn't turn down a hot bath and a few Band-Aids.

Ok, am I the only one absolutely loving the design changes on Suzie? There's just something about that mass of freckles covering her face that cement her as my favorite character.

zachariah wrote:By now Kathy should be ready to kill for a bath. She can't use the local streams either. Man, or woman, eating fish you know.

Which species are you expecting? Piranha are South not Central America. Crocodiles on the other hand are likely.

My2Cents wrote:

zachariah wrote:By now Kathy should be ready to kill for a bath. She can't use the local streams either. Man, or woman, eating fish you know.

Which species are you expecting? Piranha are South not Central America. Crocodiles on the other hand are likely.

What about Pirahanaconda?

I hear they can be quite testy....

It was mentioned by JWHOUK that Gibbs does not leave a hole when he slaps them ... Zeva - on the other hand would not even stop to think about that.

I would put her in the "Brandie" class. Do what you have to do - and do it quickly and move on. Ah well - we only have 17+ hours (Pacific Coast Time) to see what Mr. P has in mind. That's why we keep coming back.

zachariah wrote:

My2Cents wrote:It occurs to me that in order to trace Katheryn they are going to need an archeologist who can read the runes, to figure out the operating instructions for the portal.

Ain't gonna happen. Pictographs go boom. To read them now you would need a super jigsaw puzzle expert and several years.

Effectively Kathy evaded the suits and lost them. The only hope Lily and Suzy has is the cell phone they gave to Kathy. If they can trace it's signal they could find them. That is if there is cell coverage where Kathy is and she uses it. I wonder if Sali will use it to order pizza when she gets hungry and lead MIB back to them. It's something she would do.
It's been awhile for both the girls since they last had anything to eat or drink. I wonder why these adventure always ignore the daily needs of the people. They need food, water, shelter, sturdy clothes, and other facilities. But do they appear? NO. By now Kathy should be ready to kill for a bath. She can't use the local streams either. Man, or woman, eating fish you know.

Unless the stargate changed their time as well as their location there should be no problem getting the finer things in life.
Palenque is now a tourist trap. They'll have cell phone access and can get almost anything they want in town.
Except for the mosquitoes (Have they had their shots?), Central American wildlife is fairly benign. You would have to go hunting for a jaguar and the caymans are low country critters that will flee given a chance.
When I was in Panama they said the greatest threat was the little poisonous snake (Fer de Lance?) that would crawl into your boots at night, although I understand that the Bushmaster (a kind of big rattle-less rattlesnake) can be aggressive.