Follow Her Lead 2013-06-10

[Sidhekin]

"Until all that was left was a SMILE. - Cheshire Cat Brandi.
Wow talk of Cold-blooded .... I mean ...... damn.
What about Kathy, Acacia and Atsali? Did that B**ch send her freinds to thier death?

I don't think SDO had any idea Bud was there. Sending Bud there doesn't further her plan. The anti-poiting is likely her work, but as a generic contingency, not specifically to handle Bud.

After all, Bud survives this.

Oh, and Kath and Atsali? No friends of hers. Monica will mourn Kath, but she won't know Brandi staged it. As far as she knows, all Brandi did was go looking for them, on Library's errand.

Except, Bud survives this ... and with a bit of quick thinking, should be able to save Kath and Atsali. And they can expose SDO.

(Then there's Tsillah and the Library itself. They know Brandi's brain is one of the stakes here. If they know anything about what Brandi has prepared, Bud's diverted poiting may well have been their work. On the other hand, they seemed to be missing info ("on the lost tribe"), so I'm unsure how deep their knowledge of Brandi's machinations is. On the gripping hand, someone diverted Bud ...)

[Dave]

I also think that we're not taking into effect how pissed off Kath is going to be if she survived.

Yes, she's really going to be furious. Question is, will she actually be able to do anything about it? We seem to have confirmation that she's the last truly-living Etheitian/Anasazi and is actually a fusion/chimera of six individual "donors", and we know she's bright-to-brilliant and a very capable person when not being reclusive... but does that add up to enough moxie or mojo to take on an ancient golem chessmaster? Would she have any sort of authoritative command power over golems, as Monca-the-Glyph-speaker does? Might the newly-augmented Atsali be carring some information that would give Kath a handle on Oduya?

Either way, poor Brandi is going to bear the brunt of punishment meant for SDO...

Yeah, that's painful. We've known that Brandi is aware of Oduya's existence in some degree, and doesn't like what she does... but we're only now learning just how big a burden she may have had.

Hmmm. Tsillah's comment was that this incident might be intended to re-associate Brandi's two "selves", undoing the MPD splitting which started as a result of Brandi's traumatic abduction back in Lanthis.

Question: what would a "unified" Brandi be like? and, how will she feel about, and cope with the memory of the things that Oduya has done? My sense is that gentle "would not hurt a fly" Brandi gets by because she's deliberately ignorant of Oduya's manipulations and how people have suffered as a result. Oduya knows, but doesn't care or empathize with the people she's messing with.

A reconciled/merged Brandi might not have access to either of these emotional defenses. She might be hit by thousands of years of accumulated guilt and remorse when "emotional sensitivity" and "self-knwledge" collide at a thousand miles per hour.

Her self-punishment may be more acute than anything Monica could come up with.

[Sidhekin]

Brandi's two halves: Ignorance and apathy? One doesn't know; the other doesn't care ...

[Aleister Crow]

Brandi's two halves: Ignorance and apathy? One doesn't know; the other doesn't care ...

Not apathy. SDO strikes me as the "Big-picture" type- and I seriously doubt we have enough info yet to see that picture ourselves.

Matter of fact, I'll bet she's counting on Bud, Kath and Sali surviving.

[KnightDelight]

Brandi's two halves: Ignorance and apathy? One doesn't know; the other doesn't care ...

Not apathy. SDO strikes me as the "Big-picture" type- and I seriously doubt we have enough info yet to see that picture ourselves.

Matter of fact, I'll bet she's counting on Bud, Kath and Sali surviving.

More likely, she has a plan going for both cases, survive or not survive.

I do wonder though, does the soft spot for children leak over into SDO? We know the babies were separated out. She may have placed them into another secret location to at least save them for later revival. They would have no knowledge about (or desire to make) golems. OTOH, they may have all already been revived and somehow brought to a sufficient level of growth to be adopted by families who will ask no questions. Though that would leave a lot of loose ends with people around with Anasazi blood. Unless that was done just recently since the calendar machine was out of the way and no more cycle repeats, meaning it was now time to do it. When she said there were only 2 people with that DNA, she may have meant only 2 adults. Possibilities, possibilities.

[Jabberwonky]

Strange height disparity. Doesn't the military have minimum height requirements? General Lilliput seems a mite tiny. On the other end of the scale, the one in back seems a mite tallish. Jolly Green Giant freakish tall. As does SDO for that matter.

At Kandahar Air Base, about 6 or 7 years ago, there was a full bird colonel that used the services of our facility. The only way you could tell he entered was the top of his cap barely visible over our 'chest-high' sign in counter.

On the gripping hand, someone diverted Bud ...

[TheSkulker]

Paul, I'm not trying to be a grammar cop here but as written you have an incomplete sentence in panel one and it muddies the story.

Did you mean to say?

"I brought you and your Mexican counterpart here as official, well-informed, concerned observers."

[TheSkulker]

Re heading off the scientific curiosity of the what and why of a nuclear explosion in the middle of nowhere in Mexico: I am confused.

An explosion that big would have obliterated any trace of the underground complex as well as made it totally unaccessible so why the coverup?

OT1H, if the spin is that it was an unexpected, naturally occurring explosion, there would be no need for a coverup.

Yet the sounding rockets would imply that a natural process that has been "simmering" silently for thousands, if not millions, of years is known to the exact second when it will explode. That is totally unbelievable. Especially coming out of the blue from the military and with no other corroboration or advance warning. And if the sounding rockets are to substantiate the spin that it was natural but known, then where is all the equipment and personnel for gathering data and why the secrecy to keep other scientists away?

OTOH, if the coverup plan is to say that the explosion was not natural but a planned test - that stretches credibility. For the US to carry out a surreptitious nuclear explosion (or, for that matter, any test), on Mexican soil would require more than just a concurrence of a couple of generals - to say the least. And again, where is the data gathering entourage?

OTGH, am I all wet in assuming that this was nuclear explosion or was it "just" a volcanic eruption? However, even then there are the same questions of timing and data gathering.

[kingklash]

There is something disconcerting about being able to explain away a rare incident as a everyday happening.

Meanthewhiles, I've brought frybread and the new spiderweb hammocks in fashioonable summer colors are in!

[Dave]

Brandi's two halves: Ignorance and apathy? One doesn't know; the other doesn't care ...

Not apathy. SDO strikes me as the "Big-picture" type- and I seriously doubt we have enough info yet to see that picture ourselves.

True enough. I do have to wonder, though... at what point does "Doing good, in the pursuit of the Big Picture, at any cost" become essentially indistinguishable from "Doing evil"?

Giving her the benefit of the doubt, though: let's assume that what we've been shown is correct. If somebody had not intervened, the Etheitians would have resurrected the Lanthian technology for creating golems and chimerae, and would have created an army of them. Presumably their goal was world-wide conquest. If they'd done this, then at the very least they would have succeeded in conquering every other culture on the planet, and (presumably) colonized or dominated them. Most likely, their empire would have eventually fractured and turned on itself, leading to planet-wide "civil war" using golems and chimerae... and this could easily have left the entire planet a burned-out cinder. Not good.

So, Senior Director Oduya's goal may not have been just valid, but critically important.

In pursuing it as she has, she's had a bunch of different choices to make, tradeoffs to decide among, and (somewhat conflicting) goals to balance. These could have seriously constrained her choices... even with demonic assistance, she's still a golem and (I suspect) does not have complete freedom of will and action. So, here's how the possible solutions might have looked to her:

Choices.png (70.62 KiB) Viewed 8115 times

The intersection between the "good outcome" choices may have been very small indeed - there may not have been many things that Senior Directory Oduya could decide to do, which she could actually pull off, which would leave the world safe from chimera armies, and which would give her "cat's paws" some chance to survive:

Solution.png (16.65 KiB) Viewed 8115 times

So, as little as I like to say it: in this case, it may be true that the Venn justifies the means.

(Deposits a complete set of sets that do not contain other sets of sets, into the Pun Jar. Fortunately the Jar's polydimensional nature prevents it from imploding.)

[Timotheus]

Kingklash: "Meanthewhiles, I've brought frybread"
Do you need a hot plate or just an outlet on the counter? You can set up next to the bowl of potassium Iodide tablets.

I've got the podium, overhead projector, display screen linked to a computer and drafting tablet, microphone, cooler of cold water (or whatever he wants), cheese tray, and comfy leather chair (fake fireplace optional) all set up and the recliners, couches, and overstuffed chairs all arraigned in front of the stage. So whenever the master storyteller should care to drop by the confusion corner and de-confuse the masses we'll be ready.

I don't think a team of ferrets on a sugar rush could search out this tangled plot.

[Fairportfan]

Paul, I'm not trying to be a grammar cop here but as written you have an incomplete sentence in panel one and it muddies the story.

Did you mean to say?

"I brought you and your Mexican counterpart here as official, well-informed, concerned observers."

It's not incomplete at all.

[MerchManDan]

Wow. I've heard of movers-and-shakers, but seeing an American Army general defer to her - and instructs others to do the same...wow. That sort of authority boggles the mind. What worries me: Has absolute power corrupted absolutely? Probably too soon to tell.

So, as little as I like to say it: in this case, it may be true that the Venn justifies the means.

Impressive set-up, masterful execution, satisfyingly mind-bending conclusion. *holds up sign* [9.5] Well punned, sir.

[KnightDelight]

Diagrams notwithstanding, here is something I found a while back that SDO should read: "A choice between two evils is a flawed premise. There is always a choice which excludes evil. It's up to you to find it."

[Wyvern]

Strange height disparity. Doesn't the military have minimum height requirements? General Lilliput seems a mite tiny. On the other end of the scale, the one in back seems a mite tallish. Jolly Green Giant freakish tall. As does SDO for that matter.

Brandi's always been tall, and she's wearing heels.

[Fairportfan]

Pretty sure Brandi is over six feet in even modest heels.

[Atomic]

Dave,

Well done! It's not often one has to resort to Venn Diagrams when trying to understand plot devices and outcomes!

For this, I am proud to award you a Spherical Balrog!


(Explanation here)

[Timotheus]

Under the topic of forgotten (or at least lost in the shuffle) business, how many remember this comment by May back when they were stabilizing Jin?
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/what-is-it/

Followed by this comment by Brandi:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/what-was-that/

The subject was never pursued further, but it seems to indicate there's another vimana cell in May's possession and possibly one of the grid cells could be missing.

Just to add a further twist to things.

[Wyvern]

I remember the Spherical Balrog posts by Irony-Chan on her web comic, as filler for comic episodes. It's too bad Dumnestor's Heros is apparently not even on the web any more; it was a fine web comic.

[Fairportfan]

The origin of that line was "Assume a spherical cow of uniform density..."