The 2nd Girl Genius Thread

[madd0ct0r]

hmmm. her mini spark clanks have developed flight too...

[The Yosemite Bear]

and the torchmen have steeds....

[LadyTevar]

Well well... interesting developments this week.

1. no Revenants, even the hidden type, in Mechanicsburg. No wonder Lucretia didn't want to go there, she would have had no power over anyone.
2. Gil's cousin, the 'new king' seems to think he did something important. I'm waiting for The Castle to speak up.

[LadyTevar]

So, discussion on #1: No Revenants
Tarvek and the Vespers are (not)quoting statistics on the spread of the hidden Revenants, which seems to indicate that the last 20years should have at least gotten a portion of every city-state in the Empire. Yet the Mechaniacs are clean. Why?

My Theories:
1. Lucretia never let her wasps get close to the town. This would have been a good strategy during the War with the Other, but it seems the Knights of Jove had 20ys to sneak some in with a Prisoner or something. This leads to the idea that ...

A. The wasps/revenants are killed on site, either by the townspeople or the Castle. We saw, even weak & broken, the Castle noticed Agatha entering. That could have tipped off the Seneschal to invaders as well.
OR
B. The Mechaniacs are somehow immune.

I'm going to expand on#B.
We know that the town grew up along the Dyne, always under the rule of a Heterodyne. From the look of the Crypt, the Castle's hints of history, and other dropped hints, that's been at least 500years, probably more. Actually, I mispeak -- the Dyne wasn't always there, it started as an artesian well of unobtainium that either killed you or changed you (see flashback to First Heterodyne). A later descendant blew the well open to form the Dyne River, which left a lot of odd ducks and other dangerous creatures before finally Fautus Heterodyne 'tamed' the Dyne to power the massive AI of the Castle.
Thus, the Mechaniacs have had hundreds of generations of exposure to whatever was in the Dyne pre-Castle, as well as the external evolutionary force of being minions/serfs to the Heterodynes. Add in several generations of interbreeding with the Jaegerkin (the Jaeger-draught uses the pure well-water), and you have a population of mortals with some interesting genetic quirks.
One of those quirks might mean the Wasps don't take.

[Ahriman238]

Well, the Jaegers ARE immune to the wasps.

Lucrezia lived in the castle for a long time, it's possible she didn't want to test it's defenses until she was ready to move more-or-less openly, and after the attack that knocked out the Castle, Bill and Barry hit the road, removing any reason for her to attack or care about the town.

[The Yosemite Bear]

wait we know lucrezia is dormant in Agatha, the weasels like Agatha?
this means somethign

[Ahriman238]

wait we know lucrezia is dormant in Agatha, the weasels like Agatha?
this means somethign

I can't imagine any way the weasels could detect possession. Mind, Agatha is still Lucrezia's daughter, similar in appearance and voice. But I doubt it means anything, if the weasels were part of Lucrezia's plan she wouldn't have gone to so much trouble to destroy them.

[madd0ct0r]

the weasel's detect wasping, not mind transference

[LadyTevar]

So, it is possible that wasp-immunity has been passed down to the Mechaniacs?

Side note: We know the Vespers are spreading out, but which weasels did they take with them? Adults, or some of the new 'breeders' that Tarvek found? (It does look like the baby weasels are the ones crawling over Tarvek)

[Zanfib]

Maybe it's somthing in the water?

[The Yosemite Bear]

well we know that the water of the Dyne alters people, and animals, making them jaegerlike, purhaps it can also do something to make one resistant to the wasps, also has Lucrezzia taken over since Agatha was given a drink by Higgs?

[Enigma]

well we know that the water of the Dyne alters people, and animals, making them jaegerlike, purhaps it can also do something to make one resistant to the wasps, also has Lucrezzia taken over since Agatha was given a drink by Higgs?

As far as I know, yes. When Zola tried to get to Lucrezia, she removed the locket I believe. Could be wrong.

[LaCroix]

Lucrezia's mind in Agatha != wasped Agatha

So I don't see why whatever might work against wasps should work against this particular posession. (Also, wasping is a conditioning, not a posession...)

[FaxModem1]

I wonder what Eldritch Abomination meat tastes like.

[Bedlam]

I wonder what Eldritch Abomination meat tastes like.

That way lies Madness


And Barbeques

[The Yosemite Bear]

not as bad as american fast food, didn't you know that chicken nuggets and hot dogs really are made out of people and shuggoth....

[Crayz9000]

If they aren't already (the FDA doth protest too much, methinks) they probably will be as soon as we figure out how to vat-grow meat proteins. Which they're making pretty good progress on.

[LaCroix]

Psst... Spoiler

The cake is a lie!

[FaxModem1]

So wait, Agatha is a fully fledged villain dictator now?

[Crayz9000]

She will be once she goes through all the formalities she so hates...

[Bedlam]

Never has a truer statement been made that the last panel of todays comic.

[LadyTevar]

Poor StormKing. He really has No Clue how to handle Agatha, does he.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Take a ticket the line for possition in the hetrodyne's harem forms to the left, your behind Wulfenbach, Tarvek, & Krosp (whose not interested in her like that, but does consider her his human)

[Murazor]

Some troubling developments.

So– Got a call from our agent, telling me that Night Shade Books, the American publisher of the Girl Genius novels, is folding. This made me sad. I became markedly less sad when my agent assured me that our sales were sufficiently good that any number of other publishers should be interested in picking us up, so– Hurrah! Well…maybe hurrah.

You see, there’s the whole tedious business of disengaging ourselves from Night Shade, which has decided to sell our contract to another publisher in order to cover their debts. This other publisher, Skyhorse, is perfectly willing to buy Night Shade’s assets (our contracts). However, they will rewrite them and everybody now gets paid a flat 10% of net sales. Let me put this another way; If I was a monkey, I’d be throwing this.

However it gets even better. A certain percentage of Night Shade authors have to agree to this hose job before the deal goes through. Yay! We’re safe! You’d have to be an idiot to sign onto this! True– So let’s bring out a stick and threaten you! If they don’t get enough authors willing to eat this crap, then Night Shade has no choice but to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Then all the books in question go into a legal limbo. No one has the rights until the bankruptcy is resolved, which might take years- or possibly, NEVER! This has happened before to way better authors than us. This means that once said books go out of print, the authors can’t resell them. Can’t reprint them. Can’t sell any adaptation rights. Can’t write any sequels. And so, because a couple of wankers took two semesters of ‘Creative Writing’ instead one or two in ‘Business Administration’ before they started their little publishing house, a whole bunch of authors have the choice of deciding if they want to give their work away for free (scum who actually took Business Administration classes collapse in orgasmic joy when some fool agrees to get paid a percentage of ‘net’. Seriously, that’s insulting ‘amateur night in Dixie’ stuff) (Yes, I’ve been a freelancer for 30+ years, thanks for asking), or losing control of it, possibly for years, maybe forever.

So what’s going to happen? Don’t know. unlike many authors, I actually have an entertainment lawyer look over our contracts before we sign them, so I’m hoping we’re covered, but this is by no means a given. Even if we are, it still leaves a lot of other authors in a bad spot.

Does this seem like a Bad Situation to you? Then you should say something. Mr. Jeremy Lassen, Night Shade Books, and even Skyhorse Publishing are on Facebook. I’m sure they’d love to hear your opinions.

I’ll keep you posted.

Whenever I am faced with tribulations like this, I look for inspiration from creative people of the past. My latest Rock happens to be Christopher Lee, thanks to this handy infographic I found on the web. Be inspired!

Thought some here might be interested in hearing about this.

[Dass.Kapital]

Mmm-mmmmm! Snail gelato!

Oh...and it looks like the Baron is in-bound as well.