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Annotations Every Day - Written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn - Illustrated by John & Jason Waltrip

Well, then, just be Frank with us.

Chapter 29 – Page 4

on February 7, 2014
Chapter: Chapter 29
└ Tags: Ashok, E-Merl, Gravedust, Sundar
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Discussion (69) ¬

  1. Torint
    Torint
    February 7, 2014, 12:12 am | # | Reply

    But then again… too few to mention.

    • biggmac
      biggmac
      February 7, 2014, 12:54 am | # | Reply

      I “did” who I had to “do”; I saw it through with their extinction.

    • Mordecai
      Mordecai
      February 7, 2014, 3:12 pm | # | Reply

      Ah, but it’s about quality, not quantity.

  2. Mutterscrawl
    Mutterscrawl
    February 7, 2014, 12:16 am | # | Reply

    HA! It’s that guy! Guess offing him to feed to cyberspace wasn’t such a hot idea after all.

  3. Jean-Luc
    Jean-Luc
    February 7, 2014, 12:20 am | # | Reply

    The importance of being Frank.

    • Sharkie
      Sharkie
      February 7, 2014, 5:18 am | # | Reply

      I mean, he doesn’t have a strong Will. I mean quite Franklin he has a lot to make up for.

      • MDude
        MDude
        February 7, 2014, 11:19 am | # | Reply

        I’m Ashoked he even bothered to show up at all.

    • TurnerBurner
      TurnerBurner
      September 23, 2016, 4:12 pm | # | Reply

      What about Ernest Jean-Luc?

  4. CorrTerek
    CorrTerek
    February 7, 2014, 12:24 am | # | Reply

    Things are becoming quite intriguing. I won’t say I never expected the earlier bit with the cultists to become relevant beyond Iwatani’s deals with them, but I certainly didn’t expect this guy to pop up again.

    • insomniac
      insomniac
      February 7, 2014, 12:27 am | # | Reply

      But at the same time, in retrospect, it makes perfect sense. We know that it’s regret that keeps ghosts from moving on, and Ashok joined a world-ending cult because he wanted friends, and then died in the single most obvious betrayal ever. A lot to regret.

      • Valdrax
        Valdrax
        February 7, 2014, 1:32 am | # | Reply

        At the same time, the last time we saw him, his body was being sent to another world.
        I assumed his soul went with it, but now I’m wondering what the point was of what the cult was doing.

        • Ganurath
          Ganurath
          February 7, 2014, 2:51 am | # | Reply

          And what, might I ask, led you to believe that the nihilists were doing something that had a point?

          • Chris
            Chris
            February 7, 2014, 8:47 am | # | Reply

            All for show! Yes! All for show!

          • Valdrax
            Valdrax
            February 7, 2014, 10:04 am | # | Reply

            H.R. seemed to think so. Plus, nihilism doesn’t exclude having goals and motives. Just a difference in one’s perspective on their importance.

        • MDude
          MDude
          February 7, 2014, 11:25 am | # | Reply

          What I’m wondering is what happened to the portal, that didn’t really seem like something you can just pack up and move.

          • Random Whatever
            Random Whatever
            February 8, 2014, 12:10 am | # | Reply

            Well they were setting it up behind the stage when Ashok and his bud arrived. Putting it together piece by piece. So I guess you could take it apart and haul it off same same. It was right where that big indentation in the ground is in back of the stage

      • TBeckett
        TBeckett
        February 7, 2014, 3:30 pm | # | Reply

        Ashok made it sound like his initial motivation had to do with his military genius going unrecognized. But I can see how his secret motivation was a search for friendship.

        And I assumed his soul was gone as well. Guess we’re learning new things about cyberspace: it’s soul-friendly!

        • Speedy
          Speedy
          December 19, 2018, 9:06 am | # | Reply

          He was so Ashoked at his friend’s betrayal, that he missed the Soooooul Train.

          (Appropriately dead pop culture reference)

      • eschmenk
        eschmenk
        February 8, 2014, 1:14 pm | # | Reply

        I think his body was consumed in order to create the portal window. His body exploded and pieces of cloth and his remaining blood were splattered on the stone ring. (I tried linking to the page earlier, but that comment seems to have been eaten.)

  5. Messenger
    Messenger
    February 7, 2014, 12:38 am | # | Reply

    Nice to see the cultists’ practices come back to bite them on the ass.

    • Messenger
      Messenger
      February 7, 2014, 12:39 am | # | Reply

      And somehow my new randomly-selected gravatar is appropriate.

      • Ralanr
        Ralanr
        February 7, 2014, 1:07 am | # | Reply

        indeed it is. Quite so.

      • Sharkie
        Sharkie
        February 7, 2014, 5:37 am | # | Reply

        It’s always nice when that happens.

    • Rom
      Rom
      February 7, 2014, 2:01 am | # | Reply

      Wait, is that the guy “you” stabbed in the back?

      • mrknifey
        mrknifey
        February 7, 2014, 9:47 am | # | Reply

        in fact, i think that’s the exact face he made as he did it XD

      • ShadeTail
        ShadeTail
        February 7, 2014, 5:06 pm | # | Reply

        Rom: Yep, it’s really the same (dead) guy. Check out the tags on the comic, it has his name.

    • MDude
      MDude
      February 7, 2014, 11:44 am | # | Reply

      It was also a bit of poor luck: If pretty much anyone else got chosen, they likely would end up proud of being the main sacrifice, and this guy would have made it out alive. I know being chaotic is part of their whole deal, but they might want to give people a bit of advance notice when it comes to the big sacrifice rituals.

  6. Locke
    Locke
    February 7, 2014, 12:45 am | # | Reply

    It’s good for the cultists to have such a helpful doorman.

    • SteelRaven
      SteelRaven
      February 7, 2014, 1:26 am | # | Reply

      ..or in this case, doormat.

    • Locke
      Locke
      February 7, 2014, 5:22 am | # | Reply

      No, see, I said ‘doorman’, because he was used to make a door to another realm, and…

      …
      …
      … Never mind.

      • Devin
        Devin
        February 7, 2014, 12:09 pm | # | Reply

        My brethren do not understand complex puns. They only care for eating.

  7. Ralanr
    Ralanr
    February 7, 2014, 1:06 am | # | Reply

    I want this guy to be named Frank now…

    • Zippideedoodah
      Zippideedoodah
      February 7, 2014, 1:22 pm | # | Reply

      And to you, good Sir, I answer “Ni” !

      • Zippideedoodah
        Zippideedoodah
        February 7, 2014, 1:24 pm | # | Reply

        But it’s only for your gravatar, really.

        • maggPi
          maggPi
          February 8, 2014, 12:14 am | # | Reply

          Personally, I’d be interested in some Oz-some shrubbery… Y’see, I am not afraid of pruning shears, as (at most) they only inflict flesh-wounds.

          • mrknifey
            mrknifey
            February 8, 2014, 10:37 am | # | Reply

            pfft. for such terrible references i fart in your general direction ;P

  8. Narratorway
    Narratorway
    February 7, 2014, 1:47 am | # | Reply

    I’d like to think the “ha ha” was a Nelson Muntz laugh. A full Nelson if you will.

    …

    No regrets.

    • Bruceski
      Bruceski
      February 7, 2014, 1:59 am | # | Reply

      All gnolls sound like Nelson don’t they?

      • Chris
        Chris
        February 7, 2014, 8:48 am | # | Reply

        Haa!…

        ….Ha!

        • maggPi
          maggPi
          February 8, 2014, 12:16 am | # | Reply

          I think this pun-string only rates a half-Nelson. Sorry.

  9. Theodemus
    Theodemus
    February 7, 2014, 2:57 am | # | Reply

    That ghost flipping Gravy the bird in second panel is killing me :D

    Great stuff.

    • Guesticus
      Guesticus
      February 7, 2014, 6:41 am | # | Reply

      Same here, loving it :D

    • Denita TwoDragons
      Denita TwoDragons
      February 7, 2014, 11:19 am | # | Reply

      Just about had a caffeinated sinus drench because of Panel Two :-D

      • maggPi
        maggPi
        February 8, 2014, 12:17 am | # | Reply

        Ouch. Be glad it wasn’t carbonated…

  10. Beige
    Beige
    February 7, 2014, 2:57 am | # | Reply

    the plot thickens

    • MidnightDStroyer
      MidnightDStroyer
      February 9, 2014, 4:41 pm | # | Reply

      As does pudding, while you’re cooking it. Hey, doesn’t that old phrase seem significant here? After all, the proof IS in the pudding…

  11. ThatGUy
    ThatGUy
    February 7, 2014, 5:36 am | # | Reply

    Looks like we will be able to hear The Diary of “And Frank”

  12. Fenlander
    Fenlander
    February 7, 2014, 5:38 am | # | Reply

    Regrets, he’s had a few? Ok guys, lets do this!

    And now, the end is near.
    And so I face the final curtain.

    • Zippideedoodah
      Zippideedoodah
      February 7, 2014, 1:30 pm | # | Reply

      Did you guys know that Sinatra’s “My Way” was actually a cover of a French song titled “Comme d’habitude” (“as usual”).
      Interesting trivia : the original French singer, Claude François, is famous for dying one of the most stupid deaths in the history of show business : he tried to fix a lightbulb above his bathtub WHILE he was in his bath.
      And that’s how he faced the final curtain !

      • maggPi
        maggPi
        February 8, 2014, 12:21 am | # | Reply

        Oh, for Fuck’s Sake. That IS a stupid death. Was he drunk, or high when he did it? Is there any mention?
        …
        OTH; Darwin Award!!!!
        (Purely for our amusement…)

        • Zippideedoodah
          Zippideedoodah
          February 10, 2014, 8:33 am | # | Reply

          Apparently he wasn’t high or anything. He was just an incredible stickler for details, and he couldn’t stand seeing that lightbulb askew…

        • Speedy
          Speedy
          December 19, 2018, 9:58 am | # | Reply

          “No Regerts”

      • MidnightDStroyer
        MidnightDStroyer
        February 9, 2014, 4:23 pm | # | Reply

        So, while in his bath, he faced his final shower curtain?…

        • Speedy
          Speedy
          December 19, 2018, 10:00 am | # | Reply

          “And I died it myyyyyyy way!”

  13. DeePseudonym
    DeePseudonym
    February 7, 2014, 10:21 am | # | Reply

    Longest character intro EVER.

  14. Devin
    Devin
    February 7, 2014, 12:31 pm | # | Reply

    Chapter 22 for those who want to read it over again.

  15. Hatman
    Hatman
    February 7, 2014, 5:27 pm | # | Reply

    “I can’t tell you how much I regret my last words being all about how I could never kill the dude that was currently killing me.”

  16. Runic
    Runic
    February 7, 2014, 9:12 pm | # | Reply

    love the second panel in the background. Can just imagine him “I’m doing it as hard as I can!”

    • maggPi
      maggPi
      February 8, 2014, 12:25 am | # | Reply

      Nothing to do with anything but your username (in case you ever see this), BUT: I am a rune-caster (one who practices the art of Runemal). I just liked your “name.” Neat-o.

      • Runic
        Runic
        February 9, 2014, 7:25 pm | # | Reply

        Well thank you ^_^

  17. Chaltab
    Chaltab
    February 7, 2014, 9:25 pm | # | Reply

    Wait, so is Ashok a PC or an NPC?

    I’m still trying to figure out how death works in the game. Do PCs suffer permadeath like in some sadistic MMO roguelike? Gravedust reviving the core party was portrayed as a huge rule-breaking by the Mystics. And what happens if Bandit’s player suddenly has power loss and their computer dies?

    • Loyal
      Loyal
      February 8, 2014, 3:12 am | # | Reply

      I suppose it’s possible that you simply suffer permadeath and roll a new character, like with tabletop games. The battle of the elven home was an utter massacre on both sides and clearly showed passage of their spirits to the hereafter. However, this was not a background lore event, but explicitly a mass-player PvP event.

      By the same token, we have a small number of characters in the narrative whose power level clearly dwarfs that of the common folk – Our Scipios, our Sundars, our HAMMERHEADs and our Auraugus. Yet they are treated as normally as anyone else. I believe they are Player Characters who’ve simply managed not to die yet, and leveled up and grown powerful as a result.

      As to Byron, et al, they are clearly special cases. Anomalies. It’s difficult to make a case concerning them. Their very existence has been stated to have some effect on the normal player characters they interact with.

    • FoolishOwl
      FoolishOwl
      February 8, 2014, 3:39 pm | # | Reply

      It’s a puzzle.

      I’ve been assuming that the original band of five adventurers were the characters played by the five in the tubes, and that many of the other, recurring adventurers are “normal” players: E-merl, Scipio, etc. I’ve been puzzled about whether they, generally, perceive something unusual about the original five. I think we’ve gotten that Bandit Keynes has caught on that something strange is going on, for instance.

      I am puzzled about how respawning may work, since that’s a common experience in MMO play, but it’s always tricky to roleplay. The trend in MMO design seems to be to flat out ignore this sort of inconsistency in world-building (which most players ignore anyway).

      Ashok is a puzzle. At first, I would have assumed he was a PC, but this scenario suggests he’s an NPC. Except, Arkerra seems to be alive, so it’s not that simple — the characters may actually be alive (or in this case, undead).

      • MidnightDStroyer
        MidnightDStroyer
        February 9, 2014, 4:38 pm | # | Reply

        …Or they might be something like Hotblack Desiato, who spent a year being dead for tax purposes (The Douglas Adams’ book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe). He had to be hooked up to “death support” systems.

        Or similar to what happened to Rache Bartmoss in the Cyberpunk RPG (as of the 2020 version). He was hooked up to life support while cruising the Net, when someone finally managed to stop his heart with a security program…He remained half-alive mentally, still hooked into the Net, while his body was frozen by the life support equipment.

        In this case of this comic, perhaps if someone dies in the game, the stasis tubes keeps the body “alive” while the mind remains hooked into the game. Since their minds have perceived their own deaths in-game, they manage to find a way to communicate with the living by using the rules & parameters of the game itself to make contact.

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Guilded Age is co-written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn, and illustrated by John Waltrip. Site design by Samantha Kyle. Fonts by Blambot.com.
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