Chapter 31 – Page 11
Special thanks to Joel Watson for letting us use his likenesses again. Go read premium-level webcomic comic over at hijinksensue.com!
If you’re a new reader coming in from Hijinks Ensue, welcome! This might be a bad time in the story to start, though, so why not go to the first page and dig in?
Also, today is Joel’s birthday! Go wish him a happy one, yeah?
People sign up for a mysterious experiment, proceed to vanish off the face of the Earth, and you don’t do anything? Wow.
Yeah, Joel, what the fuck?!
Willis at least made a proper effort! He told me he found evidence of some kind of weird MMO-related conspiracy and, worried that it might affect the pending Transformers MMO, he would be taking the evidence straight to Hurricane’s offices to complain!
Now, I haven’t seen him since then, but I’m sure he’s still doing his part; Owning up to the responsibility every web cartoonist has to battle terrifying corporate conspiracies.
BRB firebombing Illuminati HQ
CURSES! How did you find us!
Do you have to be so casual about it?
I don’t see how Joel can be faulted for failing to investigate the cases of missing people, about whom he had a) absolutely no leads within his ability to follow, and b) no knowledge of their being missing until, apparently, just now.
What is curious is that he is only just now hearing of this, since any police force worth their badges would/should have spoken to him and his colleagues long before Shanna ever took it upon herself to do so.
Unless, perhaps, that was one of the ‘lines of inquiry’ our buddy JJ Berten had been ‘discouraging’. Which in hindsight speaks all the more of his abilities and makes him all the more frightening for it.
And then of course I get ninja’d by Phil, though what this means I’m not sure.
Isn’t “Privacy” that publicly institution that was acquired by Google for 1.42 gajillion dorrahs?
No, privacy is what you would almost have if people stop posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram every 20 minutes. Allot of people openly share with the world where they work, post where they are any given time of the day, what they are doing, even post pictures of what they eat, who needs big brother.
The thing is, outside the Internet, “privacy” is very often about social norms by which people ignore what others are doing, when they could easily observe it. You’re not supposed to eavesdrop on the conversation at the next table at the restaurant, or watch what’s on your neighbor’s television set through their window, or listen at your roommate’s door when he’s in there with his girlfriend.
The trouble is that there’s a lot of money to be made in digital eavesdropping.
Thank-you for your post. I now understand why people distrust me.
FACE BOOK IS A TOOL OF SATAN.
avatar win;)
i am much happier with that than my avatar would suggest:)
Now, if only the power of this PRNG that selects avatars could be harnessed for more awesome…like lottery numbers.
Pretty sure the bearded guy turns out to be Sy’rnj.
Any bets on the brown-haired pretty boy?
We’ve already seen a shadow vignette of Sepia Syr’nj in a previous chapter. Female for sure.
In case you’re wondering, it seems like the first panel has (from left to right) Gravedust and Best (in Joel’s hands) followed by Frigg, Byron, and Syr’nj (held by Shanna). Syr’nj loks the least like her actual self (probably b/c she’s not a wood elf in real life), but the others seem to hold many of the same facial features and hairstyles they sported in reality. Is this part of the game upload, or is it an innate identity visualized by their minds when they “created” their starting characters? Were they given a set backstory, or did they, out of long practice, invent a backstory for themselves? How much of their “reality” is formed by force of code and will, and how much creates itself by feeding off the subconscious mind? Are these question relevant, and if not, why am I asking so many of them? These questions and more will not be answered for your viewing pleasure when next you read Guilded Age !
Probably not next time. BUT EVENTUALLY! PROBABLY!
There is simply not enough detail in the second photo to tell anything except they are humanoid and have blonde/white hair
Hokay. From L to R, Dusty/Bestdit or Syr/Frigg/Byron/Bestdit or Syr. Best & Bandit are the same, since like Clark Kent and Supes, they never appear together.
OR (L-R): B.W. Stevenson, Legolas, Mila Jojovich, David Cassidy, Gwyneth Paltrow
Gravy, your beard is gravy.
Honestly, it’s some what common for online gamers to loss all contact with the outside world.
I really hope that Shanna gets a lead to finding the Five soon. She’s the only hope they (and both Earth and Arkerra in general) have at the moment. Especially since she’s the only one trying to stop H.R.
And on a similar topic, will we get to see what the Five really look like in detail sometime soon?
We just saw portraits of the players of Gravedust and Syr’nj.
Syr’nj? I thought that was Byron.
I’m not completely certain, but I think that facial expression is more consistent with the personality expressed by Syr’nj’s player than that expressed by Byron’s. Syr’nj’s player seemed much less guarded, more open and friendly, while Byron’s player was busy disguising himself behind a constructed persona, with his pretentious reference to Lord Byron.
I think the nose is a fairly distinguishing trait between Byron’s player and Syr’nj’s. And I thought Byron was looking a little effeminate in that headshot too, but then again headshots are usually all about soft lighting and air-brushed features, plus the man is likely to be clean or at least neatly-shaved.
And I think we can forgive Byron’s ‘pretentiousness’ considering he realized he was partaking in revolutionary sciences and he was speaking to a presumably intelligent audience (geekdom). Everyone wants to share a good quote when they’re doing something big; Byron chose to rely on someone else’s wisdom. It wasn’t humble necessarily, but certainly avoids personal pride.
Oh but I just looked back to the taped interview with the Five and Byron’s voice cracked at the end. So he totally might be a little on the young side (here’s hoping he’s at least an adult though, right?).
If the Famous Five do get pulled out of Arkerra, what then? “Oh well, its just a game, pull the plug and shut down the server(s)!”
I never said that. When the Five (finally) return to the real world, they can still keep Arkerra going. They just have to avoid going there themselves.
Dude, Mr. Webcomic Man Joel Watson, you can’t be so blasé about this.
You are being asked about a bunch of nerds who have been kidnapped for eeevil sci-fi experiments and the interrogator is a trans dimensional Louise Lane/Batwoman. Get pumped.
Josh would be way more excited if he hadn’t gotten pumped 6 time already this con.
No, it’s not like that.
You fill your lungs with air, determined stare, firmly point your index to the skies (or the general direction of evildoing if your evildar is in working condition) and shout EEEEEVIL.
Is Shanna being sarcastic with that last line? Because I can understand getting irritated when Joel suggests that she’s crazy — especially with her family history — but his policy regarding his fans seems reasonable to me. Not sure what else he could have done there.
Or is she just wistfully remembering the period in her life where she didn’t have to worry about leaving a trail that others could follow?
It’s the latter. Source: private
I find the alt-text a little distasteful. :\ Privacy is being able to choose what we share, and choosing to share the details of your meals with the whole world does not negate your right to hide anything else.
It’s almost like the alt text is tongue in cheek. Sarcastic even. Perhaps making light?
It may not negate your right to privacy, but that was never how the game was played. The most effective way to take something from someone is to convince them to give it away. Make it fun to share, to tell everyone all those little details about your life. Having people pay attention to you and telling you how interesting you are is quite the lure, since acceptance and approval is something e all crave at some level. You get so caught up in what it is you believe you are getting form the deal that it becomes so easy for anyone anywhere with a little initiative can start figuring out things about you that maybe you didn’t want them to know.
On a related internet note, I am not a fan of flash mobs.
This is why I lie instead. I keep my privacy, and get to sound more interesting.
BRB, I’m off to extract the cure for cancer from a live shark’s tonsils.
So Byron is like 16. how was he able to sign consent to be in the experiment? Is he an emancipated minor?
What makes you think Byron is 16?
picture in last panel
Who is this guy supposed to be anyway, am I missing something?
You know Shanna laughs at geekdom. But it doesn’t laugh at her.
She was born to the Spandex.
Look at the intensity of that stare and the way she rocks that mask in the next to last panel.
Just saying that when she doesn’t force herself to act like all like “This is totally stupid,” well she wears that costume like a second skin.
And she is a reporter for god’s sake. All we need now is for a radioactive something to drop on to her. (They can’t be that hard to come by, I read Marvel Comics for years, before they got lazy and made everyone a mutant.)
And then she won’t need that crutch of an investigative reporter thing any more to go about what she was born to do.
It’s no far for Daedalus to be the only one on this side. We need a champion. And I think we are looking at her.
Best thing is she won’t act like the Punisher when she throws the handlebar moustache guy through a wall.
Nice. Her mask really adds a Batmanesque touch to her speech in the fifth panel.
BTW, is there any chance the reporter can be added to the Cast page? I tried looking up her name a moment ago, but couldn’t find it. And she seems central enough a character to justify adding her to the page.
She’s from Faans
I knew I recognised her, but I’ve always assumed it was coincidental.
Is there a reason for it?
Adding Shanna is a good idea at this point, will take under advisement.
Beyond simply the fact that I wrote Shanna in Fans, the basic essence of her character, an essence that transcends universes, is very qualified for the role she’s taking in this story.
Interesting. But still, all the more reason to add her to the cast page. That way folks like me know where she came from.
Also, shouldn’t this page be tagged with ‘The Five’?
What, no comments on Joel “letting it go“?