Wednesday's comic

[madfilkentist]

Interesting things lie behind locked doors.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Avoiding vapors without a gas mask is difficult. By the time they get back, the Beast and Castle could be damaged. Or enhanced. Or insane.

[jbwoodford]

It's not clear whether they breathe, though. Given that, a gas mask is going to be useless--if any part of them is exposed to the vapor, that part will potentially be damaged.

[kelkyag]

I doubt either of them breathes in the usual sense, though Train may need oxygen to burn fuel. Little diving suits or an ablative coating would be more use than gas masks. Agatha could probably provide either -- once they make it back to her, which is going to take some serious doing.

If this mess has anything to do with higher-dimensional spaces, I wonder if Castle's remote unit will wind up with a better/different/batshit link to the main castle? The main castle already has more dimensional awareness than the average inhabitant of Europa.

[jbwoodford]

Another possibility is that Agatha could reconstruct the apparatus the Castle uses to leech power from the water of the Dyne, and put it under the control of the mini-Castle. That would address the immediate issue of the water, and also provide a potent weapon against Lu and her allies.

[kelkyag]

Definitely an interesting possibility! Also perilous. If this is actually what provides the "safe" power the Queens use, tapping it Heterodyne style instead would be Agatha stepping rather aggressively on Albia's toes. (And those of any other surviving mirror-using Queens.)

Also I suspect Agatha -- and Castle -- would prefer not to spill a bunch of Heterodyne secrets, though that may turn out to be necessary.

Agatha wasn't the one doing most of the work with the power collection system - that was Von Zinzer & co fixing the water wheel, and Gil and Tarvek working on the collectors. She might not know the system well enough to build another one. Castle might, though, if it has those memories in this unit ...

[turbobeholder]

Breathing is not the only way to need at least some gas exchange.
You didn't hear that old story about a computer that died of smoking?

[jbwoodford]

We don't know that they don't already have filtration on their (as-yet hypothetical) air inlets, though.

[elmegil]

Someone on FB pointed out something I think is very likely...

This looks very much like the Dyne, yes?
It's clearly the source of the poisoned waters.
What if the ultimate source of the Dyne was tapped in Mechanicsburg, thereby providing an outlet and a capture of the energy, but then the Baron put a time stop on Mechanicsburg....
Perhaps there was a spring here, but the back pressure from no longer having an outlet at Mechanicsburg caused it to grow and cause this damage and create a significant flow that poisons the waters.....

[elmegil]

And then beyond that, if the springs were the source of energy for the queen's mirrors, perhaps the tapping of the Dyne reduced the springs' flows and led to some of the decline in working mirrors... ??

[spectrum_09]

The Dyne began as a small spring.
Egregious Heterodyne increased the Dyne's flow.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091102#.YZbSLNDMLIU
Faustus Heterodyne learned to harvest the energy of the Dyne.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091104#.YZbSvdDMLIU

You make a good point though. I don't think we know exactly when the poisoned waters started. Klaus' time bubble may have some unintended consequences.

[spectrum_09]

Here's the pages covering the discussion of the cursed waters.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200327#.YZb_XNDMLIU
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200330#.YZb__dDMLIU
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200403#.YZcAKdDMLIU
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200406#.YZcAR9DMLIU

[mindstalk]

The Heterodynes started messing with the Dyne 900-1000 years ago. I'm pretty sure the mirror decline is much older, going back to Time Traveling Lucrezia.

[elmegil]

Fair enough about TT Lu, but this is certainly a statement of early Heterodyne/Dyne history that reinforces the idea that the waters here are related to the Dyne....


"At the beginning of the 11th century, the warlord Genghis Ht’rok-din invaded the area . Aside from its defenses, the only feature of merit was a holy spring dedicated to a local battle goddess, maintained by an order of priestesses . The water had peculiar properties – and was poisonous . Ht’rok-din drank from the spring of the Dyne and did not die . Instead he thrived, and began the Heterodyne line." -- GG Sourcebook & RPG

[jbwoodford]

Interesting thought, although the Castle is still somewhat active despite the time stop.

[mindstalk]

Interesting idea!

[pikkugen]

"The Mistress must see this EVENTUALLY!"

...I laughed. Realism.