The Guest List Grows – Page 1063

TRANSCRIPT: THERIK: What blasphemous magick is this?! IPOLA: Do I know you? GUDIK: Oh don’t shit your skirt, bishop.  I’ve seen this stuff before, it’s just some old magick in the rings.  And besides, it’s only Ipola. We like her. IPOLA: Thank you,Gudik. IOLA:   But it’s not only me.  (she chants a spell over her own ring.)

22 thoughts on “The Guest List Grows – Page 1063

  1. Holy moly, Mama’as a-comin’ to Prayer Time, ’cause her boy done needs a verbal ass-kickin’ & re-directin’!

    Also, kudos to all who predicted the priestly ponce would protest the magical bits.

    1. I really don’t think that it’s any surprise that the Priestly Ponce prefers plain prayer. What was it that Mentl said…they are so uptight because they arn’t getting any at home.

      1. The priest’s issues may not be due to not getting any at home. Priests are, to an extent, a self-selected bunch. As such, it’s entirely possible the issue may stem from some cause of not wanting any at home or on the road. It could be due to only wanting what is never, ever legally available. Note that while that does cover something one of our favorite characters has a personal grudge against, it also covers a great many other things.

        Life is more complicated than I can possibly imagine. I’m not going to compare Jed’s ability to imagine versus mine, but I will say that it’s quite likely that we can both imagine things that the other would not. As such, exactly why the priest is the way he is could easily be something that I’m not imagining, despite the fact that my range of possibilities on this subject seems a bit more varied than your.

    2. I myself am glad I predicted Gudik would react civilly and tell the priest off.

  2. Your mother says to get your butt home and ground your brother.
    Oh, wait. She can speak for herself.

  3. Too bad Ipola didn’t give Tula 2 rings, …one for Yanora, and one for herself. They would still have been out of touch when the three companions were on Earth, but could be talking to Zonn right now as well. Interesting networking possibilities, once Tula gets home and suggests it. Ipola probably didn’t have more than one ring ready when Tula left. Everyone’s got resource problems.

    1. Presumably, Tula was able to contact her mother without needing a ring. But with or without a ring, I doubt she’d have been able to make a long distance call from San Berdo to Erogenia.

    2. Since those things are too useful not to spread far and wide, my guess is that they are in very short supply. (Gudik mentioned “old magic”; maybe even Ipola can’t reproduce it now.)

      I thought maybe Ipola and Tula have a way of communicating on long distances that doesn’t involve the rings (what with both of them being more than competent priestesses), but if so she’d have given one to Zona (or Rannik).

      So maybe it’s scarcity, or maybe Ipola, as a mother and as a queen, knows better than to keep a short leash on her children and people. (Notice that the only two persons we’ve seen so far that got the ring – Yanora and Tethik – are Kivalians. Thann got the ring next from Tethik because Ipola needed it to keep close watch on him.)

      (Cutting about a hundred ors and unlesses after this.)

  4. I do believe I like this king. 😀

    1. “Do I know you?” So the Queen knows when & how to put on airs, I see. Very nice.

  5. Shouldn’t it be “it’s only Queen Ipola”?
    Is Gudik being disrespectful?

    1. If so, she’s sending it right back at him. But I guess that from a sovereign to another, the titles can be omitted – sometimes, particularly in only vaguely formal occasions such as this one.

    2. This is where subtext comes into play magnificently.

      “Besides it’s only Ipola (and not whatever horrific beast or demon or monster you’re ‘shiting your skirt’ over in your imagination, Bishop). We (this is an OFFICIAL royal policy, I remind you, you cowardly git, as in we have a TREATY that WE WILL NOT BREAK, you snot-cheeked washrag) *like* her (so treat her with some Thrasu-blessed COURTESY because she is NOT your social equal, she is MY social equal, the sovereign of an entirely separate nation, and I will insist that you kindly do not forget that. Idiot.)”

      (Source material: If you go archive diving, it’s all there, much of it also subtexted but still, there.)

      (Why nooooo…this isn’t a lure to trick you into rereading all the archives, nooo, surely not! >83c )

      1. Beautiful elaboration, lady sister. I didn’t laugh out loud, but only because my lovely wife is napping.

    3. If I’m not mistaken, when emperors, royals, or nobles of the same rank are referring to each other with their titles, either they are specifically reminding the people around them of the other person’s rank, or there are… tensions. Could be good tensions, could be bad.

      I think in modern day interactions, we see it much of the time we see such people interacting, because they’re specifically reminding the people around them and especially those viewing remotely of the other person’s rank. When the cameras are off, I’m pretty sure they don’t do that. They are, after all, like the rest of us, of limited time, and it’s such a bother.

      1. Actually, the “royal we” specifically means the monarch is speaking on behalf of others. When Victoria said “We are not amused,” she was speaking on behalf of an entire group of offended women while addressing a drunken man who THOUGHT he was being funny. Usually when a monarch (or president, or other leader) makes a speech with the word “we,” they’re speaking on behalf of the entire nation.

        So when he uses the “royal we,” he’s emphasizing, “Our official national policy is that we like this leader of an allied nation.”

  6. I love the “We like her” comment. Since he used “I” in the previous sentence, this is a statement of policy, not a regal plural.

    Also, great work on the expressions here. Obviously Ipola in the second panel, but Therik’s panic in the first one, then his unease in the third, nicely opposed to Gudik’s businesslike. And Tethik’s “Go mama” and Thann’s neutral in the last one.

  7. Gudik? Have I absolutely lost my mind or didn’t he used to be called Guldik?

    1. I’m afraid you’ve lost your mind.

  8. What state will we find Yanora in?

  9. Ipola: “Hold on, let me make this a conference call.”

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