Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXVIII: This Show Blew My Boogeyman

[Humbug]

I thought "See the Truth" was Dominic's catchphrase, not the name of a spell. But given spells are named stuff like "Remove Curse" I can see I've been wilfully ignorant.

Isn't "See the Truth" an anti-mind control spell? What does he plan for it do here? I could see it working on illusions, but if those minisnugs are real enough to burst through Chance's chest then why would STT have an effect on them?

According to the newspost, See The Truth is a spell now, and just like how Dominic can be whatever the hell he wants (maybe being a drooling idiot as well) in the pychoplanes, See the Truth does whatever the hell the plot demands of it at the moment.

[Palmer]

According to the newspost, See The Truth is a spell now, and just like how Dominic can be whatever the hell he wants (maybe being a drooling idiot as well) in the pychoplanes, See the Truth does whatever the hell the plot demands of it at the moment.

Well it was a spell in the beginning, the spell Dominic used to dispel the despair curse placed on Lynn's Brooke Prontus Erossus a town. It was kind of like a "see how super special awesome you are" ray, now its like a orbital Deeganization ray.

I don't even think its been that long since we've last seen it used, Bulgak was the last one to be shown the glorious light of Deegan, even if it wasn't directly.

[Darkmyst]

Sneaky

Unsneaky

/headdesk

Y'know, in a universe where this webcomic was written semi-decently, Dom's "STT" moment could have been interesting used to reveal that Celesto's take on the situation was correct (ie. that Chance WAS a git destined for evil, and that the plan to get him killed would have a positive impact on the effort to defeat snuggly). It wouldn't have been all that outlandish either, given that the guy is an oracle himself, and presumably has the same ability to see truth as Dom does.

But no. This happens instead. I wish I had managed to stay away...

[Trazoi]

Gasp! A swarm of snugs! The king must be evil! *audience faints*

[Castel]

Sure, Dominic can now transport everyone to the psychoplane using a sword, why not?

[Zaq]

First glance? It's not as bad as I expected. This seems like it could, in theory, if written by a competent writer, help the situation. Szark's inability to use his words will be compensated for, those present might be able to help (ha!) by fighting the Celestosnugs instead of Chance Masters, and it looks like things might actually start happening.

Will it last? Of course not. Hell, I'm sure I'll find something before tomorrow's strip goes up that makes me realize how stupid this is. That's just how this comic works. At a glance, though, I was expecting much worse.

Let it never be said that we are mindless haters. We're quite mindful with our bile.

We are, of course, still more jaded than Chinese sculpture.

[Palmer]

The comic goes up so late nowadays I wonder why we even do the sneaky gate anymore.

I could complain about Dominic's stupid plan, but I'm gonna complain about the art today, you can't beat that horse enough.

A competent artist, realizing the only way he can get his characters to emote is by giving them beady eyes, might realize he's a terrible artist, not Mookie! Charlie Brown up there looks especially stupid.

And this has been bugging me for a while now, but why is Mookie so bad at drawing tentacles? He said it was so easy before, but they always look so rigid and kind of like starifish.

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY GIANTS. Quake if fear, tiny mortals! They look like they're sinking into the horizon, too. Is the arena floor spherical? What happened to the bleachers?

And I guess I'll put the newspost here.

Today's news post has nothing to do with today's comic. It has to do with a new video game I've begun playing.

League of Legends.

I'm bad at strategy-type RPGs, and I'm pretty bad at this one, but it's strangely addictive and fun. Most of that comes from the personality of the "champions" you control. I spent more time than I care to admit just browsing the list of characters. I've been playing as Rammus the Armordillo and everything from his gruff voice to his waddle/walk has me totally sold on him. I'm waiting for my opportunity to play Mordekaiser, if for no other reason than all his special abilities are named after metal songs.

The fact that it's totally free to play is a bonus, too.

So if you play League of Legends already, feel free to add me to your friends list! My summoner name is "MetalMookie" and, if you can tolerate my inept ass, maybe we'll fight together! If you want to try the game for yourself, you can tell them Mookie sent you! (That's a link that signs you up to play via a referral from my account. I'm a referral rewards whore.)

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and geek out!

Weirdly enough, Tim Buckley was shilling League of Legends not too long ago. I wonder if Mookie will try and get his own character in the game before realizing that's not how the referrals work, and then rebound to Heroes of Newerth.

[Glass Mouse]

Wait!

Wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Wait.

Butler McButlersen has PUPILS?

[Zaq]

Wait!

Wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Wait.

Butler McButlersen has PUPILS?

Don't be silly. Those are freckles. Or possibly migratory nostrils.

[Trazoi]

First glance? It's not as bad as I expected. This seems like it could, in theory, if written by a competent writer, help the situation. Szark's inability to use his words will be compensated for, those present might be able to help (ha!) by fighting the Celestosnugs instead of Chance Masters, and it looks like things might actually start happening.

I'll agree it's not the most stupid thing that could have happened. This is what I expected would happen. The immediate concern is the same as Castel's, "Sure, Dominic can now transport everyone to the psychoplane using a sword, why not?". This isn't something I'd have listed Dominic could do on a whim.

In terms of how good it is as a plan, it depends on whether Celesto is paying attention and acts intelligently (note: he won't). For Celesto's plan to work he has to kill Chance now, before he can tell anyone that it was that weirdo seer who defrauded him years ago who did this instead of the king. Of course, there's plenty of swordsmen to help fend off attacks from snuglets now, so maybe Dominic thinks they'll help defend Chance. However Celesto doesn't need to use the snuglets - he's perfectly capable of simply chaos-sploding Chance. It's the logical thing to do in this situation. (He won't do it, though).

Then there's the aftermath, which should get ugly. Unless everyone dies the king should definitely hear about this, so Dominic should be in a lot of hot water. (He won't be, though).

But right now? It's not as bad as it could be. Except why the heck did Dominic need to dress up and flash a sword around to do that?

[M84]

So did the SEE THE TRUTH spell drag everyone into the psychoplane or bring the tentacle monsters into the physical plane? Because either of those sounds pretty scary when you think about it. Which Mookie never does.

I'd like to see the second outcome at any rate:

Dominic: "See, we're not crazy! I was helping Chance fight tentacle monsters in the psychoplane! I just dragged them out so everyone can see them!"

Scarlatti: "So you summoned the tentacle monsters that are eating the audience right now?"

Dominic: "..."

[random11]

The good: "See the truth" was aimed at the audience instead of on Celesto, which does make more sense.

The bad: I have no idea what's really going on.
Dominic's immediate objective is to help young Masters. What does that got to do with the audience?
What does that have to do with the sword he just created last strip? *
Did he summon everyone to the mindscape, brought everything from there to the real world, or just granted sight ability to the audience?


* (Maybe this transformation was just to put cloths on before he summons everyone to see him, that does show a little tact )

[Lillith]

The first thing that I thought after seeing this strip was thinking about how many bingo sheets will be getting an extra X in them. XD And probably tomorrow too when Mookie is going to try and cover a plot hole.

[Gez]

Okay, so what happened?
1. The planar stuff got moved into the physical plane
2. The audience got shifted into the psychoplane
3. Nothing got shuffled around, but the audience can now see into the psychoplane

All things considered, #3 is probably the option that makes the most sense (or at least, make the least nonsense). Regardless of what happened, the interesting thing is that Dominic vanished.

In #1, it means he went back to his own body outside the arena, entirely bypassing the wards. In #2 and #3, I'm not sure. I guess you could make up some crap about the psychical exertion making him pass out, resulting in a withdrawal from the psychoplane... But whatever. In #3, it's particularly interesting to see that the Truth that is shown to the audience omits a critical detail...

[Johnny Blade]

Ah, yes, that old issue with the trouble of keeping psychoplanes and the physical world separate.
Too bad Mookie never could find five minutes to think about that.

Well, anyway, I'm now actually really disappointed that Dominic isn't naked anymore. And, as Gez noted, actually there. This could have been so wonderful...

The good: "See the truth" was aimed at the audience instead of on Celesto, which does make more sense.

However, Dominic outright stated it was aimed at Celesto yesterday. I'll give Mookie one day to show that it actually was, and if he doesn't, I'll assume that he originally planned for Dominic to show Celesto that he's stared into the abyss and fought monsters for a bit too long but couldn't pull it off and take these last two strips as his confession of hackdom and not planning more than roughly seven seconds ahead.

[random11]

Well, anyway, I'm now actually really disappointed that Dominic isn't naked anymore. And, as Gez noted, actually there. This could have been so wonderful...

I can even imagine how it will look.

The fifth image in the current strip as the only image, with Dominic in the middle, naked, with a speech bubble saying "I can explain!"

[Rappy]

So, See the TRUTH!! is now dispel magic? Okay...

[mwchase]

Clearly, the idea was to reveal to the audience that they've been in total ignorance of the omnipresent tentacle threat and I DON'T UNDERSTAND.

I mean, people have gone over this, but... I can't tell what just happened, I can't tell how it was supposed to be accomplished, I can't tell why it's being done. I don't know where they're supposed to be.

It's like this update had negative plot revelations. Anti-narrativium.

[Traab]

I dont think dom either dragged the snugs into the material world, or dragged the arena into the psychoplanes, but I could be wrong. I think he basically just decloaked these things so people can see them. That being said, my theory is, if they are physical enough to cause chances chest to explode, then they are physical enough to hurt. And we are now in the middle of a large group of armed men, with a great deal of skill using those swords. (with dominic the great to lead the charge of course, for he is a great imaginary swordsman) who can see the threat.

Problem is, chance has a limited amount of time to explain that dom and szark are the good guys, and not demon summoning villains before things get really bad for the heroes. After all, chance is still likely the target here, despite these setbacks, and he is the only not crazy person the masters and crew are likely to listen to. Even that isnt certain since they could easily pass it all off as a trick by evil seer dom.

[Trazoi]

Even that isnt certain since they could easily pass it all off as a trick by evil seer dom.

Unfortunately, it's exceedingly unlikely that Dominic past history of screwing over Lynn's Brook with illusions will count against him here. Even though it totally should.

[Traab]

Unfortunately, it's exceedingly unlikely that Dominic past history of screwing over Lynn's Brook with illusions will count against him here. Even though it totally should.

You mean when he stopped a cliche pitchfork and torch bearing mob from storming his house and killing everyone inside? Id certainly hope it doesnt count against him. After all, he already got punished by psycho sig and his fists of fury. Or am I thinking of the wrong town?

On a side note, I hate sig. Why? Because the only reason he was briefly shown to be more than a horrible, trigger happy bully, was to make us care that he died and went to hell where he belongs. Did he, or did he not, BEAT A CRIPPLE WITH HIS OWN WALKING STICK?! There is nothing likeable about that. But its ok, he was mad that said cripple made his sword heavy. Totally justified. Lets also ignore the THREE TIMES he beat dominic half to death, all three times being totally uncalled for. He showed some nobility before the end, therefore, he is a good guy and we should be shocked that he wound up in hell. And that its a big deal karnak brought him there, as if he wouldnt have gone there anyways.

[Trazoi]

You mean when he stopped a cliche pitchfork and torch bearing mob from storming his house and killing everyone inside? Id certainly hope it doesnt count against him. After all, he already got punished by psycho sig and his fists of fury. Or am I thinking of the wrong town?

No, it's that town. He also caused a rain of books when he left (because they're ignoramuses, haha). I'm not really refering to karma but to the logical chain of suspicion. Dominic's the one who has been acting weird in the last week, and it's been established earlier in the arc that Prontus knows about Dominic's prior reputation. That should include Dominic's tendency to lash out at entire towns when provoked, as well as his ability with illusion spells. The logical connection is that Dominic is screwing with them.

But yeah, the karma angle would be nice too. Dominic really, really needs to have his smug arrogance come back to bite him.

Edit: Oh and while the Siggy thing is somewhat off current events, the main reason why he was liked was that he actually had regonised flaws that he appeared to be working to overcome unlike everyone else. At least until Mookie realised he prefered writing about nasty mean jocks who go to hell.

[Lyesmith]

Celesto : Just as planned?

[TheArsenal]

My Reaction to the current comic:

CHABA HRBLFNFRFR SHABABABA HPOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEE WHAT!


Goddamit mookie! Another epic dues ex machina! This is insane!

It never worked that way before! And it COULDNT HAVE! GAAAAAARRRRRRHH

Edit: Oh and while the Siggy thing is somewhat off current events, the main reason why he was liked was that he actually had regonised flaws that he appeared to be working to overcome unlike everyone else. At least until Mookie realised he prefered writing about nasty mean jocks who go to hell and about his perfect mary sue girlfriend insirt.
So he made him racist in hopes we will hate hate him.

There fixed it for you.
Thats why we commonly agree with siggy and say that Orcs arent people.

[Garland]

Uh oh... expect to see a lot of things clearly inspired in "stuff he thought was cool in League of legends" in the comic, at least until he gets bored of sucking so much at the game.

[Traab]

Honestly, if we dont see dom do some sword fighting soon i WILL be pissed. He is a frigging seer. If he wanted to create some sort of dramatic costume to help him focus, why not go the gandalf route? Summon a staff with a glowing orb at its tip and use that to cast his SEE THE TRUTH! spell. Turning himself into a swordsman then basically doing nothing but casting a spell anyways is so pointless as to be insulting.

[tonberrian]

Honestly, if we dont see dom do some sword fighting soon i WILL be pissed. He is a frigging seer. If he wanted to create some sort of dramatic costume to help him focus, why not go the gandalf route? Summon a staff with a glowing orb at its tip and use that to cast his SEE THE TRUTH! spell. Turning himself into a swordsman then basically doing nothing but casting a spell anyways is so pointless as to be insulting.

Don't you realize? Dom's making a complex metaphor here. Jocks can't do anything useful, and the Jock Weapon of Choice^tm is the sword. By equipping himself with a sword and then using only magic, he's showing that jocks are totally reliant on magic to get anything done. Since friendship is a type of magic that everyone can use, the audience just knows that the only way to defeat the Snugglesto menace is to band together and forget past transgressions. Then everyone will be happy and Dom will have saved the day![/mookielogic]

On an unrelated note:

Snuggly: THREAT OR MENACE!

[Traab]

The jock weapon of choice is hurtful comments and shoving. Swords are used by both jocks and gay men alike. Even amazing heterosexuals like szark can use swords, and he isnt a jock.

[mwchase]

I never did get around to making a new sheet, or keeping up with the old one. I think I've got a square for a new one, so I'm going to forfeit officially, for now, and try to have one together by the time... something... happens.

Also, I'm pretty sure I've worked out what's supposed to be going on: that wigginess in the double-panel is the inside edge of the STT dome effect. Everything after the first panel happens directly in the physical plane, and the minisnugs were always there, but invisible. This is literally the only way I can piece together what we've seen into anything even vaguely coherent.

[Domochevsky]

... That being said, my theory is, if they are physical enough to cause chances chest to explode, then they are physical enough to hurt. And we are now in the middle of a large group of armed men, with a great deal of skill using those swords. (with dominic the great to lead the charge of course, for he is a great imaginary swordsman) who can see the threat.
...

The issue with this is that a) the audience doesn't have swords and b) that the contestants (however many they are) are using show-props.

Good luck with that, people.