Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables

[Castel]

I now have to wonder how Celesto managed to hide amongst the battlecasters... did he apply one of those comedy routines where he knocks out a guy and puts on his clothes when nobody's looking? Or did he just decide to put on a costume (like Dom-Lobster) and act like he was always with them?


All in all, I don't quite dislike this strip at all... maybe I like Celesto more than I thought?

[Zaq]

Wait, Celesto's wearing clothes? Bah.

Dominikudigan has it right. It must deal with it for several weeks.

[Trazoi]

This one angers me a bit really.

I know. Part of me likes the strip because, hey, stuff is happening. But there's all these details that annoy me.

First, there's the confirmation that the last couple of weeks were indeed pointless filler. It's like the story is a Choose Your Own Adventure book and we had the choice "If you let Quilt consult Gerald, his wall of clippings, turn to page 26. If you insist Quilt use his scrying ability, turn to page 64", and after reading all the pages after 64 we're instructed to turn to page 26 anyway.

Second, how the heck does Celesto know about Gerald? If this was a smarter webcomic, I'd take this as a clue that Celesto has been spying on the Deeganites for some time. Instead I suspect he "just knows" that.

Third, I'm bugged how the Deeganites are falling over themselves to ally themselves with Celesto, the guy who they barely trust, against their king. The only evidence they have so far is one weird vision from Dominic. I know it's a narrative law he's always right about everything, but when the stakes are this high why can't they have some doubts? How do they not know Celesto didn't plan all this? Do they even consider the possibility?

[Castel]

Third, I'm bugged how the Deeganites are falling over themselves to ally themselves with Celesto, the guy who they barely trust, against their king. The only evidence they have so far is one weird vision from Dominic. I know it's a narrative law he's always right about everything, but when the stakes are this high why can't they have some doubts? How do they not know Celesto didn't plan all this? Do they even consider the possibility?

If things go bad with Celesto, Dommy the Hedgehog can always make a comeback.

Only with Acibeck's principle on his side, this time!

The bit about Celesto knowing Gerald also bothers me a bit, but maybe Mookie will explain it later when they catch up (yeah, yeah, I know, stop laughing!). Like I said, there's something today that's making me not mind this strip...

[Bobikus]

On top of all that, it completely erases yesterday's strip's implication that maybe the Battlecasters are somewhat incompetent. Now not only can they not see the bumbling golem and tusky, but goatee dom, who they're apparently looking for, can hide among them by wearing their stupid clothing. Once again it just continues to deflate the threat of the villain.

[BlackDragonKing]

Ooh, I just got a doozy of confusion, trying to lay out magic as it's been shown.

So, Archmages are masters of all schools of magic. How many of the current Archmages are necromancers? Remember, necromancy was developed by Rilian, centuries (unless he's a serious lightweight about the whole world-weariness thing) before DJ Callan got the fifth circle recognized. So how did that work? Did every archmage until then use necromancy in ignorance of its origins, or did the other four go on sabbatical to learn about Death Is Not Zombies after they admitted that DJ Callan was hardcore?

Argh, Mookie.

It's mentioned in Storm Of Souls that as the very first necromancer, Rillian's thousands of years old; the vacation arc had Rilian presumably mentioning to Dominic (while disguised as Brian) that he witnessed the birth of the dragon gods, so Rilian (and by extension, necromancy) is really fricking old. We have no idea how time and space work for the other Archmages, so it's entirely possible that Rilian created his art so long ago the eldritch abominations could learn it long before a human was added to their circles.

I found the sneaky gate pretty nice, but once again it proves that Luna is always wrong no matter how great she is. Silly girl, what did you THINK would happen if you tried to break up the greatest duo in the dominion?

He's a loose cannon, that Gerald, but he's a damn good cop!

[ichini_sanshigo]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is on the evil overlord list - something like, "My minions won't wear masks that obscure their faces", or such. How do they see out of those things, anyway?

I love how this solves the immediate problem of Luna and Quilt being noticed by the battlecasters without actually addressing the underlying issue. Maybe Celesto can't see them clearly, but they are still detectable. Why didn't they bother to use any protection? Why hasn't anyone else noticed them?

And wouldn't it have made more sense for King DJ to target his scrying efforts on people more likely to seek out Celesto? Like Dominic and his relatives and friends? Or any other powerful mages who've had interactions with Celesto? On one hand I can understand that DJ may want to avoid the evil overlord pitfall of overlooking the scrappy underdog/nobody/peasant/darkhorse Chosen One who gets a random vision and then rises out of nowhere to take down the evil ruler. And, hey, if King DJ's got the manpower to spare for such a wide, scattershot task, more power to him. But why can't he do both? That is, scry spam plus more targeted searches?

[Darkmyst]

Well. It's certainly a good thing Celesto was there to inform us how complex Quilt's scrying was, otherwise we'd have had to assume it was as effortless as it appeared! Ditto regarding hiding amongst the BC squad. . Will mookie ever learn to show rather than tell?

Oracle_Hunter nailed the main problem though: it is utterly impossible to care what happens next in this comic when the thing has no internal consistency. Until that is fixed, it isn't really likely that any of DDs other irritating features will be improved.

[Kris Strife]

RE Dominikudigan: So, apparently Celesto is Gerald!

[Ganurath]

So... Do we actually have a Gerald ref?

[Kris Strife]

So... Do we actually have a Gerald ref?

http://dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2011-04-26

Here you go, both happy and sad face.

[Oracle_Hunter]

http://dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2011-04-26

Here you go, both happy and sad face.

Well, this sent me down an Archive Walk that ended up on this forgotten but amusing strip

Seriously Quilt, how is that even possible?

[BlackDragonKing]

Well, this sent me down an Archive Walk that ended up on this forgotten but amusing strip

Seriously Quilt, how is that even possible?

What? What'd he forget? Confound Mookie's subtle coyness about Szark's private life, I can never follow what he's supposed to be implying!

And yes, Gerald is a smiley face made of relevant articles to Detective Quilt's case. He's also a hard-drinking badass who once played by the rules until the rules cost him everything; now Quilt's unhinged but scarily competent partner, Gerald slaughters his way through the jock-riddled underground dual-wielding crossbows that shoot machetes and a bottle of Jack Daniels while Luna blunders around unaware that Gerald and Quilt are most effective working together. He's also good at basketball.

Granted, Mookie's never said any of that was true, but he's never said any of it ISN'T true, now has he?

[Kris Strife]

Gerald is simply too awesome to actually be visible in the comic, and must be represented with the newspaper clipping smiley-face.

[random11]

Worse, it looks like these past two weeks of comics were completely meaningless! The ostensible point of going to Quilt was for him to find Celesto. However, rather than reasonably relying on his questionable detective skills, they relied on his authoritatively awful Scrying skills and somehow we ended back up at the point that Quilt is going to use his detective skills to find Celesto!

This might actually be a good thing.

Using magic as a tool to help investigations instead of a magical solution that does everything by itself is a very good thing to do.
Of course, it might be a bit too late to change to that direction. Also, Quilt is probably not the best character to use for such a change.

Still, I'm willing to give this change a chance, it sure is better than just the problem-magic-solution cycle we had until now.

[Lillith]

So I went to Aikido yesterday and we got a new member. His name is Dominique and he looks a lot like this guy. He could barely stand on his legs and I could easily take him down over and over again. I think it's time to quit this sport cause it's starting to get scary.

[Mindfreak]

Spoiler

Show

Celesto seems to have lost a tiny bit of his: "I'm better then you", complex. At least he is complimenting people now.

[Glass Mouse]

I love how this solves the immediate problem of Luna and Quilt being noticed by the battlecasters without actually addressing the underlying issue. Maybe Celesto can't see them clearly, but they are still detectable. Why didn't they bother to use any protection? Why hasn't anyone else noticed them?

To be completely fair, Celesto is one of the strongest seers ever (I'm not sure if he's on par with Dom or comes in second place, but he's still high up there).

I like this update, actually. It surprised me, it moves the story forward, and it has Celesto. Now, if only it was a panel or two shorter, it'd be perfect.

[YeahThatGuy]

I'll have to be cryptic. The answer is in tomorrow's strip.
I'll have to be cryptic. It isn't Friday yet.
I'll have to be cryptic. Your keys are in your front-left pocket.

[SiuiS]

stuff

your avatar is a special brand of awesome. I feel the need to make this known.

I'm so bored by this. So bored I'm not even reading the thread. Wake me when something interesting happens.

Oh gods he's gone into a coma, oh man... We... We aren't responsible for this right? Oh man he'll ne'er wake up... never... Oh gods

Actually, for Mookie, this is not that bad a strip. It actually reveals something I don't think anyone saw coming, dialogue isn't cringe inducing, and it actually moves the plot.

To be completely fair, Celesto is one of the strongest seers ever (I'm not sure if he's on par with Dom or comes in second place, but he's still high up there).

I like this update, actually. It surprised me, it moves the story forward, and it has Celesto. Now, if only it was a panel or two shorter, it'd be perfect.

That's day one of the "holy crap this doesn't suck!" quota. If I hear nothing but good news, I may be checking in Monday for a mind-shattering dose of dissapointment.

Here's hoping.

[Traab]

I choose to look on celestros disguise as less of a lobster dom ass pull, and more of a visible representation of his efforts to mask his presence from detection. What better way to avoid notice than to make your "signal" look like just another battlecasters?

Sort of like in the sci fi stories where instead of encrypting their transmissions, they mask them so they arent spotted. Both have upsides and downsides to them. Encryption means they see the message but cant read it, masking means they cant see it, but if they DO spot it, they can easily read the message. In celestros case, since the message itsel fisnt the important thing, its avoiding getting traced back, he is going with masking his scrying technique. (And yes, its both an awesome pun and a terrible one.)

[T-O-E]

Second, how the heck does Celesto know about Gerald? If this was a smarter webcomic, I'd take this as a clue that Celesto has been spying on the Deeganites for some time. Instead I suspect he "just knows" that.

The only way this won't be mindnumbingly stupid is if Gerald is an actual person and Celesto doesn't know about the faceclipping. Then it'll just be pretty stupid.

[TheArsenal]

This has been the equivalent of a Teenage mutant Ninja turtle putting on a trench-coat and fedora hat.

[SaintRidley]

Not only is Luna less competent at finding Celesto than Quilt, she's less competent than Gerald.

[BlackDragonKing]

Not only is Luna less competent at finding Celesto than Quilt, she's less competent than Gerald.

I keep saying it, man. Gerald is effin' hardcore. NEVER take him off the case if you want Quilt to do his best work!

[Garland]

Well, this sent me down an Archive Walk that ended up on this forgotten but amusing strip

Seriously Quilt, how is that even possible?

Silly Quilt, how can you forget someone's only defining characteristic! That's how characters work right? they have one all-encompasing aspect to their whole selves. Even Szark who is not gay is mad that you forgot! How can you even think of him as a swordsman! This is insulting and politically incorrect in Callan.

EDIT: Wait a minute... if collateral damage man was hiding among the Battlecasters, what the **** did Quilt mean when Luna asked "did you see celesto?" and he answered "Yeah, he's in..."

So, where did he see him? Did he see that he was disguised as a battlecaster? If so, why the surprise then? If not, it was just further confirmation that the whole deal would have been an enormous waste of time if Celesto didn't reveal himself.

[Bobikus]

EDIT: Wait a minute... if collateral damage man was hiding among the Battlecasters, what the **** did Quilt mean when Luna asked "did you see celesto?" and he answered "Yeah, he's in..."

So, where did he see him? Did he see that he was disguised as a battlecaster? If so, why the surprise then? If not, it was just further confirmation that the whole deal would have been an enormous waste of time if Celesto didn't reveal himself.

Yeah, Celesto's reveal flows really terribly with the preceding comics.

[Palmer]

I choose to look on celestros disguise as less of a lobster dom ass pull, and more of a visible representation of his efforts to mask his presence from detection. What better way to avoid notice than to make your "signal" look like just another battlecasters?

Couldn't he just not hang out in the planescape (mindscape? Bubblescape?) in his free time? It's not like it's obscuring his location since Quilt was about to reveal where he was (I REFUSE TO FORGET THIS HAPPENED). Unless he's still looking for TIM. Is TIM still relevant?

[Darkmyst]

I keep saying it, man. Gerald is effin' hardcore. NEVER take him off the case if you want Quilt to do his best work!

... It makes so much sense now! Luna and Quilt were just a diversion to hold Mookies attention while Gerald went out and got the job done! Any moment now we'll be cutting back to Quilt's study to see nothing but a broken crown, a severed tentacle, and a happy clipping-formed face that looks just a little more smug than usual...

[BlackDragonKing]

... It makes so much sense now! Luna and Quilt were just a diversion to hold Mookies attention while Gerald went out and got the job done! Any moment now we'll be cutting back to Quilt's study to see nothing but a broken crown, a severed tentacle, and a happy clipping-formed face that looks just a little more smug than usual...

Smug? No. Satisfied.

Stone-cold badasses like Gerald don't have time for smug smirks. They shoot them off of wannabe metal bards. With their crossbows that fire machetes!

Gerald's a scary man, but dammit, he gets the job done!