PS238 by Aaron Williams

Ps238: The School for Metaprodigy Children
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04/22/2013
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04/22/2013

Apr22
by Aaron on 2013-04-22 at 12:01 am
Issue: Issue 44: Green vs. Blue

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Discussion (24) ¬

  1. Christopher
    2013-04-22, 11:19 am | # | Reply

    Hmm, so that robot propably belongs to the emerald ones.
    And him cutting off just before finishing the sentence there means either he figured something out, a horde of them is approaching or he is getting smacked/blasted by an argosian robot next page.

    • leor613
      2013-04-22, 11:29 am | # | Reply

      You’re partially right. The battle robot is confused by Kevin’s behavior. But its not speaking the language of the Emerald Ones or Argosian; its speaking a third language. That’s a hint about why its confused and who it belongs to. (That’s not a spoiler by the way; the Emerald Ones have a different font than the battle robot’s when they are speaking their own language. Dive into the archives to see that I’m right.)

      • GeekLady
        2013-04-22, 3:03 pm | # | Reply

        So, is the robot speaking Wingdinglish, like Prospero, but in a different font?

        • leor613
          2013-04-22, 3:30 pm | # | Reply

          If you mean that it’s a cryptogram, yeah I’m pretty sure it is. 🙂

          For the record, there are four different alien languages that have appeared in PS238, each represented by a cryptogram using a different font: Prospero’s language, the Septos’ language, the Emerald Ones’ language and the language the Battle Robot on this page is speaking.

          • =Tamar
            2013-04-23, 9:57 pm | #

            Doesn’t matter to me. I just read it as “blip” and assume that if it’s really important, it’ll be explained eventually. If it is important and is not explained, the strip will become totally boring and I’ll stop reading it.

          • leor613
            2013-04-24, 12:10 pm | #

            Prospero’s cryptograms were never translated in the comic. Most of the time Prospero’s lines are inside jokes or bonus humor, but once the Septos show up Prospero’s dialogue becomes pretty important and Angie wasn’t always able to coherently translate for him (mostly because Angie doesn’t speak coherent English herself).

            Luckily the Battle Robot’s boss, [SPOILER], is able to learn alien languages quickly.

    • adsfadsfasdf
      2013-04-24, 1:55 am | # | Reply

      thinking its more that it was confused the emerald helped the argosian

  2. Gladorn
    2013-04-22, 2:04 pm | # | Reply

    It’s hard to play the game when you don’t know the rules.

    So we’ll just make our own rules up as we go!

  3. khamya9
    2013-04-22, 2:51 pm | # | Reply

    Ah confusion. Lovely confusion. What a wonderful weapon. The PS238 kids are nearly blackbelts in wielding it accidentally.

  4. DruidDriver
    2013-04-22, 2:58 pm | # | Reply

    Confusion? What confusion? I’m confused! Whose being confused and whose confusing? Or is some one con-fused as in “with a fuse” and about to blow up.
    Anyways, my real comment is that the language and the amount of it reminds me of out little alien dude who shoots ping pong balls. (Do they react badly to FISS I wonder… Any FISS been shot by Prospero?)

    • leor613
      2013-04-22, 3:34 pm | # | Reply

      The Battle Robot is confused that Kevin is trying to rescue Julie from it. Its scratches its head, then picks up the Argosian flag Julie dropped and asked why Kevin isn’t taking the opportunity to blast Julie into her component atoms.

      The font used for the Battle Robot’s dialogue on this page is different from Prospero’s font. They both use cryptograms though, which is probably why you’re getting confused.

  5. DruidDriver
    2013-04-22, 3:00 pm | # | Reply

    Didn’t he have a staff too… I wonder if the staff and flag pole are keys of some kind. Or antenna?

    • leor613
      2013-04-22, 3:41 pm | # | Reply

      While Prospero is armed with a retractable battle staff, it does not resemble the flagpole Julie dropped.

  6. leor613
    2013-04-22, 3:50 pm | # | Reply

    So does anyone want to try cracking the cryptogram? As far as I can tell the Battle Robot speaks two sentences in panel three, the first of which is a question. (Note the question mark at the end of the second line of text.)

    So anyone here from the Rainmaker program want to impress us with their awesome super-polyglot powers?

    • Enki
      2013-04-22, 5:40 pm | # | Reply

      No super-powers needed, just basic decryption logic;) The key word is the 4th in the 1st line with first one and then the same letter twice. From there you go the word before the question mark which pretty much confirms the id of the double letter/vowel (actually the most common english letter which you should always look for first an any encrypted text). Now check the last letter of the newfound word against the word before this one as well as aganist the 3rd in the 1st line and a pattern will emerge. The 1st and 2nd words in the 1st line are actually one missing an apostroph. Sounds pretty garbled, does it? Wish I could somehow pn you the result…

  7. GeekLady
    2013-04-22, 5:32 pm | # | Reply

    I’m pretty sure the question is “don’t you see the emblem of your enemy?”

    The second part is murkier: * hol* her st*ll for you*
    I interpret this as “I hold her still for you!” But this depends on different characters for upper and lower case D and I, plus one for an exclamation point.

    • Enki
      2013-04-22, 5:41 pm | # | Reply

      I got: Can´t you see the emblem of your enemy? I hold her still for you.

    • Partigal
      2013-04-22, 5:48 pm | # | Reply

      Woah… How did you decrypt it? Revel your secret, oh Burnett one!!! J

      • GeekLady
        2013-04-22, 6:05 pm | # | Reply

        E is the most common letter in English, so I found the most common glyph and solved for e. That gave me see and the for certain, and enemy from context, and from that the first part came into focus easily.
        The second half was harder. I’m going more on context here because it only makes sense with upper and lower case glyphs.
        The hardest part was figuring out the individual glyphs, they all kind of blend together.

        • Stephen Bierce
          2013-04-22, 6:53 pm | # | Reply

          Actually, I think the typeface is Japanese katakana-based.

          • Stephen Bierce
            2013-04-22, 6:54 pm | #

            Nevermind.

        • Partigal
          2013-04-22, 11:39 pm | # | Reply

          You must use your power for GOOD!!!

    • Cherub
      2013-04-22, 9:09 pm | # | Reply

      You mean it wasn’t a recipe? That’s what one of Prospero’s speeches was.

    • leor613
      2013-04-22, 10:31 pm | # | Reply

      Thanks GeekLady! I guess the second sentence might read “I’ll hold her still for you!”

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