I didn’t realize that’s what Tyler is trying to hide until you mentioned it. The question is, will the odd disconnect between Moonshadow and Tyler be maintained if they find Moonshadow equipment in Tyler’s stuff? Or will events somehow be arranged so they never find it?
Actually as ridiculous as it would be it was the other way around, Superman would super-compress his clothes INCLUDING his glasses and tuck them into the pocket in his cape when super-heroing (somehow this didn’t simply reduce them to a block of useless material and they’d survive everything including him flying through the sun).
Well I guess the side room he was describing is his room. This superhero will either record Tyler doing something suspicious or be an alibi depending on if she sticks around.
Wait adults investigate and finding Tyler roomles. “Parents” forced to fix it only because it makes them look really bad. Zodon’s virus makes a decent number of ELD members to read as Tyler. ELD is forced to grant Tyler full access or their own members can’t get in. I think Toby might have something to do with this somehow.
Nah, Zodon’s plan is just coming to fruition. By making it so that EDL members need Tyler to have access so they have access, he can spoof being Tyler, himself, to gain access.
Its pretty clear that this was Zodon’s plan all along. Like the marble thing granting Tyler access is just a side effect of giving himself access while making Tyler the one suspected. Unlike the marble thing people knowing something is wrong is part of the plan so Tyler is actually suspected and his room is being searched as a result.
However, Toby promised Tyler clearance and his own room. I’m saying its possible he did something which helped Zodon pull this off or influenced his exact method only knowing that it would solve two things he remembered upset Tyler.
Tyler is confined to the main level, but Moon Shadow is not. Despite having the same height, build, voice and DNA, Moon Shadow obviously cannot be Tyler.
The fact that Tyler disappeared when Moon Shadow arrived is proof of his guilt in whatever is going on; Moon Shadow will put a stop to Tyler’s nefarious plans!
I don’t think ELD staff hero worship Moon Shadow like the PS238 students do. I’m also pretty sure the children will not reach the conclusion that Tyler is the evildoer.
It took a bunch of PS238 students a few seconds to decide that if Tyler is plotting revenge, Zodon must of given him the equipment and brainwashed him. How they reached that conclusion is sort of depressing though. In conclusion Tyler disappearing when Moon Shadow shows up must be Tyler hiding from the real bad guy from the students perspective.
In http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/2017-02-20/, Toby said that he is going to get Tyler a real room. Does that mean that the room that will be searched for Tyler’s stuff will be the room that he is staying in or the room that Toby is arranging.
You’re drawing the wrong conclusion from that, Toby’s saying he’s going to do something that will get Tyler’s parents to recognize him as a person again and their son and therefor embrace him once again which would include Tyler once again having full security clearance and his own room once again as their son.
Because his father as we expected from earlier had Tyler’s security clearance pretty much downgraded to ‘who is this kid?’ status and naturally anyone who doesn’t have full clearance can’t go into the high security areas without setting off the counter-measures. Which yes is just another example of how awful Tyler’s parents are. One can only hope we’ll get to see someone finally setting them straight someday.
Security settings SHOULD NOT be granted on “Hey, I know that guy” or “I know a guy knowing that guy”, but on “That person absolutely needs to do xyz”, and Tyler isn’t part of the main staff. Also granting access to Tyler will put him in danger by $EVIL_GUY forcing him to abuse his privileges (or else I’ll smash you into a pulp).
I’m making it a habit to not remember my customer’s passwords, I don’t even want to know them if I can avoid it.
Yeah, security measures don’t have “oh, you’re not allowed, but we won’t do anything because it’s you” settings. They react to unauthorized entry, no matter who the unauthorized entrant is.
Whether the Powers Parents are deliberate monsters pretending not to remember Tyler, or mind-addled by some outside force, they are at least acting like they barely accept Toby’s word that this “Tyler kid” is really somebody with any business on the base.
What puzzles me is why the rest of the EDL isn’t reacting to their “Do a background check on this person whose name I can’t seem to quite remember” behavior, because that’s the kind of suspicious behavior that should raise red flags. After all, the rest of the EDL seems to remember Tyler just fine.
The security counter measures would likely be more annoying than deadly. Not because that I think Ultima or Sovereign would have problems with killing trespassers but if it can be proven that they intentionally set X up to injure potential trespassers and the trespasser didn’t purposely injure themselves they could be held liable. My guess is that the room is locked down and the staff is alerted to the trespasser.
I am, once again, convinced that one of two things is happening. Either:
A) Ultima and Sovereign are being manipulated by outside forces for nefarious ends (that or this is a side effect of past manipulation- they were programmed with ‘behave normally’, but the programming didn’t allow for there to abruptly be a second son, as an example). Quite bluntly, they haven’t exactly come off as shining beacons of heroic willpower, so I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if somebody was puppeteering them. Magic or reality warping would certainly explain the bizarre behaviour of both them and the rest of the EDL.
B) Both of the Powers parents are severely mentally ill. These are not the behaviours of well individuals, although you’d think that, given their tendency to encounter overwhelmingly stressful situations, they would have been diagnosed a very long time ago, even if supers aren’t terribly observant. Granted, that would make the behaviour of the rest of the EDL ‘we need to humour the unstoppable crazy ubermenschen or they’ll murder us all’, which strikes me as being a bit dark for the general tone of PS238….
From what we’ve seen people in authority who see their behavior don’t do anything about it because they’re powerful supers who have a good reputation in the super-hero community so they get a pass including with Child Protective Services (because parents who put their kids in dangerous situations are usually arrested for it and the children taken away). It’s similar to how in RL abusive parents can get away with it by being public figures or having jobs that give them a good image in the community. Look at how many spouses were beaten by their partners, put in the hospital, even killed by the people that supposedly loved them while the public turned a blind eye, saying ‘but they’re a respected member of the community they can’t really be doing that’. Ultima and Sovereign are in that category, to the public and other heroes they’re selfless super-heroes so it’s unthinkable that they could be terrible, neglectful parents of their child so anytime it looks like that the person looking convinces themselves that they must be wrong. They invent reasons why it’s not as bad as it actually is.
Also remember that they and many supers hold non-supers in contempt, they don’t believe they have any say in making the world better and shouldn’t even try which carries with it the unspoken belief that normals have no right to question or judge them in any fashion. Clearly a normal can’t understand what it’s like as a super they tell themselves so their views on proper parenting and what’s legal and moral behavior towards children is of no consequence they’re inherently better and the only ones who know the best way to do things.
Well, yeah, they could just be crappy parents… except that I don’t care how bad you are at the whole ‘parenting’ gig you don’t LITERALLY forget your child exists in the space of a few weeks without some kind of serious brain damage. And it’s pretty obviously not an un-personning thing… sad as it may be to say, Tyler’s parents would have to care more about him to actually make the effort to shun him.
Segev
I agree, TeChameleon, that if they’re “just” crappy parents, Aaron’s gone overboard with it. The evidence points to their mental faculties having some serious defects. Given the nature of the comic, I am more inclined to think they are externally induced defects (i.e. some form of mind control, or at least manipulation) rather than serious RL-like mental problems.
For exactly the reasons you list.
Even if you take their massive egos into account, they wouldn’t want to make themselves look like cruel people, and pretending to forget your child and his name goes beyond callous or careless and well into cruel. Actually forgetting your child’s name after having his development of superpowers be a major focus of your life (and, doubtless, your self-absorbed pontifications to your co-workers) makes you look mentally deficient – addled, stupid, or fraught with dementia. Going beyond that to the point of doubting that you have the original child, so you need to run background checks?
Honestly, I think we’re going to see some interesting reactions if the EDL discovers some things that they weren’t aware of. Because a lot of the Powers’s behaviors must be a little odd to them (the background check in particular). I can buy the security downgrade as something that the EDL members might have welcomed for Tyler’s own safety; they might have been trying for years to get it and been relieved that the Powers were finally willing to do it. (Pure speculation, that, but still.) But Dursleys-on-Harry-Potter level of abuse (moving his bedroom to a storage closet that they don’t even bother to empty)? It’s funny as a one-off joke, but with everything else, and as an ongoing condition… We’ll see if the EDL notices.
I suspect this debate might get resolved in this arc, given how much attention is being brought to bear on this, and just how unknown the motives of the mover of this plot line are.
Temperaryobsessor
I think the problem is your saying either senility or deliberate when the answer can be in the middle. I think they subconsciously decided to forget about Tyler/Toby. They do not want to admit that they were wrong about Tyler’s grand destiny and all the doubters were right, and they do not really want to continue to invest in Tyler’s grand destiny either. They are also shown to be able and willing to lie to themselves.
They didn’t have to forget that Tyler exist but composited them. They essentially forget Toby exists and that Toby went by Tyler in the past. Actually they first rewrote Tyler into being the clone. A clone which was to them a minor afterthought to their child finally getting powers. Then when Tyler decides to stay at the dorm and reduces the time they have to see them together completely forgetting about what was left over after compositing Toby and Tyler simply became the path of least resistance for them.
7eggert
They didn’t forget their son Tyler, Toby was always their only son. Tyler’s existence barely breached their bubble of denial.
40 thoughts on “2017-04-05”
Hogan
“This is not the Tyler you are looking for… please move about your business!”
Stephen Bierce
Moonshadow uniforms–now available in easy-to-swallow capsules.
Faust
Super costume with two preset options at the push of a button. Street clothes or Moonshadow. Might still need the utility belt etc seperate.
Van
Hologram or morphic molecules.
Unmaker
I didn’t realize that’s what Tyler is trying to hide until you mentioned it. The question is, will the odd disconnect between Moonshadow and Tyler be maintained if they find Moonshadow equipment in Tyler’s stuff? Or will events somehow be arranged so they never find it?
Skull the Troll
Yeah, but that’s standard hero powers. Its not like Superman’s cape can actually fit in Clark Kent’s shirt.
Hogan
I think their basic secondhanded explanation has been: “Superman has Supercompressed his costume so it can fit in his pocket”…
Pander
Deadpool proved how difficult it can really be.
https://youtu.be/oIANTCpPhHs?t=43
Faroloz
super speed would have really been useful there
Nightmask
Actually as ridiculous as it would be it was the other way around, Superman would super-compress his clothes INCLUDING his glasses and tuck them into the pocket in his cape when super-heroing (somehow this didn’t simply reduce them to a block of useless material and they’d survive everything including him flying through the sun).
Lucario
Can Cecil make use of his cloaking device?
Faust
Someone else might need to wear his tracking wristband for a while.
Temperaryobsessor
Well I guess the side room he was describing is his room. This superhero will either record Tyler doing something suspicious or be an alibi depending on if she sticks around.
Temperaryobsessor
Wait adults investigate and finding Tyler roomles. “Parents” forced to fix it only because it makes them look really bad. Zodon’s virus makes a decent number of ELD members to read as Tyler. ELD is forced to grant Tyler full access or their own members can’t get in. I think Toby might have something to do with this somehow.
Segev
Nah, Zodon’s plan is just coming to fruition. By making it so that EDL members need Tyler to have access so they have access, he can spoof being Tyler, himself, to gain access.
Temperaryobsessor
Its pretty clear that this was Zodon’s plan all along. Like the marble thing granting Tyler access is just a side effect of giving himself access while making Tyler the one suspected. Unlike the marble thing people knowing something is wrong is part of the plan so Tyler is actually suspected and his room is being searched as a result.
However, Toby promised Tyler clearance and his own room. I’m saying its possible he did something which helped Zodon pull this off or influenced his exact method only knowing that it would solve two things he remembered upset Tyler.
Adahn
Tyler is confined to the main level, but Moon Shadow is not. Despite having the same height, build, voice and DNA, Moon Shadow obviously cannot be Tyler.
The fact that Tyler disappeared when Moon Shadow arrived is proof of his guilt in whatever is going on; Moon Shadow will put a stop to Tyler’s nefarious plans!
Messenger
Yep. I’m sure your conclusion is correct that whoever discover’s Tyler’s gear is going to rationalize that MS is there to stop some evildoer.
But it’s going to be so depressing if they conclude the evildoer was Tyler.
Temperaryobsessor
I don’t think ELD staff hero worship Moon Shadow like the PS238 students do. I’m also pretty sure the children will not reach the conclusion that Tyler is the evildoer.
It took a bunch of PS238 students a few seconds to decide that if Tyler is plotting revenge, Zodon must of given him the equipment and brainwashed him. How they reached that conclusion is sort of depressing though. In conclusion Tyler disappearing when Moon Shadow shows up must be Tyler hiding from the real bad guy from the students perspective.
Eric
These security guys ain’t none too bright, are they? You would think the goal of this exercise to be painfully obvious.
At least it was to me.
Mike
Yeah, but you’re genre-savvy. They’re not, apparently
Van
You do realize that most security guards are not hired for their intelligence right?
Naldru
In http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/2017-02-20/, Toby said that he is going to get Tyler a real room. Does that mean that the room that will be searched for Tyler’s stuff will be the room that he is staying in or the room that Toby is arranging.
Nightmask
You’re drawing the wrong conclusion from that, Toby’s saying he’s going to do something that will get Tyler’s parents to recognize him as a person again and their son and therefor embrace him once again which would include Tyler once again having full security clearance and his own room once again as their son.
Van
How can you suck at Titanfall? The game does the aiming and most of the work for you in the first one.
Prairie Son
That is kind of the point of the joke, yes.
Van
True, but at least the Titanfall mod for Fallout New Vegas makes it more fun, and challenging. I love calling in my titan on top of bad guys.
Rock
She reminds me of that thief who was working with the Highwayman. What was her moniker again? Kestrel….?
Temperaryobsessor
Between her hair style and color she reminds me of the girl who lost her ability to transform.
Pander
Wait… what the…
WHY WOULD SECURITY COUNTERMEASURES GO OFF IF TYLER WENT INTO CERTAIN ROOMS?
I mean… I sorta of get that they might not want them in certain rooms but security measures sounds like they’re going to pull guns on their son.
God I hate Tyler’s parents so much. And I’m not that thrilled with Pistonic or whatever her name is, and the rest of them.
Nightmask
Because his father as we expected from earlier had Tyler’s security clearance pretty much downgraded to ‘who is this kid?’ status and naturally anyone who doesn’t have full clearance can’t go into the high security areas without setting off the counter-measures. Which yes is just another example of how awful Tyler’s parents are. One can only hope we’ll get to see someone finally setting them straight someday.
7eggert
Security settings SHOULD NOT be granted on “Hey, I know that guy” or “I know a guy knowing that guy”, but on “That person absolutely needs to do xyz”, and Tyler isn’t part of the main staff. Also granting access to Tyler will put him in danger by $EVIL_GUY forcing him to abuse his privileges (or else I’ll smash you into a pulp).
I’m making it a habit to not remember my customer’s passwords, I don’t even want to know them if I can avoid it.
Segev
Yeah, security measures don’t have “oh, you’re not allowed, but we won’t do anything because it’s you” settings. They react to unauthorized entry, no matter who the unauthorized entrant is.
Whether the Powers Parents are deliberate monsters pretending not to remember Tyler, or mind-addled by some outside force, they are at least acting like they barely accept Toby’s word that this “Tyler kid” is really somebody with any business on the base.
What puzzles me is why the rest of the EDL isn’t reacting to their “Do a background check on this person whose name I can’t seem to quite remember” behavior, because that’s the kind of suspicious behavior that should raise red flags. After all, the rest of the EDL seems to remember Tyler just fine.
Temperaryobsessor
The security counter measures would likely be more annoying than deadly. Not because that I think Ultima or Sovereign would have problems with killing trespassers but if it can be proven that they intentionally set X up to injure potential trespassers and the trespasser didn’t purposely injure themselves they could be held liable. My guess is that the room is locked down and the staff is alerted to the trespasser.
TeChameleon
I am, once again, convinced that one of two things is happening. Either:
A) Ultima and Sovereign are being manipulated by outside forces for nefarious ends (that or this is a side effect of past manipulation- they were programmed with ‘behave normally’, but the programming didn’t allow for there to abruptly be a second son, as an example). Quite bluntly, they haven’t exactly come off as shining beacons of heroic willpower, so I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if somebody was puppeteering them. Magic or reality warping would certainly explain the bizarre behaviour of both them and the rest of the EDL.
B) Both of the Powers parents are severely mentally ill. These are not the behaviours of well individuals, although you’d think that, given their tendency to encounter overwhelmingly stressful situations, they would have been diagnosed a very long time ago, even if supers aren’t terribly observant. Granted, that would make the behaviour of the rest of the EDL ‘we need to humour the unstoppable crazy ubermenschen or they’ll murder us all’, which strikes me as being a bit dark for the general tone of PS238….
Nightmask
C) Just really bad parents.
From what we’ve seen people in authority who see their behavior don’t do anything about it because they’re powerful supers who have a good reputation in the super-hero community so they get a pass including with Child Protective Services (because parents who put their kids in dangerous situations are usually arrested for it and the children taken away). It’s similar to how in RL abusive parents can get away with it by being public figures or having jobs that give them a good image in the community. Look at how many spouses were beaten by their partners, put in the hospital, even killed by the people that supposedly loved them while the public turned a blind eye, saying ‘but they’re a respected member of the community they can’t really be doing that’. Ultima and Sovereign are in that category, to the public and other heroes they’re selfless super-heroes so it’s unthinkable that they could be terrible, neglectful parents of their child so anytime it looks like that the person looking convinces themselves that they must be wrong. They invent reasons why it’s not as bad as it actually is.
Also remember that they and many supers hold non-supers in contempt, they don’t believe they have any say in making the world better and shouldn’t even try which carries with it the unspoken belief that normals have no right to question or judge them in any fashion. Clearly a normal can’t understand what it’s like as a super they tell themselves so their views on proper parenting and what’s legal and moral behavior towards children is of no consequence they’re inherently better and the only ones who know the best way to do things.
TeChameleon
Well, yeah, they could just be crappy parents… except that I don’t care how bad you are at the whole ‘parenting’ gig you don’t LITERALLY forget your child exists in the space of a few weeks without some kind of serious brain damage. And it’s pretty obviously not an un-personning thing… sad as it may be to say, Tyler’s parents would have to care more about him to actually make the effort to shun him.
Segev
I agree, TeChameleon, that if they’re “just” crappy parents, Aaron’s gone overboard with it. The evidence points to their mental faculties having some serious defects. Given the nature of the comic, I am more inclined to think they are externally induced defects (i.e. some form of mind control, or at least manipulation) rather than serious RL-like mental problems.
For exactly the reasons you list.
Even if you take their massive egos into account, they wouldn’t want to make themselves look like cruel people, and pretending to forget your child and his name goes beyond callous or careless and well into cruel. Actually forgetting your child’s name after having his development of superpowers be a major focus of your life (and, doubtless, your self-absorbed pontifications to your co-workers) makes you look mentally deficient – addled, stupid, or fraught with dementia. Going beyond that to the point of doubting that you have the original child, so you need to run background checks?
Honestly, I think we’re going to see some interesting reactions if the EDL discovers some things that they weren’t aware of. Because a lot of the Powers’s behaviors must be a little odd to them (the background check in particular). I can buy the security downgrade as something that the EDL members might have welcomed for Tyler’s own safety; they might have been trying for years to get it and been relieved that the Powers were finally willing to do it. (Pure speculation, that, but still.) But Dursleys-on-Harry-Potter level of abuse (moving his bedroom to a storage closet that they don’t even bother to empty)? It’s funny as a one-off joke, but with everything else, and as an ongoing condition… We’ll see if the EDL notices.
I suspect this debate might get resolved in this arc, given how much attention is being brought to bear on this, and just how unknown the motives of the mover of this plot line are.
Temperaryobsessor
I think the problem is your saying either senility or deliberate when the answer can be in the middle. I think they subconsciously decided to forget about Tyler/Toby. They do not want to admit that they were wrong about Tyler’s grand destiny and all the doubters were right, and they do not really want to continue to invest in Tyler’s grand destiny either. They are also shown to be able and willing to lie to themselves.
They didn’t have to forget that Tyler exist but composited them. They essentially forget Toby exists and that Toby went by Tyler in the past. Actually they first rewrote Tyler into being the clone. A clone which was to them a minor afterthought to their child finally getting powers. Then when Tyler decides to stay at the dorm and reduces the time they have to see them together completely forgetting about what was left over after compositing Toby and Tyler simply became the path of least resistance for them.
7eggert
They didn’t forget their son Tyler, Toby was always their only son. Tyler’s existence barely breached their bubble of denial.
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