Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS

[thorny]

Actually, I think those that do have steampunk artificial body parts also qualify as perfectly normal in this storyverse.

But good point.

[thorny]

That has got to be Prende's Lantern.

[Jitter]

Yes! And it is probably also the cause for the “apparitions” in the very early part!

[wavewright62]

Weeeelp. 
In unrelated news, Rakethorn character design has morphed a wee bit - I keep mistaking him for the late lamented Wooster.

[Jitter]

Wave, same here. He looks too much like Wooster to my liking. What is the point of killing one character if you are going to bring in exactly the same character with a different name?

[thorny]

Is that lantern directional?

In the first panel, it looks like it's shining towards Rakethorn and the sea monsters; but not shining behind Madwa. And in the fourth, not only does it look like it's shining only towards and past Rakethorn, but it looks like it's shielded on the back, and Madwa's behind the shield. So if she turns to shine it on Violetta, does that mean Rakethorn and the monsters may be able to move?

[Jitter]

Thorny, you were right! I thought the directionality is just style choice, so that the holder is outside of the effect which otherwise surrounds them, or perhaps the other way around i.e. that the holder is the only one who is effected and steps outside of time. But it is actually the light that does the trick.

Well done Violetta for playing with it to get to hear some interesting things!

[wavewright62]

Extra kudos to thorny for noticing!  Violetta is a good one to be the keeper of the lamp - she doesn't want anything from it or its powers.
Although I was wondering if our time-travelling friend (blast, forgot the name, the pink one who gives Tarvek a case of the giggles) was going to emerge along with the 'monsters of the deep'.

[thorny]

I guessed the wrong way around, though -- I didn't realize Violetta was outside the light, I thought she'd heard Violetta and turned the lantern on her but while doing so might have turned it away from Rakethorn.

ETA: Violetta's really good.

[lumilaulu]

Violetta's been one of my favourites for ages. Always nice to have it confirmed once more.

[Róisín]

Yeah, I like Violetta. Practical, quiet, and just gets on with the job. Also very protective of Tarvek and Agatha.

[thorny]

She's bedrock loyal to Tarvek and Agatha.

And had been convinced, as a side effect of Tarvek's trying to protect her from the notice of other members of their family, that she was bad at being a Smoke Knight. Which we repeatedly get shown isn't true. (Though Madwa may well have been convinced of it -- note the "little Violetta" -- which may be one reason why this trick worked.)

(Tarvek may indeed be a weasel. But he's himself a genuinely loyal weasel, and his protection of Violetta's one of the things which shows it.)

[thorny]

Looks like those red spots may indeed be a sign of something wrong with the health of those creatures.

[thorny]

Well, where Madwa is, is dead.

Do the others have any way of knowing that? And, if so, would knowing it lead them to clear out?

And who does important lab work in a room with stuff dangling from the ceiling which might fall down into the work at any moment? Wouldn't they have had minions knock the loose stuff down and sweep it out of the way first? Or is that supposed to be damage done by the explosives that opened the door -- which, come to think of it, might also have led everybody to vacate the lab?

[Jitter]

If the Mirror is fixed in place it may be the only place they could do the work?