[388]Be as candid as you wish.

Are you by any chance using Opera? I tried to view it in Opera and it won't show, so that's why I wonder. I never thought to check in another browser until I read your post.

Same, I saw Friday's and those before it just fine, but tonight it just doesn't want to show. How odd.

EDIT: I checked in both IE and Firefox, and I still can't get it to show up.

EDIT: Since it's working fine now, I'll just remove this. carry on.

I'm on Firefox and I can see it.

Antimony's thinking a bit outside the box, as in observing the "ally" as well as the "enemy". Parley and Smith both made obvious observations; Antimony looked at things from a different perspective. Maybe that's why Jones is praising her?

How about the style in the second-to-last panel? It's all... scratchy-ish. Is it just to indicate that it's a scene that Antimony is remembering?
I like it. It's cool.

I'd be surprised if it DIDN'T turn out to be significant, although probably not in the way we think it is. Tom is all wily like that.

...or maybe he acted that way for his own reasons...for example, he might have managed to get Ysen angry and leave early (plus the dropping of the seeds); so he just sat there looking all bored like, sent Parley and Smith to talk (why not Jones, or the Donlans who are all science-magic)... and also he got to see how Annie deal with the situation, evaluated her and sent her to medium training...

man, the guy owned them, and they didn't even noticed

I agree with that; the court was just using that little meeting to give Parley'n'Smit a chance to practice. Shows how much respect they have for super powerful gods and not quite as powerful half-tree demigods.

I like that idea, cenit. And yeah I think the guy did pretty much own everyone without their noticing. I know a forum administrator over at a place I moderate who's like this--he can get you to do stuff you wouldn't normally do, and by the time you've realized it...it's already too late. ;D

My guess is the headmaster was deliberately rude to draw out Ysengrim's real grievance.

Kind of a classic trick: Make your easily pissed off opponent more pissed so they screw up and reveal bits of their real thinking, or real plan. It may not be much, but gives a good analyzer like Jones a few clues to work on.

As for Jones, this whole "observing details" thing she has is starting to remind me of a Bene Gesserit. (You Dune fans out there should know what I'm after here.) The way she looks at body language ("You can easily take stock of a person's character when you give them a sword" or some such), the way she prods at someone's emotional responses ("Are you trying to make me angry?" - "Yes. It helps to assess your character.") and now intense observational skills in pointing out how Annie's observation was a key detail--all of that points to an expert in psychology and behavior in humans and etheric beings.

No wonder she's teaching mediation. I have to wonder if she's also the psychology teacher.

As for "You may be as candid as you wish"...I tend to think Jones would prefer honest opinions, even if they're a bit stupid. You can't work with a half-baked statement from someone trying to be polite or who's shy in a diplomatic sense. It's probably both just getting Annie to speak up with the two older kids there, but also getting her to speak her mind in case what she caught was indeed significant.

Parley and Smith were only watching the Forest delegates because they trusted the Court staff and were expecting them to have their backs.

Annie didn't trust anyone in the room, and she knew if she said the wrong thing, the whole story about sending Robot across the bridge would come out, and she'd be in trouble from both the Court and the Wood. So Annie had her eye on everyone.

Well, Reynardine refers to a bunch of legends about a trickster fox/wolf creature, also known as Renard, so it makes sense.

I like how the rendition of the reclined headmaster is protrayed in sketchy colours. Makes it look like part of an art piece.