[573] Jupiter's moon, Ganymede!

Mainly because she gets to be in charge

Ha, "Danger: Terror".

If the only thing to fear is fear itself, you must fear fear IMMENSELY!

Also, Parley's got that demonic kind of cuteness going for her.

They could be alien rabbits, with their teeth a bit further aside. >_>

And are those purple tentacles behind them?

I don't think so. I see where you're coming from but I think it's a bit of a stretch. The spires on the top ruin the outline, maybe if the windows were round and had cross hatched bars it would fit better, but the two smaller windows either side don't look like it.

THEY LOOK LIKE FROGS!!!!

-loves frogs with a burning passion-

I want to go to Ganymede.

Yeah, I'm sure I've seen computer speakers shaped like those hills behind the Jupiter Moon Martians.

You're far too paranoid.

I wonder why Smitty didn't get in with the whole, "Hair Transplants in Simulators" fad.

Both of them look kind of like frogs, so yeah...

There's nothing rabbitty about the Quiggles, though.

Not to mention that she seems far less perceptive than Annie or Smith. When Jones asked them for their observations on Ysengrin and Coyote's embassy, Parley only gave the obvious one - that Ysengrin was in an extremely bad mood - while Smith and Annie gave far more insightful answers. (I'd suspected, alongside Smith, that Coyote might have intended the embassy as really a feint, a way of luring Reynardine into a conversation - but hadn't even thought about the Headmaster's response until Annie brought it up.)

But then, I don't think Parley's really there to be trained as a medium; she seems to be there because her father's hoping that being around the children with etheric abilities will finally turn her into a psychic. (There's a comic book series called "P.S. 238" about an elementary school for children with super-powers. One of the children attending it, Tyler, has no super-powers, but his parents are both super-heroes and think that being around children with super-powers will bring those abilities out in him. Though that's where the similarity ends, because Tyler is depicted as meek, cautious, and timid - practically the reverse from Parley!)

(And I still wonder whether Parley Senior really is a psychic himself - or a clever fraud who made the mistake of believing his own hype.)

He apparently got everything about his child but the gender correct (weight, height, etc). On the one hand gender is the only thing on one's birth certificate that can be actually checked before birth (fun fact: predictions for when a baby will be born only have a 5% success rate), since stuff like weight will change as time goes on and won't be predictable (and besides, it's hardly practical to weight the fetus). On the other hand, if he was predicting using equally mundane but more theoretical methods (such as taking into account stuff like genetics, environment, etc and making a very educated guess. Since intelligent robots exist in the GKverse it's not impossible he or a computer could make a good guess with enough data) but sex (I'll be pedantic and note that sex is biological and gender is cultural) is the only thing that would be truly random, since there's a 50/50 chance of inheriting the Y chromosome and the result is (apart from some rare cases) male or female, environmental factors be damned. If he is just good at noticing things it could be as useful as being psychic of course, hence why Jones said that Parley showed potential.

Alternative theory: Parley Sr. really could see into the future. He saw that his child would be called "George" and assumed that he would have a son, causing a self fulfilling prophecy where Parley was named George because everyone found the mistake funny.



Or maybe it's an act. Pretending to be less intelligent (or more eccentric) than you really are would be a fair tactic in negotiations after all. She has the right name for it at least.

Occam's razor scores and wins the game.

Ugh, great, thanks Jim, I just lost the game too. Since I can foresee the cascade effect this will have, let's just leave it at you and I representing everyone else who could potentially post that they just lost as well, and get back to discussing the comic

Parley is both awesome, and flawed. Parley is awesome in part -because- she is flawed. If parley were perfect she wouldn't be half as interesting as a character or a person. I've lost count of the number of people who've said they wished they knew someone like Parley in the real world.

By the same token Smitty is a perfect foil for Parley as well. I'm really looking forward to the inevitable hijinks that shall inevitably ensue from these two being let loose inside the haptic simulator!

Parley, Sr., completed a scientific test in a lab (the Eugene Gould Psychic Challenge) and, given the fictional nature of this work, I'd lean towards believing he wasn't just a fraud. I like bisected's theory on how he could be truly psychic and mistakenly predict the birth of his son; particularly since it would mean that Parley will indeed become psychic.

Whereas Parley's personality is not ideal for delicate diplomatic proceedings, certainly if and when her abilities manifest then the ability to glimpse the future would be a great boon to any diplomat. For that reason the Court is training her despite her current lack of ability.