[589]don't you think that was a little cruel?

Spoiling for a fight there! (Not from me, from our resident organiser.)

After Parley calms down, I bet Jones is going to lock 'em both in a closet where they'll either stew in silence and finally burst out in conversation, or Parley teleport away at the earliest convenience (whether or not Smitty is teleported with her is another thing altogether).

"Could be very useful" gives me an awful "we're planning something big" vibe. Augh, Jones: if Parley and Smith go all awkward and shy after this thing I will learn to draw just so I can kill you.

Maybe she is. Just because she has a decent poker face doesn't mean she isn't a complete lunatic under it all.

Anyway, does anyone else feel sorry for Dr. Disaster? He's like Gordon Freeman without the body armour or weapons or love interest or respect or gravity gun. Or that awesome goatee.

What I'm interested is why Annie's seemed to be... disappointed... when she heard that Randy is smitten with Jones (last panel)

Now that you bring it up, it does seem that Annie was thinking that Jones asked DD to give her the flowers; when it turned out Jones hadn't planned it, Annie apparently has overthought Jones's machinations.

Actually, if DD hadn't given the flowers, would Parley even have discovered she could teleport now?

Or did Jones expect DD to give her flowers?

Hmm.

That might explain why Surma is so turned off by Jones. Jones is waaaay to calculating & conniving. (Changed my, um, message-under-the-avatar to reflect this, heh).

She actually did, just not directly.

She doesn't waste words, and seems to like stating things that give you answers to multiple questions at once, at least in this case.

She shot down Annie's theoery that Jones planned the whole thing out, and pointed out that Dr. Disaster is infatuated with her. It's possible that she intended things to go this way, but she isn't suggesting that is the case.

Annie clearly asked the wrong question. Just because Dr.D wasn't in on the plan doesn't mean Jones hadn't planned it all from the start. We know Randy is always giving her flowers, and Jones most likely incorporated that into a plan to get Parley to reveal her power. Annie should have asked "So was helping Parley's powers appear always part of today's lesson or was it a happy coincidence?". We know it wasn't a coincidence because Jones pushed Smitty into her, but it would be nice to hear her admit it.

I don't think Jones actually planned for Parley's powers to manifest this time - I doubt this is the first time she's tried - but she probably was planning to try.

Or face-eating.

So, I think its been made clear that Jones never does anything, ANYTHING, without some calculated purpose. My question is: why did she give those two the purple flowers (does anyone know what kind they are?)? Does she want to see something from the two of them? Hmm.

It was speculated before, and I'll repeat it here, that she did that (gave Annie and Rey flowers) so that Parley wouldn't catch on to what Jones was trying to do.

I could go one farther and say that it's possible she was trying to give Smitty the first flower surreptitiously (she was in mid-sentence at the time) so that he would give it to Parley. But Smitty's reaction to Jones handing him the flower made it look like something else, so, she defused that by handing one out to Annie and Rey as well. Then, in order to more forcibly make the point that Smitty didn't get the first time, she gives him -another- rose and shoves him at Parley.

This is probably overthinking Tom's original intent, but with Jones, it is always more fun to over-speculate. Jones is a KILLER character and I choose to interpret her as being even more sharp and clever and deft than may be intended by the author.

Why? If they stammered around it long enough, giving things little "nuuudge" may well improve situation. Eventually.
Of course, but after all, she's supposed to teach Annie how to mediate. Peeling and spoon-feeding everything probably would be counter-productive... unlike providing a glimpse into good ol' scheming.
IMHO, her expression means just "wait, so on top of it all you pulled this using a gift from your suitor?"

Who's to say Jones doesn't consider Randy to be a suitable romantic partner?

Perhaps the only reason she isn't pursuing a relationship with him at present is because it would be inconvenient, what with the other matters she is currently concerning herself with. Once those things have been resolved, she may well find time to address his interests in a mutually satisfactory manner.