The Q&A thread

[Twitcher]

It's weird, and I must be misremembering, but I'd thought that Guth died earlier in FANS. Did he just move to another department or retire from active duty, and if so, what's he doing nowadays?

[retrophrenologist]

As i recall, Guth moved away to get his PhD, and is currently changing number theory somewhere, with the aid of his creepy little pedostache.

Incidentally, what's with Guth's moustache, anyway?

[TCampbell]

It's weird, and I must be misremembering, but I'd thought that Guth died earlier in FANS. Did he just move to another department or retire from active duty, and if so, what's he doing nowadays?

No, Guth never died. His cousin did.

As i recall, Guth moved away to get his PhD, and is currently changing number theory somewhere, with the aid of his creepy little pedostache.

Incidentally, what's with Guth's moustache, anyway?

Guth thought it made him look more professorial. And kissable. He doesn't have it in his most recent appearance.

[IS_Wolf]

Did Will ever consider going the Brian Blessed route with his acting career?

And considering how far along the timeline the current Faans universe is, that it might as well be an alternate timeline anyway at this point.
What are the chances of Margaret "Read my shirt" Browning, David "Soulcat" Jones and Roger "The Weird One" Pepitone showing up as members of Aegis?

Roger would seem to fit with the whole Weird Science department they got, what with Fitz running the show there.
Margaret seems to mix the best qualities of Beta and Alpha Squad, even if she's not a team player.
Dave... Considering his eye powers, and prior friendship with Rikk, you'd think that he'd relatively high up on the recruitment list.
(Unless of course, Blue has got him locked away somewhere. )

Left out Mike, Marsha and April, considering the awkward history with Will, and Mike being wealthy enough not to need a job anyway.

[TCampbell]

Did Will ever consider going the Brian Blessed route with his acting career?

And considering how far along the timeline the current Faans universe is, that it might as well be an alternate timeline anyway at this point.
What are the chances of Margaret "Read my shirt" Browning, David "Soulcat" Jones and Roger "The Weird One" Pepitone showing up as members of Aegis?

Roger would seem to fit with the whole Weird Science department they got, what with Fitz running the show there.
Margaret seems mix the best qualities of Beta and Alpha Squad, even if she's not a team player.
Dave... Considering his eye powers, and prior friendship with Rikk, you'd think that he'd relatively high up on the recruitment list.
(Unless of course, Blue has got him locked away somewhere. )

Left out Mike, Marsha and April, considering the awkward history with Will, and Mike being wealthy enough not to need a job anyway.

Will's problem as an actor was that he couldn't successfully get others to see him the way that he wanted to be seen.

The alternate timeline argument isn't a bad one. Years have passed in Fans and scarcely one year (I think) in CRFH since Will and April's last meeting. So yeah, it's a possibility.

[Freemage]

Okay, at this point, I think it's fair to ask--is the original 'ending' of FANS! (the party where everyone is having fun and being successful) still canon? Or should we regard it as a possible end, but one that all the time-traveling may very well have mucked up beyond all comprehension?

[retrophrenologist]

Freemage, do you mean the scene at the beach house, where Kath is pregnant? I'm pretty sure that scene falls between the classic college-era Fans! and the current AEGIS era, ie before 'Sir Yes Sir', when Rikk and Rumy were leading Alpha Squad against Al-Qaeda djinns and the like.

Incidentally, since Shanna got her writer's block cured in 'Worse Than The Disease', is she working on a new book? Or hasn't she had the time?

[TCampbell]

retro has it right. Book Six picks up not very long after Book Five leaves off.

Shanna was stalled on a book before "Worse Than The Disease." Since then she's focused on finishing that one. When she's not, y'know, BUSY.

[Thray]

Is this the final year for faans?

[TCampbell]

Is this the final year for faans?

Yes.

I'm saving most of my concluding thoughts for when it's actually over, because I don't want to give away any more about the ending than I have to. But yeah, that's what Friday's update meant.

[Bunny Suction]

Really sad to hear the strip is ending again. I can only hope it comes back in some new iteration in the future.

A few things in book 5 that I could never really wrap my head around:
"Project Hex" and the 23 members of the collective... I get that the basic idea was that they were linking their minds together to achieve higher mental potential, but I never quite understood why doing this gave them the power to reverse time or why they suddenly turned into a (or is it "the"?) 23-sider afterwards.

Also when Narbon realizes she was a creation of the God Machine... she's saying that the earlier prototype of the machine is what created her right? So if the prototype is still operational then why does she disappear when the "newer" God Machine is destroyed? Or was the implication that there never was a new god machine and the prototype WAS the one that was destroyed (meaning it was actually Fitz behind the whole incident)?

[TCampbell]

Really sad to hear the strip is ending again. I can only hope it comes back in some new iteration in the future.

A few things in book 5 that I could never really wrap my head around:
"Project Hex" and the 23 members of the collective... I get that the basic idea was that they were linking their minds together to achieve higher mental potential, but I never quite understood why doing this gave them the power to reverse time or why they suddenly turned into a (or is it "the"?) 23-sider afterwards.

Also when Narbon realizes she was a creation of the God Machine... she's saying that the earlier prototype of the machine is what created her right? So if the prototype is still operational then why does she disappear when the "newer" God Machine is destroyed? Or was the implication that there never was a new god machine and the prototype WAS the one that was destroyed (meaning it was actually Fitz behind the whole incident)?

I make no promises, one way or the other.

The implication is that human mental potential, in a truly interlinked network, virtually has no upper limit.

The prototype's function was supplanted by the newer device. She saw no reason to run both at once.

[Bunny Suction]

I make no promises, one way or the other.

Woo hoo! and/or doh!

The implication is that human mental potential, in a truly interlinked network, virtually has no upper limit.

So then turning into a 23-sider is what happens when a very very high degree of that potential is reached?

The prototype's function was supplanted by the newer device. She saw no reason to run both at once.

So if she was a figment created by the newer device then does that mean Fitz was the one running it? In other words, if she was a manifestation, then who actually made and turned on the machine?

[Freemage]

I make no promises, one way or the other.

Woo hoo! and/or doh!

The implication is that human mental potential, in a truly interlinked network, virtually has no upper limit.

So then turning into a 23-sider is what happens when a very very high degree of that potential is reached?

The prototype's function was supplanted by the newer device. She saw no reason to run both at once.

So if she was a figment created by the newer device then does that mean Fitz was the one running it? In other words, if she was a manifestation, then who actually made and turned on the machine?

I thought the newer one (without the limits) was made BY the prototype....

[TCampbell]

I make no promises, one way or the other.

Woo hoo! and/or doh!

The implication is that human mental potential, in a truly interlinked network, virtually has no upper limit.

So then turning into a 23-sider is what happens when a very very high degree of that potential is reached?

The prototype's function was supplanted by the newer device. She saw no reason to run both at once.

So if she was a figment created by the newer device then does that mean Fitz was the one running it? In other words, if she was a manifestation, then who actually made and turned on the machine?

I thought the newer one (without the limits) was made BY the prototype....

23-sider: Yes.

Fitz made the original prototype, which generated Narbon. Narbon quickly betrayed him, not fully aware of her origins, but kept the small working prototype with her until she built the bigger model. Was the small prototype working through her, then, using her as an agent to help assume its ultimate form? Difficult to say for sure. Narbon claims that the final God Machine "modified its own design" to eliminate its off-switch, and nothing contradicts this account.