Classique Carlotta ingenuity
“The Case of the Jade Cartel” was referenced briefly in Wicked Things, the series that Wobbly Head is meant to finally close the door on (copies are still available from your bookseller). I’m not 100% sure what happened during this undocumented mystery but we can tell from this page, for certain, that it involved a lot of jade. And Sonny.
Did the math and this story wouldn’t be able to take place three years before Wobbly Head since July of that timeframe would be the events of Bad Machinery case 9.
The news story was dated July, but that could have been months earlier than this.
Uh, no. July three years ago was the summer after “The Great Unboxing”.
Lottie’s 19 now. Three years ago, she was 16. I’m not sure whether you’re counting “Space is the Place” as case 9 (it didn’t have a case number on the old site, I guess because it’s not “The Case of…”), but it overlaps with “Missing Piece” anyway, so it doesn’t matter much. Lottie’s still 14 in “Space is the Place”, and doesn’t turn 15 until around the end of “Missing Piece”/beginning of “Severed Alliance”.
Shauna identifies them as “15-year-olds” in “Space is the Place”, but while she is, Lottie isn’t yet. It’s set sometime in the spring/early summer, and Lottie doesn’t turn 15 until that July. Even Mildred, the oldest of the mystery kids, doesn’t turn 16 until the very last strip of “Severed Alliance”. Shauna turns 16 a month and a half later. Sonny turns 16 a week after the end of “Hard Yards”. Lottie doesn’t turn 16 until the next July, which is after the events of “Wen-Tack”/”Parents”/”The Great Unboxing”.
You’re all getting the timelines wrong, as I can clearly tell from the fact that Erin’s story in this comic is dated 13 July, 20⌘︎♑︎.
I suspect it may have been the conversion of the dates from the British Imperial system to the European metric one that’s caused the problem here. The pips are measured completely differently.
Luke Drotos is like a child in a Victorian short story who loves a pet so much that he accidentally squeezes it to death. Try to love the Scary-Go-Verse just a little less Luke and we won’t all have to pay for John A to be buried in one of those giant hampers he keeps asking for.
Why not just enjoy the story, instead of doing the math(s) ?
Did Erin Winters write the article in German or it was translated later… either way it’s meant heavy use of Google translate for me
I wonder if Ms Anderson’s fiance has an interesting surname, like Hohl or Hoe
Or Sossedge
I think you mean TranZlate – from Zambian Computing
I wouldn’t be surprised about find out that Erin is a polyglot able to talk and write in 6 different languages and more. Maybe something that her life as Mordawwa gave to her.
I think the fact that this is from YorkshireLive indicates that the article was written in English, and was translated (likely by someone else).
Lottie doesn’t seem very happy in the article photo. The case may have made her jaded.
Yellow card!
I still want to learn about Lottie’s famous case of the Politician, the Lighthouse, and the Trained Cormorant
Even Claire’s phone has a lisp!
It does? All it seems to say on this page is “BLING.”
It’s probably Clojure.
Just the coding language…
Presumably Sonny was hidden in a large jade vase and then forgotten about.
The Erin Winters byline makes me too happy.
Also, Sonny!
You beat me to it.
Also, I just realized the really shocking implication of this:
Erin got the kids’ names right in an article.
Nah. The translator fixed the names.
I love “one step ahead of them with only half as many feet” and am grateful you wrote it.
“Well Lottie, whatever you did, I thuppose it wasn’t dubiouth and unlikely to haunt us in the dithdant future.”
What a website to get your news from, Beate! Surprisingly international
I think she looked at a British site because she recognized them as British sluthes.
She… Binged them?
They are indeed binge-worthy.
Ask Jeeves?
Finally a chance to see again Sonny, even if it’s a photo from the past.
Aw, let us see that rock!
And to echo everyone else: hooray, Sonny!!
Like True Professionals, they don’t say Diamond or Jewel, but ROCK (as if they don’t really care what it is except a reason to be professional.)
Lottie may care a little bit. Note the BLING reflected in her eyes.
You shouldn’t call a gem a “rock”. Folks will just take it for granite.
Indeed. Not gneiss at all.
Definitely not gneiss. More like actinolite schist.
Loving the use of ‘abgespeckt’ in the news article, a rather casual term implying a reduction of some kind that literally translates to ‘de-fat-ed’. Probably a translation of ‘slimmed down’? 😀
Abstract?
The, uh, the object with a face, behind Sonny, what’s that about?
Type “jade artefacts” into Google, Ronald…
I think the comments on this page may haves reached a new record for “people finding something odd about aspects of the comic that are perfectly reasonable for the real world”.
Wait, isn’t Lottie’s first name “Charlotte,” not “Carlotta”?
I think Lotticia is just being ‘international’
She’s Charlotte Meredith Grote (assuming Mildred didn’t make that up; you know what she’s like). But she frequently refers to herself as “Carlotta”, I assume to make herself seem more exotic.
Similarly, Miss Haversham’s name is not actually “Mildew”, and the guy who hangs around is named “Glenn Durgan”, not “Glyn Durban”, or “Goblin”, “Gremlin”, “Gürm”, “Glem”, or “Gimli, son of Glóin”.
Wait just a danged minute! You’re giving us a flashback story about a case we’ve never seen that contains reference to yet ANOTHER case we’ve never seen featuring the only Mystery Kid that we know nothing of as of yet?
Aaaargh, as they tend to say.
The key concept here is “giving.”
And we are very grateful for it
Thank you, John
This is what is called “mise en abyme” in literary theory. A narrative technique at which it is absolutely forbidden to go “aaaargh”, as that will unfortunately summon a beast from hell.
And I forgot to mention that the snow-capped mountains reflection in the window Claire looks out of is brilliant