Pretty much.

*wise, sagely voice*
get ur life together

~New paaages on Friiiday, yeah!~

Ooh, more priceless Max faces. Love the expressions in this comic.  

Also, Hijack should probably go along to the nurse's office after sustaining such a serious burn

Apophyllite wrote:

Also, Hijack should probably go along to the nurse's office after sustaining such a serious burn

Ha ha ha ha!!

Something else I noticed on the page before this; the three teachers that were in the flash-forward at the beginning of the chapter are now immediatelly heading for the lounge. Whatever happens in there is likely to happen within the hour, comic-time.

Ooh, can't wait!

GET HYPE FOR COMPLEX PLOT DEVELOPMENT THAT PROBABLY INVOLVES HIJACK TAKING OVER ONE OF THE TEAchers in the teachers' lounge, because that's where he was trying to go when he got stopped here!

Also is anyone else laughing about the fact that people in Muse's realm show up as artistic representations of what Muse thinks of them?

HYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPE

I wonder if Mr.Spender can tell that something's manipulating Jeff? He might not, though, since he's super occupied with his Forge problem and his argument with Lucifer.

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ HYPE

So curious about Hijacks mission of vengeance... Who's his target and why?

I don't think Spender can tell, no-one could tell untill he threw a ball way too hard. Unless maybe being a more experienced spectral gives you more insight in these kind of things. Hijack does seem spooked to see him, does he see Spender's a spectral or does he recognise him?

Also, I wonder how we go from here to the events in page 1. There still seems to be quite a bit of time left before that happens... Max is there, with his regular clothes back on instead of his gym clothes. Isaac is there (I assume it's Isaac...). Looks like Spender is coming out of the Principal's Office. They've been in contact with walkie talkies...

and the "it's one of them" makes it seem like Hijack's mission is to get inside the teachers' lounge and take over someone, probably to fulfill his "mission," which would mean that he was put up to this. By whom, I wonder?

EDIT: and another question: how is Hijack not affected by Isabel's Hammer here?

Perhaps by the "angel?" He does seem to think that whatever he's doing is the right thing to do, and he apparently has a thing against bullies, so he might be the kind of (person?spirit?) to take the side of someone "pure and good" like the angel claims to be. Hmmmm.

maybe, although that would mean that the angel is playing chess with mayiew, as Doorman is clearly in contact with forge to facilitate some evil plot, and they report to the angel too...

But the question remains: Who is the angel? Is she what she says she is? Is she even a she? Is she maybe BOSS LEADER??? (Unlikely.) We know that there are at least two different factions interested in Mayview, but is the angel maybe the leader of one of them? Or most of them? And how does Max's spirit come into play? Y'know, the one which possessed him when talking to Doorman and goes by the name of Riddlesand Wordgames. SO MANY UNKNOWNS and HALFKNOWNS

TurnTechBiologist wrote:

and the "it's one of them" makes it seem like Hijack's mission is to get inside the teachers' lounge and take over someone, probably to fulfill his "mission," which would mean that he was put up to this. By whom, I wonder?

EDIT: and another question: how is Hijack not affected by Isabel's Hammer here?

Hijack does say he's playing the vengeful spirit, so his mission may be a personal one rather than something he's been put up to. So far I get the vibe that Doorman's "faction" isn't really evil, since he's into the whole teaching Isaac the path of rightiousness thing. Of course they could always be mislead by the "angel" being which could just be pretending to be good... Hijack, while he is kinda doing some horrible stuff, also doesn't seem to be intentionally evil, so he could be from the same faction, or he could just be some totally unrelated spirit. While there seems to be some black and white good vs evil narrative being built, with the pixelhounds being explained as being pure evil, I think the whole picture will tend to look a bit more morally grey... Like Spender trying to do the "right thing" even while knowing his means to this goal may paint him in a bad light. Same as Forge in a way... Bluh, I've got so many thoughts on this subject but it's late and I need to go to bed ;_; (like there's also this whole spirit vs spectral thing going on and such... I think I've got stuff on that over in the speculation thread)

On Hijack being not affected by Isabel's spectral hammer, I can only assume he may be immune to spectral attacks while in a non-spectral body... Or maybe he was at the time pupetteering Jeff from outside the body and only entered at some later point to exert more control (like, when his eyes went red)

Apophyllite wrote:

On Hijack being not affected by Isabel's spectral hammer, I can only assume he may be immune to spectral attacks while in a non-spectral body... Or maybe he was at the time pupetteering Jeff from outside the body and only entered at some later point to exert more control (like, when his eyes went red)

That would make a lot of sense, in my opinion. Hijack would have been puppeteer from some distance away, and so the hammer would have passed right through the non-spectral Jeff. I feel like I've had a similar discussion with someone before, but I don't quite recall exactly what was said.

Yes, we've talked about the possible pupetteering vs direct possession on page 7 of this thread.

Yeah, that. If Hijack could switch between possession and puppeteering at will/with ease, that would open up a whole other realm of things which could happen. Y'know. If that realm hasn't already been opened.

EDIT: Poor RJ, he was abandoned at the other side of the gym.

NinjaKitten wrote:

Apophyllite wrote:

On Hijack being not affected by Isabel's spectral hammer, I can only assume he may be immune to spectral attacks while in a non-spectral body... Or maybe he was at the time pupetteering Jeff from outside the body and only entered at some later point to exert more control (like, when his eyes went red)

That would make a lot of sense, in my opinion. Hijack would have been puppeteer from some distance away, and so the hammer would have passed right through the non-spectral Jeff. I feel like I've had a similar discussion with someone before, but I don't quite recall exactly what was said.

Yeah, I think it was when I mentioned Jeff's initial possession looked like he was being strung up like a puppet, combined with that the gym's ceiling was so prominently featured as being full of spirits. Given that Hijack came directly out of Jeff, though, I don't believe my theory holds a whole lot of water anymore.

It could be that Hijack, having (seemingly) special powers of puppeteering ((EDIT: I think Possession is probably the better word for my meaning, seeing as we are using puppeteering to mean "controlling from a distance, as one would a puppet" in this discussion)), also has special rules; for instance, he might not be able to be affected by spectral energy while in a host body, but then might not  be able to exist outside of a host for long. This would then explain the squeakdog at the beginning of the chapter, which would have served as Hijack's host to follow Isabel to school for as-of-yet-unknown reasons, before getting angry here, abandoning the dog body, and taking over Jeff, causing the dog to "wake up" in confusion (hence the ?'s in the last few panels), before passing gas and passing out of the story arc.

just a theory

Hm, haven't considered the possability of Hijack not being able to exist outside of a body for long... It's an interesting theory. I just thought he possessed the dog and then Jeff so he could get to his destination unnoticed by spectrals or other spirits. It may not have been necessary (since the school is full of spirits no-one in the activity club is worried about) but I'd think being an undercover type it would probably be in his nature to do stuff that way...

TurnTechBiologist wrote:

It could be that Hijack, having (seemingly) special powers of puppeteering ((EDIT: I think Possession is probably the better word for my meaning, seeing as we are using puppeteering to mean "controlling from a distance, as one would a puppet" in this discussion)), also has special rules; for instance, he might not be able to be affected by spectral energy while in a host body, but then might not be able to exist outside of a host for long.

That does make a lot more sense than just randomly possessing a dog's body for a while. I mean, while dog's aren't capable of doing many things that humans can do (like speaking,) they can travel unnoticed in a wide variety of areas, however, just this wouldn't be enough of a logical reason for Hijack to move around in a dog's body, especially since normal people can see dogs while they canNOT see spirits and ghosts.

So I guess my point is that if he wanted to go unseen, then he could've just been a spirit most of the time, and if he really didn't want spectrals in particular to see him, he could've hide in a nearby squirrel or bird when a spectral is nearby. But, if he cannot exist outside of a host for very long, then it would make a lot more sense for him to just possess the dog until he finds a more suitable/useful host.

Also, while I was thinking about this, I considered that his problem of needing a host might be solved if he were to enter a tool, and that make me think about a spectral using him as a tool and being able to POSSESS STUFF which is a pretty dang awesome power to have!

That's an excellent point. There do seem to be spirit factions though, and this guy seems to be part of one. He might not want other spirits to know his movements. Also, I think it'd be easier to posses one thing and move it to where you want to be than to constantly have to be on alert for spectrals/sprits you want to hide from and jump in and out of bodies everytime you think there's someone around to hide from...

Possessing people directly seems more like a power a medium would have rather than someone who relies on tools (sorta assuming powers can work differently depending on if you have a tool or are one). Maybe you could control people with your tool then. By... stabbing them with it? >_>
But then it'd stop working when the tool gets out of range... Probably overthinking this...

Maybe. Or it could be, like, your body is left standing with the tool, while your "mind" so to speak enters whatever you're possessing. And, does it have to be an animal-type organism? Can you possess plants, rocks, and other things? (Like maybe a can?) This would be a very interesting power to mess about with, I think.

That could work...

Also, since Hijack is a brain looking spirit who kinda goes on about intelligence and such, I think he can probably only possess things with a brain... Also, possessing inanimate objects would probably be pretty dull since they can't move and don't have any senses... Depending on how "magical" spectral energy is, that could maybe not matter at all though.

That's what I was thinking. (can flying through air, rolling on ground.)

The theory that his vague brain-shape means he can only possess things with brains is a very valid thing to assume, I think. It makes sense. I mean, Muse has a paintbrush tail so he can paint things, Isaac's spirit is a storm-thing, so weather powers, Eightfold () is made of paper, so paper powers, etc.