My Spec on Bun-Bun:

That is not Bun-Bun. It's Anise taking Bun-Bun's form. Hence the occasional lapses in character.

Which makes sense if my spec about the Book of Ughlee is also correct. Its ultimate purpose is to deliver a pile of demons in a nice neat package to Y. If that's true, then it makes perfect sense to send Anise to keep tabs on the gang and make sure that they keep filling up the book with more demons.

That makes a scary amount of sense, and fits better than any other spec to date (all I could think of was Zefolas from that other weird dimension, but that wouldn't work here).

I don't really know what Symachus would do with all those demons, but he seems ambitious enough to have some plan for them.

...and how the heck did he get Lord Sluggy/Bun Bun out of the picture? That doesn't make me doubt your conjecture at all; it just makes me wonder even more.

Edit: oh man, even his "happy eyes" look like Anise now that I think of it.

It's purpose? And Dunuloa was worried about the Book of Bhad. All in all that makes me wonder. Symachus is one character who's been around long enough to possibly pull it off. Do you think he was manipulating Quint when he made the books? I kind of doubt it because I figure he would have gotten to the books sooner if he had a hand in their creation, but I can't rule it out.

Well, we still don't know how Quint got so knowledgable about magic in the first place...

OOOOOHHHHhhhhhhhh! Well CRAP. You may be right. I went back and looked at some of the strips surrounding Anise and his companions, as well as strips from earlier in this Chapter. I am thinking that Anise (or Basil/Coriander), might be the head-tilting guy as well. Both of them. At the end of the last chapter, Anise DID say that he was getting confused by all the people he had to manipulate.
https://archives.sluggy.com/book.php?chapter=73#2023-06-20

It would make sense that he or the other two would be keeping tabs on the gang at the Antiquarium. They were keeping tabs on Torg/gang around the time of the Woods Mushroom Dryad, when Noogy visited. Then we see the same head-tilt and behavior with the 'weird neighbor' that is following Sharon Gall. Who also was being manipulated by Anise in "fate spider" form. So I think Anise is taking on MANY forms, and all for the benefit of Yffi/Symachus. And at some point, he probably inserted himself into BunBun. BunBun was acting like his normal grumpy uncaring self up until the evening that the gang went to the Oceanus. He had that odd happy attitude when he wanted to join them to kick demon butt. He was acting a bit smiley and happy all while they were outside.

Dude...this sucks.
If Basil and Coriander aren't involved, I wonder what THEY are up to?? Still at the Cave of Yffi? Something more nefarious?

Okay, editing to update: I re-read the comment and realized that it was said that it was Anise in BunBun's FORM...not possessing BunBun. So yeah, that makes more sense, as I just had that same thought right after I posted. Anise takes many forms, so most likely that is NOT BunBun. But...I wonder where BunBun is. Although...the last time we saw him before the Oceanus stuff, he was happy that he had his bag of diamonds and ran off. So he is probably doing something with them.

Well now we know. I think Anise was an interesting spec, but having fun clobbering the kids with "punchable faces" seemed a little too in character for anyone else to be emulating Bun-Bun.

The tilted-head folks with crossed eyes, however, are a different matter. I would have expected the same human form if they were Anise, though. I'm still thinking demons, but I have no idea why... I suspect we'll find out soon, though. I spec that Noogy survived the encounter. And that will make her all the more determined to find the gang...

Well, I am thinking that first Anise was emulating Detective Flannery, in the woods near the Mushroom Dryad. And then when Anise found out more, he switched to Sharon's neighbor. Or he was just doing both. I think he is capable of emulating multiple human forms if he needs to.
I would also not be surprised about demons, as that is what I originally thought. Someone possessed them.

I'm not 100% on the canonicity of anniversary comics, but until plainly stated otherwise, I'm gonna take Bun-Bun"s explanation of losing bets to Aylee as the gospel truth. Besides, what would Anise do if the real Bun-Bun showed up? Seems like an unnecessary risk and Symachus knows Bun-Bun as well as anyone.

wild spec: Meander become Dr. Lorna with time travel shenanigans.

Now THAT's just cruel.

bwahahahahaa! that's good.

Anyone else half-expecting Frog to come a-courting? LOL

Last strip Torg and Zoe were discussing the newly caught demons from Oceanus and how they may not have an inherent "type" like emergent or possessor.

I specced something like this back in July on the true nature of demons and crossing over. Just dropping that back in here instead of re-writing it out...



So....that's my spec.
1) Spec on the true nature of demons.
2) Ozzid is secretly some powerful demon from the never who's hiding out in the nifty world, for whatever reason. Or perhaps just bound there.

There's spec for thought, anyway!

I'm curious about who the 3 o'clock is. Somehow I doubt it's just an innocuous rando.

Gwen is looking for a way to rescue Riff.
But SOMEBODY needs to be a jailer for Poopy.
Riff would have the character to keep him contained, he has so much guilt that he might not even feel cheated. He's already devoted to saving the world.

But he doesn't have any magic ability.

Gwen would be more effective in his place.