Nearly all of our “main characters” abandoned the Meat timeline Earth C. To our knowledge, there’s only three left behind. We see two here. Jane, who just soundly defeated Karkat to win the planetary presidency, and Jake, who thinks shorts and a long coat make any sense at all for January weather in Washington DC C. Typical.

Jane is surrounded by flags of the Earth C planetary government. With most of this planet built on discarded American pop culture and its government seemingly replicating the unitary executive, an appropriate flag was necessary. As you can see, this flag has four stars and four stripes – one for each of the four founding kingdoms of the Earth C Presidential Compact. Remembering the name is easy peasy. ECPC. Get it? This is a very common mnemonic in Earth C elementary schools.

We’d just seen Brain Ghost Dirk re-emerge in the Candy timeline in our main story. Now he’s back in Meat, too? Good lord, there’s just too much Dirk in this story. It’s possible “Ultimate” Dirk’s presence was suppressing other splinters of himself from manifesting.

Jake is seated next to Jane’s Vice President, a mild-mannered people-pleaser picked as token representation. Politics are all about balance, you see, and Jane was well advised by her campaign manager on how to avoid the poor optics of her policies on the Mother Grub. Unfortunately, Jake is simply too drunk to give a shit about this, depriving us all of Brain Ghost Dirk’s explanation of libertarianism. What a shame.

Unfortunately, that campaign manager is gone, and she’s left to her…not great political instincts. Unlike the other victors of the game, Jane threw herself into the world the kids made together. She grew up preparing to take over a major company, and has the confidence to show for it. It does make one wonder about her influences, though. Taking over Earth C’s business world certainly would have required rubbing shoulders with the already-powerful on the planet. Jake’s expressing his typical wishful thinking here, wanting nothing more than for some easy solution to his friend’s complicated descent into political unrecognizability.

Regardless of support, of wealth, or connections, sometimes it all blows up in your face. What happens next? I’m sure there’s some very good guesses floating around.

During this storyline, we’ll occasionally get a glimpse at the good ol’ Hornographer, quite simply the paper of record amongst chess people. Here’s a transcript of this panel: 

President Crocker Disappears at Inaugural Ceremony

CEREMONY DISRUPTED BY “MAGIC” OR PYROTECHNICS

WASHINGTON DC C — Chaos unfolded today at the inauguration ceremonies for the most-watched presidential election in the history of Earth C. At twelve noon, Jane Crocker was sworn in outside the Barack Obama Memorial White House as the 21st planetary president. A massive, minutes-long burst, described by some observers as “magical sparkles” and some as advanced flashbang-like pyrotechnics, then disrupted proceedings. After five minutes of sustained explosions and fog, President Crocker was nowhere to be found.

In the tumult, multiple Crockercorp bodyguards discharged their pistols, leading to one injury by friendly fire. Vice President Motter Ataxia and all other attending dignitaries were unharmed. While police and military officials began a search, the Vice President was quickly whisked to a secure facility to direct the ongoing effort to locate President Crocker.

Large troll-led protests against the inaugural event were disrupted by police across the capitol region shortly after President Crocker’s disappearance. Authorities believe the event has a connection to the disappearance of multiple Creators this week, according to the President’s press secretary.

Jane Crocker, 23, has been among the Creators most involved in public life since their return seven years ago. Her decision to run for office spurred Karkat Vantas to oppose her and seemed to mark a permanent shift in planetary politics. She is the youngest president, and the first to claim affiliation with no political party since the office was established as a successor to the Quad-Kingdom Pact first negotiated by the Mayor.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for President Crocker’s disappearance. Political tensions run high across the planet, and no Creators were available for comment.

I hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely Thanksgiving, and we can’t wait to share more with you in December.