Their father, Timmy II, is yet another character we know not much about yet.
Around Christmas, we'll see him too over at Cryptida... (I'll give you a small glimpse into that family's history, basically.)
He is an ass, but Maerc sniffing around the family company might chiefly be caused by--or even solely so--Bettina's "hypocrisy and usurpation." Defense industry contracting has been a vile hive of scum and villainy since at least the days of the Roman empire, if not much longer than that. It is entirely predictable that some of the more vicious parasites in that bog would take a look at the apparently defenseless ToyCo getting a piece of the action, and decide, "Hey, I want that. I'm gonna take it!"
As usual, lirv is playing the absolute truth close to the vest red jacket, especially where Maerc is concerned.
At present, we are uncertain where, when, and under what circumstances Tim Timmy met (with) Elliot Maerc. This does not rule out the want/take paradigm you put forth. I am simply along for the Ride... :P
We do not know the extent of Maerc's reach. How far inside can he get? (Yes, I know he has military contacts, or at least his wife does. And those two don't always see eye to eye - he gutted her personal army, for example.)
We do know that, whatever Maerc's plans, Gus Alexander wants to stop them (which is all the harder to do now that Tiny is (temporarily) out of the company picture.
Concerning the actual (upcoming in this work) assassination of Timothy Timmy (I refuse to apologize for a spoiler that is literally in the name of the work and on the first page), the consensus seems to be that Tona Zehm's DoHS:MSV pulled the trigger. The wherefor on that particular event is, as yet, unknown (but I'm sure will become known these very pages).
Man, why do we have to blame Maerc for everything? Sometimes disasters are entirely of our own making. I would note that Bettina was really really not eager for anyone else's accountants to have a look at the books, hence her allergic reaction to talk of any sort of partnership.
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Speaking of partnerships I'm inclined to start putting up an unadvertised "comic series" of reference graphics and resources to make it easier for third parties to generate Autumn Bay content. Had a dude asking me about that earlier today.
@ lirv: An "Autumn Bay reference comic"? I'd love to see that!
I am a sucker for things like this! (As you can probably tell by the link-heavy answer I just wrote to Prof's comment.)
@Prof: since you already brought spoilerish-but-not-really links onto the table, here are the other tidbits of what was known about Timmy III's death prior to Childhood's End.
Exhibit A: In her very first appearance, Bettina talks about that to someone else. (See the first panel.)
It seems as if she isn't sure what exactly went down, but of course that could be just pretense.
Exhibit C: The ABPD is investigating the case.
Even though Bettina is an "obvious" suspect, the fact that she is still a free woman in "the present" indicates that they didn't really find hard evidence against her though...
@ Micro: Having these links in one place is super helpful. Thanks for that! :)
About the reference thing: lirv has brought up the need for a sourcebook of some sort for a while now. It's a matter of finding time. Of course, that plan of the graphics and such comic thing is hugely useful and appreciated.
I think it's fair to say that our sandbox is getting bigger than just us (Soph and I)...
The context for that AB stuff was a "big fan art" and they were looking for reference stuff.
@Micro: I appreciate your uh flexibility when it comes to the facts surrounding Timmy III's death. That said, I think by Wednesday it'll be pretty clear who did it and why.
What I don't know is if this is opportunism in claiming the family silver as all his, or if he's genuinely trying to protect the legacy from his sister. I might have to archive dive the source; I've been holding off on that because I should probably spend less time chasing online comics than I do.
edit: ...and right on schedule the hits keep coming.
People who want to set their sights on the future before the future sets its sights on them read the Lirverse.