Comic for Monday, August 7th
Aug07
Naomi frequently checks on Mium whenever she gets bored to make sure he doesn’t get lonely. I think if she picked a fortunate or unfortunate time depends on who you ask. Naomi acquires most of her sleep by napping during class, so is frequently bored and needs someone to play games with during the night.
One has to wonder if Mium’s moods exist anywhere besides Naomi’s mind?
In panel two there is an emote-effect. I don’t use them very often, as they are sort of cop out, but sometimes they are a better way to clarify the panel.
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I find it funny that Naomi is almost as hard if not harder for people to talk to than Mium. Both of them have almost equally as warped senses of what constitutes logical.
Though if I had to guess Naomi’s ideal outcome of this conversation was that she gets to try to beat up “the bad guy”, so I guess that worked out for her.
It’s a strange line up when the second most axe-crazy person is one the “good” one. Hell, she might be more blood-knight than Rovak, if less inclined to kill people.
No kill pacifism on Naomi’s part? I think she has parallel motivations here. A kind spot in her heart for those she deems needing protection, and an equally driving need to punch those things that are on the other end of that protection. Not so much in contradiction to one another, but rather two sides of her personal logic/philosophy.
Naomi does tend to be aggressive. But, I see this as: (1) Naomi is very competitive, (2) Naomi loves to hit things (and admits as much), and (3) Naomi is very protective. Combine those things and you can easily see why she’d be eager to fight Nathan here. For one, she’s being protective of Mium.
I don’t think Naomi has a drive to kill, per se. (See above.) It’s not like she has been known to kill anyone. She just really likes to fight. For all we know, she could be addicted to her magic-boosted strength, speed and prowess – or, perhaps she’s an adrenaline junkie?
Anyway, she did warn Nathan – several times. And she’s very considerate and sporting. On the next page, Nathan admits that it’s refreshing to fight someone quote, “with decency”.
It might be simpler than that: If you kill a tough opponent then [probably] you can’t fight them again later on…
^_^
Haa, I knew it. His method “worked” but was still completely useless. Hee!
And Naomi gets to do what she enjoys, too. Win/win for her, I guess.
I dunno, somehow I get the feeling you’re right about Naomi’s heart not really being broken by the fact that this was, indeed, a thing that needed punching (from her point of view, anyway…) 😉
Oh no, I was just talking about how she just seems to enjoy punching things in general.
Whether it needs punching, sometimes seems, well, secondary…
(Remind me to stay far away on days when she’s that bored.)
Nice body slam, Naomi! It’s especially impressive, given that Nathan probably outweighs her by a good margin. Granted, Naomi is much stronger than she appears. But, augmented strength or not, it’s got to be unwieldy to pick up and toss someone larger than you. Leverage is key.
That looks like a pretty nasty hit on the back of the head. Shouldn’t that at least stun him, if not confuse or knock him out? Maybe give him blurred vision? Will we at least see him shake it off or hold his head on the next page?
A lot of boosters struggle with physics a lot, especially people using a Boost Engine to achieve the result. Just because magic can cheat physics doesn’t mean you don’t have account for it. You can pick up something that a human never could, but if you don’t alter your weight to anchor you, center of mass will still get you.
While Naomi is not immune to it, her reflexes and instincts are honed to the more abnormal boosted state from her previous love of magic sports, to the point of the warped physics of a boosted person make more or less perfect sense to her (perhaps due to a dubious grasp on what normal human-world interactions are…).
While she doesn’t actually have the combat experience of other people, of “people that can boost their abilities” in the world, she’s spent a lot of her time using them and tends to push them to extremes due to her competitiveness.
Perhaps there’s more to it, but that’s all I can say here… 😉
…there is nothing more to say
With Naomi, you have to let her fists and her smile do the talking.
It’s easy enough to throw someone twice your weight with judo techniques. But Naomi’s throw wouldn’t work as shown without magic.
Speaking of which, I’d like to know how Nathan’s magical response worked through Naomi’s interference field. Wind, maybe?
Panel 9: “pick on someone your own size”, but this is a case where size really doesn’t matter, does it?
Ah, a PastUtopia classic style typo. Fixed, thanks!
As far as the actually words go… well, Nathan seems equally confused by her point there… 🙂
So what crime is Nathan committing up here, then?
Trespassing? Authorized personnel only on roof, as Mium said. I do like that Nathan turned around Mium’s line and tried to use on Naomi, as futile as it was.
Realistically though IDS Agents have apparently just been barred from operating inside the country, and Nathan is an IDS Agent, so he is violation of the Family’s ultimatum I suppose.
I guess if he’s up for unlawful detainment or assault gets us into the question if prototypes have human rights. Maybe theft he was trying to abduct Mium?
“…IDS Agents have apparently just been barred from operating inside the country, and Nathan is an IDS Agent, so he is violation of the Family’s ultimatum I suppose.”
I was thinking the same thing. Trying to make contact with someone, particularly a rogue agent like Peter, should still be okay for the IDS. But anything beyond that should be illegal.
“Maybe theft he was trying to abduct Mium?”
Now that you mention it, that does sound likely.
“I guess if he’s up for unlawful detainment or assault gets us into the question if prototypes have human rights.”
We have ample evidence that true, self-aware AI is illegal to the IDS. It’s also hinted that that nobody is supposed to have that, with the possible exception of Kor’s World. (And even Kor’s world having that tech may or may not be known to anyone save the higher-ups in IDS and, perhaps, a handful Pandora’s governments.)
Because the very existence of such tech is highly illegal, it stands to reason that self-aware AI have no rights (according to IDS and, likely, certain Pandora governments). To give rights to AI is to make them equivalent to people. And that would make it difficult to excuse destroying (or secretly confiscating and enslaving) the technology where ever found. If they can’t destroy (or secretly confiscate) it, that makes it very difficult to enforce that ban.
Actually, I can see why they would try to ban and destroy such tech. It can easily be turned into devastating superweapons, as Mium and Ila have aptly proven. Heck, Mium can hack or even shut down vital infrastructure (such as communications and traffic control) as we have already seen.
Moreover, it could easily lead to a Skynet-type apocalypse or takeover.
Moreover, it is strongly hinted that Kor’s World makes heavy use of self-aware AI. (The Kor’s World agent and Mium battled electronically for control of the local network.) So, there’s that association, which should be enough to give everyone nightmares.
I’m not saying that I agree with IDS’ position on self-aware AI. But, I do understand the why’s. Though, banning the tech would be even more difficult to enforce than trying to regulate it. This sets up a scenario where nations and corporations develop it in secret, which has all sorts of potential for nasty ramifications. It may be much safer to regulate the hell out of it. They’d be better off treating AI research like how nuclear power and weapons are tightly observed, controlled and limited.
This (AI rights) might even be one of the major reasons why Peter went ‘rogue’. Likely, this ties in with Peter working at Avon to help them develop it. Remember, he did create Querry and he has a strong connection with Mium.
Perhaps Peter is smart enough to see the writing on the wall – that dealing with AI this way (a ban and not giving them rights) is a recipe for worldwide disaster? Perhaps this is what made Kor’s World what it is today?
The fun part is just how much trouble Nathan is in, and he’s just now realizing it. Not only is he now dealing with Naomi, but if if it looks like Naomi is in trouble Mium will actively do something.
It turns out that sleep doesn’t work that well when dealing with someone who’s faced it a couple times before. Someone hasn’t done their homework.
I get the feeling that the IDS internal memo sharing system is not great.
Perhaps they should ask Query for help there? He seems more or less familiar with their internal data… 😉
Isn’t great is an understatement. I’d expect it to stop just short of requiring breaking and entering to steal the memo between most departments from whats been shown so far. And in some cases just beyond, which might explain some of Aron’s influence, he had the best stealing person around up till he went rogue.
I’m waiting for Peter to walk in mid-fight, mostly to see what one-liner he delivers.
“Want to come in for tea, Nathan?”
At the start of this Query told Kally that Peter was asleep. I doubt Query would lie to Kally so directly, so I do not know if Peter will show up for at least awhile.
I thought of that, but figured Nathan arriving might be worth notifying Peter about (or Peter might have had a standing order to that effect), especially given that Peter had mentioned that he had wanted to talk to Nathan.
Thus, he would be awoken in between. I will admit that loses some… narrative simplicity, I suppose? But I do think that is a plausible sequence of events if Mium had not been aware that Nathan was present prior.
I am waiting for the camera to pan sideways revealing Peter sitting at a table, with lace doilies, sipping tea. With a placement for and an empty chair waiting for a guest,
Hmmm. How would you characterize Naomi in relation to Nathan? Certainly not “civilian”…..”enemy combatant”? No, not quite….. “overzealous guardian of all things Peter-related”?
Wait until Nathan finds out that she knows a LOT more about Mium than he does. ^^
I think “What is Naomi’s stake in this?” is one of the big questions. We know her motivation (being a hero who will save the world), but not how that plays in Peter’s plans. We also do not know why Peter keeps her around. She seems to fill the former shoes of Kally for Peter, but if that is the case, could he really not have convinced Kally to join him? All evidence so far points to that Kally probably would if he just asked her to (with a pretty good reason).
It just seems that Naomi is sort of the anti-Peter. While she is smarter than she might appear, she seems to have a strong aversion to planning, plotting, or scheming in general. Plus she is pretty solidly in the “Good” alignment, or at least the “pro Malsa”. Combine those with that she seems to have the power to actually effect Peter’s plans, and it asks a strange question. She is strong, but not world class from what we have seen. Peter could probably get someone else, even if he has a reason for not using Kally.
So my assumption is there is more that ties Naomi into this than just a whim, and Peter has some sort of stake in her presence in all this.
For some reason, I’ve just assumed that Peter kept Kally out of everything as a form of protection. Not necessarily physical protection, but perhaps protection of her reputation.
It seems part of the reason why is at least because Peter recognizes that he NEEDS someone to serve as a moral compass…
I agree that is probably part of the logic, but I am not sold on Naomi being a moral compass. She has a bit of a hero-complex, yes, but she really seems to enjoy fighting too much to be realistically be the moral compass of the party.
I suppose compared to Mium (strictly goal oriented), Peter (basically on the autistic spectrum), Miko (basically antisocial personality disorder), and Ila (literally does not know better than selfishness), Naomi is basically a moral beacon.
I’m not sure that identifying real psychological disorders on characters is exactly possible. Characters are by necessity somewhat caricatures of people, though I suppose less so in this comic.
That said, I would flip the assessment on Peter and Miko. Miko seems to struggle with dealing with people (mostly in the doesn’t want to way), but actually does care about people (she didn’t leave behind either the hacker girl or the secretary, despite them annoying her). People on the austic spectrum struggle with expressing empathy or understanding people, not that don’t care about other people. Peter on the other hand is debatably a straight sociopath. He seems to care about people insofar as they benefit his current plan, with only real exceptions we’ve seen is when Miko or Kally are threatened.
I don’t think we’ve seen Peter in enough situations to make an accurate assessment of his mental health. You do make a good case for Miko being autistic. However, let’s roll the clock back a bit to just before the shit hit the fan in the Avon building.
Let’s be honest: Up until we saw her actually give a care about the hacker girl and secretary, you probably thought Miko and Peter were two of a kind. They both have similar problems dealing with people and expressing themselves. And, given similar circumstances, we don’t know how Peter would act because we’ve not seen Peter in a similar situation.
Also, we still don’t know what Peter’s end-game is. What is his master stroke – his main goal in all this? For all we know, it could be very selfish. It could be seeking revenge for some slight. It could be recognition of his abilities. Or, it could be altruistic. Though, from what we’ve seen so far, Peter does not appear to be malicious by nature.
Oh, and it’s not accurate to say that Miko and Kally are the only people he cares about. I seem to recall him showing some concern for Naomi, at least. And I ‘d be very surprised if he doesn’t care what happens to Mium. Though, Mium can take care of himself and he does not have human needs, so there is no opportunity for Peter to worry about him. (And even if his scarf-wrapped body is destroyed, his mind is still in the network.)
BTW: Remember all those rules and safeguards inside M.I.U.M.’s head? Remember how Mium is forbidden from harming humans unless absolutely necessary? Who do you think programmed those rules?
Panel 4: “authorized personal only on the roof.” p.s., Nathan’s making Naomi mad.
Fixed, thanks 🙂
you’re welcome.