Comic for Monday, April 10th, 2023
Apr11
Comic.
It’s been so long since we ended a chapter I bet you folks forgot there even were chapters. You can probably guess what the next chapter is about…
There will be a series of intermission comics between the chapters (as usual).
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I love how Kally’s response is “that’s insane- when can we go?” She loves him.
He is talking about a wrecked KW skycarrier and, to my surprise, so is she. Logicasl deduction is that both of them knew of an incident where a KW skycarrier was heavily damaged but was able to escape.
Hypothesis: This event happened in the KW/ Central war. The vessel escapes via dimensional shift, expecting to have time to repair enough to return to KW proper. Unfortunately this vessel ends up in a dimensional pocket near Palindra that is known and regularly used by some covert but very powerful elements among the locals.
Said locals object to this military incursion into their safe house and after ferocious battled finish disabling the already heavily damaged KW skycarrier.
Avon is/ was one of the groups KW tech got handed to for analysis. Peter, knowing tracking KW tech might lead him to the missing KW skycarrier eventually finds Avon and begins working with them somewhere before the comic starts along with Dr Mir and the elusive Dr Martin. There is an unknown gap of time between the end of the Central/ KW war and the arrival of Central (or at least Peter) on Palindra.
This is my guess at pre-comic backstory. Anyone else got a big point I missed?
We’ve touched on possible connections between this KW crashed ship and other elements, including the mage families, orish war mages, etc.
This would suggest that the orish war mages significantly predate any interference from Central.
https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-thursday-july-5th-2018/
So if your theory is correct, then the orish war mages would not be derivative of KW’s skycarrier.
I don’t know the answer.
Predating Central being openly on Palindra certainly.
I feel it safe to assume a period of at least a few years between end of the KW/ Central war and Central operating openly on Palindra. The KW skycarrier crash I am hypothesizing had plenty of time before Central’s arrival for elements of the KW tech to start appearing. Or being stolen.
Assuming there is a connection between those warmages and KW tech. We can’t blame all the weird stuff on KW after all.
Peter had heard of a fair fight, and wanted nothing to do with it.
Fair fights are for other people. Peter doesn’t even acknowledge the game board unless he’s already planned out several routes to victory, or he has no other choice. (And I sincerely doubt the smart money would ever say option 2.)
Only a schmuck pays full retail price.
Then Peter is definitely not a schmuck. In fact, many times he pays nothing such as when using public transport. I wonder if Mium pays Peter’s credit card(s).
I like having Kally around. It makes Peter explain way more than he would to anyone else.
Peter doesn’t explain things to Mium or Miko because they already know his plans, or Naomi because she doesn’t really seem to understand or care.
Kally hits the sweet spot of understanding Peter’s plans only slightly better than we the readers do, the so the explanations he gives her actually useful.
Reminds me that Naomi is functionally paid in bad guys to beat up. Says a whole lot about her to be honest
She’s paid in evil to smite. They don’t have to be guys, they don’t have to be people. They just have to be evil.
There are times I wonder if Naomi is paying Peter for the evil to smite as well. She’s a celebrity and presumably loaded. She has branded apparel. Presumably she gets a cut.
Both Peter and Mium have been much more verbose lately. The new comic format has been stimulating the archivist’s creativity allowing him to “speak outside the box.”
WAIT A FREAKING MINUTE!
When and where (if ever) was it mentioned the locals had found a crashed Kor’s World skycarrier?!?
Could this be how the locals got ahold of KW tech to copy? This could answer so many, many questions…
Chapter 17, page 19, I believe.. To be clear, this wasn’t the first place this was alluded to, this is just the most clear that isn’t author comments or comments by the author.
The event Peter is alluding to on that page is in chapter 12, somewhere around page 27 or 28. At another point, Peter talked about the stuff AVon was working on was from stolen Kor’s World tech, but if I’m recalling correctly it was a conversation within team Peter so it wasn’t very clear.
In other news, I had this numbered wrong. I think my lackadaisical database updates may not be working out as well as I’d thought. Grumble. On the bright side, I got to see a couple new bonus pages, in that I’d entirely missed them when they came out. But other misnumbered pages were simply that I’d entirely failed to note them, despite having seen them.
You might also see the Oct 23, 2017 comic (https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-october-23rd/) which mentions a missing skycarrier explicitly.
Okay, I’ll accept that reference. I could not remember it being specifically mentioned anywhere.
So this missing Skycarrier somehow ended up in Palindra’s dimensional buffer and some of the locals found it before Central arrived? That fits and explains much that was murky.
This suggests strongly that KW tech on Palindra significantly predates Central’s awareness of Palindra.
https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-october-12th-2020/
After years of vague hints, we FINALLY get some actual info on what Peter might really be aiming for. Of course, Peter being Peter. . . .
I find it believable. Peter’s shtick isn’t just misdirection. It’s creating circumstances where people will act how he wants them to. If he can do that without lies, then all the better.
Besides, Kaly is his Girlfriend, and knows how he is.
Info dump! Always enjoy a good romp through the ethereal.
I’m a little sad Mr. Zombie isn’t on the dance card. It seems like he would enjoy a dance with Kor soldiers.
I have my suspicions that Mr. Zombie may be ex Kor’s World, possibly even a retiree or spy. He may not be the dependable sometimes-ally he’s been for them up to now.
To be clear: I mean he might show up anyway, despite not being on the dance card. Or he might show up because he’s hanging out with Hadrian in said fringe plane. I mean, sure, that’s not good for sanity, from what I’ve heard, but that doesn’t seem like it would be a problem for either of them.
Or he could show up for some other reason. In any event, I’m not counting Mr. Zombie out of chapter 18 until and unless chapter 18 is finished without him.
I’m not jumping onto Mr Zombie being ex-Kor’s world. That sort of feels like ex-CIA. You can claim it, but it doesn’t happen.
That said, Mium finds Rovak to be a reliable, predictable tool. But that doesn’t mean you want Rovak tucked in with your team. You want to deploy that kind of reliable *way* over there!
Does it still not happen if it’s an undying warrior who’s gotten tired of the fight? Yes, it’s possible to kill Mr. Zombie. But when you have a legion of *how many* similarly “immortal” warriors, do you really want to tell them they’re not actually immortal? Letting them retire in obscure offworlds may be the lesser of two evils there. You made them, you can unmake them, and they have no clue about it other than to have the suspicion that the people who made them might be able to unmake them. But also the retirees would know that you have so many more of them back home.
To be clear, I’m not saying I think it necessarily is the case. It’s a possibility. I just don’t see anything indicating the Orish have the kind of spell tech to do Icode other than the fact that Rovak has it. Another possibility is Rovak came from yet another complicating factor. Maybe his people are the ones on the far side of Utopia? Or maybe they’re from somewhere that we haven’t even heard of yet.
Remote possibilities include Rovak being the one who came up with Icode, Rovak killing the person who came up with Icode, it was a spellcraft accident that wasn’t supposed to do that and they don’t understand how he survived, let alone became what he is now.
It’s also possible that Rovak is a light which will never have a lampshade.
Now, how to deploy the kind of reliable Rovak is, most of the time, you’re absolutely correct. The only time you want that kind of reliable on your team is when everybody else on your team is effectively immortal, and Rovak doesn’t know that.
Get together five powerful mages or mage level in the case of Ila and Mium. Add a seemingly invulnerable physical powerhouse with Naomi and a computer expert/hacker/genius in Miko. Why? The supreme mastermind, planner and schemer Peter Kepler wants a ride on a Kor’s World skycarrier. Maybe Fluffy will get to finally see what a Kor’s World soldier tastes like.
PS – Can’t remember a name. Is that Eliana next to Tyler? Who is the braid in her hair for?
I think so, and I think there’s been strong hints at least that the braid is for the person whose body we first met Atter in.
That’s the only one I can’t identify for sure, but given that she’s the one who was tracking Saldur it makes sense.
Comic!!
This next adventure sounds like fun. And the intermission comics are always a treat.
Thank you!