Comic for Monday, April 8th, 2019
Kally’s weakness may be close quarters combat, but that is not really a weakness dragons are known for.
I sometimes wonder how much to explain, particularly in these more action oriented scenes. For example, the dragon didn’t miss so much as the Kor’s World Soldier can fly quite well and attempted to evade; the reason the dragon wouldn’t have just blasted him at point blank is that the reaction between dragon fire hitting the Kor’s World Soldier’s defenses would likely have been fatal to a less armored human (Kally) that at that sort of point blank.
I think this page shows the first time we’ve seen “Control” “speak” somewhat legibly. If you don’t count roaring, it’s also the first time we’ve seen the dragon speak.
It’s also the first time that the dragon has been drawn with regular black lines. And the first time Kor’s World Soldier’s armor has been drawn with (partially) red lines. Make of both of those what you will. I will also note that I’m not forgetting to the draw the “spell circle” or “calculation ring” that we saw the first couple times the dragon breathed “fire”.
One really might wonder why I, who has no idea how to draw a dragon, decided to have a reoccurring “character” that is a dragon in the comic. It’s more that the dragon predates the idea of drawing it, and I was stuck with it. Kally’s dragon has been around since the earliest drafts when I just had to write “a dragon”, which turns out to be a lot easier than drawing the thing.
As for why to arms keep being removed… well, you see, they stick out inconveniently… they just tend to be the first thing to go.
Loading ...
Now that Fluffy is speaking, are we going to be enlightened as to their preferred name and pronouns? I mean, I would assume that Kally was capable of sharing that information before, but to the best of my knowledge, has not yet done so.
However, if Fluffy does have a more permanent sort of existence now, it could be more important.
Thursday’s comic will be more like end of day Thursday, just wanted to keep everyone updated. Sorry for the delay.
Thank you!
A late comic from you is better than an on time or early comic from the vast bulk of other webcomics out there.
Will be delayed again till tomorrow… sorry. Didn’t get much time to work on this today. Pretty sure it’ll be tomorrow though, just don’t want to try get it out tonight as that’s just too much of a compressed timeline from where it’s at now, and I’d take the time.
I know that I always say this… but I think I’ll have more time later. I should have had time this week, but my company decided to push a nonfunctional release to my client. It’s a long story where all the details are “and then people were stupid”.
It’s not that I literally had to work all day, just to be clear, but as work swallows a bigger chunk of my time everything else gets pushed around, and while I don’t like the comic-working time getting pushed around, it’s some of the more “fragile” part of the schedule as I need to be at home in front of my tablet for long periods of time to work on it, so it tends to be more impacted than most of my schedule when I have to spend longer mopping stupid off the walls (or in this case servers).
Eating and sleeping are important.
And as you’re on the “fragile” part of your schedule, it is important that you not push too “close to the edge.”
Yes?
“And you and I” will enjoy things more if you don’t rush.
Would Fluffy be able to bite the Kor soldier’s head off? I’m imagining a large dog with a rat. 🙂
I’m thinking the arm came off without a hitch. Head wouldn’t be any more effort. Soldier just got lucky this time.
Is it just me or did the DRAGON just speak the words “You would dare” ?
Yes. 😀
I just noticed that Fluffy’s coloring seems to be more unstable than ‘becoming real’ may account for.
1. March 11th has one wing color if you don’t count the lines.
2. but March 14 has two wing colors.
3. April 1st doesn’t have the lighter chest color
4. April 1 shows the main body color looks darker
5. April 4 is missing the lighter wing color and lighter chest color of March 14.
6. April 4 also appears to have a horn mis-colored
7. April 8 has the tongue a different color from April 4.
8. April 8 also has the main color yet another shade of red that doesn’t quite match any of the other reds we’ve seen in this battle sequence.
#4 and #8 look like deliberate changes in environment lighting to me.
#7 is pretty much expected, based off what PastUtopia said in the comic notes
But what about 1 vs 2, 3, 5, and 6? Are we seeing deliberate instability in Fluffy or accidents by the artist?
Hard to say. Most of the characters have their palette colors drift over time to an extent, but it also seems to make sense that an ethereal construct would vary somewhat due to instability until it becomes more solidified.
Personally I only really take note of the Dragon starting to have colors that are not red, as that is the part that seems to break the “rules” as we know them.
It can be hard to say though, as for example I assumed the dragon being shaded mattered (as it meant it was interacting with light) but on this page nothing is shaded, which is almost certainly a symptom of the page being drawn quickly rather than plot relevant information (as even the characters are not shaded).
So you say the colors matter, does that then mean that the dragon’s green eyes (far more than it’s white teeth) matter? That could either be proof that fluffy is more than just a construct, or it could be a narritive link to his master who also has green eyes. Is there anything we have seen that can pin down which one it is?
Short answers:
1. We don’t know if green eyes are a narrative link or not. But we suspect so.
2. We also don’t know what’s going on with Fluffy’s colors. But we speculate he is approaching a self-sustaining existence.
3. We have nothing to pin down answers, except an artist who would rather not give us spoilers. 🙂
Color rules have never been fully explained. Really the most we officially know is that blue changes reality the least and red changes reality the most. And that the more you change reality, the more difficult the spell is.
When it comes to constructs, we’ve never* seen a construct that had a color other than red. Which is why some of us are freaking out with speculation.
Also, out of all the many spells we’ve seen, I think only two people have managed to cast something with more than one color. Marc is able to cast a shield that is at least two colors swirled together. And a family mage had some sort of sparkle fairies hovering beside her that were quite prismatic along with a multi-colored shield. Marc’s shield was commented on at least once as being incredibly durable.
So it’s fairly safe to say that more colors simultaneously means an upgrade in power. But all previous examples had blended colors. Fluffy has multiple different solid color tones. Something we’ve never* seen in the past.
Of all the colors Fluffy gained, I’d speculate that it’s the black lines that are the most significant when indicating how close to real Fluffy has become. Perhaps black lines indicate that Fluffy has finished becoming real.
* We’ve just now learned that the Kor’s World soldier has red construct armor. We’ve guessed it in the past, but today’s comic with the line color switching from black to red confirms it. I don’t think anyone speculated that the face mask was also part of the construct. I always figured it to be a piece of tech that was installed around the armor construct. But now that Fluffy is multiple colors, it’s very possible that the entire armor is all construct.
Also, there is possibly one other item we’ve seen in the past that had a color other than red: Nathan’s fancy stick. We don’t know for certain that it’s a construct. But Fluffy is showing us that red constructs don’t have to be red. So I think it probably is a construct.
Notably, the dragon has Kally’s eyes.
I feel that might be significant. While we have known that for a few pages, Panel 2 is clearly showing that to the Kor’s World Soldier, and I wonder if that isn’t the point of how it is drawn. You can see the Dragon’s left and Kally’s right eye, which are the exact same color, something the Kor’s World Soldier could very well notice with the same vantage.
It is a toss up to me if it is that, the dragon speaking, or the fact that dragon has him by the arm that is causing him to phone home saying there is trouble. All of them seem like they could be cause for an “oh shit” moment.
Perhaps the soldier didn’t notice the eye color right away. But Fluffy’s eyes haven’t changed during the battle, but PastUtopia deliberate gave us a pretty big hint the the comic notes that black lines are important and that Fluffy just got them today. And there was no mention at all in the comic notes when Fluffy first showed off his green eyes on March 14.
Atter and his alternate monster-constructs have always been able to speak. And Kor’s World may hate all speaking constructs. But with PastUtopia’s silence on green eyes, but speaking out on black lines? I’d be willing to bet that black lines are the final symptom of “infestation”.
And the solider’s armor has partial red lines because it *isn’t real*. It’s, at least in part, a complex magical construct. Which would explain why they are so damn scared of red constructs: They are one of the only things that can break through the physics-canceling red armor.
And the armor is beginning to break as Kally’s dragon pulls whatever the armor is using to keep it real for itself.
Wouldn’t it be hysterically funny if Fluffy had Peter’s eyes? A bit of a Freudian slip, perhaps. 🙂
Looks like Fluffy is up to 7 colors. 4 shades of red, black lines, green eyes, and white teeth.
I was always hoping Fluffy would be self aware. But that “YOU WOULD DARE” has me just a bit freaked out. Maybe Fluffy shouldn’t become real….unless that was supposed to be “YOU WOULD DARE TO HURT MY MOM?”
I wouldn’t be surprised if that isn’t exactly where Fluffy was going with his comment.
I notice that Fluffy isn’t quite the same deep red as the Korish soldier’s armor. He has some distance to go before becoming quite that real, I think.
I’m going to disagree. A mimic of a biological organism is going to have multiple colors, and those colors will often mean something. Camouflage, attract mate, poisonous, etc. Whereas armor color means nothing if the manufacturer doesn’t care about stealth. Not counting the grays and black lines, the soldier only has 1 color.
If you look at April 4 and March 28, we have four colors of construct. The box is the lightest, then Atter, then Fluffy, then soldier. Between the maybe-new ability to talk out loud, the transition from 2 colors to 7 colors, and being the closest construct in color to the soldier’s armor, I’m going to guess that Fluffy has almost no distance at all to go.
I’m sold, SiliconWolf. I like your logic.
Never before has the urge to read “Control” as “Houston” been stronger.
I’m not entirely clear on what’s “understood” though. Are we seeing parts only of Control’s dialog, or is there a context (like, a protocol) to which we’re not privy?
Oh, hang on. There is some dialog that I didn’t make out at first. Very poor contrast, there, but it says “Withdraw from close engagement”.
Understood.
Past likes to hide text in the background with very little contrast. He does the same in Mium’s code panels.
Panels 5, 6, and 7 all have “hidden” dialog in the background.
Most likely this hidden dialog is Control speaking. *| Understood, Control.|* is a response to Control’s >Withdraw from close engagement.< on that same panel.
I was able to see that text on my cell phone. Oddly enough panel 6 may actually be harder to read on the laptop. Usually those things are easier to see on the laptop than the cell phone.
I see when I expand it:
Panel 5: initiating defenses
Panel 6: severe damage detected, initiating nerve response suppression
Panel 7: withdraw from close engagement
At this point, is Fluffy even really a construct anymore? I wonder if he can still be “unsummoned” at this point? Is there a “point of no return” for a construct where it just becomes a living creature?
…Ila might be dethroned for biggest eater. I bet feeding a dragon would take a lot of human food.
At this point the description of Fluffy as an imaginary friend of Kally’s that she essentially hard wrote into existance is looking ever more likely.
Also Past, any reason everyone of my comments needs moderation? It seems like it would be getting annoying for you.
The way it supposed to work is anyone that hasn’t posted before gets auto-dropped into the moderation queue, but it doesn’t quite seem to work. Some people’s comments go through fine, but some people’s comments always get caught in moderation.
I know that using a VPN gets your comments automatically flagged for moderation, because it flags my comments for moderation due to using a VPN (which is sort of stupid).
That said, I suspect there is a lot more than just that that flags comments, as like 1/3 of the commenters comments get dropped into moderation because it fails to recognize them for whatever reason.
I might be able to fix it by turning comment cookies on, as that might help it ID a person that’s commented before to flag them past moderation, but I haven’t tried that yet.
Basically there are supposed to be 2 hurdles: There is the spam filter which clears out thousands of messages a day, and there is the “must be an approved commenter” filter which are the ones I see for moderation, and usually just legit ones I flag through, but still has maybe 20% spam and wankers that keep my convinced to leave it on.
There are probably better solutions, but for the time being this has worked, and it’s not too bad, I just wave through the comments whenever I see them. I get a message either way when someone comments (as I like to read them) so it’s not a huge difference either way beyond that it can be a little delayed showing up.
To be clear though, no commenter is flagged for moderation or anything like that. Anyone who I have approved a comment of before is supposed to automatically pass moderation. It just doesn’t quite work.
Most times I can make two comments in a short time (a viewing session? a Google defined “visit”?). The third one is fairly consistently filtered.
Jindra34, given that it is cannon that the more real a construct is, the more reality works to preserve it rather than erase it…. Yup, I wonder the same thing. Kally may need to start brushing up on service animal law.
Flying probably isn’t a big deal. I don’t see her ever flying commercial again. But grocery shopping? What’s the ettiquette for leaving your dragon parked in front of the store?
….as long as the dragon doesn’t start eating people or their stuff unprovoked, I’d say the etiquette problem is how to deal with someone else leaving their dragon parked in front of a store….
Generally the etiquette there is to stay out of eating range. Sometimes that means going to an entirely different planet. Naturally, the dragons don’t tend to complain about the ones that do get in eating range, but their owners tend to get annoyed about the mess – and the diet breaking.
I suspect that is exactly what Kor’s World is so freaked out about. That Dragon is rapidly becoming more real, and we’ve only seen the surface of what red constructs can do.
That depends. Do we count the food used to feed the humans used to feed the dragon?
Dude sure looks like dragon food to me…
Honestly, it all needs to be tracked, or you really don’t have a good idea of the efficiency of the food source.
If you just look at the energy efficiency of human muscles as an energy source, it seems to be pretty efficient. Meat is, after all, much more nutrient-dense than vegetable matter.
But after you account for all of the food the human ate to get to that point in its life, you realize, holy carp, that’s a lot of food. By the time a human is in its late teens, assuming it’s had ready access to food that whole time, it’s probably consumed in excess of 10 million food calories, The packet of chickpeas by my bed has around 120 calories in 28 grams. That works out to over 2,000 Kg of food. Of course, no human grows to adulthood on chickpeas alone; they’re missing in a lot of other nutrients. Meat is common in human diets. Meat has more fat than chickpeas, which would make it seem like it’d have more calories per unit weight, but these chickpeas are covered in sugar, and have significantly more protein plus carbohydrates per gram than meat has protein plus fat per gram.
Meat isn’t 100% of the human’s diet either, so let’s just guess that about a quarter of the human’s calories came from meat. That’s now 500 Kg of meat, which also had to be raised from a sperm and egg. I’d guess we’re probably over 10 metric tons of food, just as a rough ballpark. And that guy probably is at least a 20 something. While it’s possible that some of the meat the human ate were from carnivorous sources, I think I should just end this farce here.
I’d guess there are probably cheaper / more sustainable ways you could feed the dragon in terms of total food used than feeding the dragons humans. Just saying, so you know. If you intend to keep the dragon fed on Kor’s World soldiers alone, he’s going to run out before very long.
… I’m going to suggest feeding the dragon barbecue chickpeas, on the basis that the ones I’m familiar with being able to buy from the store are the right color, and pretty energy dense. I’d guess Fluffy can also probably take a bit of heat in his food. (I do seem to recall it being established that Kally refers to Fluffy as he?) Also, chickpeas are pretty cheap.
I’ll let you be the one to convince the dragon to eat chickpeas. I’ll be over here, behind the barrier.
…Don’t worry about why your shirt says “lunch”.
You’re confused. That’s not my shirt, that’s the chickpeas’ shirt.
It’s OK. It’s probably the first time you’ve seen animatronic chickpeas. I kind of freaked out the first time I saw them moving around like that, too. Well, technically, it’s not 100% chickpeas, there’s some mung beans, tapioca, corn silk (it has better hair than I do), gluten (for the texture), molasses, and, of course, sriracha peppers. But it’s *mostly* chickpeas.
…You just fed some poor guy chickpeas and are calling him a chickpea while you feed him to a dragon.
I’m pretty sure that isn’t going to work.
No, it was all vegetable mass. I will admit to having used the term animatronic chickpeas instead of chickpea golem to try to claim credit rather than admitting it to be the work of my contractor from Kevi, but I see that failed. Apparently the guy’s a natural mage, who just has the ability to make life-like vegetable golems.
Of course it will work, I highly doubt that someone raised on a diet of chickpeas will be able to outrun a dragon… or anyone raised on a more diverse diet, for that matter.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you seem to be assuming that the dragon is capable of digesting chickpeas. That would require a herbivore or at least a better-than-human omnivorous digestive tract.
Sure, there aren’t many medical texts written on dragon biology, so I can’t say for certain that you’re wrong. But all life we know falls into three fairly exclusive categories. 1: If it has molars and no fangs, it’s herbivore. 2: If it has molars and fangs, it’s omnivore. 3: If it has fangs and no molars, it’s carnivore.
I’m only seeing fangs. Which is a near-guarantee that Fluffy is a carnivore. And as a rule of thumb, carnivores aren’t able to digest plants.
I’m going to let you feed chickpeas to Fluffy. And I’m going to let you clean up what comes out the other end. Because it’s probably going to be EXTREMELY nasty.
There’s a number of carnivores that can digest (some) plants just fine. They just can’t get all of the nutrition they need to survive from them. As an example, dogs can almost thrive on a plant-based diet, but it lacks a few key elements.
I’m assuming science is interesting, I’m far away from Fluffy, and Kally can always re-summon if something goes wrong.
So far, to your point, Fluffy has exhibited 0 interest in the chickpea golem. This is less like a studied indifference that some animals show towards some non-food that their caretaker is attempting to present as food and more of a complete and total unawareness of the chickpea golem’s existence, like they’re on different planes of reality.