Comic for Monday, August 2nd, 2021
Aug02
Comic! On time! Sort of.
I’ll make two quick notes:
- Reader’s don’t yet have context to why Vium called Tom “Mr. Hero”. He’s referring to something in particular, but we haven’t seen/heard of what it is yet.
- The language represented in <> is the language of Central. The language represented in [<>] here is a language we have not seen before. What it is might come up later, but it’s different than <||> (the languages mages tend to speak) and the handful of other languages we’ve seen so far.
Anyway, been really busy, but I think I’m getting within the ballpark of my other project starting to get toward wrapping up in probably… 2-3 weeks? We’ll see.
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“Mr. Vagrant here led me right to you.”
i.e. ‘led’ not ‘lead’
Though I fear this is one verb that is going to permanently shift its conjugation and spelling within our lifetime. >_<
Hmm. Could you suggest an example in English that cannot be construed as snark? I’m pretty sure that you can say anything in any language in a way that is snarky.
But I understand you’re looking for a language where everything has to be snarky no matter what. I’m not sure it would be considered a language at that point…
The fact that Vium regards himself as a leftover screw indicates that he is not integrated into Mium even though Peter knows about him. It is dangerous and disruptive to plans for him to be running around unsupervised and without directives. So Ila really needs to track him down fast with Miums & Arkady’s help (and possibly at Miums suggestion) and sponsor him back into the family with a scarf, thus fulfilling her scarf debt.
“I do not particularly want to deal with him…”
This is when everyone should start freaking out. For perspective, more so than “I need your help getting off this world for a while.”
Basically, this whole thing looks like Vium is wanting to get off world in a manner that at least provides Mium with a plausible deniability on having been aware of it. It’s possible that Mr. Traveler actually has a route off-world that Mium is not aware of.
If the latter is the case, I wouldn’t count on it continuing to be one that Mium is not aware of for much longer, as I suspect Vium’s a little better connected than he makes it appear.
We also potentially get to see exactly how far Mium’s prohibitions inform Vium’s actions, because if Vium really and truly doesn’t want to deal with Mr. Traveler, he may be ensuring that he doesn’t have to again after their business is concluded. But that would almost certainly violate one of Mium’s prohibitions.
I gather that [< language >] is something Tom isn’t familiar with, which suggests that Vium’s been keeping up with his education at least. I mean, maybe Mium’s learned it already also and we’ve just not had a chance to see it. But Dendrin’s always been ridiculously off the beaten path, to the point this is only their third update.
Techincally Vium and Mium have the same knowledge up to the point they split (which wasn’t long ago). Mium is still connected to networks, so is still collecting/collating/analyzing data. I assume Vium is not connected as to avoid griefing his brother (by breaking Mium’s restrictions): so Vium needs to act quickly while his greater information is still not out of date… and move to a world where he can connect to networks without endangering Mium’s restrictions/operations.
Vium is probably helping Mium out here by dealing with a situation that would require Mium’s attention: Vium would know that if the situation progresses in a particular way, then Mium won’t interfere… LOL remember both Mium & Vium analyze data & predict outcomes. Mium probably has predicted Vium would do this, and is probably helping out in his own “ghost-in-the-shell” kind of way (like traffic lights going green at the right moment type stuff).
I am impressed Mium (and thus Vium) knew about Tokiwa and Dendrin meeting… and offering Dendrin what Tokiwa did… huh: I guess that means Tokiwa’s contract doesn’t need to be filled????? I am still extremely curious exactly what is being offered here:I was under the impression Tokiwa had already given it to Dendrin… maybe this is wrong?
I don’t think it is reasonable to think that Mium currently has control of ALL the gates. He probably only seized control of one group of gates. Unfortunately for Central, it was their group. Given that the Council on Central didn’t seem overly concerned, I’m inclined to believe that it was only the Central Palindra gates that were affected.
Nothing Past has revealed suggests that there is some sort of bottleneck for gates, except the knowledge of how to open them, and whatever the Bridgeport data is. Presumably gate addresses?
Anyway, Mr Traveler seems to have access to at least one independently operated gate. I find it interesting that Vium tracked Tom to find Mr Traveler. Either Tom doesn’t have independent gate access, or Vium believed he wouldn’t be open to sharing.
I’m pretty sure it was only the Central-Malsa gates (or possibly all Malsa gates) that were affected. They were pretty explicitly speaking of Malsa gates, not Palindra gates. Also, Arron was planning on taking the dropship to a gate in Resh, so at least he was assuming that not all their gates on Palindra were seized.
Mr Traveler probably has several escape routes prepared; he seems the type for it. Probably gates not controlled by IDS (or any other Central authority), now that you mention it …
(On the bridgepoint data: It’s my impression – since chapter 0 – that it was intended to help produce more stable gates. I’m not sure how the instability of other gates manifests though …)
I’m pretty sure that Sidhekin is right on the bridgepoint data. Most gates work star trek teleporters (minus the disintegration); put everything in place, activate, then it’s data is changed to place it in the new world. The bridgepoint apparently creates a wormhole of some sort, possibly like a stargate, that directly links the two worlds. I’m not sure what the downside of the first method is compared to the second; but apparently the bridgepoint from Core’s World to Central was what allowed for the invasion, so there are some sort of qualitative differences between the two methods.
By my understanding, it is all Gates within the Consul’s juristdiction, without distinction between private and public Gates. Which suggests that all that is needed is to travel across a border and then use a working Gate, as Aaron was planning to do.
We know that Gate technology isn’t that hard though; it presumably needs significant computing power (hence Mium is able to take over unregulated Gates from the Central side) but is economically and technically easy enough “smuggler” gates are popping in and out like bubbles on a boiling pot on the scanner Peter gave Tyler…. and that a scanner IS required implies the authorities on Central have no way to control it.
I’d forgotten that! (The detail about which gates had been seized).
As for the bridgepoint data… my understanding is that first you need to open a gate (easy) then you need to map it to another gate (the need for pathfinders) THEN you need to stabilize it (the need for bridgepoint data). If you only have a “path”, but no bridgepoint data, then you have a temporary wormhole through which you can shove a little bit of stuff, before you need to open the wormhole again (so power requirement is massive?). If you have path AND the mythic bridgepoint data, then your wormhole is stable (lower power requirement?), so acts like an open corridor through which you can keep sending stuff. Obviously if you’re mass-evacuating people, you kind of want a stable wormhole.
I think the pathfinding needs to be done before the gate is open. It’s my understanding that a specialized capability is needed for the initial opening of a gate. However, once that pathfinding is done, the task can largely be automated.
I believe that a bridgepoint allows one or more of the following:
1. Cheaper pathfinding, at least to the other side of the bridgepoint.
2. The pathfinding to track the other side of a closed gate may be cheaper.
3. Opening gates may be cheaper.
4. Maintaining open gates may be cheaper.
5. It may be possible to hold gates open for longer.
6. The cost of actually moving stuff from one side of the gate to the other may be cheaper.
7. It may be possible to open much larger gates. Instead of transporting satellites part by part, you can just fly them through.
But it’s not entirely free. There’s a cost. You need to be transporting a lot of stuff for it to make any sense to make and maintain a bridgepoint. Possibly one or more of:
1. There’s a high energy cost to maintain a bridgepoint.
2. Mantaining a bridgepoint may be physically or magically destructive to both sides.
3. More environment may bleed from one side or the other.
4. Laws of physics may transfer. This may happen with gates also, but bridgepoints tend to make it happen more.
5. There may be (more?) accidental transfers, either between the two places or possibly even to other places that are “nearby” the bridgepoint. (Roughly in between, but from an N-dimensional perspective).
6. It may be more expensive to pathfind, open, maintain, and/or use gates to places not connected to an active bridgepoint within the area of effect of that bridgepoint.
I don’t recall any of this stuff being made clear in comic or comments. That said, I’m overworked, there’s a lot of comic and comments to track, and I have MS, so there’s many ways I could be mistaken.
I *love* how your world is so richly detailed that even the *translation conventions* are an insight into DEEP LORE. Also, everybody in the whole series gets at least a few opportunities to be smug and smarmy. the snark is delicious.
Operational Snark. Why had I not considdered that before. Peter’s organization runs on it, and now they are looking to open a branch on another world.
Vium will need to find another Icecream shop though.
Just as we have found conversational AIs in the current world evolve their own languages, at some point I expect Mium to evolve a language that consists purely of snark…
If you’re looking for an AI that that speaks only snark, you might want to read Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force Book 1) by Craig Alanson.
Sure, but I am not suggesting a AI that only speaks Snark, I am suggesting a language within which expressing concepts without Snark is literally impossible; there are no words within it that are not inherently snarky.