Comic for Monday, December 21st, 2020
Well, we’ll have one more comic for 2020. Something gives me the feeling violence will ensue in it. I dunno why, just a feeling.
Naomi is almost certainly a bad influence on Kally. Or a good influence, depending on your point of view. In defense of her figuring she can dump the ramifications of whatever she does on him, Naomi works for Peter, so, practically speaking, it’s already Peter’s problem by the transitive property…
It’s an odd dynamic they have sometimes, because Peter very much is not the paperwork details sort, but is very good at making buildings that randomly get exploded retroactively seem like they were always supposed to get exploded (while this is probably more often than not Mium/Query doing it, Kally tends to conflate the actions of Peter and Mium frequently). In this particular regard, Mium seems even more proactive than Query ever was, and is probably partially to blame for Naomi, though she was largely like that even before meeting Mium, Mium is just extremely good at making it essentially impossible for people he likes to ever break the law (we saw a bit of this when Naomi met the Consul)… against a being as adept at manipulating restrictions as Mium, navigating Malsan (or any) Legal Bureaucracy is probably what he considers like a screen saver.
The poll is done! It seems Naomi will retain her throne once more, but it came close. Kally came in second this time around, with Ila falling to a distant third surprisingly. Miko rounds out the top four, and the new comer, Naomi’s Little Sister, came in 5th, managing to beat out ever popular options like Fluffy and The Consul. All in all it was a pretty competitive race, with the most ever votes cast in a poll for the comic. I’m sure a few were dubiously cast, but I did audit the results a bit, and I can say that at very least the vast majority of the votes were properly cast.
Hopefully we’ll see some Santa-Hat-Festivities on coming up; I’ll go ahead and put Happy Holidays & and Merry Christmas here as they bonus drawing for it will probably be posted in a comment rather than as a comic as to not confuse feature readers or reset the comments section 🙂
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Back on December 14, panel 3: “Seriously” is misspelled. Surprised I missed it for so long.
That’s what I said back then!
But seiously, it must not be a major issue.
Happy Santa Hat Day! Hope ya’ll doing okay, and here’s to hoping next Santa Hat Day will be a more festive one!
Love it! Gave me a solid chuckle. Holiday holidays everyone!
You might get a second chuckle when you check out all the markings on the present Illa is standing on.
Long may the queen of Santa Hat Day reign. Merry Christmas everyone!
EDIT: What a madlad, Past actually updated my avatar with Naomi’s santa hat! Thanks!
Above beyond, as usual, Past! Happy Holidays.
…though doing the math on when that was posted leaves me with some questions.
It might just be my imagination, but is that Tyler and Amy outside making snowmen? If so, that’s a nice
EasterChristmas egg.That and the package instructions are only little extra things I can make out. Well, and that the dragon says “I will not fall for your tricks this time, miniature menace”, which implies the dragon has met Miko before, though could be non-canon.
Such great expressions of their characters all around.
One other thing I noticed. Naomi’s little sister is wearing what seems to be a jersey with the name “Atarah” on it. While this could be her own jersey (as she would also have the last name Atarah probably), it seems far too big and has the number “4” on it, both of which to lead me to believe it is Naomi’s.
The only time we have seen Naomi in a sporting jersey, it has the number “4” (it is still up in the vote incentive, actually).
Combined with the earlier appearance of her (which confirms that is who that character was) it likely indicated she idolizes Naomi a bit.
I thought Miko tricked Fluffy into wearing a Santa Hat last year in the Santa Hat art? I haven’t gone digging for it yet, but that’s what I assumed he was referring to.
So I dug as far back as Christmas 2017 and did not find the reference I thought existed. So I’ve got nothing for Fluffy / Miko.
However! I did find several references to Fluffy and to a Naomi without purple hair back in 2018. Unfortunately I don’t know how to bubble those up to the top. 🙁
Suggestions?
And, lo, an angel of justice and mayhem did descend upon the earth.
And all around were stunned into deep silence.
The green haired woman in the back of the group is was briefly seen during the meeting of the Family Heads.
It seems that she is potentially a Family head, or more likely the heir of Elmon Kafari. She seemed eager to get a rebellion against the Consul going. I suppose it was possible she was just there as back up rather than being an heir, as a few people there didn’t seem to be the head or heir of a family.
I had the feeling based on the thoughts shown on page 15.18 and the placement and posture of people in panel 4 of page 15.21 that she was probably the heir of a house, and the current Head of her family was the guy to her left who’s concerned about there being a return to the old fighting ways.
I didn’t picture her as the Kafari heir as she didn’t seem to arrive with Elmon. True, there’s nothing that says they’d need to, but the start of that meeting sounded like Elmon was a bit surprised to be invited back to Malsa, especially the capital, and he probably would’ve preferred to be arriving with more people – hence his tagging up with Saraine at the first opportunity, despite their differences. As such, if he had an heir, I’d have expected him to arrive with her. Also, her hair color seems to fit more with the other guy.
That is true, but if you notice when the old man (Shemoki, I believe) asks what the Kafari know, Miss Neon Green Hair answers, which is what makes me believe she is potentially one of their members. The hair color doesn’t always exactly match.
Definitely not definitive proof through, just what leads me to that guess. Without that I would not say there is any reason to guess she is Kafari, but she does seem to answer for them in that page.
I’d probably be more inclined to trust that evidence if not for my own tendency to answer questions posed to others when I feel like those people will answer slowly or ineptly, and I’m confident that I have the answer and can give it more succinctly.
I also tend to do this on online comic forums where most posters seem to read the comments at most one time, before submitting their own comment. The appropriateness of these responses tends to be reinforced when reading the archives of the comics in question, and reading the comments along with them, and noticing all of the unanswered questions posed to someone who had made an earlier comment.
That said, without any reason to feel like she was probably not house Kafari, I probably would’ve taken it the same way.
The idea of what Naomi would consider VERY hard… scares me.
Naomi’s enemies fear the day when she realizes her landing can be weaponized.
Was that a mass driver? A kinetic energy weapon? Or just Naomi landing? Boost enough… I believe Naomi may still be able to reach tactical class.
Also i believe Kally and Trump should be wearing the Santa hats.
I think the difference between a HVW strike and a HVN(aomi) strike would be hard to distinguish instrumentally (other than in the usual “dumping a fscktonne of psions” sense) or practically (other than that the latter can be repeated at high speed so long as what is left of the target is within punching range)
Also, Trump would be unwilling to share, he would demand exclusive possession of the santa hat.
Of course, he gets his own hat. Nobody wants headlice. Nobody shares hats.
And if Trump gives me a “$2,000 prepaid refundable tax credit” for Christmas, I’ll not begrudge him having no headlice in his imminent retirement from politics.
My guess would be something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion_crater#/media/File:Sedan_Plowshare_Crater.jpg
This shows the crater from a nuclear explosion
Eh? You only wish Ashvalt had shown up…
Note Naomi’s extremely quick reaction to what she sees. That looks like Ila tucked under a guy’s arm in panel 5. Ashvalt is the least of their worries. Their grief will start with Naomi and Kally will follow. Mium is also going to be pissed off and then they will have to deal with Peter. Ever have one of those days when you should have just stayed in bed?
While size-wise it would fit Ila, I do not think it is her. She was last seen wearing different clothes and her hair is a brighter color, more orange-blonde then this.
Naomi says above that hair color-wise it matches Arkady, and it seems to. My guess is this is probably one of Arkady’s younger siblings.
– We know that Arkady has younger siblings, it is mentioned during his interactions with Ila.
– Naomi would know them well (as she is Arkady’s friend and apparently knows his family fairly well).
– Naomi mentions Arkady visits here.
– It would make the Ashvalt comment make sense, as this is probably Ashvalt’s kid.
– I have trouble believing they could take down Ila, particularly as we last saw her with Mium on the way to visit Malsa’s tactical class mage. Assaulting that group would need a bigger army.
Also goon #2 is saying “…we have the boy…”
Ah! I see now that it has been pointed out to this old man. My memory isn’t the best anymore. I think that Ila called Arkady “friend”. Things just went from bad day to very, very, very bad day for the kidnappers. Past was being modest in the last panel by showing only the shocked expressions on the kidnappers faces and not four puddles of pee! LOL.
Well, I suspect they don’t know who Naomi is (at least, as a combat threat). For that matter, they probably don’t know who Kally is either, though if Fluffy makes an appearance the light would probably dawn.
The hair color is Arkady. Same with the clothes. Those match what he was last seen wearing. Also, I highly doubt Mium would let anyone take his little sister regardless of how fragmented he is right now. Arkady is more Naomi’s friend than Ila’s and he can see that Naomi is nearby so he doesn’t have to interfere with much other than the arrival of whatever ship they are relying on. One of the perks of being an AI that’s integrated itself into the national infrastructure.
The figure isn’t large enough to be an adult. There was a time a couple of years ago when an adult might have been drawn that way, but @Past is MUCH better at perspective, now. 🙂
I missed something. I remembered seeing Ila unconcious on a couch and thought the kidnappers grabbed an unconcious Ila. Checking back reveals Mium showing up and talking to Arkady and Naomi about Ila. Several comics later, Mium is talking to a concious Ila and giving her advice. A key point is that both Naomi and Ila regard Arkady as a friend and you don’t mess with people who have such friends.
“Everything’s under control…” Not any more, skippy!
Its the line everyone says before everything stops being under control. Naomi and Kally being there just means it might be swinging the other way in under control.
So…? Still under control, but now also under new management!
That line is never good for the managed…
Murphy invoked, punishment incoming….
Woohoo! Santa hat time!
And even an audited, legitimized vote. Awesome!
Trump demands the IDS overrule the vote and award him the hat 😀
He has already faked up a picture of him in the hat and had it mounted on the wall of all his golf clubs.
That’s a good question! Why was Trump not an option on this vote!?!
DO OVER!
Naomi is a wonderful character.
Merry Christmas, and thank you for writing.
Merry Christmas!