Comic for Monday, February 14th, 2022
This page is a bit later than expected and breaks the model of this chapter of having half the page follow Peter and Kally as I had originally decided to cut this page/conversation as there will be a better explanation of how gates actually work/what they do later, and then decided to uncut for other reasons, so it went through a few redraws/relayouts (…which may be obvious from some of the panel text layouts, lol)
A few minor things to note with the page.
When Mium points out that its easier to end the functionality of a human with physics than magic, he’d include using magic to leverage physics (such as launching a rock at someone really really fast). He’s just pointing out that its fairly hard to just use magic to cause a human to become inoperable directly by modifying their data.
Neither Mium or Arron are directly the ones operating the gate. Mium is the one that set the data for the spell, essentially connecting it to a gate under his control on the Malsan side, but the gate here is essentially part of a large autocaster run by centralized casters that simply execute the equation. While it would be hard for them to understand the exact coordinates, if Mium had entirely botched the calibration (exceedingly unlikely for obvious reasons) the gate would probably just not work. People being dumped into non-reality (such as the spirit world) through a routine gate transfer would be pretty uncommon (to the point where it generally doesn’t happen). Arron’s concerns here more akin to people that afraid of flying. Sure, sometimes it goes wrong, but for the most part its pretty safe all things considered.
Well, that, and more metaphysical things. The concepts of worlds and dimensions are things Arron’s knows a lot about, given he’s a high ranked member of the IDS. He knows more than people in the IDS, and nearly anyone somewhere like Malsa. Many, particularly people that predate the wide spread use of magic like Arron, accept the Eidos exists and generally understand the ramifications and how it intersects with physics and reality, but don’t necessarily like the idea of trusting their existing on it (even if it underpins said existence in practice).
I still haven’t forgotten the Q&A, I just haven’t had a chance to get caught up yet. It’ll come eventually.
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If I want to join future “torches and pitchfork”-gatherings, what formalities need to be complied with (dresscode, minimum and/or maximum number of tines on the pitchforks, …)?
(made in reply to Jim, but somehow became its own post instead)
Generally the safe thing is to hit reply, let the page reload, then reply again. Make sure it says “reply to…”
I’m not big on dress codes, but pitchforks? I know a lot of people like the 3 tine forks. I get it, and they’re versatile. But I like me a good, solid 4 tine garden fork.
Torches are tougher for me. There’s nothing wrong with the classic old t-shirt wrapped around a broom handle size stick and some kerosene (or used motor oil! ) but these days we have so many more choices.
So many places sell tiki torches, and as inexpensive and simple as they seem, they are amazing! Nice bright light, low smoke (though I’m still a fan of the thick smoke from used motor oil! ), and they burn forever!
Technically you might get away with describing molotov cocktails as ranged torches. But now you’re talking about an order of magnitude more complexity, not to mention the increased amount of material. Unless of course you’re going with literally a single cocktail. That just seems weird though.
I guess the gomic’s taking the night off, huh?
Have faith. The night is yet young. Thankfully, the pitchforks and torches have been delayed. After the barn raising party, the barn dance lasted quite a while. As darkness approached, Mr Bean was sent with Larry, Mo and Curly to light some kerosene lanterns around the barn. What could go wrong? LOL Marshmallows are being toasted and hot dogs are being roasted over the embers of the barn. It will be a while before the new barn is built and of course then there will be another dance. 🙂
Who doesn’t like marshmallows and hotdogs? Mind you, the kerosene flavor, and a bit of carbon. But you know.
In panel 4 we finally see a gate. I had pictured a Stargate type gate where one walked through the gate. However, the Utopian gate seems similar transporter pads in Star Trek. Miums request for Aaron to stand still brings memories of Star Trek personnel “freezing” just before transport.
Something dark in me would have liked to see them work very similar to Goa’uld transport rings.
And honestly? Mium’s request for Aaron to stand still? It sounds just a little bit like maybe Mium messing with him again. Like spending all that time reassuring him that things aren’t going to wrong, and then just as the mana builds…. hey something you never thought of may be your worst nightmare!
LOL. Mium has yet to find a human that was willing to cease existing.
We are conscious beings, so our will to live shapes the us in the world. We are unreasonable: so that makes us hard for us to cease to exist whatever the circumstances. I think, therefore I am.
I like info drops.
Is the Spirit World a non-reality? The sparse descriptions kinda go in similar directions …
It “turns out” it “isn’t that dangerous”. Because Mium has found it and devised a way to get out of it?
The Spirit World is probably the “root cause behind several items [Mium has] been investigating” … is the Whirlpool virus one of those? The virus apparently dumps (non-living) stuff into some non-reality …
If the Whirlpool virus is caused by the Spirit World, is it by way its existence or the use of it by the Malsan families, intentional or not? (Are they actively stealing stuff from the transports through the Gates? Or is this a side effect, possibly unnoticed by them, of things they are doing for other reasons? Or just something the Spirit World would affect even if it wasn’t used by the families?)
Not just that Mium found a way out, but one can apparently live there for an extended period of time before going insane, especially if you perceive as little of Eidos as Arron does. It was unclear to me if Amy’s limit for surviving there was based on her mortality or sanity.
I doubt that Arron has an Eidos implant, but I’d guess he does have at least one autocaster of sufficient capacity to hold a “return to Malsa” spell. Or would that return him to Central, due to him having more affinity for Central than Malsa?
Yay comic!
I think that in the third frame there is an ARE that shouldn’t be there so:
“I CAN PRESUME YOU ARE CAN CALIBRATE”
Becomes
“ I CAN PRESUME YOU CAN CALIBRATE”
Or maybe even
“ I PRESUME YOU CAN
CALIBRATE”
Panel 4: “principle participant” is probably preferred to “principle participate”. Also, I’m not an English teacher, but I think in this case “principal” corresponds to primary, which is probably what we want. So really, “principal participant”, or even “principal participator”. Unless an English teacher argues otherwise.
Panel three, something feels off. “Anything you do would be caught…” No one believes Mium will be caught, not even Aaron. Probably “anything you do wrong will be caught…”? Though I’m not sure many people believe Mium would make a mistake there either. Then again we’ve got WoG that Aaron is being irrational, so the wording works out if we add ‘wrong’, or something to that effect.
Panel 5: “easier to end a human functionality”, probably should be “easier to end human functionality”, or “easier to end a human’s functionality”.
Panel 5: “misfires and dumps into” possibly should be “misfires and dumps ME into”. Or maybe “US”. Or maybe just dumps is actually fine. It just feels to me like we’re missing a pronoun.
Interesting points.
1.Mium seems confident about the increase in energy required to make someone cease to exist. Clearly he’s thought about it. I guess that’s not surprising.
2.Mium also seems to want Aaron to know that teleportation is known to be possible, at least known to Team Peter.
3. Mium is providing exposition. We now know more about the whirlpool virus. It is something in their gate system that is hijacking cargo, but not living beings.
Aaron may well believe it isn’t a virus, but rather Mium gathering what supplies he likes. If that’s true, it would explain Peter’s apparently unlimited resources, and where Mium collected his “no longer military grade” tank. Not 100% exposition perhaps, as Aaron sounds like maybe he wasn’t certain that living things couldn’t go missing. Or maybe that’s the irrational fear speaking.
One more in panel 6:
“starting an investigation into that lines up with things become quite the mess”
I have no idea what this is trying to say.
That’s what Mium is pointing out.
What he’s saying is Peter is the type of person to investigate that Virus even if he wasn’t the one who created it. The timeline of his investigation lines up with everything we see in the story starting.
As a reminder, the reasons Peter is wanted are he went away from a government agency, and is suspected of creating said virus. Which appears to actually be dangerous if it causes gates to malfunction.
“Starting an investigation into that lines up with things become quite the mess”
Good catch.
Should be: “…lines up with when things became quite the mess” maybe?
I feel completely vindicated. My faith in you, Past, is unshakable!