Comic for Monday, February 21st, 2022
Comic.
Mium did fiddle with the gate calculation somewhat, but more directly just interfered with part of the calculation. The gate had enough power to bring two people from Central to Malsa, so by simply inferring with the part that would have taken him out of reality, there was plenty of energy to bring his other copy back into reality. Of course, swapping out two humans like that wouldn’t work nearly as well, but for someone that can sync up various elements exactly, it’s far easier to catch a ride like this. This would have resulted in the gate having excess power (since one passenger is getting on half way through so to speak), but that doesn’t matter too much on this scale, as undirected mana is generally moderately harmless and quickly disperses.
This presumably left the F8 prototype in Central, which, of course, is what Mium intended all along. Arron was wary of leaving Mium in Central, and Mium would prefer to send Arron back to Malsa, so this worked out pretty well for him in addition to retrieving his other copy.
Loading ...
Hey Folks-
I fear I’ve done this a little too often late, but going to miss this week’s comic. I wouldn’t want your pitchforks to get rusty.
We’ll have a comic next week almost certainly. This week just ended up catching me off guard as there was some things I was supposed to do by the end of the month, but the month ended rather abruptly (shitty discount months with not enough days).
-Pastutopia
EDIT: Comic will be up on 3/8; sorry for the delays.
Tsk, we value you more than to use the same pitchforks and torches every time (and of course the torches burn down and stuff)
We have them on recurring order with Amazon now.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/groundwork-pro-10-tine-pitch-fork
Well… I like a bit fancier model.
While that really is an impressive pitchfork, suitable for transferring hay, I do feel that a more traditional straight-tined three or four element fork is better for the largely ceremonial task of being wielded in a mobbing. You can also get tiki-style torches in packs of 10, although usually only one or two are needed per mobbing.
Plus of course Freefall teaches us that you will be getting ice cream at the end of the mobbing, so a webbing sling so you can attach the fork to your back and keep a hand free while eating is pretty useful too.
Very nice, but I don’t think I can supply a mob with them… For the foreseeable future, I will still be handing out a 3-pronged pitch fork.
I suppose not. Oh well. But how about this one?
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-54-in-L-Wood-Handle-Steel-Manure-Fork/50299955
Kobalt is a nice mid range brand!
5 tined manure forks are GREAT for mobs!
So, um, last I checked, those fancy ten tine pitch forks were pretty lousy at handling pitch. Hay, sure. But even so much as attempt to move a single fork full of pitch with one of those, and 9 tines out of ten will probably be a lost cause.
I mean, OK, at least it’s not plastic. The plastic one was wrecked even before getting properly into the pitch. But I’d guess most people would guess that one.
Mind you, last time I checked was something like 40 years ago, so maybe they make them outta new fangled metal now that can somehow compensate for the tines being all dainty. But for only 70 bucks in 2022 money, I’d doubt it.
With that much scoop, I’d also worry about the person being a bit on the dainty side as it were.
I posted a link to a 5 tine pitch fork a couple of days ago. It didn’t come through though, so probably caught in the spam filter.
I’m pretty sure we’ve never pitched pitch with a pitch fork of any sort. 3 tine, 4 tine, 5 tine, 10 tine, just never did it. We used shovels to pitch pitch. Forks tend to be for light, airy things, and also for meat. Not the same fork mind you. Not usually anyway.
And I agree, someone offers to sell me a $70 fork, I still don’t expect to pitch pitch with it. I would expect it to be a decent fork though. I mean I know the last shovel I bought was like $20, I’d likely cry now when TWO twenty dollar bills likely won’t cover that same shovel these days.
Anyway. We’re going to be light on torches this time. Fuel oil is WAY too expensive to be burning many torches.
Comic will be up this week, but will be up tomorrow. Apologies for the delays, been a little busy.
Noted.
Pitch forks are on their way.
Did the officer models arrive with the last shipment?
https://huntinglight.com/image/cache/catalog/products/Fish%20Gig%20Stuff/FS-P40-8%20small-500×500.jpg
Anyone else hear this song in their head when reading panels 9 & 10, or is it just me..?
Talking In Your Sleep—The Romantics
Or maybe this one:
Lies—Thompson Twins
When they lie is also of note. Their intentional attempt at obfuscation is an indication of what truths they rather you not know about, which could also be important.
(Unless it’s just habit at that point.)
So Mium forced the teleporter to get himself out of “non-reality”, but what happened to the one Mr. Director was talking to back “home”? (Hm…)
The border transitions from black to white, so I think it’s safe to assume he sent Arron to Malsa as expected. Just instead of sending himself along with Arron, he fished his other prototype out of the palace beyond in his place.
Assuming somebody is actually watching the gate pad, Mium Effaite gets to pretend to be very confused about why the gate didn’t take him, and then he goes off to do whatever. Which will probably include collecting one Mari when she’s ready to go.
Mari was going with the settlers. Does that mean that Mium Effaite is going to be one of the “IDS settlers”? Does anyone else find that concept terribly amusing?
“Well, my accommodations were in one of the habitats that’s about to collapse, so I qualified. They didn’t actually check to see if I was a citizen of Central. No, they didn’t ask how inconvenienced I’d be if the habitat failed while I was in it.”
Also, in that it suggests somebody else wouldn’t get to go who might actually need to, it’d also be kind of terrible, depending on how urgent that need actually is.
Now we know who Mium was expecting to come along to extract him from non-reality after he programmed Tyler’s autocaster to return Tyler and Amy. Yes, Elmon screwed up big time. What if anyone with an autocaster will be able to send Elmon to the Palace Beyond. What if Mium starts redirecting Elmon when he uses a gate. LOL
Panel 1: all of use -> us
Panel 6: risk it retrieve -> to retrieve
Panel 8: you were expected a bunch -> expecting
Panel 8, I think Mium is saying that the risk of losing the body he just retrieved was nearly in excess of the value of rescuing Tyler.
So “I was barely able to risk it (the body he’s currently speaking through) TO retrieve Mr. Weber…”
Fixed, thanks.
Your awesomeness is without bound!
And Mium now likely knows how to gate *into* that space, too, should they need to chase folks who flee to it.
Poor Arron.
Indeed so, yes. Kafari will no doubt REALLY (if briefly) regret having given Mium insight into how his little pocket dimensions work.
Or for that matter, to drop random individuals who think they are gating to central (say) there to keep for later.
And if Peter didn’t know how the whirlpool virus worked before, he does now.
Past says that excess mana dissapates harmlessly… but who wants to guess how long Peter takes before he is checking for excess mana in his gate detector?
I think the time frame is negative. Because that seems like something Peter or M.Y.M. was already tracking, they just have more context for what it means.
I would guess Peter is the one behind the whirlpool virus in the first place.
1) Peter has an usually good understanding of how gates work.
1a) This was brought up when he said he was going to hold a lecture on the nature of “dimensional worlds and the transit equations thereof”. Maia even asked how he’d know that, and Kally said he tended to investigate things he wasn’t supposed to.
1b) Peter is already better at detecting gates the IDS itself. The only people that seem to rival him here is maybe Kor’s World, who seemed to detect his gate detector.
2) Corporate Affairs suspected Peter of being behind it in the very first page of the comic.
3) Mium was able to take over all the gates in Malsa on command. He almost certainly has already had some level of presence in the gate hardware to pull something like that off.
4) I cannot recall seeing Peter ever trying to investigate it. Very likely that means he knows who is behind it already, and just as likely that is because it is him.
5) Mium didn’t seem to be familiar with the Palace Beyond/Spirit World/Non-Reality (which all seem to be the same thing), but it took him a matter of seconds to figure out how to get out of it. Mium is also able to manipulate the dimensional transit here.
6) Peter himself doesn’t really seem to care about stopping smugglers. This might be because he’s stealing a percentage of their shit to fund what he does. More interdimensional trade means more profit if the whirlpool virus is skimming off the top of it.
I think the only other plausible candidates would be Kor’s World or some unknown 3rd party. The main problem with it being Kor’s World is that as they seem to one of Peter’s primary concerns, he doesn’t seem to care about it enough for him to suspect it is them.
There is some open questions though. For all of Peter’s knowledge, coming up with a virus that no one in the IDS can pin down would still be quite challenging. Also how it actually works and where intercepted goods are sent.
I think it’s also moderately possible that the virus is a misdirection for something going wrong with interdimensional transit, or 3rd party that’s yet to be fully introduced (perhaps demons like Atter or rogue SMAI or some faction related to Dendrin or the like). But if I was an investigator, Peter would be suspect #1.
I suspect Kor’s world of originating the whirlpool virus. That is why they are so hot to trot on cleaning up captured copies of it. I’m betting that it interfaces with those cards that Peter has been harvesting from Kor mecha which allow real time cross dimensional communication.
Kor’s World seems interested in Bridgepoint data. I think that is distinct from the whirlpool virus. I do wonder if Kor’s World knows that most copies of that data seem to be corrupt? They seem to prefer it not to exist, which suggests that someone else corrupted it?
Given what we’ve seen of the Malsan families, and Peter’s hint to Kally about the “redundant inside cameras” being the only ones necessary to compromise, it seems that the corruption more likely originated from the dissenting minority of Malsan families. Or at least they had a hand in it. That might also be where Peter recovered the untainted data?
Given what we’ve learned, it isn’t unthinkable to me that those families could possibly use that data.
The ‘redundant inside cameras’ were because the families had a teleporter.
Exactly. So Families, not Kor’s World.
Unless discovering that there IS a way to teleport would suggest that Kor’s World can a well…
I suspect the gates are basically mechanically assisted teleporting, hence Mium knowing how to use a gate transfer to steal the energy needed to pull his other instance out of a pocket dimension.
That would make them autocasters, while a Pathfinder would have some native teleporting ability, although possibly not enough power to transport a group. Being able to see a potential destination (via “redundant cameras”) would make that task a lot easier.
However, a STABLE bridgehead would be a different matter – an Eidos tunnel between two locations, rather than a per-item transport, hence the Kor’s world effort to keep that secret, secret.
Whirlpool might be a different Kor’s world effort (to disrupt the use of gates by central) or unrelated malware due to Central malcontents.
I think point 2 is irrelevant. It’s my impression that Peter’s “unauthorized entry” for which he was arrested POed corporate affairs, so they’re going to blame him for anything they can.
I agree with the first part of point 4. Peter knew who/what was behind whirlpool already. But I disagree that it necessarily suggests he is behind it. He was their top investigator before he “went rogue”. And, given what CI *does*, I’m inclined to think that he still is, and all his going rogue means is that he found a criminal to investigate that has enough clout to determine that anyone investigating them is a rogue. For example, corporate affairs.
I’m therefore thinking that the whirlpool virus was more likely perpetrated by Kor’s World, Corporate Affairs, or some party we haven’t met yet. Options listed in most likely to least likely order.
As far as how much he appears to care about which entity is behind it, if he already knows who did it, we won’t see his passion in his investigation into who did it because that’s *done*.
I’m pretty sure the bridgepoint data theft was Families. But the act of that theft may have alerted Kor’s World to the existence of the bridgepoint data, either directly or indirectly. One indirect possibility is, it could be the Families put less skill/priority into keeping that data secret, such that it passed on to enough people that KW found it. For example, if the Families then gave it to some part of the PACT corporations, and they then disseminated it to a bunch of other places including at least one with crap security.
Point 6. Peter *did* try to stop at least some of the smuggling, by siccing the MSB at it. I suspect he did that because CA told CI to back off on it – it’s their smuggling.
As far as the rest of the smuggling… I’m not sure all the gates are smuggling. Some of those gates could be Kor’s World. Others are Families – we now know that some of them can open gates to places, or non-places at least. It’s likely that opening a gate to the palace beyond also shows up on that detector. And of the subset that is smuggling? Peter has his priorities, and he’s always focused on the biggest fish.