Comic for Monday, February 26th, 2018
So, I’ve not forgotten about the Q&A, it’ll go up today (for you reading this, i.e. Monday), just not quite yet, probably closer to the end of the day Monday at this point. I ended up slacking too much during the weekend (okay, I was doing this, but slacking in the making the comic sense of the word) so things still need to be wrapped up the details on that. If you squeak a question in now, it might make it. No promises!
If it’s not clear, the thought bubbles are… hmm, something someone told him. Who? Who indeed…
To be honest, I’d planned doing on intersplicing Mium and Rovak with what’s happening with Tyler and Naomi and Co, but it just didn’t really work, so we effectively did two half pages of this scene and we’ll get two half pages of the other scene soon… if that makes any sense. Basically. I only mention this because I think I referenced that we’d see why Tyler’d been added to the last page in the next page, and this makes me a liar liar pants on fire.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention we broke that $150 barrier on Patreon, and have a record 27 patrons. Holy crap guys. I really got nothing to say here, besides that that’s amazing, and ya’ll are the best. I have a bit of a more active sketching schedule for that planned. We are definitely overdue for a goal, so… hell, maybe I’ll just try and put something already hit up, because god damn it’s an amazing thing that’s got to be celebrated somehow. This goes beyond the simple upness of goodness! I’ve spent a paragraph here trying to say what amounts to…. “thanks!”; but really, it does mean a lot and I appreciate it to no end.
Anyway… I really should be asleep, so g’night (I’ll try to swing by in the morning before work to get the inevitable spelling fixes…. 🙂 + 🙁 )
Loading ...
An interesting but Annoying Thing occurred to me just a few minutes ago and this is something that even I didn’t catch right away. Unfortunately now that I
seen it I can’t unsee it. It looks like the knife if going through the hand perpendicular to the direction of the fingers. This would not fit well without massively deforming the hand in the process. A knife is more likely to go through the hand like that when the blade is parallel with the fingers. All a hand really is is a fleshy set long bones connected by ligaments across them and the fingers are segmented extensions of those bones.
I’m not even suggesting that you fix this page because that would just be annoying but keep it in mind for the next time you have to drive a knife going through a hand because somehow I think in this comic it might happen again!
Maybe it is a really sharp, even magically sharp, knife?
But back to the hand deforming issue, how much of the natural closing motion of the hand is due to the shape of the human hand itself and how much is it due to the relative pull of tendons from the muscles that normally pull the hand closed (because the “close” muscles are stronger than the “open” muscles)? Even if the flesh and bones were completely cut through with the knife it isn’t as though they will just fall off, though it is probably like seeing a broken leg: even if you know it is real it just doesn’t look real.
So someone who helped make Mium apparently told Rovak a guideline on how Mium would act to kill him? I’m not sure if that’s trying to help Rovak, or just rubbing it in. (Also….who?? As much as my first thought on most things here is “suspect Peter”, that also seems too blatant, obvious, and….well, up-front for Peter. That sounds almost like pride about making the F8, so I would also doubt Mir (plus too polite with the “Mr. Stas”), which just leads me back to Peter, but again…hm. Really curious.)
And “homicidal” isn’t necessary a requirement either, I wouldn’t think, if he is truly ambivalent about your continued existence at this juncture. Or maybe he’s saying, “Yes, I can kill you. I know how I can kill you. Here’s showing how I know I can kill you, and if you know how I’d do it, then maybe you live”. (While also proving that it doesn’t matter if he lets Rovak live since his continued existence really could be a question.)
Hmm, thinking it over, perhaps since “Let’s just sit and watch” didn’t immediately work, he figured Rovak would need to be distracted, and this is simply how Mium is choosing to go about that.
This our good solid clue that Dr. Martin is not Peter, meaning this is probably Dr. Martin. So, the candidates are either Dr. Martin or someone we have not met yet. I agree that it is probably not Mir. I think we can almost entirely eliminate Peter as a candidate because Peter does not refer to Mium as “it”.
I think it is pretty debatable if Mium was really trying to kill him. Even he if he was, he does not really seem committed to the course of action.
Page’ll be up tomorrow (of course 😐 )
Mium’s first panel second bubble: “…no reason for me *to* interfere…” OR “…no reason for *my interference*…”
I am not fond of infinitives, hence the second option.
Fixed, thanks 🙂
Going to be honest, I remembered I was supposed to finish the Q&A and put it up… like… now. Unfortunately, like… now… is when I need already have been asleep for a few hours so… failure! Will take another crack at this tomorrow and we’ll see if the there is an decrease in being dumb 😮
… It’s up, and may god have mercy on our souls.. Yeah… it’s really long. I’m sorry.
A 4700 word Q&A. That is kind of impressive. Most people would give up before writing that much. Lets see if I will give up before reading the whole thing….
I’m not going to blame you if you do. It’ll be a mark of sanity.
It seemed churlish to say I was going to do a Q&A and take questions and not answer them all though, so… here we are.
> Come back from being overseas without much internet.
> Immediately dial up The Far Side of Utopia.
> Catch up on The Far Side of Utopia.
> Get to the end of updates.
> Am sad now because I have caught up.
> Think I will finally unpack suitcases.
> Find a new multipage Q&A about obscure world info and magic.
Okay, PastUtopia, you win. I guess I am not doing the other things I was supposed to be doing for the next hour or two…
Remember your priorities, unpacking can be done over time as you need clothes. But some things just can’t wait.
@PastUtopia: Thanks a lot for that Q/A, some of those answers were a lot more informative than I would have expected. For instance I hadn’t realized that it had been so relatively recently that the Families had been in power (which changes a lot). Furthermore their “voluntary” abdication of it makes their belief in their own right to interfere very understandable (especially under the circumstances, and only changing the way they approach things depending on if that abdocation was truly volontary).
Again, thanks for all the info. It is very much appreciated.
Mium isn’t homicidal, because presumably, Mr. Zombie isn’t human. Also, Mium isn’t a Maniac, he is very calm. (Yes I realize mania can present that way, but Mium isn’t human either.) Mania is characterized as behavior departing from a norm in some particular manner. Since there’s only one Mium, he is the norm, so there can be no Mania!
Tzooo Mr. Stazzzz, Mium really izz tryink to kill you! Perhaps our little dizcussion will have benefit tzoo you in da future.
So, If I’m interpreting this correctly, Mium was actually going for the kill. Am I right?
Rovak remembered what someone told him, and realized Mium was going to go for the brain, so he put up his hand to stop the knife, and exploded part of Mium’s arm. This makes sense, as Mium was merely ambivalent toward’s Rovak’s survival, so once Rovak attacked, he went for the kill. Interestingly, it suggests Mium nullified Rovak’s healing process, but not his boom process.
As for who that someone is, my money is on Martin. Mium seems to be a combination of Martin’s ‘merely’ flexible MYM AI, which Peter turned full SMAI by merging it(him?) with Query. Doesn’t make sense that Peter would have warned Rovak, so it has to be Martin. I was wondering when he’d how up again…
I’m wondering about the lack of cancelation on that SECOND explosion, especially since he did stop the first one (partially by cutting off the hand of “Mr. Zombie”). Could MIUM have a single stop limint, need multiple people to hack to stop multiple things (that seems to be one of two tricks he has that doesn’t require hacking), or maybe he needs a clear view of the spell matrix (and was too close to his target to get it)? Perhaps this was a previously prepaired spell going off or something specifically to counter MIUM’s counter?
Anyone else have any idea what might be going on here?
You can see in Panel 4 on Rovak’s left hand (the one he uses to block the knife in panel 10) there is a red magic circle on his hand. What this means, I don’t know for sure, but I am pretty sure that’s related.
Likely he somehow cast the spell ahead of time on his hand ahead of time, and he triggers it in panel 10. There has to be an upper limit to even Mium’s reactions, a pre-calculated spell set to trigger instantly is probably more than he can nullify (and we have seen that Rovak can trigger a lot of explosions at once, if you look at the background of panel 10 there are several overlapping calculation runes/circles).
As we see here, Rovak know exactly how Mium would react, he was just seeing if Mium would be fast enough to escape the explosion trap he’d set using the spell in his left hand.
Basically, Rovak insanity makes it easy to miss that he’s one of the highest combat experience mages we see, and just because he doesn’t like to think, doesn’t mean he can’t. Sort of like Naomi really. Both are highly combat clever, but only when someone forces them to be.
Good catch on that spell on his hand. It makes me wonder how long it takes for MIUM to cancel a spell. It seems to be quick if he is close enough, but this hints at some other limitation.
I somewhat wonder if the explosion’s purpose was to test MIUM’s speed, because fighting him would tell that, or rather to force MIUM to back off enough that the regeneration could happen. It could be secondarily there to test MIUM’s defense, since it was enough to force him to back off. Or alternately it could be an attempt to confirm/test MIUM’s regenerative abilities (a professional concern from one immortal to another, as Rovak would say it). It could also be a failsafe measure that just happened to go off: Line your body with explosions (assuming you can live thorough them) and any close call instantly becomes a victory!
I have the crazy theory that Martin’s F-series used was either the captured AI from the incident with the Whirlpool Virus (which was wrecking all the computers, including those of the Kor’s World) and/or was the AI that resulted from the Shinoji project (the attempt to make an AI that could use magic). Theoretically the Shinoji AI got out and ran amok (called the Whirlpool Virus) till it or part of it was captured by Martin for use in his F-Series bots.
We are, as far as I know and at the very least, very clear on the idea that MIUM is not a simple amalgamation of Peter’s personally built “Querry” and an AI programmed primarily by Dr. Martin if only because enough people have an idea about MIUM to make it clear that he (or part of him) has a somewhat imfamious history from before this story. See Nathan Summers conversation with MIUM for an example. The F8 had never been significantly outside of Malsa and not enough that the military (ie: Kalisto Summers or her commander of Aaron Kepler) knew who he was or even that he wasn’t MSB, so that wasn’t what was getting Nathan bothered, and Querry didn’t seem to make enemies like that; so it seems clear that whatever Nathan saw (that MIUM didn’t deny was real) was neither of those two.
This means that, if we accept that MIUM has origins beyond just the F8 and Querry, we also can’t be sure who all might have had a hand in his origins. The person talking about how deadly he is could be quite nearly anyone (at least, anyone who would be willing to help Rovak to not die, at the very least).
I can’t help but wonder if making Rovak think about this is a bad idea. If he thinks about this, he might think of a way AROUND it.
“Thinking is HARD!“
Dayum! Make the psychotic bomber scared for his life… Go MIUM! … And people think the reason Peter hasn’t been taken down yet is simply that they haven’t been “ruthless” (read: stupid and reckless) enough? OH DEAR, is Biana in for a rude wake-up call if she’s still alive out there.
Panel 1: *a* homicidal maniac
It can nullify it.
I can nullify it?
Actually, that one’s correct. The terminology is consistently “it,” presumably because it isn’t Mium talking – as noted in the commentary, it’s a memory of another circumstance.
Yup. I didn’t read the commentary right away. I read those thought bubbles as speech bubbles, and I presumed them spoken by Mium.
Read as thought bubbles, recalling a conversation where Mium was addressed as “it”, the whole flow makes a lot more sense.
Thanks!
Chris
Fixed, thanks 🙂
So Rovak is the anti-Peter? Peter seems to like thinking after all.
Also answered my question, yes Mium can shut down an I-Code. If its actively being used. OH DEAR.
That makes sense that he has to wait for it to activate, as pretty much all signs point to that the I-code is some sort of cybernetic autocaster. While Mium can destroy phystical objects, something inside a form with a Key even he probably can’t effect (thus why he used the knife, though unless I miss my guess the knife is somehow buffed by his power, you can see it glowing at the tip with mana).
If he liked thinking, I think we would see a bit more finesse creep into his work. But he seems to basically be a three schtick pony most of the time: boosted abilities, immortal, make things go boom.
I suppose it would be possible for him to just be trying to keep as many of his abilities secrets as he can. But then one would ask why the i-code bit would be one of the revealed secrets.
I did not see 1 spelling error in any of the panels.