Comic for Monday, January 7th, 2019
I think in general Nathan & Tom will probably show mostly during intermissions, perhaps at some point I’ll expand on what their are doing. For now they sort have collided with plot at the Atter-point, so checking in with them occasionally has merit. Next update we’ll see another Intermission only character…
I imagine it’d be fairly hard to hear while falling like that, but I rendering the whole conversation as shouting would probably just be… sort of annoying.
I will note that just because it appears that – as Tom says – Providence may have had a point this time, exactly what Nathan refers to as “Providence” actually is is up for some debate. Nathan is one of the few mages we’ve seen that comes from an older tradition of the supernatural – while he’s not particularly old (as he’s only a handful of years older than Kally), he comes from an older tradition, and consequently his relationship with magic is frequently a little different than we’ve seen. While the underlying mechanics may be similar, a lot about how they interact comes from the… user interface. While Nathan obviously *can* do magic without using an incantation (like here), he would tell you it’s sort of inferior. Modern mages tend to see someone like his as archaic and a tad weird, but on other hand, he’s Nathan Summers, so they tend to view him as archaic, weird, and probably having some sort of point even if they don’t understand it.
I’m aware that Tom’s mangling of language tends to vary a bit, and to an extent that is intentional. Though we haven’t seen it much, he can talk normal. The way he normally talks like this is an attempt render a rather peculiarly rustic accent that is a bit hard for most people not used to him to understand.
Why does Tom think his crowbar survived? Eh, crowbars are pretty sturdy. Why wouldn’t it survive an explosion and a tad of crashing shuttle. What a strange question.
Loading ...
Yet more that Tom is nowhere near as capable as Nathan, yet….
…”need to fetch the crowbar”? What is this infernal crowbar that he needs to specifically find it after getting yanked out of his flight (right before it was blown up)?
Well, um, you see it has a +5 to pointlessly annoy Kally in a manner she has no way to handle.
So, if Nathan doesn’t need to take the time to put Tom safely on the ground, that means that Tom, himself, can fly…
We know that he’s more than he tries to seem, but I’m wondering how much more. 🙂
I mean, Nathan has been known to leave Tom with somewhat impossible tasks before.
“No offense, Tom, but what does Nathan expect you to do if Atter shows back up?”
“If Nathan asked these sort of questions, my life would be easier”
That said, Tom is at very least and “action survivor” type. He seemed pretty much entirely unimpressed by danger so far, the most preturbed he got was when Naomi was trying to pummel him (and not really succeeding that well, which, if you think about it, sort of proves your point I guess).
I would personally be surprised if Tom can do major magic, but mostly because it would disprove my theory that there is a connection between using Ellipses and not being very good at other magic. This could just be that innate mages tend to be worse at other mages and Ellipses an innate talent, but it seems a little too widespread for that (Arron, Tom, and I still think Peter).
That said, I will eat my shoe if that crowbar is just a normal crowbar. Like, I get that @PastUtopia likes red herrings here and there, but it is simply too iconic and appeared too early on to just be no big deal.
I am just waiting for Mium to meet Tom so he can call him the “The Wielder of the Super Important Crowbar” to confirm that theory.
I suspect it’s more along the lines that most high powered mages tend to power through things. Like Tyler holding up ceilings in buildings that would otherwise be in the process of collapsing, when that’s not his innate strength, and he’s doing other things. Ellipses, by its nature, isn’t high powered. If you try to dump too much energy into that, it doesn’t make you even less conspicuous. You instead stand out to any nearby mages as someone who’s actively casting some major magic, and if you go too far, even mundanes will notice, despite not being overly attuned to Eidos.
I mean, I’ve certainly read stuff where more magic did mean better invisibility, but I feel like PastUtopia indicated that wasn’t how stuff worked around these parts.
Regardless of Tom’s power level, he does seem to make a concerted effort at not dumping the psions all over the place, which seems like the main thing an Ellipses user would need to worry about…
Theory: the less magical someone is, the better Ellipses works.
+ Easier it is to hide/camouflage their Eidos||Hyle signature.
+ Everyone has a sort of unconscious Eidos awareness. Normal people have an undeveloped sense, mages have a more developed sense. Ellipses messes with this sense to a sufficient level for most people, but someone like Ms. Dai would likely see right through it.
+ This would indicate that Tom is not magical.
+ I have a crowbar like Tom’s, as far I can tell. It is my favorite tool. I would dig through wreckage to find it, so I don’t see anything unusual about Tom’s behavior there. If it was magical like Nathan’s stick, Tom would probably commit it to Eidos instead of carrying it around in Hyle all the time.
+ Can you use Ellipses on a crowbar to achieve a similar affect (in everyone else’s perception) as Nathan writing his stick to Eidos form? If you used Ellipses on a dead fish, would it have no smell or would its smell change to something else? Does Tom need his smell masked or does he actually shower twice a day and use deodorant?
+ Tom didn’t expect to be useful if Atter showed up because Tom isn’t magical.
+ Tom’s crowbar was able to smash Atter’s bug because the but was in Hyle.
+ Nathan slowed Tom’s fall because he’s not magical and would have died from that jump. Nathan simply landed with more grace. Because providence.
Theory: Tom is a mage or something, and his crowbar is magical.
+ Nathan expected Tom to be useful if Atter showed up because Tom is magical.
+ Tom’s crowbar was able to smash Atter’s bug because the crowbar is magical.
+ Tom dodged an attack by Naomi.
+ Tom landed on his back in this strip because he didn’t need safety.
Between the two, I’m leaning towards Tom being a non-mage surrounded by exciting and dangerous characters, like Peter.
D’oh, missed the edit window. Realized I mixed separate theories together. Here’s what I meant after more organizing.
Theory: The less magical someone is, the better Ellipses works.
+ Maybe it’s easier to hide/camouflage their Eidos||Hyle signature.
+ Maybe everyone has a sort of unconscious Eidos awareness. Normal people have an undeveloped sense, mages have a more developed sense. Ellipses messes with this sense to a sufficient level for most people, but someone like Ms. Dai would likely see right through it.
+ If true, this would indicate that Tom is not magical.
Theory: Ellipses is just a tool that anyone can use. Some are simply more skilled with it.
Theory: Tom is not a mage.
+ I have a crowbar like Tom’s, as far I can tell. It is my favorite tool. I would dig through wreckage to find it, so I don’t see anything unusual about Tom’s behavior there. If it was magical like Nathan’s stick, Tom would probably commit it to Eidos instead of carrying it around in Hyle all the time.
+ Can you use Ellipses on a crowbar to achieve a similar affect (in everyone else’s perception) as Nathan writing his stick to Eidos form? If you used Ellipses on a dead fish, would it have no smell or would its smell change to something else? Does Tom need his smell masked or does he actually shower twice a day and use deodorant?
+ Maybe Tom didn’t expect to be useful if Atter showed up because Tom isn’t magical.
+ Maybe Tom’s crowbar was able to smash Atter’s bug because the but was in Hyle.
+ Maybe Nathan slowed Tom’s fall because he’s not magical and would have died from that jump. Nathan simply landed with more grace. Because providence.
Theory: Tom is a mage or something, and his crowbar is magical.
+ Maybe Nathan expected Tom to be useful if Atter showed up because Tom is magical.
+ Maybe Tom’s crowbar was able to smash Atter’s bug because the crowbar is magical.
+ Tom dodged an attack by Naomi.
+ Maybe Tom landed on his back in this strip because he didn’t need safety.
Between the two, I’m leaning towards Tom being a non-mage surrounded by exciting and dangerous characters, like Peter.
I think Tom fell on his back because he wanted to see where his crowbar most likely went, and get a better feel for the full spread of debris, so he knows where all he needs to meander to do all his gander gandering. I would guess even if Tom is a mage, he wouldn’t be good enough of one to land on his back like that, so being a good partner, Nathan would’ve slowed his fall regardless of Tom’s maginess or lack thereof
I first read Tom’s last bubble when I wasn’t fully awake. Now that I’m awake it makes sense but to give us an synopsis for anyone else who may be having trouble with it. Tom is going to go to the crash site to get his crowbar and to check if anyone else is checking the crash site beyond rescue and recovery of the pilot and passengers.
Actually, even if they were shouting, it is nearly impossible to hear each other while in free-fall. Trust me, the air rushing past your ears is REALLY noisy: it’s basically a 195 km/hr wind noise. Because of this professional skydivers actually use hand-signals to communicate. Point Break lied to me!!!
As for how long would it take them to be in free fall: it’s about 12 seconds over 450 m. (Check “Free Fall” on Wikipedia).
Either we assume it’s magic (Yay, magic!) or we can just imagine Nathan and Tom speak one of the many varieties of Sign: you’d be surprised at how efficient Sign is at communicating! (NOT fingerspelling: that’s for stupid English speakers).
That may be, but have you tried doing it while working some magic to make your words carry better?
Meh, probably still wouldn’t work. Maybe some form of low grade thought projection?
My take is that they were not in free fall. It takes me roughly ~40 seconds to read their dialogue out loud (yes, I did just time myself reading a webcomic page outload). This would put them either very high up (as per @Westley Roberts comment, I did not calculate that separately) or means they are falling at a reduced falling speed, something Nathan would definitely be capable of doing, and is pretty likely, as it would dramatically increase his ability to slow them down further to land gently like that.
“falling at a reduced falling speed, something Nathan would definitely be capable of doing, and is pretty likely”
A concept supported by glowy magic stuff in panel 5.
I might be wrong, maybe it’s clouds or an unusual color palette choice, but it sure looks like magic to me.
I don’t know about how things work exactly on Palindra, but I kind of recall hearing on multiple airline flights that we’d reached a stable cruising altitude of 20,000 feet. At that height, it takes roughly 110 seconds to reach whatever point that was measured from. I do seem to recall that’s a height above sea level, so if they were on a planet like Earth, and in a habitable area, that might mean a mere 18,000 feet above ground, but that still could give 99 seconds to have the discussion entirely in the air.
That said, I’d guess their conversation would probably happen at reduced speed if they’re distracted by buffeting winds. Also, most ever’one I’ve met who talked anythin like Ol’ Tom here talks at least a bit slow-like, like me. (I don’t talk like this lessen I really want to, but I’m cursed with an uncooperative mouth, so I can’t really talk as fast as I’d like. It takes me a full minute to read through panel 5 – 70 seconds if you add the last panel of the prior page, though that was probably said before they got up to terminal velocity.
Another thought, which admittedly comes from somebody who only ever skydives in his dreams (and plans to keep it that way – at least in part due to the nature of those dreams)… I find that my hearing is bothered less by the wind around me if my back is to the wind, kind of like Tom was for this page. That might increase the chances of him being able to hear Nathan without the assistance of magic from about 1.5 welk’s chance in a supernova to maybe around 4. That said, I’m not sure that 4 welks stand a significantly better chance of at least one of them surviving a super nova than a single welk on its own.
Ah, so it isn’t a normal crowbar.
Or he really likes THAT crowbar.
Honestly, I think it would survive. Unless the missile actually hit the crowbar (flew in through the door Nathan just opened!?!) it would just be another lump if solid steel for the blast wave to push around. Targeted CROWBAR assassination???
It’s been suggested before that it’s an enchanted crowbar. A magic item disguised as a common everyday object would fit Tom’s approach.
I wondered when he crushed Atter’s bug on Aaron’s coat if that crowbar wasn’t enhanced.
I can tell you though, in this universe? Toting around a crowbar? Not inconspicuous. Looking homeless? Doesn’t make it better.
I get a feeling it was an attempt to create another Ka’vil that was… marginally successful, but didn’t get the whole writing to Eidos trick.
I had just assumed that it was the Cold Steel and Magic quandary that the elves supposedly run into. Or at least that might be with Dave was going for with the crowbar. The fact that magic can impell multiple other metal objects kind of puts a block on that but maybe it’s a specialty forged crowbar I don’t know.
Sometimes it’s less about blending in, and more about exactly how you’re not inconspicuous. Tom walking around looking like a homeless bum with a crowbar does draw a bit of attention, but I doubt much of that attention is going to be thinking, “This guy looks like I’d expect a lackey of the Warden of Ervon to look like. I think I can take him, and it’ll make tangling with th’ ol’ warden a mite easier.”
Instead, it’s going to attract the attention of all of the law enforcement types, so he’s more likely to be able to find one near if somebody comes after him. “Well, I wasn’t here to protect you, but since you’re not actually breaking and entering or vandalizing something like I’d expected you’d be doing, I suppose I can do my other job of protecting citizens…”