Comic for Monday, March 21st, 2022
Mar21
on March 21, 2022
at 9:03 am
While Naomi is likely telling her sister to stay close to Lisa for to keep her sister safe in a way that feels like she’s giving her an important task, from Naomi’s point of view Lisa probably is a coward that gets scared easily. Of course, that’s the point of view of someone that probably doesn’t bat an eye skydiving into a volcano, so she probably views most sane people as cowards that get scared easily.
Naomi involving Ila is probably somewhat irresponsible, but Naomi isn’t really known for responsibility. Of course, irresponsible in the sense that she’s placing the mall in danger, more so than Ila.
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so the comic’s not gonna be posted? I mean, it’s Saturday and there’s still no update.
Such a gentle, sensitive inquiry of our host!
“The page is coming. When is still a little up in the air…”
In your shoes, I would simply wait until the usual time for the next one to come out to look again, rather than checking between now and then.
Never going to happen. I will continue to compulsively check every 30 minutes. Or less.
It’s a rough job, but someone has to do it!
Or…. do they? There’s an RSS feed for the site. If I post the link, this post will likely get filtered. I’ll post immediately after this with the link. That way you KNOW the RSS feed exists (and there’s probably an app for your phone that will watch that feed and alert you) and if we get lucky I’ll also be able to post the link.
RSS feed!
https://pastutopia.com/feed/
Probably Monday unless Past’s real life is still interfering with his free work entertaining us/we undeserving peons, thralls and minions.
While you are waiting, you can check out the Las Vegas booky odds of Armor Guy’s demise in the next comic. The odds are somewhat evenly spread that Naomi rips off an arm, ILA rips off an arm, ILA and Naomi rip both arms off, Fluffy bites off an arm, Fluffy stomps him, Ashvalt cuts off arm and head or ILA launches a hyper velocity jelly bean through the boost engine on his chest. Low probability is Mium appears and does a de-res on his suit and he surrenders.
No lie. I’m kind of liking the hyper velocity jelly bean option.
The only problem forseen with hyper velocity jelly beans is that ILA might not want to waste tasty food. Hopefully, Artem and mini-Naomi each bring her a bag full.
Page will probably be Monday at this point. Sorry the schedule is getting a bit floaty and unreliable. It’s been an odd week with plenty of things to deal with.
I am not finding the even weeks much better to deal with than the odd ones, personally speaking. Perhaps they are different in your life!
I’ve been working on the assumption that whether this was going to slip a whole week or “only” much of the week that we were not going to get *two* comics and therefore I would be thrilled to get the one.
I would far rather that you take the time you need to deal with odd weeks and too much to do than that you try to cram the story in in ways that make it less pleasureful for you, Past! Too many unhappy comics writers out there already, stepping away from what had previously been a labor of love for them.
It’s great stuff and we are privileged to get to read/see it – and sure, more is better, but more overall is better than more now and less overall.
Thank you for your work.
I personally find the odd weeks to be distinctively different from the even weeks. I’m not sure that one is easier than the other, but they are VERY different for me. Honestly I’m not sure which is the odd and which the even, but my life comes in distinct 14 day periods, not 7 day periods.
I debated whether to share the next part publicly. I joke a lot, especial about pitchforks and torches. But I also know just how hard it is to do something you love, but doesn’t pay the bills, and do it consistently and regularly. For me, this chapter has felt a lot like getting a weekly comic, but two weeks at a time. Past has been giving more or less a 3 panel comic, two together, every other week. Maybe others see it differently.
I think at least those who post all agree that we welcome it. Why else would we be here, yes? I’ve got better things to do than heckle some poor guy, regardless of what his home dimension is. (And I did notice that in all that detail about Malsa/Palindra in the comics, there was still no useful details for building a transdimensional travel device. Is that an unadvertised Patreon level???)
Sorry, I lost my train of thought. It’s that barn rebuilt yet?
The page is coming. When is still a little up in the air, but it’s definitely going to be a little late, but I’ve been working on it when I get a chance.
Take your time and don’t feel rushed. The pitchfork and torch bearers still haven’t re-built the barn. And then there is the after barn-building social and dance. The minions have also been convinced that they need to learn how to march. Gomer Pyle has been volunteered for drill instructor duty so the results should be interesting.
That’s it. Lure him into a false sense of security…. I mean… (channeling the spirit of Clint Laidlaw) Hi there!
You may have already concluded this, but on the chance that you have not…
I would like to suggest that you shift to planning on a comic for Monday rather than trying to get it in before that.
It’s not that I wouldn’t love to see one sooner, but I would prefer you not fry yourself trying to get this out before then.
I blame it on Jim. He’s all like “take your time”, etc etc.
Back in the good old days, if you wanted guaranteed access to the fruits of someone else’s labor, without paying them for it, you’d just kidnap them. Steven King’s Misery.
Apparently they’ve got laws against that sort of thing now.
Don’t tell Past, but he’s pretty cool to just give this stuff away.
I’ll gladly accept the blame. I’m using a devil’s advocate strategy. Trying to convince Past to send out $0.00 rebates for the late comics.
Seriously, real life takes precedence over internet … even though my internet addiction says otherwise.
I like where your mind is at! I could use one of those checks!
I mean it’ll probably get me arrested, but it’ll be a fun ride!
Nobody has mentioned Lisa, Naomi’s friend from Levenworth. What, if any, are her powers?
Naomi said (a long time ago, I think during the last shopping trip) that Lisa probably worked for the Malsan government or bureau in some form. I think she is a designer kid, so not a member of the families. She is probably a mage, but probably not on the level of Arkady, let alone Naomi.
I am pretty sure we haven’t seen her do anything yet, so this is pure speculation. Given Naomi asked her sister to stay close to Lisa, I’m going to speculate Lisa is at least strong enough that Naomi thinks she’d be able to keep her sister safe.
The more we analyze the coming conflict, the more we realize just how stupid the Malsan Rogue Families “Men in Black” are. Already on scene are Naomi, ILA, Arkady and Lisa. Possible arrivals are Mium, Peter/Kally and Ashvalt’s security team. Will Fluffy finally get to eat a Black Suit? LOL It would be really cool if Artem and Avi expressed their mage power and slammed a few baddies. The Rogues have already lost some mages including a Family head. Several black suits were punched through walls, stomped on by a red dragon and forced to hold their own gun to their head. Some people never learn. The Malsan gene pool is about to be improved by some more Darwin Awards.
We don’t know anything about Avi and very little about Lisa. It is possible that Naomi asked Avi to stick close to Lisa so that Avi could protect Lisa. Or so Lisa might be able to rein Avi in and minimize collateral damage.
Just a random thought while waiting for the next comic …. It would be cool if Avi turns out to be a mini-Naomi and punches a few black suits. Even cooler if Avi can punch harder and is ILA’s “updated model”. If Artem is an improved model of Arkady he just won’t get beat up as bad. LOL
One of my favorite times of the week!
I think there’s an Q&A session in the works as well? Maybe that’s this week!
Purple hair, purple eyes, definitely a designer child. Was there enough time between Naomi and Avi? Was Naomi a late bloomer? Did they double down on the designer magic trying to get a family grade child? Are they now a little fearful of what Avi will become as she grows into her powers? Are they about to get some insight into that??
Inquiring minds want to know!
I can’t recall any comic explaining when Malsan mages develop their powers. Is it at puberty? Can it be triggered by a traumatic event? Do similar powers run in families?
Typically speaking people cannot use complicated magic until they are in their late teens to young adult, but there are exceptions, based on training and talent, and younger people can use simpler magic sometimes (particularly based on talent and training).
Natural mages that can use complicated magic early in their life tend to become somewhat more powerful at that magic, if tend to be unbalanced, becoming somewhat more akin to innate mages. Kally is a good example of that, where her dragon summoning skill is more akin to an innate ability for the better and the worse, despite her not being an innate mage (just a natural mage, who if she’d learned magic more gradually and later would probably not possess such an overwhelming power with the dragon, but would probably a more well rounded skill set).
Innate Mages are sometimes an exception, sometimes not. It’s rare they can use their full power from a young age, but not impossible. Camillia was able to use a great deal of her power from a young age, which is part of why she has a somewhat terrifying reputation, but that wouldn’t be typical.
It is more typical among the Families, though still atypical. There is a reason that most people assume Ila is from the Families as soon as they see someone that looks like a kid using powerful magic, though obviously her case is a bit unique, as while she has far more human tendencies than Mium, her ability isn’t natural in any sense of the word.
It’s pretty likely that people like Artem and Avi could use limited magic, but it would be an exception to the rule if they could do anything more than pretty basic things unless they were innate mages, and even then would be unlikely to be nearly as powerful as a full grown innate mage.
I’d say it’s sort of like chess, math, or anything else that requires a combination of training and somewhat abstract rational, but with some added bits due to the less tangible parts of using magic. There are rare exceptions that drastically surpass expectations, sometimes at the the cost of their other skills to some degrees. They are good bit more common with magic, because vast resources are invested into making and finding good mages, given they are one of the most important elements of most things.
Most societies wouldn’t really try to train to train people too young, but it’s been referenced that the IDS in the wake of the Incursion did that, and the Families (particularly some of them) have earned some of their reputation, not to mention Orish Warmages and the like.
That said, it’s not only people that were trained in magic too early that turn out powerful, and people that train at a more gradual pace may develop their powers in a more balanced and complete manner.
Powers sometimes run in families, but there’s a few reasons for that. Innate powers aren’t reliably passed down, but probably are influenced by it. More often it has to do with the techniques taught by Families or groups.
The answer to almost everything is some degree of “it depends” which I know isn’t a perfect answer. The people that make Designer Children are certainly trying to isolate and narrow down the variables, but they while they seem to have developed a higher hit rate and tendency, it’s far from an exact science, and the Families have been at a lot longer with even more mixed results.
By far the most common Innate Power is a booster like Naomi, though most aren’t on her level, or at least she seems to be able to keep ramping up way beyond what most boosters can do. The basic package is pretty common, and can even be imitated by some natural mages and magical devices (like the IDS power armor, or the bracers/bracelets some mages wear). Other innate powers are more scattershot, as the mechanics behind powers are pretty complicated even when they end up working.
Some talents, like Pathfinders or Teleporters are sort of holy grail talents that people have been trying to hit for a long time, but the problem with things like that is that even if a Family succeeds, they are extremely unlikely to tell anyone, because its a power that’s vastly more useful if other people don’t you know can do it (and it seems like they’ve gotten some success there, from what we’ve seen).
There are other powers that are generally not widely understood in how they work – Arron might now how Ellipses actually works, but for a similar reason he’d be exceedingly unlikely to explain it. It’s also not clear yet if its an innate talent or not, because its own of those talents that is typically not advertised.
Null Casters are another case where they are typically innate capable of it, though magic devices and natural mages can imitate it. Technically speaking, Mium is just imitating it, but his imitation is probably better than any natural Null Caster’s actual ability, to the point where it defies what most mages would consider the nature of the ability (being able to nullify actual matter isn’t something a normal Null Caster can do, to the point where it wouldn’t really make sense to them – part of why they cannot do it).
…anyway, that’s a long night time digression, hopefully it entertains some folks checking for a comic and not finding one 😀
Past,
Thank you very much for info on the nature of magic and mage development. I didn’t expect such a thorough explanation and your post is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for that.
But the statement that the Doll of Destruction, the mere mention of which is enough to terrify entire armies, has gotten STRONGER since then, is all sorts of scary…
Yes, this is very entertaining to this checker-for-comic!
I teach a course on how to build a magic system and my students enjoy the explorations of how others have constructed theirs. Your discussions on the topic will enthrall many, I am sure!
Rocking!
That makes more sense than how I read it. I was thinking of the person in the armor being able to swamp (overwhelm) a tin can that was part of our favorite group. Human language is funny like that, where it is often ambiguous what is doing what to what, an idea that Mium would clearly share.
Of course, if “that kid” is Arkady’s brother, I could see Kallisto and Camilla also joining in. (Kallisto because she would feel that people trying to kidnap the brother after she talked to the attackers were showing severe suicidal tendencies and ticking her off, and Camilla because they are going after Arkady.)
Look if Kally has a chance to get involved they are more prepared than I thought, and still incredibly foolish. Like I can’t see a way this plan doesn’t end badly, given the sheer number of powerhouses who could care about this, and who would be opposed to it, when combined with M.Y.M. essentially having access to every phone equivalent in at least Malsa.
“That kid” is Arkady’s brother Artem. Meddlesome SOB is Peter. Armor guy has a very good idea of what they could be facing and is not growing a conscience as black suit says in panel 2.
It always seems Naomi mostly just goes with the flow, responding to circumstances. I think this is the most tactical planning we’ve seen from her. This just makes her more formidable. Tactically capable, yet so powerful she usually hardly needs it. Applied here to ensure the others are protected.
Go Naomi! She is showing a side of her personality we wouldn’t normally see. Her usual method is to jump in and punch bad people. If that fails, she grins and punches harder. We have had a few hints that Naomi isn’t as quite challenged as she seems.
Fair enough. its not that she can’t, she just doesn’t usually see any benefit when just punching harder works well enough. Given the once it didn’t, she ripped off one of the limbs of an Atter Murderbot and stabbed it with that, I don’t think she is actually /wrong/…..
When they mention “tin can”, are they referring to Ila? I’m not sure that Fluffy would swamp Ila, although Fluffy would have a much better chance of inconveniencing Ila.
In addition, having Mium as overwatch means that a large number of very powerful individuals can be send there very quickly, including Fluffy.
Tin can refers to the power armor he’s wearing
Nah, at least by my reading, “tin can” refers to the armor and “swamp” refers to putting too much sweat into it that it turns swampy.
Last panel reads:
… so I need to stay close to her.
I think it should read:
… so I need YOU to stay close to her.
This makes the rest of that panel make sense.
My count of dangerous people in this group: Naomi, Ila, and Arkady. And they’re probably not super-prepared for either Naomi’s or Ila’s skillsets; Arkady is the only one who’s anything like a normal mage.
Naomi, Ila, and the statistical error 😀
Don’t get me wrong, under normal circumstances Arkady would probably seem pretty threatening. but these clearly aren’t normal circumstances.
They seem confidant with a bit of baiting they can handle Naomi. Is that confidence justified? We’ll have to wait and see, but I assume they have a plan.
They weren’t able to handle Naomi in the first kidnapping attempt. Rogue families constantly have bad intel and believe their own propaganda. Their plan will succeed until they start to execute it. Then they will all be saying “oh sh*t!” before being punched through a wall, stomped by a dragon, taken out by a hyper-accelerated rock, etc.
Naomi did get wounded last time she fought the IDS, but they used a sniper. David has shown a fondness for snipers (as seen when he tried to kill the Consul), but Mium has his attention focused on this, so it’s unlikely to work. Ila might get to collect a new rifle though.
David also has a still alive Orish Warmage and some of those Orish soldiers. Between IDS Soldiers and those, that might be enough to at least tie down Naomi for awhile.
War Mages vs. Ila don’t have a good record though. Even if he has the “off” button like the last one did, all that would really do is
piss offinconvenience her brother (if it even worked anymore), which has a way of being fatal even if he cannot directly kill people.It wouldn’t work any more. We know the reason Mym couldn’t remotely restart Ila after she went into low power mode was because remote access had been cut off, specifically to block The Button. And of course given said warmage was found in large(ish) but mushy pieces, you would presume The Button was deemed a failure and wouldn’t be used in future scenarios…
As always, rouge families “intel” is extremely weak. They haven’t even considered ILA. Huge mistake since she is probably the most powerful “person” in the shopping group. There is a hint several comics ago that Ashvalt may have a security team around. Mium tipped ILA off to the “annoying people with guns” and I imagine he has informed others including Peter and his Red Dragon girlfriend. Get some popcorn and we’ll watch the videos of this black suit disaster unfold.
They would have little way of knowing about Ila. The people she has curb stomped so far are above the Rogue family’s pay grade (a Warmage from Orin, an entire squad of soldiers from a Arpon, an IDS monster hunter, Rovak Stas) that it wouldn’t have trickled down to them.
The only one that would have an idea is Saldur’s Family, but there may not be enough of them left to speak. Anyone left alive probably high tailed it right out of dodge.
David and his group might be able to handle Naomi, or at least keep her busy. But I don’t see them handling Ila. Naomi drags her fights out because she tries not to kill people. Ila does not, and I doubt those suits can tank a railgun shot.
Worse yet, Ila has already proven she’s perfectly happy to wipe out a squad of morons to keep Arkady safe. The last batch were fully equipped soldiers and stood no real chance vs. her.
David anticipates a “black suit disaster,” as far as I can tell. He’s hoping (expecting, I suppose) that how that plays out will allow him to kidnap the kid.
It’s the post-black suit disaster disaster that he has not anticipated –> and his worst case scenario works out just like the last one did. If he *succeeds* in kidnapping the boy, the amount of damage to him and his that will follow will be monumental.
I think he’s actually better off failing.
That’s only fair enough though. Ila doesn’t believe in leaving survivors, so by definition, doesn’t leave witnesses either. After she captured a shuttle, the opfor thought a loyal family mage, possibly a clone of Camilla had done the deed, and discounted the intel on her being able to fly.
In non-lethal encounters, she has has been pretty restrained (so, while rescuing kally for example) which of course is WHY those were non-lethal encounters, so a bit of survivor bias has crept in.
Naomi, by contrast, has always had, and demonstrated, such a power imbalance in her favour that her defeated opponents are seldom even seriously hurt, although ripping the arm off the teleporter demonstrated rather directly that THAT is a case of “doesn’t” not “can’t.”
Although the idea that they CAN just kill Naomi to get her out of the equation is optimistic at best, and likely to come unstitched VERY early on in their plans.
2nd panel, 1st bubble Reads: You’ve picked an awkward time to grown a conscious for a would be murderer.
I think it would be more Mium -esque to say: You’ve picked an awkward time to grow conscious, Would Be Murderer.
Of course Mium isn’t speaking, sooo…
Maybe, conscience? I don’t know.
Conscience, for sure.
Armor suit guy isn’t growing a conscience. It is his self preservation instinct kicking in.
I really do think the Man-in-the-tin-can is growing conscious of how undeveloped this plan is. Just like Rovak, it’s not so much a question of conscience, as a question of consequence: Is the pain worth the reward? But, unlike Rovak, “blowing stuff up” is not an acceptable reward for dying, as death may be more permanent in this case.
I do love how Naomi is absolutely correct in what tasks Ila considers easy and hard. Dealing with a large group of dangerous individuals, easy. Eating those energy dense snack bars, hard. To be fair, I’m pretty sure some soldiers have that option about rations and firefights.
The more I think about it,, This is a universe that could oh so easily be the perfect setting for a dark cyberpunk story. It has everything needed. Megacorps, genetic engineering, cybernetics, multiple shadowy cabals, AI that doesn’t go on murderous rampages only due to restrictions, a traumatized girl grown in a lab as a killing machine… I could go on.
Except the main cast is happy, exactly where they want to be, and they aren’t being used as washed out patsies. Past, if this was an RPG campaign, I’d say Naiomi’s party would be at least in the mid teens level wise. Hmm, given that one of them can summon a literall Dragon on command and is extremely powerful without that, I’m revising my numbers up. This comic is great because it basically starts with the main cast being epic level. You just don’t show it right away.
Plus of course there is the other aspect to this.
Ila had to eat one of her horrible mium-issued energy bars, they are in range, and it is THEIR FAULT….
Yes, those rogue black suits have no idea of the meat grinder they are jumping into. My favorite, cute homicidal maniac isn’t even mentioned in their so-called solid intel mentioned in panel 4. Maybe Naomi will get ILA a bag of jelly beans to eat and use for target practice. When asked to comment, my good friend Forrest Gump said “stupid is as stupid does”. LOL
Actually, I’m pretty sure this *is* the setting for at least one dark cyberpunk story. It’s just that we’re not following those people. Mostly. We might have some of them on the page here, but probably not.
If you pay attention to a lot of the dark cyberpunk stories, there are people within those stories who live the good life and are generally happy, like the main cast here. They just don’t follow the happy people.
Kally and Peter are definitely smurfing. Kally fairly easily beat one of the stronger leaders of a Family. The only people that are even close to their level are IDS Directors, Demons and Kor’s World. And even than, Kally fought a demon and Kor’s World soldier at the same time… and won.
Peter on the other hand seems to view taking over an entire country as not really worth the effort. The only times he’s seemed even slightly phased are by demons or Kor’s World, and he didn’t seem to view the demon as a serious threat to him, just a staggeringly bad judgement by the IDS to let it loose.
Peter and Kally in Minus Years were already sort of smurfing, and that was sort of the RPG campaign of them going around and solving crime. Peter has upgraded from Query to Mium since then, and is definitely in epic levels.
Oh dear, walking in thinking Naomi is the only thing you have to worry about.
Which I guess gets reflected in Naomi’s plan that the hard part is going to be Ila eating a not tasty snack.
It does seem to reflect poor intel; still, its not like Ila left anyone alive after the last time she went “full Naomi” and, well, when an amoral murderbot uses “full Naomi” as a reference scale, its not too surprising that they may have a bit of a hyperfocus problem…..
ILA is going to be in a really, really bad mood after eating a non-tasty snack(s). She already looks upset in the next to last panel.