Comic for Monday, March 2nd, 2020
At long last I present to you… a comic! Proof that I’m not dead! Yet!
I may have forgotten how to draw… took awhile to relearn this much. Not sure I’ll be able to draw action scenes anymore… guess we’ll find out soon. … Does that count as a spoiler??
Arkady may have acquired some demons that aren’t the red construct type with too many arms. To be fair, seeing the result of Ila rampaging through various things isn’t really easy on the stomach in general, given that her main tactics are various forms of “blast to bits” and “blast to smaller bits”. Most of the characters in the comic are… not normal people. Arkady hardly qualifies as normal either, but he might be better adjusted than most of them.
Brave is not the word Arkady was going to use originally, but he decided that sounded better…
Not going to make any promises, but so far March looks decent for update schedule. Not going to go twice a week until we have a buffer though, so I’ll focus on a buffer first if I can get ahead of the post schedule. It sounds like I’ll have another week of travel for work coming up unless I get virus’d in, so we’ll see how that goes.
Appreciate the patience and sorry about the long wait!
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I haven’t noticed any grammatical corrections lately or other sorts, either. On the off chance that you are still interested in such (though I think we all prefer more comics to fixes of old ones):
Panel 4: “You had to have *had* a rough day.”
I believe both the words Past used and the words you feel he should have used can work well here. The option you’re suggesting may be more formally correct, but I’ve heard a lot of people speaking like Arkady did above.
Personally, I dislike the repetition of “had to have had”. It’s jarring. It’s that that extra ‘had’ when I’ve just said ‘had’ feels a lot like I’ve forgotten what I’m saying and I’m saying it over again. Speaking of structures I really hate to say, there’s another one I just used that really bothers me. Yeah, that ‘that’ that I used two sentences ago. Normally, I try to eliminate “that”s in my speech whenever it seems possible. I merely used it in this response as much as I did to express as much as possible how bothersome it is.
However, I really can’t, because this is all typed speech, and the place it bothers me most is when I’m talking. Especially if I’ve just said “that”, and I know there were two or three of them in a row in the sentence I was saying but I can’t remember if I just said the first or the second, and before long I’m worried that that ‘that’ that that ‘that’ that will cause me to repeat it just a bit too much.
This is of particular problem for me, because my mouth is not nearly as agile as it feels like it should be. My mind tends to work quicker than those around me, but my mouth slower, so my thoughts are already darting around as I’m speaking. They can’t dart too far or I’ll bite some part of my mouth or other – I probably do this at least once a month, even though I try to be attentive about it. And it’s all just a mess.
If he meant to say that one of her requirements of her day was that it would be hard, then yes, it works.
But if he means that given the circumstances her day must have been pretty hard, then it needs the awkward forumulation with the 2nd “had” in it. And the implication of the next day is that given her bloody jacket the day must have been quite difficult.
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I am reminded reading your note of the English lesson I got on how to punctuate “That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is”
That that was considered a worthwhile lesson remains a puzzlement to me. Then again, “I am I” has always bothered me, even when it turned out to be Don Quixote!
Thanks for figuring out the exact semantic implications. I had a gut feeling it was something like that, but my conscious grammar -> semantics processor has been on strike a bit lately.
Both meanings apply here, really, so it works either way. It’s war out there, and the requirements of every able-bodied mage of heroic disposition include having hard days right now.
I get the feeling that using magic tends to make you crazy after a while, and Naomi and Kallisto use Peter to help them keep grounded and keep them from punching and smashing the wrong people. Naomi states in http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-wednesday-december-16th/ that her kind of planning would probably reduce everything to flaming ruins. Kallisto mentions similar issues in http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-thursday-october-18th-2018/ and http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-november-4th-2019/ feels that without rules, she would be so afraid of the outcome that she would be paralyzed. She also liked the fact that when working with Peter, she brought people in alive most of the time and didn’t hurt innocent people.
In http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-tuesday-june-4th-2019/ , Sophie mentions that a real fight with real danger would be some read fun. That’s what happens when you don’t have someone you can trust keeping you grounded.
And if you are depending on Peter to be the voice sanity, you really need help.
I do not know it is using magic that makes people crazy, I think it is more what magic is used for.
I would also disagree with lumping Naomi into the same group. She would reduce everything to flaming ruins because she is bad at planning, not because she is necessarily crazy. She would just start punching the bad people, and but is sane enough realize that her way of doing things would end in flaming ruins, because basically her only solution to stuff is punch it harder. This is less because she is stupid, and more because she is impulsive and reactionary (and does seem to like fighting a bit too much).
Kally, Sophie, and some of the others are legitimately a little fucked up in the head, but I feel that is a side effect of their life, which is related to the ability, but not caused by it.
Kally seems to be effectively a child soldier, and from my understanding of the timeline was raised immediately after the Incursion, or even during it, with for the purpose of being a weapon of near mass destruction.
Sophie has some things going on, but at very least fought in the Incursion. Several people mention that basically no one that fought it in is entirely sane, which makes sense. It is a war that devastated a planet after all.
I think that is even the source of Peter’s “insanity”. For him, compared to another Incursion war, anything else is a drop in the bucket of atrocity. Scouring a country to prevent an Incursion would be hundreds of times better than letting another one happen, but like Naomi he is also just sane enough to realize that he cannot operate that way.
Peter and Naomi have interlocked sanity in that way, in that they have the opposite flaw. Peter has cold, likely utilitarian calculation. Naomi has impulsive deontological stubbornness. I suspect the reason the coexist in that state is because at least Peter realizes that for Mium to operate in a way beneficial to humans, he needs both influences. Those that have read a long time will know that author wrote most the story as (or shortly after being) a Philosophy major in college, so the fact the major characters represent philosophic ideals in that sort of duality becomes a bit more obvious when you think about it in that context.
I think there is a relationship between powerful magic and people being insane, but I think it has more to do with people with powerful magic are essentially living weapons that in most cases have probably killed a lot of people. Rovak, for example, is completely insane, but likely because of what he has done and lived through, not necessarily because he uses magic.
A sort of counter example to magic = insanity would be Miko, who is definitely not the most well adjusted member of the cast, and doesn’t really use magic, compared to Arkady and Tyler who are both powerful mages are pretty sane.
I would go a step further and say that it isn’t even using “magic” specifically or what you use it for that makes you crazy, more that pushing oneself so singlemindedly toward any pursuit to the exclusion of any and every other pursuit (especially depending on the strenuousness of it) is what drives people a little crazy. Olimpic athletes, especially of the more specalized fields, are one example of people who are very often a bit … off. Not take a person and turn them into a living computer for complex spell formula to bend the very fabric of reality (with the requisite risks and the family pressure that they have) and it would be more surprising if the top mages were’t a bit odd in the head. Tyler, and most of the family mages for that matter, are actually more normal than they have any right to be.
Looking at this aspect of stuff… in Tyler’s defense, his signature ability is one for which he has a BSP to handle for him, so it shouldn’t be nearly as mind warping as you might think.
Regarding others we’ve seen being surprisingly normal: Arkvalt seems to be around my age, give or take. When I was younger, I really couldn’t pass for normal, as I didn’t have the time spent interacting with people that most people my age had.
On the other hand, I’m pretty certain I had something over the 10,000 hours that Bill Gates stated people need to be an expert at something spent on working with computers when I graduated from high school, which gives one a partial understanding of where I spent all my time.
(It’s my guess that most kids of that age had spent well in excess of 10,000 hours socializing. And I probably had not. Most of the time I spent socializing was with people who were also not your normal sorts.)
So, basically, it feels to me like some of these people may have learned how to be normal enough after decades of their other studies distracting them somewhat from regular things, like me. (Just to be clear: I don’t try to pretend to be normal here.)
Just speaking on a personal note here… none of my demons appear to be of the red construct variety, but a few of them have way too many arms. Just saying, so you know.
Hmm. I have to agree with you for the most part, especially the part about the arms. But mine sometimes, are a burnt umber, not really the red ochre we see in the story here…
Not sure about that description. Didn’t Mr Zombie say the brother wouldn’t have left such large pieces? 🙂
But yeah. Ila seems to have little or no regard for human life (although Mym apparently still has some restraint in that regard, along with an insistence that they aren’t using military hardware of any description)
The description says that Ila can both do “blast to bits” and “blast to smaller bits”. She apparently just chose the former option with the Kardus. This seems reasonable to me. It was only a Kardus, after all.
My issue with the description is a bit different. “Most of the characters are … not normal people.”
Definitely not normal: Peter, Naomi, Miko, Ila, Mium, Arron, Kyle, Kally, Dragon, Miranda, Tyler, F5, Gate, Hadrian, Atter, Saraine, Ashvalt, Marc, Gelon, Joid, Camilla, Magnolia, Nathan, Mione, Kardus, Rovak, Jayce, Sophie, Acalia, Elizabeth, Tamara, Tom, Biana, Maia, Kahlek, Eliana, Saldur, Arkady, Ashian, Elmon, Regin, Ricci.
Possibly not normal: The Consul, Ryn, Nick, Nelson, Saria, Marc, Kurun, Emmi, Tokiwa, Dendrin, Lisa, Amy, Ashley, Varkim, Iki, Don, Mika, Holmgren, Karov, Toshe, Marigold, Renna, Minerva, Kon, Dan, Evan, Antar, Vim, Sparrow, Volkov, Vinstin.
That’s certainly a lot of characters there, but that’s only 74 and I’m tracking 157. And there’s a bunch of characters I’m not tracking. Like the crazy Orish swordswoman in chapter 6. I’ve not gotten to her yet. I mean, if she had a *name* and I knew it, I’d have her listed by now, but unknowns get a number by order of appearance, and there’s *so* many unknowns from where I’ve gotten in counting unknowns to where she is, I can’t even really guess what her number will end up being.
I suppose I just don’t know what normal is. I mean, really, who does?
I’m not convinced. I’m pretty sure a lot of this comic was done a while ago. You could be dead a week ago, and someone is posting this and pretending your still alive.
Poor Arkady, a normal, well adjusted, person in a cast full of crazy people.
Having such outlandish thoughts as “maybe a kid shouldn’t be mass murdering enemy soldiers” and “holy shit being almost killed and then watching a bunch of people get massacred is scary” and “what the fuck is happening”.
Naomi doesn’t seem to kill people, but is also didn’t really bat an eye when ripping someone’s arm off. Mium, Peter, and Ila have about as much empathy as the average house cat.
I’m with you, Kevin. Except for where you insulted the empathy of house cats.
Arkady able to be in that mental condition helps to showcase the state of Malsa. It really has been a long quiet spell for the mage families, and all of Malsa. The last set of wars happened when Camilla was a child, and Arkady even younger. Malsa now has family mages who, despite their power, have zero combat experience.
Well, this morning they did. Most of those mages are now dead or had their first contact.
Malsa still has plenty of family mages who have zero combat experience.
None of them are registered mages, but they’re still Family.
I otherwise agree with you. At this point, most of their registered family mages (and registered non-family mages) have had some combat experience. It’s probable that some of those have had combat experience of the personally fatal variety. I mean, I’m sure Arpon didn’t just send one Kardus and nothing else to defend their extremely expensive walky tanks. Rovak almost certainly got at least one kill. Acalia is probably too busy laying in a hospital bed right now to have done so. I’m uncertain of whether Mika would’ve been acting independently, or if she and Don would’ve been with Rovak. They probably have other mages at their disposal, most of them mercenaries.
I will point out that Acalia technically is a Malsan family mage, as showcased by Weber’s showing up to the Family Council, who has had combat experience. She probably is in the bin of ‘Wanting less combat experience’ though. Then again fighting Naomi (or anyone in her tier) tends to do that.
So what I’m getting is that you’re completely at ease with the insult to feline empathy?
I happen to have a couple of feline overlords, so I’m quite familiar with cats. But I’m uncertain of what this feline empathy you speak of is.
Please understand that I’m not trying to say that they don’t *have* any, just that what you seem to think it is and what I seem to think it is are clearly two very different things.
Well, I don’t know about Naomi, but the way I manage to go around acting like I’m not always expecting someone to jump out and mug me and not expecting every police officer to arrest me for breaking some law I’d never heard of (and not expecting maybe 10 percent of the people I see to turn out to be plainclothes police officers) is, well, acting.
I’ve been told it’s rare for people to mug somebody who talks to them first. Supposedly, they like to be able to make an assessment of their target before they approach. That having been said, somebody who is visibly jumpy and nervous and looking all around, especially if they’re doing it too quickly to really look where they’re glancing, is considered a much better than average target.
Armed with this information, I generally walk quickly enough that I’ll probably be gone before whomever makes their careful assessment. I talk to people. I nod towards police officers and give them all the respect I can without engaging them. And over time, I’ve started to get the feeling that just maybe my luck might continue.
For what it’s worth, I’m not a minority where I live or poor. I haven’t ever actually been mugged. I just have a lot of bad dreams. I believe dream trauma tends to wear much less on a person less than those same experiences would if experienced in ones waking life. But that said it’s still trauma, and while people normally forget their dreams and nightmares, what you don’t remember can still hurt you. Quite a few of my dreams have really messed me up until I’ve had them enough times I can write them down and think about them properly while awake.
I suspect that we don’t want to even hear what Camilla’s nightmares are like.
Naomi, on the other hand, doesn’t strike me as somebody who’s been overly scarred. She either buries her trauma so deep it doesn’t show, or she’s so busy being her she’s oblivious to the seriousness of everything. I mean, not totally – she gets what death is and doesn’t want it to happen to her friends, but she’s only a few steps removed from playing the game on god mode. So long as she’s not too imaginative, she can do basically whatever she wants. More or less Superman v1. So the stakes aren’t as serious for her as they are for others.
Arkady, on the other hand, has to live up to being the son of a badass. Specifically, one who seems to be a badass mostly so he can avoid answering the tough questions, so he’s not able to explain to his son how to be a badass. Especially since the first step of doing so is admitting that he has fear that he can harness.
I think you and I would get along famously if we lived in the same area, TGape.
I’m a little shaky on the ‘talk first’ thing, sounds a bit like wishful thinking to me. But if it works for you, keep rolling with it.
Being aware of what is going on around you, and who is about, is just good precaution. With practice you learn to spot the carnivores, the sheep dogs that we call police as well as the wolves that are criminals. And as you stated, looking less like a yearling lamb and more like a seasoned, wary herd leader can’t hurt.
In my case I derive significant comfort from also being the (usually) most heavily armed in the room. I’ll guess from your posts that you are 1. living in an area where that is not a readily available option and 2. not particularly appealing to you.
The official term for what you are talking about is “situational awareness.” Practicing it will keep you alive and reasonably well.
Situational awareness is useful, but it’s best if you get it without making yourself look like a target.
Talking first is easy with anyone who might be going to mug you, if you manage to spot them before they size you up, because it takes a few moments to properly size someone up, during which time they’re not wanting to draw attention to themselves. It might seem like it’d be really problematic for me, because you might think I’d open with a long speech. But this is just speech to communicate I’ve seen them, so it’s mostly just, “Hey.”
I’ve been in places where looking like a seasoned, wary herd leader can absolutely hurt. Unless you’re into that sort of thing, you might want just a smidge less of a swagger, because if you look like you might think you’re the toughest guy on the block, the toughest guy on the block may decide to test that theory. Depending on how crazy they are (they’re human, so they’re at least some crazy), there may not be an ouch-free way out of that.
My flatmate’s arms are twice the mass of mine, so it’s definitely not available. Or if you’re talking about the kind of arms one tends to not be born with, it’s generally not a good option, because you pretty much have to have a badge to do that without being harassed, and then you need to harass others. Also, I’d shoot my toes. (The one time I fired a real bow, I did *admittedly* get a bullseye, but it wasn’t the target directly in front of me, so it probably doesn’t count.)
I commute on the DC Metro 45 minutes each way, through some “good” neighborhoods and some “not so good” neighborhoods. My outward presentation throughout the trip is varying degrees of crazy. if the rest of the riders think you’re nuts, they will leave you alone.
If I had a 45 minute commute through the DC area on a daily basis, my crazy would not be an act. Go in peace friend!
Hey, it beats driving. I get to work in a way better frame of mind. Also can read, sleep, check email, text, etc. “Commuting” to Fairbanks tomorrow. Not crazy about flying amid the medical issues, but it is not work that can be done remotely. I will post pics if I can figure out how to do so. Suppose I could just paste into the comment window.