Comic for Monday, May 23rd, 2022
See, it’s comic like this one that set a bad precedent of being “early” that get me in trouble with the definition of “posted on Monday”.
We’ve seen all the characters in the second half of the page before, they were working with David as part of the Consul-Whacking-Squad. We have not seen (I don’t believe) the characters in the first half, though it could be inferred they work in the Bureau . We saw earlier what they are referring to is that previously the Consul mobilized all the registered mages, family mages, and generally anyone else due to the war/situation with Arpon/The IDS/PACT, though that doesn’t mean they are all on the front line (we previously saw Ashvalt last time). Arkady is still on medical leave, in theory, though it seems likely they are intentionally keeping him somewhere they can sort of keep an eye on, as not everyone was thrilled about his last deployment to the battlefield (…including Arkady retroactively as he found himself less suited than he’d hoped, even if he’s a fairly powerful mage by any normal scale)
As is noted here… there’s still plenty of mages around (mostly Family mages) but not ones that the Bureau could call up and tell to go deal with it.
Stas is Rovak’s last name, it just comes up less than some. It should be noted that scarred Warmage isn’t Kardus, though I confess they look more alike than is intentional (Kardus is was taller, broader, and more blond, with slightly longer hair). They were the people David was brought to execute the Rogue families plan, but the Orish among them would have rather split loyalties.
Speech marked with <refers to central’s language> while speech marked with <||refers to Orish||>, I think that’s the same convention I’ve used before, though it’s used less then the other languages.
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comic’s taking Memorial Day off?
Past hasn’t posted an expected time. He still has over 15 hours of Monday on Midway Island and over 16 hours on Howland Island to make the post by end of Monday. It is 7:54AM on Monday, May 31, 2022 (GMT-12) on Howland Island.
However, it is 7:54AM on Tuesday, May 31, 2022 (GMT+12) on Tuvalu Island.
So, basically, the guys at the top half of this comic call Amy, Amy calls Peter, Peter calls Naomi, and now Team Peter can act in an official capacity.
Yes, I *am* aware that nobody on Team Peter at the mall is M.S.B.. I *am* aware that conscripting whomever is around and capable to be on the team is an idiotic sports trope (since I’ve never seen it done for any sport that would actually *allow* that to happen as disallowing impromptu ringers is generally added to a sport shortly after it’s organized at anything higher than a local level, if it somehow wasn’t added before that.) But I’m also aware that it’s commonly used in fictional works, so I don’t see why it can’t be used to embellish an alternate dimension non-fiction work that’s portrayed as fictional. 😉
Edit made after Anthony’s reply below:
It’s also possible that Peter will happen to be close enough he can go to deal with the situation along with a deputized Red Dragon Witch he happens to know from somewhere. That would actually be much more plausible, as police deputizing someone to assist them with an activity while said police is actively there to direct and monitor said assistance is something that has been legal from time to time in some jurisdictions.
From prior examples where ‘MSB’ was needed, I figure Amy + Tyler is a reasonable candidate.
Tyler’s not back in the M.S.B. quite yet if I’m not mistaken. Ditto for Mione.
Tyler is probably also not back to active duty in the military just yet. However, I recall a story of someone who was home on medical leave during one of the US’s wars prior to 1980 going to help out in some life-threatening situation.
If I’m recalling correctly, the soldier had a broken arm, and I think the situation was he went on a call with some firefighter friends of his. There were several people trapped inside, and given his injury, he grabbed the smallest one. They made it back out just after the press set up, so we get a lovely picture for the paper of a guy in a sling carrying a baby out of the burning building.
Locally, he’s a hero, but when his commanding officer finds out, he gets his ass chewed out for it because he’d only been sent home because they felt he was more likely to recover, not expecting him to pull some stunt that would net make him less likely to recover.
Sure, he *did* recover, but it was a big risk he took. Trained firefighters may have better survival rates than people recovering in MASH units, but that’s with the entire outfit. Some yahoo who can’t get the top on because his arm’s in a sling running into a burning building with just the pants on is at a greatly elevated risk. Also, a firefighter with only one working arm is at a greatly elevated risk.
Tyler was the MSB, and seemed to have carte blanche to recruit as he saw fit.
Peter now holds that position.
If someone solves the mall problem while under Peter’s orders, that person is MSB. If they already go to the school, GREAT! If not, I’m sure it will be discovered that they had in fact been accepted just last week. Thanks, Mium.
It’s more like the wild west deputizing a posse. That said, I doubt Peter would send Naomi to stop David and Rovak, as that would probably just turn a 2 way fight into a 3 way fight. Naomi could probably fight with them, but probably not stop them easily.
I doubt even more Peter would send Ila. Ila probably is strong enough to stop them, but Peter probably wants David alive, and sending Ila would be a bad way to accomplish that.
The more obvious candidates feel like Kally or Mium. Kally could suppress the fight fairly easily as probably not even Rovak is crazy enough to fight her. More likely is Mium, as chances are he was already on his way to meet with the others.
Mium being a null caster could probably stop the fight, but the only person he really needs to stop is Rovak, as David would probably stop fighting if Rovak wasn’t trying to kill him for fun. Rovak wasn’t scared of Mium last time, but might have been sobered up his last failure to hurt Mium, and the realization that Mium probably could kill him if he really wanted to.
Mium likely is part of the MSB at any point he feels like it. Given Mium has enough identities to be whoever he needs to be at the moment, I’m confident one of his identities is in the MSB, as he’s functionally Peter’s right hand, secretary, and everything else.
Sometimes, when someone calls the cops to a situation with two groups fighting, the best thing the cops can do is simply get the bystanders to safety. (Basically, when the people fighting are using sufficient ordinance to reduce the cop’s chances to survive interrupting the fight to unacceptable levels and the people fighting are sufficiently focused on each other that they’re unlikely to cause problems outside their immediate vicinity. This kind of situation is *far* more likely in fantasy than reality, since in reality, such a group would almost certainly be firing guns whose stray bullets could kill people thousands of feet away or on the other side of relatively thin walls. But here, the weapons used don’t have that kind of range.)
I think Peter’s primary motive for having someone deal with this situation would be to say, “The M.S.B. was called, we sent someone, bystanders didn’t get hurt, and the situation resolved.” Tyler was interested in arresting people and bringing them to justice. Peter’s more interested in managing situations towards having a good overall outcome.
So, if Peter were to deputize a posse here, either Naomi or Arkady would be in charge and the goal would be to not engage with the combatants at all. Peter almost certainly wants all of the parties to survive. Well, he might not care about Rovak Stas’ survival, but he certainly doesn’t want to invest the resources needed to prevent Rovak Stas’ survival.
Excellent, well said, and I agree!
I would like to suggest that Team Peter has leveraged Rovak Stas to good effect twice that we’ve seen. At this point Rovak seems like he is proving a useful tool that not only doesn’t require destruction, but maybe it’s even worth some small amount of effort towards preservation.
I don’t have the advantage of knowing Mium’s full predictions. It is possible that Rovak is headed for unacceptable territory. But what I’ve seen so far suggests that deliberately exterminating Rovak would be counter productive.
Quite. We have reason to believe Mium could have been much more lethal if he’d wanted to earlier and wasn’t restrained from being lethal. I think Mium’s restraint is mostly in the form of “educated enough to know why lacking restraint is a really bad idea.” In any event, Rovak is a relatively predictable fellow, so he’s a useful tool.
That said, if David *could* take Rovak out, whether or not it also requires his backup backing him up, I feel like he’d be unleashing enough force that Peter would have other objections beyond just “trying to end a useful tool’s existence.” So, yeah, team Peter’s trying for Rovak’s survival here, if they have any need to worry about that or not.
I’m not sure anyone on site has the resources to prevent Rovak Stas from surviving.
Like seriously, he puts good pay to his claim of being immortal.
Continuing my thought about ‘Ark Technology’ on the last page:
If the first glimmers of Ark technology show up on Palindra at the same time or shortly after Kor’s World starts invading Central, then there is circumstantial proof.
I find it entirely plausible that this ‘Ark’ was a refugee flight of some sort and KW came after it with fire and brimstone. The refugees get to Central via a natural gate point (Bridgepoint) and then make an artificial one to get to Palindra. Shortly after they arrive on Palindra KW arrives on Central and all hell breaks loose.
The only issue I have with that series of events is that Peter says KW is on the trail now. If they bombarded one world trying to exterminate the tech, why suddenly take a quieter, lower key approach?
One possibility is that Central had nukes and Palindra doesn’t. Maybe AI + red construct + nukes are worse? But then we’ve already stopped discussing refugees and Ark technology, haven’t we?
Either way my position regarding how we can get that information remains the same. It is unlikely to come from the story, as the characters likely to dialog/ monolog/exposition are unlikely to have that information.
We need to convince the Archivist to provide that information. Past?
Maybe the conflict in Central escalated because Central had not only the means to start an open war with Kor’s world but also did. So Peter reckons that as long as Palindra’s nations more or less ignore Kor’s world’s presence, the latter will confine themselves to a few surgical strikes with few casualties, in order to fulfill goals like destroying Bridgeport data copies. That would explain why he reacts so calm and why he told the Consul that there’s nothing to be done about them (if I remember correctly).
The bad guys are turning on each other. ILA should be glad since she can eat the tasty jelly beans instead of shooting bad guys. LOL!
Apparently Commander David doesn’t know what he’s up against, but goon #1 certainly does, and Orish goon #3 certainly should, yet they persist in being foolhardy….
Even at four to one odds, Rovak still has them outnumbered. ^^
You seem to be interpreting this page differently than me. My read of the last few panels here is that goon #1 recognized Rovak and switched targets, ordering *David* to stop and starts calculating. The other SC team member tells goon #1 to stop calculating. Goon #3 then draws her sword to tell the unknown SC team member to freeze… in a language they probably can’t understand. But where the sword’s pointing might be a language they get, if they’re aware of that detail.
So, it’s not quite a Mexican standoff, but Rovak’s question for David is suddenly much more pressing rather than less.
Not sure what foolhardy you think is going on. Given that Rovak was coming to retrieve Orish warmages, I suspect he has authority over goon #1 and goon #3, so most likely the ‘Stop’ in panel #8 was targeted at David, not Rovak (which is why #2 took offense).
I think my read is the same.
Goon #1 is an orish warmage (Thanks Past, until I read the commentary I thought Kardus did end up getting patched together, or reanimated). I’m not sure who the STOP is directed to, but I think he was trying to save David’s life.
Goon#2 is a null caster working for David, who moves to negate warmage goon #1, without really knowing what he’s casting.
Goon #3 is maybe just bored, and Goon #2 looks like maybe she can kill and claim it was a legitimate misunderstanding.
I think they’ve just broken down along lines of origins. Goon #1 is probably moving to help Rovak. Goon #2 is stopping him to help David. Goon #3 is stopping him to help Goon #1.
Goon #1 and #3 are Orish (Rovak had some of those working for him back at the break into Avon, and one tried to assassinate Tyler).
Goon #2 might be a null caster, but the only one we saw confirmed was wearing white armor instead of the normal blue. I would guess he’s just a normal IDS Soldier/Monster Hunter.
If it devolves further, it feels like it’ll be David and Goon #2 vs Rovak, Goon #1, and Goon #3.
I suspect that David failed to kill Rovak in the first attack, he is more or less doomed, as we have not seen an upper limit to Rovak’s ability to regenerate, and he does seem to have inflicted some damage on David’s armor. The arrival of more breakable minions might save David though if Rovak decides to take retrieving them seriously over prioritizing continuing his boredom induced rampaging.
David has a death wish. He doesn’t know when to quit. How long David gets to live depends on if/when Rovak gets more bored and decides to quit playing cat and mouse. OTOH, Rovak may admire David’s tenacity and leave him alive so he can be played with later.
You’re right, Ferrus. Certainly not a null caster. I forgot about the colors. The ambient magic effect isn’t nullification, it’s probably boosting.
Goon #3, the masked woman, knows how powerful Rovak is. Goon #3 was with Rovak when he assaulted the Avon(?) headquarters while Miko was freelancing there. If I remember correctly, another Rovak team member referred to the masked woman as a homicidal maniac and didn’t like working with her.
Panel 2: this should be within their mandate. Panel 4: how many times am i going to need to kill you?
The theme today is missing words. Don’t worry some aren’t missing, they’re merely compromised.
Panel 2: Bubble 2: This should [be] within their mandate. (Missing word)
Panel 3: Bubble 2: …And we’ll have done all we could b[y] sending them. (Compromised word)
Panel4: Bubble 3: How many times am [I] going to need to kill you. (Missing word)
Admittedly, these are some of the tiniest words in our language. They are easy to overlook.
Of course, for panel 4, there’s also the question of whether David just sucks at the local language, especially when stressed.