Comic for Monday, May 28th, 2018
Sorry this is a little late, especially sorry for those on Early Access, as I wasn’t able to get it up on Patreon in time there. I’ll also sweep through and make the fixes a few of you so patiently pointed for my grammar on the last page in a bit.
Got a little behind on stuff, and distracted by something else I was working on. Not quite ready to say too much about that, as I doubt it’ll make it past the rough idea stages… 😉
Fell a little behind due to shuffling some stuff around in the ordering. Ultimately decided to cut a few scenes here and there, unfortunately a few of those I’d already started on the sketching, so we lost a little time, but, eh, sometimes I get a little carried away on the minutiae. In story telling in general, I have a real tendency to get lost in the weeds. It frustrates my D&D groups to no end because they always I assume that if I bothered to make people and plots, those people and plots are important. Nah… but I’ll let them meander through local medieval city politics for a few sessions till they get fed up and head back out for more monster hunting. Unfortunately, I can’t just get away with calling a comic “a sandbox, you figure out the plot, idc”, so sometimes I have to act against my nature.
Fortunately, I have tomorrow off and have not yet schedule it too full of crap to do, so I should get caught up for Thursdays comic. If I don’t get done tomorrow I think I’ll have time Wednesday, so at least it will be time for the site. I really need to post more Patreon stuff, but I’ve been really failing at ideas for random sketches. I know that I’m overthinking it, most people prefer I just doodle random crap and post it over nothing at all. Ah well, I’ll see what I can do.
Will swing by later tonight or tomorrow morning to fix this page and last page for whatever grammar butchering I’ve inflicted upon this world.
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Looking at panels 9 and 10… Does the Consul not know one properly stomps with the heel? Does she just not want people to know that she knows that? Does she have a medical issue with her foot which makes her not want to stomp too heavily? Or is that shoe somehow designed in someway to not be able to handle such abuse, despite looking like a remarkably reasonable piece of women’s footwear?
(To be more precise and yet still vague, it actually looks almost exactly like *my* shoes. While I have been told that my shoes look a little girly, they were in the men’s section and sized according to men’s sizes only. They’re certainly not the best shoes for stomping on a phone, but the heel could take a lot more abuse than that. That’d actually probably be some kind of spike or stiletto, unless you’re in a hurry, in which case you’re looking at a steel cowboy boot or similar.)
I think I’ll go with guess two.
Because finding out every phone can be used against you isn’t freaky enough, here’s the AI himself in person (as Naomi would likely describe it). Interesting that her first instinct seems to be more the massive security loophole of him getting in rather than using him for real data. (And kinda amusing that apparently the bureau secure phones might even be durable enough to take a bullet, or at least look like they are….
Hoo boy, her odds of “being assassinated or deposed” are probably continuing to skyrocket with all this new information she’s getting to learn…..
(Speaking of Naomi, I wonder how she’ll act getting to greet the Consul? Her presumably being a big fan of her own country, curious if she’ll fangirl a little over getting to actually meet people in charge like this.)
I’d say her feeling the security aspect was the most significant was typical, rather than interesting. But I have worked as a contractor for a defense contractor or two back in the day. It’s my impression they tend to be very much on the defensive, first and foremost, however much they may try to portray otherwise.
Unfortunately, I really really like the Consul’s character. I say unfortunately, because that is yet another character in this comic I have to like, and care about her plotlines, and be invested in seeing her show up. There was already too many awesome characters in this comic that don’t get enough page time. Miko, Ila, Magnolia, Rovak, Ryn, Tom, and now the Madame Consul… I want to see more of all of them!
See I’m not sure from a writing perspective thats a bad thing. from a reading perspective maybe, but as many writers can tell you getting readers invested in as many characters as possible tends to be good.
Madame Consul has not only learned just HOW far up the creek she is, she is also going to learn how to pronounce “M.Y.M. F8” 🙂
And if the security guard pulls out that pistol, he’s going to learn that Kally isn’t the only dangerous woman in Peter’s circle. Naomi is a good teacher, and she enjoys her work. ^^
Is the F5 still wearing the same outfit as he did on the roof during his fight with Rovak? At least it seems Naomi changed clothes since it has been, what, days since that scene? Possibly up to a week or two at the most? Or maybe that is battle damage from some other fight? The arm looks like what happened during the fight but does anyone recall anything that would cause the hole in his back?
Pretty sure Naomi and Mium’s fight against Rovak and the other war mage happened “today” in comic time. That happened after the week time skip, and we see Ashley watching the aftermath being reported on TV when Nathan shows up.
I think we are currently very late the same day or early morning the next day.
Naomi’s coat is undamaged because she gave it to Mium to hold onto while she fought Acalia and the other Warmage.
As for Mium’s coat, we did not see the end of his fight with Rovak, and the last we saw was an even bigger explosion, from Naomi’s point of view. So like shrapnel or something.
I thought it must be more than a day because Peter had enough time to tell multiple people stories about where Tyler was and for that information to get back to the Consoul. I mean, it could be that same night when the fight happened, but that would mean between the noonish/afternoon fight and evening pretty much everyone figured out who Naomi and MIUM were and/or figured that Peter was the person to ask about where Tyler was hospitalized. In addition there was Aaron’s confrontation of Miko and the Eugenus/Consoul conversation with Peter, which all seems a bit much for one afternoon and evening. Furthermore Tyler’s failed invasion seemed to have happened a short number of days (a couple to not more than a few) after the invasions of the Pact facilities, which themselves happened as the immediate openings of the war after the innitial 24hour evacuation period. This would mean that the entire war had been going on for something like less than a week? Maybe a week and a half. I know things may move fast in this magical, technologically advanced future, but even THAT seems rushed. How would Aaron even have time to be “officially” recruited by Avon and had time to engage in operations enough that people would see him as definitely cooperating with Malsa? That would take more than one operation to get over people’s skepticism of what his “real motives” might be, and not just assume they were attacking a target that was conveniently hostile to both Malsa and Aaron’s forces.
It may be a case where the events are focused into the relevant time frame for narrative reasons (Consoul needed to know about Eugenus, and maybe Miko’s talk had to be shown after the fight but before Mium’s conversation with the Consul for some reason?)? I don’t know. It still seems a bit compressed, timewise, to me.
I think given that it’s a discussion chronology, it’s fine for me weigh in…
Day 1:
Nighttime day 1, a Malsan student is killed by an monster on national television…
Within hours, that night, the consul announces the IDS will be expelled from Malsa, she gives them 12 hours to vacate…
As the consul’s announcement is going out, the Malsa’s registered mages and Family Mages are called active duty, and several hours later, deep into the night, Tyler asks Peter to take over his role in the MSB…
Day 2:
The very next morning, Arron shows up to speak to director of the MSB regarding a permit to remain and hunt down Atter using a list of resources he proposes, Peter comes up with a work around of having them hired by Avon… strangely, he seems to have a contract ready for the signing for this…
Day 2, 12 hours after the announcement the Consul made…
Peter shows up a Levenworth, Naomi seems to be returning from doing something with Mium…
Tyler goes to pay a visit to a location did not comply with the Consuls new dictum…
Simultaneously a Malsan Family mage is investigating another location… it does not go as well for her. A Mium has shown up at Levenworth by now…
Seeing the chaos unfolding, Biana decides to take firm action against Peter and Malsa…
Nathan goes to confront Sophie, Central Military and IDS Central representives discuss that shit appears to rapidly heading for the fan…
Day ~9, morning.
Ryn complains to suit-wearing Peter about needing aid…
Day 9, midday:
Two mysterious black haired individuals visit a PACT facility. It seems Tyler and team including Marc are gearing up to assault the same facility…
It goes poorly for Tyler…
Naomi intervenes, becoming a little bit upset with the PACT agents, and asks Mium if she take Tyler to a hospital…
Day 9, nightly news:
The Malsan news networks are reporting on the vents, Nathan shows up at where Ashley is staying as she watches said news…
Roughly at the same time, Arron has tracked down Miko, having spent a fair bit of effort over the last week locating Miko after being told by Kally that Miko is in the country the night things started to really unravel…
Peter, being ever diligent, is still at the office late into the night, he mets a Engenus executive…
Arron learns that Atter has left some sort of mark on him, and sets out to go see Nathan…
While Amy being part of the MSB has direct access to the news that Tyler was injured and where he was taken, it seems the out of uncharacteristic concern, Peter has disseminated that information to the other Levenworth students…
Deep into the night, Peter has just finished his meeting with the Egenus exec when a troublesome person staying too late at the office shows up…
A mysterious Orish solider seems to have be lurking in Malsa and taken this chance to strike the facility where Tyler is staying…
Day 10, early AM hours
Arron shows up where Nathan is staying, meets a hobo…
Mium and Naomi return to Peter after having dropped Tyler off at a hospital earlier in the day and having run some errands, unfortunately running into an annoying lady who stayed too late in the halls…
…and we are live!
Just some thoughts aside from all that:
* The ‘war’ has been mostly one-sided so far. While the Arpon army is larger than the Malsan army, they leadership was largely absent. Rovak has been missing for most of it and only recently showed back up, complaining that it had taken him a long time to get back and had been a giant in pain in the arse. Where President Kokato has been is unknown, but its safe to assume he was not present for majority of the war, and did not have a reliable second in command.
* The IDS has been largely paralyzed by Karov stepping down and Ricci using Karov’s abdicated authority to block Sophie or Biana to deploy any Central Military forces. While the Monster Hunters are part of IDS Situation Containment, they are subject to Central Military authority as they are militarized branch.
* This means most of the fight has just been a rearguard action by scattered PACT forces, and PACT is not really a military organization. Arpon military is almost purely on the defensive and largely unwilling to engage Malsan family mages, something Malsa is taking advantage of by mostly running shock and awe assaults with very powerful mages with backup only to sweep in once the enemy forces breaks. Kokato was relying on the support of his elite units and the Monster Hunters on loan from the IDS to stop this tactic (as he was fully aware of what the Malsans would do), but with his absence and the IDS non-intervention, its mostly just proceded unimpeded with the exceptiosn of Malsa hitting an IDS SC location where Elizabeth and Sophie were, who are outside of the Central Military command given they are tied to old mage orders (like Nathan), and thus answer to different (or no) real authorities, and the incident with Tyler where a combination of betrayal and very dangerous PACT contractors went south.
* The appearance of Kally seemingly supporting the Malsa efforts has kept most IDS units outside of the monster hunters paralyzed, as few normal forces would be willing to confront her.
* Resh has developed their own problems to the North, and consider Arpon and the IDS to have launched an act of aggression when they launched an operation deep into Resh territory. Things seem to have gone horribly wrong in multi ways during this mission, with the IDS operation control disrupted and their dropship destroyed, the IDS suspect likely by secret Resh weaponry, the Resh suspect the involvement of the Orish, due to finding a Warmage on location who was in the process of slaughtering everyone and everything.
* Malsa is not that big, and most of what we see in Malsa takes place in the capital of Malsa, with is a gigantic sprawling urbanization. Getting the Arpon border only takes a few hours.
* War in Palindra is a good bit different, even before we get to magic. The military forces are usually unwilling to commit to a fight against powerful mages unless they have an overwhelming advantage, but mages alone cannot really hold ground. Most wars tend to be highly destructive battles between mages, and the military of the winning size moves in the claim the territory of the side. Large scale armed conflicts between lesser mages in the military usually only occur if the initial battles are inconclusive or the scope is vast.
* Given that both sides have an economic incentive to secure the corporate facilities of the side, the corporations themselves are generally unwilling to commit to this fight besides the ones that directly owe PACT allegiance. While magic is unlikely to be able stop a large scale bombardment of long range weaponry, neither side really is interested in the destruction of economic capacity that would entail, and the Arpon leadership has thus far lacked the executive power to make a call like that.
* Malsa has definitely not gotten over Arron’s real motives, and most people trust neither him nor Peter as far as they could throw them. Peter seemed to have the Avon contract pretty much ready to go when Arron showed up though, strangely enough.
Anyway, just some rambling thoughts.
Thanks so much for the rundown, that explains things a good deal. Also, no wonder Peter was so tired by the time the Eugenus rep showed up, over half that list of stuff is all day 9. But yeah, 9 going on 10 days, they really are going fast while they have the advantage.
The only issue I have with this rundown is day 9 night specifically: Mium.
Arron talks to a blue haired entirely dressed Mium. However, we also have black haired nearly naked Mium sidekicking for Naomi Atarah.
Are there two Mium’s? If your grammar is correct, what you indicate is there are at least two Mium Efiates in Malsa, at night on day 9/10.
Which explains the apparent time paradox.
The other explanation is while Naomi takes Tyler to the hospital, Mium races to Miko’s, where he changes his clothes and appearance, talks to Arron, changes back into his shredded clothes, changes his hair color back to black, and races to the hospital to rendezvous with Naomi, and then off to the consul’s office.
> Are there two Mium’s? If your grammar is correct, what you indicate is there are at least two Mium Efiates in Malsa, at night on day 9/10.
Technically one might be called Mium Effive, but that’s sort of an informal nickname people use so far…
During the Avon-raid arc Mium acquired the F5 prototype that looks almost identical to the F8 prototype. The main theory of how to tell them apart is F8 (the original one) tends to wear a blue scarf, but as several commentators have suspiciously noted, that is not a particularly good way of telling them apart as either can wear the same scarf.
For the record, Ila has been referred to as F10, which would leave quite a lot of prototypes unaccounted for.
And to further this: we know that F8 was originally a failed prototype – the intended intelligence never took at all, so MYM hijacked the unused body.
He had to creatively work around his restrictions (to the degree it alerted Peter and Miko) to be able to integrate F5. And note that F5 was barely functional – it is likely based on what little context we have, F1-F7 did not turn out anywhere near desired specs.
What I’m most curious about is the missing F9. We know Ila is F10 and Mium’s original body was F8, but that leaves F9 unaccounted for – after they supposedly stopped the research and Mym left (presumably with Peter), but before they made an (almost) successful version – though Ila is deeply flawed, as an AI. She is too human, which makes me suspect certain unsavory things about how Ila was made.
Here is something interesting to think about, maybe Dr Mir was right about autonomous AI always going rogue. MIUM has been showing signs of going in that direction by going “literal gene” on rules he doesn’t like, and he has already FAR outlasted what most thought was possible (most likely due to his connection with Miko). So what would an AI look like if it was directly connected with a person but hadn’t developed a logic frame or personality matrix of it’s own and so ran it’s processes with only the base framework of a person? The base framework of a person starts out as a young child, and the personality of Dr Mir is straightforward and driven if nothing else. That description seems to fit Ila F10 quite well, does it not?
2nd to last panel. If you can hear me (here is a location, hear is detect sound)
Fixed, thanks.
2nd to last panel. If you can still hear me (here is a place, hear is sound)