Comic for Monday, November 10th, 2019
Nov11
Tyler knows better than to try to get useful day-to-day information out of Magnolia, given that she has already said Amy, someone that excels at exposition is coming. Magnolia isn’t part of the MSB, but it seems she does have some degree of history with Tyler… I suspect that wouldn’t be too surprising as they were both at Levenworth the year he founded the MSB… it was an exciting year for the nation, though likely it will be dwarfed in the history books by the year that followed.
Been pretty busy these last few days (I know, I know, same excuse every time); trying to work things in here and there. We are still on track to have no stoppage of comics over my travel though, so there’s that.
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Do to poor scheduling on my part, comic will be up tomorrow. We have not actually run out of buffer (which is good, as I’m going to be traveling the next two weeks and consume the rest of said buffer) but I apparently have failed to understand basic 10 year old technology in post scheduling.
Good thing I’m not in charge of anything important when it comes to understanding how technology works- oh. Right. Welp.
But I should have time to fix it and post it tomorrow, and attempt to schedule the next two weeks in a more functional manner.
In my defense, I averaged 4 hours of sleep or so a day last week, which has decreased effective brain function significantly.
(the post name is a joke because this is posted from my phone and I cannot log into the site on it… I got a new phone not that long ago, and my very clever website security is convinced that my new phone is a hacker… I wish it had been so effective against actual hackers… I could get it into it I’m sure with enough effort, but… 😐 )
Hmmm… is this really PastUtopia?
Wait, grammatical error in the very first word. Yep, definitely real.
“Due”, not “Do” is what he is talking about.
Don’t explain the joke? NO!!!! Explain it in detail and turn it into a running gag!!!!
Due or Do Not, there is no try.
@Past
As I’m constantly reminded at work, when it comes to any technology (or ticketing systems’) ‘SHOULD” and ‘ARE’ are separated with a vast gulf created by management’s (lack of?) understanding of the problem and finance’s willingness to spend money resolving it. I am now working on a project that has 2 project managers and neither of them are actually doing *that* job. Though one keeps asking me when the project will be complete. The Jury is still out if a team member of one (me) without any formal project management training can complete. The only upside is that I actually know how to solve the problem if I can get the right people to the table to fix it.
On the topic of “spirits inside” people … and as I was just revisiting http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-thursday-may-3rd-2018/ …
Does Tyler carry the spirit of a dragon? (Presumably one that breathes ice?)
Can we make anything out of Amy’s spirits? (Is that a four-hole bowling ball? Or a big shirt button?)
… can *we* read Amy’s mind? 🙂
(“… she can totally read …”)
(“… she was so lying …”)
(“… I would ha-“)
(“… to get along wi-“)
(“… does Maia even …”)
I see no sign of Magnolia’s own spirits. Just like we can’t look into our own heads, I guess.
How powerful is this girl?
On a scale of 1 to Nuclear Blast…. about a 13
Do the folk on Palindra know about nuclear bombs? Peter didn’t mention them to Oriah Nikud. Admittedly, he curtailed his info dump to Oriah pretty tightly.
As far as I’m aware, Malsa hasn’t had any exposure to anything of that magnitude. They don’t even really have a good feel for the size of attack that would have taken out the Consul’s Office if Mium hadn’t nullified it. It’s my impression it would’ve been a bigger boom than the HVW than Kors World attempted to use on Mium – not that Kors World couldn’t do a HVW that intense, but they have more of a concept of finesse than Biana. Also, I expect Biana was thinking to kill multiple birds with one stone, and she didn’t know exactly where one of them was for sure.
People on Palindra know about nuclear bombs, but not how to make them or what they actually do. If I’m allowed to post a snippet from Tyler’s Story:
This during the part where Amy is explaining the rules for using Levenworth’s labs to Tyler. Science seems to be referred to as “Modern Alchemy”.
Instead of nuclear blast, use HVW (high velocity weapon). they know what that is in this world at least.
An HVW strike seems under powered compared to, say, a modern hydrogen fusion missile, especially one with multiple warheads. Also, considering that an HVW is basically a powerful kinetic-energy weapon, they should not create a radioactive wasteland around ground zero. That makes a world of difference, especially if the people of Palindra have no concept of the dangers of radioactive waste or any weapon to really compare it to.
We have seen a Kor’s World weapons platform HVW strike aimed at Mium, which he was able to survive. It looked devastating, sure. But it certainly did not destroy the whole city. As I recall, it basically destroyed a building and the immediate area. There was also that HVW strike aimed at Peter, which M.Y.M. was able to intercept. It seemed implied that it would’ve taken out the consul building and, perhaps, the surrounding area or a good chunk of the city. That’s still small potatoes compared to a modern nuclear weapon.
Orbital strikes with solid projectiles can easily scale up to the power of a nuclear missile. For an example of this used in fiction, Robert Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”.
But regardless of how much power a high velocity weapon can have, the point still stands that a “nuclear blast” wouldn’t have any meaning for them.
I think a comparison that would be meaningful to them might be something like, “I’d give even odds to a well fed Ila against a battalion of Orish Warmages… assuming at least *some* of them have I-code.”
“Here you go, a nice ball of plot threads to confuse you for all eternity. On top of the rest of your work, which has also snowballed rather a lot.”
‘…..wonderful.’
Interesting that Tyler would still note waking up to Magnolia wanting to chat alone isn’t necessarily a good thing….(and indeed, rather ominous instead), but does seem to trust her just fine. (Though I suppose, considering some of the news she brings, ominous sounds appropriate…)
(PS: “Your wound is just starting to really heal now.”)
Upper triangle of the last panel: Should either be “just starting to really heal” or “just starting really healing,” and I think the former is more natural language. As-is, it’s either missing the ‘to’ or the ‘-ing.’
I’m with Tyler; she can’t have seen Mium, or she’d probably not be saying it’s impossible for Ila to be his sister. She’d have a whole slew of other…concerns.
Magnolia may very well not be a native speaker. She’s from a farming village in Anola, which is another country that doesn’t share a border with Malsa.
That’s true, but I’m going to assume she speaks Malsan better than I type English 🙂
We’ll learn more about her history (probably) but in general I try to represent poor fluency more obvious manner than minor grammatical errors given my record of minor grammatical errors 🙂
Thinking about Magnolia’s words a bit more… it doesn’t sound like she saw that Ila was a robot, but rather that she had multiple Eidos keys, and they’re not what she considers well-adjusted. Mium wasn’t made by the same process and only has one key. He might not look all that different to Magnolia. She might even think he looks like he couldn’t do magic, if her sight looks at power level but not skill / precision.
Magnolia’s spirit vision:
┣ Does it operate as line-of-sight or 360 degrees?
┣ Can she not read peoples’ minds, but she can read their spirit(s)?
┃ ┣ Will spirit == emotional state or will spirit == some other spiritual concept yet to be defined?
┃ ┗ Do all of Ila’s spirits like ice cream?
┗ Does it only work when she opens her eyes?
┗ Does she keep her eyes closed out of politeness to others, realizing that she can probably see things they wouldn’t want her to see if they knew she could?
I’ve consulted with my ouija board. Yes, all spirits like ice cream. Even the lactose intolerant ones.
I guess that explains why ghosts so often look gassy.
It’s my guess that she doesn’t actually perceive a difference between spoken words and surface thoughts. Or maybe surface thoughts sound like really quiet whispers.
Whether she could read minds more thoroughly with practice or not will not be seen until she recognizes that she can read minds at least a bit.
We saw a hint of what Magnolia sees, for example on page http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-thursday-may-3rd-2018/ . Some combination of edios, and other things which are “not possible” according to Central’s knowledge of magic, including some aspect of people’s souls. As for why Magnolia rarely opens her eyes, I am not sure which page this was on, but it seems that seeing things puts her under an incredible amount of strain of some sort, and can be very painful. Makes sense considering how overpowered this ability is.
After reviewing the 23 comics I’ve tagged as having Magnolia in them, I’m thinking one of those is a mis-tag, and wondering what your evidence is that Magnolia has eyes to open. (The first tag depicts someone with lighter blonde hair, lighter skin, and open eyes, so I’m really questioning that in the face of 22 more comics in which that’s not repeated.)
Edit: Oops, I didn’t tag *this* one yet. Corrected.
Magnolia was depicted with light skin in earlier comics; this is sort of an artistic drift that I only realized later on; I’ve always known where she was from, but originally I think I’d mapped my ethnic groups slightly differently and changed it without realizing it; Magnolia’s hair is a bit more consistent, though everyone’s hair is a bit darker now as I’ve generally toned done some of the brighter colors and use full panel shading tones now (meaning everything is slightly darker and more orange or blue than it’s base color) based on the light source). Her hair did get less wavvy over time as I realized that I couldn’t draw that, so just gave up, and gave her straighter hair.
I don’t think Magnolia has ever been shown with her eyes open; I’d be curious if there was a panel showing that. There is a Bureau employee that looks somewhat like Magnolia (the only blonde bureau background employee character) but I’m assuming that’s not the instance.
Magnolia’s first appearance, I believe, is here. She looks pretty different there, but, let’s face it, most characters do. Yikes, do not like those old pages, lol.
<a rel=”nofollow”%gt;? Somehow I expected something more like here.
This is what I have for her first appearance. Eyes open but no irises or pupils, Tyler-light straight hair, and significantly lighter skin than the next page. Is that the blonde bureau background character?
Tgape, both your links go to the same place? This is intentional?
I’m not clear that her eyes are open. Even using my laptop and blowing things way up, I don’t feel there is enough resolution in the image to determine the state of her eyes.
I only had one link in that post.
Wait, you’re supposed to close your link tag before you close your paragraph tag?!? Really? Wow. Though looking back I clearly had issues because I apparently typed % instead of & the second time I tried, and didn’t notice.
Anyway, looking at the picture at 1000% zoom, either the blonde’s pupilless eyes are open, or she’s wearing an odd shade of eye shadow that she removes before the next page.
I agree, “looking” definitely causes her strain / pain.
Panel 9, where they show things from Magnolia’s view, could possibly be a panel where her eyes were open. But of course you wouldn’t see her eyes when things are from her perspective. Short of her looking into a mirror I suppose.
This post was in reference to ArtificialComputer’s link. Sorry for any confusion.
She claims that she doesn’t read minds–no one believes her. 🙂
It’s difficult to believe someone doesn’t read minds when you’re wondering if they do and they reply to that unspoken question with a claim that they can’t.
There have been a few cult leaders who used this technique to convince their following that they could read minds. It doesn’t generally work on people who never wonder if others can read minds, or even are just more prone to wondering if people who appear to have mind reading abilities have other ways of knowing what one is thinking.
It’s theoretically possible someone might convince me if they first responded, “I haven’t been spying on you. I didn’t break into your computer and read your secret journal.” But it’s probably more likely I’d suspect them of being friends with Google.
Friends with Google? I’m pretty sure Google doesn’t have friends. Just business partners, customers, and then everyone else whose data they sell to their customers.
Given the choice, Google having friends or someone being able to read minds, if be tempted to assume mind reading is a thing!
OK, so 1) it’s not line-of-sight as it can see through stuff. “…someone is climbing down the wall outside.” Her field of view is unknown. This doesn’t impact my understanding of events, but I enjoy learning systems.
2) She can determine peoples’ intents. “They seem to be armed and planning on something violent.” Though to be honest, that wouldn’t have been a difficult deduction when people are climbing down the outside of buildings. Perhaps that’s an over-estimation of her abilities.
3) Her viewing ability apparently doesn’t need her eyes to be open. On her first page… the drawing is really small and it might just be an art issue that they can be construed as open at all. (You suck, Past! Just kidding, the art evolution is one of the things I love about this comic. It’s encouraging to seeing a creative person not give up and do nothing, but to try to do at least something even when they don’t feel their capabilities will meet their ideal. The world is full of creative people who do nothing because they’re afraid of failure, and they consider anything less than their ideal to be a failure, so they do nothing. You have practiced and improved greatly. I enjoy your art style and I consider it to be well done.) When she was assessing Tyler, there were colors and effects and her eye-area was really tiny as well so it was hard to tell. I guess she doesn’t need to open them though.
4) Why is Tyler asking her to turn around? Maybe her field of view is directional. Why does she offer (and he implicitly acquiesce) to her just keeping her eyes closed? Was she being flirty? Is he just accepting that she’s not going to do her Matrix-vision thing while he dresses?
5) It looks like spirit-machine binding is at play and may be connected with Dr. Martin and Mir.
As always, love the comic, keep it up.
1. It could be line-of-Magnolia’s-sight. It’s just not the same line of sight that the rest of us use.
4. My guess is it makes him feel uncomfortable to have someone looking his direction when he’s in the buff. My guess is she’s refusing because it wouldn’t matter if she did, and she doesn’t want to lie to him by implication.
I’d normally guess that she probably has a directional view, but as far as I can tell, that’s just a habit one gets into from using eyes to see. If you don’t get into the lazy habit of using eyes, there’s really no need for such a narrow focus on ones perception.
I’m not so sure she doesn’t use her eyes to see.
She needs to actively look around, even just to avoid walking into things: http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-april-23rd-2018/
And as I look at her looking around, I’m still getting the impression her eyes are (ever so slightly) open: http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-thursday-may-3rd-2018/
(Yeah, here eyes seem narrow to me, but in other panels, they seem more tightly shut. And for what it’s worth, they certainly appear different from both Amy’s open eyes and Tyler’s shut eyes.)
Heh. That text behind Amy. “She can totally read …” 😉
This does suggest there is a pretty big difference between Magnolia’s passive powers and when she tries to detect something, as she does not seem to be aware Mium isn’t human, despite talking to him (or being next to Maia as Maia talked to him).
Of course, Mium may be harder to read, as I suspect she would get basically nothing from Mium (unless we have been bamboozled all along and Mium has an Eidos Key… it has never really been confirmed that he doesn’t).
I will note however that +/- Key, Mium can probably run interference on whatever Magnolia does.
Wow, Magnolia actually isn’t part of the MSB? All things of which I’m aware considered, I’d guess probably the only reason she wouldn’t be would be due to her Anolan background. Though, as I think about it, everyone we know is in the MSB is either Malsan or is in the naturalization program. Except… my notes don’t say anything about Mione’s nationality. I think the default is to assume that people whose nationality isn’t stated are Malsan, but as Levenworth is a popular school for foreigners also, I’m hesitant to just do that.
Rereading this page, I’m not sure it confirms the Magnolia isn’t part of the MSB? Just that she doesn’t reveal the extent of her power to anyone besides Tyler, who she apparently has some sort of past agreement with.
That said, I have been under the impression that she is not part of the MSB all along, as she does not seem to hang out with them or go with them on their missions, and Tyler recruited Mione to try to detect if Mium was lying, something Mione noted Magnolia would have been better at (and notable Tyler had Amy distract Magnolia and Maia before that conversation as he didn’t want to talk to Mium in front of them).
I think Magnolia probably is part of the naturalization program. While I don’t have the reference handy, my impression is that she is sort of refugee.
Maia (Magnolia’s short loud-mouthed friend) is also does not seem to be part of the MSB (but is part of the MTT class). Maia is the one that explained that MTT was just the dumping ground for people too important, smart, or weird to put elsewhere, which is why it does not seem to have actual classes per se (leaving students free to do things like start Magical Security Branches).
Neither Maia or Magnolia have been seen the blue robes, though admittedly only Tyler wears his with any sort of frequency (…I think Amy has been seen wearing one, not sure now that I think about it).
I think it is safe to say Mione is a native Malsan; she is apparently long time friends with Naomi (who is definitely Malsan) and her hair color suggests she’s either a designer kid or descendant of the Families.
The reveal regarding Magnolia and the MSB is in Past’s comments, not the common itself. He also confirms Magnolia’s immigrant status there. Previously I thought we confirmed that Magnolia bordered on being a refugee. However that might be a spoiler from Patrein content. In which case, I’m sorry.
When Magnolia is reading Amy’s mind when Magnolia comes to see Tyler in the hospital, Amy thinks “…[Magnolia] Dai is a foreigner, too… would Peter even know that?”
Peter does know that and expounds on it at some length in Peter fashion later when they meet again, where he speculates she is a lost Anolan Intelligence asset before noted that she was just a rural Anolan village girl that won(?) the super power lottery.
So nothing ever says she is a refugee per se, but if read between the lines, it is clear that Anola was invaded and partitioned during the last Orish-Resh war. I think that is expanded on somewhat in Tyler’s story too.
Immigrant status confirmed in the comic by a statement from Peter and confirmation from Magnolia. I don’t keep a record of author comments, so I can’t say whether or not Past has asserted she’s a refugee officially or effectively in public comments. If you want confirmation or refutation of whether Past has indicated it in Patreon content, all of that content that I am aware of is available at the $1 tier.
Peter doesn’t seem to think that she’s actually a refugee, however. I’d kind of guess if she’s a refugee it’s either in name only, or she’s somehow working for the Anolan Intelligence Department under duress. (Threats to family members, perchance?) Oh, wait, that was dissolved in the Resh-Orish treaty. My mistake.
I guess I just had the impression that Magnolia was a member of the MSB due to being absent when Peter had the MSB running down one of his tips at class time. But thinking about it more, that’s the weakness of doing inference like Peter does: it’s victim to circumstantial evidence; Magnolia could have been absent for other reasons. Or possibly she was absent because she was spying on the MSB for the dissolved Anolan Intelligence Department.
Tyler, Amy, and Mione in the blue robes (Also first appearance for Mione.)
I admit that Magnolia and Maia haven’t been seen in the robes, but there are at least two others who *are* in that picture, only those three have been seen in the robes and three people is too few for an official government agency. The entire class was missing when Peter gave the MSB a tip right before class. Of course, the thought of four students joining their adult coworkers for the raid, and their 31 or so classmates all chasing after them to spy on them for their various entanglements is pretty hilarious, too. (I say four because I have reason to believe at least one other particular student was a member at that time. Whether he still is is not certain.)