Comic for Monday, November 16th, 2020
Peter & Miko’s Part:
Obviously you can get between worlds without a gate that’s activated on both sides like the kind that the IDS uses, as someone had to cross over to set up the gate in the first place (or send data across to have someone set it up on the otherside). There’s actually a few ways to do it; Peter is referring to someone that could manually calibrate a gate, which isn’t really done anymore as computers can do it far better, as it is very complicated (in that there is an enormous data volume and a very tight timing window).
This is, of course, why the gates were vulnerable to Mium getting control of them. The gate itself is still perfectly functional as Mium didn’t go around destroying them all, he’s just locked out their ability to sync to the Central side and calibrate the transit. How he was able to do that, well, while these gates do not seem to have a centralized control on the Malsan side… you may be able to guess where he could have found something like that given the timing of the situation
There are other ways to cross over without a traditional gate though, which would typically be what the IDS would use when trying to cross over to a new world and set up a gate. We’ll probably see more about that later.
As to why Resh matters, Resh is the country to the north of Malsa & Arpon. Biana is currently speculated to be in Orin, which is north of Resh (and currently in an escalating conflict with Resh), meaning deploying forces from there would be complicated. This is almost certainly part of why Mium dumped Kokato in Resh leading the pile up that created a diplomatic pileup between the IDS, Arpon, and Resh, ultimately leading to placing Resh at odds with the IDS and Arpon. Arpon still has local forces and PACT forces, but isn’t really capable of launching a strike deep in Malsa right now; despite some setbacks that we saw, they are largely outmatched without IDS support against Malsa, and are suffering some internal conflicts right now due to increasingly politically devastating revelations that keep being spread about for some reason; some of it’s military seem to be in the process of negotiating directly with Malsa, having increasing concerns about Kokato and his ties to foreign influence (potentially via Ryn, as we briefly heard him mention something like that).
Naomi & Kally’s Part:
This guy’s uniform and car is something that Naomi and Kally would recognize, that we’ve actually seen before (old art warning there…) they are essentially traffic cops. I realize we’ve seen them a bit more recently here too actually. Unlike the black uniformed Bureau agents, these are generally not combat mages, or really expected to engage in combat, they are more for herding civilians and issuing citations, though they do respond to various emergencies.
One may remember that while Kally was reading the news this morning, she was reading the news as reported by Mium, which is probably not what is on the news channel. How much the curfew concerns Mium is probably evidenced by the fact that we’ve already seen him walking out about himself.
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Love how MYM gives Miko the side eye with the off center dot of his running symbol.and always on top 3d icon.
Been awhile since I have commented, but just caught up again and have been enjoying the updates. Peter and Miko are always an entertaining pair, and I think Naomi and Kally should be an interesting pair to watch.
I notice Naomi has not re-dyed her hair yet, which is becoming more obvious to potential observers. I am a little disappointed we might not get the Kally/Naomi airball rematch, but I imagine we will still get to see something interesting with them.
Woohoo! Amaranth is back!
I wondered about the hair as well. One reason why it’s probably best to let Kally lead. Not that Naomi is likely to end up in less trouble, but perhaps the Consul will find it less difficult.
On the other hand i don’t recall where Kally stands right now. It’s she the red dragon witch who saved the town? Or one of the verboten IDS thugs?
Head of MSB’s girlfriend, I think, is Kally’s current title of repute.
Technically, she works for Avon – who in turn is having her work for Malsa.
http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-october-23rd/
http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-thursday-january-18th-2018/
http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-thursday-october-31st-2019/
Yeah, that probably clears up “misunderstandings” pretty quickly.
Panel 6 first bubble: “they’d” is a contraction for “they would,” probably grammatically should read: “there’d” which is a contraction for “there would.” Though phonetically Naomi probably did say what sounded like “they’d” …
“Plus [there’d] usually be more people out on a holiday.”
“Smart. And Dumb.”
Pretty much Miko is saying they are boned either way lol
I’d say its smart not to trust MYM, Dumb not to ask anyway.
Yeah, dealing with someone like Mium, it’s probably better to ask, but not really trust the answer, or his motive for giving the answer. At least, if you’re in the sort of situational space that Ashvalt seems to be in.
That having been said, I understand there are a lot of people who don’t seem to know how to not factor untrustworthy data they have into their choices. That is, rather than viewing it scientifically, “Ok, I’ve been told this. Now let’s see if it was a good idea by doing what I would’ve anyway.” They instead do a “I’ve been told this. I’m not sure I trust the source, so I will do this other thing instead.”
Tgape, I think you’re being a little unfair. Wasn’t it you who originally made the reference, “Coyote is no liar, and therin lies the danger.” (Referencing gunnerkrig).
Anyone who would know Mium well enough to value his input would likely also know:
1. There is no debating trustworthiness. What Mium says is true.
2. Mium wouldn’t have said it unless saying it was valuable to Mium.
So in asking Mium, you’re going to get a truthful answer. The debate is whether acting on that information is going to benefit you.
Any action you take will most likely fall into one of his contingency charts. Your response to his answer will likely benefit Mium. At worst (for him) he will already have a plan to counter any negative consequence.
The real question isn’t whether Mium is providing trustworthy information, but rather have you pissed him off recently. Possibly from Mium’s perspective, are your goals reasonably well oriented with his goals?
Mr Ashvalt may not know Mium well enough to answer that question.
I wrote my answer understanding that Mr. Arduni the elder is probably not that familiar with Mium, as Mr. Arduni the younger is also probably not that familiar with Mium.
It doesn’t particularly matter whether the information is actually true, the question is whether the information is of benefit to Mr. Arduni. If the question were whether it was true, the process would be to question, then verify the answer through other sources.
So then you deny having deliberately hooked innocent young people (me, myself, I and possibly others) on multiple comic strips?
I suspect you’ll also refuse to help me rig the Christmas poll as well!
I don’t know what you mean. How could anyone rig the Yearly Santa Hat Poll? You can see at the bottom of the page, poll’s done, Naomi’s already won.
Sadly that’s the cleanest election as we’re seeing this year. At least in this case the results were clearly predictable.
hopefully Kally will settle this mess without Naomi going to punch his lights out.
Naomi probably wouldn’t punch a cop from Malsa.
…
I suppose I wouldn’t want to be a cop trying to corral Naomi though.
I think Naomi punching a cop would be a last ditch sort of thing.
Before that is simple jumping-not-quite-flying away. But before THAT would be talking, which certainly seemed to work in her favor with the consul.
However in this case I suspect Kally speaks first, and we discover she has permission to be out and about, likely with whatever entourage she deems necessary.
At worst, the officer may have to look her up to discover permits he didn’t know existed have been issued to her.
Plus I don’t think that the curfew applies to a pair of tactical-class mages
Looks suspiciously like your typical low ranking cop given a *tiny* bit of authority and determined to bludgeon random citizens with it.
Maybe Fluffy could find out what one tastes like?
Naomi doesn’t seem to be tactical class, while she’s dangerous the actual definition seems to have more to do with potential for mass destruction, and blowing up buildings isn’t really her thing.
I’m pretty sure that Naomi is not tactical class. That said, the real exception to curfew is probably ‘Registered Mage’, which she probably is. Kally would have the larger problem, being that she’s a foreigner, and therefore her exception is a more exceptional variety with which they’re less familiar.
“Remember that red skies incident that was on television a thousand times?”