Comic for Monday, November 29th, 2021
Sorry about the missed comic last week. I don’t for see any more missed comics in the immediate future, but the future is ever opaque.
My other project (the D&D book thing) is almost done (from my my side, printing and shipping and things will be a whole thing) but it’s in editing now, and I’m going to guess you folks of all people have some appreciation for how much that might involve when talking about editing 320 page of fairly dense text written by me. Needless to say, it’s taking awhile to de-me-ify all the grammar and add in all the words that I apparently didn’t think were needed to various sentences, and de-run-on-ify most sentences in the book because people don’t seem to thing that “…” and “,” and “;” and “—” can punctuate everything. People love their “.” but suddenly you put three of them together like “…” and they are fussy about its punctuation properties.
Anyway, not going to promise anything crazy like restoring the buffer or new side content yet, but hopefully that particularly task is going to wrap up in the next week or two, and I’ll find something new to suck up all my time I’ll have more free time to work on the comic.
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I guess the comic’s gonna be late, huh?
I love how Peter and Kally are just both mutually tsundere. It’s weirdly wholesome and I love it.
They are the most functional dysfunctional couple ever.
By “backdrop” I meant “the world”, and by “updating the backdrop” I meant “updating our understanding of the world by giving us greater insight into its mechanics,” e.g. Mium hitching a ride into the “spirit world.”
I feel like the humans of the core cast are PCs and the rest of the characters are all NPCs, so the scene felt like a cut-scene where NPCs do stuff so the viewer gains knowledge about the world’s mechanics and plot, then the camera goes back to the PCs. This isn’t fair to the depth Past has given to so many “NPC” characters, it’s just an analogy.
Past redraws stuff when he doesn’t even have to so I’m guessing there won’t be any asset reuse.
What’s that? Something about it being time for a question and answer session again?
I love how optimistic Kally is about getting answers from Peter. Especially because Kally is not expected to ask the correct questions.
There is a lot of optimism in this comic. We KNOW Naomi will end up punching some bad people and it WILL be on the news. Peter doesn’t think there will be an explosion(s). That is WAY to optimistic. Let’s see … Naomi, Peter, Kally (hood up), ILA, and Arkady all in one place. What could go wrong? Hmmm… Tyler and Amy show up and tell Peter about the “palace beyond.” Mium pops in to everyone’s amazement. Elmon appears and says he is going to clear up some loose ends by killing all of them. Then Kally drops her hood and Elmon goes pale. Ashvalt shows up and Elmon thanks him for help just before Ashvalt asks him who he thinks can calculate faster. Elmon surrenders after wetting himself. A Kors world soldier appears and starts exploding things. Arkady gets scraped and bruised. All the mages attack and vaporize the Kors world soldier after Naomi stuns him with a punch. Elmon thinks to get away but is knocked out by the patented Naomi punch. Am I seeing the future or did someone spike the punch?
Why are people assuming Peter and Kally are going to wind up in the same location as Naomi et al? At last notice Peter’s first order of business was checking on Miko, who I’m confident is not the type to go on shopping expeditions.
Oh, come now. Surely curmudgeon or no, Miko has to shop for some stuff some time. I mean, new computers don’t just form out of the Eidos, right? Still, I doubt she’ll be keen on shopping in a crowd, or for things she can buy online. Which is probably pretty near everything, especially since she seems to prefer a rather easy size to buy (that is, oversized.)
From panel 3, Mium was going to be on the shopping trip or perhaps after. Last panel of November 15th comic, Peter mentions covering for some Mium “errands”. Wasn’t Mium going to help ILA to purchase a scarf? That seems to imply all the main characters will be together clothes shopping and that means critical mass for punching, explosions, red dragon and news. The rest of my comment is imagination running wild.
No, Arkady was going to help Ila purchase a scarf or two for unspecified cousins. Mium wasn’t mentioned though he might be a recipient.
Thanks for the memory refresh. To quote RMH “I seem to disremember” more and more often these days.
Naomi’s little sister is too cute! I am wondering if she can boost like her sibling or has some other hugely overpowered ability- she does seem to be a designer child?
I love the way she is also wearing Atarah merchandise, maybe most of her wardrobe has an explosive tendency too…
-SneakyBex
I would guess that she’s happy to wear merchandise proclaiming her awesome sister is awesome, and the merchandisers are very happy to have a cute kid to dress in their merchandise who can be used for marketting purposes.
As such, she probably has more Atarah merchandise than her sister. It’s probably a very expensive collection, and yet free for her. Also, that saves her parents from having to dress her for the most part, allowing them to splurge more on the rest of her clothing. As such, yes, I’d guess her wardrobe is expensive.
I feel like she probably is a designer child. It’s doubtful she’s as overpowered as Naomi in the same way. That leaves possibilities:
– She could be overpowered in different way. I am going to guess this one. It’s very cliche to have people in families to have the same powers, but we haven’t really seen that here. We haven’t seen many siblings, but the ones we have aren’t excessively like each other.
– She could be more overpowered in the same way. This could include “as powerful, despite being younger.”
– She could be less overpowered in the same way.
Also, I’m going to guess that she’s not too cute. She’s exactly cute enough. She is in some form or fashion going to be enough of a handful that she wouldn’t survive without her cuteness.
Mini-Naomi, super power: weaponizable super-cuteness. Capable of transforming stone cold hearts into molten mush at any distance under 100 yards.
Weakness: Twilight Sparkle
Arkady’s little brother will think that Naomi’s little sister is cute when they meet. The two meet, their eyes lock on and a bond is formed. An alliance between two Families results. Eventually a new Family is founded. The Ardata (Atarah Arduni combo) Family Dynasty begins and their descendants shall rule the multiverse! NO! I’m not going to share what I’ve been smoking! LOL
I’d suspect they already know each other. Naomi and Arkady seem to be fairly long term friends, so it’s fairly likely the younger siblings have met before.
Naomi isn’t Family. She’s merely a famous athlete from an affluent family. Naomi’s abilities are rather exceptional for someone who isn’t a Family, and possibly enough she could become Family if she applied herself. But she hasn’t really.
Also, I agree with Ferrus – Artem probably knows Naomi’s sister already. Still, there’s nothing to say that he hasn’t already taken a shine to her. But also nothing to say that they’re not arch enemies.
Artem? Having a super cute arch nemesis? Doesn’t add up, I think. He follows Arkady’s lead, and Arkady would never allow that sort of optic.
According to the Wiki, Naomi’s background is not well known. However, she is a Malsan Designer child. I have no idea if all Designer Children are Family or not. Maybe she is Ashvalt and Seraine’s (dead vile hag) love child! LOL
I really, really, really doubt that Artem and mini-Naomi are arch enemies. They both seem too nice. Perhaps they will be moving from the childish notion that boys/girls are yucky to puppy love. They may or may not know each other. We’ll have to wait until the Grand Archivist narrates their meeting.
Before I forget to ask, does anyone have a name for Naomi Jr aka mini-Naomi? Couldn’t find a name.
Maybe I don’t make it clear that some of my posts go beyond idle speculation and drift into fantastical imagination and/or hallucinations. 😉
I may start bracketing such posts with
—– begin idle speculation —–
… some written stuff …
—– end idle speculation —–
or use “— drug induced hallucinations —–”
LOL – I DON’T use drugs.
According to the tags, she’s called “You didn’t think she’d be named in a tag before in the comic itself did you?” …
(I quote: “Characters: Arkady, Kally, Lisa, Naomi, Peter, You didn’t think she’d be named in a tag before in the comic itself did you?”)
… and only after reading that do I notice that Artem is not actually appearing in any frame today …
Artem is not in frame. Clearly something is a foot.
I’m suspicious that there is a grand scheme at play here. I think the obvious safe move is to vote for Miss Holmgren for Santa Hat!
I can’t tell you how Holmgren and the Artem faction are aligned yet, but Mium clearly favors both.
And avoid the use of drugs! It messes with our long term projections!
I was hoping someone would remember Naomi’s little sis being referred to by name in an earlier comic. Until Past names her, it seems like either mini-Naomi or Naomi Jr will work.
Naomi, mini-Naomi, Lisa, Arcady and Artem have moved around according to the changed backgrounds. Artem and mini Naomi are not in frame 4. —– idle speculation follows —– Perhaps the reflection in Lisa’s necklace would reveal them holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes. 😉
The really interesting thing to me is that not only do we STILL not have a name, but the original plan was for Mini-Naomi to have predated Ila on screen.
https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-tuesday-june-2nd/
This is beyond epic. This is a MASSIVE event in comic. We’re talking about a comic singularity here!
AARRGGHH! Now you did it! You just had to post that link to the old June 2015 comic. You knew I couldn’t resist. In no specific order, I spent over three hours re-reading about Kally’s kidnapping, ILA’s fight with F5(?), IDS attack on Avon HQ, Kor’s world attack on Levenworth, first shopping trip, Naomi and Kally play airball, Naomi makes F5 a scarf and more. A bathroom break and lunch broke me out of the reading binge so I could return to the real world. LOL!
Kally’s two favorite colors are red and green…
Maybe she’ll win the Santa hat this year! Then she could make Peter wear a green elf hat.
Yes!! Kally for Santa Hat 2021!!!!!
She’s already started campaigning early. And she does look cute in a hood!
I’m personally lobbying for Miss Holmgren this year, however I’ve also long felt that Kally is overdue to win. We were already voting at this time last year, so it’s clearly not too soon to be talking candidates.
Summers and Holmgren for the win!
I feel like you’ve finished several combat and updating-the-backdrop sessions and are now getting into some meaty RP sessions with a dash of exploration. Looking forward to it!
Also excited about your book. Can you put a picture link to its details/devlog on the left sidebar over your Twitter pic?
Is that a prediction we’ll see the same store as before? Because I expect that Past probably would be updating that backdrop even if it is the exact same store. I mean, that was a dozen chapters ago. The art wasn’t horrible then, but there’s been significant improvement since. Also, we had exactly two pages in the store and two in the restaurant after.
Sure, maybe we’ll skip out of the store quickly again, and maybe we’ll even flip to after skipping the whole arc that Past has been building up to and getting to what’s past it. But it doesn’t feel like that is the way Past is heading.
To be clear, I feel like Past could make use of the backdrop from Chapter 5, pages 1 and 2 without everyone feeling it was a mistake. If that lead to more on time comics, I think that would be a good thing. I just don’t think that’s what’s going to happen.
I’m not sure how much a security detail actually would help with Naomi and Ila around. Like anybody going after them either won’t accomplish much, or is big boy enough that I doubt a standard security team will help.
It might help keeping innocent bystanders out of the line of fire.
I’d expect most people wouldn’t know to be intimidated by Ila. A lot of people would think Naomi is just an athlete, nobody to worry about. Kally just looks like one of those weird IDS people. Weren’t they all sent packing? Why is she here?
It’s my impression that brown hair does happen in Malsa, it just indicates that your parents were probably poor. So Peter is a nobody. He’s probably just in this group to carry the bags and get the doors.
So, from the outside perspective, Arkady is the one to watch. At least, I assume that he’s recognizable, since his father is big and important.
As such, a security detail would suggest to the uninitiated that they’re a group to not mess with, beyond the fact that it includes a couple of the most abductable Family members. I feel like it could probably be useful in avoiding an unnecessary incident, if there’s any chance of the group encountering an uninitiated hostile force.
In the event of an actual incident, though, Anthony’s right, the security detail would likely have nothing to do besides protecting the bystanders, Artem, and Miss Atarah Jr.
I simply love the dialog of this comic. I feel like we learn so much about the characters just by how they interact.
I love the monolog of the author.