Comic for Monday, September 27th, 2021
Comic!
So… not too much to say yet. We’ll learn more about what’s going on here in time.
I will say “palace” is not a typo of place. The palace beyond is one of the things the family calls this place, which isn’t a term that makes a ton of sense currently. I figured I’d mention it as putting an extra a in a word seems fairly on brand and would make more sense on the surface of it 😀
Elmon is generally not considered one of the stronger family mages because, as Elmon notes, this wouldn’t really work on most Family head’s… or at least Elmon doesn’t necessarily know which it would work on, and wouldn’t be inclined to try. There are quite a few limitations to the ability, but it does tie into a handful of the other things we’ve seen before – Tyler is either referring to Mione or Magnolia, though their abilities are somewhat different. Tyler knows both of them; Mione was one of the members of the MSB (I bring it up just because it’s been awhile since we’ve seen her).
I will also say that don’t necessarily take too much from the term spirit world… the Malsans call lots of things spirits, including ethereal constructs in some cases. This is the same place some of the Family mages can “store” ethereal constructs, like we recently saw with Eliana and Saldur.
I don’t think Amy would have really think about it, but that she is calling Peter instead of the Army or Bureau is sort of simply a result of working with him for a bit. While she is reluctant to work with him and thinks he’s a bit of a wanker, she has also worked with him a bit now, and it doesn’t take long working with Peter to develop the instinct that when someone inexplicably disappears into thin air front of you… he’s probably the person you want to call. She’s already started to get used to the idea that Peter deals with the inexplicable with same ease as the explicable.
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Past,
Is there going to be a comic this week?
Jim
Yes. Absolutely.
See? Faith. 🙂
I love the utter sensibility of calling Kepler because something weird happened.
I think Elmon underestimates just how much Central isn’t telling them, and also how much compartmentalization of knowledge they have. It’s certainly possible no-one in Central knows about this place, but it seems more likely that it just hasn’t come up.
There are some powers they do not seem to understand or know well, and some of it at least is attached to this place.
-For example, despite being easily the strongest mage we have seen in terms of summoning constructs, it seems like Kally cannot store Fluffy in the spirit realm like Saldur or Eliana could.
-It seems like even Peter does not fully understand Magnolia’s power, which would indicate that the ability to see into Eidos like that is not a common thing in Central.
-Peter did guess that someone could teleport, but Miko was not convinced until the teleporter tried to kill her, which would mean they probably do not have a lot of proof (meaning it is not common).
That said, knowing things he is not supposed to know is essentially Peter’s job description, so I am going to hazard a guess he is at least got some idea, and it is likely that the higher ups in the IDS/Central know a lot more than they are letting on. Arron tried to confront Miko with that idea before Miko fired back with the title drop last time.
The IDS keeps almost as many secrets from itself as everyone else.
Holy shit, Amaranth comments have returned to us. I might understand what is going in the comic again. <3
This is definitely a welcome development. Amaranth commentary is awesome!
So you’re suggesting that a “teleporter” could come to this place, move a bit, come back into normal space, and apear to have teleported through a wall?
I’m liking this theory.
I didn’t read Amaranth’s comments as indicating that, merely talking about the teleportation as something that the IDS really did not seem to understand, despite the Families having someone who could.
That would be one way to do it. If so, I would guess what makes her special about how she moves is that she can perceive the normal world from here, while others can’t – they can just know how to go back to where they were. It’s also possible that she might be able to fly here when others couldn’t, allowing her to move more quickly.
Or maybe, like null casters, her ability isn’t quite as unique as first suggested.
Possibly it is just a unique application of a somewhat uncommon but not rare skill?
Our possibly it is the combination of several uncommon skills that taken together are rare?
It could be a size thing, we haven’t really seen something on the size of Fluffy being hidden this way yet. Until then we don’t really know if they can or cannot store something so large there
I had the idea the construct Eliana hid there was about Dragon size. At least, if you could get Dragon to fold his wings and keep still-ish.
weren’t they in a building when that had been done?
Not the “spirit” that fought and then turned on them on the front lines.
Why do I get the feeling that the spirit world is where a certain dragon stores most of its “mass” when it isn’t actively trying to fight a Kor’s world soldier and a giant demon at the same time or the like?
It would be interesting if Fluffy wandered by and asked what they were doing in his home? 😀
Particularly interesting if Kally is surprised to discover this.
In the Sept 13th strip, Elmon says “there’s something important you don’t know.” In today’s strip Elmon says “I suppose I need to pay more attention to this generation at Levenworth.” He should take his own advice. The secret Palace Beyond is not a secret. Elmon admits “There’s defenses against being brought here.” His advantage may be gone. What next? Does a nice young man appear through a gate pushing a woman in a wheelchair and accompanied by a orange eyed little girl? A Red Dragon Lady? Or Ashvalt shows up and does the slice and dice. Or Tyler just puts Elmon in a deep freeze. Nice to see how this cliff hanger turns out next week.
Tyler couldn’t deep-freeze Elmon before Elmon could leave, which would put Amy up against Elmon. Tyler wouldn’t do that to Amy.
True, Tyler may not have an option for keeping that from happening. But I don’t think he’ll force it. I’m pretty sure that Elmon’s counting on that.
My biggest concern here is Elmon’s last words here sound like he’s about finished talking, and likely either going to finish Tyler or leave him for dead.
That was what I was reading into it as well. It doesn’t sound like Elmon has a lot of monologue remaining.
This seems a bit like a pocket dimension. I say that because Elmon thinks that the IDS’ `Central` is on the far side of it, rather than being just somewhere in it. Of course, it’s also possible that Elmon is thinking three dimensionally in an 11 dimensional space and has no idea how big the place he’s in really is.
I expect that Elmon feels he has the advantage because
1. He can simply leave and Tyler probably can’t follow him back.
2. Tyler’s probably not going to try to kill his only way out.
It’s interesting though that he’s bothering to continue talking with Tyler. Does he feel like he can get Tyler to change sides? Wouldn’t that be particularly dangerous way to induct recruits? But then, I’d already had the idea that Elmon isn’t as clever as he thinks he is.
There is the question of whether Tyler is clever enough to concede with just the right amount of hesitancy to convince Elmon to help him back out, or if he’ll need a rescue. If a rescue, will it be Mione, Magnolia, Mium, or Eliana who rescues him?
My guess is Eliana. Mium wouldn’t want to take a direct hand. I think Eliana and Mium are still hanging out. It’ll therefore be quicker for Peter to relay to Mium to contact her than either Mione or Magnolia. Plus, it’s more likely that Eliana will be able to pull Tyler out, since she’s already pulled a construct from here.
Elmon did speak like perhaps it was a threat. Breathing isn’t something he necessarily expects Tyler to be doing long term.
On the other hand, he’s still talking, so it might be a “join us or die” offer, believing, likely correctly, that Tyler would still honor a promise made under duress. Especially since even if let out, Tyler won’t soon be able to avoid being dragged back.
As for who may rescue Tyler? I’m not sure it won’t be Tyler. If not Tyler, Peter knows a lot about dimensional travel. I suspect dimensional travel is something where Peter has a lot of auto caster software at the ready.
Peter usually doesn’t like to show his hand that much. It could answer the “can Peter magic” for the natives, a question he’s been careful to keep open.
Sure, clearly doing that from an autocaster could leave open some possibility that he can only autocaster, but just having a spell on his autocaster to do it? I feel like it would still cause quite the stir.
I think you’re right that Peter could, but I think he’d probably prefer to leave it for a Malsan native if they would arrive in time.
I am still fairly convinced Peter can use Ellipses better than he lets on. Particularly in Minus Years he had a habit of spooking people (Kally) when he appeared.
He can clearly use other magic, though maybe with an autocaster. While he blurs the line between magic trick and magic, he did, at the end of the day, make a pen briefly float in mid air with what appeared to be magic.
The most interesting part of that is that Miko, who is by all accounts his closest (human) confidant was suspicious that he cheated, but wasn’t sure how, which takes the level Peter keeps his cards close to his chest to a new height.
The other wildcard is that it is implied the Peter does have at least several implanted cybernetics. It is implied that he has an implant of some kind that it’s off, and there is the obvious that when he wanted to reset Mium, he literally stabbed his arm, as he apparently stores the reset switch there (which is one of the classic pragmatic-but-wtf-Peter things).
If any of those work like an autocaster, and Miko’s attempts to learn to use her new mastery of her implant for magic certainly suggests they should, that really blurs the line more.
It’s my understanding that Peter has the same kind of implant as Miko, more or less. They were both very early recipients, so there may be a version difference between their models. How much of Miko’s medical issues were due to the implant, the procedure to implant it, her own unique medical profile, or her personality isn’t clear. If it’s like a lot of these situations, the answer’s yes, because stuff is complicated.
But I think part of the difference in their health is that Miko keeps hers on because she wants to escape her body and it’s the closest thing she has to giving her that. Peter keeps his off, because there’s a remote casting component in that thing and it scares the crap out of him to just open himself up to… who knows? possibly Kors World. It’s a version 0.x card, so even if there was any thought to security, Peter’s literally one of the test cases.
Now this is a juicy development. I look forward to this branching off a whole host of new mysteries. Looks like Elmon wasn’t entirely bluffing.
Close to title drop?
Closer than ever before!
I have to wonder if one can live in this location. If so, could this be to what Peter referred when inquiring about his aunt’s location?
I expect that Elmon’s comment about being able to breathe for a while may hint at the air that’s brought in when one arrives is the only fresh air the place has gotten in a while. It could be more air comes in when one leaves. But there are no trees, grass, or other plants to refresh the air, no dirt for them to live in, and no sun to power them. So if you want more air while you’re here, you need to make it yourself, or bring it in somehow.
Ditto for food and water, but those are far less immediate concerns.
Not unless we’re not counting actual title drops.
If you look closely, the air is already dispersing, so I think the answer is no, you can’t live here very long. Elmon’s probably just waiting until it’s hard enough to breath that Tyler won’t have a chance to figure anything out, and then he’s popping out of here.
On the other hand, we know Tyler can freeze himself. He’s done it before. So Peter and Co. only need to be fast enough to rescue a Tylercicle, not a Tyler. Therefore, it’s not the race it feels like.
He was also called to task for it when he did it before.
Cryogenic freezing has been more or less debunked as a possibility. Have there been people who have been frozen and brought back? Sure. What’s the percentage like? 0.00something%.
I’ve not heard any actual trials being done with people, but there has been testing done with animals. They found that it can be made to work with very small animals. But the larger the animal is, the more likely the process will kill them. If I recall correctly, the scaling factor’s bad enough it doesn’t work for adult rabbits. We’re much bigger than that.
Even with mice, the process is still damaging, even if it’s not fatal.
I think that Tyler’s power probably works a little better than cryogenic freezing. Tyler’s power doesn’t necessarily just make things cold, it seems to “stop” them. The ice seems to be partially a weaponized side effect of this if anything.
My guess is that Tyler did literally block the wound from bleeding by freezing it, but rather than freezing all of his blood (what typically kills people), but rather he simply “stopped” himself, placing him in some sort of suspended animation (…which also made him very cold, but he did not seem to be actually a block of ice).
I would also note that medical technology of Malsa seems significantly more advanced than ours though. As long as you do not literally die, they seem like they can probably fix it. Rovak implied that being literally blown to pieces (like Ila did his minion) was probably unrecoverable as the “brain goes mushy”, but short of that…
There is also another possibility. The comic world implies some degree of dualism (the mind is a combination of the actual brain and the “soul” or in this case the data stored in Eidos). I would imagine that a mage like Tyler can to some extent preserve their own data in Eidos, forcible preserving things like their mental state and brain from decaying in the material world (as Eidos changes influence the real world and visa versa).
Personally, I would suspect that while it is somewhat reckless, Tyler probably can “freeze” himself again to prevent dying for a protracted period of time, though he still seems to be suffering from the last time he did it, so doing it again so soon may have negative repercussions.
I thought the Kardus wasn’t recoverable because it had been a bit and brains get mushy fast. Plus, it was just a Kardus, so what do you expect?
I agree, I think Tyler can probably suspend himself safely, *if* he’s able to suspend all of himself, *and* either he’s able to put a conditional duration on, they can dispel his effect while he’s not able to sustain it due to being subject to it, or they get lucky with the duration and the time to save him.
Assuming that he can apply the effect to all of him at once, it’s probably actually safer for him to do it to all of him at once. Real world physics may not be applicable in comics, but they do have a tendency to go along with macroscopic medical effects, and edema due to blood and lymph not being able to get through a body part could easily be one of those.
I think the ice is probably more of a spill over effect, and it wouldn’t be too surprising if, after there’s time for the environment to revert to normal, the ice could melt despite the stasis effect remaining.
I also think that dualism is a large part of how Rovak’s i-code works. There’s a bunch of ways it could work, but it’s pretty clear that Rovak’s Hyle body is not itself invulnerable. He can lose limbs and get blown up, at least temporarily.
There have been people who have been brought back from fairly extreme hypothermia, but not from freezing. On the other hand, magic; given that we have people who simply don’t die when they should, being able to safely freeze and recover isn’t out of line.
Panel 4: You can BREATHE here
This is the correct verb form not the noun. However I will say that in America people screw this up quite often.
I think Past made a fix sometime between Elaborate’s comment and your comment. This image has a -1 in the name after the date.
Yup. By the time I was posting earlier today, fixes had been made. No follow up comment from Past though, so he may been in a hurry. Or somnambulant. Possibly both.
Panel 5: There defenses against BEING brought in here, of course…
And I still think Elmon underestimates the danger he is in.
Awesome comic! Awesome Tyler containing comic!
Also I believe that same sentence should be “There are” or at least “There’re”. But as Just_IDD points out this is also very common Murican slang.
We’re still on the new format? Looks like zooming in with my phone produces really nice detail!
Panel 2: I know it doesn’t look like too much is here, does it…
It reads to me as though it should be as written. Rather than talking about how much is there, Elmon is admitting that it doesn’t look very impressive.