Comic for Monday, September 3rd, 2018
It is sort of weird updating from a buffer, particularly when I got as far as ahead as I was when I drew this one, because this is now a comic I draw like… weeks ago, so talking about it is weird and abstract. Speaking of buffers, next Monday we will have a double comic! I know, because I just finished drawing it… (that’s the new parlence for a not-half-comic, right? 😉 ). I don’t think we are going back to those full time, but it was a page that needed more page, so I was compelled to do that as a normal full page.
We still have a week of buffer currently, which is pretty given that my last two or so weeks were basically a pile of donkey shit and poor sleep. Hopefully things are a little more sorted out; next week I have to do basically everything at work because it seems like everyone else is on PTO, but it strikes me that if they are all on PTO, how much work do I actually need to do? We shall see.. I guess it depends on the intensity on which things catch on fire and start inevitably burning to ground.
That said, I’m being told that I have to take some PTO soon myself (as I don’t really take PTO unless I am traveling typically, as I don’t see the point given that its not like someone is going to do the work when I am not there, it just means I have to do more work later), so maybe I will have more time to draw comics after all (I am not holding my breath on this, they are squabbling about this at the executive staff level). I will be on actual vacation the last week of October (as in travelling out of the country). Hopefully we have enough buffer by then to not have interruption of schedule, but if we do, well, we’ll talk about it then. You know, when I took this job, I actually thought I would have more time for drawing comics than when I was self employed… ah… well, maybe someday I will go back to self-employed 🙂
Speaking of that… we got a new patron! Many thanks to our newest patron, and all the patrons, and all the readers, and, well, everyone reading this bizarre little life-comic blog I run here in the ramble box. I am going to go update the wiki some more. Been adding little bits and pieces to it.
Loading ...
Okay, they talk about, like, four or five or something different potential targets in the conversation, and that’s assuming they even hinted in that conversation who the target actually is.
(Curious as to what his actual goals are supposed to be though. And how good he’s supposed to be at it. He’s getting thrown into an arena with two Summers, two Keplers, Biana, and Sophie. And that’s just what they can officially have a good idea of the capability of, before mentioning Mium, Ila, Weber, Rovak…..Meyer….um…the other Orish guy, everybody else I’m forgetting….)
I get the feeling from the conversation he is not really a duelist sort. By the implication of the conversation, he seems to imply that if Kally found him, he would be as good as dead. Given that he primarily seems concerned by Tom, I would guess his MO is stealth (matched against Tom’s MO that is also stealth).
Probably more the “put a bomb on a plane” sort, from his general look and demeanor.
He could also be primarily concerned about that vagabond brother of Kally’s. But I agree that he is probably a stealth type. I don’t have any feel for if he would be more inclined to bomb things, snipe people, or poison them. Maybe he has a different MO than those, even.
My guess is that we will get to see what’s in the briefcase, as he will use it or attempt to use it on Palindra. That said, he may wait until he feels like his situation is desperate.
Vagabond does describe Tom and Nathan both pretty well. Before I decided they were going to show up properly in this story I would joke that I would just draw them in the background people would assume they were hobos they kept being caught up in ridiculous background skits.
They are characters from a story I wrote before starting comic, but that story sort of ended up becoming the comic when I decided to shift the focus somewhat of what story was being told, so it’s muddy if they are properly characters in this story or characters from another story that just so happens in intersect with this one a lot.
Oh my, the implications on this page.
“No one from Palindra or Central does that anymore”
“Try not to use it on one of our worlds”
Implying other civilized worlds besides Palindra and Central. Tokiwa works for Sophie according to the wiki, but the existence of other worlds indicates more players in the game, or at least potential players.
So then is Mr. Smokes some sort of inter-dimensional mercenary?
What would you use for payment in inter-dimensional deals? Probably rare materials that can be traded away like gold or some such. Hmm would different dimensions have different occurrences of raw materials? Some things should be the same (like iron because of how fusion in stars works) but could say gold be really common on one world because of some event during the planets formation that dumped a bunch onto the surface?
There is definitely some sort of bigger game going on here. Is this perhaps what Peter discovered that made him go rogue?
“‘Try not to use it on one of our worlds’
Implying other civilized worlds besides Palindra and Central…”
Personally, I think this implication is rather significant and has other implications. It also implies that his “payment” is a really, really nasty weapon. Perhaps it is a top-of-the-line, experimental auto-caster that might even give someone like Nathan Summers a run for his money?
Yeah that first one and his surprise that they actually paid it….I’ll bet weapon.
My question is: what scale weapon? (Guessing it’ll wipe at least half a city, be it physically or technologically.)
Heavier elements are also side effects of star fusion, in so far as I understand it. Gold (platinum, iridium, etc) seems unlikely to be abundant outside of a fairly old galactic core. Even then there might be some balance between the rate of generation and the rate of black hole consumption.
Maybe. Or maybe I’m reading too much into the recent HiggsBoson experiments.
That is one of the things that I am still curious about, and that’s what the nature of the different worlds/dimensions are. How different are the worlds? Are the all the same size/composition? Are they in the same galaxy? Are they parallel versions of the same planet or are they entirely different?
It has been implied that Central is closer to earth-like, and we have seen enough of Palindra’s map to suggest it is not, so I suspect they are not “parallel” worlds, but that makes the presence of humans on all of them very interesting. Either humans are a fundamental part of reality that always show up, or the humans originated from one world and spread out across the other worlds.
I am just really curious about the cosmology of the setting.
I think this is something that might come up more in the second half of the story. Once we have seen more of it in comic I will probably elaborate more on the wiki. I will probably elaborate a little more on the wiki as is.
Just to clarify a few things:
Star FUSION produces elements up to and including iron. Elements heavier than iron are produced by FUSION reactions occuring in a supernovae (“exploding” massive star). Search for “stellar nucleosynthesis” to read more.
According to research on pyroxenites, there IS plenty of gold on Earth, just it’s mostly inaccessible inside the Earth’s mantle. Other research also indicates that the accessible deposits of gold on the surface of the Earth are the result of meteorite bombardment AFTER Earth was formed (200 million years seems to ring a bell). Search for “tungsten isotopic composition” to discover how far behind your teachers are in their science reading.
So maybe in another part of OUR galaxy, there is a planet with lots of gold at the surface because it had LOTS of meteorite collisions during it’s formation.
Or there could be one that has a lot of gold at the surface due to insane amounts of wind and rain combined with plate tectonics. This world would of course have other heavy elements at the surface (that is, things that are less subject to wind and rain than dirt).
But if the dimensional gates allow travel in directions besides x, y, z, and t (not that there’s any reason to think that t would be a dimension they would allow travel in, but it’s a common theme in science fantasy involving other dimensional travel – presumably because it’s easy to understand it as a direction that isn’t x, y, or z), with different universes having differing rules of magic, the possibility of them having differing rules of physics and chemistry come into play.
And at that point, you have the opportunity for some really interesting economics. We talk of the value of gold in one world or another because of its relative rarity. But that doesn’t need to be the only variable. Maybe in one world, gold is highly valued because it’s shiny and conducts heat and electricity moderately well, while being relatively malleable. And in another world, presumably quite distant from there, gold is worthless because it’s a heavy but inert substance that’s of little use besides making low quality white paint that color fades over time because the gold isn’t really bound to it. But meanwhile, lead in this other place is super valuable because of what its properties are like. And now you have a society that is very interested in turning their gold to lead, and would be happy to do business with a trading partner that will allow them to do exactly that.
Alf’s space ship has it’s plumbing made of gold. I always took this to mean the water and septic system.
Wait, wait, wait. Tokiwa seems to not like Biana or Arron here. So is she working for a third(/fourth/fifth…) side that wants something completely different? OH BOY.
Tokiwa works for Sophie, the director of Situation Containment. Sophie is the one that actually sent Atter out on the a rampage. Sophie is also the boss of David and Elizabeth (the mage that beat the princess).
Sophie’s motives in all of this seem strange. She does not seem particularly interested in Biana’s problems, but cares even less about the opinion of the locals, which is impressive. Sophie might also have been Kally’s mentor based on Nathan’s comments, and is presumably a very powerful mage on her own right, as Nathan commented that Kally and Sophie fighting would be catastrophic.
Yeah, at some point I should probably put a hiring freeze on the cast, but that’s just not my style…
Least with the wiki I hope things are a little easier to sort out, and if they are not… well, I can blame you attentive readers now for not sharing your smartness 😉 (I joke! People have selflessly explained this comic in the comments for more hours than I can imagine as is!)
Panel 6: “If you don’t care of this…”
Other than that, being isolated makes you an easy target for anyone who’s interested in your movements. Usually being in a crowd is less suspicious. Not criticizing the artist, but the character.
Being an easy target for someone to see you are there is one thing.
Actually finding out what the topic of conversation was, and not getting caught noticing any of this? Probably why they’re so far away from anybody else…easy to see who’s trying to eavesdrop.
I like being bring the guy in the office when been everyone else is on PTO. Mostly because they’re not there.
Panel 6, “If you don’t care of this…”. Probably needs the word ‘take’.
-G-
I prefer to be the guy who is telecommuting while everyone else is on PTO. Because I really don’t need the time on the road…
You’re apparently not married with children.
Now you that mention it, the guy that always stayed the latest and showed up the earliest at work had the most kids…
I was all set to try to rebut this, and then I realized that my coworkers who really like spending time with their children aren’t allowed to telecommute outside of on-call support.
That said, I’m also aware that the coworkers I mentioned liking spending time with their children would still telecommute outside of on-call support when they were the only person in their group who wasn’t on PTO, permission or no… (neither of them were fired, but they have both since left the company.)
Most people at my office started telecommuting when they don’t have to on client site with my work was like “lulz you guys don’t get desks anymore” and it became like some sort of bizare cafeteria seating zoo where you have find an open desk and god help you if you want a functioning station to plug your laptop in, not to mention keyboard and mouse…
Yeah, as a developer, I did not find this all very amusing.
Tgape, ask forgiveness not permission. If forgiveness is in short supply, it might be time to start interviewing anyway.
I like spending time with my kids, but finding a quiet place to work? That’s a challenge.
We have the cafeteria style seating as well. Assigned space within it, but 10 people in an open office with 4 conference calls….
So I do the reverse telecommute. Physically my body is planted in the office, but my mind and browser are on Palindra.