Comic for Tuesday, March 8th, 2022
Sorry, this one ran a little late. Bit of shuffling of pages and schedules.
Ila is a little fuzzy on the difference between tired and hungry, but that’s because they are generally pretty similar for her. She is often sleepy when trying to only eat human food, as its a little hard for her to eat enough human food to stay operational (though she gives it a dedicated effort). She would be less constantly hungry if she eats what she is supposed to, but she avoids doing so in order to eat more tasty food. And yes, she’s using one of her magic barriers as luggage cart. It’s something that’s only been briefly touched on, but she ever since uplinking to Mium’s system, her control over her magic is somewhat more refined.
Referring her brother being back is a bit more obtuse, in a similar way to how Naomi differentiates between MYM and Mium. She’s more or less always somewhat connected to MYM currently, but Mium’s actual attention is often elsewhere. With the return of the prototype, a great deal more of Mium’s “personality” is back in Malsa, meaning that he’s a lot more likely to talk to people interacting with his systems (even if they aren’t interacting with the prototype itself). The data Ila is referring was almost certainly already available previously, but she doesn’t typically pay attention to raw data unless Mium tells her to, or she for some reason cares. Ila is arguably worse at being a computer than Miko is.
MYM can talk without his prototypes (obviously), but they contain quite a lot of what most people view as his personality, that does things like talks directly to Naomi, Ila, and Miko (and engages in mass insult based warfare with the later of those).
The reason Ila largely ignored the data previous is the reason she doesn’t quite seem to have grasped why she should care about it yet either. She doesn’t really process that as a threat.
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Page is coming, but may be a little late. Going to guess tomorrow, but maybe Wednesday.
EDIT: Sorry – I’m going to miss this week. This will definitely get better in the coming weeks. Something came up this week that I needed to work with a quick turn around, and it’s taking longer than expected.
Tried to imbed the following image but couldn’t get it to work.
Officer pitchfork:
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcTn-npOMoHoHJVVrk64t6vGGrGvi3pdv4e2VIkVH_0sTBs_NmqVsl_37WsqztMJYdrMM8jXl0ByCmpH&usqp=CAc
I always wonder whether “maybe Wednesday” means during the hours starting Wednesday off or the hours starting Thursday off.
Generally it means early morning the next day, as that’s the most likely time I’ll have finished anything. Unfortunately this time it means “early Monday next week probably”. My apologies folks.
I’m starting to grok the real problem. It isn’t so much a time translation issue, as much as a language barrier.
Nothing that can’t be fixed with a little Rosetta Stone!
Anyone know where to find the Malsan language version?
Malsa, probably…
Well I mean sure, when you say it like that it sounds obvious.
…
No, really just sounds obvious once you point it out.
That does introduce a few logistical problems though.
We just need Past to write us into the story so we can all go look for it!
I smell another Patreon tier!
I think the 4th panel should have “break some things before we get _to_ the labs so they are scared of us”
BTW Past, how long have you been writing this comic?
I know I read the beginning a long time ago, I think before a couple different redraw attempts, I’m wondering if I’m getting close to a decade reading this awesome world.
The first date for a published comic on this site is Dec 23, 2014.
That doesn’t address your question of course, as that doesn’t say when Past first started writing. Unfortunately given the difficulties in translating time stamps between this dimension and Past’s home dimension (probably not Palindra, but maybe not Central either? ) we may never have an absolute date.
It does imply that Past is rapidly approaching the point where he has run this instantiation of the story for longer than any human (or reptilian, as far as we know! ) has held the office of POTUS.
Maybe it is time to start thinking about throwing him a party?
Side note … current POTUS terms are limited to 8 years. However, FDR served 13 years.
Oh CRAP! I’m in THAT dimension!?!
Please don’t let this be the year 2020! Please don’t let this be the year 2020!
It’s worse than you think. Gasoline in Fenner, CA on I-40 is listed at $8.09 for regular and $8.20 for premium and diesel on Gas Buddy. The cost of torches and pitchforks is up 30% from a month ago! Same thing for lumber to build the replacement barn. LOL
Oh thank goodness. That must mean it’s 2022. I’ve got about 3 years to find my way back out!
Pfft. They don’t start setting off the nukes until 2042. You should be fine until then. There’s a wormhole opening in Bermuda in 2039, giving plenty of time to make an exit.
Oh, you need to eat? Well, that’s rough. I’m not sure what to tell you. Maybe encourage more of the locals to be nice to each other and care about their environment?
“Maybe encourage more of the locals to be nice to each other and care about their environment?”
Everyone is a comedian!
Maybe I can wait this one out in Argentina.
Given that we really don’t know how the androids process human food into usable energy, there may not be that many parallels with human digestion. We also don’t know what is in those ration bars that Mium is eating, or whether they are commercially available or whether he makes them himself. And as far as ice cream is concerned, it is mainly raw eggs and milk fat with sugar and flavorings added–not pure sugar.
When the F8 got damaged (see HERE), it revealed that the F8 is mostly non-organic in structure, and could repair itself in eidos.
On the other hand, when Rovak repaired ILA F10 (see HERE), he commented, “She really is an artificial human. Naughty, naughty Avon.” This leaves the question of her basic structure pretty much unanswered. All we know is that she is different from the F5 and the F8. How different? We don’t know that either, but Dr Mir created her after having worked on the other two, so I would be very surprised if their, um, “digestive” processes weren’t similar.
The problem with sugar is that the energy while quickly accessible has a very low saturation capability. If you are active on sugar, you basically have to keep using it. They need to introduce ila to non-sugar tasty food.
My only question is did anyone else pickup on Ila’s comment about her brother’s message?
You aren’t wrong in general terms, but I would imagine an F unit would be able to regulate the speed at which it converts tasty sugar-based food into energy, such that it doesn’t overproduce then exhaust the supply.
besides, pretty sure Ila wouldn’t mind pretty much constantly consuming tasty food until her supply is gone, provided it came in easily-carried packets in a reasonable sized pouch. “Walking along eating snacks” would seem like a good day if you are Ila…
I think ILA’s brothers message may refer to some guys in dark suits carrying guns. These goons don’t seem to learn. ILA does need to be fed but those guys in red beaming down with Kirk and Spock …. oops wrong universe. The annoying people with guns are going up against Naomi, ILA and the green haired mage. Although Artem and Avi need to be protected, I’ll sit and eat popcorn while being entertained by gun goons being destroyed. Mium F5 showing up wouldn’t be a surprise. Also, Ashvalt may have a security team or perimeter waiting to spring a trap.
That list is overkill, with emphasis on the “kill”
If they are going after the kid again, they have made REALLY bad life choices.
Just imagine if they are going after Naomi for ‘revenge’ for her part in the disaster that was the failed kidnapping of the kid.
In the January 3 comic,
https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-january-3rd-2022/
a black suit guy is urging another attempt. The blue haired black suit woman has common sense and is advising against trying anything. The idiot guy also mentions using failed offworld assassins. If I remember correctly, that would be IDS involved in Peter’s staged hit on the consul. LOL!
That seems like a good chance of being whose coming. Good call!
As for food, no simple sugar is ever going to supply the density of calories that a fat or oil can supply. And given that we’re discussing energy specifically, I’m guessing Ila just has a severe sugar tooth. Maybe Mium eats something resembling Crisco or lard?
For all her power, ILA is childlike. She can’t be blamed for wanting tasty food. The food Mium eats might be something like emergency ration bars. Some of those are kind of nasty tasting even though being high in nutrition.
Poor kid just needs introduced to bacon grease.
Fair enough. However, they *might* have been the same idiots who decided trying to track Naomi back to Peter was a good plan, way back at the end of Ch.7 – at which point they should know better.
That’s probably marginally worse. Ila has no particular reason to care about the kid; while going after Naomi is in and of itself suicidal recklessness, doing so in front of Ila is doubling down rather hard on that level of insanity.
It’ll be good to see Lisa get some action. Maybe then people will remember her name.
Admittedly, she’s not one for Naomi-like heroics and is not as interested in full contact sports, so she may not be quite so involved on this one. With this crowd, I could see it being difficult for her to get enough involvement for that fame, but there’s probably multiple ways she could make enough of an impression that y’all will remember the name Lisa in the future.
Who can forget the name Lisa? Lisa Simpson anyway.
I’d recommend trying food that has a mix of sugar and whatever else her body processes for energy. I’d kind of guess fat and protein, but I’m aware it’s just a guess. For all we know, the F series metabolism is virtually nothing like human metabolism, the meal bars that Mium eats are filled with kerosene, and Ila doesn’t like them because her taste buds were modeled after human taste buds because Dr. Mir started with what she knew and didn’t consider what else the F-series units consumed for power.
If that’s the case, I certainly sympathize with Ila. Although, I’d feel the compulsion to point out that kerosene, at least as is sold in the US, has a *lot* of flavor, it’s just not a good one (intentionally so).
First, I’m not recommending kerosene as a food or food additive to ANYONE! Save that stuff for our torches.
That said, I’ll point out that on the 14th I said “fat or oil” would make a more calorie dense food. Kerosene absolutely counts as oil, though usually not as food.
And yes, I’m sure it has a very intense flavor. I’ll take someone else’s word for it though.
I think Ila needs to be aware that generally, Guys with Guns are potentially not only a threat to getting Tasty Snacks, but might actually result in damage to her gifted scarf.
Also, it might be worth just filling a purse with those drink powder sachets and giving it to Ila; Ila seems to like them and as pretty much pure sugar with flavouring added, they should be decent fuel.
F5/F8 suggested to ILA to carry food but apparently she really doesn’t like the taste. She could always take sugar packets from Malsa’s McDonalds equivalent. LOL How easy would it be to damage ILA if she passes out? Have any of the F models taken damage in a battle?
I think that is because Mium’s choice of fuel leaves a lot to be desired for Ila, who apparently has taste buds that either can’t be turned off, or Ila prefers not to turn off.
However, they have already said that they like the drink sachets.
F models have taken combat damage. Mostly they seem to be remarkably self healing.
I feel sorry for the fools who were assigned to crash the shopping trip. Because they are about to run into a huge wall of ‘irregular’ with a potential spice of ‘unexpected’.
Ahh, it really is neat to see exactly how Mium is in many ways Peter’s child. The whole better than a club thing reminds me of Miums “New favorite gun” line referring to Ila.
In the same way as Illa is worse at being a computer, Mium actually is better at interacting with people than Peter’s is. Kally’s obviously used to it, but Peter’s method of showing affection is to tell someone how valuable they are as a tool.
I see. So when my wife tells me I’m a tool, she’s showing affection? Good to know.
“Where I’m from, the highest term of respect is… “tool””
If it’s good enough for Stanley the Tool, I suppose more of us can roll with it
That said, given peter appears to be a generally well intentioned sociopath chessmaster, he does actually mean it as a compliment. I think I’m unlikely to run into another character who does
Considering that Peter is a genius that finds it difficult to truly understand most people and that his modus operandi seems to be to use people and situations to his advantage (with Mium being much the same), I guess it would be meant as a complement. Either people are very useful to him, or they’re not.
Well, we do know that Peter will go to great lengths to protect those he truly cares about (like his younger sister). We’ve even seen him quite mad when their welfare is in question. And it does seem like he takes care of his most important “tools”. So it may not be bad to be considered a valuable tool by him.
I think Peter is ribbing her a bit here Rather than reassuring her, he takes it and runs with it. A sort of “dad joke” humor, that works when there is some amount of comfort in the relationship.
It would be different if she hadn’t prefaced it with “Sometimes I think”. That would come from a very different place, and need a very different response.
If I were Miss Naomi, at this stage I would be hauling rucksack full of sugary snacks to tide Ila over until a fuller recharging opportunity comes along. Not so much that Naomi would see herself needing Ila’s help personally, but she is, after all, traveling with two (other?) young people who are presumably less able to defend themselves.
Exactly. Naomi has seen ILA lapse into sleep twice. Please, Naomi, don’t let this happen again when annoying people with guns are coming.