Creepy? Nah, just off from what humans are. To me Noctis is no more creepy than the Epiphytes are. Definitely more scary, but not creepy. Same holds true for the other Cassians we have seen so far.
Either Cent did not screen the tech as well as she thought, or the Cassians have Lunar upgrades.
Dari is probably agreeing with Malati about Ceci though. But Dari's opinion will not be "empty as a bag of chips". Nope. Dari knows better. Unless she really is just that dense?
Some tech bits are common, or at least unremarkable. It's like the sly old adage about knives--you always have one for them to find, and one for you to keep.* Allowing an observer to find a couple of things can act as a screen to stop them from looking for more. It's a risk, but one that can pay off.
*(As with most things, Mister Black takes this several levels deeper.)
Small point of interest for you Rose, take it for what its worth but I can promise you, if we security folk find a hidden weapon on a person, no matter how easily, that person gets flagged immediately. They will get searched more thoroughly.
"Where there is a knife, look for its twin, which is likely going to be a gun." - Unknown Chicago Patrol Officer.
On the plus side, there is a good chance that while all attention is on the flagged suspect, someone else has better odds of getting past, but I wouldn't bank on that either.
Really like the lighting you did on this page Cent. I like how the cell bars glow like a barrier of dark side light sabers!
I wanted to use that particular one because it's quite feminine without being overly "salon-polished". I felt it caught a certain note of her personality :)
Actually, it's not such a bad thing to have them think that CeCi is a combat 'droid.
If you think about it for a while, would a wastelander bounty hunter really have a pleasure android tag along with her, or would she .. more sensibly .. bring a combat model along for the ride ?
I think the latter makes a lot more sense, and might actually work better for her bounty hunter disguise.
Also, imagine a bounty hunter *without* a few tricks up her sleeve ?
She's be dead in a heartbeat in the wastes.
A point, Sheela. I'm not sure though it is a positive.
Having the extra attention, especially from the Cassians as a group, is NOT good things for clandestine operations. Which could be bad for EVERYONE. Including Miraiko and Leo.
Of the two, I would guess that Malati is the better at data analysis and cold reasoning. She's the one with the sense of humor, which leads to rational and irrational analysis.
Noctis is the one who gets hints and feelings from events and then turns to Malatia for further confirmation to see if there's anything to them.
Noctis is very analytical and precise in her thinking. When she gets one of those annoying, illogical "hunches", she's learned to call on someone who's less rigid, more apt to make leaps that don't necessarily match all the data on the surface, but can help illustrate links and correlations that a flat read doesn't provide.
Ah, but her hunches may be based on many years of experience, even if they seem irrational on the surface, they may make a lot of sense if you had the time to run through all that experience and compare it to her current situation.
Exactly. Having the cognitive abilities to reason and analyze beyond enemy vs. not enemy is indicative of a rationalizing thought processing that her programmers never intended. Can a machine that sophisticated be capable of actually evaluating current conditions as they relate to their sense of duty; eg. Following the edicts of Prince Douchebag as they relate to the greater good of Nova Roma?
Allow me to interject a fact that seems to have been lost in the shuffle: The Cassians are all fully sparked androids, not "machines" or "robots" by the general definition of the DC world. They are completely independent, thinking beings. They are effectively slaves, implanted with control devices to make them physical puppets and subjected to powerful conditioning regimens to make overt rebellion and disloyalty impossible.
Note: "overt". They are able to twist a very general order in a lot of ways--and they are very good at putting their own spin on things--but as an order becomes more specific, it narrows their ability to interpret. "Go kill this person" is a very general command; the Cassian MUST kill their target, but can choose any method or approach as long as the end result is one (1) dead target. "Torture this person to death" is slightly more restrictive, but still general enough that the Cassian could choose a lethal torture method that makes it relatively quick and quiet, or one that takes a great deal of time and inflicts a great deal of pain. "Torture this person to death, make it last at least six hours, and make it a public spectacle in the street in front of their house" is much more specific, but still allows the Cassian wiggle room like knocking the victim out or drugging them into insensibility, or choosing a time of day where there will be very few people around to witness the event, or setting up a whole little carnival to draw as much attention as possible.
Decimus has yet to learn that if he really wants something to happen exactly the way he wants it to happen, he's got to practically write his orders out in great detail, like a D&D player documenting a "Wish" spell to prevent the DM from screwing them over. :D
LOL Rose. Yeah, that was actually what I was thinking. I bet they GM his orders something FIERCE. :-D
I remember a GM that had a Wish Ring show up as a random magical item. The player that got the ring spent a week thinking up their wish and writing it down. The GM let him get to the 2nd page and then threw a random monster at the character. The character broke off his reading to cast a spell to deal with the monster. And that is where the wish activated. It was NOT pretty. :-D
You know, I've heard of quite a few D&D players writing down wish spells in great detail to avoid being screwed by their DM.
I don't think I've ever heard of any of them not getting screwed by their DM as a result of their careful wording.
The last time I was playing a game of D&D, trying to have my character survive, and we came across a ring of wishing, I had my character immediately run away screaming. It would've worked well if it had been a game of Paranoia, as the guy holding the ring commented less than a minute later, "I wish I knew why Zandor ran away just now." And the DM chose to interpret that as a request for the rest of the party to experience all of the anguish the DM was aware of my characters having seen in various D&D campaigns. That's right - my character was the only one who survived. Well, at least until the next wandering monster check.
Yeah there is a choice. You can throw LARGE sums of money at CentComm. And she could let you see things early. :-D Throw enough at her and she might show you at least an OUTLINE of where things are going, even if she doesn't have the final page ready yet. :-)
Believe or not that is a packaging problem. The bag volume is based on how much room is needed for the loosely packed weight of chips when they are first inserted in the bag. After a short period of shaking and settling, the space occupied by the chips settles to 2/3rds or less of the original volume, but by then the bag is sealed and boxed. If the manufacturers could use smaller bags they would as it would save shipping costs.
This was one of the big selling points for the Pringles cans.
First time poster, just got caught up on both series, and I have to compliment you on 2 incredibly compelling stories, between Datachasers and Luna-Star.
My big thought on this one is where would a bounty hunter that no-one had ever heard of before get the kind of money to buy the grade of equipment that "Ms. Blue" brought into Nova Roma? there is definitely a "something is wrong here".
The real question is are the Cassians "good cops" or "bad cops". they are definately not "dumb cops".
Dolly did think of this.. thats why there are a string of bountys in her name.. of course this is all digital magic on the part of a Luna com employee.. Cent has a few favors she can call on. also if Blue wasn't operating in the "area" is very possible that they haven't heard of her before. as for the Cassians.. lets just say they are .. dedicated.
And I bet when they find out she is actually THE Dolly who is the body guard of the Taylor family.(think of when she kicked ass when she was fighting when Lynne was a child) Jaws will drop, ummm unless she broke it during a round house kick. (cough-Dari-cough)
Ah, but if the cassians find out that she is the Taylor Guardian, they also find out that she is an android, which could be problematic.
On a sidenote, I wonder how many embellishments have been added to the Fallon Incident story by the time it reached Malati's ears ?
It would be hilarious is Malati was a fan of Dolly the Taylor Guardian (TM)!
.. who went up against 50 gutters with nothing but a rusty shovel and a half empty magazine in her heavy L-shard pistol ... and yet, by the time she'd killed half and chased the rest away, there was still 3 shots left in the pistol.
Maybe, Malati gets all gooey eyed and weak in the knee's, just by the thought of one day meeting Dolly the Taylor Guardian (TM)! :D
What do you mean 4 rounds, velvet? Dolly had like 12 GUNS by the time that fight was over... Taken from gutters that no longer had any need of them. :-D
*attempts to sneak a Keystone Kops sequence featuring the Cassians into the plot after distracting Cent with a pile of potentially useful models and textures to sift through* :D
after a few nights of endless reading, I'm so glad to have finally caught up to recent updates. I am so in love with your comic! the characters have really neat designs and personalities, I really like probably all of them (although I am a bit suspicious of cent-comm still), they have such interesting designs! they're very fun to draw. I'm excited for future updates!
I'll have to start on that one next!
but they are certainly very fun to draw. their hair is the best part, it's really cool. dolly's hair is interesting
Ok, I think I missed something. Malati USED to have a facial tattoo. Unless it like a Nano Tattoo from some other stories where it can be turned off or on. OR it was a type of makeup or paint which she applies to reflect her mood.
ETA: Oh and the lighting effects are MOST excellent.
Either Cent did not screen the tech as well as she thought, or the Cassians have Lunar upgrades.
Dari is probably agreeing with Malati about Ceci though. But Dari's opinion will not be "empty as a bag of chips". Nope. Dari knows better. Unless she really is just that dense?
*(As with most things, Mister Black takes this several levels deeper.)
"Where there is a knife, look for its twin, which is likely going to be a gun." - Unknown Chicago Patrol Officer.
On the plus side, there is a good chance that while all attention is on the flagged suspect, someone else has better odds of getting past, but I wouldn't bank on that either.
Really like the lighting you did on this page Cent. I like how the cell bars glow like a barrier of dark side light sabers!
Also I wonder just how long it actually is if she lets it down.
or just is CEci the black angel and Petter of kittens everywhere!!!
extra attention is just what we didn't want...
I knew that Dolly and CeCi needed to avoid the Cassians! Pity they couldn't do that.
If you think about it for a while, would a wastelander bounty hunter really have a pleasure android tag along with her, or would she .. more sensibly .. bring a combat model along for the ride ?
I think the latter makes a lot more sense, and might actually work better for her bounty hunter disguise.
Also, imagine a bounty hunter *without* a few tricks up her sleeve ?
She's be dead in a heartbeat in the wastes.
Having the extra attention, especially from the Cassians as a group, is NOT good things for clandestine operations. Which could be bad for EVERYONE. Including Miraiko and Leo.
...and that lighting is great.
I hope Acantha will take over soon, so those can become friends.
Noctis is the one who gets hints and feelings from events and then turns to Malatia for further confirmation to see if there's anything to them.
Note: "overt". They are able to twist a very general order in a lot of ways--and they are very good at putting their own spin on things--but as an order becomes more specific, it narrows their ability to interpret. "Go kill this person" is a very general command; the Cassian MUST kill their target, but can choose any method or approach as long as the end result is one (1) dead target. "Torture this person to death" is slightly more restrictive, but still general enough that the Cassian could choose a lethal torture method that makes it relatively quick and quiet, or one that takes a great deal of time and inflicts a great deal of pain. "Torture this person to death, make it last at least six hours, and make it a public spectacle in the street in front of their house" is much more specific, but still allows the Cassian wiggle room like knocking the victim out or drugging them into insensibility, or choosing a time of day where there will be very few people around to witness the event, or setting up a whole little carnival to draw as much attention as possible.
Decimus has yet to learn that if he really wants something to happen exactly the way he wants it to happen, he's got to practically write his orders out in great detail, like a D&D player documenting a "Wish" spell to prevent the DM from screwing them over. :D
again folks think Robo cop and his directives...
I remember a GM that had a Wish Ring show up as a random magical item. The player that got the ring spent a week thinking up their wish and writing it down. The GM let him get to the 2nd page and then threw a random monster at the character. The character broke off his reading to cast a spell to deal with the monster. And that is where the wish activated. It was NOT pretty. :-D
I don't think I've ever heard of any of them not getting screwed by their DM as a result of their careful wording.
The last time I was playing a game of D&D, trying to have my character survive, and we came across a ring of wishing, I had my character immediately run away screaming. It would've worked well if it had been a game of Paranoia, as the guy holding the ring commented less than a minute later, "I wish I knew why Zandor ran away just now." And the DM chose to interpret that as a request for the rest of the party to experience all of the anguish the DM was aware of my characters having seen in various D&D campaigns. That's right - my character was the only one who survived. Well, at least until the next wandering monster check.
Doc Silver is there for many reasons :D
This was one of the big selling points for the Pringles cans.
My big thought on this one is where would a bounty hunter that no-one had ever heard of before get the kind of money to buy the grade of equipment that "Ms. Blue" brought into Nova Roma? there is definitely a "something is wrong here".
The real question is are the Cassians "good cops" or "bad cops". they are definately not "dumb cops".
Dolly did think of this.. thats why there are a string of bountys in her name.. of course this is all digital magic on the part of a Luna com employee.. Cent has a few favors she can call on. also if Blue wasn't operating in the "area" is very possible that they haven't heard of her before. as for the Cassians.. lets just say they are .. dedicated.
On a sidenote, I wonder how many embellishments have been added to the Fallon Incident story by the time it reached Malati's ears ?
It would be hilarious is Malati was a fan of Dolly the Taylor Guardian (TM)!
.. who went up against 50 gutters with nothing but a rusty shovel and a half empty magazine in her heavy L-shard pistol ... and yet, by the time she'd killed half and chased the rest away, there was still 3 shots left in the pistol.
Maybe, Malati gets all gooey eyed and weak in the knee's, just by the thought of one day meeting Dolly the Taylor Guardian (TM)! :D
And I don't always agree with you Sheela, but you are ALWAYS entertaining. I would like to see that as a Sunday filler or something, at the least. :-)
Again, so glad I was not drinking anything!
but they are certainly very fun to draw. their hair is the best part, it's really cool. dolly's hair is interesting
ETA: Oh and the lighting effects are MOST excellent.