Don't be silly: Dolly's character arc in this story has been the vigilant, and thwarted, guardian. If that were to be resolved here and now that would either require re-establishing the character with a new arc, retiring the character, or retiring the story. The law of narrative conservation of detail suggests that we probably won't have a long enough story to establish her with a new arc, which leaves the other two options. Which are you in a hurry for?
@ anonymous coward: I respectfully disagree that those are the only avenues for storytelling from even the point of view of "Dolly gets to Lynn". There is a whole wide world of "interesting times" that can be developed at any point. To be honest, you don't want to stretch things out too much with any given arc, either, because tension without release is completely maddening to the audience.
tl;dr: even when Dolly gets Lynn, there's more to do.
Sure, there would still be stuff to do. Dramatically, somewhere not too long after that either Dolly gets a new character arc, she gets demoted to background character status, or the story starts winding down though. The most likely choices for a new character arc have her find Lynn but be unable to extract her and... ??? profit.
Now THERE is a line that takes me back...to the bus entering Lackland (basic training). As we got close, I noticed that the recruit next to me was getting more & more nervous. As we passed under the welcome sign, I leaned over, and gave him AHAYWE. Poor kid looked like he was ready to try to crawl out a wind. >:D
Dolly knows CeCi's primary programming is being overridden, is on her guard and is waiting to see how things play out. Her primary objective is still rescuing Lynn and she'll take CeCi out if it becomes necessary.
Okay, what's that gadget in the subway car and who's controlling it? I wouldn't get in either. They better blast it to be sure.
weather or not Dolly realizes Ceci is or isn't under her own control as long as shes still working for Dolly and not against her Dolly really isn't going to act on it. She HAS to trust Ceci to help her though this part. And Dolly knows two things for sure One Ceci will help her get to Lynn. and She is fairly certain Ceci wont take any direct action against Dolly. So other than that Dolly is not as much over looking as Shes not used to Ceci being in FULL Combat mode for all she knows this is how Ceci is suppose to act under duress.
-Cool glowy rings on not-currently-Ceci's wounds. I guess she has a limit on how many holes get patched at once?
-Dolly is suspicious, but probably isn't going to take too much time on someone dressed up the same as the people she's just been killing left and right. Unless Not-Ceci really creeps Dolly out or she gets past the door RIGHT NOW and mentions Demo being down....
-Cool texture work on that camera bot. I love Stonemason's stuff. Are you using Substance Designer, or a *lot* of bitmap editing?
The Nano builders Ceci is using are a limited supply .. they work from the inside out. making sure Ceci is functional before making her look pretty .. unless she changes the priority .. and under combat conditions the Nano-techs are going to wait for structural damage before moving to cosmetic things. once combat is over they will work on lower priority items .. unless Ceci directs them to do something else.
and yeah Stonmason makes good stuff! I did tweak the surfaces a bit but the maps are still stock :D
Acantha knows how to read the displays .. Door 5 tripped - tram went from point A to point B and time stamps She knows she didnt do any of that .. and so the dates should all say a year ago or more.
I love this comic! However, I wanted to ask a question. The first 3D cgi webcomic I ever read was a space opera about a woman fighter pilot who is reported killed in action by her side and ends up working for the other side of the war. It was completed some time ago. Anyone know a name or link? Thanks!
In case anyone's starting through for the first time or rereading and doesn't know...Crimson Dark continues to this day and has gotten even better, one of the few that matches the art and story telling calibre of DataChasers
Teedee's lines would be full of four letter words. I did a blog entry on a " dream Cast " of voices for characters in Datachasers if you want to check it out.
Big Brother WAS watching. When they go through the door I'm half expecting an unhappy-face image with some form of the slogan, "Your Ms. Lynn's friend was alive. If you'd stopped to save him I'd have held the tram for you. Aeneus"
Let's see... prisoner in an abandoned complex haunted by the ghosts of its dead human inhabitants, run by a mad AI that murdered those people. When do we see the companion cube and the portal gun show up do you think?
So, you remember when FPSes used to be good or you've attended a game design school that had the original HL on the curriculum... big deal? Seriously, I know of a game design course that assigned freaking oldschool DOS-prompt Ultima games (some of the most boring and confusing crap I've ever heard of) on the study list. The teacher whined about young punks who didn't take him seriously when he told them to read the manual and kept asking how to get to the in-game help and tutorial. That is showing age, never mind familiarity with games less than two decades old.
When I read this, the only thing going through my head is my old training. "Beware the Fatal Funnel"
When you go through a door during an entry you are boxed in and you want to get through it as fast as possible.
Now I'm worrying about Dolly and CeCi going through the door and not having clearly defined ID's OTHER than Lynn that they might open fire on Acantha before they KNOW who she is and Arianna already being freaked out might make herself a target as well.
I suspect (based on the "board when ready" comment) that the door isn't opening until Aeneas wants it to open, no matter what Watchdog may think she has to say about it. (Cecil is currently out of the loop.). And I suspect that Aeneas won't be wanting it to open until Acantha is safely on the tram and the tram is underway. Otherwise, Aeneas would probably have said something like, "Please board as quickly as possible. I am hoping to see you soon."
I suspect that observing Dolly's frustration as she sees the tram's tail lights vanishing in the distance would simply add slightly to the mad AI's amusement factor. ^_^
No, I asked what could possibly go wrong with asking what could possibly go wrong. I know that the cliché says asking that question is supposed to lead to negative outcomes, but aside from vague references to the notion of hubris nobody has proven this phenomenon is statistically significant in repeatable experiments that I'm aware of. Accordingly, it's important to research what those negative effects are, their likelihood, and the exact causal mechanism. For science!
(Brilliant page, as usual!)
tl;dr: even when Dolly gets Lynn, there's more to do.
That's where you line up the bee's and throw 'em at the enemy. *sage nod*
She's pretty certain of the horrors that would await her there. While at the end station of this tramway...
But maybe that's just for us techie types.
Okay, what's that gadget in the subway car and who's controlling it? I wouldn't get in either. They better blast it to be sure.
-Cool glowy rings on not-currently-Ceci's wounds. I guess she has a limit on how many holes get patched at once?
-Dolly is suspicious, but probably isn't going to take too much time on someone dressed up the same as the people she's just been killing left and right. Unless Not-Ceci really creeps Dolly out or she gets past the door RIGHT NOW and mentions Demo being down....
-Cool texture work on that camera bot. I love Stonemason's stuff. Are you using Substance Designer, or a *lot* of bitmap editing?
and yeah Stonmason makes good stuff! I did tweak the surfaces a bit but the maps are still stock :D
As for Arianna Stay tuned!
Question: The heck?
A master of other AI's, completely insane, and kills everything within 5 km of his core.
It was a good comic, to say the least.
Yup, Lynn, you did - and why is Arianna so spooked? Did she see a ghost?
Take my comic... please!
.. dammit, I'm showng my age, aint I?
"You are standing in an open hallway west of what looks to be a tram tunnel. There is a locked doorway.
>_ "
And my bag of dice.
@Timotheus: More like bags of dice in my case. XD
When you go through a door during an entry you are boxed in and you want to get through it as fast as possible.
Now I'm worrying about Dolly and CeCi going through the door and not having clearly defined ID's OTHER than Lynn that they might open fire on Acantha before they KNOW who she is and Arianna already being freaked out might make herself a target as well.
I suspect that observing Dolly's frustration as she sees the tram's tail lights vanishing in the distance would simply add slightly to the mad AI's amusement factor. ^_^
Well, me being multi-lingual basically left me no other choice anyway.