Alright, Democlus is quite a bit larger than Maraiko. I think she has some serious hardware to let her contemplate carrying him off (remember there were no drag marks).
And Julia is a doctor, a caregiver. Has to try to help, even when it isn't convenient for Miraiko. Sucks to be in love with someone like that, doesn't it Miraiko? :-D
My recollection is that she said that, whilst her identity was fake, her love wasn't. After Julia came on board they kissed.
During the kiss, she contacted Rose to say that Julia was on board. In that conversation she confirmed that she would have eliminated Julia if she had turned her down. So my question is: Does she really love Julia or is it a lie to motivate an asset?
She is a spy and spies lie. Never forget that.
{edit} Handlers falling in love with an asset is a big no-no. However, appearing to love an asset is doing your job.
I believe Miraiko was being totally honest there, HiFranc. The way I read that was of someone laying their heart on the line.
Duty would have compelled Miraiko to kill Julia IFF she was shown to be a threat to the mission. I think if she had been forced to kill Julia, it would have destroyed her. I don't know if Miraiko would have come out as a stone cold killer or just shattered. Fortunately we didn't have to find out because I like both Julia and Miraiko.
Regarding the alt-text, is it possible that Miraiko only calls Julia that when, in her opinion, Julia is being more than usually blonde? Is it possible that Julia hasn't yet picked up on that?
Regarding the art: in the last panel (in my opinion) Miraiko should be bending further forward. Assuming the intent is to show that she is now carrying Democlus -- it isn't a matter of how strong she is, it's a matter of how heavy she isn't. Democlus is a big, heavily armored guy. Once she picks him up, the center of gravity for the system comprised of their combined bodies needs to end up squarely over her feet or else she will topple. So the lighter she is, compared to him, the further forward she has to shift his body to get their combined CG over her feet. Strength is irrelevant to the physics of stability in this case.
Now it's possible that Miraiko is so heavily cybered (... note the pun: 'heavily' ^_^ ...) that her mass dominates their combined CG -- but I kind of think an 800-pound slave girl in the palace probably would have been noticed before now. ^_^
Anyway, there is much wonderful stuff, as always, and it's possible I just misinterpreted the last panel or am mistaken about the physics involved, but I thought I'd try to offer some feedback that I hope will be constructive.
To me that last panel reads as if Miraiko is in the process of picking Demo up, and we are shown this so that we can see her face instead of having it concealed as it probably would be after she has finished arranging her unconscious burden.
You can take the Doctor out of the Hospital and Clinic, burn the Hospital and Clinic down; But, you can't take the Critical Patient away from the Doctor. Does this mean Acantha gets fixed by Julia in the dingy sub level clinic? Also is Lynn going to have to break the bad news to Democlus about his date and the Princess?
That last panel scared me, it looked like someone was sneaking up behind her and was just about to slit her throat. Took a couple quicktakes to realize what was happening.
Hate to conspiracy theory anything but it is very strange that after the tooth and nail uphill from 10 to 4 suddenly back to 11. Makes one wonder if others might not have a way to "spoof" Top Web and vote several times a day. It says once from each machine, however it bounces my vote from cell phone after I vote from desktop. Says same ISP had voted today already.
If TopWeb is checking the IP address you come from (most likely), then when at home with your phone connected to the WiFi, all your devices in the house are seen as from the "same" address - that of your router (the public address assigned to you from your ISP). The router does NAT (Network Address Translation) to spoof the un-routeable 192.168.x.x private address so your packets can travel out into the wide wild world. My phone can vote from multiple places as a "computer" in each different WiFi location, and then just a phone over the cell network.
If you are actually voting from the cellular network, these generally use transparent NAT, so you are sharing the IP with many other users on the same provider -- probably just someone else voted before you.
As for cheating, there is no doubt about it with "Theatrics" (currently #2): they got 10000 votes within a day -- and barely moved since. "TwoKinds" (currently #1) also seems fishy, since they already have almost as much votes as all of last month IIRC. (They have always been jumping between good yet not outstanding results, and being far ahead of everyone else -- so I guess there has been on-and-off cheating involved for a long time...)
The rest looks pretty regular though. Note that *some* amount of fluctuation in votes is pretty normal... Relative to the other entrants that got similar placement last month, Datachasers isn't *that* far behind when comparing the actual number of votes so far.
Also, most of the entries ahead of Datachasers right now are pretty good stories too, so it's not totally shocking. (Well, except for "By The Book", which always seemed overrated to me; and "Reality Quest", which is among the least interesting web comics I have ever seen... I suspect there is some cheating involved with the latter at least.)
So, regarding the upper-left corner of panel 1 and subsequent panels ... who's watching?
Unless I am misinterpreting, the surveillance camera's light is on, but at this point in the timeline the attention of Aeneas et. al. is rather forcibly being pulled elsewhere (or even several different elsewheres). So, ... who's peeping?
Probably no one. Even on an ordinary day there is a good chance it would be unmonitored. Aeneas might not be tied into that camera (might have been added after the coup attempt and not tied into his system). Even if it is tied in, Aeneas wasn't monitoring them at that time. Any human operator isn't likely to be monitoring it either (I mean this is a maintenance hallway, obviously NOTHING of consequence ever happens down here). Plenty of other things to keep their attention.
Plus Dr. Silver's jamming of the system is likely to be affecting the cameras too (I certainly would want to deprive the opposition of all the intel I could). And that doesn't even count what Rose might have done to them (that time stamp was before CeCi invaded the system, before she was plugged in even). We know Rose was adept at hacking Nova Roma's cameras, they probably only reported what she wanted them to.
In areas of the palace like the maintenance levels, where very little of interest tends to happen, the cameras just record the feeds to be reviewed in the event that something does happen. Mind you, there's always the chance that some maintenance person who's up to shady shit might have disabled or re-routed the cameras that would otherwise give the game away. Miraiko actually looped the feeds on this section some time ago, so while the cameras are active, they're not picking up anything of actual use.
@Stormwind, if the camera's working at all it won't be unmonitored. Today we already have systems that do facial recognition well enough that police(or, you know, crooks who want to break somebody's knee) can feed it a high-enough resolution photo of, eg, a football stadium and it can find a particular face in about a minute.
And it follows well enough that in neighborhoods where there are enough security cameras (and enough is surprisingly few) the automatics can keep track of a Person Of Interest in real time.
I can't imagine that, in the time of DataChasers, a camera wouldn't know the faces of all the people who are usually in the palace and autonomously "watching" anything interesting that goes on where it can see.
And this? This is more interesting than anything else that camera can see from its viewpoint, so this is going to be what it's tracking, and it's going to know who all the people are, and monitored or not it's probably going to call for somebody's attention.
The question of course is whether the somebody who takes the call has More Important Things To Do Right Now.
I'm either too buzzed right now (very VERY possible).... or I'm putting together in my tiny brain that the other crew was just at the scene with nox's dead beheaded corpse and there WAS no Democlus! W...what's the deal with that... WAS IT A SET UP??? What is the meaning behind this?? Lol
It's not desertion if it's involuntary. His rearguard action was (IMHO) within the scope of his original orders to safeguard Princess Acantha. Following which, he was cruelly deprived of consciousness. As long as he makes a legitimate effort to report in as soon as he has the capability to do so, he should be exonerated if anyone tried to press a desertion charge.
Based on his wounds, that may be days, and since Julia and Mariako are "taking their leave", he may not have the opportunity to report for weeks.
Plus, 60 minutes from "now", Maxus is going to be pretty damned pissed that he's disappeared. Enough so that he has a cassian tracking him.
This is either going to go well for Julia and Miriako, or it's going to go well for Democlus. I don't see all 3 of them getting a happy ending out of this scenario.
That's not how I read the situation at all. I read Maxus for concern about Democlus, not anger. I suspect he's aware of the possibility that Democlus deserted his duty, but considers it far less likely than that 'unexpected circumstances' have intervened. However, what field commanders do hate with a passion is unidentified 'unexpected circumstances', because they are often found in close association with 'nasty surprises'. (Disclaimer: I have never been a field commander, nor served with one. This is just unfounded speculation on my part.)
Julia and Miraiko are fleeing the city, so (depending on what laws actually apply) they could be in trouble for that. We don't know, for example, what Setorius might be in a position to say about it. Miraiko is definitely in trouble if it comes to light that she is an espionage agent for a foreign power and she falls back into the hands of Nova Roma security forces. (Disclaimer: I have never been a member of Nova Roma security forces.) However, that has nothing to do (IMHO) with dragging Democlus away. If anything, they might plead for a degree of leniency if they can show that they saved his life.
Note that all of the above presumes someone more or less rational is in the decision-making role. If Decimus was still in charge, salting and flaying for everybody! (Disclaimer: I have never been Decimus. ^_^)
Julia and Maraiko are fleeing the city, yes. Next stop Shinedo. If they make it to Shinedo safely, they have sanctuary.
When Demiclus awakes, he will be in a hospital bed, in a foreign land. at which point, he is either a prisoner, another person granted sanctuary, or a "Guest". Even if Tokyo Rose Informs Maxus of Democlus' condition upon arrival in Shenedo, he is still a pawn in a diplomatic chess game between TR and Nova Roma.
You are correct about "unexpected circumstances" turning into "Nasty Surprises". This scenario is actually a case in point.
Democlus is NOT in trouble. The people that are trouble are the FUCKING ASSHOLES THAT KEEP SHAKING THIS HEAD!!! ::Releases another 'malfunctioning' combat drone to deal with them::
Let us grant, for a moment, your scenario where Julia, Miraiko, and the unconscious Democlus reach Shinedo all alive and in the best health that can be expected. Democlus wakes, a bit disoriented, and asks, where he is, how he came to be there, and where Princess Acantha is. He gets some (but not all) of his questions answered and is informed that he is free to go wherever he wants as long as he doesn't want to go anywhere of which his hosts disapprove -- meaning he is the politest kind of prisoner or the most circumscribed kind of guest. He asks if he can speak to his superiors in Nova Roma, they bring him a LunaCom terminal and advise him he'll have to call collect. If he calls the Guard switchboard at the Black Palace, identifies himself, and asks for instructions, he's free and clear -- he did everything he's supposed to do. Happy endings all round, break out the sake and wait for the diplomats to arrange repatriation. I wouldn't expect the politics to be overly complicated because, in my opinion, he's just not that big a piece. The far more complicated ripples in international relations caused by the regime change in Nova Roma aren't going to be impacted by him, what he knows, or what happens to him one way or another, unless someone does something really stupid. (IMHO)
I don't think it's going to happen this way because (again, IMHO) Julia and Miraiko don't need the headaches. Partly what's going to happen probably depends on what kind of medical facilities he needs. I am content to let the tale unfold.
I think that, as the person who was assigned to guard the safety of the princess and did so, against overwhelming odds, and very nearly at the cost of his own life, makes him a pretty damn big piece of the situation.
I know that's what soldiers get paid for and it's what's expected of them in a crisis, but I think Acantha, when she discovers what happened, will agree.
However, he's not someone whom anybody could further an agenda by killing or imprisoning or silencing, and he's not somebody that anyone who's left standing after this is likely to want revenge on. So apart from an "attaboy," a decoration, and likely a promotion from Maxus, I don't think he's very high on anyone's agenda.
Dr. Julia, an authorized and licensed Nova Roma medical official, is relocating a comatose wounded Nova Roma military casualty for the purposes of medical treatment (Evac). I don't see anyone crossing any lines here.
hehe Drunk Serpenty :D giggles Yeah we rolled the time back we have a LOT going on at once. And this upcoming scene answers a lot of questions ! And keep a eye out for two cameos! :D One from a player in my RPG game and the second from a comic you all know. ( at least those of you from CF do.
Is it Just me or does the interaction between Julia and Miraiko remind anyone else of the Interaction between Tokyo Rose and Galina?
It's a interesting idea... who is to say that Rose might be inhabiting a Doll in a much more full way then Centcomm making Ceci a clone version of part of herself?
Hell yes, I think I just shipped bad ass Julia with Bad ass Tokyo Rose, the human mind behind her I mean. (Romantic here, think Rose needs love from everyone, awesome lady that she is.)
It could also just be being AROUND Tokyo Rose has rubbed off significantly on Miraiko so much that I am seeing shadows of her.
Luckily, she's good melee AP carry, so she can do it. :)
And Julia is a doctor, a caregiver. Has to try to help, even when it isn't convenient for Miraiko. Sucks to be in love with someone like that, doesn't it Miraiko? :-D
During the kiss, she contacted Rose to say that Julia was on board. In that conversation she confirmed that she would have eliminated Julia if she had turned her down. So my question is: Does she really love Julia or is it a lie to motivate an asset?
She is a spy and spies lie. Never forget that.
{edit} Handlers falling in love with an asset is a big no-no. However, appearing to love an asset is doing your job.
Duty would have compelled Miraiko to kill Julia IFF she was shown to be a threat to the mission. I think if she had been forced to kill Julia, it would have destroyed her. I don't know if Miraiko would have come out as a stone cold killer or just shattered. Fortunately we didn't have to find out because I like both Julia and Miraiko.
Now it's possible that Miraiko is so heavily cybered (... note the pun: 'heavily' ^_^ ...) that her mass dominates their combined CG -- but I kind of think an 800-pound slave girl in the palace probably would have been noticed before now. ^_^
Anyway, there is much wonderful stuff, as always, and it's possible I just misinterpreted the last panel or am mistaken about the physics involved, but I thought I'd try to offer some feedback that I hope will be constructive.
You did great there, Cent...
@alt text: ...aaawwww... so sweet... <3 ♡
As for cheating, there is no doubt about it with "Theatrics" (currently #2): they got 10000 votes within a day -- and barely moved since. "TwoKinds" (currently #1) also seems fishy, since they already have almost as much votes as all of last month IIRC. (They have always been jumping between good yet not outstanding results, and being far ahead of everyone else -- so I guess there has been on-and-off cheating involved for a long time...)
The rest looks pretty regular though. Note that *some* amount of fluctuation in votes is pretty normal... Relative to the other entrants that got similar placement last month, Datachasers isn't *that* far behind when comparing the actual number of votes so far.
Also, most of the entries ahead of Datachasers right now are pretty good stories too, so it's not totally shocking. (Well, except for "By The Book", which always seemed overrated to me; and "Reality Quest", which is among the least interesting web comics I have ever seen... I suspect there is some cheating involved with the latter at least.)
Unless I am misinterpreting, the surveillance camera's light is on, but at this point in the timeline the attention of Aeneas et. al. is rather forcibly being pulled elsewhere (or even several different elsewheres). So, ... who's peeping?
Plus Dr. Silver's jamming of the system is likely to be affecting the cameras too (I certainly would want to deprive the opposition of all the intel I could). And that doesn't even count what Rose might have done to them (that time stamp was before CeCi invaded the system, before she was plugged in even). We know Rose was adept at hacking Nova Roma's cameras, they probably only reported what she wanted them to.
(Ok, Black... a Deal's a deal... gimme back my wallet)
And it follows well enough that in neighborhoods where there are enough security cameras (and enough is surprisingly few) the automatics can keep track of a Person Of Interest in real time.
I can't imagine that, in the time of DataChasers, a camera wouldn't know the faces of all the people who are usually in the palace and autonomously "watching" anything interesting that goes on where it can see.
And this? This is more interesting than anything else that camera can see from its viewpoint, so this is going to be what it's tracking, and it's going to know who all the people are, and monitored or not it's probably going to call for somebody's attention.
The question of course is whether the somebody who takes the call has More Important Things To Do Right Now.
I'm either too buzzed right now (very VERY possible).... or I'm putting together in my tiny brain that the other crew was just at the scene with nox's dead beheaded corpse and there WAS no Democlus! W...what's the deal with that... WAS IT A SET UP??? What is the meaning behind this?? Lol
and I'm concerned for Democlus at the moment, cause the Evil Duo have just changed him from a dead hero to a living Deserter...
Plus, 60 minutes from "now", Maxus is going to be pretty damned pissed that he's disappeared. Enough so that he has a cassian tracking him.
This is either going to go well for Julia and Miriako, or it's going to go well for Democlus. I don't see all 3 of them getting a happy ending out of this scenario.
Julia and Miraiko are fleeing the city, so (depending on what laws actually apply) they could be in trouble for that. We don't know, for example, what Setorius might be in a position to say about it. Miraiko is definitely in trouble if it comes to light that she is an espionage agent for a foreign power and she falls back into the hands of Nova Roma security forces. (Disclaimer: I have never been a member of Nova Roma security forces.) However, that has nothing to do (IMHO) with dragging Democlus away. If anything, they might plead for a degree of leniency if they can show that they saved his life.
Note that all of the above presumes someone more or less rational is in the decision-making role. If Decimus was still in charge, salting and flaying for everybody! (Disclaimer: I have never been Decimus. ^_^)
When Demiclus awakes, he will be in a hospital bed, in a foreign land. at which point, he is either a prisoner, another person granted sanctuary, or a "Guest". Even if Tokyo Rose Informs Maxus of Democlus' condition upon arrival in Shenedo, he is still a pawn in a diplomatic chess game between TR and Nova Roma.
You are correct about "unexpected circumstances" turning into "Nasty Surprises". This scenario is actually a case in point.
Oh Magic Hate Ball, is Democlus in trouble?
I don't think it's going to happen this way because (again, IMHO) Julia and Miraiko don't need the headaches. Partly what's going to happen probably depends on what kind of medical facilities he needs. I am content to let the tale unfold.
I know that's what soldiers get paid for and it's what's expected of them in a crisis, but I think Acantha, when she discovers what happened, will agree.
However, he's not someone whom anybody could further an agenda by killing or imprisoning or silencing, and he's not somebody that anyone who's left standing after this is likely to want revenge on. So apart from an "attaboy," a decoration, and likely a promotion from Maxus, I don't think he's very high on anyone's agenda.
It's a interesting idea... who is to say that Rose might be inhabiting a Doll in a much more full way then Centcomm making Ceci a clone version of part of herself?
Hell yes, I think I just shipped bad ass Julia with Bad ass Tokyo Rose, the human mind behind her I mean. (Romantic here, think Rose needs love from everyone, awesome lady that she is.)
It could also just be being AROUND Tokyo Rose has rubbed off significantly on Miraiko so much that I am seeing shadows of her.
P.S. I'm still in love with Kiku, even though she said that I was 800 years her senior, and it would never work.