So is it weird enough for you? I can hear the sound of links to my site being deleted even as I write this. “Not only is it taking him forever to draw it, I think he’s going off the deep end, too!”
Eh heh heh heh hehh… yes, even I admit that it’s weird, and I know I keep saying this, but REALLY, honestly, for REALLY REAL, I am so totally going somewhere with this. At any rate, I’m sorry about the delay last week. I hope you all know that I only do that when it’s unavoidable. But now I have a little stability in between big events, so hopefully I’ll be on track for a week or two. Plus, it has been absolutely crazy, brain-freeze cold in New England where I live, so there really isn’t much to do but work, sleep, and draw comics. And study for licensing exams. And all the OTHER stuff I do, my super-secret projects! Okay, now I’m just being incoherent. I really ought to just go to bed.
So! Until next week, folks, all the best!
I like it! At first I thought it was virtual reality, now I’m not so sure.
😀
As the movie line runs, “What is real? How do you define ‘real?'”
–M
“What is real? How do I ever know that something exist out there? What if everything I see or feel is thus a set of stimuli, provided to me by a combuter? What if I am but a brain in a jar, someone is experimenting with?”
– Laboratory experiment #12632. Recorded 12:42 2503/5/12
Recomended: Termination
(c) Apha Centaury ((Biolab flavor text. Word may be not exact))
😀
My favorite line from Alpha Centauri! I actually used “the first triad of victory” in a college essay once – got an A! Coincidence?
–M
It’s the holodeck from the Entertrpise/Voyager/whatever. Any minute now somebody with a russian accent will beam in and ask where the “nuclear wessels” are.
There are plenty of Russians around to say it, too, so you may yet get your wish!
–M
I’m British, I grew up on a weekly diet of Doctor Who and Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’m used to much stranger things in my sci-fi, but as anyone who ever watched Twin Peaks will attest, there are limits to how far you can draw out the wierd before we start to lose patience in waiting for a pay-off. JJ Abrams learned that too on Lost
I’m doing my damnedest to ensure that this is neither a Lost-style cosmic wank, nor a Twin Peaks-stylepostmodern belly-button exploration. But I’m also trying to avoid doing too much of what I think weakens good sci-fi, that is, putting in too many explanations too soon. Ghost in the Shell is particularly guilty of this, as I’ve said in the past, as is Star Tree’s tendency to explain away difficult plot points with technobabble. Personally I think Battlestar Galactica came closer to the mark, and I liked the willingness of the show’s writers to buck the “us killing, good; them killing, bad” cliché, though they were really reaching for a way to wrap up that series, and “it’s all because of technology” was a cop out.
Nevertheless, I’m treading a tough line here, but this isn’t just “make it up as you go along” sci fi. I really do have an endpoint in mind and this is part of it.
–M
Well, to balance out the sound of people deleting your links, I’ll add a second bookmark… I for one am pretty psyched for each new page…
You just made my week, man. That is definitely one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. Thank you so much!
–M
No way am I deleting this site!
Things are now beginning to get interesting as part of the plot…I look forward to what is coming up for this chapter and others!
😀
Glad to hear it! It’s just getting interesting for me, too.
–M
Hm… The field looks remarkably familiar (though it has no armor wrecks this time… But the sky palette, and horizon line are familiar…)
The ruins are recognizable too (The snow is a dead giveaway… :P)
So, by exception, I’d guess that Mansion is one of Rucker’s nightmares… Just a guess though…
Heh heh heh… “WINK!”
Ahem… That is to say, “You might very well think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment!” 😀
–M
Oh, now things are really beginning to look interesting.
I really like sci-fi that keeps things realistic for the most part and introduce only one major element of unaccountable deviation from the established laws of physics instead of going all bat-shit insane with stuff that later goes completely unexplained or even dismissed.
I also like the way the characters seem to respond realistically to this new development- “what is it? We don’t know, but don’t poke it!”
Thanks, man! I tried to make their response seem genuine. They aren’t scientists, like Star Trek. They’re soldiers in a war, and are edgy about the unexpected. But yes, I am trying to confine the “woah this is just crazy” stuff to the reasonable.. and, ultimately, largely explicable.
–M
Are they conducting any scientific tests to see if these places are real? A spectrum analysis would show whether it’s actually the sun shining or not, given its unique emission lines. Not to mention attempt to collect samples and whatnot.
Then again, it’s a military base; the only real scientific stuff going on is apparently building Thermonuclear weapons. Why they would do that in War-torn Congo instead of a nice, safe lab buried in the Rockies or hidden under a Caribbean island I have no idea. 😛 That part seems rather silly to me, far more than any “woo, Mike turned everything into an SCP” sort of thing.
In any case, I’m not jumping ship yet, but you should know that while keeping a mystery alive is a good thing ’til the end of the story, if you don’t answer SOME questions every now and then, well, people lose interest.
In other words, while I’m patient, I hope to see something more than mystery piled upon mystery, which is basically almost all we’ve gotten so far. It was a nice reveal with the ridiculously forward-positioned nuke lab and the world-ending bombs o’ doom, but I hope we find out a little bit of WTF is going on.
Also, I don’t speak Russian; are you ever gonna show translations? Seeing a page and having absolutely no idea what’s being said is extremely boring.
I’m glad you’re sticking with it, because this chapter and the next are going to be for you -a lot of important things will be revealed as we approach the midpoint of the book, and I think (hope) you’ll find what you’re looking for. As I said above, I dint want this to be a big wank like Lost so I’m trying to make an interesting but reasonable story arc. This set of chapters is a big part of the setup for that.
–M
You know… My first reaction was also “The hell? Are there no one curious enough just to check if the snow is real?”
But then again… They are all military. So from their wiev if something is curious and shiny = 99% it’s a booby trap. Do not touch.
Besides… all they have to shut those locations from their base is internal doors. And they are not likely to be designed to survive anything serious. So IF there is something hostile out there – it’s safer not to show yourself.
So it’s definately proper that they are not performing any scientific tests.
((And the closes thing they have to science is a medbay… amd it is currently busy examining Sarah… Planty of test to perform))
A little fuzz won’t scare me away.
It just got more more mysterious, I cant go without knowing whats happening!
But why Is the Colonel soo cool about “the thing”? I dont think his experence and training could help to be lees impressed.
Considering Zaballa and he orchestrated the mass murder of millions a little crazyness won’t scare or impress him.
Not to mention that he’s seen some pretty crazy stuff in his time. There was Singapore… but well, we’ll get into that later, perhaps.
–M
“You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter: The Scary Door.”
“You’re entering a realm which is unusual. Maybe it’s magic, or contains some kind of monster… The second one. Prepare to enter the Scary Door.”
“You’re on a scenic route through a state recreational area known as the human mind. You ask a passer-by for directions, only to find he has no face or something. Suddenly up ahead, a door in the road. You swerve, narrowly avoiding The Scary Door.”
“Imagine, if you will, a three by seven inch wooden frame — a frame that’s a gateway to a world of imagination. Wipe your mind on the welcome mat. You’re about to enter The Scary Door.”
“Imagine, if you will, an announcer you can barely understand. He refers to a [mutters], but you’re not quite sure what he said. He seems to be eating something, or perhaps he’s a little drunk. It’s remotely possible that he just said something about the Scary Door.”
“You’re taking a vacation from normality. The setting: a weird motel where the bed is stained with mystery. And there’s also some mystery floating in the pool. Your key card may not open the exercise room because someone smeared mystery on the lock. But it will open the Scary Door.”
0_o
Well, hey, it is science FICTION, after all. As a scientist, I love the fiction! Even if you reverse the emphasis, giving up in disgust at every mind-blowing phenomenon would get us nowhere fast.
It is fiction, yes, but I’m trying hard to maintain my internal consistency here, anyhow. Glad you’re sticking with it, anyway!
–M
I can still comprehend things, so it’s not weird enough! >:(
Note to self: make comic weirder…
😀
–M
What the fu… Mike, what did you do?!