PaRARGdox 93
Don’t lose your head!: At least we know now which is the floaty part of Olaf! There’s a lot of horror with animated headless bodies… but what about disembodied floating heads?! There are a few… the Toclafane from Doctor Who really creeped me out at the time it first aired. This page follows on from page 7.83 where our little gang of intrepid second year cadets… Olga, Sun, Jasmeen, Brelvis and Olaf have found the body of teammate Ornuk. Fortunately, Olaf, being a healing necromancer appears to have brought him back… kind of. But who will heal Olaf??
Jump little rat!: Olaf’s rodent friend first appeared in The Olaf Mystery when he was reanimated by Olaf… he might have a name…
Raspy: Some folks who have seen a preview of this page have wondered how Olaf could possibly be speaking (given there is usually a need for lungs to push air through vocal cords for this to happen)… clearly Olaf has other means and as long as there are still vocal cords then some version of raspy speech remains possible. I know VileTerror has some thoughts on this and various other matters Olaf and is invited to share. 😀
Anyway, this page, phew, seemed simple enough when I drafted it but, wow, a lot more time intensive than expected.
Patrons: Over on Patreon page 95 is now up… page 96 is, as you might guess by now, running a bit later than expected, should go up in 12-18 hours… 😎
Next update: Sunday January 17, 2021: What is the freakiest thing you’ve seen today?… Oh yeah? How about now?
Well now we know there’s gotta be more than just brains in there. I’m personally waiting to see if it’s a Men in Black situation.
A couple of mice with their exercise wheels made of upsidaisium – to provide the levitation, natch 😉
You have 50 seconds to find Ambrosia.
Ornuk’s line in the last panel seems a bit stilted to me, but it does seem to fit better. NW!
*waves to the Magellan readers and fans*
Oyllo there.
Me again.
Here to talk some more about Olaf!
(And standard disclaimer: These are just my ideas as co-author. Grace has the absolutely authority on what is and is not canon in Magellan.)
The origin story I had envisioned for Olaf involved the discovery of a Soul Sphere by an aspiring villain. Seeking to discover some way to subvert the Soul Sphere and utilize it to their own nefarious intent, said villain experimented with the mystical device. Eventually seeing its capacity to reanimated dead tissue, said miscreant went in to the local town’s graveyard and stole the body of a freshly deceased boy. Scooping out the brain and replacing it with the Soul Sphere, and then grafting some extra skin around the sphere to hold it in, the would-be villain thought they could find a way to be the puppetmaster. Instead, the entity which would soon take on the name Olaf was “born” from this misadventure.
The criminal was no mastermind, and the local authorities had no trouble tracking down the graverobber. When they came to make their arrest,Olaf assisted them. After some awkward, but ultimately agreeable interactions between these police and Olaf, Olaf agreed to wait patiently while EuroMagellan was contacted and brought in to examine the bizarre entity. An interview was conducted, and Olaf’s dedicated adherence to the concept of informed consent and bizarre powers marked the entity as a potential candidate. It would also allow Olaf to essentially be remanded to the custody of Psiot VIII and other powerful mages, so they could keep a close eye on the new “life”form.
The origins of the Soul Sphere itself . . . NEXT TIME!
Personally, I’m onboard with most elements of this version of Olaf’s origin.
thats a cool orgion, id love to see it drawn out
Me too… maybe one day!!
Maybe as fanart!
Remember; I may lack the artistic talent which Grace has, but that doesn’t mean the rest of you can’t go ahead and draw that story for her and one another.
I started reading this and then realized I like Olaf better as a mystery than as a mystery with an explanation. So now I have to try and forget what I read.
Don’t worry.
Olaf’s true origin is still a mystery.
That’s just -my- version. Grace hasn’t revealed the true canon yet.
WHOOP! This leads to some questions…
– WTF is Olaf?? I know, we’ve been asking that question for a while, but the question just became a LOT more pertinent… I guess his vital organs must all be in his head, then.
– Can he still resurrect people like that? He’s been laying hands on them when he did it before, but maybe that’s not necessary?
– Could Olaf, conceivably, resurrect himself? I mean, the rest of himself… I mean the body part of himself! I… guess he’s not dead, so no? Maybe?
While we’re getting a whole bunch of trauma therapy for Ambrosia, maybe set a little time aside for Olga? She’s kinda freakin’ out, here.
⚠️The trauma isn’t done yet
Non-optimal is one way to describe the situation.
Weird. I posted commentary this morning (Eastern Americans Time Zone), and it said “Comment pending moderation.” Hopefully it’ll come through, and I won’t have to rewrite my message from scratch.
That happens sometimes (usually when more than one link included or posted from a different IP), I’ll check the dashboard shortly and set it free 🙂
Many thanks, Grace!
Oh hey, just to provide some more floating head horrors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penanggalan (from Malaysia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyak (from Indonesia)
Penanggalan!
Well, the solution is clearly simple. A little glue, some duct tape, and he’ll be right as rain!
I always kind of noticed, but never actually realized:
http://magellanverse.com/comic/parargdox09/
I think Olaf’s just going to stay a head for the rest of this story.
Also, the absence of Sun, Jasmeen, and Ornuk is ominous.
I was looking at that page just the other day. I can’t really tell if he’s disembodied or not with Brelvis and Olga in the way?
it could be that theres simply too many characters to draw
I just noticed; the pages for PaRARGdox don’t have the 7.## format like all the other chapters.
Intentional, or just an oversight?
I think it just kind of happened that way, in my mind though – and for the purpose of reference – they are still 7.01, 7.02, etc…
Man just what are Rarg claws made out of? I get they’re sharp but DAMN it’s like everyone’s made of butter!
Can Olaf…er… pull himself back together?
I think the thing to remember about the Rarg is that they are relatively strong and fast in our Earth environment. Also, they like direct physical combat (presumably the enjoy feeling their victims die??) and their space suits have custom build super hard and sharp “gloves” for their claws.
It takes losing his head to cause Olaf to show an emotion? Interesting.
His head seems rather active, so I guess he lost his body rather than lost his head? 😄
“It’s just a flesh wound!”😅 😬