So this page took longer than expected but I’m glad I took the extra time on it – had I rushed to finish it the end product would have been fairly mediocre. Anyway… here we are inside Fatima’s brain! This is the first time we’ve seen any other PherNians (the half human, half cephalopod inhabitants of PherNos found somewhere under the oceans of Earth). This would be her mother and father… no Octomom jokes!! These events would have taken place about two years before we first met Fatima in pages 1.45-46. Now, Fatima has given an account of how/why she is at Magellan Academy on page 6.41… make of that what you will!
Discussion (42) ¬
[ Comments RSS ]
great page
It’s a great page. We’re going to see more of a few people’s stories and issues, I hope.
Here we have Kaycee instinctively doing the right thing and consciously second guessing herself even as she goes ahead regardless.
On the other hand she hasn’t really grasped what being in that state really means and that of almost all the students and inmates, she’s one of the most capable right now. Or was until she hopped into someone else’s mind. In a contest of minds, willpower is incredibly important, and she has that to spare.
We might see a few more, but I’m still working out how to structure the story so that it stays about the current threat and isn’t just a hopping from one back story to another…
Second-year cadet Kaycee Jones scoffs at the inexperience of first-year cadet Olga Beh. I thought Kaycee was better than that. For a moment, it seemed Olga’s cat was out of the bag, but Kaycee didn’t catch on. Although I suspect she’ll still be the first to discover Olga’s secret.
Not so much “scoffing” as annoyed – from her point of view “Gola” said not to touch the light thread, and yet that’s exactly what Olga went and did. As for Kaycee figuring out Olga’s secret it feels that for Kaycee to guess it so early in the process would stretch credulity – since she isn’t aware of age sucking Vera Salt’s existence, to realise Olga is in fact Gola would take a considerable leap of deduction. That’s not to say she won’t be suspicious, of course!
So it appears the underwater telepathic communication of the PherNians auto-translates and auto-broadcasts. That, or the nature of the nightmare strands simply allows for such inner thoughts to be broadcast within the subject’s own psyche.
Also, are the PherNians actually /under/ the oceans of earth, or _in_ the oceans?
The “auto translate” was definitely something I considered in writing this page. Convention requires that I put translated text inside “<>” so I probably should have done that as Fatima and her parents are conversing in PherNian (not dissimilar to Arabic). The matter of Kaycee being able to understand/”hear” it will be dealt with in a few more pages.
Aunty Issues would be easier to deal with.
I hope she’s not about to see her parents killed. That would suck
Hey, xmung, really great page. Your “Magellan” and Phil Foglio’s “Girl Genius” and “9 Chickweed Lane” are my favorite comics. Keep up the great work!
Small quibble: the whole island is AFFECTED, not EFFECTED (ad + facio versus ex + facio, perfect participles affectus and effectus, respectively).
Anyway, looking for to next week’s strip(s).
Thanks, so glad you like it!
And I really struggle with effected vs affected… seems I almost always get the wrong one despite reading up on the differences and trying to get it right. Since it’s character dialogue I could always sheet the blame home tot he characters… except I’m sure they’re all a lot smarter than me anyway. I’ll fix it up when I get a moment.
Effect: noun. The effect of the action …
Effective: adjective. Many nouns representing actions or activities are converted to adjectives by the suffix -ive. There’s one now; act -> active.
Affect: verb. The whole body was affected by the drug.
In usage, “affected” is far more common than “effected” so if you aren’t sure, use “affected.” An exception would be a sentence like “They effected repairs on the ship.”
Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple with just “affect” versus “effect” or when using other suffixes, but “affected” will be correct nine times out of ten.
Hope this helps.
For some reason I keep thinking it’s the other way around, but that helps – thanks all for the useful instructions!
effected is pretty common to hear in military stuff, pretty much everytme they could have have used did and it would be the same thing. ex. they effected repairs = they did repairs. so instead of saying they did an action, they would say they effected an action. i guess it is more impressive sounding or something.
The entire island is affected by the funky mojo (ie, the funky mojo has an impact on the entire island).
The entire island is effected by the funky mojo (ie, the funky mojo brought the island into effect / the mojo created the island).
BTW, I’m glad we get to see more of Fatima’s backstory. She’s one of my favourite characters.
Thanks Dawn! And Fatima seems to be a favorite of many readers it seems
I love how you make Kaycee so smart and level-headed. When faced with an unexpected and dangerous situation, she thinks through every factor she is aware of and formulates a strategy. She doesn’t panic or overreact.
I will always cherish the scene in Bad Karma where she was trapped in Miasma’s illusion but continued to try to think of a way out of her situation instead of giving into fear, and made a remarkable attempt to influence the evil Miasma: “Is that my fault too?” In fact, the scenes in which Kaycee and Gola fight against the illusions in Bad Karma are two of the most heroic scenes in fiction that I can think of. “I am IJF. I must not give into fear.” The greatest battles are in the human mind.
Thanks!
seeing a phernian family reminded me of a question re: phernian reproductive anatomy. phernians apparently don’t have a mantle and apparently phernian males don’t practice the octopus break-it-off-and-die strategy anyhow, so where do little phernians come from?
also, are those black smokers in the background of the last panel? do phernians live that deep? if so, does that imply that fatima can withstand 370 degree celsius water?
No, not quite that deep. PherNians are not a product of evolution by magical DNA tampering by Atlanteans/Mer (the half human/half fish variety). Fatima (and all other PherNians) are mammals foremost (evidenced by navels and mammaries!)… as for how they reproduce, let’s just say it’s a mess o’ tentacles!
It makes me think of my superhero, the Runner, who is from a deep-water race. He’s unique among them that he can go to the higher water levels and even surface without the low pressure bothering him, but he’s still not amphibious (he has to use water tanks to breathe on land), because his species has no reason to be. If there were PherNians in that universe, I wonder if the two species would be ever able to meet at a middle ground.
and a PerNian marriage is a site to behold. The couple goes down the aisle arm in arm in arm in arm in arm in arm…….
(sorry, could not resist)
Yes, I know that should be sight.
Gosh I feel so stupid now. Sorry…
In many ways, Kaycee reminds me of Batman. Just with much better social graces. ^^
I’m surprised the PherNians use swords, rather than tridents. Slashing weapons don’t work so well underwater, so it would be all thrusts and stabs.
Yeeeeeeessss… I did wonder that myself earlier today…
We know that the Phernians are clearly amphibious because of Fatima’s ability; she just prefers being in the water. This amphibious nature allows them to do blacksmithy on land as I don’t see it working well in a constantly present heat-sink (the ocean). Swords would be quite useful on land, however, you would think that an amphibious species of humanoid would prefer a weapon that was efficient both on land and in water.
a trident would be good for spearing fish but as for fighting, consider parrying. with a trident, you would have to either catch tines on tines and wrestle to disarm (requires too much speed and strength advantage to be reliable) or use the trident quarterstaff style (much worse water resistance than a sword.) even in attack, a thrusting trident would present more area for water resistance than a thrusting sword and probably be heavier (i.e. slower.) while i’m nerding out, a shield is obviously impractical underwater but a one handed weapon like an epee, gladius, or fencing saber would free the off hand for e.g. a parrying dagger. in fact thinking about it, i like the idea of an epee (optimized for thrusting, sturdier than a foil) or a fencing saber (able to cut arms or tentacles to cripple the foe.) undersea swashbucklers (use ink instead of swirling a cape?) actually sound pretty cool.
point, but what about spears? thrusting is again not teribly weakened by being immersed.
Maybe they just do things very slowly!
In the ocean, there are the strong, the quick, and the dead. Creatures that do things slowly are FOOD.
if we want to get super nerdy, most fighting forms regardless of weapon relies on principles that don’t work under water, heck, anything that is done from a stance doesn’t work.
As far as using swords goes, as an species PherNians would have their technologies specialized to their environment, so their weapons could have properties that, among others, gives them decreased water resistance. Also from the coloring, I thought the blades themselves were made out of shaped water, which may also factor into their environmental versitility.
Yes, I like that! Hydrophobic swords!
Shouldn’t that be weaponized water, instead?
Hmm, back when Fatima was introduced, I thought you said the were a product of magical tampering by the Atlantisian’s or maybe it was the merfolk. That they escaped from them prior to the sinking of Atlantis. It would explain part of the antipathy the queen has for air breathers. This sequence points to the fact that Fatima may have been under the death threat prior to applying to Magellan, for some other reason.
I’m having an issue with Fatima (nearly from begin on) and the Pher’Nians altogether: Why do they have a human looking upper part with light brown human skin and a stripy squiddy looking lower part in completely different coloring? It makes them look like Magical Creatures to me, like centaurs and satyrs. Are they? (Magical Creatures?)
If not – how come? Naturally, it seems to be more likely that they either would have stripy green/yellow skin all over – or light brown skin all over. Or if they had some abilities of earth’s big squids, they could perhaps change their skin color at will, to what ever colorful or mono-colored they want, but I see no advantage in having such a “split” appearance.
(Being among humans, Fatima might like to look like a Magical Creature (assuming that she could indeed re-color herself at will) but here, among their own tribe…?)
Ok, you see, it bothers me and I thought about it. Hope there is an explanation. The best would be one that is to be told in the comic
No problems (as you’ve now seen above), they are indeed magical creatures – but any confusion would be understandable since I’ve not really given any time to the matter in the body of the comic, just occasional pronouncements in the sidelines and in comments etc. I had hoped to have rectified that by now through an origin story but haven’t as yet managed to do so.
Thank you!
I guess I got into a kind of frenzy about it and skipped the comments until after sending the post off >_< So yeah. Hey, "as yet"…? I'm relieved now but if that's told within the comic at any time later, I can assure you that I will appreciate it.
I’d like to tell the story of Fatima’s people at some point – and this current jaunt in the outskirts of PherNos has – erm – whetted my appetite!
Being the worst of bad options, of course she takes it.