PaRARGdox 124
One last thing: Gosh… a declaration, of sorts, from Rochelle! Now this has been planned by me for many, many, many months…! (And not in the last few weeks in which the possibility of it was discussed here in the comments. 🙂 ) Anyway, that is about as much “respect” as anyone can possibly expect to get from Rochelle who notoriously respects very few. And by “respect” she means… what exactly? 🙂
This page was much more time consuming than I would have expected… it’s not all that complex to draw (although there were a few tricky details)… finding the right way for Rochelle to express herself without sounding forced, cheesy, or out of character, was not an easy task!
The first year cadet being tended to by Ambrosia, was seen briefly on page 7.40… although she was in much better condition there!
Patrons: Over on Patreon page 127 is now up – page 128… by Wednesday-ish…
Next update: Thursday September 30, 2021: Medical emergency…!
Considering how little Rochelle tends to think of… just about anyone, that’s high praise from her. In fact the only person otherwise we know she respects is Mindmistress (RIP, Al). Good company for Kaycee to keep, I would say.
Oh wow, how did I not know Al Schroeder had passed away?? This is very, very sad news indeed 😢
Back in March https://www.deviantart.com/neilsama/journal/RIP-Al-Schroeder-III-creator-of-Mindmistress-872433277. That is sad news indeed 🙁
… sad indeed. (Didn’t known it either … Mindmistress was already on hiatus and the crossover events are already very irregular.)
I hope this doesn’t sound morbid, but thank you for sharing that sad news; I had no idea.
Rest in peace, Al.
I’m planning on writing something in the blog over the course of this week. Al, in addition to all the work he did with MM and other comics, was a very enthusiastic supporter of many other webcomics and their creators. He was a fan of Magellan, a great peer and collaborator. I’m still collecting my thoughts and processing the news but I’ll put something into words soon…
That is sad news indeed. Godspeed to your resting place, Al, and we will always remember MM (and you) with respect.
When it comes to shipping I’m pretty basic, I tend to latch onto the first pairing with at least one side’s feeling confirmed, unless it’s obvious that it wouldn’t work, and I stick with it through thick and thin. It takes a lot to make me let go of it, pretty much have to reach the point where the characters are being toxic to each other, and even then if both go through character development and improve later then I might get dragged back to the ship.
In short: I guess I’m shipping Kaycee and Rochelle for the forseeable future now. KayRo? Joan? Not sure on the rules for ship names, but that’s the best I could think of.
Thumbs up for KayRo! lol!
Bleah, too syrupy-sweet for me.
Also, too corny.
Then you should ship MonKay, it was the very first one. BilKa was second, so KayRo will have to take third place.
Mongrel Kaycee? I said “unless it’s obvious that it wouldn’t work” so no.
I don’t remember Billy outright confirming he had feelings for Kaycee?
Billy’s super-heavily hinted at it numerous times.
Unless Grace is masterfully baiting us with a red herring, anyway.
I do think Billy has feelings for Kaycee, but has he expressed them more clearly? I know Rochelle isn’t exactly being the most direct either, but it still feels like she’s come closest to actually making her feelings clear.
I’ll do an archive binge later, maybe I forgot some stuff. Mangella has been going on for more than a few years at this point. I generally have a good memory for fiction but it’s not perfect.
Maybe most clear in the middle of Bad Karma, and apparently more clear to their classmates than to us readers. Best example I can think of is when discussing tactics for the Evil Weevil exercise: http://magellanverse.com/comic/mutex/
Eh, wanting to sit next to someone isn’t reserved only for crushes, and friends teasing about a potential romantic interest isn’t very conclusive either. As I said, I’ve got no little doubt that Billy does have feelings for Kaycee, but as far as I know he hasn’t articulated them yet.
Found it.
http://magellanverse.com/comic/worm-2/
Pretty blunt, actually. Bill’s thoughts are literally “love Kaycee.”
If Sioni was paying attention, he might be capable of spilling these beans. and potentially at a really inopportune time.
Guess I missed/forgot that. I’m still locked on KayRo now though.
Never underestimate the power of polycules!
Why is it obvious that it wouldn’t work? True love knows no barriers. You can treat yourself to some Bilka at 4.32.
And another steamy declaration of undying passion at 4.116.
Several factors. Normally “childhood friends” would be prime material for a ship, but then I would expect both members of the pairing to express some attraction after knowing each other that long, and Kaycee clearly sees Brian only as a friend. On top of that he was introduced as being kind of an ass, being scornful of Kaycee wanting to go to Magellan and trying to get powers just to spite her and hoping to become the hero rescuing her… It comes across more as him having girlfriendzoned Kaycee, rather than any real base for a relationship. Don’t get me wrong Mongrel has grown heaps as a character since then, but he’s still a lot more immature than Kaycee, I don’t see them working out.
I could see Kaycee getting together with Billy, the time she’s known the rest of her class is short enough that her feelings could still be developing for any of them. That said, the pages you pointed to arennt conclusive enough in my opinion, 4.32 we don’t know for sure he was going to ask her out (it’s likely, but not certain, telling Charisma to shut up isn’t proof, that’s a pretty valid reaction to Charisma), for 4.116 he just gave her some compliments and I’m of the opinions that people shouldn’t need to be in/interested in a relationship to give compliments.
You might point out that Rochelle hasn’t exactly used the L word either, but it’s pretty clear that she means it. You don’t say stuff like “you don’t need to answer right now” to a mundane declaration, you say that when you’ve given someone something to think about, something you want them to process. There’s no reason to say something like that and talk about revisiting the subject later if she’s just talking about respect.
Also, I’m wary of the kind of abuse and toxicity that can be excused with the idea of “True Love”, not because I dislike the idea of True Love, but because I like it a bit too much. It can lead to some great romance, but if it’s not handled well it can send very wrong messages.
Then you have 6.336. We knew 2 of the 3, now it seems the triplet is complete. But who knows what the future can bring? There’s a strong foundation for Kaystok already.
To be honest, I’m being amicably facetious here, if it wasn’t clear. Magellan doesn’t seem to be a romantic comedy, so it doesn’t look like relationships will be the focus of the plot. I don’t personally share the excitement other readers might feel about developments in this area, nor the need to analyze or rationalize every single interaction to the extreme. Or make up ship names, unless it’s in good-natured jest. 😉
Oh, don’t worry I got it. I was trying to ride the line between deadpan straightman and actually arguing, but I probably fell more into the later.
Dang, we both got Poe’d! X-D
I’m still gonna argue that Rochelle was not yet in love with Kaycee at that point. As of this page, yes, that probably classifies as love – though I sort of expect Rochelle to be equally open to keeping it as a close friendship as to moving the relationship in the romantic direction. I have no real reason for that though, it’s probably my least motivated Rochelle prediction yet.
I commented on this a bit too late in the Patreon site. The phrase Rochelle uses in panel 4, “and you smarts”, seems uncharacteristically informal for her. Something like “your acumen” would be more in line with her usual speech pattern I think. JMO of course 😉
She lost herself in the emotion of the moment…
Reasonable *on your part, I mean* 🙂
Can’t wait to see how this plan turns out….!
Kaycee: Are you saying that you…love me?
Rochelle: What? No! My feelings for you are so much deeper than that! I…
K: Yes?
R: I would… I would accept statements from you as true… without independent scientific corroboration!!
K: *GASP*!!
R: Perhaps I am being too forward… but… *kneels, takes her hand* Kaycee Jones, will you… Will you co-author a treatise on effective Rarg combat techniques and strategy with me?
K: *swoons* OH ROCHELLE…
*GEEKOUTS ENSUE*
😀
I don’t think either of them are that far from normal, but this is very funny.
Kaycee and Rochelle
Sitting in a tree
K I LL ‘N R AR Gee
So, I thought I commented on this already, but the person who Ambrosia is tending to in panel 2 caught my eye when I initially read this page.
But now learning about Bobbi’s attitude on pages 158 and 159 . . . well, I am less interested in getting to know her better.
Still, kudos to Grace for having so many interesting character designs sprinkled around literally everywhere in Magellan!