PaRARGdox 154
Bad news… good news!: Just letting you know I finally caught me some COVID late last week… ugh… fortunately it hasn’t been too bad and while it knocked me flat for about two days I am now a lot better. The next update was almost done before that so it won’t take me much longer to get it finished… hoping to have it up in the next 12 hours.
A bad day on Jupiter: So this is actually a really important page… one that I’ve been looking forward to dropping for a long, long time, as it goes most of the way towards explaining why the Rarg are hellbent on destroying Earthlings!! As noted on many earlier pages, the Rarg are very xenophobic, territorial and violent, but I wanted to give them a bit more motive. Also, the Rarg have a degree of telepathic ability and so yes, they didn’t just tell Rochelle, they told everyone.
This page syncs up with the sixth panel of page 9. At this point we’re starting to see what else went on in the frantic last seconds of that page…
Comments not showing?: For some reasons many/most reader’s comments – even from people who have been commenting for a long time – weren’t auto posting? Not sure what’s up with that, and there was a backlog which have all been approved and posted now. Sorry if yours got caught up in that, it wasn’t personal 🙂
Patrons: Over on Patreon page 155 is now up – page 156 soon…
Next update: June 12, 2022: Conscripted! I’ve managed four straight weeks and updates… a minor achievement! I’m hopeful of getting back into twice a week updates soonish.
Sigh. No, we can’t just get a race so xenophobic and violent it’s ok to just xenocide them. The fault must be on human side and the moment humans fix their mistakes everything will be ready to call the little ponies.
Are you really complaining that a genocide isn’t justified?
Look a level deeper. Genocide against the Rarg by an evil Earth corporation was not foreshadowed in any way I can remember (unless we are expected to assume the Evil Corporation must somehow always be at fault). The Rarg were presented as a race that could do everything they have done to date without needing any moral crimes against them.
Late in the story, we are suddenly thrown a totally unnecessary “It’s Our Faoult” combined with a side order of “Evil Corporation”. Both are shopworn tropes to boot.
One also wonders what the Rarg broadcast at victims of their aggression when it *is* unprovoked? “It was a slow tuesday and we were bored?”
And it begs the question: How does an evil Earth corporation gain the upper hand against an interstellar race such that they *could* commit genocide?
The really fun question will be what to do with a Rarg colony at Jupiter. While we’re supposed to feel all sorry for genocide agains tthe Rarg, they are a race that will commit genocide at the drop of a hat. They cnanot be allowed to stay in the solar system.
” Genocide against the Rarg by an evil Earth corporation was not foreshadowed in any way I can remember”
“And it begs the question: How does an evil Earth corporation gain the upper hand against an interstellar race such that they *could* commit genocide?”
The corporation wasn’t trying to genocide the Rarg, they destroyed a nursery/hatchery by accident because they didn’t know it was there. They didn’t have the upper hand, they were immediately swarmed and killed right after activating their mining operation.
However, due to how Rarg responds to threats there must now be a genocide: the Rargs simply won’t stop fighting until one side is completely annihilated. At the very least all the Rargs in the solar system must be killed.
“One also wonders what the Rarg broadcast at victims of their aggression when it *is* unprovoked?”
I believe that from the Rargs’ point of view any attack will always have been provoked. Maybe they’re sometimes the aggressors, but the impression I got is that the reason they’re so dangerous is because of how they retaliate to perceived threats. It’s just that generally the provocation would probably be something petty and minor. On this page http://magellanverse.com/comic/parargdox-03/ they’re described as paranoid and territorial first, then xenophobic and aggressive. In http://magellanverse.com/comic/parargdox-04/ Maverick says that the Rargs mostly keep to themselves.
From the start the Rargs have been presented as isolationists that will respond the same way to all perceived aggression. They all get angry, and when they get angry they become suicidally aggressive, all the angry Rargs will keep fighting until either them or their perceived enemy is dead http://magellanverse.com/comic/parargdox-38/.
This is nothing new. This was established from the start. The fact that an greedy human corporation fucked up in a way that might seem to give some legitimacy to the Rargs is almost irrelevant, because the Rargs can’t be reasoned with once they get angry anyway.
“The really fun question will be what to do with a Rarg colony at Jupiter. While we’re supposed to feel all sorry for genocide agains tthe Rarg, they are a race that will commit genocide at the drop of a hat. They cnanot be allowed to stay in the solar system.”
Everyone can just give Jupiter a wide bert. The Rargs apparently keep to themselves unless they perceive a provocation. If you don’t interact at all they can’t perceive a provocation.
Or you can genocide another sentient species because it’s more convenient. Sometimes that, as far as we know, even the Rargs don’t do. They overreact and go berserk at the slightest provocation, but they do wait for a provocation first.
Jupiter is TOO CLOSE for having someone this dangerous there. Remember that if Prometheus wouldn’t provoke them, there would STILL be war about 20 years later.
I wrote a long response but it’s being held waiting for moderation. Maybe because I linked to several older pages? Anyway, I don’t know how long it’ll take to show up so I’ll try a short version:
I think you’re misunderstanding. Prometheus Industries didn’t attempt to genocide the Rargs, they destroyed a Rarg Nursery/hatchery by accident because they didn’t realize it was there. Prometheus Industries didn’t have the upper hand against the Rargs either, the mining operation was destroyed within seconds of being activated.
The genocide part comes in alter, because of how Rargs react to any provocation. They all get angry and suicidally aggressive: at that point there’s no choice but to kill all the Rargs because there is no reasoning with them, they will fight to the last.
“One also wonders what the Rarg broadcast at victims of their aggression when it *is* unprovoked?”
We haven’t been told of the Rargs ever attacking without provocation. From what we’ve been told the Rargs are paranoid, xenophobic, isolationists who react violently to any perceived provocation, but they largely keep to themselves.
“The really fun question will be what to do with a Rarg colony at Jupiter. While we’re supposed to feel all sorry for genocide agains tthe Rarg, they are a race that will commit genocide at the drop of a hat. They cnanot be allowed to stay in the solar system.”
Everyone could just give Jupiter a wide berth. As pointed out, the Rargs apparently keep to themselves unless provoked. You can’t provoke them if there’s no contact.
Or you can genocide another race of sentient and intelligent beings just because they’re inconvenient. I’d point out that even the Rargs wait until they perceive an act of aggression, and as minor and petty we might find those to be, as far as we know they’ve never just taken “They were close (but still outside our territory) and we thought they might attack us” as an excuse.
Yes, unfortunately the auto-mod holds back anything with more than one link. I did approve that though, so let me know if you want to delete this one – doesn’t bother me if both stay up 🙂
I don’t think there’s any fixing this. Rochelle theorized that Paz, when gutted will be able to go back in time by hours.
Prometheus Corp’s mining operations took place two days ago.
Unless Rochelle is really off with her calculation there’s no way to stop the Rargs from being angered. The only thing Paz can do is warn Magellan so they can prepare for the attack.
Besides, “always chaotic evil” races/species are a bit… lazy, writing-wise. Not to mention the infortunate implications.
In a few minutes, a volume of infinite time-dilation is going to form nearby. This may allow Ambrosia, with Paradoximan’s help, to move several days to the past instead. Hopefully not too far back.
Ambrosia: So then we divide both sides by 7 and that means that X is 5. Ooh [ staggers a bit at the board, then starts looking around ] Oh, boy.
Teacher: That is correct. Are you all right?
Ambrosia: I will be, but I am a couple of years to soon. I just have to remember to warn people when I get to Magellan Academy. As it stands, yeah, 5.
Don’t forget, David; it’s been implied that Ambrosia never had a normal childhood. It sounds as though she was engineered and raised by evil scientists in a lab (lending further credence to the Character Assassin plant idea, which I still feel may be subverted before the end, though).
“Not personal!” LIES!
Clearly you didn’t want me spoiling the grand reveal!
*flails tentacles*
(I am kidding, of course. I know that this particular webhost and comment automation have their fair share of glitchiness.
As ever, thank you for all that you do, Grace!)
Yeah, I was surprised to see so many of yours caught up!
Go at your own pace Grace, no need to rush.
We are just glad to have you back.
Probably because I make comments from roaming IPs (not just from different computers, but different IP addresses on the same computer (whenever my modem reboots it casts a new dynamic address from my ISP, and we’ve been having a lot of power outages over here lately)), and I still don’t have a personal Gravatar account, since guest-posting is valid.
You’d think it’d remember my email, but I suppose that’s not exactly the most precise security factoring vector.
That is very likely the cause – years ago I had massive problems logging in to Magellan due to similar reasons vs security measures. Ugh!@^%!!
Oh, dear. Rochelle has found Paz. Now to see if she can actually go through with gutting her like a suckling pig to trigger a mega-jump. At least Paz now knows exactly what triggered the Rarg’s murderous rampage, that should make her “future Ambrosia” job much easier – IF she can get the right people to listen…
So, theory for next few pages . . .
Blackhole starts to form, time dilation begins, Rochelle realizes, determines she won’t make it back to Paradoximan in time for his injuries not to end his life, so also conscripts Olaf as she drags Paz (or gets Kaycee to help drag Paz). Charisma maybe tags along too, since she’s probably not so distraught about her father’s death as to want to end her own life (even if Rochelle has explained the inevitability of everyone on earth dying to the singularity).
The prediction I haven’t been able to decide on is what happens exactly when the big paradoxical time travel event occurs!
Does the proximity to the singularity enhance the paradox? Disrupt it? Does someone -other- than Paz get their mind sent back in time? Maybe Rochelle, Charisma, Kaycee, AND Olaf all get sent back to their former bodies too?
I eagerly await the stunning conclusion to this story arc!
I can’t believe I didn’t register this in my brain earlier:
https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/EzaqCfERZpDWlnqspheDMhzR
The purple cosmic stream. It’s shown up in several space shots, and seems to potentially connect Earth to Jupiter. Purple has also been the colour for psychic energy in this setting for a long time now.
I know Grace replied to a comment for page 10 stating that it was just “ambience” . . . but then put one of those “smiley” things next to the message. I’ve learnt never to trust a message that has a “smiley” near it!
*strokes chin-analogue with tentacles shaped in to a hand-like appendage*
Most curious . . .
Sooner step, Rochelle provides Paz a preparatory instructions to go back in time, and head to the jet and paradox man. Rochelle might not notice paradox man may be starting the causality paradox countering because Paradox man is bridging multiple loops.
Aren’t the Rarg a hive mind? As in, no individuals? So shouldn’t they have NO maternal feelings for new so-called “drones”?
Think of it in the same way bees or ants get mighty protective of their next in line…
I agree that the Rarg didn’t need a “motivation”. Xenophobic and easily set off by a territorial violation to the point where they jumped straight to genocide- that made them frightening and more alien. I think a last minute “no wait they were mad about dead children” was a mistake. What does this add to the story?
What does it add? There’s internal conflict – if Paz and/or others can get their minds jumped back far enough to make a difference, just wiping out the Rarg with a preemptive strike isn’t an obviously-right option. There’s the possibility of this being usable to open a dialogue with the Rarg – prior to this, everyone just assumed they were xenocidal maniacs, but maybe their previous incursions had similar catalysts that nobody is aware of (in cases where the Rarg lost, they never broadcast their grievances; in cases where they won, nobody who they broadcast their grievances survived long enough to share the knowledge with anyone else).
Of course, this isn’t really a “this is all our fault, not the Rargs'” situation. Yes, Prometheus was negligent, but this was an accident – and even if they had purposefully wiped out the colony, destroying their homeworld is a massively-disproportionate action (roughly equivalent to nuking a country because one of their citizens murdered someone’s child).
Well. Between the Jupiter station activities, the illegal products the parent corporation is developing, and all the internal knowledge required… that’s a LOT of information to transfer with just one person. At a minimum GoAnna and possibly Kaycee/Rochelle would need to retain their memories to avert all these disasters, IF and ONLY IF they can time hop back at least 2 days, preferably 3 if Moonbase Magellan is going to have enough time to intercept Jupiter Station. Really looking forward to Rochelle & Kaycee’s paper on the trolley problem.
ESPECIALLY without a proper briefing!
🙊
Sorry to hear that you were feeling unwell, Grace, but glad to hear you’re on the mend!
I still don’t know if what I had was COVID a while back, but it did floor me for 48 hours. All I wanted to do was sleep and cough, but otherwise a nice recovery.
I hope your recovery is as complete as mine, or even moreso!