PaRARGdox 71
Death to the Rarg!: This page picks up where we left off with Olga, Brelvis, Olaf, Sun and Yasmeen… last seen on page 7.56. It might have been 14 pages ago for us but probably less than a minute for them.
So, to briefly recap, Sun has magnetism powers, Yasmeen is a witch and Olaf… well, apparently Olaf has some powers, in addition to healing and necromancy, we’re yet to be fully introduced to.
And, no, you haven’t missed the page where Rochelle and Ambrosia save Sioni. That was kind of a given… and we have other Rarg to fry.
Patreon: By the way, should it be a thing that interests you, my Magellan patrons over at Patreon have been getting full previews three updates ahead of schedule. And you can too for as little as $1 a month… π
Next update: Sunday October 11: Fate of the Force…
Looks like yas may have been on to something. Also do you think there be any tactical advantages for olaf to “revive” the slain rarg? Since apparently anyone who comes back just loves and apparently obeys be olaf.
It might not be safe to assume that it works on any life form, e.g. one with good telepathic abilities may be able to block out whatever influence Olaf normally has on revived ones. Also, since they lose their physical form and cannot be touched after their death, Olaf doesn’t have the option with the Rarg. Maybe reviving slain enemy forces can be tested on the next alien invasion.
Since they what?
Maybe it is not entirely certain yet, but it seems to me, that the green gaseous stuff that leaks out when their suits are breached is part of them – probably in liquid form. At any rate, they are very dead very quickly when their suits are breached, so healing that requires touch is a no-go.
I think the green gas is what the Rarg breathe. So if Olaf’s resurrectees need to breathe normally, resurrecting the dead Rarg might not be an option.
It’s been said the Rargs are from an environment with far greater pressure. The green stuff might be what they breathe but it could be a part of them that doesn’t take well to the lower pressure too. Maybe it has a low boiling point and so it needs the pressure to stay liquid at room temperature?
Okay, this page has made Olaf far more frightening.
I swear this isn’t what I had in mind for Olaf!
. . .
But I’m absolutely on board with it! I look forward to seeing where you take Olaf, Grace! Big time!
I just relooked at the scene. I didn’t even know Olaf apparently has offensive abilities. I just assumed he was all “healer”, makes me wonder where he got those powers from. does he somehow copies the powers of those he fix and revive, or are these results of his creation?
From miscellaneous background character to something much, much more… π
You’re evil, Grace! EVIL!
In the best way possible.
Well done.
Omega sanction response = Kill them all and let a diety of your choice sort em out.
You should recalibrate your scale. In omega sanction response, there shouldn’t be anything left to sort – you should destroy the soul as well.
Or at least ensure that the deity doing the sorting wouldn’t spent too much time on it and flags all for maximal punishment.
Well … like … sure, this wouldn’t exactly make me more eager to be resuscitated by Olaf, but I would say that “When did everybody got all murdery” – “When this became fight for life” sounds like correct answer. I don’t see why NOT go “all murdery” against Rarg.
The standard superhero “Don’t kill” rule relies on the assumption that you can simply choose for your attacks to be nonlethal. That doesn’t seem to be the case in Magellan, so I’ve wondered how it works… I guess “Murder on purpose” and “Whoops, wasn’t *trying* to kill her” are different things, though.
Given that the Rarg need their suits to live, I’m not sure how you *can* physically attack them nonlethally. Any attack that works will breech their shell. Olga and Yasmin might be able to do it, though. (And maybe Yasmin did, although Olga and Brelvis don’t seem to think so)
Well, Force Magellan explicitly agreed to use lethal force against the Rarg in their crisis meeting earlier this chapter, but we don’t know if that decision was communicated to everyone.
Given the EMP burst, and subsequent bombardment of the facilities, I don’t see how it could’ve been communicated.
I wonder if “when to kill” has come up in classes for the cadets. (Kaycee seemed to think the castle-training was an indirect lesson, but I mean a more direct class.) On the one hand, they’re very young (are first-year cadets still teenagers? I don’t know.) On the other hand, not counting the Rarg invasion, they cadets have ended up life-or-death fights with supervillains who’d totally kill them 3 times, and 2 of those times the earth would’ve been destroyed if the villains won. I’d be prudent of the teachers to prepare the cadets for the eventuality that they have to kill a villain to save the world. Or, as the training case may be, let some hostages die to save the world. (Charisma actually had a fair point there. Unless the briefing was very clear it’d take hours for the doomsday device to power up, taking it out before rescuing the hostages seems justifiable. And if there’s a decent chance of the hero getting killed by the villain running the place, it can be worth it to do the planet-saving first, minimizing the risk the hero will be killed before he can get to that part.)
First-year cadets are usually 16 years old. Graduates are usually 21 years old, although I think there could be extenuating circumstances sometimes.
That doesn’t quite match up, there are six years in the academy.
1: 16
2: 17
3: 18
4: 19
5: 20
6: 21
[Quote]I guess βMurder on purposeβ and βWhoops, wasnβt *trying* to kill herβ are different things, though.[/Quote]
In the first case, you get charged with Murder (1st or 2nd degree depends on circumstances). In the second case, you get charged with Manslaughter (called Murder in the third degree in some jurisdictions) or some form of Criminal Negligence, again depending on jurisdiction.
Manslaughter still requires you to be at fault.
Also I already distinguished between murder and killing in the post you’re responding to.
I’m pretty sure killing the Rarg troopers can be safely classified as self-defense.
Much like how soldiers at war are not charged with crimes unless their response was vastly out of proportion.
Against the Rarg’s standard tactics, I’m not sure any response would be considered out of proportion.
Evidence for my guess that those resurrected by Olaf don’t have the same souls they used to have.
Olaf is being very proactive for a consensus-based multi-soul entity. It could be that the life-or-death situation they’re in is making it easier to achieve consensus – or has one soul been given ’emergency powers’ for the duration of the crisis?
VERY interesting question!
I mean, it does mention consensus, but it might be a minimum committe of three individuals, or it might be a single soul in charge that just gives a quick ear to the general noise of the room, so to speak.
It was stated by Olga in the Olaf Mystery that there isn’t one -whole- soul within Olaf (at least not that Olga could sense). So… unless something malicious capitalized on a deactivated Olaf when the Rarg attack started, and is now masquerading as this particular cadet (can’t believe I didn’t consider that possibility sooner, given what Grace and I discussed in private all those years ago), then I would assume Olaf is still operating with the Chorus of Fragments.
Yes, that would make a great seed for another story, but not this one… already enough happening! This sub-plot involving Olaf has a different purpose. π
I just re-read the mystery. It was much shorter than I was remembering, a lot of story in a few pages! Olga talks about mind, not soul, but does say “chorus” and “fragments”. The author of the notebook says that some call minds by the name of souls, but I don’t think it is certain whether or not there is a difference between these two terms.
So what exactly is Olaf?
If you’re looking for an authoritative answer, there isn’t one – only Grace knows, and she’s not telling yet. We will probably learn more as the story progresses, but for available evidence, and in-story speculations, you can read The Olaf Mystery, a Tale of The Magellanverse story written a while back.
Bee-tee-dubs, The Olaf Mystery was writen by VileTerror, but as he’s remarked above, Grace has taken them in a different direction than he was imagining, so anything goes at this point.
Not “he,” but otherwise correct.
Ah, apologies, gender always gets me in trouble. π
It may no longer be relevant, but maybe you can say what Olaf was?
I think the gender of a multi-part entity is probably “all”, at least several. Do we know that Olaf is really a multi-part entity? Maybe not quite, but there are lots of signs pointing that way. (there are also some signs pointing to what those parts are, but discussing that in depth might spoil future plot)
As for pronouns, I believe Olaf goes by “they”, and that it is extraordinarily fitting.
I like the idea of an “all” gender pronoun!! π But while some people (like Olga) refer to Olaf as “they”, others (like Jasmeen) use “it”… π
I’ll wait for Grace to give the go-ahead on that. With her permission, I’ll dig up the old emails and parse ’em out.
Please do!
Cool, thanks.
Whenever an Olaf appearance occurs, I’ll attempt to have something of commentary, with the disclaimer that all ideas were merely speculative and do not necessarily represent the official Magellan canon.
Looking forward to it π
I just noticed . . .
“Next update: Sunday October 7th”
Looks like we’re going to be waiting 9 years for the next update.
Ouch.
Calendars are different there? Β―\_(γ)_/Β―
Well, after establishing relations with alien races, adding Splrgday and Qrrmday to the week only made sense.
C’mon, Olga! Why don’t you want to be healed by Olaf? Olaf is great!
Update on Sunday or on 7 october ?
Because the next sunday 7 october will be in 2029…..
Since there wasn’t one today, let’s assume Sunday. I think 2029 is very unlikely… and it’s an easy mistake to make. I mean, updating half a sentence I do all the time, updating the other half of that same sentence I only do most of the time. Especially when I change my mind mid-update. π
Yeah, sorry, you’d think I could at least read a calendar properly… π next update is Sunday October 11, 2020 π
Iβm curious. How do Sun still have her powers?
She mentions being “healed” (reanimated) by Olaf and, as a result, getting her powers back on page 7.56. π
The power-negation emitted by the Rarg ship seems to have acted a lot like a damage pulse, rather than a suppressive field – it can be healed, and people shielded from the pulse can continue to use their powers.
Likely the reason Sistah Superior can wreak all sorts of damage.
Not sure I spelled her name right.
Guess we have a long wait: noticed that it says the next update will be Sunday October 7th. Next one of those is in 2029.
Canβt believe I missed all the previous mentions of the date issue.
OMG… so many comments! Thanks everyone for your continued support and patience – so happy to see everyone digging Magellan!
Right? And I’ve barely contributed this time!π