PaRARGdox 91
“Thank you”:…?? So is Charisma still delirious, in shock, or sincere…? You decide!
A quick break: I’m taking a short end of year break… just ten days while I re-buffer and get some other things sorted. Thank you so much to everyone for reading Magellan. Your engagement and readership has been appreciated more than you realise. It has been a pretty tough, if not outright terrible, year for most people on planet Earth – despite all that I feel extremely fortunate that I was able to keep my job and able to keep producing pages of Magellan. That’s 91 pages this year… not as productive as some previous years, but certainly better than others! Anyway, no New Year’s Resolutions for me, I just plan to keep doing what I’m doing with Magellan and trying to remain optimistic about the year ahead.
Many thanks for reading, have a great, super safe New Year and I’ll see you early 2021!
Patrons: Over on Patreon page 92 is now up… page 93 will be up by tomorrow… 😎
Next update: Sunday January 10, 2021: This means war!
I think Charisma is delirious, in shock, and 100% sincere in her words.
Charisma hedged “saved my life” to “helped save my life” without so much as a “saved…er helped save”. That means her mind is at least somewhat engaged. Therefore her gratitude at least somewhat sincere.
Maybe it only leaked out due to shock or delirium but I’m thinking something may have gotten through that thick, formerly invulnerable skull of hers.
I think it’s in shock and sincere. Not delirious, but without the shock she would only think it, not admitted out loud.
Think you nailed it. Her usual filters are in tatters, which is a good thing in this moment.
That’s the problem with fast recon–you don’t always get a full picture. Looks like they didn’t encounter either Olaf’s group or Ambrosia’s group.
I think you’re reading something into the partial report that isn’t there? They didn’t say “no survivors” – and even if they spotted Olaf and Ambrosia’s groups, they seem to have been under orders to do a recon ONLY, not engage, even with survivors. If those survivors can’t last the 5 minutes it takes to finish the recon and report, then trying to save them would probably get the scouts dead too, at which point, why send out scouts at all? Just send everyone in right away, no intel-gathering at all (I’m sure the Rarg would love that, speeds up the murdering.)
my thinking too 🙂
My takeaway is that they didn’t see anyone who still had powers, or were effectively fighting the Rarg. They would’ve led with that.
That’s an important hole in their intelligence.
Yes, it is, but it might get patched soon. Y’know, in a second sentence. 😛
Cover all the bets! 😀
Yeah, once again I’m wondering if Charisma has an unrealized crush on Kaycee. She could have asked her just to put her hand on her head or shoulder, but instead she specifically asked her to hold her hand.
Probably a rare feeling of not being able to crush it. Charisma and Billy, et al have to be careful with people normally don’t they? The number of hands they can hold without worrying is limited.
I suspect that Charisma’s feelings towards Kaycee have been very “complicated” since “Lockedown.” Her main opposition to Kaycee as a friend at this point seems to be sheer stubbornness/”principles” – damn if she’ll let other people’s feelings determine how SHE acts! Worse, she may not actually be bi, and if she IS attracted to Kaycee, it might only be because of other people lingering in her head. (How’s that for a mind***?)
But, she almost died. She’s currently got a long road to recovery ahead of her, no certainty of getting her powers back, no certainty that anyone else has survived the Rarg attack. She’s always been isolated socially. Now she’s got every reason to be terrified (and god help her if she has even the least inkling that Epoch is dead.) Also, holding hands is a *mutual* connection – on the head is adult-to-child, hand on arm is still active-to-passive. Charisma is not a very “passive” person, even half dead! Hand-to-hand is a meeting of equals, and her literally reaching out to someone, possibly for the first time in a very long time. (WHERE is her mother?!) That’s a huuuge step for someone as entitled, bitter, and broken as her.
Not saying you’re wrong! Just saying it’s entirely plausible that it’s more complicated than “just” a crush.
And this is where Sioni would remark: “Yup. Yup. DEFINITELY the end of the world.”
Does make me wonder with the inevitable time travel involved, how much of this the characters will remember. Charisma has been humbled quite a bit, so I do wonder what it might mean for her in the future.
Yeah, my current theorie is that Ambrosia will be the one to save the day because of the time distorsion effect caused by black holes… Which ironically mean that the dark lab scuentists who experimented on her did miss something.
And if that’s the case, then all this character development for Charisma will be lost. And that wouldbe a damn shame…
Don’t forget that Paradox Man and Healing Hans are there too. The black hole may wind up being inconsequential to any time fuckery (emphasis on MAY).
1-up recipe Servings: enough for a planets and it’s occupants
Ingredients
1 time traveler
1 paradox generator
1 Transdimentional healer
about 8,000,000,000 sprigs of parsley (optional)
Directions
Toss all ingredients into a singularity, simmer for an hour and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Cut into mushroom shaped pieces and garnish with a sprig of parsley if desired.
I’d think that, should time travel turn out to be the Deus Ex Machina resolution to the quandary the cast is in, there *must* be some evidence that will come out, however eventually. It’s the only way to make sense of the story.
Dark Lab Scientist 1 – “Wait! What about pushing her into a singularity gravity well?”
Everyone else – … “Idiot! And if it doesn’t work?? What a wack idea! *take turns smacking DLS1*
yeh, those evil scientists are a bunch of characters, let me tell you 😉
That was probably next on the list before she was rescued…!!
Or, they simply didn’t have access to a naked singularity generator at the time of the experimentation. Remember that Beatrix and Bruce invented this tech for Prometheus fairly recently, and the Rarg reengineered it for their Earth-annihilator. Scientists, even evil ones, can only experiment with the tools they have (see the whole fracas about building larger and larger particle accelerators).
not if the people with Ambrosia at that point are pulled into the time slip with her. From Ambrosia’s perspective, everything she experiences before the slip still happened, so the same would be true for anyone pulled into an expanded version of her ability
Your break is well-deserved and the heads-up appreciated. See you then!
Okay… who are you and what have you done with the real Charisma??
She has mellowed out a bit, but you have to consider why she didn’t like Kaycee in the first place, Kaycee being there at Magellan with her and managing to maintain a place towards the top of their class really pokes at Charisma’s insecurities. Kaycee is a “norm” yet she bests her time and time again, demonstrating that with skill and preparation, any serious opponent could beat her. Charisma is used to being able to treat her powers as a security blanket and Kaycee has been poking holes in that blanket since they met, now of course, she’s hurt and vulnerable and they are facing an enemy with the ability to neutralize most powers. Whom would make you feel safer, a group of individuals whom could be debilitated the same way she was at any moment, or someone whom never had any powers but is effective at fighting combatants that do?
edit also Charisma’s insecurities that Kaycee agitates could very well be fueling a crush
Crush or not, Kaycee proved to Charisma why she decided to trust her to help with her practicing to redo the castle test in the first place. Kaycee is a force of will and wit, and will stop at almost nothing to find a way to get the job done, without the benefit of having any powers of her own. In the back of her mind, whether she is willing to admit it or not, she knows that if she runs into a problem she can’t punch her way out of, there’s a good chance her opponent will have countered the power sets of those that may come to her aid. Kaycee is not only unaffected by anything that targets physical powers, but is able to keep up against most powered individuals.
I still wonder if Charisma will totally flip back to scorn and spite when she’s recovered. She’s just been told that her powers can’t be restored, a crushing blow to her self-confidence. She’s at a low ebb right now, more than a little scared. Her walls may be down right now, but I suspect they’ll pop back up later.
People on ‘The Brink’ tend to show their true colors.
Will Charisma go back to her old self after this crisis is over???
IF there’s a do over courtesy of Ambrosia getting a major power boost, probably. Otherwise 🤷♂️