Well of Souls Forums

entity2636 wrote:I admit that these two last examples of punishment are not directly relevant for not serving the husband, rather I listed them as general forms of excessive corporeal punishment for women for what we see now as benign and unimportant things.

They were not "excessive corporeal punishment for women". They were "excessive corporeal punishments" (by modern standards.), usually for witchcraft or heresy. (At least in the european middle ages.)

entity2636 wrote:I wrote that one late, tired and in a hurry and in retrospect it could be seen as incorrect examples. One would be labeled a witch if a woman was self educated in sciences deemed heretical by the church, practiced traditional medicine, was unmarried, had an unpleasant character or was a pain in the @ss of someone important, etc.

Where are you getting this from? There were plenty of educated women in the european middle ages. The education of children in their early years was usually left to their mothers (at least in the wealthier families where education was both an option and expected.) The women who ended up in cloisters were in effect brought into an existence of theological and philosophical (and quite a lot of political) learning.

Even your statement in regards to witches indicates an extremely gendered view of witches. Both men and women were burned at the stake for being witches, which makes it a non-gendered punishment.

entity2636 wrote:But Corpsman, Username and Arioch are right, this has derailed far enough and I will stop it right here.

@Arioch - best way of pulling the attention away from derailing a thread is to drop something fresh for the readers to take apart, like a new teaser frame of the next page Got anything new and shiny for us, or shall we wait until Monday (hopefully) for the next page?

Yeah, probably best to let it drop here, and I too will raise my call that the only way to solve this vendetta between me and you is MOAR CONTENT. Otherwise, we might end up burning eachother at the stake. Could Arioch live with that on his conscience?

boldilocks wrote:Yeah, probably best to let it drop here, and I too will raise my call that the only way to solve this vendetta between me and you is MOAR CONTENT. Otherwise, we might end up burning eachother at the stake. Could Arioch live with that on his conscience?

There'll be coming something soon, either way. Either it would be a new page coming Monday, or I have an idea for a writing prompt which needs a little refinement...

I want to ask directly did Fireblade permanently do something to Alex's mind? A lasting impact emotionally or mentally.

CrimsonFALKE wrote:I want to ask directly did Fireblade permanently do something to Alex's mind? A lasting impact emotionally or mentally.

Alex noticed her attempt at mental contact right from the very start, even before he recognized it as such. That should disprove the notion that he somehow got sensitized to her presence.

Back on topic:

Since Alex could sense Fireblade even without touching Beryl (Page 18), does the touching have any impact? Maybe that he can sense Fireblade farther away? Before she was just some meters apart from him, now he can sense her in another part of the shuttle.

There's one important piece of information missing. We do not know whether on Page 18, where Alex saw the light that we now know is the human brain's interpretation of a mental signature, Fireblade was touching him or not.

As I'm writing this, I initially thought that Fireblade must have been touching Alex and trying to communicate. The more I think about it, the more it feels to me that on Page 18 she was in fact not touching him, but was trying to contact him telepathically.

I think so because at first Alex didn't "see" anything, then he noticed a flickering light which then grew larger, brighter. He then felt heat, got scared and woke up. On Page 28 where Fireblade is angry, holding her palm against his forehead and is trying to break into his mind with force, he instantly sees her silhouette which then "explodes" into a field of light and heat. Then Alex passes out.

Now Alex is touching Beryl and I would wager a guess that his brain is using her as sort of an antenna or amplifier. It also starts with a small glowing sphere of light that grew into Fireblade's silhouette as Alex took more time, focused and looked into it. Touch greatly amplifies telepathy but Beryl is a rather weak telepath, at least compared to Fireblade and Tempo and Fireblade is also probably not trying to actively contact Alex at this moment. That's why it took him time, focusing and Beryl's help to start seeing the most powerful telepath nearby, plus the only one who wears a psi amp.

entity2636 wrote:That's why it took him time, focusing and Beryl's help to start seeing the most powerful telepath nearby, plus the only one who wears a psi amp.

That's more or less also my interpretation.

By the way, congratulations to Arioch for breaking the 1000$ per page! Obviously, people love your comic! And I have to agree.

It will be interesting to see what happens if (when) Alex gets skin to skin contact with Tempo. I'm personally hoping the team ends up on Black Razor. Then we might know if Alex only senses Fireblade or other Teidar as well, by which I mean Smug Captain.

novius wrote:

CrimsonFALKE wrote:I want to ask directly did Fireblade permanently do something to Alex's mind? A lasting impact emotionally or mentally.

Alex noticed her attempt at mental contact right from the very start, even before he recognized it as such. That should disprove the notion that he somehow got sensitized to her presence.

I am asking if she has made a barrier that is what blocks out Beryl from his mind.

hi hi

novius wrote:Alex noticed her attempt at mental contact right from the very start, even before he recognized it as such. That should disprove the notion that he somehow got sensitized to her presence.

We don't know if Fireblade was probing Alex's mind prior to regaining consciousness. It is possible that she was, and that she left a mark on his mind. Telepathy is plenty mysterious anyways.

For what it's worth, I think what we see on page 18 is Fireblade's telepathic equivalent of "poke the body with a stick to see what happens." Her look of surprise in the next panel is in reaction to the previously unconscious Alex yelling (in English) in response to her "poke."

orion1836 wrote:For what it's worth, I think what we see on page 18 is Fireblade's telepathic equivalent of "poke the body with a stick to see what happens." Her look of surprise in the next panel is in reaction to the previously unconscious Alex yelling (in English) in response to her "poke."

Well, that was more than just a "poke". Alex got the distinct impression that "something" was closing in on him, and that triggered an almost instinctive reaction of fear and rejection. Given their positioning on pg. 19 it is reasonable to assume that it was Fireblade who was spearheading the mental intrusion, and Beryl might just be there to watch the vitals.

Looking at the GURPS character sheets I was a bit surprised to see that while Fireblade is the strongest telekinetic-wise, she is not the strongest when it comes to raw telepathy - Tempo is - and Fireblade is halfway between Beryl and Tempo in respects of telepathic strength.

And that gives food for thought. If it would be just telepathic power he senses, he would have an even clearer image of Tempo in his mind. So that begs the question, what is it that Alex is homing in on?(*) Perhaps it is her telekinetic ability that makes the difference, or that the Loroi in question does need to try make any deeper contact beforehand and needs some considerable power to boot. "Truly sorry, Beryl, you're cute and smart and cheerful and all that, but you don't have it where it matters."

I wonder if Loroi do use telepathic strength to make up a pecking order. To me that sounds likely.

(*) Forgot about the amplifier. But I'd wager it's not always on and adds a power boost only on demand.

Are we looking at the same GURPS sheets? I'm seeing a Telepathy power of 17 for Fireblade and 15 for Tempo.

nweismuller wrote:Are we looking at the same GURPS sheets? I'm seeing a Telepathy power of 17 for Fireblade and 15 for Tempo.

Dunno? Telepathic (Power 5) in "Advantages" on the left side is same for both of them (and even for Beryl), but skills like "Telesend" and "Telereceive" on the right side are different.

http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/image ... eblade.png
http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/image ... _tempo.gif

novius wrote:

nweismuller wrote:Are we looking at the same GURPS sheets? I'm seeing a Telepathy power of 17 for Fireblade and 15 for Tempo.

Dunno? Telepathic (Power 5) in "Advantages" on the left side is same for both of them (and even for Beryl), but skills like "Telesend" and "Telereceive" on the right side are different.

http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/image ... eblade.png
http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/image ... _tempo.gif

"Telepathic (Power 5)" is part of the baseline "Loroi" advantage. Look down a few lines to see the character's full Telepathy power.

It could be that Alex noticed her presence, rather than a direct mental intrusion in the first case, given that just by relaxing he could observe almost the same thing but at a greater distance.

icekatze wrote:hi hi

novius wrote:Alex noticed her attempt at mental contact right from the very start, even before he recognized it as such. That should disprove the notion that he somehow got sensitized to her presence.

We don't know if Fireblade was probing Alex's mind prior to regaining consciousness. It is possible that she was, and that she left a mark on his mind. Telepathy is plenty mysterious anyways.

That could mean she has permanently made a mark on his mind.

Arioch wrote:"Telepathic (Power 5)" is part of the baseline "Loroi" advantage. Look down a few lines to see the character's full Telepathy power.

Ashes on my head, I must've been blind. Though.... the "17*" means "with amplifier", and that is, compared to Tempo, still just slightly above her 15. Without the amplifier it would be halved (center column), and thus at 8 or 9 (dunno the rounding rules for GURPS), which puts her on par with or slightly above Beryl.

So, again... if it's just power Alex would sense, he should have seen at least a "flicker" from Tempo, too, since she's in comparable range, and definitely from her and Beryl if Fireblade is showing up with her raw, unamplified power. Of course this is just conjecture on my part, but it just gives reason to think that it's not raw power Alex homes in on, but something different.

But... there's the big question - is that amplifier always on or would it just provide a boost to her powers when she demands it?

CrimsonFALKE wrote:That could mean she has permanently made a mark on his mind.

Permanently? Maybe not. Long-lasting? Sounds very much likely. And I'm sure neither Alex nor Fireblade would like that idea being connected on that level.

novius wrote:

Arioch wrote:"Telepathic (Power 5)" is part of the baseline "Loroi" advantage. Look down a few lines to see the character's full Telepathy power.

Ashes on my head, I must've been blind. Though.... the "17*" means "with amplifier", and that is, compared to Tempo, still just slightly above her 15. Without the amplifier it would be halved (center column), and thus at 8 or 9 (dunno the rounding rules for GURPS), which puts her on par with or slightly above Beryl.

So, again... if it's just power Alex would sense, he should have seen at least a "flicker" from Tempo, too, since she's in comparable range, and definitely from her and Beryl if Fireblade is showing up with her raw, unamplified power. Of course this is just conjecture on my part, but it just gives reason to think that it's not raw power Alex homes in on, but something different.

But... there's the big question - is that amplifier always on or would it just provide a boost to her powers when she demands it?

CrimsonFALKE wrote:That could mean she has permanently made a mark on his mind.

Permanently? Maybe not. Long-lasting? Sounds very much likely. And I'm sure neither Alex nor Fireblade would like that idea being connected on that level.

What if the link in his mind is some sort of barrier keeping alex locked out of all Loroi?

CrimsonFALKE wrote:

novius wrote:

CrimsonFALKE wrote:That could mean she has permanently made a mark on his mind.

Permanently? Maybe not. Long-lasting? Sounds very much likely. And I'm sure neither Alex nor Fireblade would like that idea being connected on that level.

What if the link in his mind is some sort of barrier keeping alex locked out of all Loroi?

Unlikely. Assuming she was the one who tried to make mental contact to him in Sickbay, given that the 'presence' he perceived looked very much similar to that on pg. 134, and she was in the forefront when he woke up on pg. 19 is it a reasonable assumption, it would mean that he should have had a moment where he would have perceived at least the other two Loroi (including Beryl) in Fireblade's vicinity. Well... unless it is some sort of 'imprinting' where the human mind latches itself on the first mental contact (by a Loroi) it perceives and excludes everything else from the very start. But, that doesn't fit the picture that Alex felt an almost primal fear on her presence closing in on him.

But, if it is so, that Fireblade (unwillingly) put her mark on him, thus barring out any other Loroi... I'm pretty sure that Beryl would be very much let down by the news. And Fireblade herself might hardly agree with the idea to be chained to that pink menace, too. In addition, Alex himself made it clear who makes the top and the bottom of the list titled 'favourite Loroi'