If you like the Auridos’ Shipyards™ logo on Cort’s shirt, you can snag one for a limited time here.
Onto business… our first vote of Issue #6!
24
24
24
If you like the Auridos’ Shipyards™ logo on Cort’s shirt, you can snag one for a limited time here.
Onto business… our first vote of Issue #6!
Tim, I don’t remember if you already spoke about it years ago, but are there choices that lead to Dead Ends, or does every choice lead to its own storyline? I want to know because there’s big clashes inside me between “This choice seems more interesting” and “But this one is more likely to lead to survival”.
There are no dead ends. I’m here to tell a story.
However, who’s alive in that story is another matter entirely.
Brings a whole new meaning to “dead end.” Tim, you’re cold.
I take comfort knowing that as long as someone’s there to haul him to a Pokécenter, Speck cannot die.
Ah, the screams as their faces melt for trying..
Asking for help is the right choice for me. Leaving without knowing if the Starcaster could like blow up if you get near a superstrong star might be really bad. Or what if he has another anger attack and shoots a laserbeam penetrating a planet’s core where millions of people live on and he has no way of stopping it? Also Cort needs to find a way on how to use the arm on the ship. Like a extra build in shooter cockpit on the roof where he can put his arm through some kind of advice outta the ship… Read more »
I agree and I voted the same, but I think that there are costs to this. Cort will be much less visible if he leaves Nyrah here. With Nyrah, she is sure to convince him to use the arm for some moral reason and whatnot.
I still think that Cort should ask Nyrah for help, though. Otherwise, he might trigger the weapon by accident and kill everyone.
I mean….Learning how to use the Starcaster at least SOUNDS less painful than getting your arm removed or asking Nyrah for help. Still, if he does ask her to stay, there may be much groveling involved.
Cort is a trained Lawman. While probably not a particularly upright and outstanding officer, there is one thing I know about Lawmen, from the fact that I’ve been around them as friends and family my whole life. They learn to use the tools that their lives will depend on, because learning to use their weapons very well may save their dang lives. The Starcaster is part of Cort’s life now. For better or worse, it’s his literal side arm (on the right side). As a combatant, he’d naturally come to the conclusion that he’d better know how to use it… Read more »
Besides, just because Cort decides to learn how to control / use/ not kill himself by accident with the Starcaster, doesn’t mean he’d stop running.
I thought we would vote how many drinks Cort needs =D
The right answer is: All of them.
*wakes up to a crater in the planet, and a b**ch of a hangover.*
Ugggggg… new rule. No more starcasting while drunk…
None, he carries a Starcaster on his arm that activates based on his emotions and getting drunk sure as hell won’t make him emotional stable.^^;
To me it seemed rather strange that he ran at the end of the last episode. He knows that the starcaster can’t fall into Drangalex hands, and he knows that he could have trusted the octopus federation captain. But he still ran. So if this vote turns out to leave Nyrah, that is, in many ways, more inline with the character than asking for her for help now. It is a stupid choise, but he has made some stupid choises before and not because of us. I voted for him to get help though; First step in a new direction… Read more »
While I agree, it might also be fun to explore he actions along the alternative path. Does she try to hook up with Quell to seek out his help? Return to her homeworld? Get a new body?
He wasn’t really thinking clearly last episode.
He wasn’t thinking clearly, he had just been through a firefight and a fairly traumatic event. And on top of that, Cort has his own history with Quel at play here.
And furthermore, Quel is just one cog in a very large machine that Cort does not like/trust.
Cort simply switched into “Nope” mode and wanted to get the hell away from all of this. He’s now settling down, things are quiet for the moment, and has to seriously weigh his options going forward.
I’m an amatuer writer myself and I’ve toyed with the concepts of one being able to perceive the entire universe and all the factors within it. To an unprepared mind, it snaps their sanity like a slim jim, and Cort just got a whole quart of that. I don’t think he’s going to be thinking clearly for some time. However, WE are! So I’d imagine we’re going to be making a lot of choices for him in the coming weeks while he wants off this extra-dimensional awareness induced hangover.
Unless you’re Zaphod Beeblebrox and just stepped out of the Total Perspective Vortex. Then you’ve just gotten an ego boost, knowing that you’re a pretty froody guy after all.
Oh man Cort is gonna be super pissed in about a minute
The starcaster instantly heals damage wich means purging toxins as well i bet
That means he cant get drunk
Holy…..
Uh, Tim? Verification? Or rather, blessed denial for Cort’s sake?
Its an establushed scifi trope if grafted to a supermcguffin that heals you no getting drunk
I’d say no hangovers, which would be bad mental reinforcement for Cort.
Hangovers are caused by dehidration if the caster transforms toxibs to water then yea he wouldnt
D
Cort, don’t be an idiot, and listen to your wiser and much more corrosive friend.
By the way – Tim, should the voting box be allowing multiple entries? Because it’s giving me that option.
Actually, it is allowing duplicate votes. I’m going to day for the record I voted for Cort getting training in using the starcaster on the reasoning that he doesn’t want to remove it so he might as well learn to use it.
*say for the record, stupid typos
As interesting as it would be to have him try and go it alone, Cort is no fool. He’s in over his head and needs information. His past experience and skill set will tell him to work with a (mostly) trusted expert in tandem with his gut.
Throughout history, various warlords, Ghengist Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, etc, have always sought the insights of a local who lived in the area they wished to conquer. The most dangerous hazard is the one you know nothing about. What if the Starcaster explodes if it isn’t oiled or something like that? Sounds silly when questioned, but do we know for certain that it won’t? Point is, we have a weapon that literally just bored a mountain a new asshole and shot into space. We need to know its capabilities. If it was me, I’d drag Nyrah along by her self-righteous face… Read more »
Other worry: how long will that blast go for? It started on Ona VI, so is it just gonna keep going until it finds a solid object?
…it penetrated a mountain, I don’t think solid objects are an issue…
127 years later:
“Sir! Massive burst of ultraviolet rays coming from the Zeta sector!”
“What if the Starcaster explodes if it isn’t oiled or something like that? ”
Then it would have exploded or something like that ages ago, because it’s been hanging out on a skeleton for years upon years upon years.
Maybe it only needs to be oiled after each use…
Is there a Codex for the Starcaster universe? With such long bouts in between seasons I forget who and what is who and what.
Cort: Protagonist, ex-cop, reluctant hero, has a Starcaster grafted on his arm. Speck: Little acid gremlin that dissolves anything on contact. Species: Mimon. Nyrah: Last of her species, cyborg, single-mindedly focused on the Starcaster, crazy devotion to the Federation. Starcaster: Magic arm band that uses the power of the closest star (in gravitational range?) to terraform, laser blast, do other awesome thingies we’ll eventually find out about. Permanently bonds with biological life form wielding it. Dranglaex Empire: Bad Guys. They do bad guy things. Tortured Nyrah for 100 years, destroyed her homeworld. Have a huge army and one Starcaster; lied… Read more »
I feel like both Cort’s Dad and Jack should have (dead?) after their entries
Implied for both; either could just be in retirement or not have been seen yet (but off gallivanting across the galaxy)
“Dad’s dead, Quel, I don’t think he’s going to hold you to it”
-Cort
Oof forgot about that
Maybe for Jack?
Eh, yeah, probably. I wasn’t going for anyone’s life story or anything. Though yeah, “Dead.” and “Dead?” for Papa Cort and Jack would have been a good idea.
Why not ask of us? We think our business dealings are quite fair. Just do not attempt to swindle us or you will join us.
Maybe Tim should make a character page for A&D and Starcaster
Or have a reference mini-codex at the beginning of each Starcaster issue in the future
Thanks for the mini recap!
Personally I think he should just cut the damn arm off and count his lucky stars that it doesn’t cost him more to get out of being a prize in an interplanetary conflict.
I don’t think I’ve seen a SINGLE story where running away from an issue like this ever works out. Cort has no idea how the Starcaster works or what triggers it, and if he doesn’t want to get himself exposed again, he needs to know how to use it, and more pertinently, how to AVOID using it. Besides, the Starcaster may be like the Death Star and have a low power option. Might be helpful for welding panels on the ship, heating up one’s coffee or refueling the ship’s power cells!
Really he should chop off his arm, then get plastic surgery to hide his face. There is no way they are not going to find him eventually.
This has probably been answered and I’m too dumb to notice, but has Star aster been collected?
If you mean what I think you mean, that can be taken two ways
In story = there’s six Starcasters, two for the federation, one for Cort, one for the Dranglaex, and two that have not as yet been identified
In life = no, but I believe that’s what Tim’s poll in the above post was about
There are many Star Asters. You can find Star Asters at your local xenobotanical nursery!
Not to be confused with Zinnia’s kid, that’s just Aster.
To me it seems really weird that cutting off the arm isn’t an option we can vote for. I mean, if Cort really hated the Starcaster it would be the most logical option. Sure, losing an arm sucks, but this is a setting with sci-fi medical tech (he wouldn’t risk death) and erfectly functional prostethics (as commented by Speck and evidenced by Nyrah). The only downsides have to do with aesthetic and mabe with the cost of finding a replacement arm and maintining it, which I don’t imagine would be too high. If Cort really hated the Starcaster as much… Read more »
Sorry for the spelling mistakes, typing fast on phone:P
I disagree. I don’t think many people’s first inclination would be to lose a limb, a part of their body. No matter how good a prosthetic might be, it’s still a prosthetic; a facsimile of the real deal. Even in a medical situation, when a limb represents direct threat to life (gangrene, infection, etc), people still struggle with the choice for amputation. Reason may win out in the end, but nobody just charges happily down that path without wanting to be sure there are no other options. So no, that is not going to be on the table as one… Read more »
Except in tech TTRPG’s like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun, where people gladly give up chunks of themselves.
That’s almost fetishized, though. A pursuit of personal advancement through technology. And that’s certainly a mindset, but also kind of a step removed from what we’re talking about here.
I think that is fair. While I do think most people would agree that having a futuristic robot arm is badass, and many might even want one, when it came time to chop off your arm to do it, most people would likely hesitate. That said, after some thought, cutting off your arm is clearly the best choice. He is the most wanted person in the galaxy and it is utterly impossible to lay low. Unless you cut off your arm, then no one cares about you at all. If your serious about avoiding everything, it is what most people… Read more »
If I’m the Syndicate, or the Dranglaex, and I hear you cut off your arm and don’t have the Starcaster anymore, I’m not leaving you alone. I’m coming after you to find out where you left it. After that, I’ll probably kill you for making me go through the trouble.
I disagree, speaking from a psychological standpoint. If you put a human being in a position where there is an immediate threat – say, surrounded, near certain death, but you can survive by amputation – then sure. But against a hypothetical future danger, one which could potentially be avoided? The decision to permanently cripple oneself is not something that a person would take lightly. The instinctual desire to keep oneself whole would be way too strong. And the instinctual, emotional human brain is wired to act far stronger to the immediate threat than a potential one. Arguments about cyberpunk fictions… Read more »
Rule #1: Don’t split the party.
Rule #2: Don’t. Split. The. Party.
Rule #3: DON’T SPLIT THE PARTY
Rule 4 to Infinity: DON’T SPLIT THE PARTY, but with increasing emphasis on the word DON’T
Eventually the “Don’t”s get replaced with “Do Not”s
Actually had some conflict deciding on how to vote. Going it alone and under the radar so to speak sounds in character for Cort. He does not want to hurt people. But he is pragmatic. That pragmatism is that while Nyrah might be to protect the bracer. She is a potential protection and has some knowledge. Also if she is on her own she will probably tell the wrong people exactly who he is and what he has. And I don’t see Cort killing her to keep her silent. (After all he does not know the enemy fleet is coming… Read more »
It seems like if he really wanted to avoid trouble, he really would just cut his arm off. Technology is advanced enough that you can have a working replacement hand. He clearly isn’t taking the situation very seriously.
There’s a series of books by Stephen R. Donaldson called The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. he wound up in an alternate universe where the white gold in his wedding ring was staggeringly powerful. Only he never found out exactly how to properly wield it. How it work, how to DO things with it (at least till the very last book…last part of the last book). That drove me totally batshit crazy. You have something incredible powerful at your disposal, that’s yours to use, and you don’t figure out it’s limitations? what it does? how to make it, or make it… Read more »
But a key feature in the Thomas Covenant books were that he was the Unbeliever. He was certain the reality in which he had power was a dream. Not real. No consequences.
Cort is in a very different situation…
Also, I’ll bet Tim is unlike to write Cort raping a woman, getting her pregnant, then years later getting all rape-y with their daughter… Thomas was a DEEPLY flawed individual, and an extreme anti-hero. You weren’t supposed to LIKE Thomas, but were supposed to want him to win, anyway.
Would definitely check about removing multiple vote submissions. Seemed like that was an option back in Issue #4.
Now who would do that?
*shifty eyes*
TREACHEROUS TIM!
YOU PUT THE ANSWERS IN A DIFFERENT ORDER THAN YOU ASKED US!
Nah its cool
I can read
They randomize. It cuts down on repeat spam-voting.
“First-hand experience”
hah
For the record, I HATE Nyrah. She’s a (insert curse word here). She needs to be taken down a few pegs, maybe drop-kicked down a mountain and boiled in lava for a few million years.
BUT, as a DM in Dungeons and Dragons, I know how important and useful an NPC with knowledge difficult or impossible to obtain is and how bad it is when they go off on their own. So … I’m not happy with how I voted …
Tbf she got that fucked up after 100 years of torture, we’re lucky she is not a complete nutjob (yet).
Welp, voted for Ask for help, because that seems like the “smarter” option of the two, but this IS of course the internet, where I’ve no doubt there are just as many people voting for his death as there are voting for his success.
Cort kinda just tripped and fell face-first into not only Nyrah’s race’s, but also her close family’s history. He’s kinda honor-bound and common-decency-bound to keep her included.
Tim, In the first, more descriptive image of the dilemma, where it explains what each decision is, you have put the options in the order of “Go It Alone” -> “Ask For Help”. In the Google Form you’ve reversed this order and it’s “Ask For Help” -> “Go It Alone”. I was half asleep when doing this and since reading the first one, I almost chose the wrong (i.e. not the one I wanted) option because of the reversed order, cause it made sense. You might want to keep it consistent in the future to avoid the cases of confusion… Read more »
Google randomizes the order to cut down on spam voting a single option.
Just pay attention next time 😉
Cut my arm off to remove what appears to be an inconvenience? No. I’m a firm believer in “when life gives you lemons, BURN LIFE’S HOUSE DOWN”. Learn to control this superweapon. Can’t really hide it, but can make it useful. IF all else fails, THEN consider removal. But FUCK letting shitty circumstance be the end-all deciding factor.
Hey Tim, just a heads up: I’ve always used RSS feeds to keep track of updates on my favourite sites. A few years back you changed the way your comics are displayed on feeds because it was affecting your ad revenue so I just want to warn you that recently 1. I can view the whole comic in my feed reader (Netvibes) and 2. Ads are not displaying via the reader – potentially you could be losing ad revenue. Thought you’d want know if you don’t already. 🙂
Anyone old enough to have watched the TV Series “The Greatest American Hero” knows that leaving Nyrah (the de-facto instruction manual) behind is a recipe for certain chaos. While that chaos might be entertaining at times for us, the readers, it certainly could be disastrous for Cort and anyone around him.
I voted for Cort to ditch Nyrah. Doing the smart thing here and learning about the starcaster I feel implies him getting sucked into Nyrah’s crusade. Which implies handing it and him over to the Federation. Which implies Cort getting the “Suicide Squad” treatment when they realize they need him to be their weapon despite how badly the system screwed him over. I am totally on board with him using the starcaster for good later but I think having him as a rogue element is truer to his character at this point and the more interesting option.
Ask for help: Imagine how badass Cort could be if was able to learn how to harness the power of the Starcaster. Although, it didn’t seem to end well for it’s last owner. Part of me would want to run away from everyone and hide as well. But hiding only works for so long.
time to vote
-Cort drinks one well aged space wiskey
-gets shitfaced