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24

The Starcaster Chronicles 10.17

August 12, 2022 by Tim


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Pal87
Pal87
1 year ago

Feeling pretty sad is normal.

It’s okay.

Respect what you’re feeling.

Seek out help if you need it.

That’s the most important part.

Jack0r
Jack0r
1 year ago
Reply to  Pal87

In “normal” life, you are totally right. In the middle of a war (especially a huge one like this one), it might be hard to find help…

Ben
Ben
1 year ago
Reply to  Jack0r

Sadly, it doesn’t take a war to make getting help and/or taking breaks a near-impossible thing to do.

D00d
D00d
1 year ago
Reply to  Jack0r

You tend to compartmentalize to get through the day, with bouts of drinking heavily whenever you get that port call. Then back out to do it all over again until the deployment is over.

Dom
Dom
1 year ago
Reply to  Pal87

Nice haiku!

21st Century Peon
21st Century Peon
1 year ago
Reply to  Dom

I couldn’t stop seeing the syllable count, sorry. With thanks to Pal87 for saying it first:

Respect your feelings,
and if you need help, seek it;
because help does help.

Colin
Colin
1 year ago

For a split second, whilst not looking properly, I thought the alarm was on the parents planet, and that the bad guy had turned up to destroy that planet while Cass was pouring her heart out.

Then I thought, Tim wouldn’t be that cruel would he?

Would he???

Shadowfyst997
Shadowfyst997
1 year ago
Reply to  Colin

My mind during this scene went to Starship Troopers, when Rico is talking to his parents right as the Bugs send an asteroid down to wipe out the city his parents are in. I could very easily see that happening here XD

Christopher
Christopher
1 year ago
Reply to  Colin

That’s Janora, talking with Cass’ parents.

Colin
Colin
1 year ago
Reply to  Christopher

Yeah, I know now. I screwed up. Sorry

Gonfrask
Gonfrask
1 year ago

Ok…bets about the Dranglaex are about to attack the planet where Cass’ parents went as settlers?

ShonaSoF
ShonaSoF
1 year ago

ouuuuch…

Cragfast
Cragfast
1 year ago

This is why it’s a bad strategy to have drills every vall. Firstly the crew is going to be exhausted having a drill every vall, with less than a vall in between to recover and perform normal duties. Secondly, if the Dranglaex attack coincides with a vall, then the crew will assume its just another drill.

Mnemnosyne
Mnemnosyne
1 year ago
Reply to  Cragfast

There are situations where lots of drilling is appropriate, and having to integrate crews very fast is one of them, I’d say. They do need to make sure crews get appropriate rest, but if you need both crews up to speed and working together closely, you gotta do it.

Robert
Robert
1 year ago
Reply to  Cragfast

Yep. I was going to mention that a few pages back. You have a few drills to get the crew working together and identify problems, but not too frequently.

Ben
Ben
1 year ago
Reply to  Cragfast

It would be more logical to have different alarms for drills or real attacks

Cragfast
Cragfast
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben

Yeah, the alarm for a drill should go “BHAAHH! BWAAHH! This is a drill, do not be alarmed. BWAAHH! BWAAHH!”

As Robert and I agree, drills are important but drills every vall would just exhaust and demoralise the crew. Just imagine to how you would function with a potentially life-threatening interruption every vall. Trying to use the three-quarters of a vall in between to both get your work done and your sanity held together.

Jonathan
Jonathan
1 year ago

I remember when I checked this website every day so I could read something funny. Now I can’t stop checking it every day because THE TRAUMA! Are the characters gonna be okay?! I HAVE TO KNOW!!!

So yeah, what I’m trying to say is, Thanks very much, Tim! You’re an amazing artist and writer. Keep doing your thing!

21st Century Peon
21st Century Peon
1 year ago

Cass’s parents are craning their necks to look up at Calway. Does their holoprojector show her as fifty feet tall, or do they have their phone installed on a very high shelf? Or do space-phones do some clever holo-correction (the way some Earth-phones can now “fix” pupil-placement to make it appear like you’re looking at the camera instead of at the screen), and at their end, they’re looking down at a little image of Calway that’s looking “up” at them? I apologise for ignoring the touching instance of grieving parents quasi-parenting their kid’s friends through the same grief, as often… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by 21st Century Peon
anonymouse
anonymouse
1 year ago

could be a wall unit. some scifi films combined the big screen tv with a communication device. or it could be a public use terminal that they are using that happens to be a bit up on the wall. it just depends on where they are while they are talking to her. it could also be like you said, a perspective forced correction, and on their end she is small and looking UP at them.

wolph
wolph
1 year ago

You would also hope that they would have colour vision, but apparently it’s still grayscale

Logannis
Logannis
1 year ago
Reply to  wolph

You mean bluescale

Rolan7
Rolan7
1 year ago
Reply to  wolph

Seems like projecting a monochrome hologram like this would be a lot simpler. I bet they *can* do full color (using very precisely overlayed projections) but this is more common when the color is unnecessary.

wolph
wolph
1 year ago
Reply to  Rolan7

But if you could choose between a regular full colour video and a monochrome hologram, would you really choose the hologram? Seems unlikely to me

chargersfan
chargersfan
1 year ago

I had this same thought. I think it seems likely that the parents are in a residence equipped with a big viewscreen and some, let’s call them holo-imagers that are able to capture a 3D image of the two of them. Janora on the other hand is not standing around such devices, so the image of her captured and transmitted to them is just a 2D one.

Jacob
Jacob
1 year ago

We already have primitive predictive AI that can guess what an object looks like rotated. This may simply be a 2D capture extrapolated into 3D and interpolated to interact with the viewer.

CTOWNS
CTOWNS
1 year ago

They’re deepfake-based avatars

Blobby
Blobby
1 year ago

I know that the rule of cool is in place here. But I think it’s a little funny that the people in the hologram are looking up at her. Don’t they have a similar holo table? Wouldn’t they be looking down at it like she is? Shouldn’t this be the hologram equivalent of people looking downward in video calls because everyone’s camera is above where the screen is?

Then again, maybe in the space future some AI editing is performed between clients to make them appear as if they’re looking up at the other person.

USA WORK
USA WORK
1 year ago

In “normal” life, you are totally right. In the middle of a war (especially a huge one like this one), it might be hard to find help…

Syrinx
Syrinx
1 year ago
Reply to  USA WORK

Unfortunately, for a veteran in the US, it’s often hard to find help period.