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OUT-OF-PLACERS
A story of inconvenient changes
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OOPS #274
May24
by Valsalia on May 24, 2024 at 2:40 pm
Chapter: Out-Of-Placers
Characters: Kalgkur, Varakses
Shading: Koof
32 Comments
Comments RSS
DISCUSSION (32) ¬
1. PermanentGuest
May 24, 2024, 4:06 pm | # | Reply
Alright.
He was speaking of “created”
CREATED
Like, they’re some kind of bio-engineered warrior race gone sentient.
He could be referring to a creator deity?
And coalesce:
1. To come or grow together into a single mass.
2. To come together as a recognizable whole or entity.
3. To come together for a single purpose: synonym: mix.
What does it all meaaaaaan?
* PermanentGuest
May 24, 2024, 4:06 pm | # | Reply
wow this is the first time leaving a comment actually worked
* SpecificYinglet
May 24, 2024, 5:48 pm | # | Reply
If you use the wordpress route, it works every time.
* PermanentGuest
May 25, 2024, 1:42 pm | # | Reply
Switching to a different browser is what finally worked for me, oddly
enough.
Though now I have to complete 5 captchas instead of one. Oh well.
* SpecificYinglet
May 25, 2024, 11:00 pm | # | Reply
OK, if you must know de boss is cheap, and used Yinglet labor for
zhe wensite design. Zo, here’s what to do.
1: Go to zhe top of de page.
2: hit tab until zhe SECRET MENU pops up just below zhe OOP banner
on zhe right side.
3: Hit zhe Login option.
4: Login at wordpress.
5: On zhe top left of zhe logged in screen, zhere is an option to
retun to zhis page, do so.
6: On zhe top of zhe OOP window zhere should be a wordpress banner,
if not, refresh zhe window once. It should appear zhen.
Now you should be able to post, without zhe captcha crap. Zhis was
necessary because of huge, crippling amounts of spam postings zhis
site was hit wizh, zo, zhings had to be where bots couldn’t just
post crap on here.
* Wilson
May 26, 2024, 5:02 pm | # | Reply
^ Yes, all of this. Sometimes using yinglet web design is even
more effective than captcha. It’s at least a thousand times easier
to post once you learn the Specific trick!
* biblioholic93
May 26, 2024, 6:07 pm | # | Reply
^^ Seconded! And if you need mobile access you can paste the URL
from your desktop through a self chat on Facebook, or text it to
your own number or write it down. Whatever. Sadly I will not post
the link here, that is too easy for bots to figure, but it’s a
valsalia dot address.
Still a pain to scroll posting on mobile personally, so I prefer
desktop anyways. But who always has the time?
* Sensei Le Roof
May 27, 2024, 11:56 am | # | Reply
It just wouldn’t let me click Post Comment. Even after captcha. So
here’s hoping.
* Apple_Boy
May 25, 2024, 3:57 am | # | Reply
I’ve been kicking around a crack-theory. Maybe it doesn’t even manage to
clear that high a bar. But anyway, take the following points:
The various “impulses” alter physiology for unknown purposes.
The gorging impulse was specifically mentioned to be about bringing back
nutrition for reproduction.
Young baxxid are undifferentiated for decades.
Now there’s something called “coalescence”.
Followed by subtext that the natural baxxid impulse is to merge in some
way, and that attempting to bond with just one other individual will cause
problems.
There was what seemed to be a heavy implication that baxxid can do
something like mind-melding, with the emphasis given on “opening his mind
completely”, to the extent that he possibly wouldn’t exist anymore.
The fierce defense of a new philosophy of seeking a path as an individual.
The heavy embarrassment they feel at being unable to control their biology
during an impulse, which would make even more sense if it was a physical
manifestation of them losing their grip on what they now consider to be
important.
Not to mention it’s already shown that something hive-mind adjacent exists
in this world’s biology, vis a vis indrel.
And probably more I’m not thinking of right this second. This comic has
relied quite a bit on subtle and long-seeded foreshadowing, even for minor
points.
What I’m driving at is, what if the baxxid are sort of like cells? The
weird shifts their morphology and body function, just organelles being
switched on for some kind of gestalt super-organism they fuse to become
for a time? What if they’re kind of like some types of snakes too, that
have to return to a specific spawning pit(i.e. The Teeth)? Hell, has any
mention been made of whether the rock the dome is made out of might,
possibly, share some uncanny commonalities with the substance used in
baxxid limbs and head crests? Like maybe you get enough of them together
for a merger period, and it results in something big enough to use that as
a shell?
Realistically I’m completely throwing shit at the wall, but it is an
interesting idea.
* PermanentGuest
May 25, 2024, 1:41 pm | # | Reply
Hivemind gone individualist makes sense to me.
Hopefully we’ll find out more next time.
Or we won’t, this feels like a natural way to make a cut to a different
scene.
2. SpecificYinglet
May 24, 2024, 5:55 pm | # | Reply
Er, I’d have expected someone different if zhey really had planned to off
Kalgkur if he had turned to de dark side of de Baxxid. But what kind of
assinine crap is it for Kalgkur to come out of having said “no zhanks” to de
baddie, only for zhe presumed goodies to say “ya know, ole asshat you talked
to a minute ago? We really do respect what he’s a saying.” Gee makes me
zhink zhere is a few extra asshat awards to go around.
* KeystoneInspector
May 25, 2024, 5:11 am | # | Reply
Impulses and emotions don’t go away just by putting some pieces of cloth
on and pretending not to be an animal. This isn’t about respect. It’s
about truth. It is a fact that the Baxxid possess untold capabilities for
killing. It is a fact that Kalgkur has made use of those capabilities. As
I said in my comment on the page of the incident, this whole tragedy
happened because Baxxid fully turn their backs away on what they can do,
pretend that it is not a factor anymore. Something to be hidden and
repressed, rather than understood and managed. While pretending that they
have left such terrenal tethers away seems to work for the majority of
Baxxids, it seems obvious that, when those capabilities do surface, it is
not enough to try burying them again. My take on the situation is that the
elders are letting Kalgkur understand the whole situation, so that he may
adapt. Because it may not be healthy, or possible, to pretend that side of
his being does not exist after what he has done.
* SpecificYinglet
May 25, 2024, 11:22 am | # | Reply
Nice post. What would really be handy about now is a record of how de
Baxxid got “civilized” in de first place. For us Yinglets, all de Humani
had to do is figure out we love clams, and offer us one if we behaved,
and to zheir great surprise wizhin a week of offering us clams not only
did we pick up zhe common language, but dey had to post guards to keep
us out of zheir cities. Or so de legend goes.
Zo, de old Baxxids were properly blooded, and zhen suddenly eizher were
stopped from doing it more, or decided to stop for some reason or
anozher. Zhe fact remains zhat line can be crossed, being bloodied, and
zhen return from it.
It’s eizher zhat, or every living Baxxid adult was killed by zhe humani,
and every living Baxxid today is descended from captured children raised
by regretful Humani, having destroyed zheir culture. Dark, yes?
* KeystoneInspector
May 25, 2024, 2:07 pm | # | Reply
I just don’t see how humans beating Baxxid happens in the current tech
level. They have the advantage in melee (obvious), siege (tunnels) and
guerilla (tunnels again) scenarios, and I don’t see bows and arrows
making a significant dent. I think Baxxids had their own culture, to a
debatable extent, before encountering humans, as this is a thing that
happens with creatures that live in packs and are unchallenged in
their ecological niche (see: elephants, orcas). All that intelligence
they have is not just for tunneling.
The most I can theorize from the available information is that
coalescence may not be a process that is beneficial to the individual,
or to the species at a whole (it has to have been at some point, but
changes in the enviroment may have rendered it dangerous), and the
Baxxid found something in human culture, human civilization that
allowed them to avoid it. Or it was given (taught?) to them. Wasn’t
the first encounter between Baxxids and Valsalia violent, then the
Baxxid stopped attacking for seemingly no reason? That couldn’t have
happened if they didn’t possess the intelligence to make some kind of
cultural exchange, or trade.
Aside from the cultural angle, the only thing my mind goes to is the
water reservoir under Valsalia, the only source in a vast area. Maybe
Baxxid are reverse locusts (locust swarms happen after heavy
rainfall), ‘coalescing’, whatever that is, when there is not enough
water in their environment. But that doesn’t quite fit with the vibe
of Kalgkur’s arc, if ya know what I mean.
Another theory: sound is thought for Baxxid. They are a sound-based
limited hive mind, where the infrasound conversations of the whole
affect the individual. Rendering the idea of violence a complete taboo
in their civilization makes the collective generally incapable of
commiting it. Kalgkur is really just very clumsy (not just the last
incident, the scream that got him into this mess), and pretty much
rediscovered violence by accident.
* SpecificYinglet
May 25, 2024, 11:37 pm | # | Reply
Well, it did happen. Baxxid are de submissives in the Human-Baxxid
relationship. Sure de Baxxid are powerful on a individual basis, but
zhe Humani are faster zhan dey are, and capable of not only running
de hell away (somezhing Us Yinglets are good at too) but are capable
of driving away or poisoning de Baxxid’s food, starving zhem.
Zhere are ways to win a battle zhat doesn’t rely on using a spear,
using one’s head before doing zo is much, much better. For de water
zhing, de Baxxid would have left ValSalia long ago if zhat were de
case. Surely Yannit’s people (Zhe Indrel) are at least as tasty as
Humani are, and being in an underground hive already, a more
rewarding target zhan a measly Humani villiage is.
But neizher de Indrel, Baxxid or Yinglets control de area, zhere is
somezhing special about being human (ask Laaady Kass for details).
* biblioholic93
May 26, 2024, 6:20 pm | # | Reply
The human advantage is in fixed and improvised defenses. Fine motor
control and tool usage. Even without a speed advantage, a pot of
boiling pitch or urine is going to make any creature suffer.
Briefly, and for too long at the same time. Nets. Arrows, baxiids
have no natural way to carry shields that aren’t impaled on their
noses or arms. We don’t know how well a baxiid can climb a sheer or
near-sheer stone wall, but whether or not they can and whether or
not it’s fast, there are definitely still options.
Plus, Ivenmoth flat out controls every source of water in and near
the whole city due to the Baxxid assistance they get, in times of
siege. Is that completely a baxiid ability or did they have some
capability of that stuff beforehand?
Oh, forgot pit traps. Baxiid are smart, they form their own complex
traps in the wild. But do they also have experience AVOIDING traps
in the same way? It would seem plausible that coalescence and a lack
of numbers would preclude major wars and conflicts with fixed
positions of the formerly nomadic baxiid. Regrettably, such
experience is also a human “strength,” from a very particular point
of view. Unpleasant, but, a definitely crucial skill to have when
it’s suddenly needed.
* biblioholic93
May 26, 2024, 6:38 pm | # | Reply
Forgot to specify. Crossbows, not archers. Baxiid armor is not
nearly continuous like a lobster or something. Humans already
build and fight in lighter and better as seen by Dinnland armor
flashbacks.
Crossbows can punch through a half inch of plate armor at 100
yards. Needleheads are specifically designed to punch chainmail
aside and get as deep as possible. And while archers are harder to
train fast, if you’re not raising an army from nothing and have
time to train good crossbowmen, you can absolutely get them
trained up very finely to aim for gaps in armor, shield walls,
turtle formations and ram’s armor. Frankly, baxiid eyes are larger
than many gaps in armor they would be trained to puncture, through
mail and gambeson, in a well supplied human siege.
Arrows are accurate over a larger area for lightly armored
targets, but crossbows have more punch, especially closer up. And
considering the intricate gearage I’ve spotted on their treadmill
crane that one page, they are 100% perfectly capable at this point
of carburizing a hard edge on wrought iron arrow cores.
Fire arrows too. Poison, arrow nets. SLINGS, would likely be able
to crack a large chitin plate at close range, and those are VERY
accurate! Medieval slings were in numbers greater than 3 slingers,
capable of driving bears off and harming their bones, something a
modern pistol even, is lacking in achieving.
These are not primitives. They are as smart as modern humans, they
just do not have as complete a scientific view of things. Most
mathematics systems are NOT. REMOTELY. YOUNG. Calculus was oh,
1300s, Newton’s time anyways. We just have extra uses for them
now. Algorithms are only useful at computer computing speeds.
Ancient Greeks proved the earth was round and calculated it’s
diameter, only religious dogma kept everyone from continuing to
know this past Rome’s official converting to Christianity.
3. Larynkir
May 24, 2024, 8:31 pm | # | Reply
I, like Kalgkur do not fully understand at the present time, however based
on these things we can assume:
the Baxxid do not hunt to survive and reproduce
The purpose is, in fact to coalesce.
To become ‘one entity together’
If one does not hunt to survive, then what is the true purpose of hunting?
what purpose of hunting, not for survival will lead to ‘one’ ?
* SpecificYinglet
May 24, 2024, 9:16 pm | # | Reply
Maybe in reverse? De Baxxid coalesce to survive and reproduce? Green
Reaper’s observation of Baxxid being similar to locusts, grasshoppers who
gather into a swarm once certain stimuli are met is interesting.
Grasshoppers are familiar, as zhey can reproduce and thrive wizhout
triggering zheir Locust transformation. Do Grasshoppers dream of zheir
untapped potential to consume? Zhat is de question I zhink is being asked
here to Kalgkur, zhat untapped potential zhat comes when blood is spilled.
Kalgkur certainly seems more emotionally stable after re-affirming his
choice to remain “sane” despite having been razher crazy just before
seeing ole wazziz name. Why de elders are tossing de poor boy back to de
wolves mentally at dis point has to have a reason, ozher zhan Baxxid are
weird.
* Saberbeam
May 25, 2024, 2:14 pm | # | Reply
I wonder if Kalgkur is one of the Baxxid generation that’s finally made
the jump to genuinely internalizing the idea of peaceful, mutual
coexistence and the elders simply weren’t prepared for someone who
experiences cognitive dissonance not from hearing “the truth” of the
chained one, but rather from hearing that the leaders he trusts don’t
actually believe the principles they claim to espouse and have long ago
drank the koolaid that he so readily resisted?
Perhaps Kalgkur is solidly, or maybe just barely, on the other side of a
line that nobody realized was there with one part of the Baxxid populace
speaking in coded language and always thinking in the back of their
minds that all Baxxid (or at least a part of every Baxxid) want to
return to the old ways given the first opportunity. And on the other
side of the line is Kalgkur and those like him who have grown up with
the same stories and lessons, but unlike the other camp have actually
have set their hearts on living out the principles taught to them with
enough optimism and hope to believe that their dreams of peace are
actually possible, darker moments like this aside? Maybe it’s all part
of some larger test or just extra conditioning to make Kalgkur aware
that this line of reasoning isn’t limited to one lonely, old prisoner,
but it might be a case of one side realizing “Wait, you actually
believed all that stuff we said?” and the other side realizing “Wait,
you didn’t?”
* SpecificYinglet
May 25, 2024, 11:22 pm | # | Reply
My guess is Kalgkur is simply young, and is now just learning about
zhe whole “Sins of de Fazher” zhing. Baxxids be wierd, but learning
who you are in any world is part of becoming an adult regardless of
what you look like.
For change coming to zheir world, and re-defining what and how Baxxids
see zhemselves, we will have to wait and see where dis goes in de
story. De boss does like himself de unrequited love stories.
* Wilson
May 26, 2024, 5:11 pm | # | Reply
So are y’all saying that baxxids are this planet’s Vulcans (from Star
Trek)?
4. Wilson
May 24, 2024, 9:55 pm | # | Reply
Created to be killers, and finding visceral pleasure in the act of killing
itself, I understand. Cats are like that. But the way they’ve been using the
word “coalesce” puzzles me. You could describe Valsalia’s theory of
government as a commitment to “cultural coalescence” of all kinds of people
into a universally beneficial society. But the baxxids’ use of the word in
the last few pages must mean an exclusive coalescence, not just dangerous,
but also hostile to the Valsalian way. So I want to ask: is this
“coalescence” something the high elders have decided to abandon, even though
it’s a “Truth” spoken by HWKWHD, or are they here to induct Kalgkur into a
secret society of rebels against Valsalia? Will they decide they have to
kill him because HWKWHD did not persuade him? I fear there’s something deep
and dark and very old going on here.
* SpecificYinglet
May 25, 2024, 12:35 am | # | Reply
De truzh is maybe to de Baxxid, we (humani and yinglets) are zheir clams.
I can understand dis, as I too love de clams, but also want to eat zhem. I
was made to eat zhem! I LOVE TO EAT ZHEM!! But also I want to protect and
help zhem make lots and lots of clam babies, to make me happy in de future
too.
I guess I have to be satisified zhat clams are not sentient beings who
understand zhat I their protector, am also zheir predator as well.
* GreenReaper
May 25, 2024, 8:56 pm | # | Reply
Don’t deny yourself – there will probably be more clams elsewhere.
* SpecificYinglet
May 25, 2024, 11:12 pm | # | Reply
Um, zhere is, but over zhere *points across de tidal pond* belongs to
zhat fancy pants Yinglet who is always singing and making so, so fancy
rhymes and such on here. Zhat zheir clam bed is better zhan mine is
somezhing I cannot stand! And If I ate em all, zhat would be bozh
admitting defeat at zheir hands (somezhing zhat will never, ever be a
good zhing) and bad for de next time I want a clam in de future. And
worst of all is zhey would probably make up some fancy pants song
about me asking zhem for a clam, and sing it to ozhers. So, de clams
are safe, for now at least.
5. Gitts
May 25, 2024, 11:18 pm | # | Reply
OH MY GOD I CAN COMMENT IM FINALLY ALIVE
* SpecificYinglet
May 25, 2024, 11:24 pm | # | Reply
Are you zhough? Or are you part of a simulation, and everyzhing you zhink
is real, is just part of de matrix?
* Wilson
May 26, 2024, 5:16 pm | # | Reply
Okay but what’s the simulation trying to simulate? If the simulator had
a better GPU, would that clean up all the fuzzy quantum nonsense?
* SpecificYinglet
May 27, 2024, 1:45 am | # | Reply
Well, remember zhis?
https://www.deviantart.com/lunarscorpion1990/art/New-Ties-P9-799693323
where some dumn as hell Humani deicded zhat we Yinglets were ready for
de space age? Yeah, zhat didn’t work out for us, and de Humani kinda
messed up so, so bad about de prime directive.
De worst zhing is dey got us hooked on dat wonderous zhing called
coffee, so we’d do pretty much anyzhing for a hit of de stuff, so dey
tricked us into zhis zhing called a “holodeck” where dey brought us to
21st century Earzh (apparently zhier home planet) where we can have
coffee wizhout damaging de ship, and apparently learn to live (anozher
good comic) by intereacting wizh “de internet” as when we tried to use
de ship’s native computer, it kind of tried to steer de ship into a
somezhing called a black hole.
Zo basically, I’m living in a simulation, and have access to one
replicator for food (apparently eating what’s in de holodeck is so, so
bad) a potty (don’t get me started about what happens when you have to
ask to have dookie removed from de holodeck) and using de internet, I
can read about OOP, when I feel homesick a bit. So if you are reading
zhis, yes, you are actually real, and I am not. Zo feel good about
life, and yes, I always say “Computer, save program” when I leave.
6. bh
May 26, 2024, 6:01 pm | # | Reply
It was Kalgkur who first said “coalesce.” So it’s not the /idea/ of
coalescence that’s a secret among Baxxid, but rather the (continuing)
/truth/ of the idea. Does Ran know about the idea? (Thinking it’s obsolete?)
I’ll have to go back to the Field Guides to look for foreshadowing of this
scene.
* SpecificYinglet
May 27, 2024, 1:58 am | # | Reply
De foreshadowing? Best zhat I know of is de one shot when de trademaster
had a “talk” wizh someone who had sold off some of ValSalia’s food
reserves. Why would Viracroix be so, so paranoid/murderous about selling
somezhing zhat can simply be re-bought?
De answer is likely related to de Baxxid, and coalese-ing. We like happy,
well fed murder machines, right?
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OH HEY LOOKIT THAT
Dec22
by Valsalia on December 22, 2015 at 11:27 am
Posted In: Uncategorized
All right, looks like everything’s up and working! I’ve been sitting on this
site redesign too long, and just needed a couple days to get everything remade.
And in a strange bit of good (?) timing, my Wacom tablet died a few days ago,
which I assumed was the universe’s way of telling me to get off my ass and
update the site already. Thankfully Wacom made a speedy repair and delivery
back, so I’ve already sketched up the first few panels of the next OOPs page.
And a special shoutout to Xandispin, who first suggested a site update several
months ago, then set up this snazzy new WordPress layout for me to customize
(which I then sat on until this past week). Thanks man; it took me long enough
to get around to it, but without you the site would still be looking like
something from the early 2000’s!
Seriously, I was manually creating pages and re-entering every altered link when
there was a new page, using a long-defunct version of Dreamweaver 2001. That
gets tiring real quick.
Anyway! There’s some new stuff in the Art & Extras section now as well, which
you might not have seen if you don’t frequent Deviantart and such.
5 Comments
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