Instead Of A Real Post...

Sleep has been fragmented, at best, around here lately and i'm stumbling around like i'm driving a rented body. Made the mid-month foraging run extra adventurous today. And has kept the brain aswirl, making this writey stuff extra tricky.

But, i do believe we'll Finally see my favorite caveman comic - a topic we left dangling just over two years ago. I've started prepping pages, and hopefully the mind will join us for more than a minimalist post this weekend. Last chance to place a bet on who our fave caver might be.

Meanwhile, for a bit of imagery in this post...   well, in the back room, at least.
Folks might have noticed it's been a while since i updated the 'crowd scene' title screen for The Third Colony. After all, the population has about doubled since the last time i posted one.

The reason for that is it don't exist no mo'. I finally put together an actual title screen, though the background details are still fluid, you get the basics just fine -
but we can't show it out here in the main room. Step on back past the age check to give it a gander. 

Here's a link to the full post with the image intact.


Obviously (if you went and looked), this is a representational image, nothing that can actually happen in the game since that cluster is the four characters from which the player can choose.

Actually, it's not impossible for that reason - it's impossible because both of the Dovers are in the pic and only one of them is still living at the start of the game. However, it is possible that the three survivors could get together. You see, after the player chooses their PC, the other options switch to NPC status and are still walking around in the world. In fact, the PC can possibly come into competition or conflict with the unchosen player characters as they still work to complete some of the quests in the game.

And some of them involve cavemen, so i guess it's all related, eh?

Assuming, that is, that the ol' peripatetic mind follows the trail...

stuff by -3- (2020)

Secrets Of The T3C Universe

You may have noticed i'm still having troubles herding my wandering mind over towards the blog. I've been gathering yet more material, but the brain just doesn't want to linger on it at the moment.

So, let us let it meander where it's at, deep in Pair'o'Dice9 and The Third Colony. There's been a lot of work going on for the game, expanding the framework, building connecting tissue, converting from This City and the old style graphics...

A lot of really boring things that generally don't lend themselves well to showing here. Along with some terribly rude things, which we'll have to step into the back room to peruse.

But, also a lot of fundamental work, getting things working for the first few days of game time and locking down some decisions to allow things to move forward.

For example, you perhaps recall that Kelly had multiple hair styles in the collection of Training Hero costumes that was seen here previously. After her first physical session at The Registry, Kelly realizes her hair is the wrong length, constantly getting in her eyes when she gets a heavy sweat going. So the player must decide - crop it short or have it grown out for a ponytail?
That was planned from early on, but the styles hadn't been nailed down.

Now they have -

After completing the Trainee period, the player may opt to change styles again, including a return to the original style.

Another example of the type of fundamental work that's been happening is getting some more of the game world data written down into "books" for the player to find and read if they want to understand the world around them.

Here's a sample book that explains one of the major institutions influencing life in the game -

The Lost Saints

It came to pass that a Congregation of the Faithful rose in the Belief that Gods Word encompassed All Of Creation, not merely the sphere upon which they dwelt. With the rise of FTL Colony Ships, a Mission was born. They would have constructed a Lasting Colony Ship - a World Ship in which they could live and travel the stars, both exploring and recording God's Universe, and ensuring the spread of The Word.

And so was born the First Church Of Christ Among The Stars.

And it was Good.

For generations they travelled, mapping His Universe and meeting His Peoples. As they were Faithful in both Word and Action, their good works taught the True Nature of their Faith, and they changed many with their passing.

On worlds plagued with sickness, they delivered cures and relief. Where they found Famine, they brought food and gave the knowledge to feed themselves. Lost starcraft were returned to their homes. The terrorized were protected. And always, nothing was asked for in return. They spoke of their beliefs, and in doing that which was right by Others.

Sometimes they exchanged peoples, as some of the Faithful grew to desire walking under the open skies, while some they met wished to come along and learn.

And in the doing, they changed many worlds and brought Millions unto The Word.


But, there came a day when the people realized that none had seen nor head from the First Church Of Christ Among The Stars in a very long time. Searchers and Pilgrims went out in all directions to seek for signs, but nothing was found. No trace of their passage, no word of their deeds, no hint of their presence. The years passed and the search continued, and continues. Many are those who pray for the Lost Saints as they have come to be known.


Yet they are Not lost.

They have a new Church and a new Mission, one pursued with same earnest Devotion. For in their travels, they found the Unthinkable.

There came a mighty particle storm crackling through space, discharging powerful energies in bolts and waves. The Faithful were buffeted and battered as it seemed Reality itself was torn around them. Before they were completely destroyed, the inspired engineers managed to shunt the craft out of phase, allowing the storm's violence to pass by them and through them, leaving the Faithful unscathed.

But while they were out of phase, they saw it - The Horror, lurking in the Shadows of God's Makings.

And when the storms had passed and repairs had been made, when all was Strong and Ready again, they went back. Back to learn, to seek to understand what they had seen and what it meant to the Grand Scheme of things. In time, they came to know C'thul'hu and understand his Slumber. And to comprehend the nature of the Orgone Energies that could keep the Sleeper from waking to disturb God's Universe.

And so they rose in a quiet corner of space, a small mining colony being established conveniently close to weak spaces between Here and There. Upon this world founded by Gamblers and Criminals did they build The First Church Of Christ Vs. C'thul'hu, and here do they labour on to bind the Sleeper and preserve the Works of the Almighty.

And that's why the First Church Of Christ Vs. C'thul'hu holds the Lullaby Festival every month. It also raises the point that science in this world differs from the science we know in some significant ways. Some errors in perception from the past have proven to be true here. So we have Lumeniferous Aether and Orgone Energy playing nice with Bio-Engineering and Quantum Entanglement.

If you're familiar with Reich's theories of Orgone Energy, the 'adult' nature of the game makes much more sense with the knowledge that it's being collected and stored here. Many characters tend to act like they're in a Skinemax movie...

(Nope - not a medical exam. Charting energy pathways)

Yeah, it's a dirty little world.
And even dreams may not provide an escape.

But you'll have to step into the back room at The Other Voice Of ODD! to see what i mean. We already pushed it pretty much to the limit there.
Here's a direct link.

stuff by -3- (2020)

oh, dren... it speaks!

Some day my spawn might wish to know more of how their ol' progenitor thought. That was a part of my thinking when i launched this blog. I really intended to include more 'memoir' posts that were more recollections and ramblings.

Not a huge percentage, but it might have been nice to maintain at least a 1% average. Hmm...  There's been ... a half dozen or so? I certainly don't think even 10. Out of somewhere between 1100-1200 posts. So we're down by at least a decimal point on the percentage. 

No, that doesn't mean that you're suddenly going to get an endless barrage of ramblings. But it does mean i'm going to stop resisting when i get the urge. Often, the excuse i give myself is "No Pictures? Forget that!" So maybe i'll throw in random art and pages when i do this. Could be a good place for some of those Odd old comic book adverts, eh?

And, of course, there's always T3C. Remember i mentioned heading off to work on Big Sys the other day? This is Her:

(Yes, the hair is data streams)

She's the computer at the Registry - the organization that supports and coordinates the super heroes on PoD9.

On with the old man ramblings...

So... our Fake President still can't cope with the Trump Flu and continues to think ignoring it will make it go away - "like a miracle" in his own words.
Y'know, if he wants a Memorial Garden to distract from his incompetence, how about one to the hundreds of thousands who are dying by his inability to deal with, or even truly acknowledge, a deadly crisis? (Yes, i know we haven't quite yet hit 150,000 confirmed dead from the Trump Flu in this country, but we're still on the upswing since our 'leaders' have yet to with the virus numbers instead of their own numbers)




Here's a tip:
If you speak in code words and phrases - you are a sheep. Those words are given by your shepherd to keep you herded with the other sheep. Just because they point to others and say "See? Sheep!" doesn't mean that you aren't one, too. Only, if you know sheep abound, you should know better.



Mindfulness is not new. I've been practicing it to greater and lesser degrees much of my life at the prompting of Socrates who told us "The Unexamined Life is not worth living."



Every now and again, i have an urge to add a new word to the language. Today's word is

Hydrostatophiliac: n. One who enjoys sexual relations with tentacles. (ref. Hydrostatophilia)

(I didn't say they were good words.)



It's often hard for me to believe that this society can solve any of its problems. One cannot fix what one cannot acknowledge nor talk about, and we've reached the point the we even censor the word censor. Redact is a censored version of Censor to avoid discomfort. Remember when we had the honesty to use simple phrases like Military Censorship to protect secrets?
That's been censored now, citizen. Move along - nothing to see or talk about here.




Some have wondered why, with my seeming attitudes expressed here, do i not use phrases like "people of colour" and LGBTQETC+. Allow me to pontificate...

How is "People Of Colour"(Good) better or different from "Coloured People"(Bad)? To my perception, it's more technical terminology - distancing rather than bringing closer. The more it sounds like a technical term, the more it sounds like you're talking about a disease or condition instead of Person. I'm simply not comfortable with the term on either level. So, maybe you'll see me use the term 'Woman Of Colour' to talk about Zoe Saldana, but otherwise... not likely.

As for LGBT... - get serious. It's supposed to be an inclusive term, but nobody can say it so it alienates, and right from the start of it - LG - female and male homosexuals can't even come together in unity. I personally lean towards omnisexual, and i'm not stupid enough to think that if the Angels had visited Sodom & Gomorrah in female form, then God would have been cool with the way the locals behaved. (Seriously, people - wtf? Is it too discomforting to realize it must be about the laws of Hospitality which our entire civilization has abandoned? Hmm...)  So i in no way mean to disparage any who take comfort in the term - but for me, it's a term of divisiveness. Both from the internal segregation and the external un-communicability.

And, of course, being a hermit by nature, i'm not prone to jumping on a bandwagon just because it's heading my way.

Dren. 
We really need another picture by now - probably well before now. Let me see what's laying loose in the files...

Ah - this piece from Skip Williamson might be over a quarter century old, but it still works all too well...

Just change the old instamatic camera to a phone, and it's fully modernized.

page art by Skip Williamson from Gag Reflex #1, the rest by -3- (1994, 2020)

TIM Continues

Just a quick "Heads Up!"

While we've got Mad Science with Dr. Nick! running up front, TIM, the first arc of experiMental Theatre, continues in our adult content back room with another 50 strips in this post.

stuff by -3- (2011)

So Much For Reality...

Let us rummage a bit through the closet of Dr. Nick's world.

As mentioned previously, scientific development has been significantly altered. A secondary sociological effect of the Church has been to weaken the effect of suppression of new tech by entrenched money. If a private inventor develops something that the current moneyed business doesn't like and they try to keep it off the market or stifle the development, the inventor can just go to the Church and see what kind of help they'll provide against those who stand in the way of following God's command to understand the world. (See yesterday's post)
So, while in our history Westinghouse may have decided is was impractical to meter & bill for broadcast power, the money was easily found to develop it. At least in Europe, and the Persian Empire is considering the advantages of developing such a system.

Did you know that a method for generating electricity from Cosmic Rays (yep - the same stuff that gave us the Fantastic Four) was patented way back in the 1800s in our reality? Think of what might be accomplished by another few decades of development by the time of our current tale. Dr. Nick is perhaps the world's greatest authority on energy & electrical power. The heavy belt he wears is actually a portable cosmic ray energy generation system, coupled with a broadcast power emitter. Thus, any device enabled to receive broadcast power is automatically powered whenever Nick is nearby. And, of course, all of Nick's own gear is built with such a design. That includes vehicles. Fuel is never an issue, though much tech still uses steam, and so requires water. No messy coal, though - heating elements are electrically powered.

Technology at this time is in a state of constant advance and exploration, with very little standardization as yet. And different countries/kingdoms can have vastly different tech levels in general. But one never knows what technology individuals or small groups are developing here and there. This leads to such contrasts as zeppelins with electrical beam weapons.

I should perhaps mention the existence of Luminiferous Aether. WTF, you might wonder. You see - the current understanding of light is that it acts as both a particle and a wave, depending upon circumstance. Back at the turn of the last century, it was noted that light acts as a wave. Now, while particles can travel through a vacuum, a wave needs a medium to carry it. So if light is a wave, there must, perforce, be a medium to carry that wave. Hence, the Luminiferous (or 'light bearing') Aether. The existance of said medium in the world of Dr. Nick has significant ramifications in physics, but not much that the reader will consider to be of note. The one thing that will be significant at some point is that the Luminiferous Aether is a medium that can be traversed - sailed like an ocean of water.

And then there's Orgone Energy...
Um...  Look it up.

One more thing before we move on. Let's look at that strange killer running loose in the story - The Jazzman. The Jazzman is based on The Axeman.

 Up until a few months before our story takes place, New Orleans was held in the grip of the fearful Axeman. For at least the period of 1918-1919, possibly longer, he killed indiscriminately, without stealing from the victims, usually using the victim's own axe or straight razor. Then in March of 1919, he sent his final note to the media, warning that he would strike shortly after midnight on the 19th, but would spare anyone in a place where jazz music played. Came the time, jazz was everywhere - late night clubs were packed and hundreds of private parties raged all across town.

The night passed, and he was never heard from again.

Here's that last note he sent to papers:

    Hell, March 13, 1919

    Esteemed Mortal:

    They have never caught me and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the Axeman.

    When I see fit, I shall come and claim other victims. I alone know whom they shall be. I shall leave no clue except my bloody axe, besmeared with blood and brains of he whom I have sent below to keep me company.

    If you wish you may tell the police to be careful not to rile me. Of course, I am a reasonable spirit. I take no offense at the way they have conducted their investigations in the past. In fact, they have been so utterly stupid as to not only amuse me, but His Satanic Majesty, Francis Josef, etc. But tell them to beware. Let them not try to discover what I am, for it were better that they were never born than to incur the wrath of the Axeman. I don‘t think there is any need of such a warning, for I feel sure the police will always dodge me, as they have in the past. They are wise and know how to keep away from all harm.

    Undoubtedly, you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to. If I wished, I could pay a visit to your city every night. At will I could slay thousands of your best citizens, for I am in close relationship with the Angel of Death.

    Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night, I am going to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to you people. Here it is:

    I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.

    Well, as I am cold and crave the warmth of my native Tartarus, and it is about time I leave your earthly home, I will cease my discourse. Hoping that thou wilt publish this, that it may go well with thee, I have been, am and will be the worst spirit that ever existed either in fact or realm of fancy.

    The Axeman

Okay - much plenty wordage. On to story pages, continuing where from where we left off yesterday, Madame Cuja has just brought the hipster cops to Dr. Nick's house via the Dark Passage...

 And now, you may throw things and scream at the screen. This is where work stopped, not only on the strip but on cartooning and line art in general. I haven't really touched an ink brush since that i can recall. 

experiMental Theatre was just that in many ways. One of the primaries was me playing with cartooning and trying to simplify my artwork. Perhaps because of my vision, i tend to render the world in tones and textures more than lines, so this all forced me to approach things from a new angle.

Major shake-ups following a string of health crises changed things dramatically for me, and i've never gotten back into the mindset for the cartooning. But, the story nags at me; wanting out. I'm frequently drawn to it mentally, but ...

For one thing, could i even get back into the same style 6 or 7 years later? Or would i need to restart from the beginning?
If so, maybe i should try a painted strip...?

And, of course, how long could i keep the ol' broken brain hitched to that wagon?

Still -  it beckons...



EDIT: BTW - the Cafe de L'Enfer, like many things in this tale, was a real location and the exterior, interior and advertisement are all based on the actuality.

stuff by -3- (2013)

Six Seconds To Save Reality

That's them in red...

The tagline is blatantly stolen from Robert Loren Fleming and the criminally underread Thriller, drawn by Trevor Von Eden. The 12 issue maxi-series used the line "Angie Thriller Has Seven Seconds To Save The World"
If we don't look at that book sometime soon, somebody sharp stick me, eh?

In both cases, the "Seconds" are not units of time, but extensions of self - like a Second for a duel. They are operatives acting at another's behest.

Mad Science with Dr. Nick! was the second story 'experiment' on experiMental Theatre, now with glorious greys. The eyes rejoiced.

Another big difference with Dr. Nick vs. TIM is that while there is a mystery ongoing in the story, the world itself is not a puzzle to be solved. I was actually able to discuss things and answer questions directly. 

The world in which Dr. Nick dwells had been around for a while before this tale, and is a world i still use for some things, including The Third Colony - though it takes place centuries later. I believe i started developing it with Frank'n'Cindy - a steampunk tale featuring that star-crossed couple, the Frankenstein Monster (now Frank Victorson) and Cinderella (now simply Cindy).

But that leads us straight into one obvious point about this world - it's populated both by characters from history and fiction. So if Dr. Nick needs to consult, he might pop over to visit Tom Swift as easily as R. Buckminster Fuller.

That makes rather obvious the next item on our Guide To The New World tour - it ain't the history you know. Oh, sure - basically, up to a point. But major divergences begin in the 19th century. When Darwin published his Origin Of The Species and many proclaimed that it was a death sentence for God and religion, the Church got smart about its future. It backed Darwin, saying that the argument was like discovering a hammer and saying there is no Carpenter, the hammer drove the nail. And that, in point of fact, those who were discovering the tools and rules of God's Universe were doing His work, as He had commanded man to go forth and name all the things of the world, and this could not be done without understanding them. This radical shift in attitude led to a steampunk sort of world by the time we get to our story, which takes place about 1919 on this world's calendar.

And politics have run a bit differently. Bohemia is still a kingdom. There is a new Chinese Dynasty, not a Republic of China. Personal decisions may have gone other ways with some of the historical figures, or they may have interacted with the new technological society in ways you might not expect. (See Theo, for example, early in the tale)

Oh, and there's one other significant factor that might be worth noting. I was writing it. So it's a weird world, as one might expect.
 

BTW - Madame Cuja is actually Cuncha, a delightful little woman who lives down the hill. There was a weekend colour special that featured her character - i'll try to dig it out to run with the next batch. But i'll let you in on this secret while we wait - She's a very old Kumiho. (Or perhaps that should be was?)

stuff by -3- (2013)