Presumably Tibor will try to console her with something like “I love you as my daughter, and I’m still alive, right?” Only for Scarlet to get mental imagery of him getting whacked by a giant space meteor or devoured by a sea monster from the nonexistent sea.
In “Settings” we find that
„t’s hard to say, even, if there is something like religion on Lavarel. The most common belief is that the gods have abandoned Lavarel, probably for some unspeakable sin conducted by the inhabitant’s forefathers. As their pleas for clemency apparently fall on deaf ears, some people belief that the gods are truly gone and the sin was too big to ever be forgiven. It doesn’t help that people have no knowledge about the nature of the sin and so can only guess what kind of actions might please the gods. “
Now Scarlet mentions God and her own sin. Perhaps this is important for the further course of events.
It’s possible that there’s an undercurrent of gods only sticking around to further punish humanity for said sin. So she saw the machine, and that warrants personal punishment, on top of the gods just watching the end unfold.
Perhaps it’s a variant of “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from divinity.
Up to the point where killing a magician is equivalent to committing deicide.
Bad things happen to good people because bad things happen to ALL people. I get where Scarlet comes from, since there’s no intent, or aim towards Scarlet. It’s all just bad accidents all the way down the list. Well, the starvation was more of a situation than an accident, but she just needs to go back to planting beets.
The house does look in need of some new wallplaster. (Imagine Scarlet cheering up during an impromptu clay fight in the back yard while mixing, but that’s wishful thinking, possibly a Tibor drowning.)
Also, Lavarel must have some seriously fucked-up gods if they’ll go to such lengths to punish someone for accidentally wandering into a room that she didn’t even know was there, when she was only six years old.
Is the White Witch some kind of recycled Eldor? We are assuming deaths as random and fortuite, but maybe Scarlet has a point and somebody is directing her life that way. The vision of the machine has to have a rational explanation, so Scarlet could be another “machine girl” (oh, wait) like San and Lili (this time not by birth, but by life training only). That White Witch could be actually interested in saving Lavarel, or, whatever is happening and we don’t know yet.
I’m not sure. The enemy in this story is supposed to be the environment. War and famine are kind of the result of the cooling climate. Similar to my speculation about the machine having some level of consciousness the witch could be some kind of artifact and as such part of the environmental nment.
Death of Scarlet’s parents happened just after she saw the machine. Sequence: vision (ex machina) → parent’s death → tibor rescue and runaway → Scarlet forgives Tibor if and only if he helps her to find the machine. All is tied, and it predates way more. Seems to be too many random effects, it could be perfectly random, or not. You can argue that from one step to the next nothing is granted, but in fact there is a huge probability it happens as it was. Or, for instance, Julius could have died anytime (if needed for the story), but it happened out of her sight, Scarlet could do nothing about it. It is too much directed for a pure random story.
The deaths hardly were directed at individuals. Scarlets parents died at the hands of soldiers in an early stage of an invasion and they killed everyone in sight, including the inhabitants of at last two villages (and apparently her grandparents). That invasion was already in otion when Scarlet saw the machine. Julius died in a crowd crush that likely killed dozens if not hundreds of people. If that was directed by an individual it certainly likes its collateral damage.
Also Tibor referred to his parents in the past tense early in the first chapter so I guess they are dead too. Early death seems to be pretty common on Lavarel.
Poyntre
Yes, you are right. These massive killings make sure any people trapped in will die too. In fact, the “exception” was Scarlet was not killed, in first case she was saved by Tibor, in the second one wasn’t there. But, why the invasion started so close to Scarlet’s home? A bit far and maybe all three could escape. Why Julius family left their home town? If they didn’t possibly they were alive now. Why Scarlet saw the machine just before the attack? I don’t think all this happened by chance. It’s an opinion, of course.
Crystalgate
The invasion started in Scarlet’s home because it was close to Grondor and are farmlands. As far as coincidences goes, it is not reasonable to consider how likely Scarlet’s experiences are. As a rule of thumb, stories follow people with exceptional experiences. Imagine if this webcomic instead followed a random Kirkiok farmer who died in the invasion and then just ended there. That would have made no sense. If a single person survives the massacre, that will obviously be the person this comic follows. Instead of asking how likely it is that this happens to Scarlet, you need to ask how likely it is that one person in Lavael have such an exceptional experience and then assume that will be the main character.
There is one point I’m not willing to write of as coincidence, that is Scarlet seeing the machine. I think something is up with that, it from the very start seemed strange that it would just be in her cellar.
Poyntre
It is not just how likely is, it how likely is explanation A and how likely is explanation B.
I see the walls are patchy and in need of the restoration that Tibor has been hired to do. Good inclusion of background details on this page, as always!
Unfortunately, survivors guilt hits hard.
Maybe, Scarlet, a god did see you.
Maybe because they saw you, they saved you. You escaped the invasion. Tibor took you in. You escaped a likely lynch mob at the mine. You found the armory. You saved Tibor and yourself from the bandit..
If you’d stayed, if you’d been with Julius, you would have died in that crowd crush too.
There’s an argument to be made that if a god saw you, they are keeping you alive.
The only time she likely ate good tasting food was when she and Tibor were living as hunter gatherers. Otherwise it’s bloomrabi and firebeets that’s on the menu.
Transcript, since this page is missing one for some reason.
• Tibor: Lunch is ready.
Scarlet (in bed, older than in the previous chapter): I’m not hungry.
• Tibor: Don’t you want to get up? It’s one o’clock already.
Scarlet: No.
• (beat)
• Scarlet: God saw me.
Tibor: Hmm?
• Scarlet: In the cave with the Machine. I wasn’t supposed to be there. That’s why He punishes me so cruelly.
• Scarlet: Everyone I love dies.
27 thoughts on “Machine Girl 001”
BlueishMage
Poor Tibor, despite all he’s done, he’s still unloved and alive.
Graybeard
Presumably Tibor will try to console her with something like “I love you as my daughter, and I’m still alive, right?” Only for Scarlet to get mental imagery of him getting whacked by a giant space meteor or devoured by a sea monster from the nonexistent sea.
BlackDragonSlayer
If she admits she loves him, then, in her eyes, that puts him at risk.
ToBeFree
Fuck.
Hegel-Marx
In “Settings” we find that
„t’s hard to say, even, if there is something like religion on Lavarel. The most common belief is that the gods have abandoned Lavarel, probably for some unspeakable sin conducted by the inhabitant’s forefathers. As their pleas for clemency apparently fall on deaf ears, some people belief that the gods are truly gone and the sin was too big to ever be forgiven. It doesn’t help that people have no knowledge about the nature of the sin and so can only guess what kind of actions might please the gods. “
Now Scarlet mentions God and her own sin. Perhaps this is important for the further course of events.
Bridgebrain
It’s possible that there’s an undercurrent of gods only sticking around to further punish humanity for said sin. So she saw the machine, and that warrants personal punishment, on top of the gods just watching the end unfold.
tsath
Heavy weight for a kid to carry The hardest part is when you realize you can’t blame it on God. Bad shit just happens. And Tibor has to be the parent.
Borg
If God is out to get you, then you need to get the power to make him stop.
ToBeFree
The Gaia comic plays with this motive.
Perhaps it’s a variant of “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from divinity.
Up to the point where killing a magician is equivalent to committing deicide.
Vicious Sand
Bad things happen to good people because bad things happen to ALL people. I get where Scarlet comes from, since there’s no intent, or aim towards Scarlet. It’s all just bad accidents all the way down the list. Well, the starvation was more of a situation than an accident, but she just needs to go back to planting beets.
The house does look in need of some new wallplaster. (Imagine Scarlet cheering up during an impromptu clay fight in the back yard while mixing, but that’s wishful thinking, possibly a Tibor drowning.)
MegaJar
Oof, the feels on this page, man… 🙁
Also, Lavarel must have some seriously fucked-up gods if they’ll go to such lengths to punish someone for accidentally wandering into a room that she didn’t even know was there, when she was only six years old.
Poyntre
Is the White Witch some kind of recycled Eldor? We are assuming deaths as random and fortuite, but maybe Scarlet has a point and somebody is directing her life that way. The vision of the machine has to have a rational explanation, so Scarlet could be another “machine girl” (oh, wait) like San and Lili (this time not by birth, but by life training only). That White Witch could be actually interested in saving Lavarel, or, whatever is happening and we don’t know yet.
'phoon
I’m not sure. The enemy in this story is supposed to be the environment. War and famine are kind of the result of the cooling climate. Similar to my speculation about the machine having some level of consciousness the witch could be some kind of artifact and as such part of the environmental nment.
'phoon
That was supposed to be a reply to Poyntre ….
Poyntre
Death of Scarlet’s parents happened just after she saw the machine. Sequence: vision (ex machina) → parent’s death → tibor rescue and runaway → Scarlet forgives Tibor if and only if he helps her to find the machine. All is tied, and it predates way more. Seems to be too many random effects, it could be perfectly random, or not. You can argue that from one step to the next nothing is granted, but in fact there is a huge probability it happens as it was. Or, for instance, Julius could have died anytime (if needed for the story), but it happened out of her sight, Scarlet could do nothing about it. It is too much directed for a pure random story.
'phoon
The deaths hardly were directed at individuals. Scarlets parents died at the hands of soldiers in an early stage of an invasion and they killed everyone in sight, including the inhabitants of at last two villages (and apparently her grandparents). That invasion was already in otion when Scarlet saw the machine. Julius died in a crowd crush that likely killed dozens if not hundreds of people. If that was directed by an individual it certainly likes its collateral damage.
Also Tibor referred to his parents in the past tense early in the first chapter so I guess they are dead too. Early death seems to be pretty common on Lavarel.
Poyntre
Yes, you are right. These massive killings make sure any people trapped in will die too. In fact, the “exception” was Scarlet was not killed, in first case she was saved by Tibor, in the second one wasn’t there. But, why the invasion started so close to Scarlet’s home? A bit far and maybe all three could escape. Why Julius family left their home town? If they didn’t possibly they were alive now. Why Scarlet saw the machine just before the attack? I don’t think all this happened by chance. It’s an opinion, of course.
Crystalgate
The invasion started in Scarlet’s home because it was close to Grondor and are farmlands. As far as coincidences goes, it is not reasonable to consider how likely Scarlet’s experiences are. As a rule of thumb, stories follow people with exceptional experiences. Imagine if this webcomic instead followed a random Kirkiok farmer who died in the invasion and then just ended there. That would have made no sense. If a single person survives the massacre, that will obviously be the person this comic follows. Instead of asking how likely it is that this happens to Scarlet, you need to ask how likely it is that one person in Lavael have such an exceptional experience and then assume that will be the main character.
There is one point I’m not willing to write of as coincidence, that is Scarlet seeing the machine. I think something is up with that, it from the very start seemed strange that it would just be in her cellar.
Poyntre
It is not just how likely is, it how likely is explanation A and how likely is explanation B.
BookWizard
I see the walls are patchy and in need of the restoration that Tibor has been hired to do. Good inclusion of background details on this page, as always!
Thomas
She was supposedly this super intelligent prodigy and now she’s blaming her problems on the boogeyman? She really IS depressed…
The_Pink_Spartan
Unfortunately, survivors guilt hits hard.
Maybe, Scarlet, a god did see you.
Maybe because they saw you, they saved you. You escaped the invasion. Tibor took you in. You escaped a likely lynch mob at the mine. You found the armory. You saved Tibor and yourself from the bandit..
If you’d stayed, if you’d been with Julius, you would have died in that crowd crush too.
There’s an argument to be made that if a god saw you, they are keeping you alive.
College comfort food
Does Tidor even know her favorite unavoidable comfort food? She has to eat at some point.
'phoon
Comfort food? On Larwvel? Good one.
Crystalgate
The only time she likely ate good tasting food was when she and Tibor were living as hunter gatherers. Otherwise it’s bloomrabi and firebeets that’s on the menu.
'phoon
Well… Meat prepared by someone who has never eaten meat before.
b_jonas
Transcript, since this page is missing one for some reason.
• Tibor: Lunch is ready.
Scarlet (in bed, older than in the previous chapter): I’m not hungry.
• Tibor: Don’t you want to get up? It’s one o’clock already.
Scarlet: No.
• (beat)
• Scarlet: God saw me.
Tibor: Hmm?
• Scarlet: In the cave with the Machine. I wasn’t supposed to be there. That’s why He punishes me so cruelly.
• Scarlet: Everyone I love dies.
Characters
Ariana Carolus Athamas Baako Bolin Clara Graybold Cyril Darius Leyh Elwin Flammt Evelina Ferrus Gale Nenawa Gavin Carolus Iona Jehona Shardyk Julius Mirkning Kala Silverspring Kenan Orege King Protos Lauro Levon Goldwood Leyton Wayt Ludis Graybold Luitpold Marik Marton Princess Elodie Raymond Reto Mirkning Reva Rodar Rosetta Greenleaf Scarlet Carolus Severin Silvana Mirkning Tibor Frey Vidal Viola Vreni Xaver Yerim Zach Ilkin