All the Kings Horses: Part Two
Chapter: Season Eight
The Ulim. Pronounced /Oooo-limb/
HOVER-TEXT: Big pages take time.
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The Ulim. Pronounced /Oooo-limb/
HOVER-TEXT: Big pages take time.
Comments are closed.
To hover text: Time well spent. Today strip was great.
Is “first voice” a title? Seems like one. I like the First Voice’s ioun stones.
Ioun stones! Thank you! I’d forgotten the name.
I wonder what they’ll be called in this universe?
Ooh! Mighty powerful those first words be. I wish I could play, or listen in on one of your campaigns.
(URGE TO HELP INTENSIFIES)
I can’t help it. I’m a lot like Spider-Man. I can’t NOT help.
What he said!
It’s getting harder and harder to fight the urge to transmute my clothes into Atomstar’s uniform / change at superspeed into Swashbuckler’s costume, swap my clothes for Paradox’s garb / pull out Dr Radiation’s costume from where I store it in myself moving my clothes into that same pattern buffer in my mind / etc…
(Personal Story – WARNING: Gross subject matter)
When I was in my early 20’s, I was hanging out in my apartment one night when my mother called. A friend of her’s was in trouble–vomiting, but she couldn’t stop.
She called for my help. I was dressed and out the door a minute later.
I picked my mother up, we went to the nearest drug store. I was able to find an industrial-strength anti-emetic, and from there we went to the woman’s house.
She was elderly, and by the time we got there she was vomiting up blood. We got her to take the medicine, and I monitored her dosage and made sure she didn’t miss a single one. I work in IT, but the woman said she thought I would have made a good doctor.
By the time her family arrived, she had stopped throwing up and felt well enough for her family to drive her to the hospital.
I and my mother drove home in silence, but it wasn’t a bad silence. I found out later that it had been some kind of stomach ulcer, and that if we hadn’t been there…it’s still too ugly to think about. But that ride home, I felt a very odd but powerful feeling.
For that night, me and my mother had been heroes. I felt…above myself, like I had risen above my penny-ante life any my minimum-wage job, defeated my own shortcomings, and had acted boldly, decisively, and DECENTLY. I think it’s the best feeling I’ve ever felt, as great as I felt when I fell in love.
I don’t think I’ve had another moment like that in my life, but I am glad that when the moment came that I could help someone, I did what I should have done. I hope everyone who reads this has at least one chance like that, and acted heroically.
Sorry about the long post, but this page brought that feeling back.
Thank you for sharing this story, Jason. It made me feel good and I am so glad you and your Mom were there for someone in need.
Apart from family, I’ve never told anyone else.
This seemed to be the right group to share it with, though. 🙂
Wow, just wow.
Holy shit I need more of this lore. You have me hooked with one fucking page.
to say I am hooked on this narrative is an understatement. LOVING this.
Ok, that is just awesome, such a great opening line.
Oooo that limb!
Can’t you… uh, limb that limb
You know what, nevermind
Well, you tried, and that’s what matters.
You really went out on a limb on that one, Fred.
Holy helpless aliens, batman!!!
I am thoroughly enjoying this story so far.
ALIUMS. Hungry for more already, give us that sweet sweet lore.
For a second there I thought this was going to be a Wild Cards homage. The intro seems very familiar.
Oh ho, this one is gonna be good!
Oooh… Shiiny.
OK, who is reading this intro?
Torn between James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman.
(I’m easily pleased.)
Sir Ian McKellan
This is freaking brilliant. You officially can never doubt yourself again. This plot lifts you into the world of masters
I know it doesn’t work that way, but with this it definitely should.
Best. First. Contact. EVARRRRR!!!!
So… Miranda is Marie’s daughter, I assume?
Granddaughter.
I’m curious about that name… Is Marie from Saarland or is she from alsatian or hugunot descent?
Named after Marie Curie, perhaps?
Yeah, could be, but Marie Curie was born a Maria… and took the name Marie when she came to France
From this sequence alone, this should be made into a game…
I don’t think the real world United Nations could agree that water is wet in the span of 10 days.
and thaaaaaaaaaaaat’s why it’s a fuckin’ commmmmmmmic
And a great one, at that.
They could all agree that they get a raise in under 10 seconds though.
Once aliens are introduced, real world expectations go out the window pretty fast.
All Politics is about longterm Planning and compromises as those planes will inevitably conflict.
Considering they just have 7 years of war behind them, they propably did not want to start a new fight. Especially not with beings capable of interstellar travel (wich needs some pretty ridiculous power sources).
So they elected to at least give peace a shoot.
Being aske for help? That was indeed unexpected and will have plenty of room for disagreements over longterm plans.
Give the World a common Enemy that is attacking everyone and the world joins in one force. Humanaty vs the Enemy! Keep the fight for 1 or 2 generations, the old grudges will be forgotten.
Damn brother! This is heavy!
We will totally help you… in exchange for one of those Ioun Stones floating around your head. What’s this one, +1 to AC? Awesome, deal
An interesting opening, with a theme similar to Gordon R. Dickson’s “Way of the Pilgrim” in some respects, which is still one of my all-time favorite novels. I don’t want to give away any spoilers for those who haven’t read it, so I’ll leave it at that for now.
I tip my hat to you, sir!
“Save us! Our species is infected with a bad case of Floating Crystal Boogers!”
Oh wow. Well played good sir, you have a firm hold on my attention.
Fallen in love again
Okay. after this episode, and as another artist once said:
“I am one hundred percent invested in this.”
This feels kinda weird to me, two of my worldbuilding projects are pretty similar to Andromeda X, one is a superhero-filled alternative future, the other is a spec-fi alien invasion scenario. You’ve managed to mix both of these concepts, and I’m pretty sure you’ve done it better than I ever could.
are they crystaline? They seem to be living crystal…. (hoping)
ACK ACK ACKACK!
I think I’m getting a picture of what genetic material is at stake.
…….Something something League of Nations something.
Aside from that one historical quibble 😛 looks neat
Something something it became the UN on October 24th 1945, a week before the events pictured above, something something.
I thought this opening twist was really wel thought out and unexpected… the FIRST time I saw it when it was in “Alien Nation!”
I kid. I kid. I love this twist. It’s great every time I see it. Here’s an alien species capable of travelling the galaxy. They’re screwed.
I played in a game that started ut in some ways similar to this, although it was actually conceived of as a spin on “V”, with the Alien Resistance coming to us and asking for help defeating the seemingly benevolent aliens that had shown up a few months prior and befriended the Earth, providing defensive technology, wiping out diseases, and introducing techniques to increase food production by an order of magnitude while side effects of some of their technologies seemed to be speeding up our evolution into super-soldiers…
You sure Ulim is pronounced that way, and not like this…?
(Though granted, the other way suggests a different relationship with us…)
Well damn, you know something bad is happening when a more advance race asks for your help
I like the high collars and ruffly bits asthetic they have going on.
Hm.. wonder if they visited Earth during the Edwardian era, and decided to dress to fit in better, only to find that fashion has changed…
When the super-advanced aliens come to beseech you for help, right after you’ve just wrapped up the most destructive war in history?
… Well, let’s just say it’s not an auspicious start.