All is relatively well. I did throw my back out last week, for the first time in my life, but regular yoga and applying ice got me back in the game within a few days. Also Cedra and I hiked around the house to watch the supermoon. Ate many cookies. Getting by.
Turns out he actually IS pretty competent. Huh. Didn’t really expect that :P.
Aw, I love them all already, and I laugh so much, this is so good…
All of them “fought” now but Anesu. I can’t wait to discover her style. And also, mysterious sixth crew member…
“Did I hear someone wants to go?!”
“Quiet, Pottybot.”
“Okay, I’m leaving! Keep that thing away from me!”
You’re getting older, Chris. This was only a warning shot by your body, telling you to lift correctly and not to do what you did as a callow youth. Take heed. The body gets angry when you ignore it and will pinch a nerve to remind you who’s boss. Imagine, instead of a few days of yoga and ice packs, being flat on your back with Vicodin for a couple of weeks. If you want to continue to act youthfully, you’ll have to work out and build up those back muscles. Why do you think Rangers, Seals, etc, spend so much time on weight training and in stretching before and after weights? Cardio’s easy. Core strength is hard. The human back is a fragile thing, really. They are usually older troops and need to keep it all in balance and strengthened. When I was twenty, I could almost stare at a cut on my forearm and watch it heal. No more.
@War_Pig, very true. Although I think I’ll pursue yoga over navy seal weightlifting. 🙂
Hwan clearly is a master of lazy-fu. Impressive technique, or lack thereof. I thought he would go for drunken boxing, but that was probably too much work (the drinking bit). Also, the methadone reference would indicate he may have sampled harder stuff than alcohol, probably due to fights not being challenging enough unless he knocked himself out first.
The pirate captain on the other hand cuts a thrice tragic figure, first losing his true love, now losing her pendant in front of his men, and, adding insult to injury, in a fair fight to boot. Luckily his boarding party was too busy getting hammered by an insane marsupial and may repress this incident even after the swelling in their vocal chords has receded.
@Christopher
I too swear by Yoga for the lower back, it’s second only to lazy-fu.
….three for the pendant….
Maybe I’m a softie, but I kinda hope Hwan tosses the pendant to the pirate captain just before the door closes. He’s already shown that he can defeat pirates, there’s no need to rub the captain’s face in it.
Pirate captain for remaining crew member!
Had a bit of a double take on the wall panel behind Hwan in panels 3 and five. Didn’t even notice it ’till like the third time I’d viewed the comic. Nice little Easter egg, that.
@Nessus, wait, what? What Easter Egg? I don’t see no stinkin’ eggs.
And Hwan definitely IS smooth. I double-checked to see if he employed a classic magician trick, to use a diversion (Bikkie’s fight) to do the deed ahead of time, but no. Panel 2 shows the pendant, panel 4 shows it is gone.
Sweet.
The big control panel thingy on the wall behind Hwan in panels three and five is the bridge helm/navigation console from the original Star Trek TV show (the console where Sulu and sometimes Chekhov sit).
Definitely a minimalist martial artist.
@Chris, just a thought…
I’ve been going through some of the past strips as part of an evil plan to introduce more people to the strip, thanks to Bikkie. I ran across your statement that every time Jabby is used, it gets bigger. This MAY lead to problems later.
I remember a SyFy channel ad (back when it was still SciFi) that showed a guy getting his right forearm replaced with a chainsaw a la “Army of Darkness”. The doctor declared the operation a success, the guy tried to get off the operating table, and THUNK!!! His arm with the chainsaw hit the floor, followed by his upper body. The chainsaw is too heavy for his upper arm to lift, and he winds up just dragging it around. The last part of the commercial showed the guy with the chainsaw now replaced with a power hedge trimmer.
At some point Jabby is going to grow enough to force Mauricio to simply walk bent sideways gouging a groove in the floor while listening to Jabby complain that Mauricio never lets it drive.
@Muzhik, thank you for the insight, and excellent point. As this isn’t hard sci-fi, I don’t worry about that too much, physics is more like a… recommendation. but I do have plans to explain this particular point away, in a few weeks, if I remember to put the line in. 🙂
I love that it gets you all thinking/deconstructing this way though. Keeps me on my toes. 🙂
Jabby is converting flesh and bone to whatever it’s made of. No additional mass so it’s no heavier than the bits of Hwan its converting.
With such transmutation Jabby could be made of just about anything, most likely thin and/or foamy to keep the bulk while being denser.
Perhaps some of Jabby is aerogel. Some of those are mostly air yet rigid as styrofoam and will drop through air like pieces of paper.
For even more “WTH?” google metal foam on a dandelion You’ll find into on metal microlattice, with pictures of blocks of the stuff resting on a gone to seed dandelion.
bigger doesn’t necessarily mean heavier ????
Another gentle reminder/request for a filler strip on Fridays. If I only have to check twice a week for new strips, I start forgetting to visit.
@Herandar, I work very very long weeks to the point of breaking for the lousiest pay imaginable, I can only do so much. I assure you that the moment I can I will. Right now I am utterly unable.