[1480] Bumpy Ride

[piro]

Yay! New comic thread on new forum softwares.

I always valued the discussions of comics here on SD, and I'd like to see that grow again (having a half dead forum wasn't helping). This should.

I have a lot i could say about this comic... but i really shouldn't, so i wont, not yet.

fredrin

(oh, i need to upload an avatar. i will do that next )

[Edit by Ray: Note: new page is exclusive to Patreon for one day.]

[garapagosu]

Signature fixed.. and new comic?! w00t!

[paarfi]

Kimiko? What are you doing Kimiko?

Megumi is ... The Driver

[Invisigoth]

I told you people, that was her "I can feel your boner" face in the last strip and now she's going for it

[Ray Kremer]

I've been telling Fred, everything that Kimiko's doing here, I think is partly for the benefit of the dying-girl-analogue fanboys that need to be thrown off Miho's trail (obviously), partly for the benefit of raising the good ship PiroXMiho from the sea floor, and partly to give them both some form of closure for the what-might-have-been regarding PiroXKimiko.

Piro, of course, is deep in "WTF is even going on?" territory, per usual.

[Heywulf]

I also follow the assessment that Kimiko is a "method actress" - one does not just act as a character, one emotionally becomes the character to perform the character. Her acting job is to become Miho - a decoy to distract the MegaTokyo authorities and Miho's horde. So, what would Miho be likely do in this intimate escape situation, after being salvaged & revived by Piro? That becomes Kimiko's role... Miho's Very Interesting Second Date.

Of course we have been also told by good authority (Erica) that KIMIZILLA also exists. What would "method-actress" Kimizilla do in a situation like this? Kimizilla could be an aspiring Dragon, one that makes life-debt down-payments to a rescuing knight very promptly....

[Ubu]

Yay! New forum! Yay! New ... uh, I still only see 1479? Refresh didn't help. Nor did switching browsers?

[paarfi]

Yay! New forum! Yay! New ... uh, I still only see 1479? Refresh didn't help. Nor did switching browsers?

This is just kind of the way it works now. One of the perks of supporting Megatokyo through Fred's Patreon is that you get to see the comic a day early. Fred released 1480 to his Patreon site today, and it will go up on the main Megatokyo site tomorrow.

When Fred first started the Patreon, we held off starting the new story discussion thread in the forum until it had been released on the main site. But a number of folks who do support Fred's Patreon would start commenting on the new comic in the previous comic's thread, which only kinda made things worse. I asked for some feedback from forum regulars, and the folks who responded said we should start the new comic thread when the comic goes up on the Patreon, and folks who are not yet supporting Fred on Patreon can just avoid the thread for a day if they don't want to be spoilered.

It's not a perfect solution, but I think it's probably the least bad.

[GreyWolfe]

Oh Kimi, a wire really has burnt out upstairs hasn't it? Piro is going to have his little mind fried by the end of this adventure

[GreyWolfe]

I told you people, that was her "I can feel your boner" face in the last strip and now she's going for it

Those are not the eyes of someone who is worried, or is thinking about, police mechs in front of them.

[Ray Kremer]

This is just kind of the way it works now. One of the perks of supporting Megatokyo through Fred's Patreon is that you get to see the comic a day early. Fred released 1480 to his Patreon site today, and it will go up on the main Megatokyo site tomorrow.

That'll probably take some getting used to for some folks, but on the plus side just having the Patreon system in place has gotten comic production way up. Now to see if we can harness some of that energy towards the other three or four projects Fred's supposed to be doing too...

[arimareiji]

partly to give them both some form of closure for the what-might-have-been regarding PiroXKimiko.

I've heard of a goodbye kiss, but this is the first I've heard of a goodbye f------o.
(Then again - I have deliberately let pop culture pass me by for the last decade, and times do change.)

This is just kind of the way it works now. One of the perks of supporting Megatokyo through Fred's Patreon is that you get to see the comic a day early. Fred released 1480 to his Patreon site today, and it will go up on the main Megatokyo site tomorrow.

Thank you for the heads-up, I hadn't realized.

[Edit after seeing 1480]
Wow. I hope this doesn't get Garpy.

[Post-edit edit]
I hope people who are outraged, shocked, disappointed, enthusiastic, etc will remember: Just like with meat people, we only think we know the characters' hearts and minds. Even with those closest to us, we still only see the 10% of the iceberg above the surface. The only one with a claim to "know" what they would do is Fred, and sometimes they startle even him.

[eomdal]

Wow. In the back of a car, tearing through town with half the police force after them. And Largo thought the roof of a train was some next-level lovin'.

To think, just over two months ago their biggest thrill was sneaking into E3.

[garapagosu]

*sniff* They grow up so fast.

[TriOmegaZero]

Be interesting to see what y'all think of the next strip.

[Yl33 D4 N00b]

Forgive my naivete, but what exactly does "chu" mean?

GO, MEGUMI!!!!!

[Grimchar]

This is an interesting turn of events. She knows that he was in the hospital for Miho. She knows that he easily saw through her disguise. She saw how he reacted to her feigned death ("seriously bad acting" notwithstanding.). She knows that what he did from then on was for her. True, he possibly would have carried Miho out of there had she collapsed all the same, but that's not how the situation has played out. And now he's flat on his back, under a blanket, in the back seat of a small car with the woman he cares greatly for, who a few minutes earlier bellowed "I love you" at him (though it is still unclear to him whether or not she was still speaking as Miho at that moment), and who now has given him a kiss on the belly/chest/in-between.

Of course, he's as befuddled as usual.

I'm also wondering if Fred, even briefly, considered having Kimiko give Piro a belly blow instead of a kiss.

[Grimchar]

Forgive my naivete, but what exactly does "chu" mean?

It is my understanding that "Chu" is an onomatopoeia used in Manga to indicate a kiss or the sound of kissing.

[Teddy-Werebear]

Later... Megumi.
You want your hot ninja action later... as in not in public view.

Does "bow-chicka-waow-waow" apply to hot ninja action?

[paarfi]

I'm wondering how Megumi is going to get them out of this. This can't be the only TPCD roadblock. They must have the whole area sealed off. I'm not sure Junpei can clear away a whole roadblock, and if he could you'd think he would have done it with the one Megumi was heading back through. I'm not sure Junpei can jump an entire Daihatsu or three people at once either.

Would the TPCD consider the immediate emergency to be over because "Miho" died like she was supposed to? Even though the horde seemed fooled by Kimiko's acting, I'm not sure Stability will be. But maybe it becomes an assassin/contactor problem now rather than an "all hands" emergency, so the TPCD will stand down. Though I'm not sure they'll be willing to just walk away until they've apprehended Megumi. She did run down a TPCD officer and sic a Ninja on them.

[garapagosu]

"Do you guys mind if I turn on the radio?"

<click>

<opening notes of "Let's Get It On">

<click>

"Nevermind"

[DrunkenSailor]

So far Kimi's just kissing his belly button through his shirt. And that's a pretty small car, not sure she could do more without turning around. All the normal complications about motivations for something like this exist, including that Kimi is playing Miho, AND she has some kind of weird self-esteem issues concerning feeling like the characters she's played are more real than she is. Given all that figuring out Kimi's motives here starts out difficult.

That's a normal story. Fred isn't telling a normal story.

So now lets toss magic into the mix. No, I'm literally just tossing a bunch of magical facts from the story so far into this situation and discussing what happens if Kimi were really starting to become a CA. We've discussed before that one of the dangers to Kimi here is finding herself in Miho's situation as a replacement CA for Miho. Is what Kimi is doing right now related to that?

Miho told Piro yesterday morning that many of her actions are compelled by the games she is in, the scenarios she's involved in. When Miho charmed the pants off some fellow highschool student so Piro could attend class yesterday, she said not to worry he got hardly any of the answers right. Implying that if he had, he would have won and Miho would have been compelled to give him his prize? Herself? These compulsive behaviors can involve sex (and probably violence and spontaneous singing and dancing or whatever but were talking about sex here) Fortunately Miho knows lots about being a CA and avoiding situations where she would find herself felating some friend, acquaintance or stranger entirely inappropriately because the CA scenario seems to demand it. I'm sure while Miho was first adjusting to being a CA a hundred years ago or something she found herself in all sorts of embarrassing situations without knowing why until she slowly put it together. Or maybe some other 1904 CA or the Scotland Yard version of the TPCD intervened and explained it to her.

Kimi has absolutely no such experience. If she's beginning to experience the symptoms of being a CA, she probably wouldn't recognize the signs that she's not acting on her own accord. What to Miho would be recognized as a very limited amount of compulsion she could safely just ignore even, Kimi might act on. (Like when Yuki didn't recognize the feelings of fear outside the COE were those of the COE customers, not her own). For Kimi, dramatic and wholly inappropriate behavior, way out of character for her, would be the first outward signs of becoming a replacement CA.

DS

[Initial B]

Ah, I love a new forum smell...

"chu" is not just kissing, but could also be the sound of a bite. It could be that Kimiko is biting Piro's shirt to prevent herself from screaming out of fear and giving themselves away.

As for lack of Ninja action, I'm sure Junpei is busy in the background somewhere preventing worse things from happening to them.

[Invisigoth]

Ah, I love a new forum smell...

"chu" is not just kissing, but could also be the sound of a bite. It could be that Kimiko is biting Piro's shirt to prevent herself from screaming out of fear and giving themselves away.

As for lack of Ninja action, I'm sure Junpei is busy in the background somewhere preventing worse things from happening to them.

Oh it's kissing...

Oh and DS, that was an awesome analysis of magic in MT and pretty much right on the money...but this is just Kimi being Kimi

[HakuRyoku]

Im willing to entertain the 'chu' being a kiss, it was the first thing I thought of anyway. Now, as far as Megumi and the police roadblock is concerned... they might wanna hold on tight.