The wire attached to the iron ball and handle is high-quality Baramorian wire-weave, and the method of its construction is unknown outside of their secret forges. Kass has had it since he was a child. It wasn’t always attached to a ball and gripping handle. That wire has a history.
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Wire with a shared history will wrap your memories in a binding that far outlasts it’s weave.
“I’ve got his sword… now what?”
Wrench it out of his hands, Kass!
Disarming might be a thing to try, but Kass has the sword by the pointy end with a wire, and Captain Honor Pants has the sword by the grip with two hands, so trying to pull the sword away could easily get Kass cut or stabbed, or worse. Maybe he should maintain the grapple and either try to do a wrestling takedown or hold until Elim can help?
Both of them have their hands occupied, time to kick!
He’s got enough wire leftover that he might be able to wrap it around the guy’s neck to strangle him with it. That might be even more psychologically damaging than what Elim just had to do, though.
Why kick? His face is right there, bite him. Tear off his nose or an ear and he’ll be too panicked to keep his grip.
Well, his nose and ears are still protected by the helmet.
A fair point sir. You win this round…
I’m not a sir, though x)
Anyone can be a sir with a tophat and a monocle. Look at Mr. Peanut. It’s a peanut AND a sir.
But Mr. Peanut is still a Mr., while I’m not.
Whatcha do is take his helmet, and beat him wizh it! I also admire humani’s ability to spit wizh a high degree of accuracy, somezhing us Yinglets cannot do so maybe a bit of bozh, if Elim is occupied.
We can still pees accuratelies…
Well somes of us… O_o
takes too long… Za wire is so long, taka za ozzer end and garrote za soldier!
Also, first rule of deserting: Stop looking like a soldier, quickly. Bozh sides armies wantcha dead, if you are running away, yet still looking like a soldier.
But then they’ll be naaaaked~
(blush)
As A Yiinglet, I always wondered why Humani wear clozhes, until one got sunburned. I felt bad for zhem, so got some cool mud to put on de burn, but dey only got mad at me for helping! But seeing humani sweat to stay cool, I bet if dey were nekked, they would run faster zhan the Beletans!
I see Kass hasn’t changed much since his human days 😀
“Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid”
– Franklin P. Jones
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it. – Mark Twain
Courage is not the ability to keep your pants dry its the ability to do what you need to while they’re wet
The difference between bravery and stupidity is success…
This ball on a wire must be extremely difficult to use. When I saw it at the start of the story I thought it was a sling. “A rare weapon in modern culture, nice to see it being represented”, I thought.
Now I think “How the heck is Elim still alive and not boinked to death by his own ball?! His dexterity must be maxed out.”
Flails are cool and fun, but there is a reason for their chains being pretty darn short.
I am not one to tell Kassen how to play with his balls ever since he lost his, but it is Kassen who uses the Studded Ball, and Elim who uses de Mace.
It’s very reminiscent of the kusarigama, which I also assume is very difficult to master, but I can’t argue with the results.
I’m guessing you don’t swing the thing from the handle like a flail but rather shift your hand along the wire to trade range for control as situation demands. Still, doesn’t seem like the kind of weapon you’d issue a regular footsoldier as I’d expect the thing must’ve take a lot of effort to master.
I believe the generic name for the weapon is the meteor hammer. It’s most similar to a kusari-fundo (think kusari-gama, but with a small weight on the end instead of a kama). It can be used similarly to a flail (although that risks hitting yourself on the rebound), a thrown weapon roughly akin to a bolas perdida (albeit with a short range, as you need to keep hold of one end, but that also means you can keep throwing it), or, as Kass demonstrates here, as an entangling weapon. It would indeed be a difficult weapon to use. With a lighter weight on the end it could be usable by a yinglet, but given their low mass trying to entangle someone with it would probably be a bad idea (as they could use it to fling you around if you don’t drop it; even other yinglets could probably shift you fairly easily, given the square-cube law).
Kassen was a merchant’s son (if I remember correctly). Perhaps the weapon is something expensive that he was gifted without realizing it would be difficult to use. Alternatively, he may also have received regular training as part of growing up where/when he did since his parents could afford a trainer. The third option is he picked it up in the field off someone that didn’t need it anymore when his weapon wasn’t available for whatever reason. I kind of doubt that one though since you would think there would have been plenty of easier-to-use swords around.
Third option is directly ruled out by the description under the comic, as it says the wire itself belonged to Kass before he was drafted. That said, it’s still unclear if it was made into the weapon we see here before or after Kass got drafted.
“Kass has had [the wire attached to the iron ball and handle] since he was a child. It wasn’t always attached to a ball and gripping handle.” Assuming correct grammar, it’s been this weapon since he was a child so he was probably trained to use it, or at least practiced.
*Has been zhinkings bouts clammies and stars and starings intently at za hat-poofs for long times when…*
Waitwaits! If zhis is a flashie-backs… zhen why nobody has flashied zheir back yet? O_o
Ands if za hat-poofs has anyzhings ta dos wizh zhere being so fews ying-fems… EEEEEs!
Alsos… if zhis is Elim-hooman’s (would pat-pats and maybe most probablies hugs) flashie-backs… zhen why is we seeings Kass-hooman’s (before becames za sooo sooo pretty ying-lady… Sir Mister Officer Ma’am!) brain zhinkies? I knews it! Ze hoppy bitey jumpy dino-bird zhingy izza Wizard! O_O
Yeah, I’m wondering about the POV too. Maybe Kass has told Elim what he was thinking later?
I don’t think this is meant to be an Elim flashback or anything like that. Rather, Elim was thinking about the war – or at least their escape from it – and so we, the audience, are being shown what happened back then, from the same semi-omniscient POV as the rest of the comic. Which also means this is probably how things actually went down (memory is notoriously unreliable – Elim and Kass’ memories of this event are undoubtedly a bit different from how things actually went down).
Sooo Ze hoppy bitey jumpy dino-bird zhingy has pulled back za veil of times… and is showings us zhese events zhrough za all seeings an all knowinks eyes of za stars?
Yepyep! Ze hoppy bitey jumpy dino-bird zhingy confirmed azza Wizard! All hails Ze hoppy bitey jumpy dino-bird zhingy! *zhrows clams*
(Well I fors one don’t wanna gets turned intos a tiplod… do yous? ;p )
I guess all soldiers wear onesies while fighting in this world?
Perhaps just soldiers from the particular army that they deserted from.
A late reply, but Kass and Elim deserted (what was left of) the Dinnlan army, and are being pursued by soldiers from the Sovereignty of Beletam’s army. Beletam defeated and conquered Dinnlan, but apparently has a raging hate-on for deserters, and so have dedicated a portion of their army to hunting down even enemy deserters. So both militaries appear to wear similar garb under their armor, although with all the straps and metal (and maybe wood? not sure what that bit the Beletan is wearing over his mail is meant to be), it’s hard to tell if these are onesies or just matching top and bottom.
In Soviet Russia, cup put ball in you!
I’m Russian and I don’t get it.
Hey Nikary, why not use some of your artwork as your account pic? I know you don’t have a Yinglet avatar (unless you are on Karantina’s boat) you have posted, but like GreenReaper you can use a non-ying pic.
Oh, you’ve seen my artwork?
As for your suggestion, I just don’t feel like making an account just to comment.
I have, and I would not have recommended it if I had not. You did post it on DeviantArt under your name, it was kinda hard not to miss.
Thanks ^^”
Well, it would have required searching for it specifically, especially seeing how I haven’t been hanging out on OOPs-related DA spaces, haven’t posted anything new since May and haven’t done anything to promote my art…
You are a very prolific commenter in many comic chats I suppose, or it may be zhat we share common tastes alone. So having ran into you on various boards, it was natural to see if you were on DA, and yes, I was surprised that you were an artist. It was less me creeping on ya, than having found you in places I like as well, and seeing if there was a comic out zhere that was good zhat I missed somehow. I follow Learn to Live, Darbi, OOP, How to be a Werewolf, Caelum Sky, The Long Hike, and a few ozhers dat are racier.
Ah, heh, so that’s what happened. Though of the comics you listed, I only follow OOPs and HTBAW.
On DA, I just follow some Pokémon comics, some cat comics, some Spyro comics and one Fragile (because its artist previously drew a cat comic). Oh, and technically Home (a dog comic, sequel to Asmundr, which can now only be downloaded from Home’s site), except I actually read it on its own site and just also watch the artist on DA. And some pony comics, I guess?
The bigger and more original comics tend to have their own sites. Let’s see… Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic, The Boy Who Fell, Bittersweet Candy Bowl, Gunnerkrigg Court, El Goonish Shive, The Whiteboard, Goblins, Paranatural, Bear Nuts, Modest Medusa (currently on hiatus as the artist broke his arm), Sandra and Woo (apparently over, at least for the time being?), Not a Villain (indefinite hiatus while the artist is grieving), White Noise (been on various hiatuses since forever… does update sometime)… wow, the list of comics I read really has shortened by now. I guess I could also recommend Stand Still Stay Silent and A Redtail’s Dream? Only not technically reading them now ’cause they’re both long over. They’re good.
Then I also read a bunch of comics on Acomics, which is a Russian site. That’s where OOPs in Russian is posted, too, so it’s already linked here.
Maaan that’s a huge sword. No wonder our guy is winning, it would be heavy as a mace and twice as ungainly with all the mass at the hilt instead of the swordtip.