A lot of peoples’ days just got a tad busier
Shading: Oniontrain
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Out-of-Placers
A story of inconvenient changes
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OOPs now has a Russian translation which updates shortly after the English pages are posted!
Now also in French:
And Ukranian:
Ah, the instant one truly knows dey have fekked up, but zhe consequences of said fekk is yet to truly be known. But unlike zhe average Yinglet, de Baxxid can indeed manage to disappear from zhe face of de planet when in a panic. It isn’t magic, just digging.
Still waiting for Zhe scream.
Less panic than I expected.
Give it about five seconds.
I had held a sliver of hope that it was going to be more of an example of how there seems to be a difference in Baxxid thought processing time and their bodies twitch/hunting reactions, such that the previous page only happened in his mind’s eye. Nope though, looks like meat is back on the menu.
We cans rebuildz him… We has za green glowy stuffs…
We cans makes him shorter… stringier… YINGIER…
He will bes… Za 64… ohhh zhat one looks tasty *nom no… blink blinks*
Errr… Makes zhat he wills be Za 63 ands 1/2 Clamz Ying!
*insert nifty ying musiks here*
Yay! now you can fire him from his guard position as a result of messing this up. Then he’s been punished twice and everyone is happy!
Or Well. Cept that guy. But he had it coming.
Or get assigned further duty zhanks to dis incident. And perhaps be assigned to a certain Yinglet Laaady as a special case, it is eizher dat, or be chained up next to “He knows what he did” (De Baxxid in de basement) or perhaps Kass will take pity on Kalgkur, and wizh a bit of self interest have yet anozher weirdo in zheir misfit army in zhe making.
Given the importance of Kass, it seems like assigning the baxxid who apparently can’t fully control his body to her protection would be a bad idea. On the other hand, knowing that the diplomat is protected by the baxxid that splattered a thief in his first day on the job would probably be an effective deterrent against anyone trying to attack him. I suspect Viracroix would be inclined to go with a more reliable option – a guard with proven competence – rather than take the gamble of assigning Kalgkur, but we’ll see how it ultimately goes.
As much as I like Elim (He’s so haaandsome <3) he did fail as a bodyguard, if someone wanted Kass dead, We'd not have Kass be alive now. So to up zhe intimidation factor, having a stone cold killer protect Kass would fit the bill, so to speak.
Also Kass is important, but you have to weigh Kass against how much de trademaster values De Baxxid. I'd say de Trademaster would zhrow our Laaady under zhe Tiplod cart to save de Baxxid. Finding some way to solve bozh issues is somezhing de trademaster does well.
Or this could be Kass’ job now. Integrating non humans into a largely human beauracracy. As the only non human who’s ever been a human he’s in a unique position to explain how the weird hairless apes function.
Everybody seems to be disregarding the most important part of all this. Look at that sculpture. Not a scratch. It’s got some blood on it, but that’ll clean right off. That’s some impeccable craftsmanship, particularly given the relatively-soft metal it’s made of (I assume copper, given its lighter color). It’s got a little high-velocity blood spatter on it, but that’ll wash right off.
I have this mental image I can’t get rid of in the next page Kalgkur picks it up and gently puts it back on her table. Then has a breakdown…
Iz still betters zhan beings eatens by a Grue… *nod nods*
I wonder if Kalgkur should make a run for it… but in his probable mental state the marketplace will be like a maze of twisty little passages, all alike…
Now to see how much of an artist she is; does she have a moral compass?
What, do you zhink a sculpture based on de blood spray and entrails escaping de tief’s body would not be a big seller?
One of a kind, hopefully.
I dunno, Picasso made it famous, guess it is a matter of taste.
oh my, i hope mizz nel won’t be too tramatized by zis, perhaps we could give her zome clamz and ze muffin thingz ze humanz make.
Probably the muffins would be the best bet. Most humans don’t like raw clams, and many don’t even like them cooked (and quite a few are deathly allergic), but if you ever meet a human who hates muffins, chances are good they’re actually several Yinglets in a trenchcoat. Note that “refuses to eat” and “hates” aren’t the same thing, of course – while muffins are one of the most delicious of foods, they aren’t the healthiest. One of the few cases where Yinglets are lucky is that their version of junk food (which goes beyond mere junk food into euphoria-inducing drug) is perfectly healthy for them.
Let me see if I understand. Kalgkur accidentally hit the thief in the back so hard that the thief’s guts exploded out his front? So he literally broke the thief’s body in half with the equivalent of a slap?! That’s an INSANE amount of blunt trauma for a one-armed attack, especially when it wasn’t even intentional! Or was it subconsciously intentional? 😮
I’m guessing zhat you missed de guy losing his hand too. But if you zhink of it, it takes a lot of muscle to dig zhrough de ground, de puny humani body just isn’t harder zhan dirt by comparison.
No, I didn’t miss that. And it’s not just about strength. The acceleration needed to strike so hard in a split second is what’s really shocking. It would have to be as fast as the crack of a whip, but with those big, heavy, blunt arms. I’d be terrified if I witnessed something like that.
I think y’all are missing a major point: It’s not the digging, it literally said a while back that this is how they evolved to hunt. Baxid are, in canon, built to hit prey with huge amounts of force. That’s why they are so good at calculation, because their brains are made to do that thing he was trying to do, where he was calculating the exact sort of muscle movement to move his body in a specific way. That’s also probably why he couldn’t stop himself from hitting the guy so hard that it knocked out his organs, because that’s literally what those claws were built to do to far tougher creatures.
His advanced brain should have said “Use zhe tail to whack wizh, de criminal is behind you anyway, dummy” Or somezhing like zhat. But I’d say it is a wee bit late-ish for “soft object manipulation training”.
A Baxid cannon sounds like it would be awesomely deadly. Like that plane made out of guns which shoots guns.