Jun 25
Special bonus comic. Enjoy!
↓ Transcript
The Reclaimer exiting a Todash Portal.
TRAN
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your AI speaking.
TRAN
We're currently experiencing some unexpected turbulence...
TRAN
...but we will be landing in a few moments.
The Todash Portal collapsing behind the Reclaimer.
TRAN
Local time is... daylight, and the temperature is a balmy -12 degrees Celcius.
TRAN
Please watch your step, and thanks for flying the negative space.
The Reclaimer standing before a solid wall.
RECLAIMER
Are you quite done, Tran?
TRAN
{ahem}
TRAN
I'm sorry, sir. Yes, sir. Quite done.
TRAN
But admit it -- you were amused.
The Reclaimer on the move.
RECLAIMER
Back on task, Tran.
TRAN
Affirmative. Actually, I want you to hear this.
Recording
Sherif blahn et on fargual pilego shaoneo.
RECLAIMER
Very pretty. What is it?
The Reclaimer standing with a waterfall as the backdrop.
TRAN
It's a snippet of the communications I picked up right before we left the tether.
RECLAIMER
Can you translate it?
TRAN
I'm sorry, sir. I've run it through every linguistic program I know. Whatever it is doesn't decipher.
The Reclaimer walking through a corridor.
RECLAIMER
Some encryption we're not aware of yet?
TRAN
I don't think so, sir. There's a pattern there. I just can't pin it down.
TRAN
What's most troublesome to me is that human, Covenant, and Flood alike are all speaking it.
TRAN
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your AI speaking.
TRAN
We're currently experiencing some unexpected turbulence...
TRAN
...but we will be landing in a few moments.
The Todash Portal collapsing behind the Reclaimer.
TRAN
Local time is... daylight, and the temperature is a balmy -12 degrees Celcius.
TRAN
Please watch your step, and thanks for flying the negative space.
The Reclaimer standing before a solid wall.
RECLAIMER
Are you quite done, Tran?
TRAN
{ahem}
TRAN
I'm sorry, sir. Yes, sir. Quite done.
TRAN
But admit it -- you were amused.
The Reclaimer on the move.
RECLAIMER
Back on task, Tran.
TRAN
Affirmative. Actually, I want you to hear this.
Recording
Sherif blahn et on fargual pilego shaoneo.
RECLAIMER
Very pretty. What is it?
The Reclaimer standing with a waterfall as the backdrop.
TRAN
It's a snippet of the communications I picked up right before we left the tether.
RECLAIMER
Can you translate it?
TRAN
I'm sorry, sir. I've run it through every linguistic program I know. Whatever it is doesn't decipher.
The Reclaimer walking through a corridor.
RECLAIMER
Some encryption we're not aware of yet?
TRAN
I don't think so, sir. There's a pattern there. I just can't pin it down.
TRAN
What's most troublesome to me is that human, Covenant, and Flood alike are all speaking it.
[ Comments RSS ]
guys i got a feelin somethin bads gonna happen
oh btw i loooove tran and her sweet sweet brand of insanity
Tran is a lot of fun to write, I have to admit.
She's a lot of fun to read too.
And honestly, Tran's pretty close to my actual sense of humor. You've gotten a taste of my humor here and there, but Tran is where I really tend to display it.
First of all, I'm excited that I got a dose of RC two days in a row, and I'm praying its going to be 3
Second of all, I love the effects in the first two panels
Yup, it'll be three.
My wife actually helped me out with those effects. It's a combination of a regenerator and an exploding fuel rod to simulate the Todash portal.
Jim, she's more creative than you are! I wonder if she's better than me? Nah. Can't be.
Actually, I just told her to hold the fuel rod cannon and shoot me in the back with it as I walked through the regenerator. Much as I've tried, she's just not a Halo player.
We feel your pain…
yay three in a row
Nah I think this is Jims way of saying "sorry for giving you nothing yesterday"
Something bad maybe, but it has to be the virus. Everything is speaking it, and only the virus has infected everything!! Heh does this speech bubbly say anything Jim?? :p
after finding out the last comic translated to English was just random typing i don't want to be disappointed again beside i g2 get to bed
after finding out the last comic translated to English was just random typing i don't want to be disappointed again besides i g2 get to bed and when i was translating it this happened http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLWwWsM22eY&fe…;
and holy cow i actually posted early on a comic
Nice dude! I don't play Crysis so would you mind telling me how that happened. Is it a PC game?
PC, Xbox 360. Maybe PS3, as well.
Youch.
It's actually a case of 1) I actually felt healthy and energetic enough to write a bonus comic, and 2) I'm shooting to release number 200 on Monday and needed to make up for a little lost time in order to do so.
And I did actually take the time to make up some fake words, instead of just typing out random letters. They still don't say anything, but at least it's not quite as sloppy as yesterday's comic.
Something about a virus from a few months back?
We're slowly tying threads together here.
Nice use of Regenerator Green. (If that is what that is…)
Also, agreed with Artum, Tran is still awesome. <3
Regenerator and fuel rod.
Tran is awesome! I like how she didn't turn into a Cortana wannabe like all the other AI.
Yeah, I never wanted to have a 'Cortana' in this story. I would even venture so far as to say that Tran isn't even as powerful as Cortana. Tran's got some skills, but they're more limited in scope than Cortana's were.
Bonus/free stuff is the best!
Amen to that—and you're welcome.
Still not free. Your IP doesn't think so anyway.
Things are about to get really bad really fast.
Oh, and "First!"
I've always wondered what it would be like to say that. I'm disappointed.
Yeah, that's actually frowned on here.
It's probably frowned on everywhere, which makes me wonder why people do it.
My theory? Jealousy and insecurity. Trolls just tend act out because they're jealous that other people do cool things. And they're insecure enough about themselves that they the only way they can deal with that jealousy is to disparage both the artist and art. It's no skin off my back, of course, but there's simply no room here for people who want to act like a bunch of grade school bullies. The world inevitably leaves that personality type behind, much to my great satisfaction.
Wow. Was that actually a mini-rant?
Hmm… "Trolls"
You really are an interesting character, Jim.
it makes me wonder why you did it…
Wait. Is there still going to be a Comic on Firday?
Yes, there will be.
First you don't release for a month. Now your on a releasing spree!
Actually, the release schedule was spotty for two or three weeks there. It happens. I think the world would have imploded had I actually not released anything for a full month. B)
I wasn't expect another comic so soon. Nice one!
Thanks!
Silence fills the empty grave…
No Longer!
By the way, the sentence "Whatever it is doesn't decipher" is not correct grammatical formatting.
An acceptable alternate would be "Whatever it is, it doesn't decipher."
Another would be "It doesn't decipher, whatever it is."
Personally speaking, the middle one is the best.
However, it is your role to fulfill, not mine.
English major?
Technically, I think it is. If I'm not mistaken, the whole phrase 'whatever it is' is the subject of the sentence. It's an ugly form, I admit, but I believe it's still accurate.
Dang it—now I'm going to have to go look it up.
Jim, you may be immune to my mind control but not to AThoth's.
A monkey with a taco.
Hey Jim, I know what you're thinking of right now!
Oh, I seriously doubt that…
Please, Thoth is preferable.
I've always found that, in comic form, the English language is especially malleable and shouldn't be terribly bothered with. Write what sounds natural. Great comic!
With any form of prose, you really can afford to bend the rules a bit. Comics are easy because you can write the way people speak—and most people don't follow the grammatical rules to the letter.
True, however, there is a difference between dialectic and poor grammatical construction, as the dialect can be grammatically wrong and still be perfectly correct English.
Personally, vocalizing prose as though it were spoken is one of the best ways to locate errors in a passage.
The Reclaimer struck as a "well educated"
as well as the military can giveentity. Conjointly the sentenceabhorring to expose stylistic opiniondoesn't remain analogous to the predetermined personality and dialectic style characteristic of the Reclaimer.Apologies, that information happens to be personal and will not be shared on an open network.
To answer your question though, it might
if one happens to be luckier than mostpass unnoticed spoken, but not written.Sorry, double verbs are killer.
Yeah, it's a weird case – the 'is' is actually part of the subject. The whole phrase—'Whatever it is'—is the subject. I might well be bad grammatical construction, but people actually talk like that.
It is poor grammatical construction, and people do speak as such.
It is rather unfortunate.
I think It's fine…not very good at explaining why but it works and reads well.
Like I said, it's a nominal clause, so it falls well within the rules.
Nice effects for the first two panels (RC looks good in Hulk-green XD) and yay for more Tran. And somewhere secretive, I'm sure Ferial is rubbing his hands together and cackling madly. Or…um, the Ferial equivalent since he doesn't seem like the "cackling madly" sort.
Ferial chuckles—which sounds more like a low growl. Actually, he growls when he's angry, too. You know what? The two sound exactly alike. I guess there's no way to tell what sort of mood he's in.
!!! Qu'est-ce c'est?! Bonus comic? woot! And I bet Tran would make an excellent flight attendant.
Guaranteed snark.
Snarks are inefficient in Half Life. You're more likely to kill yourself by using them then you are to kill anybody else. Wait, were you even talking about Half Life!?
Um, no. Not even close.
Sounds like Cortana! It's nice to hear a humanish voice after so long
Also, this comic made me very happy.
How so?
Pittofdoom says it quite nicely in the comment right below.
Ah, very good.
Reclaimer on a Thursday? But, Jim, my birthday's not for two more months!
By the way, RC sounded kinda snooty when he said "Are you quite done, Tran?" Maybe the cavalcade are rubbing off on him. lol
He is only Human…
...and as such is not immune to impatience.
Awesome, RC fill is complete! Stand by for hibernation…
...
Hibernation complete! Now, where's the other one?
JK, Tran's awesome. I'm guessing the Cavalcade isn't speaking because they used
up too much energy in the Todash Jump? Also, great use of freaky lettering. Do you have
a "dictionary" showing which symbol means what, or is it all random?
The Cavalcade speak when they have something to contribute. This exchange was between Tran and the Reclaimer. You'll more than likely see some dialogue from the Cavalcade again tomorrow.
We've determined it's a hash of letters in a crazy font… someone posted a link to a translator some pages back and the collection used in the baloons didnt make anything English.
So no, so far it's just jibberish…
And, YAY, Reclaimer!!!
She likes RPG-style games – Final Fantasy, Fable, Blue Dragon, that sort of thing. She has trouble with FPS games. The dual-thumbstick setup is a bit beyond her, sadly.
It's a technical term – "forum trolls." "Trolls" for short.
I found it! I knew I wasn't going crazy. Do a Google search for 'nominal clause'. The phrase "whatever it is" functions as a nominal clause, so there is technically no violation of grammar rules in the sentence, "Whatever it is doesn't decipher." B)
Yeah, IntenseDebate is a little glitchy like that sometimes. I don't
know why. I get a little tired of bugging the developers all the time.
Perhaps the syntax is the problem then.
Please, see the original comment. ;}
Being under the impression that specific grammar rules were not the subject of this discussion, I was merely expressing my concern that the phrase dialectically didn't fit the rest of the text.
Wow, someone who's actually a bigger grammar Nazi than I am. I stand
by my decision. The sentence is completely legitimate and proper—
and let us leave it at that.
Apologies, I misread the comic.
I was under the impression that RC had said that.
It fits Tran's dialect well.
Apologies, I misread the comic.
I was under the impression that RC had said that.
It fits Tran's dialect well. ;}
Oh, see, I completely missed your point then. :p
Hehe, talk about a grand miscommunication all around. That's actually
Maybe I should start color-coding Tran's
really hilarious.
dialogue, eh?