Something like that. They believed they just had to get into space and they would rendezvous with an alien mother ship that would transport them to a paradisaical new world, iirc.
Everyone’s alive, at their destination, with a successful predicted trajectory in a rocket made using (virtual) crude materials with poor quality control and a mad level of oversight.
What were they hoping for, in-flight peanuts? 🙂
I forgot to mention when this was relevant; the whole crash the rocket into the office thing instead of just breaking down the door or smashing in a window or something is the only time I’ve seen Dr. Lee’s sparky quirkyness, if I’m forgetting an earlier time in the comic then someone please point it out to me.
Well, there’s her “I’ll just build my own, sensible brain vending machine!” To the Mad, Mad science IS sensible. Or when she asked a stranger in a coffee shop “Pleeease may I operate on your brain?” And then, of course, there’s one of my personal favourites… “Welcome to my dismembrarium!”
Oh, and I almost forgot the time she strapped on a bunch of surprisingly well-fitting armour, and used rocket boots to fly herself into a tree… and then flew herself into Killbot #2… and then 500 feet in the air to dangle from Nick whilst holding onto Red Knight… all in pursuit of hot towel service.
She may not be Agatha Heterodyne’s sister, but she could pass convincingly as a cousin.
Conditions for launch were perfect. Trajectory is a bit questionable, however, but the craft and everyone in it arrived at the destination, so the flight can be considered a success.
Keep in mind this IS happening in VR, so it’s wise not to draw too many conclusions about Virginia’s Madness or otherwise. An entirely sane person may well be able to break the virtual physics, especially if they helped write the code… and I suspect that’s where this is going. Think Matrix more than Girl Genius.
I think Skin Horse might have the most immediately-active comments of any comic I’ve ever seen. The comic went up at midnight an hour and a half ago and there’s already 12 comments here.
Helped that currently we are in the thick of the plot.
The other comic which i recall has such active comments is Tomo-chan, and that just counting Mangadex comment section.
Obviously, you do not read dumbingofage.com (a comic which updates daily slightly after midnight because it has an ongoing problem with clock drift) comments (currently at 74 comments, which seems typical–that number can spike dramatically for a revelation where the drama spikes)
Dumbing of Age is actually on my list to start binge reading once I decide I have a few days to spare when I won’t need to eat or sleep. I tend to be a bit obsessive when I catch up on another comic. I read Narbonic in one sitting. Skin Horse took me two days, two years ago. Girl Genius – with nearly 16 years at 3 strips per week – took me a whole week back in March. Dumbing of Age has over 8 years, so I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing it without taking a break to sleep.
I do the exact same thing, and I haven’t done it in a while precisely because I’ve started to have a hard time finding comics with long enough archives for a satisfying binge read.
it also has to have the highest speculative theories being correct ratio. I like to fantasize that the authors simply let the readers speculate and then write based on the must imaginative speculations. Of course, that just a fantasy of mine.
I happen to be here at that hour about four nights a week (the other nights I’m at my mother’s house and go to bed an hour or so earlier, usually). That way I (a) catch the strip as soon as it appears, and, of course, (2) get first choice of raw comments.
I am trying to figure out if the “threetwoone” precedes the BOOM or the other way around. Why continue the countdown, though, if launch has already occurred?
I suspect that a person, possibly Aimee, is controlling this VR. I can just see her, watching the rocket development with mixed amusement and alarm, and intervening to make the thing work and have the people not die in the crash.
I note that no-one’s glasses appear to have been lost on impact, or even askew. I guess we’ll see what happened with Mrs. Apis, though.
Everyone is (rightly) wondering about Doc Lee’s choice of sparky tactics, but what I’m wondering is: Was all this planned by Gavotte? If so, to what detail? Did she let herself get captured, knowing they would put her in VR? Did she know it would fracture her personality, and if so, was there a reason for doing it? And did she do all this knowing that the good, sparky, awesome Doctor was going to end up in VR and would be able to figure out who she was and break them both out? If the answer to all of those is ‘Yes’, she’s smarter than the combined IQ’s of the two smartest members of the team (and I’m placing the Doc on the team at this point, the story direction is pretty clear).
One thing, Doc – Once you’re out, and you’ve rescued Nick, take a minute, stop distracting yourself with sparky brilliance to avoid your emotions, and tell the big goof how you feel. You have a working VR platform now. This simplifies a lot of things that might have been awkward.
I think the things that look like “d”s or “o”s or illegible partial scribbles are meant to represent “e”s, but at points on the flight path where the orientation of the craft was no longer even approximately level with the ground.
The rocket is actually a tea pot, as that is the only object in the simulation that can generate steam, thus providing the thrust for a reaction engine.
Could’a been worse. Could’a traveled by Cosmognothics.
Just googled cosmognothics, all I could find was stuff related to this webcomic, what is it again?
The oppossum mad scientist and his funkadelic mad possum boyfriend created it as a way to travel space (I think).
Something like that. They believed they just had to get into space and they would rendezvous with an alien mother ship that would transport them to a paradisaical new world, iirc.
From “cosmos” = “order” and “gnocchi” = “tiny dumplings”, literally “I’ve ordered Italian”.
That is quite possibly the best explanation I’ve ever seen for Cosmognothics.
Any landing you can walk away from…
Came here to say this.
But can you use the aircraft again?
I’m eyeballing it, but… yeah. Not immediately, but it looks repairable.
Therefore, somewhere between good and great.
Of course you can!
Not necessarily for flight, mind you, but it makes a fantastic paperweight.
Paperweight, doorstop, ornamental flower garden… the applications for what’s left of an aircraft are nearly endless.
Or, to use the wisdom of Launchpad McQuack, any *crash* you can walk away from is a good one.
It’s all a matter of perspective! ^_^
Everyone’s alive, at their destination, with a successful predicted trajectory in a rocket made using (virtual) crude materials with poor quality control and a mad level of oversight.
What were they hoping for, in-flight peanuts? 🙂
They did get walnuts. Besides, this might just be messing up the computer hardware or some of the code used to create this situation.
I forgot to mention when this was relevant; the whole crash the rocket into the office thing instead of just breaking down the door or smashing in a window or something is the only time I’ve seen Dr. Lee’s sparky quirkyness, if I’m forgetting an earlier time in the comic then someone please point it out to me.
You didn’t think U.N.I.T.Y. was a quirky idea?
Well, there’s her “I’ll just build my own, sensible brain vending machine!” To the Mad, Mad science IS sensible. Or when she asked a stranger in a coffee shop “Pleeease may I operate on your brain?” And then, of course, there’s one of my personal favourites… “Welcome to my dismembrarium!”
Oh, and I almost forgot the time she strapped on a bunch of surprisingly well-fitting armour, and used rocket boots to fly herself into a tree… and then flew herself into Killbot #2… and then 500 feet in the air to dangle from Nick whilst holding onto Red Knight… all in pursuit of hot towel service.
She may not be Agatha Heterodyne’s sister, but she could pass convincingly as a cousin.
For a spark shenanigan, this is pretty mundane.
I mean, it ‘just’ a rocket, not a 10-meters quadrupedal mechanical monstrosity.
Conditions for launch were perfect. Trajectory is a bit questionable, however, but the craft and everyone in it arrived at the destination, so the flight can be considered a success.
Madness is terrific for takeoff.
Excelsior, we yell and go!
Sanity is better for landing.
To walk away alive, you know!
(*applause*)
Keep in mind this IS happening in VR, so it’s wise not to draw too many conclusions about Virginia’s Madness or otherwise. An entirely sane person may well be able to break the virtual physics, especially if they helped write the code… and I suspect that’s where this is going. Think Matrix more than Girl Genius.
I’m thinking of the swing in GTA IV.
Behold… perfechsbluh.
Perfection is in the eye of the beholder… or in this case, the bee-holder.
I think Skin Horse might have the most immediately-active comments of any comic I’ve ever seen. The comic went up at midnight an hour and a half ago and there’s already 12 comments here.
Helped that currently we are in the thick of the plot.
The other comic which i recall has such active comments is Tomo-chan, and that just counting Mangadex comment section.
Obviously, you do not read dumbingofage.com (a comic which updates daily slightly after midnight because it has an ongoing problem with clock drift) comments (currently at 74 comments, which seems typical–that number can spike dramatically for a revelation where the drama spikes)
Dumbing of Age is actually on my list to start binge reading once I decide I have a few days to spare when I won’t need to eat or sleep. I tend to be a bit obsessive when I catch up on another comic. I read Narbonic in one sitting. Skin Horse took me two days, two years ago. Girl Genius – with nearly 16 years at 3 strips per week – took me a whole week back in March. Dumbing of Age has over 8 years, so I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing it without taking a break to sleep.
I do the exact same thing, and I haven’t done it in a while precisely because I’ve started to have a hard time finding comics with long enough archives for a satisfying binge read.
Please DO NOT try this with Sluggy Freelance. You. Will. Die!
Have you read Schlock Mercenary?
May have to check that one out, just because the name sounds awesome.
it also has to have the highest speculative theories being correct ratio. I like to fantasize that the authors simply let the readers speculate and then write based on the must imaginative speculations. Of course, that just a fantasy of mine.
Stand Still Stay Silent always has a crowd of campers awaiting the new releases.
I happen to be here at that hour about four nights a week (the other nights I’m at my mother’s house and go to bed an hour or so earlier, usually). That way I (a) catch the strip as soon as it appears, and, of course, (2) get first choice of raw comments.
I am trying to figure out if the “threetwoone” precedes the BOOM or the other way around. Why continue the countdown, though, if launch has already occurred?
(Because funny, duh.)
I’m guessing the “threetwoone” is after the boom.
And yes, because funny.
I suspect that a person, possibly Aimee, is controlling this VR. I can just see her, watching the rocket development with mixed amusement and alarm, and intervening to make the thing work and have the people not die in the crash.
I note that no-one’s glasses appear to have been lost on impact, or even askew. I guess we’ll see what happened with Mrs. Apis, though.
If there was ever any doubt about the comfort and safety of this vehicle, I’m quite sure Virginia would have taken her glasses off before launch.
Everyone is (rightly) wondering about Doc Lee’s choice of sparky tactics, but what I’m wondering is: Was all this planned by Gavotte? If so, to what detail? Did she let herself get captured, knowing they would put her in VR? Did she know it would fracture her personality, and if so, was there a reason for doing it? And did she do all this knowing that the good, sparky, awesome Doctor was going to end up in VR and would be able to figure out who she was and break them both out? If the answer to all of those is ‘Yes’, she’s smarter than the combined IQ’s of the two smartest members of the team (and I’m placing the Doc on the team at this point, the story direction is pretty clear).
One thing, Doc – Once you’re out, and you’ve rescued Nick, take a minute, stop distracting yourself with sparky brilliance to avoid your emotions, and tell the big goof how you feel. You have a working VR platform now. This simplifies a lot of things that might have been awkward.
“You have a working VR platform now. This simplifies a lot of things that might have been awkward.”
You’re right! She can be an Osprey also!
Well, the speed might have been somewhat excessive, but for a bee, this seems like a perfectly reasonable flight pattern!
Did the missile just shout “fweedoom”?
Fly! Be Fweeeeee!
I think the things that look like “d”s or “o”s or illegible partial scribbles are meant to represent “e”s, but at points on the flight path where the orientation of the craft was no longer even approximately level with the ground.
I believe Shaenon has used the sound effect “freeeow” several times, possibly as a homage to Douglas Adams.
Shouldn’t every good vessel have a name, even if its intended journey is deliberately brief?
I hereby dub this bizarre hybrid rocket-sled-whatever the “V MAD B”.
Am I the only one worried that they will interrupt the mayor drawing cartoons of horror movies?
Well, you were . . .
Well, now… wouldn’t that be a bizarre twist if that is the mayor they’re all looking for!
I am only moderately confident that the resemblance to a cocktail shaker is coincidental.
Y’know, it isn’t actually said what they used for rocket fuel. Tea with honey?
It’s the only logical explanation.
The rocket is actually a tea pot, as that is the only object in the simulation that can generate steam, thus providing the thrust for a reaction engine.
I’m with Bea on this one.
Her calculations were perfect. The weather was wrong.
Hey, now she can claim to be an astrologist *and* an astronomer.