White Noise (Webcomic by Adrien Lee) SPOILERS

[thorny]

I . . . don't even know what to say about this page.

Liya, can you read that like a radiologist reading a moving CT scan? I sure hope so.

[Jitter]

My words exactly I was impressed but completely out of things to say. Shifting while injured is bad, but looks like healing while patient is shifting is no easy task either.

[Keep Looking]

It looks like the issue isn't just that Hawk is shifting but also that Hawk is uh. Currently struggling to maintain a singular corporeal form. I mean in the last panel you can see that his body is hella glitching with the incorporeal heads but also multiple solid-looking limbs and tails - his form's all over the place. Like trying to do surgery on someone who's clipping through alternate dimensions or smth.

[Jitter]

Yeah, you are right. Although the glitchimg could be because of him shifting while wounded (and while not having any clue whatsoever how to control it even in best of circumstances).

[thorny]

Wow.

What a holiday present! (I wasn't even sure if there would be a page today.)


-- and if it ever turns out I can shape shift, now if I can just remember this page I'll know how to get back.

[Jitter]

This is just so SO wow. Thepooka is a masterful artist. Just brilliant. And beautiful!

[Jitter]

Happyhappyjoyjoy

[thorny]

 -- wait a minute.

End of Chapter 12? -- Arc 1 epilogue?! I thought we were smack in the middle of a political revolution, here! And what about Numair and Hawk?

Maybe that's Arc 2? (At least there's apparently going to be one. Though when is entirely unclear.) Or maybe it's going to be jammed into the epilogue? But this is not a comic that generally rushes things.

I thought waiting a week between pages was hard!

[Jitter]

Thorny, my feelings exactly! I was starting to worry that it will not wrap things up as the pages piled (I had read earlier this is the last chapter) but still this was a shock  At least there is going to (??) be an Arc 2. Still I hope Hawk and Numair will find reconciliation in the epilogue or the short stories!

[thorny]

OK, looks like maybe we're having a revolution after all?

(And it will be -- not exactly televized -- but broadcast.)

[thorny]

So -- now what?

What if the Assembly just goes and assembles somewhere else? Would that make their proceedings invalid?

Can Numair do anything much without them? How much? He clearly has done some things without them; but it's entirely unclear to me either what his powers are, or what the assembly's are, or to what extent if any either of them can veto the other's action. -- In the USA: the President can do some things by executive action on their own; for other things the President needs Congressional cooperation; bills passed by Congress can be vetoed by the President, Congress can override a Presidential veto if they've got enough extra votes, but it takes a higher percentage of votes than to pass something the President agrees to. But this isn't the USA and Numair's not a president. He's the Cynn -- but what can the Cynn do? Obviously not just whatever he wants, or he wouldn't need to go through all this. Obviously he does have some powers. But again, I'm entirely unclear on the structure.

Does Numair just get to make whatever speech he's got in mind, and they won't be able to cut him off? That might be useful -- but probably only if popular rebellion, or the threat of it, can override the assembly.

I'm wondering also whether Numair's trying to start a revolution, thereby changing the governmental structure; or just trying to bring pressure enough to make that structure work to stop people from being sold off. If he's trying to do the second, he may nevertheless find the first is what's happening.

And if the Reifa are coming back -- what does that do to the current governmental structure, and the current social structure? These two threads of the story may not be as separate as they look.

[Jitter]

I very much hope that the broadcast is already ongoing via Sraddi, wasn't it implied earlier that it would be the broadcasting equipment? Perhaps starting with "I will set up a broadcast of these talks" and then tinker with the equipment while Sraddi already is broadcasting.

In any case it's hard to tell what is likely to happen because we don't know much about Aetheri politics. How large a proportion of the population is listening or even interested? How large a proportion of spirit population who probably matter more than the various non-spirits who may or may not (I'm thinking not) have some sort of political influence, but probably not one equal to the spirits themselves. Or maybe some of them have citizenship and therefore also political rights? But I don't think all of them do.

[thorny]

Excellent additions to the list of things we don't know! -- if this were something by Minna, I''d strongly suspect that she didn't know either. thephooka, however, may have this all worked out already. Or not, I don't know.

[thorny]

OK. Maybe this works even though they've walked out. (And it doesn't seem as if the broadcast had already started.)

Somebody in the comments provided a handy link that turned out to be only a few pages off from a partial explanation of what Numair's up to, which I'd forgotten the details of. Start here (or a few pages back from there) and read forward an additional few pages:

http://www.white-noise-comic.com/comic/10-25

and, basically, Numair is indeed saying that he wants to broadcast in order to bring public pressure on the Council. 'They can stonewall the Cynn, he's only one person. But they can't stonewall everyone' -- not precise quote, but pretty close.

Ideally, I think, the Council's resistance would be part of the broadcast, in their own words. But Numair's speech on its own, with the information that the Council wouldn't even stay to hear it -- that might well have the desired effect.

Or, at least, something adjacent to the desired effect. Numair seems to think the public will just bring pressure on the Council, and the Council will then agree to form the interplanetary anti-slavery body which Numair thinks can do the job without starting a war. But what if the public throws the Council out entirely instead? Has Numair even considered that?

I do get the impression that he'd considered the possibility that the Council would walk out, though.

[thorny]

-- OK and he does really seem to be calling for a revolution.

But is he trying just to get the current members of the Council ousted, while keeping the same structure; or to upend the whole system? -- and if the latter: does he expect to go with it? to wind up holding power all on his own, without any Council? to accept some other type of limits?