White Noise (Webcomic by Adrien Lee) SPOILERS

[thorny]

So -- Sraddi's not supposed to be sentient; but might be anyway; but is illegal if so?

[Jitter]

Hmm, when you put it like that - maybe!

[thorny]

So -- either Sraddi's not sentient; or Sraddi doesn't want Hawk to know that they are?

Or Sraddi's been instructed not to let anybody know, and either can't or doesn't want to violate the instruction?

(I seem to want Sraddi to be sentient. Though it might be easier on them if they aren't, if that makes any sense.)

[Jitter]

The comments on White Noise seem agreed that Sraddi is biolocked or something like that to Numair, i.e. only operable by him. whether that has bearing on sentience, I don’t know. But I’d like to think Numair wouldn’t keep what would essentially be a slave, whether created by him or othewise.

I’m not sure the conversation is off to a good start, but it is a start. That’s something, at least it’s a… start. Ok I’ll stop now.

[thorny]

But I’d like to think Numair wouldn’t keep what would essentially be a slave, whether created by him or othewise.

I can see it happening, if Numair didn't create Sraddi but discovered that Sraddi's sentient, or created Sraddi in Numair's youth without fully understanding the consequences: because the only way to protect Sraddi from destruction might be for Numair to keep them as if they weren't sentient, and Sraddi might not want to be destroyed and might accept living under Numair's protection in that fashion.

If that's the situation, however, I'd expect that whatever restrictions there are on Sraddi interacting with others, that Sraddi would be able to choose to override them. But they might not trust Hawk enough, at least yet, to do so. -- and I'd also expect that there are often conversations between Numair and Sraddi that we're not being shown.

-- however a considerably simpler explanation would be that Sraddi's just a non-sentient tool, and that scene was only meant to show something about Hawk's character.

[JoB]

and I'd also expect that there are often conversations between Numair and Sraddi that we're not being shown.

Chekhov's speech bubble might apply here. I found that I do not need all the graphical variations used to tell between Sraddis own wording vs. quoting someone else, but extending thereon would allow to have it really stand out if a third manner of speaking does suddenly pop up ...

I’d like to think Numair wouldn’t keep what would essentially be a slave, whether created by him or othewise.

We're talking about a construct - that, even if sentient, may have been made to be unable to fend for itself, at least in some respects ...

[Jitter]

Well done, Mari! Revealing something you are ashamed of is good in a discussion intended to clear the air.

[thorny]

Words, words, Numair using words!

-- and does Numair have anybody sentient in his life that he can say such things to? Maybe Helly? but I don't know that he has. This outburst may be the first he's allowed himself in many years.

I can't remember -- did he say something similar to Vlad, when originally asking Vlad not to tell Hawk? it came without the emotion showing much, if so. -- no, nothing remotely like this. And Numair didn't even know Vlad yet, so Vlad would have been a highly unlikely person for Numair to unburden himself at. The scene's here, mostly this couple of pages:
http://www.white-noise-comic.com/comic/10-18
http://www.white-noise-comic.com/comic/10-19

[Jitter]

Somehow I’ve thought that Numair does know Vlad, through Shinobu. But now I’m not sure. At least he knew immediately upon seeing Vlad that Vlad recognized him, despite the, being in another world. Although Vlad is a spirt so he may be considered likely to know about Aetheri matters whether he lives there or not.

[thorny]

One page earlier, it's made clear Numair didn't know Vlad, though did recognize his name:

http://www.white-noise-comic.com/comic/10-17

And on the page before that, it's obvious from Vlad's words and behavior that Vlad recognizes Numair. He asks if he should bow, and addresses Numair as Your Highness.

http://www.white-noise-comic.com/comic/10-16

[Jitter]

Oh yes, you are right! I did remember that Vlad recognized Numair, but not the first part.

It was never shown what Hawk thought about Vlad’s role in this. It’s probably occurred to him Vlad must have known. But I’m sure that’s settled by now, whether there were Words or not.

Which reminds me, there’s been some time and no information on what’s going on in Aetheri with the radio thing. That’s probably for Arc 2, but I’m interested! Not quite as interested as seeing these two make up, but still, I’d like to know!

At the same time I hope Thepooka will take some time to rest after this by now long epilogue wraps up. Although preferably not before the boys are back together!

[thorny]

This week's page not up yet -- but last week's page has developed a rather charged discussion in the comments, due to a new commenter's coming in and very much praising the comic but first noting that they're "not a big fan of the transgender thing". Which brings in responses from thephooka and others.

[Jitter]

Oh well! Thanks for mentioning this, I’ll go see. I wonder what the commenter was expecting to happen??

Today’s page is up now. I hope they are close to reconciliation now!

[thorny]

I think it may not have occured to the commenter that the strip's author might be trans.

Though I still don't know what they expected to happen, even if they thought thephooka had just put trans characters in because of thinking that was in style, or something.

     [ETA: on re-reading that it looks as if I wouldn't expect a cis author to use trans characters; and of course cis authors can and do. But I don't think the commenter was expecting to be called out by a trans author.]

-- the new page is impressive. And they're both actually thinking about this, aren't they? Brains in gear; that's likely going to make it work. They've both got extremely good brains, after all; just no practice in using them in this fashion.

[Keep Looking]

Yeah, I love the new page - it's really good and satisfying to see Hawk and Mari actually having a good discussion.

This week's page not up yet -- but last week's page has developed a rather charged discussion in the comments, due to a new commenter's coming in and very much praising the comic but first noting that they're "not a big fan of the transgender thing". Which brings in responses from thephooka and others.

Regardless of the fact that the commenter may not have known that the author was trans, it seems weird that someone would note that they're not a fan of 'the transgender thing' on a comic which has several diverse and authentically-written trans characters. As Jitter said, what were they expecting from the other commenters / author? I hope that the experience might help them learn something, at any rate.