June 4th, 2010
Page 369
Comics for June 4, 2010 - Page 369
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June 5th, 2010 at 3:54 am
He really hasn’t thought things through, has he? I’m interested that the Queen only mentioned the bishops, I’d have thought the local lords would also have something to say.
June 5th, 2010 at 4:21 am
Well, the law is the law, and you cannot get it changed successfully without enough people being willing to agree to the changes, either through self-willed advocacy, apathy, bribery, or sufficient fear.
Alas, not enough people like Maldik to rally behind him (unless it’s to make faces behind his back), they’re not yet apathetic enough to let him do whatever he wants (or he’d have done it by now), he hasn’t spread around nearly enough cash to have the right people in his pocket, and he just isn’t all that scary. (Cringe-worthy, maybe, but alas, not scary.)
I see nothing wrong with her having a new dress (or at least one we haven’t seen), and neatly coiffed hair. She is a queen, she does know that she has appearances to keep up, and if such things were not brought to her at the very start, they arrived there in short order after she did, I am quite sure. I do believe she was allowed her “usual quarters” (we saw how Tethik got in, and the lovely furniture therein, after all), which from the furniture implies that, while she is under arrest, she isn’t chained to a dungeon wall amidst the filth and the rats. Therefore it is reasonable to assume she was permitted some personal goods. A couple changes of clothes, her reading glasses, stationary, candles, cushions for her chairs, that sort of thing. She is still a queen, and she hasn’t yet been formally tried, as we have just seen.
I’m looking forward to seeing more come next week. And then maybe some Tethik, yes? 8D
June 5th, 2010 at 6:23 am
I bet she just passed some secret message to her allies, right under Maldik’s nose, on that whatever-it-was she was sewing on when he came in. Being the moron he is, Maldik would have completely ignored it.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:32 am
@ The MacNut - Ha! Good call! “Dear (whoever). My idiot son has conspired to have me locked up. Kindly send word to (someone reliable) to come and free me, there’s a dear. Yours, etc.”
June 5th, 2010 at 9:16 am
At the moment, Maldik has to keep up the appearances, which includes allowing the accused Queen access to the services of a maid, clothing clean to her normal standard, access to material for hobbies (so long as he thinks they can’t be used for sending messages to conspirators), and decent food. The prisoner is ROYALTY, after all. She may even be allowed visitors, so long as they don’t leave notes, letters, weapons, money, and the entirety of their conversations is monitored so as not to spread plans.
For a needlepoint code, one of the simplest and most compact that I can think of would be dependent on the number of letters in the Kivalian language, and incorporate the basics of the Vietnam-era POW tap-code, that put the english alphabet into a 5×5 grid, and to communicate the letter you wanted, you would tap out its coordinate in the grid, then pause a moment, then proceed to the next letter. So an A would be one tap, a short pause, another tap (putting it at 1,1 in the alphabet grid), and a Y would be five taps, a short pause, then another 5 taps, putting it at 5,5 in the grid. (assuming that they dropped Z, and subsituted some other letter if the Z was needed). If you choose a larger array, you can include all your basic alphabet characters, plus numbers and punctuation. A 7×7 array would give all 26 English letters, 10 digits, and leave room for 8 different symbols, which could include indicators to ignore sections of the message, as well as the spot where the message giving stitch starts from.
June 5th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Oh, she is good. I didn’t think about a message in the needlepoint. Good call Macnut. She is manipulating him without even working hard. The taunt “Can you, indeed?” is mastery. Maldik will ‘do’ something to ’show her!’ and it will be exactly what Yanora wants him to do.
JED, we say it every page, but well done! it just keeps getting better and better!
June 5th, 2010 at 10:43 am
Actually I don’t think she wants to be free at this point. She knows that Maldik doesn’t have a firm enough grasp on power to execute her out of hand (as she just schooled him in) or even to keep her under more than a soft form of house arrest. So she’s sitting in comfort waiting for him to cut his own throat without have to dirty her hands or conscience. And yes, while she is a Magnificent Bitch I do think she has enought of a conscience that she doesn’t want to kill her son, no matter what kind of a shit he is, directly.
June 5th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Ugh. I dislike Maldik. A lot. And I know how insipid that sounds, he’s not supposed to be likeable, but damn, JED, he’s like watching a slow-motion train-wreck.
June 5th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Yanora reminds me of a combination of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Catherine de Medici. I’ll bet she’s actually running the kingdom from that room right under Maldik’s nose and her comments to him remind me of Catherine managing her useless sons while she has a firm grip on the reins.
June 5th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Lictre, it would be even easer than that. I’ve done embroidery since I was nine. A person could sew a band of a solid color, and weave in a message with a thread just a shade lighter or darker. Or, use the same thread, and sew the message right on top. That would be a difference in texture.
Another method would be to use the underside of the embroidery. It looks like a tangled mess anyway, and weave in the message. For that matter, the simplest way? Sew the message directly on unembroidered fabric, then cover it completely. Your recipient would know to carefully cut away the pattern, then the message would be visible below it.
Considering that medieval style embroidery consisited of layers upon layers of thread, Maldik would not see anything unusual in his mother creating a solid 3 or 4 layer piece of embroidery. The Bayeaux tapestry is such and example.
June 5th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
I’m sure the only reason the queen has not offed the loathsome little slug years ago is that he is in fact her son and that means she does have some maternal feelings for him. I wouldn’t bet my life on those feelings keeping my head attached to my shoulders after this though if I were Maldik. The queen seems like an eminently practical person, and I’m thinking she’s had quite enough of Prince Not-So.Charming’s delusions of brilliance. When he makes his inevitable mistake mommy-dearest is going to come down on him like the wrath of a vengeful god, because I get the feeling the queen is quite capable of being utterly ruthless in the service of her country, family ties or not.
June 5th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
simple substitution cypher with different stitches representing letters or groups of common phrases in a band sampler would be extremely easy
or color coded stitches - black single cross = imprisonment, red = execution planned and so forth - when you realize that samplers often included large sections of poetry, bible verses or prose and a person or persons names and important dates, you realize that maybe Madame DeFarge should have been an embroideress instead of a knitter
June 6th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Kivalia is in good hands with her. Is there some reason she cant just ascend the throne directly? Is Kivalian succession always male?
June 6th, 2010 at 2:52 am
Joe - could also be blood - some lines you have to be born into - if she married the king (or heir apparent) maybe she can only be a queen to her king, or the mother of the king and called queen. Her sons would have been of the king’s blood and can ascend. Maybe a daughter could ascend, but would have to be born to the line.
June 6th, 2010 at 4:25 am
Indeed he cannot.
Not before he does his homework and gets a decent grade.
June 6th, 2010 at 6:45 am
Seems like everyone’s underestimating Maldik’s “friends”. Yanora herself has voiced her surprise at how well-thought-out and thorough the plan seems to be. (When she’s writing her letter to Ipola.)
Clearly, there’s someone smart and knowledgable helping him. I suspect we have much left to see before they manage to sort this mess out.
But as ever, I’m content to sit back and let JED weave his magnificent story.
June 6th, 2010 at 6:45 am
*spittake laughs at Dragonson’s comment, thankfully into her glass, not onto her keyboard or screen* Good one!
June 6th, 2010 at 8:14 am
@Jason With Maldik, if there’s somebody smart in the plot, they’re more likely to be manipulating him than helping him. He personally was dumb enough to align himself with Urts, thinking that they’d only be interested in killing his enemies, and even allow them into the castle.
Bright as a brick, dense as neutronium, sharp as a beach-ball, too dim to live, too stubborn to die… That’s our Maldik.
June 6th, 2010 at 9:01 am
I’m thinking that Maldik is still neck deep with our scaly friends. He also forgets that his mother ruled a very long time-from before he was born to the time that his older brother was crowned. Yanora has some ideas, from Tethik, about who could be in cahoots with “dear Maldik.” And in reading the character list, JED states that Yanora has only loved two things in her life-her country, and her husband. This, combined with the fact that she’s a good queen, (and lets her sons think that there’s a possibility that she poisoned their father) means that she can definitely out-maneuver Maldik any day. Especially if she thinks her country is at danger. If one is as good a queen as Yanora, she’s thinking that the good of all in the country (good AND bad) is better than her son. And I’m sure that-if Maldik dies, and his older brother as well-that there are cousins upon cousins in the woodwork to take over once Yanora dies.
June 6th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Especially if her son is in with the Urrts in trying to get control. She knows how dim Maldik is, and how ruthless the Urrts are. One can make a few connections in one’s mind and go “oh dear.” (Using one of the greatest British “understatements” in time of crisis, at least known to me. hehe.)
June 6th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
After reading all of that, I can only say one thing.
Maldik just got roflpwnt.
June 6th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Ah, yes. Further proof that Maldik is a coward who, furthermore, has no idea what he’s doing. The truly confident do not NEED to gloat, the only purpose it serves is to try and bolster ones confidence. And Yanora is more than competent enough to know this.
June 6th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
That was indeed quite informative.
Though I think that one who mentioned above thats shes a Royal and the forms have to be kept got it correct. Hence we have a sort of ” House arrest ” situation at hand.”
part of her dilemma is , that blood is indeed thicker than water .She has to carefully way the balance of saving her kingdom against not destroying her child. Rock and hard place. no?
June 6th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Um…y’know, I just noticed something…
Maldik looks nothing like his mother. Are you sure she didn’t adopt him? That would explain his lack of smarts and ugliness. He didn’t get that from his mother.
June 6th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Black Ethel - for Yanora’s sake, let’s hope Maldik doesn’t look just like good ole’ dad.
June 6th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Maldik is just so depressing and astonishingly easy to manipulate. Mom has owever accepted the fact that he needs to die, he has crossed the line of what she is willing to overlook She is not ready to have him killed at this point, her plans have not progressed enough. How do I know? Simple-he isn’t dead yet.
June 7th, 2010 at 12:50 am
Excellent dialogue in this one.
Perhaps it’s the small panels + lots of dialogue, but this page feels a bit cramped somehow. Feel free to expand and stretch, we all love to see your talent on display!
Moox
June 7th, 2010 at 3:20 am
Hmm, me thinks the Queen be hatching a clever plan..arrg. *Pirate day ^_^”’*
June 7th, 2010 at 9:53 am
I also love how the lady in waiting doesn’t curtsy to Maldik, just bows a head. Like, though you may be royal, you don’t warrant a curtsy. (Probably true enough in reality, but also due to his personality.) And the thing Yanora says as she hands off her embroidery…red flashers going “it’s all done now, dear, you can “put it away now”"
June 7th, 2010 at 10:30 am
@Proffesor61771 A treasonous cabal isn’t a snake that can be killed by beheading it, it’s usually more like a hydra. The Queen at this point needs to winkle out the other heads as well as the body, so that when she and her loyal court act, they can remove as much of the traitorous tumor from the Kivalian body politic as possible.
Also, with her challenge to him by pointing out how he’ll be a puppet, it’ll force him into some open action to show that he’ll be a force. Reactions on Maldik’s public stupidity may be useful in showing who the traitors are.
June 7th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I wonder if Ipola’s received Yanora’s letter yet, and if she will attempt to render some assistance. Also, I too wonder how the heck something like Maldik could have matured that stupidly with a mother like Yanora. I guess it could go to show that you can be great at everything else, and still be an incompetent mother.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
bloody genious… she is setting him up to oppose the bishops… he will prove to his mother that he can take on the bishops… maybe burn a few churches… and really set the people against him.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
oh, also she buys time, and makes him go on a wild goose chase… her plan is genious on several levels.
June 7th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
@Lictre-I agree, he’ll say something like “oh YEAH??? Well Mother I’ll have you know…..” and say something really idiotic and reveal part of his master plan.
June 7th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
@MaxBigFoot-Yanora, even as a queen, will still at some level love her sons. At some level. We assume she does because at first, she does not want to believe that he could sink so low.
@taltamir-she may want to see if he’ll sink so low as to burn some churches. Then, perhaps, she will believe, and plans will move forward.
June 7th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
@Lictre:
Symbolic alphabet-substitutions can be found far earlier than the Viet Nam War. In the Civil War you drew 4 symbols:
1)__a “tic-tac-toe” symbol
2)__an “X”
3)__same as #1, but with a dot in each of the 9 spaces
4)__same as #2, but with a dot in each of the 4 spaces
This gives you 26 different figures, each made from 2-or-3 lines plus a dot (or not), which covers the whole alphabet. No need to memorize the 26 figures’ meaning, because the 4 symbols are easy to reproduce as a mnemonic.
June 7th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Wait-a-minute!!!?!
Look at the highlighting in Yanora’s words to her handmaiden!
I’m imagining she used special threads in her sewing, that will be highlighted when they’re viewed with the proper SPECTACLES!
—
Or it might be as simple as that old “lemon juice” trick.
Lemon juice dries completely clear, but pass the paper over a low flame & the lemon-soaked parts will turn brown far faster than the rest of the paper! Even if this world has no fruit similar to lemons/limes, rat urine glows under “black light” (feline urine also). Some similar liquid might be dried into the cloth, & the proper use of heat, light, or perhaps a magic “reveal”-type spell could display the (encrypted) message.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
@DMC_Run
could be as simple as a pattern of red (or blue) threads that become more visible when viewed through colored glass.
Maldic, Maldic…not a puppet? Are you sure? Check to see if someone has their hand up your wazoo to make you talk…
June 9th, 2010 at 7:49 am
@all - Not just because of the picture JED just posted in the incentive, why does Makdik’s bumbling make him not Y & K’s son? The obvious comparison are Eleanor and Henry, two of the sharpest, toughest cookies ever, all four of their sons were utter PITAs and scheming weasels who thought they were tougher and smarter than their parents and all of them were dead wrong. Sorry to anyone who has a Couer de Lion fantasy, but the press packet is mostly spin.
June 9th, 2010 at 8:41 am
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had an affair that resulted in Maldik.
June 9th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Addup2 - Without the blessing of the church, you can’t be crowned. In the case of a popular figure, they are generally pretty much a rubber stamp. Maldik is not a popular figure, and he has cousins that could be trouble. So getting the Bishops in line is the most important step to securing the throne.
Jean - Actually, up to this point he has done precisely what he thinks he wanted to do. It hasn’t worked out too well, but time will tell.
The MacNut - You know I can’t tell you about any secret messages! If I did, it wouldn’t be a secret!!
firegoat - Agh! So now I have to change the secret message!
Lictre - Note that even when the young Princess Elizabeth Tudor was in The
Tower, it was hardly a spartan existence. If you’ve ever been there and seen the recreation of the study that Sir Walter Raleigh had, you see that it’s still not bread and water by a long stretch.
Lebbrin - Thanks. As always, it’s hard or impossible to write someone smarter than yourself. I’m glad that she gives the appearance, at least, of being as sharp as I want her to be.
tricksterson - If she wanted to, she could definitely be free. It appears that she feels she needs to be here, for now.
Jim Farris - I hear you. Unfortunately, I have the next few weeks devoted to him, so you may want to take a bit off from COZ, and no offense taken. It’s just important for the rest of the tale, and I think it’s good stuff from a character point of view. Hope you stick around, but understand if you don’t. And fair warning to all of you: The next couple of scenes are rough. We went from all happy firelit lovey-dovey in the Valley Of The Moon to this disfunctional place, and the contrast could not be more marked.
SamuraiDemonPuppy - She and Kendrik, fortunately, put structures in place that more or less run themselves. That’s one of the reasons that Maldik hasn’t ruined the kingdom - yet.
aPrincess - Wow. You guys teach me something new every day - no lie.
SteinarB - She is practical above all, but she does love both her sons.
Jinx - Jeez. And here I was, thinking I was hot because I put together a period blackwork frame out of primitives …
Joe - Kivalian succession is always male. Besides, if it came to that, she was the queen consort. She has cousins who are closer to the succession bloodline than she is. Tethik is one.
Ed - Correct. See above.
Dragonson - Oh, he’s screwed, then. His scholarship was generally pretty poor. LOL!
Jason - You are quite right. There’s a lot to see. And some of it you’ll see pretty soon.
Mish_lady The line is “She has loved only two things *completely* in her life.” She loves her boys, and shows it in her own way - which, I have to say, I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Sleepinin - It gets worse.
TheLastGarou - Yes, he is that. And Yanorak knows. And he knows she knows. And she knows he knows it. They’re very knowledgable.
warnie - Succinctly put, correct. But she’s spent her whole life sorting out hard choices. She’s usually correct, but not always happy.
Black Ethel - Vote for Zona! And yes, Maldik is the natural son of Yanora of Normos and Count Kendrik of Gost, later King Kendrik of all of Kivalia.
Hwyla - He does, a bit, around the eyes.
Professor61771 - She will not do anything without due thought. Also, remember that killing isn’t the only way to neutralize a threat. She is quite good.
Moox - Thanks, but this is a wordy scene. I, too, like to have a free panel, and can’t always find a good balance.
zangoules - “I have a cunning plan …”
taltamir - Perhaps. Perhaps not …
DMC_Run - Wow. I guess Zona just attracts history buffs. We’re flattered.
Elfguy - Maybe more than one …
InCestusWeTrust and others - Yanora imputes Maldik’s looks and some of his personality to Kendrik’s father, who was a dissolute nobleman who left his son with a count’s title, a bankrupt estate and a burning ambition to prove himself. Kendrik was brilliant, tall (for a Kivalian) politically aggressive and tough as nails, physically and mentally. He wrote poetry, music and histories with equal ease. On the battlefield he was the premier warrior and strategist of his generation, a superb scientific fighter one-on-one with an iron jaw and seemingly limitless stamina.
Apparently, he was also terrific in bed.
This was the man who fought Zonn The Wanderer to a standstill, which officially settled the long-standing disputes between the two peoples. Unofficially? Still a long ways to go, and Maldik looks like he’s trying to undo what his father and mother accomplished.
June 9th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
@JED:
You wrote: “The next couple of scenes are rough.”
Well, judging by his sparkling character, I expect no less of him than he’ll get angry and beat the hell out of his own mother. And then he might rape her, just to break her spirit. That’s about what I expect from him.
June 9th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Na, he’ll just keep to shouting. He’s too afraid of her to do much more.
Maldik really doens’t have a clue as to his mother’s real power, do he?
June 11th, 2010 at 1:04 am
Hmm, could Kendrik be only slightly dead? Perhaps he is off chatting with Vito and could be recalled in case of need for eye candy -ahh- to fight Shuach.
June 11th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Jim Farris - That particular event will not happen. Mainly because, in a physical confrontation she can take him. and she’s also not alone The lady attending is Bethela, a baroness and Yanora’s cousin and lifelong friend and lady of the bedchamber. She has watched the prince grow up, is his elder and isn’t terribly impressed with him. If it comes down to it, she’ll bash him over head with one of those ubiquitous flower pots that always seem to crop up when needed in these types of tales.
Nonetheless, it will be rough for a few pages. All I will say.
Lora - Yes, he does. And it scares him.
Elizabeth - Alas, Kendrik is well and truly gone. You will (probably) never see him again except in flashbacks. The one I truly want to do is the fight with him and Zonn. But there’s so much story between here and then, it’s doubtful I’ll ever get to it.
June 12th, 2010 at 7:43 am
Mumsy! I missed her.
June 12th, 2010 at 11:34 am
@JE oh please! get to it! i wish to see epicness of that stature.would be like Zona vs Yatta-ta, ‘cept maybe a bit more bloody?