20140126, 15:01 – It’s that time of year in which rigid adherence to a realistically defined to-do list is the only way anything gets done at all. It’s also the time of year where there’d be no comic if it weren’t for the buffer – hopefully at some point in the next four weeks reality’s dimmer switch gets kicked above “brownout” and I’ll be able to make some more progress.

The cold doesn’t bother me. The fact that reality is a 100 watt bulb in mid-March through early November, a 70 watt bulb in November through mid January, and a candle in mid January through early March is what bothers me. IT’S KIND OF A LOT LIKE WHAT’S GOING ON IN THIS PAGE ACTUALLY, to make things topical – Reality’s moving along at a bright shiny regular speed and then the bottom drops out from under it and it’s a dark molasses of Nothing. The only real difference between this year and the last ten or so is that this year I’m sober so I’m actually noticing it, and my response to it is to record how hideously dim it is for the record instead of drinking until I don’t notice it (or anything else) anymore.

I think you’ll agree the “out” visuals are a hell of a lot nicer than the last set of “in” visuals, especially in the hat department. Five years makes a hell of a difference! This doesn’t establish Ornix’s “wattage,” just the fact that he can, in fact, move vehicles between universes and layers of reality. IT MIGHT BE FORESHADOWING.

The visuals aren’t totally inconsistent with a transition into Am – for one thing “forward” during the last transition was eyes-forward, whereas here “forward” is up. As to the rest of it… while I am maintaining a number of style elements for the sake of consistency, I’m also upgrading the hell out of visuals whenever and wherever possible. Especially in this instance, as the vast majority of this chapter takes place in environments I modeled in 2007 and 2008 – environments haunted by some truly terrible line art.

The goal with Am transition is to handle it like Battlestar Galactica handled FTL – run through the crew reaction and interior visuals enough to get the point across, then ignore the hell out of that in favor of exterior CG for the rest of the series. Ins and outs have now been established from inside and outside Navigator-assisted FTL, and we’ve seen BTS from the outside. Relativity circumvention has been firmly established; on to the next thing!

Next week: Physics! And physics humor!