‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 832

This might be above Danni's pay level.

Memory Lane:

Next Update: ~~Oct 7~~ Nov 4

EDIT: My site is crashing and is having a bunch of problems, including duplicate comic pages. I'm aware of this and am trying to fix it. Unfortunately, the main plugin I've been using to manage the comic on wordpress stopped getting updated about five years ago. I've been trying to ride it as long as possible, but it might be time I will have to do a major overhaul. October's update may get pushed back if so.

EDIT2: Yes, the site has been down. It will likely continue to crash. I've turned off a lot of plugins and am trying other duct tape methods to keep it limping along until I can do the major overhaul. Sorry, everyone.

EDIT3: Next update will be pushed back to Nov 4 since all my comic time is currently wrapped up on getting the site fixed. I may end up putting up an "under construction" redirect starting Oct 7 if I can't get the site to stop crashing.

46 Comments

She protec!

I’m really happy every time this updates, hope you’re doing well these days (:

“Commanded to all” as in all A.I.’s? So all players who are afk, will protect Danni? I’m sure nothing problematic will come from that xD

Also panel 3 looks awesome.

Probably. And also probably all NPCs in LIFE, and any AI remaining in her city. If someone threatens to unplug her in the wrong place, it might trigger a Virus attack.

I reread a bunch (some pages seem to be triple-loading?) and let me just summarize. This is a secret new area. A group including Sandra and Jane want the game gone. Jane’s special is broken. Jake thinks the portal room connects to all the special boss islands like the people trees for Kat’s dad and Kim/mom for Erbana. Someone is sneak adding esone pockets to this area Tenka is not watching. Sandra and Paddy have a daughter. Jane has 2 kids one dying and no support group. Kat is scared Jake ratted her out and never logged in. Snowman group may or may not be in Jane’s plan but are managed by Sandra. Dude is working as a quad agent with the Underground/portals group, but not Jane and Sandra, and Tenka through Jake, and Shanghai is a failing city. Oh, and Mina’s family is buried and 1 sister is super injured.

From what I can tell, Sandra is working against Tenka. It also sounds like Sandra may have taken Jane’s kids and is holding them hostage to get Jane to behave a certain way. Not sure if they’re necessarily dying or not. At this point, I suspect Sandra pushed them into the opening part without any tutorial because she wanted Danni to fail. Which would let her slip in another person she can control.

There’s also the implication that Kat knows where Mina’s family is, and has rerouted some supplies to them (including medical). Because when they’ve needed things, drones with those things have mysteriously shown up nearby.

Some of the phrasing Jane used with Sandra in the conversation about Kat, after Sandra sent Jane to recruit Kat, was quite clever on Jane’s part. I believe the exact line was “She won’t help us for our reasons. She’ll help us for her reasons.” If my suspicion is right, that could mean “She won’t help your group for the reasons you want. She’ll help my family for the reasons she wants.”

That also puts more questions into play about Sandra trying to import Kat to Sandra’s City. How much control did she want over Kat?

As to the Dude, it seems like he doesn’t like Tenka or Kat, but he trusts Jake’s judgment (childhood friend thing). Sometimes you get people who like to act chaotic, but are much smarter than they look and are loyal to those who have earned it. I don’t think he’s working with the Underground, as he seems naturally distrustful of most people.

This entire portal area seems to be a massive setup for something. The problem is that Jake figured out what it is. And that it would hurt Kat (and Danni). Oh, and D. Hence his lines in 825 and 826.

So we have a number of actors, each with incomplete information, all pursuing their own goals by whatever means they can. And the two people with the most complete information are Jake and Kat. Together they could have almost perfect information. The problem is that Kat doesn’t trust Jake (for good reason), and Jake needs to figure out how to earn that trust back (without him getting killed in the process). Quite the messy situation.

Wow. That will throw Brandon and Jake into a tizzy.

Did D actually make an appearance? Or is that just cool effects for the rest of us?

Awesome strip!

D didn’t make an appearance. It’s just there for our convenience, since I don’t think that it’s been said what “D” actually stands for (though I could be wrong, but I do know that Kat only refers to D as D).

The problem now is that Danni has no idea what “the Daemon” is. Not only did she miss most of the apocalypse, I do think that the name “Daemon” is insider knowledge. Jake will know who D is (since he’s part of D’s inner circle), but the rest of the world won’t. Meaning if Danni talks to the wrong people, this will be very bad for Tenka since some will try to dig deeper (and angering D), rather than backing the F down.

Plus, I expect Danni heard ‘demon’ and not ‘daemon’. Demons are supernatural scary creatures that eat mortals for breakfast*. Daemons are semi-autonomous programs (at least in Shadowrun, and apparently here as well). Once she tells that to Jake (assuming she does), he might be able to set her straight.

But having an AI tell you that a Demon has mandated your protection…

* and/or critters that can break the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

Danni doesnt know who the Daemon is… but there is one “demonic” being she IS aware of who can manipulate computers like playthings.

Why has the being who ended the world by hacking the magnetic field decided that SHE must be protected? Does that mean she should try to die to stop the evil plans?

Meanwhile, TENKA has been looking for someone the computer virus will listen to. It will listen to Dani. To keep her SAFE.

Sandra and crew want to destroy the game in order to wake up the population and get them to actually solve problems. This game is the only way Danni legitimately survives. D WILL act to thwart their plans.

And then there’s Bandit and The Dude, right in the middle of it all.

Pookysgirl called it – as did Seswu.

Although that’s certainly not the *exact* response I expected.

I’m going to need to stock up on popcorn for October 7th, clearly; I did not have enough for today.

Hear, Hear to that. More popcorn!

This is one heck of a plot hook and cliffhanger. I believe this is the first time Danny really came in contact with Kat’s “Original self”, even if indirectly.

Plus, We know Danny is distrusting and fearful of computers. Having a program suddenly sprout words like “Daemon” at her and then state it “commanded” everything to protect her must be quite… disconcerting.

Really looking forward to the next page as well.

To my mind I was mistaken actually, I thought D was controlling the AI directly; I wasn’t completely sure but it seemed like the most interesting thing that could happen – D and Danni having a.. conversation of sorts.

Current happenings are -much- better than I anticipated and makes for lots of delightfully chaotic options ^.^
“The Daemon commanded to all..”
“..the Danni -must- be kept safe.”
Seriously that reveal is epic :>

Yeah, I gave it to you as this is D essentially doing that psychotherpeutic powers hrough…a different means than I think anyone expected. Price Is Right rules, since this is definitetly a direct effect of D’s wording of Kleya’s request.

My guess for next page is that Danni is going to trip over the rest of the message by saying “The Danni? I’m not The Dude.”

Oh on that we can agree, Kat-AI is definitely making Danni reassess her importance in the world 🙂

I think you are correct in that she will make some sort of trip, too, I think it will be in some other way but I have no clue how.
Or maybe she will make some sort of awkward pause, then ask for all the esones she can carry, brings them back to the two chess players, and then after 40 pages or so she’ll reveal to them, while ranting about something Bandit did, that apparently she is the queen of all AI’s so he’d better listen the f up or there’ll be consequences :]

All that, except instead of revealing that she’s the Queen of all A.I.’s, there’s a moment where Bandit tries to use his A.I. NPCs to stop Danni from doing something, the A.I. NPCs turn around and say “We’re sorry Jake, but we can’t do that.”

Hehe I can see that happening too, yes – Or they even go full counter and restrain Bandit instead, “Don’t interfere with The Danni” :>

For some reason I thought that maybe D was controlling it directly but it being indirectly like this opens a whole new basket of possibilities.

So *that’s* what D stands for! (And he does look cool/terrifying in that 3rd panel)

For someone with no inside knowledge like Danni, the phrase “The deamon commanded us to keep you safe” must be pretty freaky 😀
can’t wait for october 7 🙂

Daemon, not demon. A nice touch. Makes me wonder if D was responsible for breaking Jane’s special

one potatoe chip a month

Re. the hover text: Panel 3 still came out pretty awesome 😀

So… time for Danni to realize who Kleya is? Well, she definitely realizes something’s up, but I wonder how much she can deduce.

what happened? i only see the skeleton of the web page with no images.

I love the emotion apparent in Danni’s face in the last panel

‘Keep Summer Safe’ vibes. This can only end well. 🙂

..Oh s*** :]

Identity of current-Kat revealed, okay, but then ‘the Daemon commanded to -all-‘ ..assuming this means all ai’s.. and yes that seems like a very D-thing to do.. but still a (good) shock when reading and I sort of foresee Danni’s new knowledge leading to delightful group-complications 🙂

Oh my gosh, I love it! Panel three looks so cool. Like, Its just a cool little fourth wall breaking image for us, and I love it.
Also, Poor Danni. She had got to be so confused.

Heh, been a bit. Will try better. Lost a lot of things and losing a computer (metaphorically) and the power literally. We recover, fun cooking on a Coleman camp stove AND a small BGE (wow, but being the small I have to adjust it won’t hold a brisket). was funnish. Putting a house back together while…enough about a stupid old mans troubles. I really gots to find that dang password keeper on the old system. Can’t even get into my hotmail now.

This really makes me wonder what actions D is prepared to take to protect Danni’s real body. Kleya really needs to be more careful about the commands she gives to D.

Also, we know Jane is wandering around the complex (and she has also said she will protect – or at least spare – Danni). Who thinks she’s been down the Morto arm and found the stash of esones there?

All good! Just happy to hear from you! Always a little concerning when something like this happens without socials/a way to know what’s happened. Hopefully things will be relatively easy to fix, it sucks that it’s coming apart. I hope the best for you.

Yay, server being up is a good sign :>

Sorry to hear about the website issues, I’d offer to try to help but I’m not going anywhere near WordPress, mixing 5-7 independently created code bases (WP+plugins) just spells trouble and more trouble imnsho.
Also since I never stepped near it anyone who did is going to be a lot more capable. I’m the slash-and-burn sort of fixer :>
Anyway that said I think I understand the choice, there’s not much available that’s capable of showing comic pages decently I suspect.

Still excited for the next few pages 🙂

I’ve joined the patreon so i have somewhere to check if the server goes down again. Meantime, i am so relieved to see it back up.

Sorry to hear you’re still having troubles, but glad to see the site is back up, at least for the moment. Best wishes in getting everything sorted out.

Glad to see the site back up. Good luck with the coding

Good to see the comic is alive and functional. Do what you need to do, we’ll stick around no matter what happens.

Yay, it’s back!! Good luck on the website renovations. We’ll be here whenever you’re ready to post again!

Wow. I’m loving Danni’s face in that last panel. It looks like she was just beaned by a clue by four, and is rapidly recalibrating her understanding of what’s going on.

“The Danni MUST be kept safe.”
With a directive like that, things are going to get VERY interesting when Danni is inevitably kicked out of her city.

I’m thinking robot army.

Shanghai 2, electric boogaloo.

Woo hoo! Your site’s back up!

Glad you got it all sorted. And may you have a fantastic October!

Web developer and long time reader here. I used to work with WordPress and PHP. But I never used Inkblot.
If you want some help, send me a message.
Have a great day =)

No worries about the website. Refresh, refresh, refresh doesn’t cost me anything ^^

Don’t worry about us out here. Do what you need to. Not just for the site either. Take some time off if you need it so things don’t overwhelm you. Take care of yourself first.

Thank you for your work- excellent page!

> EDIT3

Check. And sensible choice, too. Thanks for the info update, and sorry to hear that website technicalities are still getting in the way.

Fwiw the current page is -still- epic btw 🙂

Just doing an archive binge, and came across the training session where Kat ‘revealed’ herself to Jake.
(https://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-704/)

You know, for all his planning, Jake never actually planned what to say if/when he caught her hacking. Maybe if he’d praciticed saying something like “Uh-uh. Not in the training room, Kat.” Something to make her think he wasn’t *catching* her, but already knew, and it was no big deal. Instead of freezing like a deer in the headlights…

Hmmm… does anyone on their team other than Keiko and Brandon know his name is Jake, and not just Bandit? Okay, I guess that’s just Jane and Danniella then.

Hmm it sounds like you might be using something other than wordpress.
I know on the site I manage the plugins can really bog down the site, and keeping plugins below a 50 max really helps. I am not suprised it is the same with your site. I can also relate to certain companies not updating their plugin on a regular schedule! It sounds like you have a good handle on the possible issue with your site, and you know what needs to be done!

Wishing you the best!

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 832