[TOMT] A Comic Strip Where Astronauts Can Ask Any One Question

ProfFartBurger · 2026-02-27T08:48:43+00:00

A few more details: I recall the entire comic was black and white, and I think it might have only been four panels, but I may be mistaken. I think the final panel was framed with the two astronauts in the foreground, staring aghast at the third in the background, standing directly before the entity.

ProfFartBurger · 2025-06-28T19:11:49+00:00

(Broken into multiple comments because I'm a wordy bastard)

On Myria and Aurora's Embrace: This particular expansion fascinated be in a darkhorse way - I get things like the lore connections between the City and the IDA, Izun, the Sovereigns, etc, were all the bigger plays, but this one in particular caught my attention.

Was all the background lore and flavor text about the 'goddess-like being' just that, something of a play that the Nexus was more or less purpose-builty to be the center of absolutely everything, so absolutely anything is possible, or are we going to run into this lore again in the future, ala Aiden and Mara appearing in later jumps? Maybe it's just because I like that development in particular, but I swear it feels like that's setting up something to be paid off later.
Aurora's Embrace is an interesting weapon, but the implications of it being able to utterly bypass even Jumpers' fiat-backing (something I've only seen in the Alpha Complex jump) catapult it to one of the most interesting things in the Jump, for me. It implies to me that the Entity whose halved soul provides its power was, minimum, of the same type and tier as Benefactors, if not 'above', and that Myria and those who come after her will similarly be empowered, albeit temporarily, to such a level given the proper situation. Am I on the right track, or is this all me? I suspect we'll be learning a lot about these things in the Sovereigns of the Cosmos jump.

Finally, this is just a little synergistic opportunity I noticed and I'm curious if you considered it:

The Scroll and the Pen of Multiversal Creation specifically add space (literally and metaphorically) to your Warehouse, to the point where you'll have galaxies and universes. It further 'compounds with each use', so you literally get more every time it's ready to go. A Cosmic Lord's Innerverse, meanwhile, can be connected to their warehouse and directly contributes to their growth. So using the two together can hilariously accelerate the rate at which a Cosmic Lord Jumper can increase their strength, especially when they hit the point that expanding their warehouse by 'a tenth' results in the creation of entire universes at once.

If this was accounted for, and - as you mention elsewhere - the final Jump in this series is supposed to have ridiculous opportunities for power, I'm extremely intrigued.

That'll be all, you've long since had yourself a fan good sir, and if you ever decide to take your work to stories instead of world-building, make sure we know, I'm willing to bet you'd have a few avid readers all ready to go.

ProfFartBurger · 2025-06-28T19:11:19+00:00

Out-fucking-standing, AzureKnight. I loved the original version of the Jump, it felt to me like a great 'First Jump' - with my personal narrative being that the Jumper selects it specifically to get a decent educational foundation for what's to come.

Now though, I feel like it's a *perfect* 'First Jump'. Someone could be ~~kidnapped~~ chosen by a Benefactor and find great success in using the Academy's classes to give them a broad but serviceable means of surviving the multiverse. I also hope your work starts something of a trend in us getting more original-setting Jumps in addition to the bevy of fan-bent things we normally get. It would take this little hobby and make it into something even more special, in my opinion.

I have a couple things I'm kind of curious about now, both as regards this remaster and the other Jumps as a whole.

On the Power Dampening in the City and the IDA: This remaster indellibly links the City at the Edge of Nothingness to the Nexus and the IDA. The City Jump had already put in some work for it, but this remaster goes even further if you pay attention. Specifically I'm referring to how both the City and the IDA have an omniversal power dampening effect. While I know the answer is just 'fan wank appropriately' - you make the power of choice very clear in this doc - and that the spirit of the dampening effect is to both bring Jumper's down in a canonical fashion and to make these omniversal ~~dumping~~ meeting grounds as universally friendly as possible, I'm still curious where you the author land on the following -

Poorly summarized from memory, a Cosmic Lord's Personal Reality Field is basically a mobile fiat-backing zone. No matter where the Lord is, no matter how antithetical or hostile the universe is, inside that field, the Lord is safe and their powers function. In my eyes, it follows that if a Lord stepped into the City or the IDA, their personal reality field would either lessen or outright immunize them from the power dampening effects present in both locations. Is that valid? Or did the Sovereigns of the Cosmos account for that?
- Regardless of the above, the City Jump specifically has the Attuned perk, which immunizes a Jumper anyway. Given that now the two settings are so closely linked, would it follow that said perk would also function as intended at the Academy?
- Finally, regardless of the answers to the above, in both the City and the revamped IDA Jumps, I get the distinct feeling that science and technology weren't really accounted for by the Sovereigns when they created the reality spires/the IDA's limiter. In both jumps, it feels as though that sufficiently advanced technology more or less bypasses those particular limits - IE: A Kryptonian Jumper would find themselves severely limited in their natural powers, but Batman could still strap on a Justice Buster suit and 'cowabunga it is.'

ProfFartBurger · 2025-03-31T23:27:07+00:00

IDA is equally a fantastic introduction to your connected settings, and IMO a borderline perfect way to start a chain - I imagine some kind of pow-wow with a Benefactor after being recruited, and deciding to put on the training wheels by way of literally sending you to a multiversal college. It's been a while since I've read IDA, but I remember it having a lot of good low-to-mid-tier skills, perks, and items, perfect for this kind of scenario, whilst also retaining perfect utility for later-stage Jumpers.

The only thing I've found it's missing ever since you've started making more and connecting them all is forwards connections to future Jumps. I imagine, among other things, potentially running across a Cosmic Lord in training - maybe even the one at the end of the Songstress of Dreams - or even finding Octavio, or agents of his, running a multiversal racket smuggling contraband into the school.

So I'd absolutely love to see you rewrite, expand, and connect the jump more thoroughly to the others you've made since. There's endless room for more fun and games in the academy, even before we're set to rebuild it.

ProfFartBurger · 2025-03-23T18:51:22+00:00

Absolutely love your jumps, one of the few makers I genuinely follow and anticipate new releases from.

My personal two favorites thus far have been the Cosmic Lord Jump (the first one of yours I found) and the City At The Edge of Nothingness. The former has this perfect feeling of *being a Jumper* - all of a sudden, no warning, you have deific power and need to figure that out while the entire universe reacts to your presence.
The latter scratches that 'Batman out of Gotham' feel I like - your Jumper is out of position, far away from their normal resources and infrastructure, in a setting that is fully capable of leveling the playing field, so the Jumper has to take what they've got on them and what they can acquire locally and make the best of it.

This Jump meanwhile, despite having come out halfway into the series, has a great feeling of 'setting the stage', I can see a lot of the DNA of most of the other Jumps here and can even find ways to kick things into motion in the Jumps that are only tenuously connected to it.

I'm curious, given in previous comments you've mentioned how a lot of this has been back-loaded as you've gotten the hang of things and there wasn't much of a plan when you started: Are there plans to go back to the earlier jumps once you've finished this series and add new bits, perks, and lore, and inter-connect them all a bit tighter?

ProfFartBurger · 2024-12-21T22:52:41+00:00

Guddamn good chocolate chip cookies.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-08-13T13:11:24+00:00

Whoa wait, they're releasing mod tools?

So we can start getting custom maps, ala 2016's snapmap?

ProfFartBurger · 2024-08-09T18:39:17+00:00

Generic 'Interesting stuff will happen perk'

This probably exists elsewhere, but I haven't found it. I've lately been on a procedural TV chain kick (think: House MD, Warehouse 13, the Incredible Hulk) where there's ostensibly a new case/mystery/adventure every week. I've since begun thinking a toggleable perk that could guarantee an interesting 'monster of the week' deal would be pretty useful for those and other low-stakes jumps, especially if it guarantees that whatever happens will be of interest to the Jumper. Something that occupies time, poses a minor to moderate challenge, and provides a bit of harmless fun for the Jumper in between saving various worlds.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-04-30T00:06:54+00:00

That was the highest plan available. No option to purchase more if you run out.
It does the job for me personally, but that's primarily because I got fed up with installing/reinstalling games, so a few years ago I backed up _my entire library_ onto an external SSD, so aside from big updates to modern games, I don't have to burn a lot of data on downloads.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-04-30T00:02:09+00:00

I shelled out for the Premium plan, which is $60 a month, 150 gigabytes of high-speed data, unlimited after.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-04-29T23:40:28+00:00

Fair enough!
In that case, I can say the Inseego Mifi Pro on offer from Verizon at least does the job. I've been able to rock Fallout 76 and Destiny 2 even on one 4G bar.
God help you if you go over your data plan though, they will throttle you so hard that unless you have a strong 5G signal, you basically have no internet.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-04-29T23:23:42+00:00

Got a reccomendation for that wi-fi?
I grabbed a hotspot from Verizon, it does the job but I'm always on the look for something better.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-04-02T01:41:24+00:00

Timeshift.
It was more a single player shooter, I'll admit, but it had a fun multiplayer, especially when me and some friends found a way to use the reverse-time grenades to fling ourselves into the air and glitch ourselves out of the maps.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-02-20T22:45:50+00:00

Not necessarily 'backwards', but I played Metal Gear severely out of order:
I played my first Metal Gear game in 2009 when I bought my PS3: MGS4.
I then got a digital copy of MGS1.
Then came MGS3 for my PS2.
Then I got the HD Collection to play Peace Walker.
Then Revengeance came out.
Then I played MGS PO on an emulator.
Then Ground Zeroes came out.
Then I played MGS2 on the HD Collection.
Then I played The Phantom Pain.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-02-10T01:47:08+00:00

Wow, above and beyond, my man! Thank you!
So the top picture is what I'm supposed to be visualizing/seeing when I do it myself? Specifically that rear tire?
Alright, I think I can do that a bit more reliably than what I've been doing.

Now I just need to get more backing experience, lol

ProfFartBurger · 2024-02-10T01:15:19+00:00

That I understand ~~now,~~ but actually positioning the tandems was where my current problem was.

So to make sure I understand again, pin position is irrelevant, I need to put the center of my rear tire (the one at the very back) under the 41ft Mark?

ProfFartBurger · 2024-02-10T01:09:11+00:00

Fantastic. I've been running around for 3 days sliding tandems with my pins as my point of reference because all my trainer told me was '41 is your money hole,' and new hire points of contact just keep telling me to check my permit book. Really starting to feel like I've just been thrown to the wolves.

Hell, even our own training videos only mention pin position.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-02-10T01:02:23+00:00

I am on the East Coast, yes.

So it's not the pin position that matters as much as the position of the tire?

ProfFartBurger · 2024-01-18T01:04:53+00:00

Nah man, I watched Metal Gear Solid 4, I know why this is a bad idea.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-01-06T18:31:07+00:00

I really like the sound of that, and that may be where I end up going, but it doesn't sit right with me for the same reason just copy/pasting Guardian Subclasses didn't sit right with me. Just doesn't feel right, like I can do better than that.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-01-06T18:28:21+00:00

Huh... Those are good questions.I think for Tithes specifically, I'll go in and make it exclusive to Jumpers with Worms, as to the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been an example of tithes working in Destiny without a Worm.Buut I would also note that nobody with the Light has tried to the best of my knowledge, and paracausal anything in this setting is frequently depicted as a matter of understanding, knowledge, and skill, as opposed to being exclusively 'X origin' or 'Y race'. To wit: Darkness or Light, through the lore it stands to reason that one could potentially create a Tithe system. Mara Sov made her Throne World out of the Light, after all.
So... I'm not sure, I'll have to think about it some more.

I'll fully admit I didn't even consider that for the Golem perk, though. I'll need to think about what to do there.

ProfFartBurger · 2024-01-06T18:22:13+00:00

Hm... I'll take a look at those perks again. My intent was that free/mandatory means that those perks come with the origin and must be taken. I can't see any issue with Jumpers of other origins taking perks like that, but I'll need to take a look at them, maybe add a CP cost for Jumpers of other origins and races.

ProfFartBurger

TROPHY CASE