Page from Infinity Choice by Erosarts. Please do not republish or make derivative works without Erosarts’s permission.
Inifinty Choice: Page 1
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PAGE 26 (Four panels)
Panel 1: Professor Turpentine, sitting in a cramped academic office. Behind him are shelves stacked with books and papers. He’s wearing a rumpled tweed jacket and being interviewed behind his desk.
Turpentine (1): This creature, whatever it is, is highly intelligent. It can evade ordinary capture methods with ease. It also generates electromagnetic and subsonic fields that interfere with underwater communications. And it even cuts control cables.
Translation (1): Diese Kreatur, was auch immer sie ist, ist hoch intelligent. Sie kann gewöhnlichen Einfangmethoden spielend leicht entgehen. Außerdem erzeugt sie elektronmagnetische und Infraschallfelder, die die Unterwasserkommunikation stören. Und sie durchtrennt sogar Steuerkabel.
SUBTITLE (2): Professor Eustace Turpentine, Innsmouth Institute for Marine Research.
Translation (2): Professor Eustace Turpentine, Innsmouth-Institut für Meeresforschung.
Panel 2: CLAUDIA HONEYWOOD (“Claudia”) holds in her hands a submersible drone – and underwater swimming robot about the size of a toaster, in her hands, holding it forth for the camera to take a picture of. Claudia is a very attractive woman, but she downplays her attractiveness, being here in a set of coveralls, her long brown hear drawn back in a bun, and here wearing heavy safety glasses. (When Claudia is not wearing these glasses she wears other glasses that make her look a bit dorky, or at least as dorky as a beautiful person can be.)
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (3): But recently, artificial intelligence has advanced to the point where we can make effective autonomous underwater drones.
Translation (3): Doch mittlerweile ist die künstliche Intelligenz so weit fortgeschritten, dass wir effiziente autonome Unterwasserdrohnen bauen können.
Panel 3: Claudia on board ship in another cramped control room, this time also looking at a monitor. Claudia is now dressed in a white coat and is wearing glasses with heavy dark frames.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (4): The creature leaves the drones alone for some reason. These drones can also penetrate the deep trenches where the creature likes to lurk.
Translation (4): Aus irgendeinem Grund lässt die Kreatur die Drohnen in Ruhe. Diese Drohnen können auch in die inheimlichen Tiefen vordringen, in denen die Kreatur lungert.
Panel 4: A murky image of the creature, a sort of giant squidlike thing with one large siphon (big enough for someone to fit down) and a large number of tentacles of all sorts and shapes.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (5): Thanks to these clever little machines, we now have a good sense of the gross morphology of the creature.
Translation (5): Dank dieser cleveren kleinen Maschinen haben wir heute eine gute Vorstellung von der groben Morphologie der Kreatur.
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Köder (Deutsch/Dia-Version)
Infinity Choice: Cover
Page from Infinity Choice by Erosarts. Please do not republish or make derivative works without Erosarts’s permission.
(Today we begin a new story written by Erosarts, the tireless artist who illustrates the Tales of Gnosis College. I have elected to make this rather fetching cove available in full resolution. Click on the image to load or right-click to download.
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PAGE 25 (Four panels)
Panel 1: A U.S. Navy corvette cruising by Motofupo.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Navy searched the waters around the spot of Phoebe Petrobux’s disappearance but could find nothing.
Translation (1): Die Navy suchte die Gewässer rund um die Stelle ab, an der Phoebe Petrobux verschwand, aber sie fanden nichts.
Panel 2: Barron Sr., looking proundly aged, is sitting at his ornate desk in his office. He is holding a pen and looking down at a document in the middle of his desk, holding a pen in one hand and about to sign. Over one shoulder a HIGH-PRICED LAWYER is pointing to where on the document he should sign. Barron Jr., now about fourteen years-old, looks on over his father’s other shoulder. We should be able to see Barron Jr.’s Distinguishing Feature.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): A bereaved Barron Petrobux set aside a large part of his wealth to create a foundation to study and attempt to capture whatever creature had taken away his daughter.
Translation (2): Der trauernde Barron Petrobux setzte einen großen Teil seines Vermögens dazu ein, eine Stiftung einzurichten, die die Kreatur studieren und einfangen sollte, die seine Tochter mit sich in die Tiefe gerissen hatte.
Panel 3: A group of scientists pushing a large unmanned submersible off the back of a small research ship in the waters around Motofupo.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): At the next nineteen year-interval, in 2000, a team of scientists attempted to find the creature when it was expected to rise again.
Translation (3)
Panel 4: Two scientists in white coats staring at a screen in a control panel, inside a cramped research vessel cabin. One is seated, the other looking over the should of the other, taking notes. The seated one is throwing up his hands in frustration. CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): The results of the scientists’ research were inconclusive and frustrating. Translation (4): Die Ergebnisse der Forschungsarbeit waren nicht eindeutig und frustrierend. Köder (Deutsch/Langseitige Version)
Köder (Deutsch/Dia-Version)
Learning from Elders: Chapter 11, Pin-up
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If you want or need to, you can catch up on the entire story to date by either going to the first page and navigating through page-by-page using the arrows at the top, or you can read the story ten pages at a time by opening the Learning from Elders category on this site.
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PAGE 24 (Four panels)
Panel 1: CARSON MACMURDIE (“MacMurdie”) an elderly but dignified-looking man (a retired U.S. Navy officer) in an interview pose.
MacMurdie (1): Well, it was a fuckup, that’s what it was.
Comment (1): A “fuckup” is a coarse and colloquial way of adescribing “a big, consequential mistake.”
Translation (1): Es war ein verdammter Fehler, das war es.
SUBTITLE – IDENTIFIER (2): Capt. Carson MacMurdie, USN, Ret.
Comment (2): “Capt.” is an abbreviation for “Captain,” in this case a relatively senior rank in the United States Navy, often a commander of a large vessel. “USN” is an abbreviation for “United States Navy” and “Ret.” indicates that he is retired.
Translation (2): Capt. Carson, MacMurdie, US Navy, a.D.
Panel 2: A photograph of two U.S. Navy officers in Second World War-era uniforms surveying a table of maps, documents, photographs.
CAPTION – MACMURDIE NARRATING (3): There was an investigation into the disappearance of those nurses in 1943, but its conclusion was too weird and disturbing to be circulated. So the report was classified top secret and the area simply closed off.
Translation (3): Es gab eine Untersuchung zum Verschwinden der beiden Krankenschwestern im Jahr 1943, aber die Ergebnisse waren zu seltsam und verstörend für eine Veröffentlichung. So wurde der Bericht als streng geheim eingestuft und das Gebiet einfach abgesperrt.
Panel 3: External view of a large warehouse.
CAPTION – MACMURDIE NARRATING (4): By thirty-eight years later, everyone had forgotten why the area was closed, and the report was buried deep in some Navy archive. Anyone connected with the investigation had died or moved on. Nobody bothered to go back to the records and check.
Translation (4): Dreiundachzig Jahre später hatte jeder vergessen, warum das Gebiet abgesperrt wurde. Der Bericht lag irgendwo verborgen im Navy-Archiv. Alle, die mit der Untersuchung zu tun hatten, waren schon gestorben oder nicht mehr auffindbar. Niemand sah sich je wieder die Aufzeichnungen an.
Panel 4: MacMurdie in interview pose again.
MacMurdie (5): So when Mr. Rich and Powerful showed up and said he wanted to yacht in those waters, the Navy just replied “Yes, sir” and gave him a permit.
Translation (5): Als Mr. Reich und Mächtig vorbeikam und sagte, er wolle mit seiner Jacht in diesen Gewässern kreuzen, sagte die Navy einfach “Ja, Sir” und erteilte ihm die Befugnis.
MacMurdie (6): Too bad about the poor girl…
Translation (6): So ein Pech für das arme Mädchen…
Köder (Deutsch/Langseitige Version)
Köder (Deutsch/Dia-Version)
Learning from Elders: Chapter 11, Page 28
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
If you want or need to, you can catch up on the entire story to date by either going to the first page and navigating through page-by-page using the arrows at the top, or you can read the story ten pages at a time by opening the Learning from Elders category on this site.
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PAGE 23 (Four panels)
Panel 1: Barron Sr. putting his hand on the barrel of an assault rifle that Wealthy Friend is pointing at the sea, a gesture meant to stop him from shooting into the water.
Barron Sr. (1): No, you idiot.
Translation (1): Nein, du Idiot.
Panel 2: A view into the boat, showing the now-charred corpses of Yacht Crewman #1 and Yacht Crewman #2.
Panel 3: A view of Peony, now standing some distance away on deck, her head buried in her hands in shock and grief.
Peony (2): No…
Translation (2): Nein…
Panel 4: A view downward, indicating that Barron Jr. is pointing his camera down but is still filming. (Note that he is about 11 years old at this time.) We see the swimming trunks he’s wearing, his legs and feet and beneath them the planking of the deck. We can also see through the fabric of his swimming trunks that he is having a marked erection.
Köder (Deutsch/Langseitige Version)
Köder (Deutsch/Dia-Version)
Learning from Elders: Chapter 11, Page 27
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
If you want or need to, you can catch up on the entire story to date by either going to the first page and navigating through page-by-page using the arrows at the top, or you can read the story ten pages at a time by opening the Learning from Elders category on this site.
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PAGE 22 (Four panels)
Panel 1: Yacht Crewman #1 and Yacht Crewman #2 in the boat by the side of the Yellow Rose, as if viewed through Barron Jr.’s camera. Yacht Crewman #1 has a harpoon raised and aimed, presumably at the tentacle beast. One small tentacle is reaching over the side of the boat. Yacht Crewman #2 is sitting in the back of the boat steering an outboard motor.
Yacht Crewman #1 (1): I’ll get you, you motherfucker!
Translation (1): Ich erwisch’ dich schon, die Mistvieh!
Panel 2: Yacht Crewman #1 and Yacht Crewman #2 appear as blackened silhouettes as some sort of massive electrical discharge hits their boat. The whole craft is surrounded by a flash as if of lightning.
SFX – BOAT AND CREW BEING ELECTRO-FRIED (2): KZZZ-ZOT!
Translation (2): BRZ-ZZL!
Panel 3: Phoebe’s head resurfaces just a bit. A tentacle covers a triangular region around her mother and nose, rather like a medical breathing mask. Her eyes are closed, and her expression looks almost blissful.
Panel 4: Ripples in the region of water where Phoebe’s head has been pulled underneath for one last time.
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Köder (Deutsch/Dia-Version)