For a moment I thought those first three panels were from Dainix’s perspective and I was reeeeally confused. But then it made sense as I kept reading. Did anyone else think that at first?
Hmm, what kind of shenanigans are the crime trio up to today? Hopefully not harming innocent bystanders! Words cannot emphasize my excitement for the group’s dynamic with Tess.
On an unrelated note, Chapter 15’s cover looks absolutely stunning! Once again blown away by the super funky visuals. (Sorry if I sound like a proud parent, but in my defense, it’s a nice webcomic.)
What kind of shenanigans are the crime trio getting up to? Hopefully not harming any innocent bystanders!
Words cannot summarize how much I’m looking forward to how badly the group dynamic’s going to get shaken up with Tess (and possibly Dainix.)
On an unrelated note, this chapter’s cover looks absolutely stunning. It’s kind of a given at this point, but I’m very excited for the future of this chapter and our Not Fully Human But Very Chill With Being Imprisoned floofy duo.
What kind of shenanigans are the crime trio getting up to? Hopefully not harming any innocent bystanders!
Words cannot summarize how much I’m looking forward to how badly the group dynamic’s going to get shaken up with Tess (and possibly Dainix.)
On an unrelated note, this chapter’s cover looks absolutely stunning. It’s kind of a given at this point, but I’m very excited for the future of this chapter and our Not Fully Human But Very Chill With Being Imprisoned floofy duo.
Words cannot summarize how much I’m looking forward to how badly the group dynamic’s going to get shaken up with Tess (and possibly Dainix.)
On an unrelated note, this chapter’s cover looks absolutely stunning. It’s kind of a given at this point, but I’m very excited for the future of this chapter and our Not Fully Human But Very Chill With Being Imprisoned floofy duo.
What kind of shenanigans are the crime trio getting up to? Hopefully not harming any innocent bystanders!
Words cannot summarize how much I’m looking forward to how badly the group dynamic’s going to get shaken up with Tess (and possibly Dainix.)
On an unrelated note, this chapter’s cover looks absolutely stunning. It’s kind of a given at this point, but I’m very excited for the future of this chapter and our Not Fully Human But Very Chill With Being Imprisoned floofy duo.
And also that first panel really looks like it’s either Falst’s traumatic memories or his insecurities. Really like you can’t really discern what it is
Tess: Oop. … This is important.
I too, Red, await the day my time spent doing anime sketches will pay off. I really should revisit one or two things I drew back then.
Falst wastes no time re-establishing himself as the voice of reason, and with everything going on not a moment too soon. Even in a city environment he seems to know how best to handle thing.
Yeah getting into a crowd will not only help these rather conspicuous fugitives hide but also restrict the moves of Shrike and the hunters. As high in status she is I doubt the guards, especially Vienne, would appreciate civilians getting caught in the crossfire.
Well with Falst awake that’s one problem down, now it’s a matter of being found by Erin before the authorities.
Upon staring at the first panel closer, I noticed that some of the dark shadows look like tree branch silhouettes. Was Red just using that brush for convenience or is she hinting at some weird dark past/unknown power. Most likely the former.
Falst: *barely wakes up from being KO’d*
Also Falst: *assesses what is happening in half a second and takes charge of how it needs to be done*
the guy sure has his priorities sorted
in the first panel i see words with a font that looks like they were carved into a tree.
near the top i see “ND” and some other letter i cant quite make out
i see either “your” or “our” right under that
there is a clearly written “you” in the middle
down and to the left i see “truly” with the T cut off by the end of the panel but still recognizable
i see a U near the bottom left with no other discernable letters to make a word with
i see “SO” and another letter i cant make out near the bottom right
@Wandering Shade: yep. I thought that first panel was the beginnning of whatever Dainx’s got going on sparking o life, and I was worried until I realized we switched scenes.
@Sig: if the comment doesnt load, leave it be. I dont think I’ve ever had a comment not load later on. If you think it got deleted, just do one more.
Complete first-panel spells out “Find your way if you are truly my son.” At least that’s what I think it spells after increasing the brightness on my screen. Looking forward to figuring out what that means! I’m thoroughly intrigued.
@Thinker of Too Many Thoughts
Well I guess Falst joins the dramatic backstory gang. Does being a Fermin already count as a dramatic backstory? Ah well.
@Thinker of Too Many Thoughts
Well I guess Falst joins the dramatic backstory gang. Does being a Fermin already count as a dramatic backstory? Ah well.
A short theory that I’ve formulated:
Falst wanted to become human, maybe that’s related? Maybe his dad was a human, and his mom was a ferin servant. His dad decided he liked his mom and they got married and stuff, and then Falst was produced.
His dad was disappointed that he was a Ferin because he had hoped he would be human. And the mom also died, because drama
So a conversation along the lines of this went on:
“Why won’t you accept me for who I am!? You accepted mom!”
“Atleast your mother had a tolerable personality, you’re rowdy and sarcastic.”
“Some father you are, you’d think a dad would love his kid no matter what”
*Falst hesitates*
“Answer me this: would you accept me if I were like you… you know, human?”
Brief pause
*nod*
“So that’s it then, become human?! *unhinged laugh* is that your way of saying you’ll never love me? It’s impossible to fix my “deformities” as you like to call them”
“Find your way if your truly my son”
But there’s many flaws with that theory. For one, it says “find YOUR way” not “find A way” and the latter seems more appropriate.
The first panel text says “Find your way if you are truly my son”. The faded tone on parts also gives it a sort of “echoing” vibe, which could be due to Falst getting over a potent soporific and associated grogginess…or that statement is very important on some level.
Whether or not this is a positive or negative element to Falst’s past is an open question as of now.
Not sure if there’s anything else can get out of that for now, but hope that helps folk trying to parse it.
“Find your way if you are truly my son.”
Huh.
It only took a sentence and I’m already extremely interested in Falst’s backstory. Just thinking now, I can think of a few hints that Falst has given about his past:
“I’ve spent my entire life running from people like you!” (Talking to Jolon, chapter 10)
“Ha, no kidding” (in reference to you not owing things to your parents just for making you, chapter 11)
I’m getting a sort of “ran away from home because shady stuff was happening” vibe here but it’ll probably be a while until we find out.
Also, since we’re back with the crime trio, that means-*Frantically runs around, searching the sky for Erin’s messenger birb*- Maybe we can finally find out if Erin and Tess are siblings!
@Iloney, The reply function has worked since summer, when Red announced that this comic existed on her Youtube channel and the server exploded for a few days because of the resulting influx of people trying to read it. Kind of a bummer, but we’ve adapted.
Based off of Fire Lord Sozin’s rune translations and tired-right-before-a-test logic, could the runes possibly say “(a)nd you(’)r(e) you, truly.”
Does this make sense?
OOOOHHHHH!!!! Thanks to the people that managed to translate the runes (I’m horrible at codes) the translation is FASCINATING!
Indigo Toxin:
First off, I mess up my wording like half the time in real life (Earlier on I posted like two or three things under a different name and I managed to fully and utterly embarrass myself (or that’s what it felt like)) Personally, things got figured out, no harm done (I didn’t get shamed for stepping in) and we all learned to word carefully. Besides, they’re all AWFUL people. It was meant to be a hard question.
Second, the idea of Falst’s father not loving him (whether he’s human or not) and his mother either dying, leaving, or not caring about him, makes A LOT of sense. Personally, when I see Falst’s character (not only do I want to give him a hug he would immediately crawl away from) he seems like the sort of character that’s been through a lot, including family stuff.
Congrats to Zer0 W0lf and anyone else who guessed A! They’ve dropped the cops, and now it’s time for crime…inal thinking! I suppose since they went pretty far away from the embassy, this Wednesday’s Futurivia will be about: Who will be at the protagonists Embassy room before our protagonists?
A: No one.
B: Guards.
C: Erin.
D: Shrike & Co.
Gift Horse: A God (Zuurith, Tynan, or VD)
(Side note: we should probably give the group as a whole a name for referential reasons. I’ll leave it up to the community to decide what name gets chosen. Happy name hunting :-).)
@Wandering_Shade I also thought that it was Dainix’s perspective at first, before realizing I lost both my bets on Futurivia. But I knew they were long shots…
@Thinker of Too Many Thoughts ty for posting the first-panel message! Definitely intriguing. I’m not sure I buy @Indigo Toxin’s theory that Falst’s father disowned him for being ferin — if anything, my gut instinct was that his father IS ferin and is trying to get him to prove himself somehow. But as @Goldfinch pointed out, now I’m starting to wonder if Falst had to deal with being experimented on by one/both parents — trying to replicate or “cure” ferins, perhaps?
Dang. When I get up in the morning, I take 15 minutes to roll out of bed, sit there on the floor pondering life and its meaning, pinch myself a couple of times, occasionally fall back asleep adding another 5 to 10 minutes, and finally stand up blinking the sleep out of my eyes, and go about my day with a whole lot of yawing, and yet, Falst has been shot in the arm, knocked out by sleeping gas, and woken up on the back of a stranger with memories of his backstory/childhood and he goes “Let me off, now here’s the clever and thought out plan I came up with in .2 seconds (admittedly it isn’t like a plan plan but STILL)
For the colorblind amongst us, what exactly is written in pannel 1?
I tried for about 2-3 minutes with lots of squinting and zoom, but I can’t figure it out 🙁
Wait, so the english words say “find your way if you are truly my son,” but there’s also a line of actual runes going down the center of the panel. Do they say the same thing, or something different? I can only see about four or five runes, which I assumed translated to letters.
Okay, so upon further examination, the runes in the middle don’t look like the writing in Erin’s books. So I see three options: they’re part of the same alphabet but they’re letters that haven’t come up yet or they’re a different style/version of the letters we’ve seen, they’re from a different contemporary language within the world that we haven’t seen written down yet, or they’re Ancient runes. In any case, translating them is going to a bit difficult without further context. Anyone have any ideas?
@WEast:
I had the same thought. There’s English words, but also very clear vertical runes. For those with experience translating Aurora runes, do they say anything?
@WEast– I don’t have any experience translating but my best guess would be that it says “Falst” because it is his nightmare and it could be a voice in his subconscious that is bothering him. By the words surrounding it, it could also say something like “Ferin” or “Freak”. I don’t know why all of my examples start with F, but that is my current theory. This is entirely speculation as I really do not have enough experience translating to give any definitive answer. This is just my wild speculation.
In honor of last Friday’s Trope Talk, I feel the need to reiterate that Falst is probably the Smart guy.
Erin may be more booksmart, but he’s got too much lancer and/or hero drama to focus on that party role. Falst doesn’t have much book smarts, but his main contributions so far have been street smarts and common sense. He doesn’t have cool magic power, unlike everyone else. His body is pretty durable, but I doubt he can tank as much as Tess.
After messing around with brightness and saturation, the top left corner of panel 1 reads, “YOU WILL”, which changes the complete phrase to “YOU WILL FIND YOUR WAY IF YOU ARE TRULY MY SON”, giving the phrase a bit of a negative connotation, similar to Indigo Toxin’s theory. There is definitely a tree motif, and the center runes are specifically highlighted in red, but again I can’t translate them (does anyone know where to find the current translation rune bank?) Unfortunately, doesn’t seem like I can include the desaturated screenshot in the comment.
Ironically, my first comment seems to have been eaten. Okay, take two:
Without the message, the first panel seems to be a forest view looking up, towards a few runes superimposed on a brown sky. Now, as a Californian, I interpret a brown sky to mean a wildfire burning nearby, so perhaps Falst’s childhood home got burned down and one or more of his parents bade him to flee the destruction and make his own life? That wouldn’t explain the runes in the sky, though; the other possibility I’ve considered is that it’s a painting, with the runes being calligraphy.
To anyone who inadvertently posts repeat comments:
If your first comment attempt doesn’t show up right away, then wait a few hours, reload the page, and it’ll usually show up; if other comments show up but yours doesn’t (like my first attempt today), then attempt a repeat.
PurpleSwans:
Wow, that’s a really good point! Honestly, I feel like everyone in the section just sees Smart Guy and goes “yup that’s Erin” and while Erin seems to also be the sort of “book smart” character, it’s obvious that Falst definitely has more street smarts than all of them combined (except Tess and Dainix probably, I get the feeling Dainix and Falst would be pretty chill with each other, the snark, street smarts, and determination (oh and being the only one with common sense and self preservation) seems similar), he reminds me of Sokka from ATLA with SLIGHTLY less humor (thought there’s still a lot of sarcasm) (once again that might just be me drawing weird connections to Avatar).
Indigo Toxin:
(Ooops that sounds weird with the hugging, I would like you to know I would love to hug everyone in the group, I’m definitely into personal contact (I have NO sense of personal space lol) and they’re all just so sweet!
@TheUnknownGame. Ooooo! I’m really liking the wildfire theory. Even more so since the first three panels are a super clever transition between scenes. The last thing we see on the previous page is Dainix, our Fire guy, having an understandable flare up (the glowing eyes). Then the very next thing we see is a flashback of some kind and someone opening they’re eyes to the words “if we fight, there will be collateral.” A phrase that vey easily suits both stories’ situations. If there was ever a time to hint at a fire-related event, panning directly from the Fire guy to said ambiguous flashback would be it. Very clever.
@Hiii with regards to Falst immediately waking up and being on top of things, let’s just say that waking up in a potentially life-threatening situation is very different than waking up on a normal morning. Waking up slowly is a luxury that does not apply to the former situation, particularly if this isn’t the first time. Source: not a morning person, but I do get sleep paraylsis, including occasional bouts of the super-rare version that includes hallucinations! Lucky me! *headdesks*
@TheUnknownGame I like the wildfire theory for the reasons @AuriaNox pointed out. Or maybe (if one of my earlier theories is correct) it involved a shady research lab going up in flames…?
I have a really weird question…. do you guys think Tess’s hair is stiff and scratchy like a softer version of wire or steel wool or do you think it’s soft and feels just like regular hair but somehow especially shiny and coloured silver.
It’s hard to tell with Red’s art style, but I’m curious about how comfortable it must have been for Falst to have his face buried in what is either steel wool equivalent or if it’s really soft like a hair blanket or something.
I just… does Tess give good hugs? I have a desperate need to know
I just thought of something sort of funny. What if when they arrive at the embassy there are no guards/shrike and it’s just Erin. And then Tess addresses him as baby bro.
Also @golden finch, neat that you remembered all that stuff. So it probably IS likely that Falst had some daddy/mommy issues (he’s sounding more and more like kiba) so that’s one thing that we know for sure, the specifics we!re gonna have to guess
@InsertPunHere, I can’t believe I forgot about Floof Squad! I suppose it’s because they’ve been separated for so long. Thank you for the reminder and doubly thanks to you and Indigo Toxin for your participation.
@SerifStones, I had a question like that as well! I think it is like steel wool, but, like you said, it’s hard to tell. But I can tell you this: she definitely gives great hugs, for sure.
Did I forget to write this yesterday? What was Falst dreaming about? Was Tess carrying Falst really that conspicuous? Were passers by not just assuming that Tess was simply wearing a really exotic cloak? Is Shrike’s vision based on movement? Has Erin’s messenger borb not reached them yet? Does the city of Zuurith have bad reception on account of the storm looming overhead? Have the Floof Squade eaten anything since this morning? Will they attempt to lay low in a local fast food restaurant, like McZuurith’s?
Steve, Lord of Darkness:
McZuuriths? Zuurith-fil-A is much better! (Admittedly, I could have come up with a better name for Zuurith’s Chick-fil-A… Wouldn’t it be hilarious if they actually had a fast food place!)
yes indeed I like how the government is evil this is how my religion view the government and why it needs to be watched. most of my family on my dad’s side died in the holocaust and holodamor. only two lines in America remain
Sagiam:
Steve, Lord of Darkness, comes up with a new running gag for each chapter. For chapter 13 it was crokinole, for chapter 14 it was Temptations cat treats, and now for chapter 15 it appears to be McZuurith’s.
I was scrolling through the Tumblr for the comic and Red mentioned that the Ancients had a different writing system. The runes running down the top could possibly be that. I went through the wiki to look at the runes and they are all completely different than the ones on the first panel. I don’t know if it is or is not, but it could be.
For those wondering — the first page is “FIND YOUR WAY IF YOU ARE TRULY MY SON”. Try downloading it and increasing the brightness a lot — then you can read it
For a moment I thought those first three panels were from Dainix’s perspective and I was reeeeally confused. But then it made sense as I kept reading. Did anyone else think that at first?
Yes and I thought it was a rage black out that eh was waking up from.
Best to just blend in
Go with the flow of the crowd
Time to sneaky sneak.
—-
Wonder what the runes(?)
Going up the first panel
Mean in English too
To Wandering_Shade:
I had thought that too
Until I saw panel three
And saw it was Falst
Did Tess really just call Falst little
ngl first panel is giving me especially backstory-y vibes
Smart thinking
How useful that they have someone with experience in dodging the law the hard way
he’s awake!
~Don’t be suspisous~
~Don’t be Suspisous~
**FIND YOUR WAY…
IF YOU ARE TRULY
MY SON**
“you will find your way if you are truly my son”
the first panel seems to say “Yours Truly” along with some runes in the middle which has me VERY intrigued
i stg if this catboy doesn’t do a big stretch next page after a nap like that i’m drawing it myself
Hmm, what kind of shenanigans are the crime trio up to today? Hopefully not harming innocent bystanders! Words cannot emphasize my excitement for the group’s dynamic with Tess.
On an unrelated note, Chapter 15’s cover looks absolutely stunning! Once again blown away by the super funky visuals. (Sorry if I sound like a proud parent, but in my defense, it’s a nice webcomic.)
Past experiences of a character coming into play
What kind of shenanigans are the crime trio getting up to? Hopefully not harming any innocent bystanders!
Words cannot summarize how much I’m looking forward to how badly the group dynamic’s going to get shaken up with Tess (and possibly Dainix.)
On an unrelated note, this chapter’s cover looks absolutely stunning. It’s kind of a given at this point, but I’m very excited for the future of this chapter and our Not Fully Human But Very Chill With Being Imprisoned floofy duo.
What kind of shenanigans are the crime trio getting up to? Hopefully not harming any innocent bystanders!
Words cannot summarize how much I’m looking forward to how badly the group dynamic’s going to get shaken up with Tess (and possibly Dainix.)
On an unrelated note, this chapter’s cover looks absolutely stunning. It’s kind of a given at this point, but I’m very excited for the future of this chapter and our Not Fully Human But Very Chill With Being Imprisoned floofy duo.
Words cannot summarize how much I’m looking forward to how badly the group dynamic’s going to get shaken up with Tess (and possibly Dainix.)
On an unrelated note, this chapter’s cover looks absolutely stunning. It’s kind of a given at this point, but I’m very excited for the future of this chapter and our Not Fully Human But Very Chill With Being Imprisoned floofy duo.
What kind of shenanigans are the crime trio getting up to? Hopefully not harming any innocent bystanders!
Words cannot summarize how much I’m looking forward to how badly the group dynamic’s going to get shaken up with Tess (and possibly Dainix.)
On an unrelated note, this chapter’s cover looks absolutely stunning. It’s kind of a given at this point, but I’m very excited for the future of this chapter and our Not Fully Human But Very Chill With Being Imprisoned floofy duo.
“find your way if you are truly my son” is what I think the first panel says
Back to running we go!
And also that first panel really looks like it’s either Falst’s traumatic memories or his insecurities. Really like you can’t really discern what it is
Can anyone tell what the first panel says? my best guess is ND YOUR YOU TRULY SO. I am very intrigued though:))
Tess: Oop. … This is important.
I too, Red, await the day my time spent doing anime sketches will pay off. I really should revisit one or two things I drew back then.
Falst wastes no time re-establishing himself as the voice of reason, and with everything going on not a moment too soon. Even in a city environment he seems to know how best to handle thing.
Yeah getting into a crowd will not only help these rather conspicuous fugitives hide but also restrict the moves of Shrike and the hunters. As high in status she is I doubt the guards, especially Vienne, would appreciate civilians getting caught in the crossfire.
Well with Falst awake that’s one problem down, now it’s a matter of being found by Erin before the authorities.
oh balls! sorry for the unintentional spam.
Oh look, I just reaveled talked about Falst in the last page and now we have more Falst in this one. Neat.
Also, @TheUnknownGame does my weirdly worded reply to Hiii seem less stupid now? I’d put an akward emoji if emojis were supported
And now I just realized I spelled reveal wrong, DANGIT
Upon staring at the first panel closer, I noticed that some of the dark shadows look like tree branch silhouettes. Was Red just using that brush for convenience or is she hinting at some weird dark past/unknown power. Most likely the former.
FALST HI I MISSED YOU
The text in the top right panel says, “IND YOUR WA… IF YOU ARE TRULY MY SON…”
Falst: *barely wakes up from being KO’d*
Also Falst: *assesses what is happening in half a second and takes charge of how it needs to be done*
the guy sure has his priorities sorted
The second panel makes an ‘F’ visible making the text, “FIND YOUR WAY… IF YOU ARE TRULY MY SON…”
in the first panel i see words with a font that looks like they were carved into a tree.
near the top i see “ND” and some other letter i cant quite make out
i see either “your” or “our” right under that
there is a clearly written “you” in the middle
down and to the left i see “truly” with the T cut off by the end of the panel but still recognizable
i see a U near the bottom left with no other discernable letters to make a word with
i see “SO” and another letter i cant make out near the bottom right
@Wandering Shade: yep. I thought that first panel was the beginnning of whatever Dainx’s got going on sparking o life, and I was worried until I realized we switched scenes.
@Sig: if the comment doesnt load, leave it be. I dont think I’ve ever had a comment not load later on. If you think it got deleted, just do one more.
@ Fire Lord Sozin, Cesium: I’m readling the lower three lines of panel 1 as “if you are truly my son”
Complete first-panel spells out “Find your way if you are truly my son.” At least that’s what I think it spells after increasing the brightness on my screen. Looking forward to figuring out what that means! I’m thoroughly intrigued.
First Panel I think says: Find your way if you are truly my son
…Maybe
@Thinker of Too Many Thoughts
Well I guess Falst joins the dramatic backstory gang. Does being a Fermin already count as a dramatic backstory? Ah well.
@Thinker of Too Many Thoughts
Well I guess Falst joins the dramatic backstory gang. Does being a Fermin already count as a dramatic backstory? Ah well.
A short theory that I’ve formulated:
Falst wanted to become human, maybe that’s related? Maybe his dad was a human, and his mom was a ferin servant. His dad decided he liked his mom and they got married and stuff, and then Falst was produced.
His dad was disappointed that he was a Ferin because he had hoped he would be human. And the mom also died, because drama
So a conversation along the lines of this went on:
“Why won’t you accept me for who I am!? You accepted mom!”
“Atleast your mother had a tolerable personality, you’re rowdy and sarcastic.”
“Some father you are, you’d think a dad would love his kid no matter what”
*Falst hesitates*
“Answer me this: would you accept me if I were like you… you know, human?”
Brief pause
*nod*
“So that’s it then, become human?! *unhinged laugh* is that your way of saying you’ll never love me? It’s impossible to fix my “deformities” as you like to call them”
“Find your way if your truly my son”
But there’s many flaws with that theory. For one, it says “find YOUR way” not “find A way” and the latter seems more appropriate.
Find YOUR way could mean something else
The first panel text says “Find your way if you are truly my son”. The faded tone on parts also gives it a sort of “echoing” vibe, which could be due to Falst getting over a potent soporific and associated grogginess…or that statement is very important on some level.
Whether or not this is a positive or negative element to Falst’s past is an open question as of now.
Not sure if there’s anything else can get out of that for now, but hope that helps folk trying to parse it.
“Find your way if you are truly my son”
That’s what is says in the first panel.
There’s also a vertical line of runes down the middle, but I don’t know the meaning
Okay so I MASSIVELY reduced the contrast on the first panel and what I can make out says “ou wild find your way if you are truly my son” HMMM
Trying to see if I can figure out how response comments work.
“Find your way if you are truly my son.”
Huh.
It only took a sentence and I’m already extremely interested in Falst’s backstory. Just thinking now, I can think of a few hints that Falst has given about his past:
“I’ve spent my entire life running from people like you!” (Talking to Jolon, chapter 10)
“Ha, no kidding” (in reference to you not owing things to your parents just for making you, chapter 11)
I’m getting a sort of “ran away from home because shady stuff was happening” vibe here but it’ll probably be a while until we find out.
Also, since we’re back with the crime trio, that means-*Frantically runs around, searching the sky for Erin’s messenger birb*- Maybe we can finally find out if Erin and Tess are siblings!
@Iloney, The reply function has worked since summer, when Red announced that this comic existed on her Youtube channel and the server exploded for a few days because of the resulting influx of people trying to read it. Kind of a bummer, but we’ve adapted.
Based off of Fire Lord Sozin’s rune translations and tired-right-before-a-test logic, could the runes possibly say “(a)nd you(’)r(e) you, truly.”
Does this make sense?
@Goldfinch, I don’t know how you deciphered that 1st panel so quickly. Nice job!
OOOOHHHHH!!!! Thanks to the people that managed to translate the runes (I’m horrible at codes) the translation is FASCINATING!
Indigo Toxin:
First off, I mess up my wording like half the time in real life (Earlier on I posted like two or three things under a different name and I managed to fully and utterly embarrass myself (or that’s what it felt like)) Personally, things got figured out, no harm done (I didn’t get shamed for stepping in) and we all learned to word carefully. Besides, they’re all AWFUL people. It was meant to be a hard question.
Second, the idea of Falst’s father not loving him (whether he’s human or not) and his mother either dying, leaving, or not caring about him, makes A LOT of sense. Personally, when I see Falst’s character (not only do I want to give him a hug he would immediately crawl away from) he seems like the sort of character that’s been through a lot, including family stuff.
TL;DR: Catboy: wakes up
Also Catboy: let’s hide in the crowd, yes I can think straight.
Congrats to Zer0 W0lf and anyone else who guessed A! They’ve dropped the cops, and now it’s time for crime…inal thinking! I suppose since they went pretty far away from the embassy, this Wednesday’s Futurivia will be about:
Who will be at the protagonists Embassy room before our protagonists?
A: No one.
B: Guards.
C: Erin.
D: Shrike & Co.
Gift Horse: A God (Zuurith, Tynan, or VD)
(Side note: we should probably give the group as a whole a name for referential reasons. I’ll leave it up to the community to decide what name gets chosen. Happy name hunting :-).)
or Falst can just act like a tired child. he’s short enough to pull it off.
alt text: finally my misspent years doodling anime eyes in class have started to pay off
@Wandering_Shade I also thought that it was Dainix’s perspective at first, before realizing I lost both my bets on Futurivia. But I knew they were long shots…
@Thinker of Too Many Thoughts ty for posting the first-panel message! Definitely intriguing. I’m not sure I buy @Indigo Toxin’s theory that Falst’s father disowned him for being ferin — if anything, my gut instinct was that his father IS ferin and is trying to get him to prove himself somehow. But as @Goldfinch pointed out, now I’m starting to wonder if Falst had to deal with being experimented on by one/both parents — trying to replicate or “cure” ferins, perhaps?
Dang. When I get up in the morning, I take 15 minutes to roll out of bed, sit there on the floor pondering life and its meaning, pinch myself a couple of times, occasionally fall back asleep adding another 5 to 10 minutes, and finally stand up blinking the sleep out of my eyes, and go about my day with a whole lot of yawing, and yet, Falst has been shot in the arm, knocked out by sleeping gas, and woken up on the back of a stranger with memories of his backstory/childhood and he goes “Let me off, now here’s the clever and thought out plan I came up with in .2 seconds (admittedly it isn’t like a plan plan but STILL)
For the colorblind amongst us, what exactly is written in pannel 1?
I tried for about 2-3 minutes with lots of squinting and zoom, but I can’t figure it out 🙁
Wait, so the english words say “find your way if you are truly my son,” but there’s also a line of actual runes going down the center of the panel. Do they say the same thing, or something different? I can only see about four or five runes, which I assumed translated to letters.
Okay, so upon further examination, the runes in the middle don’t look like the writing in Erin’s books. So I see three options: they’re part of the same alphabet but they’re letters that haven’t come up yet or they’re a different style/version of the letters we’ve seen, they’re from a different contemporary language within the world that we haven’t seen written down yet, or they’re Ancient runes. In any case, translating them is going to a bit difficult without further context. Anyone have any ideas?
@WEast:
I had the same thought. There’s English words, but also very clear vertical runes. For those with experience translating Aurora runes, do they say anything?
@WEast– I don’t have any experience translating but my best guess would be that it says “Falst” because it is his nightmare and it could be a voice in his subconscious that is bothering him. By the words surrounding it, it could also say something like “Ferin” or “Freak”. I don’t know why all of my examples start with F, but that is my current theory. This is entirely speculation as I really do not have enough experience translating to give any definitive answer. This is just my wild speculation.
In honor of last Friday’s Trope Talk, I feel the need to reiterate that Falst is probably the Smart guy.
Erin may be more booksmart, but he’s got too much lancer and/or hero drama to focus on that party role. Falst doesn’t have much book smarts, but his main contributions so far have been street smarts and common sense. He doesn’t have cool magic power, unlike everyone else. His body is pretty durable, but I doubt he can tank as much as Tess.
After messing around with brightness and saturation, the top left corner of panel 1 reads, “YOU WILL”, which changes the complete phrase to “YOU WILL FIND YOUR WAY IF YOU ARE TRULY MY SON”, giving the phrase a bit of a negative connotation, similar to Indigo Toxin’s theory. There is definitely a tree motif, and the center runes are specifically highlighted in red, but again I can’t translate them (does anyone know where to find the current translation rune bank?) Unfortunately, doesn’t seem like I can include the desaturated screenshot in the comment.
Ironically, my first comment seems to have been eaten. Okay, take two:
Without the message, the first panel seems to be a forest view looking up, towards a few runes superimposed on a brown sky. Now, as a Californian, I interpret a brown sky to mean a wildfire burning nearby, so perhaps Falst’s childhood home got burned down and one or more of his parents bade him to flee the destruction and make his own life? That wouldn’t explain the runes in the sky, though; the other possibility I’ve considered is that it’s a painting, with the runes being calligraphy.
To anyone who inadvertently posts repeat comments:
If your first comment attempt doesn’t show up right away, then wait a few hours, reload the page, and it’ll usually show up; if other comments show up but yours doesn’t (like my first attempt today), then attempt a repeat.
PurpleSwans:
Wow, that’s a really good point! Honestly, I feel like everyone in the section just sees Smart Guy and goes “yup that’s Erin” and while Erin seems to also be the sort of “book smart” character, it’s obvious that Falst definitely has more street smarts than all of them combined (except Tess and Dainix probably, I get the feeling Dainix and Falst would be pretty chill with each other, the snark, street smarts, and determination (oh and being the only one with common sense and self preservation) seems similar), he reminds me of Sokka from ATLA with SLIGHTLY less humor (thought there’s still a lot of sarcasm) (once again that might just be me drawing weird connections to Avatar).
Indigo Toxin:
(Ooops that sounds weird with the hugging, I would like you to know I would love to hug everyone in the group, I’m definitely into personal contact (I have NO sense of personal space lol) and they’re all just so sweet!
@TheUnknownGame. Ooooo! I’m really liking the wildfire theory. Even more so since the first three panels are a super clever transition between scenes. The last thing we see on the previous page is Dainix, our Fire guy, having an understandable flare up (the glowing eyes). Then the very next thing we see is a flashback of some kind and someone opening they’re eyes to the words “if we fight, there will be collateral.” A phrase that vey easily suits both stories’ situations. If there was ever a time to hint at a fire-related event, panning directly from the Fire guy to said ambiguous flashback would be it. Very clever.
@Hiii with regards to Falst immediately waking up and being on top of things, let’s just say that waking up in a potentially life-threatening situation is very different than waking up on a normal morning. Waking up slowly is a luxury that does not apply to the former situation, particularly if this isn’t the first time. Source: not a morning person, but I do get sleep paraylsis, including occasional bouts of the super-rare version that includes hallucinations! Lucky me! *headdesks*
@TheUnknownGame I like the wildfire theory for the reasons @AuriaNox pointed out. Or maybe (if one of my earlier theories is correct) it involved a shady research lab going up in flames…?
I have a really weird question…. do you guys think Tess’s hair is stiff and scratchy like a softer version of wire or steel wool or do you think it’s soft and feels just like regular hair but somehow especially shiny and coloured silver.
It’s hard to tell with Red’s art style, but I’m curious about how comfortable it must have been for Falst to have his face buried in what is either steel wool equivalent or if it’s really soft like a hair blanket or something.
I just… does Tess give good hugs? I have a desperate need to know
@humanoid clay
Well I’m hoping it’s Erin but most likely shrike, or maybe both at the same time and a showdown happens
I just thought of something sort of funny. What if when they arrive at the embassy there are no guards/shrike and it’s just Erin. And then Tess addresses him as baby bro.
Also @golden finch, neat that you remembered all that stuff. So it probably IS likely that Falst had some daddy/mommy issues (he’s sounding more and more like kiba) so that’s one thing that we know for sure, the specifics we!re gonna have to guess
@Wandering Shade, me too
@Humaniod Clay, floof squad seems to have some precedence as the name, B or D
“That hairy guy’s so inconsiderate. He’s getting a piggyback ride from the metal lady and complains at her? No wonder she made him walk by himself.”
He’s done this before, and probably for reasons that were not his own doing.
FINALLY caught up now! binged way too much of this comic lol, this is amazing Red!
@InsertPunHere, I can’t believe I forgot about Floof Squad! I suppose it’s because they’ve been separated for so long. Thank you for the reminder and doubly thanks to you and Indigo Toxin for your participation.
@SerifStones, I had a question like that as well! I think it is like steel wool, but, like you said, it’s hard to tell. But I can tell you this: she definitely gives great hugs, for sure.
Guys, I get that the 1st&2nd panels are really cool and all that, but why, exactly, is no-one talking about the absolutely beutifull 3rd panel?
Ngl that first panel has “you are my son and the one true king” vibes but maybe just because he’s a lion
Did I forget to write this yesterday? What was Falst dreaming about? Was Tess carrying Falst really that conspicuous? Were passers by not just assuming that Tess was simply wearing a really exotic cloak? Is Shrike’s vision based on movement? Has Erin’s messenger borb not reached them yet? Does the city of Zuurith have bad reception on account of the storm looming overhead? Have the Floof Squade eaten anything since this morning? Will they attempt to lay low in a local fast food restaurant, like McZuurith’s?
Tune in This Week to Find Out!
Steve, Lord of Darkness:
McZuuriths? Zuurith-fil-A is much better! (Admittedly, I could have come up with a better name for Zuurith’s Chick-fil-A… Wouldn’t it be hilarious if they actually had a fast food place!)
Steve, Lord of Darkness-But what about the Temptation’s Cat Treats?! The suspense is killing me! I need to know!
yes indeed I like how the government is evil this is how my religion view the government and why it needs to be watched. most of my family on my dad’s side died in the holocaust and holodamor. only two lines in America remain
my religion is THECORECTWAYOFCAPITALISM
Sagiam:
Steve, Lord of Darkness, comes up with a new running gag for each chapter. For chapter 13 it was crokinole, for chapter 14 it was Temptations cat treats, and now for chapter 15 it appears to be McZuurith’s.
I was scrolling through the Tumblr for the comic and Red mentioned that the Ancients had a different writing system. The runes running down the top could possibly be that. I went through the wiki to look at the runes and they are all completely different than the ones on the first panel. I don’t know if it is or is not, but it could be.
in the first panel i see the words
“and your wa/// if you are truly my son”
so now i’m curious
For those wondering — the first page is “FIND YOUR WAY IF YOU ARE TRULY MY SON”. Try downloading it and increasing the brightness a lot — then you can read it
if you do contrast you can find “you will find your way if you are truly my son”
The faint runes in the first panel also appear in 1.19.21. Here they spell out “Emira.”
Oh damn. She killed her village.