1.15.13
on December 15, 2021
at 3:00 am
there was a climate change exhibit at a museum I went to once that had a big ice wall in it, and it encouraged you to stick your hand on the ice and melt a little handprint into it, which is fun because that process gets excruciating after like two minutes
Gottem
Well Shrike, that looks like a Mist opportunity
badum-tssh haha
Steam into ice wall
That definitely bought time
Trusk gives zero shits
fun
Trusk be like “not my problem lmao”
LOL, Trusk is the best!
This page’s image source is: move
I officially like that horned dude.
Again, I really hope that Erin is using his magic to write out the sound effects, this time in steam.
“Ah, they got away. Good for them.”
or perhaps:
“Oh no! Anyway…”
The first one, definitely.
I love Trusk
I cant wait to see how pissy shrike gets when she cant get paid
How did i only notice now that Trusk has a chipped Horn
Secret double release?? Thanks Red!
Also just realized Tess is really tall compared to the gang
I love Trusks reaction :3
Trusk: Hm, this looks like Not My Problem. I’m going home.
Each time I see more of Tess she only cements herself as my favourite character.
I really like that old guy with the horns. He‘s just so chill
Nice. Though probably “Mist” is a better word for it than steam, since steam is very very hot by its nature and running through a cloud of steam that dense will absolutely burn the FUCK out of you
Trusk: nope.avi
Oh, Shrike’s dialogue ending in an exclamation mark AND the speech bubble is spiky? Methinks she’s starting to lose her cool. Honestly this whole experience must be be a massive bruise on her ego and maybe image; I doubt the hunters tangled in vines or this ice wall have gone unnoticed by the general populace.
R.I.P. Crime Trio; your escapades sure were entertaining. But now they’re a quartet and, if Erin can help it, no longer doing crime. Well, at least Erin and Tess’s reminiscing will probably be good, after he’s done yelling at her/them of course. Falst probably has some choice words to share about Erin’s dad. I’m interested to see Ali’s side during their breather at the embassy; she was really torn up and confused in the message to Erin.
Shrike asked Trusk to do her a solid and lead her bois to them, which he did. He’s under no obligation and lacks any drive to assist further in their capture, especially after seeing the kind of power just one of them possesses. Plus there’s a good chance he overheard Erin and Shrike’s conversation and is probably even less eager to get involved.
badass guy Erin, good guy Trusk <3
Aaaand cut!
I hope the release hour won’t change on Friday:(
I noticed there’s a slight gradient on Trusks’s horns
TL;DR: No time to talk, just run. Ice won’t last forever against a gang of weapon wielding slave catchers. At least their sniffer doesn’t seem intent on catching you.
Trusk be like: “You asked me to find them. I found them. What happens next is your problem.
*flash forward to 5 minutes later*
Erin: Okay guys, WHAT THE HELL!!??
Tess: Oh c’mon bro, it wasn’t that bad.
Ali: I thought I explained what happened?
Falst: Hey, can I just say that your dad is apparently a huge Dick?
Erin: THAT’S NOT THE POINT
Meanwhile…
Shrike: WHERE THE HELL DID THEY GO!?
Trusk. Hun, they’re long gone
“It’s just mist, go!”
Ten quotes taken seconds before disaster.
Trusk’s only job was to find them, after all. He found ’em and his job is thusly finished. Whatever happens afterward’s not his damn problem.
I know *exactly* the museum Res is talking about, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I once saw a guy there stick his hand onto the ice wall for 12 straight minutes
Ah, wizard shenanigans…
Seriously though, fog cloud + ice wall = a REAL nice anti-pursuit spell suite. I am yoinking this one for next time I play dnd.
I’m just letting this comic cheer me up after all the candy cane gram thingies got distributed to ALL my friends, and just everyone in the class including two of the ones I HATE, and realizing no one likes me… Fun! (I hate myself, I probably chased away anyone who would even think of giving me one. It’s not about getting a candy, so much as feeling like someone actually doesn’t hate me…) But Tess in the 6th panel cheered me up considerably. Thank you, Tess. I can’t wait to see the conversation that follows.
Purpleswans: That convo: Nail, head, etc. Perfect!
Oops, that’s not just steam.
After seeing that, Trusk decides that this is above his non-existent pay grade and that he doesn’t care. I feel like Shrike has an “I told you so” coming up for her. And I’m loving Tess and Erin’s interactions so far and can’t wait for more.
Okay, I have a question for you guys: Do you ship any of the characters, and if so, who? I kind of ship Falst x Erin because I like their dynamic but I don’t really expect any relationships between the mains in the comic due to Red’s comments on romantic subplots.
@Hiii, I’m sorry to hear that you were left out, that’s a really sucky feeling. I’m sending you a virtual candy-cane if that makes you feel any better. Honestly, I’m surprised to hear that those candy cane gram things weren’t just made up in Mean Girls.
Oh hello there, glowy rune circle. I don’t think we’ve seen your ilk since chapter 6.
What would be perfect was if Erin sneakily made a second ice wall behind Shrike and her entourage to trap them in the alley. Perhaps there wasn’t enough water in the rain barrel to do that, though; ice is considerably denser than steam, so it takes more material to occupy the same volume.
I look forward to Erin and Tess reuniting at the embassy; they probably haven’t seen each other for at least a few months since Erin took off for The Storm, probably longer given Tess’s wanderlust. However, it seems to me like a scene change is coming, most likely Dainix or a guard (perhaps Caliban) dropping the news of the upcoming match to Kendal.
Hmm, I don’t usually ship characters unless its already been teased, and even then, kinda passively. Once a relationship is established I can get invested but I don’t really care otherwise. Yeah Ill bet 100 dollars they red i’st going to write any romantic subplots into the main cast.
@Hiii Oof I know how you feel. hey, here’s a virtual hug and my chocolate cookies!
@Goldfinch I agree. I also ship Falst x Erin but not anyone else, although part of my brain is going SHIP THEM ALL but that part of my brain does that whenever I read anything really…
I love the strategic withdrawal!
@Hiii = I feel your pain. That was me in school, too. *Sending you virtual hugs and cookies!*
Weren’t they also surrounded from behind?
Sibling bonding time 😀
In other good news: My best friend was finally able to sit with me at lunch again! They hadn’t been able to for a while ’cause stuff was going on, but now they’re not as busy!
alt text: that’s what winning looks like!
Goldfinch:
Yeah the school has a lot of things that makes me wonder if the entire school isn’t run by mean girls. Student council elections (popularity contest), these sort of yearbook title elections (most smart, most funny, best of school, etc. aka ANOTHER popularity contest) I could complain about a lot of the school policies, dress code, etc. You know how some schools did the whole, “you have to give a valentine to everyone, no special valentines?” Well, it kind of annoyed me before, but in retrospect, I’m really glad they did that. That way no one ends up feeling like a piece of trash, or giving people extra, unfair stuff. Considering we had that whole policy, I’m surprised they even did the candy grams in the first place. Then again, public schools don’t get enough money (please don’t start an argument with me on politics, that’s just my opinion, I don’t want to get in that sort of debate) and I’m lucky to be in a pretty good school so I guess they have to earn more money somehow.
That’s a really good question… I ship Fast x Alinua, becos Falst seems kinda protective of her and seems a bit nicer towards her (not sure how much Ali realizes that but still) Erin, I have no idea, Kendal, ermmm I have no idea how that would even work (maybe Dainix…)… Tess is just a badass who doesn’t need a partner, much less any of those idiots. The only one I would consider is Tess x Erin, but sibling check (and they must stay that way)! Dainix… IDK really. Maybe Kendal, but I’m seeing more of a bromance there, maybe there’s someone in his village he likes. Yeah, as disappointing as it is (I’m a sucker for romance) probably not much main character shipping. I try to write some romantic stuff, but if you don’t even know what love means to you its kinda hard. (And half the time I either over dose it with romance and I decide its just disgusting and mushy, or I under dose it and it’s just not interesting and you can barely tell they love each other…) So I might get back to romance once I actually understand love and romance… (Good lord I’m messed up… My friend once showed me a sketch of a bunch of thorns and said, this is my brain. I said, wow, really? Mine is worse… (Probably not the most considerate thing to say. Hooray, I’m an extrovert with bad social skills!
Bookfae:
Lol, yeah, mine too.
@Hiii I’m so sorry you didn’t get any candy. School sucks. But I, for one, am glad to see you in the comments.
@I have questions Erin probably did some strategic repositioning when he slammed the hunters against the wall.
Oh, and I for one love the detail of the ice wall starting from the rain barrel.
I’m so excited to hear our crime trio + Erin talk it put! Now all we need to do is get Kendall and Dainix out and have everyone hang out and talk and bash Erin’s dad together.
@Hiii
For what it’s worth, you make this comment board a way cooler place, and we’d totally send you candygrams if we could.
“It’s just steam! Go get cooked!”
Good thing it wasn’t actually steam or they’d all be dead now. Steam is nasty, it’s by definition at a temperature that’s at least 100°C and it’s an excellent thermal conductor, meaning that if your skin enters contact with it, it gets all that heat transferred very fast. It’s not recognized as the lethal hazard it is because in day to day life we’re only exposed to very little of it — like the output of a boiling kettle, perhaps — so it gets diluted into the ambient air and cooled off fast. But an entire room, or back alley, full of steam? You’d be boiled alive in a couple of seconds.
my local science museum had one of those walls. i managed to keep my hand in there for an absurd amount of time once, made a decent dent. my family was terrified
… what happened to the guards that were behind them???
ok that was incredible! I can’t wait for them to reminisce back at the emissary, we got a great talk coming! also I wonder is shrike will be mad at trusk for not doing anything. That seems like good conflict, but maybe she won’t know/get that he doesn’t care.
hey, weren’t they surrounded on both sides of the alley?
I laughed far too hard at the fact that Erin put in an ice wall. Good planning!
Sounds like a cool ice wall, I would have loved to try that 🙂 (pun accidental but now that I realize its there, 100% intentional)
@TheHatintheHat: HAHAAAAA that was good 🙂
@Odinson: SAME. Best character <3. Also her dynamic w Erin everything I hoped for and I'm living life
@Hiii: 🙁 sending virtual hugs
@I have questions: they were, until Erin showed up. … actually yes, they were even after that, since he dropped them again and we saw hints behind the crime gang when Erin was talking. Thats a good question. Smokescreen fog probably let them pass, although the alley is still narrow enough that I'm not sure it would help as much.
To those saying that the comic made a mistake because steam kills I just want to say that doesn’t make a lick of sense seeing as how steam rooms and saunas exist. Just because some water molecules have reached a high enough temperature to form a gas doesn’t mean that is a uniform state, or that the ambient air temperature is 100C. I mean, if you are stirring soup and some steam is coming off of it you don’t burn your face off. That’s because most of the molecules are still at room temperature.
I just gotta say, I’m living for one of Erin’s plans finally working. These past few weeks in-story have been rough on the poor boy’s hubris. But when things actually go according to plan, he has some serious style.
@Drake they’re not at the embassy yet, there’s plenty of time for things to still go wrong! But I sincerely hope things go according to plan because Erin is so badass right now and I love it.
ITs jUsT sTEAm gO!1!1!!!1
So I guess Erin studied tactics from Looney Tunes.
As for shipping, I can’t really say I ship any characters yet.
Actually, I’ve noticed something regarding that. I don’t think a single character has actually shown romantic/sexual attraction to someone else. The closest I can think of is Shrike asking Vienne out to breakfast.
Trusk: …, yeah. That’s an SEP.
@Averias
yeah! i actually think that’s really fun 🙂
if there is romance it’s definitely a slow burn and i personally am enjoying the lack of a romantic subplot! it keeps me focused on the main story 😀
A person a lick of sense? What’s Trusk still doing in this city?
Trusk kinda has this “oh, the protagonists are actually interesting people”-look lol
Sig Figs and Just Stopping By:
They got Magneto-repositioned up to the walls when Erin arrived, enabling the party to take their spot at the mouth of the alley during the conversation. I don’t think the spell effect was automated, so he probably intentionally moved the mooks out of his team’s way.
My thoughts on the shipping discussion: Unless Red outright shows a couple are a couple, I’m not committing to anything. I like her approach of not including unnecessary romantic subplots or love triangles. It also makes sense in universe as almost everyone here has bigger, more important things to worry about. Be it primordial destruction gods, a god-napping life mage or just figuring themselves out and where they fit into the world there’s not a lot of time or peace to ponder such things.
If I had to be pushed into shipping, maybe Erin and Falst, but not without more development than their current hubris-snark dynamic. Unless that changes it’s an odd friendship, period.
Finally caught up to the comic, what’s this now about shipping? Honestly I hadn’t picked up on *any* “these two like eachother” vibes.
Clearly our single-horned friend has better things to do that challenge that solo.
@Hiii
Erin and June (Junior Archivist) in the wise words of the late Kent Nelson: “find your own little spitfire, one who wouldn’t let you get away with nothin’
And June seems to be able to handle Erin’s hubris
*Kent Nelson from Young Justice
Goldfinch, Jaq, I have a squirrel named floofy, Hermit Thrush, Thinker of too many thoughts, DragonMaster66:
Thank you so much for your kind words. You have no idea how much those helped me yesterday. I was really struggling emotionally, and those comments literally helped me through the day so I didn’t bomb my Science exam (and also didn’t feel like crap the entire day). I get a lot of anxiety when it comes to what others I appreciate think of me. I’m really outwardly confident, but I’m really nervous inside about what the people I like think of me. And I’ve just told a crowd of complete strangers more than what I’m comfortable with telling my family… Welp.
Evil Tree:
I completely agree with your stance on shipping. This is probably my aroase-ness talking, but I don’t understand why everyone tries to force characters together so often, even when the characters in question have never interacted or hate each other. Or in the main cast’s case, when they’ve barely known each other for a week or two at most. Why can’t everyone be happy with these guys being good friends?
so… if my calculations are correct, and they are, with this we have yet to see only one of the eight magic types. Air. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that air nomads went extinct at the beginning of the hundred year war….
@Loggat actually, the little messenger bird things are air magic. That said, we haven’t seen anyone USE air magic
To be honest, the eagerness some people show for shipping characters who have barely just met each other, IF THAT MUCH, kinda annoys me. I like to ship as well, but let them have some bond first that is not only profound but also feels like romantic potential? All we’ve seen so far feel like potential for solid friendships to me, nothing that indicates an interest in romance. Hell, the only ones who would know for long enough to even consider it at this point would be Alinua and Kendal, and they really don’t feel like a romantic couple at all. And yet there are people who take their first look at some character and immediately go “oh, I ship them with —“. ngl, I don’t get it. I hope if Red delves into developing any significant romances onscreen at all, she’ll take her time and convince the reader that these characters are actually in love in the romantic sense.
And also, maybe have spoken to each other first.
I just want to see the Dainax-Kendal fight.Will Kedal get to use his sword?What will Dainax’s strategy and how will kendal find out/react to finding out?
Thoughts on the “If it was steam they would’ve gotten boiled alive”, at first, I thought it’s a reasonable point, but then, it was evaporated via magic, so it does not necessarily have to be at the right temperature.
To clarify, by “right temperature” I meant “physically accurate minimal temperature at which water becomes steam”, not “good for human body”, just in case someone got confused.
@ Hiiii I sorry your feeling blue. I forgetting something important with that though but what?. If I may be so bold to suggest talking to your four footed friends, espicially the wolves that have joined us, They don’t talk back but can still affirm that you are an OK fellow and deserve !their unconditional support (and add my own too! You do you!
Love the scene! Trugh is a good foil to Strike. I am waiting for shoes to fall but trust your pacing!
Broke: why does the steam not boil them alive? (Erin was able to immediately turn water into a gas/particulate/etc; pretty sure regulating the temperature of it isn’t a problem for him)
Woke: where did the guards behind them go?
I mean, I know some people are saying he repositioned them with stone magic, but that just doesn’t make any sense considering we saw him drop some of them behind him. In actuality, I bet they ran away— as you should if some guy is able to effortlessly throw you against a wall. If not that, then I imagine they’ll became a problem soon.
@CapitainCutlet I commented on this before, but only the area in the water barrel had to experienced 100C, not the entire alley. Since steam rooms and saunas exist, you don’t need to be magic to survive being in steam (unless you are saying that every old fat guy is magic, which Santa so maybe).
This does bring up the question of whether Erin can pull an avatar state and manipulate multiple elements at once (fire+water). I could let it slide by saying that this could count as just moving the water molecules really fast until they formed a gaseous state, while fire is only the physical release of energy from the combustion reaction (2 O2+ CH4—>CO2 + 2 H2O +energy).
As a side note, if we do assume that the combustion rxn is what is counts as “fire” then I would say that life magic, at least the plant variety should be its opposite, not water.
And yes, I am trying to explain the chemistry behind a fantasy webcomic, I can be a nerd at more than one thing.
The discussion on the limits of water magic also made me read through the Extra Lore>Magic page and I found a loop hole that gives us BLOOD BENDING!
Step1. Someone dies in a way that doesn’t destroy their body ex. heart attack.
Step2. With the person’s soul gone a water mage can animate the remaining blood in their bodies. (leave it here to get a zombie horde)
Step3. Use some lightning magic/ paddles to restart that person’s heart.
The person is alive, but since just the presence of the soul cannot drive away magic that has already gotten inside, as shown by elemental corruption not getting better unless treated by some monks, the magic of the water mage still holds within the newly reanimated person. PRESTO! the life mage is a blood bender.
Loggat:
1) Wrong story entirely, 2) your calculations are incorrect. Erin made a shield using wind magic in chapter 8, to protect against potential backlash when Alinua started fueling her magic with rage. On top of that, all the message spells that we’ve seen zooming around Zuurith are a subset of wind magic.
YOOO HELLO HAIKU IS BAAACK
thank @boi boi and @TheUnknownGame for correcting me. And, not to undermine your dedication or how much less flawed than mine your memories are, but I am still proud of my joke
@Karishi
but in the previous episode, we see the goon with the purple mask lurking behind them, *after* the magnet attack…
If you see fugitives fleeing from the police…no you didn’t