It didn’t when the page was posted! Red confirmed she was working to fix it on her twitter, seems like all is back to normal. (You see it wasn’t the first time the “something optimisation plugin” fucks up the reply button without her consent)
@Mint
Objectively better choice! I’m just happy to have interracted with you! (and I was a bit worried when I realised I couldn’t reply to you yesterday, I wanted to)
As I mentioned on the last one, Erin has never been afraid to play the “We can pursue this fracas to it’s final stupidity, or! You can listen to my proposal.”
TBH, I’m not feeling “normal” about any of today’s panels.
The best outcome of this, for me personally, is a type of Dark!Erin, since sinister-looking characters are my favorite. Particularly newly-dark characters who get a fancy new makeover.
red. if you wanted us to promise to be normal about it you should have asked last update. I can’t stop things that have already begun. I can’t keep all of my thoughts about certain panels contained once they are present.
the composition and lighting on this page are INCREDIBLE. seriously, I could stare at this for ages it’s so pretty. Also OOOOO extremely effective checkmate by Erin. I’m pretty sure the paladin thing is him spinning a bad situation to his advantage but DAMN he makes it look effortless. Smart, resourceful characters my beloved <333
Laying a trap that took the form of a massive elemental energy vortex, wreathing his potential vessel with heaps of Void energy, and announcing himself to the world by felling a dragon-storm god. Erin’s right, V.D. has no subtlety.
V.D. couldn’t have picked a worse vessel, time, or place could he? He possessed someone with the brains to handle him, connections to potentially remove him, and willingness to sacrifice himself in the worst case scenario. Then he runs into three people with the power to stop him, all of which ally with his vessel. Now, with Paladin HQ nearby to where he lay the trap to begin with, he has them to deal with, forcing him, a primordial destruction god, to be bossed around by one of his own creations. This must be torture for him.
“Let ME convince your enemies that I’m more valuable to them alive”. I find this very interesting. As I’ve mentioned V.D. has picked the wrong vessel and V.D. himself said in 1-7-23 that that rune on Erin’s chest is treacherously powerful and needed to be protected. If the gang can keep V.D. under control, and if the Paladins could get information from that rune, they might let Erin continue (with Paladin supervision) and turn a crisis into an opportunity.
That could add another element to the gang’s troubles if they need to constantly convince this organisation that they have what it takes. It would be the perfect way to add the Junior Archivist to the gang. And it may even invoke some schisms in the Paladins, with their Champion disregarding orders and going after Erin anyway.
Prediction for next week: V.D. goes away in a huff, Tess comes up and asks what what that thing she just saw, and Erin replies coyly “Oh, nothing.”.
@Testing-Kudos! @Mint- Better Luck next time and wonderful comment this day! @Ongoing & @HelloH- Magnificent! Red- I second @local seagull-s thoughts! This page is INCREDIBLE! I am sure your involuntary break has rejuvenated your creativity! @every0ne here- Wonderful comment! Moderators (Red, Blue, Indigo & OSP crew) Thank you for your work and hope you can put pressure on company responsible for fixing ‘reply’ problem. (Aulde grabs hands to stop comment-hogging! MNFD!)
Erin makes possession by eldritch entities look fashionable, doesn’t he?
And, Red, you know nobody here is normal about ANY panel of ANY page. It’s just a losing game. (Still trying to decide which one should be my new profile pic tho.)
✨Prediction Time✨
a) Voidy can see the logic in this; he hasn’t gotten this far by being stupid. My guess is he accepts this silently (or, as silently as a large whirlwind of destructive energy can) and goes off to sulk in the aforementioned dark corner of Erin’s soul.
b) Tess has to have noticed this, right? She’ll probably come running but be very confused when he tells her it’s all under control. And/or punch him in the face before she realizes that.
c) OR ORororor OR Void Dragon attempts to seize control anyway, denying Erin’s proposal. This could happen right now, in which he would probably fail, or he could bide his time until Erin inevitably falls asleep.
Voidy: Of ALL the elemental maguses in ALL of time, I HAD to get stuck with YOU didn’t I?!
In the future, Erin will write a best seller called “How to tame the dragon within, literally or metaphorically”
So question. When the gang eventually decides to go down into the core of the Earth to rescue Vash/ kill the Collector/ Prevent the release of the Void Dragon, do they actually need to enter the cave system infested with crawlers, or could they just make their own tunnel towards whatever their destination is using Stone Magic? It would probably be more direct and they wouldn’t need to deal with fighting the chimera. If they did happen to run into an existing tunnel then all they need to do is block it back up and go around it. Plus, the center of the planet will have plenty of stone energy to do magic with.
Is this a good idea or is there something I am missing?
I’m sure Red, through Erin, will provide some logical explanation as to why that’s not a good idead, simply because it seems too easy. There’s probably a risk of cave-ins or the many problems that you might encounter when “digging straight down” (even if you don’t dig straight down). Or perhaps it would simply take too much time or energy to excavate such a tunnel.
Even putting Loe’s point aside, there’s a lot of rock in the way, so it would take a lot of magic. If there’s any kind of time pressure, the caves would be the only option.
and even still, Erin also mentioned that entire sections are flooded or filled with magma, along with sections with poisonous air. you have little to no way of predicting whether or not you’re gonna dig right into one, so caves are much better within the fact that if there’s magma you can see it ahead of you. relevant page: https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-6-17/
Idk ho wmuch of that last panel is visual metaphor, but Walter sure does look pretty materialized with that eyeball to me. With an element that nobody knows how to deal with, isn’t dragging Erin along while semi-materialized a half-way decent way to take over the world?
@OrangeHoodie the point isn’t that he wants to take over the world, it’s that he wants to escape it. what walter wants is to take Erin down to the center of the planet where he is trapped, get him to unmake the adamant, and then leave- destroying the world in the process. he doesn’t care about the world, he just wants out. either way, to my understanding this whole possession thing doesn’t work like that. he is either controlling Erin or tucked away in his mind. that and whatever’s happening in this and the previous pages, but I don’t think VD has much, if any, influence over Erin in this state. concerning the last panel: it appears to be a visual metaphor. a similar thing actually appears in 1.17.16 and it’s almost certain it’s visually nondiegetic. and about the nobody knows how to deal with void idea: we have reason the paladins might be very effective at doing so if only from their position serving VDs other and Walter’s reactions to them in the previous panels. but who knows! maybe he’s only afraid of what they’d do to his vessel, if they’d be able to take his perfect tool away from him. I, personally, am VERY excited to see any more of this interaction, or future ones, play out.
So even though he’s absolutely willing to lay down his own life, Erin prefers to stay alive, judging from how he’s wording this ultimatum. That’s good, that he’s not entirely self-sacrificial…
Ah, f*ck. It feels like we just got replies back, and according to the rest of you, apparently they’re gone again? This bug f*cking blows.
Considering that the pedestal that triggered the trap was destroyed in the process I don’t think the Void Dragon can cut it’s losses,
I think it’s got one shot and if this doesn’t work it’s trapped forever.
RED!! How can we ‘act normal’ when you insist on giving us such fantastic art?! Erin looks so damn good …. and you somehow managed to make a type of glowing darkness. I am in AWE … and in LOVE with this page.
I am normal about panel 3. I am not normal about panel 5
I mean just LOOK and the shading! The contrast between Erin and the rest of the void cloud because of the yellow glow compared to the black and purple background! IT EVEN PARALLELS CHAPTER 7! But the natural shading contrasts the almost sickly pales and blacks of those panels, showing that we’re in the world that Erin feels familiar in and can use to his advantage (namely with the subtle cause and effect that VD doesn’t seem to notice, perhaps because they’re just usually too major to be affected by them), hence the natural realistic shading despite the circumstances, rather than the highly contrasting more creepy shading of the previous time
Magus or not, he is a mortal talking to the thing that took on and killed six primordials in the same fight. I cannot express how much balls and ego that takes even as a bluff. Love Erin for that, snob or not. Hubris will be the death of him yet.
@Mint T O U C H D O W N (did I win)
Replies are back
Thank you Moderators!
Holy crap, replies DO work!
@Mint T O U C H D O W Ν (did I win)
Sh,t, my bad. Also, y’all the reply button is broken
Attempted reply to Testing-the-waters, just to make sure for myself.
Huh. It seems to work for me.
It didn’t when the page was posted! Red confirmed she was working to fix it on her twitter, seems like all is back to normal. (You see it wasn’t the first time the “something optimisation plugin” fucks up the reply button without her consent)
Aurora Question #53: I can’t make a question rn, but DAMN does that look cool
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: you guys promise to be normal about panel 3 right
Image source: shadow
My Reply to Alt-Text: “No ❤️”
Will never be normal about anything with smug!Erin in it
I love the void magic look.
“Subtlety of a rock to the face” is a FANTASTIC line. Erin’s really this confidence play.
(I don’t think we’re all going to be normal about panel 3.)
Nice job! When I was having dinner I was like “I gotta beat testing, but I have to eat…”
The smugest of boys shows his cards, plays with fate
Wouldn’t be surprised if he follows with “Check mate!”
No just check. Checkmate is when Void can’t/won’t do evil ever again. This move puts void on the defensive.
It’s still a good rhyme though… (smile warmly)
Void wants to progress his plans.
But, try as he might,
Erin has the upper hand.
(Bonus)
Yes, it was intentional.
This “Reverse” Haiku
Happy Early April Fools!
Oh how the turns have tabled. This sounds much like when Voidy tempted Erin with his ego believing he can figure out how to control void magic.
Oh how the turns have tabled. Feels just like when Voidy tempted Erin’s ego for figuring out a way to control void magic.
I shall be normal about nothing
AGREED
Sure, I can be normal about panel three. No promises about panel two, though.
@Mint
Objectively better choice! I’m just happy to have interracted with you! (and I was a bit worried when I realised I couldn’t reply to you yesterday, I wanted to)
As I mentioned on the last one, Erin has never been afraid to play the “We can pursue this fracas to it’s final stupidity, or! You can listen to my proposal.”
TBH, I’m not feeling “normal” about any of today’s panels.
The best outcome of this, for me personally, is a type of Dark!Erin, since sinister-looking characters are my favorite. Particularly newly-dark characters who get a fancy new makeover.
OH EM GEE ERIN RUUNASER BESTIE PLEASE GET MORE HEALTHY OPINIONS <3333333333 thowing me computer out the window<3
red. if you wanted us to promise to be normal about it you should have asked last update. I can’t stop things that have already begun. I can’t keep all of my thoughts about certain panels contained once they are present.
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
the composition and lighting on this page are INCREDIBLE. seriously, I could stare at this for ages it’s so pretty. Also OOOOO extremely effective checkmate by Erin. I’m pretty sure the paladin thing is him spinning a bad situation to his advantage but DAMN he makes it look effortless. Smart, resourceful characters my beloved <333
Did Erin… just say FRIENDS?
Just waiting on Falst now – that’ll be a real date to celebrate
Laying a trap that took the form of a massive elemental energy vortex, wreathing his potential vessel with heaps of Void energy, and announcing himself to the world by felling a dragon-storm god. Erin’s right, V.D. has no subtlety.
V.D. couldn’t have picked a worse vessel, time, or place could he? He possessed someone with the brains to handle him, connections to potentially remove him, and willingness to sacrifice himself in the worst case scenario. Then he runs into three people with the power to stop him, all of which ally with his vessel. Now, with Paladin HQ nearby to where he lay the trap to begin with, he has them to deal with, forcing him, a primordial destruction god, to be bossed around by one of his own creations. This must be torture for him.
“Let ME convince your enemies that I’m more valuable to them alive”. I find this very interesting. As I’ve mentioned V.D. has picked the wrong vessel and V.D. himself said in 1-7-23 that that rune on Erin’s chest is treacherously powerful and needed to be protected. If the gang can keep V.D. under control, and if the Paladins could get information from that rune, they might let Erin continue (with Paladin supervision) and turn a crisis into an opportunity.
That could add another element to the gang’s troubles if they need to constantly convince this organisation that they have what it takes. It would be the perfect way to add the Junior Archivist to the gang. And it may even invoke some schisms in the Paladins, with their Champion disregarding orders and going after Erin anyway.
Prediction for next week: V.D. goes away in a huff, Tess comes up and asks what what that thing she just saw, and Erin replies coyly “Oh, nothing.”.
this comic is pretty awesome and pretty and did I mention awesome—
Define “normal”
Hey you’re leaking something there buddy.
@Testing-Kudos! @Mint- Better Luck next time and wonderful comment this day! @Ongoing & @HelloH- Magnificent! Red- I second @local seagull-s thoughts! This page is INCREDIBLE! I am sure your involuntary break has rejuvenated your creativity! @every0ne here- Wonderful comment! Moderators (Red, Blue, Indigo & OSP crew) Thank you for your work and hope you can put pressure on company responsible for fixing ‘reply’ problem. (Aulde grabs hands to stop comment-hogging! MNFD!)
Erin makes possession by eldritch entities look fashionable, doesn’t he?
And, Red, you know nobody here is normal about ANY panel of ANY page. It’s just a losing game. (Still trying to decide which one should be my new profile pic tho.)
✨Prediction Time✨
a) Voidy can see the logic in this; he hasn’t gotten this far by being stupid. My guess is he accepts this silently (or, as silently as a large whirlwind of destructive energy can) and goes off to sulk in the aforementioned dark corner of Erin’s soul.
b) Tess has to have noticed this, right? She’ll probably come running but be very confused when he tells her it’s all under control. And/or punch him in the face before she realizes that.
c) OR ORororor OR Void Dragon attempts to seize control anyway, denying Erin’s proposal. This could happen right now, in which he would probably fail, or he could bide his time until Erin inevitably falls asleep.
I promise I can be normal about panel 3, but not panel 5.
HE LOOKS LIKE ROY MUSTANG IN THE LAST PANNEL AND IT’S SO COOL I’M GOING INSANE!!!
Voidy: Of ALL the elemental maguses in ALL of time, I HAD to get stuck with YOU didn’t I?!
In the future, Erin will write a best seller called “How to tame the dragon within, literally or metaphorically”
I will buy that book
There once was an elemental boy
Who made quite a daring ploy.
To contain the void,
He has employed
All his smarts–he’s the real McCoy!
Well, actually he reminds me more of Kirk with this insanely dangerous bluff-that’s-really-a-plan, but Kirk doesn’t rhyme, so…
@Moss He absolutely does! Once you pointed that out, I cannot unsee it!
OMG, You guys!!! He just called them friends!!! Happy day!!!
He’s D E V E L O P I N G
Now we just need to get him to do it when people can actually hear it…
So question. When the gang eventually decides to go down into the core of the Earth to rescue Vash/ kill the Collector/ Prevent the release of the Void Dragon, do they actually need to enter the cave system infested with crawlers, or could they just make their own tunnel towards whatever their destination is using Stone Magic? It would probably be more direct and they wouldn’t need to deal with fighting the chimera. If they did happen to run into an existing tunnel then all they need to do is block it back up and go around it. Plus, the center of the planet will have plenty of stone energy to do magic with.
Is this a good idea or is there something I am missing?
The Singing Caves resist elemental manipulation. I think it’s in chapter 5 or 6 where Erin mentions this to Alinua and Kendal.
I’m sure Red, through Erin, will provide some logical explanation as to why that’s not a good idead, simply because it seems too easy. There’s probably a risk of cave-ins or the many problems that you might encounter when “digging straight down” (even if you don’t dig straight down). Or perhaps it would simply take too much time or energy to excavate such a tunnel.
Even putting Loe’s point aside, there’s a lot of rock in the way, so it would take a lot of magic. If there’s any kind of time pressure, the caves would be the only option.
The relevant page is https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-6-17/
and even still, Erin also mentioned that entire sections are flooded or filled with magma, along with sections with poisonous air. you have little to no way of predicting whether or not you’re gonna dig right into one, so caves are much better within the fact that if there’s magma you can see it ahead of you. relevant page: https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-6-17/
Idk ho wmuch of that last panel is visual metaphor, but Walter sure does look pretty materialized with that eyeball to me. With an element that nobody knows how to deal with, isn’t dragging Erin along while semi-materialized a half-way decent way to take over the world?
@OrangeHoodie the point isn’t that he wants to take over the world, it’s that he wants to escape it. what walter wants is to take Erin down to the center of the planet where he is trapped, get him to unmake the adamant, and then leave- destroying the world in the process. he doesn’t care about the world, he just wants out. either way, to my understanding this whole possession thing doesn’t work like that. he is either controlling Erin or tucked away in his mind. that and whatever’s happening in this and the previous pages, but I don’t think VD has much, if any, influence over Erin in this state. concerning the last panel: it appears to be a visual metaphor. a similar thing actually appears in 1.17.16 and it’s almost certain it’s visually nondiegetic. and about the nobody knows how to deal with void idea: we have reason the paladins might be very effective at doing so if only from their position serving VDs other and Walter’s reactions to them in the previous panels. but who knows! maybe he’s only afraid of what they’d do to his vessel, if they’d be able to take his perfect tool away from him. I, personally, am VERY excited to see any more of this interaction, or future ones, play out.
So even though he’s absolutely willing to lay down his own life, Erin prefers to stay alive, judging from how he’s wording this ultimatum. That’s good, that he’s not entirely self-sacrificial…
Ah, f*ck. It feels like we just got replies back, and according to the rest of you, apparently they’re gone again? This bug f*cking blows.
Update: I tested it, it seems replies still work for me. I don’t know if I’m the rule or the exception.
@TheUnknownGame Yours are the only replies I’ve seen on this page, so either I’m about to make a fool out of myself or you’re just that special.
Why wouldn’t people be normal about panel 3? It has the vibes of the simsoms principal meme
Considering that the pedestal that triggered the trap was destroyed in the process I don’t think the Void Dragon can cut it’s losses,
I think it’s got one shot and if this doesn’t work it’s trapped forever.
omg – OMG – O!M!G!
RED!! How can we ‘act normal’ when you insist on giving us such fantastic art?! Erin looks so damn good …. and you somehow managed to make a type of glowing darkness. I am in AWE … and in LOVE with this page.
The art is So! Good! AAAaaaaaaaaa the motion and lighting!
TL;DR: That’ll shut him up.
A round of applause to Erin Rizznaser smoldering us all down in panel 3
“You have the subtlety of a rock to the face”
Why do people swear at each other when they can make insults that hit this hard.
No, I will not act normal about panel 3, ya boi is lookin smooth as silk there.
I am normal about panel 3. I am not normal about panel 5
I mean just LOOK and the shading! The contrast between Erin and the rest of the void cloud because of the yellow glow compared to the black and purple background! IT EVEN PARALLELS CHAPTER 7! But the natural shading contrasts the almost sickly pales and blacks of those panels, showing that we’re in the world that Erin feels familiar in and can use to his advantage (namely with the subtle cause and effect that VD doesn’t seem to notice, perhaps because they’re just usually too major to be affected by them), hence the natural realistic shading despite the circumstances, rather than the highly contrasting more creepy shading of the previous time
Was that a little Dr. Who peeking out of you Erin? Such shameless arrogance!
Dang Erin is hot. Not quite on Korsica’s level, but getting there.
Erin? More like Erwin
*slams hands on desk*
NO. DAMMIT NO.
ERIN.
YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE HOT.
this is so badass reading aurora instead of doing my chores is also fun
Magus or not, he is a mortal talking to the thing that took on and killed six primordials in the same fight. I cannot express how much balls and ego that takes even as a bluff. Love Erin for that, snob or not. Hubris will be the death of him yet.
Why Would I not be normal about the third panel?
I love that he’s pulling the exact same bullshit on the dragon that it tried to pull on him and it seems to actually be working.
And the current pages now demonstrate this plan backfiring…