2.0.3
on January 5, 2024
at 3:00 am
please leave the city faster so I can stop drawing the enormous and complicated tree
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
please leave the city faster so I can stop drawing the enormous and complicated tree
For mobile readers.
Alt text: shrike’s flashbacks have the magical ability to revert Alinua to her Draft 1 characterization
Image source: power
Tumblr text: see you on Monday!
Twitter text: this can only turn out amazingly
Oh, sounds like she is going to hunt them. Can’t wait for Erin to single-handedly kick her butt again!
Well…first I suppose. Waiting for Zero_Wolf haha
Nevermind, page decided refreshing comments wasn’t a thing for like 15 minutes.
Yeah my girl ally is really powerful! Behold her awesomeness, shrike!
Between her, Trusk and Theia we’re slowly assembling a B-Team of ‘Random people all hunting the Floof Squad for reasons only sometimes connected to the main plot’.
…wow. thats some username you got there
Gotta flex all them titles, you know
Somebody saw Game of Thrones and got seriously jealous of Danny huh?
And now we have the Champion too! And the Collector! Can’t wait to see who joins the Team of Hunting Floofs next!
Shrike is absolutely STYLING in that poncho
Yeah also get on panel one omg love her faaace<3
We thought Dainix was high ruler of the ponchos, but Shrike’s definitely giving him a run for his money.
Tree split rock in twain
That career’s gone down the drain
Time to be a pain!
That is an awesome haiku. I mean, you’re quite good at them, but rhyming takes them to a whole new level.
You’re back! Glad to see you.
Shrike sees Ali as a whimp, though with strength
And to get back at her will go to quite the length!
I couldn’t see the new page until an hour late. Anyone else having this problem?
Wait, so the relationship between Alinua and Shrike is the sane as that between the doctor and the family of blood. Where Shrike knows she’s powerful, but assumes she’s afraid of her for opting to run instead of fight. When Alinua is actually doing it out of a weird sense of kindness, cause she knows that if she fought anyone in the city she’d have to basically body half the town till there’s no one left to oppose her.
That is one very very good simile. …and somehow I really hope that Shrike will end up the same way. I dislike that type of person a lot. “What there are other ways of being than I am, of thinking than I do?! Preposterous. I know the world.”
Yes. Get Family of Blood’d, Shrike.
Agreed.
Thanks
For anyone who doesn’t know one of Doctor Who’s best monologues, here it is:
“He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing. The fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he’d run away from us and hidden. He was being kind.
He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy to be imprisoned there forever.
He still visits my little sister once a year every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that’s her. That’s always her. As for me, I was suspended in time. And the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England, as their protector.
We wanted to live forever, so the Doctor made sure that we did.”
I would upvote this if I could.
I remember that episode. They have some wonderful writers for that show!
SHRIKE when I CATCH YOU SHRIKE!!! Do not call Alinua a hanger-on!!! (biggest crime committed by Shrike)
Yeah, Erin’s the hanger on
They’re all the hanger on to Falst.
You better leave here alone I swear to god
Tldr: Shrike pulls a Team Rocket. “Alinua is powerful so we must capture her and we TOTALLY won’t get absolutely destroyed by by her and her friends!”
I’m back! Didn’t remember when the thing would start again. Okay if I start doing the TL;DR again?
Yeah it’s okay, I usually don’t have that many good ideas and only post a tldr if I have something that is at least a bit funny/inspired, hence no tldr for the last two pages
Shrike, do not mistake mercy for cowardice. It is not a good look for you
To be fair, the ex-con/ex-gladiator/bounty hunter from Zuurith probably doesn’t even know the word “mercy.”
Oh boy, Shrike is in for quite the surprise when she tries to confront them without the potential for collateral damage.
Shrike: “got you now-” *gets whacked by a tree*
Alinua: “stay the f away from my friends, or there’s more where that came from!”
(Tess: my gf is so cool)
Oh geez shes one of THOSE
“How DARE you hold out on me! Face me with your FULL POWER hero!”
Girl wants to fight a pseudo-demigod— one that broke a mountain in half, faced down a god, and survived the power that killed primordials—just to sate her pride?
I don’t think it’s a pride thing. Shrike’s never been the honourable sort. I think she wants to bring Alinua under her control. Basically, slavery. Her worldview was seriously affected by the Arena. She HAS to be the strongest, or she has to CONTROL the strongest.
Shrike sounds like she wants Ali’s power? Or wants it properly controlled?
Waiting for her to walk up to the band and and up joining bc otherwise she’d have to let Ali go.
She didn’t even include Kendall in the flashback.
She didn’t know he was part of their group. Never met him
She never saw Kendall, since he was locked up, or at the Arena the whole time Shrike was hunting the rest of the group.
Oh I totally forgot that. Well I think she’s in for a rough day when she catches up to them.
Shrike? More like yikes because she clearly only percieves the world in terms of how much power any given person possesses
Anonymous Aurora Question #36: What do you think will happen once we are at the sea?
We’ll meet the sword lady. Just a guess, though.
PIRATES
There’s a part of my brain that hopes they get Odysseus’d and constantly get interrupted by some random island bullshit for a while.
To be fair, with Kendal around, there’s a decent chance the local sea gods will start trouble for Vash-related reasons.
That would be hilarious!
Kendall getting horrendously seasick because Vash never had to ride a boat would be INCREDIBLY funny, so I predict that it will happen!
Could be the many voyages of Kendal and his friends. Not likely to visit Gillian’s Island or run into some version of Sun Wu Kong and his friends heading West on their journey or run across Popeye or Sinbad and certainly there would be no Undead Starfish. Oops!
Wouldn’t it be incredibly funny if they kidnapped Tripitaka by mistake?
I NEED that Fanfic!!! Also, does the starfish police deal with kidnappings that happened in the land of the starfish? Would the Floof Squad then be chased by Sun Wukong AND the Starfish police and therefore team up with Question Master? So many options!!! 🤯
Picturing Floof Gang and someone who looks like The Riddler facing down one Sage equal to Heaven, two formerly celestial warriors and a small army of starfish with police helmets. In the background a hoard of shadowy, emaciated Undead Starfish drawing ever closer.
Thank you for brightening my day @Ongoing
I bet Dainix will have a bad time at least once. Hesitantly guessing that Tahraim’s claim, “I’ve seen soulfire burn at the bottom of the ocean,” will be taken for a test drive.
oh can’t wait for her to get her comeuppance!
At this point, it feels like her best comeuppance would be getting treated with mercy and her knowing that they were being merciful. Between her time in the prison, and fighting as a gladiator [gladiola in her case?] for the sake of a shorter term, and then becoming a bounty hunter and inflict that on whoever she captured,she’s been living in a dog eat dog world. Tt feels like the thing that would shake her most is learning not only did she not HAVE to live that way, but that finally, after already being so ruthless, she was spared. mercy coming to her now would completely contradict the world view that she has demonstrated.
Edited for errors.
At this point, it feels like her best comeuppance would be getting treated with mercy and her knowing that they were being merciful. Between her time in the prison, fighting as a gladiator [gladiola in her case?] for the sake of a shorter term, then becoming a bounty hunter only to inflict that on whoever she captured, she’s been living in a dog eat dog world. It feels like the thing that would shake her most is learning not only did she not HAVE to live that way, but that finally, after already being so ruthless, she was spared. mercy coming to her now would completely contradict the world view that she has demonstrated.
that’d be some good comeuppance
Calling it now, Alinua is going to defeat her and leave her tied to a tree with plenty of food and water and a promise of release after a couple weeks. It will be luxurious and easily the most kindness she’s ever gotten from an enemy.
Shrike will hate every second of it.
this is what one calls “biting off more than they can chew”
Oh damn. Alright, I definitely guessed wrong about Shrike’s motivations!
Ha. Shrike thinks Alinua’s a coward? The mage who (as Shrike herself said), went to fight a god? A fascinating, warped and limited view. Shrike doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into.
Yeah so referring to superjail as your “whole world” might be indicative of a certain unhealthy mindset Shrike
Babygirl what do you think you’re going to accomplish here
She is REALLY clueless about the power she is facing here isn’t she? One demi-god who’s power she clearly underestimates, the Elemental Magus, his sister who seems ties be tied to lightning elementals and can deck a dragon, someone with a supposed fire demon in them that really seems like it’s connected to a Primordial and someone who certainly IS the avatar of a Primordial, along with a Ferin who may not be as powerful as the others, is very good at what he does and can be very ruthless when called upon. sm
To be fair I think the only people who the power set of the floof squad is the floof squad. Can’t wait to see her regret her life choices
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN
Well, Shrike was already into human (sentient being) trafficking as a bounty hunter and supplier for the arena-master. I guess it’s not too far of a leap for her to turn into an outright slave-taker and -trader. Because that is absolutely what she’s talking about here. Alinua is powerful and (in Shrike’s mind) soft, which would make her a good product. Makes me wonder if she feels the same way about Trusk.
oooh this is so cool! I LOVE seeing ppl misinterpret a character! AND she’s mad about it!!
Girl we’re TRYING to redeem you out here, but you’re making it very difficult!!
Points for that comment. Made me chuckle.
And thus, Shrike refused to learn or change literally at all. For now, at least
“Some may think that my prey wielding this kind of power would mean I’m out of my depth. I don’t think so, because I have a can-do attitude!”
Whelp someone’s gotta make poor decisions, everyone give a big round of applause for Shrike single handily reaching our quota in that regard.
I love how the positioning of Falst in the flaskback panel clearly shows she thinks of him as lesser than the rest of the group, and that she expects the group to think the same. He’s positioned apart from and behind the rest of them, despite the fact he was at the center of their group and the only reason they were able to evade her as long as they did. Makes me wonder about her prejudices because her best friend in the world is a ferin. So does she just hate predator ferin, or does she think of Trusk as “one of the good ones”? (And how will this affect them going forward?)
There once was a little gold Shrike
Whose common sense had taken a hike.
She thinks Ali’s wimpy
From evidence skimpy,
And so wants Ali’s head on a pike.
Cute and clever!
Ah, theatrical irony, our old friend. “It’s funny because we know she’s wrong.”
In other news, this is…really gross? This essentially confirms that Shrike was never motivated first by money or fame, but the simple desire to feel strong. She chained people up and sold them into slavery, because she wanted to feel strong.
I feel like she’s going to keep testing the pacifism of the Floof Squad until she can make them turn around and kill her, but unlike that Knives disciple Legato in Trigun she seems tragically unaware that that’s what she’s doing. Like that one girl in The Witcher. You know, the one they called The Shrike.
Unexpected but happily surprised to see TriGun brought up here. I thin with Shrike, it isn’t just to feel strong, but the way she survived was choosing against other’s own freedoms in the arena, so that’s what she defaults to or how she has been conditioned to think (possibly even by herself).
Aaaaaaah
I love it when this happens. Not only the acknowledgement that Alinua is ridiculously powerful, but also when secondary/tertiary characters recognise and acknowledge the frankly insane and ludicrous exploits of the primary characters, for whom it isn’t all that special.
Always a huge fan of when a story puts into perspective just how incredible the feats the MC’s accomplish are. It’s awesome.
When first reading panel 4 I thought that Shrike was talking about people in the panel. So my brain was a bit confused why Shrike was calling Tess a “prettyboy demigod”, till I reread the sentence and realized that Kendal wasn’t there- because she hadn’t met or seen him- but probably had heard about him, with him being in the arena.
Also Shrike calling the prison her whole world… yeah I think Trusk is right that traveling would do her some good
Shrike’s view of Alinua in that 4th panel seemed so familiar and I finally figured out where I’d seen it: Josh Strife Hayes’ “Healers in Anime vs Healers in Videogames”
If they don’t use their full power against you it could be because they are afraid of your threat (or their power or something) and are a coward or it could be they don’t perceive you as a threat and so don’t see the point in fighting hard.
It seems Alinua didn’t get the “Strike a cool pose in panel 4” memo.
Shrike wants to hunt and capture Alinua? Scary, but not surprising. To any city god a mage empowered by Life herself to grow crops and timber would be an asset without equal; I’ve thought before about how Alinua could help establish a New Vash with her powers. It makes a frighting amount of sense for Shrike to enslave her, either to sell off or keep her as her own.
Alinua’s been thinking about nothing but the safety of innocents, from her chimeric plague diagnosis to not harming Zuurith’s buildings, for over a decade. Shrike would capture an innocent person if she though she could profit off them; it doesn’t seem to even register to her why Alinua didn’t fight back against her. Alinua broke a prison and fought a god to save people she never met, Shrike likely bolted up the mountain to save herself. Both she and the Collector clash with Alinua in different ways.
Excellent work Red, I am now both excited for a dreading a future clash between both gangs. Shrike can work a trap and has sealing cuffs; if she and her boys (gender neural) get the drop on the gang it could get really hairy. Then again last chapter has shown us just how powerful and scary a properly angry Alinua can be; to see Shrike get her comeuppance and humiliation by her hand, maybe even getting a glimpse from Life, would be a sight to behold.
Prediction for next week: This handily allows Theia to join up with Shrike’s boys without having to pay for their services. They’re both looking for the same group of people and both have useful assets to give, so a team-up makes sense. I wonder how the Paladin will approach it.
However when Theia discovers Shrike’s plans for the group, her moral compass might kick in and cause her to go against her, maybe even spur her to join the gang?
Ooh now that last part is a thought.
Talking w my sis (who also reads this comic yay 🙂 and she’s both betting Shrike wouldnt give up so easily on the gang, even after a beatdown. I think it would be fascinating to see her go through an Azula sort of arc, where she chases the heroes all over the continent only for everyone else in her squad to join them (or break off- Trusk already wants to just settle down), goes slightly mad, and ends up at a wont-let-go, cant-stay-here kind of paradox.
I wonder what Primordial Life might say to Shrike about hurting her/their first friend?
Yeah I picture their fights going MUCH differently when they’re not on her terf anymore.
What is this? What are you doing to Shrike? Why is this what she takes away from from the last like 5 chapters? She’s so cool. Please don’t make her stupidly unnecessarily malicious
Durn! Trusk seems to be bipedal in panel six of this page but looked like a quadruped in the prior page (2.0.2 panel four) Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Or is there something more a foot?
@Aulde. Red likes to make her cloaks billow in the wind.
with how ferin work they don’t gain any more limbs than their base species. So a human ferin for example would only have 4 arm/leg type limbs
I was so, so happy for Shrike’s character growth, and then she ruined it in the last panel.
I love the idea of, Ive seen power on a scale Ive never seen before, and it was from the meekest of youre group. I want the real power!
(alinua voice) red said its MY turn having an antagonist with a personal grudge against me!
TL;DR: Time for the elf to have someone after her head.
“That is our whole world in there, Trusk. And she broke it in half.
As an afterthought.
On her way to fight a god.”
Yeah when you put it like that it *does* sound pretty badass and not from the kind of person you’d want top antagonize. Alas—
Unfortunately, even some real world people look for those kinds of folks just to antagonize them.
THAT’s what was bothering me!
She’s recognized the updated information but she didn’t synthesize it into, “Hey, maybe that means my snap judgment about Who Alinua Is was wrong.” She calls Alinua a coward and then says Alinua went to fight a god and then Doesn’t Reassess Whether Alinua Is A Coward.
It’s a very realistic oversight for even someone as smart as Shrike to make, but also incredibly frustrating. Good character writing.
The metal mommy wants the plant queen.
This team needs a name. What would be fitting?
We seem to be uncomfortable calling them “Shrike and her boys,” but it’s kind of canonical
Alinua’s giant tree count: 2
How high will the number get? Only time will tell…
Christ I forgot how crazy Alinua’s feat was. Obviously the original panels way back when were cool, but hearing it phrased as “an afterthought on her way to fight a god” makes it seem even cooler
ooooohhh boy
oooohh boy
Shrike is giving of some “motivated” vibes
Ah, she’s seen what being completely dwarfed in level is like and wants to know how it happened.
… Surely she doesn’t mean to FIGHT Alinua after that.