My gut reaction was that Alinua, despite being very scared to do so, is preparing herself to make a direct call to the Life Primordial. There are a lot of questions she needs answered, and it would be very beneficial to be able to interact with it when nobody’s life is in peril, for once.
But Alinua seems very, very scared of the Life Primordial, and of what it has done to her, and of the possibility that it could overwrite her personality or change her in ways she doesn’t want and might not be able to comprehend.
A Character Development Coma at this point would hilariously upstage the fast-approaching finished version of the Tumblr layout sketch with the boys trying to keep Falst in a room.
Falst suggests better gifts: “An unstoppable ally
That yields to neither death nor pain ”
“He already knows we’ve got you,” Dainix smiles.
The injured Falst tries to flee, in vain.
Alinua, meanwhile, sits on a hill,
Gazing out at the rolling blue water.
Then lying back, ruffling the grass,
A moment of peace finds Life’s daughter.
Dainix uses Compliment! It’s super effective! Wild Falst fled the battle!
Sorry Falst, this ‘aint an ancient fable where the king of the city gives the heroes great weapons or wisdom; I’m afraid you’re on your own. Can’t blame Falst for being distrusting, what with his only other city god experiences (that we know of) being Zuurith, who locked up Kendal, and Vash, who possessed Kendal.
Falst’s face in panel 4 is amazing yes, but I also like how you can see his tail raise slightly in surprise. Wherever Falst is or what he’s doing, he hates being caught off guard, and genuine compliments do just that. Unlike being caught off guard in a fight however, he doesn’t know how to deal with those.
Looks like Dainix may have to wait a bit longer for that glassdust; Alinua is having a moment. Last we saw her she was emotionally drained from Kendal’s injuries and the Glort battle and she may still be recovering. What’s exactly on her mind I wonder? Still worrying about Kendal even now that he’s healed? Finally having time to ruminate on her dream conversation with Life? Worrying about how effective she’ll be out at sea with no dirt? Or maybe something else entirely?
Also: Hey everyone, I’m back. I had a lovely time, walked great beaches with lots of shells and seaglass, saw plenty of wildlife including an otter, and in general it was very relaxing. The long drives to and fro were a pain though, need to break up the journey next time, but it was still a great holiday.
*snortgiggle* TOO CUTE. The tail floofing up! The blush! The eyes! And the fact that Dainix just casually said it, with no ulterior motive or planning; oh, I love it <3
Also Kendal being absolutely beautiful.
Also Alinua being absolutely beautiful.
They are ALL beautiful. I hope we get at least a couple strips where we can enjoy how dang cute they all are – as well as get a better idea of the town’s layout. Even if they then leave, it gives the world a better feeling of permanence and tangibility.
Anonymous Aurora Question #45: Assuming they get married (idk, just sounds funny). Where would Dainix and Falst go for their honeymoon? Who wears a bride dress and who wears a groomndress? Or are they both grooms?
I imagine the local city god or emissary would officiate over some sort of legal ceremony, but the actual traditions of “marriage” could be anything. The dress code, for one, would vary wildly. And this is just within majority-human cultures.
That said, my thoughts are effectively headcanon. Red will decide.
afjskgs this page made me grin SO hard!
– Falst. Falst with all his ideas and Kendal’s lowkey reactions. Love that exchange.
– DAINIX?! Hello? Smooth much???
– Also: it took me a sec (and the next panel) to clock that he was talking about Falst and not Kendal. This team’s got a ton of stubborn powerhouses.
– Local cat gremlin KO’d by compliment. Bluescreen and immediate attempt to evacuate. Pfffff
– “Definitely not.” Ah I see where this is going.
– Alinua looks pensive. I wonder what she’s thinking about.
OH! I wonder if Alinua’s scared about crossing the ocean? Her whole gig is plants and the earth and that kinda needs to happen on land. I bet she’s worried about going into an area that she can’t really grow plants in.
Though knowing her she could like, turn the ship into a tree or something, but then again the ship’s metal so might not work out well.
Kinda want to see her try though. And there’s always seaweed and sea plants! Now I’m hoping for a sea monster attack. Or a Shrike attack.
I am curious about how that would work because things can grow in the ocean, even without earth and her magic is life rather than earth magic so I wonder what the ocean even is. Is it the water primordial with parts of life in it because if that’s so than the land would be the rock primordial with parts of life in it, so hopefully Alinua will be fine.
Canonically, Wind and Life “sinks into” both Stone and Water equally (but not Wind), so there should be plenty of Life for Alinua to use. I think the main issue is she has no experience with ocean life, and she doesn’t want to fail the party due to that lack
Your party is six people. Two of them use magic instead of weapons, one of them is his own weapon in a metaphorical sense, and a fourth is her own weapon in a “punches really good” sense.
My point is, if you had a big pile of weapons, most of them would go unused.
Falst: a flustered mess trying to avoid his fellings
Dainix: flirting? probably doesn’t even realize
Kendal: *confused asexual noises* or maybe “omg is he flirting? I ship it”
To be fair, panel 4 Kendal makes exactly the same face I do when the allos are at it. He’s going to think about this for another 20 minutes before he realises: “Oh wait, were they flirting? Is that what that was?”
Having Dainix around is going to be good for Falst, even if he doesn’t think so at first. The boy needs to learn how to handle getting sincere compliments, and having a team member who will hand them out totally casually will help.
You know, I just realized something… Why would Falst consider a “cryptic prophecy of future victory” a thing a god might give? “Big pile of Weapons”, “spare dragon”, “unstoppable ally”, yeah, sure, (although that second one is telling in its own right), but why a prophecy? What was Falst up to before he joined the party? What lore are we missing?
Oh, I hadn’t considered it before now, but I wonder how Alinua’s plant powers would work on a metal boat in the middle of the sea? We’ve seen her create plants out of nothing so she wouldn’t be powerless, but it certainly seems outside her home turf.
Have we seen that? It seems like she at least needs soil that plants to shape would conceivably be in, and she distinctly used the melon seeds to make that plant wall when running from Shrike.
Okay, Aspie question. Why is Dainix’s line a compliment?
I personally read those panels as Dainix poking fun at Falst; Dainix is making a joke that they definitely NEED someone that yields to neither death nor pain, because, they’re already saddled with Falst, who TOTALLY WOULD wimp out (which they both know isn’t true, making it clear that it’s just a joke). Falst throws up his hands and stomps out of the room at the mock insult.
I can’t figure out how to read it as a compliment, because if Dainix is trying to say that Falst IS the “unstoppable ally that yields to neither death nor pain”, then I feel like his lines would have to be: “That DOESN’T make sense. He already knows we’ve got you.” They’re talking about ways that Argist could conceivably help them, and Kendal has already shot down things that they don’t need or Argist doesn’t have, so I don’t know how Dainix saying “That one makes sense” could mean anything other than “Yeah, that’s something we need and don’t have.”
Falst is listing boons the local city god could’ve given them, half-joking. Weapons, transportation (in the form of dragons), a new party member who “yields to neither death nor pain”. When he says the latter, Dainix answers that it makes sense why the god hasn’t given them that boon, because they already have Falst. As in, they already have someone like that. That’s the compliment. Hope this helps.
Okay, coming back to this very late: I got distracted by the adorableness the first time around, but I’d like to revisit Falst’s boon suggestions and tentatively predict that somehow, in some way, they will be fulfilled. Just not by Argist. And possibly in a monkey’s paw kind of way.
1. A big pile of weapons
– Excuse me. Dainix is sitting right there, homebrewing explosives in a pot that looks large enough to sit in. Add that to his (still defunct?) grappling hook, spear, and other gear, and the man is a walking arsenal already. …So Falst is the unstoppable ally, and Dainix is the weapons stash. :3
– I could see Shrike having many weapons at her disposal and attacking the Floof Gang with a bunch of them. Maybe. Potentially.
– Possibly: treasure? In a future volcano heist? Or on the high seas if pirates get involved?
2. A spare dragon or two to get them over the ocean quicker
– We have already seen the storm drake in the interlude, and we know the paladins took it inside and may have recruited it. We also know the paladins are going to play a role in this arc. At least one sentient dragon will be involved in this plot *somehow*.
– There’s also the light dragon in the background. Maybe she’ll possess yet another dragon? Or maybe, given Falst’s seeming connection to her powers, or at least Falst’s light magic claw thing that resembles her powers, she’ll help Falst specifically. Or not. Perhaps Falst wants nothing to do with the paladins, and the light dragon will cause problems for him accordingly. Hm. Leaning more toward the once-possessed storm drake and its ilk.
3. A cryptic prophecy of future victory
– Whatever the heck Caliban and Tahraim are plotting for Dainix. Potentially. Plus, Tahraim is the poster god of being cryptic and obtuse.
– Possibly a cryptic prophecy in the paladins’ lore? Possibly connected to Falst?
– Perhaps something more sinister, like a warning that the Void Dragon will succeed in bringing about a cataclysm. Though I’m leaning toward the first bullet point, personally.
Whew. Just had to get the theorizing out of my system.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: falst fails a con save to resist being complimented
Image source: out-1
Tumblr text: something something tactical
Twitter text: the boys are being silly
I love Kendal’s reaction to that statement.
HELLO???? DAINIX?
The soulfire must have melted him a little bit, because that was smooth
My gods these bitches gay
Good for them!
ahhh nice grassy hill break
A very beautiful and tranquil scene indeed. The quiet before the coming storm?
Falst throwing himself outside to avoid his feelings is hilarious
What up girl, you’re looking melancholic and pensive
FALST BLUSH!
FALST BLUSH!!!
Oh yeah, I usually don’t view Aurora at high enough resolution, but yeah, he even blushed colorwise.
Why not grant a boon?
Weapons, dragons, prophecies?
There’s no need for that
(Bonus)
Well what have we here?
Blush on panel four, it seems
Shippers eating well
ooo! cool poetry
<3
Laying down on the grass is relaxing, enjoy and please don’t get interupted by anyone, you need a rest, yes that includes you life.
My gut reaction was that Alinua, despite being very scared to do so, is preparing herself to make a direct call to the Life Primordial. There are a lot of questions she needs answered, and it would be very beneficial to be able to interact with it when nobody’s life is in peril, for once.
But Alinua seems very, very scared of the Life Primordial, and of what it has done to her, and of the possibility that it could overwrite her personality or change her in ways she doesn’t want and might not be able to comprehend.
A Character Development Coma at this point would hilariously upstage the fast-approaching finished version of the Tumblr layout sketch with the boys trying to keep Falst in a room.
There is one question for the future: will Dainix realize he shouldn’t flirt with Falst, or will he do it anyways?
Falst doesn’t take compliments very well
And Ali relaxes where the sea waves swell
Oh, Falst. Poor, sweet, edgy Falst.
Falst suggests better gifts: “An unstoppable ally
That yields to neither death nor pain ”
“He already knows we’ve got you,” Dainix smiles.
The injured Falst tries to flee, in vain.
Alinua, meanwhile, sits on a hill,
Gazing out at the rolling blue water.
Then lying back, ruffling the grass,
A moment of peace finds Life’s daughter.
Finally got around to filling this one in.
oh I love this little bit of banter, it’s so cute 🙂
Dainix uses Compliment! It’s super effective! Wild Falst fled the battle!
Sorry Falst, this ‘aint an ancient fable where the king of the city gives the heroes great weapons or wisdom; I’m afraid you’re on your own. Can’t blame Falst for being distrusting, what with his only other city god experiences (that we know of) being Zuurith, who locked up Kendal, and Vash, who possessed Kendal.
Falst’s face in panel 4 is amazing yes, but I also like how you can see his tail raise slightly in surprise. Wherever Falst is or what he’s doing, he hates being caught off guard, and genuine compliments do just that. Unlike being caught off guard in a fight however, he doesn’t know how to deal with those.
Looks like Dainix may have to wait a bit longer for that glassdust; Alinua is having a moment. Last we saw her she was emotionally drained from Kendal’s injuries and the Glort battle and she may still be recovering. What’s exactly on her mind I wonder? Still worrying about Kendal even now that he’s healed? Finally having time to ruminate on her dream conversation with Life? Worrying about how effective she’ll be out at sea with no dirt? Or maybe something else entirely?
Also: Hey everyone, I’m back. I had a lovely time, walked great beaches with lots of shells and seaglass, saw plenty of wildlife including an otter, and in general it was very relaxing. The long drives to and fro were a pain though, need to break up the journey next time, but it was still a great holiday.
I am glad you are feeling refreshed, @Evil Tree! (smile)
I didn’t notice Falst’s tail! Oh that’s a fantastic detail!
Ali does look a little hesitant of being away from dirt. Just wait until she discovers algea and seaweed though.
Also I can’t help but notice how happy Kendal especially looks. Look at our boy :’)
Speaking of Kendal’s injuries, has anyone else noticed the way he’s holding his stomach? Methinks there’s some lingering effects there as well
HIS LITTLE BLUSH!!! >.<
*snortgiggle* TOO CUTE. The tail floofing up! The blush! The eyes! And the fact that Dainix just casually said it, with no ulterior motive or planning; oh, I love it <3
Also Kendal being absolutely beautiful.
Also Alinua being absolutely beautiful.
They are ALL beautiful. I hope we get at least a couple strips where we can enjoy how dang cute they all are – as well as get a better idea of the town’s layout. Even if they then leave, it gives the world a better feeling of permanence and tangibility.
falst’s _eyes_ i can’t
Anonymous Aurora Question #45: Assuming they get married (idk, just sounds funny). Where would Dainix and Falst go for their honeymoon? Who wears a bride dress and who wears a groomndress? Or are they both grooms?
Or both brides
dainix canNOT be persuaded to wear a real shirt for ANY occasion. it’s poncho or nothing
to be fair if i had magical top surgery/hrt as good as him id be shirtless all the time too
Falst is okay with nothing
Who’s to say marriage has the same traditions in Aurora. Wouldn’t surprise me if it wasn’t really something that exists in universe.
I imagine the local city god or emissary would officiate over some sort of legal ceremony, but the actual traditions of “marriage” could be anything. The dress code, for one, would vary wildly. And this is just within majority-human cultures.
That said, my thoughts are effectively headcanon. Red will decide.
…I mean they’re obviously both grooms, but also the image of Falst in a wedding dress is incredibly f*cking funny so I 100% support it!
Though on the OTHER other hand, Falst in a full tuxedo is only marginally less funny, so I’d accept it out of hand as well.
FERINHEIT
451 Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns,
but 451 Ferinheit is the temperature at which shippers hearts melt.
Falst would punch a monster while on the brink of death, but dealing with feelings? No sir (im squealing)
leave her alone she’s photosynthesizing
My god??? These bitches gay????
Couldn’t they just be besties like some girls do?
They might be chaste?? Like Sappho??
Pshh🤣
FALST LOL
To be fair, that’s my reaction to getting a compliment as well
I must remember to compliment you more often.
the blush!
Falst and dainix are the BEST ship
Ah! My one true weakness! A sincere complement
Survive a fall from a 50-meter cliff: medium difficulty, entirely possible with support
Take a single, sincere, compliment graciously: impossible
to be fair he did walk right into that one
afjskgs this page made me grin SO hard!
– Falst. Falst with all his ideas and Kendal’s lowkey reactions. Love that exchange.
– DAINIX?! Hello? Smooth much???
– Also: it took me a sec (and the next panel) to clock that he was talking about Falst and not Kendal. This team’s got a ton of stubborn powerhouses.
– Local cat gremlin KO’d by compliment. Bluescreen and immediate attempt to evacuate. Pfffff
– “Definitely not.” Ah I see where this is going.
– Alinua looks pensive. I wonder what she’s thinking about.
SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP
FALST? FALST BUDDY? GOT SOMETHING TO SHARE WITH THE CLASS?
🤨🏳️🌈⁉️
Falst’s arm is in a cast, Falst, Dainix, and Kendal are all together, Alinua is coming back soon, and Falst is trying to escape? Are we going to get this panel?
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/734989041151492096/out-of-curiosity-how-far-ahead-are-you-on-the
(Sorry, I don’t know how to make the nice links)
we are 100% getting this soon, and I can’t wait for the boys to explain to Alinua what’s going on.
Local catboy gets flirted with, leaves immediately
falst is o me i run and shout when someone complements me to
OH! I wonder if Alinua’s scared about crossing the ocean? Her whole gig is plants and the earth and that kinda needs to happen on land. I bet she’s worried about going into an area that she can’t really grow plants in.
Though knowing her she could like, turn the ship into a tree or something, but then again the ship’s metal so might not work out well.
Kinda want to see her try though. And there’s always seaweed and sea plants! Now I’m hoping for a sea monster attack. Or a Shrike attack.
Prosoed compromise: Shrike-and-co.-riding-one-or-more-sea-monsters attack?
I am curious about how that would work because things can grow in the ocean, even without earth and her magic is life rather than earth magic so I wonder what the ocean even is. Is it the water primordial with parts of life in it because if that’s so than the land would be the rock primordial with parts of life in it, so hopefully Alinua will be fine.
Canonically, Wind and Life “sinks into” both Stone and Water equally (but not Wind), so there should be plenty of Life for Alinua to use. I think the main issue is she has no experience with ocean life, and she doesn’t want to fail the party due to that lack
OOOOOHHHHH LET’S FUCKING GOOOOO FAINIX OR WHATEVER THE SHIP NAME IS WOOOOOOOOOO!
It’s crustables/ferinheit, depending on how old fashioned you want to be.
Where’d those ship names come from?
GOTTEM LOL
Your party is six people. Two of them use magic instead of weapons, one of them is his own weapon in a metaphorical sense, and a fourth is her own weapon in a “punches really good” sense.
My point is, if you had a big pile of weapons, most of them would go unused.
A fifth uses his own claws, and the sixth already has a big pile of weapons.
It has been over 25 panels since the floof squad has committed any crimes, the longest non-crime since the gang got together! (Don’t fact-check that)
Gay
OK WHAT IS THE SHIP NAME? I know there already has to be one right? Have we agreed on one? Is it Dalste? Fainix? Falnix? I NEED TO KNOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
Theyr’re too cute… my heart.
I think the most common one is “ferinheit” which I personal love
There’s also Crustables, from Crucible + Falst (and I assume uncrustables which is fun)
It’s crustables because people were shipping these two before Dainix was actually introduced, and the sketch was titled crustables.
Falst: a flustered mess trying to avoid his fellings
Dainix: flirting? probably doesn’t even realize
Kendal: *confused asexual noises* or maybe “omg is he flirting? I ship it”
To be fair, panel 4 Kendal makes exactly the same face I do when the allos are at it. He’s going to think about this for another 20 minutes before he realises: “Oh wait, were they flirting? Is that what that was?”
HOLY SHIT DAINIX FLIRTING AND FALSRT BLUSHING AAAAHHHH
Having Dainix around is going to be good for Falst, even if he doesn’t think so at first. The boy needs to learn how to handle getting sincere compliments, and having a team member who will hand them out totally casually will help.
Shoot, I didn’t edit as well as I should have. Ignore the first instance of “Wind”
You know, I just realized something… Why would Falst consider a “cryptic prophecy of future victory” a thing a god might give? “Big pile of Weapons”, “spare dragon”, “unstoppable ally”, yeah, sure, (although that second one is telling in its own right), but why a prophecy? What was Falst up to before he joined the party? What lore are we missing?
i cannnn’t
you cant even see his whole face but Dainix looks so proud of himself in panel 4
FALST BLUSH FALST BLUSH
Oh, I hadn’t considered it before now, but I wonder how Alinua’s plant powers would work on a metal boat in the middle of the sea? We’ve seen her create plants out of nothing so she wouldn’t be powerless, but it certainly seems outside her home turf.
Have we seen that? It seems like she at least needs soil that plants to shape would conceivably be in, and she distinctly used the melon seeds to make that plant wall when running from Shrike.
Didn’t she create vines out of nothing but magic at the end of chapter 2 to try and break into the Singing Caves? Am I misremembering?
Okay, Aspie question. Why is Dainix’s line a compliment?
I personally read those panels as Dainix poking fun at Falst; Dainix is making a joke that they definitely NEED someone that yields to neither death nor pain, because, they’re already saddled with Falst, who TOTALLY WOULD wimp out (which they both know isn’t true, making it clear that it’s just a joke). Falst throws up his hands and stomps out of the room at the mock insult.
I can’t figure out how to read it as a compliment, because if Dainix is trying to say that Falst IS the “unstoppable ally that yields to neither death nor pain”, then I feel like his lines would have to be: “That DOESN’T make sense. He already knows we’ve got you.” They’re talking about ways that Argist could conceivably help them, and Kendal has already shot down things that they don’t need or Argist doesn’t have, so I don’t know how Dainix saying “That one makes sense” could mean anything other than “Yeah, that’s something we need and don’t have.”
Falst is listing boons the local city god could’ve given them, half-joking. Weapons, transportation (in the form of dragons), a new party member who “yields to neither death nor pain”. When he says the latter, Dainix answers that it makes sense why the god hasn’t given them that boon, because they already have Falst. As in, they already have someone like that. That’s the compliment. Hope this helps.
Yep, that does help. Thank you!
(Smash Bros announcer voice) GAY!!!
Alinua: They told me to go touch grass, but now that I’m doing it I still want to play Fortnite.
The GOAT Falst moment ever is panel 4.
Oh, he FLIRTS flirts. Okay.
Okay, coming back to this very late: I got distracted by the adorableness the first time around, but I’d like to revisit Falst’s boon suggestions and tentatively predict that somehow, in some way, they will be fulfilled. Just not by Argist. And possibly in a monkey’s paw kind of way.
1. A big pile of weapons
– Excuse me. Dainix is sitting right there, homebrewing explosives in a pot that looks large enough to sit in. Add that to his (still defunct?) grappling hook, spear, and other gear, and the man is a walking arsenal already. …So Falst is the unstoppable ally, and Dainix is the weapons stash. :3
– I could see Shrike having many weapons at her disposal and attacking the Floof Gang with a bunch of them. Maybe. Potentially.
– Possibly: treasure? In a future volcano heist? Or on the high seas if pirates get involved?
2. A spare dragon or two to get them over the ocean quicker
– We have already seen the storm drake in the interlude, and we know the paladins took it inside and may have recruited it. We also know the paladins are going to play a role in this arc. At least one sentient dragon will be involved in this plot *somehow*.
– There’s also the light dragon in the background. Maybe she’ll possess yet another dragon? Or maybe, given Falst’s seeming connection to her powers, or at least Falst’s light magic claw thing that resembles her powers, she’ll help Falst specifically. Or not. Perhaps Falst wants nothing to do with the paladins, and the light dragon will cause problems for him accordingly. Hm. Leaning more toward the once-possessed storm drake and its ilk.
3. A cryptic prophecy of future victory
– Whatever the heck Caliban and Tahraim are plotting for Dainix. Potentially. Plus, Tahraim is the poster god of being cryptic and obtuse.
– Possibly a cryptic prophecy in the paladins’ lore? Possibly connected to Falst?
– Perhaps something more sinister, like a warning that the Void Dragon will succeed in bringing about a cataclysm. Though I’m leaning toward the first bullet point, personally.
Whew. Just had to get the theorizing out of my system.
As soon as I saw they were getting that cave time together my shipper senses started tingling. Falst my sweet innocent boy!
Retroactive TL;DR: Awkward….
i HOWLED
“Our Top story tonight: Local man casually commits ‘BIG GAY’, one catboy found dead on the scene”
So glad I like rereading all the comments this made me laugh so hard.
the flirting caught me so off guard I spilled my boling tea ;’) worth it
Falst after being complimented once: Hmmmm, clearly the only solution here is to literally throw myself out of this window