2.3.7
on October 14, 2024
at 3:00 am
all according to plan. maybe. according to someone’s plan. probably not erin’s though
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
all according to plan. maybe. according to someone’s plan. probably not erin’s though
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: he was unprepared for falst’s eight foot vertical leap
Image source: answer
Tumblr text: going just great
Tumblr Text: going just great
I wonder if that’s referencing 1.20.26
I believe it’s a My Brother, My Brother, and Me reference. Griffin McElroy in a faux job interview cites an eight foot vertical leap as part of his qualifications.
Twitter text: uh-oh, that guy was load-bearing
Since no one’s posted this yet, I’ll post it.
Twitter/Bluesky text: uh-oh that guy was load-bearing
The ice holding the Champion shatters, bursting out in all directions. Erin falls backwards, crying out as he hits the deck, the shards of ice slicing his chest and arms.
“Now face me, wyrm,” the Champion growls. “You have much to answer for.” Erin lies on the deck, tattoos dark, magic streaming off him as the spell is cut off. “Or will you cower in the dark as your vessel is destroyed?”
“Don’t–!” Alinua starts.
Suddenly, Falst leaps from behind the Champion, locking his legs around his chest and trapping him in a chokehold.
“Now!” Falst shouts.
Yay finally getting to this one
So it seems that Erin cannot cast if his tattoos are damaged… we saw a little bit of that in the V.D.-Dainix fight, when V.D. had to heal the tattoos that Dainix burned off, but it wasn’t confirmed till now cause V.D. healed them immediately in that fight.
I wonder if anything will happen with V.D.’s tattoo being sliced? Some of those cuts are on Erin’s chest…
Wonder if Alinua’s saying “Don’t-” to Champion or Falst. Probably Champion.
I was having a lot of trouble coming up with something to describe Falst’s grab of Champion… Ended up with this one
Wasn’t Erin… holding back a whopping great storm? And now he’s maybe knocked out and at least lying injured on the floor
This is going great
I think Alinua is trying to tell him that. If he and Erin fight, one of the two might! survive, everyone else dies no matter the outcome.
Dude’s knocked down, bleeding, possibly dazed, and the spell’s STILL UP? Cause that would be awesome! I think its slipping though, the rain he was halting is now falling freely over the ship
Or, as OngoingConversationCouplet said… What might be worse is if he now can’t turn it off
No, the spell’s stopped I think, you can see Erin’s tattoos are black. So it seems like if his tattoos get broken somehow, he can’t use that element at all, which makes sense. But it is a really big risk, like what if… idk… his arms get chopped off or something? I mean, then he would have bigger problems than not being able to use magic, but…
there are no raindrops splashing off the deck. the rain we see must be behind the ship.
(i know how much Red loves to include tedious little details like that 🙂 )
Teeemwurk
Epic as ever, Michael spreads his wings so bright
But is grabbed by a Falst, interrupting the fight
Panel 1 appreciation, by the gods does he look cool.
Also I just noticed that it looks like a shard of ice cuts Erin’s arm in Panel 2. In Panel 4 he seems to have cuts on both arms. I have a feeling Erin might not be able to hold the storm with cuts in his seals.
Oh. Oh no.
I was just skimming some of Red’s posts on runic and sealing tattoos from a while back. I’ll bet you that Erin’s links don’t close on their own — he may have just lost the only way to turn OFF the spell…or at least stop circulating the power that is giving him that fever.
But you know who CAN open and close those links, apparently without the tattoos? Walter.
Michael may have just inadvertently forced Erin’s hand…which, of course, will make it easier for them to rationalize killing him.
Idk maybe they’re magic. The DID heal back after being burnt off.
erin isn’t in a dire need to open and close those links right now tho and life magic heals the seals so it is fine for now but in the wiki it says that overchannel leads to elemental corruption and we basically just saw that with tarren “i like elemental corruption so much that i channel in my sleep so this is probably going to go badly for him
Semi related, where can you find her post on the subject? Is it on Tumblr? I don’t have a Tumblr account, so I don’t really know how to look for them
It WAS on Tumblr. Here’s the link: https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/683742354177474560/hiya-red-do-sealing-tattoos-look-different-from-a
This was the part that caught my attention: However, not every mage’s soul channels are equally responsive – some have channels that are very slow to open or close, or have very little control over how much power they’re drawing in, or never allow more than a slow trickle of power through. Generally, only mages who have experienced soul damage, typically from elemental corruption – and chimeric carriers – have displayed an inability to stop channeling once they start.
We have, of course, seen that Tarren’s connection doesn’t close, or closes slowly…but Erin’s channels allow much, MUCH more power in, and he already has the power circulating. I’m not sure how ‘deep’ the tattoos go, or what happens if they’re defaced, but I assume Walter healed him before (when Dainix burned his arm) because he knew that his vessel would be damaged if the seals weren’t restored.
I’m thinking that handling all that power is going to become a hell of a lot harder if Erin can’t moderate the flow — and he may not be able to stop at this point. Without the seals, is he like a black hole for that power? Will it make it harder for Alinua or Tess to work, if there’s not enough energy left for them to work with? Have I thought about this too much? (Yes, lol).
On another note, how much ambient Life energy is even available on the ocean’s surface? We’ve seen Alinua operate at top form in forests and cities, but in the battle with Tynan she was pretty limited to healing (even with the good soil). I can’t imagine she’ll have much to work with out here, or on the frozen continent we’re heading to. We might be in for a ‘No Healing’ arc soon.
Or maybe Alinua, as Life’s Vessel, can always channel an insane quantity of Life energy at will.
@veggiesnake (I can’t reply directly, guess the thread is at capacity lol)
There’s probably more life energy than you think. Oceans aren’t as barren and empty as they seem. Most sea life is found in the first 200m, called the sunlight zone (which isn’t too far btw, just under the length of 2 football fields).
That includes fish, reefs, and some aquatic mammals of course but also tons of plant matter, protozoa, bacteria and other microorganisms, especially around the surface where sunlight is most direct. And that’s just our mundane oceans! Auroran oceans have mermaids and who knows what other mythical aquatica.
Wings of light shatter ice into knives,
And he threatens to shatter the ship,
But an arm cut s across his throat. “NOW!”
Falst yells, with the choking grip.
Fingers crossed, Alinua can heal Erin’s arms.
Panel 1 appreciation squad lets goooo
Wings burst the ice in shivering shards of light
And Erin fell back, runes displaced with blood,
The suspended sky resuming its fall,
As the bright stranger stepped back to his hunt;
But claws caught the deck and sprang from behind
And Falst cried NOW! as he locked the pale head.
[Hello and hope that was interesting :3 I’m not trying to join the Poetry Gang, by the way, just felt like writing this!]
Bro, literally half the party is standing behind you, why do you keep insisting on holding a monologue?
Cause he gotta tell the party that he’s doing this for Good Reasons (TM).
Either Michael is insane or even more powerful than we’ve seen. I for one would be happy if the equally powerful except also the elemental magus dragon avatar didn’t use his phenomenal dragon powers against me. I sure wouldn’t attempt to bait him out with an appeal to his massive ego.
… or as a third option maybe Michael is still somewhat uncomfortable killing an in-control Erin.
I think the latter is at least a factor. They are after Walter, not Erin.
I love Falst with all my heart and soul
Our Paladin here is that most annoying sort of person.
“I know I’m right and won’t listen to you.”
This was not meant as a response…
Same. So much the same.
Me too. Falst is MVP of this page. Way to go, little dude. (That looks like a very well executed chokehold, too, intelligently using one arm to support and lock the other in place and make it more secure.)
…I realized five minutes after posting this that I’m not sure how much his right arm has recovered?? It might be okay, especially since it’s assisting the left, but I hope a teammate is able to follow up on the opening Falst created quickly.
Still an excellent tactical move. Falst is on Michael’s back where he’s harder to reach, he’s locked his limbs around securely, and if I’m not mistaken, he’s executing a sleeper hold and targeting both arteries, using the lefty arm like a vice. The bloodflow cutoff there can make people lose consciousness fast if they’re not broken in time.
This is exactly what I was going to say.
oooooooh will the ight boi realise falst has some lucy magic??
Holy shit I’m early!
Both Light and Void Dragons really love ruining Erin’s shirts, don’t they?
Gotta give Erin some points here for continuing to cast the spell in all this. Just performed an ice spell, potentially had the revelation L.D. is a real dragon god, said god spent a page talking about how he will fail, got nasty cuts from sharp ice and/or light magic, yet he’s still casting. Although, those casting arms seem a bit ropier; are those cuts messing with it, or is it a sign he’s finally getting tired?
Well, I think it’s safe to say the Champion can’t see Life in Alinua; even with his single minded determination, I think he’d have seen her as Alinua goes in to help. It reminds me of 1-5-20, but this time the dragons are staying put.
I’m hypothesising the Champion’s Paladin abilities are min-maxed towards combat to better be L.D.’s … well, champion. At the end of chapter 7, he’s the one beating the monster and the relief effort afterwards is handled by other Paladins. The Champion may not be able to see Life, but Theia, a character confirmed to have L.D.’s eyes, might. Could make for some interesting drama.
And here’s Falst, coming in clutch with a “FWAK”! Judging from the last page, he was the only gang member right now able to move quickly and throw hands. Plus he’s significantly more stealthy at jumping opponents than the living light show that is Tess. He’s also smart enough to know he can’t beat such a strong opponent alone, so instead he restrains them for an attack. But who’s attack?
“But whose attack?”
My money’s on Dainix, because they’ve developed some combat teamwork in the caves.
But it would be great if the team had developed to the point where they can all attack when given an opportunity.
My money would be Kendal or Tess, since he’s looking to the right, where they currently are, but I can see it being Dainix also since he can’t rotate his head 180 degrees
I laughed so hard i startled my dog awake
It depends on whether they attack to injured, or incapacitate. If to injure, Kendal would have a good shot, or Dainix with his actual polearm. If to incapacitate, Tess could electrocute him (doubtful, given that Falst is RIGHT THERE) or Alinua could bind him.
Personally, I don’t think that’s quite what having LD’s eyes means.
Like, if the champion had instead seen Erin do void stuff with his eyes, I’d think the Lady would still have been able to show him to Lord Stefan. She wouldn’t have needed to because Erin would’ve been dead 3 seconds later, but she could’ve.
“One who bears my eyes”, in my eyes, is primordial speak for “some rando paladin advanced enough to have connected with me, but otherwise unimportant, you wouldn’t know her.”
I think if (really, when) Alinua really turns up the faucet on her power, either Michael or the Lady are going to see it.
… VD actually also took a while to notice. She conjured a whole plant wall in front of his face (1.5.15) and he didn’t notice for 5 pages (1.5.20 “She’s already here!”). Btw nice detail on those plants withering instantly, Red.
What about Stefan being hornbearer and being called the crown of some group. The phrase must mean more than what you said
He’s the “crown of the sept, bearer of [LD’s] horns”. I think he’s like the very top leader (besides the Light Dragon) of the paladins worldwide and there’s six other people at around his level.
If Theia was spontaneously upgraded from junior archivist to Eye of the Sept in the exact moment she witnessed Erin, I think LD would have called her that, not “one who bears my eyes”. At least she might have said “THE one who bears my eyes” or “SHE who bears my eyes”.
Also, have a look at 1.17.29, Theia’s eyes, and 2.0.8 / 2.0.10, Stefan’s eyes: they’re the same. They all have her eyes.
This doesn’t mean it isn’t possible that her witnessing Erin warranted a spontaneous promotion from intern to Chief Eyesight Officer, it is a pretty important thing to have seen. I’m just not convinced that that’s what the Lady meant with “one who bears my eyes”.
(What I definitely wouldn’t believe tho would be that Theia already was the Eye of the Sept in some way and just by sheer dumb luck happened to be the one singular paladin to witness the Tynan fight)
Agreed. It’s clear that eyes are important to these two dragon gods. They are the windows to the soul after all, and if the Lady is the manifestation of the soul, then it’s no surprise that every Paladin has her Vision. Not to mention the Silver Eyes of the Champion and the Golden Eyes of the Vessel.
I was just saying it means something special among the paladins. And the light dragon doesn’t embody soul
Falst, if that “Now!” is for Tess to hit Michael (and therefore you), I will be rather cross.
Tess: SPECIAL BEAM CANON!
(She shoots a lightning blast that drills through both their torsos)
I understood that reference XD
OOOhhhh! That was evil, @EvilTree! Appropriate for the Halloween season (but icky to imagine in my head!)
If its for Dainix that might be even worse, and for very similar reasons.
Kendal on the other hand might be able to do something to make an opening for the others that lets Falst not get in harms way.
Or he is simply going to solo the avatar of light to a standstill. It IS a very Kendal thing to do.
The Champion effortlessly bodied a demigod, a metal caste that was Chosen by the Sky, and the elemental magus/Void Dragon vessel, but he was not prepared for Falst’s last technique: Full Nelson!
Ok, to be fair, the demigod didn’t really want to fight in the first place, and the elemental magus is currently holding back a massive storm by channeling all(?) of the 6 elements at once, though that doesn’t undermine Falst’s grapple one bit.
wait if erin channels magic thru his tattoos, would damaging the tattoos hinder his casting?? cuz hes got some nasty cuts going straight thru the ink now
Did he just do the Lesbian Pose
I love Falst. Oh, he’s fantastic <3
Also HUGGING THE LIGHT WINGS WHEEE
Who’s going to hit him next?
Falst, could you stop being the MVP for FIVE PAGES?
I’m kind of waiting for Kendal and/or Dainix to light up with their full power.
We have established solidly that Dainix can, and if pushed, WILL burn VD out. I believe that Kendal with his full blue flame power can do the same thing.
What our boy the champion here doesn’t seem to get is that he is not the only person present who can handle VD, and that part of what they are doing is seeking a way to get a better handle on VD. He needs to be shown that VD is not (currently) a threat.
The junior archivist might be able to play a role here. Champion can’t be part of the party, but Archivist could, and through her VD could be monitored.
Of course, they have to get to the point of being able to hash that out first. Which seems to mean taking the champion down a peg or three.
The archivist couldn’t keep up with the team, she’s just a librarian or something
Theia looked damn determined to learn how fight when she was talking to Shrike to me.
I don’t really see more people being added to the party yet tbh. I think there’s still a lot of relationship development that needs to happen between the current party at the moment.
still the implication they think the dragon makes cave crawlers on purpose
Fun thing I noticed is that Falst was continuously at the edge of the frame since Erin yeeted some water at the paladin which is a very fun bit of fore shadowing about how Falst was gonna do something. The question though is who is he shouting too? Alinua and Erin are out and Dainix is probably way too seasick to do much other than maybe yeet another flash/smoke bomb. So is he shouting to both Kendal and Tess and is just hoping they take the cue and do something? He wouldn’t really have a chance to talk to them before so I doubt he really has a plan other than “let the others hit the stupid paladin”. I guess we must simply wait.
falst once again proving that mages are useless as soon as you get within melee range
No matter how clever the wizard or how subtle his craft, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style. -Jhreg, 1983
We don’t see it often, but I was admiring the light and texture used for the blood. RIP another of Erin’s shirts, lol. I wonder if there’ll be consequence to the fact that he was hit where all his major tattoos are? His arms…and his chest? (Although I assume if it was a simple matter of defacing the Dragon tattoo, we wouldn’t be here.)
We saw Dainix burn away half of Erin’s tattoos, which VD was forced to heal before those elements could be channeled again. But, with the exposition on high-capacity soul channels, and given how much energy he’s currently harnessing…methinks Erin is going to be in danger for a 0-3 score in the self-detonation department.
TL;DR: Stand back, Mr. Hubris. Let your buddies have some fun.
I find it funny that him trying to hold Michael himself literally blew up in his face.
I wonder why they think the Purple Stuff Lizard makes cave crawlers on purpose
AH yes, the Standing Spider-Monkey Choke Hold. A classic.
Paladin is not beating the “Ends Justify The Means Mentality” allegations this page
Finally, a block of ice shattering that ACTUALLY LACERATES SOMEONE. I mean, seriously. At that velocity, it should be like glass. There’s a reason you don’t clear the blockage in your ice dispenser with bare hands.
LD and Micheal are going to have to be really challenged to even think about other ways to deal with the VD problem they have polished mentally. Good luck with that team!
A holy paladin of light, bested by the simple elegance of an angry mf’s headlock
That sound effect almost sounds like curse word.
-AND HERE COMES FALST WITH THE METAL CHAIR!
I like the champion less and less each chapter. He gives off the impression that he cares more about feeling like a hero than actually doing the right thing
He’s TRYING to get Voidy to manifest while there are other people around? There goes at least pretending to care about collateral damage.
He’s perfectly aware of the fact that Erin is innocent in all this. He’s had the time since LD figured out that Voidy was loose to come to terms with the idea that he’d have to mercy-kill the poor bastard it’s puppeting.
But now here he is, and Erin is demonstrably NOT being puppeted. He has somehow resisted the VD’s control… for now. But according to LD, that just means he is being more subtle about his takeover – he’s planning to slowly devour Erin from the inside out. So in Michael’s eyes, he is NOT contained, and Erin has to die to protect the world.
That doesn’t change that Erin is an innocent man in over his head through no real fault of his own. He walked into a trap literally designed specifically for a people like himself, laid by a being older and more experienced than he can possibly fathom.
Killing Erin is the lesser evil to letting the Void Dragon escape, but *the lesser evil is still an evil.* Killing this innocent man will save the world, but it will still be killing an innocent man.
Michael wants Voidy to come out because that removes the great majority of the moral complexity here. There’s the BBEG, punch it in the face until it dies.
Right now he’s in the position of trying to explain to an innocent man who doesn’t want to die that he has to die for the sake of the world, and that is not easy, especially for a compassionate man as Michael has been shown to be.
this does NOT look like rest & recovery
floof squad is 99% OP powerhouses, I feel like they could take down Michael if they were all really trying, but maybe Erin’s comments and behavior before demotivated everyone. Thoughts?
Don’t mind if I do! Thanks for asking!
Kendal tried to de-escalate and talk, he deliberately opened himself to Michael’s retaliation. Tess presumably got emotional from seeing Erin threatened, and attacked alone without thinking. Nobody piled on while Erin had Michael restrained, so Erin’s ice imprisonment wasn’t enough either.
I think there are two reasons they’re not working as a team and swarming Michael. First is that they were dealing with a simultaneous storm and molten-rock-flinging volcanic eruption when Michael suddenly attacked. They are still very much surprised and disoriented by Michael’s sudden arrival less than two minutes ago.
Second, Michael being very obviously Lawful-Good coded, and loudly declaiming that he is doing the right thing, is confusing them and triggering the primal “size up the situation” instinct in the Floof Squad. They already don’t want to kill Michael, which makes any fight potentially harder and much more dangerous.
Falst, as always, is thinking tactically, desperately trying to get everyone to pile on. He figured it out the moment he said “Right…” several panels back!
there is also the fact that they are in a boat in the middle of the ocean, in land dainix and alinua have free range to use their powers but they can’t go full power on the boat without destroying it and throwing everyone into the sea(dainix would burn the wooden parts of the boat to the ground and alinua is probably in a even more extreme version of the zurith situation where she couldn’t use her powers without damaging her surroundings to make space for plant growth
Cut off his legs!
Aurora Question #6-7: Terribly sorry about missing 2-3-6, but welp.
Would you become Elemental Magus if you also had to deal with being possessed by Walter? And what/who do you think Falst is shouting ‘Now’ for?
Absolutely the fuck not. No room in my head for any bad ideas except my own.
I’d love to be a walking nuke heck yea
falst is probably telling dainix to do something, hopefully it has nothing to do with fire
Do I get Erin’s friends too? If not, then I would be permanently controlled by Walter because nothing would stop him. I would not want that.
Chuckles. Absolutely not. Though it would be hilarious to see the group attempt to keep the not even remotely combat trained person safe. As for who Falst is shouting for Alinua and Erin aren’t in the direction he’s looking neither is Dainix (plus he’s sea sick and on a boat and as such mostly useless) and I think Kendal and Tess are still in mostly the same area so most likely its Kendal and/or Tess. I doubt he had time to plan with either of them so he’s probably just trying to give them a chance to hit the paladin.
No thank you. I could never take that risk.
I would also hazard a guess that Falst is shouting at Dainix. They got some practice tag-teaming in the torture slime dungeon, and since Dainix held together enough to toss that flashbang earlier, he might be capable of a follow-up attack now.
My next guess would be Kendal. Even injured, Kendal is a powerhouse, and we saw him getting back to his feet a couple of pages ago.
Another possibility: Falst is shouting “NOW” to the party at large, trying to get them all (or any one of them) to dogpile the paladin.
GO FALST GO
YES FALST GET HIM
I feel like someone needs to find a concise and clear way to tell Michael that they’re headed to Helm *to get Walter out of Erin.*
On the other hand, I can totally see this going full-on Hero’s Journey, they actually defeat Michael and he joins the group, like something out of The Well At The End of the World. But I like the Mark Grayson method better.
I don’t think they know how connected Aliuna and LIFE are.
Which is odd isn’t it? I assumed the light dragon would have the same soul sense the void dragon does. I definitely had “Light Dragon recognizes Life in Alinua” on my bingo card for this encounter.
Had Alinua used Serious Life Powers in front of Erin before the first time Walter expressed knowledge of the connection? Because if so, it may be that soul sense could be an active sense; less a “hearing a ringing” and more a “putting on the night vision goggles” or “putting fingers to head to hear thoughts” kind of sense, where the sense is technically available but won’t come up until curiosity or concern triggers its use.
auuuuaghhh every page in this comic is spectacular
captain deploy the cat boy on the crazy angelic creature trying to kill the mad scientist/researcher
Is Alinua talking to Falst or Michael?
Seems like the Collector is going to be the unwitting hero of this story.
What? How?
Falst has little sibling energy here
I love that Mr. Paladin loudly monologing that he’s SURE he’s doing a VERY GOOD THING™ got all of the Floof Squad to go “Okay… no I feel a little bad about kicking the crap out of him,” except Tess who was like, “YOU HURT MY BABY BROTHER HOW DARE,” and Falst, who was like, “Very Good Things™ are overrated! Get wrecked!”