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Reunion Page 12: Someone To See You

Reunion Page 12: Someone To See You published on 119 Comments on Reunion Page 12: Someone To See You

And we’re back! Sorry about the hiccup last week, thank you for your patience! This next page is kind of a SURPRISE for everyone involved!

You may know already that I work for What Pumpkin over at Paradox Space, the Homestuck side-comic! If you haven’t checked it out yet, today is the start of a comic I drew for the site! It is about the Consorts and I think it is Very Cute.

119 Comments

Love that reaction! His mom looks surprisingly calm about this. Wonder if that’s because she already knows what’s going on, or if she’s just taking it the same way Tony did when he first found out.

I’d put it as Ophelia already knowing of the LA.
How else could she have so quickly gotten to Pwyll House in the LA, in the short time that Anthony and Blanche were going to and from Stereophonic?

Unless of course not only does she know but she knows ‘harpy’ is in the family.

Even if she knew ‘Harpy’ was in the family it should still be a surprise to find out that Anthony turned into one considering he is male!

Little harpies have to come from somewhere you know. Besides if he’s the first male harpy seen in ages, hes like a super-bachelor. The first potential positive for him emerges! :D …I just don’t want to know what a harpy pickup line is.

I don’t know why people keep assuming this would make him super popular among female harpies. Female harpies are used to having relationships with members of other species, so that’s probably what they’re attracted to. They might just find Anthony weird, or even offputting. They might habitually view harpy traits as inherently feminine, causing straight female harpies to find him *less* attractive. I think people keep looking at this as though harpies are a species that usually has both males and females, but the males are missing, instead of thinking about them as a species that is used to being all female. Harpies would have a very different perspective on this sort of thing than humans would.

Well maybe she knows /now/. Tony’s been in the avalon for at least a week I think? Mrs. Noir could have met with Ophelia before this and went over the situation with her well before hand and once she was ready arrange this little reunion.

While that look she’s giving her son could be guilt, it could also simply be “It’s alright son, don’t freak out, I still love you” type look. Just trying to look small, not mad or upset or scared that he’s suddenly sprouted feathers.

I think it could go either way.

I just love Blanche’s expression, “Um, Tony? Mate? I think she knows already.”

Blanche has become the king of Dull Surprise in this chapter. I guess he’s gone a little morose himself, poor thing.

I just like the lamp in the background of the last panel. :)

And the candle-holders behind Blanche’s mum, and the chair she’s sitting on. The backgrounds here are pretty dang slick.

Is it me or does she look… Sorry? Like, she has a secret she’s not told him yet.

There’s also the question of how she not only got into but KNEW ABOUT the Avalon

I kinda love how Blanche’s mum (Adelle? Is that her name?) has the chair she’s sitting in cut to accommodate her wings. Kory’s little touches always make me smile.

Love all the deer decorations in the house. Anthony should take some note of all that pride.

I’d call them deercorations.
;)

…go to your room.

Don’t tell me what to doe!

Oh deer…..

-Badger-

not making any assumptions yet, but it I have to admit, Tony’s mother’s expression is coming off a bit as guilty to me, like she’s known about this for awhile, though that may be because that is the most logical thing my brain can think to explain why she is in the avalon, because I don’t see Blanche’s mom calling her without tony’s permission or knowledge…

Theory time!
My theory is something along the line of siren. Maybe she uses magic to hide it. Sirens sound like something that would be a monster. Anyone wanna share their theories?

Siren may be the best theory we’ve thrown around so far.

I wonder (and this isn’t a part of the mythology for sirens as far as I know) if Tony’s mother expected this transformation, but not so soon. Lots of stories have magic undergo some change on or around someone’s sixteenth birthday, like how that’s when Jim had his growth spurt. Tony’s is just a few months away at this point. Tim said it looked like the medallion Tony touched had broken a weak spell. Weak or weakening?

I could imagine Ophelia delaying telling Tony time and again for one reason or other, wanting him to have a normal life for as long as she could give it, but now it’s too late for what she has to tell him to be warning or preparation. Her son has been blindsided by this thing she knew was coming, and that look on her face in panel four may very well be guilt.

I know I’ve postulated the siren theory a couple times. I never liked the harpy theory; too easy. I know in mythology there are instances of sirens having hand with which to play instruments. From the Wikipedia article on their appearance: “Sirens were believed to combine women and birds in various ways. In early Greek art, Sirens were represented as birds with large women’s heads, bird feathers and scaly feet. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings, playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps.” Not sure if they can switch between, but maybe it’s something he can learn later. I’m not surprised that his mother knew about the Avalon, in the first chapter of Exchanges, Anthony mentions that he and Blanche have been friends “since forever”. It could be that Anthony himself has seen the Avalon, but was just too young to remember.

Aren’t sirens a type of sea-creature, though? Granted, I didn’t look very hard, but a quick search of the word ‘siren’ gives me the sirens associated with singing to sailors at sea and luring them off the boats to drown them. I’ve never heard of the bird-like siren before.

The oldest stories of sirens have them as bird-women who live on islands. Their songs would lure sailors to approach the island in such a way that they would wreck and either drown or become stranded. Check the Wikipedia article. You’ll find pictures on there.

Later the myths tended to merge with mermaid lore, so you can find both bird-women and fish-women labeled as sirens and even a few that don’t have any non-human characteristics because the artist just didn’t like it, and the song is the most important thing anyway.

The hiccup in the “Tony is a siren” is that there traditionally aren’t really depictions of male sirens, but when you consider that many of the species in Skin Deep have been tweaked to greater or lesser extent from their traditional stories, we really can’t presuppose anything about a species characteristics or even existence until Kory says something.

True, there are no mentions of male sirens, but that hasn’t stopped the harpy theorists. Besides harpies are “monsters”, meaning they don’t have medallions. If Anthony’s mother was a harpy she’d have wings too. Sirens may be able to change either on their own (see my above comment on the Wikipedia article), or they might have an amulet. We’ll just have to wait for the big reveal.

Some guesses like Harpy, or Siren, or other things have been made, but looking at the plumage, it being currently a couple shades of brown. (dull, but Abigail said he would have beautiful plumage eventually)

Add that to the fact that of a bird of prey (slightly)…it seemed to me he looked like an owl

Now hear this : the Strix is, a mythical bird of ill omen, produce of METAMORPHOSIS, typically a human turned into an OWL, in addition, it was first documented in ancient GREECE (Greek flag in Gillis household anyone?)

So yeah, this is what i would bet my money on, can’t wait for the next page

I am thinking that Adelle might have made a phone call just after she finished cleaning up…

Adelle: Hello, Ophilia? It’s Adelle. …No, I’m afraid he’s worse, if anything. He just went at his primaries with some dress shears.. yes, blood everywhere! Oh, I fixed him up – gave him a proper clipping – but I don’t think this approach is working- he’s not going to come to terms with this on his own or in his own time – or at all, really. And he really hates the thought that he might never be able to see you again, not to mention how worried you might be. In fact there’s probably some suspension of disbelief there as to why you haven’t- Yes, I do indeed think you should come round. I believe the boys are going to be heading out shortly, so now would be a good time. You might want to hurry, though – they could be back shortly, especially if Tony blows up again. …You can park in the street by the entrance and get a pay-and-display ticket from the door warden… oh, don’t worry about that – the bugbears love dealing with car thieves… alright, I’ll see you there, then… bye-bye!

I could easily see such a phonecall, noting what we already knew of the friendship between Blanche and Anthony.
Blanche clearly knew where Anthony lived.
Ophelia didn’t raise an eyebrow at Blanche showing up unannounced in the first page of chapter 2 of Exchanges.
Halloween costuming. This latter point would very likely have had some phonecalls between Ophelia and Adelle.

Oh dear. On one hand, hooray, Tony now has some connection to the outside world again! On the other hand, he can’t be too pleased with his mom hiding this from him (if that’s what she did)… And he still can’t go out in public or live his conception of a regular life outside the L.A. :c

(The true moral of Skin Deep: monster dads will screw you up big time.)

I’m actually suspecting -Ophelia- is the monster in this relationship. Tony mentioned his dad was a sailor; ancient Greek mythology states that sailors could be lured to their deaths by the sweet song of the siren (a bird-woman) or be assailed by harpies (also bird-women).

I think you’re right about Ophelia being the monster in the relationship. If she is a siren, I suspect that the sailor was lured into matrimony instead of death. :-)

Sirens and harpies are both depicted as exclusively female in Greek mythology. Ophelia probably assumed that since Tony had been born male, he was completely human, therefore his nonhuman heritage was a non-issue. Then the spell that transformed her into a human did a gender bender. At a guess, I am assuming that harpies and sirens always give birth (or hatch out) females of their own species when paired with human men. Human women give birth to human offspring of both genders. (But I’m sure you already know that.) Ophelia’s transformation spell might have made her human enough to give birth to both male and female children, but left her mythical enough so that her offspring would be monsters no matter what gender they were born.

Shouldn’t he have notice mrs Noir was in midform within the presence of his mother?

Damn good point.
None of us over on Patreon ever stopped to note that, whilst we discussed the preview versions of this page.

I don’t think it’s really all that surprising. He’s used to seeing Mrs. Noir. What he was not expecting to see was his mother, especially with everything else on his mind. His reaction was one of instant surprise and shock, not thoughtful analysis of the situation, lol.

I suppose you have a point there. However sometimes your logical mind makes itself known in a moment of panic, which is why some people make insightful and amazing intuitive leaps that while close to the right answer are still quite wrong. Which means Anthony is most likely going have a moment that looks like his brain just broke on the next page.

Yeah, he only just walked in the door. He hasn’t had any time to -process- what he’s seeing, let alone think about the implications.

True enough about Anthony’s reaction, Chaos.
But what I was getting at, is that whilst those of us over on Patreon were discussing the preview verions of this page, we never stopped to note that Adelle was in midform, with Ophelia.
It’s the implications from Adelle being in midform, with Ophelia present, that is of import.

Oh my days!
I was guessing Tony’s mum might show up, but I didn’t think it might be at the Noir household.
Either way she has some explaining to do, to both Tony and everyone else and I’m intrigued with what her story his and the reasons for hiding things from Tony, but as was said in a film “A womans heart runs as deep as an ocean”

Its entirely possible that Anthony’s mum knew about her husband’s secret. Perhaps fearing how his family would be treated should the truth about his identity come out, Tony’s father left them. thinking that they could have a better life without him

I don’t think it was the husband that had the secret. Harpies and sirens are considered female only (same goes with centaurs being male only-depending on what mythological version you a reading, though; satyrs are usually male only).

If we go by Ike’s family of circumstance, one parent was the monster who got a spell to turn them human. The offspring has a chance to be human and both Ike and Anthony were. The interesting question is the age when they first change. One born human who was actually a satyr needs to get a medallion in order to change. However, in Ike’s case, his mother is a natural shapeshifter (no need for medallion). So, maybe it was his mother’s side that caused him to change for the first time instead of remaining human. Or is it an age thing where an offspring of a monster will change either way or was that medallion that he touched beforehand enough to break the spell (makes me wonder how strong that spell is to begin with if it is extremely dangerous for a monster to take in order to become human).

I wish this was a double page. I want to know what his mom has to say so badly!

In standard Skin Deep fashion, this will be the last page of this storyline and we’ll be off to follow some new character for a year!

j/k =D

And HERE is where I catch up!? D,:<

lol, I'll be looking forward to your continued works Kory. It's also fun knowing that one of the comics I read is drawn just over yonder Columbia. I'll be over here, y'know, keeping The Couve normal and whatnot or whatever it is we Vancouveronians stereotypically do. xD

if I may post a reaction in dutch. Het verbaasd me niet dat Anthony zo afstandelijk is tegen Blanche. Ik bedoel, kijk eens wat hij heeft gedaan. En dat hij het liever niet tegen zijn moeder zegt, dat verbaasd me nog minder.

Nou, het lijkt erop dat je al gedaan.
Tony is alleen ver van Blanche want hij is de enige persoon Tony heeft de schuld, maar tegelijkertijd Tony vertrouwt op Blanche voor hulp en misschien ondersteuning, niet alleen dat hij verblijft in Blanche’s huis.

Met de verschijning van Tony’s moeder, kan het opruimen van een aantal zaken.

His mom’s face is more of “i got something to tell you.”.

To a number of us, Ophelia’s expression feels more like, “I’ve got something to tell you, and it’s not at all good news”
If it was merely, “i got something to tell you.”, then you would not expect to see such a forlorn and/or guilty expression on her face. You’d expect a more neutral, or surprised, expression over Anthony’s appearance.

http://skindeepcomic.tumblr.com/post/90329548301/would-there-happen-to-be-sirens-in-the-skin-deep

Well, damn. There goes the wrench in our theorizing.

This post did a good job of confusing Siren theorists, luckily, I’m not one of those

My own guess was, and still is, that Anthony might be a Strix, here’s why :

-Strix is a genus of owls, but it’s also a sort of mythological humans turned into owls by a curse, doesn’t Anthony look a bit like an owl, with dull brown feathers and clawed feet

-Strix are supposedy products of methamorphosis, wich explains that no specific medallion was the cause of anthony’s turning

-Strix were also first documented in Greece, it’s safe to assume the creatures themselves are greek, like the flag in the Gillis household

The mythos of Strix being shaky and unspecific at best, I might be completely off the mark.

Except that the notes section of the Exchanges print edition says that Anthony’s bird parts are modeled after a frigatebird, rather than any species of owl.

Well I definitely did not know that, thanks.

I guess my theory is also debunked…except the wording bothers me.

Anthony’s legs and wings being MODELED after a frigatebird…might be because of convenience, not because of what he actually is (ever tried to sketch owl feet and wings?)

of course, i did say i might be wrong and I very well might stil be, but i’ll bet on the off chance and stick with Strix

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