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Currently On Hiatus: Please Enjoy A New Reader Question Every Weekday!

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Blanche is adorable, I love the fact that he sews – means he’s useful. And awesome. :D

*Every* man should, at the very least, know how to use a sewing machine even if they only know the absolute basics of needle-and-thread sewing. Gender-specifying domestic chores is the worst and most stupid thing that mankind has *EVER* done.

“Gender-specifying domestic chores is the worst and most stupid thing that mankind has *EVER* done.”

Not sure it’s the most stupid EVER, but dang close. Makes me glad that I can cook better than most restaurants, sew (hand or machine) knit and (gasp) DO LAUNDRY. Anyone want to call me less manly, come to my woodshop, or when I am fishing, and we’ll talk.
My wife loves that she doesn’t have to cook, and I am glad I don’t have to let her, since she is “passable” at best as a cook. But don’t tell her I said that, the couch is darn uncomfortable for sleeping!
Guess it’s easier for me to ignore gender-typing, as my mother was a fire fighter AND an Air Guard Tech Sergeant, maintenance squadron. Yes, my mother wore combat boots. :-)
I hope that gender-typing is going the way of the dinosaurs.

Poor Blanch…he looked so happy in the second panel, and then his spirit fell

The poor deer.

I see what you did there

I see what mage cat did there, doe I dont think anyone will let these puns get too far.

Yeah we should stop harpying on about it

Your talon me, but it does put a feather in your cap.
I’ll beak quite now.

And thus, silence fell over the land again and the pundits explored the wonders of hind sight.

Something makes me think Tony’s not in there…

Back when Tony stormed out of the living room, I thought he might be heading outside instead of upstairs, but I would expect the others to hear the difference.

I see that the default credits at the bottom of the comic page apparently include all of the characters created by Sfe Monster and Sheana Molloy, whether or not they actually appear in the current story, but Kory does seem to be correcting that sometimes. So far, we have yet to even see background cameos of Sam Hain, Dermot, Rupert, Phoenix, or Royce. Does that mean that Tony will end up at Greensleeves or The Underground before the story is over? (Will he see Rupert in human guise and recognize a classmate?) Of them all, Dermot is most likely to be a helpful person to talk to. Actually, I have a hunch that Horace would do him more good.

Tony’s limited finger control makes it hard for him to do things like playing a guitar, but he’s supposed to fasten a dozen or so buttons, up his sides into his wingarmpits? That’s not going to improve his frustration level any time soon.

Maybe not, but it seems that it *will* ultimately work out:

https://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/october-reader-question-18/

That RQ also hints at something else, That Anthony’s blood feathers will grow back.

I had a pet budgie for a few years, and I can confirm that blood feathers do indeed grow back, just like all the other feathers. n.n Probably repeating stuff you already know but oh well.
I love this arc, but I do feel sorry for Blanche. And… pretty much everyone else.

If it were too huge an issue, a common replacement for buttons is velcro, which even an octopus can use! ..that’s assuming octopuses have no manual dexterity. It’s kind of scary to think of octopii with a lot of fine motor control. Eugh.

Well, they have enough of that to open screw caps and corks. And if they feel interested in a scuba diver’s gear, they’ll have their tentacles all over the mask, valves etc. for some *tactile* exploration.

It doesn’t really have anything to do with the current page but in response to the discussion in the comments of the last page about whether the Noirs ate meat, Blanche’s teeth are deer teeth. He’s a definite herbivore.

As for the comic, I am loving the way you draw the emotions in the little animal details, Cory. no other webcomic I know of (and I read too many) does it as well as you.

Blanche your trying so hard to make things right, but its falling on deaf ears right now :( . Perhaps give the lad some space, and no doubt he will be down for food later.

Hmmm, he’s living in the attic and there are stairs up… I bet a lot of the houses have stairs to the roof especially for winged residents. And there’s good access for dropping water balloons.

If the inside of Blanche’s mouth is white, does that mean that his blood and flesh is white too?

Where is Mr. Noir in all of this? I am curious to see what a mature White Stag looks like.

I know art at this quality takes a while but I honestly wish it updated more often xD not to seem like a selfish broad or anything.

A mythology comic I enjoy is “A Red Tails Dream”.
http://www.minnasundberg.fi/artd.php
It take a while for the story to really get started but the art is simply beautiful. It’s finished, however, the story is no longer going on. The author/artist moved onto other things.

… which are (is) no less hi-quality and recommendation-worthy, though replacing mythology with outright post-apocalypse.

http://www.sssscomic.com/index.php

Hey, it’s ok to wish/want something. It means you like the comic and want to see more. The problem is when you constantly pester the artist to update more (for free, I would update my comic more if someone paid me to do so. Not everyone’s the same, though) You’re not a selfish broad; you’re not constantly posting “HEY UPDATE MORE OFTEN!!!!” all over her comic. Hey, I wish she would update more as well, but I also know that it takes time to create great art such as this.

Remember that Tony’s dad is also a Liverpudlian. Looking it up, I see that Liverpool (or at least, greater Liverpool) has almost half a million residents. Mr. Gillis (if that is his name) may still be one of them, even if he has no place in his family’s life other than regular child support payments.

Back in Exchanges, Blanche and Tony demonstrated that Tony & Ophelia’s rowhouse is within walking distance of the waterfront warehouse that conceals the Avalon. Aside from the chance of noticing the signs of Blanche’s non-humanity, it seems to me that sixteen years is long enough for her to have had a good chance to recognize the mythical nature of other Avalon denizens, out and about in the vicinity. She likely suspected the presence of an Avalon, even if she didn’t know its location.

The dialog between Ophelia and Adelle in this chapter suggests that this is the first time they’ve met face-to-face. I can imagine a variation of the phone call someone proposed on an earlier page, with Adelle meeting her at the entrance in human guise.

A couple pages ago, someone (Overread?) suggested that the fact that we’re reading this webcomic shows that we’ve self-selected ourselves as a bunch of people who are at least interested in of not open to, the mythical and fantastic in general, and transformation specifically. As such, we can’t be expected to really appreciate the viewpoint of someone like Tony who has no such interest.

I went back and looked at his bedroom in Exchanges. Aside from all the Ghost Busters paraphernalia and a set of encyclopedias, he has a shelf of videos (and books?). The ones I can read the titles of are: Firefly [excellent taste in SF]; X Files; Hardy Boys; White Strikes Live (?) (apparently a concert video); the Muppet Movie; Great Muppet Caper; BatMan; Tin-Tin; Spider-Man; Marvel (something); Hellboy.

I’d say he has no problem with the fantastic, as long as it doesn’t intrude on the real world.

I’d say, more that he had no problems with the fantastic, as long as he got the time to adapt to the reality of the fantastic, at his own pace.
Unfortunately, he’s never gotten that luxury.

He got the reality of the existence of the fantastic dumped on him in overload by an over-eager Blanche. Then on the same day, he was transformed and was panicing over what he was becoming.
A few weeks later and he still isn’t coping. And trying to partially fix things, almost turned into a disaster. Thankfully that was averted and turned out for the better.
But with what he’s learned of his life and family history, things have become even more strained and stressed for him.

You can only roll so far, so much, with the punches, before you reach your breaking point. And that is where Anthony is. At his breaking point.

It may also be worth noting that Ghostbusters,as well as several of the other works mentioned, are about humans, often ones working to keep the supernatural forces in their world contained for the benefit of humanity. As you said, given time to ease into things, Tony would probably have coped just fine to interacting with the supernatural on a regular basis, but finding *himself* to be actively supernatural may well never have been a fantasy he entertained too often.

Basically, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Too much too soon before he had managed to adjust to it. Deciding to take it out on the people who are closest and want to help is a dickish move on his part but everything is just him coping with a major life change. It is almost like someone died. Cept in a way someone did. The person Tony saw himself as did.

I’m really tired of Anthony’s attitude now. If I had been told, as a teen that I had to live in a magic town with amazing creatures, that I would have to be covered in feathers and could never wear shoes again, I would have wept with joy. I have asked my children what their reactions would be if, one day, they discovered that their best friend was a magical creature who loved them. The ten year old made a sound that I actually couldn’t hear for the first few seconds. The 13 year old said “That’d be cool”, in a very thirteen-ish kind of way. The eldest is annoyed with Anthony too. “I can fly?!” Seems to be a recurring theme. “Why hasn’t he flown yet?” Is another. “Why is he being so mean?” The youngest has refused to read the strip until Anthony pulls his head out.

Don’t forget that any plans Anthony had for his future are gone. He hasn’t had any time to recover and none of the external stimuli he’s getting is helping at the moment. In the long term, all of this information he’s getting will turn out for the best, but right now it’s hard.
Imagine you live in a world where people talk about computers, but you and no one you know has actually seen one. Many times they are depicted as potentially, and probably evil (2001 a space odyssey) and sometimes are depicted as great tools that can be really fun and potently solve many problems (Knight Rider’s KITT, Star Trek’s Data, and as they actually are).
Then, without warning, you are taken from you life, from your family, from your friends, from your comforts, from everything and placed in a room you are not allowed to leave. In this room there are hundreds of computer consoles, all running a command line DOS operating system, and you are given one to sit at. You’ve never seen a computer and you are like a grandmother tying to send an e-mail when you first sit down.
What emotional teen wouldn’t smash that thing to the floor? All your future plans have been ruined by this clumsy thing and in an emotional fit it just makes more sense to get rid of it then try to find a way to deal with it. Some emotional comfort comes from other people who have been living with these computers their entire lives and are total pros at them. This would just make a teen feel inadequate, and even if the other people have some really good and valuable advice on how to use this awesome gift, it is a constant reminder that you are stuck forever in this giant room with nothing to do but play with some toys from your old life that a friend brought in.
You just think of how useless this computer is without being able to use it outside of this room, and because this computer has become your life, your life has become clumsy. Eventually, however (this is a point Anthony hasn’t reached) your computer gets fixed and you can learn to use it effectively, eventually making the most of the situation. Helping out others with their various computer activities, or any other odd jobs that need to be taken care of that don’t require a computer.
Of course, like most all analogies this fails on some point (one of which is in the computer room you can use other peoples computers, which may or may not be better computers, Anthony has no such luxury), but it gets the basic idea across. Anthony cannot see how good this thing can be because he hasn’t been given the time nor has he been put in a situation that would let it happen.
Anthony’s female counterpart, Michelle, is allowed to leave this room and instead of a DOS system, got more of a limited edition custom-built gaming computer booting the latest versions of Windows, OS-X, and Debian Linux. All other computers like this have been lost in time. Now who cares if other people want to get you for that awesome rig? You can hide it, for the most part, and explore it’s full potential when and where it’s safe to do so. Anthony’s going to have to be really clever and put in a lot of work to max out the power of his 1980’s IBM PC, at which point he still won’t be able to compete with a modern day smart phone.

Odd question… Maybe.

Race is now known to be harpy, if a bit gendered-oddly.

Would a Harpy talisman work???

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