February 22nd, 2016

THIS ONLY RAISES FURTHER QUESTIONS??

you can also vote for more answers that don't explain anything! :>

Vote Incentive for This Comic.

Comment by The Rancid

The chosen one? I wonder what that means...

Reply

posted at 12:10am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by The Rancid

And oooh boy, the vote incentive. All theories just got smashed. :P

Reply

posted at 12:13am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

I LOVE U GUYS, I PROMISE, EVEN WHEN IM JOSSING YOUR THEORIES <3 <3 <3 <3

Reply

posted at 12:17am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by The Rancid

Aww, I know, I know. <3

Reply

posted at 12:53am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Adam

I think it might just refer to her being a Runewriter. There is clearly religious support for them.

If something else, well, that's not promising. Being a "chosen one" is kind of like being a "hero". It's something other people have to call you, not something you decide you are.

Reply

posted at 4:41am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by DeseretGear

They also called her The Manifest, didn't they? Back on page 23 of this chapter, one of the religious dudes says she is "chosen of the Artist, manifestation of His will". So I'm guessing it's a religious calling of some sort?

Reply

posted at 11:46pm on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

Though, if I were like, twelve, and someone told me I was the chosen one, I would DEFINITELY tell EVERYONE xD

Reply

posted at 8:23am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Adam

She's twelve or thereabouts? Yeah, then I'd probably make a big deal of it too.

Reply

posted at 10:52am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Heather

Yeah, it's kind of hard to see she's short when we never see her standing.

Reply

posted at 12:27am on February 24th, 2016

Comment by BaufenBeast

"but how do you..."
...hear me if it's soundproof?

Reply

posted at 1:06am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by NoRAd

My wild guess is that it's soundproof only in one direction.

Or Æmber has learned to read lips while she was trapped in there for years?

Reply

posted at 6:11am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Heather

Yeah, those two were my guesses as well. Either that or Æmber could already lipread to start with for some reason.

Reply

posted at 8:31pm on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

I think it's safe to say she's reading lips too. : > (Which would explain why she immediately assumed that's what Tareth was doing!)

Reply

posted at 8:26am on February 23rd, 2016

Comment by MagpieM

That last panel is just too adorable. Augh.

Reply

posted at 1:41am on February 22nd, 2016

Comment by Jaye

Well I already love Ember

Reply

posted at 2:44am on February 22nd, 2016

Comment by Glew

Haha. I love how AEmber is just "oh yeah, forcefield, chosen one, who cares. This is my squirrel!" :3

Reply

posted at 4:32am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

omg this is a perfect summary; LET'S JUST SKIP ALL THAT UNIMPORTANT STUFF

Reply

posted at 8:42am on February 23rd, 2016

Comment by Obligatonym

So... anyone got any new theories on the whole "not eating" thing? I've got some theories on it being related to the whole Manifest/Chosen One thing, but that doesn't explain the squirrel. I guess "time magic" is still an option, whereby she might intermittently pause time for herself or rewind the effects of time on herself.

Also, I wonder how the priest guys are gonna react to this, if at all. I mean, this probably isn't the first time someone's managed to communicate with her, but on the other hand she sounds like she doesn't get a whole lot of conversation in there.

Reply

posted at 5:05am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Heather

Well, we know no objects can get in or out. But it's been previously established that runewriters with the right sort of powers can hydrate people from the outside, so perhaps runewriting effects can get in, and that's the sort of thing that's going on?

Reply

posted at 8:41pm on February 22nd, 2016

Comment by Why?!?!

Aww, Æmber's been without company for far too long. I'm glad she gets to talk with Tari!

Reply

posted at 6:23am on February 22nd, 2016

Comment by Maria

Everyone else is all excited about the eating-problem but I'm just like nah maybe she, idk, does magic and gets food out of the air or something? (Or maybe she had more squirrels than the only one left OK SORRY NO.)

Or maybe she's the spiderman of this city. You know, bitten by a mutant squirrel and now she's got super powers and she can do miracles and talk to squirrels and, um, do squirrel things. And find food out of nowhere.

But what made me curious is that "everyone expects runewriters to have some stuff wrong with them". We can see Sev is very good at this, and Jonan has some minor problems too, and Aember is not doing much better. We even saw Iavin with his some kind of a scar thing on the head, and wasn't that guardian lady someone like that too? So - what about Xira? He doesn't seem to have any problems so far. Either he hasn't been doing witch stuff long enough to fail OR he's mentally insane. Or he's miscasts haven't hit him but the victim... I mean, he does stuff in people's HEADS. You can't convince me he's never made any big big mistakes. (Maybe that's why he's no longer with his family.)

Reply

posted at 10:00am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Glew

Very valid point! I know I pondered this too. I mean I don't even want to imagine what kind of disaster he could do without a miscast, not to mention with one.

Also the vote incentive suggests you can research rune of certain purposes? As in Jonan was looking for a rune that silences someone. So there must be SOME sort of known logic or system behind runewriting, one that even runewriters know of. I mean this far it was said that it is unlike other fantasy magic which you can just learn from books, that it is very intuitive. But this suggests, there is in fact an element of control over what kind of new spells you get.
That being said, it then says an awful lot about someone what kind of spells they can cast...

Reply

posted at 8:05am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Why?!?!

I think Jonan's vote incentive bit is referencing how he created---from his healing magic---a rune to seal flesh together. Which he uses to bind people's lips together so they can't speak and thus can't say the verbal component of rune casting. I don't think Jonan necessarily got the spell from anyone.

Reply

posted at 6:25pm on February 23rd, 2016

Comment by Meggyc

I just have to say, I read the vote incentive and then walked away to run some errands, and couldn't stop grinning. Here I am walking to the post office thinking about how much I love how magic/Runewriting works in this world. And how chill Sev is with having horns. And then how Tareth says everyone expects Runewriters to have something wrong with them. Like it would be weird to have a talented Runewriter with no problems whatsoever. That's hilarious and so perfect and now I can't stop grinning and chuckling.

Reply

posted at 10:26am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

omg I'm so glad, THANK YOU SO MUCH and thank you for this amazing comment

Reply

posted at 8:44am on February 23rd, 2016

Comment by Random Passerby

Tareth could run a little class for Jonan and Æmber to learn Handsign. That'd be entertaining to watch XD

I wonder if there's something to the miscasts, they're apparently common, but if so, I doubt the Agorath order has ALWAYS been hunting them down and kidnapping them. Hmmm.

Reply

posted at 10:27am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

Might also be worth nothing that Sev has always had the horns, but that never set off the Order's aberrant detection dagger.

Reply

posted at 8:34am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Random Passerby

HMMMMMMM

Reply

posted at 12:38pm on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Glew

Ominoussssss.
Maybe they are up to something?
...
Naaaah :D

Reply

posted at 7:58am on February 24th, 2016

Comment by Riverfox237

WAIT WHAT YOU'RE THE CHOSEN ONE

Do you typically just throw that out in casual conversation, is that your usual lead-in

DANGIT MY CURIOSITY HAS GONE UP TEN NOTCHES ALKFJ

Reply

posted at 11:12am on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Asterai

Ember has been stuck in here rehearsing her small talk for FOR-EV-ER. She's worked out the best opening gambit.

Reply

posted at 2:06pm on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Heather

Maybe her chosen-ness refers to being chosen to care for Chitter, the sacred squirrel.

Reply

posted at 8:43pm on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Adam

That would certainly be a rather interesting plot-twist.

Reply

posted at 8:08am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Lynx-Eye

I'm guessing that, unless she does something like air quotes, lip-reading doesn't show sarcasm or irony.

Reply

posted at 10:11pm on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Glew

I don't know, but I assume that facial expressions can give you quite a lead when it comes to communication intentions. As long as the speaker uses appropriate facial expressions.
But this is an iteresting point.

Reply

posted at 8:09am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

Yeah, I'd agree with Glew -- if you're just depending on tone of voice, I guess not, but I feel like usually you can tell from someone's expression that they are possibly being a bit sarcastic. xD

Reply

posted at 8:38am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Heather

Due to personally having sucky hearing such that all my sarcasm-detection comes from face, not voice: I can confirm both that you can see from their face, but also from the actual content of what they are saying; however, I am also notorious for missing a *lot* of sarcasm. People also miss my sarcasm a lot as I only do face-sarcasm which can lead to interesting scenarios (e.g. I was not *actually* planning to attend my school formal with live butterflies in my hair. Sigh.)

Reply

posted at 12:32am on February 24th, 2016

Comment by Chrysalis

Second-to-last panel: Tareth asks the question we've all been asking since Æmber first appeared.

My theory is that Æmber survives through the power of cute. The laws of physics try to catch up with her, stop when they see her face, and then she brings out the squirrel and it's all over.

Reply

posted at 11:46pm on February 22nd, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

askdfjfk THIS IS MY FAVOURITE THEORY YET

Reply

posted at 8:39am on February 23rd, 2016

Comment by Spot

Why do I get the feeling the church people will be all, "You should stay and be our communicator with the chosen one!"

...Everybody keeps asking about her getting food. But what about using a bathroom? D: That might be quite awkward if it's not a time- or need-for-sustenance-freeze thing as well as a forcefield.

Reply

posted at 1:02am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Adam

They'd just use a chamber-pot that gets filled and taken out.

Reply

posted at 4:37am on February 23rd, 2016

Reply by Adam

I'm sure the church wouldn't mind keeping her for a bit. If anything, they might have a save spot for the nigh.

Reply

posted at 11:07am on February 23rd, 2016

Comment by Maxim

I love this page. Dunno why, it's just really fun :)

Reply

posted at 2:51pm on February 23rd, 2016

Comment by Heather

New theories:

Firstly, that this has happened before- the vote incentive shows that Sev's main miscast-fix-technique is 'wait for it to go away'. So maybe this has happened before, on a more temporary basis, leading to maybe a rather hungry and thirsty 24 hours before it wore off, after which measures were sought such that should it happen again, she'd be ok. She's the 'chosen one' after all, I'm sure the church would go to great lengths to make sure she's all good.

My second theory is that the squirrel is no ordinary squirrel. Ember might be able to cast forcefields, but she's got nothing on the mighty magical powers of the squirrel. Ember's well fed in there, but she's super super sick of acorns by this point.

Reply

posted at 12:37am on February 24th, 2016

Comment by Tama

SHAZZBA I PANICED AND TOLD MY PROFESSOR I'D DO A PAPER ABOUT YOUR ART.

Specifically, how you talk about your art. Short artist statement of you can?

Reply

posted at 5:52am on February 27th, 2016

Reply by Shazzbaa

Please email me! <3 shazzbaa AT foskie DOT com

Reply

posted at 11:38am on February 27th, 2016

Reply by dam prace yeovil

Comment is awaiting moderation.

posted at 9:16am on August 15th, 2023

Comment by Karma Squirrel

Life, forcefields, hunters, eating. Yeah. Stuff. Now the important stuff. This is my name. This is my squirrel. Now we are friends.

Reply

posted at 5:48pm on September 21st, 2017




Refresh Captcha
If you can see this text and text box, please leave the field empty.