March 7th, 2016
Oh my goodness you guys' comments have been making my day!! I hope you were able to catch the extra vote incentive last week. xD I didn't know what to do so the vote incentive for today is just a little note about Jonan's recognisability.
HEY ALSO!!
SO!!! I finally STARTED A PATREON!! Patreon is basically a thing where, if you like my work and want a way to support it, you can sign up to give a little bit every month -- and there's some little thank-yous in it for you. : ) I wanna keep my work free to read, so this patreon thing seems like it's right up my alley!! You should definitely go check it out. :D
Vote Incentive for This Comic.
https://vimeo.com/148127830 It's really hard to read lips. Like, super-duper hard.
posted at 8:40am on March 7th, 2016
Let me put it this way: the only reason Tarri is as good as she is is because she HAS to be that good. That's one of the few ways she can understand someone who doesn't sign. (The same probably goes for Æmber, being in that force-field that long) It's not impossible for a hearing person to learn to read lips (in fact, many relatives of Deaf people DO learn, to understand what their relative's life is like) but it would be very difficult. They probably communicate through writing, or condensed breath, like in the last panel.
TL;DR Most people probably wouldn't have the time or interest in learning, especially with other short-term solutions.
posted at 12:55pm on March 7th, 2016
I mean, ventriloquism is probably WAY easier. Not that I have much experience with either.
posted at 12:36am on March 8th, 2016
Holy crap, this video is awesome. Thank you so much for posting this.
(Incidentally, for those who've asked what Tareth's accent sounds like, this is another good example!!)
Kiri -- without having seen the conversation in question, it might be relevant that the silent conversation was designed to be a silent conversation -- I'd be willing to bet a decent amount of thought went into making it "legible" to a Hearing audience.
posted at 1:53pm on March 8th, 2016
I can second that- it's very definitely designed to be a silent conversation, complete with lots of actions and miming and huge overexaggerated speech.
posted at 9:17pm on March 8th, 2016
I am SO glad I could provide a great link! I'm also really happy to see genuine curiosity about Deaf life and culture! (If you're wondering, I'm Hearing, but I have a Deaf friend with a CI, which is why I'm learning about Deaf culture.) (So I'm not an expert by any means. Someone could stumble across my explanation and find a billion things wrong with it. So...fact-check.)
posted at 9:22pm on March 9th, 2016
What I like about the video is that I finally got an idea what a deaf person talking sounds like. I imagined that it sounded "stupid" or somehow wrong compared to the speech of a hearing person, but I had no clear idea.
posted at 8:10am on March 9th, 2016
Wow, yeah, thanks for that video! TV series like Sue Tomas make lip reading look super easy. It's good to be a bit more aware of how some people live and the difficulties they have.
It's so cool in Runewriters that it can be educational in these kind of unintended but great ways (I mean through reader interaction).
posted at 4:47pm on March 9th, 2016
OH DAMN I missed the extra vote incentive. XD And it had the Agorath Order in it. 8( Ah well.
I have a feeling Jonan is going to be a wee bit annoyed at this adoring fan of his...
posted at 12:39am on March 7th, 2016
THEY ALL COME BACK, no worries! x3 The very first post-hiatus incentives have started coming back now, which... goodness has it really been two months???? /THROWS A PARTY
posted at 2:17pm on March 8th, 2016
Well, at least Tareth is learning to be a little more discreet about Jonan's inability to cast. Although, she is probably still blabbing too much for Jonan's liking.
Also, following up from the extra vote incentive last week, I actually agree with Æmber and Tareth about Sev & Tareth being Steven and Connie, at least in terms of personality. And, from what little we've seen of Æmber, she does seem very Amethyst.
posted at 5:02am on March 7th, 2016
JONAN WOULD PREFER NO ONE MENTION HIM, THANKS
But yeah, I feel like nobody in the cast is QUITE childlike and good-hearted enough to be Steven. Sev is outgoing and enthusiastic and helpful enough, while Tareth is trusting and forgiving enough, so I guess what I'm saying is that the fusion of Tareth and Sev is Steven Universe????
(p.s. you guys, uh, saw my fusion nonsense sketches, right)
posted at 2:12pm on March 8th, 2016
THESE ARE SO COOL.
posted at 3:37pm on March 10th, 2016
I seriously doubt Jonan can actually bring people back to life. Anyone want to play a game of Telephone?
posted at 6:05am on March 7th, 2016
Maybe it's half-true. You can totally bring people back from the dead, as long as they're dead and cold. Paramedics do it all the time. You don't even need magic to do it, although healing probably helps. It's possible that he saved someone who'd drowned after their heart stopped, and then rumor overhyped it to make it seem like he can bring someone back, no matter what state they're in. You'll often find that rumors have a kernel of truth.
(Also, if I ever accidentally hit upon something spoiler-y, feel free to delete my comments.
posted at 6:50pm on March 7th, 2016
Nahhh, nothing you say can be spoilers, they're just guesses and thoughts! Unless you... somehow hack into my story notes??? (please do not do this)
But in seriousness, if you mean like, I can delete comments if you guess correctly, (a) WELL THAT WOULD BE A LITTLE SUSPICIOUS NOW WOULDN'T IT and (b) I don't have any problems with people guessing things correctly!! Most of the time when I'm coy about answering questions, it's just that I don't wanna over-explain things outside of the comic and I'd rather let the story speak for itself. :>
posted at 2:04pm on March 8th, 2016
Okay. I'd never try to hack in, and I don't want to spoil anything. But if you're okay with my guesses, I'll keep guessing on!
posted at 2:36pm on March 8th, 2016
It might be an isolated case like someone's heart stopping and Jonah managed to save the situation before brain-death occurred.
posted at 10:00am on March 9th, 2016
Maybe he actually can, but only by somehow using his own life-energy or something. Maybe doing that once is why he looks the way he does when he's 29.
posted at 11:36pm on February 3rd, 2018
Wait Jonan has a fan girl? Whelp, that was definitely unexpected.
posted at 6:28am on March 7th, 2016
you mean you DIDN'T expect the tall aloof angsty jerk to be swimming in preteen fangirls????
posted at 2:16pm on March 8th, 2016
In all fairness, Jonan seems like he'd be considered something of a tyrant. He's a political figure who used his magic to wreak havoc on the populace for a political cause. Not exactly a preteen's celebrity crush.
(Although he MAY have had fangirls before that happened, and Æmber just doesn't get a lot of info from inside her forcefield. She's been inside that forcefield for years, right?)
posted at 2:43pm on March 8th, 2016
( I'm mostly joking. xD Jonan may be tall and aloof but he doesn't really have The Look -- like, Kylo Ren might be kinda a dork but he still has more fangirls than Grand Moff Tarkin. )
posted at 11:11am on March 9th, 2016
Given the sheer number of Severus Snape fangirls I should have seen this coming.
posted at 9:19pm on March 8th, 2016
... in fourth panel, is AEmber leaning so hard on the magic box it tilts?
And I love her reaction.
Has anyone else noticed in the previous page, she's so used to being stuck there she writes with mirrored letters so it's easier to see on the outside (while Tareth just writes normally)
posted at 1:08pm on March 7th, 2016
LOL YUP while Tareth is sort of nervously catching it. xD
also omg I'm so glad, I'm really happy when people notice silly little details like that!! x3
posted at 2:06pm on March 8th, 2016
Hold up. It's not attached to the ground? So...she could leave, if someone carried it. And she'd probably want to go with Tarri and Sev and Jonan, right? To get her miscast fixed?
posted at 4:53pm on March 8th, 2016
or she could -roll- in the box
posted at 6:55am on March 10th, 2016
Thump...thump...thump... "Just...*pant*...give me a second. This is a lot harder than I thought."
posted at 8:25am on March 10th, 2016
That's one of the perks of webcomics (along with comment sections and alt-text) in my opionion, people tend to spend more time on each page
posted at 6:01am on March 10th, 2016
Awright place your bets
How old do we think Æmber is?
posted at 6:14pm on March 7th, 2016
Thirt....wait wait WAIT. Look at the 3rd panel. Does Æmber have elf ears?!?! If she's an elf/Fae, then all bets are off. She could be thirteen or thirteen thousand. Which makes you wonder...how long has she been in there?
posted at 6:39pm on March 7th, 2016
You're RIGHT! Compare them against Tarri's they're definitely different!
So there's an extra possibility for how Æmber's still alive in there. Maybe half elves can just kinda do that? (I doubt it, but it's possible)
posted at 10:00am on March 8th, 2016
Well I mean the flavor text says that Jonan's way to old for her, so I'm betting pre-teen/teenager.
posted at 8:07pm on March 7th, 2016
Okay, I didn't see the flavor text. I'm on mobile. So, I'm guessing...fourteen.
posted at 8:22pm on March 7th, 2016
I'd place her at ~16?
posted at 8:40pm on March 7th, 2016
I'm personally gonna go with no older than 16, but I think older than Xira at least
posted at 9:56am on March 8th, 2016
... Or maybe a bit younger than Xira XD
I thought him older for so long that now I'm overcompensating and keep thinking he's younger than he is XD
posted at 2:05pm on March 8th, 2016
I could answer this one but I don't wanna mess up the betting pool so like..... LEMME KNOW WHEN YOU GUYS HAVE YOUR BETS READY AND I'LL COME IN AND JOSS EVERYTHING
posted at 11:13am on March 9th, 2016
She's going to be, like, 25 or something, isn't she?
posted at 6:07pm on March 10th, 2016
We've already got two characters who are older than they look, and one who's younger, I think this approach is justified XD
posted at 4:18pm on March 11th, 2016
*Two who are YOUNGER, one OLDER dangit
posted at 4:21pm on March 11th, 2016
I think she's like 11 or something.
posted at 1:58pm on March 10th, 2016
Given that Jonan (according to the cast page)is only 29 (which still freaks me out - being a necromancer must age one tremendously), I'm putting her age somewhere in the range of 9 to 11. I actually know a few real life couples with a 15 to 20 year age difference, but it's pretty rare, plus she still has an aura of naivete, innocence and enthusiasm which diminishes for most people in their teens (more's the pity).
posted at 11:38am on March 11th, 2016
Aww, Jonan has a fangirl!
I'm sure their eventual meeting won't be totally awkward and slightly painful!
posted at 6:35pm on March 7th, 2016
Æmber is so cute I can't even take it
posted at 9:04pm on March 7th, 2016
omg I'm so glad
posted at 2:07pm on March 8th, 2016
That third panel face; Æmber that is not a human face. You are pushing into "anime snout" territory there.
However with all the body morphing going on in this comic, I guess that just prompts the question of whether she is permanently like that or just having some fun with her appearance.
posted at 3:28pm on March 8th, 2016
This Æmber person's face is kinda wigging me out. It is kinda weirdly proportioned. The spelling of the name is super weird too. Is she a halfling or something?
posted at 10:36am on March 9th, 2016
She's got pointy ears; I think it's pretty safe to say she's not fully human.
posted at 7:01am on March 10th, 2016
Hey, Shazzbaa, when are you going to add Æmber to the cast?
posted at 9:24pm on March 9th, 2016
Characters get added to the Cast page when (a) they are major characters who will last for more than one chapter, (b) it is obvious in the story that they are going to be major characters and (c) I have enough art of them to crop three little image slices that I like.
Also when (d) I have all their little extra info solidified, like knowing for sure what height they are, but that's sorta secondary. :>
posted at 10:39pm on March 9th, 2016
*gasp* You mean to tell me that the Chosen One with an adorable pet squirrel isn't a major character in the story yet?!?! *faints in shock*
(Translation: I humbly thank you for your prompt response, and respect your process for forming the cast page)
posted at 12:20am on March 10th, 2016
SON OF AN ABERRANT! I MEANT 'HUMBLY.'
posted at 12:22am on March 10th, 2016
(I FIXED IT BUt I DIDN'T DELETE THE CORRECTION THIS B/C I LOVE THIS EXPLETIVE xD)
posted at 12:50am on March 10th, 2016
Maybe she can teach Aember some sign language?
posted at 9:02pm on March 12th, 2016
I love Æmber's expression in panel 4!
Æmber: OMG you know him?!? *tiiiip*
Tareth: um, yeah? is that good? *push box back*
posted at 6:29pm on September 21st, 2017
Can I simply just say what a relief to uncover somebody who actually knows what they are discussing on the internet.
You actually understand how to bring a problem to light and make
it important. A lot more people need to check this out
and understand this side of the story. I was surprised you're not more popular given that you certainly
have the gift.
posted at 2:16pm on December 7th, 2017
Comment by Kiri
Aaaa yay Tarri for reigning it in and being a little more discreet! I wonder if it's weird to anyone that she can talk to Æmber? Has no one ever tried to learn to read lips with her?
Even if they aren't very good at it, it shouldn't be that hard to at least get the gist of what she's saying most of the time?? Like, I have never properly tried or learned to lip read, but there is this whole five minute silent conversation in one episode of Doctor Who (S4E01 Partners in Crime) that I 100% got just fine lip reading because they were both SO expressive and everything they were saying was easy to figure out??
posted at 12:09am on March 7th, 2016