June 27th, 2016
I was having a hard time coming up with a vote incentive so have Sev and Tareth playing pokemon as the extra doodle, because that's the kind of thing we do around here.
Vote Incentive for This Comic.
See, I care about strategy, but that mostly consists of me trying to cobble together a functioning team out of the cutest and awesomest pokemon rather than ACTUALLY picking the best ones xD
posted at 1:46pm on June 27th, 2016
Fun realisation: if you were to say, 'hands up if you don't have some sort of weird communication thing going on', not one of them could truthfully raise their hand, because they either have communication issues, are Xira, or lack hands.
posted at 1:16am on June 27th, 2016
Lol :D
posted at 10:40am on June 27th, 2016
OMG PERFECT
I love that just "being xira" precludes this
posted at 1:46pm on June 27th, 2016
Sev's tiny face in pane 3 omg x3
posted at 2:01am on June 27th, 2016
IS TARI REALLY KILLING* EVERYONE WITH PERISH SONG.
* FAINTING ???
posted at 3:52am on June 27th, 2016
OH MY GOODNESS NO there is no perish song in gen one THATS SING!!! THEYRE JUST SLEEPIN!!!
posted at 1:47pm on June 27th, 2016
\legit forgot one of Lapras's starter moves is Sing 8D;;;
posted at 6:34pm on June 28th, 2016
Is Sev... playing dumb? I've been wondering if he's worked out something is up with Xira ever since he started acting like a jerk to him. However, things like this seem to totally go over his head.
posted at 5:21am on June 27th, 2016
Dang! That didn't occur to me, but... NAH, come on! It's Sev. Would be brilliant though... I mean he actually manipulated Jonan into cooperating. Wow, I can't wait to find out now.
They will probably get attacked by mulorns or something in the next page let's be honest :D
posted at 10:44am on June 27th, 2016
DON'T JINX IT!!!!!!!
posted at 10:54am on June 27th, 2016
Haha when I saw the tumblr preview (panel 2) I was like "oh no Jonan knows something is up with Xira he found him out!". But actually not.
Also panel five Jonan, torn between "I don't need you to spell it out, okay!" and "... Well okay to those morons you need to".
And Xira, master of hiding and not getting gutted by an angry mob, thanks for sharing your tips (though really it's common sense, I think all of the readers were screaming this advice at their screen every time someone mentioned Jonan and of course ignored his reaction; though you're scowling all the time, man, how were they supposed to know it was about that?)
posted at 5:50am on June 27th, 2016
"But actually not."
Think about what Xira's saying to Jonan...
"you're scowling all the time, man, how were they supposed to know it was about that?"
oh my goodness THIS IS SO ACCURATE THO
posted at 1:50pm on June 27th, 2016
"I got somebody to water you so how about you don't tell on me either?!"
posted at 3:02pm on June 27th, 2016
"to water you" I love how that sounds like he is a potted plant. But really in this sstate he is as much useful as one.
posted at 3:06am on June 28th, 2016
OH MY GOSH WHAT IS THIS SICK BURN, WHAT DID JONAN EVER DO TO YOU
posted at 9:08pm on June 29th, 2016
I feel like I'm the only one who remembers that he's...y'know...a political tyrant. Like...he's hardly a cinnamon roll.
posted at 11:41pm on June 29th, 2016
Oh!
I hadn't seen that. Thanks!
posted at 5:44am on June 28th, 2016
(also the vote incentive is perfect; any chance we'll get the rest of the team's?)
posted at 5:53am on June 27th, 2016
(I actually planned to do the others but then it was 11pm and I really needed to start actually scanning and getting the update online xD so it's very likely to have a part two!)
posted at 1:51pm on June 27th, 2016
Yay, awesome!
posted at 5:45am on June 28th, 2016
AWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!
posted at 11:41pm on June 29th, 2016
Gee, it's almost like he read Jonan's mind!
posted at 8:19am on June 27th, 2016
At a second read I love this page even more. Wow Xira, really smooth there. Also I'm starting to think that really the deaf one here is Sev :D
vote incentive is so cute too :3
...
wa... wait a minute!
The very strong eye-brow game on this page got me thinking. Is Jonan's eyebrows naturally red or is it runewriter-red? Because Xira's brow is plain blonde... <_< >_> <_<
I might be overthinking this.
posted at 10:40am on June 27th, 2016
re: eyebrow game -- Sev's eyebrows aren't green either, so NO WORRIES, Xira's aren't weird. xD It varies between runewriters -- some of them get caster colour in their beard/eyebrows/etc, some don't. It's a little rarer to have it, but whether that means anything or not isn't really something that anyone's looked into.
posted at 1:52pm on June 27th, 2016
Oh dear. This is going to blow up in someone's face at some point in the future. Xira, just tell the truth, it'll be better in the long run!
Also, the vote incentive was great. I wanted to see the rest of the crew's strategies; any chance it'll be next week's incentive? :3
posted at 1:47pm on June 27th, 2016
It's not like Xira can, y'know, read minds and make guesses about how a person would react to...wait.
posted at 9:56pm on June 27th, 2016
Ease up, Jonan, he's only trying to help. Maybe.
And once again, Tareth is my spirit animal. Lapras 5eva!
posted at 2:21pm on June 27th, 2016
re: the vote incentive, Xira's got the right idea since psychic was so incredibly overpowered in Gen. 1 (no idea what his broader strategy would entail). I'll also pick Æmber as the most likely to have at least one MissingNo. on their team.
posted at 6:15am on June 28th, 2016
Gah, I am now having to sit on the edge of my seat wondering what AEmber would like to contribute to this incredibly awkward conversation - how long to the next update again?
Also, once again, the facial expressions are just spot on perfect! Xira and Jonan must be a lot of fun to draw!
posted at 7:28am on June 28th, 2016
ahhhh thank you THEY ARE FAVOURITES OF MINE, I WON'T LIE xD
posted at 9:10pm on June 29th, 2016
I like how even when he's not reading minds, Xira seems pretty in tune with other people (i.e. Realizing Jonan is super suspicious of him and trying really hard to get on Jonan's good side). I bet being able to read minds has helped him build a lot of empathy.
posted at 11:31am on June 28th, 2016
YEAH if nothing else, being able to check people's thoughts and emotions probably makes you a slightly better guesser!
posted at 9:08pm on June 29th, 2016
I'm guessing that most people routinely broadcast their emotions and surface thoughts for someone like Xira to pick up; screening them out would be necessary for mental peace & quiet. He usually gets "the feel of the room". Delving past the surface thoughts is the conscious invasion.
posted at 4:30pm on June 30th, 2016
Ok, so am I the only one feeling super uncomfortable because Xira's comments feel like subtle threats!? Or am I being super cynical and reading way too much into his motives. Cause it kinda sounds like threats...
posted at 12:10am on June 29th, 2016
That's how I read it at first, because it does have that sort of vague plausibly deniable feel to it. But "he could get in a lot of trouble if people found out" and "we should try to cover for him" could also apply to Xira himself. And with that body language I think this is more Xira trying get Jonan to give him a break and not out him (Xira) as a witch.
posted at 2:16am on June 29th, 2016
Ah, I get that now. Also after re-reading a bit I can't really see Xira giving anything enough forethought to go for the 'shame if anything were to get out about a certain redhead's muteness' angle.
So yeah this reeks more of 'shame if anything were to get out about a certain turban wearing youth who is QUITE NICE AND SENSIBLE AND DOESN"T POSE MUCH OF A THREAT TO THE BIG SCARY GINGER'.
posted at 6:41pm on June 29th, 2016
Oh My Gosh I love this description
posted at 9:07pm on June 29th, 2016
Tareth's Lapras strategy is The Cutest Thing
posted at 7:29pm on June 29th, 2016
I do so love how Xira got across the necessity of keeping his secret secret to the one guy who also needs to keep his secret secret by pretending to allude to that secret.
posted at 6:52pm on June 30th, 2016
Yes
posted at 12:09am on July 1st, 2016
Comment by Jade
Dammit, Xira, just SPILL already!
Also, Tareth's strategy is my strategy. Like, I have zero consideration for strength, just LOOK AT THOSE SQUISHY CHEEEEKKKKSSS!!!!!
posted at 12:03am on June 27th, 2016