February 28th, 2017
There is, as always, an extra doodle if you vote - this one addresses some practical concerns.
SO!!!! I hate to leave you guys hangin' for a couple of weeks but ECCC IS THIS COMING WEEKEND!!! I'm gettin on a plane this week and I am equal parts nervous and excited!
So rather than push myself too hard I'm gonna go ahead and say the next update will probably be on March 21st, to give me a week for ECCC and a week to catch up. ;u; Remember that you can subscribe to me on any of the social medias listed above *vanna white gesture* to be alerted to updates!
Vote Incentive for This Comic.
alternately, "Xira is really having a heck of a day"
(omg thank you!!)
posted at 2:17am on March 1st, 2017
Hey, welcome back Sev! Sorta. At least you can talk now, and almost have a face.
Also, is Jonan okay there? Is he getting woozy again?
posted at 1:33am on February 28th, 2017
he hasnt eaten in a week and you crazy kids are making him run across town and up stairs!!!! it's a wonder he's standing
posted at 2:17am on March 1st, 2017
Somehow I managed to forget the 'no food' thing - it got eclipsed by the 'no water/magical rehydration' thing. I am impressed that Jonan is still going, I get woozy after one day of no food, I don't think I could do several.
posted at 3:49am on March 4th, 2017
OH NO!! XIRA YOUR SECRET IS OUT!!!!!
WHAT A CLIFFHANGER WHILE YOU'RE TRAVELING!!! aaaaAAAAAAAAAA
posted at 1:56am on February 28th, 2017
no no no, the innkeep was just, sleepy??? just the ol' Falling Asleep In The Middle Of Excited Yelling that happens to the best of us. everything's fine here, no major secrets revealed!!!! No cliffhanger at all!!!!!!!
(BLAME ECCC FOR PUTTING A CONVENTION IN THE MIDDLE OF CLIFFHANGERS!! WHAT IS THEIR DEAL!!!)
posted at 2:18am on March 1st, 2017
I do appreciate the stairs. I also appreciate how you have managed to make the transformation from goopy tentacled mess into human a gradual thing. Both are impressive.
posted at 4:23am on February 28th, 2017
H-he's, getting there,
posted at 2:19am on March 1st, 2017
Whelp. That secret didn't last long. Good job, Xira. XP
*also I love how we can't even see Jonan's face in the second to last panel and yet you can still tell by his posture that he is just mentally SCREAMING "I told you so!!!"
posted at 7:16am on February 28th, 2017
look, it's not like he had a backup plan for "travelling companion unexpectedly transforms into formless monster, requires like 5 billion uses of telepathy to rescue"
posted at 2:19am on March 1st, 2017
Xira, a witch? No way!
posted at 8:33am on February 28th, 2017
it might be kind of a weird headcanon but i think there's some evidence to support it! :O
posted at 2:20am on March 1st, 2017
He is not a witch. He just... has really good people skills...um... Death of the author! DEATH OF THE AUTHOR!
(I'm jokingly referring to the trope, not wishing you to die... I hope that's clear heh)
posted at 9:09am on March 1st, 2017
Those are some lovely stairs. It's true!
Æmber is so useful as a prop. That almost seems like a terrible thing to say, but this is also true!
Panel five is such a great, "Aww, snap" moment. Awkward! Also, it says something about the severity of the situation that they're following Xira back upstairs or allowing him back into their room after all this. But Xira being a witch is pretty low on the list of crazy things with this group.
posted at 11:48am on February 28th, 2017
(ahhh thank you!!)
re: that last bit, ....honestly, you're not wrong,
posted at 2:20am on March 1st, 2017
Sure, Xira, leave the inn-keeper there, who now knows you are a witch hiding a gooey tentacled mess, I'm sure it won't come back to bite your ass.
And what Sev said was really kindly worded, I'm impressed.
posted at 12:25pm on February 28th, 2017
Xira CAN wipe memories. Maybe he remembered to do that. Maybe.
posted at 3:24pm on February 28th, 2017
On the other hand, Xira's mind reading powers are helpful for Sev's situation. Anyone else who might have stumbled upon Sev in his full facestealer form would have been all "KILL IT WITH FIRE!"
I'm not going as far as to say he saved Sev's life... but yeah, he really helped him out in a terrible situation by using his powers. He needs to own up about lying/not being forward with the group, but it would seem unfair for the group to completely overlook the good that he has done.
posted at 10:21pm on February 28th, 2017
re: Xira affecting memories, that does take time -- he has to go into that personalised mindscape and dig through their stuff -- so if he'd done that here, we'd see it.
posted at 2:21am on March 1st, 2017
The stairs are, indeed, a thing of beauty. Also, the action illustrated by panicked Xira leaping up them is also pretty lovely. Honestly, I feel so badly for him: he's trying so hard to be helpful and keep everything under control in a group that is always going to be kinda crazy. I also give him huge props just for sticking around; I mean, I think that most of us, having lost a finger to a traveling companion who appears to have turned into a facestealer, would be running far, far away at this point. I'm hoping that Xira's actions - opting to try to get everyone to a safe place for regrouping, rather than booking it - show that he is actually a good guy.
Also, interestingly, the vote incentive didn't surprise me; Tareth may be younger than Sev, but she functions as the "more responsible sibling (usually the job of the eldest child)" in their relationship! (I know that they aren't actually siblings, but a really close friendship works in much the same way as a good sibling relationship does.)
posted at 12:57pm on February 28th, 2017
They kinda trade off who's the responsible one, I think -- Tareth is more responsible in thinking ahead, while Severian is more responsible in Actually Doing Things. If they were roommates, Tareth would be the one who puts off calling maintenance and eventually gets Sev to do it; Severian would be the one eating cereal out of a mug because he didn't think to do dishes last night.
posted at 2:23am on March 1st, 2017
Now I want to read this AU.
posted at 3:54am on March 4th, 2017
Nice lighting on the stars :)
Also want to mention the excellent transformation you're doing with Sev these past two pages, depicting a goopy blob of eyes and tentacles slooowly turning human in a recognizable process can't be easy.
Xira, I think the jig is up.
...You know, I'd assumed he was the only runewriter present without a debilitating miscast, but I just realized I don't really know what a mind-magic miscast would look like. Maybe he already has miscast and doesn't remember it.
posted at 2:01am on March 1st, 2017
(Ah gosh, thank you very much!! *u* I'm super glad that comes across despite mostly happening in the background, so to speak)
Mind magic is..... definitely less immediately visible
posted at 2:27am on March 1st, 2017
I love this page! And this story. And this whole comic :)
anyway, what I am wondering about now, is how can Xira cast so many spells? How many runes does he have? And WHERE does he keep them?
Tangentially: is there a hard limit on how many spells a runewriter cna cast? We know there is a soft limit of how many runes they have inscribed, and that is capped by the fact you can't just inscribe on anything. But if you had unlimited runestones, you could just go on all day?
posted at 9:16am on March 1st, 2017
We've seen where Xira keeps his runes! They're hiding in plain sight. :>
And there's not a Only 5 Spells Per Day rule or anything, but it's been implied by Sev a couple times that casting requires physical endurance and can tire you out.
posted at 10:21am on March 1st, 2017
Oh yeah, right. But those were super long ago :D
But I was vaguely recalling something about spells being tiring, just wasn't sure, if Sev was being tired so often because flying around as a huge ass dragon is tiring in an of itself or bc casting spells is also tiring.
posted at 5:22pm on March 2nd, 2017
That's, uh
That's a lot of exclamation points there Xira
(Loving the expressions on this page! And Seth's in-between form right now, it's really visually striking and still expressive as ever.
...looks like this is altogether too much exertion for Jonan right now.)
Time to see how his goes I guess. Hoo boy. Good luck, Xira, and everyone else tbh.
posted at 9:59am on March 1st, 2017
Burn the Witch!
I have been waiting for this, like you would not beleive.
Still suprised Chalchi got away with it as long as she did. XD
posted at 1:11pm on March 1st, 2017
I haven't read Runewriters in years and OH MY GOSH WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SEV I have a lot to catch up on apparently!
posted at 12:00am on March 3rd, 2017
I just need to say how incredibly happy this comment made me, YOU UH, YOU'VE COME BACK AT AN INTERESTING TIME,,,,
posted at 4:43pm on March 17th, 2017
Sev: "I mean come on, so you're a Witch- I am currently an eldritch jelly, I ain't judging."
(also hi chynna, if that's you)
posted at 1:48am on March 8th, 2017
I don't know why this joke didn't occur to me earlier, but there is a hiatus so I'm not too late anyway.
Sev: "Anything you want to share? ... I'm all ears. I mean... you know figuratively, because I'm all eyes. But I think I could actually make it all ears if I wanted to... Actually, I wonder why facestealers have so many eyes but no ears.. or noses... Weir, huh? ... Wait, what were we talking about? I think it was important..."
Jonan: *silent facepalm
posted at 8:01am on March 8th, 2017
When in doubt, build a bed-fort.
(OK, I know it's a barricade, but the sheet makes it look like that's what they're doing).
posted at 9:20am on March 9th, 2017
Best comment ever :D
posted at 5:23am on March 14th, 2017
Comment by MagpieM
Xira is really having a heck of a day for impulsive, panicked reactions to things.
(I am appreciating the heck out of those stairs. Stairs are a pain and these are very good stairs.)
posted at 12:47am on February 28th, 2017