GlassShard

Glass! Glass! My book arrived today and it is glorious! If it isn't too much of a bother to answer, how many books did you send to Estonia?

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:18:11 -0400

I THINK only two. I think :3

Glad it arrived :D Thanks for being so patient!

How many smoke eels can you lure out at once? Could a wright theoretically protect himself in some way and then summon hundreds upon hundreds of smoke eels to murder his opponents? Also, wrights can create ghosts that obey them right? Do wrights some-

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:14:39 -0400

"-times have invisible bodyguards? Do they send out ghosts assassins?"

Lots of good questions, some of them relevant to future happenings. Good head on his shoulders, this Anon.

So if you ever get a spell wrong, you almost certainly get destroyed by the khert? Spellery is way riskier than I thought it was! I suppose this helps balance things and shows why not everyone who can be is a wright.

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:16:36 -0400

It depends on the severity of your screw-up. You don't want to create a paradox and you don't want to cause the khert to bring harm to itself or its workings. If you for instance tell the khert to use an Aspect located at a certain coordinate and that Aspect isn't there, nothing will happen. Spell fails but you don't lose your life. No harm, no foul. However if you overload a khert line with Aspects so it threatens to rupture, if you assign an Aspect to a material not designed for it (liquifying wood for instance), if you try to access Laws, if you overtax or overextend the khert with too many commands at once, if you try to burn a spell over a pre-existing ghost, if you attempt direct pymary on First Materials where the khert cannot go, if someone robs your flesh or bones of a core Aspect, and so on and so on... These can get you killed.

It is definitely risky, and not for the faint of heart.

Also that Bzzt sound from right before the eel jumped her: does that sound like the 'wrong answer' buzzer from a game show? Please don't tell me if I'm wrong, this is too beautiful to give up.

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:29:06 -0400

Would the wright-dissolution process take time, or would it be fairly instantaneous? Supposing a novice wright made a similar mistake while his teacher was across the room helping someone else - would the teacher be able to reach him in time to execute a

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:28:51 -0400

I think Duane displayed pretty well that it's not instantaneous. You have a few seconds to react. Almost all mageries are oceanside and drills take place in special classrooms with balconies so instructors can dunk aspirants if they screw up too badly and the khert comes after them. Of course they don't always get to them in time. And sometimes even masters make mistakes or are sabotaged. Dissolution happens. (This should be on a shirt).

It's been ages and ages and ages, but if Formspring is going down, I guess I can make a minor comeback. Thank you for being such a wonderful humanoid/goddess/person of immense talent/generous individual. Have I told you how much I love you lately???

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:24:34 -0400

P'shaw.

It seems we're shutting down. Even though it's been near-forever, It's been fun! What wonderful (real or imaginary) adventures have you been up to while I've been away? And if there is another mode by which I may stalk-ahem-follow you, lemme know!

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:24:28 -0400

Adventures, eh... Nothing much comes to mind outside of dealing with publishing and shipping a book. I'm not as stalkable as I used to be, it takes too much effort to keep social media updated. Stalk me via the comic, I guess :D

Will Duane have a scarring from that injury, or can it be healed through pymary? What's Duane's best (i.e. worst) scar?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:28:34 -0400

It would scar on that one patch near his thumb but the rest was an even layer of skin and should heal evenly, I think. Pymary doesn't have too many medical uses beyond disinfection (which is admittedly very important) and brute laceration closure. Which is a good thing, I say, since nothing kills drama faster than healing magic.

What is Sette's opinion of Mikalia at this point?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:05:26 -0400

I'd rather you guess it :)

on happier news, The book is now under my domain. Everything about it is so great and beautiful and perfect. Also, Quigley <3

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:02:05 -0400

You stole your boyfriend's book! I like your style.

In regards to the latest page, what sort of aspects do smoke eels have? Or did Duane basically smash it against the wall instead of finessing it?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:01:43 -0400

Eels have pretty superficial Aspects if they have them at all. They're ghosts made out of really horrible memories. A glitch in the khert forms them into eels, and they hang around stewing in their own misery while hoarding particles. Once they have enough that the khert registers them as real entities, they can use their eelness to physically rip into people.

But the eel that leapt at Mikaila was just a limb of the khert springing forth to correct an impossible command - and the khert tends to correct things by destroying them. It would have dissolved Mikaila into dust but Duane trapped it in his hand a moment, then redirected it at the wall.

Can wrights controll smoke eels? Do they summon them to attack their opponents?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:44:04 -0400

You can lure smoke eels out and hope that they attack your opponents and not you, but that's the act of a desperate, suicidal wright. You can't generally control them though, no. In the last page, Duane plunged his hand into the line holding the eel, it tried to eat his hand, he directed it into the wall instead. You don't want to frig around with angry eels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfo3nEZHNLk

Will you export all your formspring responses for your fans once the site dies? It would be very rad of you!

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 21:15:38 -0400

I'm going to try. I tried to export the Duane and Sette answers yesterday but they still haven't shown up. I have a feeling the export feature is bugged out.

I showed my copy of Unsounded to my dad. He was pretty amazed, and he's never interested in the comics I get. Maybe someday I'll get him to read it and we'll be an UNSTOPPABLE UNSOUNDED FAN FAMILY. Hmm, need a question... I wore mascara today. Thought

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:08:45 -0400

Noooo, don't let your dad read it, he'll find out I'm a freak and you're a freak too by association D:

I like other people in mascara. I can't wear makeup, it makes me want to gnaw my own face.

Mikaila is trying to release the perspective sphere from her right had but the red "bzzt" appeared in her left hand. Is that intentional?

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:07:16 -0400

She said her right hand but used her left. That's (one reason) why the spell failed.

So, Leysa + Vienne = not so much. What about Mikaila and Vienne? I get a mad scientist/plucky sidekick vibe from that pair. Can they meet in a parallel universe and solve crimes? We could call it WomensWrights!

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:56:15 -0400

They do totally have a lot in common, though I have to think Vienne would feel weird hanging around an eight year old, haha. I'm not sure they'd solve crimes so much as try to undermine Vits Council and overthrow the government. That would be hip.

I like your name :3

How many pages of Unsounded have been posted in total? Tallying up the individual page counts for each chapter takes effort. :p

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:53:20 -0400

If you cannot go to the comic index page and add up the pagecounts for all the chapters so far in your head, you will never be a wright, Wright :3

32+69+52+75+60+84+57=429

I can't believe Formspring is shutting down, I'll miss it. :( Hopefully you'll find some sort of workable alternative, but what will I do without seeing this jellyfish creature wallpaper each day?

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:49:09 -0400

*gasp* I should save this wallpaper.

Something will get figured out, babe, whether it's migrating to a different Q&A site, upgrading my own site to be more interactive, or even just using tumblr more. All will be well.

Because this website so important to you, I am building the new formspring as we speak. I would like to know if you want a new one (basically identical website). If your answer is HELL YES, please sign&share this petition:

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:47:45 -0400

Well, I think that building a new site like Formspring and running it better, with much more advertisement and perhaps ties to industry, is a smart investment. Would I use it? If it works, sure. But don't do anything just for my sake - your time is too important!

Is the purple ball in panel one an associate of friendly coffee? :3

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 01:56:31 -0400

The ball barks when you roll it :3 I spend way too much time thinking about pymary-driven toys.

I looked through this ask.com a bit, and it looks nearly identical to FS. I even made myself an account:). Do you consider moving there? And do you plan to export both your FSs (please, do!)

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 01:55:59 -0400

I will export them if I'm able. I set the Duane and Sette account to export this morning and I still haven't received the archive on the site or by email. So like most things to do with Formspring I'm guessing the export feature is buggy.

As for switching to ask.fm it's not a bad idea. The only thing that makes me hesitate is that ask.fm has the same problems as formspring - no search feature and unfriendly navigation. But we'll see how it goes.

You know, Ash, you could always wait until you get, like, 20 questions and then do a youtube vid/audio answering them, in lieu of formspring.

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 20:28:26 -0400

I am shy, Casey :( It took me a good month to gather the courage to even post my voice to Kickstarter.

The news about formspring saddens me! I know I've not been around much, but where else am I gonna bug you with inane questions?! ......dives to check his parcel for a return address damn.

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 20:27:52 -0400

Yes, write me a letter! I expect perfect penmanship.

Hi there! Formspring just announced it will close. Luckily, we can export our data and import it to an identical website. Do you consider doing that? http://formspring.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/formspring-is-shutting-down/

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 20:27:26 -0400

What is the identical website, I wonder? Someone mentioned ask.fm but it does seem to have a few differences.

When you set up the store, is it just going to be the books, or were you thinking of testing the waters with other Unsounded merchandise? I think you have a big enough fanbase for some profitable t-shirt runs at the very least.

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 01:18:48 -0400

Maybe, but I honestly don't have the time to manage something like that. For now just books and maybe the rest of the postcards.

Great, so I just log onto formspring for the first time in months and BAM! It's shutting down. Glass, did my return jinx it?

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 01:17:42 -0400

Black birds are often harbingers of ill and/or Brandon Lee.

Would you consider making the export thing available to those of us who are Unsounded supernerds? If it doesn't have any personal information, of course.

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:03:21 -0400

Sure, man, that seems fair. I'm not going to do it until right before the cut-off though; no sense missing stuff.

My book arrived here in Toronto today. So beautiful! So, so worth every cent! But the postage was more than I paid you. Please, put up a donation button so I can assuage my guilt.

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:44:05 -0400

In Toronto? Naw, you're all paid up. I'm glad the book arrived and that you're pleased :D Canada Post really rocked this last shipment of books, they got delivered pronto.

Glass, note that the last day until you’ll be able to ask questions or post content on Formspring is March 31st. The day before April Fools day. Hmmm...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:34:05 -0400

I'm not sure Formspring is smart enough for an April Fool's Day joke of that magnitude. I mean, they put up ten hours of Epic Sax Guy whenever they have downtime.

Who was your first crush?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:16:31 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=penzsVANV0k

Will you open your question box on Tumblr as a sort of replacement formspring? (Forgive me if it's already open, I'm not a very Tumblr-savvy person.) And how will you do the Duane & Sette questions? D:

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:35:47 -0400

Aw, man, I didn't even think about the D&S questions but you're right! I can't think of another way to do them really. Wriiiiiight T___T

The tumblr box is always open for questions, or as open as it gets. I think you have to have a tumblr account to ask stuff, I'm not sure. Tumblr is not awesome. I'm open to alternatives, even if it's just nagging me to update the actual site to wordpress or add an integrated forum or something. I haven't been so great at making an intuitive and interactive website :/

Followers!! Check out the new book trailer for my upcoming young adult novel, Dragon Circle!

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:13:50 -0400

Look! Look at Casey's thing before the world ends!

Damnit, Ash, I'ma gonna miss nagging the crap out of you on Formspring.

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:13:22 -0400

I'll miss being nagged! Tumblr is not the same. I'm not a hip Tumblr person.

I'ma do a Kickstarter for money to hire a programmer to write us a formspring clone.

Welp, no more FS shenanigans to deal with. Maybe post a link to your Tumblr on the comic homepage?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:36:23 -0400

I'm kind of sad about it :( We had some good times here. Formspringers were my homies, man. But yeah, Tumblr.

I guess.

*sniff*

It seems Duane's not happy right now about his daughter's shenanigans. Could he keep her out of the room with pymary if he really wanted to? Instead of a sign that just begs to be ignored?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:56:40 -0400

If it got to that point he could rig something, but if you give your eight year old a command she's supposed to follow it without you going to extraordinary measures. Mikaila's got a beatin' comin' her way.

When do we get to see alive-Duane without his shirt?

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:44:46 -0400

The problem with shirtless Duane is that Alderode is cold as balls. Originally there was a scene this chapter where he's shirtless outside but it just didn't seem feasible with snow on the ground, so I covered him up. Shirtless Duane will have to show up in a later chapter if he ever shows up at all :(

I think about these things a lot. I got your back, anon.

Glass it still is Thursday I can only get the book on the weekend when I get to his house halpIcan'tendureitI'mtooexcitedaaaaasexyquigleyiswaitingformehehasshownmenothingaaaaaa

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 02:14:19 -0400

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:04:28 -0400

Oh god that is hilarious XD. Can you give some sample explanations?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:45:25 -0400

I'm not sure I follow D:

If you rose from the dead, as some form of undead, what would it be?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:44:10 -0400

Loquacious zombie.

How many book sketch requests have you received for shirtless Toma?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:44:01 -0400

I received but one request for a Toma at all, and it did not specify the state of his shirt :(

Do/did any of the couples in our story have pet names for each other?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:59:01 -0400

I'm sure they must, but I couldn't tell you what they are. I'm not the most romantic person on the planet D:

Ash! I am sad. All these shenanigans Mik is doing to her grandpa and we know this is only a memory of insanity. :( Boooooo. I like this kid.

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:58:18 -0400

*pat pat*

Could a parent pretend they made a poo-toe, not their overly-nosy, precocious little innate?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:55:25 -0400

Duane's claimed responsibility for Mikaila's tinkering on more than one occasion, so definitely.

Are the letters still canon?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:15:55 -0400

Yes. Although I could kick myself for ever introducing them, they're going to make people come to inaccurate and crazy conclusions.

Who's Will again?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:08:12 -0400

An extremely incidental character for now whom you will meet later in the chapter.

Is Mikaila already a better wright than Will will ever be?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:13:51 -0400

Are you somehow reading ahead? XD Stop that!

Kermit the frog?

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:30:51 -0400

My hero.

The book arrived at his home (he already sent you an email but whatevs) akjshdsja I want to skip work and go get it and see it and show to everyone and kajhdajdsda

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:15:32 -0400

I was so glad to see his email :D Your man-friend seems nice.

Since pymary is regulated, is there any danger for innate casters, beyond the obvious dangers of practicing, in being caught using pymary without some sort of formal license/approval? Are there differences between Alderode/Cresce? Children/adults?

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:28:38 -0400

Well, yes, the restrictions against unlicensed pymary are the same for innates as they are for people who require outside activation. Innates need to learn the language and the technique the same as anyone, so if they start using pymary it's because they are actively choosing to, and hence they are knowingly breaking the law. Except in rare cases, pymary doesn't happen on accident. An innate could theoretically never learn pymary and never use their innate connection.

It's much the same in Cresce and other countries. It's imperative for governments to keep a stranglehold on the arts.

Children with innate connections using pymary is pretty damn rare. Not every kid lives in an apartment full of spellbooks and is brilliant enough to figure out how to use them. But in that case, punishment's gonna fall on the parents. And adults will just go to prison or have their neck stretched.

Hi! Read earlier you were thinking of getting a color printer so you could do printing yourself. I don't know if this is true, but supposedly printing yourself is waaaay more expensive than hiring because laser printers aren't designed for heavy duty.

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:19:45 -0400

I was only thinking of it for small runs of things, like stickers or art prints, but yeah, they really are crazy expensive. Funny how we've come so far in most areas of technology but home printer tech is still way too expensive and way too unreliable.

Went to a hockey game the other day and used Sette's "miss" taunts from chapter 1. Hope ya don't mind? :)

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:18:13 -0400

Sette would be a terror in a hockey rink. She'd punch you in the face, suggest you put some ice on it, then headslam you into the ground. But no, taunts should be shared and used frequently, I do not mind.

Say what you like about the ComicMix contest, but as I recall Unsounded lost to Looking for Group last year. Right now they're paired up again and Unsounded's in the lead. That has to be some kind of goodness.

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:14:59 -0400

You know, I've never read that comic. I never understood the title.

Is Mikaila dying of some horrible illness? Is Duane going to turn into a zombie while trying to save her?

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:58:14 -0400

Nope, Mikaila's healthy as a horse (saddle hound). Why, does she look sickly?

Gasps It was Duane's own daughter who accidentally turned him into a zombie, wan't it?! :O

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:40:11 -0400

He wouldn't let her stay up late. He had it coming.

How is it that we're seeing this newest scene, if we're supposedly seeing Duane's memories and he's obviously not there at the moment to break up this rogue bit of pymary. Artistic license? Trick-o-the-khert?

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:02:41 -0400

Excellent question!

Ha, I totally knew Mikaila would take after her dad. Innate + tacit I would assume?

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:14:25 -0400

Yes, alas, to her parents' great frustration.

Imagine a world where Aldish accents were identical to thick Cajun accents. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world?

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:46:34 -0400

Gambit all the galits! Have you ever seen The Princess and the Frog? I could get really cozy with a Cajun accent.

You seem to enjoy video games that have good story to them. Have you tried the Walking Dead game? For a game based on a lackluster comic book and a pretty average TV show the story in that is fantastic!

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 11:48:16 -0400

No time for vidya x_x

So I was looking at the Kickstarter page and remembered part of the reason for it was so you could raise money to make side stories! Do you think you'll have one done this year?

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 11:47:43 -0400

Ah, don't tell anyone, but as a money-raising effort the print book was a bit of a failure. After expenses and taxes I didn't clear much. So side stories aren't likely any time soon, alas. Go read one of the fanfics, they're quite nice!

so apparently giant mosquitoes are going your way this summer?

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 01:37:56 -0500

From what I've read, the two riskiest countries to ship to are Russia and Brazil. My fingers are crossed -_-

Is there a way to check on the status of my copy of Unsounded?

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 23:29:24 -0500

Yes, email me - murkoph@gmail.com - if you're overseas though there's only so much I can do. I can't track packages once they've left the states.

What are the meanings behind the snazzy symbols on Duane's scapular/chasuble?

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:55:57 -0500

I'd be more inclined to call it a tabard or even just a uniform, as it's a garment worn by many of the temple's higher ranking officials and most of them are not clergy. There's a separate garment Ssaelit clergy wear when officiating, and it's never taken outside of the temple.

Anyway, if you look at the very last page of volume 1 you'll get a good shot of the symbol. Ssael was killed and eaten by lions, so the lion is the ultimate symbol of man's transcendence over the flawed world of the Twins, since Ssael found victory only once he was free of it. The symbol for mortal shortcoming is the black crow or raven, and it was the form of an undying raven that Etalarche, Ssael's treacherous grandson, was forced to forever inhabit after his crime. That raven is bound up in the lion's mane, a constant temptation in its ear. The interplay between these two is ubiquitous in Ssaelit culture. The lion is perched on a khert port that contains the Old Tainish phrase "Dammakhert pos Ssael fhikemun rish," or "Beyond the great khert, Ssael reveals the way." The symbol as a whole is the seal of the Lions of Mercy, the most esteemed of the Ssaelit armies of Alderode.

What are the staple items on your grocery list that you pick up every time?

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:19:36 -0500

Hot Pockets and blow.

It's hug an artist day... so... yeah... hugs. Thank you for all the awesome you put into the world. I would not change one thing about Unsounded, save for making it your full-time job and update five days a week instead of three.

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 02:48:27 -0500

Thanks, Hod. In a fit of depression I just ordered thirty dollars worth of chocolate off the internet. I need chocolate.

You know you had some concept art or something some people got to see after voting? Any chance you could put that up somewhere for us all to see now?

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 02:42:57 -0500

It's nawt special http://www.casualvillain.com/stuff.jpg

How does Sette feel about the fact that Duane's outfit has a lion on it?

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:08:23 -0500

She's a lion fangirl so she finds it surprisingly stylish of him.

Any peeps out there got suggestions for a decent head set? My current one but it's starting to die, and my comrades can hear themselves over my mic sometimes, this is not ideal D: I'm after something solid, but keep in mind I'm pretty poor right now~

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:46:37 -0500

I use 4.99 earbuds. Sorry, bro.

Do you ever notice little wormy things floating across your eyeballs and get creeped out? I just noticed wormy things on my eyeballs again, and got creeped out.

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:34:38 -0500

*points below*
AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

H̏̾̔̎̂ͬ͂҉̝̰͙̻͔̻͕̀͠ͅI̢̳̣̣̙͍͔̭̙̳̥͍̹̟͇͉̽ͩ̉̍ͫͭ̒̅ͦ̇̆̽̄ͨͣͬ̇̑ ̷̢̢̪̖̰̠̙͉̹͕̬̈̈͗ͦ̽͆̚͘ͅG̸̡̧̣̬̥̰̟͇̞̟̽͋̾͑ͮ̃̏͟͡Lͫ͋͒̉̾͂ͨ̆ͦ͂ͨ҉̶̼̺̱̤͍̙͕̺͈̲̱̠̳̳̺͓̝̼̙̀͢͝A̵͍̮̺͕̞̻̹̘̰̩̜̖̋͛̏ͤ͑̾͌̓ͩ͡Š͉͉͙̩͕ͭ̃̎ͩͩͫ̆́̚͟Ş̸̰̜̼̹̪͍͇̻̠͚͓͒ͬͮ͐̋̃̀̕͝ͅ

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:34:28 -0500

AAAAAAA

The gloves that Duane gets in chapter three have different shades of brown on the middle fingers. And Blondo McWhoopass of 1-16 has some reddish fingers on his gloves as well. COINCIDENCE?

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:15:03 -0500

Do they really? *checks*

Haha, Blondo has all red gloves. And yeah, some of zombie!Duane's gloves have the different coloured fingers. I think I just like cool gloves, mostly :D It's nice to give characters distinguishable hands so you can tell it's them in close-up hand shots. Culturally it would make sense that emphasis be placed on wrights' hands in Kasslyne, no? That's where their primary khert ports are and where all the magic happens so I could see there being a big market for interesting gloves. Like wizards and their pointy hats, but cooler.

Mmm, I want to go draw dozens of different glove designs now... but must do work...

If Duane had been wearing the special gloves, would Quigley have been so eager to fight him (not that he really had a choice)? Are Class A wrights rare or are there a decent amount?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:21:24 -0500

A guy walking around with thorns (red-fingered gloves) outside of Alderode would have to be a real wanker, and the sight probably would have provoked Quigley even more. So yeah, he still would have fought him, but he'd probably have been quicker to go right for the throat and take fewer chances. Quigley knew Duane was a tacit caster before engaging him so he's not an easily intimidated sort of guy. Matty probably would have peed his pants though.

Class A wrights are not super rare, but it takes so much study and expertise to become one that you don't generally see them walking around among the normals. They have to pass speed and knowledge tests and if you can pass those you're likely to be working for the upper echelon of the Window, or doing something like Duane does, which is serve as pymary instructor of the Lions of Mercy and master wright, or rector, of the Temple of Song, each of which is a pretty big deal.

So yeah, Duane be cool. But not Cool.

My book apparently arrived safely in Iceland yesterday, but I couldn't retrieve it then because I was sick and not today either because of a massive storm. Whyyyyy.

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:49:09 -0500

I think it is pretty cool that you live in Iceland. Send me some ice for my soda..

Keep meaning to ask: What's up with the different colored fingers on Duane's gloves?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:10:04 -0500

If I tell you, you will laugh.

I had a dream where I was reading FS. I really wish I could remember it more b/c my brain had a fantastic spoiler re: Murkoph/Duane history. I mean, it was more that I read a reply that spelled it out but still, wow freaky. Any good dreams lately Glass?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:23:04 -0500

I only very rarely remember my dreams, and when I do they are utterly mundane. Like I'll dream about a fight with my mom or about chatting online with a friend. My brain is pretty lazy at night and can't be arsed to come up with anything interesting to entertain me with. I envy you guys your interesting dream-brains :(

"She has little baby eyeballs at one point." Whuh? Are you secretly writing another webcomic?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:43:04 -0500

I have in the past. I had a short comic in Rising Stars of Manga years and years ago about adorable zombies. It was not good, but I wanted to redo it and make it better afterwards. Unsounded got made instead.

The khert is also made up of memories among other things, right? So technically, it should be constantly growing and getting bigger, no? With people being reborn and whatnot.

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:41:24 -0500

The khert is infinite, like a fractal. You can keep going deeper and deeper into it indefinitely. That's all I'll say on the matter for the moment, as the mysteries of the khert are a big plot deal.

Are we just currently getting wonderful backstory, or are we getting wonderful backstory as Sette sees Duane's memories?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:39:41 -0500

Both!

Have all the 45$ books been sent out yet?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:39:16 -0500

About sixty books are waiting for more prints. I should get those today. At least, the Fedex site says so.

How did Duane feel about all the taxes?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 02:05:14 -0500

No one likes taxes.

Omg that new character (at your avatar) and Duane's face! Omg all this so precious and amazing, thank you very much!

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 02:04:56 -0500

Just thought you should know you're in this 'Mix March Madness' webcomic thingy. People should go vote for Unsounded.

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 02:04:49 -0500

Bah. Unsounded was in that last year too. It's a dumb contest. You can't throw comics of all different genres and formats in together like that.

Besides, Lackadaisy should win and it won't, so the contest is fundamentally broken.

Does Duane have impostor syndrome, or is he just trying to wrangle encouragement/kisses from his wife?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 02:03:09 -0500

Haha, I think he's definitely looking for some head-patting and consolation here, yeah, but he does have a lot of insecurity about where he is in life right now. He doesn't feel he deserves it and he goes from day to day waiting for it all to disappear. You ever have that happen? A spate of good fortune so sudden that all you can do is obsess over its inevitable, horrible end? Then you start psyching yourself out and try to scale back your success hoping no one will notice it that way, and you'll be safe from catastrophe...

...Duane and I have some things in common.

Has Duane's theatrics clued Sette in that it's him yet, even though she can't understand them?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:58:43 -0500

I think it was more helpful when Leysa said his name ;)

Is Ivy a girl eyeball or a boy eyeball?

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:32:23 -0500

Ivy's a girl eyeball. She has little baby eyeballs at one point.

AAAAAAAAH I got the book! It's very lovely! Also HI, it's been awhile!

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:35:05 -0500

I know where you live.

Does there exist any anime where there's a pair of parents both alive and well?

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 01:30:49 -0500

Gankutsuou has a few couples but destroying them is central to its plot. Dead or missing parents are crucial to fiction though. Drama isn't bred from stability. From Batman to Luke Skywalker, heroes don't feel in danger if mom and dad are right there to give them lunch money. And in most stories, two parents are extraneous when one will do. Look at all the Disney protagonists who only have a dad. Avatar did this too. Indiana Jones' mom is dead. Elizabeth Swan, Will Turner, and even Jack Sparrow all had dads on screen but no moms. Dads, dads, everywhere, but the moms all dead or missing. It's the tropey-est of tropes.

What if someone asked you to draw a poker face alive!Duane for the vol. 2 sketches? (provided there will be vol. 2 sketches ofcourse)

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:12:10 -0500

I cannot draw the impossible.

What is Ninja Scroll?

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:11:41 -0500

The best japanimation movie.

Duane face: discuss.

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:01:07 -0500

It's like, his face. I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

Although I am amused that some people were okay with this http://prntscr.com/v1mbk

But this is right out of the question http://prntscr.com/v1mi1

Not all protagonists are young and beautiful and sparkling. Some protagonists have a few decades under their belt, and maybe they don't shave as often as they should, and maybe they have gotten far in life not by brooding or swinging a katana but by doing a lot of math very quickly in their head. And maybe they have flaws like being overly dramatic, kind of a spaz, kind of a pedant, kind of prone to breaking into tears at the climaxes of really tragic novels.

Duane is not Cool.

I got my print! Oh man, it looks unbelievably good! You've really outdone yourself on this one Ashley, i'm looking forward to my future dedicated Unsounded shelf :P Also, i've not bee around to chat about it but im loving the Live!Duane arc!

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:59:50 -0500

Kirbenstein! Stuff gets to the UK so fast, it's awesome. I'm so glad you dig the book. I will try to raise the bar for the next one :)

Hey, just wanted to let you know that I too got my book (and prints)! :D I immediately shoved it at one of my roommates and converted him, two roomies are left. Thanks a ton for printing vol 1 and for offering doodle options (Sette and the khertfish......

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:38:08 -0500

"are too cute!) and I'm super excited for vol 2 and the rest of the pages online. I hope you're enjoying this TB area cold snap :3"

This weather is toooootally nice. I wish it was like it is today every day all year. Glad your stuff got to you! The 45 tier was full of Floridians, Tampa people especially. What was up with that, haha.

How do you intend to get the winners their prizes?

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:36:43 -0500

I will BAMF them to you a la Nightcrawler.

You were right, Duane's face is fun! Pity...he, uh, you know, has one not any longer.

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:36:21 -0500

He has half a one! Just don't try to touch it D:

Have you watched Kung Fu Panda (the movies)?

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:35:49 -0500

Yep. The first one has a special place in my heart because my baby nephew was obsessed with it for about six months, and we would watch it every morning together. I can recite the entire movie from memory. The second one was a pretty good time and I liked Shen, he was an intriguing villain.

Kung Fu Panda combined with Yo Gabba Gabba made me basically love Jack Black forever.

I thought Duane ranked fairly high in the Motadwe, do they not pay well? The house seems nice enough.

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:19:26 -0500

Almost all the money he makes has to go towards books and research materials in order to keep abreast of new pymary developments and spellburns so he can continue doing his job (you're gonna see the library/study soon and know where all the money goes), and he's taxed heavily on top of that because he's a Soud. The house is not really a house, but it's not too bad. It's also not theirs - they live with Leysa's parents. They're not exactly impoverished but it's been tough.

A lot of the fanfiction entries - mine included! - have depicted New Tawhoque as a festering cesspit. Are we being wholly fair to the city, though? Looking back at the Ch.1 title page, the place doesn't look too shabby in the background, Italianate even.

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:14:21 -0500

Like most cities, Hanghorse has its posh neighbourhoods. Uptown Hanghorse - or the Old District as it's called - is a nice few blocks of luxury manors, boutiques, a very swanky bath house, and a few expensive restaurants. Hanghorse isn't the most fashionable place to live but the moneyed people who have taken up residence there have carved out a nice enclave for themselves.

Then there's the rest of the city. From the uninhabitable ruins of Tawhoque to the seedy waterfront to the blackened remains of the Borgo, it's a very foul place to try and eke out a living. And that's without even leaving the walls and going downshore to the Cove, the unincorporated shantytown where all the pirates and freaks hang out. So while Hanghorse looks okay from the highway, once you get beyond the gates you'll see that it's well-earned its reputation as the filth-encrusted arsehole of Sharteshane.

It was my book. I think you sent me the wrong one. This one says "Thank you for your infinite coolness". You must have meant that for someone else.

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 17:56:54 -0500

If you win the fanfic contest I'm sending you rat poison.

The contest is ridiculously close at the moment by the way. It's kind of exciting :3

Did anyone in Mathis' Ginnal start calling him Mathy Squiggly after he started learning old Tainish and higher mathematics, or is that just something I would do?

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 17:55:25 -0500

That's not bad.

...are you a recovering bully? :O

A package arrived for me today. I wonder what it could be.

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 22:01:57 -0500

IT'S A BOMB

THROW IT IN THE POOL

Just curious... I know you said it wouldn't be any time soon, but around when do you think you might publish the second Unsounded volume?

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 20:02:13 -0500

Oh, maybe I'll start a Kickstarter in December, publish soon after if it's successful. Depends what's going on in my personal life and with work, I have a few things up in the air right now.

Glass I am bored. Say something witty YOUR MASTER COMMANDS IT.

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:45:10 -0500

I have but one master- AND IT IS NOT YOU.

"So the ladies wouldn't have much to say to each other." It sounds like they'd have a lot to say to each other. At volume. Followed by angry makeouts.

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 02:59:24 -0500

The idea of Vienne and Leysa making out breaks my brain.

Got my book and prints here in Pittsburgh today! Such an awesome Sette drawing too. :D The book looks so nice, it printed very well and its great to be able to see so much detail in the pages.

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 02:58:43 -0500

Woohoo! :D

How has Orlina not woken with her sound aspect switched out with something quieter, like Elka did with the dog, only this time it's to shut her up?

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 02:57:57 -0500

'Cause that's not nice :O

How has it been to draw Duane alive in the comic?

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 02:57:24 -0500

I finished chapter 7 last week so I'm well beyond this scene, but it was mad fun to draw him. Duane doesn't have any manner of poker face so his expressions are always delightfully raw and goofy.

Does Orlina live with them?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:43:53 -0500

Yep.

What's the worst thing you've ever been called?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:43:26 -0500

Selfish :(

♫♪There's only one word that can describe you, You're a flippityfloppityhootchymamawoowoo♫♪

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:02:19 -0500

I've been called worse.

High five?! holds up hand

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:02:10 -0500

High five!

...that hand better be sanitary.

Orlina's face... it fills me with rage.

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:01:56 -0500

You just take Duane's side 'cause you know him better :3 Maybe Duane has spent the last nine years lamenting over how he doesn't deserve all the promotions and privileges both his religion and his caste heap upon him, and every time something new arises he has to make a major production out of it and drive his family nuts, and Orlina takes it particularly hard because the first person Duane always comes running to is her daughter and now Leysa has to spend the rest of the evening reassuring him that the world is not, in fact, ending.

important questions. Would Leysa and Vienne get along? I forgot the rest of them, yey (not)

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:38:24 -0500

I don't think they would, no. Leysa is a very proper, very content, very pious, very patriotic Aldish lady. She never wanted anything more than to be a good wife and mom and keep a pretty little home. Vienne was a rebel and malcontent who didn't like her place in society as either a woman or a Plat, and while she loved Matty and Mathis enormously she did not put them first in her life. So the ladies wouldn't have much to say to each other.

Minutia chat! Is bronze/copperish looking container thing in the background a hotbox?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:34:37 -0500

Naw, it's a samovar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samovar The Adeliers can't afford a hotbox, so everyone hangs out in the kitchen around the oven.

I FOUND THE KHERT. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130227.html

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:43:11 -0500

And like everything else in fantasy works, it's in New Zealand.

The girls? How many daughters does Duane have?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:55:25 -0500

You will seeeeee.

What's your favorite part of the webcomic making process?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 02:47:09 -0500

Interacting with you crazy fartknockers <3

Is that not a fine word? Fartknockers.

So I've been in the random section before, I've sorted through it's scraps and bits and scratched my head and laughed sometimes. But you know what really gets me? As creepy as Murkoph can be, what really gets me is Surfing Santa. Why, WHY, is he there?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 02:46:30 -0500

Years ago I worked for a drinkware manufacturer. Mostly I was the person who designed the chintzy looking custom coffee cups or shot glasses you find at tourist traps, but sometimes we'd do original holiday designs for AAFES and I'd get to draw goofy shit like surfing Santa :3

This might come up in the comic sometime, but if not: How did Duane react when he first found out he was going to be a father?

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:24:02 -0500

He and Leysa went from newlyweds to pregnant almost immediately. They both wanted kids pretty badly and when she finally realised all the boinking had paid off, they flipped their shit thoroughly - in a good way. Cigars and slaps on the back all around.

I got my book today! :D It is glorious. Thank you~ <3

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:38:04 -0500

You're welcome, sexy Anon. I got a lightbulb off eBay for an Ikea lamp I bought six months ago. Presents for everyone!

There's been a lot of new things revealed in this chapter, what's your take on the reactions everything has gotten?

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:42:00 -0500

I guess they've been cool. I try my best to be entertaining without going off the deep end. A lot of these revelations are fairly natural and obvious ones, in my mind. I mean, how obvious was it that Duane was a dad? From him braiding Sette's hair on demand to having such a violent reaction against bad dudes going after kids, his fathertude is painted in pretty broad strokes :) But I was satisfied to see at least one person lament the fact that Duane was married, haha.

Other revelations... some people are crazy interested in Rahm after only one page, which really surprised me. Rahm is a cool character but he's not like Batman or anything. Reactions to the khert were pretty good. I was certain there'd be at least one hater but if there was I didn't see it. The hate/love towards Murkoph is as old as the character, and I always expect it.

Going forward, things are going to calm down for a while. We're gonna get to know the Adeliers and their part of Alderode a bit, and put some politics on the page. I completely expect to read comments in a week about "how slow and boring that comic Unsounded has got omg why can't every page be a shitstorm." 'Tis the way of the webcomic reader :3

Why are temple people allowed to have kids/a wife?

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:32:27 -0500

Because that's how the Ssaelit religion works. Gefendur clergy aren't allowed families but Ssaelit clergy are encouraged to have them. It makes sense when you remember how the Gefendur tend to put the gods above mankind, and the Ssaelit are all about apotheosizing mankind.

Has the brow port evolved? I thought it was to signify Duane's rank and unit. I'm good with changes and all that, by the way, just curious. One of the fun things about Formspring is feeling like I'm watching some of the artistic process behind the comic.

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:01:49 -0500

It's a removable piece of jewelry, so what he wears there changes. At the moment he's wearing the pymary-themed piece and it suits his position as Temple rector and pymary master of the Lions of Mercy's battle wrights. He's not currently part of any one unit more specific than the whole of the Lions, since he's permanently assigned to the Temple. In the past he's worn a standard issue bar at his brow to denote his rank though. So you are still correct!

How old was Duane when he died? I know you've mentioned it before, but I'm tired and grumpy and I don't want to scour Keilia's archive to look for the answer. :<

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:01:40 -0500

I wouldn't worry about it anyway, I think I changed my mind :)

How old is Duane in Wednesday's page?

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 02:07:23 -0500

31, I think.

Thank you for the fast response, it's good to know!! I discovered Unsounded through Kickstarter, but didn't want to back a comic I didn't know. Little did I know it'd become one of my favorites... I'll be sure to keep a bit of money for it!

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:55:10 -0500

Sweet!

I gotta say, I love Duane's little pet-name for Simon. On a related note, thank you for keeping the Tainish Wiki page up to date. :D

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:54:57 -0500

I couldn't leave ya hanging :D

I just noticed the fading chevrons as the page went on. Am I right in assuming that this is indicating that Sette is temporarily understanding Tainish while she's experiencing Duane's memories?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:54:37 -0500

Naw, Sette doesn't know Tainish. Poor kid, she's stuck watching an old foreign movie with no subtitles. I had the brackets fade away 'cause we'll be with these folks a while, and no one wants to look at bracketed text for so long. I hoped the implication would be that everyone going forward is speaking Tainish, but it's being translated for you.

Hey, will there be another fanfiction contest following the second book?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:52:25 -0500

Maybe! Or it'll be a fanart contest. It's a while off either way. Your book ships tomorrow! Look out for it o_o

I seem to remember reading something about Duane being a virgin when he 'died'...Or am I mistaken?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:51:22 -0500

You very well could have read it - doesn't mean I'm the one who said it :)

About Duane's facial hair. I can't think of what the lines on his chin are supposed to look like, other than "oh god, he looks like Ephsephin!" Is there some real-life person that has that same facial hair style to compare it to?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:27:20 -0500

He's just got some blond stubble. No one will let him grow his beard back, so he goes days without shaving as a minor form of protest.

So Duane's tattoo was a marriage brand?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:10:17 -0500

Well done ;)

I've been watching Unsounded since Ch.2, and I've wondered if you draw inspiration for spellery and the concept of the khert from programming? Many of the concepts seem eerily similar, in a good way.

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:43:10 -0500

I absolutely do. Pymary is like programming aloud on an ethereal computer. The khert is the interpreter, Old Tainish is the language, and reality itself is the display. There are ghosts in the machine though, so to speak, so it's not quite that straightforward :)

I'm sure this has been asked already, but I did a quick search and didn't find the answer. Will there be any other chance of getting the first book? Like, if there's a second kickstarter, would you reprint a few of the first book?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:29:37 -0500

I have an extra hundred or so copies to sell. They're 20USD apiece. In a few weeks I'll announce availability on the site, but until then I'm focusing on getting the last of the Kickstarter orders out :)

Would you ever try a taco made with shredded octopus? Personally, when I hear taco I think octopus (tako) so I've had the idea in my head for a while now but I've yet to try making it. I think the idea has promise.

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:49:57 -0500

Fish tacos are pretty good so yes, I would try an octo-taco. I think you'd have to really work to take the rubberiness out of the octopus so you're not gagging on clumps of shredded flesh, but I'm down with this idea.

Is that a piercing I spy on Alive!Duane's eyebrow?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:48:22 -0500

Yep! He wears a little gold swoop with tiny emeralds set in it, to represent a stylized khert line with Aspect packets passing through.

Oh, goodness. Duane's handsome! Oh, wait, I should ask a question. How many other 'dos did Duane go through before you came to his current one?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:44:49 -0500

My first idea was just go to with a classic Caesar cut, but that was too cool. So I gave him the hint of a mullet in the back and made it longer on the sides so he'd have ear wings, and yeaaaaah, baby, that was the dorky ticket.

Comparing your book to the book I got on the same day...your art is better, the production is better, the story is better...not that I don't LIKE the other comic (It's highly regarded critically too), but you're awesomer than famous comickers. Just sayin'

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:43:41 -0500

You are biased, and I cannot lend credence to your evaluation.

:3

I got my book yesterday~! It somehow survived the USPS, although most of the packaging barely did and one inside corner still got dented despite the cardboard. The book is amazingly awesome! Thanks for caving to peer pressure!

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:43:07 -0500

Geez, I'm sorry it got so battered though D: I'd like to visit the inside of a USPS sorting centre and see what the machines look like some time.

How simple is it for Duane to glamour his face into a puppy? How about for a more typical wright?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:08:37 -0500

It's a literal glamour, which means it's an actual model he can yank out of the khert and wear like a Disney World character head. And most any wright can do it if they know the commands and know where the model is they want to use. I had the idea that this is an old game between him and Simon. Duane comes home from work, Simon pulls the hood off, and papa's always wearing some new face to make him laugh or shriek.

What are your favorite toppings to put into a taco? How many do you then eat?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:04:49 -0500

I make tacos a lot for dinner, they are easy and cheap. I like black olives, avocado, sour cream, and a bit of cheese. If I'm at Chipotle I totally get everything except the spicy stuff that makes me die :O

i always think that it's cool to see characters with different hairstyles. while you were working on the Unsounded version of Duane, was there anything in particular that made you want to change his 'do?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 01:19:07 -0500

His old 'do was pretty horrible; horrible to the point where it would have been a distraction. I needed to give him something that was still dorky (because Duane should never be too cool) but that wouldn't call attention to itself. I think the present style is an acceptable solution, though the monastic bowl-cut is still canon - that was his hairstyle while he was in seminary and university :3

You mentioned trouble with the US postage changing, so I'm wondering... if there is a volume 2, how much would it cost to post outside of the US?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:01:14 -0500

Assuming the book doesn't get too much heavier, it's 11.95USD to Canada, 18.60USD almost everywhere else. And that's First Class International, as cheap as it gets. Kind of ridiculous, the shipping is almost as much as the book itself.

Corkscrewing is when you take an old-fashioned corkscrew, screw it into someone, and rip out a chunk of their flesh with it.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:53:43 -0500

That's just not very nice, Hod. Also it could promote repetitive stress injuries in the torturer.

Am I going to have to have another talk with your printer? On a completely unrelated note, I developed a new form of torture that I call corkscrewing (go ahead, ask what it is) that I would love to try out.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:15:59 -0500

What is corkscrewing?

This is not the book printer but a regular printer printer, so it's not as big a deal as it could be. Any idiot company can theoretically print out four illustrations onto cardstock. But the fact that both companies have dicked me around is giving me dark thoughts about why American manufacturing can't seem to compete with the rest of the world. I'm convinced the Chinese wouldn't do this to me.

Also, I volunteer to be one of the eighty who gets delayed, since you have to do my sketch later (I would prefer last since it's special, but whatever works for you) anyway.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:13:36 -0500

That's sweet of you <3 I found a local place to do the prints so the delay won't be severe. I'm still so pissed. I was going to have everything sent by week's end except the watercolours. Now this crap. GUH.

Just to let you know, I got my book (in NZ)! Absolutely adore it. There's a minor ink splurge on one page, but it's not serious and I just love the book so much and can't wait for a second volume (more extra content pretty please?)!

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:12:03 -0500

Ink splurge D: I'm sorry about that. I'm so full of rage and hate and frustration today towards dickhead companies that don't deliver what they promise, but I'm glad you like the book :) Volume 2 will have something or other extra... maybe we can raise money to have a gallery of guest artwork, that would be kind of keen.

The book arrived! It took a lot of mettle to keep from squeeing in the campus post office.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:00:52 -0500

Duane would be proud. Always keep your cool. Sette would scoff. Light all the things on fire.

<3

Matty, Matty, Matty. Poor little kid deserves a hug,some cake and a glass of milk. Jivi too. Why, oh why, are these two boys resurrecting my long-petrified maternal instinct. I blame you, Lady Cope.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 01:50:34 -0500

The time is right for this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8VKaKNINwY

I got my book!!!! All mine for me me me! I just want you to know it has been a long time since I have fangirl squeed.

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:45:08 -0500

Everybody mambo! \o/

Is that baby Duane? Are we seeing Duane's memories?

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:44:46 -0500

It'll be clearer on the next page.

About how old is the child in today's page? I'm not good at judging such things.

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:30:20 -0500

Two and a half.

I live in Maryland and got my book (and sketch) yesterday. It's absolutely gorgeous. Thanks!

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:22:44 -0500

Yay! So glad, thanks for letting me know :)

Is that a magical pymaric pencil of some sort? Do they have magical colored pencils? Where can I get one?

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:11:32 -0500

More a wax crayon than a pencil but yeah, its scribbles come to "life!" I want one too.

Was... Duane hiding under Lady Ilganyag's wing?

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:21:50 -0500

I'll answer this now. Apparently the Lady brought him to rescue Sette. At least that's how it appeared.

What's the weirdest sketch that has been requested thus far?

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:21:08 -0500

Quigley's bugs. I thought that was a little odd. Some people requested characters doing really specific stuff but this wasn't really meant to be a sketch commission, just a personalized character signature. I'ma start drawing the $45 books tomorrow, if anything weird pops up there I'll check back with you o_o

how do you pronounce "vhefhen"? I assume it means father?

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:18:37 -0500

It does mean father and it's pronounced very much how it looks. Veh-fhen.

I don't think I'm ready for the incoming cute! Aaaah!

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:14:39 -0500

I don't mind warning you that the cute is going to be pretty damn severe.

can't see the page 49, only the 48 page.

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 01:03:39 -0500

Both pages are displayed on the same page, it's a vertical spread.

Is-Is that... baby Duane? __

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:43:04 -0500

*______*

Have you played any of the Thief games?

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 04:02:48 -0500

Yep! They are pretty brill.

Add me to the got their book club. For all the dicking around by the printer, it turned out nice! What have you learned from this little adventure so far? Well, outside of underestimating our demand. :3

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 04:02:33 -0500

Oh, I've learned lots. I've learned to research shipping more so I can charge the right amount, I've learned to give the printer lots of leeway in the schedule, I've learned to time Kickstarter better so the giving of the money and the spending of the money aren't split between two different tax years, I've learned which mail software works best, I've learned to always make sure all my dialogue is %100 K, I've learned to allow at least a fortnight for bulk Priority envelopes from the USPS to arrive, I've learned that quotes from a printer are always significantly less than what you're going to actually wind up paying, and I've learned that doing all this crap by yourself really sucks frog balls :D

I'm glad your book arrived safely. The colours did turn out nicely overall though there are a few pages I wish I could have tweaked.

Who are your favourite voice actors?

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:24:42 -0500

Jim Cummings is probably tops. He's the best in the business. Otherwise Rob Paulsen, Tim Curry, Tony Jay, Christine Cavanaugh, Michael Bell, Simon Templeman, the sexy mofo who did Balthier...

Did it. Did the Sette voicin' thang. It's up here: http://kitsubasa.tumblr.com/post/43610241985 I feel like there's something missing from the voice I went with, but I'll leave that up to you to judge!

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 12:51:47 -0500

You are so talented! I hope you're doing something worthwhile with your skills.

Maybe its Sette-ness is hard to gauge because it's a strange scene for her anyway. It's not her being her usual loud and obnoxious self. But I don't want to encourage you to go back and shriek "Wanker!" repeatedly into your mic or anything, the men in the white coats will come to your door.

And of course on tumblr I had my nitpick about Duan vs Dwayne but that's just me being me. You are brilliant!

Is (NAME DELETED)'s healing face a property of (NAME DELETED) or his location in the khert? If you don't want to answer, will there be an answer this chapter?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:33:13 -0500

Murkoph is pretty hard to hurt for Reasons.

Where is this 'random' area?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:32:13 -0500

http://www.casualvillain.com/random/ - No complaining if you find something you don't like.

How did this anon find out about the original winky version of the newest page?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:30:42 -0500

From the comments on today's page, I imagine.

Does it bother you that Murk's junk is pretty high up there in the list of your Formspring fans' interests?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:29:59 -0500

Honestly the people who are scared of nudity are slightly more bothersome.

Why three winners? Also, stats?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:29:07 -0500

The stats are on the fanfiction page. Three winners 'cause there was a tie for second place.

I've thought a couple of times that Duane has lines on his glamour-face, and now I realize that Murkoph has similar markings/scars. Are they the same?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:28:38 -0500

He does have little lines that burn through his glamour, yeah. Really they're just supposed to be indicative of it not being a great glamour and his face looking off, like you could almost see the rotten features beneath. Like on this page it's really extreme 'cause he's upset and lost his concentration http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch03/ch03_35.html

Murkoph has actual scars cut across his face and wears no glamours.

Book arrived here in Pennsylvania! IT'S EVERYTHING I EVER DREAMED AND MORE. My life has improved in every way since I obtained this book: I am more suave and intelligent, my acne cleared up, I learned six languages, and I gained telekinesis. Five stars.

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:46:01 -0500

I should start charging more.

<3

I must ask: do you have that unedited first panel of today's page? >.> Mebbe for formspringers? Mebbe put it in random?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 01:31:18 -0500

It's in random. When I was originally making the page it felt really juvenile to have to devise a way to cover him up. But then later on I realised while I was a grown-up, most of the internet is not 9_9 So I tweaked it.

Has anybody requested a sketch of Ephsephin?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:41:17 -0500

At least one person, yep. Someone else requested his buddy Bett, too.

Book reporting in from Canada! It came yesterday.

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:40:53 -0500

Woohoo! Although dang, that took a while. I sent the first round of Canadian books two weeks ago. Hope you enjoy it :)

Hey Glass! I just got an email asking what character I would prefer drawn. I cannot for the life of me decide. So I thought I would ask you which you would prefer to draw. I was thinking Tirna or Vienne. Thoughts? (Tirna just seems like a cool gal.)

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:27:51 -0500

*cough* I like drawing Sette 'cause she goes fast, but you should pick whoever you like best! Vienne is a good choice. Tirna might not come out so hot in just a sketch since she has that split-in-half face that looks best in colour.

Not a single person has picked Uaid yet. Uaid is sad Uaid.

Was mine the last entry you received?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:05:56 -0500

Nah, but your surname did come last in the alphabetic line-up.

I've been in a poor mood lately but I checked my mail today and in it was a small package. I opened it right there in the mail room and danced and jumped around for a solid five minutes. The book is beautiful and so are you. Thank you, Glass! ;v;/ <33

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:02:23 -0500

Yay! Sorry it took so long to get there. Thanks for being so sweet and patient T_T

How obscure can I go with the characters? Does it have to be a character who has shown up already?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:01:58 -0500

It does have to be a character we've seen, yeah. Spoilers and all. Hod, why you want to make Glass nuts! Just pick a nice Sette like the rest of the class!

Duane is truly outrageous, truly truly truly outrageous. Whoa-oa Duane! Duane, the music's contagious, outrageous. Duane is his name, no one else is the same, Duane is his name. DUANE!

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:42:37 -0500

So Duane comes charging in to save Sette? This is funny on so many levels I hardly know where to start XD.

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:07:24 -0500

It is not exactly without precedent.

Is it untoward to vote for a contest you're in?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:56:37 -0500

Absolutely not. Even candidates running for President always vote and vote for themselves. And we all know Presidential candidates are the BEST people.

I'm actually cheering that she's meant to be Irish-ey! I hate voicing cockney accents-- I'm a New Zealander so I always end up going more Australian than English attempting them. Irish is WAY more comfortable. Thanks for the help!

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:54:16 -0500

If you ever do anything with it definitely let me hear! :)

Hey Glass, I'm an amateur voice actress and I've been wanting to try reading some of Sette's lines for a while just as a voice test, so I was wondering what kind of qualities you'd describe her voice as having? Also: cockney accent, yes? No?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:33:43 -0500

Definite no on the Cockney accent. I could see her either going Irish or even, if you wanted to be daring, a blend of Irish and deep American south. That would be really amazing to hear! :)

Glass! Did you know that you're really awesome? Well you are! And don't let yourself tell you otherwise! flies off into the sunset

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:44:17 -0500

I am not awesome. I am made of butts.

Could you post the polling numbers for round 3?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:25:01 -0500

http://prntscr.com/tfnen - All the polling results are on the fanfiction page.

You got the title wrong on my fanfiction contest entry. The title's not the biggest deal, of course, but is it possible to get it fixed, or does the whole Google Forms thing prevent that?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:24:02 -0500

I'll fix it right now, what is it?

I've heard of people throwing surprise parties, even throwing them for other people, but never catching one, what happens to them in midair?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:10:44 -0500

Go home, fauvem, you are drunk.

I got my book today! It's so gorgeous, as are all the extras (poor Argenti). Today is a good day.

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:17:09 -0500

Yay! Where are you located, out of curiosity?

Chapter seven concept art? But I already voted! Please don't tell me I've missed my opportunity.

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:49:39 -0500

Missed it forever!

...I'll post it on tumblr after the round's over ;)

Would you be concerned if your child was born without an appendix?

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:18:31 -0500

No way, that would be terrific. Hopefully it would be a male child so he could use it later to pick up girls. "I have an excellent mutation and should breed excessively."

You seem to have switched up the Round One and Round Two headers.

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:58:10 -0500

I fixed 'em.

Since you posted them for round one, I'm sorta curious about round 2 and the number of votes received. Would you be willing to post those as well? :3

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:26:46 -0500

http://prntscr.com/t6k75

had some stuff and I ended up being unactive here, trying to get back, did you miss the flood of smiles? Also my boyfriend got the survey for the book sketches, and I told him to put there "Sexy Quigley", he agreed only if I warned you of it, so here I am

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 03:25:52 -0500

Quigley is always sexy. But yeah, I had wondered where you got off to <3

Is it Murkoph in-his-life portrayed alongside Duane on Chapter 7 cover?

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 03:25:16 -0500

Ah, no.

Is now a good time for us writers to start biting our nails and freaking out over the contest results?

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 03:24:58 -0500

Bah, don't worry about the results! I just wanted everyone to have a good time entertaining each other.

Is it futile to name animals that you raise/kill for food?

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:35:33 -0500

My little brother names his bowel movements.

Describe an unusual method of surviving the death of the sun?

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:35:12 -0500

I'm not sure I'd want to survive the death of the sun.

Have you ever read The Scar by China Mieville? It's got strange and grotesque beasties and epic sea voyages and weird magic that's not called magic and vampires and pirates and political intrigue and plot twists and so you should read it!

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:34:42 -0500

I've read his Perdido Street Station and his King Rat but I never got around to anything afterwards, sadly. Perdido Street Station is so beautifully written and such a freaking scary book I get the willies every time I pass it on the shelf.

Have you ever been to a Body Worlds exhibit? They actually let me sketch some of the corpses after signing a "I won't profit off this" waver, and let me tell you, the experience was unforgettable! Incidentally, what's your favorite anatomy resource?

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:33:16 -0500

I haven't been to a Body Worlds exhibit! I don't know that it's ever interested me terribly. When I was in school we would sometimes go to the medical college in Tampa and draw from cadavers in the biology lab. It was pretty intense and smelly and bizarre, but I never found it all that helpful. A half-dissected corpse - unless it's as lively as Duane - isn't much more than a still life. I think it's more important to draw from the living - with a stress on quick gesture drawing - when it comes to bettering one's anatomy.

For muscle references I like to crack open Hogarth. For crazy foreshortening I find a mini drawing mannequin super helpful. Have you ever seen the plethora of insane pose books that are published in Japan? They have this one series that I see advertised on Pixiv all the time called Hyper Angle that I think would be super fun to draw out of.

A heartwarming tale of seasonal goodwill. Probably not safe for small children...(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toe-8ykTUT8)

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:53:01 -0500

I remember that circulating around Christmas time and people getting upset :3

And with that face in panel all my reservations about Murk drain away. Glass, will you ever forgive me for doubting you ಥ_ಥ.

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:51:40 -0500

I just try to be entertaining T_T

It's okay, I can edit it myself (I'm that weird person who just shared it as a google doc, so it will still allow me to edit). I just wanted to ask permission first. It's basically just changing 'her' to 'here (missed the e).

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:12:45 -0500

Oh, absolutely then :)

Is there any chance I could correct a tiny little typo in my fanfic, or is it too late (mine is in the current round)?

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:49:31 -0500

Go right ahead. Email me what you'd like changed.

Unsounded's been getting a lot of attention in the seedier parts of the internet lately. Hang in there.

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:24:33 -0500

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."

Naked Murkoph is the ULTIMATE BIRTHDAY PRESENT. Thank you!

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:33:54 -0500

BIRTHDAY SUIT FOR THE BIRTHDAY ANON.

Ha! I knew it! He is naked! Wait...why does this make me so happy? ._.

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:52:57 -0500

'Cause you need a man, anon :3

Glass I had class all week and didn't get a chance to read the first round of entries. Can I still read them, even though I can't vote? :(

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:41:56 -0500

Absolutely, they're still on the page, just scroll down http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/FFcontest/

Out of curiosity, how many votes were tallied in the last round of the fanfiction contest?

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:01:11 -0500

http://prntscr.com/sshig

HI there! I'm really enjoying your comic Unsounded, but I'm noticed that there appears to be a large body of work that I'm missing. Could you tell me where to find more of your work?

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:43:44 -0500

You're not missing anything else at all. Some people just bring up largely unrelated short comics, illustrations, and conceptual things that are on deviantart but they are not canonical to Unsounded. You actually have an advantage, trust me.

When do you think the store will be up for kicks? I ran out of moneys before the kickstarter, but now I have an Unsounded Fund. So... yeah.

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:27:12 -0500

Next month, methinks.

If you could be on any TV show, which one would you pick?

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:20:08 -0500

The Apprentice so I could put my thumb in Donald Trump's eye.

Are their soft Ssaelit, or soft Gefendur? i.e. Ssaelit who believe that people like Duane are still going to be with Ssael because there is no possible way Ssael could deny Duane and call himself good, or Gefendur who do everything but the people eating?

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:19:30 -0500

Well, one shouldn't generally call absolutes when dealing with anything. I'm sure there are people out there who harbour dissenting beliefs but still overall subscribe to the main tenets of their respective faiths. Ah, mind you, only Gefendur clergy and the very wealthy who pay for the privilege partake of sacrificial flesh. It's not like people-kebabs get passed around and everyone has a nibble. Most Gefendur don't have anything personally to do with the sacrifices outside of hoping it all goes well so the gods do not wreak bloody havoc on their lands and loved ones that season.

I had a dream about Murkoph last night. Murkoph was Sette's bitch for all intents and purposes and kept /begging/ her to steal a specific boat for him so they could get into the piracy business. But Sette fancied a different ship than he and nicked (c)

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:11:41 -0500

"that one instead, leaving poor Murkoph to mournful sighing up in the crow's nest. XD"

Nice :D

So what you are saying is the only way to get a unique sketch is to ask for something none of the other 577 other people asked for?

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:10:33 -0500

Or commission me properly :3

Sometimes when it's super hot I go to the grocery store and pretend to shop in the cold aisles, just to absorb the glorious un-heat. Just sayin'.

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:10:08 -0500

I like to lay on the tile floor in the kitchen like a dying animal.

Check out the cover of my upcoming young adult fantasy novel!

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:58:14 -0500

Kickass! You are famous!

I think it would be better to announce a clear time frame for the voting on the fanfic contest - whichever you choose. It just makes it more preditable and to know how much time you have to go through the entries. Thumbs up for all you do for us! :-)

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:53:13 -0500

Good call. I'll edit last night's update and include that info.

I love how we don't know if Sette sees Duane as a friend or as a tool in this chapter. Such suspense! That said, would she have any interest in learning how to make pie, or would she rather just enjoy the flakey fruits of others' labor?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:52:55 -0500

No, Sette has some interest in cookery. It's all about knives and fire, of course, what's to dislike about that?

Are the sketches going to be pretty uniform (everyone who asks for Quigley gets the same thing) or will they be unique?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:51:41 -0500

They'll be pretty uniform, probably. I got five-hundred to do; unless you want them stretching into next Christmas, I gotta give myself a break or two.

Fellow Batman Returns fan, eh? ;D So're ya big on our favorite PVC wearing kitty-cat?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:50:45 -0500

Yep. Pfeiffer's Catwoman is best Catwoman.

HELL HERE

Are you more forgiving of the strange quality of your seeing your characters inaccurately reflected if the fan fiction sets them up in ridiculous, comedic situations? Perhaps in a more parody like presentation?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:50:13 -0500

Absolutely yes! In fact I like that even more than OCs :D My favourite fanfiction genre is parody with canon characters.

How does Uaid like his eggs m'dear?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 03:05:11 -0500

Ogre-easy!

What do Grebbers look like?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:03:24 -0500

Like giant wolverines but less cute. I had a sketch but I dislike it now. I want to do a better one.

Does Matty listen SOOPER hard when Matthias is making/casting spells so he can use real spells when he pretends to be a wright? Does Matty have any of Daddy's favourites memorised?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:02:32 -0500

Yes. And yes!

I have an idea on how to save Friendly Talking Coffee! How good is Uaid with caffeine?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:02:04 -0500

I think he takes lots of cream and sugar.

I wish someone would ask me how Uaid likes his eggs.

If your life had an epigraph, what would it be?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:01:17 -0500

"He was just the man to go mad -- imaginative, voluptuously inclined, poor, unemployed, in the race of life distanced by his inferiors, unmarried, -- without a port or haven in the universe to make. His present misfortune -- rather blessing -- is but the sequel to a long experience of unwholesome habits of thought. -- This going mad of a friend or acquaintance comes straight home to every man who feels his soul in him, -- which but few men do. For in all of us lodges the same fuel to light the same fire. And he who has never felt, momentarily, what madness is has but a mouthful of brains. What sort of sensation permanent madness is may be very well imagined -- just as we imagine how we felt when we were infants, tho' we cannot recall it. In both conditions we are irresponsible & riot like gods without fear of fate. -- It is the climax of a mad night of revelry when the blood has been transmuted into brandy. -- But if we prate much of this thing we shall be illustrating our own propositions." -- Herman Melville, Letter to Evert Duyckinck, April 5 1849

Which of your characters do you think has undergone the most change from your RP days to Unsounded?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:56:42 -0500

Definitely Quigley. Quigley used to be a mediocre Sharteshanian bounty-hunting wizard. He was poor and rural but had a perfectly nice family and no tragic backstory to speak of. He was one of those everyman characters who would find himself in overblown situations among much more flamboyant characters, complaining about how ridiculous everything was the whole time.

In Unsounded he has become a flamboyant character himself, and really only shares superficial similarities with his original incarnation. I killed off his wife, made him a Plat, blinded his son, and put a permanent bug up his arse. Poor fellow.

Thank you for being so kind! Let me know if you would like help with the next fanfics. It wouldn’t be up to Glass-Standard, but maybe I could still help with basic formatting and read-throughs. (Not really a question for FS, but I'm too shy to e-mail.)

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:51:51 -0500

Thanks, Icey! If I get too overwhelmed I may just take you up on that :)

(I love all of you, I do not deserve such kind people in my e-life.)

Could you give us a clue and tell us which round the fanfic with the 'major spoiler' is in?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:35:54 -0500

No.

For the sketched-in books, should we limit sketch requests to main characters? I know they tend to be faster to draw. Would something like the Wandering Root be too elaborate? I know you're already crunched for time. I don't want to be "that guy."

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:51:20 -0500

You can choose whatever you wish. Just be aware I'm likely to do the obscure stuff last ;)

I probably did the contest wrong. I realized I forgot a title and any sort of name info. Is that okay? Should I like, send another email with all that?

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:55:12 -0500

If you're picky about presentation, sure. Otherwise I'll use "Untitled" by "Email name."

How do you feel about most of the (round one) contest entries being original plots/characters set in your world? How well does the stuff the entrants made up rhyme with your ideas about the universe?

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:28:08 -0500

You know, it's strange. I'm posting the stories in the order I received them, and these first eight were disproportionately OCs. Most of the other stories are an even mix of OCs and comic characters. I prefer OCs, to be honest... I don't particularly enjoy reading other people's renditions of my characters, it's like looking in a mirror and seeing the wrong reflection. It's disconcerting.

I've only read two of the stories... the rest I skimmed for appropriateness. I'm just so busy right now x_x I will read all of them in a few weeks when the books are mostly out. The two stories I did read I really liked though, so I'm looking forward to it.

You've been getting all kinds of complaints recently, so I thought I'd tell you that from what I've seen on DA, Unsounded, and your Casual Villain website, I think he's pretty freakin' awesome and I can't wait to see him as a character.

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:23:10 -0500

Well, thankya, Anon! I've been writing and drawing Murkoph for thirteen years now and I'm pretty comfortable with him as a character. I don't consider him awesome, I consider him Murkoph. Guys do tend to hate him because girls tend to like him, so for most haters it's an insecurity thing. I've studied the psychology of the phenomenon for a decade, haha.

I just got my book yesterday, it's lovely! Kind of sad to see the special effects go, though. The bonus story was also nice, it's cool to see your prose style! I kind of have to wonder what you have against "said", though. :p

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:17:45 -0500

Glad the book got there safely :D I'm a fan of florid prose and pretty much thumb my nose at the "rules" of modern writing - sparse Hemmingway style bores the pants off me.

So, is Murk really going to be a major character now? D: I've grown to trust your storytelling skill, but frankly, of all the characters in the comic I care about him the least, and the joyous fascination seen all around puzzles me.

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:35:57 -0500

It's so humid today, I'm dying.

Just got the book! It is lovely but I must ask, what does Duane have against poor Argenti???

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:45:42 -0500

Everyone takes the piss with Argenti (aka Will). You'll meet him soon :)

whats the longest word count for the fanfics? also if your bored could you maybe do a graph of the words and entries? oooooohohohoh you could even do standard deviation and range and --- never mind. ill just go back to doing my statistics homework.

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:21:20 -0500

I wish I was bored.

Does anyone want to come forward and like, take over the fanfiction contest for me? Format the entries, make the voting page on Google Forms, all that? If I'd realised this would be coinciding with all this shipping I never would have scheduled this when I did. Fail Glass.

How many copies are you shipping to South Africa? I want to know if there are any other fans here.

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:19:41 -0500

Just one so far.

I keep seeing the name Glass in the comments on various web comics. Is this you, by any chance?

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:11:15 -0500

Nope. I don't read anything these days that doesn't come off of asstr.

How's the chapter 7 going? Have you been able to do much amidst shipping hell?

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:17:01 -0500

I've been able to chip away at it a bit. I have 3 pages left, then it's done. I'll be glad, too, I'm starting to get a little burnt out with it. Give me some nice, boring conversational scenes with easy headshots and interiors. The next chapter is full of 'em :D

So Sette unleashes the mad undead monstrosity on the world. This is like the night of a million fuckups. I stand by my previous strangling remark. :P

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:15:22 -0500

Well, technically it's not still nighttime.

What would Bastion give to become a tacit caster?

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:14:54 -0500

Well, he can't give his balls!

Honestly though tacit casting is only advantageous in close range wright-to-wright battling. Bastion doesn't engage in much of this, it's not his style, so he's not itching for the ability.

What's the weirdest country you'll be shipping a copy of Unsounded to?

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:10:43 -0500

Hrmm, Israel, South Africa, Slovak Republic, Lithuania, Singapore, Japan... maybe the weirdest though is that there are 19 books going to Germany. I mean, that's awesome, but I didn't think Germans were big on english-language webcomics.

Murkoph plans to eat Sette as soon as he's free.

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:08:32 -0500

And then he becomes the new protagonist. It's the circle of life.

This is relevant to your interests. Tom waits singing sea shanties? Yes. Thank you. I'll have another. http://www.npr.org/2013/02/10/171309504/first-listen-son-of-rogues-gallery-pirate-ballads-sea-songs-chanteys?sc=fb&cc=fmp

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:07:52 -0500

Oh, hey, I always suspected they'd make a follow-up to the first Rogue's Gallery album. It has some killer stuff on there (and some crap, but that's okay). I am not the biggest Tom Waits fan but I like this. Good find *_*

Is....is Murk wearing anything besides bandages right now? O_O

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 02:40:58 -0500

^_-

Is decaying!Duane just something for the readers, or does it indicate Murkoph might be familiar with him, since Sette wouldn't have seen him so... meaty.

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 01:56:24 -0500

Mysteries upon mysteries!

I ate some canned octopus in garlic sauce for dinner and now I feel like I am dying.

Hey, can you give me some random advice? What's the best reason you can think of that a culture - as in, a global culture, not an isolated one - would grow up without maps or cartography? I'm thinking of big reasons that could affect a whole planet.

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:54:52 -0500

You could go in a million directions with it. You could say the land is actually unmappable - that the spirits of the earth spite humans by shifting the continents whenever they try to map them. You could make it political, and say that after much strife and war the nations of the world made treaty by agreeing to do away with concrete borders and forbid the drawing of maps as an everlasting sign of peace and brotherhood. You could make it religious and have scripture say that humans show arrogance by trying to map the creation of the gods, and doing so brings calamity.

Given the number of fanfics, will you be doing voting in rounds, or straight up and down majority vote?

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 11:40:34 -0500

Straight up and down majority vote.

How's shipping coming along? Shipping around 1000 books must be hard. What tier are you on?

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 11:40:10 -0500

Still on the first tier, but that was 560 books, so. All the domestic ones and Canada are out, just doing the weird countries now. Well, can't today though, it's Sunday. I'll send out for info for the 45 tier this week.

Will you announce which fanfic was your favourite if it doesn't place?

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 03:22:08 -0500

I could never pick a favourite. Each one of them is fantastic in its own way, even the ones I haven't read yet ;)

My book came in the mail today! It is very lovely. This is not a question.

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:23:41 -0500

Yay! It's nice to know all the domestic books are arriving where I sent them and not spontaneously exploding in transit as I was certain they would. Now I need only stress about the international ones being hijacked by Al-Qaeda. I'm sending three of these things to Israel, the idea of it is insane. And the ones going to Australia? How does that even happen. What is mail

i can't

"I promise Murkoph is not Duane and Duane is not Murkoph though, that is one theory I do not mind laying to rest." Aw. Now I'm actually a little disappointed. Still love the way he talks!

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:04:20 -0500

If they were the same person, they couldn't interact - and trust me, it's fun when they interact ;)

When will we be able to read the entries for the fanfic writing contest?

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 22:01:10 -0500

I'm shooting for Wednesday. I have to balance reading through and formatting them all with shipping books out, and books take priority.

Is the fanfic contest supposed to be anonymous for voting or can we post it publically?

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 19:58:05 -0500

You can post it elsewhere if you like. I got no problem with that.

If Unsounded had an epigraph, what would it be?

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 19:57:39 -0500

Most likely it would be the snippet from Moby-Dick that inspired the title. "By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. And all the time, lo! that smiling sky, and this unsounded sea!"

But how pretentious is that? :3

flails Ash! Friday's is my favorite page ever! Love it so much! (Quite the surprise, seeing as it doesn't have Duane in it. <.< Presumably...) :D

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 19:54:46 -0500

Ha, wow, really? Not much happens on that page XD I promise Murkoph is not Duane and Duane is not Murkoph though, that is one theory I do not mind laying to rest.

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:51:01 -0500

How many entries did you finally receive?

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:50:41 -0500

31. Here's a bit of intrigue for you: someone guessed a fairly large twist correctly. Of course I shan't say who :3

Was Sivis simply written out of the story and doesn't exist in this world, or is he present but just not important enough to make the appearance?

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:25:23 -0500

Sivis was an RP character. He was never intended for Unsounded. A charming black rat turned into a human by a misanthropic wizard doesn't really fit the system or the story, I'm afraid :)

Does Murk have a lovely singing voice?

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:14:10 -0500

Well, I think he sings like Al Barr so if you find that lovely, sure!

Can Sette touch the khertfish? If so, what do they feel like? Do they feel cute? Or do they feel yucky?

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:06:52 -0500

Most of them don't feel like anything at all. Most everything in the khert is missing Aspects that they would need to work in reality. Though some have contours so they can do things like pick up knives, most of the khertfish have no texture entry in their Aspect database.

Does Lady Ilganyag (or the khert beast based on/giving basis to her) smell as bad as she looks like she does?

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:04:03 -0500

Hmm.

Did the gloopy giant blobby thingy a few pages ago (before the foetus forest) make an amusing noise? It looks like it should have.

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:03:55 -0500

I think it was muttering TS Eliot poems in Don Knotts' voice.

What happens if Sette pops those pustules on the maybe-a-hand holding the [ERROR: FORBIDDEN TOPIC] in the latest pages? Do they leak foul substances?

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:03:15 -0500

We shall see!

Murks face is again hilarious in the last panel. Is this going to be trend?

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:54:18 -0500

That's a safe bet.

The bird looks so sad in todays comic :(.

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:53:30 -0500

All she wanted... was to give Sette... her change.

Comics are very stressful, especially when you're printing/shipping hundreds of them! But we love you, Glass, and we appreciate all your hard work. Your comic is beautiful and you're a kind creator for interacting with us like this. Take it easy. <3

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:52:55 -0500

Thank you, darling.

What do you imagine Murkoph's voice to be like? I get the impression of some sort of creepy, poetic Jack Sparrow.

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:52:23 -0500

You can imagine him that way if you like. In my head he's much more gravelly and bass, like he's been smoking two packs a day for twenty years.

Can you recommend any good and very depressing books or movies?

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:24:22 -0500

The Fountain is both good and depressing. The Fall. 1408. El Orfanato.

Is it shameful that sometimes I pretend to be a different anon when asking you questions if I think they might not get a nice answer?

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:21:55 -0500

Do I give mean answers? :O I'd sooner delete a question than answer it meanly. But no, it's not shameful pretending to be a different anon. I have myself worn the skins of a thousand different anons, from the white knight to the troll.

Will you be tabling at any conventions in 2013?

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:19:31 -0500

I'm not really the convention type. Self-promotion and humans both make me uncomfortable.

Welp, looks like formspring is shitting the bed again. You'd think this wouldn't be too complex of a thing to keep running.

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:46:04 -0500

I think they're doing the least possible to keep it running until they're bought out, and Mr. Formspring can retire to Cancun with a few billion dollars.

Is this how Quiggly tells stories?

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:36:07 -0500

lawl

"/tg/ already hates him after one page, it's awesome." You do realize that people like him from the one page, and the people who dislike him don't like him because they're familiar with him from elsewhere, right?

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:32:52 -0500

It didn't sound like that was the case but if that's so, awesome. Well-grounded hate is my favourite kind.

How come this is a huge deal on /tg of all places? I love the comic and I saw all the ragefags on /tg and got bumped over here.

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:06:05 -0500

How come what's a huge deal on /tg? Unsounded? I think Goblins and some other comics are way more popular actually. There are a few very sexy /tg regulars who also read the comic and they like to link me to threads over there when they happen - only reason I saw it honestly, I'm more of a /co/ person though I hardly go on 4chan these days. Anyway, I love everyone, kumbaya.

Is that a hand holding that person we're not talking about?

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:12:20 -0500

It does look like one.

Wait, is it that Murk smells faintly of Duane or faintly like Duane?

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:12:04 -0500

Murk smells like him a bit.

Just letting you know I've shared my entry with you as a google doc. I hope it's up to scratch. :)

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:11:17 -0500

Got it! Thanks for entering, awesome-face.

I don't know why but I find Murks face in that last panel hilarious.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:51:00 -0500

Yeah, Murk's a real cut-up.

"tg/ already hates him after one page" linky?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:15:29 -0500

Tada~ http://boards.4chan.org/tg/res/23011312

"Murkoph is guaranteed to be a shitty character because he's Cope's handsome reckless cannibal rapist husbando."

Don't these people know that Duane is mai husbando? Murkoph is the syphilitic drifter I'm fucking behind Duane's back.

I didn't know what you were talking about so I searched '/tg/ Murkoph'. And found a thread about your comic. And now I'm kinda depressed. I was going to give up on fanficcing, but now I think I owe you something cute that will lose but be cute.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:09:54 -0500

You owe me nothing :3 But I do like cute fanfics. I think the quality of all the entries so far is freakin' outstanding, you guys are getting a treat.

Everyone seems to love Murkoph - I'm sure he's an awesome character (without a trace of doubt in my mind) - but am I the only one who gasped in fear/"oh shit" at his entrance?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:27:24 -0500

Maybe Murkoph is nice. In any event it's not like he can do much trapped in that wall :)

I believe you once said Murkoph wouldn't be in Unsounded, dear. Naughty. :) I enjoyed today's page very much. I like the way he talks. :3 I hope he gets to talk a lot.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:24:55 -0500

I was probably messing with you :3 Murkoph is a talker and I will probably get criticism because of it. /tg/ already hates him after one page, it's awesome.

Will Sivis make an appearance as well?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:23:29 -0500

Nope.

When on the 8th are you closing the fic contest? Do we have until midnight, or...?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:23:08 -0500

You have through the day on the 8th until midnight EST. If you're a few hours late though, it's cool, I'm not Hitler.

Is Murkoph the blonde guy on page 16 of the first chapter?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:43:29 -0500

Does Murkoph look like a blonde to you?

If it's any reassurance, we'll meet Blondo this chapter, elsewhere.

So, when we see "No questions about " in the header of this formspring, that means we'll see in the comic soon! Enter Murk! Impressive first line, I must admit) Will we see much of him now?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:48:57 -0500

He will also be on the next page! Beyond that I cannot say.

If you had to pick a candy bar, and it was the only kind of candy bar you were allowed to get for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:48:36 -0500

I'ma go with Almond Joys.

What pairings will Unsounded have in the future?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:48:24 -0500

Sette/money, Duane/books, Matty/Chitz, Quigley/bugs, Jivi/whistle...

Murkophhhh! He doesn't smell like Duane, though, does he? That's what I got from Sette's reaction, at least. I'm guessing that means something, and you won't tell us what.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:46:31 -0500

He smells faintly of Duane which is why Sette thought it was him at first - it wasn't the fleeting glimpse of a grey hand that made her turn into that hole - but a deeper snort revealed it ain't Duane at all D:

MURKOPH!!! I knew it! >ahem< I mean undeadish grey person we don't know the name of yet... What does he sound like? Do you know of a voice/live actor that's similar?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 01:06:44 -0500

Gravelly, sexy, melodious, occasionally sounds like he's ready to cough up a cockroach... Maybe Al Barr and Magpie Killjoy's love child.

Murkoph!!!! (The subject matter gave away that it was him)

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 01:00:39 -0500

Titties!

Minor question: when written out, is it sem or Sem?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:04:49 -0500

I prefer the lowercase.

Apologies if this is inappropriate or has been asked before, but how are sexual taboos in Kasslyne? It seems they see pedophilia as merely squicky; is there anything that is illegal? Does it differ between countries? How are their attitudes towards rape?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:30:38 -0500

It definitely depends on where you are on the continent. Everything is legally permissible in Cresce, for instance, which is as socially liberated a place as you could hope to find. Though they submit to the will of the State in most capacities, Crescians are loathe to have their personal lives legislated. It's a strange balance but it works for them. Rape is of course illegal; that's a totally different matter. Rape is a harmful act and the definition of a crime in Cresce is an act that brings undeserved harm to another person. You would have a hard time convincing them of the reality of statutory rape though; it's not a concept I think they'd grasp.

If you go north to Alderode, they are more sexually repressed. The patriarchy is big on shame and marriage, and fornication is technically illegal. Homosexuality is considered immoral but no more so than gambling or excessive drinking. Rape is illegal but the burden of proof is on the lady, and no one wants a sullied slut so the ladies aren't quick to report the act. Not a new concept, that. There is no age of consent in Alderode but brides younger than twelve are frowned upon, so there's that at least. Ech.

What happened to Friendly Frozen Coffee? Can that be the (a) (horribly depressing) side story in Unsounded: Vol II?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:10:23 -0500

He probably will have been snapped up by the khert by day's end. It's a rough life being an errant strand of coffee-shaped memory.

What's one thing in stories that never fails to annoy you?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:09:32 -0500

Well, I know there are thematic reasons for it, but I hate when a protagonist travels suddenly to a fantastic new realm in a story and then inevitably leaves at the end to return home. The Wizard of Oz syndrome. What would be wrong with the protagonist staying in the new place forever?

Basically it always pisses me off when Hitomi leaves Van at the end of Escaflowne T_T

My fanfic is over 4000 words and counting. Am I the only one with one so stupidly long?

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:26:38 -0500

Nope. Most of these entries are pretty long.

I'm unsure if I can make my fanfic the right file type. Would it be possible to share it with you as a google doc (in that format), and if you need it as a different file type, you can copy and paste?

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:57:42 -0500

Actually a Google Doc is perfect. Every entry will in the end be converted into one and shared with voters that way, so you'd be saving me a step! :)

Is the Window responsible for the sting-and-retrieval operations Quigley played bird-dog for, or is that a separate institution in the Aldish government?

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:56:03 -0500

That'd be the Window, yep. They oversee everything in Alderode to do with pymary, from going after rogue wrights to overseeing the creation of new spellwork to obliterating ghosts and repairing problems with the khert.

I was wondering why everything on Formspring was so quiet and you hadn't answered any questions all weekend, Ash. Somehow, I unfollowed you. O.O The horror!

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:54:32 -0500

The horror! Just been super busy with my books, man.

Would Sette lie about her name if it made things easier?

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:53:39 -0500

Yep. There was a running gag back in RP where she'd go by "Betty" when things got sticky.

So, Uiad. He's a baby mountain ogre that they found buried. I'm assuming because he's a senet beast (or was?) he was alive while he was found buried. But then the Quigleys cut him up and portioned him out and now live inside his hollowed out body. (cont)

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 17:32:39 -0500

"(cont) Did Uiad somehow live through all of that, or was he killed, then brought back to be what he is now through some form of pymary and now has his specific personality, or was he always like this (personality-wise/preferring Matty)?"

Uaid was actually quite dead when the Quigleys and their village dug him up. Senet beasts are unaging but not immortal, and it doesn't take anything particularly special to kill them.

What Vienne (Matty's mom) used was the baby mountain ogre's First Earth corpse. The personality that Uaid possesses now was one she very carefully designed out of ghosts that she salvaged from the khert. This ghost/personality has none of the memories of the original ogre, and indeed has nothing to do with that poor creature's mind at all. Uaid considers himself a human and Matty is his big brother. That's the outlook Vienne gave him. She made him gentle and competent and child-like, because she thought the best attitude for a powerful creature to have is one that discourages it from using its power unless out of love.

Would Sette like the Lion King?

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 17:20:36 -0500

The Lion King would be her favourite movie ever. I think she'd be very conflicted though. Simba and Mufasa are such bores and Scar is so interesting and clever. She wouldn't know who to root for!

How crazy are these postage rates now?

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 11:36:43 -0500

Well, $12 to Canada is right in line with what I charged. $19 to the UK, $20 to Sweden, $22 to Australia... The postage is more than the price of the book! But international buyers really got a deal by buying through the Kickstarter. I can't imagine anyone will want to buy a copy afterwards with proper postage charged. I know I wouldn't.

I like how the little khert fish squid creatures seem to be constantly squinting. Is there a reason for this?

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:27:16 -0500

Squinting things are cute :3

Will you tell us what malakhomit means?

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:26:51 -0500

Maybe Sette will ask Duane later. Birdy repeated it enough times, it should stick in her head.

You wake up in a country, in the opposite hemisphere, without any knowledge of how it happened or which country you are in, which country do you hope it is? And if it is, what would you do first?

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:55:38 -0500

...try to get back home to my computer so I could update my comic >_>

If fans near your home threw a release party, would you attend for pie?

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:55:03 -0500

Please don't T_T

When Unsounded is all done, will you make Tainish for us? I'd like my wedding ceremony to be in Tainish. So far, no one will let me have it in Klingon or Elvish. Just kidding, I don't want my wedding to be in Klingon. Elvish would be nice, I think.

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:54:54 -0500

When Unsounded is all done and I'm a seventy year old shriveled thing dying in a YMCA somewhere, I will write out a Tainish guidebook for you in black Sharpie inside of a three decade old phonebook.

How likely is it that the $45 tier books get shipped out before the end of the month?

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:53:46 -0500

Before the end of February? One-hundred percent likely. The only tier that might could possibly be delayed into March would be the poor bastards who bought watercolours :)

H-have you ever considered doing a release party at a library near your home or something for Volume 1? ヽ(;^o^ヽ)

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:29:17 -0500

I am far too shy for such things :3 You can buy a copy of the book at Emerald City Comics in Clearwater though, if you're local.

Kickstarter Update, YAY!!!

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:01:22 -0500

Woo!

So judging by my email inbox I guess your publisher had a nice little chat with Hod? >:)

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:01:15 -0500

He must have done a good job - look how nicely they're all boxed :3 There is probably a horse head in one of them.

Today is a good day. Ni No Kuni arrived today, and the books arrived as well! Well okay, it's better for me than you since I don't have to individually package label and ship like 1200 books but whatever! Trip Report: Ghibli Dragon Quest Pokemon. Co

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:00:34 -0500

I am going to make my brother help me and I will pay him in Chinese food. Do you have a blog or anything? I would read about your gaming exploits if you did.

Do you think there'll be any chance that publisher will compensate you for their lateness costing you so much in postage? :(

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:59:30 -0500

Haha, I doubt it. We had a deadline but there was never a contract signed saying they had to meet it. All the same, they were fairly apologetic about the delay and I'll probably still use them for the second volume just 'cause the quality of the print is so nice. At the end of the day it was just a case of unfortunate timing. It'll be okay though, darling, I'm just glad I can finally send everyone their stuff :)

One thing I am wondering now though is if the padded mailer is safe enough. Someone suggested including a cardboard backer and I can order those in but it will delay shipping until the end of next week. I dunno about that. Decisions, decisions.

Thoughts on the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy? Thoughts on Voltaire?

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:36:16 -0500

Never seen Billy and Mandy. Voltaire... I can't think of them but I'm sure I've heard a song before. Did they do Masochism Tango? The lead singer sounds like Dr. Paul Bearer?

...you probably don't know who that is.

My formspring feed screwed up and decided to only show me your responses, nobody else's, no matter how many times I refreshed. Just thought you'd like to know you're evidently the chosen one. Of formspring.

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:31:28 -0500

After almost 11k answers it's about time I got some recognition! Deification is acceptable.

How do you feel about the rumored Doctor Strange movie? Who would you pick to play Doctor Strange?

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:15:06 -0500

Oh, I'm sure it will be trash when and if it's made. I think Mark Heap would do a good job though. There was an origin reimagining miniseries last year that was probably close to how they'd actually approach the tale but it would be such a bore. Why not tackle Strange from the third person? Start with someone in need of aid and Strange shows up fully-formed to be a badass without wasting the whole film on an origin story? Why does it always gotta be about an origin story with Hollywood? I hate everything.

I was at my LCS today looking for Hellraiser comics and there was this byooootiful Doctor Strange statuette I really wanted and almost bought.

Are there any really old masses of memories that turned into a giant khert squidfish? Because I would like a giant squidfish. Are there real squidfish outside the khert? in the water?

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:18:12 -0500

Yeah, those are real world critters in Unsounded. To be honest, I don't have a cool name for them yet though. "Squidfish" doesn't do it for me.

Hmm, I'm at the end of chapter 7 right now and there are a few more pages of khert scene. I will draw in a giant squidfish in the background on the next page just for j00.

Can you answer the question of whether paint will stick to them? I want them for my party, but I would like them to all be luminescent blue.

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:24:43 -0500

Don't paint the fetuses, FK, it's just not a good idea.

Another question about the fetusballoons: are their butts or Uaid's butt more pinchable? Well, if Uaid's butt was of a size to be pinchable...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:24:22 -0500

Fetus butt is more pinchable but probably also more sticky.

Are the fish khertfish different from the squidfish khertfish?

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:23:47 -0500

Only appearance and strength-wise. The vast majority of the ghosts you see in the khert are... think of them as the khert's attendants; little empowered ghosts that help mama khert do what mama khert does. From the tiny fish to the great big scary monstrous things, they are all there as part of the khert. The oldest memories the khert has of living forms are of simple sea creatures, and that's the form usually imposed on these little free-floating, eager-to-manifest memories. As the memories age and conglomerate though they gain their own pseudo-forms, but these forms are from the ideas of a thousand different scraps of mnemonic fluff, and hence come out looking a bit ooky and weird.

Most of the ghosts are pretty benign; it's the angry or curious ones that try to escape the khert via pymary lines, infect pymarics, and cause trouble. Boo is probably a khert fish that got way too curious for its own good.

Could Sette have held on to the umbilical cord and floated around the khertsky? with the khertfish? And played tag? How many fetusballoons to lift a betailed thief?

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:30:02 -0500

The fetuses (karaii suggested "fetii," I'm down with this) are a huge plot point later and I cannot answer even the cutest of questions about them :D

Fetusballoon forest. Tell me what other webcomic has that, huh!?

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:17:18 -0500

Some of my favourite pages are coming up *_*

When we see Duane next in the comic will it be alive!Duane or dead!Duane?

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:05:56 -0500

Wouldst thou rather not be surprised? How about this: When next you see Duane you will continue to see Duane for like seventy pages.

Your comment section is full of whiners today.

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:57:11 -0500

I hope people don't think Unsounded is one of those comics that changes its plot depending on reader input. I'm drawing 80 pages ahead at the moment. Reader feedback is always appreciated but it can't affect anything and hence venting is somewhat purposeless.

Are the black tongues factional? Say, the general agreement is that they all dig studying forbidden pymary and the Black Tongues are the place to do it execution-free, but are there members or groups of members that find eachother distasteful/wrong?

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:01:38 -0500

We shall see.

If you come across some strange sort of beastie, how would you know if it's a senet beast or not? Are all varieties of them well known?

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:46:45 -0500

There are undiscovered senet beasts far belowground, but all the aboveground ones are accounted for (and exploited often unto extinction). Senet beasts generally have something khert-defying going on about them since they're pre-khert. They're fantastic beasties; magical, if you like: Walking trees, rock-eating earth ogres, talking fish women, silkworms bound in an endless cycle of metamorphosis, etc.

Where did the Fat Cock go between the last frame of 7.31 and the first frame of 7.32? Sette was asking him a question and all.

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:41:50 -0500

He ignored her, she walked on.

Shouldn't you change the date on the fanfiction banner thing?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:37:51 -0500

So busy.

I laughed. I wept. I wept while laughing. Glass you must watch this short animation: http://vimeo.com/58179094. It is nine minutes of awesome. Please give us your thoughts after as well!

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:07:49 -0500

I think this one's probably meant for guys, but it was nice enough.

Sette's going to be really tired of being washed away/over by spellery/ghosts/etc by the time this is all over isn't she?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:00:59 -0500

Sette thinks pymary and ghosts are a stoopid pain in the ass at the best of times. None of this is changing her mind. These moody, exploratory pages are all drawing towards a goal though, trust me.

Is breaking it the only way to disrupt a pymaric's functionality? Say, in a pymary duel where one of the participants uses pymarics, can the other counter or suppress them in any way except destroying the items outright?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 03:07:44 -0500

If the pymaric causes an external effect, the wright can disrupt the khert lines that effect depends upon to travel. If it relies on external Aspects, the wright can destroy or deplete those Aspects. Pymarics are just spells. They're often a combination of spells or extremely complex spells, but any way you might counter a spell can be used to counter a spell coming at you from an activated pymaric.

What sort of time frame is going on for Sette compared to time outside of where ever she is? Like, if she gets back to the world, how much time will have gone by in the world?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 03:04:53 -0500

Good question.

Is Old Tainish an actual language for human communication, besides khert control purposes? Can you express things like "I'm hungry" in it without khert making you hungry/full (or reacting in any other way)?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 03:04:41 -0500

Yeah, Old Tainish is a complete language - the first language, even. Spellcasting has a very specific syntax though. It can glitch out sometimes, but in general the khert won't start listening to you until you literally say "Faenilimegii dansegi ea chalass da, O khert mallil" or "Suffer me and my prayer/spell, O sacred khert."

Casuals don't know conversational Old Tainish anymore though. Most people who learn the language these days do so solely for the purpose of pymary, leaving deeper understanding up to the masters who might one day need it for the writing of entirely new spells. Being an enormous dork and a pymary enthusiast, Duane is pretty fluid in conversational Old Tainish and was part of a circle of scholars who would get together and translate stories and articles into the language, or just gab for a few hours to keep their fluency up. Think of Latin nerds.

Are the Iori's grandbabies her biological grandchildren, or postmortem adoptees? How did they die? How old was Timofey when /he/ died?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:14:13 -0500

None of the ghosts were ever alive. Ghosts in Unsounded's world are pieces of the memories of the dead - not whole souls in themselves. Iori's ghost kids are simple ghosts that her husband Rahm crafted out of various dead memories to keep her company.

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:25:06 -0500

"if you wanted to have a Tainish-only pymaric...all you have to do is program it that way." So if someone wanted to, could they program a pymaric to only respond to a language they made up or a secret code?

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 17:55:11 -0500

Absolutely.

Would it be alright if I took some pics from the comic and slapped them on a black background for an easy wallpaper? Haven't done it yet, but I wanted to check with you on it, since I might share the results if I think they work out well enough.

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 12:28:02 -0500

Go for it, dude. Just don't sell it :3

The gefendur eat people, but what are some of the nastier aspects of the Ssaelit faith?

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 04:10:23 -0500

Their taboo against suicide is pretty severe. Suicides are supposedly trapped forever in the khert, unable to reincarnate, and their family is frequently cast out of their ghers (caste circle) and shunned. They take their clergy and their temples far more seriously than the Gefendur, and whereas Gefendur shrine officials are culled from twins of every class and country and the priesthood is available to women, Ssaelit officials are recruited from among the rich and the better castes, and is men-only.

What happens when twins are born to people who aren't in the religion, or aren't very strong believers? Is there still a lot of pressure to view selling their twins as a good thing?

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 04:01:51 -0500

Everyone's Gefendur except a bit under half of the population of Alderode who are Ssaelit. Everyone. The Gefendur religion isn't one that tolerates other religions or nonbelievers. It saturates the society of every country and is indistinguishable from culture.

With that said, I don't doubt there have been times when parents have shied away from giving their newborns over to the priests, and times when they've actually refused. But the ramifications wouldn't be great. It'd be seen as abnormal and an insult to the Gods. Because of it, neighbours would scapegoat the family for every misfortune. The children would go their entire lives being discriminated against and blamed for every ill in society. But at least the youngest one would live past twenty.

Do pymaric earrings sound like a good idea? You know, so you won't drop or lose your pymaric...

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 03:49:51 -0500

Like Jem's earrings!

Yeah, pymaric jewelry is a common thing.

Do you have to speak Tannish to command a pymaric? Do wrights ever intentionally make pymarics that can only be used by those who do?

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 01:52:17 -0500

Pymarics can be triggered and/or commanded by pretty much anything. An artificer can make them triggered by touch (the gossamer traps that we've seen detonated), their own destruction (the hand grenade Ephsephin threw at Duane and Sette), Continental (Bett's dysfunctional summon pymaric), a poem in Tainish (Quigley's summoned pymaric Swarm) - almost anything. Pymarics meant to be used by everyday people like Jivi's rat traps would definitely not be triggered by Tainish since the vast majority of people do not speak it. But if you wanted to have a Tainish-only pymaric (Uaid comes to mind) all you have to do is program it that way.

Quigly's scarf thing that controls the bugs is a pymaric, right?

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 01:45:25 -0500

Yes.

In the Twins ritual, do the parents of the children have any say in the matter? You said the twin does. Also, is that the mother there in the latest update? She seems more caring than the rest.

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:19:22 -0500

No, the priests buy the twins as babies from their parents and almost always send them to a very distant shrine. The kids never know their parents and are brought up by the priests and priestesses. Parents don't strictly HAVE to sell their babies, but it's seen as a blessing and an honour to do so, and the money can set you up for life. Not selling the kids is really unheard of and would be thought of as pretty weird. It's the whole point of twin children, after all.

Who is the angry looking guy on the left in the first page? Is he a guard? Does he disapprove of twin killing? Or is he just constipated?

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:13:24 -0500

I have no idea. I don't know who any of those people are.

Glass, does me calling The Great Unsounded a vagina make you sad? I'll stop if it bothers you.

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:26:03 -0500

It doesn't make me sad - vaginas are wonderful things - but I don't want people who aren't in on the joke to read that and think that's actually what the symbol translates to.

You know I just thought of something; what's the symbol for money in Kasslyne? Like, what's the $?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:34:23 -0500

A subscript s - you can see it on the posters here http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_56.html

"Sette's just gonna call it bird-lady for now." How does Sette know it's a lady?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:06:57 -0500

Maybe it has a feminine voice.

I notice that the bird thing has these little spikes on the bottom of the tip of it's beak. Art error or hidden clue?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:06:38 -0500

Just drippy bits, like bits of moss or gossamer dangling off of something very old.

"Sette's just gonna call it bird-lady for now. " Lady? Does she have big boobs that produce poisonous milk?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:05:46 -0500

I dunno, we've only seen her head!

You once said that in Tainish the nouns and adjectives must be spoken in alphabetic order. Does everyone follow that rule, or is it more something people are supposed to do that isn't done as much in informal settings?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:20:11 -0500

It's the rule when you're speaking formally. It's supposed to make you speak more slowly and consider your words before you put them out there. Getting flustered or angry and speaking so rashly that you misorder your words is pretty embarrassing.

It's not a rule paid attention to in informal settings unless you're a stuffy sort.

Will you ever make Unsounded plushies? Can we kickstarter Unsounded plushies? I want a plushie of the vagina-beak bird.

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:00:59 -0500

I don't think Unsounded is a plushie kinda comic.

The bird with the symbolic vagina on its beak looks friendly. Is it friendly? Does it have a name? Will we get to learn the name?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:00:16 -0500

The bird has a name but we won't learn it this chapter. Sette's just gonna call it bird-lady for now. And the symbol on her beak isn't a vagina :( You need to get laid, Hod.

What would you point out as inspirations to the current storyline?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:10:56 -0500

Ah, nothing in particular comes to mind...

looks at heading TIME TO ASK INAPPROPRIATE QUESTIONS! :D

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:08:11 -0500

I know Sette is technically supposed to be a bit ignorant when it comes to anything but thievery, but since she's kinda religious shouldn't she recognize the twin-ritual? Does the church propagandize the plebs and make the ritual sound far less gross?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:08:05 -0500

Who said she didn't recognise the Twin ritual? Knowing what it is doesn't mean she had to want to look at it though, or even that she's terribly thrilled with the whole idea.

The bird is just saying a formal Hello! to Sette, isn't it?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:06:14 -0500

Yeah. I forgot the wiki had a translation. Bah!

The black bird is staring into my being, Glass! I don't think I shall sleep well tonight xD

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 04:31:48 -0500

Maybe the bird is misunderstood. My friend says it reminds her of Big Bird, and who is nicer than that? :3

What do fractals feel like when you run on them? Coral? Jello?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 04:31:00 -0500

Painful. Every edge contracts to an infinitely sharp edge and every point to an infinitely pointed point. S'why Sette cut herself on it.

Two years since chapter 3 began. Look how far you've gone since then. <3

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:32:07 -0500

Hazel. That was almost a poem <3

Should I have a polite conversation with your dick webhost?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:14:45 -0500

If they give me shit about refunding my money tomorrow I'm going to post their email address and ask everyone willing to spam the living fuck out of them. I am fucking fed up with getting dicked around by small businesses this week.

Can you tell if something's a first material just by looking at it, or is it harder to be sure?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:09:14 -0500

You can tell if you have some way of viewing the khert (Quigley's glasses for instance). Khert lines skate around First Materials, and that will be evident.

What would it have taken to get Alive!Duane into a hot dress?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:46:14 -0500

Losing a bet, maybe. He's a man of his word.

Thoughts on poo?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:45:40 -0500

*shrug*

Cockerels or penises?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:45:27 -0500

Hrmm. Neither is much of a meal.

I like the squidfish. Do you like the little kherty squidfish, too?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:45:12 -0500

I love the khert fish. They are very nice. If Unsounded has an angel analogue, they are the khert fish.

I could use a friendly khert fish at the moment. I am so upset about my dick webhost :(

Dunno if you're aware, but your host is having a few db issues. If you are aware, disregard. x3

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:46:47 -0500

Yeah, it's down.

Funny story. I logged into my admin panel to see if that was at least up and noticed these motherfuckers have been stealing 100 dollars from me every month since August. I think it's time to seriously consider switching webhosts.

How does Duane keep his memories from bleeding into the khert if he doesn't actually have, you know, a brain?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:13:02 -0500

That is the great mystery of Duane. He's the only person in the world whose mind, memories, and soul endured in the real world beyond the death of his body. We don't know why. He don't know why.

Duanes shadow is PEOPLE! :D

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:08:57 -0500

I have but one negative reaction to the latest developments: why can't we have moar delicious 4th wall hammerings? You torture us with a slow pace, upload all the chapter nau you evil woman! ;_;

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:07:41 -0500

That is not how webcomics work, darling. If you want to read the whole chapter in one go, check back in six months.

Nom, wait for it. Yes, I do have too much time past 12AM. Do I give a care? Nuuuu, but I did almost die when I saw this. I am S.H.E.R. locked.

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 03:03:16 -0500

Someone's baked :3

Does Sette stroke her tail in private?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 03:01:55 -0500

I wouldn't know, I don't spy on her.

Tell us about those naga senet beasts.

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 03:01:19 -0500

They're exactly what it says on the tin. Eufhoby have poisonous bites, hypno-eyes, and reptilian sensibilities, meaning they have no moral compunction against killing you and eating you if they can get away with it. You will occasionally see a eufhoby in the larger cities but they don't do well around humans and prefer to keep to themselves in out of the way parts of the world. Some of them are widely-known, like Evelyn Five-eyes, a friend to the Ilganyag and patron of the Arts.

"There are many different Glasses." How often does 600 pound man Glass come out?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:48:42 -0500

When there's sushi on the table and Buster Bars in the freezer.

If you empty out a pymaric, can you recycle the material?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:48:13 -0500

Some materials. Emptying out a pymaric means breaking the material up physically so its khert field ruptures and all the stuff it's storing spills out. Then you reform it physically, the khert field fixes itself, and you can reload it. Not all materials can be rent like that though for obvious physical reasons, and other materials - like First Silver - have very deep but very fragile fields, and they can only survive one burn and one emptying. This contributes to their rarity.

Are all the Theif games rad, or do you have favourites?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:27:14 -0500

They're all rad. Dark Project probably is the best though. It was such a revolutionary game and even as I'm typing this I'm itching to start a new play-through on Steam 'cause I bought a copy for like 2.50 during the holiday sale, it was ridiculous. Metal Age is great too though, and so freakin' scary. I honestly don't remember the third game all that well. Maybe I'll do a replay of the whole series later in the year.

Is it possible to read earlier drafts of Unsounded the way they were originally posted before the redone art and dialogue? I get disoriented re-reading the story when the dialogue is different from what I remember. :)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:21:00 -0500

Earlier pages might be archived somewhere if you go on a Google hunt. Honestly though, the revised pages are what I'd prefer people read - that's why I revised them! I'm sorry if it's disorienting :)

What are the possibilities that you will delve a little deeper into this ...soul warping?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:20:55 -0500

Could happen!

Sette says spellery smells, but she doesn't mind Boo. Don't pymarics stink so bad to her?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:20:47 -0500

Duane stinks and Sette puts up with him too. She'll put up with damn near anything if it's useful to her :)

Do you create pymarics all in one go, or a bit at a time? Or do both methods work? Is one better than the other?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:19:47 -0500

Creating pymarics isn't a straightforward process. Because First Materials are immune to pymary because they're not connected to the khert and have their own internal, isolated networks, you have to use special apparatus to access that network to enter your spellwork. So pymarics aren't something you create on the fly or in the field. A careful artificer (pymaric maker) will usually begin by writing out all their spellwork on paper. When the logic and language is sound and ideally after it's been tested, the finished spell is input to a Chakimer frame - a special pymaric frame that captures and holds a small section of khert lines stable. This frame is hooked up to a spindle of First Iron or Gold or other metal and then the empty pymaric is attached to that. When the spell is all input to the frame, you give a command and the device will burn the spellwork to the pymaric. Inserting Aspects requires different devices as does inserting ghost AI.

So yes, the spells are entered all in one go. Pymarics also must be emptied all in one go, so if you want to clean out a ghost, you're going to lose everything inside the pymaric.

Is this the big reveal? Will the comic now be about tailed girls interacting with cocks?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:04:23 -0500

what

Not big order? It is 178pg of AWESOME goodness! Hmm- for distraction- go here- Short comic strip w/ SWEET Twilight Zone genre feel- Trust me this once- it twists excellently! http://falsepositivecomic.com/2011/09/12/concoction-page-1/

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:38:37 -0500

Ewww. Poor dude. He certainly did twist excellently.

I'm actually having a lot of trouble getting my eyes to focus on the background of these past few pages. Is that normal/intentional? Or am I just weird??

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:34:04 -0500

Sshh. I'm secretly trying to blind everyone.

Once a ghost infects a pyramic, would it ever leave voluntairly? Or does it get cozy in its little space and like to stay forever?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:29:07 -0500

Ghosts don't do well in the physical world generally. The khert is always eating at them and trying to put them back where they belong. Inside a pymaric they can escape the khert's custodial pull, so they're not really keen to leave once they've found space in one, generally. Bit like hermit crabs.

Does punishment by the stocks exist in Unsounded, or do they have other methods of punishing people?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:27:38 -0500

The stocks and pillory are popular in Sharteshane, sure. Cresce also enjoys them, but takes special joy in its workcamps. Alderode gets pretty twisted and roasts the limbs off people, or permanently warps a person's soul so the Dammakhert will make even their own mother hate them.

Do people in Cresce have accents compared to people from elsewhere? What are they like?

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:48:13 -0500

In my head the Crescian accent is largely North American, leaning Germanic and Russian the nearer you get to the western coast. I imagine the Queen speaking in a brilliant, beautiful Russian accent. I mean, if I was going to cast a movie that's the way I'd go.

Should I have polite chat with your publisher?

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:31:51 -0500

I will let you know next week, scary Hod <3

Ahhh, senorita! Try to not frustrate with the complication of printing. I hope my fellow fans are not being sillypushy in their lust for 'The Printing!' Please do not let delays get you down/angry. Ok? Jus sayin I offer you a virtual hug in comraderie!

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:52:33 -0500

No, everyone is being very understanding, but I am not so forgiving. When a company is being paid thousands and thousands of dollars to produce something in a timely manner, there is no good excuse for multiple delays. Anyway, I feel in my bones that we are close. Close!

Hola Glass- Nicely said on organics of fractals and they do equal eternity. First time(a math dept conference poster) I saw that it blewww me away- back in '86! I still have it;) This is/you are, light years from there of course... Sweet!

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:51:25 -0500

I would wallpaper my room in fractals if I could :D

Glass, you need to write a code that sends the printer a angry email every x minutes until they reply!

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:37:50 -0500

I think they are giving me the brush-off because I'm an individual and not a publisher, and the order's not that big >( Which is understandable but still dickish.

So, uh, what's up with the bleeding roots and excess sword blades on chapter 1 pg. 16 (Blondo McWhoopass)? Is it an elaborate perception-type thing, like the trees visible during Cara's flashback? If not, what is it?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:55:25 -0500

Symbolism and fluff, my good man, for you to take or to leave. There are some things that should never be explained by me.

Will the Duane & Sette account resume during the chapter 5-6 break, or is this all we're ever going to get?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:49:01 -0500

Not sure. I'm going to go with a We'll See on that one.

Bastion's missing...............equipment? OH MY GOD, MURKOPH ATE HIS BALLS, DIDN'T HE?!?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:48:29 -0500

Delicious prairie oysters.

Did Duane burn Cara's corpse because he recognized her as ssaelit, or just because as a ssaelit himself he felt it was the proper way to do it?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:47:57 -0500

The latter. He doesn't believe the Gefendur religion is relevant to the true nature of the world, so even if Cara was Gefendur, not burying her as her family would have wanted makes no difference in his view.

Well, Mom's taking me to Oklahoma for Christmas to see my dad and my brother. :) But then I have to miss your comic updates. >< The horror! You don't give yourself enough credit, though; your comic is wonderful.

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:45:57 -0500

Haha, it'll still be online waiting for you when you get back. Have a blast in Oklahoma! Which is so well-known for... well... that one musical, I guess...

X3

Is it the 19th yet?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:44:24 -0500

Mañana. I was up too late last night trying to install Disqus onto the site to fix the crappy comment system. No luck yet.

Yay! Duane and Sette are back on formspring, thanks for the goodies. And don't be nervous about the next chapter starting, Glass, it'll be great. Sends love

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:43:36 -0500

Why did the Two-Toe lady in Knobbytop have her head tentacle thingies cut off?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:43:25 -0500

I'm really not sure. It's one of those things where my design muse gave the orders and I just blindly followed. Maybe he got in trouble with his tribe and was mutilated and banished. He was all by himself and very friendly with the humans, which isn't terribly common among two-toes.

I just graduated college a few hours ago. I am looking forward to Monday and hope you don't mind if I consider your update a commencement gift. :D

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 03:49:39 -0500

Oh, man, congratulations! You're all educated and ready to enter the real world. I think you deserve a better gift than a webcomic update, I hope someone's bought you something nice!

Is Elarosny at all perturbed by Bastion's missing equipment? And how much of a sex drive does he even still have?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 03:48:25 -0500

Let's not open this can of worms right now.

Re: Sad Party Person - Are you me? Seriously, that pretty much described my Thursday. I left teary eyed and pathetic :( I'm sure you were much better off than me, but happy puppy always helps. As does job hunting, anon :)

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:04:25 -0500

Oh, my God, you guys are making me depressed T_T Fuck people, you don't need them! I have just poured myself a glass of sangria. Have a drink!

I just went to a horrible work party where I was the lowest class and dumbest person there, and it left me full of terrible sadness. Therefore, I need to think of happy things, and must ask: will we ever see giant puppies in the comic?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:56:19 -0500

I bet you were neither the lowest class nor the dumbest person there. Don't be sad. Here is a puppy just for you.

Will Jivi do something badass before the story shifts to Alderode? :3 Also, will he have dreadlocks when the story returns to him afterwards?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:55:23 -0500

Jivi does a number of very badass things in chapter 6, my friend. Dreadlocks - probably not, but I do like cute braids :3 Everyone already thinks he looks like a girl, let's double down!

Has Duane always been a tacit caster, or is that a post-dying thing?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:03:52 -0500

He's beautiful in his way 'cause God makes no mistakes. He's on the right track, baby, he was born that way.

Shifts to Alderode after Mulimar you say? That's a lot sooner than I would have expected. I thought they'd be in Cresce for a bit before that, breakin' stuff and uncoverin' things. Will there be a time-gap for travel, or does everyone jump in Duane's bag?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:38:33 -0500

Our current characters don't move to Alderode at that point- the narrative leaves them and we'll meet some entirely new people in Alderode. It will be cool, I promise, though there may be a decrease in kiddish hijinks for a while. Anyway, this is very far off, don't sweat it.

What about differences between the castes as far as death rituals?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:29:12 -0500

Aside from each caste having its own graveyard, not too many differences.

Have you seen the leaked Dark Knight Rises trailer?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:27:43 -0500

I dunno, I've seen the threads on /co/ but I'm not the biggest fan of Nolan's Batman flicks. If he kills off Bats in the last one though, that would be epic-cool.

Woah wait, Bastion has a girlfriend? Where did you say this? Some interview I'm unaware of?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:26:50 -0500

Hahaha, I wish someone would interview me about celebrity gossip and the love lives of my characters. But no, I said it right on here yesterday.

Will we see Elarosny at some point? Are there any Copper major characters further down the pipeline?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:25:35 -0500

Sure! Elarosny is a pretty important character. Coppers are the most secluded of the castes; you don't often see them just wandering down the street, but they will come into play later. Once we're done in Mulimar, the comic shifts to Alderode for a while to meet a whole new cast of fools.

Bastion's a Jet. His girlfriend's a Copper. I'm guessing this is not a normal relationship, in Aldish terms at least.

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:33:45 -0500

They are not exactly traditionalists ;) But no, they are not in some arranged relationship. They just like to fu-- make love to each other.

What's the dating scene like in Alderode? Is it all arranged marriages, or are you pretty much free to date whoever as long as they're in the same caste?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:48:23 -0500

Mostly it depends on what your class is within your caste - in other words, do you have money? Privilege? Something to bargain with? If so, your elders are going to match you with whomever will ensure your status and conserve or enhance power within your community. If you're poor, you have more leeway to marry for love, and to even court.

Is Bett a tactit caster? He doesn't speak incantations for the two spells he casts during his fight with Duane.

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:46:13 -0500

Naw, he's no tacit caster. I should have put words for him down but I was so fond of the art on those pages I didn't wanna cover it up with spell gibberish. One day I'll go back and fix it.

I discovered Konokuniya for the first time when I went to visit my own bro in NYC. I died when I saw the wall painting by Takehiko Inoue - not to mention their huge selection! I bought all the Vinland Saga volumes there <3 I wish there was one in Mexico..

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:45:23 -0500

I remember that wall painting! It was pretty super cool. I was also all over their Ghibli display, and they had one of those giant plush Totoros... soooo dreamy. There's nothing like that down here in Florida either, I feel your pain :( The most exotically Asian thing we've ever had was an actual boba tea shop, and it closed within a few months. Curse this phallus-shaped state.

In the future I will have to find and send you a used N64 and copy of Ogre Battle 64 in lieu of a donation :) :) :)

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:43:49 -0500

You'll have to send a television as well :D

I wrote a theme song for the eventual Unsounded anime, and I'm trying to decide on a title. I've narrowed it down to "BrozB4Hoes", "SXE Boys" and "Fire All Lasers!" -- I'll let you make the final decision.

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:34:14 -0500

FIre All Lasers!

I've always liked this song for an anime opening. It has the right sound, the lyrics have nothing to do with anything, and it's rockin' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy6bQTV99ec

Can spectral limbs be injured or damaged like physical limbs can?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:33:01 -0500

Indeed. They can even be damaged physically, they're just terribly hard to SEE so aiming can be a problem :)

I think it says a lot about Duane's character that he wants to head into Mulimar and help them repair the khert, even though it's crawling with Crescians and their allies. :3

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:31:53 -0500

He's not a bad guy, for a zombie.

Mmmm. You're inspiring me to learn how to speak Tainish, now. Will you ever make some sort of guide to the Tainish language? Not for Unsounded, mind; but for those fans out there that appreciate the beauty of language.

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:31:39 -0500

Well, right now you can check out the wiki page for a few examples. Putting together a learning guide would be a lot of work though, and the language isn't yet perfected. There's a lot of vocabulary and deeper conjugation work I need to do. I'm flattered that you're interested though! Language creation is terribly fun.

Pff, Bastion is too pretty to stay steady. He's the Kasslyne version of Johnny Angel.

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:52:59 -0500

I

I don't know who that is.

I can say that Bastion having a girlfriend is 100% the most surprising plot revelation in the comic so far. Can you tell us who she is?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:47:58 -0500

Mm, her name is Elarosny, she's of the Copper caste, she's gorgeous, and she's very into politics.

What are Aldish funerary rites like?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:44:37 -0500

If you're Gefendur, you HAVE to be buried and decompose (except for one special circumstance) or you are pretty royally screwed in your next life. Decomposition is considered as important to dying as death itself. It's part of the humbling Death you owe the gods for the pleasure of your life. Gyp them out of that, and they'll make you regret it.

Ssaelit, on the other hand, consider decomposition further evidence of the corruption of the world and feel it's an affront to human exceptionalism. Hence if you are Ssaelit, you're burned when you die, and your ashes mingled with farmland.

What percentage of your fans are Canadian, would you say?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:39:38 -0500

Google Analytics tells me roughly ten percent. Not too bad.

In regards to Duane's use of Tainish, it reads with remarkable continuity from sentence to sentence. Would you have any advice to aspiring on how to present an imaginary language in their own work? Should one flesh out the majority of it first?

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:52:05 -0500

No, it really isn't necessary to create the entire language (I did, but I get bored). You can fake it pretty easily just by coming up with your phonemes (wiki this if you are not familiar) and establishing a grammar. If you were doing a comic you could just create a foreign font of pretty symbols and mash the keyboard whenever people are speaking in a different language, ha. That probably doesn't work so well in a novel.

Amek tairet, socha dek sala nahroret (As for Tainish, thanks for your compliment :3)

I was looking at that map of Kasslyne, and I thought it kind of looked like Canada. What other parts of Unsounded are Canada-inspired? (I always picture Duane speaking with a Canadian accent.)

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:28:04 -0500

I think Kasslyne totally looks like a bird perched on a grouchy rhino's head. Hmm, as much as I love Canada I can't say I've drawn any specific inspiration from it... although it may please you to know that without a certain amazing girl from Newfoundland with whom I RPed for years, Duane wouldn't exist. I also partly blame her for my strange spelling habits.

BookOff! That place is wonderful! Have you seen some of the import games that place carries?! fangirl

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:24:41 -0500

Man, I only visited once, when I was in NYC for Thanksgiving a few years ago, and it was aaaawesome. I was there with a local friend who was kind enough to escort me and then hang out staring and tapping his foot as I rifled through the entire second floor :3 I missed the import games though!

It's probably Bookoff, yes? :) They recently moved to a new, larger location. They are wonderfully discounted, my friend bought a stack of yaoi for like $5 (claims she bought to resell, but still has them, har har). Wonderful advice, ty tons Glass <3

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:23:20 -0500

Fuck Toma/Duane/Quigley, what about some Bastion? Bastion with anybody would be nice... except that dead girl he cries over. It should be Bastion slash. Bastion needs to hug him some boys, RIGHT NOW.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:22:47 -0500

*gasp* I'm not sure Bastion's girlfriend would approve of this.

If this has been asked below, I'm sorry, but I can't find it. Will all the mysteries of Sette's tail/age/teeth/nose/parentage eventually be explained in Unsounded?

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:21:39 -0500

Eventually.

Saw this quote today: "We must all go through a rite of passage, and it must be physical, it must be painful, and it must leave a mark" and thought of the wright riting. Do Crescians have a similar tradition when they're connected to the khert?

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:21:00 -0500

Crescian wrights do have to be connected to the khert, but there isn't a big ceremonial deal tied up with it as in Alderode. In fact, in Cresce, treating the khert as a sacred force is considered distinctly Aldish, hence unsavoury and blasphemous - like putting the worship of something before worship of the Twins, which should take priority. Cresce does have mandatory national service though (unless one goes into the Gefendur priesthood), so this does serve the rite of passage role. It's a good quote.

On a different topic, have you ever seen an artbook for Ogre Battle 64? That's the only Ogre Battle game I've played, but damn if that isn't one of the best games of the 64. I started a file in hs that I steadily play every now and then (5-6 yrs ago.. haa

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:05:04 -0500

I would wager there was never an Ogre Battle 64 artbook. Most games don't get artbooks, even the fairly successful ones, so the thing to do is look for strategy guides, since they'll often by the only source of higher res printed concept and character art. I always wanted to play OB64 but I never had the console :(

I LIVE IN NYC AND LOVE KINOKUNIYA WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT FIRST D: Woohoo thank you Glass :) :) :) Always so helpful <3 <3 <3

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:10:42 -0500

Kinokuniya and that used Japanese book store you guys have... argh, I can't remember the name of it, but when I was visiting I got an FMA artbook for like five bucks. God, if I lived up there I'd be bankrupt in a week. Anyway, I always give my bro the ISBN since he has no idea how to pronounce the names, so if you go in there looking for a book take the ISBN with you and ask for help! Be the obnoxious otaku nerd. Embrace it!

Ok I ask only because I saw that artbook on your tumblr ;) Where do you buy Japanese imports like those? In the old days I used eBay but there are probably more sophisticated sites (haven't imported anything in forever). 274 pg Zelda Anniversary Artbook!!

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:48:32 -0500

I have a secret weapon - a brother who lives in NYC. Before he comes home to Florida for visits I send him a list of books to pick up for me at Kinokuniya. He brought me the Tactics Ogre book and Ayami Kojima's goooorgeous artbook when he visited in July. Of course I get lectures from him on why I'll spend 120 dollars for two books but I won't buy myself a new pair of glasses but SHUTUP. Art is life.

Ebay still isn't a bad choice but you'll inevitably see a mark-up. You can also try sites like play-asia.com but they don't have everything, and the shipping can be pretty bitchy.

Your script is remarkably entertaining to read. A nice breath of air during finals time. You should release these at the end of every chapter. :D

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:25:50 -0500

Haha, glad to help you decompress :D

You should poll your readers! Maybe you have lots of girl readers but only the boys donate because we girls are cheapskates. Then instead of saying no yaoi because your readers don't want it, say no yaoi because the important paying readers don't want it.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:25:06 -0500

Well, there's no yaoi because -I- don't want it. But the demographics just kind of reinforce that. And also, a reader isn't more or less important depending on if they throw money at me or not. I love you all the same, my darlings. Kiss. Donations do ensure that updates continue at three pages a week though, so that's a good thing.

Maybe us dudes are more generous, girls are used to flashing a smile and a little cleavage, and everyone gives them webcomics for free.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:12:05 -0500

That's so not true, you sexist pig. I put on my shortest skirt and hoochiest make-up and I STILL get a pay-window whenever I try to read Lackadaisy.

So anyway, who shaved Jivi's hair. Cutter?

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:10:40 -0500

Jivi shaved his own head. He likes it bald. Hasn't exactly had access to a razor since being chained up though, so he's gettin' fuzzy.

Spoiler alert: The plot will be resolved when Jivi's hair grows into a magnificent 'fro so large that the Red Berry Boys use it to smuggle things in, removing the need for half-dead human vessels.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:44:15 -0500

Maybe this will be reason enough for Starfish to stop biting him.

"Encrusted bowels of the internet" - that makes me smile for some reason. It's something I could see Duane saying, too. "I have seen the encrusted bowels of Crescian gulags! WE ARE NOT CROSSING INTO CRESCE!"

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:43:03 -0500

"Duane failed geography in school". Nonsense, I can't believe Duane was anything but a straight-A student. (also, tango whiskey two fiver bravo. I would've bet most of your readers were women, to be honest).

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:42:29 -0500

Apparently he couldn't spell either. Someone has emailed me yet again about a scattering of spelling errors. It takes a giant set of balls to email a webcomic author about spelling errors. *fist shake*

And to be more serious about Duane and geography - they don't teach it in Alderode. It's a xenophobic birdcage that holds itself superior to everyone else. That there are lands outside of it is important only when it comes time to point weapons. So Duane really has no more than a rudimentary idea what the rest of the continent looks like, making it pretty easy for Sette to wander him around.

How do you know most of your readers are boys? I’m a girl. I thought you were a boy for a while. A boy named Ashley, which was a cool name for a guy. I didn’t like the goatee, but I liked your teeth. Turns out that was Murkoph, not a zombified man-Ashley.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:38:12 -0500

You make me laugh :3

I can tell by the donations. A good seventy-five percent of them are from male names. I had thought Unsounded was a pretty girly comic, but my friends have assured me that is absolutely incorrect.

what's your creative process for Unsounded? how do you script (if at all) and execute that?

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:04:53 -0500

I script like this - (chapter 4's script - https://docs.google.com/View?id=ddr8b5s8_25g76cvfd9 ). If you have the patience to read through it you'll see a few things got changed, but other parts are verbatim. Sometimes actions fall flat when you go to draw them and you discover opportunities to punch things up that didn't occur to you when you were writing. Or at least I do.

I don't break my scripts down into panels but I absolutely have to have a script or I feel lost. From that script I do thumbnails for at least an entire scene before I start drawing it, but sometimes for a whole chapter. Depends on my attention span. From thumbnails I do each page to completion, which probably isn't the best process. I suspect it's better to draw a whole chapter first, then flat the whole chapter, then colour... but I find it tedious to work on one step too long so finishing each page before moving on suits me.

femanon here. me and all my femanon gal-pals can't wait for the hawt unsounded yaoi chapter. here's the secret girl code all us girls know so you know i'm a real girl: tango whiskey two fiver bravo. femanon out.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:27:44 -0500

Haha <3 I hope I didn't piss you off by saying most of the readers are guys. Girls are awesome too. I'm a girl! Let's be girls together.

No Toma x Duane x Quigley super guro-yaoi fest? I has a sad. :`(

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:26:13 -0500

*bites lip*

Is there anywhere I can find a larger res version of the epic new front page art you put on the Unsounded site?

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:25:01 -0500

I dunno, think it would make a good desktop?

Is Duane aware that they are right next to the border with Cresce?

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:24:36 -0500

Duane flunked geography in school.

I get the death and (certain) violence and (now even) zombies, but other threads in your work perplex me. What is the appeal of gore for you? I'm not trying to change or challenge, I'm just honestly interested in an experience that is outside of my own.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:24:04 -0500

You know, I'm not sure I can explain it properly but I'll try. To me, gore makes things real. It's a visual expression of anguish; of pain or rage or desolation that is vivid, visceral (sometimes literally), and infecting a scene like an Impressionist's brush strokes. I don't find the gore itself appealing - in fact gathering organ photos for that shattered jar of guts in chapter 2 was kinda gross - rather I'm into it as a very visual, powerful explosion of a battle lost, a hope shattered, a life come to an end. Gore is a punctuation mark and one that I don't shy away from.

Gore for the sake of gore... it can be beautiful, and I'd advise checking out an artist like Ayami Kojima for examples much more lovely than I can provide... but gore for the sake of gore in a narrative like Unsounded has no place. When things get bloody in the comic it's for a damn good reason (or because Murkoph is bored).

Goodness, mention sex and everyone goes crazy. This is almost as bad as the water vs khert question-avalanche from a little back. About that, if water = bad for Duane, how does falling in that lake in Ch 1 not KO him? Maybe you answered this already? ;)

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:11:41 -0500

Yay, a subject change! <3

It was pretty shallow. Look at the scene again, he's standing up in the water almost immediately after falling in. The rule is you must be twenty-five feet away from earth in every direction to have the khert completely dissipate and pymarics go plunk. There is some fluctuation in this depending on how strong or weak the khert field is wherever you are (if Uaid was in the middle of the sea and you were using him as your khert anchor, you wouldn't wanna get more than a few feet from him), but twenty-five feet is our rule of thumb. Thumb-feet.

Okay, I am glad Unsounded will probably not become a violent yaoi comic, thank you.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:03:18 -0500

Violence, yes. Never yaoi. Most of my readers are guys, I would never do that even if I wanted to :)

Christopher Hitchens just died, yo.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:02:33 -0500

That's fucking awful. I knew it was coming but, man... I really enjoyed his books, his interviews, and his insight. Chomsky will probably keel over tomorrow.

I'm curious, what are your tastes in yaoi?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:57:34 -0500

Too incriminating, man. You don't wanna hear it.

Is this 'oh yeah I draw guro porn too' thing for real?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:44:10 -0500

Just for fun. And maybe once a year, unless someone specifically commissions it. I'm not going to weird out on you, I promise.

Have you read the Finder series by Ayano Yamane? Some definite ticks in the art, but it's still pretty great. Crimson Spell by the same author is my personal fav, but it might be too... non-brutal for you.

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:24:38 -0500

Yeaaaah, Finder isn't for me, but thanks. My tastes in yaoi are so obnoxiously specific there's no point trying to hook me up with anything. In fact, my absolute favourite stories are all in novel form, because I guess they're too weird to be worth drawing. I dunno.

Ah, crap, I'm supposed to be doing a short comic for a (light) guro anthology... that I have forgotten about until just this moment... whoops.

oh mighty Ash, do you have any tips for writing good quality fantasy stories? as in anything I should remember when creating the world, or universal do's and don'ts?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:01:22 -0500

Actually that comic I linked down there, Mountaingirl, has some aaaaaawesome world-building, very elegant and clear.

I think probably one universal don't, particularly if you're doing a fantasy comic, is don't shoehorn a bunch of unimportant stuff in there. As fascinating as we find our fantasy worlds to be, readers are nine times out of ten much more interested in the characters and their exploits, and those exploits are what keep them turning pages (or clicking arrows). So it's like with any other story - CHARACTERS FIRST.

I think consistency in implementation of what makes your world unique is pretty important. If you have magic, depending on the cost of the magic, many many other things in the world that you might take for granted may just not be there. Always think everything through. Make timelines, record where and how what tech developed and why. Remember that humans beyond their hunting and gathering days are very into controlling their environment, so they are extremely likely to have figured out a way to curtail the "supernatural"; whether it's casting out witches, capturing "power" in objects, offering appeasing sacrifices - or writing shitty legislation that censors the internet because the village elders feel it is taking power away from them.

Also, religion. Watch Joe Campbell's Myths lectures sometime. So few people these days think about the interplay of religion and culture properly, but Campbell lays out pre-Enlightenment mindsets pretty well. Whenever Sette does something particularly Gefendur and people decide she's religious... I can't help but feel they are not observing the action in the proper light. Religion IS culture. Culture IS religion; everything from what you say when someone sneezes to what winter holiday you celebrate, even if you don't consider yourself "religious." These are all informed by the religious history of where you were born. So yeah. Never ignore religion, even if you've decided you're writing an atheistic society.

The pic of Ethelmik is amazing. I want to live in a tiny apartment on the top floor of the house with the pointed roof. Or at least wander around in the video-game version. Will Ch 6 still be predominantly in Ulestry, or move into Cresce?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:40:34 -0500

You don't wanna live in Ethelmik, man. It's not the most wholesome of cities, and the noise of those waterfalls would drive a person mad *_* Chapter 6's first few scenes are in Ulestry, then we move across the river into Cresce.

I /thought/ I recognized some of your work on porn sites. You do good stuff!

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:40:15 -0500

Guro yaoi fan, hmm? Good for you!

December 19th just happens to be my birthday, and I think yours will be the best gift!

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:25:45 -0500

Well, aren't you just sweet as pie.

When's the last time you drew someone naked? (this could be you or them naked, or even the drawing itself!)

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:25:34 -0500

Like, from observation? With a real life nekkid person? Or from a picture? I draw naked people from photos aaaaaall the time because that's pretty hot, son. From real life though, it's been a few years since I went to the Saturday figure drawing sessions at the art centre downtown. I'm not even sure if they have those anymore but the smell in that place wasn't pleasant. I dunno why there's a mad rush in the unbathed hippie community on drawing naked people, but they always showed up at the figure drawing sessions. Not that I don't love hippies.

But yeah, I don't have a naked person I keep in my closet for difficult poses or anything. What I do use sometimes for crazy foreshortening is this guy - http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=1201&ref=gc_splash&featured&1201 - I would say every artist should have one, it's the best poseable model I've found.

What was the last comic you read?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:01:12 -0500

Today I read what exists of Mountain Girl by Ross Campbell - (buy it, it's fun http://mooncalfe.livejournal.com/173290.html ). Yesterday I went on a Glenn Fabry bender and read Neverwhere and Thor: Vikings.

>Give me your relatives. gasp are you asking me to marry you??

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:10:37 -0500

*gasp* Of course not! I'm asking you to go on a skiing holiday with me so I can murder you in the mountains and come back with your assumed identity, taking your place in your life and touching all your stuff! Marriage though, geez, what a commitment.

Please don't be insecure about your next chapter. We, your loyal fans, will always love you. Always. Yea?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:09:16 -0500

...probably not :3

I have seen the encrusted bowels of the internet. I know that it's only one wrong move between Semi-respected Creator and 4chan Joke-of-the-month. Sometimes I think I shouldn't answer so many formspring questions each day because it will make me come off looking like an attention whore, but I'm not an attention whore I just want to be niiiice *sob sob*

Anyway, who cares, it's nearly Christmas! Have a Jolly Rancher candy cane. They are the bomb.

Why is the incantation for Duane's light spell in chapter 1 written in the normal English alphabet when all subsequent spells are written in Tainish pictograms?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:04:49 -0500

Because I wanted to show that the foreign scribbles are actually a different language, but I didn't want to then translate THAT into English because I thought it might set up the expectation that all the spells would be translated. But that would be silly since they are not that interesting. It is very difficult to work with multiple languages in a comic, anon, don't even get me started.

I am so hyped for this chapter you would not believe it mountains and mountains of expectations here.

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:58:51 -0500

*sob* Although to be honest, I was looking back over it the other day and if nothing else it's a very -pretty- chapter, in my opinion.

Are there any wrights who are practical and don't bother with the flashy stuff?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:58:07 -0500

I'm sure there must be. My characters just lean towards the ostentatious.

>dat feel when you listen to a new song over and over again until you're sick of it

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:19:11 -0500

The fanfictiony comic thing made me laugh. Kudos to whoever made it! Is it accurate?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:29:54 -0500

I know, wasn't it great? And who knows! It could be accurate, or it could just be marvellously cute speculation. From now on, all theories are to be submitted in MSpaint form.

Cat breath bothers you, but not zombie breath???

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:17:05 -0500

I have never smelled zombie breath! Neither have you. Maybe it smells lovely :)

Gran also handled a severed head someone handed her while helping clear a bombed building during the blitz "It was just like a turnip, I didn't mind". Callous just means thick skinned, hard to rattle, same root word as calloused hands.

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:03:15 -0500

Wow, your gran sounds amazing. I never really had grandparents, I have no one to tell me riveting stories of grislier times. Give me your relatives.

You ever gonna ship Matty x Duane?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:22:10 -0500

Go stick your hand in a toaster.

AH now I am even more curious about your publicly-admitted yaoi :( Any way I can extract that information from you?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:39:00 -0500

Death first!

Didn't mean to lecture about callousness, see my gran is a sweet 92 year old lady who calls me and asks me if I agree deformed babies should be put down. Says she used to work at the hospital and they had a special room for that. "It was a kindness". @_@

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:37:15 -0500

It's an interesting topic. The extreme preciousness we assign to fetuses and babies is a pretty modern thing, one that's largely come about because medicine and our overall quality of life has so vastly improved in the last century. But one's attitude towards your gran is going to shift depending on one's personal beliefs, I imagine. Anyway, I wouldn't call her callous, not if she's sweet to you in lots of other ways. Hers is just a different worldview and a different life experience from yours.

I just realized that cover art was of Matty arriving to give Quigley the news, and is actually relevant to the story instead of the comic equivalent of sexy arts! I feel slow.

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:04:04 -0500

It's okay, there's a lot going on in that picture.

Interesting cover. It looks so innocuous, which fills me with dread since I know it's going to be an ultra-tense climax chapter. :o

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:53:14 -0500

Ahh! It's not supposed to be THAT much of an ultra-tense climax chapter. Don't expect awesomeness, what if it sucks? Expect absolute shit, so maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised T___T

AAAAA stop looking at meee nooooo

Have you ever seen 7 Faces of Dr. Lao? In the movie, Dr. Lao uses a firework-type thing to make it rain! Quigley's stormfinder reminded me of tht. Also, it' a great movie.

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:51:35 -0500

I haven't seen it but that sounds terrific.

Callousness is not evil, it's a lack of sensitivity, and it fits her to a T from what little we know. Her only surviving son is lost and enslaved and imagines her telling him he has no balls when he asks for help, also cannon firing while nursing? O_O;

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:51:18 -0500

Hmm.

What would happen if the entire cast suddenly had brightly-colored party hats? Like the hats just spontaneously appeared on everybody's head?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:51:09 -0500

It would be time to party!

Do all Jamaicans have Crescian accents?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:50:47 -0500

I second the wonder that is this cover. The way you draw hands is so expressive. Bastion's are another favorite example. When working pyramy through the hands, does it respond to physical technique/craft, like sculpture or drawing? Or playing a piano?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:49:57 -0500

It honestly doesn't make a difference :) But formal schooling stresses elegant technique so wrights well-represent their Academy of choice after they graduate. Wrights, particularly ones who fight, all want to look badass and gentlemanly and knowledgeable when they're squaring off against each other. This is another reason why so many spells are glowy and epic looking when they really don't need to be. Silly wrights.

I recently discovered two tracks from Silent Hill 2 that are just some of the most beautiful sounds I have heard my entire life. Is the rest of the soundtrack just as lovely? What are some of your favorite vgm soundtracks?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:45:37 -0500

Silent Hill 2 and in fact the Silent Hill series at large has a mind-numblingly gorgeous soundtrack. I really recommend you acquire all of it. I don't believe Akira Yamaoka is doing the soundtrack of the latest game but that's really okay since at last the audio will match the quality of everything else in a post-SH4 Silent Hill title.

My favourite VGM! I'm something of an aficionado. My favourite composer is easily Hitoshi Sakimoto and if you look at my last.fm page he's beating every other artist on there by like four-thousand plays >_> Out of his work, Vagrant Story and FFTactics are my favourite albums. I'm also really keen on Michiru Yamane who has done a lot of Castlevania music. From the west, Bioshock, the God of War's, and Beyond Good and Evil have good tunes. Legend of Legaia, Donkey Kong Country, Devil May Cry 3, Metroid, various FF albums are all favourites. Lumines has a killer soundtrack.

I don't like super modern VGM much. It's all trying to be film scores which I find a bit boring, since few of them have particularly strong melodies or anything very striking musically going on with them. Strings and ambience, yawn. I'd rather listen to the soundtrack from VVVVV than Skyrim.

http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l576/icewaterblue/glargle.jpg. Part fanfic, part fanart, all atrocious. :)

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:31:14 -0500

lololol

"Galit."

This is adorable, you have bettered my life and probably the lives of others. Thank you.

Yours is the only webcomic for which I wish fanfiction existed. What is wrong with me?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:18:06 -0500

I wish there was more high-quality Silent Hill 4 fanfiction. We all have our crosses, anon.

The device (with backstory) is very cool and the cover is gorgeous. Now, uh, I don't want to be a douche, but there's one too many black beads on that abacus-storm-thingy. It's all so pretty, but that bead, Glass, it's... taunting... me...

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:16:46 -0500

Haha XD It's not really an abacus though, it's how you input coordinates and instructions into the pymaric, so I uh, claim that. DO NOT QUESTION THE PYMARIC, it is beyond our ken.

Hmm, looks like "Elan Aled" is an anagram for "A Land Eel"! Very interesting. Also, it's an anagram for "El Anal Ed" (so obviously he's a luchador / porn star).

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:15:43 -0500

He's named after my neighbour Elan, who has an amazing Jamaican accent and who is probably the only fifty year old man I know that I wouldn't mind seeing naked.

Chitz is attached by velcro!

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:34:41 -0500

DIABLERIE!

So. Regina. Hazards of Love's Forest Queen. Same person? If not, at least the same voice?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:34:03 -0500

Wow, that really would be a good singing voice for her. Nice one. Regina is not as callous as the Forest Queen though. Regina is not a villain :)

Quigley gets posed more attractively each time he appears, as evidenced by the cover for Chapter 5. He's your favorite, admit it. And for a question..can I ask what weird pymaric work he's doing there (if it's not a spoiler)?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:32:28 -0500

Remember how he told Starfish they'd sneak into the city once night fell? How he'd summon a storm to blot the moonlight? It's funny but I developed a whole method for how that would work, and he's in the process of it right there on the cover - but it never gets talked about again in the comic :3

Anyway, that box with the abacus looking thing on it is a stormfinder. It sweeps the area around it looking for moisture in the atmosphere, and helps Quigley calculate what kind of wind is necessary to move the storm into the area he wants. Ha, Quigley isn't my favourite character but he is one of the more handsome characters in the story, and I am only human~

Ephsephin's gonna be pissed that Matty dropped his bottle of wine.

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:14:22 -0500

Does rain mess with pyramy?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:49:41 -0500

Nope! In fact you can do things out when it's raining you couldn't do otherwise.

Good God woman, that cover is beauty and :3 incarnate.

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:49:07 -0500

Aww, shank you :3

Is Chitz pymarically attached to Matty or does he just have perfect posture?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:22:37 -0500

Chitz is attached by the unimaginably strong power of Character Design.

Next chapter cover, please????

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:14:20 -0500

Four questions marks???? Fine! D<

http://www.casualvillain.com/random/05_cover.jpg

My theory was that either Elka or Toma is "Elan Aled", and that they're only chasing Sette because they don't want to blow their cover. (Also, it's unclear if "Elan" would know who Sette is.......I guess they'd have to see the vial of glowy liquid as ID.)

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:03:40 -0500

Good theory, good theory.

Please share the titles of your guilty pleasure yaoi :D

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:00:59 -0500

The only one I'm admitting to publicly is One-Thousand and One Nights :3 http://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-Nights-Vol-v/dp/8952744705

Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:58:29 -0500

Nat King Cole.

I have a feeling that by the time Unsounded ends, all the major characters will either be dead or in hiding.

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:57:22 -0500

I do like a good tragedy.

Sorry to sound impatient, but with less than a week until the new chapter, I was wondering when those promised Duane & Sette questions will be resumed.

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:57:14 -0500

Inspiration must strike, I'm afraid. That formspring is quite the creative writing task, and if I'm not in the mood, I write terribly. Don't get too excited about it though. The vast preponderance of questions are spoilers and shan't be answered. Most of the rest are pretty goofy or questions that it would be out-of-character for Duane to even acknowledge.

I did promise though, so the few viable questions in the batch I will tend to before the comic starts up again, no worries.

I have discovered that event planning is something I hate almost more than life itself. What work duties have been the worst for you?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:35:01 -0500

Anything that makes me have to call someone. I think phones are evil inventions.

You know what the cure for hysteric mania was?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:22:10 -0500

Yes. Same thing it still is :3

Do you have any guilty pleasures? Like a show or something that's really schmoopy and romantic?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:21:41 -0500

Well, there are a few yaoi manga that I follow. One of them - a print series that I have to pay for, even - has the sort of wonky anatomy that's been a popular target of ridicule on tumblr as of late. But I don't care, I like it :) I like a few very bad horror movies as well. Those probably count as guilty pleasures even though they are neither schmoopy nor romantic.

If the joke's well told (or good enough if written) I can laugh even when I don't get it. Am I a strange person?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:16:27 -0500

Perhaps you are only giddy, like one of those Victorian ladies prone to fits of hysteric mania.

what do you suggest for ashley withdrawal

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:15:37 -0500

Play more Vagrant Story, of course!

Reading a sailor's XVII century biography, it occurred to me that medicine in Kasslyne at least has the advantage of fast amputations, as demonstrated on Petr by Dr. Duane. Then I thought that on sea that doesn't apply anyway...

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:37:37 -0500

That's true. Seems that no matter what world you live in, being a sailor is a shitty life.

Have you played Amnesia: the Dark Descent?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:36:24 -0500

I'm scared :(

I'd promote Elka. To my wife! She's hot!

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:36:10 -0500

Not my type, personally. Too high-strung.

I felt the same way about the second Suikoden!! I thought it was blasphemy too, but it just couldn't compare to the first. "Blah" is very apt. BUT, if you complete it, you're rewarded with Suikoden III - luscious gameplay+story annnd .. adult Futch!

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:35:45 -0500

*high five*

When Matty said that the stuff the RBB are smuggling "likes pain," I assume that was just his own childish interpretation. Are they smuggling illegal First Materials?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:35:27 -0500

One geeeeenerally smuggles illegal things. If they were legal, they wouldn't have to be smuggled.

"Smuggle" sounds so close to "snuggle." What a great word.

Fine, I'm silly. It is kind of creepy that you could tell all three of those came from the same person though. How about something on why the Red Berry Boys are called the Red Berry Boys? Surely this is subtle enough for you. Bats pretty eyelashes.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:57:29 -0500

Well, that's not a spoiler :3 It's been answered and should probably be in the wiki but I have forgotten to add it. The Madishanian papers chose this name for the group after someone in an article referred to the jarred viscera they left behind as canned red berries. Grisly.

Did you ever think you'd live in a world where My Little Pony is considered manlier than Vampiers? Oh Twilight, what hast thou wrought?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:55:07 -0500

...when you put it like that. I dunno though, sometimes I'm sure that MLP is just some massive group troll that I'm not in on.

I'm trying to imagine Sette and Regina meeting and in my head they either get along fabulously or Regina sees the tail and teeth, and tries to put her on a mantlepiece. Sometimes it's both at the same time.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:53:53 -0500

I wish I could show you this bit of script, but, no :3

What do you think about those crematoriums in the UK that are planning to use the energy from burning dead bodies to fuel electricity?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:53:27 -0500

I haven't heard of this! What a marvellous idea. It's hard to believe that there exists such a large amount of dead bodies to be burned though. I personally would rest easy knowing someone had burned my corpse to power a coffee maker and brew themselves a delicious cup of coffee.

I have a theory that the Red Berry Boys are using hollowed-out bodies to smuggle...............DELICIOUS CANDY. (On the other hand, it doesn't look like candy would last very long around Starfish......)

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:51:03 -0500

Flesh pinatas all around!

When chapter 4 concluded, did anyone ask if Duane was dead?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:50:52 -0500

Duane's been dead all along, dear.

Have you played any of the Suikoden games?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:50:25 -0500

Yep, played the first one, loved it. I couldn't get into the second one though. I know that's a freakish thing to admit but there was something so predictable and blah about it, my attention refused to adhere.

So if Elka were promoted, she'd dye her streak red?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:49:29 -0500

I think she'd do her whole head red, and then go get absolutely stinking drunk and sing her way around town. But no one would promote Elka, she has anger management problems :3

I have a theory that "Elan Aled" is an alias for someone we've already met. >:-)

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:48:27 -0500

Ha, who? Winalils? Interesting :)

How exactly is Frummagem pronounced? I've been saying 'FROM-uh-gehm' or is the last syllable pronounced a 'jehm'. Cause, you know...gems = treasure, and they are a family of thieves.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:23:02 -0500

From-uh-gem(as in precious stone). You got it.

is sette's mom a lion and that's why she's got a lion tail because her dad had sex with a lion and she's the baby

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:21:30 -0500

Yes. We play fast and loose with genetics 'round here.

Regina vs. Elka: who wins? Land or sea-based battle. Yes I know they're probably on the same side.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:20:40 -0500

Oh, Regina. No contest. Elka is young and naive. Regina uses her nails and goes for the groin.

So given the picture below, I assume Regina's appearance in Jivi's dream was a creation of his imagination? You know you've raised a kid right they dream about you as a monster giving them helpful advice.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:19:08 -0500

Regina is definitely not a fish person.

So, what's Sette's daily intake of meat to veggie/fruit ratio? I mean, does she eat meat more, and how much more often that fruits & veggies? And this is not countin out in the wild, but back home, where she has more food options.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:18:39 -0500

They eat a lot of seafood in Sharteshane but even then they don't eat the amount of meat we're so used to in the western world. Sette probably gets a bit of fish a few times a week, occasional bit of goat or pork or chicken a few times a month, but mostly it's root vegetables and grains. And lovely pies.

How does this parrot make you feel? http://youtu.be/DYS3JCz-YUA

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:14:06 -0500

If I wasn't snuggled in mah bed I'd be dancin'!

Duane's Adventure with the Plat Platoon is fascinating. Do children lead these platoons, or adults? Are there special requirements for commanding child soldiers? Since they're Plat kids, I assume they don't receive much education, huh? Thank you!

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:13:26 -0500

The child-wrights are a distinct group within a soldiery order, but they're still lead by the same officers as the rest, and those officers are always adults. There's a hierarchy among the lesser ranks though, so even within the wrights there's a chain of command. Plat kids in the army have generally gone through two or three years at an Academy which sets them up with a decent grasp of Old Tainish and the basics of pymary. Nothing terribly sophisticated is demanded of them, so it's enough for what they're doing.

Enlightenment or Romanticism?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:07:28 -0500

I would say the Enlightenment, as it inspired some pretty awesome revolutions and philosophers. As well as the modern age.

Which Frummagem is Starfish doing business with? Nary or Stockyard? Is Winalils involved? You're not going to tell me anything, are you? Crosses arms and huffs grumpily.

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:01:26 -0500

...silly person.

What kind of substance is most usefully transported by (dying) human bodies?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:01:22 -0500

...you...

Will it be explained why Nary took/kept Sette in the first place when there's so clearly going to be questionable paternity? That seems like a pretty uncharacteristic move and it makes me all curious and intrigued and stuff.

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:01:17 -0500

Asking obvious spoilers is very silly...

OK another re-read question - did Sette actually think the Wandering Root would listen to her, after it swallowed Duane?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:58:57 -0500

Of course! She's Sette Frummagem, the most amazing person in the world. Seriously though, she's never met a wandering root. Conversation was at least worth a try.

You seen the new Muppet movie yet?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:57:27 -0500

No, I keep being all stupidly busy! I may wind up downloading it when a decent copy becomes available.

The Mariner's Revenge reminds me of The Watchmakers Apprentice by The Clockwork Quartet. Songs with stories are the best! I love your taste in music :)

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:57:00 -0500

From songs with stories it's a short step to outright enjoying musicals, anon! Take heed! :)

"I suppose the thought of Ashley Riot on a chocobo or having a beer with a moogle has always been a little difficult to wrap one's brain around anyway." See, I thought those things had all been destroyed or exterminated...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:56:13 -0500

Could be. Since horses never make an appearance in VS though, chocobos could always be argued. Made for fun fan debate, and really, Ivalicians CAN look awesome on chocobos, FFXII proves that.

Never played Revenant Wings, no DS. :( Maybe I'll get myself one for Christmas. Any interest in Skyward Sword? I still play LTTP like once a year, but Wind Waker and Twilight Princess bummed me out.

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:54:49 -0500

I never had a Gamecube or N64 so I missed out on the 3D Zelda's. Which is probably why the Wii Zelda's don't interest me either. LttP is tops though.

"formspringers are my favourite people." did you just say "formspringers haven't posted enough requests for naked pictures of all your characters"? because that's what i heard.

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:53:10 -0500

Don't make me wag my finger disapprovingly at you, anon.

How important to Sette is blood relation? Does she just believe her dad thinks that and if it isn't true he'll abandon her, or would she be devastated to find out he adopted her?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:52:35 -0500

Don't tell her I told you, but Sette wants very much to have a group to belong to. She wants to belong. The blood part is important because among her group there are a lot of individuals who don't want her to belong, that find her an inconvenience. Claiming blood relation legitimizes her in the family no matter what other people say, and she'll always have that no matter what.

Looks like Regina and Sette can get together and trade tips for keeping guys from grabbing their hair mid-action. Does Elka have any hair secrets? Like, is her blue streak covered in poison or explosives or something?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:49:20 -0500

No, but doesn't it match her pretty blue uniform so very well? :3

Oooh, Sette needs to braid thorns into her tail! Oooh, or just tightly wrap her tail in thorns!

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:48:34 -0500

If my memory serves correctly, a while back you mentioned that the wrights in your RP days sang to perform pyramy. Considering Carol of the Bells originated from a Ukrainian well-wishing chant, would such a song be a good comparison to this concept?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:48:19 -0500

Yes, when I was writing about it I made great show of the melody and meter being important, flavouring the lyrics one way or another. It's a very awkward idea though and the thought of wizards battling by singing at each other hasn't survived my demand that Things Look Cool. It's probably an idea better for a video game, maybe an awesome fantasy-flavoured Ouendan/EBA.

I don't suppose you're feeling better and considering restarting the Duane & Sette Formspring? Like the anon below, I am growing weak and sickly without new Unsounded material to think about.

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:44:04 -0500

Sure, I'll tell Duane to answer a few more questions before the formspring closes for the new chapter. There're seventy questions in the inbox at the moment though, so he's going to be pretty choosy.

I thought the lame RPG joke was funny, I just wondered if it was actually true. It seemed to me like wrights might want to armor themselves up!

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:43:02 -0500

Indeed! If it's appropriate to their station I have no problem putting wrights in armour.

By the way, is the baby Regina's breastfeeding Jivi, or does Jivi have any siblings that will show up later?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:42:10 -0500

It's not Jivi, but Jivi's had a number of sibs that didn't make it out of childhood. He's Regina's only surviving kid at the moment.

Yeah, but the art gets inordinately better later. I love some of the hyper-detailed backgrounds in more recent parts. Um, what about Vinland Saga and/or Otoyomegatari? Have you read or looked at either of those?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:14:00 -0500

No mistake. I picked up a bunch of random volumes for like fifty cents apiece at my local Borders when they were closing, and the latest Berserk books look pretty badass most of the time. There's still weirdness and inconsistency with the faces but at this point if he wants to make up for that by spraining his wrists on dem backgrounds, so be it. Or he may have a really kickass assistant, I dunno how Miura works.

Vinland Saga I have heard good things about and the other one I have never heard of! I am very picky. With manga, the art's often there but most times the writing fails to grab me. It's like, I dunno, Tegami Bachi. One of the most gorgeous manga I've seen but the story and characters are a boring string of cliches. I want the total package. Blade of the Immortal, Monster, Nausicaa, or Akira. Yeah.

"Mage classes can't equip heavy armour, man :3" - is this actually a thing for wrights?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:04:17 -0500

No, it was my lame attempt to make a funny.

Maybe Regina is trying to be hospitable, and is actually firing a Crescian T-shirt cannon. Hmm?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:03:58 -0500

That could be. Perhaps there is a chill in the air and her enemies have shown up bare-chested. She doesn't want them to catch colds whether they fuck snakes or no.

On the character designs for Unsounded, even on soldier types, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of armour. Are knights and platemail and things a part of Kasslyne, or are the breastplates of the Peaceguard about as heavy as it gets?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:25:44 -0500

You will see more armour as the story movies in certain directions. We're not there yet though and mostly we've been dealing with wrights. Mage classes can't equip heavy armour, man :3

Do you like Berserk?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:21:25 -0500

I liked the anime series a whole bunch. I had a hard time getting into the manga when I tried. The art in the earlier volumes is really bad.

Do mine eyes deceive me, or does Regina have SPIKES braided into her hair? This seems like a good idea in combat, actually...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:17:20 -0500

Yep, every braid has steel thorns braided into it. Pain in the butt to draw, but if you're going to do close range shipboard combat with that kind of crazy long hair you really need to some way of deterring people from grabbing it.

At least tell me she and Duane meet at some point. A foul-mouthed, badass Crescian lady privateer must be high on his list of things to hate.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:30:04 -0500

Regina: the ultimate multitasker. She can breastfeed and blow "gutless snake-fuckers" to bits at the same time. I must say, I admire her. But I would never want to get within 50 yards of that woman. Maybe a little farther.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:29:49 -0500

That's wise.

What is this you speak of a Berserk movie? D:

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:26:49 -0500

girl where u been
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bYRo476nMc

On the topic of animation, have you seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, the original series? If not, go. Go now and find it. The last four episodes of the series are nearly standalone, and a great place to start if you're skeptical.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:51:00 -0500

Avatar is fun times, if a little kiddified. I dunno if I'd recommend a person start at the end though, champ, that kiiiind of spoils the entire series ;) I've heard a few lukewarm reviews of the new Thundercats but man, cat people. I imagine them with cat-breath and it's an instant weenie-shrinker..

Most of my favourite animation still comes from Japan, though I haven't found a new series to really fall in love with in a few years. I had high hopes for the new Last Exile but the cast of children was a turn-off. The new Berserk movie will hopefully be awesome.

I can't think of anything else to ask you Unsounded-wise. I need some new material to speculate and obsess over. I need it to be the 19th!!

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:45:02 -0500

Remind me next week and I'll post the cover early to formspring, because formspringers are my favourite people.

What's Matty's favorite kind of pie?

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:39:04 -0500

Tough to say. Perhaps all the pies.

So how's the break going? Is the buffer still at 63 or have you been making some good progress? You mentioned mapping out Ch 6 earlier.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:37:01 -0500

I've been super productive comic-wise over the break thanks to donations. The buffer's up to seventy-five pages! I've rescripted chapter seven, chapter six is completely thumbnailed and I'm fourteen completed pages into it... new cover art for the site, some new fun art just because... *salute* Operations continue smoothly, sir.

Do you know of/have you seen the french cartoon Wakfu? If you haven't, you must check out the first season, it has the greatest villain ever.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:53:32 -0500

Yeah, there are constant Wakfu threads on /co/ so I've watched a few clips on Youtube out of curiosity, but Flash animation makes me crazy. The characters never look alive to me. I'm kind of old and kind of a lifelong animation nerd, so there are some things I still can't get past yet. One day.

What would Duane's reaction be to seeing MJ's Thriller?

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:51:58 -0500

I think it would be pretty hard to convince him Michael Jackson's not a necromancer. And then he would explode the television.

I think Duane should go around dramatically holding out an apple whenever he speaks. It'll be all symbolic and shit. And when he gets hungry, he can eat it.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:53:05 -0500

I dunno, Sette would rather he just knock people around and eat brains when he's hungry :3 Apples lack badassery.

Don’t really care about romance, just think a more central clash of POV between Balthier and Ashe could have made her less whiny in the early going. But it’s true it ain’t broke. How about a sequel with Larsa as a main protagonist? Loved him.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:51:33 -0500

Fair enough. A sequel with Larsa would be brill! Very likable little girl-boy. Did you play Revenent Wings? I didn't get far into it, I thought it was kind of dreadful, but apparently he pops up later on.

Seriously? That cap is so cool. It really adds to the aura of insanity.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:50:10 -0500

She has one with the seal of Cresce printed on it that she wears from time to time. She's definitely crazy but she's so awesome and successful in her craziness that the palace lets her get away with a lot of shit it normally wouldn't tolerate. Gosh, I love me some Regina.

Enough with this FF talk! Can you recommend us a good shooter?

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:47:20 -0500

I don't play shooters D: Unless you count like, Bioshock. Which I think a lot of people don't.

When I picture Nary & his pals hanging out at their home base, for some reason I always picture them singing the "Gaston Song" from Beauty and the Beast ('cept about Nary, of course).

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:46:15 -0500

Haha, that's epic. Nary scares the shit out of me though, it's hard to picture him as even murderous Gaston from the final scenes of the castle invasion.

Holy shit, Jivi's mom is awesome. Please tell me we get around to her in the story soon.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:44:14 -0500

Not soon :(

I always used to say that the key to designing a FF character is to start off making them look really cool, then tweak one or two things to make them look completely retarded.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:17:10 -0500

This is the most accurate thing ever said on the internet.

Where did the word galit come from? Did Duane invent it?

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:16:32 -0500

Naw, it's Tainish for zombie. Haha.

Oh, Regina's a privateer, not a pirate? She just got a lot more interesting!

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:00:42 -0500

She's a real lady!

Meh, Basch is awesome, but talk about angst. With Balthier as the lead you could have moved away from Fran and had him in with Ashe. He would have been a stronger counterpart of opportunism and immorality to Ashe’s hyper-righteous morality.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:59:39 -0500

"Moved him away from Fran and had him in with Ashe." Do you mean in a romantic way? I don't like that very much. Ashe spends the game mourning Rasler which shields her in a really awesome way from becoming another helpless princess character hanging off the male hero's arm. I really like that she starts the story a widow and remains faithful to Rasler, that's unique in this kind of game.

If Balthier had been the lead we would have been with him at every moment. A handy thing to do when writing a badass character is to observe them from the POV of a less badass character, and to leave large swaths of their life, history, emotions, and outlook a mystery. Balthier is cool and that makes us want more of him, but if we'd been given more, he might not have come off as cool. I am reminded of Jack Sparrow. In the first PotC movie, Jack is secondary to Will and is all the cooler for it. Then the second and third movies shifted focus to him and Jack's frippery and affections just began to annoy the piss out of me so that by the end of the trilogy I couldn't stand the bastard anymore.

But, ya know, maybe Balthier as the lead from the very beginning of the game could have worked. Who knows. I just find myself pretty satisfied with the way FFXII ultimately turned out. If it ain't broke, don't fix it :)

Is Sette's dad secretly a half-lion hemaphrodite, and that's why she is how she is now?

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:34:03 -0500

No, her dad's Nary Frummagem!

So Jivi's father must have been a bearlike slab of muscular power, grim-faced determination, rugged handsomeness and sheer distilled masculinity. Right?

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:41:58 -0500

I think you're thinking of his mother.

Totally agree on FFXII as tops. It was just fun to play, without all the usual FF tediousities. OMG I CAN EXPLORE WITHOUT A FUCKING RANDOM ENCOUNTER?!? Only problem was that Balthier should have been the actual leading man, booting Vaan to second-tier.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:16:46 -0500

Oh, I dunno, would Balthier have been as cool if he was the lead character? If he had been there'd have been a need to dwell on all his angst. Instead his daddy issues and his black past stay pretty understated, and he gets to remain the aloof badass through preeeeetty much the whole game. Honestly, if I had to give Vaan the boot I'd have gone with Matsuno's original idea of making Basch the lead character. He wanted to but apparently the bigwigs thought the game needed a younger hero to appeal to the kiddies and the girls. Little do they know everyone thinks Basch is about fifty times hotter than Vaan.

I remember the other two. Beat all 3. :) Soul Blazer had some really sweet music, too! Ever play the Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) games on the NES?

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:12:03 -0500

Nope, never touched any of the Dragon Warrior games :) It's funny but my NES/SNES experiences were shaped by what video games my local grocery store had to rent. My parents were always cool with buying us the consoles for Christmas but we never seemed to get any damn games. It wasn't until I got my first job in high school that I started to fill out my SNES library.

What do you think about Final Fantasy 4?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:50:34 -0500

I think I haven't played it since I was a kid :3 I remember it, Chrono Trigger, and Soul Blazer were the three games my brother and I always chose to rent from the grocery store, even after we'd managed to beat them all. And I remember that terrible moment when we'd get the cartridge home and pop it in the box and hold our breaths praying whatever cocksucker had rented the game in-between our rentals hadn't saved over our slot. Life was hard back then, man.

"FFX is the only FF I could never bring myself to finish. It's all yours, champ." LMAO. Or should I say "HA. HA. HA. HA. HA."

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:43:47 -0500

We do not joke about this scene, anon. It is devastation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FTJxfV3pc

Elka is mai waifu. dy/dx

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:36:10 -0500

are u sure yer man enough

With school (finally) being over, I really cracked down on myself about finishing my novel, and have given myself set studio hours, so I treat writing like another job. Do you have set hours that you work on Unsounded during?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:35:42 -0500

Good for you, man! Write like the wind! I work on Unsounded whenever I have free time. I have absolutely no life so that gives me plenty of opportunities :3

Would the "Family" part of Nary's tattoo be a lie, or is Duane wrong and Sette's daddy doesn't want her offed?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:34:56 -0500

I wonder.

Do you think of the Ivalice in VS as being the same Ivalice in the other games? I think FFXII is one of the best FF games too except for the whole 'Vaan what are you doing here you don't have a point' factor.

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:30:23 -0500

It wasn't revealed until just this year actually, but Vagrant Story DOES NOT take place in Ivalice. Matsuno himself confirmed it over Twitter, and claimed all the FFT references were only Easter eggs for the amusement of fans. Personally, I always thought Valendia being in Ivalice was a fun idea since it expanded the VS world beyond the bounds of what the game presented, but it's not a deal breaker or anything. I suppose the thought of Ashley Riot on a chocobo or having a beer with a moogle has always been a little difficult to wrap one's brain around anyway.

Mmm, FFXII... Vaan is a unconventional character but I don't know that he's pointless. He and Penelo are an important plot device, there to ask questions, stir the pot, and provide a bit of levity and naivete to the group dynamic (preferable to another Yuffie/Selphie/Rikku in my book). True, he never falls into any of those tropes that normally make underage orphans into relevant protagonists of fantasy epics (he's not a prophesied hero, he's not the bastard child of the villain, he's not secretly a god) but he's still a competent warrior with a stake in what happens to his country. I kind of like that the entire story doesn't all boil down to being about him at the end. But that's me.

I haven't been on here in awhile. Plenty of awesome answers to catch up on.

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:11:55 -0500

Your handle makes me think of ghostly Prince Septimus from Stardust.

I noticed a lot of people are hung up on the questions relating to Black Tongues and how their bodies function after castration. Being part of the LGBTQ community, I happen to know a bit about this. (Cont.)

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:11:28 -0500

"As long as the male has reached maturity before castration, this is what happens. 1. Facial hair continues to grow. 2. The voice stays as deep as it was before castration. 3. No, they do not gain "man-boobs" without taking estrogen. If they don't remain fit, they will likely gain weight. But they do not automatically go pudgy. 4. Muscle mass and muscle retention typically do not decrease much. 5. As they age, they won't go bald because they lack testosterone. 6. Castrated males can still sexually perform. They just can't make people pregnant. So. Hopefully that clears some stuff up. I can provide sources if people want to look into it on their own. (The end.)"

Thanks, Phantom! :) You are more patient than I. This information is not too terribly difficult to find online if people want further reading, and there's even a really nice little documentary about eunuchs that Channel 4 did a few years ago that's a good watch. Castration is one thing I have done a bit of research.

I don't know where you read horses aren't all that intelligent. I know horses, and own a dog and would say that horses are right on par with dogs. They are very intelligent. Of course, just like there are stupid dogs, there are stupid horses too.

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:09:15 -0500

That's cool.

So how does riding dogs compare to riding horses? What are the pros and cons?

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 21:00:23 -0500

You know, I wish I was more educated in the equestrian arts. From what I've read, horses are not terribly intelligent animals, so I would imagine the most immediate pro to riding dogs would be their smarts. You'd get all the dog benefits: good fighter, fiercely loyal, resilient, obedient when trained, very brave and even self-sacrificing. And fluffy!

I think it's probably much more expensive to keep a large dog fed than a horse though. You can graze a horse (right?) but a dog is going to need meat or processed feed at every meal. In Unsounded they get around this by having very large scale, industrial hound feed producers, but that doesn't help you if you're way out in the boonies. Either you have to get a supply of dog feed when you visit town or you have to go to the trouble and expense of preparing feed for your dog yourself if they can't live off the land - and the big bulldogs just aren't equipped to hunt for themselves. It makes a dog much more of an expense, and really sets the stage for both slave labour and plods being so seemingly necessary in Kasslynian society. When there aren't horses there aren't pack mules either, so you don't have cheap beasts of burden for anyone.

I MUST HAVE THAT CAKE RECIPE

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:51:06 -0500

This is pretty close - http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/luscious-four-layer-pumpkin-cake-65930.aspx - But don't use Cool Whip, it's nasty. Just get some heavy cream instead and whip it yourself. Also, make your own pumpkin pie spice, the stuff in the store is stupidly overpriced (4parts cinnamon, 4 ginger, 4 nutmeg, 3 allspice, also great in coffee year round imho). This is an awesome cake but super rich and kind of a pain in the ear to slice, so be careful.

Do you know any awesome cake recipes?

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:52:20 -0500

I do. Some years around the holidays I'll make a pretty good pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting. I'll dig up the recipe if you want, it's really a breeze since you can use boxed cake mix. Otherwise my heart mostly belongs to pie.

Recommend a book that no one except you seems to have heard of?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:48:09 -0500

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Lived-Among-Cannibals/dp/093202792X - You can even see my goofy review.

Does Duane know or suspect that he's infected?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:47:31 -0500

I refuse to confirm if he's infected or just not a morning person, sly Shalabele.

I had this weird dream that I had gone insane. And it was surprisingly fun. My pets had all multiplied. Have you had any weird dreams recently?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:44:49 -0500

Multiplied as in they'd spawned or cloned themselves or had engaged in a strenuous session of mathematics? I hardly ever remember my dreams and when I do they are always directly related to whatever I've experienced or thought about in the past few weeks. I have the most boring dreams ever.

Do the smoke eels smell like smoke?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:43:18 -0500

Or fog or sea spray or ash or whatever other fine particles they're made out of.

The smoke eels seem to be mirroring Duane's attention/reactions, yes?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 15:30:38 -0500

Mmm.

Is the smell of the freshly-wetly-dead getting to Sette more than the look of it?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:51:05 -0500

Sette's much more bothered by horrible pymary stinks than horrible physical stinks. Remember, she sleeps in a kennel around dogs back at home. So no, it just smells like meat and blood and poo and pee. The visuals, in this case, are far worse than the smell.

So does Duane... Poop??? I just realized that he's dead and most of his digestive stuff has rotted out, right? He's just eating so much right now that I had to ask.

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:49:33 -0500

One gross thing I have spared you all is that originally I was going to show the bandages around Duane's midsection all fallen down and you could see where ah, Turas' masticated bits had just fallen right out the bottom of his ribs and onto his lap. You can kind of see it now the way the bandages are all sopping. But I decided to spare you.

So no, Duane does not poop. It just falls through him and he eats it again.

If a pyramic is infected with a ghost, does that grant it some manner of protection against further infection? Like, what are the chances of Uaid stumbling across a ghost that enjoys murder and things devolving from there?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:46:00 -0500

Ghosts are just memories and memory is just spectral data, so a pymaric can only hold a finite amount, the same way as with spells. If a pymaric is completely full of spellwork - and most artificers try to design them this way - there is no room left over for a ghost to intrude. If there's even a stray spectrabyte however, a ghost can over time squeeze its way in.

Uaid is fairly well protected though because he was designed to interface with the khert at large as little as possible. The more a pymaric interacts with khert-lines, the more likelihood that a ghost will sneak into them. It's like walking a dark path home at night - the more regularly and more often that you do it, the higher the likelihood that a disreputable sort will notice and possibly mug you.

Uaid was designed for longevity (kind of ironic since his designer was a Plat). Vienne did not want ghosts infecting her carefully crafted and sweet-as-pie construct, so his armaments are practical: shooting fists, net-launchers, ensnaring gastro-parasites, etc. No way a ghost can sneak into them. If he was regularly interacting with khert-lines in order to send pymaric attacks along them though, it would only be a matter of time before he was corrupted with ghosts and vagrant memories.

Sometimes it's cool when a pymaric is infected though, as is the case with Boo. But most of the time it's not so cool. It isn't curiosity that drives most memory fragments to coalesce and escape the khert as ghosts; it's more often rage or hunger or jealousy.

Checked in on the comic for the first time in a week and a half, and... wow. This is just a bit of a guess, really, but does Duane's 'not zombie mode' rely on sunlight more than time of day? Of course, he was okay in the crypts...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:27:00 -0500

Interesting you should ask that... but you'll find out the answer on the next page.

I'm supposing Duane will need to change his clothing, somehow. I mean, he probably wouldn't have looked TOO weird out there with bandages, but now... ಠ_ಠ

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:54:32 -0500

Sette should get him a proper plod mask. Practical and fashionable!

Which kind of sem was used to buy the tentacle beast? Was it 17 copper sem? Silver sem? Gold sem? Are tentacle beasts expensive? How much are they on not-clearance?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:53:41 -0500

Copper sem. Summon beasts of any variety usually start in the low silvers and get more expensive depending on how complex they are. If someone tries to sell you a cheap one you can bet it's been sitting around a long time, and is infected with ghosts. Maybe you get lucky though and the ghost just wants to sing showtunes at you while its tentacley portion does its business; maybe you're unlucky and the ghost wants to rip your thingie off and shove it up your nose. It's a gamble, like buying cheap spaghetti sauce. You just don't know what you've gotten yourself into until you've opened up the jar.

In the event someone had four kids, two girls and two boys exactly like the gods, would the priests not eat the younger ones in case they were the gods and would get mad, or would they figure the gods knew they'd be eaten and be offended if they didn't?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:50:13 -0500

I think you could argue it either way. Is this for a fanfic idea?

What will be the size of the chunks Duane rips Sette into? How many people will he consume, and how large a piece will he bite off Iori before Peaceguard and Rahm put him down like a mad dog he is? Will we find out on the next episode of...UnsoundedBallZ?

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:49:22 -0500

Duane would never bite Iori :O Iori's owls would pluck his eyes out first.

Can senet beasts do the nasty and enjoy it, even though they can't reproduce? I apologize in advance for any inappropriate anon sex questions that may follow.

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:48:42 -0500

It depends on da beast. Some beasts are more ah, beastly. They're just dumb brutes. Without the biological need or instinct to reproduce, the act of coitus doesn't exist in their species and they don't have the required parts. Some senet beasts like the nereids and sylphs use intercourse in a different way, and are able to warp the weather by sexing each other. Other senet beasts of higher intelligence like the naga-like eufhoby have discovered intercourse independent of a need to reproduce, and practise it recreationally or even in the company of human lovers for pleasure or profit.

Lots of variety in there. The senet beasts are the go-to categorization for fantastic creatures in the setting.

Kudos to Sette for not freaking out. Makes you wonder what horrors she sees in Sharteshane on a daily basis.

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:38:02 -0500

She's seen some rotten stuff. All the same, notice how after the first initial can't-look-away stare she averts or closes her eyes in every panel after. No one shrugs off an eviscerated corpse, man.

I love Duane's face in the last panel. It's like "Whatever. Turas is tasty." :cue zombie crunching sounds:

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:35:54 -0500

It's been a loooooong time since he's had a taste of meat, much less delicious human meat. He's very into it. If Unsounded had the internet he'd be snapping photos of his awesome meal and tumbling them to all his hipster zombie friends.

I'll give Sette credit for not screaming and/or bolting. She has a lot of faith in that amulet!

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:19:13 -0500

She's more scared of failing her Da than of even a horde of bloody faced zombies.

Panel Three Smoke Eel: Hey. Sup. Sette: "eee."

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:18:30 -0500

Poetry.

What would happen if Duane were to wear the amulet? Could he stop himself from going all mad zombie at night?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:18:23 -0500

Stay tuned!

WHAT IF Turas's dying soul-bits infected Duane with the help of the messed-up khert? Could it happen? I think it could happen.

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:18:15 -0500

Stay tuned!

Is the script on the amulet Old Tainish or New Tainish?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:32:50 -0500

It's Old.

it seems like people haven't taken notice of the new page yet. There are perks to insomnia. Why I feel like i've seen this page before. Preview somewhere? but I recognize even the details. I must have dreamt it or something. ignore me it's 3:25am

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:31:43 -0500

You are hallucinating :D The panel of huge-eyed Sette on the previous page got posted to tumblr months ago but I'm pretty sure this new one's never been seen.

Is this the reason why Duane didn't want to go to Cresce?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:30:34 -0500

Duane has many reasons for not wanting to go to Cresce.

Is that a partial handprint on Duane's forehead?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:30:05 -0500

Yeah. Turas must've fought back pretty hard.

How many levels of pissed off will Duane be once he wakes up?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:12:11 -0500

Seven.

Does Sette ever feel conflicted about which god is her patron? (Tirna because everything, versus Baelar because LIONS!!)

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:11:57 -0500

Sometimes, but Sette figures that Tirna could have lions if she really wanted to. She probably lets her brother have them just to rub it in his face.

About the mystery of why Duane is sitting, does it have something to do with Duane coming to his senses covered in warm gooey blood with Turas' guts where his used to be, which sends him into a mindless frenzy? Am I getting warmish?

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:06:34 -0500

Camper! Hisashiburi. It will do you no good to try to predict anything that happens in the next like, fifteen pages. Just enjoy the ride :)

Pray tell about Baelar and his feline connections. Also, does this mean he's servantless in Unsounded's timeline?

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:45:10 -0500

Sette will talk one day about lions and Baelar. She fancies herself an expert. Best to wait for the comic to get to it :)

I couldn't check the page in the morning because there was no energy on the building, then I had to work. now I'm back and it was most certanly worth the fucking wait because I damn love the pages. How bas is it that I love Duane's face? it is Amazing and

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:00:32 -0500

"- wonderful and your art is amazing and asjdhkadsa I love it~"

Yay! I hope where the comic goes from here doesn't disappoint. Everyone in the comments is expecting stuff that ain't gonna happen D:

To cheer everyone up, just imagine what happened in the chapter interlude with this playing in the background :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=A8yc5bnOrSc#t=20s

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:59:00 -0500

Oh, Townly.

About editing story and dialogue, I assume you do all of it yourself? How do you assure that it's done to the best it can be? Is it hard?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:58:24 -0500

Yeah, it's all a solo effort. I let my buddies @AwesomIncarnate and @mindaroth read pages as I finish them in the hope they will catch mistakes or smack me in the head and tell me something is stupid or wordy or confusing, but they're friends so they probably aren't as harsh as needed. Otherwise I'm pretty positive the story is NOT the best it could be. I'm not that good! :) But I give it my all and try to think everything through.

And it's not that it's hard, per se, but there's a lot of uncertainty and second-guessing. Every time I post a page there's a five minute window before I hit the button where I think: "This is it. This is the page where they decide they hate me."

SEE HOW I BLEED FOR YOU

:)

Does Duane gradually wake up in the morning or is it a sudden thing? How close to Day!Duane is he in that last panel?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:30:19 -0500

Ahh, the second question is difficult to answer. For the first one, it's usually a groggy transition. It really does feel to him like he's been asleep, complete with wonky dreams and disorientation.

Hrm time to throw out a theory!! Nighttime Duane isn't mindless as we (and him) have been lead to believe. Rather he is like Boo, he's been infected by ghosts and these ghosts do want to feed the forever hungry snake in his belly. -cont!-

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:22:03 -0500

"He used to just flop over at night, before he was infected when his mind fled, but no longer! I am probably totally wrong but its fun thinking about your comic. Awesome pages!!!"

:)

Do you really think Sette is to blame for what happened? :( She looks pretty upset.

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:02:27 -0500

Well, the facts are against her - this really is her fault. She should not have gone snooping after they checked into the hotel.

But at the same time, she was extremely trapped by her circumstances and doing the best she could. She knows that Duane is going to be seven shades of pissed off to find them in Cresce. She wanted to take advantage of the night hours, when it's been established that he's MIA, to see what the situation was with her cousin. All she set out to do was find where he was holed up, what the local cop situation was like, where the Peaceguard were - You know, have more information and be better prepared to deal with Duane in the morning.

Running into Starfish and following him back to the mess at the warehouse was not on the schedule. But even that would have gone all right if she hadn't decided to jump Knock-Me-Down and help out Jivi and Matty. Why did she do that? Knee-jerk moment of selflessness. But as we all know, no good deed goes unpunished.

So I do blame Sette, but I blame her for acting against her selfish, shrewd nature by aiding Jivi and Matty's escape (and maybe for showing off a little to her cousins). That's really what led to this event.

Unless you go further back and blame her father for sending her on this inane mission in the first place. Sette is not a genius. She does the best she can but she should not be attempting to do what her father has ordered her to do - particularly not in Duane's dangerous company.

The reviews on this gave me a good laugh.

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:53:21 -0500

...I could see that device being manufactured in stainless steel and used in a Saw movie.

Is Day-Duane and Night-Duane different entities?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:52:38 -0500

Good question.

Why wasn't that last scene as horrible as possible? I don't feel disgusted with Duane at all. :|

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:33:48 -0500

I don't either. We have to be sensitive to the Normals though.

What's zombie Duane's favourite part to eat?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:58:56 -0500

Probably the heart x_x The hotter the better.

I doubt Sette was able to concentrate well on "Duane, tie him up" while she was bleeding. More than likely, she was focusing on "pain" and "get the bad men away." And Duane seems very good at that, yes.

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:50:31 -0500

Yeah, Sette was pretty panicked and woozy when she led Turas there, and barely managed to fall into the laundry cart much less give her attack zombie specific orders. She tried, but now she has to deal with the... ramifications.

For shipping books, could I give you my college address? :0 I'll be at school and I hope to get ALL THE UNSOUNDED GOODNESS as soon as possible.

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:30:39 -0500

Yep, you can give me any address you feel is appropriate, but hold out until you get an email asking for it :)

Duane's going to have a hell of a time getting all the out of his clothes and...other places...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:57:16 -0500

It's exceedingly easy for Duane to clean himself with pymary, fortunately.

You know, I find it interesting that he's sitting on the bed while eating. I would have expected him being placed on the floor or something. Sitting seems to suggest something more mindful. Was this a conscious decision or did it just turn out that way?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:56:22 -0500

Certainly a mystery. And the mysteries will continue as this chapter goes on. Formspringers with good memories may be able to figure out what the deal is, but the comic will be a little more stingy with details for a while.

Three pages today and you aren't skipping Friday? I thought Christmas was over!

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:55:16 -0500

I was able to keep caught up by sticking to the one page an update schedule last scene. Glass prepares!

So I've been wondering, how do you think the post office will react when you give them hundreds of packages? How does one go about shipping that much anyways?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:54:32 -0500

Good question. I'm going to print up and label all the packages from home - if you know the weight, it's not difficult to do online - and then take them to the post office... somehow, a hundred or so at a time. It'll be a chore.

I didn't announce it because my GD camera is broken and I can't take pictures, but I got an advance copy of the book on Monday. *touches it*

And here I was thinking the whole dramatic slow uncowling thing was Duane consciously getting his monster mash on since he DID need a new leg. The void of blood hunger left by whatever pymary holds his soul has a bit of penchant for the dramatic.

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:52:05 -0500

"Void of blood hunger" is something of an assumption on your part ;)

How much does Sette know about lions?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:20:29 -0500

She knows about them mostly from a few stories in a big book of old childrens' stories that her granny reads to her from time to time. Lions are extinct now but in the old stories they talked and their blood could heal any wound and they were the god Baelar's servants inside the world. Sette also thinks they could shoot bees from their eyes and breathe fire but that's more a gut feeling.

dear glass, you're great the artistic depth of your writing and imagery is inspiring i love you yours forever, K p.s. little drunk, not a stalker, just a fan, seriously though, i love you

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:18:18 -0500

Well, thankya! <3

...I'm guessing the two-toe janitor will have to just burn that bed huh.

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:18:07 -0500

I had this scene from Hellraiser 2 in my head a lot while I was doing this page (this is horrible and graphic, don't watch it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Lx5_gSJbo

How has the writing contest been going? I know i sent in a story, but i was wondering how many other stories you've been flooded with, and is there any way we could see some of em a little early :D

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:16:14 -0500

Five entries so far! Not quite a flood, more of a gentle trickle. I better sit on them for now but almost all of them are really thoughtful, well-constructed pieces :3

New in Duane Adelier's Etsy shop, beautiful smoke eel and intestine necklaces! Also, a gently used muslin nasal face band, artfully stained with blood.

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:15:06 -0500

This scene could have been so much more disgusting than it turned out to be. It's a little known secret that I really enjoy drawing horrible things :3

Did you have a hard time trying to stay within the limits of PG13 with the recent pages?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:14:01 -0500

I did a lot of sweating in general with this chapter when it came to that rating and ultimately decided I needed to stop worrying about it. I don't want to censor myself. Sooo I think the PG-13 serves as a signal to new readers that they're not going to see sex and gratuitous violence on every page, but it's not a rating that the MPAA would stand for, probably. I've been thinking about changing it to 13+ though since "PG-13" sets a pretty hard and fast standard. I don't know though, I'm open to feedback, but I don't want to scare away readers with warnings that apply to maybe three or four out of four-hundred pages.

Duane used to wear glasses? I see the same holes in his brow as Quigley has.

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:08:58 -0500

Naw. Ports there are used for all kinds of things among Aldish males: spectacles, jewelry, headpieces, etc. Good eye!

Have you heard about the CS2 (everything except After Effects) giveaway from Adobe? What madness is this?

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:14:27 -0500

I know, right? CS2 is actually the version I use every day so the news doesn't do much for me, but it's kind of a bizarre move for Adobe to make. This explains it a bit - http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=122D13F0-A037-FD80-01EBDC6BF45B8C20 - but it's still weird. CS2 is kind of glitchy with my OS but I'll be damned if I'm going to put out the money to upgrade it. So expensive!

Post a youtube video that you can watch repeatedly and never tire of?

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:17:53 -0500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvlQ5qnVKIQ

Have you ever felt so low to the point where you considered suicide? What made you change your mind?

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:24:12 -0500

Suicide would hurt, yo. If it was painless and required no effort I'd have killed myself when I was nine and couldn't get my Batman drawings to come out right.

Fact about sex hair: It doesn't look sexy. It looks like a black stereotype from the seventies and anime angrily raped each other at knifepoint and gave messy birth all over your head, then left a two-year-old and some fire to clean up. Questions?

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:22:07 -0500

What is sex hair?

Is there a worse feeling than unrequited love?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:27:09 -0500

Charley horse.

150 page prequel story? Wow, that's intriguing. Any chance you could tell us who it would focus on?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:14:51 -0500

Sure. It's about Sette and her ah, world back home.

You said sem come in copper, silver, and gold. If someone mentions sem and doesn't specify which type, is gold implied?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:32:47 -0500

It's usually figured out in context. If someone tells you the price of a car and they just say "Twelve," you assume twelve-thousand (or maybe twelve-hundred if it's the Bluesmobile). If it's the price of lunch, you assume it's just twelve. Same with sem.

Sette's doing pretty well despite coming off a laceration and an adult dose of knock out poison. She get some triage from Duane before he talked Turas' ears legs and arms off?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:03:20 -0500

She's not actually feeling all that hot. You'll see.

Would Quigley think Duane is even more of a tool for not adding in the no-glamor option to his eyes?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 02:18:24 -0500

Quigley could (and will) fault Duane for much but considering Quigley lacked the knowledge to apply such an enchantment to Chitz without seeking the help of the Black Tongues, I don't think it's an insult he'd be keen to toss out there :3

How about the next book, when do you think you'll be able to start that?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 02:13:31 -0500

It won't be for a good long while. End of 2013 maybe? I'd like to use some of this year to either complete or get a good ways into a 150 page prequel story I have scripted. We'll see how the year goes and how much of a pain in the rear shipping volume 1 is.

Can I ask how long until the address survey for the books?

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:43:28 -0500

When I have them in hand, I'll send out for addresses. No point doing it before then, I run into the risk of people moving. There was a "hardline fold" messup in a few hundred of the books and the printer called me on Friday to tell me there'd be another week's delay because now they have to go back to press. I'm trying to stay cool and not get frustrated but man, my hands are tied. The best estimate I can give you is a few weeks.

I can't help but ship older!Matty and older!Jivi together. :cries:

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 14:14:19 -0500

It's a cute idea, you could do worse.

"sob" So how would the senet beast being the planet be reflected on stage?(and would the plant still remain an alien?)

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:44:00 -0500

*seppuku*

How would the kassylynified version of Little Shop of Horrors be recieved by audiences in Cresce and Alderode?

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:43:32 -0500

Anon, you really like Little Shop of Horrors! I guess Kasslynians would dig it okay. Story of an underdog who overcomes the odds and wins the girl. It has universal appeal.

Did you notice you can't ask questions on Formspring at all now without being signed in/registered? Unregistered Anons, this is not my fault. It's Formspring devolving and shedding features.

Has Matty's ability to see through glamours ever caused any awkward moments or hilarious misunderstandings?

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:40:44 -0500

It certainly will in the future :3

Can Duane's eyes see through glamours? Do people ever get special eyes or eye accessories specifically for seeing through glamours?

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:40:22 -0500

The spell powering Chitz is actually illegal for civilians to use and is reserved for the military and police forces. You might be able to imagine why it's important for authorities to be able to see through glamours and why they would want the ability kept away from normals so their own illusory arts aren't susceptible to discovery. But you'll see lots of enchanted eyepieces among city wrights and special anti-pymary forces like the Asepticks in Alderode.

Duane's eyes cannot see through glamours. They're prosthetics and made to work as much like normal eyes as possible.

Hopefully not a spoilery Q: was rereading back in warehouse battle- Matty recognized Duane as not a man-as in not human? Quigs didn't catch what he meant- everything went screwey right then. How does chitz image Duane? I miss Duane- I know, soon! JO:)

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:48:31 -0500

Chitz works very much like sonar. He sends a signal out along the khert lines and interprets the surroundings by how the signal bounces back. The signals that hit Duane's face bounce right through his glamour and reveal another face - his skull face, all hollow and pocked. Matty's "seen" skulls before and recognised it pretty clearly. That combined with Sette's earlier claim that she has an attack zombie were enough to connect the dots in his mind :)

Have you seen the anime Baccano? I think it's pretty fantastic. You might think it's pretty fantastic also.

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:39:33 -0500

I have heard good things about it. I have so little time for media though, I'm really quite a drag.

Do you think the soles of Sette's feet are hard enough to put out a cigarette? I once met someone who could do that.

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:22:45 -0500

Hmm, they probably are I bet.

Um, if you wouldn't mind being a go-between again Ashley... 'Prior poster' here. About the Sandman lot. It's a lovely offer, but I live in a place where they charge $500 + your soul for postage, so it probably wouldn't turn out such a great deal. Thanks.

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:22:22 -0500

Man, Anon, that must stink though.

Did you know there was actually a manga where at the end there was this big reveal that the planet itself was a giant creature? You are now the animes.

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:21:58 -0500

*sob*

What has tentacle hat lady thinking when she saw Boo?

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:21:45 -0500

Nothing interesting or she would have said something. Pymarics ain't no big thang :)

i hate rahm. what do you think of them apples

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:19:40 -0500

Just wanted to say I really love tentacle hat lady. She comes across so clearly as a real, well-rounded person.

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:12:19 -0500

She has seen some shit, man.

I'm confused: wasn't Rahm supposed to lose at least some of his facial hair after he joined the Black Tongues because of associated hormonal changes (his beard looks just way too bushy)?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:44:24 -0500

If it's keeping you up at night I recommend Zzzquil, it's pretty fabulous stuff.

No prob if you don't put up next post Ashley, was thinking of donating to Spcl Collctns at libry,but thought I'd try this if prior poster was interested-save them big $ and earn me some needed space and can rlly use extra $. Thnks regardless! JO:)

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:40:04 -0500

"Prior poster- If you are looking at Sandman stuff- I would sell you the whole run of Sandman/Dreaming/Hellblazer in bags- prfct- for a reasonable offer below original cover price. johnryk88 at gmaildotcom. I chk that about once a week. jo:)"

/craigslist

"Maybe make the planet a hitherto undiscovered senet beast instead of an alien." Our planet is an alien ! :O

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:39:38 -0500

*cry* I meant plant! It was like 3 in the morning.

Wine for breakfast?!? So Quigs has a drinking problem now!?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:03:05 -0500

I tinkered with making him an alcoholic but it didn't seem to suit his character.

What would a kassylynified version of Little Shop of Horrors be like anyways? What changes would be made?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:01:51 -0500

Not much, really. Take the dentist's laughing gas and motorcycle away. Some aesthetic tweaks. Maybe make the planet a hitherto undiscovered senet beast instead of an alien. It could be done.

"Yes" Why?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:59:56 -0500

Because.

What would Duane think of Broadway? On the one hand, we don't have cool pymaric special affects. On the other hand, have you ever BEEN to a broadway play? Those are so astoundingly well done that I don't think they NEED magic.

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:59:41 -0500

I agree with you, they are pretty hip. Duane's not really a special effects junkie when it.comes to theatre; he's much more about the performances and the story. He'd be a sucker for melodramatic Les Mis or tragic Phantom of the Opera. Lighter fare, however, I am afraid would go right over his head.

Oooooooohhhh, that's a tattoo in Rahm's mouth. I thought it looked like an extra set of teeth, like a shark, and I was confused. Question. Would Sette like an extra set of teeth like a shark?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:57:25 -0500

Yes.

How exactly does a giant blue dildo monster interpret the command of "put the boy to bed"? And where are you expected to use such a large dildo monster? Is it meant for outdoor use, or are you supposed to have a giant room specifically for dildo monsters?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:57:15 -0500

There are Answers for all of these things, but if I explain them then you'll know how much thought I've put into magical sex toys and you'll never respect me again.

Rahm came out of a kitchen table into the middle of a heartwarming comedic scene, with wildman hair and large ear jewelery, and began raving about a monster in his city. What's NOT to love?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:56:07 -0500

I'm inclined to agree with you, but we don't even know his morals yet! :O What if he wants to peel the skin off Quigley's face? What if he's mean to Jivi? What if he takes Chitz and feeds him to one of his owls? We just don't know! :3

I really don't have anyone else to ask, so... regardless of whether you know what I'm talking about or not, is it a good idea to get the sandman graphic novel set?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:54:46 -0500

The whole set? Have you read it before? If you've read it before I say go for it, do what feels good; but if you haven't, you may want to check out the first volume before investing so much money and space into the entire set. I read the first volume ages ago and ya know, I'll be damned if I can even remember what it was about. Sandman gets talked up a lot so I'm sure it must be good, but I was into like, The Maxx and Preacher and Strangers in Paradise and BONE when I was a kid.

What does Matty picture Timofey looking like in his head?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:51:23 -0500

A skeleton in a big, fluffy poet's shirt, perhaps.

How does Rahm hide it in public? It can't be the tight-lipped method, guy looks pretty shouty.

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:54:35 -0500

Rahm's a bit of a recluse. He'll glamour it if he goes out but Iori takes care of most public business. In a world where glamours are so cheap and common having a tattooed tongue you can't show off for fear of arrest is not a big deal :)

Did you name "Midnight Cricket" after the real life " Midnight Rose" candy store in Brooklyn, New York, the headquarters of so called "Murder Inc."?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:52:59 -0500

No... It's a strategy of thieves to discreetly communicate warnings or other info to each other at night by imitating cricket chirps. Ya know, three chirps for a guard approaching, four chirps for All's clear! and so on.

If you start a female illegal pymary organization, would you call it the "Blue Waffles"?

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:31:18 -0500

...is this a sex joke that I'm not getting? >_<

I believe that you need to be told that you're awesome, everyday, for the rest of your life. What do you have to say to that, Glass? :D

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:30:40 -0500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FafLnokzeNo

So black tongues have to glamour their black tongues every time they're in public?

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:29:47 -0500

Or they eat a lot of licorice. Or they don't open their mouths too widely when they speak. You've already met a Black Tongue in the comic before Rahm, but you didn't notice his tattoo 'cause he's pretty tight-lipped when he talks.

Will Rahm be a major character? I think he should be on every page from now on. :-)

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:10:59 -0500

But you don't even know him yet! You might not like him once you get to see him in a longer scene.

"and either join or start up a proper co-ed illegal pymary organisation." and the black tongues wouldn't care?

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:15:29 -0500

They actually might welcome the competition.

So if a girl wants to join the blacktongues, she's got to marry a guy and talk him into cutting off his balls and then use him as a proxy.

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:11:25 -0500

I suppose that would be one way to go about it. Personally I would give the Black Tongues a pass and either join or start up a proper co-ed illegal pymary organisation.

-Voldemort and Quirrell. They would make the Star Wars Christmas Special watchable (they first appear in the third part).

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:08:56 -0500

Ahh...

Do all Shartes talk like the Frummagems we've encountered, or do some, at least, grasp normal grammar concepts?

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:08:48 -0500

The street trash talk like the Frummagems; the educated and privileged and street trash what turned privileged talk a bit more proper like. At least you're not trying to write Murkoph. I wouldn't wish him on anyone.

Is every Frummagem's jukrum the same, or does a wee pocket-picker pay less than the heir to a seasoned subclan with a grand-like crime empire? Side note: I think I'll never write a story about a Sharte again. Their word-ways are odd.

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:50:04 -0500

They ain't so queersome; mix up a melange've Dickensian Londonese with a Twainsian twang and pepper liberal-like with aposterphees, double negatives, and coarse'n shinin' metaphors and you'll have the way of it, luvvy doll-drawers.

The lower you are on the Frummagem hierarchy, the more jukrum you pay. It's like the American tax system. If it were otherwise, what incentive would there be to claw your way up to the top?

Both are effectively walking corpses kept functional by technology and pymarics respectively... Or just technology if one desires to think of pymary that way.

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:46:03 -0500

Wasn't Robocop living tissue and technology though? I only ever saw it once, long ago, and cannot recall. But yeah, you're basically right.

So uh... Is Duane a fantasy equivalent of Robocop, without the badge?

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:35:11 -0500

Elaborate.

"Because they think so very little of family and faith, two things she highly values" What does Rahm think of family and faith?

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:16:13 -0500

You will have to wait and see!

Re: the fanfic contest. It would probably be wise to wait until after Christmas, as people are usually preoccupied by gift fic exchanges and other holiday-related things around that period.

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:54:10 -0500

Our minds are one. Right now I'm thinking January 31st.

Someday you should do a short comic about Timofey, which is mainly from his perspective, but whenever he thinks of something relevant, it will go back to whoever had that memory before him. That would be soooooooo cool!!!

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:15:15 -0500

That is an aaaaawesome idea.

Friendly Coffee better be careful now that there's breakfast food about.

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:14:47 -0500

Hehehe.

How does First Tmber work? That doesn't sound practical. Do you just keep stripping trees of branches forever or something?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:14:40 -0500

Well, no, it's not practical. It's not easily harvested and and when it is, it's in small amounts. All First Materials are rare and are often irreplaceable. This is why pymarics are expensive and the materials aren't to be squandered.

Could you make a pymaric for Timofey that he could use to touch things? Using the computer analogy, it would be like he's a flash drive and you can plug his program into a robot. Also, what grade is First Light? On par with Silver?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:12:48 -0500

Timofey could have been inserted into a pymaric made of a tangible material, sure, but his maker chose Light. First Light is... well, we'll learn more about in the story! :)

What's a Black Tongue doing with a wife?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:00:51 -0500

The things one normally does with a wife. Well, except for that makin' babies part.

What is the name of Cresce's capital city? It's not on the map, I believe. (Sorry if I've already asked this...? I feel like I have.)

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:02:44 -0500

You did ask it and I never answered it 'cause I couldn't remember it, haha. It's in the Formspring archives somewhere, I will do a search for it later when I'm at home (at the library at the moment).

Why is the poison harpy the symbol the Ilganyag take for themselves? Something that tries to do good but ends up causing harm makes a lot of sense for how others might view them, but wouldn't they themselves pick something a bit more cheerful?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:01:43 -0500

Most of them are cynics and pragmatists; they find their symbolism appropriate. Iori is cheerful enough but she's not the Black Tongue - that's her husband.

All the same, there are deeper reasons for their reverence towards this... critter. We shall one day learn them.

Are the ghost kids FIrst Light too?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:18:54 -0500

What a waste that would be! No, if you look at the middle panel on page 8, see the little yellowish stuffed animal thing on the table next to Blue? And it's hard to tell but there's a toy boat next to it. Those are the kids' pymarics. Probably some variety of First Timber, not very expensive. They can't stray far from them.

If Duane saw Timofey fraternizing with Crescians and Black Tongues like that, would he give him a Frowny Face of Disapproval?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:14:30 -0500

Timofey's a ghost and ghosts are illegal, so that would get the frowny face, really.

"...she's frying it up for a kid she don't even know." But Jivi seems to know /her/. :0 Is Iori (in)famous? Am I getting ahead of myself?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:13:24 -0500

Naw. The implication I was going for was that they spoke the night before when she was tending to his and Quigley's wounds. We just didn't get to see their arrival at the house and initial introduction.

Can semi-sentient pymarics like Uaid learn? For example, could Uaid be taught sign language, or how to knit? Could Timofey lean Latin, as I'm sure he would love to do if he lived on a continent that had Latin?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:01:10 -0500

They can learn to a point, but they don't have unlimited storage space for new information. Timofey is amazingly sophisticated and his First Material is Light - a rare and powerful substance - so he can learn quite a bit and exults in that fact. Uaid is First Earth, which is pretty crappy even considering the abundant amount that composes him, so his ability to take in new information is limited. If either of them were to fill up their storage banks completely, they wouldn't be able to store and recall even the first name of a new friend.

Timofey's a 256gb SSD; Uaid's a 1.44mb floppy.

Is taxidermy a thing in Kassalyne? Would a stuffed owl be as odd there as a stuffed dog is here? Are there museums with giant wild vliegengs stuffed and posed like we do with whales sometimes?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:49:37 -0500

Yes. In fact it's odd you mention stuffed vliegeng because there's a very important location later in the comic that has one strung up in the eaves.

How many people did Mama have to murder to procure that turtle bacon?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:48:43 -0500

She had to use credits to procure it since it's a luxury, and she had to work for those credits, so it's galdarn nice that she's frying it up for a kid she don't even know. Iori is pretty sweet.

Beautiful coffee comes again!

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:47:22 -0500

He kind of looks like a gumdrop now, outside of his cup. Friendly Coffee-flavoured Gumdrop!

Unsounded is what no sounder has touched, but it came on itself?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:46:40 -0500

It... it came on itself?

How often does Murkoph do anything patriotic? (What is with all of the Murkoph questions anons are suddenly asking?)

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:45:31 -0500

Patriotic? He's King Murkoph of Murkophia and every day is the bicentennial. He's the most patriotic Murkophian around!

Of the three main families in Gankutsuou, which was your favorite?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:44:53 -0500

The Villeforts were pretty awesomely twisted. If you ever read the manga, Judge Villefort's demise is much, much more gruesome and perverted than in the show.

In Gankutsuou, which of the Count's servants was your favorite?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:43:28 -0500

Haydee~~ She was so pretty but so spunky and I liked her design.

The Count of Monte Cristo or Cyrano de Bergerac?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:42:29 -0500

I have never read Cyrano de Bergerac but I have seen Roxanne with Steve Martin.

Dr. Who or Star Trek?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:42:01 -0500

Enh, I'm not a huuuuuge fan of either, but I guess Dr. Who. I liked that episode with the angel statues, and the last Christmas special.

"sentience enough to break free" Does that mean that there are semi-sentient zombies being used as slave labour and utterly incapable of refusing orders?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:41:17 -0500

It happens sometimes. The zombie that jumped at the little girl back in chapter 3 was developing sentience, so it was able to act on its own for an instant. Of course its owners then immediately bashed its head in. All pymarics and any spells that get cast repeatedly on anything stand to develop sentience over time. Ghosts are in the khert, and pymary travels through the khert lines. The longer those lines stay open to reality the higher the chance of little ghosties slipping free and infecting the real world.

Could you bop Timofey on the head with a mirror-coated stick?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:37:55 -0500

I don't think so :3

Wow! No Asian influences whatsoever - it's soooo novel in contemporary mass culture, and Old Crescian being a Germanic language - Crescians are really just deceptively dark-skinned Arians, "Cresce über alles" sort of thing?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:37:07 -0500

Mm, Crescians are Crescians. I really did not set out intending to draw any parallels with any countries in our world.

Is it really him? I am so glad friendly frozen coffee survived! Did he ever find someone to go to the theatre with?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:27:43 -0500

I think he went with that scary green lady hanging out of the wall. They saw Kedises! a bold new musical on tour from the capital.

How old was Timofey when he died?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:26:03 -0500

We'll learn more about Timofey as the story goes on.

Are ghosts the actual souls of dead people, or are they creations based on someone's memory of them?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:25:45 -0500

In Unsounded's world, souls aren't meant to have memories. They have no use for them, and come to death with them clinging to their spectral selves like mud on their shoes. Before the souls can go on to wherever souls go, those memories have to be removed. The khert does this, acting like a sticky filter between reality and the afterworld. The memories it collects hang around independent of the people who created them - like video or audio recordings - and hence the khert is an infinite library of nonsense and mnemonic detritus.

Certain types of wrights called sounders can dip into the khert and retrieve these memories. They can combine them, mold them, reshape them to create simple intellects and even personalities. These are then inserted into pymarics are adhered permanently to First Materials to form "ghosts" like Timofey or even constructs like Uaid.

None of these ghosts were ever alive, even if some of them don't like that fact and insist otherwise. None of them are single sets of memories. They're mish-mashes of notions, impressions, recollections, inclinations, feelings. Whether they are souls or not depends on how you define a soul, but I don't consider them souls and neither does your typical Kasslynian.

I was so excited! I smiled at one of your responses, and I looked at it really quick to make sure it went, and it was a kitty smile (:3) but I spazzed out and the middle of the kitty face was really just my cursor and it was very disappointing. Question?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:56:57 -0500

Petition Formspring to change all smiles to kitty smiles. This is our cause.

The Asian people, countries, arts, culture or even any remotest Asian cultural references seem as noticeably absent in Kasslyne as felines, is there absolutely nothing we would recognize as a feature of Asia in Kasslyne?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:58:09 -0500

Hmm, I'm thinking not really. I love me some Asia but my muse just didn't swing that way when it came to populating Kasslyne. I think if I ever went to another continent in the same world, though, it might take on some Asian influences.

I wanna see what Duane looked like when he was Sette's age! Will we be seeing any of Duane's childhood in the comic?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:27:19 -0500

I hadn't planned on it specifically but after this chapter I won't mind showing you drawings of him as a kid :)

Moby Dick or The Count of Monte Cristo?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:05:20 -0500

Moby-Dick, no contest.

Will we get an insight into Sette's lion tail and fangs soonish?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:05:07 -0500

Soonish? No. Eventually? Yes.

Is Murkoph basically the Deadpool of Unsounded?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:55:14 -0500

I know little of Deadpool.

Did a cat scratch you hard when you were younger? :p

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:04:52 -0500

Yes, my entire comic exists as a way to get back at cats.

Do military-purpose vliegeng have their fingers shudders snipped at birth?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:54:10 -0500

The very largest vliegeng - the ones used for mass transport - keep their fingers. These vliegeng are used in the military for troop transport and trained to squish attackers. The smaller species of vliegeng are a little wilder, are usually bonded to one rider, and they get snipped.

Has Murkoph ever eaten a whale? O_O

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:49:26 -0500

Give him time.

Murkoph is at the top of the food chain only because there are no chainsaws in Kasslyne. Are there professional (or hereditary) zombie hunters in Kasslyne?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:49:17 -0500

Pfft, Murkoph ain't afraid of chainsaws. The only way Murkoph ever really loses a fight is if he gets distracted by his craziness or delusions and does something stupid or careless. Otherwise he's broken as Orlandu.

No zombie hunters. Only the very oldest zombies wind up infected with sentience enough to break free of their handler's control, and they're pretty easily dispatched by said handler. No zombie outbreaks, no wandering corpses. Except Duane. He's the first.

Is there a particular reason that one of your ghost kiddies is blue and the other yellow? Do the differences in color have to do with anything in particular, like the way they died or their emotional state as they died, or was it just a stylistic choice?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:46:01 -0500

The ghost kiddies, like Timofey, were intentionally designed and created. Their maker made them blue and yellow for no real reason.

Is there any feline lifeform at all in Unsounded? Certainly you would not be so wretched as to deprive your world of wards against evil spirits and rodent outbreaks?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:45:02 -0500

There are no felines; they are gone. Domestic cats never existed and wild cats are things of legend, long extinct but often referenced in Scriptural stories and fables. Instead humans keep kedises, which are essentially iguana-cats and excellent mousers, and there are Crescian owls which are diurnal, very sociable, loving, and make wondrous pets.

Grebbers eat vliegeng, don't they? And vliegeng eat whales. And tarnet wolves, grebbers, plods, Duane, Cutter, and Murkoph eat humans, who eat turtles and strawberry fish. (Just trying to map out the Kasslynian food chain.)

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:56:25 -0500

Murkoph is at the top of the food chain. He has no natural predators. Or unnatural predators even.

What/who is featured in the postcard sets? I don't remember if this has been discussed.

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:44:51 -0500

One is chibis of everyone (this is older art from a wallpaper that I retooled), another is the front page art, there's a new illustration of Sette, and a new illustration of the Quigleys.

Snowman napkin?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:37:02 -0500

Snowman napkin.

Those proofs look amazing! Oh man am I excited! I'm glad you're happy with them too, I can't wait to see them. Um. Question. What does a vleigeng's diet consist of?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:36:52 -0500

I really am quite pleased with how they turned out. They only sent me the first thirty pages in colour, not the whole thing, but those thirty pages were really perfect. I had horrific visions burning in my brain of all the blues going purple and the flesh going orange but everything is really quite true to how it should be, crisp, rich, and a joy to behold. There are details in some panels I had just totally forgotten about since I really only ever look at the web resolution, but it's all there in print. And the printer obsesses over everything much more than I do. Lake Book is pretty amazingly anal retentive, I have to recommend them.

Vliegeng diet... right here! http://www.formspring.me/GlassShard/q/400495986230711943

I love your snowman napkin. ^_^

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:55:00 -0500

Why, thank you :) My brother's here from NYC and he's got the whole place looking like Santa Claus' man cave.

What does floating feel like? I'm looking at Timofey and the more I think of moving without feeling your muscles push off of the floor, without exerting the force and feeling the movement, the more I want to cringe. I couldn't get used to not having legs.

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:36:23 -0500

Having never floated, personally, I can't answer from first hand experience what it would be like.

However, if I was ever going to depict ghosts in motion I would have them depicted in stills. Gravity and momentum don't work upon them, there are no muscles flexing, no joints moving, no solid forms pushing through space; just their own projections of what should be there. So I'd have them show up like flickering sequential images; 1fps to everyone else's 24 (or 48 if we're in Middle Earth). Can you imagine having a conversation with a choppy hologram in real space? It would be so awesomely weird.

Duane's ideal girl is an intelligent, well-read, domestic creature who likes opera and has a nice rack, right? Preferably also one who can look past him being eternally damned and decomposing. Decomposed. Not much left to go.

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:32:24 -0500

I dunno. These days it looks like his ideal girl is four feet tall, has filed teeth, an odd sense of smell, and a tail.

If it isn't spoilery and we aren't going to see too much of those kid-ghosts (Not Timofey) what exactly do they do? Timofey spouts terrible poetry, do those ones spout terrible little kid jokes? (Knock-knock! Who's there? [the rest doesn't matter...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:26:38 -0500

"... because it's simply awful, but you have to force a laugh and end up sounding like a choking parrot]) I'm kind of assuming you included them to make it clear that this is a ghost-and-birdkeeper's home. I forgot what the question was, but that."

The little kid ghosties cannot talk, but they float around the rest of this scene and are generally cute and trollish (mischievous). You'll see.

So. My laptop is getting kind of pathetic and falling apart. What would you guys recommend for replacements?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:24:47 -0500

I've always had good luck with Asus although the only laptop I have nowadays is a Samsung Chromebook. I love it, but it's only for things you can do with a browser.

Have you sent out the backer surveys to get peoples' shipping information for the books yet? I don't remember answering one...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:23:55 -0500

Haven't sent them out yet. Soon. I approved the proofs today and the printer's released everything to the press dudes. In fact I'ma go update the Kickstarter in a sec.

That blue bird looks more excited than any bird has the right to be.

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:22:56 -0500

Mama's in the food room.

Glass are you excited for the winter holiday season? I made wrapping paper snowflakes and put garland all over my door. I just love decorating so much! v

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:22:33 -0500

I live in Florida *sob* I have the air conditioning on.

I'm excited for Christmas though! There will be pie.

Do all those ghosts and birds sing and dance while tidying up the Black Tongue hideout?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:21:56 -0500

I like you :3

You said you're that for the current scene updates are going page per update, and then 3 or 4 on the next scene. How do you decide how many pages there must be? It has something to do with a pace of the story, or just maintaining the gap between what is '

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:21:34 -0500

It's entirely to do with what's on the page. If a page ends with a question being asked that's answered on the next page, I want to post those pages together so they make sense. If there's a flow of action that spreads across two pages, I want to post those pages together. If there's a big dramatic reveal or sequence that works better delivered at once instead of staggered across a week and a half of updates, I wanna post those pages together. If I mess with the borders or the site itself like when Jivi and Uaid busted into the warehouse, the effect of the change is hugely diminished if you haven't first looked at the page in front of it, so that needed two pages posted together.

Delivery is so, so, so important to webcomic storytelling, I feel.

Glass you are sooooooo coooooooooool ♥‿♥

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:50:25 -0500

Lies.

"Some riders are badasses though and.....leap back onto their mount when it circles around." OOH! Will we get to see someone like that in the comic? (Please?) :3

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:01:16 -0500

Maybe :3

"How does a well-managed, large and temperate country manage to feed its population?" - USSR and PRC both had command economies and both imported food. China now feeds itself due to free enterprise. What's Crescian trick?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:01:05 -0500

There is no trick. Cresce is a fertile country that grows enough food to feed its own people, and takes pride in the fact that no one goes hungry. Why is this difficult to believe?

Lots of people - French, Italians, Icelanders, etc. eat horse, "us" not eating horse, you mean just Anglophones like yourself?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 10:59:16 -0500

Naturally. When a question is addressed to me in English I tend to assume I'm dealing with an Anglophone. Colour me crazy :3

"It makes you hallucinate like a mofo" any bad side effects?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 10:57:54 -0500

Yeah, if you ingest too much you diiiiie. Softi is what Sister Tirna tried to poison Fat Yerta with at the beginning of the world.

If someone on the Peaceguard saw the many-tittied bird glass window would they have reason to act or would they think that whoever lived there had bizarre taste?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 10:57:05 -0500

You'll see it later, but the windows have different designs when viewed from the exterior (so yes, the authorities would suspect Black Tongue activities if they saw that breasty bird).

How does agricultural Cresce get to be so prosperous without synthetic fertilizers, manure's not enough for that, do they mine nitrates, like Chilean saltpeter, or what?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:12:05 -0500

How does a well-managed, large and temperate country manage to feed its population? I dunno, that's pretty insane.

Do vliegeng saddles have a bar the driver can hook his feet through? (Even still, I'd need a new change of pants waiting for me at the bottom!)

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:10:02 -0500

Oh, yeah, they're safe. The saddle is custom molded to their legs, there's a bar for their feet, and they're buckled around the waist and upper thighs (like a climber's harness) to the seat. Some riders are badasses though and forego the buckles so they have freedom of movement to scamper up and down their mount's neck and body to board enemy constructs or other vliegeng, destroy them, and then leap back onto their mount when it circles around.

Some vliegeng riders are Legolas.

Colbert. Hobbit Week in Colbert Nation. He's fanboying so hard. It's ADORABLE :) Did you see it yesterday with Sir Ian McKellen?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:04:53 -0500

YES.

"Do you know Gandalf the Grey's middle name?"
"Uh, Fifty Shades Of."

It was sublime. Ian McKellen is so pale!

If you write a sequel to Unsounded, you should call it "Dead 2 Wrights".

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:03:40 -0500

Har.

So child-lovers are looked at sort of like chubby-chasers?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:03:27 -0500

Considering the majority of America is chubby (or capable of cracking sidewalks when they jump rope), aren't chubby-chasers now just normal people?

On that two child rule, can u just pay a fine and get away with having more then two? Or does the rule not apply to the royal family and/or nobility seeing as the Queen has more then 2.

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:02:17 -0500

Would you believe I haven't yet decided how Cresce deals with people who break the two child rule? It's never terribly relevant to the comic so I have't felt too pressured to settle on anything. I can tell you that the rule indeed does not apply to the royal family but it's supposed to apply to the nobility. Sometimes rules get broken though.

If Sette could choose between pies and something more expensive, like chocolate, in the same quantities for the same price(and couldn't sell it later, she could only eat it) what would she want? Would she still pick the pies?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:00:35 -0500

She might opt for glorious fried seafood. Fishcakes and crab and clamstrips and omg, hongry.

"almost no drug laws" Almost?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:59:03 -0500

The Gefendur sacred bloom, the softi flower, is technically reserved for the priesthood. It makes you hallucinate like a mofo.

You might have been asked this before, but could you tell us all how long you've been drawing? And on that note when did you first make the plans for the webcomic Unsounded?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:57:58 -0500

Oh, I've been drawing all my life. I'm nearly five-hundred and seventy-three now so that's a long time.

Unsounded is built on twelve years of roleplaying and past failed attempts at comic-making. The change of direction that finally got it off the ground came some time in 2010, I suppose. That's when I wrote and drew the first chapter as an experiment to see if I liked Duane and Sette as the main characters. i guess that's why that chapter kind of feels like a pilot. Anyway, I was happy enough with it and continued the story from there. It's been a long, strange trip.

The scene I'm drawing right now, much later in chapter 7, is a scene I've been thinking about and idly sketching in different incarnations for ten years. It hasn't changed all that much from its initial conception, but it feels weird to finally be drawing it for real.

I suppose Unsounded is a learning experience as much as it's a finished product. I'm not where I want to be yet, experience- and skill-wise, but every page takes me a little bit closer. Comics are really something I feel you have to learn by doing, and having an ongoing project to focus on gave me a solid reason to sit down and figure out comics.

How come vliegeng don't just flick their riders off with their long spindly fingers?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:47:10 -0500

If you'll direct your attention to any drawings of the domesticated vliegeng mounts you'll see their fingers only go up to the first knuckle. They're trimmed at birth. Also, vliegeng are raised around humans and pretty well trained. They like working with their riders and tend to love 'em as unconditionally and as loyally as dogs might.

Today is the tenth birthday of Archelaus. What was a project you started a decade ago? Anything... Relationships, degrees, books, achievements, even some dumb poster for History.

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:44:29 -0500

Just my comic, really. I am so boring.

Some human beings can live to be 114 years old. That's rather remarkable, but it makes me wonder if the castes of Alderode can live past their normal time. For example, can a Silver somehow live to be 52?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:43:08 -0500

The castes can sometimes squeeze an extra year or two out, but I don't think there's ever been a Silver in recorded history who made it past 53 or a Plat past 33. I don't know that they'd want to, either. They get really, really icky when they get old.

Thanks for the better view of cool vliegeng gear! Looks like it's a pymaric enhanced piece of equipment! Anti fogging, Binocular vision w/ directional lenses(like a wayfinder) maybe? Could you see khert lines with a pymaric lens of some sort? JO:)

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:41:30 -0500

Yep, glass that can pick up khert lines is fairly common, Quigley's spectacles have that ability. Hmm, I think that helmet needs some badass two-toned designs on the side. Maybe a roaring lion or something.

There must be a reason humans still survive in Kasslyne despite nether following safe practices themselves, nor protecting the next generations. On Earth each similar society died out. How are Kasslynites different?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:27:53 -0500

I think you might be under the impression that everyone on the continent is a child-raping sex addict. Most people have no interest in carousing into the small hours of the night because they have to work the next day, and lead respectable lives. Parents protect their children and love them just as we love and protect our children (ideally), even if society at large makes no special laws for their sake. But street kids, abandoned kids, orphaned kids fall between the cracks and are exploited in Kasslyne just as we've ignored and exploited underprivileged children in our world since the beginning of our species.

Devil's jizz?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:48:10 -0500

Devil's jizz.

Do vliegeng eat humans? Do humans eat vliegeng?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:48:03 -0500

Vliegeng are mostly herbivores. They eat frost giants, the name of a bamboo-like frozen grass that grows in enormous quantities and to enormous heights along Alderode's northern bluffs and wastes. Their big, tough, ugly teeth are for tearing up the stalks and chomping them down. They also hunt the occasional whale but that's normally around mating season when the herds get together for baby-makin'.

You could eat vliegeng, but no one does. It's like us eating horses.

Do the Crescian "hedonistic outlet" practices mean there are absolutely no S""T""D""s in Kasslyne?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:12:40 -0500

Strange conclusion to draw. Have you ever been to San Francisco?

You've obviously never had peach ice cream with chocolate chips and jalapeño pepper.

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:10:10 -0500

hisssss

Glass, I made gingerbread men... actually, gingerbread reindeer and ghosts. Do you like gingerbread?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:10:02 -0500

I do! I love all cookies except for Fig Newtons because they contain the devil's jizz.

If vliegeng riders have to wear vliegeng-themed hats, the vliegeng should have to wear a human-themed hat.

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:08:19 -0500

Look at my avatar. It already came to pass.

mint chocolate chip ice cream is the best

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:05:53 -0500

Fundamentally untrue. Cherry Garcia is best.

So, is the Crescian relative tolerance of "child lovers" explained by their need to curb population growth?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:05:38 -0500

Child-diddling doesn't bring harm to the State, so there's never been a reason to pass a law against it. This is how most legislation works in Cresce. There are no sex-related laws, almost no drug laws, no personal expression laws (you can walk down the street naked if you wanna). Crescian society is so restrictive when it comes to work and family that they kind of lose their minds if you try and restrict their free time. The palace takes a bread and circuses attitude towards it all and hence the crazy pleasure districts.

Also, Cresce is not special in this respect. None of the countries have special protections for kids. These societies are in a different place from ours. Children aren't protected or seen as all that special. There are no child labour laws, no laws against beating the crap out of them, no laws against sticking them in your army, no laws against having sex with them. There's a stigma against it because it's kind of pathetic if the only tail a grown man can get belongs to a ten year old, but that stigma doesn't exist because anyone's thinking of the kid. Duane is the weird one for having the specific hang-up against hurting children.

If somebody from the forum wins your fanfic contest, will you draw for us a doodle of the various characters reactions to suddenly switching sex?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:53:16 -0500

I'm thinking more interesting prizes than my crappy art. I'm thinking cash $_$

I just learned that North Korea found a magic unicorn lair! Do Cresce and/or Alderode ever claim to have found ancient senet beasts to impress other countries?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:42:07 -0500

I'm sure XD God, I love that unicorn story.

Is "vliegeng dentist" an official job in Alderood?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:41:48 -0500

Not one that anyone wants :3

So, 7.6... What's up with the needlework in the corner? It looks like knitting, but I can't imagine a culture that has knitting but not little nobs on the ends of the needles. Unless dropped stitches are considered aesthetically pleasing.

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:41:15 -0500

There are knobs on the needles! D: Look at the far lower left corner panel, at the needles sticking out of the yarn balls. You just can't see them as well in the panel next to it, the knobby ends are covered by stuff.

How does Cresce handle some couples not having children? Does basically everyone do it, or are they trying to shrink their population, or is it mean to give them room for immigrants?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:39:57 -0500

It's mostly to deal with allowing for an immigrant population, to keep resources plentiful, and to keep everyone occupied. Cresce is a very populous country. It's hard to tell right now 'cause we're not only out in the boonies but we're in a city that's in the middle of being relocated and shut down, but the cities are very densely populated and Crescian society has a love of efficiency that isn't well-served by unregulated breeding. This is one reason why you see things like sex hotels and brothels in relatively great abundance. If everyone's having their needs met in a consequence-free manner, it's a little easier to enforce the limit on kids.

But sure, you have couples who decide never to have kids. It's not a perfect system. There are long periods of time where the ban is dropped or ignored, but then you have food scares during years of poor weather or you have the Aldish burning crops and suddenly everyone is policing each other and there's a panic about too many mouths to feed. Cresce loves its rules and loves its social stigmas but there are cracks and flaws in every system.

If crescian man has two children and is divorсed? can he have another two with a new wife? And if he is not married but all his girlfriends start to have babies (10-15) is he criminal?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:20:54 -0500

Two kids per person no exception. If a woman wants kids and marries a man who's already had two, she won't be having any. If you get your girlfriend pregnant, you marry her. Exceptions are made in wartime though. With the slaughter going on now between Cresce and Alderode they're going to lift the baby ban for a few years, I'm sure. Cannon fodder is always appreciated.

Q about the avatar- what is going on there? Lol the tandem rider/pilot setup for kid- worked slick on my cycle- too little to hang on behind but they were determined to go for a ride- so stick em on front.Then they got big and still wanted the better...J

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:18:06 -0500

"J... the better view from up front, sorry kiddo:) (I did tandem parachute before...You?)Anyhoo- vliegeng rides = exclnt. Hilarious that Duane hated it. Your pic is proper! Bundled to avoid cold, tied to saddle. Pilot has embellished head gear? JO:)"

Here's a better angle for the helmet.

And what is going on there... just some funtimes on a vliegeng, haha. When I was a kid I was the older sibling and my little brother made me wheel him around on my pink bicycle too. I bet this guy tried to talk the kid out of going for a ride considering it's like snowing, but the kid wasn't deterred...

This might tread into spoiler territory, but why do you call the comic "Unsounded"?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:32:43 -0400

"By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. And all the time, lo! that smiling sky, and this UNSOUNDED sea! Look! see yon Albicore! who put it into him to chase and fang that flying-fish? Where do murderers go, man! Who's to doom when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?"

From chapter 132 of Moby-Dick. It's a great chapter, and the sentiment of Ahab's whole soliloquy is very relevant to the eventual theme of the comic. Thanks for asking!

What kind of character is the easiest for you to write? What kind of character is the hardest? Why?

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:52:45 -0400

The easiest characters for me... are probably the angry ones. Characters with chips on their shoulders and a mistrust of the world and popular assumptions because honestly, that's just like writing myself.

The most difficult characters are the philanthropists and do-gooders - the selfless characters who don't need any motivation to help someone. I'm not sure I believe they exist in real life, so inserting them in fiction always feels like lying~

Why did you decide to make a web comic?

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:19:15 -0400

Well, I've always wanted to make a comic. Unsounded used to be called Tanners, and I'd worked on it off and on for almost a decade. I'm just not good enough nor is my stuff marketable enough for print though, so when I started really doing the finished version, I figured I should put it online or no one would ever see it otherwise :)

Right now I'm thinking I should just post what I have all up at once though. The typical page-at-a-time update format of webcomics isn't doing it for me :/

What's your nationality/ethnic background/thing? "Unsounded" almost has me convinced that you have an Irish ancestor. Love the comic btw. And I also wish I knew what you look like. I'm not shallow I swear. I'll shut up now.

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:25:16 -0400

Woohoo, my first creepy question! I'm a born-in-the-USA white Yank, but I'm also something of an Anglophile and a lover of classic literature from both sides of the Atlantic. So maybe that counts for something? As for looks, if I was a sexy, smoldering goddess don't you reckon I'd have photos of myself all over the internet? I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions ;)

How do you draw your comic?

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:53:47 -0400

From start to finish it's all drawn and coloured in Photoshop CS2 with an Intuos 3 tablet.

If you could go on vacation for the next month with an unlimited budget, where would you go?

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:52:03 -0400

I think I'd travel down the west coast of the United States. I've never been there and I'm mighty interested in California and the Seattle area. There'd be a tall ship voyage at some point. And some hiking.

Do you read this comic? http://hanna.aftertorque.com/ Do you have some favourite comics online that people who like your stuff might also like?

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:37:43 -0500

Cool art! I'm picky as a sonnuvabitch when it comes to comics, online or not. Right now I follow The Meek, Set To Sea, and that's pretty much it. Everything else I read comes from the store.

Do you like Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Which TV shows do you like?

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:06:35 -0500

I used to like Buffy a lot! I watched it every week back when it first aired. These days I don't watch actual television but I download shows sometimes. QI is pretty good, and The Daily Show.

Marry me?

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:20:26 -0500

Only if you're rich.

Where did the name GlassShard come from?

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:07:58 -0500

Years and years ago when my family first bought a computer and we got online via AOL, I had to pick a screenname for my account. Being an emo high school brat I was writing a Very Serious novel at the time, and decided to derive a handle for myself from some long ramble of one of the characters in that novel - something about the world being a globe of glass that is transparent but in a distorted way - until you break it open and can see clearly, but are then likely to cut yourself on the shards. Very pretentious. And I could make it work without having to add numbers to the end.

You think you really understand Vagrant Story?

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:14:45 -0500

My last name isn't Matsuno of course but I've studied Vagrant Story and its script like a bible. Every scene and every line of dialog serve a purpose and once you realise that everything is equally important and all frivolous details have been left out, the story and the characters' motivations become very clear. There is a reason The Duke waxes rhapsodic about Joshua and a reason he's shown meeting with Rosencrantz. There's a rhyme and a reason for every scene in the game. It has really a very concise, brilliantly told story unlike, say, almost every other game Square's done.

Wait, I missed the whole Snowfly Forest thing. What happened to Grissom?

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:34:13 -0500

Haha. Play the game, n00b.

Why did you lock your twitter? I liked to read it but I don't want to have to sign up :/

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:49:17 -0500

Oh, I locked it to keep family members from spying on me. Sorry about that.

What would you say to Grissom?

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:48:48 -0500

Depends on the time frame. If it was before the Snowfly Forest I'd say GOD TOLD ME TO TELL YOU TO STAY OUT OF THE SNOWFLY FOREST SRSLY! If it was after the Snowfly Forest I'd just tell him Gruhhhh in as encouraging a manner as I could manage. Then I'd probably try and collar him and take him home <3

What's cooler than bein cool?

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:41:09 -0500

Nothing. Coolness is the ultimate goal.

Why?

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:40:47 -0500

Why not?

Don't you get enough attention on DeviantArt?

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:38:05 -0500

"Enough attention" is a contradiction. I need validation. My parents ignored me as a child and I haven't had sex this millennium.

Do you still draw FFVII every now and then?

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:29:15 -0500

No, not really. Sometimes I'll feel like using black and red and will very rarely doodle a Vincent, but that's really it. Dirge of Cerberus and the other latter FFVII media wounded my FFVII love.

Can I snuggle with you in your snuggie?

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:12:36 -0500

Wait, isn't this you already-- oh, shi--!

Boxers or briefs?

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:11:49 -0500

Baby, I'm all bare down there. Nothing gets between my ass and my chair.

Pymary sounds like it would make a killer combat system in a game. Have you ever thought about writing one?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 13:47:57 -0400

I was trying to work it into a doujin game I was tinkering with a few years ago but ran into a brick wall with my limited programming ability. Alas.

Where does the name 'Tanners' originate from?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 13:44:50 -0400

The protagonist of the story was in a crime syndicate that used a well-respected tannery as a front. At night he killed people, during the day he skinned animals and tanned hides.

Do wrights have specialisations? I mean when you describe skills it seems clear that they have some, such as artificers or combat-wrights or whatever - but does it go further than skills, into elements and types of spells?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:34:33 -0400

Wrights certainly have specializations. The practice of pymary is so broad and has so many applications that you'd have to have a specialization to make a career out of it. So you have artificers - people who craft pymarics - but they craft specific sorts. You could have a wright that only deals in crafting high-end weaponry and knows everything there is to know about it, but he wouldn't know how to cast a glamour to save his life. Not because it's not in him to do it, but because it's not terribly important to his field.

One could certainly specialize in a single element (proper word in his system is aspect) but there are SO MANY that it wouldn't make much sense to me to do so. This isn't a traditional magic system that restricts you to earth and fire and water and air. This is a system that uses almost any aspect you can think of. The page I'm drawing right now for instance, there's a little old lady nagging a wright to glamour her dog pink and make it smell like shortbread. Well, hell, "pink and shortbread" are two aspects she's going to need present to do so. Every colour can be an aspect, every shape, every texture, every smell. So having one aspect/elemental specialization, unless you're doing something very clever with it, doesn't make much sense.

For all its rules pymary in practise doesn't tend to look all that different from magic in plenty of other settings. To me, having the logical backing, though, grounds it and restricts it, and gives the advantage to intelligent, creative personalities instead of making magic just an effortless way for weak bookworms to punch muscleheads.

Hey cooldude. Would it be possible to use pymary to steal the "First Material" aspect of a First Material and apply it to something else? Like, you could make yourself into a First Material and bind spells to yourself. It's like getting infinite wishes!

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:17:00 -0400

Now you're thinking with portals!

But it doesn't work that way so no :D To move aspects around those aspects have to travel through the khert - the pymaric network - but a First Material's aspect is cemented in place. That permanence is why spells can be bonded to them. They are unaffected by the ceaseless movement of the khert and spells and aspects cannot be worn away. It's like, the entire world is made of sand and soil, the khert is the sea and wind constantly battering it, dispersing it, moving it around, but First Materials are solid diamond embedded in that sand and cannot be worn away.

Did Quigly use up all the First Material air casting spells to make his cape flair dramatically? Where did he buy his cape, anyway? Are capes a wright thing? Does Elka have a cape for fancy wright dinners?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:15:10 -0400

Quigley's cape has a secret :D I've long thought that all spellcasting characters should wear a cape or some form of drapery. Makes for more dramatic magic shots. And if you don't have drama, what have you got?

No cape for Elka though :( Not her style.

I've seen some old drawings of Duane while he still got his hair, and I must ask; Did he choose that hairstyle or was it forced on him for some reason? It isn't really all that... Hip.

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:07:16 -0400

I hate to break it to you, darling, but Duane isn't that hip. I did decide to lose that hairstyle for all ages of comic Duane though, so you needn't worry over having to endure it again :D

Are you a brony?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:36:36 -0400

No. I do not understand why people obsess over that show.

It's hot at your place, huh? Come to me love, It's still snow outside in Sweden, nice and cool. And wait until you see my basement...

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:35:51 -0400

Sweden has androgynous vampires, yes? I'm on my way.

Was Duane always a thin guy or is that completely an effect of his current deadness?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:33:37 -0400

When he was in school and then the army, he was pretty toned. Afterwards his scholar's physique finally took over and he thinned out - but it wasn't like his current skinniness, which is a cause of just being a crusty skeleton covered in bandages and layers of clothing.

Are you okay? You've been quiet here. :(

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:15:16 -0400

I had a bad day yesterday. I'm back for a while though, thanks for asking :)

Pie? Sure, Cake and Apfelstrudel?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:14:28 -0400

Yessss.

I know Shortwings, because he pointed me here, and then I pointed Lu here and I'm ALMOST POSITIVE they're not deranged alternate personalities. So there's that. Also, was that a Pratchett reference?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:13:36 -0400

Pratchett reference... It's possible!

Is there a First Material for air?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:12:48 -0400

Supposedly. It's been depleted for centuries though.

Besides Sette's habit of snatching everything, who in the Unsounded universe has bad habits? (smoking, drinking, wearing socks with sandals, etc)

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:11:52 -0400

Haha, Lawrence and Bastion smoke though you haven't met them yet. Bastion will smoke anything that's not nailed down or likely to poison him (too much) actually. Duane has the bad habit of talking down to people and lecturing them. Matty has a sweet tooth. Toma is a workaholic. Elka swears like a sailor. Uaid steps on endangered wildlife. Quigley has a weakness for standing dramatically and letting his cape flare.

That's an interesting thought. Would transgender spells be available, or possible? Hell of a lot nicer than surgery.

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:07:17 -0400

Something related to this comes up in the story so I can readily answer that no, such spells are not really possible in the current system. Glamours are sophisticated enough though that they might do the trick if a person's not too picky.

Would Duane take a deal to be returned to life if he did something unforgivable (let's say brutal murder) to an innocent person on the condition it wasn't a child and the only consequence would be he would have to live with the decision?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:04:46 -0400

That's an interesting question. Ya know, I hesitate to give a definitive answer because it really could depend on circumstances, but I would lean towards a No. It hasn't been touched upon much yet, but Duane is a fairly religious person - his faith has helped him survive mentally to the point he's at now. Such a blatantly horrible act would be betraying everything he feels has done so much for him. Again, circumstances could factor into this a lot, but I think he'd see it for the devil's deal it is and refuse the offer.

Would Sette prefer to be a boy rather than a girl? Cos she's already pretty un-girl-like.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:23:57 -0400

Enh. She is who she is and her gender doesn't matter. If she was a boy nothing important would be any different. Who cares what girls are supposed to be like? Sette didn't have any say in the making of those rules and never signed up to follow them.

If Hazel is first mate, What of me? D=

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:12:11 -0400

Can you cook? Bring pie.

Will Duane and Sette always be in each storyline, or will you leave them for a book or two? Cos' that would be really sucky. I'm kinda fond of the eloquent zombie and his thief friend.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:09:05 -0400

They feature somehow in most chapters. No fears.

I have asked 100 percent of the anonymous questions below. I am also secretly the entities known as LuDucks, shrunkenone, and shortwings. How does it feel to know that 90% of your "fans" are just one obsessive reader? Also, I'm right outside your window!

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:07:46 -0400

Ahhhhhh! D:

Does Sette like hugs? I think she's very not used to them at all.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:57:46 -0400

If Sette likes hugs she'd never admit to it. Hugs are for giiiirls.

I'm not anonymous! I'm just shy. ._.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:57:00 -0400

I still love you.

I asked about 6 questions (got them all answered, too! So great! :)) as Anon for lack of an account. And I'll probably never make an account, as no-one would want to ask me stuff - I don't have a cool comic. So please keep it open! ~Reed

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:56:47 -0400

Hello Reed! Hey, if I didn't have a comic no one would ask me anything either. It's okay to be boring!

I only ask anonymously becuase I don't have an account. I haven't asked many questions (I was the one with about the dog tack, yeh). Maybe I should introduce myself. I'm Hazel, and I would totally live on a boat.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:56:06 -0400

Hello Hazel! Come be a pirate with me and the Formspring anons. You can be first mate!

Wouldn't it kind of spoil the fun if I wasn't a mysterious anon who just finds the whole world you've built up fascinating?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:55:31 -0400

I have no problem with anonymity. I'm a chantard myself.

Are we going to see Aldish society in a couple of chapters or do we have quite a long wait to see all the stuff you enjoyed creating there?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:54:49 -0400

It's farther away than I'd like :( But it's introduced alongside an all new group of characters and plotline, so we need to take care of some of our business with the thief, the zombie, and the slavers first. It doesn't do to have too many open questions at once, I say.

Why do you think people ask so many anonymous questions? Fear of judgement or lack of account? (can you even ask without FS account?) On a side Note, I'd go with you houseboats are Awesome. Catamaran?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:41:06 -0400

I bet most of the anonymous questions are the same person. Could be lack of an account! You can block anons on your preferences page but I choose not to. Walk on the wild side.

Yay catamaran!

Favourite journalist?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:39:14 -0400

Hmm. Sharif Abdel Kouddous did an amazing job covering the Egyptian uprising - I think he could use a Pulitzer, honestly. The entirety of Democracy Now! is quality reporting. New Left Media has produced some uproarious Tea Party videos. No one else really stands out to me. There are a few ridiculous commentators I enjoy - Cenk Uygur and Anna Kasparian over at TYT are entertaining in small amounts, and I used to watch Olbermann now and then - but they're not really journalists.

What fonts do you use for the comic (if you don't mind sharing, of course)?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:50:14 -0400

Anime Ace! You can get it for free at Blambot.com

What does your basic, non-magic-using soldier use in Kasslyne? Wrights must change the way war works completely, so how does it work?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:49:36 -0400

You'll get to see first-hand later, I promise.

How thought out are the languages in Unsounded? How are the grammatical structures arranged and are the various languages based respectively off of specific languages? Do they have genders etc? Or are they blessedly free from romance language wankery?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:38:38 -0400

There's only one language I've created for the story and that's Tainish, Alderode's second most widely spoken language. It's a convenient one because it was restructured long ago to be much simpler than its original incarnation, so I had an excuse for making all the conjugation and grammer really straight forward. No gendered words, only two irregular verbs, no articles. The economy of the language is somewhat Japanese.

If Formspring had a search function I'd link you back to the last time I talked about Tainish, it had history and details.

Does Duane like hugs?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:42:00 -0400

Mmm, when appropriate.

So what are the Sonories? It makes me think of a screaming collection of severed heads or something.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:41:03 -0400

The Sonories are Cresce's ruling family. They've provided every Queen for the last six-hundred years.

Which character do you find hardest to draw?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:39:39 -0400

Uaaaaid. I had a Sketchup model of him I'd roughed together but I lost it last time I reinstalled. Uaid takes forever.

If you had to pick a house somewhere in Unsounded universe to live, where it would be?

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:29:12 -0400

So hard to choooose. Ulestry is nice and peaceful and bucolic and the mountains are pretty, but nothing interesting happens there. Cresce is pretty cool but they value hard work and sacrifice and I'm a slacker. How about a houseboat? Then I can just sail around the coast. Come with me. We can be pirates.

LOL, I just realized that if Tirna really did visit Kasslyne, that means she must've crawled up Fat Yerta's vagina. And with that, I bid you good night.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:26:15 -0400

The Gefendur religion is pretty old. Its primitive founders preached that Yerta actually threw a tantrum and ate Tirna, and she wound up in the world-womb from there. But again, it's mythology. Can't be too literal with it. But yes, yes, vagina, lol. I hope you dreamt of scorpions.

Are there any questions you're surprised no one's asked yet? If so, what are they, and can you answer them? :D

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:51:41 -0400

The pooping question that was just asked. But now it's been asked and answered. Let us speak of poop no more.

Does Sette's tail get in the way of pooping?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:51:10 -0400

No, dear.

Does Sette resent having a tail, or does she think it's awesome? I think it's awesome.

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:09:05 -0400

Sounds like she kind of resents it. It's not like it does anything useful.

Do you do any non-digital art? Like, painting with acrylics or oils?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:08:29 -0400

I did a lot of acrylic and prismacolour when I was a kid. Then I'd do watercolours occasionally. Physical media is great but the supplies are expensive and set-up and clean-up are time-consuming. Digital art is fast and painless.

Do you have a favorite comic? What do you look for in a comic or web comic or manga?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:03:11 -0400

I think... my favourite comic ever might possibly be Gaiman's 1602. There is something about Doctor Strange in that story that twists my nipples and pokes me in the eye.

I like bold stories, things I've never seen before. I like broken taboos. I always remember certain scenes from comics better than I do their overall plots. Like Kuroi Sabato and the heads sewn onto his shoulders in Blade of the Immortal. Like Kingdok losing his arm in Bone. Rorschach's origin in Watchmen. The Twilight King's first appearance in Courtney Crumrin. Sometimes I feel like I'm going through life sleepwalking, and I need the bold visuals and ideas in comics to wake me up. Movies can have those of course, but there are a thousand people behind what gets to your eyes on a movie screen. With a comic, I'm connected eye to brain with one or two or three creators. It's a more personal and human experience than having a movie pumped into your synapses. This is why novels and comics are superior to video games and movies and television, and always will be.

Is there any, one detail about the world of Unsounded that you're quite proud you thought up? You know, like using gigantic dogs instead of horses, vliegeng, the dammakhert, that there are some seriously badass undead characters?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:52:55 -0400

I really, really like Alderode. It's a horrible country but I feel that it's very well-realised, conceptually. The psychology of the place and its people, the Dammakhert, the classes, the fauna, the language, the religious institutions and the government all work together in, I feel, a believable way. I can't wait to show it to you :3

Canadian spelling is a happy medium between the two 'polar' opposites that are US and UK. I really like the idea of using two separate spelling regimes for different characters though. If it matters - I've never noticed any spelling inconsistencies =]

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:49:43 -0400

That's good to know :) One less thing to be neurotic about.

What kind of requirements are there for joining the Peaceguard?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:31:53 -0400

Mostly health requirements. Unless you're entering a magery, military service is compulsory in Cresce. The Peaceguard is a choice appointment though because it gets you away from the hazardous border with Alderode and back into the interior dealing with Cresce's allies and protectorates. How do you get that appointment though? Promotion from the rank and file of the army. But officials are also always watching the training camps for new recruits too intelligent, too diplomatic, too delicate for the trenches.

You can apply directly for the Peaceguard like Elka did but it's rare to get a placement if you're not from one of the Queen's favoured families (fortunately, Elka is).

Does Cresce feel obligated to protect Ulestry because it has no army and they have good diplomatic relations or has Alderode invaded Ulestry in the past and now they're scared those fiendish Aldish will pull a sneak attack again?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:44:49 -0400

There have been incidents of Aldish spies living as Ulestrians and entering Cresce via their shared border, and terrorists wreaking havoc in Crescian villages in the area. The Sonories have quite a collection of their heads. Keeping garrisons in Ulestry is prudent, particularly since Ulestry refuses to maintain a standing army or do much of anything to defend itself from anyone, the hippies.

If James Gurney wrote a story about a culture of men living side by side with intelligent pizzas in fedoras I would buy it, too. Or should we be expecting that from you in the future? ;)

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:33:14 -0400

Rats. I can't do that now, can I? :(

Cresce and Alderode hate each other, Ulestry is a conscientious objector's paradise, and Sharteshane is a sleazy den of iniquity. Is there anything particularly characteristic about Madishane that sets it apart from its unhappy neighbours?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:22:25 -0400

Madishane's most important characteristic is probably its large population of fraternal sect Gefendur. The Gefendur religion worships two sets of Twin Gods - two sisters and two brothers. Most countries focus on Yerta and Tirna, the sisters, but Alderode and Madishane give dominion to Riv and Baelar, the brothers. Madishane once had a large population of refugee Aldish (they've since assimilated many generations over) but there was a time when they made war with Ulestry for religious reasons. Cresce had to step in and smack them around. Afterwards Ulestry was so devastated that its people disbanded what was left of its army and made a vow of pacifism. Cresce drew up a border between Ulestry and Madishane - straight as an arrow through the westgate mountain range - and the two countries have enjoyed relative peace ever since.

But Madishane is still probably the most socially backwards country around. They have some nasty practises when it comes to women.

Okay, I promise I wont send anymore Formspring comments. After this one. That should cut you down to about 7 questions per day. ;-)

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:10:17 -0400

Aww. But I will miss your sinister silhouette, anonymous.

You seem really intelligent and you kind of intimidate me. Why is your spelling all mixed up between British and American? You must know better.

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:09:54 -0400

"Seem" is the crucial word.

I blame my Canadian friend Amanda for fucking up my spelling. We used to have marathon chat and RP sessions over AIM and I thought her way of spelling was superior, so I started to copy her. When I started to RP at Shards, I would play Murkoph and Duane like I was two different people - and I'd use British spelling for Duane and American for Murk. Had everyone fooled, it was great fun.

My spelling used to alarm me because I'm just not consistent. But fuck it. I spell words the way I want and it's all correct SOMEWHERE in the world.

So what motivates a family man like Captain Toma to police the backwaters of Ulestry rather than stay in Cresce where he can be near his wife and kids? Do the Peaceguard have any choice in their assignments or is it pretty much like it or lump it?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:02:47 -0400

Mmmm, these are things we'll find out.

Do wrights have a particular arsenal of spells for all kinds of purposes memorised then, or just the ones they are most likely to use?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:02:30 -0400

Depends on the wright. Most pymary-users don't go around picking fights. They're just tradesmen. They know how to craft certain pymarics or simulacrums or erect barriers around banks or guildhalls or the homes of the rich. If you got into a fight with a wright-on-the-street he probably wouldn't know what in the hell to do.

But wrights who are soldiers, bird dogs, cops, they're likely to have a few strategies they rely on, and if they're wise they'd have the spells required to carry them out memorized. It's like with any martial discipline. You have routines committed to muscle memory and you're known for them. You have favoured techniques that you can bring out without even having to think about them.

"So is a scouter like a PKE meter for POWAH LEVELS?" Pretty much. I was just wondering if wrights could get a sense of how powerful each other was (maybe due to being mutually connected to the khert). This sort of thing happens in anime all the time.

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:42:20 -0400

Yeah, if a wright is seasoned he can watch the way the khert moves and flows around a person and get a sense of how well the guy's pymary is going to react with it, but that isn't related to power so much. Everyone's dealing with the same amount of "power" because you don't have access to aspects that your opponent doesn't have access to. So fights are more about being fast, being educated, and being innovative. Or, more often than not, they're about tipping the balance with a good old-fashioned staff to the head or some spry footwork.

How do you measure these things? Look at him. If your opponent is carrying a spellbook around, that's a good sign. If he doesn't have his shit committed to memory and you do, you're going to be faster and more versatile. If he's a soft, fat bastard, also a good sign. You're going to be able to dodge better, react faster, banter awesomely about his fatness. Is he in rags? Has he a lower class accent? A poor man couldn't have afforded a fine magery, and he's not going to be as well-taught as you.

Hopefully my comic battles don't come off like scenes out've DBZ or Naruto. I'll do my best.

Do you put little easter eggs in your comic? Or any super subtle references to cartoons/other comics/etc?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:56:35 -0400

Hmm, some of my friend's characters are hanging out in the background at the waystation. If there's anything else, I leave it up to readers to discover it :)

What was the very first seedling idea you had that led you to create Tanners and then Unsounded?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:39:50 -0400

I think it all can be traced back to figuring out Murkoph's story. There were other stories before that, and some of them bleed into parts of Unsounded. There have always been certain themes that've interested me, ever since I was a kid. But Tanners is really all about Murkoph and Unsounded was born out of Tanners. So, yeah. Murkoph.

Have you ever created a 'Mary-sue' character? If so, can you tell us about them?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:46:08 -0400

I don't think so. Even back when I wrote fanfiction and added original characters to stories they tended to just be crutches for the plot or comic relief. And they were almost all guys. So no, unless someone who remembers my old stories wants to correct me, I've never written a Mary Sue.

Son? I daresay I'm a smidgen older than you. ;)

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:31:18 -0400

I bet you're still someone's son :3

You didn't answer my question. I totally thought it would make you laugh. I am now teh sad :(

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:46:35 -0400

Maybe it did, but I couldn't think of an answer. Don't be sad.

"Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?" "IT'S OVER 9000!!!!"

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:32:53 -0400

Haaaa~ All I know about DBZ is the OVER 9000 meme and that the actor who played Spike on Buffy was in the movie (I still didn't see it). So is a scouter like a PKE meter for POWAH LEVELS? :3

Unsounded sprite comic... Good idea for an April 1st comic if said date ever falls on your normal upload days.

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:17:20 -0400

That is a bit of brilliance, son.

How does tacit casting work?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:17:07 -0400

Tacit casters needn't verbalize their spells. Very few people have this ability. Let us leave the why's and how's for later.

Can wrights sense each others' power levels without a scouter?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:13:55 -0400

There aren't... power levels, seriously. What's a scouter?

Why do you have a problem with "nice" protagonists? I mean many of 'em are fallible and occasionally selfish and whiny, but they aren't total assholes. Sette steals and cheats, but she isn't a total bitch. Please explain your "grey morality" favouring.

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:13:17 -0400

I would daresay most everyone over the age of ten favours "grey morality" in their entertainment these days. The black hat and white hat dynamic died out with westerns, I suspect because those kinds of characters so rarely have counterparts in real life. There are people who do heroic things and people who do villainous things but to define a person as a hero or a villain, that's something we do to strangers on the evening news, or in the name of religious or political institutions.

Truthfully, I don't think any of my main characters actually are practising "grey morality." I think most of my protagonists (except Sette naturally) ARE "nice." But they also respond to events according to their experiences and their own personal morals which are to them, absolutely just and reasonable. They might not jive with your morals or my morals, but they are being true to their own worldviews. In my opinion, an absolute morality simply does not exist and trying to write a character in a fantasy world who abides by our western morality is a bit cheap and maybe even yawningly didactic.

Ever gonna do seven day a week updates?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:50:19 -0400

Want Unsounded to become a sprite comic?

Are there any unusual birds in Kasslyne?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:30:44 -0400

Mmm yes. But let us not discuss them.

If the world is in her womb, dare I ask where these Hells are that you're now damned to? o.O;

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:30:20 -0400

Somewhere in Miami, I believe.

"Someone recommended Unsounded on a vore messageboard a while back and I believe a few readers enjoy that kink.:3" - How do -you- know that, though?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:29:49 -0400

Referral logs and Google, my darling.

Does Fat Yerta ever get mad that people call her "fat" when she's just pregnant?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:28:59 -0400

You made me lol at one of the gods :( Surely I am now damned to the hells.

The world rests IN her belly? Why hasn't she digested them yet? Or is that their version of the apocalypse?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:14:37 -0400

In her WOMB, fool :D But it's religious mythology, you can't apply logic to it.

What's the weirdest question you've been asked so far either about your comic or personal life? Have there been any amazing conspiracy theories (about either)?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:13:00 -0400

Something about what Sette would eat if she was suddenly 50 feet tall. That was preeeetty weeeeeird. Someone recommended Unsounded on a vore messageboard a while back and I believe a few readers enjoy that kink :3

No real conspiracy theories yet. Someone did theorize that Duane was Sette's dad because they have the same eye colour, but that's one theory I don't mind killing outright~

Has Fat Yerta ever tried losing weight? Imagine how much more pleasant things would be if people worshiped Toned Yerta instead. (Though I have to say, she looks pretty good for someone who gave birth to every living thing on the planet.)

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:06:33 -0400

Well, the mythology goes that the whole world rests in her belly. So a skinny Yerta would bode ill for humankind :3

It seems weird that Unsounded would still be in the Age of Sail considering the manifold options available to wrights regarding travel technology. Question mark, so it's a question?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:21:30 -0400

The short answer is that pymary doesn't work so well over open water, forcing mariners to look towards more conventional methods. The reasons pymary fails on the ocean are reasons I'll let the comic itself introduce later.

Who did you create first, Murkoph or Duane?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:19:02 -0400

Duane was around first and started out life (or unlife rather) as an RP character long, long ago. Murkoph was created not too long afterwards for a roleplaying game on Yahoo, but then I brought him into play with Duane. They've more or less grown up together in a few different incarnations.

Are you active on other sites other than here and deviantart?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:15:57 -0400

I hang out a lot on AIM and DC++, but I'm not much of an internet socialite.

Does Sette have breasts? Like, even a little bit?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:14:42 -0400

Not even a little bit.

How big across is Kasslyne? Is about the size of North America, or are we talking about Eurasia (or larger)?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:53:24 -0400

From the coast of Sharteshane to the westernmost coast of Cresce, it's about 3500 miles.

You said no more spoilers! Norris killing Duane is a major spoiler! Just like letting everyone know he's Sette's Da! Wait...oh-shit-I'm-so-sorry! ;.;

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:50:32 -0400

That's no spoiler! Chuck Norris is EVERYONE'S Da. Is there really a woman left he hasn't yet impregnated?

Do you like dinosaurs? I think they're pretty neat. Does Kasslyne have any dinosaurs? (And would their parts count as First Materials?)

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:49:39 -0400

There aren't any dinosaurs nor did the world ever go through an age of dinosaurs. Evolution just didn't go in that direction. The closest you're going to get are the Two-toes (those squat lizardmen) and vliegeng.

Dinosaurs... I like Dinotopia a lot 'cause James Gurney. But James Gurney could paint storybooks about a culture of men living side by side with intelligent pizzas in fedoras and I'd still buy it.

Who is more badass, Murkoph or Chuck Norris?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:24:04 -0400

Man, ain't no one tougher than Chuck Norris. Who do you think killed Duane?

Wait, how the heck did a big douchey loser like Bett get connected to the muthafuckin' khert?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:22:19 -0400

He's from muthafuckin' Sharteshane, criminal capital of the continent. You get some money together and you can buy a connection off a crooked wright.

Is there a lot of trade with countries outside of Kasslyne?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:21:25 -0400

Not really, no. Kasslyne doesn't have the best of relations with other continents. They think the Gefendur religion is weird, they're scared of Alderode, plague, the Dammakhert, smoke eels, the giant dogs, and Kasslyne is flippin' far away from the rest of the world D: Unsounded is still in an age of sail, so crossing the ocean is no small thing.

I would like to place an order for a khert cake and a bar mitzvah, please? (The question mark on the end cleverly makes it into a question, you see.)

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:18:22 -0400

I'll need a birth certificate and entrance fee into the local magery, please :3 Your icon makes me sweaty.

Wouldn't it be awesome if a person could gain magical powers from eating cake?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:17:14 -0400

Cake itself is already an amazing thing, my friend. "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, is wasteful and ridiculous excess."

Listen to Willy.

Is there any particular reasoning why you decided to call your sorcerous practitioners "wrights"?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:14:41 -0400

I wanted a good, solid word free of wankery and connotations of the mystical, because pymary is meant to be solid, logical, and free of wankery and the mystical. It isn't Harry Potter magic, which doesn't even TRY to explain itself, nor any of those other systems that seem to confine themselves to elite, specially born people. Elitism in fictional magic, I do not like it. You shouldn't need a "gift" to do it and you don't need one to practise pymary. It's a system available to almost anyone with a bit of money, a lot of intellect, and a will to learn and practise. The only roadblocks to the system are manmade; nature itself practises very little discrimination.

And c'mon, there are all these ideas wrapped up with other words for magic-users. What pops into your head when you hear wizard? Harry Potter, maybe. Rincewind. Mages belong in video games. Sorcerers and Enchanters have long beards and need to clean their fingernails.

But "wright" is a word I get to define myself, one that doesn't already have baggage attached. Same with pymary and pymarics and khert. These are my words :)

Ahem. But if you're asking why specifically the word "wright" it's because wrights are workers who are in a very real way rearranging the building blocks of the world. They're spellwrights. Spell workers.

Now, if you want to read something else into the word, I won't stop you. I'll just wink.

Can someone be disconnected from the khert? (Would suck to be that guy, if so.)

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 20:42:50 -0400

They can indeed. But by law - and this law is actually continent-wide, from Alderode to Sharteshane - only being declined into a slave strips this right from a wright. Disconnection isn't like flipping a switch either. It hurts and there's a strong possibility it will drive you bonkers.

Anyway, this is getting close to mentioning things I wanna wait and let the comic introduce, so no more khert-talk for now please :)

How does being stabbed with a special knife connect you to the khert? Or is it just one of those things they tell people you have to do which is entirely ceremonial?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 20:39:39 -0400

Well, considering that most people literally cannot work the arts until they've been rited, the ceremony, the stabbing or at least the cake must actually have something to do with gaining access :)

And I love you. Marry me? Or at least have a good fling if commitment isn't your cup of tea.

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 20:37:36 -0400

I'm afraid I'm married to my art. It gets terribly upset when I come home with marks from other peoples' teeth on my neck.

The term Soulbonding is definitely fluffy. But, I had to ask, since I've been following your work for years and have seen you talk and consult your characters all the time. Curiosity kills the cat, and all that.

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:25:33 -0400

I still love you.

So has being rited got anything to do with the scar Quigley has and which Duane had before his skin sloughed off?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 17:56:03 -0400

It has everything to do with it.

Being rited is a big deal. If you're going to pursue the arts you're rited at ten years old (for middle and upper castes, plats and silvers much younger), and it's as much a practical procedure as it is a very weighty cultural and religious ceremony. Your whole family and social group are there, you get presents, and there's yummy food and cake, and then they stab you with a special knife and seal the wound with a flaming-hot brand. It's fun!

When you say you have to be rited to be able to use pymary at all, do you mean that a connection has to be made to the khert so the wright can access it?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 17:46:19 -0400

If you were any more on the nose you'd be a zit.

Have you ever heard of Soulbonding? Both the "characters live in my head and we chat all the time" aspect, and the simpler "this is my favorite character ever!" side?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 17:45:54 -0400

Yeeeeahh... if I had not recently become a harmonious being of light who rejects judging anyone, their worldviews, or their proclivities, I might admit that I frequently make fun of people who use that phrase.

But I'm a harmonious being of light.

I love Reboot, but in that case, we all knew right from the beginning that the whole thing took place in a computer. It wasn't some poorly thought out tweest.

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:31:57 -0400

Tru dat. Unsounded isn't secretly a computer simulation however. I promise.

So when Duane tells the beastie to put Bett to sleep, Bett was effectively tentacle raped to death?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:31:12 -0400

Not a bad way to go. But Bett wasn't killed. So we'll say he was tenderly tentacle-raped into a blissful slumber (except not really).

I want to point out that I called Toma before anyone else. Ever. Me first. sacrifices laundry day to bounce quarters off his abs

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:30:24 -0400

You're gonna put an eye out with all that flying coinage.

Oh, my interpretation of the pyramic beast in Chapter 2 was that it was meant for putting people to sleep. Well, the more you know.

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:29:24 -0400

Well, I would think the beastie had killing capabilities since Bett pretty clearly told it to kill Duane, but what does Bett know? Not very much, we soon learn. Your interpretation works for me. The bad thing about formspring and getting every little question answered is sometimes - maybe even ofttimes - the official answer isn't as cool as the readers' theories.

Does magic exist outside of this continent? It seems like it would be . . . different, without this complicated system to keep magic sane.

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 01:59:07 -0400

Yep, it exists everywhere except in one weird country where the local religion says humans shouldn't mess with it. The mechanics are the same elsewhere but wrights use a lot of tokens in lieu of spoken enchantments, and much less sophisticated spells. Really, if you want pymary, you go to Kasslyne. War and magic are the continent's specialities.

Hey, you know Sette. She can acheive things when one's back is turned even YOU can't explain! Like emptying that tip jar awhile back so quickly & quietly.

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 01:53:18 -0400

Skillz, bro. Mad skillz.

In chapter 2, the pymaric Bett has: is that made with First Materials? If so, is the beastie within a representation of whatever that material came from? What is it? Or is it just an imagined, monster-ish thing?

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 01:52:13 -0400

The blue glass bulb part was FM, yeah. Duane called it a "creature constructed." At least I think he did, I'm not looking it up at the moment. So it was a manufactured entity and not a very good one, which is why Bett found it on sale and why it happily turned on him with hardly a lifted finger from Duane.

Here is some trivia: my original idea was that the pymaric wasn't meant to be used as Bett used it at all. He was told by the salesman it was a combat summons, but really the creature was a pleasure beast meant for brothels and tentacle fetishists. I was going to have Duane smugly point this out but it seemed a bit uncouth for him :3

Does Captain Toma have six-pack abs? :3

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 01:42:53 -0400

Baby, you could bounce a quarter off them.

I had noticed that pymary was a lot like programming (especially given some of your previous Formspring comments). Kasslyne isn't just one big computer simulation, is it? 'Cause that would be t3h ghey.

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 01:42:22 -0400

Super ghey. Although did you ever watch Reboot? That was cool.

Sette vs boy pee contest? You KNOW she'd cheat and use her tail when no one is looking!

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 22:23:29 -0400

How would that even work!

Who's the most famous stage (or hey, maybe there are screens on Kasslyne) actor in the world?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 22:11:27 -0400

This is a terribly specific question! I sneeze at you!

Anything a boy could do could Sette do better?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 22:10:56 -0400

Not anything. She can't draw pictures in the snow with her pee. Well, she could try, but it's difficult without a posable pisser.

So, if it's so difficult to do pymary quickly, how was Quigley able to put Starfish so easily (and quickly) in his place by the use of pymary on page 17 of Chapter 3? Is it because Quigley is just that awesome? Or... is pymary different for Plats? Or...

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:50:30 -0400

Most combat techniques are difficult. How long does it take to get a black belt in karate? How long does it take to master fencing? I guess what I was trying to get across is that pymary isn't like having a gun holstered on your hip. It takes years of practise, schooling, and a lot of skill to do it effectively in a combat setting. Quigley started learning pymary when he was two years old - plats have to learn as young as possible, for obvious reasons. Many plats also have a natural connection and ability with the khert - they seldom have to be rited and the pathways are very steady for them. I know that's probably Greek to you right now but trust me that it's a good thing.

Anyway, in short, yes, it's because he's awesome, and yes, pymary is a little different for plats :)

Have you ever read any of Glen Cook's stuff, specifically the Black Company series? Your fantasy stuff has the same feel to me.

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:50:40 -0400

Not familiar with him, I'm afraid.

Just as long as it doesn't upgrade to Window Vista by the end of the comic, I'm fine with whatever purpose it serves the overall plot.

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:55:07 -0400

I've tossed around the idea of naming the head wright WIlliam Portals. get it get it get it?

Does Elka like to poke hobos with sticks or other pointy objects?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:54:12 -0400

That's rude, man. Don't poke hobos.

Are there a lot of limits to the use of pymary?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:53:58 -0400

Plenty. You can't use it all if you haven't been rited and to be rited legally requires school and money. Then you have to know the spell you want to cast and you'd best pronounce it right or it's going to blow up your insides. In addition to the actual incantation there's the variables you have to feed it - say you want to lob a bit of sunfire at someone. You have to say just how much heat - using ancient Tainish measurements - your position, your target's position from your position in degrees, the speed of the projectile, and the roadway in the khert you want to use. And you better calculate fast because your opponent is looking to smack you before you finish. He might very well hear what you're casting before you've even gotten it out, and steal your aspects away, leaving you with no juice for your spell. And as previously mentioned, when you mess up a spell, it tends to literally detonate somewhere in your organs.

I like to compare pymary to programming. This will only be helpful if you know a little bit about programming, but imagine reciting programs in your head, as fast as you can, while someone else is trying to kill you. To be anything but rubbish you have to have as many useful programs and functions memorized verbatim as you can, summoning them up and plugging in environmental and directional variables except - all the time - the amount of available RAM is shifting erratically. The directories are all changing locations. Someone is attacking you and you have to avoid those attacks even as you prepare your own. It's not easy and there are complications on top of even these that can make it more difficult.

Of course, this is talking about pymary in combat terms. An artificer working quietly away in his shop making fake arms, he has time to methodically plan and cast and work out his figures. If you threw him into combat however, he wouldn't be fast enough and even Sette could knife him before he got a spell off.

Anyway, I really love wanking about pymary. I wish it was real.

Are the Window responsible for dealing with illegal usage of pymary and the likes of Duane and Quigley?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:02:36 -0400

Let's not talk about the Window yet, they're a ways off.

What's the civil service called? The Obstruction? The Inefficiency?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:40:21 -0400

Well done.

Why is it called the Window? Also people really jump on the female characters in this comic, huh? I think Formspring's going to explode when you introduce the 'babes'.

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:59:11 -0400

They're the Window because they're the only legal "window" into the pymaric system.

And yeah, dudes be silly.

Elka & Sette need their own Formspring accounts so people can chat with them!

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:34:28 -0400

It's a cute idea but people would just ask spoilers :)

The Window being the governing/authoritative body of wrights?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:15:31 -0400

You got it, my clever little monkey.

Elka seems to like penis jokes. If she asked a question on your Formspring, would you answer it? ;-)

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:35:07 -0400

If she didn't ask it anonymously. I like her ;-)

Just as funny would be to order the lighter similarcrum & get the fappan one instead. "Let me light that for you, miss!" splorch "I-I didn't know, I swear!"

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:33:49 -0400

laaaaaafff

What's the most expensive, complex prosthesis anyway can order?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:33:37 -0400

It'd have to be something custom, I imagine, maybe even so customized that the Window was petitioned for entirely new spells for it. I dunno specifically though, use your imagination :)

Have you played any of the Fallout games?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:32:08 -0400

I have not! I find the concept depressing.

Do you have all of your information about the world committed to (electronic) paper, and will we ever see it? Or will we have to wait for you to kick it and your progeny to sell it to us as ShardGlass' Silmarillion?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:31:45 -0400

I have some of the complicated stuff written down, like some of the rules and histories of the religions and Vits (Alderode's ruling body), and I have a few massive text files full of vocabulary and rules for Tainish. So yeah actually, I have a crap-ton of setting information sitting around. If I have a chance before I die though, I'm deleting all of it. I shall suck everything with me into oblivion when I die, like a black hole. Mwa ha.

Has anyone ever ordered the fappan similarcrum and accidentally had the lighter fingers similarcrum installed instead? O_O

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:56:40 -0400

Let's hope so :D

Elka's fantastic. I admit I was harboring some ill-will against her for being so willing to rub Sette's face in the guts, but that's completely under the bridge now. On a different note, how far off is Murkoph from an appearance, chapter-wise?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:23:33 -0400

Oh, I'd rather not say. Wouldn't you prefer to be surprised?

Sette and Elka would get along well eh?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:09:29 -0400

Enh, I can't agree. You'll soon see that Elka is extremely kind (to people who deserve her kindness) and Sette is a wretched little troll. Da says a meaningful friendship cannot be built purely on a predilection for pranking about private parts.

I dare say, from your responses here, and today's comic, Elka is modeled after your own personality/sense of humor. ;P

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:48:51 -0400

She's not too far off :)

I know you use a mix of accents for Sette (and I think some of the other characters too) but do you ever worry about using words that are too obscure? I had to look up "toggery".

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:29:03 -0400

Yeah, I have to be careful. I've received complaints from ESL readers who find certain lines totally incomprehensible. When I do throw in an archaic or Old World word I try to keep it understandable in context. I didn't think toggery was difficult because "togs" isn't a terribly uncommon word in the US for clothing, and "bloodied toggery" certainly can only be referring to his clothes in that line.

But it's always a struggle.

blushes Your pet? Does this mean I get taken out for walkies and belly rubs? I'm house broken! :)

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:51:48 -0400

I should hope so at your age.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPX5mRSQ3pw THAT line, when he's swimming in money.

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:51:01 -0400

Ach, damn, those Disney Afternoon shows occasionally had the NICEST frigging animation. I think they took a clip out of there for the opening montage. Good line :)

The Sette in money thing. My only comment on it is that she should say Scrooge's lines when swimming in his $$ bin. Their accents would be similar enough. ;)

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:18:07 -0400

I can't think of any of Scrooge's catch phrases. Maybe some blather about his Number One Dime.

If it's not too personal, what time zone are you in? I want to be able to calculate when Unsounded updates.

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:17:08 -0400

American EST, my pet. Or GMT -4:00 if you like.

...you totally gotta draw Sette swimming naked in a pile of money.

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:00:04 -0400

On it.

Is Murkoph's undead status similar to Duane's? He looks a lot more intact........

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:59:50 -0400

Hohoho. It's entirely too early to talk about Murkoph.

>:C I still ship ElkaxPetr. Though my shipperness has attained the level where even inanimate objects get a look-in: Sette x money. Am saddened by loss of Petr - any chance of a bromance-y picture of the team for old times's sake? >:C

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:30:09 -0400

Sette x money is canon. Now I am imagining her swimming naked in a pile of money a la Scrooge McDuck. Peaceguard bromance... We shall see >:C

I have to admit, my heart sank a little when you said that we'll never see Petr again. I was looking forward to seeing him kicking some ass with his new Verlosian Silver hand.

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:28:40 -0400

Oh, I'm sure he will someday, though he doesn't strike me as much of an ass-kicker. More of a reasonable gentle giant type.

...you totally need to draw Sette as a zombie.

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:28:00 -0400

Do I? I was unaware of this need :3

Does Petr's irrelevance to the future plot imply that he'll be kicked out of the Peace Guard, or just that he won't be traveling with this particular group of Peace Guarders in the near future?

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:27:29 -0400

The latter. It takes a helluva long time to recover physically and emotionally from loss of limb, and longer still to adapt to a prosthetic. This leaves him in no condition to return to duty any time soon. It would be frightfully unrealistic for him to laugh this off and go back to patrolling with Toma & Co. right now, hmm? These are the boring things I think about.

Does Elka have a crush on Petr as well? :3 I mean, I noticed she seemed awfully concerned for him when he got his hand cut off. A regular girl wouldn't have given a shit.

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:24:56 -0400

Noooo, they are just friends and comrades. I hate to break it to you but you will never see Petr again. His role be done.

So, is bowling common in Cresce?

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:23:08 -0400

That seems a safe assumption.

Petr <3 Elka <3 Toma <3 Petr?

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:22:54 -0400

Elka <3 Toma's dog

Sette is Toma's secret lovechild, isn't she? Admit it!

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:06:42 -0400

I think Sette would commit suicide if she found out her father was a cop. Unclean!

How come Petr doesn't have a wife / girlfriend? He looks like a big cuddly teddy bear.

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:04:04 -0400

Haha, who knows. Maybe girls don't have much interest in a guy who's on the road so much. Maybe he has a crush on Elka and he's holding out.

As a horse person, I wonder how the dog tack works. Do they wear bridles and bits? Or if they don't, how does the rider control them? Also curious about the saddles; dogs are so different from horses, curious to see how that affects the tack.

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:27:57 -0400

No bridles, no bits. Dogs are smarter than horses, and saddlehounds respond perfectly well to voice and hand gestures. There's a bar in lieu of a saddlehorn for holding on to, but only noobs use it. I'm no expert on tack and I'm the laziest researcher in the world, so you won't see much fanciness with the saddles. Just a strap under the tummy and another forward crossing the chest.

Oh, and does he have children?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:27:35 -0400

Yes.

Who is Captain Toma married to?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:27:31 -0400

His wife!

Are Elka and Petr married / in relationships?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:07:35 -0400

Nope.

Captain Emil Toma is pretty smexy. As much as I enjoy that uniform how about some shirtless incentive love?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:10:29 -0400

Careful there. He's a married man.

Ah, so the type of First Material also affects the strength of the enchantment?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:10:18 -0400

It dictates the strength of the enchantment that can be placed upon it. For example:

Say an artificer is constructing a simulacrum of a right arm. She would need to permanently apply a number of aspects to it, probably culled from living creatures. What creatures she was able to use would depend on the material she's working with. Say she wants to give this arm the strength of a pack dog. Well you can't apply that kind of strength to timber, even a First Timber, and have it bond. You would crack the arm. Apply it to a steel frame filigreed with a First Silver however, and you can pack a lot of power into the limb without the material buckling. You wind up with a kickass prosthetic that can have all kinds of boosts applied to it without breaking.

But First Silver (aka Verlosian Silver) is some of the most expensive crap around.

So what do those adorable fluffy giant dog mounts eat? Rabbits? Special-made biscuits? You mentioned the Unsounded world has canning technology, but I imagine it would be cumbersome hauling giant dog chow cans along on every long journey.

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:02:33 -0400

Family dogs generally eat a combination of processed pigeon chow and their owner's scraps. There are giant, towering rookeries that raise millions of pigeons that are slaughtered and made into fairly inexpensive dog food. Having a dog isn't the cheapest thing in the world though - they're bred, trained, and carefully cared for, so it's quite an investment. Dog thieves are treated about as roughly as we used to treat horse thieves.

You do have to consider their needs if you're going to take them away from a food source though. The military saddlehounds are no lap-dogs - they can fight and hunt, so they can procure their own meal if they have to - but the big packdogs are bred for size and stamina, and can't take care of themselves well. You'd have to make sure you packed food for them, too, if you were going on a long journey.

Okay, so now you have to tell us about Marrowroot and Starstain. Please dawg, please. Is the silver Elka mentions normal or some First Type silver? And what's so bad about a soldier with a wooden arm?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:49:21 -0400

Marrowroot and Starstain are just types of First Timbers. The silver would indeed be a First Material. Verlosian Silver is actually the most potent, powerful stuff you can craft from, so a silver arm would be pretty badass - much more badass than a wooden arm, which are for civilians and foreigners. That's Elka's reasoning - Petr is Peaceguard and her friend so he deserves the best.

Why do you hate Chapter 3 so much? You're making it cry! Q_Q (FWIW, I think it's fantastic so far.)

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:30:01 -0400

I can't help it! I have to hate my stuff before other people hate it, just in case, so that if they do like it it's more of a pleasant surprise. There is no logic in my brain, it is full of crazy.

What do the letters on the dog's behind say? (The doggy's very pretty, btw. I want one. Or maybe two).

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:25:12 -0400

CRPG. Crescian Royal Peace Guard. It's a brand.

What do you think the world will be like in 50 years?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:21:49 -0400

Irradiated, half-dead, and post-Apocalyptic. I've been watching a lot of gloomy documentaries on Netflix.

Ack, why would you destroy the pages??

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:20:50 -0400

Because I am full of self-disdain.

Is the storyline of Tanners very similar to Unsounded? It would be awesome to see more old pages from Tanners if the content isn't spoilery.

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:47:07 -0400

Tanners' storyline is very similar, the difference is that its storyline doesn't kick in until half-way through the first book of Unsounded. I'm kind of insane and destroyed pretty much all my old Tanners pages though. I got the ones I posted off a friend who had them saved. I'll see if I can dig up anything else.

The way you utilize the website design in your page compositions completely blows my mind. Do you plan this out way in advance? Is it difficult to get everything to line up perfectly? Are you some kind of web design genius as well as the regular kind?

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:11:52 -0400

Thank you <3 Yes, there are certain game-changing scenes that I planned and continue to plan to give accompaniment. It's not something that should be overused though because it will diminish the effect. Lining things up isn't difficult at all. For every chapter I keep a separate template file. Once the page itself is finished I plug it into the file and then construct the border-breaking effects around it. The site's designed in a way to make implementing all this pretty straightforward. It really is very, very basic html and css stuff and anyone could do it :)

What’s non-essential or unnecessary? What else can it be used for? Can the rules be eliminated? Can I increase its frequency? What ideas could I incorporate? Can I use other ingredients or materials? What else is like it? What can be overstated?

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:08:25 -0400

Mosquitoes. Catch with chopsticks, better reflexes, please Miyagi-san. Always. I see no reason why not. Anything that strengthens and proves your thesis. Yes, but don't be wasteful. There is nothing new under the sun. Everything, because everything is transitory and only the moment matters.

I just realized tomorrow is Wedsnesday. That means Unsounded updates, and that makes me happy.

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:05:46 -0400

Just conversation though. The rest of this chapter is unpleasant and boring to me. Let's go read some RASL.

Not offensive, but I will say that the eyes on some of those jellyfish are freaky-deaky?

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:03:58 -0400

I dunno, I think the eyes look like very cold, jaundiced vaginas.

What's up with these Squids and Octopi and Jellyfish and such?

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:07:03 -0400

Beats me, it was one of the new Formspring themes. Do tentacles offend?

There definitely needs to be a CSI: Kasslyne. Just imagine the crypt scene: Captain Toma: "Looks like the situation........sunglasses..........just got out of hand." YEEEAAAAAHHHHHHH!!

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:25:10 -0400

lawl again

You should do a vote incentive pic of Sette rockin' dope-ass FUBU gear while the Peace Guard looks on disapprovingly.

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:24:55 -0400

lawl

Is it wrong to want the story to change completely and become a fantasy cop drama now?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:38:14 -0400

That really is a cool idea. I tell ya, I've been tempted more than once to give the Peaceguard a lot more page time than the overall plot calls for. Write me some fanfiction!

So, next page: Elka: "Too bad FMA-style automail doesn't exist in this universe. Edward is sooooo dreamy!" Toma: "Yeah, Petr's pretty much S.O.L." Elka: "Damn, being out in that rain got my shirt all wet. I'd better take it off..." END SCENE Close?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:21:33 -0400

Edward isn't dreamy D: He's like three feet tall.

So is Duane's body made of First Materials, or is he capable of maintaining it because he can renew the spells?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:20:50 -0400

Good questions. Let's keep wondering about this for a while.

First thought is that zombies are borrowing mind from the handler, but with the limiting that seems like a fast route to brain damage. Is it just because zombies cannot themselves borrow, but need constant borrowing to sustain themselves?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:38:46 -0400

Not a bad guess! Zombies can't do anything though. They can't cast a spell, they can't borrow aspects. They're just objects, meat, carbon. They are entirely motivated by the external spellcasting of their handler. The handler isn't putting any of his own cognitive or motor abilities into them, he's just firing up their brainstem and working their taxidermied musculature until they fall to bits. They're fragile clay, however, and not made of First Materials like proper pymarics, so the minute he stops his sorcery, they fall to the ground.

Wow, Formspring changed its layout between this question and the last. Creepy.

Because because because human bodies aren't made of first materials so they can't have a spell stuck on them forever?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:33:34 -0400

Ding ding ding! My mind is blown.

You said Elka uses the baton because she finds swords a liability. You also said undead are more vulnerable to blunt weapons. I would assume even nonsapient undead are sometimes a problem in the world? As a wright, does Elka have a specialty with this?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:17:43 -0400

Elka finds swords and cutting weapons a liability because unless they're crafted with certain materials, the edges of these weapons can be stolen by criminal wrights and turned against their bearers, as was the case with Petr's sword and Duane. If Elka has a combat specialty, it's fighting wrights.

Nonsapient undead - in other words, every single undead creature save Duane - are really not a common menace. Plods cannot function without a handler to control them and upkeep their enchantments, and if a handler goes rogue it's much more efficient and damaging for them to throw spells in battle than to puppet mindless plods. A plod cannot function without a handler. Independent zombie hordes cannot happen in this world.

Now, class, using what you know about the pymaric system, can you tell me why zombies can never be independent and always require an active handler to perpetually upkeep their enchantments?

Is Elka a wright?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:59:19 -0400

She is. She'd planned to come out of the magery and try to qualify for a nice, uneventful career enchanting two-ways, but she lost out on the open positions in her district to more qualified wrights. Rather than settle with another assignment and wait until more positions opened up, she got a little hot-headed and decided to join the Peaceguard. She dislikes the Aldish nearly as much as Duane dislikes the Crescian, and hoped to go out into the world and foil some of their bullshit.

The Peaceguard wound up suiting her just fine. Eventually Elka found herself paired with the esteemed Captain Emil Toma, a personal hero and one of Queen Sonorie's own agents. Toma can be a dork but mostly it's a good life.

Is there a fourth member of the Crescian Peaceguard squad that has been absent until now?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:42:23 -0400

There's also a kid with them and a two-toe. Well, I say kid but he's like eighteen. You'll see them towards the end of this chapter and a bit in the next. He's kind of a weenie.

So, I noticed there was talk of Unsounded characters and stuff being part of an RP formerly... Are you going to use any player's (aside from you) characters in the story?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:40:30 -0400

Nope. That would be a little crooked, hm?

g Hah, I suspected you were messing around, but I was thrown enough to ask anyway. I quite dislike "detect evil"-type stuff and it didn't fit into the story at all. The new explanation makes a lot more sense. :-)

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:33:44 -0400

"Detect evil" spells and trinkets never detect the kinds of evil I'm interested in. They'll be obsessing over a zombie while I'm looking in the other direction at genocides and wars. Phooey.

You should draw a vote incentive pic of Petr brofisting Captain Toma and Elka at the same time O WAIT HE CANT LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!1 (Because he's missing an arm.)

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:31:29 -0400

Petr is a big guy. He could still sit on you.

Wait wait. Petr, Elka, Toma, Jivi...do all Crescians have four letter names? Allthough there's Starfish's friend Turas and he doesn't

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:30:02 -0400

Most Crescians have four letter names, yeah. There are four Gefendur Twins, the Gefendur religion is huge in Cresce, and it's become kind of a superstition that names longer than four letters lead to a wicked life. Turas is not Crescian - he's Madishanian - although he could be used as an anecdotal example of how the naming superstition is true :3

I mean, as a black guy I can't see an enslaved Jivi and not think "enslaved brown guy= racial commentary." It's just what I bring to the table. I hope you don't think that if you were intentionally commenting on race that you'd be doing a bad thing.

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:29:50 -0400

I understand, and it's good to have leave to go in that direction. At the same time though, I've had friends of colour tell me how glad they are just to have darker people in a fantasy story in a way that's NOT commentary, that's just some black characters allowed to be badass, or involved in interesting situations, or be something other than sidekicks or villains. There was a big stink not long ago about the dearth of racial variety in fantasy. Elves and dwarves don't count. This was probably on my mind.

I guess, while I absolutely don't mind you or anyone else seeing other than what I intended, I don't want to say, "Well, THIS means THAT, and you should feel bad if you don't perceive the deeper meaning!" But if you're an English major it's your duty to find deeper meanings, so continue to disregard me :) If I manage to tell a story that is for the most part a pretty good fantasy adventure tale on the surface but still has levels to it that readers can investigate and reinterpret, I'll feel good about myself.

I guess this "evil" animals sense from Duane comes from the creepy necro magic that brought him back to life and not from Duane's soul being evil. I mean, the man got some faults, but he's not villian material, not yet anyway. Far from it.

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:43:00 -0400

Naw, he's not evil. Animals just don't like that he smells like a bag of bones and yet is gesturing and speaking like a regular human.

If evil is always in the eye of the beholder, how can animals sense it? I'm quite perplexed about the animal comment, given the overall non-black-and-white morality of the story so far.

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:42:07 -0400

I was kind of messing with you :3 "Animals sense evil" is an old wives tale. They don't like Duane, really, because he's not natural. They don't like plods either. Things that smell dead shouldn't move and it unsettles them.

Ah! Thanks for clearing that up. I had assumed that Duane's attack cut through both Petr's arm and his sword in one blow. This explains why the effects looked different on metal vs. flesh.

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:35:54 -0400

No problem! Whenever anyone uses weird spells or attacks, look around the panel and you should be able to figure out what they're using, if it's not spelled out plainly. I'm a big stupid nerd like that.

Also, when Duane cut off Petr's arm, was the red mist that he used for cutting & grabbing made from Cara's blood?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:32:22 -0400

You're half right. Blood has a viscous, clinging quality that he used to snatch up Sette, so he did use that aspect. Good eye. Blood hasn't a cutting aspect though. For the cut he used Petr's own sword. If you look carefully at the panel in question you'll see Petr's sword shatters, its cutting aspect stolen and exhausted by Duane's attack. One weakness of pymary is once you redirect and use an aspect, unless it's plentiful, it's gone. Duane's reckless cutting spell used up an entire weapon. This helps keep the power of the pymaric borrowing system somewhat in check.

Do functional prosthetic limbs (like in Full Metal Alchemist) exist in Unsounded, or is Petr pretty much S.O.L.? :-(

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:26:39 -0400

You will find out in exactly one page.

Is the little kid in the vote incentive Matty?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:26:35 -0400

Sort of! It is a defunct character named Lucky Puppy who, in a few of the older versions of the comic, was Sette's long suffering sidekick and partner in crime. He was a mute. Matty is in a lot of ways a much more interesting reimagining of the character. You'll see Lucky Puppy scattered around in various bits of old artwork - he always wears the goofy hat with the bird on it.

Is Sette evil or just intensely frustrated at not being fed?

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:25:53 -0400

She is sad that she lives in a world without Audiosurf.

Ooh, old-art vote incentives would be fantastic! Would these be early concept-art/pages from this particular comic, old RPG art, or both?

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:25:10 -0400

Let's do some old pages tonight. I'll stick up a few when I update.

I want you to know that your comic is one of the very few reasons I don't mind still being awake on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights working into the wee hours of the morning.

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:24:36 -0400

Aww <3

Is necromatic magic considered "evil" by most people in the Unsounded universe? Also, how common are magic users in this universe? The guy on Ch. 3, p. 30 seems surprised at Duane, but in more of a "How rude!" sense than a "Holy shit, magic!" sense.

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:24:07 -0400

Magic and magic users are absolutely common and unfantastic - as well they should be, since aspects of society revolve around mankind's ability to pymaricaly manipulate the world. Magic is so mundane in fact that I avoid using the word "magic" since it implies the fantastic (you'll never see the word in the comic), or something that doesn't have an explanation. Pymary is perfectly logical in the context of this world, and there's nothing "magic" about it.

But there are certain kinds of wrights and certain abilities within pymary that are uncommon. We shall learn more of this.

Is Duane evil or just intensely frustrated at not being dead?

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 18:49:14 -0400

Evil is always in the eye of the beholder.

Why does Animals dislike Duane?

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 18:27:32 -0400

Animals can sense evil.

I needed to come out of the water closet.

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 03:09:32 -0400

Ahhh...

Glass, I need to come out... I was the one who tricked us into talking about too much poop.

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 03:01:25 -0400

Poop, eh? What... do you need to come out of exactly?

Oooh, commissions huh? Do you have a webpage one could go to, and thus order one of those shiny mythical things? I may have to shatter my poor metaphorical piggybank. ;)

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 03:00:57 -0400

I should have a webpage! But all I can really point you towards is an old journal entry on dA. The prices are still about right, I reckon http://ashleycope.deviantart.com/journal/Character-Commissions-226894648

Has it ever happened to you that when starting to draw late at night all of a sudden it's 6 AM and bright outside when you're finished?

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 02:58:52 -0400

Not with drawing so much but that's happened when I'm writing. It used to happen when I was RPing frequently.

Madam Cope, I do so apologize for my extended absence, it was hardly intentional, but it was quite unavoidable. Business is business, though I hardly need to tell you that. Prepare for a torrent of questions, as I have missed quite a lot.

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 02:58:19 -0400

My goodness, Hod, it's a relief to hear from you. I was certain the Feds had at last tracked you down and had you holed up in some Ecuadorian crackhouse.

It appears that lowly Anons cannot even attach pics to their questions! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (Unless you can see the pic I tried to attach to this one, in which case I just forgot.)

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:53:18 -0400

Doesn't look like it works :( Email it to me!

Inspired by kirbish's awesome Elka pic, I decided to make some fanart of my own.

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:01:25 -0400

Sweet. Did you forget to attach it? :3

So tonight in my Dream there was for a brief moment Murkoph wearing a Sombero out of Pumpkin. I think he was also holding a baby or a fetus, but I didn't pay attention because... well. Pumpkin Sombrero =I Thought you should know?

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:00:38 -0400

Maybe he thought he was trapped in Minecraftia, and was gearing up.

Won't Duane be disappointed he doesn't get to be the end of Ephsephin?

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:59:51 -0400

His tummy's already rumbling in regret.

Have you ever gotten any non-Unsounded commissions based on people stumbling across your comic? Like someone says "Holy cats, this comic is amazing! I have to order some illustrations right away!"

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:59:19 -0400

I don't believe so D: I think most people who want character designs and one-shot illustrations like that find me via dA.

How is Ephsephin still alive???

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:58:06 -0400

He's in the process of dying, I'd say. Nothing that happened was immediately lethal. No buzzsaw-bugs flying through his heart.

Oh Glass, whenever I go away on vacation I have such fun, but then I get back and I'm so far behind on reading the forumsprings! What manner of Enticing Revelations and Dark Designs have been revealed in my absence? I'm sure terribly exciting things.

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 03:16:05 -0400

The only solution is never to go away on vacation.

I don't think you missed anything though. We obsessed about pie a while, someone tricked us all into talking about poop for far too long, there was some rhyming silliness, and I had a birthday. Formspring's been slow.

Re: Free Pie : Village Inn. Free Slice Wednesday! There's a couple in Tampa, but I dunno if it's local or regional or what, but all I know is that pie is good.

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 03:12:49 -0400

You're gonna make me fat, anon.

Have I already asked if Bastion is actually wearing clothes in the flashback scene?

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:31:54 -0400

Indeed. And he is.

Damn, that Elka fanart looks amazing! [ I'd comment in the actual Formspring entry, but we lowly Anons lack the ability.......... :-( ]

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:42:43 -0400

Kirbish take note! The Anons love you.

Well, I got it finished faster than I thought I would! Happy slightly belated birthday :D

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 03:47:59 -0400

Goddamnit, Kirbish, that's fucking gorgeous. It's now the hottest picture of Elka because she never looks that hot in the comic XD I love you, man, thank you. Wow. She needs an attack now where she chops at you with her cosmic blue scythe-fringe.

Do you ever go for free pie on Wednesday? :3

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:13:57 -0400

Where is this free pie? o_o

What's employment like in USA?

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:13:47 -0400

Be more specific.

I think I am late, Ashley, so... Happy belated Birthday.

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:13:38 -0400

Thank you, darling.

From what I understand, you earn your living as a self-employed illustrator, correct? How do you promote your services? Is there a central website that lists illustrators for hire, or do all your clients find you by word-of-mouth, or what?

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:13:28 -0400

Most of my work comes from repeat clients I've had for years. I'm go-to graphic artist for a few web design companies and I regularly do spec work, mockups, and turn-arounds for a big toys and collectibles manufacturer. Every rare now and again I'll get a super awesome job like a book cover or a short comic to illustrate or a big roleplay cast poster, and I guess those people mostly find me through dA, but I don't actively seek them out. I wish I could get more comic work, alas, no one wants to pay page rates, it's almost always vague promises of eventual profit sharing *snort*

THERE IS A CHANCE OF UNSOUNDED BEING PRINTED? /dies a fangirl death Seriously that would be fantastic, who can I threaten in my nearby Tampa area to print to your specifications? (ex-Busch Gardens worker anon from last yearish)

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:45:41 -0400

Beastly weather of late, wot wot?

Right now I'm exchanging emails with a company in Oldsmar and it is promising so far. Better than the place in Clearwater anyway, ugh. But no threatening required, Glass is all over this.

Oh god please submit your lemon chicken recipe. Your dumpling recipe has thrived and evolved in my household; my roommates/friends/me - together we have probably made over 300 in the past year. Thinking about them just makes my mouth water. (not OP tho)

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:42:02 -0400

R-really? Anon, that makes me happy. I will start to work on my lemon chicken recipe though it's a little more involved than the hambeast dumplings.

-Eyetwitch- I just finished reading homestuck. Seven straight days of reading. I swear to god if you ever do a chapter 1500 pages in length I am disowning you.

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:41:10 -0400

I love the IDEA of Homestuck, with the animation and the original music and the IM conversations being part of the story, but damned if I could get more than a few pages into it. Did you like?

Please marry me.

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:21:40 -0400

I would make a terrible wife. I do art sixteen hours a day. Who would make your sandwiches and fetch your slippers?

"Nothing compares to pie for it is perfection and by definition there is nothing that can exceed or stand equal to perfection. All of my characters share this opinion." What type of pie does Murkoph like? Eyeball pie? Brain pie? First trimester fetus pie?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:26:23 -0400

Eye pie.

Happy aging day. Do you feel wiser? or just older?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:21:25 -0400

I'm just glad it's over. Birthdays inevitably make me miserable.

Happy Birthday! :D I hope you have yourself an awesome day over there. I shall draw you some fanart! (Probably in like a week or so though) (Because stuff) (It's always getting in the way)

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:20:53 -0400

Fanart *_*

"Murkoph" sounds like a good name for a dog. Probably because I used to have a dog named "Murphy". Shit was so cash, until he died. Also, I want to see a crossover comic with current Duane and brutish asshole Duane of Unsounded Past........

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:20:39 -0400

Brutish asshole Duane still comes out sometimes when he's good and pissed off and drunk with nationalistic fervor. Beating up Siwl at the beginning of chapter 4 smacked of old Duane.

Sorry about your dog D:

"...there's a character in Unsounded who wields twin short swords..." Upsize dem babies!

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:18:30 -0400

Naw, he is a little guy. He looks better with smaller swords :3

Happy Birthday! In celebration, I made a bunch of original characters, that, you know, you could insert in your comic and make into the main characters and such. One wields twin katanas. Shit is so cash. Where can I send them?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:37:45 -0400

character_submissions@gaiaonline.com

...there's a character in Unsounded who wields twin short swords...

*sob*

Birthday-themed question! How does Sette think cake compares to pie? Matty? Jivi? Cutter? Chitz, Boo, Uaid, Friendly Frozen Coffee, Duane's beard, and the hats? Kedises?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:35:50 -0400

Nothing compares to pie for it is perfection and by definition there is nothing that can exceed or stand equal to perfection. All of my characters share this opinion. Even Cutter prefers his humans served in pie form.

Happy birthday! The Hambeast Dumplings were delicious! Almost no leftovers. Also, while cooking, I injured my foot... by stepping on a SHARD OF GLASS. But it came out easily, and it was a very pleasant glass-stepping-on experience. Totally worth it.

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:33:38 -0400

Shit, man, did you really? Probably one of my cousins; they're sharp enough but always underfoot.

I should write down my ghetto fabulous lemon chicken recipe. It's even more dangerous than hambeast dumplings; third degree oil burns are practically guaranteed.

Happy birthday Glass, I got you some art from an artist I like. Hang it on your fridge or something (it's creepy-awesome)

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:31:39 -0400

I like that! You know me so well.

Happy birthday, sweetheart! May the year ahead be full of pie and lucrative free-lancing jobs!

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:31:21 -0400

Yay! Lucrative free-lancing jobs would make Glass happy indeed. Thank you, darling.

Would Murkoph ever try human sushi?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:30:54 -0400

With sushi rice and all? I think he'll stick with human sashimi.

Where did Murkoph's name come from?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:30:25 -0400

From the land of Imagination. I honestly have no idea. He popped into my head one day, nigh fully-formed, name attached, and that was that. It's always kind of weirded me out a little. Sette has changed forms a zillion times over the years and Duane was originally much meaner and brutish than he is now, but other than going slightly more insane, Murkoph has hardly changed a hair in twelve years. Not necessarily a good thing but there it is.

Just a random drive-by happy birthday. :3c

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:26:15 -0400

Happy birthday! May your day (or at least what's left of it) be filled with pie and your favorite television shows.

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:26:09 -0400

Thank you! I had no pie but I did have a Lean Pocket. Kind of close-ish?

The little kiddie that Jivi left behind...did he perish? O.o

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:25:41 -0400

He... is in no better and no worse a state than he was in when Jivi pulled him from the cart.

I had a dream last night that I was on Iron Chef and the theme ingredient was people. The judges were Duane, Murkoph, Cutter, and actress/singer Yoko Akino.

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:33:38 -0400

Too many of my characters eat people :/

Is this a failing? Even Sette bites fingers. There is something wrong with me.

Glass, since you aren't supposed to have a birthday party on an actual birthday (I don't get it, but them's the rules) you can't have an unbirthday party on your unbirthday, right? Well, I'll be by your place for Unbirthday cake and festivities at noon.

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:32:18 -0400

"Oops, it's after noon. Well, I guess I'll just stop beating around the bush and wish you a happy birthday, then. Happy birthday, Glass!"

Thank you, darling!

Happy Birthday! I made you a pie and brought it to Duane so he could put deliciousness aspects into it, but then Sette smelled it and this happened D= (first time using Formspring image thing, hope it works =I )

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:31:48 -0400

It kind of looks like they're dancing XD Dance of the Sugar-Pie Fairies...

I love it. Thank you, Stein, you are the sweetest of Steins. I will pretend the pie is here and loaded with extra Deliciousness Aspect and is actually vibrating slightly with the power of its own pymarically enhanced flavour. NOM

Happy birthday, love <3

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:29:46 -0400

Happy Birthday! You are just 7 months and 1 day younger than me, do a sprint and catch me! :-)

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:29:50 -0400

*shakes fist* I shall catch you one day, Reed, mark my words; and I shall drag you with me into this fell pit of decrepitude.

Happy birthday! On my birthday, people always want to drag me out to DO something when I'd much rather stay home and draw and write and lounge like I usually do. Do you like to do special things for your birthday, or is it just another day with a title?

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:29:03 -0400

Just another day. The only thing I'm doing today is driving my mom to the doctor later so they can scrape some skin cancer off her chest. Fun! Thanks for the birthday wishes :)

Some webcomics get their stuff printed in China and then shipped home, might be worth looking into what others have used (I'm thinking erfworld in this example)

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:27:39 -0400

I'm kind of a stickler with getting it printed in the States, even better if it's local to me. Go Green and all.

All this talk of printing is getting me excited. I need to start saving up cash! Any clue as to the sorts of money you'll be needing?

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:49:53 -0400

Meeting with printers this week and last has me very discouraged. Still working on it.

Ach, I haven't been around! Had to catch up...not that I missed much since it was mostly about poop -_- Anyway, I was wondering if you'd throw us some more writing of this person initialed M.A. who came into possession of Duane's writings or...anything?

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:47:01 -0400

Alas there IS no more M.A. writing. I kind of fell out love with that idea and never wrote any more than what was posted. Right now I'm writing a script for a prequel Sette side story. I rather like it but it's enormously dismal and violent, I need to inject some wackiness. Uh, all I got otherwise is ten years of RP logs :D

So...those wickedly sharp blades on Cutter's helmet...are they used for battle or anything? Or are they just there for the purpose of looking cool? xD

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:43:58 -0400

Just for coolness :D He IS called Cutter afterall.

It seems to me you've been pretty generous with the double page updates this chapter. Not in any way complaining, but any reason for it?

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:43:10 -0400

Mostly because I've been able to keep up every week with the pages I post, so it hasn't affected the buffer at all. If I can create four pages a week I should post four pages a week. Also, I had thought a particular scene in chapter 7 would take me a lot longer to do than it actually did, so all the buffer padding I did at the beginning of the year in preparation for it was kind of for naught. May as well do double page posts then, particularly when certain page pairings benefit from it. Those actually may taper off for a few weeks though, I had some big jobs come in. Walking Dead merchandise design. Am I being typecast?

I'm kind of bummed 'cause there's no way I can finish chapter 7 before I have to start posting it. It's just too damned long, it's going to be at least 100 pages.

So, for dinner tomorrow I'm thinking of making GlassShard’s Weeaboo Hambeast Dumplings. Do you have any suggestions to make sure I don't die horribly?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 19:21:17 -0400

Mmmm, weeaboo dumplings, the perfect way to celebrate Glassmas. Well, I know it can seem a fitting tribute to my greatness but don't overzealously included actual glass shards in the dumpling filling. That could possibly result in you dying horribly. Otherwise though, just try and find somewhere for the dumplings to drain after you take them out of the boilin' water. I have a drainy tupperware thing but maybe just a wire rack over a shallow dish would be good. Oh, and make sure you make the dippin' sauce. They are rather bland without the sauce.

If you were a weapon, what kind of weapon would you be?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:58:41 -0400

I would be a rock, but a prop rock made of Styrofoam.

If you were an instrument, which instrument would you be?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:57:27 -0400

Pinking shears.

What is your Chinese astrological sign?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:57:02 -0400

General Tso.

Teacher glass, teacher glass! You draw pretty much 24/7 right? Do you have any advice for wrist pain? Any stretches or anything that you do before a long project, or during, or after?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:56:29 -0400

Funny you should ask, my wrist has been bugging me the past few days. I have problems whenever I use a mouse too much but drawing itself is seldom a bother. I do wear a wrist brace at night sometimes, you might want to look into those. Stretching can be good, I have heard, as well as yoga, but who can be arsed? :3

Remember to draw with your entire arm, not just your hand and wrist. Give yourself lots of desk space to spread out and take breaks every half hour, not just for your arm but for your eyes as well. Try to keep conscious of your bad wrist and keep your wrist and arm parallel when they're not in use. Hold out for your cyborg body which the Russians say should be available in a few decades.

Where are you and why haven't you been on? You aren't dead are you? Please let me know either way.

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:51:55 -0400

Come hang out in VGMC. I haven't been feeling very AIMy, too much effort.

Does Jivi have a home to back to?? Like maybe his mom's house?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:57:13 -0400

Hmm!

I went down to the docks today and applied for a cargo moving job so I can get a MANLY PHYSIQUE like Ephsephin's. Once I'm thick/solid/tight, I plan on transferring to a lucrative career in CHILD KIDNAPPING. Thanks for the inspiration!

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:57:05 -0400

Okay, but one day a heroic boy in a bandana is gonna asplode you with bugs..

Your birthday is tomorrow? What do you want? How old will you be? 32? 33? One of those? Older than time? Older than gods?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:16:18 -0400

I'll be 32! I feel like I've lived a full life. If I died right now I'd be content.

One of the men I know is dreading death because he's going to miss pooping. Does Duane miss sitting down to the satisfaction of a huge poop?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:15:23 -0400

Nah.

Is Cutter like a shark when he smells/sees blood, or were his eyes always that crazy-looking?

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:14:17 -0400

They've always been blackity-black. I think the low lighting makes them stand out more.

Is Jivi cutting a metal collar with that razor he found? Also, why's he not delivering a coup de grâce to Cutter? Always finish your kills is like rule one everywhere, ever D:

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:12:46 -0400

Leather collar of course. And Jivi's just a kid, he's never killed anyone. He's not gonna start now D:

Would you be willing to go into Cutter's backstory for us? :3

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:36:58 -0400

I actually cannot. It's spoilery.

Up to this point, I had always assumed Sette was pooping in Duane's bag.

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 09:57:47 -0400

...

D:

I kind of now also wonder about Sette's pooping habits now, too. Does she bury it? is it weird that I could see her burying it, but could also see her leaving it out as a territory marking? Sette's poop: "Sette was here. All hail Settetania!"

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 02:33:57 -0400

I... haven't given it much thought, but I guess she would do whatever a person does who poops out in nature. What do campers do, just leave it? I- I don't know, I'm a city girl!

Canononically, how often does Sette take a poop? And does she just leave it on the ground while travelling, or does she bury it, like a cat? Does Duane have a little bag that he uses to pick up after her?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:49:47 -0400

Okay, okay! You can win the weirdest question award! Go back to your scat porn and Metamucil.

How often do you have bowel movements? Once per day, or every 2-3 days?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:40:08 -0400

Every hour. I am full of shit :(

How do you get your jollies?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:35:33 -0400

My birthday is on Tuesday so I treated myself tonight to a pint of Ben and Jerry's Phish Food.

I am now very jolly.

Is it weird that I feel a sense of disappointment that the weirdest question you've ever been asked on Formspring wasn't one of mine?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:24:31 -0400

Yes. You must try harder!

...although to be fair, the question I quoted was from A Goofy Movie, and who, really, is weirder than Goofy.

What's the weirdest question you've had someone ask you on Formspring?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:35:51 -0400

"How many cups of sugar does it take to get to the moon?"

Did you know that there's no link to unsounded from the casualvillian frontpage?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:35:39 -0400

Yeaaaah.

Did you know at any moment ever you are within three feet of a spider? Did you know only Sette gets to be near Boo at all? Did you know this is horribly unfair? Did you know if I had an abundance of money I would make a replica of the little guy?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:35:31 -0400

Boo never sleeps, you know. You'd be all tired and he'd be hopping up and down on your chest wanting to play and you'd swat at him and he'd try to move out of the way and end up accidentally sticking one of his dagger-toes into your right eye and he'd feel terrible and would spend the rest of the evening trying to fashion you an apologetic patch out of a tissue and a damp noodle. It's all fun and games until you lose an eye.

Are we going to see more of the Two-toes? Their culture, for example? Or will one of them (Cutter, someone else...) play a larger role? Sort of spoilery, but I'm a sucker for lizards.

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:33:07 -0400

We will see more two-toes! We won't really get into the thick of their culture though, because it's kind of dying out and so are they. There aren't many places left where there are a lot of lizards in large communities; generally they're isolated, poor, and often in some kind of indentured servitude. But aside from Cutter there's another, less psychotic, female two-toe character whom we will meet after the Ethelmik arc.

Are you a 2-D child lover?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:30:45 -0400

I... do love cartoon and comic kids? I think they are adorable and fun.

Sorry for framing you for that anon question to Fakult. That wasn't nice. Can you forgive me?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 19:23:21 -0400

Forgiven.

Are you guys gonna get married? :3

Is speaking in rhyme something that a subculture of two toes does, or is Cutter as weird to them as he would be to us?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 16:54:47 -0400

It's unique to Cutter. Cutter is a nutter.

:-)

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:07:02 -0400

Is it difficult to write Cutter's dialogue?

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:58:21 -0400

Nah. I spent my teenage years writing terrible poetry, I am well-versed in it.

(well-versed, get it, get it?)

Has Cutter ever thought of getting into authoring children's books? In my head, somewhere there's a community board just FILLED with all the Cutter rhymes fans have made pinned to it.

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 03:12:52 -0400

Upon hearing this notion hungry Cutter has proposed:
"The children lured by my prose I'll eat from forelock to toes!
A lizard's thanks to you, friend feline, for this plan of attack.
Now quickly to the orphanage, and fetch Cutter a snack."

I really doubt you're the Penny Arcade type, but they're running a contest for a reality tv-like webshow for up-and-coming webcomickers. The prize is pretty rad and even if you don't win, it'd be an enormous amount of exposure. I'd love to see you on it.

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 15:42:07 -0400

Would you? Even if I'm a seven-hundred pound hambeast with chronic acne, an underbite, and a lazy eye?

So, Moby Dick: novel containing lots of whaling facts, whaling manual disguised as a novel, or beautiful homosexual romance with whaling elements?

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:52:00 -0400

Metaphysical and deeply symbolic discussion of man's struggle against mortality and God disguised as an adventure novel.

I was grazing my mom's horse in the field today (it was 108), and all he wanted to do was stand right in front of the sprinklers and get a shower while he ate. The instant we stepped out, the water would evaporate off of my arms in a minute. Smart animal.

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 03:10:23 -0400

You should put water wings on him and take him to a water park. He's trying to tell you he wants to go to a water park.

Is there whaling in Kasslyne? Are there whales?

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 03:08:02 -0400

There are whales. Oh, there are whales! There are whales as old as the world who blinked blindness from their eyes when the gods first lit the sun. There are whales who bore witness when land bloomed from the spume and blossomed into forests and countries and humans and war. There are whales who know the meaning of the khert, its laws, and its hidden heart. There are whales who sing with human voices - or do humans sing the songs of whales?

But none of these whales are dumb brutes who can be hunted for their oil. These whales control the ocean itself. They delineate Kasslyne's khert from the less ordered nature of other realms, they know an Art older than pymary, they are timeless, terrible, and wise; and they do not suffer the irreverent bloody-mindedness of Man.

You have a kickass rig, I gotta say. Do you play WoW? (Or any other online game.)

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:12:20 -0400

Thanks! It looks more kickass than it is though, the hardware inside isn't all that. I do not play any mmorpgs but now and then I screw around in Minecraft. Online games are not conducive to productivity, I'm afraid.

Do you believe in spirits? Not ghosts, or anything like that, but like Japanese Kami or Native American animal spirits.

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:28:59 -0400

I do not.

Was Unsounded the first title you had for the comic, or where there others?

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:28:38 -0400

Years and years ago it was called "Tanners" but that was in another incarnation, really. I did have problems coming up with a title after I changed the structure and focus of the story, but then "Unsounded" came to me and it was ambiguous and irritating enough to work perfectly :)

I'm the only person I know who doesn't need a book to make the screen higher, I'm too short for that. Say, what book do you use? Also, your mousepad is the same as mine (or at least close enough that I can't tell a difference)

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:24:11 -0400

That would be a collected edition of Twain's short stories and novels :) I really dislike the monitor on it, it's only a few months old and it's soooo short and absolutely unadjustable! Newegg is awesome but sometimes not being able to see stuff for yourself before you buy is the suck.

I've been whining too much lately. High five, mousepad bro!

Post a picture of your computer workplace and don't you dare tidy up before doing so!

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:34:56 -0400

Not terribly interesting today I'm afraid. I had a bunch of reference and model sheets spread around and on easels the other night, it would have been a better shot.

Sry, but again,How many pgs in Chp 6? You say a bad screwing by cliffhanger imposed and much gnashing of teeth and pitchfork tine ringing by sharpening(they do too, offkeyly!) by us the impatient and demanding hordes...Painful break, bwahahah kills us! JO

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 22:57:37 -0400

It's 84 pages, we're a little over halfway through. I had the idea to do a kickstarter and say if it went over such and such amount I wouldn't take a month off after this chapter or I'd only take two weeks or something but the freaking printers refuse to send me quotes so who knows what's up with that. Why do I have to beg these people to do business with me, I don't even.

If the world containing Kasslyne was remade in Tirna's tummy from Murkoph's seed (or mind-powers, for your sissy fraternal types) what would it be like?

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:16:07 -0400

Is the dramatic scene at the end of this chapter Murkoph leaping from Starfish's belly after finally having eaten his way out?

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:28:38 -0400

God, that would be awesome. And maybe he starts out as a chibi Murkoph and has to eat people in order to achieve maximum proportions, like with Mario and mushrooms.

Who is/was Anders?

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:41:52 -0400

I think it's the little kid's older brother. I know nothing more than that.

Has Duane actually ever eaten anybody?

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:14:45 -0400

Speaking of Cara, COULD Duane have healed her, if he'd had more time? Or were her wounds beyond his capabilities?

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:02:54 -0400

No, she was pretty doomed. Duane was trying to close off the arteries and keep the wound sterile but that's the best that pymary can do when it comes to tending to open wounds.

Are Anadyne and Knockers lesbians? Do they go with each other?

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:30:08 -0400

Nope, they're both straight. They're just best friends.

Looking at Duane, I just realized something. If Sette lost her magical protagonist armor and actually received critical injuries, could Duane even keep his head straight enough to treat/extricate her considering the blood? Hope Nary thought of that.

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:56:58 -0400

This happened in the first chapter when she hit her head. He didn't bandage it but he managed to put some ice on it before backing the hell off. You're right though, he'd have difficulties if she ever really presented a massive flesh wound. Of course, he didn't eat Cara and he was carrying her around like a Hot Pocket, so the man must have some self-control. Just depends how late in the day it is.

Do you follow any other webcomics? Unsounded is one of the two-dozen ish I read (but one of my favorites). I don't have a problem, I can stop any time I want.

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 03:18:31 -0400

I'm more of a print comics person. I read the first issue of Siegfried the other day, made me wanna gnaw my goddamn hands off, geez.

Will Duane be able to answer questions at the next chapter break? Or just Sette?

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 03:16:14 -0400

Since that formspring exists in nebulous AU space, it should be all right if it's both of them.

So hey I just saw that Vagrant Story was six bucks in the PSN store and I'm kind of considering buying it but I'm poor. Should I?

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 02:34:57 -0400

It's not for everyone. It's an RPG dungeoncrawler with a heavy emphasis on inventory micromanagement and weapon and enemy stats. The story is positively Shakespearean in that it's tragic, joyless, and a bit opaque, but it's very well written. It's my favourite game evar but I've met many people who couldn't get through it. If you like the sound of it though, pick it up!

It emulates perfectly on a decent PC and is playable via keyboard, though, so no reason to spend 6 bucks if you don't wanna.

Are you a lolicon?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:52:25 -0400

No.

Y-you have a blog?! What? Where?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:52:03 -0400

'Tis but a filthy tumblr that I only very rarely post to, and then it's to wank over fan things http://glassshard.tumblr.com/

"recedingus serratus hair-linus," Is that the technical term for Eph's spikey hairline?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:50:08 -0400

According to Vergil.

Is Chapter 7 coming from within Duane's perspective as he's dreaming/hallucinating at night while Sette's away following her nose to Stockyard's?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:48:46 -0400

Hmm.

Would you ever write a story set in the real world and present-day, without any fantastical elements?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:48:34 -0400

Oh, I have in the past, it's just usually porn :3

Reading your tumblr and your level of hatred of Korra saddens me greatly. There's no question in there, though... Er...Have you seen the comic con things about season 2?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:46:24 -0400

I've heard some news in passing on /co/ but I don't like the characters so I don't know what they can do to make me care about a second season other than genocide the cast and come up with new people. I don't even like how they handled the adult gaang (honestly I did not want to see them as adults, it's weird and fanficcy). It's cool though, anon, we all like (and dislike) different things. Lots of people like Korra just fine.

May I ask what chapter the page that you posted in your blog is from? It looks really interesting!

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:28:17 -0400

It's chapter 7! You got a while :)

The first three chapters will definitely get people hooked. And they'll either join us on the web or beg for more! Bow down to Sette or die terrified in a puddle of your own pee!

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:20:07 -0400

Ha, maybe. I just wish the third chapter ended on some kind of a hook. Chapter four has a great hook but it's far too long to squeeze in there. Chapter 6 ends on a gut-wrenching hook btw, I'ma get death threats.

For the record, I would support your KS. On to the question: have you heard of microdermal piercings? I found out about them just last week and it reminded me of Quigley's glasses holder (I don't remember the name!)

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:18:24 -0400

Thanks, man.

I have heard of microdermal piercings and have a friend who has one near the middle of her forehead, like a bindi. It is neat. I'm a big fan of body mods, I love all of it. I even like the crazy bastards who suspend themselves from hooks--

But I like it from the sidelines, in the shadows, terrified, nursing a milkshake.

Is it wrong that I think Ephsephin looks kind of sexy in that panel where he's getting his insides shredded? (Dem serratus anteriors......)

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:15:46 -0400

I never felt much one way or another back when I drew this page but everyone being so entertained by it today makes me feel terrible for Ephsephin XD He's not real, Glass, he's not real.

And the sexiness... no, not for me. He's all yours, anon. Him and his recedingus serratus hair-linus.

(By the way, when I enter "Ephsephin" into Google, the first autocomplete result is "eph sephin's hat"......)

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:11:49 -0400

All is right with the world.

So, Glass, all my favorite webcomic authors are getting married left and right. Are you gonna be the next one? tease

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:11:36 -0400

'Fraid not. Confirmed old maid. I do not mind my solitude and my ancientness. The other night I had dinner at Bob Evans all by myself and enjoyed it.

I dreamt that Ephsephin was still alive! We can still save him! (His stomach kinda looks like a jack-o-lantern face though.)

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:09:56 -0400

Maybe he IS still alive! It could have been a prophetic vision, Jacques.

Does Murkoph have something to do with Duane's death? I noticed he's a zombie too...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:09:33 -0400

Mysteries, mysteries! Don't let Murkoph hear you call him a zombie though, he'll bite your face off.

Are you planning to sell Unsounded as entire books, and not in just chapter mini-books? How many books did you say Unsounded was going to be, again...?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:08:54 -0400

Naw, the three books that comprise the story are entirely too long to fit in one volume, so I'm going to print a few chapters at a time. The first collection will be the first three chapters, the second collection will be chapters 4, 5, and 6, and so on. They will not be stapled floppy comics, they will be perfectbound trade paperback collections that look nice on a bookshelf :)

It you are doing a print version, will it be just chapter 1 or more chapters collected? I'd opt for a bigger book, 'cause International mailing costs are like death by rat trap and I'd bear it better if they wouldn't be thrice the price of the book...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 18:19:40 -0400

Oh, definitely. It will be the first three chapters. Ugh, international shipping x_x

Funny that other guy should mention it, but today's crossword asked for a 13 letter word for "Ouch", and "GYEAARUUUUUGH" fit perfectly. I think the editor must read Unsounded.......

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:27:57 -0400

Ephsephin sympathizer. Don't trust him.

Did you practice anything in particular to learn how to do backgrounds? Because your backgrounds are just absolutely stunning .!!

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:26:08 -0400

Thanks! I used to be pretty lame at backgrounds - and I still don't think I'm all that - but I'm really good at shaming myself into improvement. So shame yourself, call yourself names, that's the trick.

I'm sorry, but Unsounded makes my inner-child come out and squee. You mention print books as a mere possibility and all I can think of is Unsounded the pop-up book. Of course, I didn't sleep much last night...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:24:56 -0400

Pop-up books! I have an awesome Moby-Dick pop-up book. There's an enormous pop-up of the Pequod being destroyed by the Whale and it has little strings for rigging, and on the last page there's an enormous pop-up spyglass and you can look inside it actually see Ishmael on the coffin. It's seriously one of the coolest damn things I own.

It's amazing how you manage to both gross me out and thrill me at the same time, Glass. ... perhaps reading your comic can be likened to having sex with a zombie. :D

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:20:04 -0400

Thanks, Umbrae! :D Don't have sex with a zombie though, you will catch salmonella. It is not the consequence-free romp that Murkoph claims it to be.

Was that a Wild Wild West reference? :0

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:17:53 -0400

It could be ;) I'm one of three people alive who liked that movie.

"But then it turned into a nightmare when I decided I didn't have the readership to ever fund it successfully." Man, look. Do it. Do it. Look at Order of the Stick, he thought he'd barely clear and it made him a fucking MILLIONAIRE. SHUT UP AND KICKSTART.

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:01:02 -0400

I'm going to, I promise. I have a list of rewards and a printing quote, I just need to investigate the printer more and figure out how to make a video. It will happen! Or at least, I'll attempt it.

Look, Glass. I make 70k a year working an office job that I'm rather quite good at. You are a poor-ass artist making a comic I rather enjoy. I have no children or desire for them, a fully funded retirement account, and a lot of spare change. KICKSTARTER.

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:59:59 -0400

:O If I had that kind of money I'd build myself an enormous mechanical spider and use it to conquer North America. You are misdirecting your assets, sir!

What is a childhood movie you remember watching many times but found yourself never once sick of it? Mine is Dragonheart with Sean Connery as Draco! :D

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:58:43 -0400

The Crow. Labyrinth. Return to Oz. Commando. Tonari no Totoro. I could go on :3

Dragonheart is... okay. I didn't find the dragon terribly likeable, I think that was my main gripe with it.

KICKSTARTER NAOW PLZ

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:54:32 -0400

Man, if you were any good at business you wouldn't be an artist, so don't trust your business instincts. KICKSTARTER. WITH THE KICKING OF YOUR START.

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:54:27 -0400

Yessir.

Eph should know better than to lay hands on the merchandise.

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:54:08 -0400

Jivi don't suffer no fools.

OH MY GOD WHY ARE YOU NOT TAKING MY MONEY YET

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:53:48 -0400

I'ma do a Kickstarter soon, I promise. I gotta investigate the printer more and make sure he doesn't suck.

Eph's dying gurgle's text effects are very well done. Did you do them by hand?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:53:00 -0400

Thanks, I did! When I sent the psd to the nice guy who does the Russian translation I was like, man, sorry, this won't be easy! And then like ten minutes later he'd updated it and just plunked down a font that looked just fine :3 Chagrin.

I knew it! I knew that you were going to do that to Eph. ;__; I feel so bad for the guy, even if he is terrible. Question... Did you watch the Curiosity rover landing last night?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:52:13 -0400

I did! NASA scientists make me snicker.

Ephsephin becomes Murkoph, then goes back in time and makes love to that ghost guy, who gives birth to Sette. Murkoph falling in love turns him good, so he abandons his Murkoph persona and becomes Duane. IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:57:54 -0400

But Murkoph falls in love at least seven times a day and it's yet to turn him good. It only turns him towards frosting so he can slather it on the objects of his desire and devour them like Pillsbury toaster strudels.

What trait(s) would you not want your children to inherit from you?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:55:35 -0400

My obsession with misery and the void. My terrible fashion sense. My PCOD. My inability to whistle.

Does pymary have an actual scent and Sette's nose is super powerful? Or does her nose do double duty as a super sniffer AND a magic detector?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:53:39 -0400

Good question!

Glass! They're making How to Train Your Dragon 2, and there are whispers of a third. Are you excited/weary like me? Second question: does Duane know other glyphs that he studied perhaps? (Other than The Great Unsounded).

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:53:20 -0400

I saw that! I quite liked the first one so I have high hopes for the sequel. Kung Fu Panda 2 was mighty fine as well. Dreamworks rivals Pixar these days, easily.

Duane knows all the glyphs. Most serious wrights can read and write Old Tainish fluently.

What is that grip on Eph's bottle made out of?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:52:03 -0400

Some kind of woven fiber. Let's say rushes.

I just wanna point out that this aired on Cartoon Network little over a year ago.

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:51:27 -0400

Zeltoron is right. Everything is terrible.

Unsounded helped me with my crossword puzzle today! I knew "togs" and "scrim" because of earlier pages. :-D

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:50:57 -0400

Good show, old boy!

Have you ever written a fan letter? If so, who was it to and did you receive a response?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:50:33 -0400

When I was in fifth grade I wrote a fan letter to Joey from New Kids on the Block. I put some of my mom's perfume on it. He never wrote me back but that was okay since I had moved on to TMNT fandom a month later.

If you could relive one day from your life what day would it be?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:47:13 -0400

Max's second birthday party was pretty fun. I'd do that one again. Ahh, I miss Max.

*more nachos*

What was the last thing you daydreamed about?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:45:34 -0400

Putting together a Kickstarter to get the first volume of Unsounded printed. But then it turned into a nightmare when I decided I didn't have the readership to ever fund it successfully. Then I ate half a bag of nachos and listened to sad Enya songs.

Glass, why do you shower us with two pages? Why do you spoil us so? x)

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:43:19 -0400

I thought the two pages worked best together :) I'm debating on Friday's update, I can't decide if I should go one or two pages on that one. HMMM.

Found this at the pool. If I use it, I wonder if I'd get a Bastion. Wait, what if I crank it up to "15"? :o

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:14:31 -0400

It worked!

Oh, you beautiful person. I needed that laugh.

Is that a piece a paper sticking to Eph's cheek?

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:21:18 -0400

He tried to blot it as though he'd cut himself shaving. Our friend Eph is having an off day.

That question saying Eph might be Murkoph where you were like "...no." reminded me of a face x) teehee

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:16:42 -0400

I would never make that face to anyone I didn't plan on gutting within the next minute. It was more of a...

So, how do you pronounce Cresce? Like CRESH, or Cress-seh, or something else?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:15:09 -0400

I opt for CRAYSH. I like the monosyllabic fierceness of it. CRAYSH, MOTHERFUCKERS.

Oooh! Was it Duane that broke Toma's leg?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:14:02 -0400

No! XD

Sooo, Toma is cool I take it, but who broke his legs before he eviscerated three poor sods? Someone even cooler than Toma, those same guys, force of gravity, something else? On the side note, how do you say his name?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 16:29:02 -0400

"(cont) Because I'm always reading it as Tōma(Touma), affected by Japanese, but that is surely wrong, right?"

Naw, bro, you have it exactly. Long O. Toma's hero story will get told in the comic one day, for now you'll have to take Jivi's word for it that Captain Toma is not one to be trifled with :3

Birds, babies and breasts blend beautifully.

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:25:59 -0400

I agree.

Ephsephin is Murkoph? He's starting to look rather zombieish, at least.

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:14:27 -0400

...no.

How does Jivi manage in his state of sitting still all the time? Does he try to do some minimal limited exercise? Does he get enough bathroom breaks? And why do RBB care of keeping him alive at all?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:14:15 -0400

They snatched Jivi to keep their hideout clean and kill the rats, intending to cut him up like the others in the end. Then their hideout got discovered and Starfish had to go crawling back to Quigley. Starfish couldn't cut up Jivi with Quigley watching, Quigley wouldn't have it, but they couldn't just let him go either. So there he sits.

When you mean you watched the last POTC movie, did you mean the third one, or the fourth one with Johnny Depp as the main character? Second question: was Duane's RP death similar to the way he died in this Unsounded reality, or are they different?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 03:12:24 -0400

First question: It was "On Stranger Tides," with everyone looking for the Fountain of Youth. Which is a tourist trap in St. Augustine, actually, they should have asked me for directions. Second question: Completely and utterly different.

Glass, you make me hate sunday for being the extra day between friday and monday. Oh, a question; question... Is there "first" masses of every material or is there a list? Also you mentioned Last Exile. First water? Inspiration? I adore that show.

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:27:02 -0400

I should make a First Materials list, that's not a bad idea. There are fewer extant FMs than you might imagine - either the originals all degraded to the common materials in the world today or the source of them (often various senet beasts) have been driven to extinction.

Last Exile was great, wasn't it? The last few episodes were a little questionable but a series just doesn't feel enough like anime if it doesn't have at least a mildly disappointing ending. Unsounded lore predates Last Exile but that series did have some really fantastic world-building, didn't it? I loved all the uniforms and mechanical designs. Range Murata is a loligagger but he's also a badass artist. It's a crying shame about the sequel ;_;

Hey, you are American, What Season is it over thar?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:22:58 -0400

Paprika.

If you gave yourself a night off to relax, which you probably need, what is the list of things you would definitely want to do before the night was up?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:22:49 -0400

Well, I took a few hours off tonight to watch the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It wasn't half-bad! I guess my favourite relaxing evening entails making myself a decent dinner, then sitting down to a promising film with a cup of coffee, perhaps while pestering @AwesomIncarnate over AIM. Mine is not a complex soul.

Glooooooooooooooooooowfish! <3 I'm going to work tonight, then I'm going to an anime convention, then I'm going camping! I'm gonna miss an update for the first time ever, Glass! Two, actually! TToTT Right, question... glowing kedises: possible or no?

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:33:09 -0400

Those are good updates to miss, but don't miss anymore than two, it's gonna get good ;) But shit, girl, an anime convention and camping are better than a webcomic. Not that I'd wanna camp anywhere in Florida right now but I hear it's nice up in the Smokies.

Glowing kedises! With pymary, no problem. Would kinda make it hard for them to hunt mice though :3

Two questions: 1 the older characters page says that Quigley hates Matty. How come? I'd think he would not worry about securing his future if that was the case. 2 is this a coincidence that Quigley senior and junior have very similar names or a tradition?

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:21:07 -0400

The older character page is troublesome because I meant for it to be from Matty's perspective that his dad hates him. This is what Matty believes. Whether it's true or not is for time to tell. But the ambiguity of this is one reason I killed that character page.

Quigley and Matty actually have the same full name - Mathis Quigley. Sons and daughters are often named after their parents in Alderode, just like in our world.

Glass Oh Glass I finally got my internet back after a month, I'm finally updated with the comics I read, new firefox does not support Red Cats Blue Flavour yet, my keyboard feels strange for typing, everything needs updates, and I'm happy despise --

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:17:33 -0400

"-- all that, however, I am sad because I know I won't be able to catch up on formspring. So I'm a both happy and sad Stein because I'm missing stuff and your stuff is awesome and I want all of it D= Also I'm sure you didn't missed my smile spam at all~"

Stein! I wondered where you'd gone! And your smile spam :D I don't think I could ever survive not having the internet for a whole month. So many missed memes, so much missed tumblr indignation! I'm glad you're back :)

So Sharteshane has haunted catacombs, freaky glowy water and weird petrifying soil (how do they grow anything?), and Alderode's khert is Wrong... do the other countries have any weirdnesses about them to this extent?

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:15:40 -0400

M-maybe Alderode's khert is RIGHT and everyone ELSE'S khert is wrong, hmm? Hmm? Anti-Dammakhert bigot! Check your privilege!

I'm not sure if the other countries are as extensively weird as Sharteshane and Alderode but I suspect they are. Cresce is certainly weird in its own ways but I suppose it seems damn conventional compared to glowing pee and altered lifespans.

What takes you longer to draw- fancy splash pages, or complicated pages with lots of panels?

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:12:38 -0400

Probably the splash pages. A splash page is just one big panel blown up which means that a reader's gonna linger on it for a while. You can't half-ass it, you've really gotta go the extra mile and put the work in and not depend on the panel after it to draw away the reader's attention, if that makes sense.

So, if the water itself glows, why not just export that as a lightsource? You need to feed glowfish, which is a pain.

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:08:50 -0400

You need to feed lambence too, mate. Why d'you reckon Sharteshanian trees are all petrified? It's not the soil that does it, it's the lambent groundwater. Without plantlife to leech, the lambence slowly loses its glow. Besides, glowing fish are keen.

Your favorite Balthier scene in FFXII? Basch: Kidnapping royalty is a big offense. It won't help lower the bounty on your head. Balthier: How much is the bounty on your head these days I wonder? I'd write more, but I'm out of space. Tbh, I love all of it!

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:06:10 -0400

Oh, maaaaan, that's difficult to choose. My favourite overall scenes all have to do with Dr. Cid so I'm tempted to say maybe the "Oughtn't you run, you fool of a pirate?" scene (I know I'm misquoting that) but that's not really Balthier-centric enough. So I'ma say the prison scene where he gets in the fistfight with the seeqs. Is that what they're called? The pig guys. That was glorious.

>) Guess what I found? The writing is delicious. What was this about, if I may ask? The situation, that is. I know it's RP universe.

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:03:50 -0400

That play is actually so old I don't remember who they're talking about nor the situation, I'm sorry :( I'm pretty sure it was back in Keltara/Stormhaven since Grissom is mentioned, so that's pre-Sharteshane even. Super ancient. I'm guessing Vadne's player posted it up, that minx.

Vadne was interesting. She was a bit older, very sedate and homespun, and made her way as a seamstress. Compared to all the half-dragon half-angels and Mysterious Sluts in Bikinis that ran around Keltara, she seemed custom tailored for Duane and him for her. They met in Ye Olde Pub and crushed on each other for ages but it was very strange to play because obviously they very rarely even touched each other much less kissed or anything, yech. Eventually the necromancer who murdered and raised Duane showed up and kidnapped Vadne. In one of those epic RP moments that gets reminisced about for years, the villain took over control of Duane (who is a cleric, mind) and forced him to perform their wedding ceremony. Then he stripped Duane of his magic permanently and made off with his new unwilling wife. Ach, it was glorious.

If whore is a common job for plats but plat women don't work does that mean there aren't any female plat whores?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:26:14 -0400

There aren't a lot of them, but money will buy nigh anything, anon..

Comments on my analysis of the Aldish caste rankings? Are they sorta right?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:19:23 -0400

It was pretty close! I would rank Gold dead last these days though, and Plats only one notch above them. It's good to realise that all of the reverence heaped upon Plats keeps them cemented in place. The women can't leave their homes and the men are consigned to a very narrow selection of futures. They don't have the resources or the time to better their stations, and the attitudes of others towards them is obliging only so long as they're acting out their roles properly.

The kings of the crop, though, are the Copper and Jet. Four men make up the High Councillors that rule the country - two Copper and two Jet - and it's been that way for nigh seven-hundred years.

Will we eve get to see Sette's unedited memories?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:27:02 -0400

I don't think you really need to, if you stop and think what they probably are. But perhaps.

When will we get more Dwayne and Lion-tailed Future Empress answers?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:26:22 -0400

I only open that in-between chapters. You'll have to wait until this chapter's done :)

Mmm, could you tell me what order the caste go in from highest ranking to lowest in Alderode? I just got a little confused. Obviously, Plats first...then what?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:16:09 -0400

Officially there is no ranking. All Aldishmen are equal and discrimination is a heinous thing. Officially.

If you want longevity rankings, just check the wiki - http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php/Alderode#The_Castes

Glowfish are so cuuuuuuuuuuuuute! At least, it looks like they are. Almost as cute as kedises!

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:06:06 -0400

Why does Sharteshane's water glow? Does this include things that used to be Sharteshane, or just modern Sharteshane? Is it all of the water in Sharteshane?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:05:41 -0400

"Does glowing water taste different? Is it bad for you? Good for you? Tell me about more glowing animals!"

The glowing water (lambence) springs from Old Tawhoque, the sunken city that lies deep beneath the modern city of New Tawhoque, or Hanghorse, Sette's hometown. I'm not gonna tell you exactly why it glows because reconciling certain RP-related lore with Unsounded lore makes my brain hurt and often doesn't work so well, but it is a mostly harmless thing. Sharteshane has many weirdnesses in its environment, including soil that slowly petrifies almost anything you plant in it. So vast forests of stone trees broken up by glowing rivers are not an uncommon sight.

Most of the water in Sharteshane is tainted, though the glow diminishes gradually as one moves away from Hanghorse. Lambence is itself an important export since it has a slight khert-blocking property. In an amusing inversion, when one must brave a hostile khert field, one can put on something like a deep sea diving suit, only it's often made of some form of cheap First Material filled with lambence.

Lambence tastes mostly like water with a slight tangy hint of chlorophyll and fresh-cut grass. Some swear it's good for your health and can even heal sicknesses, but that's never been empirically proven. If you drink it, your pee will glow. If you drink it regularly, you will start to glow yourself.

Do you have an archenemy?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:46:36 -0400

Only myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd9OhYroLN0

The glowfish is now also the best character, with Chitz, Boo, the hats, Friendly Frozen Coffee, and (pending) Duane's beard. Tell us more about glowfish?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:45:46 -0400

There's a lot of bioluminescence in Kasslyne, much of it stemming from Sharteshane's lambence. Sharteshane's fresh water glows, have we talked about that? It glows, and it's glowed for a long time, and the wildlife that lives in it glows in order to camouflage itself. Sharteshane exports these bioluminescent critters west and now they're all over. Their glow is so strong and reliable and pleasant that they make a popular light source. Sette had a pair of glowfish in a globe back on the coverpage of chapter 4.

Glowing animals make me happy. Do they make you happy, Forumkedis?

From me to you, Glass. With lots of love! I have hardly any confidence in nearly everything that I create, so we'll see how this goes. Let's see if you remember what I'm referencing to with this scene :D hint: the title is in the tree

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:23:46 -0400

Aww, that came out great! I do remember that formspring question, and I'm pretty sure Sette is going to win this round. Poor beat-up Duane, he desperately needs new clothes, haha. Thanks for posting it, Ave, you are a super sweetheart <3

Okay, desperation question: what's the name of the font you use for the comic panels? ;_;

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:21:07 -0400

Anime Ace!

So, I'm not exactly sure what's going on in the first two panels of the last page. I can see that Ephsephin is turning on some sort of light, and I'm assuming it's driven by pymary, but what sort of light is it? It seems like a permanent pymaric (cont)

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:20:54 -0400

"(cont) like that would be kind of costly. Do the Berry Boys really have that sort of cash, or was it Quigley that whipped it up for them?"

It's a globe of water set in the wall with glowfish in it. There's a shutter over it to damp the light. Ephsephin flipped the shutter off to "turn it on." Common lightsource in this setting, drawn poorly because I am a combination of sucky and lazy.

Hello there! I came back from another long absence from the internet and got to read my way current in Unbounded all in one go. The "He's lucky you put up with him" "I KNOW" scene had me in stitches. Poor child-lover Duane.

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:18:20 -0400

First of all, I LOVE your comic--the art is gorgeous and the story is amazing! :3 I'm kind of confused about something, though. The Red Berry Boys are removing the internal organs in humans to smuggle stuff, right? How are these people still alive?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:12:39 -0400

The silver is keeping them alive. Well, alive-ish. The comic will talk more about this later but it's all rather creepy. Thanks for reading, man :)

^.^ Guess what? My drawing is done!! Now, pity me here, but I do not know how you'd like me to send it to you... Formspring? Email?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:45:16 -0400

Booyah! Post it here so everyone can see!

I've decided to use Unsounded as a preliminary screen for my suitors. They have to at least think it's good, but maybe not for every other day checking. Thoughts?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:44:55 -0400

I think this is reasonable. I, for one, will only consider dating a vampire of at least three centuries who has a Vagrant Story save file with a full set of Holy Dread Armour.

What are the most mind-blowing endings you've encountered in fiction? (Any media.)

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:38:01 -0400

I thought the ending to The Fountain was great. The visuals combined with the music was really transcendent, and then the quiet scene at the end in the snow made me bawl. Such a great movie, fuck the haters.

The ending of The Truman Show. Truman literally pounding his fist against the physical perimeter of his small world and then telling off God. Man, epic, and not something you woulda thought you'd see in a Jim Carrey movie.

The ending of the first Berserk anime. I had no idea that was coming. I think I had the shakes afterwards.

The ending of the Legacy of Kain series. I had never thought Raziel would go willingly into the Reaver and to this day I think maybe his change of heart was a bit abrupt, but it was still perfectly done and all the dialog supporting it was tops.

Obligatory: Vagrant Story. Hardin dying and Joshua speaking were so bawwww. Tieger staying behind to try and help Grissom... UNF. Ashley making a gift to Sydney of an identity he didn't need anymore (and that he had perhaps never really possessed) so Sydney could go and bring peace to himself and his father-- ach, so perfect. The long, slow, spiraling fall of Guildenstern's torso... Ahh, Vagrant Story. You redeem video games.

Huh. Duane was actually enjoying our questions. I thought he was growing weary at best, and offended at worst. You sure he wasn't getting tired of all the questions? But wait, I have to remind myself that he's gregarious. One of THOSE people.

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:26:01 -0400

As much as Duane may criticize and roll his eyes at people - including Sette - he'd be lost without company. When he's alone he just falls into a funk.

i'm still sorta new to figuring out how pymary and pymarics work, but could a simulcrum be made to be able to feel things? like attain the ability to touch? considering there are some that can shoot fire from their fingertips i guess i should assume not.

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:24:51 -0400

Most simulacrums grant their owner a degree of sensation but it's primitive, blunt, unspecific sensation. All they feel is resistance. Subtleties like heat and texture are lost on them. Better than nothin' though.

I love how in the last panel Sette's freaking out and there's lots of red and drama and then Uaid's just sitting there smiling like a bro. Also, hi, how've you been?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:27:47 -0400

Hi! A chatroom acquaintance finally got around to reading the comic the other day and decided that Uaid is his favourite character. Seems the most rational choice.

So, did the plat line get tacit casting independently, or did they somehow breed it up from the golds? Also, do plats get more mutations in their population because of their faster reproduction, or does the dammakhurt balance that somehow?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:26:55 -0400

I've not thought about the origins of tacit casting beyond "genetic mutation" in certain bloodlines; the details of that go a bit beyond relevance. I wouldn't say Plats are especially subject to mutations - at least, not any more than those that come with inbreeding, which unfortunately happens in some of the smaller villages. Plats are more frequently subject to plain old birth defects though, and are overall a frail, sickly people.

I sucked in two more people. They adore your comic and constantly ask me about the plot and characters ^.^ I feel like I'm with the 'in-crowd' since I actually talk to the author. Anyway, I'm telling everyone I know about this comic so you can haz more $

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:23:33 -0400

Thanks so much, Ave ^_^ I'm fairly miserable and down on myself lately, and it's always encouraging to know that at least I'm entertaining some people. You should charge your friends for information!

How long has Sette lived in the kennel?

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:10:10 -0400

A couple years.

Are there any noteworthy pymaric weapons that you can tell us about? A noble's weapon of choice in a duel, for example.

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:09:50 -0400

Ya know, I'm sure there are, but I don't really have any created yet to tell you about :)

So lots of spellery creates dangerous storms of un-reality. Do warehouses of pymarics reverberate weird happenstances?

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:08:52 -0400

Pymarics are always potential breeding grounds for remnants and ghosts. A whole warehouse of them will inevitably have a smoke eel problem.

Is the gene pool in Shartshane that shallow or does outside the dammakhurt breeding just squick Duance?

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:07:18 -0400

Duance.

Duane calls Shartes inbred cousin-tuppers the way one might call residents of backwoods Mississippi inbred cousin-tuppers. He's just being his charming self.

You mentioned that tacit casting was a particular mutation way back when. Does that mean it's not in all the castes?

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:01:31 -0400

Yeah, it's only been recorded among Golds, Plats, and Silvers in Alderode. It exists outside of Alderode as well though.

Duane wouldn't ruin a city normally, but if it was near dark, he found Sette's head on a pike, Crescian soldiers were hacking bits off him and he started having a flashback like Clint Eastwood in Firefox how much damage could he do?

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:25:47 -0400

Why do you want to hurt my zombie! D:

If Duane went out of his mind with despair and anger, he might set off a demolir and level the city, destroying himself and everyone in proximity. "Demolir" was the word I used in RP, not sure I'd keep it for Unsounded... but it's when you intentionally cause a contradiction in the khert so it explodes and fucks everything up. Suicide bomb.

Knockers has the same nose and general facial structure as Starfish. Is this a coincidence?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:01:39 -0400

Utter coincidence. If you asked Duane though he'd opine that everyone in Sharteshane is an inbred rodent, so Starfish and Knock are probably half-siblings from the same prostitute and don't even know it.

So, does sette know about the other cousins that are out and about? or is the addition of knock me down and anadyne's presence going to come as a suprise?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:59:23 -0400

Wait and seeee~

Your penetration of your readers' subconscious continues. I saw this picture and thought, "Sette lives and she's apparently in Spokane." Why are you making us crazy?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:11:51 -0400

Dance, monkeys, dance!

Is Knock-me-down more important or is she the same as Anadyne?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:11:24 -0400

Knock is secretly the main character.

The brunette Frummagem... is she important? Ish? Like, is she a real character, or a background type thing who happens to have a line? Can you tell us anything about her?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:44:05 -0400

Sure, that's Anadyne! She's a side character and not dreadfully important, but not a throwaway either. She's originally from Hanghorse, Sette's hometown, but went west with Stockyard years ago. She and Stock are good friends and cousins, but they also have a pretty strict working relationship, where Stockyard has been paying for Anadyne to learn pymary in exchange for her using those new abilities to aid his endeavours. She and Knock-Me-Down (the insane pink-haired lady) are who he sends out when he needs shit done right.

Why is the puppy in Sette's stall so delightfully faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Lookitit! It's FAT! I want to squish it and sleep on it and squish it again!

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:39:15 -0400

The best puppies are fat puppies :D He's a good guard puppy and always growls when someone Sette doesn't like comes into the stable. Invaluable!

Pardon, KNOCKERS Frummagem!

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:16:12 -0400

Clean off.

Tits Frummagem!

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:16:06 -0400

She'll cut your head off, mate.

AARRGGHH. Believe it or not, the speech balloons and where to place the words are takin' the longest. Everything else looks great. What takes the longest for you?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:18:59 -0400

Inking! I put the dialogue down and sketch the balloons while I'm doing the art. Seems to keep there from being too many problems with fitting stuff in.

Your Formspring page is "Very active" in my internet explorer. My Formspring feed is "Less Active" along with a recipe I looked at once. Is there something wrong with this?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:17:56 -0400

Yes! Stop using Internet Explorer :3

What's your favorite cover or adaptation of a song?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:17:29 -0400

Mary Fahl did a cover of the whole of Dark Side of the Moon. I don't know that it's my favourite ever but it's quite nice. I also prefer Judy Collins' Dark Eyes to Dylan's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv1t-sbhJOk

Are there any huge cats in Kasslyne? Or cats at all?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:14:15 -0400

No domestic cats. Most large cats are extinct.

Do you like scary movies?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:23:25 -0400

If they're also good movies! I have a bunch of questions in the box but I have to go back to work on a job! I'll be around later, 'springers.

Glass! I am bouncing around in my seat waiting for update! Why must it be a whole three minutes awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay (give or take)? I think I might be impatient.

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:22:46 -0400

So wait...if Stockyard is a girl, -and correct me if I'm wrong- then how is Duane gonna harm her? That whole code of ethics and how he doesn't harm women and children. He...can't...hurt...her...O.O

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:22:29 -0400

Stockyard is not a girl o_o That is not Stockyard.

Are two-toes communists like the talking dinosaurs in Dinotopia? I loved those books when I was little, they were pretty.

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 14:37:07 -0400

Dinotopia is awesome. Were the dinosaurs Communists though? I don't remember. Two-toes were egalitarian tribalists but now they're second-class citizens bound to the systems of whatever country they live in.

The vampire squids on your Formspring background look like those pymaric tentacle beasts. They're even blue! Is that why you chose that background?

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:49:56 -0400

They do! But mostly I just like oceanic critters, which is why they're also in my comic! Mm, I wish I had some early morning breakfast calamari.

There's already a special spot reserved in the Pantheon of Best Unsounded Characters for Duane's beard, along with Boo, Chitz, the hats, and Friendly Coffee.

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:49:06 -0400

Duane just has scruffiness in most of his flashback chapters. I like good jaw scruff on a man :3

Should I cave and get a Tumblr account? What is the appeal in Tumblr?

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:41:44 -0400

No, it is a silly place.

Are you a collector of anything?

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:41:33 -0400

Stuff to do with Ivalice. I wish I had the Balthier and Fran sculpture... sigh...

What do you suppose Silent Hill monsters do while they wait around for the 1 or 2 people per year to stumble upon them?

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:40:44 -0400

There's a popular school of thought that says the Silent Hill monsters are just regular townsfolk that the evil magic of the town makes LOOK like monsters to whatever poor, crazy person it is that's arrived for violent psychotherapy. It's probably true, but there are probably regular old ghosts and demons in the mix too. They spend their off hours devising puzzles and scattering health drinks and handgun bullets around town *_*

Okay, Glass. My sketch is done. And it looks AMAZING! I have only one question for you: would you like a background with it, or just Duane talking to Sette? It'll take me a bit longer if I do the background.

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 23:56:03 -0400

It is YOUR art! You must do what you feel looks best. :D

Does Duane feel a little guilty about slicing off that dude's hand? Does his sense of honor compel him to turn himself in or otherwise make amends?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 21:42:35 -0400

Nah, Duane doesn't feel even a little bit guilty about crippling that guard. Same with breaking Siwl's wrist. In his mind he was protecting Sette, and the Peaceguard are Crescian military: sworn enemies and fair game :/

Do you laugh easily, or is it just me whenever I read your responses. For example, the latest one with you eating McDonald's.

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 21:37:55 -0400

Kids and babies make me laugh so that video was golden, thank you XD

Otherwise I don't laugh easily! I get complaints when I watch movies with people because I never laugh where I'm supposed to and it reportedly makes them uncomfortable. I don't like mean humour very much, I suppose; making fun of people is shitty. I prefer wittiness and absurdity, so Stephen Colbert is my waifu. He did a bit last week where he decided he was going to be totally self-sufficient so he fired his crew and tried to do his show from his iPhone with a marker and whiteboard.

What is your favorite fast food restaurant?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:54:38 -0400

Tonight... I had...

McDonalds.

*sob*

That Silent Hill trailer makes me wonder what monsters have against tidiness. Do they not have brooms in hell?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:45:52 -0400

Anon, the untidiness makes it cool! :O

What happened when Sette took over for Duane and started writing garbled responses to the people on the Duane and Sette Formspring a while back? :) Did you have nieces or nephews over who gave you some mischief?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:45:12 -0400

Haha, no, I just thought it would be funny if Duane was having such a pleasant time answering questions that he lost track of the hour, night snuck up on him, and Sette took over. Probably won't happen again, alas, he's on to her.

Hey, I'm curious...what did Duane look like when he grew a beard? You know, before he shaved it off one morning in a fit of rage for being made fun of(?)...if I remember this correctly...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:43:47 -0400

He looked... like Duane with a beard! :D I would draw you a sketch but I want alive!Duane to show up in the comic first since he has a new look.

I'm now officially on vacation in beautiful Sunset Beach, North Carolina. Where do you like to go on vacation?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:42:30 -0400

Man, I haven't been on a proper out of state vacation since I was a little kid. Have fun, bird!

I noticed that when someone brings something up, something you don't wish to discuss, you often post a song or a clip of something to distract both us and to refrain yourself from answering :3

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 15:43:01 -0400

Have you seen the new Silent Hill trailer? I am brimming with rust-coloured excitement!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMWrZmD0AN4

Is Sette smelling the barrel she's behind, or Starfish?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 14:32:15 -0400

Starfish.

Will you tell me about the bird in Bastion's tattoo? I've got one on my wrist and realised I should know more before putting things on my skin.

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:43:36 -0400

Bastion's got two birds. The raven on his tongue has to do with the Ilganyag, the one on his back is the Winalils family crest, a sort of regal looking heron. He got it on his twelfth birthday and it could probably do with some touch-up but frig that he hates his family so not likely to happen.

Do wrights ever use pymary words/concepts in everyday speech? For example, using coordinates to give directions, or using technical jargon to describe a specific color?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:35:41 -0400

Sure, I don't see why not.

Hi, I'm drunk tonight and here's a thing that actually exists Unlike that other guy I'm smart enough to read your comic but I read too much manga and like a sad nerd half the time I end up trying to read unsounded right to left and it makes no sense.

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:35:26 -0400

...is he impregnating an ironing board?

Eeeee! I have Duane finished. Now I'm working on Sette. So excited to give it to you. It actually looks much better than I thought it'd come out :D Course...now that I've said this, I've jinxed my luck...hmm...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:35:00 -0400

*_*

We ever gonna get to see Jivi as a mariner? On the ship he was on? Are the characters gonna use a ship at some point in the story?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:34:53 -0400

I wonder.

I'm rereading. I noticed you changed some of the delicious dialogue of the first chapter (there may be more, but I'm on the first chappie rn). Was there a particular reason you changed it? I liked the line "You can't blame me for sporting with you" contd

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:34:38 -0400

"contd..Something to the affect of "Taking sides withe the map over me?! Base treachery!" and "Wh-what? Mad viper of a child!". There are more, lol, prolly in other chapters too, but I have to ask. Why? It was fine the way it was T.T"

Impressive memory! I did tweak some of the dialogue, largely in an effort to address criticisms and make things a little more polished. I haven't done anything beyond chapter 1 though. I plan to dive into the second chapter in the coming weeks and really do some trimming and editing and a bit of redrawing. I can't make myself print the comic if I can't find some way to make myself hate it less!

Is this journey ever going to take us to Alderode, or just Cresce?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:29:34 -0400

Oh, man, we gotta go to Alderode! Aldishmen bring the fun!

I could seriously listen to Adele's voice for thousands of evers. Who's a vocalist you can't get tired of, despite your adamant efforts?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:29:03 -0400

Peter Steele. I listened to Type O Negative a lot in college and even now I'll occasionally put on Bloody Kisses or something and totally gloom out. Somehow the music's become even better since he died. HE IS HAUNTING MY MP3s.

Well, Duane is probably gonna die (epically, of course). I mean, how else is that person initialed 'M.A.' going to get a hold of his journal writings? Right?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:27:25 -0400

Duane can't die. He's already dead! For better or for worse he seems to have attained immortality. Still, yours is a respectable theory.

Does Jivi's necklace combine with Sette's necklace to unleash some super-powered weapon?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 02:17:44 -0400

No XD Haha, Jivi's necklace is just a boatswain's whistle.

What's that necklace Jivi's wearing at the start of Chapter 3? Also, will we get more cool, trippy manga-style dreams from him?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 01:22:35 -0400

Probably! I like dream sequences, they are super fun. And you'll know what that necklace is by the end of this chapter.

Is that cylindrical shape Starfish is holding some type of booze-shooter?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:55:41 -0400

Yep. It's just a drink.

I'm sorry, I really don't get the last panel of the latest page. What is it exactly that Sette's picking up? There's nothing wrong with the comic, I just shouldn't try and read it drunk.

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:33:09 -0400

Sette's never met Starfish yet she smells Ephsephin, the Quigleys, and all the gore of the crypt on him. Stands to reason he's one of the Red Berry Boys. Him coming out of Stockyard's place may be an indication that Stockyard is buying whatever they're smuggling, or worse. Sorry it didn't make sense.

Well, it's been fun, but I am too dumb to read your comic. I'll be back after I've mastered How To Read Comics.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:58:55 -0400

Do you think we will we be surprised by the amount of characters that will be killed by the end of the comic?

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:37:09 -0400

Hrmm, surprised? I suppose I cannot please everyone, but I think my deathlist is of a moderate length. I definitely do kill characters though, even characters I adore. Everyone has to die sometime, and one of the greatest gifts you can give your character is a meaningful death o_o

Then again, she could go with planB, calm and polite, writ large. How much damage could Duane inflict if he went apeshit in a Crescian city? From what we know of Pymary, quite a hell of a lot. Like deliberately set fire to the Khert, the works.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:33:15 -0400

Enh, Duane wouldn't go apeshit on a city. It would inevitably harm women and children, and he took an oath at the Academy to never intentionally bring harm to the khert. He's much more likely to seek Stockyard out directly and rip him to pieces face to face. That's if Sette unwisely lets him discover there's a connection between her cousin and the RBBs, of course, but that wouldn't be very smart of her to do before she's settled her business with him. Sette knows Duane fairly well at this point and has a good idea what she can and can't get away with around him. If he finds out Stockyard's working with the slavers, there won't be much she can do to convince her zombie to back off.

So Starfish is Stockyard Frummagem? How is Sette gonna get her Jukrum now when her attack zombie is gonna want to kill everyone in the building? Oh, the (in)humanity.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:39:15 -0400

No, Starfish is not Stockyard. Your second question is a good one though, this definitely complicates her task.

In these last couple of pages Nary has creeped me the hell out. Don't know if that's what you wanted, but that's what happened. shivers alone in a corner

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:23:08 -0400

Nary isn't so bad. Just don't ever piss him off.

I had a dream last night that Jivi, an older Matty, and I were all at the same university and we became friends on the train ride there. Unsounded has officially invaded my subconscious. I just thought you should know.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:22:40 -0400

Finally I can cross that off my bucket list \o/

So, Nary came into possession of a unique, pymarically augmented beastwoman child, and his first instinct was to molest her? This guy is basically a /b/tard.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:16:40 -0400

Uh, what makes you think Nary molests Sette? I don't mind saying outright that he doesn't.

What do you dislike about living in America?

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:10:20 -0400

The lack of affordable healthcare is a big issue for me, personally. I could see it not mattering to someone who was in great health though.

The hell is up with the scribbled over panel on the left? That a visual metaphor thing with Sette's memory? Heh, she may not be afraid to die, but she hasn't seen the long roads you can take to get there. The -lucky- ones get the noose or the axe.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:07:13 -0400

There's a lot of scribbling going on when Sette remembers old conversations. Other flashback scenes have had it too. Interpret it as you will o_o

This is Yasha, he's from Asura's Wrath. And it is actually a game but its not very interactive. Watching it is about as good.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:05:32 -0400

Hmmm.

Starfish has really shapely calves. What's his secret?

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:05:21 -0400

Strap fifty pounds around your waist and go for a walk. Great work-out.

"Getting caught with that girl was the best thing that coulda happened to him" Wait, what? What girl? Did I miss something? I didn't see anything in the update. Daaaw, Duane fell for someone?

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:04:27 -0400

Old Formspring topic, pay it no mind :)

HI GLASS! I'm super excited because I'm working on a sketch for you! It's a reference to a previous answer that Duane and Sette both responded to. Hopefully you'll like it. My writing skills far surpass my artwork, but...I couldn't resist. Be merciful :3

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:04:13 -0400

Yay! Fanart!

That's a male prostitute with Turas, right? I like little details like that telling us things about a character without spelling it out.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:04:01 -0400

Also, an excuse to draw a cute male prostitute. Poor Turas is so ugg.

Maybe Duane just decided to join in on Nary's adventure because he thought it was hopeless and he would get re-dead. He doesn't actually care about Sette at all and will eat her in the morning because he's made it to a sufficiently dangerous place.

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:03:07 -0400

I think it would have been more efficient for him to just go wandering through a battlefield during a heavy bout of bombing, but you could be on to something. Who knows, who knows.

OMG WHAT DO YO UTHINK OF KRISTIN STEWARD CHEATING ON RIBERT PATTERSON?

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:14:10 -0400

We are bonobos.

Did getting caught with the girl (indirectly) set off the chain of events that led to his undeadification? Maybe if he lived a quiet life as a cop or khert monitor, he could have avoided that entirely..........

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:41:19 -0400

That's true! He never would have been in a position to become what he is now if he hadn't left the academy for the army. It's a mixed bag, I guess.

Army adventures with bowlcut Duane would make a great sidestory.

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:10:30 -0400

No bowlcut D< He has sexy hair now! Long, flowing, Fabio locks!

(not really, he's still a doofus)

When will we hear about Duane's time guarding the border?

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:54:06 -0400

His army adventures? I've not yet decided.

If Duane had never been caught trying to make baby silvers and bronzes, what would the rest of his life have been like?

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:45:23 -0400

He wanted to go work for the Window as an Aseptic, tracking down rogue wrights and smashing their faces in. I'm not sure if he would have made it or not though. I don't think his scruples would have meshed well with the requirements of the position. Probably he would have been rejected, gone back to the suburb he was a boy in and opened an artificer's shop, or gotten a government job as a cop or khert monitor. Really, getting caught with that girl was the best thing that coulda happened to him.

I shall come to live in your house and flat your pages, massage your feet and cook you nutritious meals, all to get my green card. Our relationship will be formal at first but eventually we shall bond over our shared love of doggies.

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:51:59 -0400

Green card? Unless you are living somewhere truly atrocious you don't want to live in the US. I want to get OUT of the US!

Glaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaass? What are your standards of anime male hotness?

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:51:05 -0400

I like bishounen :/ But not kids. So Dio from Last Exile was bishounen but far too young. Alex Rowe was bishounen but spot on. I know there is the label of biseinen for older pretty boys but they are usually not pretty enough. So bishounen, mid-twenties, preferably moody, antiheroes are okay and so are villains, good fashion sense, no ridiculous hair please, great VA..

I'm sorry! I'm shallow! I have no pride.

What was it like for Duane when he learned to cast and control his first spell (technically second spell, since the first is learning to shut your pymary-mouth off!) ? The power and all...what was that like for him? Epic, I bet.

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:16:54 -0400

Duane's not a typical example of a wright. He's a tacit caster and tacit casters are nearly always innate, meaning they don't need to be Rited and are born with an input connection to the khert in place already. So Duane was doing little spells on the sly as a pretty young kid, egged on by his grandfather who was kind of a troublemaker. But those first early spells were pretty fun and Duane was not so saintly that he didn't use them to prank other kids. He got his ass whooped a lot by his mom and dad for it...

When it came time to learn in an official capacity, it was all fairly tame. Duane got his pymary start in a seminary, so they weren't exactly teaching the kids mountain punches. The powerful stuff came when he transferred to a real Academy a few years later; when he advanced beyond the mundane stuff like Aspect switching and got into sophisticated pymary like hacking perceptive spheres for relative glamours, and delving into the khert for scraps of ghosts to weave into AI for pymarics, or using range-extending equipment to change the weather and burn spells... that's when he got a little power trippy.

Still, his ahem, illicit activities in school wound up yanking him off the path towards sophisticated pymary and put him in the army, where combat pymary was the more useful skill. After that he never really got into sophisticated pymary at a professional level and had to pursue it on the side, researching and writing and submitting papers and proposals as a pasttime.

Have you watched Asura's Wrath? It's a pretty exciting show.

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:59:21 -0400

Wiki only says it's a video game. There's a show? I require at least one hot man in any anime show I will tackle so does it meet that requirement. Yes, I am a shallow twat.

How did Nary find out that Duane was a zombie?

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:15:21 -0400

The beginning of this saga will be flashbacked to one day. I promise.

Is Nary really a bad father?

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:56:58 -0400

That's for you to decide.

Duane had some friends in RP, but did he have any in this universe? You don't have to say who if it's a part of an upcoming chapter or something. I was just wondering. Seems more to me like the loan ranger type. I could be wrong tho.

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:56:46 -0400

Duane's a lone ranger now out of necessity but in life he was a very social, gregarious sort with plenty of friends, though they were mostly fellow clergy and soldiers in the Temple. He doesn't like to be alone. He's one of THOSE people.

Nary's manner with Sette is different when they're alone, right? I see less threats and cuffing and more honest talk. Can't show weakness in front of the troops, I suppose.

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:54:08 -0400

Did Sette draw some of those adorable little scribbles around the kennel?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:53:48 -0400

A few, but mostly they're advertisements or posters she swiped from around town and hung up.

What's the strangest/grossest thing you've ever referenced a drawing off of?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 20:54:24 -0400

Photos of infected pustules. Go ahead and type pustules into Google Images.

How did the hiring of Duane for this quest go down, exactly? Did Nary pop into the scrivening office and give him a fistfull of persuasion?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:58:08 -0400

I'ma draw this one day, no worries.

Did'ja miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss me? Should I engage in a two-hour inane question storm to make up for my absence? What day is it? Why would I base my knowledge of days of the week on something that requires an internet connection to access?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:46:48 -0400

Forumkedis! Have you been off having fun with horses?

In D&D (Old DnD anyway) wizards learnt their spells and then forgot them when they used them so they had to re-learn them every day. So they carried their spellbook with them. Game mechanism to keep the spell slingers from being too overpowered, really.

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:46:13 -0400

Yeah, I remember that from some DnD game I played... Baldur's Gate maybe? It's kind of goofy, like wizards have the memories of goldfish. Declaring that spells require stamina (or mana/MP?) and giving a wizard a number of stamina points per day seems slightly less inane. How does new D&D do it?

What is the first spell an aspirant learns in old tainish? In D&D it's Read Magic, 'cause handwriting is a big deal for wizards in that game. In Diablo I guess it's firebolt? I dunno I just googled it. Harry potter is levitate. This list is dumb, I'm sad.

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:36:32 -0400

Leviosa! Do D&D wizards write spells like doctors write prescriptions? Read Magic sounds crucial.

First an aspirant has to learn Old Tainish. You won't get very far if you don't know the language. After that they get rited - meaning they're actually granted the ability to use pymary - and the first spell they learn after the ceremony is how to shut their pymary off so they can start learning without accidentally blowing up the world :D

Don't say you're a bad writer again. Nary's perfect dialog as he lectures Sette over the kennel wall like she's more pet than daughter, the framing of her face against his gesturing fist... SO much is communicated on that page. Extremely well crafted.

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:21:03 -0400

Thank you T_T

Not a question, but the Great Unsounded is a really awesome and evocative name. Even better than Unsounded. It sounds like oceans and deep caverns and crazy secret khert stuff in remote places.

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:02:39 -0400

Thanks <3

Could one use pymery to produce a beautiful singing voice or catchy dance moves?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:02:30 -0400

I'm not sure pymary is any good for producing talent where there is otherwise none :3

Do I spy a picture of a lion in Sette's room? I think I do, and it's awesome!

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:01:55 -0400

Most of the stuff she has hanging up are advertisements she ganked from around town. The lion on the board leaning against the wall is an old circus advertisement that I actually have myself. I bought it from an antique shop and it is one of my favourite things.

How do you feel about summer?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:00:26 -0400

It is HOT and it makes my power bill jack up two-hundred percent because of the air conditioner and I HATE it.

What I mean to ask is "Why do horses not exist?" I'm sorry if that wasn't clear.

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:19:56 -0400

Why did I choose to have horses not exist? No specific reason I suppose. Using dogs just seemed more fun :) I have nothing against horses.

What does Nary think of Sette wanting to sleep in the kennel?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:11:22 -0400

Nary lets Sette do whatever she wants as long as she pays her jukrum and is around when he needs her. He's a pretty laid back dad.

There a reason why there are dogs as mounts and not horses? (I don't mind, I'm just curious.)

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:10:54 -0400

Horses don't exist!

ER MAH GERD. She sleeps wit' the pups. I'd lurv that beyond redemption. I used to do that way back. I'd stumble in the dark to the kitchen and hug my doggies until I fell back asleep if I felt crummy. Hmm, the smell might be something fierce, though.

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:03:19 -0400

I can't sleep with my dogs, they are twitchy and Carter likes to roll in dead stuff outside and so always stinks like a Resident Evil zombie dog. I approve of hugging dogs however.

Sette finds the clean stink of dogs preferable to the sour stink of the Frummagems inside and all their rotten pymarics and pipes and groin sweat and cheap perfume and cheaper cologne. Dogs smell -awesome-.

While working at Godiva, I've actually discovered that the kind of chocolate a person likes says a lot about them. What kind of chocolate do you like?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:35:01 -0400

Well, I am a lady of modest means so I don't really eat fancy chocolate. But I like an old fashioned Hershey's bar with almonds if that's helpful at all. I don't discriminate when it comes to chocolate though, I will devour any and all varieties of it save for white chocolate, which was allegedly responsible for 9/11, was a key ingredient in Agent Orange, and was adopted as a symbol of the Khmer Rouge.

What would it do to society if people figured out a way to apply firstness to new things? (also what happens if the firstness only could be done to humans)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:25:00 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3ZOKDmorj0

Any special reason First Silver is the bes rather than, say, First Gold or First Platinum?

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:19:00 -0400

Back in RP, silver in general was a big deal since I played so many undead characters. Silver weapons traditionally in fantasy are potent and painful to the undead so Duane and Murkoph and others were always very leery of them. Murkoph had a serrated silver knife he carried around specifically for torturing Duane, in fact.

For Unsounded I wanted to carry over the specialness of silver but give a solid reason why it was so devastating. A properly enchanted First Silver weapon disrupts the khert so profoundly that there is no fiercer, faster way to completely obliterate a pymary-driven construct, ghost, or creature.

Artificer at heart here. I'm thinking a simulacrum made up of a kaleidoscope of first precious gems would be impossibly expensive, but support dozens of auxiliary functions. Can a pymaric be designed to enact a traditional tainish song effect on command?

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:14:55 -0400

You want a singing simulacrum? If you have the room in the First Material for it I see no reason why not. I had to decide a few months ago if I could have recorded sound and it seemed reasonable enough since the khert can act as storage space. I just think the sound would be pretty tinny and shallow like old wax cylinder recordings. Just remember, Mr. Artificer, that First Silver is the BEST material. Gems are great, but an arm built of solid silver could hold up the sky while singing you the whole of Madama Butterfly.

Are pymaric prosthetic limbs swappable, or are they bound to a specific user? For example, would it be possible for someone to swipe a fancy First Silver super pimp gauntlet arm off an unsuspecting mark to replace their own crappy First Plywood one?

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 03:13:04 -0400

I'm thinking they're bound to a user but not profoundly. That is to say, you could gank someone's simmie and then take it to an artificer who could tweak the enchantments to customize it to you.

My character Will had a really cheap wooden simulacrum at one point. He got into a fight with a guy and the guy's friends held Will down while the other dude physically ripped the fake arm off his shoulder. Will's arm was surgically attached and used a lot of his own bodily Aspects to function better - body heat, traction for its fingertips, mobility from his joints, etc. When it was ripped off him, the cheap enchantments exploded and lashed the other guy like a flailing white-hot strand of barbed wire, jellying his eye and shredding his face. So be careful about stealing people's prosthetics :3

We know that wrights can make pymarics capable of interfacing with human neural system. Would that also mean that they can control people as puppets (by feeding fake control impulses into their nerves similarly); or just give them predefined commands?

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 03:04:09 -0400

It's a good progression of thought. I'm wondering, though, if a person's nervous system wouldn't give precedence to existing nerves over inserted foreign impulses. That is to say, if all a person's body and nerves are intact there is no gap through which to exert control and the nervous system will recognise and reject all other intrusions. This seems like a physiological mechanism that would be very crucial in Unsounded's khert-driven world.

Of course we know plods must function very similarly to how you're saying, but their bodies no longer have functioning safeguards against intrusion. They can't fight off exterior nervous impulses any more than they can fight off vultures or encroaching bacteria. It stands to reason that in a world of ghosts and pymary, living bodies must have the same physiological protections against psychic and nervous intrusions as we do against infection. But just like a laceration in our skin provides a pathway for bacteria, a large enough gap in the physical nervous system provides a pathway for the enchantments of a simulacrum.

Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

Is the Great Unsounded Murkoph's MOTHER?!?

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:50:59 -0400

Murkoph is too badass for mothers. Murkoph gave birth to himself.

SECRET UNSOUNDED SPOILERS ALERT: Chapter 7 is 15 pages, and covers a time span of 10,000 years. Very experimental.

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:50:22 -0400

Why do you hate meeeeee

I can't wait for Duane to go off the wall again. It's fun to watch. In fact, I want to be the announcer like they do it in soccer. "Double Kill. Triple Kill! Overkill!! Killtacular!! Killing Spree!!! Kiltrocity!!! Kilimanjaroooooooooooo!!!!!!!"

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:49:41 -0400

I will look for you in the comments section when it happens, then :)

Have you seen The Dark Knight Rises yet?

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:49:04 -0400

Nope. Trusted sources have assured me it's not worth seeing so I'm giving it a pass.

So when people cast, is it in Old Tainish, or does the khert understand new Tainish to an extent?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:13:13 -0400

Nope. It's gotta be Old Tainish.

Does Tainish recognize different genders in it's language, or is it like English: gender-less?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:52:02 -0400

New Tainish is genderless. Old Tainish has six noun forms - male, female, neuter, animal, sacred, and unliving. One day I will sit down and really start fleshing out Old Tainish more but it will not be this day.

How do you say the word "Tainish" in Tainish? What about "I'm attempting to learn Tainish because you are so inspiring"? :)

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:16:45 -0400

Tairet. "Ssomal mae mellasa ssomun pulina ssom tollomen dalim tairet."

You don't want to learn Tainish, it will not look impressive on a résumé! Learn Mandarin.

If you were able to hire someone to help out with one thing in your life what would it be? Ex. cooking, cleaning, a business assistant, etc.

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:01:17 -0400

Someone to flat my pages and massage my feet.

How many pages are in this chapter, and what sort of timespan does it cover?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:27:05 -0400

84 pages, covers the next hour.

Your comic makes me look forward to the end of the weekend. Sundays are great and all, but not as great as an update!

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:56:18 -0400

Thanks so much, anon T_T It is for you that I strive!

I am bored at work and looking at videogame concept art. Some of Demon's Souls/Dark Souls kinda reminds of yours in a way. This is good; because Demon's Souls owns bones. http://i.imgur.com/ru7ea.jpg http://i.imgur.com/VpxwC.jpg

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:22:12 -0400

I'm really jonesing for that to come out on PC so it can kick my ass :3

So.........is the "Great Unsounded" really great, or is it just kind of cool?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:12:47 -0400

Damma opaenimelefh ssomun ssalimelefh - wasikhil DAMMA ssalimelefh - e denaobüd ha tooklimun nalo mallilefhagefh llo la.

TIL that there's a mineral called galit (transliteration from Russian, English name is halite). Is Duane per chance made of it?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:10:24 -0400

Possibly...

So, has the gender confusion over Timofey made you go back and add gender-clarifying dialogue? "Gasp! I just saw a ghost! A male ghost! Of the masculine persuasion! Presumably with a penis and other dude bits!" You could fit it in.

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:10:01 -0400

I don't mind people confusing Timofey's gender! It makes sense because he's MEANT to be androgynous. He can't help it, it's how he was designed. But thinking he might be Sette's mother? x_x

Is it too much of a spoiler to ask how Duane's personality changed from life to undeath? I mean, other than the crippling depression.

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:08:40 -0400

Actually? I think you'll see it hasn't changed as much as you might think. It's that personality and that attitude that have helped him endure. But yes, the crippling depression and the underlying hopeless despair are new.

You're coy about the "Great Unsounded" now, but I bet 90% of what we need to know will be answered on Formspring within a week. :-)

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:06:10 -0400

Haha, anon, you made me laugh aloud. How well you know me :3 I have to treat this one like Murkoph though: no questions! It's a mystery! Be strong, Glass!

Hi. I'm the anon who asked forever long ago about finding an rp group. I just wanted to let you know that I found a good one, and am having a lot of fun. Thank you for your advice! (Also Unsounded is the best)

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 03:04:19 -0400

Excellent! Have fun playing. Torture someone pretty and think of me~

UWAAA! Can a man ever just be friends with a woman?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 02:33:55 -0400

Definitely. I'm friends with some very awesome guys :) It helps if they're married though and if you only talk to them online.

No questions about Murkoph? What about questions about questions about Murkoph?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:39:28 -0400

This... is a possibility. I like this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poHngHmGzkY

So I noticed that you think people should discuss politics more and be more aware of them. Hmm...I guess that wasn't really a question. But here's an imaginary soap box if you need one :3

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:36:54 -0400

Hohoho, thanks but I'll pass. Me da ever says don't shit where ya eat.

:3

Do you read every comment on each page that is updated?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:17:49 -0400

Absolutely.

Wow. So "Unsounded" is actually a thing within the comic, not just a snazzy name?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:16:17 -0400

Yep!

Are you excited for the new series of BBC Sherlock or what?! Cumberbatch, Cumberbatch, Cumberbatch. I like saying that name.

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:16:06 -0400

Not -quite- as fun as Humperdinck. Humperdinck Humperdinck Humperdinck! :3

But yes, I'm looking forward to it! It's a while off though, no? Next year at least, I think.

I approve the new profile picture. You get to keep living. For now.

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:56:11 -0400

*cowers*

I noticed Boo and Duane's relationship in your RP 'verse, but what does Boo think of him in this reality?

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:54:35 -0400

Boo doesn't have eyes for anyone but Sette at this point. Duane is just another of Sette's pets, like Boo himself :3

At least tell us this, is the pattern on the beak significant or decorative?

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:40:31 -0400

It's the oldest known symbol in the world, the Old Tainish glyph for the Great Unsounded. Don't even try askin' about that yet :)

Intensely nervous? You? Bah! What -you're gonna worry that we won't like the plot turns, the focus on Duane, or the art? A case of the nerves usually derives from doubts. Don't tell me you're doubting your genius...

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:19:53 -0400

Muuuh, chapter 7 makes me nervous because it breaks sharply and suddenly away from the main plot and goes off into the weeds. I should be more confident but that is not in my nature.

The new avatar is Final Form Sette, I'm calling it now.

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:07:40 -0400

Ya think? She doesn't strike me as particularly avian, personally.

I assume that new profile pic is a two toe? How exactly does one go about tattooing something like a two toe beak?

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:16:26 -0400

It's not a toe toe actually, it's kind of a bird. A bird with teeth.

No question, just love the new avatar. <3 <3 <3 Resumes camping out for the next update

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:15:55 -0400

Ha, okee :3

Is First Silk made from senet silk worms? How could enough of it have been harvested to be the more common First Material, before the next generation came about, making it (I assume) Second Silk?

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:15:34 -0400

There is no next generation. Senet silkworms metamorphose from worm to moth to worm again in an endless, perfect cycle. Handlers know when they're ready to emerge from their cocoons and the creatures allow them to unravel them and harvest the silk. The relationship between the silkworms and their keepers, and the healthy population of worms, are why the silk is so common.

I dunno what to make of it. The beak makes me think of Duane, with the grey and drool and the split is like his hood. Is that Sette hair? The eye is Murkophy colors. The birdiness and swirly symbol is Bastionesque. What’s the crazy level in ch 7 anyway?

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 20:18:11 -0400

So crazy that it makes me intensely nervous. I do like the art for it so far, at least.

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 19:49:47 -0400

Since Duane saw the hallucination of the Black Tongues operating on Cara, how come he doesn't go after them too? Or is it like "one step at a time. First the Red Berry Boys, then the Black Tongues"...?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:38:14 -0400

Mm, firstly, Duane did not see Cara's hallucinations - they were solely Cara's which is why they stopped when she died. Secondly the Black Tongues did not operate on her, it was the Red Berry Boys. It's possible the RBB are working for the Black Tongues after what Toma revealed but then Starfish said to Jivi that he's working for a Frummagem, so who can say.

Wait, n-no. No, that is not Sette's MOTHER! Hahaha, that's a poet who died tragically...I-it's on your devArt, G-glass! Auuugghhh, stop trolling my nerves. You scared me :'(

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 18:38:35 -0400

You should give your male characters big manly beards so people don't confuse them with chicks. :-)

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:04:49 -0400

I don't mind people confusing genders, it makes me laugh, but Sette's MOTHER?

If Duane's a zombie because Murkoph bit him..........THEN WHO BIT MURKOPH?!?!?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 15:51:39 -0400

Maybe the blue ghost who is possibly Sette's mother..? Go look at the comment section on today's page.

...Sette's MOTHER?

..........(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 15:16:12 -0400

<3 <3 <3

Favorite olympic sport? Also, are you going to watch the olympics at all this year?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 15:16:02 -0400

No... Competitive sports have never really been my thing. I'd much rather watch a process video of a painting or someone speedrunning Super Metroid on Youtube :D

That tentacle beast got like, butts on the tips of it's fingers... Are those for what I think they're for?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:55:04 -0400

I was looking over in devArt (And your works are beYOND stellar) I was wondering, would Duane be as affectionate and huggy with Sette if she weren't a kid? (The girl definitely needs more love) but would he think it was more inappropriate or something?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:53:41 -0400

Well, yes, naturally. The Aldish are pretty stuffy and formal when it comes to relations between men and women, and hugging a woman who isn't your wife or a family member is not really done. Duane's always been huggy around kids though, even as an RP character. He can be as affectionate as he can be violent; he does everything in broad strokes, I guess.

0___0?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:48:41 -0400

@_____@

I figured out how Duane became a zombie when I hit your 404 page, Murkoph bit him, it's obvious, in hindsight.

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:30:02 -0400

O__O

Last time I asked, you gave a definite "no" to the Sette killing question. Trouble keeping all your lies straight in your head? They always catch up to you, you know. ;P

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:29:55 -0400

o__o

it's "hear, hear". Sorry, pet peeve.

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:29:47 -0400

.__.

"Aquatic Ambiance" is the best Donkey Kong Country track. It would fit equally well in a documentary, horror movie, or porno.

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 11:13:43 -0400

Here, here!

Also, a genderswapped 50 shades of grey does sound rather appealing... I could really sink my teeth into that as well.

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 02:42:26 -0400

Genderswap all the books!

I have indeed read 50 Shades of Grey and am about halfway through the 2nd one. It's terribly written and smutty. I love it.

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 02:42:03 -0400

When I went to the dentist last week she wanted to talk to me about that book as her hands were in my mouth. Why do dentists do that.

Secret of Mana music always plays in my head when I read Unsounded, which makes me nostalgic for my days playing Super Nintendo as a kid.

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 02:41:26 -0400

Secret of Mana is one game I never got around to but I do enjoy the soundtrack. I think the SNES soundtrack I listen to most frequently anymore is Donkey Kong Country. It remains sublime.

Is there a specific thing in nature you feel a specific tie to? Storms, trees, mountains, lakes, et cetera?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 02:39:06 -0400

Clitorises.

I vote that you write a 50 Shades of Grey parody set in the world of Unsounded. Duane IS the cold, calculating and gorgeous galit with a dark and troubled past. Sette IS the young, naive, college graduate who falls for him. Love, pymary and tentacles

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 19:11:08 -0400

"abound in the thriller of the year. Sprinkle perverse pymarics around for flavoring. You could make millions and it could actually be well written, unlike 50 Shades."

No. Sette would be the cold, calculating, gorgeous one with the fetish for sadism. Duane would be the naive college graduate that falls for her. THAT story I would consider writing :3 Did you actually read 50 Shades, Fakult? I am shocked and appalled.

Has Sette actually killed anyone before?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:04:42 -0400

I wonder.

I can't help but think I saw this in the Duane+Sette formspring but how did that shop have a shirt identical to to Sette's first one?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:44:10 -0400

Comic book magic, my friend~

Will the origin of Sette's biology ever be defined or is that a mystery forever?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:26:52 -0400

All shall be revealed in time. That would be a cruel mystery to never address :)

Are, um..."Child Lovers so common in Kasslyne that its accepted or is it just that the clerk at the Happy Tentacle just seen so many things in her job that Sette saying that didn't even phase her?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:19:06 -0400

It's not all that common in Cresce, the society kind of frowns on it, but it's very common in Sharteshane and Ulestry. Either way there are no laws on the books about it so since Sette was the one doing all the talking and checking them in, the lady had no reason to think she was acting against her will and no reason to call the cops. Crescians are really, really loathe to pass social laws. It's a weird contrast to how authoritarian they are otherwise with their enforced military service, mandatory schooling, and their job assignments. They are dead serious about work and duty, but they are also dead serious about fun, sex, and leisure time. The Crescian government has kind of a Bread and Circuses attitude towards it all.

Do my eyes deceive me or is the desk clerk reading "In Love With a Lizard: A Tale of Passion and Sex?" I. LOVE. THAT. BOOK! She has good taste!

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:09:29 -0400

A Tail of Passion and SCALES :3 You should join her book club!

Is that red/Black thing in the sub panel of pg. 37 a lamp or some kind of miniature Eye of Sauron?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:07:31 -0400

It's a kind of a glamour projector that throws pornographic images up on the ceiling.

Poor Duane, Sette's really running his non-existent reputation into the mud. Lucky for her she'll probably and ironically get into enough trouble that he won't have the presence of mind to ask the details.

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:06:40 -0400

That would be fortunate.

What does that lady with the pymaric hat thinks a child like Sette is doing in that place? Seriously, why exactly is going on her head to aloud her a room with a strange man?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:06:07 -0400

Honestly? She's thinking geez, this girl is hard up for money if she's hanging around this fucked up, kinky dude. I better keep an eye on them and check up on her before my shift's over and I go home.

And then Sette left the building five minutes later and the lady's thinking, Haha, she lured him back there, drugged him, and now she's taking off with his wallet. Well, that's what's going to happen in a society that uses evil currency that encourages theft and greed. Alas! Foreigners!

That's about what she's thinking.

Sette doesn't seem the type to ever get boycrazy or all doe-y eyed romantic, but would she eventually choose a mate of sufficient quality and Nary's blessings?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 03:13:42 -0400

That remains to be seen.

What's the strangest Google search you've made recently?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 03:13:02 -0400

Well, I spent a while trying to find a photo of the Guiness World Record holder for the largest penis but I'll be damned if I had any luck.

Could you channel sensory information into the wrong sense? Like, tell the khurt Matty's nose or ears can process visual input in addition to the regular sense.

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 03:12:14 -0400

You can convince the khert that a nose is an eye, but it will only be convinced of it spectrally, and the nose will never function as an eye at the material level. The khert is pretty cut and dry when dealing with materials. Interfacing with complex living biological systems however is far more involved.

When the Unsounded video game gets made, will Jivi use his sandals as his starting weapon?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 03:00:19 -0400

Mm, I think you'll find he has something a little more useful up his sleeve.

Could Sette smell Timofey?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:59:36 -0400

Sette can smell ghosts very well, but she hasn't caught whiff of Timofey just yet. He seems to be keeping his distance.

You know what's awesome? Breasts. Breasts are awesome.

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:23:34 -0400

I respectfully disagree.

Duane's glamour has a lovely smile. What's going on underneath it when he smiles, or scowls, or whatever? Can/does he still reflexively use his facial muscles (such as they are) for expressions? Does the glamour reflect his mood as well as a living face?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:40:10 -0400

What goes on beneath? He has some leather skin left on his face, enough to form some vague and unattractive expressions, and form his words. Duane being able to make expressions is no less weird than him being able to stand up.

Technically I'm inclined to say his glamour doesn't express his moods as well as it could, but I take some artistic liberty with it. It'd be a bore if he was same-face all the time :)

If Maty did go back to the Black-tongues, because his dad died or something, would they be nice and make him some decent eyes as their mascot? Or are they too mad at his dad?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:37:18 -0400

An interesting question. If he specifically went back to the Black Tongue headquarters in Lurick they'd take care of him. He made a few friends there. Making him eyes is a different matter. The problem is a financial one as the materials needed are very expensive. The Quigleys could go to a professional and get Matty eyes made at any point, but they don't have the money for it and neither do the Black Tongues, as much as certain members might be inclined to help fragile little white-haired boys.

Sette seems really well acquainted with all this. Nary doesn't make her...you know... be a prostitute at home or anything, does he? She's going to grow up with a really cynical view of sex.

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:36:25 -0400

Nary runs all the brothels in town but Sette has nothing to do with them other than being friendly with some of the whores. She does have a pretty low opinion of sex and the people after it, and doesn't mind using people's own stupidity against them or for her own benefit. I think that's been shown pretty well so far this chapter.

Cat: Oh, hey. You were gone? Dog: OMFG DONTEVERLEAVEMEAGAIN!! ITHOUGHTYOULEFTME! IWILLLOVEYOUFOREVER!!!!!DAAHGE¬JGEGREIGENVJGAAAAHHHHH! ...truth, or fiction? I know dogs do this, and I used to have one that did. Do yours?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:19:13 -0400

Aaaaall the time. Sometimes just when I've popped outside for thirty seconds to take out the trash. It's worst when I go grocery shopping though. I always tell my one dog, "I'm going to go buy BONES, okay?" And he looks at me with his keen dog eyes, knowing perfectly well what I've said, and when I come back an hour later he knocks me down and rips open the grocery bags. I wonder what the grocery store looks like in his imagination.

When the winter weather's wind whips without waiting, what word is warranted?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:16:11 -0400

Cocks.

I was perusing through the Miscellaneous section and I noticed a cover picture for Unsounded as a whole. Do you still consider that to be the cover, or would you make a different one at this point?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:15:27 -0400

You mean the picture of Duane and Sette on the glowing rock with the wandering root snapping at 'em? That was a quickie illustration I did when I first started the comic, so I could put it on dA and use it to plug the first chapter. I wound up making it into cover art for the site, too, but it's pretty old now. I wouldn't use it for a book cover. I'd probably go with something like this - http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz04n8rWs71qbpitlo1_1280.png

what is that painting in the lobby of the Happy Tentacle?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:09:21 -0400

Just landscapy blobs :)

In your opinion, what does it take to call oneself an 'artist?'

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:09:07 -0400

Oh, not very much. I'm of the opinion that we're all artists in our own ways. Some of us express our aesthetic in how we dress or arrange our living rooms or do our makeup or make our sandwiches.

Now if you mean what does it take to call oneself an artist professionally, I would say that requires one either make money off of doing art, or one spends the majority of one's working day making art, whether it's lucrative or not. Seems fair.

Is that woman's tentacle-hair pymary and if so is it...mobile?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:05:38 -0400

It's a hat, Fakult! And yes, it's a pymaric, and yes, it's wriggly.

...everyone always fixates on the hats.

What that place next door to the Happy Tentacle? It looks like a good time.

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:34:32 -0400

Looks like a pub or restaurant with a band. I'd hang out there.

This makes me think of Murkoph. That's all.

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:34:14 -0400

Joyfully gyrating penises. Yes, they make me think of Murkoph as well.

True story, any time I've had to mind a cash register, and nobody minds me doing so, I take a book. Not a smutty book, because that could probably get dangerous. Still. Have you done one of those jobs, to include someone reading at the register/check in?

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:33:34 -0400

I worked in a movie theatre box office for a few years as a teenager but I would've got my arse handed to me if I'd had a book out. I did used to read a lot in school though; the old paperback novel hidden behind the textbook routine.

I'm confused, who is this "anon" person? Could someone explain it to me?

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:32:07 -0400

...it's YOU!

("anon" is short for anonymous, which is what I'm going to call anyone who doesn't leave a name when they ask questions :3)

Are there more of those naughty-tentacle pymarics like the one Duane made friends with in this place?

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:05:16 -0400

Definitely.

Wait, so how can Rahm have a torso that you can't feel, but is still there? I mean, if you stick hands on the man and can't pass right through him, you'd have to be able to feel some solidity there, right?

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:48:20 -0400

You feel a nebulous resistance, like that feeling when you try to press together the same poles of two magnets. But you can't feel warm flesh or curly hairs or wrinkled skin.

Conversely, how do you approach writing fantastic or violent things that most people never experience? I find it the most challenging aspect to approach when writing fantasy/adventure stuff - there is a lot of it in books and movies but using that (cont)

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 03:18:55 -0400

"(cont) as reference feels like drawing from a photo of a drawing of something someone completely made up. Genuinely interested: what is your approach to tackling such things? Thank you! (This is Leilaz0, They locked my account for some reason)"

They locked it? CONSPIRACY.

I just plain don't have problems with writing weird or violent things. I reach for it and it's there. The weird and violent things come to ME, I never have to go looking for them. Perhaps I am mildly psychotic :D I've written such gross happenings with Murkoph and Bastion and my vassalich princes...

Writing isn't like drawing - at least, not to me. You don't need a reference for everything. Writing is purer than drawing; it's pure fancy and imagination. If you FEEL what you're writing you can sell your reader on anything. They will fill in the gaps. Their imagination will do the legwork. Just find the core of the scene; the horror, the awe, the wonder, and write from that place. All that matters is the tone. Everything else you can pull out of your ass or from research if you absolutely must. Be present in the story and look around you. Write what you see and feel and smell and hear. I think a good writer doesn't need to rely on past experiences overmuch if they are there living the experience of their story right that instant.

Does Matty see from the vantage point of Chitz, or from where his own retinas would be? Can he prop Chitz up as a remote spycam and be somewhere safe (like another county)? I'd trade that ability for lack of depth perception and texture, I think!

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 03:01:02 -0400

He sees from Chitz' POV. I'd rather have my eyes, personally. Matty can't see colour, can't see light properly; everything is grey, muddy, blobby sameness. He can't see the sky :(

Random, but I'm eating quite possibly the best salmon of my life right now. What is your favorite way to "dine", my friend?

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:59:29 -0400

I had salmon on Saturday night :O My favourite way to dine is curled up in front of youtube with a plate of pasta and a Diet Coke. I am not a sophisticated person :)

Please tell me that the rest of the book has puns in it too. Its author is like the Piers Anthony of Crescian romance novels. Right? Right?! (I'm really sorry, I should probably go to sleep) -z

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:58:26 -0400

It's written by Anya Hirz, the same person who adapted Quigley's story into a play. She's known for writing trashy, sensationalized romance. I tried for the longest time to come up with a good "Fifty Shades of Grey" spoof title for it but nothing came to mind.

..."of passion and s-" s-what? I must know! And does that say "a TAIL of"?! Have you stooped to using that most dastardly of puns? -z

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:56:08 -0400

"A Tail of Passion and Scales." I was feeling punny when I made that page...

So...is it normal for that love hotel to rent rooms to clearly underage kids in the company of slobbering grown men that look like corpses? That's not something that, y'know, might warrant alerting the authorities? No red flags going up?

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:55:31 -0400

No age of consent in Cresce and Sette seems perfectly happy. Why would there be a need to alert the authorities? Different world, different standards.

Alright, I'm gonna address the elephant in the room: What IS that hat!? How much does it cost? Can I have one? Does it do what I think it does? How does anybody go about making something so wonderful? Is there a limit to how many I can fit on my head?‽?!‽

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:53:07 -0400

:O It's a floppy glowing tentacle hat! It flops and glows. It probably didn't cost too much, nothing fancy going on with it aside from flopping and glowing. You may not have one, it only exists as pixels. It flops and glows. An artificer made it (artificers make pymarics). You can fit only one on your head.

Teacher Glass, I've forgotten again... how does the sex trade work if there's no "proper money?" :O

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:50:39 -0400

The same way the other trades work: luxury credits and state allotments. Being located in a border town, the Happy Tentacle is happily set up to also accept sem. Selling famous Crescian sex services to tourists and pilgrims from Mulimar has helped keep Ethelmik afloat since the mines shut down.

Hehehehe. Masterfully written dialogue on the new pages as always.

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:08:46 -0400

Manly passions.

What do you think about writing stuff you don't have personal experience with? Not the fantastical or violent stuff-- but the everyday, mundane stuff?

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:08:31 -0400

Unless we're part of a royal family or a child actor, don't we all have experience with every day mundane things? That's what makes them mundane. I think you asked me this on Tumblr too but I didn't know how to answer there either. Sorry :(

Have we seen Rahm in-comic yet, or did I just miss a formspring response somewhere? 'Cause I don't know who Rahm is. :(

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:59:39 -0400

Probably missed a formspring response. A recent one though! Just go back a page or two.

What do youthik of prophecies as they're used in fiction? Love 'em, hate 'em, would you use them in your stories?

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:39:52 -0400

I don't mind them at all. Nausicaa uses one and Nausicaa is like, amazing. I love (fictional) religion and myth and prophesy in stories, it can all be quite beautiful and telling. It's the language we've been using to tell each other stories since the beginning of our species and I see no reason to poo-poo on it now just because we have mashed potato vending machines and remote controlled vibrators.

Oh, I thought Rahm's legs were maybe spectral limbs that were discussed on Formspring forever ago.

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:34:10 -0400

They kind of are. The khert dispersed a lot of superficial Aspects like everything to do with visibility but his legs and trunk are still THERE, for the most part. You can't see them or feel them (neither can he) but you can't pass through them. Because my feeble brain is capable only of thinking of things in terms of video games, the legs' hitbox is there but not their graphic T_T

Is there any way to survive pissing off the khert, or does it just delete you the instant you become an irritant?

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:51:07 -0400

The way to survive is to be awesome. Leave the field of the khert until it's calmed down. That means putting a few hundred feet between yourself and the ground. It's doable but you only got a few seconds to make it happen, and you may wind up losing your legs if you're not fast enough.

What is one song that you have always loved and will never get sick of?

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:04:15 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ5LpwO-An4

The crazy street man got me thinking: is there anyone (presumably ilganyag) who has managed to pymary the aspect of youth out of someone? Sucking life to live longer?

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:02:58 -0400

The crazy street man would say that's exactly what they do in Alderode. No one's very inclined to believe him though.

Man, I haven't read like any of this chapter yet, and it has so many words in it! Catching up was like, super intense. Good job.

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:08:01 -0400

I'm sorry I'm so wordy :(

If the Unsounded video game gets made, I predict there will be a QTE where Toma has to shimmy up between Uaid's buttcheeks before he's crushed between his powerful glutes.

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 02:51:11 -0400

*_*

Worst pickup line! One for picking up a man and one for picking up a woman, GO!

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 02:50:13 -0400

There's a line in The Colour Purple I love: "Girl, I'd drink your bathwater!"

"...requiring you give the khert cool down time, with it becoming more and more agitated if you abuse pymary and eventually affecting game physics"....So using too much pymary can FUBAR the khert like Sette did earlier?

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 02:48:23 -0400

If you give it too much to do, you can piss it off. In the game I thought it would be interesting if that meant it started messing with your character's physics, but in the really real comic it usually means it will class you as a dangerous irritant to the system and try to destroy you :)

How would you implement pymary as a system in an Unsounded game? Would it just be a static list of moves or perhaps something more like a crafting system involving aspects?

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 01:29:42 -0400

I've thought about this a lot. Spells wouldn't require crafting, you'd learn them by leveling or finding spellbooks, but every spell would have Aspect requirements. Every area in the game would have cullable Aspects, whether it be from the terrain and architecture, the weather, items, fire, etc., all of them appropriately exhaustible. There would also be a khert meter that would rise every time you cast, requiring you give the khert cool down time, with it becoming more and more agitated if you abuse pymary and eventually affecting game physics, like frigging with characters' gravity and movement speed, expanding or decreasing your hitbox erratically, weakening your physical attack and defense, etc. This would require a balanced approach to every stage. If you run through relying too much on pymary, you decimate the map, use up your Aspects, and frig up your mechanics so that when bosses show up, you are screwed.

On the other hand, if the Unsounded video game follows the comic closely, it'd basically be one huge escort mission up to this point. Not sure how I'd feel about that. I do like the idea of the tree/shackle save points, though.

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:56:54 -0400

No way! The only escort bit is Duane and Sette at night. Otherwise Sette is a viable PC who complements Duane. You could switch back and forth between them like Charlotte and Jonathon in Portrait of Ruin. Or DK and Diddy in DKC. Sette trapped in a barrel would make the exact same noises as Diddy in fact :3 Yeah, Duane would be the powerhouse warrior/mage with the high HP while Sette is faster and more agile, has a double jump, climbs walls, mugs enemies for items, etc.

Save points should trees that Sette can shackle Duane to and then curl up in his lap for a quick nap while her blood amulet refills. If it runs out Duane stops following her. How do you feel about timed elements in games, though? They usually irritate me.

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 23:33:48 -0400

They usually irritate me too. I like to take my time in a game and look around and appreciate all the art, find all the treasures and Easter eggs, kill every enemy. A few timed events scattered here and there can be nice to break things up though, and they're best when they're in an area you can go back and explore at your leisure later. Vagrant Story does this, of course, since it's the Perfect Game.

Tree save point is best save point.

In the Unsounded vidya game can there be a night level where Sette leads Duane around, sneaking past or luring enemies away with insults, and then dispatching Boo for mini puzzles that open new areas Duane's limited mobility can move through? Maybe?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 22:51:00 -0400

This is a good idea. Can there be save couches like in ICO?

I want an Unsounded video game soooo baaaaaad.

No, Rahm and Raptor are very nice alliteratives, and I like the name, I was just reacting. Now for some reason I keep envisioning Sazh from FFXIII. ...Sorry, am I making it worse? I'm just kind of restless with no update... I miss my fav comic! :P

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:43:51 -0400

Sazh had a GREAT design, didn't he? I remember when the first shots of him came out, I was actually excited for FFXIII for a while.

Sorry I didn't update today :( Wednesday will be two pages! And they are funny. Well. My sense of humour is deranged, but I find them funny.

You say Rahm and I see Rahm Emanuel in my head and yell noooooooo really loud for several minutes. Whatever your politics, he's not really what I envision when it comes to an Unsounded (presumably) villain. Tho maybe that hacked off finger tip thing?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:36:19 -0400

Rahm's been named Rahm for years and doesn't have anything to do with the politician, though I know it's hard not to immediately think of him. There just aren't that many Rahm's in our culture...

I would change his name except Rahm and Raptor have that nice alliterative thing going on. Anyway the character is a flamboyant sixty-seven year old black man in a feathered coat and earings, so there's not much visual similarity at least.

Are there other ways to sense pymary? Are there people who can taste or feel it? Or perhaps it can affect some of the less-appreciated senses, such as the sense of time or the kinesthetic sense? "My body parts don't feel like they line up. Magic's afoot."

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:54:07 -0400

I try to keep wrights on an even playing field, with the best wrights being the best because they're extremely intelligent, quick-witted, and focused, things most of us can achieve with practise and hard work. I like that ANYONE can be rited and learn pymary. I never liked magic systems that decreed certain mages were best just because they were blessed with innate talent, or that only "special" people could do magic. Blow. The only limits placed on people becoming wrights are artificial limits imposed by society.

But... but there ARE people with genetic advantages. Plats have their increased range and Duane has his tacit casting and, here and there, there are people who can "sense" the khert in the way you're talking about. They can anticipate the movement of the khert lines - extremely useful - or feel the creeping presences of remnants and ghosts as they pass through them unawares. Rahm, whom we meet briefly next chapter, is like this. He knows the khert like a farmer knows his field and can reach right into it bare-handed. When he was younger he studied the way vliegeng fly by skating along the khert lines, and can intuit the lines' motions similarly. Of all the wrights alive today he's come the closest to actually being able to fly, hence his nickname among the Ilganyag of Rahm the Raptor.

Does Kasslyne have lasers? I refuse to read any webcomic that doesn't have lasers in it (unless it has dinosaurs instead).

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:39:20 -0400

If it does, they're secret lasers o_o

So, you mentioned that Kasslyne has rubber. How advanced are they in manufacture? Do they have vulcanization yet? Is Prime Rubber a renewable Prime Material (so you can have infinite magical cloaks)?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:13:18 -0400

The gum-elastic that exists is of a mundane variety from the south of Cresce, the only place on the continent with the climate to grow it. Vulcanization has been discovered but rubber is in very short supply and expensive. Most of it goes to the Crescian military for their mechanized constructs. Kasslyne's manufacturing is limited sharply by available resources. There's not a lot of easily accessible coal, not a lot of rubber, no oil at all, and nowhere known outside of the continent from which to import more.

Manufacturing does endure, but its reliance on pymary as well as continent-wide state-hoarding of resources keeps it from booming. The biggest success story is the Beadman's family. You'll see "Beadman's Betters" products all over the comic (Jivi's rat traps, the soda everyone drinks, Bett's pymaric). Now I can finally talk about the Beadmans, yay!

The Beadmans were a Sharteshanian shipbuilding firm slash criminal syndicate based in the capital. They won a contract centuries ago to serve as the Sharteshanian military's shipwrights and carpenters, which gave them the connections necessary to score military grade First Materials and mundane resources from all over the continent. Combined with the cheap labour of Sharteshane's starving multitudes, they soon turned a suburb of the capital into a booming industrial factory town where they to this day manufacture everything from cheap, decent quality pymarics to soft drinks to furniture and homegoods. They don't abide competition and have a reputation for burning down rival factories and feeding rival inventors and businessmen to the nereids. Last century they bought the family into the nobility and now they're easily the biggest, scariest, and most influential group in the country. Nary Frummagem admires them -enormously-.

Your new avatar looks like Cthulhu just molted.

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:11:31 -0400

Babby Cthulu. The critter in my avatar is in no way important to anything and appears in only one panel *_* I just think he's kawaii.

Does pyrmary require somatic components? (To use the D&D phrase). That is, all spellwrights we've seen have loved their dramatic hand-flinging of spells and such. But if co-ordinates are input by the wright verbally, do they have to 'throw' the spell? c-

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:03:05 -0400

"c- If they do have to move, how much movement is required?"

Hands (and if you have no hands, points in the spine) are important because they provide a relative anchor for coordinates. There is no absolute axis in the khert, and all coordinates are relative to the port that you input, with its line out into the khert at large. The port in the right palm is ninety percent of the time the point that the wright uses, which is why they loft their hand. If you're isolating an Aspect for use as a projectile, you need a vector and a source of motion, both of which can be input by a magely sweep of a limb. So yes, for most spells the hands are crucial and spells are - in a manner of speaking - thrown.

Achievement unlocked: Get someone famous to follow you.

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:04:09 -0400

Pfft. Famous.

What about phantom-NOSED? Looking at you, Miss Frummagem.

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:45:15 -0400

Quite a bit rarer :3

He looks cheery. :D -Offers him half my sandwich-

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:23:50 -0400

Aww <3

Is that a senet beast? If so, what is that one made of?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:14:34 -0400

It is not a senet beast. Beyond that I cannot discuss it much yet :)

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:52:12 -0400

Looks like somebody here doesn't understand that mitochondrial DNA has absolutely nothing to do with cellular DNA! Mitochondrial got their own genetic sequence, FOOL. Doesn't necessarily got shit to do with any potential DNA origin of tacit casting.

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:49:57 -0400

My cat's name is Mittens.

Do tacit casters have the ability to keep the pymary they think about from occurring? Otherwise it must be a bitch to memorize spells...

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:49:42 -0400

Sure, any wright can turn off their pymary if they need to, there's a spell specifically for temporarily shutting off one's own outgoing connection. PROTIP for @SonofHod Best time to assassinate a wright is when they're at study.

In a purely hypothetical world, supposed there was a talented webcomic artist who brought enormous enjoyment to people all over the world, at least three times a week. If they seemed down lately, what would (hypothetically) be a good way to cheer them up?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:39:14 -0400

Be a good person. Listen to good music. Make an excellent sandwich and share half of it with a friend.

Phantom-Eyed? What's that, people who can see the khert?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:38:58 -0400

Yep. The khert and ghosts and remnants.

Do you like to cross dress? I sure do. -k

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:25:51 -0400

Can women cross dress? We can generally get away with wearing anything in the western world.

What's the ghost guy saying in your avatar? It looks like there's a speech bubble coming out of the upper left.

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:25:00 -0400

Oh, it's just a crop of art from an upcoming page. A bit of speech bubble tail snuck its way in there.

What do you think of cbr/cbz format? It's for comic books, if you put images in a zip file and change the extension it'll display them in order.

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:24:29 -0400

Better than pdfs!

Sorry if that didn't mean anything to you, who was the first tacit caster? If it's inherited by blood and not everybody has it, then who was the mutant that got it first? -k

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:23:49 -0400

Certainly a Tain but her identity's been lost in the fog of time. Neither tacit casters nor the phantom-eyed are new developments; they've been around in small numbers among select families for thousands of years.

If tacit casting is genetic, who is their Y chromosomal father/mitochondrial mother? Does he/she have an amazing story? -k

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 12:03:04 -0400

Uh...

Favorite Yogscast project?

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 12:02:38 -0400

I like the earliest days of their Minecrafting, when they played it straight for a while and then had the saboteurs come in. That was really some of the greatest gaming video I've ever seen, it was funny and surprising and super well done. Nowadays the Minecraft stuff is getting kinda old and it bugs me when they cheat on adventure maps, but I did really like the Hunger Games-esque mega-competition they had not long ago.

After you pointed it out, I started noticing all the flaws in your art, so now I hate your art too. Congratuations, you ruined the comic for me. Just kidding. Or am I???

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 11:59:59 -0400

All right.

Can you get a spell or part of a spell stuck in your head like a song? If you can, what would this mean for tacit casters?

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:45:19 -0400

Means they probably won't live to be very old if they don't learn to school their thoughts early on.

Question...why does Duane even have anything in himself as fake organs to begin with? He doesn't need them, does he? I mean, he's not planning on eating soon...or digesting. They just exacerbate his rotten smell, if anything.

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:44:10 -0400

He has fake lungs so he can talk. Nothing else in his chest cavity but those, why'd you think there was?

Do you have a catchphrase? Not necessarily a comedic one, just a phrase that you say repeatedly?

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:43:13 -0400

I've stolen "see you later, shitlords" from Simon.

Everybody above the age of 6 says about their drawings. I actually kinda like early Sette art, cause she's kinda goofy and rustic. But Duane has definitely benefited from gradients in lighting and shading. That wasn't a question, huh... how are you? -k

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:42:39 -0400

Tired. I've been with kids the past two days and now Max feels he's too good for sleep. Bleh.

OH DEAR LORD IS THE BODY SINKING IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PAGE AFTER STARFISH KILLS HIM ARE YOU SOME SORT OF GENIUS IF I EAT YOUR BRAIN WILL I GAIN YOUR POWERS yours truly -k

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:41:52 -0400

o_o

"It's only silver we're hauling, right?"-Turas , "Right."-Starfish ...Why do I get this deep, bottomless, warning ache in my stomach that because I couldn't see Starfish's eyes there is more to this? (I'm captivated by my own horrid fascination.)

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:33:29 -0400

Well, you KNOW there is more to this after Toma's revelation at the beginning of the chapter :)

What came first for you as an artist: the writing or the illustrating? Which is easier now that you do them all the time? Which is more fun? -k

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 11:45:28 -0400

There's something really indistinguishable about them, no? They're just two different ways to create the nonexistent. So I'm not sure I could say which came first. I guess as a kid I could draw before I could write, but I could make stuff up before I could draw, so who knows? Writing is definitely more fun for me than drawing but they both stress me out 'cause I don't feel either is all that easy. But I'd rather not be able to draw anymore than not be able to write anymore. I can look at things I've written and be completely happy with them, but I have never done a bit of artwork I didn't hate a week afterwards. I frequently go back and read my old writing and enjoy it, but I cannot stand to look at my old art.

I'm not fishing for compliments when I say I hate my art. I really, really hate it and I always have. So writing for me, please.

Did we save Duane's unlife by tricking Sette into warning him about her father's First Silver daggers on the Duane&Sette formspring?

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 11:27:53 -0400

I love the story you created and the characters,is there any chance of you expanding your story after unsounded?

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 01:15:58 -0400

Thank you! Unsounded is a very long comic and won't be finished for quite a while. I think you'll find the story expands to unexpected places within its own pages, if I'm understanding the question correctly :)

This clearly isn't what Ephsephin signed up for. What was he sold on, exactly?

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 09:52:26 -0400

Pretty much what Turas describes in this first panel http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch06/ch06_30.html

What are the Black Tongue's policies when it comes to people like Quigley who more or less shanghaied a couple of their secrets under false pretenses?

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 09:51:21 -0400

He didn't take anything important 'cause he never went through their rites, so they're not hunting him or anything. If he ever showed his face in Lurick again though, he wouldn't get the warmest of welcomes.

So is there any particular reason why Jivi stuck up for Matty there? I was under the impression that Jivi was predisposed to not like and/or trust Matty, given the circumstances.

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 09:33:15 -0400

Wouldn't you stick up for a little kid if his dad was about to thrash him? Even if it wasn't your favourite little kid in the world?

Is Ephie starting to lose it? Saw him cradling his head in his hands and mumbling about how scared he was of his mum seeing him hanged. Glass, are you trying to turn him pitiable?

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 09:30:48 -0400

Game over, man! Game over! He's just freaking out.

Is there a reason Matty called Vienne "my mother" instead of, ya know, mom or something like that? It seems to be ackward phrasing, but I could just be looking to far into it.

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 09:30:22 -0400

The Aldish have a stiff way of speaking that gets me in trouble all the time, but Matty would never say "mom," Aldish kids say "mama." I didn't like the way mama sounded in that sentence though so I went with mother.

Glass, why did I just wake up sweating with murk's jovial visage burned into my eyes?

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:39:21 -0400

Maybe you wandered into his shadowy domain as you slept.

...don't go back to sleep.

I have a friend of mine that mumbles a lot when they drink too much. Are wrights forbidden from taking alcohol or certain substances because they could accidentally mumble in old tanish and wreck something?

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:28:55 -0400

Haha, nah :D Wrights are supposed to be licensed though, so presumably someone that irresponsible would never get their pymary license.

RRAAHH! You can't just slap your child and then yell at them to stop crying. Quigley is a terrible father. There's a lot I can take, but child abuse ain't one of them. Duane was right: "If you take aim at a child again, I will kill you." Matty...sniffle

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:27:27 -0400

Well, I don't think a face slap qualifies as child abuse, but Quigley certainly isn't father of the year.

Quigley lied to Vienne? Can I ask how, or did I miss something?

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:23:24 -0400

You've missed nothing, but it's something you'll have to wait for the Quigleys to discuss more later.

Scene change on Wednesday? As in back to Sette and Duane?

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:22:50 -0400

You'll have to tune in to find out! Hohoho. But if you've been reading along this far you must have observed I don't like to let things be too dramatic for too long before throwing in a pedophilia joke, so.

Can Duane fix Boo so it can weave its traps properly again?

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:51:44 -0400

If he researched it and got the proper tools but he's not likely to do it. Those gossamer traps are dangerous, particularly in Sette's hands. But who knows what the future holds? (I do)

How old does something have to be before it's "old school"?

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:49:56 -0400

I think... at least... a decade.

Suppose and Aldish and a Sharteshanian had a kid, and a Crescian and an Ulestrian had a kid, and those kids got married. What would the ceremony be like? Would it have to take place in Madishane? Would the in-law be ridiculous? Should I write this fanfic?

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:49:41 -0400

What if Uaid marries Boo? What if it's a full moon? Will they take the surname Frummagem or Quigley? Will Boo be a career-spider or a stay-at-home mom?

How do you feel about mushrooms?

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:47:24 -0400

The most delicious of fungi.

Smiley-Face Murkoph Penis is canon and the best character, along with Friendly Coffee and the hats.

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:19:12 -0400

8========|:))

What are the chances of a Crescian and an Aldishman (or woman) marrying and having a child? Or, you know, why not throw a Sharteshanian or Ulestrian into the mix? What would happen to it anyways (the kid)?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:17:39 -0400

I suppose lots of things could happen. Kind of a broad question :)

Sounds like Aldish patriotism is at odds with "non-dogmatic" Ssaelit teachings. And you said most Aldish aren't Ssaelit. Does Ssaelit have the same minority status in Alderode as in all Kasslyne? Wiki says "the Ssaelit faith in Alderode", like...

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:01:10 -0400

"...it's an Aldish institution, but it's hard to imagine zealots embracing Buddhism. Is Duane's duality/complexity in this regard unique, or are there many other Aldish like him? ps sorry for length ilu"

Longer is better ilu2. I could talk about Aldish theo-politics all day.

The Ssaelit make up a little less than half of Alderode's population, it's a fairly even split. They're a legitimate, powerful voice in Alderode with a lot of money (largely stolen from slaughtered Mmatont cults) and influence and military strength. You consider them incorrectly if you consider them Buddhist. They believe fiercely in humanism, nationalism, capitalism, and the philosophy of might makes right. They are not meek, peace-loving, wealth-rejecting Buddhists. Alderode is their last bastion (outside of its bourn they are hunted and killed) and they protect their place in it - and the country itself - fiercely. They want their people and their country to be strong and they believe themselves better than foreigners. What they don't believe in - to contrast with the Gefendur who do - is ceremony, subservience to deity, blood sacrifice, and human inferiority. The Ssaelit believe that humans RAWK. Daring to shame humanity by being a selfish, honourless dick is the worst thing you can do.

But where does that "honour" come from? What makes a man honourable? Why, it's the precepts of great Alderode! Aldish dogma fills in for the lack of Ssaelit dogma. I differentiate because this isn't how the prophet framed the faith long ago and it's something that happened after the establishment of the Great Compromise; that is, the civil war that ousted monarchy from Alderode and began bi-theocratic Vits Council rule.

The flexible nature of Ssaelism combined with their strong sense of cultural identity made them able to not just compromise with the fraternal Gefendur moiety of the country after the civil war, but hold their ground against them. This constant give and take serves to make Alderode surprisingly stable, and that stability and the camaraderie between religions is in itself a source of extreme national pride. The two faiths believe they make each other stronger, and they both believe fiercely in the perfection and success of their country. They're siblings who have their differences, but they share the same parent and want to protect their home.

But don't think the Ssaelit don't fight amongst themselves over this. They do not ALL want to be the patient adults ever relenting to childish Gefendur demands. And don't think Gefendur politicians aren't always sniffing for blood, eager for the Ssaelit to show weakness so they can swoop in and chisel away at Ssaelit-sponsored legislature they do not care for.

We'll get a good first taste of this next chapter. A lot of Unsounded's story hinges on a backdrop of Aldish politics.

Hm, Would Duane also blame Cresce at large for putting her in harm's way, or does he figure it's her decision?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:13:11 -0400

He would ultimately blame the monarchy. Most Aldishmen think of Crescians as brainwashed but otherwise decent people. It's the monarchy and its queens that are evil and that through their influence ruin the country and its citizens. The kindest thing you can do for a Crescian is run them through so they can escape this birth and come back, gods willing, as an enlightened Aldishman. But even that's bittersweet because everyone is someone's mother or father or son or daughter, and fie on this horrible country that all but demands so much cleansing bloodshed!

Good propaganda is flexible and can be twisted to appeal to different personalities. Duane's ultimately a kindhearted man, and if you can get a kindhearted man to believe that murdering people is in those people's best interests, you've done your job well.

But Duane is a little different from most Aldishman in that he's Ssaelit, and the Ssaelit believe in an objective, humanist Goodness. So even if you're Gefendur, even if you're Crescian, even if you're a woman, if you live or die selflessly you are doing Ssael's bidding so you are blessed in His eyes. Ssael isn't a jealous god. Ssael loathes martyrs and dogma. Ssael insists on action. So Duane can go around hiding the fact that he's Ssaelit and that's totally kosher by his faith's standards. But he can't go around not helping people.

Anyway, the point is he could look at the lady guard and recognise that she was murdered while trying to defend her city, and feel respect for her endeavour and sadness at her failure EVEN WHILE recognising it's for the best that she's dead and fuck fuck fuck Cresce.

Would Duane feel sorry for dead Crescian guard lady or would he think "See that's what happens when you put women in harm's way, idiot Crescians"

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:59:10 -0400

No, he'd feel terrible for her. Duane is complex, anon.

Have any StarfishXMurkoph yaoi? Or is the world just not ready for that level of sexiness?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:58:10 -0400

Murkoph would flay Starfish alive and then stuff his own dick down his throat. Not really a compatible pairing, even for a hate-fuck. Also: EWWWWWW stop.

What happens when a couple in Cresce has triplets?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:20:05 -0400

The parents have to eat the third baby.

(not really)

Several questions about Uaid: Is he crying in first panel because of what Starfish did? Are those giant cranks on his shoulders meant to be turned? Are those things next to his head giant speakers, is Uaid a mobile party machine?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:16:06 -0400

Yes. Yes but via pymary-driven controls on the dashboard, not by hand. Net launchers but now I wish they were speakers XD

''He actually used to have a whore he went to repeatedly and never killed her 'cause she was such a sweetheart.'' Was thiswhen he was alive?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:01:37 -0400

Naw. It was back in RP.

Can you still cast pymary if you have a lisp?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:01:24 -0400

Possibly not! Depends how bad it is. I know it's kind of insane when so many magic systems are otherwise so lax about stuff like this, but the khert really is picky about you being understandable.

I'm curious about the vocal aspect of pymary. If a wright (not a tacit-caster, of course) was wearing a scarf that made him difficult to understand, would he still be able to cast? Is there a difference between a whisper and a shout?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:51:17 -0400

Coherence and volume are really important. The khert isn't a mind-reader and casting spells really is like speaking commands at some kind of omnipresent operating system with voice recognition. So you can't whisper. The khert will only respond to voiced speech, and whispers are by definition unvoiced. Vibrate those vocal chords!

Is the background of the sinking guard from the latest page just around the edges, or part of a larger drawing? Either way, it's gorgeous. I don't usually pay much attention to the 'how' of drawing, but it looks different from your normal art. So how? ;)

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:26:54 -0400

It's just the panels, there's no more to it than that. And I would imagine it looks different from the comic art because it's painted, loose, and lineless. We spend a lot of time in this warehouse, I wanted to mark our arrival there in style. Glad you like :)

So does Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph Murkoph?

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:10:13 -0400

Yes. To demonstrate, I have found you a comic I had forgotten all about. nsfw http://www.casualvillain.com/random/wut.jpg

Will you think about printing when the first volume is done? How long will that take? I hope it is long enough that I can become filthy rich somehow and finance the printing of Unsounded as a huge hardcover coffee table book with the website art included.

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:43:33 -0400

I've been thinking more about print lately. I want to make some money so I can buy a Russian mail-order husband and a boat. I got a decent quote from a local printer (local is good so I can just go pick the books up myself afterwards) but I need to actually go to the shop and look at this crap and see what the quality's like. It's on my mind though.

So does lil Murkoph still work?

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 18:56:53 -0400

I have decided to use Murk as my phone background. That way he can ride around in my boobies all day and night, which, I think, is something he would enjoy if not given the option of eating said boobies.

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:31:44 -0400

Murk enjoys boobs for boobs' sake. He doesn't always have to eat them :3 He actually used to have a whore he went to repeatedly and never killed her 'cause she was such a sweetheart. You never know...

noooo don't talk about Murkoph, Ashley. Stop it.

Could Duane kill the Grimace?

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:23:58 -0400

The... the McDonald's Grimace? D:

2) What did his voice sound like in life! Very nasally, am I right??

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:47:02 -0400

Not at all. Rich, throaty baritone.

1) What's Duane's voice sound like - raspy/faint from dodgy lungs, tinny/artificial from pymaric amplification? Or, nothing particularly unusual? Is it anything like his voice in life?

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:30:54 -0400

It's very raspy and gravelly, to the point where he'd tell new, concerned clients that he had a terrible lung ailment but please don't be concerned he'll have his work finished for you on schedule. Except for his accent his voice sounds nothing like it did in life :(

Have you ever played around with a Wacom tablet or other electronic drawing device? I mostly do photo editing and don't do art professionally, but my lizard brain cannot wrap itself around not being able to see my art under my "brush". It just feels off.

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:04:25 -0400

Well, I use a drawing tablet nearly every waking hour of every day, so yeah, I've played around with them :) If you buckled down and practised with the tablet for a while you'd get used to it in short order, it's like anything else.

When a baby is intersex, should they, at birth, have their gender and sex assigned by their parents and go through sex reassignment surgery? Or should they have the right to make these choices later in life?

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 04:19:23 -0400

*shrug* Kids legally belong to their parents. The parents get to do whatever they think is best for the kid. It's their call.

If you wake up tomorrow as the opposite sex, would you identify still yourself (gender-wise) by your previous sex or by your newly acquired one?

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 04:17:30 -0400

Forever a geek.

Happy Fourth of July! Are you doing anything special? What kind of fireworks do they have in Kasslyne?

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 04:17:15 -0400

I don't really do anything for holidays anymore, I'm kind of a loner these days :) I just stayed in and watched movies and did art. I'm sure Kasslynians have some pymaric firework equivalent, they are festive sorts.

Is it morally acceptable to kill someone who is causing you harm, but cannot be dealt with through the legal system?

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 04:15:36 -0400

I don't believe it's morally acceptable to kill anyone unless they're coming at you with the immediate intent of killing you. Years ago my brother's best friend did a drive-by on a guy who had casually threatened his girlfriend. Now he's in jail and his daughter has no dad.

July the 8th is Fancy Day, a day in which you go about your daily business in your Sunday best. Whether it's a waistcoat or a pantsuit, you're meant to be impeccably dressed SO(!) What shall you be wearing?

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 04:11:55 -0400

The only clothing I own are jeans and teeshirts, so I reckon I'll be wearing jeans and a teeshirt. All your clothing should be identical, it prevents vanity and saves you time deciding what to wear every day. Einstein came up with this. Pretty smart!

I'm surprised Starfish's SANDWICH CAPACITY wasn't already maxed out. He seems like a minmaxer.......

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 23:00:28 -0400

I do not know what that means :O

How much XP did Starfish get from that encounter?

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:02:04 -0400

Enough to level up. He added a point to AGL, PYMARY RESISTANCE, and SANDWICH CAPACITY.

Oo I'm just puzzled as to why Starfish didn't bother to loot the body.

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:21:43 -0400

Yeah? Not really the time for it, I'd have to say. He does take her lantern on the next page.

Hi, Glass. Just sayin' hi.

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:03:02 -0400

Is Starfish not worried about that dead body floating down a ways, or does he think they'll be long gone by then?

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:45:29 -0400

She was wearing chainmaille and armour. She's going straight to the bottom.

Is Starfish a horrible person because he didn't cut her throat before she could scream? Because that's a rookie mistake.

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:07:06 -0400

I think he just wanted to wait until she'd passed where he was hiding so he was certain to come up behind her. If he'd let her get her sword between them she'd have opened his belly in short order.

Do armies always have their wrights follow the rules of engagement? Say that one army had a startling deficit of wrights compared to the others; would that army deliberately blow a hole in the khert just to nullify the effect of the other wrights?

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:23:10 -0400

They might if they felt they could get away with it. Let's keep it real, either side is going to do anything they think they can get away with and strategy is a fluid thing. If the situation allows for it, either side will break treaty or the RoE if it lets them gain ground. What keeps them in check is the khert. Disabling the khert doesn't just disable pymary - it puts a crimp in REALITY. Everything depends on the khert because the khert knows what everything is and how it functions together. Sette actually did very light damage to the khert and thankfully didn't kill anyone, but if she'd done more than perforate it and set it on fire, people would have started dropping dead. Or dissolving into atoms. Or melting into goo or falling through the earth or exploding or any number of things. When reality forgets how to function, everyone is at risk.

A link to old artwork and a link to old RP in one day, AND it's an Unsounded update day. It feels like Christmas in July. Are there any other treasure troves like these waiting elsewhere on the web? Will they be shared one day if we're very, very good?

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:16:19 -0400

Ha, well, I don't mind sharing old RP in manageable doses but old artwork makes me diiiiie. There's a whole forum of roleplay locked up behind a registration wall somewhere on my website and I'll pull stuff from it if you or anyone ask for something specific. Old artwork though? NOPE NOPE NOPE

"Whenever they come up in 4chan threads they are judged pretty appropriately," You spend time on 4chan? For shame, I thought better of you Glass. [/sarcasm]

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 03:08:57 -0400

Well, I spend time on /co/ and /d/ which are pretty respectable boards, and I occasionally pop over to yaoi, cute males, and anime because desu desu. 4chan is like America; depending on what part you're in it's either the most enlightened place on the planet or it's a backwards third world latrine.

Well, I'm thinking of Harry Potter and Enchanted, and then Sweeney Todd where he played the beadle, pretty much as Standard Timothy Spall character +10000 sleaze and evil. :C I don't like Starfish! He is horrible. You succeeded very well with that.

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:16:07 -0400

Oh, yeah! I forgot he was in Sweeney Todd. Geez, you're right, he's only allowed to play one character. You know who informed some of Starfish's design? Danny Devito's Penguin in Batman Returns. A young Danny Devito would play a good Starfish too :3 Look at this adorable little man ham.

I randomly started to think about Timothy Spall and how unfortunately the guy's been typecast, and now I'm convinced that he would have to play Starfish in Unsounded: the movie.

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:06:37 -0400

Ohhh, yeah. He really is typecast, he played the same character in Harry Potter and in Enchanted. I'm not sure I've seen him in anything else. If he can do a turn for the sadistic and the truly threatening, he could be Starfish definitely. Starfish is a right cocksucker this chapter, pardon my French.

Quick! Name three overrated webcomics, three underrated webcomics, and three webcomics that are rated at about the level they deserve!

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:04:50 -0400

I won't do three overrated because that's mean and I'm a child of light and love, but underrated okay! SHADOWEYES! ARTIFICE! SET TO SEA! Artifice and Set to Sea are both finished and you should go read them right now. Shadoweyes you should buy the trade of because it's too good and addictive to wait on the web updates.

Three rated at an appropriate level? Lackadaisy, Nedroid, and The Meek. Whenever they come up in 4chan threads they are judged pretty appropriately, I feel.

When Sette was little, who called her "scared and small and stoopid?" Or is that just what she thinks of herself?

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 01:43:26 -0400

Well, it's what she IS. She recognises it sometimes when she's alone and it's quiet and she knows she has to confront something very much beyond her. She really is scared, she really is small, and she really isn't as clever as she wishes she was.

All the Anons are winners, but the competition between those with accounts shall be /fierce/.

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 01:02:18 -0400

Bring it.

I just spent several hours reading old Q&A archives. Whoever did that, thank you, now I actually kind of understand what the people are talking about some of the time. Remember folks, knowledge is power and power corrupts, so study hard and be evil!

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 01:02:08 -0400

*highfive* Honestly though I don't know how you could stand to read my inane prattle for hours.

Not a question (sorry), but I notice you're a VS/FFT/Etc fan. Matsuno is doing another game now that he's recovered from his stress induced by SquareEnix's death spiral, and is making another game. "Crimson Shroud". Has VSish designs minus assless chaps.

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 22:43:58 -0400

Yeah, I've been following that. I don't have a 3DS though so I doubt I'll ever play it. Fun to see Yoshida and Matsuno teaming up again!

GLASS. What is up with this flying cat? Are there flying cats? Are there cats? Is it possible to combine creatures through pymary like this? http://web.archive.org/web/20060630123703/http://www.casualvillain.com/etc/kitty-cat.jpg

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 22:42:56 -0400

Wow, that's... super old art, no one click on it x_x

The kitty was a demon named Delano that was Bastion's familiar for a while. The fact that it manifested as an adorable fluffy whtie kitten with wings was kind of a demon's idea of a joke. Has nothing at all to do with Unsounded, just RP nonsense.

OMG. I was a chess set with one side Cresce and the other Alderode. :D

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:52:50 -0400

I want a latte :(

I want to read some Sette and Lurp role play. I can't imagine what she must be like with an actual friend XD

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:52:03 -0400

I can arrange that. This is from 2006. https://docs.google.com/document/d/16OFxxIH31u3Syz7jlBxvhMvXyemwDoF54ATQI_FAWf4/edit

Who was Lurp?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:11:12 -0400

@AwesomIncarnate can give you a better answer since she played her, but Lurp was Sette's best friend in RP. Fox talks about her iiiiiin this question - http://www.formspring.me/AwesomIncarnate/q/318437854470484843

Have you ever considered a get-together with your FL fans? :3

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:02:06 -0400

I am too shy and introverted. It would not be fun :/

Why is it only Tuesday D:>

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:27:33 -0400

What's wrong with Tuesdays?

Hmm, I just noticed that Formspring is keeping Question Smiles separate from Answer Smiles. Now, like, every question will be a mini-competition over who can get more smiles........

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:31:13 -0400

You're all winners, Anon. WINNERS.

Does the Crescian army have a strategy division, or is tactics simply done by the most experienced generals?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:06:38 -0400

The Crown, the Chancellor, the ministry of defence, the generals, and the pymary council all contribute to overall strategy. Cresce overall has a good track record when it comes to repelling the Aldish and the Aldish know it. Why they're warmongering now is anyone's guess.

At this time in the story, which side is winning the war?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:04:04 -0400

The war just started a few weeks ago. Next chapter we'll hear more about it.

Is Sette cuddly enough that it's worth gluing jewellery to my ass?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:03:23 -0400

I dunno, she's pretty bony.

Would Sette allow someone to give her a good cuddle if they put a whole bunch of valuables in their back pockets?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:13:40 -0400

Possibly, but cover the valuables in glue so they stick to you; the cuddle will last longer as she furiously but discreetly saws her prizes off your pants.

My question inspired another one...how do large-scale battles involving lots of wrights/pymary not mangle the khert or cause large-scale weirdness due to aspects flowing here and there on the same lines?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:12:35 -0400

Often they do! This is why wrights are kept regimented and sidelined in battle and they have specific roles they play. A pymary free-for-all would nine times out of ten overload the khert and kill friggin' everyone, so it is in both side's best interests that the rules of engagement are maintained. It's like nuclear weapons in our world, I suppose. The intrinsic power and ferocity and inevitable scorched earth result of nuclear weapons make them practically useless in warfare except as philosophic deterrents.

I was fiddling with a military story last night (which is where I found that song I posted below, I forgot I'd written it) and the attitude soldiers have towards their wright comrades is pretty poor. Wrights often play support and sometimes that support is as... "unmanly" to use a word from the story. Unmanly like treating wounds, lighting cooking fires, and keeping rain off marching soldiers. In battle they do shitty, unlikable things like dissolve the enemy's weaponry and arms (unless they're up against people with First Material equipment but that stuff's expensive), or they rip solidity from the ground for great attacks that also leave the battlefield pocked with treacherous holes, or they scry for attacks during downtime and are the first ones blamed (sometimes violently so) if the enemy gets the drop on the regiment. Then there's the stigma that wrights are overeducated, snobbish assholes - and from the wrights wev'e met do we believe there is some truth to this? Soldiers in the army do not like wrights, even their own.

Doesn't mean they're not necessary, but at this point Cresce and Alderode have reached a stalemate in the battlefield pymary race, and it's advantages like more powerful constructs, smarter vliegeng, and even offsite weather manipulation that are shaping the outcome of their warring.

If zombie Duane is like Sette's undead mood ring at night, does that mean that the reason he's not moving now because she doesn't want to move forward? She is adorable and I want to hug her but I think she'd bite.

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:42:03 -0400

I like this theory. And yes, she'd bite your face off.

Tell Forumkedis to search instead for ' kedis', with a space before the word itself. That'll pull up just the uses of the word kedis on its own, and so exclude the one in his name.

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 03:34:59 -0400

@Forumkedis Behold.

What would happen if the Crescian RPG somewhow found out who Duane was?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 03:34:36 -0400

Wouldn't it be fun if this happened? I want Duane to be captured by wrights and dissected.... FOR SCIENCE! I mean, FOR PYMARY!

Do you have lyrics for any folk songs, drinking songs, or popular songs for Unsounded, other than that one with the contest from that one time?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:58:53 -0400

Though thunder strike and storms piss down
On all the streets of Durlyne town;
And traitors swarm and heathens scheme
And all the darks of darktime teem;
Chinoll march, sing through the storm!
For Alderode, where free men are born!

Do you believe in giving 110% in everything you do?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:05:23 -0400

Only if it's something you care about. Otherwise listen to Melville:

"Whoever is not in the possession of leisure can hardly be said to possess independence. They talk of the dignity of work. Bosh. True Work is the necessity of poor humanity's earthly condition. The dignity is in leisure. Besides, 99 hundreths of all the work done in the world is either foolish and unnecessary, or harmful and wicked."

I'mma rant at you a little, a'ight? You know what really pisses me off? When people send street thugs to do a hardened criminal's job, then act all surprised when the guy talks after five seconds in a cell. If you don't want to get screwed, hire a pro!

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:01:47 -0400

What's the unemployment rate right now among hired criminals? Do you feel that Obamacare is going to hurt the criminal market? Has downsizing hit you hard? Do you have to cut more throats now every hour while making even less money? Is the rent too damn high?

Do your parents care that you have no current aspirations for a relationship/marriage or children? I feel similar, and though I am content with it, I haven't said as much to my parents, and I feel some guilt that I may "end" the family line.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 23:59:32 -0400

Well, I've said since I was twelve years old that I never wanted kids, and when my mom tells the story now she says that even back then, she believed it. So she's had some time to get used to the idea. Does she wish I was a more normal womanly type? I'm sure, but my brother has two awesome kids so that takes a lot of the pressure off me. The family line won't be ending any time soon. And my other brother is fabulously gay, so he's the girly one whenever my mom needs to call someone up and discuss fashion and those Housewives shows. Mom has it all, really.

Parents are great (or they should be) and we should always respect them, but you have to do what makes YOU happy. They're gonna die one day and leave you alone with the choices you made, so you gotta make sure you like the results of those choices.

Can I get an Amen!

You has doggies? What breed? And what are their characters like? :D I has dog. Her name is Cleo, and she's a whippet. Like this, only a girl. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Whippet_sleeping.jpg/743px-Whippet_sleeping.jpg

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 20:01:50 -0400

I like whippets! They are whippish. I have two dogs and they are mutts. One is very old and black and stubby and fat and spoiled with wirey hair. The other is chocolate brown and small and lanky and hates everyone. I'm not sure how old she is though, she's been passed around a lot and wound up with me so she wouldn't have to go to a pound when my brother wanted to get rid of her. They are naughty animals but I love them.

So who is Sette trying to convince in that little speech of hers? Duane...or herself?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 19:58:02 -0400

If the answer to this isn't reasonably clear, I have failed :(

When Sette was asked what Duane is like at night, she responded to the effect of "All he does is sleep and sleep". Does Duane ever dream too? I noticed that when he's starting to slip he gets hallucinations. Does he then dream about them once he's under?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:40:51 -0400

He would tell you that he does.

How do you pronounce Bastion's surname? Also, Elka mentioned the seers can't find Duane due to a lack of sufficient information him... Are they searching for him as "Dwayne", and would mispronouncing his name affect their search for him? Thank you. :)

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:36:34 -0400

Hahaha, I love the way you think, but no, I don't believe a mispronunciation would affect their search :) Cresce has wrights that can hack their way into the Dammakhert and trawl the two-way channels for state secrets and other sensitive information (it's like listening in on cellphone convos). They also have your standard arrangement of spies and researchers who try to keep abreast of what's going on in Alderode, and they're full of useful info. Still, they would need more than just a first name for Duane because, believe it or not, Duane is a fairly common name in Alderode. Now if Alderode's tacit caster rolls got leaked to Cresce somehow the zombie might be in trouble, 'cause I don't believe there'd be but one "Duane" on there.

Winalils is pronounced pretty much like how a native English speaker would imagine: Win-uh-lilz.

So wait...there IS an actual explanation as to why Duane became what he is? It wasn't fate or something uncontrollable? Like, the khert had a reason to do it? It wasn't like 'hey, lemme change this guy cuz lol', right? As long as there's a reason...er...?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:00:07 -0400

Haha, of course there's a reason :) Learning everyone's history and why they are the way they are is part of the story.

What are you up to? How are things in the world of glass?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:48:09 -0400

Right now I am doing some concept work for someone. My jaw and head and ears and eyes ache a lot, I think from my tooth that lost the filling or something. Glass is kind of blah today.

I think I messed up, Glass. I can no longer search for things about kedises on your formspring, because the search always includes every question I asked. :( I like kedises.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:46:54 -0400

Formspring's search is not very good. And I can't seem to get into the habit of tagging. I fail at this on tumblr too. There's no hope for us.

Which chapter has a kedis on it?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:09:57 -0400

Chapter 7. I'm thinking of taking it out though, it's kind of drawing too much attention to itself :/

Glass, Glass, Glass! Will you ever make a title page that has a close-up of Duane's face in it? (Living face or not -doesn't matter). There's one for Sette, Quigley, and Starfish. No love for Duane yet?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:00:20 -0400

Duane's on chapter 7's cover but it's his hood face. Duane-face features so heavily in chapter 7 though - in all its incarnations - that you'll be sick of seeing it, I promise :) I wish so hard that I could show you some of these chapter 7 panels right now. Right nooooow.

Did finding out Duane's bloodlust make Sette feel at all nervous about going to sleep right near his face at night?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:23:45 -0400

This'll get talked about one day, but I'm sure you can imagine the answer.

Did Duane hesitate because it's how Sette felt at the moment?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:21:09 -0400

^___^

Wait, Pantoffel is a girl? Glass, you've shattered my world right along the same fault lines left by Blue's Clues!

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:10:29 -0400

What? Is Blue a girl?

Aww, that pic of Duane carrying Sette is so cute! She should steal a small saddle, stuff it in his back, and use that to ride him at night. For extra style points.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:10:15 -0400

*weep*

Did Duane instinctively stop at the border?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:09:55 -0400

Mmm, difficult to answer without saying more than I wanna say right now.

And then Toma and Elka also catch flesh-eating face bacteria from eating Pantoffel! And Toma tries to confess his love to Elka, but she's secretly in love with Quigley, who's secretly in love with Duane! (Who is dead!)

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:51:18 -0400

BAAAWWWWW

So, how much sleep did Sette actually get on the trip if she was leading Duane around during the night hours? Growing girls need their rest, even if they have lion tails and shark teeth!

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:24:37 -0400

She definitely didn't get as much sleep as she needed but Duane could be made to carry her so she could snooze in his arms. He'll do pretty much anything she says at night provided there's not some distraction about that brings out the blood-hungry zombie.

Me and my lazy ass finally got around to setting up a second monitor. Do you have any tips or suggestions for someone who's never used a dual monitor set-up before?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:19:14 -0400

Hmmmm not really, I think it's pretty straightforward. I personally like the set-up that turns both monitors into one big screen. I do artwork on my 22" and have music or movies or chat going on in the smaller 18". My 22" is half in the grave, it takes about ten minutes for it to warm up and stop flickering. Why are monitors so expensive?

Do you have any advice on making up languages?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:13:09 -0400

Study lots of existing languages, they will inspire you.

It's 4am, I definitely need to go to bed.

What does wearing pymary feel like?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:11:44 -0400

Like nothing at all.

Does pymary clothing affect sensation, too?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:11:27 -0400

Nope, it's like a projected hologram. Your hand will go right through it. I remember in RP once he got aroused while wearing beglamoured clothing and, ahem, little Bastion poked right out of his not-really-there trousers.

How often does Bastion forgo clothing in favour of pymary?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:10:14 -0400

Only when teleporting. He can only teleport his own flesh, like a time traveler in the Terminator movies, so he has to glamour clothing when he reaches his destination. He doesn't do it to be kinky or anything, it can actually be quite cold walking around naked.

Did you know that Chitz, Boo, the hats, and Friendly Talking Coffee would be as popular as they are when you created them?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:06:50 -0400

Oh, I imagine their popularity is greatly imagined ;) What surprises me is that people have warmed to Sette. I never thought she'd win them over.

Is Bastion wearing any clothes, or is he just beglamoured? I need to know!

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:05:53 -0400

In the flashback we saw, he is in fact wearing actual clothes. He'd been in town a while making arrangements. Also, he would never set his bare ass down on a seat in Nary's nasty headquarters, he'd probably catch a disease.

I just had a brilliant question and I forgot it while clicking on your username to ask it.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:03:57 -0400

Do you ever wonder how Terry Pratchett's Alzheimer's is progressing?

Stray thought; If we stir first salt into friendly talking coffee, will he become a real boy?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:00:21 -0400

Possibly. Fun fact: Friendly talking coffee has a cameo in the next chapter. I will be very impressed if someone spots it.

MEGA SPOILER: The Epilogue shows an elderly Pantoffel on her deathbed, surrounded by her 7 children and 49 grand-children. After reflecting on a life well-lived, she passes away peacefully in her sleep and becomes one with the khert. The End

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 03:59:41 -0400

NO. It needs more blood and tragedy. Pantoffel catches a flesh-eating bacteria in her face. Desperate to cure her, Toma and Elka journey to a guru on a distant mountaintop, but are forced to eat Pantoffel when a blizzard traps them in a cave for weeks. Pantoffel's ghost becomes a smoke eel and is blown apart by Elka, who doesn't recognise that it's only trying to say goodbye from the other side.

How are you, Glass? It's been a while since I or anyone else asked you about you rather than Unsounded.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 03:56:28 -0400

Oh, you don't want to hear about crappy me. I appreciate the interest though :)

Glass, where did Duane's drool come from?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 03:55:44 -0400

Drool-mart.

About what time of night is it right now in the comic?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:20:21 -0400

21:37

What would it take for Sette to consider calling Duane by his proper name?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:15:31 -0400

An adequate amount of money.

Will Sette's mispronunciation of his name ever become endearing to Duane?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:15:16 -0400

It already is.

Does Pantoffel survive? Or at least die in a non-horrible way?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:04:27 -0400

That would be a spoiler D:

What does Sette's voice sound like? I mean, can you think of any examples?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:04:00 -0400

She sounds like a squeaky little girl (or prepubescent boy). Very cute.

One day when I have children could you come tell them stories before bed? I don't think I could convey a story like Unsounded properly or as effectively as you are.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:03:21 -0400

Aww, you are sweet <3 I will endeavour to continue to entertain you.

Was Sette still mispronouncing Duane's name? Usually you spell it like she says it, right? Or maybe I've gone crazy and am giving Sette too much credit as a good character.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:02:51 -0400

Maybe you've been reading their formspring. When Duane transcribes her saying his name there he usually spells it "Dwayne." The only time I've done that in the comic was way back in the second chapter when she first learned his name and mocked it. Otherwise it's always "Duane."

:3

What was leaking out of Duane in that one panel on the first page of tonight's update?

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:01:25 -0400

He's droolin'. When he's out've it he can't control all the little enchantments that keep him looking so acceptable as a corpse. No glamour, no fake spit control, and no dampening his musty stank. Eat him up, fangirls!

Wow, three books then? I had no idea the story was that long. Does that mean you're going to keep the DuaneAndSette Formspring, or eventually ditch it? There's only so much you can re-repeat on there before it get's frustrating and lengthy.

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 11:30:33 -0400

Well ideally the story itself will one day have answered most of the questions anyone could hope to ask them, so their formspring wouldn't be very necessary anyway :)

Is Sette wearing makeup? Not that I think she ever would, unless she was plotting great plots...

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 23:23:45 -0400

Nah, she doesn't need it. Hers is a natural beauty, terrible in its strength and ferocity.

Team Ulestry reporting in! How would we do in WAAAR?!?

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 19:00:05 -0400

You have no standing army D:

Hi! I really love your comic ^_^ Someone told me you said that Unsounded was split into different "Books" but I couldn't find that on formspring. Could you talk about this? How long are the Books and how far through the first Book are you now? Thank you!

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 18:58:30 -0400

Sure! The story is split into three books. The first one takes place mostly in Cresce. It's about Sette and Duane and the Red Berry Boys conspiracy, which blows up into something rather large. The second book takes place immediately afterwards and predominately in Alderode. Its plot features genocide and piracy, and has a lot to do with Alderode's current very tense political climate as well as the Tannery, a gang of cutthroats and spies. The third book jumps ahead one year, and jumps around a fair bit geographically (and dimensionally). It concerns big stuff like the nature and history of Kasslyne, and the resolutions of Alderode's political strife, its warmaking with Cresce, and the surviving characters.

Right now I would say we're on the second fifth of the first book. The tale is long. Hope you stick around for it :) Everything is outlined and explained on my computer so if I'm hit by a bus tomorrow, raid my harddrive for answers.

What's your first line of attack to fix a laggy computer? (I need ideas D:)

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 18:45:57 -0400

A virus scan and an adware scan are good starting points if it's gone laggy all of a sudden. If it's clean, look at how many processes you have running. Unless you installed your OS yourself it's probably loaded down with bloatware from the manufacturer. Uninstall all of it. If your computer is lagging while browsing you may have too many extensions installed on your browser. Back up your shiz and reinstall the OS if nothing else helps. It's a good idea to do this at least once a year anyway, OSes are like people and get eccentric with age.

I've been rereading some of the earlier pages and some of the dialogue (particularly some of Sette's speech in chapter 1) seems different than it did in my past read-throughs. Have you been editing the comic?

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 18:28:28 -0400

I made some minor dialog tweaks in the first chapter when I redid some of the art a while ago, but that's it. I'm surprised you noticed.

Somebody asked if they could sponsor you to write a side story. Have you ever considered using Kickstarter to get sponsorship?

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 15:15:21 -0400

One day I'll use Kickstarter to print a book. But not on this day.

Do the Aldish or the Crescians have better military uniforms?

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 14:05:04 -0400

I really dig on the Aldish uniforms. They have kind of a classical fantasy bent to them: awesome robes and leather for the wrights, slim, streamlined leather flightsuits for the vliegeng riders, and plate and scale armour for the battlers. Crescian uniforms are nice too but they don't get into the pageantry and glory of war the way the Aldish do and I think that reflects in more utilitarian uniforms. Cresce mostly fights because it has to, but Alderode fights because it loves to fight.

Speaking of WAAAAR, do you think any wars in history have been justifed?

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:35:29 -0400

Ya know, as a reckless little chode sitting here in her pyjamas sipping coffee in the First World on a lazy Saturday afternoon, I feel unqualified to answer this. I've never had someone come after me or my family. I don't know the first thing about what it's like to have to physically fight to defend my right to live and I probably won't ever. So I have no business answering this question. Who am I to declare anything justified or unjustified?

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:16:10 -0400

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

What would the Aldish do with Cresce if they did manage to take it over? From your last response, it sounds like sympathisers are a small minority, so what would they do with the loads of loyal Crescians and everyone in the countries with Crescian ties?

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:59:09 -0400

Slaughter them.

If Cresce is a greed-free functioning pseudo-communism, why would it have arranged marriages? Arranged marriages are about exchanges of property.

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:50:07 -0400

Greed-free? That's the ideal but it's not reality.

In Cresce arranged marriages are largely for karmic reasons. Families are ranked by the Gefendur church in an elaborate spiritual hierarchy derived largely from how removed they are from the royal family. Everyone wants to marry into a better family to ensure a happier time of it in their next life and for their children. Families also are categorized into classes that can have a profound impact on what its members can do for a living. Professional mobility is possible in Cresce with hard work (or by marrying into a better family) but it's understood that everyone's turn to clean up the giant dogshit must come, and if you do it tirelessly and well in this life, your next life will be better. The Crescian state leans very heavily on Gefendur dogma in order to function, and the tiered families really keep it from being classed as Communism.

I think what makes Cresce unique though, maybe, is the sense of camaraderie and equality that exists between even the lowest and highest ranked of the families. By subjecting everyone to the same restrictions and responsibilities at both a religious and national level, you kind of beat down a lot of the distancing barriers that might otherwise form. When everyone's child goes to the same school together... when a cousin of the queen finds himself digging trenches with farmers and having skull pilots save his neck from Aldish attacks, it's hard for him to hold up his nose at them later.

That's how it looks on paper anyway :) There are people in Cresce that dislike the current system and feel they're too good for it. Captain Toma's wife Emne is such a person. Comes from a great family, lives in the capital only a few blocks from the palace, and has sympathy for the Aldish when they claim that the Crescian state is authoritarian tyranny that should be wiped from the earth.

On the whole though, Cresce's current system has been running strong for a few centuries. It seems to work for them, no one's starving, and Alderode hasn't overrun the border yet.

So how believable was Sette's lie that she was Elan's fiancee to the Ulestrians/Peaceguard? Is it not uncommon for them to see young girls marrying grown men?

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:55:02 -0400

It was fairly believable. Didn't you see how the comments exploded with people obsessing suddenly over how "pretty" Sette had become? 9_9 But yeah, arranged marriages are super common in Unsounded's world, so an older man having a much younger fiancee isn't very weird. Doesn't mean he's boning her or even that they see each other regularly, just that the bargain's been made. Stuff like this has been standard practise throughout much of our history.

Hm... in the most recent update, is Sette just holding her fist close to her chest, or is she holding tightly to that glowing vial she wears as a pendant? I cannot tell, and I'm inclined to believe your answer offers body language clues. :D

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:44:59 -0400

She's just holding her fist close to her chest :)

Do you ever feel really sad when you think back on your RP days? There's nothing quite like your first really good RP group, isn't there? It's like a nerd rite of passage..........

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:44:19 -0400

This is a true statement, anon. I feel really bad for people who have never RPed and I count myself impossibly fortunate that I had the years of RP that I did. I played with the smartest, most talented, most creative people, and it shaped everything I am today. I've experienced the most perfect romances, the most epic adventures, the most profound exercises of justice, and the deepest tragedies. Where reality paled, RP shone. RP is greater than solo writing and greater than solo reading. It's a form of creation and entertainment combined and it goes deeper, affects you more profoundly, and addicts you quicker than just about any other acts of either I can think of. I cannot extol the virtues of roleplaying enough.

Of course I'm talking about freeform online roleplay, which is quite a different beast from the tabletop stuff, don't get me wrong.

Naturally I miss the hell out of it. If I went back somehow, though, I don't think it could ever live up to the days of Keltara and Sharteshane. RP, for me, is complete. I'm not going to attempt a Phantom Menace, or a Prometheus, or a Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, or a Legend of Korra. 'Twould be folly. Ashley's RP days are done.

What happened to Sette's shirt?

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:49:22 -0400

It's in Duane's bag, don't fret.

Is there a Kasslyne equivalent of the barbershop knock?

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:19:56 -0400

Vlieeeeegeng ate the babies...

Make more!

If someone wanted to send you rather poor fanart for Unsounded, where would they send it? Is the email you have listed on Casualvillain still accurate, or has the world moved on?

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:04:37 -0400

murkoph@gmail.com would do it, or use the casualvillain address, it's all good. Yay fanart :3

If all the characters in Unsounded actually existed in our reality (stay with me here, I know some, if not most, would prolly fall apart w/o the khert), which one would you want to meet and actually talk to first and why? :)

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:32:06 -0400

Lord Winalils (Basion). He's the most open-minded, has a fabulously interesting past, and is more or less a decent fellow. He'd be fun to take out for pizza and a movie.

Is it completely up to Sette to threaten the guy on her lonesome (well, lonesome + attack zombie)? She's there as her dad's representative, so won't he just send someone worse if Sette doesn't get the goods, or does that not matter?

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:30:41 -0400

S'kind of a mystery, no? Duane himself believes there's something more to it. http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_39.html "Nary Frummagem did not with noble intentions send a CHILD to settle a clan debt." Guess we'll have to see how it plays out.

Been following this assault and murder of a little girl in Utah and I don't know why. Why are people sometimes pulled to dark and horrible things that have nothing to do with them?

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 04:02:56 -0400

I suppose different people have different reasons. Can't say it's a pastime I engage in.

Whut? Did Sette just hesitate? Is it because she's scared of Duane, or because she's starting to care a little bit about how disappointed he'll be? I want Sette to get the feelings for things other than money. Not THOSE kinds of feelings, that's icky.

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 04:02:10 -0400

Haha, you still think too much of Sette, I'm afraid. She hesitated because she's suddenly very scared for her own skin after that talk of how well Stockyard is doing. If she's walking into a situation where he's set himself up as lord of the town and all she has is a zombie with a broken leg who doesn't even wanna be there... outcome looks grim for the successful completion of da's errand. And possibly for her successful survival into next week.

Sweet, Anonymous commenting is back on! :-)

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:53:57 -0400

Use it wisely, use it well.

Is Nary well known outside of Sharteshane.

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:32:05 -0400

Not really, no.

What would Sette do when she would find out that, once she and Duane get back home, her da wasn't going to keep his promise of not telling anyone about Duane's zombieness?

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:24:43 -0400

Everything da says and does is correct and cannot be questioned.

Have you ever been put in charge of a group of people (or even one person) who was so woefully incompetent that whenever they came to you with a problem it was easier to say "I'll handle it" rather than explain it to them?

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:19:43 -0400

lol are you GMing?

Are you scared of death?

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:46:18 -0400

Good creatures, do you love your lives
And have you ears for sense?
Here is a knife like other knives,
That cost me eighteen pence.

I need but stick it in my heart
And down will come the sky,
And earth's foundations will depart
And all you folk will die.

A.E. Housman

Are you scared of life?

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:43:56 -0400

Life is pretty scary. Trick is to not think about it too much.

If given a choice, would you rather ride a Chinese dragon, a unicorn, a broom, or a motorcycle?

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:43:33 -0400

MrBallpoint, are you ingesting psychotropic substances this evening? I suppose I would like to ride a unicorn. We would visit all the unicorn-drunk little girls of the world and make them squeal in delight. But no bronies.

How many languages do you know? How many have you tried to learn? If you could instantly become fluent in a second (or third, or fourth, etc.) language, which would it be?

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:41:59 -0400

I only know English fluently. But I do know it very well and pride myself on my ridiculous vocabulary. My Spanish is decent, my Japanese is weeaboo. I would not at all mind instant fluency in these languages. Afterwards I want to instantly know French so I can read all those pervy Euro comics.

I know of a web-text-story that lets people donate toward bonus stories. You could try something like that, like say at $XXX you'll write about a character and send it to everyone who donates, then put it up for anyone else interested to buy.

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:39:10 -0400

That's not a bad idea.

Is there a character in Gankutsuou that you felt was underdeveloped or two dimensional?

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:38:43 -0400

Well, Mercedes was kind of just THERE, but her job was only to be beautiful so I don't suppose she needed to do much else but function biologically. Still, it would have been nice if we'd been able to get in her head a bit more.

Whats a style you wish would come back?

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:36:24 -0400

Capes and muttonchops.

"A Crescian prostitute will change their appearance to suit your preferences." So, like a glamour? If so, how can a prostitute legally do that but not an actor in Crescian plays?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:35:06 -0400

Glamours are only illegal in the capital city, for security reasons.

Why are city Silver so much fun? Just because they're carefree and pretty, or is there more to it than that?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:04:11 -0400

The civilizing effect of other people, for the most part. Most metropolitans wouldn't put up with the outright rape or murder of women. Decent of them, eh? Otherwise all Silver are generally laid back people, they just have a terrible hang-up when it comes to mingling with the other castes. There's speculation it's to do with the faultlines of the Dammakhert and that's a reasonable theory.

Have you been asked about how people on Kasslyne view homosexuality yet? If not, how do people on Kasslyne view homosexuality?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:00:20 -0400

I got asked this long ago and got in trouble for my answer, actually. Someone wrote me a really long rebuke of an email and we went back and forth a few times and it was a mess. Internet dramz.

In a nutshell, Ssaelit are against homosexuality but not in a murderous, burn you at the stake way. It's frowned upon as something debauched and irresponsible. Fraternal Gefendur pretty much share this view. Sororal Gefendur don't give a good goddamn about the particulars of one's sex life but homosexual marriage doesn't exist anywhere and you'd get looked at like a two-headed chicken if you suggested it.

I know you don't like to do Murkoph questions, but this isn't really a Murkoph question. Why don't you like Murkoph questions?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:52:32 -0400

Because Murkoph is the sort of character that no one should know too much about. He works best that way.

What was Duane's favorite food while he was alive? And what is Sette's favorite color? And, for a random one, what is Elka's view on lesbianism?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:49:16 -0400

Duane liked homey stews and meat slabs and pasties. A man of simple culinary tastes. Sette's favourite colour is gold because money. Elka has no opinions on lesbians except people so often assume she is one, which is somewhat frustrating.

"a fantastic excuse lined up" But she does, namely that "we're in Cresce now! Ya gotta be inconpik-uous". I'm sure that'd make Duane forget about the plod mask in a hurry. I can't wait to see his reaction when he realizes where he is.

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:43:58 -0400

Will Will know about Duane and the Silver girl, or is his opinion related to some similar situation?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:42:43 -0400

I guess I just don't wanna talk about their relationship just yet.

What was the last movie you watched? Write a one sentence review of it.

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:31:37 -0400

Berserk: Something About An Egg

Brutal film with great fights, lovely designs and character animation, and men so hot you'll have to apply aloe to your pupils after viewing.

What would Will think of Duane getting it on with a Silver?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:27:41 -0400

I actually can't answer this without spoilers :)

Are we going to see Elan again?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:17:31 -0400

Yes.

Who is Mindaroth?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:17:22 -0400

She is my nice friend lady. She is from Texas but don't hold that against her. We RPed for years. She's very cool, go talk to her.

You said Will is coming up! ...who is Will exactly?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:16:39 -0400

William Argenti is an Aldishman of the Silver caste, eighteen years old, eldest son of Amadwe Argenti, a high-ranking official in the Ssaelit temple. Will also works in the temple as a Private in the Shadwe's Lions of Mercy. He is good with a spear but rubbish at pymary which means he'll never be promoted above Private but he doesn't really care because Will is a happy sort content to drink and sport and spar and patrol and carouse a bit. Also he is missing his left arm but since his family is quite wealthy he has a nice simulacrum. He also has beautiful blue eyes, a dusky complexion, pewter-coloured hair, and is just about the prettiest, kindest, most likeable kid you could ever hope to meet.

Are Eufhoby considered people or animals? Did the Eufhoby whore give his consent to be a whore? What first material are eufhoby made of?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:49:14 -0400

They're considered senet beasts! The whorehouse was the eufhoby's idea, so yes, it was quite consensual. They are not not made out of any first materials, which is one reason why there are still some around - not much of value can be gained from them. They are also super deadly. They have poisonous bites, hypno-eyes, and reptilian sensibilities, meaning they have no moral compunction against killing you and eating you if they can get away with it.

Careful Glass, boredom leads to apathy, apathy leads somewhere else, and I'm tired of this sentence already.

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:45:33 -0400

I'm eating delicious chicken and rice.

What are slime beasts? Are they pymarics or actual beasts?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:44:32 -0400

No, no, totally pymarics. So they're probably not as awesome as you'd hope: limited AI, will only do what you say, and super expensive.

If a Tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to turn it into a raving undead lunatic, did it really fall? (No, I don't actually expect you to post this. <3) I'm BORED. Work is BORING.

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:35:44 -0400

I doubt anyone can interpret this into a spoiler. I'm sorry you are bored :( Why is work so boring? I will go ask you questions.

I'm afraid to ask...do the slime-beast brothels have slime women?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:03:22 -0400

And slime men, I'm sure.

What was Murkoph's favorite food when he was alive?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:57:31 -0400

I don't like to do Murkoph questions, m'darling, I apologise.

Did Duane like the tentacles? Was he a repeat consumer of tentacle monster pymarics? He was, wasn't he? Does he wish he still had soft bits so he could enjoy them while he's undead?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:57:08 -0400

*runs away shrieking*

Woo! Ignore my last question; archive to the rescue! What makes Crescian whorehouses and such so superior? Tell me about one that isn't the tentacle one or the Two-toe one! (Please?)

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:56:38 -0400

Would it surprise you to know that a tentacle love hotel is a key location in the next two chapters? It's one of those things that seemed so natural and charming in the script and now that I'm drawing it I have to pause every ten minutes and wonder what the hell I am doing with my life.

In a very liberal society like Cresce's, the sex trade is huge. It's huge, it's legal, it's shame-free, it's bursting with variety and innovation. Unlike the Ssaelit religion which is rather stuffy towards sex, the Gefendur religion calls sex a gift from the gods, and Cresce is very, very Gefendur.

A Crescian prostitute will change their appearance to suit your preferences. They have an arsenal of cutting edge pymarics to assist them in making your experience special. There are straight brothels and gay brothels and straight-gay brothels and S&M brothels and slime-beast brothels and there was even a brothel with a eufhoby until he lost his mind and killed a customer and that is why we can't have nice things. Cresce is renowned for its prostitutes and its pleasure districts and every whorehouse wants to be one that stands out as sensational, new, freaky, but safe.

I really hate to talk about this aspect of Cresce too much 'cause I don't want Unsounded to start coming off like some kind of fetish comic, but it is there in the background. Cresce is a swingin' place.

Has Duane ever tried out a tentacle pymaric? On himself, of course; I really don't care if he had a ladyfriend into that sort of thing...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:20:05 -0400

Duane tells me I am not allowed to answer this.

When Bet loses control over the Pymaric Beast after telling it to kill Duane, is that because he gave it an order it couldn't follow, or because Duane severed his control?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:48:19 -0400

Because it gave an order the beast couldn't follow. Then, because it was confused at that point, Duane swooped in and suggested they be buds. The pymaric beast Bett summoned was... not... a fighting beast. It was meant for uh, ya know, tentacle lovin'. Duane knew this and had it turn around and put Bett to sleep. Gentle Giant pymarics - of which that beast was an example - have tactile abilities and soporific abilities. That's all they can do. Had Bett known this, maybe he wouldn't have bought it - whether it was on sale at the time or not.

Why isn't this on the page? Because in retrospect it's a little weird, no? Let's keep the details behind that encounter between you and me, anon.

"I'm not sure there'd be much he could do, you think? Dress up like Mrs. Doubtfire, maybe: latex mask and bodysuit, get a job as a nanny :3" I bet Murkoph would advise him that the kid's eyes are the tastiest part...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:37:14 -0400

You're a creepy character, anon. I actually had a dream last night that someone took their eyeballs out and kept trying to put them on me. And they were very bouncy. Ech.

How bad would Duane take it if he woke up and Sette'd stuck plod headgear on him?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:35:43 -0400

Pretty bad. Unless she had a -fantastic- excuse lined up, I think he'd take the mask off, put it on her, and make her wear it the rest of the day.

Could I commission you to write a prose story set in Unsounded's universe? (with optional illustrations?) I'd let you sell it after. So really, I guess I'd be more like...sponsoring a story? Would you do that?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:33:14 -0400

I... don't think I could let you do that. I feel it would be unethical of me. But that's really cool of you to offer :) Did you have a specific story you wanted to see, out of curiosity?

So is the reason nobody can see Mr. SpookyMcBooPants because they just aren't looking when he pops up, or is he actually invisible to the characters and we only see him by virtue for being the readers?(Also, does he have a real name that we can know yet?)

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:41:10 -0400

Anyone could see him if they looked in his direction, he's not invisible. Perhaps Elan's lack of a reaction tells us something. And his name is Timofey but you can call him Mr. SpookyMcBooPants if you like :)

These "freaks"... do they happen? Once in a blue moon, is someone concieved and born in Alderode, to Aldish parents, but entirely free of the Dammakhert's influence?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:19:26 -0400

Once in a blue moon.

Do you ever come up with really crazystuff and get nervous to put it in your story because people might think you're messed in the head? Do you get nervous about making characters say like sexist or racist things because people will think it's from you?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:19:15 -0400

Crazy stuff? Lemme tell you about the fetus balloons in chapter 7. But no, I don't care what people think of me. I knew the minute I took Sette's shirt off that the internet would declare me a pedophile and that would be that. It is useful to be messed in the head, good ideas come from it.

As for people equating my characters' views with mine, that is on them and I try not to get nervous about the potential for other people to be dumb. I let my characters do and say whatever they need to do and say to be honest representations of themselves. I don't let any possible ramifications trouble me.

Considering how people kept digging up earlier (lovely) prose of yours, perhaps try out the model by seeing if anyone wants to buy a compilation of that stuff as sort of "making of" for Unsounded? You have it already written so it'd be an easy test run.

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:13:52 -0400

Maybe! There are complications with that though. A lot of my Unsounded characters-related prose is from roleplaying, and that roleplay involved other people's writing as well as mine, so I couldn't turn around and sell that. It's fine though, I'd rather write new stuff that's relevant to the comic anyway :)

Glass! Tell us again about currency, Sem and such! Details, delicious details!

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:12:13 -0400

Sem is boring :D It comes in gold (stamped with Yerta), silver (stamped with a fish), and copper (stamped with Tirna). It's good everywhere on the continent except for Alderode and the interior of Cresce. Sette is in love with it.

WHY IS HIS MASK BREAKING, ASHLEY? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY? (I am not sure that this is the correct number of Y's to express my concern, but I am sure that you can imagine how concerned I am.)

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:08:22 -0400

O_O

I actually don't know why, if you're referring to what I think you are. It was just a book cover I was paid to do. Rarely do I read the books or stories I'm hired to illustrate, I just get told what to draw and I draw it O_O

One thing I've always admired about you is your work ethic. How do you keep yourself to such a rigorous schedule? Do you ever worry about burning out or losing your muse? What advice would you give to someone who wants to stop being lazy?

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:54:35 -0400

Thank you! But I don't feel like I have a very good work ethic... My comic doesn't feel like work, it feels like the most enjoyable thing in the world to do. I'd rather work on my comic than go on a cruise or to the movies or have sex with half a dozen nubile bishounen twenty-somethings on a bed of candy floss and Skittles.

So so so I don't know! Give ME advice on how to put the comic aside to do work that pays me :D Because that is something I often have trouble with and only looking long and hard at my bank balance forces me to get to it, haha.

Maybe once you find the thing you love, you won't be lazy when it comes to making it happen. But you know what can really stand in the way? Video games. Television. Books. Excessive social activities. You have to give these things up if you want to be a prolific artist. There are only so many hours in the day and you can't have all of it.

What's the most noxious alcoholic beverage you've ever partaken of?

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:18:22 -0400

Hrmm. Southern Comfort and Coke? I've never been a big drinker, I'm boring :(

Have you considered drawing sidestories as purchasable bonus material? I know another webcomic author that does that.

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:39:40 -0400

It's definitely a good idea, there's just a time issue. I'd much rather write side stories as prose with a few illustrations than do comics of them, but I dunno if people are as interested in that.

How much of what you trimmed out of Unsounded would work all right as semi-freestanding stories (as in, not buried in the middle of the comic)? Would you ever consider putting them up every once in a while after the comic ends, or is the end the end?

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:19:14 -0400

The comic won't end for yeeeeears. The story is long. But I have tons of stand-alone sidestory ideas that would work much better than the trimmed stuff.

Do the six trials have anything to do with the six Aldish castes? Or is it just a number that they love?

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:17:23 -0400

Just a coincidence.

After watching Brave, (listening to the soundtrack now) I was reminded of what my favorite accent is and why. Do you have a favorite accent?

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 01:15:11 -0400

Romanian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtOSoXLbPhs

So are women also allowed in the Crescian Army, or is the Peace Guard the farthest they can climb? And if they are, what does Duane think of that?...Preposterous, right?

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:39:58 -0400

He thinks it's pretty gross, yeah. This is a big talking point in Alderode when it comes to knocking down Cresce: how they're such cowards that they let their women fight for them, that they throw them in harm's way, that on the battlefield the male soldiers use them as human shields, etc. Women are not only allowed in the Crescian army they are expected to serve the same compulsory two years as the men. Of course they're much more often trained as wrights, construct techs and pilots, and medics than as infantry. The current leader of Cresce's construct division is a lady, in fact.

But yeah, Cresce takes its gender equality pretty seriously. Equality, honour, and education are its biggest sticking points, I think.

I am in the process of playing the [awesome] game Bastion, and now every time I see the word Bastion I think of the game. Anyway, was there any particular reason for naming him Bastion?

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:39:08 -0400

Hahaha, I remember when that first came out and everyone in the chatroom I hang out in was talking about it. Freaked me the fuck ooooout.

I didn't name Bastion, his daddy did. Bastion was meant to be the last bastion and stronghold of the Winalils name and lineage. He was the family's last attempt at a child, and the first and last male born to them, so many expectations were heaped upon him. He was born the heir to everything; the last hope of his father, the last hope of his noble family.

All of that's gone now though. Bastion was disowned and his eldest sister's husband made heir. Bastion don't even care, he thinks they're all right daft.

Is there a reason Quig and co. even bothered with forged passes? There's no way around Mulimar?...Also if I never said it; watch FMA. The first one, not Brotherhood. Brotherhood follows the manga closely, but it's...eh, too shonen. I think you'd dig it.

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:25:03 -0400

Quigs told Starfish in their first scene together that the passes were stupid and wouldn't work - they were Starfish's plan, never Quigley's. Mulimar's important because it's the closest crossing to Ethelmik, which is the gang's ultimate destination. There are other river crossings but they're hundreds of miles out of the way, and it's much easier to move through Ulestry than it is through Cresce. Duane points out back in the second chapter that Ulestry's "mountainous wilds" are poorly policed. The entire Knobbytop area is pretty damn rural in fact, so much so that only the pilgrim trade sustains Mulimar and now that the mines are dead, there's nothing at all sustaining Ethelmik, making it a financially unsound town destined for the chopping block.

FMA! I did watch the first few episodes years ago, I thought they were cool. But I'd just come off of Gankutsuou, which I thought was one of the greatest damn series I'd ever seen, so FMA had a lot to compete with and couldn't hold my interest. It's Gankutsuou's fault, not FMA's :)

How do you feel about snakes? Are there any cool snakes in the world of Unsounded?

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:07:48 -0400

I like snakes okay! I was always on snake/lizard/frog duty in my family as a kid because no one else wanted to touch them and I never minded. They would always get in the house or in the swimming pool and have to be rescued.

There are senet beasts called eufhoby which are essentially male and female naga :3 One of them, Evelyn Five-Eyes, used to chill out with Bastion on the cover of my website. They boinked for a while but it never went anywhere.

Have you watched the season finale of Korra? If so, what did you think?(personally I was disappointed as fuck)

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 20:38:17 -0400

I lost interest in the series after the fifth episode, but I got the gist of things from /co/. Sounds like it strayed into fanfic territory and tried to fit too much into too short a series. C'est la vie. If they get some writers on board for the second series maybe it'll be much better. Not every good creator is a good writer x_x

Have you ever been stuck on a speed bump on the road of this plot, or has it been smooth sailing? Ever written/drawn a scene, and then wished you had changed it? Ever had to turn away a really good idea you had for the sake of the plot?

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:44:03 -0400

Aaaaall the time. I wish chapter 3 and 5 were totally different. I had to axe a big military flashback chapter for Duane because I realised it was too self-indulgent and not important enough. I cut soooo much dialogue all the time, and the comic's still too wordy. So much stuff gets chopped it's not even funny.

So yes. Many road bumps.

I dunno, it's pretty much by morals/codes and some blind luck that Sette is still breathing. If her birthright is really hers, her "competition" had some sense of morals/code not to strangle her in her crib or toss her toddler-self into the bay. :P

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:37:54 -0400

Ha, I just wrote up a rebuttal to this without realising what a spoiler it would be. So sure! That's one way for you to look at it :D

If a military hero married another military hero's daughter, and they were wildly in love, and he was sent to the front lines and she sort of followed, and they had a baby outside the Dammakhert, but were both beloved Aldish citizens, what would become...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:31:25 -0400

"of the baby?"

I think an exception would be made and the baby would be welcomed into the country. It would have to deal with the social stigma of being outside the Dammakhert and having no caste of its own, but that would just be its lot in life.

Would it be possible to dispel smoke eels of sadness and rage by giving them love and affection? (Ha! You thought I was just asking kedis questions, didn't you?)

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:30:07 -0400

Naw, smoke eels only understand their own rage and despair. They are like teenage goths :3

What's the deal with it being..."less bad" for lack of words to kill a plat over say a copper in Alderode? Yes, life sucks and they're blessed because they punch out sooner, but valuing actual lifespan seems too...practical for people who're so religious.

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:49:27 -0400

"Morals is like tall noisy boots; ya make a lotta noise gallomping about in 'em but they only go up to your own arse." Sette is wisest character.

The Plats and the Silvers are granted a lot of lip service by everyone in Alderode and in its temples and churches. Praise the innocence of the pale! Praise their children! Release yourself to the whims of the gods as the Silvers do and let us all know that same peace!

But the Plats still don't DO anything. They're born, they do their short service for the government, they inspire the people, then they die. There is not much social investment in the life of most Plats. Even the oldest of them, the most educated, are children compared to a middle-aged Jet with twenty years of Academy learning and fifty years of life experience and more to come. How much these older people benefit the country's brain trust, innovation potential, and technology is immeasurable compared to the Plats.

But no one talks about this. It's "rude." It's simply the responsibility of the Burdened caste. The least we can do for them is seek justice when the potential and value of one of their numbers is unjustly cut down. But a dead Plat? How much time did he have anyway? It's fine, there's plenty of them, they'll make plenty more.

Also: Are you underwater yet? Can you swim? Also everything here is on fire. Bummer.

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:33:56 -0400

The Fire Nation and the Water Tribes are attacking the US in tandem. What a tweest!

But yeah, I'm fine. Power's just out at my place so I'm camping elsewhere. Don't breathe too much of that smoke!

Do you tire of my bizarre and improbable scenarios? Should I stop and think of a new kind of question? Have you seen the notebook I used to keep my stacks of questions for you in? I lost it, and the dozens of non-scenario questions in it...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:58:26 -0400

You don't have to ask questions just to ask questions :D I hope your day is going well.

What sorts of maintenance and care do pet kedises require?

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:56:51 -0400

I love ya like a sister but I'm not making up answers for these like, twenty kedis questions you've put in my inbox x_x

Are there any Pymary-based sports besides the obvious duels?

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:55:09 -0400

I'm sure there must be but I'm not really into sports, so I've never nailed them down.

Oh, I have another terrible pymary question! If momentum is an aspect, uhh...couldn't you isolate the momentum of a pebble and really blow up some real estate? Our earth moves at ~67,000 miles per hour and rotates at 1k mph. That's a LOT of power.

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:54:34 -0400

You can pull off a lot of mad antics with pymary. It's a paintbox of a magic system.

What do Kedises(?) taste like? Is eating them akin to eating dogs in American culture?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 18:13:10 -0400

Yes. Don't eat the kedises, Fakult, you will offend the locals.

Does Matty like kedises? I can totally see him cuddling one in his lap.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 18:09:57 -0400

Matty likes everything but peas and Cutter and Mr. Starfish..

Another anon jumping in here, what exactly is FC talking about with a redesign? I thought you drew the picture just so she (and we) could finally see one?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 18:08:45 -0400

I think she's referring to the very first sketch I showed of one that had it cuddling with baby Bastion. Or she hates me and all that I am.

I feel a little silly for asking, but what are kedises? I've read the word a couple times here on formspring.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:38:26 -0400

Kedises are the iguana-cats people in the south keep as pets. They're not important but Forumcat is oddly obsessed with them. Or she was anyway, she no longer finds them as cute.
http://www.casualvillain.com/random/snooze.jpg

I was looking at old stuff, and I realised: I like the old version of kedises waaaaay better than the new one (though I still like new kedises). Is there anything in particular that sparked the redesign? The old ones looked like little dinosaurs...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:13:15 -0400

Well, yes, the old ones looked too much like little dinosaurs XD Something that has been done already and well (see Marvel 1602).

Ok, so when outsiders manage to have a baby in Alderode, you mentioned that it was usually assigned one of the normal-most castes at random, so is it possible for the baby to be assigned the Gold caste, which doesn't change the person's appearance...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 16:47:51 -0400

"... (right?) but look like, say, a Jet or Bronze (due to their parents' genetics) or would they always be assigned a recolouring caste to do away with that issue?"

Assigned the Gold caste by whom? The dammakhert? The dammakhert does not mess with the Gold caste, this by definition makes them Gold. So nope. It would probably shovel them into the Bronze or Silver castes and change their looks accordingly.

Hmmm... ok, so Kasslynians aren't really human, but they're sort of humans, so I assume they follow a similar biological clock to humans. The Aldish are weird, though. Plats seem to grow on a fairly similar frame to normal people, but do they mature...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 16:45:09 -0400

"... sexually at a similar time, or earlier? Do they lose potency/go through menopause early, do to aging, or do they stay reproductively sound until death or near death? How many babies could one Plat woman theoretically pop out in a lifetime? Are there cultural reasons for them not doing it, even though their caste is a super-form of genetic recessivness and only pure-bred Plats are Plats and, theoretically, to preserve their breed, they should have whole messes of babies whenever possible?"

Plat women are damn near always pregnant; one more reason the general population considers them holy since the women inevitably bear a resemblance to fat Yerta. As their insides get older the chance of them not surviving a birth goes way up, so most white-haired women die on their backs. They never go through menopause though, their reproductive bits aren't leeched to the same degree their other bits are, but the men do have a hard (or not so hard durhurhur) time in their late twenties. The kids don't sexually mature any younger than other kids.

Poor Matty. Living around other people with anywhere from 2x to ~15x your lifespan has to take its toll. I mean, does Matty get the fairly grim implications of being a plat? He's already profoundly blind and frail, and it's all downhill from here!?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 16:35:03 -0400

Plats and Silvers live very much in the moment. Socially THEY are considered the fortunate ones. THEY spend the least time in the trials of their shitty lives. THEY are the people for whom each good day is precious. THEY are the special ones because the gods and the adoring khert wish so desperately to take them from the world as soon as possible. Plats are blessed, they are beautiful, they are too wonderful for the world, and they are closer than anyone to being quit of it. No decades of old age for the Plats; a few years of gentle degradation and then they are finished. They understand the importance of community, of faith, of family, of the loveliness of every small moment. No struggling to take take take and hoard hoard hoard; instead a blessed surrender of all that can't be controlled and a tender appreciation for the gift of their brief but truly superior lives.

This is what a Plat hears 24/7 from the day he's born. It's not grim to be a Plat. It's wonderful to be a Plat.

Our Matty is atypical for the caste and Quigley is plainly freakish, but even they don't really sit around obsessing over their lifespans. Do the poor sit around obsessing over their poverty? Not really; they work and play and live and laugh to the extent that their means allow them. Every time they do a study on the matter, it turns out that the poor are overall happier or at least no less happy than the rich. This is a truism that the Plats seem to just instinctively KNOW. To have the potential of thirty years or four-hundred is irrelevant; what matters is what everyone alive has right now: TODAY.

I don't think Matty could express this clearly, but it's inside him and it's a knowledge that shapes his world.

I realize it doesn't show up in appearance, but does Plat aging affect them like other people in other ways? Because Quigley, though old by Plat standards, doesn't seem to show any of the physical or mental disabilities often associated with old age.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:43:26 -0400

He's 23 - not THAT old by Plat standards. But middle age definitely slows him down. He gets tired easy, has terrible lungs, and his eyes are worse every year. He's also an old crank.

It actually DOES show when Plats start to near the end of their lives. They don't suffer loss of bone mass or wrinkles like we do, but their skin and hair and even eyes go transparent. They turn into these gross, veiny, hobbled things. If a Plat manages to make it to 31 or 32 you can often see right through 'em into their cloudy organs.

Can I have some of your rain? It's rather dry up here.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 13:34:04 -0400

Sure, lemme ask Obama to build a pipeline.

"I even liked Howl's Moving Castle though it kind of peed all over the book." Oh Em Gee!!! You read Diana Wynne Jones??? That fills me with punctuation!!!! flail flail

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 12:54:22 -0400

Sure! I've read all three Howl's books and the first few Chrestomanci books. I was sad when she died, I felt she had a lot of stories left in her. Very charming author.

Is there anywhere in Kasslyne that rains as much as it is currently raining in Tampa?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 12:52:31 -0400

It's raining a lot here in St. Pete as well. I'm afraid it's going to flood, Florida anon, come and rescue me :(

Would a bottle smoke eel of sadness and rage be a liquid with occasional smoke-eel appearances, or would it be like someone stuffed an eel into a bottle?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 12:51:58 -0400

I think I think I think liquidy smoke with an occasional floating eel face and snarly teeth.

Why do I keep asking anon questions? I have a perfectly good username and it's not like people throw things at me whenever I'm not anon. Explain me to me, Glass!

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 12:51:23 -0400

Are you shy?

Wright duel time. Bastion vs. (live) Duane. Bastion vs. (dead) Duane. Similar circumstances to the duel with Quigley. Quigley vs. (live) Duane. Quigley vs. Bastion. Bett vs. all three (lolz)

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 12:06:08 -0400

Quigley VS Bastion would be the most interesting duel. I'm afraid living Duane - at the peak of his performance right before he died - would vapourize both the motherfuckers. Ooh, even the idea of it makes me cackle and swear like a football fan. Anyway, take note: the way to deal with a broken and overpowered protagonist is to kill him before the story starts and saddle him with handicaps.

Quigley VS Bastion would be a close fight. Bastion isn't a fighter but when pressed he has his tricks, most prominently teleportation. Only he and two other people in the world can pull it off, so he'd be Nightcrawler'ing around Quigley and getting in shots at his back. He also has Black Tongue secrets to call upon so yeah, Bastion would beat Quigley, but the Plat wouldn't make it too easy.

Bett? lawl

Bett wouldn't show up to the fight, he'd be hiding.

Can a novel ever be adequately adapted to film? Is television simply a better medium for it to be turned into? How do you feel about homosexual tooth fillings?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:47:52 -0400

I hate homosexual tooth fillings. I have such a hole in my molar now, it is distracting and evil and is going to cost me way too much bloody money to have mended.

I think lots of novels have been adequately adapted into films. I can think of lots of Stephen King films and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Colour Purple and even the Harry Potter films. I even liked Howl's Moving Castle though it kind of peed all over the book.

There are some books that are unfilmable of course, and I don't care if directors want to take a shot at them, but they will always be inferior to the written version. You can't film Moby-Dick. You just can't. The whaling adventure is the pasteboard mask; the meat of the book is what's underneath. But you want to make Conan movies? Do it!

Which zombie flick do you prefer? Rage-virus or undeath?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:41:10 -0400

Oh, hey, I like your new icon.

I guess I prefer undeath since more can be done with it but I really am not much of a zombie flick fan. I like ghost and demon and monster movies a lot more.

'member when Duane said "What in the Seven Hells is this?" when he first met Eph and Bett? What exactly are the Seven Hells? Are they kinda like Dante's version, only seven instead of nine(?) circles? Or are they not circles, but something different?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:39:33 -0400

Duane is Ssaelit. Ssaelit believe that a man must defeat six hells before he can break the chains of reincarnation and terrestrial life and share in Ssael's godhead. But there is a seventh hell - a dark hell that lies at the bottom of the northern sea - into which the wicked are bound with their legs broken and their eyes gouged out, and from this cold and crushing hell there is no exit.

The first six hells are metaphorical and not so icky.

Could something like Uaid travel to the other continents and infect them with the khurt? Also, if you sink khurt-attached earth into the ocean so it's no longer attached and bring it back up, does that wash the khurt off or does the ocean just suppress?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:32:20 -0400

Uaid could not infect other lands with the khert. He has his own unique and self-contained field, but it's not a field that actively seeks new earth to claim, as the central network does.

The second question is interesting. Matter can generally be removed from the khert system and it will maintain any properties that the system outside can itself support. Sinking Kasslynian earth into the sea would be removing it from the system and it would become regular old dirt. Hmm, so it comes down to is there really a difference between REMOVAL of the khert from matter and SUPPRESSION if all matter has the potential to be worked into the khert system once introduced? It may just be semantics. The end result is the earth is no longer affected by the khert, with all that that entails.

When was the last time you wrote a journal entry, or something of the like?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:23:31 -0400

So long ago that I cannot recall it. Actually, I think it was a rant on tumblr. I mostly hate everything and should never be allowed near a journal.

Which James Bond is the best James Bond? (That is, which actor best portrays him?)

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:22:20 -0400

I know absolutely nothing about James Bond and have never seen any of the movies. I am proud of this achievement, it took a lot of work.

This may have been already answered, but does Duane have a middle name? Or do Aldishmen and women not create middle names for their kids?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:20:32 -0400

No one does middle names in Kasslyne. No fancy naming conventions 'round these parts :)

I think I finished getting all the questions except for maybe a few that I missed and I need to add in some more comment links still, but for the most part the website is done. At the very least I went far back enough no more questions load for me.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:19:34 -0400

THAT is impressive. I think you got them all too, I seem to remember those very earliest ones being just about that goofy.

Keilia has kindly archived every formspring question and answer at the above link. Worship at her altar.

For what it's worth, I always thought Sette would be rather pretty if she'd stop making gorky faces all the time (not that I object to the gorky faces, they're half her charm), so I don't think that's all that off-model.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:17:55 -0400

I didn't think so either. Sette can look pretty when she wants to, but most of the time she has better things to do.

Why do Crescian names only have four letters? Toma, Jivi, Elka, Siwl, even Petr lost a vowel making his name fit the convention.

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 01:58:46 -0400

Legend has it that there was a great famine during the first years of Crescia's rule. Rather than have all her people starve or only the rich or powerful take food for themselves, Crescia declared that rations would be halved for everyone except soldiers and those with four letters in their name. It was as arbitrary a way to pick survivors as any other. It also meant that two of her three children starved to death.

Since then it's become tradition to name your kid something with four letters in it. Why tempt the gods.

Also, does Duane even have eyes to tear up? I can't recall if you said they were made of glass or not...

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:12:36 -0400

Glass eyes. Can't cry.

DANGIT! Was that question rife with spoilery? Really? Ugh. I select questions in my head that I think are unassuming in nature. Frustrated sigh Guess not...just wondering stuff. Sorry, I really don't mean it.

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:11:56 -0400

No, it's a good question, but it's a loooong answer. I put it in my Later pile ;)

What could someone use those glowing mushrooms for? Do they have any uses?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:55:46 -0400

If you eat enough of them your poo will glow green.

Wait! At least answer if Sette can make Duane dance a jig in a jester outfit, write ALDERODE SUCKS CRESCE RULES LONG LIVE THE QUEEN on a wall, and then do a cartwheel off a bridge into a river.

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:45:51 -0400

You make Duane cry a thousand tears.

Are there senet beasts in other lands?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:43:52 -0400

Not like we know them, I don't think so.

Does Sette think Duane would nom if she didn't have it? Would she freak out if she lost it and try to get away from him, or does she trust him?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:39:41 -0400

All questions in this ballpark are unanswerable at this time. I love this CV remix, listen to it with me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2lKRktcD00

What would happen if tectonic drift brought new land into contact with khurt-touched areas? Can it expand?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:38:09 -0400

Totally. It's adhered to a great reef off the west coast of Cresce and that's always expanding. The khert loves to expand to new territories, it is like Starbucks.

Sooooo... why does the redbird sing, exactly?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:33:16 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgD-IlxQaCU

If Sette didn't have the shiny, would Duane try to nom on her brains?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:32:42 -0400

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Does Duane have the shackles because something horrible happened before when he didn't have any, or is it just him being cautions and/or self-loathing?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:32:35 -0400

Hmmmm.

Glass, am I lame for reading the anon’s bottled smoke eel question and having an IMMEDIATE NEED to make the dream of an Unsounded-Zelda crossover a reality? …I am, aren’t I? Ah well.

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:12:10 -0400

Dah-dah-dah-DAAAAAAH. Haha! Look at the little blood amulet HP bar! This is terrific, I love you so much XD Did you see that G4 named Link to the Past the second greatest video game of all time? I think that's the best thing G4's ever done.

Everyone give love to Icey <3

Sette on the other hand obviously doesn't think they are (Necessary, the shackles)

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:12:16 -0400

Obviously.

I hope this isn't spoiler-y. On chapter 2 page 11, Duane is putting away shackles, and he mentions them as night falls later in the comic. Would the shackles usually be necessary for him at night, or are they just a precaution?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 20:54:10 -0400

He feels they are necessary.

Why does "Dropped a snake in a bowl" sound like a filthy euphemism?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:53:42 -0400

It really does.

I just had a filling come out. I'm sad :(

Tell us of Duane's love life! Besides the cute silver, what other girls was he interested in?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:02:09 -0400

I cannot tell you! For one day soon you shall see first-hand.

If a smoke eel went into a bowl, would it partially fill the bowl with smoke like a liquid with just the rearing hissing bit eel-shaped, or would it look like someone dropped a snake into a bowl?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:40:41 -0400

I think... either... depending on the eel's mood and my present aesthetic inclination.

Could a smoke eel be captured in a bottle like a bottle fairy of healing, but a bottle smoke eel of sadness and rage?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:39:23 -0400

...yes.

I don't want to seem racist or anything, but you haven't made wiki user-editable, have you? D:> Had some free time on my hands, hoped to be useful for once.

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:54:46 -0400

I can give you an account if you like, but when I leave the wiki public it gets spammed all to hell. Want an account?

Got a favorite roleplaying -system-? Me and my friends are still kinda stuck on D20 and its variants since they just kinda work. Our favorite game is Shadowrun, but throwing a garbage bag of D6's becomes a drag pretty quick.

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:55:07 -0400

Never used systems! I ran freeform games where it was all about the writing and the characterization. Fights depended on dramatic weight and who could outwit who. When you have a really good group of people you trust, you don't need a system. I'd rather play a video game if it comes to that :)

You have an excellent grasp of Brit-slang and colloquialisms, (using the words wanker, git and nob correctly.) I'm well chuffed and surprised at this as my US chums can can never tell what the bleedin' feck I'm talking about. How did'ya learn the lingo?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:52:58 -0400

Thanks! I owe a lot to British films and television, British literature, friends on the internet (been great mates for years with a chick from Wales and a bloke in London), years and years of RPing characters who use UK English, and plain old reading and studying books on the matter. Hell, I have a few Youtube channels I follow just so I can keep an ear on ever-changing UK slang. I am in complete, mad love with the English language, and that goes for all the different flavours of it. I love it, Anon.

I noticed that you post pages at around midnight, which is nice because then they're up all day! However, I was wondering what time you get up in the morning since you're up so late? Or are you nocturnal? Or am I just really old for thinking 12AM is late?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 13:41:01 -0400

I'm nocturnal :) I go to bed around 5am and get up at 11 or so. It's one perk of being my own boss.

So Duane with animal parts... does Alderode have an equivalent of the second amendment? We would need to be sure that animal parts aren't illegal, obviously. Need to be sure that Duane has the right to bear arms.

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:58:58 -0400

Oh, Fakult.

Hmm, I imagine this is spoilery so apologies in advance: So is Duane basically like a less-unkillable lich complete with a sorta-phylactery? He's a plod with a soul, and that soul has to reside somewhere...

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:56:35 -0400

Yeah, that's a lil spoilery. Knowing what I know and being a self-professed expert on liches, I would not classify Duane as a lich. He really is his own thing, which is why I let him have his own word for it.

Are there any senet beasts that are more immortal versions of regular creatures, or are they all rejected prototypes or whatever?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 03:31:27 -0400

Not really. The theme is fantastical. So we have trees that walk, frogs that become tadpoles that become frogs in an endless cycle, intelligent dragons encrusted with salt, water-breathing nymphs who tup flying air sylphs and create storms, enormously enormous ogres that eat rocks and become mountains - stuff like that :)

If Vienne was alive and Duane saved Matty or something so she felt she owed him, could she make him a semirobot body that'd work better?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 03:27:42 -0400

She could make him much better braces and do a better job wiring his joints, that's for sure. Duane's body as it is works pretty damn well considering.

Did Duane ever leave his parent's home to go to school? Is that what he means when he says 'Seminary'? Was it like a boarding school for fledgling fieldwrights?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:54:50 -0400

No, a seminary is where one trains to become a priest, same as in our world. Duane's family had no money for him to go become a proper wright, but if he joined the priesthood they would train him there. He left home when he was fourteen and spent a few years in the seminary with the intent of going into the Ssaelit clergy. He eventually earned a sponsor to attend a proper Academy however, and transferred over there, but never finished for Reasons he would rather I not repeat again..

What's YOUR speech defect?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:26:11 -0400

The same as yours, buddy!

I couldn't be understood by anyone but my mother until I was four or so. After a few years of speech therapy I got a lot better but amusingly my speech therapist was from New York so I had a slight Bronx accent throughout school, haha. Nowadays I'm just left with the cluttering, so I talk a mile a minute and can never get out what I mean. I also have trouble with r's and w's, particularly way and ray sounds. Overall I hate speaking to anyone but family members and people who know me really well, which makes people think I'm aloof or shy and I'm not really. There is just a disconnect between my brain and my tongue.

But it's cool. We're special!

Can he replace that part with pie, even if he can't replace it with bear parts?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:01:21 -0400

I think... you lost me.

Sette's always been cute, but lately she's also just plain pretty. Is this an intentional change?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:01:06 -0400

Mm, I don't think so. I think it's mostly her outfit and the fact she's not currently making too many zany expressions of manic world domination and rage. For this page in particular, also, I made the decision to give the child an upper lip so it could catch the lantern light. I generally keep Sette's face pretty cartoony but the dramatic under-lighting required showing off some facial planes. The overall effect is a slightly less cartoony Sette. I'm not all that happy with it, she looks off-model, but enh. Here she is on page 59 of this chapter, back in her regular clothes. Still Sette, see? :)

In the latest page, it seemed like Sette was peeking at Duane in all of his zombie-ugly and wondering about how young he was when he died. Is she used to the zombie-ugly, or is it still a bit of a jolt?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:51:18 -0400

She really doesn't like to look at it, but in the dim light of Elan's lantern, it's not so bad. I'm actually drawing a scene now eighty pages in the future where... it's a little more bad.

But that is more or less exactly what Sette is wondering there, I'm glad that reads.

Hm. Does Duane know about whether there's any part he can't replace with bear parts, or will he be finding out?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:41:37 -0400

What if you replaced the parts of a plod with pies and gave it to Sette?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:35:57 -0400

Soon there would be only pie tins.

Is there any part of Duane he couldn't replace with bear parts?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:16:59 -0400

Would you believe this is a spoiler?

What if you ground up a plod and sprayed it over a robot could you make a roboplod?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:16:39 -0400

No, damnit, zee khert vill crush you like leetle girl. You no fool the khert, eet haz no sense of - how you say - humour.

Could Duane replace his limbs with something other than corpse parts, or does whatever he is only interact with dead bodies?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:43:18 -0400

Duane insists he is not a plod, but whatever he is still operates on a core of plod pymary. That pymary only works with nonliving tissue and bone. But he could use animal parts! Sette thinks he should replace his left arm with a bear arm because BEAR ARM!

What would Duane do if he ran into someone that he knew when he was alive? Would he re-introduce himself, or would he let them pass by, since they wouldn't be able to recognize him?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:21:24 -0400

I think he'd have a panic attack. Afterwards, he would go far, far away and hide in a cupboard for a few hours.

If Duane lived in our world, what would he do to hide the whole undeath thing and still be able to go out in public?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:27:36 -0400

I'm not sure there'd be much he could do, you think? Dress up like Mrs. Doubtfire, maybe: latex mask and bodysuit, get a job as a nanny :3

Random question, but since Duane rose through the ranks to a high title that one of his common birth had little right to,(and a lot of people did not like it), did he ever have anyone who supported him, perhaps made him well-known based on merit instead?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:45:44 -0400

Two names come to mind. Lord Claggart was a very rich, very renowned swordsman and landowner and patron of the Ordos of Chinoll, the military unit that Duane was stationed in during his last year in the army. He was a bragging, swaggering meatbag of a man who kind of hated wrights so he gave Duane a hard time for being one (and for being of peasant stock and for being kind of aloof, which Duane was in the army because he knew he was far better than the fieldwrights he served with). Anyway, Stuff Happened, and by the end of it Duane and Claggart were bros. Claggart recommended him to the second name that comes to mind...

Shadwe Grandvin. There are two Shadwes of the Ssaelit religion, and they are essentially like Popes - leaders of the faith, holders of its purse-strings, and generals of its military forces. Shadwe Grandvin heard of Duane's prowess and heroism down south from Claggart, met with him, and liked him immediately. Duane was not only hired into the Temple's forces but was inducted into the Motadwe, the lowest rung of the Temple's ruling body. Pretty good stuff.

Duane and the Shadwe were great friends after that, and the Shadwe just WOULD NOT HEAR of anyone around him being a prick to that brilliant, hard-working, knowledgeable Adelier. Duane to this day respects the Shadwe more than anyone else, and misses their chats.

Do Hanret and Rachshane consider themselves separate countries with a shared royal line, or does the rest of the continent simply say no to them being one and insist on drawing a border between?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:15:59 -0400

It's mostly habit at this point. There was a resistance movement in Hanret that the rest of the continent supported morally if not militarily, and part of that support was to continue to recognise Hanret's sovereignty. That resistance has long since been crushed, and now Kasslyne considers them two countries out of hateful spite, pretty much. Within Rachshane and Hanret, however, there is only Rachshane.

It would be an interesting setting to RP in, I think. Lots of secret police, militant clerics, political angst, evil monarchy... I love that stuff :3

If Alderode is known for pymary (or being a nation of snooty asshats), Sharteshane is lawless, everyone wants Anchert, Ulestry is holy, and Cresce is known for being the continent's mommy (or a nation of less snooty asshats), what is Hanret known for?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 12:08:59 -0400

It's known for being mysterious :) Actually, I guess it's known for being an ultra right wing Gefendur theocracy that shuns pymary.

A few hundred years ago, Hanret was Sharteshane. Then Rachshane and Sharteshane went to war over its nebulous border, with Rachshane wanting to push north into Sharteshane's timber-rich hinterlands and farmlands. Rachshane won via quite horrible means (it destroyed and massacred Tawhoque, which was at that time Sharteshane's capital and wealthiest city). Cresce negotiated a settlement between the two countries, carving out Hanret from Sharteshane and giving it over to Rachshane. Sharteshane has never really recovered from this. The merchant class blamed the Palace and royal army for bungling the war and so stripped Kingship of much of its power, making him more of a figurehead to the real power of the merchant guilds (and eventually criminal families). Tawhoque remains a shell of its former self with a basement full of undead, and Sharteshane has real food shortage problems from season to season. Its coastal and volcanic remainder isn't so great for growing crops.

Rachshane, meanwhile, demanded the Peaceguard leave its lands. Rather than start another war, Cresce complied. Cresce can be reasonable. No sooner were they gone though than Rachshane began a bloody purge of newborn Hanret. They probably killed a million people, it was pretty gross. Their King, a half-mad religious zealot who thought he was an incarnation of Tirna, decided that pymary was evil and it would one day destroy the world (this is official Gefendur prophesy but no one really pays attention to it (it's like Christians and stoning misbehaving kids). He started building a wall around his holdings, decreed women were too sacred not to be covered up at all times, decreed that the only way to properly dispose of the dead was to eat them, and said pymary use would be restricted to himself and the ruling class. That's pretty much the way of it today.

There, FC, there is your Rachshane. It's a scary place and it don't want anything to do with anyone.

Do firearms exist in Unsounded's world? Kasslyne's tech is all over the place due to reliance on pymary, so I could get them not being designed out of necessity but I imagine a wright would have a real hard time stopping a projectile going over mach 1.

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:47:35 -0400

Yeah, I think all but the best wrights would be pretty screwed by a bullet. Fortunately, no firearms. But you can still ruin a wright's day with a sawshot or a bowgun, the best they can do is throw up a vague shield but the projectile is travelling too fast to be attacked directly (unless you are a broken motherfucker like Duane).

I've been noticing a lot of attempts to cram Unsounded's "tech level" into a timeline that matches ours. People do this with Korra too (including its creators). I think it is the most braindead and ridiculous practise imaginable. Our world - any world - exists in its state because of a complex confluence of circumstances and accidents, and to apply that to a completely different world is super goofy. Our industrial revolution happened largely because of Britain and the myriad circumstances there that allowed for it. Without Britain, our timeline would have gone a lot differently. Without its interior waterways, its patent system, its large amounts of coal, its booming population, its easy access to imported phosphorus and cotton and other resources, Britain's timeline would have been very, very different. All these accidents and coincidences of history can't just be picked up and dropped on any setting. The way we are is an accident, it is not a step in a cosmic inevitability.

I had to get this rant in somewhere, forgive me.

Glass...will we ever get to see Duane's face in this chapter? :D Or will he be a sad hoodie/cowl the whole time? :(

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 02:49:44 -0400

Next page you see some of his face. But it ain't very purty.

You mentioned that senet beasts produce first materials, now aside from the first thought of "Hmm, a lot of first earth must literally be senet beast dookie" I'm struck by the possibilities of that example of the Salt Lizard, refining first salt from

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 02:47:08 -0400

"brine. So here are my questions. First, is a lot of first earth actually senet beast crap? Second, if you feed a senet beast something it cannot digest, would that material become a first material after the senet beast's bowel movement?"

SOME senet beasts produce First Materials. MOST, however, are simply made out of them, and none of them shit First Materials of any nature. They just shit shit. There is very little First Earth anymore but what there is all comes from the flesh of young ogres, with First Stone coming from their bones and the cores of some mountains.

Pray tell, what does the occupation of "Dustman" entail? Something to do with...cleaning? Mayhap sweeping? I'm going to guess lots of sneezing.

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 02:15:41 -0400

It's just Brit-speak for garbage collector :)

Matty mentions you can't cross into Cresce if you're Hanretian or Rachshanian. Are Hanret and Rachshane allies of Alderode, or do Crescians not like them for unrelated reasons?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:31:46 -0400

Hanret and Rachshane are standoffish and have little to do with the rest of the continent. Nobody likes 'em or trusts 'em.

What worries you most about your future?

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:38:54 -0400

Whoa, just thought of...of something...that link you sent someone to earlier (Ch. 3 page 52)...that little girl in yellow...can she...it almost looks like she can see Duane and Sette departing...did you mean to do that? :)

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:19:20 -0400

Sure, it's just a little thing to make you stop and go hmm :)

The other question you just submitted is great but the answer is a spoiler so I must beat it to death with a cricket bat :(

What happens to an outsider who's not yet adapted to the khert, once they first encounter it and it starts trying to adapt them to its system? Does the khert have any adverse effects on them? What's the timeline of acclimation like for them, subjectively?

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:46:15 -0400

Yeah, you really don't want to just dive headlong into Kasslyne or its surrounding waterways. Remember what the khert does - it defines the attributes of all matter and how that matter interacts with other matter and the environment. So if you insert yourself into that system without being a part of it, you don't fit. You will try to step on the land but the khert will not have assigned you a contour so you will fall through the earth. You will be invisible, inaudible, and intangible to everything and everyone in the system. Your lungs will have no pull on the air and you'll suffocate. Light will not recognise the lenses in your eyes and you'll be blind. Kasslyne and the world outside of Kasslyne may as well exist in two different dimensions. They do not interact well at all.

Interestingly, at any given time, ships or birds from the outside world may be sailing right through the world, through the characters, through a scene - but neither can see the other. How trippy is that?

Anyway, it's pointless to ask much more about this since it is never broached in the story and is possibly not even canon anymore. It only exists as a backend for roleplay so outside characters could be brought into the setting.

If humans feel shitty outside of the Khert, then how is it people live outside of Kasslyne like the people that originally invaded it? I seem to remember reading this somewhere.

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:49:55 -0400

I suppose if you want to get right down to technicalities, the humans we see in Unsounded aren't really "human." Without at least a faint connection to the khert, they die.

But there are other "humans" in the world - truer humans perhaps - that have nothing to do with Kasslyne or the khert and they do just fine. Imagine if they invaded Kasslyne suddenly and dismantled a huge swath of the khert as Sette did with Boo. The natives would be choking, dying, or just outright dissolving under the mad custodianship of a broken network, their technology useless, their pymary gone. Hovering offshore, the invaders would be feelin' pretty good. After a few weeks of slowly adapting themselves to the khert , they could waltz right in and take over the country.

A human with a reliance on the khert cannot function without it, but the khert thrives on ordering even foreign bodies and adapting them to work in its system. Adapted, then, even a small number of foreigners - maybe even just two or three ships full - could take over an entire powerful country and have the survivors convinced they're gods.

I've noticed that the lizards in Unsounded are specifically "two-toed" lizards. Are there are kinds with differing numbers of toes? Also, how does one tell male from female?

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:37:10 -0400

You like the lizards, eh? They'll play a bigger part in the arc after this Ethelmik arc, right now they're background noise.

As far as the sentient lizards go, there are only the two-toes. They come in a couple different flavours to do with the tribes they originated from, but there aren't that many of them overall. They don't do well aboveground - poor eyesight, big clumsy hands better for digging and fighting than writing or pymary. The male lizards are larger and have dewlaps, the females are smaller and got no dewlaps. Since the dewlaps are only visible when extended and they tend to only be extended for courtship and ass-kicking, this isn't terribly helpful. Mostly the genders are indistinguishable, physically and socially.

I apologize if this question has been asked already, but how bad does Duane smell to people other than Sette? Does he use pymary to disguise his... rot scent?

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:34:32 -0400

Yep - http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch03/ch03_51.html - And on the previous page Sette remarks he smells much more like the pymary that keeps him going than he does rot. Honestly though, after six years and nigh mummification of what remains of his bod, there's not much rot left regardless. He is mostly skeleton, leather, and mechanical modifications.

Are there any traditional works of art that make you swoon? Like, if you had a chance to visit one museum anywhere to see one particular artwork, you know exactly where you'd go?

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:14:10 -0400

I quite like the old illustrators like Rockwell, Pyle, Leyendecker, Parrish, and Rackham. It might be cool to see some of Pyle's Treasure Island illustrations in person. I went to a moderately famous art college with a museum of Baroque and Renaissance paintings right down the street, so I got a little spoiled when it comes to seeing the Old Masters in person. I liked Rubens a lot in school but the older I got, the more older art bored me. The technique was great but it was always the same old themes. As a hobbling old woman I guess I care much more about what the art is saying than what it looks like :)

I had a dream about Duane last night. We were camping out with a bunch of people, but Duane left during the night to go eat some pig intestines, though he was very polite when he returned. My dream was obviously inaccurate, but do I count as obsessed now?

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:05:18 -0400

Lil bit! :D I wish I had some pig intestine stuffed with lovely spiced meat. Sausaaaaages.

Is there a particular reason why the khert exists only on the Kasslyne continent? (A buried alien artifact? :) ) Will you reveal this in the comic? Your reader from Israel.

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:03:14 -0400

I don't even plan to state in the comic that the khert exists only on Kasslyne, it's not important. A lot of this formspring stuff is just trivia and irrelevant to the story :)

So I'm thinking you need to tag basically every answer with "penis," then whenever people search for penis (which, let's face it, they WILL do) they get redirected to you, you redirect them to Unsounded and BAM! Instant successful advertising via cocks!

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:12:31 -0400

Hell's Bells, bird, it's like you stepped out of Mad Men.

http://unsoundedcomic.com - Rife with genitals! Come one, come all!

So has Elan just been ignoring the elephant in the room this whole time? And Sette...how you make me laugh.

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:10:16 -0400

An elephant in the room would definitely be weird. A plod is just a plod. Elan apparently finds Plats much weirder.

What would the world be like if the senet beasts were capable of growing up and reproducing?

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:32:34 -0400

Everyone would be left-handed.

I can understand not eating for the rest of one's life, but not talking? What did Duane do in those tedious 18 months of not being able to talk?!

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:53:23 -0400

"(Not eating because, y'know...he's dead)...but not talking. Hmm. That's a little different. You need to communicate in order to function in society. Then again, maybe he didn't want to at first. Did he just sit in his little place at Criseyde Way?"

Naw, he's only been at the Criseyde Way flat a little less than two years, and he's been dead for six. The first two years he was half- and occasionally wholly out of his mind, hiding out by himself in a decrepit old hunter's shack in the coastal forests of West Manilda. There would have been no one to talk to except Ssael and his own hallucinations anyway.

It took Duane a few years to come to his senses after he died. He had to deal with what he'd lost, what he couldn't have anymore, and what he'd become... and was steadily becoming. He had to ROT; he had to figure out how to live as a corpse and the new limitations that came with it. And he had to figure out how to get back some of his old self. His voice, his mobility, his MIND, and along the way decide on a reason why the hell he should even bother. There is a huge, unimaginably awful span of years in-between Duane dying and Duane as you see him today.

Whose going to abuse the new tag system?

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:17:53 -0400

Not me.

Is the person who 'kinda' found a way around the no more first materials rule the one who found out that you could use first silkworms to make more first silk?

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:03:32 -0400

No... although that is one obviously replenishable First Material. Harvesting silk from silkworm cocoons is pretty ancient.

Ahh! Look, there are tags now. I wonder if I can go back and add tags to old answers.

I think I recognize that remnant ghost boy from a sketch I thought was hilarious. The "Are you going to put today's obituary on your resume?" sketch if I'm remembering right. Same guy?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:11:58 -0400

Same guy :)

There's only one story-thing I'm kinda confused about that the other fans here seem to know...has the purpose of the "blood" pymaric thing Sette is carrying been revealed yet? I don't recall Sette being told its purpose but she seems to know how its used?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:11:42 -0400

The popular assumption is that the blood amulet Winalils gave Sette is used to control Duane. I have never said this either on Formspring or in the comic, but it is the popular assumption.

Does the khert affect the entire universe that Unsounded's planet floats around in, or is it a phenomena limited to that planet? Basically, are Unsounded's gods actual gods or is the khert a force like gravity, given "divine" origins by superstition?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:03:04 -0400

I'ma ignore your second question, but the first one is a resounding Nope! The khert is restricted to the Kasslyne continent. It weakens the further away from land you go, dying completely over open water. At this point nothing that depends on the khert for a supernatural existence can survive and even humans start to feel kind of shitty..

"Most wright-cops dissolve them when they see them", so that remnant who lives in the Crescian police station likes to unlive dangerously, doesn't he? she, whatever...

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:05:59 -0400

The blue ghost? We'll learn more about HIM as the story moves along.

Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock Holmes and Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes. Rate on resourcefulness, cleverness, devotion to source material and attractiveness. WHO WINS AT THE END?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:00:31 -0400

Haha, I've never seen RDJr's Sherlock movies! I would rather pit BBC Sherlock against The Great Mouse Detective.

Favorite type of tea?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:59:05 -0400

Earl Grey. I like Earl Grey so much an important character in Alderode lives on Bergamot Street.

Favorite alcoholic beverage?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:57:51 -0400

I don't drink!

...except for those Budlight Lime-a-ritas shit they're so good.

(1 in a million chance you'll get this reference) Wake up call; Tea? Coffee? Bacon? Greased ham? Ffffffffffish~?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:57:00 -0400

¯\(°_o)/¯

You've mentioned your characters pop into your head fully formed; Does that include their storyline? How do you work through your plot, do you go scene by scene to the end and then go back and refine it or do you start general and then get more detailed?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:56:09 -0400

It often includes their storyline or their storyline will become evident as they interact with other characters or I'll just sit down to draw and I'll come up with them doing cool things that must then be explained, and it all kind of works itself out. My philosophy is to start a world or a story or a character off with a lot of cool elements and then weave them all together. It's like that drawing exercise where you scribble all over a piece of paper and then have to design a creature out of it.

Plots? Work general to specific, just like when you're drawing. I'm a big believer in outlines. Unsounded has a complete outline with all its major plot events laid out in sequence. Once I see WHAT has to happen and I know the order in which it has to happen, I can work on the HOW'S and the details and make things more elegant. Originally Elan took the zombie and the brat into Cresce on a little police skiff. It was fine, the journey was long enough for them to have the conversation they need to have, but it was a waste of good foreshadowing. Having them go via the flooded tunnels was better, and ties into something that happens later in the story. So I guess once you have everything laid out you'll have the information you need for things like foreshadowing and concept establishment when you go to write the script.

When did Uaid get infected?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:38:34 -0400

Uaid was designed to have a personality, that's one of the things that makes him special. A government construct would NEVER be designed to have its own free will independent of the pilot's, but Vienne was of a mind that a gentle soul can save the world.

You can ask anonymously again? Wonderful, someone hijacked the bugmenot login I was using and I'm too lazy to make a new log in. So, swapping isn't default? That means Elka could've killed the dog while stealing his voice? Makes pymary a bit overpowered

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:36:50 -0400

Elka wouldn't have killed the dog but she could have left it permanently without a bark. Pymary is definitely dangerous, that's why the various governments are such hardasses when it comes to regulating it. A lot of Gefendur consider it inevitable that pymary will cause the destruction of the world some day. The Black Tongues or one of the state Composers will figure out a way to flub with the khert's Laws and they'll unravel space-time and that'll be it.

How old is Boo? What was Boo's pre-Sette life?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 02:15:15 -0400

Boo was Bett's. He got the little guy on sale at the same place he bought the Gentle Giant pymaric he used against Duane. You get what you pay for though. The GG pymaric was underwhelming in battle and the gozzy trap-weaving spider pymaric had sat in the shop's bargain bin too long and was infected. Infected pymarics are bad. At their best they won't operate as you bid and at worst they'll try to kill you. Bett wasn't taking any chances with Boo so he broke his spinners and tossed him in the trash heap. This was very traumatic for our little spider so he was happy to latch on to Sette when she discovered him.

I would guess Boo's had sentience a few weeks now, he's not very old at all.

Do two-toed lizards have their own organized nation somewhere?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:45:05 -0400

Not anymore. The two-toes lived underground in tribal communities scattered throughout southern Kasslyne. The various human nations attacked them and forced them to the surface when they started digging for First Materials, lambence and other resources. Most of the lizards were killed, the rest exist now as second class citizens here and there trying to eke out a living. They are almost universally despised, with most humans believing them to be thieves and beggars who spread disease.

Is Siwl a native of Ulestry? (Ulestrian? Ulestrite?) He resembles the other folks at Knobbytop ethnically. Does the CRPG recruit from the populations they police?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:28:45 -0400

Naw, he's Crescian. The CRPG only allows Crescians in its forces, but Cresce isn't an ethnic brick wall. Darker people are the majority but you'll see the occasional person of Ulestrian heritage and even a whitey or two, all legal citizens. Pale people get discriminated against the further you go from the border and they have to carry their papers of citizenship at all times. It's quite fun to turn the tables :)

Did her Da give Sette the black eye she's got in the flashback with Lord Winalils?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:17:32 -0400

Not a bad theory considering the thwack he gives her in that scene, but no. She got it from a street fight the day before.

<3

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 23:44:14 -0400

<3+

Is Cutter a wright? I am guessing it was he who cast the gossamer snare and resealed the tomb after Bett didn't come back, back in ch.2?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 23:44:06 -0400

Cutter... is a lizard of many mysteries. But yes, he is some kind of wright. Who else would be cutting up the slaves and enchanting them and the First Silver? It wasn't Bett, he was crap.

Do you always know when it's me asking anon questions, or only some times?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 23:02:13 -0400

I have seen all of BBC Sherlock, I can solve any mystery and play the violin.

Are plods allowed to tend bars?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 22:50:54 -0400

Forumcat, go to bed, you are delirious.

Are, or were, there any other famous wrights who Duane knew or read about that molded the style he uses? Or does he not mirror anyone in particular?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:58:22 -0400

The biggest influence on Duane's pymary was his grandpa. No one at either seminary or the magery knew how to deal with a tacit caster, they are too rare and weird. Duane's instructors all made him go verbal - they couldn't gauge him otherwise - but Duane's grandfather told him to ignore those asshats. Do what they instructed to get the paper he needed of course, but put in the time and effort to train his voiceless casting in his off hours. Once Duane had someone telling him it was okay that he had this unfair advantage and that he should make the most of it, he did.

What's your opinion on Lovecraftian horror?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 20:29:03 -0400

Never read any of it.

Did Duane ever carry a melee weapon into battle? (For the times when spellery would scorch the ground and he had nothing to work with), or did he just kinda brave through it and whack people with that walking stick we saw him use so adroitly :3

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 16:38:50 -0400

Well, that walking stick IS a melee weapon, dearest AveLucrum. It's a quarterstaff. The quarterstaff was his weapon of necessity in the Shadwe's army, and he had a very nice one with a core of First Timber with both a permanent glow on it, and a retractable envenomed tip that had a bite like a Japanese giant hornet sting. In fact the staff was named Hornet, because sometimes a weapon is so cool it needs its own name. Paired with his tacit casting he was kind of ridiculously overpowered, haha.

In the national military he carried a standard issue dagger and sword, neither of which he was any good at using.

Hmm, does Duane like the southern weather, or does he miss the snow-ins in Alderode? I imagine the warmer climate must be a nightmare sometimes to keep his skin from molding xD

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 16:30:41 -0400

Yeah x_x The strongest physical sensation Duane has left is temperature discernment, and the heat is nigh unbearable, like ants crawling all over him. Cold is lovely. There used to be a lot of mysterious (but not terribly destructive) fires around Criseyde Way where he lives in Sharteshane. Duane would regularly siphon the warmth out of his flat in the evening and toss it wherever, so he could have an hour or two of blissful cold before hunkering down for the night. One of the reasons the area has a reputation for being haunted.

As a writer, what conventions/cliches/tropes/whatever do you dislike if any? Which do you like or tolerate? For example, I'm not bothered by Deus Ex Machina or MacGuffins, but Chekov's Gun and Time Skips tend to annoy the hell out of me.

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 15:12:23 -0400

Well, I personally dislike grimdark. I really dislike Angry Teenagers as writers, particularly when they're in their twenties or thirties. I hate this insistence now that strong female adventure characters have to be men with tits. Strong female characters can be smooshy grandmas who like to cook and take care of people. "Strength" isn't reserved for how hard you can hit someone, nor should all adventure series obsess over violence and combat.

But! I'm not much of a writer, so I don't like to be much of a writing critic. The greatest sin I can think of is being boring. I don't like to be bored.

What is your favorite piece of architecture & why?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 11:39:23 -0400

Florida is an ancient land full of cultural wonders.

Have you considered getting tuner box or card that will allow you to use one of your monitors as a tv? Might be cheaper. I don't know where emulation is with PS2, I only do old-school games with that kind of thing. What games are you hankering to play?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:51:54 -0400

PS2 emulation isn't too bad. I played through a fair chunk of FFXII on my computer a few months ago and it looked great though it really put my CPU through its paces. I do have a tuner card but it's really rubbish for consoles, there's a lag between the signals that makes it useless. Buying a tuner card that is NOT rubbish could be an idea though :)

I've been hankering after the classics, I guess. FFXII, DMC3, GoW, the later LoK games, maybe some SotC and CV: Curse of Darkness. So many newer PC games I should play but all I'm in the mood for is stuff I miss and know is good :)

I know it's for obvious reasons I'm sure, but I love how Sette just loves fish. :D The strawberry filled fish thing was different though, I'll give you that one. Any other weird/ cool fish dishes she likes other than fish sausage?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:47:30 -0400

Strawberry fish are DELICIOUS. They are the number one food item I wish we had in our world.

Sette likes fish pies - whitefish cooked up in chowdery gravy and baked into buttery, flaky pastry. Sette likes whale steak when she can get it and octopus and fried clams and kippers and steamed crab legs and tins of sardines in mustard laid over fresh brown bread and smothered with hot sauce. Sette likes fish cakes fried up in coconut oil and smothered with vinegared cabbage and pickles. Sette likes seafood almost as much as I do.

"Ethically better to swap than to isolate". Hmm, so Duane prolly tried to swap when in battle, but did he ever HAVE to isolate, even though it's a bit more risky? And was he good at it?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 02:30:36 -0400

Oh, Duane's done hardly any swapping, he hasn't had the luxury of much ethical pymary. When he cut that guard's arm off, he isolated the edge of his sword and the sword dissolved. In battle against Quigs he was ripping the ground up willy-nilly to throw at him, leaving great big chunks of dissolved ground in his wake (you can see 'em if you examine some of the panels). For his flying dirt clod after Quigs threw the tree at him he dissolved all the leaves that flew up, isolating and condensing their momentum then reversing it and applying it to his platform - the leaves meanwhile dissolved.

Elka's trick with the dog is the best example of swapping there's been - she swapped volumes with it. Elka is the most responsible woman in Kasslyne.

Goodness, I am far behind. Okay, I understand isolating and swapping (stuff that was mentioned earlier), but I'm still a bit stuck on what pymary is exactly. Are the different types of things you can do (like swapping and isolating) called 'pymary'? Or..?

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 02:25:55 -0400

Yes.

Roughly, pymary is using the Tainish language to move Aspects around, whether it be via swapping, isolating, condensing or otherwise. Think of "pymary" as just Unsounded's word for magic, nothing more complicated than that. And gruftgramary is Unsounded's word for bad magic. Wrights are mages. Greywrights or gruftgrammers are bad mages. Aspects are roughly roughly roughly akin to ye olde magic elements except there are about a zillion of them and they have to be present to be used.

Ack, sorry if I misspell anything, but did Duane ever get to ride a Vilegeng into battle or even for a training exercise? That would have been EPIC.

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 01:46:40 -0400

Duane is kind of scared of vliegeng :3 Not like a phobia, but he really prefers not to ride them, thank you. He rode plenty of hounds though and was pretty good on the saddle. Alive!Duane astride a battlehound was a pretty epic sight in itself. Onward, Fido!

Do ghosts and the little discrepancies of the khert ever get to go back into its network, or are they all screwed once they're accidentally spatten back out? (spatten's not a word, but I hit the regret ceiling and don't care anymore).

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 01:44:44 -0400

Sometimes! Sometimes the khert dissolves 'em just like it does orphaned Aspects and incomplete materials, and sometimes they slip right back into the khert through the holes they escaped from. Most wright-cops dissolve them when they see them :/ Loose remnants can get into pymarics and infect them, ruining them, so having stray remnants floating around isn't generally good. They are pests. They freeze your coffee and instill free will into your trap-weaving mechanical spiders.

Here you go: http://tinyurl.com/7rmklyc. The scorecard starts out blank and then gets filled in as final episodes air. You did a very nice job even without having a clue what I was talking about. :) But no incidents involving tentacles? I'm crushed!

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 19:17:32 -0400

Well, that's interesting. I should get a television. I feel like replaying old PS2 games.

There are tentacles, but no incidents :) Chapter seven will have a tentacle incident. I will come through for you, anon!

Since you don't watch tv, you've probably never heard of spoiler guides that go out for finales, giving the number of marriages, pregnancies and deaths to expect. Can we get something like that for ch 6? (Deaths, injuries, tentacle incidents, etc.)

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 18:35:27 -0400

Spoiler guides? They do that now? How does that even work? Educate me, anon!

In chapter 6 there are two direct murders and one inferred murder. There are numerous injuries to numerous characters. There's one flashback but it's not extremely long. There is one brief instance of homosexuality (a warning for our homophobe anon if he's still out there). There is one instance of Pie. There are three pregnancies but only two marriages, isn't that scandalous!

When are we going to find out more about Duane?

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:52:04 -0400

This chapter. Next chapter. The chapter after that. After that... more after that...

Do you still live in your hometown?

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:07:50 -0400

I was born here. I'll die here.

So Lord Winalils knows/has heard of Duane from a page in a previous chapter, but has Duane heard of Lord Winalils? Have they met? ...or is that yet to come? :D

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:35:48 -0400

There's been talk of Duane appreciating the opera, but does he also like ballet specifically? Would he find it graceful and worthy of praise? Even tear-jerking?

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:35:39 -0400

Oh, I think he'd enjoy it. They don't have it in this world, but he'd learn to love it if he visited ours. Classical ballet, that is, not so much the modern productions.

I understand Duane now. With two jobs, this summer, I am basically a zombie by the time I get home. Also the first job involves recording lots of numbers which is sort of like scrivening but not really. What should I do?

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:34:03 -0400

Duane advises you stay away from moisture as it will cause your leathery zombie skin to mildew, and to maintenance your joints every night to maintain maximum agility. Also pray and meditate frequently, avoid the butcher shop, and don't allow yourself to be saddled with any streetwise children.

Is... the khert a less-laggy JVM? Maybe?

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:31:34 -0400

Can the khert run Crysis???

Would it be possible to find/hack out of the khurt whatever the attribute is for "firstness" and plug it into things to create new first materials? Or to remove it from senet beasts so they could grow and reproduce?

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:28:00 -0400

People have been trying to do something like this for almost as long as they've been trying to figure out a way to make themselves immortal. However, the First Material quality is a core law of the world and doesn't seem to be counted by the khert as a manipulable Aspect.

Someone very cool did figure out a way to kind of do it though, I mentioned it in passing on here not long ago.

If I'm remembering right, didn't Plods get their start on the battlefield? If so, wouldn't the instructions for combat still be burned in, and accessible to any less scrupulous plodwright?

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:23:51 -0400

Hmm!

How is Duane walking right now?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:24:55 -0400

I wonder.

Rephrase (and de-anon): Are plods as graceful as their handlers can order them to be, or do they come with some zombie shuffle and issues due to not having their own functional internal gyroscopes and balances? Could one be trained to tightrope walk...

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:04:23 -0400

"or a team taught to do group contortions, given patient and skilled enough handlers?"

Ahh, I see. No, they do have very real limitations due to just being puppeted meat mannequins. Tasks that require a lot of precision aren't really for them. They work best as manual labour: harvesting fields, planting crops, construction work (to a point), hauling loads, digging ditches or foundations, stuff like that.

It's probably important to know that what they CAN do - right down to the motions they can perform - is regulated. See, the plod manufacturers and handlers are always at odds with the guilds in non-Crescian countries. Dustmen don't want to be put out of business by plods. Neither do sail-makers, tile-layers, or pavers. Plods use specific programmed routines that are among some of the most sophisticated, cutting-edge pymary on the scene today, and only approved routines are put into the system. So you don't "train" plods at all. There is no intelligence there, nothing to instruct, nothing that can grow. You can't teach a plod to walk a tightrope. Plods are empty. All a handler is doing when he's working with plods is connecting them with routines burned into the khert and inputting their targets and tools. In some settings necromancers are total badasses but in Unsounded, they're just plod nannies and don't get much respect. It's lowgrade pymary.

I guess plods are very much not like zombies and very much like remotely piloted automatons. It's only when the system hiccoughs or when plods get too old and are infected by remnants, that you get the hazardous desire to nom people. I hope that makes sense.

Do you believe in aliens?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:32:19 -0400

Naturally, but I don't believe any have ever visited our planet.

Is First salt yummier or better at preserving things than normal salt?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:30:18 -0400

About the same!

Is there a reason for the lack of lady plods? Or are there lady plods and we just can't tell?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:29:48 -0400

Plod makers like big-boned, sturdy, athletic corpses without too much fat on them. If one comes along that's a lady, they'll use it, but that's rare.

Are plods masked and shaved because that's what's expected, or is it part of some policy/law/thing regarding them?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:28:50 -0400

It's to dehumanize them. The government and their manufacturers don't want people seeing plods as people, even dead ones. They need to resemble Something Else so there's no compunction against their usage. The masks are useful though; if one does snap, it can't really hurt anyone.

Are plods kind of bad at everything, or could someone make a particularly gruesome version of Cirque du Soleil out of a bunch of deceased scarlets?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:27:36 -0400

I'm not sure I understand this question.

Will you please tell us a little more about this meeting between Duane and the salt lizard? Is the salt lizard huge and sparkly from the crystals? I'm so intrigued! :)

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:19:41 -0400

I will one day in the comic :) It was when he was in the army and had to do with what got him hired out of the national forces and into the Ssaelit temple army. It's a good story.

But yes, the salt lizard is a big, beautiful chandelier of a flightless dragon with sky blue eyes. Very pretty but very scary.

Will you tell us about some of the senet beasts we haven't met yet?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:51:09 -0400

Sure! Just to recap, senet beasts were the very first creatures the Gefendur gods made. Many of the First Materials that survive today are either harvested from or produced by the surviving senet beasts. Senet beasts do not age nor can they reproduce, but as prototypes for mortal creatures they're subject to certain of our features like hunger and sleep, and a need for oxygen and water. They can be injured and killed. They range in intelligence from sluggish silkworms (this is where First Silk comes from, the same silk that can be loaded with explosives and put into Boo, or woven into Quigley's lovely mantle pymaric) or the water witches, clever sirens who live in the oceans and rivers, and drown and eat people.

Senet beasts aren't as plentiful as they once were. You rarely find them in groups and more often find them by themselves, hidden away deep underground or in out-of-the-way forests. In the mines of Avelpit there is a blind salt lizard, the closest thing round these parts to a dragon. It drinks brine and sweats the salt, so it's all encrusted with white crystals - First Salt - and was one of the gods of the Two-toes for centuries and centuries. The Two-toes would sacrifice to it, and the lizard would give them salt to preserve their food. It can speak and make demands and tell stories about the first days of the world. Duane met it once and about shat a brick.

Are humans and two-toes the only critters that can talk in this universe? :O

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:30:44 -0400

Human, two-toes, some senet beasts, and certain rare and extremely complex remnants (ghosts).

Ok say mysteriously alive Vienne sees Duane at the right angle that the glamor fails. What does she think of a talking corpse, could she possibly help him if so inclined, and would he accept any help or refuse on some principle?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:37:22 -0400

As generally compassionate as Vienne was, she was an analytical hardass when it came to pymary and constructs. By all the known laws of the khert and pymary and even as far as experimental gruftgramary goes, Duane's existence is not possible. So Vienne would want to study him first and "helping" him... wouldn't really register on the radar. Besides, you can't really help Duane any more than you can go down to the cemetery and helps its residents out.

My mother had cats that'd jump in the water with you and snarl at the mailman before doing their level best to take a leg off. You need to find some filthy stray cats. Cats who used to live in dumpsters appreciate clean water and defending their new home.

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:33:24 -0400

Oh, I dunno, I'm pretty content with my big dumb dogs. If I was going to change pet species I think I'd get a pig. When it eventually died I could eat it, and we'd be One for all time.

If humanity was reptilian instead mammalian, what would your life be like?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:31:22 -0400

Well, we'd be cold-blooded so we probably wouldn't wear clothing. A/C wouldn't be an issue in the summer so my power bill would be significantly lower. Insects would be cause for celebration and feasting instead of a reason for me to flail my arms and run shrieking from the area. This all sounds like a good deal to me.

What was the reaction in the Mulimar marketplace when a little blind Aldish Spy turned up and demanded cinnamon sticks?

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:29:19 -0400

"What a pity, what a pity that one so young and adorable is only a cog in the machine of evil, evil Alderode." Ephsephin, naturally, handled the cinnamon stick transaction.

Duane had a personal seamstress for his various detachable body parts? How did he hire her? Was it by posting the world's creepiest job opening ad?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 22:13:32 -0400

Haha, it was Boo, goof. In RP Boo frequently sewed him up. They did mutual repair work on each other.

What are city-naming conventions in the southern parts of Kasslyne?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:15:34 -0400

I don't know :O

Were Vienne's glasses bolted to her head like Quigley's were, or is that something that Aldish women weren't allowed to have?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:15:25 -0400

Aldish chicks don't get to have awesome skull piercings, they're considered masculine. She just wore regular glasses.

Is it rumoured in that way where everyone /knows/ it as a fact but they simply can't find the spot, or is it just kind of... rumoured?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 15:00:59 -0400

More the former than the latter. If you ask around about the Black Tongues, if you really want to get into contact with them and you make it known - they will find you.

So, let's say there are two identical rocks, and a wright borrows half of the rock's aspects from one, and another uses the other aspects from the other. Could a third wright squish the remnants together, or would the khert prefer to eat the rocks?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:58:58 -0400

Can someone else clean up after a wright if they've left material laying around with empty Aspect slots? Absolutely, and thank goodness for it, otherwise wrights would be ridiculously destructive since other wrights couldn't keep them in check.

What you're specifically asking would result in a single rock: take the remaining moiety from the one rock and switch it over to the other, which leaves a donor rock with no Aspects that the khert will dispose of. But this is only theoretical since in the time it took a wright to describe, locate and draw half of all the Aspects from such a specific cut of material, the khert would have gone about its business. You don't have a big window of time between drawing an Aspect and the material being disposed of. It's definitely one drawback of pymary: you cannot create from nothing. You are not a god.

Does Lurick know that it's Black Tongue HQ?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:53:11 -0400

It's rumoured, but no one's ever been able to find where exactly the headquarters is :) Iz hidden.

Is the Ilganyag actually everywhere, or are there lots of Ilganyags that aren't really all part of the same thing, but pretend to be?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:45:42 -0400

They're international. Their headquarters is in Lurick, a town on the coast of western Cresce. Claiming you're Ilganyag when you're not is a good way to get your head cut off.

Where did the Ilganyag originate?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:38:30 -0400

I wonder.

So, let's say there are two identical rocks, and a wright borrows half the rock's aspects from one, and another uses the other aspects from the other. Does the khert squish what's left of both together to make one rock, or does it eat both rocks?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:38:21 -0400

The khert doesn't care that the stone used in this instance is in the form of two rocks. It's only interested in cubic space. So it would destroy the exact stone matter that is drawn from and leave what isn't untouched. When you draw an Aspect you don't say: "Give me the solidity of that rock." You give coordinates or you draw a vector. So you say: "Give me the x by y by z solidity of the stone at x,y,z from the port in my right palm." The khert nabs the solidity at that coordinate and whisks it to your hand via the nearest line. A few seconds later, if you haven't slotted in a placeholder Aspect or returned the solidity, the khert destroys the stone. To the khert, there are not two rocks. It is all stone located in space. So you'd likely be left with fragments of the original rocks with chunks cut out.

There's no human intelligence behind the khert. It doesn't know about rocks. It knows about materials and numbers and space and how things must move and what is required to keep reality chugging along.

That's cool! So the khert literally destroys matter? Are wrights concerned about actually decreasing the planet's mass or is that not the case (or is it met with a hand-wavey "meh, the khert'll fix it" since pymary is too useful)?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:51:26 -0400

Most of the material that wrights draw from isn't the sort that they are overconcerned with conserving. No one cares if you clear out a few square feet of tall grass or a few troughs of stone. It makes for pretty decimated battlefields though, and a pymary-intensive battle can all but obliterate a city. It is ethically better to swap than to isolate, but in the heat of battle a wright does what he has to do.

The khert does handle a lot of the sticky details. It cleans up orphaned Aspects, cleans up incomplete materials, and keeps reality working smoothly. This is why tampering with the khert or harming it in any way is a bad idea. Pymary, people, physical laws and metaphysical laws depend on it. Reality is an external emanation, the final 3D render; but beneath is the wireframe, the rigging, the bump map, the specular map - the khert!

When did you first start on unsounded? like date for when you made the first page and the date for when you first came up the idea and stuff

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:50:43 -0400

Date for when I made the first page... It was right after I got really depressed that my Vagrant Story doujin game didn't work out, so I guess it was early 2010. That was just the first page for this current incarnation of it though, I'd tried to draw it in the past with little success.

The idea for Unsounded is nigh ten years old though, it's been in gestation a long time. Don't have an exact date for that, but I guess I could ballpark it at when I first started roleplaying Murkoph in a Yahoo Groups game like... 1999 maybe? I moved him to one-on-one RP over AIM with my buddy Amanda soon after, and Duane and Will got created pretty quickly after that. Actually... actually Duane may have been around first? I don't remember o_o

I guess Unsounded exists partly as a way to bring together all these characters I've loved over the years. But the seed of the story - the heart of the story - is Murkoph's story, and that's oldest. 1999. Yeah. The year Julius Belmont destroyed Dracula for good and all, coincidentally enough. YEAR OF INFAMY.

Not to sound queer, but are there going to be any same sex relationships in this comic? (I loves it when the gays start smooching...) Perhaps on a related note, that heart you just made looks like something else entirely to me.

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 19:48:43 -0400

The only good thing about Facebook is that it will take a <3 in the text box and replace it with an actual teensy heart.

Srsly though I don't answer questions like this. There is no right way to answer them. I do not like them. I respect everyone having their preferences however. I personally don't like slice of life comics. We all have our eccentricities.

not to sound rude or anything, but are there going to be any same sex relationships in this comic? (not a huge fan...)

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 19:33:04 -0400

PROTIP: If you must preface a question with "not to sound rude/racist/sexist" your question should probably remain unvoiced.

<3

I dig pymary and "magic" systems with some explanation of their mechanics like say FMA's alchemy (I like how alchemy punished "cheaters" more however). What happens to finished spells? Like, does the grass from the "grasslance" return in place or poof?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:02:29 -0400

It depends how the Aspect was utilized. If it was swapped - say you adhered the grass edge to a stick and adhered the bluntness of the stick to the grass - when you end the spell the khert will swap the Aspects back and all will be as it was.

If you isolate the edge of the grass, you leave the grass incomplete as matter and the khert will destroy the grass a few seconds after you've taken the Aspect. As soon as you let go of the Aspect, the khert will destroy that as well. The khert is the great custodian of reality and doesn't allow orphaned Aspects to exist nor matter to exist without all of its core Aspects. Wrights are always struggling with the khert and its custodial nature. I can't really compare any of this to FMA though, I haven't seen it.

If Uaid were a writer, what stories would he tell?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:38:20 -0400

Uaid might tell you about his mom. She was a fun and funny lady whose dreams got too big and too strange. They turned into monsters and burned her up.

Where'd Ephsephin's hat come from? How did it come to be? Will you tell us of the origins... of Eph's hat?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:37:06 -0400

I leave this one up to fanfiction.

If Elan leeched off of some livestock, would it affect the deliciousness of the meat when the animal went to slaughter?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:36:48 -0400

I like this idea! I say yes.

Could Boo be filled with non-shredding, super strong thread and taught to floss Sette's teeth to get all the bits of Red Berry Boy out, or to sew Duane back together when he rips his stitchable parts (like his fancy lungs or his hood)?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:36:38 -0400

I reckon he could! I'm not sure there's any thread strong enough to floss Sette's teeth without snapping though. Those things are preternaturally sharp and durable. It would be (and was in RP) terribly convenient for Duane to have a personal seamstress though :)

I like hoarding questions in my inbox, like dragon treasure, or puffy things in a cat's favourite hidey-hole. Do you do the same thing, or does it bother you to do so?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:34:59 -0400

I do have a few that I'm hoarding 'cause I want to answer them with artwork, ho ho ho. "Can you imagine an Unsounded/Trigun crossover?"

Is the critter life leeching thing inherently evil or could you just leech off livestock that were scheduled to be turned into steak later anyway?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:55:28 -0400

I don't know that it's "evil" unless all our torture and usage of animals for our own gain is evil. Elan leeching vitality out of a marmot is no worse than me having sausages for breakfast. Lord Winalils would roll his eyes and flick you in the head. But yeah, Elan can use any animal, including livestock.

(P.S. Rodenty is a word if I want it to be, right? Right.)

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:53:21 -0400

The best word.

Well at least he seems to be a bit remorseful about the untimely deaths of all those animals. He could keep them in better living conditions though, unless the spell feeds on anguish or something. What kind of animal was it in his locker? Looked Rodenty.

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:53:13 -0400

It was a marmot. Elan lives there in the Peaceguard barracks and doesn't have much space to himself. I could have had him keeping the critter in his trunk in the communal bunk room, or there in his equipment locker. The locker seemed more accessible if he had an attack while on duty, so I went with that. He has to keep the critter immobile, so he ties it up in a box. It's certainly not pleasant for anyone involved but at this point Elan's grown a bit inured to killing these things. Still, it sucks. He just wants to like, ya know, not die, but this is what he's reduced to doing to manage that.

Is Elan Aled a good man?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:48:37 -0400

I think he is as "good" as his crappy situation allows him to be. I've always felt very bad for him.

Why exactly does heart condition guy need to kill animals? Does he require the fresh blood of living creatures to keep his ticker tocking?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 04:23:09 -0400

I can't tell you Lord Winalils' trade secrets, he'll kill me!

I predict that someone in this chapter has... A WRIST MOUNTED BOW GUN!

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 04:06:05 -0400

You would be INCORRECT, sir. But not entirely incorrect. Try wrist-mounted buzzsaw launcher.

Is the little spider pymaric still active? Or is it nonfunctional while it's out of "web" and Sette just had to shape it into a hair clip?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 04:05:23 -0400

Oh, no, it's still functional. But without webbing, really, the most useful thing it can do is hold Sette's hair back and offer moral support.

Is a mood zombie like a mood ring only instead of changing colors he eats brains?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 04:02:53 -0400

Quite so. Moods range from brain-eating to placid shambling to cheerfully but tonelessly humming the choruses to Aquabats songs.

I just realized Elan's using fire right now. O.O How far away should he stay from Duane?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 02:58:49 -0400

Duane is okay. Duane is chill. As long as Sette is chill, Duane is chill. He is like a mood zombie.

When our friend guard says he feels like shit, does he mean physically or in the head? Imperfect artifacts don't seem like Bastion's gig.

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:36:38 -0400

He means physically. Elan should really be dead, but Bastion's contraption (and a whole lot of animals) keep him going. It's not perfect, but it works, and no one else could do it. Perhaps if Elan continues to prove useful Bastion will feel it worth his time to try and come up with a more elegant solution.

How am I expected to react to Murkoph? If I hate him would it negatively affect my enjoyment of Unsounded?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 22:30:07 -0400

I imagine hating any character would make you enjoy the comic less. I have no idea why people who hate Sette still read the comic, they are like cutters. But how are you expected to react to Murkoph? Curiosity maybe? Revulsion? Spontaneous ejaculation? I have no idea. I'd actually rather you not even think about him until he shows up.

Have faith in me. We've come over three-hundred pages together so far. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, baby.

How do you exercise your dogs?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 21:03:08 -0400

I pick a fight.

I like Murkoph's singing voice (thought Tom Waits would be equally awesome). Any examples for Duane, Sette, Quigley, Matty or anybody else?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:32:07 -0400

Quigley most definitely does not sing. He's way too srs bsns. Sette sings like a cat mid-vivisection. It's not pretty. Matty has a nice little boy voice, nothing special. Duane can't really sing anymore, he hasn't the lung capacity nor the diaphragm but when he was alive he wasn't a bad baritone. Simon Keenlyside perhaps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znezCdfJBmA

You're a fan of detailed explanations for things in your own work (and we love you for it!) but how do you feel about things you read having a "smoke and mirrors" aspect to them? I only ask because all my favourite airship designs are the least functional

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:18:06 -0400

I have no problem with smoke and mirrors! Or with suspending my disbelief when reading fantasy. Actually someone on 4chan today wanted to fight with me about my magic system because he was a self-proclaimed expert at physics and quantum mechanics. I was like buddy, I'm a fantasy author, not a scifi author, go wank with Neil deGrasse Tyson over how the stars are wrong in Titanic.

So yeah, don't sweat it. Just make sure you're leaving yourself room later on to get technical with the piloting and flying if you want the story to ever go in that direction. Chase sequences and fights are more real and fun for all involved if they have a grounding in reality. Are you putting in booms and yards and sails that can be reefed and furled for dramatic effect? Are you leaving adequate spacing between the sails so that you have a pretty good 360 degrees of visibility from the deck? This stuff will bug you later when you have to lay out action. Like, I said on tumblr that I love that curving sail but it would obscure visibility pretty hardcore.

Otherwise the POINT of fantasy is revelling in things that are different and exciting, things we don't have. Go wild and don't worry about it all aligning with reality as we know it. Reality as we know it is boring.

The movie wasn't bad, I'm just saying I like your idea much better. Hmm, new question...Does Duane like hats?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:06:27 -0400

Well, thank you, I like that idea as well :)

Duane isn't really a hat man. Not enough coverage. Sette thinks he'd look pretty good in a burka but she can't find one that tall.

Rest assured that your "Ahab as the antagonist" idea would have been much better than the actual fourth PotC movie. Different thought: Will we - at some point - get an in-depth explanation of how exactly the Duane-controlling necklace works?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:55:12 -0400

All questions will be answered in time, my child. Except maybe for the origin of Ephsephin's hat, I'll leave that one up to @Forumcat.

Was the fourth PotC movie that bad? I heard mixed things about it but I do like mermaids, generally. I should download it tonight. I will forgive that series a lot if it manages to at least fascinate me. The tentacle beard fascinated me for two movies, I cared about little else.

I can't stop imagining Murkoph's singing voice sounding like Tom Waits. It's the most amazing (read: only) piece of head canon I've come up with. What would Murk think of Mr. Waits?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:52:58 -0400

Marinaded beforehand with a nice wine, I'm sure he'd be very fond of Mr. Waits.

In my head, Murkoph's singing voice sounds just like the lead singer of Dropkick Murphys. This song especially is just all Murkoph. But Tom Waits isn't a bad bit of head canon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10agPj0Vzu4

What do you have against kitties?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:49:41 -0400

They will not bark at the mailman nor jump in the swimming pool with me.

How tall is Murkoph, exactly? I found a scrap chilling in the hidden bits of CasualVillain saying that he's 6'7", but I think I remember you once saying he's only 6'4". If it's the latter, why'd he shrink?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:47:58 -0400

Gonna gnaw your face. Gnaw your faaaaaaaace. No Murk questions D:

What's Murkoph's favourite non-human snack?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:47:08 -0400

Lemur. So delicious.

Is Murkoph newer or older than Duane? (zombie time)

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:41:20 -0400

Have you ever had to build IKEA furniture? I feel like drinking Agent Orange.

Where in the weird world of puberty is Jivi?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:39:58 -0400

Well, he's fourteen, so right on the cusp of a growth spurt and voice change, I would reckon.

I tried to go back really far in the formspring, and couldn't find someone else asking this, so I'm sorry if it's a repeated question. But would you mind translating "Anteit vaosa, moya umam ssomunt bamillan."? I couldn't find the words in the Wiki.

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:22:51 -0400

"Merciful Saints, these people are insane." A handy line to know :)

So, Chris Hemsworth is starring in a dramatized Moby-Dick movie called In the Heart of the Sea. Thoughts?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 03:33:15 -0400

Start polishing up those Oscars, I'm sure it will be amazing. Actually though I just looked it up and the film is about the voyage of the Essex, a real life story that inspired Moby-Dick, but I don't imagine they'll be including a white whale or Ahab. It'll probably just be Poseidon Adventure with sails.

Pierre Alary was working on a comic adaption of Moby-Dick that I would give my left nut to get a hold of. I once had an idea for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie featuring Ahab as antagonist. He went around in a steampunk whale submersible and Moby-Dick was a mythic animal that granted wishes if you managed to subdue it. Classy, no?

What extra abilities do Quigley's glasses give him after he taps them, as before the duel with Duane? Other than making him look like an intimidating eyes-afire mystical demigod?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 01:59:31 -0400

Aside from being actual spectacles that he needs to see because he's severely nearsighted, they let him see the khert when they're active. Being able to see the khert when you're working pymary is a big advantage. All Aspects travel via the khert lines - spectral veins of a sort - and seeing those lines lets you target with much greater accuracy. Without them, spells default to the line nearest the desired vector, but that line isn't necessarily the straightest or the stablest. Having a look-see at the khert and choosing your own line almost always produces better outcomes.

It's one of those things there's just no room to explain in the comic so tl:dr +20% accuracy

Do you have contact with any other webcomic artists? I'm asking because slowly, but surely, every webcomic I read turns out to be a favorite of another artist/author I like... If not, are there any webcomics you like to read?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:49:02 -0400

I do not have contact with any other webcomic artists.

Webcomics themselves! I don't read any anymore, I'm sorry. Just kind of fell out of them. Print comics are more my cup of tea. Dark Horse's Conan series drawn by Becky Cloonan is great fun. The Promise 2 is out soonish, as well as Jo Chen's sexytime yaoi manga/novel In These Words which I have preordered. I still read The Defenders every month because I am a sadomasochist and I recently started reading Glory since Ross Campbell took over art duties. It's surprisingly fantastic, considering. I mean, I used to read Spawn in the nineties. Yeah. But Glory is good. I'll read anything Ross Campbell does though, I am kind of a fantard over him.

I've been reading a lot of novels, lately. I finished Penn Jillette's book the other day, it was... interesting. Now I'm reading Gottlieb's history of philosophy. The Greeks were wonkfaces.

What do you mean when you say Murkoph will break everything if you let him?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 18:25:34 -0400

He will kill and eat all my characters and break my comic! :)

Has it ever occurred to the Ilganyag that they might not have as desperate of a need for new members if they stopped castrating themselves?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 18:14:57 -0400

Naturally. So there must be a damn good reason they do it.

What's an activity you really enjoy doing but are objectively terrible at?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:54:58 -0400

Singing!

Are you looking forward to Murk's arrival and drawing him in something canon? (Assuming you haven't already done so.) He makes me nervous, Glassy, which I think must secretly please you.

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:31:52 -0400

I'm kind of looking forward to it? But Murkoph is really tricky to deal with. Back in RP I had to saddle him with weaknesses and secrets so he wasn't so broken and didn't kill all the other characters, which he is wont to do eventually no matter how much you amuse him. A lot of those weaknesses don't work in Unsounded so I had to devise new ones, and also be very selective about where and when he shows up and how he gets there. Murkoph will just break everything if I let him.

Also, he is a blaspheming, potty-mouthed, sex-obsessed, violent horrible creature and keeping him from being RIDICULOUSLY outside of the rating I'm trying to maintain is no small feat.

Anyway, I hope he doesn't disappoint. Or make me lose half my readership T_T

Much like my compatriot fresh from India I have just returned from three and a half weeks in Peru. I speed though the updated comic, and skip happily over to formspring to find Murkoph plying his depraved entertainment services like I never left. Miss me?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:30:29 -0400

Baby, it just wasn't the same without you. <3

My best friend in junior high was from Peru. Did you see her there? Her name is Joanna!

Murkoph sounds horrible :/ Does he have a point?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:20:24 -0400

Murkoph is a child of nature. All nature cares about is eating and sex and sex and eating. Murkoph only seems evil because he can look you in the eye and talk to you as he's doing nature to you. Murkoph is all the worst things about life and us; all the things we're surrounded by that we hate but that we're inured to, that we pass by, that we ignore, or that the sickest of us derive pleasure from. Murkoph is reptilian-brained Id in a thin skin of humanity, gnawing on the world, pissing on the faces of paper gods, and shitting into the void. Murkoph is manic and hungry and horny and wise and forever. He's seen the end, forgotten the beginning, and wants to show you this moment right now right now right now.

He's going to be in Unsounded, right? When does he show up?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:12:16 -0400

Soon.

What's Murkoph's favorite flavor of human?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:04:15 -0400

He's not too particular but he does like noshing on women; ties them up, straddles them, and eats their breasts so they writhe and scream while he rapes them. I hope no one is operating under the delusion that Murkoph is a misunderstood good guy.

I haven't asked a Murkoph question in a while. Glass, what Murkoph-related question would you like to answer?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:53:46 -0400

No Murkoph questions! :O

Computers aren't alive. The hibernate. Since you often compare Uaid and the khert in general to computers, does that ability apply, as well, or is Uaid just always on?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:53:35 -0400

Uaid's always on. He doesn't have any biological processes that need time to rest or recharge, so I just don't think sleep is a requirement. That's why Starfish was so effusive in his praise when they reached Mulimar - Uaid was much faster than their dogs who needed to sleep.

Just got back from three weeks in India--it was awesome and I learned so much, having never left the States before. Makes me wonder--are most of the cultures in Unsounded based off of Western cultures? Or did you throw in some Eastern elements too?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:49:07 -0400

I guess I can't help the Western flavour to much of Unsounded, but there's not a lot "based" on anything specific. You can go around the world to find cultures with a liberated female moiety or a repressed one, or to find religions that believe in reincarnation, or to find ancient feuds between cultures, or to find rigid class structures, or dystopian state control, or blah blah. I put in what I want to see, whether I can find a solid basis for it in reality or not :D I can't think of a functioning bitheocracy like Alderode's in our history, or a moneyless Communist system like Cresce's that actually worked and didn't result in starvation or genocide.

I'm totes jelly you got to go to India though. And for three weeks! I'ma come ask you about it.

Would Uaid be offended if you were to tell him he's not alive?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:41:20 -0400

You'd have a hard time convincing him. He feels as alive as you do.

So, You asked to see the finished image with the Stained Glass, so here it is >.> http://ksteinhoff.deviantart.com/art/Stay-II-307678542

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:40:49 -0400

Very pretty! :D Very naked! :O

Is Boo good at holding hair, or did Sette have her work cut out for her? Does Boo enjoy holding hair? Will you tell me something cute about Boo?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:39:21 -0400

Boo is afraid of being thrown away again or destroyed, so it's very, very eager to please. Since Sette showed it some positive attention it's decided she's its mom and will now protect her and obey her to the death :O Meanwhile it's very young and very ignorant and is slowly letting Sette shape its worldview. So far Boo has figured out that pie and Duane are the pillars of reality.

Boo was a big deal back in RP. He was Duane's familiar, but started out "life" as a present from Duane's ward Yuki, who was a sort of autistic Robin to Duane's zombie Batman. Duane was so enamoured with Boo (who was crafted either by a Drowish jeweller or an artificer character named Jason who belonged to @mindaroth, I can't remember) that he modified him and inserted a piece of his own soul to give it life and power. After Duane was destroyed, Boo was left behind deep in the darkest, saddest caverns of Old Tawhoque, and presumably wandered forever looking for Duane or Yuki T_T

In a very cool AU thread my friend Adam put together, a Lich apocalypse had come to Hanghorse. Everyone was dead or undead and the city had been sealed off from reality, leaving the undead fighting amongst themselves and only a very small group of living survivors hiding out in the paladins' tower. Duane was their super badass undead protector, and roamed the ruins looking for evil zombies to slay. He rode around in a giant spider named Boo! Boo was sentient here too and was super adorable and lovely and liked to step on smelly zombies. Alas, he was destroyed at the end of the story and Duane subjugated by one of the evil zombie leaders in exchange for saving Sette and getting her to safety. That was a really depressing thread.

So where'd Sette get the new outfit? Is there some poor crescian girl around her size lying naked and unconscious in an alley somewhere?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 04:07:18 -0400

Naw, she fashioned Quigley's mantle into a new top - the colour and swirly white design should give it away. The bag is Duane's bag, the glowing red necklace was introduced in chapter 4, and the spider pymaric is back there holding up her hair. The pants are her regular old pants. She's a resourceful child.

Does Duane have issues with memory now that he's Salit? He has seemed not to notice the scenery had changed between dusk and dawn when Sette was shifting him further west. Also, do Sette's mutations include the need for very little sleep?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 03:56:07 -0400

Mutations? D:

Duane frequently carries Sette so she can snooze when they travel at night. Otherwise your questions will be addressed in the story eventually.

Unf, those outfit designs are so good. I want Elan's jacket! Do you have anything real-world in particular that you draw inspiration from for the basis of your clothing designs in Unsounded or did you design them from scratch?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 03:54:39 -0400

Glad you like, Kirbs! I generally go from scratch for clothing designs. I like to keep things reeeeeally simple in Unsounded; simple shapes, simple colour schemes, simple cuts. Clothing is not something I like to spend a lot of time on every panel; I'd rather reserve that time for faces and backgrounds.

You know what has awesome clothing/armour design? Berserk. I haven't read much of the manga but the movie was just apeshit creative with armour. I may have to gank some stuff, it's way too great.

How do you know that you get the whole comic layout/panels correctly? Do you wing it? Or did you learn from somewhere? I'm trying for a comic myself and I can't seem to get the layout down. :C

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 03:30:13 -0400

Layout is the hardest thing about comics, I think. Anyone can write, anyone can draw, but not everyone can combine art and balloons and story into a page design that is in itself a thing of beauty and clarity. At the same time, layout is the part about comics that laymen and most readers care about the least. Layout is what comic snobs will sit around and bash otherwise beautiful comics for failing to excel at. I have seen forum threads hating on certain gorgeously illustrated, really insanely popular webcomics because their layouts are cluttered, their balloons don't flow, or all their angles are too similar or flat. But normal people just don't give a damn about this stuff.

As long as your pages are coherent for now, just do the best you can when it comes to laying out panels. Read lots of really great graphic novels and study the pages to see how the pros put things together. Think about how the reader's eye moves from balloon to balloon as they're reading down and across a page and try to arrange those balloons naturally. Watch out for tangents - that's when lines intersect or touch in a visually uncomfortable or confusing way. Choose camera angles that best show off what's happening in a panel. Don't be afraid to cut out the background in a panel if it's cluttering things, but don't have a bunch of panels in a row with no backgrounds. Imagine your comic is a movie and think about how the camera would move, what shots the director would choose. You're the director!

Your favorite smell?

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 03:10:14 -0400

YOU, aspidosecalis.

What's the most absolutely useless thing the Black Tongues ever came up with?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 21:00:24 -0400

Extracting sunshine from cucumbers.

Does Uaid... dream?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:21:15 -0400

Uaid doesn't sleep. No infested pymarics sleep, they're not alive.

What is your SECOND favorite flavor of ice cream? (Mine is mint chocolate chip)

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:24:58 -0400

Phish Food.

I'm guessing that there's some pretty useless stuff to come out off the Black Tongues. Like ways to enchant rubber duckies to be especially buoyant and make especially cute squeaks. If you spill a stupid secret like that, is your life just as forfeit...

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:40:36 -0400

Oh, spilling spells isn't bad. Sharing discoveries isn't bad. The Black Tongues work to make people's lives better and easier, so they WANT their useful (and duckie-related) discoveries put out there and used. The secrets they want kept are different. And they're secret so I'm not telling you what they are :)

My old school had a less-famous sister school back before they merged into a coed thing. Do the Ilganyag have a sister organisation, whether they appreciate its existence or not, or are the genius, morally questionable lady wrights screwed?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:11:50 -0400

I'm sure there's a coed organisation somewhere but I haven't really thought about it. They don't feature in the story or anything.

Are there any elements that you've explained through imagery that you're particularly proud of?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:10:43 -0400

Pride is bad, mmkay?

What happens if a married man wants to join the Black Tongues? Is he allowed to? Does he have to get rid of wifey? Is he just never allowed to say anything to her about pymary again?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:09:14 -0400

So long as you do the initiation, serve the brotherhood, and abstain from religion, the Black Tongues don't care what you do. Continue your marriage, adopt a kid, take up crocheting, whatevs. If they have reason to believe you're spilling secrets, though, they might murder you and your family in the night. So join at your peril.

Why did Quigley bait and switch them? He admires them in some ways.

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:40:51 -0400

Bait and switch the Black Tongues? Because he wants to keep his balls, man, and he thinks they're mostly a bunch of crazy asshats.

As a writer how do you deal with the usual issues imposed by writing a story driven by distinct protagonists? i.e. not being able to kill the protagonist off til the end (if it happens), having to neglect backstory on side characters for story focus, etc.

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:39:18 -0400

Well, what happens to the protagonists IS the story. There's no use coming up with a story that's detached from the characters you want to write about, and no use coming up with a main character who dies in the middle of the story you want to tell. Story and character can't be detached; the latter is the vehicle for the former.

There are stories around Duane and Sette but they're not The Story. The story of the current military actions between Cresce and Alderode is a story but it's not the one we're concerned with. If Duane and Sette got blown up tomorrow we'd never know the resolution of the war but we'd know the resolution of the characters and their story, and that would be the book concluded for good or bad. So yeah, the way I deal with story and characters is to never detach them.

I was talking about this with a writer friend the other day and posited that making characters interesting enough to have a story lean on them requires Coincidence. Coincidence is in my opinion the greatest tool a writer has, and it must be handled with skill and finesse, like a rapier. Nearly everything interesting that happens to anyone anywhere happens because of coincidence. The human race is here, now, because of nigh impossibly improbable coincidence. So don't be scared of it. Our characters are compelling BECAUSE of lots of coincidences in their lives. If there hadn't been the coincidence of an extremely proud and unstable man losing his leg to an extremely notable whale, Moby-Dick wouldn't have happened. That he had a very literate man of letters aboard to tell the story of the hunt was a coincidence. That this man survived when everyone else died because a buoyant coffin happened to pop up in proximity is coincidence.

But we are authors and authors are the gods of their world. We know when these coincidences are going to happen and we can prepare the reader for them. We can write about that coffin being made and bring it into existence foreseeing its eventual use. In this way we can ensure that our characters escape monsters that might otherwise kill them, be where they need to be to see what they need to see, meet who they need to meet, and see their story through to the end.

Side characters can be tricky but I would guess the thing to keep in mind is why they are there, what they do to support main characters and the main story, and how do they support the theme. If their backstory just isn't relevant except as trivia, it has to be left out, or kept to a sentence or two. It all comes down to disciplined editing.

Comic writing is a really good exercise in brevity and editing. I'm getting better at it but the earlier chapters are way too unnecessarily wordy. If you ever want to challenge yourself as a writer, try to write a comic full of concepts that need explanation. It's fun and you'll only want to kill yourself occasionally :)

Which is the bigger turnoff to potential Black Tongue recruits: having to get an obvious tattoo marking them as as kill-on-sight criminals, or cutting their balls off? Also would they have any luck if they changed the rules to let women join?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:06:00 -0400

I'm sure different wrights have different priorities, but I would think the castration would be the biggest deterrent. It's not like it's laying down on an operating table and having a nap while a professional surgeon tends to you - you gotta do it yourself in front of witnesses, utterly naked and barehanded with nothing but your own skill with pymary to aid you. For all their railing against religion and ceremony and taboo, the Black Tongues are peculiarly insistent - almost devout - when it comes to this initiation and the tattoos.

And they're never going to change the law and allow women. It's a boy's club. They'd sooner stop existing.

There's Stained Glass in the drawing I'm doing now. Drawing is takes a while, but is very relaxing. What's your view on stained glass? Is there it on Kasslyne? When Sauce spills over you, do you become Stained Glass(shard)?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 03:07:35 -0400

Stained glass is faaaaabulous. I'm not Catholic but I went to a Catholic elementary school so I have an ingrained love of stained glass, priests & nuns, and ritualistic cannibalism.

There is definitely stained glass in Kasslyne and in fact there are a few portentous pieces at the beginning of chapter 7 that I have already drawn. So it's kind of creepy that you've asked this :) I've always wanted to live in a house with huge stained glass windows. One day. One day, Steinhoff! Lemme see your drawing when you're done.

So, my little brother started reading this and he can't stop thinking over Elka's verbal confession about her flashing some boob....now he thinks she's a bad person. Did she really flash her audience or did she just say that to make Toma smile?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:17:18 -0400

Haha, she was absolutely just joking. No real flashing. Geez, don't let your little bro read the comic if he's TOO little though. It's a bit violent and creepy for little kids, no?

All your characters have a little evil in them (or a little good, if they're basically evil). What's Matty's little bit of evil? Assuming, of course, that he's not secretly the evil overlord of the story...

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:06:07 -0400

Other than the normal kid evil of disobeying his dad sometimes... Matty suffers from the evil of NOT disobeying his dad sometimes. He could have brought the Red Berry Boys to a swift end if he'd gone to the cops when he and Ephsephin were in Mulimar.

Otherwise Matty is a pretty good kid. Vienne didn't have him for long, but she had him long enough, and Quigley hasn't managed to ruin him yet.

Question concerning the Ilganyag. Breeding Matty to a goat: How would that end?

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:01:57 -0400

Disappointment for all parties. Well, the goat might not mind it too much if it got to eat Matty's hat afterwards. Your questions are going to get me put in jail, Cat.

Are good make-up artists in high demand in the Crescian theatre, or are actors expected to do their own?

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:15:04 -0400

Make-up artists seem like the way to go.

What do the Crescian actors use for Matty? A kid? A doll? A lump of blankets and some white dog fur? A particularly small actor? Pymary?

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:14:19 -0400

I see no reason why they couldn't use a kid actor.

Further question about what exactly Smoke Eels are. Physical creature? Metaphysical creature? Kasslynian cultural metaphor? By-product of life-related pymary? Artistic rendering of a spirit/soul/ghost? Eels make the horror scenes creepy, well done!

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:12:05 -0400

Smoke eels are ghosts with physical forms, essentially. The khert is always bleeding fragments of dead memories into the world. The negative memories are strongest, and they fester, and they coalesce in the corners of reality like dog hair in the corners of an untended room (see how I can draw on personal experience to fashion metaphors? Do this, writers). Sometimes they get so strong that the khert mistakes them for life and they manage to possess the material world. They're still not really alive though, so the only matter they can possess is the tiniest - smoke particles. Soot. Sea spray. Dust.

Now the khert is really confused. It reads these negative-energy infused particles as living cells. The khert has little glitches in it; little hiccoughs in its structure. One of these hiccoughs is eels. For some reason when the khert finds these conglomerations of pseudo-cells, it reads them as eels, and grants them permission to not only exist, but to multiply over time and form smoke eels and move like eels and affect matter like eels.

So you get these spectral ghost eels, generally at sites where a lot of traumatic death has happened, since death opens up the khert. Eels are mostly docile and have no interest in people. They just want to coil and hiss and stew in their own hate.

Are those more Smoke Eels being used as a combat weapon by Suicide Commando Quigley?

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:59:18 -0400

Sort of!

Two questions concerning the play about Quigley. 1) Are the actors 'white-faced' or is a glamour used to make them looked properly Aldish? Is it a straight up play, or an opera?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 23:36:26 -0400

White-face! Glamours are outright forbidden in the capital for safety reasons, so there's a long tradition of play-actors scorning them entirely and selling their performances with only make-up and their skills. Wrights have liberty to go nuts on sets and effects though, so the shows are by no means pymary-free.

And Quigley's play was a play. Opera isn't popular in Cresce, it's too melodramatic and ridiculous and Aldish.

Coming out of lurking today with two questions: 1. Does a royal blessing for a marriage come directly from the Queen, or is that the job of some obscure, extended family member? 2. Did Vienne make Matty's wind-up toys?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 22:45:38 -0400

Aww, don't lurk. We're all friends here.

1. Except for the marriages of important people, "royal blessings" come from officials in your district who review applicants and then stamp the equivalent of "royal blessing" on your marriage license. Cresce is simply too populous for her Majesty to review every single coupling. It's probably good to know that often when the monarchy is referred to it's a reference to the state government at large, so "royal blessing" is a nice way of saying "state approval."

2. Yes. Everyone said she should be sewing him cute little teddy bears - that's what moms are supposed to do - but when she tried it the best she could do was Chitz. Sewing was just not her forte. So instead she made him wind-up vliegeng toys that spit water and clockwork wrights with glowy hands.

Would living Duane have been willing to make some silvers with Vienne in a closet?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:23:05 -0400

Vienne was pretty hot. I think a lot of living men would have wanted to make whoopie with her in a coat closet.

Is it too spoilerrific for you to tell us about Toma's (apparently expanding) wife? "She's not very nice" and "he could call her worse than fat" aren't really... helpful...

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:22:09 -0400

Sure. Lady Emne Toma, she's a distant cousin of the Queen and lives in the capital with her daughter Chea. She's a history teacher - the one you hope you don't get because she's merciless as a winter-starved she-bear. She's extremely attractive and extremely vain, obsessed with fashion and the theatre, and has been known to have some Aldish sympathies in private circles. She's otherwise very popular and is invited to all the parties, always dragging her reluctant hubby along if he's in town. She and Toma have almost nothing in common except for their daughter Chea, whom they both love to excess but in totally different ways.

It was a negotiated marriage, as most marriages are, except Emne's status gave her family particular weight when it came to negotiating with Emil's, and the ability to expedite the marriage process, one that customarily requires two years of waiting and a royal blessing. Emil was from the Jards, a solid family from the south who never did anything more remarkable than produce Emil, who went on to become quite the hero in the military. He's also pretty good looking. Emne met him when the Queen was pinning a medal on his chest, and fell immediately in lust. They were married a few months later, Toma rather ambivalent about the whole thing.

They do not really care for each other, but they are such a good looking couple and such a charming story (military hero/royal cousin awww) that they get gossiped about fairly frequently. Toma doesn't like to be home much but he misses his daughter a lot when he's away on assignments, so he is an eternally miserable mope-bag.

Since Matty, have the Black Tongues had any other potenial recruits?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:53:22 -0400

I don't think so, that's their trouble. Just a bunch of old guys with no balls. Why, are you volunteering?

"Shirtless Toma, eh? Not for many moons. There's a shirtless Jivi on the horison though, maybe that will satisfy. Basically everyone gets their chance to be shirtless, it's one of Unsounded's bylaws." Including Elka?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:06:35 -0400

I would have no problem whatsoever with boobs. Boobs everywhere! But that pesky PG13 rating. Maybe I can do some sideart of Elka's boobs later to make up for it.

The other day I was halfway through writing Lord Winalils having a (one-sided) conversation with his girlfriend while she was blowing him when I remembered I could never get away with it in the comic. We're all suffering here, anon.

Is Toma often honest when white lies would make his life easier?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:38:06 -0400

Sometimes, but that's not how the whole fat Emne situation came about.

I was agonizing over poor Toma last week, trying to decide if I should cut his storyline way down since there are so many complaints when I move away from Duane and Sette, but someone convinced me to keep it. So we'll find out more later.

Is this the peaceguard's less-lethal weapon of choice, like a police officer's baton?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 02:32:58 -0400

That's Elka's personal weapon of choice, yeah. We'll see her use it one day. Poor Elka, all she's gotten to do so far is tail-rape Sette and keep Toma from sinking into various mopey funks. I think I will let her punch someone soon.

So, yeah, that last panel of Elka is sexy, but when are we seeing more shirtless Toma? This is necessary to my well being.

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:26:21 -0400

Shirtless Toma, eh? Not for many moons. There's a shirtless Jivi on the horison though, maybe that will satisfy. Basically everyone gets their chance to be shirtless, it's one of Unsounded's bylaws.

What would Duane think of an illegal female Aldish wright?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:21:33 -0400

Well, for reasons I'd rather not say, while he would be very disapproving since he is a law-abiding sort who respects authority and order, he would understand where the female wright was coming from. Some of society's rules are harsh and frustrating, he would agree, but rules are rules nevertheless.

What would the band's name be? :o

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:51:40 -0400

Stoopendous.

HM. What would have gone down if Vienne and Quigley both survived? Would it end up similar to if just Vienne survived or would Quigley still do dumb stuff?

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:51:21 -0400

Hard to say without maybe getting into something I consider a spoiler.

If the Quigleys had stayed with the Black Tongues and Matty wanted to be a wright, would the Ilganyag have been willing to teach him normal wright stuff in hopes that he'd join eventually? Or would they make him join before teaching the basics?

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:49:42 -0400

As a matter of fact they were super eager to get him rited and start to teach him Old Tainish and basic pymary, but his dad said No. Quigley has a suspicion that pymary itself is some huge Aldish conspiracy, maybe that it draws on the life force of its people or something, and he doesn't want Matty to have anything to do with it.

The Ilganyag are really desperate for young blood though. Their youngest active member these days is Bastion of Winalils, and Bastion's in his mid-forties. The brotherhood is in danger of dying off if they can't attract new members, so you better believe they were looking at little Matty the Plat with avaricious eyes.

Alright so the boys and girls of unsounded all get together and form a traveling rock band. Who's on what, do you think? Personally I can imagine Duane & Elka doing "fascinating" vocals... and given practice I bet Sette could ROCK that mouth harp!

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:21:22 -0400

Suddenly I'm imagining Sette doing a deadpan impression of Alanis Morissette on the harmonica and I'm a disturbed. Murkoph plays guitar so let's get him on there - acoustic naturally. Then we got Lord Winalils playing a mean keyboard, and I'm hip to the idea of Elka and Duane on vocals, sure. Toma seems like he could pick up the drums pretty quickly, so we'll stick him back there like Russel from the Gorillaz. Matty gets the triangle. Jivi can whistle at a professional level. Timofey writes lyrics. Quigley is their manager and is stealing all their money to buy whores and blow.

So let's say that Vienne saw Sette grab Matty (pull him out of Boo's explosion range, say). She has time to grab some pymerics but no construct. She finds Matty with Sette and Duane and momma bear instincts kick in. How would that fight go?

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:11:27 -0400

It really takes a man to hit first and ask questions later ;) Vienne would be like yo, whassup mah Aldish brother, and Duane would be like, just chillin' here with your kid u want him back lol? And then they'd go out for coffee and Sette and Matty would have milk and biscuits and it would be quite lovely, really.

When was the last time you danced?

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:09:20 -0400

I danced naked to some Dusty Kid after I exited the shower this morning until my dog paid me to stop.

If Quigley had joined the Black Tongues and kept Matty there, would the Ilganyag have required that Matty give up his presumably as-of-yet absent family jewels, too? If not, how would they have dealt with the adorable little thing?

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 01:23:48 -0400

Haha, no, that would be...dreadful...

He could have lived in the facility but he wouldn't be allowed into the workshops or libraries or allowed to learn any of their secrets or learn much at all, really. But everyone would have been nice to him. The scholars at Lurick are pretty chill, all things considered. I mean, there are some who'd have wanted to vivisect him to examine his organs or maybe try to breed him with a goat to better understand all the properties of Plat-ness, but everyone else would have been very sweet.

So... does Quigs have tongue tattoos and that other... distinctive characteristic of the Ilganyag? Or did they tell him about the... requirement and he was all, 'WHAT?!?! ARE YOU INSANE??' and took his kid and got the hell out of there.

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:15:32 -0400

Quigley was devious. He courted the Black Tongues for the info he wanted, moving to the Crescian city of Lurick for a few months to work and research at the facility there. He gave every sign that he was ready to cast off his old life and join the brotherhood, but once he had what he wanted, he and Matty bounced before it could go any further. So no tattoos, balls intact.

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:25:32 -0400

What did Matty think of the Ilganyag? Was he even aware that that's what they were?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:05:33 -0400

Matty thought they were the nicest people ever. Everyone called him cute and gave him sweets and everyone knew about battlewrights and dueling and who was up in the rankings and who won the last tournament and they all wanted him to talk about his mom and Uaid and everything she'd made and discovered and had going on when she died. Matty will tell you that yeah, maybe the Black Tongues are kind of evil and break the law and are obsessed with testicles but DAMN they have the best candy.

Comments are gone? Whuut?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:43:18 -0400

Formspring seems to have the flu.

So wait, is Quigley still workin for the Black Tongues? Something in his response to Toma when they were in Uaid made me think that Mathis was no longer a part of that...'course, I could just as well be imagining things.

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:42:56 -0400

No, you're right. He left them a while ago. Someone else might be able to guess why >_>

OK, let's say that Vienne and Mathis's fates were reversed, and she ended up working with the Queen. She and Duane cross paths and end up fighting due to a mistake of some kind (involving Sette, Chitz and Matty, perhaps. Duane doesn't know). Who wins?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:40:10 -0400

Duane VS Vienne? Nothing and no one else? Duane wins, no contest. Vienne wasn't a trained battler and never fought once in her life.

But you pitch Duane against Vienne and her creations, it's a different story. Duane vs. Vienne and Uaid the rest of her pymarics? Vienne makes zombie paste out of him. Duane couldn't sit down and design the kind of things Vienne designed.

Really hard to set two different skillsets against each other like that.

Wow, if Vienne was better than Mathis I can't help but think if their roles were reversed, and Mathis had passed, Vienne might have beaten Duane in the duel.But then, Duane might not have dueled her because she was a woman..yeah, what would have happened?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:04:40 -0400

Well, if you reverse roles, Vienne would have been in attendance when the Window attacked and she would have been killed or jailed right along with her husband. Even if she did survive that, she never would have attacked the office with Matty strapped to her back. Quigley doing that was extremely selfish and awful, it's a miracle both of them weren't killed and he had no business blithely throwing Matty's life away. That's exactly what he was doing, too, because he expected both of them to die in the attack.

But let's ignore that and just say somehow Vienne was with Matty in Quigley's circumstances in the woods last chapter. You're right, Duane wouldn't have dueled her. But... Vienne would never be doing work for someone like Starfish, so he would have no reason to duel her. Vienne would have stayed in the capital and gone to work for the Queen - it would have been safest for both her and Matty. Mathis was offered that deal but he didn't like the idea of them having Vienne's construct and all her research. He didn't want to be beholden to Queen Sonorie to that extent. So he took off.

The big difference between them, I guess, is Vienne would always act first as a mom and in the interests of Matty. Quigley acts for Matty's sake in his own blunt, stupid way, but in his mind if he dies and Matty has lots of money, Matty will be fine and he'll have done his duty. Vienne would have known Matty needed more than that.

Umm, Glass, does it matter if I ask who that 'hostage' was that helped get Quigley and Matty over the border?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:44:53 -0400

It wasn't anyone important, just the head of security at the office they raided. He was tossed in prison afterwards and is there right now. Alderode wanted the entire incident disappeared, it was extremely embarrassing for them.

Can Duane get drunk?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:38:15 -0400

Living blood and flesh has an intoxicating effect on him. Alcohol doesn't do anything but get his shirt wet. Man has no digestive system anymore.

In regards to the earlier question about the fully-badassed Uaid, might the object on the right of the top panel on page 12 be Vienne's working model? Maybe not? The shoulders have a very similar mechanism to Uaid.

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:36:58 -0400

Yep! That was a model they were working off of. The Uaid we see now is pretty unfinished, he was to be armoured and helmeted and have an array of weapons attached to his forearms and shoulders. The only real "weapons" he has now are some launchable nets and he can shoot his hands off his wrists kind of, they're connected to those spools on his shoulders via internal cabling. Wait until you see an actual finished military construct made with adult ogre parts. Uaid will really look like baby shit then, poor thing.

So, if Vienne was a tomboy (assuming that part is fairly true) and as hound-headed as Elka says, did Quigley piss someone off to get saddled with her, or did the elders actually think they'd get on and it would be a good match?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:24:52 -0400

The elders didn't like either of the kids nor their families. That in itself gave them something in common.

Vienne herself was not a bad catch. She had no interest in receding into the role of meek little wife - a role particularly expected of Plat women who aren't even allowed to go out and get jobs - but her family owned the forge, making them the wealthiest people in the village. And Vienne was the only child of theirs to make it to marrying age. So Vienne may have been a headache, but she was a headache wearing a tiara.

Quigley was a similarly mixed bag. He had a great job for the Window and was among their most talented wrights, but his present personality is not a recent development. He's always been an angry, arrogant, emotionally stunted ass. Vienne had her work cut out for her dealing with him. Fortunately he travelled a lot :3

Did Quigs luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurve his wifey?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:50:09 -0400

Mmm.

Um...I saw mention of kosher garlic pickles.They are crunchy ambrosia, but may I ask for your thoughts on Cheez-its? Also, if Duane and Captain Ahab were to have a pissing contest as to the angst and badassery of their lives (or unlives), who'd win?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:25:33 -0400

Cheez-its are okay, but not the healthiest things ever. I like pita chips and blue corn nachos bettah.

For Ahab VS Duane, mmmm, Ahab is much more of a badass than Duane, but Duane's had much more angst. Ahab loses his shit because he lost his leg. Duane's lost everything. It'd be a close call but since I can't out-write Melville, I'd have to declare Ahab winner :)

Hm, assuming Vienne really was making Uaid into a (badass) giant fighting robot, and that's not Crescian propaganda, will we ever get to see the finished product where Uaid was concerned?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:23:04 -0400

Hmm!

Is the fact Uaid can block the khurt how they were able to escape without the Window shutting them down?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:20:53 -0400

Quigley will give the details one day. For now you'll have to wonder.

How did you learn to make the Unsounded website? Was it difficult?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:41:22 -0400

Naw, I've known HTML since high school, and I. I write everything from scratch in Notepad++ which is really great for troubleshooting code. The update journal is the simplest blogging software I could find, a little program called Chyrp. The only occasional thing that's a pain is making sure everything lines up across different browsers. Chrome/Firefox is never a problem but IE is famously a pain in the arse.

I want to thank you for writing another intriguing female character. For a long time I thought I suffer from internalized misogyny, because I tended to hate fictional female characters. But recently I realized I hated most of those characters not because

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 03:05:54 -0400

"they where female but because they were badly written females. What’s your take on the way female characters are written in mainstream media?"

The same as yours, I suspect. The lack of tolerable female characters is why I have no interest in ninety-five percent of what Hollywood poops out. Video games are just as bad. In my advancing age, I'm bored by the same old tropes.

But you know, there are a lot of women who dig the way females are written in Hollywood films. It doesn't bug 'em. And they like all the terrible, soul-crushing reality shows that reinforce materialism and pettiness and cruelty. So who am I to say Hollywood or television should change their ways? I just don't want to partake.

Vienne was pretty cool. I really like that she and Mathis got along so well. Though I wonder if he knew she was a wright and a dissident. I can’t imagine how she would have hidden it from him, but I think, if he knew he might have stopped her.

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 02:22:56 -0400

He definitely knew she was a wright. Moreover he knew she was a superior wright to him, even without a fancy Academy degree. She had a lot of help building Uaid but she designed his pymaric programming herself, and Uaid is pretty damn smart for a manufactured construct. She also designed Swarm, those bugs in Mathis' mantle. She was damn good, and that was part of the reason he liked her. As for the rest, perhaps Quigs will clarify some of the details and inaccuracies of the tale himself one day.

Does Quigley know that there's a play that is about the worst moments of his life?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:54:01 -0400

Yep. But in all fairness, he did turn right around after seeking help from the Queen of Cresce to join the Black Tongue, rather an ungrateful act. She wouldn't have allowed the story to be used as propaganda (which is really all the play is) if he hadn't taken the construct and ran.

But the play is convenient in ways. It paints him as a badass who took out an entire office of wrights and aseptics (high level wright-fighters), which in turn makes people like Starfish specially seek out his services. But it also turns the murder of his wife and the crippling of his son into entertainment. Whatcha gonna do.

Someone else was asking about a backstory that won't show up in the comic... how about Uaid's? Not as a construct, but as an ogre? What were things like in a day of the life of a live ogre? All the coolioolio senet beasts running about, and the ogres...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:38:41 -0400

I'm sure it was idyllic and rockin' with no humans around yet. The senet beasts - mountain ogres especially - helped carve out the landscape. They ate delicious rocks and were always digging up choice specimens, so there are scads of valleys and canyons that can be attributed to them. But they weren't terribly intelligent. No ogre villages, no ogre raves, no ogre chess matches.

I don't think Uaid-ogre's backstory can ever be revealed in the comic since the Uaid we know isn't the personality that originally occupied that body. Uaid wouldn't remember it to tell it! But it's not much of a backstory. Baby ogre was old as the world - created a baby, remained a baby. He never grew any older even though the elder ogres were all petrifying and putting on layers and layers of granite and becoming hills and mountains and ranges. Mama ogre realised what was happening not long before she was ready to lay down and become Mt. Mama, so she smashed baby ogre's head in and buried him sadly so she wouldn't have to leave him all alone.

The Senet beasts did and do have their flaws. Not aging is great until it isn't anymore.

Quick! Duane should go to the theater if he wants to learn Quigley's story (if it's being put on at the moment). Though of course that play is totally 100% accurate. I don't know if Duane would be sympathetic at all, because screw the March and traitors.

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:29:39 -0400

I hoped someone would get that Elka was remembering a play :)

Duane would say that Vienne got what was coming to her. And he wouldn't believe the Window blinded Matty. In some big ways, Duane is a dick.

Oh gods Elka's story...I will cry everytime ;n; Poor Quigley, poor Matty, poor Vienne...heck, let the tears flow for the whole family! Lovely colors on the last page, but I don't quite get what's happening in the middle panel. Clarify? ;u;

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:11:09 -0400

You'll understand on the next page.

Was Vienne born with an outbound connection to the khert or did she get rited?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:13:15 -0400

Her dad rited her and she practised illegally. Part of the reason for the harshness of the response when she was found out.

Mmmmmmmimosas?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:12:33 -0400

I don't drink! Make me a Shirley Temple, barkeep.

How accurate is that map on the last panel of page 13? Careful cartography, or random rectangles?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:12:05 -0400

It's a map of Mulimar. I think it's fairly accurate. You can see the city walls and the courtyard with the Yerta statue where Sette came in back in chapter 4.

I'm getting the impression from the way she's telling this story that Elka might have some respect for Quigley, or would, if he wasn't a criminal. Does she admire him and his family for bucking Alderode's system?

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:12:13 -0400

Elka really likes the story of the Quigleys, but Elka only knows the version that circulated around the country so her mental image of Mathis doesn't really align with reality. But yeah, she thought he sounded like a really brave guy and Vienne sounded pretty badass and clever. But how much of the story that she knows is accurate? There's at least one pretty big hole in it. I'll post two pages tonight and conclude the tale.

...?

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:22:44 -0400

I say "Boom Shaka Laka" too much. Yes, I realise this is a bad habit and that I should stop. What's a phrase you use more often than you should?

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:22:25 -0400

Have you ever seen Muppet Treasure Island?

I probably say "fuck a duck" too much in real life. Not so much online. Offline I curse like a sailor. I called one of my dogs an infected twat today for no real reason. I should apologise.

So if you're going to cheat a fellow Aldish person, you want to find someone of another caste so they can't tell what's going on?

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:19:23 -0400

Or you need to be a very good liar. If you're the kind of liar who can lie in a way so that you believe your own lie, it's not difficult to fool people. Lord Winalils EXCELS at this.

What's a guilty pleasure of yours?

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:17:57 -0400

Sometimes after all the Claussen's Deli Style Hearty Garlic pickles are gone, I'll... I'll drink the entire jar of remaining pickle brine. Garlic pickles are what the angels eat when the angels want to eat pickles.

I'm loving the latest pages, beautifully coloured! What village was Quigs from? And what did he do as he was growing up? Just school, or did he work too?

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:24:55 -0400

Aww, thanks, man. Quigley was from a village in Durlyne province called gulhanba llo-afhil, or Green Helm of the Quarry. It was a satellite of a more major, mixed population mining town, and most everyone had some job related to the mines. Quigley was weird because his parents were weird, and kept the family apart from the general population which was very communal and open. When the government came by to grant scholarships to the village's best boys so they could go serve the state at the Academy, Quigley was sent away to school in the capital at I think six years old. He came back a wright, was assigned to work at the local Window office as their bird-dog, and the village elders who run everything stuck him with Vienne, the other weirdo. So yeah, he spent most of his actual childhood locked up studying pymary.

PS- If Uaid is made of First Earth, what do his feet smell like?

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:05:59 -0400

Dirt! And whatever he stepped in last.

Shard, I've got a burning question: how does Quigley maintain the lovely pectorals you can see though his shirt in Ch. 4, p.21 and 22? Does he glamour himself pretty, or is it push-ups that give him that glorious, subtle definition and slender waist?

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:05:48 -0400

He has to climb that ladder up Uaid's back a few times a day, often while toting Matty, and has to do a lot of maintenance work on his construct. All of Uaid's parts are heavy as balls. Keeps him toned, I like to think. Let me have my pretty Plat T_T

Since the Soud aren't connected to the Dammakhert, are they seen as less Aldish/less of citizens than other castes? I mean, sure, they're one of the least special castes, but does it have political and/or civil consequences for them?

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:25:33 -0400

Absolutely. Most Dammakhert-touched Aldish can read each other. They are so profoundly affected by the tainted khert that it sets them up with a faint sort of sixth sense; an ability to "feel" the Dammakhert around them and in others. In effect it means they have a sense of what caste you are, and if you're the same caste they can sometimes tell if you're speaking truthfully, if you're secretly upset, if you hate them, if you love them.

With the Soud there is none of this. They are just regular peeps living in Alderode. So no one can read them and no one trusts them. Means no one wants to do business with them, rent to them, or even interact with them too much. If you have an assurance of a base level of transparency with everyone you interact with every day, would you want to have these total unknowns in your life? They could take advantage of you!

So the Soud get shit on sometimes. Alderode is really good about pushing for equality in certain areas though, since it can be a great distraction from deeper, more troubling inequalities in other areas. Why do politicians push minor social issues while ignoring major ones?

Hence Alderode tries to keep the castes equal and the two faiths on even ground. The Soud get shit on, have to take separate public transportation in cities, and patronize their own stores, but there are Soud in all branches of government.

Can you tell us a backstory story hat won't show up in the comics so it's not a spoiler? Like Duane in the army or something.

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:14:39 -0400

Hmm, I'm afraid all the Duane backstory I care to reveal on here's already been discussed. The Army stuff I want to hang on to for now. Even if I decide not to use it directly in the story, it's written out, and might make a good side comic. The best I could do is to talk about when he was a kid or when he was in school.

The bulk of chapter seven is dedicated to Duane's backstory, so it'sa comin', hang in there. Though you will probably hate it. Not one person has come close to guessing the circumstances of his untimely demise.

I'll set one stage for DuanexToma. They are both alone, Daytime. Toma his sword and only knows is going to face a wright, not a zombie. Duane is caught as is, has his staff and is in a area with plenty of things to use and no innocent bystanders.

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 02:50:44 -0400

Duane and Toma are both good guys, so neither would use innocent bystanders against each other anyway. It would definitely be an interesting match. If they're on open ground with little cover, that's going to make it hard for Toma to do much about Duane's projectiles. Let's say for the sake of argument that there's plenty of cover available. That plus his sword will make him a match for most conventional pymary. The sword will deflect direct attacks leaving environmental attacks the only real way to touch him, and I think Toma's footwork could avoid a lot of that. The key to fighting a wright, a wizard, or any standard DnD mage is to get in close quarters with him, so that would be Toma's first priority. I think he could manage it, he's pretty spry.

The crucial moment would come at that point. Toma is plainly better than Duane at melee, but what would happen if Toma bested him, cut him, and realised that his sword had no effect? Would he also realise the nature of his opponent then? Would Duane use the captain's surprise against him and strike definitively?

He probably would, though not necessarily lethally. Would depend how pissed off he was. I think that's how I imagine these particular circumstances playing out. Now if Toma and Elka double-team him, even if Sette's present, I think we have a serious problem. You got melee master Toma plus competent support wright Elka. That is a fight I wanna see.

Conveniently I'm the author so we'll be doing that one day :3

Which Unsounded pages are your favourite?

Thu, 31 May 2012 20:17:53 -0400

I hate all of them! I guess srsly though I could go through the index and see what doesn't induce too much vomiting. Hmm...

http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch02/ch02_27.html - I see this page get posted a lot. It's a nice sequence of panels, dynamic and easy to follow. Violence on fat people is also a win. Shit, man, for whatever reason, today I'm liking this whole fight between Duane and Eph and Bett. And then the Gentle Giant comes in and it's golden. Decent stuff, decent stuff.

http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch02/ch02_56.html - Not every story needs to be in colour but I think Unsounded needs to be in colour. This page makes an argument for it.

http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch03/ch03_02.html - Not thrilled with the rest of the scene but I do love my poor Jivi. This scene is referenced later this chapter, I wonder if anyone will catch it.

http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch03/ch03_15.html - Matty and Uaid are endlessly, endlessly adorable. I don't care what anyone else says, they are my OTP.

http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_16.html - The art's nothing special but this is some of my favourite dialogue. "Quit puttin' on airs; I seen all your ugly now." Oh, Sette, you poet.

http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_75.html - Sette prepares to avenge her man, co-starring Dramatic Wind.

http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch05/ch05_48.html - Because Quigley, you're not fooling anyone.

Other favourites include pages 37, 50, 53, 62, 67, 69, and 84 of chapter 6 (I really like this chapter). And so far, page 05 of chapter 7.

:3 Forgive me Glass, but I had to ask. Captain Toma vs Duane...Who, do you think, would win?

Thu, 31 May 2012 19:48:13 -0400

Does Toma have his sword? Is it day or night? Where does the battle take place? Is Sette present? Is Elka? Was there prep time? Many variables, grasshopper, all effect outcome.

Can only wrights get stung or can anyone connected to the Dammakhert get stung? Could a rebellious group like the Mmatont only exist in the soud caste?

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:49:16 -0400

Very clever! The Mmatont would have a hard time existing if they weren't Soud. The March, which is a political party/resistance group that includes many different castes, must do its more illicit acts of civil disobedience on the sly.

But yeah, only Dammakhert-born people - wrights or not wrights - can get stung. That means Soud and foreigners are safe. There are ways to temporarily avoid it. Since it's essentially a long range attack, you can deflect it the same way you'd deflect a spell, with a strong enough First Material, but it's an attack that can be sustained so they're likely to get you in the end. The moral is to be a law-abiding Aldishman and do just what you're told.

Ok, if the Oubliette is essentially a box made of First material (I assume mostly First earth of some sort) because the best way to imprison a wright is to box him up in First material, how can Quigs have pymary while locked up in the theoretical null...

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:43:54 -0400

"... of Uaid's belly bedroom?"

It's not a box per se, it's more like the Lady of Pain's maze from Planescape, with lots of antechamber oubliettes scattered here and there. It's where Alderode tosses people it wants to suffeeeerrrrr...

Uaid's not all First Materials, just the green bits. But Uaid's maker cheated by figuring out a way to enchant the green bits to extend their FM properties to the surrounding metal. Fortunately this effect can be toggled via the controls up in the cockpit, and Quigley mostly keeps them toggled to off, so he can have his pymary down in Uaid's gut. The fact that they are toggled to off has serious ramifications later in this chapter, alas.

Which would you prefer: a slow formspring or five dozen inane Forumcat questions a day? The third option is to be slowly roasted on a spit over the fires of a thousand burning babies. In case you opt to go that direction.

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:39:37 -0400

Nuuuu don't burn babies, all that grease is hazardous.

I don't mind a slow Formspring. This place is just meant as a way for people to ask me stuff they really want to know. If that's mostly all been answered it must mean me and the site have done our jobs well.

Ok. Gotta think interesting questions. I actually thought one yesterday at 2am. But I forgot. Hmmm... What Matty thinks of Quigley's insect motif? He knows about the whole thing behind it?

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:37:20 -0400

Matty just thinks his dad thinks that bugs are cool. And Matty thinks bugs are cool too. Bugs! He doesn't get the irony of it, really, he's not the most profound of children.

Formspring been a little slow lately. Few questions, or busy? I'd ask interesting questions, but I can never think of them before someone else does.

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:45:59 -0400

Not a lot of questions, honestly. It's just us left, Stein. Everyone else has been Raptured, and we're Kirk Cameron.

You mentioned a while back that a sword lined in first materials would have the same khert based properties that a solid first metal sword would. So my question here is what takes place on the other side of that first materials lining? Can objects (-->)

Wed, 30 May 2012 11:27:27 -0400

(-->) inside a first oak chest be kept isolated from the khert or pymary, like a sort of pymary-based faraday cage? Seems like the kind of place to imprison wrights in.

Yes, absolutely. We had a discussion a while ago about what would happen if someone gave birth inside of Uaid's stomach, since they'd be surrounded by First Materials and cut off from the khert. Wrights can be disabled fairly easy with First Materials, so whether it's slicing up the khert with an FM sword or sealing them up in the Oubliette, which is a prison exactly like you describe, they are not invincible.

We're going to get a really good lesson in First Materials and pymarics in chapter eight, so I don't want to go into them extensively.

Does Toma often get liquored up after some of his heroics go badly?

Wed, 30 May 2012 11:20:27 -0400

Toma does like to drink. He's having beer out of a soda bottle in this scene :) Elka provides.

Is the guy tied up on the back of Quigley's dog important? Who is he, and what did he do to warrant his arrest/retrieval/whatever they're doing to him?

Wed, 30 May 2012 04:07:52 -0400

He's not important at all, he's just a dude :) You can earn the ire of the Window (the branch of government Quigley worked for) by doing all kinds of stuff: using illegal spells, trying to tamper with the khert, communicating with the Black Tongues, practising pymary without a license, or just pissing off the wrong person. You really don't want to get the Window mad at you. Don't know what that poor sod did there though.

Who would you rather have providing 24/7 running commentary on your life: Sette & Matty or Statler & Waldorf? The answer may seem obvious, but I suspect Sette would regularly come up with far worse burns than the muppets could.

Wed, 30 May 2012 03:41:15 -0400

I ain't even scared of Sette. If she started burning me I'd just push all her buttons, the ones that make her cry, because I know them and I am evil. But yeah, my life is pretty uneventful. I think she and Matty would get bored after a while and wander off. So gimme Statler and Waldorf. They are old like me and can sit contentedly on my desktop and listen to audiobooks with me while I flat pages.

Today I lost someone very dear to me. Somewhere between friend, family, teacher, and drill sergeant, my Zen teacher has taught me a lot about the world. Who, besides parents or schoolteachers, do you feel has taught you the most?

Wed, 30 May 2012 03:39:07 -0400

I'm sorry, man :( Death is stupid.

I don't know if she's taught me the most, but my friend Fox has taught me a lot. Outside of my parents and brothers I don't have any grandparents or extended family, and most of my friends in life have been really selfish, materialistic, unkind people, but Fox isn't. She always listens to both sides of an argument, considers people's feelings, and genuinely (I'm pretty sure) cares about the people around her. She's a school teacher and it makes her crazy because she actually cares about reaching kids and doing a good job. She's a terrific person, and one of the nicest ladies I've ever known. I've learned a lot about tolerance from her. And because she's also a total spaz I've learned to be less of a spaz and to chill out :D

So yeah.

Another great page, as always! I've noticed Quigley's always had this dark-blueish color scheme which brings me to ask--are there any colors associated with people from different regions, like Alderode/Cresce/Sharteshane (besides skin/hair)?

Wed, 30 May 2012 03:08:47 -0400

Thanks, Moof! Actually I hate this page but work through the suck, work through the suck...

I don't worry so much about associating nationalities with colours but I do like to associate characters with 'em. It helps keep them recognizable through wardrobe changes and haircuts. Quigley looks good with dark blue, I think. It suits his albino colouration :) Duane's green, Jivi is red once he gets some proper clothes, Matty is neutrals.

For areas, instead of colour I think about light and weather. Alderode is almost always snowy or overcast and dismal. Cresce and Ulestry are bright, sunny, and autumnal. They really have different vibes.

Hmm...Got a favorite Avenger? Or do you play more into the villain crowd? (Gotta say Marvel makes their heroes flawed and their villains almost redeemable/with heroic qualities undernourished in a sense. Not completely black evil, if you follow).

Wed, 30 May 2012 03:03:16 -0400

I've never read any Avengers nor seen the movies, so I'm a bore there. I do generally like Thor. There was an awesomely cute Power Pack meets Thor mini done by Gurihiru that I enjoyed, and a mini just called Vikings done by Ennis and Fabry that is so ultra-violent I felt kind of nauseous when it was over. Doctor Strange is generally the only Marvel character I care about, and even he has been pretty thoroughly castrated and ruined in the past few years. I liked Brother Voodoo for a while, so naturally they killed him off. Meh. Superhero comics are hard to care about anymore, and the movies don't interest me.

I am an old woman, anon.

Do the Ilganyag still use professional names? If so, is Bastion's professional name still Etalarche?

Mon, 28 May 2012 01:01:54 -0400

In Unsounded, no. That's a name he takes later in life.

The first panel of the most recent page. My image. Can't...unsee...

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:20:43 -0400

Who is this handsome man?

In my latest writing project, I'm frankensteining various elements together from unfinished stories, abandoned projects & old RPs, my question is: If you could add one element to any story, what would you add?

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:18:06 -0400

I would add machine guns to Moby-Dick. From Hell's heart I pump hot lead at thee, motherfucker.

Storyline-wise, Which did you find more engaging and entertaining? The Legacy of Kain series or FFXII?

Sat, 26 May 2012 01:33:33 -0400

Legacy of Kain, no contest. LoK's storyline manages to carry the games through even the lowest points of their gameplay. Soul Reaver 2 has arguably crap gameplay but it's still my favourite because the story is so strong and has so many fantastic moments of revelation and high drama.

FFXII has a Good Story - not great. But there's so much polish there with the awesome translation and dialogue, great voice acting, great art direction, great attention to detail... that it can be forgiven for a few slip-ups. Still, LoK is better in my opinion.

What is your word-balloon-creation process?

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:13:35 -0400

I draw 'em right into the art. It's bad to do, don't be like me.

Yours is the second comic I've seen today to introduce a character with mustache-chops. I approve. http://egscomics.com/

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:12:59 -0400

I wish I was a man so I could grow muttonchops.

What happens after you die and are reabsorbed by the khert? Do you get reincarnated, or do you just spend eternity as assorted psychic residue?

Thu, 24 May 2012 20:57:59 -0400

The Gefendur say your cleaned and emptied soul then goes to be judged by Riv and Yerta. If you've followed their laws and kept them foremost in your life, you may be allowed to become a Victor and stay with them for eternity Outside the world, in their grand city. If you've been a terrible person, Riv will throw you back into the world to the Hells which lay on the bottom of the sea, where your legs will shatter when you land and you'll never be able to climb back out.. Otherwise, you're fed to the Chaos beasts, and your soul will be reincarnated into a baby somewhere back in the world.

Any favorite characters in books, movies, or video games? Did some of them have influence in creating your own in Unsounded? Or did you base your characters generally on people you know? (I'm catching up here, so this may have been asked previously)

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:39:37 -0400

Oh, I have many, many favourite characters :) I like Balthier there quite a bit, and his bunny-buddy Fran. There were Sephiroth and Vincent Valentine, once, and Raziel from Legacy of Kain. There was Prince Cort from Legend of Legaia, Folken from Escaflowne, and Monte-Cristo Hakushaku from Gankutsuou.

My biggest crushes were from Vagrant Story though. Long ago that game had a big influence on my roleplaying, which in turn had a big influence on Unsounded. Duane's name came from a Vagrant Story character - but don't feel too compelled to look him up, he has only half a dozen lines in the game and is one of the first characters to die. There's a little Sydney Losstarot in Bastion of Winalils - powerful, snarky, disdainful of shirts, daddy issues. Religion and the supernatural, undeath and bad ends... all Vagrant Story, all Unsounded.

I guess I don't make too much of a habit of basing characters on people I know with the exception of two characters we haven't met yet, who are ripped almost directly from my two most beloved. Otherwise maybe I just don't know very many interesting people. Often I like to make characters I WISH I knew. Iori is the grandma I wish I had. Duane is the dad I wish I had. Pantoffel is the dog I wish I had. Sette would be a hilariously fun little sister and Elka would be a cool friend. I am fairly pathetic.

Both Duane and Voldemort lack a nose. They could be BFF! :O

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:42:48 -0400

Duane would never befriend that fiend, he is mean! Hot though. What is it about noseless men that makes them so attractive? All men should just have bowling balls for heads.

The header for chapter 6 looks so pretty. Is it some specific place somewhere? And would it be possible to see a bigger version of it? :3

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:41:37 -0400

Aww, thankya. I painted it at the size it displays though so... no. I'm sorry, I'm a lazy bugger :D It is a specific place but it shows up, in the background, in only one panel. I had this whole area intricately designed and laid out, imagining I'd use it much more, but the camera lingered elsewhere.

Why doesn't Duane wear a wig?

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:02:23 -0400

Why doesn't he wear a lot of things.

Glass. I think it's that time again Glass. No, not the time for romance, that time has not yet come. The time.............................................................for you to ask another public question.

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:01:23 -0400

O-okay D:

Here's something I'm sure you'll enjoy: CRITICIZE YOUR OWN WRITING! Be mean, be cruel show no mercy to...yourself, I guess.

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:01:11 -0400

Oh, that's way too easy. I can just repeat the many criticisms I've received from others.

I fall in love with dialog and can't edit it. so it stays there to the detriment of all. I like to do fun stuff like fights and chases that don't really contribute to the plot. I make up new words which is bad and a new language which is worse. I don't follow story structuring rules. I leave way too much for the reader to figure out on their own. I mix genres, which is confusing. I use big words. I use swear words. I spell out accents. I launch into exposition in weird places. My characters are unlikable, unrealistic, unsympathetic, and too mysterious.

In short I am a terrible writer. It's a good thing I can draw.

The Crescian army's kind of stupid then, isn't it. Clearly labeling officers with brightly colored uniforms is something that went out of style in the 1800's and with good reason.

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:52:06 -0400

(Cont.) It's basically a giant label saying "HEY! Pick this guy off if you want to break the chain of command!" ....Still rather stylish though. Red is a good color for Toma.

I'm remembering that scene from Forrest Gump where Lt. Dan yells at Forrest and Bubba for saluting him in the jungle. But no, the Peaceguard are a diplomatic policing force and operate within cities for the most part. Presenting an organised, heroic, and stylish front to foreigners is important. They're not out there fighting wars where a distant enemy is going to snipe them from the canopy. You'll notice they don't even wear much armour. They're cops.

Caveman vs astronaut: empty room, no weapons. Who would win?

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:49:18 -0400

Maybe they make friends! Actually, let's say the astronaut is a female and they start dating. He's always wanted someone with long, glimmering, beautiful hair to yank, and she's always wanted a confident go-getter not afraid to kill rodents with his teeth. They will wed in the autumn and honeymoon in Paris.

Name something that bugs you about a story you're currently watching/reading/playing. A plot hole, an obvious solution, something like that.

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:47:08 -0400

The teenagers in Korra have basically killed my interest in the show. Romance among twelve year olds is cute. Romance among sixteen year olds makes me vomit. I loathe the characters. Also there's the power creep, the bending becoming magic, the boring urbanized setting... but I know I'm in the microscopic minority in my distaste for it all so ignore me.

Black haired Dante in the new Devil May Cry game. Fuck that noise.

Dogs. What is up with my dogs rolling in dead squirrel. Something must be done.

That's all I got.

Are created remnants made from the dead always, or can the memories that make them what they are be drawn from living things in the world and sewn together like some spectral Frankenstein?

Wed, 23 May 2012 18:43:12 -0400

When people die in Unsounded, their intangible bits are sucked into the khert. The khert strips away everything that made them, taking them apart in the same way it takes apart matter that loses some crucial Aspect. Those stripped away bits linger in the khert, building up like coral into unimaginably vast structures of mnemonic, psychic detritus. Sometimes this detritus bleeds back into reality as remnants. These remnants might latch onto smoke and evanesce briefly as smoke eels. They might infect pymarics. And they might be gathered by wrights in a manner that has only recently been discovered, to create reasonably complete and complex entities.

But no one considers remnants of any complexity to be the same as souls, or to be undead. It is impossible, it is said, to retrieve a whole and complete set of memories from the khert. It's like pouring a glass of water into the ocean and then trying to extract it again. The dead remain dead.

Well, except that zany Duane.

I take it that the colors of the Crescian uniform shirts indicate rank of some sort. Red seems to be Captain, right? Is turquoise next, followed by blue (which would indicate Talking Coffee Guy outranks Elan)?

Wed, 23 May 2012 18:32:31 -0400

Yep. Red is Captain, turqoise is Lieutenant, blue is Private. The leader of all the Peaceguard is General Bell, who has his own outfit because generals get to be cool.

What's your opinion of FFXII? You've done quite a bit of fanart so I was wondering...

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:54:32 -0400

FFXII is so goddamned awesome I can't stand it. It's my favourite FF and in the... top five of my all-time favourite games. It's sublime.

Are there giant tortoises in the setting? I ask because I saw a sketch on your DA of Matty, Jivi and Sette chasing one down with forks. Understandable. Turtle soup is tasty, giant turtle even moreso.

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:53:32 -0400

Yep, there are giant tortoises. They are like the cattle of the human food chain: most prized meat, most expensive to maintain, most expensive to acquire, most deliciousssss.

Just got around to catching up on the comic. Friendly Talking Coffee is now my new favorite character. Please tell me he/she/it gets a character arc where he teams up with Angry Mute Tea to fight crime!

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:52:21 -0400

They need someone to fight over. Spicy Singing Chai!

The ghost...thing on pages 5 & 6, is/was it a girl or a boy? Because the androgyny is confusing...

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:51:52 -0400

Androgyny is hip and cool, Fakult, embrace it.

Can you sum up the plot of Unsounded so far?

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:11:04 -0400

Uh, okay? Don't read this if you don't want spoilers, I guess.

An undead sorcerer named Duane is badgered and bullied by a foul-mouthed and callous little girl named Sette who claims to be the daughter of a famous thief. Also she has a tail. Her father has blackmailed Duane into accompanying Sette on a journey across the continent to force her distant cousin to pay his membership fee to their thieves' guild. On the way, they encounter a monstrous tree beast long thought to be extinct, indicating they've gone quite off track.

It's obvious the pair don't get along at all, but it's also obvious that Duane feels compelled to keep Sette in one piece. This compassion towards kids is demonstrated again when they encounter a pair of them about to be kidnapped by thugs. Duane dispatches the baddies and saves the kids, who tell him the area's being hounded by slavers. Duane tracks one of them off into the woods and finds where the slavers are holed up. He and Sette bust inside but find only a dead little girl and indications that the evil-doers are doing evil beyond mere slavery. Unfortunately the local cops mistake them for the baddies, and the misunderstanding ends bloodily. Duane and Sette escape.

Later, Duane is deeply disturbed by what happened. He also realises that Sette is taking him far off track from her promised destination. They argue but the wind is taken out of Duane's sails when Sette drops her boisterous front and tells Duane how much she needs him. He promises to stay, confesses that he sort of wants to eat people, and they move on, now tailed by the cops.

Sette and Duane arrive at their destination. After dispatching a cop that got too close, Duane takes a break in an old stable to treat his injured leg while Sette ventures into town to find some sign of her cousin's place. She has little success, managing only to attract more cops and the attention of the son of one of the slavers. Chased by pretty much everyone, she escapes by causing an explosion that damages the local magic network. She finds Duane outside town again in time for them both to be attacked by one of the slavers. Duane falls to his doom (lol)

Or maybe he didn't. While the slaver is beating the snot out of Sette, Duane reappears to rearrange his face. The slaver is subdued but another slaver, this one a powerful mage and a countryman of Duane's named Quigley, attacks, and the two battle over a grudge that seems a bit deeper and weirder than circumstances indicate. Duane subdues Quigley, but Quigley is saved by the arrival of his son in their giant mechanical construct. Duane at this point succumbs to some strange affliction, forcing Sette to lead him away while a local cop named Toma shows up to chase the Quigleys through the woods. Toma witnesses the true faces behind the "slavery" operation, and is nearly killed by them, but is saved at the last minute by Quigley's conscientious son.

Does the Timofey in the comic have the same backstory as the Timofey in your DeviantArt picture?

Wed, 23 May 2012 15:49:47 -0400

From a certain perspective. Timofey is a very dramatic sort and one cannot be suitably dramatic unless one has an appropriately tragic and interesting backstory. The dA information is what Timofey will give you if you ask him where he came from.

...lick dat Uaid, Elka.

Also a couple pages ago, the statue of Yerta had a different vibe now that we're in Cresce. (She has more clothes!) Do different regional artistic styles continue in Alderode and Sharteshane? Is it fun for you coming up with variations on a theme?

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:42:27 -0400

It issss. I play around with the depictions of the Twins a lot. Whenever someone talks about the Twins, I make them look like them. When the old lady at the waystation in chapter 3 talked about them, they shared her features. When Matty talked about them to Sette, they had whiter features. The Twins look wildly different from area to area and reflect the concerns of the locals. That's how gods should be, I say. Jivi and Sette have a fight later about how they each think the Twins should look, it's great fun.

The statue of Yerta at the shrine was right next to the Queen, and covering her boobs was respectful. But later in the chapter there's another statue of Yerta at a min-shrine out in the city and she's boobin' away.

Art styles are a concern too. The statue of Yerta that Sette encountered outside the crypt in chapter 2 was pretty primitive looking while the statues she and others will find in Mulimar and Ethelmik are much more naturalistic and modern. Crescians right now are very into swirly, fancy, decorative arts while the Aldish want hard lines and right angles. Chapter 7 has two very different cities in it, and I've had to do a lot of thinking about them. The contrast is fun.

I feel very babbly today, anon, I apologise.

Was the portrait a couple pages ago of Queen Sonorie?

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:26:04 -0400

Yup.

Your wallpaper has finally be dethroned from my background. http://wallpapersfor.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/portal_gman_hl2.jpg This replaced it.

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:44:15 -0400

That seems fair. My background has been the same Mandelbulb zoom for two years.

What's your opinion on stories told in the 2nd person (e.g. "You moved across the room")?

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:43:13 -0400

I've only ever seen it done in cybering and RP. I'm not sure I could take a story seriously if it tried it anywhere else.

You said ghosts/remnants/etc "often start bleeding themselves when they get too complex." What does this mean?

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:41:51 -0400

Their memories and complexity bleed out, dissolve, and they devolve. Ghosts don't have the components necessary to become complex creatures. Smoke eels, which we've seen, are primitive little remnants who have figured out to attach themselves to tiny particles and so stick around longer and have a limited ability to affect the tangible world, but even they rarely last longer than a few hours.

We'll learn a lot more about remnants later. It's all wrapped up in the cosmology of the khert and the world.

Timofey is cute. :) Will we find out more about him in this chapter?

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:37:25 -0400

Not really. He is a mystery for a while. Them secondary characters, they're always such teases.

Ghosts and Duane? Theoretically related?

Mon, 21 May 2012 22:20:11 -0400

No, which is why Duane is weird. Ghosts in Unsounded are nothing more than mnemonic garbage; fragments of dead, useless data slipped free of the khert as it keeps itself organised and maintained. They're not "souls" or intangible versions of dead people. They're rogue information having a last gasp before they're obliterated. Duane, as we know, is a relatively whole and complete normal person. He just happens to also be a corpse. So not really related.

What is your opinion on paranormal romance novels?

Mon, 21 May 2012 20:31:59 -0400

I'm not really big on romance in general! I have nothing against it, but when it comes to entertainment I have the tastes of a ten year old boy :3 Paranormal smutfiction, on the other hand, is aces. Just keep the romance out of it :D

On page 2.14 Duane says he's the eighth Motadwe, but you (and he) have recently said fourth. What made you change it, just giving him a higher rank? From what I'm gathering, it makes sense with Duane's feelings of being a punished for rising too high.

Mon, 21 May 2012 20:29:05 -0400

Both are correct. There are eight Ssaelit motadwe - four in the Temple of Song and four in the Temple of the Winds. Of the eight, Duane is ranked dead last, making him the Eighth. Referring strictly to the ToS officials however, it's correct to say he's fourth. For all Duane's formspring griping about having risen too high, he was still the youngest and lowest ranking official among the ruling tier of the Ssaelit clergy. It's just unheard of for both a Soud and a man with a working class background to rise so high by the age of thirty.

What is your favorite element in fantasy fiction?

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:10:59 -0400

"Fantasy fiction" is too broad a genre. It encompasses Bas-Lag and Middle Earth and Discworld and the million-and-one alternate versions of Earth that have featured in Anne Rice's and Neil Gaiman's and everyone else's fantasy books. Hard to pick just one element out of such a diverse genre.

Buuuut I'm really turned on by life after death stuff, so maybe I can go with that. It's one reason I like horror movies with ghosts and demons and such. There's no life after death in our world and that is lame. I like fantasy fiction where dead stuff is still around and death isn't the inevitable ending of absolutely everything. So there.

What's the lifespan of an average ghost?

Mon, 21 May 2012 11:51:51 -0400

Hard to say. Some ghosts - or remnants are they're more often called - come together for seconds at a time, express a memory or an image or an emotion - then disperse again like smoke. Other creatures are more complex, like our blue friend on today's page, and were specifically designed and created to last indefinitely. If these creatures are bound to a First Material, as is the case with Boo or Uaid, they can last a long time. They often start bleeding themselves when they get too complex though because there's no brain to hold and organise their thoughts and experiences, so most remnants are never more complex than Boo or Uaid.

Toma ain't afraid of no ghosts, is he?

Mon, 21 May 2012 03:14:15 -0400

Not "afraid" per se, but occasionally startled by them, perhaps :3

I bet Friendly Frozen Coffee would get along great with Chitz, Boo, and Matty. They should have their own non-canon adventures every Saturday morning. Or maybe just as a vote incentive? :D

Sun, 20 May 2012 11:46:44 -0400

Is there any machinery on Kasslyne that isn't run by pymary? Things like steam-power or even things that just work on gears to do stuff when they're dragged across the land or a handle is cranked?

Sun, 20 May 2012 11:46:36 -0400

Yep. We got steam engines and clockwork.

Vliegeng fly, right? Do they fly with some sort of physical property I don't understand, or is with help from the khert that they fly? They act as airplanes, too, right? Where does the carriage go? Does it smell bad inside? What are the carriages like?

Sun, 20 May 2012 11:45:44 -0400

The carriages are strapped securely to the vliegeng's midsection. They are pretty nice, as it's expensive to travel via viliegeng. Imagine old fashioned first class train cars. Vliegeng fly through the use of specialized appendages extending off their shoulders that exist in khert-space, so they can latch on to the lines of the khert and skate around. They are not like wings - no flapping, no gliding, just hook and slide, like a zipline. It makes for a very smooth ride.

Are First gems sparklier than regular ones? If not, what aspects would be needed to create sparkliness, in your expert opinion?

Sun, 20 May 2012 11:42:37 -0400

Alas, I am not an expert. You'll want to research it. I believe it's the way that jewellers cut gems combined with their translucence and optical dispersion that creates the pleasing way light reflects off them. But research it. First Gems, which we should probably call First Minerals, are like other FMs - they are the epitome of what they are. So the finest First Diamond, for instance, just looks like the finest diamond. Their special FM properties are obvious only to the trained eye. No extra sparkles.

I heard Duane was at Avelpit and Foi-Hellick. Were there separate uprisings there at one point, and Alderode had to stop them? And what was Duane's part in it, if he did have a specific part?

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:53:53 -0400

Mm, keeping it vague for now, the Foi-Hellicks were a very rich, very powerful noble family that essentially ruled all of Avelpit, a resource-wealthy province of Alderode. Avelpit borders Cresce and the Foi-Hellicks got very friendly with Crescian royalty. Friendliness lead to romance. An ambitious family elder took this romance as a sign that Cresce would have the family's back if they tried to split from Alderode, and so Avelpit formally declared its secession. Whoops, Cresce changes its mind. Whoops, Avelpit finds itself suddenly at war with the rest of Alderode. This was all in high gear when Duane entered the army, so he fought directly in the latter key battles of the civil war.

Do all the other guards Elan's working with know about his condition?

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:47:31 -0400

We will find out more about Elan. We're only on the third page of the chapter D:

Does the majority of awesome pymary come out of Alderode, what with the special khert and the plats and that council of wrights and such? It seems like they're pretty intense about their pymary up there in not-Canada and devotion leads to progress, right?

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:46:48 -0400

Alderode produces consistently talented wrights but innovation almost always comes from Cresce and the other southern powers. Alderode restricts its Composers, forcing them to adhere to the taboos of two separate religions, forcing them to respect the boundaries of the Dammakhert, forcing them to stay well clear of the usage of a large number of Aspects. There are just too many regulations in Alderode, the Window is way too brutal, and it's a poor environment for the kind of free-thinking necessary to devise new pymary. Most of the pymary-related things that make Alderode special also serve to make it that much more restrictive D:

Are there things like First gems, too?

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:42:42 -0400

Yep! Avelpit in Alderode is famous for its First Gemstones, and the Foi-Hellick fortune is founded on them.

If you were to coat a regular sword with First metal, would it work just as well as a First metal sword? How about a decorative filigree of First in regular? First blade edges with regular centre?

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:41:41 -0400

Absolutely. You'd still get the khert-dispersal properties and have enough First Material to craft a pymaric.

If you mix First metal with not-first metal, what happens?

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:40:38 -0400

You get an alloy with weaker First Material properties, but it remains First Material. It's much more sensible to change the Aspect of the material if you want to better the core properties of it however. Mixing it with base metal just degrades it.

Where do most of the First metals in the world come from?

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:38:00 -0400

There was a time when a great preponderance of them came right from the Mulimar/Ethelmik area, but the mines dried up decades ago. Nowadays most First Silver comes from Sharteshane, with other areas of the world donating other ores in no great amount.

Is the tiny misery box necessary for whatever he's doing to work, or is it just a convenience issue? Also, does the size of the animal matter?

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:01:57 -0400

It's necessary in that it keeps the marmot from thrashing around or biting him. And the size of the animal matters in that anything much bigger won't fit in his locker.

Do the Ilganyag/Black Tongues see a higher percentage of secularists in their ranks than the general population does?

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:59:26 -0400

The Ilganyag are secular almost as a rule, one reason why they're so despised. It's mandated that nothing come before the furtherance of pymary and the human species, including the Gefendur gods, so active religiosity is grounds for expulsion from the order.

Do First metals come out of the ground like regular metals? If so, how can they be told apart?

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:57:37 -0400

Yep, First Metals are mined. It is very easy to find them - or rather, it used to be when they were more plentiful. Since First Materials disrupt the khert, all you need is a wright present who can scrye. He or she will find blank patches in the khert and direct you towards them.

When did you post the first page of Unsounded for the world to find?

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:55:52 -0400

I posted the whole of the first chapter on July 14, 2010 - that was the first thirty pages or so. I think I posted it earlier on dA though, for Free Comic Book Day, but maybe the site wasn't built yet so it was just the pages? My long term memory generally fails at anything further back than a month, so buggered if I remember exactly.

The thing in Elan Aled has in his chest... is that a child's ribcage?

Sat, 19 May 2012 21:58:55 -0400

Only Lord Winalils knows the components involved.

Is the poor boxed animal getting food and water, or is it something that can last really long without any, or is he giving it some of his metabolism back to keep it running when he uses it? Is that why he's so skinny?

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:07:13 -0400

Oh, he feeds and waters it, but he goes through these ground squirrels pretty quick. Sometimes he uses rats, sometimes kedises (sorry, Forumcat). In the original script the locker was full of dead and decomposing critters but I came to my senses.

I'm not a horrible person, I promise, I just draw horrible things -_-

I like to think of the Unsounded universe as a naturalist one, because pymary is rather a form of applied science than something supernatural. But I wonder, if there is any other fields of natural science, like biology for example? [continued]

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:49:28 -0400

"[continued]And are there people who reject the supernatural in favour of a naturalist worldview?"

Interesting question. There is some tinkering with natural philosophy (remember when Lord Winalils casually suggesting dissecting Sette?) but Kasslyne hasn't gone through anything like an Enlightenment yet. Those people who would shun state and Gefendur taboo to do such things as work directly with sufferers of the Stricks plague - a plague popularly believed to be direct punishment from the Twins - or do experimentation on senet beasts who are believed to be holy, or pull remnants from the khert, or outright break the regulations of pymary to create new spells, these are people who are likely to be part of an organisation like the Black Tongues. The Black Tongues shun taboo and all explanations supernatural or arbitrary. This also means shunning a lot of things even we would consider "moral," because that morality doesn't have an objective base, rendering its restrictions irrelevant in their philosophy. But if you were going to see real science come out of Kasslyne you'd probably see it from them.

But like you said, pymary IS a natural force, and discerning the natural from the supernatural is hard to do from our vantage point. You're going to see something in two pages that's going to scream WOAH SUPERNATURAL! But it's not. Within the bounds of Unsounded's cosmology, it's utterly mundane.

How does he manage to keep it a secret that he has an animal in his locker? I imagine it probably makes a great deal of noise.

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:37:14 -0400

Elan is a man of many sweaty mysteries.

Not sure if this was asked yet, but does Quigley have any hobbies other than reading books and perhaps studying? It would seem pretty interesting if he knew how to play an instrument or something.

Fri, 18 May 2012 03:03:51 -0400

I wish I could tell you that he did play an instrument or that he secretly likes to paint, but he doesn't. He's been studying pymary since he was nine and it's all he really knows how to wrap his brain around. He does like to read a lot of different things though: history, biographies, even cheap, awful fiction.

What sort of things is pain good for in pyramy?

Fri, 18 May 2012 02:53:17 -0400

What is it good for in pymary? Balls-all. What is it good for in gruftgramary? Maybe some powerful stuff. Elan's not juicing the adorable woodland creature for pain though.

I'll just leave this here, because there is a Sette in here >.> http://ksteinhoff.deviantart.com/art/Charity-Meme-302813015

Fri, 18 May 2012 02:51:55 -0400

Haha! Evil Sette-face! Adorable >3

Well, well, looks like Élan Aled's had some work done. Can we expect a deeper look into the workings of the Ilganyag this chapter?

Fri, 18 May 2012 02:51:27 -0400

How do you know that has anything to do with the Ilganyag, hmm? Perhaps Elan is just into hardcore piercings.

That moment when you realize you're DONE with finals! I hope I made Duane proud, Glass!! I know he'd wanted me to study. For once, I'm very confident about how it went!..tho tiiired. Right. Question..Did you have to read lots of books on lang for Tainish?

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:30:51 -0400

"(Lol, and when I mean "for Tainish", I mean did you have to read a ton of language books in order to figure out how to create your own language, that is now Tainish) ...ugh, tired, not making much sense..."

Congrats on finishing your finals! Do something productive with your summer :3

I would say that books aren't really required for creating your own language. Do you speak a language? I daresay you speak English. Do you know it pretty well on a grammatical level? Then you're set. I know a smattering of interesting facts about a lot of languages, so when I sat down to figure out Tainish I could bring some different ideas to the table than if I only knew about English. So I dunno, reading about language creation isn't as important as just reading about languages.

Hey Glass, What do you think of Elves? Do you think they are too common in the fantasy genres? Do you think they over populate many games, books and what nots?

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:28:07 -0400

Do they overpopulate them? Not in my experience, but I'm not the biggest consumer of fantasy around. Elves and dwarfs and all that jazz seem like they're de facto components in modern fantasy, which is silly to me. Fantasy can be damn near anything but people get lazy and fall back on old standby races and tropes.

I dunno, I guess they're no worse than vampires. I personally wouldn't care to use elves but if a person thinks they can do something new with them, they should go for it.

ARGH Sometimes I wish I could hack your computer, open your files and read who lives and who dies! You capitalize on our angsty anticipation!...(sigh) in the words of Sette, "It's the most amazing scam (idea) I ever heard!...I admire it."...sadly...

Thu, 17 May 2012 02:04:20 -0400

SPOILER: Everyone dies eventually :3

When you're upset, what do you do (voluntarily or not) as a response? Not necessarily to make yourself feel better. Personally, I eat a LOT when I'm upset.

Thu, 17 May 2012 02:02:51 -0400

I listen to beautiful music. It's hard to be upset when you remember you're lucky enough to be in a position in time and space to listen to and enjoy Puccini.

I love Po ;___;

A ♂wright likes another ♂ but the 2nd♂ doesn't like the 1st♂ in that way..could the 1st♂ slap the essence of pure BL into the 2nd♂? & would that mean swapping his love for ♀ with a ♀ to get the ♂ passions he needs? On a scale of 1-10, how unethical am I?

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:19:02 -0400

Ya know, I was thinking about something akin to a love spell the other day. With this new Connective Pymary field, such things now seem theoretically within the bounds of the system. I am much too Serious and Dramatic for a love spell story arc, but UaidXElka now seems feasible.

Any secrets or tips for someone who has never used last.fm? Pandora has betrayed me.

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:15:33 -0400

I use last.fm only to keep track of music - I don't use it for its radio feature :( Godspeed, friend.

If you don't mind me asking... Is it bad that I possess an uncanny -- shall we say, 'infatuation' -- with Quigley? I am slowly estranging my friends, who all like Matty better...this is baaad x_x - smiles nervously -

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:15:01 -0400

It's not bad at all, I admire your effort. Matty is easy to like! Quigley is a CHALLENGE. You must like a challenge :)

On the sign, is the seal next to the Crescian one Ulestrian or something else?

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:02:17 -0400

It is Ulestrian.

Glass, what happened to the character bar on the comic website? I can't find it anymore! WHAT HAS HAPPENED NOOOO ;n;

Wed, 16 May 2012 18:41:47 -0400

That's been gone a while, man :O There are character pages in the wiki, those should serve your needs :3

I have to clean the house, but it's cold (South hemisphere) and I just want to curl on my computer chair, not walk around the house doing cleaning stuff. So I'm on formspring. Hmmm, question... Shame on me?

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:41:22 -0400

I feel ya, broseph. I need to clean the bathroom today but frig that shit. Let's go browse reddit for an hour.

Did you know that the coffee was going to be this popular?

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:58:13 -0400

Coffee is the best friend you'll ever have.

How did you even come up with the Friendly Frozen Coffee?

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:57:54 -0400

"Come up with"? Doesn't your coffee speak to you?

Actually, great luck with my computer. My warranty expires in a week, so I got it all fixed completely for free, and I got a new motherboard and an input/output board. And I didn't pay a dime. Dell warranties are awesome.

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:57:34 -0400

*thumbs up*

I hope you don't get this question TOO often...butwhat are the specs of your computer? Or more like, what specs wld work for a dabbling artist that doesn't want to have Photoshop or Painter crash everytime I make one dramatic sweep with a paintbrush? Thx

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:57:09 -0400

I couldn't tell you the minimum required specs for Photoshop, that's something you'd want to snoop around Adobe's site or Google for. My computer is no high-end gaming rig but it manages to do pretty well. Right now I'm running a Phenom II 555 with all cores unlocked to boost it to a quad, 3 gigs of ram, WinXPSP3, and a GeForce GTX 460. I think a digital artist should probably have some hardware skills since you'll save zillions of dollars in the long run building your own machine and servicing it yourself. Don't be scared of your computer's guts, they are your friend.

But ah, yeah. I keep my working comic page files in their own folders in groups of six per psd. Any bigger than that and it starts taking forever to save the files. If I worked bigger than 300DPI I would probably have issues, but as it stands my rig servers me well.

Frozen Friendly Coffee is best coffee. Any chance he/she/it will be a recurring character?

Wed, 16 May 2012 02:15:08 -0400

Impossible, alas. Coffee is not a First Material, so the wandering weirdness infecting it at the moment is but an ephemeral hiccough of the khert, and shall swiftly depart.

My computer broke on Sunday, so I've been awol. Just wanted to let you know that it's all fixed now, and the new pages are awesome. In particular, the coffee is adorable.

Wed, 16 May 2012 02:14:04 -0400

That's rotten luck about your computer :( Mine is on the fritz too, I think I have a harddrive about to return to the Lifestream. Glad you like the pages!

"http://www.casualvillain.com/random/iJDEq.gif" What is it?

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:59:13 -0400

Boobies, looks like :) I dunno, my friend linked me to it, I uploaded it to show someone else. Not sure what it's from.

Do all the Aldish castes look like recloured sprites of each other, or are they all different physically? (beyond the idea of inbreeding a plat nose from that one ancestor, or a copper eye from another)

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:58:40 -0400

They are different physically. What a bore that would be - for me to draw and for you to look at - if everyone was sameface. The Dammakhert tampers with colouring and certain other features, but there's still genetic diversity alongside it. There's some inbreeding in the rural villages, but Alderode on the whole has a pretty big population, so there's a good gene pool to work with.

Theory: Sette IS the Dammakhert. Personified. And such. On the grounds that shut up I don't need to back my theories what are you talking about...

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:56:11 -0400

I'm hongry.

So I was writing a new scene for one of my short stories at lunch today, and I was wondering if you listen to epic battle music when you're creating the lovely gory bits of Unsounded too. Liiiike...Two Steps from Hell, or something?

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:55:22 -0400

Naw, I can't have music playing when I'm writing. Drowns out the characters' voices :)

I'm very curious Glass, Did Duane have any problems masking the smell or look of him when he was first decomposing? Or did he just stay away from people all together? I know he couldn't talk for a while at first, wasn't sure of other issues he had.

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:54:44 -0400

Duane's first years... remind me of Frankenstein's monster after he escaped the lab, where the poor thing just stumbled from shelter to shelter in desolation, hiding from people and keeping to himself. Duane was too pain-addled to do much pymary, too disgusted and disgusting, too crazy, too lonely, too fucked up. So masking his stink wasn't really on his mind. He hid and rotted and prayed and ranted and didn't do much else for quite a while.

Aw. So you can't use golds to get fresh blood into the highest and lowest castes? Or to try to produce more plats if you're running low?

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:50:18 -0400

Certainly doesn't seem that way.

"some kind of brain infection that can lie dormant for a long time after initial exposure" Oh. So that's why you're not supposed to smuggle cute little girls out after their family dies of it? What are the odds a given person there is infected?

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:49:57 -0400

Pretty good odds. Things are looking slightly up though. Most of the country prefers not to think about Fachlyne, but there are a few charitable souls who have been doing their damnedest to help out the people trapped there.

Glass, this is a legitimately important question to me: Since you know the ending to the story, can you honestly tell us that Duane doesn't die? I'm going to cry if he doesn't.

Tue, 15 May 2012 04:11:23 -0400

...

Wait, so if the regular castes interbreed, it'll produce a kid somewhere in the middle, but gold caste + other caste gets you a random kid instead? Is it equally distributed between the castes or are some types more likely than others?

Tue, 15 May 2012 04:10:29 -0400

The result of castes interbreeding moves on a spectrum that depends on the caste of the parents. A Jet and a Bronze making whoopie is going to give you something on the higher end of the longevity spectrum; they're not going to spit out a Plat. A Gold has no default position in the Dammakhert because it's not affected by it. The Aldish may lump them in the middle with the Bronze, but that doesn't mean the Dammakhert sees them that way. The caste of the child had out of caste by a Gold depends entirely on the caste of the other party, but knocked down a peg. Gold + Copper? Probably going to have a Jet. Gold + Jet? Probably going to make a high-end Bronze. This rule applies to Aldishmen having a child with ANYONE not affected by the Dammakhert - a Soud, a Crescian, a Sharteshanian, whoever.

I feel like I'm writing a chocobo breeding tutorial.

Have you considered Kickstarter or Etsy as a way of earning funds? 'Cause I would LOVE to have some Unsounded merchandise!

Tue, 15 May 2012 04:02:31 -0400

Oh, there are enough knick-knacks in the world. I don't want to bring more of them into existence. That's sweet of you though.

Shard, not to be gross, but what are the symptoms of the weeping plague? Why do the corpses have hoods with mouth openings, collars and locks? Does it have something to do with balancing the khert after the creation of plods and/or Duane?

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:29:15 -0400

The cause of the Weeping Plague, or Stricks for short, isn't really known, but it's been wreaking bloody havoc in west Alderode for the past twenty years. It seems to be some kind of brain infection that can lie dormant for a long time after initial exposure, and then go active unpredictably and kill you. Dormant, it has no symptoms. Once active it brings on fever, bleeding eyes (hence the name), blindness, madness, then coma and death.

It is definitely NOT a natural disease because it is spread through eye contact. Vits (the government of Alderode) in its brilliance has quarantined the province in which Stricks is most prevalent - that would be Fachlyne - and gone around sticking masks on people exhibiting symptoms to keep them from infecting others. It's been twenty years and while this has kept the disease from spreading east, it hasn't done much for the terribly unfortunate people of Fachlyne. It is a very nasty place these days, full of trapped people trying to live some kind of life around the quarantine, and opportunists from outside the province using the lawlessness of the coasts for smuggling, cult activity, and body-snatching.

The plague has nothing at all to do with plods and nothing directly to do with Duane, though it was an issue that was always dear to his kindly heart. Durlyne, Duane's home province, is right next door to Fachlyne, and one of Duane's first assignments in the Army as a teenager was to patrol the quarantine line. It left an impression on him.

Glass, this is a legitimately important question to me: Since you know the ending to the story, can you honestly tell us that the kedises survive? I'm going to cry if they don't.

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:45:09 -0400

I think everything's going to be okay for the kedises. Ya know, I'm drawing the cover of chapter 7 at the moment and putting a kedis in it just for you.

Do bronzes not get to look awesome and special because the Dammakhert hates them? Do they have random life spans because it simply does not give a fuck and just spits out random lifetimes at them?

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:44:33 -0400

The mysteries of the Dammakhert will one day be explained. I think Bronzes are beautiful though. My favourite character is a Bronze!

"medium-skinned, brown-eyed brunettes" Sounds like a bronze to me. Do foreign-born Aldishmen look like bronzes?

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:51:32 -0400

More or less, yep.

One last question...rather it's more of a comment... Then back to studying for me! It's quite alright to have Duane depart for a bit. In fact, it'll make me even happier to see him when he returns!...(sniffle so long as he DOES comes back T.T)

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:21:15 -0400

Duane would want you to study hard, man :) He'll be back next chapter break. And... I'll probably have to delete most of the questions since he'll have no idea what happened this chapter, haha.

So, are all the Aldish people genetically Golds, and everyone of Aldish descent born outside the dammakhert's borders Golds? Or are the Golds simply marvellously pure bred? (And/or do other bloods cause the dammakhert to separate them into another caste?)

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:19:46 -0400

Good question. I can tell you that it's been seen plenty of times throughout history that Aldishmen, when they breed outside the country, generally produce medium-skinned, brown-eyed brunettes. So if you removed the Dammakhert or moved everyone out of the country, the next generation would be a bunch of fairer-skinned Ulestrians, essentially.

It stands to reason, then, that the white-skinned, green-eyed blondes of the Gold caste must be genetically distinct from most Aldishmen, even aside from the Dammakhert. Actually there's no "must be" to it, we know they are. The Gold caste are the remaining Tains, the people from the far east of the continent who were thousands of years ago invaded by the barbarians who began Alderode. The Dammakhert, for whatever reason, does not touch these people. To include them in the country, Alderode declared the entire ethnic group its own caste, and since then that Tainish bloodline has remained remarkably pure. If one of them does breed with someone from another caste, the Dammakhert will intervene with the birth and produce a Dammakhert baby of indeterminate caste.

What is iJDEq.gif, if I may ask? Is it from something?

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:08:42 -0400

Hmm, you'll have to be more specific, my dear.

Hey, man, Chill. Just relax and tell me your LEAST favorite color. The one that makes you taste bile in the back of your throat.

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:08:29 -0400

All colours are awesome D<

Yesss Updates on Unsounded. That month went by pretty quickly. Anyway,I was wondering if you actually knew how everything was going to end, or if there are a few endings and you haven't decided which one to choose? I'm the latter with my writing ugh :)

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:08:01 -0400

The month did go by pretty fast! I got a lot done during the break too, I am pleased.

I do know the ending and what happens to everyone; who lives, who dies, who wins, who loses. I know some creators who'll start a story without knowing the end though, and that's cool. I think that's how Miyazaki storyboards his movies.

Dear GlassShard, A) What's a Motadwe? Will we find out? B) pursuant to A, will every detail you know of Kasslyne find its way into the story or are there some details, cities, and words that exist just because? more to follow...

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:05:57 -0400

"...cont. C) if Duane is SSaelit, why does he swear by the vaosa? D) Herman Melville is awesome. Finest prose in the English language, I think. Damma socha."

I like your name.

Motadwe is a title and office among the Ssaelit. The head of the temple is the Shadwe, next in line are the four Amadwe, and then there are eight Motadwe beneath them, each ranked. Titles can and do overlap. Duane was fourth Motadwe but he was also Temple Rector, which put him in charge of pretty much everything to do with pymary in both the Temple of Song and among the Shadwe's army which is stationed there.

Duane's position in the Ssaelit temple will become directly relevant as early as chapter 7. But there is otherwise SO MUCH information about Kasslyne that will never see the light of day in the story. Some of this world-building exists to support aspects that WILL come to light; other world-building exists because it was relevant in roleplaying (which for the most part has nothing to do with Unsounded); still other world-building is defined only because I have a terribly overactive imagination. We will never visit most of Kasslyne's countries, we will never visit the Crescian capital, we may very well never visit even Sharteshane except in flashbacks, though I might cut to it later on for something, I haven't decided yet. There are gallons of delicious French onion soup in the bowl, but all the story has appetite for is the delicious cap of greasy cheese. If you know what I mean. Now, if Unsounded was a novel it would be a different story. I would be one of those obnoxious fantasy authors who feels you need to know everything about everything. Writing a comic, on the other hand, makes a person have to pare things way down.

Duane swears by the vaosa, or victori, because the Ssaelit share a belief in them. Similar to how Christianity retains aspects of Judaism because it sprang directly from it, the Ssaelit faith retains many eschatological, cosmological, and moral aspects from its Gefendur progenitor.

Herman Melville is indeed awesome. Ssomal illuda llam, shupall.

Does a glamour, the complex kind (I forget the terminology you used) filter only visual aspects or does it alter other aspects, like sound? Does Duane have a voice like a vanguard of the heavens when it's a lovely Summer's day?

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:47:04 -0400

I reckon the theory would hold if you wanted to extend it to a person's perception of sound. Duane personally doesn't, it would be just one more hassle of a spell to deal with and maintain. His voice sounds pretty raspy and horrible when his mouth's dry and stiff at the beginning of the day.

Of all the stories I've seen with revenant zombies, not one of those zombies is a woman. Why do you think that is?

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:44:53 -0400

I would guess because no one likes to think of something as icky and awful as decomposition happening to a woman maybe? We're the gentle sex, after all; the idea of our tits decomposing and ripping off our ribcagess like rotten grapefruits is hard for some to deal with.

In his fight with Quigley, Duane answers the question of what caste he's from, and answers, 'ssom soud', which, if I am correct from looking at the wiki, means "I am gold', but the wiki mentions that people of the Gold caste (Finish in 2nd message)

Mon, 14 May 2012 02:54:18 -0400

"(continued from first) have no connection to the Khert. So, if this is all correct, how does Duane use pymary? Am I goofed on something, or is he special? (Sorry if this has been asked already, but I scrolled and scrolled and didn't see anything.)"

Everything has a standard connection to the Khert. It's a requirement for normal mortal life. Alderode's khert is tainted however and not like the Kasslynian khert at large. Instead their khert is called the Dammakhert, and it goes so far as to separate the Aldish people into castes, doling out radically different lifespans and physical characteristics. What is special about the Soud, or Gold caste, is they are NOT affected in any way by the Dammakhert's sorting and longevity-tampering. They lead normal mortal lives and their pymary ability is not dictated by their caste. They have the same opportunity as normal non-Aldish to be awesome wrights or crappy wrights, as chance and ability decree, and the same general connection to the khert. It is the unnatural additions of the Dammakhert to which they are not subject.

OmygodEeeeeeeeupdate<3 the chapter cover is great, but I'm completely in love with page Layout, it's so blue and amazing and blue and dark I love it, can't explain. Also, have I mentioned it's blue and I love it? Completely worth staying up late.

Mon, 14 May 2012 02:43:24 -0400

Thanks, man :D

Ooo! Okay, one more question. Maybe more laters. What's the best way you learned to procrastinate for finals in college? Also, just wanted to say I loved what Duane said about the coffee and the comment "Do none of you sleep?" XD Perfecto!

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:54:39 -0400

Ha, I'm pretty boring in this department. I took college really seriously and didn't do much procrastination, for finals or otherwise. I didn't even get a chance to procrastinate for my senior year thesis since I got sick and had to spend some time in the hospital. Once I was on the mend and out again I had to bust ass to make the thesis deadline so I could graduate.

Do your best, man! Get them finals finished and aced. You're paying a premium for that stuff.

This has definitely been asked before, but my curiosity has won me over. What exactly brought about your name? What made you think of it? I'll admit mine is Latin, and I got it from my senior year in high school.

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:17:18 -0400

GlassShard? It's pretty ancient. Back when I was a teenager and signing up for internet service through AOL, I wanted to pick a handle that didn't have any numbers in it (you could manage that back then, ha) and so pulled some words out of something I was writing. It was either a poem or one of my half dozen novels, I can't quite recall. There's no deep meaning to it though :)

Oh, I is very sorry about the rummaging and finding of fractals and maybe leetle baby spoiler. On another note, YAY! Update! You've said title pages show things that happen in between chapters. So this is the adults arguing back at camp? They look peeved.

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:13:43 -0400

No need to apologise. I just didn't think anyone was trawling that folder anymore :)

If I had to imagine the conversation on the title page, I'd say Starfish had come after Matty to smash the shit out of him for all that went on back at the end of chapter 5, and Quigley had to intervene and promise Starfish he'd cut his dick off if he touched his kid. So yes, some heated words.

Those are some trippy fractals, man. Are those tests going to be part of a scene for Sette involving some softi?

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:52:45 -0400

I don't know what you're talking about. Get out of there, you >_>

As we've come to the verge of chapter six's start, how's chapter seven shaping up? Are you still excited to get to work on it?

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:52:09 -0400

Painfully excited. I have so much other work to do though, I haven't even been able to start thumbnailing yet. Damned paying work, arrrrrgh.

I think it's really cool how you incorporate British English into Unsounded. You ever been to the UK? If not, you should visit London and definitely go all the way up to Glasgow someday!

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:04:50 -0400

Alas, no, I have never left the US. I'd like to visit Europe one day but travel is so expensive I doubt it's in the cards for me.

Your Balthier avatar is a sign of sexiness and good taste. Carry on :3

What is the most horrible sound you have ever heard?

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:00:52 -0400

My mom shouting my name in a panic. I hate that sound.

Just wanted to say, that your style and painting are AWESOME, and I'm in love with Duane <3

Sun, 13 May 2012 21:14:34 -0400

Thanks, man!

What do you look for in a web comic?

Sun, 13 May 2012 21:14:25 -0400

Sexy men, cool monsters, adventure! Dick jokes, great art, literary value, effort.

Are there any objects you hate to draw? Like cats, or motorcycles or something?

Sun, 13 May 2012 19:54:34 -0400

I really hate drawing guns and modern weaponry. I don't know much about them so I always have to do a bunch of research and it's a pain in the buuuuutt. I also hate drawing high-heeled shoes. I have never worn them and I don't own any. None of my characters will ever wear high-heeled shoes.

Sette laughs all the time, and I love it! That evil snicker is SO infectious. I just wish Duane did laugh too. Just once. I'm curious, what does make him laugh?

Sun, 13 May 2012 18:05:35 -0400

Duane isn't as serious and joyless as it may sometimes seem. He laughs at good jokes and clever observations, and he laughs at kids and the cute things they do. Duane is very concerned with appearances however, so you really have to be part of his personal circle to see him unwind and calm down and have a good time :)

Wow I'm dense. I just found you on here, but have been following Duane and Sette for a while. I has many qvestians. I don't even know where to begin...other than maybe starting out by saying that I am starting a short story, inspired by the way you write.

Sun, 13 May 2012 18:02:16 -0400

Ha, well, glad you found me :) Good luck with your story!

What comforts you?

Sun, 13 May 2012 15:59:28 -0400

Old scary movies. Hellraiser, Poltergeist, Silent Hill, The Haunting... these are sweet serenades.

In Cresce, do parents of twins that are given up get to have kids again or do they just not get to raise kids?

Sun, 13 May 2012 14:58:00 -0400

Nope, they get to have more kids. The Church becomes the kids' legal guardians so the parents get a clean slate.

How often does the church buy twins? Only twice a year or do they buy them all to stock up in case some of them die before they can be eaten? And what would happen if the older one dies first - is the younger still seen fit to be eaten?

Sun, 13 May 2012 14:56:59 -0400

Tsk tsk, a Gefendur would be very offended by your phrasing. They are not "eaten," they are "sacrificed."

The church buys twins as they are born, with there being officials whose sole duty it is to travel around to cities and verify the births, make payment, and bring the babies back to a cloister. There's a lot of fraud, believe it or not, since the Church pays so well. If the older twin dies the younger does not escape its duty - unless it wants to. Unwilling people are never sacrificed, that would be barbarism.

However, if a twin rejects the sacrifice, it and its sibling lose their place in the cloister and are turned out with nothing, their parents have to pay back the church, and they are stigmatized for the rest of their life. This is a particularly terrible thing if some misfortune befalls the area, because they're going to be scapegoated for it. There is a lot of pressure, therefore, on a person to fall into line and accept their place. It's for their good, it's for their family's good, it's for their community and even the country's own good.

Are all twins bought by the Gefendur church, or can parents say no to that offer?

Sun, 13 May 2012 13:44:42 -0400

Parents can theoretically say no, but it doesn't happen often. Twins lead pretty great lives, receive the best education, eat the finest food, experience high art, music, and culture. Except for the eventual sacrifice of one of them later, it's a life much, much better than the lives of most people. If you bear in mind also that this lifestyle also assures them eternity with the Twins after death, and that the Gefendur religion is almost universally accepted and believed in, there's not a lot of incentive for even loving parents to reject the twin practise.

Are there ever sets of twins who are raised for the ritual that kind of... lose their faith in the Gefendur gods while they're being fatted for slaughter?

Sun, 13 May 2012 13:17:52 -0400

It would certainly make for an interesting story. It's good to know only the youngest of the twins is sacrificed; the other remains in the priesthood all their life.

"Does Ulestry make an exception to their pacifism when it comes to the twin eating" Okay, hold up. What? I'm imagining two adult twins just tearing chunks off of each other and downing them.

Sun, 13 May 2012 11:50:57 -0400

It's a bit more civilised than that. http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php/Gefendur#Strange_Practises

How's the buffer doing? (And yes, I did save this to ask right before updates started again.)

Sun, 13 May 2012 11:28:41 -0400

The entire next chapter's done, so that's 84 pages of buffer. Lookin' pretty good :)

Duane is really eloquent and Sette's accent can get really thick. What I'm trying to say is, do you ever have trouble writing their dialogue? Or does it just come naturally at this point?

Sat, 12 May 2012 21:25:55 -0400

It comes pretty naturally. It used to come even more naturally in liveaction RP when I had to rattle off their dialog in real time. Ten years of that, and you'll be able to write anything :)

Are there hedgehogs in Kasslyne?

Sat, 12 May 2012 12:22:18 -0400

I don't see why not.

What is your opinion on dolphins?

Sat, 12 May 2012 12:21:44 -0400

They are dirty sluts.

Why did you spell practice with an s instead of a c? Was that a mistake or are you just trying to be fancy?

Sat, 12 May 2012 03:26:06 -0400

I use a combination of British and American spelling. It is the result of ten years of intensive RPing with a Canadian. I am used to it, it is woven into the fabric of my being, and you are stuck with it, Anon!

STOP. I'll assume you're listening to music right now. What is it? Don't change it! I wanna know what you're listening to. Mine is attached!

Sat, 12 May 2012 02:34:05 -0400

Beirut is Duane's favourite band in my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFN-Slt370w

What's a pet you've always wanted but never actually gotten?

Sat, 12 May 2012 02:33:10 -0400

A unicorn :(

Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?

Sat, 12 May 2012 01:16:59 -0400

Neither. Peanut butter is terrible for you, full of sugar and fat. Don't eat it D:

You have the choice the gain a superpower, but all options are ridiculous. What ridiculous super power do you choose?

Fri, 11 May 2012 23:20:49 -0400

I have the power to urinate any liquid on command.

The page on kedises shall be glorious. Thank you.

Fri, 11 May 2012 18:03:06 -0400

Thank YOU.

Oh, the comic has more'n enough info for we the readers to understand what's going down, but I still think it'd be nice to have a good run-down of the basics and perhaps a little more. There is nothing like a good manual. Elsewise it's just tidbits here--

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:08:50 -0400

"--and tidbits there, where it fits in smoothly with the story. I think fans who are interested in spellery beyond the scope of what's revealed in the comic would benefit greatly from a guidebook, perhaps in PDF form. *winknudge*"

This is a fine idea. I shall take it under advisement :)

When did you first begin to draw seriously? Before RP, or after? I'll leave it up to you to decide what "seriously" means in this context.

Fri, 11 May 2012 03:53:28 -0400

Oh, I've been drawing since I was a toddler. I went to a special high school for visual arts, and then a visual arts college after that. I've been drawing seriously all my life :)

How did you become so good at drawing, anatomically? I've seen some people with loads of talent but a poor understanding of anatomy; and you're definitely not one of them. You seem to have a firm grasp of the way the body looks and moves. References, or?

Fri, 11 May 2012 03:52:24 -0400

A lot of practise and observation, I guess. I don't think a successful comic artist can rely on anatomical reference overmuch, it really has to be there in your brain when you need it, or you're going to be so slow you'll never make the kind of progress you need. The only reference I sometimes use is one of those plastic drawing mannequins, since foreshortening can be a bitch no matter how long you've been drawing :)

Anatomy is just rules. It's knowing where and what bones show up in any given pose, how all the crazy muscles and tendons in the neck and shoulders and back fit together, how important the skull is when you're drawing a head (sooooo many illustrators mess this up), where the navel goes, where the nipples sit on the pecs, stuff like that. There aren't any shortcuts and the best way to get good at it is to do it.

I just re-read the entire comic, start to finish, and I must say that I'm becoming quite fond of Ephsephin for some unfathomable reason. Also, I really think you should create a Pymary, Pymarics & the Khert for Dummies. That would be marvellous.

Fri, 11 May 2012 03:39:52 -0400

Yes, I should make some kind of lightly illustrated beginner's handbook of pymary. I would just feel cheap doing it, since I would guess the comic should have all that info in it and stand alone. I don't know. I need to reread the entire comic myself and make sure I haven't lost the plot or left any gaping holes in my wake.

Did you take away the fan contribution for the wiki?

Fri, 11 May 2012 02:01:28 -0400

Yeah, it was getting attacked by spammers! I can make you an account though, if you still want to work on it.

Is Alderode's anthem going to be part of the comic, or can we have it?

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:46:58 -0400

I'm still pondering that one :3

I will be babysitting a six year old who has requested me to tell stories, if you were in my position, what story/stories would you tell?

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:02:20 -0400

Go to the library, check out some Maurice Sendak. Profit.

Could you translate "Anteit vaosa, moya umam ssomunt bamillan"?

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:00:52 -0400

Virtuous Victori, these people are insane!

What do you do when you find yourself filled with overwhelming anxiety?

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:00:26 -0400

Envision myself in one-hundred years time, when I am no longer in existence and nothing I ever did in my small life mattered. It's good to put things in perspective when they start making you too spazzy :)

What are some song lyrics that carry special meaning to you?

Thu, 10 May 2012 03:17:17 -0400

So you think you tell heaven from hell? Blue skies from pain? Can you tell a green field from a cold, steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?

Pink Floyd makes me think of high school, X-men comics, and Disney Afternoon. If such things had existed back then, I would have made a Darkwing Duck fanvideo set to Wish You Were Here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdNnw99-Ic

Which is more important: bringing new possibilities to light, or scrutinizing the mistakes of the past?

Thu, 10 May 2012 03:10:49 -0400

Scrutinizing the mistakes of the past. No matter the endeavour, if it is built on rotten foundations it will one day fall.

Your 10 Favorite words?

Thu, 10 May 2012 03:09:38 -0400

schadenfreude
natsukashi
supercilious
wanker
confoundment
joie de vivre
dammakhert
balls
redolent
Buddha

These are subject to change from minute to minute. "Redolent Buddha" will be the name of my band.

What country do you find to have exceptionally beautiful men and women?

Thu, 10 May 2012 03:01:38 -0400

I cannot judge for I have never left these United States.

Do you consider yourself fluent in Tainish?

Wed, 09 May 2012 11:39:45 -0400

Efhodait! Gaw balim ofh Demam lloret guit.

Absolutely not! I have to look at my word lists constantly :D

What's one author you think everyone should read?

Tue, 08 May 2012 23:59:26 -0400

Herman Melville of course. If not Herman, though, Mark Twain. These are life-changing, sublime, relevant authors.

Are there conventions for turning normal Tainish words into names?

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:09:26 -0400

There are honourifics and titles but nothing need be appended to nouns to make them into proper nouns. There aren't even any capital letters to fuss with. You don't see many Tainish personal names. The Tains long ago took Aldish names to blend in better, so even ethnically Tainish people like Duane have Aldish names. Alderode is fine with caste- and faith-based divisions, but not ethnic ones.

Is it May 14 yet?

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:06:29 -0400

Mondaaaaay.

What if someone wanted to write Unsounded a soundtrack?

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:06:07 -0400

That would be pretty groovy.

Why is the Temple of Song the Temple of Song? Is it like the Church of England or the Water Temple in name-origin?

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:05:52 -0400

It's called after a feature of the main temple. There are two central Ssaelit temples - Temple of Song and Temple of the Winds. The ToS in Durlyne is a sprawling complex that takes up half the city but its primary building is an enormous spire carved into living rock in such a way that the sea wind plays its upper stories like a flute, making faint, perpetual music that's considered the voice of God. The whole area is called the Temple of Song after it, but it's still just a facility of the Ssaelit faith. It houses priests, priestesses, the Motadwe, Shadwe Clare the head of the faith, and the Lions of Mercy, his army.

What kind of voice is considered most attractive in Kasslyne? (For example: eunuchs in the Renaissance or altos singing in the soprano range in France)

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:58:48 -0400

I keep western standards for singing voices. No castrated little boys though. Genital fixation of any nature for any purpose was one thing I wanted to spare my fantasy religions.

Have you considered national anthems for the nations on Kasslyne?

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:57:06 -0400

Yep. Alderode and Cresce both have anthems. Cresce's gets some pagetime in an upcoming chapter so I shall refrain from sharing.

What would you do if someone asked permission to write an opera... entirely in Tainish?

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:56:00 -0400

I'd saaaay the language probably isn't ready for it yet. I'm always tweaking it and it's not quite finished to my satisfaction.

Does Tainish work well for singing?

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:55:08 -0400

I've tried it out for myself and I think it does.

Also--strangest item you've ever stuffed down someone's shirt.

Tue, 08 May 2012 02:15:10 -0400

Not sure I've ever stuffed anything down anyone's shirt... are you trying to get me to touch your boobs, Hazel? All you have to do is ask <3

Just realized that with Formspring's new layout Elka seems to be constantly looking annoyed at whatever question's being asked. Subconsciously tired of our questions, Glass?

Tue, 08 May 2012 02:14:31 -0400

Not at all! I've hardly gotten any questions at all this past week anyway :3

Why is it that if someone says they don't watch TV, people (specifically Americans) ask them "why not", or even refuse to believe them?

Mon, 07 May 2012 22:57:39 -0400

I cannot say conclusively, but I would have to guess it's because television is so synonymous with American culture. Television is what Americans talk to each other about at work, it's how they stay informed, how they know what's important in the world; it's the one cultural thread that everyone has in common no matter who they are. Television is what people do when they're not working or with friends. If they don't have any friends or relationships in reality, they have them both in the television. Television is their world.

If someone finds out suddenly that you don't have that cultural thread or you're not part of their world, you're worse than a stranger to them. It's important, though, not to look down on people for watching television. We all have things we distract ourselves with, and I'm not sure books or the internet or video games are all that superior to tv.

Do you have a "type"? If so, what's your "type"?

Mon, 07 May 2012 22:51:13 -0400

I fear that, like dear @Fakult, I have become quite definitively asexual.

What is the most selfish thing a person can do, in your opinion?

Mon, 07 May 2012 13:31:02 -0400

That's difficult to answer. Life is all about selfishness, from drinking when you know others are dying of thirst, to distracting yourself with frivolity when you know others are suffering immeasurably, to giving your offspring preferential treatment to the detriment of others for no reason other than they are carrying YOUR genes. Every breath we take is selfish and there are very few things we can do that aren't inherently selfish. All animals are selfish, nature is selfish, natural order in fact relies on direct and indirect selfishness. This in effect makes all of nature evil and all life evil, which is why I don't understand the modern western belief in a benevolent god. But that's another conversation.

What is the MOST selfish thing? It's pretty selfish to be sitting here blathering my brain away on formspring, so I'm going to go with that :)

What can you tell us about the other continents on Kasslyne? I apologize if this has been asked already!

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:57:31 -0400

There's not much to say. They are prohibitively far away from Kasslyne and are not regularly visited nor traded with.

What sort of currencies are used in the Big Three?

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:56:42 -0400

Cresce uses LC - luxury credits. It's not really a currency, but it's the nearest they have. Alderode uses squares. Everyone else uses sem.

Something you're constantly annoyed that other people don't have an opinion about.

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:53:00 -0400

Politics is the best answer, I suppose. My mom always says that none of it's important and doesn't affect her, but that's only because she's been pretty incredibly lucky for most of her life. If people paid more attention, took an interest, and got out there and voted in every election, I think things would be pretty different.. That's not terribly likely to happen though.

Which song do you know all the lyrics to?

Sat, 05 May 2012 17:29:47 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ&ob=av3e

So, the dude in the upper right corner in panel one of chapter 4 page 55. What's his story? Is he doing a lightplay? What's it about? Does he like his job? How much money does he make? Does he wear the hat for his job, or just because it's cool? Or both?

Thu, 03 May 2012 22:00:42 -0400

Uh...

@AwesomIncarnate, write this person a story.

Do you not do traditional art any more because there is no audience/market for it, or because you just don't have time, or because you don't enjoy it? Or is it something else entirely?

Thu, 03 May 2012 22:00:31 -0400

Digital art is just... faster! More convenient, looks just as good, creates less waste, uses less materials. I don't do traditional anymore for the same reason I don't listen to audio cassettes or watch VHS, I guess :) I know there are some artists who find the act of using pencils or paint to be relaxing and enjoyable, but they never did much for me either way. I'm just as content with my stylus :)

When I was a kid I won a lot of awards for graphite and Prismacolor work. I had like, pictures hung up in DC and stuff (probably in the bathrooms, I never got to go see where). In college I made elaborate books of inkwashed illustrations with poetry, and had this whole style going on with hand-dyed papers and copper wire and wood sculptures. Who woulda thunk I'd grow up to do nothing but Photoshoppy weeaboo fantasy art.

Do you do much traditional art?

Thu, 03 May 2012 20:59:14 -0400

Not anymore.

How do people in Sharteshane entertain themselves, aside from waiting by the gallows to watch thieves hang? What's their answer to the Aldish theater?

Thu, 03 May 2012 20:58:49 -0400

Street theatre is huge. Punch and Judy shows, acrobats, jugglers, musicians, trained kedis acts, dog rodeo, fire breathers, dancing bears, lightplays (stories told via crude pymary), and the like. There were mimes, once, but Sette put a stop to that.

I'm at a pink Floyd concert right now. Wish you were here.

Thu, 03 May 2012 20:18:43 -0400

Is it a sea of grey hair and headbands?

Wasn't I going to ask you theatre and the arts questions the other day?

Thu, 03 May 2012 18:55:17 -0400

That was the rumour :3

Are the buildings in Unsounded inspired by any particular styles of architecture?

Thu, 03 May 2012 18:55:07 -0400

Sometimes. I didn't want Mulimar to look too "designed" since Ulestry's keywords are "rustic, simple, vanilla" so I kept the town pretty plain. Parts of the waystation chapel were loosely modelled off a picture I found of a really early viking church. Ethelmik across the river is Crescian, and Cresce is going through a sort of Art Nouveau period, so I've referenced some design elements but sparingly, since again I don't want the city to look too designed, too over the top, too fantasy. Cresce is generally into elegance, angles, lots of stone. Alderode is all about big, heavy structures, dark wood, bridges, and they tend to build in circles with entrances on a second story since first stories are often snowed out.

I think this has been asked before, but, aside from glamours being purely visual, what's the difference between glamours and aspect-switching? Do glamours need to be slotted through consistently-maintained spellery or First Materials?

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:26:30 -0400

Glamours are complicated. It took me a while to figure out the most logical and consistent way they could be applied via pymary and the khert, but I have it at last. I know I've tried to muddle through explaining them on here in the past but trash all that and here's the real deal:

There are two kinds of glamours. There are glamours that use objective Aspects like colours or opacity, and there's an advanced glamour that deals with subjective perception.

The first type of glamour works as you'd expect, with a wright moving a visual Aspect from one bit of matter to another. The colour off a bunch of pink carnations onto the fur of a dog, for instance. Made permanent via pymaric, this is a stable, relatively simple spell.

The second type is much trickier and deals with a relatively newer method of experimental pymary: Connective pymary. Connective pymary looks into the way that individual khert networks interface with the larger khert. All matter is connected to the khert with varying degrees of complexity, and all matter is built on its own khert-composed spectral scaffold that contains all of the Aspects that make it what it is. The way those Aspects interface with reality is in the domain of Khert Law, which is beyond the scope of pymary, but the way those Aspects are perceived by each other has to do with spherical areas of connection that are defined by the nature of the Aspects. By meddling with these you can "cover up" the practical effects of Aspects and obscure Law, even if you can never affect it directly.

Pretty technical. What all this means in a practical sense is you can use connective spheres to "camouflage" certain matter within the connective emanations of other matter. Viewed through the lens of reality, the effect of this is observers will see that hidden matter in the same light they would see the camouflaging matter.

So rather than relying on having the proper Aspect available, these glamours depend on there being matter present of a required perceptive quality. These qualities can be absolutely subjective because perceptions often are. Glamours created this way are trippy and powerful in the right circumstances, but fundamentally flawed because they only work in proximity, and because they rely on the viewer's perception aligning with the quality of the masking matter, ie if a person thinks autumnal woods are ugly, and you are using the beauty of those woods as a mask, your glamour will fail against that person.

Connective pymary is a pretty exciting new field and the Black Tongues are doing mad research into it, but for now its other applications are a mystery.

:3

Whoa, you follow me? I am shocked and honored.

Thu, 03 May 2012 03:02:04 -0400

Why? You are cool!

Can pymary be used to affect cloud shapes? Could you write words or draw pictures in the sky?

Thu, 03 May 2012 03:01:52 -0400

With mechanical aid, I imagine so.

Did you knew? Traditionally a man's clothes left side goes over the right. And a woman's right side goes over the left. That's because women had servants to help them dress, and a man can't have his coat or something on the way to reach for his sword.

Thu, 03 May 2012 03:01:26 -0400

Interesting! I always wondered why men's shirts button up on the opposite side.

In images of Bastion floating around the 'nets he seems withdrawn, moody, dark, smug, irritated, etc. (And also hot.) He doesn't seem to get all that excited by much, though, so my question is does Bastion have any passions? What gets him all revved up?

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:33:16 -0400

All of that art is RP Bastion. He's about ten years older than Unsounded Bastion, and has been through a lot of not entirely pleasant stuff. So yeah, he's moodier, crueller, exceedingly sleep-deprived much of the time, very bitter, and short-tempered. When he was passionate or excited it was typically about pymary, or planeswalking, or discovery, or power.

Younger, Unsounded Bastion has different passions. He's passionate about his lady-friend Elarosny, about the piano, about different philanthropic pursuits and pymary-related research. Bastion's going to save the world, you know, and everyone will love him.

Why does Bastion have a professional name, what's it for? Does it carry over into Unsounded? (I thought Etalarches were monster-creature-things, is that where he got the idea for the name?)

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:25:51 -0400

Alas, I cannot tell you why he went by that name in RP - 'tis a spoiler.

What are your thoughts on Legend of Korra so far? I've been digging it, and even though I was skeptical at first, the setting has won me over. Plus, old-timey newsreel recaps!

Wed, 02 May 2012 23:15:30 -0400

It's good! It just hasn't grabbed me yet, ya know? It's lacking in the sort of things that usually attract me personally to a series. Anyway, I haven't seen last week's episode so I'll probably let the backlog build for a few months and then watch it in big lump. That could be the ticket.

Month/date/year or date/month/year?

Wed, 02 May 2012 13:35:40 -0400

The first. No one is likely to understand you if you use the second one in the US :)

Glassy, why does Formspring keep changing the way it looks? Granted this latest change is an improvement over the hideousness of the previous switch, but still. Maybe we should start a grassroots get-a-search-function movement?

Wed, 02 May 2012 13:34:58 -0400

I don't know, I'm more inclined to stop using formspring at this point, and move to tumblr. Tumblr has tags and is just a more enjoyable experience. There must be a reason formspring doesn't implement a search. Either there's some technical limitation, or the site is motivated to keep people asking the same questions over and over since it generates traffic. Who can say though.

Anyway, you can tweet them on Twitter. Maybe if we all tweet requests for a search function at them it would get somewhere?

Tue, 01 May 2012 15:08:08 -0400

Are the new characters ones that you've drawn before? From rp?

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:56:58 -0400

Two of them are Sette's cousins, original to the comic. A third is one from RP, and yeaaaah I've drawn him plenty.

May at last! Glass are you looking forward to Chapter Six as much as us? :)

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:42:16 -0400

I look forward to seeing what you guys think of it! Chapter six is different from some of the stuff that's come before. It's a pretty violent chapter, introduces some new characters, takes a few old characters off in a direction I doubt too many people suspected they'd go. Also, Duane is hardly in it at all. I look forward to all the complaining about this :3

It's not as weird as chapter seven though, hoo boy.

Do you like Eastern-style (Japanese, Chinese, etc) dragons or European dragons (Wings, firebreathing) more?

Tue, 01 May 2012 02:38:21 -0400

Both are awesome but in different ways. In video games I love to fight and kill western dragons and wyverns. Artistically though I think Eastern dragons are more appealing and interesting and I would subscribe to their newsletter.

Do you ever keep around any very old art of yours, jsut for the sake of seeing how you've improved? Or did you burn it all out of shame?

Tue, 01 May 2012 02:36:28 -0400

I have a couple binders of old sketches in my closet along with some old sketchbooks but I haven't looked at them in years. There are strange things among them, like Sette's earliest form wearing '90s fashion and sporting wings. There brave men dare not tread.

There's also really horrifyingly old and horrible art of mine floating around the internet in places I can't access to delete it. It haunts me. @AwesomIncarnate gets irate when I obliterate my old art but that stuff really drives me nuts.

Sorry, I meant the hair being a mane to make her fierce.

Tue, 01 May 2012 02:32:06 -0400

Oooh, gotcha. But now I can't remember your other question. Ah, well, the answer is probably pie.

Does Ulestry make an exception to their pacifism when it comes to the twin eating or do they just not do it?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:37:23 -0400

Oh, they do it. Only willing twins participate, so their sacrifice isn't seen as violence.

Did Sette figure that out on her own, or did her 'Da tell her that?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:11:46 -0400

Mm, did Sette figure what out on her own?

Blar, too many passwords for too many things. I think I'm back? Question! Um. Is Sette gonna get a haircut anytime soon? It must be tangled halfway to dreadlocks by now.

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:49:44 -0400

LuDux! I dunno, I think Sette would bite your nipples off if you ever came at her with a pair of scissors. It's her mane. It makes her fierce.

What does make people "fans" of something or someone?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:40:51 -0400

I would say, if you hear their name and get excited, that makes you a fan. If you hear their name and are just like, enh, that's cool... not so much.

Hi, I just found your comic today and it blew me away! Sette and Matty both have criminals for dads but they each handle it so differently, it's fascinating. Is that a major theme of the comic?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:39:42 -0400

The larger theme is just... dads. Having a shitty dad, having an awesome dad, having no dad; being a dad, rejecting being a dad, running away from being a dad; turning out just like your dad, or turning out completely different. It comes up a lot. Anyway, so glad you like the comic!

I love how Duane talks, it's pretty.

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:35:57 -0400

What is writing in Kasslyne like? Is there a common script? Is it based on glyphs that represent concepts and objects (like chinese), or syllables like an alphabet? What did symbols and letters originally represent?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:10:14 -0400

Continental has a phonetic alphabet. Modern Tainish has a system very much like Japanese, where it's a mixture of phonetic characters and symbolic glyphs with multiple readings.

Are you a fan of Johnny Cash?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:08:29 -0400

Sure, some of his songs are cool. I don't know if that makes me a "fan" though.

How many languages and dialects are there in Kasslyne, and what are some of the main/interesting ones? Is there a pidgin tongue that is used for trade between countries?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:07:38 -0400

Civilisation on Kasslyne is very old, as are the countries that occupy it. Over the millenia everyone's adopted the same language, Llederoret, more commonly called Continental. The only language that sees usage enough to rival it is Aldish, or Tainish, and even this language is only spoken by about forty percent of Alderode. A third language, Old Tainish, is only used for pymary and in scholarly circles.

There are three main dialects of Continental, and I translate them essentially as American English (Cresce and the western half of the continent), British English (Alderode and the eastern half of the continent) and whatever it is that Sette and the Sharteshanians speak (sort of an amalgam of Mockney and Irish and Twainish English, with few rules). There's not a lot of clear differentiation though and since the continent is so widely travelled by pilgrims and tradesmen, I keep the dialects pretty fluid, particularly in the cities. Alderode, because its borders are closed and it's otherwise so xenophobic, has the most archaic sounding dialect. I like to think that Aldish characters stick out right off as soon as they open their yawps.

I'm worried about when we get to Alderode in fact. Everyone talks like Duane. There's going to be a mutiny.

Ignore my previous question. I meant, would a first-material frying pan make really good eggs?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:24:00 -0400

Ha, good, 'cause I thought I was going crazy for a minute. A first material frying pan! That would take a lot of material, but it would be the most perfect form of that material, so it would make a pretty good egg.

I haven't had a haircut in a few months, except the bits I cut off on my own. Now it has started to resemble Quigley's. Admit it, you're some sort of hair-studying mad scientist who does extensive research before drawing any given hairstyle.

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:22:55 -0400

I test all hairstyles first on my dogs.

How are those with mental illnesses and/or developmental disabilities socially regarded and tended to in Kasslyne? Are there institutions? Pymary-based treatments?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:22:32 -0400

In most cases it's up to their families to take care of them. In Alderode, poor families - and most families in Alderode are poor - sell them to a kussen where Stuff Happens, but it's not so bad relatively. Will has a pretty severely autistic little brother but Will's family is rich and Will's mom is a saint, so he has a good life. Elsewhere on the continent if families won't take care of their challenged kids they'll wind up on the street with all that that entails. There are asylums here and there but they're not very nice places, particularly the one in Hanghorse. So yeah, it's not a world that lives up to our modern expectations on how to treat the disabled.

Have you ever made an account on something like OKCupid or match.com? If so, how did it turn out?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:15:38 -0400

Nah. I'm already in a relationship with my comic characters.

How long is chapter six? Do you have it all finished?

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:59:08 -0400

It's 84 pages long. I have another five pages to do before it's in the can.

Would I be correct in assuming that the fraternal Gefendur sect uses the creation myth that Matty related, and the sororal sect uses the 'they had sex' angle?

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:00:44 -0400

You got it.

I love seeing Duane's character interactions. So far though it has mainly been with men. We have seen Duane vs. Ulstrian Milk Hick, and a brief Duane vs. Lady Peace Guard. Will we get to see Duane vs. Aldish Lady in his travels?

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:29:17 -0400

Duane VERSUS an Aldishwoman? Perhaps some day :) I would argue against Duane's interactions having been mainly with men to this point though... unless Sette is harbouring a hidden weenie (she's not).

"He was raised a fraternal Gefendur" How is that different than just plain Gefendur? Or I guess "Maternal" Gefendur? (There, real question, lots of room. Dazzle me.)

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:51:32 -0400

Fraternal Gefendur is the particular flavour of Gefendur that Alderode allows while sororal Gefendur is the flavour popular throughout most of the rest of the continent. Sororal places emphasis on the Twin Sisters, giving Yerta dominance over the Outside and consigning Riv to the relatively powerless position of executioner and punisher of crimes. The Fraternal sect is just the opposite, making Yerta a submissive wife and vessel and making an active celestial king of Riv. These two dogmas feed pretty heavily into the cultures of their respective societies, supporting the matrilineal queenship of Cresce, for example, and the patriarchy of Alderode.

What do you believe is the root of all evil?

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:46:47 -0400

Probably lack of empathy.

I'm a fan of a local tea business called The Tea Garden. I applied there just two days ago! Wish me luck. Are there any local businesses that you bring all your business to and support?

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:46:18 -0400

My local comic shop is pretty cool, it's just so hard to justify buying anything there. It feels like charity to purposefully spend more on comics and books there when they are ridiculously cheaper on Amazon. Why not buy from Amazon and write my comic shop a check every month? Sometimes comic shops seem like pandas. I mean, pandas are giant goofy bears that have evolved to eat one specific kind of food, and to only breed under strange and esoteric conditions. I know they are cute and that we love them, but maybe it is time for pandas and comic book stores to go extinct.

Good luck with the tea :3

Glass, grumpy Duane's bumming me out! What question can I ask to cheer him up?

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:40:48 -0400

Aww. Duane's cheerful enough and the question you asked him was very nice. His writer's just too busy this weekend to let him respond quite yet. I shall get to it!

Too exhausted to think about culture. Will ask questions Sunday. Are you going to think about the arts of the big three countries while I'm away, or are there cool things to do in the Glasscave? I meant that to be like batcave, but Glass... never mind.

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:07:57 -0400

I don't have to think too much about the Big Three, I know a lot about their culture and art already :) I do have lots to do though, ugh. Gotta start on a book cover this weekend and get some quotes together. And go grocery shopping at some point. And wash my dogs. And clean out my bedroom closet. And maybe do some comic work in there at some point D:

Is Quigley Ssaelit?

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:47:38 -0400

Quigley's faithless. He was raised fraternal Gefendur.

Why is Sette hugging? http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/images/misc_art/sketch01.jpg

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:27:35 -0400

'Cause sometimes Ashley likes to draw cute shit. It's my ovaries, they rule my life.

Duane mentioned the "Six rings and the Aldish Kings". Have you explained the six rings?

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:14:27 -0400

The six rings are in reference to the six castes, each of which is a ring of corresponding metal on the Aldish crest, which is visible right over here~ http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/images/misc_art/sketch01.jpg

Today my obsession is culture and the dramatic arts in Kasslyne. Are you prepared for the onslaught bound to follow my shift at work?

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:01:02 -0400

I will try D: If it's not about one of the big three countries though (Alderode, Cresce, and Sharteshane) I probably won't know the answer.

You were talking about how Duane needs to get emotions across without expressions or eyes. His emotions and states of being are very clear, even considering his hooded face. How do you have him express emotion without meeting his eyes?

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:59:24 -0400

Mostly body language and panel framing. And in later chapters - particularly in the last chapter - I cheat and let some light on his brow so you can see his eyebrows. That makes expressions a lot easier. Still, it's funny how important line of sight can be in laying out pages and guiding action, and with Duane I got no line of sight. This makes it hard to set up certain shots because I can't show him from behind looking over his shoulder, or if he's in conversation with multiple people I can't show whom he's addressing, or if his attention suddenly refocuses it has to be a big deal because I can't rely on a flick of the eyeballs to alert the reader. Lots of stuff to consider. I'm glad it mostly reads okay though, I always worry about it :)

Does Duane hate my questions because they're difficult to answer or because they're just plain annoying? Cuz I could see it going either way, really.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:23:51 -0400

Both of the above and also rude. You can't really toss ethnocentric, assumptive statements at someone from another culture and expect them to understand or to even be receptive to the ideas. You assumed Duane thinks women are inferior because, I guess, he believes in a degree of chivalry and comes from a country with strictly defined gender roles. That was pretty insulting and turned him off of communicating with you at all.

A lot of people get their panties in a ferocious twist when Duane intimates the Aldish patriarchy, failing to remember that outside of tumblr and segments of the population of a few of our first world countries, our world is still a patriarchy, and that history is a solid wall of even more overt patriarchy. Challenging Alderode's patriarchy to Duane is like asking him why Kasslynian goats don't wear suit jackets. It's odd, random, irrelevant, and unintuitive. You're not going to get some in-depth sociological lecture from him. He's not a sociologist. He is not interested in arguing gender rights.

I know it's not the most enjoyable thing in the world, but letting Duane and Sette have a formspring isn't fun for me at all if I can't keep them in character :)

Would it be okay if I made a website that has all of your formspring answers on a page (maybe a couple, need to see how it goes) and a search engine? Unfortunately sans comments.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:06:38 -0400

I suppose that would be pretty handy. Maybe it would be easier for me to just make the wiki publically editable though, so information can go in there? What do you think?

1 - NOW I finished reading it. 2 - What I meant earlier, was that I could not get them all, I can't got back enough to look at everything I missed. ARGH.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:07:10 -0400

Oh, has Formspring's lameness evolved? Does it only let one go back a few pages now and deletes everything older? Formspring has evolved into a chan.

You know when Duane says things like "Poppycock" and "I am not a bloody zombie" reminds me of a British guy of sorts. I wish more people spoke like him, even though at times it is hard to understand what he says.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:06:15 -0400

I have heard rumours of a misty island of faeries and tea, where everyone speaks like some variety of "British guy." :3

NO! NO NO! Where are the REST of the answers? Why so few? I've barely clicked for more 5 times! I can't live knowing I'm missing Kasslyne, and Chars, and Glass and random info. How can I live, Ashley, HOW? Excuse me while I spice my dinner with tears.

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:07:25 -0400

Ahh! Yeah, not much for people to ask when the comic's on hiatus. Glad you got your computer back! :)

Some weeks without a working computer. now I have to catch up on formspring. I'll let you know when I finish. Hmmm, question, how long do you think it'll take me?

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:06:35 -0400

Probably not long--

Just wanted to let you know that it made me quite happy to see Duane use the word "poppycock." And then his answer for the next question made me hope to never have such biting words directed towards me.

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:03:28 -0400

We should all use the word "poppycock" frequently in our day-to-day communication.

Art nouveau?

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:57:22 -0400

Everyone loves Mucha.

What do you like, own, or participate in that causes you shame among family? Friends? The internet?

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:04:06 -0400

I'm interested in your RP style. Do you have a post floating around that we could see?

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:12:26 -0400

I saved out a thread from the Sharteshane RP for you. I can't promise you'll enjoy it, but it's fairly self-contained, I think. All you need to know is that Bastion's professional name is Etalarche - http://www.casualvillain.com/random/return_of_the_prodigal.html

Since being an artist is both your work and hobby, are there ever burnout days when you just think "ugh, not more fucking art to make"? Like the thought of picking up a pencil or opening Photoshop just fills you with ennui.

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:26:31 -0400

Ya know, you'd think so, but it never really happens. My problem is always that I don't want to do the work-art, I just want to do the personal-art, but I always want to be doing some kind of art. I'm kind of a nerd, man.

Who is your favorite super-hero?

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:55:08 -0400

Doctor Strange! Or maybe Shadoweyes.

Also, it kills me that you don't have any plans to get Unsounded printed. I realize it's your decision, but you deserve to make serious money off your talents. Not that it wouldn't be awesome just to have a slick print of it on my shelf.

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:54:09 -0400

No one makes "serious money" off of printing a comic, man :3

Did you ever read Blood Meridian like I recommended? I bet you didn't. You're probably afraid my Cormac McCarthy's gonna kick your Herman Melville's ass. Just kidding, actually. It'd be a draw, they're both geniuses.

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:52:16 -0400

I didn't, I admit it. But there is no deeper motivation behind the failing than a simple, utter lack of time to do anything so involving as read a novel.

White squirrels are an Earth thing too! One was a local celebrity in the small town where I used to live.

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:43:56 -0400

That is true! Kasslynian white squirrels are different from ours but in the same vein, so maybe they shouldn't count as originals.

Any chance of a pink chicken or two popping up in Unsounded?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:35:23 -0400

That would be kind of awesome as an in-joke :3

I'm going to the midnight showing of Avengers. What's a movie you really really want to see?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:06:54 -0400

Silent Hill Revelations. It's going to be awesomebad.

Peoples, what was the best thing about today?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:06:37 -0400

I got a lot of work done!

...I'm boring.

Are there any animals in Kasslyne identical to Earthen ones? I've noticed that some animals that we've seen so far look similar to Earthen animals, but are distinctly different; what made you decide to alter them? What are some of your creations called?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:06:13 -0400

Oh, sure, there are lots of the same animals. Goats, pigs (which are furry but we have furry pigs too), deer, the dogs are bigger in Kasslyne but still dogs, marmots, squirrels, foxes, owls, rats, and all kinds of birds and fish.

Animals original to Kasslyne would be vliegeng, grebbers, strawberry fish, starflies, merliputs, kedises, smoke eels, monnies, white squirrels, and the many different kinds of senet beasts, like Crescian silkworms and wandering roots. Why have original critters? It's fun and makes the world feel more exotic. Why alter the appearance of critters we're used to? Because evolution is random and crazy, man, and the idea that animals would evolve and then be selectively bred (in the case of livestock) to exactly match the ideals we're so used to, is even more unbelievable to me than talking zombies and girls with tails :)

I went to Busch Gardens yesterday and there's a ride there called Rhino Rally, where a group goes out in an offroad vehicle with a wise-cracking driver to look at the animals. The driver picks a kid from the group to play navigator, and part of the ride consists of the driver teasing him. It's all very cute and funny, it's a great time. Anyway, we were going by some honking big antelope and the little kid yells "Goats!" and the driver thought that was great. He pointed across the way to a bunch of flamingos and said "Pink chickens!" and to the zebras in the distance and said, "Donkeys that've been sent to prison! Let's rename this Barnyard Rally!"

Anyway, your question puts me in mind of that :) One world's flamingo is another world's pink chicken.

http://gizmodo.com/5904411/who-cares-about-slingshots-when-this-crossbow-fires-spinning-saw-blades : In case knock-me-down ever goes shopping. It's even green!

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:40:20 -0400

Aww, balls, I thought I'd come up with something a little different. There's nothing new under the sun, Minda!

What's the combat range of a wright? I asked this before, and I'm not sure why I didn't get an answer. Spoiler-y, or just already been asked?

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:15:08 -0400

I don't want smartasses going OH! OH! OH! that seemed three feet too far! all the time :)

Did you come up with the idea of writing Unsounded while you were still in the RP of the same setting, or did the comic idea come later?

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:01:20 -0400

The comic idea came first, actually, but never went anywhere. When I needed to come up with an RP setting after the one my friends and I played in proved unsatisfactory, I drew from comic lore. Then the RP ended, and it went back to a comic idea with new stuff that had been devised during RP. Very weird process.

I think I can empathize with Sette in how much fun it is to tease Duane. Imagining his intense disapproval is hilarious, especially since I think I pretty much maxed it out. Does Duane know how much fun it is to tease him?

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:41:52 -0400

I think Duane has an inkling :) One just has to be careful about teasing him; kids can get away with it, adults are likely to be set on fire.

How are the donations coming along so far, this chapter break? Are you meeting or exceeding your personal expectations for donation levels? Is the income meeting or exceeding your projected overhead costs for the site?

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:41:14 -0400

I didn't really have any donation goals this time around 'cause the chapter didn't end on a cliff-hanger, or at any kind of real tense point. And predictably, donations weren't quite as good as last chapter. But that's cool! I got lots of other work to do, so I won't be starving any time soon :) Thanks to everyone who donated!

I guess you could call Duane a... WIGHT WRIGHT obnoxious laughter here

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:39:40 -0400

diiiiie

Name thine favorite pie! Mine is pumpkin :)

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:39:28 -0400

Ewwwww, pumpkin, it has the consistency of congealed mucus. My favourite pie is my mom's apple pie. It is a deep ocean of secrets.

My birthday was the 19th, so the 20th is my party. What all should I plan so my guests don't get terribly bored?

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:37:51 -0400

Video games, pizza, booze, MJ, hookers, pie.

If Will worshiped Ssaelit and it was known to others, how was he not killed?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:46:40 -0400

For the most part, Hanghorse was a more chill place during RP to allow for a more diverse cast of characters. The Eye wanting to cleanse the city - and ultimately the country - of all non-Gefendur was always a plot point of course, but they were kept in check by agents of the King, namely the Office of Sortilege and the Governor.

See, this is why it's probably a bad idea to talk too much about RP. RP wasn't Unsounded. It's just gonna getcha all confused.

A while back you said something about how Duane was the big kid at school who would beat up kids who made fun of him or something, but that stopped when he was eleven. Did he straighten up because his mom died?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:42:55 -0400

I guess I can tell this story. Six months or so after his mom died Duane was hit by a cart on the street. Had both his legs broken, smashed his head on the ground, and very nearly died himself. While he was recuperating, Ssael began appearing to him in friendly, very real visions. When he was a little better, Duane told his dad he couldn't possibly take over the family printing business, that he had to enter seminary, become a priest, and use his ability and tacit casting for the good of the temple. Duane's dad was pretty badass and didn't put up much of a fight. He supported Duane's decision and got the money together to send him off. Duane was still something of a bruiser in seminary and the magery afterwards - the poor kid with a chip on his shoulder - but the accident coupled with his mom's death really changed his outlook in a fundamental way. I hate to say he was Born Again, but if the collar fits...

Also is the guy from "Yuletide Past" also Xavier? Those two are so very pretty, I've been wondering who they are. He's got kiiiinda the same facial hair, but now comparing them, one looks like a dweeb, and one looks smexy-fine, so I'm not sure. ;)

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:47:41 -0400

Ha, no, Yuletide Past is Vagrant Story fanart. Vagrant Story is awesome.

Yeah? Yeah? What KINDA dip? That sounds like a good story.

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:46:38 -0400

Ha, it's all RP stuff. Xavier was a good kid but he was a totally deluded zealot too easily manipulated by his superiors. He wound up more or less starting a war between the surface of Hanghorse and the undead underground, infiltrating Nihil's kingdom and unleashing a soul-sucking spectral air-kraken on the population. Afterwards he was expelled from the Order and joined a resistance movement but he was still always a derpity dip-dong choirboy nerd. How he survived the game I have no idea.

Does the world of Unsounded have paladins like him in it still? Or is that not cannon for the comic's story world.

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:43:45 -0400

Yeah, the Eye of Redemption is still a thing. They're a group of Gefendur paladins that have carved out a portion of Sharteshane for themselves. Sette happens to come from Hanghorse, a city in their dominion.

What are the chances of a QA with Bastion cropping up once we become more familiar with his character?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:38:12 -0400

I dunnooooo. I think I would be too afraid of spoilers.

So, when they're open for answering questions, are Duane and Sette more popular than you?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:37:36 -0400

Yes :D

Can you tell me what a Moulten is? Xavier calls Will this in an old strip I found. I kinda know who will is, not so much Xavier, so I can't really get the context.

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:37:28 -0400

It's a bad slang word for a Ssaelit person. Xavier is a Gefendur paladin, so he has a particular disdain towards Ssaelit. Xavier is an enormous dip though, oh, man.

The gold and silver pieces question on the D&S formspring caused me to splutter and snort in laughter, then I realized what a nerd I was for getting the joke. Are you ever amazed by how much your fans get into the things you create?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:39:07 -0400

Daily. Some of the questions over there show so much insight, it's very impressive and flattering. You guys are awesome :D

Haha, lucky! We've had so much trouble that there's a police dog on campus for the rest of the semester, this huge German Shepherd. And my high school, five minutes from Ringling, locked us in for two hours after class got out this one time because of an

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:36:55 -0400

"...armed robbery that was taking place in the neighborhood. There were helicopters and everything. Of course, the robbers were two students from the same high school, so uh..."

Oh, Ringling. Always about the drama.

Maybe means I was close. Cara is Bastion's underage 18th husband, then?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:36:16 -0400

Cara isn't anything much at all anymore >_>

So Duane says that using glamours for fashion is a faux pas. I'm almost certain you've said before that people can have elaborate outfits with crazy things like waterfalls. Are they all using pymarics? Wouldn't glamours be a lot cheaper?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:36:01 -0400

Among the upper class of Alderode and the opera set, beglamoured clothing is a faux pax. This is because many of the upper set know pymary, making glamours free, and eliminating some of the ability of fashion to show off one's fortune. The fashion is to wear your money on your body in the form of expensive materials and designers, not to cloak yourself in pymary. This is an Aldish thing.

Elsewhere in the world, particularly in Cresce where beglamoured clothing is extremely fashionable, this is not the case. Remember, Duane's always going to answer questions from his angle, not from a general one :3

Sooo. How has the start to your month away from posting beeeeen? Relaxing? Busy?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:30:12 -0400

Busy, busy! I'm kind of flooded with work at the moment, but that is good because work is money. I'm taking the weekend off to hang out with my brother though. He's flying down from NYC and we're going to go to Busch Gardens and the big local art festival on Sunday. Fun times. I'ma ride coasters 'til I puke.

How much time is covered in chapter six, from night until dawn?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:27:43 -0400

It covers a few different periods of time during the night. It is a very eventful night.

I've thought long and hard. Can I have a kedis sleeping peacefully in a sunny windowsill?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:05:05 -0400

http://www.casualvillain.com/random/snooze.jpg

Most of the ch 5 pages are titled UNSOUNDED::Darkening Sky::##, but page 24 (with the story of Riv and Yerta) is UNSOUNDED::The Quigleys::24. Is this meaningful, or a typo? Or a meaningful typo? Also, Yerta's hat/hair reminds me of the Venus of Willendorf

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:54:43 -0400

Nice find. Originally the chapter was titled The Quigleys, but I decided it really wasn't enough about them and changed it. And I was changing all the page names as I was posting them, but that one must have slipped by :) Nothing deeper than that, alas.

I've been sitting in my dorm all day cos we're on lockdown cos of a gunman on campus. =p You ever have anythign crazy like that happen in college?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:53:13 -0400

Wow, a gunman? Scary stuff. Um, we didn't have any shootings when I was at school, it was pretty tame and boring. I am mildly jealous of you for your gunman :(

You say that Ssaelit are not allowed to practice religion openly, but that makes me think that it is done in secret. Is there an extensive underground Ssaelit movement through the countries, something more scattered, or none at all?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:51:29 -0400

They can and do practise openly in Alderode - in fact about forty percent of the country is Ssaelit. Elsewhere they are just not a thing, even secretly. The Gefendur did a very thorough job scouring the continent of them and even now punishes Ssaelit and heretical Gefendur sects with severe, bloody finality.

Cara is Bastion's underaged 18th wife: yes or no?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:48:47 -0400

...maybe.

Where can we read your comics?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:25:27 -0400

unsoundedcomic.com?

I've also done art for Midnight Tea Party by @GoblinMarket, which is awesome - http://midnight-tea-party.smackjeeves.com/ - and there are some random comics at the bottom of this page - http://www.casualvillain.com/etc/

Have you seen the debut trailer for Dishonored? Want! :O

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:24:07 -0400

It's definitely a title to keep an eye on.

i've figured it out! murkoph is grown up sette!

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:51:15 -0400

Cat's out've the bag!

The other day I saw a golden retriever wearing an enormous dog halo thingy and sticking his head out of the passenger side window of a pickup truck. It was the funniest thing. /relevant

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:49:48 -0400

Absolutely relevant.

Do you have any vidja game/movie/general soundtracks you listen to while drawing and writing?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:49:34 -0400

I can't listen to music at all while I write, I find it drowns out the characters' voices. When I draw I listen to damn near everything and anything though; music, debates and lectures on Youtube, old tv shows on Netflix, movies I've watched enough that I can follow them just by listening, you name it. I'm always looking for new debates and lectures to listen to.

I can't figure out a way to use pyramy to make something like Murkoph. He seems vastly different than Duane in terms of sanity and healing. Is he made of first element or something else? Or is that a spoiler?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:53:10 -0400

I don't really answer questions about Murkoph. You'll have to wait to find out more about him in the comic :)

Did you have to change Murkoph much to fit him into Unsounded?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:55:50 -0400

Not really. Murkoph is an enormous part of the story so the world was created with him in mind.

I have the world's biggest crush on Murkoph. Is it anatomically possible for him to carry my child?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:46:21 -0400

I suppose if you cut him open and sewed a baby up in there, but he'd just dig it out afterwards and eat it. Maybe if you put one of those dog halos on him so he couldn't gnaw at himself. Maybe.

What does his body look like on a bad day?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:35:25 -0400

Mm, depends what the other guy was packin'.

Is all of Murkoph's body intact?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:34:35 -0400

On a good day.

I feel bad for war vilegeng now! They have to be trained to kill people and they like them. How intelligent are vilegeng, in general? What sparked Bastion's passion for them?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:59:36 -0400

Vliegeng are about as intelligent as elephants and are comparable to them in a few ways, actually. Bastion liked vliegeng as a kid because they were huge and powerful and fun to race and cool! He lived on a slave plantation pretty far away from everything with no friends but his sisters, and new slaves were brought to his father by a pretty awesome guy via vliegeng. It was one of the only cool, different things the Winalils kids ever got to see, so Bastion naturally fixated on it for a while.

What's the silliest thing that's ever happened to you, or that you've ever done, in the RP?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:56:11 -0400

Will got drunk and had sex with a catgirl in a barn. The Apocalypse came to Hanghorse and Sette was convinced she was The Chosen One and everyone was gonna die but her 'cause one of the Four Horsemen was part lion. Duane went through a phase where he really liked cooking and hosted a dinner party. Bastion went to an extraplanar party with a demigoddess, got totally hammered, and his date got really insecure and locked herself up in a bubble in the middle of the dining room. Alioth got turned into a lemur and Murkoph adopted her. Murkoph took Aihren to his favourite brothel to thank him for breaking up a barfight.

RP was a silly place.

Have you ever had trouble feeling like you're shooting a little too close to your inspirations? The story ideas I have, when you boil them down, feel so similar to those of one of my favourite artists, but when I try and get away from that they don't.....

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:19:59 -0400

"feel as interesting or exciting. Do you think I should keep on track and just try to be wary of making them too similar or should I just rethink and start fresh? It's mostly the setting and the char designs that feel 'borrowed', not the story itself."

Well, keep on track of course. Creative excitement is a precious thing, never to be abandoned or squandered.

I would say don't worry about being too derivative or unoriginal. I mean, everyone is still ripping off Tolkien and Lovecraft when it comes to settings. Everyone is still bowing at the feet of Joe Campbell when it comes to character arcs. No one out there is really original, the idea that they might be is silly, and we all get way too hung up on it.

I've seen your art on tumblr. It doesn't seem terribly derivative of anyone else, but your style will develop the more you draw and become your own. For now just work through the generic, derivative phase and you'll come out the other side distinctly Kirbish. You can't really force that, it just has to come with time.

Also, keep looking at lots of different art and artists. Eventually you'll take what you like from many different people and it'll all be synthesized into your own aesthetic. Then it'll be okay to show off obvious influences because they will make you look studied and classy and will give your critics something interesting to talk about.

Besides Raziel, who is your favorite of Kain's lieutenants?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:00:56 -0400

Turel! Because he's scary and because his dialogue and voice actor are amazing, and also because the storyteller in me really admired how Amy took advantage of BO canon from four games earlier to fit him into the story in a reasonable way.

This scene is just glorious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG9R5vU0mO8

Would a vliegeng be able to mourn if it squished a kind master, like a dog, or would it not give a rat's ass, like a cat?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:55:04 -0400

Aww, the vliegeng would care. Vliegeng have preferred handlers but overall get on really well with humans. Vliegeng don't look like they'd be gentle, playful critters, but they totally are. They are as amiable as they are ugly.

"Never Blood Omen 2." Why? It was my least favorite, but it was important because it cleared up alot of the questions.

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:53:16 -0400

I don't not count it as canon or anything, but I just really hate the game. The whole aesthetic is different and ugly, and Umah makes me want to drink acid and hammer pencils into my eyes. I played it through once and did my duty, but it's not a game I ever want to play or think about again, ya know?

So if its so strictly contained, what kinds of strings did Bastion have to pull to get Cara out?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:56:44 -0400

Bastion's dealings in Fachlyne are spoiler territory for now :)

"there are some people who've seen opportunity in it" Hmm, could that be where our favorite smugglers are headed? :3 As for the sickness, I'm sure it's been asked, but how does it present? Symptoms? Life expectancy?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:55:30 -0400

Once you realise you have it, it's too late. The disease begins in the eyes and slowly poisons you with some kind of infection. Your tear ducts encrust and bleed, your eyes rot out of your head, you go crazy, then you die of fever. Life expectancy is totally erratic. There are puffy-eyed mad blind infected people groping their way around Fachlyne that have been sick for years. Other people get the symptoms, progress rapidly, and die in a week. It's a very weird, difficult sickness.

Also the fact that it's spread by eye contact makes me think it's not quiiiite a normal disease. Is it pymary-related? Like a wright-made sickness?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:49:40 -0400

It's definitely not a natural disease. Gefendur separatist priests have some people convinced it's a punishment from Tirna for the rising secularism in the capital. More moderate Gefendur and Ssaelit believe it's a manifested imbalance in the khert due to a steadily enlarging schism between the country's Gefendur and Ssaelit moieties. There are many theories but so far no concrete answers and no cure. The current strategy is containment.

Here: http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_21.html Quigly is shown taking off his glasses, and then putting them back on. Does he have to unscrew and screw them back into his head every time, or are there some sort of mounts for them?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:44:38 -0400

Nope, there's a little spring and release switch, they're quite nice. Graduation present from his parents long ago. Well, long ago in Plat time.

So the masks that are padlocked on the plague victims from http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch02/ch02_01.html, Are those put on before, or after they die? And how does Alderode manage to quarantine an entire ginnal?

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:27:13 -0400

The mask is put on when a person is diagnosed with the sickness. It spreads via eye contact, so if you blind a person behind the mask they're no longer contagious. They stay in the mask until they die, then they're burned, regardless of their religion (Gefendur strongly disapprove of cremation otherwise).

Quarantining the entire ginnal, or province, isn't that difficult since Alderode routinely restricts movement from ginnal to ginnal anyway. You're not allowed to travel without a pass and each ginnal is walled and monitored, so completely shutting one down wasn't so difficult. Unfortunately Fachlyne is on the coast so the sea-boundary is somewhat porous. Fachlyne is a pretty wretched place these days but there are some people who've seen opportunity in it, and are actually hiding out in Fachlyne from the authorities, or are running smuggling operations there, or are even peddling miracle cures to the ailing population. The whole place has become a smoky, stinking hole.

"So yeah, Soul Reaver2. Then 1. Then Defiance. Then Blood Omen. Then that's it." No Blood Omen 2?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:30:53 -0400

Never Blood Omen 2.

http://www.casualvillain.com/etc/sette_at_repose.jpg Is this canon? D:>

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:35:18 -0400

I see no reason why not. It's super old.

Why is Minnow different?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:34:55 -0400

One day she'll explain for herself.

Do vliegeng ever accidentally squish people?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:34:44 -0400

Sometimes. It's inevitable :( Of course, vliegeng in the military intentionally squish people.

Of games of the Legacy of Kain series, which is your favorite?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:34:15 -0400

Soul Reaver 2. And I know that's an odd one to pick since the gameplay is meh, the bosses seem to be missing, and the endgame is soooooo duuuuuumb. But! I love the story a lot. It has so many sublime moments of high narrative drama in it, and Raziel is just so sad at the end, it breaks my widdle heart. So yeah, Soul Reaver2. Then 1. Then Defiance. Then Blood Omen. Then that's it.

"Amy Hennig, who was the writer and driving force behind most of the games, doesn't work for Eidos anymore so I don't even know that I would WANT them to make another sequel." Also, Tony Jay died. :C

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:15:49 -0400

Also an issue :(

I have a 16X9 monitor, and the Duane/Sette being cute wallpaper looks funny on my screen. Do you have any wallpapers lying around that are optimized for that ratio?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:59:19 -0400

I can make one. What exactly is your resolution?

"I'm a huuuuuge Legacy of Kain fan. Someone built the Pillars of Nosgoth on the Minecraft server I play on this weekend and I about shat a pillar myself. Such a lovely series." Do you think that they will ever make another one?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:17:25 -0400

Another one in the old continuity? Probably not. Amy Hennig, who was the writer and driving force behind most of the games, doesn't work for Eidos anymore so I don't even know that I would WANT them to make another sequel. But I have heard dark rumours of a complete reboot and a remake Soul Reaver. I'm sure it will be horrible.

"Legacy of Kain vampires? Not so much, but no one cares about them but me." Kain is awesome. I didn't think anyone else but me remembers that game.

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:02:56 -0400

I'm a huuuuuge Legacy of Kain fan. Someone built the Pillars of Nosgoth on the Minecraft server I play on this weekend and I about shat a pillar myself. Such a lovely series.

I'm sure many of your fans would be more than happy to pick Twilight sparkles out of your pubes for you. They're loyal (and creepy) like that!

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:01:57 -0400

Thanks for the confidence boost, anon!

Do Sylphs feel the same way about humans as the Nereids do (with the exception of Minnow)?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:00:25 -0400

Sylphs have a hard time holding a thought in their head for longer than five minutes. Most of them aren't terribly bright and aren't interested in anything but tupping nereids (and each other) and picking fights. They're blustery, constantly in motion, frequently invisible, howling, loud, flighty creatures with huge passions and tiny brains. Humans are so utterly beyond their attention span they forget they exist until the nereids complain about them. When that happens sylphs will jump to their female counterparts' aid but as soon as the battle's over they often forget they ever fought it.

I understand that vliegeng smell terrible, but are they cuddly if you ignore that fact?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:53:26 -0400

Bastion would say they are. Vliegeng really are quite gentle, fierce as they look. They eat fish, bugs, and vegetation so they don't even want your flesh-meats.

Will Jivi grow up to be as badass and all around sexy as Toma? I sense serious potential here. That is of course hypothetically assuming you don't kill him off next chapter.

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:48:12 -0400

There's a very strong possibility of him not surviving the next chapter but if he hypothetically does live, I think he might one day be as sexy as Toma. The badassery though, I don't know. Jivi has some issues to work through. If he doesn't die.

Standard or automatic?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:47:16 -0400

I can barely drive an automatic. I think I would die behind the wheel of anything else.

Going to Chicago next weekend for a birthday vacation sort of thing. You know any interesting things to do there?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:46:40 -0400

Get shot.

Do you have any recent pictures of kedises? I love them...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:44:28 -0400

Tell me what you would like to see a kedis doing and I shall draw it.

What do you think of the "first!" commenting fad? What is the point of it? What insights do you have into this new facet of internet culture?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:44:15 -0400

It's not really new. It's certainly obnoxious though.

Hey you know that moment when someone compliments the size of your sexual organs, and you feel really smug for a little while, then later you realize that you did nothing to cause that, it's just a fact of your biology written into your DNA?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:40:01 -0400

Well, you had an interesting morning at church, didn't you?

Pantoffel is clearly taking Matty's bribe in the last panel there. Is Toma going to have to arrest him now?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:38:40 -0400

No, but Pantoffel is probably going to puke that candy up all over Toma's shoes as soon as they get back to town. It all balances out, cosmically.

You said you are squicked out by necrophilia, so do you think sex with vampires is disgusting? They are just as dead/undead as your zombies, just not as decomposed.

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:34:42 -0400

Ahhh, I take issue with that. The vast majority of vampires out there are really not as "dead/undead" as zombies. I mean, it greeeeeatly depends on what the vampire is from, but most of them are just pale humans in need of a dentist. An Anne Rice vampire after it's had enough fresh blood is essentially indistinguishable from a living human.. Dracula is pretty human. Twilight vampires (gag) are pretty human. BTVS vampires? Human. No problem hitting any of these vamps, though I'd be picking Twilight vampire glitter out of my pubes for weeks, I'm sure.

Legacy of Kain vampires? Not so much, but no one cares about them but me. Nosferatu? More a monstrous human than a rotting corpse. I mean, there are some series I haven't seen but really how many vampires in anything are actually corpse-like? And it's the CORPSE that puts the necro in necrophilia.

Who didn't want to bang Spike from Buffy? He wasn't a corpse. He was James Marsters.

So yeah, in most cases vampires aren't corpse-like at all, "undead" is a synonym for "pale", and necrophilia doesn't even get to come and sit in the same room as them.

" and no one asks anything gross or specific" well now you've done it.

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:59:39 -0400

So far so good.

You said no questions about pedophilia. So no more questions about Starfish then?

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:08:38 -0400

Nah, I don't mind that. Starfish isn't a kid himself and no one asks anything gross or specific, so it's not an issue.

I'm back to Bastion's balls. Did he heal nicely, or is there a huge knot of scar tissue between his legs?

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:08:14 -0400

Nope, he healed beautifully. Smooth as honeydew.

So, what does "da sufis da barit" mean? "Da" seems to mean "my," and I was thinking that "barit" possibly has "it" as a suffix, just as "Ssael" becomes "Ssaelit." Beyond that, I have no idea. I keep thinking "my love my life" for some reason.

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:04:27 -0400

"My brother, my enemy."

Good eye on the -it suffix, if it's at the end of a word that word is most likely a person. Galit - damned person, Ssaelit - person of Ssael, barit - person with whom you stand in opposition, etc.

What do you put on toast?

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:51:18 -0400

Orange marmalade. I don't eat much toast though, I'd rather have oatmeal or grits.

Are there any types of aircraft in Kasslyne, a la zeppelins or airplanes?

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:35:31 -0400

Just vliegeng. vliegeng are pretty awesome though. There are a few large enough to carry passenger cars that can hold up to thirty people comfortably. They fly fairly long distances too, so it's the next best thing to a private jet. Bit expensive though. A friend of mine wrote a short story where Will takes a vliegeng from... I think it was Sharteshane to Alderode, and gets a bit airsick.

Would you rather have to live with a giant kedis in your home or an undersized lion?

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:31:57 -0400

I think they'd both wind up taking bites out of me. I would go with the undersized lion if it is the size of a kitten. I watched The Island of Dr. Moreau last night. I would dress the mini-lion like me and we would do everything together.

Question about personal stuff: What condiments do you prefer on sandwiches?

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:30:54 -0400

Mayonnaise and yellow mustard! My current fave sandwich is roast beef, provolone, mayonnaise, and yellow mustard with olives and tomatoes and lettuce on multigrain bread with sunflower seeds in it. It is a powerful fuel.

Why haven't we seen any bows, slings, crossbows or javelins in Unsounded? Is it a coincidence, or they don't exist?

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:05:53 -0400

I'm not sure we've been in too many situations where projectile weapons would pop up, but a wright is going to outclass a ranged warrior in most instances, so they're at a disadvantage overall. Pymaric weapons are more useful, and there's a character in the next chapter who has a pretty cool projectile-firing pymaric.

Sorry if this is a dumb question that has been asked before, but as a new reader you'll have to forgive me. Can a wright take the aspect of 'life' and apply it to themselves, to extend their natural life or (in Duane's case) prevent decay?

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:03:43 -0400

It's not a dumb question, but the answer is nope. A good rule of thumb for determining if something can be reassigned or not is, is it a physical attribute? Is it solid, cold, in motion? Is it red, a certain size, a certain shape? All these adjectives, or Aspects, can be switched around from mass to mass. But the rules that define how these Aspects effect the world - if Sharp things cut, if pressure deviations explode, if heat starts fires, if Time itself progresses, etc - these are Laws, and the khert does not allow them to be tampered with.

Currently playing:

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:57:47 -0400

Yogsbox. Derp. Dat Thaumcraft.

Every time I flip over to your page I read the title about no inappropriate stuff, and, well, it kind of makes me sad. Can we have an overview of what "inappropriate" means?

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:32:51 -0400

No pedophilia or anything in that neighbourhood, and don't ask me about personal stuff. That's it :)

We got a frost that shocked the lilac buds away before they got to full awesome scent. some of the inner ones survived, though, and I'm hoping they'll come back for Chitz additive. Do you have a preference for back ups?

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 04:16:37 -0400

Chew some Doublemint gum and then breathe heavily onto the plush. Send me your essence, Forumcat.

I've been looking through your art and realizing that Sivis is AMAZING. Are talking rats canon in the comic universe, or is it just an RP thing? (An older Formspring answer said his story is after Unsounded, but still...) How did that even happen, anyway?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:43:32 -0400

Thanks, man! I don't think Sivis is really possible in Unsounded unfortunately, the magic system and cosmology are just too different. If he did pop up though, it would indeed have to be several years after the end of Unsounded's storyline.

In RP, Sivis started life as an unspectacular black rat scraping out an existence in the basement of a senile, misanthropic wizard. The wizard was ancient and desperately needed an apprentice to whom he might pass on his wisdom and power, but he HATED humans. Naturally, the thing to do was to capture a rat and change it into a man. Years passed and the wizard taught his new acquaintance how to be a powerful sorcerer, but he never taught him how to be a man. By the time the old kook died, Sivis was a powerful wizard but still at heart a self-serving animal. He's not evil - it really takes a human to be truly evil - but he's mostly interested in himself and survival and food and doesn't care much for philosophy or the intangible or social moires. He's a very literal sort and doesn't read people well, but he's not overall unpleasant. He has a child-like quality to him, I suppose.

Anyway, he was really at quite a loss when the wizard died and wasn't sure what to do with himself, so he asked one of his old master's few acquaintances for help. Bastion of Winalils was mentioned as a possible source of employment, and Sivis went to study with him. Bastion's not much of a teacher though, so he foisted poor Sivis off on Murkoph (I'm sure you read the comic). Fortunately Sivis didn't have a problem with Murk's appetites, and the two grew as close as any hunter and scavenger ever can be. They were a pretty fun duo back in RP, though they had broken ties by the end of the game. Sivis left Murk's company and retired to a northern land to live in the stable of the woman he loved. I'm sure he's still there, biting her children, stealing cheese, and breaking all the rat traps.

Are other Frummugem's competing with Sette for a spot by Nary's side, or is hers a unique position?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:55:56 -0400

Oh ho ho!

Now that there will not be a comic for awhile, I can delve into the backlog of drawings I've been holding off on looking at for just this purpose. So question, is the green chibi here Duane's spirit being caught and zombified? It's got the

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:54:47 -0400

"(continued) hair and morose Duane mope. http://www.casualvillain.com/etc/sharte_chibis2.jpg"

Nope. Like ninety-five percent of older art, it's solely related to something that happened in RP. Duane's RP existence was rife with tragedy and angst, and he was more or less unplayable, insane, damned, and doubly dead by the end of it.

That wallpaper is adorable. You'd almost forget one's a zombie and the other a litte monster :3

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:51:36 -0400

Now and then they have their moments :)

I just realized that’s a scarab on Quigley’s dagger. Scarabs represented rebirth and transformation in ancient Egypt, but I bet you knew that already. Is it significant that Quigley has this bug theme and you hate bugs? Is the bug theme related to Vienne?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:51:13 -0400

No, Quigley has the bug theme because he's an ironic bastard sometimes. Because Plats live such a short time, the less reverent of their countrymen consider them insects, and even have insults against them based on that fact. As a Fuck You against Alderode, Quigley styles a lot of his spells with an insect motif.

In this chapter of Unsounded...AN X-MAN WILL DIE!!!

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:48:32 -0400

Hahaha XD That was totally my inspiration for it. There's a showman in me, yes there is. One day I should do a reader poll to decide an important character's fate.

I recently read a theory that all words originated in terms for body parts. When you construct languages, how much do theories of language evolution come into it?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:47:03 -0400

As far as official theories go, not very much. I try to reason through the development of most of the important words though, and put a fair amount of thought into words I've decided are intrinsic. I've been around a lot of kids as they learn to talk and so have a vocabulary list in my head of what concepts and objects primitive little human brains seem to think are most important to verbalize. Those are the ones I paid the most attention to when I was putting words together.

Hey, what happened with this? http://www.casualvillain.com/random/da_sufis_da_barit.jpg

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:42:14 -0400

Mmmmm, what happened with it in what sense?

Besides "Listen to Elka," what was going through Toma's head as he was lying on the ground there? Does he still want to arrest Matty, even though the kid just saved his life?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:41:53 -0400

Well, he HAS to arrest Matty, that is his job. Toma would never do anything mean to him, but the system is the system and Toma didn't get where he is by serving it only selectively. If it makes you feel better, if Matty IS arrested and goes to court, Toma will vouch for him and probably be the reason he's not strung up.

So Knockers Frummagen is showing up next chapter? Oooh, your profile pic change was FORESHADOWING! Clever, clever.

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:38:49 -0400

Hohoho! Cross-media literary elements! You are going to hate Knock-Me-Down, try to just focus on her boobs.

Was Matty talking about Uaid nicer or Quigley?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:37:39 -0400

His dad.

Sette is wearing Quigley's cloak instead of her shirt in the preview? Also, Matty would never make it as a criminal, would he? Unless he gets away with all of his crimes because he makes everyone just want to hug him.

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:46:16 -0400

Good eye, I am impressed. And why do you say Matty isn't cut out for a life of crime. He is BLATANTLY bribing a police officer on the last page! The boy will be hanged yet, just wait.

Ashley, I love the last page of this chapter. Poor Matty - those tears could make Starfish pause if the man had a heart, but I think he ate it. Have a good month off!

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:20:51 -0400

Thanks, man! <3

Hm, Annadyne huh? For a Frummagem she doesn't have a terribly descriptive name. Did she somehow escape the ritual, or is the name in reference to something I'm not familiar with? Also, good if she gives them some trouble. Trouble is more fun.

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:20:19 -0400

It's a pun of sorts. An anodyne is something that relieves pain :) Knock-Me-Down gives you a headache, then Annadyne shows up to make you feel better about it. If she's in a good mood, anyway.

Your preview clips for next chapter have made me crazy curious and excited. Who are the mysterious persons with Quigly? Why are they in a blizzard? Is Jivi finally finding some balls? So many things I have to wait for. My question: Am I going to

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:56:29 -0400

"(Continued) like the gold-eyed woman? She seems pretty damn mysterious and sly. I think I might like her just from the look she's giving us. Is my heart going to be broken Glass?"

That's Annadyne, a cousin of Sette's. I personally like her but she's a -difficult- character because she's at cross-purposes with our protagonists, so ya know no one's gonna get along. Will you like her? It's difficult to say. She has her flaws.

Also, today I've started talking about kedises, and everyone around was so confused, it took me a few minutes to recall they aren't real. The last thought made me sad, so now I beg for a pic of Sette with kedis.

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:21:33 -0400

We shall see! Sette has always struck me as more of a dog person.

Ah, so, talking about that superweapon. We need a big rock, really big, weighting hundreds tons, some kind of giant raft, and four groups of wrights. First group, consisting of few hundred wrights, takes momentum from whatever moves around and uses it to

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:20:48 -0400

"etc etc"

This could be a good thing to talk about with people on the forum, man :) There are some readers really, really into pymary.

Was it because albinos have a sort of otherworldly quality compared to others and that's what you were going for with the Plats?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:19:06 -0400

Maaaaybe. The Plats aren't that much more otherworldly than the Coppers or the Silvers or the Jets - we just haven't really met any other Aldishmen yet, and Duane's weird.

I knew the Plats had to have white hair - I'm working with a colour scheme here :3 - and fixing the rest of their features so they'd correspond with albinism just helped to reinforce that their otherness goes deeper than their hair, and that there's a real physical ramification to it. Plats don't just drop dead at thirty; they live their whole lives weaker and their premature decrepitude effects them profoundly.

I found some small reference to Bastion having ritualistic sex with a woodland creature on the internets. Did you ever actually get around to drawing this, or was it simply musings about fixing the balance of his morality and never anything more?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:14:48 -0400

Where did you see this reference exactly? Bastion's wont to torture animals when he needs a component of pain for something, and he's wont to hire a prostitute when he needs a component of pleasure, but I can't recall him mixing the two up...

I’m surprised no one’s asked about Delicieu. It’s a French-sounding name, so does that mean he’s of Tain ancestry? Do we meet him next chapter?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:12:41 -0400

Delicieu is a mystery for now~ Toma will give a few more details next chapter.

If you had to marry any one of your characters, which would it be? (It's zombie-Duane, innit)

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:26:20 -0400

I'm not sure I'd marry any of them, honestly. Duane is too traditional, Toma is never home, Quigley is... very unhappy... Starfish is fat and would molest our kids. I might marry Jivi when he grows up, I think he'll be a pretty well-rounded guy. If I don't kill him off next chapter, that is.

I was looking at the Aldish castes on the wiki and when I got to the plats... They're basically a more genetically common form of albinos, aren't they? The hair, skin and eye color, the poor eyesight, the photosensitivity. The frailty and weak lungs

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:52:32 -0400

"aren't in themselves symptoms of albinism but do fall under the various genetic disorders that appear relatively frequently in albinos. Was this more or less your intention when you designed them?"

Absolutely.

Being First Creatures, I assume that our water wenches can't actually produce more of themselves, for all their wenching. But can they sire or bear children? Are there people running around with water or air in their ancestry?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:31:22 -0400

Nope :) They and their airheaded paramours sire storms, that is the best they can do.

Is it nice in Rachshane? I mean, obviously it's rpetty awesome, since it's in kedis territory, but is it nice, not considering the ferocious trouser-hem stalkers of Kasslyne?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:42:45 -0400

Well, I hadn't remembered much about Rachshane since I'd given it over to a roleplayer to play with but I've been reading a lot of old RP threads the past few days and there was a Rachshanian story among them. This particular roleplayer declared Rachshane a steampunk industrial mecca that shunned magic, put its women in burkas, and opted for hardcore Gefendur theocracy. I don't think I'm keeping the bulk of that, but I do like the idea that they have laudable tech, probably from being in the vicinity of awesome copper and silver mines. As for the rest? Kedises indeed. Make up something amazing about the country.

Horny water wenches. They make me happy. Do they make you happy, too, or are they simply a fact of Kasslynian life?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:23:17 -0400

Minnow makes me happy. The rest of the water witches just aren't very kind at all.

If they're in his mouth, doesn't that mean Bastion has to keep getting his tattoos re-done? I was under the impression that stuff in the mouth doesn't really stick around very well.

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:22:48 -0400

I bet you go around telling all the kids that Santa Claus isn't real too T_T

Could you translate "Ssha llachom efhom nil, tim tookim basimen retit Tairet yoninSette?" And what does "To kuralomm Deres" mean?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:48:56 -0400

The first is "If I didn't know better I'd say you are taking Tainish lessons from Sette." The second is "Get out of my eyes" or less literally, "Piss off."

Hang the cutie! Hang the cutie! Do you have pictures of Matty and Chitz at the gallows, preferably after the stool's fallen away?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:35:39 -0400

You're a cruel man to treat a plushie so.

Which country is best at artisan crafts and industrial... stuff-making?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:34:58 -0400

Rachshane, which we shall never visit first-hand. They export a lot of machinery world-wide though.

An Unsounded reviewer said that Cresce was a "big bureaucratic empire that’s... a pretty obvious stand-in for Great Britain". Based on what Cresce and Alderode have in common, does that mean I'm living in Alderode right now? Is Kirbish a dirty Crescian?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:59:00 -0400

Hrmm, I think that reviewer is on crack, or I do a really bad job of suggesting what Cresce is like. Cresce is a militaristic, socially progressive, theocratic matrilineal Monarchy with some strong Communist ideals. Cresce treats its allies with a firm hand but it has no colonial aspirations. I really don't see much Great Britain in it at all.

Alderode at least has a highly stratified class structure, so it would be closer to Great Britain, but it's so insular and xenophobic that it's still not a great stand-in.

You're definitely Crescian, Muses. Kirbish... seems roguish. Let's make him a Sharteshanian. Then you can push him around.

If you ran Formspring for a day what would you do?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:55:12 -0400

search function search function search function

So if Matty were to be imprisoned for life for his (nonvoluntary, peripheral) invovement with the RBB, does that mean that there are no exemptions or protections for minors under Crescian law? Or is "not hanging the blind 8yo" considered a protection?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:54:59 -0400

There are no special protections for kids, no, in any of the countries of Kasslyne. Distinguishing kids from adults legally, child abuse laws, child labour protection - these are all extremely recent developments in our society. Assuming they exist in other societies isn't always wise. Before slavery was abolished in most of the southern countries, you could sell your three year into slavery for life to settle a debt. You still can in Alderode. It only STOPPED in the other countries because they switched to plods. But when it comes to child welfare, Cresce is the only country that provides it on a state level with the other countries having only on Gefendur charities and orphanages.

By our modern measure, none of Kasslyne's countries are fuzzy happy utopias for kids or adults or anyone else.

What would Uaid think of someone getting slaughtered in his insidey-bits? Does he get the whole idea of death? He seems kind of juvenile... well, he is a juvenile, but still...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:54:19 -0400

Uaid understands death as something permanent and awful, and he despises it. He won't kill on command and he gets extremely upset when other people are violent around him. Uaid is like a big special needs kid who has more strength than he's mentally equipped to deal with, and Matty is his big brother who takes care of him.

So if everything had gone according to Toma's plan (get Matty safely chained up top, confront the adults and subdue them, bring in the RBB), what would happen to Matty? Would they arrest him as part of the gang, despite being a minor?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:50:33 -0400

Yeah, he would have been arrested, and there would have been a public push to hang him with the others, but I don't think it would have been successful. He'd probably just spend the rest of his days locked up somewhere in Cresce.

Oh holy crap you've done some Ask Duane and Sette stuff again. Finally found some motivation to pick it back up?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:00:00 -0400

Yeah, the chapter's just about over, so I'll probably let them out of their cage again while I'm on break. Was just warming up :)

Hello Most Splendiferous Glass-Writer. I was wondering if you might be able to give a little context to the last panel of the newest page. I hate to ask for any clarification, because this has become one of my favorite pages. (The expressions!)

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:07:12 -0400

"(Continued) However I'm a bit confused on what's happening in that panel. Toma looks like he's being lifted up and away from danger by the parasite-tentacles, but from the view's we've gotten so far, I didn't think the ceiling went up that high."

It's a page not well served by being cut off from the page following it. You're right, there's not much room up there to work with so... maybe the tentacles are helping Uaid upchuck our dashing hero.

Time to change my avatar. What do you think it should be? Winner gets a prize!

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:03:01 -0400

Some iteration of Cloud Strife.

I remember reading that homosexuality is frowned upon throughout Kasslyne, but being frowned upon doesn't stop people from being it. So are there any LGBT characters in Unsounded? Don't care how important that is for their characterization, just curious?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:19:34 -0400

Well, Starfish's buddy Turas is gay but it has just about nothing to do with anything except for one brief bit in the next chapter. Are there other gay characters waiting in the wings? Might could be.

Could that harpy-bird possible be a tribute to Bastion's first sexual encounter?

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:04:11 -0400

No comment :3

Have you ever written out a pymary spell in Tainish and with a translation? Even just a simple one? I'd love to know the syntax of the spells

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:04:04 -0400

You know, I've thought about doing this, and I know I'll have to do it one day when one of the characters begins teaching another of the characters pymary. It's so hard, darling Kirbish, to balance my nerdy enjoyment of explaining pymary with the needs of a story. The DM in me wants to explain everything.

Also, is it possible not just to replace one aspect with another, but add it? Like accelerating by constantly drawing momentum from the wind? Because if it is, then I've invented yet another superweapon.

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:02:19 -0400

Absolutely, this is how a lot of the isolating spells are done. You'd have to combine all the edges of a strip of grass blades, for instance, to come up with a single blade capable of doing massive damage.

First, couple of demography questions: what are approximate figures for populations of countries of Kasslyne? At least for Cresce/Alderode/Sharteshane. Also, what's an average proportion of wrights/dirty handers(people that have to use hands to actually

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:01:03 -0400

"[cont]do something)? Also, are there wrights with superiority complex, actually using some similar terms to describe nonwrights, and having phobia of touching anything (constantly floating in air with some pymaric and using only pymary to move objects)?"

Aww, man, don't make me devise census results for you, that is the very opposite of fun. Are there wrights with OCD? Seems possible, that would make for a pretty amusing character. Niles Crane learns pymary.

Can you sort of describe what's going on visually with the ink in Bastion's mouth?

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:06:46 -0400

On his tongue is a stylized depiction of Lady Ilganyag, a multibreasted harpy lady, surrounded by a jumble of Tainish glyphs. Crows in flight and more glyphs crowd the insides of his cheeks, giving way to geometric designs along his bottom and upper lip. Sorry I don't have a drawing of it D:

You mentioned plods were originally meant for warfare,how effective were they? They don't seem intelligent and if theyre anything like Duane they'd start to fall to bits pretty quickly. A weapon so temporary could hardly be effective in any kind of long

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:03:39 -0400

"term conflict. Also, how did the switch from weapon of war to manual labor take place? Was it gradual, sudden? And did civilians object to it? Or was it how it often is in real life, with military tech simply being phased into everyday life easily Like the original HMMWV becoming the civilian Hummer?"

The plods were fairly effective in combat. They had two modes, essentially, just like the labourer variety has today: simple command enactment and direct control. Plods could be given simple commands like "Kill with a sword anything in a red tunic" and they'd be pretty effective at it, pushing forward in spite of all injury, even decapitation (though this made it hard for them to see red tunics). For more complex maneuvers they could be directed by handlers who could at a distance change their behaviours, taking them past pymary barriers that would cook a living man in order to wipe out the enemy's wrights or simply marching them in front of murder holes in barricades and physically clogging the enemy's sights with bodies.

Plods weren't permanent soldiery and the decay factor was not a big deal. Plods needn't be trained so they were exceedingly expendable, and easily replaceable by stealing enemy casualties or recruiting their own dead soldiers (the ones who'd given permission prior to dying of course). Eventually the practise just got out of hand, there was public outcry on both sides because families weren't getting their dead back for burial, soldiers were finding it increasingly distasteful and morale-breaking to be surrounded by the dead, and there were sanitary concerns in the encampments. No one was terribly sorry to see the plods go after the treaty was signed.

Integrating plods into the workforce was a bit of a struggle after all the bad PR they got during their military ventures. The Queen at the time really believed in the concept though, and saw it as a solution for the country's labour needs. She pushed for it, the government started selling the idea via a strenuous propaganda campaign, and Recycled Labour was eventually accepted and saw great success. Occasionally you get a plod that will get a little twitchy, a little too hungry, and he might wriggle out of his handler's control briefly, but this doesn't really happen often enough that it's a concern. You'd think this whole system is a setup for an eventual zombie apocalypse story twist, but I promise it's not. Plods just work. They are a useful, effective pymary-driven technology in much of Kasslyne.

Is the personality that Uaid has a remnant of his life as a mountain ogre? Or was it instilled inside of him (a piece of quigley or some other sentient being)? Can the latter actually be done?

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:26:51 -0400

Uaid's current personality has nothing to do with his personality when he was his other mountain ogre self. Where his current self came from exactly is a mystery for the moment.

Your resident porn artist and cosplay maker here. Which of the guys are circumcised, if any? How is Bastion's endowment? (optionally continued)

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:16:49 -0400

Aww, I love my resident porn artist <3 No one is cut. The idea of circumcision doesn't even exist in Kasslyne. Bastion is pretty average sized, but as we all know, it's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of the ocean.

I wish I could get a giant poster of Starfish's smug face from the bottom of pg. 57. I love it so damn much.

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:32:58 -0400

Starfish wants to touch your weenie.

Does Softi have negative effects? Increased tolerance and subsequent increased use leading to addiction, distorted perceptions even when not on the drug, long term brain damage, bad breath, that sort of thing.

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:32:32 -0400

Nah, it's pretty harmless in the long-term, though it's really easy to overdose on it. The Eye of Redemption, the order of crazy Gefendur paladins that live in Sette's hometown, require all their new recruits to come to the very edge of ODing on softi and spend a night alone in a tower, tripping their brains out. If you survive, you're knighted. So yeah, watch the dosage so you don't die, otherwise have fun.

Where did Toma get the fancy sword so quickly? It's been awhile since I've read through the archives so I'm not certain but hasn't it only been around a week since Duane and he first fought? Surely something like that couldn't get shipped in from Cresce

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:30:51 -0400

He got it from the Peaceguard garrison in Ulestry, some of the occupants of which you'll meet next chapter. I had a scene in the script that showed him picking it up from their armoury but it got cut. I kind of regret that now since it does come off kind of abrupt. Fail Glass T_T

I just realized we passed page 52 awhile back. You promised me evil laughter on page 52. It wasn't there! I feel so hurt. Uaid OMNOMNOMing Toma helps but it doesn't mask THE PAIN!

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:28:57 -0400

Uaid is evil laughing on the inside, I promise :)

So basically, all the Khert spells are just in cloud storage on remote servers, and the Aldish can access their spells in Cresce, even though the spell itself is housed on a server back home. Omg, the Window is Google, and Cresce's queen is (an) Amazon!

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:28:32 -0400

Ho ho ho! Yeah, it's all just computer magic, really.

So, based on what you're saying about the khert, does that mean that a wright traveling abroad would be accessing spellburns associated with the khert stones of their home countries, when they cast spells? Or am I misunderstanding how that all works?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:27:29 -0400

They may be doing that or they may be using the spellburns of the land they're in, if they have knowledge of the words required to access them. There's a broad spectrum of common spells that everyone uses, regardless of where they're from. There aren't any top secret, super powerful and esoteric enchantments burned into the khert, that would be silly since everyone could use them. The most powerful stuff is put into pymarics.

Who would you have compose the music for a film version of Unsounded?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:25:03 -0400

I'ma say Basil Poledouris which is a shame because necromancers are expensive.

When are you going to reveal the big twist that all of Kasslyne is actually a video game in which the artificially intelligent NPCs have the ability to hack their universe, and some of the characters we have seen are actually PCs but we don't know which?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:24:16 -0400

I'm pretty convinced that's the big twist in our own world.

Regarding Spellburns, what's to stop Crescian regulators from burning out Aldish spells and vice versa? Are they safe because their Kherts are different? And if so, what do the Aldish do differently to make their pymary work in the Crescian khert?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:40:46 -0400

I always wondered why no one asked these questions. I love you, Minda.

The khert is mysteeeerious, existing in a dimension bound by its own unique laws. These laws allow it to exist both completely independently of reality and totally bound by reality. It's like one enormous light, the myriad sources of which exist in demarcated space, but the glow of which diffuses an infinite distance.

The khert is trippy. Even the ancient art of pymary barely scratches the surface of it. The greatest spellwrights alive today understand precious little. The khert contradicts the very physical laws it seems put in place to protect and enforce.

What pymary DOES understand, however, it understands with a reliability that allows wrights to do awesome things like manipulate aspects, burn spells - and allows governments to claim physical space within the khert for themselves. These physical spaces are more or less analogous to the borders of the countries, and are enforced by the khert stones. Khert stones are enormous, elaborate corkscrews of First Stone and other materials drilled into the earth throughout most of Cresce and Alderode, serving to protect the khert territory of their lands from the very tactics you asked about - namely other wrights obliterating sanctioned spellburns and even attempting to attack the interior of the country from outside of it.

It is via these khert stones - around which are built facilities staffed with wrights and regulators - that sanctioned spells are added to the national registry. The space demarcated by the fields of these stones are encrypted. Foreign wrights are always trying to hack them, since they could effectively cripple the country's pymary by doing so, and khert stones are very popular military targets.

Now, the craziest thing about these khert stones is what I pointed out above - even though they protect spellburns and physical khert boundaries, the khert itself doesn't really give a shit about them, and you can still access those spellburns and all the locations supposedly within their protection. What you CAN'T access are the longform spells - the source code - and without that you cannot obliterate the burn.

I know it's difficult to understand and it really does drive a lot of wrights crazy. The Black Tongues and other gruftgrammers who flip the government and all its regulators the bird have their own cobbled together mini versions of khert stones, usually ones that they carry around with them. The problem is they're using these smaller stones within the boundaries of larger stones, and so they are subject to being discovered by the local regulators. Crooked Sharteshane is a safe haven for a lot of gruftgrammers since its regulations are so lax and its pymary offices so underfunded, a fact that gets on the nerves of its neighbouring countries since it proves quite a security risk for them.

tl;dr The khert is weird.

Are the general citizenry allowed to use the Softi bloom's recreationally? Or is it regulated as a spiritual commodity? Is the vine's habitat restricted to Cresce?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:27:11 -0400

Laymen are only socially restricted from using softi, as it's heresy to use it outside of the priesthood. Doesn't mean some people don't do it anyway. Softi grows plentifully all over the continent, though it has problems in Alderode's northern clime, making it a pretty valuable import in that region.

Are Grebbers and Vliegengs the respective national symbols for Cresce and Alderode? We saw some Vliegengs in a Duane-flashback, but I'm pretty sure we have yet to see a Grebber in use in the world. Can you ride them like the dog-mounts? Or bad idea?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:24:51 -0400

Yep, they are each country's respective symbol and enemies in the wild so it's very appropriate. You really wouldn't want to ride a grebber, they would rip your face off. So far no one's ever managed to domesticate them, a fact that makes Crescians love the ornery buggers even more.

About plods' violence, could it be as designed by wrights, to keep people fearing and hating them? Is mass manipulation developed well enough in Kasslyne for that to be an option? Also, not the best day for Starfy, hope he and Quig will get over this.

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:23:21 -0400

It's a good theory :)

I'm looking for suggestions about finding employment in unlikely places. Got any ideas where to find some non-soul-crushing-corporate work? Thrift stores are a no, as is working for the city, the library, and local colleges. Anywhere else I should try?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:22:26 -0400

Outside the corporate world and government employment, you enter the world of the Small Business. Open up the Classifieds and Craigslist and see if your local comic book stores, pizza parlours, embroidery shops, et cetera are hiring.

What's Quigley policy on gigs where the hirer's been lying to him?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 01:11:50 -0400

Starfish hasn't been lying. He just hasn't told Quigley everything. It's at his discretion not to do so. Is Quigley regretting returning to his employment right about now? A bit, but he's not as scared of the Black Tongues as a lot of other men might be.

I'm big into horticulture, and I'm always curious about Kasslynian ecology. Could you explain what a softi blossom is? Flower bush or tree? The national flower of Cresce maybe? Or the symbol of the ruling line?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 01:10:09 -0400

Sure. Softi is a flowering vine, the four-petalled flowers of which produce extremely vivid and wild hallucinations when ingested. Gefendur priests and priestesses of the Sororal sect - the state religion of Cresce - interpret prophesy through the hallucinations they experience while tripping on softi, so it's a really important plant. The Crescian Sonorie dynasty is a very religious one, and the queen has taken the softi blossom as a personal symbol.

Regarding plods, the inherent violent instincts appear to a liability. Why not rework the spells from the ground up? I would guess it would either have something to do with the nature of the khert, or overall research in the area being discouraged.

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:44:43 -0400

Certainly a good question.

Also, are Uiad's stomach-walls glowing? Or is that just light shining through a thin barrier from outside? Somehow I feel that at night it wouldn't get that rosy glow whatever you did. Unless they're near the caravan and that's light from a campfire.

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:44:01 -0400

Yeah, the stomach tentacles under the main tentacles of the millifikit glow when the organism's aggravated. Or eating. It doesn't eat meat though, just vegetable matter, so Toma's safe. Ish.

What is the symbol on Toma's badge/crest/thingamajig? It doesn't look like the one that Duane pulled out of the wandering root so long ago. Are they different for soldiers than they are for peaceguards? Do they indicate rank, homebase, or career?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:42:38 -0400

This is Toma and Elka's badge - http://www.casualvillain.com/random/crpg_badge.jpg - They belong to no garrison and directly serve the Queen, so there's a little crown and softi bloom. Every Peaceguard garrison has its own unique badge. The badge Duane found wasn't Peaceguard at all and belonged to a soldier, specifically one from the Crescian/Aldish border since the badge was of a grebber beating the shit out of a vliegeng, a popular motif in the Crescian main military.

"If I had said that part of being a plod was you didn't have to rot, or you rotted super slowly, or you dessicated into a beautiful porcelain vampiresque mannequin... I don't know. It's too easy. You lose impact." What about Murkoph?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:35:10 -0400

Murkoph is something else entirely.

Do you have any pictures laying around of the inside of his mouth?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:16:33 -0400

Nope. Sorry, toots.

Sometimes I feel like Duane.

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:32:27 -0400

Have your ears fallen off yet?

Why did people give you grief about Duane's bowl-cut?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:06:12 -0400

They thought it was goofy looking :( And it is but... Duane is goofy! Duane should never look too cool.

Easter with the grandparents... poop, gulags, poison, putrefaction, and parents slaughtering their children. Happy Zombie Day! How did yours compare?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:05:43 -0400

It was pretty low key. Ham and cake and kids. My crazy grandma cornered me and wants me to get some James Patterson book for her from the library but when I went to reserve it I'm like two-hundred and something in the queue, so it'll be a while. Otherwise, I have the most awesome niece and nephew in the woooooorld. Max injures me in some manner every time we come together, it's the best. Happy Zombie Day to you too!

Does Bastion have any tattoos other than his flamingo-ibis-heron?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:03:04 -0400

Absolutely. His tongue and most of the interior of his mouth is intricately tattooed. He also has a stylized eyeball in the centre of each palm. This is enchanted ink and does cool shit that I shan't reveal at the moment.

Anyone who's properly stalked your art knows that there are some changes between your old character art and that currently in the comic. Duane, for instance. We can infer some reasons, but what first made you think to change the way they were drawn?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:46:02 -0400

I think a big part of it is I just DRAW better than I did five or ten years ago, so that pretty drastically changes how the characters look. Another part is changing designs to reflect stuff that happened in the characters' RP lives. Murkoph, for instance, originally had extremely long hair but after he got most of it burnt off in a fight I changed his design to reflect that.

When it comes to Duane, as much as I liked the bowl-cut, I have never gotten anything but grief about it from people. I figured if I was going to make him a real live comic character I better do something about the 'do. Now the story is that he had the bowl cut in seminary - appropriate I think - but has quite a different hair style as an adult. And of course now he has no hair at all.

With zombie Duane I really wanted him to LOOK like a zombie, as gross as that could be. If I had said that part of being a plod was you didn't have to rot, or you rotted super slowly, or you dessicated into a beautiful porcelain vampiresque mannequin... I don't know. It's too easy. You lose impact. Undeath becomes something that doesn't sound too bad at all, which is what's happened to vampires. Everyone wants to be one and all the wah wah wah I can't see blue skies or I want to nom people all the time doesn't change that. Zombie Duane needed to be something that the reader would never want to be. So I had to really degrade his zombie appearance from how it looked in RP.

I didn't want the glamour to be some easy fix-all either or you'd run into the same problem as with having a too-pretty zombie. So I shadowed his eyes and greyed his face. It's a good compromise, I think, and I overall enjoy the challenge of communicating his expressions without being able to rely on his eyes.

Of course, it's not permanent. There are wardrobe and circumstance changes throughout the comic for everyone. Jivi eventually, thank God, gets a much better outfit and looks about five-hundred percent better.

By eyepieces... do you mean they all run around with monocles bolted to their faces? Or are they less exciting, with glasses like Quigley's?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:36:21 -0400

Haha, no, I mean they're curlicues of precious metal that wrap around their eye. No lenses or anything (unless they actually need lenses, like Quigley does). Here's a picture of Will's dad sporting his eyepiece.

I think I'm on a ports kick right now. It will pass. In the meantime, does Bastion have ports?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:34:39 -0400

Bastion does not! He spent his teenage years locked up with the Ilganyag and they're more about tattoos. They tattoo everything - eyes, teeth, mouths, throats. Hardcore.

Uninformed advice for the stylish galit: clean the ports out and get Sette to find something gorgeous to stick in there, then draw on the beauty from that to maintain glamours. Am I a pymaric genius, or am I sadly wrong and awful at Kasslynian life?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:32:56 -0400

Drawing from the beauty in a lovely piece of jewellery is also a fine idea. Once they're in the city, though, I think Duane will have an easier time with his glamour since there'll be a lot of people to blend in with.

Ooh! If Duane found some first metal port jewellery, (assuming in Sette's pocket) could it be pymaried to maintain his body structure for him and provide the pretty aspects for his glamours?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:31:43 -0400

No, it's a good idea! I'd considered centring his glamour on some object on his person, but then I thought it might interfere with his glass eyes. That worry would be enough to keep him from trying a pymaric with a glamour in it, since Duane is really keenly terrified of being blind. But your idea is otherwise perfectly sound and lovely and lots of people wear first material jewelry with glamours in it to change their eye colour or smooth their wrinkles or keep a beautiful trio of butterflies constantly hovering 'round their head.

Does Duane have anything in his ports right now? If not, what would he put into his ports if given a nice Aldish jewelry store from Sette's pockets?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:31:41 -0400

Duane's ports be presently barren. And a bit crusty and rusted. Most civilised Aldish gentlemen wear little eyepieces up there to do with where they went to school or what regiment they served in or what they do for a living. Ya know, like class rings. Duane was much the same, though he didn't have much choice what to wear during the last few years of his life, since the temple had a dress code. He wore a little curlicue of gold with a few emeralds in it indicative of his station. I'd show you a picture but I'm not one-hundred percent satisfied with the design yet.

So what does it take to be "declared a Vaosa by the Gefendur temple"? Because in the case of most saints, they were dead first. And is it believed that they will now "live forever" as legends, or do good deeds from beyond the grave? Examples?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:03:55 -0400

Among the Gefendur, the Vaosa are people who have been awarded a place in the Twins' city, freedom from reincarnation, and the ability to enter and exit the world at their discretion. They use this ability to grant boons to humans who sacrifice to them. The Gefendur Temple will generally declare a person a Vaosa after they've done some great service to the temple or to the Gefendur people, or proven that they can hear the voice of one of the Twins.

Vaosa are really varied - there are thousands of them - and tend to be regional. One example from the comic is Vaosa Arbert whom the old lady at the waystation mentioned in chapter 3. Duane is moping at a shrine to him and if you look hard there's a stuffed bear rigged up behind the pool. In a display of how nerdy and overwrought I am, there's a significance to this because Vaosa Arbert was a great hunter and warrior who lived at the base of Knobbytop mountain a thousand years ago, protecting the scattered farms from the local wildlife. There are a lot of stories about him, but one is more famous than others.

One lean autumn, a farmer's young daughter disappeared suddenly and everyone was certain the wolves had got her. Arbert had a vision one night from Fat Yerta, though, that the girl had been murdered by one of her father's hired hands. He went to confront the man about it but the man had lost his mind with paranoia, and attacked Arbert outright. The two engaged in epic battle and Arbert mortally wounded his opponent. As he lay dying, however, he revealed that he had killed the little girl at the request of her own father who was convinced she was a curse from Tirna and was blighting his crops. The man died and Arbert, flabbergasted, had no idea what course to next pursue.

Fortunately he still had Fat Tirna's attention. No sooner had the hired hand breathed his last then a great, lumbering she-bear emerged from the forest. It could have opened up Arbert's belly like cellophane; instead it growled at him impatiently, as though it meant for him to follow, then led him deep into the woods to the little girl's body. Hovering above it was a lonely smoke eel, twining and twisting above the remains like a phantom pyre. Arbert knew what to do.

He went to her father's farm and set fire to every field. He released the dogs from the stable and then put it to the torch. He tore her father from his bed, told her mother what he'd done, then told them that Tirna had indeed brought a curse into their house - and it was wearing the skin of a man. As his livelihood burned and his wife damned him, the farmer fled outside and into the claws of the waiting she-bear. It bashed his head open, then dragged his thrashing carcass off into the woods. Arbert watched as a thousand smoke eels manifested suddenly above the burning fields before disappearing forever.

Afterwards, Arbert stuck around and helped the farmer's traumatized wife build the first Knobbytop waystation. Pretty decent of him.

If you eat cereal, do you enjoy mixing two kinds together? Which ones? If you don't eat cereal, what two similar foods would you consider mixing together to create a new food hybrid?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:09:56 -0400

Kraft macaroni and cheese with a can of tunafish mixed in is soooo ghetto fabulous.

Do you smoke cigarettes? If no, what do you think of those who do smoke? If yes, what made you pick up the habit?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:07:33 -0400

Cigarettes are yuck!

"Alderode is the only place where Ssaelit can worship openly. Throughout the rest of the continent they're jailed or killed." Why is that? I remember reading how the two religions are different, but now I cannot recall why, or find where I first saw it.

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:07:20 -0400

The Gefendur believe in the four Twin Gods - Yerta, Tirna, Riv, and Baelar. The Ssaelit believe these four gods were long ago literally slain by their prophet, Sonum Ssael, who then took custody of the world and the Outside. Kind of an insulting belief to hold as far as the Gefendur are concerned, so they don't take kindly to Ssaelit.

However in my quest though the wiki to try and find something about religion, I found this: "Because they were originally manufactured for warfare, an inescapable side effect of their [Plods] existence is hunger" So it was done to make them fight?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:05:25 -0400

This is what most people believe, yes. Plods were originally invented not for slave labour, not in a search for immortality, but in order to bolster Cresce's army and fight the Aldish. Then the Aldish figured out how to make plods and both sides had them. The practise became ridiculous when Black Tongues took to the field for both countries and you had dead Crescians turned by the Aldish to fight dead Aldish turned by the Crescians. Treaties were signed and plods were banned from warfare entirely. Practical Cresce saw something promising, however, and repurposed plods as labourers, eventually enabling them to ban slavery and enter a progressive boom. Meanwhile, the Ssaelit of Alderode are scripturally forbidden from any pymary to do with desecration of the dead, so they lobbied against plods in both the army and as a domestic workforce, and recycled labour never got off the ground up north.

I should put this in the wiki.

What's your favorite candy bar?

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:57:05 -0400

Lion bars forever.

What do you think of tattoo designs from popular franchises?

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:56:44 -0400

I wouldn't get one myself, my hipster sensibilities object to anything popular, but I would get a rood inverse. You've probably never heard of it.

Pertaining to my last question on religion: What if the war hero or excellent leader is a smoke eel or snake made of hatred?

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:54:42 -0400

I can think of no objections.

What can a simulacrum not be made to replace?

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:18:47 -0400

Gene Wilder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ-aRwEbp5I

Are you a feminist?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:23:18 -0400

I hate everyone equally.

So we know all about head-hair in Alderode, and we know all about... "head"-hair in Alderode, but what about all the other bodily hair that comes with humans and most humanoids? What are the bodily hair fashions on the rest of Kasslyne?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:22:57 -0400

Hmm, nothing crazy, methinks. I personally feel like shaving my eyebrows. Would they grow back all bushy?

To me, "good" characters sometimes seem like spoilsports from a story's point of view. I just love my villains and feel sad that they are hated that much. There needs to be more villain-love. So who are your all-time favourite fictional villians and why?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:22:01 -0400

I, too, love my villains. I like Miyazaki villains because they're never villains (with the exception of Muska). I like sexy villains like Folken and Dilandau from Escaflowne and sadistic violent villains like Pinhead and Kakihara and manufactured villains like Monte-Cristo Hakushaku and Burton's Penguin and lovable villains like Long John Silver and the Rat Creatures and the more-interesting-than-the-heroes villains like the Sanderson Sisters and the antagonists in pretty much every Disney animated movie.

Villains are better than heroes because the villains are often the more believable human beings. Darth Vader is awesome because we can all imagine suffering a fall and winding up the butt-boy of an evil boss. Who can imagine being the best and most perfect and beloved hero like Luke? Which of us are ever the absolute best at something? We're more likely to be the bitter loser with a chip on our shoulder. It's why I like Sette. She's wicked and annoying and so are most people.

Villains forever!

Old Tainish has to be used to manipulate the khert, no? How do Crescian wrights feel about this, being forced to use a language that originated from Alderode?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:07:03 -0400

Not too bad, it's all a matter of perspective. Tainish came from the land Tain, an isolated region conquered and stolen millenia ago by the founders of Alderode. So the Crescians feel that Tainish and even pymary itself never rightfully belonged to Alderode, and they're all drawing from the same ancient source.

Perhaps it's been asked and answered already, or maybe it's come up in the comic and I missed it, but - what's the legal status of the Ssaelit religion in the rest of Kasslyne? Does Cresce ban it and persecute its followers?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:02:58 -0400

Yep. Alderode is the only place where Ssaelit can worship openly. Throughout the rest of the continent they're jailed or killed.

When you say that First Metals and such are degraded, does that mean it's possible that somewhere in the world there are merchants selling old First Silver that's been reforged so often that it's been rendered a lower grade than First Wood?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:49:01 -0400

First Silver isn't likely to be reforged or resold on the common market as it's the most powerful and valuable First Material there is, and it's crafted into the finest pymarics. Other metals though, like steel and bronze and copper and even gold are absolutely recycled and resold. First Material quality is a very important thing, there's a whole vocabulary in Tainish dedicated to describing it.

Theoretical question: Let's say there was a minor deity in a small region, perhaps based on a good leader or a war hero, and someone of the Gefendur faith wanted to worship them on the side. Does this go against anything in the Gefendur religion?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:00:23 -0400

It depends how it's phrased. Gefendur (and the Ssaelit) believe in Vaosa, transcended humans who won the Twins' favour and go around the world helping out living people who need it. And often, they're worshipped like Catholic saints. So if this war hero made it all the way to being declared a Vaosa by the Gefendur temple, it would be absolutely kosher if someone wanted to sacrifice to them and worship them.

Hmm... wait, then is there any way to un-enchant and recycle a piece of First Material after it has been turned into a pymaric or otherwise altered? Or is it stuck as an arm or explodey spider or what have you forever? Is that the reason for the shortage?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:57:31 -0400

Some First Material items can be recycled but others cannot be, often for entirely physical reasons. See, while FMs are immune to pymary, they're not immune to the plain old rigors of time and physical law. So while you couldn't damage Uaid's right hand with pymary you COULD simply light a match and set it on fire.

So if it's a material like metal that can be reshaped, you could undo it as a pymaric, nulling its personal khert and emptying it of any spells and stored Aspects, then reshape it into a new pymaric ready to be re-enchanted (although frequent reshaping threatens to degrade the material and lower its quality). But if it's a less malleable material like wood or silk it's much more difficult to disassemble and reassemble without causing harm.

Fine. No more necrophilia. So... three headed half-plod dogs?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:45:34 -0400

I must have wronged you terribly in another life. I think there'll eventually have to be a Cerberus cameo somewhere dedicated to you.

I am sorry to be THAT PERSON, but shouldn't 'filagreed' on p.55 be 'filigreed'?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:44:32 -0400

That could very well be!

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:44:03 -0400

I'm as old as the universe. When I cease to be the universe will go with me, as will you and that person over there and him and her and everyone for whom I care. Hells and happily-ever-afters all will share my grave, crashing with me into oblivion in one anticlimactic, unsung wave.

Can I move to instate "narrative tentacles" as an official writing term?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:29:42 -0400

*bangs gavel* It's hereby entered into the record!

Would you like the questions on Plod sexuality to cease?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:10:55 -0400

It's just I think you will get more entertaining answers about undead sex if you present them to @MusesAnonymous :3

Last night I had my hair cut, and as I was looking at the leavings, I mused that they should be burned. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME, GLASS?! ahem Since Uaid "solves every problem by eating it", has Quigley ever found something nasty waiting for him inside?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:31:12 -0400

DID YOU BURN THEM?? If you didn't your enemies might have gotten a hold of them and could even now be working dark curses against you D:

And yeah, when Uaid was new he ate EVERYTHING. His insides were full of squirrels and deers and dogs and monnies and bags of flour and trees and postmen. Matty has him trained preeeeeetty good now, but sometimes threats are best tucked away down the old gullet.

Is pymary ever called magic in Unsounded or is pymary just pymary kind of how electricity is just electricity in our world?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:28:08 -0400

It might be called magic in the way that my mom calls her smartphone magic, but it's widely and commonly understood that pymary is as logical and approachable as baking. "Magic" in Unsounded would be the powers of the gods; the Twins' ability to create life out of nothing, the miracles of the Vaosa, the eternal lives of the senet beasts. These things are mysterious, not understood, and "magical."

Do you have any tips for RP'ing someone who's slightly mad?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:22:47 -0400

Research, research, research! Decide what disorder it is that plagues them and then do some reading about it.

This is quite cool! http://www.pposti.com/filter/Book/Felix-Jud

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:22:08 -0400

Woah, that IS cool! I want to make something like that :D

So... could plods be ordered to boink each other if a particularly bored plod-controller decided it would be entertaining?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:21:49 -0400

I guess T___T

"First Materials can never be something other than what they originally are." So why are they so rare now, if they never dissolve or break down into other materials? And I thought that was one of the origin-theories for the world. That everything was once

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 02:25:47 -0400

"(continued) First materials, but then it got corrupted, and normal materials began to form out of the perfect first ones. I do not remember exactly where I read that. If it was here, or in the actual comic, or the Wiki. But I remember it!"

That's certainly the mythology of the world. Funny how myths don't always line up with what we know to be possible.

Do you have any left-handed characters? I noticed Starfish threatened Quigley with the dagger in his left hand, so I was wondering if it was something you ever thought about while creating/drawing characters!

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:48:25 -0400

Haha, I frequently flip panels if I think they look better the other way, resulting in characters doing stuff with their left hand. This is bad of me. But ah, no, I don't think about it too much.

Corollary to prior: is it better with a hoity-toity galit, such as a newly-raised Duane (or current Duane, I suppose, though I can't see him allowing that...) or Murk (whose softer bits seem to have some major lasting power) or is it still plod-sex?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:46:27 -0400

No, necrophilia is necrophilia. Gross gross gross.

Something Muses commented made me think of this, and I really have to know; plod-sex. Has it been considered? Is it better than necrophilia? Worse? Acceptable? Does it depend on the decompositional state of the plod? Are there plods of both genders?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:45:53 -0400

This is a little known fact about me but the idea of sex with a dead body, zombie or not, grosses me the frig out. I guess I am dead opposite (hur hur) of a necrophiliac. I'ma say that necrophilia is just as taboo and looked down upon in Unsounded as it is in just about every other culture ever. Plods are only male, officially, but a female plod is theoretically possible, of course.

Let me guess, Peaceguard have some sort of pymaric which seals their aspects or otherwise disrupts pymary? That sword, perhaps?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:09:48 -0400

Toma will 'splain on the next page.

How often do Gruftgrammars reach out and find nothing? Is it a regular occurance or somewhat rare?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:09:15 -0400

It's regular enough to be a nuisance, but not so regular that it renders illegal spellburns pointless.

Does Sette have a middlename?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:08:46 -0400

Yes. Her full name is Sette "Jawesome" Frummagem Esquire, Lord of Your Face, Beat Up Your Brother, Piss Off and Die the Seventh, PhD.

I am curious now. It's been established that first materials are the only way to create something permanently immune to being drawn on by Pyramy . . . But it is also the only way to permanently bind aspects, somehow. How are both possible?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:07:04 -0400

This is the mysterious craft of the artifactor - the wright who knows how to create pymarics, woo~~

First Materials can never be something other than what they originally are. First Silver is always silver, First Earth (what Uaid is) is always earth. The Aspects that define them are indelible and cannot be utilized by pymary in any way.

But this is only one of the properties that makes FMs so very useful. FMs also disrupt the khert. The khert will not flow through them, has no dominion over them, cannot destroy or alter them. So FMs can in effect null pymary, disrupting the khert and so disrupting the path of spells.

Because of this property, First Materials when shaped properly will develop their own personal khert networks within themselves, isolated from the khert at large. Into these mini-kherts can be burned spellwork that can do pretty much damn near anything, including summoning creatures, making common materials around them as indelible as First Materials, changing the colour of dog fur, you name it. Even more interestingly, these isolated mini-kherts can actually contain OTHER ASPECTS. For example, if you burned a spell into one of these vessels you could at the same time store the Aspects you would need to execute that spell (think about Ephsephin's little explosive back at the end of chapter 4). Protected within the field of the First Material vessel, these spells and any additional stored Aspects are hidden and permanent, and form the artifacts we call pymarics.

Does that make sense?

To put it another way, the khert is the computer hardware, spells are software, and pymarics are password-protected external media.

Can wrights only draw from things they can see? I keep expecting Quigley to grab some pressure from, like fifty feet underground and a bit off to the side (so Uaid doesn't fall) and smack Toma over the head with it.

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:17:21 -0400

If Uaid was standing still, he could estimate the distance down to the ground, but Uaid's bobbing along and in movement, which is gonna throw off anyone. Also remember that like, five seconds have passed, there is no space to move, and Toma has an enormous sword (which I dunno if anyone noticed, but it seems to be cutting through Quigley's spells). It's a bad environment for an unarmed wright, but wait and see how it plays out, ya never know.

Couldn't Quigley insta-gib Toma by stealing his mass or momentum and not replacing it with anything?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:35:03 -0400

There is an obstacle to such tactics present that has not yet been identified.

So, Starfish's ingenuity is greater than Quig's when dealing with pymary as much as with kids. I really hope he won't be the one to be killed off, but I find it improbable. On the side note, how long does it take to create a spell like Bugs? To reburn?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:21:17 -0400

Starfish's pymaric ingenuity isn't better, but he's not quite as weirded out or exhausted as Quigley is at the moment.

Burning spells is a length process and requires some tools. Few hours, depending on the length and complexity of the spell.

Was Uaid the last living ogre, showing how much a douche Quigs is by making him a construct? "Hey,it's the last living ogre! I know how we can make him live forever!"

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:19:07 -0400

Haha, you'll learn about this next chapter.

Is the RBB officially the worst job Quigley's ever taken?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:18:46 -0400

Naw, he's had much worse. He's never had someone surprise him inside his own construct though. I mean, they're essentially standing in his and Matty's bedroom.

Also, you've mentioned that gruftgrammers basically create their own spells through creative use of Tainish, correct? How does one 'erase' such a thing from the khert? Is it kind of like plugging a hole in a sieve...or something else?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:27:37 -0400

I think what you're referencing are spellburns. To do anything really complicated with pymary you can't just cast on the fly. Complicated spells like Quigley's bugs consist of myriad Aspect reassignments, myriad calculations, even the crude AI that tells the bugs how to act. Quigley's not conjuring all this from scratch every time he mutters a few symbols and waves his hand. Rather he's referencing a complicated spell - like a piece of software - that he's burned into a hidden fold of the khert. Gruftgrammers all have their own spellburns hidden away, but nothing is truly untouchable in the khert since it's accessible to all. Regulators are constantly scouring it for unsanctioned spellburns and when they find them they obliterate them. If Quigley were having a very bad day he might reach for one of his spells and find it not there. It wouldn't be gone forever of course, but he'd have to reburn it for the next time he wanted to use it. Quite bothersome.

If a wright was to use someone's momentum for their spell from, say, something that was falling, would the falling object cease to fall and simply hang in the air? P:

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:21:35 -0400

With any Aspect, what happens to the mass from which that Aspect is drawn depends on how you're using the Aspect. If you take the momentum from something and do not replace it, the thing will either be destroyed by the khert or simply lock itself in space, freezing like a bugged out software process. This is rarely what you want, so it's better to switch momentums, as Duane did with falling Sette and his dirt-avator way back on like, page five of the first chapter, or reverse a momentum like Duane's done a few times now to save himself or someone else from a fall. Reversing is just taking a momentum from something or someone and then slapping it right back on them in a new angle before the khert can bug out.

That's a good rule to remember up there though - if you take an Aspect without replacing it, the mass you've drawn from will ofttimes cease to exist. Some aspects aren't all that important - things can continue to exist if they no longer have a scent or a colour or a volume. But if you take away the material state of something, its contour, its dimensions, its durability - the custodial khert will break it down since it can no longer interface properly with reality.

Is it Wednesday yet? bounces around to keep from falling asleep

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:10:03 -0400

Yep, just updated. FOR YOU <3

Which are scarier: bats or rats?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:58:22 -0400

Did you let your six year old little sister write today's question, Formspring-san?

But what about the Gungrave anime? Have you seen it?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:56:16 -0400

I did not know one existed until this very moment! Which makes me suspect it might not be all that remarkable :3 Did you see the Devil May Cry anime? Ech.

WHAT....is your favorite part of living in Florida?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:51:25 -0400

I guess.... I suppose... I enjoy how the state looks like it's the country's penis.

I'm not sure I like the implication that Javert was anything other than the most awesome character of Les Mis, hands down.

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:50:23 -0400

I do not like the cast of Les Mis, personally. Javert is an obsessive, preachy psycho, Valjean is a whining man-child I want to stab him, Fantine is there to have tits, Eponine is there to have tits while pining, and Love Interest whose name I cannot recall is there to be so boring I cannot recall his name. The Thenardiers rule all, trufax :D

Is Jivi's mom deceased? The black and white art shift of his flashback sort of made me think that way.

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:57:48 -0400

Hmm.

So does that mean Toma becomes a major character as opposed to his sort of Inspector Javert schtick he's been playing up until now?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:47:53 -0400

We shall see! It won't be for a while anyway. Or I might kill him off on the next page. I'm wild and crazy, Fakult!

How was Jivi originally kidnapped/ forced into slavery?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:38:56 -0400

Turas was in a Madishanian town buying supplies and he came across Jivi sleeping in a drainage ditch. Snatched him up and took him back to the others.

Is Toma happy in his marriage? Any unfaithfulness? Long, cold nights away from home and all that?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:37:56 -0400

This becomes a relevant plot point later D:

Are mountain ogres like the one Uaid was formed from common in Kasslyne?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:37:10 -0400

Alas, no. Experts estimate they are extinct.

Is pymary ever used to solve crime in a sort of magical CSI?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:36:48 -0400

Totally. Almost all pymarics have within their programming a pymaric signature that trained wrights can track through the khert. Like fingerprints or a trail of breadcrumbs results degrade the longer you wait and the further the distance you have to go, but it can really come in handy. You can also trace amateur wrights this way (the better ones know how to cover their tracks though). There are also really good investigators who can look at a landscape and tell you just what spells were cast by examining the shape and angle of the solidity that was torn from the ground or the edges that were sheared from the trees and grass. Fun stuff!

Are you planning to introduce any new major characters in the next chapter?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:33:06 -0400

Yep. Killing off some old characters and replacing them with sleek new models sporting better gas mileage.

Every single day you update! http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ddydeJXI1qgoowuo1_500.png Curse you Glass! Curse you and your comic and clever responses!

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:46:53 -0400

Aww, Fakult <3 You need to raise your standards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78XrI_2bPVA

If you do read the Trigun manga, you should go in knowing that Nightow can't do isual storytelling for shit, so any time there's any motion on the page at all it becomes an unreadable mess.

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:44:16 -0400

Yeah, but Wolfwood is really hot so all other criticisms are invalid, I'm afraid.

Hah, I wish I'd been there. But my hometown is where they make the Kalashnikov rifles, how scary is that?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:57:37 -0400

Not too scary! I'm an American, my house is full of guns :D

Theory: Starfish is Lady Gaga. No. But seriously, Starfish is now the most disgusting villain I can think of, how did you do it? I practically vomit just thinking about him...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:09:24 -0400

I've known people in my personal life and family much worse than Starfish. Maybe that's the trick. If I turned some of my family members into comic book villains and didn't alter a thing about them, there'd be complaints they were over the top. Real people are much more disgusting than anyone in fiction.

Are you familiar with Gungrave? It's also by Nightow. And do read the Trigun manga if you ever have time. It's just as good as the anime.

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:07:23 -0400

I played some Gungrave, it was all right. I've meant to read the Trigun manga for yeeeears and I even have it downloaded and sitting in my manga folder. Just... things... I randomly spent two hours reading Conan stories last night though, I have no sense of priority.

So my small dog, who is scientifically proven to be Sette incarnate? Originally, we had to drive out of town to get her... /from Saint Pete/. Coincidence?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:05:02 -0400

Hmmmm. St. Petersburg, Russia?

Can Uaid hear what goes on inside his closed chest? I'd think Starfish would be a little more careful about threatening a giant ogre's owner while at the mercy of said ogre.

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:04:36 -0400

Starfish ain't even afraid.

Is it weird that I'm not at all afraid of Starfish? He disgusts me, but he doesn't scare me. He's a thug and a bully, and apparently a pedophile, but he's no assassin. Sure, he's probably tougher than his shaped would suggest, but that's not saying a lot.

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:03:05 -0400

Well, no one should be scared of a fictional character. I think you could take him out though, you're right to be unafraid.

What was Matty drinking when Uaid bumped? I'd assumed it was water, but then I see Quigley asking why he was all sticky...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:02:16 -0400

Delicious ginger beer.

It almost sounds like Quigley actually cares about something. That something being Uaid of course, Matty's only good for a smack. Would Quigley like Uaid to replace Matty?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:54:23 -0400

Uaid is like crazy expensive and irreplaceable and an integral part of Quigley's livelihood and really big and can clomp trees and eat cops. Anyone would value him, I reckon :3

I scalded the shit out of my right hand making dinner tonight. I hope interesting blisters form.

Have you read the Song of Ice and Fire series? If you like Matsuno's stuff I think you'd enjoy them.

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:04:43 -0400

No familiar, I'm afraid. If only there were more hours in the day.

. . . Come to think of it, the inside of a First Materials construct is a terrible unfortunate place for a wright to find themselves. How helpless is Quigley right now?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:03:44 -0400

You are clever.

Quigley isn't too helpless since the actual place they're standing isn't First Materials. Remember, only Uaid's green bits are mountain ogre; the mechanical bits are regular old bronze and steel. Uaid can make his non FM bits as inviolate as his green bits - that is one of his abilities as an enchanted pymaric - but this is something that must be activated since having it on by default would do just what you're suggesting and make pymary all but impossible while inside of him.

The real misfortune Quigley will face is he's sealed up inside of a structure he does not want to hurt, leaving him with very few Aspects to use. He and Duane could throw the ground and the greenery at each other outside - draw solidity from his surroundings here though, and he'll be punching holes in his construct.

I liked Starfish's play on words in the last panel. He really was saying that HE was the one in charge and not Quigley, right? Is Matty really the "little monster" in his mind or is it Quigley himself? Compared to Starfish, everyone is little.

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:06:16 -0400

Absolutely. And yet it could also be taken the other way so he could claim he was just trying to be helpful if Quigley lit into him. You know what he really meant though.

Is Quigley a little monster to Starfish? "Little" maybe, yeah, but Starfish isn't scared of him. If he's a monster, it's only in the sense that he's a short-lived, white-haired, Aldish freak. Starfish has better insults in store for him than that.

Badlands Rumble was amazing! I hope there'll be more Trigun stuff in the future. Uh, question...question...what's your favourite episode? Oh and have you read the manga? :D

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:53:15 -0400

The first episode will always be my favourite. Good animation, really, really funny (also I don't remember the rest of the series that well :D). In college I considered it a good show for anime doubters, since it's so high quality and engaging, and the primary female characters are neither sluts nor moe-blobs. Never read the manga :(

While I find it hard to believe that nobody noticed Toma's entrance, that does give him an edge, right? Also, did Toma catch any of that "Open the hatch or I'll stab your daddy" conversation?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:49:49 -0400

You will see, you will see. And yeah, I count not clearly showing the layout of Uaid's interior as a failing. He has a tube of netting that serves as an esophogus and it hugs the inner concavity of the front of his rib box - if it wasn't there to roll his meals down to the floor, anyone he ate would break their neck falling from his mouth to the bottom of the cavity. I didn't show that though, so yeah, Toma's entrance into the bottom of the scene wasn't what you'd expect. Glass fail.

I was rerererererererewatching Trigun recentky and there's this huge man construct thing (the Nebraska family) in episode 5 who can also shoot his fists at people and stuff. Coincidence or were you inspired by that?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:17:04 -0400

I'd forgotten about him actually :D But my subconscious probably remembered. There have been a few robots in fiction that have shot out their fists, I'm pretty sure.

Man, that Badlands Rumble movie was aaaaaawesome. I'm assuming you've seen it but just in case.

Well, I've been always fond of Starfish, but now he is officially my favourite number one. So, tell me a bit more about his glorious history. What was the most vicious deal of his? I wonder whether carving out children for some black magic is the pinnacle

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:27:49 -0400

"(resumed)of his career, or yet another slightly dirty operation? Also, how did he meet Eph, is he one-time mercenary like Quig?"

Your favourite character, eh? He has his moments.

You know, Starfish unfortunately didn't come out of RP so I don't have a backlog of stories about him. I know back in his gang days he was the go-to guy for torture - not much of a fighter, not a hitman, but a really accomplished sadist with a strong stomach and two deaf ears. He's a sociopathically good liar and actor, too, so it can be difficult to tell what he -really- thinks about you until you see a flash of silver at the corner of your eye and suddenly there's a knife in your belly. Not one to mess with.

Ephsephin isn't quite so illustrious but he'll tell a little of his story next chapter. He and Starfish first met right at the beginning of this job, so their history together is short. Eph's known him long enough to be scared of him though.

So, how much of Uaid is controlled by levers and gears and how much can he control all on his own? It seems like a simple command can't open the hatch, otherwise Matty wouldn't loose time groping for a lever right now, would he?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:53:47 -0400

The hatch has two releases - one up in the cockpit and one down inside Uaid's noodly interior. Uaid can (and is) keeping the interior one away from Quigs since Matty's told him to (it's under one of the noodle panels, which Uaid directly controls), but Matty can still access the cockpit release. They just never use it so he can't quite remember where it's at.

Uaid controls all his green bits, the tentacles, and most of his arms. The rest of himself he can manipulate manually, like cracking open his ribcage or using a careful finger flick to turn the brakes off or on in the cockpit. Some of the finer controls require more dexterity than his sausage fingers can manage though, so he really needs someone knowledgeable up there to help him out. Where there is, he can do a few cool things, like seal himself off from any wrights taking Aspects off him, or fire nets from those circular ports on either side of his face, or even launch his fists away from his body and then wind them back. He is a big fun toy.

Ooh, turn-arounds and reference guides. Can we see those in the miscellany section after Chpt 7's done?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:44:16 -0400

If they're any good, we'll see!

Does that answer from earlier mean you've finished chapter 6? Do you take breaks between chapters to let things decompress or move straight into some sort of prep work for the next chapter? Sorry if this bores you, I love hearing about artist's processes.

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:31:36 -0400

Six isn't -quite- done, I'm about fifteen pages off, but I did take a break from it this weekend to do some other work. I'm slightly burned out on it at the moment, the entire final third of it takes place in the same tedious location. Tiiiiired of drawing it.

I think when it IS done, I will have to take a week to do a bunch of design work before moving on though. Chapter seven has a whoooole bunch of new characters and locations in it and I don't want them to suck so I'm going to try and design them properly, with turn-arounds and everything, before I start drawing the pages.

Aww, that doesn't help me though... ;_;

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:24:53 -0400

Oh, I bet you wouldn't really be all that impressed by these games anyway. Don't lose sleep over it :)

What is the best way for non-game-playing people to enjoy/experience the games you just listed? Walkthroughs or something? /woefully uninformed

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:35:45 -0400

I just don't think there's a method I can recommend. If someone couldn't read a novel you really love, could you comfortably tell them to just go read the cliff notes? They'd miss out on the experience, the language, the details, the reality of the work. I think one reason I love magic systems in video games so much is because after you learn the mechanics you get to turn around and USE them :)

I'm kinda surprised you didn't do anything for Apirl Fools. Too obvious, or not your thing?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:20:31 -0400

I would rather fool you when you least suspect it. When I one day provide undeniable proof that I am Cee Lo Greene, you will be floored, convinced, and blown away.

You know, I read "Cry to Heaven" about a million years ago based on your recommendation. It was really fun! Got any more good / trashy novel recs?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:18:14 -0400

If you liked Cry to Heaven, try Rice's Servant of the Bones. Its lead character is vaguely Duane-like: undead, betrayed, religious, way too powerful, fatally flawed, kind of a dick, nothing but bones. Except Azriel can manifest skin and boink the ladies, so that's a plus. Anyway, the whole backstory in Babylon is some of my favourite writing ever, though the story gets boring once it moves to present times. Definitely trash too!

Could you name examples of more fleshed-out (does that hyphen belong there?) magic systems that you liked?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:40:11 -0400

Yes, but since I'm not much of a fantasy reader, I doubt they're the examples you want. They're all video games :) Vagrant Story has a great magic system that ties into the cosmology of its world, and was something of an early inspiration for Unsounded's.

The Final Fantasies frequently have great systems. The materia/mako/Lifestream system in FFVII is well thought out and intriguing, particularly how humanity has invented technology to literally turn the souls of their own ancestors into electricity. The world building and world concept in FFVII are about ten-thousand times cooler than the characters. Anyway, FFXII's nethicite and how it defines the relationship between humans and the Occuria is very awesome, serving to make the plot essentially revolve around the protagonists and their world's relationship with the source of their magic and technology.

I don't directly tabletop roleplay but I used to like reading sourcebooks for inspiration when I was running my online game. Planescape and Ravenloft have really cool concepts in them. Actually, Planescape is just kickass. Everything about the Planescape setting is amazing. I've played Torment, which is awesome, and read Pages of Pain, which was great, but I would love to read more Planescape novels if those exist.

Have you read any things by Ambrose Bierce? I haven't read much of his, admittedly, but I read Chickamauga again today and it is deeply upsetting (in a good way).

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:28:25 -0400

I've read and enjoyed The Devil's Dictionary. The man had a pretty scathing wit.

When looking at an adaption of a piece of media, do you look at them as two separate pieces and judge them distinctly, or do you compare the hell out of them?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:26:27 -0400

I think everyone compares, no? How can you not?

So, what do Silvers look like?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:25:29 -0400

Like this!
http://unsoundedshipping.deviantart.com/art/DuaneXSilver-Girl-293355754

Woo! On break from waiting tables. Will you answer my question about plodifying single body parts and non-humans now? Please?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:25:04 -0400

I really dunno. It's not practical but maybe someone's done it somewhere, I cannot say.

I'm making my Bastion shoes out of five-inch stilettos. Are you concerned now?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:22:38 -0400

Bastion thinks that is fabulous.

In case anyone is still paying attention, I moved Blood and Tears onto tumblr. http://www.tumblr.com/blog/weandwings

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:22:09 -0400

Noted.

So did watching the Muppets give you inspiration for that "Duane hosts the Muppet Show" incentive I requested way back when?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:22:01 -0400

Not really :( My brain is so firmly fixated on Quigley and the kids after doing chapter 6 that Duane seems unappealing at the moment. Also, as surprisingly entertaining as The Muppets film was, they still didn't feel like the Muppets I know. None of the voices or mannerisms were quite right, ya know? And I found it pretty ironic that they made the villain someone who wanted to steal the Muppets' name, as if they weren't already owned by Disney. Still, Eighties Robot was cute.

(This is actually Forumcat right now. Tess has her hands all full of leather and I have naught to do but sit about) We have spent two hours trying to figure out how these shoulder guards go... did you make Bastion's clothing incomprehensible on purpose?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:18:00 -0400

Not on purpose, but I can't say I designed it with a cosplayer in mind :D I feel your pain, but I'm pretty keen to see the finished product :3

What's going on in Bastion's pants? Is he fully eunuch-ified or just neutered?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:16:44 -0400

Just neutered. No nuts.

Have you ever been to a convention for anything?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:16:26 -0400

Years and years ago I went to Megacon in Orlando and it was okay. There was a comic show in Tampa I went to a few times too when I was in school, but it was really, really small. I'm boring.

Unspecified question about terrier heads?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:42:11 -0400

I finally watched this last night, it was great fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WWWTW1P8rQ

Seriously though, thanks for the advice. You are a cool person. Hmm, question... does Toma work out or did he build up his physique solely through beating bad guys senseless and performing flying leaps atop his noble steed?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:40:22 -0400

You are a cool person too! And Toma definitely works out. I imagine he's in constant training so he doesn't go soft now that he's out of the army.

How do you define "arrogance"? Is there a difference between "arrogance" and "self-centeredness", in your mind? How about between "self-centeredness" and "selfishness"?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:38:49 -0400

I probably spoke too loosely before. You do what you have to do to make it through the day and don't worry about my opinion.

Are there any other comics (web or otherwise) that you would recommend as great examples of how to handle complex emotions and situations in comic form?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:36:47 -0400

Well, I recommend Shadoweyes to everyone, it's pretty great - shadoweyes.net - A teenage girl finds she suddenly has the ability to transform into a powerful alien creature and tries to use that power to help her drought-stricken and impoverished home city, all while juggling unconventional romances and a very bitter best friend. Wet Moon, also by Ross Campbell, is another example of an emotionally-driven and complex story. It's fairly popular, but doesn't really do it for me.

Kickin' it old school you might enjoy Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore. It basically centres around two girls and one guy, their romances and friendships, and a band of female government spies. Thinking back on it, it was what most small-scope, relationship-driven webcomics these days try to be. But SiP did it best. And had killer art.

Also old, but you might try The Maxx if you want to surreal it up a bit. It's pretty psychological, pretty heavy on the drama, pretty emotional.

That's all that's really popping up in my head at the moment. I don't read any shoujo manga but I bet you could find great examples in there of emotionally-driven storylines.

So did Toma try to cuff Matty because he legit thought it would be safest (for Matty or for Toma) or because he thinks he's stumbled upon a nest of villainy (true) and thinks that Matty is part of the criminal gang?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 02:05:25 -0400

He planned to engage the adults and didn't want Matty wandering into a lethal situation.

Famouse among thieves, huh . . . How'd Sette be acting right now if she knew Starfish was behind the Red Berry mess?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 02:04:44 -0400

Intrigued, nervous, reeeeeally curious for further information.

What's your biggest pet peeve?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 02:02:53 -0400

I really hate arrogance and selfishness and the inability to empathize. And I hate plain old meanness. Being kind doesn't cost you anything. It's the most inexpensive gift you can give. If more people were considerate in this world it would overall be a better place. So self-centred, arrogant, mean people? I do not want them in my life.

You drew that fight scene with a bug phobia? Cripes, the size of the balls on YOU.

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:58:14 -0400

Quigley's bugs aren't really BUGS, though. I mean, they're not slimy shiny black rapacious primitive things can get in your bed and crawl inside your nose while you sleep. FFFFFF I hate bugs so much.

Do you have any phobias?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:10:55 -0400

Bugs D:

Does Uaid have teeth? If he were so inclined, could he bite someone in half?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:10:43 -0400

Uaid does not have teeth. He doesn't even have much of a lower jaw.

Can you tell us how many times Uaid has eaten Quigley so far?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:07:13 -0400

I'ma go with.... seventeen times.

"Matty, eat your peas!"
"Papa, I hate peas!"
"Matty, we're not doing any reading unless you eat everything on that plaaaaAAAHHHH!"
*NOM*

" I think if Quigley was Sharteshanian and knew more about him, he never would have gotten involved with him." Does that mean that Starfish, ugly mean freckled Starfish, has a reputation not just in his hometown, but throughout Sharteshanian?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:05:43 -0400

Well, he has a reputation among his ilk, let's say that. Sharteshanian housewives aren't exactly warning their children about him or anything (though they should be) but among the gangs and rogue families of Sharteshane, he has a rep as a guy who will take any job, no matter how disgusting, profane, or just plain cruel. You really need a guy like that for a job like this. Not just anyone is going to deal with being sent out into the boonies, kidnapping people, carving them up and removing their organs, then transferring their festering pseudo-corpses across Ulestry and over the border into Cresce - no matter how much money is involved.

Of course the problem here is that when you hire someone extreme and crazy, you often get crazy, extreme results. It's like trying to hire the Joker because he's so good at fucking around with Batman, and then having him turn around and jab a stick of dynamite down your pants. You hire a nutter, you get nuttiness. Starfish went and threw kids into the mix. This was never the desire of his employers.

"He used to be in a gang where they all did weird shit like this to their hair" Was this gang-period before, during, or after the warehouse working, Starfish naming period? Did his reputation as a crazy badass spread and he got recruited that way?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:36:55 -0400

It was after. Starfish is in his mid-thirties, he's been around a while and done some pretty dreadful shit. I would stress the "crazy" in the "crazy badass" reputation. I think if Quigley was Sharteshanian and knew more about him, he never would have gotten involved with him.

Eph's hair... This is why I shave it all off.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:08:06 -0400

You are smarter than Ephsephin.

Is there any problem Uaid cannot solve by eating?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:07:14 -0400

Global warming.

So Uaid, how does Toma taste?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:06:55 -0400

Lightly grilled, medium rare.

Why don't you ask more public questions?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:05:33 -0400

I am lazy. I will ask one right now though, for you.

You continue to be unhelpful in my quest for an Unsounded Cerberus! Will you be helpful so I can stop irritating you with it?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:05:08 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqymcJRSbxI

Actually the same question goes for Ephsephin. Is the front of his hair naturally that spiky/wavy shape or is it a sort of stylized widow's peak?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:04:10 -0400

He's balding up top and just brushes it all backwards. I had a teacher in high school who did the same thing, still had really black hair, and so wound up with this weird serrated hairline. Terribly unattractive.

Is Starfish's hair naturally shaped like that or did he style it to look that way? Or does he just have the weirdest form of male pattern baldness ever?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:02:42 -0400

Oh, no, there's some major styling going on there. He shaves all of it but the sides and a strip down the middle, which has all grown quite long, and then rigs it all "pretty" with beats and bands. He used to be in a gang where they all did weird shit like this to their hair, and liked it enough that he still does it even though the gang's history.

Ultimate deathmatch: physical wellbeing vs. schoolwork, go.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:07:03 -0400

Schoolwork up until you need to enter the hospital for whatever ails ya. True story: my senior year of college, right in the middle of my thesis project, I got horrendously ill with pancreatitis and jaundice and wound up spending five days in the hospital. Still finished my work though, still graduated on time. You can do it!

Yay, vore in unsounded, sorta.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:40:26 -0400

I'm not so sure if Uaid-vore has the elements that vore people like. @shrunkenone weigh in?

Wait, that wasn't a question, that was a rant. Ummmmm. "Hey Glass! Why does Toma think Matty would take being cuffed as a good thing? Is he dumb or somethin'?" Yeah, there we go.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:38:47 -0400

Haha, poor Toma, he's tryin'. He did make the mistake of assuming Matty was dumb, but he could have just grabbed him up by the shirtfront, shoved him into the chair, and cuffed him. Instead he tried to take a friendly - if condescending approach. I'd cut him a little slack :)

In your opinion, are there any types of fantastic stories/worlds where a vaguer (is that a word?), less-defined magic system is appropriate or even better than one as fleshed out as the Pymary system in Unsounded? (Massive respect, by the way.)

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:35:44 -0400

Absolutely. I mean, I bitch about it because I prefer a more fleshed out system, but Harry Potter's magic is very appropriate to Harry Potter. To be honest, pymary is as fleshed out as it is primarily because the plot ends up being very tied into pymary and the khert later on. Harry Potter has wizards and magic but it's never ABOUT magic - Harry could have been some kind of ninja and Hogwarts a school of ninjitsu, and nothing important would have changed about the books. Fantasy magic is the spice in that series, but it's not the meat.

So yeah, if it's a series where the magic is just there for setting purposes and the plot only very rarely - if ever - relies on it, I don't mind if the author follows the "don't gotta splain shit" school of thought.

YES! :D Fun fact: you found the first song I've heard of Minchin and made me an insta-fan. Anyway, thanks for answering so quickly :) Bout the comic, though: Are we ever going to see Duane losing it? Now, it seems like Sette is trying to prevent that...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:42:06 -0400

It's bad for everyone when and if Duane loses it. But you never know...

Is there any particular reason you're not being helpful in my quest to find a way to make a Cerberus dog in your universe? Because it would just. Be. So. Cool!! Wouldn't it?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:41:23 -0400

T___T

Hey, this has been confusing me for a while, but I was too socially repressed to ask until recently. What emotion or sentiment is your ":3" emoticon intended to convey? I often suck at interpreting facial expressions.

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:40:50 -0400

It is a versatile emoticon! In my case it usually translates to: "It matters not how annoying I am, I am too cute for you to hit in the face with a brick."

Anyone know of a good place to get cheap men's boots?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:39:40 -0400

Salvation Army or Goodwill, if you're lucky. You could also just go to smaller used clothing shops around town and scout them, if you're feeling adventurous. There's a used goth/punk clothing store in my city that has the coolest crap for so cheap.

Please tell me the "monkeys in shoes" comment was a Tim Minchin reference. That would put you even more beyond awesome-tastic than you already are.

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:55:43 -0400

Of course it was a Tim Minchin reference :) I love that motherfucker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmnxF_WTOgg

Are you thousands of dollars in debt because of college?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:16:27 -0400

I've been out of school a long time. I only owe another 6k.

How do you feel about the idea of decapitating terriers?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:09:43 -0400

Not nice to do :(

Are all nereids women and all sylphs men?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:09:32 -0400

Ideally. They're the same "species"; the females just stay in the water and the males take to the air.

Can plod-pymary be used on dead dogs? How about portions of dead people?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:07:26 -0400

It's never been taken in this direction, but there's promise in it. You'd want to approach the Black Tongues and ask their advice in the matter, and maybe hire a gruftgrammer to write you some illegal spells :3

Yesterday, I though it was Tuesday. However, I subconsciously managed to realise that there was a Wednesday update out, so today, when I thought it was Tuesday again and was informed otherwise, I was horribly disappointed. This is a comment. nods sagely

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:06:21 -0400

I need to draw you a calendar.

Did Sette ever cry on cue for the sake of a coin, or would that have been showing some manner of weakness? :D

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:05:50 -0400

Ya know, she doesn't really go for that and I don't like letting her take that route either. It's cheap, it gives girls a bad name, and it's boringly predictable. So yeah. Sette's all about her pride as a thief and a Frummagem, and that comes slightly before her moneymongering. Just slightly :)

What do you hope for your life to be when you reach 40 years old?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:59:40 -0400

That's only nine years off for me. I'll be happy if I have a job, I reckon. Ya should never hope for too much :3

Confidence trickery? Like when you let your hair down and bat your eyes and pretend to be a poor lost little girl and no officer, of COURSE I don't know anything about that giant explosion /string of thefts /Where your expensive-looking watch went.

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:03:07 -0400

Quite so ;) Back in Sharteshane, also, Sette would supplement her income by selling her granny's dubious potions and panaceas to gullible sailors down at the docks. Cute herself up a bit, don't smile too wide, have some nice patter practised, and she made a pretty good salesman. Course it could get dangerous if a past customer pulled back into port with a grudge because one of granny's potions had permanently stained his teeth blue, but every occupation has its hazards.

Has Sette ever considered chopping off her hair to make the thieving easier?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:06:40 -0400

Naw, she just braids it and she's good to go. Long hair is more useful for disguises and confidence trickery, so it's not an asset to throw away lightly.

Regarding pymary-Frankentstein behaviours and terriers and your previous answer concerning them: Whyyyyyyyy? Is it really not possible, or do you just dislike the idea of decapitating terriers?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:05:26 -0400

It's really not possible. You're gonna have to think up something else to ask for for Christmas.

Ok, so the Aldish don't shave their heads, but they shave beards and stuff... what's the cultural climate about genital grooming?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:04:57 -0400

...this used to be a very hot topic back in RP.

So ah, yes, the Aldish are very finicky about keeping their pubes trimmed, male and female. Back in RP, Bastion's nonAldish girlfriend began shaving hers after they hooked up to keep Bastion from making fun of her perfectly normal girl-bush and her player, my dear, adorable friend, wanted to see what that was like so she tried shaving her own pubes and ah, did not care for the experience. This is a tale that shall live forever.

But yes, trimmed and styled crotch fuzz is the norm in Alderode, and won't you just be mortified if your girlfriend or boyfriend starts spreading around town that you're unacceptably fluffy between the legs.

What is the lovely object attached to Toma's glove on page 40 chapter 3?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:57:11 -0400

It's a sword catcher than can swivel forward and double as a back-up blade. It may pop up again one day but Toma took it off for Mulimar, afraid Duane would show up and steal the edge off it as he did with Petr's sword.

Glass, would you ever consider writing books to go along with Unsounded? Granted, with the amount of work each is, it would only be, like, one book a decade, but... I dunno. Would you ever consider doing regular writing? You're goooooooooooooood at it.

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:54:37 -0400

Not books, but I have some short story ideas. Let us see what the future holds.

I don't think most people like to read prose though, I think they prefer comics. How many successful serialized web novels are there out there?

Do you mind if people upload fanart of Unsounded online? Have you ever had someone do it without crediting?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:53:37 -0400

I don't mind at all. It's not necessary to credit me if you drew the art yourself, either. When I do fanart I don't always shout out the original creator.

D: "they're easily stabbed or clubbed to death"That's a great mental image. A cool scenario though for how the weather is made. I feel like if they're getting so rare though, it would be putting the hunters out of work. And wouldn't they avoid ships?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:52:34 -0400

We will learn more about nereids one day, I promise. One in particular features prominently in the story later on.

"He really gets to put his villain pants on after this chapter" Oh goodie! Villains are my very favorite, and Starfish makes such a unique one. In his cheerful, appalling way. Also, it has been my dream to get a picture response to a question. So happy!

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:35:20 -0400

Of course with an awesome response like that, it only leads to more questions. What's a "nereid"? Are they those ugly unicorn things? Or the goats? I remember descriptions, but not names. How do you hunt said beast?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:35:13 -0400

Nereids are water women; the waterbound senet creatures that copulate with the sylphs of the air to create storms. Hunters often go out to sea with important voyages to hunt and kill any nereids that might try paddling into the vicinity to boink the air and bring forth a hurricane. They're ageless but they're not particularly hard to kill if you get them either out of the water or out of the air. Do so and they're easily stabbed or clubbed to death. There are very few nereids and sylphs left now, unfortunately.

But they're entering from /below/ not above, so maybe not? Also, I'm sure this has been covered before, but do we know where Starfish is from, and what lovely cultural conventions led to his name? (Are there starfish in Unsounded as we know them?)

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:16:24 -0400

There are indeed starfish in the world and long ago I told the tale of Starfish, but it's buried so deep in formspring's bowels... lemme try to find it...

Yes!

"This isn't likely to come up in the story so I'll go ahead and answer. When Starfish was a younger man, his name was Arctrit and he worked for a certain disreputable gentleman in one of his warehouses. Being rude, not all that bright, fat, freckled, and pretty greasy, Arctrit was the least popular among his coworkers, and they picked on him endlessly. One day, Arctrit had had enough. He took a swing at the worst of his tormentors, a tall, neckless brute who was in charge of record-keeping. Well, the brute wasn't going to be having any of that, so he had two of his friends pin the son of a bitch to the ground. Arctrit's boots were removed and the brute took out a knife. He proceeded to very slowly carve the skin from the bottoms of the fat boy's feet, all the while whispering that if Arctrit dared make a peep and bring their supervisor out to investigate, he'd have his throat cut. This is a common affair in the slimehole that is Sharteshane.

The impromptu surgery took a long time. Arctrit flopped and spit and twitched and struggled spread-eagled on the warehouse floor. The bullies thought he looked like a starfish washed up on the beach, and they chanted the name uproariously once they let him go, watching him bloodily drag his way out into the street.

They thought that was the end of him. He couldn't work on his feet all day now, could he? He'd have to get another job and leave them the hell alone.

But next morning at the crack of dawn, Arctrit was there with his boots on, ready to work. He hobbled for a few weeks but he showed up for every shift. His stubbornness - his batshit craziness - slowly won over the respect of everyone else in the warehouse. Everyone but the brute. The brute was enraged that his little gag had fallen flat and insisted on calling the fat boy starfish starfish starfish you feeling alright?

One day, the brute didn't show up for work. A week passed and still no one had seen him. Enraged and never one to be walked out on, the warehouse's supervisor went to the man's house. He was met by the landlord who had a lot of questions because he hadn't seen the family who lived inside for days either. Together they broke open the door.

There was no one inside; not the old man who lived there, not his wife, not their grandson who worked at the warehouse, not even the brute's seven year old little brother who was going to apprentice to a nereid hunter and set to sea in the spring. None were ever seen again.

The authorities tried to question Arctrit about the disappearances but there was no hard evidence to charge him with a crime. Arctrit started using the nickname Starfish soon after. He joked with his coworkers that he really was just like a starfish - you can cut the leg off a starfish fine and it'll grow back in a year or so. The bottoms of his own feet had grown back just fine and were tougher than ever. Of course, he mused, it's not like you could cut off his leg and have it regrow. Or either of his arms. Or his head.

No. Humans just weren't designed that way. Cut them into pieces and throw them in the sea if you like - they don't come back."

I missed Starfish! I did I did! His weirdly patchy and well-tended hair, his tubby body and menacingly pointy face. His threatening glower is the best. How did he get into Uiad? I saw Eps getting picked up, and I figured Uiad was gonna swallow him.

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:06:03 -0400

You know, back when I was laying out this scene I had a bear of a time with this question. Starfish was snooping around inside Uaid while the Quigleys were gone, and was still inside when Matty ran back to tell Uaid they had to go save dad. In the script I had him explaining this off-hand to Quigley but it seemed kind of unimportant, that readers could put two and two together, so I cut it. I'm still not sure I should have, but that was my reason for leaving it unsaid.

Anyway, I'm glad you missed Starfish! He really gets to put his villain pants on after this chapter and I think he does a good job.

Do the Aldish classes have differences, you know, down there?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:00:40 -0400

You ask the important questions, anon. Only when it comes to the colour of their pubes :3

What character is most likely to need and receive an awesome training montage in the near future?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:40:59 -0400

Matty could do with one if he learns pymary some day. You know though, I'm not sure you can really do a training montage in a webcomic unless you have like, a midi of Eye of the Tiger playing in the background. Maybe that would work.

When he has children at some point in the next two decades, will Matty be a good daddy and do all the voices and go to the ocean and get hats for his kids?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:54:46 -0400

No, 'cause I'm going to kill him off on the next page.

Are you a good cook?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:51:28 -0400

I am an excellent cook.

Why is Quigley speaking Continental to Matty? I thought they spoke Tainish together?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:51:20 -0400

Starfish or Ephsephin might think they're colluding or something, and emotions are already high D:

Do Uaid's tentacles do anything or are they just there to look awesome, like Uaid's butt?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:50:13 -0400

You shall see.

Uaid has tentacles inside him? ...Kinky~

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:08:00 -0400

Some people be thinkin' they're eels. It makes me chortle.

I feel bad for Matty, but how often does he do something that really annoys Quig? Will this result in ordinary beatup, or something worse? I do recall correctly that Quig abuses Matty from time to time, don't I?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:07:28 -0400

Quigley is really flippin' pissed off, mostly because Matty is making him look like a fool in front of Starfish (who has the purse strings at the moment). This will result in punishment for the kid, no doubt. Personally, I'd be on Quigley's side in this. If Matty wants to assert himself and object to what they do to make money, this isn't how to go about it.

Could pymary be used to decapitate one dog, then attach its head to another dog, thereby making a two-headed terrier?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:05:17 -0400

No, Forumcat. Bad Forumcat!

What is the thing on the Uaid-floor by the pillows and treasure chest that kind of looks like a two-headed terrier?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:04:57 -0400

*squint* There're some action figures, a dude on a dog, some socks, and one of those ball-in-a-cup toys.

What's in the treasure chest inside Uaid? Is it a boss treasure in case anyone ever barges in and defeats Quigley, Matty, and Chitz (in that order)?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:03:11 -0400

Mostly clothes :3 One of them has a bunch of Quigley's spellbooks and pymary equipment in it. I guess that could prove useful to a scavenging adventurer.

Someone wanna explain what another girl's panties are doing in my bed?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:01:29 -0400

Baby, I'm sorry I'm so absent-minded. I'll cook you dinner tonight to make up for it.

What did Sette do to knock out Eph? I know she bit him, but he stayed off her back for a while and he seemed pretty limp when Uaidh carried him.

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:12:54 -0400

Originally I had a whole altercation scripted out between them after the tail-spinning incident, but thought it broke up the flow of events too much so I scrapped it. In the script he flipped out trying to get her teeth off his face and fell backwards into a tree trunk, stunning himself. Sette says that lacks oomph though and would like you to believe she sprang off of him like a panther, her chops all bloody, then delivered a final roundhouse kick that sent him to the ground, cross-eyed and bawling.

The saying goes "A leap of faith can be as small as a single step or it can span your world." My question is: How big is a leap of faith to you?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:12:39 -0400

Go to bed, hippie.

Is Uaid Unsounded's answer to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Tell the truth, now... http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17hrmwvlkuibljpg/original.jpg

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:31:29 -0400

He absolutely has a turtle face :3 And little butterball cheeks. I don't think he knows any ninjitsu but he could be holding out.

So while Quigley's still trapped inside Uaid I feel I have to ask, what else is in there with him? Do he and Matty use Uaid's belly for storage or would things just bounce around in there?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:19:47 -0400

You'll see what it looks like on the next page. They live in there, so it kind of looks like a trashy campsite. With tentacles.

Do u like me ? Yes {} No{}

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:43:36 -0400

Pie {x}

Considering Uaid has some intelligence, and he's their ride, you must now do a Herbie the Love Bug styled story with Uaid & the Quigley's!

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:29:26 -0400

But that's-- that's Unsounded! :D

What was one childhood wish of yours that never came true?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:29:05 -0400

Never became an animator for Disney :(

What's a scene in a movie or book that makes (or has made) you cry?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:28:42 -0400

I got misty the first time I saw Truman Burbank throw his fists up against the perimeter sky of his world, and Father Kolbe's Preaching started playing. Peter Weir, why you so awesome.

What's your favourite insult?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:26:16 -0400

douche+*

Douchepoodle. Douchenoodle. Douchenstein. Doucheo'clock. Douchemoon. Douchemonger. Douchenibbler. Douchequibbler. Douche of the Ages. Douche and three quarters. Mon Douche. Dobledouche. Baka dushu. Feliz navidouche.

Uaid-butt makes me lol. Action Toma makes me go "Awesome!" Sad Matty makes me go b'aaww. Sad Matty feeding Chitz makes me go d'aaawww. Why u put so many feels in one page, Glass?!

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:53:41 -0400

Uaid butt didn't make you go "gotta tap summa dat?" I have failed.

Okay, but, so... how exactly do the Quigleys typically transfer from the bottom rung of the ladder, just above the buttcheeks, to the ground? Is it like I suspect, where Uaid sits down and leans back a bit for that, or does Quigs use pymary to float down?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:03:42 -0400

Yep, you have it. Uaid sits down on his bum and that puts the bottom rung of the ladder at just the right height for an adult. More frequently, though, he'll simply pick Quigley or Matty up and put them in the driver's seat manually. He's pretty gentle.

Umm... someone already mentioned this a bit in the comments, but... do the Quigley men wind up in Uaid's butt more than is really necessary? prepares scrub brush

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:02:32 -0400

Ha, not really. There's not much there, Uaid's all gutted. His cheeks are sitting over machinery - no butthole, no fun ogre farting :(

Did you have fun drawing Uaid's butt? It looks like it was fun...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:01:38 -0400

Always.

Was it hard to make Uaid's butt look as friendly as the rest of him?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:01:31 -0400

Naw, friendliness comes naturally to all of Uaid's anatomy! It's funny, I'm drawing him in chapter six at the moment and it's the most unfriendly he's ever looked. Scary even.

Uaid's butt looks pretty sproingy, like giant boobs. If Uaid were to lie down on his stomach, could Matty use his butt as a trampoline, or it is not as sproingy as it looks?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:00:46 -0400

We must have similar brains because I've drawn Jivi, Matty, and Setting all doing this before.

Uaid may have a bit of a doofy face, but his feet are frightening. So is Toma about to take a flying leap onto said frightening feet, or is he just rearing back in shock at the glory that is Uaid butt? Also, have I told you that you're awesome lately?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:16:41 -0400

Oh, Anon, you flatterer <3 Toma is playing action hero, so my money is on the flying leap.

Why does Uaid have such a large posterior? It's not like he needs a large gluteus maximus. Or does he? I had assumed Uaid was powered by some sort of hydraulic system supplemented and controlled by pymary, which wouldn't take up that much space.

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:15:56 -0400

Uaid's green bits are the remains of a mountain ogre. He has a butt because in life he had a butt.

Unsounded characters and their matching Decemberists tracks, please? I remember you listing some of Duane's forever ago.

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:14:35 -0400

Duane really likes Beirut much more than any of my other hipster bands. I think Colin's voice is too irritating for any of my characters except maybe for Murkoph, who probably sympathizes with the character in The Rake's Song... and all of the other scoundrels in The Decemberists' gloomy tunes.

Re:monkeys in shoes:But a lot of thought & care goes into the "design" and the appearance of your characters. What they wear is important, & even frivolous choices like mowhawks matter. I agree that the fashion industry is ridiculous, but c'mon. Mowhawks!

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:10:26 -0400

Well, my characters are monkeys in shoes as well. Monkeys! Seriously though, I have nothing against mohawks. They remind me of Hot Topic.

Glass? What is Bastion's man-skirt made of? Is it leather or the other material? And is that thingy on his tummy (the one the harness connects to) leather or fabric? And... last, but not least... those wrap things on his arms?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:09:09 -0400

The man-skirt and the top of his pants (the tummy bit, his pants come up quite far) are both cloth. His arm wraps... they really are vague looking, aren't they? You could do wrapped fabic and be fine, I reckon. If I was going to draw those pages again I think I would make those into finely plated leather bracers.

Uaid-butt is really hot. ...wait, that isn't a question.... Uaid-butt is really hot? Yes, perfect.

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:03:14 -0400

Actually, it is quite cool to the touch.

If you were dropped into a typical fantasy RPG verse, what job/class/whatever would you be (not what would you want to be, but what would you be most inclined towards with your capabilities, interests, and values)?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:48:52 -0400

Typical fantasy RPG-verse... I'm a woman with no fighting ability, of common stock, so I guess I'd be a cow-milking peasant killed by goblins early in the game :D

Name your favorite classy smut!

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:45:55 -0400

Classy smut, hmm? How about the poetry of the Earl of Rochester.

In the isle of Britain, long since famous grown
For breeding the best cunts in Christendom,
There reigns, and oh! long may he reign and thrive,
The easiest King and best-bred man alive.
Him no ambition moves to get renown
Like the French fool, that wanders up and down
Starving his people, hazarding his crown.
Peace is his aim, his gentleness is such,
And love he loves, for he loves fucking much.

SCENES WE'D LIKE TO SEE: Things you wouldn't hear in a fantasy novel.

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:41:04 -0400

"Let's do this the easy way."

SCENES WE'D LIKE TO SEE Bad things to hear on an airplane I'm looking for humorous responses here, black humor is fine. I'll start: "That's the first time I've seen a cloud with a building on it..."

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:37:25 -0400

"Allahu Akbar!"

Do you read many "epic fantasy" novel series, such as Lord of the Rings or Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time? If so, what's your favorite?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:01:20 -0400

Never really got into that stuff. The closest I've read would be Steven Brust's Taltos books, or maybe the Narnia series.

Your favourite midnight snack, GO!

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:41:18 -0400

Baby carrots and peanut butter.

So, I just drank ale (it's disgusting, by the way - my taste buds shan't forgive me) for the sake of describing it accurately in my novel. It begs the question: am I simply masochistic or have other artists (yourself) made such abominable sacrifices?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:40:55 -0400

Hrmm. When I used to be really into FF7 (shaddup) I went shooting with my dad so I could write Vincent and his guns better. That's the worst I got D:

What's your favorite type of backgroud or scenery to draw?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:39:01 -0400

Definitely forested, hilly, rocky background, like what's been prevalent in Unsounded so far. It's pretty, it's fast, no tedious perspective required :)

What's a song you know all the words to?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:37:43 -0400

I used to sing this to my nephew to get him to sleep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz7wKhVa_VE

Did you go to your high school prom? :3

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:36:25 -0400

Nope :3

What's your favourite children's book?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:36:17 -0400

Treasure Island! That's a kid's book, right?

First ever question(s)! It seems like large hounds are used where we might use horses or oxen. Are there grazing herbivores in Kasslyne? Related Q: What then are the hounds fed? Also: Just what kind of milk were the two kids selling in Chapter 2?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:35:21 -0400

Hello there!

There are a few deer scattered through background panels here and there, and the skeletons of elks or maybe deer inside the wandering root at the beginning. Just no horses, cows, or steers, wild or otherwise. Hounds are pretty dietarily versatile. The big bullish ones eat what their owners eat as well as Cole's pigeon feed (there's an advertisement for it at the waystation in chapter 3). Pigeons are big business, both for their meat and for their droppings, and rookeries are not surprisingly one of the most built up industries on the continent. The leaner hounds, like the saddle hounds and Anise, the kids' guard dog, often hunt for themselves when they're allowed, and it's pretty good pickings out in the mountainous wilds. In the city they get Cole's as well.

The kids were selling goat and swine milk - both are very popular.

Those pages from Friday were amazing! Just thought you should know.

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:18:22 -0400

/wrist

Enjoy your rest?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:18:15 -0400

Still waiting for it.

belief in a higher power of some nature, aye or nay?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:17:43 -0400

A power higher than whose, exactly? There are plenty of forces in nature that are much more powerful than we are, but I don't put a beard on them and telepathically try to ask them for favours, if that's what you mean.

Hey, can you insert comments on the gdocs page?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:15:17 -0400

I am not certain what you mean.

Mohawks: Yea or nay?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:56:54 -0400

I wish people would concern themselves less with their physical appearances, but whatcha gonna do. Humans: monkeys in shoes.

Back from the ER. Worst panic attack in 5 years. Yay! Much better now. Body chemistry was all out of whack for a few days 'cause of like 3 different things happening at once, one of which was a minor prescribed dosage change in my meds. Again, SO sorry.

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:55:40 -0400

I'm glad you're feeling better :)

I was away from my computer for two days! TWO. I come back and it's taking me about 2 solid hours to catch up on formspring. You are all amazing. Token Question: Butts, Yes/No?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:54:05 -0400

Butts are good unless they are cigarette butts. My sis-in-law told me today when she was pregnant with my nephew she had a dream that she gave birth to a giant cigarette butt with a baby face. In my head it plays out like a scene from a Cronenberg movie.

I was offline all day and only got four hours of sleep last night. I should do work now but all I wanna do is zzzz..

My idea of a nice evening: flopping on the couch with dinosaur oatmeal and a nice Latin grammar book. Yours?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:21:29 -0400

Pretty good evening, I agree. I'm inking a comic page and watching Hellraiser 2 on Netflix. There's a lot of kissing of skinless people in this movie, very sticky.

This is the forth time PBS has played this special on whaling and Herman Melville and I still haven't seen it all the way through.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:11:53 -0400

The whaling was one of the least interesting portions of Herman's life, in my opinion. Dude lived with cannibals!

Hey there Ms. Awesome person. :) In your email to me from a bit ago, you expressed your belief that extremism is "never healthy." Can you accept that some forms of positive extremism can be healthy and beneficially cathartic for some kinds of people? :)

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:21:50 -0400

Ya know, I'm inclined to say no. Moderation in all things is really the key to a balanced life. Taking an activity to an extreme can become a distraction, an obsession, or an addiction, and none of these are healthy in the longterm. Life is tricky.

Home Fandom: Superlative example of a fandom you can find members of and sit back, knowing that these are your people. What is yours?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:09:17 -0400

Vagrant Story. For the last ten years. Forever.

I know/love/am/am-related-to some wonderful people who are legitimately medically psychotic. Being an arrogant psycho with an LJ doesn't necessarily mean one's a bad person, does it? Sometimes it takes some insanity to see or create beauty in the world.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:08:46 -0400

Just keep taking your meds, man :3

How do you feel, if you dislike the author/artist of something you like? Does it bother you, or can you clearly distinguish between the author/artist and his work?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:01:23 -0400

I like to think that I can distinguish between the two, but it doesn't always work out. Like, ever since Mel Gibson lost his mind I've had a hard time enjoying his movies - new and old - as much as I used to. And I know that when my friends create things I almost always go into those things with an attitude of love and enthusiasm, which makes me enjoy them more right from the start.

But you know, I don't think you should be too hard on yourself if you find you can't enjoy something because the creator is a douchenstein. Good art is always a reflection of the creator, and if the creator is a slimeball, that's probably going to be there in the art.

One of my most favourite comickers is Ross Campbell, and he is amazing. He draws like nobody's business and is a great writer too. But above any of that, he is the nicest, most thoughtful guy in the world and that makes me love his comics eeeeeven more. On the other side of the spectrum, there are artists out there whom I loved for years, but once I found their Twitter or their tumblr or their Livejournal and saw they were an arrogant twat or a psycho, I didn't enjoy their art as much. Is this dumb of me? Probably! Can I help it? Nope.

If I need to use a fake name for something, I use "Sebastian Yorke". What's yours?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:43:23 -0400

All of my pirated software is registered to Lawrence Murkoph. I'm so glad Alderode and the US don't have an extradition treaty.

I would like to know your favorite sexytime fictions. I want to put them in my kindle and read them in public, but I refuse to buy that awful Twilight fanfic that's all the rage right now. Difficulty: No Mooncalf (have it already).

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:42:38 -0400

Wow, no Mooncalf, eh? Well, that's okay. She's a great writer but my yaoi tastes are very narrow and she seldom has struck them. I enjoy the stories more in her work than the sex, how twisted is that.

You might like this chick - http://marjorie.auroris.net/ - There's a wide variety of stuff - giant bugs, parasites, aliens, some kind of epic Harry Potter fic that I've never read but I've seen others speak of it highly. She's not nearly the writer than Mooncalf is, but some of it is -quite- nice. Of course it's not Kindle-ready and you'd have to read it off the site, I reckon. There's also this - http://www.amazon.com/Dragonfly-Stories-Erotic-Strange-ebook/dp/B0056VAL4S - which is among the only bits of smutfic I've ever actually paid for since I've long adored Dragonfly's stuff from newsgroups. She's a really good writer and doesn't get all wrapped up in the plot like so many other pretentious erotic writers do. When it comes to smutfic, too much plot and set-up is like a delicious, mysterious sandwich stacked between two LOAVES of white bread.

Hope that was helpful :3

Can you recommend any interesting books/articles about the evolution of language? Also, can pymary be used to increase sexual pleasure?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:55:32 -0400

My copy of Wheelocks Latin starts with a great overview of the development and dissemination of the Romance languages. I know there's a lot of good stuff out there, but I haven't been into conlang in a number of years, so most of it has fled my memory.

And yes. Lay with a wright and you're up all night.

Have you read any Alexandre Dumas? How do you feel about his books?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:49:14 -0400

I read The Three Musketeers in high school. After I fell enormously in love with Gankutsuou I tried reading The Count of Monte Cristo, but I really don't like reading translated novels. I feel like I'm missing out on something and it's a terrible distraction. This is my own weirdness.

On the flip side, what's the most heartwarming moment you've ever come across in a story?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:10:38 -0400

That's a tall order. Hmm, I don't know if it's the MOST heartwarming moment, but Sydney Carton's sacrifice at the end of A Tale of Two Cities was pretty great. Not heartwarming in a syrupy way, but in a... well, maybe there's hope for us all kind of way.

Does Duane's less inhibited undead cousin do things to salt up his meals, if not for the taste then for the poetry of the mutilation?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:05:23 -0400

...I'm having flashbacks to all the disgusting things Murkoph used to eat in RP. Once time he was injured and when an acquaintance went to unhinge his ribcage and fix him, all the flesh and organs and bone and putrescent ick of his insides spilled out at his feet. Murkoph threatened the other dude not to eat any of his stuff (no danger of this, other dude was gagging), and as soon as his gut was repaired, Murkoph promptly re-devoured all of the juicy, rancid, maggoty meat.

But Murkoph is no Hannibal Lector. Murkoph's hunger is animalistic and savage.

Do you have voodoo? Hoodoo? Things you haven't even tried yet?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:58:44 -0400

No, but I got friends on the other side :D

where did you go to college?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:49:34 -0400

http://www.ringling.edu/

I think merch is an opportunity for you to stretch yourself a little bit. You have strong analytical skills, so I’m skeptical that business is really something you don’t have the head for and couldn’t pick up with some trial and error. (cont)

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:47:02 -0400

"This seems more of a heart issue. You don’t have to compromise your heart with this, though. You’re just putting out some shiny things that your fans can snatch up for a brief moment of pleasure. (cont)

It doesn’t have to be a big philosophical crisis, it can just be silly fun. If it goes down in flames, I’m not even going to pretend that wouldn’t really suck, but you’ll pick yourself back up. Nobody can take away (cont)"

...

...someone has killed this person before they could finish their thought! Alert the authorities!

"Looking For Group is older, arguably better, and should win the next round." In what way is LFG better? I can't think of any.

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:06:23 -0400

Look how cool this is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcbazH6aE2g

Do you draw your dogs much? Are they helpful anatomy and movement reference for the dogs in Unsounded? Do you ever get sick of talking about dogs because fun fact: I don't ever! :3

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:03:40 -0400

My dogs are odd looking mutt-monsters, and I don't find them too terribly helpful when it comes to dog anatomy. My one dog, Ebby, has almost the exact same build as Donkey from Shrek. And all either one of them does is lay around and itch themselves.

I do love them though, and dogs everywhere. My neighbour's chihuahua got in my yard the other day. I wanted to keep it :3

What if, somehow, your business manager guaranteed that you could have some special production plan that wouldn't contribute to the evil corporate system?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:01:34 -0400

Dr. Facilier is so hot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZAY-78zhmw

Business idea: What if you did one printing of Unsounded books, and sold them signed and numbered for almost exactly the costs of printing and shipping them (+minimum wage for you to keep per hour you spend signing and numbering) so people can take(cont.)

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:59:14 -0400

"Unsounded on planes. And put it on bookshelves next to the novels of Christopher Moore, who is hilarious. Would this violate your hippie ideals?"

I like Christopher Moore.

I follow plenty of webcomics & have gone well past the point where I give my webcomic list a good tidy. My questions are: How do you deal with excess & clutter? Any methods for making decisions about what is kept or not?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:53:28 -0400

If it stinks, don't read it.

Would you be okay using your twitter feed to send out daily vote reminders during round 3? I know we're a long shot, but I'd like go down swinging, using every resource available to get the vote out. A strong showing could get you some great exposure.

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:52:57 -0400

I really don't want to T_T I won the last round so I'm content. Looking For Group is older, arguably better, and should win the next round - and it will, and that's cool! We won plenty already :)

We cool?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:51:34 -0400

But of course.

I wish you'd make a print version so I could show Unsounded to all my relatives who still don't use/understand the internet.

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:50:55 -0400

It will probably happen. Have patience.

It isn't nearly finished, what I have is just the first chapter here, but if you or others want more, I will write more. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gz-f3O08TP52v9qhJ8sXfEhxvvl0CQ9COIy-8F7cnd4/edit

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:50:26 -0400

Most excellent. Everyone! Let us read and judge this man!

Where did Sette's name come from?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:49:23 -0400

It's from an old, dead language that no one speaks anymore, and it means "pain in the ass."

Is that Duane's blood in the amulet?!

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:48:15 -0400

Hmm!

So, I have hunted down a good question (So wily they are sometimes.) Is Sette More impressed with how "Stoopendous" Uiad is on page 48, or more taken with similarly "Stoopendous" Wandering Root on page 10? (I NEW I'd 'heard' her say that before. Hah!)

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:48:05 -0400

That's a good question. As cool as the wandering root was, Uaid is mechanized and looks particularly lethal and clanky and almost badass if not for his derp-face. Sette probably is more impressed by it... particularly considering it's attached to the two white-haired Aldish dinks. Where'd they get something so awesome? It's not fair!

>but I lack the business skills I don't see how putting a "Like the comic? Support the author!" button somewhere on the site requires any business skill. You are providing a valuable service, people will compensate you for it if you let them, so why not?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:45:46 -0400

Oh, I do take donations, I just like to have a focused drive for them between chapters. You'll see, we're coming up on the end of chapter 5.

So, are you a self-taught artist, or did you take art classes at a university/elsewhere?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:44:23 -0400

I have a BFA from an art college in Florida. I'm bonafide!

I can't draw for crap, but I like to write and am somewhat good at it. Would you like to read my current project? It's a (heavily embellished) recollection of my time as professional killer.

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:00:30 -0400

...I can't... promise I'll read it but link it so the rest of the class can see :3

I'm curious - since you don't want to make a living with webcomics, is it that you prefer to /not/ make a living with webcomics? Do you find nobility in poverty? Honestly curious.

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:59:13 -0400

I absolutely want to make a living with webcomics, I just seem incapable of it. Some say I have the creative skills but I lack the business skills. I don't have what it takes and I don't trust other people enough to let them do it for me. I also... just... don't want to be a cog in the exploitative machine I hate so much. I don't want to be the means to someone else making a bunch of money. I don't want to be the reason a couple hundred more unnecessary chotchkie are imported from China. Shit sucks, man.

Nobility in poverty? I am not that pretentious. But I do think it's very important for me - and for everyone - to try and live simply. We modern people are killing ourselves with our decadence and materialism. I get by every month on a really pitifully small amount of income, and that's because I cut a lot of unnecessary crap out of my life. I don't need a cellphone, or an expensive laptop, or new clothes all the time, or cable, or a shiny new car. Having this stuff just enslaves you to it and to other people.

/hippie

I really admire how you update so often, and with amazing quality work - thank you for that. How do you find the time to do it? How many hours per day do you normally work on Unsounded? Tell me your secrets!

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:07:38 -0400

No secrets! I just have absolutely no life and I am underemployed :3 You too can create daffy webcomics if you cut yourself off from most irl social outlets, get rid of your television, and find characters you can obsess over for years at a time.

If we win this voting round and actually manage to take the lead when we go up against LFG, can we get a new page on Friday? I bet that could help keep the troops properly motivated for the next battle. :)

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:06:01 -0400

How about a new drawing on Monday instead? We've needed a new vote incentive picture for a while now.

"In print, those pages are just simple full-bleed pages, with the stuff too far over the border cut off. Sadness." But wouldn't it be possible to leave a border around each page? That way you could preserve all the out of border goodness!

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:05:18 -0400

It's certainly an idea, but I'm not sure it's practical or would give the same effect. The internet pop-out works because umpteen million webcomics use a template system and work within a canvas they set up at the beginning and stick to religiously afterwards. This is usually because their webcomic isn't really a webcomic, it's just a print comic camping on the web. And there's nothing wrong with that.

When certain Unsounded pages do the pop-out, it's startling because you're so used to digital comics restricting themselves to their canvas, and you're reminded for a moment that that restriction is absolutely artificial and self-imposed. This phenomenon doesn't exist in print books, really, because the canvas restriction there ISN'T artificial at all and there's no way to bust out of it.

Including excess margins in an Unsounded print book would just eat up valuable page space on the majority of pages that have no margin-breaking, and when the margin-breaking does happen it simply wouldn't have the same oomph. I'm afraid that short of the aforementioned pop-up book (which is a really awesome idea for some other project actually, someone do this), Unsounded's margin-breaking would not work in print.

But that's okay. There's not a single page that would be broken by not having the popped out art. I designed 'em to work two ways, in case I ever changed my mind about print.

Infectious is a term usually draped in the company of diseases yet the term is also found cheerfully in the company of laughter. My question is what word best defines your laughter?

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:57:58 -0400

Rare.

So, convinced we love you yet? :D

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:57:47 -0400

You don't have to love me :D But the push for votes in this round IS terribly sweet.

You update more consistently than most "professional" webcomic artists I know, and your art and stories are better. How are you not famous and rich enough to support yourself with just your webcomic?

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:56:55 -0400

I guess because I don't take any interest in the business side of comics. I don't do merchandise or advertising or print books. In fact I feel outright repulsed when it comes to the topic of Unsounded and Money because I am weird and possibly some kind of closeted purist art hippie, I don't know. You are nice though, Son of Hod, thank you.

So, who has nothing better to do than fill Glass' inbox with dirty questions on Saturday? Who has better things to do, but will help anyways if they find a spare moment?

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:53:24 -0400

The amusing thing to me about this is if I switched off my Responsible Webcomic Creator Internet Persona, I could turn your ears pink with my ribald displays, missy.

Oh, if Duane can't do pymary at night, shouldn't his glamour-face have slid off? And he'd be looking like a gorey, noseless, mess?

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:19:50 -0400

He's on his way, baby.

Finally, now that it can't possibly be considered a spoiler to talk about Sette controlling Duane at night: when does that girl sleep?

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:19:20 -0400

Sometimes she doesn't! Sometimes like this.

Has Sette pretty much puzzled out who Mikaila is, or is that the first time Duane's called her that?

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:17:13 -0400

No, Duane calls her that a lot at night. She can't ask him about it though, or he'll realise he does it, and she's not entirely sure if that's normal or if it's a side effect of her having the upper hand at night. So she keeps mum.

How's chapter six coming along?

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:17:02 -0400

Pretty well, I think! It focuses really heavily on the Quigleys, Jivi, and the RBB though, which may irritate the Sette and Duane fans (I think there are like five) :3 Anyway, I actually like it and I hate almost everything I do so that should count for something.

If you end up doing a print edition of Unsounded at some point in the future, how do you think you'd end up handling the pages where the art spills off the page? (My suggestion: pop-up book FTW!)

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:31:32 -0400

There really IS no way to handle it. It's an effect that works only on the internet (barring the aforementioned pop-up book of course). In print, those pages are just simple full-bleed pages, with the stuff too far over the border cut off. Sadness.

I'd give anything to get a good shot of Sette's open mouth up close. Can such an image be commissioned?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:01:13 -0400

From someone else, surely :)

How do you know piercing your tongue hurts? Is your tongue pierced, Glass? Would Sette ever pierce her tongue, or have it split so it's all snake like?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:53:08 -0400

My sis-in-law has a pierced tongue, she's told me the grisly details. Sette wouldn't get a split tongue 'cause that's lizardy and there's that stigma against two-toes and lizards in Kasslyne, but she might go full furfag and get whisker implants and tiger stripe tattoos and just generally make herself unattractive and terrifying. I mean, her teeth are already filed, she's well on the way to extreme body modification.

I'm excited to see how big a voting spike we see in the tournament when everyone comes to see your update tonight. Are you excited? 'Cause I'm excited. (Could you tell?)

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:49:33 -0400

I'm only in it for the exposure, man :D Whether Unsounded takes this round or Evil Inc does, Looking For Group is going to obliterate the winner in the next round. So don't lose sleep over it! :)

...that would be a very funny joke except my dogs eat their poop and then go to lick my face. Augh, now I'm having flashbacks. ;_;

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:48:19 -0400

Aww. Dogs only give poo kisses to their most favourite people :3

"Having a shaman file your teeth hurts." Is that who filed down Sette's teeth or was that just a random reference?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:22:37 -0400

Random reference :3

Is there any text out there that you would say gives good advice for a first time GM? A bunch of people have suddenly taken an interest in an RP idea I had sort of let stagnate and now I'm probably going to end up finishing it and starting an RP.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:22:26 -0400

There may be guides out there but I've never seen one. Just be assertive, bird. If you are GM, you are boss! Keep a handle on OOC drama, don't let it into the game. Steer the story. Keep everyone entertained. Be funny and fun and make sure everyone always has something to do!

I guess being a GM is kind of like hosting a dinner party.

My dogs are horrible about their toys! We find them used human toys and then they leave disembowled Strawberry Shortcakes on our beds. Not to mention the hollow skins of teddy bears and random eyeballs underfoot. Frankly, it's off-putting.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:20:21 -0400

Dogs are very rude. Mine won't use the toilet at all and instead poop outside like animals. The nerve!

Thanks a ton for talking about that expand function in PS the other day, it is saving my time/ ass/ etc so hard right now. This is not even a question.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:19:29 -0400

Excellent.

News stories are making me mad and I can't sleep. One bright spot in life is that Unsounded is in the next round of voting in that tournament: http://www.comicmix.com/news/2012/03/19/mix-march-madness-2012-webcomics-tournament-round-2-vote-now GO GO GO

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:27:21 -0400

I found the Trayvon story particularly upsetting. I think intentionally shooting and killing an unarmed child should at least get a person arrested, colour me crazy.

And yes! Go vote! Although the other comic seems nice, it wouldn't be embarrassing to lose to it.

Does having little holes drilled in your head not HURT, or is there some type of magical painkiller we have not yet heard about? And isn't weakening your skull dangerous? Particularly if you keep getting in situations where it gets bashed often?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:24:21 -0400

Well, getting your tongue pierced hurts. Getting tattoos hurts. Having a shaman file your teeth hurts. Circumcision hurts. But people in cultures all around the world still do these zany things. The skull probably is weaker right there - protip: when fighting an Aldishman, aim for their jewellery :D

What is it with women and meowing? My ex did that whenever I... never mind. You said no inappropriate stuff.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:37:10 -0400

I guess meowing is less crude than a strident cry of "I want that in me!"

If your life is narrated, who would you want narrating it and why?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:36:09 -0400

Totalhalibut.

My Pathfinder game (It's a D&D offshoot) meets over skype. If you're interested in joining, you're more than welcome. We already have a couple of new players, so you won't be out of place.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:35:46 -0400

Thanks, man, but I already have more hobbies than I can fit in my far too short days :)

Going back four months on Formspring sure is frustrating, but it is sometimes productive. You didn't USED to be so coy about the future of Sette's boobs, I notice.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:34:28 -0400

I'm growing prude in my old age.

What did Duane have his ports installed to hold? If nothing in particular, what was the most tragic thing he ever put into them that was a good idea at the time? (y'know, like all '80s hair, or the bell-bottoms of the '70s)

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:34:12 -0400

Ha, he had them installed in seminary so he could wear the little emblem of his school on his brow. Then he wore his Academy emblem after that. He didn't wear anything in the army, they were banned 'cause you could get them caught on things. Afterwards at the Temple he wore a fairly elabourate eyepiece indicative of his station. The head of the temple wears this whole-brow gold thing, it's crazy.

I'm assuming Duane wouldn't appreciate if I mailed him a squeaky stuffed hedgehog like the one my dog used to have when he was a puppy. Actually, he went through three of them, coz he liked to tear the heads off. (dunno why we got more after the first)

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:31:20 -0400

My dogs destroy their toys as well, and scatter bits of plush and plastic all over the house. Duane does not want a squeaky stuffed hedgehog but Sette says send it anyway, she will teach him to play fetch tomorrow night.

What are your thoughts on revenge as a character motivator?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:28:44 -0400

If it's good enough for Batman...

I dunno, it probably works best when it's an initial motivation that leads to deeper aims. It's good for getting your hero out of bed in the morning, but it's not going to see them through their whole day, if you know what I mean. Blade of the Immortal is an excellent example. Rin starts the manga off wanting to avenge her parents' murders and this leads into all kinds of political storylines and Manji getting dissected and then she winds up spending extensive time with the guy she wants to kill and never even does it which is kind of fucked up because even though I love Anotsu to bits he really is a piece of shit.

But yeah, I wouldn't rely on revenge as primary motivation. It's been done to death and we all know where it's going to lead. The hero will realise revenge is hollow as he stands facing the object of his vengeance, and then not kill the dude. The antihero will realise revenge is hollow AFTER he's killed the dude, and then will probably set something on fire.

D&D doesn't need to be irl. My IRC group and I use ASCII art and a dicebot.. Anyway, question. Unsounded wiki says that plats are holy in the Ssaeslit religion. But you said Duane wasn't under a religious obligation to revere Quig. Am I misunderstanding?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 02:49:23 -0400

The wiki lied to you! I punished it.

Sooo, I saw the question about Quigley finding Squirrels inside Uaid, And I had to do this. http://ksteinhoff.deviantart.com/art/Uaaaid-291278335 Please don't hate me >.>

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:30:14 -0400

Grumpy Quigley is grumpy! But the squirrels like him because he is nuts. Hoho! Thanks, man :D

What Duane needs isn't a rag to chew on, but a pacifier. :D

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:29:03 -0400

*sob*

Would Duane rather find a pretty lady to chew on instead of those damp rags? But that would be awful, and shouldn't happen.

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:47:46 -0400

Duane doesn't wanna chew on anyone :( He doesn't even want to chew on his enemies. It's gross and sinful and horrible and BAAAWWWW. He is the Louis de Pointe du Lac of zombies.

Have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons? If so, what did you think of it?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:16:35 -0400

I've never had offline friends who were the type to roleplay, so the opportunity's never arisen to try it out :(

Speaking of glasses, I notice that the left side of Quigley's have something extra on top...and it coincides with those dots above his eyebrow. What exactly is the purpose of that? Do the glasses help him to "see" something, or enhance his power?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:16:16 -0400

The glasses do give him khert-vision when they're activated, but the two dots/studs are to do with how they sit on his face. Skull piercings are really popular in Alderode. You get a pair of little silver ports drilled into your brow, and can then screw in jewellery, headpieces, glasses, things like that. This is why Quigley's glasses never fall off - they're attached to his skull. Duane has a pair of ports in the same place, his glamour just hides them.

So, ooh, ooh! So did Duane make his glass eyes himself? Does he use them to see? Do they help to maintain his facial glamour? And if he uses them to see, does that mean he could build a more sophisticated Chitz that could let Matty see in more detail?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:38:55 -0400

All good questions! But mostly spoilers, I'm afraid. I can tell you, though, that yes, he depends on his glass eyes in order to see, and no, they do not have much to do with his glamour :)

He's a priest dedicated to bealor! She's a Ssaelit scribing machine that's caught sentience! Convention conspires to pull them apart by destiny, but can their love overcome? Tune in next week on The Pontiff and the Pymric to find out!

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:00:49 -0400

You state below that "Being a zombie isn't all fun and games." It is a well-known maxim that "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye." But plods and galits in your comic seem to still have both their eyes! How is this possible? A glamour?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:00:33 -0400

Duane has glass eyes! They are terribly sophisticated and terribly expensive cutting-edge pymarics. The plods... well... they have pretty standard milky zombie eyes most of them. I don't think they see well at all.

I keep imagining Quigley at the bottom of Uaid's stomach, covered in squirrels that he had 'eaten' earlier, all appropriately pissed off. Would said critters still be there now? :3

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:58:40 -0400

There is a pissed-off creature waiting for Quigley inside Uaid, but it ain't squirrels :/

Thing is, said friend pulled a dick move. The moment he saw me bald, the first thing he said was, "You know, you looked better with long hair." I wanted to deck him. :P

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:56:54 -0400

You should have drugged him and shaved his hair, then fashioned it into a toupee for yourself.

Did Quigley instruct Uaid to obey Matty above all else, or did the ogre just take a liking to the kid?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:56:15 -0400

The problem with Uaid (or the awesome thing about Uaid) is that Uaid isn't just a pymaric, or an order-following construct. Uaid has his own personality and does what Uaid feels like doing. What's fortunate is that Uaid loves Matty above all others, so he'll generally do what Matty suggests. If Quigley tells him to do something he doesn't like, though, Uaid will raspberry in his face. And then Quigley will have to take a shower.

tl;dr Uaid and Matty are BFFs

Does seeing Uaid change Sette's opinion of Matty? Like maybe she thinks it might not be so bad to have him around? Strictly as a minion, of course :p

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:48:00 -0400

Time will tell :D

You mentioned earlier that Plats Matty's age are often used as field wrights in the army, so a jerkass or overcautious person might attack Matty just to be sure. Would Toma and Elka be able to realize that Matty is harmless?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:47:26 -0400

Elka would know pretty quickly he has no wright's connection to the khert. Toma would look to her for that info. Toma has a kid of his own though, he's not one to go attacking unfamiliar children, even if they are Aldish and in very unfavourable positions.

What's your favourite spice? I really like pepper. I sometimes put so much of it on my tomatoe sandwitch that it's more black than red :3

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:40:22 -0400

Eee! I love garlic. Like, hardcore love garlic. I relish the hours after I've minced a few cloves of garlic wherein my fingertips just reek of garlicky goodness and I can rest my chin on my hand and position my fingers right under my nose, and snort that ambrosia like a teenager trying to get a buzz off the White-out on her fingernails.

If a Plat kid is living with one parent, and the other is missing for some reason (in another place, not dead) and the parent the kid is living with DIES HORRIBLY, then the second parent appears, but makes no move either way on where the kid goes, (cont.)

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:32:41 -0400

"would the village try to keep the child, or push the child onto their remaining relative?"

I would say the village would take care of the kid, they are his family just as much as the dead parent was. Plats and Silvers, more than any of the other castes, stick together. If you follow the rules, your community will look out for you your entire life.

"Warm, fibrous wetness." So Duane really does chew on wet rags to help the cravings then? I don't know what to make of that. It's sort of sad, sort of sick, and sort of puppylike.

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:30:46 -0400

Being a zombie isn't all fun and games.

Did you have Uaid eat those squirrels a few chapters ago so that when we got to this point we would already understand that Quigley's not going to be harmed by getting nommed?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:29:27 -0400

Naturally. There is often a method to my madness.

Do you prefer chocolate milk made with chocolate goop or chocolate powder?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:27:54 -0400

Chocolate goop!

How long does it take to make a plod? Is it quick enough that a plod could be pretty after creation? Does dessication continue on its normal, if slowed, path after creation? Will you tell me the other stuff I want to know but haven't yet thought of?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:27:35 -0400

Corpses meant to be plods are processed before they're raised. They get all their hair removed, they get fitted with masks, and they have much of their chest cavity cleared out to cut down on bloat. The act of initially raising them takes a few hours, so yeah, plods start out fairly fresh looking... don't bugger the plods, FC, it's not sanitary. They do rot slower, yes.

Just wanted to say that while fooling around on Akinator, thinking of my own char for the lulz, I got Quigley. And when I tought of Quigley, I got Sorin Markov, from Magic: The Gathering. At least they all have white hair and use magic of sorts?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:24:03 -0400

Wow, Quigley made it to Akinator? I knew Duane and Sette are on there but that's crazy. I dunno much about M:TG, but a lot of people say Quigs looks like Lezard from the Valkyrie Profile games, which I can kind of see, particularly in his intro scene.

I used to have lovely flowing locks. Shoulder length. Black. Till a friend made me self conscious by telling me constantly I was thinning in back. Now I shave it. if I go bald, it'll be on MY terms, not mother nature's!

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:22:06 -0400

That's right! Don't take that shit from her!

Toma was ogling Uaid? Didn't realize he swung that way. What's the name for a fetish for magically animated objects/constructs?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:21:19 -0400

I'm not sure, but I should figure this out since I'm sure this phenomenon must exist in Unsounded.

I'm hiding from sleep. What do you do when you're hiding from sleep?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:20:17 -0400

Draw comic pages :3 I bet you are asleep now. Have that dream where you think you're on the toilet and pee all over the place. Dooooo it~~

I'm a huge fan of Matsuno... I've played and beaten Tactics Ogre, FFT, Vagrant Story, March of the Black Queen and FFXII... I'm wondering if you have any recommendations game/movie/reading wise that I would enjoy if I liked these?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:19:23 -0400

Matsuno fan! Brother from another mother! I have heard that Dark Souls is an awesome game and very Vagrant Storyish, but I never had the right console to try it out. Could be worth a look. Meanwhile, he has a game for 3DS called Crimson Shroud coming out soon, and it's supposed to hearken to his old Ivalice games. It's sad though, 'cause I read in an interview that he's kind of burned out on that "Matsuno atmosphere" and wants to do more lighthearted fare. That makes me think of like, FFTAdvance, which I disliked. Anyway, did you know he wrote the game MadWorld? He is so cool, I love him.

When Duane gets the urge to eat people, is he still civilized about it? Does he marinade and cook them before he eats them or perhaps something with a light garnish and oh, now I'm hungry.

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:15:18 -0400

Naw, he doesn't have a sense of smell nor taste buds, so there's no real compulsion to improve the flavour. It's more a craving for like, warm, fibrous wetness, and gettin' all up in dat shit would feel so good. Like sex, maybe, almost like a sexual desire... thing.

I'm hungry too. Let's go make ourselves pancakes and reconvene here in ten minutes. Aaaaand... break!

What does Quigley taste of, Uaid?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 01:28:54 -0400

Grumpiness.

Is Matty trying to hide in Uaid's cockpit, or is he just too short to "see" over the dashboard? Also, does Toma realize that there's a kid driving the ogre, or is he just too dumbfounded?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 01:28:33 -0400

He's hiding. That's not him talking, it's Chitz ;) Blame it on the beanbag, it was all his idea! I don't think Toma registered the source of the voice, he was too busy oggling the ogre.

I've never been sure on how to pronounce Uaid's name...oo-aid, or you-aid?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 01:25:41 -0400

Wade!

Does Duane experience hallucinations all through the night, or just in the "in-between" time?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 01:25:26 -0400

You shall see.

Ok, concerning cutting hair, what if one is naturally bald. I mean no hair; Kojak style?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:18:14 -0400

Doesn't happen! There really is no natural baldness among the Aldish. Were you among their number you would have lovely, flowing locks, SO.

You mentioned FF:Tactics, were you as fond of its plot as I was? People tend to criticize it, saying it was too complicated but I thought it was sort of remnicent of shakespeare, only with demons and what not.

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 19:23:58 -0400

Comparing it to Shakespeare is a bit much perhaps, but I really do love the plot. I've always thought that Delita is one of the most complex and fully realised characters in RPGs. FFT manages to tell a better story with textboxes and sprites than most AAA titles today manage with full voice acting and motion-captured 3D. Yasumi Matsuno - absolute genius. Anyway, try Tactics Ogre if you liked FFT.

Has a video game ever made you cry? If so, when?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:09:56 -0400

Man, I cry more often at video games than movies. The entire Vagrant Story endgame - even in subsequent playthroughs - gets me bawling inconsolably. Raziel's fate at the end of LoK: Defiance - total bitch tears. Krelian's last scene in Xenogears - kill me. Delita and Ovelia in FFTactics? I don't want to live. Mary reading the letter at the end of Silent Hill 2? Utterly verklempt. I even got a little choked up in Order of Ecclesia when Albus sacrificed himself.

The Legend of Korra (you know, the sequel to Avatar Last Airbender thing) episode one has been leaked. You seen it? What's your opinion?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:04:36 -0400

Yep, I watched it yesterday. It was terrific! No complaints.

is http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/supplement/002.html and the rest canon? will Duane run across someone selling watered down versions of his diary??? will he be sad or ragey?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:37:11 -0400

Absolutely, it's all still canon. I guess the select few people who read the supplement stuff before I nixed it may one day have a deeper understanding of... something mysterious!

Will you explain the Kasslynian (I dunno what the proper adjective form of Kasslyne is, so feel free to correct that. Correction would be good.) calendar, pretty please?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:04:22 -0400

"Kasslynian" is exactly right.

Kasslyne doesn't use a standard calendar. Instead time is divided into four quarters, each corresponding to one of the Gefendur Twins, and each quarter is initiated once a certain event in the natural world begins. Spring, for instance, begins when the first softi flower blooms in Ulestry's capitol. Years can be anything from 340 to 400 days long, there's no standard. I usually just translate the four quarters as spring, summer, winter, or fall, it saves on confusion. There are no months though, just the four quarters, or seasons.

Most of Kasslyne marks the years according to the reign of the Crescian queens. I can't remember the exact year but we're on four-hundred and something of the Sonorie dynasty. Alderode, on the other hand, has been marking the years since the country was founded, and is in the three-thousands. There was a movement to reboot the year count after the country moved from the monarchy to Vits, but it was ultimately defeated. There's a fatuous belief that having a year count in the thousands compared to Cresce's count in the hundreds, makes them sound cooler.

What's your favourite smell?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:54:54 -0400

Oranges and the Gulf of Mexico.

Those Unsounded supplements are fantastic, I do love reading first person style writings from other perspectives, especially in a world as rich as yours. Do you ever plan to write more of them?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:54:13 -0400

Thanks! I'd like to write some more, though I did kind of abandon the prose supplement idea. I've been working on the story of Wrath of Dog, which is a pretty good one and gets into Sharteshane, the Frummagems, Sette's homelife, and what went down in the two months before Nary sends Sette off on her mission. I wanted to add illustrations, then try selling it in pdf instalments. We'll see if I can pull it off D:

Do you believe that the Democratic party is liberal?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:54:10 -0400

Hahaha. No. It's in the center, at best, but leans Right.

Hm. But don't you think deportation is a little extreme? In many cases, it's basically a death sentence. Are you okay with illegal immigrants being granted the opportunity to become legal citizens?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:10:22 -0400

I think deportation is the only thing that makes sense. When you steal something and get caught, you don't get to keep it. I mean, it sucks. I wish there were no countries and no borders and resources enough for everyone, but that's not the case. It is not evil that the US has immigration processes. I want to live in Canada but I understand that I can't just pack my things and move there.

If the lawbreaker in question is seeking asylum in the US and would be sent back to some wartorn hell or a tyrannous regime that's out for their blood, then there's a case to be made for them.

What are your feelings on Dubstep?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:31:19 -0400

I'm cool with it, but I don't understand why it was getting so much attention there for a while.

You have been given access to a nuclear weapon. What do you do with it?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:30:47 -0400

Destroy it. Nukes are bad, mmkay?

What is your unpopular opinion (Politics, society, culture, anything)?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:30:33 -0400

I'm a Lib when it comes to everything but immigration. If you come to the US illegally, you're breaking the law and should be deported. As much as I'd like to, I can't just go plant my flag in a European country or Canada and call it my new home. Follow the law, people.

So the Silvers try to stay isolated from the other castes, but are they ok with having servants and such of other castes, or do the work things so that everyone in the little Silver society is Silver?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:26:58 -0400

There are a lot of different Silver communities scattered throughout the country, and they all have their own thoughts on this. Most Silvers though, particularly in the cities, are very friendly and want to get along with all the castes, so they have no restrictions on this. It's only when it comes to friendship and romantic relationships that they are so standoffish.

Are there Aldish purists who refuse to cut their hair because it's a symbol of their caste and place in life and to cut it would be to insult the Dammakhert or something?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:24:13 -0400

Funnily enough, Aldish Gefendur clergy do not cut their hair. When Duane was a young man in seminary, he and a few friends experienced a minor feud with the Gefendur school across town. To settle it, they snuck into the dormitories one night and introduced lice to everyone's bedsheets. No one ever put two and two together, so when half the school's population had to shave their heads, the administrators took it as a terrible omen that they'd offended Tirna, and the school was shut down and everyone transferred. Adelier's finest hour.

So, is it really insulting if an Aldish citizen suddenly stops letting someone cut their hair?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:19:42 -0400

I would say so. Good passive-aggressive tactic :D

Hold on. If Quigley's wife is dead, then who cuts his hair?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:19:14 -0400

Cuts it himself.

is http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/supplement/001.html canon?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:18:57 -0400

Yep.

Does Quigley still burn Matty's hair, or has his hate of Aldish life extended to all the little meaningless customs and superstitions not tied directly to the institutions?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 02:11:03 -0400

Quigley still burns Matty's hair and his own. There are some superstitions it's just too hard to shake off.

What is the Aldish policy on plucking or shaving one's hair off?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:34:10 -0400

Beards aren't fashionable at the moment in Alderode - at least not in the cities - so shaving whiskers is plenty common. The Aldish are very superstitious about their hair though, so no one shaves the hair up top, and you only let your loved ones cut it. Parents cut their kids' hair, husbands and wives cut their spouses' hair, and so on. Clippings are always thoroughly burned afterwards.

They are a really weird people.

Does Chitz have a six-pack?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:30:46 -0400

Of Yahoo.

"There was a page I cut from the thumbnails of Toma seeing Duane's showy "mountain punch" from a distance, goading Pantoffel forward, and tearing off the inconvenient rags of his bloody uniform" vote incentive!!!!!!!!

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:30:17 -0400

Some wonderful soul has beat me to it http://unsoundedshipping.deviantart.com/art/Unsounded-Page-42-5-What-Could-Have-Been-290888746

Ooo! Ooo! Pick a caste for me too, please!

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:29:14 -0400

Um! I'ma say you're a Bronze. Deal with it, commoner!

Could pymary be used to make oneself appear taller? In other words, is Quigley secretly 4'11"?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:28:36 -0400

You can glamour yourself to be however tall you want, I reckon. Quigley needs no glamours though; he is naturally fabulous, of a perfect tallness, and has a wang that reaches to the moon.

Under which trope do you prefer villains to fall under: Complete Monster or Sympathetic Villain?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:27:04 -0400

Wow, that's really circumstantial, innit? I mean, I think they each have their place and when done well, are equally awesome. Look at Escaflowne. Is Dilandau or Folken the better villain? I CANNOT CHOOSE.

"I very much appreciate characters who stay dead in video games, cartoons, anime, and comic books. " That better not include Murkoph!!! }:C

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:24:48 -0400

Undead characters get a pass :3

What about Zack Unfair?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:24:38 -0400

Right bastard, that one.

What is a guilty pleasure song of yours/a song you'd otherwise never admit to adoring?

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:17:22 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU0C1xHS8BI

Hmm, what's your opinion of Zack Fair?

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:44:41 -0400

Zack's a cool fellow, I do not find him offensive. I even thought his relationship with Aerithhhh in Crisis Core was kind of sweet. Also, he has the good sense to stay dead. I very much appreciate characters who stay dead in video games, cartoons, anime, and comic books.

Not sure if you've been asked this before, but which of the characters (if any in particular) is your favorite to write for? Why?

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 04:04:17 -0400

Murkoph is a lot of fun to write for because he shies away from absolutely no language. He will be as profane or as poetic as the situation calls for, and I find it impossible to censor him. I think some of the best things I've ever written have been from his point of view. He has the fine tastes of a gourmand, the joie de vivre of a child, the carnal needs of a man, and the morality of a monster.

Wait! You're assigning castes now? DO ME DO ME DO ME!!!!!! Please?

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 03:59:50 -0400

Well, do you feel you are more valuable than other people? Are you always right? Are you an alpha? You might just be a Copper.

Are you constantly dissatisfied with everything and everyone around you? Does the world as it is make you restless and unhappy? Are you an idealist? You might be a Jet.

Do you often feel inferior or passed over? Do people cross to the other side of the street when they see you coming? Do you have trouble getting reservations at the best restaurants in town? You might be a Bronze.

Are you spiritual? Scholarly? In touch with the earth? Are you of modest means but high ambitions? You might be a Gold.

Are you easy-going and just a bit frivolous? Are you content with a good meal and a friend to share it with? Is tomorrow a worry for tomorrow and today an excuse for a good time? You may be a Silver.

Are you beautiful and serene? Do you gravitate towards art and music, poetry and philosophy? Do you feel at one with the gods and largely uninterested in the goings-on of this world? You may be a Plat.

Are there other pymaric appendages aside from arms? Like ones for a lost finger or ear? The boobs one doesn't count since it's not an actual replacement. :I

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 03:50:28 -0400

Definitely! Pymarics are expensive though, so unless you're rich you might want to really carefully consider how much you miss that finger or ear.

Do most of your characters have detailed backgrounds in the way that Starfish has, or is he a special case?

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 03:49:24 -0400

All of my main characters have really fleshed-out backstories, but more minor characters like Ephsephin and Turas and the like... not so much. Starfish started out a minor character but I enjoy drawing him so much, and he's so delightfully nasty, that I changed the script to let him stick around for longer. There's a lot to be said for an uncomplicated antagonist with very straightforward motivations in a world that's otherwise all shades of grey. Starfish is useful.

Does Duane's cast have anything to do with him becoming a zombie?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 22:49:07 -0400

Isn't this lovely? I want to lick the pianist's head all over while he plays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10V52ytU4tI

Can pymary be used to 'stuff' your top to make your boobs look bigger? or maybe actually MAKE them bigger?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:52:21 -0400

Absolutely. You could switch the dimension of your boob with the dimension of an appropriately shaped clay ball. But it wouldn't create mass where there is no mass, it would only enlarge the bounding box, so to speak. So a dress would fit just fine over it, but viewed naked it would still look its regular size. Now, if you combined a dimension switch with a glamour, you'd get the full effect, but since your boob is not made of a First Material, it would not be permanent - the switch would only last as long as you (assuming you're a wright) actively maintain the spells. For a semi-permanent effect, you would enchant these boob-altering spells into some kind of pymaric - perhaps a lovely First Material broach - which would project the spells onto the malformed boob indefinitely.

If a girl on Kasslyne were to discover that one boobie is approximately a quarter of the size of its mate, are there an options for her to use to hide this issue?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:41:44 -0400

Smallboob :( The easiest thing to do would be to stuff one's corset accordingly, I suppose.

Is there anything cool about the Silvers? Aside from being awesome, of course.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:13:20 -0400

Silvers (and many Plats) have a reputation of living for the moment. They have almost genetically short memories which makes them pretty fatalistic, pretty upbeat, pretty easy to get along with. SIlvers don't hold grudges, but they do react swiftly to immediate insults and threats, and can be pretty brutal in a fight. Their culture stresses family and solidarity in the SIlver community, and a certain level of secretiveness. Most Silver ghers (communities) have their own pidgin language and their own secret names that are only used around each other and in the home.

Glass, are you secretly someone I know personally? Because you've got me pegged... I read the Silver Wiki entry... it's actually kind of creepy how well that fits.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:12:01 -0400

That is why I chose it, my lovely. I DO pay attention :)

Would Boo be sad if it knew it had hurt someone?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:03:20 -0400

Boo wouldn't know how to act. Boo is a very young... thing... and still needs to learn its morality. It's kind of a baby.

Is Alderode (geographically, not politically) kind of like Canada?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:53:20 -0400

Mm, it's more like Russia. Extreme winters and summers, lots of taiga, tundra, and steppes, a lot of coastline, a lot of lakes.

Are there monkeys in Kasslyne?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:46:38 -0400

No monkeys. But there are bears.

If Quigley wasn't fighting with Duane, and, say, Matty was around, could his buggy-shawl bugs be friendly like Boo is, or are they always all about the pain and misery?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:45:59 -0400

Swarm (the mantle bugs) is pretty dumb and doesn't have a personality. All it exists for is to be hungry, violent, and attack what Quigley tells it to. So it wouldn't be friendly like Boo.

Also related: What does Boo think of pretty dresses? Pantoffel?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:44:14 -0400

Boo likes everything. Pantoffel is a dog and likes bones and butt scratches.

Related: What does Duane think of pretty dresses?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:44:10 -0400

He likes them, particularly if beneath there is a curvy ass and a few handfuls of boob.

What does Elka think of pretty dresses?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:43:43 -0400

They have their place.

Could we paint Uaid with really sparkly paint? What would the Quigleys think of this upgrade?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:42:56 -0400

Haha, Matty wouldn't think anything of it, being unable to see it. Qiugley would probably stave your head in though. Uaid is already stupid looking, please don't make it worse.

Last time we saw Toma his shirt was still roughly 60% intact. Did you deny us a glorious two page spread of him tearing the rags of his shirt asunder?! Did you deny your female fans that wonderful bit of fanservice?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:42:03 -0400

I did :( There was a page I cut from the thumbnails of Toma seeing Duane's showy "mountain punch" from a distance, goading Pantoffel forward, and tearing off the inconvenient rags of his bloody uniform. It was just too goofy though, I had to kill it. He IS shirtless though! That in itself was fairly generous of me, I thought :D

So does Quigley only take care of Matty out of obligation, or does he honestly love him? How would he feel if something happened to Matty (i.e. goodness forbid, the poor kid died)?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:06:39 -0400

Good questions.

What sort of future did Matty's mother envision for him? His father?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:34:26 -0400

Quigley was seldom around and never cared about what Matty did with himself. Not much of a father. Matty's mom wanted him to go into the family business.

It looks like Quigley's bugs are trying to pull Duane's hood off. It's either than or fly in his mouth, as bugs like to do.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:32:34 -0400

I think both. And stab him too. They're waspy. I redrew a lot of that page before it went up. Very troublesome.

A lot of people hate on characters mainly because they do despicable things. For me it's more the personality traits that make me dislike characters. What kind of characters or character traits do you dislike in fiction?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:13:25 -0400

I loathe helpless damsels and women just waiting around to fall in love or be rescued. To paraphrase Hyakurin in Blade of the Immortal, "When they have to, women can kill just fine." I hate passive characters, characters that the plot happens TO instead of being dynamic forces within it. That kind of sets me against white bread protagonists like Luke Skywalker (though he gets better) or Shinji from Evangelion, Hitomi from Escaflowne, Bella from Twilight. Give me Ripley, give me Jim Hawkins, give me Captain Ahab. Strike the sun if it insults you! Rawr!

Two questions: is Matty as awesome at Pymary as his dad, just no one knows about it yet? Like does his blindnesmintensive him heightened awareness of the Khert? Also, do we get to see some Duane flashbacks at some point? Cuz that would be dope.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:40:25 -0400

Naw, Matty knows no pymary, cannot sense the khert better than anyone else, and is harbouring no secret BLIND POWERS! Other than the little eccentricities that Chitz grants him. And yes, most of chapter seven is an Alderode flashback.

You don't feel bad for Will? I know I don't know anything about RP, but I think an eternity of torment outweighs any fleeting joy one got to experience in life. D:

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:38:19 -0400

Oh, we wound up resolving all that pretty neatly. We said that Will's soul had been split by the trauma, so a necromancer chick of Steve's came in and tidied things up, and Will's asylum-half stayed around playing protector to all the ghost kids. It was an awesome thing.

"There is no alive Duane. Duane died and got rotten :( " But you could do a flashback sort of thingy, no? And when do we get to know more about our dear zombies past?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:36:33 -0400

Chapter seven is mostly flashback. Some people may be disappointed by the nature of them, some people may be delighted. I worry D:

Unsounded shirtless dudes checklist: Toma, Quigley, Matty, Bett, and Starfish, check. Eph, partial check. Bastion, check check check. That leaves Duane, but I only want to see that if he’s alive. When do we get to see alive Duane without a shirt? Hmmm?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:00:18 -0400

There is no alive Duane. Duane died and got rotten :(

Can Duane be sleeveless for the rest of the chapter?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:59:11 -0400

Poor Duane doesn't get a change of clothes for like three-hundred pages, poor bastard.

Oh. Hey. Shirtless Toma is nice. Can we see shirtless Elka? Obviously it would take some contrived excuse but I'm okay with that.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:09:24 -0400

PG-13, baby.

Can you make the alteration to Toma's uniform permanent please? Thanks.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:44:21 -0400

Permanent for the rest of the chapter! Am I not merciful?

Has Sette had to deal with controlling Duane while he's wigging out in a situation like this before? What's her state of alarm right now, on a scale of 1 to 10?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:44:00 -0400

I would say it's a ten, but only because of the timing. She's been travelling with Duane for quite a while now, so I think we can assume that when it comes to handling him, she knows what she's doing.

"Nighttime Duane can't do pymary." Team Zombie's gonna get their ass kicked.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:30:20 -0400

Hmm!

I don't normally bring up fanfiction, since most of it's crap and everyone has such different tastes, but have you read this yet? http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:30:05 -0400

No, I haven't really read fanfiction since my FFVII days. I don't have time for proper novels much less fan stuff. Thanks though ;)

Shirtless Toma. He deserves another couple of opera... things because of this. y/n?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:28:45 -0400

Yes please.

Pantoffel makes clomping noises? I thought that was Uaid for sure.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:28:33 -0400

Hmm!

So is Duane losing his grip on his spells as he descends into madness, or is he full out brainless zombie now?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:15:36 -0400

Nighttime Duane can't do pymary.

What, if anything, was the one real spark that sort of flared the whole Unsounded/rp 'verse into being?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:11:26 -0400

I would have to trace it back to Murkoph. Murkoph was an original character in a Vagrant Story RP long ago. He needed a backstory, and everything else kind of sprang from that. Sette is an older character than Murkoph but she came out of stories and settings that really had nothing to do with Unsounded, so I'm not countin' her.

Do you ever feel sorry for Will?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:09:39 -0400

Will's lot isn't too bad on the whole. He had some rough patches in RP, what with the being kidnapped and butt-raped by a sadistic elf and then the haunted asylum debacle, but he also has frequent sex with pretty hot chicks, has a great job, has a cool wooden arm, and awesome silver hair that is often the cause of the frequent sex with the hot chicks.

Unsounded Will is much younger but, as you shall some day see, his lot in life isn't too bad either. Even when life kicks him around a bit he's pretty upbeat and not inclined to feel sorry for himself - so I'm not inclined to feel sorry for him either :3

Have you ever thought of changing all your online handles to Glasssssssssshard?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:08:08 -0400

No, that is obnoxious D: There is a very cool online artist whose name is like... keiiii. I think it's four i's. But four i's! What a pain to remember.

And, if they could, could they also hypothetically make the humidity rise, the barometer lower, the street the place to go and, for the first time, just about half past ten, for the first time in history, make it start raining men?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:06:59 -0400

Hahahaha. Fakult <3

I expect this has been asked before but could a Wright hypothetically change the weather with pymary?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:06:27 -0400

Some can, with enough time and the proper equipment. It requires a really long reach, a pymaric that acts as a sort of khert-radar, projecting a map of the local cloudcover, and a few hours to get a complete picture of the clouds, wind, and moisture in the area. So it's not something one can do in a fight, but if one wants be Batman and prepare, it can be useful.

What's your account on y!gallery?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:09:04 -0400

http://www.y-gallery.net/user/glassshard/ - both things up there are old and blah. Don't get excited.

Is soud just the Tainish word for gold, or is it what the souds originally actually called themselves? If so, is there another word used for, say, the metal or the color?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:43:29 -0400

Well, the soud were originally the Tainish people, and they called themselves the "Tainit." When Alderode was founded and the caste system initiated, the king at the time looked out at his sea of strangely coloured subjects and - because the Dammakhert is connected to the earth of Alderode - saw them as the land's own wealth of precious ores given the shape of men, pleading to be smelt and shaped by a firm metalsmith. Lo, he named them after the materials he felt suited them, and they've been called that since.

There isn't another word for the castes' corresponding metals, they still use the same word. They also use the same word to refer to hair colours, just add -ul to the caste. So blonde is "soudul" in Tainish.

It's π day! Will you celebrate with delicious pie?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:31:05 -0400

I celebrated with a salad! Do you have any idea how many calories are in pi? Let's not get crazy here.

I kind of already talked to an accountant about the proper procedure for setting up an LLC, and whether or not it would be the optimal solution for properly merchandising Unsounded. I'm sorry.

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:29:29 -0400

You rascal.

Ever had an art account for... explicit pictures?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:29:18 -0400

I have a few things up at y!gallery but it's nothing all that exciting. I don't draw much porn. I always preferred the written variety to the visual.

That webcomic contest is in the next round, with brackets, and Unsounded is here: http://www.comicmix.com/news/2012/03/14/vote-in-the-mix-march-madness-2012-webcomics-tournament-first-round/4/. Consider yourself bullied into mentioning it on Friday!

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:12:24 -0400

Haha, I will mention it if it looks like I need the votes :D Looks like I'm okay at the moment. I always thought Bear Nuts had really fun art.

How often do you use traditional media, if at all? I find traditional inking to be so much more pleasant than digital, though I can see how digital could be fun if you're actually good at it, and more efficient for comics to boot.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:51:52 -0400

I used to ink traditionally as well, with a real brush and a bottle of FW black and everything. I was pretty good at it too, but you really can't beat digital for speed and flexibility.

Do the Red Berry Boys go through the trouble of assessing each of their slaves for usefulness before taking out their innards? If not, how did they pick Jivi out? Was he the only able-bodied one out of all their cargo? Or did they only need one "helper"?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:45:32 -0400

These questions will be addressed one day! Jivi has a story to tell.

Reading back through the archive while netflix has a fit. >.> Why haven't the RBB cut Jivi open?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:54:26 -0400

They hadn't cut Jivi open yet in the crypt because he was tending to the others, keeping the place clean, and killing rats so they didn't have to. Jivi was the only literal slave in the bunch, effectively. Afterwards Quigley was with them, remember? And Quigley had bargained for Jivi and the rest of the kids, so Starfish didn't get a chance to do anything worse than gnaw his ear a bit.

Whaaaaa, but now I wanna know what it waaaaas!

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:34:56 -0400

Wait twelve pages.

"Duane's experience with Cara only further cemented that notion." But didn't Cara say that the Ilganyag, or "Blacktongue Doctor" Was trying to help her? (I suspect Bastion) She ran away on her own and got caught. Why would Duane blame the Ilganyag?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:28:17 -0400

Because I forgot I edited something out of the Cara scene. Disregard >_>

If you were serious about wanting me to be your business manager, I'll make some calls and see about setting up an LLC in Florida for you, and look into getting the resources to make custom t-shirts which are of good quality.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:26:49 -0400

I admire your initiative, Son, but I was only foolin'. Tough job market out there, eh?

I keep fish! I'm guessing that since they don't like the ocean very much, the Aldish would probably never want salt-water fishtanks... Is any form of fishkeeping popular at all in any part of the world in Unsounded?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:46:55 -0400

Ha, no, people much prefer to eat fish. It's only the Ssaelit among the Aldish who have a thing with the ocean - most Aldish are Gefendur and think this is stupid. And that Ssaelit are stupid.

I used to have little feeder fish when I was a kid. They were named after the cast of Cheers.

Does coffee, tea or any equivalent exist anywhere on Kasslyne?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:44:46 -0400

Gotta have coffee. No tea though. Warm, goaty, fruity yoghurt drinks are a big thing in Alderode to stave off the cold.

Time for another language question! The word "Pymary" and it's associated "Pymaric" bring me delight without end. I just love the scholarly feeling of the pair. How did you come up with them?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:58:16 -0400

I... am not sure. I know this is a horrible answer but a lot of words and names just show up in my brain, and I go with them. It may be a deformation of the word "primary," since pymary deals with the primary language and the primary aspects of materials. Anyway, they're definitely not Tainish words :)

How do you do your flatting process? I know you use the select tool, but whenever I've tried this I end up with horrible 1px white gaps around the lines that I have to then fill in manually, which can take almost as long as using a brush. Any tips? =/

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:52:30 -0400

Select>modify selection>expand

I use 3px, but the number will depend on how thick or thin your lines are. Alternately, do all your inking with the pencil tool, which will lay down unaliased pure black lines that will be much kinder to your magic wand.

Can I be your attack hitman? Do you need one of those?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:22:56 -0400

I need a business manager. Be my business manager.

Does Duane feel tiredness? He seems utterly exhausted right now, not to mention probably in pain.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:22:39 -0400

Duane Goes Away at night. As that departure approaches, one could compare the feeling he experiences to exhaustion.

PROFESSOR BANDAGES?! AHAHAHA! I'm sorry, Duane. I still love you! Also, how awesome is Sette likely to think Uaid? No doubt that's him coming.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:21:29 -0400

Did Duane immediately thing of Cara when Quigley suggested/asked he might be a Black Tongue? And was Quigs insulting him with that suggestion?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:21:18 -0400

Quigs wasn't insulting him, Quigley thinks the Ilganyag is pretty damn cool. Everyone else though - Duane included - thinks they are blasphemous, treacherous, dangerous tards. Duane's experience with Cara only further cemented that notion.

I feel like I missed something while reading the page on Alderode in the wiki! While each caste ages past adulthood differently, does that mean children grow at a normal rate for humans, or does it vary?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:20:05 -0400

Kids grow at a normal rate.

What does asking knowing what caste someone is tell Quigley?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:18:19 -0400

The strength and stability of their connection to the khert, and if he should hate them particularly fiercely or not. Quigley's got a chip on his shoulder for Jets and Coppers more than anyone else. Anyway, since Duane's soud, or a Gold, he's untouched by the Dammakhert and a wild card, so knowing his caste tells Quigley little.

What is unicorn-goat milk like? Cheese made from such milk? Is it like sheep milk or goat milk or cow milk or people milk or horse milk or cat milk? Is it entirely its own experience? Can the jelly be added to flavour it? Share with me the wonders!

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:41:43 -0400

It's very much like goat milk - indistinguishable even - and monny cheese is very much like smoky goat cheese. It's not really mixed with the blood-jelly, the flavours don't mesh. Monny jelly has a really weird sweet/sour/citrus flavour all its own, and mixing it with the milk would be like... I dunno, mixing your orange juice with your breakfast milk. The idea makes me want to claw out my tongue.

Duane has a flat? What does it look like? Is it tastefully decorated? Does Duane have a cat? He seems like he would be a cat person. Is Duane a cat person? Would Duane ever eat a cat? Have I asked too many questions in one message? Do you like Caramel?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:38:55 -0400

No one's ever been inside Duane's flat except Duane and a man of Nary's who broke in there to snoop. It is only two rooms, very small, and in a poor part of town. The rooms are largely empty except for a very large writing desk with stands and paper and quills and inks and all the accouterments of letter-writing and document-copying. The cat questions are impossible, there are no housecats in Kasslyne. Caramel is nice.

That was fun, Glass. I can be your fandom attack dog er...bird in the future if you'd like.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:33:12 -0400

You are so vicious! I thought there'd be a flippant comment about spermatozoa and we'd all call it a night :3

Don't you like Korn? I don't really know much about your taste in music, so I'm not sure if that track was particularly bad or you just dislike the whole band...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:32:29 -0400

I don't know much about Korn, but I find that track really ill-suited to a Silent Hill game. I don't mean to single out Korn or anything, I'm sure they're lovely in other situations.

A little curious now about whether Quigley was actually impressed by Duane's show of pyramy as he seemed to hint last page, or just stalling for time.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:01:26 -0400

No, he was really blown away by it (hohoho). Seriously though, Quigs is legitimately impressed, s'why he asked about his caste.

Wait. What??? Quigley and Sette's cousin are going to be romantically involved with each other at some point???? When will this happen?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:53:49 -0400

What what? All I said was people might ship them D: They look pretty together.

Quigley is about to pull out a flashlight and shine it in Duane's eyes for a moment oh god Duane, put your hood back on.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:42:17 -0400

Not terribly likely. Quigley's current hypothesis is that Duane has some undead limbs attached to an otherwise alive man. The idea of an actual talking, thinking, pymary-casting zombie is so impossible that it doesn't even come to mind. Yet.

I agree with you, white chocolate is TERRIBLE. But I seem to have a strange hatred of all things white and creamy. I also can't stand vanilla ice cream, milk, ranch dressing, whipped cream, and sour cream. I'm weird, I guess.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:23:33 -0400

I... I... could say something really vile, but I will leave it up to @Fakult

Have you played Dragon Age: Origins?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:13:53 -0400

Nope!

Holy cow. Glass, apparent lover of all things consumable, doesn't like white chocolate?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:13:38 -0400

It is the devil's food.

White chocolate tastes like white chocolate, or dirty wax. Those people /are/ mad. 99% rich dark actual real cocoa chocolate with hot chili's all the way!

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:13:14 -0400

Testify.

When you log into Formspring at night, how many questions do you usually have waiting for you in your Inbox from the day?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:12:54 -0400

I think I get like twenty a day now, maybe? It's not too unmanageable.

Coming from a discussion of kids smashing baked goods, would Matty smash a cake if given the chance? Cos seriously that'd be so frikkin cute.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:12:23 -0400

Wh-why would he smash a cake? D: Why would anyone? We EAT cake!

How do you feel about Mystery Science theater 3000?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:11:52 -0400

I never watched it religiously but the episodes I saw were always worth a chuckle.

Exactly how awesome would Sette think Jivi's mom was?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:11:29 -0400

Perhaps we shall see for ourselves one day :)

What did Quigley mean by texture? I'm intrigued.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:11:19 -0400

A person's pymary often has a "feel" to it. Not a texture per se, not a smell, not an appearance even, but a person's pymary feels like them. And Duane's pymary, wonderful though it is, feels cold, hard, and constantly working around enchantments that are terribly reminiscent of what powers plods.

Now that Duane's caste has officially been confirmed (kudos to you for doing it in a cool way), is there anything you'd like to add now that it can presumably be chatted about?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:02:59 -0400

Blondes have more fun.

What crazy pairing do you expect to take off?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:13:56 -0400

Based on the scene I'm drawing at the moment, maybe Annadyne and Quigley. Honestly though, Unsounded isn't a good comic for shippers, I think. You really gotta work at it.

I agree with Hyugados, white chocolate is delicious.

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:43:12 -0400

You are both mad.

What kind of stuff do you talk about in that VGMC place? Is it mostly just video game music?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:24:15 -0400

That, and everything else. Uh, here's a sample from this afternoon~

[18:08:49] i have a monster sweet tooth
[18:09:00] i have learned to keep it in check with fruit
[18:09:05] I like anything with coconut in it.
[18:09:16] but goddamn, if you set a bar of white chocolate in front of me
[18:09:23] Disgusting.
[18:09:26] my friends come over here and eat all my candy cause i have so much of it just sitting around
[18:09:28] White chocolate is disgusting.
[18:09:33] you're a crazy person
[18:09:34] You can't even eat candy right, Hyuga, goddamnit.
[18:09:41] haha
[18:10:07] go to the fucking store and buy a bar of Green & Black's white chocolate with vanilla bean
[18:10:14] Fuck that hippie candy.
[18:10:38] You know what I do when I want chocolate? I eat store brand baking chocolate bricks like a homeless person.
[18:10:50] haha
[18:10:59] one day adel, i'm going to rape your taste buds with organic candy, and then you'll hate me forever
[18:11:13] Only do it if you're gonna marry me and change my financial future.
[18:11:42] http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4120/4743538974_67df8a9d86.jpg
[18:11:52] Wax.
[18:11:54] i'll eat the fucking wrapper it's so good
[18:12:05] I don't think I've ever seen that brand.
[18:12:29] Where do you shop? Birkenstocks & Solar Panels Unlimited?
[18:12:46] I live in Boulder, darlin'
[18:12:48] so... yes.

Cresce reminds me sometimes of dystopian literature. Was that intentional?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:48:13 -0400

Cresce and Alderode are both dystopian. The primary difference between them is that one is tyrannical for the sake of the common good, while the other is tyrannical for the sake of the tyrants.

Are you a member of any other art sites (besides DA)?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:47:11 -0400

I have a y!gallery account but I think there are like two things on there.

I am REALLY bad at drawing hoods. Can you give any advice?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:46:30 -0400

Draw the head first, then draw the hood laying over it. If you have no luck, think about investing in a hooded sweatshirt for yourself so you can always have reference. I was crappy at hoods for a long time too, ese, I understand the struggle.

I think Quigley is my favorite character. There is something about him. I sense deep pain! I know you work ahead, could you show me a future panel of him being awesome?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:21:52 -0400

Quigs is at his awesomest when he's not being a dick to his son.

Do each of the Aldish classes have somewhere in history they originated from?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:51:52 -0400

No. They all came into being at the same time.

Do they ever stuff anything with that delicious-sounding unicorn goat jelly? That could make good dessert... deep fried.

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:49:59 -0400

If you added some sweetener and warmed it up, I bet it could be used similarly to azuki bean paste, and stuffed in fried sesame balls. Oh, Jesus, need to eat...

Did you have to brush up on biology to create such detailed Aldish classes?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:47:45 -0400

The Aldish classes? Haha, I don't know that they have too much to do with biology. In fact I think there is something overtly unnatural and engineered about them. What I did have to do is a lot of thinking about sociology and reading about different cultures throughout history and how people have consistently manipulated other people into acting against their own best interests. Getting Alderode's culture just right so it works with the castes was a challenge, but there is so much precedent for it throughout history - throughout present times even - that it's kind of disheartening. Cresce's society is even more challenging however, since in many ways it strives to go AGAINST humanity's history of dickery.

Does the Unsounded universe have fried chicken?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:42:45 -0400

They have chicken... and they fry things... so yes. Goddamn, anon, you're making me hungry.

Wait, the hat doesn't die after all? Happy dance

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:40:34 -0400

I dunno, man, it doesn't look healthy. I think it's now an undead hat.

Did GFXartist.com feel like a waste of time?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:40:13 -0400

Not at all, because it pushed me to improve. Sometimes you need a bit of competition in your life to get you off your ass.

What's the last videogame you played? Are there any you want to get at the moment?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:38:55 -0400

Uh, Terraria, I guess. All the new games I want are on consoles that I don't have so nuts to that.

Have you ever eaten fried chicken sushi?!

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:38:01 -0400

I have not! But I bet it would be pretty good. I haven't had sushi in ages, man.

When did you feel you had something to prove?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:32:04 -0400

Years and years ago I joined GFXartist.com and I wanted to be voted an elite member. I wanted that gold icon by my name so bad. So I decided I was going to get really good at digital painting. And I did. And I got voted elite. And I almost immediately got bored with the site and stopped going :D

If you could dedicate all your time to one form of storytelling, what would that be? If the answer is Unsounded, then what besides that?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:29:22 -0400

Well, obviously the answer is Unsounded since it is what I literally dedicate all my free time to. If my right hand fell off and I couldn't draw comics anymore, I guess I would fall back on writing. I like to write just as much as I like to draw, but drawing is what people like so it's what I developed more (to the detriment of whatever writing ability I have). Alas, alas.

Ever wish you still had that kind of time?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:19:46 -0400

I do, though I've never been an artist's artist. Art for me is a means to an end - that end being storytelling. If I can tell a story with comic art and not elaborate painted illustrations, that's okay. I don't feel the need anymore to prove to people that I can do those kind of illustrations. What I really wish I had time for is more storytellng, whatever form that would take.

How much time do you get to spend on your personal art?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:12:13 -0400

Well, Unsounded is my personal art. So lots of time :)

Lord Nihil is one badass bro, apparently. Do you still do this kind of painting, or has your style shifted away from it?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:50:21 -0400

There's no time to do paintings like that anymore, alas. They are very time-consuming and very expensive (so no one wants to commission them, either).

Re: Lord Nihil - Haha I was referencing the painting, I didn't realize he had been mentioned in Unsounded! It's only that I do so love his chest cavity, you see. Does that ever heal?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:41:34 -0400

Haha, it wouldn't heal, it's not a wound. Lord Nihil - assuming he exists - is unimaginably powerful and beyond the laws of the world. He looks the way he looks because it's the form he's chosen for himself, so he must enjoy showing off his heart :)

What did Duane do at night before he teamed up with Sette? Lock himself in a room?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:36:17 -0400

Yep. In the bedroom of his flat.

Where is there more information on Lord Nihil?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:34:50 -0400

Mm... nowhere... I think there might be a little blurb under the painting of him in my dA gallery. He's not in Unsounded though except as a reference, I wouldn't worry about him too much.

Who is behind the UnsoundedShipping account on DA, anyway?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:33:48 -0400

I am not sure D: Pervert! Come forward and reveal thyself!

Your music video... frightens me.

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:58:35 -0400

It's supposed to.

What's your favorite music video?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:47:00 -0400

I can't pick just one, music videos are some of my favourite things, but here's an old school favourite. Even as a prepubescent Lib, I realised this was amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU9lv_WqK6k

Two more months until we find out if Zeus impregnated you with the seed of god.

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:30:39 -0400

Ssh. Hera will hear you and turn me into a shrub or a fish or some shit.

你会说普通话吗？

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:26:55 -0400

All the Chinese I know I know from Ni Hao Kai-lan and foreign films.

What is it with White people's obsession with Nutella?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:25:28 -0400

Beats me. It's expensive and it's pretty terrible for you. I don't buy it.

Do you listen to the radio at all?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:24:46 -0400

I listen to streamingsoundtracks.com sometimes but that's the extent of it.

What's a song that gets on your nerves?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:23:35 -0400

The Korn song from the new Silent Hill game. I never thought I'd live to see the day.

Are you Sane or Insane?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:22:12 -0400

I'm not going to go chopping up anyone any time soon, but I probably have social anxiety issues and a self-esteem problem. No shit, amirite?

Bah, kids are only wasted if they're not used. Be like the noble indian! Waste nothing! Use every part of the child!

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:08:44 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jWYUtQZhK0

Actually, kid plods sounds like a great idea. Cute little necro-butler or maid children. I'd never have to make my own tea again. Another plus is that then the kids would make no noise and actually do what they're told.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:12:39 -0400

T___T

Is the reason that Duane and Sette have managed to cover so much ground so quickly because Sette is riding Duane throughout the night, every night, and OH MY GOD THAT'S WHY HIS LEGS ARE SO FRAGILE

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:53:45 -0400

One does wonder why Duane, who has been at this at least six years, would allow his leg to get so bad off that it would break at such an inconvenient time. You could be on to something, clever anon.

Right now, Unsounded is in the 18th Place with just over 1,000 votes, Just behind Lackadaisy with 1,200. It made me extremely happy for you after a sucky way back home =) Thought I'd tell you.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:29:59 -0400

Thanks, Steinhoff ^_^ To celebrate I am going to eat this single-serving cup of Luisa's Naturally & Artificially flavoured Baked Flan.

What's the most heartbreaking moment you've ever come across in a story?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:29:25 -0400

The last act of Grave of the Fireflies.

How does it make you feel that Unsounded is currently placing 19th at Mix March Madness?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:58:20 -0400

It makes me feel grateful towards the people who voted. Nice peoples, I don't deserve them.

Is it just me, or are we horrible people?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:38:34 -0400

All the freaky people make the beauty of the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbpaKg9D32o

Does Matty have a single negative quality?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:41:03 -0400

Narratively negative? He idolizes his dad and lets him get away with too much shit. This results in Matty being guilty of a lot of the same misdeeds that Quigley is guilty of. Matty could have helped Jivi out but he didn't. He assured him it would be okay and walked away. He could have gone up to a cop in Mulimar and said the Red Berry Boys were just outside town with a bunch of sick people. But he didn't.

Negative qualities to readers that I have heard? He's saccharine, a Pollyanna, irritating, gabby, and looks like a girl.

Why do you hate Matty so much? D:

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:14:05 -0400

I love Matty :D But a lot of other people hate Matty so I try to temper my affection.

Theory number X: Duane is only not paying attention and stumbling over his word because he is tacit casting a second mountain punch to finish Quigley with. Also, where is Matty?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:45:57 -0400

Quigley sent him back to camp. Possibly he is dead.

Does Starfish have a single redeeming quality?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:01:01 -0400

He is more cunning and capable than he lets on.

Duane should coat his bones in metal. Like Wolverine, only without the healing factor and the claws and the beer drinking.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:00:07 -0400

Not a bad idea, bub.

I love the way Quigley accepts his defeat, that's the spirit! Although I wonder whether he really does accept it and not tries to deceive in his turn. Though with frenzied ploich(plod+lich) around his intentions are to be deemed irrevelant, I guess.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:40:46 -0400

He's wily, that white-haired wizard.

-Counts on fingers- Well shoot. This means that Unsounded won't be updating during -gulp- finals. Whatever shall I do? D:

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:40:07 -0400

Ace your finals, graduate with honours, get an awesome job, retire as a millionaire in your forties. Win!

Would Duane's mood be improved at all by a good cleaning? He wouldn't need to worry about wet and bugs if he was just bone and fabric.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:39:32 -0400

Stay away from his tissue D:

How advanced is the Aldean understanding of how pymary and the khert work? Have they come up with mathematical formulae, sets of basic laws or stuff like that?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:38:20 -0400

To some extent, and their mathematics are good, but they're wrong-headed in a lot of their explanations. The khert is still a holy, largely unknown structure full of mysteries. It yields to pymary but pymary is really only scratching the surface.

What is studying pymary like for a student? Is it mostly theory based, or is it quite practical? I imagine it to be a bit like chemistry with some physics and vector mathematics mixed in.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:36:54 -0400

It really depends what branch of pymary the aspirant is going into. Everyone learns Old Tainish to start, learns of the khert, personal spheres, khert ports, the khert stones, of Law and Aspect, First Materials and their grades, and the theology of pymary, which is used as reasoning for some of the khert's more mysterious ways - Baelar's grammar which explains why Old Tainish is so syntactically distinct from New and why it is so picky, Baelar's senses which describe spell volumes the khert will accept, how fast and indistinct one can push syllables before the khert stops responding, etc.

Almost no one learns actual theory, since no one writes their own spells (legally). Once foundations are mastered, studies turn very practical and become focused on memorizing core spell sets, gauging the environment for the required Aspects, and executing the spell.

Fighters need the geometry and abstract algebra almost solely for dealing with forces and momentum when hurling Aspects around. Wrights who pursue more scholarly endeavours and service positions rarely bother with the maths, focusing more on meteorological theory, natural philosophy, even the visual arts if that's the direction they want to move in. It's funny but the most intelligent wrights are the ones needed for the battlefield.

B-But Starfish bites people's ears off! A-And has yet to do anything to prove his badassery! Besides, it's more fun to make fun of gloomy people when you're cheerful, than to deal with chipper people when you're gloomy. Gotta weigh the benefits.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:13:37 -0400

True, true.

Sette's only mangled Eph's face. Should it turn out he doesn't survive, maybe Duane could get 'fresh' replacement parts? Screw it, Eph's an ass. take them while he's still squirmin' & able to feel it.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:13:15 -0400

Ephsephin IS pretty tall, he might make a good source for a new leg. We shall see :)

Alright, creepytime. Are kids ever used as plods?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:12:45 -0400

I'm sure there is a story somewhere of Black Tongues using them for research purposes, or some sick fuck having them made for some sick reason, or some government somewhere cooking up some clever military excuse for them, but it's otherwise patently illegal and not very practical besides.

I've been assuming the blonde girl (Mikaila, what with her new name and all) was Duane's daughter, or maybe sister. But you wouldn't answer me if I just asked you about it, would you?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:01:24 -0400

I will answer you with this charming emoticon: :3

I love when you surprise us with two pages. At the same time, I'm torn because I know we're getting near the end of the chapter. This means we only have 16 pages left until the end of the chapter, doesn't it? sobs

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 03:08:10 -0400

*sobs* Next chapter is so much better than this chapter though. It's a good thing.

So what you're saying is...Duane has a Horcrux?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 03:07:07 -0400

The proper word would be phylactery, eff that Harry Potter shit (though I love HP). Does Duane have one? It's a theory!

If Duane must perform restoration work with parts that aren't of the same make and model, eventually he must no longer phsyically be what made Duane, Duane. So what keeps Duane, Duane? Themes of "humanity" get me too excited to not ask such spoilery~

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 02:48:23 -0400

Well, without getting too spoilery, I think it's fairly obvious that Duane doesn't do any thinking out of his brain. His brain is long-since rotted and run out of his nostrils like so much putrescent postnasal drip. His personality, his memories, his cerebrations must exist in some location independent of his frangible, fermenting physical form. That is where Duane is - wherever it may be - and his undead bits are only a medium via which he interacts with the world.

If he has his memories, what he considers his honour, and his faith in God intact, Duane feels himself whole, detached, and untouchable. The filth is over THERE. The rotting impermanence is over THERE. It's not what HE is. He clings to this very tightly. It's a mindset that was very hard won.

You're going to make me cry in chapter seven, aren't you? Loved the newest pages, they are beeyu-ti-ful.

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 02:37:06 -0400

Chapter seven is the chapter I've been waiting the whole comic to draw. I'm kind of terrified of it because if I mess it up I will have to jump off a bridge. Pray for me.

It always makes me happy when someone responds to my bullets in more bullets. Mikaila eh? I sense something terrible happened to her. My doom-antenna are all aquiver. And drat, I know he's not much of a person (literally), but we could make it work!

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:19:18 -0400

Chapter seven is Mikaila's chapter. And man, that is a long-ass chapter. You don't want to marry Duane, he is very gloomy most of the time. Marry Starfish! He's pretty cheerful!

Is that the same little girl (Mikaila) from back in chapter 3? Why is Duane seeing her now?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:17:37 -0400

Same girl. Why is Duane seeing her now? Because at night he transforms into a rabid zombie loli.

Could Duane get parts by making off with a fresh plod, or would that creep him out too much?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:16:53 -0400

He totally could and has done that before. He's picky though, and tries to rob from bodies that match his proportions somewhat. He really doesn't get creeped out by dead things anymore at this point, I guess. He can't smell the rot, can't feel the texture all that well; it's just stuff that keeps him going another day.

Quigley seems a bit too...chipper. Weren't they just trying to kill each other? I guess my question is...did that fall rattle Quigley's head a bit too much?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:09:09 -0400

When one's opponent is suddenly clutching his head and stumbling over his words, one might hypothesize that the winds have shifted.

Apologies if this question has come up before, but where does Duane get extra body parts if he um...loses some? He looks to have lost a foot back there, so would he have to go find it and reattach it, or would he just send Sette to do some grave robbing?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:06:19 -0400

Ha, he didn't lose a foot, I just cannot draw. When he does need new body parts he hangs around the local morgue or police station. Overt grave robbing doesn't work so well for him since he can't do it at night.

Those're some bloody toothmarks on Eph's hat. Sette's one to talk, accusing Duane of eating brains!

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:05:07 -0400

Seriously!

Questions: 1) Does that girl have a butterfly clip in her hair? 2) Did Sette CHEW on the poor hat? 3) Will Badass Duane from panel 4 page 43 marry me if I ask real nicely? It's just...the pose...the offhand threat...the ownage...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:04:49 -0400

1) Yes. Her name is Mikaila, incidentally. 2) Yes. That motherhumper spun her by the tail, and the hat is guilty by association. 3) Probably not. I don't think he can legally marry anyone, being dead and all. He is flattered by your appreciation of his badassery however.

Please never remove Duane's sneer on page 32 of chapter 3. It is my reason for living.

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:31:33 -0400

I like the underlighting on his nose in that panel. My colouring has gotten a lot lazier since that chapter.

I kind of like that Duane responded to Quigley's dirty tactics by being even more above bar, speaking the spell aloud. Or he was being an ass, trying to school the guy who was beating the crap out of him a couple moments earlier. Maybe both?

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:21:37 -0400

Sometimes I like what you guys come up with much more than I like the characters' actual motivations, ha. Duane spoke aloud because he wanted Quigley to know what he was casting, since it was such a lengthy spell. If he'd remained silent it would have left Quigley to worry over what the tacit caster was conjuring, and he'd not have left Duane alone long enough to finish. The lengthy, verbalized, suggested-by-a-child mountain-drawing made Quigley feel confident enough that he could pluck the spell from Duane's n00b fingers, giving Duane the opportunity to get the whole spell off in relative peace (barring bug attacks). The twist, of course, was he never intended the "mountain punch" for Quigley - it was for the cliff, and the amount of Aspect drawn and the resulting explosion were far more overwhelming than Quigley had anticipated. Poor judgment, hubris and overall technical inferiority to his opponent brought the Plat down.

But both of your interpretations are great and much more interesting :)

What is your favourite element as in on the stove?

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:08:41 -0400

Uh.

"..for Duane to liquidize the oxygen in the air, and simultaneously suffocate, freeze, and burn an opponent in a horrible liquid oxygen whirlwind. " And you say my pymaric battle ideas are harsh? ;)

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:08:17 -0400

I modified your last fierce idea slightly and used it in chapter six. It turned out nice :3

"Wrights tend to be too uber anyway, and this is one thing that keeps them somewhat in check. " So by picking the undead template to minimize damage to go with the wright class, Duane's minmaxing?

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:07:09 -0400

If that's what that means, sure! I'm not all that familiar with pen & paper RPG mechanics.

So how would Quigley have fared casting the same spell Duane blew the cliff up with? Would he have been faster? Catch himself slightly on fire?

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:06:24 -0400

He would have been much, much faster but he'd have hurt himself a lot more severely with all that suffocating heat. Probably not worth the personal damage to cast unless he was certain it would be the finishing blow and there wasn't anything too taxing awaiting him afterwards.

Ah...I meant favourite element as in chemistry. In case that wasn't obvious. Although it probably was and you just said that to be funny.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:31:31 -0500

I am wild and irreverent.

When I'm not being wild and irreverent, I enjoy oxygen. One day I want the variables to be just right for Duane to liquidize the oxygen in the air, and simultaneously suffocate, freeze, and burn an opponent in a horrible liquid oxygen whirlwind.

So, aspects can affect the wright's body when they pass through? Have the Ilganyag got anything for that? (i.e., shielding the body to allow for more destructive aspects to pass through)

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:07:43 -0500

There's some amount of shielding that anyone can do, but if you draw enough of an Aspect, or an Aspect that has a particularly harsh effect, you're gonna get some uh, spillage on its way through the khert lines, and that can hurt. It's not a bad thing, in my opinion. Wrights tend to be too uber anyway, and this is one thing that keeps them somewhat in check.

What is your favourite Periodic element?

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:05:25 -0500

The cramps. I love the cramps best.

You've drawn me into your web, Glass. I can scarcely see a single response of yours without being compelled to comment on it, no matter how inane it may be. I hope you're happy.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:05:02 -0500

I don't mind. You're an entertaining bird.

How to make this a question, let's see.... Wouldn't it be awesome if you told all your followers to vote for you here http://tinyurl.com/7hlmn6z ? I want to see Unsounded school some webcomics the way Duane just schooled Quigley.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:01:55 -0500

Exposure's exposure. Vote well and vote often.

I have an idea for a story about the possibly copper lady in that scene in Ulestry (2 actually, one for if she's Aldish, one for if she's not), but the Aldish version has what i think would be a spoiler in it, alas.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:00:15 -0500

Alas. Doesn't mean you can't still write it so I can read it <3 Dedicate all your writing to meeeee.

THEORY #X: The khert is made of bouillon and Duane's aspects are shifting from vegetable to beef

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:55:22 -0500

Duane is so dried out he'd be perfect for putting in some boiling water to make stock. Simmer over medium heat, add some potatos, carrots, and onions, and you'd have a pretty stellar zombie stew. Indigestion afterwards would consist of extreme nationalism, poor fashion sense, and iambic pentameter

Aw, you really don't Cinderella stories at all? Too dependent on makeovers most of the time, I suppose. Though once you become incredibly wealthy from your comic, you'll be a bit of a Cinderella story, you know. :)

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:50:38 -0500

Hohoho! Anon, you are a riot. Let us be wed.

How systematic were you in creating your setting? Was the major research done all around the same time, or just filled in as warranted?

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:47:30 -0500

The setting developed from some core ideas over a decade or so of RP, and then got tweaked for the comic as I wrote the script.

Soo, is there an aspect of radioactivity? And what amounts of, say, uranium are there in Kasslyne? Could an assassin take some hard radiation from that mountain instead to ensure target's slow and painful death?

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:45:47 -0500

Confucius say in pymary, all things possible.

If Duane is Rex Harrison, does that mean he says his lyrics instead of singing them? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNq8hRwCLBQ. I love your girliness. I think Americans are hard-wired to like Cinderella-esque stories anyway.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:46:49 -0500

I wonder why this question got flagged. I don't like Cinderella stories, I like grumpy elitists realising they still have a soul stories :3 If Duane was in a musical though, I do think he'd sing the lyrics, he'd be a traditionalist like that.

I just slipped up and used the term "plat" to mean something like a real world skin head with pretty hair. Only the conversation wasn't about Unsounded at all. What have you done to me?

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:44:15 -0500

Just whom precisely were you talking about prettily-coiffed skinheads with? :3

Thanks for the explanation. I guess I'm kind of dumb and need that point by point walk through. It was much appreciated. Need a question. Hmmmmm. Do you like cheese?

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:43:15 -0500

You are not dumb. It is my bad for not drawing and writing clearer pages. I do like cheese!

Actually, speaking of the madness in her eyes I was looking at the blown up version of that "Problem?" pic of her you posted and I noticed something. Her Sclera are...pink. Was that intentional or just a stylistic thing you did for the coloring?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:11:11 -0500

Her eyes are frequently bloodshot. Woman's a junkie.

VGMC?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:10:04 -0500

My second home. http://vgmcentral.com/index.htm

Do you like catchy songs?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:31:53 -0500

I do. This is why I'm still listening to Lady Gaga even though VGMC hubbers assure me she's totally out of fashion.

Duane turned red! If retro videogames have taught me anything that means he's low on health but he's going to start moving faster and probably gain some new, improbable attack. But Quigley will beat him and then The Adventures of Quigley The Plat and his

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:30:59 -0500

"Faithful Sidekick Matty will continue! Tune in next time for more wacky hijinks as Ephepsin beats the villain Sette and Starfish murders more children with a guest appearance by everyone's favorite rhyhming two-toes: CUTTER! notsureif last bit got cut off"

XD

Red also means danger, or beef if it's a bouillon cube.

Why? Does Knockers- IMEANKNOCKMEDOWN use something like my brilliantly original hypothetical pymaric? I sort of imagined her swinging about a cartoonishly oversized axe. Something that matches the madness in her eyes...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:29:53 -0500

She kind of looks and acts like a female berserker. If I was going to play her in a game I think she'd have to be a berserker.

So. Er. Knocking over mountains. That seems a little rude. What about all the mountain hermits? Is there some sort of law related to wrights keeping their magic under control and /not/ knocking over mountains? Can knocking over a mountain get you jailed?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:28:45 -0500

Haha, wrights can't knock over mountains using this technique. Duane took such an infinitesimally small amount of pressure and he was already at risk of going up in flames. No one could displace the kind of pressure it would take to implode a mountain.

This is tedious on a level that will probably cause your eyes to roll back into your head, but what exactly was Duane directing at the cliff? Did he somehow let the pressure become heat and guided that, or was it just pressure that exploded along the way?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:27:17 -0500

Okay, I'ma explain this one more time.

Duane removed a portion of pressure from the interior of a mountain and introduced it to the open air. Compressing air releases heat energy. Compressing air too quickly causes too much heat energy too quickly and creates an explosion. Knowing this, Duane manifested an explosion and blew up the cliff, overwhelming Quigley with heat and mortal peril, and knocking both him and the bug monster into a freefall.

What was the significance of the font color changing on the latest page?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:14:58 -0500

Just an attempt to show the building of the spell and the temperature and pressure rising.

So does that mean a mountain somewhere is imploding? I'm trying to imagine what happens when you remove the internal pressure from one. Or it still has gravity and bulk, so those Aspects should create the aspect of internal pressure like filling a hole???

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:27:59 -0500

Duane didn't move an entire mountain's worth of pressure. Something like that would create a nuke, though it would never make it through a wright without incinerating them before they could conclude the spell. But somewhere nearby, yes, is a mountain with slightly less structural integrity than it had before Duane Adelier got a bug up his ass.

Did Duane only use the pressure from the mountain (which is damn epic and I didn't expect him to actually DO THAT, hell yes!), or did he use the heat, too, that likely came with the pressure? Can you use two aspects at once like that?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:54:56 -0500

Duane only moved one Aspect. But when you compress air too rapidly, it creates heat and explodes. Not just in Kasslyne, but in our world too. By using his knowledge of how the natural world works, Duane created a convenient, overwhelming explosion.

I'm curious now. We know Duane after that explosion, then, a bit later, reversed his momentum to get back up. What's stopping Quigley from reversing his momentum to keep from falling all the way down there?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:34:54 -0500

Mebbe he will.

That's what I thought might have been happening, which leads to my next question....now what are they going to do with her?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:48:15 -0500

Throw her in a cell. If she wants to sing and has any useful info, she might be able to trade information to Cresce for limited freedom. If she's just a nobody fleeing a crime, she'll probably spend the rest of her days locked up in Ethelmik. You seem very concerned for this lady!

"My friend Fox threatened to write a story about her once." Well then I call foul on your friend Fox for not following up on that! Go Go! (Also, why are her clothes all torn up? I mean, that there's almost a boob show.)

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:39:41 -0500

The implication (I'd hoped) was that the guards had been roughing her up and throwing her around. Most Crescians hate the Aldish as much as the Aldish hate Crescians.

Ah, okay, well that answers one question, while raising seven billion more. :P Was she a spy, or was she a runaway? I was under the impression that Citizens voluntarily leaving Alderode was highly uncommon (Though we've seen three in the comic so far).

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:28:13 -0500

I honestly don't know that lady's story. She may have found out something she wasn't supposed to know and fled the country before she could be detained. She may have fallen in love with a Crescian soldier who snuck her over the border and they tried to flee to Ulestry together. She may have been fleeing debt in Alderode, or a murder conviction or who knows what. There are many possibilities. My friend Fox threatened to write a story about her once.

So I've got a random and obscure question for you. Aaaaaall the way back in Ch. 4 Page 49, there was a lady getting arrested by a Crescian Guard. She's obviously a Copper, and I've always wondered...what is she DOING trying to sneak into Cresce?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:17:31 -0500

She was trying to exit Cresce and get into Ulestry actually, which might make more sense :)

So, Sette likes the taste of butt?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:39:38 -0500

Not particularly. The duck must have wronged her.

I feel like being weird and all but would you or Duane kill me if I kidnapped him. I swear I would take good care of him and feed him and make sure he gets clothes he likes. Altho if I kept for too long I would want to kiss him,My tongue would be no more.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:39:12 -0500

I hate to break it to you, kawaii red-eye girl, but Duane is only flame and air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LJkJk_D5_M

Quick art question, when Wrights use Pymary and you write out what they're saying in Tainish, do you have any reason or method of doing so? Or do you just randomly scribbles lines to look like language?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:33:30 -0500

It's a real alphabet depicting a real language which translates to a real spell. There will come a point when for story reasons we finally get translated spells on the page, but that point is a while off.

I'd like to formally request Sette bite someone's butt next.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:14:18 -0500

Would that ever catch on in Kassylne?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:25:33 -0500

You will like Knock-me-Down's choice in armaments.

So how are the citizens of the nearby city (forgotten the name) reacting the massive, glowing, landscape altering pymary fight going on, what, a half mile from the city walls?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:25:14 -0500

Not to be too technical, but they are freaking the fuck out.

An idea for a pymaric: A device that launches a small, possibly metal projectile down a tube at speeds too fast to dodge or adequately guard against. It could be equipped with a handhold for ease of use and some kind of sight to see where it would hit.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:24:50 -0500

You're a wizard, Fakult!

How many pages are there in chapter five?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:08:21 -0500

Sixty. So we got eighteen more to go.

Was Quigley shocked by the misdirection (aiming at the cliff) or by the MAD SKILLZ?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:06:23 -0500

By the misdirection. And maaaaybe by the realisation that he has fucked this whole thing up.

SO AWESOME. Please tell me more about Duane being all firey and stuff. I'm guessing it was caused by the force of such a huge amount of Aspects being held in one place, lighting the khert lines. Maybe? Was it painful? Seems painful.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:05:25 -0500

It's just simple nature. Duane brought out a small amount of the pressure in one of the nearby mountains, it compressed the air too fast, and caused massive heat and an explosion. This is a real thing that happens when air is too quickly compressed, and a common problem when refilling pressurized air tanks.

Quigley, expecting it to be directed at him, didn't expect Duane to direct it at the cliff instead, blowing it to kingdom come. By that point Quigley has an utterly hostile environment to protect himself from and can't do dick about it. Currently he is falling very fast and cursing a lot and having a headache.

It hurt everyone involved. Poor Swarm. It would have been kind of funny if Sette had trotted along, bloody-faced, to watch the pyrotechnics and then become bacon. Whoops!

Why is Quigley such a white supremacist? Plats this plats that plats plats plats

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:42:41 -0500

Because he is a dick dick dick dick dickity Mcdickerson. Don't worry. Most of the rest of the chapter is dedicated to abusing him in various ways.

http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/images/product_images/spf013_jelly_willies_sweets_300(1).jpg

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:40:57 -0500

Would eat.

Oh my, I just realized this site is "formspring' and not "ForUmspring" Does that mean Forumcat is a foreigner? By default does that make her exotic?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:40:42 -0500

Let's spin her around by her tail and see what language she curses in!

Need a character to ruin all tentacle faces? Why not Zoidberg?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:39:27 -0500

I guess he could be cool. I've never seen an episode of Futurama, believe it or not. I am watching Wild China on Netflix at the moment, it is full of beauty and rice. I want rice.

So about how Sette was talking about bringing every guard and their gran there...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:38:28 -0500

Yeaaaaah. Cue Captain Toma in 3

2

1

I dunno about Sette breaking her tail. I mean, she seems pretty durable. Plus, Eph might get his throat bitten out rather than more facial scarring if he actually did more damage to her tail. <.<;

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:04:52 -0500

True that. She's had her tail broken before, but that's another story.

So, Sette's mom was swung around by her tail til Sette popped out? <.<

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:04:23 -0500

Or Sette's mom's tail came off when she was spun around by it, and the detached appendage grew into Sette like a plant clipping becoming a tree.

I think an Unsounded/My Fair Lady crossover could be a real thing. What does that say about me? ...no. No, Duane isn't mean enough to be Henry Higgins.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:03:34 -0500

Hahaha, I used to totally imagine him as Rex Harrison though, oh my God. Sette isn't a good Eliza though, she would have been picking everyone's pockets at the Ball. Years and years ago in Keltaran RP Duane had a girlfriend named Vadne, though, a very kind but very homespun seamstress lady, and she was Eliza in my head.

I am occasionally girly.

Can you recommend any "all-in-one" books that have reference for armor/clothes of ancient/older cultures? Not just traditional West stuff but east as well?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 23:57:53 -0500

Hrmm, I can't think of any although Dover puts out awesome art archive books and I bet they have a few on armour and historical fashion. Search on Amazon for Dover armour, Dover historical clothing, etc. Failing that, do a search on Google Books, a general internet Google-fest, or go to the library. You'd be surprised at some of the useful old books you can find just sitting forgotten on the shelves.

You've swung cats around by their tails? You monster!

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:32:50 -0500

I was only joking. Promise O:)

Isn't it more probably for Ephsephin to break Sette's tail right now?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:57:39 -0500

Is it? I've swung cats around by their tails before and-- I mean, is it?

Is it possible for Sette to break her tail whilst being lobbed about in the air?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:55:35 -0500

Sure, man. She's not indestructible.

A question formed from SonofHod's question: Has there ever been a trickster wright who has tried to fool people by masking his pymary with false co-ordinates, aspects and trajectories to throw his opponent off?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:21:19 -0500

Absolutely. You got a khert port in either hand. If you feint with one hand while your attack is actually coming from the other, that's an easy misdirection. Aspects can be told to track their path relative to one of your hands, so it wouldn't even need to be verbalized, it'll come down to your hand movement.

What else... you could draw an Aspect that you know will either explode when it manifests, or otherwise react poorly with the current environment. Like, what do you think's going to happen when Duane introduces that massive subterranean pressure to the current air pressure? When you compress air too fast, it blows up and creates extreme heat. So by moving a single Aspect - albeit one that requires quite a reach - Duane's bringing a handful of dangerous, massive aspects into play. This isn't trickery. This is knowing how the natural world works and how moving Aspects around can effect it. This is core technique. It's not as flashy as glowing bugs but it may prove much more potent.

I'm training in 'pymancy', and thus far have successfully made the following pies: Pumpkin, chocolate, lemon, & s'mores! I will one day be the ultimate pymancer, & all shall bow before me in fear & awe! Er, sorry, got carried away. Um, your favorite Pie?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:00:42 -0500

Apple! Do you make good pies, SO? I have an apple pie recipe I got from a Paula Deen cookbook, it is made of cinnamon and diabetes.

"Zoidberg has ruined all tentacle face designs." True. Not even Cthulu can be taken seriously anymore. Each time I see him, I imagine Zoidberg's voice.

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:59:44 -0500

It's a tragedy :(

Is it bad that I look at panel 3 of the new page and think the big bug thing's face looks like Dr. Zoidberg?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:41:18 -0500

Zoidberg has ruined all tentacle face designs :(

Theory # I haven't kept track. Duane is just bluffing about the mountain. He's actually tacit casting something else, and trying to throw Quigley off.

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:38:02 -0500

Hmm, maybe. It would seem a strange move for him after his mini lecture on how Quigley relies too much on trickery.

Can you cook an onion after it's sprouted?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:05:08 -0500

You can but it doesn't taste as good. It starts putting all its energy into making leaves. Plant it instead! Put it in a little pot and it'll make you some pretty flowers eventually.

Is Duane musically talented?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:45:12 -0500

He sings well but he plays no instruments.

I'd like to formally request Sette bite Quigley's face next.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:38:01 -0500

B-b-b-but he's so pretty ;_;

Oh. Is the vial she's using to control Duane at night something that lets her control anything made by pymancy?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:03:35 -0500

Mmm, pymancy. Pie magic.

I don't have a good grasp on how impressive drawing from a mountain at that distance is. Some help?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:03:10 -0500

There's an impressive factor, and there's a marked idiocy factor. Plats can draw from far away because the khert is stable for them. This is why Quigley could bing-bang-boom with the waterfall. Duane's not a plat, so he doesn't have that kind of khert stability. To draw from far away he has to bounce the aspects from point to point. Say the spot he wants to dig into is two-thousand feet off. The khert lines via which aspects travel are jiggly and squirrely, and don't stay put in a straight line for most people for that long of a distance. So Duane has to mass the aspects to a visible point five-hundred feet off, then another five-hundred, then another five-hundred, and so on until he can get his hands around them. It's very slow, and while he's getting this attack together, his opponent can step on his head. It's not a good, viable way to fight. It's like Sailor Moon going hey! Hey! Hold on! Transforming here, just stand and wait and watch for five minutes, okay? Sparkle.

Quigley is kind of right to scoff. Let's hope Duane knows what he's doing.

I just watched the Louis CK suck a bag of dicks routine. Are you going to rape-blow me?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:56:51 -0500

Sure you'd want me to? How do you know I haven't filed my teeth?

If you are Roleplaying in an unfamiliar setting and have limited information about where it takes place, what would you do?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:56:14 -0500

Depends entirely on who you're playing. If your character also doesn't know much about the setting, naturally your own ignorance will work hand in hand with his. If you're playing a local, you may have to hound the DM for more information until you feel comfortable with where you are. If that's not possible for some reason, I'd scrap the character and play an out-of-towner instead. You really can't play a setting native unless you know the setting.

I used to play in a setting called Keltara and for the first year I was there, since I didn't know much about the place, I played my comic characters as travellers in town for one reason or another. I didn't know anything but neither did they, so it worked well. After that first year though, I felt I had a good enough grasp on the place to make up some locals. Might be a matter of having patience.

Two things: 1. You are the only person I am willing to forgive for loathing the Wonderful Ashley Cope. 2. Ima beat you with a wet noodle for it. No really, I'm making spaghetti specifically for this purpose. stirs noodles menacingly Love yourself yet?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:27:43 -0500

A good night's sleep helped. I have to go run errands now, I defy your wet noodle.

What are the odds of a MOUNTAIN! PUNCH! ending in a star K.O.?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:27:11 -0500

What is a star K.O.? D:

What do you imagine Duane's voice sounding like? Gruff? Soft? What sort of intonation would he use? Think carefully before you answer, it will be for a grade.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:26:57 -0500

Hmm... in my head it's a good, strong tenor, but realistically it should be somewhat raspy and gruff since his vocal chords are so dried out. His intonation is musical and lovely. Most wrights speak beautifully and with a peculiar clearness, and Duane loves to talk anyway so he does so enthusiastically, passionately, and with ironic liveliness. Ahh, Duane, you are such a lovable dork.

If a plod can "catch sentience" over time, am I allowed to assume that Duane didn't start out as verbose as he is now?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:23:01 -0500

You can hold that theory if you like :)

For reasons unknown, I really would like to shove a cardboard box over Sette's head and watch her run around underneath it. ... Not really sure how that's a question but it's something I'd be interested in seeing.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:22:19 -0500

You would have perfectly camouflaged her and doomed us all.

Is it weird knowing that there are people who will give you their moneys and hearts and first-borns and balls because they love your comic?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:27:19 -0500

I do not believe this is true. I am full of self-loathing tonight. Louis CK is the only cool thing in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzbURUrgQao

How easy is it to learn Gruftgramary if you're not a Black Tongue? How did Quigley come to practice it?

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:59:04 -0500

It's a different sort of learning process from Tainish pymary. With pymary you're mostly just memorizing spells and learning how to do calculations very fast in your head. If you learn pymary properly and stick to sanctioned spellburns, it's pretty safe and not very taxing to get a handle on.

Gruftgramary requires actual theory and understanding of Aspects, how the khert manages them, and how you can cheat it. Gruftgrammers don't really do much sharing of each other's spells. The more an illegal spell is accessed and executed, the more likely a khert official will discover it and erase it. So gruftgrammers like to keep their spells to themselves and hoard them like greedy wizards. This means if an aspirant wants to take full advantage of the system they have to learn how to write and burn their spells themselves. These are skills that ninety-five percent of regular, legal Tainish wrights don't ever bother with.

Books of gruftgramaric hackspeak aren't exactly available at the library. You need to find a master and learn from her or him. If you find a good one though, if you're really burning to learn, if you're clever, you can do it.

How did Quigley learn? Hmm! Perhaps he has had dealings with the Ilganyag!

If you received the ability to out-write Shakespeare in one genre, would you want to write comedies, histories, or tragedies?

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:23:48 -0500

Tragedies. Comedies don't always stay relevant. History can be warped and suppressed. Tragedy is universal and forever.

How often do you go to the beach?

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:22:45 -0500

I used to go once a week when my niece and nephew still lived down here. I haven't been since they moved away. Sob.

Are there foxes in Kasslyne? I imagine there are no giant foxes, but I was just thinking...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:22:19 -0500

Gotta have foxes!

. . . Why do they burn plods in Ulestry, when the twins say it's proper to bury the dead? I'm assuming the one our "heroes" stumbled across wasn't an oddity.

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:22:12 -0500

Plods don't count as "corpses." When you sell your body to a plod man, you lose your right to a proper burial or proper treatment. Plods are burned to keep them as a Thing Apart from a normal corpse. There's also the very slight possibility that a very old plod will "catch sentience" the way some pymarics do, so burning it is good insurance that it doesn't cause problems later.

Aren't eels basically the penii of the sea?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:36:11 -0500

I'd go to the beach more if this was true.

...that's it, somebody needs to introduce Sette to sashimi. Are there any sushi equivalents in her world?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:35:50 -0500

Sushi? Probably not. Eating strawberry fish is essentially eating sashimi though. Very sloppy sashimi.

You haven't changed how I view eels and it leads to one enevitable question, Got any recipes for serving eel?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:52:33 -0500

UNADON! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unadon Oh, succulent grilled eel, I have not eaten thee in months, how I suffer. Suffer!

You have casued me to see eels in an entirely new way. I liked them before, but seeing as all the eels I met just sat there with perpetually astonished looks on their faces, I didn't find them worthy of further scrutiny.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:30:57 -0500

Heh. "Knockers Frummagem". Anyway, I'm curious about Grebbers. I haven't found anything on the wiki or further back here, so I'm intrigued. They like bears, or wolves, or somesuch?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:27:34 -0500

They're like large wolverines, essentially. Here are sketches but they look way too cute and fluffy. I'ma rough them up for the comic.

Le Gasp! You're following me now?! What an honor...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:25:52 -0500

You're an adorable bird. An adorabird.

Is Ephsephin eventually going to be forced to wear a Phantom of The Opera style mask because of all the abuse his face has been taking?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:25:39 -0500

You were wrong. I quite enjoyed the next page. Besides, a Sette bite seems fun.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:25:31 -0500

Fun for Sette.

Ugh, after today's page, I feel an irresistible need to buy Sette a toothbrush.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:25:20 -0500

Do it. And mouthwash.

That wound! Auugh! As much as I'm sure Eph deserves it, I can't stop getting a tinge in my cheek every time I see it get re-maimed. On the plus side though, it gives him an excuse to wear a phantom-esque mask, that's a bonus. Question?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:25:07 -0500

True, a Phantom-masked Ephsephin might make for a marginally more interesting Ephsephin. Let us see what the future brings.

Ashley Evangeline. (I don’t know your middle name, so I’m going with Evangeline cos it’s pretty and fierce.) Get some merchandise. Start small - a couple cute t-shirts and a mug. There’s no reason you should feel weird about supporting yourself. /Scold.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:24:20 -0500

That IS pretty. My real middle name is weird yet boring.

Funnily enough, a start-up company contacted me last week about licensing the comic for some toys. Let's see what happens. Merchandise isn't as easy as you may think. If I go with Cafepress or one of its equivalents, you get crappy quality, I get a pittance of payment. It's not worth anyone's time or money. For me to source merchandise from a supplier myself requires money on my part, and I got zilch. And I'm not doing a kickstarter for merch before I've even done one for a book. It's tricky business, anon.

Knock me down DOES look like someone who could be a relative of Sette's. So, since we know the khert can mess up people's genetics, it IS possible Sette is her Da's child, tail not withstanding? Also fuck that bodkin guy.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:21:07 -0500

Mmmaybe.

Is a warm rag what Duane uses for cravings?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:20:45 -0500

Don't tell him I told you that.

At what point does Duane get the nighttime crazies? Is it a gruadual thing, or does it have a more precise time like when the moon rises, or what?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:24:58 -0500

The onset is hard to predict, it's normally within an hour after sundown. Once he goes though, he goes.

Not a question, but just so you know, I bought a beautiful 75-year old, tooled leather-bound copy of Moby-Dick. It makes me SO happy.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:23:28 -0500

Aww! I'm all peanut butter and jelly over here. Take a photo, I wanna see it.

I'm toying with the idea of starting (and DM'ing) a rp on a forum. Problem is I've never done anything like this before. Do you have any tips or suggestions for a newb like be?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:21:42 -0500

First off I would say you should prepare yourself to be strict with your players. Make deadlines for posts and let people know they're expected to meet them or they'll be skipped. Holding people's attention and keeping up a level of excitement is really important in campaigns, otherwise players will wander away. Timely replies are key to keeping up excitement.

Make certain you have a clear vision of the story. It's rarely enough just to make a few characters and a setting; there should be some kind of story path that you can steer things down.

Hmm, I guess the only other thing I'd recommend - and this is somewhat dependent on the quality of your players - is always give whomever you're playing with something to respond to, whether it's narrated environmental stimulus or a simple question. This helps players feel engaged and important and they'll be much more excited to post as soon as they can.

Good luck!

I was resisting starting a Formspring account with all my might but I had to chip in: I work at a pet store and we have a freshwater eel that looks pretty much like a baby moray. I bet you could keep one of those.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:15:42 -0500

Aww, welcome to Formspring. It is a nice place. Do you really work at a pet store? I always thought that would be an enjoyable job. I don't really have the money for pets beyond my dogs, but thanks for the eel wisdom! All this eel talk makes me hungry for grilled eel over rice.

Is Duane... running away from the fight while Sette's being whipped around by her tail? I'm shocked.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:13:21 -0500

He's definitely not doing any running on that leg. Limping back towards Sette and Ephsephin, with Quigley and mega-bug standing in the way, would accomplish nothing but further arse-whooping. He spotted the cliff and now has an idea. He'll execute it, then go back for Sette. The zombie's doing his best, at this point he just wants a blanket and a warm rag to chew on :(

Is there anyone brave enough to call her Knockers Frummagem to her face?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:48:39 -0500

She'd just take it as a compliment. No one ashamed of her boobies would display them so proudly.

Post your favorite macro for me.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:48:00 -0500

DO YOU WANT A TACO

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:47:24 -0500

Only if it is a literal taco. Don't heap your pudenda with salsa and olives and plop it on my dinner plate, that is not sanitary.

Looking at your Last.FM list... You've been playing Elite Beat Agents, haven't you? SO AWESOME. You have good taste in music too. I'm finding nice music I hadn't heard of... 2nd question: Have you ever heard of Vocaloid?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:46:16 -0500

Haha, yes! :D Elite Beat Agents is godly. I do know Vocaloid, but it is not really to my tastes. Some of the fanart is pretty groovy, but I prefer Gorillaz when it comes to animated singers.

Next Page Theory: Sette screams for help and the big blue bug (BBB) responds by biting off Eph's head. Duane beats up Quigley and uses Eph's remaining remains to repair himself. Sette renames the BBB Mr. Pinchers, and a funeral is held for the hat.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:43:33 -0500

Anglerfish, eh? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek_wCaBZTCg&feature

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:43:26 -0500

Vlog brothers!

What's your favorite fruit?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:42:32 -0500

Naval oranges.

Are there only two languages on Kasslyne, or are there just two main languages?

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:42:17 -0500

There are a few more, but they're kind of nebulous in my head at the moment. Anyway, they're in the more isolated parts of the country, like Anchert and the small islands off Sharteshane's coast.

There are some freshwater loaches that look like eels! I bet they're easier to care for than a regular eel. Not that I've done much research.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:41:16 -0500

I could never love a thing called a loach :(

Hello! I really like your comic. Why don't you advertise it more? From a business standpoint, you could do a lot more with it.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:40:41 -0500

Hi! I'm glad you like my comic. I don't do more advertising becaaause, I dunno. I'm not an advertiser. I dunno about business stuff either. I'm just a guileless artist. I'm trying to find a job right now, maybe if I do I'll buy some advertising somewhere.

After seeing that eel larva video, I think I love eels twice as much as before. Aren't sea creatures awesome?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 20:21:14 -0500

Absolutely. I particularly want to snuggle an anglerfish.

Theory #XXX: Sette came from an egg, /like the dirty duck she secretly is/. D:

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:00:59 -0500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWbCdw64Bgo

I heard you like smoke eels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee7lhNOCGhY Although I find their deadpan eyes quite creepy, eels swim so beautifully, I can't help but be mesmerized. You have yourself a smoke eel convert.

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:45:48 -0500

Stunning! Wow, that almost brought me to tears. They really do look like smoke! Thanks so much for the link, that made my day.

Let's play a game of Spin-The-Sette-By-Her-Tail!

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:37:46 -0500

You will retract that suggestion after the next page.

If Theory 17 & 19 were in fact true, than that would make Matty the Anakin Skywalker of Unsounded. o.O; He'd grow up to be an evil, evil wright with replacement parts, & try to dominate all of Kasslyne! You're not that cruel to us fans, I hope. And pray.

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:37:24 -0500

Hmm. Urge to dip pretty boys in lava is strong...

What kind of music do you like?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:10:51 -0500

Man, everything. Here's my last.fm page - http://www.last.fm/user/Murkoph

This is pretty nice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbpaKg9D32o

So "Knock-Me-Down" is a challenge with "Nary-a-Care" clearly being a boast. While I know she originated in RP, is there an in-universe explanation for why Sette doesn't get a totally badass expressive statement of a name?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:08:20 -0500

There is an in-universe explanation, yes :)

Is-is there such a thing as a gender aspect?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 13:15:20 -0500

Nope. Too broad to be usable :3

Theory #17: Sette is Matty's mother. The bugs are belong to her.

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:25:56 -0500

"Theory #18: Matty is Sette's mother.

Theory #19: Sette is the khert incarnate.

Theory #20: Sette's so sensitive about her mother because Nary is a Mister Seahorse. And also... erm... impregnated himself. But Sette's not allowed to tell, because that's not ok for a great Frummagem, and also because she's horrified by it."

whyyyyyy

Well, to be technical, HALF of Will's soul wound up in the Asylum forever, After Sehrai severed it from the part still in the real world.

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:03:28 -0500

True... but I always felt kind of off about that, like he really should have stayed totally dead and trapped. Retconning it to the half-a-soul deal was really just a way to keep playing the character ;)

So Starfish is less like you than Murkoph? I'm...kind of scared now. o.o

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:02:25 -0500

Don't turn your back on me :3

I found out after going to a pet store the other day that I want a pet eel. Like, -really- want a pet eel. This is something that's never occurred to me before. Glass, what have you done to me?! I just wanna watch 'em all day.

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:02:13 -0500

Oh, man, aren't they beautiful? I absolutely support the idea of you acquiring a pet eel. I always really wanted a smoke eel though, so it could float around with me and attack my enemies. Best familiar ever.

Does it ever sadden you to kill of your characters?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:01:18 -0500

Not really. Death makes for good drama and good drama makes for good and entertaining fiction. One of the greatest things you can do for your characters is give them an interesting, meaningful death. The vast majority of us don't get that, so they're pretty lucky in that regard.

Which of your characters is least like you?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 03:01:01 -0500

Starfish. And Nary. I'm just not as villainous as I would like.

Tell us about your favorite moment from RP. What happened and who was involved?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 02:59:14 -0500

I have a lot of favourite moments from RP, I'm not sure I could pick just one. To this day I'm terribly fond of the asylum threads. The first one with Amanda was so deliciously dark and gory, and the second one with Steve and Adam had that great ending with Will and Sehrai. To sum up for the non-AwesomeIncarnate, there was a haunted insane asylum in Hanghorse that obtained sentience. It discerned that the city was in physical danger and that it needed to somehow act to save itself from demolition. It decided the best way to do this was to suck the current governor into its own hellish dimension and bargain with him, but it also inadvertently sucked in my character Will, a one-armed, friendly, hapless, religious, ex-sailor bartender.

Horrible Adventures happened, with the Asylum manifesting horrors from the characters' troubled subconsciouses (think Silent Hill). Will wound up dead at the end, his soul forever trapped in the Asylum, while the governor was helped to flee by a creepy little ghost girl. Good times.

Going further back to Keltara, the storyline with Sivis falling in love with Freya was pretty fun. Sivis is a rat who can become a man, and naturally finds humans quite vile. Freya, an already somewhat mousy individual, was briefly turned into a rat by her sister. Sivis somehow caught glimpse of her in rat-form, fell madly in love, and began to pursue. Alas, Freya turned human again, married another, and moved away. All Sivis could do was sneak away with her and live out the rest of his days in a shoe in the barn, siring thousands of children but pining always for the one that got away.

Is it bad that I like your Tainish's phonology and consonant structure so much, that I'm adopting parts of it? I'll give it back if you want... I just like it a lawt.

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 02:47:56 -0500

I am flattered <3

Why are you following me?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:48:28 -0500

I'm going to pick your pocket when your guard's down.

What's your favorite Video game, board game, and drinking game?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:47:36 -0500

Vagrant Story, Candyland, I don't drink.

What are your thoughts on the newest Minecraft update?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:47:12 -0500

Pretty awesome, man. I really like those iron golems, they're soooo Laputa. I've had to cut back big time on my gaming though, there just aren't enough hours in the day. Maybe next chapter break I can play some games. I have Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light sitting uninstalled and unplayed on Steam back from the Christmas sale D: And I want to build something enormous in Minecraft with the new doubled world height.

How would Sette feel about dressing up/acting all girly for the purposes of a Big Score? Grudging acceptance? Moaning and complaining? Too fixated on the dollar signs (Sem signs?) to care?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:44:27 -0500

Too fixated on the sem to care ;) She does something like this next chapter and don't even bat an eyelash. Sette isn't like, one of those tomboy characters who just needs a makeover and the attentions of a boy to fix her up into a socially acceptable girly-girl. She's happy the way she is and doesn't feel threatened by femininity - she just has no use for it most of the time.

Given the literal tradition of Sharteshane names, does the "Frummagem" crime family trace their ancestry back to a famous jewel thief?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 23:52:13 -0500

Good guess, but no. Frummagem is from "frummagemmd," thieves cant for "choked, strangled, suffocated, or hanged."

You may have answered this already, but why was she named Knock-Me-Down?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 23:45:50 -0500

Because she came out've her ma big as a horse and screaming like she was ready for a fight. Her name's a dare :)

By backwards writing, do you mean in reverse letter order, or so that it can be read in a mirror? Or do you know the ancient language of the "backwards" people?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:38:20 -0500

Haha, mirror writing. Like Leonardo used to use in his notes. It's not very difficult really.

More like Knock-Me-UP Frummagem, amirite?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:10:06 -0500

Oh, you.

Do you have any bizarre, pointless talents?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:36:19 -0500

I can... I can play a grass flute. I am an expert lizard and frog catcher. I can write backwards fluently.

A while back someone asked what sort of pymary Bastion and Elka specialized in and while you gave a good detailed description of Bastion's you never even mentioned Elka so: What sort of pymary does Elka specialize in/prefer?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:33:19 -0500

Elka is no pymaric phenom. She knows utilitarian combat spells, can track and scrye via the khert, and can do useful stuff like the trick with the pink dog. Elka doesn't really LOVE pymary, or studying theory, or getting good at the math, or any of that bunk. She knows pymary because it was part of her training, but it's not a passion.

How does the Alderode Dammakhert relate to the political boundarylines of Alderode? Does it stop pretty much at the border? Is the Dammakhert what DEFINES the border?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:30:21 -0500

Hmm!

NEW THEORY: It was Knock-Me-Down. She filed Sette's teeth. You just need one look into those crazy pink eyes to know she did it and ENJOYED it.

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:30:13 -0500

Ya know, I wanna draw this. Or at least draw Sette being bullied by her bitchy cousins... and by just about everyone else in Sharteshane.

The Bechdel Test is kind of a useless test when applied to a specific series anyway. It was a clever observation about the film industry as a whole but it doesn't work as the Feminism Litmus Test a lot of people try to use it as. Ain't no such thing.

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:48:54 -0500

I actually have no idea what it is. I am a bad feminist.

Have you ever read the Discworld book series? My "Gods going 'round and smashing atheist's windows" was a reference to that and it saddened me that you didn't pick up on it....

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:41:43 -0500

Aww. I've read some of the books but not all of them. They are overall very cute.

What is your favorite quality in Bastion, Duane, and Murkoph?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:48:13 -0500

That's an interesting question. Hmm. I enjoy Bastion's very deeply hidden goodness. If there was ever a person who was meant to be good, who was born with an inherent desire to see justice done and suffering ended, it's Bastion. But he was born into a situation determined to break his spirit and breed a cynical, lonely, cruel man so he's always at war with himself, and he almost always makes the worst decisions. He's very human.

I like Duane's need to protect people who need protecting. His fatherliness, I guess. He wants kids to have what they need and live in a world worthy of them.

Murkoph's a crazy motherfucker and it's fun to let him loose and see what happens. I don't know if that's something I should like but ah do!

Are there any sort of embalming practies used in Kasslyne?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:37:15 -0500

Only in relation to plods. They burn or bury their dead pretty quickly otherwise.

What was Sette's first word? It was 'money', wasn't it.

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:36:35 -0500

I bet it were "Da."

How many languages do you speak? Is being bilingual (or monolingual) important to you?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:36:23 -0500

I only speak English. I know enough Spanish to get by but I'm not fluent, and I know a fair bit ABOUT other languages without actually being able to speak them. My life is really not one that would be benefited by learning another language, so it's not something I think about much.

I bet your new icon is baby Murkoph.

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:34:36 -0500

Not quite.

That pic you posted, it was basically this to your followers, wasn't it? http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/096/044/trollface.jpg?1296494117

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:34:29 -0500

Do the gods in Kasslyne have a tendency to go 'round and break the windows of atheists?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:34:20 -0500

The Gefendur clergy would say so. They call atheists "secularists" and don't no one like them.

I miss your deranged looking fellow...

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:33:45 -0500

Does Sette have any bones in her tail?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:33:41 -0500

Indeed.

That picture scares me a little bit. I will have nightmares now of ladies with pink eyes and breasts so huge they burst open her shirt as she chases me through endless hallways, cackling maniacally. So... does she have a name?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:33:28 -0500

Knock-me-Down Frummagem. A relative of Sette's, so you know she's insane.

Another crazy female character... and gasp I've just realized Unsounded fails the Bechdel test!! Are you... a misogynist??

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:32:50 -0500

*gasp* Probably. There are sane, boring, normal female characters, like Annadyne who keeps Knock-Me-Down in check and Iori who is probably the kindest character in the entire comic, but they're not as fun to draw :D

New profile pic. Mind... malfunctioning. Wat? Who?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 03:16:02 -0500

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 02:29:49 -0500

So, I'm guessing the bug shouldn't have responded to Sette whether she had the mantle or not. Yes?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:41:37 -0500

Quigley sure seemed surprised that it was so quick to do what she said.

I fear we may be closing in on Ephsephin's hat's final moments. Say it isn't so! T_T

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:25:23 -0500

If the hat owes you money you better get it now.

If a Crescian and an Aldishman had a baby, would the baby get the awesome Aldish colouration or would it look like a normal baby?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:04:58 -0500

It depends on where they do the deed. If it's within the borders of Alderode, the baby comes out Aldish.

What was Eph doing all this time while Quigs and Duane were fighting?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:01:26 -0500

Knitting. Talking to his hat. Catching up on his reading. Bleeding all over the place.

Sette calls Quigs "nob." I've never heard this insult before, so I'm inclined to assume I'm either lacking the proper books or it's belonging to Kasslyne in origin. What's it mean?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:17:25 -0500

Penis! I almost changed it 'cause it was an RP thing but... everyone else can just wonder :)

To which of the two religions prominent in Alderode did (does?) Duane belong? I feel like there was likely a hint or twenty somewhere but because I wasn't looking for them I missed 'em. (and does he still follow that faith as closely now?)

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:20:19 -0500

It hasn't outright been said, but you can pretty much tell he's Ssaelit. And yes, he still adheres to it as best he can and it's a major reason why he's been able to mentally survive the past six years. Such as he has. He feels God's eye on him like a boulder on his back.

The Ssaelit consider the ocean anathema? I have so many irrelevant questions now! Are they officially opposed to maritime trade in Alderode? Are they exempt from serving in the navy? How did that work for Duane growing up in a coastal region? -apologies

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:39:15 -0500

All good questions :D The Ssaelit believe the ocean is unclean since the khert doesn't flow freely through large bodies of water. This makes it the dark moiety of existence, full of monsters and absent of God. So a good Ssaelit doesn't want to introduce it to his body in any way, including swimming in it and eating anything that comes out of it. There's a belief that the souls of people who drown in the ocean are lost forever and never find the Outside.

However, the Ssaelit temple long ago said there was an exception for people who died in service to Alderode (organised religions are great at making convenient exceptions), so Ssaelit are not exempt from naval service. Nor do the Ssaelit have any particular problem with seafaring nor the sea trade provided there's a nice, sturdy ship between them and the deep.

Who is the main character of Unsounded?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:30:46 -0500

Hrmm, I dunno. As the story goes on we're going to break from Duane and Sette more and more, but right now I guess Sette is probably the main character. She does drive a lot of stuff forward.

Sette as a talking humanoid duck...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:28:33 -0500

No one understands our passionate, irrational love of ducks, LuDucks. At least we have each other.

What word do you most wish you could hear more often?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:27:41 -0500

Calzone.

Hah hah, I love the Sette ninja shot as she's launching herself from the treetops at Quigly's cape. Did she learn to be so acrobatic scrabbling through the rooftops of Hanghorse? Or is that just a side effect of having a balancing tail?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:27:04 -0500

I think both :D Hanghorse is all crumbling ruins and scaffolding, so a kid growing up there is going to get pretty good at climbing pretty fast. Gotta outrun them cops.

Monnies, I imagine from your description, have horns, yes? If so, are they used in any special way?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:25:20 -0500

They have one horn, like a unicorn. I wish I had some good sketches of them to show you, mostly they are in my head. Monnies themselves use horns for defense, as you might expect, but humans don't believe they're magical or anything. They do make good dagger hilts though :) Monnies exist mostly because it makes me laugh that unicorns in my world are nothing but goaty, dull-witted farm animals. Not that I don't like unicorns, but, ya know. Lawl.

What would Elka look like as a kid? Would she still have the blue streak?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:21:47 -0500

Elka was a chubby, unhappy, spiteful little kid. With no blue streak. Her parents never would have let her do such a thing to her hair which is probably why she does it now.

What animal do you feel a certain tie to, if any?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:19:49 -0500

I guess I like lions. 'Cause I'm a Leo and 'cause I read the Narnia books a lot when I was a kid. Really though, it's mostly the idea of lions that's cool. Real lions are assholes.

It just hit me now! "ALDISH SPICE!" Why didn't I think of that in the "Man Your Man Could Smell like" joke?! Dang!

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:16:24 -0500

I am taking this revelation and applying it retroactively in my head and it is glorious. Worry not, nothing has been lost.

What are monnies? Monster bunnies? Cause that would be awesome.

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:15:41 -0500

Monnies are monocorns. Chubby, goat-like, wooly unicorns. With weird blood that coagulates into a tasty jelly when chilled and stirred. And people everywhere herd them, milk them, and eat them.

When you post up a drawn and colored pic in answer to someone's question (like Sette as a little kid), do you just happen to have them on hand or do you draw and color them specifically to answer with? :D

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:02:42 -0500

Kid!Sette was doodled specifically to answer the question. How could I not? Kid Sette! :D

Are there sheep in Kasselyn? Because I think that would mean giant collies and shaggy dogs, which would be awesome. . . .Although, horse sized dogs helping to heard sheep doesn't seem practical for some reason, so are there smaller breeds of dogs?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:44:43 -0500

There are. Remember Anise from chapter two? She wasn't very big. And they do indeed help to herd sheep and monnies.

Are there ducks in Kasselyn?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:15:34 -0500

Yes. The best ducks. Actually, for a very brief while, there was a race of talking humanoid ducks.

Then I came to my senses.

If you could have a prop from any movie, what would it be and why?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:59:39 -0500

I want a Burton movie Batmobile.

Is it better to have loved and lost than to have loved at all?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:58:48 -0500

So say the poets. I've never personally been in love much less lost a love, so I can't speak from experience.

How many of those random casualvillain image links do you have...?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:58:14 -0500

A random amount :3

Your left index finger is now a gun, and has been fired. How screwed are you?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:57:57 -0500

Screwed? I would say now I get my own tv show.

Why isn't your FB profile pic also Murkoph?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:57:39 -0500

'Cause Facebook is for family and they dunno anything about my weird comic and characters.

Would you rather be a Werewolf, Zombie, Vampire, or Ghost?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:18:56 -0500

AAAAA HORRIBLE CHIMP

Um

Really have to go with vampire on this one. Though that answer could change depending on what the vampire canon is. I wouldn't really want to be a Legacy of Kain vampire or a Buffy vampire, but a Vampire Chronicles vampire would be pretty badass.

I'm sure that somewhere there was a picture showing you turning a sketch to lineart, and then into an actual coloured page. What happened to that?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:59:56 -0500

Tada - http://casualvillain.com/Unsounded/images/ch05_09process.jpg

Awww, Sette was such an earnest-looking kid! Is this a clever front, or is her...Sette-ness simply a more recent development? Possibly influenced by normal adolescent cynicism and moodiness? (Also how old is she in that picture)

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:54:30 -0500

I think she's two or three there, about the same age as my nephew. Who also bites. I think... Sette currently has a lot to prove, is terribly insecure, is kind of freaked out by the world, and is trying to figure out who she wants to be (all while telling herself repeatedly she wants to be just like her Da). It's a tough time, pardon her obnoxiousness.

Baby Sette is adorable. I'll bet she's also responsible for biting her stuffed lion's legs off, isn't she?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:08:09 -0500

Entirely possible. Or she got into a tug o' war match over it with a dog. They probably had to put that dog down afterwards.

Starfish X Quigley, you say? http://unsoundedshipping.deviantart.com/#/d4r8a8r Also, do the pet owls and the kedises ever fight each other? Who would win?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:07:32 -0500

I would say owls and kedises get on about as well as cats and dogs do in our world. Owls have the flight advantage though so I would guess most fights end in a draw :D

StarfishXQuigley - I won't lie, I lawled. Well done. I really need to try my hand at drawing this for reals, I want to fill my life with the shrieks of the damned.

I bet baby Sette was pretty freakin' cute. With her little tail and bitin' ankles.

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:07:51 -0500

Yes.

Which one of the Twins would you chose as your patron, if you were a proper Gefendur worshipper?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:33:58 -0500

I wouldn't be Gefendur if I had a choice, but if I didn't know better I think I'd pick Yerta. She's the most equitable, the kindest, the one most likely to grand mercy and speak up for you. The other gods are dicks :D

Are there any religious dietary restrictions in any of the belief systems in Unsounded? You know, like pork and shellfish? alsoo: Do people ever eat the giant dogs? I know some people eat horses and some people don't.

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:33:10 -0500

Giant dogs aren't eaten regularly by anyone because they're not grass-fed. It doesn't make much sense to raise a species that costs meat to make meat, so they don't really work as a reliable food source. Pigs, goats, monnies, and fowl are the major meat sources.

The Ssaelit have two big dietary restrictions - no cannibalism and no seafood. The Ssaelit see the oceans as unclean and won't eat anything that comes out of them. The cannibalism thing might seem odd but it's in place because cannibalism is actually a thing among the sororal Gefendur at certain times of the year. We'll learn about this more later.

Huh, I would have thought Plats would be albino Great Danes or something. Great Danes are powerful but they don't live very long. And the albino part for the pale fur and the eye problems. Also, are there any bird species unique to Kasslyne?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:27:47 -0500

Ahh, albino Great Danes is a good suggestion. I was thinking whippets because they're so frail and alien looking. There are unique birds! But I don't have anything interesting to say about them, just doodles in my sketchbook for future scenes :) There are many cute owls kept as pets among Crescians, and they're probably a lot more clever and sociable - more domesticated - than owls in our world.

If every country of Kasslyne were a breed of dog, what dog would they be? Or if that's too much, what about each caste of Alderode?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:30:49 -0500

Hmm... Plat would be Whippets, Silver would be Afghans, Bronze would be mutts, Gold would be hehe Golden Retrievers, Jet would be poodles, Copper would be Clifford.

fête Cheval. Does this still happen? Has Sette ever gone to one? Does she care, or is she accustomed to the tradition? (I figured since I've already given myself away with the Baelar bit, I may as well go into full former-anon stalker mode)

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:26:27 -0500

Nope, that was something an RP friend made up that I don't believe we ever did anything with in-game. Intermittently I would open up glossary suggestions and sometimes players came up with ah, really interesting ideas. A great majority of the info on that setting page doesn't apply to Unsounded D:

Am I a man? Or am I a Muppet? (Am I a muppet?)

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:21:23 -0500

I saw that that won an Oscar! I still haven't seen the movie though. I am a bad Muppets fan.

Does Duane like... ... ... RAINBOWS?!

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:20:48 -0500

Doesn't everyone like rainbows? D:

I now have two piles of raw meat where my hands used to be. It's an upsetting state. It's also hard to type. You didn't need to know that, but I felt like sharing.

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:33:22 -0500

Grill them, put A1 on them, feed them to me.

Seriously though, don't fap so hard :(

Are there any other continents besides Kasslyne, or is it a lonely refuge in an endless ocean?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:32:49 -0500

There are other continents most definitely. They are all curiously far away from Kasslyne though, and there is no regular intercontinental travel or trade.

HAPPY 6000th RESPONSE! Unless you choose not to answer this in which case FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:05:04 -0500

James perfectly expresses my elation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj1nJzQPVYA

So I asked a bunch of questions and then realized I wasn't signed into FS >.< First one I remember--when Duane casts pymary on himself, does he use the "living" or "dead" Old Tainish nouns? Which does the plod enchantment use?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:41:14 -0500

He uses the nouns for the dead :( Same with the plod enchantments.

THEORY: Duane uses the bones of the pigs killed during the fight to replace his snapped bones!

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:49:02 -0500

I'm not sure he'd find a shin bone of adequate length on a pig. No one likes a lopsided zombie.

Since Baelar is thought to influence the outcome of battles arbitrarily, would it be appropriate to call the adrenaline filled moment of near death when time seems to slow Braelar's Chance? At least when it occurs in battle?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:48:32 -0500

I like this idea!

How many chapters is the first 'book' going to be?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:48:23 -0500

A lot, but I haven't hammered down a definite number yet. The story is gonna go crazy places, don't try too hard to be psychic :)

How do you get your line art so clean? Are there any secrets to it? Could you maybe show an example?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:45:56 -0500

There really aren't any secrets. It's totally a craft thing and excellence in craft comes of a lot of repetition. I guess... make sure to draw with your whole arm, not just your fingers or hand. Don't torture every line with little sketchy movements - you want long, free, confident strokes. Don't hold the brush or stylus too hard, stay loose, be comfortable, have a lot of desktop room.

Also, there are lots of different ways to ink. My style is really uniform and inked towards colour. Something like Bone has wildly varying line thicknesses and is inked towards remaining in black and white (those colourised versions are retarded). You could check out Maximo who does OH-KO and his lines are crazy dynamic and wild and all over the place. You don't necessarily want ultra "clean" line-art, it can be really boring. Look how boring this is without colour on it http://www.casualvillain.com/random/duane_ink.png

So I think we can safely say at this point that Quigley is actively trying to "kill" Duane. Was this his intention from the start? Or has he just gotten carried away?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:51:05 -0500

Pfff, yeah. Quigley has no problem separating Duane into fifty-three different pieces and serving them up to Uaid as a midnight snack. Business, ya know. Nothing personal (except it is, stupid Aldish zealot, you killed mah wife).

Let me tell you a story. Me: "Hey! I've got a smartphone! I can check Unsounded updates on the go! Sweet!" Phone: "Hah hah sucker, the Unsounded main page is a scroll bar within a scroll bar! I don't support such silliness!" Me:" D: D: D:"

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:04:06 -0500

"Story Part the Second. *five minutes of moping later* Me: "Hey! I can't let this lick me! I'm gonna read Unsounded and you can't stop me!" *goes to main page, then to fan forum, finds a link that leads to the current comment section, then to current page*

*Feels very proud of herself* You see? I can haz ingenuity if it means I get to read Unsounded!"

And THIS is why I don't have a smartphone optimized site! See the ingenuity it has inspired in you? Overcoming adversity leads to brilliance!

Look at your zombie now back to me now back to your zombie. Sadly, your zombie isn't me but if you stopped using the corpses of those filthy crescians and switched to the corpses of Aldishmen your zombies could act like he's me.

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:01:52 -0500

"Look down, back up, where are you? You're near Cresce, where I don't want to be. What's in your hand? Back at me, I have it. Its an obnoxious child with a tail."

*seventeen minutes of giggling*

But Quig's bones already come pre-brittled, so who can Duane use for repairs? Will he eat Eppy?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:01:07 -0500

Back when I was writing the relevant portion of the script last year I was worried I'd run into problems with this, but then it kind of solved itself. I love when stories do that.

Least liked Final Fantasy VII Character?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:59:53 -0500

Yuffie. I would put her in a wood chipper and dance in Bacchanalian ecstasy beneath the warm rain of her liquefied viscera.

Of course that's assuming you mean original FFVII. I have similar hate for... I think... yes, all of the original cast of Dirge of Craperus.

We know Bation plays piano. Can he play this song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F7GNQAO4T4

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:34:53 -0500

"The hardest song of all time," eh? I think he would try for a while, grow terribly frustrated, then replace your eyes with scorpions.

Who is responsible for the terrifying propaganda posters all over about the six Aldish breeds and their incest and rape? Why are all the eyes crossed? As a result of the posters, do citizens assume the Aldish actually all have crossed eyes?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:32:41 -0500

The Crescian government is responsible for most of them. Just trying to keep people informed :3 They're cross-eyed and ugly because you want to make your enemies look as unattractive as possible in propaganda. Some people may very well believe they're actually cross-eyed!

Would Chitz be worth a serious fortune if Sette ever stole him? Isn't it dangerous for a small blind kid to be dragging something so valuable around with him?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:30:17 -0500

It's either hang on to Chitz or be completely blind so... the Quigleys don't have many options. But yeah, the copper inside Chitz is moderately valuable.

Only about a dozen??? Okay, clearly you are not getting the love you deserve. Do coppers sunburn easily?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:29:21 -0500

Quite the opposite. It's fair-skinned Plats that burn easily.

Does the future tentacle brothel employ squid or octopi? What is your personal preference between the two?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:29:03 -0500

Oh, neither. They use custom designed critters that have tentacles on 'em. I prefer tentacle monsters to actual animals, meself. Yech.

So in a Starfish X Quigley pairing who'd be the dominant one?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:28:09 -0500

Starfish of course :3

Where does Duane get replacement parts?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:27:41 -0500

For a lot of his braces and things he builds them himself. For when he needs actual dead bits, he goes to the local police house or graveyard and snoops around the corpses of transients - hopefully BEFORE they're buried. He can't work at night and graverobbing during the day is exceedingly difficult.

I'm guessing Sette's impending rescue attempt lasts all of five seconds. She seems to have forgotten about the guy who kicked her tail earlier.

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:24:27 -0500

If it wasn't so magic-stinky out, she could probably smell him trailing her. Stoopid pymary farts!

If I did them they would be intentionally bad so which crack fic would be the most "entertaining?" A Ephsephin x Sette B Matty x Chitz C Starfish X Ephsephin D Elka x Toma

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:10:57 -0500

E. Starfish X Quigley

So if Cat is hard at work cranking out visual rule 34 should I start to work on bad crack fics?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:51:40 -0500

Yes, write me some porn. I have commissioned pornfics of my characters before. One of my guy RP friends used to write me awesome, awesome pornfics. Pornfics are my favourite things.

This new page. I like it. I like all your pages, but I figured you should know.

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:44:51 -0500

You are a nice cat.

Is Duane going to need a new rib cage after this?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:44:39 -0500

Among other things D: Tomorrow is going to be a maintenance day (if he doesn't die forever on the next page of course).

So casualvillain.com just told me 503 temporarily unavailable. <3

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:13:40 -0500

Maaaaan, I hope my host doesn't flip out. Stop linking my comic to people, people! I don't want to get popular, I won't be able to afford hosting D:

What did you do and/or work on today? Did you celebrate reaching 100 followers?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:40:46 -0500

I woke up at six to my nephew shrieking in the next room, so I snagged him and we slept a few more hours in my bed. Then I did the four hours of driving required to get him and his sister back to their house and me back to mine. Then I did some work, answered some emails, dicked around online, made dinner, and put on Tangled while I finished inking a comic page. Now I'm gonna flat that page. My glorious life, so interesting!

100 followers is pretty good. Hello, followers!

Whenabouts will Will wander into the wonder of Unsounded? Will he have both arms?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:38:15 -0500

Chapter seven :O And no, he lost his left arm when he was like twelve.

I bet, if I really thought hard during the day, I could come up with a dozen questions a day for you. Do you miss the nice, full inbox?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:58:35 -0500

Noooo please don't XD Wouldn't you rather I spend my free time making nice comic pages for j00?

Do you have any pictures of Starfish's boobs? I ate something bad and I need to puke it up. He's, what, a C cup?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:17:30 -0500

I should contribute to the Unsounded slash community on dA. Starfish and Quigley yes yes yes.

Do you deal with seasonal depression or does Florida help with that?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:16:04 -0500

Florida doesn't really have seasons so that's not much of a thing around these parts. It's gonna be in the eighties tomorrow.

How many questions do you get daily?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:15:21 -0500

A dozen, I think. Far fewer than I used to get :)

Have you ever had trouble keeping Unsounded canon separate from RP canon?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:15:10 -0500

I think the first chapter suffers from RP syndrome a bit. When I made it I was mostly thinking about my friends and players reading it, and they were used to the characters so I didn't make a concerted enough effort to eeeease the reader into the joy that is Sette.

Otherwise though, it hasn't really been an issue. I think it helps that Unsounded takes place outside of Sharteshane and RP was almost exclusively Sharteshane. So the setting's pretty different and the storyline (for some characters) takes place a number of years earlier than where they were in RP-time.

What do you do when you lose creative steam?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:08:32 -0500

Play a video game, watch some trash tv, do something with my family, surf the interbutts, dick around in VGMC... Just step away from what your doing and let your batteries recharge.

If a Plat or a Silver gets cut off from the khert, do they get a longer life???

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:07:21 -0500

Mortal humans and animals not attached to the khert, uh, die. So no.

Do you have any pictures of Elka's bewbs? This is for, uh, reference.

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:15:53 -0500

I don't D: I think she's a B cup.

Oh hah hah, that makes more sense. From the way I read that it sounded like the members of a specific caste simply exploded messily when they reached their designated expiration date. (No one would want to be around them when they got old. So sad.)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:10:57 -0500

They would stain all their heirlooms :(

Theory #16: Sette is her own mother. She gave birth to herself in a bizarre phenomenon of turning inside-out. Right now, if we turned her back, she'd be a middle-aged woman. Later, if we turn her inside-out, she will be a partially developed fetus.

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:10:00 -0500

Hmmm...Regina means "queen". Is Regina secretly Cresce's bitch-queen that Duane so loathes? I bet she'd be awesome at it.

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:09:34 -0500

Haha, nah. But maybe it tells you something about her that that's the name she would choose for herself :)

I just noticed how many notifications my e-mail gets with my mere dozen followers... is your e-mail terrifyingly full every day?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:21:11 -0500

Nope! I turned off the notifications :D

Did you design Bastion's clothes to be incomprehensible on purpose? That cape... where does it attach? Between the shoulders? What does the back look like? Raughr! TToTT figuring this out is haaaaard...

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:21:00 -0500

Try something like this maybe? http://www.casualvillain.com/random/inscrutable_clothing.jpg I wouldn't overthink it, just go with whatever is easiest :)

What chapter do we get to meet Regina in? And what's the story behind her name being more than four letters? Does that mean Jivi's grandparents were also... unconventional? Or is she not originally Crescian?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:20:34 -0500

She just doesn't care about Crescian naming conventions. Regina's is an independent spirit, and she'll do just about anything to irritate you or make you uncomfortable. As for when you meet her... not until almost the very end of this first "book," which is a very long ways off.

If you could be born anywhere and to anyone or -thing in Kasslyne, where would you choose to be born?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:19:51 -0500

Southern Cresce would be pretty great. I want to be born into a nice fishing family along a particularly pretty section of the coast.

How does aging work in Alderode? Do jets and coppers grow up normally, hit 20-something, and freeze for a few centuries, or is childhood prolonged as well? Do Bronzes age the same way, or do they get old and linger if they're the long-lived kind?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:18:45 -0500

Childhood is a bit longer! Then aging reeeeeally starts to slow down once you hit puberty, and it sort of drags its feet for centuries. Bronze are really erratic - some of them live lives biologically indistinguishable from those of foreigners, others lean more towards the truncated lives of Silvers or the longer lives of the Jets. Bronze families try to look at the family history of prospective spouses so they can marry into families with longer lives.

If coppers turn puce, silvers turn navy, and plats go transparent, do the other castes do cool stuff when they're old, too?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:15:43 -0500

Silvers go navy? What what?

And no, the coppers and plats are extremes of the spectrum, so the really ghastly biological deformations sort of pool on their ends.

Speaking (recently) of things being on model and pictures floating around, does Bastion have a model, or at does that outfit have some concept art around?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:14:28 -0500

I think this is all I have. I was tossing around the idea of giving him shorter hair for a while. http://www.casualvillain.com/random/maybe.jpg

If Duane's ego is stored metaphysically, instead of in an organic brain, does that mean it could be placed in a different body? And would he still be connected to the dammakhert if that happened?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:13:24 -0500

Hmm!

I'm curious about the Aldish policy toward children born of non-aldish mothers and fathers within the boundary of the Dammakhert. (I'm assuming they would be born a member of an Aldish caste) It sounds complicated and messy. I want to know.

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:12:59 -0500

Not complicated or messy at all. Alderode is very harsh when it finds immigrants: deportation, imprisonment, or execution. If you dare to have a kid in the country, your kid becomes the country's property, soul and body. You get the immigrant treatment while your kid goes to a state home.

Of all the people who come to your webcomic, a small fraction went down and clicked the forumspring link. Among them, a small fraction of persons clicked the 'Follow' button. That fraction numbers one hundred as of this moment. How does that feel?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:11:12 -0500

Like unemployment must be really high in the 18-24 population demographic :3

Is Sette's mom dead?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:09:26 -0500

If you ask her, after she kicks you in the face, that's what she'll tell you.

"All the castes who die natural deaths die of typical old age ailments" Does that mean some castes DON'T die naturally?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:09:01 -0500

Well, sure. Sometimes you get run over by a giant dog. Or you get sick. Or someone cuts your throat and steals your purse.

I have all my supplies for Chitz making! Mohair/cashmere blend yarn sound good for the tail? I had some and figured it would do. Also, I found burlap that doesn't smell like barn! Yay! Now to figure out where all those dried flowers from summer went.

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:08:18 -0500

You are so cool I wonder how you don't make icy crackling noises when you type :3

Theory #15: Duane was never alive. All of his memories and his personality were fabricated during his construction.

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:07:49 -0500

Blade Runner did this idea so well I wouldn't feel a need to try my hand at it.

If a jet were to be found in perfectly neutral light, would the sheen on their hair be blue, red, or white) (Translation: do they have cold/blue-black, true black, or warm/natural black hair?)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:29:15 -0500

I think it can vary from individual to individual.

Does Matty every get backaches from having several pounds of metal on his shoulder? I'm doing the maths for Chitz, and he's HEAVY. Unless there's other stuff in him. Is he stuffed with copper pellets or fluff mixed with copper pellets?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:28:37 -0500

I reckon he switches shoulders when one shoulder gets achy. Or he just holds Chitz to his chest like a plushie. Chitz doesn't HAVE to perch on that particular shoulder to work.

What do you get when you cross a duck and a raccoon?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:27:37 -0500

You must tell me.

Awwww, so they don't _really_ show what class he is do they? Though I don't think such a "patriot" would be willing to mislead people as to his caste, since that sounds like it's a pretty big no-no in Alderode. So...how does he see?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:26:58 -0500

How does he move, how does he think, how does he function? Duane's is a complicated case :)

Theory #14: Everyone in Alderode is genetically blonde with green eyes.

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:26:05 -0500

Nope. The Soud (who are green-eyed blondes) are for the most part genetically unchanged by the Dammakhert. They're the original Tains. The invading tribal outsiders who originally made up the rest of Alderode, however, came from further south. What do we see further south? Before Cresce, mostly olive-skinned Ulestrians and fair-skinned brunettes. So I would put money on most of Alderode being genetically pretty brown.

If four Jets have two babies outside of Alderode, then those babies have a baby in Alderode, what is the child's caste going to be? (or any caste, as long as they're all the same)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:22:35 -0500

I... I guess Jet?

I have to ask, are wonderfully literally names like Hanghorse and Nary-A-Care common among Shartes?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:21:47 -0500

They are! Sette has two cousins named Annadyne and Knock-Me-Down. Then there's her cousin Stockyard, her dad's BFF Bodkin, and his son Dribble (who has a cleft palate).

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but if all his "soft tissues" have rotted away, how has Duane kept his pretty green eyes?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:18:30 -0500

They are glass.

What caste is Duane from? My inclination is silver, due to his talent for pymary, but he could also be bronze, or even jet or copper.

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:16:57 -0500

Hmm!

"You really haven't made it in this life until someone's drawn porn of your characters." I am attempting to fix your problem! http://unsoundedshipping.deviantart.com/

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 11:42:00 -0500

ONE MILLION LOL'S

Oh, Jesus. Everyone. Go. Look.

Are we ever going to get to see a really old plat or copper or silver?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:30:26 -0500

I would say so. I don't have any drawings of them sitting around though, sowwy.

Are Plat bones useful in any medicinal sense?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:29:59 -0500

I don't believe so.

Sorry for the boring technical questions. I'd also like to know what "re-inking" and "flatting" mean. How about a bonus Bastion question! What's his favorite food?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:29:31 -0500

Mmm, a fried egg on top of a crepe. Monny blood jelly. Crab-stuffed mushrooms. Strawberry fish.

Re-inking... is re-inking. Okay, when I do a comic page it goes - rough sketch, drawing, inking (going over the drawing in black and tightening it up), filling in all the flat colours (this is called flatting), and then shading. When I say I want to re-ink some pages it means I'm okay with the drawing, more or less, but I want to go back over the drawings again and use a different, better line quality so the pages are more consistent.

When Plats, or any caste really, reaches the end of their allotted years, how does the end come? A slow wasting, a quick heart attack, or do they get sick at all? Do they just...stop?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:23:03 -0500

All the castes who die natural deaths die of typical old age ailments - heart disease, cancers, lung disease, etc. The problem with Plats and Silvers is their insides grow old too fast, and these ailments assault them much earlier than they do their other countrymen.

Duane's attack on the crabby bug today... was he throwing a rock at it (it looked like there was a rock there, possibly), or smacking it with the momentum he pyramically took from the creature's downward claw swing?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:21:26 -0500

It was pretty much a second round of the ground-drawn solidity he threw at Quigley during their opening salvo. He would have done something fancier if OWW HIS LEG WASN'T SUDDENLY IN TWO PIECES.

Was sitting in a on a cultural class today when the professor, who was talking about some Chinese spirit, referred to it as "a child lover." I flashback to Sette's little speech and its all I can do to keep from laughing my ass off in the front row.

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:19:44 -0500

Epic :3

Did Matty know his father very well before they started living together?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:19:16 -0500

Somewhat, but Quigley wasn't a very big part of his life.

Can you draw from or into a living thing, such as your opponent's body in a pymary duel? If you can, are there any defenses against it so that you don't have the unpleasant experience of having the blood pressure of the heart of a mountain?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:18:04 -0500

"Or, since the Khert disintegrates things that don't have the right aspects, could you, say, draw the solidity from your opponent and make them vanish? (Or if you feel more vicious, the liquidity from their blood...)"

One of the first things a wright learns to do is to seal their Aspects safely from the assaults of other wrights. So stuff like you're talking about doesn't have much place in attacks against other pymary users, but wrights have been known to go hardcore like this on laymen.

Do you own a real, live Snuggie?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:15:40 -0500

I used to but it has disappeared :( It was hunter green and soft as a quilt sewn of the flayed skin of a thousand babies' asses.

Are you accepting applications for male whores, then, Glass? I won't wear heels, but I'm sure other adjustments could be made. ;P

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:14:13 -0500

Excellent then. Time for the floor show!

What does "on model" mean?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:13:27 -0500

In animation (and ideally in comics) characters have model sheets. These are pretty much just turn-arounds, or views of the character from a few different angles, in different moods, that can be referred to throughout production so the characters are drawn consistently. If a character matches their design as depicted on their model sheet, they're on model. I never did model sheets when I started Unsounded because I am a lazy git. Hence the characters' looks fluctuate too much for my liking in the early chapters.

It's fucking depressing dadelier@lj is no more. On one hand, I wish you all of the fortune and fame your heart desires, but on the other, I hate that you're popular because now the traces of you around the internet will vanish. The end.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:19:58 -0500

Am I officially popular now? Bring on the crack and the male whores in stilettos, let my downwards spiral begin.

Which country on Kasslyne has the cutest babies?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:19:04 -0500

You cannot ask me this, it's too difficult T__T

Will you tell me everything you know about Rachshane? Militaristic countries make me happy.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:18:17 -0500

Actually I know very little about them! You could conceivably make up a bunch of stuff about them for RP, who's to say you're wrong?

If you had been born in Alderode, which caste would you chose to be?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:17:37 -0500

I think the Jets are best. They get nice, long lives but are less inclined to go insane like the Coppers do. Here is the song of my people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjUk3Bp16zs

Do Plat elders have any connotation of wisdom, or are they just sickly twenty-somethings to everyone?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:29:37 -0500

That's a good question. By other Plats they're seen as wise and worthy of respect, but to other castes they're very creepy in their veiny, pale otherworldliness.

How see-through do Plats get?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:28:31 -0500

Their hair gets fairly milky/translucent, and their skin gets very thin and pale and dry, so you can see the veins running all over them. Very gross.

These questions are getting more disturbing by the day hour.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:26:26 -0500

Not even scared. Come at me.

How old is Bastion?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:25:52 -0500

Forty-three.

Are you also going to redo page 4? Since it's in the old art style, it looks kind of out of place next to the other redone pages.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:30:47 -0500

I'm gonna re-ink it and some of the pages after it, yeah.

How big of a buffer do you ussually keep?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:30:28 -0500

Sixty to eighty pages. It's at seventy-nine pages at the moment.

WHY DO YOU KEEP CHANGING EVERYTHING???? It's not necessary you silly, silly creature. Though your lines have gotten noticeably smaller and smoother. How do you do it? How do you improve on awesome? That's not supposed to be possible. You... SILLY-HEAD.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:44:41 -0500

I'm gonna assume you mean page 5. I've hated that page since the minute I finished it. It was hard to tell what was going on, what Duane was doing, and then relying on that motion blur to show Sette being shaken? DREADFUL. I like it one-thousand times better now, plus Duane is on model and looks more like himself. Leave me alone with my perfectionism T_T

If an Aldishman is vain, could he dye his hair to be its normal colour when it starts to go grey or transparent, or is that just as taboo as dying it indigo?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:16:48 -0500

No, they don't dye it at any age! :)

What kind of dogs would badass horse nomad types ride?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:15:39 -0500

I envision... kind of mangy, wire-haired, lanky creatures, hearty and snaggle-toothed

You said Duane contemplates darkly when lonely. Is his instinctive self preservation very high, or has he ever contemplated trying to off himself?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:14:05 -0500

Duane's coughed up his own insides like chunks of sticky, black phlegm. He's picked maggots out of the tendons of his hands with tweezers. He's peeled his ears away from his skull like loose scabs. "Self-preservation?" What is there to preserve? He should be insane. He should have lit a pyre years ago and danced in it like a parched man dancing in the rain.

But god says no. Ssael "fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter."

Still, Duane fixates on his own demise incessantly. If he doesn't have life and the living around to distract him all he can think about is how warm that fire would be and how he's clinging to the skirts of mortality like excrement and how maybe Ssael doesn't give a damn about one disgusting, unwanted corpse anymore.

Have you read Paranatural? :3

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:01:08 -0500

I kept seeing it pop up on /co/ with the praise that it's "full of reaction image faces." I checked it out, and it's not for me.

WHOO Double pages again! You're spoiling us Ashley. I love it. And if Quigs didn't design the bug, who did? My money's on Matty's mom. In my imaginings, she's pretty awesome.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:47:54 -0500

^_-

Because that last question was horribly worded in all possible ways and you can just get rid of it, how surprised is Quigley that Duane is still moving around and fighting?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:47:41 -0500

Oops, too late. No, Quigley is not that surprised. Duane could have buffered every one of those attacks with defensive spells, so it's not that remarkable that he looks relatively okay. Quigley IS getting a little curious as to why the hell this idiot's got so many bandages under his clothes. The tail on the little girl is weird too. IT'S A WEIRD NIGHT FOR WHITE-HAIRED SORCERERS.

If Duane were a living person at the moment, what do you figure the chances of him dying or being dead at this point in the 'duel' at this point?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:45:58 -0500

Interesting question. Getting hit by that waterfall blast would have broken some ribs, if not his neck if he'd landed poorly. The bugs would have done a number on his skin if it was there in any reasonable amount, so he'd be dripping from numerous lacerations. I don't know, he'd be pretty damn torn up, but not dead or dying, I'm pretty sure.

Blade of the Immortal made the interesting point that being invulnerable would be one of the shittiest things that could happen to one's fighting skills. Getting hit ceases to matter so you get sloppy. Duane probably suffers from this to some extent.

I ran out of kedis questions. Did you do anything exciting today?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:34:27 -0500

Just a bunch of work. My niece and nephew are spending the weekend with me so I ain't gonna get anything done.

I found out that there's a limit on number of questions asked in a certain amount of time. Are you impressed, terrified, or simply annoyed because I discovered it in your Formspring inbox?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:28:37 -0500

You can never annoy me. I am a being of light.

I'm going back to kedis questions. Would one allow itself to be dressed in a warm sweater, even though it's a reptile and a sweater will serve little or no purpose?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:28:09 -0500

...sure.

Since Duane's nerves probably fell off with all his fleshy bits, can he still feel the pain of snapping a leg like a twig?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:27:56 -0500

Yes. For some strange, impossible reason, his bones can hurt him. Hit Duane with a blunt force if you wanna cause him pain.

Was that really poorly drawn Tainish or just scribbles coming from his mouth?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:26:34 -0500

It was just incoherent FFSfjpasioerjfaolfaaer%#Q$). Don't you ever do that? Stub your toe or otherwise hurt yourself so suddenly and so painfully that all you can do is incoherently sputter and semi-swear?

That giant bug... Is it's appearance Quigley's own design, or are there actually bug that look like that, albeit much smaller, on Kasslyne?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:25:52 -0500

Nope, it's totally an imaginary bug monster. Quigs didn't design it though.

What makes you choose to do two pages rather than one in any given set?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:25:21 -0500

When I feel that the pages really go together - where there's like a flow of action or a conversation that would be harmed by being delivered two days apart. I felt that the snapped leg, Duane on the ground, and then Duane rolling to evade and then retaliate on the next page were all one continuous set of maneuvers that all needed to be shown together.

Matty is falls wildly in love with Jivi and enlists Uaid's help to escape. Uaid kills everyone except the two, but he is jealous of their love and eventually crushes them both. Uaid, overcome with guilt, will then lie down to become a mountain. THE END.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:08:46 -0500

Directed by William Shakespeare

If generally kept in a warm spot and cuddled frequently, would kedises be ok in Ulestry?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:08:07 -0500

Yes.

Do you enjoy being vague, even when you don't need to be?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:08:01 -0500

I--!

I don't MEAN to be vague, but sometimes answers ARE vague. I don't know EVERYTHING :3 Unsounded is a really long story with a lot of characters in a big world. Not every little thing is decided yet.

I think Cara's death may be the most emotionally moving thing I've ever seen.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:07:04 -0500

She had it coming. Those beady Aldish eyes.

Are there kedises in Rachshane? If not... are there kedises in any other mainly fair-skinned, seaside country? If not mainly fair-skinned, at least one where a family of blonde boys wouldn't be too out-there and would be able to serve in the military?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:30:21 -0500

I would say kedises fare poorly in Alderode and in the upper third of the rest of the continent. It's a climate thing, they're not built for cold. I see no reason why they wouldn't be just fine in Rachshane.

Is Duane's punching outbreak a fallback to his schoolyard bully fightin' days? It reminds me a little bit (just a little!) of Ralphie's fight in a "Christmas Story".

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:28:49 -0500

Hahahaha, I LOVE it, you're right, he was just like Ralphie losing his shit and jumping on the ginger kid. Ahh, Duane just snapped and wanted to plant his fist in Quigley's gob, I guess. It happens. Pymary's pleasant, but a fist's fuckin' fantastic.

Would Jivi and Matty get along under different circumstances? Would Matty and Sette?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:27:18 -0500

Matty can and will insist on getting along with anyone (except maybe Mr. Starfish). Jivi is friendly too, but he wasn't about to be sweet to the son of one of the murdering slavers keeping him chained inside a cart. Who knows what the future may hold though.

Why does Duane keep trying to go into towns? It's not like he needs a salary to buy food. Does he just get so lonely on his own he wants to be in a crowd?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:25:38 -0500

Duane gets very, very, very lonely. All he really needs is a window in a nice town, and he can content himself, but remaining in his own company out in the country drives him towards very black thoughts.

Are there boys' choirs in Kasslyne? I'd be sad in a world without boys' choirs. I like boys' choirs. When I grow up, I want to be a choir boy. Kidding. Sort of. Not really.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:08:46 -0500

Have you ever read Anne Rice's "Cry to Heaven?" You would like it.

Will you explain how Uaid's mobility works? Also, is he still alive and simply hollowed out, or is he dead and reanimated?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:06:48 -0500

You will have to wait!

Did Duane have friends before he was a galit? If not, that's just sad...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:06:34 -0500

Oh, yes. Duane had lots of buddies. He was a busy guy though, not all that much time to be hanging out at the pub or the playhouse.

Does Matty miss his friends, or is he too happy to be going to the sea with Papa? (Or has he simply gotten over it?)

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:05:48 -0500

Matty misses the idea of friends at this point. He was fairly young when they left Alderode so he doesn't remember his little kid friends especially well - they were just fun kids. He really wanted to be friends with Jivi but, well, circumstances.

Theory #13: When Sette's a teenager, she won't break out in zits, she'll break out in nipples. <.<

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:00:56 -0500

...sexy.

Did Matty have friends before he had a transient lifestyle?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:00:46 -0500

Yep! Lots of little kid friends.

Does Duane have any buddies that don't care about his status as a galit? If not, is he ever embarrassed that his only friend is a little girl?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:00:26 -0500

Duane hasn't had a friend in a long, long time.

*sniff*

Does Sette have any friends other than Duane?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:59:57 -0500

PSSSH, Duane is not her FRIEND, that is a DISGUSTING insinuation. Sette has some "reliable acquaintances" back in Hanghorse but most people back home find her as intolerable as you might imagine.

Does Sette like playing in puddles when bathing is not an objective?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:58:31 -0500

Yes! Mud! Mud everywhere! Havoc!

Can Matty swim?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:58:19 -0500

He can dog paddle.

Do all the Black Tongues have a knack for looking stylish?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:57:59 -0500

Nope. In fact most of them are bookish, wizened, dried-up old scholar types.

Is Bastion the most fashionable man in Winalils? Alderode? Kasslyne?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:57:42 -0500

Bastion's dad is pretty fashionable, so it's a close contest. All of Alderode? No. All of Kasslyne certainly not.

Did Quigley make Uaid? Chitz? If he made Chitz, did Matty have a say in what Chitz looks like?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:56:49 -0500

Matty's mom sewed Chitz for him when he was an itty bitty toddler, and stuffed him with dried beans. After Matty was blinded, Quigley *spoiler spoiler* and modified Chitz into the seeing aid he is today, replacing his stuffing with precious First Copper.

Is Uaid's mobility related to how plods work?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:55:24 -0500

Tangentially.

Is Uaid sentient(ish) and compliant, like a domesticated horse or dog, or is he "programmed" to be that way, like a plod? If he's programmed, was he ordered to be nice to Matty, or is he just nice to Matty because someone needs to be nice to Matty?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:55:07 -0500

Uaid is sentient and has opinions of his own. Fortunately he really likes Matty. If it was just him and Quigley I think he would have stepped on him long ago.

How was Matty blinded?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:53:51 -0500

Chapter six.

Does Matty have any friends other than Uaid and Chitz? (Papa doesn't count, either...)

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:53:41 -0500

Nope.

Do the various regions of Kasslyne have different breeds of dogs, like cats, horses, and dogs in our world?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:52:28 -0500

Absolutely.

Theory #11: Sette's navel is on her leg somewhere and she's much more concerned about Duane seeing that than him loving her child-bottom.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:52:06 -0500

"Theory #12: Sette is a Gefendur god incarnate sent to confuse and play a practical joke on the poor Ssaelit. That or she's the Ssaelit Jesus. Either way, when Duane finds out, he's going to lose all faith and start worshipping Uaid."

Haha, the Ssaelit god is more a Buddha than a Jesus, but man, that makes me sad for Duane-face.

That misanthropy question had me rereading ch 2, good times. I noticed Duane has a huge hunk of skull missing on 2/32, what’s filling in the gap? There’s also a crack with staples or something near his brow ports. Comments?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:51:00 -0500

It's been a rough six years. He's been run out've a few towns and gotten into a few scraps.

Of the pages we haven't seen so far, what's your favorite line of dialogue?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:50:10 -0500

Hrmm, I dunno. Nary does have a pretty good rant in chapter 6 but I dunno.

I used to have hardcore insectophobia, but then I started studying them. Now I'm only creeped out by genuinely lethal ones, or ones that won't die (which is why scorpions really freak me out still). My point is, I like the bugs Quigley uses. A lot.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:48:14 -0500

Good ^_^ Check this video out, I like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czi0F_Ovaws

I did not know chitz could do that. Attack shoulderthingy vs attack zombie, who would win?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:09:58 -0500

Chitz can do anything with the power of imagination! He would beat up the attack zombie every time. I think Boo could beat attack Chitz though. He'd go for the eyes.

I-I didn't know Chitz had a little rope tail. Is THAT how he stays on? Is there a loop somewhere Matty ties him down to? Why does it remind me of an umbilical cord? IS MATTY HIS MOMMY? So many questions.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:08:47 -0500

It is only a length of yarn XD

Of the pages we have seen so far, what is your favorite line of dialogue?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:07:46 -0500

Ooh, good question. I think... either Duane's line to Bett about his misanthropy, or Sette quoting Da about tits.

Tell Matty I'm sorry, but I am completely willing to sacrifice his dad if it means no more bugs. I know, I'm a terrible person.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:50:18 -0500

Who's your favorite mythic character?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:34:58 -0500

I think Atalanta was pretty awesome and I don't know why she's never been embraced more in popular media. The golden apple thing always pissed me off until that episode of QI where they said the best way to escape a polar bear was to take off your clothes while you were running, 'cause the bear would stop to investigate them and you'd get away. Well, Atalanta was raised by a bear so of course she'd stop to investigate the golden apples. Them clever Greeks.

Did you read a lot as a kid? What kind of books did you read when you were young?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:28:44 -0500

When I was very young, I read a lot of fantasy books like the Narnia and Redwall series, and classic series like the Bobbsey Twins (my great-grandma would buy me a new Bobbsey Twin book every Christmas omg is this where the Gefendur Twins came from *revelation*), Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the Anne of Green Gables books. When I got a little older I really was more into classic fiction like Twain and Dickens and Stevenson, and then in high school, Melville, Hawthorne, O'Connor, and more commercial authors like Anne Rice and Michael Crichton. And then lots and lots of comic books, from cape shit to classic Doctor Stranger to Strangers in Paradise to Bone to The Maxx. I read constantly when I was a kid but now I hardly read at all. C'est la vie.

I may have asked this but I don't remember: Just how loud was Elka's shouting pymary thing? Loud enough to be heard across the city?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:51:22 -0500

It was as loud as the bark of a giant dog.

Today was oral hygiene day at school. Now the little girl who wanted to be an artist yesterday wants to be a dentist. Thanks for the advice on child-support, though. Unfortunately, it didn't come in handy while pretending to brush Peter Rabbit's teeth.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:14:23 -0500

Dentists are pretty badass.

Why doesn't anyone want to be a Black Tongue any more? I mean, it's just testicles for immeasurable freedom to practice pymaric arts! Plus, Black tongues can have all the chicks they want and no embarrassing bastard children!

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:14:03 -0500

Well, the initiation rules are harsh, and life as an Ilganyag can be crappy. Unless you're the best of the best you're going to be persecuted almost anywhere you go and spend your life on the down-low. Maybe a new alternative to the Ilganyag has arisen, something that's competing with it for the hearts and minds and testicles of bright young wrights.

If someone has no balls to give up, can they not become Black Tongues? I mean, I get the pre-castrated bit, but what of women and un-dropped fellows?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:11:39 -0500

Nope, women can't be members. It'sa da rule. Undropped fellows? I'm not sure that's ever come up.

Theory #8: The Ilganyag are called the Ilganyag because they are all women who accidentally (or not) killed their babies. They then become men because they were so bad at womaning, but they can't be full men because they're women, so they're eunuchs.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:11:04 -0500

"Theory #9: If they aren't ace stylists, Bastion and Quigley worked together to make super-stylish pymary."

"Theory #10: Toma is in charge of the Red Berry Boys."

Tsk tsk tsk.

What's Sette's granny like? I'm imagining Baba Yaga...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:09:51 -0500

She's a sweet old witchy-woman who brews medicine and counsels the family when times are tough. She's killed more men than influenza.

Is Sette's granny Knock-Me-Down Frummagem?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:08:22 -0500

Haha, nope.

Do we get to meet Sette's granny?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:08:09 -0500

Maybe.

Wait a minute...Duane's going to kill Quigley with some nasty spell but then Matty jumps in front of it at the last minute and dies and everyone will be all D: That's what's going to happen, isn't it? D:

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:08:02 -0500

Don't tell anyone!

Do you blog? If so, are you on http://purebloggers.com ? Whats your profile there. Want to add you :)

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:07:42 -0500

I do not blog and I'm not on that site. Sorry, man :)

Which member of her family has Sette had the most contact with, other than her Da?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:11:34 -0500

Definitely her granny.

I'm trying to understand this glamour stuff. Am I correct that a suggestive glamour is up to the perception of the viewer? Does that mean everyone sees Duane differently?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:10:33 -0500

Still working on a satisfactory glamour system.

Mahna mahna! :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_tupPBtWQ

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:47:20 -0500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTwq1_9VH68

So what's on Anchert that everyone's so eager to fight for? Or is it just one of the thoughtless "this hunk of rock is useless but its mine so YOU can't have it." disputes? And that wasn't the war Duane was in, correct? He was fighting Cresce in the west?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:46:23 -0500

Quite so. Duane was mostly in Avelpit dealing with the fallout of the Foi-Hellick affair, which is a whole 'nother can of worms. Don't wanna talk about Anchert yet :)

Also, you say that Sharteshane doesn't want to ally with Alderode. But WHICH part of Sharteshane? Are the rouges and the holy knights in agreement on this point? I think it was mentioned somewhere that they are the two true powers.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:43:50 -0500

The nobility is the true power in Sharteshane, but I don't want to delve too deeply into this as it'll come up in the comic one day :)

As far as Duane (and most other people) knows, he's the only talking zombie, right? So couldn't a Glamour on him play to people's expectations of seeing a normal person? The human mind is remarkably pliable in that sense, even without magic.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:42:52 -0500

Then he's just a Jedi, isn't he? Interesting thought though, I'm tinkering with something along these lines.

Are Sette's filed teeth baby teeth? If so I hope she won't be so dumb to do the filing thing again when she gets her adult set. This question is just an excuse to post this link http://goo.gl/zY0y0

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:26:24 -0500

Good God, being alive is creepy.

Has Sette /ever/ had a haircut?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:25:29 -0500

Sure, her granny chops her hair now and then.

Have you ever failed a class? If so, what class?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:23:49 -0500

Nope, never failed a class. I was a straight A kid throughout most of school. If you are failing a class, Mr. Ballpoint, get offline right now and do the work D:

Hey Glass. Non-unsounded question here. What makes the growth of Asian megacities phenomenal in comparison to western cities?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:02:07 -0500

Do your own homework, bird.

Oh, you know you love my little oddities, & put up w/ them because I make you laugh. ;P

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:00:01 -0500

Absolutely!

So. How frequently can I expect to see horrifying swarms of glowy insects in the future? I'll be sure to have a flyswatter at the ready...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:40:00 -0500

May not see them ever again if Duane kills Quigley on the next page! :3

Frog side has the cooler tongue. ;P And instinctual reactions. ;P

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:39:26 -0500

Oh, SO <3

Couldn't Duane just steal a little bit of good looks in a city from all the people around, similar to stealing the sharpness of a bunch of blades of grass? Or alternatively, carry a fresh bouquet of pretty flowers everywhere he goes? :D

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:39:07 -0500

The latter has promise, but the first still relies on treating "beauty" like an Aspect, which doesn't sit well with me. I think what I'm going to do is simplify glamours and allow more flexibility to literal glamours. If the literal ones can contain qualities of the suggestive ones, it should work given proper preparation.

Aww, you removed the character descriptions. I really liked the texts and the pictures. I guess it's because of the wiki (which has some pictures now, which is neat), but the descriptions were different - not so spoilery and more amusing and teaser-like.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:36:54 -0500

I'm sorry :( I also have read complaints where people didn't think the characters should have an out-of-comic introduction like that. So, ya know, can't please everyone.

"If he could get over his psychological issues, could Duane make himself look more, erm, alive? Less grey, I mean." Maybe if he became Murkoph? ;)

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:35:50 -0500

Oh, darling WoV, do you think Duane turns into Murkoph at night like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Tiana's nice, too. Is it bad I like the frog version of her better? kind of like how I like Beast better than his true form at the end? (and all his servants.)

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:34:52 -0500

Wooooah, see, if you were a lady, you'd like human Beast better. Human Beast is famously pretty for a Disney character. I like Tiana as both a human and a frog, both have their good sides.

I just thought you might like to know Unsounded is now the most visited webcomic in my browser, and second most visited overall. Google is number one.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:33:09 -0500

Well, that's just weird, son. You need better comics in your life. Go read Shadoweyes, Artifice, Lackadaisy Cats, Nedroid, and Oglaf.

You doggies look wonderful. What are they like? (real life here, not the comic)

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:11:18 -0500

They are smelly and they bark too much.

true. Jasmine is my favorite Princess. Really, I'm a fan of Lion King, with Aladdin being my 2nd favorite movie as well, so the villains line up, I guess.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:10:50 -0500

Jasmine was my favourite princess until Tiana came along. I really dig on frogs.

Have you ever found yourself falling in love with a fictional character, if your own creation or otherwise?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:09:46 -0500

Of course. Everyone falls in love with a fictional character at some point, I would say that's part of life. I haven't really fallen for a character in quite some time but I don't consume nearly as much media as I once did, so that makes sense.

If he could get over his psychological issues, could Duane make himself look more, erm, alive? Less grey, I mean.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:53:31 -0500

We shall see.

You say on the wiki (went back and read it all after you mentioned it) that sharteshane and Alderode sometimes have issues with eachother. Does Alderode come down the cost and bother their navy? Or vice versa?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:53:20 -0500

Alderode and Sharteshane go back and forth. They're major trade partners and they rely on friendly relations for shipping purposes, but they've had problems over the years deciding who owns what islands, particularly Anchert, which was the cause of a number of bloody naval skirmishes ten years ago. Right now their relations are pretty neutral, partly because Sharteshane is kind of irked at Cresce for pushing its western alliance, which it has no interest in. Vits (Alderode's government) has been pressuring Sharteshane's king into forming their own northeastern alliance to counter it, but Sharteshane's not stupid. It knows Alderode can't be trusted and is far too triggerhappy.

If Duane was living in Tawhoque the past year or so, presumably with no woods in the immediate vicinity, what did he source his glamour on? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to create an illusion from light aspects and make it respond to (express) emotion?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:46:56 -0500

I am debating how Duane deals with hiding in cities. I have a method how it would work just fine within the glamour restrictions I've laid out, but another part of me is like, am I making this more complicated than it needs to be? Does it really serve a story purpose or am I just being a clever bitch?

So I am undecided. Stay tuned.

This job you mentioned earlier. Can't talk about it because you're professional, or can't talk about it because it's some sort of surprise?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:38:56 -0500

Can't talk about it because there's an NDA (nondisclosure agreement) involved. It's nothing interesting though, it's corporate graphic design.

Waaait, was an old, old response I smiled at deleted, or am I still too new to Formspring and confused? In light of more recent responses, I realize some of the older ones might no longer hold true, so I appologize if it was the former. :(

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:21:09 -0500

Haha, I did indeed delete it :) You're right, some of the old stuff doesn't really hold up anymore, now that I've thought things out better. Rather than risk confusion, I deleted it. Actually, thanks for finding it for me, I knew it was buried back there but I didn't have a way to find it.

I am oddly tired today. Normally I'd be fine for another 4/5 hours or so. Today has been weird and long, but... I am awake. I am waiting. I will do this until the update, after which I will fall asleep. Because Unsounded is more important than sleep.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:18:15 -0500

Aww. If I'd seen this earlier I would have updated early for you.

Oh hah. That's a no due to poor internal anatomy, even if it is a cartoon. ;P But Scar is just the type of villain I love. And Jafar is #2 on my list, just like you.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:27:42 -0500

Scar IS pretty cool, but he loses points with me for managing to mess up so badly after he achieved his goals. I like my villains to be really competent, it makes them scarier. Jafar, for instance, was pretty clever and when he did mess up it was mostly just because he had such a boner for Jasmine... which is understandable, Jasmine was pretty hot.

GLAAAAASSSSS! sonofhod is a lazy bastard and told me to ask you if Duane is the only galit how does he know what to call himself? Did he coin the phrase "Galit"? Mock his laziness will you?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:47:06 -0500

Don't be mean to Sonofhod, we all like the same stupid comic and should stick together. "Galit" is simply the Tainish word for zombie. Duane hates being equated with "zombies" or "plods" though and so priggishly insists on using "galit," even though it's essentially the same thing.

Maybe Sette's teeth were lacured after being filed? That's make them a bit bigger and stronger than just plain filed teeth.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:45:25 -0500

No, I'm not sure the dental arts are that far along. The big teeth are just a style thing. If Sette was a real human being standing next to you her EYES wouldn't be as big as they are either :)

I'm all out of absurd theories for the night. I'll come up with more tomorrow. Now aren't you sorry for making me squirm? Mew-ah-hahahahahaha~!!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:42:34 -0500

I ain't even a little afraid. I used to be involved heavily in FFVII fandom. I have seen cyborg male vampires give birth to the children of firewalking psychopath alien-boys.

Theory #1: Bastion and Quigley spent their youth (well, Quigley's youth) together as ace stylists running a salon. Then Matty's mom died and Quigley got Matty, who obviously could not be a stylist. Now they travel separately, selling style and pymary.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:40:35 -0500

"Theory #2: Chitz doesn't actually do anything and Matty is just being a drama queen like every other aldishman."

"Theory #3: Not only are all Aldish drama queens, they're outright queens, and Quigley is actually Matty's mom... it's "his" father who died."

"Theory #4: Bastion is an avid men's love voyeur and made Duane and Murkoph to be creative partners for his entertainment, but got something else. Namely, a dead Aldishman with a stick and metaphorical snake up his butt and Murkoph (not up Duane's butt)"

This is something @MusesAnonymous would write.

"Theory #5: Sette was born a mule, but Nary decided a mule-child wouldn't be too helpful, so he filed her horse-teeth down and called her a lion. Sette still has a mean kick, though."

"Theory #6: Matty is Quigley's lover. He is a very well-trained pet."

T_____T

"Theory #7: ElkaxUaid is canon, though Chitz wishes it weren't."

That's kind of sexy actually, this is the only thing I slightly approve of. You are a horrible person. Cat. Forumcat.

Unsounded is a Rule 34 exception (but for some borderline Murk stuff by you, but that doesn't count) Does this surprise you? How does this make you feel? Are you concerned that I checked? (Intermittent Rule 34 tests - they failed for the first time.)

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:36:42 -0500

There was one bit of written Rule 34 last year but it wasn't very good and it was Sette/Duane which is always disturbing. But yeah, it just doesn't exist. It makes me kind of sad :( You really haven't made it in this life until someone's drawn porn of your characters.

Scar as #7? He's #1 on my list. ;)

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:35:22 -0500

I would think you'd like Monstro from Pinnochio :3

We know what you've done now that the cosplayers have gotten at you... what shall you do when the rabid yaoi fangirls kill Sette and Elka in the name of all-boy orgies? (Duane's lack of tissue be damned!!)

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:34:55 -0500

If I was of that proclivity (and of course I'm not, I'm a virginal being of pure light) I would slash Quigley and Toma (after this chapter is over you will see why) and then I would slash Starfish and Ephsephin so that everyone hated me forever.

"I finished up a job I can't talk about" You killed a man, didn't you? You're a secret assassin on the side to support your art career. You've just come back from a hit on some Arabian diplomat, fat wad of cash in hand. Admit it.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:32:55 -0500

Oh, God, I wish. I would be so rich. I would score all the bitches and pie.

So wait. Suggestive glamours can link themselves to aspects of their surroundings, and how people perceive said aspects? But that must mean that beauty is an aspect, if it relies on people seeing the source as beautiful.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:30:12 -0500

No, beauty is too subjective to be an Aspect. Like you said, you don't find autumn beautiful so would a "Beauty Aspect" simply cease to exist when you're present while it exists for others? No, that would be a contradiction, and Aspects are logical and concrete. Concepts like that really need their own term, don't they. "Perception" might be a good one. Suggestive glamours are a kind of mind-fuckery, cloaking objects in external perceptions of other objects. It's a different sort of pymary, less to do with Aspects than with how living things interface with the khert. Does that make sense?

Why can't Duane just use a literal glamour for his face? Is he just not skilled enough in illusory pymary?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:24:10 -0500

Literal glamours are no good for disguises. They are TOO literal. They don't follow expressions, don't lip-sync, just look like masks. And Duane probably isn't a good enough artist to sculpt a new face for himself anyway, no.

So, since I find autumn hideous rather than beautiful, does that mean I'd be able to see right through Duane's glamour?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:21:55 -0500

If you find no beauty in the autumnal woods, yes, you'd see through it. Your heart is a sad, shrivelled raisin of hate.

So what did you do today, Glass? Today seems like a day when stuff got done. Well, by everyone but me.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:21:02 -0500

I finished up a job I can't talk about, coloured up page 52, did some website tinkering I promised to do like, weeks ago... managed not to open Steam all day... Be proud of me.

Do you have anything cute about being an artist/becoming an artist that can be said to a six-year-old? I couldn't think of any inspiring advice, then I thought, "Oh, hey, Glass is an artist and a writer! She'll have ideas and words about it!" Do you?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:19:56 -0500

Show them this nice comic http://jellyvampire.deviantart.com/art/Like-an-artist-197147822

Then have a word with their parents and make sure the child never actually professionally pursues art. It is a miserable life.

Do it! Sing the song of Gaston!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:28:52 -0500

I now command this song be stuck in your head the rest of the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhG9hKiplfQ

Top 11 Disney Villains! Go!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:28:28 -0500

Assuming animated Disney only...

1. Frollo
2. Jafar
3. Negaduck
4. Ursula
5. Chernabog
6. McLeach
7. Scar
8. Madam Mim
9. Little John
10.Maleficent
11. Gaston

Is Duane the very model of a modern Aldish Galit?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:00:52 -0500

Since he is the only one... yes.

So, Sette FILED her teeth? They aren't naturally like that? I figured it was part of her unusual anatomy.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:00:27 -0500

Nope. They're filed.

But Quigley loves Matty! He uses voices! He only cuffs him gently right? D: And... Can I see a picture of your Duane plushie? Please?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:59:44 -0500

Sorry this took me two weeks D:

Sette may be the daughter(?) of a thief but NO ONE STEALS LIKE GASTION!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:59:08 -0500

I know every line from that song, don't make me do it.

What spell was Duane using to mend his leg in Chapter 4? Was he making the bone more solid?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:58:39 -0500

Yep, just pumping solidity in. It's kind of a lost cause at this point, I think he's gonna have to replace that leg soon.

How strong is Sette's jaw, anyway? If its strong enough to bite through Duane's fingerbones early on is it strong enough to, say, crack a walnut?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:45:48 -0500

I'd worry more about her teeth than her jaw. Filed human teeth are actually kind of weaksauce according to most accounts.

(Related to last question) Do walnuts exist in Kasselyne? What a sad pathetic life the people there must lead if walnuts don't exist.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:45:01 -0500

You know who really hates walnuts? Like, it's one of the one foods he won't eat? Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods. I find that really, really amusing. But sure, I suppose there are walnuts in Unsounded, or at least something like them.

Is Quigley definitely a poofter?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:43:24 -0500

I would point towards Matty as evidence of at least Quigley's bisexuality. Unless he was raped, I suppose.

"THE Unsounded." Thoughts?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:28:33 -0500

Well, the quote the word is from is "And all the time, lo! that smiling sky, and this unsounded sea!" so that wouldn't work :) Also, it just doesn't jive with why I chose that word as the title.

Duane's nose has come off, has anything else?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:26:41 -0500

Pretty much all soft tissue is gone. Interpret that as you will.

"Meeting Sette actually WAS one of the nicest things to happen to him in a long, long time." Someone should tell Sette that. Unless she already knows.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:23:43 -0500

Sette already is pretty certain that meeting her is the best thing that can happen to anyone, so this information would not surprise her.

If subjective, intangible things like "manliness" can't be aspects, how come beauty is one?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:23:15 -0500

Because glamours are tricky business. I've explained in the past that there are two primary types of glamour: literal and suggestive. Literal glamours are illusions where the wright is actually building visual form out of redirected light, like a 3D modeller shaping and texturing polygons. It's tedious and takes a very long time because nothing can be left to the imagination. You are actually sculpting and painting. It's an art.

Suggestive glamours are the ones you pull over yourself when you only have seconds to spare, and they are very fragile. There are different types. Some actually move Aspects (colours are easily shifted, for instance). But the one Duane uses is fancier. It doesn't reassign Aspects so much as it allows an object to piggyback onto how a viewer perceives the Aspects of another object. So, if a viewer perceives the forest around them as beautiful, a suggestive glamour can allow an additional object to bask in that perception, and the viewer perceives it as beautiful as well. Now, if a viewer does NOT perceive a forest as beautiful, the glamour will break and they will see the object however they see the forest.

See? Very fragile. It also relies on Duane staying in proximity of a forest. It also degrades as autumn degrades said forest, so he's still pretty grey and funky in spite of being out in the woods. And it also just up and dissolves entirely if you take off the hood, since Duane can't seem to maintain it if you look him in the eyes. He's terrible at poker.

How does Boo regenerate the explosive thread, anyway? Is it a pseudo-organic process where he regenerates it given enough time or is there some kind of refill station deal?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:19:37 -0500

He can't regenerate it. He has to be manually refilled with more gossamer. He'll be pretty useless until that happens.

Have you ever considered having something really nice happen to Duane? Letting him win a contest? Getting rid of Sette for a little while? Finding a nice girl who also happens to be a necrophiliac and settling down?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:07:39 -0500

Duane's "life" is so shitty that meeting Sette actually WAS one of the nicest things to happen to him in a long, long time. Sometimes when you're miserable, the best thing that can happen to you is a distraction. Anyway, fighting is one of Duane's favourite things, he's not too unhappy at the moment.

Where is Sette keeping Boo during this whole thing with the wright battle? Is she just letting him squirt explosive thread all over her pocket, or what?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:04:17 -0500

Boo is quite depleted of gossamer after the Mulimar stunt, so that's good. He's hiding out inside her shirt, shivering like a donut at a cop convention.

I'd say it's a two toe body rather than a child. My reaction was "Argh Duane hasn't killed him yet? Lazy zombie!"

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:27:29 -0500

Duane needs to stop playing around with the Plats and do some real work!

From TvTropes:"Sette has yet to put on any footwear, from the very first panel on. Although it isn't explained if this is a cultural thing, a personal preference, or her Da simply won't buy shoes for her; it's just treated as her natural state." Thoughts?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:27:04 -0500

Only rich kids from the Old District wear shoes in Hanghorse. The street kids and most street people, don't. If Sette put on shoes people would say she was putting on airs like she was better than the rest of them, even though she's Nary's daughter and brings in a good amount of money, and could probably afford shoes. So it's kind of a cultural thing, yeah. At this point, too, she just doesn't like shoes. Can't move right in 'em, can't curl her toes into the dirt. They'd probably make her fall over :3

Sette vs Matty cute-off? Matty's a natural, but Sette's got wiles.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:37:24 -0500

Sette's teeth hurt her cute factor. Matty's creepy blind eyes hurt his. It'd be a close match.

Why do you give non-committal e-grunts rather than ignoring spoiler-y questions? O_O Are you trying to encourage WMG? That's your evil plot, isn't it? We're all just being tricked into entertaining you with epileptic tree theories, aren't we?!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:36:50 -0500

I like to keep you on your toes, Forumcat. Dance, monkey!

...and then Spenny took what he'd earned to the track, made a lucky bet, and won. Plus it turned out that half of the money he'd earned selling promotional time on the show legally belonged to Spenny. It was a glorious turnabout.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:36:22 -0500

Excellent. Justice for all :D

How tall is Bastion? Maybe I'm not as vertically challenged as I thought...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:35:12 -0500

Man, I wish my friend Fox was on, I bet she'd remember. I think he's 5'7"? Something like that.

If you met someone cosplaying Murkoph (scars and all) what would your reaction be?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:34:35 -0500

If they were super attractive and the right height and it was really good cosplay, I'd probably shit my pants and lose all cognitive functions. If those conditions were not met... I guess I would be flattered and thank them for reading :3

Is Starfish walking away from what appears to be a /dead child/? With swagger like it "ain't no thing"? This is... certainly an interesting choice of art.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:31:16 -0500

:O I just liked the background.

The Sette vs Quigly moneymaking contest sounds like that one episode of Kenny vs Spenny...but that didn't turn out as you'd expect.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:38:37 -0500

Hmm, not familiar.

So what's on the agenda for the rest of your evening? Magical art? Amazing writing? Second supper? Bed? We're all dying to know about the life of Awesome Incarnate.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:38:25 -0500

Awesome Incarnate should get a formspring so you can ask her questions! :3 I, personally, finished inking a page and then flatted it. Here is a panel of Starfish in a mysterious environment, woo~

When -do- we get to see Bastion again?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:25:38 -0500

When you least suspect it.

On aspects, what about translucence/opacity? Could I make a block transparent and the air black?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:17:30 -0500

Absolutely. Duane was playing with translucency when he did his invisi-trick at the end of chapter three. He wrapped himself and Sette in the translucency of the rain to give the guard the slip. Full invisibility isn't very practical since your eyes will stop working and you won't be able to see, but little rain-obscured translucency tricks like that are pretty handy.

That Ilganyag question was spoilery, then?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:46:09 -0500

Mmmmmm.

Is Bastion a fancy enough fellow to... erm... have a slight heel to his footwear? I'm not talking "eunuch-in-stilettos" heel, here... just a nice, slight... man-lift. (I'm vertically challenged a man...)

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:46:03 -0500

Yes, he likes heels :) Bastion's not as tall as he wishes he was.

Did you draw superhuge dogs before the idea of Unsounded or Tanners or was it something you thought up just for them? What is your favorite breed of dog?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:17:46 -0500

I guess I made them up for Unsounded, I never drew any big dogs before that... I really dig on bulldogs and labs.

So the Ilganyag take their name from the mythical Lady Ilganyag? Why's that? Is it because they give up the means of reproduction (and so 'kill kids', or the promise of any)?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:16:37 -0500

Hmm.

51 hours ain't all that long? I mean, sure, playing a videogame for that long is a huge waste of time but relatively that's on the lower end of 'I wasted all this time'? I'm pretty sure I've played X-Com for longer than that.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:16:25 -0500

Absolutely, but Terraria is such a waste of time that those 51 hours seem particularly egregious.

If you had a Venus flytrap, what would you name it? How about a giant dog?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:59:36 -0500

My Venus flytrap would be Audrey II, naturally. My giant dog would be.... hmm. Woofasaurus? I like Sette's name for her dog. WRATH OF DOG! Wrath for short.

And you'd kinda think after the first few dead babies she'd notice that they didn't really take too well to her. Maybe she's just clinically unobservant? It reminds me of cautionary myths we have. Don't lie, don't steal, don't leave your baby lying around

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:56:44 -0500

Conventional wisdom is that the Lady believes she's done her job so well that the baby's fallen blissfully asleep. Spooky.

Was Lady Ilganyag The one depicted on the wall of the tomb the Red Berry Boys were staying in? The one that was stalking Sette in the dark? And I've wondered, how much of that was representative of Sette's state of mind at that point, and how much was....

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:54:03 -0500

Lady Ilganyag was not on the walls. The monstrous figure in the dark was probably in Sette's head. Proooobably :)

Does this cosplay thing give you hives like the RP does?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:33:33 -0500

Not really! I've never cosplayed nor really gotten into it, so I don't know enough about the whole thing to feel weird, I guess? I've never been brave enough to dress up like that, man, so I can only have respect for anyone who goes to all that trouble and puts themselves out there, no matter what the fandom is.

So even in unsounded there are myths of fantastical beasties? It seems like the world is so rich in its own magics that they wouldn't need myths. Are there any other cool creatures that mother's warn their children might be lurking in the dark?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:31:55 -0500

We have giraffes and zebras and parasites that become the tongues of fish and lizards that change colours to match their surroundings and giant squids and immortal jellyfish and glowing mushrooms and adorable ferns that curl up when you touch them and plants with teeth that chow down on flies. Our world is just as magical as Unsounded's and we have lots of great myths :) I don't think it matters how wonderful one's world is - people will always, always be dissatisfied and want even more.

But yes, there are quite a few legendary beasts that get whispered of in Unsounded's world. There's the lich Nihil of course, who's quite the bugaboo in Sharteshane, but there's also dark lady Ilganyag, a six-breasted harpy fascinated by human babies who's used as the explanation for SIDS (she goes around suckling infants left unattended and inadvertently poisons them). In Alderode there's Etalarche, a dreamstalking monster who stalks the khert bleeding its nightmares into sleepers' heads.

Don't feel bad about all that Terraria. Today I spent my time on Pokemon with my girlfriend... and that's about it.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:11:59 -0500

Goddamn, imagine how productive we'd be if there weren't vidya games in the world.

I just realised that you said Matty smells like a boy "who should be made to make more baths." Matty doesn't naturally keep himself reasonably clean (for an eight-year-old boy...)? He seemed like he would, in between making sandwiches. Huh.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:11:07 -0500

It's hard, man. Uaid doesn't have a bathroom. And Matty is still a boy, pretty as he is. He gets sweaty and dirty and disgusting. His fingernails are still faintly sticky from Uaid spilling his soda earlier. He is gross.

Is there a question you've always wanted forumspringers to ask? .-. What is it?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:09:27 -0500

"Ashley, what did you waste your afternoon on today?"

*sob* http://prntscr.com/6bpx6

Mathis Quigley Cosplay! What color would you suggest for a wig? White? Light grey? Silver? neon White? Also, what fabric's would you suggest? I would like to avoid overheating, while staying true to the original design. (In Liason with Forumcat)

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:08:40 -0500

You guys are awesome and insane XD There are so many cooler looking characters to cosplay. But let's see... it's autumn in Unsounded right now so Quigley's wearing him some wool, but I would guess you could just do cotton or whatever is comfortable. His pymaric mantle is satiny. His top is insane, I fear you will have to sew. It's like a double-breasted skirted jacket with balloon sleeves. I don't know how you will do that D: As for his hair, it really should be white.

Is Mr. Sexy Lich Nihil (http://shardglass.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d13ex09) the mythical lich under hanghorse? What exactly is a lich in any case. I'm guessing substantially different from whatever Duane is. More like a death god?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:03:46 -0500

Well, the deal with Nihil (not saying if he's really under Hanghorse or not in Unsounded) was he was purported to be a lich, yet the big twist was he wasn't a lich at all.

(I want to do that bit from The Wizard of Oz now. "Are you a good lich or a bad lich?" "Why, you're not a lich at all!" But I digress)

Um, for RP I went with the pretty standard D&D definition of a lich: an uber powerful, horrifying, undead dark sorcerer who hides his soul in a phylactery. Voldemort was basically a lich, which amuses me. Duane's soul is not kept in a phylactery somewhere so he is not a lich by any definition. Unsounded has no liches anyway, this was all an RP thing.

What would you say that lovely red outfit you recommended is made of? If you say that any large portion of it is made of leather, I will throw things at you. Things like angry kedises and regular cats and Sette and extinct holy lions and regular lions!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:33:07 -0500

Actually I'm not sure... I would say it's open to interpretation. In the storyline that outfit was from, Bastion was kind of a god and was just conjuring clothing from the air. Shit was cash.

You should just make a zip bundle of your files so people read it with the comic book reader, then charge by the chapter to download!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:05:34 -0500

I've thought about this! The only reason I haven't done it yet is because I want to retool some of the earlier chapters a bit. I'm not comfortable having them out of my hands until they're in a state I'm more or less satisfied with. I'ma do this though, I am!

Speaking of cities, do you have a favorite city you've spun together out of your head? And can you tell us about it without spoilers?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:01:56 -0500

My favourite city... is a tie between Sette's hometown of Hanghorse, and Duane's hometown, Durlyne in Alderode. The Temple of Song is in Durlyne, built into a natural rock spire and cliff face. The city itself is on the coast with beautiful canals that reach fingers into the interior and a lot of the buildings are newer architecture built atop the millenia old ruins of a sprawling heathen temple complex. There's water everywhere and gardens and beautiful old parks, and it's just a really pretty city.

Hanghorse is very UNpretty, but it's got a really rich history. It was built on the ruins of Tawhoque, a tiered city that was attacked centuries before so its upper surface structure fell upon and decimated its lower, subterranean neighbourhoods, resulting in enormous casualties and a ruined metropolis. There's a legend that deep underground a lich took up residence and raised the old citizens into his own personal kingdom of zombies. On the surface, though, pirates started using abandoned Tawhoque's ports, and eventually settled the city for themselves and named it Hanghorse. They were inevitably routed and the country took control of the place again. These days Hanghorse is a seedy seaport - a wretched hive of scum and villainy, if you will - mostly controlled by a group of extremist Gefendur paladins, with half of the city still in crumbled ruins and unoccupied except for gangs and crazy people that smell like cabbage. It's a glorious, stinking hellhole. it kind of feels like MY hometown since I RPed in it for a decade.

"I am not wonderful, I am laying in bed in only my underwear biting my toenails and spitting them at my dog..." YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, NATURAL, SEXY GODDESS.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:26:58 -0500

*preen*

Brightness an aspect? Oh god, so if an opponent had glasses, one could assign brightness to the side of the lenses facing the eye! o.O; Then hit them w/ the earth attack we & a third mentioned the other day. >.<;

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:26:49 -0500

Hard to be precise enough to do the glasses thing, but you are a cruel man, shrunkenone. Remind me never to get on your bad side :)

Holy fucking frijoles indeed! Would you consider doing something like Kickstarter? I don't have much, but I'll give you my munny! I'd like to see you happy and full-time doing what you love, possibly with healthcare.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:25:58 -0500

Ya know, it's nothing to sneeze at. I obviously wouldn't raise that kind of cash, I can look at Analytics right now and tell you I don't have that kind of readership, but if I was going to go to print I'd probably use Kickstarter for funds and Kablam for printing. Ya know what would be awesome about it is I could offer a bonus story incentive for high pledge amounts, and then have actual paid-for time to draw the bonus story. Could offer high-res PDFs, maybe even the entirety of the buffer as a PDF to the highest pledgers, so they read the next chapter before anyone else does... Fun to think about!

Now I feel bad about being needy. Why are you so wonderful? Why must you make me love you so much????? Next time tell me I'm shameless or something. Wait, I'd still be happy, even if you yelled at me! I think... you've turned me into a masochist. O_O

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:01:21 -0500

I am not wonderful, I am laying in bed in only my underwear biting my toenails and spitting them at my dog because he won't stop chewing his paw which is basically what I am doing and I have no right to scold him so.

Dammit, I forgot there was no update today. sobs Not that I'm complaining! I completely understand, I just forgot... and went... and was reminded. DX

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:59:50 -0500

Sowwy :(

Is brightness an aspect? Like, could a wright gather all the light in an area and flash blind someone? Is there any particular basis in real world physics that you used for the aspects, or was it just what sounded right to you?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:59:32 -0500

As I've talked about on here before, pymary sort of came about from my wondering what it would be like if certain people could pull up reality's console window and start directly altering the way the world works. The khert is the operating system and deals with compatibility and interaction and clearing spent Aspects from memory and all the natural laws that wrights can't really dip their fingers into. I don't look at Unsounded's world and see physics so much as I see one enormous piece of software. When I'm wondering what the khert would recognise as alterable Aspects I'm thinking of the mass in question as an object in an object-oriented system, and the Aspect as data or a variable with a dynamic value. Something like Brightness, yes, I could see that being attached to an object, and a wright being able to change that setting or assign that variable to a different object or isolate it entirely. Things like oh, "cleanliness" and "manliness" that were suggested (probably facetiously) earlier, these are human concepts with subjective definitions that the khert wouldn't know anything about.

Quigley and Sette both wake up in an unfamiliar, average city with only what they have on their person (no large belongings like ogres or Duanes). Given one week, who would manage to accumulate the most wealth?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:54:06 -0500

I think... Sette would. Sette has a hundred and one ways to turn a buck and will use nearly any method, no matter how demeaning. She'll run a con, sell snake oil, pick pockets, cat burgle, you name it. Quigley is still too proud to outright steal or hurt someone who doesn't have it coming. He'll sell his services to anyone, but he won't HURT anyone. He has a sense of right and wrong, even if it may not match up with Duane's. So yeah, Sette would win that particular reality show :)

If you could go anywhere in the US, where would you go? In the world?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:50:22 -0500

In the US... if I could teleport this instant, I'd go to New Jersey where my brother and his family are vacationing right now. In the world? Probably the same place :D

Y'know, I just realised that I love your webcomic, but I think your openness and friendliness is the reason it's become (for lack of a better expression) an obsession. Thanks for being cool. I know this isn't a question, but I wanted to mention it.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:49:30 -0500

Aww <3

Hey, Ashley. What do you think of this? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599092525/the-order-of-the-stick-reprint-drive/

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:48:43 -0500

No real opinion, I don't read tha-- HOLY FUCKING FRIJOLES one meellion dollars!

th

th-that's real nice

Glass, what made you so delightfully bold and crude? Why am I so enamoured of it? Is it strange that I love it so much? You make my homework procrastination worth it.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:47:27 -0500

I think it mostly comes of being almost 32. Eventually you will reach a point where you just don't care what people think of you, and then it's dicks dicks dicks all day long.

I hate being pinned down by the tyranny of a name! Now that I ask questions from an identity - even unseen - I feel like I should stick to a certain kind of inquiry. What kind of attitude do you have towards online identity and/or anonymity?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:46:40 -0500

I think anonymity is really important. It's part of what makes the internet so much fun! But you are anonymous to me here, anon. I have no idea who this is. Feel free to ask me about penises.

G-g-Glass, d-do you h-hh-ha-hate cats? TToTT

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:44:31 -0500

Naw. I'm indifferent to them. Big cats like lions and panthers are awesome but domestic cats are such bores to me. I did not want them in mah comic.

Are any of the oceanic Senet beasts something akin to a big, white whale?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:43:33 -0500

Mebbe :3 I'ma not talk about dem oceanic senet beasts, I want to leave myself room later on.

Since apparently I can't comment, I must say it here. I'm personally offended by the question about Murkoph removing his hands from his pants. Can't a bro just be himself?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:43:09 -0500

Is the Lawrence fellow tall enough to have to duck through average doors if his shoes offer any sort of lift or his hair is at all puffy/fancy on top?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:42:31 -0500

Yes. Lawrence is awkwardly tall. He's 6'4" and his friends call him Tree.

Is it safe to assume that Bastion's webcomic outfit is mostly leather and cape, or are his pants nice and kind and made of something not derived from animal hide?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:41:36 -0500

I'm thinking a nice, comfortable, breathable cotton for his trousers. Bastion has many outfits though, he's quite the clothes horse.

Hope the weekend has helped you turn the corner on your shitty week. Do you relax more during the weekends? You seem like a bit of a workaholic, in a good way. Take care of yourself, dearest.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:33:53 -0500

Oh, don't worry about me. I just get sick of my life from time to time. Everyone does. Thank you, dear <3

What's the deal with the recurring -shane term?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:32:59 -0500

It meant "land" in one of the old, dead tribal tongues.

You certain you would never be a guest artist or panelist at a con?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:32:33 -0500

If they paid my way, sure! But doesn't seem likely for a no-name webcomicker :)

Honey, I'm ho-ome! Do you have any pictures of Quigley that don't involve odd light colours? I'm trying to figure out what shades of blue his stuff is so I can start making a costume with my dear friend. Unsounded cosplayers +1.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:32:10 -0500

Well, his scene in chapter four is in pretty neutral light. I would say black/dark grey trousers and a navy top with a navy cape and satin navy mantle with the swirly designs. Quigley would be really hard to cosplay - if the cosplayer doesn't tailor the clothing to them they're gonna come out looking dumpy D: Quigley's gotta lotta layers going on.

"When slave handlers would come from the city with giant vliegeng pulling their carts, he'd hang around and feed them apples and cats :3" There used to be cats? Why did you remove cats? :(

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:25:10 -0500

Because :3

MOAR Kasslyn kitty evidence: the Murkoph skin a cat picture! The question I want to ask, though, is why his fingers are in his trousers while he's eating it. Wouldn't that hand be of better service helping shovel feline flesh into his munching maw?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:24:34 -0500

Well, I guess, but he likes to jerk off while he's eating sometimes. He's classy like that :3

You finally made me register on Formspring even though I have nothing to be asked about! And it took me quite a while to come up with a decent question to make it worth it. This one must do: Is Quigley's cloak 'used up' now or can it be activated again?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:23:50 -0500

You shall see, my friend! You shall see!

How tall is the Lawrence fellow referenced earlier in that question 'bout men's hair?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:23:32 -0500

...pretty tall.

I found an adorable group of pictures of Bastion (?) in some liaisons with his(a?) ladyfriend(?) in your lj stuff. Why does he look terrified in the first bit and why is he weeping at the bottom?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:23:24 -0500

They were from RP, I'm sure (not certain which pics you found, I used to draw him all the time). Must have had something to do with the storyline at the time.

Matty explained the four "dimensions" of magic, as it were, and yet I find myself puzzled by zombies. Is it a mastery of one or multiple that can raise the "recycled labor" or something yet to come? Or is it possibly a detail that will be explored later?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:22:24 -0500

Only certain members of the Black Tongue and high ranking regulators understand how plods work. They are a mystery, wooooo~

It's probably good to know that Matty's pymary explanation was bare bones and totally simplistic. He didn't talk about burning spells, about pymarics, about First Materials, about the different schools of spellwork, any of that. Pymary is much more complex than he was able to relate. When the more complex stuff becomes relevant to the story, we'll get some better examples and explanations.

Glass, what are child restrictions like, specifically in the predominantly fair-skinned countries that aren't Alderode? (Need to switch a character's nationality...)

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:18:18 -0500

Cresce restricts a couple to two children and Alderode has its caste-specific restrictions, but the other countries are all pretty chill and not so authoritarian. So no real restrictions to speak of.

I've been meaning to ask, but kept forgetting! What do the races from from the other countries look like? We know Cersce, Alderode and Ulestry, so how about Sharteshane? Rachshane? Manilda? Hanret? Madishane? Mahrshnane? Viwlet? West Manilda?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:19:02 -0500

Shartes are a mixmatched bunch, particularly in the cities which are made up largely of stranded seamen, foreigners, travelers, and criminals come to make their way with the large rogue families. I suppose they're mostly fair-skinned in Sharteshane but not by a large majority. Viws, Mahrshanians, Hanretians and Rachshanians are lily-white for the most part. The latter are a very insular, militaristic society, and prefer not to have much to do with the rest of the continent. Manilda and West Manilda recently reunited into just Manilda after a long and bloody civil war, and they are olive skinned and dark haired, much like Ulestrians. Madishanians and New Arlitians are predominantly dark-skinned with some overflow from Ulestry and the pale countries rounding out the mix.

Also, I just figured out how to make the map bigger, and now I want to know everything there is to know about the Goodbye Islands. Please?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:06:58 -0500

Oh, they're a cluster of small islands that serve as Sharteshane's primary shipyards and naval base. Big military complex, very difficult to get near it, and what the country spends the majority of its money on.

If you could heighten one of your senses which would it be?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:04:48 -0500

I wouldn't mind better eyesight. Or a much better memory. I have the worst memory known to mankind.

Within Alderode, do the typical funeral practices differ depending on caste? Do you celebrate a deceased Plat's life differently to that of a deceased Copper?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:04:09 -0500

Depends who "you" are. We're all supposed to be worth about the same but damn, that Whitney Houston's funeral was quite the to-do.

I think Unsounded needs more evil laughter. I think your villains need to indulge in a good evil laugh once in awhile.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:03:00 -0500

Hmm.

Are you still running the Duane and Sette formspring?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:02:15 -0500

Not at the moment, nope. I wish there was a way to disable the page without deleting the entire thing. Dumb formspring.

If Plats don't live much past 28, their kids must have to get used to the idea of their parents dying, and the adults never getting to see their children grown up. That's so sad... Are plat children raised communally after a certain age?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:01:48 -0500

Yes, Plat children are raised communally. If you look on Alderode's wiki page it's talked about a bit.

What would happen if someone used Sette's awesomeness aspect?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:01:02 -0500

I think it would summon Meteor.

Okay, serious question now... you've shown/spoken of wrights, pymary, zombies, black tongues, Aldish casts and various other stuff. Is there anything you're hiding away to surprise us with later?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:00:37 -0500

I'd be a particularly crappy writer if there wasn't.

If his whole village had plans for him, does that mean Matty is special in some way we don't yet know?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:43:55 -0500

Possibly, but in the smaller villages the elders dictate pretty much your entire existence. They say who you can marry and what you're going to do with your life. Your caste elders want you to benefit your people.

"I've only dealt with Aldish duels so far in the story though, so I don't have concrete rules for elsewhere." You mean to tell us you HAVEN'T exhaustively laid out every single aspect of the world of Kassylne!? I feel so disillusioned now...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:17:27 -0500

I know! It's scandalous.

What is Quig's religion? How pious is he in following it?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:17:04 -0500

Quigley has no religion. He was raised Gefendur but he abandoned it when he abandoned the country.

what are the buttons to make sette love someone? i'm sure most are spoilerz, but can you tell us an innocent one?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:09:09 -0500

They're not spoilers at all. Number one turn-on? Be absolutely awesomely badass. Duane's problem is he sometimes does badass stuff but he does it in such a goobery, uptight, STOOPID way that Sette mostly just wants to throw pinecones at him.

Ok. Got a favourite scent? If you wait for summer, I can mix dried lilac in with the copper.

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:21:54 -0500

Brownies. Can you put some brownies in there?

Do you want yours scaled to an adult's shoulder, or scaled for an eight-year-old boy's?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:21:43 -0500

Scaled to Forumcat size please.

Are the rules from wright duels largely the same across Kasslyne, or do they differ from place to place? It seems like Alderode in particular would have special rules for them.

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:20:58 -0500

They differ from place to place. I've only dealt with Aldish duels so far in the story though, so I don't have concrete rules for elsewhere.

Aside from schools for wrights, are there any types of universities in Kasslyne?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:20:05 -0500

Of course.

Am I asking terrible questions? ;_; I love reading the responses that have interesting not-in-the-comic details about the world, but if I'm asking annoying/uninteresting stuff I can stop!

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:19:54 -0500

No, you ask fine questions. They just don't have interesting answers. I shall demonstrate.

Why is there no Unsounded Merchandise?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:18:19 -0500

Because I can't be arsed.

So.... do you want your Chitz to smell... realistic...?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:14:05 -0500

Absolutely not. Put some potpourri in there.

I would never sue you. Nor would I be upset. In fact, if you found a way to fit it in your story, I'd be honored you considered an idea of mine good enough to be in your comic. :)

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:10:36 -0500

Aww, you're so sweet <3

Here it is in writing! No litigation! I'm saving this!

Erm.... what does Matty-shoulder smell like?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:08:55 -0500

Like a boy who needs to be made to take more baths.

How long can plats live? Like horses usually live around 20 years, but have been known to make it into their forties. How long can plats go for?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:08:21 -0500

Plats never go older than thirty. Twenty-eight is when they die on average.

Good lord! You mean the power of character design can't keep Chitz on Matty's shoulder and out of the sandwiches?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:07:52 -0500

Of course it can! But it can't stop Matty from feeding him sandwich pieces in-between bites of his own.

Hey, what ever happened to Bastion's nether bits? Were they tossed out with the dead chicken (or whatever ritualistic leftovers) or were they given back to him to wear as a necklace, or did he give them to a lady-friend, or what?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:07:13 -0500

He had to burn them immediately afterwards. Cut off your own balls and burn them. The Ilganyag are pretty hardcore.

Hostile, sure. But since you gave no contradictory explanation as to why that wouldn't work, I take it, then, that scenario would be doable?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:06:26 -0500

Indeed. It's quite clever, too. But now I can never use it because you would sue me :(

Jo-Anne's sells First Copper?! You... you mean... pymary is REAL?! O_O I found burlap for my Chitz, but I don't want to use it for yours, as it smells like horse feed, since that's what the bag used to hold. I will find stable-scent free burlap for you!

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:00:43 -0500

Chitz may very well smell like horse feed. And Matty shoulder. And sandwiches.

Does Matty want to be a wright? Does it even matter what he wants to be (according to Quigley)?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:59:48 -0500

Matty used to want to be a wright, but his village (and his mom) had decided he would do something else. Matty still thinks pymary is awesome and loves hearing about it, but I don't think he imagines himself ever being a wright anymore.

I'm getting Chitz supplies soon. What is Chitz stuffed with?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:56:20 -0500

Pellets of First Copper. They may sell it at Joanne's, it's in the back.

Earth pressure aspect addendum. What if you were to take the aspect of the pressure beneath your enemy, if he's far enough distance from you, and bring said pressure down on him, pushing him into the now fragile, collapsing earth?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:55:21 -0500

Daaaamn, boy, that's hostile.

How long does it take you to do an average page of Unsounded on an average day (or days) with an average schedule while in an average mood and having an average time with your supplies?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:55:08 -0500

Eight hours! On average :3

Do you ever plan to write a story in which wrights manage to crack Laws? Or will it always be something to speculate on? I think it would be funny if there was some kind of in-universe science fiction story about it.

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:54:49 -0500

Ha, true. I think if wrights ever managed to crack the khert and change the laws, though, they'd destroy the world pretty quick. The laws being untouchable is a very good thing.

"I know all the right buttons to press to make her love me " so I'm wondering has Duane managed to stumble on any of those buttons? I'm guessing yes seeing her face when he was blown off the cliff.

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:53:42 -0500

Does she love him? Or was she momentarily horrified by the idea of losing the only ace up her sleeve she has when it comes to dealing with her cousin Stockyard?

Are there any atheists in this world?

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:52:54 -0500

"Science doesn't make religion impossible, but it does make atheism possible." It's very difficult to be a strict atheist in Kasslyne because there are no alternative explanations. It's very difficult to disconnect from religion when that religion defines your entire culture and community and is the most widely held belief for why you and your world exist.

That said, there are characters who think the Gefendur religion is hogwash and who want nothing to do with it, and there's even a secularist movement in Alderode, but there's no one saying that the supernatural doesn't exist in some capacity.

Well, you've got a Duane cosplayer and a Bastion crossplayer and we've got a Matty and/or a Sette for photoshoots. If you're going to put an end to this, do so now ish. Any objections?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:47:35 -0500

Go for it. Show me afterwards.

Do our questions annoy you sometimes? I look down the page and can't help but envision a teacher surrounded by a crowd of kindergartners all shouting questions at once.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:47:16 -0500

It's okay. I'm just having kind of a shitty week and can't muster up much enthusiasm for anything at the moment.

Perhaps if the opposing wright was deathly allergic to shortbread? The smell would rout him, or at least give one time to think up an alternative strategy.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:23:14 -0500

There ya go.

Should I start asking more sensible questions?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:22:36 -0500

I won't die if my inbox isn't full of questions. Go read a book!

Instead of glamours, couldn't Aldish citizens who want to go undetected just invest in a wig and some pigment for their eyebrows?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:22:09 -0500

Sure?

Since there's no aspect of cleanliness, can you think of any (valid) way to use the aspect of shortbread scent in a wright duel?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:19:31 -0500

I cannot.

What is the coolest place you've ever travelled to?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:18:55 -0500

I'm not well-travelled, alas. I guess the Smoky mountains are pretty.

You should just resolve all conflict with Uaid's foot coming down and squashing everything like in Monty Python's animations. Keep it simple!

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:18:02 -0500

Good idea. Remember that old animated Godzilla Meets Bambi short? Yeah.

What are the laws?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:17:24 -0500

Love thy neighbour, don't wear white after Labor Day, keep off the grass.

When Matty becomes a rebellious queen, how would Quigley react if he came home one day with a man on each arm and fake tits?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:16:28 -0500

I would say... Mathis is pretty happy he only has another five years left and needn't suffer Matty's tempestuous teenagery.

Is there an aspect of manliness? If so, can you think of any way to use it in a battle?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:12:36 -0500

Just load a Super Soaker up with Old Spice and go nuts.

Any tips for someone who has a story they're dying to tell in comic form, but lacks the artistic ability to do so? And doesn't know anyone with the time/talent to help? Not that it's me... >.>

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:11:51 -0500

I have a few friends who have had this problem for years. It never goes anywhere. Artists never magically show up willing to volunteer vast amounts of time to someone else's idea, and so the story goes untold. The best thing to do is make it work in prose and write it out yourself.

Or you could HIRE an artist to illustrate your comic idea, which is an awesome thing to do, but of course it doesn't come cheap :)

What will you do when the cosplayers find you?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:08:38 -0500

Unlikely. My character designs are too boring.

Do you like guacamole and tacos?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:08:29 -0500

I do! Do you?

Say a wright really loves a flower he/she grew all by their lonesome, and then it just up and dies one day and is all wilty and sad looking. Can the distraught little wright take a life aspect from a living plant to bring their dead one back into bloom?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:08:24 -0500

Alas, no. I think Duane would be a more cheerful sort if life was so easily recoverable.

Is there an aspect of cleanliness? If so, can you think of any way to use it in battle?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:50:40 -0500

Naw, that doesn't make sense as an Aspect. It's not really objectively definable, at least not in a way the khert would acknowledge.

When Matty becomes a rebellious teen, how would Quigley react if he came home one day with neon pink or blue hair? (Assuming Quigley is still alive. Plats go through their rebellious stage early, too, right?)

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:49:43 -0500

Wouldn't happen. Aldishmen don't dye their hair.

If Matty and Duane had met under favourable circumstances, would Duane play wright duel with Matty using aspects that won't hurt him (like tickling him with fluff-air and making him smell of shortbread) in Uaid? Would it be as cute as I imagine?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:46:14 -0500

It's a long comic. Maybe something like this will happen one day :)

Important question: were you smiling at my yelling of mountain punch, or my leaving?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:43:15 -0500

Yelling Mountain Punch. I like you, don't be self-conscious.

Do Kassylen (I spelled that wrong) physics work similarly enough to Earth physics that a wright could tap into the pressure of the ground beneath him if it was in his reach? Because that pressure is enormous at a few meters depth.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:24:16 -0500

A fine idea! The problem, though, is that once you take an Aspect and isolate it, moving it to empty air - like a pressure blast, a solidity blast, condensed edges into a cutting blast - you destroy what you have drawn from. The khert will not allow matter to continue to exist if certain physical variables are no longer defined, because that can throw the world for a loop and crash reality. This is why the guard's sword disintegrated when Duane stole the edge off it to do his arm-chopping back in chapter 2. This is why you can look at the eighth panel on these pages - http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch05/ch05_19-20.html - and see those glowy green furrows in the earth where Duane ripped out solidity to throw the green rocks at Quigley on the preceding page.

So! If you take that subterranean pressure that you talked about, you run the real risk of collapsing the ground out from beneath you. Not to say you can't still do it but it's one tactic that might be more risk than it's worth. You are thinking along the correct paths though! You would make a good wright :)

There are all kinds of considerations like this to be made in pymary, and they increase when wrights move into more sensitive environments. If you're in a building you can't as easily be willy-nilly tearing solidity out of things - you'll collapse the walls and ceiling around you. It is not difficult for wrights to be made relatively helpless if there are very few viable Aspects around them.

Followup: Could someone who is clever and thoughtful do more with pymary than someone less imaginative?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:03:29 -0500

That is the goal of the system, yes. I wanted a system where wrights aren't pulling what-the-heck-ever into play, but are limited by their intellect and by what is in the environment, so each combatant has the same toolset and are limited only by their reach (Quigley, as a Plat, has a further reach than Duane) or by self-imposed limits, like Duane stubbornly only using aboveboard spellwork.

Right now Quigley and Duane aren't being terribly savvy. They're a pair of gorillas beating their chests and throwing rocks at each other. But it's the clever wright - the one who looks a little deeper and who does the unexpected - who will win the engagement.

I like rewarding cleverness over brute strength. Admittedly, this is my first time ever drawing or writing a real pymary battle - I didn't use this system in RP. I hope I will be able to show things more clearly as we go along :)

Is Matty secretly the most badass one in the story?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:56:37 -0500

My money's on Chitz.

But it's not always clear what aspects are being used, or if they're using multiples... D: Why do you torture us, Ashley?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:56:24 -0500

I'm sorry :( I thought it would be fun for readers (who are interested in that kind of thing) to look around the environment and figure out for themselves what Aspects are in play. Short of going all-out Final Fantasy Tactics and having wrights call out the names of their spells as they cast them, I'm not sure of a way to clearly show the Aspects. I'm about to draw a short wright battle in chapter six, I will try to be very, very clear with everything. Give me time, I will work through the suck and improve!

"Mm, I'm not sure what purpose it would serve :) So probably not." Trivia! The technical geeks want to know.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:57:33 -0500

A technical geek should start keeping track of all the aspects as they see use in the comic, then :) Start an aspect blog!

Coming home to a two page update was such a nice thing to see. I've not had the best day today (said goodbye to a big inspiration) but seeing that update has plastered a smile on my face. Thanks for just doing the things you do :)

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:56:50 -0500

I'm glad, man :) I'm sorry your day was crap. At least it's Friday!

Time for another question salvo: Do simulacra aid pymary in any way? Actually, is pymary used in their construction? I don't think it was ever addressed...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:56:28 -0500

Simulacrum do not aid pymary. They function via pymary and the khert however, yes.

If Duane is constantly worried about falling apart why doesn't he just invest in simulacra for all four limbs? Would it interfere with...whatever he's got going on? Because I think a fantasy, spell casting Adam Jensen would be interesting as hell.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:55:29 -0500

If simulacrum functioned as well as even undead limbs, plods wouldn't be practical at all, the labour force could use manufactured golems instead.

Could you give us a hypothetical trash talk match between Sette and Duane? Between Sette and Quigley? Between Uaid and Elka?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:54:05 -0500

I dunno, man. Most of chapters one and two were a trash talk match between Duane and Sette. Sette and Quigley... one day. Uaid and Elka... that would be one-sided.

Did you ever study in detail the natural sciences? Because a lot of the things shown don't make sense if all wrights do is condense, reassign, switch and isolate. Also, is there a strict static list of what is and is not an "aspect"?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:53:10 -0500

Nah, I'm an artist and a writer, not a scientist. Pymary is fun, but I'm writing a story with it, not designing tabletop gaming rules nor penning a natural science treatise based on the physics and natural laws of an entirely alien world. If something works in Unsounded that looks off to your Earthian eyes, chalk it up to the story taking place in a world unlike your own, with different laws and properties.

Also, it's fantasy. It's a comic with very limited space for textual explanations. We got a zombie and a girl with at ail running around. Don't overthink it.

I can no longer take Bastion seriously because of that. He could probably murder Sette and I'd still point and laugh because let's face it, a man who flounces about barechested in a cape is hard to acknowledge as villain/whatever he ends up being.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:17:13 -0500

Why not? ; __ ;

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:03:55 -0500

Because!

Also, unrelated: http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_07.html Am I not looking at it right or is Bastion bare-chested save for some kind of harness under that cape?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:03:47 -0500

Indeed. Hence Sette muttering he couldn't afford a shirt. Bastion is -fabulous-

You can tell me. I can keep a secret. Er...me and everyone else who sees this question can keep a secret.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:50:44 -0500

I wouldn't register you for the forum anyway, my darling, so there's no point knowing where it is :)

"You have to be a registered member to access the forum it's on though" And which forum would that be? Not telling me would be...Something Awful?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:46:26 -0500

It's a private forum I host myself. Karaii found it, clever girl.

So one of the questions I had for you, and which I KNOW is in this forumspring somewhere (I went three weeks back and then gave up) Is: Why does Quigly have a thing for bugs? It was mentioned in the comments today that it was a common insult among Plats?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:45:20 -0500

Plats don't live very long, particularly relative to certain classes of people in Alderode. Plats are generally treated very politely, even exalted by some, but others who would be rude call them insects; short-lived, unimportant, and easily crushed. Quigley shapes some of his custom spells like bugs as an ironic Frig You to a world that's set him up to live and die like a housefly.

Matty's intense face is a thing of beauty. Poor kid. This world really beats down idealists, doesn't it?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:42:29 -0500

Matty needs to grow up a bit :/

"Friends only D:" According to formspring I am one of your friends. I eagerly await the link to read up to page fifty...any time now...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:41:12 -0500

I've seen passing references to your old RP for quite some time. Is it available anywhere online (I.e. A forum RP)? Or was it spoiler-tastic and removed after you started Unsounded?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:40:06 -0500

It's no longer active but it's archived. You have to be a registered member to access the forum it's on though, so you can't read it :3 Ho ho ho!

I didn't think anyone else on the internet read Romantically Apocalyptic! (Well, obviously they do, but you get my point) I am beyond amused that you know of Zee Captain. I was going to hold out for a year and then go back but now I'm tempted.Curses!

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:01:45 -0500

Haha, well, I don't read it on the site or anything, but whenever new pages get to the front of deviantArt I see them there. I think my favourite goofy humour webcomic is Nedroid, it is superb.

All those bugs are going to give me nightmares. Bugs are horrifying. I hope you're happy. (Even if they're really, really pretty.)

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:21:12 -0500

Mwa ha ha.

"Beta readers"? What is this? I want in. D:

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:20:34 -0500

Friends only D:

Have I asked far more questions than is reasonable in a period of about 20 minutes?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:20:22 -0500

They're pretty good questions though, no fear.

How much effort have you put into creating the Tainish language (old or current)? Are you basically just making up words as you go along? And what does "Mae Illuda" mean?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:20:04 -0500

I have a pretty good vocabulary list at this point but sure, now and then I run into new concepts that need new words. I have the phonemes defined so it's not difficult to do. "Mae illuda" means "That's awesome!" more or less.

On pg 19-20 Quigley uses some pymary that was apparently forceful enough to neatly sever a thick tree trunk. What was that an aspect of?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:18:26 -0500

As Matty explains a few pages later, one can condense the edges of enough leaves and grass to form a cutting shape that will slice through damn near anything.

Has cutting out the tongue ever been considered as a punishment for dangerous pymary users?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:17:29 -0500

It was by primitive people, as was cutting off hands. Since governments and regulators have figured out how to straight-up seal a wright's outbound connection to the khert, they can eliminate a wright's spellcasting bloodlessly. Well, in theory anyway. Most governments would much rather outright execute a bad wright or a gruftgrammer than just mute them.

When Quigley used the pressure of the waterfall as an attack why did Duane end up soaked? Does the source of an aspect alter its effects, even if its an aspect with effects identical to another?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:14:50 -0500

It was sloppy spellwork. Quigley was yanking the Aspect at a breakneck pace, and inadvertently some of the water's wetness hitchhiked along with the pressure, that's all. Sources do often hitchhike along with purloined Aspects in this manner, it's called flavouring. So the pressure aspect was flavoured by the waterfall. Delicious!

Could Pymary hypothetically use time itself as an aspect, perhaps slowing down time in one area and forcing it to speed up in another? Or would this be too far out of reach to be possible?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:12:35 -0500

No, 'cause time isn't an Aspect, time is a Law. The khert does not allow humans to tinker with time.

Does Lawrence look a little bit like Murkoph?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:41:00 -0500

P'shaw.

Yeah, as much as I hate roaches, at least they clean themselves. Not like the mice we currently have. They poo EVERYWHERE!

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:14:58 -0500

I have never had mice but I think if I did I would train them like the circus mice in Coraline and things would go okay.

How's Ch. 6 coming?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:14:19 -0500

Finished page fifty a few hours ago. One of my beta readers called it so far the best chapter yet. I guess I agree with him. It is made of plot and strangeness and grim death.

Oh, come now, Ash. Roaches clean themselves like proper gentlemen. You ever see a hissing cockroach? Fucking cutest, cleanest things ever. :D Just don't let them have babies, because they will be /everywhere/.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:00:05 -0500

STOP IT STOP IT NOW

You may have in you the blood of kings, but I've the whiskey of Ireland inside me. Which, I ask you, is stronger?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:48:27 -0500

You can still type. Ask me again after you've had more whiskey.

Which was more fun, the reference images for zombies, organs, or bugs? The things you do for your readers! D:

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:46:34 -0500

Oh, I didn't need reference for the bugs, they're just made up! I was looking up pictures the other night of deep tissue lacerations for a scene I'm drawing now. That will make you squirm, I tell ya.

"Walter Sullivan?" A silent Hill fan, are we?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:41:37 -0500

A big one :)

What bug do you find the creepiest? Which do you find tolerable and/or even like? And how many species of bugs is Duane being swarmed with at the moment? Have you every been swarmed by bugs? BUGS. Also, do you think bats are cute?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:40:50 -0500

There're two species in the mantle; that long millipede looking thing with the pincers, and that bushy-butted fly that looks like it could live quite comfortably in Nausicaa's turf.

I HATE bugs. I think I hate roaches the most, they are disgusting and have no manners at all. I've been swarmed by gnats on my bicycle, but I think that's thankfully it. Bats are cute. Batman should have chosen a more fearsome symbol.

Did I notice little bits of shield protecting Matty from whatever cut up his Papa? Was that Duane's doing?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:37:07 -0500

Not a shield, just a buffet of redirected wind knocking him outta the way of the little slashy projectiles. And yes, that was Duane's doing.

Can you not tell me about Quigley’s bug mantle because spoilarz or because I momentarily stumped the ‘Shard?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:21:02 -0500

Spoilarz. You will nevar stump me, I am immortal, I have inside me blood of kings.

In circumstances outside of this violent introduction, I think Duane and Matty would take a liking to each other, personality-wise. Y/n/m?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:12:23 -0500

Definitely.

I like Quigleys hair that long. What hairstyle do you generally prefer with men? (I know it depends on what suits the person, but still...)

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:48:46 -0500

I like Lawrence's hair a lot when it's down. I usually make him keep it in a ponytail though, otherwise he starts looking like a scruffy Walter Sullivan, which is creepy.

Will you ever give us a full list of all the aspects useable in pymary? Or failing that, a list of all the legal spells dictated by organizations like the Window?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:25:02 -0500

Mm, I'm not sure what purpose it would serve :) So probably not.

Will Matty grow up to be a hottie like his daddy? Or is he going to be pretty like his mommy? Or is he going to look like an eight-year-old for ever? This is assuming he grows up and gets to die of old age and stuff after a full Plat life.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:24:22 -0500

Quigley would be hotter if he'd cut his hair. He used to keep it shorter and was much more adorable. I suspect Matty will look exactly like him in a few years.

Would Bastion look nice in a dress? How about Murk? Duane?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:23:34 -0500

You are drunk.

If someone hollowed out a really overweight, really old copper then blew the (more or less intact) skin up like a balloon, would it look like a pomegranate?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:23:16 -0500

Put the drink down.

What is the recommended sacrifice for Tirna?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:21:42 -0500

Human blood, usually. She also likes big bouquets of black and red roses, monnies (they're like goats), roasted crickets and grubs (Avelpitians eat a LOT of bugs), and softi flowers, which are crazy hallucinogenic when you burn them, so it's a sacrifice that everyone enjoys.

Do you distrust iguanacats because you're a dog person?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:19:10 -0500

That could be :D You guys can have 'em, I'll take a giant bulldog.

If you had to spend the rest of your life with one of your characters (Assume everyone is dead, or something, and services such as urban maintenance and goods production are carried out by nonsentient wind elementals) which would you pick?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:18:50 -0500

Probably Sette. She's fun, funny, useful, and I know all the right buttons to press to make her love me forever. We would have amazing adventures of a Romantically Apocalyptic flavour.

If every book on earth burst into flames simultaneously, and you only had enough fire extinguisher to save one, what book would you save?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:17:06 -0500

Moby-Dick, naturally.

What's your favourite animal?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:16:54 -0500

Dogs and ducks and lions.

What's Sette's favourite colour? Duane's? Bastion's? Quigley's? Matty's? Murkoph's? Jivi's? Yours? Matty's mom's? Bastion's dad's? Elka's? Elka's mom's? Mine is indigo.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:16:34 -0500

Everyone's favourite colour is plaid.

Is Mathis a common name for the Quigley men? (going back farther than Quigley)

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:16:17 -0500

Yep. Mathis' dad was also named Mathis and it goes back a fair number of generations. Those Plats, they breed like rabbits.

Are there ocean sunfish in the Kasslyne oceans? Sea monsters?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:15:44 -0500

Sea monsters are a definite yes.

Did Sette's population of pore warriors ever recover after the scrubbing that child-lover gave her?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:15:06 -0500

Yes. Sette's fleas survive off Sette's awesome super-blood, so they are super fleas and not even afraid of Duane and his scrub brush.

I am brimming full of questions to be asked, however I'm also afraid that all the things I'm wondering about have probably been addressed more than a few times in the life of this forumspring. What do I do with my curiosity? I don't want to bug anyone.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:14:27 -0500

Oh, don't worry about bugging me - that's Forumcat's job. Hohoho, I shall kill her!

Ask whatever you like. If it's something I've answered a thousand times, answering it once more might actually compel me to get off my butt and put it in the wiki ;)

If Quigley's mantle pymaric was a gift, did it come with the bug-swarm theme or did Quigley alter it to make it more powerful and/or buggy?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:13:31 -0500

Hmm! I wish I could tell you :)

"When in doubt, imagine a cat." Actually applies to a lot of my life issues. How about you, got a be all end all motto?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:29:34 -0500

Haha, you're cute~ Ah, I don't have a motto, I just remember how meaningless and small everything is. It's hard to get worked up over money or a bad day when you remember that you're a speck on a speck in an unending swirl of revolving time.

http://i41.tinypic.com/303dco6.jpg Here's your awkward line. :] It's awkward and line-like. And shows up on IE9.

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:19:10 -0500

The INDEX link doesn't line up either, does it. Blasted IE, it is ever so contrary. Thanks for the screenshot :3

(continued from YourDearAnon) You may also bring whatever stuff you would like, and we will be moving to a location you deem most suitable a habitat for yourself.

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:42:40 -0500

*squint* Are you guys the same person?

Since Forumcat and I have both separately asked you to marry us and each been rejected, we are wifeys now and are joining forces to abduct you. You will have a comfy chair, markers, giant dogs, man bums and zombies. What color should the upholstery be?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:42:29 -0500

Financially support me while I make comics all day and I think I'd marry nigh anyone, I have no pride.

Should Duane lose his sanity before the chapter is out, I wonder if Sette will end up having to use that artifact she obtained from Bastion to quell him.... Anyways, question: what font do you use for the comic text?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:41:28 -0500

Anime Ace 2 from Blambot.

Why do Sette and Duane have a formspring, but not Bastion or Murkoph? Murkoph would be tons of fun to ask things of!

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:40:44 -0500

Murkoph's formspring? It would be a tide of insults, profanity, and rape threats. There's enough of that on the internet already.

Can senet creatures live in the water? Do they have their own personal khert...thingamabob?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:40:11 -0500

Some Senet beasts were especially designed to live in the water.

Have any of the remaining Senet creatures expressed an interest in democratic politics?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:39:24 -0500

So this new Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter film that's coming out. What say you? Aye or Nay?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:38:50 -0500

Nay. Too silly for my tastes.

http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_36.html But sette did ride on Duane's shoulders! It's canon! I think SOME of your readers lack the proper stalkerish attention to detail you deserve. Tut tut. iamwatchingyouwhileyousleepatnight

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:38:40 -0500

True, but the angle stinks there, you don't get a good view of them in the act :)

How common are wright duels? Would a layperson think this was a wright duel just seeing it, rules-breaking and all? Just wondering now that Duane and Quigley seem to be duking it out in front of a farm. Should good citizens alert the police?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:38:10 -0500

Wright duels are pretty common, and they're usually out in the woods so duellists don't tear shit up. The line between a duel and a fight is pretty thin though, I'm not sure anyone could tell at a glance what this pair's intentions are. Either way, they're tromping through the woods and through peoples' property disturbing the peace and molesting pigs, so I think it's safe to say they're breakin' da law.

Is there a Senet beast for every type of First Material? (I think I might have asked this a long time ago and gotten a no but I can't recall clearly)

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:36:18 -0500

No, there's not, though Senet beasts' bodies are often made of stuff that, if not outright a class of First Material, often displays similar properties (it doesn't decay, it can be permanently altered, etc.) Sometimes Senet beasts are made of First Material with a purpose. For example, Uaid's green fleshy bits are all First Earth (as in soil). If you touched him he'd feel like compacted sand, and as he grew older and bigger it would harden to stone in places, lose its First Material properties, and eventually he'd lay down and become a mountain. But as far as anyone knows there aren't anymore mountain ogres, so there won't be any new mountains and there's no more First Earth to use for pymarics.

Was the two toed pawnbroker beatup something plot relevant or just a background thing?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:29:59 -0500

Just a background thing. Reinforcement that two-toes get treated like crap.

Sigh...has Matty ever witnessed Quigley dueling before?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:29:23 -0500

A couple times, yeah.

It's been a month, but the voice in my head still reads all the dialogue in your comic with your voice. Duane sounds especially incongruously weird !! D=

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:29:02 -0500

Or does he sound especially, incongruously adorable?

Can I request Murkoph with a raccoon in his pa - oh wait. I got it without asking. [scarred for life

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:27:43 -0500

For the gal who has everything.

There's an awkward line under today's second page, don't think it's supposed to be there. Or if it is, forgive me. =p

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:27:26 -0500

Hmm, I don't see it. Take a screenshot and show me?

And some of those other Senet creatures are...? Alternatively (if that's somehow a spoiler): is Quigley's pymaric scarf now used up, or do the bugs return to it or what?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:41:09 -0500

You'll have to wait and see!

Why on earth would you smother me in my sleep?!

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:32:32 -0500

It's the only way.

When I said "forcing people off the fighting track" I meant using the character to A. solve obstacles through methods other than force and B. Dispel the constant attempts of people's characters to kill one another. Thoughts?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:32:12 -0500

I don't know, my answer is still the same as before. Be careful what you do, and don't go against what the majority of players want. If they're into combat and you want something else, you might just have to be patient and wait it out :)

Are the iguanacats brimming with hate like iguanas, or just mildly full of hate like cats?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:31:27 -0500

Hmm, mild hate. I wonder if they'd eat a baby.

I want a kedis! They're adorable. <3

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:30:47 -0500

I don't know. I don't think I trust them.

"I scribbled you some." OOOH! Did this just turn into a request-a-drawing thread?! Cuz I still wanna see Sette riding on Duane's shoulders since the one time it came up in-story he said no.

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:30:33 -0500

Ho-ho-ho, no requests. Forumcat just got lucky :3

Out of interest, what aspects did Duane use to construct that shield effect?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:30:03 -0500

He's just tearing solidity out of the ground. He gave it a little kick to start, if you'll notice, and then built rapidly on top of it. The bugs do nothing but break up solidity though - they are dissolution in bug form - so it was kind of a dumbass move and they ate right through the shield. Buuut at least now he realises that and can take a different tack. Or be eaten. One of those.

If I were to come up with a thousand more kedis questions, how many would you answer before ignoring me? How many would you ignore before blocking me?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:24:53 -0500

I will smother you in your sleep.

If I give you my Valentine's chocolate, can I have a Kedis? (And how do I pronounce it?) And what are common names for pet kedises? Do they follow the same four letter name rule as the rest of Cersce?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:24:40 -0500

It's pronounced like the possessive form of the name Katie. Katies! I reckon there are all manner of names for them, and no, the four letter naming custom of Cresce doesn't apply to pets.

Does the piano mean anything to Bastion?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:21:29 -0500

It's a pleasant way to clear his mind. He's played ever since he was a very young thing - his father insisted - and nowadays will tickle the ivories when he wants to impress a girl or shut up his ceaseless cerebrations or just take a mental break from the world. He's passing good at it, though no musical genius.

Are there other Senet beasts aside from walking roots and mountain ogres?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:19:45 -0500

There are.

If you really like something, and it goes away, how do you cope with the loss?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:19:25 -0500

Well, nothing is permanent. It's best to approach all things and people in life with the attitude that they are transient. Everything and everyone will go away eventually, so if you just don't hold on too tightly to start with, the loss is much more manageable when it comes. Find a Bodhi tree to meditate under, my child.

Alternately, distract yourself with pie, vidya games, or recreational drugs.

If Sette wouldn't like a kedis, would Duane? He seems like a cat person... Does Bastion still have one lurking somewhere? Does he at least have a soft spot for them? Would Matty like one? How about Quigley? Will kedises ever be in the comic?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:41:22 -0500

AAAAAA!

Most of the story takes place too far north - Alderode is way too cold for lizards so none of the characters you mentioned have had much exposure to them. There'll be some later on in Cresce, but they're not a big deal, just pets :)

Would Sette enjoy a pet kedis? Could it be trained to hunt for treasure in people's pockets? Would it scare all her pore warriors away?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:10:20 -0500

Haha, I think Sette is more of a dog person. She likes the brute force and the loyalty and the big set of teeth. Kedises are pretty cat-like, intelligence and personality-wise. When in doubt, imagine a cat.

Does the iguanacat species have a name and/or can you quickly give them one?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:52:40 -0500

They're called kedises! Just one would be a kedis, more than one are kedises. I scribbled you some.

In your theoretical Unsounded video game, did you plan for Duane to have a sanity meter?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:16:45 -0500

It's not a bad idea. I play a lot of Minecraft so I've developed a fondness for realtime night/day cycling in a game.

If you aren't happy, then which of the seven dwarfs are you?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:15:58 -0500

Bashful :3

If you were told you were similar to one of your characters would it be an insult or a compliment? After picking which character, what quality of theirs would be most admirable and/or most deplorable to have?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:15:47 -0500

I suppose it depends what character :) People on here have told me I smack of Sette, which isn't too insulting. I suppose her best quality is she's fun and her worst is... she's obnoxious as Chinese water torture. That could be me.

Duane might be frail looking but I'd like to see Quigley take a sword through the lung and keep on truckin. Has Duane been holding back or would one of those attacks have killed Quigs if he hadn't dodged it? Duels being nonlethal I'm guessing yes.

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:14:19 -0500

Duane could fight dirty and make things really bloody really quickly but he IS trying to fight fair and he does realise the white-haired kid is the dude's son. It's really icky to kill someone in front of their son.

In an RP that's been almost exclusively combat focused (when it isn't meant to be) would you endorse someone joining with the sole goal of forcing people off of the fighting track and into a more character building one?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:12:30 -0500

Hrmm, I dunno, man. Characters "meant to do" something are often the most atrocious and hated sorts in RP. If you feel confident that this person can intrude in events in an intriguing, desired way that won't aggravate anyone too much, give it a try, but be cautious. If combat is what everyone is doing, combat might be what the majority wants, at least for the moment. Tread carefully.

I quite like seeing Duane without his omnipresent cloak. It sort of emphasizes the fact that, for all his pymary, he's actually rather frail looking. Or was that unintentional?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:46:33 -0500

Sure! I mean, Duane is a stickman; a scarecrow looking fellow who I feel constantly skates that very thin border between badass and ridiculous. I think the lack of cape and his current frustration and the looming lunacy of the night hours is pushing him firmly into the second category.

Duane's gone five chapters without facing anything that was a real threat. The first thing I wanted to do in this fight - and in this story turn, of which this chapter is kind of the threshhold - is strip him bare. So Quigley took his cloak. Duane's been kind of a blind bully, kind of a blowhard, kind of a bull in a china shop; but he's also an aging relic that doesn't mesh well with the world outside of Alderode, and maybe with this chapter you get a sense of that. His outlook and his condition are going to cause problems going forward.

When you RP'd were you the GM (or whatever you'd like to call it)? And if so, was it a boon to be able to actually draw the environments you described?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:30:59 -0500

I was the GM, yeah. And I only very rarely drew the environments since the point of the game was to sell belief to players via the badassery of your writing ability. I was a player as well as the game leader, and it wouldn't have been fair to supplement my posts with art all the time.

I did have to draw this place though - http://shardglass.deviantart.com/art/The-Cauldron-13435102 - Sucklehead's cauldron. A glowing, blood-red lambence waterfall and lake deep underground where a particularly fucked-up demon made a soup out of the souls it had captured from all over the multiverse. There was a village of its undead sycophants up those stairs and the caverns around it were infested by eyeball flowers, all of which Sucklehead could see out of. It was pretty great :3 Now I miss RP.

"The practical wright is able to wage war with ALL of his garments, if necessary." So Duane just has to keep Quigley fighting and eventually, he'll be naked!

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:25:02 -0500

After he unleashes the megabomb in his underpants.

Old question from back when I was too nervous to ask you anything. 9.9 Is the pronunciation you have for Duane the actual pronunciation, or just one you sort of made up, or liked better?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:24:33 -0500

I guess it depends on what you mean by "actual." It's the actual pronunciation in Alderode. I don't mind "Dwayne" at all either though, so either pronunciation is fine by me.

So I sat down the other day and drew a werewolf, and the head and torso turned out great, but the rest kinda sucked bigtime, and I couldn't help but think that I wish I could draw as well as you. Or half as well. Blah.

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:22:52 -0500

Draw that werewolf three-hundred times, and I guarantee by number three-hundred one it will be among the most badass werewolves ever put on paper :)

You seem to have very much enjoyed RP, and you seem to fall into withdrawal occasionally. What made you stop?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:25:08 -0500

I think the main thing that made me stop was I felt the story was done. I mean, I could have kept going and wrapped things up better but in my head it was done and writing it out felt like a waste when we all knew how it was gonna go. There was talk of starting new campaigns, but I felt like I needed to move beyond RP a bit. I really wanted full creative control of the next story, so I started Unsounded.

And you can't really do a big project like that AND RP. Not well. RP is time-consuming. I do miss it sometimes, particularly my RP friends, but nothing lasts forever.

"I don't know much about Slayers" - welp I was gonna ask if Bastion was influenced by Xellos, but I guess not. They kinda have a similar vibe. Slayers is good clean dumb fun, not wonderful all the time but it has it's moments.

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:21:38 -0500

If I had to pinpoint Bastion's influences... I don't know. He's one of my more fully realised and detailed characters but he doesn't scream any heavy influences. Unlike Murkoph who can be traced pretty directly back to Brandon Lee in The Crow, Doctor Jekyll, Hannibal Lector, and the Joker.

Hey, yeah. I have a few saved comics on my hard drive and you did make some dialogue changes. Don't be going all Orwellian on us now...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:18:46 -0500

I an not the invisible ninja editor I once fancied myself.

Am I correct in thinking that Quig's cloak's spell is a piece of illegal pymary?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:18:05 -0500

Well, it's a pymaric, but one that Quigley is legally licensed to own, believe it or not. It's unethical to use a pymaric in a duel but it's debatable at this point whether they're still dueling or just outright brawling. It's a grey area :3

Does Quigley wear that scarf in order to cast that particular spell, or did he invent the spell for an excuse to wear a stylin' scarf?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:16:46 -0500

The scarf (he calls it a mantle) is a pymaric and was a gift from Matty's mom. It's made of First Silk, one of the cheaper First Materials, and has a pretty cool summon beast in it.

Oh I don't feel obligated to vote (I do so because I think you deserve it), I just really like those incentive pictures XD

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:31:31 -0500

Haha, noted. We'll see what happens.

Will Sette be able to have kids when she's old enough, should she ever want to? Aww.. what happened to the anon asking? Now you know it's me, and I'm shamed by my need to ask this weird question. :)

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:30:07 -0500

Never be ashamed! You can ask anything, just don't expect an answer every time :3

Sette was hatched, hence the no belly button! Nary didn't just find her, he found her EGG, and sat on it to keep it warm, hatching her himself. Instead of a cool killer attack dragon, like he expected, he got a daughter. :)

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:29:39 -0500

Wow, that is a cute image. Can you imagine it hatching and there's this tiny infant Sette inside with a tiny infant tail? Myew T_T

..........I demand you write Morningmont. Don't tell me you need to learn how to write first. Your writing skills are already brilliant. Do it. I'm craving it now.

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:28:41 -0500

Someday D:

That incentive image has been up for a while. Any plans to change it in the near future?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:28:13 -0500

Priorities, priorities. Don't feel you have to vote though, i don't mind.

You know, I think I mixed up chimera and golem...I may have gotten chimera from Slayers.

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:27:47 -0500

I don't know much about Slayers :|

I wanted you to know that I responded to your question about outfits, but formspring stopped thinking it was your question when I answered. I tried to explain why it was wrong, but I'm not fluent in programming, so I was probably swearing or something. D:

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:27:30 -0500

It's all good. I went and looked. Your gorilla slippers frighten me. When I was a kid I had a stuffed chimp doll in red overalls that I took everywhere... until I saw Monkeyshine. Then it began to scare the living shit out of me and I stuffed it in the back of my mom's closet. Years later I was getting ready for school in the bathroom when I heard a noise and looked over to see the stuffed chimp doll floating in the doorway. I screeched, backpedalled and fall into the bathtub.

The stuffed chimp doll had been held up by my mom of course, who hates me, but ever since then I've really not enjoyed simians or stuffed depictions of them very much.

Can you join the Blacktongues if your balls have been removed before you applied to join?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:23:44 -0500

I'm not sure if this has ever come up in the world. I think perhaps if an applicant couldn't manage to hold on to their own testicles until initiation they are perhaps not worthy of membership. I mean, really, that's some grade A irresponsibility.

I really like magical zombies and things involving necromancy, but hate science fiction/"Zombie Virus" zombies. Have you got a preference when it comes to 'types of undead'?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:22:19 -0500

Mmm, I'm not against either explanation if the resultant zombies are interesting and not just another shuffling horde. I actually dig Resident Evil and its zombies - Las Plagas in RE4 was pretty cool. Have you tried RE? It might change your mind about zombie viruses.

...did you make changes to the dialogue in the beginning of the comic??? why on bob's left toe would you do that???

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:20:01 -0500

*whistles*

I tried to call the police, but when I told them the emergency was in Central Florida with no specific address, they hung up. I think I'm going to be charged for abusing 911. Can you bail me out?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:19:54 -0500

No, but I can send a hungry zombie over there to aid in your daring escape. He might eat you afterwards, but maybe not. Fifty-fifty.

"Murkoph? Murkoph is an angel of light and love, bite your tongue." Is he making you say that?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:18:26 -0500

Of course not!

Ecilop eht llac.

"Riv tamed them and now they feed on souls that Riv deems beyond hope. Souls like that are really rare though, and the beasts will only eat them if they're steeped in delicious evil and impudence." Is Murkoph in this category?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:53:41 -0500

Murkoph? Murkoph is an angel of light and love, bite your tongue.

My god, Sette's a chimera, isn't she? Isn't she?! Also, has Duane realized this anomaly about his charge?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:40:36 -0500

A chimera? D: I don't think so... And no, Duane hasn't got a good look at her naked torso. There was the flea bath incident but he wasn't exactly trying to see around her back like a pervy wanker. There's enough to wonder about when it comes to the tail and the teeth.

So... if said corruption did happen and the parents hanged, what would happen to the baby? What if the elder two were well respected and successful on their own? And what would happen to the parent's estate? I'm sensing a potential RP character here. :3

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:38:39 -0500

Well, execution is pretty extreme, I think the parents would have to have shown really blatantly treasonous thoughts against the Crown or against Crescian ideals. It's really hard to talk about Cresce without explaining how the country works though, something I don't want to do in detail just yet. To keep it simple, if a kid's parents were executed by the state they would go to a state home and become a ward of the government. It's not terrible or anything and your parents' crimes wouldn't be held against you, though you would probably face some social stigmas. You're right, it's a good start for a story or an RP character. I'd run with it.

Sette doesn't have nipples? Oh, hey, that's right. I noticed, really, I did. Is that on purpose, or just because you didn't feel like having Sette nipples all over your webcomic?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:10:01 -0500

She purposefully has no nipples. Nor a bellybutton! That's how she rolls.

I take it that that means no boobs for Miss Frummagem, then? Or are you deliberately being coy?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:49:53 -0500

Totally coy! :D

So is Sette's lack of nipples a sign that she's going to be boobless for life? And if so, how would she react to that?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:45:49 -0500

Maybe if boobs were really long like tentacles and you could hit people with them. Otherwise boys get along just fine without them and so will she. She'd sooner lament a lack of flying ability or not having a right arm that turns into a rhinoceros.

I've been so busy reconstructing my world I forgot to ask my original question! Is there any way a Crescian family could have more than two children (all alive and none twins)? Say if the family was really elite and had the queens favor?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:20:26 -0500

I'm going to have to say no, and this well illustrates what makes Cresce, Cresce. Cresce works because, so far, corruption has been kept to a minimum. Even the nobility - even the royal Sonories themselves - are transparent in all of their activities and transactions. The rules apply to EVERYONE - honour, forthrightness, honesty are a matter of national pride and identity. I know human nature is for shit and we're all terrible monsters, et cetera, but Cresce manages to so brutally crush corruption within its own that it really is rare to find, particularly once you move more into the interior. There are problems in the border towns - Ethelmik is a good example - because it has such direct dealings with outsiders and the broader Kasslynian system - but most of Cresce prides itself on all women and men being equal, from the Queen to the guy who cleans out your septic tank. Therefore, two living kids for every couple, no matter who they are. Having more puts the entire population at risk. It's greed, and her Majesty WILL hang you for being greedy.

Of course, rules are meant to be broken in fiction, but you want to be very, very careful in Cresce.

What happens if one of the castes conceives a kid at sea? Or outside Alderode but on land?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:56:47 -0500

Outside of Alderode - outside the influence of the Dammakert - natural genetics apply, and there's no real way to know what the kid will look like because his parents' natural genetics have been suppressed by the influence of the Dammakhert. But the kid won't be an Aldishman and he won't belong to any of the castes.

So, does Sette grow up to be ridiculously hot? For some reason, I see her growing older and maturing into quite the babe.

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:53:41 -0500

Sette would have you know she is already quite the babe, thanks.

Would you tell us about the hells a little? There are seven, for instance; that makes me think of the mortal sins. Do they correspond?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:52:48 -0500

They do not. I would love to go into detail but that's for Duane to do one day.

Kinda sad that you've stop taking anon questions, but hey, this (hopefully not douchebaggish) once anon understands. But right, a question. We know Duane's favorite form of Pymary, but what's yours? :)

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:34:22 -0500

I really like pymarics since those are the most fun to design. They're everything from practical contraptions like ovens and exploding rat traps to little critters like Boo the spider to great big summoned beasties like the Gentle Giant in chapter 2. If I was a wright I'd be an artificer and design and enchant pymarics all day.

Have I successfully asked the weirdest question yet? Or need I work harder at it?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:32:05 -0500

It was weird but intriguing. The situational weirdness is kind of compounded by the setting weirdness, too, 'cause I never let people play Aldishmen back in my RP days (someone really wanted to, once, so I told them I'd have to write them an essay first so I did and I emailed it to them and they soon replied saying they'd changed their mind they would just play an elven healer plz), so imagining others doing it now gives me slight hives. That's all on me though, nothing to do with anyone else, I'm sure it's lovely.

WHY??? Don't you love me anymore? How will our relationship work without anonymity? It was the sporks and pitchforks wasn't it? I shouldn't have asked about the douchepoodles. It's what brought this on. I-I-I've lost you, haven't I? And its all my fault.

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:29:08 -0500

Baby, I didn't mean to hurt you. You know I'm adventurous and all but you wearing that mask in bed all the time was starting to creep me out. You're beautiful, baby, take the bag off your head and turn on the lights.

Awkward question: What would the reaction be if Aldishmen (and -women) walked in on a jet in his 80s going at it with a partially disembowelled 19-year-old gold, who has one of the jet's (now detatched) fingers in his mouth?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:31:36 -0500

what

what the hell are you people RPing

Is it sad that I was first introduced to your comic by a TvTropes page on masturbation? (It was referencing the "self lubricating simulacra")

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:56:47 -0500

That makes me feel... really good about my life :D I'm glad you stuck with the comic even though it doesn't feature an extensive amount of masturbation.

What's up with the symbolism between Tirna and roses?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:24:28 -0500

Even though Tirna and Baelar are twin siblings, Tirna's often described as a "twin unto herself" because she's a two-faced contradiction, merciful and cruel in turn. Hence she's often symbolized by a rose, which for all its beauty has stems full of thorns.

Do either the Gefendur or Ssaelit religions have any kind of devils/hells?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:41:39 -0500

Both religions believe in chaos beasts, or demons, that lived in the chaos before the Twins made the world. Riv tamed them and now they feed on souls that Riv deems beyond hope. Souls like that are really rare though, and the beasts will only eat them if they're steeped in delicious evil and impudence. Here: http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch02/ch02_47.html - and here: http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch03/ch03_27.html you can see demons noshing on delicious evil souls with Riv's blessing.

Ssaelit believe that the chaos beasts actually serve a beneficial purpose. They live in the silver forests around Ssael's kingdom and consume ninety-nine percent of the dead who pass through looking for God, reincarnating them back into the world.

Gefendur don't really have a "hell," but Ssaelit believe in "seven hells;" the seven trials of the afterlife one must overcome in order to stand with Ssael as an equal. The Ssaelit have very complicated afterlife mythology x_x Gefendur are much simpler.

If, by some miracle, Unsounded was made into a big-budget hollywood movie what actors would you want to play the main cast. Or any character, really?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:30:11 -0500

Oh, I don't know, I hate Hollywood and all the garbage it produces. I'd rather an animated television series. Actors though? Young Julian Sands with a dye job for Bastion :D Otherwise I got nothin'.

Oh god, you've just awakened my desire to play Planescape again......Noooo, I had things to dooo tonight!

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:51:37 -0500

I was jonesing to read that "Pages of Pain" Planescape novel after answering that question, but then fortunately could not find it anywhere. Maybe you won't be able to find the game! I'll pray for you :3

In theatres near you: A milk wench and a peaceguard officer think the zany objects brought to life by a Gruftgramary accident can lead them to a kidnapped broker of First Materials. Unsounded and Walt Disney present: That Darn Khert!

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:31:12 -0500

Fund it! :3

So, time for another language question. "Khert". How'd you come up with the word? Does it have a root in established languages, or did you just play with syllables until you found something that tickled you?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:11:23 -0500

I wanted a really guttural monosyllable, like heart, bone, hit. The khert is the core of the whole world, it's what pulls everything together, what everything's based on, so it would have been one of the first words that developed.

I'm ninety-nine percent sure no one says it like I say it. It's not kurt, it's like English care plus a t at the end. So care't. In Alderode it's much the same except the kh in Tainish is like a Dutch g, so the word essentially sounds like you're clearing your throat. This amuses me because I like the idea that the word developed from the first wrights clearing their throat to cast a spell :D

What is this "Window" you keep mentioning in Alderode? Is it a body of people that visit you? Is it like a Palintir spying thing?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:51:12 -0500

It'll get defined next chapter.

Also: Man, no more anonymous questions! What a blow! I've been following you here and asking questions anonymously since the questions were at most in the mid-hundreds - what brought on the decision? Was the glut getting really bad?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:47:00 -0500

Aww, I'm sorry, man. Yeah, the glut was getting pretty bad and there were a few jerks who were being intolerably jerky. You can still ask me anything, I won't judge you :3

Was Morningmont going to be a comic about Bastion as a kid?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:41:50 -0500

Close! It was going to be an illustrated novel. It may still be one day, if I ever learn how to write :)

I think it's weird that (to my knowledge) no one has asked you where your love of dead, bloody, gory, and generally horrible things came from. What drew you to draw violence? You can't answer Melville. You answer Melville to everything.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:41:13 -0500

Murkoph makes me do it http://www.casualvillain.com/random/murkcoon.jpg

Don't pick on Melville, he is the only dead nineteenth century writer of whaling fiction I would set lawns on fire for.

Baby Bastion is adorable.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:31:26 -0500

Absolutely.

If there are no horses, how did the wandering root swallow one? Oo Or was that a senet horse that is extinct now?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:30:34 -0500

Was... was there a horse in there? I think I was going for elk skeletons, but I may have gotten lazy with finding reference D:

If I send you a Chitz (possibly with echolocation action) will you draw more baby Bastion? Also, I found a picture of Murk daintily nibbling you. Is this how you'd like your body to be disposed of?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:29:48 -0500

You might find a Bastion or two among these old pics - http://www.casualvillain.com/Morningmont/

I want to be beheaded, enchanted, and become a useful Mimir in a Planescape adventure. If the adventurers ever need information on Vagrant Story, Melville, or one-pan budget family meals, I will be invaluable.

Do you purposely put drugs in your formspring? It's really quite addictive. Like caffine and Dr. Pepper and a really good song all at once, wrapped up in sexy kisses!

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:20:50 -0500

Fancy!

So, does Bastion ever feel sad that he's never going to have an heir to his name, or is he too busy raising the dead and stuff to think about it? When he gets older, is he likely to regret his decision to be partially unmanned in the name of pymary?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:20:29 -0500

Naw, Bastion isn't the fatherly type. I've written Bastion at many, many stages in his life, and though he's taken on pupils and wards, he's never personally longed for a child of his own. His own parents were deeply troubled people and I think he's afraid he has that same seed of awful in himself.

... if no cats or horses, does that mean the only option for fluffy pets are dogs? I would like an iguanacat, though, I think. Are they cute?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:40:41 -0500

I think they are. I haven't drawn them much. I think the only even vague picture I have of them are in this extremely old bunch of sketches of baby Bastion http://www.casualvillain.com/ljpics/winalils02.jpg

"GlassShard only accepts comments from people they follow publicly." FUUUUUUUUUUU-

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:59:38 -0500

Whoops. I fixed it :3

Are most dog species, or variants there of, represented in Kasslyne? I mean, we have big dogs here, just not THAt big...so are there any chiuaua types about the size of a large great dane, for example? German Shepard sized toy poodles?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:53:38 -0500

Haha, there are no giant chihuahua, no. When they were breeding them bigger they wanted hearty dogs, ya know? Dogs that could take care of themselves fairly well, but still be obedient and quick to respond to handlers. Dogs look different from region to region - they have thicker coats up north, among other things. Poodles I am playing around with. I like the one I gave Bastion in that snowy illustration. I may use something in that vein for upper class carriage dogs in Alderode.

Battlepug has a giant pug dog... ridden by Conan. It's pretty cute, check it out.

Don't say Mac--! I actually have a cast list for you, but I wouldn't be able to fit it here. And with no housecats, I feel like rodents are a serious issue.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:34:42 -0500

I have thought of this! A lot of people keep owls (Iori, who you meet later, has the cutest owl in the history of forever) and, further south, there are felinesque pet iguanas with a penchant for mice. I wanna see your cast list D: Formspring stinks.

If you were casting a production of Hamlet with your characters, who would get what role (I feel like I've asked this before Oo)?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:03:26 -0500

You did ask it before and it's a really good question, but I could never think of an answer. I think I have a hard time imagining any of them cooperating long enough to put on a play. Sette would just declare everything stupid and burn the playhouse down in order to get everyone's attention back on more pressing matters and her. It wouldn't go well, Hazel. It would be slaughter. It would be even more dangerous than a staging of Macbeth.

Are there housecats in Kasslyne? If so... is it a dangerous world for kitties, what with all the giant dogs running about?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:00:25 -0500

There are actually NO domestic cats on the continent. Housecats aren't a thing here. Which is good for them, I suppose, since Giant Honking Dogs.

Did I miss some revelation that a character named Laertes killed Duane? Because it cannot be the possibility that Duane led to the deaths of other people and some poor soul attempted revenge...ah, this wishful thinking. Nice reference to the bard.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:47:05 -0500

Haha, no, but that would be cool. I have another comic in the back of my head called Hereafter that has a loooot of references to Hamlet in it. Unsounded, not so much.

Attacking a guy in a church? Now that's playing dirty. =/ Those hypothetical guys are jerks, and I dislike them.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:45:07 -0500

I know, man. Meanest characters ever.

So... was Matty's mom steering him to the... other option? How inbred is Matty, comparatively? Inbred in a population sense, or inbred in a Daddy-is-also-Uncle-and-Grandpa sense?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:44:54 -0500

Inbred in a population sense. A lot of the caste villages outside of the metropolitan areas are very, very old and fairly insulated from outsiders. They get visited by the Window and province representatives biannually, and those may be the only outsiders the inhabitants see all year. This was the case with where the Quigleys lived.

Oh, thanks. I like your...deranged looking fellow as well.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:14:21 -0500

Flirt.

Whatever happened to those little extra chunks of text you added to certain pages in place of the "return to index" button? Last time I remember seeing one was early in chapter 2...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:54:06 -0500

Oh, I abandoned that idea. I'm slowly going back and touching up old pages and deleting the supplemental text stuff as I do. Sorry for any confusion. I like your bird.

I can and will up the frivolity quotient. If Duane came from a poor family and dropped out of school to join the army, where/when did he pick up his more cultured tastes and mannerisms?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:34:05 -0500

Duane spent a good deal of his life trying to compensate socially for his working class roots. At this point, the overcompensating's kind of become who he is. Sometimes he slips up though, and you probably won't even notice it. Back in, oh, I think chapter two, Duane uses the word "guts" at some point, and a friend of mine who beta reads for me objected to it. He thought it sounded too coarse and out of character. I had to explain that when Duane gets a temper going, he's just the ten year old fighting bullies again, calling them every rotten name he ever heard his father use under his breath against unreasonable customers. Sometimes I think a life of constantly pretending to be something he wasn't sort of prepared him for his current role. He's good at putting on masks and working his way through bullshit and discomfort. Of course, that's often just what Aldishmen do.

Does Matty resemble his mother at all?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:20:26 -0500

Yeah. But so does his father. Inbreeding, man.

You're loath to give any sort of solid answer when it comes to pymary, aren't you?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:18:56 -0500

I didn't used to be. You could scroll back through the formspring archive and find a ton of stuff :)

I was wondering what the upper limits on pymary's power are? Obviously we've seen it's capable of leveling a building which was enough to "blow a hole in the khert" but that was in a city with others using pymary. In a more isolated area could it do more?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:10:10 -0500

You'll have to wait and see :)

If they'd stayed in Alderode, what would Mathis Quigley Jr. and Sr. be up to? Quigley seems pretty against Matty being a wright, so... would he be... encouraging the other option? That seems like poor Papa-ing. Particularly poor Papa-ing.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:09:26 -0500

Well, Quigley never took any interest in Matty, so he really didn't care WHAT he was steered towards. This isn't all that uncommon with Plats though. The guys don't stay in the community often, they usually get shipped to the Academy and then the city or the army. But it doesn't matter much anyway, Matty's mom didn't want Matty to be a wright either. She had other plans for him.

Hey, Ash, I wanted to ask your permission, be they your creations, to create a shirt that said "Sharpen the spoon" on it. :3 For my own personal use, o'course.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:02:34 -0500

Do it, man. Show me a photo of you in it afterwards, I'm curious :)

I've put a lot of work into creating a fantasy world for use as a book setting/RP universe/ what have you (with you as a big influence! :)I want to start doing RP with it, but I don't know too many people who would be interested. Tips for finding people?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:54:53 -0500

The best people to RP with are friends. I've always had the good fortune of having friends of like interests :) Failing that though, starting on fandom communities is a good idea. If you make a few friends through fandom RP you can then convince them to come RP with you in your own world. In my experience, it's a harder sell to get people to start RPing with you if you haven't proven yourself to them in another setting.

Another option is just go camp in some RP chatrooms, do some casual play, hope you run across some good writers. I would say eighty... seven percent of freeform chat roleplay is just cybering, but sometimes you get lucky and find someone who wants more :) Good luck!

Are you just going to answer "perhaps" to every pymary question smugly? :3

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:50:34 -0500

I may :3 Go RP some rad and imaginative pymary ideas! Don't waste them here on formspring.

What kind of car do you drive that you run over insane bikers with? :D

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:49:59 -0500

Honda Civic! I can't remember the year, but it's a battered little thing.

I have to give you props. You officially gave the best non-answer ever, since I didn't ask a yes or no question, and that answer could have applied to either part. Would you be willing to give a real answer, or is it SPOILERY?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:49:32 -0500

I think I just felt too lazy to type it out :3 Let's see, you asked if Quigley's arm would shatter if he threw a "mountain punch?" Naw, 'cause there's no such thing, Matty was just baiting Sette with the idea of it. Violently introducing an opponent to the suddenly relocated pressure at the heart of a mountain would be just that, there wouldn't be a literal punch involved.

What will I do on my days off if I can't sit here and watch you answer Formspring questions? I'll have to like... be creative with my time.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:49:03 -0500

Start a webcomic!

"Sober your idols in fire and douse them in tears. Then I'll take the lot." I feel a bit stupid for asking but could you explain exactly what Duane meant by this? I understand what he's saying but I can't help but think that I'm missing th actual subtext

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:44:14 -0500

The lady paints smiles on the Gefendur idols she sells. Duane finds the idea of smiling gods - particularly at the particular miserable moment with the death and funeral of that little girl only a few hours in his wake - a pretty shitty idea. The world is full of fire and tears - if she wants to sell him those idols she better give them a good blackening and a good dousing, and sober them up so they better suit it.

In other words, Duane is being a dicky emo zombie.

I'm not sure the rule will be enough to deter me from asking frivolous questions. Like: did the Quigleys come out of your RP days as well, or are they a newer creation for the comic?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:38:44 -0500

I've seen much more frivolous questions than that :D

I did play the Quigleys a few times in RP, yeah, but they were really different. Mathis was named Matthew and he was a pretty mediocre sorcerer, henpecked by his wife, kind of a goof, but still obnoxiously obsessed with money. Matty had a sister and a mother and could see (but was still a magic enthusiast) and Uaid was much smaller and wound up being destroyed for good at one point by a river demon, if I'm remembering correctly. In both adventures Quigley was in, he played the hapless Regular Guy dragged against his will into the supernatural doings of much more powerful people. He was THAT character, ya know? Pretty damn different from his Unsounded incarnation.

Did Laertes cut his throat i'the chruch?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:41:59 -0500

Zombie or not zombie; that is the question.

"...a wright has fewer options indoors, particularly if they're in an environment they'd rather not destroy." ...Is that how they killed Duane?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:31:13 -0500

Think they came at him while he was in a church? That would be a really smart move.

I love your new rule. And also, what's the last really delicious thing you ate?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:22:50 -0500

I just got back from the supermarket. I went in there to get a box of rice and a package of mushrooms but but but I also bought a tray of California rolls and ate them in the car :( Somehow sushi rolls are better when you eat them with your hands and have to scrape the rice starch off your fingers with your teeth between every bite while trying not to run over insane bikers zooming across eight lane highways against the light. Mmm.

... pymaric physics question! If Quigley decided to pull a mountain punch, since every action leads to an equal and opposite reaction, would his arm shatter as well as Duane, or would the pymary manage to skirt that issue?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:14:11 -0500

Perhaps.

Is it possible to pymarically draw an Aspect from a human that would lead to their bodies actually disintegrating because of the loss? Like that guard's blade way back...?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:14:07 -0500

Could be.

But even assuming flammability is an aspect, would that sword still disintegrate like paper would? Since it doesn't have the same composition as paper, I think it would just be a flaming sword. Maybe if you switched the structure of paper as well...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:13:33 -0500

Maybe, maybe.

Does Ephsephin have any kind or past in your head, similar to the history that you gave for Starfish?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:12:41 -0500

He does! I have made a new rule to not talk about anything on Formspring that'll ever come up in the comic though, so you'll have to wait :)

Do the deleted douchepoodle questions consist solely of mean-spiritedness, or do they include questions that are just too silly to answer as well? On that note, what's the strangest and/or silliest and/or scariest thing you've ever been asked?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:52:09 -0500

I try not to delete too much, but I get a pretty high volume of questions and comments so not everything gets through. Though I do read it all! I think I'm going to go ahead and turn off anonymous questions though, just to lessen the torrent. Formspring is becoming rather a goofily large investment of time, and that ain't so good.

Strangest thing I've been asked... when the vore fans bait me. That's always strange. I got nothin' but love for all of God's creatures of course, but it's strange.

Uaid is military goods. Quigley stole him in an awesome, daring scheme of brilliance as pure as his platinum hair. :3

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:49:12 -0500

The MLP Convention is probably going to be funnier than any theme park, if not more fun.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:49:04 -0500

I dunno, man, the Harry Potter portion of Islands of Adventure is a mad heart attack of fun.

2 cents: I like the exposition. I think it actually aids the pacing, but I'm used to Old School Magic with lots of incantations and gesturing and virgins falling all over the place. Keep on keepin' on, sistah

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:47:38 -0500

Mm, falling virgins. *checks the forecast*

So, I'm wondering whether real world physics still applies, for example, could a wright take an "aspect" of negative charge from one chunk of air and move it to another volume of air, thus creating a lightning? Or is it possible to take aspect (continued)

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:46:39 -0500

(continued) aspect of light from a fire and concentrate it in a laser ray? Or at the very least to move an aspect of volatility from paper to enemy's sword and kindle it?

These are all interesting ideas. You know the basics of pymary now, you should be able to figure stuff like this out. :)

Hello Glass. I am a troll and I am trolling you.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:43:07 -0500

I have trolled kings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVThmL2u1Ig

How have you prepared for the brony apocalypse?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:41:36 -0500

Isn't the MLP fandom waning sliiiiightly? I had thought it was. Apparently there's an MLP convention in Orlando in July, a friend of mine is threatening to attend it. I might kidnap her and take her to a theme park instead.

"Why do you think Quigley made Uaid?" Well I don't think a hollow ogre with a captain's chair in its skull just formed naturally. And it would be ridiculously expensive to buy, I bet. And I can't imagine anyone giving Quigley a gift, sooo...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:06:24 -0500

These are all good reasons. Maybe we'll get an answer as to the big thing's origin soon.

Did Quigley make Uaid before or after he got Matty? (i.e., did he make Uaid for Matty? Your description below of Matty's life with his crappy father was sort of both sad and heart-warming).

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:05:21 -0500

Why do you think Quigley made Uaid? :)

Does Matty hear pymary like Sette smells it? Based on the "Oh listen!" comment, it seems like he's aware of it somehow.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:04:33 -0500

Oooh, no. He just heard his dad's spell and the roar of the waterfall shifting. He does have pretty good ears and spacial perception, but that comes from being blind, not anything supernatural.

You mentioned deleted comments, and prompted a thought: I fear that one of mine was one such (I made a play on Sette's query about there not being pie in pymary). If so, then I truly apologise - it was poorly thought-through, not malicious, I believe. :/

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:02:49 -0500

It probably made me laugh :D I read everything but I don't post everything because I feel bad flooding people's pages. I get sooooo many questions and comments on here, it's nuts. Thank you though, you have nothing to apologise for.

This happened with the diagonal pages as well: I can't imagine making a comic like you do and then making myself available somewhere like formspring.me for people to criticize it. I understand constructive criticism...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:01:05 -0500

"....But this just seems to me like people nitpicking and trying to control your unique style. It's not like one style or form of delivery is more correct than any other style."

I don't know. Coming back to this a few hours later, now I feel like a big baby and a bully. No one forces me to have a webcomic. People are allowed to nitpick if they wanna, I just don't have to take it all seriously :) Anyway, thank YOU and thanks to everyone else who posted encouraging stuff. You guys always make me feel better and I shall strive to be cool for your sake.

On the bottom panel of page 25, are Duane and Mathis kind of undoing each others forming spells in-action there?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:57:38 -0500

Yep! You got it.

Douchepoodles is now my favourite insult. Permission to use it?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:57:27 -0500

It is yours. Use it wisely.

Oh, I didn't think you were going to drop this kind of exposition over every fight, just staking out a middle ground between 'boo all exposition' and 'everyone loves Dr. Strange' :p

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:57:18 -0500

Everyone really should love Doctor Strange. He's the strangest.

Do you know the Spectrum Song? By Ludwig Von Drake? I've had it stuck in my head for days.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:55:47 -0500

Not familiar D: I just watched a kind of awesome, kind of terrible movie called Rubber.

Hmm... Could either Duane or Quigley end the fight by drawing the "heat" Aspect from the air about their opponent, freezing them? I imagine that the warmth thus stolen could simply be dumped elsewhere (likely Ephsephin, if Duane's the victor. ;)).

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:55:16 -0500

It's an interesting idea, but while the air was cooling down the target could just, ya know, move :) Throwing your opponent into a body of water and then freezing them in a block of ice - that has potential.

You've mentioned that distance is a potential barrier to drawing on an Aspect - how then could the book-reading wright from earlier draw on the sun's heat, as confirmed, I think, to a commenter? The air's heat I understand, but is the sun not too far?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:55:09 -0500

No, it was the air's heat - environmental heat. I might have said "sun" as shorthand since the sun's what generally heats the air. But you're right, no one can pull directly from the sun, that's crazy.

So, uh, does Duane have a brother called Grissom?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:00:44 -0500

The character from Vagrant Story does. Different Duane.

I doubt anyone would complain about the exposition if they didn't already know how the khert works from reading this formspring.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:33:24 -0500

You know, you might be on to something. I'm probably sabotaging myself.

I only offered criticism because you seemed to welcome input from someone else. Who said that they thought the comic was bad now? Why is your reaction "If you don't like this bit, don't read it!"? Consider me duly chastened.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:22:47 -0500

I'm sorry if I came off too brusque. There are a lot of anons to keep track of, I don't know if you're you or those other anons you never see because they've been such douchepoodles I outright deleted their comments on here. If you are a kind and well-meaning anon, I apologise if I made you feel crappy or was unfairly harsh. I will try to be better.

I shall attack your haters with a pitchfork. They may not bother you anymore (YAY!) but they bother me. I enjoyed the exposition, I thought it was well-placed, well-paced and adorably demonstrated Matty's fanboy-ness over wrights. Permission to attack?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:16:49 -0500

Thanks, darling.

But no, we do not attack haters. Honestly I haven't seen haters though, just people expressing their opinions (last dude on here was a bit whiny and inflammatory for my tastes though). Just, critics, remember that I am under no obligation to you. I'm the first one to call out my own failings, but I'm also going to be the first one to stand up and say to chill out if I feel you're whining over something kind of goofy. I respect your opinion and please always give it, whether it's negative or not, but don't think I'm going to agree with it every time. Could I have cut a few words out of the last page? Maybe? It's kind of a subjective thing, I don't know. I have people criticizing and people saying they love it. Who do I believe? All I can do is my best and carry on.

But don't be a rude ass, that bums me out.

Your attitude to people bringing up flaws is not ideal. It's a legitimate concern. People legitimately feel that this exposition was too jam-packed in a small place, and it was. Explaining a bit about magic was fine, but you over-explained with (cont)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:39:23 -0500

"(cont)that big origin of the khert thing and then explaining everything twice and then WORDS WORDS WORDS in general."

Why are you reading my comic when you don't like how I write it? Go read something else. Actually, Order of Tales is a much better fantasy comic if you want more free stuff, but Bone is best (though you have to buy it or pirate it). The authors are slightly less accessible for when you want to lecture them though, so you will miss out on that.

Is it possible to draw the heat aspect from living bodies?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:10:01 -0500

Sure, but you'll lower their temperature and probably kill them. If that's cool with you and you have a ready source of unwarded living bodies, have at it.

If you fight a wright in a blank room, couldn't they draw solidity from the ceiling until they get a big enough hole to start drawing on other aspects, without the risk of it collapsing? And also, you'd think edge would be pretty common...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:06:38 -0500

They could, sure, but it's a gamble. What's on the other side of the ceiling? Maybe there's another floor up there and they bring a wardrobe crashing down onto their head. What if they get a hole in the ceiling and the only thing visible through it is the sky? Anyway, I was just saying that a wright has fewer options indoors, particularly if they're in an environment they'd rather not destroy.

I think the exposition in this fight is good; You need to establish the rules at some point because otherwise it looks like it's just "magic, I don't gotta explain shit". But I don't think it's necessary for every wright-to-wright fight (cont)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:02:23 -0500

"(cont) Like in Fullmetal Alchemist: Once they explained how alchemy worked in the first few chapters, they only needed to explain it when someone was doing something really esoteric with it, because in general the reader could be trusted to figure it out."

Of course it's not necessary for every fight. It seems people thought I was ranting about all comics when I did my Doctor Strange rant down there. I was only ranting about Doctor Strange. I am kind of a fan of the character and I hate how he's been ruined by attempts to modernize him. Fans rant indiscriminately and at every opportunity. I am sorry.

Anyway, of course I am not planning to narrate every time a wright does a spell. Have I in the past? Having a character explain the rules of combat during an initial relevant fight is such a common storytelling technique I'm kind of bemused by the criticism (FMA does it, like you said). Is there a worry the fight is being missed because Matty is talking over it? Maybe this is the mistake. Matty is not talking over the fight - a few exchanges of blows are illustrating his explanation. There was unadulterated action before he started, and there'll be more of it now that he's finished. If you were reading the chapter all in one go, these last three pages would hardly be a blip on the radar. Stay calm and keep on.

Although the wailing and gnashing of teeth is kind of funny. "This comic is ruined forever! It's now a bad comic!" Six months ago this would have shattered me, but now it makes me laugh. Have I graduated to some new level of comic creator? I like this.

I really love Sette. I think she's so pure in her awfulness. It's like she's completely honest in being who she was shaped to be or something. Plus I find she and I often have the same reactions face palm/mountain punch/etc. She resonates with me maybe?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:10:18 -0500

I enjoy that honesty about her too. She doesn't feel like she has to make anyone feel better about their being total asshats or utter imbeciles. Also, she's a kid! She wants to have fun first and foremost. Glad you like her :)

How religious is Nary Frummagen?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:03:43 -0500

Moderately so. He makes sacrifice to Tirna before setting out on any major ventures. Can never be too sure.

I have fond memories as a kid wrestling with all my male friends. I am a girl so the boy's mom usually told them to stop that, but boy did it ever feel the most natural thing in the world! I miss that level of physicality now that I'm a boring adult :(

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:02:57 -0500

You need a honking big dog. When I feel like wrestling I get a sock and attack my dog Ebby with it. He weighs a good eighty pounds and is all solid muscle. He's at least as good as a brother.

Quick, Duane! Draw the flapping speed of Sette's mouth into your hand and outrun Quigley's Pressure-Packed-Palms!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:01:46 -0500

Will there be a clear winner and loser by the end of the chapter as a result of the epic-battling? Go Team Duane!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:01:40 -0500

Could be, could be.

UAID IS ACTUALLY FAT YERTA EH EH did i guess rite

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:58:46 -0500

yush but tell no one

If we are suggesting Slaughterhous Five, we must not forget to mention Harrison Bergeron, truly one of the greatest short stories ever written.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:56:52 -0500

*erudite nod*

Is Sette's tail strong enough that she could be hung from it like a pinata?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:56:31 -0500

Possibly. Is your collar strong enough to protect your throat when she rips it out after your attempt?

I'm sorry, people keep mentioning something about a mountain punch but I'm still staring at Quigley's package in the second panel.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:55:36 -0500

Quigley's pretty hot until he opens his mouth.

Do the Aldish believe Crescians are black due to cresce's khert? And has a Crescian ever been affected by the dammakhert? Say concieved while in Alderode during an incursion, born a plat or whatever?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:54:50 -0500

No. Yes. Maybe.

... is it weird that I really want to see a doodle-comic of manipulative!Duane, WhiteKnight!Quigley, demonspawn!Matty, and sweetheart!Sette? Brain swaps. They make me weirdly gleeful.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:54:12 -0500

You're a strange one, gato de forum.

I'm assuming all this aspect stealing stuff isn't particularly good for the environment. o.o Wrights cause a lot of collateral damage, don't they?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:52:49 -0500

Yeah, the forest will be a wreck by the time they're done. The best place to kill a wright is indoors, where there're less aspects to draw from. A totally empty room with no windows? You render a wright all but defenseless. He can start tearing up the walls for raw solidity but he's gonna run out of it fast, or bring the ceiling crashing down if he's too rash.

All these people saying Sette is Tirna are crazy. She is clearly Father Riv. Uaid ate some squirrels in chapter 3. His mouth would empty into his belly, but since there are people there, do his meals just fall on poor Matty's head every so often?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:50:21 -0500

Haha, Uaid doesn't need to eat, he just noms stuff now and then for fun. But yeah, sleeping inside him would come with the risk of occasional squirrel storms...

Sette is actually a new god, after Ssael killed the old ones she appeared and insulted him until he went mad. All hail Sette!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:47:22 -0500

Sette would not be a just and loving god. I think she would randomly turn people's clothing into scorpions just to keep them on their toes.

I've always thought part of the reason exposition might have been required for Dr. Strange is that his magic is undefined - 'it's magic, I don't have to explain shit!'. Your magic system seems to follow tight rules, and suits visual portrayal (continued)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:15:16 -0500

"...a lot of the time. I don't know, I guess it's an: in matters of taste thing, but I do think these action sequences are somewhat let down by the conversation around them. It feels like you could show more and tell less. Is that so bad?"

I dunno, champ, I never claimed to be anything but a shit writer. Go read a better written comic.

SETTE IS ACTUALLY SISTER TIRNA EH EH did i guess rite

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:38:04 -0500

That's one theory. I think someone suggested it a few months ago too.

Hmm, if Matty's and Quigley's "home" smells like Uaid's feet, then does that mean they both go around smelling like rank-ass feet all day?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:34:52 -0500

Nah, they don't live in his feet, they live in his torso.

Imagine you're Matty and Uaid is your home. You haven't been home all day though, you've been tailing your dad as he's done a bunch of shopping in town or hit seedy pubs trying to stir up business or laid low in gruftgrammary dens talking bad pymary with shady types who Chitz says keep staring at you like a zoo exhibit. You hated it. All you want is to be somewhere you feel safe. Finally then - at last! - it's time to leave town and find Uaid! Now, if you're Matty's height, what's the first thing of Uaid's you're going to encounter?

His feet! They don't smell great. In fact they smell like dirt and a deer carcass that he stepped in a few days ago. But they're Uaid's feet, and at the top of a ladder just above them is your bed and your chest with all your stuff in it and maybe your dad will read you something fun before lights out because he feels bad that he's such a crappy father.

Uaid feet is a good smell.

Have you ever read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five? And if so, what did you think of it?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:34:17 -0500

I have not read it! I have no culture.

I have a theory that Matty's really a being of purest evil and that Quigley's periodic cuffing is the only thing that keeps that evil in check. Woe betide the land when Quigley passes on!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:33:54 -0500

T_T

Vote incentive idea! Do a comic on Quigley and Nary trading pointers on how best to cuff a kid!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:33:44 -0500

Mean!

What's the highest hit combo Quigley's ever scored on Matty?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:33:37 -0500

Oh, that's just mean.

Hello, Chekov. I see your gun there.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:32:07 -0500

i'm a gud writer yes i am

Vote incentive?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:31:42 -0500

I know, I know. I started one, and then got distracted doing this instead. http://glassshard.tumblr.com/post/17188965636 It's kind of a vote incentive, you just don't have to vote to see it :)

Today's page was like those old Marvel comics from back in the '60s where they'd painstakingly explain all the mechanics behind whatever amazing thing that Dr. Strange or whoever was doing. Was that intentional, or is Matty just that much of a fanboy?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:30:27 -0500

Matty is just that much of a fanboy, and I am just that much of a fangirl for Doctor Strange and silver age comics.

Not to say that I don't suck and am too verbose, and don't have any idea how to write, but I LIKE when comics narrate the panels. I don't think that style of comic-writing is the end of the world like so many people have decided it is. I can read old superhero comics all day long and be pretty happy (and I do that, frequently). Doctor Strange, especially, NEEDED that exposition. Magic-battles aren't like melee battles where you can depict the logical flow of action with poses and angles and weaponry. Magic - good magic - is half in the mind, and power comes from scholarship and research. I want to KNOW what the sorcerer is thinking, what spells they're using, how they are strategizing. Otherwise it's just a bunch of flashy panels with Strange pulling what-the-hell-ever out of his tights. That's not engaging. It's why modern Strange sucks and is so aloof and weaksauce. No one writes from inside of his head anymore. No one is trying to sell the awesomeness of his magic to me, of the work behind it, the cross-referencing, the study. Give me some convoluted fucking alliteration, writers!

Anyway. Unsounded isn't really that kind of comic. It was just fun to do here :) If I could get away with it more and have it work in context, I know I would. One day I would like to do a comic with real narration. I'm so tired of people judging all comics against hipster minimalist slice-of-life shit.

/rant

The number one question on everyone's mind must now be: will we ever see a mountain punch?!?!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:38:40 -0500

Come now. How many stories would talk about something that sounds so fun and then not have it play into events by at least the end of the chapter? I am a faithful student of Saturday morning cartoon foreshadowing.

Weeell, since telling you our opinions on spanking has become fashionable, I'll say that one must find balance. Spanking all the time is extreme and they quickly become desensitized to it. A couple of hand swats used rarely and as a last resort are fine.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:16:39 -0500

Absolutely. I wasn't talking about going all Radio Flyer on your kids.

A lot of the disagreement comes from kids being different. A study showed the kids who get hit to discipline them were the more aggressive ones to start. Remember, correlation isn't causation!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:47:50 -0500

I just love everyone.

I think the most important question of all is... Matty think Uaid's feet smell good? I would imagine they'd be a little... unpleasant. XD

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:44:09 -0500

Totally, but they still smell like home :3

Are you going to re-do the character page? I notice that since you have changed the site background, the pictures for characters on the left hand side have a strange border thing around them. I'm not complaining, I'm just curious...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:21:39 -0500

Actually, I was thinking that since I have a wiki with character pages maybe I don't need that section at all anymore. I may go ahead and nix it and just do an About/Author page there or something instead. It's on the list.

I work with kids every single day and I disagree with you. Kids who get spanked regularly at home are the ones who tend to be more physical in dealing with problems. Spanking doesn't teach correct behavior, it just harms the child.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:48:31 -0500

It's a wide world with lots of room for different opinions :)

I believe children are like monkeys. They're hands-on, noisy, violent...but I actually believe a little violence among siblings is important, as it teaches basic survival instincts. BTW, I hate my art theory class.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:11:07 -0500

When me and my brother fought as kids we literally knocked each other's teeth out. So I agree! Pay attention in class! You're payin' for that shit, may as well get the most out of it :)

It's tough love isn't it. Quigley's trying to make Matty into a bitter hardass like himself, right?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:22:39 -0500

Mm.

On punishment of children - my parents gave my brother and I one good whooping and then started the count down system. They started at 0 and worked up to 3 - if 3 was reached (and it was never reached after the inital spanking), pain was iminent.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:22:31 -0500

This is a good system. Kids are like animals, man, and I say that with total love and respect. But kids are like animals. Kids get wrapped up in their own little games, their own little world, their own little obnoxious kiddishness and lose all awareness of the world outside of the immediate focus of their attention. So a mostly harmless whap does nothing but wake them up to the existence of reality - and then they remember oh, shit, you're there and there's this world and these rules and sorry, I forgot I was a pupating human being. So a follow-up whoop really wouldn't be necessary.

But yeah. I think this is something people don't realise until they've been around kids a lot. Kids are really physical. And sometimes you gotta get really physical to get their attention. You can't reason with a five year old.

So... umm... I'll just be making you your own Chitz, then. Complete with echolocation sound effects? Off topic: synesthesia (mixing of senses; it applies to an earlier question) isn't at all unpleasant.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:14:34 -0500

If you make me a Chitz I will possibly squee. Just warning you.

What aspects did Quigs shuffle to perform that cloak-sweeping move on Duane? Did he turn the cloak to liquid or something? Also, what did he do with the tree? Did he teleport it?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:13:48 -0500

Oh, I thought the cloak-sweeping thing was pretty obvious. He ganked the shape and pliancy of the fabric and wrapped the same area of dirt up in it, so he could then yank it out from under Duane's feet like a rug. Without these vital aspects, Duane's actual cloak simply dissolved. A thing can't exist as it is without its shape - the khert will obliterate it.

The tree thing I'm disappointed in because I felt like I didn't have panels enough to show it accurately. Duane inadvertently sliced it, then Quigley kept it buffeted up in the air by nudging its own falling momentum around and against it and eventually shoved it right over Duane and let go. Once you get something up in the air in pymary, you can keep it up there for a long time by buffeting it with its own falling. Momentum is endlessly useful.

But physics is awesome!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:12 -0500

It is! But, ya know, only so much fits on a page.

Hmm, who's more cuffable? Matty's squishier, but Sette probably earns it more. And is probably bonier, despite being a girl.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:59:17 -0500

True, but Sette is a more difficult target. Also she will double-back and tear chunks out of your cuffin' hand with her teeth. Well, unless you're her da. I would have to say Matty is more cuffable. He is like one of those cute and squishy stress relief balls.

Matty has to be the least-cuffable kid around. WTF Quigley?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:01:29 -0500

Mm, you don't know either of them all that well just yet. Wait a few more chapters before passing judgment.

If weight is an Aspect, is mass one as well?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:27:58 -0500

No, mass is generally constant to objects and the khert doesn't like you to mess with it, same with gravity. When you're reassigning weight, you're telling the khert to exert the gravitational pull it applies to a certain group of mass to a different group of mass, but you're not actually affecting distribution of any matter. A chatroom friend of mine has been lecturing me on physics for the purpose of writing better pymary, but I'm afraid if I start bringing that into the comic there will be a bloody rebellion against me with fire and soapbox speeches. So I should probably stick to sparklies and hand-waving.

Good of you to believe in corporal punishment! Honestly, I think that's why you have so many bad eggs these days is because parents are way too lenient. But I won't rant too much. Question! Uhhh. What do you tend to do on vacations?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:21:21 -0500

Enh, people mean well, I guess, but modern life is so out of balance it's depressing to think about for extended lengths of time.

My vacations? When I get a chance to get away it's by hitchhiking with family. That usually means a day at a theme park or the zoo or the beach. Humble means make for a shut-in, I'm afraid.

My cat has just died today. How did you and do you handle the death of pets?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:52:53 -0500

I'm sorry :( There really is no good way to handle the death of a pet or of anyone. Just try to remember the good times. Let yourself be sad for a while, then move on.

Whoa! Ash-who-loves-kids is a proponent of corporeal punishment???

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:51:23 -0500

Sure, man. I dunno why it has to stand apart from loving kids - if you love kids you want them to grow up to be decent people. My dad whooped on my brothers and me when we were horrible. Kids should be a little afraid of their parents.

Whoopings should be firmly in last resort territory though, and never done in anger. When I was a kid, it was never getting smacked that was awful - it was the waiting in my room for the smacking to happen. Psychological torture is the only way to parent :3

"Is Quigley going somewhere?" He's gonna get his ass handed to him by Duane 'cause Duane's da bomb. (If not now, then eventually.)

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:14:28 -0500

The next few pages may suggest otherwise :O

Hey! Nightsbridge, hearing a color is a perfectly pleasant experience!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:58:31 -0500

Does Matty's hat provide any protection from all the cuffing he's getting?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:57:01 -0500

Of course not. Would his dad have bought it for him if it had any sort of dampening effect on his cuffing? Why make himself have to work harder? D:

Won't it be wonderful when Duane replaces Quigley as Matty's father figure and he won't get cuffed so often? Though maybe his destined-to-be girlfriend Sette will pick up the slack. (So tsundere, she is!)

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:56:04 -0500

Is Quigley going somewhere?

I know you have two dogs - have you/your family always had pets around?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:55:10 -0500

Yep, I've had some kind of dog in my life ever since I was born. The one I grew up with was an American Eskimo named Princess Ivory. She was pretty awesome. I keep her ashes in a tin on my shelf 'cause I'm weird :3

How exactly did Quigley feel about getting, uh, custody of Matty two years ago?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:54:00 -0500

He'll answer this query himself one day.

Will we ever get to see Quigley giving Matty a good old-fashined beatin'? Nothing ups the drama like child abuse!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:53:21 -0500

As long as it's within reason, it's not child abuse when it's your own child. Sometimes a kid needs a good smack. But yeah, maybe.

I partially wonder who I'm having a conversation with through you, but I'm pretty sure I know, so, yeah. I saw something about a real-life Matty hat. Do want. That and a Chitz plush. May I make a Chitz, and would you want one?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:02:24 -0500

Ya know, I looked for good Chitz-makin' material last time I was at the craft store but they didn't have what I wanted. It needs to be a really loose-weave burlap. You should make one! Don't make me one, I suck.

For the record, I would so buy a shirt that said "Sharpen the spoon" on the front of it. :D

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:02:06 -0500

Isn't the khert basically associated with decay (enchantment on non-First Materials, Plats' short lifetimes)? If so, it makes sense that it would smell like other decaying stuff, like poop or rotting corpses.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:01:43 -0500

Another good theory.

I............I think I've officially run out of things to ask you. Now we must part ways. Isn't that sad? Q_Q

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:01:29 -0500

Aww. Yet, I am sure we'll somehow both survive :3

Perhaps the devout Matty was sent to Quigley by the gods in order to convert him back to the fold. Quigley shouldn't be so quick to cuff Matty for preaching. >:(

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:01:10 -0500

Quigley's quick to cuff Matty for coughing too loud. He has a very cuffable head.

Tell Forumcat I shooed her because I knew she'd never actually listen. XP And then she should wonder how I knew that. laughs gleefully How can Matty miss his grandparents if Plats only live to 28ish? My math brain isn't very reliable, but it dissents.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:00:34 -0500

Brainfart. I meant relatives, not grandparents.

All of your recommendations sounds amazing. I'm going to watch them all, I think. Assuming I can find all of them. So... is it bad that I only know the day of the week based on when your webcomic last updated?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:00:10 -0500

Well, that's how -I- keep track of the days of the week >_>

Do wrights ever get spiteful and blow up the khert on purpose?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:59:06 -0500

I suppose it could happen.

Is Duane aware that Sette has missing body parts?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:54:09 -0500

Not yet. She doesn't like him to see her without a shirt on. He's a childlover, you know.

Mighty Ash, I went to grill my Beef, and it was a tad old, I Shrugged, and went on with it. After some time on the grill, most of it took that cooked beef colour, but not all, the rest was a dark red. Shrug and Eat?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:25:07 -0500

You asked this fifty minutes ago, so I'm going to assume you've solved the matter. I hope you ate it though. Live large, live on the edge, build your immune system.

Huh. Now I have a new fear/. Thank you so much for that. I'm bored. What movie (any movie at all, as long as it's not in theatres) would you recommend? I like pretty much everything.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:24:22 -0500

Hrmm, since you like Unsounded you might like City of Lost Children. Big dumb idiot is led around by a saucy little thief girl. Alternately try The Butcher Boy, it is hilarious and sad and twisty and Irish. You might try the first Warlock if you're in the mood for cheesy horror. Try Survive Style 5+ if you want a loose and kooky storyline and exquisitely composed frames.

Maybe Sette finds it nasty 'cause it's wrong? Allowed in the context of the khert but disliked by it. Air with an edge? Dead men walking? Ain't right by the kherts laws. It'd be like seeing in four dimensions, hearing a color. Can't be a pleasant thing.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:14:20 -0500

Good theory, good theory.

why did yu ban me froom ur formsprig :(

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:14:11 -0500

Do I have that power? Am I secretly a wizard?

What's your opinion of bubble baths with rubber duckies?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:12:49 -0500

My niece and nephew are into them. Personally, I was always told bubble baths are bad for one's nethers.

Nethers!

Do you know why I got shooed off your Formspring? I don't know why I got shooed off your Formspring. On to business: If you could have your hair (permanently) turn any colour, what colour would it be?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:05:46 -0500

I guess red would be nice, but I'm generally happy with my current tresses :3

Is pymary strictly a human ability or can any creature with the ability to speak Old Tanish use it? For example: if you taught a parrot to speak a phrase in Old Tanish, would it be able to use pymary?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:04:51 -0500

If you taught it pymary, Rited it so it had the proper connection, and the necessary aspects were present... I guess it could pull off a few spells. I mean, you could probably get it to light a candle if you tried a few times. I like the idea of a very drunk academic trying this out and winding up with half a dozen charred birds before he finally gets a candle lit. "Ha-ha!"

When I first saw Quigs and Matty, I thought they were brothers, they were so different. ._. It makes more sense now that I know that Matty hasn't lived with his father so long.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:00:11 -0500

Their relationship could definitely stand to improve.

Can someone born on the ocean still be connected to the khert?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:59:47 -0500

Well, they ARE connected to the khert or they'd be dead. How to explain this...

Think of the khert as a porous, free-flowing field and all living things as containing within them much smaller versions of their own free-flowing fields. By simply existing in reality, your field mingles with that of the khert - no matter where you are - and receives information on how to interact with reality from the external khert. If that mingling couldn't happen, your body would be a foreign element and the khert would either outright attack it and dispose of it as it does all orphaned Aspects and matter, or your body wouldn't be able to interact with the world so your lungs would have no pull on the air, your feet would fall through the earth, etc. You must be "connected" to the khert in order to live. It's just not a connection like a plug in a socket, it's a mingling of, sort of, data.

Now, being born over the ocean only means that when your own personal babby khert is being formed in the womb, the khert at large has no influence over its construction. It's like you're a plant grown hydroponically, with none of the minerals or elements of the local soil. You'll still grow and be more or less fine, but a seer wouldn't be able to look at your personal field and suss out where you're from.

NOW, this is all completely different from the kind of connection a wright requires to work pymary. A wright requires a new, different connection so he can dip into the khert lines and move aspects around with his voice (or his thoughts if he's a tacit caster).

I hope that makes sense o_o

Is there a specific reason why the smell of pymary is unpleasant? Would anyone who could smell it find it unpleasant, or just Sette?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:47:24 -0500

Hmm!

If the characters in the comic are your 2D children, does that make Murkoph the first-born?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:47:15 -0500

In terms of age, no. That'd be Sette :)

Is Nary the type of guy to get revenge if he was insulted by someone in the street?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:46:51 -0500

Yeah. He'll rip your lungs out.

If Mathias raised Matty, how did the kid end up with such a pious worldview?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:50:22 -0500

They've only been together two years. Matty well-remembers his mother and other caretakers who were very spiritual - and rather prefers that outlook. His dad is too joyless and practical.

Yeah, but some group/ethnicity/whatever invented that language. Why did theirs connect with the khert, and not the language spoken by, I don't know, Sharteshanians? Or the folks living up at the north pole? It seems like it can't just be chance?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:59:09 -0500

Who says a group created it? Maybe it really is the same language that the gods speak ;)

Is there any reason why Tainish is the only language that works on pymary, other than just "because"? Cuz I think if I lived in that world, whatever religion the original Tainish speakers worshipped would get a huge boost to their credibility, yo.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:43:26 -0500

The popular explanation is that it's the language of the gods and the language that the khert understands. I mean, why can't I use C++ in Flash? Why do I have to use Actionscript? Why can't I talk to my mysql table in Spanish? Rules is rules.

So did Nary pervert the myth, or did Quigley censor it for Matty, or neither, or both?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:41:36 -0500

I can actually answer this seriously, be afraid.

There are two popular Gefendur sects, the fraternal and sororal. The fraternal is limited almost totally to patriarchal Alderode who gives all the power and credit for creation to Riv, whose thoughts almost literally formed the world (with some feedback from Yerta, who got to spit out the really stupid shit). The sororal, which is the state-mandated Gefendur flavour in Cresce and is pretty popular through the rest of Kasslyne, gives prominence to Yerta, and says that she and Riv got lonely, make whoopie, and she grew the world to her own tastes in her womb. So Sette and Matty have two pretty different takes on the same group of gods. Quigley thinks it's all bullshit of course and doesn't like Matty believing this and would be cuffing him in the back of the head if he wasn't otherwise occupied.

Noooo. You took down that little bonus letter thing at the bottom of the first page in the comic. I demand that you put it back! That, or move it (and the others) somewhere else so they can still be read. Please?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:24:25 -0500

Next time I think about it I'll zip those files up and offer a download for whoever wants it. I really don't want to put them online though, I think they might be confusing to some.

Which of your 2D children is your favorite? We all know parents have one. (If the answer is Bastion, then second favorite)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:23:32 -0500

At the moment I'm terribly fond of Jivi. But the answer to this depends on what's happening in the scene I'm currently working on :)

Can we know more about the Oubliettes... now then? :D ?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:23:05 -0500

Maybe later :3

If a child's khert citizenship is based on where they were conceived and the first three months, what would be their citizenship be like if they were conceived at sea & out at sea for that period. Can a person not have khert citizenship?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:22:56 -0500

Sure, but people don't use the phrase "khert citizenship" and this concept is really only a big deal in Alderode, where people think you're effed up if you're not part of the Dammakhert. Otherwise no one can tell and no one cares what khert you were born under, or if you weren't born on the continent at all.

I'm really curious how you went around creating Tainish. Initially was it just a bunch of gibberish you made up off the top of your head, and then went back and made more consistent? Or did you have rules for creating words/grammar from the start?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:20:59 -0500

I had a few words and a few ideas I liked. I knew I needed a language for pymary (I just called it magick back in them days) but I wasn't sure of the kind of sound I wanted. Eventually I just sat down with myself, got really strict, and dissected the words I knew for a list of sensible phonemes. Once you have those making a vocabulary is a snap. For the grammar I knew I wanted something pretty straight-forward so I could pick it up myself easily and not always be referring to a guide. Designing grammar is not a lot of fun believe it or not. For me the fun is in vocabulary and language concepts. Like, I had to come up with a system for addressing very extended family members (if you have people living to four-hundred, your grandparent list gets really long).

Dealing with the transition from Old Tainish to Tainish was really interesting too. I knew that the most powerful words in Old Tainish would be the ones referring to parts of the human body, since those would be the most immediately lethal in a grammatical accident. So I came up with this superstition that Tainish-speakers have of using a whole different set of vocabulary when referring to the body parts of an unliving body out of fear that they would accidentally talk it back into motion. Little ideas like that are a lot of fun.

You saying it's about you not liking things versus others not liking things makes a lot of sense to me. I think we just want to try to cheer you up a little when you’re in the hateplace. How was the zoo?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:12:53 -0500

I know, and I appreciate it. I don't deserve you guys <3

The zoo was good! Unseasonably hot but good. They're trying to convince me to drive to New Jersey with them in a few weeks now. Ech.

Shoo Forumcat! I asked her first, and she politely turned me down with express permission to look at beautiful man bums! chases cat back to forum Thank you for always answering our questions, comic-related or nonsense. I shall love you forever.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:11:45 -0500

Lover <3

So, ASh... do you ever think you'll get an Unsounded Store? Like, Shark Robot, I know, sells stuff for other webcomics. Be a good way to drag in money if you started selling stuff like Matty's hat. Or Chitz.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:11:27 -0500

Haha, do you think Matty's hat would be much of a fashion statement? I can't think of too many people who could pull it off.

A store though... I don't know. My brain is usually wrapped around comic-making. Money-making never has much opportunity to squeeze itself in there.

Welcome back! Did you missssssssssssssss us? ;3

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:10:12 -0500

Baby, every waking moment. I kept demanding that my brother ask me questions about hats, but it just wasn't the same.

But I thought it's only speaking Tainish that conjures pymary? Or is writing Tainish dangerous as well? :3

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:40:38 -0500

Just speaking it :3 I was being silly. I'm running on like two hours of sleep. I feel like responding to every question with a string of expletives and like, ascii art of genitals and cats.

Why are you so fond of the cat smile emoticon?

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:39:38 -0500

It's a sickness D:

Will you ever teach us how to write Tainish? As in, the pictograms?

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:23:07 -0500

Nay! If you guys went around spouting off Old Tainish you might conjure all kinds of destructive pymary and seriously harm yourselves. I just can't live with that on my conscience :3

Do you know why criticisms bother you so much? I mean, nobody's perfect, and you've admitted yourself that you've improved over the course of just what we've seen so far (even though you started out at a high standard). Do you just have to be the best?

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:21:48 -0500

Criticisms bother me when they're spot-on and make me realise faults I hadn't noticed and then distract me until I've fixed the problem. It's not bad to strive harder or to recognise faults. The best people are the people who are hard on themselves and are never satisfied with anything they produce. No one will ever be "the best." There is no "best."

You guys have been so nice to reassure me about the old pages. I really appreciate it. But - and don't take this the wrong way - it's not about you guys liking or disliking them - it's about ME disliking them.

So there ya go.

I cannot possibly fathom why this anon has not shared this Quigley and Duane slash with me. Your Formspring must be aware I am the biggest gay on it.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:15:50 -0500

I think anon was on crack for I have never drawn any such slash :O

"Virulent strain of madness." Virulent as in common, or virulent as in contagious? (Also since I assume you won't see this for a few days, was your formspring break nice?)

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:15:20 -0500

Virulent as in "marked by a rapid, severe, and destructive course." And yesh, the break was very nice.

Dis layout is grawful, no?

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:11:36 -0500

Formspring is really quite intolerable. One-hundred and one useful features they could add, instead they incessantly tinker with the layout to the detriment of the site.

What fonts do you use in Unsounded and Why?

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:49:13 -0500

I use AnimeAce2 from Blambot for no good reason.

So... I can't speak Tainish beyond interjections until you die? Darn. I wanted to teach it for my school's multicultural day. They gave Elvish the ok last year. Tainish seems much cooler.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:47:13 -0500

Have you looked into Drowish? I always thought that was a really intriguing constructed language.

I am afk for a few days. Seeya Saturday, formspring!

Does it make you feel awkward when people express their desire for your male characters to MAKE YAOIS with each other?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:46:12 -0500

Naw. I don't understand creators who get uptight over shipping. It's like, "Here is this thing - enjoy it! But only in the very specific and limited way that I have designated!" Blow.

Sette... a girl... with strange anatomy... like... a penis? o.o?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:52:29 -0500

No 9_9

So Castes! Are 'reading via the network', 'monitor or execute via the Dammakhert' - the things that that earlier question about "people examining your individual 'pymaric signature' or whatever might be a thing in Alderode" was close to?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:49:14 -0500

Mebbe o_o There's some stuff in that article I should have left out (it was mostly a C&P job from my world-building file). Please ignore it :)

Typo on Plat: virulant. I assume the two strains of madness are connected somehow?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:48:11 -0500

Mebbe.

I have a theory that Sette is the reincarnation of Duane's id.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:47:46 -0500

Sette puts the id in kid.

Has Murkoph changed any since you first came up with him?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:47:16 -0500

Some. For a long time he had really, really long hair, like down to his knees. Then it got burnt off in a fight after he'd been around a few years. Looks much better now :3

Otherwise, from black coat to bandages to scar-crossed bluish-grey skin, he's pretty much the same. Personality-wise he's a bit more insane, less friendly, and a lot less predictable, and he lost a few of his old weaknesses 'cause they're not longer relevant to his backstory, but he's not much different. He burst from my brow fully-formed, I suppose :3

I've seen people thinking that Sette might be male rather than female. Sette IS a girl, right? Just with some... strange anatomy.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:42:27 -0500

Definitely a girl.

Do you have a Tainish dictionary sitting around somewhere? If so, is there a chance it will ever see the light of day, so people can be fluent and ask you annoying questions in Tainish, rather than English?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:42:01 -0500

I do! But it's far too sloppy to release, and I'm always going back and tweaking words. Maybe my estate will surrender it to the public after I have perished.

Would Duane enjoy a nice bubble bath now and again?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:41:05 -0500

Definitely not.

Duane never saw his Silver gf again? Aww.......he should get a Facebook and try to reconnect. (I mean, he has a Formspring, so why not?)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:40:54 -0500

Very droll, anon.

Duane's zombie face is my only reason for living. It's a beautiful thing. Now, answer my question! D:

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:41:46 -0500

No. You will be surprised! D:

Why all the repeated consonants in Tainish? How are they pronounced?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:40:52 -0500

Depends on the consonant. Double L is a spanish ll or a yeh if it's at the end, double s is a z, double n at the end of a word is voiced (single n is nasal). And stuff and junk.

I'm not sure how well an all-naked Unsounded would go over with your fans. You should probably put up some test drawings of nude Quigley and Toma first so we can judge.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:37:45 -0500

Mm-hmm.

What's your favourite kind of sandwich?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:34:07 -0500

Publix (a local supermarket) makes an epic roast beef sandwich. That is my favourite.

Omg! Thanks for the mini painting tut! Adorable ;w; Ahh I love your art so much ;________: ^^ <3 <3

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:33:40 -0500

No! All these original pages floating around will depreciate my Atalantian horde of pre-revised pages!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:33:36 -0500

I think Sad!Matty in a pile of hats would be a really good vote incentive

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:33:31 -0500

Next vote incentive is Matty and Sette playing epic wright battle with his action figures D:

Jets: Usually Gefendur, usually Ssaelit, or evenly divided?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:33:08 -0500

Mostly Gefendur, some Ssaelit. This is the trend among all the castes except the Plats and Copper who both tend to be pretty much exclusively Gefendur, and the Gold who are almost exclusively Ssaelit.

Are you ever going to do more of those little extra things you had in the first chapter, down the bottom of the page? Don't know exactly what to call them...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:31:40 -0500

Mm, probably not. They were an idea I had, and I wound up not liking the idea much in the end. I think I'm more likely to do out-and-out illustrated prose stories at some point. I have about five-thousand side stories I could tell, oh, man.

I might have found what looks like some Quigley and Duane slash that you drew. Would you care to comment?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:30:35 -0500

Oh, my stars and garters, I have no idea what on earth you are talking about.

Good point. Was Quigley's (either of them) mother or father ever in the oldest profession?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:52:13 -0500

Nope!

This is a silly question, but: what did you do to make the water in 2.22 so...watery?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:46:25 -0500

Just a thought, but wouldn't Duane realise that calling someone a whoreson isn't as effective when a good portion of that person's race is involved in the sex trade, and there's a fair chance their mother actually was a prostitute at some point?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:46:05 -0500

Do we all think our insults through before puttin' 'em out there? Particularly when we're really, really pissed off? I don't think we do.

So... if Plats have poor constitutions and weak lungs, did Duane have issues while teaching them to use weapons in his unit of fighter wrights?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:44:15 -0500

Only very rarely would a Plat come under Duane's command. After the army, Duane went to work for the Ssaelit temple, which is where he began his career actually training battle-wrights. Plats are almost never Ssaelit so they naturally would not be in the Ssaelit temple's army.

So the Gold caste and the Tainish people are the same thing then. Right?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:32:26 -0500

Yep, more or less.

I thought Jets had blue eyes? At least Cara did, and there was that neat Aldish breeds poster. (Though Crescian propaganda probably wouldn't be considered a relaible source of info.) The wiki is telling me black, however. I am now a confused anon.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:16:37 -0500

Typo. Fixed it!

I can't find the elusive archive, and it would be neat for interested people to compare. So, can I post the pages on photobucket or something? Not the entire thing, just the pages that have an alternative page. It's cool if you don't want that though. :)

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:04:44 -0500

D:

(Do it, just don't tell me about it, it makes me crazy.)

Alderode has taiga? It's the best biome, next to tundra! Will we ever get to see it in the comic?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:02:45 -0500

It is not beyond the realm of possibilities.

Would you sanction an attempt to get a working tailed 3d Sette child model NPC character into Skyrim, running around biting and stealing from everyone she comes across?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:02:17 -0500

Do it D:

Since Silvers are so especially hard-core against caste interrelations (sorry, not the best term), did that girl Duane loved get killed?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:01:36 -0500

I don't know. Duane never saw her again. *teardrop*

Whoa, whoa whoa..is the Duane and Sette Formspring officially open again?!! I want to check before I go inundating it with questions.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:30:40 -0500

It is not. I signed in today to see how crazy the question count was, and answered the top few for the hell of it. I'll open it again when this chapter's done :)

What is you opinion on, like, stuff and junk?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:14:58 -0500

Like, it's cool.

Hey, whoever it was who wanted caste info, it's up now. Go look at Alderode's wiki page. I'ma go eat dinner. Break!

I am wholly uninteresting and my formspring would be a barren vat of nothing! D: I work for an established artist who has a studio to facilitate artmaking. Production is usually large scale, but I do boring things like photomanips and write proposals. GAH

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:08:49 -0500

I think that's fairly interesting! I can think of at least half a dozen follow-up questions. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity :D

Every time you skip an update day my heart crumples like a paper ghost

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:07:54 -0500

*guilt*

What's your favorite ice cream topping?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:07:16 -0500

I'm not a topping fan to be honest. I like a homogeneous incorporation of foreign bodies into my ice cream.

What? No marriage? Oh, well. At least have the cookies and firstborn for the road. kicks tumbleweed Woul you permit me to make and send Unsounded Valentines in two weeks? I really think your comic lends itself well to St. Valentine's Day.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:39:33 -0500

Sure, man. Just don't sell 'em for money :3

If Duane got his ass saved by plat kids in his unit a lot, is he extra fond of the caste?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:25:02 -0500

I think he's a bit more understanding. He's going to be more forgiving to an Aldishman period, though. If Quigley had just been some foreigner there'd have been no farcical duel challenge, it would have just been an (attempted) slaughter.

Is that weather stuff on the scale of plat-specific pymary? That seemed quite a bit more significant than anything we've seen Duane do.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:23:00 -0500

Yep, I don't think most wrights could frig with the weather as Quigley can (although even Quigley can't do it on the fly or without mechanical assistance).

Lovelovelovelovelove your work. Marry me and/or have a plate of cookies and my firstborn?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:15:32 -0500

I won't ever settle down, darlin'. Not all the cookies in the world could tame this cowpoke. *hat* *horse* *sunset* *tumbleweed*

Wrote a long counter-argument to whatever it was the individual said, then I forgot to save and it was lost. sigh In short, take criticism with a pinch of salt and stop scorning your past work. Damn critics can't let good things be.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:14:37 -0500

It's fine, darling. I'm not going to suddenly stop doing the comic or anything, I just had a mini-crisis that I must work through. It's not your job to sooth my Crazy!

I it take that the whole "you cannot best me" angle is just an attempt at exploiting Duane's nationalism. Quigley doesn't see himself as an inherently superior wright purely because of being a plat, does he?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:13:50 -0500

Yeah, because Plats really are good wrights. Their khert connection is genetically more solid than anyone else's which means they can draw Aspects from and send Aspects towards points further away than most others. So if he wanted to, he could do some pretty devastating shit... but there are kids around - and himself - and the terrain is uncertain, so he's cautious. Let's see if Duane presses him.

I spy Chitz's security cord! Attached by the immutable power of Character Design my rump! Actually, it really is a credit to the detail you put into your character design. You're on the opposite end of the spectrum to Useless Belts That Attach To Nothin

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:11:15 -0500

Haha <3 His security cord is just a yarn tail.

Will your weekend be full of adventure? :D

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:10:30 -0500

Maybe :D I'm going to spend a few days at my brother's house. We're takin' the kids to the zoo. Monkeys!

Pretty Sailor Senshi Plat...What do I have to do to get you to draw this?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:09:44 -0500

At least a pizza.

When did you first come up wth Sette?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:09:26 -0500

When I was a kid. I think her very, very first incarnation was as a winged half-demon girl in a story I played around with when I was in junior high.

I've always loved redheads and love being a redhead myself. And considering your redheads live for up to FOUR HUNDRED YEARS, it makes me feel even more awesome and justified. Pfft, who cares if I would be a sucky Wright? I WOULD LIVE LONGER THAN EVERYONE.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:08:34 -0500

That's pretty much the attitude they have it about it too :) You could (and they can) still do a lot of theoretical pymary. They compose spells, they just can't personally pull them off. I would say the only bad thing about being a Copper is they tend towards madness and at the holidays there are just so many damned people to buy for... and they all already have everything. Tsk tsk.

I can see Sette developing a crush on Duane (Kids do that sometimes to guardian figures), but the chances of him reciprocating seem slim. He has that whole "MUST PROTECT ALL THE CHILDREN!!" thing, and there's the big age difference... and he's very dead.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:06:27 -0500

All right.

I need like super intense wiki detail on the intricate subtleties of the Aldish judiciary. Age/caste/gender judge statistics, nation's largest courtroom, process of a civil suite. For real it might be best if you just make another wiki just for this, thx.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:21:05 -0500

I'ma hit you in your pie-box. I grant thee permission to make these things up. Be creative! Perhaps the nation's largest courtroom should be inside the bleached skeleton of some kind of enormous dead creature. When I'm stumped I usually add bones and skulls. Skulls always help.

harshly criticizes you for the overabundance of clothes and lack of full-on nudity >:$

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:18:34 -0500

I probably could draw pages a lot faster if everyone was just naked. Hmm...

How about that awesome twitter icon, is THAT where Sette is talking about manly passions?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:17:46 -0500

Pretty near to it :3

So, what originally inspired you to turn your role-playing universe into a comic? I don't think I've seen anyone ask this yet. Surprising.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:17:14 -0500

Well, because it's not quiiiite accurate. The roleplaying universe kind of sprang from the comic.

For years and years I had an idea for a comic about my character Murkoph. It never went anywhere, I couldn't draw well enough to pull it off, but I had some pretty good world and character details always stewing in the back of my mind. When some friends and I got sick of our usual RP haunt for political reasons, we sat down to create a new setting and I wound up using one of the countries from my comic world. I filled in a bunch of details, wrote out a loose source guide, and we dove in. When RP ended many years later, I took my comic-turned-RP characters back into comic characters, and started Unsounded. The story's always been in my head, but I guess RP turned me on to the idea of using Duane and Sette as driving characters.

I like your comic but I really like you too. You don't drama all over or bitch your opinions all over the place and you're a girl but you're not a GUUURRRL. I like you. There.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:18:33 -0500

Well, edit away. I will never understand why, but that's my issue. On the topic of another question I asked once, is there any more information you can give on the abilities and stereotypes of the Aldish castes? The super-scary RP forum begs for more!

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:17:58 -0500

Because I feel I have burdened formspring too much with my neuroses for one night, and because I won't be updating Friday (sorry, I'm going out of town plus all the double pages... should skip a day), I will tomorrow add a big caste write-up to the wiki. If you have any other topics that would help RP, lemme know (the more specific the better) and I'll try to fill up the wiki for you.

could you say what you changed at least??? All I could tell for sure was the lake line, which I like, but I can't tell if other stuff was reworded or if I just think it's different because I haven't seen the page in a while and I want to knooooow :((((((

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:08:00 -0500

I just redrew some of the panels, don't stress :) I'm not going to go into a previous chapter and reveal that Duane is Sette's real father or anything (I'm still saving that for a future chapter).

Current mood? Current music?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:06:14 -0500

I see what you did there.

Re: the harsh words - haters gonna hate. Some people will find anything to nitpick, especially about something that a lot of people praise, regardless of the objective quality. It's fun to be dismissive and superior about other people's preferences.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:03:11 -0500

Man, don't I know it. Lackadaisy is like the best thing since the polio vaccine, but I still sometimes troll Lackadaisy threads just to skip and cackle madly beneath the subsequent shitstorm. These weren't hipstery criticisms or trolls though, I know the difference. And they bothered me so much because they're true and I see them myself. So it's all good. I just need to work through the suck, as I said ;) Please, don't mind my craziness. We all have our own little quirks, this is mine.

Mebbe this is a dumb question, but okay. Will any of the characters “level up” during the story? Will they gain new powers/moves/abilities, or do you think it’s more about what they learn to do with what they have?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:51:02 -0500

Nah, it's not a dumb question, I know what you mean. Something like what you're talking about will happen at points, but I think as the story progresses and fights happen what will help the characters overcome is their learning how to take what they have and then work together. Unsounded is about the Power of Love!

but srsly wait until Uaid gets wings and Matty learns how to transform into Pretty Sailor Senshi Plat.

Glass, I loves your ugly and your pretty. It's like your new motto - work through the suck. If you should ever put out something that is actually ugly, I'll read right through it. And I'll still love you.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:45:26 -0500

You are too nice <3

Aww, why are you embarrassed by the old pages? I thought they were just as good as the new ones... Why did you change them in the first place, if you don't mind me asking?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:45:02 -0500

I feel retarded answering this, I swear formspring has become like my blog, but it's... because... I can't be content. Because I stumbled on some really harsh words about my comic that made me fixate on every flaw and hate myself and I got into a funk where I couldn't do new pages because I was sure I'd already effed the whole thing up by failing with earlier pages. And I made a deal with myself that I'd go back and try to address some of the stuff that gets ragged on. So I started doing that.

I'm weird, man. I don't see compliments, I only see criticism. I never see success, I only see shortcomings. It's just how my crazy brain works and it doesn't matter how much nice stuff your or anyone says, it won't help. So lemme slowly tweak old pages, that's the best thing for it :)

I have to say this before I ask my question- reading Unsounded honestly got me back into writing and worldbuilding thanks to its extreme amazingness. So yeah! Thank you for your brain :D Question time: how long does it take you to do an average page?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:41:00 -0500

It's really dependent on the content. If it's mostly just characters talking, I can do a page in like eight hours. If it's really heavy on the background with lots of perspective going on, if Uaid's around, if there's a giant swarm of ethereal glowing blue insects... those pages take longer. Glad you like the comic :)

!!! I'll put them up all over the internet and make sure they get seen on CNN and Fox News and the BBC and right away then! ::DD

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:58:37 -0500

!!! I'll take them down immediately! Didn't mean to make you sad ))): Sorry about that!

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:53:55 -0500

Oh, don't apologise! It's your right to do whatever you like. I just get embarrassed by stuff really easy sometimes. Don't mind me >_<

Is it all right if I put the old original pages on the fan forum? (I mean, I went ahead and did it anyway, but I can take it down if you like...Karaii here, btw.)

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:24:38 -0500

There has to be a way to set facebook so that non-members can view the wall and photos. I've seen it done before. Maybe check setting for a page for a group or business?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:05:58 -0500

It's already set to "Open: Anyone can see the group, who's in it, and what members post." If it's still being troublesome I know not how to fix it.

Why is the Facebook page members-only?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:28:42 -0500

That's how Facebook works, I believe.

What's the most boring job you've had?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:22:16 -0500

I had a summer job in college working at one of those custom embroidery and screenprinting shops. My job was mostly ripping the embroidery backing off finished shirts, then folding and boxing them. That was pretty boring.

Think you could put a link to the forum on the front page?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:22:08 -0500

Done. Put the Facebook link up there too.

YES YES!!! It took me 15 minutes but I finally found the archive!!! I need to have all Unsounded paraphernalia. I will treasure these pages on my hard drive forever, a relic of a momentous lost past of the comic not unlike the lost city of Atlantis.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:06:56 -0500

Oh, you.

So I'm neurotically comparing the pages now - it's a pleasure to see how much you've improved! Your linework has evolved to blend the fluidity you already had to a graceful elegance now. Sette is also more adorable now :)

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:06:39 -0500

I think my new motto is "Work through the suck!" If you suck when you start a comic, if you're diligent, you will improve after a couple years. So yeah. Work through the suck! Not that I don't still suck, but ya know, degrees.

Man, I can't get over how adorable Sette's closeup panel on the second page is now. I want a Sette plush ;_; Her hair is longer too! Ahhh! :)

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:05:00 -0500

Uguuuu~ :3

Does Sette ever call Duane by his proper Alderode pronunciation? I was wondering if she does when she really needs him, like during moments like Ch 2 pg 62. Looking over these pages makes me want to reread the entire comic right now o_o Screw work!

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:04:39 -0500

No, it's always Dwayne. I think it would weird him out if she ever said it otherwise, honestly, he's so accustomed to it.

How extensive will this revision be? Will you redraw everything up to the current chapter, or just the first one?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:03:31 -0500

I'm just going through and fixing things I can't stand or that I feel really detract from the comic. I'm not sure it's necessary to completely redraw even chapter one, it has some bits that I kind of like.

Will you continue to revise more of the comic?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:37:58 -0500

Yes, when I get a chance. It's low on the priority list in spite of the satisfaction it brings me :)

Have you seen the new(ish) Trigun movie, Badlands Rumble?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:35:11 -0500

Not yet D: I should make my friend watch it with me, she's a recovering Wolfwood fangirl.

You are a sneaky ninja. Have you been 'fixing' things the whole time? I can't tell what you changed on the title page, is that counted as page one?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:33:42 -0500

Oh, I meant the first three actual pages of comic :) The title page doesn't bother me too much, I'm content to leave it. I really haven't gone back and touched anything before now! I had made a pact with myself that I wouldn't.

Is there any chance you could put the replaced pages in the misc. section? I know you don't like the art, but I'm thinking a lot of people would be interested in seeing how the style has changed and looking at the old dialogue. Please?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:32:19 -0500

Nope. The whole point of fixing them is to get rid of old pages that make me neurotic and unhappy. There's a site that's archived the comic though (without asking me but hey, internet). Diligent Googling might find it.

When you changed the pages, did you change the dialogue? I seem to remember something with Duane asking about the lake and Sette responding "A wet one." Or am I delusional?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:22:30 -0500

I thought you said if you went back and starting fixing stuff the cycle would never cease and you would be trapped in an endless circle of drawing for eternity.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:21:44 -0500

I have given in to it. May God have mercy on my soul.

Seriously though, I had reached a level of self-hatred where I couldn't even stand going back to reference old pages for stuff I needed. I had to start fixing them.

I was wondering since you got a great response with the diagonal panels with horizontal bubbles on the second 2-page spread, are you gonna change the first one to be like that?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:01:25 -0500

Maybe one day. I am slowly (very slowly) working my way through the comic and fixing stuff. Go look at the very first three pages! New drawings. I am so proud.

Are physical attacks normally allowed in wright duels? Or is Duane just saying "fuck it" because Quigs cheated?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:25:14 -0500

Naw, physical attacks are absolutely allowed. Pymarics, First Material weapons, and gruftgramary are out of bounds.

"Manly Passions" is the title of my Toma X Nary slash fic. Toma chases Sette back to Sharteshane. Runs into Nary. Hot dickings ensue. (Incidentally, "Hot Dickings Ensue" is a pretty good band name.)

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:23:42 -0500

I would attend their concerts.

Do we get to see the Oubliettes in the comic at some point? :O

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:22:36 -0500

Mebbe.

How many children would Quigley sacrifice if it meant he could get in on the tacit casting goodness?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:22:20 -0500

I would saaaaay none. Quigley's a dick, but he's not quite an asshole.

Did Quig ever finish calling down that storm?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:21:46 -0500

Alas, no. Matty interrupted him.

Chapter 7? :( Now you got me sad... So, how, long until we see his zombie face partly then? Like when his glamour flickered a little during his fight with Sette in chapter 3?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:21:34 -0500

I did not realise Duane's smokin' hot zombie face was so in demand!

What's the coldest temperature you've ever experienced?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:20:31 -0500

I think... something like the teens maybe when I lived in Connecticut for a while. There was snow!

Also, All holys, Prison atop a rift in the khert is so rad. Oubliettes' a reference to Labyrinth, yes?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:19:47 -0500

Nah, oubliette was a real word long before Labyrinth was made :) Iz a lovely word, non?

What was the last movie you went to go see in a theater?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:16:53 -0500

I think... the last Harry Potter. I don't like going to the theatre much, it's expensive and I have to fight the impulse to hit people in the mouth a lot.

Have you seen Mushishi? I'm starting to see a bunch-a connections to Unsounded :o

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:15:09 -0500

I watched the first few episodes but it was a little slow for my tastes. White hair guy was pretty hot.

Has Quigley figured out there's something really wrong about Duane, or is he too busy raging about how wrong it is the guy's a tacit caster?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:10:03 -0500

He's too busy trying not to get dead. Gotta remember that sentient zombies - much less talking ones - are not a thing in this world. The very idea is preposterous. So it's not exactly at the forefront of Quigs' brain, Matty's babbling aside.

You should have that last double-pager set up so that there's a flash and the page starts shaking, as with the inevitable cave-in and/or boss dissolve in the old pre-VII Final Fantasy games. Dat would be sooooo cool. Or lame. Guarantee so many WTFs, tho!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:07:32 -0500

That is a cool effect idea. I'd save it for a moment of more drama though. Duane's just in a scrap at the moment, and he's been in scraps before ;)

Where's Eph? He's been noticeably absent in the last few (amazing) pages.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:06:39 -0500

He's probably nursing his gory face at the moment. He'll be aroooound~

Can Sette smell hats?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:29:20 -0500

Sette smells all the things.

You should know my now your audience just /love/ looking and analyzing all the pages little details. Not saying that's a bad thing, but just sayin'!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:29:05 -0500

True dat.

Would Duane still be interested in going after the Red Berry Boys if they weren't targeting children?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:28:41 -0500

Probably not quite so vehemently. What really pushed him over the edge was coming across the dying little girl back in the crypt. He feels responsible for getting her some vengeance. That was pretty gross.

Man, I never even THOUGHT about how Sette might be connected to the khert. She just seems so... un-wright-ish. But then again, she should consider all the fancy, sophisticated nicking she could do if she knew pymary!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:27:16 -0500

Mmmm.

I knew it, I knew it!! I'm so proud of myself! Do I get anything for figuring out about the nose/pyramy? Also, I had no complaints about the original tilt (actually I thought it was brillant), but I like the tilt with horizontal text even better. XD love!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:27:05 -0500

Mmm.

Ack! I was fervently devouring - er I mean I was just looking at your deviantart and I saw... an image. It was called Twitter Doodles. Would that happen to be Bastion's sexy demon bird lover? MY EYES CANNOT UNSEE THAT!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:25:59 -0500

So, how long until we get to see Duane's zombie face again? :B

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:25:18 -0500

Full-on? Not until chapter 7.

You should draw some stink lines all over that last page so people stop asking WTF is up with Sette.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:33:24 -0500

She's in the background, I didn't think people would even be paying attention D: But I had to set her pose up for the next page.

Person who asked about the courts here. I pick Cresce and Alderode (if you don't mind me picking two), because they are undoubtedly such polar opposites that I can figure the rest of the countries must be somewhere in-between.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:31:53 -0500

They're actually more similar in this area than you might imagine. Both Cresce and Alderode are totalitarian states, and for totalitarian states to remain in power they must exercise an iron fist and very little tolerance when it comes to threats to their authority. This means harsh legal systems, and a fast and loose attitude towards the judiciary.

Both countries exercise local court systems for small cases, and semi-annual Assizes courts for bigger cases. Local officials double as judges in Alderode, but Cresce favours juries since Cresce is not quite as afraid of its citizenry.

Both countries believe in quick trials and quicker executions - Ulestry is where you want to go if you want long, thoughtful cases and a state that's abolished capital punishment. Alderode, though, tends to forego trials much more often than Cresce does, particularly in matters to do with the Window. They have the authority to kill Gruftgrammers and Black Tongues on sight, for instance.

Cresce has some pretty brutal prison camps if you're "lucky" enough to avoid the hangman. And Alderode has the Oubliettes - a horrifying prison located atop a rift in the khert. No one stays sane there for very long.

I went to a private art college too, tho for fine arts where illustration was a nasty word :( I never got into that 'inner fine arts' circle, tho who wants to :) Fine arts people are the worst. Kicker is I work in the fine arts industry! Feel my pain, Ash

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:20:46 -0500

What is the "fine arts industry" exactly? Do you work for a gallery? Anon, you need your own formspring page D:

Now I love you all the more for that Labryinth reference.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:12:44 -0500

I watched Labyrinth last night and Rocky Horror. Those movies complement each other somehow.

Could Sette's ability to smell pymary be considered a natural connection to the khert? Too bad she lacks the discipline to learn Tainish.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:12:16 -0500

Mm.

In today's update, is Sette laughing at the memory of poor Cara, or is she being grossed out by Quig's bad luck?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:12:01 -0500

Scroll down.

Oh, right - saw that answer down below after I wrote it. So, if there's enough Pymary flying around, could it knock Sette unconscious?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:43:43 -0500

That remains to be seen, but current levels are just going to make her particularly unpleasant to be around. Right up there with the Bog of Eternal Stench.

Ooh ooh! You know, I enjoyed the first tilted page but something felt 'off' - with today's page, having the action be tilted but the dialogue normal feels PERFECT. Lots of action and perfectly readible. I think it's the sweet spot for this kind of format.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:42:51 -0500

Excellent! There's one more double page but not until nigh the end of the chapter.

Does Nary know that Sette can smell pymary?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:42:19 -0500

Oh, yes. It's one of her most useful features.

do you like..............bread?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:39:09 -0500

....yeeeeees.

What are those adorable squirrel-hog things?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:02:32 -0500

Marmots! AKA ground squirrels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmot

In today's update, is Sette laughing at Quig's bad luck, or is she remembering poor Cara and being grossed out by all that happened around that time?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:26:21 -0500

She's shielding her nose 'cause the whole place stinks like spells. There's much complaining on the next page.

Do you ever play any fighting games? There's a new character in Soul Calibur 5 who, if I'm corrects, uses magic w/ physical attacks. Saw brief moments of her, so I could be wrong. Duane could be created in game with her fight style. ;P

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:50:41 -0500

When I was a kid I liked playing Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat with my brother but nothing since then has looked too appealing. My friend Steve made Soul Calibur characters out of some of his RP characters, it was pretty lulzy :3

I can't tell... is Sette laughing or something else?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:48:16 -0500

There's a lot of pymary flying around. What is special about Sette and pymary. Class?

Floating on a bunch of dirt is one of Duane's favorite tricks, isn't it.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:21:42 -0500

No one ever seems to expect sky dirt.

Thanks for the great response; I'll definitely keep the portfolio and ass-kicking in mind :D

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:45:19 -0500

Godspeed, padawan.

"Oh, I already have kids! They just-- only exist in two dimensions." ...Care to explain?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:31:42 -0500

I was talking about my gimptarded webcomic children :3

How did art magnet school prepare you for college? I ask because I'd like to go to art college, but my academics-heavy school only offers art senior year and I'm mostly self-taught. What should I hurry up and teach myself?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:31:18 -0500

Art magnet school... was a little too fine art oriented to be very useful for me. I was an illustration major in college so all the arc welding and styrofoam sculpting and experimental darkroom photography - while interesting to a sixteen year old - was ultimately pretty irrelevant to earning an Illustration degree. At this point the best you can do is find what schools you're interested in, look at their portfolio requirements online, and start getting together a great portfolio. Art colleges require you submit a portfolio of specific stuff.

Anyway, I can't recommend art college unless you already kick enormous amounts of art ass. They'll let you in and happily take your money, but after graduation there just aren't any jobs anymore for mediocre artists and you will despise yourself if you graduate with 100k+ of loan debt. If you do go into art college though, strive to be the best in the class, and that'll be easier if you already are awesome.

two dimensional kids? You SAT on your KIDS and flattened them?! D:

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:46:40 -0500

They are as paste.

creepily and sadly stalks your adorable 2d kids /starfish

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:46:26 -0500

Noooo, Starfish, stop thinking of the children.

If you're never likely to print Unsounded, how do we throw money at you and satisfy our cravings for comic-related material goods?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:46:05 -0500

Can't help you there, mate. Unsounded isn't good enough to go to print. Go donate to charity!

So what caste was Duane's teenage dream girl? Or is this all stuff that will come up in the comic later?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:25:54 -0500

The girl was a Silver, moderately attractive, very clever.

Oh, I'm not giving up, you may end up middle-class with in-laws yet, Glass! :) What about having a kid? I don't know you obviously, but my bet is you'd be a nutty but awesome mama!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:23:33 -0500

Oh, I already have kids! They just-- only exist in two dimensions.

This is possibly the saddest and creepiest thing I have ever written.

/wrist

I'm very sad that you refused my marriage proposal. I would've become exponentially more awesome by association. But in hindsight, I would hate to give up looking at men's beautiful bums. Even for you. New plan! Screw FL, move to Wisconsin and be besties!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:35:36 -0500

Wisconsin, eh? It's pretty cold up there, sister. And for the record, I would never require that my wife stop looking at beautiful man bums.

How is one's faith determined in Alderode, particularly with regard to the Ssaelit? Given the way so much of that society is divided, I figured it was likely a community-based thing and not so much active conversion.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:32:26 -0500

Quite so. You generally take the faith of the family you're born into. The Ssaelit do not actively convert - it's even in their scriptures not to do so - but there is some corruption in the temple that's seen them doing a lot of repression and violence against the Mmatont and their religions in the past few decades. The Gefendur are very bloody in their need to secure faithful follows for the Twins - it's one reason there's almost no Ssaelit population outside of Alderode - but there aren't very many people left for the Gefendur to convert these days. Their largest current crusade concerns the Black Tongues, who put their scholarship above their religion, making them heretics in the eyes of the church.

"I could never marry. Would you really want to be married to anyone?" I agree completely with everything in this rant.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:27:35 -0500

Word.

I'd like to be married, just not to a dickhead. Most girls want a guy who isn't aloof and who does get in their business and sleeps in their bed. I think most guys just want to have lots of sex. I dunno, it sounds like you'd be many a dude's dream-girl!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:27:27 -0500

Marriage is good for financial reasons I suppose, and kids do better if their parents are married and together, but I see few other benefits. I dunno. I'm content to die poor and alone :) It's the artist's way!

What's something you've always wanted to do, but haven't yet done? Bonus points if it's something you're likely to be terrible at. For me, it's horseback riding.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:06:28 -0500

I went horseback riding once. It's very hard on your butt.

Let's see, what would I like to do... I would like to learn to sail a small craft single-handedly. I think that would be brilliant.

RE: Grandpappy dueling - related to the expulsion scandal? And is tacit casting genetic? And, given tacit casting is apparently a pretty big deal, was Duane's grandfather a pretty big deal?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:04:39 -0500

Haha, so many questions. I should have said it was a -friendly- duel between Duane and his grandpa, they were great buds. And yes, tacit-casting does tend to be genetic though it's not a guarantee. It may have been in the Adelier family for ages but they were artists and craftspeople for many generations and so if there was tacit casting in the gene pool no one figured it out until Duane's grandpa went into pymary. He wasn't that big a deal, no. He didn't have the head or the speed for the good stuff, and just wound up working as a border agent for the government, casting quiet surveillance against Cresce. He's dead now, alas.

I liked the slant too. I've tried to read actual sideways double pages and that's just terrible, but I have a tiny screen so regular double pages require shifting back and forth and I can't see the whole thing. The slant avoided both problems.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:00:04 -0500

*nod* Good to know. I imagine reading the comic on an ipad or smartphone would also alleviate the tilt issue.

You create beautiful things and make witty and brillant responses. Your comic is my favorite thing in the vast void of the internet. I-I-I love you. I want to be you. Marry me? If no, then sis-fist?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:59:35 -0500

I could never marry. Would you really want to be married to anyone? They want to be around you all the time and get up in your business and sleep in your bed? Ugh. I like having my own bed and my own stuff and my own free time. I fear relationships and particularly marriage are not my cup of tea. But sis-fists sis-fists sis-fists for everyone!

Also, I followed your vegetable advice. I had carrots. Later when I went to eat more carrots, they were covered in clear slime. It coated my fingers in sticky goo. Why? Why are my carrots slimy? I-I-I don't understand.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:57:12 -0500

Yeah, baby carrots tend to do that :( I think it's like the first stage of decomposition. If they're not soft yet you can just rinse them off and eat away, but the slime thing is one reason I just started buying regular unpeeled carrots. These are also better for doing a Bugs Bunny impression in front of a mirror. Now you know.

I refuse to believe Quigley hates Matty. He uses story voices. That is love. Theory: Quigley doesn't teach Matty pyramy because the relationship to the dhammakhert helps shorten Plats’ lives. Separating him from Alderode and not teaching him is also love?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:55:05 -0500

Good theories, good theories.

What's your opinion on piracy?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:54:52 -0500

Good for sampling and sharing with your friends, buy it if you like it afterwards.

So is Duane's... erm... rule-breaking what Sette was referring to with the whole 'manly passions' thing?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:54:24 -0500

Ahh, no.

Ch 6 is sounding like it's got a Quigley-heavy storyline. Is the new cast you mentioned going to be introduced as part of a flashback of some sort, or will it be current-time?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:54:11 -0500

It's current time. Chapter 6 isn't necessarily a Quigley-fest but it does have a few new characters (in Ethelmik). There's rather a lot of new information revealed in chapter 6. It's talky, and then ends with a brawl and a bodycount. I'm on page 41 and I like it so far.

On the subject of twins I have a theory. Would they be taken from their family and raised by a temple? And then the eldest is prepared for a religious life while the youngest is taught the meaning of sacrifice and prepared to be offered to the twins? y/n?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:51:07 -0500

Youuuuu.

Has Duane ever dueled another tacit caster?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:50:21 -0500

Yep. His grandfather.

If woman are discouraged from becoming wrights, what was a girl doing at an Aldish academy?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:49:52 -0500

Just because it's discouraged doesn't mean it never happens.

just got sunday confused with monday... was waiting for you to update for a whole hour before I realized... i should probably find something else to occupy my time, shouldn't i?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:16:25 -0500

Read a book! Expand your mind.

Did you have a nice night out?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:15:23 -0500

Always.

Dude, I don't know what's up with all the people hating on the slant in the double-page spread, but I think it looks awesome. They can bitch about it being disorienting all they want- it's called an action scene.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:15:03 -0500

Well, they might have a point. If it was in print they could tilt the physical book, but having to tilt your head to read the text on a screen is probably annoying. I wouldn't have changed it all the same. I like to try different stuff. I'm glad it doesn't bug you :)

Re: being the best, I am currently making a wire model skeleton with articulating radius and ulna. I actually think something is wrong with me. But wait - obsessive studying, being the poor kid at school... Aha! You are Duane. I have cracked the mystery!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:13:13 -0500

They say you should put a little of yourself into all your characters :3

Your model sounds boss. If you have a dA, I wouldn't object to a link.

Duane didn't mess up any of the fine Aldish coats, did he?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:56:33 -0500

They wear a lot of fur in Alderode. It must've been like having sex in the Pevensies' wardrobe.

OH MY GOD, THE GIRL IN QUESTION WAS MATTY'S MOM WASN'T IT?!?!? WHAT A TWEEEEEEST

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:55:09 -0500

Let's see, Matty's mother was *math math math* three years old when this happened. So no.

Oh, phew. If you had gone to Booker High I would have freaked out intensely. Ringling is great. Traditional animation is... brutal. But I love it. The rich thing is my only gripe. Have you ever been to New College? I hear they have a FREE FOOD TABLE. ;_;

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:52:22 -0500

Go snag some food, man! :D

Yeah, I really hated my rich classmates. Most of them were such spoiled assholes and were really only there because they couldn't think of anything else to do after high school. It was especially bad the first year when I swear half the freshman class were only enrolled on a whim, burning through mom and dad's money and then dropping out when shit got too hard. My freshman roommate was like that.

Traditional animation, eh? My admiration! I know it's difficult but try to shake off the anti-socialness. You're going to need to network hardcore when you graduate and the friendlier you are with your classmates the better. Also - work harder than the professors require. In my experience, most of the professors were pushovers, so try to always go above and beyond and please yourself first. Don't even worry about the grade; worry about blowing everyone the hell away during critique. Be the BEST and settle for nothing less! Compete with your classmates, even if it's only in your head.

Could it be that there is some aspect of Aldish society-the division of the castes--that Duane disagrees with? Or did he think he deserved to be punished? Or was he embarrassed because the coat closet is a stupid place to get caught?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:43:02 -0500

He thought they should both be punished or they should both be pardoned. But putting it all on her? Fuck that unfairness.

Also the coat closet was very embarrassing, yes :(

Hi, a few months ago you gave me some really nice words about starting Ringling. Incidentally, I too am poor, work-obsessed and antisocial. If it's not too personal, what art magnet school did you go to? 'Cause I'm getting this creepy feeling...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:37:17 -0500

I attended PCCA. How is Ringling working out? Foundation year is fun, lots of naked people. I was in Sarasota a few weeks ago, it's crazy how much it's all been built up since I went to school there.

Damn, that's harsh...I can see why Duane would want to stand up for her (though it's notable that Duane's expressed views on gender roles kinda align with the authorities'). This isn't a question...uh...was Duane's girlfriend third-optioned?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:17:48 -0500

The problem with the "gender views" expressed by Duane in the formspring is no one was asking the right questions. But let's not open that horrid can of worms again. I am going out on the town now. Go do something fun, formspring, it's Saturday night!

HAHAHAHAHA! Now that you've let out the secret, I'll take my cookie back! O<('_'<) JUST AS PLANNED

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:15:51 -0500

Your cruelty is unbounded T__T Actually, it is okay. I made pumpkin ravioli tonight and I am quite stuffed.

Did Duane break the rule because he was deeply in love or really, really drunk?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:02:29 -0500

No, he really loved her. Well, teenage love. Ya know how that is.

I have to say, I pictured Duane gathering some of his bros and skipping out on his duties to go rescue a kussen child or a two-toe or some other "undesirable", so finding out his big secret was dipping his wick in the wrong candle is a bit of a letdown.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:01:53 -0500

No one is perfect, darling. If it's any consolation, he could have let the girl take all the blame and then kept on in school with no harm done to his name or his future. Instead he pissed off everyone who was encouraging him to put the tryst behind him, and quit school entirely to go and punish himself in the army. Everyone makes mistakes - owning up to them afterwards is what's important.

Oh my god I totally guessed that, down to the coat closet! Well, not the different caste thing. Which is obviously the most important part. But still! Wait, how'd they try to pin that on her?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:53:59 -0500

She seduced him, of course. The dirty tramp. This is why women shouldn't leave the home.

Was that girl just Bastion in a wig?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:03:26 -0500

Write me this fanfic too. In my mind it plays out like that scene from Rocky Horror Picture Show with Frank and Brad.

Quigley fired a shot that was difficult to draw! He is a bit of a dick.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:55:50 -0500

Amen!

The cookies are all homemade pumpkin spice WITH cinnamon frosting that's slightly melty because the cookies are still warm from the oven. Can you dish on how and when we learn what rule super cutie-pie Duane got himself expelled for breaking?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:55:09 -0500

Well, those cookies sound mighty delicious! I'm in a generous mood. Look away now if you don't want to be spoiled... Duane made whoopie in a coat closet with a girl of a different caste.

Were you hoping for something more classy? Are your illusions shattered?

Was the rule not making out with other boys?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:54:09 -0500

Write me this fanfic.

Duane fired the first killing shot! He is a bit of a dick.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:12:37 -0500

No, I just can't draw. He caught Quigley's shot and flung it back at him.

If I give you another cookie, will you tell me? I promise to keep it a secret. (>'_')>O

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:11:38 -0500

Is it a Milano? :3

Staying up all night studying, standing up for others as a kid? So Duane basically doesn't have a crooked bone in his body? It makes him more lovable, but I can see why Sette's able to run circles around the poor guy.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:11:17 -0500

The problem with Duane is he's a little too blind in his rule-following. He doesn't question the lawmakers.

The double page was too awesome. I can't wait until Monday! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:09:57 -0500

You will put that table back where you found it, sir!

Did you enjoy going to a magnet art school? I recently met up with a fellow art college classmate I hadn't seen in months, and wow, the arrogance, astounding. Seems like I get on less and less with art mates. Do you keep in touch with your classmates?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:09:31 -0500

I went to an art magnet high school, and yeah, it was pretty nice. Florida public schools don't get a lot of money generally so I was lucky to qualify for a school that was slightly less scary than many of the others. There wasn't much hubris back then - it was high school and we all sucked.

I went to an art college after high school and that was when the hardcore arrogance kicked in. All the majors hated the other majors and within the majors there was a lot of elitism. It didn't really have much to do with the fact it was an art college though, it was more to do with it being a very expensive private college. I was kind of a poorfag and though I think my art was as good as anyone else's I just could never get into the Illustration major inner circle. Or maybe I was just a spazzy and unlikable 'tard, I dunno :D

Anyway, I keep in touch with a few people still but I've been out've there almost a decade, so relations have cooled a fair bit.

I don't get on with artists either though, I feel ya there. The best of them are shy and boring and more concerned with their work (this is probably me), and the worst are arrogant douchebags. I really like being friends with writers though. You get all the creativity and none of the complexes... usually :)

Wut? You just... you just told us why Duane suddenly joined the army? You've been teasing us for MONTHS with that one! :) You are very nice. Have a cookie. (>'_')>O

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:16:12 -0500

I didn't tell you exactly why! I didn't tell you WHAT rule he broke :3

Whenever I get horribly jealous of people living in my ideal environments, like Florida, I console myself by remembering you check your shower for roaches before you get in, too, except your roaches are probably way bigger than mine.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:15:24 -0500

The people around here call the roaches "water bugs" as if that somehow will stop them from being roaches. But no. They are roaches. They are roaches big as my hand. Kafka didn't know shit 'bout these roaches.

In the second BEE attack, what spell is Quigley flinging at Duane that Duane is able to just crush bare-handed? It has to be some kind of tacile aspect, but would it be worth it to fling something so weak you can just squish it?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:13:41 -0500

Touchable summoned bugs without a pymaric? It's pretty impressive pymary. It's also illegal. Quigley was just showing Mr. Blowhard McHood what he could do. But Duane weren't even mad.

If you were born with three balls, do you have to give up all three when you join the Black Tongues, or can you give them two and keep the spare?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:11:35 -0500

All three, buddy. Cough 'em up.

Is it best to have a logical realistic explanation for everything out of the ordinary in a story? Say ... a girl who can make her hair grow and shrink and move it about? Or can you just leave it as a cool random thing?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:11:11 -0500

Depends on your world. Are you writing X-men? Harry Potter? Don't worry about explanations, no one's going to raise a fuss. Does your story take place in Small Town, Massachusetts, in a relatively normal world? People might want to know why the character has freak hair.

I dunno, man. Your adherence to the page/double-page spread format makes me feel like there's a print version of this comic pulsing underneath. I still think it would be dope, regardless, if it ever comes to be!

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:09:16 -0500

lol

dope

I predict that Bett will show up out of nowhere and save Quigley. Then he will unleash his true ultimate power, and the chapter will end on a cliffhanger.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:09:02 -0500

If I were a Black Tongue, I'd go around with a bag of black licorice so that nobody would suspect my Black Tongue-y ways. >:D Although I'd sure miss my balls. {:o

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:08:06 -0500

Stuff some hacky-sacks down there, you'd be fine. Man up!

On the subject of Stereotypes, with hair color stereotypes in Alderode, what is the stereotype for being hairless?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:07:31 -0500

Slaves are hairless! They shave 'em when they're expelled from their caste.

"there is Truth in them, but only children would take them literally." Oh, haven't people believed in stranger things in religion? I mean, just take a look at Noah's Ark! Or Jonah and the whale!

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:06:58 -0500

Oh, I was speaking from the point of view of a Kasslynian, not as myself. I know people will believe in damn near anything. People are creepy like that.

Duane: condescending and would try to eat you. Murkoph: would try to eat you. Sette: would steal your stuff. Starfish: would try to molest you. Bastion: just condescending. I guess Bastion would be the coolest character to hang with, relatively speaking.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:06:03 -0500

I think Bastion would be the most receptive to video games as well :3

I get the feeling Quigley is eager to prove he can beat a tacit caster in a duel.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:05:33 -0500

It'd certainly look good on his resume.

Was Duane a big stickler for the rules in school as well? Or did that uptightness come later in life?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:04:59 -0500

Duane's always relied on the sanity of organised regulation - both secular and ecclesiastical - to make sense of the chaos of life. Even when he was a kid, he was the one who stayed at his desk studying all night, and who turned in cheaters, and who stood up for students he felt weren't getting their fair shot. When he did break the rules once in school he was such a superstar that the authorities didn't want him to take the heat and be expelled, so they tried to put the whole of the blame on the collaborating party, but Duane wouldn't have it - he expelled himself, ended his education early, and joined the army. That's the kind've nerd he is.

What are the courts like in Kassylne? When a criminal is apprehended, do they get a fair trial or do they just get executed? What are punishments like?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:00:43 -0500

Depends where you are, who you are, and what mood the authorities are in that day. Subject's a bit broad for one question, pick a country :)

The comic's called Unsounded because of Duane's tacit casting, isn't it? The jig is up!

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:57:59 -0500

Just a happy coincidence :)

Is Matty's mother important? :)

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:57:48 -0500

Matty would say so.

The remaining survivors and I were attacked by zombies earlier this evening and I thought of Unsounded. Your webcomic's the best! (Maybe you could send us some reinforcements as a vote incentive?)

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:57:42 -0500

I'm going to try and draw a vote incentive tomorrow, but I have a few jobs that need doing, so we'll see. Barricade the doors!

I believe you mentioned that you're thinking there will be three books, and that book one is basically scripted. Does that mean twelve chapters for book one and thirty-sixish total? Maybe since it's still so formative you don't want to get too specific.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:57:05 -0500

Probably a good idea. The story's so damn long there's a lot of room for editing, still.

Stumbled onto this today: www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb Google infers your gender and age from the sites you visit. Google thinks I am a man (incorrect). It also knows where I live. What does it say about you?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:37:24 -0500

Yep, it thinks I'm an 18-24 year old guy. Awesome. Where do girls go on the internet, anyway? Kitchen.com?

So a video game about a gingerbread Bastion would be, like, the coolest thing ever?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:56:49 -0500

Not quite. Playing Bioshock:Infinite with Bastion while eating a Hawaiian pizza would be the coolest thing ever.

What are the other two?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:48:27 -0500

Video games and food :3

I see Quigly is casting green with one hand and blue with the other. Is the color of pymary related to the aspect drawn?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:48:19 -0500

Sometimes, or it's the caster's preference. Colour's overall not terribly important outside of keeping lines of transit organised.

So when one duelist is holding or manipulating the other person's favored color, that probably means they're capturing that bit of pymary for their own use? Like Duane returns the blue slicey stuff, and Quigley holds the green in the tree to move it.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:47:30 -0500

It could mean that, sure! Although in the case of that panel, Quigley is castin' like the wind and just using default colour schemes - most Aspects have a default colour - so there's no real significance.

DAT DOUBLE PAGE. That is all.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:45:30 -0500

Will it ever be explained what happened with Wrath of Dog?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:45:21 -0500

Yep!

What size are your pages? A4? 8x11? Also, fantastic job on the two-page spread! I wasn't expecting that layout at all! Unsounded is my go-to for AWESOME.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:45:11 -0500

Haha, the layout is getting some mixed reactions, that's always fun. My page files are 2400x3600, with today's page being twice that horizontally.

How many chapters to plan to have for Unsounded total? I know one webcomic that's planning on having 40 chapters or something. That's crazy. :0

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:44:10 -0500

I dunno the chapter count yet. While I have like, twelve chapters actually scripted right now, the rest of the story is so far just in summary form. Forty chapters doesn't sound very long though, unless each chapter is a few hundred pages >_>

Are there any atheists, or is that not a cultural thing?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:42:29 -0500

They call themselves secularists and yes, they're a thing.

So basically, both Gefendur and Ssaelit would gang up and kill the Unsounded Galileo. But what would the mob do with the body?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:49:19 -0500

Well, no, they wouldn't. Both the Ssaelit and the Gefendur use these myths and ideas as metaphors to understand their world, but for the most part they don't take them literally. Ssael and the Twins passed these explanations to humanity in terms that humans could understand, and there is Truth in them, but only children would take them literally.

So Galileo would be pretty lauded. Pymary and the mysteries of the khert just tend to pull Great Minds inwards instead of out towards the heavens.

So if Ssael killed the gods, what kind of cosmology does the Ssaelit have? If Fat Yerta is dead, the world can't still be floating around in her womb, can it?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:16:54 -0500

Ssael cut the world out of her stomach and hid it from her demons in a silver forest (the branches of which poke through the membrane of heaven and are the stars at night.

Next page: "And then Duane was crushed by the tree, and the bad guys won forever. The End."

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:11:09 -0500

Nu :(

Just wanna say, fantastic work. By far the best webcomic I've read! EVER!

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:10:59 -0500

Thanks, man :)

If in Ssaelit faith, the gods were killed, what god is Duane referring to? Did the guy who killed them become a god himself?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:44:01 -0500

Yep. The One God Ssael.

... can Duane die? I mean, he's obviously died already, and been reanimated, and since he's a conscious galit, he holds the spells that keep him together. If he lets those spells goes, I suppose he'll fall to pieces, but what of his consciousness? Soul?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:50:00 -0500

If that tree crushes him we'll find out :)

Anon who was excited for the new page here: now I've seen it and it was everything I dreamed of. Was Duane really aiming to slice Quigley in half there? (Also, Duane without his cloak looks much more frail D:)

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:29:34 -0500

Duane really needs the cloak to hide how skinny he is D: And Duane only went slicey-dicey because Quigley did. He caught what Quigley threw and lobbed it back at him. Now that I'm looking at it that probably does not read at all. I'ma go back and put a little *catch!* sfx in that panel.

How do wrights' duels normally end? I hope this isn't too spoilery (or redundant given tonight's post, can't tell yet), but is there a point where dueling etiquette would call for Duane to concede even if he wasn't in danger of losing his existence?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:23:35 -0500

The duel is supposed to end when one wright demands the other "Take stance!" and the other wright can't do it, for whatever reason. Taking stance is the silly little hands together like they're holding a fake gun pose. If the other wright is too exhausted, unconscious, dead or has perhaps had his hands chopped off and so can't assume the stance, the other wright claims victory. Either wright can demand the other take stance at any time.

Can I just say that I love your updating schedule? I can get on at midnight and expect to see new pages right away. It's like a breath of fresh air compared to those other comics that make you wait all day.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:12:38 -0500

Haha, thanks. It could be because I have absolutely no life and am here at my computer every night at midnight to dutifully update. Imagine how wonderful the world would be if all webcomic artists were deskbound shut-ins...

I have seen mention of characters named Murkoph and Bastion. Who are they and where might I find out more on them?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:56:10 -0500

Oh, there are things scattered around dA and my website, but much of it is of dubious canonical value and has more to do with those two as they were in RP. One day you will meet Murkoph in the comic, and Bastion was Lord Winalils from the beginning of chapter 4, and will play a bigger part later.

If I were Aldish, I'd get three buddies and walk along the Crescian border while wearing tunics labeled "1", "2" and "4". The CRPG would spend all day looking for the Aldishman in the "3" tunic. >:D

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:54:37 -0500

Why do you want to make the CRPG crazy, anon?

If I were Aldish I'd cross into Cresce while wearing a wig underneath a glamour. Then I'd dispel the glamour at the checkpoint and they'd never think to check for the wig. >:D

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:53:58 -0500

This is clever! And it would work pretty well if you were Bronze or Gold; the other castes are freaky looking, hair aside. I mean, look at Matty and Quigley's weird pinky/lavender eyes. Freaks.

OMG I'm so excited for the Friday page now.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:13:11 -0500

Don't say that! D: Now I am terrified it will disappoint you and and and and

*breathes into a bag*

Do the Lords Winalils get on?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:12:13 -0500

Bastion is one of my three favourite things to talk about, but I feel I should stay mum on his particulars for now. My apologies.

I'm a little confused as to what happens to the objects/creatures whose aspects are 'stolen' I get taking the edge off a sword makes it dull, and stealing the dog's voice makes it mute, but what happens if you steal size? What about taking 'liquid?'

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:50:52 -0500

You'll see what generally happens to objects when Aspects are drawn in haste on tonight's pages.

Can you join the Black Tongues if you have a kid/kids?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:50:44 -0500

Sure!

Are they far enough from Mulimar that their duel isn't going to affect/be affected by the damage Sette did to the khert? I got the impression from the townspeople's reactions that using pyramy in the area was dangerous...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:32:19 -0500

Back in the city, sure, but they're well away from it. Maybe the khert damage will be an issue later though :)

Duane must be familiar with the khert-viewing properties of Quigley's glasses - why isn't his first assault aiming to shatter the glass in them? Seems like it'd be an insta-win, since Quigley then couldn't see the khert (or be able to aim for shit).

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:28:16 -0500

You will find out on tonight's page.

But if Sette socked Matty, he'd start crying, melting all hearts in a 200 mile radius. Oh, and Ephsephin is right there to restart the curbstomp again.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:34:40 -0500

True. Quigley's winning this poll - http://w11.zetaboards.com/unsoundedforum/topic/7597229/1/#new - I am amused.

That's probably a good idea. I tried it over winter break. It's a good thing my school laptop won't run it, otherwise nothing would get done. -Sigh-

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:34:14 -0500

Stay strong.

How fast can wrights speak? The incantations seem pretty long, but Quigs was just able to summon that barrier in the span of a second or two.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:33:44 -0500

The best of them talk pretty damn fast. I like the idea that there's a technique of half-singing the spells, like some kind of melodic auctioneer, so you can rattle off long lines of Old Tainish in a comprehensible manner.

Is there a place you would rather live?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:29:10 -0500

I think I'd like to try out Seattle or Portland before I die.

Is Bastion in charge of Winalils?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:28:26 -0500

No, but his father is.

Unsounded is secretly about Ephsephin, isn't it. It's going to be all about his journey to redemption, atoning for his past and becoming a better human being, all inspired by a cute little Plat kid.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:17:28 -0500

What a tweest!

Were those hair color stereotypes from before from Alderode, or from elsewhere?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:17:01 -0500

Alderode. Outside of Alderode, people are more likely to stereotype you by what country you're from. Crescians are haughty and bossy and think they know what's best for everyone. Sharteshanians are ignorant criminals. Ulestrians are milquetoast Scripture-thumpers, etc.

Have to ask: Skyrim?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:04:54 -0500

Haven't played it and probably won't. I WANT to, but I just can't justify blowing all that time on one game, ya know? Self-control, gotta have it.

Have you ever heard the song Sleepwalker? I was just listening to it and it made me think of Duane. (It's by the Adam Lambert.)

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:01:33 -0500

Just listened to it. It's kind of a lost love/breakup song so it doesn't scream Duane! to me, but it's a cool song on its own. Ya know what I think is a good angsty song for Duane? Coldplay's Amsterdam. It's a little heavy on the BAAAAW though.

"Blackhaired people are snobs"... so, accurate in the case of Bastion. Or is he playing to the stereotype? But he wouldn't need to do that before Sharteshanians like the frummagems so I'm guessing not.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:53:21 -0500

Quite so. Bastion lends some credence to the stereotype. Of course, he comes from a family with more money than God so he was going to be a snob no matter what caste he was born into.

how are you so awesome?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:50:51 -0500

I am not. You are merely blinded by my impeccable taste in music and video games.

Sigh... brunettes get shafted even in fantasy...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:49:23 -0500

I'm blonde D: They think I'm a shifty criminal.

In the "real world", there are certain stereotypes associated with hair color (red = bad temper, blonde = fun, etc). I imagine this is doubly so for the Aldish. What are the stereotypes associated with the different castes?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:20:48 -0500

Blondes are shifty and not to be trusted. Brunettes are coarse, brutish, and not terribly bright. Redheads are wise. White- and silver-heads are childish and harmless. Blackhaired people are snobs.

what kind of khert is within Uaid? Is it the Dhammakhert or a different kind of khert? What "citizenship" would a kid conceived inside Uaid have?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:27:07 -0500

Well, that's an interesting question and something I've never thought about. Wow. Well, Uaid definitely wouldn't have the Dammakhert inside of him, his khert has come about largely because of what he's made out of, since the earth is the originator of khert networks. But ya know... I think if two people made whoopie inside of Uaid... I think that kid would be a citizen of Uaid o_o Wow...

What's your favorite breed of dog?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:23:36 -0500

I like a good mutt, enormous, short-haired, who wants to knock you down and lick your face and destroy tennis balls. I like Marmaduke.

Plus Matty and Ephsephin are hat bros.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:22:11 -0500

Word.

It's sort of funny how for just that one page, Ephsephin looks like a decent human being.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:22:03 -0500

It may happen again.

I figure Ephsephin is fond of kinds but is bright enough (and cold-hearted enough) to not mix personal feelings in with business.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:21:44 -0500

Could be, could be. Or maybe he just hates girls.

How often does Starfish get jonesing for more kidrapes? Given how he uses up his stock, he must go into widthdrawal fairly often, poor dear.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:21:21 -0500

He'll buy a whore in a pinch.

"If I were Aldish, I'd go down to Ulestry and make faces at the CRPG." ...This should be a vote incentive. That would be so hilarious.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:21:02 -0500

Oh geeze, I'm so excited tomorrow's update day I've got chills. XD If the khert is essentially a computer system, I wonder what equates to a virus, or was Sette and Boo's failed gossamer snare pretty much just that?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:20:14 -0500

Oh, I wouldn't call the bad gossamer trap a virus, that was just an atrociously composed line of code that froze the OS. A virus would be something like the stricks plague in Fachlyne that killed Cara's parents.

Gruftgrammars still have to follow the language rules of Old Tainish, right? So a competent wright should be able to pick up on gruftgrammar's casting commands and dispell his advantage, provided the battle lasts long enough for him to figure it out.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:18:21 -0500

This is good thinking but gruftgrammars have access to more complicated tools than that. One of pymary and the khert's more useful abilities is the ability to have lengthy spellwork "burned" into them, like a program function. This is how most legal pymary works - Composers compose amazing, complex spells that you can then call forth with just their name and the plugging in of the proper variables. Gruftgramary can do the same thing only since they have no transparency and ease-of-use standards to meet, they can have abstruse names and use strange variables, and you could hear these things and have absolutely no idea what kind of spell they're going to conjure forth. This makes them of course absolutely unfair in a duel, but so is tacit casting, I and Quigley would argue.

You're kind of right though. If they fought for long enough and Quigley started using the same spells, Duane would clue in to what they are and be able to respond more appropriately. But then one has to wonder if Quigley would be silly enough to keep using the same attacks. Maybe, maybe, but he might very well run short of the required Aspects.

...wouldn't pymary be great in a video game? I insist it would be.

I can see how people would think Quig the Plat has a chance against Duane the Undead. But Duane also has backup--Sette maybe can't fight, but she's clearly a master of demoralizing trash-talk. Does Matty even know what an insult is?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:12:27 -0500

Who says Sette can't fight? Just give her an opponent of the proper size. Sette could sock Matty in the jaw to distract Quigley quite efficiently without wasting air on insults :)

Does anyone other than Plats "use" the services provided by the young Plats in the sex trade? Wouldn't that be weird, since there's no contraceptive and interbreeding is so sacrilegious?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:09:54 -0500

Indeed! The human race went thousands of years with no real contraceptives, and prostitutes still managed to ply their trade. Plats are popular whores among all the castes, and the best of them in Winalils (kind of an Aldish Las Vegas, full of world class whores and gambling and opium dens) are quite wealthy. You know how women handled unwanted pregnancies throughout most of history? You probably do.

Vote incentive idea! Show Matty hugging Quigs after getting his birthday hat! Hearts shall be melted.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:07:28 -0500

Waaaai!

I'm English, and am deriving an illicit pleasure in associating Aldish with English. The empire building, the reputation for being pompous wordy wankers, the obsession with caste, I mean class...these seem like very English traits to me. Any connection?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:07:21 -0500

A bit :) It has a great navy too. I'd say it's also easy to see a lot of America in Alderode though, from its xenophobia to its religiosity and murderous hostility towards secularism and social justice, to its warmongering (not really empire building though, this is a Crescian fear), to its... something else. I think this will become apparent once we learn even more about it but! I'm not trying to preach or anything. Just taking pieces of things I consider interesting.

How do you deal with cold weather? It's going to be as cold as -30C (-22F?) next week where I live D:

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:59:46 -0500

Oh, I live in Florida. It's 80F today. I don't know what cold weather is :) Bundle up!

Has there been any attempt to put together a a compiler for the khert? A pymaric that takes instructions in the pig-tongue of Cresce, f'rinstance. and renders them into the appropriate Old Tainish? Or is that some kind of social faux pas?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:59:14 -0500

The Black Tongues have something like this; a proprietary layer of spellwork than can parse unconventional commands into the appropriate Old Tainish and then pass it through. They're real skittish about letting it get out though. Even they feel there needs to be a level of obfuscation and effort between intent and action, for the good of all. Pymary is too dangerous to make it too easy.

Is it possible to "crash" the world, as you suggested in your description of developing pymary?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:56:25 -0500

To a limited degree, yeah. This is essentially what happened over in Mulimar with their khert.

At the last question, I wondered that too until I kind of realized he abducts little children and then gives them to Starfish and then they get their guts taken from them. D: Maybe he's fond of children, regrets his job and hangs with Matty as...penance?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:19:45 -0500

Nah, I don't think he's that deep. Matty's just fun to be around ;)

What advice would you give to writers/artists trying to create magic systems like pymary?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:19:11 -0500

Hmmmm. Well, if you're really serious I think the first thing to do is throw out the idea of "magic." If magic exists in a world it's not magic; it's simply an effect of that world's unique properties. That's the funny thing about "magic": the minute you bring it into existence and assign rules to it, it's not magic anymore. It's just a force of nature that our world doesn't have.

So you can't just look at making a magic system, you have to look at the world it exists in. What is so different about that world that it would support this entirely new way to do things?

I mean, that's how I would start, anyway.

For me, pymary kind of stemmed from thinking about reality as though it were a running computer program. What if you could pull up a console window and start changing variables? Putting something over there somewhere else? But doing so in such a way that you wouldn't "crash" the world? Now run all that through the filter of a world without computers, with a limited tech level, that's very religious. Now make it commonplace because why not? It's a facet of the world and anyone should have access to it - the only forces stopping them are entirely manmade.

So maybe look at a concept that interests you and figure out a way to develop that into a system. You could make football into a "magic" system, or easily create patron gods who grant special powers to people (a little cheap, but that's okay, and there are lots of precedents). You could have a world with no intangible powers, only potionry, or maybe a natural compound that breaks down reality, or if it's a comic, make Art into magic! A Reality Paintbrush! I've seen this done in cartoons I think, but never in a serious fantasy story. The possibilities are endless D:

Does Ephsephin have a fondness for children (not like that, you perverts)? I was just rereading and I realized that he offered to take Matty into town for basically no reason.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:19:30 -0500

I would say so. Eph's been on the road or stuck in a crypt for months, the opportunity to go into town for lunch with a cute kid was appealing. Matty's got a winning personality and babbles on pleasantly. Even assholes get lonely and bored sometimes.

I imagine Duane's wrightfriends taking him to a tentacle brothel to unwind one day, as a kind of joke. It is an image that makes me smile.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:18:02 -0500

Haha, maybe not a tentacle brothel, but a regular brothel sure :D Cute idea.

Is "Rue Sparrowhawk" by any chance an Earthsea reference?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:27:04 -0500

Me: Ho-hum, writing the script. Oi, brain, I need a generic heroic name.
Brain: Rue Sparrowhawk!
Me: Okay, then!

I don't know much about Earthsea but I saw bits of the Ghibli movie a while ago. Did my brain get it from there? Mebbe. It ain't talkin'.

I hope this isn't a stupid question, but I may as well ask: I noticed that Quigley has the same eye color as Matty (as well as also being a 'Plat') - does this mean that he's blind too, like his son, or what?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:25:09 -0500

Is Quigley blind? No. All Plats have that colouration, it's how they're distinguishable as Plats (which is short for Platinum). Think of them as a race of people.

I bet Quigley wins, Sette's nabbed, and Duane mounts a rescue. Perhaps he'll come crashing through a skylight. Or maybe he'll burst out of the villans' celebratory cake. Then he can not only kill them, but get gross zombie juices all over their food.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:50:57 -0500

Eww, but then he'd get cake all over himself, and you can't just toss a zombie in the wash, they have to be dry-cleaned.

"I still feel bad for Eph and Quigs when Duane is about to do them in." You seem so sure that Quigley will lose. >( Which is nowhere near certain. I think this is a pretty even match actually.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:33:52 -0500

*neutral party*

Did Quigs think Matty would like to have a hat, or was he just like "Oh crap, it's that brat's birthday......I guess I should get him a gift..... grumble"?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:33:29 -0500

If you do a time skip, you should do a "Hat Gaiden" in the interim where you detail the whole tragic backstory of Matty's and Ephsephin's hats.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:33:09 -0500

It is possible the birth of Matty's hat will have a flashback. I think it could be cute as the backdrop for some dialog. Ephsephin's hat though, it's just one more brim in the crowd.

Are you aware that 'you killed it' or 'that was sick' can now be considered a complement? Next thing you know, up will mean down, and communication will be impossible! It signals the end of the English language, I tell you! Do you find this distressing?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:32:07 -0500

Nah, I love how fluid language is! These aren't new trends, either. How long have "wicked" and "bad" meant awesome? Actually, I guess bad just means bad again, and badass is the evolved form. Anyway, this all must be hell on English learners :3

Also, you meant "compliment" not "complement." English, bro, it's a sick motherfucker!

I'm calling Uaid the Uaidmobile from here on out.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:32:34 -0500

To the Uaidmobile!

Quigly may not care about fair play...but what's Matty's thoughts on the subject? Would he be disappointed if dear old dad spoiled a wicked-sweet duel by pulling a pymaric?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:32:10 -0500

The sportsman in young Matty would indeed be disappointed. He knows his dad doesn't play by the rules though, he's seen him - don't make me put "seen" in quotes - do some horrible shit.

Despite the fact Duane is good and righteous and his enemies unprincipled and evil, I still feel bad for Eph and Quigs when Duane is about to do them in. I guess I must be prejudiced against the undead. Thank you for alerting me of my vitalist prejudices!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:29:49 -0500

Undead NOT Unperson!

Where did Quigley buy Matty's hat?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:28:42 -0500

A hat shop.

Do you like living in Florida? Dealing with forensic anthropology this semester, and woah. Florida goes through murders like a hamster through sunflower seeds.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:28:21 -0500

I don't know, Florida is a gross place. The cities are concrete jungles and all that ugly new pink architecture. Outside of the cities it's hickvilles and swamps. The beaches are boring and full of fat tourists. The theme parks are impossibly expensive and kind of soul-crushing. The weather is humid and stifling. No, I don't like living in Florida. But whatcha gonna do? At least it's not Somalia.

Is Sette talking about manly passions because she's trying to convince Duane to go to the tentacle brothel???

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:04:15 -0500

Mmmmm.

I'm assuming that all the white lines on the Khert-o-vision are the Pymary on effect, which would be why Duane is so full of them, and Quigley's coat has some. I remember you mentioning the design on it changed. Is that right? No? Close?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:04:10 -0500

Yeah, the design on Quigley's cloak is constantly swirling and changing, like Rorschach's mask in Watchmen. The white lines in the khert are its veins - the whiter they are, the more saturated they are with some Aspect in transit.

Be honest now -- was Quigley at least a little saddened by the thought of Matty not liking the hat he gave him? I'm sure this will prove to be a fatal distraction.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:11:01 -0500

When this is all said and done and Quigley is bleeding to death on the ground, and the violins start up, maybe his last words to Matty will be asking if he really hated the hat... but he'll die before Matty can describe how much he loves it. And Matty will never get over it and he'll become a hat-aholic and camp inside Uaid with his mountains and mountains of hoarded hats.

You've seen Trigun right? Whose your favourite character? Episode?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:07:57 -0500

My favourite character from Trigun... is probably Wolfwood. And my favourite episode is probably the one where he goes to the big confessional in the sky. Although the very first episode is so flippin' funny it may be a close tie. Everything on the sand steamer was great too. Man, except for the shit-tastic animation that was a terrific series.

"Horrible Bitey Beetles" sounds like another good band name. Perhaps they can open for The Six Rings and the Aldish Kings.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:03:53 -0500

Sette used the phrase "Manly Passions" on the page I just finished. That's a good one too.

Yeah! Team Wanker!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:02:42 -0500

Woo!

"The only thing that causes him real pain is a broken bone or joint" But bones themselves don't have any pain receptors. It's all the tissue around the fracture that is damaged and trying to hold shit together that makes them so painful.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:02:38 -0500

And corpses shouldn't be able to lecture you and hit people by thinking real hard at the ground. It's a funny old world.

I like the speech bubbles that are BIG WORD with little tails. Like when Elka stole the dog's voice. Or when Eph screamed. I like Matty's speech bubble quite a bit, too. It's so big and round. Ooooh, I know, I'll ship it with Elka's on 4-63, last panel!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:25:32 -0500

T__T

Wait, wait- I thought Macs were the "it" computer for artist types?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:24:30 -0500

Among silly artists with more money than brains.

To hell with Team Bleached Hair! Go Team Xenophobic Zombie! I know Duane isn't the type usually, but is he feeling just a little bit smug about getting the drop on Quigley? Or is he all business when it comes to duels?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:24:02 -0500

No way, Duane can be a total macho dick (in his own urbane way) during events like this. He's smugging it up, don't worry.

Does... does Quigley accidentally pymary off Matty's... skin? That would be a touching, emotional scene for all involved. >.>

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:23:03 -0500

wut

Has Quigley ever fought/beaten a tacit caster before?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:22:56 -0500

He has never fought one, no. Just heard tales.

That third panel is a bit 'Oh Mister Duane~'

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:22:34 -0500

Poor Quigley. No respect.

Is it okay to just whisper your spells or do you have to speak loud and clear for it to count?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:21:47 -0500

Whispering is by definition unvoiced speech, so it doesn't work. Gotta get them vocal chords a'vibratin'.

Not counting Quigly out yet by any means, but how much of a threat did he really size up Duane as before entering into their little breakdown of diplomacy?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:04:46 -0500

Duane's zealous nationalism means he'll only use Window-approved spells - Quigley's fairly certain of this. This means Quigley will have an advantage if he uses gruftgramary since, even if Duane can hear the spells coming he won't recognise them because they're unique to Quigley. This helps counter the tacit casting somewhat. There's also the possibility of using a pymaric. They're not allowed in duels - it's like bringing a gun to a swordfight - but Quigley doesn't exactly give a flying dick about gentlemanly rules of combat.

So Quigley sized Duane up as a palpable threat, but is still pretty confident that he'll take the fight to places the self-righteous patriot won't go.

I am now starting to see juuuust how horrible it is to fight a tacit caster. It's like playing poker with someone who can see your cards. Come on Quigley! Matty and I have faith in you!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:58:55 -0500

Go Team Bleached Hair Wanker!

If you get turned into a thinking plod like Duane, could you lessen the pain year by removing or at least preserving your flesh as much as possible? It'd probably still hurt but less than rotting, right?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:58:28 -0500

I... honestly have no idea.

If I burn my Mac in a fire lit by an overheated PC fan and throw it in a lake, does that put me back in wedlock candidacy?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:57:03 -0500

Not with that overheated PC fan crack. The affair is over :O

I can't help but notice that Quigly's no longer looking quite so cocky.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:35:52 -0500

Now, now, good guys don't gloat. Aloud. Be a tacit gloater.

I'm on a Mac and torrents never work on it though. :c

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:15:19 -0500

A Mac, eh? We can never be wed.

Wow, I really was out of it to type stomach bed. Sounds like something Murkoph would like, though, omnomnom. That aside, that's for the advice! I have acquired the Sprite and Saltines, and the world is right as it is update night! (Hmm! A rhyme!)

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:14:54 -0500

I hope you feel better, man :) Or that you at least get to puke on someone you dislike.

Were the first plods created in an attempt at restoring true life? What first materials are used to hold the pymary (and where are they on the plod), or do bodies not require first materials for pymary to stick?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:14:26 -0500

I'm certain plods were accidentally discovered while wrights were trying to restore life, that seems a reasonable conclusion.

Remember that you can work pymary upon any object or creature, First Materials or no. All FM allows is for the pymary to remain - for the Aspect change to become permanent - after the wright has dropped the spell. So when a handler stops handling a plod, it stops being a plod and is just a dead body again.

if centralised filesharing is nineties, then what's the thing for this decade?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:38:50 -0500

Torrents, baby.

Mine true identity revealed! Alas, but it is for naught; I yearn to dream in the warm, wet environs. Come, dear Ashley; open wide thine gob and allow me to enter thine splendor! Let me sink into thine gut, so that we may become one!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:10:31 -0500

False fiend! "Thine" is for words that begin with a vowel. "Thy" is for consonants. It's like the a/an distinction. Shakespeare would know better!

Go and find a very plush couch and hose it down with warm water. Snuggle in there, it's like the same thing. I promise!

I wouldn't mind laying in your stomach as my bed, oozings or no.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:01:01 -0500

I was waiting for you, Shakespeare.

So several big filesharing sites (Megaupload, Fileserve, Filesonic) have gone down, SOPA or no. Does this mean that all that protesting was for naught, or is the internet only just begun to wake?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:22:42 -0500

Those big filesharing sites are almost completely full of pirated stuff. They had it coming. I'm not even sure why they existed, centralized file-sharing is so nineties.

So... in another life, was Quigs perhas... a sex toy? Dat scowl. :3

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:21:13 -0500

tsk tsk

What expectations do you have of your niece, if any?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:20:10 -0500

Oh, none really. I just want her to be happy and be a nice person.

Was Matty a super momma's boy? (I bet he was)

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:19:36 -0500

I don't think he was especially. There just wasn't really the option to be a daddy's boy, Quigley was hardly ever around.

So, I just watched Return of the Living Dead for the first time (at 23 - that must be a crime). It made me think. Other than the "hunger pains," is Duane in constant pain from being conscious while essentially dead?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:18:12 -0500

You are only twenty-three? Sweet babby <3 Duane's First Year was the Pain Year. It's locked in a small cupboard at the back of his mind and he doesn't go there. These days the only thing that causes him real pain is a broken bone or joint. His flesh has mostly dessicated into a leathery nonconcern.

I can't decide whether Matty is a bit daft or willfully ignorant. What better way to protect Daddy than to be the innocent, happy child in the midst of . . . this.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:16:06 -0500

Or maybe Matty is just by nature a cheerful soul when life allows him to be. Some kids are rocks, man :)

"He was a cloak with a dark secret. -He- was a cloak that smelled of zombie (and spellery). Is there a place for their love in this darkened world?" ;P (And Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream and probably The Tempest, if I find a production of it, for me)

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:15:06 -0500

So we're slashing the cloaks now. I guess that's a wrap.

*ba dum tish*

This anon is sick with a stomach bed. :( Do you, O Wise Ash, have any advice?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:13:27 -0500

I'm going to assume you meant stomach flu or stomach bug :( Although laying in a gushy stomach bed might be nice for short intervals before its oozings began to eat away at your flesh. But for stomach flu all you can do is Sprite and saltines, my dear. Sprite and saltines.

I imagine Vienne as a bit like the wife from the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. Completely brainwashed and all, "We must have sex" :I "It's our duty to the government. It is our duty, so make sure you don't forget tonight." Or maybe not? Only time will tell!

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:44:01 -0500

Why is your nightstand full of horrible bitey beetles and caterpillers? Oh wait...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:43:03 -0500

What's the most difficult thing you've ever had to explain to your niece and nephew?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:51:08 -0500

Hmm. My nephew Max isn't yet two, so he hasn't presented any challenges in that department yet. Mackenzie is four however and terribly intelligent. I suppose it was difficult explaining why my nightstand drawer is full of horrible bitey beetles and caterpillars and she should never, ever open it. She kept wanting to know how the caterpillars got in there and why I didn't use bug spray.

Does Sette have any molars, or is it canines all the way back?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:47:04 -0500

She's got molars. All normal human teeth, just filed. I usually draw them stylized and all pointy though because Art.

Hm. How old was Vienne when she became Mrs. Quigley? And is it normal for plats to bed first and wed later, or was Matty's birth unusual?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:46:14 -0500

Hmm!

Personally, I am quite fond of Matty's speech bubble.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:46:06 -0500

Thank you, dear.

:D It's a been a year today since I started reading Unsounded (only reason I remember is 'cos ch. 3 started on my birthday x3). So yay! Hoping for many years of good art and storytelling to come. Uncreative, I know, but Hamlet and Othello are my favs.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:46:00 -0500

Haha, that's awesome! Happy anniversary! Does that mean today is your birthday? Happy One Day Closer To Death Day :) I forgot to celebrate the comic's one year anniversary last year, it's some time in July or August. Maybe I'll remember to do something this year.

Oh come one. Who can resist a play which includes the line, "Why, there they are both, baked in that pie; Whereof their mother daintily hath fed."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:44:19 -0500

Shakespeare: the first Vore enthusiast

who is Sette drawing getting stabbed in the vote incentive? Is it Matty or Duane I can't tell whether it's a bad hood or an awesome hat

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:42:14 -0500

It's a bad hood :3 I don't think she'd stab Matty, it would end his usefulness as a punching bag. Duane, on the other hand, can endure almost limitless stabbing and still come back for more. Sure this is why plods were invented.

I started this shipping business on Facebook, mwhahahahahahaha >:3

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:41:20 -0500

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of fandom, I shall fear no shippers.

You calling me a hipster disrupted my spelling abilities. This was rather unforeseen...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:39:39 -0500

How many hipsters does it take to make you start typing entirely in Pig Latin? Hipster hipster hipster hipster hipster

Aha! I knew it! Quigley's discovered the Fountain of Thou Shall Age No Longer!

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:38:57 -0500

Noooot so sure about that :)

What did you think of their incarnation of Moriarty?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:50:22 -0500

It was indeed original! They could have gone with the expected but they really went out on a limb. The guy skated that thin line between irritating and creepy really well. And his death was pretty sudden and grotesque and jarring, I liked that. Ya know, I'm picky and critical about everything, but I thought the entire BBC series was really wonderful: smart, creative, amazingly shot and post-produced, the guys were hot, the women were fun... It's quality stuff. Having to wait until summer of next year for more is agonizing :)

Titus Andronicus is definitely one of my top favourite Shakespeare plays...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:44:50 -0500

Hipster.

Quigley's Cloak has a Dark Secret? Is it that it secretly controls Quigs, forcing him to look urbane and stylish nonstop? Even Duane takes a break from his grandeur to fall over stupidly once in a while.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:30:43 -0500

I think this comic does need more pratfalls, you are correct.

Is Matty a bit soft in the head?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:29:55 -0500

Starfish thinks he's a touch retarded.

If it reassures you at all, the third season of Sherlock got renewed at the same time as the second one, so they'll probably already have an explanation at hand (and won't be scrambling for something).

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:28:53 -0500

That's good. My friend told me that the dude who plays Moriarity wouldn't be returning to the show so I guess at least HE'S really dead.

I'm writing a webcomic, but it's gotten a bit bloated. I'm letting it settle now, and I've thought of some other cool comic concepts in the meantime that I might take up. Have you had any cool comic ideas fall to the wayside in the wake of Unsounded?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:28:15 -0500

Two other ideas, yes. One is my silly comic "chibi zombies" which I kind of prototyped years and years ago in Rising Stars of Manga. I rewrote the whole thing after that and it turned out rather poignant and funny overall, but it was never made beyond a handful of new pages. The second idea was for a naval adventure set in Unsounded's world featuring a certain character in the Aldish navy fighting the Sharteshanians. He winds up shipwrecked and imprisoned in Hanghorse, where he and his buddies have to enact a jail break with the help of a certain tailed rogue. It's a pretty good story I think, maybe I'll get to it one day.

Good luck with your story! Walking away from it for a little while is a good idea.

Re: Matty's text - I'm really referring to the design and visual communication - yes the excitement is clear from the grammar and Matty's expression, but on a visual level the balloon is no different from a long speech bubble. You have to read the text to

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:23:15 -0500

"know Matty is saying a long tirade, which works for literature but slows the delivery in a comic when the rough emotion should be apparant from a glance, and the typography and layout of the font doesn't match with the immediacy an excited outburst would bring. I realize I am being nit-picky, it is only because your comic is as high quality as it is that an abstract issue like this jumps out at me. But you're welcome to ignore me, your readers seem to find no issue. :)"

I could not and still cannot think of a better way to do what I wanted to do. Perhaps I should not have tried to do it in the first place. Anyway, let us put it behind us, it will not be the last time I do something weird and probably wrong :)

Waaaait a minute. Quigley was married at seventeen, only five years ago if his stated age of twenty-three is correct...but Matty is eight. What shocking teen-aged premarital shenanigans are these? And was Quigley's wife also Matty's mother? :O

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:19:50 -0500

Mrs. Quigley was Matty's mom, yes. The ages are a bit suspicious though, aren't they. Nothing's ever been very straightforward with them Quigleys.

The question on which my (slightly morbid) interest is speared and wriggling, with regards to the Quigleys, is: "Did Mathis the Elder love Vienne?" I look forward to chapter 6.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:16:48 -0500

Hmm.

Can anyone in the cast wiggle their ears? (Besides Sette, of course. I would be shocked if she couldn't.)

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:16:32 -0500

Duane could wriggle his ears after they fell off.

Ooh, Much Ado's my favorite Shakespeare play. (And if that makes my tastes pedestrian, I'll just stay over here while y'all weep over the body count in your own favorites.) <3

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:14:56 -0500

It's certainly one of my favourites! When I was in college a local troupe performed it for a small group of us in the library. No costumes, no scenery, no props; just a hilarious group of really talented actors. I saw the Kenneth Branagh version not long after and that, too, is awesome (Keanu aside). It's a great play, never be ashamed.

I know it's been said before... I know I'VE said it before, but Unsounded should be in print. Could you please let us know immediately if you take even the smallest step to making it a reality?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:11:34 -0500

Certainly, dear.

Did the awful event that drove Quigley and Matty from Alderode have anything to do with Vienne's death?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:06:40 -0500

Chapter 6. Be there.

Can we expect many deaths and much tragedy in Unsounded's future, or a happy ending for all (most, at least)?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:54:59 -0500

Somewhere in-between Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. Right in the middle there.

I dunno, my fiance's quite an upright, intelligent fellow and he's asked me honestly if I'd like a sex toy as a gift. He also knows what sort of pads I prefer. Sometimes forthright consideration of /all/ of a lady's needs is the mark of a true gentleman.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:24:02 -0500

Hear, hear!

You...........you don't think we're all morons, do you? D: (I mean, we kinda are, but still..........)

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:35:25 -0500

By Buddha's Lobes, no way. I think you guys are a lot smarter than I am. I was talking about some mouth-breathers on tumblr. And politicians.

If you could ask the Internet one question, what would it be?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:24:40 -0500

Why do you entice me with irritation? Why has railing against morons become my primary recreational activity? Tell me, Internet.

Out of curiosity, how old was Quigley when he embarked upon the journey of wedded bliss?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:22:24 -0500

Seventeeeeen.

You mentioned once that the pyramic in ch.2 was made for a brothel and Duane knew that it was. He was pretty lovey with it, soooo . . . TentaclesXDuane?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:20:58 -0500

Maybe Duane had a girl once who was into tentacles :3 I like the idea of her sending him down to the shops for a new tentacle pymaric. Worse than having to buy your girlfriend's tampons, easy.

"At least they've stopped slashing the hats." Oh, Ash... you know you're tempting fate. D:

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:19:56 -0500

I fear nothing. I am crazy tonight. Crazy!

Is it spoilery to know if contraception exists in their world yet?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:19:31 -0500

Oh, I think I forgot to answer that. It doesn't. Pull out.

Matty's Hat X Ephsephin's Hat is just gross. Everyone knows Matty's hat is underage. Quigley's Cloak X Duane's Cloak, on the other hand................yowza!

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:18:45 -0500

Ephsephin's hat is too close to all that face gore. I don't like mixing hat lovin' with guro, that's sick and weird. Quigley's cloak has a Dark Secret.

"Duane will deal with the boy after he's murdered his father." Oh. Oh no. Not even an angry Duane would be so cold as to murder a kid's parent in front of them. Matty is going to become Batman and wipe all criminal plod scum from Kasslyne if he does.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:17:20 -0500

He could be like Daredevil combined with Batman. Batdevil. But in a Chitz mask, like Scarecrow. Batdevilcrow. In his Uaidmobile. I should go to bed. My mind is going, Dave.

I like how Matty's talking at Sette like they're best friends even though they just met and she poked him in the eye and tried to steal Chitz.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:15:57 -0500

Matty loves everyone. Matty loves Ephsephin because he bought him lunch. Matty loves YOU, anon.

What did you think of Irene in Sherlock? I think she was undeniably hot, but I /hated/ how her arc ended.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:14:43 -0500

I thought she was a boring slut :/ They kept promising she was dead and then lying, the teases. The end of her episode was pretty ridiculous, yeah! it's one reason I'm not terribly hopeful about a rational and believable explanation for the ending of this season. The writers are great but they are not above switching on godmode for Sherlock.

Any thoughts on the ending to the second series of Sherlock?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:34:24 -0500

Well, it was a pretty good episode overall, very edge of your seat the whole time. That ending though... It's irritating in its way because it just seems ridiculous that he survived it, but the impossibility of it makes me want an explanation all the more so it works well as a pseudo cliffhanger. I dunno. John needs a new and less dangerous companion, perhaps a hamster.

Best...Love Hotel name....ever...dying...x_x wgah'nagl fhtagn~

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:42:58 -0500

How do you feel about all the crazy shipping fans seem to be getting into? Unless they're just trolling you, in which case....

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:42:46 -0500

At least they've stopped slashing the hats.

Are we going to finally see what happens to Duane in the night time soon? I have a few theories but I really want to see how mad he gets. :D

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:42:32 -0500

He gets -furious-

Is Duane even aware that Matty is there? He hasn't acknowledged him at all.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:42:17 -0500

Duane will deal with the boy after he's murdered his father. He is thorough, worry not.

I disagree with the other Anon,the wall of text in a single panel, lack of commas and Matty's expression did gave me the feeling of fast talk from someone excited. And I believe Italic would mix with the text in Aldish, Risking confusion over the language

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:41:39 -0500

That's a good point about the italics. But even if there'd been no Aldish/Tainish in there I think an entire paragraph of italicized text would be even harder on the eyes than the block of normal text. Anyway, the next time Matty contracts logorrhoea in this chapter it is most definitely in broken-up balloons.

I love the page as is. I completely got that Matty was in a super-excited stream of consciousness mode, which was balanced by the minimal text in the rest of the page. I see refinement in areas you've said are a struggle. Well done, I say, well done.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:37:55 -0500

Icy. Icy, have my babies.

YOU ARE THE MAGNET, AND I AM STEEEEEEEEEEEEEL

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:37:34 -0500

YOU ARE THE WIND BENEATH MY WIIIIIIINGS

People... visit a Two-toe brothel? I mean, with the amount of prejudice against them, it seems hard to imagine people paying for that. But I suppose that's fetishes for you.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:37:10 -0500

Or, if you really hate Two-toes a lot, must be nice to have a building you can visit and a whole selection of lizards from which you can pick one very special creature to violently stick it in.

The capitol is a building in your nation's capital. :P

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:35:42 -0500

"I don't see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing. I have a correspondent whose letters are always a refreshment to me, there is such a breezy unfettered originality about his orthography. He always spells Kow with a large K. Now that is just as good as to spell it with a small one. It is better. It gives the imagination a broader field, a wider scope. It suggests to the mind a grand, vague, impressive new kind of a cow."

This Twain quote always makes me laugh.

Are there other hotels that cater to certain fetishes like, I would imagine, the tentacle hotel does?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:19:54 -0500

There's an all Toe-toes brothel in the capitol.

As adorable as I found Matty's speech, the layout of the text didn't translate as him as saying it in one breath - it looked very long and calm. Maybe italicize the whole thing to let the reader know its a long sentence said in one breath next time.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:18:51 -0500

Maybe.

So you're saying that proper protocol for gay relationships in Alderode is to "accidentally" explode their wife (or trick the other guy into exploding your wife)? What about lesbians, are they allowed to duel and blow up husbands then get glamored to look

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:14:12 -0500

Methinks you are reading too deeply into the ramblings of an eight year old :)

Sette's sort of blushing while Matty's touching her arm in that last panel! They're destined to fall in loooooooooooooove! <3

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:30:51 -0500

She's not blushing, that's where she fell D: Sette wants to pick up Matty and hit you with him.

Teenagers in the Aldish sex trade doesn't make it any less squicky, though. Especially since being a teenager starts at, you know, THIRTEEN. :C

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:29:30 -0500

Different world, different standards :C

Whenever you mention things you're drawing for the future, it sounds so different from what's happening now that I'm dying to see how the story gets there. If Unsounded were a DVD series, I'd marathon it like crazy.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:29:09 -0500

What staggers me sometimes is the comic is really still so short you can read it in like forty-five minutes. With as much work as I've put into it it feels like it should take daaaays to get through :)

Are glamours and other actively maintained spells visible in the khert? Basically, when Quigley activates his goggles, can he tell that Duane is a zombie/has a lot of mighty suspicious pymary all over him?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:28:14 -0500

Yes, the khert is the go-to place for seeing the exertion of pymary. Duane is awash in spells but this is not all that uncommon. Everyone with means wears glamours, from ladies changing the colours of their eyes to criminals changing their entire appearance to burn victims making themselves more presentable to the ladies. The pymary that keeps Duane active is somewhat apparent too (Duane does keep a lot of it cloaked behind more the innocuous spells, like his glamours and his little maintenance routines) but pymary isn't exactly colour coded. All you'd see is a big push of active spellwork - not what exactly that spellwork is doing.

Taking spellwork apart and tracing it back to wherever it's pulling its Aspects from is pretty hardcore, and not something you can do on the fly based on visuals alone. What would be awesome is if someone invented an eyepiece that did something like this - labelled all the Aspects in play and gave you a nice little GUI overlay - but it hasn't been done yet.

Let me start off by saying I love Tainish's syntax and phonetic structure. What does Matty keep saying, "Mae Illuda"?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:03:51 -0500

Thanks! Illuda means Awesome! Mae illuda is That's awesome!

T-tentacle l-l-love hotel?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:58:36 -0500

I like this panel because it doesn't look like it belongs in a swords 'n sorcery fantasy comic.

"advanced pymaric-beast tentacle summons." the dojinshi just writes itself

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:52:57 -0500

Funnily enough, the scene I'm drawing right now takes place in a tentacle-themed love hotel. Tentacles, they are always relevant.

I remember reading somewhere (TV Tropes?) that the longer-lived castes aren't as good at pymary as plats. Did the "Lady" that Matty mentions get blown up because of sucky pymary?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:51:24 -0500

Mmmmmaybe? I'm pretty sure Matty's story is from an opera and never actually happened in reality. But this could have been the story. Write the opera for me, Anon!

"If Matty tearfully asked him for something, Duane would probably do it " ...like 'Please don't murder my daddy Mister Attack Zombie'?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:50:10 -0500

One possibility.

Ooout of... innocent curiosity, how much would a typical Plat cost for a night?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:24:49 -0500

Ya know, I don't have a concrete number for you :) But I know it would be a lot since they're the best. Aldish brothels are pretty sweet but they don't have anything on Crescian brothels. Crescian brothels and love hotels have some of the best tech in a city, from beglamoured advertisements to shimmering neon starfly lighting to advanced pymaric-beast tentacle summons. The best!

I went back to read the paragraph in question (it's totally necessary to read, how else would we know how awesome duels are and how we should all be Matty-level excited), and I realized I don't know what Quigley's doing with his glasses there. So..?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:15:23 -0500

They let him see the khert. When the panel goes gold and swirly? That's khert-vision. Pretty handy tool for a wright to have.

Pretty big speech bubble in that last panel. Is there a reason you did it that way?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:58:16 -0500

Sure. Matty babbled the whole paragraph out in one exuberant breath. If I'd broken it up into balloons - and there was plenty of room, the panel above was huge and empty - it would have looked like reasoned dialogue, with breaks, and you might wonder why Sette or one of the adults didn't interrupt, and it wouldn't have read how I wanted. So yeah, whether it was successful or not, it was intentional.

I probably should have made a note when I updated that it wasn't necessary to read the paragraph beyond the first sentence... Ah, well.

"One plod may be" ...Murkoph?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:46:39 -0500

Naw, I meant Duane. If Matty tearfully asked him for something, Duane would probably do it - hence he'd be powered by the tears of a blind plat child :3

What would Sette think of Matty's toy wrights? Scorn and secret envy (I can't imagine Sette ever had many toys) or just scorn?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:45:36 -0500

She'd be all sour grapes about them, but secretly curious to learn more. I think Sette could get really into wright-battlin' if someone explained to her how pymary works. Back home only the elites take an interest in pymary outside of pymarics, and formal duels are for sissies. What's wrong with disorganised slaughter?!?

Plat children who are "a little older" than Matty work in the sex trade?! :C Do I even want to know what the definition of "a little older" is in that context?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:55:36 -0500

Well, teenagers :/

Could Matty have found gainful employment in Alderode with his condition? If Quigley hadn't left? Or would he basically be useless to the Aldish?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:55:25 -0500

As a blind person? He would've just been stuck in his village, but they would've taken care of him. Probably never would have got Chitz though, since First Materials are only very rarely wasted on charity endeavours, like making a seeing-eye plush for a poor blind kid.

It's kind of a moot point though, since Alderode would have Taken Care of Matty after the events that led the Quigleys to leave the country.

Are the plods powered by the tears of blind Plat children?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:03:44 -0500

One plod may be :|

"Yeah, I'm really into The Six Rings and the Aldish Kings..........you've probably never heard of them, they're kind of underground."

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:03:22 -0500

Are there wrights who duel for sport to entertain the masses, either above board or in a secret fighting circuit? Or is the first rule of Wright Club that you don't talk about Wright Club?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:03:11 -0500

Yep, dueling is a big thing. There's competitive duelling and there's duelling to settle grievances. It's all pretty aboveboard :D

Is Matty a fairly typical Plat child? When I think of Plats being sent to school & work early, I always think of those dusty pictures of child laborers from 150 years ago where everyone looks like a mini old man. But then Matty's been out of the "system".

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:01:48 -0500

Yeah, Matty's pretty atypical. Most Plat kids are kept apart from their parents and they spend their days in lessons and sleep in dormitories together. When they do go to work, it's almost exclusively doing some kind of pymary (often the military), theatre, or the sex trade when they're a little older. Hethllot women don't work outside the home at all, they're almost exclusively supported by either their hubby, their family, or the Temple.

Is Matty typical in his enthusiasm towards pymary and battlin'? Absolutely. Kids love spell-wrights and the Composers. I could easily do a whole shounen comic about a couple of gifted white-haired kiddies going off to fight their way up the Aldish circuit of duelists.

Do Plats also mature emotionally and sexually faster than longer living classes? Given their short lifespan, this seems beneficial for the survival of their class.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:34:37 -0500

They do not, but that doesn't stop their society from making sure they do things at a much younger age than children from other classes. They marry young, reproduce young, go off to war young, go to school and work young.

I was thinking about the basic Aspect-exchange of pymary and wondering how that works in the context of plods? What's being taken to animate/preserve them?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:32:18 -0500

No one knows the particulars of how plods work except for a few Black Tongue gruftgrammers. They're a bit of a mystery.

There's nothing wrong with gay!

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:30:59 -0500

Is Matty assuming that his Dad will win the duel? I notice he suggested that Duane would is be the one who'd have to be glamoured for a hundred years. Also, will we ever see Matty playing with his awesome toy wright collection? If not...vote incentive?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:28:15 -0500

Now this is a vote incentive idea I like :D

And of course Matty assumes his dad is going to win. His dad is the best. He beats up everybody.

What kind of TV shows do you watch or recommend?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:27:30 -0500

I only watch Netflix, I don't even have a television :D But on Netflix theeeere's mindless trash tv like Pawn Stars and Hoarders, or classics like Frasier and Cheers. Oh, I also watch Colbert and TDS on their websites and I get my news fix from Democracy Now! and The Young Turks, both of which are online. I recommend TYT, it not all that informative but the hosts are adorable and fun is had.

IT'S TIME TO D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DUEL! Seto Quigley plays Blue Eyes White Dragonfly in attack mode and attacks!

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:24:25 -0500

There was a time I considered third person narration boxes and describing the spells kiiiind of like that. If you read any Avengers last year, Bendis was doing something similar with Doctor Strange's spells. Le sigh.

I, Anon, hereby do nominate Rue Sparrowhawk's punishment for a possible future vote incentive. :)

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:35:36 -0500

But Other Anon said that was incredibly gay!

Matty's story of one guy spending a hundred years looking like the other guy's ladylove seems kind of incredibly gay. I thought they didn't like that sort of thing?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:35:19 -0500

What better punishment then?

Duane and Quigley seem to be initiating the duel by putting their index fingers together (in a very adorable and hilarious way). Is this how one declares a duel formally in Alderode? (karaii here, got accid. suspended from my formspring u_u;;)

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:33:30 -0500

Nuu, suspended account :( I had asked you a video game question too.

But yeah, when wrights are duelling they're supposed to keep their hands together and in plain sight until they attack. Like cowboys in a showdown keeping their hands above their guns until they draw :) It's only fair.

Who is Rivek? Why is he so hawt?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:31:22 -0500

Rivek... was I think a character commission I did a few weeks ago. He belongs to this nice person - http://fictograph.deviantart.com/

If I were Aldish, I'd go down to Ulestry and make faces at the CRPG. >:D

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:23:47 -0500

You're bad to the bone, man. To the BONE.

Sooo, if they don't intend to kill each other (and not killing each other is something I completely support), why duel? Is it an Aldish honor thing? I'm all tingly wanting to watch it, but I thought Quigs hates all things Alderode.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:20:06 -0500

Duelling for the slighted honour of all of Alderode (and also in order to save some people and bring the RBBs to justice) is all SRS BSNS for Duane. He'll follow all the rules, use only legal spells, and no pymarics! Let's see if Quigley takes this as seriously or if he's just jerking the zombie's chain. Which possibility is your money on?

Is a pymaric Responsive-type’s gained ability to choose/think/feel rooted in their own unique personality, or is it from some other entity that they’ve been, in a sense, possessed by?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:08:28 -0500

This is something we'll learn more about later.

In Chapter 4, we see a red haired woman being taken away under suspicion of being Aldish. It would seem like Matty's white hair would stand out a lot more, but he doesn't seem concerned. Is there a (non-spoilery) reason for this?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:07:47 -0500

It's because they're still in Ulestry. There's anti-Aldish sentiment in Ulestry but nothing like there is in Cresce, where Aldishmen are outright arrested and detained. If the Quigleys were foolish enough to try and openly cross the border, they'd be hauled off pretty quickly.

Interestingly, Cresce would LIKE its declaration of war to mean that its allies close its country to Alderode, but since Ulestry's pacifism movement there's been a kneejerk reaction against Cresce's strong-arming, and the most current agreement is Cresce's allies will only close its borders to the Aldish if Alderode has actually launched an attack on Cresce's interior. Otherwise every border skirmish and murder would inhibit intercontinental trade and travel, and that wouldn't be good for anyone.

Are Aldish wright duels usually deadly? I get the sense that Matty has no idea what's at stake here.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:36:58 -0500

No, Matty has the right idea. Duels are usually NOT deadly. It's a power struggle, not an attempt to kill the other person.

Every time I see intestines I think of Murkoph. What is his favourite internal squishy thing to eat?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:41:46 -0500

Eyeballs. Livers. Brains. Early term fetuses. In that order. Intestines are not so good, they are full of poop.

What's the sexiest language in your opinion? I like German. HOT DAMN!

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:40:19 -0500

I love all languages. They are all wonderful. I love crazy tonal Mandarin and crazy Let's Inflect All The Words! Latin and the crazy clicky African languages and I Don't Care Who's Speaking It But I Want To Fuck 'Em! French! But in all honesty? I think English is sexiest. I have long been in love with English.

When you rp'd with a group, how did you deal with people's differing schedules? I'm trying to gm but we're worried we all won't be on at the same time.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:34:55 -0500

Well, is this liveaction chatroom RP or on a BBS? In the first case you just have to be blunt at the start, make an appointment that works for everyone, and then make threats: if you're not there at the appointed time, you're out of the game, or we play without you and you'll have to figure out an IC reason why your character wasn't there, or you deal with us NPCing your character. You're the GM so you call the shots and you have to be tough.

With a BBS it's a whole 'nother ballgame, and you yourself have to be patient. BBS games are by nature slow. As GM you should always reply as fast and as clearly as possible, but at the same time you have to be patient and remember that it's just a game, and it's never going to be the first thing on every player's priority list. You can set up a rule, like, at least one post every 24 hours or you get skipped, but patience, man, patience.

One coping mechanism I used to have was I'd just fooking play with myself :) I would always have a few PCs in play and I'd let them do their thing in my posts, so I could really balloon them and keep myself entertained for longer when it was my go. This might irritate your players 'cause it gives them more to read, but so be it.

One option if you're doing a BBS game is to supplement it with chat play. If you're doing something that's more of a conversation and requires more quick back and forth dialogue between characters, switching over to AIM or a chatroom can really help speed a scene along. You just post the chatlog to the BBS when you're done.

Good luck, GM.

I kinda got the impression people examining your individual 'pymaric signature' or whatever might be a thing in Alderode, what with the dammakhert and people not of the dammakhert being clear outsiders. So maybe Duane just couldn't. Is that a thing?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:02:22 -0500

...you are on to something. You don't have it exactly, but you're on to something. I'm not talking about this yet, but I want you to give yourself a cookie for being smart :)

Favorite real world accent?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:51:17 -0500

That's tough D: I'm going to channel some Dracula fangirl and go with Romanian. Today.

But Starfish isn't trying anything with Matty, right? Is he? Cause he's scared of Quigley and Uaid. Right?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:50:04 -0500

I shall give no specifics about what happens in upcoming chapters. Come now, we know this.

Is there any character in fiction that's woobier than Matty? I'm hard-pressed to think of one.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:16:36 -0500

Newt in Aliens. I spend that whole movie wanting to take her to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza.

Please don't remind us that Starfish and Matty spend time in relatively close proximity D:

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:16:07 -0500

Will we be finding out in the comic why Duane didn't stay in Alderode?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:16:03 -0500

Yep.

Of course, anyone would give snotty Matty a tissue. :C

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:16:38 -0500

Starfish wouldn't :( And Sette would charge him.

Oh no, Matty's crying because his dad just died, isn't he? ;_;

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:58:38 -0500

;_;

Poor Matty! I agree with the other anon, he needs a hug. And tissues.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:58:31 -0500

Chapter six is tough on Matty all around, poor ickle fing.

Are you entertained by the talk about Quigley and Duane in the page 16 comments?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:56:50 -0500

I am, but I don't think I can pick a side. Everyone has very good points. All I would say is that Quigley has at no point posed as a good guy. Nor have i said he's a good guy. He's just a guy, doing what he thinks he has to do.

Didn't Duane attend a seminary? Does that mean his pymary is pretty limited?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:38:53 -0500

He started out in seminary, yeah, but he turned a lot of heads with his ah, prowess, and wound up winning a sponsor so he could transfer to a proper Academy. He got a lot of bullshit in school for being the poor kid, which sort of sparked his interest in learning how to properly punch someone in the face :)

AWWWWWWWWWW! I hate seeing Matty cry. I want to invent a machine that zaps characters out of fiction and into the real world just so I can hug him and take care of him. :-(

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:09:59 -0500

I dunno, man, he looks pretty snotty there. He'd ruin your shirt.

"Biting people by moonlight! Licking blood by daylight! Badass zombie-soldier-spellwright! He is the one named Sailor Duane!"

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:30:30 -0500

*sob*

So a seminary allows tuition without funding? Does that mean there's a lot of religious wrights?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:30:21 -0500

Well, seminaries don't produce "wrights", they produce clerics if you're Ssaelit and priests and priestesses if you're Gefendur. You don't get to attend seminary and graduate as a wright and then go off and do your own thing. You're then bound to that seminary and to your faith and are expected to work within the church or temple for the rest of your days. So it's one way to get a "free" education, but the pymary training isn't the extensive, specialized training of the Academies, and your prospects are thereafter limited. It's a trade-off.

If Duane replaced a limb with a simulcrum would it work normally?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:18:28 -0500

To an extent. He's tried this with his arms but the pymary that powers his body and which must interfaces with the simulacra plateaus at a point that is too clumsy for his purposes. He can't move with refinement and precision with artificial limbs the same way he can with actual flesh, so if he wants continue aping a man and not start moving like a shambling plod, he has to stick with fleshly limbs.

GlassShard, GlassShard! The wiki says the khert is "hostile to foreign energies". What does that mean? What counts as foreign?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:14:34 -0500

"Foreign" probably wasn't the best word choice, but it's hostile to the intrusive energies of humans - namely pymary. This is why all pymary outside of permanently enchanted pymarics must be actively maintained, because the khert is constantly exerting itself against alterations it deems unnatural. It's why incorrectly cast pymary causes havoc and backlash, and why some Aspects are more difficult to draw upon or move than others.

Man! You're lucky to be in Florida this time of year. Snow can go and take a flying fuck at the moooooooooooooooooooon!

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:11:14 -0500

you jelly

What would happen if you tried to create frankenstinian plods? What about mixed-species plods? What happens if you stick Duane's head on a dead riding dog?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:10:19 -0500

You make Matty cry D:

Are there accent rules in Aldish? Like the equivalent of Spanish's "stress the second-to-last syllable unless otherwise directed" rule.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:08:49 -0500

I have a few rules, they're not extensive yet. If it's a two syllable word the accent tends towards the second syllable. This is one aspect of Tainish I gotta work on but it keeps getting shelved since I write the language much more often than I speak it aloud ;)

What is the most complex meal you have ever cooked?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:06:51 -0500

Hrmm. A few weeks ago I did a whole from scratch spread of orange chicken, fried rice, and egg drop soup. That was pretty involved.

Do the bronze have trouble getting access to schooling, or do the Aldish take anyone competent? If they're born with a khurt connection, do they get less prejudice because the khurt's picked them, or are they bottom of the pecking order even still?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:05:32 -0500

Depends, depends. The best of the Academies are reserved for nobility or those deemed exceptionally worthy (the sons of military heroes, etc.). The lesser schools are theoretically open to anyone, but each one tends to have preferential enrolment for certain castes and for metropolitans (and the Brozne are never a preferential case). Tuition is pretty high at all the schools and even if you do have a khert connection you have to scrounge up the money if you want to do anything with it. Or join a seminary. Since most Bronze are poor and have difficulty finding employment outside of the military and manual labour, they just very seldom have the means to get into a school and advance themselves.

Huh, really? I thought the gold ring was around the jet one?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:55:49 -0500

Naw, that's just a break in the dark backdrop behind the whole thing.

Are there any recreational drugs in Kasslyne?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:55:07 -0500

Certainly.

Do you think SOPA/PIPA was fundamentally anti-artist? I lot of the creators I know felt that if the law had passed, their ability to create without fear of legal repercussion would have been severely curtailed.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:54:59 -0500

Anti-artist? Well, it was anti-innovator in general. When you suddenly can't start a website or an internet business without knowing that if some bit of user-submitted content is tagged as a copyright infringement you'll be completely shut down? That's bad news for everyone. It means policing your users 24/7. It'd be like every single commercial retailer in the States having to hire a policeman to stand in every store aisle listening to be certain no one starts humming a copyrighted song.

There needs to be extensive due process involved in accusations.

Sette's the character I'm playing. I'm having fun, the people I'm playing with are having fun, but her voice is INTIMIDATING, yo! Coming up with 'Things me Da says' is fun, though.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:49:37 -0500

Excellent :D

Can you recommend any sites for papercrafting? I'm trying to find a papercraft about anything from the manga Blame! but I'm beginning to think that none have been made :(

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:49:19 -0500

I can only recommend Google or dA for something that specific, but I do enjoy this site for random patterns - http://tektonten.blogspot.com/

Avatar question: Yue v. Suki, go!

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:47:43 -0500

I'm not in love with either of them but if I had to choose I'd go with Suki. Yue had some cool mystical stuff going on but she never DID much in her short time in the series. Suki on the other hand was pretty interesting and dynamic and had her warrior posse and... stuff.

Do you use other social media? Facebook, G+, etc?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:44:50 -0500

To a limited extent. I have accounts but I don't use them much. When I have something random to share I usually do so in chatrooms.

Oh god. Did you watch the cartoon series? Do you remember the episodes with Neugog? Still the scariest thing in the history of ever. Like tentacle rape but only not a fetish on the internet.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:43:59 -0500

I didn't even know there was a cartoon series until a few years ago :O I'ma have to go hipster on you here and say I only know the original comic, which I would advise everyone to check out.

Sorry for lecturing you,not the right place.Overdosed on propaganda. Unsounded is functionally equivalent to pro European albums, no reason you shouldn't be able to make full living off it and not fair you have to compete with scan ripoff sites.Best luck!

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:01:58 -0500

No sweat, my dear.

What would Murkoph if cornered by a group of skilled wrights?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:01:42 -0500

The Electric Slide.

Big Guy and Rusty. Ah, I knew I loved you for a reason. No one in my life has ever heard of it.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:01:17 -0500

It's pretty old these days. It used to creep me out when I was a kid, all that goop melting people into dinosaur creatures aararrrgh it was horrible. But man, dat art.

Can you do a cartwheel?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:00:22 -0500

I couldn't do a cartwheel when I was ten much less now. I have the coordination of a bag of hammers.

I will do literally anything to have a Sailor Duane transformation sequence as a vote incentive (except killing myself). Pwease, Ash?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:56:49 -0500

x_x

you're following me! Ashley bloody Cope is following me!! I'm nerding, all over the floor.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:53:26 -0500

Oh, Billy.

I'm just curious... Have you seen the newest Sherlock episode yet? And if so, what did you think?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:53:04 -0500

My friend and I watched the Baskerville episode last night. It was pretty good, not quite so ridiculously over the top as the first one. ! I think we're going to watch the newest one Monday. I heard the ending is a bit of an eye-roller.

Sites pirating print comics make webcomics irrelevant and STILL you defend them. Don't talk to me about censorship, fighting it means getting your hands dirty defending dodgy types like Mike Diana. I love artists but damn if you aren't a dumb lot :P

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:30:22 -0500

Webcomics are the new independent comics. With a few freakish exceptions, Indy comics made no one any money even back before the internet changed the method of distribution. What I'm doing would be pretty irrelevant and unprofitable no matter what era I was doing it in, although it is nice that the internet allows me to have more readers than I would have had twenty years ago and it allows me to present work in colour, which would have been impossible.

I don't know why you are so angry. It sounds like you're not an artist, so why do you care? If you like a comic, pay for it. When I open up donations - which is really just a short way to say "pay what you feel this comic has been worth to you" - I get money. If people feel that my work deserves to continue, they'll put their money towards it and become a part of its forward momentum. I kind of like this patron system. I doubt it's sustainable but for now I'm having fun.

Print comics are in a rough place right now. I feel for them. When sites that are specifically posting comic and manga scans are shut down, I think that's absolutely justifiable. But I have yet to see large-scale anti-piracy legislation that is narrow, fair, and sane. SOPA and PIPA were not it.

I would not say that some artists are dumb for being ambivalent about piracy. Artists are often benefited by piracy. In many documented cases, piracy has meant further exposure for them and in turn, increased sales. More importantly, piracy, and having access to a wide and uninhibited library of scanned comics, has meant artists have that much more inspiration to draw from. They have all the old masters at their fingertips and can read the works of those who came before. All of this access means so much to artists who otherwise could not afford it. To many artists, Ideas are a much more valuable currency than Money.

I wish every artist out there was paid exactly what they deserved. But they aren't, they never, ever have been, and they probably never, ever will be. Abolish piracy tomorrow and that will not change.

On the seal that goes: Plat-and-gold-within, Silver-and-bronze(????)-within, jet at the top, and all looped round by copper? I'm not sure if that is right, please correct me.

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:35:25 -0500

You have it exactly, my good sir.

Urkels rhymes with circles. But one Urkel was one too many, so meh. Maybe 8 instead of 6? By the circle of eight, something something percolate?

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:34:25 -0500

I should have used "Urkels" but I fear no one but us old farts would have got the reference ;)

You visit /co/ on 4chan, right? How does it feel to see your own comic mentioned there? How does it feel to see your own comic mentioned on the web in general?

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:33:55 -0500

My reaction to seeing my comic or any of my art mentioned on the web usually correlates exactly to the context in which it is being mentioned and the language being used to mention it.

I do remember the first time I saw Unsounded being talkd about on /co/, that was really scary. It took me a long time to gather the courage to go into the thread, but it wasn't too bad. I mean, everyone knows that /co/ hates everything but ponies, Homestuck, and Gunnerkrigg, so I try to take everything with a grain of salt: Duane's a windbag, Sette's an obnoxious bitch-face, bishounen Quigley, needs moar tits, I'm a weeaboo fag, walls of text, why do all girls draw the same, etc. Nothing surprising. But sometimes people say nice stuff too so I guess it all evens out.

So yeah... sometimes it's some nice validation, sometimes it's a reminder that you can't be liked by everyone :) Kind of like walking down the hall in high school, I guess.

Just imagine the look on Sette's face when Duane uses his "MOON PRISM POWER!" on the next page and converts to his Sailor Duane form. Of course, you'd need to devote three pages to the transformation sequence.

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:23:19 -0500

Noooo, we'd have to watch magic bandages unwrap and lovingly rewrap around every limb.

Have YOU seen Paranoia Agent?

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:22:27 -0500

I haven't, though I love Satoshi Kon hardcore and I've always meant to watch this. The OP is trippy.

Did you hear that SOPA and PIPA were just dropped by Congress? What a relief. Still got ACTA to worry about, though.

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:21:35 -0500

I did! The internet should be pretty proud of itself. The people in charge are going to keep gunning for us though, that is the nature of the world, so we gotta stay vigilant.

Just so you know someone is already RPing one of your characters. That person is me and the voice intimidates the hell out of me. I do my best to capture it (I've read every page in the archives multiple times over) but I'm still sure it's just ballpark.

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:20:24 -0500

Yikes, which character are you doing? I mean, it's not important to get it up to my standards - who cares about what I think? - but if whoever you're playing with isn't complaining I wouldn't worry too much.

I'm almost certain it's been asked before, but could you list some of your favorite graphic novels?

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:19:15 -0500

Graphic novels, eh? Marvel's 1602, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, the Courtney Crumrin tales, Bone, Strangers in Paradise, Monster, The Maxx, Shadoweyes in Love, Set to Sea, the Gankutsuou manga adaptation, Nausicaa, Doctor Strange: The Oath, Doctor Strange Into Shamballa, Strange & Doom: Triumph & Torment, The Killing Joke, Batman: Hush, Thor: Vikings, Preacher, the Neverwhere adaptation (I love Fabry's art, all right?), Superman & Shazam: First Thunder, Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil, Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot... and other things I'm probably not remembering at the moment.

Your shiny, beautiful new cover thingy on the front page just barely started showing up for me. Until yesterday, it was still the old one with the wandering root. But I remember forumspringers talking about it a long time ago. Do ya mebbe know why dat is?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:31:38 -0500

Yeah, your browser was loading the image out of your internet cache. Browsers are smart and they save images and webpages locally, to your computer, so they don't have to re-download everything every time you visit a page. It's a good thing, but it also means that your browser will sometimes fail to notice when images have been replaced with other images. So your browser didn't re-download the image until yesterday. No big deal though!

I'm in love with Unsounded! Will you be attending any Northeast Coast comicons soon? I must meet the amazing person who created this comic and buy stuff from said person.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:26:48 -0500

So glad you like the comic! I'm not a convention person though, I'm sorry :)

Where do I get it? :P

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:22:18 -0500

A comic shop, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon :3

I...was never aware there was a comic. just a series and a horrible movie. Which is a shame the latter was so horrible, I wanted to see how they added Toph, and Azula's friends, into the films.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:15:26 -0500

I've yet to watch the movie in its entirety. The clips I've seen though... damn. Read the comic! It just started and it's pretty good. It's on its way to answering some of the final questions from the series. Read the commiiiiiiic... *hypnotize*

As for Avatar, I enjoyed Toph very much. her jokes about her blindness were well written, and showed how, despite her being blind, it wasn't a handicap; it was her greatest strength!

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:06:35 -0500

Yeah, I think everyone loved Toph. There's a cute joke in the comic where Toph describes to Sokka what fireworks are like for her. You should read the comic.

Does Quigley ever make his spellery look like moths?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:06:19 -0500

*chin rub* This seems probable. Moths are cute.

Was......was Matty's mom "third-option'd"?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:05:49 -0500

No *_*

This has been asked before, I'm sure, but why is Old Tainish the only syntax that the Khert responds to?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:05:36 -0500

A wright would tell you it's because Old Tainish is the language of the Twin Gods, and so the language in which they instructed the khert. It's the only language the khert knows. If you tell me in Korean to stand on one foot, I'm not going to know what you're talking about.

There are some magic systems that make magic commands into more of a mental thing, where spells know what you MEAN regardless of how you say it. Pymary isn't like that. The khert knows Old Tainish, that's all it understands, and if you aren't coherent it either won't listen to you or it will do the job halfway and blow up in your face. Even tacit casters need to "cast" with a clear head, coherently. Gotta know the language, man.

Can the next incentive be Duane as a mod and Quigley as a rocker?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:27:24 -0500

I will consider it. OOC, silly incentives often fail to wake up my muse though. You'll notice the "Duane on the Muppet Show" comic has still yet to surface. I'm no fun :(

Why so much hate for Mai? I thought she was an awesome character concept in S2 - a dry, wry, snarky girl who could care less about your lame drama - who got viciously screwed over by the writers' desire to give Zuko a sweet, compliant love interest in S3.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:25:51 -0500

Ya know, she just got on my nerves. I didn't like her voice actor and I thought her design was really unattractive. "Dry, wry, snarky girl" works for me as a concept, but I don't think it was executed well. She wasn't witty - she never made me laugh - she was just a tone-breaking irritant. It also made absolutely no sense to me why someone in her position, with such a lack of passion for anything, would know how to fight. IMHO.

OH MY GOD, THE THIRD OPTION IS THAT WOMEN ARE TURNED INTO VLIEGENG, AREN'T THEY?!?!?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:21:22 -0500

AAAAAA!

If you had a million dollars, what's the first thing you'd buy?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:21:13 -0500

I would pay off my student loans, then buy Karaii a brand new computer. Then I think I'd take a trip somewhere, maybe the Dry Tortugas.

Six Rings/Six Aldish Kings... So. Are you a Lord of the Rings fan? Or did you just go with something that sounded particularly epic? Either way, the epicness totally worked.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:20:12 -0500

I do like LotR (the movies anyway, never read the books). But I went with rings and kings because it rhymes and sounds cute :3 I suppose I could have gone with bands... "By the six bands and our ancestors' lands!" Oooooor hoops. "By the six hoops and a thousand poops!" There's circles, too, but what rhymes with circles?

I also think that Azula should have killed Ozai during the Day of Black Sun and taken his place as the big bad. Ozai is such a boring villain but Azula is such an awesome one.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:20:07 -0500

I was SURE this was going to happen! I thought they'd ignored Ozai for so long because he was just going to be killed (or imprisoned or whatever) by Azula and she'd be the Big Bad. The banter would have been much better, Azula is awesome at trash talk.

My opinion on Ozai in A:TLA is that he should have died. I think the writers wanted to do that, but Nick said no. There's all this buildup with Aang contacting the other avatars who all say he has to do it...and then DeM. It's just so anticlimatic.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:18:17 -0500

Well, I guess Aang going to the other Avatars and getting their advice is supposed to make his decision appear even more difficult, since no one agrees with him. I mean, you do have to admire the little hippie's conviction.

Have you read the new comic? Not killing Ozai seems like it's going to have some bad repercussions. Poor, dumb Zuko.

Re: the six rings -- is the size and placement of each ring on the Aldish seal important? Is there a reason why some of them seem to be grouped together?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:15:16 -0500

Could be, could be.

What number system do The people in Kasslyne follow? Decimal? Octal? sexagesimal?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:14:59 -0500

Decimal, baby. I toyed around with using quaternary since there are four Twins and the number four comes up a lot culturally, but since it really would have no bearing on anything I let it go and defaulted to our standard. Some things just aren't worth changing.

Artists who defend piracy are like poor republicans who oppose healthcare. We had 15 years of internet to build an alternative culture and instead we spent it watching torrents of the same stuff that's on TV. And now they're moving in. Terrible waste.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:09:52 -0500

I know there are some people out there who got up in arms about SOPA and PIPA for piracy reasons, but I personally was concerned about how broadly they were written and how they could potentially be used to stifle free speech. The freedom and mobility of the internet is absolutely unprecedented in human history. It puts power into the hands of the powerless and gives everyone a voice. This is much, much bigger and more important than money, copyright, art, you, me, anyone, anything. Hollywood and television can shut down and disappear for all I care. They are predominately heartless, artless, anti-intellectual vacuums. Don't regulate the internet.

Is the third option becoming a gruftgrammer/outcast?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:53:53 -0500

Hmm, actually I suppose that would be a fourth option, wouldn't it.

What's yer poison?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:09:05 -0500

The occasional glass of wine. I'm not much of a drinker.

What did you think of the Wikipedia blackout? I made a panicked squeal just at the thought of one day without, upon arriving at that message screen. I'm afraid my elected officials got messages in ALL CAPS.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:08:25 -0500

Haha, good for you contacting your rep. The blackout didn't effect me much. I signed into my chatroom and the first thing I saw was someone explaining that all you needed to do was spam Escape as wiki was loading and you'd bypass the blackout screen :3

What happens to women who are born connected to the Khert in Alderode, much as Duane was?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:07:17 -0500

They have three options: go ahead and learn pymary and become a wright, but only be allowed to take it up to the level allowed to women, then leave school, get married, have babies, and probably only use pymary in the home for boring purposes. Second option is to have your connection sealed off, but this will make you a bit of a pariah. Third option is a secret for now.

How do you think that the world of Unsounded will develop culinarily? Will the applications of pymary continue to improve, producing better crab cakes, stews, baked goods, etc.? Will mundane cooking grow, or does the presence of pymary stunt it?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:04:44 -0500

Nooooow I'm hungry.

I remember one old Japanese cartoon, the heroes defeat the bad guy (Dad of the hero's girl) and chase him down, final scene is the hero lifting his sword overhead and bringing it down, FROM THE POV of the baddie. I must've been 6, but it stuck in my mind.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:03:20 -0500

Dramatic stuff. Some villains are so terrible that it's just bad storytelling not to kill them off at the end. I think Avatar kind of gets away with sparing Ozai because a lot of the war and killing was so watered down over the course of the series, and you don't have much bloodlust for the guy theoretically behind it all. I mean, Ozai is Super Saiyan Mark Hamill, no one wants to see that end.

I see Duane as Zoolander and Quigley as Hansel. They need to have a walk-off!

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:00:33 -0500

This reference is too hip for me.

Is Matty named for his dad? That would be pretty cute.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:00:03 -0500

Yep! Matty's real name is Mathis.

Yeah, I get the sense that Regina's the #1 reason why the world's "bereft of balls".

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:59:44 -0500

Cross your legs :3

We all listen to a band or singer we might be ashamed of, a sort of guilty pleasure-- Who's yours?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:59:31 -0500

I don't think anyone should be ashamed of anyone they listen to. I enjoy the hell out of John Denver and I'm proud of it!

There is one song I recognise as terrible, however, but I love it regardless. "I Am the Wind" from Symphony of the Night. THAT SONG ROCKS. I'ma dance to it at my wedding. Fuck the haters.

I kept the prison episodes mostly because there needed to be an episode where Zuko and Sokka get to know each other. The original team all needed some Zuko closure. Plus: "Hey! Riot!" :D Still, more White Lotus is good.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:56:42 -0500

All salient points, my friend.

What evokes nostalgia in you? It could be a scent, a sound, a song. I feel nostalgic when I stare out my window in the wintertime and see the orange light casting a blanket of silence over my street.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:56:00 -0500

Oh, Mr. Ballpoint, you are no biro; you're a fluffy feather quill.

Nostalgia... my answer is not as poetic as yours but certain video games make me very nostalgic. I can play the original MarioKart and remember sitting in a dark bedroom with my high school friends, praying for a red turtle shell. Or TMNT and the arcade at the beach, blowing through the entirety of my allowance in a few hours. I don't think kids even know what arcades are anymore. Damn kids.

So would Duane be a mod or a rocker?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:49:18 -0500

Oh, c'mon, he'd be a mod, bro. Don't even have to think about it. Quigley would be a rocker. This could be why they're not getting along.

Next vote incentive - please give us a no-holds-barred drama-off between Duane and Quigley. Extra wind to swirl the capes, and all the hot air you can stand! 8D

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:47:11 -0500

Oh, man, you have basically just described the rest of the chapter :D But with additional bugs.

What is the worst dream you've ever had?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:46:06 -0500

Couldn't have been too bad, I don't recall it.

Please draw Duane as Sailor Moon.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:45:39 -0500

I... I can't do it.

What if Mathis' reluctance in teaching his bebe some Pymary is actually an attempt to lengthen his bebe's life?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:45:26 -0500

What if? I can tell ya straight that many experiments have been done and usage of pymary seems to have no correlation whatsoever to lifespan. If this is Quigley's motivation it's ill-researched.

laughs into hands Ash, that last panel - every time I look at it, all I can see is Jacob Marley pointing and calling, "Scroooooooge." Hahaha!

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:51:15 -0500

I dunno, man, I really liked Tableshark's Sailor Moon comment :3

Yeah, I loved Riven. The trick was to assume that any switch you encounter was set the way Ghen likes it, so when you flip it you royally fuck with his plans somehow. I got farther in the game that way than by logically thinking things through. :-)

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:46:16 -0500

Pretty clever. I was rubbish at the games but I remember the series of books being quite enjoyable.

I actually forgot about Regina when I made the Waifu Power Rankings, but I would've put her at #90001 b/c she seems like she'd just chop your dick off. (Though some would say she's just being tsundere.)

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:44:51 -0500

Chop your dick off, eh? :3

The wright vs non-wright questions instantly brought one quote to mind: “No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.”

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:29:03 -0500

Dat Steven Brust :3

!) Matty's mom - Not Jivi's mom, what the hell.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:28:15 -0500

Yeah, Regina really is much hotter than Matty's mom (her name was Vienne), although they are such polar opposites. Maybe I'll draw them together for a vote incentive sometime, they contrast nicely.

My revised A:TLA S3: Drop bloodbending, insert spiritbending there. Have prison take place more at night (or in mist), boost nastiness (guards and prisoners). Have Warden be Takei again :p. Thoughts?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:26:55 -0500

This is a good idea. Bloodbending was a wicked concept but since nothing was ever done with it there was really no point in bringing it up. Your prison solutions are good, but I think I would have nixed the prison arc entirely and devoted that much more time to the end game. I liked the old people camp, I wish more time had been spent there, and maybe give Azula on her own a whole episode for her breakdown. Ya know, decompress the storytelling a little bit, let it build up.

Its not a sad line up for male straightfags at all! Elka is the purest conceptual embodiment of "waifu" to have ever appeared in a thing.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:23:31 -0500

I love male straightfags. I love them too much to wish Elka upon any of them.

The top of Dunae's face isn't in shadow any more, just his eyes. What's up with that? Magic acting up?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:20:30 -0500

The setting sun's shining right on him.

You know, I never really looked very closely at the Aldish seal, but knowing what I know, you can make out some interesting bits. For example -- the rings are color coded! Ah, a clue! It's like I'm 13 again, playing Myst in my mom's basement.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:11:07 -0500

One day I'm going to do a really big, detailed painting of that seal. It should have a groovy vliegeng encircling it but the one in that sketch is pretty derpy. Ahh, Myst. Did you ever play Riven? It used to piss me off to no end when I was a kid.

I usually draw at 72 dpi, so drawing faces/bodies this large is pretty weird & hard to keep consistent on the first go. What I do is that I work on panels on separate files to keep my computer from crashing as I draw - how do you do it?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:08:53 -0500

My computer is decent enough that I can do a whole page at once without splitting it up into panels. I understand about how hard it is to keep consistency though. When you're drawing on paper you can always see your other panels, but drawing digitally starts to feel claustrophobic and you lose track of what's going on on the rest of your page when you're zoomed in. One luxury I have is a second monitor. But even with two 22" inch monitors I still wish I had more screen space. I want an entire wall of computer screens, yessss

But yeah, I recommend first upgrading your computer so you don't have to draw one panel at a time, that will help. If that's not possible right now though, just draw on paper and scan it in! Plenty of people still draw traditionally in the comic world, it's not dead yet :) You're in college, right? I bet there's a giant scanner in one of the computer labs.

What are the six rings and who are the Aldish kings? I thought Alderode was ruled by a council of priests.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:02:02 -0500

It is now. But it was founded by a succession of barbarian kings and ruled by a number of fierce dynasties through its first few thousand years. Swearing an oath on them bad boys is fairly hardcore. The rings are in reference to the six rings of the six castes on the Aldish seal, which is right hyeah http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/images/misc_art/sketch01.jpg

What size canvas do you use to draw pages, and what brush width? I'm trying and failing to draw an A4 page at 300 DPI, so I wanna to know your secrets ):

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:20:08 -0500

Unsounded pages are 2400 by 3600 300DPI nd I usually ink with the 5px hard round. What is it about your current size that's giving you problems? Is your computer having problems handling a canvas that big?

Nobody but Joji Nakata can voice the Count. That voice. _

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:05:38 -0500

Yes. YES. The voice casting in that whole series was brilliant.

Jamieson Price also voiced the Count in Gankutsuou. Again, hnngh. < 3

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:33:58 -0500

Enh, I don't watch dubs *hipster*

OFFICIAL UNSOUNDED WAIFU POWER RANKINGS: 1) Matty's mom, 2) Elka, 3) Milk maid that Duane saved that one time, 4) Sette, .......... 9001) Fat Yerta

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:29:24 -0500

Pretty sad line-up. I feel bad for the straight guys. I hope you like Annadyne and Knock-me-down in chapter 6 D:

I want to buy a physical copy of Unsounded. It is easily one of the best webcomics today.

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:41:29 -0500

Thank you! I wanna be a good webcomic and not a mediocre print comic :3

How do they handle the bronzes? Do they hope they'll die off over time?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:37:08 -0500

No, no, they're legitimate Aldishmen. There's no "handling" them. They just get the lowest spot on the totem pole.

How would you have changed the third season of Avatar? Would you have still kept Aang from killing Ozai? How would you do so if under the dictate from corporate that the 12 y.o. hero can't kill the villain in a kids show (a very likely scenario)?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:35:59 -0500

Like I said, I had no problem with Aang not killing Ozai. My problem was with the abruptness and ham-handedness of the turtle-lion and spirit-bending. They should have nixed one of the lamer episodes of the season and done a story that focused around the idea of spirit-bending or lion-turtles so they were an established thing. It's Writing 101.

But Aang not killing Ozai? Of course the kid-hero wasn't going to kill the villain. That's standard cartoon practise.

How do you think that the world of Unsounded will develop technologically? Will the applications of pymary continue to improve, producing better transport, communications, hygiene, etc.? Will mundane tech grow, or does the presence of pymary stunt it?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:50:55 -0500

I think there's a lot more future in the development of pymary and that's probably where society will head. There's a lot of early work now being done with teleportation, and as you might imagine, if they can get that off the ground things will explode. There's research being done in how to access and manipulate Law, those parts of the khert that effect how matter and Aspects interact. If they crack this you might see the schools of pymary branch out into actual manipulation of time, life, and death; if gravity can be overcome you might see space travel, deep sea exploration. If they come to understand the khert better I could see pymaric computers being built right into it with First Material interface consoles. If better methods are developed for recycling First Materials that could cheapen them and allow for more creative artifice.

There are challenges to overcome though. There's a deadly sickness in the west that's killing a lot of people. There is endless war between Cresce and Alderode. There's the challenges with pymary over open water which effects shipping and exploration...

Fun stuff to think about.

I’m really curious about the kind of social discrepancies Kasslyne has to offer. For instance, is homosexuality frowned upon? Abortion? Atheism? Racism? Is there anything that is totally and completely unacceptable by the majority of the continent?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:40:54 -0500

We've covered these topics on here before, but I can give you the abridged version. Homosexuality is frowned upon most places as a distraction and a frivolous waste of time, except in Cresce where no one really cares. Ending pregnancies is a matter between ladies and their midwives and no one troubles themselves with it. Atheism doesn't really exist, as religion and culture in these countries are so inextricably intertwined. Racism is considered the domain of the four year old, as there are much more mature and sophisticated reasons to hate people. Totally and completely unacceptable by everyone is abuse of pymary and the khert as it puts so many in danger.

Hmm. I always pictured you sounding like Mr. T.

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:33:11 -0500

Before I've had my coffee... sometimes.

Though I have trouble imagining it, I would cream my pants if Duane was voiced by Jamieson Price. Hnngh. /melts

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:32:50 -0500

The Colonel in Akira, eh? Hrm.

That's pretty eerie! All Children of the Damned-style, everyone alike but you. What's caste-to-caste attitude like in backwaters like that? Will everybody be glaring at you if you're a different caste traveler?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:32:28 -0500

Nah, the Aldish get along pretty well - remember, they call themselves a Cooperative. The most you'll get is a little suspicion if you hang around too long, since no one wants you wooing the young people away. There's a scene in my Morningmont novel where a Copper vliegeng-handler comes to visit a country slavery operation made up almost entirely of Jet, and it's quite an exciting to-do, with lots of food and music and exchanging of news and stories.

Dwaahn. Dwaaaaaaahn. I've been saying Dwayne all this time. I like Dwaaahn a lot better, even if only for the way it makes my mouth feel.

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:27:13 -0500

I'm good with either pronunciation, I guess. Each has its charms :)

Is Duane ever going to have a non-violent encounter with another adult? His record is not so great.

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:26:18 -0500

Magic Eight Ball say Outlook Not So Good.

Was your voice always made out of pure, undiluted sex from concentrate, or did you have to sell your soul to get your siren voice?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:25:03 -0500

Honestly? This voice was hard-earned. I was in speech therapy as a kid and for a long time no one but my mom could understand me. A lot of time and hard work went into my present coherence - such as it is - and I am delighted it meets with your approval.

Ooh, is the Attack Zombie vs Attack Hat fight going to be canon soon? Please say yes!

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:49:44 -0500

Yes!*

*No.

Forgive this new reader! "... rather a tingling, ice-crystal grinding; the sensation of biting on a knife," sent chills down my spine! I love everything about your comic, but the metaphors are my favorite. How long does it take you to come up with them?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:47:52 -0500

You know, I have no memory of writing that. Was it on formspring? Metaphors! They're not something I actively work at, sometimes they're just there waiting when I settle down to write. For me it's all about being in the Zone; alert, sharp, slightly depressed, a little fed up. I think that's when writing is easiest for me.

Somewhere, in an alternate universe, there's a gravelly, flat-voiced GlassShard writing and drawing "Sounded", a cheery webcomic about Duane Adelier, the happiest guy alive, and his super-best pal, the sweet and kind Sette Frummagen.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:44:30 -0500

Following this line of thought, I would presume she does not own this astounding Sackboy!Grissom - http://glassshard.tumblr.com/post/16066696968/my-secret-santa-present-from-vgmc-was-nearly-a - It came in the mail today. I am concerned my other plushes won't be welcoming to him when I go to bed tonight and they all come to life. I think I may have to pull an all-nighter.

You have a sexy voice, by the way (no homo).

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:39:52 -0500

It cannot possibly be sexy if there are people who say I sound like Sette D: I think it taps out at "adorable."

I also translated 5.15, but there seems to be some very slight differences in word choice. Please delete if I am irritating! I don't sleep well, and often end up going over things I love to keep darker thoughts at bay. Lately that's your comic. :)

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:38:22 -0500

"Irritating?" Your comics make me tackle the nearest of my dogs and roll around with them on the floor and giggle like Gilbert Grape's little brother. I wish insomnia on no one but for you I might make an exception :D I think you should go back and translate the entire comic like this and maybe add sharks.

Is the distribution of castes even throughout Alderode's provinces or do some provinces have a greater percentage population of a given caste?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:12:03 -0500

It's not an equal distribution but populations from area to area are tightly controlled. It's not easy to travel in Alderode since each ginnal (province) has very tight borders and passports are difficult to obtain. It's one way Alderode keeps control and segregates the castes. Caste ratios are more heterogeneous in cities where industry, government, and the Window take advantage of each castes particular assets; otherwise, in the country, castes tend to occupy entire villages and you can travel for a few days and only see one kind of person.

Does this mean that Quigley has (using British accents as an analogy) a more Yorkshire (Sean Bean) accent as opposed to Duane who would have more of a posh South English (Orlando Bloom-ish) accent? Ahaha, now I'm imagining them with those voices. D:

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:04:16 -0500

God, Orlando Bloom gives me a cramp. But ah, sure, if this works for you I don't object :)

You seem like a Zuko fan.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:00:00 -0500

Yeah, Zuko was all right. Not nearly as interesting as Azula though :)

I agree, I was very disappointed with the third season of Avatar, especially since it came on the heels of the second season, which was pure awesome. SO MUCH FILLER. D:

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:07:18 -0500

I knooooow. But you're right, that second season was the shit :D The third season did have a few high points like delirious, sleepy Aang and that play. Still. Yeah.

Can tacit casters communicate with the khert and cast spells even if they don't know Tainish? Or do they have to think their spells in Tainish?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:06:28 -0500

They have to think their spells in Old Tainish, it's the only language the khert knows. Not even the modern Tainish that the Aldish speak will do.

Do non-wrights realistically even stand a chance against wrights? It seems like every wright should be a walking nuke, even the piss-poor ones, since stealing an aspect of anything seems to destroy the object.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:05:37 -0500

Pymary depends on the khert, since Aspects travel along its lines. All a non-wright needs is a weapon capable of disrupting the khert lines and he can essentially block spells with it. So yeah, a properly prepared person can do just fine against a wright. There's also the fact that all you have to do is shut a wright up, and you've disabled him. Gosh, and there's the proximity issue, where the worse a wright's khert stability is, the closer they have to be to both their Aspects and their targets, making them easy to snipe...

Yeah, wrights are not gods.

"[Quigley] has the same accent as Duane." Aldish accent, or Durlynian accent?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:02:10 -0500

Durlynian, specifically. They're both from Durlyne province in Alderode. Duane was a city boy though and Quigley was from a mining village.

You didn't like the third season of Avatar? The action alone made it one of my favorites, but I can see some of the writing problems. Energy bending being the biggest flaw, but I can see why they felt the need to keep Aang's hands clean.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:58:01 -0500

Oh, absolutely, I never thought Aang needed to kill Ozai, but I think the energy-bending needed to be foreshadowed. The way it went down, it was totally lion-turtle ex machina. But my biggest problem of the season were those fire prison episodes. They were clumsily written and felt like babby's first prison break. The prison didn't feel dangerous, none of the villains were competent... blah. I also greatly disliked that no one and nothing was sacrificed in the final battle. A mega-win without any sacrifice is some pretty hollow entertainment.

Also? I never lost sleep over it, but the last season would have been much more interesting if Katara had wound up with Zuko. There really was no chemistry between Katara and Aang, and Mai was a snooze. God, she's a horrible character, from her design to her voice actor to her stupid fighting style. Hate that ho.

I really do like Avatar though, don't get me wrong :3

"But no Ahab. I'll try to act it" - Kind of the point!

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:06:35 -0500

Cute girl voice trying to act out one of Ahab's terrible, soul-shattering soliloquies... No. It would become some kind of meme. I would have to change my name.

But some spells (such as Elka's) have their incantations in normal speech bubbles...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:44:21 -0500

Yeah, I'm still tinkering, trying to decide what I like best. I wouldn't over-analyze it, my dear.

How does a non-wright challenge a wright?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:42:56 -0500

Sudoku.

So Duane's religion believes their prophet killed the other religion's gods? I can see how that would make them popular...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:42:43 -0500

Yeaaaah. Fortunately for the Ssaelit, they keep to themselves for the most part and don't roll their eyes or slash a finger across their throat whenever a Gefendur mentions one of the Twins.

Re: your voice - let me love yoooooou aaaaaa

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:41:49 -0500

-I- still have a recording of you doing Sette in your own voice. It does sound exactly how I picture her. should I share?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:41:44 -0500

...let me listen to it first. I worry about the dialogue.

Duane died in his early thirties? So, live fast, die young, leave a...n acceptable-looking corpse?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:41:18 -0500

At least he had his twenties. Twenties are the best.

I am conspicuously NOT asking for a translation to the Tainish in today's comic. So...uh, is that some kind of pymaric fire that appeared next to Duane? Quigley's being such a dick!

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:40:12 -0500

"Plat bro, you're friends with this dick?" Or more literally, "Brother Plat, you are a friend of this villain?"

Yeah, Quigley. I mean, what do you want him to do? Starfish is paying him a metric ass-tonne of money to play bodyguard and guide, and here comes Duane, a self-righteous, wordy, presumptuous stranger who is not only kicking the crap out of Quigley's charge, but then dares to assume he knows who Quigley is? How he should be acting? Wants to know his business? Sod him.

Even if Quigley was not inclined to be a dick - he quite dislikes Aldishmen though, so he'd be inclined regardless - he has to put on an alpha male show for Ephsephin who of course is going to go back to Starfish and report on what happened. Quigley is on the clock.

You should read out a passage from Moby Dick sometime.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:27:17 -0500

Pick one. But no Ahab. I'll try to act it and that will end well for no one.

Why is the incantation for Duane's chap 1 light spell in the normal English alphabet instead of fancy Tainish pictograms?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:26:28 -0500

The pictograms are behind the translation in the bubble, but I wanted to show that the pictograms are actually an alphabet spelling out a language, so I translated that very first spell. There are a lot of things about this comic that would be much, much easier to convey if it was a novel. Whoever said a picture is worth a thousand words was not being entirely honest.

Ah, I see. They kind of blended in with the yellow light. Quigley doesn't seem to be actively speaking, though; there's no speech bubble and he doesn't open his mouth. (Indeed, in the latest page, he casts while talking normally) Is there a reason?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:24:06 -0500

Artistic license :) It's untranslated spellspeak that should ideally stand apart from regular dialogue bubbles since it's not meant to be read, and it's nice if it can actually look okay compositionally atop the art. That's something I want to play with more; getting the Tainish to blend better with the spell effects. I must improve!

Are you excited for Avatar: Legend of Korra? I know I am, even if the idea of old-timey cars in the Avatar universe strikes me as...odd.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:21:08 -0500

I don't know. I guess it's going to be nonbenders hating on benders, which could easily make it into some kind of Asian X-men, which I'm not all that stoked about. This is why I really don't love inherent genetic magic abilities in any setting - Avatar, Harry Potter, X-Men, anything - because of the inevitable Wizards VS Humans storyline, which almost always just turns into a morality play. So I'm not all that thrilled with the angle they're taking.

The jump in the tech level seems sudden, yeah, like the creators based the world on What Sounds Cool instead of What Is The Natural Progression. I don't completely trust the writers after the last season of the first series. But! I am still looking forward to seeing what they come up with, and I'm willing to give them their fair shot at my attention span. Maybe it will totally rawk!

What are those glowy runes in the recent pages? Is Quigley supposed to be speaking those? I thought he was a tacit caster? (There was no incantation when he smacked Starfish in chap 3)

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:33:16 -0500

Sure there was - http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch03/ch03_17.html - Left side of the panel. Quigs is not a tacit caster, he has to talk. Hmm, I like the calligraphy on that page, I should stick to that style, and vertical, even if it does look vaguely Chinese.

I was expecting you to have a gritty, sarcastic voice. What a disconnect!

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:10:06 -0500

I know -_- I wish I had a frightening, Christian Bale Batman rasp that would strike terror in the hearts of evil-doers. Instead my voice is irritatingly cute. I should start smoking.

I don't know why, but your voice kind of sounds along the lines of what I'd imagined for Sette. ...Would you be willing to read some of her lines for us? Please?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:08:49 -0500

Noooo. I can't do a decent accent and I would feel particularly ridiculous :)

Does Elka not have a last name because you haven't invented one yet, or because last names are special in Crescian culture?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:08:39 -0500

I am ashamed to admit it, but it's because I haven't invented one yet. She refuses to tell me what it is which may be her way of lobbying for it to one day be "Toma," the tramp.

I joined a frat when I was in college, and I got sick of it after a couple of years, so I'm glad I didn't do anything dumb like get frat symbol tattoos or anything. Do any Black Tongues just go "Man, I wish I still had my balls......" after a few years?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:34:46 -0500

I... I... probably. You make me lol, anon.

Also, you have an adorable voice. Thanks for making the recording at the anon's request. :)

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:33:36 -0500

Anytime, sweetie.

Aw, your voice is so cute! I was hoping you were going to say "Frummagen" too :)

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:33:21 -0500

Aw, rats, I did forget Frummagem! Aw, well, that's not a difficult one to pronounce at least.

I see Quigley, and I hear the voice of the Quincy, from the Bleach anime series; the English language voice. :P

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:32:43 -0500

Not familiar, I'm afraid. When I hear "Quincy" I think of the boy from Little Einsteins. Funny old world.

Could you speak the names and record them? That would be amazing :D

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:53:05 -0500

Don't make fun of my voice :( http://www.casualvillain.com/random/names.mp3

Early thirties huh? So Duane got to live longer than Quigley even before he got immortal unlife? That's gotta sting.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:46:49 -0500

Being a Plat sucks.

Personally I have no problem with you killing Matty. Am I a bad person?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:46:24 -0500

Of course not. Matty's not a real human being. Personally I love when Mufasa and Bambi's mother die. Not because I hated them but because it made their respective movies suddenly much more interesting.

Do plats get like old people voices early?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:44:57 -0500

I imagine they get pretty raspy and senile towards the end.

Love Sette's 'you suck' face.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:44:20 -0500

Do you have any advice for writing accents? I'm having trouble.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:44:14 -0500

Well, there are two schools of thought on the subject. There are writers who are cool with the idea of writing out accents phonetically, and writers who find that either too difficult or even kind of offensive, and only mention accents in the prose around the dialogue.

"Fuck me but that's a laugh!" he exclaimed in his thick London slur VS "Fuh me but tha's larf!"

"I declare! This boulevard is teeming with cornfed riffraff just rolled out of the hills!" she huffed, her Georgian accent like a confederate sabre in my skull VS "Ah declare! This boulevard's teemin' with cornfed riffraf just rolled out the hills!"

And so on. I personally like a nice combination of the two, but the best way to write a good, convincing accent is to study a real one. It's often a pain in the butt, particularly if it's an accent from a different country since it will include all kinds of words, phrases, and structures you don't yourself use, but it's really the only way. It's a sad truth that if you want to be a serious writer, eighty percent of the work often goes into research. So Google your accent, rent some movies that feature the accent, and most helpfully, READ the accent in books, both fiction and nonfiction. Make notes. Try speaking the accent yourself. Always speak your dialogue aloud and make sure it sounds natural.

Egad I do love the concept of wrights. Something about the idea of two wrights doing battle, simultaneous planning their moves whilst trying frantically to do the reverse equations of their opponents attacks to get a glimpse of what's coming is amazing.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:31:15 -0500

Yeaaaah, keep that in the back of your head because nine times out of ten I just depict it as guys flinging cool glowy stuff at each other ;)

What if a plat did something horrible to another plat?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:30:38 -0500

What if?

Captain Toma sounds like Mr. T in my mind's eye. (Or is that mind's ear?) Oh, and Sette is Yangus from Dragon Quest. Cor blimey!

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:30:30 -0500

No way, Toma sounds like Denzel Washington :D

Quigley's voice is difficult for me to pin down. He looks and dresses very elegantly, but then he goes and says things like "What two-quarter carnival shat out the pair of you?" and I can't even tell if he sounds smooth or coarse.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:27:14 -0500

He sounds pretty smooth (Academy-educated so he would speak quite well), and young, and has the same accent as Duane.

Thank you for your list of Tanish insults. I shall study them, and use them under my breath at managers I don't like at work, and no one will ever be the wiser!

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:26:14 -0500

Hoho! God knows that's half the reason I made the language up in the first place ;)

Darn...well then, can you give me a lovely Tainish insult...or at least a swear word?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:11:45 -0500

Muol is a popular insult, Quigley's used it. It's anyone you feel is beneath you, and literally translates to servant or slave. I'll just list some others:
chig - fool
iwtugu - shithead
padorfador - gutter piss
difhut - scum/slime
owol - twat
tweloch - foreskin
ellokhit - outsider. It's bad to be called this in Alderode
mouten - what you'd call a Ssaelit person you don't care for
nall-hrashomasa - what a Ssaelit might call a Gefendur (lit. baby-eater)
My favourite: ean-twel - lit. third-rate dick. Va, relet, and ean denote the quality of First Materials, with ean being the lowest quality.
efhllachomit - unknowable one. Hard to explain without getting into Dammakhert stuff, but it's bad.

"Prok" is my answer to "fuck." "Maa" is more like stink, stinking. If you stubbed your toe and needed to just erupt in a stream of cursing, you might sputter: "Maa prok iwtu ul--!" "Stinking fucking piece of shit thing!"

:3

I dunno, man, I've always read Duane as sounding like Barry White. (I'm so sorry)

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:24:56 -0500

I'm not sure he has the lung capacity for Barry White. He would puff up and then explode like that songbird Fiona sings the duet with in Shrek.

So... how do you pronounce "imunt hethllot" and what exactly does it mean? If it's something really fun, I'll add it to my ever-growing vocabulary. :D

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:05:47 -0500

That's a pretty easy one. Remember, Spanish vowels and like Spanish, double L is a y sound (if it's at the end of a word, it's yeh). So ee-MOONT heyth-YOHT. But all it means is "They have a plat." :3

I think I shall go update. Boring page today, alas.

in response to the voice of Duane being Cecil from Dissidia, he sounds too young. I always thought Duane would have a manly voice, very posh and smooth. Any truth in that? Or am I the only person who makes voices for characters?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:11:43 -0500

I don't fixate on voices too much, but Duane's would probably sound older, yeah. He died in his early thirties.

It's easy to forget how much of what you do is writing. That script was pretty awesome (don’t wanna be too greedy but more please if you are willing). Do you ever write things that don't have accompanying visuals?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:38:35 -0500

I used to RP, and that was a lot of very heavy writing, a couple thousand words a day sometimes. I've also started and then given up on a few novels, the most recent one about my character Bastion's early life and his family. I'd like to go back to it one day and perform some cosmetic surgery.

If a plod remains animated for a long amount of time does it become nothing but a walking skeleton and lose it's unpleasant stench?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:34:14 -0500

Sure, though a walking skeleton is too brittle to hold together very well or prove terribly useful, and it's likely to be trashed by its owners long before that point.

Look up "Dissidia English Character Montage - Cecil" on YouTube. Cecil's voice & pre-battle speech is pretty much exactly how I picture Duane sounding -- a mix of noble boyscout superhero and total dork. (Except also imagine the Swedish Chef mixed in.)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:32:56 -0500

It's not a bad comparison. Bork, bork, bork.

Speculation: Johfrit is a burgundy Copper who explodes out of the ground whilst screaming, his hair and eyes all fiery, then his face tattoo glows like lava right before he spits fire at his enemies. BEST SUMMON EVER.

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:31:44 -0500

John Ifrit, mild-mannered fire demon accountant, by night becomes JOHFRIT, summoned slayer of flans!

Sette begged and pleaded, but Boo shook his head, his dear little sapphire eyes glittering love. Duane had been quite firm, no gossamer was to be given to her under any circumstances and Boo would do as asked. Other means would be required to get her pie.

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:30:14 -0500

Are there potential tacit casters who never learn Tainish or study pymary?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:29:39 -0500

Certainly. If you never pursue a wright's connection to the khert, you'll never know you have the ability.

I know this has been answered before, but formspring has no search function so I shall ask again and hope for an answer. Is it theoretically possible for Two-Toes to become wrights?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:29:10 -0500

Theoretically, but they have problems pronouncing the Tainish correctly so no one will license them. Instead they have their own method of interacting with the khert and creating a pymary unique to their culture, but everyone thinks the lizards are brutes and savages so it's not very well-researched or documented.

"Ssael was a lovely old intellectual who talked the gods to death" So Duane is just following in his god's footsteps when he starts pontificating during battle? Sette needs to stop oppressing his religion!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:26:58 -0500

Yeah!

What signature style does Bastion's pymary have, if any? Or Elka's? You mentioned Duane likes fire at one point, I think?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:26:37 -0500

Bastion does a lot of abstruse, theoretical, experimental stuff. You'll see big flashy displays from Duane and Quigley, but Bastion is a researcher, and his most powerful gruftgramary is subtle, like teleportation, direct manipulation of the khert, mind-control, trap-laying, scrying and spell tracing. Bastion's not really a fighter - instead he's the kind of guy that gets his enemies to destroy each other and themselves.

Bastion had one really great moment in RP that stands out to me as perfectly characteristic of his methods. He was battling the thrall of the Lich-King and spent weeks of game-time going around and, in plain view, meeting with certain individuals, researching for a spell, hanging out in certain key areas, and negotiating between the Lich's people and the paladins, essentially laying the groundwork for a scheduled invasion and conflict between their two forces. The night of the battle arrives, the undead show up to fight the amassed holy knights, and Bastion, meanwhile, is across town at the governor's dinner party letting a small group of the Lich's elite into the mansion to slaughter almost the entirety of the city's administration. And not a single one of my players saw it coming even though it was completely justified by weeks of (in retrospect) transparent set-up. My finest moment.

You remembered! Yeah, I had my birthday on the 13th and got page 13 as a present. <3 I have several Vlad books to go, too, but took a break right now after reading 7 of them almost in a row. Also, I made klava (after learning it's probably egg coffee). ~R

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:15:15 -0500

Mmm, egg coffee. I bet that was good :D Apparently the author is really into eating and cuisine, he's a cool guy.

So, are you planning on participating in the forums?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:14:19 -0500

I don't know... I would feel like I was ruining the party. Communities like that don't want the creator around wagging her finger and quashing speculation and making people feel self-conscious. I will check in every now and then - or contact me if you need something specific - but I think I'll stay sidelined.

Shouldn't Bastion be pudgier, if he had his jewels removed? Getting it done young makes you taller, apparently, but once you're grown you don't even get the singing voice. I'm guessing Glamours? Or can pymary be used for cosmetic surgery?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:12:31 -0500

Nah, Bastion just takes care of himself and is a sexy motherfucker. He does a lot of manipulation of people, and a svelte and smoking gentleman is much more convincing than a pudgy, homely one.

You're about to head into the final dungeon of your arch-nemesis! You can take three and only three of your RP characters to aid you on your quest. Which three do you take?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:10:18 -0500

RP characters? Well, I had a villain who was an unconquerable god-lich, so if I had him on my team I bet I'd be pretty unstoppable. I'll take him for his sorcery, Bastion for eye candy, and Sette for comic relief. That's a good party right there.

Is that bird demon different the one made up of the red eels that's traveling with Bastion in that voting incentive? Or is that just his pymary? I know you mentioned a smoke eel demon at one point. What's up with Bastion and all these demons?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:08:34 -0500

Oh, I wouldn't go asking about demons at this point. Too soon. The smoke eels in that illustration were really just smoke eels though. Bastion smokes a lot so they tend to hang around him, like remoras around a shark.

But I mean, how do you even do something like kill the gods? Where do you start? They're gods! The whole world is in that chick's tummy!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:05:19 -0500

Well, if Ssael wasn't alleged to have done something pretty fantastic, they wouldn't have made a whole religion around him now, would they?

OH GOD. Is Matty really going to die? Since you said (teased?) he would be KO'd in chapter 5, I took hope from the sketches that place him in Ethelmik, looking sad but healthy. Maybe the sad scene just mentioned is a flashback? Puppy eyes

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:04:35 -0500

Poor, poor reader. There, there.

Be honest now -- would Quigley prefer to have the freaky goblin thing as a son instead of Matty?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:36:04 -0500

The scene I worked on tonight in chapter six... I can't even joke about it, too sad.

When Quigley & Elka's child matures and comes of age, I will hit that SO hard!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:34:55 -0500

Is Elka's hair considered pretty radical, or are short haircuts/unusual colors a normal fashion thing for women?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:34:40 -0500

Almost anything goes in Cresce. Elka's tastes are pretty plain and soldiery. Last week I was trying to design a hairstyle where a lady's thinly woven braids are arranged as the rigging to a ship-shaped hat sitting atop her head, surrounded by tiny intermittently leaping glamoured dolphins and a foamy crepe collar leading down, around, and into a sea-blue dress glimmering with reflecting light.

Where is that alien picture from? It's beautiful! ...It is an alien, right?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:29:02 -0500

Yeah! It's Ripley's adora-horrible alien behbeh from Alien:Resurrection. It should go on Gerber jars, man.

I'm currently 16, and aspire to be as great an artist as you some day. Could you give an example or indication of how good you were artwise at my age? Also, say something witty, you're good at that. :)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:28:07 -0500

Oh, I was terrible when I was sixteen! I was copying out of Disney Adventures and X-Men, and drawing Mighty Max fanart. My comics were all about Disney ducks and wise-cracking animal bad guys, but my main focus was on more fine arts related endeavours since I attended an art magnet high school. We did everything from darkroom photography to arc welding to screen printing. Fun times, but a heavier focus on drawing would have been helpful. Just draw everyday, man, you'll get there!

What would people have to pay you weekly for you to work on Unsounded full time? Just curious...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:20:22 -0500

Enough to pay my bills and I'd be pretty happy. Actually, I'd be ecstatic.

How do i become as witty as you? Is there a class i can take?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:19:34 -0500

I am not witty D: I would recommend you read some really witty authors like Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. They will blow your socks off.

Aside from pymary, if there was one thing you could have in the real world from the Unsounded-verse... What would it be?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:18:23 -0500

Ya know, I can't really think of anything. Almost everything in Unsounded is something we already have but in another form, and those few things truly unique to it are things that are kind of horrible. So I guess maybe smoke eels, because they are pretty.

If Quigley and Elka had freaky-deaky jungle sex under the Dammakhert, how would the child turn out? Would it be Aldish with a random caste? Purely Crescian? Mixed skin, but with gold or bronze hair?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:36:34 -0500

So, then, would Bastion be considered a furry? ;P

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:43:43 -0500

...Bastion has killed men for much less than this. Lock your door.

I'm getting them impression Duane and Quigs have the potential for a lovely hatemance.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:36:53 -0500

This chapter is their first date, then :3

I remember reading that the best sex Bastion ever had was with a giant female bird demon. Is that canon in the comic, or an RP-only thing? :)

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:35:53 -0500

*cough* Still canon.

Ash I am getting the impression that Duane and Quigs are not destined to be BFF, let alone OTP. :(

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:53:37 -0500

Silly anon, Blondo is not Duane. I know this because I asked it myself a few months ago. I was so excited how beautiful Duane was but, alas, incorrect. It was hinted, however, that 04-14 might be of interest to those like ourselves.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:52:54 -0500

There you go.

So what happens to the really odious, criminal plats?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:51:45 -0500

Same thing that happens to other odious criminals in Alderode. Being a plat may get you a free pass with the gods, but if you're in a super hurry to redeem that pass by being a mega-asshole, Vits will gladly cut your head off and send you on your way.

Can you tell us anything about Ssael?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:49:39 -0500

I could. Wait and ask Duane next time the formspring opens though. He'll give you a grander answer than I will.

How old are you?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:48:35 -0500

Thirty-one.

Do the Ilganyag accept female members? If so, do they need to cut out their ovaries?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:48:27 -0500

No girls allowed. Go play with your dolls.

If you could meet and talk to one of your characters irl which one would you pick?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:48:08 -0500

Bastion. But older Bastion. Older Bastion is very wise, pretty scary, but I think we'd be simpatico. There'd be much to discuss.

You say the Dammakhert has "judgement." Does that mean that its alive? Or were you just referring to the judgement of the Aldish founding fathers who created the Dammakhert?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:45:54 -0500

The Aldish do anthropomorphize the Dammakhert, but whether it's actually sentient or not is up in the air. The Dammakhert - and kherts in general - are essentially what passes for Nature in Unsounded's world. All the laws of nature and reality exist in it. We respect nature and often anthropomorphize it (Mother Nature) but we know nature has no core sentience.

Was Quigley an RP character?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:39:40 -0500

Yeah, but he was sooooo different in RP. He was much more light-hearted, a pretty crappy sorcerer, he had a daughter and a lovely wife, Matty could see, they were all Sharteshanian, and Uaid was much smaller.

Are wiminz connected to the khert differently than d00dz?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:30:28 -0500

Newp.

So Ssael = Kratos?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:30:18 -0500

Not even :) Ssael was a lovely old intellectual who talked the gods to death after he beat them back with his army. Not that I don't love Kratos and his skirt and his knife-chains.

"Duane is under no dogmatic obligation to drop to his knee and offer Quigley a prayer and a raspberry truffle.". Well, no, but it would be polite. I mean, he just called Quigley's mother a whore, some confections would really smooth things over.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:27:40 -0500

I wish I had some raspberry truffles. Someone asked a while ago if my mood affects my writing and I said no, but I think my appetite affects eighty percent of what I put on formspring churro churro pie truffle.

Even if there aren't female Ilganyag, are there women associated with it? Have any ever tried to join? Come to think of it...are there even very many female Aldish wrights? I bet it's only a boys' club because there aren't any Aldish ladies available.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:24:48 -0500

The Ilganyag (I really am more used to this word than Black Tongues, thank you for using it) began in Alderode but it's now an international organisation. And internationally, there are oodles of awesome lady wrights. Still, they are not accepted into the organisation. Them's the rules. Could be a reason for it. We'll have to wait and see :)

Are the Aldish right about how Cresce feels about them? Given the opportunity, -would- Cresce march in and raze Alderode (as opposed to marching in for conquest)?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:22:25 -0500

Good question.

I wish I were better at drawing so I could make some gruesome Duane-eating-himself fanart. I don't think my stick figure rendition will cut it. Though the zigzag teeth are cute.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:22:12 -0500

Duane makes a good stick figure. He's already pretty skinny :3

I think once you said that Quigley wished that his hate for Alderode was reciprocated on the other end. I thought that was because they thought him insignificant and because plats die so fast, or was it because no one wants to hunt plats?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:21:25 -0500

It's because Plats are revered in Alderode. He would have the country hate him as much as he hates the country, but that will never happen. He's done some horrible stuff, but it didn't even get out to the Aldish public that he'd done it - it would have stirred the pot too much. So he smoulders in isolation, out-country, full of impotent hate.

Woah, wait, some guy killed the gods? That's pretty psycho.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:17:53 -0500

Most mythology is.

"To question the existence or treatment of one caste is to question all castes" - Except the Bronze, amirite? Screw those halfbreeds.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:17:44 -0500

The Bronze aren't thought of as halfbreeds. The idea of halfbreeds, generally, is they don't have a place in either of two groups so they're isolated and unwanted by all. Think of, oh, the mudblood halfbreeds in Harry Potter. There wasn't a big old Mudblood organisation where all the Mudbloods could go and be with their own kind and find safety and reassurance and validation. Mudbloods were ostracized - they were wizards so they couldn't hang out with muggles, but they weren't pureblooded so most wizards thought they were trash, and it could be just as difficult to find a place in wizard society.

But the Bronze are their own legitimate caste and there are a lot of them. They are not halfbreeds. They are still Aldish. No one of any caste is going to say otherwise. They are just the rats on the ship, so to speak, and are afforded the least respect and the least value.

Oooh! The Vlad-book you mean is probably Athyra! I read all the books up till Orca, and this might be my favorite, too. :-) I'm Reed, who commented on your Vlad pic a while ago, but not the anon who just asked the question. Hello there, other Vlad-reader!

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:09:01 -0500

Reed is the best! Didn't you just have a birthday? Happy belated birthday :) I think the last Vlad book I read was when you-know-who died and became a Morganti (was that the word?) weapon of Vlad's. It was pretty great but it was the last published book at the time and it was a long wait 'til the next one and I just never picked it up. Now I think I'm a few books behind.

In that case, do the Ssaelit in Alderode object to how the Plats are treated and their communities subsidized and all that? Are there any Ssaelit Plats?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:17:47 -0500

The Gefendur and the Ssaelit object to plenty of things that each group does. But there is one religion that the Ssaelit and the Gefendur both practise, a religion maybe even more important than their respective lesser faiths: the state religion of fealty to the government and the Dammakhert. The Dammakhert has separated Alderode's citizens the way it has for a reason, and though the Ssaelit do not believe the reasoning behind it is different measurements of love by the Gefendur Twins, they do believe the Dammakhert's judgment is sacred and unquestionable, and the Plats are therefore exceptional and worthy of differential treatment. To question the existence or treatment of one caste is to question all castes, and to raise questions could create schisms, and into that rift vile Cresce would march, swords bared, to raze the country to the ground.

The plats are loved by the gods, but Duane's religion says the gods are dead. What do they think about plats? Do they think the guy who killed the gods also likes plats so it's still good?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:58:50 -0500

Nope. The Ssaelit think the "Plats are loved by the gods" business is bullshit. Duane is under no dogmatic obligation to drop to his knee and offer Quigley a prayer and a raspberry truffle.

Do you answer all the questions you get or do you delete the lame, obvious ones?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:56:21 -0500

There are no lame questions, anon, only lame people :3 I delete spoilers and rudeness. Don't ask me questions about future happenings or what we will or won't see. Spoilers are spoilers are spoilers.

What is love?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:55:08 -0500

Baby don't hurt me

Is there any form of path of experimentation that even the Ilganyag balk at?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:54:59 -0500

Officially, no. But every member has their own personal code of ethics.

Does Duane ever suffer from rigor mortis?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:52:37 -0500

That goes firmly in the Year One period.

Alright, look. I'll bet other people have asked this already, but I don't recall seeing it. Is Blondo McWhoopass (as I believe I've seen him called) from 1.16 Duane himself?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:52:22 -0500

Mmmm.

Ah, that was it! Human Qualities. Thank you, other anon. Sorry for using you as a messenger, Glass. Here, I'll think of a question to make it worth your while. Is Johfrit a member of the Aldish cast we're going to be visiting soon?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:52:11 -0500

I love Explosions in the Sky, that whole Take Care album is exquisite. Johfrit is definitely Aldish.

Are you at liberty to tell us more about the Black Tongues, why its a 'thing,' whatever other 'things' they might have?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:51:11 -0500

You might find the wiki entry at least mildly helpful http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php/Black_Tongues

...would anyone feel confident enough to RP Unsounded characters? Original characters in Kasslyne - now that sounds a bit more logical!

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:49:47 -0500

I say do what feels good!

If the gods love Plats, what's their stance on Plats committing crimes?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:49:28 -0500

The gods? They don't care. If you're a Plat the holy men say you get a free pass.

GlassShard is a eunuch!

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:48:46 -0500

Don't tell anyone :(

Translation for the latest page? Because I pay waaaay too much attention I know Hethllot (capitalized?) means Plat. Imunt I would guess means wright? Also the poses in this page - the fall, the nose touch, the Quigley - are all such goodness.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:48:33 -0500

"Imunt" is they have. So "they have a plat?" Duane essentially translated it in the next sentence :) I get too into Tainish sometimes! On the next page there are two big untranslated speech bubbles and I finally came to my senses last night while I was editing the week's pages, and translated most of it.

Glad you like the page :)

Whenever I see the Vlad picture in your gallery I can't help but smile. What's your favourite book in the series?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:43:03 -0500

It's been so long since I've read the books my horrible memory has shunted a lot of them out of my brain. I think I liked the one best where he's hurt really badly and the kid doctor's apprentice nurses him back to health. That was a book, right? I'm sorry, my memory is famously bad x_x

Hey, what's up with the face and the falling people and the face eating people in that old tomb the Red Berry Boys holed up in?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:41:03 -0500

It was a tomb. Those were carvings to keep graverobbers, jealous dead, and bad spirits out of the inner crypt. Didn't work, I guess.

Why partial and not full castration?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:39:29 -0500

Because Black Tongues are hardcore, not insane.

Wait, so...Duane is only able to function through pymary. He could only use pymary through tacit casting before restoring his voice. QED, an unassisted plod can only function if the body is that of a tacit caster. This makes me think someone picked him.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:38:35 -0500

Mmmmmm.

Are there any female black tongues? If so, what do they sacrifice? To keep in line with the symbolism, I'd guess it would be their ovaries but I doubt surgery is that advanced. Their breasts? O.o Or do they not let the un-brotherly in their brotherhood?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:37:32 -0500

You guessed it. No girls allowed.

Is (insert character here) a eunuch?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:37:08 -0500

Castrate All The Characters!!! Chitz is a eunuch.

What's the point of removing their testicles? And what about women, what do they have to sacrifice to join the team?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:35:54 -0500

No women in the Black Tongues I'm afraid. It's a boy's club.

Is Matty a eunuch?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:53:29 -0500

No, dear.

So does that mean that Quigley's a eunuch, too? Or is he one of the freerange-type of illegal Pymary users? (if they exist)

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:59:56 -0500

Free-range. Like good chicken.

have there ever been any rogue black tongues that do all the stuff that black tongues do, except they've decided to keep their balls? i'd join that club

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:55:52 -0500

If you're not willing to make a sacrifice in the name of power and scholarship, you're not Black Tongue material. The Black Tongues are not a "club." It's really a way of life; a brotherhood.

why would anyone give up their balls to become a black tongue? seriously

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:52:05 -0500

It's certainly not for casuals.

If you lose your hair due to your skin sloughing off, you save on both combs and sunscreen. Win-win!

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:57:14 -0500

Good philosophy. See good in bad, I like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjLO_CrZRmM

Re: Bastion. Wow! At what age? Puberty or after?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:54:07 -0500

In Bastion's case, he was twenty-two.

Uh, is Bastion a eunuch?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:45:58 -0500

All Black Tongues have to give up their balls. It's a thing.

As Unsounded grows in popularity, it's kinda inevitable that people will begin RPing it. /coughLJcommunitycough Anyway, do you find this surreal? Your once RP characters being used in RP... by others?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:43:42 -0500

Man, the idea is absolutely surreal. Anyone who RPs a lot will get this, but after a certain amount of play you come to know your character's "voice" completely. So when you read someone else trying to write them it's like this whole uncanny valley deal: it almost seems like them but it's off. They use words you know they wouldn't use or fail to frame their sentences in the proper tempo or use totally inappropriate slang. It's scary!

My best friend sometimes uses my characters in side-stories from RP-verse, and she's a fantastic writer but even she will never be able to do the voices in a way that doesn't make me want to claw my own eyes out and masticate them viciously.

I'm presuming Duane's lungs and throat muscles have long since rotted away, so how does he talk? Is that also pymary?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:37:03 -0500

Ha, I think I get this question once a month :3 In summation: mostly pymary. In detail: Duane built himself new lungs out of pig bladders (I got this idea from one of the Little House books) and a tongue, throat and vocal chords of molded leather, then assigned the necessary Aspects to each so they'd function in tandem with his plod enchantments. He was mute for a long time before he got it all to work. It was torture. He likes to talk so much ;_;

There's nothing wrong, or poor, about being a Baldy McBald. ;P

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:57:11 -0500

You might change your mind if you were bald because your scalp had come off D:

Do either the Crescian or Alderode(ian) practice circumcison?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:39:36 -0500

"Aldish" would be the word you're looking for. And nope.

How many questions are in your inbox right now? Besides... this one.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:55:20 -0500

Twenty-one! Some are really old and I keep meaning to answer them with drawings but, ya know, time.

Ah, I see. I was more asking because of the "A Familiar Boo" submission in your dA gallery. Was just speculating on whether that might turn out to be canon or not ;P Glad he's aware of the explosive potential of his ward though, always handy to know!

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:54:53 -0500

Ah, no, that illustration is definitely RP-verse :)

Does Tegami Batchi get better after the first volume? In what ways? I read it a while ago and wasn't too impressed, then saw you recommended it a little after I had finished reading it.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:52:12 -0500

The story doesn't improve, no. It's dubiously conceived melodramatic shounen nonsense in a silly world with silly engrishy names. But dat art. I really only read it for the art. And when I say art I don't necessarily mean the design because the character designs are boring, the backgrounds are terribly generic, and Steak is outright stupid looking. God, and the moe loli perversion factor is strong with Niche. But it's got really good action and really hot male characters and really cute kid characters. That's enough for me when I just want some light-hearted trash manga to read, but I could definitely understand it being insufficient for others.

I'll keep this vague, in the hope of avoiding spoilers for others, but I've just noticed something. In Unsounded, I know Boo was on Sette a lot at the end of chapter 4, but did Duane ever actually -notice- him there?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:11:03 -0500

He did. He also noticed it's out of gossamer and hence no longer a concern. He wouldn't have left Sette in possession of something that powerful.

So what do Aldish people do to kind of individualise themselves or 'mark themselves out' in the manner of hair dye or whatever?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:56:59 -0500

Well, glancing over at some of my Aldish character designs, we have plenty of different outfits, hairstyles, piercings, Johfrit has a full-face tattoo... they seem to get along pretty well without dying their hair :)

Did someone just use the word sesquipedalian? Jeebus. You need a dictionary to navigate this comic and formspring. ;)

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:26:07 -0500

English is an amazing language. Make use of the whole of it :D

Do people dye their hair anyway?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:15:08 -0500

Not really, no. It's not fashionable and it's no good way to hide your caste since your skintone and eye colour and something else you shouldn't ask me about right now will give you away anyway.

Thanks! For a question, is hair dye popular in Alderode?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:55:45 -0500

No way! Dying or shaving your hair is like, taboo. It's like a white person in our world wearing blackface.

Does Duane even have any hair left though.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:54:17 -0500

Not a strand. Poor Baldy McBald.

Well, that narrows it down, right? Duane must be a Gold, Bronze or Silver? And he probably isn't a Bronze. Am I close?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:47:43 -0500

I don't wanna spoil all of formspring but anyone who wants to know just go on my dA and look for some old art of him without the hood. Hair colour matches caste and his hair colour hasn't changed from RP to comic.

"Although Sette probably would not have tolerated this anyway" - because it's a waste of time or because she genuinely finds it upsetting?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:20:46 -0500

Both.

A big long lifespan seems like it would be an advantage in some fields. Like wrights? If Aldish wrights have like two hundred years to tinker does that mean a lot of the best wrights are Aldish? And how do these long lived castes age?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:56:36 -0500

Addressed the aging in another question but Alderode's wrights aren't generally all that superior to the best wrights of other countries. One of the reasons is the heavy restrictions Alderode places on pymary. It's only the Composers and certain muckity-mucks in the Window that are allowed to research beyond the government's definition of lawful and moral pymary, so that makes for a smaller pool of creative talent, long-lived though it may be. This was a huge impetus for the founding of the Ilganyag (Black Tongues), who grew so sick of having the potential of pymary stifled that they risk their lives every day in the name of their art.

But then there are the Plats, who have that rock solid connection to the khert that makes their pymary so stable and their spellwork so accurate. They do have a distinct biological advantage in a fight but they don't live long enough to perfect truly powerful and complex spells so their potential is very limited. It's all a delicate balance.

Out of interest, would Duane have drawn out the fight with Ephsephin if Quigely hadn't intervened? You've mentioned that a lot of Duane's behavior, like all the sesquipedalian speeches are basically self-distractions. Would toying with Ephsephin count?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:48:21 -0500

I don't think Duane would have drawn out the "fight," but he would have moved on to some light torture if Ephsephin decided not to tell him where the rest of the slavers are. Although Sette probably would not have tolerated this anyway, so it's a bit of a moot point.

Do the castes all age at the normal rate, regardless of how long their lifespan eventually is?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:45:40 -0500

Nope, they age proportionally different and some of the castes age... in weird ways. Coppers get ruddier and ruddier the older they get, as though their blood is darkening and congealing and pooling under their skin. So instead of going grey, they go burgundy. Plats are the opposite and get more and more washed out. Their skin thins and cracks and bleeds at the seams and their hair and eyelashes go nearly translucent. It's kind of gross.

To the anon who asked about a song posted some time ago. Maybe it was Human Qualities by Explosions in the Sky? If not go listen to it anyway, it's a good song.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:40:29 -0500

That could be.

...so Duane's rotting brain was still sort of functioning for a while?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:39:08 -0500

-Sort of-

Why the mummy bandages? Wouldn’t Duane get himself some sort of bodysuit or special compression sleeves to hold everything in tight and smooth? If cleaning is an issue, then have a couple sets in that bottomless bag.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:38:22 -0500

He does the best he can, anon, there aren't a lot of manuals around on this subject.

What does the wise one fear?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:32:02 -0500

Herself.

Do you thin you'd ever take a corporate-type creative job? Like getting to use your skills, but in a business/office/professional setting?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:31:47 -0500

Sure, I've had that job. I worked for a cool company for a while designing toys and collectibles for Warner Bros., Disney, Mattel, and a few other licenses. It was nice, but it's all moved to China and California now. I had health insurance, a decent salary, a pretty spiffy Mac workstation and my coworkers were the best. My boss was an insane Chinese woman who seemed completely unaware of her own body and vocal chords in all social situations, but it was fun to have stories to tell about her audibly farting and belching during licensor conferences or about how she felt the need to let everyone know how fat they were, daily. I'd love to have a cushy creative office job again but they are very hard to come by, particularly in my neck of the woods.

Sorry, I had meant to ask how your ero-guro story was coming along before getting thrown off-track by the word "sisfist".

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:26:44 -0500

I... keep forgetting about it. I was hoping I'd reach a slow and boring point in Unsounded that would make me want to set it aside for a few weeks, but even the slow and boring points are fun to draw. *sisfist*

Can I take it from 'Yessss' that Duane did actually eat his own flesh? That is disgusting.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:25:22 -0500

Did Duane try to eat his own flesh, at some point? I'm betting he did. Also, I'd love to see a decomposing, rotty-Duane. Don't hold back because you think something might be too gory. Keep your comic realistic; s'why I love it so much.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:25:10 -0500

Ha, while YOU might love the gore, others might not. I must keep a balance ;) I think you will like chapter 7.

Murkoph as a churro.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:23:53 -0500

Mm. Bueno.

Formspring really needs a search function. I just spent 30 minutes scrolling through, trying to find a song you linked to way back. What's worse: I don't know if I just passed it or if I have to dig deeper still. It was sort of Celtic-sounding.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:23:37 -0500

I could not agree with you more, broseph. If formspring would get a search function and maybe pagination I think it would be a lot more functional and eventually much more popular.

Didn't you say Elka was pretty similar to you, personality-wise? Maybe you could have an Elka avatar, if you didn't feel like using Sette, Duane, or Murkoph.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:22:47 -0500

Perhaps, perhaps.

Your mood often comes through in your writing, which I would say is an indication of a good writer. Have you ever been startled by something in the comic pre-posting because it was so strongly flavored by your state of mind when making it?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:22:38 -0500

Weeeeell, I don't know that I would agree with your opinion. I would say a good writer should be able to write consistently from session to session and not be swayed by whatever they had for dinner. I really try to balance the mood of my stories, doling out time to antics and to angst in more or less equal measure. I can't think of anything I've done in Unsounded that was a caprice of emotion... and if anything like that did sneak in there I think I would manage to catch it and snuff it out before the scene went live :)

So what IS Murkoph all about then?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:18:12 -0500

I reckon you'll have to wait to find out!

Aww, I really like Kingdom Hearts. It's all about, well, heart. Also, Disney crossover! It gets me teary-eyed at some point every time I play through it. But then I'm a rainbows-and-kittens girl, so perhaps that explains some of it. :)

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:17:58 -0500

I'm glad you have a game you really enjoy~

Are there only male plods? The entry in the Unsounded Wiki makes it sound like there are only male ones. Is it because, their original purpose was for warfare? But these days I'm sure there's also work, that could be done by female plods.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:17:18 -0500

True enough, but there's a stigma against using female corpses as labour, so it's not done.

It's okay. You can have some of my soup. Children are exhausting but they are also love. And selfish egomaniacs. I bet you're an awesome auntie! :)

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:55:11 -0500

I think I'm a pretty acceptable aunt. My niece is four and already obsessed with the vidya so we played a lot of games today. Cave Story, Minecraft, some Kirby game on her DS and the like. My nephew is 1 and three quarters and is like some hyperactive puppy. All he wants to do is wrestle and bite. And I'm cool with that too. Also we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 which I'd seen and is awesome, and Megamind which I hadn't seen but is also pretty awesome. Dreamworks really has come into its own lately.

Thank you for your internet soup, it was delicious and filling :3

I just made cheddar-ale soup, super yummy. What did you have for dinner?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:24:08 -0500

What my nephew didn't eat of his turkey sandwich. I've had kids the past few days so I haven't slept or ate much. They're in bed now and I'm just sitting here in a stupor. I'm scared to answer anything else in my inbox because I can feel the cranky bitchiness in me like a virus, and it will get all over my answers :3

Not a fan of Kingdom Hearts, I take it?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:28:30 -0500

The gameplay is at times mildly amusing but Tetris has a deeper storyline.

Personally, if your formspring pic ever changes from Murk I think my attention span will drop. Just something about that picture...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:36:34 -0500

I do need something new though. It can still be Murk. Ideas?

"Elka is above average but she's no scary-good wright prodigy. Comparing her to Duane and Quigley who have biological advantages" - RACISM.

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:21:55 -0500

Oh, hush.

You should have a page where Quigley attacks Duane with a huge pymaric dragonfly. Then Duane dispels it and says "Looks like your fly's undone!" And then Quigley says "It's cheaper than the air conditioning" and blasts Duane with an ice spell. YEEEAAAHHH!

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:04:33 -0500

That is some nice banter, anon :3

The Lady Gaga, Queen of Smoking-Too-Much-While-Writing-Lyrics, and Mystical Creatrix of Dancer People, once concluded that there must be evil to protect good. As a similar Mystical Creatrix, do you concur or disavow?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:04:07 -0500

I like Lady Gaga's music a lot, but that sounds like some fluffy Kingdom Hearts bullshit.

Is Quigley religious? He doesn't seem the type, but then again neither does Sette... If so, what religion?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:01:39 -0500

Quigley was Gefendur at one point and so was Matty, but after Things Happened, Quigley burned their Gefendur trappings and said it was all bullshit. So these days he rejects all of it.

Do you think when Murkoph shows up he'll outrank Duane as the comic favorite? Why? And... how does that idea make you feel?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:00:42 -0500

I... don't think he will. I suspect a lot of people think they know what Murkoph's all about, but he is not all that cut and dry.

Is Elka like, the shittest of wrights? I noticed she had to have hand contact with the dog and her throat when she stole that voice, and I presume that's babbymode for wrighting.

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:58:53 -0500

Elka is above average but she's no scary-good wright prodigy. Comparing her to Duane and Quigley who have biological advantages seems unfair.

As for touching stuff when casting, remember that there are no absolute coordinates when moving Aspects around - in most instances, measurements are made relative to the khert connection points in your hands. So she could have kept her hand where it was and said okay, now assign all that dog's voice's volume to the voicebox at x,y,z from my right hand - or she could just touch her throat and save herself a few numbers. The latter was faster and easier so I'm not sure it reflects all that poorly on her.

No shrunkenone, not correct. Murk shows up maybe in Ch 7, big carnage chapter. Glass just likes to play with the poor sweet anon who is depressed because she has to drive in the freezing cold and snow. T_T

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:07:15 -0500

I'm so sorry T__T

Could Duane chew on his own flesh (at least, back when he had more of it)?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:06:59 -0500

Yessss.

I think, in movies, they have like a 'life sense', ableto detect life, rather than unlife, and see that as a food source. Which is why, sadly, Shaun's plan in Shaun of the dead wouldn't be able to work.

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:06:03 -0500

I dunno, man, I don't really buy this explanation. Why would they suddenly have this ability to faultlessly distinguish zombies from living people? Even when the zombie's only been dead a short time? And what is it about eating a zombie that would be any worse for them than eating living flesh? It's not like they're going to die of food poisoning. I think it's just a big smelly plot hole.

So night's coming, a hulking bad guy's bleeding from the face, birds tried to fly away with some chunks after he got blown up off a cliff, and now a Plat is slinging bug-spells at him, the decomposing zombie. It's definitely Friday the 13th for D-man.

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:03:07 -0500

I dunno, it looks like he's having a good time :3

In your FAQ section, you say yes to Murkoph being in the comic. ;3 Your move, dear Ash.

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:00:41 -0500

Rats!

It looks like Duane is down to just bones in his torso. Why doesn't he bother to rig up some padding or braces down there?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:00:29 -0500

He has bandages stuffed in there and wrapped around, but I think all the falling and jumping and punching and kneeing has knocked them down into his pelvis.

book?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:58:16 -0500

book

How -do- plod-handlers command and rein their charges? Pymaric alteration of their perceptions and/or thoughts (to whatever degree that they have thoughts)?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:58:06 -0500

Plods run on a core set of directives that fools the khert into thinking they're living organisms, and the khert in turn provides the basest impulses of life. This gets them moving but without a handler's more precise directions, a plod will default to attacking and consuming. What the handler can do, though, is tap into functions isolated for him in the khert, and turn his workforce towards more useful actions than attacking each other.

Handlers really don't have to be all that talented. They're not like studious necromancers with bloodshot eyes who've sounded the depths of the nether and arisen with terrible secrets - they're just licensed wrights casting spells others have written and plugging in variables and accessing functions.

When's the last time you drew Sette without any clothes on? Upcoming chapter, or a model sheet?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:47:44 -0500

Like, totally in the buff? I think... for a model sheet someone commissioned last year.

Hey Ash, bro! Can I get a brofist fist bump, bro?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:46:40 -0500

I can offer a sisfist.

Quigley the mayfly. XD

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:45:57 -0500

Maybe this should be his professional name.

Does Matty ever think about what will happen to him when his dad kicks the bucket?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:45:30 -0500

Not as much as you might imagine. Matty's awfully fond of his dad. Thinking about life without him sucks.

Gladitorial plod pitfights?

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:44:11 -0500

It's not a bad idea, maybe for plods that are nearing the end of their usefulness. May as well go out with a bang before they start falling to bits. Remember that horrible movie AI where they'd gather up the junky and outdated androids and then destroy them in terrible ways in front of an audience? Something like that could be fun.

Stupid anon, it's spelled 'whoreison'!

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:42:32 -0500

On your deviantart page, you say someting like... 'I'm a smudged shadow on the horison." Yeah, you spelt horizon wrong. Don't reply to this, just fix it. Also, great comic.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:52:22 -0500

Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.

Other undead? So why don't the plods all eat each other?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:21:42 -0500

They would if they didn't have handlers to keep them in line. A plod is just as likely to attack and take a bite out of another plod as a human. This is something that's always bugged me in zombie movies. Why the hell don't the zombies just attack each other?

Is there any particular reason for Quigley liking bugs? I'd think it'd be because he sympathizes with them. He's cursed with a short lifespan, as are they. Maybe I'm just reading into it too much.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:20:02 -0500

Ding-ding. If you want to insult a Plat, you call them proll (Tainish for insect), because their time is so brief they are like a bug to you. Quigley has hence fashioned most all of his spells in the shape of bugs, as a smack in the face to people he doesn't care for. Prepare to see a lot of bugs this chapter.

Will we see any of the previously mentioned terrible first year for Duane? I don’t really want to think about the decomp part, but the feelings and the crazy... I, I wanna sees it.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:13:57 -0500

Well, the first year was all ABOUT the decomposition (and denial)... the idea of having to transition from reasoning out of the last vestiges of a rotting physical brain bullied into activity by pymary, to reasoning out of some deeper self. Every time I've tried to thumbnail pages for these kinds of flashbacks it's come out so disturbing and dark that I had to trash it. There was originally a flashback of this sort in chapter five but I wound up killing it because it was just so messed up. I think we will have to move into this material in degrees, but it is important and we will cover it.

If I'm correct, Murk and The Unsounded universe don't exist in the same continuity, right? Despite both being children of your beautifully twisted mind? ;)

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:08:26 -0500

Mmmmm.

>:( Then how is Murkoph not all rotty? Maybe he's a brand new zombie and driven insane, like Duane was? For some reason I assumed Murkoph has been a zombie longer than Duane.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:46:34 -0500

Who's Murkoph? :3

It snowed here and I am very depressed. Snow can be pretty, but I don't like dealing with driving in it and stuff. Plus it's bloody cold. :C

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:13:06 -0500

I'm sorry :( Call in sick and stay home.

Wait, Duane -isn't- sustained by eating people? I thought that was still up in the air as to whether consumption of human sashimi would allow him to regenerate in some degree.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:11:47 -0500

Naw, that would be silly.

So in old timey cartoons, when two characters are stranded on a desert island and one looks over and sees the other's face turn into a hamburger.................that's Duane constantly, with every living creature?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:43:42 -0500

Yep. This is one reason he's often very cranky. The other reason is Sette.

What's up with Quigley & dragonflies?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:42:20 -0500

Quigley likes bugs.

Does Duane want to eat humans more than other creatures, or is he equal opportunity?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:10:17 -0500

Equal opportunity. Including other undead.

Duane is my favorite, but I also love Sette. Like Duane, Sette doesn’t seem to question the beliefs of the environment in which she was raised. Will that change?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:50:14 -0500

Hmm!

How much do you charge to do commissions, if you agree to do one?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:48:56 -0500

Mmm, email me with what you're looking for and I can give you a quote.

I want a T-shirt with some witty Unsounded saying on it. :D

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:48:42 -0500

Can what Quigley is saying there be translated, and if so will you tell us it?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:47:55 -0500

It's just uninteresting spell coordinates. Pymary (and Quigleys gruftgramary) isn't beautiful rhyming poems or alliterative Latin phrases. It's just numbers, variables, and trigger words. The exception would be the firing phrases for pymarics, which can be damn near anything and some wrights make them into pretty poems.

People keep mentioning Sette's freak-out. Sette had a freak-out?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:44:55 -0500

No more than usual, anon.

Oh oh oohhh! Is Duane licking Ephsephin's blood because the sun is setting and he's losing his shit?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:44:02 -0500

The time of day is definitely not helping.

How does Duane's voice sound with the whole undead thing going on? Exactly as when he was alive or a bit different in one way or the other?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:43:48 -0500

Definitely different. More hollow, less rich, lighter in pitch, occasionally raspy on dry days.

Mmmm~ I love it when Duane starts to slip up and lose control. His glamour was starting to come undone when he tasted Eph's blood. I like seeing his zombie face. Did he break Eph's cheekbone with that super-zombie-strength punch?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:42:41 -0500

Nah, I think his knuckles planed right off the slippery, broken-skin surface.

Though I'm not a fan of Ephsephin as a person, I've gotta admit that I feel a little bad for him what with everyone whaling on that same injury. Atleast give the other side of his face some attention people! :P

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:41:25 -0500

I say.

Duane isn't sustained by eating people. We've covered that. Yet he still seems to find some sort of satisfaction by putting it on his tongue. Can he taste, or is it more weird zombie impulses going on?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:41:18 -0500

He has a constant instinct to jump on living, moving things and consume them. He's not consciously sucking on his finger there, his self-control just slipped. If he had a third person perspective on himself he'd be horrified.

So does the Bronze caste originate as a result of interbreeding?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:35:39 -0500

Yes.

I admit his eyes are pretty in that shot. Does he pluck his eyebrows?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:34:59 -0500

I don't think so. 'Tis a natural beauty.

How did Matty convince Quigley to come help Sette? (I assume Matty wants to help her.)

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:34:43 -0500

There wasn't any convincing required. Ephsephin is a dumbass, but he's still part of Starfish's gang, and Quigley is being paid big money to get them all to their destination intact. Matty said something was going on with Ephsephin, and Quigley scooted to investigate.

Does.........does this mean we can expect more sexy shirtless Starfish pics?!? :3

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:33:28 -0500

It seems inevitable :(

I knew you were a chubby chaser.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:33:19 -0500

Mrow.

If someone suddenly kissed Duane, how tempted would he be to literally eat their face off?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:33:11 -0500

I think it would very much depend on who did the kissing.

W-what? I'm so confused. Duane was tasting Ephsephin's blood? I just, I don't understand... Duane actually does eat people? I mean, I guess, but I thought... WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!?! D: D: D:

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:32:47 -0500

Duane would never actually eat a human being while in control of his faculties. If his self-control was that poor he'd never have lasted this long. It's all good.

Has Sette seen Duane do this sort of thing before? Doesn't it shock her on at least some level?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:05:29 -0500

I guess you'll have to wait for the next page to see her reaction :)

Is Sette's freak-out related to Duane licking the blood on his fingers?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:47:44 -0500

Naw. She lives for him actually doing badass undead stuff like that. DEVOUR ALL THE BAD GUYS, ATTACK ZOMBIE! ABSORB THEIR SOOOOOOULS.

I dunno, I think Starfish is pretty hot too. If I were... 20 years younger, I'd make a pass at him!

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:18:28 -0500

Dohohoho!

You may have Starfish's pointy nose. I would like to bite alive-Duane's bottom lip, very slowly. I'm blonde, a professional opera singer, and I have a great rack. Would Duane have let me do this, even if we'd just met?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:17:37 -0500

Are you really a professional opera singer? You know, Duane's not the only opera fan around here. May -I- bite -your- lower lip?

Starfish must smell terrible GlassShard. Just awful, like sweat and week-old sausage grease. (Unless in your creatorly wisdom you've decided otherwise, but looking at him I can't think so).

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:16:58 -0500

Yeah, I guess you're right. Also he rapes and murders children, but that road smell is a real deal-breaker.

Well... I mean... Glass, he's Starfish. For godsakes.Take a walk, get some fresh air. You create your worlds in vivid chiaroscuro, dark-darks and light-lights. That means Starfishes are gonna creep in, but does that undermine the beauty in Unsounded?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:08:37 -0500

It would be fun to bite his pointy nose, anon.

But sometimes you get weirdos, like our friend Glass. She never quite fit into society. She didn’t want to be trapped in a conventional life, useful only for reproduction, working in a traditional career, or a prostitute. She wanted more, thus Unsounded.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:44:25 -0500

Sometimes I draw Starfish and I think he's kind of attractive. Should I kill myself now or later?

What are your favorite ways to waste time on the Internet? I'm stuck at home and I don't feel like doing anything productive.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:46:22 -0500

DC++, Reddit, 4chan, Steam. If these all ceased to exist I could probably start up a second comic.

Was Lawrence a bronze? Or was he always a Sharteshanian? o-o

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:37:33 -0500

Oh, Karaii. You always ask the spoilers <3

Oh? Do you belch loud, long, and deep yourself Glass?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:04:17 -0500

After chugging a big frosty can of Diet Coke you bet your ass! There is no greater satisfaction :|______|

Sette is certainly quite the tom boy. I'll bet she bealches, loudly & wetly, and breaks wind just the same, and is very proud of both, eh?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:48:37 -0500

Don't we all?

Why are the Bronzes stigmatized?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:48:00 -0500

Because they're the ultimate conclusion of inter-caste breeding. At Alderode's inception, there were no Bronze. But over thousands of years these muddy-headed people came about from the dalliances of the higher castes, until eventually the Bronze were a caste of their own. Bronze tend to be poor, they tend to be stereotyped as thieves, and they never seem to get a leg up in society. Soddin' brunettes, man.

Maybe... maybe outside of the Dammakhert plats would have a longer lifespan? Is that what led Quigley to exile, to find out? It might be too late to make a difference for him, but not to Matty.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:41:22 -0500

Mm, maybe.

Baking tarts? Sette IS a tart!

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:00:12 -0500

Not in any sense of the word.

If Nary is the "Gaston Song" from Beauty and the Beast, Sette is "One Jump Ahead" from Aladdin. Makes me want to see "Unsounded: The Animated Musical". :-)

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:59:47 -0500

Yeah, I heard that song a lot in my head while I was drawing that chase scene in the city :D Sette would not have given her bread to the hungry kids at the end though. Moochin' buggers.

What's the average Crescian lifespan? To theirs vary as wildly as the Aldish?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:58:04 -0500

Nope, everyone outside Alderode has a conventional human lifespan.

OH MY GOD DUANE WAS A GOLD WASN'T HE?!? THAT MEANS HE'S EVERYONE'S BITCH AND HIS SPECIAL UNDEAD STATUS PROBABLY HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH HIS SPECIAL STATUS WITH THE MOTHERFUCKING KHERT SINCE HE'S A GOLD

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:38:34 -0500

Ooooh, Duane's caste isn't hard to figure out if you do a little snooping. Your theory is intriguing.

You are likely to be eaten by a Grue. If this situation seems particularly cruel, consider whose fault it could be: not a torch or a match in your inventory.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:14:12 -0500

*sobs* I need... I need a dining plate and a hair brush and a carton of orange juice so I can fashion a weapon.

But from what you said the plats do go through old age, just super early. Do people think of it like it's something else? (like, idk, the way victorians thought dying of lung disease was hawt)

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:13:07 -0500

Dat consumption iz soooo dreamy. Plats get old inside, so they do get lung disease and heart disease and kidney failure and cancers and tumors and all kinds of lovely old people ailments. Towards the very end they start looking like absolute shit. Quigley wouldn't have anyone know it but already he gets so frigging TIRED.

But yeah, this is a brief period of time and no one really counts it. Even wonderful Plats have to die -somehow-

Self-assuredness is for pussies. This is maybe harsh, but I like that you torture yourself. It keeps you searching, I think, and that keeps the brilliance a-flowing. I'm glad you take breaks from the self-loathing to remember there is joy in life, though.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:52:13 -0500

I try.

Does that short life affect the Plats in terms of... Oh, I dunno. Ambition? I mean, the Greeks thought humanity was ambitious only because we're mortal. By that logic, Plats may want to accomplish as much as possible seeing as they only live so long.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:43:50 -0500

Depends on the individual. Plats and Silvers (Silvers only live to 45-50) are stereotyped in Alderode as childish and short-sighted, and these are traits that are actively bred into them. Plat children are encouraged to live for the moment, to let the gods worry about tomorrow, and to spend their time being as beneficial to Alderode as they can be so that the great Dammakhert can go on forever and the Twins will always smile upon the elegant beauty that is the Aldish Cooperative.

This is enough for a lot of Plats. Their communities are subsidized by money from the churches and temples and so long as they continue to cooperate with Vits (the government) by sending out their young lads for training, the arrangement continues indefinitely. But sometimes you get weirdos, like our friend Quigley. He never fit into his community. He didn't want to be the ethereal white-haired child of the gods, useful only as a law-abiding wright, a pretty stage actor, or a prostitute. He wanted to do more, and you'll learn about some of this next chapter.

I find your Aldish caste system interesting. instead of a ladder, it's kind of side-ways hourglass shaped in terms of desirability (assuming being a Plat and having crazy Pymary skills is desirable).

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:26:07 -0500

Yes, but Plats aren't valued because of pymary. They're considered holy. They live so briefly because the gods love them and value them so much that they want to spare them the unpleasantness of terrestrial life and old age, and so swoop them out of the world at their prime. It's said that every word spoken to a Plat is heard by the Twins, and there's nothing a Plat can do that will anger the gods. Kind of a free pass at the cost of a short life.

"They and the Gold are considered the least desirable of the Aldish classes. " So for best social engineering they should marry the two together and hope their kids are a different class?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:21:27 -0500

Naw, it doesn't work like that. The results of mixed caste reproduction are unpredictable, but within known bounds. Think of the castes as a spectrum, with the long-lived Copper on one end and the short-lived Plats on the other, and all other castes strewn between them and assigned orderly degrees of longevity. Reproduction within a caste will result in a baby of the same caste, but once you move outside of your caste, the Dammakhert will produce babies that are closer towards the midrange of the spectrum - namely the Bronze. So if a Copper and a Jet make whoopie, it's unpredictable whether or not they will make a Jet or a Bronze baby, but it will definitely be a baby that's moving closer towards the middle of the spectrum. Hence, if Gold and Bronze make babies, it will always be a Gold or Bronze baby, because they are already at the middle of the caste spectrum.

Gold are a special caste though because they're not, technically a caste at all. The Gold caste are the only people who are not subject to the special conditions of the Dammakhert. This isn't considered a good thing though which is why they get lumped with the Bronze.

Do the fans influence the direction the comic goes? Or how often a popular character is featured?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:52:35 -0500

So far, no. The story really isn't set up for a whole lot of reader feedback, particularly since I keep such a big buffer. But there are some smaller issues in the future that I haven't resolved definitively yet, so I might look at what readers have said when I decide on it. But yeah, certain characters' fates are sealed regardless of how popular they may or may not be. Nature of the story, ya know.

I read your comic because it manages to be Entertaining while juggling deep themes, symbolism, and flowery prose. And it has awesome characters. There is meat in this thing! It is English-major fodder in a super accessible format, and I am all over that.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:49:51 -0500

I request a deep analysis of the first four chapters, please. Have it on my desk tomorrow :3

Does Sette have any girly hobbies or is she a total tomboy?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:48:42 -0500

What girly hobbies would she have, exactly? No one in her station has the luxury of free time for flipping through fashion magazines or baking tarts.

You've awakened in a darkened room. There is a table with a 3X5 INDEX CARD on it. Exit to the SOUTH. Input action:

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:47:09 -0500

GRUE TRAUMA GRUE TRAUMA ABORT ABORT

I'm supposed to be writing short story but I feel bland and devoid of inspiration. Could you impart any writing words of wisdom oh mighty wordsmith???

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:46:36 -0500

Lack of inspiration is the worst. If you're allowed to write about anything, write about something that interests you. Do some research for it first and maybe that will wake up the old muse.

I can't wait for the next hiatus so we can ask Duane questions on formspring again :P

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:45:49 -0500

Can you break down which of the castes are long-lived again? I think I remember something about Coppers... and Jets?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:45:32 -0500

The comic itself will explain the castes in better detail when the story requires it. But it goes Copper, Jet, Bronze, Gold, Silver, Platinum. Coppers can live up to four centuries. Jets usually tap out at 250. Bronze fluctuate wildly, anywhere from an average human lifespan to 200. They and the Gold are considered the least desirable of the Aldish classes.

Has Sette ever suggested Duane should file down his teeth so he can eat people better?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:39:27 -0500

Naw. Duane asked her about her teeth once and she told him to piss off as it's none of his affair, so it's not a subject that either of them has brought up since.

Bastion seemed to imply Duane is so talented as a wright as to be well known. Is this a fair assessment?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:38:19 -0500

I don't believe Bastion said anything at all about Duane's abilities as a wright. Sette's dad did, but I don't find him a reliable source of information, personally.

Do you ever miss roleplay?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:43:22 -0500

Every day.

We all have moments of self pity. What's the most pitiful, self-indulgent (or self-torturous) thing Duane has done so far?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:43:16 -0500

He's tried to rip himself to pieces a few times. One day he slowly burned off his entire right arm. It's ultimately silly though because he just has to mend the damage the next day.

Are Matty's toys all legendary, ancient wrights of great caliber, or just the current Composers and the like?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:40:25 -0500

Aww, you remember the Composers <3 Maybe one day Matty will bring out his collection and introduce you to everyone. Wait 'til you see his wind-up vliegeng that flies and spits water, it is sooper cool.

When Duane got socked in the jaw I facepalmed. When I looked back at the page and saw Sette facepalming, that just made my day. Do not fret, dear Glass—your comic will never disappoint me, and I'm sure there are others who agree. You will always be loved.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:38:44 -0500

Will there be any epic forbidden zombie romance between Duane and a significant other in the future?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:32:39 -0500

Hmm!

Eating Matty's eyeballs is redundant. Maybe Duane should go for the ears?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:31:32 -0500

His eyeballs may not work but I bet it would still hurt to have them ripped out of his head and sloppily devoured by a slavering corpse. Ears are good too but all that cartilage. Very chewy.

Hey Ash, I'm trying to get more awesome music to listen to. What's some of your favs?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:30:39 -0500

Ooooh, let's see what albums are on my playlist at the moment...

Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials
Portal 2 OST
Ed Harrison - Neotokyo
Zola Jesus - Conatus
Lumines Winter Remixes
009 Sound System
Dusty Kid - Beyond That Hill
The Flash Bulb - Arboreal
Legend of Legaia OST
The Fountain OST
Foster the People - Torches

Every time I listen to Falcon on the Dive from The Scarlet Pimpernel, it reminds me of Duane... Granted, I don't see Duane organizing a manhunt, but still!

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:00:46 -0500

Good song!

You mean that Sette wants Duane to eat Matty's eyeballs too? :C But didn't they interact on more or less good terms? Well, except for the whole "willing to steal a sight aid from a blind kid" thing.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:00:34 -0500

It's a rough world, anon.

This has probably been answered before, but I didn't wanna scroll through months of formspring questions again. If members of different castes have children, do the kids usually visually match one caste or the other? What about lifespan?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:00:18 -0500

It's unpredictable. If the baby is conceived within the borders of Alderode, its placement within the Dammakhert is certain, but if the parents are of different castes, or even if they're totally foreigners, there's no sure way to know what caste the Dammakhert will place the baby into. In many ways this serves as a further deterrent from intercaste relations because unless you're a Plat, there's a high likelihood your kid will have a reduced lifespan from your own, and a very high likelihood your kid will look nothing like you. Your children aren't necessarily your children in Alderode - they're the Dammakhert's children.

Will there be any bromance? Not counting Starfish and Turas.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:53:36 -0500

Sure, man. But bromance is sweetest when it's hard-earned.

("Thau") I might gush more on the previous points, but Formspring rather limits my character-count, and I don't want to extend this more than I am already. ^^;

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:52:02 -0500

You gushed enough :) Thanks for the boost, man. I don't mean to be one of those irritating, moody, unconfident creators, but the ghosts of a million forgotten artists occupy the interior of my skull until it's a haunted thurible leaking spectral smoke, and I snort it, and I get high and stupid off my own manifested misery. In the morning I will make pancakes and everything will be better.

Settes accent sounded familiar...are you familiar with the nautical missadventures of jacky faber? (also known as bloody jack I guess...)

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:43:16 -0500

I am not! But I read the wiki page and these books sound fun.

Silly Glass, the correct answer is obviously Attack Iroh. He has tea.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:42:41 -0500

But I like coffee D: Iroh should have lost some weight, dressed up in black, strewn some indy band demo CDs around, and opened a coffee shop.

Leaves from the vine Falling so slow Like fragile tiny shells Drifting in the foam Little soldier boy, come marching home Brave soldier boy, comes marching home~

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:39:49 -0500

Iroh was many things. But he was never Pavarotti.

Pleeaaase tell me there is a Famous Battle-Wright Duane Adelier wind-up toy in Matty's collection.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:39:14 -0500

Alas, no. But perhaps one day Matty will customize one of his doubles into a Duane toy. All he'd really need to do is find a grey handkerchief and wrap it around the figure like a hood and cloak.

Would Ephsephin kill somebody in front of his hat if he could possibly help it?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:46:04 -0500

No, that would be ungentlemanly. It is a girl hat after all.

Could someone apply a glue or stickiness aspect to Chitz, so that it takes a bit more to dislodge?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:44:27 -0500

Someone could indeed. If the need arises, that may happen.

Who would win in a fight between Matty's hat and Ephsephin's hat?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:43:03 -0500

Matty's hat. Uaid really likes that hat.

How dumb does Quigley think Matty is?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:42:33 -0500

Matty is very happily dumb when it comes to some things. He knows his dad has done some really wretched shit in the name of money, survival, or outright vengeance, but what's he going to do about it? It's better for both of them if Matty just tunes certain things out.

Chitz' butt should have velcro.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:41:04 -0500

Maybe buttons?

I read the comic because of pages like 5.11, panels 2 and 3 especially. I love it when Duane and Sette get along, and I'm pretty sure I could read 100 books of just that. And how could you eat pies if you were just two hands, two eyes and a spinal cord?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:40:15 -0500

In the name of pie, miracles can happen. Thanks for reading my comic, man. I'll try to make Sette and Duane get along more but sometimes they just hate each other -so much-

So Chitz isn't glued to Matty's shoulder? I guess he really does have perfect posture, then.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:39:10 -0500

I've been thinking about constructing my own little Chitz just to see how hard it would be to move around with him balanced on my shoulder. For science, you see. Alternately I guess I could just try it with a bag of rice.

Now I can't help but think of gruftgammers firebending >:D

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:36:18 -0500

I could almost see a crossover working. Sokka and Sette would be bros.

Does Matty's dad intend to get him better eyes at some point, or does he figure the echolocation's good enough?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:34:43 -0500

Perhaps Quigley is so obsessed with making money for a reason ;) Or perhaps he just wants new chrome and rims for Uaid... but he could be saving up for something else!

Does Matty have a collection of "famous wright" trading cards? (Not that he'd be able to look at them.)

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:30:05 -0500

No, but he has wind-up tin toy action figures. I shit you not.

Is Sette's freak-out going to be related to her allergies?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:27:06 -0500

Haha, no.

Would Quigley kill someone in front of Matty if he could possibly help it?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:22:07 -0500

1) Jostle Matty - perhaps with a fatherly punch to the arm - so Chitz falls off his shoulder. Wait for him to drop and look for it.
2) Explode undesirable's head.
3) ???
4) Profit!

Why do we like your comic? Well... have you seen Carrie? No? Good, good.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:19:44 -0500

I will crucify you with kitchen utensils, anon, I am exactly that insane.

Which would you rather have, an Attack Zombie like Duane, or an Attack Iroh?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:18:27 -0500

Woooow, that's difficult.

I think... Iroh is just too perfect. He's too perfectly forgiving and too perfectly kind and too perfectly wise. When you disappoint Iroh, you feel like absolute shit, forever. Attack Iroh doesn't even have to say anything when you've let him down, he just gives you that Look, or hums a few bars from his My Son Is Deeeeead song.

Iroh has completed his journey, learned all that stuff you're still learning, and is there with all the answers only it's your own stupid fault that you're too stupid to listen to him. Iroh is completed, wise, and perfect.

On the other hand, Duane has a hundred-and-one flaws. He's on his journey still. He's not there to give you the answers or even to fight all your battles for you. With Duane, you gotta teach him just as much as he teaches you.

So I think I pick Duane. I want someone to learn alongside and not just learn from.

I have possibly interpreted your question incorrectly but I got sweet potato fries, I don't even care :3

If wrights take mostly supporting roles in battle, do they really see much fighting?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:47:24 -0500

The old maxim is "The keener the wright, the blunter the blade." The aim, generally, is to keep fieldwrights insulated from the fray for three probably obvious reasons: one, wrights are expensive. They take time and money to train and, for the Aldish, plats and silvers are the best castes for wrights and are a finite resource. Let's not get them stabbed. Two, so wrights have the opportunity to concentrate on their support spellwork without the distraction of the other side taking shots at them. And three, because wrights, like wizards, often don't counter physical attacks well, so you want to keep them out of the range of the fighters. It takes time to become an awesome wright - time you don't get to dedicate to becoming an awesome warrior. I think anyone who RPs or even plays RPGs gets this class trade-off and generally understands why it exists, so I don't need to lecture.

Hotshot Duane is a unique breed, and one reason he became so insistent on wrights learning physical combat was from his time in the military and seeing how fieldwright units would be infiltrated by enemy forces and fucking slaughtered. "Dual-classing" doesn't seem like a novel concept, I'm sure, but among the Academies it is considered downright CHURLISH for wrights to study anything beyond pymary and supportive intellectual pursuits. Will you be an adequate wright and an adequate warrior or will you be a superior wright? To the mediocre man no glory is afforded.

With that said, these are only the current general guidelines in Aldish and Crescian infantry battalions. There are specialist companies, like the Aldish Order of Chinoll (founded by a Black Tongue gruftgrammer who was later cut into pieces and fed to crows), that chuck convention out the window and are always marrying combat with pymary in new ways. War is like a box of chocolates, anon!

The engaging script. The astounding art. The impeccable worldbuilding. The eloquent wordplay so rarely seen within the webcomic form. The -true- use of the full potential of the online medium. The kickass action scenes. Because it has zombies. Fin.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:20:50 -0500

T__T

I guess he must have his reasons, but not teaching the kid pimary seems like criminal negligence considering he'll be leaving him an orphan relatively soon. Then again there's Uaid, not a bad legacy...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:20:16 -0500

Perhaps.

Would Duane kill someone in front of Sette if he could possibly help it?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:19:57 -0500

Oh, he seemed ready to kill that poor guard in front of her back in the last chapter.

Arg, I was kidding earlier about you looking like Murk! Now that poor anon has been warped, I fear. Anyway, people seem pretty thrilled with Duane’s return, does the enthusiastic response feel good? I really loved those pages myself! :)

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:11:16 -0500

Thank you :)

Mostly I'm now terrified the rest of the chapter will be a disappointment. This is how my brain works.

Does Matty's blindness make it impossible for him to ever learn pymary? Or would it be conceivably possible for him to perform spells that were physically felt, rather than visually.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:10:12 -0500

No, blindness is no impediment because pymary - depending on one's means - can pretty effectively cure it with pymarics. Matty only has Chitz because that's the best his father can afford, but Duane, who should also be blind, has wonderful glass eyes that work nearly as good as fleshly ones, and we all know he's super badass wright-man.

How do kids (or parents) find out that they (or their child) are (is) a tacit caster?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:07:10 -0500

The most common way is when one is rited and has their ability to work pymary kickstarted. Then it's as simple as realising: "Oh, the khert can read my thoughts and I don't have to actually say these Tainish words aloud. Coolness." There is one other way to find out, but Duane will explain this in a charming story later on.

So if Matty was Rited, he could be a pretty good wright? And yet he isn't, despite being past the normal age. Did Mathis not want him to become a wright, I wonder?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:03:58 -0500

Quite so - http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_29.html - Quigley won't rite him and won't teach him.

How is "tacit" pronounced? Is the C hard or soft?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:00:17 -0500

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tacit

:3

How much does Matty know about pymary? Is he aware that Duane being a tacit caster is a big deal?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:20:43 -0500

Yep. Matty follows wrights and pymary like some boys in our world follow football. He knows all the rules, all the schools, lots of techniques, and knows all the Big Names.

Doesn’t the glamour by its nature have some sort of “programming” to reflect Duane’s feelings? Otherwise it’d just be a mask. It makes sense to me that Duane would even have that reactiveness turned up, as he’s a rather emotional guy. Whachoo ‘tink?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:47:29 -0500

I subscribe to this theory. The glamour's mapped to his face - like a texture complete with bump map, wrapped around a polygon - so when it moves, the mask moves. Otherwise I just don't think it would ever look believable when he talks.

But wouldn't it be better if spells had no colour at all and were completely transparent? It's harder to dodge/counter what you can't see, no?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:45:42 -0500

Indeed and plenty of times a wright will choose not to assign colour. But showy spells make for an expression of pride and awesomeness, and also lend an air of intimidation, so sometimes you really want to conjure an expressive display. It's also considered bad form to cast invisibly. It's like a knight stabbing someone after they've dropped their sword, or knifing them from behind. Ethnical rules of combat, you know.

Serious wrights who see a lot of battle make preparations for invisible spells anyway, though. They make sure they have some way to discern the khert, inside of which all pymary is plainly visible. Both Duane's fake glass eyes and Quigley's spectacles have this ability, as you shall see.

Duane vs the bird should be a vote incentive sometimes. :D

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:40:50 -0500

Agreed but I can only envision it in super kawaii chibi form.

How long are we going to have to wait until the epic confrontation between Dwayne and Quigs? D:

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:40:34 -0500

Well, Duane does like to talk. Still - soon.

If all of your anonymous questioners had a single formspring account, would you have any questions for it?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:39:52 -0500

The only real question I have - though it's an enormous, all-consuming one - is why do you like my dumb comic? But that would seem like some kind of fishing-for-compliments question instead of a reflection of my deep-seated self-hatred and insecurity, so it's just as well I don't ask it. Sometimes I wish I was just two eyes, a spine, and a pair of hands, let me tell you.

D-do you... take commissions at present?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:33:09 -0500

Depends on the commission! Email me.

I'm imagining cartoon-Duane chasing after this bird and am amused.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:32:58 -0500

I got home Tired and Frustrated with my feet hurting, but all that Went away when I saw Today's page. Not a question, just wanted to say you made me feel happy tonight <3

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:32:39 -0500

Aww, I'm so glad. And you made me feel happy in return <3

So to summarize -- Duane is trained in melee combat, has supernatural strength to back it up, is a badass wright who has never lost a mage duel, and is a tacit caster to boot. Does Quigs even have a snowball's chance in hell?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:32:18 -0500

Patience, squire.

Haha, so Duane is an elite galit?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:32:06 -0500

Meetin' the street with both feet.

Hrm...I love seeing Duane's expressions when he's riled up, but you'd think he wouldn't have that much mobility with his face. Does the glamour accentuate his expressions at all?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:31:10 -0500

I have to plead artistic license on this one. I'm sure Duane's expressions are in reality much more samey than I draw them.

Do wrights get to choose their own spell colors, or is it something you're born with? Are there any theories regarding the connection between spell color and personality type, like there are between personality and blood type or birth date in our world?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:30:17 -0500

Haha, no, it's entirely personal preference. If you think of spells like programs that accept customizable variables, they almost all have slots where you input the appearance of whatever you're conjuring. Duane usually chooses a particular shade of acid green because it's representative of the Ssaelit faith... except when he gets good and pissed off and then he picks red because fuck his enemies, that's why!

I had it in my head that Quigley was actually more sociable than Duane. He seems to have broken away from "Aldish uber alles" mindset that Duane has, and actually interacts with other people. So far, Duane has only been nice to Sette and the milkmaids.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:24:21 -0500

Hrmmmm. Quigley and Duane are like the opposite sides of the same coin, I suppose. Quigley loathes Alderode every bit as much as Duane reveres it, and these polarized opinions shape how they treat everyone they come into contact with. Because Quigley's made a religion out of hating his homeland, he knee-jerkingly puts Cresce on a pedestal and enjoys the people and enjoys living there. And he's fairly sociable in his stilted, angry way.

Duane of course loves to talk and tell stories and seems like he'd be pretty friendly... so long as you fall within the narrow spectrum of people that he finds acceptable.

I suppose in conclusion they are both assholes but in their own charming ways.

Wait, what is this about Matty seeing, now? I thought he was totally blind?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:14:51 -0500

He is indeed totally blind. If I refer to him seeing something I mean he's seeing it with the aid of his little beanbag shoulder friend Chitz.

Does listening to John Denver make you Rocky Mountain High? :D

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:09:46 -0500

Not even one of his best songs, man. This one's my favourite, has been since I was like, twelve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw4IM3PEuJQ

Is that icon really u? I don’t understand I thought u were a girl?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:07:30 -0500

I'm afraid you were mistaken. I am also a pleasing shade of blue-grey and have fangs.

Ooooh. So that's why Quigs was so interested in Sette's wright companion in the first place, because Matty already told him about the attack zombie?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:18:44 -0500

Because wrights are like superheroes - unless you can see a body, he's probably not really dead.

Are the VFX for the newest pages red for a reason? Maybe Duane just chooses red when he’s really peeved?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:17:55 -0500

That's exactly it. When Duane's more cool and collected his pymary's usually green.

So basically in page 8 Duane is hiding behind Sette's speech bubble halfway up the cliff

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:44:45 -0500

Or he's off-screen chasing down a bird or he's climbing up the cliff at a different spot. It's often my prerogative to visually misdirect you, dear reader.

How often do you tweak things when you check over a page before setting it live? (Not sure I used the correct term there.)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:44:00 -0500

Almost every page gets tweaked before I post it. It's helpful to finish a page, put it aside, then get the chance to look at it with fresh eyes four months later before posting it. All the weird errors (hopefully) stick out. Ephsephin's sleeves got switched around a few times in this scene and I've had the chance to fix that, if nothing else. A pox on asymmetrical characters.

Do you like the animes? Are you favored by the animes? Am I straying from garbled Japanese into garbled Latin?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:17:10 -0500

I like anime that doesn't suck. Which severely limits my options these days. Anime has devolved to nothing but lolis.

Is Duane always so articulate when on the edge of horrible violence?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:15:52 -0500

Frequently. It's what he does.

(Re: the "duoane / duane" pronunciation: not that it matters, given the fantasy setting! It can be pronounced however the Aldish want. I was just tickled to think of Duane being a customs checkpoint)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:15:33 -0500

I think Duane is terribly accustomed to people pronouncing his name wrong. Dwayne Adaleer everywhere D:

Was Duane climbing all the way up the cliff before he saw Eph? So when Quigley talks about "reversing his momentum", does that mean Duane let go and briefly fell before leaping up for the jump-knee to the face? Why not just fly all the way up?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:13:34 -0500

Well, Duane can't fly. Duane has a few tricks to get off the ground for short bursts, but he cannot fly. For the momentum trick he needed to climb high enough up the cliff so that when he let go he'd have force enough to reverse to reach the top (and then some, so he could give Eph a knee to the jaw). An alternate floaty option you've seen him use is to assign the weight and buoyancy of a cloud to a rock or plot of earth, but there was nothing suitable down there, so he had to climb.

What music do you listen to while creating the comic? Any soundtracks out there that you feel fit it? (Ex. I had 'Museum Bust' from Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception playing during the massive chase scene in Chapter 4 and it was good fun)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:08:02 -0500

I listen to everything and anything, or have movies or shows or podcasts on. Last night I think I just did repeats of the Frozen Synapse soundtrack (GREAT music) and Dusty Kid's "Beyond That Hill." Oh, and I randomly watched two episodes of Jekyll on Netflix but I can't recommend it, it's kind of lame.

You mentioned earlier that Chitz uses a form of echolocation to "read" the aspects of objects and construct an image from that. Does this give him any kind of indication that there's something off about Duane?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:05:46 -0500

That's up to Matty to interpret. Chitz only deals with mass-related Aspects, so he just sends out a contour reading.

Who'd win in a fist fight between Duane and Quigley? Oh and they're on a boat so no magic.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:04:37 -0500

Oh, Duane would win in an all-out melee match. He wouldn't even break a sweat. Duane is dual-class but Quigley is a straight-out mage and kind of physically weak and sickly.

Might the bird part be perhaps a tiny nod to Portal 2?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:02:29 -0500

Naw. I wrote this script long before Portal 2 came out. It's more a nod to seagulls who'd always attack me and my kiddie charges at the beach and take our Cheetos.

You could never be hideous to me, beloved lady. I love looking at your teeth and your wide red eyes and your scruffy goatee. I shall sing for you the songs you love. Sits “Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy/Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry..."

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:01:15 -0500

A-a-alright. <3

You've only been to one concert? Ever? How did that one concert turn out to be John Denver? Were muppets involved?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:00:33 -0500

Well, I was pretty young (would have to be since Denver's been dead a while) and I ah, went with my mom. It was one of those small venue concerts and he was at a piano most of the time. I remember it being all around awesome. The guy had a great voice.

Otherwise I'm not a concert person. They're expensive and crazy and require the having of touchable friends with a similar taste in music, something I've never had :3

Pink Floyd eh? What about Uriah Heep or Queen?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:37:00 -0500

Queen is good! I dunno Uriah Heep. The name makes me think of urine-soaked mounds of ick.

Any deets on Iori? Is she Ethelmikkian?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:35:15 -0500

Yep, she lives in Ethelmik.

Can Plats only breed with Plats? That is, I know they're a controlled caste - but say, if a Plat wanted to breed with a Jet, would that produce viable offspring?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:33:29 -0500

It would. All the castes can physically interbreed and produce lovely children. Quigley and Elka could theoretically make beautiful bebes together.

What was Quigley's wife like? Has this ever been formally addressed-- I assume he's a widower?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:30:35 -0500

You'll find out about Mrs. Quigley next chapter.

Yes I did the other one. :( I do strange things sometimes, late at night when I can’t sleep. I love Mr. Elvis, but do not know this pink man named ‘Floyd’ you speak of. The YouTubes revealed him to be perhaps a crazy man. Perhaps we share <3 for Led Zep?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:30:15 -0500

Alas, Led Zep I don't know too much about other than the songs everyone knows. Do you want to know one of my dark secrets? I am kind of a music nerd. I like to pretend that when I listen to the "classics" it's really all Pink Floyd and Tom Petty, but more often than not it's... John Denver's remastered oeuvre. I like John Denver, dark and fearsome Ice Mistress. In fact, the only concert I've ever been to was a John Denver concert.

...don't look at me, I'm hideous.

So, then how did Quigley get married if he isn't really into anyone, not to mention if he didn't fit in, getting his caste's approval? My apologies if this is too spoilery. :3

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:26:35 -0500

Quigley's love life is not an earth-shattering spoiler, but I think I'll leave it to the comic to one day talk about :)

I have but one question, Ashley: Why must you be so awesome? :3 I love the newest pages.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:08:46 -0500

Aww, thanks, man.

OMG OMG OMG!!!!! First, YAY! Second, can Matty see Duane's zombie-ness? Third, this is where things really start to get explosive, right? Fourth, I know you aren't going to answer any of these but I HAVE TO TYPE THEM. Fifth, I love you. <3 <3 <3

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:08:26 -0500

Ack, calm down, I'm terrified the rest of the chapter will disappoint! D: D: D: But Duane's still got a hood on, Matty really can't get a good enough read of his whole face to ascertain how much something is wrong with it. He doesn't really need to though, Sette already bragged back in town that she has an attack zombie.

Did Sette not see or hear the Quigleys? She can't smell them either? Maybe her nose has too much blud in it at the moment. Ah well, I'm very happy that guy is back, I do like him quite a bit!

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:06:08 -0500

Mm, no, she knows they're there. Their eyes were included in the ocular feast she suggested to Duane. Whether the bloodthirsty zombie gives her a chance to point out to him they're off in the wings before he starts swinging is something else entirely.

If there were an Unsounded game, there should be a mini-game where you have to hunt for Duane's missing pieces.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:04:41 -0500

Would go something like that bit in Empire Strikes Back where Chewie is running around with Threepio in pieces strapped to his back, berating him the entire time.

We all wanna see Duane vs. The Bird, please! :D

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:02:52 -0500

Oh, that tale would have doubled the length of the chapter! The internet would have run out of pixels.

What part of Duane was the horrid bird trying to escape with?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:02:16 -0500

That was intentionally left up to the imagination ;3

Yadda yadda yadda. The zombie's back and me and everyone luffs him and he is glorious awesomeness. Meanwhile there's a poor little hat laying somewhere on the ground, set to be murdered before too long. How much longer does he have, Glass?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:44:10 -0500

You'll know the hat's time has come when Sette flips the fuck out. Wait for it.

TigerBeat: Kasslyne time! I believe you've mentioned that Duane's taste in women runs toward busty, big-hipped blonds. How about Quigley? I'd ask about Toma too, but we all know he only has eyes for his wife.

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:05:30 -0500

Quigley isn't all that into women. Or men. Or anyone. Even when he was a kid he was kind of socially retarded and kept to himself. Never fit in, that one.

I'm off for the rest of the day but I think tonight shall be a two page update night. *vanish*

"Of course, marriages are equally difficult to get into, so you don't see many people entering into the deal lightly." Did you mean this in the emotional sense, or are there more requirements or restrictions on marriage in Kasslyne than in our history?

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:58:21 -0500

In Alderode you can't get married until your entire sultet ghers, or caste community, agrees to it. And that's not terribly likely to happen until everyone is convinced the marriage is a good one and is going to make babies and not cause too much drama within the community. In Cresce there's a mandatory two year waiting period between applying for a marriage license and getting it, and during that two years most people can figure out whether or not they really want to live the rest of their lives together. I rather like this rule and think our society could benefit from it, myself.

To add to the pronunciation guide, how is "Ssaelit" pronounced? (I've been pronouncing it as ss (i.e. as though it were Snake Speak) - A(rhyming with "play") - lit (the fire was). I place the emphasis on the first syllable.)

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:49:54 -0500

Tainish uses mostly Latin vowels, so in a pinch pretend you're pronouncing French or Spanish. And a double s at the beginning of a word is a soft z. And stress is almost always on the second syllable in a two-syllable word. So ssaelit is zsai-LEET. Galit is *unvoiced uvular fricative*a-LEET or if you're Sette, guhleet. Duane is doo-AN or if you're Sette, Dwayne. And so on.

I'm ambivalent over whether I think Duane ever tied the knot or not. I'm thinking he either didn't, because he was married to his studies, or he was once but they broke up for the same reason. Are divorces common in Kasslyne?

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:32:42 -0500

Nope. Even in relatively progressive Cresce, marriage is considered a pretty important thing and divorces are difficult to obtain. Of course, marriages are equally difficult to get into, so you don't see many people entering into the deal lightly.

Mmm, I'll see what I can do. I have to tell you something. I asked the clergy sex question. And I definitely feel yucky for doing it. Do you judge me?

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:20:07 -0500

Absolutely not. It's a sensible question. Now you can speculate on whether or not Duane-face was possibly married.

A lot of people are a little too fanatic about the Beatles, and it turns others off a bit. But yes, there is something wrong with you, my dear. All You Need Is Love, Eleanor Rigby, Blackbird, these are masterpieces.

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:19:29 -0500

I dunno, man, I'd rather listen to Floyd. Pulp Fiction claimed there are Elvis people and there are Beatles people. Maybe there are also Pink Floyd people.

Magic ice psychic powers say Glass' hair is brown? Oi, magic ice drawing powers mebbe not so good. But okay whatever. Here.

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:15:32 -0500

Oh, what a beautiful thing to wake up to! I am now caffeinated, have a perfectly limber and comfortable neck, and I am full of delightful chicken pie! Oh, thank you, Icy, and thank the stars you use your powers for the benefit of goodness and light and me! <3

Did you do that "ABOUT A ZOMBIE" comic? You are stoopendous.

But at least Quigs won't be around too long to bother her. A relationship with a Plat has convenient built in obsolescence. When a Plat says "I gave you the best years of my life" they really mean it!!

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:53:39 -0500

T___T

The vliegeng pronunciation surprised me! All this time I've been saying it as "vile-gang" in my head, and before that, Sette as "seat". Do reader mispronunciations amuse you?

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:49:13 -0500

Hehe. Seat. Ahh, they do amuse me but they also make me loathe myself for using spelling that is so obviously unintuitive. I should have changed the spelling of Sette's name ages ago but she's been a character of mine since flippin' middle school and nothing else looks right. I have the same problem with Bastion's last name, Winalils. The second L is not pronounced but there it remains for some reason, staring at me, refusing to allow me to remove it.

What flavor of pie would you like to appear all ready to eat in front of you right now?

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:45:37 -0500

I am snuggled in bed at the moment so that would be awkward but in the morning I'd love to wake up to a delectable chicken pot pie. Before I eat it it must also make me coffee and give me a neck rub. Make it so, icewaterblue. Use your ice powers.

Are the Ssaelit clergy allowed to marry? Basically, is sex allowed? Gawd, I feel so yucky for askin' this.

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:44:07 -0500

I don't believe you feel yucky for askin' this, anon. I don't believe it at all :3

Yes, Ssaelit clergy can marry, have sexy-times, and make babies. So can Gefendur clergy.

Paul, John, George or Ringo?

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:42:11 -0500

I guessss John, but I am not a Beatles person. I find their sound obnoxious. Is there something wrong with me?

Darth Vader approaches the cast members of Unsounded in turn and asks them to join him or perish. What happens?

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:41:15 -0500

Hmm, I imagine there'd be a lot of Force choking until he got to Sette, who'd want to know when she'd get her own cool black helmet. Quigley would probably be keen to join the Dark Side as long as they weren't too pushy about it.

The flashback is to 2.13 isn't it. If Sette continues to pull things over on Duane, by Chapter 6 he will be seriously considering the offer to eat her brains for her incredible smarts.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:52:53 -0500

There ARE some very bloody chapters coming up :3

How many chapters before the Quigley X Elka love scene? (Come on, you know it's inevitable!) ;-)

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:52:14 -0500

I dunno, man. I like Elka way too much to saddle her with Quigley. He has more issues than National Geographic.

How do you pronounce vliegeng?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:49:45 -0500

VLEE-zhung

Toma Bos: The new range of scents for men. ;P

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:40:04 -0500

Smells like dogs and sweat and vliegeng pee.

Pymaric echolocation? So, like a kid Daredevil?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:39:33 -0500

I'm not well-schooled on Daredevil but maybe! I think DD probably has better resolution though. Matty's visuals are kind of blurry.

I remember being pretty stoked when I figured out how to draw a transparent cube. Sette is right to call them amazing.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:38:40 -0500

Shit yeah.

Does Sette think abortion is fun and funny?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:38:32 -0500

I don't reckon she's ever given it any thought.

Here's another surefire prediction: There will be a time skip, and when we come back, Matty will be all muscular and buff and HERO OF THE BEACH, and Chitz will be upgraded to be like Detective Mode in Batman.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:37:25 -0500

If he's going to have that beanbag plush on his shoulder throughout puberty, he better buff up or all the other kids are going to kick his ass.

Will Sette and Matty ever kiss? :D

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:36:33 -0500

Is it okay if I platonically ship Sette x Matty? Adorable warm fuzzies! (fleas)(pore warriors)

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:36:15 -0500

As long as it's platonic ;)

Will we learn more of the eels that seem to keep showing up around the dead (such as poor Cara, or the plod that was burned) - or, for that matter, the masked figures that were crowding with the eels around Cara?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:36:05 -0500

Well, the eels are smoke eels. They're common enough pests, and can manifest out of smoke or dust plumes or sea spray or even chimney soot. They mostly ignore people and disperse on their own, but there are stories of smoke eels forming in great angry swarms and slaughtering every living thing they can reach. The widely accepted superstition is they're the spirits of the lost dead.

The masked figures were visions of plague-sufferers. They're masked when they're diagnosed because the plague spreads via eye contact.

So, in this marvelous Unsounded video game that's all the rage with the kids these days, who would you cast to voice your characters? Personally I've always imagined the deep intone of Gideon Emery whenever I read Duane speaking, but that's just me. You?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:30:18 -0500

I doubt anyone's going to agree with me, but if I absolutely had to pick a voice for Duane I vote Goran Visnjic. For Sette, Eamonn Owens as he sounded in The Butcher Boy. I'm not the biggest fan of voiceover in games though, so I'd be just as happy not having voices ;)

So: Hunger Games. Read it or no?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:23:56 -0500

No, alas. Right now I am reading "The Pirates Own Book: Authentic Tales of Bloody Adventure." It's pretty boss.

No! Roaring Captain Bos of the flying fire brigade! Ch 4 pg 36! Tell me there's at least a planned fire dousing level in the Unsounded video game!?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:46:07 -0500

Aww, man! I had this problem during RP too. I never remember the NPCs' names X3 Well, hell, now I have to revise my earlier answer. McWhoopass and Bos indeed knew each other.

Stockyard’s name origin is pretty awesome. Can you tell us about the origin of Sette’s name?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:44:45 -0500

I cannot :)

How are you feeling? Do you need some love? Because I love you and think you're wonderful. And a little crazy. And far too hard on yourself.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:44:14 -0500

Enh, I'm kind of miserable but it's not your problem. I just checked Artifice too, and Jesus, what a depressing page today. Let's all saw our wrists open!

When can we expect the spinoff adventures of Captain Bos?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:43:19 -0500

Is Captain Bos Toma? D:

"It's all stickman battles and amazing transparent cuuuuubes." I am now imagining an Unsounded/Rusty & Co. crossover. That could be very, very cool. ;) (Possibly an Unsounded/Rusty & Co./Order of the Stick crossover, but that might be overdoing it.)

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:42:45 -0500

Haha, Rusty & Co.? You mean like, Rusty and BIg Guy? Man, Sette would love Big Guy.

Did Regina teach Jivi to read and write? Can we have another incentive pic of that if so?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:40:37 -0500

Nah, Regina is too busy to do much hands-on rearing of her kids (when she does it tends to reduce their life expectancy anyway). That's what her quartermaster Erik is for. He taught Jivi how to read and write and reef a sail and load a cannon and keep out of his mother's way.

Enlightenment or Romanticism?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:45:41 -0500

Enlightenment.

Can Matty read and write? Incentive pic seems to suggest that no. Doesn't Quigley want him to learn? Is Chitz giving him enough vision that he could do it? Jivi seems to be able to write though, he hands Duane a paper with several lines.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:45:32 -0500

Matty used to be able to read and write a little. He was about five when he was blinded and just starting to learn, so he remembers some of it. Chitz uses a kind of pymaric echolocation to display mass to him, so printed things don't show up at all, just the surface they're printed on. No one's invented Braille, either, so the boy can't read.

Jivi, on the other hand, reads and writes beautifully.

I must work on a better formula for my self-confidence boosting shots, then. >:c

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:42:52 -0500

You'd have better luck curing cancer, friend ;3

In the vote incentive picture, is Sette doodling Duane or Matty? The cape says Duane, but the hat says Matty. Inquiring minds need to know.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:42:19 -0500

Oh, she's doodling Duane. She just isn't the best ah, draftsman. It's all stickman battles and amazing transparent cuuuuubes.

Should the TSA be allowed to enter private residences at any time without a warrant in order to execute thorough searches for terrorist related material? Should resistance to such be illegal? Punishable with arbitrary secret imprisonment without trial?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:41:31 -0500

No. No. Nope. Is there honestly anybody outside of Washington who'd answer differently?

What's your fear? I'm not talking about heights or spiders, I don't mean your little nuances or quirks. I want to know that one thing that rattles your bones and crunches its icy skeletal fingers around your heart. That one fear. What is it?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:38:32 -0500

I suppose the fear of something happening to someone I love a lot. When I think of anyone fucking with my niece or nephew I want to rend and tear. The thought of my parents dying is pretty awful, though it's of course inevitable. My dad had a massive heart attack a few years ago - he wasn't yet fifty so it was quite a shocker - and he nearly died. He's been sick on and off since then, and late at night I sometimes remember my mom shrilly shrieking my name at 2am because my dad had passed out in the bathroom and she was convinced he was dead. That's one of those memories that haunts you, particularly because you know it will inevitably happen again, for real.

So yeah. Happy shit like that.

Coffee or Tea? If coffee, how do you take your coffee? If tea, which tea do you prefer?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:33:30 -0500

Coffee everything, forever. I usually drink Publix-brand because it's cheapest. Two sweet 'n lows and a spoonful of nonfat creamer. Mmm. Mother's milk.

What's your number one guilty pleasure?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:31:35 -0500

Probably like, some kind of food. No, food paired with trash tv. A box of jaffa cakes and a season of Hoarders D: Oh, God, it's the best.

Favorite color, gut reaction: GO.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:30:27 -0500

Urge to do the Holy Grail bit, strong... Um! Scarlet is nice.

Are you going to turn out to be one of those weird aunts who give awesome presents to their nieces and nephews? Are you one already?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:29:25 -0500

God, I hope so. My niece is barraged by an endless tidal wave of Disney Princesses and the colour pink. I refuse to ever buy her anything overtly girly. People wonder why so many women turn out to be shallow, ignorant prima donnas obsessed with their appearances. The pinker the bedroom, the emptier the head.

Pardon my rant. Yes, I think I am already the Weird Aunt. Feels good, man.

Does Blondo McWhoopass know Captain Bos?

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:23:46 -0500

If I am interpreting this correctly: No.

Thanks for the job advice! I will follow it. I am in a dreaded 9 - 5 job currently and desperately want to get out. I spend a lot of my time trying to sneak in drawing while there :(

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:23:23 -0500

That's horrible :( Try to work and be miserable as little as possible in this life. That often means never having money but you'd be surprised how little money one needs to get by if one just cuts out all the frivolous crap. Anyway, I hope you find something better soon.

Where do I send fan art again? I swear I saw the e-mail address yesterday! Never mind... I made this for you: http://jantsu18.deviantart.com/art/Boo-277918411 Hope it doesn't look too crappy.

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:52:18 -0500

...well, this is the most amazing thing ever. Everyone look at this.

Do you have any job-searching tips for artists? I ask since you've always seemed to be gainfully employed throughout the years! :)

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:20:14 -0500

Well, what kind of job are you looking for? I'm really bad at staying at regular full-time jobs. I once quit a pretty good one just because I couldn't stand the thought of being there for nine hours when I had a painting at home I wanted to work on. Being an artist sucks :( I really don't have any clever tips though. All the jobs I've scored I've found via the newspaper or Craigslist. Good luck, man.

Psh. Are you crazy? Chapter 2 is amazing. It marks a refinement in your style, too, I would say around the time of the pymaric beast. The detail and finesse of the death scene is just… spiffy. The flashbacks, the page borders, it's all so much fabulous.

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:17:33 -0500

You are nice T_T

Also, Sette was created 5 minutes before the start of the plot and planted with false memories!

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:16:32 -0500

I don't know about this one. I can't see anyone purposefully creating Sette to be the way she is. Well, except for me, but I'm nuts.

I have a theory that Duane is a top-secret experiment of sorts, and anyone that has knowledge of him by the end of the series will be hunted down and killed, regardless of their allegiance. (This may exclude Bastion, who's in on the conspiracy. May.)

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:15:02 -0500

I do like a good bodycount. I support your theory. I hope it's the right one!

Oh, that peek image gives me great anxiousness. :(

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:13:05 -0500

It's all good.

Do you research some of the visual elements involved in Unsounded? Because I don't envy you the job of finding Duane zombie-mode references. Shivers What are those white suture things on his mouth?

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:12:55 -0500

Zombies are pretty easy to draw, no reference required. Just imagine the effects of time and decay on flesh, and you're good to go. The stitches at the corners of his mouth help keep the skin there together. Otherwise it's prone to tear when he opens his mouth too wide D:

How do you choose colors for these recent pages? Do you color them normally then add a gold hue over it, or choose the colors directly, seeing which combinations look good then use them like a pallet, or just paint and choose the colors them as you go?

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:08:59 -0500

I did these pages a while ago but I believe I flatted everything with local colour tinted warm and moderately desaturated. Then I chose oranges and yellows for the highlight pass. There's so much hot light bouncing everywhere, especially off that leafy forest floor, that I let even the shadows stay warm to really play up the sunset glow. Lights the whole scene on fire and plays up the tension, I think.

I think 'ken' is supposed to be 'kin' in this page.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:14:46 -0500

No, it's short for flash-ken, a bit of thieves' cant that I can't make Sette stop using... because I guess I can't think of a good and clear english synonym. A flash-ken is a thieves' den, or in this case the whole of her particular house/clan/family of rogues, namely the Frummagems. Ephsephin is just some piece of shit Sharteshanian unaligned with a rogue family which makes him particularly worthless in Sette's eyes. It doesn't matter how small the corner is you back her into, she will always be able to think of some way to insult you.

Anyway, Sharteshanian uh, "society" will come up later once Sette gets around some family members, but for now ignore it.

Aw, Duane looks so sad. Is he going to be alright?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:30:45 -0500

I'm not sure. I can't find a pulse!

Fancy dress, huh? I likes it. Does that mean Duane runs (or shambles) around chapter 6 all messed up like the preview picture from earlier?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:30:26 -0500

Don't be sad but Duane's not in chapter six much. Chapter seven though is a super-duper Duane-splosion, so it all evens out.

Gotta say I liked the tunic in chapter 2, with the sleeves and that crossover belt thing. I like the green and cape/hood combo better, though. But I'm clearly sick because I like Duane and think he's cute. As long as that glamour is up. Otherwise... o_O

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:47:59 -0500

I think I might do something really fancy for Duane's next outfit since he'll finally be in a place with real tailors and clothing stores. Maybe spikes and pauldrons with skulls on them.

And Duane is beautiful without his glamour, whatchu implying.

Ooooh, juicy. A flashback panel from... maybe the tomb? You still working on Chapter 6?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:51:57 -0500

Yep, chapter 6 is quite long. And nope, not from the tomb.

What's this "If I could find a good job out there" talk? This is your job now. You belong to usssss preciousss

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:31:18 -0500

Oh, yeah? Where're my benefits and my 401k then? I'm going to unionize!

"fish brought onto land cannot breathe the air and soon expires. " What about animals like seals and frogs that can survive in both places? Do they have their own microkhurt?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:30:35 -0500

Animals and objects of all kinds can pass into and out of water with no ill effects. This should be obvious since one of the first things our heroes did was fall into a lake. It's pymary and things made out of pymary that water effects, and that is all :)

Have you watched the new BBC Sherlock episode? It was amaaaaazing.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:38:31 -0500

It was pretty good, I like Mrs. Hudson a lot. Unfortunately I found the slut pretty boring and unlikable, the writing was a bit fan-servicey, and Sherlock really slipped into god-mode at a few points, particularly for that eyeball-rolling revelation at the very end. Still, highly entertaining.

Do your boobs hang low, do they wobble to and fro, can you tie them in a knot, can you tie them in a bow? Can you throw them over your shoulder like a continental soldier, do your boobs hang low? My man boobs do!!

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:02:14 -0500

I have a youtube clip for everything!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZJ8Jxt9qrM

When you're finished with the comic, perhaps you could go back and remake the old pages so that they don't fill you with loathing and disgust?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:43:56 -0500

You know how Batman says he can't kill the Joker because then he'd just snap and kill criminals all the time and never be able to come back from having crossed that line?

If I redo a page I'll want to redo all the pages, forever, in an endless cycle, until we all die.

If the old pages were really so terrible, you wouldn't have any readers! I guess this doesn't really work though because there are a lot of shitty popular webcomics out there. Yours is not one of them!

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:02:39 -0500

Let us hope so.

you know, he might just not be into rape! he doesn't seem like the type who likes em fiesty. maybe he prefers prostitutes that do all the work and know what they're doing and aren't gonna try to kick him between the legs

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:52:23 -0500

Fair point.

I don’t want him to be a rapist! I was just fascinated you were maybe a teensy bit naïve compared to moi, rainbows-and-kittens lover. Now I think it’s a crack in your cynical armor, a streak of Disney in your wounded soul. I will protect it. Draws sword

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:52:13 -0500

Mah hero! *swoon* I'm not as cynical as I probably come off. I missed my nephew last night pretty fierce so I watched Pocoyo episodes for two hours on youtube. It was pretty pathetic.

Damn, I really thought I'd found a way in with the Sette age question. How about this, what is Sette's first memory? Don't say her bein' awesome! :)

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:51:03 -0500

Hmm, I wonder :3

Last night I dreamt that Quigley got caught up in the khert-fire weirdness and wound up without a head. D: Please tell me this is not prophetic. And to ask a legit question, how often do you end up dreaming about the comic or the story?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:50:47 -0500

Never. I never, ever do. I never dream about RP, or video games or anything cool. It's like the creative side of my brain is not on speaking terms with my subconscious. It's irritating as shit, anon, let me tell you.

Quigley without a head... definitely not prophetic. There are days, though, where I'm sure he wishes that would happen. Quigley's head is full of regret and dark thoughts and anger most of the time.

I will come through this computer screen and punch you. :( I thought we discussed this. "I am Glass-fuckin'-Shard, and I am awesome, bitches."

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:47:43 -0500

I just had to reference Duane's old outfit in chapter 2 so I could draw a flashback panel and oh my God, the old pages make me cringe and die. I am impervious to your confidence-boosting threats forever.

Oh. My. God. That...video. You are truly an evil, evil chica. Did you not see that by punishing the earlobe and tongue fetishist you were punishing us all? :)

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:46:36 -0500

I wanted to find the clip from Animaniacs where they sing that song but Youtube failed me :(

Yes, I can. I have big, droopy Bhudda earlobes, though. I take it her tongue is also pretty scarred and such from sharp teeth knicking it.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:57:38 -0500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1QfRrM_siM

Suddenly I had an image in my head of Duane dancing to "Glamorous" by Fergie.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:57:02 -0500

I suspect Duane would put his foot in the telly.

How old does Sette think she is?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:55:45 -0500

She's as old as the world is awesome! Before she was born, there was no awesomeness in the world. Now, there is a surfeit.

You mean if Ephsephin had captured that milk maid, he wouldn't have raped her? C'mon now, I expect a little more follow-through from my villains. :-)

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:54:29 -0500

I don't even like to consider it, she seemed like such a nice girl D: But maybe, maybe.

I’m mostly a rainbows-and-kittens kind of girl and you, well, you’re Glass. And I loves ya. But it’s hard to believe an immoral, empowered male given the opportunity as Eph was in 2/22 isn’t going to indulge his violent desires. Maybe I missed something.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:13:40 -0500

Aww, I love you too. And I may be Glass but I'm hardly infallible. Maybe Eph woulda raped her there, maybe he has before with other girls - maybe. It's not my most favourite thing to think about, so in this case I'ma say I don't know. He can be a rapist if you want him to be. I defer to your judgment.

You'sa intressin lady. I brokes mi brains wit all dis philosophimical thinkery. Pleaz pass ices for overheated cranium guts. Whachoo wan' talk bout now? Make small wurdz plz.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:59:27 -0500

vidya games n pie plz lol

Even Shakespeare will be forgotten, I think. Nihilism seems to refuse to give anything meaning because of death, making death the only thing that has meaning. Is there no possibility for a greater purpose that we might achieve, even as a finite species?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:35:38 -0500

That greater purpose would probably be reproduction, the one aim towards which biology drives us in its slavish way. It's the one achievement that ideally outlives us, and the one way we have to physically endure, at least for a while longer. Of course it's not for everyone.

I wouldn't malign Nihilism overmuch. It's not a very sexy philosophy. It's easily ignored. At the end of the day, "meaning" is terribly subjective from person to person, and you can assign it to whatever you feel you need to. Whether that meaning can be validated on a cosmic level or not is quite irrelevant to us as individuals. I find meaning and purpose in my art. My brother finds it in fashion. My mom finds it in her grandkids. My friends find it in religion. It's all equally valid. And death? Death only has meaning from a third-person perspective, and that's to provide deeper meaning to all of those it kills, because it takes them from us and makes them that much more precious while they're here. From a first-person perspective however, death is absolutely meaningless. You will never know what it's like to be dead, so death is one big humbug.

A lot of this philosophical wank is purely academic. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

Is there an alternate universe where Sette and Duane are the bad guys, the Red Berry Boys are the good guys and the Peaceguard are, uh, Aldish?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:20:13 -0500

Mmmmaybe?

We have the same bedtime! highfive If you wanted to leave your swamp-state, where do you think you would set up shop? I always imagine you on some snowy mountain, in some hermit shack, just arting away and eatin' snowcones.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:19:25 -0500

I think I would love to live somewhere in the great American Northwest, probably Portland or the Seattle area. They have coffee and trees so I think I would do well. If I could find a good job out there I might just move.

What happens to items--complex or simple--that are not part of the khert when they're brought into the khert? Like, what happens to a fish brought on land from the khertless sea? Or what would happen to a rock from our world if it was transported there?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:18:06 -0500

Elementary, my dear Watson. A fish brought onto land cannot breathe the air and soon expires. A rock dropped into the sea sinks.

Heh, calling the Dammakhert the "great khert" makes me think of Alderode as North Korea. "Dammakhert is best khert! Good job Alderode number one the best!"

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:16:19 -0500

I can't wait for the story to get to Alderode. It is the most fun/weird place to write.

Gelatin duck blood is a delicacy at chinese dim sum restaurants :D ... But I have to admit I never had the balls to try it myself. I am not true chinese!

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:13:57 -0500

I think I would try it if I had the opportunity. Worst it can do is kill you :3

I'm in the process of revamping my DnD universe into a general fantasy setting and replacing all of the DnDesque races (Dwarves, Elves, et cetera) with just more culturalized humans. What made you decide to stick with Humans as the dominant race?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:11:21 -0500

Honestly, the alternative never even occurred to me. I've always written humans in games - or dead humans or humans with tails or humans who regularly drink blood for the sake of immortality. Dwarves and elves and drow and things belong to other creators. I'd have had to learn all kinds of mythology and history to write them correctly and that just never interested me much. Writing humans meant I could make up whatever the hell I wanted without worrying about offending anyone.

I suppose I could have made up a whole different race of sentient beings for Unsounded... or used anthropomorphic cats... but there was no good reason to :)

But I need protein after a long run. Koreans put the raw egg into black coffee. I'm going to do that someday. And you can't stop me. I bet the Aldish put raw egg into drinks, they are tricksome like that. Do you have the cuisine of Kasslyne mapped out?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:59:09 -0500

I do. And they eat weirder things than raw eggs in Alderode: think sweetened, jellied goat blood. I hope you're at least using organic eggs. Raw supermarket eggs just aren't very safe D:

So then, can we assume that in a group with uncaring adults and some kids, Duane would play nanny? This amuses me.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:57:43 -0500

Unsounded video game: first-person or third person?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:56:33 -0500

Oh, third person all the way. A 2D Metroidvania-flavoured platformer, in fact.

Does Murkoph ever consider the end of his 'life'?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:55:57 -0500

He's more interested in the ends of others.

I threw the moldy potato. I've never actually done anything like that before, and I realize the last thing you probably want is a petty bicker fight on the comments board of your site, but I was just very irritated. Are you mad at me?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:31:43 -0500

Not at all, dear. Nor am I mad at the Sette-hater. Sette is pretty difficult to like.

So if you touch a glamour, do they fizzle, or does your hand just pass through? I'm thinking about 3/49 here, Sette's hand seems to physically touch what would appear to be the glamour.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:57:55 -0500

Nah, her palm passes through the glamour to smack against Duane's actual whithered zombie chops. The glamour doesn't fizzle anymore than a hologram would.

So, if you tried to touch a glamour, would your hand just go through it? Or is it like touching a spider's web and the spell breaks then and there? :)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:54:45 -0500

Some glamours rely on the viewer's ignorance of their artificial nature in order to work. So if you were suddenly certain you knew you were looking at something impossible, your disbelief might break the glamour there and then. Like one of those hidden picture puzzles, where once you find the picture it's difficult not to see it. Glamours like this are fast to cast and don't require much specificity on the wright's part, but they can fall apart easily.

Other glamours are more specific and more independent. They change the way light falls on something so the thing actually looks different, whether you believe in it or not. But these powerful glamours require all their specifics figured out at the time of casting.

Duane's face is the first kind of glamour. "Beauty" is a very relative sort of thing to assign, so it relies on the viewer's interpretation of the suggestion of something pleasing to the eye, and appears to them accordingly.

Can you touch glamours, or are their illusionary qualities limited to sight alone?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:22:14 -0500

By definition glamours are visual.

Would Unsounded really work as a video game? If it follows the comic storyline exactly, it would run the risk of feeling like one of those cheap knock-off licensed games. :(

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:54:49 -0500

No, no, no, I have it all planned out. It would be a side-story but still canon and take place in the middle of the first book. It wouldn't be one of those lame licensed games that's just a rehash of the movie/comic/cartoon - it would be transcendent.

Oh god, you brought it up. The end of my having a life. Unsounded video game. Gimme.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:37:31 -0500

I wish, man. It would be so epic.

I started drinking beer with a raw egg plopped into it after a long run. Now every time I drink beer, it tastes of egg.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:37:15 -0500

That's gross, anon. Stop doing that.

So judging by the incentive pic, when Quigley and Duane meet they will become best of friends and start reminiscing about good old Alderode and everyone will be best of friends (Except for the red berry boys who will be caught by Toma and co. off panel)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:37:00 -0500

It might... not go EXACTLY that way.

Little known fact, the New Zealander who plays Bennett in Commando? He played the main Villain in Power Rangers: Time Force.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:35:36 -0500

Oh, how the mighty fall.

How long IS Sette's tongue, then?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:35:06 -0500

Normal tongue length. Why? Can YOU lick your own ear?

Fat chainmail guy from Commando: ""I'm not going to shoot you between the eyes John, I'm going to shoot you in between the balls!"

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:46:16 -0500

That's Bennett, silly anon :3 Bennett/Matrix OTP

Loved the incentive, thank you for making it. As much as I dig the frenetic pace of things right now, there's something really satisfying about seeing characters I've come to love together in a happy moment. Is it as therapeutic for you as it is for me?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:45:09 -0500

It does give me the warm fuzzies. I wish everyone could just be friends always D:

If Sette's earlobes were made out of flan, what flavor would it be? You've been waiting for me, I know it well. I'm going to go take my medicine now.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:44:32 -0500

I am thinking a nice spinach quiche.

Is it weird that I like to make your vote incentives into my desktop backgrounds? The last one was so seasonally appropriate.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:43:27 -0500

I think it's weird, of course, because I hate my art. But whatever feels good, man! :)

How does Sette feel about getting flan on her earlobes? ;P

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:43:07 -0500

Horrible. Her tongue isn't long enough to lick it off.

What does Sette see for herself in the future, teRse down the road, and in any of these visions, does she find Duane makes an appearance at all, surprising her or otherwise?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:42:22 -0500

Sette sees herself as the eventual Boss of the Frummagems, ruler of their portion of Sharteshane, and all-around badass, feared, adored, rich, powerful... She's starting to realise how valuable Duane is, and having him around to help enforce her rule is beginning to sound like a good idea. Surely that's why Da brought them together!

I just listened to The Decemberists for the first time. Mine ears art wrought with heaven-y goodness! Urge...to hoard....everything they've ever produced....rising....

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:40:13 -0500

Good man :)

So I was thinking, since plats of Matty's age are known to be active in the military as field wrights, it's likely someone like Duane or Toma (Or more likely, Elka) might consider him a full fledged threat rather than the harmless little waif he is?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:39:40 -0500

A layman might make the mistake, but Matty's lack of an outbound connection to the khert is pretty apparent to a good wright. A poor, paranoid, or particularly bigoted wright might indeed err on the side of caution and kill him outright though, sure.

Also, is Matty immune to glamours? I imagine Chitz just shows him a zombie face when he looks at Duane (Or do glamours affect the brain directly)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:37:45 -0500

Yep! Matty is immune to glamours. Glamours are like holographic projections laid over something, so since Chitz works via a sort of khertic radar, its pymaric waves pass right through the lightwaves of the glamour and show the mass-related Aspects beneath for what they are. So Matty would indeed see Duane's visible face area as pretty shrivelled and skullish, but Chitz' resolution isn't the greatest so it's not as freaky as it could be. Chitz and Matty are super useful in the dark though. In my imaginary Unsounded video game, there are unlit portions of the game where you have to play as Matty to navigate the level :3

/nerd

A good bad-ass villain needs a bad-ass boast, too. What are some of your favorites? That awesome Hobbit trailer has gotten me thinking of Smaug's boasting. It's hard to top "My breath: DEATH!"

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:11:35 -0500

Thulsa Doom: They shall all drown in lakes of blood.

Skullmaster: I will teach you a thousand subtle shades of pain... A hundred ways to die! Until I finally lay your lifeless body at my Master's table.

Sette: I'll feed ya to small critters that normally only eat insects but they'll eat you 'cause that's how tiny I'll make the pieces I cut you inta!

Duane is there suddenly, standing at the top of the cliff, torn cape billowing in the wind. Ephsephin's hat is crushed under his boot, a grim portent of what's to come. Duane sees Sette's damaged visage and in his fury... ...okay, your turn? :)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:48:31 -0500

Oh, man, this would have been much more awesome than what actually happens next :3

I love the complexity of the current scenes. Sette stabbed Eph, yet I can't be anything but horrified by this man beating a little girl. It shows how fragile Sette is, for all her talk, and how deeply in over her head. Is this meant to echo Cara at all?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:38:36 -0500

Mm, it's not meant to but I can see where you're coming from. Cara was also a young girl, however she was a passive victim with no family and no future; a slaughtered lamb complete with sacrificial slab. Sette's fortunes have their ups and downs but she's no victim, and she has a whole lot to live for.

His hat looked good on Sette. I guess it is a girl's hat. I figured he threatened to rape the milkmaid back when Duane first interrupted them. Oh and he beat their dog. Unforgivable.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:09:56 -0500

Unforgivable.

It seems like every character I latch onto is destined to become a throwaway............Petr............Ephsephin............Ephsephin's hat............

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:09:39 -0500

Yeah, Eph may have buffitude but he's fugly, man, inside and out. I'm much more concerned about his stupid hat. Will Sette ever reclaim it? Don't kill the hat, Glass!

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:08:26 -0500

Secretly you love those moments when someone asks you the DUMBEST FUCKING QUESTION and it makes you PAUSE, 'cause your brain can't process the stupid, right? Like, can Duane keep a hamster in his empty skull, with a little squeaky wheel that it runs on?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:08:19 -0500

...yes. Yes, he could. But it would probably obnoxiously push the glass eyes out of his eye sockets or be constantly peeking out from behind his teeth like those parasites that destroy fish's tongues and live in their mouths.

You realise if I say I love dumb questions I will wake up in the morning with a hundred questions in my inbox about, I don't know, flan and Sette's earlobes.

What do you think about the Dissidia games?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:05:13 -0500

I played the hell out of the first one, mostly so I could unlock me some sweet, sweet Judge Magister Gabranth. Haven't touched it in a while but it was a faaairly enjoyable game with really horrible cutscenes and writing. I mean, I've played a lot of bad jRPGs in my day but there is a special kind of stupid when it comes to most of Squeenix's writing. And they can stretch a simple premise out for miles. It's like an Alzheimer's patient telling you the same goddamn story over and over in slightly different ways and they've developed a fixation on the words light, shadow, and chaos. Damn, I'm having flashbacks now.

Oh Mighty Glass, Your humble servant does not wish to anger You, but the anon speaks some truth on the rape issue. Recall Unsounded Chapter 2, Panel 3, where Holy Book recounts Eph contemplating the very misdeed. It be Your will this offense was thwarted.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:57:53 -0500

Oh, he talked about it sure. But if every guy who talked about or threatened rape was actually a rapist, most of the internet would be in jail.

Ooooo, Duane's gonna be real mad when he sees Sette's face. He's gonna get all green and glowy and magical and do SOMETHING CRAZY. If he's not dead. But the hat, Glass, tell me about the HAT.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:56:13 -0500

The hat meets its doom in this chapter. But I'm not saying when. Nor who murders it. Nor who comes forward to support its wife and children afterwards. Think of the little hats. Think of the little blue beanies and the yarmulkes. I'm sad now, anon. So sad.

Do people think the dammakhurt is a scar?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:48:04 -0500

Depends on the people. "Dammakhert" is Tainish for "great khert," so obviously the Aldish, who named it, think it's pretty awesome. Foreigners have a different opinion.

I'm the anon who got Duane's advice on a job interview a few weeks ago. Sadly, I was too nervous and it showed, and I didn't get the job and I am very, very unhappy about it. Surely Duane has some method of coping with crushing failure and hopelessness?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:50:15 -0500

I'm sorry you didn't get the job :( He does have one secret weapon against depression that I personally find almost always works, if you can gain access.

I felt preemptively sorry for Eph because I figured he'd run into Duane and get his lungs burst. But then he nuked Duane off a cliff and I was nonplussed. He is a bully and an accessory to child murder, a slaver and a rapist, but he does have some moves.

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:50:06 -0500

A rapist, eh? Not so sure about that one but the rest is pretty spot-on. Unkind character. Poor choice in hats.

Have you seen Burn After Reading?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:14:34 -0500

I have not.

How bewildered are you that people seem to be turning Ephsephin of all characters into a dark horse?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:13:50 -0500

I must admit I'm a little disappointed that the audience has so quickly clued in to the fact he's the secret hero of the story. I thought I'd disguised him pretty well...

Is the Dammakhert one such scar?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:12:21 -0500

Could be.

If Duane wanted to, could he turn himself inside-out, or would that be beyond his power?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:12:12 -0500

I find tons of reasons to get out of bed without feeling any bleakness at being a transient soul. I don't yearn for anything to validate my existence. My only hope after I die is that the people I love live life as fulfilled as I have so far. Feels good.

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:10:07 -0500

Have you become fond of Ephsephin's character as you've written him? The pose and lighting on the final panel are delicious. I don't like Eph, and yet I find him interesting. Sort of like I'd take a pass at his face, but those muscles... :)

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:40:59 -0500

Haha, he's all yours, man. I really don't care for the guy except when it comes to smacking him around and getting him to contort his ugly face in new and horrifying ways.

I did die once or twice, I'm the better for it, I think. After dinner? Do you decaf or...?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:39:26 -0500

Naw, gotta have caffeine, but I eat dinner at 6pm and don't go to sleep 'til 3am, so...

Speaking as a Mormon, hot chocolate is my breakfast (and/or lunch, dinner, midnight munchies) drink of choice. Mormon's know cocoa almost as well as we know jello. Ever had Stephen's brand hot chocolate? Their amaretto and cinnamon flavors are teh bomb.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:17:32 -0500

I have not! I do like hot cocoa, but it's much more fattening than a cup of coffee with artificial sweetener and fat-free creamer, so I don't often indulge :3 You will always know more about it than I.

Yeah, I'm listening to the audiobook of Moby-Dick right now (while sewing Digimon toys, for added surrealism) and probably the thing I like best about it so far is the particular sort of humor. I'd thought it would be really Serious Business throughout.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:15:39 -0500

The image this paints in my brain is excellent.

Moby-Dick isn't an easy book to read (or listen to). It's full of allusions and archaic language, like Shakespeare. Try this site out if you get lost - http://www.powermobydick.com/

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” What about the meaning we take from and give to each other? Do you believe humankind is doomed to extinction through natural or self-inflicted means? Still just curious. ;)

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:12:23 -0500

Ahh, that is one of my favourite Hamlet quotes, well done.

What ABOUT the meaning we assign to each other? Our relationships define our lives, it's a very broad thing to ask about. Sometimes it can be really bleak to think about the big black emptiness behind it all, but I think it can help to set the solipsism down a while, look around, and realise we're all in this together, and that any "permanence" we have access to in this life is provided by those around us. We have - via society, art, technology, and the written word - created an entirely manmade afterlife. You can quote Shakespeare up there because we have preserved the best parts of him - his soul, if you will - and he is accessible to anyone who wants to know his thoughts on things. Like many other afterlives, there are qualifications to get into this secular one. You have to have something worth preserving. You have to speak loud. You have to interface with the community... but the opportunity to live "forever" is there. It's an interesting thing to think about, isn't it? It's not what most people want out of an afterlife, but my niece never wants to go to bed either.

Is humankind doomed... Well, "doomed" is a harsh word. It's kind of selfish to want humankind to continue on indefinitely. If the dinosaurs had continued indefinitely there'd never have been us. But the dinosaurs and countless other species had their chance, and now we're having our chance, and some day perhaps some other species would like to have a go of it. Hopefully, though, it's not anything you or I will ever have to worry about. Being dead is not without its perks.

How many mugs of coffee do you drink a day? I've cut down a bit, but I used to drink around 12.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:04:03 -0500

Twelve? Did you die? D: I have one cup in the morning and one after dinner. If I had twelve...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz3fWAtOMV4

Nihilism as a life philosophy has always scared me. It seems so bleak. But I suppose there is much to admire about folks who believe this and choose to get out of bed in the morning anyway. That's actually amazing. And it gives me a character idea. Yes!

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:29:13 -0500

Haha, excellent! Find inspiration everywhere!

I'm not sure anyone deserves to be admired for their beliefs. I try to admire people based on what they do. Nihilists and people of faith probably all get out of bed for the same reason anyway: coffee. Unless they're Mormon. Then it's... I don't know... orange juice?

In any event, breakfast beverages really fuel the world.

Nudity notwithstanding, do you ever have a hard time deciding what is okay or not okay to put in your work considering the target audience? Sometimes I can never decide if certain violent acts are okay since only certain characters would commit them :(

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:40:06 -0500

Yes :( There are things in my script right now that I'm just not sure how I'ma get away with them. There's really no way to win without censoring yourself. I don't think violence is that difficult to deal with though - violence is pretty accepted in popular media. It's the nakedness and the sexual content that people really flip out over. But violence, if you don't fetishize it and if it serves a narrative purpose, usually gets a pass.

I don't wanna Porsche. Too costly for car insurance. Can I have the artist instead? ;P

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:35:58 -0500

I don't know why you think my maintenance costs are any less expensive :3

Ooh! Are there any famous spots on Kasslyne with permanently-broken kherts?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:45:31 -0500

Yeeeeees.

Cause she's on the right track, baby, she was born this way! ;P

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:45:21 -0500

Right answer! You win the Porsche, sir.

I know exactly why Sette has a lion's tail!

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:21:10 -0500

*squint* Do share.

No suicides permitter here, and no smoking the the parlor.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:36:00 -0500

People never believe me when I tell them how funny this book is.

Do you see nihilism as a positive philosophy? I know a lot of people are quite down on it but I have always found it to be comforting, even invigorating. This being all there is, or pointless, doesn't devalue the experience.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:22:07 -0500

Well, I don't know that I'd call it either positive or negative. The point of the philosophy, really, is that there is neither in the world. But I would say that it does devalue life experience, at least in my eyes. If you approach life with the belief that you are cultivating an immortal soul that will exist beyond your physical life, that makes everything you do mean more because it is going towards something permanent and eternal. If you don't believe that, and your existence is done when your physical life is over, and the memory of you among the living is gone a few decades after that, and humanity itself is extinct in a few centuries or a thousand years or when an asteroid hits... your experience meant nothing and never had any external value.

I think once one decides that nothing has value or meaning, and there is no absolute morality, one can either fall into a slimy funk or one can realise that it is now up to ONESELF to place value on the stuff in one's life. Things can be as important or as silly as YOU decide they are, and you can graduate from nihilism into a sort of comfortable solipsism.

I would say Nihilsm is a fine enough view, but it doesn't do too much for the establishment of a personal philosophy, one that will help you get out of bed in the morning and not go around kicking puppies. I don't find personal philosophies too difficult though. We all want to feel pretty good. What feels good? It feels good when people are nice to you and when you're nice to people. When you are a dick, you are diminishing the quality of all existence. So the Golden Rule applies after all.

So why does Sette have a lion tail, and not a wolf one?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:57:25 -0500

I dunno. Why doesn't she have a lizard tail? One that broke off if you grabbed it so she could get away? That would be keen.

Does the khert always self-repair, or are there parts of it that are permanently damaged?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:56:46 -0500

There are parts of it that are permanently damaged, or have rejuvenated in an incorrect or troublesome way, like scar tissue.

Better to be a chubby chaser than a wrinkle chaser, dear Ash. ;3

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:44:38 -0500

Wh-wh-what? I don't lust after the elderly! Even Johnny Depp is looking way too old these days. Gimme dat Bieber.

You said Moby-Dick is your bible. Is there a philosophical or moral base that you draw from this book, then? Just curious.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:26:01 -0500

I see a real core of Nihilism at the centre of the book. Ahab interprets the Whale as the Ineffable and tries to combat it, but you can't fight the blind, underlying order (or disorder) of the world - not with Fedallah's fire/devil worship, not with Starbuck's devout Christianity; none of the pagans survive, not even crazy, juvenile Pip... and the sea rolls over them, a faceless mass grave unmarked and unconcerned with all the fire of their great chase.

So be cool. Don't go apeshit over anything. It's all bleached bones on the ocean floor in the end.

Oh, I dunno. I bet I'm not the only one to have a crush on Starfish. Dat ass! dreamy-eyed

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:13:34 -0500

Chubby chaser.

Have you ever played Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:13:14 -0500

Yeah, man, it was the shizzle. Haven't played any of the games after though.

I think cats are better than dogs. What say you to this, Ashley Cope?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:12:21 -0500

I say you're entitled to your opinion, wrong though it may be. Kumbaya :3

Yeah, dogs are the best. :) You're all right, Ashley Cope, you're all right. I have a chow mix, a greyhound mix, a doberman and a something (the last of which, as I previously mentioned, is Sette in dog form). They're terrible dogs and I love them.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:48:43 -0500

I love them too. Dog buddies for life! *bro-fist*

I dislike Turas, he banters with Jivi, all mock friendly like, even though he's going to have him butchered. At least Starfish is an honest monster.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:48:01 -0500

Maybe he'll come to a bad end :)

How do you name your characters? I always have a hard time coming up with decent names.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:47:22 -0500

Most of my characters come with their names already attached. They're kind of freaky like that. A lot of writers seem to spend a lot of time faffing about with character names and their eye colours and their favourite breakfast meat... these are dilatory tactics so they never have to actually sit down and write the damned story :D

So don't worry too much about names. But if you are absolutely stuck, stop thinking about the character and think instead about the character's parents - they're the ones that labeled him. What were they like and what would they have chosen?

Are your main villains villains or antagonists?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:42:33 -0500

I like to think of them as antagonists. Most of them have very good reasons for what they do, and many of them - as you might imagine - have an even better sense of ethics than Sette.

In response to another anon, I think of Sette whenever I hear "So What" by P!nk. ;3 Sorry for using you as a medium to say this, Glass.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:39:37 -0500

I am your servant.

I have a whippet mix too! He also hates men (especially if they're dancing) and only likes myself and my mother.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:02:07 -0500

Wow, really? Maybe it's a breed thing then. She also has little mini-seizures sometimes and I read that's common with whippets and greyhounds.

Does Unsounded have villians yet? So far it doesn't seem like there's any bad guys, just people with different motivations.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:01:26 -0500

I would call the slavers villains, myself. In fact I kind of hate that they're so villainous, especially Starfish. You can argue that Ephsephin and Turas are in it for the money, and Cutter hates people 'cause they slaughter lizards, but Starfish bites ears and throws kids around. He pretty obviously enjoys being a dick.

You're right though, they are not main villains. They are minions at best.

Any advice for the creation of proper villains? Mine are all flat and dumb... :(

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:35:28 -0500

Oh, I bet they're not as bad as you think. Just give them believable motivations; make them antagonists instead of "villains." Antagonists simply have goals contrary to the goals of your protagonists. Antagonists don't have to use aboveboard means to get what they want. They don't have to play nice. They can be selfish, vindictive, and cruel. Villains can be and should be badass. They can do all the cool things you can never let your protagonists do for fear of alienating the reader.

Yeah, that's my primary advice. Make your villain Cool. Make them know they're cool. Make it so your audience knows that your villain knows that they're cool. But don't take it too far or try too hard, people can sense that and will be turned off.

Make your villain a very pretty man with long black hair in a black leather duster and also a vampire with a hot girlfriend. Then you will always have at least one reader (me).

Stew you afraid of spiders or any annoying thing like that?

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:26:11 -0500

Yeah. I really can't stand bugs. Roaches. Spiders. Grasshoppers. Crawly things. I like lizards and frogs and snakes that don't want to send you to the morgue, though.

Dogs are the best! I also have 2 dogs and I love them. I have 2 cats, too. Do you like cats, Ash?

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:24:23 -0500

Well... I don't HATE them. Cats just don't do anything for me. Dogs and kids are the creatures that will make me turn into a grinning idiot destroyed by the power of squish and cuteness. I'm sure this has to do with how I was raised; no one in my family ever had a cat, they were all dog people.

I want to live in Kasslyne, Ashley. Where can I find the wardrobe that will take me there? Tell me one exists! T.T Which country would you likely live in, were you existant in your world?

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:29:04 -0500

I think I would like to live in Cresce, probably on the southern coast where it's temperate and lovely. They're all about social justice and joie de vivre, with plenty of appreciation for the arts ;D

Happy New Year, Ash! My resolution is to not fall in love with fictional characters anymore. looks at Duane Well, that didn't take long. -shortest resolution ever.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:23:00 -0500

Eww, don't love Duane XD He's allllll skully and cross. Happy New Year to you too!

So you have two dogs? What kind are they? (I have four, god help me.)

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:22:09 -0500

You need ten dogs. You need a pack! :D

I have two obnoxious, stinky mutt-things. Ebby looks exactly like Donkey from Shrek except he's black, with paws and a scruffy terrier-esque head. He is pretty good-natured unless there is food around; like, he'd let Max (my toddler nephew) blow belly-farts on him but then try to eat his face if Max dared to have a cookie within snapping distance. Carter is kind of a chocolate lab/whippet mix, petite, fluffy, and doesn't like ANYONE except me. She barks and goes insane at strangers, especially men in baseball caps for some reason. She was my brother's dog for a few months and he got her from some dubious neighbours before they moved. I'm pretty sure she was abused as a puppy (perhaps by a man in a baseball cap?). My brother didn't like her and was about to abandon her to the pound but Ashley don't play that.

Dogs are great. I don't know your dogs but I love them, anon.

Is it sad that when I hear the song "Do it like a Dude" by Jessie J, I think of Sette?

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:44:26 -0500

Yeaaah...

Jimi Hendrix once sang about a golden winged ship passing by. Now I know what he meant.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:42:36 -0500

Thou surrenderest to a hypo, Ishmael.

Re: The Art of Fielding: Too bad! The beautiful rhapsodizing in it on Melville finally got me to pick a Moby Dick. Looking forward what this'll be like.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:32:03 -0500

Moby-Dick is my Bible. When people do parodies of it, sequels, homages, reinterpretations, updates, or abridgements - I think I feel how Muslims felt when The Satanic Verses was published.

Except for the Moby-Dick dream in Bone. That was just adorabibble.

...How ironic. I just watched that episode of A:TLA. I decided it was high time I watched it again, just to re-experience all the fond memories. I'm way too old for it, but hey, I still like it.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:24:32 -0500

I used to watch Yo Gabba Gabba, on my own, unironically.

You are never too old for anything on television :3

I hope you really do go for an Agador-Sette, so funny! Happy New Year! Did you do anything special? I slept until five minutes before, had some wine with the countdown, went back to sleep. Lame. :(

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:23:51 -0500

Hey, man, sleep is one of my favourite pasttimes, don't knock it :) I stayed in, played some Terraria and Cave Story+ and did some work. There were a lot of fireworks going off and my one dog is a complete spaz who panicked and tried to climb into my lap for an hour while my other dog shot her disgusted looks.

I just finished 'The Art of Fielding,' which was, among other things, a love letter to male friendships, baseball, and Melville. I mean, the book was about baseball in the way that Moby Dick is about whaling. It is an emotional & lovely book. Recommended!

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:20:55 -0500

Glad you enjoyed the book, man. I don't think I could read a novel about baseball though, it would put me to sleep.

Happy new year! I hope that it is one that includes much happiness for you. ^_^

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:44:45 -0500

Thank you, darling. I hope during the coming year all your troubles last only as long as my new year resolutions.

Unsounded needs more beards. Like full-on, luxurious dwarf-beards. Or maybe that fake beard that Sokka wears.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:43:47 -0500

"Sokka" is too weak a name! He is WANG FIRE!

Yes, I distinctly remember Meriko. I am trying to get knocked up right now (well not NOW, obviously), and I had to swear to Vadne and Aquarimina's players that I would not "Pull a Meriko."

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:41:50 -0500

Minda the mommy. I suppose I approve of this. You may very well pull a Meriko in spite of best intentions though, babies are amazing timesinks.

I now know your favorite pie, but to be a decent stalker, I also need to know your favorite color, meal, pudding, and webcomic other than your awesome own. :)

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:40:21 -0500

Today my favourite colour is scarlet, my favourite meal is a roast beef sandwich from Publix, I don't like pudding but I would eat chocolate pudding if you put a gun to my head, and my favourite webcomic is Shadoweyes which possibly doesn't count because I don't read it on the web, I buy the collected print trades. Hoho!

Does putting specific gods and goddesses in Unsounded ever worry you that you might pull a Deus ex Machina? What is your opinion on the Deus ex Machina?

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:37:39 -0500

I'm not too worried about pulling a DeM - I foreshadow and establish things to an obsessive extent. The phenomenon itself is almost universally considered a bad one, and I know I always feel cheated when a story resolves itself cheaply. I believe that Avatar: The Last Airbender did this with the lion-turtle, which was kinda shockingly left field, but the last season has a lot of writing issues overall so whatev.

Got any unusual but real fetishes you're comfortable sharing with your (largely anonymous but you can trust us c'mon) Formspring fans?

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:31:39 -0500

Ohh, I would bet the majority of formspring has negative interest in this topic. Let's restrict the talk of my kinks to churros, pie, and Vagrant Story.

Do you ever have nightmares?

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:30:04 -0500

I barely even have regular dreams - or at least, I don't remember them. And when I do they almost always feature the most banal and everyday happenings. If my dreams were a television channel, I would not subscribe.

Does Unsounded take place in... The Future? Of Earth?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:11:57 -0500

Nope.

(Regarding Sette's nature) "Yes, avoid that delving. ... all will be revealed." Ah, fair enough, and noted, then. ^_^ I have, however, no intention of not thinking about it - I'll just keep it to myself. Speculation is fun! ;P

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:43:49 -0500

Speculation is the best <3

Will we come to learn in the comic how Duane came to be as he is (that is to say, (1) undead and (2) sentient nevertheless)?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:43:28 -0500

Of course! These are important issues.

Will we ever learn how Cara ended up so far from Alderone? Was it that her uncle's house was close to the border and she managed to cross the whole of Cresce? The distances seem rather big...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:41:54 -0500

Her brief explanation to Jivi was originally much longer. I decided it really wasn't important though and it's kind of convoluted, so I cut it. The short of it is she was saved from burning with her parents in Fachlyne, sent to her uncle's place on the opposite coast in Avelpit, ran away, was picked up by slavers who took a boat to Ulestry, and finally was sold to a brothel in Juniper Valley (a biggish city not far from Mulimar). Unfortunately Starfish was in town buying supplies and telling Quigley off after Quigley quit the outfit. Starfish visited the brothel afterwards in a fine froth, bought a whore, didn't like the way Cara was staring at him while he was settling his account, and he nabbed her while the mistress was getting his change.

Do you intentionally use German(ic) words to name the Peaceguard's hounds? We discussed Pantoffel (= 'slipper') already, but Morgen means 'morning' (or 'tomorrow') in German.

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:26:46 -0500

I use Dutch as a shorthand for naming some things in Cresce, not always in a coherent way. The capitol city is Fluisterad, for instance, which I got from cramming fluisteren and stad together. In my mind, the people who founded Cresce long ago originally spoke a Germanic language that's long since gone extinct, but remnants remain here and there, mostly in place names, or in the name of a weapon or a mount, which you might superstitiously name in the language of your forefathers in order to secure their watchful eye.

The trailer for Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit": great trailer or greatest trailer?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:26:07 -0500

The beardiest trailer.

Formspringers would love RP-verse Duane. He murdered his killer. With an axe. Murkoph cried and cried (at least until he'd finished eating the corpse), and Duane saved the girl. Fun Fact: I am also married. Mr. Minda makes video games. Internet Forever!

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:46:39 -0500

This doesn't always work out though. Remember Meriko? She got married and had a kid and disappeared forever except for like, fucking Gaia-Online. Marriage will destroy your soul, don't listen to Minda.

Do you ever worry about burning out on Unsounded, since you give so much free time to it? It is my favorite comic by far, so now I worry about it.

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:45:16 -0500

Burning out's a danger for any artist, and it's one reason I insist on keeping my buffer up. If a time comes when I want to take a month or two off, I have that option without having to interrupt the posting schedule. But the way my brain works, I'm very much into finding a thing and fixating on it for years and years at a time. I have an obsessive nature like that. I mean, I ran a ten year long RP campaign.

If she's really going to walk like Agador in boots, I would LOVE to see that at some point in the comic's future. I think her complaints would be more vocal, and swear laden, than Agador's. ;P

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:35:22 -0500

I once put my dog Ebby in baby booties, because cruelty to animals is fun and educational, and he did this amazing tippy-toe walk around the yard like he was navigating a field of very small cactii. Then he tore the booties off his feet and ripped them to pieces. I think Sette would act similarly.

I was going to say that maybe it was Biru Noss . . . but I don't think a malfunctioning arm would do that to you.

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:32:59 -0500

Is it just me or did Boo's design change slightly between chapters 2 and 4?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:32:46 -0500

*looks* Yeeeeah, seems like I nixed the knobby joints on his legs and elongated his face mask a bit. Yikes, the art on those old pages is wonky *blowtorch*

If she hates stuff on her feet, then why wear boots in the holliday pic/snow ball fight? ;P

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:07:27 -0500

Because frostbite.

Maybe Sette should have Wolverine claws that she can retract and stuff. If she doesn't like things on her feet, is she going to have issues should she find herself in a snowy/cold environment like Alderode?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:53:32 -0500

She will be like Agador in The Birdcage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wIRVpDzaM8

Oh. I was meaning he was kinda similar to Nary, so maybe related to the Frummagems. Thanks for clearing that up! :)

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:52:55 -0500

Ooooh. Yeah, I guess I can see that similarity. They are both Sharteshanian so there's that :)

Did the Formspring reaction about nudity surprise you?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:11:08 -0500

Nothing surprises me. I'm a channer.

Bah. This is what happens when I talk at 4am. I meant the guy in the picture you posted on your tumblr, whose stripping as he walks into the barracks past the guy with the smiling coffee cup.

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:10:47 -0500

I knew exactly who you meant.

What would you say if I told you Starfish reminds me of the walrus from The Walrus and the Carpenter?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:10:39 -0500

I'm not sure he's as sophisticated but this is actually a really apt comparison. Does that make Ephsephin the Carpenter.

I feel kinda bad for that poor guy sweating his face off in Wednesday's post. I betcha he's one of the few being affected by the Khert. That, or he has something like a Pymaric Pacemaker and is now therefore DOOMED. Doom do-doom doom doom

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:09:43 -0500

Haha! You guessed it, more or less. Well done. And you know that fellow's name if you think about it.

There's a neat documentary series by Terry Jones on 'toob, medieval lives. People's teeth were apparently not so bad - we keep piling processed sugar onto ours, which is why they rot so easily.

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:08:45 -0500

Yeah, all you have to do is look at an animal's teeth to get clued in to this. My dogs don't brush their teeth and they look just fine - but they also do not eat Pringles and candy canes.

Am I supposed to be speculating on Ephsephin's choice of blue and red in his wardrobe, spiky silhouette of black hair, slight sideburns, chin stuff, dense build? I seem to recall you saying he was a throwaway, but he casts certain similarity to another...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:07:37 -0500

Hmm... if he does resemble another character it's one I'm not familiar with. In my eyes he has a pretty generic look going on. Educate me!

If she's getting claws, she needs them for her bare toes, too! 20 sharp pointy digits instead of just 10!

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:06:24 -0500

Yeah, I was thinking that too. She really hates stuff on her feet though, it might bug her.

Sometimes it's so hard to wait and see how things play out in the comic. I just, I just want to see it RIGHT NOW. Do you have this problem when drawing it?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:05:55 -0500

Yeah :( I want to hurry up and get to the second half of chapter seven. It's going to be so difficult and weird to draw and I can't wait to defeat the challenge! *fist shake*

All this talk about homophobia and anons harassing poor Duane about sexism has made me wonder about the other characters (or cultures) in the Unsounded universe. I want to know what Elka or Toma would think...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:02:28 -0500

"... Are Duane's bigoted views universally shared, or perhaps just Aldish? Or are they his personal beliefs? What do other cultures feel in the areas of racism, sexism, and homophobia? (Sorry for the super-deep question)"

Well, the question doesn't have to be super deep, I can sum up pretty easily. Alderode hates everything. They're a patriarchal theocracy where "the nail that sticks out is hammered down," to use the Japanese phrase. Homosexual dalliances are seen as one of the excesses of the wealthy. Queers of more humble means are stereotyped as shiftless and irresponsible, and if they don't get married (to someone with whom they can make babies) and live a good, traditional Aldish life, they're probably going to get booted out of their caste group, sold to a kussenna, or even stuck in jail or an oubliette. It's harsh and bad for you when your caste rejects you for any reason.

Cresce? Cresce has no problem with gay sex or gay relationships but gay marriage is not a thing. It has no place in their society mostly because of logistics when it comes to land ownership, work assignment, food distribution, etc. Cresce is one of those semi-Communist utopias that sounds so great on paper but never works in practise - except it DOES work in practise there. To keep it doing so though, there are some very strict rules that have to be followed for the good of all. Still, Cresce is the most socially liberated of all the countries of Kasslyne.

The rest of the continent is a mix somewhere in-between these two extremes.

Now, sexism follows along the same country lines more or less, with women having nearly no rights in Alderode but completely equal footing with the fellows in Cresce. Racism? Not really an issue. Both the Ssaelit and Gefendur scriptures are very specific about not judging on appearances or skin colour - I mean, there are whole chapters dedicated to this and they use very clear language - so racism doesn't really exist. And this makes me happy, for racism is my most hated -ism.

Are you still friends with many of your old RP buddies? Do you have internet shenanigans with one another still?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:08:01 -0500

Some of them! Mostly my friend Fox, who is probably my best buddy and who knows enough about Unsounded that if I suddenly drop dead you can hound her to sum up the rest of the story. I also chat with my friends Adam and Steve sometimes but Steve got married so now he's All Grown Up and really much too important for the internet. Some of my playmates I never had anything in common with beyond RP, so without RP that was that.

Oh, there is also @mindaroth who sometimes appears on formspring to be awesome. She played the necromancer who, in RP-verse, was responsible for zombifying Duane. Writes a great villain, that one, although I think all she does these days is cyber on Shards ;3

Are you good at writing sex?

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:01:29 -0500

Definitely not. Pretty bad at drawing it too.

Bah, don't worry about the upcoming nudity. I know what to do with it. Vote incentives! :D

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:52:35 -0500

Well, the naked elementals are a while off but there IS a love hotel in chapter six and a brothel in chapter eight x_x I'ma have to change the name of the comic to Unsordid.

I have a soft spot for thieves. Do you know any games or books or whatever that have a thief as the main character?

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:24:32 -0500

Well, the obvious game that comes to mind is Thief, which is a spectacular First Person Sneaker starring Garrett, the incorrigible badass cat burglar. It has some of the best world-building I've ever seen in a game as well as a great story. And there are sequels! The first game is pretty dated these days but not in an unplayable way. Check it out.

The first obvious book that comes to mind is... The Thief! It's YA lit, but it's still pretty good. The setting is ancient Greece or something except it's not, but it has some fun politics and pretty good characters.

I like conmen slightly more than outright thieves, but the line can be kind of thin sometimes.

How about strategic clouds and bits of foam?

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:16:55 -0500

Yes, this is wise.

I don't mind nekkidness. But from your comments on it, i take it you were one of few disturbed by Dr.Manhattan's dangling blue junk in The Watchmen?

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:16:46 -0500

Pssh, no. I have absolutely no problem with nakedness anywhere. I just know most of the rest of the world does. If I put a penis in my comic I know, for instance, that my good Mormon friend will probably stop reading it. Hers wouldn't be an uncommon reaction, I'm sure.

I suppose since the comic isn't ABOUT nakedness, it's not necessary to try and prove a point or raise a fuss or get all prickly about pricks. Artful obfuscation is probably the way to go.

I think from now on you should draw every character in Unsounded naked all the time, no exceptions.

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:10:03 -0500

nuuu Starfish

Of all the questions asked, I don't think I've seen this one yet: What first inspired you to begin drawing, and for how long have you been creating art?

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:09:04 -0500

This is one of those great questions that I can only give a boring answer to. I've been drawing since I could pick up a crayon. There's never been a time in my life when I wasn't drawing.

Have you ever read the Dorohedoro manga?

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:06:24 -0500

Nope.

Will, Lawrence, Sivis, Hettie, and Nihil—will we be seeing any of these people in the comic? Personally, I'd like to know more about Will. He seems very naive.

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:06:07 -0500

Will yes, Lawrence yes, Sivis no, Hettie is dead, Nihil no. I can give a little info on Will. He's ten years younger than Duane and served with him as a boy in the Aldish army. Will's family is one of the most powerful in Durlyne, and his father was one of Duane's superiors during his time at the Temple of Song. Will is the sweetest person ever to live on the earth, though he's kind of a man-whore and not the sharpest tack in the wall. He was supposed to be a wright, for instance, but he never had the head for the language or the math so he flunked out of the Academy. Still, he is lovable in his dumbness.

You could just use Anime Anatomy.

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:58:03 -0500

Depending on the anime, this could mean just about anything.

"there will be so much nakedness I haven't yet decided how to handle it." You could do like the Conan comics from the eighties that had strategic shadows that pass exactly over the nipple or maybe you can just draw whatever and pretend you're european

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:57:06 -0500

I'd love to go with that second option - that's where my artistic instinct wants to lead me - but you know how weird some people can be when there's an uncovered penis on the page. Jars of guts - okay - but you better put pants on that air elemental.

Are there any thieves who can use pymary? Wrights turned thieves?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:36:58 -0500

Absolutely. Wrights can and have gone into all kinds of lines of work. There are even Frummagems who are wrights. Mwa ha ha.

For those of us who haven't been following this Formspring for long enough (and who don't want to scroll down through an unknown number of pages :P), will the previously-mentioned sentient sea-life appear in the comic at some stage?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:17:26 -0500

Yes. And there will be so much nakedness I haven't yet decided how to handle it.

Is the stricks plague an unfortunate but naturally occurring illness, or does it have more sinister origins?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:16:32 -0500

I wonder.

I think you said earlier that Nary offed his own da to get the family business. Would Sette ever consider doing such a thing once she's older and less presumably in need of him?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:16:24 -0500

Well, Nary offed his da because they got into an argument. They were already partners at that time. Would Sette kill Nary when she's older? Ya know, it's tough to say. We change so much in our transition from kid to adult, so I'm not really sure what she'd be like when she's older. Can't call this one.

The spirits of the sea and sky that made love and wrought with it great storms in their passion?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:14:51 -0500

You phrase it so wonderfully. I think most people call them storm whores.

I bet there are invisijellyfish senet beasts with their own Khert. The fishies gravitate with them like astral bodies. Or there is a seekrit water Khert that the oh-so-smart wrights don't know about. I think you underestimate my amount of free at work.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:13:57 -0500

I want your jorb.

My vote goes to seekrit water khert ;3

Is there an Aldish caste we haven’t heard about? The wiki says there’s seven, but the Breeds poster says there’s only six. I'm super intrigued.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:13:01 -0500

The seventh caste is the sort of non-caste of the kussen; the khert-detached slaves that live separated from the rest of society so energy can be extracted from their minds to power all manner of things. Milk damsel mentioned them briefly back in chapter two.

So, is the land-dwelling population aware of the "nereids" that live in the sea? Will we ever see them in the comic?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:11:06 -0500

Yes and yes. I'm not sure I'm going to call them nereids anymore though, they need a new name.

What is it that Bastion is smoking in those drawings in your gallery?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:09:50 -0500

Depends on the drawing. Sometimes he smokes weed, sometimes it's just his tongue smoking. It does that now and then.

How do the Ssaelit think the first wrights came about, then?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:09:15 -0500

Same way the Gefendur think they came about. The Ssaelit believe the Twin gods once existed, but their own "god" killed them.

Nearly 30% of ducklings are born from duck rape.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:12:28 -0500

Not Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

I saw this pic and thought of you http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg88/elatadexico/2011/122011/asmelhoresfotosdasemana5.jpg

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:25:57 -0500

Ducks are smarter and better than people in every way.

Also, I thought for sure this would be a picture of a severed head or poop or poop on a severed head. Pleasant surprise.

How did the first wrights learn to program stuff into the khert for everyone else?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:24:22 -0500

The Twin gods taught them. Well, that's the mythology anyway.

Will we learn more about just how Cara ended up in Starfish’s slave-trafficking outfit?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:23:36 -0500

I hadn't really planned on it. We'll learn more about the stuff she talked about, but Cara herself was just an unremarkable kid who came to a Bad End.

I am now imagining deepsea fishwrights. Should I be terrified or amused?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:21:40 -0500

I for one welcome our new deepsea overlords. There are sentient beings in the water, ya know. People who've been following the formspring for a while might remember some chatter about them.

Do you do a lot of plotting while you're pooping?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:19:49 -0500

You really shouldn't sit on the toilet too long, anon, it's bad for your sphincter.

Maybe the ocean has its own different kind of khert/governing force and that's what the fish use? Since water is matter in liquid form, it needs instructions like everything else. Not sure that fits with rivers and lakes, though.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:20:32 -0500

Hmm!

Do you ever get tired of answering all these technical questions for the Unsounded verse, or do you enjoy explaining?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:35:47 -0500

I do get a little blah with it from time to time. But if you guys are taking the time to read my comic I can take the time to answer questions. Seems like the right and proper thing to do.

If matter has to reference the khert, what about fishies? Am I missing something? Or does the Khert exist over water, it's just that pymary doesn't work so well with it? Do fishies have their own Khert like Uaid? I am concerned for the strawberry fish!

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:34:22 -0500

Haha. That is indeed quite the mystery. I can't believe you keep up with this formspring, you sexy animal. It would have bored me to tears by now <3

Pardon the annoyance. May I get a link for that Ch 5 preview page, please? Yes, I know, you are completely correct - I will save things to my hard drive in the future. Happy Holidays!

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:04:39 -0500

Alas, it is gone! I deleted it from the directory when I started updating again, and I had deleted it from my computer a while ago. Anyone else out there have it for this anon?

Happy Holidays to you too :3

Are you familiar with role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons? If you are would you be willing to write something like a scourcebook for the Unsounded universe? I know I personally would love to be in a game run in it.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:03:21 -0500

I dunno, I'm only superficially familiar with stat-based systems so I'd probably be rubbish at trying to apply one to Unsounded's setting for a sourcebook. Someone contacted me a while ago about their writing one, but I can't really let anyone do that, ya know? It's my stuff. Sorry, sorry.

Are Duane’s (real) eyes still green as previously mentioned or that blue-whitish color?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:19:27 -0500

Duane's real eyes rotted. They were green when he was alive though, yes. I drew alive Duane a bunch last night. So schmoopy.

It seems like it’s going to be dark soon in chapter 5. Will we get a little more on the meaning of the cuffs or talisman, then?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:18:00 -0500

Chapter six kind of definitively addresses both of these concerns.

The khert sounds like DNA, in that it contains the instructions for how everything works. In that sense, everyone is sort of like a cell within a ginormous, complicated being. I find this very spiritual. Is that interconnectedness important to the story?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:16:40 -0500

Yes. I like your analogy very much.

You said in an earlier question to the effect that Duane didn’t have full access to the khert. Yet it’s also been said he was born connected to it in a special way. So how does that all work, are there levels of access?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:15:23 -0500

Baby Duane came into the game with two special features: tacit casting, and with an outbound connection to the khert already in place, making a wright's rites redundant (but he went through them anyway for social and cultural reasons).

Duane doesn't have full access the way almost no one has full access except for the highest officials of the government. You see, it's possible to burn spells into the khert, making them universally accessible by anyone just by them knowing the words to call the spell forward. These burned spells are the official canon of pymary, and all that anyone is supposed to use. Duane doesn't have the ability to put spells into the khert like this, almost no one does. Hence, he doesn't have full access.

Would disconnecting Duane from the khert kill him, or just really mess him up because he can't keep his extra spells going?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:02:11 -0500

There are generally two ways to be connected to the khert. I think of them like UNIX permissions because I am a sad little person.

You can be read-only, which is what most people are, and what ninety-nine percent of people are born as. And then there are people - wrights - who undergo a brief procedure that grants them *ahem* execute privileges so they can shuffle Aspects around the khert via pymary.

If someone took away Duane's wright privileges, disconnecting his ability to input to the khert and work pymary, he'd be pretty messed up indeed. All the little spells he has in place that ease the workings of his body would fail, his mouth would dry up, his glamour would dissipate, and he'd be a shambling, mumbling, stereotypical zombie, with the key difference that he'd still be Duane inside, just without a cooperating form.

Now, if you disconnected him fully from the khert, he'd keel over. Anyone would. A connection to the khert is required by everyone. Since the khert contains all governing laws, matter can't interface with reality without referencing itself in the khert.

...Would it make me a terribly bad person if I would very much like to see this "landscape strewn with small intestine" you hinted at...? .__.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:49:03 -0500

I wouldn't say so. But I don't believe it will happen. Captain Toma did not in fact break open like a pinata and festoon his entrails all over the burning blue alleyway.

Wait, I missed something. You can disconnect someone from the Khert? Is it akin to, say, utilizing pressure points to cut off a person's chi?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:47:57 -0500

No, Ty Lee. It's more like mangling a person's spectral essence at the pertinent points until it can no longer interface fully with the khert. Imagine you have USB ports in the centre of each palm, and someone jabs a screwdriver down into them a few times.

Thoughts on Osamu Tezuka? I don't much care for his art style, but some of his stories (like Adolf) are fantastic.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:44:06 -0500

Would it shock you to know I've never read any Tezuka? I think it could indeed be the style that's the turn-off; it immediately looks so dated I've never been sure there was anything still relevant about the stories. I'm sure I'm wrong though, circumstances have just never conspired in such a way that I sat down to read and find out.

My apologies if this has been asked before, but has anyone ever voluntarily become a galit?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:41:08 -0500

Mm, if by galit you mean a plod, certainly. One can sell one's corpse ahead of time to the plod creators for a modest sum of money.

What does Sette want to hug?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:40:08 -0500

Nothing in particular at the moment. In more of a stabby mood than a huggy mood.

I was not jealous before, but now I am. Cherry is my favorite. :P I prefer it without the pits, but alas, I always get one. Is your favorite pie cherry? Do you like peach?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:38:54 -0500

My favourite pie is a tie between mince and apple. I would eat nearly any food in pie-form. I would eat Mrs. Lovett's pies. One pie I do NOT like, however, is peach. I don't like peaches in any incarnation, they're sickly sweet and taste faintly of vomit and also the fibrous texture is like sucking down snot laced with animal hair. I have gotten into heated fights with my best friend over the inherent evil grossness of peaches.

Elka's badass. Is she riding Toma's hound?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:12:35 -0500

Nope. It's her own doggie named Morgen.

You have not told us what kind of pie it was. What kind of pie?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:12:25 -0500

Delicious cherry. Made from scratch, too, so there was the added adventure of errant cherry pits.

Your Christmas-buzzing answer makes me think this is you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pSLOnR1s74o Did you find cool presents for people this year?

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:15:38 -0500

HNNNNG I almost got teary at the end. I fucking loathe and adore the sentimentality of Christmas commercials. I am a monkey, Habe; ONLY A HORMONAL MONKEY.

I did pretty well with Christmas shopping this year. I bought my dad Twilight Princess, which I hope he will enjoy and which I hope will get him to stop playing really terrible flight sims, and I found my gay brother a Breakfast at Tiffany's teeshirt that features Audrey Hepburn as a zombie. Christmas morning should be fun.

Beards are certainly NSFW. If people were more aware of the ratio of Lumberjack : Sawmill deaths as a direct result of beards they'd be shocked and appalled. That applies to any heavy machinery. Even Santa wears a beard-net when he inspects his factories.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:09:49 -0500

This is good information here, you must publish a pamphlet.

Is Murkoph-as-zombie even out there lurking in the story yet? I see him working in Grettaerin as an earnest and slightly agoraphobic Bronze banker named Joena Puckle. That is until he finds out the girl he’s about to ask to marry him is a gruftgrammer...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:08:43 -0500

On, anon, you are so delightful.

I was in that pie. Now I'm in your digestive tract.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:07:36 -0500

All right.

Why are there no photos of the pie prior to being eaten? sob

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:06:39 -0500

For the same reason there are no photos of Sasquatch. Pie in my house is elusive, endangered, and doesn't stay in one place for long.

You seem to be in a Sette-mood again, dear. Hopefully you'll be better once you come out of the pie coma.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:29:01 -0500

It's almost Christmas, anon *_*

I'm buzzing slightly.

The pie is a lie, you monster.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:01:06 -0500

There was a PIE here. It's gone now.

Have you heard the soundtracks for the Assassin's Creed games? The one for the newest game, Revelations, is particularly amazing. Jesper Kyd x Lorne Bafle.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:40:06 -0500

Joy! Rapture!

Are there any recreational sports in Kasslyne?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:39:58 -0500

Someone has brought a homemade cherry pie into my life.

What climate change problems might Kasslyne face? And there must be a point of Peak First Materials, right?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:39:47 -0500

I have pie.

If a wright is disconnected from the khert for a felony or suchlike, can he or she be reconnected or is it permanent?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:11:22 -0500

Usually. If you've done something that bad, though, you're more likely to be outright executed.

I JUST saw the new Hobbit trailer, and though I never cared for the book in comparison to LotR, I loves. NSFW?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:10:14 -0500

Beards. Not Safe For Work.

Hmm, if there's a "casual" villain, is there also a formal villain?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:09:55 -0500

They're all in politics.

Why're there shaggy boar in the street and people on the rooftops? Do people normally chill out on the rooftops? Do they have roof gardens? That city doesn't strike me as a great place to raise pigs—are they being taken to slaughter? Or to get sheared?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:09:40 -0500

There are people on the rooftops so they can get a better look at the cool destruction in the street. The pigs are on their way to the butcher, yes. Kill 'em in the evening, let the blood drain overnight, section off the meat in the early hours of the morning to sell.... mmm... sausages...

Are the gods in your mileu actually real entities with independent existence autonomous of their believer's minds?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:07:13 -0500

I wonder.

I just realized something about all the comments for Elka. None of them take the biggotry between countries into consideration. So, as as someone who joked about dating her myself, I ask- Would Elka date a young, white dude w/ clean shaven head & face?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:06:56 -0500

Elka wouldn't date anyone right now; like Sette she's much more interested in her work. If she was in the market though, she might take a white guy into consideration provided he wasn't Aldish. Crescians and Aldishmen don't hate each other because of how they LOOK. They hate each other because of centuries of warfare, and irreconcilable philosophical and cultural differences.

Toma is Elka's perfect man. Can you compare? :3

Hey, Ash, do you have a favorite character from the comic, or do you try to love all of your creations equally?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:26:33 -0500

My favourite character fluctuates with my mood. When I'm feeling dismal, I prefer Duane. When I'm feeling manic and full of myself, I prefer Sette. Between the two of them they almost make one complete, normal person.

Gah! How do you convince your brain to recognize the "ask all friends a question" and "ask a specific friend a question" when you're clearly an idiot? headdesk

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:23:26 -0500

I don't know, I'm trying to figure out why the inbox number is now very bright and green. Formspring engineers are like chicks constantly retreating to the bathroom to primp.

As... weird of a question as this is for me to ask, will you be showing the mangled, exploded body of Captain Toma should they find him, or merely silhouette it all? I am... trying to determine how gruesome you are willing to take this comic. Also, bored.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:22:16 -0500

Yeah, I think the next page will have to have a NSFW warning. You really don't want to be caught by your boss gazing in horror at a landscape strewn with small intestine. Don't be bored. Did you see the new Hobbit trailer? Beards. Beards everywhere.

Is Jivi from Cresce or Ulestry?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:12:46 -0500

Jivi's Crescian.

Is it just my imagination, or are Ulestrians slightly lighter-skinned than Crescians? Elka's pigtailed friend seemed more dusky than dark skinned.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:11:54 -0500

I hadn't really thought Ulestrians were that dark-skinned at all; more olive-toned than anything. But there's lots of variations in both Ulestry and Cresce. Variety is the best!

Oh, dear anonymous lover of TNG, I love Patrick Stewart, but no one beats the epic-ness that is the Kirk, McCoy, and Spock. Ash, ToS stands for The Original Season, and is the best imho. The new movie was pretty good, if you don't wanna watch the series.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:10:15 -0500

Oooooh. Mm, I've lived thirty years without Star Trek. I can live another thirty ;) We all like different things, and that's awesome.

I have a phone interview for a fancy new job tomorrow which I am excited about. Is there some Crescian or Aldish blessing of luck you can bestow on me?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:09:00 -0500

Oh, you don't want either of those, they're not all that inspiring. Duane gives good counsel: "Comport yourself ever as a gentleman (or gentlewoman). Let no amount of money nor prestige sway your good and illimitable honour; do not flatter nor wheedle, do not lie nor brag, do not take a thing if you must give up something much more valuable to have it. We own naught more valuable than our character. So, go with God, go with dignity, go with honour, and no matter if fickle fortune favours you or shows you the door, you will journey on unsullied."

I have never read Moby Dick, but thanks to Unsounded, I was able to use that quote to draw a precarious parallel between a Decemberists song and The Great Gatsby in an English paper. For that, you have my most profound gratitude. salute

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:33:34 -0500

Don't thank me. Thank our dear friend Herman.

WHAT? You don't like Star Trek? OK 1. I’m a girl. 2. TOS or TNG? Very different series. 3. Can see joyless in the early stuff, but TNG Season 3+ started adding color and humor. 4. Picard getting abducted by the Borg is EPIC DRAMA. 5. You make me sad. :(

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:17:30 -0500

1. Show me your boobs. 2. I don't know what TOS stands for in relation to Star Trek, I am sorry :( 3. Okay, but that's a lot of episodes to go through first. 4. When I look at Picard I see Professor Xavier. 5. Don't be sad, have some pie.

So Duane was born connected to the khert, but still had his stabbity rites done? That must have been because they're a socially important rite of passage for young wrights, right?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:33:49 -0500

Exactly.

Are you worried about rising sea levels? Florida is not really the safest place to be.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:16:35 -0500

I'd love to move out of Florida, but I don't have the resources. Besides, my family's here. We can all go down together!

The abbreviation for the Temple of Song confuses me so much, makes me think of Star Trek. So, very important question: Star Wars or Star Trek?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:40:36 -0500

It makes me think of Terms Of Service. WHICH OF US IS THE BIGGER NERD. I prefer Star Wars, definitely. I've only seen a few episode of Star Trek. There's something so dry and joyless about it, it's not for me.

Your backgrounds always astound me. You put so much detail into them. How do you do it? I think it would drive me insane. Then again, I'm not an artist, so I can't really understand. I am not gifted with art skills, nor with the patience to acquire them.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:19:59 -0500

Aw, thanks, man. If one is a pro at anything, it's easy to make something look more time-consuming, difficult, and tedious than it really is. Backgrounds are no big deal at all, though laying out perspective grids can get obnoxious. I think a year of playing Minecraft has made my backgrounds a little better. I have some slightly more creative ideas for buildings and interiors now ;D

It seems to me if the Aldish didn't have the Crescians to band against, they'd soon split along caste and religious factions. I'd ask Duane but he'd just give me the party line.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:14:00 -0500

This is an insightful theory and in fact, historically, war with Cresce is what saved Alderode from a self-destructive series of religious civil wars centuries ago. So hating on Cresce is pretty important to the country's continued existence. Aldish politics, man, they'll drive you bats.

What, Ashley? You don't want dominatrix-Sette walking around whipping boys with her tail? I have the insane temptation to doodle this.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:32:09 -0500

Do it. Make it so!

In that case, being with Sette must be a balancing act upon a balancing act! Like a tiny acrobat on your shoulders keeping you focused on the current task but constantly reminding you that big heights = big splat. Not a question, I just love your chars

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:30:57 -0500

Aww, they love you too. Well, maybe not Sette.

Considering their religious intolerance, I can't help but feel that Kasslyne needs to open their eyes to the joys of religious debate as we know it: http://tithenai.tumblr.com/post/3215186237/two-churches-located-across-the-street-from-each-other

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:30:07 -0500

So cute XD Thank you.

Is there a question that you'd like us to ask?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:29:32 -0500

Question yourself! Were you productive today? Kind? Did you eat enough fiber? Live hard!

Sette dies, doesn't she? You're feeling sad because you're thinking of the tragic death you've concocted for her later on down the road, aren't you?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:28:16 -0500

It really does make me sad because if she dies I'll have to draw new cover art again :(

I'm dying to see this new cast you mentioned. As it's going to be set in Alderode, will we get to see some aspects that Duane may have once had in life? E.g., will any of them be from the TOS? I suppose I'll have to wait to find out.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:27:41 -0500

Oh, this is so far in the future I feel goofy for bringing it up D: But yes, the characters are all directly connected to what's going on, so that'll include some people from the Temple of Song.

Could Duane remove what's left of his flesh and make a cloth body to cover his bones?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:26:25 -0500

I reckon so but at that point he may as well just go skel. Unless you mean he should make like, a padded cloth body. And be a plush. Because kawaii.

"I don't think ninety-five percent of people would last" So how did Duane last? What motivation was there for him to get employment and generally go on acting like he was alive, rather than just giving up out of despair? Or is that spoiler territory?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:25:15 -0500

This is mostly spoiler, but I touched on some of his motivation a few questions down with the lovely Kirbish.

I had an Unsounded dream last night! Duane could jump huge heights and distances thanks to his supernatural strength and light frame (being just a skeleton and all), and a territorial owl started attacking him, thinking he was a rival.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:24:26 -0500

This is a beautiful thing.

Since the Ssaelit abhor the idea of undead, how did Duane come to terms with himself? Did he then find solace in the fact that, along with his sentience, some shred of his dignity remained intact? Or did he find a different way of rationalising himself?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:10:40 -0500

Well, that's the thing. He hasn't come to terms with himself at all. He hides behind a thousand distractions, leaps towards any opportunity to make himself feel alive, purposeful, useful, -human-. He doesn't want to think about himself, or remember, or anticipate. His is a careful mental balancing act and the slightest thing can throw his thoughts in directions he cannot endure... because the fact of the matter is he's damned, and there isn't any action he can take that will save any part of him. That mental paralysis leaves him in stasis. There's nothing to do but to keep going and pray every evening for some revelation.

So, if Sette found herself a galit like Duane, how would she react, and what would be the long term effects to her sanity?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:47:51 -0500

She'd never last. I don't think ninety-five percent of people would last.

I believe you once said Duane's name is pronounced differently than in the real world? doo-AHN or something? I was wondering if Sette pronounces his name the same way, the rare times she uses it, or if she pronounces it differently than it's meant to be.

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:46:46 -0500

Nope, she pronounces it Dwayne. Because she is a twat.

So the "temple of song" is one of those misleadingly named things that are the opposite of what you expect? Because "breaking heads" is not the first thing that springs to mind on hearing the name "temple of song"

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:52:19 -0500

Haha, yeah, I guess so. It's only called that in reference to its actual main structure, which is a huge tower carved in such a way that it makes music when the wind blows through. But TOS refers to the whole second branch of the Ssaelit ecclesiastic, military, and governing body, which is located at the Temple of Song facility in Durlyne. I suppose it's like how flexible the word "Vatican" can be.

What did Duane do to cement his reputation as an impressive wright?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:41:18 -0500

Duane was first recognised as a badass when he was a kid. Not only was he born a tacit caster but he was born already connected to the khert. This happens sometimes and when it does the People In Charge pay very careful attention to you. Anyway, they made sure he had the proper education.

The second time he was given official badass status was after a certain event in the army, one that made sure he didn't stay in the army long and instead went to the Temple of Song to knock heads around. Duane had an interesting life.

Oh man, I'd read that! I would SO read that! So. Has anyone actually seen Bastion's lover? How long have they been together? Are there exclusive photos?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:35:17 -0500

I'm tempted to show you a picture of the guy this rumour probably would have stemmed from. He's ah, not exactly a paragon of lust.

If Sette's dying wish was for him not to burn her body but bury it, which would win - his pushoveryness with her and respect for a last request, or his sincere belief that it's better to burn the dead and she's just confused?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:32:57 -0500

Oh, I think he'd ignore it and burn her. But let's not talk about Sette dying, it brings sadness unto me.

In Alderode, snowball fights are serious business.

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:31:59 -0500

Too right.

Pah! I demand a detailed energy flow diagram accross the entire trophic pyramid. But seriously, giant porcupines would be awesome. Do any animals, aside from the senet beasts, have any form of natural pymary? Are starflies natural critters or constructs?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:31:54 -0500

Starflies are regular old bugs and their bioluminescence is achieved through natural means. Vliegeng fly by attaching to the channels of the khert via spectral appendages on their back, and skating along them. That's different. Then there's smoke eels.

Your ecology's a little unbalanced. Where are all the hervibore animals? And wouldn't Grebbers have eaten the lions before the Geffendur got them? Or were they proportionally hueg too? Any Aurochs or Irish elk hiding in the forest? Ooo giant porcupines!!

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:06:31 -0500

I don't believe my ecology to be unbalanced, but no one wants to talk about boring herbivores. Grebbers and vliegeng are interesting creatures. Deer, goats, pigs, coneys, marmots, and the like - not so much.

Anyway, grebbers and lions lived in totally different regions. Kasslyne is a big place. Even if they did come in contact, I can't see a grebber hunting lions when lions live and hunt in groups. They may be smaller, but there are many more of them. It'd be like a grizzly bear going after a pack of wolves. Not so bright.

"In which two rights make a wrong" - the biggest, cheesiest grin on my face when I read that. Glad you're back!

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:55:05 -0500

*cheers!*

Oh. Ha. I only ran out of room. M/S -Mentor/Student. F/D - Father/Daughter. I should make a point to remember that I'm the only one privy to my mental processes....

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:54:46 -0500

Not what I thought it was ;)

Male submissive, female dominant, at a guess.

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:54:34 -0500

This was my guess as well :3

So. Thought. The cremation thing. Does that have anything to do with zombies? And not wanting people to be made into them?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:46:10 -0500

Not so much. The Ssaelit do abhor - absolutely despise and reject the idea of plods and all things undead - but they do so for the same reason they espouse cremation: human exceptionalism and human dignity. There are many dogmatic differences between the Ssaelit and the Gefendur, but the philosophical difference kind of boils down to one thing: the Gefendur believe that humans are indebted creations of the Twin gods, inferior to them in all ways, and created for the purpose of worshipping, entertaining, and glorifying their pantheon. The Ssaelit, however, believe humans are inferior to nothing and no one, that they have a duty to become the best humans they can be, and that they not only have a right but a responsibility to transcend nature.

Was that "O-o-okay" a nervous reply because you mistakenly think your skills are lacking, or an eye-twitching stutter while you're thinking of ways to get this crazy comic-stalker away from you? -.-

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:37:51 -0500

It was mostly because I don't know what m/s-f/d means and I am terrified.

Duane, undead cleric... If he wasn't already shown to be an awesome character, those two words would get any fantasy loving individual to check him out! Such an interesting, rarely seen, combination. :)

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:36:14 -0500

Is it really? It's such a contradiction I would have thought it more popular. You can do cool things with it. Back during RP when Duane really was more of the traditional fantasy priest type, I never let him use healing magic on himself OR anyone else. Since healing spells are harmful to undead and since in my mind magic is a force that has to pass through the mage, it seemed like even healing magic directed outwards would bring him harm. So there were always situations where he'd have to stand by and watch characters die because he couldn't cast the necessary spells properly.

And then there was of course the requisite The Gods Hate Me angst. Is it more sinful to commit suicide and end the evil thing I have become, or to live on as an unnatural abomination? Because I am this unnatural abomination, am I thus doomed to the Hells when I do finally die? How can I possibly destroy myself then? And on and on.

Undead priest characters: built-in conflict.

Oh man, now I'm imaging all the things you could do with snow while manipulating the khert. Instead of snowball fights, you could have giant snow-monster fights. It'd be all kinds of epic.

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:29:23 -0500

Snowball fights? Snowball WAR.

That new vote incentive is wonderful. Duane would own people in snowball fights. I want him on my team.

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:28:52 -0500

He is a terrible cheater.

Which would win in a fight, the seal of Cresce, or the seal of Alderode?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:27:45 -0500

One of them is a bigass stylized grebber below the crest of the Sonorie dynasty. The other are the six rings of the castes encircling the old Tainish symbol for Strength Through Unity, all of it ringed by a limbless vliegeng. This is really too close to call.

what approach do you recommend for working out continent shapes and naming places? is it necessary to create a naming language, or is just making up names for places and people enough?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:24:56 -0500

Continent shapes - put a pencil in your hand, close your eyes, and go crazy. Continent and place names - it's not necessary to make a whole language. I live in Florida. We have Lake Okeechobee from the Native Americans and Punta Gorda from the Spanish and Lakeland from the English. Place names are going to depend on the history of the place! You can really get away with anything, same when it comes to naming people unless the culture is still pretty insular. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

Leysa, Mikaila, Simon, Lemuel. Will we meet any of these people? Have we seen any of these people?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:18:12 -0500

I wonder.

What is the average length of pregnancy for Plats?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:51:37 -0500

Standard nine months.

I've been reading over all these comments for the past couple hours (I believe it's been about two now), and I've seen more than one comment about Duane burning corpses. Would Duane cry at Sette's funeral? ... Is it possible for him to cry?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:05:41 -0500

Would Duane cry at Sette's funeral... imagining this situation makes me want to bawwww myself. He's not physically set up to cry so he can't but he's never been much of a crier anyway... more of a slaughter everything in sight and then go get drunk guy.

On the bottom of this picture is a sketch of Sette catching a frog and showing it off to Duane-- http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/images/misc_art/sketch01.jpg and I was wondering if Sette was looking for Duane's commendation? =3

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:01:25 -0500

Haha, yes, it was an idea I had for a short story. Duane was having some trouble with getting one of his elbows to bend smoothly, and he wanted some manner of slippery aspect to ease the joint. So Sette promised to catch him some frogs to use. Now he has to assure her she is the best frog-catcher in the entire world. Brain fluff :3

Um... the one buying crack was me. I know it's a bad habit. I can't think of a question right now so I'll just say, have a good holiday. :] I hope it's filled with lots of tasty things.

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:43:30 -0500

Tasty things. Like crack. Ho ho ho! <3

Ash, if you bring back Duane and Sette after chapter six then I will pay you a bajillion dollars for every page. If you don't I'll convince Murkoph to eat your legs.

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:20:54 -0500

Of course they will come back after chapter six. Provided they don't die first :3

Was the woman being dragged off by the guards at the border crossing really Aldish und a Copper? You said that the Coppers are the most secluded caste, so it would be quite unusual for her to walk around so far from Alderone, right?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:20:01 -0500

Good thinking, so I'm not so sure that lady was a Copper. I would bet she was just a very unfortunately coloured Sharteshanian that chose the wrong time to try and get into Cresce. She should be alright though, they'll figure it out.

Since Formspring doesn't do searching, I googled Duane voluptuous blond. First result was about Dog the Bounty Hunter. Second result led to 1971 sex cinema. Did you know Clint Eastwood was in Civil War-set film where he sexes 7 women and hacks off a leg?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:16:39 -0500

Wait, Clint Eastwood did porn? But - he's so unattractive. Leg-hacking is cool. Was it his own leg?

Ashley, if you create a tabloid magazine with all of that and more, I will love you forever, AND I will pay your for it. Provided there are illustrations. :D

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:15:04 -0500

Haha, it's work enough just creating the canon ;D

So if Sette died during their journey, Duane would burn her corpse, even though she seems to follow Yerta? (By the way, does Duane know that Sette somewhat follows Yerta? It was a surprise to me to find out she was a tiny bit religious.)

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:14:38 -0500

Sure, Duane realises Sette is Gefendur. Pretty much everyone is. Duane is the weird one for being Ssaelit, and he's quite accustomed to being on the down-low about it. The Ssaelit aren't proselytizers though. The Gefendur are the ones who have historically been very violent and very tyrannical about the spread of their religion, while the Ssaelit believe it is the supplicant's duty to come to them, and not the other way around. Who are you to look at another man and tell him he's hungry? If he's hungry, he will tell you.

And yes, if Sette were to die, Duane would perform Ssaelit funerary rites if he was able. That's part of his oath as a Ssaelit cleric.

I'm also kind of hoping that when he reappears to, perhaps, rescue Sette from her own foolhardy attempts at mangling Berry Boy faces, it's a big, happy surprise for her. Or at least dramatic. Ah hell, I just want more of that m/s-f/d relationship. :D

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:09:32 -0500

O-o-okay.

I love it when Duane smiles in the comic and your vote incentives. It makes me happy. I hope we get to see more of this in the future?

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:05:05 -0500

I hope so too. Maybe if Sette comes to like him a bit more she'll dedicate time to cheering him up now and then. And vice versa.

But you've got an entire community dedicated to interviewing you about celebrity gossip and the love lives of your characters! I distinctly remember you answering a question about Duane's interest in voluptuous blondes.

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:03:05 -0500

I was thinking celebrity gossip like National Inquirer. TAWHOQUE TALL TALES!

Nary Frummagem's Daughter In Rehab AGAIN. Famous Crime Lord Disowns Tailed Mutant, Says He's Cutting Her Off.

Town Scrivener Deathly Ill? Shocking Photos Show Pale Face, Emaciated Limbs, Shed Fingers???

Lord Bastion Winalils and his SECRET MALE LOVER. Is Well-Known Black Tongue Sorcerer Dishing It Out From The Front While Taking It From Behind???

ROMANCE In The Peaceguard! Captain Toma And His Lieutenant Share a Moonlight Kiss Behind The Waterfall. Exclusive Tell-All From One-Armed Comrade!

Et cetera.

GlassShard

Glass! Glass! My book arrived today and it is glorious! If it isn't too much of a bother to answer, how many books did you send to Estonia?

How many smoke eels can you lure out at once? Could a wright theoretically protect himself in some way and then summon hundreds upon hundreds of smoke eels to murder his opponents? Also, wrights can create ghosts that obey them right? Do wrights some-

So if you ever get a spell wrong, you almost certainly get destroyed by the khert? Spellery is way riskier than I thought it was! I suppose this helps balance things and shows why not everyone who can be is a wright.

Also that Bzzt sound from right before the eel jumped her: does that sound like the 'wrong answer' buzzer from a game show? Please don't tell me if I'm wrong, this is too beautiful to give up.

Would the wright-dissolution process take time, or would it be fairly instantaneous? Supposing a novice wright made a similar mistake while his teacher was across the room helping someone else - would the teacher be able to reach him in time to execute a

It's been ages and ages and ages, but if Formspring is going down, I guess I can make a minor comeback. Thank you for being such a wonderful humanoid/goddess/person of immense talent/generous individual. Have I told you how much I love you lately???

It seems we're shutting down. Even though it's been near-forever, It's been fun! What wonderful (real or imaginary) adventures have you been up to while I've been away? And if there is another mode by which I may stalk-ahem-follow you, lemme know!

Will Duane have a scarring from that injury, or can it be healed through pymary? What's Duane's best (i.e. worst) scar?

What is Sette's opinion of Mikalia at this point?

on happier news, The book is now under my domain. Everything about it is so great and beautiful and perfect. Also, Quigley <3

In regards to the latest page, what sort of aspects do smoke eels have? Or did Duane basically smash it against the wall instead of finessing it?

Can wrights controll smoke eels? Do they summon them to attack their opponents?

Will you export all your formspring responses for your fans once the site dies? It would be very rad of you!

I showed my copy of Unsounded to my dad. He was pretty amazed, and he's never interested in the comics I get. Maybe someday I'll get him to read it and we'll be an UNSTOPPABLE UNSOUNDED FAN FAMILY. Hmm, need a question... I wore mascara today. Thought

Mikaila is trying to release the perspective sphere from her right had but the red "bzzt" appeared in her left hand. Is that intentional?

So, Leysa + Vienne = not so much. What about Mikaila and Vienne? I get a mad scientist/plucky sidekick vibe from that pair. Can they meet in a parallel universe and solve crimes? We could call it WomensWrights!

How many pages of Unsounded have been posted in total? Tallying up the individual page counts for each chapter takes effort. :p

I can't believe Formspring is shutting down, I'll miss it. :( Hopefully you'll find some sort of workable alternative, but what will I do without seeing this jellyfish creature wallpaper each day?

Because this website so important to you, I am building the new formspring as we speak. I would like to know if you want a new one (basically identical website). If your answer is HELL YES, please sign&share this petition:

Is the purple ball in panel one an associate of friendly coffee? :3

I looked through this ask.com a bit, and it looks nearly identical to FS. I even made myself an account:). Do you consider moving there? And do you plan to export both your FSs (please, do!)

You know, Ash, you could always wait until you get, like, 20 questions and then do a youtube vid/audio answering them, in lieu of formspring.

The news about formspring saddens me! I know I've not been around much, but where else am I gonna bug you with inane questions?! ......*dives to check his parcel for a return address* damn.

Hi there! Formspring just announced it will close. Luckily, we can export our data and import it to an identical website. Do you consider doing that? http://formspring.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/formspring-is-shutting-down/

When you set up the store, is it just going to be the books, or were you thinking of testing the waters with other Unsounded merchandise? I think you have a big enough fanbase for some profitable t-shirt runs at the very least.

Great, so I just log onto formspring for the first time in months and BAM! It's shutting down. Glass, did my return jinx it?

Would you consider making the export thing available to those of us who are Unsounded supernerds? If it doesn't have any personal information, of course.

My book arrived here in Toronto today. So beautiful! So, so worth every cent! But the postage was more than I paid you. Please, put up a donation button so I can assuage my guilt.

Glass, note that the last day until you’ll be able to ask questions or post content on Formspring is March 31st. The day before April Fools day. Hmmm...

Who was your first crush?

Will you open your question box on Tumblr as a sort of replacement formspring? (Forgive me if it's already open, I'm not a very Tumblr-savvy person.) And how will you do the Duane & Sette questions? D:

Followers!! Check out the new book trailer for my upcoming young adult novel, Dragon Circle!

Damnit, Ash, I'ma gonna miss nagging the crap out of you on Formspring.

Welp, no more FS shenanigans to deal with. Maybe post a link to your Tumblr on the comic homepage?

It seems Duane's not happy right now about his daughter's shenanigans. Could he keep her out of the room with pymary if he really wanted to? Instead of a sign that just begs to be ignored?

When do we get to see alive-Duane without his shirt?

Glass it still is Thursday I can only get the book on the weekend when I get to his house halpIcan'tendureitI'mtooexcitedaaaaasexyquigleyiswaitingformehehasshownmenothingaaaaaa

Oh god that is hilarious XD. Can you give some sample explanations?

If you rose from the dead, as some form of undead, what would it be?

How many book sketch requests have you received for shirtless Toma?

Do/did any of the couples in our story have pet names for each other?

Ash! I am sad. All these shenanigans Mik is doing to her grandpa and we know this is only a memory of insanity. :( Boooooo. I like this kid.

Could a parent pretend they made a poo-toe, not their overly-nosy, precocious little innate?

Are the letters still canon?

Who's Will again?

Is Mikaila already a better wright than Will will ever be?

Kermit the frog?

The book arrived at his home (he already sent you an email but whatevs) akjshdsja I want to skip work and go get it and see it and show to everyone and kajhdajdsda

Since pymary is regulated, is there any danger for innate casters, beyond the obvious dangers of practicing, in being caught using pymary without some sort of formal license/approval? Are there differences between Alderode/Cresce? Children/adults?

Hi! Read earlier you were thinking of getting a color printer so you could do printing yourself. I don't know if this is true, but supposedly printing yourself is waaaay more expensive than hiring because laser printers aren't designed for heavy duty.

Went to a hockey game the other day and used Sette's "miss" taunts from chapter 1. Hope ya don't mind? :)

Say what you like about the ComicMix contest, but as I recall Unsounded lost to Looking for Group last year. Right now they're paired up again and Unsounded's in the lead. That has to be some kind of goodness.

Is Mikaila dying of some horrible illness? Is Duane going to turn into a zombie while trying to save her?

*Gasps* It was Duane's own daughter who accidentally turned him into a zombie, wan't it?! :O

How is it that we're seeing this newest scene, if we're supposedly seeing Duane's memories and he's obviously not there at the moment to break up this rogue bit of pymary. Artistic license? Trick-o-the-khert?

Ha, I totally knew Mikaila would take after her dad. Innate + tacit I would assume?

Imagine a world where Aldish accents were identical to thick Cajun accents. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world?

You seem to enjoy video games that have good story to them. Have you tried the Walking Dead game? For a game based on a lackluster comic book and a pretty average TV show the story in that is fantastic!

So I was looking at the Kickstarter page and remembered part of the reason for it was so you could raise money to make side stories! Do you think you'll have one done this year?

so apparently giant mosquitoes are going your way this summer?

Is there a way to check on the status of my copy of Unsounded?

What are the meanings behind the snazzy symbols on Duane's scapular/chasuble?

What are the staple items on your grocery list that you pick up every time?

It's hug an artist day... so... yeah... hugs. Thank you for all the awesome you put into the world. I would not change one thing about Unsounded, save for making it your full-time job and update five days a week instead of three.

You know you had some concept art or something some people got to see after voting? Any chance you could put that up somewhere for us all to see now?

How does Sette feel about the fact that Duane's outfit has a lion on it?

Any peeps out there got suggestions for a decent head set? My current one but it's starting to die, and my comrades can hear themselves over my mic sometimes, this is not ideal D: I'm after something solid, but keep in mind I'm pretty poor right now~

Do you ever notice little wormy things floating across your eyeballs and get creeped out? I just noticed wormy things on my eyeballs again, and got creeped out.

The gloves that Duane gets in chapter three have different shades of brown on the middle fingers. And Blondo McWhoopass of 1-16 has some reddish fingers on his gloves as well. COINCIDENCE?

If Duane had been wearing the special gloves, would Quigley have been so eager to fight him (not that he really had a choice)? Are Class A wrights rare or are there a decent amount?

My book apparently arrived safely in Iceland yesterday, but I couldn't retrieve it then because I was sick and not today either because of a massive storm. Whyyyyy.

Keep meaning to ask: What's up with the different colored fingers on Duane's gloves?

I had a dream where I was reading FS. I really wish I could remember it more b/c my brain had a fantastic spoiler re: Murkoph/Duane history. I mean, it was more that I read a reply that spelled it out but still, wow freaky. Any good dreams lately Glass?

"She has little baby eyeballs at one point." Whuh? Are you secretly writing another webcomic?

The khert is also made up of memories among other things, right? So technically, it should be constantly growing and getting bigger, no? With people being reborn and whatnot.

Are we just currently getting wonderful backstory, or are we getting wonderful backstory as Sette sees Duane's memories?

Have all the 45$ books been sent out yet?

How did Duane feel about all the taxes?

Omg that new character (at your avatar) and Duane's face! Omg all this so precious and amazing, thank you very much!

The news about formspring saddens me! I know I've not been around much, but where else am I gonna bug you with inane questions?! ......dives to check his parcel for a return address damn.

Gasps It was Duane's own daughter who accidentally turned him into a zombie, wan't it?! :O

High five?! holds up hand