Your Efforts Were Valiant, If Futile.

I know for a fact that I reblogged a post about the Ultimate Grilled Cheese a few weeks back, and I'm 99.9% sure I tagged it 'food' and yet now I fancy trying it out can I find that post? Can I find that damned post. Tumblr search function strikes again

Black-Backed Jackal (Canis mesomelas) in full flight at Etosha National Park in Namibia (1965)

credit: American Institute of the Humanities

this is going to have me on my hands and knees dry heaving

So I hear some of you guys like print books. The Unsounded Volume 3 Kickstarter is live now!

I’m hoping to fund a fantastic print of the third volume and also reprints of volumes 1 and 2! You’ll find some other goodies up for grabs there as well. Reblogs are always appreciated!

I’m nervous because that is my nature, but you guys give me strength. Thank you for supporting me and the comic :) Please disregard Sette, she is a garbage baby. Jivi, Matty, and I will keep her on the straight and narrow.

Do you think you could do a video with some Tainish readings? Is that too difficult?

Not a video but here’s a quickie http://vocaroo.com/i/s0Et5Nmmgxta

I have to take my dog to the vet now, she’s got like an alien growing out of her eyelid, this can’t be normal.

For years now, this wild grey whale has come to this boat captain to have its lice removed at the calving lagoon of Ojo de Liebre, Baja California, Mexico.

Sunrise

Tucson, Arizona 

Genuine praise and applause here, you've achieved something unprecedented to me as a reader: I feel shaken and uncertain about a protagonist I once liked, but also still completely invested in their story.

Right now (I've just read 18-80 to 84) I feel you've struck a great balance of surprise (at Duane) and trust (in your story). Perhaps because no single choice of Duane's felt out-of-character, as they slowly added up? I honestly can't predict how I'll feel about him and his flaws by the end of Unsounded, but for once, I'm enjoying that unease! Because of the care you've taken in building your characters so far, I at least still have faith in *you* to reach a satisfying ending.

Oh this should be a question, hmm. Were you at all tempted to foreshadow Duane's recent/future choices more obviously (by character or plot), softening a bit of the impact for a smoother story? Because again, I'm glad you didn't – perfectly threaded needle to keep me captivated.

So glad you're having a good time!

I hope Duane's current state is pretty well telegraphed, though I know it can be hard to remember past instances when the webcomic delivery spaces everything out. He's repeatedly shown himself to be hypocritical and selective in regards to kids. The army story ended with him continuing to train babies in the killing arts and accepting a false narrative that he had never let one of them die. This led right into him turning a blind eye to the Litriya twins for the sake of helping the Aldish invaders get to the construct facility. He felt AWFUL about this - we saw it - and tried to make up for it, but even that very action was already going against what was said in the black water: God is not attainable by transaction. Duane was trying to erase that debt to Litriya. It doesn't work that way! Like Claggart said, you got to acknowledge your mistakes and keep moving.

Duane started to. He truly did, when he spoke to Lori and the Peaceguard, then moved to go defend the shrine. But then Mikaila was there in the sky and all development was cut short in tandem with his poor rotten head.

What did he see when he and Toma and Elka approached Port Morstorben's ravaged gate? Not all the dead bodies. Not a vision of Sara asking him to help defend her people. Instead Duane saw Lemuel and Leysa and Mikaila. The eels have always known exactly how to steer Duane towards his worst self, and they use his best self to do it. They use his blind love for his family, his loyalty towards his homeland, and his faith in God. These can all be fantastic attributes or they can make a monster.

So yeah, I feel like the foreshadowing is there pretty thick. What makes it still compelling, I hope, is Duane's selfishness and reluctance to change are so often counterbalanced by his earnest desire to make things better and to help the people around him as individuals, in the moment. There's not an ounce of real malice in the man, but when Duane stews, he often talks himself into making the wrong choice. When he acts with all the compulsion of a big-hearted protector, he tends towards selfless compassion.

This is for you, Rainwalker! You asked for it, baby!

The road infrastructure in Sharteshane must be appalling, good thing Rilursa can always count on GEICO Roadside Pickup :)