[1545] Love

[Teddy-Werebear]

I'm going to assume Ashe has excellent lip-reading skills.........

Having a phone app that converts sound to text doesn't hurt, either.

I hope it is better that the speak to text feature on my phone...

[Eraden]

Hi ho, folks. My first time here on this board after reading this comic for years. I have a bit of a question regarding this part of the story. From what I have observed in the past, Invisigoth appears generally to be quite perceptive about events occuring within the comic. If he claims to have seen NINE tails being drawn for Megumi, I have no substantial reason to doubt him. Coupling that with the clear appearance of fox ears in the last two pages of the story, AND the appearance of a tail in the top of this last page, is it possible that Megumi could actually be a nine-tail, as she appears to have mastered the art of altering her appearance at will?

If that is the case, is it possible that the conflict between the Ninja clan and the Kitsune clan might become rather one-sided? I don't know much about Japanese folklore but I am given to understand that Nine-tailed Kitsune are rather....powerful. This might not bode well for the Ninjas.

[Liminaut]

Ashe may be mute but not deaf.

[paarfi]

Hi ho, folks. My first time here on this board after reading this comic for years.

Welcome!

Invisigoth appears generally to be quite perceptive about events occuring within the comic.

Well Vis is one of the few people that Fred discusses his plot ideas with (along with Chemi and RayKremer). So he does have inside info sometimes. He's not always right with it though, because the plot is constantly evolving and Fred can take it in a new direction anytime inspiration strikes. This often happens while he's drawing the actual comic.

If he claims to have seen NINE tails being drawn for Megumi

This comes from Fred's Twitch livestream of the last panel of [1544]. Fred had drawn the rough for that panel showing Megumi having not only fox ears but also many fox tails. He didn't include the fox tails when he did the final version of that panel, so it's not in the actual comic itself. But it was a cause of much discussion when he drew them in the rough version. You can watch Fred draw the comic live on his Twitch channel and even see replays of that drawing session if you want.

is it possible that Megumi could actually be a nine-tail, as she appears to have mastered the art of altering her appearance at will?

I think it's entirely possible, but not a guaranteed thing yet. Fred's writing style is very organic, and the story and characters are constantly evolving on him. When Fred decided that Mugi's last name was Sawatari, we reminded him that that was Megumi's name too. Boom!, he decided they were cousins, which has brought Megumi back into the story and has been great fun. Then there was a later comic where we all pointed out that Megumi's hair bow looked a lot like fox ears in one panel, and the "Megumi as secret foxgirl" bandwagon gained speed. There was some further talk more recently about whether Megumi was a 0-tailed foxgirl or maybe like a 9-tailed foxgirl who was hiding her tails with kitsune magic. At that point, I'm guessing that Fred put the fox ears and tails on Megumi to tease the folks watching the Twitch stream. He does that kind of thing often enough that we have a name for it: "Fred Herrings". But then he left the ears in that comic, and put them in the next one too. Maybe that means he's decided to make Megumi-foxgirl a real thing, or maybe he did it as an easter-egg kind of thing for everybody who reads the comic. I imagine it will depend on if he likes the idea of where it might take the story or not. We'll have to see.

[darrin]

Ashe may be mute but not deaf.

Wah hey, I had considered mentioning that possibility myself yesterday, but then got distracted by something... (maybe Twitch? )

It seems a more complicated hypothesis than her just having been born deaf (some kind of backstory would be entailed... accident? injury? ninja making sure she "keeps quiet" about some witnessed indiscretion? or something simpler like congenital issue with vocal chords?). So I'm keeping it on the back burner for now, but I certainly wouldn't call the probability zero...

[cidjen]

I wonder, was Fred annoyed when I took the 'toner in Kimiko's hair' detail and ran with it around [1511] 'cos Piro sure was

[Eraden]

Well, if it does turn out that Megumi is a nine-tailed kitsune, it might explain a few things with regards to her behavior and her love life. This might be a person who on the face of it is even more of a "monster" than the clan leader, at least, in her own eyes. Her inability to find companionship may be a direct result of efforts to hide that part of her life from others. Her disdain for her cousin's lifestyle may be a backlash against what she sees wrong about herself. If this is the direction the author is going, this woman is likely to become quite the powderkeg. I would be rather afraid to be anywhere near her when the facade falls away.

[darrin]

Her inability to find companionship may be a direct result of efforts to hide that part of her life from others.

Is there really that much "inability" that needs explaining? From the time we first see her until the big Anna Miller's crisis, she doesn't seem to express any kind of regret or concern about that. In the current chapter, she complains about not getting "hot ninja action" but not about companionship in general. My assumption had been that she has a thing for ninja, so the typical mundane guys she meets have no real chance of stacking up.

If this is the direction the author is going, this woman is likely to become quite the powderkeg.

I thought she'd already established herself as a powderkeg this chapter. Those moves she was pulling in Mugi's clunky little van were straight out of Baby Driver. I really want to see her get a turn in that hot number Junpei was driving around a couple chapters back.

[Invisigoth]

Here's the thing about Fred's work. As he's drawing and starts on a character he tends to give them personality, in fact I think that the two go hand in hand as the drawing develops. In Ashe's case he started drawing a kitsune and then he thinks, "she's deaf...and she plays drums...."

Going back to Megumi she developed a bit more gradually but I think that "she had more to conceal" though I might be wrong about that.

Now Ray has observed that both Chemi and I can toss a random concept out there and Fred will grab the idea and just free flow with it. I suspect this is more of a function of our reflecting back various things he's told us in a different light that when he first brought it up.