1085 He And Me.

For those of you who don’t pay attention to stuff, if you scroll to the bottom of the site you can see the full version of the Questionable Content guest comic I did.

The adventures of Julius Drywood continue;

Julius was at a loss. The expression wasn’t one of seduction. She looked as if wadding herself up against whatever person was warmest was completely natural and not an invitation to amorous activity. At length he posed a question.

“Why aren’t you keeping watch?” Niona motioned her head backwards. He followed the movement across the imaginary line and saw a tree standing where none had been before.

“She must have spent your whole watch wandering down here.” Niona explained. “I figured she would be more than enough protection, so I went to bed again.”

Her logic was sound. Most animals had sense enough to give dryads, and indeed most treefolk, their personal space. Which is why it wasn’t uncommon for the very rich to keep them as guards. That was also why Julius was familiar enough with them to know they were basically harmless unless stirred up. Much like with a dog you could get past them with the appropriate treat. This trusting nature was probably part of why there weren’t a lot of them left.

Dew Beam was swaying gently in the moring sun. Apparently oblivious of their awkward situation. Julius turned his attention back to Niona.

“Is is time to get up? She asked.

“Uh… I suppose it is.” He said after a brief pause.

With that she spryly hopped to her feet, whipped the blankets around, separated them, and flung his gracefully back upon him. He blanket wrapped around her like a fluffy cape leaving her exquisite form disappointingly obscured. She retrieved a moist towel from a device that Julius guessed somehow collected dew and began sponging herself down here and there.

“I’d kill for a shower.” She mused. On this point they were in agreement. The filth was one of his least favorite parts of this adventurous lifestyle. He gazed longingly at the little cloth as she rubbed it vigorously up and down her leg. Niona wasn’t sure if it was the cloth he was staring at or not. Just as a test she held it away from herself for a few moments, casually, while pretending not to be following his eyes, which followed its movements. It was actually a little disheartening. He hadn’t attempted to make a move on her, and now he was looking at her washcloth rather than her glistening leg, which she knew was really quite fantastic. “Do you want a go?” She said, wiggling the little towel at him. Julius nodded vigorously.

Niona dipped it in its little reservoir and wrung it out a little. Then she whipped it at him with a degree of speed and accuracy he was not at all prepared for. As it impacted upon his face with a stinging, wet, slap he couldn’t help but notice that the little washcloth smelled of Niona dipped in strawberries.

45 Comments

Ah ha ha ha ha! Love the story, absolutely love it! Niona is fast becoming one of my favorite characters ever!

Haha oh man, this is awesome. I get awesome comics and awesome stories at the same time. This cannot possibly get better, unless it somehow does, which would also be awesome.

Awesome.

Who or what is Masaka?

“Masaka” is in essence an exclamation of suprise, Rough translation being “Unbelievable!” or “No way!”

You left out an ‘L’ in “recall”.

The randomly used Japanese makes me want to stab the chick in the face.

Okay, it took me a second–

Constance isn’t her real name? Is Dawn her first name and Constance her middle name? Or is Constance just a nickname?

Or wait a minute, now I’m wondering where I first heard the name Constance. I’m doubting myself.

The walls are melting, the sky is burning,

MY REALITY IS CRUMBLING AS WE SPEAK

And then Google came to my rescue and now I have this:

/comics1/922-constance

Now that I know it wasn’t some weird brain thing, I can rebuild my shattered reality.

For now.

Your Ocsar for Excellence in Mock Forum Drama is en route as we speak.

I’d like to thank this guy, who have me this thing. And the human body, because sleep deprivation is just ridiculously good fun. And my brain, for doing brain things. Not sure what all brain things it does, but it sure does them. Probably.

Why do I image Nina speaking in cool, even tones with Dawn? Something like a whisper of suppressed rage just below the level of civil discourse.

She seems to be very loyal to and protective of her friends; and the person she is speaking to was a source of a great deal of pain to one of them.

I suspect Nina is being, um, polite to Constance/Dawn because she was one of the ‘Elite’ who looked down their noses at jocks (which Nina was, before her injury).

I think Nina’s amused with Constance until the last panel. In my mind, the last panel has Nina thinking, “That’s not your business. Why would you care, anyway?”

Nina’s expression doesn’t change in any of the panels. My sense of it is that she was never friends with Dawn/”Constance”, but she doesn’t have anything against her either (THOMAS does, but Nina doesn’t fight other people’s battles), so she’ll just keep being polite unless Dawn does something to offend HER.

Actually, her expression changes very subtly in each panel. Her eyebrows change in the second panel, and her grin fades in the third.

As for the rest, it’s my interpretation. I made no claims to its correctness.

And Dawn’s question doesn’t strike me as especially nosy, just the sort of thing you might ask in that situation. I wouldn’t take offense at it, and I don’t get that Nina did either.

I was just looking up Btw Failures on the Top Webcomics site (to give it a vote) and once again wondered why it is rated R…. Menage a 3 and Oglaf – those I understand – but I keep thinking that BF never crosses the line to be rated above PG-13…

Just wondering…

Don’t know. Probably language. I wasn’t the one who added it, plus there’s no governing body for that sort of thing. By movie standards if you say fuck twice you get an R. Which is ridiculous since The King’s Speech is rated R and is about as tepid as a movie can be while still being compelling.

There are enough panels with enough male fantasy things going on that I think the person rating the comic thinks the overall comic is risque enough to warrant it.

The third comic where Nina first meets Ed comes to mind.
/comics1/74-not-work-safe

There are other things here and there that are a little strong for a teenage audience.

“…he couldn’t help but notice that the little washcloth smelled of Niona dipped in strawberries.”

Ghad, I wish someone would whip one of those at me… That, right there, is a great bit of writing!

Hrmm… I’ve been reading the whole story, but it has been rubbing me the wrong way occasionally. This is one of the details that kind of twists a nerve.

Unless strawberries grow wild in this wood, smelling this way would not be an advantage if your goal is secrecy.

Also, mosquitoes would be attracted to this smell, as well.

I tend to think I’m being a bit too much of a nitpick. I don’t get the feeling this is the kind of story the author is going for, but it’s the way I think.

Well Niona is an academic. It’s probably in the scope of her knowledge to find a nice smelling repellant. She’s more like a camper than an adventurer though. If she were a hunter it might occur to not to wear perfume.

I just gotta mention – last night I had an elaborate dream where Thomas wound up breaking up with Carol because he realized he wasn’t over Dawn yet. The first half was in live-action, like student-film level of production values, and the second half was animated.

Found your comic when you did the guest comic for “Questionable Content.” Went back and read yours from the start. Great work, and I am enjoying the written story also. Keep up the good work!
Beagle

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