1345 Hellscape.

by

This is a fun reveal.

I wrote this a couple of ways because I wanted to add in a couple of potential characters. I did the first pass with the original idea, and I liked it, but when I drew the first face it seemed like it was just a bit off. I thought “If I changed this just a little she could practically be Reggie’s sister.” Once that idea got into my head It kept getting deeper and deeper. Ideas kept presenting themselves. With just a little fiddling I’d get a character I wanted in the comic for literally years. And so, here we have Victoria. Reggie’s very odd sister. I hope you enjoy her as much as I do.

I know a few people vaguely suggested similar things, but I feel like this is still a pretty fun surprise.

Oh, I almost forgot. Patreon supporters, please check the activity thing if you haven’t in a while. I posted a thing about some bonus comics. Nina’s the link on the sidebar if you aren’t a backer and are curious.

87 Comments

Oh man, I did not see that coming.

Well played.

Reggie has a cooler, cuter, less abrasive sister? I’m perfectly fine with this development.

Also, that girl needs a hug badly. John needs to get on that.

I think a hug would grossly exasperate the situation, given how touchy and high-strung she seems to be.

I think the word you were going for is “exacerbate” which means “to make a bad situation worse”. Exasperate means “to annoy”. Granted, there is an archaic definition for exasperate that is similar to exacerbate, but unless you are quoting someone who died hundreds of years ago – or are trying to be egregiously pompous like some who puts on a fake British accent and tries to speak only in Shakespearian English – you probably don’t mean to use exasperate that way.

Funny, Shakespeare, in his time, wrote according to how people spoke in his day. So I think the reference to him wouldn’t make much sense, considering. You could simply say Old English :))

Actually, that would be “Early Modern English.” Old English was roughly 400-1000AD. Shakespeare was born 1564AD. If you’re going to be a pedantic asshole, at least be a CORRECT pedant.

Sorry if it sounded like I was accusing someone of being pompous – unless that would be me… ????
Of course in Bill the Bard’s time the way he wrote was only slightly pompous – but clever (it takes quite the talent to converse in iambic pentameter). His vocabulary and sentence structure was appropriate for the time but trying to imitate him now just makes a person look figuratively like the playwright’s character Nick Bottom. As I double checked the use of the word exasperate, the only contemporary uses of the word where they used the archaic meaning deliberately they were also trying to be snobs – all the rest were simply -oops – they really meant exacerbate.

I’m interested to find out how the daughter of a rich (and plausibly snobbish) family found herself in this subculture.

Never met a preacher’s daughter?

I know many of them and none have ever become Furries. My ex-wife was one (a preacher’s daughter, not a furry)… All my nieces are. I know literally multiple dozens of Preacher’s Kids

I think that Jackie was referring to the old stereotype of the ‘Preachers Daughter’ turning out to be not as innocent as you would be led to believe.

Not saying that it happens every time, but it is a decently popular trope.

Also, unless I’m getting my names mixed up, Victoria seems to have some of the personality traits that Reggie has. (Maybe a bit of an off-putting personality.) But I just finished a 12 hour shift and probably shouldn’t be making such assumptions in my current state.

After going back and re-reading some strips, I now realize that they were talking about a different girl with the odd personality. Disregard the last part of my above message~

I can see why you love Victoria so much now. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted you to post on a daily, or at least M-F schedule as much as I do right now.

Oh man…

I have no idea where I was going with this comment…

I love your stuff, keep being whatever you are since it is fucking awesome.

…

This revelation is going to make Reggie an even worse person, isn’t it?

I mean, he acts like an ass to others… he probably is a total jerk to his sister. :(

I hope he is the utmost dottingest brother ever.. like he always lends her money etc, and thats one reason he works so hard-he wants to take care of her. haha and now he’ll be confused but dote and then play big brother vs john.

that’s what I figure too.

I also figure that the two of them keep hidden from each other what they feel is too embarrassing to tell.

I don’t know about Reggie hiding anything, he’s pretty open with his thoughts. I’m liking the idea of Reggie being the doting brother to the less outgoing (with her family) sister.

Ooh, Reggie coming out with ears on will lead to comical misunderstandings (or he’ll find he’s actually into it, and that’ll weird Vicky out too much)

How dysfunctional does a family have to be that you don’t even know your own sister wears a fursuit?

Unless they live with different parents.

I mean, this is exactly the kind of thing sibling totally rag each other about. All the time. Even if Mom and Dad don’t know. Ya know?

I wouldn’t tell my sister, and we get along now that we are older.

Well, of COURSE you wouldn’t TELL her. But somehow she’d find out anyway. It’s what siblings do. I thought.

My childhood, I have found over the years, was not like other people’s. My sister wanted nothing better than to forget I existed most of the time. There was no transfer of information between us. I don’t think I ever worried once about her trying to find out anything salacious about me. Maybe when she was really little, but once she was school age she was laser focused on her goals.

Haha nice!
I hope she just puts her hat back and no one tells Reggie.. at all… .

also.. John.. you like facial features like Reggie’s !

I also just realized that Alex offered Reggie an extra pair of ears in a previous page.

So this is going to turn into all sorts of awkward…

I’m hoping for her trying to put the head back on and stay anonymous, until she just loses it seeing him wearing the ears. Best of both worlds!

Dun-DAHN-DUUUHHHN! :o

Next episode we discover that one of our cast has cancer, two or three of them are pregnant and keeping the child, and the rest all have amnesia! :P
Kekekekek.

Stop spoiling Downton Abbey!

It seems a bit easy to rub her fur the wrong way…

She did look like she might have a stroke at first, but the poor girl has probably had some hair raising experiences.

Maybe if she puts her costume head back on her voice will be to fuzzy for her brother to recognize it? Admittedly that would be a pretty close shave!

Well she might escape detection by a hare, but I don’t think there’s a whisker of hope for evading a weasel …

Fun reveal indeed. Though will Reggie get the same fun from this reveal or will Victoria (who seems adorable) stay in her fursona character for the rest of the evening?

I predict she stays in character for the rest of the evening, and pulls off the deception; however Reggie Genuinely finds her alt-ego to be Someone Cool to Hang Out With. Yes I know it can be an overused trope but there is a Reason for it; that is, real life plausibility. People tend to create a mental picture of each of their various acquaintances, particularly those which factor largely in their everyday life. within that smaller group, said picture can be extremely difficult to challenge, up to and including outright denial of facts that are Right In Front Of Them. That said, it is genuinely plausible that if Reggie is somehow prevented from making the connection in this first meeting, we may have a storyline on our hands where he sees his sister’s alt-ego as an entirely different person, and all the requisite masquerade happy-fun-times that come with it.

I’m going to call this now for giggles. Someone touches the forbidden pizza and Maddison has a spidey sense that goes off when it happens.

I’m looking forward to Evrina’s appearance when it happens and a cast profile update when this chapter is done =3

HA! I just….dunno if there’s anything else to say beyond laughter. This is a wonderful line of dominoes you’ve set up, and I’m looking forward to each one falling in turn.

So, what were Victoria’s chances of having her secret revealed?

Well, this IS a small town.

In Kansas.

Had to happen eventually ;)

As someone wondered about in the last episode: does John find Victoria sexy, or is she just sexy in his eyes, when she’s in a fursuit?

A talk in 1 of the Fletch novels by Gregory Mcdonald went kinda like this- [ A buddy of Fletch’s says to him]:

Oh! I got nude + started nude swimming in the lake because you + your wife were skinny-dipping. Just joining in. Don’t worry Fletch, I’m not attracted to you. You’re not sexy to me.

Besides, people put clothes ON, to be sexy!

I don’t think it’s sexual interest. I think it’s conceptual excitement – a sort of “I didn’t know I’d ever get to see one of these in real life!” thing.
And he’s promised to behave, so he’s being really positive about everything, but that doesn’t mean he’s not quietly judging the lot of them.
Of course, it’s easier to get a literal chance to see the best side of people when you’re being nice to them, so it’s possible his willingness to not be a dick for an evening is giving him a really good first impression of furry culture.

Victoria seems to be kind of a free spirit, + an eccentric artist-type.

Maybe THAT’S why Ms. Jo sometimes bugs Reggie a lot: I think Reggie grew up with a Jo-type of person.

Holy Moses, you have no idea how much I want John and Victoria to fall for each other. The comic potential is incalculable.

Agreed, I ship those two just on the grounds of how much character development both John And Reggie could get out of that pairing

OMG. Judging from these two neurotic Boothes, I do NOT want to meet their parents. Talk about a Hellscape!

Is it me, or has the graphic style changed since a few updates ? I have to say I liked the old style better, it was neater (sharp lines, well defined shapes), while the new one feels kinda blurry, like the old one was drawn using a pencil, and now it is drawn with pastels, if you get my meaning.

Is there a specific reason for this change, or is it merely an artistic choice ? (like, you think it looks better this way, or it’s much faster to draw, or you changed your hardware…)

I have to say I’m curious as to the reason.

Well, anyway, I still love the comic, the characters are endearing (yep, even Reggie), so cheers from a French reader !

My hospital stay had a negative effect on my process that I haven’t learned to overcome yet. There have also been several driver issues that remain unresolved. I can’t use my preferred Art program anymore. Basically everything is broken.

I for one am still perfectly satisfied with your art Jackie. Sorry about all your medical drama – as are all of your readers as far as I can tell.

Oh man, I’m absolutely dying right now. I’ve been waiting for John to find out Reggie’s there this whole time, but this reveal completely blindsided me. I’m still cracking up.

Welp! Lol, what a fantastic way to bring that up. That last panel. The whole page is pretty fantastic. Great job! Ha ha! XD

So she got retconed into a sister, could have some meta humour with Reggie going ‘it’s like I don’t even know you’ or something

It’s not a retcon if it’s done before the character is revealed. This was me deciding to introduce an already planned character in an unplanned way.

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