Comic for March 14, 2020: Chapter 21 Sacrifices of the Past

[BadFoMo]

Instead of a 'sketch', we got an 'alt'. ...This is cool!

[tony1695]

Yikes, Reni snarling like that. I wonder what that's indicative of. She angry, or did someone/something manage to take control of her?

[Hayate]

Well this is looking kinda scary and ominous... I didn’t think Reni had angry in her...

[steelabjur]

• Trace looks weird with red hair.

• Cloak(?) looks fascinating, sort of like it's wet.

• Angry Reni is terrifying!

• Rose looking like she's ready to star in the next Mission Impossible with the black turtleneck.

• Red flower pedals and wires/vines suggests we're finally going to see the secret of the golem guarded room.

[Cosmacelf]

Awesome cover! Aaahhhh! I can’t wait for this story to start!

[MuonNeutrino]

Oof, well this is totally not ominous as hell, no siree not at all.

I had previously suspected that the figure in the room was somehow related to Rose, perhaps being her actual physical body while the 'Rose' we saw was just a projection. However, with the clearer view we have here that doesn't work anymore. I was correct that the hair on the figure looked red, but it's not quite the right shade for either young or old Rose, and it doesn't really match her hairstyle either. (If anything, it looks more like *Trace's* hairstyle.) But more to the point, no ears - whatever that is, it isn't a keidran. I still think it's related to Rose in *some* way (the constant repetition of the rose petal motif alone says that IMO), but it doesn't look like it's actually literally her.

And speaking of, what happened to her eyes? It's worth noting that not only did the color change, but they're also back to the previous blank/no shading eye style she had before. I still can't decide if Rose is actually *in on* whatever is going on, but she's definitely involved, and those eyes make me wonder about mind control or the like, as if she's been taken over by whatever's going on.

Fun fact - of the previous 22 chapter covers (chapter 6 has two, plus the 10th anniversary chapter), the 'TwoKinds' title is in the standard orange and blue on 17 of them. The rest either don't have the 'TwoKinds' title on them at all (7/8/11) or have it not in color (5 and 6.2). This is the first chapter title to have non-standard coloring.

[Sky Shatter]

Oooo....

[Lordadmiral Drake]

*Drama intensifies*

[Neutral Smith]

So... Red and Blue are brothers?

[Bellhead]

So... Red and Blue are brothers?

Probably a magical clone. Trace was paranoid to no end, and he wouldn't even trust Rose with his plan. Makes sense he'd only trust himself.

[steelabjur]

Oof, well this is totally not ominous as hell, no siree not at all.

I had previously suspected that the figure in the room was somehow related to Rose, perhaps being her actual physical body while the 'Rose' we saw was just a projection. However, with the clearer view we have here that doesn't work anymore. I was correct that the hair on the figure looked red, but it's not quite the right shade for either young or old Rose, and it doesn't really match her hairstyle either. (If anything, it looks more like *Trace's* hairstyle.) But more to the point, no ears - whatever that is, it isn't a keidran. I still think it's related to Rose in *some* way (the constant repetition of the rose petal motif alone says that IMO), but it doesn't look like it's actually literally her.

And speaking of, what happened to her eyes? It's worth noting that not only did the color change, but they're also back to the previous blank/no shading eye style she had before. I still can't decide if Rose is actually *in on* whatever is going on, but she's definitely involved, and those eyes make me wonder about mind control or the like, as if she's been taken over by whatever's going on.

Fun fact - of the previous 22 chapter covers (chapter 6 has two, plus the 10th anniversary chapter), the 'TwoKinds' title is in the standard orange and blue on 17 of them. The rest either don't have the 'TwoKinds' title on them at all (7/8/11) or have it not in color (5 and 6.2). This is the first chapter title to have non-standard coloring.

I'm pretty sure that is Trace's hair. Previous times "Old Trace" came to the surface, he had red highlights to his hair, with the "shattered" alternate cover image, and Euchre's warning about keeping Trace away from that room, we might see "Old Trace" coming to the surface more than ever before. It's worth noting that the Templar crystal towers were involved previous times Trace went nutzo, so maybe whatever is in that room has similar properties?

[BadJoke]

Renis looks ferocious. Looks like she will have to face strong foes, even for a dragon... I wonder if she'll have to fight against enchantments set up by Nora... and if that's the case, will she resent her for basically furnishing a genocidal psycho with such powerful tools.

Rose will have to give some explanations. She won't be able to hide what's going on here anymore.

And will that be enough chaos for the out of view schemers (or at least Euchre, I mean, Flora is in the middle of the whole chaos here) to finally take serious action?

[Eclipse]

Reni's angry face legitimately scares me, I never imagined she could get that pissed at anything. Either she's being possessed or there's some major [censored] going down in this chapter. Either way, this looks like it's about to get intense.

[AmigaDragon]

Renis looks ferocious. Looks like she will have to face strong foes, even for a dragon... I wonder if she'll have to fight against enchantments set up by Nora... and if that's the case, will she resent her for basically furnishing a genocidal psycho with such powerful tools.

I think most of Nora's enchantments were for estate defense, perhaps some convenience (the summoning tables). What they're going to be fighting would be enchantments placed by old Trace.

[Dadrobit]

Just popping in for a daily dose of a fun fact! Tom's actually been prepping for this exact title page for almost two years! This is what the first draft looked like back in April 2018.

Also, it really is quite interesting to note just how different even the modern sketch for this looks like in comparison to the final result. I love how the spiderweb cracks in the sketch result in a rose-like structure and personally I quite prefer it to the current melting he has going on.