Comic for September 12, 2020: Entering and Breaking

[Eclipse]

Clovis really isn't messing around.

[Rafe]

Poor Sythe. Somehow I always knew he'd end up dead in his underwear.

Looks like Romulus and Remus are twins, as in the myth.

[Elemental Templar]

Poor Sythe. Somehow I always knew he'd end up dead in his underwear.

Looks like Romulus and Remus are twins, as in the myth.

Technically, Sythe's in a towel, and it's unlikely he's dead; however, going by the Roman nomenclature of Clovis' subordinates it's highly likely that Remus will end up dead by the end of this chapter.

Sorry if I've inadvertently spoiled something Tom

[Bellhead]

My thread was first, but whatever...

So his soldiers DID notice something was off... Beautiful fur pattern on those two, by the way. Similar names... Brothers, perhaps?

I wonder why he doesn't have much time. Could he know about what's going on? Does his enchantment have a time limit? And why exactly is he after Zen? Still mad about way back when? That was years ago, wasn't it?

And I'll say this more for myself than anything, but there is no way Sythe just died. No way. Can't be. I refuse.

[Eclipse]

Okay, we (and by "we" I mean the mods) really need to do something about the way comic threads are being handled. Three of us posted comic threads within mere seconds of each other not knowing that two other people were also posting comic threads because everyone's just camping out waiting for the next page to come out and jumping on creating a thread. This is starting to get out of hand.

Anyway, I noticed the Romulus and Remus thing too. Lot of Clovis' men seem to be named after famous figures from Roman history.

My thread was first, but whatever...

I actually reported my own thread to be closed/merged and to keep yours for that very reason but the mods went with mine for whatever reason. *shrugs*

[Bellhead]

Like I said, meh. To be fair, I checked out of the blue and happened to see there was no thread yet.

Roman figures, eh? Huh. I need to brush up on my Roman history if that's the case.

[Hayate]

Okay, we (and by "we" I mean the mods) really need to do something about the way comic threads are being handled. Three of us posted comic threads within mere seconds of each other not knowing that two other people were also posting comic threads because everyone's just camping out waiting for the next page to come out and jumping on creating a thread. This is starting to get out of hand.

My thread was first, but whatever...

I actually reported my own thread to be closed/merged and to keep yours for that very reason but the mods went with mine for whatever reason. *shrugs*

I'm sorry if you are dissatisfied with how multiple duplicate comic threads are handled. I would advise that everyone involved with the race to post it first to refresh the comic board prior to posting to be sure they aren't posting a duplicate thread. In this case, two of them were merged and the other seems to have been deleted by the person who made it. Lets try not to get bent out of shape over something so minor, it doesn't matter who gets it first.
~Hayate

[MuonNeutrino]

Waitasec... how does Clovis know where people are in the mansion? Something's weird here.

Clovis does know that Brutus was brought here, which he presumably got from someone in town who knew about it. (This is evidenced by the dialog when Roan and the other wolf showed up disguised as Templar, and for that matter by the simple fact that Clovis knew to send them there in the first place.) And of course since Roan and his companion never came back, it's reasonable to assume that they're still here too. But even if Clovis does guess that the mansion has dungeons and that they're in them (not a particularly far-fetched assumption at all for old!Trace's mansion), how does he know where to go in the mansion to get there? Does he have a floor plan or something?

And even moreso, how the heck does he know where Zen is? As far as we're aware, Zen and Natani haven't interacted with Clovis in years. I was already wondering a bit how Carver knew to find Zen and party way off in the middle of nowhere at barrow rock, but how does Clovis even know that Zen is *in* the mansion, let alone exactly where? Carver got yote to the basitin isles and was already off the scene before group B went from barrow rock to the mansion by gatekey, so even if Carver was in contact with Clovis, the last he should have known Zen was still dozens or hundreds of miles away. And even if he was somehow watching them go through the gate, how does he know where in the mansion Zen is right this moment, given that I doubt you can scry through Nora and old!Trace's wards?

I suppose it could be explained by Clovis having done a quick but thorough scrying of the mansion in the short time since the security was disrupted, but it still seems a bit weird. On the other hand, I suppose it does help establish him as an antagonist with capabilities to be wary of. And yeah, People In Danger Now. I've been wondering when Zen and (presumably) Kat would re-enter the story, and while it looks like the blast more hit the railing in front of Sythe rather than hitting him directly he still just got blasted pretty good. The only people in the mansion who aren't visibly in some sort of danger now are Eric and Lynn, and that's mostly just because we haven't seen them at all lately.

[aitaituo]

Is there a way Clovis could know Zen has third degree burns on his ankle? An injury of that severity does leave one bedridden.

[Canis Rufus]

Roman figures, eh? Huh. I need to brush up on my Roman history if that's the case.

Short versions:

Romulus and Remus were the twin brothers who founded Rome...well... They had an argument over founding a city, Romulus kiled Remus and founded Rome, which he named after himself.

Brutus (Marcus Junius Brutus) was a Roman senator and, along with his brother in law another senator called Cassius (Gaius Cassius Longinus), one of the most prominant conspiritors in the assasination of Julius Ceasar.

(Sorry, I'm a history geek)

[tony1695]

I am curious as to just how Clovis knows where Zen is. The only one who could have reliably informed him of Zen's injury is Carver, and the last we saw of him was being held at spear-point by Basitin.

Knowing that Brutus is here is a bit more understandable, but he mentions "the others". In plural. Is he possibly unaware that the manor's normal defence systems turn intruders into livestock?

[Rafe]

In Dragon Masquerade Clovis let Zen and Natani know that he was able to use their mental link to keep track of them. God knows what else he could do or learn about them.

Clovis has been able to access their minds in one degree or another since the link was created. How horrible must it be to Zen and Natani, knowing that Clovis is in your head? They might not be able to fight him at all. He might easily be able to undo the magic he used to save Natani. He could possibly kill them both as easily as turning off a light switch.

[MuonNeutrino]

In Dragon Masquerade Clovis let Zen and Natani know that he was able to use their mental link to keep track of them. God knows what else he could do or learn about them.

Clovis has been able to access their minds in one degree or another since the link was created. How horrible must it be to Zen and Natani, knowing that Clovis is in your head?

He could do that in TDM, but that was before Nora decided to intervene. In the final page wrapup monologue Natani says "whatever Nora did broke the link between him and us", so Natani at least thinks that's no longer a possibility. Now, we've seen that Natani is not necessarily always a reliable narrator, but in this case I'm inclined to go with it for two reasons. One, I think Nora breaking the link is both quite plausibly possible and completely in character for her, given what we know of her power and personality. And second, I think if Clovis still had the sort of access he displayed in TDM he'd have used it for much more obviously nefarious purposes by now. Natani showed that he could resist Clovis' attempts to outright puppeteer his body, but that level of access is still scary as heck. I suppose it could be possible that Nora broke the outright link he had to tap into the link itself, but that there's still some kind of residual connection there he could use to try to find them even if he can't actually get access anymore or something like that, but if so it'd still be a departure from what TDM implied.

[tony1695]

Another thing that just occurred to me: Where is Kat? Is she still in Zen's room? If so, it would (almost) certainly be in character for Romulus, as a member of Clovis's organisation, to disregard the female in the room, only to pay for it by getting a firepoker (long, heavy bit of metal) to the back of the head.

[TheMasterOfOats]

GOOD PAGE TOM.

Hooooohooooo there’s a lot in this one.

First off: Sythe. Is he alive? Is he dead? Who knows? Looking at the explosion the railing saved him, and short of a shockwave powerful enough to kill him, he’s probably just unconscious. Either he hit his head on the wall in his attempt to dodge, or there was a veritable shockwave just enough to knock him out without causing (too much) permanent brain damage.

Second: Romulus and Remus. Fantastic. raised by wolves, amirite?

Third: aw, Clovis and Zen are on a nickname basis. How sweet. Too bad Zen’s not a major enough character to keep alive but enough of a heartthrob for both characters and fans that killing him off would still hurt but wouldn’t turn people off the comic. How do I justify this? One, Zen “left a lot of loose ends at the guild” according to Carver, one of which may have something to do with Clovis’... erm... bosom. Perhaps Clovis wants revenge. Secondly, Tom just proved that Natani can completely function sans Zen, which opens up one lovely opportunity for axing an extraneous character. I do wonder why Clovis didn’t say anything about Natani, especially since Carver said that Clovis “has special plans for her”. Plans probably meaning abuse her then kill her for fun.

Back on topic, one last thing about Romulus and Remus. Timber Wolves? Interesting. We’ve rarely seen multicoloured/patterned wolves up to this point. It’s a good look though.

Lastly, poor Sythe lost his towel. Better not send a Bastian to get him.