Chapter 4, Page 9

You guys just love breaking my cave don’t you

Whoops, sorry, this was one of those weeks when Wednesday got moved to Friday, I think it was described in Copernicus’s Law of Webcomics. ANYHOO, I am excited to see who these encyclopedia salesmen were, aren’t you???? I have a lot of Patreon backlog stuff to post tomorrow so maybe I’ll drop a preview for impatient readers :B

I’m actually in a great mood today because I get to keep my insurance for the time being!! Yes it is expensive and imperfect but I suppose it is better than the alternative (dying of beriberi).

37 Comments

  • “Expendable digit donation” sounds like a trash metal band name.

    • Anton Kooistra

      “Roh!” Chuggachuggachuggachugga

  • Delta Bratwurst

    Rebekah has a lot of learning to do in the first contact diplomacy category.

  • JuaSaysHi

    Noooo, no beriberi! So bad for your eyes! Please die of late-onset senescence instead. ;-D

  • SomeCoolPerson

    I found panels two and three are quite difficult to parse. At first I thought it was a close-up of the visitor somehow triggering a trip wire.

    I think the viewpoint switch from Rebekah’s right to her left between panel one and two might exacerbate the confusion.

    Maybe I’m just not clever enough :)

    • shingworks

      It’s probably me~ The cinematographic part of my brain has been out of whack for the past week for various reasons. I kept those panels simple cuz I suspect I’ll be replacing them.

      (and, no advice/suggestions wanted, gotta figure it out on my own power)

      • evileeyore

        The biggest problem for me to understand the flow was that the word bubbles didn’t change direction. Thus it makes it look as though the creature speaking is also the one snapping the white fiber.

        • shingworks

          Thanks, but like it’s mentioned in the above comment, NAW/ NCW.

    • BigDogLittleCat

      Oh good, it’s not just me.
      I kept seeing the wrist piece on her suit as her upper arm and was wondering where her body was.
      It appears she dumped a load of rocks on Peaceful Messenger.
      She’s smart enough that I assume she left herself another way out.

      • Nachojones

        Oooooh! Ok. Thanks. I wasn’t sure what happened there.

  • Keith

    “Expendable digit”…
    I think I’ve got some toenail clippings around. Is that sufficient? Because I’ve got some pretty strong feelings otherwise.

  • Fawnet

    …Are Mike and Rebekah not the only space explorers trapped in this place?

  • Karyl

    What did she snap? did she just drop a load of rock in ambush on the intended visitors?? Whoever they are, they speak like translation is not their first skill.

  • brokenidealist

    Expendable digit… I would have more than a few choice words in response to that request. I’m really loving this scene! So much insight into Bex’s experience on Mars and her character/character development. God, I love character development!

  • evileeyore

    I suspect that “expendable digit donation sufficient” was it’s way of saying “I’ve lost enough hands/finders already, I wish to lose no more. Please simply acquiesce to my request that you spit/pee on me.”

  • Lost Yooper

    The old snap giant rubber band and crush Martian testicle monster trick…

    • LosytYooper

      *tentacle

  • Ben

    I’m really not following what is happening here..

    • shingworks

      It’s a known issue, lol.

      • Sheridan

        It’s a feature.

  • Evilbob dA

    Glad to know I’m not the only one more than a little confused on what’s going on on this page, lol. Maybe we should give this a formal bug/error name. I’m thinking “Error code 0x8024687”, lol.

    • Vert

      Open a Github issue.

  • Kuggur

    For what it is worth, I had no trouble understanding the sequence of events here. I recognized the weapon she uses to cut the wire straight away, and it didn’t surprise me she had something prepared for her morbidly polite visitor…
    Enjoying your work very much.

  • Android 21 3/7

    Wait, is it asking Bex to cut off a (presumably) regenerating extremity as an alternative or is he/she/it/they claiming that the limb she hacked off before should be fair trade for a cup of brain fluid?

  • I forgive you for killing Kallakor now, Bex

  • It took a couple reads to get it, but I think I finally get the flow you’re trying to achieve here. To be fair, half of my problem with reading comics these days is going from eastern-variant reading methods to western-variant.

    But I do get it! A little hard, but reading comprehension is achievable!

  • Rachel

    “I got yer peaceful response right here!” *rocks fall, everyone dies*

    • Edmund

      a good DM. A bad first-contact negotiator.

  • Lo

    Sounds like one of Kallakore’s friends is on the other side?
    Or maybe Kallakore got reset to a previous point before she got good at english?

    Also why can’t Threvi free itself? is that thing heavier than it looks?

  • Rei

    I know that some people have expressed difficulty understanding the flow both here and with Meek in the last update, but they’re both readable to me!!!

    • Drew

      Update? What’s that?

      I love both comics, but I’m losing patience with the sporadic updates.

      • shingworks

        K

  • Am I the only one getting a distinctly “I-Have-No-Mouth-And-I-Must-Scream” vibe going on here? Not specifically in this page, but generally overall?

  • Kittens and Mittens

    Can we go back to Michael now? I wanna know what happened to him. This chick could die, for real. She’s insane.

    • JJ

      Sure, out of Mike and Bex, Bex clearly is the one who’s deranged.

  • oh gosh

  • SEBLEB

    Dunno how insane or deranged she is.

    what troubles me most is that she clearly knew this visitor would come and even when (clear hints about that 2 pages back) Though this visitor doesn’t know her as he requires somatic samples for identification …

    Then you have to remember that contrary to Michael who is on a mission, Rebecca is a martian citizen … Does she know something about local fauna that Michael doesn’t ?

    It Would explain lot about her then not so deranged behavior …

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