Page 162: Pleased to meet you!

[dragoongfa]

Ah Cloud, this frozen heart of mine melts at your sight.

[Arent]

So, this 'hand greeting custom' becomes quickly popular amongst Loroi

Maybe he also shakes hands with Fireblade and something happens.

[Turrosh Mak]

Everyone wants to touch the Humanti. It may be spontaneous, but they could also be put up to it by Tempo/Fireblade to see if anyone can crack the "Lotai". Poor Cloud has no Service branch or rank. Touch her and say you are pleased. SAY IT, DAMN YOU!

[Sweforce]

by actual rank Cloud is probably the one closest to Alex.

[icekatze]

hi hi

*Hnng!* My heart! Poor Cloud, being mercilessly volunteered! But at least she has an official, in comic name now, hopefully that's a good sign we'll get to see more of her.

I'm imagining that Reed is thinking, "Well, I've crawled through mud and brambles for less." Maybe it's her posture, in addition to the formality of her speech, but I'm picking up some mild indifference.

I doubt that hand greeting will become popular between Loroi, on account of their usual taboo and the very personal nature of physical contact, but I can see the appeal of shaking hands with the human. There's some novelty in touching the strange empty man. "Come one, come all, and see the incredible walking and talking nobody, see first hand its total lack of a brain!"

[boldilocks]

We're barely a third of the month through, and the pages are done. What am I going to wait for for the rest of the month?

[Arioch]

We're barely a third of the month through, and the pages are done. What am I going to wait for for the rest of the month?

More pages?

[boldilocks]

We're barely a third of the month through, and the pages are done. What am I going to wait for for the rest of the month?

More pages?

That'll do.

[Arent]

We're barely a third of the month through, and the pages are done. What am I going to wait for for the rest of the month?

More pages?

We're 170$ away from the second patreon goal. First of all, congratualations. But, assuming we reach it, will you really consider to do outsider full time?

[Zarya]

my new favorite page - thank you Arioch

[novius]

Everyone wants to touch the Humanti. It may be spontaneous, but they could also be put up to it by Tempo/Fireblade to see if anyone can crack the "Lotai". Poor Cloud has no Service branch or rank. Touch her and say you are pleased. SAY IT, DAMN YOU!

And it still fits with my words about the previous page. Brute force didn't help, but maybe a relaxed atmosphere would do, and perhaps it helps to cross-test him against a larger variety of Loroi....

Well, Spiral seems to be all for it. Reed has some sort of "well, at least he's cute" look...

...and poor Cloud Though... either she is just shy, or she simply doesn't want to have anything to do with whatever scheme Tempo cooked up.

I'm wondering, though. Alex's voice over on Page 115 gave notice of Talon seemingly not trying to get into his head... I'd dearly like to hear his comments about those two... or three, if Cloud pulls herself together.

[CF2]

I'm wondering, though. Alex's voice over on Page 115 gave notice of Talon seemingly not trying to get into his head... I'd dearly like to hear his comments about those two... or three, if Cloud pulls herself together.

I think he would mentally note any attempt they make if all attempts produce that cool sensation. For now it seems they're just enjoying the novelty of casual contact, which will make for entertaining moments if they decide to experiment with the extent such things are allowed.

[kiwi]

... and Tempo is lurking somewhere behind Alex, and we really don't know what she's thinking. It's hard to trust someone when they have red eyes and deliberately stop people telling you things.

Once again, missing out on Loroi-Loroi conversations is a challenge. On the one hand, I would be entirely unsurprised to find Tempo's directing people to perform this 'handshake' test and see if anything interesting happens. On the other hand, the crew could just be curious and interested to find out more. Or nervous like cloud.

Coming up in Cargo Bay Survivor:
- Alex hasn't opened his ration pack yet. How will that smell to a Loroi nose? Will he be fine? Banished to the other cargo bay? Voted off the island?
- I'm assuming that the Soia did a lot of ripping off when they designed Loroi, and wondering whether Loroi, like humans, become less guarded when huddled up together in the dark.
- Will Alex be pleasantly warm to sleep near, or an uncomfortable furnace?

[Luge]

I like this page a lot, for several reasons:

- It makes for good story pacing after the intensity of the Umiak invasion force, pursuit of the shuttle and combat encounter earlier. It also gives the characters, all of who are military personnel, a chance to take a breath and relax.

- The Loroi warriors' take on shaking hands is interesting. In human history it is traditionally a warrior's greeting, showing trust but also allowing some assessment of another person's physical strength, and the Loroi may recognise that in some way. They may not have a physical equivalent, but there could be a sanzai thought/message that serves a similar purpose.

EDIT: From the Insider Telepathy page:

direct physical link involves the lowering of a substantial portion of one’s personal barriers, and so is normally only done between close friends, or as an explicit demonstration of trust.

So, a similar physical gesture does exist, as touching another Loroi shows great trust.

- There are echoes here of the Loroi diral, i.e. a band of warriors forces to survive together away from civilisation. It's even more poignant given the recent panels with Spiral's seii knife.

- It's genuinely cool to see Jardin shake hands with his former (and current?) jailer from the Tempest, Reed.

L.

[cacambo43]

Interesting switch-up between the rough cut and this final... In the rough post on Patreon Alex looks hesitant and careful in addressing Reed, but here he seems more satisfied. It's cool to sort of see how the artist operates.

CJSF

[Ithekro]

This is pretty bad (on my part). My brain immediately when to the Castle Anthrax scene.

"First the Meeting with Hands...than the spankings....and then onto..."

[kiwi]

No, it’s too perilous.

[sunphoenix]

OH Dear! I'm totally charmed.. this is such a cute and sweet scene! Thx Arioch!

[novius]

I'm wondering, though. Alex's voice over on Page 115 gave notice of Talon seemingly not trying to get into his head... I'd dearly like to hear his comments about those two... or three, if Cloud pulls herself together.

I think he would mentally note any attempt they make if all attempts produce that cool sensation. For now it seems they're just enjoying the novelty of casual contact, which will make for entertaining moments if they decide to experiment with the extent such things are allowed.

It would give quite some insight into Loroi sanzai, though. Like, was Talon consciously suppressing the involuntary reaction to skin contact, namely establishing telepathic connection? Or is it just because she's simply lacking in telepathic powers?

Or it could be the other way around, as his prior experiences were them trying to force themselves into his mind... and feeling that sensation again from these two would indicate that they're consciously trying to peek into his mind?

[CF2]

It would give quite some insight into Loroi sanzai, though. Like, was Talon consciously suppressing the involuntary reaction to skin contact, namely establishing telepathic connection? Or is it just because she's simply lacking in telepathic powers?

Or it could be the other way around, as his prior experiences were them trying to force themselves into his mind... and feeling that sensation again from these two would indicate that they're consciously trying to peek into his mind?

So basically, was she unable to even attract notice with her attempts, or is the cool sensation at the area of contact a result of the goal Fireblade and other mindthieves were pursuing at the time? Perhaps rather than suppression, it's more the fact that they're unconsciously acting in a more receptive manner telepathically, and thus there's no sensation.

Other than insights into that, it would be interesting to see if any of the Loroi notice whether Alex is telepathically transparent or if he occludes telepathic observation. Now that he's in a space with many Loroi where that could be picked up on by chance will they find that they can detect telepathic minds through him just like a particularly fleshy section of wall, or does he obscure or block such sensation?