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Post by Per on Oct 6, 2017 7:02:19 GMT
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Post by youwiththeface on Oct 6, 2017 7:07:46 GMT
Okay, I've been trying to reserve judgment, but now I've got to say it: I am incredibly bored with this arc.
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Post by keef on Oct 6, 2017 7:34:44 GMT
He doesn't have the heart to tell her, does he? |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Oct 6, 2017 7:53:59 GMT
When I was still a youth my dreams involving great amounts of reproduction were much more interesting.
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Post by noone3 on Oct 6, 2017 8:35:59 GMT
Karaluchy pod poduchy*, as Gamma would say.
*cockroaches under your pillow - an old bed-time saying.
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Post by lurkismet on Oct 6, 2017 9:53:57 GMT
Bed bugs = Love bugs!
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Post by faiiry on Oct 6, 2017 10:15:24 GMT
So Surma has had the hots for Eglamore since she was like 12-13, and all it takes to undo those years of fancy is one week with a nerd and his bugs. Tony's charms must be so intense in person, once he starts talking like normal at least, that women can't help but swoon.
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ST13R
Full Member
Quiet little mouse
Posts: 171
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Post by ST13R on Oct 6, 2017 10:19:47 GMT
The only dream I ever had about huge amounts of bugs was rather creepy, even when it had ladybugs in it ._.; But this chapter really motivates me to get to know more about bugs  I faintly remember this awesome site, probably from a Uni or science center, which had very detailed pictures of bugs from each angle. *Must go find it now* EDIT: Found it. Don't watch if you don't like (skewered) bugs. +Wow, they even got 3D models now  |
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Post by csj on Oct 6, 2017 11:40:55 GMT
Heteroptera?  He doesn't have the heart to tell her, does he? To be fair, viviparity is a thing that some insects do, but super-rarely. |
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Post by arf on Oct 6, 2017 12:33:04 GMT
With the use of dreams, the mites are already laying down new behaviour patterns for their hosts.
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Post by jda on Oct 6, 2017 12:55:55 GMT
Yes, yes.
The joy of discovering a new field of science.
Come to the Dark Side of Nerd, we have lepidoptera.
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yinglung
Full Member
It's only a tatter of mime.
Posts: 190
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Post by yinglung on Oct 6, 2017 13:08:00 GMT
So Surma has had the hots for Eglamore since she was like 12-13, and all it takes to undo those years of fancy is one week with a nerd and his bugs. Tony's charms must be so intense in person, once he starts talking like normal at least, that women can't help but swoon. I'm not sure why people are so bothered by Surma slowly warming up to Tony, and over exaggerating what we have seen so far. I mean, before this trip, Surma most likely thought of Tony as a friend of a friend. Now that she's getting to know him, they are actual friends. There is bound to be something significant that will happen in the flashback for it to be "how they fell in love". As for Tony's charms, part of it probably is seeing a progression from wooden man to expressive, humorous, earnest guy. |
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Post by ctso74 on Oct 6, 2017 13:43:00 GMT
Yes, yes. The joy of discovering a new field of science. Come to the Dark Side of Nerd, we have lepidoptera. And Sapidum Crustula. |
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Anthony
Full Member
No, not THAT guy.
Posts: 112
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Post by Anthony on Oct 6, 2017 14:48:54 GMT
And that's, Annie, how your mother decided to have a baby.
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Post by Runningflame on Oct 6, 2017 17:23:11 GMT
Okay, these are clearly not mites: they have six legs, not eight. (Unless Surma didn't see the actual number of legs and is just imagining them with six because she thinks they're beetle babies.)
The really stunning thing here isn't how fast Surma warmed up to Anthony, it's how fast she warmed up to bugs. Jimmy Jims would be dumbfounded if he knew he's been replaced in her dreams by an insect.
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Post by OrzBrain on Oct 6, 2017 17:26:36 GMT
The really stunning thing here isn't how fast Surma warmed up to Anthony, it's how fast she warmed up to bugs. Jimmy Jims would be dumbfounded if he knew he's been replaced in her dreams by an insect. Once again, I'm thinking fire elemental mental influence. |
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Post by jda on Oct 6, 2017 18:54:42 GMT
The Brazilian Tony Effect. |
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Post by faiiry on Oct 6, 2017 23:01:17 GMT
Personally I just don't know what to think about this chapter. It's definitely not what I expected, really slow-paced, and shows us versions of Surma and Tony that simply don't jive with anything we've known about them previously. (Surma doesn't have all that much fire and Tony is no longer an ice king.) I won't say I love it and I won't say I hate it. We'll have to see.
I am sort of disappointed in Surma, though. I'll say that much. She seems way less intelligent and way more flighty than I had come to believe. I had sort of built her up in my head as this smart, wise, seductive sort of person who was shrewd enough to literally trick a demon into a trap with her feminine wiles. The Surma of this chapter just doesn't seem like that same kind of person. I can't picture this kid doing what she did to Renard.
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Post by pyradonis on Oct 6, 2017 23:28:14 GMT
So Surma has had the hots for Eglamore since she was like 12-13, and all it takes to undo those years of fancy is one week with a nerd and his bugs. Tony's charms must be so intense in person, once he starts talking like normal at least, that women can't help but swoon. To me, this page looks more like she forgot Eggy and replaced him with thousand of bugs. (Which means she is slowly becoming part of the hive mind.) |
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Post by gunnerscrag on Oct 6, 2017 23:39:43 GMT
Okay I think I might get it. It's sad but, if Surma knows what happens to fire elementals, she is just showing how amazed she is at the fact something can give birth to so many children and yet still be alive.
On the other hand she's just showing a maternal side of herself at the idea of at some time having a child (this aside whether she knows what will happen to her then) thus the constant imaginery of a lot of children.
Or maybe she's thinking of Khepi's family
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2017 23:56:18 GMT
Okay, these are clearly not mites: they have six legs, not eight. (Unless Surma didn't see the actual number of legs and is just imagining them with six because she thinks they're beetle babies.) This is belated compensation for the eight-branched snowflake in Tall Tales. I'm not even sure if that's a joke answer. (For one, the snowflake was paralleled by a sun emitting eight rays. I assume it was intentional. Your parenthesis sounds plausible, too.) |
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Post by fia on Oct 7, 2017 1:29:09 GMT
A selection of insects we know about that exhibit maternal care:
Blattella germanica "carries her egg sac externally until nymphs hatch"
Blattella vaga "produces maternal secretions on which her neonates briefly feed"
Diploptera punctata "females undergo a 60-day “pregnancy” during which highly nutritious milk, secreted from the walls of the brood sac, is ingested orally by the developing young. At birth, young are in an advanced state of development"
Image of diploptera punctata which is viviparous (don't click if you're queasy): And some exhibit paternal care, like this water bug which carries eggs on its back: abedus herberti
Tom may have made up this Brazilian species of beetle-like insects on the basis of bugs like these, perhaps because there are zillions of species that are yet to be discovered in the Amazon. It's not implausible that a species like the one he depicted could exist, and not just that it's carrying mites. Then again, maybe he has a particular thing in mind? |
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Post by snoodette on Oct 7, 2017 2:09:52 GMT
Okay, these are clearly not mites: they have six legs, not eight. (Unless Surma didn't see the actual number of legs and is just imagining them with six because she thinks they're beetle babies.) The really stunning thing here isn't how fast Surma warmed up to Anthony, it's how fast she warmed up to bugs. Jimmy Jims would be dumbfounded if he knew he's been replaced in her dreams by an insect. Just a quick note - some mites in the larval stage (for example Harvest Mites [which as far as I'm aware don't predate insects tho will be found on cats/dogs]) do have 6 legs, they then go back to 8 legs as adults. |
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Post by saardvark on Oct 7, 2017 3:31:15 GMT
There is a carrion beetle which often carries around a load of mites. It does this because it wants to lay eggs in some carcass, but chances are a faster fly has placed her maggots there first. While the mites make life difficult for the beetle (weighing it down), they have a symbiosis whereby the mites don't hurt the beetle, but upon the beetle's landing eat only the maggots, thus clearing the carcass of competitors so that the beetle larvae can grow. I realize mites have 8 legs rather then 6, but otherwise this scenario and the beetle image seem to fit a carrion beetle better than the insects fia notes.
Of course, this makes the mites not babies, but symbiotes. Is the human - fire elemental fusion symbiotic in some way perhaps?
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Post by Gotolei on Oct 7, 2017 5:28:48 GMT
Is the human - fire elemental fusion symbiotic in some way perhaps? Perhaps not strictly in a evolutionary sense (especially with the whole not-surviving-after-raising-a-child thing), but it could be possible to interpret it like this: Elemental: fusion with a physical human body allows for easier access to the physical world and relevant interactions Human: gets ether/fire powers, may have an easier / more fulfilling time in life as a result |
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Post by tc on Oct 7, 2017 6:27:41 GMT
So Surma has had the hots for Eglamore since she was like 12-13, and all it takes to undo those years of fancy is one week with a nerd and his bugs. Well, not quite - there have been hints dropped building up to this: [EDIT : ... the current chapter [Get Lost] is showing us the beginnings of the two of them becoming a good and effective (to say nothing of ador[k]able) little team. A while back I posted my theory that what ultimately led Surma to develop deeper feelings for Tony than she did Jimmy was the fact that Jimmy seemed to be so caught up in being a chivalrous "protector" type that he ended up making Surma feel like she was being shut out. She hinted that she was getting frustrated by Jimmy always being away on training in the flashback at the end of "S1", and for those who joined the story more recently she did so again at the start of this chapter. Contrast this with Tony, who - while he's done his best to help Surma feel comfortable and did initially offer to do the work himself - took her at her word when she said she wanted in as an active participant, and seems to be encouraging and assisting her where necessary...] Over and above that I think it's reasonable to say that for many people, the aspects we found attractive at, say, 13 can be somewhat different to things which attract us as we get older and (hopefully  ) mature. The really stunning thing here isn't how fast Surma warmed up to Anthony, it's how fast she warmed up to bugs. Exactly. I've got a feeling that this trip was the catalyst for Surma finding things out about herself that she wasn't expecting... I am sort of disappointed in Surma, though. I'll say that much. She seems way less intelligent and way more flighty than I had come to believe. I had sort of built her up in my head as this smart, wise, seductive sort of person who was shrewd enough to literally trick a demon into a trap with her feminine wiles. The Surma of this chapter just doesn't seem like that same kind of person. I can't picture this kid doing what she did to Renard. ...and set her on the path towards being the outwardly intelligent, confident young woman we've seen in later flashbacks. [EDIT : It's going to be interesting to see how Parley and Smitty cope as her training takes her away more often and for longer. That said, Parley's a lot less caught up in being chivalrous to a fault in the way Jimmy seems to have become at a similar age... ] |
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Post by TBeholder on Oct 8, 2017 5:00:27 GMT
Oh my Coyote! It's full of bugs! But did the mites catch a dream, or did the dream catch some mites? |
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Post by Storel on Oct 8, 2017 6:05:53 GMT
Okay, these are clearly not mites: they have six legs, not eight. (Unless Surma didn't see the actual number of legs and is just imagining them with six because she thinks they're beetle babies.) couldn't see how many legs those little tiny specks had, so Surma probably couldn't either. |
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Post by mochakimono on Oct 8, 2017 12:57:16 GMT
Tony might not have blushed so far, but he's certainly not watching her face in panel 5.
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Post by fia on Oct 9, 2017 14:40:31 GMT
Okay, these are clearly not mites: they have six legs, not eight. (Unless Surma didn't see the actual number of legs and is just imagining them with six because she thinks they're beetle babies.) couldn't see how many legs those little tiny specks had, so Surma probably couldn't either. yes but see the final panel on this later page |
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I faintly remember this awesome site, probably from a Uni or science center, which had very detailed pictures of bugs from each angle. 
) mature.
