4.38

Late page! I had the honor of getting to color this twice after my computer crashed and corrupted my 90% finished file, which was not my favorite thing ever haha.

Looking like I’m not going to be able to finish the chapter this month after all, but gonna to keep running the Meek update train until I do~

Also I usually plug my own Patreon just as a matter of course/ good business, but today I need to pimp my buddy Ngozi who makes the comic Check Please… one of my favorite comics even though the genre is so far from what I usually read! I just can’t get over her incredible use of the web format/ multimedia, the hilarious and informative writing, the well-captured feel of college life, and just a generally low-stress and high-entertainment story. I really look up to her skills and all she’s doing, so check her work out! And maybe support her as well if you also enjoy her work :]

I’m kinda struggling with my Patronage lately, I love supporting a ton of creators but I can only go in a buck or two per person because I’m trying to spread it out so much XD Ah well, it’s a good problem to have. Are you guys supporting anyone good?

I have a few edits to make on this and the last pages (the facemoss!) so no need to tell me, it’ll be fixed by this evening. Meow

33 Comments

  • Ar

    Lemme at ‘er! Seriously, that looked like it hurt. Wonder what Angora was hoping would happen though…

    • Localized

      Probably tree-bend like she’s done before.

      • charles81

        The grass does look like it may have thrust forward at that particular moment. The torch is flowing in the opposite direction so it wasn’t the wind.

        Not sure what to make of the bend in the spear. Either it also curved to her will or Tanome was thrusting it forward to defend herself at that moment.

      • Ar

        Yeah, tree-bend, but I mean specifically. Was she hoping to, like, tree-tie her up? Tree-smack her? Maybe just tree-bend without touching her so that lady knows what she’s capable of?
        I didn’t notice the grass movement until after I posted. I assume it’s her actually controlling it, but I can’t really tell if the grass moving and the spear bending is just exaggerated action movement.

  • Mir

    Swear to god this lady is driving me mad. I know Angora brought this upon herself with forcing Pinter to join her and whatnot, but seriously without her doing that this lady wouldn’t be alive. Ungrateful.

    • DoubleU

      I’m not sure that’s fair, to say she brought it on herself. She’s young, and a little crazy or something.

  • Crestlinger

    Angora you Just healed her, earthen powers don’t work at cross purposes like that.

    Plus going up against someone with at least some form of martial training unarmed isn’t wise at the outset.

  • Some_Douchebag

    If that’s what they think an evil spell looks like they must be terrified of boxing.

  • Carolyn

    OK, that’s it my patience is at it’s end. Somebody kill both of these douchecanoes NOW!

  • Sky

    I MEAN TO BE FAIR, she did totally seem to try to attack her with what should’ve been those grassy powers we saw before. THAT SMACK TO THE FACE, probably was deserved. But lets try to, SETTLE DOWN NOW kiddos!

    We need to work together now, and be friends! Because there’s this really big Tiger around here somewhere that I’m still always worried about like.. always..

    • Chris

      You make me laugh.

      And remind me to be afraid… always…
      !! Did you hear that?

  • Spark

    Is the grass leaning toward Tanome a weak form of Angora’s power or is it just blown from her punching movement? Cause it looks less flattened in the second panel than in the first.

  • AEM

    In the depth of my righteous anger at this page, I was inspired to do a little amateur Scripture study. Considering that Generalism is based primarily on Genesis and Exodus, and Etan and Tanome seem to represent the more devout (or at least, more fundamentalist) contingent of this faith, if a concerned soul – like me – were to demand why they were being such violent, puritanical twats to an innocent like Angora, they would probably whip out something like Exodus 22:18:

    “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.”

    Leaving aside the fact that one can’t rightfully characterize Angora as a “sorceress” (a term which – to my ears, at least – denotes someone using offensive magic as a means of hurting or manipulating people), I would counter with this little gem at 22:21:

    “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you do afflict them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.”

    Angora is not only a stranger in these lands, but also (presumably) an orphan, already sorely afflicted by the (possible) loss of her grandfather and now getting a double-helping of unwarranted abuse from this spear-chucking skank and her pigheaded husband, both of whom seem to have no sense of priority in terms of what God demands of them. If I were a cleric in this universe, I’d be snapping that spear over my knee and pronouncing some very pointed anathemas right about now.

    Sorry for ranting, but one of my biggest pet peeves – which I share with St. Augustine – is people (real or fictional) making Christianity (or Christian-like religions) look stupid.

    • Some_Douchebag

      I understand everyone’s anger at this page. Seeing a teenage girl getting beaten up is, to put it lightly, rage-inducing. However, this is a setting in which people are informed as much by superstition as they are religion. Tanome and Etan know that she acts (in their eyes) weird and that she apparently has spooky powers. They also have no idea that she’s The Heroine. In their eyes, they’re trying to protect themselves from someone unknown and highly dangerous. Yes, it’s rash. Yes, it’s reactionary. Yes, it displays a supreme refusal of empathy on their part. But it seems rational and justified to them. This is Tanome being brave and making a Tough Decision for the sake of herself and her husband. This is not Tanome being deliberately malicious to a normal, needy teenage girl. Note the distinct lack of laughter and twirling of curly mosstaches.

      That being said, you are absolutely correct that their religion (if it’s based on Christianity) calls them to be generous and forgiving at junctures like this. It would be fan-fucking-tastic if they do end up all traveling together to the Mission and the people there find out about the treatment of one of their own. I’m rife with anticipation.

      Also, at the end of the day, humans gonna hume*.

      *HUME (v) – To fuck things up in a most royal fashion, often hurting one or more others, out of misconception, short-sightedness, or ignorance of the willful or non- sort.

      • Lilian

        Beautifully put.

    • Lilian

      It also bugs me when people jump on the “let’s judge the judgmental religious character who puts himself on a pedestal and put ourselves on our own pedestals in the meantime” bandwagon.

      BUT yes, it bugs me too when characters/people make Christianity/Christian-like religions looks stupid. It also bugs me when authors make characters with that intent… especially when they offer no balancing character that is devout and decent.

      Amen appears to be said devout and decent character, though he hasn’t met Angora yet.

      • Yeah, I’ve been waffling on whether or not to put a disclaimer, but I’m not anti-religious, nor are these characters meant to be strawmen. They are just some individual jerks who are there to move the story the way I wanted. There are plenty of religious characters in the story who are not interested in frogspearing a teen.

        • Lilian

          That’s certainly fair. I understand the writer’s need for jerks with which to move the plot, haha. Protagonists can’t develop unless they’re flawed, and stories can’t be driven without conflict.

          You’ve already included jerks/obnoxious people of a number of different worldviews and backgrounds. Etanome is just one set. You’re a skilled writer, and really us readers should refrain from drawing dramatic conclusions about such matters until we actually have enough material from which to draw context.

          Keep up the good work. I’m enjoying both The Meek and Mare Internum. :-)

  • The thing these two still lack knowing is she’s actually from where they’re headed. I think it’s high time she get that point across before the situation gets any more unpleasant.

    • Lilian

      Yeah, really. People aren’t very good at making situations run more smoothly. Not when everyone is on the defensive.

      But the fact that Angora is Carissi, is from this monastery, and is behind Tanome’s healing should be given more consideration from Etan and Tanome both.

  • RichWalk9891

    “Perhaps if you had chosen the path of good, you too would be protected by a higher power.”

    Did no one tell Tanome that it was Angora, the girl she had hit on the face with the end of a spear, was the one who found her lying unconscious and dying from her wounds? I think that would have been a good enough evidence that Angora is on that ‘path of good’, even though she isn’t exactly the best role model as of yet and doesn’t have the best understanding of culture and social taboos.

  • anameer

    Did Angora just bend that spear on the first panel?

  • Max

    Have the same problem on Patreon – I’d love to support a bit more people with slightly more, but the budget for that kind of thing only lets be chip in a buck or two per person; as to who – well the usual mostly the suspects I suppose: Lackadaisy, Gunnerkrigg, Tesladyne, Drive, Ava and so on…

  • Vert

    Hah. I bet the irony here is that Angora can’t use her powers for evil purposes like revenge or rage (crotch-smashing the goon in chapter 1 was done to save Pinter, and so not an act of aggression).

    If I’m right, then it’s literally only because Angora *is* a good person that Tanome wasn’t torn to shreds by her own spear haft just now…

    • I agree! If my theory is right that Angora is an Eve-like being and the plant powers are a manifestation of Eden then it would make sense that they would only work for good or self defence.

      • Lilian

        It’s a possibility, though one would think that feelings such as a desire to harm would be foreign to an Eve.

    • martin

      Or may be she cannot use her powers twice on a person or target. Angora already used her powers once on Tanome.

      • Vert

        Even simpler: have we ever seen her use her powers at night? Maybe they only work during the day.

        • Well, when she slept on the stump saplings sprouted around her. But since she didn’t wake until it was light out, we don’t know whether they sprouted during the dark or after the sun rose…

          • strannik

            Or her powers may be in limited supply : she passed out after using them to kick the ass of her attackers at the end of chapter 1.

          • strannik

            It occured to me that all the wood that Angora used her powers upon were “alive”, contrary to the dead wood of a staff…

  • Lilian

    Shing has absolutely no problem portraying women who know how to beat people around, even when it makes them look bad (or be bad). Soli has strength behind her arms, and Tanome here knows how to handle a staff.

    Ouch. Nose-whacks like that really, really hurt. Angora really is having a rotten night, but I imagine it’s something she and Pinter will learn from. Pinter has been a noncommittal, wandering loser of a character. A practical and likable and stick-up-for-the-underdog type, but definitely “lost” as Mocheril put it. Angora is annoying, but she’s guileless and she’s going through this story with a sense of purpose, even when it requires enormous faith on her part.

    In short, they’re a good literary pair.

  • Oh, this broke my heart :'(

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