So Tom got the gem, they’re finally out of the cave, Dis has returned to his silence, and shit’s REALLY going to start heating up soon…Well…After the big reveal of The Creator.

And you finally get a little insight about This Comic From Book One (I can finally link to my own site! Yay!). Chris uses the fact that he doesn’t need oxygen as a way of illustrating his obvious lack of a body and the organs contained within. See, I wasn’t just being odd. I had actually thought I’d dedicate half this comic to Chris explaining why ‘Breathing’ was so important to him, but I think that this understated approach was much better and I’m happy to have used it instead. It makes Chris seem so much more resigned to it.

And if you’re down here wondering why Tom’s still being kind of nice to Chris, it’s TOM. That’s kind of the guy’s nature. But if you notice he’s not apologizing to Chris anymore. Tom knows he @#$%ed up, but he also knows that Chris won’t forgive him.

But that doesn’t mean that Tom won’t try to win Chris over, or at least show him a little kindness. It worked for Sam, and Sam wanted to kick Tom’s ass…I really need to post a short story about that one…Ah well…maybe later this Summer.

Enjoy the comic.

-Peace

I felt like I needed to remove any possibility of ‘Paoken is Tom’s father’ before the seed could be laid in any one’s head. Tom’s father is mortal. Completely and utterly. And the fact that there were more than one ‘Toms’ was suggested first by Kyren in Book One, but later affirmed by Ariea at her Reveal in Chapter Three.

I really don’t have much to say about today’s update, it’s exposition (badly needed exposition), Monday will see a return to the HOLD and more Stone-Sam antics.

However, I managed to do something to the Stories Section that had been bothering me for a while. There weren’t any indentations at the start of the paragraphs, the best I could do was include several periods and turn them white, so they would disappear. But after a little fooling around I’ve created a new template that comfortably creates little indentations for each paragraph. I know…I shouldn’t worry about such minor things, but it just BUGGED me.

Call me a perfectionist if you will, but my track record for grammar and spelling say otherwise.

-Peace

Seriously, this thing went though half a dozen tweaks so that I could make it as clear as possible and I STILL feel like it’s too wordy and confusing…but…let’s be honest here, it’s still better than half of Book One’s really wordy comics.

First of all, the title of this comic is a play on ‘Those Crazy Zargonians‘ which was Chapter Four of Book One. Also, the COMIC that this comic is directly referencing is #153, right here. See, I’m aloud to contradict a previous comic because Zog and Mog aren’t infallible and Dis ACTUALLY knows what’s going on. It’s nice to write loopholes int stories…you never know when you might need them down the road.

Haha…In all seriousness it’s nice to FINALLY  explain just WHAT the Hell Chris is! I’ve been sitting on it since ’06 for Gods’ sake.

Wednesday will have a REAL kick in the balls for Chris though. Seriously. Psyche-Destroying kind of kick in the balls.

And if you find it odd that Tom is less concerned with Dis being a ‘separate entity inside his mind’ than Chris being part of his soul, you have to understand that Tom’s come to grips with the fact that Dis is there, he’s not controllable, and he’s usually helpful (unlike Chris’ vicious self).

I’m not making a HUGE deal out of the revolution that The Power (I’m capitilzing it now, btw) came from a God is because I’m SURE you all guessed this one when Paoken all but STATED it at the end of Book One. But to anyone who’s reading from the start of Book Two will likely find this revelation rather major. Just as Tom does…since…you know…he was unconscious when it was revealed in Book One. Haha

(I just realized that Paoken smoked Ciggarets not Stogies at first…Weird…I always saw him as a Cigar kind of God…)

And how about that ‘Balloon’ Analogy, eh? Dis…Dis is the rubber-band in this instance and Chris is the ‘bubble’…I know, it’s not perfect, but I felt like a visual analogy would help. I hope you feel the same.

Anyhow, any questions feel free to ask (as usual). But I AM really a happy with this one…and I’m even happier with the next one.

-Peace

First, I KIND OF got the archives the way I want them…but they’re still kind of messed up. But I’m happy enough with now…

Anyhow, this comic spans about…six months? Nine? Of Chris’s life…and you get the explanation for the distinct absence of The Guardian…Chris choked his wrinkled ass to death. Or…well…I guess you can’t really ‘kill’ a mental disillusion, can you?

And you knew Chris likes the attention too much to keep quite as Dis babbled on.

I’m not going to talk too much about this comic, because Monday’s comic really goes into the back story and reasoning…this is really more of a ‘this needed to be explained’ kind of thing and the ‘soul comment’ is more of a teaser than an explanation in itself.

Trust me. You’ll fully understand this by the Monday.

I might have to tweak the dialogue some though…I’m not quite happy with it. It needs to be more clear…Sometimes my logic get jumbled between my brain and the page…This happened a lot early in Book One, but I’ve much more careful with it i recent years.

That and I totally re-wrote Chris’s part in this comic after Book One, Chapter Four. Well, not totally…but significantly. But all the stuff that’s going to be explained soon was decided on by the time Book One, Chapter Eight wrapped up. I’m kind of doing a juggling act making sure I’m not totally disregarding what was explained in Those Crazy Zargonians…and it’s rather hard.

Though I guess I could as Zog and Mog were really only making assumptions and guesses based on what little they understood…

That’s the problem with Book One, I kind of winged some stuff and now I’m struggling to make it work. But when it all clicks together it’s GLORIOUS…

Maybe at the end of Book Three I’ll do a ‘this is what didn’t make it in’ or something and tell you guys all the SHIT that I deemed pointless or useless to the plot…or things I totally @#$%ed around with from what I had originally planned.

Sometimes I feel like I’m reading this comic along with you guys…just all jumbled and jumping around until it all gets straightened out and put on paper.

I wonder if ‘real’ authors feel that way?

Or maybe I need sleep.

Either way.

-Peace

And if you’re interested that story I was saying was on it’s way is here. Check out ‘Judgment’. It’s a good one, I won’t spoiler the ‘twist’ on the ‘hero’…but you’ll likely guess in about two seconds. Be warned, it’s bloody as hell…but given the hero it fits. Still, it’s a goody.

Anyhow, we’re getting a good look at what’s made Chris into who he is today. He’s not just @#$%ed up. He’s @#$%ed for a reason. I think nearly ten years of isolation and sorrow is enough to break anyone. It’d screw me up anyhow.

Hell, I’d go so far to say that Chris is in better shape than most people would be.

You also get a little idea of just what Dis was doing the whole time he was involved in Tom’s mind. Next Wednesday you’ll get a real twist…A real bombshell. You’ll like it.

I keep saying that Chris is probably one of my favorite characters in the comic, so it’s kind of hard to keep him as evil as he is…but I don’t think Chris would be Chris without the whole ‘homicidal rage’ thing he’s got going. And trust me. If Chris was free he’d start killing folks left and right…but mostly the ones in his way.

I don’t really know what Chris would do if he got free…I mean beside torture and murder Tom. I mean after that. I don’t think he’d really care about conquering the universe…He says he does…but I think he’d get bored after a while and just start tormenting random people.

My favorite character is a murdering psycho who’d only want to torture and torment…I’m not sure what that says about me.

-Peace

If you’re wondering  “who the hell is this old dude and why the hell does Hana seem to know him?”, you didn’t read Lost Time, did you? Don’t worry. Here’s all you have to know to ‘get’ this comic:

Jorrin is the ‘watcher’ of Earth and he trained Hana at the request of Ariea. He’s also dead and 800+ years old. But that’s not really that important. Honest. You’re good to go.

I also lied. Omen will be appearing NEXT Hana installment. Sorry. But I suddenly decided to handle this arc differently than I had intended.

I thought I would be hiding most of the information given in this arc until later in the comic (maybe even in this chapter) but I was looking at my plans for the rest of this arc (and the rest of this book) and I realized, with a sinking feeling, that there’s really no BETTER place to include this information. So now is as good a time as any to explain The Keeper Gems and a few other things about Gods and Godkin.

That’s not to say that now wasn’t a good time, I just wasn’t prepared for it…so I kind of scrambled to assemble any important facts that needed to be imparted. I’m going to go back and make sure everything HAS been told before the end of this arc and I might have The Creator say a few words if everything goes according to his plan.

Who knows. I may have the agents fail. It’s not like they’re infallible or something.

I also added ‘Godkin’ to the dictionary, if you’re interested.

Also, you’ve met three Godkins already:
Darasoon, The Creator, and Yaren are all different Godkins.

And as Jorrin says, Omen is a Godkin as well. I had originally thought I’d have two different TYPES of Godkin, making Omen a different type then the rest, but I decided that the differences are negligible and are really just based on ‘why they were created’. Which was just stupid.

If you really want to call them something else: Dara, The Creator and Yaren are all ‘High’ Godkin and Omen is a ‘Lesser’ Godkin. But those aren’t official…yet…I won’t explain the differences, but Dara and the rest are more powerful than Omen is. Omen is just really, really smart.

Finally, I’m opening the floor to questions you might have about Godkin, the Gems and Gods in general. If there’s something you’d like to know, have thought about, or are just scratching your head over, ASK. If I plan to expose is later I won’t answer, but if it’s something I hadn’t thought of I’ll address it in the comic…I likely have an answer, but I may have decided it wasn’t important (Who Dis is, why Chis exists, and will Tom ever free himself of the aforementioned beings are off limits).

I also finished up a short story that will be posted sometime in the near future. So you all have something to look forward to. Or not. Lol

-Peace

Because I’m saving the REAL fight between Tom and Chris for later in this Book.

This is just a warm up. I’m already planning the real fight…and it’s not due for…well…a long time. Because it will be perfect. So help me god I will make the fight fantastic. But this little one will be fun…and show case just how Chris really fights. After all you didn’t see much when Chris/Tom fought Roto.

And you get a little bit more about Chris’s sudden accumulation of knowledge. Anyone want to start guess yet? You’ll likely understand very soon…It’s revealed towards the end of the next chapter (Well…chapter after that…but the next chapter is really, really short.) but I’m sure a few of you are getting some ideas.

The real question is: Does Chris really understand…or does he just know what his limits are? He knows what’s created him. Why Dis is there. But maybe not why he’s so damned smart. Heh…

Other than that this comic was fun…Proto-Slavic…there’s an obscure one for you. I had actually heard about this language in one of my English classes so I just wanted to make sure that it actually started in Russia. Why Russia? Why Azas Plateau? Why the hell not? I don’t really have a reason for most of the places the Gems are stored…only that they make sense there. Well…Congo is where lightning strikes on the Earth the most. Seriously.

Who says I’m not educational?

-Peace

I posted the comic a little earlier than normal, so it would go live with the new site. So hey.

This chapter is over, I know a few of you are sighing deep sighs of joy to see that little ‘end of’ text down there. Truth be told I’m right there with you. This arc expanded well beyond what I had originally hoped. I had intended to just have Tom fight Mikel and meet Terrence, but it ended up becoming this whole thing with Chris because I looked at what’s on the docket for the rest of Book Two and realized this was the only place to finish explaining somethings about Chris and his existence.

The next chapter hits the ground running. Really, really fast. You I hope you’ll all forgive me for a tad bit more exposition than you normally have to swallow in a chapter.

And I told you Tom would get in a shot. He deserves it after putting up with Chris.

Also, I want you to all know that there will be filler, every weekday, for the next seven days. Until December the 26th. This filler will be the new pictures I’ve done for the cast pages, truthfully, I just need the time to recoup my buffer. It was DEMOLISHED by the last few weeks. So be here Tuesday-Next Wednesday for awesome @#$%ing filler pictures.

FINALLY, the thing you’re all actually here for, the thing that’s consumed my very soul and left me a dried HUSK for the last two (really, like four) GODS-DAMNED weeks.

THE NEW SITE DESIGN!!

Yes. I know it’s beautiful. But even better, it’s functional.

I never ONCE passed 100KB in a background picture. I only passed 50KB on the footer! It’s PERFECT. Or as near to it as I’m going to come with my menial skills in leet web hakzorsings.

I tested the site on two different monitors, a dozen different resolutions and I was damned sure to make sure it rendered on both Fire Fox and Internet Explorer.

The only size it really doesn’t look great on is 800×600 which I know a few of you use. But even on THAT resolution it looks DAMNED close to fantastic.

It originally started as me separating all the different pieces of the blog with the intention of having a goofy little background image tiled against it, but as soon as I saw those spaces between those white blocks I knew what I had to do.

Holy @#$% was this an undertaking I wasn’t prepared for. But I leaned a lot and it came out rather nicely if I do say so myself.

It’s not perfect though, for some reason on IE the color of the menu buttons is slightly off…so it kind of stands out. I can’t figure out why…but I’m willing to settle with that being the only issue. But if you guys have ANY weird ass problems with the site, TELL ME so I can try to figure it out.

I’ll be running a few more tests the next few days, but near as I can tell it’s great.

UPDATE: It seems like it looks great in everything, but for some reason in IE:6.0 and older the color behind the silhouette behind the characters at the bottom is gray. Can anyone confirm this, or is it just a weird thing with the place I’m using for testage?/Update

Also, as part of the new site I added several familiar faces to the Supporting Cast page. I haven’t decided how to handle The Airosian Clique (Mikel and his gang) so they’re not there. But they will be soon. I’m also working on a cast page of Temtra and Sither, but I want a few more pictures of them before I finish (that’ll make sense when you see the new cast pages).

And, if you’d like, you can see the highres versions of both the footer and the header as well as a header that was much too large, but still fantastic at my DA gallery.

To recap. Be here tomorrow for filler, then every day after that too (‘cept Saturday and Sunday)

-Cheers, Peace, and THANK THE GODS THIS THING IS LIVE!

Tom’s never the one to turn down good advice though…even if he hates Chris he realizes just how good the guy is at @#$%ing with people. So Chris get’s to have a little chat with Sosha soon…should be fun.

Better her than Tom? Am I right?

ANYHOW! We’re moving right along, things are looking up! I’ve decided to swear off the vidjagames for the rest of the semester in an effort to catch up with the comic and keep up with my school work. I don’t want to tell you how small my buffer has gotten, but let’s just say that I’ll be busting my ass most of winter break to replenish the poor, wounded, little thing…

::Sigh::

But, have no fear, true to every other story arc I will NOT stop in the middle in an effort to replenish my buffer! It drives me nuts when other webcomickers do it, so why should I?

Nothing much else to report, I’m afraid…Did you all see that new shout box? It’s spiffy!

-Peace

EDIT: Added a new plugin that will hopefully speed up the site some, but we’ll see…Let me know if you have any problems./EDIT

We’ve all been rooting for this one since we met Mikel, am I right?

Short of Tom decking Chris this is the next most satisfying thing I think I could do this arc, haha.

There’s only a brief fight here, honest, I’m trying to wrap this up before the end of this semester…that way I can start the next chapter on a 3-a-week schedule. Aside from that things are moving swimmingly…still can’t get rid of those ‘red xs’ though…but I have faith I’ll think of something…

Don’t worry. Heh

I actually debated if Tom was going to hit Mikel or not, then he called Jenny a whore and his ass had to be taken down…but damned if I wasn’t debating a few different ways for that last page to work out…

There were even a few different versions of Tom flying though the window after him, like he tackled Mikel…but I think the way I went with is the best…I’m just happy with it.

I’m probably going to post a high-res of this one in my DA gallery…but I need to prep it a bit. So look for that later today.

Anyhow, enjoy Mikel getting smacked.

-Peace