Unity: A walk in the park (2009/02/03)

[[Juni and Tamu are walking through a park]]
Juni: Tamu, am I insane?
Tamu: At present? Aside from some rather odd notions, no, you seem quite lucid. Are you concerned?
Juni: That Homin thing from Kajoshu... did it come from my old village?
Tamu: Hira Melrose is your mother, yes? When she contacted me I wasn't sure, but now that I've met her...
Juni: We are... closely-related, let's say.
Juni: She told me that a hunter found the device, and then her [sparkle] changed, and she "went crazy." And I guess my [sparkle] has changed in the same way.
Juni: And now you and she and so many others say that I've "gone crazy" too but I don't see that.
Tamu: You perceive nothing wrong with what you've done in the past round?
Juni: No, I realize I have acted quite strangely, and I don't remember most of it which is also... But I'm not crazy, Tamu.
Juni: I don't know what's going on, but I *know* I'm not crazy.
Transcript
[!]4 comments

Unity: Making scents (2009/02/05)

[[Tamu and Juni are standing outside of the simulation node's room]]
Tamu: Are you sure you want to do this? You remember what happened the last time, yes?
Juni: I'm not sure I even have a choice. We need answers.
Tamu: I could talk to it through a data node and act as an intermediary.
Juni: I'll be fine, Tamu. And if not, I'm sure you can just "protocol twelve" me or something.
[[Juni enters the room. Tamu tries to enter.]]
Juni: No, please, stay out there. Just listen in on your data node.
demiJuni: Oh! Hello there! Are you who I think you are?
Juni: Oh, uh, hi, Juni. Yes, it's me. Er, you. Or whatever.
demiJuni: Yay! I would hug you but I am a little bit incorporeal right now.
Juni: Yes, I see that. Hey, your [sparkle] smells a bit different this time.
demiJuni: Oh? Do I smell *SQUISHY*?
Juni: I am going to have such a headache.
Transcript
[!]1 comment

Sketchbook: Essential Expressions: Juni (2009/02/07)

Over on deviantArt there is a long-running challenge in which you draw a character with the 25 "essential expressions."

The text below the title simply says "Senior Officer[neutrois] Juni Melrose" in Hiero (the phonetic alphabet obviously is not-very-loosely based on Hiragana, because I am lazy). Juni likes to add a spade to that last phoneme symbol. I wonder where it gets these ideas.

Title: 24 Essential Expressions Challenge
Captions: happy, sad, pleased, angry, confused, tired, shocked/surprised, irritated, WTF?!, triumph, fear, bereft, flirty, serious, silly, hollow/blank, incredulous, confident, fierce, despondent/pouty, drunk, rage, sarcastic, disgusted, ill/nauseous
Text: This exercise will help you learn to draw a consistent character through different expressions and to illustrate those expressions clearly. The best way to keep a character consistent:
Title: Plan the unique features
Title: Imagine their movement
Title: Memorise!
Notice: exercise sheet copyright Nancy Lorenz, 2007
Transcript

Unity: Direct injection (2009/02/10)

demiJuni: I wish I could show you what it is like in here! It is very strange but also very comfortable.
Juni: Yes, I've, er, been in there. I don't remember it being so nice though.
demiJuni: Oh, but it is much nicer ever since [[red text]] campon-who-is-named-Sasha-and-talks-like-this gave me [[red text]] [device] to [[red text]] [play] with.
Juni: Um... "device?"
demiJuni: [[Blue text]] Yes, silly! You made it for me. I am sure of it. It has your scent on it.
Juni: Why are you, er, talking like that? It's like a jumble of thoughts with no words.
demiJuni: Talking like what? [[blue text]] This way Tamu can't understand me. It is important he not know. You told [[red text]] Sasha-ant to tell me that.
Juni: I told....?
demiJuni: Strongly implied?
Juni: Well it makes my head hurt. More than you normally do, anyway.
demiJuni: Oh and how is Sam? [[blue text]] And did you bring Mom here?
Juni: He's fine. He and Hira are resting.
demuJuni: Good, good. [[blue text]] Your plan is all coming together.
Juni: My plan.
demiJuni: [[blue text]] I am sorry I had to rush it. Tamu was about to do something very stupid. And I had a bit of a panic. And the drones in Kajoshu! They are not very smart. Only four teraflops!
Transcript

Unity: Overload (2009/02/12)

Juni: Okay, look, can you please stop talking in blue? It is giving me a migraine.
demiJuni: I suppose. Is this better?
Juni: Is what-
Juni: Oh, what the breeze did you just do?!
demiuJuni: Relax! You are still outside. I'm just talking to your senses.
Tamu: [[on virtual screen]] Juni, talking to you.
Seth [[on virtual screen]] No. Where is it?
Tamu: Right there.
Seth: What, the [[in Kajoshi]] sparkle box?
demiJuni: I'm just showing you what I saw and heard.
Juni: Who is that other Kayohash? Why is he in this room?
demiJuni: You may want to remind Tamu about experimental protocol and ethical behavior.
Seth: Sir, while I respect what you've done for Kayohash rights in the South, I think this is a bit weird. I'm just going to go.
Tamu: What? You can't leave! I've commandeered you! For science!
Seth: Yeah, uh, good luck with that.
demiJuni: We may be a physicist but I'm pretty sure that was very, very wrong.
Transcript

Unity: Relapse (2009/02/17)

Juni: Tamu, dear, could you please come in here?
Tamu: Yes, Juni? What is it?
Juni: I'd like to have a word with you. Do you think we're just slabs of meat for your experimentation?!
Tamu: Pardon?
Juni: Seth, the Kayohash prostitute you had in here. What would you do if he had heard me? Wiped his mind to see if I'd just jump in?!
Tamu: Would you have?
Juni: No, of course not!
Tamu: With all due respect, why are you gesticulating towards that corner?
demiJuni: Sorry! That is my fault.
Juni: I uh... wow, dizzy. Sorry, what was I saying?
Tamu: I believe you were attempting to supply me with a new cloaca.
Juni: Yes, well, uh... don't ... do that again. Ask me before you try to muck around with anyone's brain in my name.
Tamu: Pah. I think I preferred you reckless.
Transcript

Unity: Vicious cycle (2009/02/19)

Juni: Look, Tamu, you know better than anyone what Kayohash have to deal with when we come here. Kajoshu is so... backwater that most of us have no useful skills.
Tamu: Yes, it is fortunate for you that you came to the South in time to receive a decent education.
Juni: But even ones who come as children get pigeonholed into being part of the sex trade. It's a vicious cycle. Most are fine with it but I sure as breeze wasn't. And then the ones who are....
Tamu: Seth was quite willing to earn.
Juni: They are selling a service, Tamu, not their bodies.
Juni: You can't simply "commandeer" them for research.
Tamu: Well, you never seemed to object.
Juni: Our relationship has benefited me just as much as you.
Juni: Seth was "just another spadetail."
Juni: I hope that isn't how you still see me.
Transcript
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Journal: 2009/02/19: のびのびほっこり (2009/02/20)

[[fluffy is at work. It is still light outside]]
fluffy: [thinking] Ooh, it's 5:30. I think I'll play a bit of Noby Noby Boy in the test room before I head home.
[[SOON]]
[[In the test lab; fluffy is playing Noby Noby Boy on the PS3]]
fluffy: [thinking] Hm, this game is kind of boring. I should just stop playing it.
[[HOURS LATER]]
[[fluffy is very very long, and spilled all over the office]]
fluffy: [thinking] Why's it so dark outside?
Transcript

Unity: Loss cut (2009/02/24)

Tamu: I take it from this tirade that you are the complete Juni? Are your memories restored up to the scan?
Juni: No, not at all. Juni just showed me what happened in this room. It felt it was important I know, and it tend to agree.
demiJuni: I'd be worried if you didn't!
Tamu: Tsk. So are we wasting our time with this? I'm not sure it's important that you recall what happened for your first dec of insanity, and it certainly wouldn't know about the rest of it.
demiJuni: I am not insane! I just needed information!
Juni: Tamu, I... we were not insane.
Tamu: So you both say.
Tamu: It seems pretty clear to me that whatever the repository did to you makes you unable... or unwilling to remember anything afterwards. At this point I feel we should just cut our losses and discontinue-
demiJuni: [[talking over Tamu]] No! Don't shut me down!
Juni: [[talking over Tamu]] No! Don't shut me down! I need me the way it is!
Tamu: I'm never going to get a coherent sentence out of you ever again, am I?
Transcript
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2009/02/24: To the wire

I don't just draw comics, I also sometimes work on music. Right now I'm working on getting an album finished (finally!) and so that's taking up a lot of my time. So comics may be sporadic or lower-quality than usual for a while. Sorry.

2009/02/17: Another navigation tweak

So, from my click patterns, I noticed that a lot of times people would come to the site, check the few most recent comics, then click on the "first" link... and then immediately get discouraged, probably because they then ended up in my ancient journal comics and, in all likelihood, thought "Wait so I have to wade through a few years of this unrelated stuff to get to the comic I was just reading? Eff that."

It took a bit of hacking, but I've made it so that now, clicking on the "first" link will take you to the beginning of the series you were on (on pages with more than one visible series it takes you to the series listing instead).

It's a bit inelegant (and perhaps even more confusing if someone does it on a sketchbook or fanart entry) but hopefully this way I can keep more readers interested for longer.

I suppose the best solution overall would be to put each comic in its own separate archive but that's opening up an even bigger bag of hurt, so this will have to do. (Movable Type is awesome except for the places that it really sucks. Not that WordPress/ComicPress seems to do this stuff any better, though — or at all, for that matter.)

2009/02/17: Did you have a rawr-y Monster Day?

Neogeen had a pretty clever idea: do a bunch of cheap commissions for a made-up holiday called Monster Day. So of course I got a sketch! (If you just want to skip to mine just search on "fluffy" but they're all excellent.)

I think it's funny that the monsterified version of fluffy actually has a way to asexually reproduce. (I only chose mushrooms because of my culinary interest! Honest!)

2009/02/05: Backgrounds

So, lately I've been using a lot of my own photos in my comics, both as peoples' hung artwork and, increasingly, for environments themselves. I am completely fine with people trying to figure out where the photos were taken. Guess away! (Ideally on the comment threads for the comics themselves.)

2009/02/03: Time constrained

I didn't have a chance to do this week's comics over the weekend (between running errands and having a social life for once), so Tuesday's was a bit rushed (as you could probably guess by my choice of backgrounds) and Thursday's may not exist since I haven't even scripted it yet. If you are worried about a lack of updates, you could always make some fanart for me to post.

[EDIT] I've got several more scripted, and there will be a comic for Thursday after all. I'd still appreciate fanart, though!