Annotated 27-26
Carol’s last line here was originally “Ridiculous,” a callback to when she said it before with that particular emphasis and Shanna knew she was lying. “So you say” is, intentionally, a little more ambiguous. In any case, you can see Carol wrestling the traitorous part of herself down, down, down into the darkest corners of her mind. One thing Shanna said sticks with her a little bit. But she’ll do her best to laugh it off.
Even in this version, she tells herself fresh lies, using petty insults to tear down the person she “cheated” with (“you’re ugly and your voice is annoying!”) and pretending she and HR are a united front against her. HR will not be involved in dealing with Shanna in any way: for that to happen, Carol would have to explain to him why Shanna had become a threat. He will shortly be incapable of dealing with such concerns, anyway.
I wrote a whole lot of alternate outline text and whole pages of dialogue for this chapter that never got used, including a version where the venue between Carol and Shanna almost moves back to Shanna’s apartment. (That probably would have taken the sexual undercurrent too far.) We also tinkered with a version of the dream-story that involved multiple characters getting prophetic dreams of the Cultists.
I think we picked the best material and that writing the rest helped us refine it. My only regret is that we weren’t really able to keep that approach up past this chapter. More on the reason why in the next chapter, but first… a simple tale for the holidays.
That second panel is SUPER freaky.
The kind you don’t take home to mother?
i know the second panel is supposed to be sweat, but it always looks like candle wax to me.
It’s supposed to be more like candle wax, actually!
Liquid flesh. Eugh. Quite nasty to think about. Not to mention potentially disastrous for creations if not handled properly (read: meticulous, careful, and well educated). Deaf in one in ear, another
Thankfully, Most fleshshapers end up working the body like clay, or at least akin to it, because it’s instinctual, and they don’t have need to think outside the shipping crate (which holds the normal thing box). After all, you can’t just pour some liquid “flesh” in someone’s wound because it’ll block growth and use of all the other kinds of tissue the body has (nerves, muscle, blood vessels). That’s why it’s so incredibly difficult for people to learn fleshshaping, and that’s IF you’re one of the rare souls who CAN learn/do it. Instinct based casting isn’t something you can learn, and a spell that can let you move flesh around like one may end up killing someone (although it be painful regardless, usually extremely so (Read: worst torture there is, no exceptions) if that’s the case).
Providing “energy” to the body is the only real known way to “heal” without having to worry or be concerned about cancer or other issues, simply because the living body is so complex. You just have to let it heal itself, so don’t force it.
Sorry for getting off topic. Nobody asks this old shopkeeper about stuff like this anymore. (cursed item depository/deconstruction)
It’s the HR’s homunculus taking full form before traveling through the portal.
Ah. I didn’t realize that panel was the homonculus. The lack of glasses should have given it away.