Pages 104 through 113
Blurbs:
104: Said subject matter, is common amidst Game, and why the populus fucking hates them. They come in, they genocide the residents, and take pleasure in tormenting the survivors. They're fucking rotten, vile, little beasts, so it's a damn good thing if you go out and slaughter a few.
And right now, Max is in the mood to do so. Unfortunately for Max, their tormenting is an entirely evolutionary mechanism. They're not human levels of intelligence, they're evil assholes, but it's entirely because if you can fuck with an Ender enough, they're /way/ less of a threat, because of the next point.
As stated earlier, if you just shock an Ender hard enough, be it through physical trauma, or mental distractions, you can knock them /out/ of Ignition, if not /all/ types of Burning, entirely. Max had it happen a few pages ago, it happened to him at the end of Chapter 4, and Max even did it to Sally back in chapter 3.
It sounds like it might be an obvious weakness to build in, and as a stereotypical shonen magic system, you might think it's not /too/ big of a deal, sure. But the reason this is such a problem for Enders is stuff like what happens to Max here.
Without his Ignition up? Yeah, all those impacts he took just now did their full damage. As stated by Papi, https://imgur.com/tobH4tA keeping your Burning up lets you dampen falls, to the point of avoiding any shock damage. That doesn't just apply to falls, since remember, it's not the fall that kills you.
105: And Max is realizing the gravity of the situation he's gotten himself in to. Nobody's gonna come and save him, unlike those times with CL and Sally. He's stuck here, and is probably going to die. But...
What's going on here? Where'd Game Face go? Where'd, /everything/ go? And those sparks in the gutters are back again.
Wait, what? "It's you?" Who the fuck are you talking to, Max? The only thing that could be in that smoke is-
106: Oh.
Okay, I'm writing these well after I've finished them, so for a bit of meta stuff, I'm surprised I had so many of these done already, at the time of writing. Anyway, yeah, that's the Scarlet Tiger. I could clarify if it's just a metaphor, or if Max has some sort of tiger god living him, but you can figure it out pretty easily, given how concretely I've laid out the rules, and adhered to them. That being said, it deliberately resembles Max in his boxing trunks, for a good reason. There's a bit here about Gienne and Max's past, and in turn why he's afraid of accepting this tiger, that you can probably piece together, (check page 89 again, if you can't.) And in a second, you're about to see why Max's so afraid of it.
107: Straight up, those are the lyrics to Devils Never Cry, and yes I'm synching the events of the comic up to it. I script a lot of scenes by listening to a specific song, that I think fits it, and imagining the events synched up to the music. And for this, the way that Devils Never Cry swells up with this gutteral growl of power, and sound of music, combined with the tone of the lyrics, I found it to be a perfect fit. If you listen to the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xti_6Bzpa8A you can see it for yourself, with the drop happening right as Max turns his gaze to Game Face. And yes, that also means the nonverbal organ part, was synched to Max on the ground, too.
108: And NOW we see why Max is so fucking terrified of using the Scarlet Tiger. If Overclock Remix looks familiar, that's because it should. As of writing, I still need to find some way to explain this in universe, but what Max is doing right here is called 「OVERHEAT」, and it's as dangerous as it sounds. Basically, if you remember the rules Sally laid out back in chapter 4, there's four general elements to Burning, itself. (Burning, Thrust, Ignition, Afterburn. Though I guess you could say "Burning" is too vague, and knock it down to 3.) 「OVERHEAT」 is blowing through your 「Fuel」 to activate all 4 elements at once. It's a supercharge, and wicked strong, but potentially lethal in a very short amount of time.
Oh, and yeah, regarding OC REMIX itself, part of how Max can even GET in this state involves hyping himself up, slipping back into his stage persona, and going crazy. So yes, he literally lunged at him and bit him so hard, he ripped off a quarter of Game Face, with his mouth.
109: Oh man, this one was a fun one. The dialogue was initially very basic, with Max just stating what was going on in a "crazy" way, but I wasn't satisfied with that, and I wanted something better. Cue using his stage persona, but in a warped manner, to convey something's wrong here. It's a bit of both, regarding if Max genuinely believes he's on stage right now, or if he's just being a dick. If he was sober, it'd only be the latter, but OC REMIX is a bit different. Also at this point, the Sonic influence for Max's character and design, should be pretty obvious.
Oh, and the white gutters are that for a reason. It's Max's Burning taking over so hard, that the core of it is encompassing the page.
110: "Prometheus Blade" is basically the in universe equivalent of, well, you can figure that out. Regardless, the ending lyrics have kicked in, as well as the 「Burning」in the gutter, receding, signaling the encroaching end of the chapter, with Max himself reminding himself that if he doesn't wrap this up soon, he's gonna die. But it just so happens that we've got a handy meat chipper, in the back corner of the freezer. And Max references Yujiro with that face, upon getting that devilish idea. Thankfully OC REMIX has just enough juice left in it, to slam that sucker straight in there...
(Watch the footsteps but never follow)
111: Oh. Wait, shit, this is bad.
Regardless, this page was honestly really simple, but took me way longer due to IRL stuff. So it took a LOT longer than I wanted it to. Should've only taken a few days, but eh, I'm livin' and got it done. Now regarding the page itself, had some fun in panel 5. Initially it was pretty bland, with a lot of flat colors and just the five basic spiral stripes going towards Max's fist. But I jazzed that up some, and I think it looks pretty good. The shading there was accidental, as I only wanted it on panel 7, but liked how it wound up looking, anyway. And I'm for sure going to re use this technique later.
For the subject matter, here, I think you're starting to get both how much of a godmonster Max is, how even higher than that, Sally is, and how big of a deal Game Face is. And subsequently, just how big of a problem Game are. Despite how whacky and fun I've tried to make EG|WT up to this chapter, said chapter's entirety has been focused on slowly beginning to peel back the veneer of pleasantness, and show how there's definitely undertones of evil, malevolence, and overall "dark" tones, lurking beneath the surface of this comic.
(If you want to live tomorrow)
112: "TORA TORA TORA TORA TORA TORA"
Yeah there isn't much to say here at this point, other than if you compare the orange Max is using, to the actual orange he has, it's actually a bit lighter. That comes in to play a bit later, but it's a deliberate detail, albeit the gradient I added, and the compression, seem to have toned the paleness of it down, severely.
(Steel a soul for a second chance)
113: (But you will never become a man)
And for this page, that's the kanji for "Tiger" (Tora). If you need to know what Max is yelling there, it's just "TOHRYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" as in yes, he's just yelling "TIGERRRRRRRRRRR."
As for what's going on here, well, you can see for yourself. Max ran out of Burning, and so the rapid punching really did a number on him. That isn't Burning on his arms, it's blood. And his arms themselves are REALLY f'king mangled, from all this. Fortunately, the interlude is coming up, and Max's story is far from over.
Thank you all for your patience, it means the world to me to know that people are still enjoying this comic, and I hope to see you all again some time around October, when the interlude is done. You can follow me on the links down in there, to stay up to date on the comic, or even contribute a dollar on patreon to read it as the pages are finished. I'll be setting up tiers to give out some goodies and such, in the future, too. Nothing extravagant, just some of the stylish business cards I've made, some stickers, and a repro of Sally's actual business card. But again, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I'll be back before you know it.
