A little distraction’s okay
Colorists: Koof, Oniontrain, Raptie
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Out-of-Placers
A story of inconvenient changes
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OOPs now has a Russian translation which updates shortly after the English pages are posted!
Now also in French:
And Ukranian:
Kalgkur a cute A CUTE!
Bro guard.
Kalgkur seems more distracted by what the redhead was doing than anything else
Which, I mean, fair. Watching a jewelry maker at work would be pretty engrossing, and that’s coming from someone who already *has* fingers and opposable thumbs.
Yeah, I’m wondering if he’s actually a fan of her work, rather than just having a thing for her… Not that the first can’t lead into the second.
He’s like Jack from Titanic. He only had an affair with her hands.
So, when can we get Kalgkur and Isher together on date night? I’d like to see zhem as friends at lest, and kind of hoped Isher would have run into Kalgkur already, but it seems zhat zhis story is full of unrequited love (Kass, Isher, zhe Trademaster, and now Kalgkur) tales.
They are “Out of Place” in love as well. I suspect it might be a while before Isher regains the courage to try dating again, after the sailor walked out on her, but she could easily make friends with the local guards. She might really enjoy hanging out with Kalgkur, since in his company she’d not be the most physically imposing person in the room, but she’s probably still “holding a candle” for Kass.
Funny zhing is we don’t know what Isher’s parents look like or what species zhey are. For all we know, she is part Baxxid, and zo might even be able to communicate wizh em doing zhat ultrasonic stuff.
For her dating, I’m not sure zhat it isn’t a estrus cycle zhat drives her into de sailor’s bars on occasion. And seeing she got some de ozher day, we don’t know if it “took” as of yet (OOP time is so, so, so slow) so her need for “Dating” may be satisfied, but having a friend wizh…benefits (and serpent cuddles) would be so cute!
I honestly never imagined Isher might be part baxxid. I always figured she’s a more “traditional” fantasy half-human hybrid, like half-ogre or half-dragon, but we’ve never encountered any tailed, clawed, horned humanoid species in this story, so anybody’s guess is as good as mine. I’d be amazed if romance between a baxxid and a human could bear fruit, since the species are so different, but it’s not like something impossible hasn’t happened at least once in this comic!
I really don’t see her as being half-baxxid. Even assuming humans and baxxid are somehow reproductively compatible (I suspect baxxid may have originated as native animals of this planet that were uplifted by human colonists, prior to whatever apocalypse caused their tech level to plummet, but genegineering them to be human-compatible would be really weird), she doesn’t seem to have any baxxid traits. Where did her digitigrade legs come from (baxxid have insectile legs, humans have plantigrade)? Or the fleshy pads on her arms, legs, feet, and underside of her tail (present in neither species – humans are all soft skin, baxxid are all hard plates)? She’s only got two eyes (and four limbs), and they don’t seem to have any baxxid attributes to them. Her tail is missing any spikes. She’s got big honkin’ ears (baxxid appear to just have earholes). And so forth. I think she’s either a member of a (probably parahuman, genegineered by the colonists way back when) species we haven’t seen yet, or a mixed breed between that species and humans.
Oh, she’s certainly not half-Baxxid. That’d be silly. But there are a few hints:
– Whatever she is, it’s not local. She’s an ‘exotic’ – some species that is found so far away, no-one in Val Salia recognises her. Except Ran, an exceptionally well-read person – and even he doesn’t recognise her from personal experience, as he wasn’t certain. He must have read descriptions.
– But her species does have something of a reputation, because she is very sensitive about it.
Of all the intelligent creatures mentioned so far, there is nothing that fits this description. Conclusion: It’s not been covered yet! This is a mystery for later. There is, after all, a lot going on at the moment with our many interweaving stories. Perhaps this mystery is being saved, and will be introduced once some of the current mysteries are resolved.
I don’t know about dates, but they’ve got enough in common to be good friends. Social awkwardness, the discomfort of being pushed into a role of physical intimidation unwillingly.
That guard must work with Baxxid frequently to be able to tell what they’re looking at. Also, Kalgkur has good taste.
Confirmed that Baxxid have romantic relationships with humans, and that this is common and accepted enough that human guard captains can guess that the staring means he “has the hots” for her and just casually chuckle about it. Valsalia truly is a city of integrated races.
I thought for a few seconds about issues of physical compatibility, but then I remembered that I have seen enough furry art to recognise that any anatomical difficulties can always be overcome with a little creativity. Lust finds a way.
I’ve got a question: what is a “redsmith”? It looks like that’s a ball of copper or gold wire she’s working with, but maybe it’s something else, since the guard calls her a “redsmith” rather than a “coppersmith” or a “goldsmith.”
I assumed it was just a fancy term for a copper worker, and that may still be the case in the comic, but apparently here on Earth, “redsmith” is/was specifically a term for someone who works with copper using the tools of a tinkerer (someone who normally does work with tin).
Mhm, historically there were blacksmiths, whitesmiths, and redsmiths, depending on the type of metals they worked with, but all but the first term have fallen out of common use. Blacksmiths worked with iron, whitesmiths worked with tin or polished steel (use of the term varied by region and era), redsmiths worked in copper or gold-copper alloys.