Just a friend

Ada in her top form, being casually cruel since morning. Also, little bits and pieces about the magic… The important names are real, look them up~!

Next page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/page-ii-98-hd-29430829
Next next page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/page-ii-99-hd-29617594

I’m sick! I think my fiance finally managed to infect me after a whole week of sneezing and coughing. The worst moment too, because it’s super busy at work. Gotta survive, somehow… Keep your fingers crossed so that I wake up feeling great tomorrow.

Last week was so quiet, I thought you guys liked hugs! No?… No more hugs…? Fine, hugs are hard to draw anyway, less work for me I suppose.

Also, since it’s a new month and all… Please vote! And consider supporting Replay on Patreon so that it at least pays for itself (even if it cannot support my dream of working exclusively on my own, creative projects). 10$ pledge gives you access to two next pages and 30$ pledge is a 500x500px portrait of your own character from Replay’s world (hey, demons are fine too, if you like). Don’t like Patreon but still want to throw some $$$ at me? Buy me a coffee! 

37 comments on “Just a friend”

    • JW Reply

      I know I didn’t mention it at all during the flashback, but I did really like that “messy bun” look as well.
      I think it’s the lighting that’s really making her hair jump out at me now. It’s like radiant and bright and happy.

      • Doom Reply

        Idle musing: I’m familiar with ponytail and pigtail hairstyles. What would a foxtail hairstyle look like?

        • JW Reply

          Extremely fluffy, I’d imagine.

          I suppose you could go for the nine-tailed kitsune look as well.

  2. Doom Reply

    I’m still reading! I’m still enjoying! I’m still voting!

    Poor Rob. Truth can be painful.

  4. Refugnic Reply

    Well, one technically can have a boyfriend and still remain a virgin.

    It’s very uncommon in this day and age, but you should ask someone of higher standing in the Victorian era.
    They would most certainly be exasperated at the very suggestion, that one could have sex before marriage.

    *Ahem*…I know the feeling of ‘putting something out there and getting little (to no) resonance’.
    It’s a terrible feeling and, if it persists, makes you question if the effort is worth it at all.
    All too quickly too.

    So yes, I am sorry for not saying anything about the last page in the comment section, but it just felt to me that everything I could have said already had been said.

    It could have been a heartwarming moment…if only it had not been such a ‘Wilhelm Busch’ situation (German poet and Illustrator, most well known for his story ‘Max and Moritz’, from where the ‘moment description’ is I am referring to.

    But O dear, O dear, O deary,
    When the end comes sad and dreary

    Needless to say, the story doesn’t end well for Max and Moritz…just like I don’t see it ending all that well for Robert and Ada, albeit for entirely different reasons.

    Heh…as if Ada knew what Rob was dreaming about…what an exchange to wake up to after a dream like that.

      • Refugnic Reply

        No. It is just another (and rather big) step towards the mill.

        Or, to say it with the (translated words) or Mr. Busch:

        Now you think they’ve paid the debt!
        No, my friend, they’re living yet.

        The tale is not over until at least one of them lies shattered to pieces, resting for evermore.

      • Alex Reply

        Did you translate those passages yourself? Because good job on keeping the rhymes.

        So your latter verse is from their 6th prank, right before the last one and it shows them falling through a chimney, into flour and into dough, and being baked alive. Is that the parallel you’re making? Because it kinda fits, but I can’t make any other kind of sense of what you could mean.

      • Refugnic Reply

        I’m afraid I cannot take the credit for that.

        I took the passages from ‘http://www.davidgorman.com/maxundmoritz.htm’.
        I probably could’ve translated them myself (and maybe even made them rhyme), but I was looking for something a little more…official.

        I figured that someone must’ve translated that story to English already, so I just asked a search engine. 🙂

        And I chose that phrase for that precise reason: They’re clearly and obviously steering towards the abyss, at full speed…and there is little to no way they’re going to stop or change course in time…but they live yet.

        The game (story) isn’t over yet.

        The story at hand will only be over once one of three things happen:
        – One (or both) of them dies
        – Robert manages to get over Ada (which I don’t see happening any time soon at this point)
        – Ada finally gets with Robert. (Which I don’t see happening any time soon either)

        Ada getting with someone else might help Rob to move on, but thus far Ada has shown little interest in…well, anyone, really, so there’s that…
        But then again, the apocalypse has a way of changing the rules in many ways.

      • Alex Reply

        Okay, I think I understood it now. 🙂

        I can’t see any of them dying, but whether or not any of them will get over the other or get together with someone or each other depends on what Ada’s deal actually is. And also on the fact that stories without conflict are boring, so they literarily can’t just be happy right now.

    • Speedy Reply

      What if sexual purity doesn’t mean celibacy, but instead, being completely honest with (and faithful to) your significant other?

      Rob was honest with Ada, and later was able to use magic. But, wouldn’t that mean that Ada has been honest with him, before she used magic? :/ Maybe celibacy OR honesty?

  5. Crestlinger Reply

    Tread carefully little Ms Complicated lest Julia decide that solving relationship hangups by spell is worth it.

    • Refugnic Reply

      Why would she do that though?

      If she develops an interest in Robert herself, she now knows that he is essentially free and just needs some ‘working on’.
      And if not…

      ‘Move over and hand me the popcorn’.

  6. EnterTheNameHere Camp dweller Reply

    Oh I don’t like to write when I’m on the verge or tears(-: and I don’t mean the happy tears.

    (BTW keep writing to vote; for some people it might be obnoxious like saying don’t forget to like a video, but that’s the moment my brain is like – “yeah, I wanted to do that, I almost forgot”, and I’m not alone…)

  7. Regis Earsquake Reply

    I’m still here and still reading ^^.

    Ada seems quite glad that she knows why the spell workt for her and seems quite indifferent that she just tells someone she knows for like 2 minutes intiminate Details about herself.

    but this purity stuff seems really inconvinient. Imagine dooing spells like that on a daily basis with coworkers. Everyone will know About your sexlife when you need to purify yourself again…

    • JW Reply

      But that’s just a matter of purifying yourself before going to work. Some would simply call that good hygiene 😉

      • JW Reply

        I can just imagine magic high-school, with guys bragging “Oh sorry, I can’t do magic right now”

        • Speedy Reply

          In magic high school, they do the cleansing ritual at the beginning of every class. (and sometimes, halfway through)

          I mean, the instructors aren’t idiots. They were once high school students, too.

      • Refugnic Reply

        Which would lead to them failing class and everyone to go ‘Eww’ (cause, you know, lacking ‘hygiene’. ;))

  8. Maja Reply

    I have to say, I really love Robert’s shirt in this one. I’m so glad I caught up finally (new reader!)

  9. Ktrimbach Reply

    Wait! I thought we just heard something about something happening the last time Ada brought over some alcohol and they got drunk. I’m so confused.

    • Refugnic Reply

      So?

      Drunk does not necessarily mean sex.

      The way I imagine the situation, Ada MIGHT have been willing to have a little fun with Robert while drunk.
      But the fact of the matter is, that Robert wants Ada to love him.
      And there’s little that is less beneficial to a potential relationship than when a guy takes advantage of a drunk girl.

      Plus, Robert just isn’t that kind of guy…at least from how I judge him.

      Which is also why he ‘doesn’t want a repeat of last time’.
      One can imagine easily how hard it must have been for him to have the girl he wants ‘within reach’, but not being allowed to touch her, because she doesn’t know what the heck she’s doing.

      • JW Reply

        In my imagination “last time” would have been more like they were out in public (club/bar/whatever) and Ada picked a fight with a guy twice Robert’s size, and then Robert had to get them both out of the situation without any bruises.

      • Refugnic Reply

        Yeah, that would’ve worked too.
        Would be quite ‘in character’ for Ada too.

        I wonder if we’ll ever know though.

  10. Alex Reply

    Generally speaking, I don’t always have something to say about a page. I could give you a one-liner, e.g. “Nice page!”, or something like that, though. 😉
    But that would get annoying soon, right?

    Also Rob’s shirt is that of a hardcore optimist. I’d say:
    It’s good to keep your optimism
    when in the face of cataclysm.

  11. DragonMaster Reply

    Ada seems a bit weird in this comic, IDK what is but she just looks to bright and all. Am I the only one getting that vibe?

  12. Klorix Camp dweller Reply

    So… it was virginity after all. (Probably)

    If memory serves we had that theory some time ago, when Laura was made a witch.

    • Refugnic Reply

      That means, that Rob must’ve gotten some while he was with Violet, huh?

      Otherwise, if Ada had been ‘the love of his life’ all the time and, even though he tried, he couldn’t get happy with anyone else, he would still be a virgin himself, which would imply that there’s ‘something else’ that kept him from doing magic earlier. (When Laura was reintroduced)

      Come to think of it, Robert did ‘cast’ magic…back there on the motorcycle.
      So either that particular stunt had ‘no religious background’ (thus not requiring sexual purity)…or Rob actually still is a Virgin, but yet had a ‘Sin left to confess before God’ (which was another prerequisite that was mentioned somewhere I believe).

      That his first successful attempt at magic was shortly after blowing up in Ada’s face the night before does raise additional questions though…

  13. נמר Reply

    I can`t stop thinking on Ada`s orientation now – because really, what can be a problem here:
    Robert is handsome and she really love him as a friend. And.. I really didn’t know their age – they a mid 20s, they aren’t kids.
    And she can’t give him even a kiss – this means she is asexual or lesbian? Most likely.

    • Refugnic Reply

      That might actually be the problem here.
      They’ve been friends for about forever.

      Ada might, quite possibly also only subconsciously, be afraid to lose Robert for good if she gave him what he wants.

      Relationships require one to open themselves towards the other.
      She might well be afraid that his longing for her is the one and only thing that is keeping him tethered to her.

      Of course I could also be gravely mistaken on this, seeing how I’m just about anything, but not a relationship expert. 😀

  16. Speedy Reply

    Uh oh… Nina was right to worry about Filip talking to Julia. Just not for the reasons one would normally expect.

    Grr… I’m already mad at him, and he hasn’t done anything yet.

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