No real reason

There’s going to be a lot of hints and random info in this dialogue so feel free to let your imagination run wild! And who would be able to focus on a spell when there’s love talk on the side, right?

What happened this week… Well, there’s some uproar about Patreon going on, I haven’t really looked at the details but if you do support Replay you might want to check out what’s going on or you might get charged extra or something. Please watch out! Apart from that, I had a bit of a weird week since my fiancee started working! Woohoo! He survived and already had 2 drinking parties this week. Leave it to the bankers, eh? Anyhow, he’s still mostly just confused and excited about the new possibilities.

I’ve been working on Replay yesterday, preparing the new scene. I’ve got… maybe half of it and it’s really intense hehe~! I’m going to share some sketches on the Patreon soon, maybe not today but sometime this week. Oooh I can’t wait to start coloring those… So exciting! ლ(o◡oლ)

LIFE IN JAPAN CORNER #5

Mmm… I have been drawing the whole weekend and haven’t really traveled anywhere this particular week, but no worries, I’ve got things to share anyway! It’s autumn here now (technically winter, but since the leaves have just turned colorful it feels like autumn) and I need to say it’s a lovely season in Japan. It’s sunny almost everyday, clear, blue sky, no clouds, and the colorful leaves look stunning against the sky’s background. I really love Japanese autumn for the visuals, I don’t love it for the temperature.

You might know that I’m from Poland. Poland has very cold winters, like -25 Celsius… I’m okay with that, I walked on foot to my university campus (45 minutes long walk) in such temperatures during one particularly cold winter a few years back. My eyebrows froze but with a warm jacket, it’s completely fine. Right now it’s +10 degrees Celsius in Japan and I’m so fu**ing cold it makes me angry every single day. I’m outraged because I’m never warm enough to feel comfortable. Why? Humidity. Humidity breaks clothes. They don’t work anymore. You are always cold, even if it isn’t really all that cold. I hate it.

So. If you live in a humid climate that does have winter – I feel for you. Not many things make me upset, this does. I never had winter depression or anything (many people get upset/sad due to lack of sun) but now I get like a serious case of winter rage.

What do I do then, well, of course, I have AC, I turn it to dry mode to at least feel warm in the house. It works sometimes, to an extent, rainy days are hopeless but at least there aren’t many (they’ll come in February…). But oh boy, that does wonders for my hair, I can kill with all that static electricity!

Such is the physics or Japanese autumn. Thank you.

65 comments on “No real reason”

  1. Klorix Camp dweller Reply

    Phew, I randomly clicked on my favourite comic link and saw a new page.
    First I was like “WHA?!?!?!? When did I miss a new page. Then scrolled down to check how many comments there are…

    Turns out this page is super early.

      • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

        Oh, didn’t notice it was this late yet. I’m generally not paying much attention to time (very impractical trait btw), even though I put a Japan time on-screen clock on my second monitor 😉

        But I still thinks it’s earlier than before, I have not often seen pages come up during my Sunday afternoon. But I don’t mind.

  2. NiWo21k Reply

    I so love this and the following pages – such a great conversation and such great expressions XD
    Even if its the demon apocalypse…it doesn’t mean there is no time for girl talk – even if Kasper is in the middle of everything ^^

    ANd good luck to your better half, but after surviving the first two he will survive the rest ^^

    • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

      Can’t say anything about later pages, but I too like these normal life scenes.

      I think it’s the contrast that people are always looking for.
      In our very “normal” life, we look for change and some exciting things to enjoy.
      In times of the apocalypse, I bet people would enjoy some sitting down and just talk, or rather gossiping.

      • NiWo21k Reply

        This is why i like Replay so much. NI did what i miss in a lot of stories out there: The normality
        Lets face it most of the apocalypse stories you can find out there (most of the mainstream ones at least) go one of two ways: (1) Go full horror/action/survival – a lonely survivor who comes in contact with others who die shortly after or are all crazy or (2) Everyone goes full out emo and just wants to die or are just sad the whole time through.

        Ni goes the route to show us, yes this world is “problematic” and dangerous (the demons can appear everywhere, but also there is hope and the people try to keep optimistic and are still normal people with their own needs and their own interests. Also, i never had the feeling her characters talk in a “wrong” way, every conversation was something you could take part in, they were very normal.

    • KTrimbach Reply

      “even if Kasper is in the middle of everything ”
      Yeah, I think we’ve all (guys) been there. *Awkward*
      Why is it that when a girl is with a bunch of guys, it’s alright, but when it’s the opposite, they just ignore him.
      Probably ’cause the guys are all trying to show off for the girl. 🙂

  3. Klorix Camp dweller Reply

    So, now that I’ve read the page, last comment before going back to bed (bad cold).
    I didn’t realise it was Nina sitting on the table last page… haven’t been paying attention, so busy lately.

    Laura is so cute in the last panel, and I agree with NiWo21k that all the facial expressions are well done.

    I wonder what Kasper looks like with all that girl talk around him. Oftentimes boys are not very comfortable with it. And I find it difficult to decide how he feels. He might not have been very exposed to it since Laura has become a teenager, because he would probably have mostly been somewhere else with his military career. Also some of us theorised that he’s got a crush on Sofia, so he might not be as happy about current developments as Laura is. Random thought: Did he have Sofia mix the concrete for all this time so she would be near him? That might not be the best strategy to get her to like him…

    Laura is very fond of Sofia, looks like, but didn’t she pick up on the chemistry between Robert and Ada (which might only be us guys’ imagination running wild). Yet she doesn’t know Ada that well, so it’s kind of natural to be rooting for her friend.

    So, Laura thinks Robert is a nice person, maybe even attractive? Just some musings based on the fact that she doesn’t quite understand why Nina “doesn’t like” Robert. On the other hand, Filip didn’t seem very self-confident to me lately. And maybe it is correct that the girls gossiping about Nina “liking” Robert would not exactly boost his confidence. He should draw some confidence from the fact that Nina chose and is staying with him, especially as she seems to be a very independent person who might have made other choices. But that’s easier to say than to actually do.

    Well, this has become a rather long post after all.

    • antrik Reply

      Yay, speculation time! 😉

      While not impossible, I have more and more doubts about Kasper being into Sofia. The previous page doesn’t quite fit with this theory IMHO. If he wanted to be near her, why was he so dismissive in their conversation? Although it might be speculated that he is jealous and pouting, Kasper doesn’t really strike me as the type for such petty behaviour…

      What’s more, if he really had a crush on Sofia, I’m pretty sure his little sister would notice — and I doubt she’d be promoting her crush on someone else in that case. (In Kasper’s presence, no less…)

      It seems more likely to me that he is rather indifferent. In fact, I somehow picture him as being rather unfazed by the entire girly conversation around him… We are yet to see him fazed by *anything* really 😉

      As for Robert and Ada, this is tricky, as we are still stuck mostly with wild speculation regarding what’s really going on between them… However, it looks like the other campers have figured by now these two aren’t “officially” attached romantically; and whatever weird chemistry exists between them, doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere — so at this point they consider him fair game.

      I think Filip just feels rather useless right now… And regarding Nina, I’m not sure Laura is really on the right track here: if Nina was indeed “secretly” attracted to Robert, why would she ask what others see in him? Doesn’t really add up IMHO.

      By the way, I find it funny how Sofia has a hard time “justifying” her attraction… Though that’s perfectly normal of course; especially in the early stages of infatuation. People are just silly having a hard time admitting their *feelings* are not entirely rational 😉 So I’m not surprised Sofia doesn’t mention that she considers him handsome… Though I am surprised a bit she didn’t bring up the fact that he appears quite confident most of the time; even kinda badass occasionally? In spite of being a total dork in other cases — weird guy! 😉

      • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

        @antrik
        I really don’t remember where that idea of Kasper liking Sofia came from, but I liked it – he being sort of a protective person, Sofia definitely needing someone to feel safe around…
        Maybe Laura is focusing too strongly on Sofia’s crush… and on redecorating bunkers (with some Sofias, mind you) to notice or pay attention to her brother.
        ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        As to Kasper being indifferent, I agree. At least as far as appearances go, I bet he’s listening, I would ;). And he seemed quite distraught by the fact that all the trucks had been destroyed during the attack on the old camp.

        Yeah, Robert and Ada might look to be “just friends” to everybody else.

        Robert’s badassery is part of his dorkiness, so not that weird imho. 🙂 And your right, there’s usually not much more going on at the very beginning than “s/he’s cute”. I even went back to their first encounter, rather the flashback. Sofia finding Rob cute is the only reason she asked her – quite good – question, after reminding herself not to ask for his phone number 😉 So, yes, Nina probably does not find Robert attractive and Sofia tries to come up with some “good” reason for her attraction to him, handsomeness not being considered a “valid” (too superficial) reason in my clichéed perception of girls’ reasoning. It’s a totally valid reason among boys for hitting on a girl, though. Go figure…

      • antrik Reply

        The idea of Kasper being into Sofia came up when he smacked Robert for idiotically suggesting that Sofia might not be a girl. ( https://replaycomic.com/comic/obvious-explanation/ ) It was reinforced when Kasper sighed at the Sofia’s “bold move” regarding Robert ( https://replaycomic.com/comic/for-you/ ) — though others pointed out that rather than being jealous, he might just have been impatient with that drama in general…

        Funny that you mention the “trucks gone” scene, since I actually pondered that when I made my “unfazed by anything” statement — but ultimately decided that it’s not strong enough a counter-indication 🙂

        When I mentioned that Sofia considers Robert handsome, I was indeed referring to her thoughts on their first encounter 🙂

        There is an important thing I want to clarify here though: while I find that girls indeed tend to use physical attributes too when expressing attraction, there is nevertheless a fundamental difference how the attraction works: for guys, looks are indeed almost invariably what they notice first, while personality comes into play only on further interaction. With girls on the other hand, they are more likely to consider a guy’s looks *in the wake* of being attracted to his deportment/behaviour — even though I suspect they might not always be aware of that.

        (In case of Sofia, presumably she was initially attracted by the quick-witted way Robert handled the audience questions…)

        I don’t believe this to be just cliches. I’m not a big fan of social constructionism in general — and in this particular matter, I am deeply convinced that there are indeed fundamental differences in how males and females get (and remain) attracted. While normally I’d qualify such generalisations with “typical males” and “typical females”, I’m not even going to do this here: in my experience thus far, I have invariably found individuals to conform to these fixed patterns on matters of attraction/relationships, even when they do not fulfil the usual gender stereotypes in various other respects.

        (And there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that IMHO — it’s just something it’s useful to be aware of…)

    • Rateus Camp dweller Reply

      “I wonder what Kasper looks like with all that girl talk around him.” This might make a good single panel voting reward, with the babble of conversation going on around him.

  4. William B Peckham Reply

    In a humid climate you need wool. Even a thin layer of wool helps. It does not lose insulation characteristics as fast with humidity compared to other fibers. I lived in North Dakota and enjoyed -40 winters with 40+ winds, and have wool blend socks, pants, jackets, and shirts in my closet even now that I have moved to a warmer climate.

    • antrik Reply

      The nice thing about wool is that unlike cotton, the fibres do not absorb moisture. But that’s also true of most synthetic fibres, though — so if wool helps, so should for example micro-fleece I’d presume?…

      I’m surprised about the wind aspect. I guess it matters that you mentioned “wool blend” and “layers”? Since for pure wool, I heard that it doesn’t help against wind at all, no matter how many layers you put on…

    • NotImportant Reply

      Thanks for the advice! I didn’t feel much warmer in my wool jumper but who knows, maybe it was a too-cheap-wool. You never know those days… I’ll keep experimenting.

  5. antrik Reply

    To avoid confusion, I’d like to point out that Middle-European winters *normally* aren’t quite that cold. -25° C is rather exceptional, perhaps once in ten years or so? Usually it doesn’t get much colder than -10° C or maybe -15° C; and most of the time it’s just a few degrees below or even above zero.

    (On the other hand, humidity can be somewhat of a problem here as well — though surely not nearly as bad as in Japan…)

    • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

      Yup, humid weather is the worst. I enjoy a dry -10 °C day (maybe with some sunshine) a lot more than the +10 humid weather, even with sun.
      Our snow has melted last night and it’s back to an awful drizzle…

    • NotImportant Reply

      South-east parts of Poland actually get pretty cold. We’ve had -25 celsius almost every winter. Not for long though.
      In Wroclaw, where I lived for… 8 years?, it got that bad only twice. Might be worth mentioning that in the last 10 years we could enjoy slightly warmer temperatures due to El Niño activity. It’s supposed to get colder now, as far as I know.

      • antrik Reply

        I have to admit that I’ve never been to the south-eastern parts… Wouldn’t have expected such a large difference, though. I just know that in Warsaw, it’s generally not that much different than in Berlin — and I assumed it would apply more or less to all of Poland… But then again, even in Berlin, the suburbs can be *much* colder than the city at times; so I guess Warsaw is not quite representative for the rest of the country either 🙂

  6. Dragon Master Reply

    Yeah where I live humidity can be a real problem. Mostly in the summer though, oftentimes there is so much moisture in the that you walk outside and your afraid your going to drown on dry land, and that’s without the rainstorms. Sometimes it’s so bad I swear you can see the moisture in the air. It’ll be around 35° C, but with the humidity it’ll feel at least another 10° – 20° hotter. The worst thing is it’s always humid, so you never really have a chance to dry out.

      • Dragon Master Reply

        Because I like being vague and cryptic I’m only going to give a general location hope you don’t mind. I live around the middle of the East Coast of the United States. (Looking into immigration though, I hear Canada isn’t picky about people and is a very nice place, but it’s to close to the US so when everything blows up their going to be caught in the blast radius)

  7. xthorgoldx Reply

    Friggin’ humidity.

    In Colorado, once you get up past 2km ASL or so you can rely on things being really dry all the time. Makes wearing contacts a living hell, but that’s the price you pay for brisk, not-wet air. I remember walking from my dorm to the dining hall in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt in -15C and everything was just peachy. Ears felt a bit nippy, but otherwise I was good. This past week in Texas has been roughly 5C. I refuse to wear anything beyond my normal clothes (jeans and a light jacket), even though the cold is so bone-chilling it’s getting into my friggin’ apartment as we speak. It’s the principle of the matter – I was told this place would be hot, I am not putting on a goddamn jacket!

    • NotImportant Reply

      Haha don’t be so stubborn! Your body might not care about your principles and having a runny nose is no fun at all!

  8. Crestlinger Reply

    Speaking as someone that has such an environment, that’s the windchill factor and yes tis a sneaky bugger to deal with. Warm soup, cider tea, anything supplying internal heat is the only real way to combat it.
    Warning signs are two terms to keep in mind: ‘blue smoke’ days where you can see that colour in car exhaust and ‘eyebiter’ wind where it feels exactly like gnawing cold on the retinas, usually has a windchill of -20~-30C to occur (normal temperature can Be -5C though) and do Not go out if able to avoid doing so. Hopefully not encountered often but with regions of cold humidity and the current climate shift forewarned is forearmed.

  9. Rateus Camp dweller Reply

    I’m sorry Laura but your ship is doomed. Or course everyone loves Rob, he is lovely.

      • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

        Nah, don’t worry. This community is pretty civilised, almost as fluffy as Ada’s tail.

        I think, the Rob x Ada ship is the most common around, although nobody really knows what is actually going on between these two.
        And as you can see, Laura is a Rob x Sofia shipper, but we still love her too 😉

      • NotImportant Reply

        Just regular spam, it gets automatically filtered most of the time. Hasn’t noticed any trolls so far. Generally, I’m impressed how much positive feedback this comic gets, it’s amazing! I’m a very lucky artist haha, you guys are super awesome <3

      • antrik Reply

        I meant genuine Ada x Faust shippers… I could well imagine someone claiming that just to get a raise out of other readers and/or the author.

        Also, it’s not luck — it’s karma! 😉

        • NotImportant Reply

          I think pretty genuine! Ada could totally pull off the evil-heroine, don’t you think? 😀

      • JW Reply

        I think Ada cares too much about other people to be evil.
        Unless she had some nefarious purpose trying to save as many of them as possible.

      • Dragon Master Reply

        Of course she’s going to save people, I mean really whats the point in taking over the world if there’s no one to rule. I mean think about it, someone’s gotta do all the menial labor while you revel in all your evil glory and bask in your dominion over the world. xD

      • KTrimbach Reply

        Well, obviously Faust has the hots for her; and she does have a pretty strong misanthropic streak, so I guess it’s not out the realm of possibility. But, eww.

      • antrik Reply

        Misanthropic? I don’t really see that… Just pretty anti-social as far as I can tell.

        • antrik Reply

          I think I actually meant “asocial” here, not “anti-social”… I wasn’t fully aware of the actual respective meanings of these terms until I looked them up more recently, since many people seem to use them rather “freely”…

  11. JayCloud Reply

    btw how much magic could ada do at once? ive seen it gives her a headache… or maybe that was just her pupils hehehe

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