Unpleasant memory 2

I hope you haven’t forgotten that we are collecting spells here! This one appears only in Ada’s scribbles for now, but it’s been so long since I’ve added something new to the Spells page that I just couldn’t resist. I believe you will spot the obvious differences right away. But I wonder if you will be able to figure out the why’s… If not – have no fear, as I plan to explain every tiny little detail. At some point ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There is one page of the flashback left. Do you guys have any idea why is she pondering about all this right now? Why is she upset with herself while thinking about it? I hope I am at least giving you some ideas!

And here’s the new pentacle in all its grace, for the easy reference~ Hopefully it won’t rain too much. I prefer my autumns to be dry and sunny…

6

115 comments on “Unpleasant memory 2”

  1. Micah Reply

    Question for you, before the demons came, was magic still a thing (did magic work, or did demons “bring” it with them?). Like did people know magic worked, but just didn’t have enough knowledge to make it work? That’s my suspicion, considering Ada knows a bit. Or maybe magic’s power used to work, but faded over time, and the demon’s arrival revived it for lack of better terms.
    Sorry if this has been asked before. Thanks.

    • NotImportant Reply

      It will be explained later on but I guess it doesn’t really matter if I tell you right now so here you go: the world before the appearance of the demons was very much like ours. So common people weren’t even mildly interested in such things, Ada being an example of an odd girl who liked esoteric stuff. And after the attack we saw Ada making some magic with a toothpaste so it seems it’s working slightly better than before (ノ・∀・)ノ

        • Tsukistar Reply

          I’d imagine it’s sorta like people on tumblr who are interested in witchcraft. The information is out there, it’s just not common knowledge.

      • xthorgoldx Reply

        Hm, so kinda a Shadowrun vibe? Magic was around, but just so reduced in intensity that it might as well not have existed, but the records and rituals from when there was magic were still around. But now, the demons are back, and so is magic – what was once only doable with a shitton of talent, pristine material components, perfect technique, and luck… can now be done on the floor with a tube of toothpaste.

        • Micah Reply

          Yeah, but why was it there before, and what made it get reduced? Was there a demon war in the past? I want more story! Give me moar!

          • Killimanjoro

            I would assume there was a war, or there would not be premade demon killing swords.

          • NotImportant

            Isn’t there enough lore in our world? Every religion talks about demons, we’ve got rituals, magical objects and everything. None of those shines in the dark and I don’t know anyone who has seen a demon recently but… those things are still there. Someone made them in the past. With a purpose in mind too.

          • Refugnic

            We all would like more, but let’s cut NI some slack. After all, she has a life to attend to as well. 😉

            That said, I have to agree. There are a ton of different religions, rituals, what not, all in order to do one thing or another.
            For example the infamous rain dance of the African witch doctor. Rain is a very, very important thing to have in those parts.
            How’d that ritual come to pass? Most likely, some witch doctor in the past was visited by ‘the unseen spirits’, who told him the secret of rain.

            He would then dance all night and day, as the spirits instructed him to…and well, either rain falls first or he does. But if rain falls, it’s of course entirely the doing of his magic.

            Getting back to the demons and stuff…I think it’s safe to assume that demons have been around in the world of theirs. That the blades are actually working on these is proof of that.

            However there is an alternate option to consider here…that the blades aren’t actually anything special, but much rather it’s the act of driving solid metal through the bodies of the demons that gets them down. To that effect, spears or even wooden stakes would work as well. The important thing in this context would be, that the object remains inside the body until it fails to function, lest they regenerate from the damage.
            Small objects (like bullets) would simply get absorbed.

            How the chicken demon fits into that theory, I cannot say though. 😀

          • xthorgoldx

            The answer is obvious man! Where’d all the demons and magic go? We killed it. All of our myths and legends, throughout human history, tell of great warriors and mighty heroes slaying monsters, dispelling curses, and generally making the world a happier place (unless, of course, you happened to be a dragon or something). Every culture tells of witches and the inevitable hunting thereof. Alchemists, sorcerers, shamans – all driven out, ostracized, and eventually forgotten. With them. The Nephilim were wiped out with the flood, St. George killed the dragon, and even the monsters in our closet were dispelled by the proliferation of the electric lightbulb. And so, we were left with a world without magic, the fantastical, or the supernatural posing a threat.

            …until, of course, some fuzzy-assed bastard signed a Faustian Pact giving the demons a convenient way to repopulate the Earth. Asshole.

          • NotImportant

            Me likes this comment you wrote here ♡
            And we can all agree he generally made the place much more interesting, didn’t he?

          • Lukkai

            Weeell…

            There’s the “Oh, that’s cool!” kind of interesting.

            And then there’s the Chinese cursing proverb kind of interesting.

            This one is the latter!
            (For all those living in that world at least.)

          • Speedy

            As the great documentary filmmaker Monty Python once recorded, in one of his medieval films, accused witches were put on trial. In the film, the accused was compared in weight to a duck. Even when the test supposedly proved the accused’s innocence, the crowd cheered “Burn her anyway!”, because who doesn’t love a good burning at the stake? 😉

      • Refugnic Reply

        Wee, an actual answer. 😀

        Yeah well, slightly better than before is an understatement. If it worked with toothpaste and stuff today, imagine what kinda power those ‘would be witches’ would have to wield. And imagine how scared people would be of them.

        It’d be the witch hunts all over again. But then again, as long as they don’t have the right runes to draw, they can’t do jack either, right?

        Still, the big question remains…how does Ada know these symbols…?

    • Refugnic Reply

      I asked NI the same question a while back and didn’t get a real answer either, so yeah. All we can do is wait I’m afraid. 🙂

      That said, I believe that magic has been around the entire time. How else would one open the gate to the realm of demons to make a pact with one?
      People, being all wise and stuff, just forgot about it.

      The real question in this regard is however, how Ada knows these symbols and spells in the first place.
      I mean, there’s really only just two options:
      One – She has someone to teach her, which may either be a person or a spell book.
      Two – The visions have been going on for a whole while longer than I originally thought.

      • Lukkai Reply

        Something similar to one, I’d assume: She’s just interested in all that kind of stuff and is looking it up in books, on the internet (as far as that exists in that world, I’m just assuming it does for now) and so on. Even today and in our world, you can find that stuff pretty easily. You just have to be willing to invest the time.

        • Refugnic Reply

          If we take into account that their world, before the whole demon thing, was very similar to our world, I think it’s safe to assume that the internet does exist. After all, it allowed for a sweet number of breakthroughs in terms of technology and a few other things. However it also led to a massive degeneration on personal relations, making it a bit of a two-edged sword.

          Either way, yeah, there is a lot of information out there…the better question however is, how much of that is actually genuine? Would she need to go to the Dark Web to find any actually working rituals and symbols? (Because I kinda have a hard time believing that you’d find a working spell via Google. The secret holy order of the inquisition would most certainly keep an eye on that. :P)

          • Lukkai

            I don’t know how much you could find with Google. Pretty sure though that there are at least some genuine spells buried under a whole lot of fictitious or fake ones on the net. Finding, and more importantly identifying, them would need quite a lot of work though, I presume.
            What an internet search quite likely would net you though are a number of book titles that could help you there. Or at least get you on the right track. And nowadays, it is quite hard actually hiding information.
            So yes, it would need a whole lot of work to get actually useful results. But it certainly could be done. In this world and in theirs.

          • JW

            I don’t know how much you could find with Google. Pretty sure though that there are at least some genuine spells buried under a whole lot of fictitious or fake ones on the net.

            Genuine as in spells that people actually thought worked? Because they’re all fictitious.

            We’re all just doves in a skinner box, thinking our fancy dance produces the pellet. But in truth it’s just random, and the perceived causality exists only in our head.

          • JW

            Yes. It’s an old bearded woman sitting on a cloud that makes everything happen. If you draw a spell, she may look at it and if she thinks it’s a pretty picture she may make something happen to show her appreciation. And because similar picture make her feel the same way, she tends to make the same thing happen.
            But it really isn’t the spell doing anything. If she’s tired, distracted or busy, or just plain doesn’t like you, she’ll just ignore it.
            That’s why spell don’t “work” anymore, because by now she’s very old and usually nodding off. And when she’s awake and sees what we’ve done to the planet she isn’t very happy with us.
            So yeah, spells don’t work, they’re just fictitious 😉

            (And yes, I did make a last-minute change, and yes I meant to leave that inconsistency; it amuses me terribly.)

          • Lukkai

            I honestly think this is the funniest explanation of magic I’ve ever read! 😀

            And I’m occasionally reading Pratchett!

    • 1stormbringer77 Reply

      Magic has always been around.It’s in you,around you and part of everything you see,breath,smell,taste and feel.It is available for all who believe in it and can accept what it is,whether they can know without knowing why it is there at all.Only the ones who know will be able to use it,and that is not something anyone can learn out of just a book or a sign that was found.It just is.But be careful.As the old saying goes “For every action,there is an equal and opposite reaction”,so consider what you are doing and the unexpected reaction that will come from what you have done.Magic is NOT something to be used for curiosity,experimentations,selfish reasons or just plain foolishness.It can hurt or help,regardless of why you have used it.

        • Refugnic Reply

          Because if you don’t, Demons will come to overrun your camp, looking for the minty freshness of summoning toothpaste, eh? ;P

          Though yeah, while ‘magic’ usually isn’t associated with the miracle of life, it really is nothing short of it, is it?

  2. Anonymous K Reply

    The human body is made up of Water (35 L), Carbon (20 kg), Ammonia (4 L), Lime (1.5 kg), Phosphorous (800 g), Salt (250 g), Saltpeter (100 g), Sulfur (80 g), Fluorine (7.5 g), Iron (5 g), Silicon (3 g) and fifteen other elements in trace amounts.
    http://i.stack.imgur.com/dmAaD.jpg

    • Authoria Reply

      After standing on my desk and turning my laptop at odd angels to read the text, I just causally realized that it said the words in the descriptions XD

  5. JW Reply

    I’ll bet she doesn’t have a job. So by her own reasoning, she doesn’t work and is therefore stupid and not interesting.

    Personally, I’d say figuring out why things don’t work can be quite interesting. (But then I’m a programmer, so it’s part of the job. *back to script* Now why doesn’t this damn thing work.)

  6. Refugnic Reply

    A deluge spell, eh?

    Still, where’d Ada even get those spells?

    Besides, that girl is wrong. It’s not that it ‘doesn’t work’.
    You just need to do it right and it’ll work (probably :P)

    Though I guess she’d only be interested either way, if she could use it to get something she wants, a specific boy or to get rid of a rival or something.
    Making rain (and potentially drowning out all life on Earth) is not very interesting to someone so consumed with the own social status.

    Though I do have a question…assuming you performed this spell and created the heavy rainfalls (let’s dismiss the circle of water for the moment)…how would you even get the coin out of the water again? I mean, it’s raining after all. 😀
    Or is ‘taking it into hand’ completely sufficient to stop the rains?

    • JW Reply

      I think it’s probably sufficient if you put it in a glass of water, and then take it out to stop the magic.
      A bit of a problem if you lose the coin on the street and it drops in the sewer, though.

      • Refugnic Reply

        ‘Hmm, don’t feel like going to school tomorrow…let’s see, it’s in a pit and my house is on a hill…so about 20 hours constant rain ought to do it.’

        …a dangerous sentiment. On that note, how is the range of this effect? Does it start raining all over the world or only in a specific range around the coin, like 1-2 kilometers or something?

        Just some idle curiosity. 😛

        • NotImportant Reply

          Oh, I actually don’t know! You would have to test and see… I’d imagine it uses available resources (actual humidity) and encourages creation of some rain clouds. So probably would have a greater effect where the weather is naturally rainy and mild one on the desert.

          • Refugnic

            Well, so much for causing a deluge…if it uses natural resources, it needs to draw on the water that’s actually there, as to where a deluge would ‘add’ to the water until all land is submerged. So, unless the spell is spiffy enough to melt down the polar caps, it’ll cause some damage, but it’s not going to cause a deluge of biblical proportions (which, as I’m sure all the good little Christians (and probably some others too) know, submerged all the land after raining for 40 days and nights, wiping out all evil).

            But then again, that’s only a story…while floods actually have happened, so maybe the writers of the bible may have exaggerated just a tiny little bit. 😛

          • NotImportant

            Maybe they were right and my guess is simply incorrect haha, I wouldn’t dare testing how much water can come down though. I don’t own a boat.

        • Refugnic Reply

          My apologies, I’m not fluid in…whatever that is. Hebrew?
          Besides, if enough rain falls, it causes a deluge. At least theoretically, if we completely disregard the cycle of water, where water needs to evaporate prior to coming down as rain, essentially keeping the water levels constant all over the globe.

          Now if an ice meteorite came crashing down, that’d be a different story, because suddenly there’d be a whole lot of more water available, but I think if a meteorite with enough ice to cause a deluge came down…we’d be having slightly different problems. 🙂

  7. Rateus Camp dweller Reply

    I becomes clearer why this was classed as a bad memory.

    ‘I’m not interested in that so why would you be?’ always struck me as a weirdly closed attitude, but you do see it a lot, especially at school.

    • Lukkai Reply

      Yeah… Some people simply cannot grasp the concept of hobbies. Unless it’s on of their own, of course. But then it’s not actually a hobby, but a crucial part of any civilised and sensible lifestyle! I’ve met my fair share of those people. I think everyone did.

    • Lukkai Reply

      As a matter of fact, that might actually how I’d respond to such a person nowadays: “You do understand the concept of having a hobby, right? Or is that asking too much of your mental capabilities?”

      • Refugnic Reply

        When we get to think about it a little, it’s easy to come up with a nice comeback. But when you’re in the situation, it tends to be a wee bit more difficult to come up with a witty comment that leaves your opponent speechless.

          • Refugnic

            Haha, most definitely, yeah. That’s also why a few people actually train being witty and quick to counter…though quite honestly, if you need to do that, what does that tell you about your social position…? Or the world around you?

          • Lukkai

            It can be its own reward for sure. And witty comebacks don’t have to be reserved for bad people only. They can be a lot of fun among friends, as long as they are in on it.

    • NotImportant Reply

      I never watched it. My source is different and will be disclosed when Ada decides to open her mouth~

      • Lukkai Reply

        Though you might of course, even if it’s unknowingly, share your source(s) with the team behind FMA. 😉

        • NotImportant Reply

          Yes, that’s probably what has happened haha. My sources are something I considered fairly well known and expected someone to realize what I’m doing here right away but apparently it’s easier to stumble upon someone who watched FMA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

          • Lukkai

            Probably hard to find a regular webcomic reader who hasn’t seen at least some anime. (^_^)

            And FMA is certainly one of the best known anime out there.

          • NotImportant

            I watch (watched) a lot and FMA is still not on my list for some reason. Maybe it’s just too long and seems like a huge time investment haha

          • Refugnic

            Lukkai is right. I think most of the potential audience who takes interest in reading webcomics (which tend to be in anime-style) also takes interest in the animated version and has perused the internet to consume them, even if they aren’t available in the country they hail from.

            What’s more, many of the child’s series you see on TV actually are animes, dubbed and all that stuff, but still animes, so you’ll have a hard time finding anyone who grew up in the last 20-30 years who never watched any anime. (Dragonball, Sailor Moon, Cat’s eye, Pokemon…find me someone in their 20s to 30s who hasn’t seen at least one of them. ;))

          • JW

            @NI any anime you would especially recommend? (Not that I’m not swimming in series at the moment, but there’s worse things to drown in)

            I can recommend FMA, btw; it’s quite good.

          • NotImportant

            When asked about my favorite I’d probably say it’s Bakemonogatari series. There are plenty other series I liked though, I could probably recommend more depending on what genre you like~
            FMA will have to wait for me to be bored enough, length is really intimidating!

          • JW

            I’m not very genre-bound. I’ll watch pretty much anything.

            I think I’ve watched two of the Bakemonogatari series so far. I liked them very much. And the music too (e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N6IM-L7fLw ). I have embarrassing amounts of anime OP/ED music in my mp3 library.

          • NotImportant

            Haha I don’t really listen to anime music but I can understand!
            Other series I liked which come to mind right now: Ergo Proxy (for story & mood), Oreimo (light & funny), Madoka (mood), Durarara (story, characters), NGE (classic!), Kill la Kill (surprisingly funny), Death Note (story), No game no life (funny), Haruhi Suzumiya (characters, funny), Ghost Hound (story), Steins;Gate (story, characters, funny), Fate Stay Night & Fate0 (story, visuals), Hellsing (older one, remake is so so), Shinsekai Yori (story), Higurashi (story, characters)… I guess that’s enough haha, order doesn’t have any special meaning.

          • JW

            I’ve watched all of those except NGE (unless it’s abbreviation for a title that doesn’t come to mind) , Ghost Hound and Hellsing; you have good taste in anime. I’ll add them to my list, thanks 🙂

          • NotImportant

            Thank you ;D I hope you’ll like them! NGE = Neon Genesis Evangelion.
            And would be cool if you threw some titles you liked, maybe there’ll be something I don’t know~

          • Lukkai

            I’d like to throw Gasaraki, Kamichu, Tamayura and Juuni Kokki in as worthy things to watch here.

          • Lukkai

            Oh, and the whole Seikai no Monshou and Seikai no Senki. And Starship Operators. And Kashimashi.

            I’ll stop here for now.

          • JW

            I second Lukkai’s suggestion Kamichu, it’s adorable/sweet.
            God, it’s so difficult to whittle the list down to manageable size. I should write a script to just randomize the list and pick the first ten I’d be comfortable recommending.
            Ok, fine, I’ll just randomly pick some from a list I made two years ago. Maybe I’ll add a few more recent ones later.
            * To Aru Kagaku no Railgun / Toaru Majutsu no Index
            * Tokyo Magnitude 8
            * Elfen Lied
            * Usagi Drop
            * Another
            * Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
            * Kara no Kyoukai
            * Wolf and Spice
            * Minami-ke
            * Lucky Star

          • JW

            I know this will sound cliche, but I would disrecommend watching Juuni Kokki (The Twelve Kingdoms) because the books are infinitely better. They’re some of the best books I’ve read, and watching the anime after that was a sore disappointment (both in the way they added unnecessary, ineffectual, characters and just overall quality).
            I’m still so glad I bought that first book at a discount on a whim.

          • NotImportant

            So many things to watch, thanks @Lukkai and @JW! Some of those I know, some I don’t and will check out~!

          • Lukkai

            Interesting mix of genres indeed there, JW! 😀

            And the fact that I’ve seen nearly all of them tells a lot about my watching habits, doesn’t it? 😉

            As for Twelve Kingdoms… I haven’t read the books as of yet, but am planning to do so in the near future. From what I’ve heard however, it’s definitely better to first watch the anime and then read the books. Not the other way around.
            That being said, in my opinion the anime is some if not the best fantasy anime I’ve seen. And yes, I’ve seen Slayers, Record of Lodoss War, Sisters of Wellber, Scrapped Princess, Guardian of the Spirit, …
            So it’s not really a problem of low quality on its part. It’s just the quality gap between the two being too big.

          • JW

            Yeah, I probably would have enjoyed the twelve kingdoms anime a lot better if I watched it before reading the books. Though it doesn’t change that two of characters were clearly pasted on as an afterthought.
            I had the same feeling with Claymore, that boy following the heroine around just doesn’t feel like he belongs in the story (I don’t know the source material, so maybe he does, but he feels superfluous).
            I get the feeling that sometimes the makers of anime just throw in a few characters in the hope of appealing to a greater audience by giving them someone to identify with. But then they forget to give those characters a role in the story and so they just hang around in “and Bob was there too” way. (Bonus points to whoever gets that reverence.)

          • Lukkai

            He’s actually one of the pivotal characters of the manga as well. One of the three people that really defined Clare’s way. He gets a lot more room for character growth though. Is better fleshed out in general. And becomes pretty badass at the end. Not like in the anime, where his character was pretty much reduced to the whiny and annoying parts.

  9. Vicky Reply

    If I could be Ada I would draw a pentacle that would turn this girl into something disgusting 😀 !!!
    I hope that tooth-paste (that Ada have used to draw a pentacle ) is made with this girl!!! Who would like to be a paste? Sounds evil enough ;D

    Uh, just because I know that “you’re weird” so well…

    • JW Reply

      If I could be Ada I would draw a pentacle that would turn this girl into something disgusting !!!

      She already is.
      But seriously, not worth the effort, nor the inevitable cost (magic rarely comes free).

        • Refugnic Reply

          The world consists of balances and circuits.

          Water that falls from the heavens had to ascend to the heavens by the power of the sun previously.
          Life that comes into the world needs to inevitably leave it again and return to the soil.
          Seeds fall to the ground, take root, grow tall and bear fruit, which falls to the ground, take root, grow tall…

          It’s the same for anything. What goes around comes around, they say.
          If you borrow great power, you’ll have to pay a great price to compensate for it.
          And if you’re being an asshole, you’ll eventually feel the backlash once you fall (and you will)…and nobody will come by to help you stand again, leaving you to grovel in the dirt.

          And the beauty of that? You don’t even need witchcraft for any of that. 😉

  10. Lone Wanderer Reply

    XD All this time I thought you were a guy, but reading the comments proved otherwise. I still can’t get enough of this comic, though. Its really something I look forward to… A lot. “When’s the next page coming out? Today?.. no.. Now?… no… Now?!” Its like a drug, gets you addicted, 10ada10. (see what I did there?) 🙂

    • NotImportant Reply

      No worries, common mistake in the net, but yes, I am female~ Very happy you like the comic and I am not sorry at all about it being addictive hehehe… And you need to tell me what’s with 10ada10, I can’t figure it out ಠ_ಠ

      • Tewna Reply

        *Says it out loud and thinks about it* oh, 10ada10, that’s funny. I give them 7ada10 for coherency, though.

        • Tewna Reply

          Maybe more… it was a good pun, but some of us (myself included) were a little slow on picking it up.

          • NotImportant

            Damn I get it now ‎(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻
            Thank you!

          • JW

            I pronounce Ada differently in my head. So it didn’t really work for me.

          • Lone Wanderer

            S’ok, didn’t know much on how it was pronounced, just looked at how it was spelled. Like (Ah-da) But then again it could be (Ay-da) Not sure, went with ah-da for the joke though. I was just thinking how some people say outta like adda or something, replacing T’s with D’s and whatnot, and with one of the main characters being named Ada, how could I refuse the chance? 😉

      • Refugnic Reply

        I once came across a mini-comic, where two different girls were portrayed. One being the tomboyish type (and if you looked quickly you’d actually think it was a boy), the other one a princess-style girl. (All frilly and girly and stuff).

        Both were gifted at drawing, but the things the drew were very different.

        While the Tomboy drew cute girls, the other girl drew handsome men.

        And that’s the exact reason why people think that you’re a guy…because girls are (supposed to be) more interested in handsome men and do not draw cute girls.
        You do (and quite successfully at that ;)).

        But that’s just one of the many many stereotypes in this world of ours. 🙂

        • JW Reply

          In my stereotype library boys draw action heroes and overly busty and scantily clad women (e.g. american superhero comics), not cute girls or handsome men (e.g. shoujo manga).
          Yes, boys are from America, girls are from Japan.
          No wait. (Hey, at least I place them on the same, habitable, planet.)

          Well, I guess as a metaphor it might work… in various ways. To wit,

          But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
          It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.

          Anyway… I don’t think I’d actually make the reverse inference. I think my stereotype of people drawing comics is male, despite many magnificent counter examples. I’m not even sure how my webcomic reading list matches up statistically.

          • Lukkai

            “Boys are from America, girls are from Japan”

            I like that one! 😀

  12. JW Reply

    90 comments so far, this week. I think that’s a new record.
    At the rate it’s going, keeping up will be a full-time job 😛

    • NotImportant Reply

      And who made most of them, huh? ;D I’ve been reading everything! It’s awesome. I am looking forward to next week already haha
      \(-ㅂ-)/ ♥ ♥ ♥

      • JW Reply

        You! You made the most of them! 😛 And then Lukkai, but with this post we’re tied; and then Refugnic.

        Actually, it’s probably a good thing no one is (generally) keeping score. Lots of activity is nice, but it shouldn’t devolve into “+1” posts.

        It’s hard to keep track of new messages though. Lately I just search for October 23 (or whatever the (previous) day is) to find the latest additions.

        Speaking of which (kind of), what sort of maintenance is going on this weekend? Upgrading the server to cope with the onslaught of visitors? Are we close to bringing it down 😉

        • NotImportant Reply

          Haha I have it easier as backend system is sure to note me of every single new comment!
          And maintenance will be a try to make the pages load faster. Server I am using should withstand much much more but it’s starting to behave badly for reasons unknown to me. But I use it for various other things so… not sure what’s the real culprit. There will be a hunt for slow queries hah~

          • JW

            Maybe you could add varnish as a caching layer. Though you’d have to work out cache invalidation to deal with new comments. (Or, you know, fix whatever is the underlying problem 😛 )

          • Refugnic

            I’m not too good with many people, which is why I tend to recede once a crowd assembles, which is also why you’ve seen less of me in the comment section as of late. (That and life is keeping me on my toes).

            Regarding the page load time, I believe that the page load time is directly proportional to the number of comments on the page, because the browser not only has to read all of them, but he also has to parse them, complete with avatar and what not.

            And that may bog down the overall load time, especially if your computer is a bit slower.

            To speed up the load time, I suggest putting the comments into a ‘separate’ page, which only gets loaded via AJAX once you click on the ‘comment’ link.
            That way, the browser only has to initially deal with the actual page with banner and comic and stuff and only in second instance, if the person is interested, it has to deal with the comments, which will load comparatively fast, because the majority of the page is already there.

            Oh and sorry if I just stated the obvious again. ;P

          • NotImportant

            I think the main culprit is not Replay but something else I am running on this server but we’ll see, comments are worth testing as well~!

          • Refugnic

            This is just my 2 cents, but from the looks of it the maintenance did wonders for the loading time. May I ask what you did to make the page load so much faster?

          • NotImportant

            There was a bug in the theme! I used WordPress theme made by someone else and just customized it but it contained a stupid bug, which added million (literally) settings rows to the db causing queries to take way longer than they should. So that issue has been fixed + cache plugin for WordPress installed. Glad it works better now! (ノ・∀・)ノ

      • Refugnic Reply

        Most of them? I believe the anime discussion is at fault for most of them, because it’s sort of a common ground, but other than that, yeah. JW, Lukkai, you and me are probably the top posters in the comment section. 🙂

  13. Zero Reply

    I think replay is the 5th webcomic I’ve followed, chronologically. And, it’s still one of the best. Actually, I’d say Replay might be better than SS. …Lukkai, don’t tell Chris I said that.

    Mostly this comes from two major points.

    1: The comic book styling, and character design.

    2: The plot. Not the plot itself, but the fact that the plot remains the same throughout the entirety….so far.

    I can actually see printed Replay comic books in the not so distant future.

    • Refugnic Reply

      Regarding your second point…looking back, although the pages have most certainly been gorgeous, there hasn’t been very much ‘plot’ to speak of. We’re still in chapter 1 and the characters have barely been introduced (for example about Sofia we know that she got saved by Robert and Ada. Period.)

      I’m very curious to see where the plot is headed, but from the looks of it, NI has a plan, so there’s a whole lot of hope here.
      Most webcomics I’ve seen start out as little more than doodles, introducing characters but without an actual plotline in the background.

      So yes, finding a webcomic that actually has a story to tell is rare, however I still stand to the ‘there’s so much more to tell’. 😉

      And if I can get my story books (you know, those things with white pages and black letters), then NI can most certainly get Replay printed. And, contrary to me, she might actually sell a copy or three(hundred+). 😛

      Regarding your first point…well, can’t argue there. 😀

    • NotImportant Reply

      Hah very happy you think that and glad you enjoy the comic so far! I hope I will be able to keep all of you entertained~
      Regarding print – I have zero experience with that and don’t even think about it right now. Still not enough pages for the print either, we’ll see how it goes! I’d love to have it printed and I will try to make it happen but probably after two more years? Or more? I keep hoping that full-color book with ~200 pages won’t cost a fortune heh ಠ_ಠ

      • Refugnic Reply

        Hmm…I just checked on Lulu.com (my POD service of choice as of right now, though I have no problem switching to a better alternative if it should present itself. ;))

        Anyway, Premium Paperback in US Trade (6 x 9 inches, that’s 15.24 x 22.24 cm for us European folks :P) costs about 26.50 $ to make, so fairly expensive. There is also a comic book format, which is a quite a bit larger with 6.63 x 10.25 inches (again, one inch being 2.54 cm), however the increased size also comes with an increased cost, which would rise to some 38 US Dollars to make, which may well be too much.

        These numbers are for a 200 page comic book, more pages naturally means more money to spend on it…so yeah, ‘cheap’ is definitely something else, but then again you’re producing great quality here, so I’d say a price of 30 $ per piece is well justified, considering the work you put into all this. My Demilympics were for sale for a whopping 20 € because of the manufacturing cost, so if you stumble across a better (cheaper) supplier with similar quality, feel free to notify me. 😉

        Though I guess with the little amount of books I sold I might as well have printed them out and bound them myself, now that would’ve been cheaper…I guess. Or it would’ve been a complete mess, which I actually think is more likely. 😀

        All of that said, and while I will not make any promises at this point, however if you keep going strong and if the price isn’t too great, I may (or may not) purchase a copy of the book. However if I do, I’d like to have it signed. That shouldn’t be a problem, right? ;P

        • NotImportant Reply

          Ooh, thanks for checking that! It’s not so bad, at least it’s comparable to what I have imagined. I will probably try to figure out how much it would cost me to print it in Poland as it might be cheaper, we’ll see. And probably I would organize preordering through kickstarter or something similar, which makes signed copies possible. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, still long way until I print anything!

          • Refugnic

            That may be true, but I think it’s important to throw a little encouragement your way regarding that. Besides, I didn’t make any promises but merely did a little calculation, that’s all. Nothing special about that. 🙂

            Keep up the good work and while it may not make you rich (the printing companies of the world are being too greedy to make anyone but them rich that way :P), I think it’ll at the very least make a few people happy. 😉

            I’ve been trying to get Saph (my wife) to read the webcomic for a while now, but with the little guy being…well, the little guy, she didn’t get the chance to read it yet. A printed version she could take to doctor appointments and stuff, so there’s a valid reason. 😛

            Oh and you’re welcome, I’m always happy to help. 🙂

          • NotImportant

            Haha thank you for the encouragement then! And of course I would be very happy if your wife enjoyed the comic as much as you do, hopefully it will be printed without problems and for affordable price too.
            And I am completely fine with not making money from this, after all I’ve been running website with painting tutorials for a very long time and didn’t even try to ask for support or encourage people to buy prints or something. I just enjoyed making those tutorials and reading comments from people who found them useful. Replay is something I wanted to make and share with the world, I have job for money, don’t need to make a fortune from this project. I am happy as long as there are people reading and waiting for the next page (‘∀’●)♡ I will probably create a Patreon page at some point but comic will continue regardless of how much people will want to throw in. I kind of hope Replay will be self-sustaining in the future, I won’t be too happy about paying for a stronger server haha!

  14. Refugnic Reply

    Oh and congratulations on achieving more than 100 comments on a single page. That’s a milestone right there and I don’t think it’ll be the last time you’ll get there. 🙂

    And if anyone wants to try arguing that half of those comments are from yourself, please remember: Most of those responses from you caused more reactions from others, meaning that people actually came back to check for responses and to discuss. So good job. 🙂

    • NotImportant Reply

      Haha thank you! And no worries, I am well aware that I post here a lot but it’s a lot of more fun to chat with you guys than to sit in silence and watch the numbers grow.

      • Refugnic Reply

        I know the feeling all too well, NI. It’s the same for me, my heart jumps a little each time I find a new comment in my inbox…simply because that tells me that people care enough to tell me what they think. 🙂

        And to say I jump at the opportunity to have a pleasant little chat may actually be an understatement. (You know how I can be with replying. 😉 )

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