Thrifty Mango

I think it's interesting that we start the chapter with Damian and the others at Eden. I think it's a good hint that Desmond is not at the hospital for the symposium considering Damian knows that his father visits regularly. I picked up on it and immediately thought 'ah so the event isn't why he's here, he's been visiting on the downlow for Project Apple-y stuff', which turns out to be correct.

I like that we are re-establishing the disconnected relationship between Desmond and his family. Damian admits to knowing nothing about his own dad. I absolutely love the layout of this page as well. He looks so unsettling and intimidating and I think the layout of the page with him stepping outside the boxes really adds to that for me.

Fiona is really getting some more panel-time (page-time?? Whatever the manga equivalent of screen-time is lol) and I am loving it. I think she's in a difficult position and having to wrestle with the idea of getting Twilight involved or not and also having to leave things alone for the sake of remaining safe. It's an interesting dilemma and one that I'm sure Anya's involvement in will only make worse.

Our suspicions of Desmond not being involved in the symposium are confirmed (unless they are lying for some reason). And to further this, Fiona figures out they are going to the neurology section of the hospital, which makes sense given what we know about his involvement in Project Apple.

My theory about the symposium being a cover up for something else going on in the hospital at the same time might still be possible but unlikely since Damian said his dad has been going to the hospital a lot. So maybe he's been just visiting on the downlow and neither Nightfall or Twilight have noticed?

I love the focus on Nightfall's dilemma here. She feels isolated without Twilight there to help and the panel on the left highlights this super well with the darkness effect surrounding her.

Anya following Fiona and wanting to be involved throws a spanner in the works but it does bring my hopes of the meeting of the two telepaths into a place where it might actually happen.

Anya was great in this chapter, she brings a comedic element as always but I think it is needed here to balance out the more tense moments with Nightfall. Some of these panels were cracking me the hell up.

I really hope she doesn't actually get into any danger but I do feel like if she ends up in the neurology department while following Desmond, it might resurface some nasty memories involving Project Apple and the experiments done to her.

Like I said my big hope is for Anya and Desmond to meet and to perhaps have a moment where they read each others minds and are both aware of each other's telepathy. Maybe this won't happen without Anya being in danger tho, since if he is aware she exists he might stop at nothing to make sure she is captured. This would probably be a good set up for the spy/assassin reveal but it feels like this is happening a bit too quickly for that. But who knows ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Our boi is finally in the hospital. It's been a long time coming...

Man needs to take a chill pill and stop overworking himself and I'm glad everyone around him can see it

I'm also very glad we have returned to the Professor Authen's connection to Donovan. I'm so excited to see where this plotline is going. I have a crap memory so I'm like the last person to theorise about how they are connected with Project Apple and Anya because I will end up misremembering things

I loved this panel, Anya's first thought is that his stomach has been replaced with a metal one and that made me laugh. She also thinks that's cool for some reason, which also made me laugh

The split panel below is so pretty.

I have missed Nightfall, we haven't seen her in a wee while.

The fact that Anya calls Nightfall "Hard-no mama" is hilarious omg Anya is so sick of Fiona's shit

but that won't stop her from excepting bribes in the form of sweets

Absolutely crying over how domestic this is, truly who are they fooling? They are a real family rn for sure

Now to the real stuff. Desmond Donovan is here. I feel like if he isn't here for the symposium, whatever he is here for is being held at the same time as like a cover-up type thing

I would also like to know if the licence plate number is relevant somehow, someone smarter than me might have an idea hahaha

I don't know, it was just something that occurred to me, it might be nothing and if it is something it might be a reference to something

When I googled it, it came up with the International Astronomical Union so I've got nothing lol

Anyway...

I'm very very excited to see where this heading.

We have it pretty much confirmed that Donovan is a mind-reader, kinda. But I really hope we get actual hard proof.