Somnambulist

So when he turns a corner and suddenly spots some big critter on the wall with way too many legs, I don't see him screaming for joy. If I remember right he was also having a hard time with all the crawlies in the rainforest, especially some centipede thing crawling on his face while Deathbringer was sitting on him.

I guess because of all that, I picture him as a bit of an arachnophobe.

Would you believe me if I told you I've been wanting to make this comic for two years now? I've occasionally been talking to my friends about it. Like, I'd say "maybe I should do spider comic soon". Well, I suppose it has finally happened. I hope you enjoy spider comic.

You can't ever have too many Qibli and Winter domestic scenes, can you?

ICICLE: You. ...

WINTER: ... ... ICICLE: What do YOU want? Did you come to gloat? About how, after all these years, the silver child rots in a hole while the eternal screw-up triumphs? Or how much kinder and nobler you were when you rescued Hailstorm after I messed everything up? WINTER: I came here to see how you are doing. ICICLE: I'm in a prison cell, you idiot! How do you THINK I'm doing!?!

ICICLE: They locked me up in this disgusting ditch for killing ONE Nightwing! After I was almost murdered TWICE! And what for?? Being a soldier in the war!?! And that Mudwing, the one who tried to do that to me? SHE gets to walk free!?! HOW is that just?? How many of OUR people has SHE killed?? Does THAT not count for anything!?! WINTER: I'm not blaming you for what you thought you had to do. ICICLE: (snorts derisively) "THOUGHT" I had to do??

WINTER: I'm not trying to moralize. Everything you chose to do makes sense to me. But I also don't think Scarlet would have ever let Hailstorm go. No matter what you, me, or any of us did. She was too cruel for that; I learned that when I met her myself. ICICLE: Oh, of course! You've spent a few days with her and suddenly you are the expert! That's you! Winter the Scarlet expert! You think you know ANYTHING about what Scarlet is like!?! You didn't have that deranged shrew living in your head for MONTHS!

ICICLE: You didn't spend every night waiting, fearing she would seek you out again… Seeing her gaunt, decaying face leering at you out of the darkness under your eyelids… Jeering. Taunting. Telling me all the things she was going to do to HIM if I didn't do what she said… And you DARE stand there and lecture me about what she is really like… as if you know her better than I do. WINTER: Wait, but… she contacted you while you were at Jade Mountain, didn't she? She wouldn't have been in your head for more than a week or so? ICICLE: Of course YOU would think that! No, she has been in my head since long before that. It first started a few weeks after the war ended. Did you think I begged Queen Glacier to send me to that rotten mountain hole because I WANTED to live in a dirty underground dump and cuddle up to the people who just a while ago were trying to kill us!?! I only did that because Scarlet ordered me to! I hated every wretched minute of it!

WINTER: I'm sorry Icicle. I had no idea. ICICLE: Of course you didn't! You NEVER have any idea! I'd like to be as carefree as you, running around with my head wedged up my own backside! Content to be the screw-up and never having to live up to anyone's expectations! WINTER: Is that what you think my life is like!??! (sighs) All right, whatever, we don't have time. I'm not in the mood to fight with you, Icicle. ICICLE: Well, that is too bad! I guess you shouldn't have come here then!

ICICLE: Leave me. I tire of talking to you. WINTER: There is something else I wanted to tell you. ICICLE: Whatever you have to say, I am not interested. WINTER: This is about father. ...he is dead.

ICICLE: WHAT?? How?? WINTER: I don't know how much of what has been going on made its way to you. I see you're wearing one of Qibli's earrings so you know about the Animus plague at least. Darkstalker is real, and he came back. There was a battle between our people and the Nightwings, and father died in it. ICICLE: And Hailstorm? What about him?? WINTER: He is alive. Mother is with him right now, they are at the palace. She blames me for what happened and publicly denounced me as a traitor. I've been banished and so I'm currently on my way out of the country. This is my last stop. I wanted to see you one more time. ICICLE: … …

WINTER: So just this one time, Icicle. I beg you. Can we drop the hostility? I don't want the last conversation we ever get to have be spent tearing each other's throats out.

ICICLE: … … All right.

WINTER: I brought you something. Here. ICICLE: What… WINTER: Do you remember it? ICICLE: My old brush…? WINTER: When we were little, you would always use it to brush your spines before father took you hunting. I thought maybe you could use a small piece of home right now, so I went to the house and grabbed it before getting chased out of the capital. ICICLE: A whole lot of good a brush is going to do me in a dirty cell. ...

ICICLE: Why are you doing this? WINTER: Because you are my clutch sister. and maybe this is stupid, but I care about you. In all those years I grew up in that terrible house, mother and father always hated me. But I thought maybe the three of us--you, Hailstorm, and me--maybe we could come out of this not hating each other.

ICEWING GUARD: That's about all the time I can give you, Prince Winter. Please leave! If anyone finds you here, I'm going to be in trouble! WINTER: Goodbye, Icicle. I'm sorry this is how it all happened.

ICICLE: … Live a good life for me, brother.

(END OF SCENE)

........

Am I just using these skits to get closure on a couple of things I missed in the story? It may be more likely than you think.

TURTLE: ... So, the Sea Queen hugged me the other day.

UMBER: Oh? Your moms? When was that?

TURTLE: While the whole Darkstalker kerfuffle happened. I returned home for a bit and she, well, she gave me a hug. For the first time... ever.

UMBER: That's a big deal, isn't it? You mentioned she's not much of a huggy one?

TURTLE: Oh, no no, she is plenty affectionate with Anemone and Auklet. It depends on whether you were born, uh, well, "the way she wants".

UMBER: Ah, I'm sorry. Still, she did it, right? How did it make you feel?

TURTLE: Oh, good. It was… nice. ...

UMBER: I noticed you called her "the Sea Queen", when before you would always call her "mother"?

TURTLE: Well, you know… I, uh… It, put some things into perspective for me. (sighs)

That kind of tender moment... I've been waiting for it all of my life. It was really nice when she finally went and noticed me; called me by my name even. I'm happy that she did; I can maybe finally start to move on from some things that have been weighing on me. But it's weird. I've spent so long waiting, and hoping, and wanting. Now that it happened I kind of realized… I don't really know her? I know Anemone, I know Auklet. Heck, I even know Tsunami and she's only been aware of my existence for a few months.

TURTLE: Why did I ever stake so much of who I am on this person I barely even know?

After everything that has happened, or rather didn't happen… Knowing that I'm the one who got lucky, and that likely nothing is going to change for any of my brothers who are still waiting… I just can't think of that stranger as my mother.

I don't know if that makes me ungrateful?

UMBER: Not at all. That's actually the way it usually goes where I'm from.

TURTLE: Oh… right, yeah.

UMBER: I get what you mean though. You don't have to feel beholden to a person just because, after years of ignoring you, she suddenly decided to show you the bare minimum of decency. It's fine for you to feel the way you do. You don't owe her your consideration.

TURTLE: Thanks, Umber. ...

TURTLE: Perhaps... I might write her a letter some time. You know, like, whenever I have a free moment and nothing else is going on.

UMBER: Ah yeah, that might take a while, ha ha. Webs has been saving all the material you guys missed while you were gone. You're probably gonna be drowning in homework for a while.

TURTLE: Ah. That's okay. She's waited so long to talk to me. It's clear she's fond of waiting, so I'll let her enjoy herself a little longer.

UMBER: Look at that. Son of the year right here.

Here's a conversation I imagine could have happened after the events of Arc 2 if Umber stayed at Jade Mountain. I realized--now that I have this somewhat less demanding visual medium to work with--I can maybe get out some skits I've been holding on to. Just some odd character scenes I've had rattling around in my head.

Plus, I want to play a bit longer with the particular image of Umber I have in my head while I still can. The new book comes out soon and it might all become outdated. You know, with Turtle essentially having been raised like a Mudwing, these two could have had some great chemistry together.

og panel: