Mini Break and Sixth Anniversary Celebrations!

[JoB]

Thank you Annuil! It is an info page, not Ensi in the flashbacks Maybe we'll get further guesses.

Two tries from me ... :

Spoiler: numero uno • show

"mages are usually taught their craft by a more experienced colleague."
... which, with Ensi being one of the first proper mages around, necessarily would've had more of an inclination towards the "magic" of the Old World.

Spoiler: the dark-ish one • show

"Yet there are still some who believe that these are harmless, benign creatures that wish no harm upon humans."
... and have the tendency to hide from (most) humans and live in caves ...

Haha, great! The dog is nothing sort of royal

Sort of, or short of ... ?
(English, y u so ... English?)

Why do I feel like I'm playing "Clue" all of a sudden?

Minna, in the comic, with the stylus.

JoB per request 2 - Will this do?  (taking 'drawing skills' a touch loosely, in interests of speed & humour)

No contest from me - it'd probably take me 2+ weeks to come up with something that'd look remotely like that.
(And by "remotely", I mean "hey, did the Rash get perspective and proportions now, since it couldn't infect the immunes?".)

I'm completely flummoxed by #1. But I want to know what an "insi dance" looks like. 

(... so, considering that I'll likely spend the weekend in the Maintenance Window of Doom, what would be a good trade-off between "don't tell yet, and spoil it for the ones still guessing" and "my, this thread's quite deserted all of a sudden" ... ?)

[Jitter]

JoB one of your guesses is correct! I won’t say no more yet to let others try too.

And ys, English! The dog is nothing SHORT of royal! Sorry!

[wavewright62]

I don't know how intentional it is, but the story isn't quite compliant with a piece of the single mom's testimony.

I had to go back to see what you meant and *facepalm* you're right!  I'll consider changing the line, because it's just a zinger, the precise sass is not important. 

[Annuil]

I got a little time today and so I did another drawing! Jitter’s story and one of the info pages inspired me
so here is the link:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsSnHPIBASO_rgJshg6kSOs5SNcx

[wavewright62]

[thegreyarea]

So many amazing things! I'm loving this little break!
Jitter, I love that story! I keep imagining how "auntie" had access to that last gift... But then I imagine that there would be a lot of abandoned libraries in Finland...
Wave, A great story that made me laugh! About the last line, maybe it's free, but there may be some intermediary that found a way to make some money out of it...
Annuil, what a fine picture of young Ensi! Is she standing above some structure?
JoB, I like your darkish guess! (I've been waiting for our team to cross path with those since that page came out).
Sorry for not contributing much, but I'm working on it! I hope to have something to share with you soon.

[Jitter]

Annuil, very cool ensi!

Spoiler: is the page • show

sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=412 on Luonto?

I hope we get to learn what Ensi’s luonto is. I have also been thinking wolf.

Any more guesses about Auntie?

[Annuil]

Thank you, Grey and Jitter, yes, she is standing on some sort of platform underneath the water (I would have drawn those amazing huge boulders that can be found all around Finland, but I’m too bad at drawing water so I decided to make a solid ground and a little waterfall so that would be a little easier to draw...)
I’ll tell if the guess is correct a little later, to let others guess if they want 

About Auntie:

Spoiler: show

Now that I have some clue I would support JoB’s “darker” one: page 274, Adventure I, I don’t know what to call them, troll’s sub-class, sometimes classified as “harmless”, but it doesn’t seem to be smart enough though.... Okey! It’s just a guess

[Jitter]

JoB was right, and Grey and Annuil by concurring with him. Auntie is a maahinen (vaettur). 

In addition to the page http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=274 the story was inspired by Wave's stories about the brass band troll - the idea that passion about something could help the troll to hold on to some of its humanity. Here I thought Auntie used to be a science teacher, and the books were her own until she decided to pass them to her student.

The geography of the story is slightly dubious, Toivosaari isn't large enough for there to be a maahinen living there unnoticed. Maybe Ensi had a canoe and was free to roam further out because she's both immune and a mage? And because everybody's still busy getting established to live in a post-apocalyptic setting and may not have all the rules yet established, especially rules about how to treat teenagers who are the first mage around.

[Vulpes]

Hoooo that's a nice second part. I love the colors
Vulpes, I guess you think it's page 195 "languages" too ?

That was my first thought, but no...

Spoiler: show

I was thinking of 585, where they're having language lessons. All those words are there.

[JoB]

The geography of the story is slightly dubious, Toivosaari isn't large enough for there to be a maahinen living there unnoticed. Maybe Ensi had a canoe and was free to roam further out because she's both immune and a mage? And because everybody's still busy getting established to live in a post-apocalyptic setting and may not have all the rules yet established, especially rules about how to treat teenagers who are the first mage around.

The Finnish ancestors were on a boat when the Rash truly hit, and it stands to reason that other survivors in the Saimaa lake system were as well. Also, boats tend to stay operational longer than cars, as you can put up makeshift sails, if nothing else. Thus, it stands to reason that the Finns took a while to settle down on land again, in particular, on Toivosaari ...

[Jitter]

Well, yes, but since the story is set in Y12, they must have established at the very least some fields on land somewhere

Which makes me think of a really cool post apocalyptic water town made of old boats and various odds and ends, maybe circa Y10-30. I wish I could draw!

[Róisín]

Maahinen does not surprise me. And not only the band troll, but Minna’s Pastor Anne suggest that a sufficiently single minded passion for something may preserve the sanity and focus despite trollification. And teaching science is certainly a sufficient passion. Also the folklore of our world contains lots of instances of beings that will teach you something, if they can be dissuaded from eating you.

[JoB]

Well, yes, but since the story is set in Y12, they must have established at the very least some fields on land somewhere

The later Toivosaari had those fields on a different island, with a full-blown quarantine period involved when coming back from there, which might well be a later, stricter policy. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a "field work on dry land during the day, return to cluster of boats safely on the water for the night" arrangement for quite a while.

Also, what's the (shelf) lifetime of an elephant (skin pizza)?

[Kyara]

Originally, it was just a kind of cross-over with a book I read a long time ago.
But well, it can also be used as a riddle for an info page (even if it's pretty obvious). Bonus point if you guess the book !
Reynir doesn't need a substrate for his runes anymore. He IS the substrate haha.



And btw, I love all little stories of the early years. It makes the SSSS universe even richer.... What I would like to know how to draw landscapes to try the "water town".