White Noise (Webcomic by Adrien Lee) SPOILERS

[thorny]

Does Mari mean that he thinks he's dying?

And if so: what does that have to do with Aries having shown up?

[Jitter]

Are they talking about Aries or about assassination of Numair by oter council members? And, Hawk would be useful in regards of either threat.

[thorny]

I think that at this point they're talking about Aries; or about something having to do with Aries having shown up. I'm not sure whether the danger is Aries directly, or something else that's indicated by Aries' presence.

Hawk would indeed be useful. -- I don't think Hawk knows that Numair's in danger; at least, not about the sources and extent of the danger. Maybe somebody should tell him. It's pretty clear that Numair's not going to (for that matter, Numair shouldn't; the thing to do now is to respect boundaries, though I don't think some fashion of 'I'll talk with you if and when and only if you want to' delivered, once only, in writing or through a third party would be out of line.)

[thorny]

Numair, if that's Hawk, hadn't you better put the knife away? You've got enough misunderstandings going on already.

(Admittedly, in that panel I think he hasn't had a chance to do so yet.)

[Jitter]

But at least  there is going to be Talking. Hopefully hugs and kisses as well!

[thorny]

Yes, let's get to see the sun come out in that field!

[Keep Looking]

Yes, hopefully this sorts out.... something

(I'm excited for next week's page)

[thorny]

Ah, Numair? I'm not sure that's a great start?

-- though at least he asked him in!

[Jitter]

Yeah, Mari, don’t ruin this again!!

But I also had a sad thought. Maybe Numair truly believes there is no way Hawk would like him for him now that he knows. Perhaps Numair has grown such an armor around him that it makes him believe everyone is always just wanting something. I thought he left in shame about deceiving Hawk, but perhaps he’s also convinced that there is no way Hawk could possibly be here for any other reason than getting a favor from the Cynn.

[thorny]

Numair seemed, a few pages ago, to possibly not expect to live much longer. I'm worried that he'll think it's kinder to Hawk to push him away now, instead of tangling Hawk up in Numair's dangers only to break Hawk's heart further when whatever Numair's expecting to happen does happen.

[Keep Looking]

Well, at least they're... talking? But yeah, Mari... possibly not a great first response

[thorny]

That page, at least, went better than I was afraid it was going to.

Right question to ask, Hawk. And right to give the honest answer, Mari/Numair! (Is he blushing?) Now could you guys keep both using your words, for a while?

-- and is Hawk wondering whether there's actually somebody there, inside Sraddi?

[Jitter]

Numais came this -><- close to making a great mistake but at the last momentHawk pulled them both away from the edge. Not very far from the edge, but at least they are not plummeting to the true death of their relationship at the moment.

Although I wonder why Numair almost drove Hawk away. He is a truthseer, certainly he had some idea what type of business Hawk arrived with.

I read Hawk’s gesture as him being a little uncertain whether Sraddi is a person or not. Better to err on the side on caution, i.e.going for the possibly unnecessarily friendly rather than accidental cold shoulder.

[thorny]

Numair might have wanted to drive Hawk away in order to try to protect him. Numair's in a whole lot of trouble, apparently from multiple directions; Hawk might get killed and/or captured just because of an association with Numair.

Of course, he's already been captured, nearly killed, and made a batch of enemies all on his own. I suspect that, while neither of them is safe in any case, they're both a little safer together. Plus which -- that needs to be Hawk's informed decision; not one made for Hawk by Numair, for whatever motives.

Re Sraddi -- yes, that's what it looked like to me; Hawk's not sure whether anybody's in there, but doesn't want to be rude if someone is. -- do we know whether somebody's in there? I can't remember all the interactions we've seen with Sraddi.

[Jitter]

Sraddi is a construct which I believe is sort of a magical ”robot” ie. a device, not a person.

There’s quite a lot of speculation in the comment section that Aries might be a sentient construct, apparently it’s mentioned somewhere that making one sentient / alive is illegal, which would mean it’s possible to do so. I don’t know where this is from, there is a lot of worldbuilding material in the extras but I haven’t really read much of it.