Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[thorny]

I've got to say, I like the person reading on the john.

[Grade E cat]

It just hit me that Lalli is probably showing the guy a drawing he made of Onni. I'm now wondering what kind of details he may have put in to make Onni instantly recognizable and having a good laugh.

[Róisín]

Maybe his hair, clothes and scowl? Plus I guess 'Finnish Mage' may be fairly apparent to other Finns. Is Onni carrying his kantele?

[Oripoke]

I'm picturing Lalli's drawing of Onni looking something like his drawing of Kitty and I can't stop laughing about it.

[Suominoita]

Hair, clothes, eyes, ears, boots, sack... something like in page 47. Lalli knows Onni well and likely managed to capture something of his character like how he has one hand in his pocket while he carries his sack with the other. Also, Lalli himself may remind that fellow of Onni, what with them being related and all.

Another thing: The way Mikkel is asking, a very vague description in Icelandic, with a time. Did you see a brown-haired man a month ago? A week ago? A day ago? (Any hair color will do.) I likely saw some men that day but don't remember if any had brown hair. And that's more of a deduction than a memory. Because hair-color is irrelevant unless it's dyed to blue or purple... or you happen to work with hair-dye. (None in the Y90 world does)

Lalli has a picture. Whatever that log-worker remembers of Onni it was in the picture. And it wasn't hair-color. hair-style maybe.

[wavewright62]

*shines self-promotion megaphone*  My speculation is currently showing in the SSSS Art Museum thread.

[Grade E cat]

Interesting to see the map. Ever since I realized that the Saimaa Canal is technically in present-day Russia, I've been wondering if the Known World still considers that canal to be in Russia, or if it had fallen to a fate similar to that of the Swedish side of Øresund bridge. As in "Hello... Any non-trollified humans here? No? Okay... Come on guys, let's reclaim that important asset and expand our borders to include it.".

[JoB]

As in "Hello... Any non-trollified humans here? No? Okay... Come on guys, let's reclaim that important asset and expand our borders to include it.".

In Y0, the locks were operated remotely, while in Y91, as the info pages say, they need to be guarded by on-site troops. The Finns obviously took possession of the canal in a very hands-on way, at least.

Any Finnish mage posted there, however, should be very much aware that the neighborhood is spirit-screaming in Russian, rather than Finnish.

[wavewright62]

In Y0, the locks were operated remotely, while in Y91, as the info pages say, they need to be guarded by on-site troops. The Finns obviously took possession of the canal in a very hands-on way, at least.

Any Finnish mage posted there, however, should be very much aware that the neighborhood is spirit-screaming in Russian, rather than Finnish.

All snickering at "spirit-screaming in Russian" aside, I've always wondered about the language. 
Hearty Jane On the Train spoke untranslated Swedish to Emil, the radio static was fragments of Danish and translated English. 
The notoros and luring house-troll spoke directly to Emil in what we presume was Danish but clearly enough for Emil to understand and speak with them, although Lalli seemed to think that the presence of Lalli's consciousness in Emil's mind was sufficient for translation.
The mages understand the troll- and ghost-speak directly, regardless of language, and not just while they are in the spirit realm.  Sleipnope (a composite of Danish grosslings) taunts Lalli (who doesn't understand Danish) during the battle, "How are you less weak?"  Lalli didn't answer, but we presumed he understood the taunt, and then later he confirms the ability to Emil as per the above. 
Tuuri experiences the voices in translated format as well, when she manifests the Rash.
Reynir is not shown communicating with any ghost ("uh, hi?" doesn't count), and communicating with Pastor Anne only in the spirit world, where the language is Westron universally understood.  Neither he nor Onni understand Danish.

tl;dr So Lalli and any crew with mage ability will just be hearing, and ignoring, the usual blather.  What, if anything, will Reynir hear?

[Grade E cat]

My intepretation of Emil's understanding of Danish is that he did have trouble at the beginning of the trip, but got the hang of it during those two weeks of relatively uneventful traveling in Chapter 11 (his spoken interactions with Mikkel seem to go quite smoothly after that point). So I didn't find it too strange that he understood the notoros when he ran into them.
Or, given the nature of Danish, trollification my have actually made their speech more comprehensible to Swedes than when they were human.

*Looks at the crossed-out part again and starts liking that explanation better than the serious one*

*Now headcanons the notoros as sounding like drunk Danes*

[Oripoke]

Seems like troll-speak can only be heard by those with a hint of magic in them, or through the use of other tools like radios, but in the latter case it comes across as a garbled mess. Therefore, I think it is likely like dream-speak, where the listener can understand it no matter what language they speak in the waking world. The sound just conveys emotion which the listener interprets into something their mind can comprehend.

[Keeper]

All snickering at "spirit-screaming in Russian" aside, I've always wondered about the language. 
Hearty Jane On the Train spoke untranslated Swedish to Emil, the radio static was fragments of Danish and translated English. 
The notoros and luring house-troll spoke directly to Emil in what we presume was Danish but clearly enough for Emil to understand and speak with them, although Lalli seemed to think that the presence of Lalli's consciousness in Emil's mind was sufficient for translation.
The mages understand the troll- and ghost-speak directly, regardless of language, and not just while they are in the spirit realm.  Sleipnope (a composite of Danish grosslings) taunts Lalli (who doesn't understand Danish) during the battle, "How are you less weak?"  Lalli didn't answer, but we presumed he understood the taunt, and then later he confirms the ability to Emil as per the above. 
Tuuri experiences the voices in translated format as well, when she manifests the Rash.
Reynir is not shown communicating with any ghost ("uh, hi?" doesn't count), and communicating with Pastor Anne only in the spirit world, where the language is Westron universally understood.  Neither he nor Onni understand Danish.

tl;dr So Lalli and any crew with mage ability will just be hearing, and ignoring, the usual blather.  What, if anything, will Reynir hear?

Well, Reynir did hear the threat that Sleipnope made to him about following the tank back home, hence his thinking that he can't go home unless the ghosts are taken care of. So I guess the mind-speak that the ghosts do is similar to speaking in the dreamworld, where it's all mutually understandable? And when the trolls speak out loud, it's in their native language. Dunno what the radio counts as.

[thorny]

-- why is Lalli scratching?

[wavewright62]

-- why is Lalli scratching?

Weird, isn't it? Pulling his collar like that, it looks like nervousness, especially since he seems to be looking at a distinctly cross Emil.  Many possibilities occur me to explain why he would be nervous right now. 
Or maybe there is an actual reason why he seems to be switching shirts throughout this scene - mebbe it's too hot to wear a wool shirt while running up & down the stairs!  XD

[thorny]

Hope so.

I mean, he's immune, right? and immune means immune, people don't lose immunity, and the rash doesn't . . . mutate . . . does it?

It's just that Minna seems to be making a big point of that scratching. It's not just that he's shown doing that; and it's not even that the text says 'scratch' once. It says it three times, and in fairly large print.

And she hasn't shown anyone else scratching -- unless they were infected. I would suspect that scratching in public, especially in an area that doesn't go in for quarantine, would be a lot less socially acceptable in the SSSS world than it is in ours.