Well now…I’ll let you read into the mysterious “Heidi” all you will…or you could just @AskAshling…just beware that Aoife lurks in the comments too 😀
Alas, no AskAshling for a couple of weeks. I tend to draw these on the week of posting, and with the holidays & a planned X-Mas trip back to Ireland on the cards; there’s no time to draw more AskAshlings until I get back to Norway after the New Year’s.
I have however begun work on Chapter 9 “Witch School?”, and as an early Christmas present; here are some teasers that I’ve been sharing on social media this week:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwQHJPhlgK/?taken-by=markegan_rawrtacular
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bczzx7KBWST/?taken-by=markegan_rawrtacular
Those are panels from the first two pages of the next chapter, which will be coming in February 🙂
Until next time please have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
(Giggles and rubs my hands together evilly) Yes! My evil plan worked perfectly! Mwahahahahahahaha…
Ahem…
Anyway, I’m glad that Ashling seemed to enjoy answering this one. And Aoife, don’t be silly, we wouldn’t make fun of you. Tease you, certainly. But make fun? Never! 😉
So guys, how about we try guessing what the Heidi incident was? I’ll take a stab at it first. I’m thinking that Heidi invited Aoife over, but Aoife misinterpreted the invitation. So she wound up walking into a room full of people dressed for a private romantic evening.
Okay, my first thought concerned Johanna Spyri’s “Heidi”. I was thinking a school play gone wrong, perhaps? A yodeling disaster?
And a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone here, too.
I’m thinking Aoife was obsessed with the movie when she was a kid and used to dress up as Heidi…and not just for Halloween. 😛
And I must say that Aine has a very cute tushie. I really look forward to the next chapter. I’m eager to see what happened in Aine’s life and it looks like we might get to see what caused to her to be trapped in that block of ice for 1,500 years.
I hope everyone has a good Christmas and safe New Year’s days. See you all next year!
Ohhh, I like the idea of a disastrous school play. Maybe Aoife in the lead role completely flaking out on stage?
Are we going to hear the backstory, or will this by like the Calvin and Hobbes “noodle incident”. Referred to, but never explained. 🙂
@Delta: My theory is that if we can come up with ideas even more mortifying than what really happened, we’ll eventually get the truth out of them. 😉
Hmmmmm… Maybe the Heidi incident somehow involved Aoife accidentally kissing a boy?
@Kessy: No one has guessed right yet. But there is a way to find out…. *hint* *hint* 😀
@Delta: There is a backstory to this one. Bata Neart has a tonne of backstory that we haven’t gotten to yet, but it will come. There will however be certain incidents that I’ll refer to but probably never explain ala the “noodle incident”. An upcoming reference to Sharon and “The Leixlip Incident” will be a recurring thing with her. Even I don’t know what happened there, and I’m from Leixlip….
@Farren: Glad you enjoyed the preview. I must apologise in advance since Page 2 is going to be a little fan-servicey…
@AskAshling: Okay, you teased us, now dish. Who’s Heidi and what happened?
@Kessy: Emmm….now I feel kind of guilty doing that. It really does embarress her.
Tell you what….if you can conivince Aoife to say OK to it, I’ll share the story. She likes you folk, so you might get her blessing 🙂
Nollaig Shona to all! 😀
*hops onto Aoife’s lap, curls up, and purrs loudly
“Puuuuuurtty please, Aoife?” >^.^<
@AskAshling: What, if any, are your favourite stories, legends, or heroes of Ireland?
BTW, Mark….
Merry Christmas to you & the missus.
I got my fave gift: FRUITCAKE!
(Yum! Love it!)
Anywho….
Merry Christmas to you & all your readers as well as a Happy New Year!
Jim
“Is mian linn go mbeidh Nollaig Shona agus Bliain Nua Shona 2018 agat go léir!”
Jim agus Sheryl Kern
@Azreal:
Ohhhh…..
Hu! Al-alright…..but please don’t tease me…
Ashling, please tell them…I just cant! (Hides back under the covers)
Alright Aoife, here goes…
The tale of Heidi & Aoife
So, every year our school hosts a foreign exchange student. It’s usually Fiona who has the job of taking care of them meaning that they’ll live in her double-dorm room. Since Fiona hangs out with us, we will often become get to know the exchange students as well and become friends too.
This had been fairly uneventful ever since Fiona came the host student…at least it had been….until last year….when we got our exchange student from southern Germany….when we got……Heidi
Heidi was lovely. She was very pretty, friendly, bubbly and we all got on with her almost immediately. She was also a very down-to-earth, quite literally a “Heidi of the Mountains” type of character.
It had looked like Heidi was going to be another run-of-the-mill (temporary) addition to our gang, until a few weeks in….when I found out something…
It had turned out that she had developed a bit of a crush….on Aoife…
Somehow she then found out that Aoife also likes girls (that might have been my bad) and so what started off as a little crush suddenly turned into a very big crush. Heidi was on a mission…..
Now….Aoife has a knack of being a little attracted to the exchange student (I dunno why…maybe because they are so “exotic” compared to local girls), and it was no different with Heidi. She also developed a little crush…right on cue…but she never really acted on it…
Then, all of a sudden after years of an unending dry-spell, Aoife had this Mountain-Girl actively hunting her down, trying to get her alone and just trying her damned best to get a smooch out of her.
You simply couldn’t believe the panic Aoife displayed in all of this…after years of doing exactly the same thing to me…she was running scared while Heidi was bouncing after her screaming “mein Häschen!!” with a big smile on her face.
Kinda ironic that Aoife could dish it out to me, but when she was finally presented with a girl who really wanted to score with her….she choked…and ran….a lot!
All of this drama was ridiculous to watch, but it did finally get Aoife off my back for a while…which was nice (this makes me a terrible friend, doesn’t it?).
Alas in the end, poor Heidi’s efforts didn’t win a little brunette “Häschen” to call her own (although apparently there were many close calls…Aoife did like her back….but she was just VERY shy about it)
When Heidi did return home, the whole experience had left a bit of an impact on Aoife. There was suddenly a whole load of new “triggers” that would embarrass her. Yodelling would be one thing, *any* bar of German chocolate, and for some reason….Hazelnut spread….
I have tried to ask her why she’s embarrassed on some of these things….but any mention of them combined with the name “Heidi” causes her face to light up like a stop-sign and then she zooms out of the room.
I believe she sometimes gets letters from Heidi to this day…but again…she’s too embarrassed to tell me what is in them…
And that is the tale of Heidi….Aoife’s very own embarrassment trigger…
Awwww, Aoife, that’s not something you need to be embarrassed about. It sounds to me like it comes down to something very simple: flirting is easy but relationships are hard.
(Asks Google what “haschen” means.) Okay, now I have a sudden desire to see Aoife wearing a pair of bunny ears. 😉 It’s kind of funny that under the bubbly exterior Aoife’s actually pretty shy. Very endearing. ^_^
Thank you, Aoife.
Yes, sometimes it is hard to be the mouse when you are used to being the mouser.
(Pokes head out from the covers)
Th-thank you Kessy and A-Azreal…sorry I’m being so wierd about this…
It’s not everyday that you get a pretty girl that actually wants you back…I got scared…but she was really nice…even when she was chasing me…
Erm…she actually got me bunny ears…and I still have them…they even match my hair-colour…Heidi is very thoughtful like that *blush*
Gah! I said her name!! (Hides back under covers)
I keep forgetting to ask this, @Rawr: Have you considered a Cast Page for “Bata Neart”?
@Azrael: I agree, it would be helpful. I keep forgetting everyone’s family names! And some of the background characters we’ve only seen a little of so far can be hard to keep track of. Like… what was the name of the nun Aoife used her Distraction +1 on? We’ve seen her a few times, haven’t we? And of course there’s the Smoking Girl… (dramatic pause) Hey, come one, Agent Aoife, that’s your cue! 😉
Well, ‘Smoking Girl’ was named Naomh, which is pronounced something like Nee-av IIRC (bloody Gaelic). And the nun on night duty at Colaiste Muire is Sister Helena.
Yes, after going to look to confirm, I found Naomh in the Comments section of Chapter 2, Page 09 and Sister Helena confirmed in the Comments section of Chapter 3, Page 37. Not sure how to insert links into the text here or I would have done so.
@Kessy & Azreal: I have long been procrastinating on this, but there is a webpage re-vamp on the cards.
I’ve been mostly waiting until I could start making proper Bata Neart cover images that I could use to re-decorate the site. There will be a cast page (it’s the biggest wish I’be gotten for Bata Neart, also over on Deviant Art), as well as a navigation of the comic presented by Aoife.
The first of these images was finally inked this weekend:
This Ashling will be colourised, and used on the homepage here, as part of a cover for Bata Neart – Book 1, and also for the various mirroring sites that I’m thinking of launching Bata Neart on (Webtoons, Tapas, etc…)
I hope you’ll enjoy what I’ll cook up 😀