Áine seems to have come to a decision on her loyalties, but does she understand everything in her new world? Probably not, but thankfully the girls aren’t holding their kidnap against her and seem to want to be friends…will it work?
Just a heads up, but with pregnancy and delivery dates near, there is likely to be an update break in the very near future. I will give you heads-up as soon as I know myself and I’ll try to minimise it. Again, I thank you for your unending patience 😀
Nope. Uh-uh. We demand to know the sex, birth weight, and body length of the new arrival before we let you go. 🙂
Great body language all around, but did you mean to leave the accent mark (which I can’t make with my keyboard) off Aine’s name in panel 7? I’m open to the possibility that it was deliberate.
Not to worry Delta, I’ll keep everyone in the loop. By-in-by, the Bata Neart page buffer is currently at 5+ weeks, which brings me right up the the delivery date. I’m planning ahead now, because after talking some of with my fellow webcartoonists, it seems that a new birth can rock a webcomic and even put it out of action for a year.
Fear not however. I’m somewhat confident that I can maintain Bata Neart throughout, since I have managed to continue this while drawing my other comic Back Office, doing a full time job, taking care of another kid and maintaining a household, while still having some free time leftover. I am however likely to put the manga on pause for 2-3 weeks while we get used to everything.
Thanks for the compliment 😀 I had always struggled with the pose of Aine ‘offereing up’ the Bata Neart to Ashling. The original 2008 draft of the page was even harder to pull off, since I didn’t have Pose books to help me. I’m glad you liked the result.
The omission of the ‘fada’ in Aine’s name (that’s what it’s called 😀 ), was kind of intentional mostly due to typesetting problems. The Celtic font I use for Gaelige script doesn’t actually include fada-vowels, so I add the fada manually. I omitted this time, because there wasn’t enough room. I can sort of explain it away by claiming that Ashling mis-pronounced the name, but in future I will need some kind of solution for this.
“Teacher” sounds like a good idea. Ashling can teach her how to destroy cars and Aine can give her a wider arsenal via vocabulary.
You’re very close to the mark there on what I have in mind…although you’ll need to add ‘Aoife corrupting her’ to that 🙂
BTW, congrats on the review for Princess Chroma! Very deserved 🙂
Well congrats again, Rawr, and best wishes for an easy birth. And don’t worry too much about the schedule – we all know baby comes first.
I suspect that someone would have to do something a lot worse than tying Ashling and Aoife up for a few minutes for those two to hold it against them. As for Aoife corrupting her… I think Aine was pretty much doomed from the moment Aoife laid eyes on her. Speaking of, I’ve kinda been wondering – does Aoife like women in general or is it an Ashling specific thing?
I can definitely see how getting the pose of Aine offering up the Bata Neart would be a real challenge. I really like how it came out, it looks great. I suspect if I tried it, it would take me a lot of work to get it looking like Aine is bowing her head and not like her head’s being eaten by a giant tribble. 😉
Thank you Kessy for your wishes and understanding 🙂
Ah…Aoife…you know I’ve tried to be subtle in this particular aspect of her, but i’ve promised myself to come clean if anyone ever asked, and in Bata Neart’s 10 years you are the first to do so 🙂
Aoife likes girls. Girls in general, but she’s crushed on Ashling for years, thus complicaring their relationship a bit. (Long story there, which we will get to)
I never spell this out in-story because I like this being a simple fact about her, rather than an overriding character trait. She’s a fun oddball Wicklow Girl, who just happens to prefer girls 🙂
You are too hard on yourself drawing-wise. From what i’ve seen of your work, you can certainly pull off poses like that and much more 🙂
LOL Yes, Rawr, I have noticed you dancing around the subject of Aoife’s orientation. Don’t worry about it so much, it’s not a big deal. My take on it is that you’ve (literally) done all but explicitly stated that Aoife is in love with Ashling, so there’s not really any reason to avoid saying it explicitly if it’s plot relevant. Years ago, a friend was proofing an early draft of a short story I was writing, and he told me about a similar situation that I should pee or get off the pot.
The reason I asked is because the way Aoife has been acting toward Aine could be interpreted as being mildly flirtatious, or as Aoife simply being Aoife and wanting to be friends with everybody. So mentioning the first time Aoife laid eyes on her made me think of, “Wow! You never said she was so pretty.” and thus the question.
The impression I’ve gotten so far of Ashling and Aoife’s relationship is that Aoife is in love with Ashling, and while Ashling loves Aoife, she has no romantic interest in her at all. Both of them know how the other feels, and they each respect the other’s feelings, so it’s not that big a deal. Aoife knows not to go too far in teasing Ashling, and Ashling knows not to give mixed signals. At least that’s how it looks to me.
I’m really looking forward to learning the backstory of the two of them, BTW.
I’m glad my approach is not a big problem 😀
You pretty much described Aoife and Ashling’s relationship down to a tee. There is certainly love, but it is the love that comes from being the very best of friends. They have each other’s back for life, and care deeply for each other. For the record, Ashling is straight and doesn’t have any romantic intentions for Aoife or any other girl. Aoife knows this, and there they have established some ‘boundaries’, but none-the-less she likes to gleefully prod those limits for her own titillation (pun intended). Aoife lives in some hope that Ashling might get ‘curious’ later on…but she is happy with the love that they share now, and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
They both have a detailed back-story, and I’m hopeful that you’ll get to know them like I do once I show these stories to you. Aoife in particular is by far my own favourite of the characters I’ve written, mostly due to the story she brought with her when she came to me. When I create a character, some come from real people I know, but others mysteriously emerge from the ‘ether’..such as Aoife. Just wait until you learn more about her 😀