Nov 12, 2013 update: "Where are my crumpets?"

[Zodel]

This reminds me of the time where Minmax was throwing various objects into the oblivion holes, and Kin knew that he was doing it simply by pieces things together and common sense.

Why is she unable to do the same thing now?

[Skulexander]

This is perfect, actually. Minmax will drink the tea, for her. Because he loves her, he will let her go, even though that is the one thing that will pain him more than anything else. Kin will realize this. She'll realize that Minmax did the one thing that he wanted least because it's the one thing she wanted most.

If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours.

[Maur]

Personally, I feel like this is out of character- not that it's unrealistic, but that it's unrealistic for Kin, who we know to be a woman of great logic and thoughtfulness and curiosity about herself and her surroundings. Instead of trying to understand what's going on in her brain, she's gotten locked into a very inflexible stance, one that makes it look as if obliterating the necklace changed her, not just her memory.

Well, i am generally with you, but Kin never showed much of emotional intelligence. I guess i progressed to the acceptance stage

[Plays_Games]

Since everybody is trying to guess the outcome, here are my 2 eurocents:
"F & M drink the tea, and teleport out. I don't think Kin will realize she sees Minmax just yet, she's been in a turmoil the whole time, just the same as Minmax. Upon arrival Minmax challenges the goblins, but gets a few arrows in his back from Kore. Kin will feel this, puzzle together what happend and as a result blame all others Kins. She will HATE them, and depart. After she returned the teapot to her clan, she will start looking for Minmax, unless he's dead by that point."

please make me be wrong Thunt.

[sshipway]

Everyone else is speculating, so why not me as well...

• Minmax drinks tea, and goes to GAP. Starts a fight.
• A few seconds later, Kin appears -- now 12th level and powerful, after having gained XP in maze for a long time and finally realized that something was obliviated, and so she teleports to MM.
• Kin stops the fight between MM and the GAP.
• Then Kore appears...

[Gryphonic]

I don't know... I find both of their reactions to this whole situation very, very believable. In the, what, 5-10 seconds after the necklace was obliterated, they both reacted with knee-jerk responses based on long-established habits. Kin became uncertain about her feelings and withdrew from MM, MinMax did something desperate and stupid, and disastrous -- and Kin's reaction to that was terror and then utter fury. This all rang very true, and it put them very much at odds. But the situation wasn't that simple, for either of them.

I don't think she's dismissing MinMax, exactly. Look how unhappy she is. She's feeling his misery... and I'm pretty sure there's some of her own in the mix, too. It's a sign of how much she does care about him that she hasn't been able to be calm, rational, and objective about the situation. Remember, "seeing" is always rare. Between someone of her race and a different one, a human, it's completely outside what she has always believed to be possible. This is a huge hurdle for her to get over. It would stretch credulity if she could do it instantly.

Yes, she's very intelligent. I suspect she's at least halfway there already. But she's fighting her way to that insight through a thicket of emotions.

I'm with Wolfie and Sessine on this, but haven't wanted to necropost back to those pages. We always have several days between each update to analyze and discuss them, and I think it's easy to overlook how fast the characters experience things. The whole episode from them shyly starting to ask each other to share their further quests to her hurrying off in tears took 60 seconds or less as I read them together, counting the pause panels.

So as Ruby oblivioned the necklace, they - or just Kin, imo - were suddenly feeling strong emotions toward each other but had no idea why. It definitely freaked her out, to find herself acting completely irrationally as far as she could tell, and Minmax panicked at having the woman he Sees do a 180 on him right as things seemed to be going perfectly.

As many have observed, they very likely could have recovered a lot of their relationship if they had time to recall all the other times they've demonstrated how important they are to each other in the Maze, but there wasn't time in that moment of emotional whiplash.
So yes, they did seem a bit out of character - but that's because with their memory of the truth gone they suddenly had a different reality between their heads and their hearts.

Why do they even want our Kin in their group?
Sapphire is a hell of an archer. Onyx is a spellcaster. Ruby is a highly skilled fighter. And all are extremely intelligent. So what does Kin even really bring to the table? I guess she's an empty slab to cultivate however you want in future runs but she doesn't have a whole lot in the way of distinguishing features.

Been wondering this too. She does nothing that they can't do with higher stats.

I always make a longer post than I thought I would.

[Rogbull]

Well, i am generally with you, but Kin never showed much of emotional intelligence.

Ex f'ing actly. How's a girl get to recognise love when she comes out of a society where she doesn't know her parents and romance comes down to forming a ball with a dozen of dudes. You can't factor concepts into your logic that you don't understand.

[warrl]

Okay, I've figured it out. Something nobody has never noticed before, because the trigger event never happened, is that the teapot is cursed. Because Kin and Minmax See each other, the attempt to teleport Minmax but not Kin has strange side effects - Kin is dragged with them, along with the teapot, and they go through a strange (but brief) interlude in a very different and confusing universe before reaching their destination.

[RedwoodElf]

This is perfect, actually. Minmax will drink the tea, for her. Because he loves her, he will let her go, even though that is the one thing that will pain him more than anything else. Kin will realize this. She'll realize that Minmax did the one thing that he wanted least because it's the one thing she wanted most.

If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours.

Yeah, and the rest of that cliche' is, "if it doesn't come back, it was never yours to begin with"

[Skulexander]

This is perfect, actually. Minmax will drink the tea, for her. Because he loves her, he will let her go, even though that is the one thing that will pain him more than anything else. Kin will realize this. She'll realize that Minmax did the one thing that he wanted least because it's the one thing she wanted most.

If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours.

Yeah, and the rest of that cliche' is, "if it doesn't come back, it was never yours to begin with"

Indeed

[Tofu]

A frothing field of possibilities are there, and I most like the simplicity of 'drink your tea' ... MinMax's character sure is earning XP from all this role-play ...

[jakesdad]

Thunt's tweet:
"Let me clarify. I'm not leaving the Min-Kin story arc now. Next update IS Min-Kin. Next update is ALSO the GAP.
01:01:42 AM November 12, 2013"

Thunt's tweet an hour later:
"Dang it! It's been too long!!!! I've completely forgotten how to draw a Goblin! Ironic, right? So it's Maze of Many until the end of the Goblins story."

[Unlucky-for-Some]

that's just plain nasty - my heart skipped a beat there

[talantus]

.

Why do they even want our Kin in their group?
Sapphire is a hell of an archer. Onyx is a spellcaster. Ruby is a highly skilled fighter. And all are extremely intelligent. So what does Kin even really bring to the table? I guess she's an empty slab to cultivate however you want in future runs but she doesn't have a whole lot in the way of distinguishing features.

Been wondering this too. She does nothing that they can't do with higher stats.

I always make a longer post than I thought I would.

my take on why they want her in the party is because she is Kin.

lemme explain. its kind of like an extremist Feminist movement. the women( kins) sees all males ( humans) as evil and will stand together in order to fight against the oppressor(minmax)

they did mention in earlier strips that they were creating a ``kin only`` group. they didn`t invite her as someone who has a special set of skills to add to the group. they invited her because she is ``kin``. also,for those who think kin have nothing to bring to the kin only group, we all have seen that not all kins have the same stats. Some are stronger, some are dumb, some are more even, some are more ``creative``. my guess is , even tough she never had a chance to show off, our kin is one of the most intelligent Kin out there.

on another note, for those that says that kin has been acting OOC for the past few strips, that she is intelligent enough to connect the dots and realize something is wrong. i DARE you to try and make a rational tough when you are exhausted physically, mentally, that your feelings have been betrayed by the one you feel closest to AND that she`s had one of the most important event in your life litterally ripped out of existence.

if minmax didn`t try get ahold of that leash earlier she might have been calmer and might have made more connections or have a different train of toughts but the shock litterally shook her to the deepest of her core.


finally, i am tired of people complaing about the drama in the story and expect everything to be fixed the next strip. altough the time frame is quicker than what would happen in life, time has to flow and i , personally, never have seen a ``couple`s`` fight being resolved in matter of minutes. it can time quite some time and that is the key word here, TIME, Thunt has show that he laid out plot to happen for the future. just let him tell his story and have faith. good or bad ending for them, thunt will bring this arc to an end somehow and short of thunt dying( knock on wood) he will resolve the issue eventually. time , being relative in the story right now, will have to work its magic and hopefully, kin being so smart, will figure it out. i have faith because Thunt did mention that kin`s story is based of his mother and she did have a good ending. we just have to let things go their way and let thunt tell the story the way he chooses to.

[AntMac]

I tip my hat, so really very hard indeed, to ( was it jakesdad ? ) whoever came up with the thread title.

I guess she made Tea for Forgarth, then wanted to see if MinMax could bring himself to totally commit to subsuming his will and doing the very opposite of what he would want, just because she tells him too. I.e. could be trusted when he claims "Just tell me what to do, and I promise I will do it"". Because there is not two ways about this, a man who says what he has just said and then does not do what she says she wants is false, and will always find a reason why he is "allowed" to pledge his word, and then not redeem it. The world is full to bursting with false people, she can wait and get a better one if she ever does need one in fact.

So she put just hot water in his cup, and now MinMax stands at the crux of his life.

Will he just do what she wants him to do, even at the possible cost of his own wishes and desires . . . in which case he proves he can be given another chance, . . . or does he fail to grant her the complete respect of her self-will that a person who has suffered like she did absolutely needs as the bare minimum from a person who might just be the next bully/abuser she suffers?.

If he drinks the hot water, she can offer him her trust again. If he drinks and it is the Tea, the same, though that might not be immediately apparent to him. He will always be available to someone who has the Teapot. If he drinks the tea now, when she returns the teapot to her tribe, she could easily brew up a drink and go visit a guy who has proven he is worth knowing.

If he refuses either, and goes on talking about what HE wants . . . later he would be going to bully to get his way in other things too. Sure as eggs is egg shaped.

[drachefly]

Here are two visions I had for how this scene would go from here.

Minmax: All right. And then IÔÇÖm coming for you.
Kin: To make me yours?
Minmax: To make me yours.
He then pulls out a new ÔÇÿKENÔÇÖ collar heÔÇÖd made and puts it on himself.
Kin:  Drink the tea already!

~~~

Minmax draws oblivious and successfully destroys her leash without backlash because thatÔÇÖs how he thinks it works. KinÔÇÖs character development is reset to who the heck knows what, so really, this one isn't going to happen.

[AntMac]

Regardless of how time works the next update should be fascinating.
Stray thought here.
Why do they even want our Kin in their group?
Sapphire is a hell of an archer. Onyx is a spellcaster. Ruby is a highly skilled fighter. And all are extremely intelligent. So what does Kin even really bring to the table? .

Well, I could point out she brings the very weapon one would want to use to disarm a nerd opponent who really likes anime. Moe, is it called? .

Or. . . Cannon fodder?.

[Krulle]

Thunt's tweet:
"Let me clarify. I'm not leaving the Min-Kin story arc now. Next update IS Min-Kin. Next update is ALSO the GAP.
01:01:42 AM November 12, 2013"

Thunt's tweet an hour later:
"Dang it! It's been too long!!!! I've completely forgotten how to draw a Goblin! Ironic, right? So it's Maze of Many until the end of the Goblins story."

:-)

Can't find the tweet you're referring to...
You jester. ;)

Here are the other two, with links to the tweet:

Psst. Wanna know a secret? Come closer... Closer... Next update, we return to the Goblin Adventuring Party.
11:30 PM - 11 Nov 13

Let me clarify. I'm not leaving the Min-Kin story arc now. Next update IS Min-Kin. Next update is ALSO the GAP.
12:01 AM - 12 Nov 13

[Nerre]

I only got one hope for this situation ending with a temporary happy end: Kin either finds out what is going on, for example MinMax gets hurt and she can feel it, then understands she really sees him, and then drinks the tea to get to him. Somehow, the others kill Kore, only to find out he is for example a possessed paladin, the possession transferring to Forgath (cause he is the one most likely to kill him, using the +7 racist axe from MinMax). Then the possessed Forgath might kill or hurt Kin, which also might end with the result of the destiny Young and beautiful has told Forgath. But maybe he can be saved by using Ears axe of Prissan, which also might trap the Kore-demon, without hurting Forgath cause he is a paladin. On the other hand, Kore was already hit by it, so I not really expect something like that.

"when the serpent becomes your prey, friends will become enemies and love will fuel hate."

It all comes together. But I got the feeling sometimes, Thunt reads all we write only to come up with something nobody expected.

[LooksAndSmiles]

This has been probably said, but I'm too lazy to read everything back up.

Kin holds 2 cups. On the previous update, we have seen that there are at least 3 cups. Even if (presumably) teleporting requires drinking out a full and unused cup, Kin already had her chance to drink one, w/o the others seeing it.

Now, she explicitly states that the teleporting requires the "navigation tea" to be drunk, it won't have an effect until then. So the tea that she had drunk will bring her to wherever they go, which means if MM drinks the tea too now they will end up together. ----> He passes the test and will earn the price (her).

[Elvors]

That would be awesome.

Also, it would mean that she's prepared to give up on bringing the Jade Teapot to the Silkscale clan, because she'd have to leave the Teapot behind and couldn't enter the Maze of Many again.
I haven't seen her considering that decision, let alone make it, so... unlikely. (Unless THunt foreshadowed that particular one in some unobtrusive way that we all missed.)

Also, if Minmax fails and does not drink the tea, she'll end in a party with Forgath and not have the Teapot.
That would assume that she's willing to give up everything if Minmax fails: Her position as a Maze Kin, recovering the Jade Teapot. The only thing that I can imagine that would make her do that would be that she'd be beyond caring if Minmax fails, which in turn assumes that she's accepted her Seeing him... and, well, she's been in denial of that.

... unless... unless... unless... her culture knows things about couples that Saw each other, and still one of them was able to betray the other.
This IS conceivable. Imagine one of the couple being emotionally dead, so he'd feel betrayal etc. but not care much about it. That's a scary thought - the partner could easily end in a very personal hell and have no chance of ever escaping it.
Then there's the "Scorpion" personality - doing the worst imaginable thing just because. Lots of suffering consequences, but still doing the worst imaginable thing just because on the next day. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog , and yes I know people in real life who act like that; I guess it's a compulsion or something.

Dunno whether Seeing can happen in the first place for an emotionally dead person.
Based on my experience, I'd say a Scorpion personality could easily be involved in Seeing.
(Love can hurt. Love can be abusive. Even if the loving is mutual.)

BTW I think as soon as MM realizes that "Drink the tea" is meant to be "I take you by your promise", he will do it.
He'll cry his eyes out, but he will do it.
I mean... he already accepted that he can't and will not force anything on her.

[Javada]

I have this fear that when Minmax and Forgath teleport to the Goblins, Minmax will purposefully throw his fight with Names (possibly going as far as to ask the Goblin to kill him) and upon learning they are being hunted by Kore, simply walk over and pick a fight with the big nasty of the day. I mean, he has lost the one thing he really cares about. I don't see him just accepting it, like Biscuit, with a shrug and an "Oh, well" then moving on; when people get hurt badly, they tend to respond with acts of great stupidity.

[Gherkin]

Thunt took great pains to make MinMax's left hand bleed. That hand is carefully kept off-panel (and presumably outside Kin's field of perception). MM will drink the tea, wave goodbye with his left hand, Kin will notice the blood and now or later put two and two (or two and oblivion) together.

[Meridianson]

AAARGH! The...FEEEEEEEEEELS!!!! OH THE fEEEEeEeEeElS!!!!

Really good comic though. Think i'm addicted by this point! Bittersweet candy though it is...

I think it can't happen that soon if it does happen that they get back together. It would be too predictable and later we would resent it. Way to delay gratification THunt!

That said, with regards to the GAP, in the words of Tychus Findley, "Hell, IT'S ABOUT TIME!"

GIMME SOME BIG EARS!

[Starfire]

I'm with the crowd that this is a test. She is knowingly or unknowingly testing his ability to let her go if he truly loves her (and she'll come back...) and also this grants her the space she needs now. I think she needs him out of her immediate area to clear her head and perhaps come to some conclusion. (hope hope hope it's that she really does love him).