Chapter 16, Page 32
February 7th, 2018This page wraps up chapter 16! We move to our vignette next Monday. This one is titled Enduring Earth and is illustrated by the incredibly talented K. Lynn Smith of PLUME! I’m so grateful and excited to have her contribute to my tale. I’m a huge fan of hers and she is a joy to work with.
The action picks up right after the events in this chapter. What happens to Jacqueline? What befalls Vivienne? Where is Sings-to-Moon? What is Mathilde up to? All this and more will be answered, starting next week! See a glimpse when you vote for Snow by Night on Top Web Comics!
Until then, check out the Storybundle deal! Get 8 incredible comics for one low price while helping out a charity! It’s a win-win-win for everyone involved! I’m super proud to be part of it!
The sharp cuts on the burnt hand makes it look like a finger fell off.
Considering Jaqui is barely conscious, a two-hand chair would be a better carry technique. That’s if they can’t improvise a stretcher with all those trees around.
And they definitely absolutely should have bandaged that hand before going anywhere. Even assuming it’s not bleeding much, a bandage would be needed to prevent infection.
With her military training, Vivienne should know this. Unless it wasn’t known at the time?
(I suppose any of this would slow down the comic. But gah, I find bad medical practice so frustrating!)
They could have been prioritizing “get away from the realm of the vicious fire god/monster/being just in case it figures out how to escape” and bandaging while waiting for transportation at the road?
A two-hand chair carry would definitely by better, but I could find no evidence that it had been developed in the early 18th cenrutry. And they were just discovering what caused infection in this era. Though infection is caused malignant spirits in this world.
Infection: hmm, you’re quite right about that. Galen (and some other ancient Greeks) did talk about “seeds of disease” floating in the air and causing illness, and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observed germs under a microscope in the 1670s, but it took until after Paster and Koch in the 19th century for the theory to catch on. So you’re right: a wound that doesn’t bleed much might not get bandaged at the time, at least not straight away.
Carry: you know, I never considered the need to develop a carry technique. I mean, the arms are there, no other tool or scientific knowledge is required, that’s all that is needed, right? Only, of course, not right. Someone has to come up with the technique, and then the idea has to spread – both not granted.
Actually, bandaging a fresh burn wound that is still hot is counterproductive, first thing to do is cooling, if possible.
On the plus side, Jacq’s injury should be easy to pass off as an accident—wounds from flintlock misfires were not unheard of. Much easier to explain to Ald than, say, vindictive fire-spirit attack.
Yeah, at least if Ald doesn’t look at the wound to closely or doesn’t get a detailed report from the medic. A flintlock misfire can well burst away some finger parts and cause bad skin burns, but the heat is too short and not strong enough to cause burns that go deep down into the flesh.
I was being somewhat facetious, but fair enough, that makes sense. So it may depend on Ald and company’s knowledge of burn forensics, in that case.
Sweet Giavere is right, Jacqui’s hand’s a lot worse than it looked last page. 0_0
Agreed. It’s honestly one of the most unsettling things in the comic to date.
Yeh.
And now that I think of it, to burn through bone, fire would need to be ~900C, hotter considering how fast it happened. Jaqui’s clothes should have caught fire, and there should have been first-degree burns on her face, at least.
Unless, her fingerbones were broken off by the explosion? That makes better sense, I guess.
Still, brr…
(Please tell me if I’m too much of a nitpicker. I actually only do it to works I enjoy – they’s the ones I’d want to engage with enough to notice tiny details, but if that’s bothersome, I’ll stop.)
The bone didn’t melt. Just the flesh is badly burned. My apologies if the art wasn’t clear. We’ll get more looks at in the vignette.
You’re fine to nitpick. But keep in mind that we’re a small operation and we make mistakes.
[warning graphic (?) depiction]
A few years ago, I got a junior high student who failed to timely throw a firework. A firework normally used to hunt things (no, I don’t know how it works, but let’s just say it’s a bit more powerful that other fireworks stuff that you already should learn to throw properly once ignited). His flesh hadn’t melted, but his fingers were like peeled to the bone, returned on the other side, like some kind of too much cooked frankfurter. He had to be stitched again but was able to use his hand again six months later. So here we may have to imagine something more powerful, but it may not be so drastic it melted all.
Indeed, she’s got the full gamut of burns…1st through 6th. When you get to 6 you aren’t burning to bone you’ve burnt off an extremity. And yes from where the stump is towards the midline you WILL see all 6 levels of burn. It isn’t pretty. Only two kinds of injury or illness bother me. Gangrene and Burns. I can deal with anaerobic injections I just don’t like them.
I don’t always read the vignettes, but Ima DEFINITELY reading this one! awesome choice, I even just went and voted from excitement!
It might be worth going back and reading them. I’ve found that every single Vignette has brought hidden insight to the story, for good or ill, and a couple of them promise great things to come!
I’ll second that.
Even in the cases where they aren’t quite as wonderful as the main story, they still contain plot elements that you need to have read.
the moooost elusive