Well, hope is where you find it. Sometimes, it’s all a matter of choosing a specific angle to look at things. >_>

I wanted to use some unmistakable visuals for this scene, and ultimately settled on the famous ending of the original Planet of the Apes movie…which had the twin advantages of being highly recognizable, but also giving the Elder a modicum of cover. After all, how was he supposed to know what that statue means in context? I mean, aside from all of the magical means he has at hand to acquire knowledge of things…>_>…which, obviously, don’t really matter if you’re consciously twist their results to match your preconceived notions…so the whole thing comes full circle again. Completely circular reasoning. Well done. *pats own back*

There are two things to take away from today’s strip:

– The Elder is so sick and tired of bad news that he can’t face up to the reality of the current situation anymore. On the whole, that’s probably a bad sign by an in itself. ._.

– vision!K’ip isn’t really appreciative of gift horses, even if they come in the shape of statues. He might have been more appreciative of a gift horse in the shape of Epona, as long as she wasn’t 2/3 buried in sand…and, actually, she’d have been more useful at the beginning of his quest, rather than at its sad end. Still, the statue is worth about 5.4 million dollars. As long as he can fit it into his inventory, which he should be able to without any problems, he should be able to pawn it off at the next city he gets to for 200 gold, at least…he might even make enough to buy a horse.

More on Monday.