Haunted 1-30
on October 10, 2021
at 1:35 am
Chapter: Up In The Air
Characters: Ari Rasoanirina, Champei Khay, Iliana Wickramasinghe, Ray Saeed-Siqueria, Sirak Cavoukian, Xiyuan
Yuan’s position means that if one of his employees is promoted to Gallerist, he is responsible for giving them the Rustic Dream Bed. I’m never getting over that career reward.
Slow day in the blog portion of this comic, so may I remind you all about the MSSSC? This month’s theme is dinner! Dinner! I’m considering actually participating this month rather than just being there for moral support, but have no idea what’s going to happen at the dinner.
Because it is a *very* slow day in the blog portion of this comic, here is a joke that has nothing to do with anything and that at least a couple people have made already: Warlie Day.
Oh, and Yuan got Tumblr’d. Some trivia in there for y’all.
I love that first screenshot! Oops. It’s not a screenshot. It’s a drawing. The camera angle… err… perspective made me forget you drew this!
I find it kinda rude, actually, for someone to ask about wearing sunglasses, due to light sensitivity that requires many neurodivergent or visually impaired individuals to use them in all sorts of situations.
It’s definitely rude! Even if she’s not sensitive to light, Ari is allowed to wear whatever she wants without people questioning it. He probably feels awful for causing her to take the sunglasses off. Story-wise, we needed to establish that Yuan didn’t hear the conversation the staff members just had, but it could have been handled better on his part.
(to be honest, there may have been screenshots involved… I’m still struggling with basic drawing things, and using references is the only way I can meet these self-imposed deadlines. Still learning and being patient with myself!)
I also like the menus! I’m a little hungry right now; maybe that’s why. (Are you going to draw the restaurant scene? That’d be super ambitious but also delightful, in terms of backgrounds.) I love the overhead shot, too. Art is all-around delightful as always.
I know the Rustic Dream Bed is supposed to be interpreted as [Rustic] [Dream Bed], but I’m choosing to parse it as [Rustic Dream] [Bed], you know, a Bed in which you have Rustic Dreams. Cozy. Quaint. Yeah.
At this point the choice is between having the restaurant scene and delaying the start of Bernard’s chapters, so we may never get the restaurant scene 🙁
So the [Rustic Dream] Bed was foreshadowing Henford-on-Bagley? I don’t think that’s entirely impossible.
Excuse me, where do I begin? “Extrauniversal monikers include Ghost Rider.” YES. Yuan’s profile had me dying. Of course his fave song is from A Little Night Music. J’approve, Yuan, j’approve.
Okay, Yuan rolling in and taking charge of everything in five seconds flat followed by a sick burn on Ari’s sunglasses is everything. HAHAHA. Not gonna lie, those menus are dope and in my mind none of them Chez Llama because Yuan would NEVER.
I love that Haunted is like an office comedy rn.
Y’know, I forget how often I call him Ghost Rider behind the scenes vs. in canon. That’s his second-most frequently used name after Yuan.
YES, it’s a damn office comedy. “I don’t want to send the message that the universe revolves around the protagonist.” -> “I’d better flesh out the people in his life.” -> “Alright, so I blinked and there are 10 new characters.” -> “Let’s establish that they all have stuff going on completely independently of Mister Squareface Ghost Rider.” -> “Uh-oh, I made them too interesting. TURN BACK!!” -> “I am in love. Chapter 1 is several times longer than originally planned. Send help.“
Yuan doing the best friend boss-thing. WILL HE KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS…I will sit back and watch their dead bodies litter the gallery…. Mwhahaha. It will be a ghost-orgy! Okay don’t mind this comment, I just drank coffee and its effects are strange.
It took me awhile w/ Ari. So this is going to be my white-privilege analysis. At first I didn’t see anything wrong with Yuan’s question, b/c people (especially at a workplace, I’d say professional, but considering the dress code it’s pretty lax) don’t typically wear sunglasses indoors. But that’s b/c I don’t wear sunglasses indoors. So to speed things up, Yuan singled out Ari, and when someone singles another out it can make that person feel different “the other.” White people are big offenders of this to non-white people in America. “Oh where are you from?” Bitch, I’m from here. “Where are your people from?” >.> Anyways, what Yuan did (knowing or unknowing) was a no-no.
WHO INVITED WOMEN TO THE GHOST ORGY. Annoyed scrunchy Yuan face.
As for the issues w/ the sunglasses, I think Cathy Tea’s analysis nails it! In that maybe a person wearing sunglasses indoors is sensitive to light, and of course it’s none of Yuan’s business. When I initially wrote this I thought it would be clear that the emotion Ari showed was guilt—because she only put the sunglasses on as part of a costume while playing spy with Yuan’s personal life—but am instead touched that everyone here seems more concerned with what it means for Ari’s comfort. Y’all are so caring.