This is super well done and I adore the concept with him!
Acknowledging the taboo and frowned upon nature of his desires while also accepting what he wants is a really great balance that you portrayed nicely :)

Plus that last bit of dialogue is GREAT

Mothers, don't let your grubs grow up to be hunters

Those are some gnarly sawblades.

Yeah, now I wish I could see other Baxxids with undulled hands. It must be like filing nails so i guess that they could revert to their old look quite fast.

Also Kalgkur seems to be quite know around. He probably high status among his society. I bet he will be part of the gossips for a little while.

They are actually kept that way for catching things! Great traction and doesn't damage the inner meat too much; as opposed to the thin blades they used to keep their claws shaven to

Does this mean that the Baxxid we saw spearing a bug in an early Field Guide page was artistic licence by Ran?

Rip and tear!

I love Baxxid's so much. Go sawblade queen, be your worst and unacceptable self.

It's like having a friendly neighborhood cannibal, who everyone's on good terms with because he's really friendly and he only eats the criminals prowling the 'hood at night

as long as they have long-winded noir monologues, i can see vigiliantes being accepted.

So stuff like this is just a way for the baxxid in question to go "AW YEAH TIME TO CUT LOOSE"

Sorta!!

Reminds me of "Forbidden Planet" and the culture of people who were very, very sure they'd stamped out their own violent and irrational instincts.

It's a tale as old as biology!

So they see even an act of hunting to be beneath them or at least an act of unnecessary violence in a more civilized world. Is there any act of physicality that they would find if not virtuous than at least agreeably neutral? >.>

Perhaps.....dancing?

Also makes me wonder if their high level of culture and pacifism has an 'exception' in a way similar to the Yinglet automatically attacking any Lesser Yinglet on sight? Heh.

They're really big on trying to figure out a cultured-looking way to dance in recent years

That front facing baxxid in the first panel, just as delightful and cursed as expected XD

It had to happen sooner or later!

That's a really good example as to why they cover most of their eye for the humans benefit. Otherwise the moment one of them look someone straight the other will have a face full of eyeeyeeyeeyeeyeeye, which is a sure fire way to trigger one of those primal reaction of fear

I think it's endearing.

But then, I'm deffo a weirdo

I wonder what the Baxxid stance on snoot-booping is.

oki oki, I think I worked this out last week
me thinks val might be setting Kalgkur up as a romantic interest for Isher
he's kind and gentle, attentive (way too attentive honestly) and can probably sympathize with her

Kalgkul and Isher romance would must likely be awkward seeing how but see have trouble with the subject. I, however, see them well becoming friends.

The "awkward clawbeast" couple

heck yeah

do eeeiiiiit that's be hilarious!

But Isher isn't a "human trinket-maker", which we know is who Kalgkur has a crush on from Page 130

...Do we even know if Kalgkur is male or female, or if Baxxid even have typical genders? I haven't followed the Baxxid lore as well as I have the Yinglets. Maybe Kalgkur is interested in a dude. (And they haven't really picked up on what makes human men and women different.)

counterpoint
you can develop new crushes

Counter-counterpoint: Polycule.

is that a counter point?
seems like it'd work in my favour

It does, I was just being silly. It'd only be not in your favor if your original point involved Kalgkur losing interest in the "trinket-maker" to develop a crush on Isher. ^_^

I honestly just wouldn't put too much stock in some unamed human love interest
aside from them not having been shown yet, characters fall out of love a lot in this series

Something quite delightful in the way they speak to one another

Rapid-fire micro vibrations let them fit a lot of meanings into their sentences! Which they most certainly do.

What would a Baxxid poet be like. What would it be like studying under a teacher in a class for them. Many questions you see.

I wanna see some baxxid poetry now.

Oh that would be funky!

DARE...to keep Baxxid's off Bloodlust.

What a really cool page, ( and character)

"Hunting has ruined my life, kids... but it doesn't have to happen to you."

The bottom left pane where kalgkur looks like he's gasping made me chuckle

He pretty much is!

The Baxxid body language in general is delightful. They're just so damned expressive!

Kalgkur in particular tends to keep his arms in that defensive "X" pose when he's anxious, but even so, he's merely Kalgkur-Default-Anxious in Panel 1, and visibly AGHAST in Panel 5.

I'm wondering when the Baxxid passion for intellectual pursuits and civility began. When they began integrating with humanity in Valsalia, or sometime earlier?

Also, front-facing Baxxid face is both cute and unsettling at the same time.

They started getting a little culture-obsessed when they started living alongside humans, observing them, and getting hooked on that Culture Bug

Front-facing baxxids are a blessing among the blessings they already are. <3

You'd think their heads are kinda little but then one turns his head to the right and knocks over something 4 feet behind him

I would forgive them every single time. <3<3<3

How sharp can their "hands" be?

At least sharp enough to skewer soft targets naturally, seeing as that's how they used them before integrating into Val Salia. Though if they can be blunted, that must mean they could also be sharpened further

As sharp as they grind 'em to be! Blades, spears, it can go all sorts of ways.

I don't think the non dulled claws are much less sharp. They are just more dangerous cutting with as they are saws and they are better for holding prey.
During the stone age bone was often used as spear and arrow points and more intricate designs like hooks. For an cutting edge you wanted stone.

Ooh, some hints of an interesting history and culture here. That they're SO strictly civilized and nonviolent yet would take instinctive pleasure in bloodshed if they allowed themselves seems to indicate extreme danger if they were to let themselves go. Like, "if we give in to instinct we'll wipe ourselves out because we'll gleefully murder the entire ecosystem" level danger.

They're kinda like Victorians when it comes to "ghastly *body*-things"

I think it's more that their new cultural identity is so wrapped up in how they aren't the violent creatures they used to be that any expression of violence is shunned. Baxxids find their current life comfortable and largely despise the idea of going back to how they used to live. It's generational trauma enshrined into social norms.

based on what we know, they've lived in the region for a very long time, periodically leaving the nest-site at val salia to go on centuries-long migratory feeding trips. baxxid can live an extremely long time.

val salia was settled by humans while the baxxid were absent, and when they returned they desperately tried to attack the humans that were "camping" on their precious nesting ground, but weren't able to do much damage; val salian leadership decided to try negotiating, and an alliance was developed that restored baxxid access to to their underground nests and gave them access to the wonders of technological civilization in return for help with physical labour and sabotaging enemy armies that attacked the city.

i don't think the baxxid are so much an ecocide risk as "we're very intelligent but we don't have hands so we've been living like savages for thousands of years and we'd like to Stop Doing That Now very much". the introduction of technology, agriculture, and a cooperative species with hands has given them an opportunity to break - mostly - cleanly from their more primitive roots and to emulate humans in distancing themselves from base survival.

Okay this is a super good description of their situation, seriously

i've been paying attention!

I'd forgotten most of that, having started the comic years ago, but that makes sense. The ominous vibe of their conversation seemed to indicate something more sinister and dark in my mind, I guess.

He is the definition of wise.

Gentle Hydralisks, so wholesome. ^^

Looks as if he's found a way to put his atavism to a socially acceptable use... Although I wonder how well he'll fare at controlling the forces he's been conditioned all his life not to wield.

That's a really interesting bit of lore there. Though I imagine that if the Baxxid actually are carnivorous, they'd have to have a form of husbandry to keep themselves fed. Everybody has to eat, no matter how civilized.

Pretty sure they are supposed to be ambush predators, just ghost up to towards their prey then just let rip with their claws and drag the corpse back to the rest.

Okay those sawblade hands...I can totes see him doing lots of carpentry now. To doing medical work of "Okay now lay still this might...hurt...a ...lot"

Man these guys are cool

Most of them are just really a buncha awkward dorks

But when you got giant claws for appendages people tend to notice that more.

They're large predatory arthropods trying extremely hard and in quite good faith to be civilized. A bit of awkward dork is to be expected.

Hmm. So when baxxid cover their back four eyes with cloth to make it easier for humans to focus on their faces, it might also make their faces look much smaller when viewed from the front.
Like an optical illusion.

A pack or two a week is a bad habit. A pack of what, is the question.

Ah, finally a nice head-on look in that first panel, how adorable. I can never get enough of these creatures. Though I do wish they weren't quite so stressed about not enjoying the simpler aspects of life such as labor and hunting, may as well exist however feels best uvu

I like how we get to see a forward shot of Kalgkur's face. This helps create an understanding on what it is like to face one and perhaps converse with. The baxxid are definetly some of my favorite of the story

I'm glad, because there's definitely gonna be a lot of 'em in this chapter!

I'm so happy to see more Baxxid, they've been my favorite on my little viewings of this comic. Admittedly I'm a bit biased, but seeing them again made me read through the entire thing just to see more of the adorable buggers.

"Have a good time!"
'How DARE you?!'

PREDDY MUCH

I too am in love with this page in particular, and how the hunter articulates his taboo desire.
Fully at peace both with what it means to him AND what it means to the rest of Baxxid kind.

I hope we get to see more of Hunter in the future, he's a delightful character.

It's hesitantly accepted as a choice of lifestyle, so long as they keep it in check!

Everyone is dangerous... We simply choose not to be dangerous...

This weirdly reminds me of a questioni forgot to ask months ago... what if there was a patreon or odd art where Kas is, instead of a Yiglet is the same species as Yannit? Still a girl tho sorry Kas.

Do baxxid molt? I need to see one with no exoskeleton xD

I love these guys so much.

You have built an incredible world and filled it with interesting people. Better than some well known published authors.

Ayy, much appreciated! I'm just doin' my best over here. :D

Damn, but this is good stuff...

Thank you for the description, because I don't play Skyrim so I have no idea what's going on lol.

This has nothing to do with Skyrim. That would be Val's other comic, LAM'd.

Lost a few updates, man. You upload incredibly fast for the amount of writing and drawing you do. Love these gooses; the page where the banners on their heads were explained was delightful (the humans in there killed me).

As for these recent pages; I love the Baxxid’s way of speech~

It definitely helps that if I stop posting pages, I can't pay rent! Huge motivator, that.

And honestly I think waiting for a few pages to be posted and binge-reading in short spurts is a perfectly good way to read the comic, ya know?

huh, so is this the beginning of Kalgkur's Vietnam ark?

He's the guy that comes in to class, runs a handkerchief up one nostril, out the other and says 'Don't snort coke, kids'.

This race reminds me what slivers (from MTG.) would be like if they were nice. Also I love the interaction with all the races of your world it is helpful for the RPG we are working on. Figuring out how multi race towns would function and such. Thanks.

Yeahhh I'm much more interested in the idea of how odd species like this would interact peacefully, rather than the typical "mindless alien enemies" route

Yup in our RPG world there are the high dragons that enlightened the races of the world, so they are encouraged to work together. Most of the enemies will be wild animals or the void born who are like bad thoughts incarnated to attack you. I like working out how we would build towns different if we had even something simple like house cat sized people.

This is all so very interesting and I just love the Baxxids so much!^^

If they only knew what good they were doing by keeping the rampant fauna from over-feeding on the flora... Go hunt noble and kind Baxxid.

Relatable. Sometimes we just gotta cut loose and cut prey me thinks, good on our friend to keep to the wild side of life

"The Wild Side Of Life" would definitely be the main song in a Disney movie about these things

Hunting's baaad, mkay?

U GODDIT

Murder tho :U

I've a feeling Kal is going to do fine. I love the fact the other one helped him calm down a bit and reassured him that he most likely wouldn't have to spill any blood.

huh, i thought that the spike was natural, but i like how you did this!

Once again your writing is fantastic. I really love how varied the cultures are in this world and how different the non-human cultures are from us. Not to mention how not flat they all are!

Well they *could* be flat if they sculpted their headplates to be as featureless as possible

"Hands"

Even the outcasts can find a way to contribute. He is not good at this Socializing stuff. So why not go out and help with something he really enjoys doing and being productive! Good for him!

I have never seen such an elegant way to say "I'm a freak and I fucking love it!" and it's the best thing I have read in a long while <3

Chekhov watches in keen interest.

reminds me of the speech "i chose the gun so others don't have to"

>Snake people with giant knives for hands
>"Actually, these are the BLUNTED version, our natural claws look LIKE THIS"

He's not even sharpening them or anything, he's just lettin' them grow out wild

Great for hunting, as it makes for a lotta gripping/holding power!

Perfect for gunting and making burgers, IT KILLS AND GRIND S MEAT AT THE SAME TIME!

Those guys are like reverse klingons

Hi, OOPs folks! I'm here to remind you yet again that there's a place called "Top Web Comics" https://www.topwebcomics.com/?home=3 that compiles comics from various places. There's a bunch of cool stuff there. They have monthly votes, so you can support OOPs there. You can vote once a day per device, so your PC, laptop, tablet, phone, etc.
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Kalgkur will guard them! Good thing he's here!

Hmm. I wonder if the old ways and <despised life-errors> are conceptually related for baxxids. I imagine antisocial criminal behavior and an unrestrained hunting impulse may have a similar ethical valence, since their society is so scrupulous about civility and personal discipline.

4 baxxids at the same place, that's a new record

Making me wonder, we know in Val Salia Baxxids are a minority, but typically do they usually stay at small compact group or can they grew to large numbers ?

Y’know the whole premise of feeling out-of-place, like what the very title is, originates with the main character’s storyline but has clearly been prevalent with many side characters and their storylines like Isher, Yannit, and our anxious little baxxid buddy here. And while side plots don’t necessarily always collide with the main plot, it certainly makes me interested to see where they lead. Hopefully to a mega happy ending accompanied by John Williams’ ”Victory Celebration” score for the end of Return of the Jedi.

it's a credit to your art and writing that this is the first baxxid I've seen in this comic that made me actively think of just how horrifying a baxxid on the attack would be.

hohoho now whatever could you mean.