Okay, was wondering about something with Arc. A little thing. Back on Book 1 Pg 15, when Kyra sits down with Arc, she asks “why the *% ”from what I understand, it's a social meme."

I know he's deliberately misinterpreting the question, but just what is Arc referring to? I know (after seeing 9Volt and especially the most recent voting incentive) that the electric stripes are part of his species (type? variant? mutation?). So, I'm wondering about the brownish coloring around his eyes - are they tattoos?

Just wondering …

Sorry it took me so long to reply here, not in the habit of checking the forums regularly yet.^^;

Bk 1 pg 15 is one of those pages where I have more than once contemplated doing a tweak, there is a line from Arc at the bottom of panel four that is very easy to miss, “Generally, when one person sits down at another's table, its because at least one of them wants to talk.”, which is, in truth, mostly a social meme.XD
I should have placed that line in a more noticeable place, even I miss it from time to time when I read through to refresh myself on canon.

The spots are a color variant thing, the same way that different breeds of domesticated animals have various patterns of color and types of coat. If you wanted to classify them in ferret terms, Arc falls somewhere between a “solid” and a “roan” pattern ferret, while 9Volt's patterning resembles more closely that of a “standard”(aka “polecat” )-though he lacks clear separation of his mask marks, so he loses points for that. This is according to what I looked up just now on the American Ferret Association's Color Standards, by the way.

The variations arise from both the differences between versions of the lantern vector and the people they use it on, such as their hair color, birthmarks, etc. I try to keep noticeable traits like that in all of the anthro-type characters, 9Volt's cowlick, for example, so that they don't all look the same, a problem sometimes for comics with floofy-tailed characters not named Wren. ;P (Twokinds can get really confusing in the parts done before the guy who writes it figured this out. Now its just confusing. XD)

No problem with the delay. I'm still getting used to the forum here too. :)

Now see, I actually DID see Arc's comment, well, the second time through. But, about the comment that Kyra made though … she was asking why someone would do that …

D'oh! I just connected it. She was asking why anyone would converse with someone when they sat down! Senior moment … :-/

Actually you had it right the first time,
she was asking about him letting The Greening play scrabble with his genome.

He deflected by intentionally misinterpreting it as asking about the table conversation thing, because he really didn't want to answer, since he doesn't know for sure.

He's kind of afraid of the answer, too, not knowing what kind of person he was before.
Like he says, for all he knows, he did it for the free donuts.
Either he was suckered into joining and double crossed with the “lantern” thing…
or he wasn't always so opposed to the Greenings plans.