Don't worry, I'm mildly confused yet intrigued and curious. And enjoying the color choices and chiaroscuro. I usually have my screen's brightness turned down, yet everything still looks visible. Turning the brightness to probably what everyone else uses, it still conveys the mood of a sparsely-lit set of corridors and a dive-y bar. In the second panel I was a little unsure at first if the figures were sitting in a booth or further out in the room. Then I figured out that there was a bar counter behind them.
That could be due to sleep deprivation, but I'll check on this page later and see if it still instills a similar reaction.
I'm guessing she was smuggled onboard in a cargo container, or maybe someone's luggage.
Now I'm imagining some hapless fellow unzipping their carry-on and Iri springing out, waving her sword and screaming "No-one expects the Temple Huntress!"
I'm also guessing that there's some other mercenaries dressed like Iri, as fans of the movie series. Eventually the on-board security decided to turn off the recognition software after too many false-positives.
Kind of like from that comedy adaptation of Zorro.
Why is big red wearing a blanket over his back? I saw a similar trend in chapter two, but I thought it was to conceal their presence. Is it considered rude to walk around glowing or is it a rule of some sort?
I love the non-verbal communication in this one. Well, the verbal communication is funny too. Kellem needs to be more assertive, and perhaps try a different approach than "hey, I'm doing an expose on Gene-horrors." Something a little more subtle like, "Hey, you seem like a cool guy full of interesting stories. Let's have a few beers together and exchange some tales. What? no, this isn't a camera -- it's my personal assistant."
I am also confused about why Iri seems to be walking around in full view of Strakh's crew (or am I missing something?) I'm guessing that once Strakh signed on with Ayata's plan he decided to temporarily set aside his anger with Iri?.. But then, he seemed pretty upset with her for the whole face-melty thing. :(
The thing that's odd is that the burbic seems to know who she is, since the main reason to refuse her would be knowing she is a psycher.
On the other side, she could be abusing the burbic psychologic limitations, and how they now see all poison monkeys on the ship as allies. Heck, although unlikely, there's also the possibility that Strakh is also vulnerable to 'considering people on a ship that as paid as non-targets', and as such dismissing Iri, although that does seem somewhat unlikely given how angry he was at her.
If I might hazard a guess... due to the darkness of the room and her lack of participation in the "game" last panel, I'm guessing that Iri is in the undersides of the ship, and the miniskirt wearing Burbic may be none other than our freind maybex, who is enjoying another day with her friend iri. Most likely threatened not to tell.
Edit: I just realized that I have no idea how dark or light this ended up. On one screen it looks well-lit, but on the other it's dark.
When I painted it, the figures in the bottom panel were barely visible. But now, on my other screen, they look really clear.