Ah, so that’s why it’s an “Eyestone”, and why it has the power to “alter” bodies like that (godly “shaping” magic).

Heh, Omin, Omni
Clever

When you make a typo and then decide to keep it.

wow although there is the problem of that water queen manipulating the innocent water creatures

Ominteresting...

Very, very interesting...

Is now more focused on the jewel on "his" chest.

This is bad right?

I'm not sure. He seems to be satisfied understanding their backstory at this point, and seems to react with curiosity to the eyestone more than anything else.

I'm not picking up any further hostility at this point. He may actually be a neutral party to the growing conflict amongst the godly beings, and as such a potential ally to Saida and Brand, as such curious free agents acting separately from the Godly kingdoms, would be a fascinating spectacle he might just want to see happen.

I could always be wrong.

My money's on a sinister agenda. There's a whole lot in this shrine that's already been revealed as just rotten - like Miyo. And he's already shown that he wouldn't hestitate to kill them all if he thought it to his advantage to do so. Dude is not friendly - and neither were the kitsune of lore, even those pledged to the inari, the guardian spirits.

I could be completely wrong too. But after the last three encounters and what we've seen of Suzucon-sama, I'd be extremely suspicious of a yao no kitsune's motives until proven otherwise.

The genre-savvy part of me tells me that likely he can't be entirely trusted, but... it seems premature to suspect him of anything specific, yet. Innocent until proven guilty, and all that.

The tell is mentioning "important experiments" without bothering to tell them what experiments. I'm sure when they find out, they aren't going to like it much.

He never said anything about "experiments," just "research." Research may or may not involve experiments, but he never actually explicitly said anything about experiments. (I went back and checked, and yep, his exact wording was "important research." He never used the word "experiments.")

To be fair, we don't know what Miyo is. All we know is that it has no aura, and Suzucon can control it. Is this what a puppet is? Does that mean that Suzucon is either rebuilding his power as the puppetmaster or trying to become a new puppetmaster? Note I don't think he ever said anything about experiments, just "Very important research."

All we know, Suzucon likes being a recluse, is a stickler for manners, and does not appreciate being lied to. Also he's immune to Darya and has no fondness for her and her actions.

It just seems that his curiosity at this time is sated, and at least for the moment, he doesn't seem to be giving off heavy signatures of being "The bad guy."

Some of it I admit is comes from the original kitsune lore, which Virmir seems to follow to an extent that frankly shocks me. (Almost none of the modern depictions of the kitsune include the hoshi no tama, for example, but here they play an integral role). Suzucon-sama is s stickler for manners because that's the way of the Japanese, and of course their kami follow the same rules. Social standing and etiquette mean everything to the Japanese. I know - I have them in my family! So it makes sense that being rude to such an elder kami as Suzucon-sama is a good way to get erased. Darya is too powerful to just erase, but he's more than powerful enough to be immune to her siren song and probably yeet her right back to her own kingdom.

I still think it's a big tell he didn't elaborate on his "very important research." The kitsune are trickster gods. They can lie like they breathe, and never once show a hint of rudeness while doing it. Not that Virmir has to follow the original lore - he actually seems to like mixing mythologies a lot and adding his own touches, the mark of a good storyteller.

I have no idea if Suzucon-sama is, was, or wants to be the Puppetmancer. It would tie up that thread rather neatly, but Miyo's the only clue. The fact he has no aura means he has no soul. So what is he?

TL;DR: Trust a kitsune as far as you can throw his shrine, and this monster's shrine is as big as a village. But is this kitsune a villain? Not enough info. But there are a few nasty hints lying around that something is rotten on his island. What that is... it'll be fun to see.

Even liars, unless they're just compulsive liars, don't lie just for the heck of it. He's probably not telling them the whole truth, but nobody tells their entire life story to someone they just met, so that doesn't necessarily mean he's hiding anything particularly sinister. Not everyone is up to something all the time, not even kitsune. I mean, they'd be wise to be wary around him, but there's nothing specific to suspect him of, yet. And Miyo might just be a puppet or a construct and maybe there's nothing more to it than that. It would be weird to think that someone who owns a Roomba is up to something sinister just because they have an object used for convenience.

Yeah I know how stories go but speculating motives in the absence of solid evidence just leads you to spoil the story for yourself; I've always thought so anyway. Just wait for it to play out before jumping to conclusions, I say.

It's more fun when you are a writer yourself. We do this all the time with each other's stories, trying to understand what the other writer is thinking. Sometimes that ends up a self spoiler, yeah, but as writers we're already familiar with a LOT of the basic tropes, so it's hard NOT to get spoiled. Occupational hazard.

To me as a writer the key question is: Is Suzucon-sama just like the others or not? And if he IS a break in the pattern, why? These are interesting questions to me as a writer and it'll be fun to see how they play out.

There are a lot of questions yet unanswered.

I try not to be the kind of person to accuse others of having "wrong fun" but that's never been something I've enjoyed. Either it ends up disappointing me because it set my expectations too high, or it spoiled the satisfaction of revealing something I already guessed at. To me what makes a story enjoyable is precisely because I don't know what's going to happen next. That's why I try to avoid speculation and just wait for the story to unfold at its own pace. To do otherwise makes it feel like the story's over before it happened. I derive my enjoyment from watching a story unfold, not correctly guessing where it's going to go before it does. Questions will answer themselves if you're patient. This probably sounds cliche to say it, but it's the journey, not the destination, that matters. A story is interesting to me in how it gets to the destination, not guessing what the destination is.

I honestly think Miyo might be the biggest point in his favor. Despite his apparently being able to give her direct orders, similar to Bowman’s AI in Freefall, she still seems to have free will. He doesn’t seem overly fond of her personality, but he hasn’t ordered her to portray a different one.

While Miyo’s “condition” is unusual, there’s no reason to suspect that Suzocon is the cause. Miyo said she didn’t have any memories when she wound up on the island, and Suzocon *is* the one in charge here. It is possible that Miyo’s “aura” was like that before even setting paw on Suzocon’s island, and he’s letting her stay since she’s not a threat, while maintaining his position as the “master” of the island (albeit unsuccessfully at times).

It's pretty strongly hinted that Suzo created her to be a slave. And she has no power outside of what he gave her. He leaves her to do whatever because she can't possibly do anything that isn't conducive to his studies, that's all.

I think the fact the Eyestone was drained and Miyo's condition are not a coincidence either. But to be fair, it may not be Suzucon-sama that is the root cause. We'll see. Right or wrong, I expect a fun ride and I'll learn more about how Virmir likes to write.

That explains it.

LORE DROP LORE DROP HYPE HYPE HYPE

The hidden lore of the "Ominous One".

What do you expect evil from every demigod? You know how predictable this is for a comic where no matter where you look, an evil genius immediately plans an evil plan and tries to manipulate the heroes. I would like that in this comic there was at least one demigod who was kind (or neutral) who was like a mentor for the heroes and helped them get out of a difficult situation.

I think the guy below you has a good idea.

What, like the Elder dryad that saved them from the lynch mob AND gave them the golden acorn that helped track the Eyestone?

To be fair, Suzicon was been evasive ant first, before dispensing with his “mild” appearance when he realised someone saw his true nature, but he’s probably being cautious, as to not get caught in some “trap” set by the Quetz. Other than how he pressured our trio to be honest with him, there’s no real reason to say that Suzocon’s “evil” or has some sort of “ulterior motive”.

That's been the pattern so far. Perhaps the key question to ask is... why? Why are the demigods of this world corrupt? That's a far more interesting question to me than the Villain of the Week. It's a larger question of how this world is structured and maybe we're about to learn some of that.

Im guessing that the tail in the eyestone was actually his 9th tail.

Yes, I suspect so too.
Now there is a neutral reason for the kitsune to help.
To get his ninth tail back.
His help would not be selfless because he has his own reason.
But the reason wouldn't be evil either.

That uhh.. tail is gone, like from when the corpse rotted.

I'm fairly sure that corpse-Roko never actually had the extra tail.

Oh yeah.. Yeah that probably puts my theory higher that the tail is gonna be his 9th tail.

The reason? No. What he would do as a kyuubi no kitsune? Very open question at this stage.

Well, least he seems to be understanding of their plight more...

And if you find them all and put them on this gauntlet...

The equivalent would be him getting his 9th tail and becoming a kyuubi no kitsune. Then he's effectively Thanos. Still an open question what he then would do.

If that is the case, then that one in the stone can't be his can it? Because wouldn't that have meant he'd be way to powerful for the Quetz to take it away from him?

That is correct. I suspect it is NOT his. If he's too powerful for Darya to affect with Siren Song, it suggests he'd be too powerful for Vetra to steal from either... at least if it was a fight. I'm coming to realize there's a lot of holes in Suzucon-sama's story. And even if that tail in the Eyestone isn't his, that doesn't mean he can't use it...

Maybe the best attitude for me, as a writer, to take is... further developments as they become available.

She could have taken it when he was less powerful.

Tying back into all that lore from chapter 3. :3

Yeah. Each of the MAJOR demigods got one of his Eyestones as they continued to split. We've seen the Sun demgod and the Storm demigod, and perhaps the descendants of the others.

Talk about an Omin of things to come.

Talk about a whiplash. Suzucon-sama goes from threatening them with instant death to being completely engaged with Saida-hime's (true) story. And now it's his turn. The elder kami fills in a few blanks of his own - with the story of Zen'nōkami. The Omnipotent One. This world's Amaterasu-ōmikami, the creator of all. And now revealed as the origin of the Me ishi, the Eyestone.

Even Saida-hime, well versed in the lore of her own people and in magic knew of Zen'nōkami, but not about how he related to the Eyestones, But Suzucon-sama did. I guess when you've lived as long as he has, there isn't much you don't know about how the world came to be.

But still unrevealed is Suzucon-sama's own agenda in this. Maybe, in-universe, he's still processing that he has one of the Me ishi right in front of him.

(ETA some of the lore from Chapter 3 that I reviewed).

So they just handed a piece of a super god to what essentially is already a god?