Very true. The only way you can be douchier with facial hair alone is with a soul patch. It's like a little button labelled "Please punch here"

That said, I love the eyes on those vamps. And yeah, the finger smoke thing is a seriously cool visual element.

sidepyres.

sideinfernos.

sideconflagrations.

They got nothing on the original sideburns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnside

Hey! Trivia that I know! I was randomly reading Civil War Wikipedia pages when I first ran into him. Amazing how the name stuck for more than a century.

Look up Gen John Hooker

Fair enough. But, without stating definitively one way or another, I'll mention that some of them might not necessarily be telling the truth.

The setting is what I'm more concerned with. Did they all agree to suddenly get a breath of fresh and and decide to get some true/false exposition out of the way for its own sake or was there another way this could be set up.

It's a nitpick, I'll admit. But I'm only picking the nits because I think there is value in improving your method of storytelling. I'm getting the feeling that Mike isn't particularly fond of Bloo's rambling given his responses.

In my defense, I don't consider this exposition so much as exploration. Exposition implies explanation of elements of a plot for the benefit of the audience. This scene is instead meant to demonstrate the nature of the relationship between two characters. Neither of them are entirely aware of the others' motivation, and may even be uncertain of their own. Their probing isn't so much a "true/false" examination as it is a Rorschach test, and my failure is that I was unable to adequately convey its nature as such.

I'm using exposition in a more literal sense than from a storytelling perspective. In other words, characters are "exposing" themselves through dialogue. Whether or not what they say is true or false doesn't matter so much as the setting under which they've decided to convey that information.

In other words, maybe you should give either character something to do to mediate the on-going conversation. Something visual, right? Just having the two out staring over yonder talking about whatever isn't as exciting as on-going action, in other words, yeah?

I'm using exposition in a more literal sense than from a storytelling perspective. In other words, characters are "exposing" themselves through dialogue. Whether or not what they say is true or false doesn't matter so much as the setting under which they've decided to convey that information.

In other words, maybe you should give either character something to do to mediate the on-going conversation. Something visual, right? Just having the two out staring over yonder talking about whatever isn't as exciting as on-going action, in other words, yeah?

Well then Pelinkovac why don't you make your own comic and write it exactly how you'd like? This scene including the setting make sense to me, because Bloo has, since the introduction of her character, been a chatty one and it seems to me that she's watching her vampire army prepare to cause some chaos down in the down. Mike's motivations are very much being kept in the shadows, and honestly it doesn't seem 100% clear why Bloo is so insistent that she wants this either. So I respectfully think your criticisms are bunk.

It's alright, Pelinkovac's just speaking their mind. I can't fault them for that, and I'll always encourage my readers to give their honest impressions for my honest consideration, even when I don't always agree with their conclusions. I owe it to every reader to contemplate any complaints.

And Pelinkovac has put a lot of thought into their criticism. In fact I think we're alike in a way. I've offered similar critiques many times in the past. I can sympathize, even if I don't concur.

In any case, I appreciate their input, and I appreciate yours, Spider, and I assure you there's plenty of room to agree to disagree.

Take Mike, for example. He was interested in Zandra for what reason? That wasn't completely clear in the beginning--nor necessarily should it have been. There was just enough there for us to conclude he had an interest.

Was he in love? Was it just curiosity? It wasn't exactly spelled out, was it?

Now, here, it seems attention is being drawn to it. In similar fashion, Crystal drew attention to her character traits. Point being here that character traits don't exist to be expounded upon via dialogue. The traits exist as complicated constructs not easily deconstructed through mere words but actions and words within particular events.

Here, just words are taking place.