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Description

This comic requires some context. So let me regale you the story of Cecil Spruce, Aka, the little rice man.

How Cecil Became Famous in the North:

Stallo living in the north tend to be poor. To save money for the war effort, stallo ladies used to make their children’s clothes out of the recycled flour sacks or rice sacks. Rice is imported from the south, where Spriggans grow it in small towns outside of Cala.

One such Spriggan was a man called Cecil Spruce. He owned a rice company that primarily exported its wares to the north. When he learned that poor Stallo mothers were making clothing out of their drab, colorless sacks, he started using floral print sacks with a thinner softer material (so the stallo children would have something nice to wear) His sales spiked for a month in the winter, but then went way down for the rest of the year.

Puzzled Cecil sought to learn why. Apparently the mothers would buy the fancy bag rice in order to make their female children’s formal dresses for the solstice. But wouldn’t dress their boys in the floral print. Nor did they want the daughters wearing thin fabrics that wore out so quickly as it wasn’t practical for working in the fields or doing chores. So this thing that was meant as a sweetness from a softhearted man, was seen as frivolous and unpractical most of the time.

So Cecil switched back to the drab materials for most of the year and then only shipped out the pretty bags in the 3 months leading up to the solstice when stallo mothers would make their daughters new formal wear for the year. And they included sacks with solid neutral greens and blues, or pinstriped patterns so they could make formal wear for their boys too.

To be nice, Cecil began including: ‘May your solstice be warm and bright!’ Cards into the December sacks.

Imagine his shock when he started receiving hundreds of solstice cards, pork pies and huge pound cakes from Stallo mothers every solstice. It got to be so much that he started taking it all down to goblin homeless shelters in Cala each solstice, because one cake could feed dozens of goblins. Ya boy got a philanthropy award later in life by the city of Cala. And another in wexstone for being such a nice dude.

How Cecil Was Essentially Doxed by Old Lady Knitting Circles

Cecil was pretty floored by all of the cards. He didn’t realize It’s considered proper etiquette up north that if you receive a solstice card, you’re supposed to add that person to your solstice card list and send them one back every year on behalf of your family. So in sending out polite well wishes to his customers, he ended up being on every Stallo lady in the north’s card list forever.

But you see, they didn’t send their presents to the rice company. They had the gifts mailed directly to Cecil’s house. He was majorly freaked out that they all figured out his address so quickly... It turned out that an old stallo woman in wexstone got the ‘if you have any concerns about your rice call this frequency’ number off of one of the tags and called in saying she was pleased with her rice and wanted to send a thank you card to Mr. Spruce. She sounded like such a sweet old lady that the secretary gave out his address to her on a whim.

What the secretary didn’t foresee was that the old stallo woman printed out his information on fliers and put them up on bulletin boards or in store windows that stallo ladies frequented with the caption: “Little Rice Bag Man” in bold, capital letters. Ladies in wexstone radioed their relatives in the country and per request, wired Spruce’s information which quickly made it onto other fliers in other store windows. “Little Rice Man” “Little Rice Flower Spriggan” was usually the heading. Soon all of Spruce’s customers knew where he lived and were sending him annual presents.

Spriggans are kinda scared of Stallo. Lots of stories about violent bloodthirsty warlords. Spriggans are pretty much non confrontational as a people. So a military culture doesn’t make a lot of sense to them. It’s scary.If the food and gifts had been sent to the company’s address he would have merely been touched. But an entire country of violent giants knowing your address is scary!

When Cecil realized that he’d been doxed by knitting circles and now an entire country of their of vicious warlord husbands knew where he lived... He took his secretary aside and said:

“Thank you Pansy.... don’t ever burning do that again....”

Visiting The North

Now Cecil Spruce isn’t famous in the south where he lives. All of his wares go northwards to stallo country. So on his plantation outside of Cala, he lives a pretty normal life. That's not the case when he goes northwards on business.

Rice sacks for Cecil’s rice company includes a picture of his face on the logo (kind of like colonel sanders and KFC) so while no one in he south would know him, EVERYONE up north in Stallo country would immediately recognize his face.

Cecil doesn’t head north often for business, but on the occasion that he does he’s always on guard. Most of what he knows about the stallo nation is that it’s a warzone, full of violent giants. Which isn’t entirely accurate OR inaccurate…. So while he has a soft spot for women and children, he’s lowkey terrified of stallo. Especially stallo soldiers. He’s spent much of his childhood hearing about how bloodthirsty and brutal the soldiers are. That’s enough to put him on edge.

One day while he is on a business trip to Wexstone he noticed a stallo soldier glaring at him. The soldier turned and muttered something to their friend and soon BOTH were staring at him. Unnerved, Cecil headed down the street to try and lose them but they followed him. Just staring after him intensely. Cecil was so distracted in trying to ‘get away’ while not outwardly showing his panic that he accidentally cornered himself in an alleyway. The soldiers right up to him, inadvertently cutting off his only exit.

Hence you get the context of the comic.

These stallo soldiers aren't being malicious. They think they recognize that guy from their wives solstice card list. So they go to confirm his identity. Then they invite him to dinner. Inviting someone from your solstice card list over to dinner isn’t a strange thing to do where they’re from. Its neighborly and unthreatening. Just a normal thing to do.

But Cecil is inadvertently blindsided by the culture shock of it all.

Once he gets to their home however, he realizes that the wives are harmless and friendly, just wanting to show him what they’ve made with his rice sacks serve tea and ask for his autograph. He warms up to these ladies pretty quickly. But he still terrified of their unsmiling warlord husbands.

Sad part is, the husbands don't feel all that differently than their wives about him. They either view him favorably for making their wives happy or are basically ambivalent. But stallo soldiers don't often show a lot of positive emotion in public. That's rude. and as soldiers in a particularly grim war, they're expected to always seem very stern, strong and unflappable. As they represent the first line of defense for the common people against tyranny and invasion.

Spriggans on the other hand, always try to project a friendly and unthreatening persona in public. They're the type to smile at the strangers they meet on the street.

Stallo don't.

So Cecil really isn't equipped to handle this social situation, or read it properly. And as far as these stallo are concerned, Cecil has a big dumb spriggan smile on his face. So he must be happy about this.

Cecil Spruce might just be the only spriggan that no stallo has anything bad to say about them. But he’s terrified of stallo. So their gruff unsmiling brand of 'friendliness' is completely lost on him.

Oh well…

Description

This comic requires some context. So let me regale you the story of Cecil Spruce, Aka, the little rice man.

How Cecil Became Famous in the North:

Stallo living in the north tend to be poor. To save money for the war effort, stallo ladies used to make their children’s clothes out of the recycled flour sacks or rice sacks. Rice is imported from the south, where Spriggans grow it in small towns outside of Cala.

One such Spriggan was a man called Cecil Spruce. He owned a rice company that primarily exported its wares to the north. When he learned that poor Stallo mothers were making clothing out of their drab, colorless sacks, he started using floral print sacks with a thinner softer material (so the stallo children would have something nice to wear) His sales spiked for a month in the winter, but then went way down for the rest of the year.

Puzzled Cecil sought to learn why. Apparently the mothers would buy the fancy bag rice in order to make their female children’s formal dresses for the solstice. But wouldn’t dress their boys in the floral print. Nor did they want the daughters wearing thin fabrics that wore out so quickly as it wasn’t practical for working in the fields or doing chores. So this thing that was meant as a sweetness from a softhearted man, was seen as frivolous and unpractical most of the time.

So Cecil switched back to the drab materials for most of the year and then only shipped out the pretty bags in the 3 months leading up to the solstice when stallo mothers would make their daughters new formal wear for the year. And they included sacks with solid neutral greens and blues, or pinstriped patterns so they could make formal wear for their boys too.

To be nice, Cecil began including: ‘May your solstice be warm and bright!’ Cards into the December sacks.

Imagine his shock when he started receiving hundreds of solstice cards, pork pies and huge pound cakes from Stallo mothers every solstice. It got to be so much that he started taking it all down to goblin homeless shelters in Cala each solstice, because one cake could feed dozens of goblins. Ya boy got a philanthropy award later in life by the city of Cala. And another in wexstone for being such a nice dude.

How Cecil Was Essentially Doxed by Old Lady Knitting Circles

Cecil was pretty floored by all of the cards. He didn’t realize It’s considered proper etiquette up north that if you receive a solstice card, you’re supposed to add that person to your solstice card list and send them one back every year on behalf of your family. So in sending out polite well wishes to his customers, he ended up being on every Stallo lady in the north’s card list forever.

But you see, they didn’t send their presents to the rice company. They had the gifts mailed directly to Cecil’s house. He was majorly freaked out that they all figured out his address so quickly... It turned out that an old stallo woman in wexstone got the ‘if you have any concerns about your rice call this frequency’ number off of one of the tags and called in saying she was pleased with her rice and wanted to send a thank you card to Mr. Spruce. She sounded like such a sweet old lady that the secretary gave out his address to her on a whim.

What the secretary didn’t foresee was that the old stallo woman printed out his information on fliers and put them up on bulletin boards or in store windows that stallo ladies frequented with the caption: “Little Rice Bag Man” in bold, capital letters. Ladies in wexstone radioed their relatives in the country and per request, wired Spruce’s information which quickly made it onto other fliers in other store windows. “Little Rice Man” “Little Rice Flower Spriggan” was usually the heading. Soon all of Spruce’s customers knew where he lived and were sending him annual presents.

Spriggans are kinda scared of Stallo. Lots of stories about violent bloodthirsty warlords. Spriggans are pretty much non confrontational as a people. So a military culture doesn’t make a lot of sense to them. It’s scary.If the food and gifts had been sent to the company’s address he would have merely been touched. But an entire country of violent giants knowing your address is scary!

When Cecil realized that he’d been doxed by knitting circles and now an entire country of their of vicious warlord husbands knew where he lived... He took his secretary aside and said:

“Thank you Pansy.... don’t ever burning do that again....”

Visiting The North

Now Cecil Spruce isn’t famous in the south where he lives. All of his wares go northwards to stallo country. So on his plantation outside of Cala, he lives a pretty normal life. That's not the case when he goes northwards on business.

Rice sacks for Cecil’s rice company includes a picture of his face on the logo (kind of like colonel sanders and KFC) so while no one in he south would know him, EVERYONE up north in Stallo country would immediately recognize his face.

Cecil doesn’t head north often for business, but on the occasion that he does he’s always on guard. Most of what he knows about the stallo nation is that it’s a warzone, full of violent giants. Which isn’t entirely accurate OR inaccurate…. So while he has a soft spot for women and children, he’s lowkey terrified of stallo. Especially stallo soldiers. He’s spent much of his childhood hearing about how bloodthirsty and brutal the soldiers are. That’s enough to put him on edge.

One day while he is on a business trip to Wexstone he noticed a stallo soldier glaring at him. The soldier turned and muttered something to their friend and soon BOTH were staring at him. Unnerved, Cecil headed down the street to try and lose them but they followed him. Just staring after him intensely. Cecil was so distracted in trying to ‘get away’ while not outwardly showing his panic that he accidentally cornered himself in an alleyway. The soldiers right up to him, inadvertently cutting off his only exit.

Hence you get the context of the comic.

These stallo soldiers aren't being malicious. They think they recognize that guy from their wives solstice card list. So they go to confirm his identity. Then they invite him to dinner. Inviting someone from your solstice card list over to dinner isn’t a strange thing to do where they’re from. Its neighborly and unthreatening. Just a normal thing to do.

But Cecil is inadvertently blindsided by the culture shock of it all.

Once he gets to their home however, he realizes that the wives are harmless and friendly, just wanting to show him what they’ve made with his rice sacks serve tea and ask for his autograph. He warms up to these ladies pretty quickly. But he still terrified of their unsmiling warlord husbands.

Sad part is, the husbands don't feel all that differently than their wives about him. They either view him favorably for making their wives happy or are basically ambivalent. But stallo soldiers don't often show a lot of positive emotion in public. That's rude. and as soldiers in a particularly grim war, they're expected to always seem very stern, strong and unflappable. As they represent the first line of defense for the common people against tyranny and invasion.

Spriggans on the other hand, always try to project a friendly and unthreatening persona in public. They're the type to smile at the strangers they meet on the street.

Stallo don't.

So Cecil really isn't equipped to handle this social situation, or read it properly. And as far as these stallo are concerned, Cecil has a big dumb spriggan smile on his face. So he must be happy about this.

Cecil Spruce might just be the only spriggan that no stallo has anything bad to say about them. But he’s terrified of stallo. So their gruff unsmiling brand of 'friendliness' is completely lost on him.

Oh well…