I fully expect the majority of the comments to be about how a Bishōnen playing deck should be filled out. I intentionally didn’t show Sydney holding the Ace or Kind of Hearts, and I prefer to leave those high level decisions to experts more qualified than I. As it is, I think “L” might be a little low as the 8 of Hearts, but this all assumes the deck is making a value judgement based on the card face, which is totally valid given that Racoom is the 2 of Clubs. I doubt he’s high on anyone’s effeminate boys smooching on other effeminate boys ship list. And yes, obviously the deck came from Sydney’s utility belt.

I assume they’re playing Texas Hold’em, so the quality of Sydney’s hand depends entirely on what’s face up in the middle. Is that the river? I don’t know poker, but I’ve heard the term “river” before. I know there is some skill to playing poker, but you’ve got to admit there’s a shitload of luck involved. Those movies like Maverick and Casino Royale where the main character goes all in on the last hand and the right card happens to come up? That’s not skill. I mean, ignoring the part where it’s a movie and some guy in a coffee shop wrote that particular outcome. It’s luck, and anyone saying “Ooh, he’s the best at poker…” Yes, some skill was involved in actually getting to that last hand, but one card flip does not a skilled player make.

Sydney doesn’t quite seem to get the rank structure yet. Harem, for all her goofing around, does outrank Sydney. Harem hasn’t shown much in the way of leadership, and Sydney’s plan does seem sensible. Still, usually shouting “Nein!” at a superior… well, Harem’s not an officer… just shouting down your superior, probably not the way to go. If Arc-SWAT ever does a training exchange program with another branch of the military, Sydney will get in trouble real fast methinks.

I know there’s a shot at the news on the page – I really had to edit down what Harem said cause it was turning into an excoriation which was really digressive. That said if just can’t restrain your need to discuss the business of news and its role in a democracy that’s fine, but please no politics. You know. Current event stuff. There are other places online if you absolutely need to vent and nothing good will come from doing it here.

Edit: Made Sydney’s POV slightly blurry in the mid ground. Also, here’s panel 2 without the word bubbles so you too can experience full Sydney-vision.

Edit 2: Fixed a typo, made Spike’s hair a bit bigger, so hopefully people will be better able to recognize him, and made his card the Ace of Spades since that comes up in Cowboy Beebop a few times. Been a long time since I’ve watched that show. :)

Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)

Check out Wearing the Cape: Team-Ups & Crossovers. Sydney’s first Crossover! I’ve made a dedicated blog post for it, please comment there.

Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.