If you mean Lushaka's reactions, things might make more sense after a bit! If you mean other characters, could you elaborate?

Mostly Lushaka's. He seems to be uncharacteristically taken aback by Ethan's joke with the octopus, even though it would seem obvious Ethan isn't really channeling any power. Then later, the response to the snake joke -- about which I am assuming a revelation is forthcoming as the story unfolds.

But also, I am not getting the connection between "tentacles coming from the mouth" and "snake". Maybe that's a cultural thing I am missing. If it was a single tentacle and Ethan was implying he was eating a snake, maybe. But I was (for some reason) coming away with the impression that Ethan was pretending to be a snake (badly), so the joke kind of fell flat. Or left me wondering what I had missed.

(Yes, I understand "snake" may also be code for a particular male body part -- but the commentary still applies.)

@Gilrandir:

> the connection between "tentacles coming from the mouth" and "snake"

Two tentacles - and snakes have a split tongue.
But that's the only thing I understand of what happened at the table.

Edit: Un-edit, too slow.

Thank you, @RockB. The split tongue had not occurred to me. My bad. Now that I have had it explained it makes perfect sense.

OK, does anything else make sense for you now?

Here is what I got so far:

- Lushaka was miffed about something, most probably about Ethan making jokes about dokkabi-powers
- Lushaka ran off, claiming to be back (soon), but wasn't back soon.
- which probably means that whatever Lushaka wanted to do took or takes longer than he expected.
- Danbi also doesn't know what's going on and/or what Lushaka had in mind.
- The leafs behind Danbi are glowing! I don't think that Danbi is responsible for that, but I might err.
- right in this alley, a board that was used to bar the door of a house was removed and there's a hole in the door.

But I can't make anything out of all this. Did Ethan enter the house or did he run along the alley? Either way, I see no explanation for anything.

Well, I'm thinking the thing that has Lukasha upset is not Dokkabi-related, but much more personal relating to his feelings about Ethan. I also think the tak-tak sounds is probably someone coming up behind Danbi -- likely someone or something using a cane with which he is at least passingly familiar, once they are revealed. And I doubt Lushaka would enter any of the buildings. We've seen he has a tendency to go high and remote when he wants to avoid notice. But those are pretty much wild conjectures.

Clarification: the "tak tak tak" is the sound of Ethan's footsteps as he's running/walking away from Danbi, which is why the letters get progressively smaller. I guess the letters could also get smaller if it's someone trying to make less and less noise as they approach Danbi, but yeah, not the case here.

Everything else is fair game for speculations! :D

Being slow, again...

Initially I thought that the "TAK Tak tak tk" was Ethan either running away from Danbi or up some stairs in that house - you confirmed that it was Ethan running/walking away, thank you! - but, now thinking about it, doesn't Ethan still wear his sports shoes? Sports shoes have rather soft soles and shouldn't make a hard sound like wood or metal on stone, alas, I can't think of a better soundword right now.

Partly right! The answer awaits juuuuuust around the corner....