Verlore Geleentheid
("Lost Opportunity") is a webcomic written in Afrikaans (with English translations in the comments) about Louwrens Labuschagne, a South African courier who stumbles upon a secret military base and is accidentally sent to a planet similar to the country he just left, except inhabited by a species resembling anthropomorphic dogs. Transformed into a 13-year-old of the native species, Louwrens fakes amnesia and manages to hide his true origins.
Three years later, Jane Onoda, a survivor of Atlantis, destroyed 10,000 years ago by the Om-Ankh aka humanity, is thawed out and joins Louwrens' class. Unfortunately, she's a little obsessed with finding what happened to the species who nuked her homeworld.
Now has an English version.
Tropes:
- Aliens Speaking Afrikaans: With a few snippets of English thrown in.
- Alleged Lookalikes: The cartoonist himself admits that Louwrens and Alex don't look as alike as they think.
- And I Must Scream: A glitch on Jane's ship resulted in the passengers being conscious the whole time they were in cryo. The sole reason she is (relatively) sane is that the ship's computer kept her occupied with battle scenarios.
- Bilingual Bonus: The author provides English translations when he deems it necessary, but there's at least one line that doesn't translate well.
- Bittersweet Ending: In the end, the enemy forces get what they want, but the heroes can live with the results.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Humans are "Om-Ankh". Justified in that Afrikaans doesn't have a stand-alone term for the human species (beyond the Latin species name), so distinguishing humans from other sapient species in everyday speech takes a little creativity.
- Crazy-Prepared: Jane. Justified by 10,000 years with little to do but war simulations.
- Cyborg: Louwrens when he returns from getting gunned down.
- Despair Event Horizon: When Jane fails her mission for good, she falls into a depression. When Louwrens comes to check on her, she assumes he's there for fatal revenge — and she will put forth no resistance.
- Enemy Civil War: From Jane's perspective the conflict between Louwrens's forces and the Anakim, though she suspects it's a trick.
- Eyepatch After Timeskip: Louwrens comes back after the timeskip in Ch. 6 with an eyepatch and a prosthetic arm. Though justified since the last time he had been seen before the skip Jane was shooting him repeatedly.
- Faking Amnesia: Louwrens.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The map of inhabited space looks suspiciously like something else. In addition, Atlantis appears to have had similarities to Japan and Ancient Egypt, while the Om-Ankh soldier pictured was wearing what appeared to be a Roman centurion's uniform.
- Fish out of Water: Louwrens and Jane, though they both seem to have adjusted fairly well.
- Alien Among Us: Inverted by Louwrens, who has little problem due to the aforementioned counterpart culture.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: It's mentioned out of hand that Jane got an Exposition Beam upon thawing out so she understands modern language. Though the whole reason she is in high school is that her therapist thought it would help "stabilize" her.
- Flatline: "Biep biep bieeeeeeeeeeeeeee..." A rare nonlethal example.
- Four-Fingered Hands: One of Louwrens's first hints that something was different.
- Homeworld Evacuation: The Khanite survivors of the Om-Ankh's Orbital Bombardment of Atlantis were forced to flee in Sleeper Ships.
- Humanity Came from Space: Humans or Om-Ankh drove the Khanites off Earth/Atlantis and claimed it ten thousand years ago. Except they were created by the Anakim cult all along.
- Human Popsicle: Jane, though she managed to age about three years while in stasis and was conscious the whole time. Also, not exactly human.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Jane's opinion of the Om-Ankh. Not without reason, though Louwrens knows they're not all bad.
- Made of Iron: Despite Louwrens's seemingly hard landing on the new planet, he didn't need any medical assistance.
- Manchurian Agent: The Om-Ankh infiltrators. "You are an Om-Ankh" is a kill switch. Louwrens doesn't have the programming because he was sent by accident.
- Maybe Ever After:
The cartoonist leaves it to our imagination whether Louwrens and Jane ever become more than friends. - The Men in Black: Mentioned in #63. Later, government agents blow up a bridge outside a major stargate to stop a suspected Om-Ankh.
- Mutual Masquerade: Louwrens hasn't told anyone that he's really human, and Jane's true identity seems to be a state secret.
- Neck Lift: Louwrens's mechanical arm has its uses.
- Older Than They Look: Both Louwrens and Jane, though for different reasons and having multiple orders of magnitude's difference in age.
- Fountain of Youth: Louwrens seemed to be in his early 20s before the Artifact transported and transformed him; as a result he had to repeat seventh grade.
- Really 10,000 Years Old: Jane, though debatable as she was in stasis most of the time (albeit conscious).
- Opposite-Sex Clone: Louwrens's Khanite form compared to Alex's, more or less.
- Portal Network: Planet-bound version, resembling tollbooths.
- Schizo Tech: Space South Africa has starships and hover-cars, with hand-cranked windows.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Louwrens is.
- Shout-Out: To xkcd. (The original.)
- Sorting Algorithm of Deadness: Invoked in the Alt Text to the comic where Louwrens comes back, rated him at about 2.6.
- Time Skip: Three years between Louwrens's arrival on the planet and the "high school" arcs, nine years between that and the war, a hundred centuries between Jane's backstory and the present.
- Trapped in Another World: Louwrens.
- Ungrateful Bitch: Jane interprets Louwrens saving her life as a treacherous ploy and empties her gun into him.
- Wham Episode: In "#112", Jane shoots Louwrens in the head after he saved her from being killed by an Om-Ankh soldier, after she realizes he was an Om-Ankh all along. Made worse by her first acting like she was going to hug him in gratitude.
