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Webcomic / Twin Dragons

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Kai (Left) and Kaya (Right) decide to start New Year's celebrations early. Their mother (top) is all too familiar with the situation.

Twin Dragons is a Slice of Life Urban Fantasy Web Comic by Robin Dassen, also known as DragonKai.

Over the past sixteen years, one in every one thousand humans has inexplicably been born as an animal hybrid humanoid. The story focuses on the lives of Kai and Kaya Romero, dragon-hybrid fraternal twins, as they move from a rural upbringing where the locals consider them demons to an urban setting where hybrids make up a large bulk of the population.

The comic doesn't follow a specific panel format, generally following a size format instead with as many (or as few) panels as needed. Mostly plot-driven with humorous moments sprinkled liberally (though not always ending on a joke).

Currently updates once a week and can be seen here. An archive of the comic's in-progress "World Guide" can be found here.

Not to be confused with the Jackie Chan movie of the same name.


This comic provides examples of:

  • All Just a Dream: Most of Chapter 9 takes place in a dream world while Kai sleeps through his cold. Played with, as Kai knows he's dreaming.
  • All There in the Manual: Further world information in the form of 'Twin dragons world guide' is available from the artists other website.
  • Alt Text: Generally an added joke or line to the current page.
  • Animal Eyes: The twins and Cleo have slitted eyes due to being reptilian hybrids (bonus points for Cleo being a snake hybrid).
  • Auntie Pennybags: Cleo has no problem at all spending ridiculous amounts of money for her friends. Kaya has to explain to her how to tone down her spending.
  • Bizarre Baby Boom: For the past sixteen years about one in every thousand births has produced a hybrid.
  • Bland-Name Product: The comic features product stand-ins, such as the social media sites Utube and Instawham, the clothing brand Tommy Gecko, and the movie franchise Jurassic Pool. Kaya also has a Pearl Jelly poster in her room.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Larissa's clique—Larissa's the redhead, Liz is the blonde, and Dinah's the brunette.
  • Breath Weapon: Kai and Kaya can breathe fire.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Literally when Larissa, one of Cleo's "friends," shoves Kaya to the ground (for the second time no less). When they start threatening Cleo, Kaya decides she has had enough and fights fire with fire.
    • Larissa later proves that she hadn't learned her lesson, and again antagonizes Kaya during a field trip.
    • Even after the field trip assault failed, got her suspended, and causes her uncle to put her to work in his fishery, she still hasn't realized how stupid this is, and goes after the twins again as soon as the chance presents itself, though her planning to dump rotten fish heads on food from their food truck and give it a bad review shows that she's at least smart enough to not go after them physically anymore.
  • Color-Coded Speech: Italian dialogue is presented in green speech balloons, while Dutch is in orange.
  • Crop Circles: Kai and Kaya make some as a last prank on their religiously conservative hometown before moving to Hybrid City. They're elated to see it make the news.
  • Deep-Immersion Gaming: The Gamer Dragons side comics where the twins and friends play video games and are depicted as their avatars. The Catacombs and Drakes arc as well.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Cleo comes off as cold at first, but actually she's just so afraid of being alone that she doesn't challenge her clique when they say someone else can't be Cleo's friend. She gets over it when Kaya proves to be a real friend.
  • Does Not Know Her Own Strength: Subverted in the second-to-last page of Chapter 4 when Kaya tries to give Cleo a light jab in reprimand. She does know her own strength (she's perfectly capable of handling delicate objects), but she's used to Kai taking the hit and forgets to account for Cleo's more tender scales.
    Cleo: You hit like a truck, you know that?
    Kaya: Sorry!!!
  • Embarrassing Hospital Gown: When Kai and Kaya do a check-up at the hospital, they have to wear backless hospital gowns. Kai isn't happy they're open at the back, but the doctor just points out he can tie up the laces. Kaya doesn't notice or care that they're backless, and her brother has to tie up her laces for her, lest she walks like that everywhere.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In Chapter 15, Kaya takes a bit longer than she should to realize the ramifications of Misha, someone older than her, using the textbook from the twins' previous year; she's already stuck her foot in her mouth when it finally occurs to her how rude she's being.
  • False Friend: Cleo's clique before Kaya butted in. They gave the impression Cleo was off-limits to others at school and used her as a living wallet.
    • It turns out that Liz actually did like Cleo as more than a wallet, being from a well-off family herself (if not to the same extent as Cleo's family) and only went along with the others with asking for stuff (albeit minor purchases like candy) because of peer pressure and a belief that doing so made Cleo happy.
  • Fantastic Racism: Kai and Kaya were the only two hybrids in their town, and the small, rural community was rather afraid and superstitious of them even after 14 years, believing that they were monsters sent by the Devil. The very first page has Kai trying to convince a woman at the store that he just wants to buy some grapes instead of eating her dog or destroying the store, and the next page has Kaya mentioning that the local priest has, not for the first time, which was apparently when they were babies, tried to exorcise her, and on a previous occasion he threw holy water at her. Both of them are ecstatic when they move to Hybrid City, where the trope is largely averted.
  • Fiery Redhead: Both the twins, especially since they can breathe fire, but Kaya is especially energetic and emotional.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Kaya is sanguine, Rex is choleric, Cleo is melancholic, Benji is phlegmatic, and Kai is leukine.
  • Genki Girl: Kaya tends to act first, think later and pull others along for the ride. She also has an extremely twitchy tail and will sprawl out into positions that'd make cats jealous while sleeping. Just as long as it isn't morning.
  • Gratuitous Italian: Zig Zagged, as we only see the translation, but Kai (and, according to the author, Kaya as well) is fluent in Italian and is used to conversing with native speakers, as seen here. Justified, as his father is Italian and his family visits their paternal relatives each year in Italy. Later Kai gets into a conversation in Italian with a food truck patron.
    • Played Straight with the name of the Romero family's restaurant, Due Draghi note .
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Jin is a native Japanese speaker and speaks English as a second language, so he has a habit of speaking in his native tongue. It's also displayed when we see Jin's family residence while his grandfather is teaching a martial arts class, starting here.
    Robin: Twin dragons, your one-stop source to learn single words of Japanese you will never use xD
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Subverted when Kaya homes in on the class Alpha Bitch as a potential friend. It later transpires that the real Alpha Bitch(es) are those surrounding her, and Cleo is merely stuck in the middle.
  • Human Furniture Is a Pain in the Tail: Hybrid City is specifically designed for these types of issues.
  • Human Hummingbird: When the twins are poking each other during a boring car ride.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Cleo's backstory is having to bribe kids to hangout with her. It isn't until Kaya literally burns a 100 dollar bill that Cleo learns what actual friendship is. Even then, she's still learning how to be generous without being too generous.
  • Impossible Task Instantly Accomplished: During Chapter 9's "A Wondrous Journey" arc, Kai is given a challenge by the Guardian Khon, Rex's doppelganger, who presents Kai a Rubik's cube-esque puzzle called the Rah'Aba Hexahedron. While Khan monologues about how only the gods are said to be able to solve it, Kai solves it in one panel. Khan is flabbergasted to hear that the cube is a toy where Kai is from.
  • Insult Backfire: When Rex calls Kai a shrimp, Kai retorts that he's a dragon hybrid. Rex has to clarify that he's insulting Kai's height, not his species.
  • Jerk Jock: Rex initially comes off this way, calling Kai a "shrimp" and blocking his attempt to join the basketball team. But after Kai challenges him to a match, and loses, Rex reveals the jerk act was a test, and he passed. He is legitimately gruff, though.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Averted: The characters have different outfits while still having some consistent articles like jackets. Kaya's shown wearing a blue t-shirt more often than other garments, but she mentions in Chapter 7 that it's her favorite shirt.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Cleo as a kid. She had to bribe other kids to be her friend. Kaya is seemingly her first true, actual friend not out to use Cleo just for her money.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
    • Jin, a Lion Dog Mythical Hybrid, can see a Lion Dog called Katsumi, but he's the only one who can. Kai and Kaya couldn't see her either, but Jin's doctor notes that he doesn't suffer from any of the usual conditions that would cause a hallucination, and no medications have made Katsumi go away, so the doctor is keeping an open mind.
    • The existence of Hybrids in general counts, no one seems sure whether the cause is natural or not. They just started being born one day, with no known explanation given.
  • Money to Burn: When Cleo shoves a bill at Kaya to make her go away, Kaya torches it with her fire breath to make the point that she wants to be Cleo's friend. After the initial shock, Cleo yells at her to put out the $100 bill and Kaya panics on realizing the denomination.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • In Chapter 4, on the page where Rex is introduced, he says that he already told the teachers that he had nothing to do with the exploding pie incident.
    Benji: Exploding pie?
    Rex: Don't ask!
    • In Chapter 5, Benji talks Kai down from attacking Rex, saying he knows from experience that burnt fur smells awful.
    • In Chapter 11, Rex recalls the last time he played basketball with Nate's cousin Charon, a 9-year-old bat hybrid. Charon somehow destroyed half of the gym, which took the entire year's worth of the club's budget to fix. Rex is still bitter about it despite knowing it was an accident.
  • Not a Morning Person: This comic pretty much says it all. Not only did Kaya pour her cereal (and milk) in the glass and the orange juice in the bowl, she falls back asleep before even touching either one. Kai is significantly more energetic in the morning, prompting their father to jokingly wonder if they're really twins.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The twins are abnormally strong for their size
  • Playing with Fire: Both twins can breathe out fire. Chapter 8 reveals that it stems from glands in the backs of their throats that produce liquid that ignites with any mild friction.
  • Polar Opposite Twins: Kai is generally the calm, calculating one while Kaya has very poor impulse control.
  • Power Incontinence: Sometimes the twins lose control of their fire when they sneeze. It happens more often when they're sick.
  • Pummel Duel: Technically, a Poking Duel. See below for details.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Well, Rapid Fire Poking. Kai and Kaya engage in a friendly duel of rapid fire poking while in a car ride to their surprise birthday party. While blindfolded.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Kai's blue to Kaya's red. In Kaya's own words:
    Kaya: I can't believe you did that! How can you be so stupid to accept that bet? I'M supposed to be the stupid one of us two! Did I really just say that out loud?
    Cleo: Yep, and I got it all on video.
    Cleo's Smartphone: ...The stupid one of us two!
    • Speaking of Cleo, she's also a blue to Kaya's red.
    • Also, Rex is the red to Nate's blue. The author seems to be fond of this trope.
  • Removing the Rival: Larissa tries to do this to Kaya during the museum arc.
  • Required Secondary Powers: The twins are resistant (but not immune) to fire.
  • Revenge Before Reason: After two attempts to get Kaya to back off of befriending Cleo didn't work, Larissa continued to scheme against Kaya to the point of trying to chuck a stone ball at her. Unsurprisingly, this didn't work either.
  • Shout-Out:
    Kai: Let it go!
    Kaya: The cold never bo—
    Kai: That's not what I meant!
  • Show Within a Show: Jessie's Adventure, a web video series that's also one of the voting incentive comics.
  • Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: In-Universe, how prominent a hybrid's animal traits are can vary to a significant degree. According to the World Guide, there is a system of hybrid classification created for medical reasons in particular:
    • Class 1 hybrids - light hybridization: the Little Bit Beastly variety, harboring only around a couple or so core differences to "standard" human anatomy such as a tail or an animalistic set of ears. Examples of this type include Cleo (snake), Lilly Erkins (cat), and the first known hybrid John Norton (tiger). These hybrids haven't been featured much in-comic outside of crowd shots.
    • Class 2 hybrids - partial hybridization: the borderline Little Bit Beastly/Beast Man variety, having a few more differences to humans such as more animal-like hands or feet. The most prominent hybrid of this class in the comic is lion-dog hybrid Jin.
    • Class 3 hybrids - full hybridization: the Beast Man variety, always having differences in their skull structures compared to humans, such as horns or a different jaw shape. Kai and Kaya Romero themselves are examples, as are many other characters like Benji and Rex (a dog and a wolf, respectively).
    • To the side, hybrids that have physical similarities with mythical creatures, regardless of their level of zoomorphism, are thus classified as "mythical hybrids", the Romero dragon twins and Jin being examples of such. There's less than ten registered examples in Hybrid City, making it easily the rarest type.
  • Sneeze of Doom: Kai has to stay home when he has a cold because his sneezes keep igniting the tissues.
  • The Sociopath: Larissa has a total Lack of Empathy, sees others (especially Cleo, with some signs of general anti-Hybrid bigotry) as less than people, and never owns up to her screw-ups due to a very self-centered perspective.
  • Through a Face Full of Fur: Having fur or thick scales doesn't stop the occasionally blush showing though.
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: When they learn that Benji is adopted by a gay couple, Kai, Kaya, and their dad all think that they would've been burned at the stake in their old town.
  • Super-Strength: Kai and Kaya both have enhanced strength. In Chapter 1, Kai is shown able to lift a sofa more easily than his father, and in Chapter 4, he's shown to be able to jump more than twice his height in the air. Kaya isn't shown using hers quite as much, but in Chapter 3, when Larissa pushes her one too many times, literally, she pushes back, sending her flying with one palm strike.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Kaya can't get piercings because her skin is too tough and Benji being a furry hybrid comes with some shedding issues...
  • Technicolor Ninjas: Kaya is surprisingly stealthy for someone with bright-green skin, red(ish) hair, and a tail about as long as she is tall.
  • The Glomp: How Kaya first introduces herself to Benji.
  • Touché: Happens often.
    • In Chapter 2:
    Benji: I have my own vacuum cleaner next to my bed, who even has that?
    Kaya: Other doggy hybrids?
    Benji: Touché.
    • In Chapter 7:
    Benji: Where would the dinosaurs be?
    Kai: Can't you sniff them out?
    Benji: Why don't you fly up and take a look, Dragonboy?
    Kai: Touché.
    • In Chapter 8:
    Dr. Fern: You're pulling my leg, aren't you?
    Kaya: Ahahahaha! Yup! But it's only fair since you're pulling my ear.
    Dr. Fern: ...Touché.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Kaya absolutely loves chocolate.
  • Wingding Eyes: Whenever Kaya is very excited (which happens often), she gets literally starry-eyed.

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