Chapter 3, Page 37

Well.

Some stuff:
Fanart by Verwho
Fanart by BlueDelliquanti (she sent this to me privately but fuck it, I’ll share it with you guys because it’s too good, haha)
And a commission I got from the incredible Paexie, which I will cry happy tears on for the rest of my life haha

Other stuff:

ELEMENTS. 2 days left. It’s great, try it out if you like stuff that is great.
The new patreon tutorial is going up soon, probably tomorrow, as usual it will come with a super useful worksheet that I’ve been adding to all month… this is probably my best tutorial yet so I’m going to focus on polishing it tonight and get it up for yalls. If you haven’t already, please be sure to nab the last tutorial and especially the worksheet if you are at that tier, since the worksheets are taken down and archived when the new tutorials go up to dissuade content slurping. As usual, if you were subbed to the Patreon during that month you can always get the worksheet from me via email but… please spare me the extra work if you can haha *is dying*
Also for $5+ Patrons, going to be adding a comic collection from a few years ago for general downloading and reading. One of the last ones I was holding out on, and also one of my favs, just as a way to say thank you for bearing with me while I run around like crazy. That’s probably up on Saturday.

Kinda don’t want to talk about schedule stuff; if you’re in the Patreon you’ve probably already heard about this and that, and if not then don’t worry about it, stuff is getting done. The big one is The Meek Vol 1 Kickstarter which is going live on the 4th. It’s being released with a ton of extra content, which is why things have been relatively slow… if anyone knows how to clone people so I can sleep more than 5 hrs a night, please hmu

Last but not least, the Support list! Sorry there are so many you’ll have to scroll a ton to get to the bottom but, sometimes love takes up a lot of space RITE

57 Comments

  • Spav

    Ooooh!

    Dangerous because of self-preservation protocol or a malicious nature? Both?

  • Pumpkin_Cake

    Ooo, does this mean we might see a not-dead LEVi in a not-flashback after all?

    • sjalexander

      right, if LEVi got “processed” he might be in a similar situation as Kallakore. Or maybe already merged into Kallakore somehow by the processors??

  • Zelly

    Whaaaaaaaat whoa huh O_O
    Apparently I am not good with intelligent comments.

  • Some_Douchebag

    This must mean that the Martian equivalent of IT guys and code monkeys were all extremely well-respected badasses, and their jobs incurred a high mortality rate. They must have been compensated pretty heavily, too.

    It’s okay if I use this very thoughtful and well-researched scifi comic to live out my wishes of how my own life should be like, right?

    • shingworks

      lol, well hopefully the code monkeys would have made sure that the processor wouldn’t hurt them XD then again, I also know that coding is already extremely painful even without the scifi aspect

      • Mouse

        In the context of this planet’s biotech, would the code monkeys be actual monkeys?

      • Max

        Well yes but historical documents from Hollywood taught us that “I’m your creator, you shall not hurt me” system never, ever work. Ever!

      • Kalatash

        The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else.
        — Eliezer Yudkowsky

  • Heron

    Boom! Freaking called it on page 29! I knew that corpse was Kallakore’s ooooh vindication!

    • shingworks

      XD Good work!

      • Crimson

        I must have missed something. Where is the corpse people are talking about?

        • shingworks

          There was a big ole corpse on page 17

    • MikeLinPA

      Immortality via do-over

  • Ooh damnit. I feared the corpse was something like that.

  • Mouse

    Deep in the heart of Mars, two lost souls, as alike as they are different, form an aquatic support group and learn to navigate the unforgiving neural sea of existential crises…together. A lifetime movie original: Mare Internum. Up next!

    • shingworks

      Hmm… doesn’t sound like Lifetime, not enough babies being stolen by slutty babysitters… unless… Bex! LEVi! It’s all coming together now

      • thomas

        I’m not sure which mental image I like more: Bex going through one of those ‘keep the scary man away from my children’ lifetime movies except with crickets instead of children, or the idea of LEVi as a slutty babysitter.

    • MacModrov
      • MikeLinPA

        That was… colorful! I’d read that. All of ’em.

  • StClair

    That shoe’s been waiting to drop for a while. Mars gravity, maybe.

  • So… Do Martians born it’s own larva during death? If so… Did processor really tried to kill him, or tried to force reproduction?

    • AGV

      I think that Kallakore have been bred artifficially and somehow had her memories restored with each of her deaths

  • Amadán Dubh

    I thought so.
    Ever since she told us the martians went extinct, I had suspicions.
    The martian civilisation, dead for eons, and yet we have the remains of a martian no older than a few months?

    Now, my best guess is the Kallakore we know is another organically produced robot, which has somehow had the original Kallakore’s mind transfered into it.

  • Passing through, passing wind

    “ELEMENTS. 3 days left”
    That link leads to a Kickstarter that ended unsuccessfully 2 years ago. I am confused.

    • shingworks

      Thanks! Evidently I missed pasting an important part of that url haha

  • AGV

    Dangit, KK, stop being adorable, I can’t take this as seriously as I should like that

  • Wert

    Yes!!!!!!! I thought this was happening
    i love scifi continuing consciousness clones since the gholas of dune.

    • Drakeo

      gholas? do you mean the dune books? or the movies? I hope I’m thinking of the right Series the giant sand worms of the desert planet arkas those things are scarier then the worms from the tremor movies *shivers* the giant worms of arakis (I think I’m spelling that right) big enough to swallow the empire state building whole!

  • squidlifecrisis

    kalla honey at this point the comic has more suicide attempts than chapters, we are SO getting to see that processor

  • Localized

    BUT WHAT IF:
    Mike tries to find the processor only to be killed, but the processor is all “what is this thing” and ends up reincarnating him as an armshark.

    • shingworks

      Well at least his nose will be the same size

      • StClair

        I lol’d.

    • SomeUnregPunk

      what if he’s already dead.
      what if he didn’t survive the fall and the processor was like…” WTF is this? Again? Weird stuff, fine I’ll remake it. At least I’ll do better than that annoying grey thing that poked me earlier.”

  • RichWalk9891

    So either Kallakore is capable of replicating itself after death, or was duplicated by another source… or Kallakore’s mind was transferred to a different body.

    Either way, it must be pretty traumatizing to somehow see your own mangled corpse.

    • Chrontius

      The RPG “Eclipse Phase” has attempted to come up with a relatively serious analysis of the psychological trauma of recalling your death, after being restored from backup, or of finding your own mangled corpse so that you can pull out the backup implant and recover the memories you lost.

      Also, this is another way the four billion year old armshark can still be around. Live, die, restore from old, possibly deliberately edited, memory backups.

      Given that solitary confinement has effects on the human brain comparable to repeated concussions in footballers, I have to wonder at the amount of brain damage Kallakore has sustained, and how she(?) has coped with it. It might explain the amnesia, or it might explain the old corpses…

  • zpsabre

    Can we like…Kickstart a Kalla plushie one day? I just wanna hug her… ;-;

  • Ceceoh

    Kallakore’s statement that she “thinks” the body might be her got me to wondering if she has ever seen herself, if not in a mirror, then at least a still pool reflection. That lead to me wondering about how other Martians would differ from Kalla. Did they cut and style their hair? Did they vary in size, or skin color, or eye color? Would KK be considered a 90 pound weakling, or built like a brick shithouse? And is the Mare Internum a clothing optional artificial environment, or did Martians just forego the whole “slave to fashion” thing?

    • Ajacs

      I don’t think KK is a Martian. She’s a product of Martian tech, like LEVi.

  • Pumpkin_Cake

    It’s cute that Kallakore doesn’t want to be lonely. It’s also cute that she thinks being around Mike is any better.

    • shingworks

      Beggars can’t be choosers, haha

  • VHough

    Dear Mike,
    You don’t have a monopoly on messed up in the head.
    I suspect that this awareness is why you’ve stopped shouting.

  • LameFox

    It may be dangerous, but on the other hand, if you engrave your plans on a rock you can make revisions when you find the remains.

    • AGV

      Yeah, but sure that dying over and over (furthermore, being killed) isn’t an enjoyable experience

      • hkmaly

        Considering Kallakore THINKS it’s her body, it’s likely not experience at all – I mean, you wouldn’t remember it.

      • LameFox

        Spending the next few thousand years as a were-toaster probably isn’t that great either tbh.

  • Aroel

    Oh my, a twist!

  • Dark

    *reading the comments*

    …Kallakore is female?

    • Fawkes Rinzler

      Apparently I’m not the only one confused by this, thank god.

      I thought that Der-shing had said that, because of Martian biological differences and stuff, that there was no real gender to describe Kallakore?
      But I honestly don’t remember… It got kinda confusing… I keep imagining Kallakore with this sort of Keith David-esque voice so… ^^;

    • Cara

      I’m not completely sure, but I’ve been under the impression that Kallakore’s gender was fabricated by readers in the comments. Like the nicknames “thigh friend” and “arm shark” and possibly “thrip”. (Some of these might have been Der-shing though, I’m not positive.)

  • Adriano

    That’s creeeepy

  • Victor

    That’s a seriously over-zealous anti-virus program on those processors. Also, when she says she was put in storage and brought out from time to time, it would appear that suspended animation wasn’t involved. Since her body was in the same location as LeVI’s, maybe she went with him to find the processors, which her reconstituted self does not remember. This reminds me of a wonderfully tragic novel by John Crowley—”Engine Summer.”

    • Josh

      Or possibly “Altered Carbon.”

      • Chrontius

        Or the Eclipse Phase RPG & setting.

        But +1 for Altered Carbon.

  • Lyu

    is the body kallakore is currently in (dare i say “currently wearing”) the one they have spent the last however many years in? not the exact same one, but are they always reincarnated / reconstructed / what have you as a martian armshark? and have they always been in a reincarnation loop or are they just being reincarnated because they’re stuck in the system? (sorry if any of these are unanswerable due to plot, feel free to ignore)

  • Purplefelix

    Love seeing how you and Blue interpret each others’ characters. And on a more important note, DUN DUN DUUUNNNNNN…..

  • Adam

    I’m sure someone’s already suggested this, but… Mike’s already died and been revived/rebuilt at least a few times, hasn’t he? Perhaps a bit more compatible with the helpful native fauna and flora each time?

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