May 23, 2016
Well now you’ve done it
Thanks to Patrons, we’re going to be having daily updates here for the next few days. Yay! Throwing a few bucks in there is a good way to ensure that you keep getting great new alien harassment content from me.
Today’s bonus art: Same from yesterday because I’m tired :O
101 Comments
do you both need a time-out
So they do.
I totally get where Mike’s coming from, but Kalla looks so vulnerable in the third panel — I can’t help but feel for her :(
And also DAMN panel four is GORGEOUS
“She”… “looks” so vulnerable? You are much better at reading xenomorphic body language than I am xD
Also, is the alien running away in the last panel? Am I reading that action right?
Here, have the Martian equivalent of what Kalla might be feeling/experiencing (at least, as some feel) atm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SkrX5lgbsg
She might be taking what Mike’s saying to heart. Imagine being the princess in the tower for billions of years, and only just learning you’re the, well… dragon.
To wit, *might* be the dragon.
Ah, so it’s been three months since Mike fell.
As I understand it, no, LEVi fell down there three months ago. It might have been a few days for Mike, counting his unconsciousness and the long hours spent walking, crawling, rolling, and somewhat swimming.
But if it have only been 3 month. Then how is LEVi totally corroded? – A robot made for underground exploration should have been more robust than that (even if it wasn’t specifically made for exploration under water.) Metal or plastic simply don’t corrode that easily.
I don’t think that’s necessarily given the ecosystem here. If the ecosystem here is made up of lifeforms that would be considered extremophiles by earth standards, it’s very likely that the input of something like LEVi could be something of an energy source. The presence of even just bacteria can cause accelerated corrosion, and like Mike said, LEVi certainly wasn’t built to withstand these kinds of conditions.
In water? No. Was that water?..
This iteration of LEVi is on Mars, and its designers never anticipated marine environments to be a thing there. He’s maxed out for dry, dusty, crumbling environments, but certainly not organic, wet conditions. The marine LEVis are probably for non-Martian planets. Also, Erin’s post nails my opinion on the matter better than I do.
Three months since Levi disappeared, actually. Mike’s been angsting alone since then waiting to get transferred out. He/ we don’t know how long he’s been down there, but given the basic sleep/ wake habits of a human we can guess like… 8-24 hours?
Why are you telling us this? Is this a preparation for a fake out??? Has he actually been asleep for 20 years???
lol I’m sorry XD I can’t even post “facts” without it seeming like some scary fakeout XD Haha this is just the rough timeline I’m assuming the reader has (since it’s the one I’m building from).
My bad, I remembered it wrong and had forgotten that Levi went missing earlier :P
ffffffuuuuuuuu this is making me desperately sad ugh. the movement/action in that last panel is visceral. excellent as always
I assume Kallakore said, “Levi was my friend,” right? Poor thing. (though I initially read it, “Levi was fried” and was like ???)
A few pages ago, she mentioned that she’s either been brought out of stasis or ‘reconstructed’ so maybe the dead martian is actually just another incarnation of hers, and there was no way they could have ever existed simultaneously? I’m interested in learning more about her nature, she’s been a pretty alright shark friend
You had me rolling at ‘Levi was fried’. XDD
Wow, he finally succeeded in pissing her off! I’m getting the sense that Mike only feels comfortable around people if he knows how to piss them off.
That’s an interesting point, actually. It may be how he deals with feeling powerless.
Mike, it’s rude to interrupt others like that -__-\\
Now, Kalla might’ve said “LEVi was my friend” or “LEVi wasn’t friendly”. Two completely different directions…
I will confirm the text is “LEVi was my friend”
p.s. the footer of the image lacks certain awesome url and name ._.
:[___] aargh thanks for telling me, I’ll fix it when I’m awake again
Mike’s feelings are understandable, but there’s only so much ball-busting anyone can take, even for someone as composed as Kal. Now they’re in the same boat; she’s lost, too.
I love, LOVE the way you handle Kal’s expressions through body language and gesticulation. Her face may be as intaglio as a reptile’s–true to the range of motion she must be capable of, and her anatomy–, but all the little details and flourishes really prove how expressive she is. The face-touching, the occasional withdrawal of her little arms, throwing open and holding up her hands when arguing with Mike, and big-arm movements/stancing (advancing one step defensively), and other things of course, all drive home what she’s *feeling*. I imagine Mike doesn’t yet share this appreciation, and until now, her demeanor’s just been frustrating him, which makes sense; he’s probably not quite the caring type, and certainly not for a creature he hasn’t yet learned to understand. It’s safe to say he’s, by now, succeeded in cracking away at enough of her empathy and character to have… how should I put it? To have “hurt her feelings”, among having confused the hell out of her, hence the two being about even-keeled, if at least in regards to their mutual need for a comprehensive picture of their situation. Kala *thought* she knew. Or does she? Ugh. Sorry, lol.
GREAT update! This is getting more and more intriguing with each panel. The plot just gets thicker and thicker, haha. I love it.
Oh, and perhaps THIS emotional flourish will grant Mika a heightened appreciation for Kal’s unwavering restraint. Seriously, Mike, she may have skipped Leg Day for a couple billion years, but she could tear young Schwarzenegger in half in an arm-wrestling match. You’ve got some decent guns, but she puts the damn show to shame with those Martian cannons.
**Mike
Ugh.
**Kalla
Oh em gee. Lateposting really is dangerous. Forgiveth me mine transgressions.
I should surreptitiously edit/ correct your original comment just to make your followup comments look crazy XD
Sheesh, this comment system… I can’t even reply six posts in. :\ A work of jeaneeieus.
That’s totally what I’d do. But it’s not surreptitious if you tell everybody! XD Then again, you could edit the convo to make me look crazier, lol. If they’d add an “Edit” option, I’d look less like the old, drunk guy that visits 24-hour convenience stores at night just to rant about angelic lineages, demons, and historical Jesus being an evil, man-eating shark alien (not Martian!) in human disguise (this guy’s real, I used to love hearing his stories).
Yes. This.
You’ve worked wonders with Kalla’s body language and given a great deal of expression to a face that appears to be quite rigid and looks like it belongs on something a hundred fathoms down.
In fact, Kalla’s portrayal is probably the thing that kept me reading this after it looked like it was turning into “Mike in Martian Wonderland.” (It didn’t, but there were a few early moments when it felt that way.)
And way to go, Mike! First contact and first opportunity to start an interplanetary war!
“How do I know you’re not just another one of these organic machines?” Trouble is, Kalla may not know either… that could be a very painful question to confront about oneself…
And actually Kalla has a reason to believe she is. «From what I can determine, I have been brought in and out of stasis as circumstances have required». Just another tool added by the designers of this system.
I’m gonna guess it’s one step further than that, even, and speculate that her consciousness is somehow stored elsewhere, copied into a body when needed, then re-uploaded after the system is done with her. I think the reason she can’t remember what happened to LEVi is that the the body down there is hers; that “version” of her didn’t make it back, so the memories never got assimilated back into Kallakore Prime.
That’s my guess as well.
I just reread the entire comic, and this seems like the most likely answer.
If they can be arsed – given the decomposing corpse at the bottom of the pool, and her comments surrounding it, the memory gaps suggest they may not have her on a very regular backup schedule, if at all.
Or, more insidiously, that they deliberately edit her memories to make her more controllable.
Given how little would be expected to happen in the Mare, a once-a-week backup would probably be considered more than enough.
The expert system that revives/rebuilds/clones Kallakore may be just smart enough to run the show until an out-of-context problem comes along and needs a real brain to go sort things out, and an angry, suicidal, dickish alien from a world you thought was a lava-covered hell-hole crashing through the roof is definitely one of those.
Yeah, it is a nice touch how emotionally vulnerable the alien that seemed once so creepy is. And i love Kallas body language displayed here – Mike struck some nerve there…
Mike, I think that now we know what Kalla wants from you
She’s obiously lonely, she tried to escape from Mare Internum for ages and then one day after millions of years of solitude she found an artificial inteligence that tells her that there’s a whole intelligent species that just started arriving to her dead planet in hopes to make it habitable
Now LEVI is down and Mike, the human that LEVI knew the best, casually get trapped down there with her
That with her habit of referring to LEVI as a “he” and considering it a friend (while knowing that it’s artificial) makes clear that she basically wants some friends
Maybe convincing Mike to stay down there isn’t the nicest socializing method, but she tried her best on making contact with him, and he just questioned her intentions, harrassed her identity and apparently hurt her feelings
I know, I know, Mike is lost, confused, been given the runaround as he says and her empathy leaves much to be desired (probably due to his complicated (and frustating) life), and I also would be really frustated by the situation, but still, being mean to Kalla was a bit out of place
*his empathy
No, dude, Mike’s raison d’étre was always to drive the first ayyylien he met nuts with his ranting and raving. His purpose in life was to be an insensitive prick to mankind’s first (sort of observed) contact with a sentient nonhuman. Anyone else would act more “””rationally””” in this situation! Mike’s just an awful person. Also, Kalla is clearly just waiting for the first chance to eat Mike, just gobble him up like a turkey; she’s just trying to fatten him up, first. We’d all go nuts if all we had to eat were Martian canapés and boiled sea water. She needs some earth monkey steak, manflesh, and fresh blood to keep those arms swole.
Kallakore isn’t going anywhere, IMO at least. Mike insulted her feelings, so she’s going to take LEVi’s remains to the surface to show them to Mike… and then probably explaining to him, what happened and that she couldn’t do anything to help. Now, with normal people it usually would shut him up, at least for a while, but in Mike’s mental state I wouldn’t be so sure.
There’s nothing else for Kal to do down there. I imagine she’s now sad, affronted and slightly annoyed (seeing as she developed analogue to human goose bumps, judging by her mane (?)), but she was able to remain composed (contrary to Mike) and there’s no reason to believe it will change now.
Now, Mike, put yourself together, you big cry baby! >< You're frustrated, we get this much; but this kind of behavior is not appropriate while making first degree contact with an alien.
Is Thrip a robot responsible for maintenance of toasters? =)
I think it was revealed in comments a few pages ago that Thrip is basically a Roomba. So it must be responsible for cleaning out the crumb tray. ;)
It’s not the best thing to piss Kallakore off. Nice or not, she’s still a shark.
Like Homer’s spirit guide is still a coyote…
I can’t figure out what’s going on in the last panel. Help?
I think it’s because I still don’t have a good “mental image” of Kallakore’s anatomy…
Kalla clearly grew giant size, and is about to devour Mike…
Nah, just kidding, it’s perspective. The “camera” is near Kalla, who is running away from Mike. One of her arm/legs is going forwards, the other stays back (mid stride).
Alternatively, here is a video of a goat born with no back legs: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3592413/You-ve-got-kidding-Two-legged-goat-stuns-villagers-learning-walk-forelegs.html
it is a little sad, but I don’t know of any animals on earth that move like this as their default. If the little goat had beefy gorilla arms and a long, heavy neck/head for a better center of gravity, I imagine it would move a lot like Kallakore does here.
Sebulba is another good fictional instance of the arms/legs function swap:
http://www.bestiary.us/files/images/dug-sebulba.jpg
All we’re seeing of Kalla in that last shot is her neck, and massive shoulders. The two long ‘sticks’ just under her right arm are her right hand’s fingernails. Took me a moment too!
Holy shit, that goat. I like how the video calls him “brave”… idk about that but he’s got some mad core strength.
Kallakore leaped over Mike and is running away
Kalla jumped over Mike because he is bad at conversations.
Hey, I do that to! For the exact same reason!
Mike truly knows how to alienate people! Must be very helpful in a completely strange surrounding. Even given his depression, his survival instincts are phenomenal low.
I think I kinda understand where Mike is coming from. He decided to die on that cliff/cave. He was in full control of his life. Now that control is taken away from him, and all sorts of weirdness is happening. He’s like “I didn’t ask for this, I don’t want this”. He’s pushed far out of his comfort zone, and is lashing out as some sort of desperate way to make it go away.
Mike is desesperatly trying to get back to the surface. Where there’s Goto, his ruined life, and the prospect of spending 6 months tied and sedated on the way back to earth.
…assuming he find a way to survive on the surface long enough to be found. And a way to contact them, since he threw his wrist computer away.
Oh, and he’s half responsible for Becky’s [assumed] death, too. That one’s gonna be fun to explain.
He’s covered in aggressive, alien, parasitic psuedo-life. No way is he even going to be allowed back into the habitat, let alone brought back to Earth. A.D. might even go full Ripley on the research site.
Mike is so hardcore, he started by alienating people and now he’s alienating aliens!
Technically, Mike is the alien here… XD
He’s alienating the locals in their own homes! DOUBLE RUDE!
Mike, you made Armshark cry.
Armshark, nuuuu~
Der Shing, I’ve been wanting to ask you–in terms of etiquette, are we welcome to speculate in the comments section here, or would you prefer that type of discussion happen elsewhere?
You are literally free to say anything you want here, haha… I only block for bullying/ harassment against other commenters. And I’d ask that you keep style/ story/ writing crits to a minimum since those are things I have definitely already considered, unless it’s a technical error or if something is ultra confusing to you (in that case I probably need to fix it). Offsite bitching about anything is great of course.
But I think most of the comments nowadays are speculation, so feel free to join in :]
Thank you for your response, sounds fair!
I’d never do this to someone who offers me canapés >:(
For some reason I imagine Kalla’s little hands fidgeting in distress in panel 3. Poor thing :( Billions of mostly forgotten years alone in the darkness, she finally gets someone to talk to and it’s Mike :P Not that I really blame Mike for his reaction, either, but I still feel really bad for Kallakore now. I think she is even less in control of her own fate than Mike is.
I can’t help to imagine Bex in Mike’s place here. What skeletons ever Bex has in her closet, Kalla would likely anyways get a headache because of questions that need to be answered. :)
There was a moment there in the first panel when I read Kalla’s speech bubble as possibly, “LEVi was fried.”
Friends should not be fried.
«LEVi was fond of fried bits»!
The bits! The bits!
hoLY GOD RUN! KALLAKORE FOUND US!! ABORT, READERSHIP, ABORT!!
I’ve got yet another spin on the last panel–maybe Kallakore is rushing off to find “proof” that can be presented to Mike, or even to find an answer? In any case, I do find Mike rude also–and poor Kallakore is just not used to actual living being conversation with human beings, and what a specimen Mike is!
She can’t remember what happened to her friend LEVi, and mike is yelling at her asking if she’s a bio-machine as well. It looks like she’s made connections between a couple of disparate facts in her mind and is having an existential crisis. Maybe she’s running off to the first location she can remember, hoping she can find a trace of the machine that spits her out.
Nice, Mike. At this point, if there were any way to get you to the surface, Kallakore would hand you a map and an “I Love Mars!” T-shirt, just to get you out of her hair.
I really like the “shouted down” impression from Kalla’s half-obscured speech balloon. Also the startling “Martian Long Jump” event is really powerful.
KALLAKORE SMAAASH!
ok super random comment but i was re-reading chapter 1 and i really have to say…….. mike looks way better with a beard. like, at first i wasn’t sold on it, but now i’m like #damn
Anything that obscures his horseface is probably a good thing
nooooooooo i didn’t mean to imply that lol!!! i like the way mike looks, he has such a cool face…. the beard just makes him look really cute T_T
With the powerlevel of his nose, aesthetics, and beard-growing capacity, Mike is, by far, one of the whitest kids we know. Also, with his everything, he’d be killer on Sex and The City with Sarah Jessica Parker (if they weren’t clearly related).
Haha, I was thinking this just yesterday after reviewing somma chap. 1. Mike’s interesting jaw/giant teeth stand out much less with some facial hair on dat face.
Please, PLEASE tell me this will eventually be available in print.
Eventually, yes :]
/Facebook like x 100
Oh I’m so there! I hope you sign the first 100 volumes and I hope I am one of the first to purchase one!
I… Really love Mike. I guess it’s nice to see someone I can really identify with in a comic this good, wow. Also, I’m in love with the worldbuilding! This whole thing is amazing!
(By the way, I keep seeing people in the comments using she/her pronouns for Armshark here. Did I miss something or are those comments just assumptions/speculation?)
It’s my fault, I used female pronouns once and now it’s in the zeitgeist XD There is also a Patreon post about sexual dimorphism so people who read it have a bit more info than general readers.
Also, the chapter title is “Lady of the Rocks” and, rightly or wrongly, a lot of us assume “lady” refers to Kallakore!
Also, the original character design.
kalla bby no come back let me hug u sweet armsharkfriend D:
If the next page doesn’t have Mike sitting next to a huddled Kalla, gingerly asking, “Are you okay?”, I will be mildly disappointed.
I guess at least Mike isn’t just a jerk to humans only? It extends to all people/species. Go Mike! (I guess)!
We haven’t really seen much regarding the level of sophistication of LEVi’s AI, other than that Mike had an undefined but nonetheless strong attachment to him. Mike said he made LEVi disappear, but maybe that’s not the whole story. It seems from Mike’s pain that their relationship was more complex than that, perhaps to the point that LEVi’s AI was capable of altruism. And if that is the case, I think there is a good chance that the remains at the bottom of the neural sea are Kallakore’s, and that LEVi was actually seeking to help her end her life and escape the system she is trapped within. Which, if so, clearly did not work. So many levels of loneliness here. Gah emotions
;A; All of a sudden I want to hug big sharkgirl shhh it’ll be okay bby Mike’s hostile with everyone he’s like a cranky toddler (also crushing that generously prepared food…ROOD >:T)
Wanna start a sharky cuddles club with me? XP
….Holy shit I need armshark plushies like immediately now omg
They go like nyoooooooom!
Poor broken Mike…always a fun plot thread when the first human to make contact with sentient aliens is, how you say, a sociopath? Sorry Mikey…
I think KK just couldn’t take anymore. Hoping s/he will come back. I’m suspecting Mike may have gone off on LEVi too, and if he was truly a complex AI maybe he ran off in distress and disappeared. So now Mike has (more) guilt issues…thinking his baggage is getting pretty full here.
Oh, and forgot to add…LOVE the artwork and the physiology of KK. Spent some time just going back through all the pages and admiring all the different views/perspectives. Mucho Awesome!
Ah yes, I see Kalla and I share the same strategy for solving conflict: RUN AWAY!!!