Chapter 4, Page 31

No hard feelings, I guess!

Some fanart today :0 This lovely Bex by Nadiarwendt, and an equally beautiful Threvi by Chrisushi. Thank you, guys!

In other news, I posted a high-rez version of the previous page’s final panel for $2+ Patreon folks!

Only 12/150 available Kalla pins left, for anyone who cares~ I’ll stop bothering you guys with this once no HOPE pins remain.

And of course, thank you for your support. Nearly all my non-essential income goes into paying other artists on in-progress projects, so between my life and their lives, you guys are supporting the indie artist community big time.

52 Comments

  • rimmeh

    Sudden realization: Kalla stumbling across the bones of her previous selves must not be a new experience.

  • ObservantWolf

    No bone to pick with Bex, eh? That Kalla pin is awesome!

  • Spark

    How many Kallakores has Bex already gone through?

    • charlesw81

      Probably only the one, but that was likely from the skeleton of a previous body.

      Kallakore has probably died from suicide attempts, accidents and even old age over the millennia.

  • charlesw81

    It occurs to me that Kallakore might not even know that Bex has killed her before, there was certainly no water up there, unless Bex simply running down to the water covered in Kallakore’s blood is enough… Doubt it as the other creature which died wouldn’t have had any issues with a pint of blood or limb being taken to the ocean after it died.

    I just hope Kallakore dipped a toe in the water or something after talking to Fisher by the beach side. It’d suck if she’s forgotten that.

    • Biev

      She said she’s not part of the system, and none of what she’s learned so far was due to the system (she knows what Martians would know, plus what she’s learned from meeting Levi and Michael). So there’s no reason for her to learn anything from the water, based on what we’ve seen so far. Unless there’s something I’m not remembering?

    • Solanuma

      Oh! So she’s not part of the System but she is part of the information it tries to retain. That means that Kalla probably remembers her last interaction with Mike if the System could recreate all of her with that little blood it got to work with.

      • CharlesW81

        Exactly! She might not get new information or shared information, but she gets her own memories. But those memories would still need to be uploaded for her to be recreated with them and Bex killed her far from the water so she may only remember up to the point of rescuing Mike or leaving the beach with him.

        • shingworks

          you guys are too good at this

        • David

          I think Kalla called it a “neural sea” at one point. To me, that means that it listens to your neural activity in order to get your thoughts and memories. Therefore, you have to have a working brain when you touch the water, in order for the sync to work.

          Although there was that one panel where you see Mike’s blood kind of dissolving into the air. I dunno.

          • CharlesW81

            So Mike might have wi-fi ;P

  • CharlieBoi

    Oh man, I’ve missed this arm-shark so much

  • “Well, that’s awkard…”

    • McDoom

      It is pretty awkward. But maybe they’ll get past it. What’s a little murder between good friends?

  • David

    Kalla, Kalla, didn’t anyone teach you not to talk with your mouth full?

  • Mr. Casual

    That last line from Kalla does seem to imply she doesn’t remember being killed. Or, at least, that it was Bex who killed her. Question is, will Bex mention it?

  • Luces

    Pleased to meet you. Hope you know my… Bone?

  • Solanuma

    Phew, i thought Fish will be the only one to be aware of Bex murder of Kalla and assumed it would have let to big drama and more mental health deline for him.
    Thank god Kalla is so aware of their deaths and relatively ok with it. The worst that can happen now when they meet is him going on a rant and running away again.
    Im sure it will all clear up in the next pages

  • ikabubu

    Congratulations, Der-shing,

    This is morbidly awkward underscored by politeness: a new experience for me.

  • AGV

    “Well, I almost certainly brutally murdered one of your kind out of sheer fear, but I don’t think so.”

    • Spark

      *hunger

  • Zinc

    Kalla’s “Actually, this is mine…” is one of greatest lines in the history of storytelling.

  • Roo

    ;^; ASdfghz I’ve missed Kalla so much. Even at the strangest of times she is still impeccably polite. Gotta love that armshark <3

  • I always read Kalla with a British accent, probably because the dialog is always so precise. Am I the only one? *______*

    • Octavarium

      I do, too. =)

    • brokenidealist

      I had not, until your comment, but now I suddenly hear her as Dame Judi Dench. Previously, I guess I imagined her voice and diction similar to William Daniels as KITT in the original 80s Knight Rider.

  • Kyle

    Everyone’s wondering if Kallakore will remember her last interaction with Mike because she isn’t part of the system.

    I think she will, because Mike remembers it, and he IS part of the system!

  • Vraad

    Looks to me Kalla remembers up to just before bex went croc Dundee on her. The water must have biological nanites for obtaining info for the system. That explains the whole boiled water fail. So now it’s time to find Michael and show him his buddies are all alive.

  • lou

    Pitchfork event postponed until further notice \o/ Thanks, Der-shing ;)

  • Jonas

    The art in this comic is still gorgeous. Especially the upper right panel. Almost looks like a movie poster. “The Visit Of Extraterrestrial Armshark”

    I need to get in on your patreon if I get some money.

  • Octavarium

    The dramaticity of the Kalla-Bex meeting almost made me miss little Threvi in the corner. I wonder if his thinking “oh, lord, this is not heading where I thought it would oO” or “yay! More of my friends are meeting! Soon we’ll all be together ♡ XD”.

  • Temeraire

    Is that a new friends on Bex`s face?

  • arteopteryx

    I’m so glad Kalla is back!!! I missed her so! I just love her character and design! Even though she has a truly alien (haha) anatomy, she is a very believable, sympathetic character. I wish more sci-fi/fantasy creators were brave enough to have an anatomically strange and even initially scary-looking character that it may take time for an audience to be comfortable with, but ultimately may connect with just as much as — or more than — they do with human-looking characters. This counts for threvi too! They don’t need stretchy faces for us to know they have feelings, even if it takes us time to learn their body language.

    That was longer than I planned… Btw, very excited for the pin Kickstarter!

  • TorgueRND

    You are incorrect as hell but I forgive you, Kallakore.

    • Octavarium

      How so?

      • Bradford

        “Forgive me if I am incorrect; I don’t believe we’ve met before. . .”

  • Rev

    So Bex literally beat Kalla to death with her own elbow, is what I’m understanding here.

    Wups. :x

  • Kent

    Hearing that the bone is from Kalla’s elbow makes me very curious about how her species’ skeletal system works. I’m definitely not a biologist, so I wouldn’t know what a non-human elbow bone looks like.

  • CosmicStresshead

    Ah! I had been thinking that bone was from Kalla’s crest.

    I just re-read the whole story up til now after missing a few months’ worth of updates. I have so much love for this comic, and for Shing. Thank you, Shing x

  • Jac

    I am constantly curious about how Kalla styles her hair.

  • Alan

    All biological immigrants to Mare Internum receive a free face-toaster!

    I’ve been thinking. I bet Bex’ cape covers up her version of a thigh friend.

    • David

      Oooh, good call!

  • Cara

    I have a confession to make: I stopped reading this comic when Bex killed Kalla. ._. I just couldn’t handle that plus the election plus recent loss in family. Just couldn’t layer on more sad things if I could help it.

    I was guessing that Kalla might come back because of the foreshadowing about her being reborn over and over again and decided I would just check in waaaay later… Almost a year later, and it seems like I came back at the right time. :’)

    • shingworks

      This is a contender for the cutest comment this comic has gotten… I’m sorry I stressed you out!! Thank you for coming back to look too, I know there’s some shitty parts to get through (just like life) but I try not to hurt my readers without giving some happiness too.

  • Rev

    Totally not related to this page, but I just read about the “Mars Exploration” described by a supposed remote viewer during Project Stargate in 1986. Some of the subject’s views of Mars reminded me a bit of this comic – it’s an interesting read, if you haven’t seen it! :) The part where they went into the underground channels, the shelters, and the ancient people there that are struggling to survive past their time especially makes me think of MI.

    https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001900760001-9.pdf

    • Royco Cup-a-Soup

      Pretty creative vision of Mars that subject made up, considering he supposedly wasn’t told it was Mars he was describing.

  • scrubjay

    i’m so happy kalla’s back! i love her, especially her movement/posture

  • PositronicGirl

    Hang on, by elbow does she mean the joint of her arm-leg or her leg-arm? (I actually am not seeing where that bone fits anywhere. Why does it have a 90-degree bend?)

    • spottedspeck

      I think it’s the horn/spur thing?

  • Sheridan

    Panel 2: No Bex, you do not get to kill Kallakore with her own bones twice. This isn’t Super Smash Brothers.

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