October 2, 2019
I felt bad drawing this tbh
Patreon is as usual three pages ahead, we’re on page 50 at the moment! I’m thinking new The Meek sketch comics start up there on the 7th (next Monday), so yay. Now that Mare is done I’m ramping up for yet another hiatus breaker on good ol Meek so, if you were into that, you’ll not have much longer to wait~
Oh, and obligatory reminder about the team management book whose art and Kickstarter I heavily contributed to! We are fully funded with a few days to go still, and many unlock rewards still coming down the pipeline~
44 Comments
Ok this is heartbreaking and I’m crying right now.
Dat hold tho…
Levi still counts on his tail defense :-D
It’s been super effective so far!
Mike uses seismic toss!
And the feels were slightly reduced for me when I imagined Mike saying mid-toss “Now sit your ass down and think about what you’ve done!” :D
“Remember, I’ve lived most of my life in 2.7x Martian gravity. I could probably lift you.”
Guess Mars doesn’t have any laws against open carry, cuz Mike is finally using those guns
I was going to reference that earlier quote, but you beat me to it! Now verified, Mike can indeed lift Kalla.
I was wondering how that squared with his having lived for over a year in 0.38x Earth gravity? Plus the 5-10 months in presumed zero G to get there. How long for the body to equilibrate to its local conditions and muscles and bone density to degenerate? Like the ISS crew find, despite working out every day – but not as quickly as them perhaps.
You can add the effect of adrenaline which is in every way like a combat drug that releases the muscular limitations organism put to avoid destructive efforts (yeah, adrenaline will seem to give superstrength, but afterwards you’ll see that you have torn a lot of muscular fibers)
It takes longer than you think to lose muscle mass. I became disabled due to a chronic illness seven years ago and have been mobility impaired since 2015. Before that, I was very active. I still have visible muscle definition in my arms and legs even though I essentially went from active to sedentary. Theoretically, my body is still strong enough to lift significant weight but my stamina is so nerfed doing so will wipe me out completely for the rest of the day. Mike’s got significantly more muscle mass than I did at my peak, and he’s not nearly as limited even accounting for low G. I buy this being well within his capabilities.
Quicker than you’d think when not subject to the 1G that we all still are. The research on the physiology of the ISS astronauts, that I was able to read after posting that, concluded that after the zero G transit any Martianauts would be barely able to stand let alone carry out simple tasks, and that’s on Mars at only 0.38G – so any buff musculature Mike has would have been (re)built up in Mars’ gravity and any muscle fibre density from Earth’s 1G will have longsince gone by the wayside. Not to mention heart muscle fibre loss. Sadly it was also concluded that greater muscle mass to start with wouldn’t act as a prophylactic either, as those individuals simply lost more, and more quickly.
I chose to imagine that here they must have developed rotational capability for Mars transport ships to provide a simulated 1G for the journey.
Man didn’t realize Michael was such a beast, i wonder if his martian friends are the reason.
Earth gravity, actually! It makes us basically supermen in lower gravity, since we’re used to lift more weight =D
Glad that Mike didn’t throw Kalla off the cliff.
Now the challenge is just saving Bex while fending off Kalla at the same time. No room for mistakes!
Dang, this is rough stuff. :(
I know things have taken a tragic turn, but flipped over Kalla is frickin’ adorable. You just want to give her a belly rub.
Terran Power!
Oh yeah, Earth Gravity for the WIN!
Seriously though… I’m expecting a minor flashback next page with that blue background in the last panel.
Hopefully they won’t simply die, because I dread to think what will happen if they’re brought back by the processor and don’t remember anything since they were last synced… Even then it feels like the processor has the power to erase some memories.
Mike is demonstrating “open carry” for Chekov’s Gun!
lol
AS GOD AS MY WITNESS, SHE IS BROKEN IN HALF
Do we even know that this Kalla is the “real” Kalla? Remember how quickly the Processor created a fake flower? If the Processor wanted to create a Terminator to ensure that Mike and Bex didn’t escape, one that looked like Kalla until it attacked would allay their suspicions. What’s behimd hose blue eyes?
Chekhov’s GUNS
The third panel makes me feel things like Kalla is a loyal betrayed dog, the pain.
We know when the patreon crew are no longer 3 pages ahead, that it is just about over. It might be better if we don’t.
This story has been with me for a very long time, and I will be sad to see it go.
:’| Thinking I might stop posting there for the last few pages and keep it all on the site so we can finish it together. They’ll be on Meek by then so at least there will be fresh comics going up for Patrons regardless.
I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE MEEK!
Also, Michael, this is probably the first thing that you have really done… ah how to explain? Like before, he was so caught up in his depression, he didn’t have a great relationship with Bex… but now, he’s standing up for them all and Doing Something about it that means something important to him. Like it feels more purposeful. Good on you Mike. We’re rooting for you. <3
Sadly that means tossing the hell out of his friend, but at least he’s doing something
godDAMN Mike! * fans self *
Mixed feelings: throw Kalla off the cliff vs stop Kalla andcalm things down.
The scene reminded me of a similar one in that undeservedly maligned 2012 movie “John Carter of Mars” (and made me want to cheer like when Han Solo returns unexpectedly to blast Darth Vader at the end of SW-TNH)
OH- oh good, ok, Mike saved his brave sweet baby. It will be sad if Kalla has to be left behind, but given the dialog we’ve had so far I start to feel it is simply unaboidable.
That earthly strength!
Just stopping to say that I really like the way you drew Michael in the third panel. Great sense of human form and great sense of weight, with the way his feet are planted.
Thank you!
He looked like Atlas there for a sec :D
This is perturbing.
I am highly perturbed.
We finally get a heroic feat of strength from our muscle man. It’s about time, Shing.
The Meek!!! Oh wow, i’ve missed those characters and that world more than i’d like admit…
Fun fact, when i first discovered Mare Internum (pretty sure it was a banner ad through tredtail’s dream) i didn’t immediately realise Der-shing was the creator of both projects! I only realised when i said “ooh, i wonder if this author does the same thing as the meek author and has some other webcomic suggestions in their extras page”
Is it just me, or does it look like Kalla was actually going to help Bex up, before Mike threw her?
nah dude, she was gonna crush Levi :(
I gotta say, this scene was once of the most epic ones I’ve ever seen, and my second favorite of the whole comic. (my first favorite was Mike saying ‘f*** you’ to the chasm)
Is it just me, or does it look like Kalla was actually going to help Bex up, before Mike threw her?
No, Kalla called Levi a traitor. She was either going to throw him into the lava, too, or she was going to lift him off Bex so she could throw Bex in.
At this point I’d like Mike to say “Kalla, Bex didn’t kill you — you died a long time ago! You’re just a puppet of the Processor who thinks she’s really alive.”
Just wanted to say thank you for creating this. It impacted me very strongly, in part due to the circumstances under which I have read it, and I am grateful that it exists.
I came across the comic about a year and a half ago after stumbling across the Meek — what turned out to be a few months before an intimate partner began to manifest symptoms pretty similar to what it sounds like Mike was (supposed to be) taking meds for. I reread the whole thing much more recently, when everything was still in a horrible dangerous limbo and I could see no path forward some days. That familiarity gave the whole story a new intensity and bittersweet beauty. There were definitely days when rereading chapters while waiting for updates was an outlet – a wildly interesting and visually stunning thing that gave me a different lens on my own guilt and uncertainty, which made it less lonely.
Things have stabilized and improved for us since, but I now find myself not sure I’m ready to know how this tale ends for our heroes. Nothing can go back to being the same (nor should it), and not everyone seems likely to even make it through to the other side. But that’s life, and that’s a story worth telling for those who need to hear it. Thank you for doing a beautiful, powerful job of that.
Thank you so much for reading and for sharing part of your own journey. I’m glad things have gotten more stable for you, and I hope they continue to keep getting better!