November 10, 2019
???
Patreon will be updated soon with access to a Discord for $2+ folks, something I’ve been wanting to do a while but wasn’t feeling quite social enough to set up. Changed my mind, lol. Also we’re getting 2x a day Meek updates this week since I got caught up on making the MI extra content PDF last week and fell behind with TM comics. Today’s update is up to read now, pages 21+ 22~
As usual, MI softcover preorders are here for anyone who enjoys the comic enough to want a physical copy.
8 pages left…
14 Comments
I wonder if Kalla would have herself remade as a human. Or Mike as a Walla
The parasite’s gone…
I mean, clothes too. I took this to mean the conversation is happening on a different level than the physical, but what level is not clear to me. Maybe his body was destroyed in the lava but his mind was backed up.
His body was CERTAINLY destroyed in the lava. There wasn’t THAT much water there.
Either this is happening in some sort of cyberspace OR it’s happening WHILE he’s being resurrected.
“Certainly”…?
There may not have been that much water there, but have you considered the possibility that there wasn’t any lava there at all?
Alien AI controlled environment on a planet that does not have a molten core, and is tectonically inactive…
that water is used to save and transmit information after all
This scene feels really intimate. First they bared their souls to each other in an intense conversation, then they died, and now they are there again, literally naked. Recognizing each other.
How do you go on after all that happened?
OH BOY! I’ve been a fan of your other comic since close to the beginning. And I TO THIS DAY think that the second chapter is THE BEST writing in ANY webcomic. I’m so glad I found this after poking around the old comic for nostalgia’s sake. This is all fantastic and just as good as I remember from you!
Sadly, this is just a copy of Mike. Like the last one. The original one, born on Earth, died in the original fall. Or did he? (I forget.)
I think version 1.0 lasted until two pages ago, since I don’t know why processor would replicate the femur-repair fungus on the second version of Mike. I’m also not sure the processor would know what to do with Mike’s bodysuit (which must smell…amazing).
Oh yeah that thing is probably ripe
A copy wouldn’t fight the processor, would it? Whether or not the original Mike just died, I wonder if a fake one will return to live among humans…
Well that all depends if processor did any editing to the base personality or not.
Somehow I doubt it would go that far initially since he does offer a foil and a unique perspective, even when he was in need of biochemical repair.
This is the page where everything really hit me, when she answered him as both of them. That she’s an AI but also a projection of the last Martian, a manifestation of Kalla’s fear that then kept Kalla trapped for billions of years repeating the same cycles. For people with trauma histories, so many of us have one of those, you could call it the superego or whatever, but it WILL prevent you from living in an effort to keep you safe from your own terror. Mike found a friend in Kalla because they were both trapped by their fear, by something that prevented both from living and also from dying. In a way, of course, this has all been about Mike fighting his own fear of living, even as Bex fought her fear of facing her mistakes. Bex definitively does not want to die yet, while Mike was always on the fence because he certainly didn’t want to live–which was symbolized so beautifully on that page where she stands at the edge of the water and yells for Mike not to go in because it’s “full of monsters”, while he’s already half-submerged and not giving any fucks. She’s curious and a scientist, but she also isn’t ready yet to surrender to the Ultimate Mystery. And of course, at that point, she also isn’t ready yet to face her own personal fears.
And now at the end Mike was ready to live, even if living means dying in the end. And maybe Kalla can finally do the same.
I am crying, damn, this comic is so genius and moving and also gorgeous. I can’t wait to re-read and notice more things! Thank you for all of the years and effort you have put into making this beautiful thing.