. “Me?!” Alinua cries. “I just got here!”
. “She probably doesn’t think it was you SPECIFICALLY,” the white mermaid says.
. “Eh,” the blue mermaid interjects. “Knowing the Captain, she probably hasn’t ruled it out.”
. “But we know SOMEONE did it,” the white mermaid continues. “There was a figure in the deepspeaker’s vision. Hard for him to describe — probably hard for the Wyrm to see anyone our size in any detail. But he was sure it looked like a person. Shadowy, like it was swimming in ink. At least until the light came out of it.”
. “And there were the other chimeras we found around her shrine,” Selach says.
. “Other chimeras?” Alinua asks.
. “Yeah,” the white mermaid says. “That was what sealed the deal.
. “See, we thought the same thing at first. No Life mages down here, so this must’ve been an accident, and maybe the deepspeaker was just dreaming. We’ve never seen it ourselves, but there’s old stories about magic bursting up out of the rock.
. “Really weird fish have come up from the deep before. Mutations just happen sometimes. Maybe the Wyrm just got unlucky.
. “But wild mutations are random, and they’re never symmetrical. These ones were.
. “They’d been there for sefs at least, but the rot hadn’t touched them. And we couldn’t figure out anything about what species they used to be.”
. Alinua freezes, eyes widening in realization, as the white mermaid continues, “Faces like flowers. Three petals, three eyes. Never seen anything like it before.”
Ooooooohehehehehe, wonder how Alinua will react to this
It does feel like dredge.
The only difference is that there isn’t a set number of silly guys that you can get, so you just need to keep fishing for them
Well, she’s not actually genocidal (its the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group) unless you count all life on a planet as an ethnic group xD
I mean, she is technically, as she killed all the citizens of Vash with full intention of doing so to grab Vash’s soul. Though would Vash’s population be large enough for that to be counted as a genocide?
Omnicidal. Omnicidal is the operative term we are looking for. The Collector, as she has stated, intends to eradicate all life, to restore Primordial Life. On account of all living things having little teeny bits of Life in them. And somehow sleeps the sleep of the dogmatic zealot, while I have to make due with the sleep of middle aged mediocrity.
Technically speaking, she is both because citizens of Vash the city are all members of same religious group and by definition of genocide (which is legally attempted murder of a group of people because of their nationality, race, religion etc) it became genocide the moment she targetted them for their religious affiliation and killed more than one. Again, no all need to be killed for it to be genocide, partial destruction of the group still makes it a genocide.
C3v facial symmetry? Gee, I wonder if we’ve seen this before! (*cough* 1-1-6 *cough*)
Can’t remember if /Alinua/ saw those though. …checking back, the chimera back when meeting/fighting Falst didn’t have this feature either.
She mentioned feeling the city being attacked and coming to help, then showed up and healed Kendal shortly after it was over, so it’s possible she saw the creatures. Particularly considering they’d been sieging the city for some time, so she might have encountered them when they were patrolling or similar. Alternatively, I assume she and Kendal have had a number of off-panel conversations about what all is going on, so even if she never saw the chimerae, he may have described them. Certainly, her reaction here strongly implies she recognizes the description.
Alinua is somehow hunching over in the floaty water zone her anger truly does lend her power
Also hey we get to see white fish lady with both her arms there! In the past.
Big fan of snack hoarder man.
From what Red’s said, merfolk dont really have a concept of gender (or, if they do, it doesnt map onto the ‘Elder races’/our understanding of it). She/they are just the generally accepted pronouns, but the bottom line is that they simply dont care what you call them! So calling them ‘he’ might not be correct, but it might not be an issue in they way that misgendering a human is. Thats just my take on it!
Oh I like that take! Reminds me of Gerard Way who usually goes with he/they but has iirc said that the fans can call him whatever they want/makes them happy lol
So does the magic bust out of the caves randomly when she experiments? Or was it intentional? If so, why? What the hell does she gain by mutating a random sea diety? And besides, isn’t she currently out Kendal-hunting?
But… this feels too recent, you know? The mutation is set to a slightly under a year ago, and the collector’s been at it for waaaaay longer than that. Though I suppose the time frame does answer my question about the collector being busy hunting Kendal- this thing happened before all that.
its the collector, experimenting with gods is kind of their thing, especially when it could in theory damage the soul of the god lke how chimeric mutations damage the soul in mortals
and while she is currently kendal hunting, this was before vash got godnapped
Having a god-sized Wyrm attack Kendal is a very good method of Kendal-hunting if you can’t get there fast enough. The attack seemed very targeted, especially after the starfire demonstration.
It took the floof squad several weeks to reach the coast from Zuurith, so she shouldnt have been able to get there and make the wyrm in time. Unless she’s got a dragon chimera…
Anyway, I think(?) that it was created before the destruction of vash
And suddenly, her entire body goes into Attack Mode. Even knowing it was coming, the Big Reveal still sent a chill down my spine. Now the only real question is, how much will Alinua say?
Ok, all other things aside I’m so happy about that red/orange merfolk. When Red first said about merfolk she said that they were pretty colourful and since all the ones we’d seen so far were blueish I was getting worried that she’d changed her mind xD I’m calling them Garibaldi after an orange fish.
So it was Collie after all! Honestly, I think we’d mostly all arrived at that concensus by now anyway. What I’m finding more interesting right now is the random Life energy that comes out of the rocks. The only theory i can think of is that there’s a significant amount of Life’s soul buried under the planets surface and it does weird stuff when she ‘moves’? Like the chimera plague on the surface?
Also — Alinua! EAT YOUR SNAKK!!!!
“Maybe the deepspeaker was just dreaming”
Ah, dismissing the visions of your godly connected fellows as ‘just dreaming’. That never goes wrong.
Magic bursting out of the rocks, eh? Interesting. Maybe buildups of magical energy can happen in environments like this with the water pressure on the seafloor, that can then be released explosively.
The weird fish could be chalked up to aquatic cave crawlers or chimeric plague events among the deep Sekrai, but those wouldn’t explain the stories explicitly talking about magic erupting from the ground.
Wait a minute, that merfolk in panel 5 looks a lot like our ivory merfolk of exposition, only with both arms and no scars. Oh boy, she did loose her arm to the Northern Wyrm, didn’t she?
I take it the other merfolk injuries must be due to the Wyrm too; I’m still half-expecting a nasty scar under the captain’s helmet.
Ok, from that last panel I think Alinua has put two-and-two together with that chimera description; given how many chimeras the Collector had besieging Vash, it makes sense Alinua would have seen at least one of them.
Crucially though, I get the feeling Selach also knows Alinua has realised something; what Ali says next page, and what she doesn’t say, could be very interesting indeed.
I have a theory that the magic bursting out of the floor might be from when Life woke up and wrecked shop. It explains why the mer says that they have “old stories” about it.
“I remember it like it was just a few months ago. I still had both my arms.”
The indications that this is the collector are strong. So strong, I keep wondering why Alinua doesn’t just come out and say it?
Or is this the first time she is made aware of the tri-axial nature of the Wyrm and other chimeras?
Given the expression she’s making in the last panel, I’m pretty sure she really did only realize the connection just now. It was probably harder to notice the Wyrm’s similarities to the Collector’s chimeras when she was stressed out of her mind trying to save the rest of the party from her.
Dang, no wonder the Northern Wyrm panicked at the sight of Alinua’s magic. Their last (and presumably one of their only) experiences of a little humanoid speck suddenly glowing bright green must have been super traumatic.
I just heard the little*titink* sound effect they use in Detective Conan when they said “three petals and three eyes”, it’s the collector right? Chimera mom is getting wet no- Jesus Christ that sounds wrong
So. Friend of mine directed me to this comic. I binged the series, and now I have come here, to the currently last comic.
You do good, Red. You do I-don’t-have-words-for-this good. It’s not just the mind-blowing visuals, either. The story, the identity struggles, the very real characters with very real and believable flaws that go forward in spite of them, or even perhaps because of them. Because as we always have the vices of our virtues… sometimes we get lucky and also get the virtues of our vices.
The rules you’ve set out for magic are internally consistent and have a level of verisimilitude I haven’t seen in a long, long time. Despite being so flexible, they are still… constrained. As are the ‘gods’ (perhaps I should say Kami, as that is probably a closer word than what most english speakers think of when you say ‘god’). They are constrained, even affected, by their followers and beliefs.
I just… thank you. For sharing your vision. For sharing your story. Thank you.
having just reread the first chapters of the comic (the physical book is awesome), i noted that what’s happening here with the wyrm’s incarnation is something that gleicann mentioned as a possibility back in 1.9.19 (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-9-19/). i wonder if the wyrm is trapped in its incarnation, or if it just doesn’t have the strength to manifest again (or something similar)
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: dang that sounds weird and gross. anyway
Image source: chimeras
. “Me?!” Alinua cries. “I just got here!”
. “She probably doesn’t think it was you SPECIFICALLY,” the white mermaid says.
. “Eh,” the blue mermaid interjects. “Knowing the Captain, she probably hasn’t ruled it out.”
. “But we know SOMEONE did it,” the white mermaid continues. “There was a figure in the deepspeaker’s vision. Hard for him to describe — probably hard for the Wyrm to see anyone our size in any detail. But he was sure it looked like a person. Shadowy, like it was swimming in ink. At least until the light came out of it.”
. “And there were the other chimeras we found around her shrine,” Selach says.
. “Other chimeras?” Alinua asks.
. “Yeah,” the white mermaid says. “That was what sealed the deal.
. “See, we thought the same thing at first. No Life mages down here, so this must’ve been an accident, and maybe the deepspeaker was just dreaming. We’ve never seen it ourselves, but there’s old stories about magic bursting up out of the rock.
. “Really weird fish have come up from the deep before. Mutations just happen sometimes. Maybe the Wyrm just got unlucky.
. “But wild mutations are random, and they’re never symmetrical. These ones were.
. “They’d been there for sefs at least, but the rot hadn’t touched them. And we couldn’t figure out anything about what species they used to be.”
. Alinua freezes, eyes widening in realization, as the white mermaid continues, “Faces like flowers. Three petals, three eyes. Never seen anything like it before.”
Ooooooohehehehehe, wonder how Alinua will react to this
tumblr text: only on a monday am I right
Bluesky text: that could be anyone
Anyone here played Dredge?
I have, you are absolutely right
It does feel like dredge.
The only difference is that there isn’t a set number of silly guys that you can get, so you just need to keep fishing for them
Red actually has played Dredge, she mentioned it on her trope talk about sea-monsters.
wonder who did this *comicaly loud wink*
Oh, Collector! You little god-mutilating, genocidal, little rascal, you. *laughtrack*
Well, she’s not actually genocidal (its the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group) unless you count all life on a planet as an ethnic group xD
I mean, she is technically, as she killed all the citizens of Vash with full intention of doing so to grab Vash’s soul. Though would Vash’s population be large enough for that to be counted as a genocide?
I think the correct term is “omnicidal”
Omnicidal. Omnicidal is the operative term we are looking for. The Collector, as she has stated, intends to eradicate all life, to restore Primordial Life. On account of all living things having little teeny bits of Life in them. And somehow sleeps the sleep of the dogmatic zealot, while I have to make due with the sleep of middle aged mediocrity.
Yes, i think this fits well.
Technically speaking, she is both because citizens of Vash the city are all members of same religious group and by definition of genocide (which is legally attempted murder of a group of people because of their nationality, race, religion etc) it became genocide the moment she targetted them for their religious affiliation and killed more than one. Again, no all need to be killed for it to be genocide, partial destruction of the group still makes it a genocide.
Hmmmmmmmm. I WONDER where we have seen chimeras like that? HMMMMMMMM. Quite the unsolvable mystery we have here.
Indeed indeed, it really is quite a mystery
Unfortunately, I have seen this before. Good news, she’s not here. Bad news, She will be.
C3v facial symmetry? Gee, I wonder if we’ve seen this before! (*cough* 1-1-6 *cough*)
Can’t remember if /Alinua/ saw those though. …checking back, the chimera back when meeting/fighting Falst didn’t have this feature either.
(…though that was because they were of a completely different source)
Yeah that was an unrelated Life Mage doing shenanigans.
(though that was because those had a different source, whoops)
(…I tried to send this self-reply already, here’s hoping this is no duplicate)
She mentioned feeling the city being attacked and coming to help, then showed up and healed Kendal shortly after it was over, so it’s possible she saw the creatures. Particularly considering they’d been sieging the city for some time, so she might have encountered them when they were patrolling or similar. Alternatively, I assume she and Kendal have had a number of off-panel conversations about what all is going on, so even if she never saw the chimerae, he may have described them. Certainly, her reaction here strongly implies she recognizes the description.
I also can’t remember if Alinua saw those but her expression reeks of recognition here so I’m inclined to say yes
Alinua is somehow hunching over in the floaty water zone her anger truly does lend her power
Also hey we get to see white fish lady with both her arms there! In the past.
Big fan of snack hoarder man.
I hate to nitpick but I’m pretty sure all merfolk use she/they. That being said I am also a fan of snack purveyor
From what Red’s said, merfolk dont really have a concept of gender (or, if they do, it doesnt map onto the ‘Elder races’/our understanding of it). She/they are just the generally accepted pronouns, but the bottom line is that they simply dont care what you call them! So calling them ‘he’ might not be correct, but it might not be an issue in they way that misgendering a human is. Thats just my take on it!
Oh I like that take! Reminds me of Gerard Way who usually goes with he/they but has iirc said that the fans can call him whatever they want/makes them happy lol
And I’m also a big fan of Snack Purveyor xD
Ooooh Alinua definitely knows what’s up. I bet that she tells them about the collector next page.
Ah man this was the collector wasn’t it
So does the magic bust out of the caves randomly when she experiments? Or was it intentional? If so, why? What the hell does she gain by mutating a random sea diety? And besides, isn’t she currently out Kendal-hunting?
I think that the magic outburst might have been when life woke up. It fits with how they only have legends of it
Thats a very good theory
But… this feels too recent, you know? The mutation is set to a slightly under a year ago, and the collector’s been at it for waaaaay longer than that. Though I suppose the time frame does answer my question about the collector being busy hunting Kendal- this thing happened before all that.
I think that the seafolk are saying that these recent mutations can’t have been the sea floor magic thing, so it could still apply!
its the collector, experimenting with gods is kind of their thing, especially when it could in theory damage the soul of the god lke how chimeric mutations damage the soul in mortals
and while she is currently kendal hunting, this was before vash got godnapped
Having a god-sized Wyrm attack Kendal is a very good method of Kendal-hunting if you can’t get there fast enough. The attack seemed very targeted, especially after the starfire demonstration.
It took the floof squad several weeks to reach the coast from Zuurith, so she shouldnt have been able to get there and make the wyrm in time. Unless she’s got a dragon chimera…
Anyway, I think(?) that it was created before the destruction of vash
A familiar description, three-fold faces they’ve seen
Mutation created by a dark thing shining green
The dark blue mermaid has an armload of snacks now. She really does something that makes me love her more every page.
GAH covering the head with a speech buble is genius and evil
And suddenly, her entire body goes into Attack Mode. Even knowing it was coming, the Big Reveal still sent a chill down my spine. Now the only real question is, how much will Alinua say?
Ok, all other things aside I’m so happy about that red/orange merfolk. When Red first said about merfolk she said that they were pretty colourful and since all the ones we’d seen so far were blueish I was getting worried that she’d changed her mind xD I’m calling them Garibaldi after an orange fish.
So it was Collie after all! Honestly, I think we’d mostly all arrived at that concensus by now anyway. What I’m finding more interesting right now is the random Life energy that comes out of the rocks. The only theory i can think of is that there’s a significant amount of Life’s soul buried under the planets surface and it does weird stuff when she ‘moves’? Like the chimera plague on the surface?
Also — Alinua! EAT YOUR SNAKK!!!!
Oh wait I just spotted something else! Pale Merfolk had both arms in the flashback!
ah yes, the infamous Goldfish Incident
“Maybe the deepspeaker was just dreaming”
Ah, dismissing the visions of your godly connected fellows as ‘just dreaming’. That never goes wrong.
Magic bursting out of the rocks, eh? Interesting. Maybe buildups of magical energy can happen in environments like this with the water pressure on the seafloor, that can then be released explosively.
The weird fish could be chalked up to aquatic cave crawlers or chimeric plague events among the deep Sekrai, but those wouldn’t explain the stories explicitly talking about magic erupting from the ground.
Wait a minute, that merfolk in panel 5 looks a lot like our ivory merfolk of exposition, only with both arms and no scars. Oh boy, she did loose her arm to the Northern Wyrm, didn’t she?
I take it the other merfolk injuries must be due to the Wyrm too; I’m still half-expecting a nasty scar under the captain’s helmet.
Ok, from that last panel I think Alinua has put two-and-two together with that chimera description; given how many chimeras the Collector had besieging Vash, it makes sense Alinua would have seen at least one of them.
Crucially though, I get the feeling Selach also knows Alinua has realised something; what Ali says next page, and what she doesn’t say, could be very interesting indeed.
I have a theory that the magic bursting out of the floor might be from when Life woke up and wrecked shop. It explains why the mer says that they have “old stories” about it.
Yep. The Collector has been here…
So much life in this ocean
On a completely unrelated note remember how Life’s awake again?
*evil laughter*
*yet more evil laughter*
*downright maniacal laughter*
oh BOY alinua’s gonna flip her stack next update
OH NO SHE’S BACK
“I remember it like it was just a few months ago. I still had both my arms.”
The indications that this is the collector are strong. So strong, I keep wondering why Alinua doesn’t just come out and say it?
Or is this the first time she is made aware of the tri-axial nature of the Wyrm and other chimeras?
Given the expression she’s making in the last panel, I’m pretty sure she really did only realize the connection just now. It was probably harder to notice the Wyrm’s similarities to the Collector’s chimeras when she was stressed out of her mind trying to save the rest of the party from her.
She also didn’t get a good look at the Wyrm’s face at any point. The first time *we* did, Alinua was unconscious.
Dang, no wonder the Northern Wyrm panicked at the sight of Alinua’s magic. Their last (and presumably one of their only) experiences of a little humanoid speck suddenly glowing bright green must have been super traumatic.
I long to consume the jelly snack the texture looks so fun
That reminds me, I need to make my coffee jelly. Fun fact: I heard about that sweet from watching anime video on youtube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TrZgQEF8vco&pp=ygUlRnVsbCBzdHJlbmd0aCBkcmFnb24gYnJlYXRoIGtvYmF5YXNoaQ%3D%3D
What I expected: Saiki K.
What I got: Kobayashi
Alinua finally gets to punch the Collector
Ayyyyy! I can’t wait
Only if the Collectors actually here. This seems to be an old project of hers. So we may have to remain patient
The trilateral symmetry OF DOOM
“deep sea fish look weird bc they’re mutated” is not a take I saw coming but it is one I fully endorse.
It might not be the *only* reason that they look weird. But the deepest parts of the the *are* in the Caves.
Woo! Binge-watch from beginning complete!
[quote]that goldfish just hasn’t been the same since The Incident[/quote]
It’s just being koi, now…
I just heard the little*titink* sound effect they use in Detective Conan when they said “three petals and three eyes”, it’s the collector right? Chimera mom is getting wet no- Jesus Christ that sounds wrong
TL;DR: Hmmmm…. suspicious…
So. Friend of mine directed me to this comic. I binged the series, and now I have come here, to the currently last comic.
You do good, Red. You do I-don’t-have-words-for-this good. It’s not just the mind-blowing visuals, either. The story, the identity struggles, the very real characters with very real and believable flaws that go forward in spite of them, or even perhaps because of them. Because as we always have the vices of our virtues… sometimes we get lucky and also get the virtues of our vices.
The rules you’ve set out for magic are internally consistent and have a level of verisimilitude I haven’t seen in a long, long time. Despite being so flexible, they are still… constrained. As are the ‘gods’ (perhaps I should say Kami, as that is probably a closer word than what most english speakers think of when you say ‘god’). They are constrained, even affected, by their followers and beliefs.
I just… thank you. For sharing your vision. For sharing your story. Thank you.
Auroras officially out those of us in America!! 🥳
Now I’ve just got to wait a month more.
I’ve been waiting for forever! My dad got it for me as a late birthday present! I’m so excited!!
Same for me!!! I’ve got a countdown timer on my phone for it!
Well I’ve just binged this entire series after it was mentioned in the latest Overly Sarcastic Productions video.
Extremely glad I did, this comic is amazing, and I will promptly be recommending it to everyone I know.
having just reread the first chapters of the comic (the physical book is awesome), i noted that what’s happening here with the wyrm’s incarnation is something that gleicann mentioned as a possibility back in 1.9.19 (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-9-19/). i wonder if the wyrm is trapped in its incarnation, or if it just doesn’t have the strength to manifest again (or something similar)
Her face says “Wait that sounds hella familiar like those weird flowerhoundsOHNO”
MY PHYSICAL AURORA COPY JUST CAME I’M SO EXCITED
The god’s gone isn’t she? This could be another Kendall situation, only this time the body that remained is a mad chimera.
Why would a deep sea culture know what a flower is?