Seeker of Thrones 5-53
Chapter: 5
“A curious fact – the Institute of Fractal Archivists insisted to me today they had found a peculiar period of history prior to the Second Conquest that according to their ontoscopes does not exist. Nearly two centuries to which a huge host of historical inaccuracies and inconsistencies have been attributed – I am familiar with the period myself. They theorize that this is because the period only existed for some people; that is to say the flow of time itself, the turning of the great wheel, was tampered with.
It is, of course, a preposterous explanation, though so very convenient I am inclined to believe it.”
-Payapop Pritram, personal notes S.C. 2420
I AM AND I ARE ALL WE
BUT I AM STILL I
I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together…
GOO GOO G’JOOB
Would be only half-surprised if the King of All Devils was actually Twice-Vehk.
And we are all together.
Curious humor, this one.
Were it not for the damage it would do, I would love to speak a while with such a being.
re: caption/comment
So, essentially, a Dragon Break then.
If you look very, very carefully in the bottom right hand panel, you can see an eye peering through the grate of the cage.
But now I must wonder… where does the room end, and Himself begin? A being whose name is I echoes the entire Wheel, for the Wheel seen from the right angle is the Tower called I. This Aeon doubts that Himself is trapped in that iron sarcophagus at all, regardless of the copious amounts of binding needles.
They are not chains that bind him but the strings he pulls. On the very pillars of reality he tugs ever so subtly.
Whoa!
Do I need to reread every page and turn up my screen brightness?
He’s not ‘I’ he’s ‘myself’. This is because he’s a demon, and not Yis-Un.
ehyeh ašer ehyeh, eh, Abbadon?
I quite enjoy this ʞing.
Every once in a while, a devil petitions the Guild for entry. I won’t say they’re never admitted- talent can rise from the most unexpected of places- but the Traders in Signs and Portents demand a certain artistry. Any fool can say what she knows to be true; an artist speaks the shape of what should be, and permits the universe to fill in the details, and most devils are sorely lacking in imagination beyond “consume.”
He that Is has flair, certainly, but true art arises from limitations. What fun is there in playing God when you already are one?
There’s a Jello song with DOA
named Power is Boring.
It’s astute.
Pretty much everything Jello’s done has been astute.
Under those circumstances, wouldn’t lack of limitations be, itself, a limitation?
If you know the future that will come to pass, you are not a soothsayer. You are a narrator.
Entirely different skillset involved.
Myself is surely a very handsome devil! I can see why all the other devils lock Myself up, because Myself is simply too glamorous to be allowed out in the world. What fools. Next opportunity I have, I’ll let Myself out of the cage myself!
Anyone so imprisoned who deigns to wear the name “Himself” as a guise is surely roleplaying their captivity, but with fervor.
Got to be good looking ’cause he’s so hard to see!
He will stretch out His hand, AL-YIS-UN.
And You will work His wonders.
Is that an eye I spy?
Aye!
Bha ha ha ha ha! The worst devil of them all is an honest conversation with yourself!! Ha! I love it!
“And that’s what I am.”
In my experience anomalous records are to be ignored. Either they’re wrong or someone has changed history. If it’s the latter you’d best not draw the ire of a being powerful enough to do so by looking too closely at its handiwork.
If it didn’t want its handiwork examined, it should have done a better job of hiding it. Everything has happened and is going to happen; examination is inescapable.
It doesn’t care if you examine it, so long as your examination poses no threat. The instant you have a fraction of a chance of becoming a threat, it will murder until that changes. Unfortunately, you have no way of knowing what knowledge is dangerous to them, and through them, you.
But observation changes the observed. It was fine until you looked at it.
I like how she’s already emoting by manifesting her diadem.
P.S. The old boy styling his “I”s as “王”s is downright endearing.
In the language of my homeland, that is the symbol referring to the number “seven”. It’s downright bad luck to see this, it is.
But much better than “four” or “five”, though much worse than “fifty-four”
In the language it is written in, it means “King”. Very fitting, and yet so incomplete.
This is one of those AI-boxing things, isn’t it? You’re supposed to be very careful about what you let the superintelligence in the box know, or say, or even affect, because otherwise it might convince you to let it out and then you’ve got a real problem.
Whatever you do, don’t think about Roko’s basilisk.
My absolute favorite parts of this comic are when Allison doesn’t realize how afraid she should be of some incredibly powerful being so she just starts talking shit right to them. I hope she survives to do it again!
How would we have a comic about a girl making Bad Decisions if the girl croaked just when things got going?
Sit tight, friendo.
The King won’t live forever, but she’ll live long.
> The King won’t live forever, but she’ll live long.
long _enough_.
I wonder what his voice sounds like. Deep and mellow, or small and timid?
Pree Ashma forgive me. These are unclean thoughts.
Gilbert Gottfried.
I will admit to going back and re-reading all of it, with his lines in Gilbert’s voice, and I’d recommend it, as well.
Well, thanks. With a single name you caused the sound of the text to crack into focus, and now that voice is all I hear Himself speak in.
And the terrible thing is, it works.
Sean Connery.
I hear the voice of Lucien Lachance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smfP0_S4VwY
I’ve never come across a sweeter voice, nor a tongue I’d more like to pull out. Who better to silence than the one who knows everything?
Oh man, it’s the Black Flame itself.
Makes sense to let himself be caged by his captors.
Since going out of cage and all primal will consume the universe again.
If they’re at a crossroads, will there be music?
How delightful it is, when one claims to be God to Her Face.
And is absolutely correct in doing so. For such is a paradox and paradoxes are most Holy.
And know from a clash of heads we pass to a clash of wits
King of Devils confirmed for Biblical GOD
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה
Not necessarily.
Names have power.
No sane Sorcerer, Devil King or Godlet would let a mere mortal have power over them by revealing their true name.
“I am who I am” is a synonym for “Mind your own fucking business”
Jewish god’s name is Elohim.
Myself and I are names for Christian god, as they forgot their Jewish roots.
I am that I am, YHVH says to Moses in the Torah.
“The flow of time on the Wheel is convoluted.”
So its a dragon break is it?
“I am that I am?”
Do I detect a touch of megalomania here?
Or is it demon Popeye?
Also, I love the way that formal little desk-bookcase setup sits in the middle of a Xenomorph queen chamber or some such.
Reach Heaven Through Performance Enhancing Leafy Greens
I shudder at it’s mere depiction.
Himself is being cheap right now.
That isn’t anything special, what is witnessed here is simply psychological observation and predictive cold reading. Someone with as vigorous a behavior as Allison Ruth’s, magnified by the influence of Incubus, will naturally have friction with devils. Furthermore, Allison Ruth is attempting to assert her Kingship. Of course she would present friction. “You’re not my friend,” is one of a few lines she could say. If Himself had taken a close miss, reading Allison Ruth’s face would reveal it, and it would be short order to correct Himself, without breaking the cold reading.
From there, “How would/does he know that?” is an easy guess, if close miss. Allison Ruth has a certain casual vulgarity to her language. It would not be hard to impress her own language into Himself’s cold read. “How the fuck would/does he know that?” And now we have what Allison Ruth would be thinking, had Himself’s first guess been on the nose.
I wouldn’t even be particularly fazed by the idea that Himself could pin Zaid as Allison Ruth’s friend, considering that Himself is the king of all devils, and would probably know most, if not all of the happenings of Throne.
Yes and no. “how the fuck did you know that” was indeed an easy mark, but saying that Cio’s first thought was how quick she could kill Allison and take the key is beyond mere cold reading. And even if there was some friction between them, knowing that Allison specifically said that Cio was not her friend is but one of many possible sentences, especially depending on the situation. In summation, “how the fuck does he know that”, easy. “you’re not my friend”, harder. “How quickly could I kill her and take the Key” impossible through mere cold reading. My own assumption is that Himself has a link of sorts to the minds and perceptions of lesser devils. This would let Himself know Cio’s thoughts as well as allowing Himself to hear Allison declare Cio not her friend, not to mention plenty of personality data for cold reading.
Counterpoint, Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third is a devil, and previously Yabalchoath at that. The reputation of Yabalchoath precedes her, and it would not be difficult to assume that just because the color of her mask and her subsequent power has changed does not mean her habits and instinct haven’t. Old habits die hard, I believe the saying goes.
Guessing the “first thought” of someone with a reputation would variably be easier depending on how well you know someone. The “first thought” is near-instinctual. It’s what you reflexively think. It’s where eyes travel before the mind corrects. “First thoughts” cannot be hammered out of you once you’ve taken shape, no matter how hard you try. It’s who you have been.
“Second thoughts”, conversely, are a bit harder of a guess. It’s who you are now, if you have changed. “Second thoughts” are much more malleable than “first thoughts”, as they are the thoughts you are consciously aware of, the ones you choose to think in the present. If you have changed from a past self, your “second thoughts” would likewise change. Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third is not Yabalchoath, she said so herself. The instinctual “first thought” could very feasibly be the remnants of Yabalchoath clinging to her. If Himself had called out her “second thoughts”, either accurately predicting that she hadn’t changed, or accurately stating how she had, I would be variably more impressed. As it is, Himself simply called out what Yabalchoath feasibly would’ve thought in that situation, face to face with a Key again.
As for Allison Ruth’s first stated comment, “you’re not my friend”, consider probable friction from an outside standpoint. Think about things you might say in a heated moment, firstly. There’s a lot of things you could say, and guessing one would not be hard. “You’re not my friend” is a comment made toward someone you’ve met recently, and have a strong degree of friction with, but must get along with for varying reasons; the implied post-comment is, “We are just working together until we accomplish our respective goals.” Allison Ruth and Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third had only met recently, and their innate respective attitudes would have grown some degree of friction. Likely, there would be friction early and often.
One path of prediction would be that Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third, having missed the opportunity to rip the key from Allison Ruth’s head early, would try to sucker up to her. Allison Ruth, someone who no longer reacts to the activities of Throne with unfamiliar confusion and panic but with a degree of jaded rage, would likely know or suspect the sweet lies of devils, and respond accordingly.
Hence, “You’re not my friend.” And even if Himself had guessed slightly off the mark, i.e. “You aren’t my friend,” or “We aren’t friends,” consider how often most humans misremember their own words in passing, Misremembering the wording of their own statements is deceptively more likely than you might think. It would have been close enough to trigger Allison Ruth’s much easier to predict mental response.
In short, Himself is starting with parlor tricks. A formality, which I am given to understand Himself enjoys. I’ll not say I’m disappointed yet, Himself has only just been introduced, and it’s hard to make a strong first impression from the inside of an ornamental prison in which you choose to stay.
Now, if Himself starts talking about Allison Ruth’s friends from her home world, I would be more impressed.
Cold Reading might not have given Himself the knowledge of Cio’s thoughts upon meeting Allison, but it wouldn’t need to. Cio used to be one of the biggest, baddest devils in the entire Wheel. In short, a near-peer to Himself back in the day.
What I’m saying is, Himself knew her. KNEW her. Knew how she thought, or at least what he goals were. Pegging Cio as the kind of person who would consider killing Allison and taking the key – even if she didn’t go through with it (which she obviously didn’t) – is not a hard educated guess to make.
She stole a key before, and loved the power. That she would be tempted by such a ridiculously easy opportunity to get a new one is quite obvious.
HIMSELF knew Yabalchoath, and so could easily guess Cio’s thoughts. However, He clearly seeks to manipulate and so His claim is not necessarily (or even likely to be) true. Truth is for angels.
Is it really beyond cold reading? It seems that “how can I steal her key” is a very common first reaction. And Cio has a lot of history with the court for Himself use to predict her.
In a darkened room,
maybe cell, maybe tomb,
your head goes *dolly-zoom*
There’s something so charming and personable about H I S voice
I wonder what atrocities he has committed
Not many while locked up in a cage! That’s what captors are for, to do all the nasty stuff while you have a nice nap in your tomb.
Alternatively, you could say he’s committed every atrocity, because he’s the hot black flame that makes up every devil.
Once Spider Jerusalem was stuck in a hotel room in Prague with a phone. Six politicians committed suicide.
Imagine what the King of Devils can do.
The king of all devils doesn’t want praise, he doesn’t want pity.
Allison you don’t have to listen, you don’t have to do this to Y O U R S E L F.
Wait this reminds me of a bit of Elder Scrolls lore.
Where many kings traveled outside the wheel and upon seeing it on it’s side realised they where mere figments of a godhead. O=I
HIMSELF saw himself twisted over himself endlessly and forever. I=∞
Is the devil really quoting Popeye?
Woe betyde the one whom slips the spynach atwixt the bars of His cage!
“I yam what I yam.”
“Alice, tell me about your… Wonderland.”
Jove-in-a-box!
I wonder how MYSELF is both the leader of all devils and yet captured by devils.
Something, something, we build our own prisons.
The Eye sees all.
DON’T LOOK INTO THE EYE!!!!
We are always watching, but we are not I. We are not that terrible Self.
The last panel of this page is one of my favorite things thus far.
The Herald of Corruption. The human girl should be careful…his voice is a weapon. A dangerous one.
I knew it: M Y S E L F is Hannibal Lecter.
No one makes a better liar than the being that only speaks truth.
Ah Himself, Myself, now you show Thyself for what thy are. Which is, of course, Me.
tik tik tik tik tik tik
boom?
tok?
REPENT! SAYETH THE TICK-TOCK MAN!
cuckoo?
I hate it when inyterviews take this path.
Ah, a mind reader.
I wonder if he knows about her meetings with Incubus, then. The ones she knows about, and the ones she doesn’t.
Could be quite illuminating.
LIVE NO EVIL
LIVE ON EVIL
BEHOLD. THE SEVENTH SECRET NAME OF GOD, HIMSELF: I.
“MYSELF” sounds a bit like “YISUN” doesn’t it?
Though I suppose the king has just chosen that name for himself for purposes of vanity. . .probably.
Anyone else getting the vibe that Wes Johnson should voice Himself?
Sheogorath voice or Lucien Lachance voice? I vote Lucien. Although the thought of Himself going full Sheogorath and switching back and forth between the two, going from low murder-growl to stage Irishman and back, would be absolutely hilarious.
Interesting that our ‘reflective surface’ turns out to be liquid in panel 4…And such lovely Giger-esque architecture! In the belly of the beast, indeed!
Error: That Name is taken. Try another.
Having Baal Hearteater vibes a bit
Interesting that HIMSELF has seven letters when spoken by others but has six when spoken by HIMSELF. Almost as if the seventh was not spoken with a tongue of flesh.
I am I and I am I am i am I Am I AM i Am i aM I AM [I]
Not You
Pritram is referring to the phenomenon known as a “Dragon Break,” for the curious.
The text under the comic… reference to something akin to a Dragon Break, mayhap?
Hmm… myself could have been anybody, but the I am that I am sounds suspiciously like the calling card of the Old Testament God.
Interesting. “I am that I am” is biblical, and refers to the Old Testament’s god.
YHWH in a box?
I see wat u did there
These words come from Myself, so they must be true.
The hidden words talk of the Devil at a crossroads, but all this one sees is, apparently, the womb of an alien queen. Curious indeed.
On my mobile phone my screen is darker.
So I didn’t see the eye in the last panel until the second read trough.
It was very neat.
It is peculiar that “Ciocie Cioelle” had not warned our heroine in advance, choosing that exact moment instead. What would “Incubus” do?
She didn’t expect Allison to actually join her.
For some reason, I’ve become convinced that the themetune of this scene is that one song where they say “lollipop” over and over again.
lollipop lollipop
oh lolli lolli lolli lollipop
ba
DOOM
DOOM
DOOM
He Who Lives in His Name
Aaand we pull back to reveal we’re actually in an Aliens movies.
Nope nope nope.
Certainly full of himself
*ba-dum tss*
Booooo.
Hmm…. Vincent Price. Yep, this guy is definitely voiced by Vincent Price.
Sometimes it’s not the first thought that’s important, but the second one. That was probably “No, that’s not who I am anymore”.
One does not do business with the King of Devils lightly.
Or at all, if you’re smart.
You didn’t think meeting the King of Devils would be *simple*, did you?
(To my chagrin, I did.)
Himself uses opposite speech doesn’t he.
Guys I don’t knew if anyone noticed but they made a slight jojo bizarre adventure reference in this chapter
Guys, did you noticed that they made a slight jojo bizarre adventure reference in this page
If Allison falls for this fucker’s tricks she’ll deserve whatever she gets. I mean it’s not at all obvious that she has something everyone wants, so nobody is going to try to talk her into a mindfuck or anything. Nosirree.
“A friend of mine islanguishing in a fucking vault somewhere”.
You know, I had honestly forgotten that she is doing all this to save her boyfriend, whom is still believed by his captors to be the destined King.
Aspire for more, King Allison!
Himself is no liar.
Therein lies the danger.
So a weird thought:
1.) Starting with the obvious, “I am that I am” is a known reference to the Abrahamic God.
2.) Abbadon has mentioned that he had initially intended to call Incubus “Michael”, which means “[he] who is like God.”
3.) The Hot Black Flame that the Devils embody is hungry and consumptive; a Devil’s Kiss will eventually consume its bearer and from them make more Devil-stuff.
4.) Incubus’s lair is full of those whose power he has unlocked, withered and desiring more.
5.) I don’t know exactly where I’m going with this or what it means, but I strongly believe that the narrative juxtaposition of Incubus with the Devils is going to end up being pretty significant.
So many words.
Is this why we came here?
Ayem. ”who?” Ayem!
“To exist, we need an echo.”
I’d roll my eyes, but I really do like a good “ourselves is the greatest evil” story.
The tethered face of subjectcaptor constitutes the negative space of a withoutwall cage.
The eyes of devils pry deep, none deeper than the king of all devils.
I YAM WHAT I YAM
There are perhaps three copies of the book-like crystal whose name, translated, reads “On H I M S E L F “. Not in that they were lost or destroyed, but that the crystalline substance the Nytthe make their so-called books out of is time consuming to work with, often taking a decade or more to transcribe a single chapter. The fourth copy is being worked on as this time, and is expected to be finished in another six centuries, give or take for editing.
Despite the rarity of the book, it is highly sought by Devils, as it contains theories as to the nature of the King of Devils, and if there is anything Devils desire, it is secrets to power. The most notable and disturbing theory is that HIMSELF is not technically an Ebon Devil, for Ebon Devils have a single name. The theory is that HIMSELF has scythed off even that final name, while somehow avoiding reverting to primal chaos. How such a thing could be possible is not explained, even in that rare crystalline text.
But the theory would explain the King’s numerous confirmed and apocryphal powers. If this theory is true, then HIMSELF is the Hot Black Flame, a fundamental shard of existence itself, and his awareness of all things touched by Devilry is absolute.
I have a sneaking suspicion that our friends are sitting in a stomach.
I fucking love this comic…
The devil is the room, the cage is the only true mirror.
Well well well, so the christian God turns out to be the devil.
“I”, the eight syllabe of royalty that should be forgotten instead.
so speaked Jack ‘N’ Box…
Individual identity, truly the darkest of devilry. A name given to itself.
Anyone else notice the clock stopped ticking when shit got real?
Must be quite refreshing to have someone cut straight to the point.
No dancing around the issue in twisted words today.
I AM MY OWN SPECIAL CREATION.
Hey , people , i dont think this SCP properly contained. Or at all. How about revising containment protocol for this one ?
Oh hey, Myself’s box is littered with vacus needles, those soul/”fire”-blocking needle things that Delicious used. They’re probably “important” for keeping Myself contained, or at the very least an ineffective further reinforcement on their bondage .
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