By my recknoning none of them will come out of this unscathed. My hope is just that Incubus gets it just that litle bit worse because sometimes that little bit is all that matters.
The Forced Back Step is one of the most demanding Ki Rata techniques in terms of discipline. It requires the practitioner to deliberately put themselves in a weak position.
I am wondering if Maya killed Meti in order to PROTECT Incubus. Then, realizing she’d traded Meti for…well, Incubus…she walked away from everything?
I mean, he would be one to get angry at being protected, and simply GIVEN a key, and even angrier at her “abandoning” him after. And such a thing would fit both stories…
And they would both leave that part of the story out. Incubus because he’d feel humiliated, and Maya because she felt regret at that “trade”.
Yes! I had been trying to figure out what Maya would have killed Meti and this feels right. Maya protected the mouse (Incubus) by killing Meti, which is why Meti died laughing. Maya finally learned the correct lesson, that a sword is a ruinous poison.
Yessss, I called it years ago!
Every demiurge became a demiurge because they had a hunger that could not be filled. This was because the method of their quest was fundamentally flawed: Each pursued one of the seven deadly sins, and those sins were a prison that denied the the very thing that would give them peace.
Om was trapped in the jaws of the beast, so to escape she rode on the beasts back and took over its feeding.
Solomon wanted to return to the life of peace he had with his family, but his pride wouldn’t allow it. It took his humbling to free him.
Jaggornath wants to bring about an end to the violence, but the only method he knows to achieve that is to annihilate the world with his sword.
Mammon yearned for the things he sold, which no money could ever bring back.
Jadis is special, as her sloth is also despair: Either she is paralysed by the knowledge she holds to the point she cannot act to change it, or “Jadis” was consumed by absolute knowledge and has become a puppet of fate.
Gog is similar to Jadis, in that her awareness of the loop blurs her core conflict. She wears a thousand masks but yearns for connection, and she wants to be anyone other then herself.
But Incubus has always had one through-line: He just wanted to be loved. He wanted a family. All he got was Metis the sword-poisoned as a mother and Maya the young fool as a sister. He took on their beliefs in the supremacy of power, but the path of selfish desire is the antithesis of love.
Maya’s desires have only ever hurt her loved ones. She and Incubus together complete the story of the demiurge of lust.
theres always been this back-and-forth, this mirrored logic about the sword that Maya carries with her. the maybe blade, and the violence, and the poison. lmao the soup (you do not need to use a blade to eat it)
it’s hard to …. really put a finger on this but her line at the top of the page “may my opponent’s blood spurt generously” when she has been shown narratively time and again to be her own enemy and thence subsequently, it is HER blood spurting generously.
i dunno man – the violence against others as violence against self feels like it’s been a running theme for all of k6bd and i’m really really enjoying the microcosm of it here.
Is interesting to me that Incubus just created a sword. Back against Jagganoth a big point was made that losing a sword crippled him, highlighting his status as a failed swordmaster who at his level shouldn’t even need a sword to cut. Did he improve? Just a new trick he learned? Curious. Tho he still loves his multiple cut barrage so he still is no Sword Saint.
I found a mouse in my room today, it was trapped in a box of cheerios. I took it on a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the nearest wooded area to set it free. Then my phone died so I couldn’t get home and wandered until a friendly stranger directed me to an IHOP where I could charge my phone. Slipped and fell at one point, scraped my hands up bad. I hope the mouse lives.
Y’know it occurs to me that he could have presumably done that instead of frantically going “sword I need a sword I need a SWORD” during the big throwdown with Jagganoth
Perhaps he wasn’t actually completely invested then? Or this is costing him something he wasn’t willing to burn except against her
Also that was *fear* when he thought she was just going to straight up draw on him last page, before she took a drink instead
Even an absolute master of blood alchemy cannot bleed forever, not if they bleed hard enough
I kinda want to look deep into this, Incubus said “You Abandoned me on the road” I’m assuming the moment where Maya was a Demiurge and confronted her grandmother, Meti and the moment she ran off. Dude might see it as an abandonment as he had to fill in for Maya as Demiurge. He soon grew in power and aside from everything, he’s still a child willing to do anything be in a family which is why he cut his hair in the first place.
(takes a chip out of the big bag of chip hold) Mmmm, mesth. (gulp) Uh, yes. But, like do they look like a lady or were those the other kind of ‘shrooms on the pizza. Want some? (Holds out bag) different flavor with every hand full. Mind, my hunger is to never hunger for anything. But, these chips have me rethinking it all.
That is why he was never able to kill her, was it not? He is too conflicted. He still regards her as his sister who abandoned him, who took him on that path and left him on it. He is still that abandonned child, that is his wound. He hates her and he loves her still, that is what weakens his blade.
I mean, if you’re not trying to unpack it, the final question was specifically stated in Wheel Smashing Lord 1-27 (to 1-28):
“What then? What then, hero, when you stand triumphant before the dwelling place of God, all the fell powers at your beck and call? Has your strength justified your claim? Has your blood drinking finally ceased? Has your participation in this death cult assuaged you of your righteousness? What then? Will you blow the trumpets and loudly proclaim the end of time? Go on, tell me! What then?”
Incubus more and more looks for me like some Korean pop idol.
By my recknoning none of them will come out of this unscathed. My hope is just that Incubus gets it just that litle bit worse because sometimes that little bit is all that matters.
Dang, now I’m imagining this with the Knight and Hornet from HK
The Forced Back Step is one of the most demanding Ki Rata techniques in terms of discipline. It requires the practitioner to deliberately put themselves in a weak position.
Maya thinks of death often.
Allison doesn’t think of death at all.
What does Incubus think, then?
I am wondering if Maya killed Meti in order to PROTECT Incubus. Then, realizing she’d traded Meti for…well, Incubus…she walked away from everything?
I mean, he would be one to get angry at being protected, and simply GIVEN a key, and even angrier at her “abandoning” him after. And such a thing would fit both stories…
And they would both leave that part of the story out. Incubus because he’d feel humiliated, and Maya because she felt regret at that “trade”.
Yes! I had been trying to figure out what Maya would have killed Meti and this feels right. Maya protected the mouse (Incubus) by killing Meti, which is why Meti died laughing. Maya finally learned the correct lesson, that a sword is a ruinous poison.
You can really see that desperate, lonely little boy in his face.
Yeahhhh Incubus is definitely bitter over the breakup…
Yessss, I called it years ago!
Every demiurge became a demiurge because they had a hunger that could not be filled. This was because the method of their quest was fundamentally flawed: Each pursued one of the seven deadly sins, and those sins were a prison that denied the the very thing that would give them peace.
Om was trapped in the jaws of the beast, so to escape she rode on the beasts back and took over its feeding.
Solomon wanted to return to the life of peace he had with his family, but his pride wouldn’t allow it. It took his humbling to free him.
Jaggornath wants to bring about an end to the violence, but the only method he knows to achieve that is to annihilate the world with his sword.
Mammon yearned for the things he sold, which no money could ever bring back.
Jadis is special, as her sloth is also despair: Either she is paralysed by the knowledge she holds to the point she cannot act to change it, or “Jadis” was consumed by absolute knowledge and has become a puppet of fate.
Gog is similar to Jadis, in that her awareness of the loop blurs her core conflict. She wears a thousand masks but yearns for connection, and she wants to be anyone other then herself.
But Incubus has always had one through-line: He just wanted to be loved. He wanted a family. All he got was Metis the sword-poisoned as a mother and Maya the young fool as a sister. He took on their beliefs in the supremacy of power, but the path of selfish desire is the antithesis of love.
Maya’s desires have only ever hurt her loved ones. She and Incubus together complete the story of the demiurge of lust.
Gotta love him destroying his own ship to get to her.
theres always been this back-and-forth, this mirrored logic about the sword that Maya carries with her. the maybe blade, and the violence, and the poison. lmao the soup (you do not need to use a blade to eat it)
it’s hard to …. really put a finger on this but her line at the top of the page “may my opponent’s blood spurt generously” when she has been shown narratively time and again to be her own enemy and thence subsequently, it is HER blood spurting generously.
i dunno man – the violence against others as violence against self feels like it’s been a running theme for all of k6bd and i’m really really enjoying the microcosm of it here.
Ooooh, getting some Sephiroth vs Genesis over Junon Cannon vibes!
Is interesting to me that Incubus just created a sword. Back against Jagganoth a big point was made that losing a sword crippled him, highlighting his status as a failed swordmaster who at his level shouldn’t even need a sword to cut. Did he improve? Just a new trick he learned? Curious. Tho he still loves his multiple cut barrage so he still is no Sword Saint.
I found a mouse in my room today, it was trapped in a box of cheerios. I took it on a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the nearest wooded area to set it free. Then my phone died so I couldn’t get home and wandered until a friendly stranger directed me to an IHOP where I could charge my phone. Slipped and fell at one point, scraped my hands up bad. I hope the mouse lives.
And so we see that both students cling. Your hands should be on your sword, not holding fast to your heart and your past.
And yet only one presumes to be righteous, thus making one a fool and the other an idiot.
Go time has finally arrived.
Y’know it occurs to me that he could have presumably done that instead of frantically going “sword I need a sword I need a SWORD” during the big throwdown with Jagganoth
Perhaps he wasn’t actually completely invested then? Or this is costing him something he wasn’t willing to burn except against her
Also that was *fear* when he thought she was just going to straight up draw on him last page, before she took a drink instead
Even an absolute master of blood alchemy cannot bleed forever, not if they bleed hard enough
I kinda want to look deep into this, Incubus said “You Abandoned me on the road” I’m assuming the moment where Maya was a Demiurge and confronted her grandmother, Meti and the moment she ran off. Dude might see it as an abandonment as he had to fill in for Maya as Demiurge. He soon grew in power and aside from everything, he’s still a child willing to do anything be in a family which is why he cut his hair in the first place.
Cue Aerosmith. Sadly, I don’t like the overly pretty types, the overdone look is so overdone.
Oooo, he mad!
(takes a chip out of the big bag of chip hold) Mmmm, mesth. (gulp) Uh, yes. But, like do they look like a lady or were those the other kind of ‘shrooms on the pizza. Want some? (Holds out bag) different flavor with every hand full. Mind, my hunger is to never hunger for anything. But, these chips have me rethinking it all.
Shortly:
Incubus: “You killed me.”
Maya: “Maybe.”
No…
WAIT!
That is why he was never able to kill her, was it not? He is too conflicted. He still regards her as his sister who abandoned him, who took him on that path and left him on it. He is still that abandonned child, that is his wound. He hates her and he loves her still, that is what weakens his blade.
“Where are your noodles, noodle-seller?” “They became ashes, for they were not the blade and thus I cared not.”
“Where is your mother, who you loved so dearly?” “She became ashes, for she was not the blade and thus I cared not.”
“Where are your children, fat and happy?” “They became ashes, for they were not the blade and thus I cared not.”
Here is the final question that Meti asked Maya.
“Where is your brother?”
I mean, if you’re not trying to unpack it, the final question was specifically stated in Wheel Smashing Lord 1-27 (to 1-28):
“What then? What then, hero, when you stand triumphant before the dwelling place of God, all the fell powers at your beck and call? Has your strength justified your claim? Has your blood drinking finally ceased? Has your participation in this death cult assuaged you of your righteousness? What then? Will you blow the trumpets and loudly proclaim the end of time? Go on, tell me! What then?”
We already know what her last question was and it wasn’t that.
Hmm. Interesting.
Incubus wants to win. But. Does he want to win alone?
Was he training Allison as a weapon, or a replacement?