Wielder of Names 3-59
Chapter: 3
“I heard a man’s heart is worn on his sleeve. Well, it ain’t exactly correct by my reckoning, but close enough. Men is easy to read. Their heart shows all up in their eyes and face. It comes out in their breath, their voice, and the slant of their walk. Men is living things, beautiful and simple.
Where does an angel keep his heart then, I wonder? Troubling thoughts, my lads. Troubling thoughts, indeed.”
– Volk, Stoker’s Guild scion
If you like it then you shoulda put a mask on it~
Interesting development indeed. If this one becomes solid I will be most pleased.
White Chain, what are you doing?!?!
Moving Forward, on fearless and endless tread, the footfalls of the second that the crumbles mountains and detonates stars. The step that mirrors a human heart, that constant staccato that leads to inevitable death. That is the motion given form in this eon, in this mode.
Oh.
…Is that supposed to come off? 10 Vigilant Gaze’s shoulders look a bit shocked.
Shoulder shock, the worst kind of shock.
Beware!
It is a dark path you choose. Your fear has turned to anger sufficient to mask your conscience. The energy required to walk this path is stolen from your very soul and is temporary. When it is gone you will be left only with sorrow and a broken heart.
Hope springs eternal:
The mutability that allows you to choose this dark path allows you to choose a lighter one and be healed. May you and you soul reach concordance.
Fear leads to Anger, Anger leads to some things that lead to the Dark Side.
Beautiful words, friend.
That one walks in shadows is no more concern than one who walks in light; they are all of a piece – perhaps anger masks conscience, but will has also unmasked and ripped away obstacles. Chains now walks implacably, by force of will alone. Yes, such a tread consumes the soul, for it is by spirit alone such paths open. But it also renews a soul, for souls are fed by purpose. Chains will never be what it was, but that is in no way evil – it is, after all, the desire for stasis that led Metatron mad, and brought forth this evil Thorn to begin with. What Chains shall be, is in doubt, but the act of change, of re-birth is both a time to grieve, and rejoice, for something old has died, and something new is born. In this, the universe is vaguely wheel-shaped.
“I want to take his face… off. Eyes, nose, skin, teeth. It’s coming off.”
I do wonder whether White Chain just put on or took off a mask. Or perhaps a little bit of both…
so much for an eternal, immutable form.
=//=
IF NO FACE IS WITHOUT MEANING, CAN A MASK TRULY BE MEANINGLESS?
Either way it’s one hell of a way of saving face.
I want to know where White Chain got hands! Does she have retractable feathers and wings? And where did the eye go?
Looking back at earlier pages, it does appear that one pair of limbs double as arms+hands and wings. Compare http://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/won-3-54/ and http://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/wielder-of-names-3-57/
On page 54, White Chain is covering her ears with hands, while feathers still sprout from the lower arms. On page 57, those feathers are gone.
What is a mask if not a face for the faceless?
This seems a bit hasty, White Chain dear. Perhaps the path less traveled is the better one for you? Say, the third option that is neither the vigil of the void nor submission to the thorns?
That kind of action needs a little momentum. Motivation and endurance. Consider this to be 82’s starting gun. Great and wonderful things can soon be accomplished.
That being said, you also need momentum to eat puppies or jump off of a cliff. Not everything great is good.
Not White Chain!
I take comfort in the fact that she will one day Return to Subdue Evil, for names are a powerful thing..
Wait I’m confused. Is White Chain joining Michael or rejecting his plan?
Joining him. For now, at any rate. I still predict White Chain will forge their own path, in time. But now inaction seems to them to be the worst of all options.
one needs not believe to participate, perhaps both can be achieved by not committing fully to either?
=//=
ONE NEEDS NOT PARTICIPATE TO HAVE FAITH, BUT IT HELPS.
She’s accepting his offer, because it’s better than doing nothing.
Perhaps a little of both. White Chain doesn’t need to believe in Micheal’s plan to “help” him.
Indeed, there is that old saying: “Keep your friends close, and your enemies within knifing distance.”
yeah im wondering about that as well but as i guess its gonna join him, seeing her preparing to flight tells me shes gonna see 2michael
I am as well. Vigilent Gaze said last page that he would report the incident to Micheal despite knwoing he was involved, so obviously they approve of his part of the plan to begin with? They just arne’t involved themselves. Which makes me wonder why Micheal wanted WHite Chain to keep it a secret, given that they care so little as to just go ahead and tell Micheal that they know as if he were the one to look to for guidance even now.
But I’m fairly certain she is joining in on the plan to get the key. Fortunately for Micheal, Alison is so probably far fine with her key being removed as long as her boyfriend survives becoming king and continues dating her. Unfortunatley for him, fate may simply not have it that way.
I think that that quote by Vigilant Gaze was just meant to emphasize the uselessness of the other angels — Vigilant Gaze’s response to White Chain being roughed up was to file some paperwork that would go to 2 Michael, even though Michael is the one who was ultimately responsible.
It does show uselessness, but also a blind if disinterest-fueled trust in Micheal to decide for them. They care not that he conspires with thorns.
Both.
I believe that White Chain previously rejected Michael’s plan, but after being confronted with the Conclave’s overwhelming apathy, he will take part. He might not LIKE the plan, but it’s better than no plan at all.
Now the question is, which has stronger agency? The plans laid by the angel Michael, the schemes spun by the demon Ciocie, or the blind stumbling of the human Allison?
But i wonder, is the body of a thorn really free to use or is there a draw back? The thrones seem to keep a rather specific shape in or out of their armors, so maybe it will affect white chain?
Well, this was unexpected..
This seems a bit hasty, White Chain dear. Perhaps you would prefer the road less traveled by – say, the third option that is neither a vigil of the void nor submission to tyrannical thorns?
maybe make a deal with a devil? one named Princess?
PERHAPS THIS IS THE THIRD CHOICE! A LIGHTNING-ZAGGED PATH OF FLAME! CAW!
Well. That was unexpected.
vigilant observers are often mistaken for critics.
=//=
VOCAL CRITICS ARE OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR IMBECILES.
uh
dont you need that
does she need that
i think she needs that
Not too badly.
To survive? No. To be… very possibly.
I have seen our brothers who willful ignore as parts of their bodies distort and change with the passage of time but never have I seen them tear off a piece of their own identity.This fool is fool is full of terror but at the same time burning with ecstasy over what happened. Is this a sign of the current cycle reaching close to climax and come to completion?
And here we witness 82 White Chain Born in Emptiness Returns to Subdue Evil choosing her path. Whether it is a path of good or evil matters not. For the Wheel turns eternally, and with this yet another act of violence, young Chain realises her Will, which is the infinite goal of all beings with Flame inside them. And in those times of turmoil, only those with Flame hot and furious will amount to anything.
The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.”
NO NO NO
ARE YOU AN ANGEL OR A BAT, I CANNOT TELL WHICH IS MORE BLIND
MARTYRS FOLLOW MARTYRS
Oh White Chain… You are not a litany of your failures. You are. And that should be enough.
And Abbadon, if you keep being mean to White Chain, I’m going to have to take your name.
Now that’s what I call a facepalm.
White Chain snapped back. Cathartic, but I’m worried. Agreeing to Michael’s plan will bond her just as thoroughly as her brother’s castrated vigil.
This illustrates how frivolous these objections over form are. All it took was the removal of White Chain’s face to make her look like a “proper” angel. When the dividing line is so thin, why pretend it’s there at all?
Think I ought to summarise what I’ve thought through this line of events:
Back when we first saw the angels gathered about the forge, it seemed Micehal ruled over them all and the different paths were merely leaderless groups who banded together for their common outlook. Then the throns gained a speaker, showing them as more organised, and the revelation of the Metatron made it seem as though he was a rival of Micheal as the only angel of elder incarnation left. But then we saw that they had reached a truce, and were in on the same plan.
All that political intrigue makes sense, but let’s look at something else. All angels have a number indicating their incarnation. 2 Miceheal was considered the only prime who returned from the attack of Zoss, and Metatron the only one who never lost their first form. And this status gives them respect among the other, higher-numbered angels. But where did those other angels come from? The other primes still sleep between incarnations, so it does not seem all angels are reincarnated primes.
And if they are not reincarnated primes, then they were not at throne when Zoss invaded. As such, Zoss would have no business slaying them. Yet they all have died, and more than once, or one would have a number of two or one. So what killed them? Were they milling about the void and simply killed when Zoss entered, or did they die in some other matter? Are they not even original angels and simply the blood splilled from the primes, taken to forms of their own? Or are they truly reborm primes too far removed form their first forms to remember? Are there as of yet angels who have never incarnated at all but who might one day become newborn primes?
Our Bretheren who serve as Keepers of the Peace have known a world more prone to violent death than the unsullied necropolis that the Primes watched over for the many Kalpa between the death of the gods and the coming of the Conquering King. I fear this is part of what fuels the resentment towards Humanity amongst the Concordance.
This development has been observed, as will be its consequences.
And now we intone the words of those who tear their identities like most tear clothes.
Face/Off
*slowly drags hand down face*