2019-09-30 [DMFA#1945] Home is where life support is

[Eagle0600]

Well, that answers that question, and raises some other, interesting ones. How did Cyra get those crystals? What are they really?

[Tapewolf]

Well, that answers that question, and raises some other, interesting ones. How did Cyra get those crystals? What are they really?

Indeed.  Did she find them, or is she powerful enough to create them herself?  Because that would be a real game-changer for Matilda and any potential offspring with Dan.

[e_voyager]

Dan your girlfriend is having fun. Do not interrupt her!

[Cassi-kun]

Matilda. Cute.

I can almost imagine her purring hahaha.

[KathYohneke]

Like a cat to a keyboard your trying to type on!

[ProfesseurRenard]

Matilda. Cute.

I can almost imagine her purring hahaha.

Heh, I wonder what that would sound like in a cobra's throat.

[joshofspam]

Well, that answers that question, and raises some other, interesting ones. How did Cyra get those crystals? What are they really?

Indeed.  Did she find them, or is she powerful enough to create them herself?  Because that would be a real game-changer for Matilda and any potential offspring with Dan.

Why's that?

I don't remember hearing about any problem involving not having crystals if they have children.

Although that once again brings me back to the riddle of how the cuckoo comparison Fluffy made. After all, from the sound of it, their are some Creatures that live in environments that would be instantly fatal to a cubi child that simply looked like the non cubi parent. So I've been hoping that children of such a coupling would at least take some advantages from their non cubi parent if the parent has a useful trait.

In fact, if cubi could gain buffs for their children like that, it would be extra incentive for a clan to have a tri-wing leader. Without that, that's a whole level of Perks unavailable to a cubi's child in a hostile world out to kill them.

[Tapewolf]

Why's that?

I don't remember hearing about any problem involving not having crystals if they have children.

If you re-read the first few pages of Matilda, you will see that their society is based around these crystals.  It's kind of like how wolf-packs split off when they get big enough, but for this species, it only works if you have a new crystal to go to.  Finding a new home crystal is a Really Big Deal because it means you can start your own clan - this is most likely the reason Matilda is freaking out.

Now, in Matilda it's pointed out that the crystals de-power when taken out of the volcano, so these might only work in proximity to Cyra herself, in which case yeah, it's not going to make much difference.  If, however, Cyra is capable of mass-producing the power sources which form the basis of Blue Volcano Mythos society, how is that not a game-changer?

Of course, this does presuppose that Matilda's offspring will want to live that way, rather than choosing a more Being or 'Cubi-like lifestyle.

[joshofspam]

Why's that?

I don't remember hearing about any problem involving not having crystals if they have children.

If you re-read the first few pages of Matilda, you will see that their society is based around these crystals.  It's kind of like how wolf-packs split off when they get big enough, but for this species, it only works if you have a new crystal to go to.  Finding a new home crystal is a Really Big Deal because it means you can start your own clan - this is most likely the reason Matilda is freaking out.

Now, in Matilda it's pointed out that the crystals de-power when taken out of the volcano, so these might only work in proximity to Cyra herself, in which case yeah, it's not going to make much difference.  If, however, Cyra is capable of mass-producing the power sources which form the basis of Blue Volcano Mythos society, how is that not a game-changer?

Of course, this does presuppose that Matilda's offspring will want to live that way, rather than choosing a more Being or 'Cubi-like lifestyle.

I was under the impression that was a limitation of the crystals themselves being unable to magically feed Matilda's people in too large a number. Not that the crystals were necessary for Matilda to propagate her species.

But I could see these crystals being a way to help those who leave the Blue volcanoes. A way of stabling them as they are slowly weened onto liquid, then solid food.

[Tapewolf]

I was under the impression that was a limitation of the crystals themselves being unable to magically feed Matilda's people in too large a number. Not that the crystals were necessary for Matilda to propagate her species.

Exactly.  It's not part of the reproductive cycle, it's all about being able to actually support the new family.  They have evolved to feed on the energy from crystals found only in certain kinds of magical volcano, in other words, they have a limited supply.   If Cyra has the ability to manufacture these energy crystals on demand, that's like the difference between being a hunter-gatherer vs buying food in the supermarket.

[Dracologist]

I'm so glad that this mystery is finally set to rest.  It's extremely nice to have an answer after all these years.  I always suspected but I was never really sure... that Matilda has no butthole.

[Prroul]

Okay, probably WAY overthinking things, but had an idea here I wanted to put on paper about those crystals...

The crystals themselves do not generate the energy themselves, but are a... I guess you could say a capacitor or battery for it. If there is a higher ambient level of energy in the area, they will, for lack of better terms, collect and store it. Think of it like the sort of wireless charging system that is used in powered toothbrushes, or those pads you can set your iStuff on to charge without plugging in, magnetic resonance charging. When it hits the equilibrium point, they will emit in the immediate area. The emission is going to be a higher energy state than the ambient region, because it is coalesced into the area, but it wouldn't be possible for that to occur if there wasn't already a higher than average level of energy in the area. So, you remove the capacitor from its source of charging, and the charge dissipates, and it becomes inert.

The Blue Volcano region almost certainly has a high level of magical energy, to account for all the... exotic flora and fauna, sapient and non-sapient alike. Matilda's folk can use this energy to live off of, running off of Grid power instead of running a backup generator (which would be the process of eating and metabolizing). Since there isn't a whole lot in the way of edible food in the Blue Volcano region, these crystals were literally the life source for her people. They needed to stay near them or risk, for lack of better terms, starving.

Do recall what happened to the city that got destroyed... it got turned into glass, or so the saying goes, and it certainly looks like glass from a distance. But what if she inadvertently created a bunch of these crystals instead? You wouldn't really be able to tell the difference at a distance, particularly not on a sunny day when you're being blinded by rainbows. And since that town would likely no longer be a source of high ambient magical energy, they wouldn't really be doing anything... they would be inert, just as the crystals from the Blue Volcano region when they leave said region. And no one is really inclined to go visit the place these days to check, if Abel's reaction is anything to go by.

Now then, Cyra is an enormously powerful magical being. She exudes magic, it is her magic, at least in part, which sustains her clan (such as it is and what there is of it). It's been outright stated that it is her feeding Des that keeps Des alive. So, what if she hit upon the discovery that these crystals can store the energy, and decided to use them as a buffer to store more energy? I mean, it makes sense to me, in case I had to do something like, say, fend off a pissed off Dragon, to have a substantial energy buffer to draw from to 'nuke it down fast' before the threat in question realized just what it was tangling with. Especially since draining herself would mean not being able to feed Des and letting her Clan die before she could get her proper revenge.

So, two different origins, same effective purpose.

And I think it bodes well for any potential offspring of Dan and Matilda because... well... when you're eating for two, and have specific dietary requirements, it can get... dicey. But now here's a source of energy capable of sustaining both her and her offspring during that time. It means that as long as she has access to a charged crystal like that, she and her offspring are going to be safe.

Plus, this just upped Dan's 'ranking' in Matilda's cultural reflexes. Think about it... the only time you can spin off a new clan is when you find a Home Crystal cluster capable of sustaining a new one, and the guy who finds it is probably the head of that clan. So now Dan, in her cultural upbringing, just went from 'potential mate' to 'clan leader mate'. Consciously, I don't think it'll really register, but... yanno... dat wingspan. It wouldn't be the first time her cultural upbringing ambushed her emotions.

[joshofspam]

I was under the impression that was a limitation of the crystals themselves being unable to magically feed Matilda's people in too large a number. Not that the crystals were necessary for Matilda to propagate her species.

Exactly.  It's not part of the reproductive cycle, it's all about being able to actually support the new family.  They have evolved to feed on the energy from crystals found only in certain kinds of magical volcano, in other words, they have a limited supply.   If Cyra has the ability to manufacture these energy crystals on demand, that's like the difference between being a hunter-gatherer vs buying food in the supermarket.

Well yes... But if Matilda can survive outside without the crystals, I don't see why it would limit her forming her own clan without them. This simply seems like a limitation of Matilda's people still in the blue volcanoes.

If anything, it sounds like a dangerous dependency that might be exploitable by others that have access to such magical stones.

[Rafe]

...  Did she find them, or is she powerful enough to create them herself?  Because that would be a real game-changer for Matilda and any potential offspring with Dan.

Looking at Matilda's body language (plus the hearts around her speech balloon) in the last panel, I'd say chances for any potential offspring with her just about disappeared.
She definitely has that "who the heck needs a male when this thing makes me feel sooooo good " look.

[Tuyu]

Therapeutic rock!