03/26/09 [DMFA #986] - He'd have expected this from Kria…

[jeffh4]

Abel heard Jyrras thinking about her,  but we really have no idea if any visual imagery comes across in Cubi thought hearing.  The term implies not.

It's strongly implied in strip 588, and for that matter, strip 3 of Abel pt2.  Also, Destania was able to construct a pretty good replica of Devin, though we don't really know for sure how she did that.
What does make me think he did is that he didn't get the name, and you'd expect he would if it was auditory rather than visual.

Are you referring to the apparition of Devin that appeared to Abel after Fa'Lina left his room at SAIA?  How do you know that Destania created that?  I assumed that Abel "ate" Devin's soul unintentionally when Devin died. Abel was certainly still connected to him to hear his dying thoughts.

Also, didn't I read somewhere that Cubi don't get long lives until they consume at least one soul? 

[Feather Dancer]

Abel heard Jyrras thinking about her,  but we really have no idea if any visual imagery comes across in Cubi thought hearing.  The term implies not.

It's strongly implied in strip 588, and for that matter, strip 3 of Abel pt2.  Also, Destania was able to construct a pretty good replica of Devin, though we don't really know for sure how she did that.
What does make me think he did is that he didn't get the name, and you'd expect he would if it was auditory rather than visual.

Are you referring to the apparition of Devin that appeared to Abel after Fa'Lina left his room at SAIA?  How do you know that Destania created that?  I assumed that Abel "ate" Devin's soul unintentionally when Devin died. Abel was certainly still connected to him to hear his dying thoughts.

Here.

Fact Dee is right there suggests the Devin was definately her as the train of thought is still following exactly. Abel's clearly so out of it by that point he probably didn't really notice the change of tone and just the words instead when it's revealed she's there. Hell it coulda been one wierd dream she decided to have a look see into for all we know.

Also, didn't I read somewhere that Cubi don't get long lives until they consume at least one soul? 

And I'm honestly struggling with the soul zapping thing, Devin just... died. No additional thing to hasten it as he was slowly fading out. Though that said I'm under my own assumption that it takes a more delibrate action to soul zap something over accidentally nomming your pet rabbit. Neither has really been confirmed or denied far as I'm aware


I also suck qith quotes, I keep breaking the code 

[Tapewolf]

Are you referring to the apparition of Devin that appeared to Abel after Fa'Lina left his room at SAIA?  How do you know that Destania created that?

Because Abel was asleep and she was controlling him (Devin).  Look at strip 39 - the entire sequence where Devin appears is Abel dreaming.  Note that when he appears above Destania, he's lying on his side (we're seeing the wings) - in the dream, he's sitting up.  Now, what's not clear is whether she did create Devin from Abel's memories or whether Abel dreamed him and she simply grabbed it.  If it was purely the product of Abel's dream I'd have expected other characters to appear, his mother, for example, or Xander, or heck, Kria or Cindy.  However it makes a certain strange sense if Destania chose Devin - they were both blue felines after all.

I assumed that Abel "ate" Devin's soul unintentionally when Devin died. Abel was certainly still connected to him to hear his dying thoughts.

AFAIK it's something which has to be taught - it's not a natural ability.  Also, I'd have expected something about it in Devin's cast page if he was soul-dead.  At the moment it leaves it unclear whether Devin actually has the same soul (without the memories) or a completely new one.

Also, didn't I read somewhere that Cubi don't get long lives until they consume at least one soul?

It gives them longer lives, yes.  We don't know how much it gains them or how long they live unaided.  If we look at Mab's line in 308, it's implied they naturally live for a couple of thousand years, unless Mab thinks Dan is going to go on a soul-rampage, of course.

The way I see it, you get about 3000 years and if you want more than that, then you'll have to go for some kind of external energy source - souls being the quickest and easiest way (but not the only way).  Bear in mind that this figure is only speculation and may be wrong.

[Anodyne]

I assumed that Abel "ate" Devin's soul unintentionally when Devin died. Abel was certainly still connected to him to hear his dying thoughts.

AFAIK it's something which has to be taught - it's not a natural ability.  Also, I'd have expected something about it in Devin's cast page if he was soul-dead.  At the moment it leaves it unclear whether Devin actually has the same soul (without the memories) or a completely new one.

If I remember right, Devin's cast page states that he is the same person he was before he died, just sans memories - which certainly implies that he has the same soul.

[inuhanyo]

It gives them longer lives, yes.  We don't know how much it gains them or how long they live unaided.  If we look at Mab's line in 308, it's implied they naturally live for a couple of thousand years, unless Mab thinks Dan is going to go on a soul-rampage, of course.

The way I see it, you get about 3000 years and if you want more than that, then you'll have to go for some kind of external energy source - souls being the quickest and easiest way (but not the only way).  Bear in mind that this figure is only speculation and may be wrong.

The Cubi page says that the average Cubi lifespan is 3,000+ years.  The Wiki Cubi page says:

Cubi have a nominal lifespan of around 3000 years (twice that of demons and angels).  ... The consumption of souls is not necessary for a Cubi's survival, although it will greatly increase their powers and lifespan. ...

The notes for the page reference three discussion treads on Cubi energy feeding and related issues.

[JackTheCubiWolf]

What do you guys think would happen if Abel saw undead Devin?

[Kenway975]

my two cents on the Kria/DP who's more powerful... I know it's been mentioned in this thread that Kria wanted to spar with Dan to see if she's better than DP, thus implying that they do not know. And it's been mentioned that DP is at a disadvantage due to being injured and probably due to Kira being his sister. as for Teh_Hobo's comment on the first page

'm not so sure about Kria being more powerful than Aliph. While yes, Kria wipes out cities, but Aliph did create an entire race. He made a few mistakes with that, but you would probably need to be plenty powerful to do something of that magnitude. Bringing the dead to life would likely require an almost godly power, unless theres something I'm missing.

There is some thing we are missing. Time. In all of the gaming systems that I know of (although I do not know very many), the amount of time required to do something changes the amount of power required. The longer it takes to do something the less powerful the user has to be in order to reach the same outcome. While yes, making a race does take tremendous effort, we do not know how long it took DP to do it. Another thing to take into account is the concept of practice make perfect. We are not exactly sure if either one (Kira or DP) has more experience with fighting a single foe than the other one. The trick with destroying cities is that while you are killing a lot of people, they are not fighting back much and are easy to kill. Fighting a single foe on a similar power level takes a different set of skills.

So at the moment I'll assume that at base DP and Kria are about the same power level. Or at least I'll assume that until proven otherwise.

What do you guys think would happen if Abel saw undead Devin?

No clue. Able has had a couple hundred years to become emotionally detached from that incident. It could go several ways and I'm not sure which would even be more likely.

*Edit - wow, I never realized how badly I've been misreading Kria's name until now.. I've been reading it as Kira  then again studies have shown that the human mind only needs the first and last letters of a word in the right locations and all the right letters present to be read as the appropriate word, even if the middle ones are out of order.

[Titanium Dragon]

I'd like to point out that this isn't the only time that adventurers have been made out as the badguys. Remember what Ink said to Dan about adventurer-slaying. Of course, being that adventurers probably are the epitome of the Creature's whole shtick about those with more power over those who have less, you wouldn't expect this to be the case... huh...

Here's the thing though: they see beings as inferior. Ergo, they'll attribute it to whatever it takes to make them look like they're out on top.

Creatures are racist, or at least, many are. That's why they dislike adventurers; they turn the tables on the creatures. Its not so funny when they're the ones who die, its not so fair or the way of the world. Destania herself was being "avenged" by Aaryana, lest we forget.

Here's, I think, the most important point of all, though, and what people are missing:

He said that he expected this sort of thing from Kria.

This is further confirmation of the fact that Kria, however evil she may seem, is a softie as far as a demon goes. Remember, she had a being for a mate, she's commented on two other beings being hot, she let Abel go, she actually apologized for breaking down the wrong door in the shopping center...

While she sees herself as destruction incarnate and an evil demon-mare, it seems fairly obvious that she isn't actually as bad as she likes to believe she is. She thinks she's really awesomely evil, but when it comes down to the wire of being ruthless, she avoids stepping over that line. Not that she's not evil in a callous sort of way, because she at the very least is incredibly strongly implied to be (eating the tour guide, the pizza delivery boy). All of her evil actions have fallen under the rule of funny and have occurred offscreen, too - and at least one of them (the gardener) was said to be because she thought he was an assassin. She's a bit schitzoprhenic as a character, and as such, its quite possible a lot of her actions are justified via random impulse rather than maliciousness.

Also a good way to find himself in an urn instead of a coffin when Lorenda and Kria find out.

Lest we forget, he knew that Dan was Destania's son -prior- to this incident. He knew it before the first DMFA strip, chronoloically speaking.

So he either must not know of the fued, doesn't think the dragons would kill Dan for them, or doesn't want to approach the dragons for other reasons (though its worth noting, he employed a dragon). Its also possible he HAS told them, but they either didn't care, didn't want to do anything about it, have their own reasons for doing nothing, did something but were unsuccessful, or are simply too stupid to really get Dan. Or, possibly, Dan bribed the dragons to leave him alone without realizing why they were after him in the first place - he did owe that one money, after all.

I'm going to guess it actually doesn't matter what their status is (though I imagine it's pretty up there): no one would be good enough for Aliph's niece Lorenda.

Plausible.

Now I'm curious as to why DP considers Lorenda to be so high-caste, when she's only half-Demon.  Maybe the Soulstealers are a family of more quality than we assumed.

She may be considered to be a full demon, like how "half-cubi" are really full cubi. Or he just considers her to be such.

What do you guys think would happen if Abel saw undead Devin?

Abel has psychoses. I'd be surprised if he didn't freak out.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

my two cents on the Kira/DP who's more powerful...

Who's this Kira you keep talking about?

[Tapewolf]

The Cubi page says that the average Cubi lifespan is 3,000+ years.

Yes, but that may be an average between 100'000 years and 16 or something 
Fact is, we don't know whether approximately 3000 is their natural lifespan or not.  I'm assuming it is, and that you have to eat souls or whatever to get an 'unnatural' lifespan.

The Wiki Cubi page says:

Cubi have a nominal lifespan of around 3000 years (twice that of demons and angels).  ... The consumption of souls is not necessary for a Cubi's survival, although it will greatly increase their powers and lifespan. ...

The notes for the page reference three discussion treads on Cubi energy feeding and related issues.

Don't forget that I wrote that page myself.  Some of my assumptions may have leaked into it.

[stiletto]

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