question on Abel

[KiloFoxx]

or more specifically, on Abel's wings and backstory. in his backstory (at least under my impression) nobody (with the possible exception of Kira) but his father suspected him of being a cubi, and even his father decided to "wait until he knew for sure" (Abel's Story part 2 page 12) but yet we see that he was born with the wings he has now, and in regular-comic page 1135 the insectus papparazzi-girl states that his wings, neither demon nor angel, is specific only to cubi. so how was Abel's cubi father (who, one would assume, knows about such things) NOT immedietly know upon Abel's birth that he was cubi? or anyone else he met, especially in Zinivh know that he was cubi? (this would explain why Kira might know, i think she knew based on her actions when his headwings first appeared, but i could be wrong)

so unless the insectis girl's information on the angel-demon wing duality being specific to cubi is false, i don't see how Abel wasn't seen as a cubi by his father or much of the population of eaither city he lived in before he learned he was cubi.

my apologies if this topic has been mentioned already, i'm not on a computer (don't own one) so i'm kinda limited and can't search for it like i normally would)

[Gabi]

He could have been a Being with a bit too much magic in him.

[KiloFoxx]

He could have been a Being with a bit too much magic in him.

from the info i can find in the comics and info pages, that would only result in a physical anomaly, like wings. but the demon-angel mixed wings (which abel has) are stated to be specific to cubi, most particularly to the quoar clan which ONLY has those wings... if that duality could exist in a magic-saturated being, it being cubi-only wouldn't have been mentioned...

[Ignuus66]

I'd imagine mutations like this are possible (though extremely rare, like people born with 2 heads and such) Also it was mentioned that there is always a chance that a Cubi+Being ended in a being with wings, and since the duality seems to be a cubi trait, and the wings are passed on from parent to offspring, There might be a very slim chance that a duality winged being can be born....

Either that, or abel's "Dad" isn't  (wasn't) the sharpest knife in the drawer.

[Amber Williams]

Welcome to Furrae Racism 101!

Feather Wings = Angel
Batlike Wings = Demon
Mixed Wings =Cubi


You are in fact a being but born with wings?  Sucks to be you as everyone assumes you are one of the three.

As with life, there are obvious exceptions (like a demon with feather wings or no wings at all.)  But the racial assumptions are going to be there regardless.  Dan gets mistaken for an angel adventurer quite a bit.

[KiloFoxx]

sadly i think Amber's post made me more unsure, i knew the whole "oh you have __wings you must be __" (if i recall Matildia asks if Dan has some Angel lineage) so i guess the question now is: "is it possible to be a non-cubi with mixed wings?" if so i'd assume it's stupidly rare, or has never happened on record, but i think the answer's a no based on the comics i listed in the 1st post, and the Quora "cubi clan leader" page in the Demo101 section

[Amber Williams]

The DMFA world is chock full of magic so I'd say a lot of things are just about possible given enough time and probability.   Or heck, someone could probably magically modify their own wings to look like that if they felt the need.    But if there are any out there, odds are you are never going to see one in the comic itself.

[KiloFoxx]

yeah, with all the examples in the Jyrras' patches storyline that possibility wouldn't surprise me. on subject though it wouldn't have been possible for Abel to have been purposfully altered to have (or appear to have) mixed wings.

it's just something i noticed and found curious (i'm pretty attentive and have a bad habit of overthinking things)

[Nino]

1. knowledge of cubi, especially to outside races, was obviously limited during Abel's time (e.g. look at the reaction of Hennya when she notices his head wings]) so even though WE know Abel's duality can only mean he's a cubi, most beings and creatures around that time would probably have no idea, probably even Kria. After all, why would demons have more knowledge of cubi? They're not known to be well-read, and most cubi were very clandestine at that time, so any real specific knowledge about them was probably very sparse in most areas. And it's even specifically mentioned Hennya had to read about them, as if their existence wasn't even common knowledge passed around all the time. So a little factoid about wings probably had a slim chance of being known to anyone who Abel generally came in contact with back then.

2. from what I can tell, and this might be just me, but I had assumed in retrospect Abel's dad had known the whole time he was a cubi, and had just used May to help raise him until he could ship him off to SAIA (which, we can know from Dan, apparently cubi are eligible for when their headwings come in). Possibly so Abel could have a normal, safe childhood with a being mother and would be thought of as a being by everyone else. You have to remember, he wouldn't want attention being brought to a cubi child with a dragon being after him and everyone hating cubi.

edit: nevermind, I see the page where Aniz says that. But Aniz also probably didn't even know for sure that wings would mean for sure Abel was a cubi, even if it was pretty obvious, because he might not be super knowledgeable on genetics - seems like something he'd ignore in school, if that were taught, since that seems to be in line with his personality (as Ignuus66 said). Combined with the confusion that beings DO inherit other creature traits readily - strange color fur - without being creatures themselves (a certain blue feline friend of Abel's maybe?) - and you can see why he'd be paranoid about it, even with the wings.

[KiloFoxx]

yeah his dad doesn't really seem like the sharp knife in the drawer... he DOES mention abel's wings looking like the quoar clan though, (abel's story part 2 page 12) which suggests he should know at least SOMEthing about the wings being cubi-only... it also suggests that he has ties to that clan that never get mentioned again, something i personally am quite curious about...

kira seems to know a lot more than she lets on and was totally unphased seeing abel's headwings for the first time.

[Plotting]

I have a question for Amber, as such I will summon her with an ancient summoning ritual I found via google.

*gets into a green sleeping bag and acts like a worm* Wiku! Wiku! Wiku!

Is there any significance about mixed wings? Does it have anything to do with power, potential power, or potential abilities, etc? Or is it simply an uncommon mostly 'Cubi characteristic?

Now that that is over I shall worm away to do whatever someone in a sleeping bag pretending to be a worm does

[Amber Williams]

I hear summoning rituals work better if tacos are involved.

As for the question, the mixed wings thing tends to be considered a good omen rather than anything.  Quoar's clan is considered one of the most powerful but also one of the most secretive and reclusive of clans...so there is a lot of mystery about them to the point that other cubi being born with the quirk of the dual wings is usually thought to be a good sign.  It is true that mixed wing Cubi do seem to excel better or seem more powerful than feather or batwings...but it is unknown if that is due to them actually being more powerful or just because everyone expects them to excel so they have more pressure to do so.  It really depends on how superstitious the clan is.

At this point, I should point out that cubi that are not at all related to Quoar's clan can be born with mixed wings.  Much like how Cubi that are not related to Cyra's clan can be born with green eyes or twins can be born that aren't from Zezzuva.  It's simply a quirk, and while all Cubi of Quoar's clan will have mixed wings...not all mixed wing Cubi are from Quoar's clan.

[Ravenscroft]

point of order in defense of Aniz: He is monsterously insane. Remember what Fa'lina said something like How many of your children will you leave broken shadows of themselves. Aniz enjoys the torture not just of Abel but of his mother, the shots at her expense, including the comment on the wings, are the max that could be done without losing constant and easy contact with his young. It's also possible that he is incapable of more than he did for the well being of his child, by staying away "adventuring" all the time.

I mean think about it, Cubi aren't reported to be the most stable of beings and feed off the emotional energies of others almost exclusively, I don't remember atm but there is a good chance that Abel's clan is well known to feed off of despair, which would mean crushing Abel's mother would give them both the energy they need to carry on for a while in SAIA (and for Abel to recover from the shock of not only his sudden identity but the woes of the travels that accompanied that discovery). The cruelty of it all was quite artisticly done 

[Ignuus66]

point of order in defense of Aniz: He is monsterously insane. Remember what Fa'lina said something like How many of your children will you leave broken shadows of themselves. Aniz enjoys the torture not just of Abel but of his mother, the shots at her expense, including the comment on the wings, are the max that could be done without losing constant and easy contact with his young. It's also possible that he is incapable of more than he did for the well being of his child, by staying away "adventuring" all the time.

I mean think about it, Cubi aren't reported to be the most stable of beings and feed off the emotional energies of others almost exclusively, I don't remember atm but there is a good chance that Abel's clan is well known to feed off of despair, which would mean crushing Abel's mother would give them both the energy they need to carry on for a while in SAIA (and for Abel to recover from the shock of not only his sudden identity but the woes of the travels that accompanied that discovery). The cruelty of it all was quite artisticly done 

He did mention that his plan failed, so I think he planned to cause a little misery to Abel's mother by telling her that Cid is dead, but that started a chain reaction which spiraled out of controll, and ended with 1 dead mythos, 1 extremely depressed Cubi, 1 cubi who's plans were wrecked, and 1 being with a short, lonely life, 1 very pissed tri wing, a very pissed clan, and a very pissed goverment. All in all he is pretty stupid for not taking all the factors into count.

[D'ymkarra]

Going back to identifying 'cubi in a public setting: It seems the only reason Chickie figured it out was because she quite literally caught Abel with his pants down. I'd think 'cubi who are trying to 'blend in' would be much more cautious/ concious of public shifting; Abel was taking a cue from Dan here, not realizing Dan himself had no clue how dangerous it truly was to be an 'open' cubi in public, especially a member of clan Cyra, and to a lesser extent Siar.

[Ellian]

Actually, in the same storyline, two strips later, it is mentioned that the mixed type of wings is not even common for Cubi. http://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1135.php
I guess that means that a creature with mixed wings is most likely a Cubi, but it's not as if any member of the Cubi race necessarily has mixed wings.

[Plotting]

I hear summoning rituals work better if tacos are involved.

Of course! Tacos! How could I have not noticed the summoning ritual lacked tacos? I should have done the ritual on top of a 12 storey tall taco. Hmm, think of all the salsa you would need for the garnish!

I think the pressure placed on 'Cubi like Abel would be a major factor. It would be like someone with a high IQ being expected to goe to university.

[Ravenscroft]

Tacos man .... What if we all pitched in and bought her a gift card to the taco place nearest to her? Surely that would sooth the hungry beast lol

And I just wanted to say: The duality of the wings is awesome, I don't know if I mentioned it or not. I love how she figured it out,  I've been trying to work with the skeletal structure and adding feathers and it just looks terrible. Like a monster rather than a being/creature lol Loves for everyone!

[justacritic]

They're also difficult to draw...

[killpurakat]

I'm going to throw this in because nobody else brought it up, but it may be an important factor.

Amber mentions specifically that combo winged Cubi do seem to be better with magic than those with just feathers or just leather, but that may be due to the fact that there is a social stigma for them to excel at magic.

BUT...

The combo wings aren't common. In fact, we only know of Abel who has them (outside clan Quoar). And we don't know how many cubi are members of Clan Quoar, but the fact that it is reputedly ancient and powerful would point to a small number rather than a larger one (as mentioned in Piflak's letter). Plus, again, combo wings are rare, so there can't be many of Quoar's clan running about unless they are complete masters of hiding and better at it than most.

If you add up the numbers of cubi in clans other than Quoar (because we don't have a number for them), that's 1290 cubi. Add to that however many cubi there are that come from leaderless clans (and it sounds like there are more of these than cubi from clans with leaders), and you have substantial numbers.

So the combo winged cubi are in the minority, which means whatever traits they exhibit are going to be skewed. Combo wings being better magic users may not be true at all, it just seems that way because people have only seen a relatively few number of combo winged cubi who were all good with magic and then started making assumptions about all combo winged cubi.

From the comic, I'd say in general cubi are good at magic, so it probably isn't that big of a leap for the "cubi with wings of both types excel at magic" stereotype to take hold and not be disputed.

Funnily enough, I wonder if, because having combo wings would make a person neither angel nor demon, there's some combo winged Mythos running around out there. You know, because Mythos is the label for stuff that just doesn't fit anywhere else...