2013/06/09 [Matilda #16] Vacancy not really wanted

[killpurakat]

Wow. Downer comic. Poor Matilda. She looks so sad in the comic. I really want to reach into the Internet and hug her.

Also, seems like she's talking to the explorers who found her. Neat way to recap/flashback.

[InsanityRequiem]

Yeah, basically the guys are stuck with the 'Be useful, be powerful, or be gone' type of society. Very, very downer caused.

[Jasae Bushae]

im kinda left wondering though why they are confined to the volcano if seemingly, the blue mythos taurs are capable of survivng outside in the great beyond...Unless it is a modern achievment..

[Eboreg]

So, basically, the BV Mythos are suffering from Overpopulation. You know, I kind of thought that in any society, there has to be scarcity of some kind for there to be conflict and this comic perfectly showed what that scarcity is.

[Amber Williams]

im kinda left wondering though why they are confined to the volcano if seemingly, the blue mythos taurs are capable of survivng outside in the great beyond...Unless it is a modern achievment..

You have the advantage that you know they are capable of surviving outside, the vast majority of taurs in the volcano consider such a feat impossible.  Well if you think about it...imagine living on a space station where everything essential is managed for you.  You don't need to eat, you don't need to worry about disease.  But similar population issue. Now you are told there is a place outside down at the strange orb below your space station window and that you can take a shuttle to go there if you really wanted.  But that anyone who has ever left has told of a horrible pain that occurs after leaving (hunger) that up until then you have never even experienced.   And that the world there consists of dangerous elements that would cause you pain (in Matilda's race, rain is fairly unpleasant and somewhat painful) and that it is full of dangerous lethal things.   Odds are there have been those who explored somewhat out...but after experiencing hunger and rain for the first times, it is easy enough to assume they would just consider the area outside their volcano deadly and awful.  And odds are many wouldn't make it back or survive upon exile simply due to not figuring out they need to eat to survive.  Why would you leave a world that is a familiar safety to brave an unknown one that is nothing but death and suffering?

[Ignuus66]

Question is: Do a large amount of small crystals equal a large one?

[Amber Williams]

Nope.  The large ones are something fairly unique and special.

[Bandersnatch]

I can't help but wonder if the situation with ripping off her brother's arm is a lot more convoluted than what we first began to believe.

I eagerly wait for more. 

[Mouko]

I'm beginning to wonder if it might be due to her brother's unwillingess to fight for them. It sounds like the father was the one that chose to have two daughters and a son, thus taking more spots in the tribe than is normal... and its the male's duty to defend those spots. I'm beginning to suspect that once the father dies, he'll be unwilling to defend Matilda or her sister's spot in the tribe, so Matilda has to 'become the male' in order to do it herself, thus saving her life as well as the life of her sister. After all, males that lose get exiled... girls are just killed.

But I'm really just guessing, based off what's been said so far. 

[joshofspam]

This page gives a whole lot of details of the culture that Matilda use to be a part of.

It further might give an idea of why Heshi is so reluctant to fight with their elder dying. But this also sounds like an environment that could make a once silent and reluctant fighter into an evil, silent and spiteful person given if the treatment of Heshi is the standard view of him.

Not a very pleasent position to be in either for Matilda. with a brother reluctant to fight and a father sounding like he's dying, her future is really uncertain at the moment. Right now it sounds like the males are keeping back because of her fathers condition, but in this hot blooded environment, that could change if someone is feeling really ambitious.

[ChaosMageX]

im kinda left wondering though why they are confined to the volcano if seemingly, the blue mythos taurs are capable of survivng outside in the great beyond...Unless it is a modern achievment..

... And that the world there consists of dangerous elements that would cause you pain (in Matilda's race, rain is fairly unpleasant and somewhat painful) and that it is full of dangerous lethal things. ...

My question is that if rain stings them, then does water burn them?  Would swimming in water be as dangerous for a BV Mythos as swimming in acid would be for a regular Being?

[mithril]

Just because it stings doesn't mean it is acid. Think about being out in freezing rain.. that stings us, but it isn't acid or anything..
TheBVMs live in a place of high heat.. and we see matilda in the main story breathing fire, so odds are they have high internal temps too.
The temprature difference between then and regular rain might be enough to make it unpleasant without it being an actual health hazard.

[ChaosMageX]

Just because it stings doesn't mean it is acid. Think about being out in freezing rain.. that stings us, but it isn't acid or anything..
TheBVMs live in a place of high heat.. and we see matilda in the main story breathing fire, so odds are they have high internal temps too.
The temprature difference between then and regular rain might be enough to make it unpleasant without it being an actual health hazard.

Yeah, now that I think about it, that does make a lot more sense.  But then again, if rain is unpleasant to them because it's at a much lower temperature than their body temperatures, then what about the ambient temperature of the air itself outside their volcanic habitat?  Considering how hot volcanoes get, if that's mild to them, then wouldn't walking around outside the volcano, even in triple digit summer temperatures, feel to them like walking around naked in the arctic would feel to us?  I mean, perhaps by now Matilda might have gotten acclimatized, but I can't help but wonder if she and any other BV Mythos would violently shiver and have other reactions to extreme cold when first banished.

Also, regardless of whether this theory is correct, it still won't stop "acid" from reflexively popping into my head every time someone mentions a liquid and "stinging" or "burning" or another similar verb.

[Tuyu]

But Matilda's skin temperature in the outside environment isn't unusually hot--Dan and the little yellow lizards certainly didn't seem to have any problem being in contact with her.

If her skin temperature is under 100 F., then it doesn't seem likely that the temperature of raindrops would be a problem.

Maybe it's something like an elemental incompatibilty?  An affinity with fire/heat that makes any contact with water unpleasant?

(Thinking it further through, though...imagining if I was in a cold room, not cold enough to be uncomfortable but cold, and I'm adapted to it, and then I had cold water falling on me...that might make more of a difference.)