2019-11-22 [DMFA #1955] - Meltdown

[Tapewolf]

Well, that's not good.  Still, I imagine the mythos have a pretty robust system for detecting hull breaches.
Now exactly how this is going to square between Cyra and Dan is another matter, which should be interesting to see.
And of course we have the question of whether Aary or Matilda can be allowed to leave.  Or even Dan.

[joshofspam]

And of course we have the question of whether Aary or Matilda can be allowed to leave.  Or even Dan.

Of course that's also layered with the possibility of letting them live. She was saying Run multiple times. That could be flight or fight response, but might be a small part of her warning them they need to run away from grandma before the claws and big teeth come out to eat the dears in her presence.

It's sort of sad we aren't seeing some of Cyra's broadcast inner monologue. But I imagine with her thinking so fast and loud, she probably is hard to understand. I also noticed Dan's nose is bleeding. I'm thinking a moment like this isn't healthy for clan members.

[Tapewolf]

I also noticed Dan's nose is bleeding. I'm thinking a moment like this isn't healthy for clan members.

It may simply be that Aary cut him during her manhandling in the first couple of panels.
Depressurisation is another possibility though it's a little early for that.
If he's bleeding as a result of psychic shock, I wouldn't rate his survival chances.

[MT Hazard]

Time to comfort you grandmother Dan, your life depends on it.

Seems like seven thousand years isn't enough time for her to psychological recover from the war, I don't think she is going to be to leaving her sanctuary any time soon. Shame, I was hoping she would be able to take the  fight to Hizell, but if even the mention of his name does this...

[InhumanInterest]

Of course that's also layered with the possibility of letting them live. She was saying Run multiple times. That could be flight or fight response, but might be a small part of her warning them they need to run away from grandma before the claws and big teeth come out to eat the dears in her presence.

It's sort of sad we aren't seeing some of Cyra's broadcast inner monologue. But I imagine with her thinking so fast and loud, she probably is hard to understand. I also noticed Dan's nose is bleeding. I'm thinking a moment like this isn't healthy for clan members.

Well on that first bit one of the inner thoughts is roughly "What if they aren't really Dan's friends, what if they're spies?" So there's definitely a possibility of panic leading to violence there. Though, and this is an odd thought to me, I don't think physical violence would be as much of a threat here, she's had a long time to get used to the idea of magic as the first level of interaction with the world so my guess would probably be some form of reactionary magic. My first guess in that area would be something that prevents attack by disabling or imprisoning peeps.

On that second bit I actually wonder if that's a clan based effect or just an ambient component that happened to hit Dan first by luck (the clan part makes a lot more sense).

Also, I actually wonder about the cracking and the lights dimming, especially on the subject of potential reactions, I wonder if she might not be reacting by doing something like, reflexively sucking all the available magic in the area into her to prepare for danger. something like that would actively explain the nose-bleed (draining of power from a clanmember), the lights dimming (the chamber was lit with a lot of those magic power crystals), and the cracking (most materials don't have a 0% magic so presumably sucking it out would harm them).

That might just be me gushing though, this update hit me like a ton of rectangular building things. Seriously, did anyone else have to scrape their jaw off the floor after this? It's gonna be hell waiting for the next update.

[Tapewolf]

Well on that first bit one of the inner thoughts is roughly "What if they aren't really Dan's friends, what if they're spies?" So there's definitely a possibility of panic leading to violence there.

There are other inner voices urging her to pull herself together so hopefully that one will prevail.

[Cassi-kun]

Props to Ambaaargh for portraying a meltdown so accurately. I suffer from paranoia and psychosis and this is pretty much what an episode feels like. And that's not counting the fact that some days these thoughts are constant.

[FairWage22]

Cyra's affinity is pain, if memory serves.

And there's a debate (based on her write-up) as to whether it is an emotion or not.

I think this, right here, indicates that it IS.

And also, contrasting between this image of her and the picture in her write-up... 

I suspect that Dan needs to not only comfort/hug her, but also Give Her The Adventurer Talk.

Y'know, the one where 'Evil happens because good people do nothing.   Don't be evil."

[InhumanInterest]

There are other inner voices urging her to pull herself together so hopefully that one will prevail.

Those are definitely the voices I'm rooting for, they seem like the most beneficial.

[Wanderer]

Time to comfort you grandmother Dan, your life depends on it.

Seems like seven thousand years isn't enough time for her to psychological recover from the war, I don't think she is going to be to leaving her sanctuary any time soon. Shame, I was hoping she would be able to take the  fight to Hizell, but if even the mention of his name does this...

People, including clan leaders, have taken the fight to Hizell before. The result was a lot of dead people and clan leaders.

[Tarakona]

I'm a vet with PTSD (from that and other sources. My therapist described it as an onion lol) I just wanted to say thanks for tackling the subject and portraying it so perfectly. Part of the problem with people taking it seriously is they don't understand how it takes you back to the event (s). You are literally there in your mind. The tumult of inner thoughts is confusing, frightening, and dangerous.

[Peptobislawl]

I almost missed Dan's little bit of nosebleed there. He's still not really used to reading minds, it seems.

[Akktari]

Poor Cyra....but also, Matilda can't hear what Cyra is screaming/crying in her thoughts.

So is she reacting to Cyra physically recoiling and/or the ceiling cracking? 

[FairWage22]

Given how powerful tri-wing are, it's entirely possible that even Matilda is picking up on that.

If so, then the sensations might be painfully familiar to her given her backstory, even if the circumstances are different.

[Jasae Bushae]

Moments like this are why Pip is fully justified in trying to eat Dans face off

[Kuzma Volkov]

So... not sure if its been asked.. but I guess we will find out if cubi and mythos can breathe in space..

[InhumanInterest]

Reasonably sure that cubi can't survive in space. I mean like I'd hope the not needing to breath part would've been mentioned at some point, if solely for the comedic potential in someone thinking they'd died because they weren't breathing anymore. But that aside they definitely are made of meat so I think the temperature and vacuum would be fatal even if the air issue didn't get them. I guess in theory they might be able to shift their wings into a spacesuit or similar protection but I think Dan is probably way too junior to do that on reflex at this point.

As for Matilda... Really I have no freaking clue. I have a lot of functional questions about her race and I guess that would also be one of them.

Eh, I guess either way you're right, guess we'll find out.

[PhycoKrusk]

Moments like this are why Pip is fully justified in trying to eat Dans face off

As was pointed out in a prior thread, Dan has spent nearly all of his life with his Cubi heritage kept a total secret from him; he's only now learning anything about it. Furthermore, while it's been years for us, Dan has not actually been at SAIA for very long. With all of the classes offered - remember that they offer a class on grass growing - and with how long Cubi history is, and with how little Dan is actually interested in academics, it is wholly unreasonable to expect him to even be able to guess the kind of impact Hizell's name would have on Cyra.

If this moment is providing a justification for anything, then it's justification for Biggs and Destania's plan to eradicate the dragons. We've only really got two examples to go off of - Hizell and Pyroduck - but the narrative we've seen so far appears to indicate that Pyroduck is the exception to prove the rule, and that dragon's are generally incapable of seeing non-dragons as anything other than either pets or vermin. (Which does mean that at no point was Hizell ever a friend to Fa'lina; she was, at best, a curiosity, and then he used her as an example to the other races, and likely to other dragons as well, of what will happen if they become an inconvenience to him)

[Xiombarg]

I almost missed Dan's little bit of nosebleed there. He's still not really used to reading minds, it seems.

I think it's more from having been "force-fed" Cyras' thoughts in such an unfiltered (and power-rich) way.
At least his head didn't explode from it!
That's a plus, right?

[Gelpi]

I feel like Arry is really on point here. 
When you aren't a part of a group that is affected by racism or genocide or any kind of hatred it's very easy to distance yourself from those atrocities to a point of malicious ignorance.  It doesn't affect you or you haven't personally witnessed it so why even care.  This has been brought up in the comic a few times like when Abel asks Wildy about her adventuring guild's case with a cubi-killer and she has to admit that the beings really don't care. 
Dan has been raised as a being and despite his own mother being a cubi (and Alexis knowing he could mature into a cubi) he still doesn't know much about them or their culture.  Dan's racism shows when Abel and Arry try to hurry him along into this culture and he resists while referring to Arry as bossy and Abel as annoying.  Heck he assumes Mink is stupid because they just take classes over and over again instead of actually talking to Mink and finding out the real reason behind the retakes. 

For Arry, who has lived in the cubi reality of having adventurer groups show up at her house to kill her, this is just the icing on the cake.  Dan still doesn't realize that he isn't a being and can't keep ignoring what happens to his own race.  And he has demonstrated that ignorance in front of a very important person. 

[Tapewolf]

For Arry, who has lived in the cubi reality of having adventurer groups show up at her house to kill her, this is just the icing on the cake.  Dan still doesn't realize that he isn't a being and can't keep ignoring what happens to his own race.  And he has demonstrated that ignorance in front of a very important person.

That may be, but Cyra is already aware of Dan's ignorance.  She gave him a brief mention of a tragedy, but it fell to Fa'Lina to explain exactly what happened.  And as Aary herself said on page 1948, there are very few living 'Cubi who experienced the main war first-hand.  In fact, you could argue that Aary trivialising the issue of Hishaan directly lulled Dan into thinking that the war is dry history.

[Ixal]

Moments like this are why Pip is fully justified in trying to eat Dans face off

If this moment is providing a justification for anything, then it's justification for Biggs and Destania's plan to eradicate the dragons. We've only really got two examples to go off of - Hizell and Pyroduck - but the narrative we've seen so far appears to indicate that Pyroduck is the exception to prove the rule, and that dragon's are generally incapable of seeing non-dragons as anything other than either pets or vermin. (Which does mean that at no point was Hizell ever a friend to Fa'lina; she was, at best, a curiosity, and then he used her as an example to the other races, and likely to other dragons as well, of what will happen if they become an inconvenience to him)

How would that moment justify that? While it is easy to sympathise with Cyra don't forget that she started the war by murdering a dragon. She is not an innocent victim here but another perp who suffered a lot and whos story we know.

[MT Hazard]

She killed one dragon, who if we believe Cyra was a monster who ate the souls of every one who died in the city, even her own children. Then the dragons reacted with attempted genocide. If an adventurer had found out what that dragon was doing and destroyed them they would be called a hero, maybe even by the dragons if the knew that a dragon had been eating dragon souls.

[Ixal]

She killed one dragon, who if we believe Cyra was a monster who ate the souls of every one who died in the city, even her own children. Then the dragons reacted with attempted genocide. If an adventurer had found out what that dragon was doing and destroyed them they would be called a hero, maybe even by the dragons if the knew that a dragon had been eating dragon souls.

She killed a dragon for power. By her own admission she knew nothing of the soul eating or that she would become a tri wing as a result (which makes one wonder how she planned to escape the eventual revenge? Or did she expect the other dragons not to care?)

And based on the comment by Kira it sounds like the dragons at first just wanted to kill Cyra and only escalated the war because the rest of the Cubi protected her. But I confess that is conjecture on my part and might just be how demons would handle such issues and not actual history.

But even if not, Cyra is still not an innocent victim but a murderer on the run. The dragons overreacting doesn't change that.

By the way ,about your initial post, we know more dragons than just Hizell and Pyroduck. Balorie from the Demo 101 entry, *anna from when Dan was mistaken for a maiden and captured and the dragon Dan owes money to (not sure if that one is still canon). Neither fit your claim that Hizell being the norm for dragons.