2013/11/04 [Matilda #33] Trust issues

[ChaosMageX]

I think it's clear by now that Matilda's narration can't be trusted.  However, it remains to be seen if Heshi can be trusted to do the right thing for his sisters.

[joshofspam]

I think it's clear by now that Matilda's narration can't be trusted.  However, it remains to be seen if Heshi can be trusted to do the right thing for his sisters.

Considering how he's lived up to this point and what was expected of him in this society I wouldn't be surprised if he collapsed under the pressure.

But it is rather naive to think that their brother might not be in trouble on Matilda's part. Considering what we've seen of that one male talking with Heshi, Hishnae may have very good reason to be concerned about things.
Edit: Well maybe not naive. But still, hope nothing earth shattering happens around that trust.

[ChaosMageX]

I think it's clear by now that Matilda's narration can't be trusted.  However, it remains to be seen if Heshi can be trusted to do the right thing for his sisters.

Considering how he's lived up to this point and what was expected of him in this society I wouldn't be surprised if he collapsed under the pressure.

But it is rather naive to think that their brother might not be in trouble on Matilda's part. Considering what we've seen of that one male talking with Heshi, Hishnae may have very good reason to be concerned about things.
Edit: Well maybe not naive. But still, hope nothing earth shattering happens around that trust.

I wonder if Heshi has already collapsed under the pressure.  Perhaps he left them to try to run away instead of telling the tribe leader what happened.

I mean, why would he even inform the tribe leader of his father's death?  Wouldn't doing that basically be the same as announcing to the entire tribe that he no longer has an excuse to deny challenges?
Considering how he's acted, especially on the previous page, he doesn't seem anywhere near ready to accept challenges from others, and the moment the other males learn what's happened, they'll start challenging him.

The only reason I can think of for why he'd do that is to have the tribe give his father's body a proper burial or cremation, possibly in a ceremony of some sort.  Given what's been shown of their culture and how often they kill each other to create vacancies for offspring and sometimes outsiders, that's probably something they'd do rarely, if at all, but then again his father was a significant member of the tribe who might actually get the honor of a proper funeral performed/attended by the whole tribe.

However, I don't see why he couldn't have waited at least a few hours before informing the tribe leader in order to regain his composure and prepare himself for what has to be done.  If his father isn't visible from the entrance to their family's cave, and no one outside their family knows of his father's death yet, they probably could have gotten away with doing that.

The fact that he left his sisters alone so shortly after his father's death is not a good sign, and Matilda might hate him for trying to run away and abandon her and Hishnai.

EDIT: I know Heshi probably does care about his sisters, but he might be too much of a coward to actually defend them, and his fear might cause him to irrationally abandon them.

EDIT2: I might be wrong and a couple hours might have passed between him sobbing on the previous page and physically leaving their family cave, giving him time to get a hold of himself before going to inform the tribe leader, but regardless it wouldn't surprise me if he really was trying to run away.  I wonder just how long Matilda and Hishnai have been waiting there so far.

[seikueon]

I said it last time: that's a lot of pressure his father has put him under.

[Tuyu]

The only reason I can think of for why he'd do that is to have the tribe give his father's body a proper burial or cremation, possibly in a ceremony of some sort.  Given what's been shown of their culture and how often they kill each other to create vacancies for offspring and sometimes outsiders, that's probably something they'd do rarely, if at all, but then again his father was a significant member of the tribe who might actually get the honor of a proper funeral performed/attended by the whole tribe.

A practical, real world thought:  they live in a closed environment and a dead body can be a real problem. They need to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

[Eboreg]

A practical, real world thought:  they live in a closed environment and a dead body can be a real problem. They need to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Actually, decomposition is caused by microbes and insects taking advantage of this new source of undefended meat. However, this is a place where every living thing that is not a BV Mythos will be incinerated in a matter of seconds. My best guess for what happens after they die is that their magical resistance to heat goes away giving them an instant Viking burial. The alternative is that there are several BV Mythos bodies piled up everywhere completely clogging up the tunnels.

[ChaosMageX]

A practical, real world thought:  they live in a closed environment and a dead body can be a real problem. They need to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Actually, decomposition is caused by microbes and insects taking advantage of this new source of undefended meat. However, this is a place where every living thing that is not a BV Mythos will be incinerated in a matter of seconds. My best guess for what happens after they die is that their magical resistance to heat goes away giving them an instant Viking burial. The alternative is that there are several BV Mythos bodies piled up everywhere completely clogging up the tunnels.

Well, if their heat resistance does disappear after they die, it does so quite slowly, since Matilda's father's corpse was still around long enough for her and her siblings to see it.  However, if their heat resistance persists even after death, cremation might not even be an option for their species.

Given how adept they are at digging, burial wouldn't be a problem for them.  The scarcity of other life forms in their environment might be a problem though, since they'd have to rely on chemicals alone to eventually decompose the body, and if those chemicals are scarce, disposing of their dead might become an issue and Eboreg could actually be right about tunnels clogged with corpses.

However, no matter what they do, one would think at least the next of kin would perform the proper disposal and any accompanying ceremony, if not the entire tribe in the case of the passing of one of its significant/important members, such as Matilda's father.  Hopefully we'll get to see what they do with their dead in the coming pages.