Unsounded

Welp, now we know how Duane gets into the earth and meets the Salt Lizard.

Christ, Ashley is a beast and I adore her comic.

Duane is NOT going to take losing that kid well. He just froze dead in place like the whole world had stopped. But that panel of his capturing the explosion in his hands is fucking metal. I don't think he cared at all if it killed him.

Duane... god, a stray spell of all possible things. He dodged, and when he looked back Jon was dead. That's so real and so fucking sad

I liked Jon. And now he's dead. Ashley goes so hard

>ground made out of grasping hands

metal as fuck

I think Jon just lost a leg, not his whole lower half. Although my first impression was that he was killed, so we'll see.

Looks like she kept the gore peripheral so it didn't turn into schlock, but I'm pretty sure that dude is dead.

you can see two stumps in panel 3

shock probably killed him instantly

He's missing two legs and a bit of a hand.
You could probably salvage that but he's realistically just bleeding out.

at least he got everyone killed before dying. good job john. really saved those kids.

>last panel
>kingdok is that you

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Combat in Unsounded is always so fucking crazy and brutal. These pages were a whirlwind, no wonder she didn't want to break them up.

What

I thought he died of old age

Duane is so cool in these pages. Electrocutes a fucker so he bites his tongue off, spears a few dudes, dances around flying choppy spells like they ain't shit. But one guy can't protect seven kids on a battlefield, that's insane. He's going to tear himself up over this.

Nice detail that his officer chain gets chopped in half. I would imagine this is the beginning of the end of his army career.

is there really any need for melee weapons when they can just send plat kids to their deaths in every battle

god that's a crazy wound, he might lost his balls it's so high up

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Lol I had the same thought

I wanna say Ashley is keeping to that old RP lore but maybe she'll throw us for a loop. Honestly I'm fairly confident that if she wanted Jon dead she would have had the attack gut him like several of us first thought

Decent chance that after this shit they'll be able to use some spellery to stop the bleeding. It doesn't seem that they actually exceeded 100 agitation

I guess he "just" lost his legs, which in fiction land might not be fatal.

On the other hand, those eyes looked pretty dead

Jesus CHRIST, Ashley.

A fucking good update, though a little hard to follow at first. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I did not realize that Jon had been bisected until I saw other comments on it.

>the explosion aspect overloading his ports is fucking up Duane's hands
Nice, I like the consistency there. At least it doesn't look like his hands are gonna outright blow apart like Keon's

It's a bit hard to tell, I read the pages over in hi-res a couple of times before I noticed it.

He also seems to have taken a whomp to the head and was stuttering a bit. I'm thinking a concussion or something like that on top of the blood loss

Yeah, it wasn't really intended as a criticism. It honestly made it more impactful, cause I just skimmed through the pages, assumed Jon had been stunned or something. When I came back for a more thorough re-read, it felt like I got punched in the gut when I noticed his legs were missing.

>bloody cape cut in half not even on the ground yet

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Holy balls I was so focused on Jon's bleeding ass face I didn't even fucking notice his scanner was getting possessed and turning into a smoke eel

What are those monsters? They aren't eels

Dude is limp, wide-eyed, and Duane is picking him up by his torso. He's dead as fuck.

Smoke eels on a much bigger scale due to all the death and the khert being ready to burst.

>But are his balls okay?
user focused on the real important things here.

I'm looking forward to the adventures of the Lem, Will and Claggart while they look for Duane underground

They usually take the form of eels for whatever reason but that's not the ONLY shape ghosts can manifest. And there's the fact that they've pushed the Khert to the limit of its tolerances so shit is bound to become freakier than usual

Remember that crescian lady who had a smoke ghost take the shape of her stillborn baby? Or the silver taunting Stockyard with his father?

Duane is REALLY goddamn fast. He speared a dude and ran 20 feet in the opposite direction before freshly fractionalized jon could even hit the ground

shit, that's a question I'd like to ask. he's a natch at spellery but when the fuck did he get so good with a spear? I know the temples train their priests in combat he hasn't been in the war cleric business very long

Jon was a traitor and a coward, so the khert punished him

It's past your bedtime, Magnus.

Her action scenes are always a little hard to follow.

Never lost a lad.

>Ashley
>Haha, yep. Poor Jon's fate was changed from the old days. This chapter is actually QUITE different from its initial draft. When it's all over I'll do a write-up and post some excerpts from the old version if anyone's interested.

CITATION NEEDED
Is this some bullshit where because Jon is "old" he doesn't count as one of Duane's lads?

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE

To me the smoke monsters, and especially the jaws, remind me a lot of Mesoamerican mythos. Something about the extra long canines with no lips to cover them.

I guess it makes sense that all of you are saying its the smoke eels/ghosts. That makes a lot more sense.
For some reason, I was thinking that was a visual representation of the Khert getting ready to start plucking wrights out of existance. You fuck the khert so hard, that once you pass the Mogul number, literal death-god look-alikes start manifesting to pull you underground with a mountain of hands.

What's probably most impressive to me though, is Duane was able to actively cast his Lion's guard to push back the lads while he is simultaneously drawing explosions into his hands. I'm guessing the cloak is a pyramic that can do that, but at the same time, tact caster.

DAMN YOU COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE

From her patreon.

That's sematic bullshit.

Fresh off the screencap presses. Ashley pulled a sneaky on us.

Attached: Citation Provided.png (562x285, 29K)

>For some reason, I was thinking that was a visual representation of the Khert getting ready to start plucking wrights out of existance. You fuck the khert so hard, that once you pass the Mogul number, literal death-god look-alikes start manifesting to pull you underground with a mountain of hands
I mean when the Khert goes apeshit almost literally anything is possible, and in a sense the smoke eels being so prominent and vivid kind of IS a visual representation of the Khert's odium

Ghosts usually can't be so bold when things are functioning smoothly

He probably used the pressure aspect he...had at hand, venting some of it for a useful purpose. TAcit casters are OP.

Cope runs off of sematic bullshit.

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE

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>How would kids know anything without their spellmaster?
>When clearly these kids know what to do
Is Duane the only spellmaster in alderode that actually teaches his kids things?

Not really semantics, she told us about Jon dying of old age years ago and we know some things change in the story as she goes forward. Elan the Peaceguard wasn't supposed to die where he did but the story got shifted around.

Apparently so.

To be fair, how old was that reference to Jon dying of old age? Like five years from Formspring or something? Things change as stories evolve.

He's pretty much the only one that doesn't treat plats as literal artillery pieces.

>Alright boys, line up, grab some aspect off the kart. Not!Jon give me some coordinates. Ready? Fire.

Elan's change was definitely for the better. So much more agreeable to die in the sun.

It was pretty long ago. She's got a lot of stuff planned and outlined out but give the woman a break, she shouldn't be beholden to something she said 5 years ago to some internet stranger.

Every time I think good things will happen to people in this comic, Cope reveals it all to be a ruse cruise of the highest order and then drives it home with a burning locomotive.

My heart can only take so much suffering.

I mean, Plats are called insects, but this is uncalled for.

Keep in mind that this is on the ass end of the affair. The rebellion is crushed and they're for the most part just mopping up the poor fucks that have nowhere else to go or are too stupid and stubborn to do so. Sure, these Vampire men are seeming professional but after all the killing I doubt the renegades have the premium on wrights

Also yes Duane is indeed just THAT good

That's probably one of my favorite parts. Everything is so chaotic and overwhelming. You glance over so much just trying to get your head wrapped round what's going on. Then the next thing you know, you turn around and see your buddy blown in half and falling into you stone dead.

It really surprises me how well she's captured the realness of war. Usually fantasy war and fighting is glorified shiny bullshit but people this chapter have just been dropping dead suddenly for cosmically retarded reasons and that's what war is like. Constant uncertainty, sudden death at any moment from stepping wrong on an IED or catching stray fire.

>Agreeable
He died fucking horribly, what are you talking about

I think he means Elan got much more time to shine and develop his character, even if it meant dying a horrible death later
You can't just have your life extended without having to pay some price

that was the point of the line. Timofey was romanticizing it in his poetic way and Bastion simply responds "it's never fine to die" showing their extremes. Elan died heroically, saved Toma and Elka, but also died about as horrifically as is possible

I think it's just cause she's more comfortable with novel format than comic, so she doesn't always panel the right moments in combat scenes. That and whenever pymary becomes involved it isn't necessarily clear what it's doing until after the fact

I forgot that's how Timofey put it

I think this scene here is fine. Usually her action scenes are generally followable, the only time that I just lost the thread of what was going on was the battle with the first silver at the brothel

I remember a lot of people were having issue with the silver fight too. I personally have to look over most major fight scenes twice to get a good grip on it. Curiously, I didn't have to for this one

In fairness I struggle to imagine a situation more purposefully chaotic possible than the silver eel

It was a clear read for me as well. She's improving. I guess that's all you can ask an artist to do.

She's mentioned a couple of time, if memory serves, that she struggled with laying out that chapter. A lot of sameness and difficult to read designs.

He's quoting, paraphrasing, Timofey

He bit off his tongue

well boo fucking hoo, Duane warned the cheeky shit

Depending on how you measure maturity for the castes, I guess Jon might be old enough that he doesn’t technically count as a ‘lad’ anymore?

Legal age of adulthood in Alderode is 12, but obviously plats end up doing everything younger

Greatest wright in centuries!

Oh god, none of the children are safe now! I’ve been reading through with the assurance that Duane would keep them safe, but Cope just removed the safety net!

Jon got hit by loophole, he's still got his in comic reputation, and that's much less likely to be subverted than someone like Jon who was assumed to survive due to outside-media from before the comic itself

>tfw Ashley got sick of everyone diffusing the tension by reminding people that Duane never lost a lad and is now rewriting the entire chapter to kill them all and teach us a lesson

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THEY CALLED ME MAD

>Duane actually finds the enemy plat kids that were casting before and he narrowly avoided frying and he takes them with him back to his side and passes them off as his own and is lauded for the miracle of keeping them alive through this affair (possibly with the State's complicit knowledge)

would be an amazing twist

>You thought I WOULDN’T kill the children?

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She should just stop answering lore questions. Teach people to just wait and read

I love duane warning the guy about fighting with his tongue out and then making him bite it off

I suppose this explains why Jon wouldn't correspond with Duane after the war.

>could clearly see him behind

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Fuck
FUUUUUUUUUCK

HOW DID WE NOT NOTICE? ITS SO GODDAMN OBVIOUS YET WE WERE SO FUCKING BLIND. COOOOOOPE!

>6 fucking pages
is Ashley alright?

Agone trying to follow what the fuck is going on here over 2 weeks of single page releases

Imagine*
Holy fuck how did I fuck up that bad

OH DAMN! IT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!

My impression is that Jon also lost half of his face, like his head was partially sawn away, since we didn't get to see the bloodied left half of it after the stray spell hit.

The statue's head is covered, this probably means something too. It's even got a dog like the squad do.

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>Magnus hugging Duane for dear life
Damn it Cope!

I'm not sure, he had the side of his head on Duane's chest for long enough to stain his armor, but it's clean here . Unless it was a cut and seal type of spell, which is possible given the relatively little blood around his waist here

That's a doe.

Can't remember exactly but the doe is some Gefendur iconography. It's seen as a messenger of the gods or some such.

That doesn't line up with the spell's line of effect.

I'm pretty sure he just hit his head. In panel 1 of the second page we see the left side of his face pretty clearly, and a few times later from then on. He's just bleeding, the blood is even in his hair.

Also Magnus' bloodthirst is adorable.

It's the companian of Yerta. Check previous depictions of Yerta, and she almost always has the doe with her.

unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/113826567895/i-like-duanes-tattoo-and-quiggss-what-ate-the#notes

Makes sense why they covered her then.

Ah yeah that's it, couldn't remember exactly but I did see that before.

Oh my god Sette is gonna jump in and ask what the hell happened, that's such a good break from all this shit.

iirc it's also a blue green color. So literally in gefendur scripture there's a Teal Deer.

Here it isn't:
casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch03/ch03_27.html

Newfag here
Is this comic always this good?

i've been reading webcomics since the early 00s and this is by far the highest quality webcomic i've ever read

It's pushing 1500 pages but yeah, it's been a quality story throughout. I wish I could go back and read chapters 7-10 for the first time, they were amazing as fuck.

yep. first chapter's art is a little rougher than this but even by chapter 2 it's way more detailed

Binge time then!

And she's only skipping one update.

She's gonna take a break after next week. I'm glad, I don't want the bitch to burn out or get wrist-sickness reeeeee.

Ashley combines the skill and dedication of Tracy Butler with the reliability of the fucking tides.
Zack The Hack doesn’t deserve to mentioned in the same sentence.

Ashely's kind of insane, like I'd believe the sun burned out before I'd believe she did

The spirit may be willing, but the body is weak. Artists really can fuck themselves up if they don't pace themselves. You see this a lot in Japan with animators and video game developers who work crazy hours. They just up and die at a young age.

She takes pretty regular breaks, and has a large buffer of pages, so I'm not too worried

But she's also the kind of weirdo who might romanticize destroying her body to create her masterpiece. She's said before that the idea of dying before it's finished is dramatic and kinda appeals to her.

Don't be melodramatic, that statement holds the caveat that she has like seven more stories in Kasslyne to tell.

I could die right now you can't stop me you're not my dad

Cope, pls.

>Ashley will never call you daddy

Yo Cope, what made you do us dirty and kill Jon like that?

Yes, but as you saw his life expectancy just got cut in half.

What if your mind is put into a robot so that it can continue drawing and writing

If the robot has a clit and can still eat pie, I'm game.
Man, I didn't know user was going to dig up that ancient Formspring answer that suggested Jon lived! This chapter went through a bunch of different drafts, and Jon didn't make it in the last one. There had to be a real price Duane paid for this fuck-up, and Jon wound up being it. He also won't be the last casualty this chapter. Underground is a little messy.

you are a cruel mistress and i respect the hell out of you

not for the gruesome deaths but for how you work your stories into their best possible versions and don't get too married to ideas, as an aspiring writer i think that's awesome

... and also the gruesome deaths

No child is safe from Ashely's blood lust

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Perfect blow height if he survives.

>Man, I didn't know user was going to dig up that ancient Formspring answer that suggested Jon lived!
Once it's on the Internet it's there forever! But please keep answering inane questions we ask and then change them if you so please, it's more interesting than not getting any answers at all.

>we all assume Claggart survives because of outside lore
Would Cope dare to kill off the peak of masculine sex appeal and performance?

Frankly it's your fault for coming up with a story people are willing to dive into 6 year old archives to try and gain some extra insight to.

Ooof

Is duane still famous for saving all his plat kids? Or does Jon technically count against that number?

Jon is most likely just in shock, he lost his legs. He still has a high chance of dying afterwards, but that won't kill him straight out.

Most people don't go unconscious with their eyes wide open and lifeless.

If he loses his arms too, Duane's basically got a hentai-style human onahole.
You know, except a bit more dead than is ideal.

Well Duane is a bit more dead than the ideal too, so...

>Believing more child murder wasn't forthcoming

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You can't die yet, you have a death pact with that old lady from facebook

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Ashley confirmed she has some more, *ahem* geriatric fans who have expressed concerns about the comic not finishing before they die

We still have a whole shrine of kept-twins and two-toes to go through too.

Ignore this post; stop answering questions. Anons are autists

Oi fuck you, let me ask the author asinine questions about how pymary works.

I will marry ashley

Oh shit he really is dead
I didn't expect that

Can you disembowel your self on command survive and then do it whenever she wants while also looking like jack black?

Jon didn't count as one of Duane's kids?

We won’t know the full circumstances around things until we reach the ends. Could the State suppress his death to boost morale around Duane? Could it simply be glossed over by the public and comrades? Who knows

But I thought that Ash herself said that none of the kids would die.

She means the kid kids, Duane and Jon were the handlers - Spellmaster and khert-thingy-monitor-watcher

And now we will get a comedic break with Sette, it will help with this sadness

Ashley lies. Don't believe her words.

Ok, since Jon was also a Plat and very young, I thought he was included. Too bad.

Relatively speaking, not young for a plat. He was the oldest there and might've been next in command if Duane was killed in battle.

It was very important he be legal in our world so he was 18 or something, not really a kid.

Over 18 is old in Plat years, more than half of your life is gone. And Ash doesn't give a hoot about how old a character is, we've seen worse happen to younger kids.

Nah it was for the Jon/Duane shipping, she wanted to make sure Jon was legal in our world so one would be put off by it.

>make him as eligible for shipping as possible
>kill the fuck out of him in his introductory chapter
That’s ice cold brutal

Poor Ash. Sets up so much gay slash bait but all anyone ever draws is Sette lewds.

agreed!

Sette lewds with frickin’ nipples and belly buttons!

Disgusting.

I remember the days when shipping was just harmless fun and no one cared what was actually possible in canon

Bullshit, shipping was always taken overly seriously

that was never a thing

Yeah, the moment fandom became more than friend groups restricted by meat space, shipping was a huge serious thing

i will say the idea of being canon as victory is newer, ish, as in like the last 10 years

Is this what it feels like to have outlived your generation?

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I remember too, user. In the old days it wasn't considered "homophobic" for straight people to slash same-sex pairings. No one accused you of fetishizing gays. No one got upset and wrote twenty nested tweets if you drew a teenager posing sexily with their shirt off.

Modern woke culture has ruined pretty much everything fun and seems real keen on prosecuting people for thought crimes.

>modern woke culture

nah. what you're talking about is assholes who want to feel superior to people. vocal asshole minority, but god are they vocal. and assholes

How far are we in the story again?

A ways longer and something like 1/3rd

Yikes.

Yes.