unsounded
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18-238-244
🕑 Added 2025-03-10 02:19:51 +0000 UTCSeven big fat pages today. I like how these look on the site too though, the squishes go wild on the nice painted gory background :) https://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch18/ch18_238.html
These two have had a strange relationship, one that's been as irreverent as it's been sincere. They never needed each other as a surrogate father nor a surrogate daughter. They needed to learn about their own extant family through the lens of each other. They needed to become friends, and to be there to support each other as they figure out what's left for them in the families they each do still have one foot in.
And I think that's where they are now. Duane has put Duane away - notice he's holding Sette with both hands at the end, even with his family around him - and Sette is looking at Sara, at Da, at Knock, with excitement for the future. It's time to live!
There is a slight extension of this scene left, then one final shortish scene before that's the wrap of the chapter. I'm going to go back to drawing that now, and see you in two weeks. Thanks for reading, friends :)
Comments
CelebrenIthil
I read the update way too late to comment earlier, but aaaah *barf hearts at Ash* Also, would you look at that, looks like Duane is even held up by his Saelself's thorn-wearing hands alongside the rest of the fam. Looks like the faith holds fast. And holds to its image. He hasn't met Sette's Father-not-da after all.
Josh
I cried on the bus!
Ashley
Smooch smooch
Nikaleles
thank you gurl 💙 it all went as smoothly as possible so other than being sore i feel pretty good. and I get to eat like a normie again. yaaay! serpenthyne and i were getting all misty eyed in discord chat when this one came out lmao. i can't believe it's been like fifteen years man. bless u
Ashley
Aww, your gallbladder! I had mine out long ago. You'll do fine, just don't eat high fat foods on an empty stomach ever again :D Glad you like the update! <3
Nikaleles
for my belated birthday present i had my gallbladder taken out so im going to lie in bed and read these multiple times lmao there's a lot going on here but i just wanna say i love the panel where they trade catchphrases man i love this comic so fkn much
Josh
If you get killed by weird shades in the spirit world (which seemed a very "hey, no fair!" way to die to me from the get-go) it's only right that weird shade spirit magic can cheat-code you back.
Ashley
Yeah, Murkoph is OUT.
Rob N
Hmm... "Mother says you stay (but I'll be on my way)"? Naughty Murkoph trying to escape again there?
School of Night
Stoopendous!
Ashley
Including Simon would have felt like ticking a box. The reality is that Duane died before Simon was old enough to know in any appreciable way. Mikaila is his first, his beloved, his challenge, his triumph, his conflict, his favourite. I think it's important that be recognised by the framing there, where the man is propped up by what's been most important to him. To pretend otherwise... eh, again, it'd feel like ticking a box.
Capsandnumbers
What a triumph! I'm hooting and hollering about it. It's the most ominous thing in the world that Duane has everyone but Simon around him though. I hope he's not missing any important bits!
D. Alfonso
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Chantal Fournier
On the first page above Quig's head. Baby Matty and his mom are in it.
czytanie
Where is a Uaid eel? I’ve peered at this 7 page group and can’t spot it
Ashley
Too busy to be dead. Has crap to do.
Ashley
Never!
Rifter
Of course! It's been my pleasure!
Ashley
A mystery for later~
czytanie
Amid this sweetness, I feel bad for Khette... I don't get what Murkoph's deal is. Last we saw him he was fleeing Lady I, now he's channeling her?
Madison
aaaaaaAAAAAAAAA driving me nuts this is great
Libby Goldberg
Sobbing at 7 AM 😭 I love the two of them so much
Luuuuuuu
So - the human soul would also have all the memories of her First Cage, wouldn't she? That must be an extra twist for the poor thing in all this, seen her old cage still so hurting and desperate after all this and nothing to be done for her. But nonetheless in this manner - in this way - it's as if all the Sette's who ever were in this moment - are having the experience, perhaps for the very first time ever, of truly unconditional love. And that's an achingly rare thing for anyone. Well, all save what remains of poor eternally tortured First.
akrasia
I feel better now.
Spen Cyrrh
cheater!!!! you cheated!!! cheating writer !!!
Cherenkov
Beautiful and moving pages Ashley! What a wonderful catharsis. One must feel a little sorry for poor young Simon though - didn’t make the cut for Duane’s squish cloud!
jaaama
Boo continues to be the mvp
Flyfly
Death? Just say no. (that was pretty peak, yeah)
Ashley
You are so sweet <3 Thank you for following along with these bozos for so long!
Quinton
Amazing. The whole sequence was fantastic, but I might have been a bit distracted after the top of page 240. So good.
Srećko
Sette finaly cursing like civilized folk.
Stretch Andrews
Glad to be here Ashley, thanks for the ride so far.
Spider
Cried actual tears at this payoff, Ashley. Beautiful.
The Clag
I have no words, just bottomless appreciation for this story. Thank you Ashley for so many more years ahead.
Rob N
Yeah... now that you mention it, we could really use some squishes in our real world too!
Moss on Trees
Sette is so brave to want to face herself, and what a gorgeous representation of happiness, to be literally uplifted by the good in your life to carry you forward into the future. Gosh I’m so happy for these two, to think of everything they’ve gone through until now. Ashley you are a once in a generation type of storyteller. As someone who’s lurked from this comic’s early days, it has been a privilege to grow along side these characters.
Sara McCardle-Blunk
I have adored their dynamic from the very beginning, seeing these two lunkheads finally get to this place has completely wrecked me.
Ashley
Excellent analysis! If the eyeball has a role to play, it will have to be in another adventure~ But our gang needs to rest up for that first. Sette needs about a week of sleep and several cans of sardines.
Ashley
Thank you, Rifter <3 And thank you for fielding the Reddit threads!
Ashley
When Sette invited her, she assumed her gang would be a lame gang of khert ghosts. But if she's going back to the really real world? First Sette would have a problem existing out there without a body. Soon as the khert fire's out, the khert's going to come back in like a hurricane and put all the strayed ghosties back to bed - and she'd have been included in that.
jaaama
Could Khette even have joined?
Ladile
LET'S FUCKING GOOOOO!
Renee
Small detail, but I love that Sette gets her stuffed lion back
Rifter
This story is fucking amazing.
codeGnave
hell yea
Madison
By growing beyond what they were meant to be, by providing true empathy and love... The First Soul creates miracles! Especially knowing that Jac doesn't die for a while- that Settes wait in the Khert with Lady I and the First Soul... GEEZE! Who would want to stick around THAT crowd any longer than she needs to! The First Soul was designed to live again and again... so it's time to live!!! Live!!!! YEAH!!!!! I also like how Duane is buoyed by his family, whose faces are obscured. He no longer clings to them- they are not the shoring of his life like Sette is-- but they are waymarkers. They keep him afloat. Also also.... What about Khette's eye.....!!!!!!!! It's still in Sette!!!!! What's UP!!!!!!!!!!!!
JarJar
Gonna wrap myself up in this comic like a warm blanket...and then head to bed. Night ya'll
metrocube
I love this!!!!!
grim
Oh I started crying at "best friend" and I don't know when I'll ever stop again.
CD
Also once again marvelling what wonderful foreshadowing the very first chapter is. Your interpersonal dramas have the ability to shape the material fabric of things, huh?
Ashley
That's a big old squish gang exiting with Duane and Sette - surely they can do something about all the nasty business up in the really real world.
Chantal Fournier
The Uaid eel is so scary, what is Quigs going to find there? But so much squishiness💙💙💙 we were overdue for squishes.
CD
FINALLY GOT ME DABBING TEARS AWAY. And I'm so fascinated by all this implies of the First Soul! I did kind of assume they'd find a way to patch it in again; I didn't realise it would have so much agency in the patching! "You're my very best friend" bwuaaaagghhhh.
Green
Cried and snotted, peak story telling Ash. Loved it.
Alight
Also OW, her HANDS. Girl's not getting off scot free, I'm afraid. Her poor nail-beds…
Ashley
Always learn the curses first.
Ashley
That's what we pay him for.
GracieV
I cried, I really did. Beautiful, beautiful words and art. Dang Murk ya gotta be the fly in the ointment, don't ya?
Alight
[Screaming, tearing up, shrieking with delighted laughter,] The soul chooses her to live! DANG IT YOU GOT ME WITH THE FEELS!!!
Michael Stakely
So much to love in these pages. So many callbacks to lines spoken eons ago in webcomic time, character bits paying off pages of past days. And, of course, if she's going to learn any Aldish, it'd be that.
Ben Dennard
Damn. Now I’m gonna go to bed all warm and fuzzy.
Ashley
It never realised happiness was an option. It gets a little taste of it, and of acceptance, and of hope, and man - that is a heady quaff! It wants more!
Deorwine
I lost my own father December of last year, so these words from Duane hit particularly hard today... what a glorious, glorious update. Such beautiful art and such wonderful characters. I'm so happy for both of them. Thank you so much, Ashley.
Fitzy
So much of the discussion around the first soul has been about what it's meant to do or what it means and it didn't hit me till this update that nobody really asked for it's opinion or perspective. That lil' reminder that none of the grand designs or expectations of others hold weight compared to their own agency in themselves and what they want to be is what gave our lil' ghost cardinal the boost of positivity, I think
votyasch
The very best of friends.. They didn't need to replace what they already had, just needed someone to see and understand - or at least try to.
Claire H
The "precious few things I would not do for you" makes another appearance. That line has always struck me in a special way, and something I occasionally say in my own life to my most loved ones. :)
Alight
Wow, good timing on my part.
