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
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.
CelebrenIthil
2025-03-13 04:07:57 +0000 UTCI cried on the bus!
Josh
2025-03-12 02:02:10 +0000 UTCSmooch smooch
Ashley
2025-03-11 21:10:26 +0000 UTCthank 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
Nikaleles
2025-03-11 21:03:45 +0000 UTCAww, 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
Ashley
2025-03-11 20:57:19 +0000 UTCfor 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
Nikaleles
2025-03-11 20:54:54 +0000 UTCIf 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.
Josh
2025-03-11 20:21:29 +0000 UTCYeah, Murkoph is OUT.
Ashley
2025-03-11 00:58:53 +0000 UTCHmm... "Mother says you stay (but I'll be on my way)"? Naughty Murkoph trying to escape again there?
Rob N
2025-03-10 21:35:01 +0000 UTCStoopendous!
School of Night
2025-03-10 20:21:33 +0000 UTCIncluding 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.
Ashley
2025-03-10 19:59:37 +0000 UTCWhat 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!
Capsandnumbers
2025-03-10 19:43:35 +0000 UTCBeautiful. Just beautiful.
D. Alfonso
2025-03-10 17:45:15 +0000 UTCOn the first page above Quig's head. Baby Matty and his mom are in it.
Chantal Fournier
2025-03-10 16:59:09 +0000 UTCWhere is a Uaid eel? I’ve peered at this 7 page group and can’t spot it
czytanie
2025-03-10 16:26:39 +0000 UTCToo busy to be dead. Has crap to do.
Ashley
2025-03-10 16:05:33 +0000 UTCNever!
Ashley
2025-03-10 16:05:06 +0000 UTCOf course! It's been my pleasure!
Rifter
2025-03-10 16:04:57 +0000 UTCA mystery for later~
Ashley
2025-03-10 16:04:15 +0000 UTCAmid 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?
czytanie
2025-03-10 14:46:41 +0000 UTCaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA driving me nuts this is great
Madison
2025-03-10 13:20:18 +0000 UTCSobbing at 7 AM 😭 I love the two of them so much
Libby Goldberg
2025-03-10 13:04:00 +0000 UTCSo - 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.
Luuuuuuu
2025-03-10 12:35:48 +0000 UTCI feel better now.
akrasia
2025-03-10 11:41:15 +0000 UTCcheater!!!! you cheated!!! cheating writer !!!
Spen Cyrrh
2025-03-10 08:19:59 +0000 UTCBeautiful 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!
Cherenkov
2025-03-10 08:01:47 +0000 UTCBoo continues to be the mvp
jaaama
2025-03-10 06:52:37 +0000 UTCDeath? Just say no. (that was pretty peak, yeah)
Flyfly
2025-03-10 06:00:00 +0000 UTCYou are so sweet <3 Thank you for following along with these bozos for so long!
Ashley
2025-03-10 05:49:33 +0000 UTCAmazing. The whole sequence was fantastic, but I might have been a bit distracted after the top of page 240. So good.
Quinton
2025-03-10 05:42:16 +0000 UTCSette finaly cursing like civilized folk.
Srećko
2025-03-10 05:42:11 +0000 UTCGlad to be here Ashley, thanks for the ride so far.
Stretch Andrews
2025-03-10 05:38:30 +0000 UTCCried actual tears at this payoff, Ashley. Beautiful.
Spider
2025-03-10 05:16:06 +0000 UTCI have no words, just bottomless appreciation for this story. Thank you Ashley for so many more years ahead.
The Clag
2025-03-10 05:13:01 +0000 UTCYeah... now that you mention it, we could really use some squishes in our real world too!
Rob N
2025-03-10 05:10:41 +0000 UTCSette 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.
Moss on Trees
2025-03-10 05:06:12 +0000 UTCI have adored their dynamic from the very beginning, seeing these two lunkheads finally get to this place has completely wrecked me.
Sara McCardle-Blunk
2025-03-10 04:24:23 +0000 UTCExcellent 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
2025-03-10 04:23:06 +0000 UTCThank you, Rifter <3 And thank you for fielding the Reddit threads!
Ashley
2025-03-10 04:21:49 +0000 UTCWhen 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.
Ashley
2025-03-10 04:20:58 +0000 UTCCould Khette even have joined?
jaaama
2025-03-10 04:08:10 +0000 UTCLET'S FUCKING GOOOOO!
Ladile
2025-03-10 03:57:56 +0000 UTCSmall detail, but I love that Sette gets her stuffed lion back
Renee
2025-03-10 03:52:23 +0000 UTCThis story is fucking amazing.
Rifter
2025-03-10 03:42:46 +0000 UTChell yea
codeGnave
2025-03-10 03:35:32 +0000 UTCBy 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!!!!!!!!!!!!
Madison
2025-03-10 03:26:09 +0000 UTCGonna wrap myself up in this comic like a warm blanket...and then head to bed. Night ya'll
JarJar
2025-03-10 03:20:41 +0000 UTCI love this!!!!!
metrocube
2025-03-10 03:05:24 +0000 UTCOh I started crying at "best friend" and I don't know when I'll ever stop again.
grim
2025-03-10 03:01:35 +0000 UTCAlso 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?
CD
2025-03-10 02:48:24 +0000 UTCThat'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.
Ashley
2025-03-10 02:42:27 +0000 UTCThe Uaid eel is so scary, what is Quigs going to find there? But so much squishiness💙💙💙 we were overdue for squishes.
Chantal Fournier
2025-03-10 02:41:11 +0000 UTCFINALLY 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.
CD
2025-03-10 02:38:25 +0000 UTCCried and snotted, peak story telling Ash. Loved it.
Green
2025-03-10 02:38:06 +0000 UTCAlso OW, her HANDS. Girl's not getting off scot free, I'm afraid. Her poor nail-beds…
Alight
2025-03-10 02:37:08 +0000 UTCAlways learn the curses first.
Ashley
2025-03-10 02:36:12 +0000 UTCThat's what we pay him for.
Ashley
2025-03-10 02:35:53 +0000 UTCI cried, I really did. Beautiful, beautiful words and art. Dang Murk ya gotta be the fly in the ointment, don't ya?
GracieV
2025-03-10 02:35:41 +0000 UTC[Screaming, tearing up, shrieking with delighted laughter,] The soul chooses her to live! DANG IT YOU GOT ME WITH THE FEELS!!!
Alight
2025-03-10 02:35:06 +0000 UTCSo 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.
Michael Stakely
2025-03-10 02:33:36 +0000 UTCDamn. Now I’m gonna go to bed all warm and fuzzy.
Ben Dennard
2025-03-10 02:33:01 +0000 UTCIt 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!
Ashley
2025-03-10 02:32:47 +0000 UTCI 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.
Deorwine
2025-03-10 02:31:44 +0000 UTCSo 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
Fitzy
2025-03-10 02:31:12 +0000 UTCThe 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.
votyasch
2025-03-10 02:28:39 +0000 UTCThe "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. :)
Claire H
2025-03-10 02:27:33 +0000 UTCWow, good timing on my part.
Alight
2025-03-10 02:21:26 +0000 UTC
