Tomorrow, a new storyline begins: “Everything You’ve Ever Wanted Floats Above”
I’ve been getting bad at noting when there are new pages up at Slipshine for Welcome To The Fuck Zone. Back on Monday, there went up a new Christmasy page with Mike! So that’s there, so you know. Next week, for Boxing Day, you get Ruth and Billie.
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“ah’d say do you wanna talk about it, but ah don’t wanna be one a’ those friends ya use instead of a therapist”
…
“also don’t wanna be friends”
:0
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They can be not-friends! Like Clifford and Man-Man!
+1
—————–
Also, what’s the deal with GWB turning down Man-Man’s help? Isn’t he concerned that Clifford just “disappeared” while he watching him? If Oscar can help look for him, I’d take all the help I could get!
He’s litterally just some guy.
If Oscar finds Clifford, then Oscar also finds the person who “disappeared” him. And Eliza would probably be forced to kill him after that (think about what happened to the hunters).
Granted, Oscar hasn’t put two and two together yet, but he should still listen to the people who can actually handle magic.
That explanation has merit, yet Eliza is letting Oscar go with her, even though she believes you knows who created those R-monsters and is probably also involved with Clifford’s disappearance. *shrug* It just seems that GWB doesn’t understand humans. Threatening him without just explaining what the REAL threat is, almost nevers deters humans from sticking their noses into where they don’t belong. It only encourages us to “aim to misbehave.”
Just realized that I’ve been using “GWB” for “Great White Bear”, but as seen in today’s comic, Eliza calls him “White Faced Bear”, so “WFB” (which I think of as Wells Fargo Bank.) 😀
And… I just realized I’m discussing a comic on ANOTHER comic’s forum. Oy vey. David’s probably all, “WTF, mate?”
COMMENTCEPTION
Cool, a new webcomic for my ever growing list, thanks.
I still have Magic Dance stuck in my head. I hate you.
Now fix things between amber and danny
Hey, Sal is considerate enough to stand downwind of Amber so she doesn’t get a face-full of her goddamn cancer stick, so there’s that.
Now that’s just polite. Believe it or not, smokers aren’t all part of a nefarious conspiracy to envelop others in a cloud of death. Our goal is to shorten our own lifespans, not yours.
That’s what all the conspirators say.
:0
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0:
BFFs
Wait, “end of storyline”? What was the Glower Vacuum?
It’s a play on “Power Vacuum”. As in, what exists after Ruth is no longer RA.
Which Dorothy and Roz intend to fill
Wanna get your mind blown?…..It was YOU all along! O_O
Maybe the real Glower Vacuum is the friends we’ve made along the way.
I thought it was Robo-Vac
Ruth descending into depression and losing her job.
Funny, I don’t recall Marcie evaporating.
Okay it’s obviously windy up there. How’s Sal not cold?
It took some skill lighting that cig up
Year-round motorcyclists are used to the cold. Trust me.
Agreed. I don’t even have my motorcycle anymore but I still have the bandanna I used to keep the winter wind off my face.
She is already cool enough..(I’ll show myself out)
Awww, I wanted to make that joke 🙂
Warm cigarettes?
The layer of hi tech polymer armour installed under her skin during her boarding school years also serves as excellent insulation.
Man, Catholic school must be way more awesome than I was led to believe.
Battle-Nun training.
Especially when the “nuns” are really members of the Bene Gesserit…
2 cool 2 be cold
She simply doesn’t have any fucks to give.
Yay, ceasefire
[we have come to terms]
Cast In The Name Of God
Ye Not Guilty
BIG O! IT’S SHOW TIIIIIME!
Cast In the Name of Cheese
Ye Not Holey
Don’t Be Afraid Of Knowledge!
Guess we have to wait until the slipshine comes out.
Ook!!
Why is the librarian is a monk-*
I tell you once more before I get off the floor…
Don’t bring me down.
Bruce!
Don’t bring me dow-own.
<3 frends
This is more a reaction to yesterday’s comic, but I didn’t notice it until I was waiting for the update, and I didn’t see anything about it in the comments – but Amazigirl mentioned Ryan by name. Which given that Dorothy had been unsuccessfully trying to obtain it earlier in the chapter, is a pretty big deal.
Nah fam, it’s the last name we need. Sal and Amazi-Girl got the name “Ryan” when his getaway driver shouted it out.
Dorothy doesn’t know they got a name.
And Sal doesn’t know she’s yet to tell Joyce (and, since she asked how she’s holding up, seems under the impression she has).
These three are not communicating well.
Dorothy was trying to get the FULL name: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/trivial/
Ahh, I forgot the word ‘full’. I need to step up my archive diving game, clearly.
Dammit alt-text, I want RESOLUTION
Resolutions aren’t for 8 days yet.
That’s because it takes that long to resolve about the sun.
I can see Her being worried about them, Amber/Amazi-girl can take care of herself but Danny, Dorothy, and Joyce I don’t know.
I think that gives too much credit to Ryan. I mean he’s a creepy rapey guy but what resources does he actually have, I honestly think Joyce could 1v1 him if she wanted to. Dorothy might worry but I feel she’s to smart and Danny?….eh maybe keep Amazi-girls number. But why would Ryan even bother?
Ok maybe I’m underestimating Joyce, I keep forgetting about how she broke her own hand punching out a dude twice her size. Still wouldn’t risk her safety though.
It’d be a good idea to keep her out of it anyways.
A) That punch was almost certainly adrenaline fuelled – she may not be able to pull off another one again. When she’s regularly angry and not boiling over pissed punch out adrenaline mad, she couldn’t hurt Joe. Ryan isn’t built like Joe, but she may not be capable of it.
B) She freezes up around Ryan and the suggestion of Ryan – not good odds.
C) She doesn’t seem to actually know how to throw a good punch – again, she sprained her wrist knocking out Ross.
D) She’s hurt – her punching arm is out of commission.
Not to disregard the PTSD, let’s remember that Joyce was the one who GAVE Ryan that nasty scar by breaking her glass of soda in his face when he tried to force himself on her. Joyce may be a recovering innocent flower, but she is not a defenseless one. She can, and has on more than one occasion, hold her own.
Thank Mike for that. I don’t know if it was Willis’ intention, but he was the one responsible(with the unwitting assistance of Joe-the-punching-bag) for pulling a Palpatine and getting Joyce to give in to her anger for the first time. If he hadn’t done that, she probably wouldn’t have seen violence as even being an option and just froze in her first encounter with Ryan.
That’s even more of a stretch than the usual “Mike was doing good by being an asshole” arguments.
Thank you Mike for annoying thejeff so the rest of us look good by comparison.
Joyce herself would probably credit growing up in a family of brothers (as she thinks right now at least) for toughening her up.
That’s true, but every instance since then about Ryan has had her freezing up. I guess it could go either way with him. Plus if anyone else was going to get her pissed as all fuck hopped up on adrenaline again, it’d be him.
He has a coterie of bros and a self-image to repair.
AG is projecting. She sees herself as a super-hero, and she assumes that her adversary sees himself as a super-villain.
I don’t see that. Seems here like she’s accurately evaluating Ryan’s state of mind when he had her phone, as running scared.
If Amazigirl is projecting and Sal shares her concerns does that mean Sal is projecting as well? If not, then why the double standard?
That last panel would make a cool background 🙂
Also yea book end!
Book ended last storyline. But yes, my goodness, we’ve had this one for a while.
Hold the phone here. She built, compiled and installed her own operating system on her own phone? Seriously? Like, why isn’t she at MIT instead of some dead-end community college?
I can understand a clever person configuring an app to do that, but the level of technical proficiency required to modify a phone like that is insane.
IU is hardly a dead end community college. It’s not an Ivy, but jesus christ, it’s not a bad school.
like, the total enrollment in 2017 is 50,000 people
that’s a large-ass dead-end community college
Right?
Are large asses required to attend? That sounds discriminatory to me.
I could be wrong, but I thought one of the hallmarks of a dead-end school is that it’s so large that the students don’t get personal attention? I guess it depends on the endowment?
[Sees an opening for crude jokes about Jason and Sal, or Penny and Joe, but decides to let it go.]
[is about to make a joke about the phrase “sees an opening” but then realizes I just did]
Is a large ass considered an endowment?
Yes, but none of it will count for anything as our new society settles into place. Studying there is functionally a dead end for all 50000 students. All colleges are now dead end colleges. I’m sorry, it wasn’t the future I wanted either.
But “hold the phone” is good advice. Even if it’s probably customized and not from scratch, I bet her OS is good enough that you don’t want to drop it from the roof. I wish I could say the same for all commercial ones!
“All colleges are now dead end colleges.”
Well, yeah, if you major in drama…
“You’ll be alright, your major was…Communications?!?”
“I know, tis fake degree.”
It’s cute you think this is a function of major. You probably thought a law degree was smart a decade ago too.
Android is open-source. For example.
It might be some kind of homebrew/modded android OS
I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s still l33t, but it’s not like she had to write an OS from scratch or something.
Sure, but she was coding an OS from scratch in one of the first classes of Intro to Computer Science next to Danny. It’s plausible that she finished it and put it on her phone by now, or had already made it beforehand since she was familiar enough with it to do it as a diversion in a dull class.
As UltraKyrie mentioned – it’s very likely a modified Android OS. Especially since she installed a program on Sal’s phone so she could be located. It’s much easier to do that on an Android OS than on iOS.
(I realize Android may or may not exist in this universe, but she’s very likely using that universe’s equivalent.)
Android was built on the Linux kernel and pre-dates IOS, so it must exist in this universe.
Amber says early on ‘Linux lives unrivalled another day’ when she fails to finish her operating system, which suggests to me she does indeed use Linux.
What community college provides housing? And who travels three hours to a community college????
It’s… not that hard to write an OS. It’s a more significant challenge to make it small enough and efficient enough to run usefully on a phone, but that’s less and less relevant every day as the hardware improves. And since Linux is open-source, and well-documented, it’s frankly not that big of a deal to lift significant pieces of it for your own design.
I definitely knew multiple people in community college who’d be able to pull it off given enough time and motivation, and Amber had those things.
And all of that said? She’s talking about a Recycle Bin without a UI. I have almost no applicable experience and it’d probably take me a few days to implement that on Android or Linux, after getting the development environment set up in the first place.
Android is based on Linux, which was designed for things like this, so all the bits are there. Hell, Sony-Ericcson give you some hints on how to cross-compile Linux for a phone:
http://developer.sonymobile.com/2011/05/06/how-to-build-a-linux-kernel/
Designing and building an OS from scratch – kudos for that.
Did she apply to MIT? Was she honest about her abilities? Did she provide any evidence of her abilities? Did MIT offer her a full ride scholarship?
She’s not getting a full ride at IU either – Blaine is paying at least part of her tuition.
IU, in-state, is metric tons cheaper than MIT, though.
It takes more than smarts and tech savvy to get into (and actually attend) a top school like MIT. Ambition and parental support (and $$$) help a lot. Since it seems Amber’s poured all her ambition into Amazi-Girl & is receiving the opposite of parental support…
This makes me happy. I genuinely needed this after today’s shift. Thanks Willis.
ladies and gentlemen lets the shipping begins
….Begin, you say?
It’s not a ship I sail, but this has been in harbour for months.
Begin? There is already a fleet out there.
I’m so glad to see they’re sorta becoming friends-ish. Or at least no longer enemies.
Oh, well that explains why she couldn’t recover the photo. I remember commenting about that a long while back.
What a gorgeous shot that last panel is. Sorry, I didn’t really have anything else to say other than that it’s a great shot
New Map!
Wait, wrong comic…
Aw geeze. I’m months behind.
That won’t take long to binge, 3 a week, 12 weeks behind, that’s only 36 comics. They’re still in Arlong Park, btw.
“Stay.”
They’re not going to talk about what’s really bothering Amber/AG about Sal. Not this time. That’s not why she’s saying it. That is still something that will happen in the future at some point.
“Stay.”
But now they will be quiet together for a while. They will not talk, but the silence will not be an awkward silence. It will be a silence of serenity, of Amber/AG starting to get some peace in her own mind. And that will be an important step for the day when she can hopefully admit everything to Sal in a non-violent manner.
“Stay.”
And even if that event is still a bit off, it will still be important. It will be a session of being together with Sal without her brain locking up in rage. Hopefully it will create a level of calm around Sal that can also be imprinted into Amber.
“Stay.”
Also, there is the factor of loneliness kicking in. AG right now lonely as hell, without Danny in her life. Danny wasn’t just a boyfriend, he was someone that was really part of AG’s life. She misses him. She misses someone that she could discuss AG about in a way that she could not with anyone else. True, both Dina and Dorothy knows about AG, but they don’t know anywhere near the whole truth. Danny does. Not having him hurts.
“Stay.”
As for Sal, this once again shows what I’ve said about her often: Apart from her weak points (mainly Malaya), she is mature and observant of people and she goddamn well cares much more than she’d ever publicly admit. I know I’ve said this many times, but it bears repeating. In both yesterday’s and today’s strip, Sal is showing the compassion that is always somewhere there to be found when the chips are down.
Compassion, and also consideration. She doesn’t want to intrude on AG. She doesn’t want power over AG, because she doesn’t want power over anyone. She hates people with power over others, because she’s seen the abuse of that too many times to trust it. So she denies having that power, and she shows AG a level of compassion and consideration that goes above and beyond.
“Stay.”
And of course, she is somewhat lonely too, being nervous about losing Marcie as a friend. Because here’s the thing: Of all the people Sal’s interacted with, there aren’t really many that’s just seen her as she can fully be. In fact, I’ll wager that only Marcie knows her inner workings. Only Marcie fully sees Sal as a full human being, beyond her flaws and her shell and her reputation (both good and bad). Only Marcie ever understood what drove Sal to do those convenience store robberies. And Marcie knows all this and still accepts Sal.
That level of friendship is deep. And losing it will hurt. A lot.
And even though this loss most likely won’t be permanent, Sal is still nervous it may. And she does need someone she can talk to, someone who can understand her. And in the least likely, yet at the same time most obvious solution, Miss White Girl Power Trip may very well be just that person.
“Stay.”
It’s the best word AG has said to Sal since “Never you.”
GDI Norton, stealing my thunder on that panel before I can analyze it, eh?
IT WON’T WORK.
(mutters to self ‘dammit, now I gotta find a new angle’)
You have to admit, it is slightly impressive to get that much rambling word salad out from a single word in the comic, right?
Considering who wrote it….
Nah. Willis is the kind of author to provide that.
But well done by our glorious emperor anyway.
Impressed as Hell.
Nice post.
Pfffft, Sal didn’t even bring cookies. This is complete bullshit.
…OK, fine. That was suitably awesome, not to mention very poetic.
“Stay”.
Not run, not fight, not flee. Stay. This is the beginning of something that can hopefully be very healing for both of them.
Oh, I think I now know what her mother sent her.
A note saying “If you want cookies, steal them from your brother or Billie. That’s what you were going to do anyway, isn’t it?”
Poetic and true. Thanks for that.
I like you, Sal. I’m a fan of non-violent communication, and this conversation is a good enough example of that. Empathy is rare around here.
It really is ‘one step forward, one step back’ with Amber, isn’t it? It’s good that she’s making an effort to confront her borderline-phobic reaction to Sal. On the other hand, you can’t help but feel a chill hearing her talk about ‘my other self’.
It’s extra scary as Amazigirl seems to actually be more willing to change than Amber is
And when the personality that goes around beating the shit out of people for vigilante justice is the more stable of the two…
It’s scary, but at the same time logical. AG was created -precisely- to be more stable. To not go into panic mode at the drop of a hat. To not have trouble breathing when they see someone they don’t like. To keep her wits about her and be able to analyse a situation. And perhaps most importantly, to not let the violence go -too- far.
Or to put it like this: If it had been Amber meeting Gash-face here, she would not have stopped punching him once Sal had him subdued. She might well have just ended up being so violent that she’d have killed him.
Now, I’m not saying that creating AG was a particularly healthy outlet, especially not in the long run. Heck, in the long run, it’s probably making things worse unless someone intervenes. But I can certainly understand how it would make Amber feel better right there and then, when the idea of AG first popped into her mind.
It’s probably a good deal healthier than either repressing the violence or giving in to it. A safe outlet for her violent impulses is important but RollerDerby might have created less problems. And done a good deal less good for other people.
Prepare for the new crime fighting duo; Sal, and her sidekick Amazi-Girl. 🙂
BEST.
Not hero & sidekick; complimentary equals (like batz & supe )
Nice script.
I like the art layout of the last panel.
Mhrrrmmmm I love the smell relationship progress in the morning.
Okey dokey, panel analysis time!
Panel One: This is a good question – Sal’s good at thinking in a crisis about practical questions and this is an important follow up for planning next moves. And a surprisingly good reach out to AG. She needs someone who understands her worrying about the others. And yeah, Dorothy and Danny are good targets if he got a good look at her phone. Not bad for someone casually lighting a cigarette. She’d make a decent crisis management worker if she trusted authority like cops and therapists more.
And AG’s response is good too. She is on the look out for Ryan, and it’s clear she’s thought about this as a possibility while still trying to reassure herself it’ll probably be okay. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. And she’s not looking at Sal while she’s responding – AG doesn’t seem to want to talk about this. Fair enough – vulnerability is scary under the best circumstances. These….are not the best.
Panel Two: And here is the start of AG beating herself up. The problem with AG trying to be perfect is whenever she fails to be so, she tears herself down and goes on a shame spiral. It’s one of the many (many) unhealthy behaviours I hope she gets help for. Poor girl. And yeah, this would normally be a good measure for protecting her ID in case she needed to delete stuff, but her good security measure just bit her in the ass.
Panel Three: This is a really good strip for showing how well Sal gets stuff like this. She points out AG is still worried, despite what she says. And she’s right to worry – Ryan coming for Danny, Dorothy, or Joyce would be BAD. It’s a fair concern, however unlikely.
And she got her out of that spiral before it got bad. I wonder how much experience Sal has with those – she’s good at recognizing and cutting them off.
It’s good for AG too. She recognized it and admitted, yeah, she was worried.
Panel Four: And this panel is TOO sweet. Sal admits she’s worried about them too. She likes Danny and Joyce but isn’t terribly close to them and she barely knows Dorothy, but she’ll still get worried enough to hang out and watch for Ryan. At least for a bit. Anybody would worry about that, I’d like to think, and try to give a head’s up and keep an eye out. Climbing up to the roof and joining the superhero you’re on grudging respect terms with? That’s empathy. For them and for AG. It’s just a really great Sal moment.
Also? Damn, Sal, do you sleep? She looks exhausted and nervous, and yeah, worried here. This cannot have been great for her lately.
Panel Five: And she continues it, asking AG if she’s okay with her staying. She knows AG is afraid of her and hated her, so she asks if she’s okay with her staying. Making sure she won’t make AG worse. And considering she has every reason to hate AG still, that is impressive. She’s doing well here, checking on AG and making sure everything is going okay. Seriously, Sal, crisis work, consider it.
Panel Six: And this is VERY emotional and important. I think we can strike off the ‘grudging respect’ and move them up to ‘neutral respect’. They might not like each other much still, as people, but they’re starting to understand and see different parts of each other. That’s VERY important for AG. While I still worry about her shunting her responsibility for harassing and stalking Sal for Amber (it reminds me a bit of Joyce trying to pretend her LGBT+ hate never happened and blaming the church for their’s- even if that gave you the motivation, you still did the dirty work and it’s irresponsible and not a real apology to shunt it off).
These two aren’t friends yet – they don’t particularly like each other as people and this is still awkward and neutral, if not uncomfortable. They look away from each other and don’t focus on it. Sal looks away and keeps leaning on the rail, still acting casual, and AG is pensive looking at the sky – they’re definitely lost in thought, but separately. They are not on the ‘friend’ wavelength yet. Could they get there? Maybe. Will they be vitriolic friends at best? Maybe. Are they doomed to neutral working respect? Possibly. Will things devolve once Sal finds out who AG is? Definitely possible.
Overall, this is a change. Whether that’s good or not is debatable, especially if AG’s still in a bad mental state and Sal no longer looks for it or doubts her perceptions. But it is a change.
Sal would be a decent crisis worker, that’s true, but I fear she has been burnt too often to become part of the Machine like that.
But like this, on a one-on-one basis, yeah, she can do real good.
Yeah, I can see that – same reason why I’m pretty sure she’d respond to suggestions she become a therapist with ‘don’t be fuckin’ rude’.
Won’t stop me harping on how good she’d be at it.
The true face of healing. Not what you want, but what you need.
So, if Amber/AG were to get a handle on her issues, would the Amber/AG split eventually stop and there would just be one Amber? I’ve never had a real solid understanding of how the split personality thing works.
No, that isn’t how DID integration works. If she has DID and integrated, they would be communicating, sharing memories, and more or less working together for a common goal (albeit they would each have their own thoughts and feelings about and different ideas on how to attain said goals).
As I understand it, a third personality, comprised of aspects of both previous personalities would emerge. It would probably be Amber with the more positive aspects of AG without the separate characterization.
I believe BBCC had it right. The existing alters won’t actually go away, but work together more fluidly, such that they become harder to distinguish to the outside observer.
Or this is how it would work if there were actual alters. If we see Amber still panicking around Sal then I’m definately wrong, but we aren’t going to see that.
The original question sounded like they were assuming there were actual alters, hence the answer about DID.
*banging pots and pans together* JUST TELL HER JUST TELL HER JUST TELL HER
I really want to see that too, but how?
“So, that scar on your hand? That you always keep covered with a glove? I…”
No wait, that’s not right.
“My other self and I are not on speaking terms, but I happen to know she…”
Hmm.
“Hey, remember that time my other self stabbed you ’cause you held up a store? That was good fun, huh?”
This would be a perfect time for Ryan to try something.
Marcie: [When I asked you to make new friends…]
Sal: Whaaaaaat?
I feel like this is the Sal/WG equivalent of https://goo.gl/0ZqLTq
Crap, that was supposed to be AG not WG
WIIGII!
Rick & Frenchie; AG & Sal …
Amber didn’t custom make her own OS for her cell phone, that’s not a thing you can do.
Google CyanogenMod
Yes it is most certainly something you can do. Android is an Open Source Operating system. If you know how, you can customize everything to your exact specifications.
Not only is it a thing you can do, it is a thing that has been done!
It’s not a thing you can do without voiding your warrent though.
Warrent -> warranty
De-e-e-e-esperado….
+1
The new dynamic duo
Sneaks in to empty booth and puts Lisa Loeb on hacked Muzak.
Link fail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z_H11F7WDI
Stay. Sit. Shake hands. Roll over.
So did Sal piece together who Amazigirl is yet?
As in “She’s Amber” or as in “She is my hand-stabber”?
In either case the answer is no.
Though I think she has clues to both and may be dancing around it.
Nice chapter close.