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(he/him)
⚧
New game! BOLTED 
memories of imaginary brain [various celebrities here] who visited me in my sleep and knew my name somehow, aww =(
Of course they knew your name. There’s an entire Society for Creative Ana Chronistic-isms.
OMG!!! Thanks for your Creativity: I’m having my 1st Happiness-bolus of today!
“You’re less of a jerk than the real Mike. That’s how I know!”
Everybody’s got a tell.
Now you have to roll to save (yes I recognize your avvie as Max from a very recent episode of that comic and also Leftover Soup)
Big Imaginary Mike Energy
Imaginary Brain Mike needs his own tag now.
I suppose he’s an aspect of Amber’s mid, and Amazi-Girl gets her own tag, so that would make sense.
Amazi-Mike
He probably will once real Mike returns.
or this IS ‘Real Mike’ and being positive while using Socratic teaching methods suits his endgame. (Something something “Motherfucking Spite”)
I choose to believe this is simply a dimension-hopping Force-ghost version of Mike from a different timeline coming to check in.
this comment was going to be a dissection of real mike vs imaginary brain mike but he’s always just a personified 4chan thread that sometimes like monkeys on typewriters makes an excellent point
Oh come on, Mike’s bad but he’s not a raging misogynistic, racist nazi
“I’m not a raging misogynistic racist nazi, but I play one on the interwebs.”
-Motto of 4chan before the actual raging misogynistic racist nazis took over.
Imaginary Brain Mike still not casting shadows might be another hint, of course
I want to know if Imaginary Brain Mike is like a vampire. For example, can we see him in a mirror?
PS If your gravatar is you, tell us about your cat, please?
Or Mike’s been a vampire all along.
Instead of blood, he feeds on people’s self-esteem.
*Gestures vaguely in the general direction of Colin Robinson and Evie Russell*
Not to mention the teleportation.
I’m not sure I get what Imike’s gambit is, here.
Blaine lies when the truth hurts his pride. He called Amber weak and worthless. He was lying.
So… think Blaine is afraid of Amber?
He should be.
He definitely is. The question is: does he know Amber=Amazi-girl?
I think he knows but refuses to accept it since Amazi-girl beat him up (twice?) so surely it couldn’t be Amber
Don’t forget the mean uppercut Amber gave him on freshman family weekend.
Yeah, that’s what i’m thinking of. Being beat like that in front of witnesses is MORE than enough justification for his attitude; the fight in front of the McDonalds in the rain is hardly necessary.
I’d be interested in seeing if he knows Amber=AG; and i lean towards thinking that he does (Faz’s thumbdrive theft, donning a supervillain costume), but i don’t think it changes anything.
He refuses to believe.
Because it would hurt his pride.
He invented the Mighty Ball-Peen(tm) who is immune to be beaten up by teenagers (or so he think)
So was Blaine telling the truth about Mike being comatose in the hospital, since that would be a thing that made him feel powerful and thus no need to lie. Or lying about it, since the truth would make him look weak.
Does suggest Mike isn’t dead – since that wouldn’t make Blaine look weak.
And why doesn’t Amazi-Girl know?
This is what I want to know. Why doesn’t AG know what happened? What HAPPENED after that cutaway?
The emphasis in NotMike’s speech bubble yesterday — “He said HE threw ME” —
Did Mike throw Blaine off the stairway? And that’s why he’s so busted up and breathing funny? This doesn’t answer where the fuck Mike’s at, but…
We saw what happened. Mike tackled Blain off the stairway but Blain caught the ledge so only Mike fell
I’m astonished at how few readers understand this obvious point that Willis was intending to be dramatic.
Blaine lies to hurt you.
Blaine lies.
He called you weak and worthless.
Therefore you are not weak and worthless.
Simple. Very very easy and obvious. Why is it do hard to understand what the point is?
Well, there’s the connection to yesterday’s strip where Blaine lying is first brought up, in the context of Mike being comatose in the hospital.
Noice!
Imaginary Brain Mike needs an Imaginary Mike to drop.
Mike dropping is what got us into this mess.
It wasn’t so much the dropping as the abruptly stop dropping that was the problem.
Imaginary Brain Mike is so sweet!
He is as sweet as you don’t want him to be.
Maybe he’s just drunk. Or on narcotics back at the hospital. Either or.
I prefer Imaginary Brain Mike than Brain Ghost Dirk.
Imaginary Mike is the best version of Mike we’ve yet seen.
Alt-text Willis seems to agree.
Even McAwesome’s Mike?
You mean Drunk Mike.
Ergo, Imaginary Mike is drunk
hawaiian shirt mike way, way better, imo
Damn, imaginary Mike with the clap backs.
What is “Mike’s” point in asking her if she remembered when her dad called her weak and worthless? Is this a motivation thing, or something I’m not getting?
Basically, it’s imaginary brain Mike being supportive. He points out that Blaine is the type of person to lie when his pride is threatened…and that thus, his claim about her being weak and worthless is similarly a lie, because she hurts his pride by being better.
Yeah, he’s motivating her by pointing out she *isn’t* weak and worthless, that Blaine is lying to soothe his ego when he calls her stuff like that.
‘Your dad lies when the truth hurts his pride.’ Linked to his next statement this essentially means ‘the truth about this hurts his pride’ e.g. that Amber being weak and worthless is a lie he tells because it would hurt his pride to acknowledge her capacity for strength and worth as a person.
I’m not sure if he is directing it at AG as if she is Amber because they knew he didn’t know of the split (so mental/hallucination Mike sees no distinction) or because they’re communicating and working together right now.
I was thinking that Amazigirl may not remember her dad just called Amber weak and worthless?
I kind of feel like we’re seeing Amber, Amazi-Girl and IMike work through the kind of weird shit that the rest of us process in our dreams.
Wow.
So what Imaginary Mike is saying is that Blaine will be elected president?
More probably than Dorothy.
No kiddin’ eh? They rejected the most qualified person they’ve ever had to lead the free world and picked a git not competent enough to run a McDonalds. Would YOU eat at a restaurant managed by the orange menace?
The only bright side i can see to the Trump presidency is that the monied class (i.e. the wealthy as represented by Wall Street) actually took a hit on his watch. Any boy howdy were they howling about that.
Anyway, Blaine-Ross 2028
See, they “took a hit” in the way that losing a penny for my $12/hr self is taking a hit. People will die while they lose nothing.
Sure, a loss of 1% of one’s net worth is nothing worth caring about, but these people are complete psychopaths. Having ANY of their shit taken away makes them scream. One of them even seriously suggested giving the coronavirus to everyone so that the economic disruption would be done in a month. He may have been exasperated, but i doubt it.
…and whadda ya know, i can’t find it (just spent the last 20 minutes searching). He was being interviewed by video from the floor of the stock exchange on one of those american financial shows in march, soon after one of Trump’s speeches that caused huge drops in the stock market.
Keep in mind that the monied class largely lives in a world of cardboard cutouts. There may be a few people in their lives, but most humans are just people-shaped cardboard. And no one cares what happens to cardboard.
There was someone running for President who was actually qualified for the job? When was this, ’cause I didn’t hear about it.
Clinton. Like her or not, she had the resume.
Yeah, her. Now, i’m Canadian so a US with her in charge would definitely increased america’s power and standing in the world (which is not exactly in Canada’s best interests, nor working class americans) but if there’s one thing the last few years make abundantly clear it’s that putting DT in charge is bad for absolutely everyone. Except, possibly, the russians and chinese.
Interestingly, he’s turned out to be bad for wealthy americans, which is a new development. Not only has his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic utterly trashed the economy for years to come but also he’s actually managed to put their lives at risk. That’s unprecedented!
Finally, he’s also managed to derail what should be a fascinating discussion about the Amber/Amazi-girl dynamic. The pain never ends
Imaginary Mike 2024.
(Crap, it just occurred to me that Trump has Mike Hair.)
Agent Orange wishes he had hair as nice as Mike.
nice call Mental Mike
“No, he called Amber weak and worthless, which she is!”
Ooooh Imaginary Brain Mike is goooooood.
And no, since Amber is the one that stabbed Sal, 60xStabbed Rapey-McRaper, AND beat the tar out of Blaine, she is definitely NOT weak and worthless.
It is also interesting that BOTH Amber and Amazi-Girl are seeing IBMike.
Okay. I don’t know anything useful about DID, but I’m starting to wonder if seeing Mike go over the stairwell made Amazi-girl spin off an internal Mike (to memorialize him) that represents a lot of the good that Amber-as-a-whole is too smart to be unaware of, but ironically without Amazi-girl’s terribleness, which I don’t know how to describe using my words.
It’s like… guilt-tripping, but without put-down? I’m having trouble actually expressing what I think I’m seeing here.
It’s very possible that the trauma caused a third headmate to appear in the form of Mike, whose role is to tell truths they don’t want to acknowledge or haven’t figured out yet, which is a better version of what Mike did irl. I don’t know how common it is for headmates to visually appear outside headspace though, so it might be just a hallucination which is unrelated to DID.
Yeah, it definitely does seem like at least a hallucination since AG is specifically saying she sees him. It IS notable that he’s appeared to both Amber and AG, though, is perfectly aware of both of them, and is aware that they recently started talking. I feel like that’s too complex for just a hallucination, but an expert I am not.
At first I thought Imaginary Mike was on screen for our benefit, and to Amazi-ber he was more like Obi-Wan telling Luke to use the Force instead of the targeting computer.
Imaginary Mike is taking Real Mike’s role, and if we have to believe the hovertext, in a way that Willis likes better, so maybe he will decide that Real Mike is a spare. But you shouldn’t trust hovertexts.
The backwards of Garbage Roof.
It’s just kind of weird that this trauma spun off a third person in that brain, based on about the meanest guy she knows, and he’s the healthiest voice in the place…
Trauma is definitely a commonly cited catalyst for extra personalities, no idea how legit that is; remember that Amber also knew Mike from back when he was a smiley boy who took Blaine down a notch before; and healthiest voice is not exactly a high bar.
And whatever happened off that stairwell, AG doesn’t feel good about it.
“blasted”
He’s certainly more supportive than most Brain Ghosts.
Wait, is Amber a Heart aspect?
I was literally just about to bring up Brain Ghost Dirk LOL
I think this would make Mike the heart aspect and Amber a hope aspect!
Wait why does that work so well-
I already liked how you can follow Mike from below Amber in panel one to above and past her in panel three without even reading the dialog. That’s even before he’s christened “Imaginary Brain Mike”.
Willis is dropping us a clue that this is all in Amber’s head …. the change of scene. Yesterday she was talking to Ghost Mike on the front stoop of the building Becky was in. Today it looks like she’s scrambling up to one of the landings on the fire escape of Kirkwood Hall.
It’s the stairway to Robin’s apartment, which we’ve seen before in scenes of people leaving the party.
brain ghost dirk
brain ghost mike
I spent a really long time trying to figure out whether mike was trying to benefit people around him via harsh truths, or whether he was just an asshole. I think his last arc showed that he was both – his idea of himself was someone who helped others by not coddling them, but in truth he was just awful 95% of the time. Then in his confrontation with Blaine, who had the same idea, he realized that was a terrible way to operate, and switched gears. I don’t think imaginary brain mike is better than mike, but is reflecting his change in character. I just hope he actually is alive, so we can see the improvement.
Blaine wasn’t trying to help anyone.
Also this pretty clearly ISN’T actually Mike, who cannot simply teleport back into view. As someone in the Patreon comments noted, Imaginary Mike is the benevolent asshole dealing harsh truths and tough love that Real Mike only thought he was being
It’s also explicitly stated in the comic. And in kaiforest’s comment.
So it was. I appear to need to read slower
Oh Real Mike was definitely dealing in harsh truths. Nobody seems to like him for it, since he was caustic and abrasive, but we can see him considering his words always. And yes he certainly seemed to be re-evaluating himself in that flash of self-awareness before the leap. Real Mike didn’t only think he was benevolent, he was, even if he wasn’t very good at it. Brain Mike seems to have dropped the asshole entirely. He don’t sugar coat, but I haven’t seen him being an asshole.
I think that flash of self-awareness pretty clearly showed that even if that was his intent, it was still abusive and harmful.
Remember when Mike told Amber she would become her father? Fuck off with this “Well, he wasn’t REALLY an asshole,” shit.
Mike was dealing out emotional abuse. That shit wasn’t benevolent
Real Mike thought he was benevolent? I always assumed that he dealt with truths because they were the most painful for the others. Only the flashbacks hinted that maybe with Amber his intentions were somehow better.
So…Imaginary Brain Mike is this universe’s answer to Drunk Mike?
Buzzed Mike, maybe. He’s still not as nice as Walkyverse Drunk Mike.
This is a great plot, albeit a bit silly.
Mind you, I hope the next one is a bit more grounded with finding out who published the Do List and other important topics!
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I thought we established Rachel released it.
Rachel vehemently denied doing so, stating – to Danny’s and Joe’s faces – that she wouldn’t be so stupid as to release “a predator’s map to every single woman in the building”, as I recall.
So yeah.
*Yeah, she didn’t do it.
(and as ever, I bemoan the lack of an edit button)
In my memory I always had it Danny do it (and if I remember enough, blush from the realizeation he has indeed leaked this map).
For context, this was a few days after Ryan was stabbed.
Joyce being the Ding Dong Bandit Do List Hacker would make sense.
What leak? Joe was handing out access to the RSS feed.
Yea I’m with you.
I blame the person who gave the link to the list to any guy who would talk to him for 10 seconds whether they wanted it or not and any girl he didn’t believe would be offended. I blame the person who brought it up every chance he got.
So what you’re saying is, Joe is the leak.
That’s what I think too – or to be more precise, the whole notion that the list was secret to begin with was Joe being stupid.
For real, even if the intent was for it to be a secret, secure, ‘underground’ help guide for guys to get laid, he gave it an RSS feed and subscribers. It only takes one guy to see it, see something mean or creepy about one of the girls he’s friends with and go ‘hey, that asshole said X about you, you should definitely avoid that guy’ and then they can see it and they probably notice a bunch of the girls they live with on there and by morning everyone knows.
I think it was Raidah – she was disgusted by the concept and he offered her the password.
We’ll probably never find out. It’s not really important to Joe’s growth.
Joe’s growth? No. However, it’s someone who published a lot of personal information about other women.
Personal information that Joe was already happily handing out, but sure, blame whoever “hacked” it.
Real or not, I like how he’s picking her brain a bit. Could be a motivational tool against Blaine and his thugs.
That Mike is obviously trying to give her an epiphany. The dad lies when it hurts his pride… Now remember when he said you were weak and worthless? Connect the two. He is afraid of your strength.
OH SNAP! ~<3
I’m really glad amber has a part of her brain that tells her that she is not weak and worhtless.
I’m just sad she need a third voice to tell her that, since neither of the two she already got will say it.
He didn’t tell her she’s not weak and worthless. He told her that her dad doesn’t really think she is.
I’m not quite sure what he’s hinting at, though. That Blaine might believe she’s really Amazi-Girl?
Yes, he did. Blaine lies when the truth threatens him. Amber is fully capable of murdering Blaine with her bare hands, and to a certain extent Blaine knows it (like when she sucker punched him during FFW), and to protect himself he calls Amber weak.
You wanna dance around “Well, he didn’t say that explicitly,” fine, but the rest of us are more than capable of reading the barely-subtext.
Actually, I shouldn’t have implied that you didn’t read the subtext, should have just said that you were ignoring it because… I don’t actually know why you would.
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
My point wasn’t that Mike was implying things rather than stating them outright (that’s true but it would be kind of nitpicky for me to bother pointing out).
My point was that Mike was implying that Blaine knows Amber is strong and was lying about it, which is different from simply that Amber is strong.
I… think that’s your objection?
Amber rejects praise, even if it’s deserved. She wouldn’t believe Imaginary Mike if he just said it, so he backed it up with evidence (and leverage against an adversary) to make it palatable to her.
@Schpoonman, ease up on SuperZero, there appears to be a miscommunication between you both regarding the pronoun “he”. And it appears you are both in agreement.
SZ was pointing out that Mike’s dialogue, in quoting Blaine after explicitly stating that Blaine lies when threatened implies that Blaine feels differently than he says about Amber. So SZ meant [Mike didn’t call Amber weak and wothless, Mike meant that Blaine was lying by calling her weak and worthless.].
Then you, Schpoonman, seemed to think SZ meant that Blaine didn’t call Amber weak and worthless, which clearly wouldn’t be true.
More than anything else, I think this highlights the importance of being kind to each other, and also not forgetting to use proper nouns to introduce a pronoun, especially in a forum.
I’m sorry but that’s not the issue here. Schpoonman’s (writing that hurt my dyslexic brain) “yes he did” was quite clearly referring to SZ saying that Mike didn’t say amber wasn’t weak and worthless.
No.
Oh wow, so the Mike Amber talked to in previous strips after their fight with the dumb dads isn’t real?! Looking back, his exit from her room did seem sudden.
If he is hospitalized I wonder if his personality will shift for the better.
You mean back when he suddenly appeared sitting on her bed, and then didn’t mention the fight the previous night that Amber didn’t remember?
Yeah, he probably wasn’t.
I like Imaginary Brain Mike.
He is the emotionaly support Mike.
Is Imaginary Brain Mike trying to hint that real Mike is not in a hospital where Blaine can have him killed with a phone call?
I have the same question. On one hand it would not hurt his pride if he carelessly said he “killed” Mike on impact, so why mention the hospital? On the other hand, it would hurt his pride if he lacks the power to kill someone with a phone call…
Really shitty that Amazi-girl didn’t show us how that night ended. I think we’ll get a flash back at some point showing toedad rushing Mike to the hospital while AG fights Blaine to keep him from finishing Mike off.
What’s weird is that Amazi-Girl doesn’t seem to know how that fight ended. If she did, she’d know what happened to Mike.
It seems like he’s trying to tell her that she should not operate on the assumption that Blaine can easily execute his threats, so maybe she should focus on releasing her coeds instead of on getting Becky. This, or the strip is about to be invaded by the Walkyverse, I dunno.
Koms said it better a while ago. My fault for not scrolling down to the end.
The second time that Mike has ever been useful in this continuity.
Your dad lies when his ego is threatened. Remember he lied about getting beat up at McDonald’s? Remember he told you you were weak and worthless? Remember he told you I was at the hospital where he could end my life with a phone call? He probably can’t. So you don’t need to kidnap Becky. It would be wiser to save your friends/ call the police.
OooooOOOOOOH Mike the most unexpected lifecoach.
Brain Ghost Mike makes some points, also teleports.
I can’t understand. This Mike is an ally or an enemy?
He is a jerk.
I mean, in this case brain ghost Mike is pretty clearly an ally. He just said Blaine was lying when he said amber was weak and worthless, ie Mike was saying she’s strong and important
Wait if the truth would hurt Blaine’s pride, that MUST mean Mike is alive, right?
Me too, alt-text. Me too.
Same
So Sal doesn’t use doors, and Amber/AG doesn’t use stairs.