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Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
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Definitely! Shitty parents dying, are still parents.
You can mourn the olden days of memories, however far and distant.
She knows Ambster will still need to process it.
listen, sometimes you read the comic once and parse becky’s expression as happy, and then a half hour later you remember it’s also the same expression she had on when she was talking to Hank at the hospital
That was my first thought as well.
I could understand the ‘Amber did it’ thought if Becky knew that Amber was going through a complete split-personality disorder, for she isn’t close to Amaz-Girl and doesn’t know her.
But my take on Amber is that she wouldn’t kill anyone, except in self-defence.
Which means not-Ryan was never in any real danger of dying when he confronted Amber on his way to off Joyce. Because Amber really only wanted to mess him up beyond repair with his own knife. I’m assuming that because he never made a reappearance since that confrontation she accomplished her goal and Willis doesn’t want to draw a face full of scars.
This, I’m thinking. Which, kinda worries me. I mean, I agree that it’s heroic of her to think of others during hard times, but I also think Becky’s had a rough couple of days, and needs to focus her caring on herself right now. It’s kinda like an anemic with low blood sugar deciding they need to donate blood, ya know?
Personally, I have my doubts about this one.
I would hope that if Yuri were the family tie into the mob that she’d be more informed about her husbands extra-regular finances and expenses and therefore able to call BS, and even pull the plug, on his expensive, to “the family”, personal vendettas.
I think it more likely that she is and was a willfully blind individual who let someone woo her with money and power that wasn’t his.
I may be expecting too much, but I’d expect even the operators of a criminal enterprise, especially one that is family based, to be put off by the idea of marrying one of their family members underage daughters to a low-level banker stooge with no connections.
By the way. Do we know what business Blaine was officially in? Persian rugs? Fine art?
Construction. And if she is related to someone, it could be a fellow stooge. I liked the idea of her being a mobster’s daughter because I liked the idea of her killing Blaine.
I don’t know about in DoA, but in Shortpacked, I believe it was explained that Faz was Blaine’s illegitimate child via Blaine’s mob connections. I always assumed that meant his mother was part of the mob or at least in the family.
I had the same logic as BBCC, and continue to prefer ‘mob ties but incredibly minor’ because the alternative by implications is that he actively went looking for teenage girls to groom into awful abusive sexual relationships with, in which case it’s entirely possible Yuri’s not his only victim wrt statutory rape. And I would really prefer it if that’s not the case!
It’s never come up in DOA beyond maybe some implications Yuri knows who his real employers are, but the implication with SP!Faz was that a lot of people Blaine was sleeping with were daughters of his associates in the Korean mob, and Faz was therefore the offspring of one. (And in hindsight, the word ‘daughters’ rather than the possibility any of these women were in the mob themselves does seem much more suggestive of Terribleness than I previously wanted to read into it.)
He also sort of set himself up to be the sort of nut job who’d shot himself rather then be taken in and you know…actually pay for his crimes, even if in this case it’s only a cover people will believe it cause it’s him.
Blaine O’Malley was not even born yet to be on the grassy knoll. I mean sure he was on the knoll at some time, but well after JFK went by, by several decades. He was responsible for the TMNT because he was the delivery boy that dropped the turtles into the mutagen. And he also laundered Shredder’s cash later in a separate deal from the Asher’s grandfather’s mob
Might have been and never weres might drive a man insane.
Sky Captain and Rocketeer are both fun ideas for a tv show, and yet where is my twice damned Firefly. I think I’ll stay out in the Void, cause Benson is not the same.
Maybe one where a 70’s teenager finds his old grand-dads backpack buried in a box behind an old racing plane? I think jumping forward by 80 years MIGHT be a bit much, but jumping forward 40 COULD work.
Galasso unveiled a new line of calzones, Jason’s had some excellent tippers, Mary received a batch of cookies from an anonymous admirer, Jocelyn’s starting a new writing project, Carla baked a batch of cookies loaded with laxatives…
It’s just been a really bad week for the characters we’re currently paying attention to.
She doesn’t know Amber much, but still more than she knows Faz. I think Joyce might be one of the only people who would be in any position to think of Faz’s sake right now, outside of Amber herself.
She knows Ambster the Hamster quite well. After all, she is her girlfriend’s roommate as well as her rescuer the first time her dad tried to kidnap her.
As I said below, she knows ‘stepbrother’ (vaguely) and probably ‘that kid who was in the van with Joyce’, but that strip doesn’t make the two things that would make its impact on Faz as clear – that there is no other father figure or shared custody situation, and it’s likely because Blaine’s the biological father as well. And I think this is Becky’s very immediate gut response, where Amber’s someone she knows and cares deeply about, and Faz is someone she’s met. Automatic response and association, basically, where Faz is only barely on her radar.
Like, definitely someone she should be likewise concerned about! But I don’t think she has the information to realize that even if it wasn’t a snap reaction to her friend. We’ll see how she reacts to him at the hospital (because we all know she’s going there YESTERDAY, right?)
Okay, jokes aside I don’t think Becky loses points for not thinking of Faz. But you raise a good point. Specifically the words “Faz is only barely on her radar.” which is kind of the story of Faz in this comic. If Amber isn’t there for him and she has numerous reasons not to be with her own shaky mental state, I think Faz will indeed fly under the radar here. Which is sad.
No I don’t exactly trust Yuri to be a good mother. It’s almost impossible to have a solid read on her in general from her briefest of appearances which did really leave a great impression anyway.
The good news is, Amber and Faz were literally, physically standing together when they heard the gunshot, which means they’ll at least be in the initial discovery simultaneously. The bad news is, Amber’s mental capacities were already pretty much spent before this to ‘just family’ so while she probably will make an effort if possible, the mental fortitude to be there for Faz if, say, Yuri immediately goes from grief to taking all her resentment out at Amber as the perceived ‘cause’ of all Blaine’s actions? May not be present. (And augh, the odds on that one seem distressingly high.)
I mean she’s definitely going into both shock and trauma trigger there, yeah. I’m both surprised she’s actually present enough to recognize she needs concern for Amber, and not surprised at all, because Amber is her not so long ago. (We know Becky hadn’t had the ‘accident’ involving gum facilitating her start-of-comic haircut yet, and per Patreon bonus comics there’s a reference to how Bonnie would want Becky to graduate in the clear immediate aftermath, so it was probably in the last year, two years tops.)
(Yeah, screw the A tag, it never seems to work for me)
Becky focusing on helping Amber in this situation could be a very good thing for her, Becky that is, Amber is… They’re… complicated… Fortunately Dina is conversant with all of them and can act as a translator (probably a comically bad one, but one none the less).
This comment was posted while I was typing my own response (below) …. and there is merit to this as well.
But Becky wasn’t there when Amber carved up Ryan or beat the snot out of Blaine at the McD’s parking lot (or stabbed Sal’s hand after the failed convenience store robbery/hostage incident). Does she even know what Amber is capable of when the control rods are removed?
This is definitely concern/sympathy for her friend, not suspicion. Becky has too much personal experience to not know how traumatizing events like this are, and what it can do to someone. What it did (and is doing) to her. And she also had that heart-to-heart with Amber when AG was sent to kidnap her, so so she knows Amber was already not in the healthiest of mind states even before this news.
Right? Right? We know it’s a sensitive spot for her (see also: her ‘I should have noticed, I promised I’d notice the signs if it ever happened again’ when Billie and Ruth’s Sexy Bisexual Suicide Pact went public,) and now Amber just has this sprung on her?
Like, I’m pretty sure Becky’s feelings on this are going to be messy, later,* because: He killed her dad, but her dad was trying to kidnap her again, and now he’s gone but that means no trial but also, that means no having to testify… but right now? She’s been through this shit and she cares about Amber, and therefore Amber is her concern right now.
(Becky knows Faz but really just in the asshole-y abstract. Not sure how much she knows about the ‘Blaine is the only father figure he has ever known, including quite probably biologically’, much less ‘Amber’s absent-for-the-last-five-years presence is the most positive familial one in his life’ but he’s still not enough on her radar compared to Amber ‘girlfriend’s roommate, saved her life, saved Joyce’s life probably twice, sat with her and Joyce on Toedad’s deathbed’ O’Malley. Noting that Becky has no knowledge whatsoever of the AG split, but even with that – this is gonna hit AG hard, too. Oh, poor girls.)
* Later here meaning ‘whenever all the emotions she’s been trying to repress since her mom died because no one likes a Debbie Downer finally break that floodgate,’ probably.
Jennifer Connelly remains gloriously Jennifer Connelly. I’m so glad they cast her in The Rocketeer instead of trying to do a nod to the comic by getting a Bettie Page lookalike.
Yeah, but ‘he made a play for my gun and there was a struggle’ seemed easier to stage and spin.
Then again, he’s a cop and the dude was arrested (in a supervillain mask, so *insert stereotype about the Crazies here*) so it’s not like it’ll actually be investigated all that hard even WITHOUT the mob connection! Wipe off the fingerprints, put it in his hand and done, I suppose.
Don’t have to wipe off the fingerprints. It’s the cop’s gun. I would be more suspicious if it DIDN’T have the cop’s prints on it. It just needs to also have Blaine’s. Although, one loophole would be that Blaine’s hands probably don’t have enough gunpowder on them to have been holding the gun when it went off. Probably would have been safer to say he went for the gun and the cop shot him accidentally when he wrestled it back.
Right, right. Yeah, it’s not going to be investigated so it won’t matter, but I can’t imagine Lester is gonna be thorough enough it wouldn’t look fishy to someone who was looking.
By which I mean, if Mike ever regains consciousness he and AG are gonna figure this out and take down the mob together, as Super Sleuths. /ridiculous fanfic hat
It’s his gun, he doesn’t even need to wipe the fingerprints. Just put a few of Blaine’s prints on the gun after, and make sure to get a clear index finger on the trigger.
That’s not even necessary. Fingerprints aren’t quite as cut-and-dried as TV would like you to believe, for one. They smear, certain chemical reactions can cause warping, etc. A lot of evidence of fingerprints is actually based on partial prints, and only a certain number of point-match is even supposed to be enough to prove anything concrete. (Which does not mean LEO will not blatantly lie to you, seriously, invoke your right to an attorney, immediately and say nothing else, no matter what they say to you, those exact words. “I am invoking my right to an attorney” and then not another word. Don’t touch/drink/eat anything law enforcement gives you either)
But again, it’s not going to be necessary. That was a live weapon in a panicked situation, from an outside POV. If Lester was hurt or on the ground, one of those LEO posted outside could kick the weapon to the side, could make a judgement call and disarm it (which, honestly, is often the correct course of action practicality wise, but not evidentiary wise, because a live weapon is a live weapon), the gun could be under the bed or even across the room (even in completely legitimate situations, you would be surprised at the weird places a firearm can end up. Think of all the weird places you’ve found your phone or your keys) hospital personnel could handle it by accident, etc. The evidentiary chain is broken, either way, doubt has entered the situation, and any fingerprints on the gun are no longer considered. Gunpowder residue doesn’t even count. It’s going to be all over both of them, and a struggle can make things impossible to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. (Which is all a decent attorney needs, a sliver of doubt)
The only thing that is going to be taken into account is Lester’s word, and the word of the LEO who were posted outside that door. Considering the chain of events that preceded the “struggle”, it will never even be questioned. Lester will get desk duty, or possibly PTO, until he undergoes his psych eval and is cleared, his report will be rubber-stamped, and…that’ll be it. His service weapon will be returned to him, he’ll go back on active duty, and this incident will just be a mark in the file.
I personally doubt the shot himself narrative. Especially the part where there was a single struggle.
Map out the head wound and you’ll see the bullet probably came from the grassy honor roll, not to mention the witnesses who claimed that saw a vaguely Galasso-shaped figure in a restaurant next to the college at the time of the shooting.
Becky punches through sadness by joking and going all-in on helping others. It gives her something else to think about, but that’s not healthy long-term. She really needs to dedicate some time to self care. You can’t pour from an empty vessel, don’t light yourself on fire to keep others warm, etc.
It’s definitely not the focus here, but I will note this is (thanks to Robin’s bluntness) the most explicit telling of Bonnie’s death we’ve gotten, just in case anyone wasn’t certain. Attempted, survived the initial reaction, died in the hospital probably because of the organ damage (given her attempt method was overdose). Per Joyce, the Browns visited and the cover story was ‘cancer’, so she was presumably there for at least a little while. (No idea if she ever regained consciousness, though.)
And godDAMN but that’s probably the worst possible sequence of events for Becky given she found Bonnie, because she probably had time to hope she would recover, and is almost certainly carrying some guilt about if she could just have found her sooner, then maybe. Damn you, Willis.
TBH, I had temporarily forgotten that Amber was a character name, and I read the “AMBER” as possibly being like a “safe word”, like “Slow down, Robin, I am getting overloaded here, proceed with caution!”
I appreciate that Becky’s first response is that this other person is probably in a similarly bad emotional place right now and deserves consideration. She didn’t seem to spend a second on “ha, the guy who killed my dad is dead.” Even factoring in the absolute toe-face that was her dad, Becky’s ability to care for others before herself is admirable. (It can also lead to self-destructive levels of helping people, but she seems in relatively good hands, considering our character list at this point.)
“Shot himself”. Where have I heard something similar, folks? People don’t kill themselves that easily if they have a huge ego. Someone has to reopen some cases after what happened with Epstian, and then the trail will lead to the true culprits of su much suffering.
I am not letting Sarah be right. Justice will trimph, even if we have to dig over the corpses of the past.
I hate to ascribe to conspiracy theories, but I admit that I also find the official story that Epstein hanged himself to be quite fishy. It’s just not the usual M.O. for uber-rich/influential people like him, which is to drag things out through the courts for years and years through appeal after appeal until their accusers either give up in exasperation or quit because they just don’t have the funds to pursue it anymore.
Maxwell better have a dead man’s “open if I die suspiciously” letter on file somewhere. Somewhere that won’t recognize a US subpoena but still gets the US news.
Becky’s the one who found Bonnie passed out with a bottle of pills, and she said she “shoulda recognized the signs” when Billie was in the middle of her self-destructive nosedive, so she knew the truth from the beginning.
It was sort of conflated in the comments with Dana’s mom (Sarah’s freshman year roommate) before the strip revealing Becky finding her as I recall (not sure if we’d heard the cover story at that point), and for a while I think there was a theory that she attempted suicide because she was already terminally ill from cancer. (Especially as that strip initially had a content warning specifying suicide attempt.) That theory seems to have died down since the first linked strip, but as I said, this is… pretty blunt confirmation of the sequence of events. Ow.
Some people just can’t shut up to save themselves. See Twitter. Basically, she’s trying too hard.
That said, informing those two immediately, and not waiting for them to get a few hours of normalcy, probably was the correct, or at least least wrong, choice.
I agree with all those who say that it says good things about Becky’s character that her first response is to worry about Amber.
That said, I suspect that The Caper of the Capped Capo may be Amazi-Girl’s next adventure. She will, of course, have the assistance of Dorothy, Joyce and Sal (who may be dragged all the way into the masked life by Asher’s involvement in Blaine’s actions).
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 1d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
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haha if only, right
not advocating killing your shithead dad! but damn it sure would be cathartic, wouldn’t it
Is it that? Or is it just that Becky’s first thought was concern for whether Amber would be hurt by the news?
This is my reading as well, I think Becky has concern, not suspicion.
Definitely! Shitty parents dying, are still parents.
You can mourn the olden days of memories, however far and distant.
She knows Ambster will still need to process it.
listen, sometimes you read the comic once and parse becky’s expression as happy, and then a half hour later you remember it’s also the same expression she had on when she was talking to Hank at the hospital
That was my first thought as well.
I could understand the ‘Amber did it’ thought if Becky knew that Amber was going through a complete split-personality disorder, for she isn’t close to Amaz-Girl and doesn’t know her.
But my take on Amber is that she wouldn’t kill anyone, except in self-defence.
Which means not-Ryan was never in any real danger of dying when he confronted Amber on his way to off Joyce. Because Amber really only wanted to mess him up beyond repair with his own knife. I’m assuming that because he never made a reappearance since that confrontation she accomplished her goal and Willis doesn’t want to draw a face full of scars.
Apparently she stopped herself. As far as we know, no one else intervened.
Mind you, that was self defence and if she’d done a bit more damage with one of those blows, I wouldn’t put much blame on her.
This, I’m thinking. Which, kinda worries me. I mean, I agree that it’s heroic of her to think of others during hard times, but I also think Becky’s had a rough couple of days, and needs to focus her caring on herself right now. It’s kinda like an anemic with low blood sugar deciding they need to donate blood, ya know?
I didn’t take that as Becky assuming Amber did it, but that’s a possible take on it.
And here we have an expert on how murder makes one feel.
That is the story the Officer watching over him is going by, and who is going to question that? Right?
I don’y buy the “Shot himself” narrative.
blaine shot first
Blaine also audibly said “Maclunkey!” as he did so. It’s canon now.
I wish I didn’t know what you mean by this, but I do. 3 points if you guess how.
Two ‘g’s and an ‘l’, two ‘o’s and an ‘e’?
I said it before, I’ll say it again. Han didn’t shoot first. Han never shot first. Han shot ONLY. Greedo just died.
At that range, shoot first or shoot not. There is no second.
Yoda would say Han did, and that Greedo did not.
There is no try, after all.
Nobody does, but it is the only information Robin has.
I mean, does anyone really care about Blaine enough to look into it and potentially find themselves getting the mob’s attention?
His wife, probably. Also it literally is your job to do that if you work at the police.
Considering that he was murdered by a cop, I’m guessing that the police are not going to be doing due diligence here.
Also, it’s been implied that Yuri herself is a mobster’s daughter.
Personally, I have my doubts about this one.
I would hope that if Yuri were the family tie into the mob that she’d be more informed about her husbands extra-regular finances and expenses and therefore able to call BS, and even pull the plug, on his expensive, to “the family”, personal vendettas.
I think it more likely that she is and was a willfully blind individual who let someone woo her with money and power that wasn’t his.
I may be expecting too much, but I’d expect even the operators of a criminal enterprise, especially one that is family based, to be put off by the idea of marrying one of their family members underage daughters to a low-level banker stooge with no connections.
By the way. Do we know what business Blaine was officially in? Persian rugs? Fine art?
Construction. And if she is related to someone, it could be a fellow stooge. I liked the idea of her being a mobster’s daughter because I liked the idea of her killing Blaine.
I don’t know about in DoA, but in Shortpacked, I believe it was explained that Faz was Blaine’s illegitimate child via Blaine’s mob connections. I always assumed that meant his mother was part of the mob or at least in the family.
I had the same logic as BBCC, and continue to prefer ‘mob ties but incredibly minor’ because the alternative by implications is that he actively went looking for teenage girls to groom into awful abusive sexual relationships with, in which case it’s entirely possible Yuri’s not his only victim wrt statutory rape. And I would really prefer it if that’s not the case!
It’s never come up in DOA beyond maybe some implications Yuri knows who his real employers are, but the implication with SP!Faz was that a lot of people Blaine was sleeping with were daughters of his associates in the Korean mob, and Faz was therefore the offspring of one. (And in hindsight, the word ‘daughters’ rather than the possibility any of these women were in the mob themselves does seem much more suggestive of Terribleness than I previously wanted to read into it.)
Preliminary new reports are often in error about details.
He also sort of set himself up to be the sort of nut job who’d shot himself rather then be taken in and you know…actually pay for his crimes, even if in this case it’s only a cover people will believe it cause it’s him.
Blaine didn’t kill himself.
Just like a certain other someone who was in a much higher security facility and had a reputation for …. Well, I’m just gonna imply and nothing more.
Blaine O’Malley can’t melt steel beams.
Blaine O’Malley was on the grassy knoll
Blaine O’Malley was the grassy gnoll!
Blaine O’Malley was not even born yet to be on the grassy knoll. I mean sure he was on the knoll at some time, but well after JFK went by, by several decades. He was responsible for the TMNT because he was the delivery boy that dropped the turtles into the mutagen. And he also laundered Shredder’s cash later in a separate deal from the Asher’s grandfather’s mob
In his college years, Blaine O’Malley got his hands on some TV uplink equipment and did something extremely weird with it.
Robin you’re bad at this stop
She is, but in a way Becky probably prefers. I think she’d rather get the truth awkwardly than have someone suavely keep her in the dark.
Becky’s best friend is Joyce and her dad has the subtlety and face of a brick.
I don’t think suave people have ever been a part of her normal.
Had. Her dad *had* the subtlety and face of a brick.
He’s been remarkably understated very recently, you must admit
At least she’s trying.
And yet, somehow, she’s doing better than Danny.
Oh god that says SO much more about Danny than it does about Robin…
Yeah, that wasn’t “Danning it up” there in the hospital. That was being an asshole. Here Robin is just Robinning it up.
Uhh, well, Robin’s keeping her informed, at least.
Also the Rocketeer’s awesome.
They should have made a Rocketeer animated TV series.
Seconded.
Are we pretending the Disney Jr. series that started last year doesn’t exist?
I’m thinking most of us didn’t know it existed until this exact moment.
In further news, this show appears to be for toddlers.
Disney Jr. is the preschool-kindergarten section of Disney.
And yeah I’d love a sequel series in the vein of the original Rocketeer.
Aren’t they “suppsedly” working on a sequel of some sort for Disney+?
Might have been and never weres might drive a man insane.
Sky Captain and Rocketeer are both fun ideas for a tv show, and yet where is my twice damned Firefly. I think I’ll stay out in the Void, cause Benson is not the same.
Maybe one where a 70’s teenager finds his old grand-dads backpack buried in a box behind an old racing plane? I think jumping forward by 80 years MIGHT be a bit much, but jumping forward 40 COULD work.
Agreed, that movie needs more love.
Jetpacks and Punching Nazis. What’s not to love?
This has just been the week from hell for all of the characters hasn’t it?
Not at all!
Galasso unveiled a new line of calzones, Jason’s had some excellent tippers, Mary received a batch of cookies from an anonymous admirer, Jocelyn’s starting a new writing project, Carla baked a batch of cookies loaded with laxatives…
It’s just been a really bad week for the characters we’re currently paying attention to.
I needed a good laugh. Those cookies had me full on busting a gut…
Mary too
Wait what was that last thing…?
Oh, Jocelyn’s writing project? It’s a sci-fi historical romance mystery!
(…I have no idea what Jocelyn writes about)
A novelization of Attack of the Clones, I see.
Sure.
Novelization. That’s absolutely what you call it, Dad.
*Jocelyne carefully hides her 69k Prequel Trilogy Fixit Fic beneath another nested folder, and prays he never finds out about AO3.*
Thank you for this lighthearted gift.
This all needs to be canon.
I love this comment.
Galazzo:Finally! My calzones are the ULTIMATE compromise between pizzas and subs!! Now I shall be UNSTOPPABLE!!!
*glances meaningfully at his daughter*
Conquest: *sigh* All hail Galazzo.
Galazzo: ALL HAIL GALAZZO!!
And Mary is so uptight she probably didn’t notice, except the constipation finally eased up a bit.
Next time, Carla will try psychoactives.
I love that Becky is immediately worried about Amber, it shows how much Becky really does care.
Also, can Robin be any worse at this?
I don’t think anyone could be worse at this than Robin unless they were actively trying to be bad,
Danny could somehow do worse than this, while trying 1000% to be tactful.
This made me worry that people were going to pink Blaine’s death on Amber/Amazigirl but amber was with like five people at the time the shot fired.
not to mention a LEO is going to be pushing the narrative that Blaine grabbed the officer’s sidearm and shot himself.
My first thought was, what does someone’s astrology sign have to do with it? Are LEOs like especially persuasive? LOL
Typical Saggitariast, making fun of other signers.
That bear is going to keep me smiling for a while. Thanks.
Leo the signs are effective communicators, LEO short for Law Enforcement Officer not so much.
And here I was wondering who was in Low Earth Orbit.
Bits of Blaine’s grey matter.
Becky is the goodest egg
You know, when Robin puts it that way… damn, Willis, why you gotta do poor Becky like this?
She’s a minority in America. As a representative of her country, doing poor Becky like this is the least and best Robin can do.
Aw! She immediately though of Amber!….But not Faz. Minus points for that.
Has Becky met Faz?
Insofar as ‘that kid who showed up after my dad died and some very punchable guy is still kidnapping everyone’.
Yes, she has.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/faz/
Darn. I kind of got ninja’d in my own comment thread.
Becky may also know Faz from Dina’s stories about how the little pervert has been hitting on her.
So the Faz-concern may be at an unsurprisingly lower level.
Really, almost Everyone will admit that Dina has incredible charisma.
All opposed? …. … (SFX: crickets chirping) … …
See?
Also lots of levels in Hide In Plain Sight. Robin wonders why Becky is contorted that way on the couch.
She doesn’t know Amber much, but still more than she knows Faz. I think Joyce might be one of the only people who would be in any position to think of Faz’s sake right now, outside of Amber herself.
She knows Ambster the Hamster quite well. After all, she is her girlfriend’s roommate as well as her rescuer the first time her dad tried to kidnap her.
To be fair Beck’s doesn’t know Faz, I don’t think they’ve even met.
All of you prepare to be proven wrong! I didn’t actually think she’d met him either but uh…she’s met Faz. She even knows how he’s related to Amber.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/faz/
Faz is great. Becky still loses points though.
As I said below, she knows ‘stepbrother’ (vaguely) and probably ‘that kid who was in the van with Joyce’, but that strip doesn’t make the two things that would make its impact on Faz as clear – that there is no other father figure or shared custody situation, and it’s likely because Blaine’s the biological father as well. And I think this is Becky’s very immediate gut response, where Amber’s someone she knows and cares deeply about, and Faz is someone she’s met. Automatic response and association, basically, where Faz is only barely on her radar.
Like, definitely someone she should be likewise concerned about! But I don’t think she has the information to realize that even if it wasn’t a snap reaction to her friend. We’ll see how she reacts to him at the hospital (because we all know she’s going there YESTERDAY, right?)
Okay, jokes aside I don’t think Becky loses points for not thinking of Faz. But you raise a good point. Specifically the words “Faz is only barely on her radar.” which is kind of the story of Faz in this comic. If Amber isn’t there for him and she has numerous reasons not to be with her own shaky mental state, I think Faz will indeed fly under the radar here. Which is sad.
No I don’t exactly trust Yuri to be a good mother. It’s almost impossible to have a solid read on her in general from her briefest of appearances which did really leave a great impression anyway.
The good news is, Amber and Faz were literally, physically standing together when they heard the gunshot, which means they’ll at least be in the initial discovery simultaneously. The bad news is, Amber’s mental capacities were already pretty much spent before this to ‘just family’ so while she probably will make an effort if possible, the mental fortitude to be there for Faz if, say, Yuri immediately goes from grief to taking all her resentment out at Amber as the perceived ‘cause’ of all Blaine’s actions? May not be present. (And augh, the odds on that one seem distressingly high.)
Becky does not lose points for not mentioning Faz. She has infinite points for having the resources to care about _anyone_ at this point.
I mean she’s definitely going into both shock and trauma trigger there, yeah. I’m both surprised she’s actually present enough to recognize she needs concern for Amber, and not surprised at all, because Amber is her not so long ago. (We know Becky hadn’t had the ‘accident’ involving gum facilitating her start-of-comic haircut yet, and per Patreon bonus comics there’s a reference to how Bonnie would want Becky to graduate in the clear immediate aftermath, so it was probably in the last year, two years tops.)
Being able to be there for someone else may be exactly what Becks needs right now.
Robin, stop trying. You’re trying enough as it is.
Sooooo Trying.
You know…I’m curious if Becky isn’t worried for Amber, but suspects Amber.
She remembers what Amber did to the youth group bastard.
She’s probably just sympathising with the fact that Amber apparently has now also lost a parent to both suicide and Blaine.
Yeah suicide is kind of a trigger for Becky, what with her Mother, and such. That she didn’t realise that Billie was going down the same path pretty much devastated her. (https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/deserves/)
(Yeah, screw the A tag, it never seems to work for me)
Becky focusing on helping Amber in this situation could be a very good thing for her, Becky that is, Amber is… They’re… complicated… Fortunately Dina is conversant with all of them and can act as a translator (probably a comically bad one, but one none the less).
This comment was posted while I was typing my own response (below) …. and there is merit to this as well.
But Becky wasn’t there when Amber carved up Ryan or beat the snot out of Blaine at the McD’s parking lot (or stabbed Sal’s hand after the failed convenience store robbery/hostage incident). Does she even know what Amber is capable of when the control rods are removed?
This is definitely concern/sympathy for her friend, not suspicion. Becky has too much personal experience to not know how traumatizing events like this are, and what it can do to someone. What it did (and is doing) to her. And she also had that heart-to-heart with Amber when AG was sent to kidnap her, so so she knows Amber was already not in the healthiest of mind states even before this news.
How telling is it that, before she even asks whether the suicide attempt was successful or not, Becky’s first thought is for Amber??
Willis, the next time you do a “who’s the best character in DoA?” poll, just leave Becky’s name out of it so someone else will at least have a chance.
Right? Right? We know it’s a sensitive spot for her (see also: her ‘I should have noticed, I promised I’d notice the signs if it ever happened again’ when Billie and Ruth’s Sexy Bisexual Suicide Pact went public,) and now Amber just has this sprung on her?
Like, I’m pretty sure Becky’s feelings on this are going to be messy, later,* because: He killed her dad, but her dad was trying to kidnap her again, and now he’s gone but that means no trial but also, that means no having to testify… but right now? She’s been through this shit and she cares about Amber, and therefore Amber is her concern right now.
(Becky knows Faz but really just in the asshole-y abstract. Not sure how much she knows about the ‘Blaine is the only father figure he has ever known, including quite probably biologically’, much less ‘Amber’s absent-for-the-last-five-years presence is the most positive familial one in his life’ but he’s still not enough on her radar compared to Amber ‘girlfriend’s roommate, saved her life, saved Joyce’s life probably twice, sat with her and Joyce on Toedad’s deathbed’ O’Malley. Noting that Becky has no knowledge whatsoever of the AG split, but even with that – this is gonna hit AG hard, too. Oh, poor girls.)
* Later here meaning ‘whenever all the emotions she’s been trying to repress since her mom died because no one likes a Debbie Downer finally break that floodgate,’ probably.
90s Jennifer Connelly was da bomb.
Today Jennifer Connelly is also gorgeous.
Jennifer Connelly remains gloriously Jennifer Connelly. I’m so glad they cast her in The Rocketeer instead of trying to do a nod to the comic by getting a Bettie Page lookalike.
“Shot himself.” I was expecting “shot trying to escape.”
Naw. Remember? The cop said that Blaine was gonna wrestle the gun away from him.
Staged suicide.
Yeah, but ‘he made a play for my gun and there was a struggle’ seemed easier to stage and spin.
Then again, he’s a cop and the dude was arrested (in a supervillain mask, so *insert stereotype about the Crazies here*) so it’s not like it’ll actually be investigated all that hard even WITHOUT the mob connection! Wipe off the fingerprints, put it in his hand and done, I suppose.
Don’t have to wipe off the fingerprints. It’s the cop’s gun. I would be more suspicious if it DIDN’T have the cop’s prints on it. It just needs to also have Blaine’s. Although, one loophole would be that Blaine’s hands probably don’t have enough gunpowder on them to have been holding the gun when it went off. Probably would have been safer to say he went for the gun and the cop shot him accidentally when he wrestled it back.
Right, right. Yeah, it’s not going to be investigated so it won’t matter, but I can’t imagine Lester is gonna be thorough enough it wouldn’t look fishy to someone who was looking.
By which I mean, if Mike ever regains consciousness he and AG are gonna figure this out and take down the mob together, as Super Sleuths. /ridiculous fanfic hat
It’s his gun, he doesn’t even need to wipe the fingerprints. Just put a few of Blaine’s prints on the gun after, and make sure to get a clear index finger on the trigger.
That’s not even necessary. Fingerprints aren’t quite as cut-and-dried as TV would like you to believe, for one. They smear, certain chemical reactions can cause warping, etc. A lot of evidence of fingerprints is actually based on partial prints, and only a certain number of point-match is even supposed to be enough to prove anything concrete. (Which does not mean LEO will not blatantly lie to you, seriously, invoke your right to an attorney, immediately and say nothing else, no matter what they say to you, those exact words. “I am invoking my right to an attorney” and then not another word. Don’t touch/drink/eat anything law enforcement gives you either)
But again, it’s not going to be necessary. That was a live weapon in a panicked situation, from an outside POV. If Lester was hurt or on the ground, one of those LEO posted outside could kick the weapon to the side, could make a judgement call and disarm it (which, honestly, is often the correct course of action practicality wise, but not evidentiary wise, because a live weapon is a live weapon), the gun could be under the bed or even across the room (even in completely legitimate situations, you would be surprised at the weird places a firearm can end up. Think of all the weird places you’ve found your phone or your keys) hospital personnel could handle it by accident, etc. The evidentiary chain is broken, either way, doubt has entered the situation, and any fingerprints on the gun are no longer considered. Gunpowder residue doesn’t even count. It’s going to be all over both of them, and a struggle can make things impossible to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. (Which is all a decent attorney needs, a sliver of doubt)
The only thing that is going to be taken into account is Lester’s word, and the word of the LEO who were posted outside that door. Considering the chain of events that preceded the “struggle”, it will never even be questioned. Lester will get desk duty, or possibly PTO, until he undergoes his psych eval and is cleared, his report will be rubber-stamped, and…that’ll be it. His service weapon will be returned to him, he’ll go back on active duty, and this incident will just be a mark in the file.
Oh! And a notch on his gun.
Unfortunately, also true for far too many LEOs. Things like this get counted as a “win”, like it’s a game.
It could be just initial reports that he shot himself, and the “whole story” comes out later.
*stares in bruh*
adjectiving weirds nouns
Becky is a pure lesbian cinnamon roll. I love how her first thought is of Amber.
And Robin….she’s trying.
Robin is very trying.
Sorry, I blanked out after the mention of Rocketeer era Jennifer Connelly. Did something else happen afterwards?
I woke up enough to notice that the rocketeer was made a link, implying it might be used more in the future!
Shot himself. Not killed himself.
Of course someone will pop in and say Willis mentioned he was dead on patreon or whatever
Comment section: I’m sure the cops going to let him Escape.
*Next strip*
Comment section: I’m sure the cop probably missed and someone came in time to stop him.
*Next strip*
Comment Section: Dorothy said there was a shooting but that doesn’t mean anyone was shot.
*Next stripe*
Comment section: okay so the report says he shot himself but it’s not guarantee he managed to kill himself.
Look you dont have to be this correct
Okay, he managed to shoot himself, but Carla’s parents have been working on these resurrection chambers …
Alt-text on the strip with the gunshot: “rip blaine o’malley”.
Maybe he just likes Beyblades
Dina is like “wow, she’s socially awkward”.
heh
Her panel 4 expression is what sells it.
I personally doubt the shot himself narrative. Especially the part where there was a single struggle.
Map out the head wound and you’ll see the bullet probably came from the grassy honor roll, not to mention the witnesses who claimed that saw a vaguely Galasso-shaped figure in a restaurant next to the college at the time of the shooting.
Wake up, sheeple.
Excellent job, there.
It was @DamnYouWillis at the wordprocessor with the keyboard.
Bull’s eye!
Oh come on. We all know Fax did it in his secret identity as the masked head of the Korean Mafia.
No one can catch a break around here.
Becky, your first thought was of Amber. My love for you knows no bounds.
THIS CANNOT GET WORSE DUDE
Have you not figured out that that phrase is cursed?!
HA! GOOD ONE.
Oh, wait. You were serious.
Have you not read a Willis comic before? Um. Have you not read THIS comic before?
Don’t use that phrase. It can always get worse.
[2020 has entered the chat]
Poor Becky
Too many parents are dying right now, even the horrible ones.
It’s also nice that her first thought goes to amber
Right?
Becky punches through sadness by joking and going all-in on helping others. It gives her something else to think about, but that’s not healthy long-term. She really needs to dedicate some time to self care. You can’t pour from an empty vessel, don’t light yourself on fire to keep others warm, etc.
Wow she made Dina look amazing at social situations.
Ha, what timing, I just finished watching Alita: Battle Angel.
Dina like “I am neurodivergent and have trouble reading social cues, yet even I am cringing from secondhand embarassment at Robin’s lack of tact.”
Dina: “Wow. I am better at navigating complex social situations involving grief and nuance than a sitting Congresswoman. This is worrisome.”
Well, that’s official now.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
WE GOT EM.
It’s definitely not the focus here, but I will note this is (thanks to Robin’s bluntness) the most explicit telling of Bonnie’s death we’ve gotten, just in case anyone wasn’t certain. Attempted, survived the initial reaction, died in the hospital probably because of the organ damage (given her attempt method was overdose). Per Joyce, the Browns visited and the cover story was ‘cancer’, so she was presumably there for at least a little while. (No idea if she ever regained consciousness, though.)
And godDAMN but that’s probably the worst possible sequence of events for Becky given she found Bonnie, because she probably had time to hope she would recover, and is almost certainly carrying some guilt about if she could just have found her sooner, then maybe. Damn you, Willis.
TBH, I had temporarily forgotten that Amber was a character name, and I read the “AMBER” as possibly being like a “safe word”, like “Slow down, Robin, I am getting overloaded here, proceed with caution!”
Becky seems to have joined the legion of people who had huge crushes on Jennifer Conelly after Rocketer.
(muted cough) after Labyrinth…
Dark City didn’t hurt either…
Labyrynth has parents, she is not ready to be able to enjoy it.
My takeaway from this comic….
“mmmm Calzone”…..
I appreciate that Becky’s first response is that this other person is probably in a similarly bad emotional place right now and deserves consideration. She didn’t seem to spend a second on “ha, the guy who killed my dad is dead.” Even factoring in the absolute toe-face that was her dad, Becky’s ability to care for others before herself is admirable. (It can also lead to self-destructive levels of helping people, but she seems in relatively good hands, considering our character list at this point.)
Becky isn’t Emiya Shirou.
“Shot himself”. Where have I heard something similar, folks? People don’t kill themselves that easily if they have a huge ego. Someone has to reopen some cases after what happened with Epstian, and then the trail will lead to the true culprits of su much suffering.
I am not letting Sarah be right. Justice will trimph, even if we have to dig over the corpses of the past.
Epstein*
Seriously, him killing himself? Hah!
I hate to ascribe to conspiracy theories, but I admit that I also find the official story that Epstein hanged himself to be quite fishy. It’s just not the usual M.O. for uber-rich/influential people like him, which is to drag things out through the courts for years and years through appeal after appeal until their accusers either give up in exasperation or quit because they just don’t have the funds to pursue it anymore.
Not to mention all the security measures they put in place, only for all of them to magically fail the night that Epstein “committed suicide.”
Yeah, sure, totally believable!
If it looks like a duck; could be a loon.
If it walks like a duck; could be a goose.
Quack.
Ok it definitely IS a duck.
Maxwell better have a dead man’s “open if I die suspiciously” letter on file somewhere. Somewhere that won’t recognize a US subpoena but still gets the US news.
Becky’s eyebrows did a Joyce.
Robin….what the fuck.
Yeah, she gets that alot
Huh, didn’t even think of the “suicide” angle. I figured it was going to be the “we both reached for the gun” angle.(yes, a Chicago reference)
Omfg Robin
Somebody kick out Miss TMZ.
Looks like Robin might be more socially awkward than anyone else in DoA, and yet somehow she got elected to Congress.
Ted Cruz somehow gets elected, and even people who agree with his abhorrent views find his entire thing off-putting.
He gets elected because he is running as a Republican in Texas.
I’ll be forever greatful for being introduced to the term “calzone of yikes”
Alternative Band Name!
And this is why Becky is one of my favorites. In that moment, her thought is for Amber.
Wait, is THAT what happened to Becky’s mom? IDK, I thought it was, like, cancer or something!
That was the cover story they told Joyce.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/indebted/
Becky’s the one who found Bonnie passed out with a bottle of pills, and she said she “shoulda recognized the signs” when Billie was in the middle of her self-destructive nosedive, so she knew the truth from the beginning.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/ghosts/
It was sort of conflated in the comments with Dana’s mom (Sarah’s freshman year roommate) before the strip revealing Becky finding her as I recall (not sure if we’d heard the cover story at that point), and for a while I think there was a theory that she attempted suicide because she was already terminally ill from cancer. (Especially as that strip initially had a content warning specifying suicide attempt.) That theory seems to have died down since the first linked strip, but as I said, this is… pretty blunt confirmation of the sequence of events. Ow.
Ok, I never really liked the DoA incarnation of Robin, but at this point it’s just silly.
Some people just can’t shut up to save themselves. See Twitter. Basically, she’s trying too hard.
That said, informing those two immediately, and not waiting for them to get a few hours of normalcy, probably was the correct, or at least least wrong, choice.
The first thing she thinks of she told that last part is amber.
Becky is a good noodle being concerned for her friend.
Did that dino-hat just look at Robin?
it’s what they do
Not really, while the eyes moved (a little bit) once before https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/challenged/#comment-78601 or change expression just a little https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/complicit/ or got a mask https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/misread/ they usually have the pupil glued right in the top middle of the eyes.
I went through all 371 comics tagged Dina to confirm this.
The dino-hat should inexplicably copy her facial expressions, like Wade the duck’s life preserver from Garfield and Friends.
good timing Becky, Amber too probably could use a hug right now
A calzoinks.
I love how Becky’s first tough go to Amber♡.
I agree with all those who say that it says good things about Becky’s character that her first response is to worry about Amber.
That said, I suspect that The Caper of the Capped Capo may be Amazi-Girl’s next adventure. She will, of course, have the assistance of Dorothy, Joyce and Sal (who may be dragged all the way into the masked life by Asher’s involvement in Blaine’s actions).
I know Robin is trying but Robin should try less
Much less.
Stop.
She’s certainly trying.
Robin, you’re very sweet, but DAMN you’re bad at this.
Okay, from the tags, I’m really hoping that Jennifer Connelly becomes a recurring character in this comic. Maybe even main cast.
Robin, you were doing so well.
For you.
You were doing so well for you. And then you did very terrible, even for you.
C’mon, Robin, if you can’t lie and obfuscate the facts better than that, you’ll never be a politician.
Still better than Danny
Kinda nice her first reaction is of who might need empathy first.
Wait, she’s free of both her parents?