A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
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Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
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It’s a movement that’s been overtaken and in some ways fractured by the rise of Team Orange and the Alt Reich, but I’ve been referring to the more militant parts of the Dominionists and Millenialists as “The Christian Reich” for almost 20 years now.
I just checked out that Dominion thing. So, in a nutshell, they want the government to run on their own religion? That’s a slippery fucking slope, and I’m pretty sure that, historically, it leads to a whole lot of overthrown governments.
Less that they want the government to run on the religion, and more that they want the religion to run the government. Exactly like the Islamic State, although the Dominion people would probably go apoplectic about being compared to them.
Historically, full-blown theocracies tend not to get overthrown, as they spend a lot of time and energy keeping their people oppressed and brainwashed. They however are pretty vulnerable to internal collapse or getting the shit kicked out of them by other, less stupid, countries.
True, but still one less likely to sell us out to Russia or destroy the country by accident with a late-night tweet.
Awful as Pence would be, the fight to take Trump down would split and cripple the Republican party. He’d be able to accomplish less than he could just by getting Trump to sign things.
I genuinely forgot the name of the man who assaulted me. Not important enough to allow it to take up room in my brain. His name, as far as I’m concerned, is FuckFace.
They get off on the power. The power to violate your bodily autonomy and then make you thank them for it.
Also as you note, lets them delude themselves that it’s all okay, because hey, I coerced or intimidated the person into playing nice afterwards so I can pretend I didn’t just give a person years of flashbacks and PTSD symptoms because of some petty ante entitlement.
Aww geez Cerb, I’m sorry. If it helps, when I was feeling like I’d betrayed myself with that high-five, a friend of mind asked me “So under your values, a woman (or anyone else) who’s being sexually assaulted has the right to take whatever actions she has to to get out of the situation as safely as possible, right? Because that’s what you were doing.”
Never feel that way hun. I think we go in shock from it and go on coast for a few while out brains try to rationalize and deny what just happened.
The guy who assaulted me accused me of ruining the mood (so “no stop please” DIDN’T!?!). The rape happened several times with my ex but I didn’t think it was rape because we had been together for years. The last time was after we broke up (so there was no way to think it was sex when he was in the mood and I wasn’t). He drove off and left me in my dad’s rural driveway (who wasn’t there at the time), but still had the nerve to call/text me talking about how he never wanted to be one of those guys who had sex and ran, but it was my fault because I riled him up (by us kissing after we had a long talk?) and he was sorry that who he did might have given me false hope of us getting back together with him… and I comforted HIM! It wasn’t until I talked to my best friend later that I snapped out of denial. I had it in my head that it wasn’t because I never screamed no (even though I told him before that I didn’t want sex for a while until he earned back my trust, tried to get away, and told him don’t). I was so mad at myself for comforting him, for stopping fighting when I knew I couldn’t get away, and for nervously laughing at the start of it, but now I know those aren’t things to feel guilty about because a lot of people in the same situation can do the same thing. It’s how we work.
Random bit because I had no good spot for it, but I told my ex about an accident at the hospital resulting in me being exposed to HIV meaning 6 months of testing. Still didn’t stop him. When a rapist wants something, risk is meaningless.
Ugh, that’s awful. *appropriate gesture of support*
And yeah, thanks. I know it’s just self-blame, but that one in particular is hard to shake. I guess that’s the really frustrating thing about surviving this shit is it’s really easy to get in a self-blaming mentality even if you’d never hold any other survivor to the same bullshit standard.
Plus, that whole evening was surreal as hell cause it happened in public in a big event and no one else seemed to notice (including two people close to me at the time) what was happening so I was second-guessing myself a lot during it and felt under a lot of pressure to not make a big deal out of it since no one else was making a big deal of it.
Which was probably the fucker’s aim. To be so brazen that no one would actually believe that’s what he was doing.
Ugh, I’m sorry. I actually study sexual assault in public places, and what you’re talking about isn’t uncommon. Sometimes even when victims cry out, no one helps. I try to focus on the stories where people *did* intervene and how to make that happen more often, but yeah, it’s depressing as hell.
By the way, I have spent all week analyzing transcripts of interviews I did with assault victims, and this little corner of the internet is helping me feel less alone and keep myself more-or-less sane while I do it. So thank you. And thanks to Willis for inspiring it.
Cerberus: Yup. We can look at it logically when it’s not us. And in public! He’s not only a rapist but proud of it to let others know so openly. May he get rheumatoid arthritis so bad it pulls his asshole to his nose, he gets the drizzling shits, and live to 100! (old family curse)
I love out community and the response floods. It’s so amazing to know that I’m not the only one that feels a certain way and how others can show me different perspectives even on dark subjects.
Gwen: I agree with Cerb. It is important work. Have you ever read something or talked to a survivor who had the shrug and go on response? That’s what happened to my friend. (Trigger warning) She was drunk. She said no. Her whole body felt weak. He did it anyway so she just laid there. When he was done, she got away and found her boyfriend and left. She had the “it was just sex” response, so some people thought she was lying. She didn’t go to police because no proof and he was very well known in their religious area. What she did do was quietly go around warning every girl she knew so they could be safe. She went to therapy who said she was okay, but people were weird because she didn’t react like they do in movies. She’s had a lot of crap happen over the years and has just learned to roll with the punches that only comes with real world practice.
(Trigger warning. Sexual assault)
I do remember the guy who assaulted me’s name, but the main thing I remember is how he told me that he had such big balls that they sometimes dipped in the toilet water. Third date went south when he turned into an ass. He pinned me down and did stuff, but at least he didn’t get the chance to rape me (he made a mistake letting my hand get near his junk. I refer to him as nasty balls.
Honestly at this point, I’m more annoyed by my flashbacks than anything. Like, yeah, they’re still debilitating and do fun things to my mental health and sometimes I get sucked back to that time and have to remind myself I’m not back there, but beyond that it’s just like ugh, still with this shit, go away Slimefucker.
Gwen, Bluewind, Cerberus, I…I don’t know how to describe how sorry I am that…that happened to you. That’s horrifying. It’s demented. It’s sick. I just…I can’t express my sympathy and support properly. I think I’m going to go for a while, I think I’m going to be sick and cry for a little bit. I’m so sorry *hugs*. Things like that shouldn’t happen to good people.
I think that’s why this is the activism I circle back to a lot and why I try and model proper consent practices in all things, especially with students (modeling asking and waiting for permission before wiping the board, asking and waiting for permission before helping them with a physical project or troubleshooting a problem, and not letting students get away with touching other student’s without permission or after they’ve been told by the person to stop).
And also why consent and boundaries end up being my biggest hobby-horse a lot of the time. Basically trying to attack this big scary problem at the source.
And yeah, in a just world, in a good world, this would never happen. To anyone.
Rukduk: First off, your reaction although it hurts is a good thing. The feeling of injustice for others makes good advocates. It makes people who won’t laugh at rape jokes. Who don’t support franchises with assault and even rape often played for laughs. Who won’t doubt when a person who acts different from TV and movies says they were assaulted. Who will ask for consent (regardless of gender as anyone can be a victim or abuser) instead of assuming that lack of a no means yes and the presence of uncertainty or even a no means push harder. It’s so underreported in part because of negative self talk and in part because of our society where victims get blamed and proof can be had to come by for assault (or even rape especially for those in a relationship with the person or who had a female rapist). The more people we have like you, the less people we’ll have like us.
The other thing is that there is a reason we’re call survivors. We survived. This event may be a small definer of who we are, but we don’t let it define us. It’s a patch on our vest showing us picking ourselves back up and not letting this one terrible thing take away all the good in us. We have stuff we need to do, so we walk, claw, or sprint forward however we can. Sometimes we get back to where we use to be; sometimes we don’t and that’s okay too. The more open of us support other survivors at various stages and do what we can to keep it from happening to others and ourselves again. It’s still a tiny part of the complete and complex people we are. I know I’m not a perfect example, but perfect is boring anyway.
This reminds me of that Oglaf comic where the Appellomancer puts a curse on anyone who offends her by giving them new, repulsive names, like Captain Cockstink or Princess Fatherfucker, and they would be forced to live out their lives around those names that were given to them.
I’ve always been happy with ‘Glassface’. It simultaneously dehumanizes him, is specific to him, is a villain/monster name without being a cool villain/monster name, and references a humiliating moment for him and victorious moment for Joyce.
For anyone who thinks that it’s impossible for a total monster of a human being to be humanized: Did you know that Saddam Hussein really liked volleyball?
I found “House of Sand and Fog” to humanize horrible human being for somewhat similar reasons– we know the protagonist probably did horrible things back when he was working for a dictator (and he does some terrible things during the course of the book), but most of what we *see* of him is him being a family man.
“There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
And we’re also prone to view folks who live “normative” lives as good family men regardless of what they actually do at home or how they treat anyone. Because we don’t want to believe the truth, which is that most people who beat their wives, rape their kids, kill sex workers, or belong to groups like the KKK are more likely to be hanging out in one’s same suburb than plotting from some dread castle somewhere.
And blindness to that is part of what allowed the country to elect Trump. Because he’s the “right type of people” even though he’s abused his family nearly as much as he’s abused others.
Trump’s an edge case because he doesn’t even live anything close to a “normative” life, he just has enough of an inherited fortune to play that propaganda machine. A lot of his supporters — the ones that still don’t realize what Trump is — aren’t just in denial, they’re in so many layers of denial that reality effectively no longer matters to them. And that’s why alternative facts are a thing now.
That is a reasonable explanation, because I was wondering why the latest strips seemed so…sudden to me. And I know the transitions are typically a bit sudden since they do shift character perspectives but something about the last few were a little mind boggling in how quick it went.
I believe that was largely referring to Robin. I can see him wanting to shunt almost everything that happened at the rally off screen as long as possible though. Post the picture, let Ryan slink off for a few more years.
God, I’m so tired of everyone exaggerating how awful Trump is.
The Apocalypse won’t be happening until at least next Saturday, calm down a little. If you plan for Tuesday, you’ll run out of supplies and have to go back to the surface way too quickly.
Toilet paper? Amateur. A reusable, easily-cleaned cloth is much more efficient. All it takes is a bit of water and some scrubbing, and you’re good to go. If you’re worried about polluting your water stockpiles, well, that’s what the purifier is for, and it’s your own fault if you haven’t invested in a good one.
Perhaps Roz would be a good choice. She isn’t afraid of defamation, probably has lots of followers, and is reeeeally not likely to think well of sexual violence.
But otherwise, yeah, really good choice. Though I think they should go with it anyways, because Roz knows a lot of folks and so likely knows a bevy of folks willing to be the first to upvote it, with her following behind.
And Leslie has had a large deal of her credibility stripped away from her with the whole Robin thing ,or she would also be a good choice. There’s no way in hell a formerly homeless lesbian who is now a gender studies professor is not anti-sexual violence.
given the fallout of the Brock Turner trial (which Willis has mentioned this storyline is partially based on) I wonder how much faith we can have on social media actually spreading the word that Ryan is a predator
Alt-text and Panel 5 remind me of an old Jim Aparo Batman panel walking a downtown Gotham sidewalk in broad daylight, deep in thought, oblivious to the passer-by double takes.
I loved Aparo’s way of having Bats interact with real life. He liked to cast some shade on Infantino’s Batman who used to go out to dinner or to the shop in full costume.
Jerkface is always good. Also Asshole. Although a humorous one like Poohead or Barfstink could work well to rob him of any power of fear he may inspire.
1. Amazi-Girl is talking about Amber isn’t she? Which to me, is kind of bizarre as it means Amber is actually working with Amber in an Oracle-like role. It’s also notable that people expected Amazi-Girl to be the one who got into trouble with Sal while she’s made a lot of progress forgiving her. AMBER, however, has made no progress and I suspect still hates Sal. This is because Amber isn’t a “real” person as that’s not how conditions like her work, Amber is a fragment just like Amazi-Girl is. It’s just the scary part is Amazi-Girl is all the “good” Amber has.
Dani doesn’t realize this, though.
2. Oh, Sal, you aren’t anyone’s friend. Certainly not Marcie, the woman who wants to be a police officer who MIGHT appreciate understanding you were trying to deal with a date-rapist and could cut you some slack if you bothered to explain things.
3. I hate to say it, Amazi-Girl but this is something which you might have thought about earlier.
4. So much human frustration. Amazi-Girl is letting herself relax, though, which makes me wonder how much healthier she is than the “Amber” persona.
5. It’s interesting to wonder if Amazi-Girl means Sal here rather than Ryan. She’s used to dealing with Black and White and wants him to be a complete monster. He is probably a lot closer than Sal (I say probably with finger quotes) but Amazi-Girl is learning to deal in grays–she’s growing but Amber isn’t.
Interestingly, to go back to Batman, I’m reminded a good deal of a favorite Two-Face theory of mine. Basically, that Batman and company have always been trying to symbolically destroy Harvey Dent’s dark side by healing his face. However, in Hollywood psychology terms, that only exaggerates his condition. Why? Because the burned and damaged side of Two Face is actually the Harvey Dent side.
Harvey is a damaged, broken, and horribly disfigured man riddled with guilt. The Two-Face side is the hypocrite and monster hiding behind justifications as well as a false bravado. Two-Face can face what they’ve done and it’s chance while Harvey knows it’s all lies and he’s done horrible things.
Amber may well be the dark and murderous side while Amazi-Girl is the actual person. It’s just people keep assuming the weak and meak girl is the “real” person versus the proactive and strong one. They’re basically believing the girl Blaine tried to create is the “real” Amber.
That’s a fun theory, but, Amber had said she created AG on purpose, to shunt away her unacceptable/scary rage into a form she could handle, like a valve to blow off steam.
Again, I vehemently disagree with this. Amber is not a bad person – she recognizes her rage and violence as problems and wants to solve them (with the caveat she was willing to let AG do violence to Sal, due to past trauma) – the problem being her way of solving them is shunting off most of the power to AG. She runs away crying when she loses her temper with Danny. She considers stabbing Sal her most traumatic moment of that day. And, while she needs to retake Ally 101, I do believe she means well with Ethan. Neither of them are bad people, actually – AG is actively trying to do good things as well. AG trying to pretend that she’s the only good part of the two of them is massively unhealthy and actually a sign her mental state is getting much much worse.
Amber hates Sal as a reminder of her trauma and, more importantly, she’s afraid of her. She’s not in a head space she can see Sal without having anxiety attacks (hence the anxiety signalling red panels). That trauma does not let her see that Sal isn’t dangerous to her. So she steps away and lets AG handle it. And AG’s response to ‘Amber needs me, there is danger’ is to hit that danger.
Also, I’m not sure Marcie actually wants to be a cop – I think that was Sal making fun of how the job requires enforcing the rules like a cop without many of the actual perks – or even the perks of being a security guard. She was just a trainee for it – hence the ‘quarter of the way to being a cop’ thing. I think she’s in it for more rent money and she can cut (or quit) her job as a retail stock girl.
Either way, Sal explaining to her would require Marcie to be willing to discuss anything with Sal right now – she’s pretty justifiably steamed.
I doubt Blaine wanted to raise a meak girl. My thoughts are based on my father (who is a much less horrible specimen of this kind). They want to raise somebody like themselves, an agressive, superficial child who despite this is governable. Someone they can take to the shooting range, someone who takes part in abusing their mom together. Someone who is their buddy in crime and identifies with them. But if the child is not cut out to become like that, they get even more angry and abusive. So I think the shy and meak Amber really is a failure to them and they never realize that it is linked to their behavior.
Alternately Amber is helping out here because she and Amazigirl are the same person. Alternate identities do not require alternate personalities. To me it appears that this false equivalency is producing ever more bizarre interpretations. What is “an oracle-like role” supposed to even be, anyway?
You’re overcomplicating things Amber isn’t this grand dichotomy of good and evil or whatever she’s just a violent abusive lunatic who needs to be locked up
Cathartic nicknames is how I deal with the quite large bucket of sewage backup, reality show bile and rat hair that found its way into the oval office and began to pretend to be the leader of the free world.
If you’re referring to President Chufflefuck, you need to put you back into it.
Don’t just obfuscate! Really grind in the disrespect for President Piss Hitler, like you’re trying scrape something nasty off of your shoe! Something like the image of Grandpa Cheetohdick’s horrible, puckered-butthole-looking face.
I’m seriously surprised there isn’t a twitter account made by some legal person that responds to whatever Trumps says with ‘You can’t do that, dipshit’ and links the landmark cases the supreme court has basically added to the constituonal canon, from Doe v. South Dakota to Marbury v. Madison
That’s now the twitter account I would second-most like to see. The first is still whatever Oscar Wilde would have written if he’d been around in the twitter age. Dude could kill with 140 characters.
There’s not much of a rational reason why Dorothy would be threatened. A-G is projecting a bit. She sees herself as a super-hero, so she imagines the guy as a super-villain.
Random thought: This “get Ryan” campaign could just be the thing Robin needs to get out of the current crisis. See, she was just consulting with Lindsay about these allegations. Because although she would hate to see an innocent man railroaded by the “liberal elite fake news press”, as a family values candidate she could not allow such a monster to go unpunished. It’s a long draw, but JUST possibly plausible enough to save her senatorial bacon.
I don’t think a redemption arc for Robin can include her remaining in Congress and totally unscathed. Something has to actually go wrong for her and impact her in a way that shakes her out the headspace she’s been in for maybe her whole life.
It’s more that *IF* she gets such an arc, it can’t be an easy, 80s-cartoon, “I’ve seen the error of my ways and everything is happy now!” sort of thing.
She’s too far gone into scary-land for that, and people that delusional don’t change on a dime.
I don’t agree at all. Redemption is a good thing. Bad guys learning how they did bad and becoming good is a good thing.
It’s the reason I and a lot of people dislike Roz immensely. She seemed to think Joyce redeeming herself on LGBT issues was revolting.
Robin has never been portrayed as a horrible person so much as a very deluded person who does horrible things due to her delusions. She’s no Joyce, but she’s exactly like a lot of people I knew in school who later wised up and became good people.
Yes, redemption (or even people just becoming less shitty) is a good thing. But the fact that she might end up changing and become a better person in the future doesn’t buy her much now. She’s still shitty now.
Forgiveness isn’t obligatory. If you wrong someone, nothing you do, no amount of change or penance can force them to forgive you. Nothing you will make them owe you that. Some people will continue to loathe Robin even if she becomes a better person, no matter how well it was handled.
And that’s their prerogative, though many who hate her now may come around eventually. Joyce was the same way. There were people who still disliked her well into book 5. There’s probably still people who dislike her.
Not everyone likes everyone. Many people very understandably will not find forgiving Robin to be very easy, or even possible. And that’s fine.
Panel 1: I dunno, I still get really nervous about the level of separation AG maintains about Amber, especially as it’s not entirely clear all the memories are still being shared (likely to “spare” Amber knowing that AG is working with Sal). I’m just getting really nervous flashbacks to the dumbass shit I did and said in middle school when I was a young DID kid with no fucking idea what she was doing.
Panels 2 and 3: Very clever plot by AG. And good thinking to try and lure him away from trying to come on to the dorm floor that way Joyce is unlikely to bump into him. Of course saying that makes it feel like he’s destined to end up on the floor at some point. Hopefully literally.
And I love Sal here. “Ah am everyone’s most intimidatin’-looking friend” indeed.
Panels 4-5: I dunno. I guess. I’ve never really had trouble hating a rapist though whether I knew their name or knew them. Hell, I cut a fucking piece of shit former best friend out of my life because I found out he statutory-raped a 15 year-old (I still feel unclean that he was ever a part of my life).
I guess their humanity doesn’t make me hate them less. Rather the opposite, because they don’t have the excuse of being horror movie villains. They’re just selfish pricks.
But I can agree 100% on cathartic nicknames. Which is why my dad’s emails get auto-routed to a folder called Fucknozzles and Shitheads.
It’s the little things that get you through the PTSD.
Sorry to hear about the friend. Not that you cut him out of your life, but that you “feel unclean” having associated with him. It really really sucks when you find out someone you’re close with isn’t really who you thought they were. I personally referred to my emotionally abusive father who walked out on the family while blaming us for it all, well before he offed himself, as “the psycho who spawned me”, or just “the psycho” for short. Then I felt like I was insulting people with mental illness and stopped. But yeah, little things help. Also I’ve felt like saying this for a while now so here it goes: Your life has been an utter horror from what you’ve felt comfortable with sharing with us, and I think you are a strong, brace person not just for surviving but succeeding and helping others despite everything. You have all my sympathy and respect. In my eyes you’re a real life hero for a lot of people. I just wanted to let you know that. The past few weeks have made me really introspective. I’m still scared sometimes, not for myself, but for many people I know and love. And that extends to a lot of people, because I have a very strong sense of agape. In the past two weeks my nose has been broken twice dealing with riled up drunks who think it’s ok to come out and be awful to the bartenders and customers because Trump’s in office and they “don’t gotta do what no s****y bongo or f***in’ r**head tells me” and had to assure two sophomores I sub for regularly that they won’t be deported, and one junior that she won’t be put in an internment camp like her grandfather was. It breaks my heart to see this happen to people. And well, people like the crowds who went to the airports in protest, the judges who are fighting Bonatrump, and people like you, Cerberus, who help kids deal with horrors I can barely even contemplate and still find a couple minutes to write an examination of a webcomics and communicate with other commenters in such a way as to build community, well, you help heal the damage. Now I feel like I’m rambling and making a fool of myself, and I’m sorry about that if I am but it’s just something I want you to know.
I don’t think in the last panel she’s actual hates Ryan less. There’s a kind of a mental dissonance when you switch from pursuing a description to a concrete someone. It make’s it more “real” and the body/mind experience it with a greater immediacy.
The problem people have with ‘humanising’ villains isn’t about the villain, it’s about themselves. A lot of people are made very uncomfortable by the “there but for the grace of god…” thought. If the bad guy isn’t some kind of special case, than anyone can end up that contemptuous of your fellow beings, even you. There are lots of people who do not like confronting that thought and I imagine that Amazi-Girl, who partially exists because of a fear of their negative personality traits, is hit particularly hard by a fear of becoming a villain.
Occasionally – maybe once every two or three nights – a comment will make me laugh out loud.
This one made me laugh for about 45 seconds. That may just be a record.
I’m also crying a bit, because (as we see in this comment thread, and in the Besmirched House) there are people who fully deserve this. And that’s a damn shame.
It probably says a lot about how weird this semester has been that no-one is so much as batting an eyelid at a costumed vigilante walking though the hallway! In some ways, it is the ultimate disguise – In no-one notices you, no-one can be a threat to your secret identity!
Sal, I hate to break this to you but you’re only ‘intimidating’ in being so cool and beautiful that shyer people feel constrained to approach you because they don’t feel worthy. Now, if you want truly intimidating, you need Mike or Ruth… Huh. Okay, actually, yeah, it should be easy to persuade Mike to run an on-line campaign of harassment against Ryan!
As for the broader question here…? Now that the cap as been knocked off between Sal and Amazi-Girl, I think that they are going to become more and more at ease with each other until, much to their shock, they realise that they’ve become friends. I’m not sure for whom that would be the bigger shock.
I liked the name Amazi-girl used, ol’ Gash Face. It makes his most salient feature not just what he’s done, but one I’m sure he hates, an actual permanent consequence for it.
I guess it does lack the punch of some of the others here, though.
Panel 1: love AG calling amber “our usual friend”, i love the use of “our” like, the person who works with the two of us friends towards this common goal. its amazing how quickly wanting to punch the same guy can bring two people together.
AG’s attitude towards amber here actually is very similar to mine when i was a bunch of sassy teens. we were all generally aware of stuff we were hiding from each other and respected each others’ privacy and decisions around that. whether it was the right decision to make or not is anyone’s guess, but sometimes it helped to have someone else who could deal with stuff i couldn’t deal with.
panel 2: sal that is not even true you have a lot of intimidating friends. you got ambushed by a superhero in a parking lot once and had to call off your friends. its honestly kind of sad that she thinks that about herself though? i dont think theres a single person (except for maybe amber but she has other problems) who thinks sal would go out of her way to hurt someone
panel 5: thats why u fight for justice and not for personal vendettas, AG. idk i am pretty good at compartmentalisation so i don’t have much difficulty considering “humans” and “things the world would be better off without” to be non-mutually exclusive categories. if i have time to ponder someones humanity i have time to ponder the humanity of their victims
I may be misreading it, but I think Pearl is saying that she has DID and that there was a level of separation similarly large but cohesive when they were all a teenager.
(Please correct me if I’m wrong on that reading and if I’m not *secret DID high-five*)
if you’re worried about your enemies being humanized, just remember that humans are capable of some really horrible, terrible, no good, very bad things.
Yeah, it’s been surreal keeping track of and warning about the rise of this for years and its big coming-of-age came in direct attacks on a lot of friends of mine for existing.
People really need to start taking the online recruitment of hate movements like the nazis, white supremacists, and MRAs (which are more and more just becoming the nazis) and how they use unmoderated shared spaces to harass marginalized voices and recruit other lonely white men to their cause with repeated propaganda and a sense of belonging.
And I think the SPLC made a major blunder not valuing the importance of online recruitment as compared to physical in person recruitment and assuming that by the online nature it wouldn’t have as many direct physical effects. Especially as the online nature allows hate movements to become global and recruit globally (which is why you have folks like Breivik pop up and the rise of far right wing folks and Holocaust deniers in every country).
Another surreal part for me is that the rise of Team Orange and the light it’s shedding on the Alt Reich and its filthy kin… is starting to create common cause between so many elements that might otherwise mistrust each other based some particular issues.
This has nothing to do with the comic, BUT:
I just found this amazing webcomic that’s kind of like the steampunk fantasy dreamland version of Homestuck, and it’s called End of Infinity. It’s got a great story, awesome characters, amazing artwork, and so much potential!
However, the comic does not have nearly enough funding for the creator, Carl, to keep it going, and it hasn’t updated since April 2015. Please, check it out, and if you want to keep this story moving forward, send your support somehow! Don’t let such a good story fall off the map!
I really don’t think people understand just how terrible presenting this as a good plan is. Even if Ryan is actually guilty of what he is accused of, anonymous unverified attacks intended to rile up an online lynch mob are awful, one of the worst parts of social media.
Let’s say that is their plan (it’s not – iirc, the post is a warning about him so others can avoid him, not a call to harass him) – what’s the alternative? The police are no good, and letting him walk away getting away with it is not an option.
What is happening here is that people who know the name of a sex offender, where he works, and have a photo of him are using the internet to try and get results rather than even try to go to the police. They do have concrete information – more than enough to get him detained and start an investigation – but all the people on the internet have is anonymous hearsay so they WOULD be attacking someone based off little concrete information.
Mob justice is being presented not just as the best but as the ONLY option. Using an example where the outrage is justified just serves to encourage more blind trust and
Saying “Warning: this person is a date rapist” is absolutely calling for an internet mob to attack them, and it’s ridiculous to claim otherwise.
Meanwhile, because they didn’t go to the police Ryan will be free to rape more girls. But I guess it’s their fault for not seeing the webpage first.
I honestly don’t give a crap if some rando DOES decide to beat Ryan up on sight, but the fact remains that that isn’t their goal.
But it has already been explained, at length, why Joyce was too afraid to go to the police, as well as how shitty our justice system is at convicting rapists, and especially attempted rapists. Hell we suck at even bringing them to trial. Both of these aspects have been explained by actual rape survivors. Many of whom have made the very choice Joyce did.
If you think you have any right to judge them, I’m impressed at your ability to function with your head that far up your ass.
Panel One: Eeeeeeeee, this is gonna be a ride. Not sure if it’ll be a good one or a bad one, but it’s sure as hell an intense one. Ryan, and his friends, are unlikely to take this lying down. This is so dangerous for them, but they’ve started it. Good luck.
Panel Two: Saaaaaaaalllllll. Yeah, for those who don’t know her, the way she dresses is usually coded as ‘intimidating fighting type person’. And, tbf, she is very often intense when she’s mad and she’s apparently never lost a fight. So, yeah, I can buy this.
And that’s solid advice from AG. Getting someone who looks like they can fuck you up is probably a good way to deter at least physical vengeance. As is any kind of authority. Leslie or Robin might be willing, assuming Robin even remembers this.
Panel Three: That’s a very good point. Anybody who does this has to be prepared for backlash. So Roz isn’t a good idea, as she lives there. Robin or Leslie might not be too bad though. They don’t live there and have a measure of authority that will hopefully stop violence. Although that might open Leslie up to consequences from the school due to lack of proof.
Panel Four: Yeah, this isn’t gonna be an easy thing. Sorry, AG. No easy answers to this mess.
Panel Five: I can see that, even though I don’t feel it. I’m not much of a ‘ugh, they’re human now’ kinda gal. My reaction to that tends to be ‘Yes, they’re human. And?’ After all, it doesn’t change what they’ve done – you can be a terrible human.
I can see this for AG though. She’s got a lot of empathy, even for people who don’t deserve it, and knowing something about him makes it harder for him to be ‘that asshole’ and not ‘Ryan’. Its something she’ll struggle with.
Sal seems like she’s not nearly as bothered by it. I think she agrees that it makes him more human. I just also think she’s settled on ‘Okay, fine, he’s human, but he’s a terrible human, so I’m still gonna do the thing’ because she knows that a human with thoughts, feelings, yadda yadda can still be terrible. But she knows it’s bugging AG, so she acknowledges that yes, it makes him more human. And yeah, moving on to cathartic nicknames is a good fix for that. These two are great.
Gashface McAssener is not great, but that’s neither here nor there.
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 16h
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 ⋅ 21h
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
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
It's #webcomicday? We have a special day???
Well, my name is Pat McHoarney and I draw 69 Mouse-Ear Blvd, a multigenerational story about women who all have sexy legs and probably other features. There was a grandmother, but she wasn't hot and so she died off-panel.
Elizabeth Holmes is in prison for defrauding investors through her blood-testing company, Theranos. Her partner, Billy Evans, is now trying to raise money for a company that describes itself as “the future of diagnostics.” nyti.ms/3FbtZm9
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 16h
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 21h
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
The New York Times @nytimes.com ⋅ 5d
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 3d
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*jots*
Fucknugget McAsslord
Shitgibbon Tinycock
Punchbag Scrotumwipe
Al Cuthisfuckinthroat
Jerk
One of these things is not like the others
Punchbag Scrotumwipe. Because it’s the only one without a “k”.
Much props for noticing that — you win three internets
Shitgibbon Tinycock. That one is clearly a Trump nickname.
Tinyhands, sure. Brain protects me by not processing anything else.
That thing is never going to be anything other than Piss Hitler to me.
I have taken to calling the political position of he and his friends “the Alt Reich”…
Heh! That’s good…and sadly relevant…from my outside looking in point of view.
It’s a movement that’s been overtaken and in some ways fractured by the rise of Team Orange and the Alt Reich, but I’ve been referring to the more militant parts of the Dominionists and Millenialists as “The Christian Reich” for almost 20 years now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Theology
I just checked out that Dominion thing. So, in a nutshell, they want the government to run on their own religion? That’s a slippery fucking slope, and I’m pretty sure that, historically, it leads to a whole lot of overthrown governments.
Less that they want the government to run on the religion, and more that they want the religion to run the government. Exactly like the Islamic State, although the Dominion people would probably go apoplectic about being compared to them.
Historically, full-blown theocracies tend not to get overthrown, as they spend a lot of time and energy keeping their people oppressed and brainwashed. They however are pretty vulnerable to internal collapse or getting the shit kicked out of them by other, less stupid, countries.
And here’s the kicker, the poison pill hiding in any Trump impeachment or… other incident.
Mike Pence is a hardcore, dyed-in-the-wool, Dominionist. One of the most fervent and ardent Dominionists actually holding office in America.
(Ted Cruz is also a Dominionist.)
True, but still one less likely to sell us out to Russia or destroy the country by accident with a late-night tweet.
Awful as Pence would be, the fight to take Trump down would split and cripple the Republican party. He’d be able to accomplish less than he could just by getting Trump to sign things.
Dorito Mussolini.
“*jots*”
kickball
The glassed ass
Something tells me this comments section will have ‘cathartic nicknames’ covered.
I genuinely forgot the name of the man who assaulted me. Not important enough to allow it to take up room in my brain. His name, as far as I’m concerned, is FuckFace.
Malaya’s iguana? Always seemed like an upstanding gent to me.
Equally scaly, much more hateable. And made me give him a god-damned high five and say we were still friends before letting me go.
I’d gladly give FuckFace a high-five…
…while wearing a glove with broken glass glued to it.
I’d rather not take the time to construct such a thing. A high-five directly to the filtrum would suffice.
Damn. Whatever his original name was, good job on replacing it with one that’s far more accurate.
Mine had me shake his hand afterwards. My greatest shame is that I did just to get out of there faster.
Shit, that’s horrible.
And it sounds like a dumb tactic to try to make themselves feel like they haven’t done anything wrong. Delusional shitstains.
They get off on the power. The power to violate your bodily autonomy and then make you thank them for it.
Also as you note, lets them delude themselves that it’s all okay, because hey, I coerced or intimidated the person into playing nice afterwards so I can pretend I didn’t just give a person years of flashbacks and PTSD symptoms because of some petty ante entitlement.
Aww geez Cerb, I’m sorry. If it helps, when I was feeling like I’d betrayed myself with that high-five, a friend of mind asked me “So under your values, a woman (or anyone else) who’s being sexually assaulted has the right to take whatever actions she has to to get out of the situation as safely as possible, right? Because that’s what you were doing.”
I agree with your friend so much
Never feel that way hun. I think we go in shock from it and go on coast for a few while out brains try to rationalize and deny what just happened.
The guy who assaulted me accused me of ruining the mood (so “no stop please” DIDN’T!?!). The rape happened several times with my ex but I didn’t think it was rape because we had been together for years. The last time was after we broke up (so there was no way to think it was sex when he was in the mood and I wasn’t). He drove off and left me in my dad’s rural driveway (who wasn’t there at the time), but still had the nerve to call/text me talking about how he never wanted to be one of those guys who had sex and ran, but it was my fault because I riled him up (by us kissing after we had a long talk?) and he was sorry that who he did might have given me false hope of us getting back together with him… and I comforted HIM! It wasn’t until I talked to my best friend later that I snapped out of denial. I had it in my head that it wasn’t because I never screamed no (even though I told him before that I didn’t want sex for a while until he earned back my trust, tried to get away, and told him don’t). I was so mad at myself for comforting him, for stopping fighting when I knew I couldn’t get away, and for nervously laughing at the start of it, but now I know those aren’t things to feel guilty about because a lot of people in the same situation can do the same thing. It’s how we work.
Random bit because I had no good spot for it, but I told my ex about an accident at the hospital resulting in me being exposed to HIV meaning 6 months of testing. Still didn’t stop him. When a rapist wants something, risk is meaningless.
Ugh, that’s awful. *appropriate gesture of support*
And yeah, thanks. I know it’s just self-blame, but that one in particular is hard to shake. I guess that’s the really frustrating thing about surviving this shit is it’s really easy to get in a self-blaming mentality even if you’d never hold any other survivor to the same bullshit standard.
Plus, that whole evening was surreal as hell cause it happened in public in a big event and no one else seemed to notice (including two people close to me at the time) what was happening so I was second-guessing myself a lot during it and felt under a lot of pressure to not make a big deal out of it since no one else was making a big deal of it.
Which was probably the fucker’s aim. To be so brazen that no one would actually believe that’s what he was doing.
Ugh, I’m sorry. I actually study sexual assault in public places, and what you’re talking about isn’t uncommon. Sometimes even when victims cry out, no one helps. I try to focus on the stories where people *did* intervene and how to make that happen more often, but yeah, it’s depressing as hell.
By the way, I have spent all week analyzing transcripts of interviews I did with assault victims, and this little corner of the internet is helping me feel less alone and keep myself more-or-less sane while I do it. So thank you. And thanks to Willis for inspiring it.
Gwen-
Thank you for the work you are doing. That shit is super important and I’m so glad you are doing it. *giant hug*
And yeah, I’ve noticed when folks get talking about their experiences, there tends to be a flood of responses. So yeah, none of us is alone on that.
Cerberus: Yup. We can look at it logically when it’s not us. And in public! He’s not only a rapist but proud of it to let others know so openly. May he get rheumatoid arthritis so bad it pulls his asshole to his nose, he gets the drizzling shits, and live to 100! (old family curse)
I love out community and the response floods. It’s so amazing to know that I’m not the only one that feels a certain way and how others can show me different perspectives even on dark subjects.
Gwen: I agree with Cerb. It is important work. Have you ever read something or talked to a survivor who had the shrug and go on response? That’s what happened to my friend. (Trigger warning) She was drunk. She said no. Her whole body felt weak. He did it anyway so she just laid there. When he was done, she got away and found her boyfriend and left. She had the “it was just sex” response, so some people thought she was lying. She didn’t go to police because no proof and he was very well known in their religious area. What she did do was quietly go around warning every girl she knew so they could be safe. She went to therapy who said she was okay, but people were weird because she didn’t react like they do in movies. She’s had a lot of crap happen over the years and has just learned to roll with the punches that only comes with real world practice.
<3
(Trigger warning. Sexual assault)
I do remember the guy who assaulted me’s name, but the main thing I remember is how he told me that he had such big balls that they sometimes dipped in the toilet water. Third date went south when he turned into an ass. He pinned me down and did stuff, but at least he didn’t get the chance to rape me (he made a mistake letting my hand get near his junk. I refer to him as nasty balls.
Are all attempted rapists covered in a thin layer of poopwater, or just that one? The world may never know.
As long as that thin layer includes the inside of their mouths, I’m very okay with this.
I still prefer my family’s go to curse
May he get rheumatoid arthritis so bad that it draws your asshole to your nose, you get the drizzling shits, and live to be 100!
Ditto. Mine’s always either “my rapist” or “Slimefucker”.
Cause my body won’t let me forget… that aspect. So fuck it, might as well turn it into an epithet.
*appropriate gesture of support*
At least you are handling it well and can joke about it a bit, but it sucks that you have to at all.
Honestly at this point, I’m more annoyed by my flashbacks than anything. Like, yeah, they’re still debilitating and do fun things to my mental health and sometimes I get sucked back to that time and have to remind myself I’m not back there, but beyond that it’s just like ugh, still with this shit, go away Slimefucker.
Gwen, Bluewind, Cerberus, I…I don’t know how to describe how sorry I am that…that happened to you. That’s horrifying. It’s demented. It’s sick. I just…I can’t express my sympathy and support properly. I think I’m going to go for a while, I think I’m going to be sick and cry for a little bit. I’m so sorry *hugs*. Things like that shouldn’t happen to good people.
I think that’s why this is the activism I circle back to a lot and why I try and model proper consent practices in all things, especially with students (modeling asking and waiting for permission before wiping the board, asking and waiting for permission before helping them with a physical project or troubleshooting a problem, and not letting students get away with touching other student’s without permission or after they’ve been told by the person to stop).
And also why consent and boundaries end up being my biggest hobby-horse a lot of the time. Basically trying to attack this big scary problem at the source.
And yeah, in a just world, in a good world, this would never happen. To anyone.
Rukduk: First off, your reaction although it hurts is a good thing. The feeling of injustice for others makes good advocates. It makes people who won’t laugh at rape jokes. Who don’t support franchises with assault and even rape often played for laughs. Who won’t doubt when a person who acts different from TV and movies says they were assaulted. Who will ask for consent (regardless of gender as anyone can be a victim or abuser) instead of assuming that lack of a no means yes and the presence of uncertainty or even a no means push harder. It’s so underreported in part because of negative self talk and in part because of our society where victims get blamed and proof can be had to come by for assault (or even rape especially for those in a relationship with the person or who had a female rapist). The more people we have like you, the less people we’ll have like us.
The other thing is that there is a reason we’re call survivors. We survived. This event may be a small definer of who we are, but we don’t let it define us. It’s a patch on our vest showing us picking ourselves back up and not letting this one terrible thing take away all the good in us. We have stuff we need to do, so we walk, claw, or sprint forward however we can. Sometimes we get back to where we use to be; sometimes we don’t and that’s okay too. The more open of us support other survivors at various stages and do what we can to keep it from happening to others and ourselves again. It’s still a tiny part of the complete and complex people we are. I know I’m not a perfect example, but perfect is boring anyway.
Ah the joys of PTSD. Fingers crossed they one day find a cure.
*continues jotting*
Douchebag McGee
Shitlord von Terdmaster
Once you get a last name, you can try doing an anagram. There’s even an on-line tool — http://wordsmith.org/anagram/ — and it’s fun and easy.
For example, I put in “Donald Trump” and got “Lord Dampnut”, as well as “Damn Turd Pol” and “Lord Mudpant”.
For some reason, and it may well have to do with fatigue, but Lord Mudpant has me giggling more than it should.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP → DESPONDENT PRIMAL TURD
:V
..
Actually just look at my avatar because that is the face I just made
“hackysac”.
“Uh…. sack is normally spelled with a k.”
“Different word.”
Surely Rapey Ryan is on the table. Simple, but it works.
This reminds me of that Oglaf comic where the Appellomancer puts a curse on anyone who offends her by giving them new, repulsive names, like Captain Cockstink or Princess Fatherfucker, and they would be forced to live out their lives around those names that were given to them.
I’ve always been happy with ‘Glassface’. It simultaneously dehumanizes him, is specific to him, is a villain/monster name without being a cool villain/monster name, and references a humiliating moment for him and victorious moment for Joyce.
I like that.
Idea for a Patreon strip: this scene, from the POV of the people visible down the hall.
This won’t make Sal seem any less cool to them.
For some reason, I think she’s not just talking about Ryan here.
Ryan Paul, he doesn’t need a nickname beyond that.
Are they kinda friends a little?
More than either of them will admit to.
Heck, if you include “our usual friend,” there are three of them!
But for some reason Sal only gets to appear with one of them at a time.
Go for a diuretic nickname, like Piss Boy
Ryan – Dyin’
The rhyme is right there guys…
Reminds me of an Aerosmith song. For the period of theirs that I hate.
Awwwwwwww, Sal’s taking some time to hang out with her sidekick. How sweet.
(I am making this joke before someone comes in with the ‘Sal’s her sidekick’ thing, yes, because I despise that joke).
amazigirl does seem more like the robin and not the batman of the two
I just got back from the Lego Batman movie, so I totally think Amber’s the Batman, Dorothy’s the Robin, and Sal is Barbara Gordon.
The problem with that is Sal is confirmed Batman already (another strike for AG’s sidekick hood).
From my perspective (skewed though it may be)
Amber is Superman, Dorothy is Lois Lane, Sal is Batman.
She certainly dresses the part.
Noir Dumbing of Age
Narrator: Joyce stared at Ryan’s body, the man she had feared for so long, and now that he was dead she wasn’t quite sure what she would do.
Robin: So…everyone of my staff was a double agent.
Kyle: Suppose so.
Joyce: Guys look around, there may be a clue somewhere around here.
Narrator: Robin and Kyle look around the room, Robin opens up one of the drawers.
Robin: hey, there’s some papers in here.
Joyce: What do they say?
Robin: I can’t read them, they seem to be incrypted.
Joyce: I have a guy for that.
Narrator: Later
Joyce walks into Danny’s room, Danny is sitting at his laptop.
Danny: (turn to Joyce) oh hi Joyce!
Joyce: Danny, I need a favor.
Danny: Shoot.
Joyce: Can you take a look at these papers?
Danny: Well, this looks interesting, give me some time.
Joyce: Please hurry.
Narrator: Joyce’s phone rings
Joyce: Yes?
Robin: Hey Joyce, I went back to Ryan’s house, and I noticed something.
Joyce: What?
Robin: He had a small ceremonial sword, it’s usually only given to important political leaders.
Joyce: Where from?
Robin: This is confidential but there is a small country that likes to stay hidden…its name is Thingley
Time to meet a duke.
theyre such a duo
For anyone who thinks that it’s impossible for a total monster of a human being to be humanized: Did you know that Saddam Hussein really liked volleyball?
Wasn’t that bin Laden?
I think it was, but I can’t go back and change it, so it’s my new Saddam Hussein headcanon that he likes volleyball.
I found “House of Sand and Fog” to humanize horrible human being for somewhat similar reasons– we know the protagonist probably did horrible things back when he was working for a dictator (and he does some terrible things during the course of the book), but most of what we *see* of him is him being a family man.
“There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
And we’re also prone to view folks who live “normative” lives as good family men regardless of what they actually do at home or how they treat anyone. Because we don’t want to believe the truth, which is that most people who beat their wives, rape their kids, kill sex workers, or belong to groups like the KKK are more likely to be hanging out in one’s same suburb than plotting from some dread castle somewhere.
And blindness to that is part of what allowed the country to elect Trump. Because he’s the “right type of people” even though he’s abused his family nearly as much as he’s abused others.
Trump’s an edge case because he doesn’t even live anything close to a “normative” life, he just has enough of an inherited fortune to play that propaganda machine. A lot of his supporters — the ones that still don’t realize what Trump is — aren’t just in denial, they’re in so many layers of denial that reality effectively no longer matters to them. And that’s why alternative facts are a thing now.
And Hitler loved his dogs.
So what?
And he was maybe partly Jewish… according to Hank
Have you SEEN Hitler’s dogs? Nobody’s that evil.
Exactly. The humanizing element and the pure evil aren’t opposites, and in fact do not decrease each other. Hitler was an evil human.
Pretty much my take on it.
“Yeah, they’re human. They’re still a terrible one.”
Rapist McScarhead
Also, I like that Sal and Amazi-Girl are getting along so well now.
Ryan, more like RY–um… Ryyyynocerous. Because he’s gray and has a horn on his head. This is tough.
Ryan more like Lyin’?
Much better!
More like He’ll Be Cryin’ … man this is tough
You know, yesterday’s comment section was full of people complaining about the abrupt scene transitions in the past few strips.
I remember Willis saying some time ago that if Trump won he’d have to finish up some stuff very quickly.
A three month buffer since 11/9 would be running out right about now.
I wonder if DoA’s storytelling is being rushed by Willis?
That is a reasonable explanation, because I was wondering why the latest strips seemed so…sudden to me. And I know the transitions are typically a bit sudden since they do shift character perspectives but something about the last few were a little mind boggling in how quick it went.
I believe that was largely referring to Robin. I can see him wanting to shunt almost everything that happened at the rally off screen as long as possible though. Post the picture, let Ryan slink off for a few more years.
Well, he does have to finish it before the apocalypse which at the current rate of Trump’s meltdown should be by Tuesday.
God, I’m so tired of everyone exaggerating how awful Trump is.
The Apocalypse won’t be happening until at least next Saturday, calm down a little. If you plan for Tuesday, you’ll run out of supplies and have to go back to the surface way too quickly.
I dunno, I stockpiled a LOT of beans, cordial and toilet paper.
Toilet paper? Amateur. A reusable, easily-cleaned cloth is much more efficient. All it takes is a bit of water and some scrubbing, and you’re good to go. If you’re worried about polluting your water stockpiles, well, that’s what the purifier is for, and it’s your own fault if you haven’t invested in a good one.
Um, Saturday is tomorrow. Check your math.
I said next Saturday. Meaning, the Saturday of next week.
Perhaps Roz would be a good choice. She isn’t afraid of defamation, probably has lots of followers, and is reeeeally not likely to think well of sexual violence.
Oooh, she would be good as hell for this.
All true, except that she also lives in the same dorm.
Yeah… dang.
But otherwise, yeah, really good choice. Though I think they should go with it anyways, because Roz knows a lot of folks and so likely knows a bevy of folks willing to be the first to upvote it, with her following behind.
And Leslie has had a large deal of her credibility stripped away from her with the whole Robin thing ,or she would also be a good choice. There’s no way in hell a formerly homeless lesbian who is now a gender studies professor is not anti-sexual violence.
Shitass McSoggydick
Ghengis Swan
Michiyamenotehi Funana
Ronald Rump
Don’t soil the name of Genghis Swan like that.
Genghis Swan actually sounds like a pretty great roller derby name.
I appreciate Sal’s approach of cathartic nicknames.
given the fallout of the Brock Turner trial (which Willis has mentioned this storyline is partially based on) I wonder how much faith we can have on social media actually spreading the word that Ryan is a predator
* plays “What’s Your Name?” by Lynyrd Skynyrd on the hacked Muzak.
Alt-text and Panel 5 remind me of an old Jim Aparo Batman panel walking a downtown Gotham sidewalk in broad daylight, deep in thought, oblivious to the passer-by double takes.
I loved Aparo’s way of having Bats interact with real life. He liked to cast some shade on Infantino’s Batman who used to go out to dinner or to the shop in full costume.
Don’t worry, Ryan’s only 1% human now. That’s like a twentieth as human as zombie.
Jerkface is always good. Also Asshole. Although a humorous one like Poohead or Barfstink could work well to rob him of any power of fear he may inspire.
Panel reactions
1. Amazi-Girl is talking about Amber isn’t she? Which to me, is kind of bizarre as it means Amber is actually working with Amber in an Oracle-like role. It’s also notable that people expected Amazi-Girl to be the one who got into trouble with Sal while she’s made a lot of progress forgiving her. AMBER, however, has made no progress and I suspect still hates Sal. This is because Amber isn’t a “real” person as that’s not how conditions like her work, Amber is a fragment just like Amazi-Girl is. It’s just the scary part is Amazi-Girl is all the “good” Amber has.
Dani doesn’t realize this, though.
2. Oh, Sal, you aren’t anyone’s friend. Certainly not Marcie, the woman who wants to be a police officer who MIGHT appreciate understanding you were trying to deal with a date-rapist and could cut you some slack if you bothered to explain things.
3. I hate to say it, Amazi-Girl but this is something which you might have thought about earlier.
4. So much human frustration. Amazi-Girl is letting herself relax, though, which makes me wonder how much healthier she is than the “Amber” persona.
5. It’s interesting to wonder if Amazi-Girl means Sal here rather than Ryan. She’s used to dealing with Black and White and wants him to be a complete monster. He is probably a lot closer than Sal (I say probably with finger quotes) but Amazi-Girl is learning to deal in grays–she’s growing but Amber isn’t.
Interestingly, to go back to Batman, I’m reminded a good deal of a favorite Two-Face theory of mine. Basically, that Batman and company have always been trying to symbolically destroy Harvey Dent’s dark side by healing his face. However, in Hollywood psychology terms, that only exaggerates his condition. Why? Because the burned and damaged side of Two Face is actually the Harvey Dent side.
Harvey is a damaged, broken, and horribly disfigured man riddled with guilt. The Two-Face side is the hypocrite and monster hiding behind justifications as well as a false bravado. Two-Face can face what they’ve done and it’s chance while Harvey knows it’s all lies and he’s done horrible things.
Amber may well be the dark and murderous side while Amazi-Girl is the actual person. It’s just people keep assuming the weak and meak girl is the “real” person versus the proactive and strong one. They’re basically believing the girl Blaine tried to create is the “real” Amber.
That’s a fun theory, but, Amber had said she created AG on purpose, to shunt away her unacceptable/scary rage into a form she could handle, like a valve to blow off steam.
Again, I vehemently disagree with this. Amber is not a bad person – she recognizes her rage and violence as problems and wants to solve them (with the caveat she was willing to let AG do violence to Sal, due to past trauma) – the problem being her way of solving them is shunting off most of the power to AG. She runs away crying when she loses her temper with Danny. She considers stabbing Sal her most traumatic moment of that day. And, while she needs to retake Ally 101, I do believe she means well with Ethan. Neither of them are bad people, actually – AG is actively trying to do good things as well. AG trying to pretend that she’s the only good part of the two of them is massively unhealthy and actually a sign her mental state is getting much much worse.
Amber hates Sal as a reminder of her trauma and, more importantly, she’s afraid of her. She’s not in a head space she can see Sal without having anxiety attacks (hence the anxiety signalling red panels). That trauma does not let her see that Sal isn’t dangerous to her. So she steps away and lets AG handle it. And AG’s response to ‘Amber needs me, there is danger’ is to hit that danger.
Also, I’m not sure Marcie actually wants to be a cop – I think that was Sal making fun of how the job requires enforcing the rules like a cop without many of the actual perks – or even the perks of being a security guard. She was just a trainee for it – hence the ‘quarter of the way to being a cop’ thing. I think she’s in it for more rent money and she can cut (or quit) her job as a retail stock girl.
Either way, Sal explaining to her would require Marcie to be willing to discuss anything with Sal right now – she’s pretty justifiably steamed.
I doubt Blaine wanted to raise a meak girl. My thoughts are based on my father (who is a much less horrible specimen of this kind). They want to raise somebody like themselves, an agressive, superficial child who despite this is governable. Someone they can take to the shooting range, someone who takes part in abusing their mom together. Someone who is their buddy in crime and identifies with them. But if the child is not cut out to become like that, they get even more angry and abusive. So I think the shy and meak Amber really is a failure to them and they never realize that it is linked to their behavior.
Alternately Amber is helping out here because she and Amazigirl are the same person. Alternate identities do not require alternate personalities. To me it appears that this false equivalency is producing ever more bizarre interpretations. What is “an oracle-like role” supposed to even be, anyway?
You’re overcomplicating things Amber isn’t this grand dichotomy of good and evil or whatever she’s just a violent abusive lunatic who needs to be locked up
This was stupid and I’m stupid for saying it and I’m sorry I said it.
Cathartic nicknames is how I deal with the quite large bucket of sewage backup, reality show bile and rat hair that found its way into the oval office and began to pretend to be the leader of the free world.
If I could upvote comments.
Tronald Dump you mean?
If you’re referring to President Chufflefuck, you need to put you back into it.
Don’t just obfuscate! Really grind in the disrespect for President Piss Hitler, like you’re trying scrape something nasty off of your shoe! Something like the image of Grandpa Cheetohdick’s horrible, puckered-butthole-looking face.
I’m seriously surprised there isn’t a twitter account made by some legal person that responds to whatever Trumps says with ‘You can’t do that, dipshit’ and links the landmark cases the supreme court has basically added to the constituonal canon, from Doe v. South Dakota to Marbury v. Madison
That’s now the twitter account I would second-most like to see. The first is still whatever Oscar Wilde would have written if he’d been around in the twitter age. Dude could kill with 140 characters.
If Starbucks does this I would totally buy something from it.
The Orange Don, demonstrating a total lack of character, 140 characters at a time.
The Clown Prince of Ignorance, the Great Bloviator, figurehead of Team Orange?
The Rotten Cheeto?
Captain Smallhands?
Is this the first time AG is addressing Sal by her actual name? The irony then, given what she’s saying about Ryan…
Wow, I didn’t think Dorothy would possibly be in danger. This is getting scarier.
There’s not much of a rational reason why Dorothy would be threatened. A-G is projecting a bit. She sees herself as a super-hero, so she imagines the guy as a super-villain.
The key to this argument is the word “rational.”
Random thought: This “get Ryan” campaign could just be the thing Robin needs to get out of the current crisis. See, she was just consulting with Lindsay about these allegations. Because although she would hate to see an innocent man railroaded by the “liberal elite fake news press”, as a family values candidate she could not allow such a monster to go unpunished. It’s a long draw, but JUST possibly plausible enough to save her senatorial bacon.
And she’s exactly as revolting as it takes to do that.
“As revolting as it takes to” use her position to get a rapist punished? Or does covering up the meeting with Leslie make it horrible anyway?
I don’t think a redemption arc for Robin can include her remaining in Congress and totally unscathed. Something has to actually go wrong for her and impact her in a way that shakes her out the headspace she’s been in for maybe her whole life.
I really hope we’re not looking at a redemption arc for her; that would be repulsive.
It’s more that *IF* she gets such an arc, it can’t be an easy, 80s-cartoon, “I’ve seen the error of my ways and everything is happy now!” sort of thing.
She’s too far gone into scary-land for that, and people that delusional don’t change on a dime.
Brace yourself. It may take awhile, but we’re looking at a redemption arc for Robin.
I don’t agree at all. Redemption is a good thing. Bad guys learning how they did bad and becoming good is a good thing.
It’s the reason I and a lot of people dislike Roz immensely. She seemed to think Joyce redeeming herself on LGBT issues was revolting.
Robin has never been portrayed as a horrible person so much as a very deluded person who does horrible things due to her delusions. She’s no Joyce, but she’s exactly like a lot of people I knew in school who later wised up and became good people.
Yes, redemption (or even people just becoming less shitty) is a good thing. But the fact that she might end up changing and become a better person in the future doesn’t buy her much now. She’s still shitty now.
Forgiveness isn’t obligatory. If you wrong someone, nothing you do, no amount of change or penance can force them to forgive you. Nothing you will make them owe you that. Some people will continue to loathe Robin even if she becomes a better person, no matter how well it was handled.
And that’s their prerogative, though many who hate her now may come around eventually. Joyce was the same way. There were people who still disliked her well into book 5. There’s probably still people who dislike her.
Not everyone likes everyone. Many people very understandably will not find forgiving Robin to be very easy, or even possible. And that’s fine.
Pals palling around and solving crimes
Comic Reactions:
Panel 1: I dunno, I still get really nervous about the level of separation AG maintains about Amber, especially as it’s not entirely clear all the memories are still being shared (likely to “spare” Amber knowing that AG is working with Sal). I’m just getting really nervous flashbacks to the dumbass shit I did and said in middle school when I was a young DID kid with no fucking idea what she was doing.
Panels 2 and 3: Very clever plot by AG. And good thinking to try and lure him away from trying to come on to the dorm floor that way Joyce is unlikely to bump into him. Of course saying that makes it feel like he’s destined to end up on the floor at some point. Hopefully literally.
And I love Sal here. “Ah am everyone’s most intimidatin’-looking friend” indeed.
Panels 4-5: I dunno. I guess. I’ve never really had trouble hating a rapist though whether I knew their name or knew them. Hell, I cut a fucking piece of shit former best friend out of my life because I found out he statutory-raped a 15 year-old (I still feel unclean that he was ever a part of my life).
I guess their humanity doesn’t make me hate them less. Rather the opposite, because they don’t have the excuse of being horror movie villains. They’re just selfish pricks.
But I can agree 100% on cathartic nicknames. Which is why my dad’s emails get auto-routed to a folder called Fucknozzles and Shitheads.
It’s the little things that get you through the PTSD.
Sorry to hear about the friend. Not that you cut him out of your life, but that you “feel unclean” having associated with him. It really really sucks when you find out someone you’re close with isn’t really who you thought they were. I personally referred to my emotionally abusive father who walked out on the family while blaming us for it all, well before he offed himself, as “the psycho who spawned me”, or just “the psycho” for short. Then I felt like I was insulting people with mental illness and stopped. But yeah, little things help. Also I’ve felt like saying this for a while now so here it goes: Your life has been an utter horror from what you’ve felt comfortable with sharing with us, and I think you are a strong, brace person not just for surviving but succeeding and helping others despite everything. You have all my sympathy and respect. In my eyes you’re a real life hero for a lot of people. I just wanted to let you know that. The past few weeks have made me really introspective. I’m still scared sometimes, not for myself, but for many people I know and love. And that extends to a lot of people, because I have a very strong sense of agape. In the past two weeks my nose has been broken twice dealing with riled up drunks who think it’s ok to come out and be awful to the bartenders and customers because Trump’s in office and they “don’t gotta do what no s****y bongo or f***in’ r**head tells me” and had to assure two sophomores I sub for regularly that they won’t be deported, and one junior that she won’t be put in an internment camp like her grandfather was. It breaks my heart to see this happen to people. And well, people like the crowds who went to the airports in protest, the judges who are fighting Bonatrump, and people like you, Cerberus, who help kids deal with horrors I can barely even contemplate and still find a couple minutes to write an examination of a webcomics and communicate with other commenters in such a way as to build community, well, you help heal the damage. Now I feel like I’m rambling and making a fool of myself, and I’m sorry about that if I am but it’s just something I want you to know.
… thanks. *hugs*
I love how well Sal slided into the friendship with amazigirl. “I’m the most intimidating-looking one” indeed.
I don’t think in the last panel she’s actual hates Ryan less. There’s a kind of a mental dissonance when you switch from pursuing a description to a concrete someone. It make’s it more “real” and the body/mind experience it with a greater immediacy.
The problem people have with ‘humanising’ villains isn’t about the villain, it’s about themselves. A lot of people are made very uncomfortable by the “there but for the grace of god…” thought. If the bad guy isn’t some kind of special case, than anyone can end up that contemptuous of your fellow beings, even you. There are lots of people who do not like confronting that thought and I imagine that Amazi-Girl, who partially exists because of a fear of their negative personality traits, is hit particularly hard by a fear of becoming a villain.
Coincidentally the guy who groped me back in the day was also named Ryan, so this whole thing is kind of cathartic.
Hopefully there will be more cathartic punchings coming.
” Scarface” “Druggy” “The lost son” …. anybody have any Biblical nicknames to give him ?
The Beast.
Sisera. Or Holofernes.
“What is the smelliest animal on your planet?”
“That’d be a skunk, I guess.”
“And does a skunk defecate?”
“Yeah. So he’d be like, skunk crap?”
“Not quite. Does a skunk’s excrement in turn produce its own excrement?”
“What? No!”
“…then there is no word for him in your language”
An RvB reference. Nice.
Church will live forever….dying over and over again.
Occasionally – maybe once every two or three nights – a comment will make me laugh out loud.
This one made me laugh for about 45 seconds. That may just be a record.
I’m also crying a bit, because (as we see in this comment thread, and in the Besmirched House) there are people who fully deserve this. And that’s a damn shame.
+1 Internet
It probably says a lot about how weird this semester has been that no-one is so much as batting an eyelid at a costumed vigilante walking though the hallway! In some ways, it is the ultimate disguise – In no-one notices you, no-one can be a threat to your secret identity!
Sal, I hate to break this to you but you’re only ‘intimidating’ in being so cool and beautiful that shyer people feel constrained to approach you because they don’t feel worthy. Now, if you want truly intimidating, you need Mike or Ruth… Huh. Okay, actually, yeah, it should be easy to persuade Mike to run an on-line campaign of harassment against Ryan!
As for the broader question here…? Now that the cap as been knocked off between Sal and Amazi-Girl, I think that they are going to become more and more at ease with each other until, much to their shock, they realise that they’ve become friends. I’m not sure for whom that would be the bigger shock.
Sal’s navel is right, a cathartic nickname would be great marketing.
Is that a new slipshine? Did jerkface and the mute girl finally hook up?
It’s jerkface and some non-notable person.
The Harry Dresden method!
It would much easier if he were ‘Scarface’ or ‘The Roofie’.
Are those things behind them in the last panel endermen?
Or worse -slendermen!
I liked the name Amazi-girl used, ol’ Gash Face. It makes his most salient feature not just what he’s done, but one I’m sure he hates, an actual permanent consequence for it.
I guess it does lack the punch of some of the others here, though.
Amazigirl best Sal sidekick !
The sidekick neither of them ever asked for.
“Cathartic nicknames, huh?
…Well, if it’s good enough for Batman, then I guess.”
Ohhh I’m loving this Batman and Catwoman thing Amazigirl and Sal are having now
Panel 1: love AG calling amber “our usual friend”, i love the use of “our” like, the person who works with the two of us friends towards this common goal. its amazing how quickly wanting to punch the same guy can bring two people together.
AG’s attitude towards amber here actually is very similar to mine when i was a bunch of sassy teens. we were all generally aware of stuff we were hiding from each other and respected each others’ privacy and decisions around that. whether it was the right decision to make or not is anyone’s guess, but sometimes it helped to have someone else who could deal with stuff i couldn’t deal with.
panel 2: sal that is not even true you have a lot of intimidating friends. you got ambushed by a superhero in a parking lot once and had to call off your friends. its honestly kind of sad that she thinks that about herself though? i dont think theres a single person (except for maybe amber but she has other problems) who thinks sal would go out of her way to hurt someone
panel 5: thats why u fight for justice and not for personal vendettas, AG. idk i am pretty good at compartmentalisation so i don’t have much difficulty considering “humans” and “things the world would be better off without” to be non-mutually exclusive categories. if i have time to ponder someones humanity i have time to ponder the humanity of their victims
The big difference being that there is a very real chance that Amber is a separate person in a shared head-space.
I may be misreading it, but I think Pearl is saying that she has DID and that there was a level of separation similarly large but cohesive when they were all a teenager.
(Please correct me if I’m wrong on that reading and if I’m not *secret DID high-five*)
nope ur right! i’m integrated now but there was a period of time in which i was in fact a bunch of sassy teens
I’m wondering if ‘bizarre nicknames’ is somehow Sal’s super-power.
if you’re worried about your enemies being humanized, just remember that humans are capable of some really horrible, terrible, no good, very bad things.
Was that supposed to be encouraging or discouraging?
How ’bout something basic like “Rapin’ Ryan” ?
Your daily dose of existential threat…
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/behind-the-internets-dark-anti-democracy-movement/516243/
Yeah, it’s been surreal keeping track of and warning about the rise of this for years and its big coming-of-age came in direct attacks on a lot of friends of mine for existing.
People really need to start taking the online recruitment of hate movements like the nazis, white supremacists, and MRAs (which are more and more just becoming the nazis) and how they use unmoderated shared spaces to harass marginalized voices and recruit other lonely white men to their cause with repeated propaganda and a sense of belonging.
And I think the SPLC made a major blunder not valuing the importance of online recruitment as compared to physical in person recruitment and assuming that by the online nature it wouldn’t have as many direct physical effects. Especially as the online nature allows hate movements to become global and recruit globally (which is why you have folks like Breivik pop up and the rise of far right wing folks and Holocaust deniers in every country).
Another surreal part for me is that the rise of Team Orange and the light it’s shedding on the Alt Reich and its filthy kin… is starting to create common cause between so many elements that might otherwise mistrust each other based some particular issues.
Is it just me, or are there some creepy looking wraiths in the background of that last panel? :X
Yeah, I wandered into the comments too to see if anyone else noticed. While I’m sure it’s just artistic licence, it gives me weird emotions.
I just thought it was silhouettes of other hall residents in the background.
This has nothing to do with the comic, BUT:
I just found this amazing webcomic that’s kind of like the steampunk fantasy dreamland version of Homestuck, and it’s called End of Infinity. It’s got a great story, awesome characters, amazing artwork, and so much potential!
However, the comic does not have nearly enough funding for the creator, Carl, to keep it going, and it hasn’t updated since April 2015. Please, check it out, and if you want to keep this story moving forward, send your support somehow! Don’t let such a good story fall off the map!
give him the worst, most embarassing supervillain nicknames ever. I have some ideas
1) Rohypnofool
2) Preacher Boy
3) The Walking Asshole
4) Turdhair the Blunder Boy
I really don’t think people understand just how terrible presenting this as a good plan is. Even if Ryan is actually guilty of what he is accused of, anonymous unverified attacks intended to rile up an online lynch mob are awful, one of the worst parts of social media.
“Even if”? We did see it. Remember?
And this isn’t intended to rile up a lynch mob. It’s intended to warn other potential victims.
Yes, I know Ryan did it, that’s why I said that.
And like hell this isn’t intended to rile up a lynch mob.
Let’s say that is their plan (it’s not – iirc, the post is a warning about him so others can avoid him, not a call to harass him) – what’s the alternative? The police are no good, and letting him walk away getting away with it is not an option.
“The police are no good”
Says the ex-con and the psycho vigilante.
Says also rape report statistics but sure.
I absolutely agree that it’s terrible how quickly an internet mob will form and attack someone with very little concrete information.
But that is not what is happening here. They know they have the right person, and all they’re doing is warning people about him.
What is happening here is that people who know the name of a sex offender, where he works, and have a photo of him are using the internet to try and get results rather than even try to go to the police. They do have concrete information – more than enough to get him detained and start an investigation – but all the people on the internet have is anonymous hearsay so they WOULD be attacking someone based off little concrete information.
Mob justice is being presented not just as the best but as the ONLY option. Using an example where the outrage is justified just serves to encourage more blind trust and
Saying “Warning: this person is a date rapist” is absolutely calling for an internet mob to attack them, and it’s ridiculous to claim otherwise.
Meanwhile, because they didn’t go to the police Ryan will be free to rape more girls. But I guess it’s their fault for not seeing the webpage first.
Hey buddy? Fuck you.
I honestly don’t give a crap if some rando DOES decide to beat Ryan up on sight, but the fact remains that that isn’t their goal.
But it has already been explained, at length, why Joyce was too afraid to go to the police, as well as how shitty our justice system is at convicting rapists, and especially attempted rapists. Hell we suck at even bringing them to trial. Both of these aspects have been explained by actual rape survivors. Many of whom have made the very choice Joyce did.
If you think you have any right to judge them, I’m impressed at your ability to function with your head that far up your ass.
“I’m sure he had a very good reason to roofie that girl. It’s probably all just a big misunderstanding.”
An easy solution is to only use his surname.
Panel One: Eeeeeeeee, this is gonna be a ride. Not sure if it’ll be a good one or a bad one, but it’s sure as hell an intense one. Ryan, and his friends, are unlikely to take this lying down. This is so dangerous for them, but they’ve started it. Good luck.
Panel Two: Saaaaaaaalllllll. Yeah, for those who don’t know her, the way she dresses is usually coded as ‘intimidating fighting type person’. And, tbf, she is very often intense when she’s mad and she’s apparently never lost a fight. So, yeah, I can buy this.
And that’s solid advice from AG. Getting someone who looks like they can fuck you up is probably a good way to deter at least physical vengeance. As is any kind of authority. Leslie or Robin might be willing, assuming Robin even remembers this.
Panel Three: That’s a very good point. Anybody who does this has to be prepared for backlash. So Roz isn’t a good idea, as she lives there. Robin or Leslie might not be too bad though. They don’t live there and have a measure of authority that will hopefully stop violence. Although that might open Leslie up to consequences from the school due to lack of proof.
Panel Four: Yeah, this isn’t gonna be an easy thing. Sorry, AG. No easy answers to this mess.
Panel Five: I can see that, even though I don’t feel it. I’m not much of a ‘ugh, they’re human now’ kinda gal. My reaction to that tends to be ‘Yes, they’re human. And?’ After all, it doesn’t change what they’ve done – you can be a terrible human.
I can see this for AG though. She’s got a lot of empathy, even for people who don’t deserve it, and knowing something about him makes it harder for him to be ‘that asshole’ and not ‘Ryan’. Its something she’ll struggle with.
Sal seems like she’s not nearly as bothered by it. I think she agrees that it makes him more human. I just also think she’s settled on ‘Okay, fine, he’s human, but he’s a terrible human, so I’m still gonna do the thing’ because she knows that a human with thoughts, feelings, yadda yadda can still be terrible. But she knows it’s bugging AG, so she acknowledges that yes, it makes him more human. And yeah, moving on to cathartic nicknames is a good fix for that. These two are great.
Gashface McAssener is not great, but that’s neither here nor there.