page 1341 – The Sound of Urk
Gee, I sure can’t imagine why they boys might suddenly be acting a little differently…
So, I was VERY close to posting some sort of “Sorry the page will be late” message, because I’m VERY sleepy at the moment… but somehow I got just enough of a second wind to power through and get something up. However, I’m not so sleepy that I can’t brag that this page is the first one I’ve saved to a brand new file on my computer. Why is that worth bragging about? Well, it just so happens that I have the comic pages grouped in files according to story arcs. So if I’ve created a brand new file, there’s only one thing THAT can mean!
EDIT: New TWC Voting Incentive is up!
Yes, because Avi was so INNOCENT and UNDESERVING of being slapped like the spoiled little ***** he acts like. It’s not like the four of them has been either ignoring or mistreating her innocent younger brother at every opportunity. No, these four spoiled brats wouldn’t do THAT, now would they? It’s almost as unimaginable as the four of them honestly self-examining their actions & behaviors in a way that encourages self-growth.
I want to say that the above paragraph used up the last of my sarcasm before bed (it’s 11:20pm), but I’ve been trained to allow the sarcasm to be a never-ending font, if I’m in a mood for it.
I feel like there’s a lot to unpack in the fact that they’re ALL intimidated by Layla now over stuff that pretty much exclusively involved Avi. That kid’s tendrils have woven DEEP into the others.
There are no others.
There is only Avi.
Only.
Avi.
The thing is, not only is Avi the leader (in all but his own announcements of the group’s positions), but all four of them are spoiled rich-kids with parental issues stemming from the fact that their parent’s throw money at their general direction instead of actually raising them. That slap is probably the first time ANY of them have ever suffered direct physical punishment for their actions.
And I’m being specific in punishment there. They’ve likely suffered retaliation for their actions, but that’s different from punishment. In other words, Trigger, as the one who suffered, could have started fighting with them, and they’d have understood that. It would have likely resulted in all four of them ganging up on Trigger, but they would have understood it.
But Layla acting out on behalf of Trigger’s suffering is something completely outside their experience. The closest they’ve experienced is someone protecting them in order to protect their own paycheck. And they’re never in the wrong (see: spoiled children whose parents throw money in the general direction of in place of actual parenting), so obviously Layla MUST be one of those Crazy Girls they hear about.
Isn’t Mariska’s job to keep them from encountering any actual negative consequences to their actions? She’s totally going to get fired!
She was worried about the danger from the Dyson-sphere-destroying Catgirl Supersoldier (who Ichabod totally has under control) when she should have been worried about the danger from the diminuative unemployed freeloading redhead teenager** (who Ichabod totally has no control over whatsoever).
**I totally did NOT call her that. I completely deny it! Do not tell her!! 😮
Mariska’s job could be interpreted in several ways, as the specifics of her contract isn’t known. But my interpretation is that she’s employed to ensure that the boys escapades don’t kill them and have costs be less than what the bribes keeping the boys out of jail before she was employed did.
Layla is never going to kill the boys, or even harm them in a way that couldn’t be restored with earth-based technology (aka, the worst she’d do is a broken bone, and even that’s highly unlikely).
And, yes, Layla IS one of those crazy girls one hears about. Also Tabitha. They actually got that correct (even if the reason for their deduction is incorrect). Also Stilez. And Tax. Really, the indestructable supercomputer girl who can’t age, eat, drink, or taste, and remembers everything except her own identity because she was abducted by lunatics and experimented on and then ejected to float endlessly in the void of space until she was lucky enough to be run over by a ship, is the only sane one.
No, they’re not the crazy girls one hears dating-history stories about. Even though Layla might be the closest (she almost fits a few different “crazy girl” archetypes, but doesn’t quite hit the hurdles-starting-line for any of them), her reluctance to date, willingness to put her pride in front of her opportunism & the fact that her dad’s dead (and likely buried on another planet, meaning that he’s not available for the easily accessible problems of being too much of a Daddy’s Girl) means that she won’t be the participant of any of those types of stories anytime soon.
Tabitha’s unlikely to go on a second date with anyone who doesn’t get approval of Alphonse & Bridget, if she’s even willing to go on a first date with someone those two didn’t already approve.
Stillez is an living embodiment of physical destruction. It is unlikely that she knows what romance is, and is more likely to destroy the location of the date two days before it than remember that she was asked out in the first place.
Tax looks and acts around ten years old, if not younger. And is relatively-constantly at the side of Stillez. If she’s going on any dates in the next ten years, it’ll probably be too soon. If you hear any “crazy girl” stories about her, label the teller as a pedophile and avoid them as much as possible.
Avatar has fifteen different problems to consider before attempting to answer anyone who asks her out, and that’s the short list.