Endtown by Aaron Neathery for November 30, 2012

Well. . . . so much for Holly being willing to help. But knowing her, she’ll come around eventually.

Love the candlestick phone! Can’t blame Holly, though. I agree with Patricia Rivera. She’ll come around.

The flight of the phone makes a very violent statement.I am voting that she will come around though. I am sure that if Holly and Wally had wanted to social ize they would have done so when she was in observation. Blessed Be

The candlestick phone probably saw a major come back in Endtown; since a conventional receiver would never span the distances between some mutants mouths and ears.

I am sure Wally will convince his main squeaker to try and help Linda out; especially since he was a real mess himself.

Holly will do it for her stepdad. Probably with a little coaxing from Wally.

By the way, we still have not seen Holly in clothes other than her uniform.

Wally is quite responsible for Linda’s stateBut for him, she’d be dust and have no current fateThough for Holly, I think we’ve a bit of a waitThere’s too much, too recent, to just wipe off the slateStill our Wally remembers that night, and her gunLinda aiming to kill, Wally hot on the runWhile Blackie above was enjoying the funSeems like long years ago, but it was only one=|====/ Level HeadVote for Endtown 2.0And for Doc Rat, tooThe Endtown ForumThe Endtown AuctionThe Endtown Books

That loving little hare has so much heart she’ll eventually find a way to forgive her former tormentor. It’s her nature to find balance in the midst of chaos.

I just hope Linda will forgive herself before it’s too late. Poor little koala. Sometimes the soul we judge the harshest, is our own.

Careful now. That’s an antique.

@JACox:- Thats a VERY good point about the old style phones…@Nabuquduriuzhur…. She DID have a lot bottled up…..OR she was cold outside but oh so HOT within….

As aaron marx said to holly: “seems like someone has trouble letting go of the past”

BTW can ANYONE tell or show me how to get registered on the auction block? I tried it and its not taking

And, tucked into the cushion, her tail goes from relaxed loops to jagged angles in 1.5 seconds..

So the increased pucker and flying phone would be a maybe?

Funny, Holly was a lot more sympathetic to Linda when she was just newly mutated. Seems to me, she and Wally went to a lot of trouble to save a whole domefull of topsiders, what’s one more?

Well, I guess that settles that…

I guess the “Jury” has spoken.

Uuuuh.. . . .I take it that’s a no. Panels 2 and 3 are great. panel 2 is one of the cutest pictures of Holly and panel 3 is. . .well, not so much.

This must be the place they gave to Wally or to the both of them, if they’re living together. Holly’s place wasn’t elevated and so didn’t have steps out front. That Holly’s got quite an arm.

I find it easier to claim I don’t speak English than to toss the phone. “No Hablo Inglese.” Middle of a conversation, just switch to a different language and hang up.

For those interested I responded to Night-Gaunt49 post on yesterday’s comments.He does not believe there is a drug war in Mexico. He believes it is the old land ownership issues that spurred the Mexican Revolution. Even brings up old civil rights issues such as Jim Crow laws as the cause of all the border violence. You see it is now old news so the press does not show it as much. Its like the violence in the middle east after a while it becomes old news.The war continues Night-Gaunt49. You continue to live in your safe little world. Men like me will continue to fight the war.But like I said if legalizing it would save my companions lives or even mine then please contact you local members of government and get it legalized. Save the lives of the officers of the law. Make dope legal and available for all. Now remember no controls over who can use it that would defeat the purpose of legalization. Like I said before we officers will just handle the aftermath not prevent the causes.

I dont know if Holly is going to come around. Wally may have some input. I just see issues with this. Linda’s only help is getting her child. That is what this is all about. The only way is topside and going to get the child. Same mission different objective. (First one stop missile, this one get child). Talking to Linda will not help her angst only getting that child will. Is that going to be the card played by Linda to get Holly and Wally’s help?We shall see.

It’s a good thing Wally’s an Engineer. He’ll be able to put the phone back together and wired back to the socket.

In a broad sense the only way an Endtowner can join TS society is by having their brain havested and repurposed for the greater good of the colony. This is where Linda came from. The only way Linda can fit into Endtowner society is also by being “repurposed” to be a cog for tje greater good of Endtowner society. To Linda what is expected of her is about the same as having her mind repurposed—but without the surgery and mind-wiping. That could have been the meaning of her vision of a few days ago. To fit in she will have to give up a lot of what she is—and that would freak out anyone.

The phone was sucked along in Holly’s wake as she dashed off to the rescue.

Does this girl possess NO other clothes than her waitress uniform?

Julliette Burber on 9 Chickweed Lane has a habit of throwing phones also (while talking to her ex).

I didn’t think the had mobile phones.

Wow…! I shudder to think how she deals with telemarketers.

You know, it occurs to me that maybe it wasn’t Holly that threw the phone, but Wally when she told him what she was about to do…..

At the home of Holly (and / or Wally), the front door is always open…

@VeteranAs TSOJ has said and others agreed, this is not the proper forum for these long political discussions. Please exchange emails and continue it elsewhere. Let us keep this as a place to discuss Mr. Neathery’s fine story and art with only OCCASIONAL digressions.Thank you.

in the surface? make that, on the surface

@Jeanne Holly is a mouse, actually… Yea, I’d do the same.

A semi-serious thought on Endtown’s phone system…cordless or cellphones would give off radio signals the Topsiders would detect and trace back to them…and you long-term readers remember what happened when they trailed Albert and Gustine…

To all Consider it dropped.

You remember the old pay phones. The operator would listen to the sound of the bells inside to make sure you put in the correct amount to pay for the call.

Maybe Holly should be the new head of security. She’s not afraid of a fight or setting the ray gun to “Kill”.Also, I’d like to see her in a different outfit. Black pants and a turtleneck would make a nice combo, maybe for night operations.

Aaron, how about an auction art of Holly and Wally on a nice romantic walk in an Endtown park wearing jeans and casual shirts?

that is true about the phone. I noticed how high she had to reach to get the speaker to her mousey ear.

One tries.

Again with the antiques. Those phones made a comeback in the 1970s. You could get them in black, red, ivory with gold colored trim, and rotary dial type or pushbutton. If I remember correctly, They were $80 – $100.

The new month starts in about 2 hours. Vote early and often for Endtown 2.0, Endtown, and Doc Rat at Topwebcomics.Thanks, JusSayin

Just to put in my two cents worth – I doubt Holly will give Linda the time of day, much less try to become friends with her. Holly and Wally have both demonstrated a limit to what they’ll put up with from (ex-)topsiders, Wally when discovering that Flask had been one, and Holly when her and Wally’s safety was threatened by the airship exploding. She may be tolerant in the “liberal” sense, but she does have prejudices that play in her decision making process. Keep in mind too that she doesn’t go out of her way to help just anyone. Wally was a special case. As far as we know, Holly is still friends with Allie, but hasn’t yet tried staging an intervention to pull her “friend” out of the bottle. And Allie is a lot closer to her than Linda is.

I notice, as most of you have, that Holly wears her waitress uniform. Still working at Endtown Cafe? I would have though ditching her job to hide in Wally’s backpack, then go on a multi-day mission, would have involved missing work—-and possible loss of her job. Did she arrange for time off?

It was said to drop it. Consider it dropped.

You’ve got to respect Holly’s integrity, few people can express their sincere feelings as freely as she does.

You miss the point. The author went out of his way to refer to Holly as his “stepchild”. This has a meaning to how the story is going to go. He did not even have to mention it at all to make sense to the conversation but it was said none the less. The Doc took Holly in as a child. Holly may never have known her mother as her being too young and lost her in the past. Holly has loss but lives for today to handle it. She may cry at times. Remember Maude asked Linda not to add to the grief and loss Endtown suffers.Holly’s reaction right now is one of no way no how am I going to help Linda.Holly will go see Linda. She will because of who she is.Later Linda rolls those sad koala eyes at Holly saying something to the effect how would feel growing up never knowing your mother? What kind of impact would that have on Holly? She would help because she remembers her loss and not knowing.BUT if Holly stays cold hearted and not help then the story line ends here. Where else can it go? We all watch Linda die a slow death? It has to go forward.The only thing is Linda wants back in the system one way or the other. She may use the ruse of getting her “human” child back to get to the surface but may be more interested in just getting back into the Topsider way of life. The only way to shed that mutant suit and get back in with Topside is the machine. Then Linda would with permission if granted for service be reintegrated back into the Topsider mainframe. She would be with her child as Ghost in the Machine. Linda’s dream or nightmare if you chose.Its Holly and Wally I am worried about. Linda would be another Flask willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to achieve her goal. We shall see how this rolls out.One way or another Linda is going to get topside. Just how remains to be seen.

Well, he’s no Robert Heinlein, but, then, few people are…

There was a suggestion that “services rendered” determine pay. Everyone seems to have some sort of job. The jobs appear assigned based on skills or desire to expose oneself to danger. The highest “paying” would probably be the scavengers as that job make all the others look really safe. Remember the last occupant of the apartment story. He died topside scavenging. Probably trying to make enough “pay” to move to a better place with his fiancé. It would be like you being paid in credits to an account. When you buy things the amount is transferred. Money would serve no real purpose except to keep the suggestion of normalcy. Trade would serve no real purpose as they are not farmers so have no crops or such to trade. Credits would be the key to money. Job determines amount of credits earned. The more dangerous the job the more credits. It would make sense.Now no one has seen a card presented or bills or coinage handed back and forth so they must use another way. Being advance in their would the may be using an auto debit chip feature. That’s been played with here experimentally it works like this you pick up what you want and walk out your credit card with this chip would auto pay. All the items are chipped so each one is read by an RFID reader totaled up and charged when the reader reads the card.

It’s called “scrip” and was used extensively during the Great Depression, in places where the money supply (gold, silver, or whatever) dried up.

" As a waitress, Holly might not have received enough compensation to afford anything else past those 12 items, She’s so sweet, she must have earned enough tips to get a few more items by now!" Perhaps she prefers to spend her earnings on other things. Waitresses do wear out a lot of shoes. Or perhaps most of her wardrobe consists of special underthings.

I am more of a Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clark, Issac Asimov fan in literature. The Illustrated Man. The Martian Chronicles. The Foundation series. 2001 series finally explaining the monolith in the final story. Open the pod bay doors, HAL. HAL synonym for IBM. Now we have Watson, Blue super computers. Talking phones all imagined by guys like these. Many Many short stories.Did you know Arthur C. Clark was responsible for telecommunication satellites. The first one being Telstar.Issac Asimov for the Laws of Robotics. Ray Bradbury for just his fantastic view of things real and imaginary.And Frank Herbert for all the Dune stuff but he could get carried away at times. Little full of himself. But the galaxy and worlds he built. Fantastic.Just like our author here.

Watching Monty Pythons Meaning of Life right now.Part OneMiracle of Birth.“Nothing your not qualified!”

Good night all.Dont forget the machine that goes BING.

Mallard must have known some undetectable radio frequencies in order to operate Petey’s current body remotely when it was a surrogate. Also the sandcrawlers have to be able to transmit their video back to Endtown. I think the lack of cell phones is more a logistical than a technical circumstance. Unless maybe the current radio traffic is under the threshold where it would be detectable, and cell phones for the general public would be too noisy.

Maude shouldn’t have used the phrase: “I thought you might let her pick your brain…”

I’m off to MiDFur 2012, where there will be a substantial Endtown section in the art show, postcard inserts in the can bags and a large ad in the program book.

I picked up “The Best of Frederik Pohl” for five dollars…there are also ninety-nine cent near-complete H. Beam Piper sets out there (public domain), but navigating them is somewhat problematic.

“Shh. I’m trying to negotiate a Glop-Bear here.”

Just had a thought. What if the reason for the change in lampposts and some buildings is because Marx opened a portal to a different parallel reality, rather than simply to a different location within the same reality. Maybe one where the original group of heroes were wiped out in the Topsider ambush.