Endtown by Aaron Neathery for August 10, 2016

Wally has a lot of empathy, he’s seen the worst and survived, It’s time to sit and comfort.

Okay, who drew the maps around here? I didn’t think Endtown was this close to The Twilight Zone.

I was starting to suspect if that was one of the founding lizards of Unity, that this could be an empathy test of some sort.

Don’t think that’s Kirbee…Wally is larger than she is.

Even so he is still thinking of another refugee in need.

Hey all, if you haven’t already, go to Patreon and an support Aaron. He’s got $17 to go to get to his goal! If i weren’t a retiree, i’d kick in more, but every pledge will help.

And NOW WHAT?? i’m not liking this development… biting my nails to the quick.

It’s another kid. Wally’s got a big soft spot for kids.

Maybe the badge/button is just covered in dust?

Another thought. Since time is all twisted right now, could this be a young Kirbee?

You can deflect tragedies and duck disasters, but you have to have a Teflon heart to avoid those eyes. So…is Wally in a reality or some sort of synthetic construct, its starting to become an irrelevant distinction, eh? Likewise this entire deeply engaging story is not real, but could be taken as a projection of the deep suffering of people (many of them children) around the world occurring right now. “Its just an illusion so I don’t have to care” vs “its a suffering individual so I do care” is a game that many of us play with the news sites every day. But its not really a game is it…?

Dinner theater. Now comes the just desserts.

Wally’s reaction makes it look like she’s somebody he knows.

I don’t think that this is anyone he knows, I think this is just hitting him in his soul. He’s unsure now what’s really going on, and if this is somehow him being brought back to the war, then he’s a dead man (cat?) anyway. If all hope is lost, then why not comfort someone who is equally bad off?

I think it’s just a child, hence Wally’s reaction.

I believe Wally’s reaction is due to him seeing this is a suffering child…

Did his amesworth badge turn? Didn’t it used to be gray and would turn white if he was exposed to the Amesworth radiation?

Oh…no. Badge showing high dosage. And the survivor (child?) doesn’t feel well. Will the child crumble away to dust?

The director of this play may have designed this particular character to look like a child Kirbee to make Wally react. I hope Wally’s badge is just part of the illusion, otherwise, somebody really did release a lethal dose of Amesworth radiation on him, and possibly the others.

In the first Endtown story, Sparkplug Sanders was repeatedly tormented by dittos as they took him through a replay of his traumatic memories time and time again. It Eas implied that they showed him the visuals only, and his memories filled in the words.In the second story, Wally was shown a video of his own traumatic memories, which he viewed with Holly present. He narrated them to her, as once again there seems to have been no sound. Nor did he have any ability to turn the memory replay off. However, the pictures were insubstantial. At one stage, a truck passed straight through them. Dittos can create doppelgangers of anything a person can imagine, even (or especially) something he is not expecting to see. However, as they are blobs of very little mass, the creatures are barely-substantial shells. Their greatest effect is to trick or panic the subject into a mistake. That’s what we know so far. Now, we are dealing with a situation where it is possible these rules may not apply anymore. Or they may. Or they may not. You can’t be actually harmed. Or maybe you can. Would you bet your life on it?I’m beginning to think this whole set-up is crafted to turn Wally into someone more suited to comforting Holly’s broken soul. You never know what to expect with Neathery’s stories. In that regard, Endtown is not the fare to suit everyone’s tastes. They’re not an end-of-a-working-day-sheer-me-up. But they are masterpieces.

Her hair and nose makes her look like a young Kirby.

I don’t think she is even reptile. Her eyes don’t look like slits though her nose is rather featureless.But so is Doc’s nose. He looks less badger and more fuzzy cartoon animal than most of the others.This poor youngster; she has the big feet of a growing kid, may be pre-teen where nothing seems to be the right size. ( all big hands and feet and ears) should does look young and with it’s features not quite set yet.At some point (where Wally is al, just setting next to another suffering critter can be the only thing left to do.

I’ve never seen (or paid attention to) that badge on Wally before this week.I missed the 2012 episodes.

I’m with others, she’s a young Kirbee, she’s even dressed the same (yes that shouldn’t matter in reality, but comic artists almost never deviate from a single outfit per character, and Neathery has never shown any proclivities to be different in that regard).

She appears to be getting younger and younger.

A thought occurred to me, that Wally is so very sure that this is all an illusion. Why? Maybe he’s not suffering from the terrible thirst which would result from exposure to real Amesworth Radiation? Maybe that’s how he knows that the radiation isn’t real and that his badge turning white has to be part of the illusion?So why would he bother to comfort an illusion? Perhaps he just needs to do so, for his own comfort. Or maybe he thinks that the illusion is based on a real person and comforting the illusion is being respectful to the real person it was based on?There are other possibilities too of course.

Cats, lizards, birds, cockroaches, but those don’t have sweat glands, except maybe the pads of their paws…

That has to be a younger Kirbee. The question now, of course, is how she ended up in Unity after this?

Remember this all started over a drink of water.

@Coyoty point taken

Looks like a Fraggle…. ;-)

I don’t see a tail, and she does appear to be leaning against the wall….

This gets you right in the feels. I really hope today’s strip fares positive.

Ashes to Ashes (Endtown version)By JennerBased on Ashes to Ashes by David BowieDo you remember a hero catIn a long-ago story?He learned the secret of Apex Industries.Oh no, don’t say it’s true.He got a message in a ditto film:“Dear Wally, where’s your Holly now?”I’ve lived through Apocalypse once,Now I’ll get paid double time.The end of the world again’s killing me,But I’ll help where it meets my ability,And you really can’t see me, or maybe you know.Live in hope that I’ll wake from this vision of woe, oh…Ashes to ashes, dust to dusty,Amesworth radiation’s nasty.Desert and death on high,Leaving Endtown below.Time and again I tell myself“Don’t dream tonight”But the video nasty’s following me,Oh no, turn it offI’m trapped in a terrible end.“Dear Wally, where’s your Holly now?”One flash of light and it’s all smoke and rubble.I’ve never done good things.I’ve never done bad things.I never intended for Holly to fall. Never asked to take a life,Wanted to spare them all.Ashes to ashes, dust to dusty,Amesworth radiation’s nasty.Desert and death on high,Leaving Endtown below.Fox brother said: “You always shouldDo what you must for the greater good.”Fox brother said: “You always shouldDo what you must for the greater good.”