Endtown by Aaron Neathery for August 28, 2012

They NEVER come off!?! I always wondered why, even inside, they were always suited. Dang. It’s eerily similar to what Wally talked about when looking at his mutant face in a mirror. Loss of self identity….

The same suits that protect them from the dangers in the environment also prevent them from being able to see the world as it actually is.

Captain Flask has long appearedWith past a bit inscrutableBut what she tells is really weirdAnd what she sees … unsuitableIt makes you wonder in a veinThat we, perhaps, should run from:How are “next links” put in the chain?Just where do babies come from?=|====/ Level HeadVote for Endtown 2.0And for Doc Rat, tooThe Endtown ForumThe Endtown AuctionThe Endtown BooksCharter member ofthe Consortium to get Aaron a Tablet

“We don’t call ourselves Topsiders. We’re just “us”. Are you “us”?"——————————————Ooh, look, it’s “Electrospastic Radio!”

We are off to a good start. Blessed Be

Each one is isolated. No actual human contact. Like living your life inside a huge video game. While they have managed to retain the appearance of humanity (we assume, for how can anyone know for sure if the suits never come off) the essence of humanity resides with the mutants. In the struggle to safeguard the former, they have sacrificed the latter. Damn deep #$%@*….

First off, the girly and Flask-sympathizer part of me is thrilled to see her getting comfort from Marx. She’s a lot more willing to talk now, and the water also doesn’t seem to be as high. Second, woah. The ‘folk’ life sounds unsavory. I know this sounds juvenile, but I’m serious – what do they do if they want to do the horizontal polka? Flask had said that she and Petey were lovers, after all. How can you be lovers if they can’t touch each other? Even disregarding sex, how would one even do something as simple as a caress? Well, she did say that there’s little you can’t do in those suits, so I guess where there’s a will there’s a way. But their sense of touch must be seriously hindered. Third – Wow, those point-of-view digital portraits sound like they can get creepy, fast! Fourth – I have a feeling that Blackie’s story is only going to get worse from here. ;3; :has break-up ice cream of angst in hand!:

niiice not only well learn about flask past maybe well learn more about the topsiders

wow, this one is creepy! First the look in it’s whole part of the page, the dis-connect,

then the idea of "what is Marx? He’s magic. He’s weird

, is he a topsider??? or what, what does he lie about? does he lie?

the look of and the people as she says digitized images,

then the going crazy with the vases/faces imagery, and the sickening swirl of fear rising , crazy.

If the artificial eyes of the suit can make you see people instead of suits, what else can they make topsiders see, or not see?

Jesus christ …

..aaah..thee topsiders transformed too…

As much as the guy bugged me (AM), I would like to thank him for holding Flask. She’s needed that for a long, long time.

I wonder. . .when Flask says freaks. . .is she talking from a topsider’s point of view or does she still view the mutants (including herself) as freaks? In the first panel she says, “You’ve been keeping tabs on us…” Who exactly does she mean? Depending on where you place the emphasis, it could go either way. Even when she tries to correct herself (we…they), the situation is not really clear. Opinions?

The suits take care of the bodily function, but you are forever locked away from intimatcy

First reaction from today’s installment… wow. 2nd…My hope for seeing things from topsiders POV was fulfilled—literally. 3rd—judging by all the comments, many shared my wow. LOL

If TS kids are concieved/grown in tanks (this would certainly guarantee absolute control of quality of offspring) then they could be kept there until large enough to fit a standard suit. Education/indoctrination while in tanks. Lack of basic contact during growth would surely twist them psychologically and almost certainly render them without any empathy.

There has to be some way to dispose of wastes. Fluids could be recycled (like “stillsuits” (?)) in Dune but solids could be a problem. Might be an opening for that purpose. Total control of genetics and diet would explain why all TSers seem to have the same build.

it’s going to get weirder and weirder………..

Can someone remind me how long all this has been the case? I’m thinking around six years, but can’t really recall & don’t have time to sift through the archives right now. (Really, I don’t have time to be reading comics at all this morning, but couldn’t stop myself from at least reading Endtown!) I imagine that the people enduring life in those biosuits keep telling themselves that it’s temporary, that eventually their scientists will figure out a way to make the world safe again. It’s not like children have been born & grown to adulthood in this post-apocalyptic world.

People can get used to any type of “new normal” however intolerable it might seem at first gloss… (Now I really wish I had a copy of Camus’ Stranger handy & time to look for his passage to that effect, something about how a man could get used to life trapped inside a tree …anyone know what I’m talking about? I haven’t read it for ages but I feel like it’s really applicable to this!) Eh, I’m rambling, but I guess the main thought I keep coming back to is, these people probably aren’t thinking that this is the way it’ll always be now… that their children will never know life outside of a biosuit. I feel like it’s a little easier (or maybe a lot easier) to accept a terrible situation if you convince yourself it’s only for a limited period.

This can’t be the end of Flask – the plot, with her seeming to know all about Wally, and the fact that they are both cats, might Flask have designs on Wally? The Shadow knows, but I think that they is much more of Flask………..

Wow! So how do you NOT go crazy while in those suits? Not being able to have any form of physical contact – even holding hands – would be inbearable! Or at least to me! But as a mutant, you’re able to be more physical – since there is no suit in the way preventing you from touching a face or stroking a cheek. Wonder if she would ask AM to “change” her appearance just for a moment to what she used to be so she could feel that human contact once more!Just a thought! ;)

“It’s only been six years since The End. There may not be any children yet, while they figure out how to have them.”I could’ve sworn Linda’s child was only 2 or 3, though…?

I had always assumed they had sterilized safe zones in those biospheres, and that they were able to get into and out of those suits just like we have biohazard suits…

Wow, I would think it would be harder to see everyone else as though they don’t have a suit on, to feel like you’re the only one in a “portable prison”. Also, six years is a long time to have the same shoes or gloves, there must be some sterile place to repair and replace things as they wear out.

It explains why the Topsiders inside the dome were suited up, when they saw the incoming ship on the radar. I was wondering about that – why keep their suits on when they’re inside their protected zone? It’s like wearing a full space suit when you’re inside your space ship. But it can only be in keeping with their extreme cautiousness to the point of obsession. It answers the question about whether you could destroy a city by simply breaching the dome and letting in the mutagen. The answer: No.Maybe the mutagen has not been identified, and it’s impossible to know if you’ve ever created a safe zone in the first place. But there must be SOME small rooms where they can de-suit, if just to be able to check people for abnormalities, such as skin blemishes, in their fixation with perfection of the physical form.

One might wonder if she volunteered to scope out Endtown. After Pety was “gone” she went to find him? Logically the TS would not let her know what they did with him?When she found out the truth she changes her attack . Her hostility to Endtown seems a normal reaction to someone who doesn’t want to be there?What ever. Blessed Be

Gosh, I have claustrophobia and if I had to be in one of those bio-suits I would absolutely go nuts. Not to long ago, I had to go in hospital for an MRI scan….The tech had to have me sedated before I could even procede with the test. Thank goodness for those drugs. :O)

Take a close look at how this piece was worded. You could miss it if you don’t concentrate on exactly what it says. It’s an impossible paradox, unsustainable and guaranteed to drive you mad.“You forget you’re trapped in your own portable prison cell…And sometimes you DO forget…And that’s when you know you’re losing your mind.”Topsiders have to become habituated to seeing all their colleagues, friends and family as digital images of what they would look like without their suits. If they become too accepting of this virtual reality, they lose touch with who they actually are. And this presumably happens.But the horrible thing Mr Neathery has done at this point is to juxtapose the words with the opposite images. The person through whose eyes we are looking forgets she is trapped in her prison cell, and sees people. When she really forgets she’s a prisoner, she starts seeing what is really out there – she is seeing reality, faceless masks, and this means she is going mad.What a brilliant way of unsettling us. I tell you, the writing on this comic is genius.

A nightmarish thought just hit me. At the risk that someone else has had the same idea [I haven’t read other posts yet] I’m going to just throw it out here.The suits never come off.They never see anyone except through a digital construct provided by their artificial eyes.If everything they see of others is a computer generated image, how do they know that they are actually still human? They don’t see what’s actually in the suit. What if they’re already mutated, and all the time have been killing fellow mutants?

The sad thing is you can get used to the lack of touch. And there are cultures where touch is seen to be a weakness. If one is part of such a culture one might never let their defenses down, afraid of being, at some future point, “weak.”

Has there been any mention about how long Flask has been in Endtown? It can’t be too long, since she has history as a TSer, and then she mutated sometime. It might just be that Flask still thinks in Topsider terms since she’s lived as one longer than as an Anthro mutant—and she has to keep reminding herself that she’s changed and is no longer a Topsider.

Wow, I didn’t remember that. It would probably be the only way for people to be easy with themselves. If we could remember anything, it seems like life would be remembered as a terrible struggle for most of the people all over the world. trying to keep pain away, and disease and hunger and extreme busyness trying to survive. Plus all those time we wish we could have “do overs” on.