Endtown by Aaron Neathery for February 26, 2014

[ X ] Point of no return.[….] Take a deep breath.[….] Count to 10.[….] Open your eyes.[….] Try not to cry.

One of the longest 24 hours begins…

Holly’s wild eyes do not bode well for this adventure. Will she snap when the change occurs or come back to her senses?

I can’t wait to see what happens with Jim and Sarah!

what is Holly thinking about? is she approving? We will know by tomorrow! Hope they come to be critters that can get along will together,

How long does the transformation take?

Wally seems to be glaring at Holly in panel 3. I wonder what’s up with that?

snik is better than snap I guess.

Flask would be so proud.

It’s called the mute button.

Oh my, I hope they don’t have some nasty plan for afterwards. Will it work at all? Almost biting my nails here.

Wouldn’t it be really cruel of Aaron to stretch the mutation ( and Wally’s and Holly’s reactions to it) over the next two days so we have to wait until Monday to find out what form those topsiders will be taking? ;-)

Anyone want to guess it could be Arron Marx and Blackie Flask?

I don’t think that Aaron and Blackie are hereThe names “Jim and Susan” would not thus appearTheir forms soon revealed (we might wish it was quicker)The ear-cup trick Wally has learned is a snik-er.=|====/ Level HeadVote for Endtown 2.0And for Doc Rat, tooThe Endtown ForumThe Endtown AuctionThe Endtown Books

And now for something to go horribly wrong..Or I suppose they could wake up cute and furry, and have tea with their new best friends.

Given the topside environment, lack of plant life, hard surfaces, humidity due to the oceans and rivers turning to dust, not even a cloud in the sky. The “Virus” may not necessarily biological in nature. Yes, there are dangerous pathological organisms that can survive in harsh environments for extended periods but these tend to be mold and fungi. Even the hardiest virus, cannot survive for more than 30 days exposed. It could be a genetic aberration caused by amesworth radiation. We know that often microorganisms can survive harsh radiation. P. Radiolarans comes to my mind. The other possibillity is that it is nanotechnological in makeup. It would have the ability to replicate itself endlessly, draw its power from the sun or background radiation, and raw building materials from the dust itself, which must be made of everything that was. The dittoes seem to operate on the same principle. Either way, the only environment safe enough for survival of a virus is the mutants themselves. Wally’s puncturing of the topsiders skinsuit is more than what it seems. His facade of determination and focus has all the hallmarks of a Doctor inoculating a patient.

Looks like he is removing the ear piece. The scratch is incidental.

Friday cliffhanger…. the start of another Holly flashback.

What’s Clive thinking about all this? I can’t read his face…

What if they get a female cat and a male mouse?

The typical joke would have Jim and Sarah be very physically incompatible… I wonder if the crab, fish and worm we’ve seen in Endtown were the sleeping or slightly altered consciousness types. But does our esteemed Mr. Neathery do typical? No. Let’s watch and see.

I really want one of them to be a thylacine

What if they mutate into rats?

The moment of truth…

wait wait wait wait…. What if they are testing a vaccine?

A silly guess as to conversion- a bilby and pine martin;)

@Simcha-Yitzchak Lerner He’s not glaring. He’s making a connection with her letting her know for better or worse he’s going to do what the topsiders asked.

Wally isn’t glaring at Holly. It appears that way due to the angle Aaron drew the scene. In “Countdown”, the only ones present with Flask were Holly, pete and Wally. He took the moment to pause most likely hoping he knew how to do it correctly, and that it would work if he did. Flask wasn’t exactly giving a class when she explained what she was doing. It was to torture Linda before her attempt to turn her into a creature.

let’s hope they don’t get naked mole rat or sperm whale…

@msowardsFlask revealed that there was a design weakness in the suits themselves. Although I imagine that the wally’s claws would be helpful in the operation.I am curious whether the fact that Jim and Sarah happen to be in love will effect the mutation – matching forms perhaps…

Quick, there’s still time to start a betting pool, Neatherly gets 90% of the pot. I’m putting a tenner on “Earthworm Jim and Sarah Sauropod.”

A Dream4u- the virus is also very likely an artificial and weaponized thing, so conventional criteria for survival might not apply. And I’d WAG that the dust may now have an active and unexamined ecology which may harbor the virus even if it was suseptable to conventional biological limits.