Endtown by Aaron Neathery for October 02, 2015

Yeah, how much of a human being do you need to retain before you stop being human? Pretty sure being a plasticized brain without a body is a good indication you’re not human, or alive.

You could cut him open and take out every part that isn’t brain…

The casserole is spoiled..

Holly failed to protect someone “alive and helpless” sometime during the disaster-and losing her baby has really put a weight on Holly. This could even explain her caregiving personality back in Endtown. The Doc made comments that showed Wally wasn’t Holly’s first “adoption”.

Welp, there’s the ol’ crazy eyes…

Pretty certain the brain – when activated – aknowledged itself as being a thing.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Fragile…very fragile…but this is Holly’s consistent mantra: better to die true to ideals than become the monsters that surround you. Its going to take more than reason to talk Holly out of this one.

Many of you have mentioned Clive having a radio beacon or something like that. While not yet totally confirmed, we now know that Wally is thinking the same thing..But we’re also given a touching reason for why Holly seems to be so unreasonable..While it is no secret that I have grown terribly impatient with Holly of late, she has one heck of a point: “We protect the helpless, don’t we?”.Stephanie! Stephanie! Number Five is alive! Number Five is alive!.Holly! Holly! Clive is alive! Clive is alive!.Pardon me. I must have a short circuit somewhere…

Is Holly facing an onset of schism syndrome?

…….molly is a hypocrite

she wanted to ditch kirbee because she thinks shes helpless out there and shell die / get people around her killed and now refuses to leave that brain behind

The point Wally needs to make to Holly is that Clive would be better off with the Top Siders than with them. The Top Siders may be monsters but they are monsters that are likely to plug Clive back into a PT so that he can resume the life he enjoys. This little band of wanderers lacks the electricity needed to wake Clive up, let alone the tech needed for him to interact with this world. All they can do, and will probably be able to do is “protect” him.Hmmm… I wonder if Kirbee may be the one who makes this argument to Holly.

Wow, is Aaron (N.) the master of heavy, or what??

I don’t know. The old “hidden beacon in the brain” trick seems pretty tame for the land of mind blowing plot twists that is Endtown.

Come on Wally! You’re an engineer for heaven’s sake. If Clive has a tracking beacon, it certainly isn’t original equipment for your Mark I Mod I mutant brain, and that means it was attached after it was plasticized. Any engineer worth his salt should be able to “un-attach” an added gizmo or at least remove the batteries it must be running on since Clive is no longer attached to an external power supply. ;-)

Could this be the big schism that ends Wally & Holly? Maybe that is why Kirby was show having feelings of affection towards Wally. No longer the Wally Holly show and now the Wally Kirby show. I for one would welcome it.

Oh Jesus, poor Holly. Like, I’m not saying that sarcastically, I’m serious. The poor gal has been fraying ever since the Milk Trial and her attempted suicide, and it’s finally started to show direly. I have a feeling an outburst about/flashback of her past, and more than likely her lost child, will be coming soon. Like, Wally’s right, but when you’ve dealt with a number of serious traumas, and they start to bubble up again, rationality definitely is not king in the mind by a long shot. I just hope that this doesn’t put an immovable wedge between her and the others.

Holly is stressed out. She had bags under her eyes yesterday. It is like Holly would definately be pro-life if she were here now. Eating the somewhat formed young of everyone else’s species was revolting but she really feels. Strongly.I’m not endorsing either side, that isn’t my point at all, it just occured to me when someone said she is standing firm on her viewpoint and will not change her mind.Unless she would happen to drop and end up killing him herself, or hopefully, if she had to choose between Clive and Chik. Hopefully she would protect Chk, being just a kid. I think this is a small enough rift they can overcome it, like if she had a long piece of rope to pull Clive behind at say, 50-100 feet.

If the ‘brains’ have a locator beacon in them why haven’t the Topsiders found Endtown? Dr. Mallard is using one of them in his robot.

Mallard may have known about the brain tags and removed Petey’s before rebodying him. I don’t think Mallard expected Wally and Holly would encounter and harbor another PT brain. Or the tags could have been added to PT brains after Petey defected, BECAUSE he defected.

It does seem like a slice of dialog has been left out between the last strip and this…an abrupt movie-like transition.There is one way they might find out. Figure out some way to ask Clive about it.

Holly has three choices, take a hike, dump Clive and move on, or hang on to that extra weight and soon enough she and the others will be joining Clive in the pantheon of plastic consciousness.Has she forgotten the absolute terror of her first meeting with Linda?That is her fate if she continues down the slippery slope of sentimental irrationality.Our heroes are in a survival situation in a barren and empty environment that can not provide any kind of shelter, sustenance or margin of safety. Unless Clive is critical to their survival he needs to be dumped.As far as I can see he is not..He is their Albatross, and until she wakes up to hard cold reality they are doomed to a horrible death and an even more horrifying afterlife encased in Styrene and Polyethyleneterepthalate..

With Jim, I kept hoping they might find some way to bring him out of schism..Perhaps with Holly, she can be saved. Look at the wide eyes, the dilated pupils, the corners of the mouth… Aaron, you draw them well.

In Holly’s defense:.If Clive is alive,.He is helpless..We protect the helpless,.Don’t we?.While Clive may be an albatross, the real problem is,.Is Clive alive?.Because, if he is, then Holly may be more right than wrong…

This coming from one who herself blew away MUTTs in the countdown episode, fully knowing they were former mutants and knowing PT brains are from immune mutants.That being said, Holly isn’t protecting the prevention of Clive’s brain, but the retrieval. They want Clive back to get information and put him back in service. In a sense, she is as guilty of kidnapping as much as protecting him (from what?)The Topsider’s would want to know what happened to their lost comrads that Jim and Sara killed as much as what happened to them. Clive wouldn’t know this, but he would know about the conversations on the P/T while he was active. It would cause the Topsiders to question why mutants were interested in Clive and what use he would be to them. While Clive could point to Holly’s compassion, I doubt it would be believed by the Topsiders and could be an effective red herring to them about what the Mutants are capable of doing.

He’s her brain child.

Last, and certainly least: Is Aaron’s health, physical and financial, improving? Yes, I’m being selfish; I would like to see Endtown return to, what was it, five installments a week..This three times a week has pretty much forced me into reading this thing like once a month, just so I can feel some movement in the story whenever I pick it up…

A potential use for Clive:

To those who think that Clive has a tracking beacon onboard, wether he knows it or not…I really hope that this is not the case, and for a good reason.Because, there is another brain on the loose, isnt there?Another freed P.T. control computer…. who may also have a tracking system he doesnt know about

Ooh moral dilemma!