Endtown by Aaron Neathery for September 09, 2016

This may not turn out well!

As Holly is full of emotional energy!

Sort of like an energy vampire, I guess. “He” sure stirred them up! Must be almost fully charged by now!

Hmmm, Wally’s dittos are stirring.

Oh…crap. A Mindworm.

The real question is: What happens when the gauge reads “Fully charged”? Are they all now a captive power supply for the Fitz? ;-)

PURE ENERGY.

Great expressions. Amazing art. so hard to draw convincing anthromorphs.

Computer: “And you guys are SUCH the drama queens.”

Panel 4:The dittoes are taking shape.

Emotional energy feeding dittos.

Oh, great,The Lucranians are psychic vampires….

Wow, the ship is an energy vampire.That can’t be good, but is this what has caused the ball of Wally’s dittos to get up too?

Hmmmm. IF the dittos feed on emotional energy that would explain why there was such a flood of dittos at Hillside with Sparkplug: they feed off his emotional energy and either called more of their own or reproduced….

If its the ship, itself, then that is still unexplained.

Ah, this computer’s previous job must have been as the greeter at Hot Topic.

Now that the emotional energy’s been released, does that mean they will be, too?

I think the computer is an emotional energy vampire. It has to interact with humans’ emotions, and needs a EmUi (emotional user interface). The best way to do that is to interact on that level, and it needs energies it can’t generate, but can manipulate. Wouldn’t that be a logical approach for AI getting across the Uncanny Valley?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

In the third Matrix movie, didn’t Neo allow himself to be absorbed by the Agent Smith program because he was a threat to both the uncontrolled humans and the Matrix, which “Deus Ex Machina” acknowledged by letting Neo be absorbed into his being, preempting Smith.

you got a ship that runs on feels?

By the way, “The Mindworm” is a short story written around 1950 by C.M. Kornbluth about a mutant wit this sort of hunger.

I’ve wondered how far away dittos can alter perception. Now I also question why they do it. How can dittos affect instrumentation-like radar screens or Topsider suit vision? Are they affecting the instruments, or the minds of the observers? Are they doing it from far away…or are they potentially everywhere…but gather around a rally poin when attracted.Attracted to a dead city. Attracted by a boat AI. Attracted by a glob of “domesticated” dittos which are actually hanging around because they leech off the emotions of their “master”. Or…none of the above.

The more dittos Wally has, the more powerful he becomes. This is true of ships named Fitzgerald, too. Eddy’s going to want all the shoes— er, dittos, I’m guessing, and it’s going to fight Wally for them. Desperately, because it knows now Wally can be a match for it. Then the question becomes, what will Wally do with all that power?

The reasons for an artificially intelligent tanker ship to need emotional energy are gonna take a lotta e’splainin. Also, note the foreshadowing ditto rising up in the foreground.

he just wants to FFFFEEEEEL

This has probably been pointed out before, but it sure explains how “Lyn” was able to “see” Wally. Question is now, what kind of emotion are we talking on? Misery or joy? Is Holly currently in a dreamscape where she is living happily with Lyn and their baby as non-mutants? Or is she reliving all that we just saw in that flashback? And what about Chick and Kirbee? And finally, is the ship the one “stealing the eyes?” or its mysterious captain?

Yes I suppose Holly could have sufficed all on her own considering her damage.

Perhaps an incarnation of Ardelia Lortz.

I’m sort of caught between believing that, from a certain point of view, the ship trading what the group needs for survival for what it needs for survival is not entirely unfair and being a little worried about our heroes being trapped.The other part of my mind wonders why the Lucranians designed a ship (or its computer) to run on emotional energy. I can only guess its cheaper and that a relatively small number of people can generate a sufficient amount of it. There are only 4 of them plus Irving.

Ooooo, is Irving going to be the bug in the computer?!?

Ship is making her relive all these horrors to power itself. Pull this plug. Cut the cord.

If it’s not only the ship which runs off emotional energy but also the dittos, then that might explain why Wally has such strong control over the dittos.Wally has some of the strongest emotions of any of the group, but where Holly is half-insane and the others are simply clueless, Wally is aware of his situation and of his own emotional intensity.The dittos obey Wally because he directs his emotional intensity, which amplifies it when compared to the undirected emotional intensity of the rest of the group.Put simply, Wally is the perfect emotional power source for the dittos, and obeying his directions is the best way to siphon off emotional energy from him.There have been references to “wild” or “feral” dittos. It’s possible that these are dittos which don’t obey anyone. They behave like the dittos which were tormenting Sparkplug. The “tamed” dittos have learned that obeying a person’s wishes gets them more energy in the long run than trying to prompt an unwanted emotional response such as with Sparkplug.I wonder how close to Aaron’s intent my guess is?

Aaron Neathery knows what a period is. There’s one in September 5 panel 1. He knows what an ellipsis is; there’s one in September 7 panel 1. So what is the meaning of two periods, which is his usual way of ending a sentence?

Except, the sound Wally makes tapping the large wall would be a dum not a tac. Otherwise, brilliant :)

I think it’s time for Wally to take all the dittoes.