Endtown by Aaron Neathery for September 19, 2016

Oh, my…. NOW WHAT?? Are the Mutated merely ditto illusions??

Talk about a big fat wrench thrown into the works!

WHA?!?!????

I don’t comment often, but I’ve been following this strip for a while. Can’t wait to see how this is explained.

Welcome aboard the Lucranian trade ship “Bigfatexposition” To put it another way: “holy crap!”

One Hell of a revelation there Aaron.

Oh, great! Is it about to blame the Government for all this!? Or is it because of “climate change”?!?

Love the dittos imitating Wally.

C’mon Jenner let’s hear your take; Aaron has finally thrown a twist that officially blew my mind…What other medical possibility could there be…

Dunnn, dunn, dah….

Time for a MacGuffin!

Okay, it can’t be a ditto illusion if the dittos didn’t arrive until after the war: from the crash of the Lucrainian ship. So Apex was poisoning people? the Aimsworth radiation caused the mutations? Some other cause????

I’m freaking out over here!!!!!

Curiouser and curiouser.

The ship’s computer is lying.:-)

Ha Ha! Topsiders living in suits….possibly for nothing.

There is no virus. It’s actually much worse.

Then why are topsiders still mutating when exposed to air?

I have an idea. Assuming Amesworth radiation tweaks matter out of this reality, perhaps the ‘mutations’ are actually reality cross conversions? Amesworth weakens the inter-realty separation, if there is such a thing? Since the ‘mutations’ are nearly instantanious, anything like normal biology isn’t involved (other than in superhero or magical circumstances) so it could be something going on there, combined with the mind state of the victim. Further, perhaps Sanders’ successful anti-Amesworth experiment was only once in all the alternatives, somehow tweaking the outcome of the end of the world as they knew it? Just a thought.

But…something prevents those who are inside the Topsider suits from changing until the suits are breached. People on the outside have been changed. Wally is not the man he used to be. This is so cool.

It’s Revelation Time!

It doesn’t matter to the infection if you are awake in vitrio or asleep.

The plot… thickens.

0_0

Those who have been here for while will probably remember that it has been mentioned previously that there was never any definitive proof that the mutations were due to a virus, though the general consensus seemed to be that they were. The topsiders certainly seem to be operating from that premise. Jim and Sarah certainly seem to be the latest examples of un-mutated individuals changing upon exposure to (apparently) the air. What do we actually KNOW?1. Not everyone changes. Al, Sparky and Marx are examples.2. Changes that did happen were seemingly random and widely scattered at first, but increased in number and frequency over time in a fashion similar to the spread of infectious diseases.3. Both conscious and unconscious transformations begin immediately upon atmospheric exposure and seem to progress at a rate much faster than a simple biologic mutation would imply.4. Anthro mutants posses the ability to heal much faster than un-mutated humans (implying accelerated celluar activity). 5. THERE IS NO MUTAGENIC VIRUS. ;-)

WARNING: Paradigm shift in progress. PROCEED WITH CAUTION! (Danger, Will Robinson!) ;-)

Wait… WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?

Love the ditto guy mimicking Wally… ;-)

The look on Wally’s face in the last panel is absolutely priceless…

Thankfully I wasnt drinking anythng when I read this What a reality twisting bombshell

Is that AI a mutated micrcsoft/windows app ? It remind me of that stupid paper clip that that keep popping up

It’s not a virus, it’s a bacteria!

Nice eyes 4th panel….

Perhaps the mutation effect is tied to the one in over a billion effect of this Earth reality being the only one that still has life. But don’t ask me what kind of causal relationship between these two facts might be. Is there some kind of Gaea entity here, preserving life and guiding changes?

I need something stronger than a “Bum-Bum Buuum!” for this page. Also, this would have made a great Friday cliffhanger day.

It’s not a virus causing a mutation, it’s the body evolving to survive. Those who are awake when the evolution takes place can’t handle it, and turn into a monster. Those who are asleep evolve into an animal. I realize, evolution is a mutation, some mutations are beneficial, some, not so much. And not everyone who evolves when they are asleep can handle it when they wake up.

This is definitely the biggest plot twist yet!

Aaron….WOW!!!!!!

For those who missed it on the weekend (and apologies for the repeat)… Cat’s in the Crater, by JennerTo the tune of Cat’s in the Cradle by Harry Chapin.Fell in love with a mouse just the other day,She stuck her tongue out at me and said “C’mon, let’s play.”And all my lonely pain, she made it go away.We had our sweet, sweet love as side by side we lay.And while she heard my story and was making me whole,I still didn’t look at her soul, no,I never listened to her soul.And the cat’s in the crater of the dingy room.Ditto-ball toy and the man in the gloom.When you gonna learn if you don’t know how,That she needs to tell you now, man?Your Holly needs to tell you now.My mouse went to jail just the other day.She was blamed and shamed and then locked away.I couldn’t fight the Man, only sit and pray,Play a game of ball, I guess that’s okay.And when she came back home at the end of it all,I still hadn’t looked at her soul, no.I never listened to her soul.And the cat’s in the crater of the dingy room.Ditto-ball toy and the man in the gloom.When you gonna learn if you don’t know how,That she needs to tell you now, man?Your Holly needs to tell you now.We went for a roam just the other day,She picked up an orphan on a plastic tray,And she hugged him tight. Never let him stray.Through all the fire and death, no-one could take him ‘way.So why’d it break her heart when he’s thrown in a hole?I still hadn’t looked at her soul, no.I never listened to her soul.And the cat’s in the crater of the dingy room.Ditto-ball toy and the man in the gloom.When you gonna learn if you don’t know how,That she needs to tell you now, man?Your Holly needs to tell you now.My mouse had a dream just the other dayOf a deep, dark secret in the warlord’s pay.Of a baby lost and a lover slainAnd the world burned up and only lonely pain.And I realised, with the credits a-roll,I’d just had a look in her soul, oh.At last I’d listened to her soul.And the cat’s in the crater of the dingy room.Ditto-ball toy and the man in the gloom.When you gonna learn if you don’t know how,That she needs to tell you now, man?Your Holly needs to tell you now.

no virus waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaht?

hmmm…and people were changing prior to bombs going off right? So…dang…super curious….

It’s not a Mutagenic VirusIt’s a Psychotropic Virus.It makes you THINK that you’ve been transformed, and gives you the telepathic ability to force everybody else to see the transformation that you think that you’ve undergone.

As for those who are awake turning into monsters when they get infected…What would happen if you suddenly were inundated with every thought and feeling of everyone within a 10 mile radius? You would probably go crazy trying to find out which thoughts were YOU. But being asleep, or otherwise out of touch with reality, it’s possible to adapt.

Maybe. It’s possible. Perhaps.

Good one. A virus wouldn’t know that.

I suspected as much from Sparkplug’s “cure.”

Whoa.

So, perhaps steve gallaci has it right… a combination of cross reality bleed with an almost “Jungian gestalt” thing going on. Note that the choice of creature when unconscious is remarkably appropriate at times. It almost makes sense that the conscious mind couldn’t cope, thus “I am turning into a monster” goes where it goes, whereas the unconscious mind collapses a multiverse quantum state based on the attributes most suitable to the id… if not the ego. Those in an “altered state” wound up arguing with that assessment, because they weren’t entirely free of said ego.

At least it sure looks good on paper. :P

I struggled with the last 2 strips and this leaves me more lost than ever, but like someone said, "it’s not so bad if you can’t understand it, just go along for the ride.Since we can do almost nothing that is happening around us, this seems to hold true for life as we know it.If we went back to the pre-Kennedy assassination, could we possibly imagine what things are like now?The writer of Brave New World saw it, and I had some horrific nightmares about aliens from UFOs, but that was after Roswell.

Absolutely amazing…….!!!

TO WanderWolf: Thanks for explanations. Have you been browsing around about the Mandela effect too?

Hokey smoke, Bullwinkle!

DUM-DUMM!!! Scene change!

o-O…>-<….O-o…O-O??? Mind blown. This is a roller coaster ride that not only takes you for one wild ride, but then flings you into orbit.

I certainly would like to see an animated movie. The story line with its roller-coaster twists are amazing!

Okay, that’s a big shoe to drop. O.o

“You see, it’s just all b-”computer crashes, ship explodes“God, Wally! I’m so glad you’re safe! We managed to escape his prison by ripping the circuits out!”

Holy bat crap Catman! A new bomb just dropped. No virus?Wally: Y-you mean?Computer: Precisely!Wally: We are just whims of some hidden artist making us into his own vision of what he thinks we should be?Computer: Isn’t it obvious?

People were transforming before the End, and before the Lucranians arrived to scavenge, so dittos aren’t involved. They were transforming more often the closer to the End, and Apex was issuing smart bombs to destroy the evidence, so it seems to have something to do with Amesworth radiation, or somethng Apex was working on.I proposed in the beginning that there was probably some interreality matter exchange going on with the transformations. It doesn’t explain how people kept their memories after the exchange, though.Maybe while the body exchanges, the soul remains, and we’ve seen that the soul exists in this world. If people are exchanging bodies with people from other realities and overwriting their engrams with their souls’ memories, there might be residual memories of the bodies’ previous owners. And some other realities are having reverse Endtown problems where anthros are dealing with people turning into humans.Mallard recognized Marx’s dimensionometer, indicating there had been some research in this world into crossing realities. Maybe Apex had been researching that and something went wrong, making people’s bodies cross realities but not their minds. I suspect that Mallard may have worked for Apex and changed his name to match his form so people wouldn’t recognize him as possibly the cause of all this.Or maybe Aaron is actually working for DC and this is part of Rebirth, with Dr. Manhattan fooling with the realities and consolidating this world with Earth C-minus.

Found in the past: When Wally Met Holly.

Hmmm…No virus? Considering the possibilities…The computer is lying. It claims to be recharging on the gang’s emotional/mental energy. It has ample incentive to lie about something important to get Wally riled up.Something else caused the changes and those who didn’t know any better just assumed it was a virus.Aaron Marx is behind this.There were no mutations, the war never existed and the past that everybody remembers never existed. Wally and company are actually human beings who have been subjected to an artificial reality program that got corrupted and went a little crazy. (I’m not certain I buy this as Aaron Neathery is too original to rip off “The Matrix”.Well…that’s my top 4. What do you think?

I’ve said before its amesworth radiation related, but I always assumed the radiation made the virus more potent. Now I’m lost.

Wait, wait, I know!! its in the beans!

Why should a virus be able to change one so completely? How do you miss my point so completely. It is obviously some how depends on how the nervous system and brain on running as to affect it. This is hardly a deep analysis to be sure. It has nothing to do with intelligent viruses either. It is all programmed reaction. I don’t expect you to agree, you are obviously more intelligent than I am but I have my own position. Understand?

Computer: “Of course there’s no mutagen. You fall asleep. You wake up in the next universe over. That’s why all the other parallel universes are empty – all the survivors over there woke up over here.”Wally: “Of course.”

I did not see that coming ! Sitting on edge of seat til next panel.

Tah-Dah! This explanation will be interesting. Why do people mutate if not in response to a virus?

whaaaaaat ? nice another reveal ! first the what dittos are now the "virus "? the origen of the virus was something i wanted to know for a long time !

So people just spontaniously turn into monsters because they want to?

Well, it’s not as if Wally wasn’t presented with this particular clue before. Aaron Marx either was human, or looked human, and he didn’t mutate. Did Wally rely too much on “looked” rather than “was?”

Went through the process of making account for the sole purpose of this comment,

huh? wwwwwWWWHHHHAAATT!(Mind blow, Nuclear style.)

WHAT?!Holy s… this comic is getting more and more interesting!

There’s always been some that are immune. Al and his friend at the beginning of the strip (whose name I forget and I’m too lazy to look up) There were some other humans in the back ground when last we were at Endtown (don’t know if they are still there) Blackie’s beau was immune, then of course there’s Sparkplug. He made himself immune to ainsworth radiation. Don’t know if that made him immune to the mutagen.

…

The Atch-Eee-Double-Toothpicks?!

Perhaps a lingering pollutant instead of virus?

Mutation isn’t the disease, IT’S THE CURE!!! ;-)

Please excuse a little thinking out loud (or in writing, if you will). I know this is a comic strip, but let’s apply a little logic and/or common sense just for kicks. I think we have to start with the premise that the physical mutations are real and not illusions of some kind. Whether anthro or monster or whatever, physical beings change in size and shape (bust out of or shrink out of clothing – loose pinky fingers, etc) Take the example of the 3 topsiders Al and Gustine encountered on the quest. Al tears the first guy’s suit and he changes into something small and gets stomped. Gustine tears the second one’s suit and he grows into a huge monster and consumes the third guy. Assuming there were actually three topsiders there (they were physical enough for Al and Gustine to manhandle) then their transformations could not have been simply in Al and Gustine’s heads. Then there is Linda. She likewise transformed before our eyes and continued to be a very real presence to numerous individuals from that point on. So unless this whole shebang is a dream (most likely dreamer would be Al) then the mutations are physical and caused by something that the topsider’s suits are keeping them isolated from. Trying to twist my brain enough to follow this serpentine monstrosity is giving me a killer headache and a nasty case of vertigo, so I’ll just take a page from Scarlett’s script and think about this tomorrow… ;-)

Wait, but… but then that time…but the… but..

WHAT