Considering that Brandi was going all Chimera-eyed before, I’m wondering if she isn’t engaged in some human-scale chess again. Bud always said she couldn’t stand up to Brandi when she got going like that…
you’ve never had ‘one of those’ hangovers then… Its difficult enough to get any body motion…
I’ll bet she is using all her energy to just throw that!!! 🙁 🙁
Only proper way to get her up, is nice cup of *good* coffee…. 😛 🙂
If so, I’m deluding as well… looks like one of those gloating laughs with a bit of a sneer. I guess it figures, though… when was the last time you met a blanket which knew a darned thing about how to be sympathetic?
Nah…harsh is that plus the balnket being ripped off you, your ankles grabbed, and your butt unceremoniously hitting the floor after you’ve been yanked from a mattress that’s about 3 ft off the ground. 😛 It’s mean, but she’ll recover with the proper application of some coffee.
When I rented a house off base back in my navy days, one of my sailor roommates would occasionally tie one on. If he got sick on the couch (which happened more than once) we put the Music Man on the stereo and loop “Seventy Six Trombones” at high volume. It got him up and moving pretty quickly, considering. Once he started cleaning we’d turn the volume down but keep it quietly murmuring in the background as an explicit threat until he was finished.
Given May’s recent behavior (aka always being seen with a jug of some mixed beverage or other) it seems this is common between all the Golems except Tepoz (May’s prototype).
Speculation:
May probably did this on purpose. Designed her model (which the priests then used to build the GGG) with a glaring susceptibility to alcohol and other drugs, which just so happened to be the unique power of her prototype Tepoz whom she left in the care of the shadow-politicians/immortals (did we ever get confirmation just where Tepoz was during May’s trip to demon-world and the chimera’s rampage?).
A backup plan, considering how difficult the other GGG overrides are (accessing their chest panel and inscribing May’s coding language like May did to Jin, or having your heart stop + knowing May’s coding language like Monica did to Bud). Something for those not in-the-know like Kukuklan to use.
Plus is makes actually being a golem a little less dull if you can get drunk from time to time…or enjoy the pleasures of a well brewed cup of coffee or perfectly steeped mug of tea. 😛
This is an example of one of the basic problems I have with the GG’s. One I pointed out just after they were introduced all those years ago. They really are one dimensional characters and drunk to boot. They are both victim and hero. They have their own problems as well as those thrust upon them. They have become movers of the plot line and at the same time baggage to tote around and justify.
This is what bugs me. They just can’t be all that. Yes – REAL people can but these are characters to help move the story along. That is what I mean by the Dos Equis Effect – they are pushing the edge of the suspension of disbelief.
The very fact that they can have a debilitating hangover shows to me that they are simple as dangerous as an old stick of dynamite oozing nitro glycerin – or better yet a poorly kept gun left loaded all the time with a bum safety and a very good chance that the whole thing may blow up in your face when actually needed.
To me they have always been perpetual MacGuffin as any other character in the Wapsi-verse could have played the part. They are too flawed to generate the amount of concern worthy of their “page time” while simultaneously being given so much power that they Dos Equis off the pier as it were.
Also – today’s text implies that the self inflicted hangover was intentional – meaning that it was her intent to get this wasted. So… either Bud is alcoholic or Brandy is just being really mean and unsympathetic. Note of these are likable character to me.
Unlike Shelly I really do not care about the GG’s. With Shelly I am trying to like her more but I am having trouble with the whole reboot sphinx thing. She just was a more interesting character to me before that – does everyone have to be supernatural?.
I guess I will just have to keep reading and wait for the time when we have a Dietzel and Pizza Girl story arc.
They just can’t be all that. Yes – REAL people can but these are characters to help move the story along.
So you’re saying Paul is one of those great writers who can carry that level of human nuance into his fictional creation?
I know you’re not saying that, but I think you’re confusing your expectations from other media with what Wapsi Square is about. The GGs motivations are multilayered, but to focus solely on their raw Chimeric power is to miss the point. The overarching theme of the story is that of sacrifice— an appropriate and not uncommon one in YA, btw– and what that entails is range of hard and irrevocable choices: like we saw with Jin and we’re seeing with Shelly.
Brandi has a very dark and unlikable side (and knows it), and yes, Bud seems to have let herself get a bit out of control, too. But I see this as clearly plot-furthering and character-driven, hardly MacGuffin territory. If Brandi is moving people like chessmen, and Bud is demanding to be an 18-year-old at last, then their choices are narrowing, which is by definition how plots resolve.
While I agree with most of what you say (primarily about the frequency with which the GGG serve as plot-macguffins, I admit preferring the GGG when they were living WMDs trying to rediscover their humanity, as opposed to now when they were apparently omni-aware the entire time and actually more mature than Monica/Shelly/etc) I think you’re misreading Brandi’s line here.
“No pity for self inflicted injuries” refers to the fact that Bud knowingly got drunk, despite knowing that it would lead to a hangover the day after. So, since Bud gave herself the hangover by overdrinking, Brandi’s not going to coddle her (and, since the two are like sisters, not going to pass a chance to torture her as well).
Bud didn’t want lots of furniture. When Brandi took her shopping to Home Depot all Bud wanted was a lamp. It was made clear, through a flashback sequence, that it reminded her of the lamp her family had when she was growing up.
Depending on the culture and background, “Home” may simply be a sleeping room, and all of your life is outside — by the fire, gathering crops, hunting, socializing, etc. If this is what she’s used to, then that’s her comfort level. Austerity is not necessarily rejection.
Heh- this reminds me of a torture *I* would inflict on drunk roomies, etc….
If I like them, I tell them that bananas are good for hangovers (which they are) –
but if I don’t?
Corn nuts ™.
At university I could drink like a fish and, despite being drunk, the next morning I didn’t get hangovers (approx 95% of the time). I’m also a morning person, I loved living on campus and I tend to shout when I’m feeling happy. You can probably guess how popular I was the day after a night out. 😉
My normal work start is at 0630 – before the sun comes up most of the year – and I sometimes start at 0430 – before the sun shines any part of the year. All the doors I’m likely to walk out through have me facing east. I get that reaction most of the time I go outside at work 🙂
I think we’re seeing Brandi’s maternal instincts here — punishment is part of parenting. It looks to me that Brandi is trying to get Bud to think of the consequences of her actions.
Really? That looks to me more like Brandi is a morning person having maybe just a little too much jolly. Although as I’m usually up and walking the dog at 5am I can totally see where she is coming from 🙂
Serving liver&onions to anyone at all is a war crime, FairportFan!
I may come by this belief through honest genetics. When my maternal grandfather was a med student, he took part in an experiment in which the subjects were required to eat just one food for a prolonged period of time – up to a month I think – to see what the effect would be on their health and metabolism. My grandfather chose one of his favorite dishes – liver&onions. By the time the study ended he couldn’t even look at it, never ate it again, and I think his profound distaste caused an inheritable methylation of his DNA which I now share. I can’t even stand to be the kitchen when liver&onions is being prepared.
I really love the lens-flare (hopefully I’m using the right term) in that last panel; we’re getting a little glimpse of how Bud sees things at the moment.
Brandi is being Teh E-Vil… and really enjoying it.
Now would be the time to hit Bud with one of those nutritious morning drinks Brandi does. In her current state I doubt our fair haired girl could put any resistance; and if Brandi pours enough into her, she might start to like it…
OH HAY, it’s me and my sister. Someday morning people will have to experience what it feels llike to be a non-morning person tormented by one. Karma. 😉
Aaaaaaand an octopus to the face.
A *stinky* octopus.
YES! A Toy ‘Stinky’ Octopus.
I Want ONE!?!?!
and it doesn’t need to squeek.
Ditto!!!!
Check out the awesome work of Miss Cass-a-Frass: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SquidBullySquid 😀
That’s not Stinky – that’s Henry. Count ’em.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Hexapus
Isn’t octopus throwing more of a Detroit thing?
Perhaps Bud’s a hockey fan.
A-yup. Those air-guiter hangovers are nasty.
Reminds me: How does a indestructible clay doll get a hangover anyway?
I thought bud was the one with the burning voice, or at least the one that breathed fire.
Ba-dum!
And Brandy will thoroughly enjoy tormenting Bud. LOL
Considering that Brandi was going all Chimera-eyed before, I’m wondering if she isn’t engaged in some human-scale chess again. Bud always said she couldn’t stand up to Brandi when she got going like that…
MORN-ING! QUEEN’S GAMBIT!
queen’s gambit declined. slav defense.
SLAV DEFENSE DECLINED!!!
With the force Bud is capable of throwing things with Brandi is lucky that octopus didn’t explode on her face.
you’ve never had ‘one of those’ hangovers then… Its difficult enough to get any body motion…
I’ll bet she is using all her energy to just throw that!!! 🙁 🙁
Only proper way to get her up, is nice cup of *good* coffee…. 😛 🙂
From one addict to another!
Looks like Bud only made one more trip to the furniture store after getting her lamp the first time out. Anyone else see a face in her blanket?
It appears to be laughing. That my be one ‘o them optical delusions though.
If so, I’m deluding as well… looks like one of those gloating laughs with a bit of a sneer. I guess it figures, though… when was the last time you met a blanket which knew a darned thing about how to be sympathetic?
The simple austerity of the room made me grin, and a little sad thinking back to the *buying the lamp* episode.
It’s interesting how Paul makes it possibly for you to feel deeply for a pen and ink drawing 🙂 This is why Wapsi Square is top of my comic list
Heh. Shelly has an identity crisis, while Bud has a monster hangover. Personaly, I’d prefer the identity crisis.
No, don’t open the winDAAAAAAAGH…………
Whoa.
That’s harsh.
Nah…harsh is that plus the balnket being ripped off you, your ankles grabbed, and your butt unceremoniously hitting the floor after you’ve been yanked from a mattress that’s about 3 ft off the ground. 😛 It’s mean, but she’ll recover with the proper application of some coffee.
No – that’s cruel.
For utter torture, a sponge dipped in ice water can be used to trickle drops, one by one, on the sufferer’s head…
When I rented a house off base back in my navy days, one of my sailor roommates would occasionally tie one on. If he got sick on the couch (which happened more than once) we put the Music Man on the stereo and loop “Seventy Six Trombones” at high volume. It got him up and moving pretty quickly, considering. Once he started cleaning we’d turn the volume down but keep it quietly murmuring in the background as an explicit threat until he was finished.
Ah, youth.
@Julie – sounds as if you’ve had a 4 AM wakeup call at boot camp, or the equivalent?
So I understand why May made golems capable of getting drunk, but why did she make them capable of having hangovers? Just rule of funny?
Seems in general the golems are still susceptible to addiction, even though they don’t require any form of nutrition.
Example: Bud’s coffee addiction: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/coffeeaddict/
Given May’s recent behavior (aka always being seen with a jug of some mixed beverage or other) it seems this is common between all the Golems except Tepoz (May’s prototype).
Speculation:
May probably did this on purpose. Designed her model (which the priests then used to build the GGG) with a glaring susceptibility to alcohol and other drugs, which just so happened to be the unique power of her prototype Tepoz whom she left in the care of the shadow-politicians/immortals (did we ever get confirmation just where Tepoz was during May’s trip to demon-world and the chimera’s rampage?).
A backup plan, considering how difficult the other GGG overrides are (accessing their chest panel and inscribing May’s coding language like May did to Jin, or having your heart stop + knowing May’s coding language like Monica did to Bud). Something for those not in-the-know like Kukuklan to use.
Plus is makes actually being a golem a little less dull if you can get drunk from time to time…or enjoy the pleasures of a well brewed cup of coffee or perfectly steeped mug of tea. 😛
She was the first golem. maybe she wanted to keep as much as her … humanity..as possible.
This is an example of one of the basic problems I have with the GG’s. One I pointed out just after they were introduced all those years ago. They really are one dimensional characters and drunk to boot. They are both victim and hero. They have their own problems as well as those thrust upon them. They have become movers of the plot line and at the same time baggage to tote around and justify.
This is what bugs me. They just can’t be all that. Yes – REAL people can but these are characters to help move the story along. That is what I mean by the Dos Equis Effect – they are pushing the edge of the suspension of disbelief.
The very fact that they can have a debilitating hangover shows to me that they are simple as dangerous as an old stick of dynamite oozing nitro glycerin – or better yet a poorly kept gun left loaded all the time with a bum safety and a very good chance that the whole thing may blow up in your face when actually needed.
To me they have always been perpetual MacGuffin as any other character in the Wapsi-verse could have played the part. They are too flawed to generate the amount of concern worthy of their “page time” while simultaneously being given so much power that they Dos Equis off the pier as it were.
Also – today’s text implies that the self inflicted hangover was intentional – meaning that it was her intent to get this wasted. So… either Bud is alcoholic or Brandy is just being really mean and unsympathetic. Note of these are likable character to me.
Unlike Shelly I really do not care about the GG’s. With Shelly I am trying to like her more but I am having trouble with the whole reboot sphinx thing. She just was a more interesting character to me before that – does everyone have to be supernatural?.
I guess I will just have to keep reading and wait for the time when we have a Dietzel and Pizza Girl story arc.
They just can’t be all that. Yes – REAL people can but these are characters to help move the story along.
So you’re saying Paul is one of those great writers who can carry that level of human nuance into his fictional creation?
I know you’re not saying that, but I think you’re confusing your expectations from other media with what Wapsi Square is about. The GGs motivations are multilayered, but to focus solely on their raw Chimeric power is to miss the point. The overarching theme of the story is that of sacrifice— an appropriate and not uncommon one in YA, btw– and what that entails is range of hard and irrevocable choices: like we saw with Jin and we’re seeing with Shelly.
Brandi has a very dark and unlikable side (and knows it), and yes, Bud seems to have let herself get a bit out of control, too. But I see this as clearly plot-furthering and character-driven, hardly MacGuffin territory. If Brandi is moving people like chessmen, and Bud is demanding to be an 18-year-old at last, then their choices are narrowing, which is by definition how plots resolve.
While I agree with most of what you say (primarily about the frequency with which the GGG serve as plot-macguffins, I admit preferring the GGG when they were living WMDs trying to rediscover their humanity, as opposed to now when they were apparently omni-aware the entire time and actually more mature than Monica/Shelly/etc) I think you’re misreading Brandi’s line here.
“No pity for self inflicted injuries” refers to the fact that Bud knowingly got drunk, despite knowing that it would lead to a hangover the day after. So, since Bud gave herself the hangover by overdrinking, Brandi’s not going to coddle her (and, since the two are like sisters, not going to pass a chance to torture her as well).
I remember living in an apartment with that little furniture when I was a student because I was broke, what’s their excuse?
Bud didn’t want lots of furniture. When Brandi took her shopping to Home Depot all Bud wanted was a lamp. It was made clear, through a flashback sequence, that it reminded her of the lamp her family had when she was growing up.
Actually it was IKEA, and Bud took HERSELF there, but the rest of your statement was correct.
I’m the first to admit that my memory is far from perfect.
yeah, but… If NOBODY is perfect, and I’M a NOBODY… Then I MUST be Perfect, Right?… 😀
Depending on the culture and background, “Home” may simply be a sleeping room, and all of your life is outside — by the fire, gathering crops, hunting, socializing, etc. If this is what she’s used to, then that’s her comfort level. Austerity is not necessarily rejection.
Newton’s 3rd law is not just for physics.
Get drunk, get a hangover.
Get a hangover, someone will torment you.
Heh- this reminds me of a torture *I* would inflict on drunk roomies, etc….
If I like them, I tell them that bananas are good for hangovers (which they are) –
but if I don’t?
Corn nuts ™.
At university I could drink like a fish and, despite being drunk, the next morning I didn’t get hangovers (approx 95% of the time). I’m also a morning person, I loved living on campus and I tend to shout when I’m feeling happy. You can probably guess how popular I was the day after a night out. 😉
I’ve never had a hangover, no matter how much I’ve consumed. That said, I’ve also never been a morning person, so Brandi’s actions are still evil. 🙂
AHH!! The Day Star. It burns!!
I know that feeling well. After pulling lots of all-nighters.
CODING!!! I was coding. Whaddija’ think I was doing.
Sheesh you people….
Mmmm, I always thought that was “Ebil day star”. (Ebil is evil on steroids by the way)
My normal work start is at 0630 – before the sun comes up most of the year – and I sometimes start at 0430 – before the sun shines any part of the year. All the doors I’m likely to walk out through have me facing east. I get that reaction most of the time I go outside at work 🙂
LOL – Brandy is being *wicked*
I think we’re seeing Brandi’s maternal instincts here — punishment is part of parenting. It looks to me that Brandi is trying to get Bud to think of the consequences of her actions.
Heh. My wife and stepdaughter hate me in the morning – no matter how little sleep i get, i’m usually wide awake and cheerful.
They aren’t.
My husband is like that. I call his spawn of Satan until I’ve either been awake for at least an hour or I’ve had breakfast. 😉
Then what do you call him???
(hides under the stairs)
A Marked Man.
Evillest grin i’ve ever seen outside a Batman comic…
Really? That looks to me more like Brandi is a morning person having maybe just a little too much jolly. Although as I’m usually up and walking the dog at 5am I can totally see where she is coming from 🙂
Morning people’s grins are evil by nature. 😛
No, we’re not! 😉
Though, I do confess, that I plan, if I ever have children, to fry something for breakfast if they ever come home drunk. 😉
Sorry, that is truely evil, especialy if you plan to make them clean up the mess they will make. ;-p
Liver and onions.
Serving liver&onions to anyone at all is a war crime, FairportFan!
I may come by this belief through honest genetics. When my maternal grandfather was a med student, he took part in an experiment in which the subjects were required to eat just one food for a prolonged period of time – up to a month I think – to see what the effect would be on their health and metabolism. My grandfather chose one of his favorite dishes – liver&onions. By the time the study ended he couldn’t even look at it, never ate it again, and I think his profound distaste caused an inheritable methylation of his DNA which I now share. I can’t even stand to be the kitchen when liver&onions is being prepared.
@Dave that isn’t me: his DNA turned to wood alcohol?
I know you meant “mutation” there, but the wording triggered my pun generator.
That bed looks a little too lumpy. Are you sure Bud is in bed alone?!
It’s just that her legs aren’t flat. She probably had to sit up to throw the octopus toy and she hasn’t fully settled down again.
She looks curled into a fetal position.
I really love the lens-flare (hopefully I’m using the right term) in that last panel; we’re getting a little glimpse of how Bud sees things at the moment.
I believe the term is back-lighting. Lens flare are little circles or polygons paired with streaks, all made from light. Like so: http://images.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/lensflare_image1-zm.jpg
I’d go with back-lighting that’s over-exposed. That’s some serious light coming in.
Or maybe it’s just the way it looks to Bud.
This NEEDS to be a T-Shirt!
Someone make that damn cat stop stomping its feet! 😛
This is not a bentlam hangover.
QX.
Brandi is being Teh E-Vil… and really enjoying it.
Now would be the time to hit Bud with one of those nutritious morning drinks Brandi does. In her current state I doubt our fair haired girl could put any resistance; and if Brandi pours enough into her, she might start to like it…
And this is why I would never want a roommate.
Ain’t Brandi just a little ray of sunshine right now?
Hssss.
(That’s either me acknowledging a pun, or Bud bursting into flames like a vampire at the touch of all that sunshine… take your pick).
Ow. Just Ow. Pay the pun jar.
OH HAY, it’s me and my sister. Someday morning people will have to experience what it feels llike to be a non-morning person tormented by one. Karma. 😉
It’s called being kept awake by a night owl. As a night owl forced into the mold of a morning person for work, I get both ends of the spectrum.
“I was having a dream today, Brandi.”
Heheheh. Love it.
Now I’m thinkin’ of a scene in the movie Innocent Blood. A part played by Don Rickles.
Anyone else notice the face in the blanket?
Yup… see TlalowW’s message at 1:15 AM today.
STINKY!!!
Yup, that’s always been a standing rule in my family. No pity for self-inflicted wounds.