[619]Elsie (L.C.)

Jack is much less scrawny and rat-faced than his father(?)

More parallels with the past then.

At first, I thought "Holy cow! Jack is an alien who wants to mutilate cattle!"

Queslett kid of a Queslett parent: Just like Kat and Annie. Admittedly with Foley being limited to former creatures of the forest, and Chester seemingly given to the severely strange (which Jack wasn't until recently), the coincidence wouldn't really be that big. Still: a further datapoint about the school's possible selection criteria.

On the other hand there are people overtly homophobic while secretly gay, for example. It’s hard to tell.

See? Everyone was being a jerk to Jack but he was just a scared kid trying to deal with some messed up stuff and every thought he was a bad guy just because he was having a hard time. And Annie, instead of being a good friend and helping him sicked her demon toy on him (making it worse). Then as he was trying to understand some of this etheric stuff that was plaguing him he decides to observe Annie's stone for some kind of explanation (he's totally trying to understand it in panel 2), and Annie freaks him out farther and takes it from him instead of letting him borrow it for a bit. AND to top it all off she messes up his prospects with Kat and they would totally be great together. Annie's the jerk here, making assumptions and telling everybody he's a creeper.

Just now I realized that Annie was actually sneaking upon him in ether-world, and when he noticed her she took the stone and vanished.

Also, it's funny how Jack's father was the one doing the bullying in the past, and now his son is being shunned for being strange and disturbed.

Hey look, a minor exposition that generally has no substaniated evidence of anything other than speculation.

Either way, it seems that Kat isn't the only one with a good mind for robots.

Edit: How/why does the cow know his name?

bisected, it's because the last time we heard the name "Hyland" it was the name of the young jerk that Eglamore punched because he (Hyland) was going to call Surma a very bad word. :-)

We assume it was Jack's father, though ofcourse he could be uncle, or some other more distant relation.

I've been bothered by the way people have been responding to Jack, for the most part, as well. Though my computer's been dead for a while and I just got things back up and running so I'm actually glad it came up in this thread today.

Jack has had (if we hold the premise he's been to Zimmingham) a traumatic supernatural experience. Yes he's acting weird. Is he acting evil? Not particularly. Annie's nervous and wary of him, but he's in a bad place.

He's either losing his mind and aware of it or he's afraid that he's losing his mind. Losing your mind isn't something people are mildly concerned about. That's a "world falling apart" sort of concern. It's usually amplified in people like Jack who are smart and know it and are proud of it. He's scary because he's scared. Annie's being un-supportive and a little crappy about it because she is scared.

I wouldn't cheer her on, but I understand. I won't be boo hissing at Jack, though, because I understand that, too. Until he actually does something bad, rather than being a little scary, he's just someone who needs help.

On a lighter note, Elsie/L.C. is the sort of Dry/Subtle/Funny/Clever writing that Tom does so well and makes this comic a joy to read.

I almost completely agree with you, tyler. I kinda wish those were the words he'd used back in his first encounter with Annie & Reynardine: "You think I'm scary. I'm not scary. I'm scared." Or hell, just have him say "help me".

Main problem is he instead deals with the issue wearing either a threatening stance or a really creepy smile. And that in turn doesn't draw the right supportive attitude from Annie.

Ehhh, I think the Hyland thing is stretching my disbelief a bit hard. Too many connections to the past makes it too visible that this is a story, to me. Regardless, I wonder if Annie or Kat recognize the name. "Ties" wasn't from their perspective, after all.

Ben

When it happened, Zimmy seemed to think that anyone could have wound up in there.

When I saw panel 5, I was like "Oh my gosh he broke that cows leg oh wait nvm"

By the way, I'd just like to point out that Hyland Sr. may not be evil. Yeah, he was a huge jerk the one time we saw him. But just because he acted harshly towards someone different when he was a kid doesn't mean it'll carry over into his adulthood. I'm sure somebody could show 30 seconds of all of our childhoods that make each of us look despicable.

I really like Jack's eyes on this page. They seem to be saying "You just don't get it, do you?" Not angry, but very much alone. Yeah, I'm feeling more for the guy now.

You know... when did anyone really call Jack, or Hyland Sr., "evil"? I think you're all setting up straw men to punch so that you can say nice things about Jack in his "defense" against things that in actuality were never really said.

I'm especially troubled by fidodo's post, quoted here:


So, let me get this straight. Having some personal issues gives you permission to corner someone in a hallway, demand information from them, getting right up in their face, and later steal their belongings? Really??

If a friend of mine came up to me and said "Hey I have a problem", I would help them. If a person I met on one occasion previously cornered me and started demanding I tell them where another friend was, and I quote, "RIGHT NOW", I would tell them off or push them off or more, depending on just how threatened I felt.

Furthermore I deplore the statement that she sicced Reynardine on Jack. Really, did we even read the same comic? Annie WAS being as neutral and unthreatening as possible--Jack didn't even give her a CHANCE to help him, if help is what he really wanted. Annie TRIED to start answering his questions. and HE KEPT COMING at her. Annie sicced Rey on him... I'm sorry but that is just laughable. Reynardine intervened because he saw that Annie was being TOO POLITE and not getting this guy out of her face herself.

Moving on... I would like to see your reaction if someone stole something of yours in the middle of the night, because I'll bet even money that your reaction is not going to be "Oh, they probably just need to borrow it for a while, I'm not going to worry about it." Were you just trolling? Because I can't see how anyone can honestly stand behind such a preposterous idea. That stone is Annie's link to the entire world of the etherium. You think she's going to just let the guy who cornered her and demanded information from her BORROW it? Especially after what he did? ESPECIALLY after he used his "spider-pulse" thingie on her in the etherium? Did you even notice that she did not take it right away, but instead observed him, trying to figure out what was going on with him? Isn't she basically doing exactly what you claimed she was too callous to do, to the extent that Jack's "issues" allow her to?

I mean what exactly would you have Annie do instead? Let this creep walk all over her, abuse her, demand things from her, steal her belongings, because he has a personal issue? That's not a world I would want to live in or a relationship I would want to be in, sorry.

Jack isn't "evil". I don't think anyone's really saying that. He is, however, behaving way out of line, and it's unconscionable to try to justify that away. If someone corners you, they are crossing the line. If someone demands that you give them personal information about a friend of yours RIGHT NOW, they are crossing the line. When someone steals your stuff, they are crossing the line. And I have a real hard time understanding how anyone can justify those actions as being okay, and using the fact that he's messed up in the head as rationalization. It's not rationalization, it's context. Context for which we have to recognize that he is out of line and needs to be treated as such.