[1338] ... As a Joke?

[Nepycros]

Mort Plot Twist Time!

[Angry Individual]

Oops.

Good job, Dracula.

You just earned yourself another dramatic death by fire.

[sapientcoffee]

Aw, nuts. Go get 'im, Annie.

[freeformline]

Here we see that Ankou is either a very wise/cautious psychopomp, or that he has previous experience with angry Stibnites.

[Lightice]

Notesferatu is a dick.

I doubt that the "job" was the reason why he was being kept there, though.

[Chancellor]

I don't think it's as simple as that. Remember, Jones essentially "won" over Ankou for the decision regarding Morty, and she demanded he not meld with the Force so soon, in so many words.

Boss Vamps here agreed with Jones, and naturally they had to have something for the little guy to do until he came to be ready to pass on through his own terms.

If you ask me, Annie, the ROTD did quite right by Mort.

[jasmijn]

I want to say "called it", but even though I've thought this was the case for quite a while (it was pretty much obvious after the Jones+Mort flashback), I don't think I've actually, you know, called it.

Also: Annie is awesome when she gets angry on behalf of a friend (and not on behalf of herself).

[philman]

Haha, Love Ankou just sidling away from the angry fire elemental...

And also, I kind of assumed this from the start, and kind of thought Annie did too? Mort stayed behind for bureaucratical reasons to do with Jones, he wasn't trapped. And I thought Annie and Kat had seen through the "This job is very important" thing ages ago as well, oh well, guess not.

[arf]

Nosferatu just put his foot in it.
Ankou suddenly doesn't know this guy.
Something tells me Friday's page is going to have very warm overtones.

[zimmyzims]

Apr 9, 2014 7:10:09 GMT Chancellor said:

I don't think it's as simple as that. Remember, Jones essentially "won" over Ankou for the decision regarding Morty, and she demanded he not meld with the Force so soon, in so many words.

Boss Vamps here agreed with Jones, and naturally they had to have something for the little guy to do until he came to be ready to pass on through his own terms.

If you ask me, Annie, the ROTD did quite right by Mort.

Completely agree. To me it seems Mort was given a chance to experience as a ghost things that he would have missed because of his early death had he been immediately brought to dissolve into the ether. And so it has been just a way to keep him happy about his afterlife. Seems like Annie largely misunderstands this. Funny, because just recently she felt sad for Mort to go. Get your set together, young girl!

[arf]

I think what's happening here is that Annie hasn't been filled in on Jones' role in having Mort in the rotd*.

Nosferatu may be able to perform some dapper footwork, but Annie is a bit of a juggernaut when she gets fired up.

Come Monday, I suspect Jones will have some explaining to do. Cups of tea may be required.

[bnpederson]

I think this is a bit of Annie's psychopomp nature coming out, actually. Sure our perspective is that Mort was kept around in this world because of his fake job and that's good because he's going to "die" for real now. But look at this from a psychopomp perspective, beings who truly value whatever comes after this world: She was sad because she's losing her friend but it's his inalienable right to move on to the next phase of existence. Instead he was kept from that for seventy-four years because he believed a lie. Indeed, it was a lie the RoTD gave him for their own convenience (so he didn't "make a fuss") rather than to help him cope or otherwise assist him.

[Chancellor]

Apr 9, 2014 7:45:17 GMT arf said:

I think what's happening here is that Annie hasn't been filled in on Jones' role in having Mort in the rotd*.

Nosferatu may be able to perform some dapper footwork, but Annie is a bit of a juggernaut when she gets fired up.

Come Monday, I suspect Jones will have some explaining to do. Cups of tea may be required.

I'm sure she can dispel any remaining anger with an innocuous dinosaur fact or two. 

[GK Sierra]

Uh-oh.

Somebody is about to visit the afterlife's burn ward.

[Toloc]

Well, they just kept him around as a favour to Jones. (Which again goes to show that she indeed does care)
Jones felt that her "interference" (just being there) cheated him out of his chance at a full existence.

So they gave him purpose. Even if it was mostly fake. He apparently liked his job and existence as a ghost; so he led a happy unlife that was just as long as, probably even longer than, the life he would have had had he reached that bomb shelter.
Even if his job wasn't terribly important, it might not be completely pointless. At least he kept people aware that such things as ghost exist and believe seems to be important in that world. Or something, I don't know...

Keeping people motivated when their position is potentially literally eternal also seems quite important, the big guy they encountered in Final Records was quite apathetic.

All that being said it was still not a nice thing to do.

[yarksie]

damn Annie. torch that bastard.

[melkior]

I called it! I totally called it! Didn't I call it? Yep. I called it.

(Giggling like a little boy who has just learned what the word "fart" means)

Now I want to see how Bloodface Sharptooth will explain this to Annie.

[zimmyzims]

Apr 9, 2014 7:59:06 GMT Toloc said:

Well, they just kept him around as a favour to Jones. (Which again goes to show that she indeed does care)
Jones felt that her "interference" (just being there) cheated him out of his chance at a full existence.

So they gave him purpose. Even if it was mostly fake. He apparently liked his job and existence as a ghost; so he led a happy unlife that was just as long as, probably even longer than, the life he would have had had he reached that bomb shelter.
Even if his job wasn't terribly important, it might not be completely pointless. At least he kept people aware that such things as ghost exist and believe seems to be important in that world. Or something, I don't know...

Keeping people motivated when their position is potentially literally eternal also seems quite important, the big guy they encountered in Final Records was quite apathetic.

All that being said it was still not a nice thing to do.

Why not?

[TBeholder]

Oh noes. Someone just caught a bad case of Winsbury Withering!

Apr 9, 2014 7:04:07 GMT freeformline said:

Here we see that Ankou is either a very wise/cautious psychopomp, or that he has previous experience with angry Stibnites.

Ankou performs "back off slowly" quite well... Maybe he knows this *dance*, indeed.

Apr 9, 2014 7:10:09 GMT Chancellor said:

Remember, Jones essentially "won" over Ankou for the decision regarding Morty, and she demanded he not meld with the Force so soon, in so many words.

Boss Vamps here agreed with Jones, and naturally they had to have something for the little guy to do until he came to be ready to pass on through his own terms.

If you ask me, Annie, the ROTD did quite right by Mort.

Well, they gave him something to do which would help him at getting used to his new status as a ghost. But then "forgot to tell" it's but an exercise, not a big deal, so he just floated around the Court pointlessly, and that's it.
Remember, it lost the appeal to him specifically because he's bored there.

[keef]

So, is Annie going to tell Mort or will she make Nosferatu explain it to him?

Apr 9, 2014 8:30:58 GMT melkior said:

I called it! I totally called it! Didn't I call it? Yep. I called it.

Yes you did! Congrats!

(Giggling like a little boy who has just learned what the word "fart" means)

[Toloc]

Apr 9, 2014 9:41:32 GMT zimmyzims said:

Apr 9, 2014 7:59:06 GMT Toloc said:

Well, they just kept him around as a favour to Jones. (Which again goes to show that she indeed does care)
Jones felt that her "interference" (just being there) cheated him out of his chance at a full existence.

So they gave him purpose. Even if it was mostly fake. He apparently liked his job and existence as a ghost; so he led a happy unlife that was just as long as, probably even longer than, the life he would have had had he reached that bomb shelter.
Even if his job wasn't terribly important, it might not be completely pointless. At least he kept people aware that such things as ghost exist and believe seems to be important in that world. Or something, I don't know...

Keeping people motivated when their position is potentially literally eternal also seems quite important, the big guy they encountered in Final Records was quite apathetic.

All that being said it was still not a nice thing to do.

Why not?

They lied to him. And while I don't think it was only a joke, he was kept from passing on under false pretences.
That he seemed to be happy does not make the rotd's actions morally right.

[marv]

Panel 7...

Can't... stop... laughing...

[cu]

First trade secret: Imma guider, not a fighter.

Annie's fire glands are starting to hum.

[Ophel]

Apr 9, 2014 9:59:16 GMT Toloc said:

Apr 9, 2014 9:41:32 GMT zimmyzims said:

Why not?

They lied to him. And while I don't think it was only a joke, he was kept from passing on under false pretences.
That he seemed to be happy does not make the rotd's actions morally right.

I agree that lying to Mort about the job is not an ethical action to take, even more so if it's treated as a joke (like here). However, sometimes it's necessary you know?

Now don't jump on me and telling me things like "Oh so it's okay to lie then if something, something, unethical situation, selfish achievement of objectives other morally bad stuff happens as an example etcetera!?". There will be days when we tell lies so we can save someone from a bad or terrible situation (and it would be more justified if said situation is life-threatening and that someone is blameless from said situation, but ends up being caught, for example). To lie when it is objectively virtuous. Now that may be something hard to wrap your head around. I don't blame you. When will that come up? There is also no point in dwelling in what is perceived as a bad thing to do when you get is a lot more good things out of it. Friendship with Annie and Kat is definitely a good thing.

Anyway, Nosferatu here can settle all these things down if he just carefully and concisely explains Mort's situation, including points about Jones and wanting to give Mort a chance at enjoying the world (be it life or unlife) to Annie.

And to Mort.

[goldenknots]

I think that it was very poor judgement on the boss's part to make it a joke in that dismissive way. If he'd said that they wanted to keep Mort comfortable, and let him exist for longer, out of a sense of fairness and compassion, she'd have nodded and smiled and gone along with it, I bet.

That last panel, Annie's face... that is priceless. Wonderful work, Tom, absolutely stunning.

[goldenknots]

Oh yes, forgot. The hair... notice that it's acting up... that is a very bad sign. Don't mess with Antimony when her hair starts to sizzle.

[zimmyzims]

Apr 9, 2014 9:59:16 GMT Toloc said:

Apr 9, 2014 9:41:32 GMT zimmyzims said:

Why not?

They lied to him. And while I don't think it was only a joke, he was kept from passing on under false pretences.
That he seemed to be happy does not make the rotd's actions morally right.

There you suppose that lying is unconditionally wrong. Yet, we often have good reasons to give it good value.

[cu]

Apr 9, 2014 7:55:30 GMT GK Sierra said:

Uh-oh.

Somebody is about to visit the afterlife's burn ward.

Who knows? I wouldn't put past the ROTD to have several strategically situated buckets of water hanging from the rafters, just for giggles, they are all about traps. Maybe Ankou has had some prior experience and we are assuming all wrong.

[Sky Schemer]

Apr 9, 2014 11:49:10 GMT goldenknots said:

I think that it was very poor judgement on the boss's part to make it a joke in that dismissive way. If he'd said that they wanted to keep Mort comfortable, and let him exist for longer, out of a sense of fairness and compassion, she'd have nodded and smiled and gone along with it, I bet.

This.

It's not just what you say, it's how you say it.

[Misfrosseon]

Apr 9, 2014 11:49:10 GMT goldenknots said:

I think that it was very poor judgement on the boss's part to make it a joke in that dismissive way. If he'd said that they wanted to keep Mort comfortable, and let him exist for longer, out of a sense of fairness and compassion, she'd have nodded and smiled and gone along with it, I bet. 

Or, maybe, they really are trolling. :3

I, in no way, care for Mort but that's pretty sad D:

Edit: I just noticed Ankou is scurrying off, haha