Endtown by Aaron Neathery for August 14, 2015

Guess they’re showing off and explaining Holly’s substitute child.

Actually, yeah, he’s just asleep. Or as asleep as you can be with no electrical impulses bouncing around your neurons. Like a dirt nap. 6 feet under. Except you wake up when someone installs the AA batteries.

Clive is Frankenstein’s monster – comes to life with a jolt of electricity. Love Chic’s childhood innocence despite all he has seen.

Pity Chic’s mom had to die. She fought his dad over him.

“It’s life, Chic, but not as we know it.”

“He’s resting.”“Well then if he’s resting, let;s wake him up. HELLO CLIVEY! WAKEY WAKEY! I’VE GOT A NICE FRESH POWER CORD FOR YOU!”“There ! He moved”“He didn’t move, you hit the box….”

@hawgowar we never saw Helena die even though it’s implied. It may be cliched to think she’d just appear out of nowhere like maybe there’s still a ragtag band of lizards out there looking for revenge but hey, maybe it is just as clear cut as that.

Its fun to see Holly and Wally explain the facts of topside life to the newbies. Hmmm…it makes me wonder if the group has any tools in the bag.

I’ve read the story since the beginning, but for the life of me I can’t remember Clive? Anyone able to clue me in? Thanks.

in the 3rd frame wally is probably thinking " if i say “it” a third time shell bite me "

Wally: “You can say he’s gone on to a better place.”Chic: “Hewlett Packard?”

Unfortunately this is one thing the characters have erred in. If you have followed the entire strip, not one brain has been happy with their “liberation” from the top siders. Even Petey never truly joined, to Flask’s dismay.

He’s inert.

Just like “Independence Day”……“Is Mommy sleeping, Daddy?”“Yes, Sweetheart… Mommy’s sleeping.”

The look of chagrin on Holly’s face is precious, I don’t believe she has had to lie to a child before.

Waiting to see if anyone will tell us what those numbers mean. They can’t just be randomly placed.

The interesting thing about Clive is that he is the only PT I’ve seen that didn’t seem surprised that he was a brain in a box. Petey argued vehemently that Al and Gustine were lying when they told him that he was a disembodied head in a box. Linda’s transporter also took it badly when Petey told her (he?) about it. Clive, by comparison didn’t seem at all surprised when Holly told him. Did the TS start informing the PTs that they had brains since the rocket mission or Did Clive figure this out on his own?

One other thing to tell Chic—-that if they’re not real careful out there, especially ’round Topsiders, that what happened to Clive could happen to him, too…

Today I acted like a Topsider.No, this is not a confession.I came home this evening and discovered an ant swarm in the crack of my driveway. I quickly boiled some water to destroy the swarm. As I was doing it, I remembered the attack on “Unity”. That didn’t stop me, though. I’m not against all ants. Just the ones that want to make their home next to mine.

You could put a lot of interesting information in ID numbers if you wanted to. I once created a robotic culture that had ID numbers for everything. With the first few numbers being a “model” number which included digits that specified type, function and all sorts of interesting information. The last few digits were a serial # to show which individual of this particular model this was.I’m guessing that the Topsider’s PT brain ID number is merely a serial # but they may include a few digits for whether this brain is used in a PT, a pistol or a mutt. If this is merely a serial #, then there were over 13,000 brains plasticized when Clive was processed.