Endtown by Aaron Neathery for November 23, 2016

Aaand it’s gone….

Dust in the wind…….

“DID YOU KEEP THE RECEIPTS?!?!”

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep."

.

W. S. The Tempest

o k … was expecting a “better get back in there” before it vanished – but cutting to the chase and write Holly off is ok too.

Makes you wonder what of the whole ship thing was in fact real…

Dang! Too many questions…not enough answers.

Yow! Okay, I’m going to advance an off the wall theory. There is no transmogrifying virus. The DITTOS are the virus.

Everything the characters have seen, the world, each other…. It’s all a ditto created illusion that can implant itself within the mind.

As far as we can tell, Wally isn’t really a cat and he’s standing in a field of grass that stretches as far as the eye can see.

Why would the dittos do all this… simple, self-preservation through control of the world everyone perceives.

Anyone have a red pill I can take and get out of this mess?

The ship’s computer did say Holly would be enough for power, but it got greedy. But Wally just made for too much trouble. Get him off, and give him the booby prizes to keep him distracted. And then fade to another part of the mutli-dimensional space.

.

So long, Holly, maybe Marx will win you in a card game, sometime, somewhere..

So it’s “Hide and Seek” is it? Game on. ;-)

If Kirby and Chick disappear as well, it’s officially freak out time… ;-)

Uh Oh. I didn’t really expect that. But on the other side we know that this doesn t have to be that Holly is OFF forever. It could be that all of this was Illusion to gain enough power to jump away and leave Holly there in the dust.OT: The last Endtown book was really long ago. I hope Aaron is thinking about one or two new ones. There is enough great story now for some new hardcovers. :)

I’m going to still go with the most likely possibility being that Holly is alive and is captaining that ship, but she’s also still mostly insane which is why she’s initiated a (what’s it called again?) emergency translocation jump… or something… instead of returning to Wally.

Next most likely is that Holly is dead and the ship is jumping away in order to cut its losses since it now knows that Wally is too powerful for it to either fool or control for long.

We never did get the ship’s right name.

That confirms my theory that Holly is now captaining the ship.

Ditto illusion …. ? Did the Ditto’s actually make the ship seem to disappear? Maybe? Just a thought that I hadn’t seen posted yet?

Stupid, transdimensional garbage trawler. Good riddence. Only boat I’ve ever known that WANTED vermin onboard.

Oooohhhhh Fahrvergnügen… Poor, poor, poor Wally.

Awwww CRAP!

What’s that on the ground in front of Wally in panel four?

His dittos?

So the door closes on this chapter of Endtown with the ship disappearing. Holly is reunited with Lyn, wherever that takes them remains a mystery. It’s been an interesting journey, complete with side trips and wild roller coaster rides for us to view and comment on. Now starts a new beginning, and in whatever circumstances befall Wally, Kirbee, Chic, and Irving, I’m sure we ‘Neatherized’ readers will find entertaining, perplexing, and wonderful.

Bon Voyage, Holly!

Is everyone gone?!

Three letters and a punctuation mark.

WTF?

insert TARDIS noises as the ship fades

I’m assuming it’s the dittos making the ship disappear. Wally’s got some obedient dittos so it’s possible that he can still make a trip back inside. It’ll just be made more challenging.

Holly’s finally gone home.

“Her voice was soft and coolHer eyes were clear and brightBut she’s not there”

Were Kirbee’s tears really those of Holly saying good bye? We still don’t know that Kirbee and the rest of the crew are behind Wally, They also might gave been illusions created by Holly and they’re gone now as well.

Well I guess they’re not going back to Endtown anytime soon.

I’d like to think that Holly isn’t dead but we just won’t be seeing her for some time to come.

You betcha they won’t be heading back to Endtown anytime soon. Imagine trying to explain to Doc what became of her (if he could even explain)

Maybe Holly preffered a dream from the ship about Lyn and the baby instead of travelling to Endtown with Wally and Kirbee (thinking she already had lost Wally to Kirbee).

And this is not even cliffhanger Friday! I don’t know what I will do if Kirby, Chic and Irving also disappear! Man, What a Story!!!

They might have split up or they might have capsizedThey may have broke deep and took waterAnd all that remains is the faces and the namesOf the wives and the sons and the daughters

Hang on, if Not-Holly is gone, and so is the ship, then what’s that on the ground in front of Wally?

Well…hopefully Holly’s just layin on the ground somewhere where the ship..used to be…

Hard to believe she’d’ve left without a word…

Also curious..is that a small pile of dittos in front of Wally there?

I’d guess the ship is cloaked now and it’s pulling the spacial illusion trick Wally did when the mutts were looking for Clive. He might be able to get through the illusion, but decide it’s not worth it. Holly doesn’t want to be found. She apparently did leave something for him to remember her by, possibly her skirt.

It looks like the art pieces showing Wally and Holly in the Krup rover and them together in the Big Green were just possible futures. If those scenarios do come up, it would be with Kirbee in Holly’s role now.

The ship probably stepped one dimension over to forestall any problems. Or perhaps it relocated itself in this one to a more fertile hunting ground, where it could pick up more batteries and continue its recharging process.

Well… Holly did say that she did not want to go back to Endtown…

They are away from Endtown.

;-(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Interesting . . . . I guess the rabbit hole did close . Maybe?

Brings up some interesting questions…

The idea that the dittos is the virus or part of did occur to me as well but depending on how firm a grasp Wally has on the dittos and based on the fact the he saw that Holly wasn’t real I would think that he would have seen thru the illusion or at least have had hints but perhaps his control was / is not strong enough. If that is the case I wonder if he gets stronger if hints of an illusion will peak thru. Then again if the dittos were the virus then a simple bio suit wouldn’t stop it.

( Maybe a tin foil hat would ? _ )

As mentioned if the ship is just cloaked by the dittos Wally might be able to see that and get back to it.

If the ship left this dimension/reality did it do so because it did indeed find that Wally’s control of the dittos was a threat or did it just get what it wanted?

Also it leaving then emphasizes the next set of of questions I have been wondering since the talk with the AI

Did the ship in fact appear to them as an opportunity when they stumbled upon it or did it in fact seek them out and was Holly the target or just another opportunity

Hope your feeling better Aaron, such a great job on the story so many ways this could go!

Sorry Wally. Hope Kirby and the rest are still there. Don’t give up.

It’s impossible to really know what is happening in this strip until long after it happened. The most likely possibility is that the ship is still there, just using its dittos to hide itself from Wally. The only question is whether Wally’s ditto sense will tell him about a cloak job. As far as Holly is concerned, she may have made it to the bridge, is the ship’s new captain or she may be the ship’s willing or unwilling guest.. Whatever the truth, I can’t imagine Wally giving up till its REALLY hopeless or Holly convinces him that she is alright and doesn’t want to leave.

Happy Thanksgiving, Aaron!

And to all my Endtown friends!

A happy thanksgiving to you all.

Happy thanksgiving to Aaron and all of us that loves this strip and their families!

Unless the ship moved to another dimension this ain’t over yet. If it’s an illusion the ship’s apparently forgotten who the King of Ditto Hill is…

I’m still going to hold by my “Wally never left his bubble in the first place”. However I can also see a few Holly chapters in our future.

I also think it would be interesting if illusion holly was created by Wally’s dittos to get him to gtfo

Is that a face on the ship in the third panel?