SFP

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  • Insanenoodlyguy

    I was going to say that “Menace” was going to show up and save Allison, from the Boy and/or Anima, but looking like I’m not going to get to say I called this one…

    • Max Antinone

      I had guessed that the boy WAS Menace. Close enough, I suppose.

  • Arcian

    You fool, he was monologuing all along!

  • Roman Snow

    That was honestly the last thing I expected to read after that touching speech.

    • Tsapki

      The sheer contrast is part of what makes it so effective. I’m having trouble thinking of an exact speech but I am sure there have been a few where someone basically says “You did something no one else ever did for me, gave me something wonderful. And because of that, I cannot allow to you live.”

      Anyone got any examples from any sources they enjoy?

  • Tsapki

    Criss Cross! Double Cross!

    • trev006

      “Double cross’ll make you, JUMP JUMP! Betrayal make you, JUMP JUMP, the Kiddy Pat’ll make you…”

      …

      “Are you rapping, little Patrick?”

      “… just to… demonstrate how the music industry shapes our actions. Very, very serious stuff.”

      • Tylikcat

        The problem of involuntary telepathy and multiple conflicting earworms.

        • Weatherheight

          A new mental power – mental paralysis based on trying to get those damned earworms out of your head.

          • BMPDynamite

            “Behind that door, Alison, is the most evil thing I have ever locked away … ”

            “What’s more evil than your abusive mother trying to murder you to protect her illegal practices?”

            “We rarely speak its name in here, but you know it simply as ‘It’s a Small World After All.'”

          • Tylikcat

            We rarely speak it’s name, but it will never let you down.

          • Weatherheight

            “And.. and… the puppets…
            “THE PUPPETS!

      • BMPDynamite

        This is why I would never want a telepath in my brain. A brain with ADD is bad enough, a telepath reading that would be like trying to watch 5 TVs while listening to a radio station that someone keeps changing.

  • Pi

    Well, Child Patrick did MAKE Menace after all, I guess it’s not a surprise they’re on the same side.

    • Insanenoodlyguy

      I’m not sure anymore if we are looking at Menace. His costume was different before. Is this the Mental Menace, or just a weaponized metaphor/lesser construct, like the sentinel?

      • Zinc

        When the Sentinel was first introduced, Anima described it as belonging to / being under the control of Menace. So, if Anima was correct, and this is the real Sentinel, then it’s probably also the real Menace. Also, last time we’ve seen him, Menace was completely on board the “Destroy Alison Green” train, so why wouldn’t he be there?

        • Insanenoodlyguy

          We don’t know either of them are the real whatever yet. Not saying they won’t be, but we don’t fully know how this place works yet. His costume is different though, and that might mean something in the mindscape. Course, ti could be that next page Sentinel starts growing and Menace’s costume shifts…

          • Gotham

            Sentinel is also relatively different compared to last time, although it’s extremely sublte, don’t know if you’ve noticed. See, the costume is slightly different and also she’s not a million foot high

          • Insanenoodlyguy

            Right but is this actually Sentinel? I mean specifically that one. No reason some other aspect can’t be green and on fire. Maybe this is aggression (the warrior?) or even just a memory of Sentinel that can be used. I mean, again, your theory could well be correct, I’m just waiting for another page or 2 to confirm it.

          • Gotham

            I’m going to side with Occam’s Razor and the sake of narrative simplification because the line between Brain Patrol members and memories and whatever the fuck Gurwara belongs to is complicated enough as is, let’s not make it so memories can be sentient characters too

      • David Brown

        It’s a foil made by Gurwara. He ran from Alison, and it wasn’t long until she met this Patrick. Just show her what she’d need to see to choose on her own to pull out and go away. If you can’t run, you can’t hide, make the person chasing you lose interest.

        • Weatherheight

          ::waves a shiny object for the PCs to follow and watches them get off-topic::

          ::giggles::

  • Darkmavrik

    So looking back it seems this little guy is the embodiment of repression, constantly telling her to ignore the barriers and stay away from the doors. So naturally he would be against someone he knows can open them

    • Alex Hollins

      Yeah… I do kinda understand the guy. The first person who was able to just naturally get past my barriers scared the shit out of me as much as I loved her, and I pushed her away, and I’ve had a couple of significant others that have seen me the same and pushed me away because of it.

      Just, you know, not killing.

    • Tylikcat

      While also being the one who knows the score on what’s behind all the barriers.

      We really need to know who fifth Patrick is.

    • StClair

      Little Patrick is the part that’s been doing this since he was little. Out of (what he believes to be) defense and preservation of whatever he can call a “self.”

  • Jordan Hiller

    Oh Ali… If someone is monologuing, it’s probably a good indication that they’re up to no good. Seriously, that’s like Heroes and Villains 101.

    It’s also sad. Patrick simply doesn’t have any healthy coping mechanisms to deal with his emotions and memories. So in his scared and traumatized point of view, he has to eliminate whatever is hurting him like this, namely Alison, and then try to seal up whatever memories and their associated emotions away so he doesn’t hurt anymore. At least that’s what I assume is going on here.

    • Or that he is so used to being mean, he doesn’t know how to handle feeling close and open to someone? That trauma is preferable than love because it’s familiar?

      • Tylikcat

        Their romantic friendship went on for a really long time, so I’m pretty sure it’s not as simple as love. I suspect that this has more to do with Alison calling him on his bullshit than throwing the mug at him – but after seeing his history of abuse, I can’t be sure of that.

        • Graeme Sutton

          To clarify, she threw the mug ‘at his head’ with super strength. Are we sure that whatever psychological disruption he’s experiencing isn’t simply the result of neurological trauma?

          • Tylikcat

            Actually, we don’t know that. She has super strength, and she threw a mug at his head. But that doesn’t mean she used it any more than that she pulverizes every glass she picks up. At one point an awful lot of people expected him to be maimed.

            (Note, I’m not dismissing the possibility, but I think assuming it is hazardous.)

          • Weatherheight

            or at the least, presumptuous.

          • Gotham

            Still can’t quite know what to make of the fact that he isn’t.
            The way it was framed, with the impact in shadows and the way we see him gluing it back from his point of view (ergo not seeing him) and /then/ not seeing him at all for five million years until he knocked on her door… that’s exactly how you foreshadow such a reveal.
            Not following up on it seems like a waste of good narrative ore

          • Tylikcat

            Eh. It wasn’t how I read the scene at the time – just the fact that he was repairing the mug so soon afterwards seemed to indicate to me that he wasn’t badly injured. Looking back at the artwork later, I could see where people were coming from, but it also had me looking more at the emotional aspects of their interaction.

            (Also, something we haven’t discussed much – when he flips out at her, she goes all out telekinectic on him, but doesn’t actually hurt him then. But force is radiating off of her, rather than merely manifesting as super strength – even if she’s more or less keeping herself in check. That might be why I didn’t take the throwing as an example of super strength – whatever was going on with her powers, for all that they were clearly closely tied to her emotions, she still was in charge of herself, even when behaving poorly.)

        • Eileen Young

          I also think on some level it might be desperation: she gave him two years, which compounded the pressure, because his incentive was *already* to try to work as fast as he could so she wouldn’t die. And his time is ticking down and she’s starting to get press for doing actually effective things to help people. Which probably gave him A Feeling, which can’t have gone well.

      • Insanenoodlyguy

        Thing is, she’s not confronting Patrick right now, she’s confronting an aspect of him. The boy is singularly focused on sealing away things that could hurt Patrick. Allison is breaking those seals, therefore Allison needs to be eliminated. He doesn’t think beyond those terms, that’s for more complex organisms.
        All of the aspects of Pat we’ve met so far have been singularly focused to the point where they’d be unstable as independent entities, but they are only such here. Patrick can be complicated, but these are the simple bits.

  • McFrugal

    So all this was manipulation. Anima, seeing the Professor in the Hall of Knowledge, the walk through memory lane… all of it.
    I’m guessing she’ll run away, back to the door they didn’t go through, and behind the door will be something even more dangerous than the Sentinel.

    • Eternal

      I don’t think so. I think there is a real opposition between Anima and Menace, and that Alison can allow Anima to win and that’s why Menace wants to eliminate her.

      • Insanenoodlyguy

        I don’t know that that would be a good thing. I think the actual answer is balance: none of these aspects should be “in charge”

        • Eternal

          You’re quite right about this and I hope this whole trip is about giving Alison a means to have both reconcile. I only meant that Anima winning was what Menace feared.

        • Weatherheight

          Synthesis is the jungian end-game here…

          • Insanenoodlyguy

            Are you reading “Kill Six Billion Demons” by any chance? Recent events in that comic would be relevant to your interests.
            Also everybody here should be reading Kill Six Billion Demons unless they don’t like good comics (which is unlikely, since you are here)

    • Ibrinar

      People in this comment section seem to have a small problem with jumping to conclusions.^^

      • Zinc

        Contrariwise! Why, people are jumping to conclusions with no problems at all!

    • Gotham

      This is worse than wild unsupported speculation, because the point of it all is clearly primarily that we the readership get to know these things, largely overcasting whatever in-universe reason there may be for smol Patrick telling the story.

      Maybe he just gets really uncomfortable walking in silence and has very little in the way of conversation topics

  • Gotham

    “Do you expect me to believe you spent years befriending me in hopes of getting me to your side and help you in your authentic objectives?”
    “No, Ms. Green, I’m expecting you to die.

    • tygertyger

      If you must give them the finger, make it a gold one!

  • Gotham

    “Menace and Sentinel are super grateful they could act out that memory for a fresh new audience, though. We rehearsed and everything.”

    • Abel Undercity

      “Ticket sales only make for a portion of our funds here at the Little Theater of the Mind, so if you could find it in your heart to make a small donation at the kiosk in the lobby we’d be very grateful. Thank you for supporting local arts.

      “Now die.”

      • Gotham

        “I’ll leave the choice to you: either you die horribly now, or you leave. Although, the only exit… is through the gift shop! Both options are equally as mischievous!

      • Dean

        “Thanks for coming, don’t forget to purchase some orange drink for the long drive home!”

  • Tani M

    Was it a plan right from the start, then? Did Patrick show up intending to kill her? Smart move using Child!Patrick. No one suspects the kids. Even when they really, really should.

    • Insanenoodlyguy

      You are thinking of the Patrick’s as unified, but they aren’t. Nothing has been a ruse, they are fighting each other. Menace wants to kill her. The Boy wants to kill her. They might be working together on this (not sure if the menace in this picture is Mental Menace or just a weaponized memory yet), but they aren’t working with the other Patricks. Recordkeeper is neutral to liking Allison, Anima likes her and wants to use her, we don’t know how #5 thinks yet, but Patrick is mentally and now metaphorically unbalanced. Everything’s working at cross purposes. He really is that hot mess we saw earlier in the chapter right now, and what we’ve seen inside is PROOF of that (I mean, if this was a convoluted plan to kill her, why didn’t Anima just help the sentinel and keep Allison from escaping?)

      • Weatherheight

        To be more technically accurate…
        We have no evidence to assume that this wasn’t the plan all along, and a sufficiency of evidence to posit exactly what Insanenoodlyguy is suggesting.
        Odds are strongly in favor of this interpretation based on available evidence.

    • Gotham

      I don’t think so, but only because of the difference of perspective between Patrick Prime and his Brain Patrol. Maybe it is indeed the case that Patrick’s mental well-being is utterly crashing down because of how much he misses Alison, the only person who understood him, and the real deal showed up to try and resolve things specifically about their relationship.

      Thing is, Patrick above-ground has the pragmatism that Smol Patrick lacks because it is a mental construct whose sole purpose is to think about Patrick above anything else. When confronted to the problem “there’s this girl who got to me deep and it’s killing me inside”, Patrick Prime most likely thinks of solutions that don’t involve murder, same as we puny normals—hopefully. I have yet to murder any of my unrequited crushes—but I’d expect the boy wonder to see things in terms of “Problem? Solutions. Simple.”

      • David Brown

        She doesn’t understand him- she can’t. She accepted him, though.

  • elizabethbells

    The last panel is great – particularly with the symmetry of both alisons in such similar stances

  • Yirtimd2

    Well it was predictable – something like that was in the end of Dead Space 2, where Aizek made his quest, and that girl said “Now Aizek, it is time to die” and he was like “What?”x)

  • Julia McGuire

    So with Anima, the Recordkeeper, Menace, and Kid!Patrick, you’ve got four Patricks out of five. I wonder if the last one will show up in the nick of time?

    • BMPDynamite

      Calling it now, the fifth one is Gurwara.

  • JohnTomato

    Will the waking world interfere with Lil’ Patrick’s plan?

  • habeasdorkus

    This double cross also changes the likelihood that Patrick was telling the whole truth about his evil mother.

    • Insanenoodlyguy

      I don’t see how it changes that at all. The Boy doesn’t want to lie to Allison. Why lie to somebody you are going to kill anyway? No, he wants her to UNDERSTAND.

      • Jshadow

        Because his mom was cartoonishly evil and dumb.

        • Insanenoodlyguy

          However you want to interpret Patrick/s motivations here, he had never been cartoonishly evil and dumb.

        • Zorae42

          Meh. She seemed like a standard “Autism Mom”. Along with being a violent control freak with a very short patience. She see

      • Weatherheight

        “This really is your fault, but I need to tell you what you need to hear so that you understand why this is all your fault, so that you realize that you deserve this and that it really is the best thing for all involved.”

        The fact that Patrick has made a habit of telling people what they want to hear in order to get what he wants gives the possibility that he’s still lying and making up pigpoop. He could just be making excuses to himself here, too…

        • Insanenoodlyguy

          He never said she deserved to die, just that she had to die. There is a key difference.

          • Weatherheight

            I suppose.
            Most people who deliberately kill justify their killing by making it the victim’s fault.
            This isn’t a panicked response, here – this is very intentional. The semantic difference in miniscule. IMHO.

          • Insanenoodlyguy

            It’s an entirely different approach. Note how he doesn’t look happy about this at all.

            Remember this is not a person. This is a single-minded aspect of a person. He is fixated on the barriers. What secures the barriers is good, what breaks them is bad, everything else doesn’t really matter. This is fulfillment of purpose, at least for him. Assuming his helpers are Menace and Sentry, Menace might actually “Blame” her for something, and Sentry just sees this as a telepathic intrusion she needs to fend off (and is technically 100% right, this is another mind invading Patricks). I’d put The Boy in the same Category as Sentry. Think of them more like computer programs their functions don’t reguire more complexity then that. does a guns targeting system “blame” anybody it shoots? No, it’s just doing what it is meant to do.

            If he has more complicated feelings on the subject, The Boy is probably thinking “Oh man, this sucks. Patrick is going to have so many mixed feelings about this.” Though that wont’ actually cause him to hesitate for a second, mind. He’s not big into Patrick’s feelings to begin with.

          • Weatherheight

            The only issue I have is that the source for the “we’re at war with each other” is an aspect of Patrick.
            What if that aspect told Alison what she wanted to hear and all the aspects are actually working together to lure Alison into a situation where they feel she’s at her most vulnerable?
            What if the supposed differing aspects are job titles for different expressions of the same being and not actual separate entities?
            One of the things I love about the comic is that until the shoes drop, this is the kind of discussion that gets prompted.

      • The likelihood that he’s telling his truth hasn’t changed.

        The likelihood that his truth is anything near reality has gone down some as his apparent sanity has gone down some. I’d hate to try to quantify either.

        • Gotham

          The likelihood that he’s telling the truth actually increases for as much as we’re distancing ourselves from the point of maximum narrative twist appropriateness.

        • Insanenoodlyguy

          But that’s more his interpretation of these events. I have no doubt his memories are at least 90% accurate, his shaded in mother notwithstanding. She was horrible. She did try to kill him. He was homeless after that for some time then he got his shit together (if not in the best way) and got rich then got to work. It’s the whole “this means eliminating the need for love and affection and preventing anything from bringing that back” part that’s sketchy. The facts are fine, it’s just the interpretation. It works better if it’s that way anyway. If it turns out the story itself was manipulated it just means Patrick is lying to himself.

  • “I wasn’t paying attention to that monologue, could you, um, repeat it?”

  • Oh… wow. I didn’t expect that.

  • Nightsbridge

    Welp. I guessed that she caused this. I didn’t guess it was going to lead up to . . . this?

  • Charles Moore

    Did anyone else mentally hear the sound of a record scratching?

  • tygertyger

    Oh snap!

  • Tom O.

    Prediction: during the battle she escapes through some component, rushes through his childhood, and goes through the green door. And finds his vulnerable feelings.

    • Tom O.

      And the component will be there because of his conflicted feelings over killing Allison. Because the component is made of emotions he hasn’t managed to suppress.

      Either that, or Feral will see Allison’s distress and pull her out.

      • Tylikcat

        Oh, that would be an epic awkward moment:

        Alison plunges into the giant box of Patrick’s love and lust towards Alison. ChildPatrick and Menace follow, and they have some big fight against the backdrop of their own feelings…

        …and then Tara, seeing Alison’s distress, pulls her out, in the heat of things, as it were.

        Luckily, while I can imagine many comic writers who would go for exactly such a scene, it doesn’t seem in line with our current team.

        • Tom O.

          I can’t see it going that far either. But here’s got a lot of pain and need for human connection that he isn’t willing to confront.

      • zellgato

        Honestly…. I almost feel like Feral won’t be able to pull her out.. because Allison will be in battle mode.. and invulnerable and she can’t cause enough impact to wake her
        So she’ll be left with a choice.
        Suffocate or cut Meanace’s throat.
        or let whatever is happening to her best friend’/redemption partner occur.

        • Tom O.

          Yeah I could see that. Wouldn’t it be wild if it was Klevin who ended up having to kill Patrick?

          • zellgato

            More so.. if it ends up being forced upon Clevin by the aspect that is behind the green door. The part of him that probably wanted to be “a hero” and other hope related things

  • R Lex Eaton

    …Jeez, Pat. Doesn’t this scenario seem a bit familiar?

    Wanting to kill someone who put their trust in you simply because their continued existence is too inconvenient? Or that they serve as a living reminder of your bad decisions?

    You might really be your mother’s son, no matter how hard you try to forget.

    • Weatherheight

      Beat me to it, doggone it…

      • R Lex Eaton

        Yup. Identifying with the aggressor, I think it’s termed.

        In addition to the sunken cost logic that led to this trap.

    • MooseHowl

      Ouch. Brutal.

    • zellgato

      If only he could read your mind and see that~

  • Walter

    Treachery!!

  • Incendax

    “You made me emotionally vulnerable. For that, you must die.”

    • Tylikcat

      “You made the version of me I exist to protect emotionally vulnerable…”

      Strategically, I suspect this is pretty sucky on childPatrick’s part. I don’t really think killing Alison is going to accomplish his ends.

      • Incendax

        Yeah. It seems incredibly short-sighted.

        • Tylikcat

          Not, you understand, that I exactly expect childPatrick to be making the best long term strategic decisions? That’s not really what he’s there for.

          • I find it interesting that it’s Child!Patrick in this role, not, say, Anima!Patrick. Despite the deliberate partitioning of memories, it appears he at least knows what exists – the librarian who actually knows the stacks again. So I wonder how long he has existed. Does he know those memories because unlike the older Patricks he lived them? Has there been a Child!Patrick playing protector since Patrick was the age Child!Patrick appears. That’s both disturbing, and plausible. And would a child forced into a protector role develop remotely normally. In particular would he learn the long-term planning you point out, but more immediately of concern for Alison, has he any concept of restraint, and the flexibility to accept that others may present alternative scenarios and resolutions to the one he perceives, that might have a better outcome for Collective!Patrick.

          • Tylikcat

            “And would a child forced into a protector role develop remotely normally.”

            Really, think this one through. This is pretty darned common in one form or another, and to talking about “normal” in this context is to attach value to judgements to one kind of upbringing versus others. …and I will so happily mouth off on this subject soooo much.

            Now, that there’s so kind of non-cohesive identity thing going on, and that childPatrick identifies as a child (or at least is portraying himself as a child, but I tend to go with straightforward readings first) even though he seems to show a lot of emotional sophistication… is really interesting. I have no particular opinion on the psychology involved there, other than a general heuristic of being wary of grown ups who continue to identify as children.

          • That’s a perfectly fair criticism. To try and clarify what I meant, a child trying to defend themselves against an adult, or against a gang of other kids, can’t really hold themselves to the perceived limits that society places on what’s acceptable in conflict between equals (most do, but that’s a separate aspect of both being abused and societal norms). There’s a perception that punching someone is somewhat acceptable, but kicking them in the head or pulling a knife isn’t (despite a punch being perfectly capable of a one shot kill). But if you’re Child!Patrick’s size, and your abusers are adults, then you can’t hold back to just punching. If you have the chance of kicking them in the head, or knifing them in the back, then you may have to take it, because that’s safer than letting the combat take a form where your size puts you at a disadvantage. Note that Child!Patrick has already mentioned having thugs on the payroll before he took on the Menace role. And a secondary note that society doesn’t necessarily accept this argument, as seen in the cases of women who kill abusive husbands. So my point is Child!Patrick’s upbringing may have forced him to consider, and accept, in his role as protector, the kind of ruthless measures most people would blanch at. That’s the ‘normal’ I was referring to.

            I’m on Child!Patricks’s side in structuring this argument. I only escaped childhood bullying when I became too dangerous to attack (a couple of incidents where I threw the first punch and made it count). And when I had to switch to using crutches, particularly early on, when I really wasn’t sure of my balance without them, I made a very conscious decision that if anyone attacked me, then I had to take them down fast and hard and couldn’t risk holding back. Only had to invoke that once, but I hit him hard enough (with a crutch) he didn’t try anything else. So if I say Child!Patrick’s not normal in this, then neither am I.

            (It’s always useful to have you make me lay out my thinking so I actually understand my own point 🙂 )

            My thought on Child!Patrick actually presenting as a child is it could just be a part of his identity, assuming he actually formed at the age he presents. If he’s a recent creation then the psychology is different and murkier and I have no idea what it is. But Patrick has apparently been largely isolated from other children since he was quite young, and in a position where he’s privy to innermost thoughts without necessarily having the maturity and social development to interpret them. At some stage in there the defender personality of Child!Patrick formed, and it couldn’t afford to try and analyse what it was hearing as a grown-up would, so possibly it has consciously rejected maturing from its original child form.

          • Tylikcat

            The perception of power dynamics is a lot of the basis for my heuristic* – though, at the same time, people have reasons. And I’m only too aware that my opinions on what constitutes adult behavior are in the minority, and mostly I try to keep them to myself :-p (Even I’m not entirely sure where some of them came from.)

            And I suppose childPatrick is strongly implied not to have dealt with his trauma. Though… hm, I wonder how that works for him. He seems to know all the stuff, but he hasn’t integrated it? Kid and I have really different epistemological models, I suppose.

            Of course, childPatrick might really care strongly about Alison, and want her to understand him pretty desperately… and still have protecting some other aspect of himself as a higher priority.

            * So much history here. My mother perceived herself as disempowered in most of her intereactions, which was really difficult – not to mention annoying – when dealing with her as a minor, or on behalf of my minor siblings. And I’ve been cast as the more powerful person a few times in romantic relationship when that wasn’t what I was looking for, and when it was used to excuse some pretty shitty behavior. Gnnngh.

          • Patrick and his mother is an interesting model of power dynamics. Patrick has perfect knowledge, but initially probably only limited understanding, and even when the understanding comes, he doesn’t have the ability to act. Whereas his mother has imperfect knowledge, knows Patrick is inside her decision loop, but is ruthless enough not to let that bother her or limit her actions.

      • Fairly sure I’ve seen that interpretation of multiple personalities on several crime shows. It wasn’t the tortured soul doing the killing, but his dark protector, who lurks in the shadows of his mind, waiting for when he is needed….

        • Tylikcat

          Sure. Intuitively, I don’t think resolving the issue is going to be as simple as killing Alison and closing the new door, though. Time doesn’t run backwards.

          • Absolutely. But that may be the sum total of what Child!Patrick is trying to do (which is your point).

            If Child!Patrick’s understanding is that of a child, and a child who has largely cut off his emotions (look at how calm he has been while discussing horrific personal abuse, and killing the person he theoretically loves/loved – there’s a clear absence of affect in the psychological sense) then he may not understand what is happening to Actual!Patrick and what he is risking losing, because he doesn’t understand it/won’t allow himself to understand it.

          • Tylikcat

            ChildPatrick is fairly calm, but he doesn’t seem to be emotionless over the last several pages – and of all the versions of Patrick, he’s the one I’d be least sure of being emotionally truncated. That kind of affect can come from a lot of places – I suppose I was reading it as wanting to be clear, because being understood was a strong motivator. I’ll often be pretty detached if I’m pulling a lot of information out of memory, regardless of the emotional content – than and precise language is just a focusing mechanism. (And it’s worse if I’m reciting verbatim. And then it goes to the other extreme if it’s a subject that I know fairly well, where I get super excited and go into full on lecturer mode. Gah. I know I can be a pain in the ass…) Of course, I’m just as likely to pull it out if I figure my emotional reactions aren’t for public comment.

          • I think I was reading it somewhat the same way, up until this page. Though I would have said he was trying for calming, in the face of Alison’s emotional reactions, rather than reacting emotionally himself. (Which of course says he is familiar with emotional responses, at least in other people). But when he turns around and says ‘you have to die’, in that same way, then it suggests a general lack of emotional response.

    • R Lex Eaton

      “Could I have made mistakes? One does not build a better world if one is guided by doubt. But can one rule in absolute certainty? I know that my beliefs have elevated me, just as I know that the things I have rejected would have destroyed me. But the city… the barrier… it’s collapsing before my… have I become so convinced by my own beliefs, that I have stopped seeing the truth? …Perhaps. But, my enemies are out there, and they aim to destroy me, and destroy everything I’ve worked towards! To question is to surrender! I will not question!”

      A cookie to those who get this.

  • Wolftamer9
    • Insanenoodlyguy

      Alison doesn’t run away from babies! You take that back!

      • Wolftamer9

        If she knows what’s good for her she might.

        • Insanenoodlyguy

          Ahhh your hero can go turn into a blob.

    • Lostman

      Well… they are both after all surround by shift character. Victoria more so then Alison… but that besides the point.

  • NotPatrick

    I really hate when conflicts in stories are predicated on simple failures in communication.

    “Look, Patrick. Let’s put aside for a moment the whole me not wanting to die thing. Let’s just try to be rational for a moment. You have a belief as to how to improve your mental wellbeing. Great. All the power to you. Now consider, what’s your actual track record of making correct judgments about what is or is not necessary for your mental wellbeing? Do you need a moment to think about it? Because it’s not great Patrick. It’s really, really, not great.

    Let’s consider two hypotheses here. A: You are astutely observing the best possible course of action to reverse the general state of disorder creeping about your skull. B: You have been frightened by the prospect of being emotionally vulnerable to another human being after having been significantly hurt by others, and misjudging your own state of objectivity about the whole thing due to systematic biases in the way you think about the way you think.

    Now, it is pretty obvious that A is kind of ridiculously unlikely given your track record, but let’s humor it for a moment just for shits and giggles. Now consider, what’s your track record for responding in a healthy fashion to traumatic experiences? Because frankly, I’m the closest thing to a friend you’ve got, and so killing me is going to be pretty fucking traumatic. Do you think you’re going to be just fine after that? Do you think you’re not going to have some uncomfortable identity crisis around the prospect of turning into your mother? Do you think these nice divisions you’ve built up, which don’t seem to have any actual track record of preventing you from doing crazy things in the real world, are going to magically start doing so now?

    Now, here’s a counter proposal. If you want to improve your mental well-being, maybe try something that doesn’t have a terrible fucking track record and just let me be your friend. We can fucking talk and shit. I forgive all the stupid stuff you said before, and I’m sorry I threw a mug at you.

    Oh, by the way, I saw a guy who pretended to be my philosophy professor rooting around inside your head stealing stuff about the conspiracy. This seems like it’s really fucking relevant.”

    • Julia McGuire

      But nobody’s a purely rational actor like that. Not even Patrick, who locked away important parts of himself in an effort to become that. Right now, Alison isn’t miscommunicating. Kid!Patrick sees her (and probably rightly so) as something that’s changing his mental landscape in a way that scares him, and therefore she has to be eliminated. It’s a very emotional response.

    • Weatherheight

      Failure of communication is the defining characteristic of the human animal. We do it all the time. A story predicating a plot point on that isn’t that far fetched.

      Now, it can be taken to extremes (almost any fight where Marvel Heroes fight Marvel heroes), but it’s valid and I think done fairly well here.

      • Tylikcat

        Have you read much Connie Willis? One of the things I like most about her writing is the ways she portrays the extent to which people are constantly talking passing each other, and the narrative kind of drifts through the cracks in what is obviously going on.

        (Well, when she isn’t just busy ripping your heart out of your chest, the way she did in the Doomsday Book. She’s not a flawless writer, but when she’s on, she’s amazing.)

        • Weatherheight

          I have no experience with this writer – I will attempt to fit her into my ludicrously busy reading schedule.
          Don’t hold your breath, though – it might take a while.

    • Gotham

      Don’t take the story so literally, you’ll ruin it for yourself. This up there is a metaphorical dramatization of childishly shutting oneself off emotionally and the path toward resolution has to be treaded in narrative steps rather than the rationalizations that would ostensibly make the most sense. It’s not even just that people are not always 100% objective and reasonable, it’s that stories don’t work like that.
      When I make these kinds of alternative responses comments highlighting minor plot contrivances, it’s only meant as comedy that’s never intended to “correct” the emotional significance of the webcomic, only add to it.

    • Dwight Williams

      I like this. Our hosts will have long since committed to whatever course of plot they’ve chosen, but I like it.

  • David Forrest

    No, not “you” you, just your naivete and foolish kindness…We can lock them behind a barrier and you can join me to triumph over this conspiracy. Don’t you see? it is the only way….

  • zophah

    She opened his mind when he kept closing it in further and further…
    So to save himself he has to get rid of the one person who cares.

  • Weatherheight

    ::succumbs to the warm glow of being right all along and wiggles his ears happily while he awaits Feral stabbing Patrick to death::

    • BMPDynamite

      … I almost downvoted you. But I can’t bring myself to, so I’ll let you be happy.

      • palmvos

        that’s good as he brings most of the snacks.

  • Johnny Awesome

    You wait until the day after I get a “Patrick+Allison Forever” tattoo to do this to me

    p.s. Gurwara is still in there somewhere, I’m betting he’ll make an appearance VERY SOON

    • Darkoneko Hellsing

      if he came to steal documents he ran away a long time ago.

  • Zac Caslar

    Dear comments section,

    You do realize calling this all “monologuing” like any cliche’d villain misses entirely the reality of this being his cognispace and thusly that he could ambush her at any time?

    Yes the Incredibles was clever and yes you are also clever for incessantly calling back to it, but the idea that this was all a crass bit of tactical manuvering is largely inaccurate with the actual circumstances of the story.

    You want Patrick to be a force of pure evil while also pining for Allison to be a morally reprehensible agent of callous brutality. And that’s not this webcomic. You should probably go read Skullkickers or Something Poisitive instead.

    Falsest regards,

    Z.C.

    • GreatWyrmGold

      In their defense…they aren’t right, but they aren’t completely wrong, either.

      • Zac Caslar

        My criticism is primarily of this persistant insistance on stripping the emotional meaning and complexity out of these interactions. It’s childish, unfair as that is to actual children

        Here’s a thought experiment: take that insistence for simplicity and look for it in the various active political movements of the age and count how many of them are, or are becoming, social disasters.

        I’m confident most of the worst of the moment fit in this frame. This also is the root of Totalitarianism ie giving a single idea absolute primacy and as well as being the impulse that trades liberty for security and gains neither.

        • R Lex Eaton

          Yikes, man… I’m not sure I follow the thread here. I’m pretty sure the evil monologue jokes were just that, for the most part.

          • Zac Caslar

            We’ll politely disagree about them being jokes in the majority.

          • R Lex Eaton

            Alright then. I was only a bit confused as to what you were referring.

            Pardon my puzzlement. ^^;

    • Gotham

      Something… Poisitive?!

      Oh boy!

      • Jovial Contrarian

        This pun is bad and you should not feel bad in any way you beautiful animal, you

        • Gotham

          He did the pun I merely acted out of opportunity my hands are clean I have plausible deniability please officier I can’t go back to pun prison

          • Weatherheight

            They hate me in the puniten…
            I mean, I can’t take anymore punis…
            It’s a sicknesss!

  • Pol Subanajouy

    Makes sense

  • GreatWyrmGold

    “This is the most adorable way my life has ever been threatened.”

    • Weatherheight

      “No, you’re adorable!”

  • Kalirren

    Okay I knew little boy Patrick was the most evil of them all, but I didn’t see the turnabout coming -so- fast.

  • Hiram

    ” You suck because I can’t deal with how you make me feel about how I suck. ”
    Yep, that sounds about like people.

    • RobNiner ♫

      Sounds like my internal monologue.

  • bryan rasmussen

    ok maybe Clevin in back in the game after all.

    • BMPDynamite

      You say that as if he ever stopped being in it. Regardless of how much I love and sympathize with Patrick, Clevin is the better choice and better boyfriend.

  • BMPDynamite

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

    • BMPDynamite

      Okay. Oooookay. Now that that’s out of my system … this is pretty similar to what Joker said to Harley Quinn before trapping her in a rocket in the comics. That he was convinced he had no need for love, or companionship, as long as he had crime and Batman and madness. Then Harley came along, and before he knew what was happening, there was someone he actually cared about. And he hated it.

      • Gotham

        Oh come on, like you’ve never “gotten rid” of a lover before growing dependent on them, specifically by trapping them in a convoluted maze of your own twisted design intended to reflect your relationship while at the same time showcasing in explicit details the shortsightedness of your endeavor.

        High horse much

        • Tylikcat

          Huh. I mostly just set them up with one of my friends who is more interested in a conventionally committed relationship.

          Or dump their asses old school. (Okay, or trade them around like star wars cards, I’ll admit it, I’m not proud.)

          • Gotham

            This is my usual cue to terrible flirt but I do seem to remember already coming on to you some time ago and wouldn’t possibly want to repeat myself so I’ll let preterition do the work for me instead

          • Weatherheight

            ::mutters something about a pair o’ lipses…:

          • Tylikcat

            Like I haven’t a) flirted back and b) randomly flirted with you as well!

            (I’ll admit that consistency isn’t my strong point, but argh, my schedule.)

  • JeffH

    Just noticed: The table in the last panel is the same table as the one in the first. Meaning that MegaGirl from the first panel stood up and lit up with green fire to become the Sentinel, while the memory of Patrick in that scene puts on a helmet to become Menace.

    Very cool transition of memory to local threat!

    (I think I would have noticed sooner if the chair hadn’t disappeared and the table had kept the same perspective)

  • jandesf

    Oh snap dawg

  • StClair

    “Nothing personal, but you’re ruining all of my dysfunctional coping mechanisms, as well as calling me on my bullshit, and that simply won’t do.”

  • David Brown

    I’m pretty confident I know what this is.
    Me? I’ve seen a therapist a lot over the last few years and learned stuff. So I say this with that in mind.

    I’ve been stuck in the ’emergency survival mode’ for more than 30 years, and being able to think in any other way at this point is…
    Want to know what hurt the most?
    Not being in an abusive environment where I get starved, beaten, and shot. That stuff didn’t hurt that much comparitively. What hurt the most was getting OUT of the situation- then all the pain I’d been suppressing all came and hit me at once- all the fear, sadness, anger, hopelessness and rage all came in a single explosion that has taken years to even slightly subside.
    Being in a consistently dangerous situation keeps stuff away. Get somewhere safe, calm, and quiet? Incomprehensible terror and pain. Never ending fear and pain, and knowing exactly where it’s coming from, is comforting. Once there isn’t a threat, you’re still in the same mode, and must find an enemy, some sort of threat, to act as your focus.
    But what if there is no enemy?
    The person that saved you is the enemy, then, because they hurt you. Not because they did directly, mind you. Hooray for PTSD.

    That’s what I think is happening with Patrick.

    • Weatherheight

      Humans can learn to accept anything as normal.
      Which is kind of depressing, actually…

  • Franklin J Gomes

    Someone have to say it:

    “yOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD”

  • Scholiast

    I actually saw this coming.

  • Scorpion nation

    Putting Money on the table right now that he won’t be able to make himself do it.

  • Zorae42

    Huh, Menace’s purpose as an aspect seems rather unclear to me.

    It seems like child! Patrick came about after his mother abused him and he decided the best way to survive was to lock parts of his memory and himself away and exists to keep the barriers up and create new ones as needed. It seems the Record Keeper is there because he knows waaay too much stuff and needed an aspect to help keep track of everything so his head didn’t explode and so he could actually access the things he learned. Anima was created when Alison pointed out the massive flaws in his logic and appears to exist to question him to make sure he doesn’t come up with anymore dumb logic…

    But what does Menace do? “Maintain order” ? What does that even mean? What’s he maintaining order over if Child!Pat and Record Keeper have his memories handled? Maybe y’all that know the psychology that this is being modeled after know?

    • Hermitage

      IMO, Menace is the projected adult version of what Child! Patrick thinks is needed on the other side of the wall. There is work to be done, and chibi Patrick clearly can’t do it because he’s busy wrangling memories so potent that they could disturb the entire Patrick Collective. Menace seems like the high level goal maker inside the wall, and the other Patricks basically make sure the gears are greased and moving smoothly.

    • Weatherheight

      Perhaps…

      Menace is the aspect of Settings Things Right (not merely maintaining order but actively correcting perceived wrongs).
      The Recordkeeper is the aspect of Keeping Things Organized (not merely maintaining order but arranging things in useful patterns).
      ChibiPatrick is the aspect of Keeper of the Borders (not merely organizing things but isolating the Unbearably Painful).
      The Anima is the Anima (Jerry Mathers as the Beaver).

  • Soqoma

    whoop, there it is

  • zellgato

    Heh.. The only time that villain monologue worked.
    NOW TURN, RUN, OPEN THE GREEN DOOR AND RELEASE THE MEMORIES OF LOST PETS AND OTHER PAIN!

  • Hermitage

    *Prides self on calling that chibi Patrick was taking Allison straight to Menace*.

    Murder is obviously bad, but I can only get so upset at this. Hopefully after this near-death experience Allison finally learns to stop making terrible plans while pursuing something that she self-righteously assumes to be in her purview. Apparently maxing invincibility tanks your cunning score in this universe.

    Can you imagine Anima’s exasperation with the pummeled mental landscape that will be left after this battle? I’m just imagining her stuck in a mountain of rainbow-colored component while the Record Keeper points out this is the most momentous occasion in the Patrick Collective history.

  • Teka the Budgie

    It’s interesting to look back at the art from volume one and compare that scene to this one. The characters look so much younger here.

  • ummm … oops?

  • Johan

    “Ah fuck me! Everytime we’re getting somewhere you have to ruin it! Damnit Patrick, you really are evil!”

    I got to say, this page made me laugh way too much. I keep imagining the next page will show that Pat was joking, or Alison will be super annoyed and she’ll just leave and Pat will be like “Hey, but we got to fight though … !”
    Anyway, fun stuff 🙂

  • Darkoneko Hellsing

    WELL THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY

  • Weatherheight

    “I had never considered that anyone would believe the Conspiracy.
    “It never occurred to me that all my shaky evidence, all my wobbly lines connecting unconfirmed facts, the whole pile of it..
    “I couldn’t possibly conceive anyone else might embrace my insanity as fact.
    “How can anyone be this naive, this idiotic, to believe in someone just because they find me attractive?
    “You, you’re too stupid to live…

    (Sorry, sorry, the bitter, bitter, hyper-rational person who beats me up and loathes the thoughtless persons around me just had to have his say 🙂 )

  • Vespayik

    Punt that little shit!

  • Rhea

    Honestly, I don’t know what she expected.

  • Ladon

    This reminds me of sorta a Vriska/Tavros relationship, know what I’m saying? “You made me feel feelings against my will so I have to throw you off a cliff to maintain my strength”