SFP

sfp-5-152-for-web

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  • Pol Subanajouy

    🙁

    Al looks like a sad puppy.

    🙁

  • pauljsquire

    Damn, it’s been a bad day for Alison…

  • KidUrza

    Huh? Wha? Do we know whose doorway this is?

    • Paradoxius

      It is the door to Robot Land.

    • William Lancaster

      Yeah, if you look on the panel before it’s Excelsior Innovations. So this is her professor who is a Tinker with a specialization in Robotics.

      Starts here.

      http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/page-16-4/

      Not surprised but talking with another Cape should give Alison some perspective. This is pretty much the best person for her to go to.

      • dragonus45

        Its kind of funny how you can tell who has read Worm just about anywhere by the phrases they use to talk about super heroes.

        • William Lancaster

          It’s such a convenient way to classify powers. 🙂

          It was also on my mind in that I read the new Dungeon Keeper Ami today and the comments are how she’s sort of the anti Taylor. They both are heroic people that got slammed into the evil side but while Taylor slowly got darker Ami had refused to.

          You can read it here,
          http://addventure.bast-enterprises.de/frecent.php?tag=Dungeon+Keeper+Ami

        • Ryan Gauvreau

          Or at least is the one person in their primary social circle who hasn’t read Worm, but picked up some by osmosis. >:]

          /is that person

        • Walter

          Everyone has read Worm.

          Give me this. Everyone has read Worm. All humans.

      • K. J. Hargan

        Thanks for the link. It was fun to read back. Amazing how much I’ve forgotten or missed. Now the question is: When is Allison going to put two and two together and realize that her medical monitor (Dr.?) has clearly had psychological persuasion on Moonshadow, if she didn’t outright put her up to it.
        Then the full circle would be, the old man who we saw get his throat slashed (a judge, was he?) is the Dr’s father.

      • Roman Snow
  • Walter

    Yes! Everything about this should be positive. She just asked the mind reader to stop messing with the robot maker, plus the robot maker seemed friendly and sane. Alison badly needs to have an interaction with humans that doesn’t pressure her, and nothing about the robot maker makes me think she’s going to throw drama.

    Here’s hoping she can finally unwind for an hour or two, or, God willing, 8.

    • lizasweetling

      it really amazes me that those boxes held together for that trek.

      • Santiago Tórtora

        I think that’s one of her powers. Remember when she was moving that huge sciencey thing in Paladin’s lab?

        It didn’t break even though she was only holding it from one of the corners.

      • LlubNek

        wet cardboard reinforced by somadynamism

      • Tsapki

        All about balance…and extra durable cardboard.

    • Insanenoodlyguy

      I’ve got a much more horrible prediction… freed of the mind maker’s many roadblock, the robot maker, unfettered at last, succeeds… at making the ROBOTS THAT WILL KILL EVERYBODY.

  • Paradoxius

    I think this page highlights one of my favorite things that this comic does, which is emphasize that the traditional strength-and-invincibility power-set is not actually all that useful in real life. There’s no amount of strength that stops you from getting wet in the rain.

    • Mechwarrior

      She was able to carry all her stuff across town in the rain with a sprained shoulder.

      • Catherine Kehl

        Well, she *was* just flying around and carrying trees. (I am not trying to understate the general suckitude, here.)

      • Markus

        And her being able to carry it made a convenient excuse for her roommates to throw her out in the middle of the night.

    • Except she could easily have forced her jerk roommates to put her up for the night, if not for some misguided desire to look noble

  • Joshua Taylor

    Well, she has hit rock-bottom at the last page so she can only go up from here. And I think this might be the best thing for Al.

  • Retrikaethan

    it’s pretty telling how little regard for alison the three from the previous page have for her that they didn’t even go “oh shit, it just started raining. we should make sure she has an/knows where her umbrella is!”

    • Greg E Downing

      It’s less about regard and more about fear and the shame that comes with it. I’m not excusing them. I’m just saying that they know they are reacting badly, but aren’t willing to admit it. And because of that, they are trying to ignore any empathy they might normally have.

      Personally, I’m wondering if the friend that moved out actually moved back in of her own accord, or if the other two browbeated her into it in order to cover for their own fear.

      • Mechwarrior

        Maybe the browbeat her into it because of how bad a roommate she makes.

    • Ryan

      They’re probably consoling themselves by asserting that they did what had to be done.

      • ApostateltsopA

        Almost certainly. When we abuse others, as a species we, we also blame them for what we do to them. This tendency drives me nuts.

    • KatherineMW

      Umbrella isn’t much good when you’re carrying that many boxes. Call her a cab, rather, at minimum.

    • Ryan Thompson

      Or even just being like “Oh, it’s going to rain tonight, maybe we should just ask her to move out tomorrow morning.”

  • Donald Simmons

    Having Alison around will be a help when Paladin inevitable creates a Murderbot.

  • StClair

    Next page: Paladin turns her away, for some entirely sensible and morally correct (to Paladin) reason.

    • Iarei

      Later, a robot walks out making offhand comments about how “it never rains but it pours” and asking Allison if it’s “wet enough for her”, then collapses into a sparking pile of shorted circuits and gently rusting servos.

    • Walter

      If the narrative demands another “Alison gets thwarted in a way she can’t punch” beat, then Paladin could just not be home. She seems too, I dunno, grown-up is what I’m reaching for, to risk annoying Alison.

  • dragonus45

    I still find it so ironic that Alison is seeing what its like to get hit with the “Safe Space” excuse.

    • Mechwarrior

      It only worked because Alison didn’t stand up for herself. If she’d called campus security, Violet and her two friends would have been escorted out of the building. And possibly expelled, too- not just because of who Allison is, but because a lot of colleges have poor senses of humor when it comes to attempts to browbeat or intimidate a student into leaving their room.

      • Rod

        All of which honestly paints Alison in a pretty positive light; she doesn’t exactly like the fact that small complaints from her can really mess up people’s lives. While I’m sure it wouldn’t be the entire reason, that would likely play a part in her trying to avoid a scene. (That, and not wanting to risk throwing the gals through a wall.)

      • Catherine Kehl

        And yet Alison, being a decent and reasonable person, very likely is unwilling to turn to the school precisely because they have been unwilling to respond to her in a reasonable and proportionate way in the past. She has every reason to expect them to go entirely overboard, because that’s what they’ve done the last few times she’s has any sort of problem, and their response has actively made her situation worse. Why would she trust them? Especially in the mood she’s in now.

      • Snorkels

        I read the prior page as an RA/guidance counselor intervention. Besides Alison’s (ex-)roommate, were the other two women identified or recurring characters?

  • WizardJim

    Some days life shits on you from a great height.

    Some days Galactus does.

  • Nathaniel Stalberg

    Surely she could have gone to the fire station? They generally have beds and internet access.

  • Daniel Vogelsong

    I’m willing to bet that she’s thinking of Patrick right now. His original speech, about how being a superhero or villain isn’t useful for the real things in life. She can’t punch her way into acceptance, by her peers, by society. The rain falls of the invincible and the muggle alike.

    • Walter

      By contrast, I think she’s trying to not think about Patrick right now. Very very hard. She battered him last time they met, that can’t be a pleasant memory.

      Also, Alison’s troubles are due (in my view) to the fact that she’s STOPPED punching her way into acceptance by society/peers/etc. If she was still willing to be their murderous puppet Mega Girl would still have a place to stay at whatever facility they’d call home nowadays. She’s in the rain because refuses to punch her way to solutions, not because she can’t. I find it deeply laudable. Hats off to Alison.

  • Iarei

    “Also my laptop needs drying out and you seem like the person to go to for that kind of problem.”

  • Jeremy

    I really love the way the art emphasizes Allison’s facial expressions. It communicates so much emotion, without using any words.

    Allison definitely needs a vacation, and a chance to recover.

    I wonder if there’s anyone she can safely spar with – blowing off a little steam could be nice.

  • MrSing

    That’s a weird way to spell Paladin.

  • Mechwarrior

    One more thing goes bad for Alison right now and I’m going to conclude that the universe hates her more than it hates Waspinator.

  • fairportfan

    Everybody knows the thing about “Home is where when you go there they have to let you in.”, which is actually only part of the line.

    It’s from Robert Frost’s “The death of the Hired Man”, and the full line is “Home is that place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

    Alison may not be thinking of that right now…

    But she’s living it.

  • Anna

    Next Page: Paladin is dead on the floor, having been murdered by one of her own robots earlier that evening. This day can’t get any worse, though, right? Right?

  • JUnit4321

    Am I the only one who is glad she is not driven to conflict

  • Dude, you could LITERALLY sleep anywhere you want, no one could stop you. Purposfully making life difficult for yourself is NOT noble, its just being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn!

  • OmnipotentEntity

    She’s a volunteer, right? I volunteered for about a year at a small fire department. They definitely had beds to crash on, and we were very gently encouraged to use them on nights that we were on call. They were reasonably comfortable and private.

    But I could see why she might not want to. Superheroing is what got Allison in this mess. And when she’s at the fire station she’s a super hero. She’s not exactly raring to go into a burning building or to a car wreck or medical call or what have you tonight. She probably just wants to spend some time resting and mentally digesting things. But if she were at the Fire Department, I don’t think she could say no without it becoming just another thing to be depressed about.

    Moreover, it seems like there’s a
    doted on kid dynamic at the fire department, and it seems superficial.
    They probably wouldn’t readily understand, and Allison doesn’t relate well to biostables. But Paladin would understand, and she’s more relateable in this instance.

  • She’s already friggin homeless, and everyone treats her like a pariah, how much worse could it get?!

  • Its easy, just tell them “I’ll leave in the morning when its stopped raining. If you dont like it, sleep in the hallways”

  • LlubNek

    she would be able to keep the boxes dry though at least…