1113 Painful

by

Bet you didn’t expect that, huh? Something like this would be nightmare level horrible for me. Seeing old girlfiends is torturous. I’m that kind of person, and some of you are too. Of course those of you who are all fucking mature and shit can sit back and smugly watch us squirm, but I suspect you, like all people, have bullshit hang ups you just can’t let go of too. I won’t say any more on the subject for fear of spoiling future updates, but don’t go thinking that I can’t step outside myself and be aware of how ridiculous I can be. Sometimes I just don’t give a fuck. A little irrational behavior is the right of all sentient beings. XD

And now a word about the fiction offering for tonight:

I have run kind of rampant with this story so far and it’s gone okay, but this bit isn’t doing it for me. I just jumped in like I have been but a little ways in I wasn’t sure I liked the original idea and switched it around a bit, then I went back a little, and it’s just not right. So this might get completely redone, which will be the first real editing I’ve done with this thing. I mean you all should realize that this is just a first draft of an idea that is only partially fleshed out. The thing is this is how I’ve learned that you actually get things done. You just let stuff spill out of your head then fix it when it’s all barfed up. If you wait for perfection you will wait a very long time indeed, and that is what stops most people from ever doing anything. Most people draft in private, but I went public with it, and you guys have responded extremely well to this stuff, which has spurred me on. Anyway, just be prepared for this part to get completely reworked before the actual edited publication of whatever this story appears in.

And so our story continues?

“It looks like the steam tunnels, under the capital.” Niona gaped.

“Combined with a nightmare.” Added Regalius, and he wasn’t exaggerating. In addition to the tubes of glowing liquid there were holding containers filled with the toxic substance and the petrified remains of what must have been humans at one time, long ago. They stared, blank faced and warped, out at nothing in particular. Slowly though, the cloudy eyes began rotating, necks began craning, and these trapped persons appeared to become aware of them.

The party stood as if rooted. This strange green fluid coursed through the entire structure like blood, save for a few rooms. Now they stood at the heart of the thing and hundreds, if not thousands of souls appeared to be the source of the power. The piping itself seemed to make no sound though evidence of rhythmic flow was evident. Further in however the barely audible breathing that seemed to fill the entire structure was obviously real, and the whispering that one thought imaginary, when laying in the dark, was a clear and constant muttering.

“What in the world is up with this place…” Julius rasped.

“If anyone else ever made it here and back I never found their books.” Niona replied. “and not for lack of trying. The stuff I brought is literally all I ever found and, as you know, it’s grievously incomplete.”

“We need to do what we came here to do and get out. As fast as humanly possible.” Alina declared.

The group agreed quickly and Julius was soon briskly trotting ahead to check for other traps. As they moved more gaunt faces turned to observe them and words began to become more clear in the continual muttering. Julius did his best to keep focused on his job. There was evidence of activity that hadn’t been obliterated by dust. Organized activity. Perpetrated by far more people than they had thought to bring. Piping of a type more in keeping with what was commonly used had been added here and there. Someone had been tampering with whatever this place was meant to be, or do.

Eventually the hall opened up into a domed room where all the piping terminated. This now was the true heart of the structure. It was far more corrupted by the alien piping, which ran all around and at random angles.

Alina finally said aloud what they all knew. “Necromancy…”

“On a scale not seen for ages.” Niona added. “Perhaps never before or since.”

The native pipes ran like a spider web to a massive vat in the center of the room. It seemed to be gently pumping the fluid out, throughout, and back in to itself. Although hidden the mechanism was partially visible here and there around the room. Vague shadows seemed to be wandering formlessly. The additional piping also terminated at the center, but at some kind of device. The specters seemed drawn to it, taking no notice of the intruders.

“Is everyone else seeing the ghosts?” Herrin asked.

“Yep.”

“Indeed.”

“Eeep!”

“Yes…”

“Definetly.”

“Good.” He continued. “I’m glad it’s not just me.”

60 Comments

Where his glasses go? D:

Missing glasses, missing goatees, missing stripes on Dawns scarf, I torture myself with these things daily wondering if he will ever go back to correct them. But then I was the kid who grew up wondering why cartoon characters never change their clothes, so maybe Im just a crazy conspiracy nut.

If you ever REALLY want any of that stuff fixed you have to make a list, with links to the pages, so I can go find them when I have some time. You also have to send it in an email so I can save it without having to find it in the comments on some random page. Believe it or not it actually takes time to repair this stuff and I have a lot to keep up with. I already have lists of spelling corrections and pages that are just partially broken on the site that I’m working through.

Ah, so I should have emailed my “enervate” comment on yesterday’s fiction segment instead of just commenting on that specific page. Good to know, and I’ll go email that now. Thanks!

This is WHY most cartoon characters never change their clothes: because it’s a lot easier to remember what they should be wearing today if they always wear the same thing! Kudos to Crave for making his characters actually change their clothes each day, despite the extra work it causes.

Of course, in this comic a single day can last for hundreds of strips, so you still get used to drawing the same clothes every strip, making it that much harder to remember what should be changed when you DO finally start a new day. So Crave has my sympathy for that, because I tend to be pretty forgetful of stuff like that myself… I know it’s not easy.

You know, I think people are starting to like Reggie more now that we’ve seen he’s actually a person.

Naturally, this means we need a new target for our unbridled hatred. We thought it would be Wes. We were wrong.

You have provided most adequately.

I’m also very interested in seeing where you go with the story, especially if you rework it. I’ve never actually been able to see the writing process real-time before, it’s pretty damn cool.

@Writer Comments:
*Story Time*
I dunno if I can count my one encounter with the female fair a “relationship”. More of a “friend who spends all of my money than my other friends….. oh and happens to be female” type of deal. Once I lost my job, I lost my “girlfriend”… soooooooooo~ yeah.

Anyway. I’m not sure I can relate to what’s going on. Hell! I’m not even sure I KNOW what is going on. Maybe it was said and I forgot over time, but I dunno why Thomas hates her guts so much? To me, it feels like its because her life has progressed and gotten “so much better” than his has over time and he’s bitter about that… but I don’t know.
In my “relationship”, I’m not even sure I was even in one. She was a flirty thing, flirting with anyone or anything that moved. She wanted anything she saw, and left me to do the whole bisexual thing. I’m not even sure if I was broken up about it or not. I’ve never really been interested in dating, getting married, or having kids, and when she asked me out, I had to think, not because of her, but because of me. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to bother. In the end I said yes because I was kinda curious as to why every single one of my friends wanted to be in a relationship so bad, and figured this could be one of my few chances to find out about it. It was fun, for what that is worth, I don’t have many (if any) female friends, and gamer gals are painfully hard to find, so it was fun… till I started to notice the patterns. Overall, I think when she broke up with me, I was only upset for just a little while.

After a while, my friend made me an account on a dating site because he thought I needed a push to get back into dating… but I almost never get messages, even when I send them first, so over time, I’ve gone back to my prior mindset and just kinda “eh” about dating.
*End of Story Time*

I dunno. Women are pretty confusing creatures, so I think I’m better off not trying to figure them out, and just do my gamer thing.

Hear hear!

I’m awkward as hell when it comes to approaching people. I’ve been on a couple of dating sites, but I ended up cancelling 2/3 accounts because I was only getting messages from bots and posers. The other account is still active, but I almost never get messages.

Finding a gamer girl is tough. Finding an AUSSIE gamer girl is even tougher :P

I don’t know if it was mentioned but Miss “Willowbrooke” said that she broke up with Thomas long before they TECHNICALLY started dated. I guess she got tired of whatever shit Thomas was doing at the time and had an affair, and it was after she and Thomas officially called it quits that Lewis stepped up to the plate.

If you aren’t a guy who hasn’t been cheated on before you have NO idea how heart-rippingly painful it is even after the relationship is long over, and how angry the person can still make you after all those years.

Link, or it didn’t happen.

Seriously, though, I don’t remember anyone saying that Constancebrooke Willowdawn cheated on him.

Personally, I have been cheated on (#2 [Rule 11: never refer to an ex by name]).
Infuriating? Oh, absolutely.
Heartbreaking? Nah, not really.

I mean, maybe this is just me being me, but I seem mostly immune to heartbreak. It might be because I’ve attended half my age in funerals (including #3), but I’m basically kind of heartless, especially in relationships.

i was thinking something similar. Though I thought she was cheating on Tomas with this prick but only made it official a while after they broke up. I actually don’t have anything against her husband, just her… she seems to have that really annoying personality type. But I bet there is a twist someplace that is also going to make her seem more human. Now that I think about it I don’t actually know the author’s first or last name, just his middle name. That is bothersome to me.

I’ve been cheated on before. I was sad about it for a little bit, but I really don’t understand carrying a long grudge about these things.

When she wanted to get back together a few months later though, it was a definite “NOPE” from me. Forgive, but don’t forget.

I’m one of those who hasn’t been totally infuriated or terribly hurt by my relationship. I’m also still a virgin.

I’ve been told that sexual intercourse creates a very powerful bond, and I haven’t been that far. This may be why it wasn’t so difficult for me to let go, even though I did get angry for a month or two.

By the way, oral sex counts as sex in my book, and I can still claim virginity. I don’t consider it “perfect” virginity. We definitely got to second base, and were harassing the shortstop. That’s as far as we wanted it to go, though.

I’ve decided not to go that far again until marriage.

Yeah. Ok. The husband and pregnancy I could see upsetting Thomas. The moving back to town? I think the coined term is that it’s a “dick move”. Carol better have something great in store for him to make up for this, Crave…

i have too say this is my personal opinion but if a relationship is over and you both have met someone new get over your petty hatred of the other person.

If you break up with someone, you aren’t allowed to live in the same town as your friends and family do anymore? Good to know.

I fail to see how an expectant mother moving back to the town she grew up in, where she has a support network for when(not if) something goes wrong, is a “dick move.”

Regardless, I love Thomas shaking his fist at God.

Well, yeah, but from Thomas’s perspective, he’s spent most of his life hating her, and the fact that she moved back into town probably wouldn’t nearly bug him as much if she wasn’t acting like they were old friends and shit.

Trust me when I say, it’s not the mature who are void of jealousy. What keeps me from being jealous is the simple fact that no matter how much I end up hating the ex in the end I’d much prefer her be happier without me.

In other words, self-hatred trumps jealousy in my case!

Experience has taught me that any reaction I may have to an ex is mostly based on her behaviour leading up to and immediately following the breakup. Some I have remained friendly with, others I’d give a glass of water if they were drowning.

It’s interesting to read this arc of the comic because Thomas is completely the opposite of me. I’m still friends with my ex, she broke up with me and almost instantly starting dating another guy afterwards. That guy ended up becoming one of my best friends. I see both of them quite often now.

I don’t know. To me it just wasn’t worth it to get upset about. I’d spent years developing a friendship with her, it seemed pointless to throw it away just because it wasn’t romantic anymore. As for the guy, he didn’t dump me, she did, so there wasn’t any reason for me (in my mind) to hate him. In the end he turned out to be pretty cool.

I can totally understand why many people view things differently and my way might not be right either, but approaching the comic from this background is quite fascinating for me.

some suitable music to go along with this plot ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S297bQROMSk

And when we first is on the topic I personally just can’t manage dealing with people that is over with to be honest, I wish I could, I really do….. But it have too much negative effect on me including but not limited to headpain, breathing problems, dizziness, etc….. Increase in mention things with added defensiveness if the person already found another-_-”

and it don’t exact help that it seems most people don’t have two ounce of seriousness either…

I have to say I’ve walked both sides of that street. Yeah, there are a few women I’ve stayed in contact with. Sometime you both say, “Huh; y’know, this just ain’t gonna work.” There are others whose eMail correspondence and addresses I deleted in anger, then expunged their phone number from my Casio Geek Watch™.

And one against whom I filled out a restraining order…

??Know when to walk away,
And know when to run…??

A friend of mine has the textbook “she who shall not be named” ex. Whoo boy…that was a…”time.” Honestly, none of us (circle of friends) liked her. She was prone to bursts of emotion in any direction and any comment could be taken any way. She tore my friend to pieces. She was already deep in the process of jumping from boyfriend to boyfriend by cheating on the next to the next to the next (etc), but the problem with that started when she met my friend. When she cheated, she relied on the current boyfriend to get mad and leave…but my poor friend was too damn trusting and understanding.

…it was a painful relationship to watch. And to listen to. I don’t miss her voice. Anyway, they stabbed at each other for a good while, and hell…it’s possible she even cared for him. It’s hard to say. Thankfully they broke it off, but my friend never looked on that subject again without rage. Case in point: we all went to the local Renaissance Festival one year – this had been YEARS after their relationship, so none of us had seen her for a long time – and while we were walking I heard her shrill voice yell out my name. There wasn’t any reason for her to be on bad terms with any of us, and I’m assuming she held no ill will toward my friend, but MAN, my first reaction was to turn and warn my friend…but he was already miles away and I swear there was a cartoony dust cloud under his feet. Can’t mistake that voice.

I made awkward small talk (her friend was also there, who I’ve also been friends with and I felt terrible for being so curt since I never felt any ill will toward her) and managed to say our “see yas” ‘n all that. Needless to say, my friend was on alert the rest of the day in case she showed up again.

I also have tons of exes like that. I even thought I’d escaped any such meetings when recently I moved from central Texas to northwest Washington State.

Then utterly randomly, NO IDEA HOW IT HAPPENED, but SOMEHOW…. Ex starts working at my call center.

I’d swear it was stalker level if he hadn’t looked as surprised as I was.

xzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx

side note about the story, directed at Crave

IF you do change it, that’s fine; it just means the rest of us get to be all indie and say “yeah we read that before the final was published”

Is it just me, or does it look like Thomas is threatening God for putting him through this in his last panel? It kind of looks like he’s going “I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS! I SWEAR! SOON AS I REACH THOSE PEARLY GATES, YOUR *** IS MINE!”

Or am I just misunderstanding the body language?

At this point, he’s probably making a mental list of deities that he wants to strangle for putting him through this.

Yeeeah, I’m fairly mature these days, but I still would prefer to undergo numerous grievous injuries than be put in a situation where I have to talk this much to any of my exes, and to find out that one of them was moving into my small town? God no. I don’t even want to think about that.

Ugh… Painful is right. This is hard for me to witness. Please have someone intervene. I’m begging you!!

“A little irrational behavior is the right of all sentient beings.” This needs to be on a T shirt-stat. If you do rework your story, just make sure to keep us in the loop. Also still need a Carol/Alina pic.

“A little nonsense, now and then, is the refuge of the sanest men.” – (I think it’s C.S. Lewis, might be Lewis Carol.)

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. -Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory 1971

found the real quote, thought Wonka was quoting somebody was probably wrong.

I get the feels… so much… I have a habit of falling out with people just as they move to within walking distance… not even because of it… fear of seeing them… passing them…does not help my problems with domestic inertia…

I forgot to ask, is there a um… A little banner thing for your comic for advertising? I can’t seem to find it. @_@

I’m not sure I know what you mean. Does it need particular dimensions?

Oh no! I just like to advertise comics I like reading from time to time. I know some people have them up on their websites for people to read. They come in all different sizes and whatnot. Some tiny, others maybe 500px in width. It personally doesn’t matter to me! I was just wondering!

I don’t have issues with exes. In fact, I’m friends on Facebook with a few of them. It probably helps that 1) all my “exes” were from my teen years, and didn’t include the, “let’s move in together and enjoy frequent nookie” element; 2) all were over 34 years ago; and 3) I’ve been in a happy, stable relationship for over 33 years.

That said, I also don’t look smugly upon those that still have struggles to maintain any kind of cordiality with exes. It’s always easier from the outside, not knowing what all was involved in the situation.

Of course, when it seems the ex is either clueless about, or purposely ignoring, the fact that she’s rubbing your nose in her current “happiness,” it would be much more difficult to smile graciously.

Ahh, extra spicy ex-issues arise.

Personally, I find being around an ex, after they apply that prefix, always has this bit of awkwardness to it. Sometimes it’s just a bit, and is able to be worked through as to not make the situation too weird for anyone else around, but sometimes it’s enough to simply have me decide I really don’t need to be there, then I find a way to make that happen. I think it depends on how the relationship was, how the break-up/dumping/whatever happened, and the personalities of both involved parties.

It can be tough, and unless you’re the one in the situation, you can’t really know how bad it may be, and as such “just grow up” doesn’t cut it. Sure, the sentiment of “being nature adults” (in quotes, because if you’ve seen any civil court hearings, you’d know those adults are anything but civil) is fine and dandy, but every situation is different, and most people try to avoid putting themselves into painful/uncomfortable/undesirable situations when they can avoid it. Civility is one thing, welcoming an ex with open arms is another.

I admit it would be awkward to see an ex but I don’t see the point of holding a grudge for as long as he has, though I’ve never been in a relationship.

Thomas’ *frustrated* facial expressions on the last few pages have been an absolute treat, I hope there are more.

*cacklesnorts* I’m sure I’m supposed to be feeling sorry for Thomas these last few pages, but his face! His FACE!!! *dies laughing*

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