2930 Life Is For The Living.

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My first experience with getting jumpscared by death was in 1994. My uncle was killed in a car accident. That was 32 years ago and I still think about him regularly. Maybe it’s just something in my genetics, or maybe my family is prone to holding on to that sort of thing. I don’t know. My mother archives family history in a way that could probably be called obsessive. She is something of a genealogist and historian though, so it makes sense really. I tend to take after her, so maybe that’s part of it. I used to think that we were unique in that way because I never really encountered anyone who seemed to ruminate the way we tend to, but a friend of mine lost a brother to a senseless act of violence over a decade ago and he often posts about it even now. I’ve never really spoken to him about it because in person I sort of play a character of myself and I’m not sure I’ve ever been anything but that in his presence. I suspect that he understands that since I’ve been online as long as he has and also tend to overshare, or at least don’t hide my real feelings all that much. At least I did before the internet became vicious. In my head there’s a part of me that thinks he should have gotten over it, but another part that thinks why would he ever. The reality is that he gets by every day the same way I do and when he’s alone in front of a keyboard he shares. Much like I do. The many warring personalities in me come to the realization of his experience at different rates of speed and sometimes over and over. In the chambers of my brain anyway it seems like there are parts that have access to my full suite of emotional intelligence and other parts that just make me capable of being around other humans without having to fight with my emotions at all times. Sometimes it seems like those parts don’t communicate. Sometimes it feels like I’m perpetually trying to remind part of my brain to remember to have empathy while also having almost crippling levels of empathy to overcome. There are probably many people like me, but I never notice since they are also actively trying to hide their emotional reactions to everything all the time too.
Alex is something like ten years distant from her sister’s death, but it obviously colors her actions even now. To one degree or another that would hold true for Evrina, Nina, Maddison, Alex’s mother, and probably other characters who haven’t ever specifically mentioned their connection to Alex’s family. In some ways the entire town would be affected to one degree or another. I dunno, I kind of lost the thread of where I was going with this when I started. I’ve had a headache since I got up and it keeps derailing my train of thought.

I had a pinched nerve in my side that was making feel like I needed to puke all day too. I had to convince my body that it was fine in order to eat anything. The whole situation screwed up my plan for the day. I really wanted to get ahead on comic pages since so much stuff is happening, but there’s a level of headache that is too disruptive for even me to work through. I have managed it a few times over the years, but every so often I have one that is almost crippling. They are extremely rare these days mercifully.

I have to go to the health fair early tomorrow to get in on the cheap bloodwork. That’s part of why I wanted to get ahead if I could. I’ve been going to bed really early recently so it works out well if I can go to sleep as 8 and then get up for the bloodwork without having to be awake for the fasting. I will wake up way before that though. I know I’ve said it before but the fasting doesn’t really bother me. I regularly fast for entire days without thinking about it, but when I’m being forced not to do something then that’s the only thing I want to do. The degree to which I hate being told what to do is really ridiculous. I’ve wanted to go back to bed basically from the moment I woke up today so I’ll probably be wide awake when I want to sleep since that’s how shit always goes it seems like, but maybe I’ll be lucky and I won’t be a hostage of my brain this time. Getting 25$ bloodwork versus $600 is way too good a deal to pass up. Since my insurance will soon be fucked beyond all reason I better enjoy whatever health care I can get.

I better not go any farther down that path or I’m likely to get a bit too animated for the comments.

Anyway, I need to go to the store after the bloodwork tomorrow. So that will make it harder to get ahead of the page for Friday. I guess I’ll just see how I’m feeling and do as much as I can in advance. If nothing else at least I got to take a sick day and not have to worry all day about trying to make this page. There were so many words I didn’t want my spellcheckers to have to rush through it like I usually make them do via my being late. All that aside, I hope to see you on Friday. Until then, please remember the various support links scattered around the page, and stay safe until we meet again.

26 Comments

Jackie: Extra “p” in “apologize”, Panel 1, Bubble 2; also, might read better as, “I know. I apologize, my dear.”

Just throwing it out there, mean no offense. Keep up the great work! :)

That’s the kind of wealthy I want to be, the Gomez Addams style, hear a cool idea, or have something you specifically want to do? Throw a bunch of money at it without caring whether you see a dime of it back, because the investment isn’t the point, you’re buying happiness, maybe yours, maybe somebody else’s, maybe it’s long lasting, maybe it’s fleeting. I just wanna be a wealthy benefactor of whatever strikes my fancy, I’d be an awesome eccentric billionaire! Too bad I’m poor, wealth is wasted on the lame duds who have it now, that’s why we can’t have cool things, the money isn’t being casually thrown around at cool stuff with a laughing grin the way it was always meant to be!!! So vote for me for eccentric billionaire! I’ll fund the cool stuff! The silly stuff! I’ll make the world delightfully weird and we can all have a wonderful time laughing about it!

I have about 1,300 euros a month to my name and the best friends and family in the world. If I had 130,000 euros a month and no good friends and family, I would be INFINITELY poorer than I am now, and so much more unhappy.
Alex is correct in this.

I was young when my maternal grandfather died, something like eight or ten at the time. The viewing was days after he died, and as far as I was concerned his body was just another thing – he wasn’t there anymore. I had a hard time not laughing during the funeral, it was all so silly to me. I’ve since realized that all the nonsense isn’t for the deceased, it’s for the living.

I’ve never been afraid of death. To me it’s a very strange thing to be afraid of, since there is no avoiding it. Try as we might, we’re all going to die. What’s important, in my view, is what we did with our lives. Did we make the world a better place, in at least some way? I think I have, overall.

Jackie, I don’t know about the rest of your life, but I think you’ve made the world a bit better through sharing this story with it.

The father of one of my good friends just passed away. Everyone else woke up one morning, and he did not. His health problems were minimal so it was very sudden and unexpected. Remember that, savor the time you have with the friends and family you cherish. On a practical note – buy life insurance, have a plan in place, watch out for funeral industry scams.

I lost my older brother when he was 24, and as your date math reminded me, I’ll be 34 this year. You’ve got about the closest understanding of it I’ve seen from someone who hasn’t gone through it personally, I think. Alex is an idealized outcome, of course, but a believable one.

My mother had me when she was 16 and my uncles were all young enough that they treated me like a little brother, so my experience with his death was functionally identical. Additionally I watched my entire family going through the grieving process, so I’ve had plenty of experience to make a narrative facsimile.

Fair, and apologies for assuming otherwise. I’ve never had that kind of closeness for really any of my extended family and was probably projecting.

Still, there’s an authenticity in Alex’s grief that’s rare to see. Maybe it’ll help those lucky enough to not have that kind of loss yet understand it. Or maybe they’re better off not understanding it til they have to, and it’ll just be a reminder for those who have that they aren’t alone. Appreciated regardless.

I’ve been enjoying this comic since around my senior year of high school and have begun to do well enough financially that I can comfortably afford some form of support for the years I’ve enjoyed. Which of the sites that support monthly give you the best share of the cut?

Well I have the founders plan on Patreon and I can take their fees off my taxes. It’s pretty reliable about billing. If you prefer Subscribestar it’s functionally identical. I know some people have issues with Patreon, which is why I set it up. I’m pleased with any service you use. I can generally take all fees off my taxes so in the end I get all the money from a certain point of view.

Thank you for responding, I’m glad to hear that you can recoup the fees. Love all the work you’ve done and look forward to seeing the story continue. Love your face <3

Teared up a little. Understand completely on not passing up the health fair. Take it easy, judging by the update schedule of a lot of other comics,(and hiatuses(spelling?) you’ve got a right to a grace period, and readers who will stick with you.
Hope the blood draw goes well. Had a cat scan a while back, and they had to stick me 8 times. They wanted to stop around 3 or 4 and have me come back the next day.Told them I couldn’t get the day off, and it’s a 300 mile round trip.

“I apologize, my dear.”

And she means both the apology and ‘my dear’.

As a side effect of her goals she’s gonna be the coolest person in town.

I just lost mom, dad, and most of my aunts and uncles in the course of a single year. Thank you for the comic, true as it is.

I agree with the sentiment. I love my friends and want to see them succeed. I want to share experiences with them. So even when they can’t afford something, if I can, Ill help.

My family is very young, at least on the side I grew up with. I’m extremely fortunate in this respect as I’ve never really dealt with the death of anyone very close to me. I genuinely had my great-grandmother in my life – fully lucid and fairly active – until I was 30. My grandparents’ health is starting to deteriorate and it’s been hitting me that I have no idea what things will be like without them. I’m certainly not quite in the same boat as Reggie, but I also have no idea what it would feel like to be in Alex’s (or a real person in the world who’s dealt with anything like this) shoes. It’s something I’ve always taken for granted without realizing and am working on trying to make the best of the time I have with them now.

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