Thursday has a surprise for you...

Unlike the previous three which were "eye-gougers" and only about 1.8 people --and I'm certain .4 of them is an autoresponder-- got it, while this one is more like an "eye-opener" instead. So everyone (including Pete) should be able to fully understand what is occurring.

But just to be sure, let's recap: Riff (or Riflux) was imbued with telekinesis powers when Torg drew some other glasses on him. Who then for some reason with said powers, stuck Torg to the ceiling. Which Riff claimed he did not know why that had occurred. Also he was hearing the voices of the tacos calling out to him. With this tidbit of information, Torg was able to deduce why he was on the ceiling and being prevented from going to the kitchen.

Riff was being a greedy bastard who wanted all the tacos to himself.

Now let us continue onto Part 4 and see what dastardly scheme Riff will be up to next!


Also it would be nice if Pete would quit sending hit men after me. I'm running out of places to put the bodies.

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Aylee's in a real bad way. The thingie is out, but that expression.

Speaking of expressions, panel 3. What to make of that.

Bun-Bun looks awake and pissed ... but probably still stunned.

Others?

And poor Aylee. The chest wound is bad, but I'm worried about her wings. :(

The implications of this strip are huge.

So Sniper and Condor units had kill orders for Riff, but Kusashi aren't either of those, so they left him alive. That's some serious plot armor logic right there...

Aww. She/they really do(es) care about Riff! At least enough to perform some complicated mental gymnastics to avoid killing him.

They seem almost excited about this being their own choice. Like this is some special treat.

At least until Shlock gives them an order, then free well gets blown out an airlock.

The only logical way to interpret it is that they don't WANT to kill Riff. If they were basing their decision purely on what they think Schlock would want them to do then it should be obvious to anyone that Riff is to die, and failing that, Riff is never to be allowed anywhere near Schlock. This looks like the sort of passive rebellion that a literal genie would pull.

In other news, they talk to themselves a lot. It could be more for writing convenience, but I'm leaning against the "one mind" possibility.

I'm thinking that combat Kusashis and espionage Kusashis have different training. These ones have obviously never been taught to simulate human behaviour. Agent Sasha never seemed this robotic.

She was always weird though

Not plot armor logic...that's 'I still have feelings for him' logic

Or "Zeroth Law Rebellion" logic. She is apparently compelled to follow orders from the head of hC. If she has any mind of her own at all, she probably doesn't want to follow those orders, so she does exactly what will hurt hC the most that doesn't go against any specific order.

Before anyone points out that she's never done anything like that before, there's never been a situation where bending the rules was more likely to free her from them than it was to lose her the ability to bend them in the future.

Good thing Kusashi didn't see how short a distance Aylee really flew. And Bun-Bun is free! His loyalty to the cause and deep affection for Torg will save them.



I think it is meant to show how deeply Kusashi is controlled by Hereti-Corp. This reminds me of when she started killing everyone in the base, and then switched back to obeying Dr. Schlock again, depending on who was in charge. Without a moment's remorse. How does this control work? It will be interesting to see. Clearly this is what Dr. Schlock hopes to do to Oasis as well.

That part isn't so clear. If all Schlock wanted was another perfect soldier, well as far as we know there's no limit to the number of Kusaris he could have at any one time. Even if Oasis is better, it can't be by enough to stake his entire evil plan on. Pyrokinesis isn't THAT awesome. My theory is something to do with immortality. Schlock seems to value his own life more than anything else.