So the mysterious AI was closely connected with Oasis in 4U city. Really closely connected. Like, really, really connected... Does that mean?
And we almost found out why Riff always wears sun glasses.

Next we're going to almost solve the greatest mystery of Sluggy: WHAT does Torg have for parents? And what ever happened to Torg's sister?

Torg has a SISTER? Who in the what now?

Prepare ye now to behold proof positive of my wonderful new theory: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20070114



It is part of Torg's thinking that finding a sister hot would be sick. But how does one acquire that viewpoint? By having a sister! Case in point, I don't really have a sister, and I don't see how it would be sick to find a sister hot. See? The only way to have that social stigma imposed on one's thought processes is through having a sister. Case closed!

AND it even explains Sasha! Because you see, Torg has few memories of the time after his birth (in timeless space). But he does remember that he had a sister. He just doesn't know what she looks like now...
And of course Torg's father, Calix, managed to get him and Sasha out of timeless space just in time to save him from that dimension's destruction in the final strike of the R&D wars. Little did Calix know that Torg was going to CAUSE the R&D wars. It has a pleasing circularity to it, no?

...Unless... unless it just means that PETE has a sister...

I'm curious about Riff's Eyes too.
Maybe he's Daredevil or Something.

I was going to say this in the reactions thread, but then I thought that some might count it as speculation and I might be given the lash, so here it goes:

"Speaking of wandering eyes"?

Riff has a lazy eye?

The obvious answer is that Riff has unusually light-sensitive eyes, hence the sunglasses are a necessity and not an affectation.

...But obvious answers are boring. He's a Summers brother!

It should be quite established now that there is something unusual about Riff's eyes, which makes him wear sunglasses.

That leads to two scenarios:
1. Riff have an eye condition that makes him sensitive to light.
There is a bunch of diseases that could be the cause of that.
2. Riffs eyes have a very special look he wants to hide.
That could be something as plain as having different iris colour on the right and left side.
Maybe he is just looks so cute that he want to hide from the fan-girls.
Or they could look terribly, terribly bad...

That is not to say that an eye condition could not make the eyes look bad.
The more entertaining speculations are of cause that his eyes look unhuman because he is part demon/mutant,
or that he has occular implants.

Woah woah woah. What. I am dead certain that is spec, because there is no bloody way I would have missed that otherwise.

But it does make a certain kind of poetic sense... although I always thought Torg had family here. I guess not.

Nop. We've never had the least indication that Torg has relatives of any kind. We saw him going to school with Riff, but no mention or indication of parents, relatives, or even a last name in the ENTIRE comic.

This lack has been climbing up my specomiter importance indicator for some time now because of the fact that it is never even acknowledged. All the other Sluggy mysteries have been played with, lampshaded; Riff's glasses, Riff's father, the meaning of the word 'Sluggy,' Torg's last name, etc. But not once has a character ever commented on the fact that Torg appears to be the result of spontaneous generation. Which makes me think it could be very important.

Well we've never met or heard much about Torg's parents, although he's mentioned he had "viking" heritage. I think tribal leaf people could count, or you couls consider the timeless space pirates to be like vikings. So yeah, I've always though Kada and Calix are Torg's parents, which is why Pete spent so much time on their part of the story. I hadn't thought of Sasha as his siter, but it really would make a kind of sense. And they are both blonde.

My guess is that Riff was born blind and his eyes look like some variation of the stock-blind-person-blank-eyes.

His shades are then actually his prostethic eyes that allow him to see or "see". Which he probably built himself. While being blind.

Or...

3. Riff's eyes aren't 20/20, and so he needs prescription glasses. He just chooses to wear prescription sunglasses because they look cool.

I always thought Adult Calix looked like Riff. And he's almost a dead ringer for a younger-but-still-older-than-our-Riff Moldy-Bones Riff. Of course this could simply be due to Pete's drawing style...

Hence my ongoing theory that Riff is Torg's grandfather.

I think it would have to be something more unusual for the nanotech to be unable to 'cure' them. I would think it would be something very unique.