Making Sure 2012-12-12

[chibichibi01]

She was buried after being given the "gift" of unlife?

Sounds like a Shovelhead.

[illiad]

Suzie, when I said you missed a few buttons yesterday, I didn't mean continue to unbutton until no garbs remain. Must be more careful in my observations in the future.

Shhh! If the attractive vampire girl wants to strip let her strip.

yes!! and she does not want to get that cute duck print top dirty....

[CPUGuy1]

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WHOA!!!
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Paul is getting very DARK these days.

[Jabberwonky]

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WHOA!!!
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Paul is getting very DARK these days.

All that time in the Minnesota winter sun will tan a fella...

[Dave]

So Suzi was turned into a vampire and buried unalive?

That's how I see it. Whoever buried her may not have thought she would become a vampire. It's kind of odd though. I think she refers to any burial as becoming fertilizer. When she says "nameless fertilizer" she may be referring to herself being buried in an unmarked shallow grave in the woods somewhere. Jane Doe here will "become fertilizer," but in a properly marked grave.

I wonder whether in trigger for becoming a vampire actually involves having been bitten by one at all?

Between Suzi making so much about being "discarded", and the statement that this young woman is an unknown "Jane Doe" who died of exposure... maybe it's something else entirely? Perhaps it's something in a paranormal-psychological vein (as it were)... that dying alone and loveless and afraid, in despair, having lost or been abandoned by everyone you care about, is what enables or triggers the transformation?

This would make Wapsiverse vampires somewhat more akin to the "hungry ghosts" of some Oriental cultures' mythos, and less akin to rabid (and infectious) animals.

[Nimrod]

Technically you can not be both a vampire and fertilizer.

So her linking the two is inaccurate if you can link a superstition based creature with natural organic breakdown.

Also though her motivations appear noble they are ultimately self-serving. She has taken up a postion / role where her vampire nature can be satiated with human blood without raising too much suspicion. Are her monologue actions (as she is talking to a corpse) just a simple precaution in case this girl could become a vampire or does she actually know that she would.

If she does not know then she simply is harvesting the girl's blood - more like a farmer and sending a token amount to a "network" who will do the majority of the work.
If she does know that the girl would become a vampire we do not know yet how she is aware of this (unless she had a hand in it) my biggest critique would be what does she intend to do with this knowledge?

Does she hope to intervene to prevent additional vampire victims? - the classic "I don't want you to end up like me"
Does she want to stop the perpetrator(s) of these acts? - the classic "don't expose us to the world" or "this has to stop now"
Is it just a simple turf war and someone is upsetting her little world? - the classic "I have a good thing going here, don't mess it up"

I really do not like modern mash-ups of the vampire legend. There are so many flavors of vampire and such a grab bag of supernatural powers that the very name is not much more than an adjective and not the name of a specific creature. Vampire X may be more like the classic vampire whereas vampire Y looks like a supermodel and needs only eat raw meat and vampire Z can walk around in sunlight and will only die if beheaded. Saying they are a vampire is no more specific than saying your a christian or a college student.

So given that ridiculously wide range of potential positive and/or negative connotations of being a vampire in the Wapsi-verse it is difficult to say at the moment if she is actually "helping" this girl at all. It appears like we are seeing a simple cover for a source of food for a character so upset at what she is and yet unable to actually do anything about it. Not so noble but rather weak, especially for a "vampire".

[Boxilar]

I'd like to point out that most vampire lore is a mashup, or at least it was until Bram Stoker came along. Then Hollywood codified the myth with Dracula. Every culture has its own myths about blood sucking undead, and they're all at least a little bit different from one another.

Incidentally, Dracula could wander around in daylight just fine.

[jwhouk]

It kinda looks like Tuesday's strip was the only one out of sync, as it appears Suzi's hair is as messed up as it was when she got out of bed.

[Dave]

Technically you can not be both a vampire and fertilizer.

So her linking the two is inaccurate if you can link a superstition based creature with natural organic breakdown.

And this suggests to me that Suzi is using "fertilizer" as a metaphor, at least as regards herself.

Possibly "used, rejected, abandoned by everyone, dumped on the road, downtrodden, considered to be of no real worth, distasteful, valued only incidentally for how your passing can be of some small benefit to others."

You know what people mean when they say "treated like shit"... well, I think that's what she is saying. That's how she was treated, and (I suspect) it's somehow tied in with how she became a vampire.

[kdt]

Are we sure the coroner meant exposure in the traditional sense and not as in exposure to however vampires are turned in the Wapsiverse?

[TheDOCTOR]

Are we sure the coroner meant exposure in the traditional sense and not as in exposure to however vampires are turned in the Wapsiverse?

I took it to mean just that. A 17 yr. old runaway died from exposure to the elements: "Froze to death".
No I.D. not reported missing. If shes not in CODIS then that makes it tough to I.D. her by 'Normal Channels' so Suzie is useing "Paranormal". O.M.G.....THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR - JAGUAR GIRL! Monica can leave her body, go all 'Casper' go find this girl ask who she is and what happened so she can Rest in Peace, and Suzie can go all Fangirl.

[kdt]

Suzie made reference to finding these people. If the Jane Doe had died of normal exposure, wouldn't have Suzie said she would find her family? It seems to me, she's looking for a murderer (aka the vampire the girl was exposed to) in addition to the girl's identity.

[Atomic]

Are we sure the coroner meant exposure in the traditional sense and not as in exposure to however vampires are turned in the Wapsiverse?

I took it to mean just that. A 17 yr. old runaway died from exposure to the elements: "Froze to death".
No I.D. not reported missing. If shes not in CODIS then that makes it tough to I.D. her by 'Normal Channels' so Suzie is useing "Paranormal". O.M.G.....THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR - JAGUAR GIRL! Monica can leave her body, go all 'Casper' go find this girl ask who she is and what happened so she can Rest in Peace, and Suzie can go all Fangirl.

+1 Clever! Time will tell whether or not the Villareal Detective Agency will be opening soon!

[Julie]

No - if Suzi is afraid she might become a vampire, a vampire must have been involved in her death.

Perhaps not. We've seen that vampires can walk around in daylight without bursting into flames*; maybe a vampire only needs a corpse with a certain amount of blood to raise another vampire.

*Granted, I think that's a relatively recent addition to the vampire mythos, but still.

This was my first thought...that maybe in the Wapsiverse, vampires don't necessarily have to bite a living being in order to transform them into other vampires. But then, I think that the theory that maybe "died of exposure" was a cover story is a good one...and Dave's idea that maybe the emotional and physical aspects of being "discarded" result in creating a vampire is a very interesting one.

All in all, color me intrigued.

[sheik]

I think the "network" Suzi was referring to might be those agencies that keep DNA for identification and can run matches.
I know the DoD has a very good system that can match for next of kin for all personnel so long as they have a sample to match.
My knowledge on this subject is now decades old, so Homeland Security should have tied the various law enforcement agencies and DoD together by now.
Of course I _am_ talking about the U.S. government, so the attempt to make such a system may still be in a bureaucratic snarl and the aforementioned network may be something cobbled together by MiB or somesuch.

[Bathorys Daughter]

Given Suzi's surprise she could not be identified by the usual means, I wonder if Jane is even a human, or a human brought into the world the usual way. Could it be Jane was created by supernatural means? Maybe simply a clone even. Could be one way a vampire gets "made." For example, a clone which is simply discarded after it's use is over. Or maybe Jane was created to become something else at some point (living organ bank?), but it went wrong and she died before that occurred. Dying early could result in transformation into a vampire instead. Perhaps because clones have no soul. She escaped from her handlers in winter, resulting in death by exposure.

Ah, second guessing Paul. An exercise in futility, I know. Still fun though.

[Yamara]

A worthy twist, and keeping true to form. A+++++ Would suspend disbelief again.

...But what if not turning Jane Doe into a vampire means she won't be the Gollum-like sacrifice that stops the Sun Jaguar from destroying the solar system?



T minus 9 days

[Dr. Otter]

As for "died of exposure" well, yeah, the perp a few strips back also died from "a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head" too

IRL I am a medical examiner. While I would normally never falsify a report, I'll be damned if I'll ever sign a death certificate as "death due to Vampire attack."

[illiad]

T minus 9 days

new year starts in 10 days!!! http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2012/12/10

[Yamara]

T minus 9 days

new year starts in 10 days!!! http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2012/12/10

You mean... these new Mayan calendars?

And they say the bak'tun renews in nine.