One of Eighteen 2013-03-26

[My2Cents]

Fair point. I guess I want her to be more, but then, automatic weapons don't care about that kind of thing. It does mean that Katherine likely has a huge case of survivors guilt.

She will become more. Consider a list of some of the capabilities she has already displayed in the course of her adventure with Atsali.
* Capable of remaining in control of her emotions, immediately analyzing all available data, and acting upon it. – The bomb in the mine, the roof collapse, and making the suits back off so she can ditch them.
* Pain tolerance -- More like just automatically ignoring it until the situation is safe and she can deal with it.
* Knowledge of field medicine – Atsali shoulder and her nose. She knows exactly how to do it.
* Leadership capabilities – Keeping Atsali calm and motivated.

The Kathryn we are seeing now obviously has none of these, and they are not something that you just suddenly have, they have to be developed. I suspect that things are merely bad right now, and will get much worse.

[Yamara]

Blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

[The Fansheep]

okay this attack makes me wonder about things: who is shooting? Why attacking unarmed Archeologist's why shooting out of cover/surprise/hiding? I mean its pretty oblivious that those are unarmed so why just gun them down? .. And why do we see so much blood recently? ;p I still love wapsi square but umm its a bit to much

[jerbic041157]

One thing most people in America don't always realize is that people in other countries don't think like us. Whoever is shooting could probably care less if their target is unarmed. Judging from the daily news reports, it doesn't take much to set someone off in that region, then the bloodbath ensues. OTOH, Paul seldom does things for no reason, so whoever is shooting, may have a part to play in the story. We'll see in days to come.

[Stigmartyr762]

If Katherine hadn't started running when she did, she'd have wound up like her colleagues. Though something tells me, that something much worse is coming down the rail.

[Jay-Em]

That wasn't being tougher and faster. That is panic, justified panic. She just got lucky and ran the right way to avoid the field of fire. In that situation you don't think you just run. If she was thinking she would have dived into the hole they were working on to take cover.

Not deep enough - especially i'd be willing to bet this is fire from a chopper.

A helicopter, not a Thompson, that is.

Ditto, on the chopper.

The complete lack of "bop bop bop" "bop bop bop" and just the sound of bullets impacting, tells us the actual firing of the guns takes place quite far away.

It could be a case of "mistaken identity" like the poor Britons who got slaughtered in '91 when an Apache crew mistook their APC's for Iraqi APC, or like recently, when reporters and civillians got killed when an over-enthousiastic kid saw a grenade-launcher, where there only was a camera.

Given the sheer amount of carnage, it's quite likely it comes from the large caliber belly-gun of an apache.

All very "yuck" nonetheless, and quite understandable that Kat is so weird. I got a couple of Srebrenica vets in my family, and they are all...well... "Broken" for lack of a better word.

[chicgeek]

Remember waaay back when Katherine broke her ceiling light fixture in her office at the museum, supposedly because she didn't want to call maintenance because everyone was freaked by her? Looking back now, could that have been a failed suicide attempt? I mean, how else does one destroy a light fixture like that just trying to change a light bulb? It was blamed on clumsiness/ineptness before. And I can see her feeling embarrassed and depressed afterwards-"I couldn't even do that right!' Monica may have indeed saved her life by befriending her.
I know, wild speculation, but....

[Jabberwonky]

Remember waaay back when Katherine broke her ceiling light fixture in her office at the museum, supposedly because she didn't want to call maintenance because everyone was freaked by her? Looking back now, could that have been a failed suicide attempt? I mean, how else does one destroy a light fixture like that just trying to change a light bulb? It was blamed on clumsiness/ineptness before. And I can see her feeling embarrassed and depressed afterwards-"I couldn't even do that right!' Monica may have indeed saved her life by befriending her.
I know, wild speculation, but....

If this isn't the place for wild speculation...

[jwhouk]

Was this a religous group? Those people look pretty holy.

(Doesn't bother pointing to the pun vault)
(Picks up shadowinthelight)
(Tosses shadowinthelight INTO the pun vault)

[jwhouk]

Looked through the archive: Kath joined the cast back in September of 2003. M's description was this: "She moved to the Twin Cities about a year ago. She restores and preserves textiles in the museum collection. I don't believe she has any friends."

Her first words (as she was crying) were, "I'm sorry. I thought I had this under control."

Tepoz's comment was: "she looks like a ghost."

We didn't see her again for a while - not until after the Golem Girls and Doubt made their appearances, in February of 2005. That was when we met Oscar.

In September, she met Tepoz. And we've basically already established Tepoz's connection with "mortals" is that those who've faced death are the only ones who can see him.

Welp. We now know why Kath could see him.

And I think we also saw this coming.

[Yamara]

Remember waaay back when Katherine broke her ceiling light fixture in her office at the museum, supposedly because she didn't want to call maintenance because everyone was freaked by her? . . . Monica may have indeed saved her life by befriending her.

And still this experience of Kath's was too traumatic to share with Monica when the subject came up before:

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/fishsauce/

But perhaps that was best, since Kath accepted the wonder of M's survival, instead of resenting it.

Leading to keeping M from learning too much of the Jaguar too soon for her own good:

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/myonlyenemy/


So we arguably have seventeen sacrifices to Tezcatlipoca in Israel happening here. And they say appeasement never works.

[eee]

I wonder if this is just a random slaughter, or if this group is being deliberately targeted. There was a mention of a bronze calf being found; there might be people who would want that. If there's mystical significance involved, the MiB might become involved. Although hopefully they're not the ones pulling the triggers right now.

Whoa! Paul has really crossed the Jordan this time. All this bloody mass slaughter has changed the comic quite a bit. And I'm not sure for the better. I believe we have moved into "R" rated territory now. May lose some readers if this becomes staple, and it looks like it is. I think we have the idea now and more bloody scenes of people being shot to pieces will not be necessary. At least I hope not, but that's not my decision to make. Just hope it doesn't get worse as we go. Though I'm afraid it will. Has thus far anyway.

Does one of eighteen mean 17 were murdered in the dig, or is Kath one of 18 somethings, or maybe there are 17 more artifacts to be gathered after the bronze thingy?

RE going over the line: You are familiar with the story of how the Chimera was made, I hope. Saw the consequences of Jin's failed rescue attempt. Watched as Phix tore Medea apart and ate her, then later accidentally ripped off Monica's face. Bad things happen in Wapsi Square. Sometimes graphically. People who don't understand that perhaps shouldn't be reading it to begin with.

[TheDOCTOR]

Man, You people are GOOD! Y'all are analyzing the strip, putting all the pieces together and such. Me? I'm still trying to get over the "Shock and Awe" of todays strip watching Katherine running fo her life, half of her covered in "Not-Becky" as her friends and colleagues are blown apart piece by piece. I'm surprised someone didn't record this carnage and post it on YouTube, if it existed when this happened.
Nice Work Paul.
Say, I just had another thought. Did Katherine ever go to Tinas' place for coffee? What would have happened if she ran into "REAL Becky"?

[Opus the Poet]

For those concerned about the comic's "rating", this level of violence would only rise to a PG-13 rating in the US. Now if there was a stray female human nipple visible among the flying body parts it would become R, but not until then.

And I agree about the "fire from distant cover" scenario, except there appear to be 2 or more weapons involved here, one HMG/light cannon, and one or more "just regular" machine guns. Some of the people are just developing holes, and some are exploding into tiny bits. The wide pattern of the "just holes" victims suggests either random spraying of the kill zone or multiple weapons. If it's just 2 weapons that could explain how Katherine survived as random spraying means less chances of getting hit. Jared was the MG gunner taking careful aim (headshot) but (s)he may not have the time to do anything more than just keep the muzzle in the general direction of the zone at this point.

[ziggy78eog]

Holy hell, if this is what Katherine went through, prior to meeting Monica, no wonder she was a shut in. The Survivor's Guilt must have been huge.

[analyst]

Holy crap.

Considering the gut shots, if this is a pun, the pun jar rejects your offering. However, the good-taste jar would like to talk to you.

[RunningBull]

Given this info on her background, the MIB and their choppers might trigger a complete breakdown at the current dig.

[Wdot]

She was one of eighteen. The sole survivor. But she dug eighteen graves -- one for each of them. Others would never know her name.

Okay,Atomic that just lightened an extremely dark moment. Thanks!
"Adventure. Ah, yes. That's someone else having a very rough go of it very far away."A Pail of Air
by Fritz Leiber Paul has at least mitigated the fear somewhat, since this is a flashback, we know that Kath will survive this incident. The heroine, in this case Kath is going through The Crucible, and like Friedrich Nietzsche said, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Maybe not right away, but eventually. The tempering process can take time.

I'm reading some complaints about the gore. Maybe if you've just started reading the comic, you have a right to be surprised about this, but if you've been following it for any length of time, you know there is the occasional gore. It isn't gore just for the sake of gore, however, it always is there to drive a point home. In this case why Kath is like she is. It is also used very effectively to shock, because it doesn't happen often, it is unexpected when it does. It fits well with the macabre sense of humor of the comic in general.

Anyone who reads the "Slice of Supernatural" and PG13 should be warned. The Brothers Grimm and most other tales of that sort can be bloody. This isn't the Disneyfied version.

[ChattaStarhawk]

If you have MiB, could there not be group(s) opposing MiB? And I do think the 'golden calf' may be the factor which led to this attack. And if the bad guys look close enough to MiB Kath would have a hard time trusting any 'shadow' group, even years later.

[Wapsi]

Now comes the people on the Facebook feed below the comic bitching that Kath has big boobs, saying that she was "normal" before and that now that she's a "star" in the comic, that her boobs got bigger. =/ Have a look back here when we first met Kath, she was wearing baggy clothes: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09192003/ and here http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09262003/ She's always had big boobs. Also, the flashback sequence happening now is taking place back when she was in college, 20 years ago. Kath is in her 40s.