Something Like That 2015-04-29

[shadowinthelight]

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/something-like-that/

Now we know what happened with Horned Girl. And it's completely coloring Atsali's view of this.

[Dave]

Yow.

This could definitely explain why Atsali was so resistant to seeing, hearing, being told, or realizing that Nadette was personally interested in her.

It wasn't cluelessness. It was traumatic armor-plating.

I'd offer a cookie to those who correctly predicted this detail, but under the circumstances I won't. The cookies would probably taste like ashes.

[KnightDelight]

Nadette has struck a nerve. A deep, raw, and very painful wound has just been re-opened. Obviously Atsali wanted a friend, not a lover. Apparently the last time didn't work out very well and she has learned from the past. Perhaps not the right lesson, but a lesson nonetheless.

[GlytchMeister]

Aw, shit... This is gonna hurt... *heavy sigh* ... Now I'm hoping for an intervention from someone. Preferably Kath, she's probably the one who can help Atsali the most with what seems to be shaping up to be some sort of mental/emotional/psychological issue.

[Thor]

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/something-like-that/

Now we know what happened with Horned Girl. And it's completely coloring Atsali's view of this.

And we don't even know for sure that it was what happened with horned girl. That could just be Atsali's understanding of it. Horned girl might have had a lot more issues to deal with, of which non-reciprocated attraction might have only been a small piece. Most likely Atsali has been blaming herself for something that was not even remotely her fault.

[DilyV]

Aw crap...

[Sgt. Howard]

Teen suicides tend to have a cascading effect- even those not close to the victim are damaged. Thor very likely has it on the button- Atsali not reciprocating attention might have been a small part of a bigger pile of issues, but Atsali will not see it that way... she certainly sees herself as poison to any girl she wishes to befriend if they take a romantic shine to her...

[Gavote]

That's a bit more than a relationship speedbump, that's a freaking anti tank mine she just hit!

[jeffepp]

Yow.

This could definitely explain why Atsali was so resistant to seeing, hearing, being told, or realizing that Nadette was personally interested in her.

It wasn't cluelessness. It was traumatic armor-plating.

I'd offer a cookie to those who correctly predicted this detail, but under the circumstances I won't. The cookies would probably taste like ashes.

No, not a happy feeling. This answers whether the issue was inside Atsali, or outside. Inside.

But, this is part of the healing process. And it's going to hurt. But, somethings have to hurt to heal right. A certain seer foresaw that this would lead to true happiness, and Atsali was not really happy with herself. She has to learn that it wasn't her fault. She has hidden herself from the world, as much as she could, because of what happened. Now, she needs to go through this, so that she doesn't feel that way, any more. But it will hurt.

[Dave]

Aw crap...

Yeah, that kinda sums it up...

Teen suicides tend to have a cascading effect- even those not close to the victim are damaged. Thor very likely has it on the button- Atsali not reciprocating attention might have been a small part of a bigger pile of issues, but Atsali will not see it that way... she certainly sees herself as poison to any girl she wishes to befriend if they take a romantic shine to her...

And that adds a nasty double-whammy to what he's learned about her Siren powers.

To keep faith with her "I will not use Siren compulsion" pledge to herself, she has to hold herself at a distance, and wait for genuine, honest, un-forced feelings towards her to appear...

... and now it seems she feels urgently compelled to reject them when they appear in a close (female) friend, because they're too close to being a Death Omen.

Even if she wasn't truly or solely responsible for what happened to Horned Girl, she still seems to have a heavy case of survivor's guilt to deal with. I wonder whether the orphanage provided her (and the other kids) with any sort of theraputic or post-trauma support.

And this is probably why Nadette couldn't read Atsali's path clearly... why her vision was so clouded by something in Atsali's past. That something, was precisely the thing which would complicate Nadette's own relationship with Atsali.

[GlytchMeister]

Teen suicides tend to have a cascading effect- even those not close to the victim are damaged...

I had a guy kill himself in my high school. The effect was one of the scariest things I've ever seen. To give you a good baseline, my school was a loud, proud, boisterous and belligerent school. It seemed like half the funding went to the football team alone, and another 45% went to the other sports teams. The cafeteria was usually loud enough to rival a good rock concert, and it approached the loudness of space shuttle launches after some team won some game or another.
After the kid killed himself, the cafeteria was dead silent. I mean "pin drop" silent. For a week. People murmured and whispered for months. It took the rest of the school year and a summer for things to go back to normal.
All of the faculty (and, unofficially, a lot of the less affected students) were on high-alert for signs of a chain reaction of suicides.
I've never seen anything else cow an entire school of such loud students into utter silence for so long. I never even knew the kid, and I didn't talk during lunch for the Week of Silence.

My point is, a suicide is an incredibly powerful event, and seeing as Atsali not only knew the girl that offed herself, but feels that she is responsible AND was the one to find the body... She's gonna have some SERIOUS scarring.

[Sgt. Howard]

Aw crap...

.
NO- THIS emotional vomit is the FIRST STEP to HEALING!!! NOW it comes OUT IN THE OPEN instead of FESTERING deep inside and building the urge to die. Poor Nadette has no clue what is going on, but she will be savvy enough to point her in the right direction and get help

"You can't tell me that!" ... Nadette is going "Wha... what are you talking about?" - she will understand this is a wound that never healed.

[Sgt. Howard]

Beer, pretzels and hardboiled eggs in confusion corner- drinks are on me. Atsali's 'zit' has 'popped'... and it's a humdinger!!

[GlytchMeister]

I get the impression that a big part of Atsali's warped perception of reality just got shattered. She was maintaining some sort of illusion that made her feel better somehow, and losing it has caused her a lot of pain.

For some people, having an illusion broken can itself be a traumatic event.

Another, much more scary thought: usually crazy isn't contagious. But Atsali had a whole civilization of stark-raving-batshit-crazy pumped straight through her mind. What if some of all that insanity rubbed off onto her? Her poor brain was flooded with not just your run-of-the-mill kind of crazy, but fermented, evil crazy.

Perhaps she did get counseling and was fine after Hung Girl, but then she had that whole civilization's worth of fermented-evil craziness forced through her skull, maybe that caused her to re-develop old psychoses... Or it could have caused her to develop new ones about events she wasn't originally damaged by.

[DilyV]

Aw crap...

.
NO- THIS emotional vomit is the FIRST STEP to HEALING!!! NOW it comes OUT IN THE OPEN instead of FESTERING deep inside and building the urge to die. Poor Nadette has no clue what is going on, but she will be savvy enough to point her in the right direction and get help

"You can't tell me that!" ... Nadette is going "Wha... what are you talking about?" - she will understand this is a wound that never healed.

I kinda had the feeling that this was the case... Atsali seemed really guilty after the anti matter incident... I don't think Nadette was turned down by Atsali directly, but was hurt because she knew that Lily would tell Kath and that would put the kybosh on her plans. Nadette was very hurt by it... here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/more-complicated-2/

Then Atsali was pretty much told by Kath that Nadette had a crush on her... here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/a-boy-calling/

Pickle reminds Atsali about the horned girl: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/worried/

And it is obvious here that Atsali knew how she'd hurt Nadette... and how she might be feeling because of it: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/promise/

It's all there if you put two and two together. Dave had it right... this was some serious emotional Armor Plating... Denial of sorts that caused her to go completely oblivious to other's feelings. Atsali need serious help to get her through this... Maybe Aunt Monica can help...

[Thor]

Perhaps she did get counseling and was fine after Hung Girl

Not really likely. From all we've heard, the paranormal orphans were mostly just shuffled out of view until Brandi started working to change things, and that was very very recent. I mean, the orphan kids were only allowed out to go to the library once a month, fer crap's sake. I'm sure that in those bad time "counseling" consisted of someone putting their hand on your shoulder and telling you to "buck up".

[Opus the Poet]

Crazy IS contagious, especially the crazy that leads to suicide. When a popular celebrity commits suicide it has a ripple effect on people who were just hanging by a thread and who admired the celebrity for whatever reason. The hypothesis is for many the suicide "gives permission" for their suicide, for others it is "if [$CELEBRITY] can't make it what hope do I have?"

[Mark N]

I get the impression that a big part of Atsali's warped perception of reality just got shattered. She was maintaining some sort of illusion that made her feel better somehow, and losing it has caused her a lot of pain.

For some people, having an illusion broken can itself be a traumatic event.

Another, much more scary thought: usually crazy isn't contagious. But Atsali had a whole civilization of stark-raving-batshit-crazy pumped straight through her mind. What if some of all that insanity rubbed off onto her? Her poor brain was flooded with not just your run-of-the-mill kind of crazy, but fermented, evil crazy.

Perhaps she did get counseling and was fine after Hung Girl, but then she had that whole civilization's worth of fermented-evil craziness forced through her skull, maybe that caused her to re-develop old psychoses... Or it could have caused her to develop new ones about events she wasn't originally damaged by.

I am betting that the brain flooding is not a problem here but something in her mind resisted any counseling she may have gotten, especially if no one else knew about her connection to the deceased. You cannot council someone about a bad thought if you do not know it is in there.

[Warrl]

I'm sure that in those bad time "counseling" consisted of someone putting their hand on your shoulder and telling you to "buck up".

Mr. Meadows doesn't strike me as that sort... but he does seem to be one of the ordinary caretakers with however-many kids to take care of, not able to devote a large amount of time to one or two of them, and probably not trained in counseling.

[jwhouk]

Called it.