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Clinton begs his mum to let Eyebrow Girl sleep over for the night

Clinton begs Claire, Marten and Faye to let Eyebrow Girl sleep over for the night

Clinton begs his mum to let Eyebrow Girl sleep over for the night; it turns into a longer-term thing

We cut back to Marten and Claire; Clinton's call for help interrupts a... moment

Bubbles has things to think about and notices a fire in the city... a BIG fire

We meet another of Jeph's new characters when she comes into CoD the next morning

New arc! Steve returns and he needs Marten's help for something!

New arc! Just what has Hannelore been doing with her time when she isn't at CoD?

New arc! May's probation hearing is coming up and she needs to persuade her friends to speak on her behalf

Other

[mustang6172]

What is she holding in that last panel?

[bhtooefr]

A cuckoo clock, based on the text at the bottom.

Also...
[tweet]732344609876148224[/tweet]

[Method of Madness]

lolspoilers, but I'm glad to hear

[Undrneath]

Why wouldn't she accept Claire?

Clairemom is doing better than a tragically large fraction of all parents of trans children. If only that kind of acceptance could be taken for granted.

I guess I am a bit naive. I just can't imagine a parent not accepting their kids.

[Penquin47]

And we have a name!

Fuck everyone who's ever told her she shortens it wrong.  It's her name.  She gets to do whatever she wants.

[chaospersonified]

BRUN. It's a name. It works in that capacity. Therefore, it doesn't matter if it's an uncommon shortening.

[Zebediah]

I guess I am a bit naive. I just can't imagine a parent not accepting their kids.

Hoo boy.

I'm just going to walk away before I get in trouble.

[TheCollector]

Oh crap! She's Questionable Contents version of Shaw!

That's great!

[mustang6172]

Why wouldn't she accept Claire?

Clairemom is doing better than a tragically large fraction of all parents of trans children. If only that kind of acceptance could be taken for granted.

I guess I am a bit naive. I just can't imagine a parent not accepting their kids.

Mothers reject their babies all the time.  Nature is a cruel and uncaring force, truly a blight on the earth itself.

Read that with a German accent to get the complete Werner Herzog experience.

[Gladstone]

Their breath is visible now, guess it's getting colder/ the fire is dying/ both.

/their powers are simultaneously beginning to manifest...

[Near Lurker]

Well, I suppose it was inevitable...

[Deadman]

kinda liking this arc as in I am actually interested in seeing what will happen next after so much meh

[TheEvilDog]

No, he'll offer a room at his mom's. He knows his sister won't be home so there will be separate rooms for both without any questions. If his mom can accept Claire, walking in with her won't even rate a raised eyebrow.

I feel like it's kind of a leap from "not a complete shitheel to her own blood" to "willing to take in a somewhat frightening stranger."

Yeah, that idea always felt a bit off with me. Its one thing to be completely understanding when you child is going through something huge like coming out as trans, its something else entirely when another child brings a complete stranger into your home without forewarning.

What happened previously and with Clinton's luck it would have ended as a certain trope. And usually not a particularly funny one at that.

[Method of Madness]

Oh crap! She's Questionable Contents version of Shaw!

That's great!

Just caught up on PoI a few months ago, really hoping there's a season five.

Also, is Brun the Topher to Hilde's Chris?

[TheCollector]

Oh crap! She's Questionable Contents version of Shaw!

That's great!

Just caught up on PoI a few months ago, really hoping there's a season five.

Also, is Brun the Topher to Hilde's Chris?

I don't know how to tell you this, but season 5 started two weeks ago. Two eps a week, today's 4, Shaw returned, and I don't want to spoil any details about it or the twist, but something finally happens between Shaw and Root and that is glorious. :3

[sitnspin]

Oh crap! She's Questionable Contents version of Shaw!

That's great!

Just caught up on PoI a few months ago, really hoping there's a season five.

It is airing now. This is going to be the final season. Shaw and Root are the best thing television has ever produced.

[TheCollector]

Oh crap! She's Questionable Contents version of Shaw!

That's great!

Just caught up on PoI a few months ago, really hoping there's a season five.

It is airing now. This is going to be the final season. Shaw and Root are the best thing television has ever produced.

YESSSSSSSSSSS

And ep 7 is gonna have another scene, and it won't be y'know.

[Method of Madness]

Argh, god damn it, why the hell would you post any of that without spoiler tags? Yes, I appreciate being told it's back, but...seriously! WHY?

[TheCollector]

Argh, god damn it, why the hell would you post any of that without spoiler tags? Yes, I appreciate being told it's back, but...seriously! WHY?

I literally never said anything that wasn't said in basically every single interview the past few months. I mean you probably didn't read them, but most people I'm sure went in knowing that. Besides, not like you even know what the you know what is.

[Method of Madness]

Fair enough.

[President Peaches]

Well, the autism hypothesis has another data point in its support, never mind the fact that I'm a bit weirded out by the fact that she's a carbon copy of one of my classmates in college who has a service dog due to her severe autism. Quite nice, if you get over the emotional difficulties and make sure your attempts at communication are unambiguous. Otherwise she'll ignore you and her dog will stare at you like you're an alien.

[Eastrim]

Implicitly criticizing name normativism in the comic and then being name normative in the comic notes is kind of a wash, Jeph.

Brunhilde is a nice name, and if she's an immigrant for which English is a secondary language that might explain her odd syntax, aside from the emotions thing.

However, she's not of the typical skintone for that region of Earth. I'm calling it; she's of Turkish descent, born and grew up in Germany, and moved to Massachusetts to get away from the memories of her father shooting his girlfriends grandmother by accident in his excitement over getting a gig on the Daily Show. He was later eaten by an Allosaurus while contemplating an erupting volcano during a motorcycle roadtrip.* 

*In order, Faye, Marten, Padma, Angus, Sara, Steve, and Wil.


Hey MoM, shouldn't you change the attribution of one of your signatures now?

[Gyrre]

Clinton falls into same trap he did with Emily, puts on fake eyebrows.

Except Clinton uses nori because he saw it in an anime once (FLCL).

[Gyrre]

I'm more sure than ever that this new character has some kind of social or behavioural disorder. Most people would be hysterical in her situation but she remains deliberate, calm and monotone. It really seems that she can't properly process emotions and non-verbal communication. Because she doesn't 'get' it, she can't do it herself.

I'm left with two possible conclusions:

• She is somewhere on the autistic spectrum;
• Her life to date has been so shitty that she just has had all the pain and rage burned out of her by the hopelessness.

The second option wouldn't explain her failure to get that Clinton wasn't a troublemaker, so, yeah, I'm thinking that this is autism of some kind.

Other possibilities  include; she's in  a minor case of shock, having a delayed reaction, or it's  so much stress & panic that she's having issues processing it.

And if it is Autism that drives her character's unusual traits, I can't say I'm a particular fan of the representation here. (Amd it seems weird that she was so acute and on point in 3215.)

As an aspie, I'm going to have to ask you to clarify. Today's been an off day.

[Method of Madness]

Hey MoM, shouldn't you change the attribution of one of your signatures now?

Fun fact, in the book his real name is Walder. I guess they didn't want him to share a name with Walder Frey in the show (with them changing Asha Greyjoy's name to Yara to avoid confusion with Osha).

So to answer your question...no, it's not really funny if I change the name, so I'm gonna keep it.

[Tova]

Comic!

Full disclosure: I wasn't thinking it should be shortened to "Hilde." I was thinking, "Oh Brunhilde, you're so looovely."

[celticgeek]

Oh crap! She's Questionable Contents version of Shaw!

That's great!

Just caught up on PoI a few months ago, really hoping there's a season five.

Also, is Brun the Topher to Hilde's Chris?

My sister has a son named Christopher, and she shortened it to "Topher", which we all thought was great.

[cesium133]

[Morituri]

I guess I am a bit naive. I just can't imagine a parent not accepting their kids.

Would that it were so.... 

When I was in college, I was very far from home and very poor. Usually I couldn't afford to go home for holidays. 

But I could have a big potluck dinner for a bunch of my friends (mostly very nice people) who, for whatever reason, were no longer welcome at home.  And I did that.  I'd invite folks over and we'd have a big traditional feast and games and tree trimming or whatever, and I think that, aside from being pleasant for all involved, it was just plain good for all of our emotional health. 

The reasons why they weren't welcome at home ranged from falling in love with the wrong person (or what their parents thought was the wrong gender or the wrong race or with more than one person), getting a job as a dancer at a club, converting to a different religion, volunteering for military service, not volunteering for military service, telling their parents that the nice boy they tried to set them up with is a flaming abusive jerk, refusing to join Dad's frat, and just plain BEING AT COLLEGE (parents had odd religious beliefs about education in that last case).

I was appalled at how easy it was for good people to be rejected by their families. 

Anyway, somebody had to do it.  And I myself had a cousin who died of HIV rather than seeking treatment, because my aunt had a goddamn hissey fit about the scandal he'd cause if he came out and was going to throw him out of the house.  I didn't speak to that aunt again for two decades; I haven't forgiven her yet.  Anyway, since so many of my friends were in that boat, and I missed my cousin, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

[brasca]

Good for her.  While Hilde isn't the most common of names it's good to choose something different. 

[ZoeB]

She's either in  a minor case of shock, having a delayed reaction, or it's  so much stress & panic that she's having issues processing it.

I like Brun. Also... I really don't understand the common reaction of everyone else here. I would have the same reaction that she did. "Sigh. How tiresome. At least I rescued the clock. I'll just take a moment of time out before thinking about what to do next, where to sleep etc".

I might be concerned about what's going to happen next, be on the lookout for meteors, out of control trucks etc. Murphy's Law.

OK, I'm weird too, in the same way she is. I know that I'm weird, not because I feel I'm weird, but through a process of deduction. Everyone else seems to think panic, fear, shock, stress etc is the normal reaction, and I believe it. So I'm not normal. Still, it's useful to be like this when the brown smelly stuff hits the air conditioning.

Brun and Clinton make an effective team. She tries to deal with the fire, he gets everyone out. Full marks to both. Did anyone else notice this? That there were no casualties, simply because they both did the right thing instead of panicking?

[DonInKansas]

For some reason I am mildly surprised there is no umlaut. 

[ZoeB]

Losing everything like that is a serious inconvenience. Cash, credit/debit cards, ID, drivers licence, passport, citizenship certificate, address book on paper, computer, phone, the problem of where to sleep in the medium as well as short term, income now job has gone, all possessions apart from the clothes you're wearing... That is very tiresome indeed.

But no-one died. No-one was even hurt seriously. Everything else is just material possessions, even family heirlooms are just things. People - that's what matters.

Brun now qualifies as a Damsel in Distress. Clinton and everyone else he knows would make good substitutes for Knights in Shining Armour. So she's lucked out - she doesn't know it yet but might be beginning to suspect. Note also - while having enough on her plate, she was thinking of others. "You've missed the last bus".

I like Brun.

[Eastrim]

Losing everything like that is a serious inconvenience. Cash, credit/debit cards, ID, drivers licence, passport, citizenship certificate, address book on paper, computer, phone, the problem of where to sleep in the medium as well as short term, income now job has gone, all possessions apart from the clothes you're wearing... That is very tiresome indeed.

Yep, that's going to be a tough Hilda climb. 

Get it? Hil-

[Tova]

Yes.

[BenRG]

So, Brun it is.

FWIW, I can't see why 'Hilde' is a better nickname other than for preconceived concepts about gender-appropriate naming (which ought to be discussed with John Wayne). As for her origin; she might be ethnic Roma from a family driven from Germany in the 1930s but has retained the naming of the homeland, as many migrant communities do.

The 'bad with emotion' thing intregues me. A condition or trauma-based? Were her family assholes and made her feel safer not to feel? Might that be the reason she is so mistrustful? From her comments about how people shorten he name, she's certainly been mocked a lot in her life; perhaps that's why she's prickly? If so, I empathise with that.

Regarding the cuckoo clock, I can't help wondering if it may be a family heirloom rather than just an eccentric affectation.

[TheCollector]

Personally going by how uneffected she seems to be by this, the fact that what seems like her anger feels more like frustration to me, the seemingly okness with aiming weapons at others, as shown by both the harpoon, both times, clinton and her suggestion, and her apparently aiming a shotgun at Barry. Then how her asking if why he was angry was just don't because of her job and she doesn't really care, or so I assume.

Plus well,

Try and tell me Brun and her don't look mildly similar. Expression wise.

Anyway, Shaw was said to have Axis II Personality Disorder, which really is a whole bunch of things, so who knows which she had, dunno why they only said what category she's in. Also Axis II doesn't exist anymore, the DSM-V kinda got rid of it so who knows where she falls now. But yeah.

Or she has Autism, and there are things pointing in that direction, including being calm in this situation.

But then she's pretty much behaving the same now as in the bar so I'm not really sure it's valid.

[sitnspin]

To be fair, Sameen's condition is self-diagnosed.

[USS Martenclaire]

The accent over the "u" got burned in the fire.

[Doc]

Now he can ride the broon and be a manly witch.

[Case]

She's either in  a minor case of shock, having a delayed reaction, or it's  so much stress & panic that she's having issues processing it.

I like Brun. Also... I really don't understand the common reaction of everyone else here. I would have the same reaction that she did. "Sigh. How tiresome. At least I rescued the clock. I'll just take a moment of time out before thinking about what to do next, where to sleep etc".

I might be concerned about what's going to happen next, be on the lookout for meteors, out of control trucks etc. Murphy's Law.

OK, I'm weird too, in the same way she is. I know that I'm weird, not because I feel I'm weird, but through a process of deduction. Everyone else seems to think panic, fear, shock, stress etc is the normal reaction, and I believe it. So I'm not normal. Still, it's useful to be like this when the brown smelly stuff hits the air conditioning.

Brun and Clinton make an effective team. She tries to deal with the fire, he gets everyone out. Full marks to both. Did anyone else notice this? That there were no casualties, simply because they both did the right thing instead of panicking?

I feel similar.

"Oh, she doesn't faint or screeches for 10 minutes - SHE MUST BE A SAVANT WITH POLYMORPHIC IDEOPATHIC ...!"

Then and again, I'm a filthy foreigner who thinks that 'customer service' is giving stuff to people & making sure they part with their money in return, and there's a DSM-V entry about the way my headmeat works, so YMMV ... 

(Plus, it looks like it was central Europe rather than eastern ... )

As for her origin; she might be ethnic Roma from a family driven from Germany in the 1930s but has retained the naming of the homeland, as many migrant communities do.

Do you deduct that from the literal meaning of her name, which is a concatenation of the old-high-german words for "Armour" and "Combat"?
Or the fact that so many Rom people admit to an undying love for Wagner and the Nibelungenlied?

Totally obvious, that one ...

My! Come to think of it - Angela Merkel could be Roma! AND autist!
Why didn't we see that before?

[Mordhaus]

[BenRG]

@Case,

No, it's based purely on 'looks like' combined with 'what origin story would fit both appearance and name'. Yes, it was a wild guess taking some strands of evidence to their extreme but, lacking a canon story, why not push to the limits?

[Eastrim]

why not push to the limits?

Well okay, if we can do it that way...

Brunhilda is a Valkyrie, come to Earth to serve beer and ale between carting off warriors to Valhalla. Since she's been around for a long time and seen a lot of stuff, good and bad, she just doesn't react to it much anymore. But what will she do when she finds... love? For while she has experienced all that humans have to offer, between the bar and her duties transporting dead people, she's mostly missed the AI revolution. When she meets Pintsize, it's love at first sight, for he has archived things she has never even dreamed of, and for the first time in a very long time, she feels alive again. Will she at last find her true love just as Ragnarok begins?

[Akima]

Brun and Clinton make an effective team. She tries to deal with the fire, he gets everyone out. Full marks to both. Did anyone else notice this? That there were no casualties, simply because they both did the right thing instead of panicking?

Just so, they did well.

I too find a bit tiresome this frenzied "medicalisation" of any variation from the way someone thinks "normal people" behave. Not everyone flies into hysterics under stress, as can be observed in TV coverage of disasters today, or old newsreels of bombed cities for that matter. Cultures also vary greatly in how far public displays of emotion are acceptable. People can be different without needing us to thumb through the DSM.

Clinton seems to be managing well without his glasses.

[BenRG]

If he's long-sighted like Claire, then he's able to function without his glasses in most scenarios although he'd probably prefer not having to do so.

FWIW, it is my opinion that today's strip confirms that that Brun does have something wrong that leads to her very stoic demeanour. I wonder if it is trauma-induced, somewhat like with Bubbles. However, the point is that she doesn't emote easily and apparently doesn't socialise well either and this extends to her response to high-stress scenarios.

[pwhodges]

FWIW, it is my opinion that today's strip confirms that that Brun does have something wrong that leads to her very stoic demeanour.
[...]
she doesn't emote easily and apparently doesn't socialise well either

Neither of those characteristics is an indication of anything "wrong"; both could be applied to me, for a start.  To me it is belittling to people with real problems to apply labels such as "autism" without proper justification.

[ZoeB]

Cultures also vary greatly in how far public displays of emotion are acceptable.

Thailand particularly values the ability to know when to express emotions, and when not to. There are very few occasions when it is acceptable.

I come from a UK "Stiff Upper Lip"  culture.  Emotions regarding misfortune are seen as embarrassing.

Maybe it was because I went to a very old fashioned even for the 60s boarding school. Something straight out of Kipling. I learnt how to use chopsticks from a boy whose Father was stationed in Malaya, and some Afrikaans from another whose parents were in Zuid Afrika.

[Case]

...

FWIW, it is my opinion that today's strip confirms that that Brun does have something wrong that leads to her very stoic demeanour. I wonder if it is trauma-induced, somewhat like with Bubbles. However, the point is that she doesn't emote easily and apparently doesn't socialise well either and this extends to her response to high-stress scenarios.

Ben ... let me preface this request with stating that you're one of my favorite posters, and that I usually enjoy your speculations.

That being said - A shitton of people on this board, including yours truly, have more experience with mental health problems and/or developmental disorders than they ever wanted to have.

Especially the path to the correct diagnosis of a developmental disorder, like AD(H)D, or various forms of autism not rarely includes mal-diagnosis, stigmatization, wrong medication - or, as in my case, decades-long refusal of diagnosis and medication, because I wasn't stereotypical enough - and more "metal health professionals" without any mental health training than one cares to remember.

PLEASE. STOP. WITH. ZE. DIAGNOSES.

And PLEASE: Do not ever again use the word "something wrong with them" when you talk about people with supposed mental health trouble.
Really - we've heard that one more often than we care to remember.

No matter if it turns out you're "right", or not - and no matter whether Jeph shares your opinion, or not: PLEASE!

Let me end this request with repeating that you really are one of my favorite posters, that I really enjoy your speculations (apart from the diagnoses), and that it's not entirely fair to single you out for this request, since you are by far not the only one.
Yes, I also have mental-health associations wrt. certain characters - it's tempting. But ... please?

[Roxtar]

My cousin gets the same crap all the time... She (Patricia) goes by "Tricia" rather than "Pat" or "Patty"