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Marten & Ratticate (Because Marten and the most common species of all seems right)

1 (4.2%)

Faye & Primeape (Fighting type, of course)

1 (4.2%)

Dora & Haunter (Spooky!)

1 (4.2%)

Pintsize & Lickitung (Just seemed right)

5 (20.8%)

Claire & Pikachu (the two fit together, IMO)

2 (8.3%)

Bubbles & Scisor (Warrior steel-type, of course)

6 (25%)

Clinton & Porygon

1 (4.2%)

Roko & Growlithe (in the memory of Officer Jenny)

3 (12.5%)

Brun & Remoraid (closest thing to a harpoon Pokémon)

2 (8.3%)

Tai & Butterfree (dust-using Pokémon fits her)

2 (8.3%)

Total Members Voted: 23

[BenRG]

Okay, as a new set of Pokémon games are out, I thought I'd do something in line with them. I stopped seriously following the franchise years ago, but I still think I can make connections up to the Houen-based game.

I think I'll be cheering on Marten because I'm always a sucker for the underdog!

[TV4Fun]

Comic.

Doesn't sound like high school was the best part of Jed's life.

[Is it cold in here?]

Epic burn.

Quite a bit of truth to it.

A guy I went to school with went to a reunion. He met one of the bullies who had beaten him up on the school bus.

My friend was using his physics PhD programming the most powerful computers in the world to simulate galaxies colliding.

The bully was pursuing a career in his own line of work, that of bagging groceries.

[cesium133]

I've never gone to any of my high school reunions. Occasionally, I find myself wondering how some of the scumbags delightful people I knew in high school are doing. Then I find something better to do instead.

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

Hmmm, goth Renee.  Which makes me wonder if Renee and Dora have ever met.  They might have some stories to swap.

[Penquin47]

And we have a last name for Brun!  Yay!

I wonder what the mean girls who bullied me in middle school are doing now.  Probably soccer moms and professionals of some sort.  If I could be bothered to remember their names I might look them up on Facebook one of these days...

[TheEvilDog]

Hmmm, my school reunion...well, three guys died in separate car crashes before they were 30, one died of a drugs overdose. One has just become an executive and suffered a breakdown because of the 100 hour weeks he was doing. Another has gone off the grid. All in all, while I won't be going to any reunion, I don't think I'm doing too badly.

[shanejayell]

Way to go, Brun.

[St.Clair]

Critical Hit!

[Gyrre]

I've never gone to any of my high school reunions. Occasionally, I find myself wondering how some of the scumbags delightful people I knew in high school are doing. Then I find something better to do instead.

Ditto. Granted, I'm not sure if we've had any.

Epic burn.

Quite a bit of truth to it.

A guy I went to school with went to a reunion. He met one of the bullies who had beaten him up on the school bus.

My friend was using his physics PhD programming the most powerful computers in the world to simulate galaxies colliding.

The bully was pursuing a career in his own line of work, that of bagging groceries.

The physical bullying stopped as abruptly as it started. Two of said 'shithead enabler jocks' tried to stuff me in a locker. My shoulders were a bit too broad for the door to close (despite being 5'5" and a sophmore). And, when I pushed the door open on them, both immediately fled before I could see who it was.

Still had to deal with the verbal bullying all 4 years, though.

EDIT: typo fix.

[BenRG]

This strip feeds into my belief that Brun has far better understanding of what she's saying than she lets on, at least sometimes. It's just  that her experiences have taught her a deadpan delivery of her dry, ironic burns and witty observations that is nearly impossible to differentiate from when she's genuinely failing to catch on to the subtleties and contradictions of everyday human social behaviour.

I think that the dog puns are when she's deliberately trying to be wacky and fun. Like most deadpan people, she's not good at wacky and fun, which is why they seem so forced.

FWIW, I think that Brun had been looking for an opportunity to pass on her dad's wisdom to Jed. She's been looking for the right opening for a very long time!

Hmmm, goth Renee.  Which makes me wonder if Renee and Dora have ever met.  They might have some stories to swap.

IIRC, Dora said that her goth phase was mostly her rejection of her parents' lifestyles and standards although her paranoia also had a huge part of it. These days, I get the impression that Dora mostly still wears dark clothes and dyes her hair black because she likes it rather than it sending any particular message about her as a person. Tai has been good for her.

[Tova]

As true as Jeph's line about bully-enablers rings, and as satisfying as the idea of uttering that one line that silences your bullies may feel, in my experience, that line would have either been laughed off or would have motivated a doubling of whatever bullying prompted it.

[Cornelius]

Panel 4 never happens.

I've had one reunion. A third of my class had died - suicide or suspicious accident. For the rest, the 'Sports heroes' idolised by the PE-teacher - they're in the national youth teams, don't you know? - were either selling shoes or insurance. The main bully did not show up - rumour has it he has a steady relationship with a bottle, or two. Surprisingly, the girl that wanted to be mother of twelve seems to be on track - and is manager of the after school day care.

[Case]

I've never gone to any of my high school reunions. Occasionally, I find myself wondering how some of the scumbags delightful people I knew in high school are doing. Then I find something better to do instead.

Same here. Though, according to IICIH, maybe we should? 

P.S.: Of course I've watched the usual US high-school movie classics, but it never ceases to amaze me when I realize that people actually go through this. It's ... different over here. Also stupid and brutish, in its own way, but ... different. There's jocks, of course, but they’re not doted over in the same way, or encouraged to advertise their class-consciousness with clothing. We don't have so many rituals seemingly designed to encourage cliqueishness and social stratification. When I first heard about a US high school publishing the results of  'popularity contests', I couldn't believe it - why not just chug a bunch of knives into class, lock the door and wait for the screaming to die down? Also, most schools aren't day schools, so you aren't forced to spend the whole day with the same people.

And the tripartite school-system means there's an early selection after elementary school ... people aren't encouraged to 'be competitive' in the same way, but at the same time the system is deeply classist (not really elitist, not in the strict meaning of the word, just very, very unconcerned with how education pathways influence upward mobility. It's very good at producing a large, well-trained professional class (especially engineers), but there exist no elite Unis in the UK/US sense, or cadre-schools like the French CNRS), and you mostly don't realize that there actually had been a competition going on until you've already won or lost it.

Hugs for the 'Merricans?

[traroth]

Panel 4 never happens.

I've had one reunion. A third of my class had died - suicide or suspicious accident. For the rest, the 'Sports heroes' idolised by the PE-teacher - they're in the national youth teams, don't you know? - were either selling shoes or insurance. The main bully did not show up - rumour has it he has a steady relationship with a bottle, or two. Surprisingly, the girl that wanted to be mother of twelve seems to be on track - and is manager of the after school day care.

I never bothered to look for my former classmates, except for the one who was my friend and still is. So all I know I heard by accident. One girl I knew from kindergarten is my bank clerk. Another couldn't study because of major health issues and is cashier in a supermarket, which is sad. My buddy is salesman for tooling machines.

[traroth]

Those bullies asked for Brun to say something weird. She was happy to oblige. Enjoy!

Another illustration that you have to be careful what you ask for. But let's see it in a positive way: maybe the powerful kick in the ass Brun gave them propelled them in the right direction, and so they stopped being assholes. Who knows?

[Milayna]

When I went to my hs reunion, everyone was working at a meeting-ends-meet type job and living with their parents or other relatives. I live in one of the richest counties in the nation. You're either one of the power brokers in the washington-military complex, or one of the service/retail people they buy from.

I almost never got bullied, surprisingly. I don't know exactly why, though it could have been that everybody was afraid of me. After I graduated, someone I don't recall ever talking to added me on Facebook; a couple of years later he got drunk and messaged me to say the he always thought I'd be the one to snap and shoot up the school. Was kinda surreal.

There was a time in grade school, though, when a classmate at lunch came over and asked if I liked buns. I was suspicious and asked what kind of buns, he said "You know, like hot dog buns" and hey, I like bread, so I said yeah, sure. He ran away laughing with his buds.

I don't know how much bullying went on at my schools, actually, since I didn't really pay attention to most other people. Considering the secondary school had thousands of students, I'd expect it to be significant, but it could have just been that we had a relatively nice student body.

[brasca]

And we have a last name for Brun!  Yay!

Indeed and like Peter the Prick we can thank Jed the Jock for providing a last name.  At least they’re good for unintentional exposition.

[Tova]

I've never gone to any of my high school reunions. Occasionally, I find myself wondering how some of the scumbags delightful people I knew in high school are doing. Then I find something better to do instead.

Same here. Though, according to IICIH, maybe we should? 

hahahahahahaahahahaha no

[traroth]

Isn't today's poll missing a question or an explanatory sentence?

[Tova]

It used to have one... not sure what happened to it.

[traroth]

It used to have one... not sure what happened to it.

It's back. So it's Pokemon related. I have no knowledge whatsoever on that subject.

[Zebediah]

Which is why the poll needed a “Pizza Girl & Purple Monkey Dishwasher” option.

[TinPenguin]

I suppose Brunhilde is one hell of a name to Khoury through life.

[cesium133]

Which is why the poll needed a “Pizza Girl & Purple Monkey Dishwasher” option.

[BenRG]

Someone on the Subreddit said that Brun's paternal wisdom in panels 3 and 4 sound like something Daria would say. That's when I realised that I have had Tracey Grandstaff's voice for Daria as my mental voice for Brun for some time. Given that I've never seen a full episode of Daria and am literally going off of a dozen or so meme clips, that's an impressive achievement on Ms Grandstaff's part!

I also note that Brun is wearing Daria's colours in her flashback, so I'm wondering if she was Jeph's inspiration for the character on some level.

[Theta9]

Someone on the Subreddit said that Brun's paternal wisdom in panels 3 and 4 sound like something Daria would say. That's when I realised that I have had Tracey Grandstaff's voice for Daria as my mental voice for Brun for some time. Given that I've never seen a full episode of Daria and am literally going off of a dozen or so meme clips, that's an impressive achievement on Ms Grandstaff's part!

I also note that Brun is wearing Daria's colours in her flashback, so I'm wondering if she was Jeph's inspiration for the character on some level.

I never watched Daria but I've seen the character a few times on Beavis and Butthead.

[Theta9]

I'm another who couldn't be arsed to attend any high school reunions. Or any reunions at all.

[Sullivan]

As true as Jeph's line about bully-enablers rings, and as satisfying as the idea of uttering that one line that silences your bullies may feel, in my experience, that line would have either been laughed off or would have motivated a doubling of whatever bullying prompted it.

Brun's zinger reminds me of this from the character "Aaron Altman" in Broadcast News:

(Aaron, the class valedictorian, is being beat up after delivering his commencement address, which was highly critical of his classmates)
Aaron: Go ahead Steven, take your last licks. But this will heal. What I’m going to say never will. It’ll scar you forever. Ready? Here it is. You’ll never make more than $19,000 a year. Ha ha ha!
Steven: Take him.
Aaron: Okay, how about this? You’re never gonna leave South Boston and I’m gonna see the whole damn world. You’ll never know the pleasure of writing a priceless sentence. Or having an original thought. Think about it!
Steven: $19,000. Not bad!

[NemesisDancer]

Anyone else notice the incredibly early-2000s trousers in panel 2? :')

[OldGoat]

This strip also establishes their relative ages.  I'd always had it in my head that Renee was somewhat older than Brun.  If she is, it's not my much.

[Milayna]

This strip also establishes their relative ages.  I'd always had it in my head that Renee was somewhat older than Brun.  If she is, it's not my much.

Not surprising, seeing as Renee acts like she's Brun's carer.

[Dandi Andi]

Anyone else notice the incredibly early-2000s trousers in panel 2? :')

I hadn't noticed at first, but now that you mention it those do look a lot like JNCOs.

[OldGoat]

Anyone else notice the incredibly early-2000s trousers in panel 2? :')

I hadn't noticed at first, but now that you mention it those do look a lot like JNCOs.

JNCOs?  Oh, shoplifters' jeans!

[Thrudd]

I am also one of those who have missed re-unions.
I always seem to find out about them well after the date.
Funny that I now live not all that far from my old high school.


As for physical bullying, that was all through primary, grade and middle school but disappeared in high school. The main instigators started in kindergarten in a completely different part of the city but when my family moved, their family followed not 3 months latter, so my reprieve from physical violence was limited.
My guess is that their intramural [wrestling team] took up so much of their free time on top of them being in a different stream, which negated any chance encounters.

As for jocks, they were there but I never hit their radar until senior year when I got an invite to the annual athletic banquette and through no fault of my own got a Sr.Letter - turns out I was technically a jock the whole time for being involved in archery on top of all the smaller less popular clubs

(click to show/hide)

- photography - physics - chemistry - Winter festival - Spirit [2 guys 60+ girls] to handle all the social events - Library - spiritual [philosophy] - math team [second string] .... all that on top of dedicating myself full time to scouting as a youth leader with all the volunteer work associated with that.  I think I got my amateur radio license sometime around graduation......

  Funny that I wasn't invited until Sr year when there was a new advisor to the athletic association.

As for what happened to my classmates. I had pretty much lost touch / track of all of them within the first decade. Now I am back in contact with a few of them and know of a few others thanks to local groups formed on Facebook or just a friend of a friend reconnecting us.
There are some I really would like to reconnect with once again even if I wasn't a major blip on their radar at the time.
One I still have a pocket of buried anger for if I think of them. It used to be rage but that fire has slowly, very slowly, ebbed over the years.
Why they did what they did to indelibly character assassinate me from the shadows I still don't know.

... I ran on for a bit there.

[cybersmurf]

Did we ever learn where Brun's parents are from? Well, we now know that probably Brun's father was Lebanese (given her parents were married, which I assume a highly likely), and the question is: was Brun's mother of German descent, or did her parents just like the name?

[Is it cold in here?]

I think there's been no mention in the comic.

[cybersmurf]

OK, then it's the WCDT parts I vaguely remember.

Interestingly, I do like the ring 'Brun Khoury' has.

[OldGoat]

OK, then it's the WCDT parts I vaguely remember.

Interestingly, I do like the ring 'Brun Khoury' has.

I'd expect "Brunhilde Khoury" to be followed by "PhD."   Sounds like a name for a high level archeologist or something like that, a researcher in horology, and the leading authority on Near/Middle Eastern timepieces.

[Case]

Did we ever learn where Brun's parents are from? Well, we now know that probably Brun's father was Lebanese (given her parents were married, which I assume a highly likely), and the question is: was Brun's mother of German descent, or did her parents just like the name?

Given the name's 'popularity' among Germans & Austrians, it's almost more likely that none of her parents were either.

And it's not like Wagner is a complete unknown abroad.

[Dandi Andi]

As to the poll question:

Of course Bubbles would have a Scizor. No doubt his name would be Arthur.

As to the discussion of high school and bullies:

I had a graduating class of just over 200 people. I don't remember most of the people I went to school with nor do I care to.

[hedgie]

And it's not like Wagner is a complete unknown abroad.

I do recall (if a bit fuzzily) early on in "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", Lawrence writing about a night where a British officer and a high-up in the Arab Revolt were both talking shit about Wagner.  The world has grown MUCH smaller since 1916.

[Datalore]

I've said things like panel 4 just because "those are the things people say."

I rely on what I call scripts, also known as imperfect copying. As far as I can tell you guys all have some sort of telepathy or something that signals what 'script' is the appropriate one to engage when and how. Things like clunky dialogue or "People don't actually talk like that," are harder for me to determine because I've seen clunky dialogue as a thing that exists in the world (even if only creatively) and it seems to function just as well as other dialogue that for some reason is what people say. Who decides what's clunky and what's natural, and what's the criteria? How do you assess that while you're in the middle of a conversation, and also how do you account for the way language and specifically vernacular changes over time? etc. The answer to most of that is Autistic = Manual, and Allistic = Automatic, but that's another conversation entirely.

In any case, high school me saw things that resembled today's comic and decided, "Ah yes, this is the way #NormalPeople stand up to bullies. This is the way it must be done," and just up and ran with it like it was normal because as far as I could tell, it was. To me, that was how people talked.

Which I really love here because it's a comic strip about an autistic person standing up to bullies by repeating things she'd heard other people say in a different context. The context is wrong though, so it comes off as clunky (The dad probably did say all of that, but as far as Brun's concerned the line between the first bit and the closing zinger is probably invisible) but there are probably a bunch of autistic kids reading today's strip and filing it away as yet another example of that sort of dialogue being used, and the cycle continues. And because people rarely stand up to bullies like that in a way you can witness and learn from in real life, fiction is where 100% of your examples for "how to deal with this social situation" come from. Basically what I'm getting at is it might be unrealistic dialogue, but that's ironically exactly what makes it realistic in this case.

Also, hi! I've been reading since before Jeph quit his job, but just never got around to making an account.

[Milayna]

If you tuned into the Xcom stream last week you'd have seen Brun's last name early, but anyway, is there anyone here who knows proper pronuncation of "Khoury"? I googled an Arabic/Moroccan pronunciation of "khouri" that sounded like "hoo-ree", but also got results from elsewhere in the world that pronounce the K, and Morocco isn't anywhere near Lebanon.

Also, has anyone noticed any physical differences in Roko's new body?

Oh and uh...What was her name, Butterbot? is INCREDIBLY anime in the first panel.

[DaiJB]

Comic.

Doesn't sound like high school was the best part of Jed's life.

I dunno - considering the fatality rate of wingsuit jumps, it sounds to me like Jed might have a death wish...

[hedgie]

Oh and uh...What was her name, Butterbot? is INCREDIBLY anime in the first panel.

Beepatrice.

[Valakhan]

is there anyone here who knows proper pronuncation of "Khoury"?

The "kh" is supposed to make a sound similar to the "ch" in the German "Nacht". It's similar to a h sound, but harsher and coming from the back of the mouth rather than from the throat. There is no real equivalent in English though, so it's hard to describe.

For the little story, Khoury means priest in levantine dialect. In modern standard Arabic, priest is qas or kahin, but khoury is the way they say priest in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, etc.

It's a name very common in the Christian community in Lebanon, and by extension in other Christian minorities in all the middle east. The most famous person with that name was Besharra Al-Khoury, one of the leaders of the Lebanese independance, the first president of independent Lebanon and one of the craftsmen of the National Pact, which is the separation of powers between the different religious communities in Lebanon, where for example the presidency is held by Christians, the prime minister by Sunnis and the head of Parliament by Shias.

Given that, we can safely assume that Brun's father is a Christian Lebanese. Given Brun's apparent age, it is likely that her father was a refugee from the Civil War and met her mother in the US. Of course it's possible that he wasn't a refugee as even before the war there was a big Lebanese diaspora around the world, but it would be interesting if he was one.

Refugees and their integration is a topic very dear to me, so having him be a former refugee could help shed light on the challenges those people have to face when in a new country, a topic that is sadly still relevant nowadays.

By the way hi! Long time reader, just found out the forum

[Gyrre]

As true as Jeph's line about bully-enablers rings, and as satisfying as the idea of uttering that one line that silences your bullies may feel, in my experience, that line would have either been laughed off or would have motivated a doubling of whatever bullying prompted it.

Nearly got me expelled.
"People like you are why Columbine happened."

BTW, 1) not trying to one-up anyone, 2) this was back in 2001 or 2002, and 3) I now know that wasn't the whole of the cause for that tragedy.

[Milayna]

Thanks Valakhan! Wow, I kind of pride myself an being relatively aware of the world, geographically, but that is a lot of stuff that I've never even heard of! As an American, I know very broadly of Israel's history and relation to the Arab world (1967 war, etc) and I know of Christian Arabs, but I hear almost nothing of the history of other nations. In just one paragraph you've mentioned several historical events I knew nothing of. I know it's presumptuous of me to ask, but if you have any more lessons to share, I'm all ears!

[Tova]

I've said things like panel 4 just because "those are the things people say."

I rely on what I call scripts, also known as imperfect copying. As far as I can tell you guys all have some sort of telepathy or something that signals what 'script' is the appropriate one to engage when and how. Things like clunky dialogue or "People don't actually talk like that," are harder for me to determine because I've seen clunky dialogue as a thing that exists in the world (even if only creatively) and it seems to function just as well as other dialogue that for some reason is what people say.
<snip>
Basically what I'm getting at is it might be unrealistic dialogue, but that's ironically exactly what makes it realistic in this case.

Hi, new person!

I can certainly relate to what you're saying here.

I'm not sure whom you are referring to because I didn't think anyone was saying that Brun's dialogue was "clunky" or that "people don't actually talk like that." I personally did not think her dialogue was unrealistic, because I did do exactly that when I was at school. I was hopeless at dealing with bullies, so I often re-used lines. Stuff Mum had said, stuff Dad had said, stuff that I'd read.

In the worst case, it would backfire spectacularly when what I said sounded stupid was or incredibly uncool, earning myself merciless mocking that I could have avoided by simply shutting up.

Best case was that the line would hit home. That happened rarely, thankfully, because that generally ended badly for me as well.

So, what am I saying? Brun's line was certainly believable as far as I was concerned. It's only the bullies' stunned reaction to it that I didn't buy. It only affects us because we have the benefit of hindsight and can see the truth of what Brun is saying. These bullies I daresay would neither have comprehended what Brun was saying nor would they have given two shits about it even if they had.

Nice fantasy, though.

NEW COMIC
*reads*
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