Page 23. Failure.
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O Human Star
by Blue Delliquanti
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These have been some difficult pages. Well-written, hard to read. Necessary. That said, “business partner” is my new favorite euphemism.
It is something of a relief that it was organ failure and not self-harm…
Oh…. if they don’t let Brendan see him UNLESS he says he’s a domestic partner
…and then if Brendan keeps the secret… at the cost of not getting to see him!?
Blue, this is my first comment after discovering OHS a few months ago. You’ve crafted something very very special here. This is a story that’s going to stick with many of us, for years and decades to come. We’re all biting our nails in anticipation.
No, they let him in. He wouldn’t have the brainscans he used to make his daughter if they didn’t.
I’m curious now, exactly how many copies of Al are floating around?
Sulla is Brendan’s flawed attempt, I’m not sure why he would have wanted to create a partial copy of his lover unless it wasn’t intentional.
The Al we see walking around and that Brendan is pissed of with…again, was apparently made by the robots themselves.
Then there is the mysterious voice on Brendan’s phone. Could there have been another flawed copy of Al that was made that didn’t work out quite like the original? It would perhaps explain what Brendan meant when he said he wasn’t flattered with ‘another’ Al copy walking around.
My current top hypothesis is that the military did it. They are the only ones at the intersection between people with access to the tech and people who could circumvent patient power-of-attorney laws. Unless… someone within Lucille’s circle ? Naah… I don’t see any of the girls doing it behind Brendan’s back without saying anything.
I think it’s Sulla, to be honest. In part at least, if nothing else.
I don’t think so. I think she’s capable of it, but I think her reactions to Al (and for that matter, Brendan) would be very different if she had been the one to decode his memory data.
I mean, for one thing, she doesn’t even know about their relationship.
Yeah, I’m with you (re: the military).
This strip untangles a lot of confusion for me. I never considered the rather obvious possibility that Al was alive and unconscious for a period after he collapses. There’s a chance for multiple parties to try to capture his mind now. Ohhh, the intrigue!
Same here. Brendan’s account made it sound like there was only a very narrow window for copying Al at the hospital, and now we know otherwise!
I can see the military people shrugging at each other and going, “Why not try it? What’s there to lose?” If it works, then they still have Al on their side.
Though I can also see a mediocre-Al-copy (or a whole sequence of them?) getting away and improving on his own…self.
It’s the robots. The robots did it. They remade him working together, collectively, for him to enhance them and free them.
Can I hug Brendan? He looks like he really need one… :(
So…. I dunno if anyone has thought about this or even mentioned it yet, but what if Al was rebuffing Brendan because he didn’t want Brendan to catch his Autoimmune disease? Perhaps he was in another relationship several years ago and caught it, only to swear he’d never let another person go through that pain through his own actions. Just a thought.
As for who made the complete copy? Someone had a stake in bringing him back. I think the key lies with why he’s brought back 16 years later, as opposed to right away. More food for thought.
Autoimmune, not acquired. Autoimmune diseases cannot be transferred, since it’s the body attacking itself, the immune system going haywire. HIV is a viral infection that suppresses the immune system, making the person succeptable to other infections. They are actually opposites, one overactive immune system, the other basically shut down.
Poor Brendan. Choosing to lie about the relationship, though it’s not like he really has a choice.
In an earlier comic it was stated I think that he had Goodpasture’s Syndrome and died of massive haemoptysis
It just occurred to me, Al 2.0’s last memories start where Al wanders into his workshop, goes upstairs, sees the note on the pillow and collapses on the bed. We know Brendan came around in the morning but we don’t know exactly how long Al had been unconscious. There are some indications in the first pages of the comic it may have been at night. Al may have already been scanned by someone before Brendan got there.
I’m dying inside from the “his… his *business* partner”.
So, since Brendan found him and Al doesn’t remember anything after “dying,” my guess is he never woke up?
I love this heartpuling game of clue Blue.
The details in the relationship drama of a gay May December coupling and the struggles and the themes around identity and transgender issues are amazing. The expressions, the art, this is stuff of novels.
My current strongest hypotheses for Al’s clouded history, his reincarnation, and Sulla’s choice gender identity:
Brendan is in possession of the ” brain copy machine” while Al and Brendan separate after the fight.
– I don’t think the army got ahold of this yet. This was all still developmental work. Beta quality at best.
– Al 2.0 is built like Sterling Android models from 2003, Al’s own design, ( In his own image) from when Al was doing the majority of the engineering and concept work before the systems to create modern androids went live into production.
Do y’all remember Al’s eyes when Brendan gave that speech when they were looking for funding: ” We can give the sick and dying a way to escape an abbreviated life of pain.”… Remember how Al was uncharacteristically forward with his feelings for Brendan afterword; he pinned Bren up against the door, let go of his fortress of inhibitions in a public place, and kissed him deeply and passionately. I mean, I know Bren hit a major homerun at the convention anyway, that sure Al thought was amazing….But I think what really made Al go all out head over heels in love with Bren was that tidbit about escaping sickness.
I think Al knew he was sick and possibly dying- but when you are entirely alone and dive into your work to escape how miserable you are…why even bother to figure it out. ” It doesn’t matter if I’m sick. If I die. Fine…that’s just the way it is. “. But the year before, something happened that he never expected: he fell in love with a brilliant green young light of a man who Al believes deserves a good life and a better partner. Someone younger, hotter, and smarter than sick old dog AL.
” Damnit.. I’ve ignored my sickness for years… And now It’s too late to do anything about it.. I can’t let this beautiful boy love me. I’ll just ruin him when I die. What…am I supposed to tell him that I’m dwathly ill?! Honorable and manly men don’t get sicK…And I’m a very honorable respectable and a very manly man… What will Brendan think of me If I say something about this. And even then… I don’t want him to be stuck with taking care of debilitated poor old sick me. I can’t be so selfish. I have made my choices and I will live and die by them. I’ll just leave… It’s the right thing to do.”
( Modern gay May December partnerships often include these themes. Sometimes revolving around the idea of managing complications related to HIV. The baby boomer gay and bisexual men who lived through the 80’s, like our sexually repressed AL, knew HIV AIDS as a deadly plague that killed thousands right here in the US but it was such a terrifying mystery. “Can you get AIDS from kissing?!” There was no Google to help these poor men and women. So many suffered in silence. HIV is still heavily stigmatized and is therefore, often a secret. Al never saw a doctor. How does AL know he has Goodpasture syndrome…and not HIV from a past experience that he considers a huge mistake. Further driving him into isolation, depression, self-harm, and self-hatred.)
But then! After our lovely graceful Brendan says what he said at the convention, the lightbulb goes off in Al’s head! His eyes in those panels : ” Oh my god…I might have a chance to live a long happy life with Brendan, without being a risk or a burden on him. We can have a chance. A real chance at love. Something worth living for!”
I think Al knew this technology could give him and Brendan a real chance at solid relationship. How strange it is…that we see in Chapter 5, Al doesn’t seem to be pulling his weight around a huuuuge deadline that is driving Brendan bonkers with stress…how curious…this one man army who would rather work than eat is slacking off? Well what the hell is he doing then? Yes… Exactly. AL is brilliant. He isn’t a dummy. He understands the deadlines….all of them. I don’t think he would let his illness stall him. He was bulldozing through as hard as he could, recreating himself, copying his mind in secret. But he couldn’t get it perfect, he wasn’t ready to make a mind transfer and take the jump. And he ran out of time. He passed away before he could transfer his mind to an Artificial body.
Sulla considers Brendan a father- She loves him.
For someone who has been fairly antisocial with outside folks up until Al’s guidance encourages her to step it on up to the other highschoolers.., I imagine most days were spent around home…with Brendan.
She studied Brendan– Thoroughly. Brendan might never have said anything about being lovers with his “buisiness partner”… But Sulla ain’t no dummy…I don’t believe that she didn’t get that Al and Brendan were lovers because she would witness things..like when Brendan would look into a photo of them together and break down in tears…like we see in the ” Extras” section of this website.
On the trans side of things: How weird also is it being a “child” to whom you were originally designed to be your “dads” romantic partner? Ew much? Imagine being 12 or 13 and figuring that out? Yes Ew. That would have me very eager to distance myself from that Al personage ASAP. So if there was even the slightest interest in exploring my Opposite sex persona and to do so was simply an exchange of parts like bolts on a car… Dang I’d be immediately customized.. Ya know, pimp my ride. I want 24″s with white walls and Cooper tires… Don’t forget the neon and the hydraulics… Love you Daddy :*
I think Sulla found Al’s secret work through her connection to him. Maybe she peiced together the dreams? Found a locked drawer or something? She used her ” research budget” to fund building the dog and the ballerina and Al 2.0. She has been working on recreating AL ever since and has had several failed attempts. She finally got it right by following Al’s old designs line for line.. Maybe had to make a few tweaks.
She is one of the most complex androids that exist in the planet and has already demonstrated her superhuman abilities understanding of Android biomechanics.
Sulla has been keeping her father in the dark. So that he wouldn’t try to stop her. She has been keeping secrets from Brendan…yo protect him and make him happy….just. Like. AL. Who interestingly enough is not nearly as interested as Brendan is in figuring out who manufactured him… Because he…Already… Knows..
Al’s more interested in ” Why was I remade a girl?” ” What is she like?” ” Do I love this older Brendan?” “Does this older Brendan still want me?” His android heart swells hardens and then breaks to a million pieces when Brensan says ” I let myself fall in love with you again, and it was a mistake” His only reason for surviving his illness was to be with Brendan… That’s not going to be an option ” I’m still not good for him. I’ll go now”
End hypothesis.
Whew! I love all if this. Thank you sweet woman for your art!
I believe I will make an obvious cuestión, but… How come an android can develop autoinmunes diaease? Ir are we talking about a tech like the replicants?or, to be more precise biológica autómata?
They can’t. This is the real Al, not the android version who will be created 16 years later. This is how he dies, as mentioned multiple times earlier in the comic. Remember that all the comics in orange are the past.
Even while Al’s on death’s door, Brendan still chooses to hide their relationship… is he respecting his partner’s wishes, or has Al’s fear of rejection rubbed off on him?