Page 27. Hi there.
A few reminders for recent/upcoming stuff:
1) There’s a sale this weekend at InPRNT, where you can find my “We Belong Here” posters . I’m almost at the threshold where I can withdraw my earnings again and donate them to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and InPRNT will match it for 10%.
2) I also made an 18+ OHS comic available on Patreon and itch.io. Adults only for this one!
3) I’m doing another livestream this Wednesday, 4/26, at 7 pm CST. Join me!
4) I’ve got three conventions coming up in May! First, on the 13th and 14th, I’ll be returning to Toronto for TCAF . The next weekend, the 20th and 21st, I’ll be in Canada again to do VanCAF in Vancouver. Finally, from the 25th to the 29th I’ll be in Madison, Wisconsin for the fabled Wiscon ! I’m excited for all of these shows, so I hope to see some of you there!
I’m curious… Why does Sulla have wraps around her elbows and knees? Is it to hide her “hardware” or is it protecting her joints?
Probably because it’s a prototype so they didn’t perfect the joints yet.
I was assuming this was sort of a bunch of overlapping plates to accommodate a lot of movement in a lot of directions. Kind of like baggage carousels at the airport. Present-day Sulla has subtler elbows, but still wears long sleeves to hide the signs of being synthetic.
Daaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwww! :D
That itch.io link leads to a 404 for me
Fixed! Here’s the correct link here as well: https://bluedelliquanti.itch.io/the-first-time
Aww, she has little blushies
BRENDAN!! YOU. MADE. SUCH A BEAUTIFUL BOY/SOON-TO-BE GIRL
(Tbh I have no idea what pronouns to use for this Sulla since right now gender doesn’t look like a concern for them, but we still know in the future s/he’ll want to identify feminine)
Also, did Brendan name him/her at this point yet?
To my awareness (and preference, as a trans person) even when referring to someone’s past self, you use their current pronouns. So Sulla at this point is still Sulla, still a girl, and still “she”.
another trans person chiming in: i definitely agree with this.
Thanks!
Ok, so I knew this was coming and this is likely Sulla’s origin story we’re getting here, but I can’t help but feel uneasy about it. I’ve said this in previous comments, but I’ve never gotten the sense that Brendan was that affected by Al’s death. I mean, I know he was, but I didn’t feel it. He seemed more preoccupied with what Al’s brain copy would produce, and now he’s got this child Al that is completely unlike the man he once knew. This isn’t a criticism of your storytelling or anything, but it raises some questions for me about the difference between bringing back a loved one artificially, and “growing” one from childhood. Have you seen the Eva Green movie “Womb?” Reminds me a bit of this.
Especially because Al and Brendan had a sexual relationship…
I can’t help think about the potential implications of Brendan making a child Al out of desperation and heartbreak. He originally wanted to bring his boyfriend back and he gets a child instead. Brendan needs to be incredibly careful about how treats AI-Al as it becomes Sulla.
i mean, even if he had succeeded, it would have been super creepy – bringing his lover back from the dead without his consent or awareness isn’t exactly, uh, ethical
but yeah it doesn’t make it any less weird that his lover is now his child. i hope (and think) it’s something that’s addressed at some point – sulla learning her origins, the implications of what brendan was doing, brendan himself recognizing clearly that sulla is *her own person* (even before she transitions) and maybe getting called out by somebody for being a mad scientist attempted necromancer :V
> “bringing his lover back from the dead without his consent or awareness isn’t exactly, uh, ethical”
Sorry — how, exactly, would you get someone’s consent to bring them back from the dead? They’re dead, they can’t consent to anything!
I mean yes, you could try to get their consent before they die, if you had some reason to think they might be dying soon… but Al’s death was completely unexpected.
Yes, but he seems to accept and respect she is a different person–and is a child. It doesn’t seem much different to me than a woman losing her boyfriend or husband and finding out after his death that she is pregnant. Having a baby after losing the love of your life can be lonely and triggering (especially when you see elements of their dad in them), but many widows still see those babies as their chidren–not their late loves.
I was going to say something similar to this – except I think it’s more like those cases of women who have babies using their dead husband’s sperm – I mean when the man has died and they extract the sperm, and get pregnant with it.*
It’s like Al and Brendan made a baby, but it was kind of non-consensual on Al’s part.
Also, I wonder why Brendan made Sulla as a child, and not a fully grown Al? Of course it was clear that she had a child-like brain and needed to learn, and I wonder why that was too? Why were parts of Al’s development missing, when some complex skills were intact?
*pretty sure I read that in the Daily Mail once.
I think it makes complete sense she is a child.
1. While she has a computer brain, she still needs to learn from experience as well and has lived a relatively short time.
2. She is a new lifeform and is complex enough to be a bit unpredictable in regards to choices and personality. A child’s smallness (and portability) is super useful in these situations. Every parent knows this when their child has moments like meltdowns and needing to be held.
3. An adult body would require more materials to build. That is $$$–especially when it is clear there are refinements to be made (like the joints).
4. Seeing an exact adult Al copy when it is obvious Sulla will never be him would probably be super depressing. I get the gist Brendan (and Sulla) chose her first body to look like child Al as remembrance and monument but never a replacement
While I can see your point about a widow and a child, this really doesn’t feel like the same situation. Of course the widow sees the child as a child and not as their late husband – because it’s a child, and an entirely new person, with only the genetics of the parent.
Al and Brendan did not create a life form together. Brendan used a copy of Al’s brain to re-make him from childhood. Now he’s going to raise “Al” but it of course won’t end up being Al, since he’ll be raised completely differently from the original. Even if he respects that this is a child and not his late lover, it still seems pretty unethical and mad-scientisty to me.
I’ll see you at WisCon!
BABY SULLA IS SO CUTE I WANT TO PROTECT HER
What is the diagonal black line in the final panel? It’s driving me crazy. It’s not in the panel above which is from the same POV.
It’s the staircase railing. Sulla’s blocking it in the second-to-last panel.
UPDATE 5/1: I’ve tweaked the page to add more staircase infrastructure in both panels.
aww she look so excited and eager to present herself
Wait, is Sulla a copy of the original robot mind? The robot body seems active. I thought it was a mind transfer but Sulla seems distinct here from the original copy.