152

Dr Pepper
Posted on December 31, 2021 by David M Willis

152 thoughts on “Dr Pepper”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    You know you don’t HAVE to respond, Amber

    1. Decidedly Orthogonal

      But she wants to, so she can feel *something* again. ? Maybe in the New Year? Amber doesn’t deserve this.

      1. Lumino

        She… kind of does?

        God, that came out all kinds of wrong.

        Like, the initial trauma that created Amazi-Girl isn’t Amber’s fault, that was a combination of her parents and the trauma caused by Sal.

        But how it has progressed? That is 100% a result of Amber’s choices, and that is the textbook definition of being what you deserve.

        It sucks, and I sincerely hope she gets help, but that won’t happen until she CHOSES to get help (like going back to therapy, for starters). Amber is her own worst enemy, and it’s quite sad to watch.

  2. Bicycle Bill

    Dr. Pepper??  Yeah, I guess it has caffeine, but who drinks that when there’s Mountain Dew available?

    1. Bicycle Bill

      Incidentally, according to the time stamp at the bottom of my computer, this was posted at 10:51 PM CST on 12/30 but the website clock showed it to be 12:05 AM.

      1. ktbear

        Well THERES you problem, there arent 30 months in a year, no wonder your clocks are confused! 😛

        1. Clif

          Don’t be ridiculous. There are 31 months a year, most of them 12 days long, but usually the 29th month skips the second day and by the time you get to the 31st month, it skips 5 different days.

        2. Siva

          I love this reply. I also want names for the 13th through 31st months inclusive.

        3. Fnord

          Clearly the 13th month should be “Eleventember.”

        4. Nova

          Thanks I hate it.

        5. davidbreslin101

          By a nice coincidence, here’s today’s XKCDL https://xkcd.com/2562/

        6. a/snow/mous/e

          Yes, it’s true that eleven is less than four hundred and fifty… oh, sorry, I read that as XI<CDL. 😛

    2. Thag Simmons

      It’s a matter of preference.

      1. The Wellerman

        Yeah, I love Doctor Pepper, mostly because it allows me to get some caffeine in me along with a tasty cola flavor without the full punch you’d get from Coke.

        1. Yumi

          I don’t know that I’ve ever had Dr Pepper. Or Mountain Dew, for that matter. And now I don’t really drink soda, so that probably won’t change any time soon.

        2. Zach

          It’s like Mr Pib. I like to pour some in water, it’s not overbearing.

        3. Yumi

          What the hell is Mr. Pib

        4. Clif

          Fake Dr. Peper based on cherry instead of prune juice. It isn’t as good.

        5. The Wellerman

          Some also think Dr. Pepper is cherry, rum, blackberry, raspberry, rum and licorice root?

          I think it’s all speculation, honestly?

        6. Dinajoyce

          There is no prune juice in Dr Pepper. While the company will not say what *is* in Dr Pepper they have specifically stated that prune is not one of the ingredients. Neither is the kola nut, so Dr Pepper is not a cola. This was significant to a court case involving non-compete agreements with bottlers. And because I see a comment about the relative ages of coke and Pepsi, I’ll also mention that Dr Pepper was invented before either one.

          Source: I used to work at the Dr Pepper Museum. I have read all this from primary source documents

        7. ValdVin

          I had no idea that Dr. Pepper had a secret formula; Coke is famous for its own unpatented ingredient. Neat stuff.

          Also, does the museum have anything on caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper? I bought some many years ago, when I was traveling through a test market. It didn’t work for me. Caffeine is an alkaloid, very bitter, and removing it from a drink really can change the flavor profile.

        8. dinajoyce

          @ValdVin

          There have been several iterations of caffeine free, sugar free, and/or diet Dr Pepper in various combinations (sugar free but has caffeine, caffeine free with sugar, etc). Sometimes they give them fancy names like Pepper Free. I honestly don’t remember what name they’re using for them now. You can still buy them all (including pure cane sugar dr pepper) but it can be hard to figure out which store sells which kinds.

          I never actually really liked any Dr Pepper and idk if I’ve ever tried the caffeine free kind. But yeah, caffeine definitely has a flavor. I can’t drink any energy drinks because all I taste is bitter caffeine.

        9. Cholma

          It’s the knock-off version a competitor makes:
          Pepsi/Coca-Cola
          MtDew/MellowYellow (although M-Y is vastly inferior)
          DrPepper/MrPibb (almost indistinguishable to me)

        10. Edward Rhodes

          Coca Cola was first. So, if anything, Pepsi is the knockoff;

          Coca Cola / Pepsi

          There, fixed it for you.

        11. BarerMender

          It’s Mr. Pibb, a soft drink. Imitation Dr. Pepper, if I remember right. The Bs are stylized to look like German double-esses, so to a German it’s Mr. Pissss.

        12. Enkrod

          Oh shit, it is!

        13. Bicycle Bill

          The actual term for the character — ß — is ‘ess-tsett’. It is unique to the German language and represents the ligature ‘ss’ under certain conditions.  The name is derived from a phonetic circumscription of how the two letters ‘s’ and ‘z’ are pronounced in German, which is why it is occasionally rendered incorrectly in English translations as ‘sz’.  It is pronounced in the same manner as a sibilant ‘s’ in English, since in normal German usage the letter ‘s’ is typically sounded as a ‘z’.

        14. milu

          it’s a bit more complicated than that. It did originate as a concatenated form of an S followed by a Z but that corresponds to an earlier form of the language that no longer maps to actual pronunciation. Germans today will always default to “ss” as a transliteration of esszet when writing on an international keyboard. It was abolished in many uses (and replaced by “ss”) by a 1996 official spelling reform in Germany. As a second-language and occasional user of German, i tend to avoid it altogether and just use “ss” everywhere because i know that will be widely accepted as an equivalent without a second thought, whereas using the esszett character improperly will feel like goofy hypercorrection.

        15. Tim

          Coke made their own Dr Pepper-like soda, called it Mr. Pibb. In the early aughts I think, they changed the name to Pibb Xtra? *googles* No, it was a slight flavor change and they stopped producing Mr. Pibb.

        16. Yumi

          So much explaining to me about Mr. Pibb, but I did ask. I’m mostly amused by the idea of having the flavor of something I’m familiar with but have never tried (Dr Pepper) explained by comparison to something I had to Google (Mr. Pibb).

          Anyway, they both sound kind of gross.

        17. The Wellerman

          Just for the record, I don’t think Dr. Pepper is made with Prune Juice, IMO.

        18. Cholma

          Yeah, if you don’t drink pop/soda in the first place, it doesn’t matter, but if you did then you would know that DrPepper/MrPibb is far less harsh on the tongue than Coke/Pepsi.

        19. Delicious Taffy

          Mr. Pibb lacks the “rotting marshmallow” undertone/aftertaste of Dr
          Pepper, so if you wanted to ever try one I’d recommend the former. It’s also more up-front about what its flavor is supposed to be (“spicy cherry”) instead of pretending it matters whether people know, so it’s less pretentious too. If you’re not into cherry-ish things or way too much fizz, it’s probably not for you, though.

        20. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          I can’t drink Dr. Pepper because it tastes too much like theophylline, an asthma drug I used to take, which tasted *horrible*. Like Dr. Pepper syrup with absolutely no sweeteners whatsoever. I took it anyway, because oxygen is wonderful.

        21. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          Also discovered you should not mix theophylline with caffeine, because they are related chemicals and reinforce each other.

        22. InhabitantOfCarcosa

          Theophylline and caffeine are found together in yerba mate (Ilex paraguayensis), a delightful beverage.

        23. ischemgeek

          I was on theophylline as a kid and fun fact if you were a kid on theophylline in the 90s they had to test your blood for heart damage indicators every month. But hey I didn’t suffocate on my lungs. Yay for that.

          And yeah theophylline syrup tastes like sweetened grainy death. About as horrible as prednisone.

    3. Otl1973

      I’d think anyone with a sense of taste and a concern about what horrifying things they might put in their body. But YMMV…

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Mountain Dew tastes how mosquitoes smell.

    4. not someone else

      Pardon me? Who drinks Mountain Dew when the caramel nectar of the gods is present? 😛

      1. Clif

        Truly, the electrified prune juice of the gods has no equal.

    5. Heather

      Maybe it’s because I first tried Mountain Dew as an adult but it was so sweet it made me feel ill just from a couple of sips.

      But honestly most sodas/pops/fizzy drinks started to feel awful a while back. Like I grew up loving Fanta but if I drink even a sip more than a full can it’s horrible. Not worth it in the slightest. I’ll take water over any of them these days.

      1. The Quirk

        Mexican Coke (with REAL sugar cane) is preferable to all of these. Just moved to Texas, and recently discovered this.

        1. Heather Hunter

          I’ll keep that in mind if I’m ever on that side of the Atlantic I guess! Though idk about the possible differences between Ireland/UK mixes and the US versions with the same brands honestly if there are any. I mean we have different food rules here.

        2. Heather

          Oh for fuck’s sake why does my laptop keep doing that. Bullshit.

        3. Rayndel

          In the US, I prefer the dark colas. The light ones don’t sit well with me (aside from Mtn Dew occasionally). When we went to Ireland I discovered the opposite is true. The dark colas made me feel sick but the light ones didn’t.

          Human bodies are weird.

    6. Keulen

      Or Pepsi, which tastes better than both of them. Though Dr. Pepper isn’t bad.

  3. Deathjavu

    dang that is some SERIOUS server time drift, somehow this went up before today’s patreon which basically never happens. Enjoy the patreon experience for the next 5 minutes I guess.

    1. King Daniel

      It’s like I said a while ago; soon enough we’re going to see the server drift to the point where the next day’s strip will be going up around noon or earlier. 😛

      1. Clif

        I will not complain.

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      DYW has been using time travel to keep his buffer so large, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

  4. The Wellerman

    LOL ?

    Speaking of energy skyrocketing, for those of you who didn’t see it yet, i turned Joyce into a SUPER SAIYAN!!!

    https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/thewellerman/super-saiyan-joyce

    Enjoy!!! ?

    1. jeffepp

      Super Thighen, more like. She don’t skip no leg days.

      1. The Wellerman

        Nothing like a leggy start for the New Year!

        Fun fact about this piece: I originally started fleshing it out using reference models of Kale and Caulifla, but Kale’s legs were too beefy for regular Super Saiyan and Caulifla’s were always obscured behind her loose clothing, so I just based it mostly off of Vegeta’s, mainly for the battle suit that was part of the original request.

        On that note, I sure hope we see more female Super Saiyans in the future!

    2. Needfuldoer

      – Newgrounds

      There’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time…

      1. Spencer

        Friday Night Funkin’ threw me for a loop, as it’s a game entirely based on Newgrounds nostalgia.

        Which, between that and Deltarune, I don’t know how to deal with the era of my childhood getting nostalgic throwbacks.

      2. Keulen

        Newgrounds has been getting more popular lately since a couple sites that used to allow more NSFW content starting trying to block/ban that stuff a year or two ago.

    3. Delicious Taffy

      That’s purty good. Her legs look like they can crush a bus, and that’s… That’s just fine. Your sprite work reminds me of a short RPG Maker fan-game idea I had a while back. Maybe I should revisit that.

      1. The Wellerman

        Legs are where the strength is yo!

  5. Suet

    Yeah, but you might feel something with what Dr. Pepper tastes like

    Can’t feel, but can perceive. Hm.

  6. michaelinasmeal

    mr. pibb is where its at

    1. Clif

      Take your cherry and go home.

      Wait, that didn’t come out right.

      1. Edward Rhodes

        They both taste like black cherry soda to me.

        1. OBBWG

          Tried black cherry Pepsi recently. It was surprisingly good and tasted nothing like Dr. Pepper.

  7. BBCC

    I’m glad Amber is fine. 🙂

    1. Yumi

      She is doing so well.

      1. The Wellerman

        Yeah, in spite of things, she’s certainly made progress, even if you don’t count her splendid outfit (talk about queen of comfort).

    2. Thag Simmons

      honestly she’s made two steps forward and one step back

    3. Spencer

      She even has a best friend with her all the time!

  8. Katerly

    At this point I’m convinced this is Mike’s ghost who came back out of spite to help Amber.

    1. Thag Simmons

      I mean, he kinda is

      1. DaveM

        To quote Lao Tzu “To die but not be forgotten, that is immortality”.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          I mean, it worked for Lao Tzu apparently.

  9. Kravis

    If you can’t feel anything, drink all the Dr. Pepper you want!

    1. Azhrei Vep

      I dunno, man. I don’t think that’d help. You should probably wait for a time when you can’t taste anything.

  10. Gnoka

    Raw. Panel 3 hits.

  11. CrazyJ

    It’s a good thing I’ve read Hyperbole and a Half. I know where this is going…

    1. RacingTurtle

      Renting ALL the scary movies

    2. Sev

      I knew this reminded me of something (particularly the alt text)! Thank you for pointing that out.

  12. Derek

    I’m still so mad at Amber for the “why are my friends human beings instead of sex objects” line (which we know isn’t a bit) that I’m struggling to remember anything positive about her.

    1. Yumi

      She is also struggling to remember that.

      1. Clif

        Agreed.

    2. Thag Simmons

      She is struggling with some serious shit and she’s a real piece of shit at times but she’s generally well meaning, overall I’d say “a little below average”.

    3. Kella

      I think this strip gives some insight into where that’s coming from. She can’t feel anything. She doesn’t feel alive. She cannot connect emotionally with other people. This is a thing that happens when your dissociative barriers around your emotions are real big. Her friends may not even feel fully *real* to her let alone human. And it looks like sexual desire is the only feeling that she still has access to. That doesn’t make what she said okay but I don’t think she’s under the impression that it’s okay either.

      1. Spencer

        Yeah, that’s my take.

        There’s this one game I will not name as it’s a spoiler, but the main character confesses at one point that a past breakdown occurred because she couldn’t process the people’s around her as real, but just as “shapes.” Her video game character died and she grieved him like an actual person, and come college she eventually forced herself to drink cough syrup and stay in bed all day because she was having another breakdown as the last one went untreated, and she became terrified of a statue of the college’s founder that pointed forward at her, which she perceived as judgment.

        1. Sol

          I think I know the game you mean. Would the main character happen to be a cat?

      2. Spencer

        So yeah basically I think Mike’s death drove Amber into further isolation, and from there the people around her are starting to seem less real.

  13. StClair

    Once, when I was a kid, I drank a whole 20 oz bottle of Dr. Pepper at a friend’s house and have never wanted another one.

    1. Clif

      More for me. Except I have to stretch them out and avoid empty calories for the most part.

    2. woobie

      Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper is delicioso.

    3. Needfuldoer

      I can’t stand Dr. Pepper. It just tastes… weird? Too much like overspiced cherries?

      (This is from someone who can tolerate Moxie, which is basically a combination of sarsaparilla and Robitussin that hates you.)

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Rotting marshmallows, I swear.

  14. Kitschensyngk

    reads alt text in a Russian accent like that one dude from Goldeneye

    1. DaveM

      We all did “I am Eenwincible!”.

      1. StClair

        … aaand now you’re a coat rack.

      2. Deanatay

        “I am a geek-cicle!”

    2. Keulen

      I’m assuming the alt text was referencing that scene.

  15. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    So Mike really never said anything to make Amber feel good? And they were… friends?

    1. Clif

      It’s complicated.

    2. Thag Simmons

      They understood each other and could tolerate each other’s company, which is an acceptable substitute for friendship.

  16. ADLegend21

    She needs…SO MUCH Therapy.

  17. Dinajoyce

    There is no prune juice in Dr Pepper. While the company will not say what *is* in Dr Pepper they have specifically stated that prune is not one of the ingredients. Neither is the kola nut, so Dr Pepper is not a cola. This was significant to a court case involving non-compete agreements with bottlers.

    Source: I used to work at the Dr Pepper Museum. I have read all this from primary source documents.

    1. Dinajoyce

      Bah. This was supposed to be a reply up above

    2. The Wellerman

      So lucky! Although there were good parts and bad parts about the job, right?

    3. Vivvav

      Is that legal? For them not to disclose the ingredients? I think even KFC’s 11 Herbs and Spices aren’t actually a secret. The proportions that make up the specific flavor profile of the blend are proprietary, but I thought they’re not allowed to hide what kind of food you’re actually eating.

      1. Darastrix

        The 23 flavours that make up Dr. Pepper are listed as “Natural and Artificial Flavours” on the package. A LOT of products have their ingredients listed like that with respect to what gives them their taste.

        1. woobie

          It’s food, it shouldn’t need a MSDS.

        2. Needfuldoer

          Everything needs an SDS. Everything.

          But seriously, I doubt they want the masses to know what their artificial flavors and sweeteners are actually made of. Even if they’re perfectly innocuous, customers wouldn’t take the scary chemical names very well.

        3. Belegcam

          Good to know that the proper first aid for getting distilled water in my eye is to rinse it for 15-20 minutes with, uhhh…water.

          Also, very important to keep it out of the water system.

        4. Needfuldoer

          Overexposure to dihydrogen monoxide will cause swelling of the epidermis, and it is known to be a fatal inhalant in sufficient quantities.

          I’m sure that document was generated either algorithmically or with heavy eye-rolling sarcasm, for places where “all chemical compounds on site must have safety data sheets available”.

        5. davidbreslin101

          It’s almost as deadly as pure molecular oxygen, a highly flammable and toxic substance with many dangerously reactive byproducts. 2.5 billion years ago, oxygen poisoning wiped out half of life on Earth..

        6. Bathymetheus

          In addition to Belegcam’s comment, I note that the sheet lists the pH as “not determined”. It damned well better be 7.00, or there’s something wrong somewhere.

        7. Darastrix

          (Even the Mott’s cinnamon apple sauce I have on my desk right now lists “Natural Flavour” as the last item on the ingredients list. Apples and cinnamon are also listed, so I have no clue what other flavouring they added.)

        8. Bicycle Bill

          The flavor of the worms that were in the apples?

        9. The Wellerman

          Probably star anise and a few other spices to bring out the sweetness of the apples. At least it tries, I think. I hate the texture of apple sauce. ?

        10. Sombrero

          The flavor of the worms is busy
          Melting in my mouth…

        11. Needfuldoer

          It’s whatever the apple-washing machines missed.

        12. Yumi

          Which sucks for people with rare allergies that could be in things just summarized as “natural flavors” or “spices” or whatever.

        13. Myles Adams

          I know someone allergic to strawberries…..yeah, shows up there a lot.

  18. Steamweed

    I’m in Texas; this is Dr. Pepper country.

    (He didn’t go to Evil Soda Pop School for 4 years just to be called ‘Mister.’)

    1. The Wellerman

      Evil? I didn’t get that impression from watching his commercials with his sentient freezer sidekick.

      1. The Wellerman

        Although if he were evil, that’d actually be kinda cool. ?

  19. Laura

    Seeing Amazi-Girl as a symptom of DID makes me wonder whether Superman had DID.

    I feel like Bruce/David Banner and the Incredible Hulk make a good metaphor for DID (or possibly explosive/addictive rage attacks instead).

    Did anyone see the movie Special (Rx) with Michael Rappaport? Kind of an awesome exploration of the thin line between feeling (acting?) superheroic and experiencing manic delusion (or delusional mania?) or else just being intoxicated.

    Billy Pilgrim’s time travel in Slaughterhouse Five is an obvious metaphor for PTSD. But I feel like a clearer depiction is in the final episode of Star Trek TNG, “All Good Things…” where Captain Picard experiences slipping backwards and forwards in time and must coordinate his actions in several timelines simultaneously.

    I guess what I’m trying to say is that depersonalization / derealization as an effect of trauma is very akin to the kinds of experiences depicted in Sci-Fi/Fantasy — where ordinary people are plucked out of their everyday settings and bizarre and uncontrollable and fantastical things happen to them. And they just have to learn to make their way in this new context, for which they have no prior frame of reference and no logical framework upon which to base expectations for what might happen next.

    I think trauma is kind of like that. There’s a beautiful documentary movie, in Italian, called “Supervideo”. It documents a military raid on a media center, from the perspective of a superhero (really, a guy in a costume with a cardboard TV over his head) representing the ideal journalist, the Uber-journalist. A journalist superhero. And how, even just watching something terrible happen, we become part of what has happened. It becomes part of us.

    And even if, like Amber during the holdup, all she could do was curl up in the corner in frozen silence, that, too, is participating. Like a child’s mobile — one of those wire sculptures with the dangling figures that bob and circle in the currents of air — every motion affects every other piece of that situation. The situation changes everyone who experiences it.

    Like the old poem, “the Ballad of Jake and 10-Ton Molly”: “We were strangers ‘til an hour ago. Now comrades. And survivors.”

    I don’t know if this is making any sense. We have been going through such social trauma, recently, with the COVID-19 pandemic. I feel like this has the capacity to change us. To make us comrades and survivors together, in some way. To bring out our inner superheroes.

    I want to believe that.

    1. Daibhid C

      Regarding whether Superman has DID, as with so many things about superheroes, it depends what version.

      Your “standard” Superman, no. Pre-1985 he’s Kal-El of Krypton, and Clark Kent is just a disguise he uses to walk amongst the humans. Post-1985 he’s Clark Kent of Kansas, and Superman is a funny costume he wears because the big dork doesn’t want all the good deeds he does to draw attention to the real him. There’s almost never any disassociation involved.

      1. Abel Undercity

        Batman, on the other hand…

        1. Anon A Mouse

          One of my favorite lines from “Batman: Beyond” was when someone had tried to convince Bruce Wayne he had gone crazy by planting a small sound device only he could hear and telling him crazy things. When Terry, the new Batman, asked him how he knew he WASN’T going crazy, he responded “The voice called me Bruce. That’s not what I call myself.” There is a very good chance that the man known as “Bruce Wayne” doesn’t technically exist in most Batman timelines.

    2. Azhrei Vep

      I’m pretty sure Bruce Banner and the Hulks (because there are a few in there) were made explicitly alters at some point. Which is why his cousin can just shift back and forth more or less at will and (usually, this is comics, so it can vary) doesn’t have any more self-control issues as a giant green lawyer with the body of a supermodel than she does as a small lawyer with the body of a fairly cute young woman.

      1. Laura

        Thank you folks, this is helpful. I didn’t know any of that stuff about the Banners. I only know the TV series.

        Interesting about Batman. That’s maybe what they were referring to with AG doing “the Batman voice”. @Anon A Mouse, do you mean that Bruce Wayne is just a persona, or that the original personality has been subsumed? What do you mean by doesn’t exist?

        Reason I thought about Superman is that in some movie/TV series portrayals, Clark’s voice, mannerisms, self-confidence, posture, gait, etc. are so different as Clark Kent. His desire to be known and appreciated by Lois, AS CLARK (not just as Superman), is so palpable. And, as Superman, he would be able to see and hear crimes occurring all around him, 24/7, but would be unable to spend all his time stopping all tragedies while holding down a regular 9-5 job as Clark Kent. Gives me the impression that he CAN’T just be Superman all the time because Clark Kent has an independent existence of his own, as a distinct person with his own needs and desires.

        Thank you for the exploration. I just rewatched “Supervideo” on archive.org. Not as technically good as I remember it but good to see anyway.

        1. Anon A Mouse

          Subsumed would probably be the best way to say it. There’s evidence in the comics and various shows, obviously dependent on which version of Batman, in which it becomes clear that Batman is not just a “dominant personality” and “Bruce Wayne” is not an alternate personality but literally a disguise for Batman to use.

        2. thejeff

          Obviously it depends on the take, but usually it’s not really even as close to DID as “subsumed” implies. Bruce Wayne isn’t the original persona. Batman is who the traumatized little kid Bruce grew up into. There is only one persona there. The others are just disguises. “Bruce Wayne” the playboy philanthropist is an act, not any kind of alter.

          My preference is for the take in which the public face of Batman is also an act and it’s the version hanging around the cave with Alfred or a Robin, probably with the costume on but the mask off that’s closest to what he’s really like.

        3. StClair

          that’s my take as well.

    3. Bicycle Bill

      Just wanted to point out that the acronym ‘DID’ also stands for ‘Damsel in Distress’ among certain sectors of society, and might also apply in this circumstance.

      1. davidbreslin101

        yeah i get confused when i open the mental health forums after ive been on knight forums for a while

  20. Rabisch

    Amber can still feel something. But she seems trying very and to stop that. Poor Amber.

  21. Alanari

    I’m beginning to wonder where ag is. I’m assuming a second identity doesn’t vanish spontaneously. She should still be in there, but hasn’t made an appearance yet..

    1. The Wellerman

      Speaking of which, I have a very weird and potentially controversial question regarding alters and tulpas.

      Is it possible to deliberately destroy an alter or a tulpa? If so, would it count as murder?

      1. Arch

        Bear with me, as I don’t even know if I’m using the terms tulpa and alter right.

        A good friend of mine had something of a mix between alters and tulpas, where he had this mindspace filled with mostly-seemingly-autonomous beings that he could interact with. He was the dominant and original personality, and maintained a level of control over them most of the time (in that they tended to listen to him and were generally supportive of him). He could consciously allow certain personalities to take over his actions, and one might attempt to more forcefully take temporary control if he ever became particularly emotionally withdrawn, but otherwise the most they could do was influence him indirectly with their words or feelings. Anyway, now that you have a little idea of the way this worked for him, the point I’m getting to here is that I asked him this exact question: could they die, and is it possible to purposely destroy them?

        He explained to me that it was possible to do sometimes, telling me that he had done that to some of the more minor tulpa in the past. They would just suddenly disappear.

        He had a very negative tulpa in his mindspace. This tulpa was basically psychotic and murderous, and the tulpa always said what he didn’t want to hear. The tulpa wasn’t pure evil; just insane and without a verbal filter. He destroyed the tulpa many times, but the tulpa would just randomly pop up again sooner or later as if it never happened. He eventually locked the tulpa in “the basement”, a place he created in his mindspace to contain that tulpa specifically. So it’s not like he had total conscious control over their existence.

        Some of his tulpa were destroyed in more unique ways. Sometimes, he’d described to me, a tulpa would just get this calm, faraway look in their eyes, say goodbye, and walk away, never to be seen again. This wasn’t something he did, and it would just happen without rhyme or reason.

        One time in particular, I remember him going into a very brief daze followed by a sudden panic. When I calmed him down enough to where he could, he explained that the negative tulpa I mentioned above left the basement and viciously murdered another of them. The two tulpa had gotten into a heated argument sometime prior to this. He explained to me that this caused him to feel emotionally devastated, and that it hurt in a way he struggled to explain.

        Anyway, that’s what I’ve got as an answer for you. I doubt my friend was a typical example of someone with alters or tulpas, with the unique way it all seemed to work with him, but hopefully that gives some insight.

        Interestingly enough, last I spoke to him about it, my friend no longer had any tulpa/alters at all. One day, his mindspace and everything inside ceased to exist. And not in a bad way. It was gone, but it didn’t give him any sensation of loss or anything like that.

        As for if it’s considered murder? Maybe to the individual in question it may or may not be. But I doubt it’s legally considered murder anywhere across the globe. Individualism is typically defined by the boundaries of the physical body, and law is no exception.

        1. Rani

          Ok forgive me, but what was this friend diagnosed with?

        2. Arch

          It’s no problem at all. Haha, I poked my friend’s brain as often and as far as he was comfortable letting me. The way his mind worked was just so fascinating. I asked him this as well, but he didn’t have an answer for me. He was always extremely hesitant to see psychologists/neurologists despite my best efforts at trying to ease him into doing so, so he never got diagnosed.

          Ironically, he’s seeing a psychologist nowadays for entirely unrelated reasons, but he also no longer has the mindspace or tulpa, so I have no idea if it’s ever really come up at appointments. He tends not to think about the mindspace, because he told me that he had felt a constant vague sense of unease when it was around that disappeared when it did (so he was overall happy it was gone, even if he did like some of his tulpa), and he was concerned that thinking too hard on it might manifest it again. I tend not to ask about it anymore for that reason as well.

    2. thejeff

      We last saw her playing roller derby with Marcie and that gang. That was just a couple days ago their time.

  22. Dara

    “I can’t feel anything”

    …except horniness.

    Obviously.

    1. a/snow/mous/e

      The most unshakeable of emotions, to be sure…

      1. Laura

        In the immortal words of T-Rex: “Horny is an emotion.”

        1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          Doonesbury says not: https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1974/09/20

  23. Rabbit

    Man, I’m really really worried about Amber with all this going on. I can’t imagine the guilt and fear that end up festering under the numbness she’s got going on right now.

  24. Eldritchy

    You know… I wonder how long will it take for Amber to be hospitalized because she’ll collapse due to lack of sleep and caffeine intoxication…

  25. Megan Rivera

    Jesus Christ someone please help this girl.

  26. Kitsune

    ♫I have become comfortably numb♫

  27. TheScreenJockey

    Gotta say . . . Mike is much better as a manifestation of self-loathing than as a character whose actions might affect others.

    1. StClair

      You too, huh?

  28. hof1991

    I guess that’s one way to be immune to criticism.

  29. DarkoNeko

    wow, really solid burn indeed

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.