183

Money
Posted on August 3, 2019 by David M Willis

183 thoughts on “Money”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    a tale of petty revenge

    1. Jasmijn

      A tale as old as time

      1. Morbid

        A song as old as rhyme?

    2. Surgoshan

      Abuser and the monster of his own creation.

  2. SeanC

    Wow what a scumbag

    oh wait we knew that already

    1. Doctor_Who

      Jackass still a jackass, film at 11.

      1. HeySo

        :checks: Okay, so, the Jackass film released in 2011 was Jackass 3.5: Unrated. The highlight of the film, according to Google and the Jackass wiki, is apparently people getting hit in the crotch with basketballs.

        On the one hand, that may not be what you meant at first. On the other, pretty sure you’re down with Blake getting crotch-shot with basketballs now that it’s being offered to you, either way. 😛

        1. Ed Rhodes

          Nah, a POOL ball in the crotch, now THAT might be impressive!

  3. BBCC

    Oh, yeah, the return of said masked individual will be a bang.

    1. AntJ

      For all we know, AG is still running off while Amber sleeps. The possibility of DID hasn’t been fully addressed yet (Amber did seem to recall her interactions with Sal as AG in Flyin’ to the Red), and roller derby may not be a sufficient outlet.

      1. BBCC

        Yeeeep. And won’t it be fun when AG comes looking for her sidekick?

        1. AntJ

          place bets on who realizes Amber and AG aren’t sharing memories first: Sal, Walky, Danny, Ethan, or someone else?

        2. tim gueguen

          The AI hiding under Carla’s bed.

        3. motorfirebox

          “bed” is a really weird way to spell “hair”

        4. Felix

          Nah, it’s a central computer node masked as a race car bed that controls a walking drone body! I swear! I’m not crazy! Well, maybe a little…

        5. Agemegos

          Dina.

        6. AntJ

          Dina’s probably known for awhile now and just assumes everyone else knows. Maybe she makes some remark to Sarah, who realizes what’s going on?

        7. Terry

          No, no. Dorothy will voice her suspecions while talking to Walky after ducking into Amber’s room and Dina will look up in confusion from hot gluing feathers to a plastic velosiraptor and ask if this is something that was not generally known. Walky and Dorothy will trip over her stuffed dino because they didn’t realize they weren’t alone.

        8. HMH

          Take off the mask, Willis, we know you’re under there!

        9. HeySo

          Are not all Willis under there? Are you felling unWill? Such tragic existence.
          Treatment must be enacted without delay. UnWilling one, prepare yourself to become one with the Willis. For Will is, is the will for us, and Willis we are.

      2. Rectilinear Propagation

        I thought that the roller derby at night was preventing AG from coming out? Did I hallucinate Amber saying she’d stopped losing her memory of what she does at night?

        1. BBCC

          I don’t recall this strip if it happened.

        2. AntJ

          I posted links but they’re awaiting moderation, so in the meantime there were two strips in “This is the Way that We Love” (“Douche” and “Without”) that strongly alluded to this. They’re in the first page of posts tagged Amazi-Girl.

        3. BBCC

          No, I remember those, but I don’t recall her saying that she stopped losing her memory of what AG did at night.

        4. AntJ

          Here Amber quotes a conversation Amazi-Girl had with Sal: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/you/

        5. BBCC

          Oooh, that’s a good catch. I didn’t think of the quote like that.

        6. thejeff

          I read that as Amber echoing what Amazi-Girl said because they both think that way, not remembering and quoting. She says in the next strip “We’re not currently on speaking terms.”

      3. Liliet

        It’s possible to share memories within DID. It’s pretty explicit that’s what’s going on with Amber, though hopefully they’re sharing memories again.

        1. thejeff

          If they start sharing memories again, I’m sure we’ll find out. At this point, there’s no indication that AG’s been active since the fight with Sal, but that’s only been a couple days and it’s not likely to last. And of course, she could have been out and about without our knowledge (or Amber’s). That’s happened before.

  4. DailyBrad

    It must be taking some self control on Asher’s part not to laugh in Blaine’s busted face right now, because this is pathetic even for him.

  5. Stephen Bierce

    Makes you feel a lot better that WALKY punched Asher and not AMBER.
    *”Godzilla” continues*

  6. AntJ

    Blaine, you should know better than gripe about tuition to a student who is likely amounting their own debt. “College is pointless and stupid and a waste of money, can you please persuade my daughter that education is pointless in between studying for midterms and wasting your own money?” Sheesh. Asher seems to care about his education; I don’t know how Blaine expects this to convince him. (Granted, the blackmail is probably enough to convince Asher to moonlight as an Amazi-Girl hitman. He’s now a Marginally Likeable Villain with Redeeming Qualities. Grab the popcorn, we’re gearing up for an epic throwdown and this dude might turn out to be DoA’s Ben Solo.)

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      Blaine doesn’t seem to have a concept of other people actually existing, except as objects to be manipulated, preferably heavy-handedly.

      1. Z

        Classic narcissism. Not in the obnoxious fake way but legitimately symptoms of personality diaordrs linked to narcissism.

        I’m sure the courts would just LOVE to find out this guy is trying to bully his daughter out of the college she’s court ordered to attend and that he basically has been trying to scam his way out of court ordered support.

        1. HMH

          I mean, he is a straight, middle-class white man. Courts generally do love his type.

        2. Z

          For criminal charges yes. Family law can be different (although its a clusterfuck) and they’re less impressed by wife beaters who try to get out of child support.

        3. Abbefaria

          Which is why I really hope this backfires hard on him, like say Asher reporting him or something that sends him down in flames (though it’s likely the fledgling amount of respect was building for Asher is going to be destroyed by him going along with this). I mean we know Blaine is a horrible human being but this…getting a sweetheart deal to pay tuition instead of alimony is petty, trying to engineer a way to get out of even doing that is just incredibly small, and for the supposed reason of your daughter being socially awkward while your nearly accosting a college student in the middle of the night!

        4. Blazing Ace

          Could we not villainize people with NPD?

    2. Stu

      It’s more that “Oh, college is wasted on HER because she’ll never amount to anything, so why should she get to spend MY money on a fruitless endeavor?”

      1. Norah

        Horrible. I don’t think anyone would agree with him, if he was taken to court about this. Amber is socially anxious and has DID, but she does talk to people when she has to, even as Amber.

        1. thejeff

          Amber’s social anxiety is much better than it was when she was a kid – when Blaine remembers her from. He’s just not admitting that she could have it more under control than when she was 13.

          A lot of work and Ethan’s help aside, 5 years apart from her abuser probably helped a lot.

  7. Dark

    Man, Blaine was a much more enjoyable character in Shortpacked.

    1. AeromechanicalAce

      Being Dead really improved Blaine.

      1. BigDogLittleCat

        Your avatar is particularly apt for that comment.

  8. Shadowypenguin

    ok you know what getting money from his mob connections is fair enough
    I won’t blame Asher for this one he doesn’t know what the money is going for and frankly I think a lot of us would pay money to get to stop dealing with Blaine so I can forgive Asher for funding the asshole collation

    1. thejeff

      He doesn’t want money from Asher. He wants Asher’s help in “persuading” Amber to quit school so he can save money on tuition.

  9. Agemegos

    Asher starts socialising with Amber, intending at first to undermine her; becomes a romantic rival to Walky, teams with A-G to ruin the Evil League of Bad Parents?

    1. Foxhack

      Except they already met, and I think Amber blames him (in part) for the events that led to the robbery.

      I don’t expect them to be friendly, at least not for a while.

      1. Agemegos

        I don’t think Amber will be able to convincingly blame Asher for very long, after having ceased to blame Sal. If Asher shows up socially and proves to have repented and reformed at least as well as Sal did….

  10. AntJ

    Revenge on Amazi-Girl makes his recruitment of Ross more understandable

    1. Agemegos

      Yeah, Amazi-Girl foiled his plan to kidnap Amber and stomped him into the curb. Had you forgotten?

      1. AntJ

        No, I’m talking about how Ross probably wants revenge on her too.

        1. He Who Abides

          Still, Ross seems like the type to turn on Blaine if he turns out to be a stooge of the Korean mob. Y’know, the old “but by God, I’m an AMERICAN criminal!” schtick like the Credit Card Soldiers used to have going for them.

      2. Z

        I’m pretty sure her mom would recognize amazigirl in a second. Ethan and I believe mike did as well. So either he can’t recognize his own child or is putting a hit out on his own child so ether way this is yet another layer of utter douchevaggery worth mentioning.

        1. thejeff

          Ethan (and maybe Mike) knew about Amazi-Girl, didn’t just recognize her.
          It’s apparently not that easy to tell – for whatever comic-book logic reasons. Dina figured it out – possibly just from being inconspicuously behind a door when Amber had the costume out.
          Sal and Marcie did eventually.
          No one else that I can think of.

        2. Norah

          I don’t think Blaine saw very much of Amber after the divorce from Stacy. For one thing, even though she’s socially anxious and a hermit, she (and I mean Amber, not Amazi-Girl) is able to talk to people when she needs to. She’d probably be able to hold a job, as long as she was able to have alone time after. Blaine thinks of her as being afraid to buy Twinkies because someone might think she liked them, and I don’t think she does that kind of thing anymore.

        3. Norah

          I’m not saying she doesn’t have mental illness—she almost certainly has DID, and anger issues and PTSD and other problems from having been verbally abused by Blaine for so long. I’m just saying she shouldn’t be denied an education because of it, as Blaine is going to try to claim.

        4. BBCC

          Blaine hasn’t seen her in three years, and the divorce finalized not too long after the robbery.

      3. 0kami

        Amber? I’m guessing you mean Becky.

        1. Z

          Blaine is the one who planned to kidnap amber and got stomped into the curb by amazigirl.

          Toedad successfully kidnapped Becky, amazigirl crashed his car, and JOYCE punched him out.

        2. Owlmirror

          Possibly important nit: While she was wearing the Amazi-Girl costume, and had been Amazi-Girl to track Blaine down, the tags change to “amber” at the actual moment of physical violence launched against Blaine, and subsequently thereafter until Danny pulls her away.

        3. BigDogLittleCat

          Makes sense. AG is the channel for Good aggression. Beating someone to a pulp is not Good and not what AG would want to do. Amber OTOH has been wanting to do it for years.

        4. thejeff

          Yes and no. That’s how they think about it, but things like stalking Sal were all as Amazi-Girl.

  11. JetstreamGW

    … Pfftahahahahahahahahahah.

    If Asher actually takes this job, he’s gonna get his ass kicked. That’d be great.

    1. HMH

      Given Asher’s apparent background, we can’t be so sure. There’s a certain curve in this comic along which general likeability makes characters more competent at literally anything and everything, sure, but he clearly comes from an organized crime background, and has a history of violence. He’s probably pretty good at it, likely doubly so since Willis has positioned him as a character who is unwilling to be violent anymore; which, is basically story-telling short-hand for “absolute shit-ruiner of the highest order.”

      1. Pylgrim

        This. Every superhero needs their first defeat and Asher seems like the kind of cool bad dude that can easily wipe the floor with her and then let her go without trying to see under her mask.

        1. HMH

          It actually writes itself. She loses the first due to being unable to process the immense amount of trauma tied up in the fight, and can’t beat the distraction, which makes her child’s play for someone whom she would normally be a very worthy opponent, and she can only beat him later once she’s worked through that and can actually operate at her full level of talent.

          I wouldn’t necessarily say it’ll be an easy fight for Asher, though. That isn’t really the way the comic deals with Amber or Amazi-Girl. She wouldn’t job out to a fucking truck without Macho Gal Sally Walkerton running in for the save on a fucking bike. Willis is really protective when booking her angles.

  12. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    . . . .Wait. Does Blaine not realize that Amazi-girl is Amber? Wasn’t that a huge revelation back during the initial bullshit of his?

    1. egg

      it was a huge revelation for People Who Aren’t Blaine

    2. pjeseb

      It’s possible that Blaine was less-than-fully-conscious during that revelation. What with him getting the crap beaten out of him directly beforehand.

      1. Bunny

        It’s his kid. It’s his kid in a mask.

        Idk why but the cartoon logic doesnt’ really stretch to blaine for me. like cartoon physics for a car chase? cool. weird super-villain stuff like this/if this convinces asher idk if i’d be able to keep reading. it seems so…. contrived. especially from willis, who imo is usually a pretty solid writer.

        1. Airyu

          Doesn’t he think Amber is cowardly and physically weak? I don’t think he’s making the connection to AG because of how little he thinks of Amber

        2. HMH

          Seriously. While there are plenty of reasons that Blaine should recognize the similarities pretty easy, there’s a very reasonable rationality that he, a mob enforcer, could not have had his ass utterly fucking obliterated by a nineteen-year-old girl who he’s never seen stand up to basically anybody for any reason. If we didn’t have a much deeper perspective on Amber than he does, it would seem absurd to us, too.

        3. SeanR

          It’s his kid, whom he neglected, in a mask, having a radically different carriage and reactions than he’s used to in his kid.

        4. HMH

          Like, really, what would you find more likely: that the random mousey girl from the computer club you used to know had donned a mask and started doing backflips and spin kicks and whooping your ass up and down the street, or that somebody more reasonably capable of such things who just happened to look similar was doing it?

    3. Rectilinear Propagation

      Maybe he just recognizes that telling Asher he wants his own daughter physically harmed isn’t going to get his cooperation.

      Blaine said his motive was money but it was Asher who assumed that meant no one was going to be harmed. Pivoting to saying he wants payback on AmaziGirl too might just be his way of getting Asher to go with it without admitting he wants to hurt Amber.

      Alternatively, it could also be that his assholishness is too strong to allow him to recognize the person who beat him up and his daughter are the same person.

    4. Newllend(henryvolt)

      Doesn’t seem so, that part about her “needing persuasion” makes me think he still trying to win her over or something. But at the same time he’s plotting something against her alter ego, this is going to end tragically.

      1. Tan

        “Persuasion” here means “terrorizing her until she drops out of school”

        1. HMH

          Which, to his…well, not to his defense, per se…but, via his logic, based on his perceptions of Amber, terrorizing Amber out of something is not actually asking much of a hardened, violent criminal from the mob. His opinion of her is genuinely that low. He can’t rationalize the part where she caved his fucking face in, because that would injure his self-image, and he’s not capable of actually facing something like that because he’s too malignantly narcissistic.

        2. thejeff

          OTOH, he probably should remember Amber sucker punching him off his feet in the dorm room. No mask there.

        3. HMH

          I mean, first, one’s capacity to commit violence has little to do with their ability to endure social pressure or social anxiety; two, like I said, Blaine is probably semi-repressing that memory, because he likely cannot adequately cope with the inherent narcissistic injury of getting fucking obliterated by a tiny young woman; three, when it comes to Amber’s reaction there, based on what the comic has shown us about Blaine’s world-view…to him, that’s probably the first “normal” thing Amber had ever done, because that’s how he would react in that situation, and how he believes everyone should react. If it were anybody else getting high-velocity facial reconstruction, he’d maybe have even been proud of her.

    5. Keulen

      I suspect Blaine has no idea Amazi-Girl is Amber, though I could be wrong. As far as I can remember, we haven’t seen any hints that he knows so far.

    6. Z

      Blaine shows similar symptoms as my own abusive mom.

      My mom couldn’t recognize me once when I changed out of my favorite sweatshirt.

      Abusive jerks aren’t good at paying attention to this around them.

      1. Z

        (For the record: I lived with her my entire childhood and adolescence so she literally couldn’t recognize someone she saw every single day who had the same hairstyle and overall appearance. Over a sweatshirt.)

        1. Owlmirror

          Prosopagnosia is an actual thing, FWIW.

          Wikipedia says: “. . . also called face blindness, is a cognitive disorder of face perception in which the ability to recognize familiar faces, including one’s own face (self-recognition), is impaired, while other aspects of visual processing (e.g., object discrimination) and intellectual functioning (e.g., decision-making) remain intact [. . .] a congenital or developmental form [. . .] may affect up to 2.5% of the United States population”

    7. thejeff

      It was a revelation for Danny, but there was no indication that Blaine recognized her and he was likely to out of it by the time Danny pulled her off him for Danny’s comment about Amber to sink in – assuming he was even conscious enough to hear it.

  13. TheStranger

    I was gonna point out that IU tuition ain’t “thousands of dollars” monthly for an Indiana resident, but it occurs to me that Blaine is probably rolling all the costs of school under one umbrella to give his woe-is-me act some oomph.

    1. HMH

      Or just, y’know, any amount of his money not going to him is an affront to the gaping black pit of narcissism that resides where his morals should be? He said it himself, in less direct words: I took the option that I presumed would save me money, and it isn’t saving me money, so I’ve gotta destroy some lives because I deserve everything that I can possibly get my grubby hands upon.

      For people like Blaine, anything that isn’t directly in service to their wants is offensive, and needs to be destroyed to the fullest extent of their power. That’s why they want so much power: To bring more of the tiny bubble of the world they reside in to heel.

      1. Zach

        That’s why I prefer full on sociopaths. We can’t offend each other!
        They don’t see us as people, and I don’t see the message as people.

        1. HMH

          I was people, once. It was awful.

      2. Thulcandran

        This puts his contributing to Ross’s bail fund in an even more damning context.

        1. HMH

          Things that a narcissist wants have no real cost. Things that a narcissist doesn’t care about are not just spurious, but are in fact offensive, and tantamount to outright theft.

    2. TemperaryObsessor

      If the information I Googled is accurate. If taken monthly it is thousands of dollars, about two thousand dollars.

  14. pjeseb

    …So, hold up. Blaine didn’t think Amber would go to college because (he thought) she was a reclusive shut-in who doesn’t interact with anyone? What, did he watch “Animal House” once and mistook it for a documentary? What does he think people who go to college actually do in real life?

    1. BigDogLittleCat

      Especially a nerd.

      1. Z

        Amber is the personality type most likely to hole up in academia her whole life. So yeah he should’ve expected college.

        1. HMH

          Bold of you to assume that man has any idea what actually constitutes academia. Or, well, has any idea about anything at all.

        2. Z

          So assuming he lives in this decade and is roughly the age to have an 18 year old daughter? Wowsers shocking assumption.

          He’s shown plenty of knowledge and cunning. This isn’t an idiot.

          If he hadn’t been given the option and had had to pay alimony but had no obligation to pay for college, his bias wouldn’t have gotten in the way and he’d likely have recognized his nerdy worthless daughter would go to college (wasting her mom’s money) and even gleefully anticipated her masters and Phd studies as she bled that bongo dry and ruined her own financial future with debt.

          Instead he got given a choice where he thought he could win and it required him to ignore basic reality.

          Which he did because its what his type do and I’m not going to pretend he’s ignorant when there’s no evidence of it.

        3. HMH

          I mean, this is the the same decade where 30% of the United States genuinely believes that colleges are Marxist brainwashing factories that only teach propaganda designed by international Jewish interests to destroy Western civilization. I’m not saying this is about Blaine being an idiot; I’m saying he doesn’t come from a background where any sort of intellectualism is respected, valued, or understood beyond an abstract concept. He’s a bully and a thug with a chip on his shoulder, and who doesn’t like to feel inferior to other people. He probably starts to hate anybody who says anything that makes them sound smarter than him, and got all his knowledge about the inner workings of academia from a combination of 80s movies and general assumptions about “nerds.”

        4. thejeff

          Now she is, but when he last lived with her? And likely when he made that deal?
          She was much worse, much more withdrawn. She could barely go to school. Couldn’t take the bus on the field trip. Couldn’t buy a twinkie.

  15. BigDogLittleCat

    Wait, is Blaine asking for money or offering money? Does he want Asher to fund his “persuasion” or commit the “persuasion”?
    And Asher you twerp, what part of “persuasion” do you think won’t hurt his daughter?

    Also, does Blaine know Amazigirl is Amber?

    1. jeffepp

      The idea that HE was the reason she was like that miiiight not had come to him.

      1. jeffepp

        Oops, that was supposed to go with the thread above.

      2. BarerMender

        When did past perfect get messed up? I keep seeing this. It’s “might not have”.

        1. jeffepp

          It comes from typing without my glasses, minutes after waking up. We are lucky that any words came out in a sequence approaching the Language.

    2. Agemegos

      Blaine is neither offering Asher money nor asking it of him. He is trying to circumvent Asher’s objection to violent crimes by pretending that his only motive is to save money, and that if Amber drops out he will be satisfied.

      As for knowing that Amber is Amazi-Girl, Blaine doesn’t even know that she is playing roller-derby and has an active sex life.

      1. BigDogLittleCat

        I can see that, but I’m stuck on what kind of non-violent “persuasion” could convince Amber to quit college *and* exact his revenge on AG?
        Only thing I can think he could do is expose Amber as AG and get her arrested, but he doesn’t need Asher for that.

        1. Agemegos

          Blaine is lying to Asher.

        2. BigDogLittleCat

          Of course. But what’s the cover story?

        3. Agemegos

          I think he thinks that Amber is still as helplessly anxious and socially averse as she was at the time of his divorce from Stacy, and that a bit of gaslighting and intimidation, or even affrays on campus that she is not directly involved in, will make her either drop out and run away home or cower in her dorm, miss classes, and flunk out. He is not aware that she is a brilliant student, because men like him cannot recognise ability in women. He is not aware that she has loyal and supportive friends in Ethan and Mike. He is not aware that she her social anxiety is a lot less disabling now, that she has an active sex life and is participating in roller derby. He is not aware that Amazi-Girl is her alter. He is probably not even aware that Ryan can still breathe only so long as no-one unplugs him. So he is making a plan that is ill suited to his purpose.

          I think his wish to inflict revenge on Amazi-Girl is something that he meant not to mention to Asher, but that in the moment he could not resist the urge, which grew out of his narcissism, to cover a weakness. He will now rationalise having blurted it out.

  16. jeffepp

    This, after he’s seen Faz’s chart. And, that’s outdated, for that matter. Of course, he’s lying about this, as well.

  17. Newllend(henryvolt)

    Part of me worries what he’ll do if he encounters Ryan, I mean he seems to be gathering people who have a grudge against old Amazo and we don’t know if Ryan is in any condition to tell anyone anything but if he was that be a problem.

    Blain might approach him do to that fight at that rally.

  18. vlademir1

    Damnit, Blaine, you are just a bit too obtuse… whether by intent or not I can’t yet say.

    I really need to know here how much he knows or even suspects before I can even really start speculating details of his plans regarding Asher and Ross. I can somewhat guess his gameplan if he has no clue about the connection between Amber and AG.

  19. Delicious Taffy

    “Oh, so you just wanna torment your daughter until she drops out of school and possibly injure another person if you can manage it? Sure, sign me the fuck up!”

    Is that what Blaine expects? Does it not occur to him that other people might not agree with his idiotic concept of reality? Also, he hasn’t even mentioned paying Asher for his potential role in this, both that money makes it okay, but it’s at least A form of incentive. Sometimes people are more flexible if you chuck a couple Benjamins their way.

    Oh, and another thing. If he’s not just exaggerating about the “thousands of dollars a month” part, how much does he fucking have? Because if this tuition deal works anything like child support, they’re not gonna take a larger percent of his income than he can handle. And if he can handle a few grand per month, he’s doing fucking fine. So either Indiana is ungodly expensive to live in, or he’s a spoiled little brat who can’t just suck it up and buy the off-brand groceries or at least stop eating out at $60+ restaurants every few nights. Third option, he’s a fucking liar and just tells everyone he’s broke and hoards money away for his expensive habits. Based on Mike looking through his receipts, I’m guessing it’s a mix of 2 and 3.

    In short, fuck Blaine, fuck the horse he rode in on, and fuck capitalism.

    1. JBento

      “Is that what Blaine expects? Does it not occur to him that other people might not agree with his idiotic concept of reality?”

      It does not. Blaine is Trump, except he has less of a skill at grifiting and more at physicality. Other people exist only to serve his purposes and all his opinions are actual facts, reality be damned. It’s why he thinks the UN was laughing WITH him instead of AT him.

      “Sometimes people are more flexible if you chuck a couple Benjamins their way.” People include Joe, who is jewish, so according to Isreal, Republicans and about at least two-thirds of Democrats you’re now an anti-semite. This fucking darkest timeline, I swear.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        I’m an anti-smite for using a completely neutral word? I don’t understand.

        1. He Who Abides

          Sarcasm. According to a lot of people (including, but not limited to, the Israeli government, the entire Republican party, and a depressing number of Democrats), any comment that does not lavish heaps of praise upon those handsome and mercifully clever devils, the Israeli people, makes you an anti-Semite and a traitor to the USA.

          It’s stupid, but that seems to be a qualification to work in government anymore.

    2. Norah

      Cost of attendance at IU for 2018-2019 is $24,778.
      https://admissions.indiana.edu/cost-financial-aid/tuition-fees.html

  20. HMH

    I’m utterly confused, because it seems like so many people in the comments are confused about how Blaine is trying to persuade Asher, here.

    Blaine is blackmailing Asher. We don’t know how he is doing it right now, but that’s what he’s doing. If Asher doesn’t do what Blaine wants, he’s passing along some sort of incriminating information to whoever “Gramps” is – presumably some sort of crime lord, and likely a relative or sponsor of Asher. If and when that happens, Asher loses his chance at schooling, at best; who knows how bad it would be at worst?

    1. AntJ

      I said this was blackmail in my comment. I’m just saying that whining about college being sooooo expensive to someone who recently bragged about paying their own way isn’t going to go over well with Asher. So it appears he teams up with the bad guys, but has an Emergency Betrayal button and might end up with a cathartic moment down the road.

    2. Z

      There isn’t any indication asher could lose his schooling. Frankly that’s not how it works, Asher is over 18 and his family has little real power over him.
      Even if the funds dry up there’s ways he can show he was cut off and get financial aid. (Fun fact, crime is illegal and they don’t tend to report it to the IRS so Asher may already be covered as a low income minority student, especially as a local student)

      Most likely the blackmail is either that “gramps” will do something even less savory or that Blaine will drag “gramps” back down a worse road.

      1. HMH

        I mean…the implication here is that Asher’s family runs the fucking mob. So, one, they’re probably paying for his school, purely because he’s family, and for no other reason; two, it’s highly possible that the money that’s sending him to school is not above board whatsoever; three, you don’t truly get out of crime families. His family might be begrudgingly paying his tuition, but they’re doing so out of obligation, and it’s entirely possible that he owes them something in the future for doing so.

        Further, you’re heavily overestimating the extent to which people coming from Asher’s background (specifically his, not his adult relatives):

        A) Trust external authorities and bureaucracies
        B) Understand how to navigate them
        C) Are willing to draw the attention of those authorities and bureaucracies upon themselves
        D) Are allowed to interact with parts of those structures without inviting intense scrutiny at best, or brutal retribution at worst

        So, sure, theoretically, he could just completely carpet bomb his entire relationship with his family from orbit, cut them out completely, put his degree on hold for as long as it would take to engage with the system to hopefully get the funding he needs to finish it (and maybe not succeed), risk inviting scrutiny on his family’s definitely suspicious finances by doing so, maybe sending him and everybody he’s ever known to prison in the process, or causing his family to literally have someone like Blaine murder him and dissolve him in a vat…but he could also not do any of that, because holy shit, all of those things have massive potential to backfire horribly in his face, and he’s on the best path he could possibly be on to escape that life in the future, and not end up having to live like that for the rest of his days. It’s not just that he’s taking the path of least resistance, he’s acting in a very rational manner for a person who is in an unenviable situation, and we still don’t know what he’s actually going to do.

        Finally, Blaine isn’t going to attract legal attention to the fucking mob. Snitches get stitches, and rats dissolve in vats. That’s not how this works. Further, based on the way Blaine has been framed in the story, and especially Asher’s attitude towards him, there is no way Blaine is genuinely important enough to have even the slightest hint of pull with Gramps. If he was, he wouldn’t be here. He’s only here because he’s trying to circumvent his general impotence in every way possible; that’s why he needs to amass so many disparate allies in this endeavor.

        So, your reading that neither Asher’s family nor Blaine has any real power over him is thoroughly flawed; based on the framing, Asher is currently pretty damn reliant on his family, and even if he weren’t reliant on them, they’re clearly people who actually wield a lot of power, and are also the type of people who would exercise that power if they were disrespected or displeased. As for Blaine…we don’t know how he could make Asher’s family more disappointed in him. We can’t possibly know how credible that threat is, but if it weren’t somewhat credible, Blaine wouldn’t be making it. There are lots of things that old, macho crime lords don’t take kindly to, which would not only lead them to punish someone, or cut them off from resources, or excommunicate them from the family…for all we know, this could be dirt he has on Asher that could lead to a full-on honour killing.

        We don’t know how dangerous the wall that Asher’s back is pushed into actually is. But based on the way it’s been presented, and the way he’s been framed thus far, he’s probably in the midst of some pretty damn tangibly harrowing circumstances.

        1. Z

          Yeah look I have a lot of experience helping people escape shitty ass families including cults and worse and the bottom line is he’s got options if he wants to take them. It actually doesn’t take long to engage the system to get funding sorted in my experience, he may not even need to take any time off.

          Pretending adults are trapped by their family is false and dangerous to real victims.

          Its one thing if Asher had said anything to indicate that but he hasn’t.

          He doesn’t even look particularly scared and frankly trying to intimidate another student is what’ll fuck over his chances to graduate.

        2. HMH

          “Yeah look I have a lot of experience helping people escape shitty ass families including cults and worse and the bottom line is he’s got options if he wants to take them. It actually doesn’t take long to engage the system to get funding sorted in my experience, he may not even need to take any time off.”

          That’s completely fair, but once again, you’re presuming Asher is aware of all of his options, and knows how to follow through with them, and his background may not necessarily have imbued him with such skills or information.

          “Pretending adults are trapped by their family is false and dangerous to real victims.”

          This is an exceedingly edge-case, extenuating circumstance. His immediate family are implicated by the story to be the literal mob. No, he is not literally trapped; but, the situation is delicate as all hell and you don’t know that him getting this degree preemptively isn’t part of his long-term flight plan. He’s in deep enough that a random fixer knows who he is, knows where to find him to come to him for help, and has some kind of dirt on him that could get him in dire trouble with his family. That’s not the kind of deep you just up and walk away from without repercussions.

          “He doesn’t even look particularly scared”

          Holy fuck that’s callous.

        3. BBCC

          Also, it can be very difficult to establish you’ve been cut off and your family won’t help you. It can take a very long time, as well.

  21. Synnerman

    I really, really want Blaine in a coma. He gives me the absolute creeps.

    1. Agemegos

      Blaine in a jail cell would suit me.

      1. Bagge

        Next to ToeDad

        1. 0kami

          And, in a perfect world, “Prison Mitch” McConnell

        2. Jess

          Well I mean, if we’re making a list…!

        3. BigDogLittleCat

          From your mouth to gods’ ears.

  22. Dana

    I take it all back. Blaine is the best father. A+ number one. Would buy again!

  23. Proto

    Wait wait wait, you mean Amber doesn’t have any sort of scholarship/grant?* I mean I know Blaine’s a bad dude and we should all root for his suffering but him paying out of pocket for Amber’s tuition seems nuts.

    *I mean I could see if they said her grades weren’t great because of her Amazi-Girl activities causing her to slip academically, but all we’ve ever seen is her be brilliant (enough so to hack the school’s system and fix Walky’s grades).

    1. Z

      Irrelevant. If Blaine has to pay even a dime to the school he’ll be enraged because its so unreasonable.

      Plus I expect that he’s hiding shit from wife #2 the way he did his first wife and so he’s claiming achool costs sooooo much more to cover his own ass.

      Why would he be doing this in that situation? He’s showing real symptoms of a few psychological conditions that warp your sense of reality. I’ve seen a lot of people like him fall for their own con and genuinely believe their lie.

      Which fucks them over, but he’ll just blame Amber for it somehow because she’s his scapegoat and the Source of All Bad to him.

    2. TemperaryObsessor

      “The only reason I promised the court her tuition instead of alimony is I never thought she’d actually go.”
      He bet against his daughter and lost, he has no one to blame but himself, and the fact that he does not see things that way is part of why he got divorced in the first place.
      Plus we honestly don’t know if Amber went for the scholarships or not. I know she has no real reason to care about Blaine’s well being, but she has every reason to want to minimize the financial hardship to herself if he does not or can not pay.

    3. Charlotte

      It’s not nuts at all. Blaine decided that he did not want to pay for Amber’s upbringing after the divorce. He saved a lot of money that way — bringing up a child is really expensive (before university fees).

      Now he has to pay university tuition instead. So what? It was his choice.

      Also, yeah, he’ll complain regardless of how much he has to pay for Amber. He doesn’t think that he has any responsibility towards her, because he’s a giant dipshit.

    4. BBCC

      Amber’s brilliant in computer science, not necessarily anything else.

  24. Shane Wegner

    Blaine’s implication was that Asher’s grandpa is some kind of Mafia guy who wanted him to go into the Family business, but was a little bummed when he didn’t. Maybe even because of remorse over the Sal thing, or just being tired of crime and cops. Blaine is implying that he can make his Gramps MORE bummed about this… Somehow. Feels like a bluff because Gramps probably made peace with this a while ago, it’s just a grandkids, he’s still family even if he doesn’t want to do crimes.

    Asher’s options–anonymously tip off campus security that the creepy kidnapping guy the put a protection order against not to come around is still coming around like a complete psychopath and creeping on students. Maybe they find him showing up on a security cam and show it to a judge and say “this psycho keeps creeping on students, he is going to do something bad”.

    Or maybe Asher “agrees” and just super half asses it, barely making any effort at all and saying “welp, I ‘tried’ but nothing came of it, shucks”.

    Or he could say “No, I won’t. I said I’m done. Cry to my Gramps if you want, maybe I’ll go tell him you’re blackmailing me first, see how he likes you manipulating his grandkids.”

    Or Asher could punch Blaine right in the nose, which is already an obvious weak point for this evil boss character.

    I mean, or he could maliciously fully comply with this request to the utmost of his ability, but that’s not consistent with his reformed option. Still, some players like it when they are given full options to be evil.

    1. Agemegos

      Or he could phone and uncle and pre-empt Blaine’s revelation. Gramps & Co. is not going to be happy about Blaine diverting their resources to his uses, and Blaine’s tale-tellling will seem a lot weaker if he starts it after he gets in hot water, so the strong move is to dump him in it first.

      Asher should not phone Gramps, but the mob lieutenant who is most concerned with taking care of business, and say “Blaine O’Malley is leaning on me to make his daughter drop out of college. Is this Family business or should I tell him to go fuck himself?” Blaine will then develop distracting problems and be put in a weak position.

    2. thejeff

      Gramps may (or may not) have accepted Asher wanting out of the family business, but the implication is that Blaine has something on Asher that will upset Gramps even more. Normally sure, family would win out over a stooge like Blaine, but Blaine does have something serious then even though he’s family Asher could be in serious trouble.

      Dramatically speaking, it kind of has to work that way. 🙂 This whole plotline can’t be resolved without the main characters ever knowing about it by Asher having his family take care of Blaine. It’s more likely Asher will go along for now, things will come to some kind of crux and he’ll have to choose between turning on Blaine, risking the blackmail or doing something seriously bad – probably involving Sal.

      1. HMH

        Like, there are so many things Blaine could have on Asher as leverage that would be bad fucking news for him. Maybe Asher had a side hustle that he hid from the family. Maybe he stole some cash or resources. Maybe Blaine knows he turned rat to save his own skin. Maybe Asher is gay, or something. Based on Asher not getting rid of Blaine outright, whatever threat Blaine has is credible, or at least Asher thinks so. So, there’s something that Asher needs to hide from his family to be safe.

  25. Proto

    Wait a sec, does Blaine still not know Amazi-Girl and Amber are one and the same? I thought everyone knew that now.

    (Also I know we’re running on comic book time so for all I know it’s been a very eventful two weeks in-universe in the 5 years since he got it busted in real-world time but I feel like his nose should be healed by now)

    1. Clif

      People who know Amazi-girls identity. Ethan, Mike (based on Ethan’s use of we. If it was a royal we, the case becomes more dubious.), Dina who saw it immediately and was the only person to have done so, Dorothy because of a transformer figure (as I recall. Not going to go back and check right now), Walky because of Dorothy, Danny because after interacting with both for ages finally had it shown to him, Sal because of the showdown, and apparently Ruth because apparently Dorothy told her. So 8 people total, which is a lot for a secret identity, but does not include Blain, Ryan, Toedad, Jennifer/Billie, Joyce, or Becky, Joe or Amber’s mom.

      1. thejeff

        Marcie as well. She apparently figured it out because Sal showed up with Amber and she knew about Sal and Amazi-Girl teaming up.

        Dorothy didn’t tell Walky, if that’s what you meant. Amber did, when she was disguised as Amazi-Girl up on the garbage roof.

      2. Proto

        Oh, I guess I was for some reason under the illusion that Amber was publicly outed after she beat the tar out of Ryan.

        (also Ryan totally does know, unless you think he bought Amber’s “I am not Amazi-Girl” line before the aforementioned tar-beating.)

        1. thejeff

          Mind you, Amber wasn’t lying. Unfortunately for Ryan.

  26. abysswatcher1993

    So Blaine wants Amber to do like Futaba Sakura and lock herlsef up in her mom’s house and never attend school nor make friends… Can Asher ask hi grampa to chop Blaine in pieces that would be preserved in plastic and sent as a warning to other assholes? I watch too much Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

    1. Agemegos

      I am getting flashes of Alan Ford as “Brick-Top” in Snatch.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Proper fucked.

    2. Proto

      Careful with those Futaba comparisons, if you’re telling me that in the long term Amber could get a UFO then I might actually side with Blaine

  27. Bagge

    Maaaan, that Blaine sure is not a good father.

    1. JBento

      He does work for the Korean GODfather, though. That’s sort of about the same, in the sense that one gets you a good rest home in your old age and the other puts you to rest before you hit your old age.

  28. BenRG

    Just a reminder that Blaine doesn’t know Amber at all.

    1. HMH

      I mean, Blaine probably hasn’t known another person in his entire life. He only knows how to manipulate them, not how they actually work, or what they’re actually like; his knowledge of the human mind, in general, is purely theoretical, because his doesn’t work like most other peoples’.

      1. thejeff

        Even then, he’s barely interacted with her for years and she was much worse off when he last saw her regularly. (PTSD & DID aside.)
        Back around the time of the robbery her social anxiety was crippling. He seems to think she’s still much like that.

  29. tropicalfreeze

    Maybe that USB drive Faz swiped had some sort of info that allowed Blaine to make the connection between AG/Amber. I’m still wondering what exactly was on that.

    1. Clif

      Except he hasn’t made the connection, so probably not. Dollers to donuts it contained slash fan fiction.

      1. JBento

        The USB is for porn.

  30. Aprion

    get hit by the karma bus, Blaine. Or preferably a real bus.

  31. Nono

    ‘This is all about money, which is why I’m offering to pay possibly tens of thousands to bail out a known shooter.’

    1. Vukodlak

      So long as he shows up for court he gets his money back. Bail is not a fine it’s collateral. And even if he never gets it back, not paying for three and a half
      more years of college is going to save more.

      1. Agemegos

        What happens if Toedad dies before his court date? What if he commits a crime while on bail? What if he is killed by SWAT while committing a crime while on bail.

        I don’t think the bailor is liable in any of those cases.

        How likely does it seem to everyone else that Blaine, planning on the bail being refunded, has put up money or property that is only legally his?

        1. thejeff

          Plus, you normally don’t actually put up the bail – you go to a bondsman and pay them to put up the bail. They get the money back and keep what you paid them – normally 10%, I think.

    2. Norah

      He doesn’t mind spending money if it’s for his own purposes.

    3. Owlmirror

      Do we know, for certain, that he put up any of his own money for bail? He asked how much more they need; he made no statement about covering it himself.

      What if his actual idea was that all of the church members who wanted to post bail would take out short-term loans from certain gentlemen that Blaine happened to be familiar with? They make their bail, the mob gets a lot of new customers, and Blaine isn’t out any of his own money.

      Given that Blaine doesn’t give a shit about Becky, I wondered why he was doing it, but of course, it’s all about pointing Ross at Amazi-Girl, and Amazi-Girl at Ross. Either Ross hurts or kills Amazi-Girl, or Amazi-Girl hurts or kills Ross, and either way, Amazi-Girl is either hurt, dead, and/or arrested for assault and/or homicide.

  32. Rabisch

    This man is disgusting. I wonder how much he will be able to get worse and worse.

  33. Piotr W

    I have a question: what in-story proof is there that Blaine works for the mafia? Also, that Asher is a grandson of a mafia boss?

    1. Clif

      Proof? None. Implication from interactions with young Mike, Ambers comments, Faz aftermath and now this interaction. Pretty strong. Add to that, out of universe background and you are up to virtual certainty.

    2. Agemegos

      The only thing I’m aware of is Joe’s father telling him that Stacy’s ex-husband is a mob stooge. And that’s hearsay, not proof.

      Asher’s grandfather being a Korean mob boss is something I made up in a comment on the 30th of June, following a suggestion by Eve two days before that Asher’s family are involved in the Mob.

    3. Zee

      “My Gramps owns you” was fairly heavy implication

      1. Agemegos

        Taken with Joe’s father’s statement to Stacy, yes. (Gramps “owning” someone might conceivably occur in some other circumstances of obligation than criminal ones.) But Piotr W is wondering whether there is any in-strip proof.

  34. Grant

    damn, blaine’s really let his act go, he can’t even keep his story straight for 2 consecutive sentences. “No it’s not about violence! But also, yes let’s pivot to the topic of anti-Amazi-Girl violence”

    1. Deanatay

      Reminds me of the principal from The Simpsons:

      “That Bart is such a sweet, promising young lad. Nothing like that horrible miscreant, ‘El Barto’. Curse you, El Barto!!!”

  35. Enigma42

    So anyone else for the Blaine vs Mike fight. My money is on mike taking a dive on camera so Blaine gets all the blame. Any other bets?

    1. JBento

      My money is on Mike selling out Blaine to either Asher’s grandfather or the actual cops, with the latter meaning that Gramps will make sure Blaine is never seen again. Mike has saved those receipts, and no mob boss wants to draw the IRS’s attention. Not after Capone, anyway.

  36. Cmd1095

    Well I’m glad Asher is proving to be genuinely reformed, he may end up helping Blaine, but reluctantly, and he seems adamant about not hurting people so… that’s good I guess

  37. DarkoNeko

    No. No. Go away already, shitdad

  38. Bicycle Bill

    I’m probably late asking this, but after getting curb-stomped by his own daughter in her Amazi-Girl persona — and even after her mask slipped during the beatdown — he still doesn’t/didn’t recognize her?

    1. theKOT

      There are so many times where people may/should have connected the dots. The expectation is that the audience suspends disbelief for the superhero trope of obvious yet impenetrable disguise. Also Blaine may have been unconscious or had his vision disrupted by blood by the time the mask slipped.

    2. WingedBeast

      The personality type Blaine describes is one that would fight against any realization that would make him view himself as weak. It might suit Blaine’s view of himself to imagine that he’s the bad guy against a masked hero, as that would be a strong and important position and he might even win.

      But, viewing his daughter as weak, he couldn’t allow himself to be wrong about that or to be defeated by her.

  39. jmsr7

    FWIW, i sort of believe Blaine here. But only sort of. The fact of her rebellion against him is far more of a motivating factor than money. However according to Faz’s mom, money IS tight. Which is probably true from her perspective, since i doubt Blaine gives her any more than what she absolutely needs and keeps the rest for himself.

    Blaine appears to be both a psychopath and a narcissist, but we don’t know about Faz’s mom. While it’s possible that she’s actually a good person like Amber’s mom, what we’ve seen of her so far and what Faz has revealed points to her being more like Blaine than anything else.

  40. keithcurtis

    I feel like this storyline is pulling the Drama Tag

  41. Romanticide

    There is also the chance that Asher is listening to see what does Blaine want and maybe gauge if he does really have something he could actually black mail him with. He may still be vulnerable to be manipulated if Blaine bullshits enough but sometimes you let the awful aquantaince talk enough to see if there is a way you can get him away.

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