12/05/2011 [DMFA #1268] - Orientations?

[LoneHowler]

Well, well, well. This is going better than I thought it might. Though I think Jyras is going to be dissapointed with the answer
Here it comes people, this is what men climb mountains to ask sages, the answer to life and it's not 42
"There is no one true answer, life can't be slotted into perfectly labeled boxes. You may find that after time it's no longer the same answer or even the question may have changed. Often the answer you thought you had doesn't even fit into the box anymore. You must figure things on your own as you go because life is mutable."
Now that I have answered the riddle of life and probably left more questions in my wake let me explain. Go look at a Asexuality website you will find that asexual just doesn't fit to describe everyone who is there. There are of corse the ones who are strait out compleatly asexual. There are ones who are romantic who want a life partner to cuddle with but just don't get sex into the picture, and withen the community there are strait, gay, bi, pan sexual and about every orientation ever thought of. Asexual can range from compleatly incapable, to those who can get jolly from romance novels.
Go ahead and explore you will learn that the labels we grew up with are compleatly inaccurate and you would need more and more complex labels to describe how you stand in the world

[Tapewolf]

I guess sometimes it never does click...

[ANTIcarrot]

And here we see the vast gap between beings and creatures, and their perception of time. To Jyrras, 300 years is a long time. In his short life he's achieved a great deal. Most beings can't match his technology, but they get maried, have children, learn to be really good at their jobs, get jobs, etc. Look how far RL humanity has advanced in 300 years...

I'm pretty sure Able hasn't got a lot done. He might have studied hard, and learned things, but that's not the same thing. And it's not so much him as his culture. Have creatures made any significant break throughs in the past 300 years? The last 3000? The Undead spring to mind, but otherwise...?

I'm just over thirty. I have enough life experience to be able to tell Jyrras that terms like hetero and homo are just words. That sexual attraction is vast and neigh infinate idea-space, and that your sexuality is defined by what you find atractive, not the broad catigories society tries to use to map that idea space. I wonder if Able can do that? Somehow I doubt it.

[BabylonRanger]

Well, seeing as how I can't honestly comment on the actual words (because I've never even come close to a relationship outside of family and normal friend relationships), I can only say that the emotions on the panels are exquisite.  Abel has a wonderful look of pity and Jyrras looks nervous, sad, and unsure of himself.   Thank you Ma'am.

[Nocturne of Night]

Well, it certainly wasn't a question I was expecting given the last page. I think Abel's expression here is one of empathy, and he's not going to be able to give Jyrras a definite answer, that much is clear. It's quite possible Abel may not even have an answer for himself at this point, just sort of brushed it off because he's been at SAIA and kept to himself all the time and could've used "not interested" as an easy front to keep everyone else away.

Bleagh, this one's got me thinking and now I'm REALLY wondering where Amber is taking this!

[FairWage22]

Someone said that Abel was exhibiting 'empathy'.  That... actually looked more like *pain* than empathy to me. 

Though, given Abel's past, it could be entirely understandable why that emotion/feeling would be there.   He saw his mom die and got whisked off before he could really react to it.

He had two childhood friends/acquaintances slaughtered before his very eyes.

In short, aside from any relationships that he *may* have developed in S.A.I.A., he has no one to hold to.

Now add in the fact that cubi tend to be a bit more receptive to emotion than some other races.

Looks like a train wreck about to pile up.

[justacritic]

Abel, Abel, Abel, didn't you realize that misery loves company? Really from my point of view these two have had serious trauma in the relationship department of all kinds. Abel was betrayed by one that he thought was family, had friends slaughtered in front of his eyes, and holds anyone interested off with a label. Jyrras has had a family that while loves him contributes to his confusion by, how to put it considering Jyrras by his adorableness, in regards to friendships I'd say it's split even. Jyrras has good friends though their negative traits can be really troublesome (writing more sordid slash ships again eh Wildy?) and in the love section, the less I say the better. Then again we only know as much about these two as Amber has shown us, so we might as well wait for Friday (whispers) unless Amber switches back to Dan... not that there's anything wrong with that.     

[Madd the Sane]

Silly Amber, not every comic needs a punchline.

[Sofox]

Applying logic to emotions...

Yeah, you can get a few good insights but beyond that...

You could end up sounding like this guy.

[joshofspam]

The answer to "what's the meaning of life", is a question.... I don't think that one ever had a definitive answer.

Abel is a fantastic resource to all things cubi. His life experiences have kept him at an abstract distance from the rest of the cubi to watch and observe. His guide was the kindest squiggly you'll ever meet giving him protection at times and a companion at times. He can tell you the do's and dont's of the cubi race.

That being said, it seemed that Abel has pretty much shut himself away from relationships for the most part when Dan came to Saia. Burning bridges as Abel called it himself seems to hint that Abel gave up on friends for some reason. Sure he might respond with snark to a cubi girl walking down the hall with a spiked mace for her cheating boyfriends face, but other then that all he really seemed to be talkative to was Fa'lina and the Warp-Aci.

Maybe Abel can answer this question. But I doubt it will be quite the relief that Jyrras is looking for.

[Jasonrevall]

This kinda hits close to home for me and something I was wondering about for awhile with Jy-jy. Wonderfully done.

Also I like the lighting.

[aserath]

I can totally identify with Jyras. This is exactly how I felt when I realized that I was gay. Now I accept it and open about being gay.

[Naldru]

The meaning of life is one of those question that tells more about the person answering the question that it does about life itself.  For example.

Life has no meaning and we should just try to live it one day at a time

Life may or may not have meaning but we should try to give it meaning through our actions

Life has meaning but it is beyond our capability to understand

I could go on for many pages

[Alondro]

*Charline de Lyon solves Jyrras' problems!*  Om nom nom!  Urp!  No more problems!  

Carnivores:  Permanently solving tasty people's problems since life began.  

[Ross]

...Well, that was an unexpected turn of events.

It's an interesting train of thought Jyrras has going there.  Doubt can be a powerful thing, and with a genius analytical mind, hopefully he can come to peace before overthinking it might cause him to shut down in order to cope.

Also, the lighting is great!  Definitely adds to a sense of conflicted grey-area (Especially when the music in my head kept playing "What Must be Done" from that Jesse James movie while reading this....).

[Vanvidum]

Couch Turtle will save us!
But there were also other panels.

Jyrras will be fine if he isn't trying to live up to some imagined standard of an orientation rather than simply what he feels. It's not complicated, but the simple things are the hardest, as I've learned myself.

[Thirty Second Artbomb]

Silly Jy. This is one of those things that logic doesn't explain anywhere near well enough, and there's no hard-and-fast answers. Shift that digital brain of yours into analog. It'll work better.

[Attic Rat]

Excellently done! It really was a serious ethical question, made for a good reason, to a respected friend who might have an answer! Jyrras has gained emotional maturity since the last of these discussions.

[Arcblade]

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I didn't have to look for a punchline.  The second panel was enough to make me laugh.  >_>  (Sorry Abel.)

[Kazard]

Gotta say, I can appreciate the sentimentality in the strip...
However, I immediately forgot that at the last panel, and now all I can think of is Amber reaching under the coach, and emerging with something latched onto her her hand.

Imagination is the best punchline anyway... (that and everything that pops into your head at 36 hours of no sleep, is the most hilarious thing ever ;D )

[FairWage22]

   Ah-ha!  Found it.  This probably has a bit to do with it, too.  Even if Abel does like someone as a friend (versus family/lover) http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Ab_103.php

[Surzsha]

Only humans (or any intelligent beings, for the matter) could make life, love, and any other emotion as complicated as this.

Only us.

And from this page I am again reminded of how confused we really are, as a species and as individuals. Like ANTIcarrot mentioned, humanity has advanced a lot in the last 300 years, yet despite that we still can't come to terms with our own bodies and our own minds.

How fascinating...

[Owen Revestel]

Hopefully the next page Abel will give us some exposition as to why he chose his orientation

The only downside to this insight, it means my Fanfiction will never be cannon T^T

But thats just my inner fanboy crying, in any case im interested to see what happens next. . .

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The only downside to this insight, it means my Fanfiction will never be cannon T^T

I'm sure we could find a cannon to load your fanfiction into.


On the other hand, I doubt your fanfiction - or, indeed, anyone else's - had any hope of being canon in the first place.

(Spelling, folks. It's not optional, if you want to be understood.)

[Turnsky]

The only downside to this insight, it means my Fanfiction will never be cannon T^T

I'm sure we could find a cannon to load your fanfiction into.


On the other hand, I doubt your fanfiction - or, indeed, anyone else's - had any hope of being canon in the first place.

(Spelling, folks. It's not optional, if you want to be understood.)

sure his fanfic will make it into canon.. they make printers y'know! 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

sure his fanfic will make it into canon.. they make printers y'know! 

That would be Canon, not canon, though.

[Turnsky]

sure his fanfic will make it into canon.. they make printers y'know! 

That would be Canon, not canon, though.

True.

[icarus]

i really like how this conversation is flowing. it's realistic and being handled with relative sensitivity. which, y'know, isn't always the case with comics.

and being almost 30, i can kinda relate to abel's position. so, in before "nothing ever makes any sense. you just gotta roll with it."

[Ellian]

Hopefully the next page Abel will give us some exposition as to why he chose his orientation

I see you're new to the forum, so here's a friendly welcome to you.
However, with the nice things said, I think your choice of words is a bit unfortunate here: One does not choose an orientation. Discover maybe, or something like that, possibly even "settle into", but not with the conscious deliberation the word "choose" implies.
Sorry for nitpicking. Couldn't really resist, though. My apologies.

[Mao]

Hopefully the next page Abel will give us some exposition as to why he chose his orientation

I see you're new to the forum, so here's a friendly welcome to you.
However, with the nice things said, I think your choice of words is a bit unfortunate here: One does not choose an orientation. Discover maybe, or something like that, possibly even "settle into", but not with the conscious deliberation the word "choose" implies.
Sorry for nitpicking. Couldn't really resist, though. My apologies.

Since we're nitpicking, I should also point out that this post wasn't really about the comic.  Try to keep the discussion to the comic and not nitpicking about things related to what is often considered, as pointed out by others, a very sensitive topic.  It just leads to flame wars and other things that I, as mod, don't much care for.

Further to that, as I've said before I don't believe that 'asexual' is Abel's orientation.  He doesn't know what it is right now and doesn't really care to find out.  If it were an 'orientation' for him it wouldn't be open to change, really, but iirc Abel implied that his stance on not knowing and not caring beyond 'not interested' might change later. (See: here)

The only folks who really seems to be pushing this label on Abel is Wildy.  Wildy is the same person who was more than willing to screw up the dinner between Dan, Lorenda, Kria and DP (until Mab intervened) despite caring deeply for Dan (See: #1125 to #1129).  She is more than willing to mess with Jy by feeding him false or misleading information, purely for her own amusement.  Telling Jy that Abel has any sort of fixed orientation when he doesn't, is just as likely another bit of this misleading info for her own amusement.

I also want to add, that all of this focus on Abel is really taking away from a very important development in Jyras:  He's really starting to think hard about the orientation he's discovered (discovering?) and he's taken a big step in talking to someone who he's interested in about it.  He's doing two very important things: questioning and learning about who he is and sharing those concerns with someone who could really potentially help him (particularly since the fellow he's asking isn't too sure about the whole mess either, possibly even less sure than Jy himself and has been this way for quite a while).