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On hiatus until January! Happy new year!

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Oh no. The roll over annotation hits me very close to home. Skin Deep is speaking to me very personally right now.

Me too, m’friend. Me too.

Me too. This is why I haven’t spoken a word with my mother for a year, and it has been the happiest year of all the 22 I have had

I am incredibly fortunate not to be in this situation. I do, however, understand how you guys feel in a second-hand way: my best friend harbors extreme dislike, bordering on hatred, for his entire family for repeatedly ruining his future prospects and generally treating him like crap.

So… For what it’s worth, my condolences.

I’ve been trying to get away from my family for 35 years…I take anxiety meds because of them. And drugs for when my back muscles seize up from tension. And I’m seeing a therapist.

Ike’s mother is so horrible, I want to beat her to death with a spoon…because it will hurt more.

I love it that Ike’s mom insists on calling him Petrus, but she seems to have accepted Cyan’s nickname of Cy without any sort of complaint. Hypocrisy much?

Maybe if Ike was asking to be called Pete or such she wouldn’t mind as much?

Calling someone a ‘Rock’ or even a ‘Brick’ is actually a very old complement. Nowadays we think rock-headed but back then it meant ‘sturdy and dependable’.

WOWWWWWWW. His name means rock? Wow…

I remember hearing this ages ago (so it may not be “canon” anymore and take it with a grain of salt) but the specifics of Ike’s first name is that his mom considered him a burden/impediment on her life. So yeah, his bad relationship with his mom goes way back.

It does. And if you know anybody named Peter? That means rock. It’s more blatant in Romance languages where the common word for “stone” derives from the same root (e.g. the equivalent to Peter in French is “Pierre”, and the common word for a stone is “pierre”) but it’s true. I can’t speak for buggane traditions, but in Christian traditions, Peter is a popular name because it evokes solidity and stability. (See Matthew 16:18, where Jesus tells St. Peter “you are rock, and on this rock I shall build my church” and basically making him the first Pope.)

You can see that root in several words. Petrified? Literally means “turned into stone”. Petrol/petroleum? “Rock oil”. Petrologist? Geologist who focuses on stones. And so on.

Can Bohemian Lions purr? Purring cats calm everyone down. Usually.

One of the differentiating factors between large and small cats is the size of their vocal chords. Only small cats purr, which is why cougars(A relatively large in size cat) are considered small- because they purr. Large cats, such as lions and tigers- can only roar.

I am so down for bohemian geoffrey’s cats, though XD

Oh, Ike. Disengage, change the subject, ignore her barbs. It’s the only solution that won’t end in tears.

On the plus side, it looks like Horace is open to a friendly relationship and it’s clear that Cy still ADORES his big brother. Hopefully these positives can outweigh the HUGE GLARING FEMALE BUGGANE-SHAPED NEGATIVE.

Damnit. Poor Ike. I know those kind of situations all too well.

Petrus. Yech. Sounds so stuffy. Woman has weird tastes in names for her kids, too. Cyan is a BRIGHT OBNOXIOUS blue and Lee means “Clearing” or “Safe Spot”.

Also, Lady has NO room to be fussy or complainy about ANYTHING. Lookit how she even MADE Ike. That takes someone either very brave, or very stupid.

What the heck??? Cory, you have captured the cliche crazy too well… I am watching my cousin and my aunt every flippin’ time they are together… he moved over 3000kms away to escape the infinite loop of their relationship and after two years of peace she moved up there ‘for the better weather’…

This gives an insight into Ike’s interpersonal skills… or lack thereof… I have even more empathy for the poor bugger now…

Poor Ike.

Way too much for me to empathize with right now.
Like a lot of other readers here, its ugly family history.

Someone this nasty towards her own son, (And presumably to most other people..) is just laying karma landmines left and right in her own path.

Hell, shes shoveling them out like a messy artillery barrage.

I suspect a certain bugbear (And his Norwegian girlfriend? We hopes, we does precious!) may decide its become a personal matter to start setting them off.

-Badger-

I’m reading this, and the whole time I’m thinking “Why does this feel so familiar?”

Then I realized this was not only my life, but my best friends’ lives. This really hit home.

I used to fight with my mom a lot before moving out (parents were my landlords!) and recently had to move back in for a short while. Honesty, things have improved over how they used to be. But frankly if the two can’t even live in the same Avalon it must be really bad. Rhonda, charm the pants off Momma, we’re going to need you to run interference. (Please tell me Mom’s not right next door.)

Joe, it would not surprise me in the least to learn that she has deliberately purchased the nearest possible location to the flat in the Stereophonic building, where Ike and Alec live.

Also I am wondering if the surname of Ike’s stepfather is Wimp.

“Horace Wimp, this is your life,
Go out and find yourself a wife,
Make a stand and be man,
And you will have a great life plan…”

The Diary of Horace Wimp – ELO (YouTube link)

Hmmm… your mileage may vary when it comes to assessing the quality of his life plan… >:=)> I am reminded of Wally, Nora Batty’s henpecked husband from Last of the Summer Wine. Especially as we see the lengths he went to win her hand in the prequel series First of the Summer Wine.

When I was wondering if the surname of Ike’s stepfather is Wimp, it was actually the last chorus of the song, I was thinking of, Greenwood.

“Horace Wimp, this is your wife,
Go out and find yourself a life,
Make a stand and be man,
And you will have a great life plan.”

In the song, Horace does everything the voice from above says, to get married, then the last chorus sounds as if he has become a hen-pecked husband, with no life.

When I read that I immediately jumped to Mega Man, in his original Japanese name his name is more accurately translated to Rock Man, just a fun little pop culture reference for those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s. Man I miss the old animated series, the English version was actually well written done, which is something you don’t see all that often.

Lady, you just dropped out of the blue sky *knowing* that you’ll wind up right next to Ike, and that he won’t appreciate this little surprise. *You* have no right to ask Ike not to assume you’re doing this *on purpose*, and “I’m just too vain to even have thought this through” isn’t going to make you look *any* better than that, even if it *were* believable.

Nonetheless – new world record of “going deep undercover within an already-undercover community” in 5 … 4 … 3 …

So with enough practice, could a buggane make themselves look like anything? I’m guessing that is what Ike’s mother did/was doing when she met Ike’s father. Now THAT’S a story I’d like to hear.

If that level of transformation is possible, Ike could hide the fact that he is half manticore by pretending he is a full-blood buggane that just likes the manticore look. Though, of course, he could only pull it off with people that didn’t know him…

man, everybody is jumping on the hate train for Ike’s mom.

she doesn’t seem that bad to me, I mean, he yells at her for moving his family closer to him and then she snips at him for being ungrateful. it’s not a wholly unreasonable position.

but then I suppose I view living near my family as a positive thing.

the name thing though, I can get behind that being annoying as fuck.

I just hate to see a character whose whole job is to be loathsome to the audience.

I’m not actually hating Ike’s mom that much, I don’t think I would want to spend a ton of time with her but…

The choices she made raising Ike couldn’t have been easy ones to make. Faced with a pregnancy involving enough unstable magic that the child could possibly be a crossbreed rather than a buggane, she made the dissension to live as a human and try to raise her child as such. She couldn’t be sure Ike would develop shapeshifting and no medallion would ever work for him, but if he was born human, maybe he would stay human and have something of a normal life. She clearly has no particular love of hiding as a human. She cut herself off from her own community for over a decade to give Ike his best chance. Even if she did it with ill grace, that still shows impressive strength of character.

Ike has a point here though. It’s not very well articulated because no one is articulate when they’ve been blindsided, but the two of them clearly have very volatile issues together. It seems she has treated Ike like he was a burden, and however hard raising him was, that wasn’t fair to him. To see her now, with the children she actually wanted, has to be hard for him when she is bringing up ways he doesn’t measure up to them by comparison like she did on the last page. He made a point to put no small amount of physical distance between them. For her to close that distance without giving him so much as a heads up was, again, not fair to him.

Just like being a victim of a violent crime, a natural disaster or a war, being homeless, crippled in some way, or bullied: if it has never happened to you, it will be very difficult for you to understand another’s reaction to certain stimuli. Perhaps you can empathize, but you can’t KNOW.

And when you try to ameliorate the situation, you de-legitimize the other’s feelings and experience, whether you mean to or not. Your idea may have been to be soothing/comforting, but it doesn’t play well.

Sadly, some people just make horrible parents. It has been discovered that in the average case there is one child in the family who has been singled out for abuse, though it is rarely a conscious decision as to which.

I was diagnosed with PTSD because of my parents; my siblings think I make it all up. My mother is still abusive to (only) me to this day, and I’m a grown-ass adult. So when confronted with a situation such as Ike & his mother, even though it’s only a cartoon, I still have strong feelings about the situation. As do others, apparently.

So if you are lucky enough to have a positive relationship with your family, that’s great. And if you have empathy for a situation you have never experienced, even better. But try “I’m so sorry for your bad experiences.” DON’T try to make excuses for an abusive, self-involved bitch who is obviously and unapologetically causing pain to their own child. It’s dismissive of the abused’s entire life experience.

And “To see her now, with the children she actually wanted, has to be hard for him “… not necessarily. Most oldest siblings generally feel protective of the younger ones… usually.

And to Kory: WOW! You are excellent at showcasing the psychological dynamics of relationships. Not only here, but throughout your comic. And that’s what makes it so relate-able. Great job!!

“it’s not a wholly unreasonable position.”

Ike obviously stated in the past he’s *not* game to a happy family reunion, and his mom obviously didn’t tell him of the upcoming events – as everyone *genuinely* going “oh joy, we’ll see each other again” would have, short of being stranded incommunicado on a deserted island – to forcefully *take* that decision from him. The only thing I see that would make this position “reasonable” for her is a major case of amnesia, but there’s no indication of that, either.

“I suppose I view living near my family as a positive thing.”

I suppose that allowing said family to *make* a living would be a positive thing as well. The only one we know to have (had?) regular employment is Horace. What’s the commute from Liverpool to London again, not to mention the cost of moving four vs. one … ?

This seems very familiar when I look at my family, but I think a lot of people have this problem.

On an unrelated note, I love Ike’s expressions on this page, and wish I could use one of them as an avatar. (Even though we don’t have them here in the comments section)

I’ve been spending a bit of time playing with how Buggane is pronounced. I started out thinking it was buh-GAYN, but the whole conversation somehow flows better if his mother pronounces it booGARnih. As if putting on airs, like Mrs Bucket (it’s pronounced boo-kay) from Keeping Up Appearances. Just because it is amusing to play with the word. I mean. Buggane. Tell me that’s not an enjoyable word. BOOgayn-neh. Bug-gain. Bug-anne? Wow I’m glad no one can hear me being silly right now…

“A fitting, proper, buggane name!” Because ‘rock’ is completely proper for a shape-shifting water-horse monster. Maybe something a little more aquatic sounding would have been more proper.

Based on the names she gave Cyan and Lee, she prefers to name her children after things found in nature. For example, a lee is a shelter from wind or weather given by a neighboring object, especially nearby land. Have you ever stood against a wall to avoid the wind or rain? You were standing in a lee.

Cyan is one of the primary colors in printing (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, Black)… but it is also associated with the color of water.

So you have Petrus (rock), Cyan (water), and Lee (shelter from the wind). See what I mean? She names her children after things that occur in nature.

That woman’s face is just made for a slap…..
(An old “southernism” I heard at some point and am using here.)

Sorry, but I am not feeling particularly generous towards Ike’s mom, the more this goes on.

-Badger-

Badger, I dare say that you are far from alone in wishing ill upon Lynn.

I am now wondering what The Elders will be likely to do, considering this very deliberate move by Lynn, designed specifically to anger Ike, and likely drive him out of the Liverpool Avalon.

Also, I’ve been wondering what abbreviation we can use for the London Avalon, since the Liverpool Avalon is usually abbreviated to the L.A.

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