rustedtusks.com

The brewing of a perfect storm.
The carrot of "un-ghosting" Tony's history.
And, I think the crazy gator's days are numbered.

Uncle.

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Emoticons are the wheelchair ramps for the humor impaired.

I certainly HOPE the gator's days are numbered. It's one thing to be like Mulefoot, going around killing as you please, no connections, nothing to worry about other than getting caught. SHE is hired to do shady things, not necessarily resulting in death... yet I get the feeling that more than a few of her targets for capture have ended up dead or at least maimed. She's a loose, loud cannon on a ship that would rather remain quiet and unnoticeable.

Also... I was wondering if Sam had gone to see Tony right after he got himself tormented by the sheep or if he at least cleaned himself up first. Knowing how sensitive Mulefoot's nose is, he should have taken a shower before meeting him.

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When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains- however improbable- must be the truth.

They are. In a business sense, she's become a liability. In the line of work she's in, getting "axed" doesn't mean a pink slip. Whether or not she becomes boots and an new attache case for Cooper or just some more slop in a ditch remains to be seen.



Knowing Sam, he was probably testing the old Boar's nose.

At least Sam now knows, rather than suspecting, that there were two (or more) Reynards running around down South. And with that comes the realization, rather than a suspicion, that they fucked up the job. The good news; there's a happy old man with a nice rug in his office that really doesn't need to know it's the wrong rug.

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Emoticons are the wheelchair ramps for the humor impaired.

Yes.

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Four legs good, two legs bad. (G. Orwell)

I'm sure he cleaned himself up the best he could without overstaying his welcome, however, he didn't really have time to take a shower and isn't worried about Tony knowing.

What does it say though that Tony mentioned it?

What does it say that Tony mentioned it? I don't know, and it troubles me.

It seems like a stupid thing to say. It demonstrates personal knowledge of Sam's affairs (heh heh), and If I knew something about Sam's dealings, I wouldn't tell him so. Not if I didn't know Sam, because it would be pointless and impolite. Even less so if I did know him, because I would realize then how dangerous a thing it could be.

Here too is a casual little remark that might be more than it seems to be, or might at least look that way. From the story I don't know that Tony Ray knows Carol. He could, I suppose, if he and Brice parted on good-ish terms and Brice gave Tony Ray a briefing beforehand. The comment about lanolin, though, does make it sound as if Tony Ray is making a point of telling Sam "I know who you were with" even if he really doesn't. And seeming to know that much about a critter like Sam could be extraordinarily dangerous.

I can see Tony Ray making a "stupid" slip like that, since he is pretty seriously self-destructive, in my opinion.

I can also see him putting that in as a subtle threat, or at the least putting Sam on notice that Tony Ray is still an effective and dangerous soldier and "detective," in his way. Which might be good if he's actually thinking of taking that job Sam offers.

Or does he really know what he's hinting?

The two actually said a great deal to each other with out saying anything. There's other gems, as far as I'm concerned, that can be dug out of their exchange.

Lots of things come to mind. Tony's "end of career move" with the Army and subsequent time, then release from prison.
Then of course Uthalla.
Obviously, I'm still a bit curious as to the exchange "67" and "39" was all about.
And there's the "others" in the little group. Most of which came to a violent end.
And the implication that they know what Tony does for entertainment.
Then there's Brice. It was the scent card that got Brice's double nailed. The last we saw of Brice he had a mouth full of razor blades.
And of course, the body somebody found in the middle of nowhere. That got Sam's attention. Sam went back to the secretary to get a bit more information on who's who I suspect.
The obvious part, of course, is the carrot to get Tony put back in the "real world" if he'll come back to "the group."

But the comment about lanolin, I'm pretty sure Tony mentioned that strictly as a favor to Sam. No need to let him go home like that and cause an unnecessary scene.

Uncle.

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Emoticons are the wheelchair ramps for the humor impaired.

The comment on the lanolin is twogfold. One's a favor to an old friend, the other is a statement "I still got it". His first commission with Cooper - Ridge is going to be terminating Uthy, With Extreme Prejudice. He'll need to be way out in the boonies, it will be a noisy termination. If he has even aninkling of the problems she's caused his friend - and he likely will have more than an inkling - he'll extract revenge.

--lj

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Sometimes I wonder what tomorrow's gonna bring
When I think about my dirty life and times.
---Warren Zevon

Sometimes those snippets of conversations are more obvious in hindsight than in the moment. It's just like the peril of Uthalla - until this comic page, Uthy seemed to be in the good graces of "Cooper" (I'm starting to have suspicions about this one) and the idea of her getting whacked seemed far-fetched. Sam's warnings, "Cooper's" mollifying assurances, and Uthalla's own delusional statements are now coalescing around Tony's present decision. Without that last part, everything else is just idle words that really don't mean much of anything.

*blink* Scent...

Anyways, Tony tried to brush off Sam. It is peculiar of the vepr to be so... protective? I mean he really wanted/wants to help that little reynard despite the fact that there is no history between them. Brice (or was that Bryce?) is in Tony's rape-and-release club which is a very exclusive membership. Now, Tony is giving Sam some misdirection about the fate of the fox. Does Brice remind Tony of someone, like that fitch aircrewman back in the Thaikong War? I can't think of a reason why Tony would want to screw with his chances of getting something he wants from "the company" by continuing to run interference for Anthony. Uthy is not the only one playing a dangerous game.

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"Y'know, if nothing else, living here has incredibly sharpened my 'Hey, there's someone coming for my dick!' defense skills." - JET

I think what I like the most out of all the great dialogue and art on this page is actually what went "un-said" during those two fantastic, pregnant pauses depicted in the two lower center panels....

Excellent!!

Juicy...

I look forward to everything those pauses indicate concerning what may eventually transpire...

Good work, my friend...

Jadugara ^_^

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"A man slips more with his tongue than with his feet..."

It should be noted that Sam didn't make the offer until after he asked about Brice. Maybe if he'd ordered his conversation differently, he would have gotten a different answer. Tony's comment about all Reynard's looking alike was his way of hinting to Sam, "I know you fucked up and I know HOW you fucked up."

Also note that we haven't seen Sam talk to Cooper since many pages back. Sam himself could be playing a dangerous game here if he's making promises he's not authorized to make. Since Cooper doesn't want to get rid of Uthy just yet, maybe Sam is hoping to create a situation that forces Cooper's hand in the Uthy situation. Dangerous.



Not only does Tony know Sam's real first name, he knows the informal name of Sam's wife. I kind of meant for his warning about the lanolin and sex to be a friendly gesture. He might not want to return to the good ol' days, but maybe he doesn't bear any ill will towards Sam. Or maybe this is part of Tony's curious protectiveness. Maybe he turned over a new leaf since eating Jen. Speaking of which, there is a VERY subtle and hard to see reference to Jen on the page.



See above. Dangerous games are us.





Thanks, Jadugara. Its amazing what you can say without saying anything and what you can say between the lines. It was a guarded conversation.

The vepr's got the best nose of any character introduced into Slop yet. We've already mused about Pomander for a while, but Tony's nose and general alertness would've let him know that a certain scent has shown up more often. Even so, I am willing to bet that Tony knows he has a stalker but just never close enough to lay a hand on him. If Pomander can't be close enough to see since it will also be close enough to tip off Tony's nose (it always knows) then how else does Pommy put together the events of Tony's life except by scent. Scents linger, revealing who has done what where and for how long. We've already figured this much out but what gets me is what this means.

My thoughts have been kicking around the sense of scents regarding recent events. That last comment by Rooter to Sam about smelling of lanolin and sex... Pomander is going to show up there. He will know his favorite pig has been spending some time with a badger with a stag walking into the general area but leaving the same way he came in. Will he also smell where they came from? Pommy was able to smell that the fel whore touched Tony in that first story so he does have a keen sniffer. Pomander is just going to follow his nose and let his destructively jealous and violently cracked mind reason it out. Who would be in the lunatics cross hairs now?

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"Y'know, if nothing else, living here has incredibly sharpened my 'Hey, there's someone coming for my dick!' defense skills." - JET

Not only does Tony know Sam's real first name, he knows the informal name of Sam's wife. I kind of meant for his warning about the lanolin and sex to be a friendly gesture. He might not want to return to the good ol' days, but maybe he doesn't bear any ill will towards Sam. Or maybe this is part of Tony's curious protectiveness. Maybe he turned over a new leaf since eating Jen. Speaking of which, there is a VERY subtle and hard to see reference to Jen on the page.

I had sort of wondered about something different dangling from the rear view mirror, looking at the road behind.

See above. Dangerous games are us.

Sam and Tony seem to tread parallel paths after some sort of fork in the road. The sentence is the same, but the words and the punctuation are a bit different. I think that there really is that unspoken kinship between them, even if it's not the kind that comes with positive associations. Sometimes you just accept there are certain things you can't change, and scars that are covered for everyone else are still noticeable to the ones who've seen you stripped bare.

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Every pimp is someone else's prostitute, and every prostitute has their price.