this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2024
799 points (99.4% liked)

Comic Strips

13570 readers
2615 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
all 24 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 76 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Oof. Living that long with a constant craving for heroin? Kid you just genie cursed yourself

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

AKA There are worse fates than death.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can quit the drug but you can never forget it. (been sober from stims for many years but the desire never fully goes away)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Former heroin user here. This is very true. I still have dreams about it every once in a while and it has been 15 years.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Plot twist, the grim reaper just said that to shut him up.

Plot twist #2, that's not even the grim reaper, just some grandma in a hoodie to keep her head warm.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Plot twist #3, The Grim Reaper can't tell humans apart from one another (too much meat and muscles on their stupid faces). He just keeps telling the same old story to all the "small ones" he meets.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Plot twist-twist-twist, the grim reaper is a heroin dealer

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago

dies of old age at 32

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

He who is born to be hanged cannot be drowned.

[–] whosdadog 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

There's a whole anthology book about this written by a bunch of big and small names, the pdf is free https://machineofdeath.net/ebook

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Thank you for sharing, I'm enjoying reading it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

This collection is fantastic.

Mildly related - Ryan North's recent contributions to Marvel Comics are full of delight. (Ryan North helped organize Machine Of Death).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

"Succeed at"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's how his journey began. By combating addiction, he found true peace of mind and the meaning of life, earning a well deserved peaceful death. A touching comic indeed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

What a wholesome story!:-)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Wait........so then what happens if he just jumps off the empire state building top floor with a mirror in his hand?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

True prophecies always eventually settle into a stable timeloop where the prophecy doesn't change the outcome. If the prophecy can change the outcome, then it does, and that changes the prophecy, and the process repeats until it falls into a stable shape.

Therefore, in most cases such a prophecy cannot fall into the hands of someone who would try jumping off the Empire State - unless they're destined to be miraculously saved. This boy was only able to hear the prophecy because he's the kind of guy whose self destructive experiments won't actually kill him. If he were capable of suicidal choices, he wouldn't have heard that prophecy.

However, a complicating factor which invalidates what drag says can interfere: sometimes the stable timeloop stretches across two timelines. For example, in one timeline you hear you're destined for old age, and you kill yourself trying something dumb. In the other timeline, you hear that you're destined to kill yourself doing something dumb, so you decide to be careful and end up living to old age. Each timeline gives rise to the other. Each prophecy applies to the other timeline, invalidates itself, and makes the other prophecy true. However, a skilled oracle can tell when their prophecies are multi-timeline and will therefore always give single timeline prophecies.

So if you hear a prophecy that makes you want to go do dumb suicidal stuff, and you're the kind of person who would actually do it, it means your oracle is an amateur and you shouldn't trust them.

Of course, by listening to this advice, you've become someone who hopefully won't trust amateur oracles, which means you can't tell if your oracle is good anymore.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It would come down to one of the possible time travel mechanics.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Time travel to this moment.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Untied shoes won't kill him, but he didn't say anything about serious injury.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Died peacefully of old age at 61, paraplegic for 50 years, and craving one last hit for 48 years. Somehow survived being homeless and indigent for 57 years.