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![Addressing Audri and Val, Runk said, "so I'm captain Runk, and I both make and enforce the rules. If I say there's a spot over here that you missed, you come and clean it up." Val walked over to Runk and, bored, she asked, "sure. Okay. Can you tell me where precisely? I don't see any mess." Runk dropped his bag of snacks on her head with a proof, and said, "right here." Upset by this, Audri said, "hey, that's-." Val interrupted her and said, "don't say any-thing, Audri. He's just trying to get a rise out of us." Audri said, "and it's working. How can you not get upset by this?" As she began to clean up the mess, Val said, "age, my friend. Age. I've had decades of people trying to get a rise out of me. It gets dull after a while." Grinning, Runk said, "I like how you Tiths are so low to the ground. To clean the floor, all you really have to do is bend your knees and wiggle your shaggy bellies around like a mop." Still upset, Audri said, "and you're meaning to tell me that doesn't bother you?" Val said, "I've gotten worse pickup lines at Mateo's Pub." Addressing Audri and Val, Runk said, "so I'm captain Runk, and I both make and enforce the rules. If I say there's a spot over here that you missed, you come and clean it up." Val walked over to Runk and, bored, she asked, "sure. Okay. Can you tell me where precisely? I don't see any mess." Runk dropped his bag of snacks on her head with a proof, and said, "right here." Upset by this, Audri said, "hey, that's-." Val interrupted her and said, "don't say any-thing, Audri. He's just trying to get a rise out of us." Audri said, "and it's working. How can you not get upset by this?" As she began to clean up the mess, Val said, "age, my friend. Age. I've had decades of people trying to get a rise out of me. It gets dull after a while." Grinning, Runk said, "I like how you Tiths are so low to the ground. To clean the floor, all you really have to do is bend your knees and wiggle your shaggy bellies around like a mop." Still upset, Audri said, "and you're meaning to tell me that doesn't bother you?" Val said, "I've gotten worse pickup lines at Mateo's Pub."](https://www.baldwinpage.com/spacetrawler/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2024/07/2024-07-17-spacetrawler4b.jpg)
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Age is a funny things. Often I do find hurtful things have less and less effect on me, although sometimes instead of a big reaction I find there’s more of a deeper anger when it happens. Which way is wisdom?!
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Addressing Audri and Val, Runk said, “so I’m captain Runk, and I both make and enforce the rules. If I say there’s a spot over here that you missed, you come and clean it up.” Val walked over to Runk and, bored, she asked, “sure. Okay. Can you tell me where precisely? I don’t see any mess.” Runk dropped his bag of snacks on her head with a proof, and said, “right here.” Upset by this, Audri said, “hey, that’s-.” Val interrupted her and said, “don’t say any-thing, Audri. He’s just trying to get a rise out of us.” Audri said, “and it’s working. How can you not get upset by this?” As she began to clean up the mess, Val said, “age, my friend. Age. I’ve had decades of people trying to get a rise out of me. It gets dull after a while.” Grinning, Runk said, “I like how you Tiths are so low to the ground. To clean the floor, all you really have to do is bend your knees and wiggle your shaggy bellies around like a mop.” Still upset, Audri said, “and you’re meaning to tell me that doesn’t bother you?” Val said, “I’ve gotten worse pickup lines at Mateo’s Pub.”
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I’m certain that she’s received better ones at “Lower the Bar.”
“Wait… You think I’m hitting on you?! This isn’t fun anymore!”
Runk is a perfect example of why I still live by Popeye’s Maxim:
“Treat ever’body right, but if they steps on yas, lay’em among the swee’peas.”
Hmm…a grinning Runk looks like Trollface.
I bet Runk doesn’t last long in this comic:)
It’s not clear to me that there is any well-considered point in trying to humiliate other people. Momentary gratification from bullying, perhaps? Followed by having turned a potential friend into an enemy, putting off other potential friends, only fitting into social groups where that sort of thing is the norm, …
Can you imagine being in a marriage like that?
Can I imagine being in a marriage like that? Yeah, I’d just have to look at my parents’. (Don’t worry, they divorced. Much later, he died.)
Some people, powerful people, seem to live by humiliating others, and sadly it seems to serve them fairly well, if we can judge by their positions in society.
The point is to test the authority structure. Deliberately provoke them when you are in an advantageous position. If they don’t respond with instant submission, then beat the crap out of them. Or, better yet, have some of your lackeys do it. That reinforces the perception of your power even more. Eventually they won’t even consider fighting you.
Runk is terrible at it. Val is being passive-aggressively defiant and not submissive at all. That should be punished severely at the outset if Runk doesn’t want a mutiny later… Or maybe Runk does want a mutiny later and is deliberately making sure Val will be the ringleader so it’s easy to keep track of what’s going on…