Expressing strong views, yes
It’s time for the marmot having a shower video, it helped me, and Claire, and it can help you too.
Bad Machinery
New comics by John Allison
It’s time for the marmot having a shower video, it helped me, and Claire, and it can help you too.
That rocking feels ominous
It must be a floating jetty they’re on… I thought it was the solid wall of the dam.
I think it’s just Glenn and Claire leaning toward each other.
That’s not Ominous Rocking!!
As long as the rocking doesn’t lead to rolling!
Dean going quiet can’t be a good sign. Highly unnatural for him.
He might be hard at work on an escape plan (for them all.) But it’s unlike scrabble.
He looks alert but angry. Which is completely understandable. They wouldn’t be in this situation if Claire and Glenn had let him know Scrabble night was a ruse. Getting drugged, kidnapped and potentially murdered is a cruddy way to find out that the only friends he’s ever had don’t trust him.
Are the questions a stalling tactic?
And is the marmot on drugs?
My guess is the questions are partly a stalling tactic and partly genuine curiosity on Lottie’s part. Remember, she STILL has no idea who this is, or why she’s out to destroy her.
The poor little chap seems under some kind of control, what with the finger-snapping.
I suspect that is otherwise normal positive reinforcement based clicker training. Basically, anything with a brain and a food drive can be clicker trained.
But, I could be horribly wrong too.
There’s clearly a lot of training involved here, but marmots do frequently groom each other in the wild, so they would presumably have a natural instinct for holding still while they are being groomed. I’m guessing the training was built upon this natural behavior.
I’m afraid the video wasn’t the one about the hypnotic hypnotised marmot. Sounds more like a collection of insults against everyone Lottie know
Given the cannibalism reference, I’m guessing it’s more like Lottie confessing to every major disturbing societal taboo there is.
Or confessing to eating everyone she knew.
At least you’ll know the behaviour that got her banned from every swimming pool wasn’t made up!
Now I’m a bit sad that we never got to see Lottie The Piranha in action. Her dual nature would also explain why she care so much about fish.
Given the list of places Mildew says Lottie’s been banned from, which didn’t even include “every swimming pool in Britane”, Beate Noir’s plan here seems like it might be kind of redundant. Given time, and left to her own devices, Lottie would probably have gotten herself banned from everywhere anyway.
It would appear that Skellottie has completely failed to notice that Lottie has arrived in a vehicle that is wildly beyond her means, along with all of the implications that come with that fact. Poor detective skills there.
Unlike Lottie, Beate is too narrowly focused on achieving her immediate goal and unable to imagine whatever counter-measures Lottie might have devised to make sure she gets the upper hand.
And easily lulled into a false sense id security.
And well within arrow-range.
Claire and Glenn being calm, collected and polite hostages always gives me a chuckle. I can’t believe I’m saying this but, hang in there Dean.
Random banter while you’re about to die is a very Bobbinsverse-esque thing to do
At least they’re not badly singing fav songs together or shouting for help (So Polite!)
We’ve known it was coming since the beginning, and yet it’s still so surreal seeing them in the same panel.
I’m starting to think Beate is actually going to save the day. Something will click and she’ll take control of her body again just as Skelottie is about to push them into the reservoir.
And/or Charlotte will prove that Beate has won anyway, by demonstrating that this mystery is completely beyond her ability to solve, hence resolving the conflict without cancellation or loss of life.
Sorry for the inconvenience 😆
No worries if not
Talking of convenience, I’m worried about the hostages’ bladders after all this time.
That could be another reason Dean has gone silent. The shame and embarrassment has already kept him busy trying to quickly escape so no one will know!! It’s been at least 12 hours so the other two have probably already decided it’s OK under the circumstances…
Heh, well, Bitsy did say that Glenn has such lovely manners.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference there – God’s last message to Creation.
I missed that! Thank you. I thought he was just being a super-polite Kiwi.
I have a theory that Dean is reserving his strength to summon the warrior within. Which most likely will backfire and send him prematurely into the reservoir.
If only he had some insulation foam!
It would at least serve as a floatation aid!
If only that wheelchair had access to the internet she’d be in Big Trouble!
“I have a few questions. First: how do you really expect to be my double if you don’t have this rockin’ tattoo of ‘A Great Disappointment To Everyone‘ on your nape!?”
In a fair and just world it’s a tattoo of Des, but we’ll probably get Garfield.
OMG, Lottie was right! It IS demon possession! https://badmachinery.com/comic/any-plans-for-later/
Lottie, quit titting about and kick her off the edge!
Dean not talking reminds me of how I always read his lines in the voice of Garth Marenghi. Not sure if this is accurate, but it feels right to me.
I once had a dream in which I was playing Garth Marenghi in a stage production of some sort. I remember my first line was: “Hello, I’m Garth Marenghi: author, actor, weaver of dreams. Some people say I’m bigger than J K Rowling, to which I say: yes, I do have a bit of a weight problem, but I’m working on it, and it’s rude of you to point it out.”
And to me!
When does Lottie bend down to adjust her stocking and Sandra fills Skellottie with arrows?
“Just one thing. Aim high.”
Speaking of things that sound right in the voice of Garth Marenghi, I just saw this and thought the same thing: https://www.futilitycloset.com/2025/05/14/a-days-work-2/
Having never heard of Garth Marengi, I ventured into YouTube.
Scarred before breakfast. Thanks a lot.
As a wise man once said: “Hey man, nice marmot …”
Thank you. I just had it stuffed.
How long has Skelottie been wearing the skull make up for now?? Or did she get a full facial tattoo?
She wasn’t wearing it the previous night at the Scrabble party, so I’d guess half a day, max.
She’d just put it on here. She wasn’t wearing it on the previous page, and she still has her skull compact out in the first panel.
(Or maybe that’s just her face now, and she’d just finished cleaning off the pallid Lottie makeup.)
Hoping a future chapter focuses on (what I assume is happening) the field of distrust now in between Dean and the Solvers because of him both being dragged into this and being kept out of the loop.
Especially since, had they told him, the kidnapping would never have happened. Honestly, he has every right to be angry here. I love Glenn and Claire, but their decision to leave him out of the loop was a very bad one.
They didn’t know about the drink she brought. That was how they all ended-up in the van. The reason they excluded Dean was a good one (except for that one thing.)
I remain unconvinced that it was anything but a bad decision. Sure, they didn’t know WHICH specific method she would use to try and do them all harm, but they did know she was planning to do them harm somehow. Quite a few of the possibilities would have been schemes that depended on at least one party being ignorant of the danger. All of those could have been defeated by simply telling him. Plus, there’s the huge ethical concern of knowingly making an uninvolved third party a target of a murderer without his knowledge or consent. Not their finest moment, IMO.
Well, you’re right about that, but it wasn’t their fault and they were trying so hard to be vigilant… But the sneaky girl brought the “party supplies” much earlier so nobody would suspect her secret weapon.
Also it was required to further the plot, in the same way most horror movies would be only 7 minutes long if the victims didn’t split up to investigate or let their phones get down to low battery, etc
Well, yes, of course! To be clear, none of my comments above are intended as criticisms of the story (or criticisms of anything, really). Bad decisions by good characters are a vital part of most good stories, and this story is no exception. I’m just making an in-universe observation that a particular decision made by particular characters within the story was objectively a bad decision, and, as a consequence, a different character is likely to be angry with them, which may explain his grim silence in today’s comic. I’m actually enjoying this story immensely, and can’t wait to find out what happens next.
All that seems plausible to me, and it means Dean could be just… pouting. But maybe he will come up with an idea anyway.
Did Lottie change her shoes &/or sox? That’s not what she was wearing at Bitsy’s.
There’s probably a good reason for that?
*cough* hamper *cough*
I’m not so sure this is a hamper situation.
At least three of these people are being severely hampered. (Four, if we count Beate being sidelined by Skelottie.)
Something’s afoot!
Your eyes seem from a different face
They’ve seen that much that soon
Your cheek too cold, too pale to shine
Like an old and waning moon
(Richard Thompson, King Of Bohemia lyrics)
But, but, what about his back?
The poor marmot’s back is still dirty!
Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRKhfVOfHYU&t=28s
Whew! That’s a relief. Many thanx.
We can’t have half-clean Marmots.
But to ask the REAL question: has anyone got a pattern for alpine Des together yet? Or is this the year I fully commit and learn to knit amigurumi
I think Des would really appreciate the very best cheap plastic, which could showcase those wonderful scales! -Think about how long that would take to knit!