2012-06-06

A tall, dark-toned SMBC comic told in stacked panels. A woman holds a boy hostage and demands a password from another woman (the boy's mother), threatening to kill the boy. The captor explains she has implanted a chip in the boy's brain that alters his perception of time: if a projectile breaks his skin with enough kinetic energy to likely cause death, the chip activates and mentally simulates an entire lifetime of happiness for him. The mother objects that it isn't a real lifetime; the captor counters that because it's unreal, it will be a lifetime free of death and hardship, full of perfected truth and beauty. The captor then threatens the mother instead, who calmly says she's also chipped, then asks if she could get one of those chips too. A gun fires. In the next panels the boy hugs his mother, gushing 'You saved me, you're the best mommy ever,' and she tells him she loves him. The boy then notices something is off: she was shot right next to him, yet she isn't covered in blood and isn't crying. He concludes it's because he's the happiest boy ever and his mommy is the best and nothing's wrong at all, implying his own chip has activated and he's living a simulated happy lifetime. Votey: a black-and-white framed panel of a smiling woman exclaiming 'THAT'S GREAT NEWS!'