This is giving me hope that Kat will be able to reboot Omega through her crow and will get to have a life with Tony. But I doubt it…

Yeah

Maybe he's thinking if he could have done it better would she still be alive?

Poor Tony is taking this hard. He probably blames himself for being gone that day.

I love the slow, ponderues flow of this version. Well done.

I am reminded of what Jones said in The Mind Cage about grief. I wonder if Tony has learned how to accept grief cuz brother you aren't definitely feeling it now that is Grieving Behavior

Now it's starting to get creepy, Tony.

Tony is coping about as well as I would be if a lady I was responsible for was brutally murdered in my living room. On top of, yknow, the nonstop terrible things that keep happening to him and the people around him.

Tony, get yourself together; you probably want to avoid your daughter seeing you in this position, like in Page 1560 (even though you were not aware then she was watching you).

Ayeup, he’s gonna mope. It will be okay Tony

thats the second death under tony's roof must feel awful :(

Tony now is NOT the time, your daughter is trying to defend herself and her best friend’s life from a teleporting madman who explodes women’s torsos with his bare fists!! Get off the floor, this is crazy

I really feel for the poor guy. And I do believe we get the relaxed version of him in his grief. Was Tony there when Jack the Computer Killer showed up? And we are all still in the middle of the distortion , right? How do know for sure when this distortion started? Can we verify 100% that we haven't been witnessing a distortion's interior since the very first chapter. Coyote, Robot, Forest Elves, Court Members who transform into birds, fire elementals, science geeks who are secretly angels of Creation, ... Minotaurs....all these would make perfect sense if it has all been a distortion of grand proportions. Maybe Omega was always an attempt to bust out of the matrix. ... ah, please, Tom, I don't want to be right. Please, no doing the whole, "And then she woke up and Kat would hardly ever forget the strange and beautiful dream she just had."

Wow, to the point of sitting improperly? Such weighty feelings: a woman he knew died and he did nothing. Again. He "knew" her for 20 years as a program and a few intense days as a woman. She's the reason Surma got to know the real him and the excuse he used to escape the Court and wander the globe after her death. She was one of, if not the only person to immediately view him positively - she knew everything about him after all. Probably the first woman to grab and take him to a party too. In spite of it even Annie thought it'd be funny if he got to know her. And I gotta know: *is he gonna do something stupid?* Between Kat's lab, the distortion bringing up memories, and Zimmy's ability to conjure "personalities" maybe that's what he's doing, drinking himself into a dreamless sleep so the distortion won't summon his memories of Surma and now Omega.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

This behaviour is becoming pretty sketchy, Tony.

The silence :(

Tony’s not been happy for a very long time, has he? :’(

Aw. Poor James. He had a thing for Omega.

I suppose that it's too much to hope for that O'Meggy only died in the distortion? That could explain why there wasn't any annoying spirit-dude like the was for the other new people... And, are we going to get to see Tony's mad skills when he pinpoints Jack and feeds him those bottles? Through the top of his head?

Ah.

Sometimes, for sure.

Well it's the second time someone who loves him dies. It must be shitty.

Well it's the second time someone who loves him dies. It must be shitty.

Today's my birthday. This was a pleasant surprise to see a "bonus extension." I've been following this comic ever since I received a copy of the first volume in college. It's been almost a decade. Onto more.

Poor Tony: it looks like he was finally ready to move on from the first love of his life, Surma.

Don't we all what? Can someone explain this page to me?

Looks like some heavy reflection on his life, emotions and the people that have passed through it.

Frodo (IYKYK)

Oooooookay. This has been educational.

Jesus,Tom.. that's just unnecessarily cruel. Didn't Tony suffer enough? #bringomegaback D:

Mate, you're being a creepy weirdo...

The poetry of this story is just stunning. Omega was kind of like a god for Anthony. She predicted slugs mating in the forest, and that's where he and Annie's mother fell in love, verifying that tiny prediction. Could Omega somehow have known that she was in some way Annie's grandmother or something like that? Then she appeared to Tony as a strange mature woman, with whom he already had a deeply intimate relationship. Finally she became a sulky teen, like a dear granny sunk into dementia. Whether that earring is a chip containing Omega's essence, or Zimmmy's secret, or the program for his mind cage, or just a bauble that Omega had for a bit of glamor, he misses her more than anyone.

Too bad Tony couldn’t show some regret for being an abusive prick to his daughter…

WHAT!? This is so funny and then a bit heartbreaking. And we all thought he didn't like her back. Maybe he did a little bit though. That's so rough, ON the other hand he's moving on from Surma a little.

Sad Tony iz sad.

Aww! Tony!

Yeah... I miss people too.

This is really sad, just as he starts to possibly get close to Omega, she dies. I hope this doesn't set him back emotionally again.

Was I the only one that went back a page to make sure that wasn't a pill?

oh come on! Stop making this poor man sad. First his timeskip daughter, now his roboTsundere?

Before this moment I hadn't actually thought of what it must be like for Tony. So wild when you think about it. The entire event that led to him and Surma getting together, all those tests and who knows what else to calibrate this computer that gained a body and developed a crush on him, all so she could die suddenly by the hand of a deranged(?) kid. Crazy life this guy has lived.

but why? she was a menace.

yeah I don't really care about tony being attracted to someone who we knew for all of 2 seconds and who was implied, repeatedly, to be a physical teenager gross

He isn't taking thus well.

He's lost....another daughter.....

Is that a Pill_that_makes_you_know_what_zimmy_did from omega's necklace?

Looks like one of the earrings was missing? Did the person who killed omega take the other one?

Hmmmm. Did Tony have feelings for Omega?

no, no we don't. this is freaking weird, he just MET HER

He liked her. He liked her a lot.

she was the only one who knew what’s it’s like to be trapped in your mind….

Why are you hurting me this way?

I'd say this is a bit much for a lady he hardly knew, but this IS Tony we're talking about. His internal drama is always amplified by ten.

Oh. Oh that poor man. Coyote called him "broken man" but as time goes on it's obvious it's not because of his physical injuries

TOOOONNNYYYYYYYYYYYYY~ :(

Oh. :'( I knew they got along, I just didn't realize it was that well.

I’ve long wondered what Tony, Don, & Anja knew of Omega’s actual backstory. The Court was really good at suppressing inconvenient history. But, these characters, esp. Tony actually worked with ‘Machine Meg’. * It seems as though Tony is reaching a long delayed inflection point in his journey of personal growth. Will he gain insight into himself? Will he fundamentally change how he interacts with & interfaces with the people & World about him? Thanks for providing this ‘extra poignant peek’, Tom!

:( I like this page too. I like the whole page, and I like the detailing on his different hands.

I'm worrying about Gamma. She wouldn't support what Zimmy does. Is she alive in there?

Pictured: "I'm totally not into her that way."

OMG!!!

:-{(

Tony's love life is the absolute worst.

Ok now I just feel bad for making a joke about it.

... He doesn't take loss very well, does he?

She would have been a charming friend. . .

Whoa!

Theory: Tony is neurodiverse and looked at Omega's earring instead of her eyes/face. Omega knew this and chose a striking pair for him to concentrate on, maybe even knowing it'll become a token of her memory like Annie wearing her mother's hair clip (modified earring? Simple dull light blue metal/plastic square vs fancy bright red round jewel). If Tony's extreme reaction to Omega's death is just piercing his ear/s that'll be really funny. "Father, why--" "I have my own reasons." • Omega couldn't read minds or see into the æther but she could see brain chemistry reactions. She might not have known exactly why Tony is like that but she could've told him what happened when his brain became "illogical" or that he really was like that since birth.

Oh :(

Some more thought... it's weird to focus on how Tony is sad about Omega. Like, Annie walked in on a brutal murder scene in her own living room, her best friend and someone we have known since the start of the comic almost died the same way just a minute or two before, and Annie's life is very obviously also in danger. So as a result, it seems like a great time for Tony to pick up the mantle as *dad* and demonstrate, literally any feeling for her, maybe showing worry or concern for how she is putting her life at risk. It's sad that we still haven't seen any caring or concern from Tony about this, let alone seeing it expressed in a creative way in, say, a wordless two-page comic.

a sweetie at heart

Either he’s got a thing for Omega or he feels responsible for her death just like how he was with his late wife. And I feel he’s gonna be more unavailable towards Annie all over again. How fun.

Wow, Tom! What a poignant bonus page! Thank you for humanizing Tony! He and Omega go a long way back.

I meeeean he barely knew her? ????

Yeah, I worried about how her death would affect Tony. This one stings a bit.