I realize that by somehow missing a day, I have the benefit of foreknowledge in responding to some of the comments in this thread. But I think my answer would still have been much the same yesterday if I wasn't trying to catch up with other things... (OK, maybe not the
same, since I'm using a couple of quotes from the March 16 comments...)
Torg was being Torgy when he first yelled at her for taking too long. I'm tempted to agree with Tormuse in this respect - it doesn't feel as if he planned the "meeting" too well. But then how do you
plan a meeting with Oasis? It's been a while since Torg has interacted with her, and he hasn't been able to see how she's grown - yet.
kansaichris wrote:
I love Oasis's expressions in these comics (particularly panel 2
today and on
March 6th). She's becoming a much more developed and nuanced character in her own right, rather than just alternating between “giddy as a schoolgirl” and “cold-blooded assassin”. It's almost heart-wrenching to watch her struggle with her emotions now.
Oh, and Torg is being kind of a jerk for asking “
Who wants a hug?” and then screaming “
Get off me!” when she takes him up on his offer…
The "who wants a hug?" followed by "get off me" wasn't Torg being a (reprehensible) jerk so much as reacting to unexpected events that have been interfering with this meeting. Remember that the initial "who wants a hug?" was a knee-jerk response to get her mind off of the bear and to make sure she didn't butcher it. The "Get off me!" seems callous, but Torg was in the middle of wrestling with some serious emotions regarding his fractured friendship with Riff and the ensuing encounter. Torg was pissed that Riff didn't trust him and interfered - and feels that Riff always goes overboard in his protection role (e.g., killing (or trying to kill) Sam; threatening Aylee). That frustration is still particularly raw right now, since Riff's most recent attempt to kill Sam (and almost succeeding) is why this rift happened in the first place.
Spirantz wrote:
I bet Torg just feels bad about today's incident with Riff now. Riff threw together a last minute duct tape job to protect his estranged bff in a crap suit that would stand absolutely no chance against Oasis.
In the panel just as Oasis leaps at him, you can see that Torg understands this. He's likely at least profoundly sad about how this played out - but also likely wondering if perhaps he was the one that overreacted this time. ......and then Oasis leaps at him before he can finish processing the encounter and return his attention to her. "Get off me" was an instinctual reaction - and while it comes across as being a jerk, that is not how Torg intended this meeting to go....
CheeseWhisper wrote:
[And yeah, I hope some reconciliation comes out of all this. I also hope (perhaps against hope) he can have a real conversation with Oasis, a la "I can't pretend to feel that way about you but I do care about you".
This. Punzil takes it a step further in SRC and specs that Torg will give her a choice. No order, no override B-1, just two sane people agreeing to work together. I think it will work.
I don't believe that Torg is callously planning to just simply use her as a weapon. As much as anything he understands that this "relationship" has to be resolved if he's going to move ahead with his relationship with Zoë. And he also knows that hC & Schlock need to be stopped if the world is going to continue (and not head down the 4U path...). Let's just hope that he gets a chance to move forward with this meeting before anything else unexpected drops in on them...