Containment What will happen when Barb dies?

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Haesindang Park said:
Second, I don't know how it works in Virginia but here in Texas, last time I checked, you need a garage/yard sale license before you hold such a sale in response to counterfeit goods cases along with illegal goods coming in and out of Texas.
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I live in VA and my family has randomly had yard sales before and I see people have them all the time with their ghetto signs stapled onto sign posts. If there is a law against it it's one most people can get away with I think.
 
Marvin said:
It's not that Barb doesn't care about Chris, it's that she thinks only about the immediate future. See: taking out retarded loans in his name.
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I'm not certain I agree with this completely. Some of the remarks I make about Barb are made in a lighthearted and joking manner, but I seriously believe that she's got some serious mental issues and I believe that she's the one that fucked Chris up and made him the mess that he is today. (Bob wasn't totally innocent in this, but he didn't play as much of an active role in fucking Chris up; he was guilty by virtue of his failure to intervene when Barb was fucking things up.)

Based on Barb's actions (which is the only thing I have that's even close to any kind of empirical evidence) I believe that she views Chris as some sort of lackey or servant. Her relationship with him, IMO, is based more on desperation/co-dependence and pure laziness rather than actual love.

If Barb believes that her actions are that of a loving mother, then it's a pernicious, toxic kind of love (which is why I love to throw out those Pink Floyd - The Wall References).

For Chris's sake, the sooner Barb dies, the better; at his age, he still has a shot at turning his life around. The longer Barb hangs around, and the older Chris gets, the more those odds go against him.

CWCissey said:
Henry VIII
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Typo. My bad. Didn't proof read before posting.

Fallensaint said:
Say what you like about Chris but he takes death hard. Barb's a massive enabler and has made herself a hige part of his adult life it would take him ages to get over it.
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That depends. If Chris continues to improve his social skills and manages to make some genuine friends (Anna doesn't count) then maybe he won't take Barb's death as hard as he otherwise would. Having a support network, even simply having someone you can talk to, can be an immense help.

Chris also isn't as isolated as he used to be. He gets out and socializes on weekends. The old Chris would be completely devastated by Barb's passing, the new (and hopefully evolving) Chris, stands a much better chance of surviving the experience.

I also believe that a lot of us here, despite some of the less than kind / often critical things we say about Chris, would be genuinely supportive and would be willing to lend a sympathetic ear (of course this would be dependent on Chris getting over his troll thing).
 
Thetan said:
That depends. If Chris continues to improve his social skills and manages to make some genuine friends (Anna doesn't count) then maybe he won't take Barb's death as hard as he otherwise would. Having a support network, even simply having someone you can talk to, can be an immense help.

Chris also isn't as isolated as he used to be. He gets out and socializes on weekends. The old Chris would be completely devastated by Barb's passing, the new (and hopefully evolving) Chris, stands a much better chance of surviving the experience.

I also believe that a lot of us here, despite some of the less than kind / often critical things we say about Chris, would be genuinely supportive and would be willing to lend a sympathetic ear (of course this would be dependent on Chris getting over his troll thing).
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Sadly, people are going to try to get him a job or some gainful employment which he's going to refuse because the tugboat plays a big role in defining his life. The guy is a complete trainwreck from the start and is technically recovering from depression though by small steps. What he needs is a major overhaul in his life as well as to convince him that there's way more to life than Sonic's blue arms. Getting him to accept reality is the tough part and he doesn't want to do that. Life is hard, deal with it. That's what most people will tell him in the end.
 
Haesindang Park said:
Sadly, people are going to try to get him a job or some gainful employment which he's going to refuse because the tugboat plays a big role in defining his life.
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He doesn't need a job. That's what the tugboat is for. You just want him to have one because you're jealous you can't sit around and play lego all day.
 
Haesindang Park said:
Sadly, people are going to try to get him a job or some gainful employment which he's going to refuse because the tugboat plays a big role in defining his life. The guy is a complete trainwreck from the start and is technically recovering from depression though by small steps. What he needs is a major overhaul in his life as well as to convince him that there's way more to life than Sonic's blue arms. Getting him to accept reality is the tough part and he doesn't want to do that. Life is hard, deal with it. That's what most people will tell him in the end.
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Eh, I don't know what people are talking about when they talk about "reality" and Chris. Chris denying reality is only in goofy fantasy areas of his life that don't matter anyway. Chris denies reality when it comes to, say, attracting a girl. He doesn't deny reality nearly as much when it comes to aspects of his life that actually matter.
 
Marvin said:
Eh, I don't know what people are talking about when they talk about "reality" and Chris. Chris denying reality is only in goofy fantasy areas of his life that don't matter anyway. Chris denies reality when it comes to, say, attracting a girl. He doesn't deny reality nearly as much when it comes to aspects of his life that actually matter.
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What about his fixation on Sonic's blue arms? He needs to get over that if he wants to be a better person because apparently, he got himself in trouble with the law over Sonic's blue arms and still bitches about it to this day. More than halfway through the year and he still whines about blarms.
 
Haesindang Park said:
What about his fixation on Sonic's blue arms? He needs to get over that if he wants to be a better person because apparently, he got himself in trouble with the law over Sonic's blue arms and still bitches about it to this day. More than halfway through the year and he still whines about blarms.
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I class the blue arms shit as one of the "goofy fantasy areas of his life that don't matter".

Chris didn't mace someone over Sonic's blue arms, he maced someone because he got kicked out of somewhere he was banned.
 
Haesindang Park said:
Sadly, people are going to try to get him a job or some gainful employment which he's going to refuse because the tugboat plays a big role in defining his life. The guy is a complete trainwreck from the start and is technically recovering from depression though by small steps. What he needs is a major overhaul in his life as well as to convince him that there's way more to life than Sonic's blue arms. Getting him to accept reality is the tough part and he doesn't want to do that. Life is hard, deal with it. That's what most people will tell him in the end.
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Chis has, thus far, through dumb luck or whatever, managed to somehow side-step reality (not completely, but I don't believe he has a thorough grasp of the nature of reality). When Barb dies, there will be no escape. Reality will come crushing down on him like a ton of bricks. This is why I think it's a good thing Chris is getting out more. The more time he spends away from Barb, the more easy it may be for him to accept the eventuality of her not being part of his life anymore. Barb's role in Chris's life has already been diminished somewhat by Chris forming relationships with his Impulse "friends" (whether they're "pity friends"or not doesn't really matter at this point). A lot of this depends, of course, on Chris's ability to make [real] friends and build some sort of support network, but it's possible (although the odds are pretty slim, at least at this time).
 
Marvin said:
I class the blue arms shit as one of the "goofy fantasy areas of his life that don't matter".

Chris didn't mace someone over Sonic's blue arms, he maced someone because he got kicked out of somewhere he was banned.
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Agreed. The reason he went in to vandalize that particular time isn't very important, because he has found a multitude of reasons to commit vandalism in the last and will continue to do so.
 
Marvin said:
I class the blue arms shit as one of the "goofy fantasy areas of his life that don't matter".

Chris didn't mace someone over Sonic's blue arms, he maced someone because he got kicked out of somewhere he was banned.
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I think from a motive point of view, the macing was closest to yelling "fuck you" or giving the finger as you leave a confrontation.

Chris stupidity meant that he used a potentially harmful weapon as his parting shot. But if the same scenario were played out again, he would be just as likely to do something as harmless as saying "fuck you" as he left. Or maybe knock a few games on the ground. I think he meant to make the sort of gesture big enough that the employees say "Wow, that guy was pretty pissed." but small enough that there wouldn't be any follow-up.

In one way, it makes it better, because he really didn't intend to do anything particularly violent. In another, it makes it worse, because Chris bumbling around being his typical everyday self can lead to physical harm for others.

Mr. Mostly Baby said:
I live in VA and my family has randomly had yard sales before and I see people have them all the time with their ghetto signs stapled onto sign posts. If there is a law against it it's one most people can get away with I think.
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Unless the hoard has been reduced massively since the fire, it is a huge monstrosity. A decent size surbaban house was full of crap. Full to the point where you couldn't really put anything more in it if you wanted. A yard sale or eBay won't come close to dealing with it. The only way to deal with it is to hire a trash removal company to come in and get rid of it en masse. If he wants, he can comb through it before or during that process to pull out a few things to sell. But he can't get rid of more than a tiny fraction of the hoard by selling it.

The question is whether he has the ability to recognize that.
 
Thetan said:
He could improve the lives of Clover and Snoopy right now by letting them out in that perfectly good dog run at the rear of 14 Branchland Court.
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I thought you were gonna say "by letting them out into the neighborhood to meet whatever fate awaits them" which sadly wouldn't be toooo much of an exaggeration.

When Barb dies I doubt anything will change in regards to Chris's living situation or finances. He'll obviously be heartbroken though.
 
I'm curious about how much stress Chris causes Barb with his tomgirl stuff and how much that contributes to her failing health. Not saying that he's the one killing her, her q-sands and holey buttocks are doing a fine job there, but based on what she's said before, he is definitely getting under her skin a lot with it.
 
the Borg said:
I'm curious about how much stress Chris causes Barb with his tomgirl stuff and how much that contributes to her failing health. Not saying that he's the one killing her, her q-sands and holey buttocks are doing a fine job there, but based on what she's said before, he is definitely getting under her skin a lot with it.
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Maybe she's mellowed on it, or at least become resigned to it. It's obvious whatever she tried to do to stop him hasn't worked. I doubt he goes out of his way to rub it in her face, even though it's pretty obvious he's going around like that. So clearly it's not within her power to do anything about it. I'd guess she looks the other way and engages in a bit of willful blindness or denial to avoid facing the full truth of it, since Chris is really all she has left.

She needs him way more than he needs her, although he doesn't know that yet.
 
There isn't a whole lot Chris can do on his own when Barb dies. He has no real friends, no money, is despised by his relatives, is facing legal issues, and has to deal with a horder's nest. That's a lot for anyone to deal with. For Chris, it's practically apocalyptic.

Another thing I've yet to see anyone mention is the pets. Remember how Chris once said he and Barb couldn't leave them alone in the house or they'd start throwing shitfits? That's not gonna get better when Barb dies. At the very least, those pets need to go to a shelter where they'll likely have to be put down, even if Chris does manage to only wind up on probation. As horrible of a pet owner as he is, I don't think he'll handle having to get rid of his pets so they can be sent to the proverbial farm very well. Especially when said needle is compounded by the death of his mother.

Unless there's a particularly generous Kiwi who comes across a lot of money and wants to head down to Buttfuck Nowhere, Virginia for a few months and hire a crew to empty his house and keep him on suicide watch; this'll probably be the worst moment of Chris' life.
 
Being real for a second;

Barb's death will both destroy and free Chris. Once the pain of her passing is over his life will probably become more bearable but he will have to learn to deal with being complete on his own. The loneliness is his biggest worry as he has very few people he can lean on in times of trouble and he's not really that much more emotionally mature then when Bob died so grief will certainly take it tole.

I actually don't know if he will recover and go on to fix up his life somewhat without Barb's constant input coloring his worldview or will he double down on what she taught him and drive himself further into misery.

For his sake I hope for the former.

Back to business: He will cry, shit himself and do nothing.
 
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