Wow this nurse is hammering her with augh sprinkled into her answers especially the "HA" which also reminds me the text both in and out of the bubbles this page i really liked seeing, since there's lots of panels where the text was small so seeing the attention to detail you put into keeping it looking good is awesome!
also, would food be covered by insurance? , what would happen if the patient refused to eat because of financial issues- for example if a patient or their family does not have the resources to pay for these meals.
i commented a bit on that on patreon, hold on -- "the milk thing always bothered me, even though it was only a rule in my first hospital stay, largely because i used to almost exclusively drink milk. i asked why i wasn't allowed to take more than 1 during breakfast and was told it was expensive.
in retrospect, this was weird because hospitals tend to charge you a flat rate for food and board. none of the prices were listed on food, either, but i'm not sure if i'm going to have kim point that out and ask or not yet. i found it questionable at the time, though, because i was often told to go drink some milk outside of mealtimes, which was openly available in a mini fridge in the day room, and, as far as i knew, no one was keeping specific track of what you drank or how much, so you weren't being charged for it."
i personally don't remember if my bills ever showed actual food charges or not, but i do remember the room and board per day charges. if your insurance covers the stay, they generally cover the food.
regarding patients who refuse to eat: that'll be a recurring element of the plot later with two of the characters in the cast. your reasoning usually doesn't matter.
however, hospitals are aware of whether you can pay or not before you even set foot in their doors. without a formal order or recommendation to institutionalize a patient, they will usually flat out turn you away if you don't have insurance; this tends to be why people who are homeless end up committing a petty crime for jailtime out of desperation for a meal and shelter instead of claiming to be suicidal.
if they ARE obligated to keep you there legally, because you've already attempted suicide and you've been brought in with an order, then they're usually very quick to whisk you through an evaluation and discharge you in a day or so (this was actually mentioned in the original script for fresh meat, which had a character who only briefly stayed because she wanted a place to sleep and a meal to eat).
i’m so fucking tired from work but sugar n kim bring me life, glad its friday. also im imagining someone gettinng both a milk and a blood thing mixing em and its like strawberry milk thanks for coming to my TED talk
Hhhhh sugar.. we love her... Also I'm noticing that kind of like, brush off a patient sort of thing. Like Kim asks if she can leave, but the nurse just turns it into not hungry and goes off on a tangent of lunch breaks. Like a Rorschach test for words, she's kind of listening to have a semblance of kindness but isn't really paying mind to her. That's the vibe I'm getting anyways. Also don't like the "food isn't free" reminder. Everyone knows that, and half the people coming through are already struggling either with money or food issues, perhaps they shouldn't train the nurses to remind people that they use up resources thus increasing guilt and perhaps driving people to restriction, which thoroughly and fantastically hinders any attempt at being positive or having the energy to process what someone has to to start recovering from whatever brought them into institutionalization in the first place. Also peep the staff hogging and understaffing because it's the absolute worst. Grab someone when you gotta ofc but it's annoying to be vulnerable and confused and then have your only lifeline snatched. Anyways I'm excited to meet other patients and what their deals are and hear from Sugar and see what's up with our favorite butch. I wonder what all the relationships will be like! Overall very excited, we're getting to the meat (haha) of the story it seems.
I dont know exactly why, but I really like the panel where Kim is rubbing her face. I can just relate to it and its really well drawn... It looks so real. I think its the lines on her forehead like smoosh
unfortunately, nope!
what you're seeing is the effect of diffuse light, which happens when light of a certain wavelength bounces off of the surroundings and hits an object, affecting its overall color identity, and the effect of fluorescent lights.
the two main thematic colors here (the mint green and red) are complementary, so they tend to cancel each other out (the former to the latter moreso than vice versa).
here's a demonstration: http://gynandromorph.tumblr.com/post/178157939388/some-screenshots-of-panels-from-the-last-page-and
(some of the colors are more off with the exclusion layer than others, i pick them by hand without any fancy filters applied to make the lighting happen.)
with the last image showing that what you're seeing is indeed a greyish beige, but only when you're looking at that color without considering the surrounding colors, and the same applies for the griffin's scrubs.
Hey sorry if I sound out otfhe loop but who is sugar? I mean I know shes probably the mouse on he last panel but my friend mentioned this comic to me a day ago cause she thought it'd be up my alley and i think i missed somtehing
If you wanna read the comic that sugar is from, then go to drop-out.webcomic.ws ! warning for suicide and drugs bc that’s what it revolves around, but i have a feeling that you wont need to read it in order to understand fresh meat because it seems to take place pre-dropout. although, i’m actually curious to see people learn about sugar from fresh meat rather than drop-out, to see if their reading of the latter comic is different than people who only learned about sugar’s character from drop-out itself
(This is not super relevant BUT since your question was already answered: Sugar is actually a sugar glider/tarsier mix and not a mouse! It's actually pretty relevant to understanding this character and how she functions, and is a very important factor of Drop-Out as well if you get around to reading that one!)
hmm, seems to be a lot of emphasis put on (usually locked) doors in this comic so far. entering doors into different wings of the hospital, the doors with the lights that need key cards to be opened, kim waiting by a locked door with a pen in order to try to escape, the other patient getting the key for the door into the bathroom for kim.... i wonder if thatll be a significant plot point later (a door being accidentally unlocked maybe?)
i dunno about the authors experience, but the focus on locked doors is pretty in line with what i remember from staying in a mental hospital- there were electronically locked doors in like, every hallway, so they played a really central role in like... defining the space we existed in?
been thinking a lot abt the phrase "the doctors are like the food," im sure theres more implications that could be read into that but thinking hard. also love kim saying she called it a "state evaluation" when in fact she said "Mental State evalutation" nice touch
2. In your experience, how much variance is there between and within facilities when it comes to this kind of behavior/treatment of patients? I have a friend who has voluntarily admitted themself to a psych ward on several occasions when they were suicidal- they speak of the place fondly, but I imagine the dynamic must be entirely different with involuntary commitment *after* an attempt, like Kim. Is it common for patients to have wildly different experiences within the same facility depending on circumstance, with the "less difficult" patients having a rosier view of the whole thing? I've only ever been a visitor.
i would say that yes, it is common for people to have very different experiences even with the same facility -- the involuntary aspect can certainly make it unpleasant by its very nature -- but everyone is aware when they're in a shitty facility. even local psychiatrists and therapists generally know what facilities are "bad ones" and "good ones."
the nurse here mentions that there are different wings; these wings are connected pretty obliquely and can seem like entirely different hospitals.
in my experience, there can be some staff-sharing between wings, but there are supposed to be separate, consistent staff cycles for each one in any given hospital, obviously, which can make different adjacent wings seem like entirely different facilities with wildly different standards of practice and general protocols.
i will note that being more docile and keeping your head down does not always lead to the best treatment or a smooth ride in any scenario; it really depends on the staff. for example, staffs who are much stricter about the potential of malingering than volatile patients will usually treat anyone who is clearly submissive and appeasing them due to fear worse than patients who act defiantly, because they are more likely to already believe that is trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
this is the first i've seen your work, but i just wanted to note the way you've portrayed the staff- the way they've shown up and disappeared in quick succession without any clear explanation of who they are or what their job actually IS communicated really effectively, and is also really in line with what i remember.
Also SUGARRRR it's finally time!
in retrospect, this was weird because hospitals tend to charge you a flat rate for food and board. none of the prices were listed on food, either, but i'm not sure if i'm going to have kim point that out and ask or not yet. i found it questionable at the time, though, because i was often told to go drink some milk outside of mealtimes, which was openly available in a mini fridge in the day room, and, as far as i knew, no one was keeping specific track of what you drank or how much, so you weren't being charged for it."
i personally don't remember if my bills ever showed actual food charges or not, but i do remember the room and board per day charges. if your insurance covers the stay, they generally cover the food.
regarding patients who refuse to eat: that'll be a recurring element of the plot later with two of the characters in the cast. your reasoning usually doesn't matter.
however, hospitals are aware of whether you can pay or not before you even set foot in their doors. without a formal order or recommendation to institutionalize a patient, they will usually flat out turn you away if you don't have insurance; this tends to be why people who are homeless end up committing a petty crime for jailtime out of desperation for a meal and shelter instead of claiming to be suicidal.
if they ARE obligated to keep you there legally, because you've already attempted suicide and you've been brought in with an order, then they're usually very quick to whisk you through an evaluation and discharge you in a day or so (this was actually mentioned in the original script for fresh meat, which had a character who only briefly stayed because she wanted a place to sleep and a meal to eat).
Wait wait does this take place before or after the events of drop-out? Or is that going to be revealed later?
Huh, Kim says the griffin was wearing pink scrubs, but they look more tan/olive. Is she red/green colorblind, like a cat?
what you're seeing is the effect of diffuse light, which happens when light of a certain wavelength bounces off of the surroundings and hits an object, affecting its overall color identity, and the effect of fluorescent lights.
the two main thematic colors here (the mint green and red) are complementary, so they tend to cancel each other out (the former to the latter moreso than vice versa).
here's a demonstration: http://gynandromorph.tumblr.com/post/178157939388/some-screenshots-of-panels-from-the-last-page-and
(some of the colors are more off with the exclusion layer than others, i pick them by hand without any fancy filters applied to make the lighting happen.)
with the last image showing that what you're seeing is indeed a greyish beige, but only when you're looking at that color without considering the surrounding colors, and the same applies for the griffin's scrubs.
2. In your experience, how much variance is there between and within facilities when it comes to this kind of behavior/treatment of patients? I have a friend who has voluntarily admitted themself to a psych ward on several occasions when they were suicidal- they speak of the place fondly, but I imagine the dynamic must be entirely different with involuntary commitment *after* an attempt, like Kim. Is it common for patients to have wildly different experiences within the same facility depending on circumstance, with the "less difficult" patients having a rosier view of the whole thing? I've only ever been a visitor.
the nurse here mentions that there are different wings; these wings are connected pretty obliquely and can seem like entirely different hospitals.
in my experience, there can be some staff-sharing between wings, but there are supposed to be separate, consistent staff cycles for each one in any given hospital, obviously, which can make different adjacent wings seem like entirely different facilities with wildly different standards of practice and general protocols.
i will note that being more docile and keeping your head down does not always lead to the best treatment or a smooth ride in any scenario; it really depends on the staff. for example, staffs who are much stricter about the potential of malingering than volatile patients will usually treat anyone who is clearly submissive and appeasing them due to fear worse than patients who act defiantly, because they are more likely to already believe that is trying to pull the wool over their eyes.