"Skin Horse" By Shaenon K. Garrity and Jeffrey Channing Wells

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52 comments:

Michael Brewer (wusemajor) says:

.....bwahahahahahahahahaha. That is just too funny.

(Oh and that was just a big laugh, not an evil one, btw.)

NigaiAmai Yume (nigaiamai_yume) says: I'd be more concerned about a security guard that lets anyone in who claims authority, without question. But I'm not self-centered.

Sor Cyress (sorcyress) says:

Man, I laughed out loud, which made my mom go "what?" so I had to show her, and she laughed out loud, which made my little sister go "I wanna see" which meant I had to show *her*, and this vicious cycle probably would've continued forever if my little brother hadn't been asleep.

K C (spotweld) says:

NigaiAmai Yume> Well, in the case of Skin Horse, I'm getting the impression there's a prevailing attitude of "Anyone who wants to pretend to be in charge of any part this mess will be actually put in a position of responsibility since that's punishment enough"

Similarly, I suspect part of Ira’s retirement plan included “the sweet bliss of ignorance”. Probably, he’s already retired and now works part time as a contract hire for security.

Jeremy Berg (pisceneanteater) says: If there was any remaining doubt that this was a government agency. . .

Aaron Shades (prof_tinker) says:

Why do i get the feeling that if I walked by and so much as looked at a sign with intrest, I'd suddenly be shangighed into a job?

NigaiAmai Yume (nigaiamai_yume) says:

And why do I get the feeling Aaron would immediately become the most competent ~~person~~ human there?

Dov Mittelman (silentspeaker) says: Probably because of the Mad Scientist Wars.

David Harmon (mental_mouse) says: No wonder Unity's got rampages on the brain... people do seem to expect it of her!

Andy Wetmore (efogoto) says: Unity showed ID and a badge. Did you expect her to give a blood sample too? Or whatever she uses that passes for blood ...

John Campbell (jcampbel) says: Unity's hairstyle's looking kinda Bride of Frankenstein in Monday's last panel.

Thomas Levy (ergonomytch) says: Ut oh, time for Unity to meet the newly unified basement races...

So It Begins (soitbegins) says: Wait, isn't the fileroom down in the... OH. So much for the new basement civilization!

NigaiAmai Yume (nigaiamai_yume) says:

The Crystaline Intelligences hate noise.

Unity reacts to most things with loud noises. And other concussions.

I think they'll guess to keep things on the down low for now...

Ed Gedeon (eddurd) says:

"He love to regale them (If someone else pays)
With anecdotes drawn from his palmier days ..."

So instead of "Wizard of Oz", now we're into "Cats"?

Incog Neato (ghede) says: Might want to grab drums C, D, and E as well. It would be embarassing if he stuck the cylinder in and said "Whoops, no, it is a bit later. Go get drum 18-E." I make that mistake all the time.

Aaron Shades (prof_tinker) says: Note the 'onto'. Just what is his mind *made* of, anyhow?

NigaiAmai Yume (nigaiamai_yume) says:

I'd been assuming something resembling the insides of a music box or a player piano, myself, given the Victorian time of creation.

Actually, I think he's got a small wax cylinder inside as "short term memory". (Earliest "records" were generally made this way, I think, the needle etching the sound in the soft wax surface).

These temporary cylinders could be easily enough copied to larger, harder wax drums, which could then be used to copy small sized cylinders to re-insert into "short term memory".

Think punch cards, except 100X worse. And meltable.

David Given (dg) says:

Don't forget that the memories of the rampage probably also contain the attitudes and personality that caused the rampage in the first place.

The phrase 'with hilarious consequences' seems to be appearing in my mind...

NigaiAmai Yume (nigaiamai_yume) says:

Ya, David, I was kinda worried about that too. Another problem with this style of computing....

"Have fun rampaging the city!!" (Princess Bride rip off)

D. Connolly (theogrin) says: Unity certainly seems to have a better grasp of good opera-tional practice, at least.

So It Begins (soitbegins) says: Heh.

Pete Bleackley (petethemadscientist) says: Definitely a Mell moment for Unity here.

Ed Gedeon (eddurd) says:

What does the box in the center panel read? "Heat Pad"? "Heart Paper"? "Head Pan"? (I think Johnny Appleseed wore that last one ...)

OK ... on second observation, just caught another reference. Just above the centipede's head in panel two, you can see the top drawer of the filing cabinet is labelled "A-N" ... which means the bottom drawer is "O-Z" ... which is supposedly how L. Frank Baum came up with the name "Oz" for his ficticious land. HAH! Tried to sneak that one by us, din'cha?

Joe Charneskie (mutant-sentry) says:

Head Pan could reference "Jan in a Pan" from The Brain That Wouldn't Die, the first MST3k Episode hosted by Mike Nelson. In the host segment they established thay Jan survived the end of the movie and went on to live a happy productive life. Surrely the Skin-Horse department would have been istrumental in helping her conqoure her depression...

...

Which means that Movie, MST3k and Skin Horse all take place in the same continuity!

Maybe we'll get a cameo by Mike and the Bots one day...

Shaenon Garrity (shaenongarrity) says:
I think it's "Head Parts." If I were doing an MST3K reference, the box would of course say "Hamdingers."

Aaron Shades (prof_tinker) says: Ew, Hamdingers. No wonder no-one evr looked.

John Campbell (jcampbel) says: And Unity's modest, too!

NigaiAmai Yume (nigaiamai_yume) says:

And the world is saved by torrid sex. With machines.

I'm not sure what to make of this.

Aaron Shades (prof_tinker) says:

... Is it terrible that I want to hear the rest of this? It sounds like a grand tale indeed.

And every gentlemanly clockwork-robot needs a Dark and Shocking Past, of course.

Andrew Schepler (schep) says: If any of you don't know who Ada is, you must now visit Wikipedia. How could a Victorian computation engine help but be smitten with her?

Pete Bleackley (petethemadscientist) says: She has a programming language and a Narbonic character named after her.

Sean Duggan (duggansc) says: While I learned of Ada Lovelace first, for a number of years, I found myself reading references to "Linda Lovelace" and thinking it was Ada. It was particularly confusing when I was listening to "I'm a Winker (misprint)" by Ivor Bigguns when he refers to have used "an inflatable Linda Lovelace" in the past. All of a sudden, here I am visualizing an inflatable of the pioneer of Computer Science...

Ed Gedeon (eddurd) says:

It was during the reign of Victoria
When young Ada and parlormaid Gloria
Turned the Babbage machine
Into something obscene
That could ... sorry, I don't want to bore ya.

(Hah! Asimov himself would be proud.)

Tiff Hudson (tiff_hudson) says: Poor Ada - A bunch of second-handers form a committee, cobble together a wretched and inelegant disaster out of bad compromise and pomposity, and name it after Ada. Moustachio should have gone on a rampage in the 80's to defend the honour of her name.

David Palmer (viadd) says:

"All of a sudden, here I am visualizing an inflatable of the pioneer of Computer Science..."

'NOT TO BE USED AS A FLOTATION DEVICE". For that, you need Grace Hopper (DDG-70).

Basil Jelly (basil_jelly) says:

"Poor Ada - A bunch of second-handers form a committee, cobble together a wretched and inelegant disaster out of bad compromise and pomposity, and name it after Ada. Moustachio should have gone on a rampage in the 80's to defend the honour of her name."

Well it isn't Scheme but it isn't C++ or Java either. Those are disasters.

K C (spotweld) says: Somehow I assumed that for Moustachio a shocking past would somehow involve a voltaic pile.

Dave Van Domelen (dvandom) says: Blue Star Coal is rampage-proof!

Ed Gedeon (eddurd) says:

"I'm no good a being a nobleman, Countess, but it doesn't take a genius to see that the problems of three minor aristocrats don't amount to a hill of caviar in this mad-science world."

"But ... what about ..."

"We'll always have Baden-Baden."

As the train whistle blew, he touched her face gently. "I shall observe your image in my memory constantly, young one."

The Count Lazzez-Lowe took her arm. "Come, we must go." She turned, then looked back one last time at the machine that had meant so much to her.

"Good-bye, Moustachio ... Oz bless you."

So It Begins (soitbegins) says: Not heard of 'hydroelectric', have we, Mustachio?

Aaron Shades (prof_tinker) says: Mustacho is still trying to get over the telegraph.

John Campbell (jcampbel) says: I wouldn't have pegged Unity as someone who'd have a problem with Sweetheart's humanitarian efforts.

Dave Van Domelen (dvandom) says: Unity just considers it a dreadful waste of raw materials.

So It Begins (soitbegins) says: Eeugh.

Ed Gedeon (eddurd) says:

I love Sweetheart's expression in the last panel. And Unity's. And Moustachio's raised eyebrow thingie in the first panel.

I wonder if Captain Bram's first name was Joe? (Since eating him had to be a sloppy experience ...)

NigaiAmai Yume (nigaiamai_yume) says:

Since no one else has mentioned this....

WE????

That should prove interesting...

Aaron Shades (prof_tinker) says: Well, of course. She was made in a pack of other SI-Dogs.

Ray Dillinger (bear) says: Y'know, after EATING someone, I don't think there's really a good cathartic rampage against them to be had anymore.

Pete Bleackley (petethemadscientist) says: I think that Bram was probably the Captain's first name. His surname was Stoker.

Mud Mudd (ceramic) says:

Pity we can't tell whether he was tasty or not. If even the dogs who adored and looked up to him decided he would make a decent meal, they must have been ravenous. And everything tastes good when you're hungry.

weigu zhen (zhenweigu) says:

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