Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2017-12-30
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2017-12-30

by shaenon on December 30, 2017 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Unsinkable
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Discussion (34) ¬

  1. Shikome Kido Mi
    December 30, 2017, 1:02 am | # | Reply

    Honestly, given the level of insight you’ve displayed so far, I would assume _you_ would need powers to work that one out, Panopticon. Unless you’ve been sandbagging to hide how horrible you really are behind pretend ignorance even more than I thought, I suppose.

    • Bevan
      December 30, 2017, 1:08 am | # | Reply

      Just because you know what people are thinking does not mean you UNDERSTAND what people are thinking.

    • Urlance Woolsbane
      December 30, 2017, 1:27 am | # | Reply

      Given the implied extent of her powers, Panoptica may well have grown lazy. Or perhaps the constant flow of other’s thoughts is so overwhelming that she prefers not to think very hard.

      • awgiedawgie
        December 30, 2017, 2:23 am | # | Reply

        Y’ever seen the movie “Scanners”? Kind of the extreme version of ‘the constant flow of others’ thoughts’.

        • Urlance Woolsbane
          December 30, 2017, 2:26 am | # | Reply

          I’ve been meaning to, if only on the virtue of Patrick McGoohan, but I’m given to understand that exploding heads are involved.

          • awgiedawgie
            December 30, 2017, 3:46 am | #

            Yes, it’s not for the squeamish.

    • Anson
      December 30, 2017, 5:37 pm | # | Reply

      I’m running on the assumption that Pan’ is both far more competent and far more involved than initial impressions led on.

      • Pygar
        December 30, 2017, 7:58 pm | # | Reply

        But unimaginative… IIRC her idea of a party room lacked flair…

        • awgiedawgie
          December 30, 2017, 9:01 pm | # | Reply

          But was that her idea of a party room, or was it Nick’s? After all, that meeting took place in his mind.

          • Pygar
            December 30, 2017, 9:12 pm | #

            Nick’s idea of a party room would not be one balloon. It would probably involve video games and wall displays straight from Bradbury…

  2. Riniko
    December 30, 2017, 2:10 am | # | Reply

    I’m guessing that she will come up with a truly wild conclusion that may be better or worse than the truth.

  3. awgiedawgie
    December 30, 2017, 2:26 am | # | Reply

    Knowing that someone can read your mind should lead a wise man to empty his mind, and refill it with nonsensical thoughts. She may be able to tell what you’re thinking, but she’ll have no idea why you’re thinking it.

    • greenknight32
      December 30, 2017, 5:47 am | # | Reply

      When I was a child I made an effort to memorize all of the poems in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Still remember most of them, so I’m well-prepared for any such situation. The Walrus and the Carpenter, by itself, should be sufficient – it’s quite long.

      • khavren
        December 30, 2017, 6:13 am | # | Reply

        That is why I memorized all the commercial jingles from my youth! Or at least, that’s what I am claiming, and you’ll never be able to tell the truth unless you want a shot of “My baloney has a first name” across your cortex

        • efogoto
          December 30, 2017, 12:18 pm | # | Reply

          … it’s O-S-C-A-R. My baloney has a second name, it’s M-A-Y-E-R.
          This line of reasoning is the greatest rationalization for the wasted neurons in my head occupied with this dreck that I am wholeheartedly adopting it. I claim that it also explains why I can sing “buckle up for safety” fifty years down the road.

          • M. Alan Thomas II
            December 30, 2017, 4:32 pm | #

            This is, of course, a plot point in The Demolished Man (in which they are called “Pepsis” for reasons no-one can remember).

            Eight, sir; seven, sir;
            Six, sir; five, sir;
            Four, sir; three, sir;
            Two, sir; one!
            Tenser, said the Tensor.
            Tenser, said the Tensor.
            Tension, apprehension,
            And dissension have begun.

            (repeat the last two lines ad nauseum due to the semicadence)

        • DanD
          December 30, 2017, 11:30 pm | # | Reply

          I’m your only friend
          I’m not your only friend
          But I’m a little
          Glowing friend
          But really I’m not
          Actually your friend
          But I am.. (beat beat beat)

          Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
          Who watches over you
          Make a little birdhouse in your soul
          Not to put too fine a point on it
          Say I’m the only bee in your bonnet
          Make a little birdhouse in your soul

          I have a secret to tell
          From my electrical well
          It’s a simple message and I’m
          Leaving out the whistles and bells
          So the room must listen to me
          Filibuster vigilantly
          My name is blue canary
          One note spelled l-i-t-e
          My story’s infinite
          Like the Longines Symphonette
          It doesn’t rest

          etc. Any telepath who can keep track of TMBG lyrics deserves whatever else they get.

          • Candace Griffin-Campbell
            December 31, 2017, 1:57 am | #

            The lyrics are the least of the problem. The real problem would be the earworm implanted in the telepath’s brain. It could take hours, or even days to die. I would would say such a defense could be considered a counter-attack. Especially if you knew what the telepath’s most-hated song was.

          • GaijinMonogatari
            December 31, 2017, 9:22 pm | #

            There was in fact a Mercedes Lackey urban fantasy novel where the protagonist held off thought probes for an extended period by reciting the entire TMBG discography until the other side ran out of telepaths willing to try and decipher whatever the heck was going on in his head.

    • Daibhid C
      December 30, 2017, 6:25 am | # | Reply

      In the Next Gen novel Dark Mirror, Picard, posing as his own mirror-universe duplicate, keeps Evil Mirror Troi out of his head by reciting that parody of “The Song of Hiawatha”. Nothing keeps telepaths out of your head like the possibility they might end up with “He, to get the warm side inside/Put the inside skin side outside” stuck in theirs.

      • Danny in Canada
        December 30, 2017, 9:12 am | # | Reply

        tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun

        • Towering Barbarian
          December 30, 2017, 4:58 pm | # | Reply

          But will that approach allow us to avoid Demolition? ^_~

      • Robert Nowall
        December 30, 2017, 10:22 am | # | Reply

        The guy in the movie version of “The Day of the Triffids” used the image of a brick wall.

        • WuseMajor
          December 30, 2017, 6:16 pm | # | Reply

          In one of Mercedss Lackey’s books, one of the characters started singing all of They Might Be Giants songs to keep a bunch of mind reading Unseelie wizards out of his head. While concentrating on the accordion as an item of great power.

          They apparently had to keep replacing the mind readers. After they ran out, he decided to just sing “We want a rock” over and over again.

          • GaijinMonogatari
            December 31, 2017, 9:24 pm | #

            You beat me to it, lol.

            I think at one point the enemy tried to decipher “Blue Canary” as an alchemical term.

    • Pygar
      December 30, 2017, 7:56 pm | # | Reply

      Steed and Peel (the *real* Avengers!) used “Green Grow the Rushes”…

      • awgiedawgie
        December 30, 2017, 8:15 pm | # | Reply

        Emma Peel had a few outfits she wore that were distracting enough on their own.

        • s854
          December 31, 2017, 2:21 am | # | Reply

          This is all very interesting (although the only thing I could think of when reading through the discuusion was “Don’t think about the event!”). If reading someone’s mind is as quick as we were told in http://skin-horse.com/comic/the-home/ then Kate’s not going to get distracted like that. Refusing to answer her questions may work, though, so long as you can keep saying “no comment” until she gives up.

          Reading people’s minds like this does tend to annoy them, but that’s less of a concern when you’re being threatened with an object which is at least as dangerous as a canister of nerve gas.

  4. Robert Nowall
    December 30, 2017, 10:21 am | # | Reply

    Does every ship made of ice have an anti-monster net?

    • efogoto
      December 30, 2017, 12:51 pm | # | Reply

      “Every ship made of ice”? How many do you think there are?

      • awgiedawgie
        December 30, 2017, 2:05 pm | # | Reply

        I could be wrong, but I believe there’s only one, so the answer to his question would be:

        Yes, “every” ship made of ice does have an anti-monster net.

        • D. Walker
          December 30, 2017, 5:57 pm | # | Reply

          Eh, I dunno – I would think the odds are pretty good that the Russians have a few hidden away in remote Kara Sea outposts.

          Although, to be fair, if so, they probably would still have anti-monster nets on them left over from the Soviet era.

  5. casimir
    December 30, 2017, 7:48 pm | # | Reply

    What are the chances that the a-m nets are already incapacitated?

    • awgiedawgie
      December 30, 2017, 9:07 pm | # | Reply

      Pretty good, actually. If Nera managed to shut down one device, she’s smart enough to have shut down all the offensive measures. However, “incapacitated” may be a bit of a misnomer, since any of them — including the deck guns — should still be able to be used manually.

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