Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2020-04-23
‹‹ First ‹ Prev Buy! Comments(30) Next › Last ››

2020-04-23

by shaenon on April 23, 2020 at 12:01 am
Chapter: The Dreadful Future
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Discussion (30) ¬

  1. Salty
    April 23, 2020, 12:09 am | # | Reply

    It is 100% going to be Unity’s body part golem.

    • Owls
      April 23, 2020, 12:39 am | # | Reply

      Damn, that’s a good answer.

    • D. Walker
      April 23, 2020, 6:11 am | # | Reply

      If that’s true, then the problem will solve itself – we know that when some of her nanites are separated from the primary mass, they begin to break down and become inert in a relatively short period of time.

      There can only ever be one Unity in the long run. (Thank goodness!)

      • awgiedawgie
        April 23, 2020, 10:41 am | # | Reply

        But we also know (from Idaho) that her nanites do stay active for a significant amount of time, and she can even control them. Exactly how long that is was never explicitly mentioned, but it would have to be more than a couple days for the monks (sorry, the notaries) to have injected her into every single type of animal in the forest.

        It may be relevant that all those animals, as well as Unity’s own head, have a brain, but the Headless Abomination does not. That would also explain why the residents of Paradise, Alaska were still acting kind of like Unity long after being cured from the werewolf virus (and yet, oddly enough, Tip never acted at all like Unity after receiving the same cure).

        • D. Walker
          April 23, 2020, 5:58 pm | # | Reply

          If you’re talking about her “summoning” the animals to help her late in that chapter, I think there are a few details not made entirely clear that might be confusing you.

          We’re specifically told that Unity’s nanites can’t inhabit living tissue for long – the living creatures reject and expel the nanites after a bit, as we see when Unity gets barfed up by the various animals. Once rejected, the animal is just an animal again, and isn’t a part of Unity.

          We know that they did some off-screen preparation to get Unity into Virginia for the duel with Tigerlily, so it’s reasonable to assume that part of that preparation including rounding up a bunch of animals and re-injecting them in a mass possession.

          The alternative is to assume that somehow Unity can directly control creatures that have already rejected and expelled her nanites, which really doesn’t make any sense.

          • awgiedawgie
            April 23, 2020, 7:44 pm | #

            Sounds like you’re the one who’s confused. Yes, Virginia said there would be rejection (not because it’s living tissue, but because the animal doesn’t have Unity’s enhancements), but she also specifically said that the purges may leave bits behind. That makes it pretty clear that enough residual nanobots remained in the animals for them to continue to exhibit Unity’s behaviour (as demonstrated in the last panel of that strip).

            The only thing that wasn’t made perfectly clear is that there’s been no real indication of exactly how long the leftover nanites remain active. In the bonus story “Sandwich Day”, Sweetheart noted that Paradise, Alaska was still acting like a whole town full of Unitys. Then, when Sweetheart and Unity went back up to Paradise to rescue everyone during the blizzard – 8 1/2 years later – the people were still acting like Unity.

            (Although I was wrong in my earlier comment about Tip. In the “Sandwich Day” bonus story, Tip does indeed act exactly like Unity.)

            As for rounding up a bunch of the animals in Idaho and re-injecting them in preparation for the battle with Tigerlily, no, it isn’t reasonable to assume that, since Unity/Virginia didn’t even think of using the animals in the battle until after Tigerlily had knocked them unconscious during the battle.

      • Robert Nowall
        April 23, 2020, 8:59 pm | # | Reply

        What about Trinity?

    • jdreyfuss
      April 23, 2020, 7:10 am | # | Reply

      I could see it, but then where do the dreams factor in?

  2. David B Huber
    April 23, 2020, 12:10 am | # | Reply

    Wow. Leo is an example for us all!

    • Sheik
      April 23, 2020, 12:16 pm | # | Reply

      Speaking as a fellow introvert, I’d say Leo is an example of a great many of us.
      I long wondered why the population was divided, apparently at random, between introverts and extroverts, with the extroverts seeming to reap so many rewards from their interactions.
      Now I see at least part of the “plan”.
      Yes, the extroverts have advantages, but introverts have at least two themselves.
      1) By living outside the social echo chamber they actually get to _think_ on what they know, or even whether they know what they know.
      2) Introverts are naturally socially isolated and are thus less prone to communicable disease.
      BTW I think the circus wagon is a great idea of Leo’s.

  3. Robert Nowall
    April 23, 2020, 12:17 am | # | Reply

    I suppose it would protect Leo from being mauled.

  4. woozy
    April 23, 2020, 12:28 am | # | Reply

    Um… how far ahead were these written?

    • David B Huber
      April 23, 2020, 4:08 am | # | Reply

      Eerily prescient…

      • BarGamer
        April 23, 2020, 6:33 am | # | Reply

        Nah, Leo doesn’t have an air filter over his window.

        • awgiedawgie
          April 23, 2020, 10:21 am | # | Reply

          Are people actually putting air filters over their windows?

  5. palenoue
    April 23, 2020, 12:30 am | # | Reply

    I was a hermit before it was trendy.

  6. Pygar
    April 23, 2020, 12:32 am | # | Reply

    Topical…

  7. Pygar
    April 23, 2020, 12:35 am | # | Reply

    His home looks like the Klingon Embassy… minus the pink and silver girl’s Schwinns with handlebar tassels…

  8. Ray Radlein
    April 23, 2020, 2:36 am | # | Reply

    Well, that’s ONE lion who isn’t going to catch COVID-19 like the ones at the Bronx Zoo did

    • Sheik
      April 23, 2020, 12:19 pm | # | Reply

      Now _that_ is a textbook example of a zoonotic disease.

  9. Treesong
    April 23, 2020, 2:57 am | # | Reply

    That window reminds me of Jim Woodring’s buildings. Odd windows with eyes.

    • D. Walker
      April 23, 2020, 6:26 am | # | Reply

      I’m not entirely sure it’s a building – my assumption was that it’s some kind of circus wagon, given the coloration and his being a lion. (Although where it came from isn’t wholly clear…)

      As for the “eyes” detail, I imagine it’s just another case of Pareidolia in action. (Unless the wagon is a Romani vardo and it has painted eyes as protective wards against “The Evil Eye”, or something…)

      • Midwestmutt
        April 23, 2020, 7:53 am | # | Reply

        Barnum-Bailey-Ringling Bros. always wintered their animals in Florida. There should be some railcars around yet.

        • D. Walker
          April 23, 2020, 6:01 pm | # | Reply

          They wintered them in Sarasota, though – not the Keys.

          • awgiedawgie
            April 23, 2020, 7:49 pm | #

            Maybe someone pilfered one of the wagons when the circus was in town.

  10. Robert Nowall
    April 23, 2020, 7:28 am | # | Reply

    Is Leo’s atelier in his cage?

    • casimir
      April 23, 2020, 10:32 am | # | Reply

      Atelier, if it’s not one thing it’s another.

  11. W.
    April 23, 2020, 9:31 am | # | Reply

    That last line… I’m glad I put the coffee down. I needed the laugh, though!

  12. Shadowmehr
    April 23, 2020, 1:23 pm | # | Reply

    How on earth did a lion get related to Br’er Rabbit? “Don’t send me to my cage, Agent Tip!”

    • casimir
      April 23, 2020, 2:51 pm | # | Reply

      Same thought crossed my mind!

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