Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2013-09-07
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2013-09-07

by shaenon on September 7, 2013 at 12:00 am
Chapter: My House Is Me
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Discussion (44) ¬

  1. Zap Rowsdower
    September 7, 2013, 12:05 am | # | Reply

    How does Nick know what that feels like?

    • Moe Lane
      September 7, 2013, 9:47 am | # | Reply

      …What, that’s never happened to you?

    • jdreyfuss
      January 23, 2020, 8:41 am | # | Reply

      You can’t swing a cat without hitting someone who knows how it feels.

  2. John Campbell
    September 7, 2013, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    I’m pretty sure that panel one has the best simile I’m gonna see this month.

    • The Other Mike
      March 2, 2017, 12:30 am | # | Reply

      It reminds me of Christopher Plummer’s description of working with Julie Andrews. “Like getting hit over the head with a valentine.”

  3. Manifesta
    September 7, 2013, 12:09 am | # | Reply

    Cunningham, shmunningham. Now that’s adorable!

  4. Anderson
    September 7, 2013, 12:11 am | # | Reply

    Don’t worry Sweetheart. Iodine’s not going to help you in this situation anyway.

  5. Burning
    September 7, 2013, 12:23 am | # | Reply

    Eh, beta radiation is arguably the least dangerous. They’ll be fine.

    Or they’re in dead trouble, but not from the pixie dust.

    • Roy
      September 7, 2013, 12:31 am | # | Reply

      Certainly not as bad as gamma radiation, but beta radiation is still fairly penetrating. Alpha radiation is the one that you can block with a piece of paper.

      Beta radiation requires a two-by-four at minimum.

      • abb3w
        September 7, 2013, 8:57 am | # | Reply

        Standard issue tinfoil hat works fine, too.

      • Robert The Addled
        September 7, 2013, 2:08 pm | # | Reply

        Downside is Beta has more biological damage than Gamma. 4x the Gamma damage I think. Alpha was 10X, and Neutron was 25X or higher (if memory serves)

        Beta is stoppable by a piece of paper or layer of clothing.

        Alpha will not actually penetrate the layer of dead skin on your hands.

        High Beta associated w/ cataracts.

        • Yggdrasil325
          September 7, 2013, 3:18 pm | # | Reply

          I read “cataracts” as “Cataquacks”. You know, the weird duck things from Super Mario Sunshine. Would certainly explain their weird physiology.

        • WJS
          July 9, 2019, 7:07 pm | # | Reply

          I thought Alpha was stopped by paper or clothing (or even a few inches of air for that matter), but Beta required aluminium sheeting to stop.

    • Vincent
      September 7, 2013, 4:18 am | # | Reply

      Considering they can SEE reactions to the radiation shed, that’s probably not a good sign.

      As an aside, alpha radiation is usually only really bad for you if the radioactive material giving off it gets into your squishy, less radiation-shielded innards. Your skin stops alpha particles quite handily, most of the time. We’re also exposed to radiation daily – it’s not like we’re not exposed to radioactivity except for in nuclear reactors and school demonstrations – it usually doesn’t do much. I’m not saying you should go juggle radium, but just know that the degree of danger is different.

      • Frodyne
        September 7, 2013, 6:54 am | # | Reply

        On the other hand, if you do get an alpha radiation source inside your body, then you are likely in serious trouble. Remember Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned with a small amount of Polonium, and then very quickly got seriously ill and died?

        As I understand it, alpha radiation is easily stopped, but that also means that it deposits all of its energy into whatever stops it – skin is hardy enough that it shrugs that stuff off, but squishy innards can’t really take that punishment and tends to break or mutate into cancer.
        On the other hand, gamma radiation is extremely hard to stop, but that means that it doesn’t leave all that much of its energy in any one part of what it passes through.
        Lastly beta radiation is sort of in between the two others.

        • Vincent
          September 9, 2013, 4:55 am | # | Reply

          Pretty much on the nose. There’s also a factor of how much radiation, naturally. Alpha radiation inside your body will likely mess you up – if there is enough of it. And while gamma tends to pass through, add enough of it and you’ll have enough light accidentally hitting atoms that it becomes a serious issue.

  6. Eddurd
    September 7, 2013, 12:37 am | # | Reply

    (TUNE: “Getting Better”, The Beatles)

    I’m shedding beta like a crime …

    The Spirit of Whimsy I be!
    The Fairy of Mending is me!
    In disrepair;
    Glow in the air
    I generate nu-cle-ar-ly!

     I glow as I flit, I’m shedding beta,
     I’m shedding beta like a crime …
     I glow as I flit, I’m shedding beta,
     I’m shedding beta … ‘most all the time!

    The Little House creatures I saved!
    Machines of destruction I braved!
    I saved you, you know,
    With buckets of dough!
    The way out with dollars was paved!

     I glow as I flit, I’m shedding beta,
     I’m shedding beta all the time …
     I glow as I flit, I’m shedding beta,
     The Geiger data … will show that I’m
     Shedding freakin’ beta like a crime!

    • Evil Midnight Lurker
      September 7, 2013, 1:07 am | # | Reply

      …sheer genius, sir.

  7. Evil Midnight Lurker
    September 7, 2013, 1:06 am | # | Reply

    Last panel reminds me of the rooster hat from Scribblenauts.

  8. Prodigal
    September 7, 2013, 1:46 am | # | Reply

    It’s wonderfully appropriate that the being in charge of overseeing the rehabilitation of the Little House is inhabiting the Mender Fairy.

  9. Dan Bongard
    September 7, 2013, 2:34 am | # | Reply

    That new body is adorable! In a radioactive sort of way.

  10. mittfh
    September 7, 2013, 2:40 am | # | Reply

    Hey, no fair! We didn’t get to see if the daughter passed on where she found the shoes, or if she smooched with Tip!

    • Classic Steve
      September 7, 2013, 1:59 pm | # | Reply

      Wouldn’t it be funny if Nick got back in control before the smooch was over?

      • mittfh
        September 7, 2013, 2:25 pm | # | Reply

        MadBadger suggested that yesterday, and it’s the kind of situation he would find himself in (hey, classic example of Rule Of Funny) so I was secretly hoping Shaenon / Jeff would have presented it to us today. No such luck 🙁

        • Tetra Valent
          September 7, 2013, 7:37 pm | # | Reply

          Did Princess Whimsy turn over the drone to Nick before getting her smooch from Tip? And does Tip know that she did? If yes, and no, it could still happen. Shaenon did say that Nick needs smooches….

  11. Vincent
    September 7, 2013, 4:03 am | # | Reply

    Maaaybe you shouldn’t have radioactive robots in your funhouse, eh?

  12. Dave
    September 7, 2013, 4:29 am | # | Reply

    “You’re cute, don’t say ‘sumbitch’!”

    “I wanna say ‘SPARKLEPUFF’…”

  13. =Tamar
    September 7, 2013, 5:31 am | # | Reply

    The body language tells us it’s Nick, even without the dark eyes and the comment. Does the ‘bot take the same shoe size as Tip? If so, he could just borrow the shoes. Or at least look at the label.

  14. David McKenney-Barschall
    September 7, 2013, 8:05 am | # | Reply

    It’s the money fairy!

  15. ShannonT
    September 7, 2013, 9:32 am | # | Reply

    Panel 2: I can feel Nick’s eyelid twitch from here. 😀

  16. Shadowmehr
    September 7, 2013, 10:41 am | # | Reply

    Well, if I remember my particle physics, beta particles are “slower” than gamma or greater radiation, so it can be stopped by skin.

    So Sweetheart, an “enhanced” dog with a thick fur coat should be safe from limited exposure; and U.N.I.T.Y., who is U.N.I.T.Y., wouldn’t really notice any type of radiation until she started glowing in the dark. Nick isn’t even technically in the room, so that goes out the window.

    Tip, however, should probably be taking the iodine pills after this time. Assuming that smooching a fairy corporation doesn’t provide some benefits.

  17. tengu
    September 7, 2013, 11:51 am | # | Reply

    … did Nick just swear? Nick swore! Has Whimsy removed his wrongswear as a gift?

    • Rex Vivat
      September 7, 2013, 1:34 pm | # | Reply

      “Cold-cocked” is not a swearword, it just means “knocked out with force”. He could probably get away with calling Sweetheart a bitch, too, but I think the censor responds to intent rather than semantics.

  18. Rasufelle
    September 7, 2013, 2:07 pm | # | Reply

    So… is this a possible explanation for why we all of a sudden started getting a metric crap-ton of Disney Fairy movies?

  19. Tzeenj
    September 7, 2013, 5:51 pm | # | Reply

    I think that it was Mary who said “sumbitch”, not Nick?

  20. BMunro
    September 7, 2013, 6:46 pm | # | Reply

    Wait, it’s not just the Little House that is atom-powered, but also individual artificial characters? Seriously, the site must have closed early in the day, so visitors couldn’t notice things glowing in the dark…

  21. Jason
    September 8, 2013, 4:51 pm | # | Reply

    There are two types of beta radiation (roughly), strong and weak beta. The difference is the speed to the electrons. Weak beta can be stopped by clothing or paper. Strong beta require something like a tin can. (Although carrying a strong beta source around in a tin can without a top, but with plenty of styrofoam packing in down will still make you feel a touch nervous.)

  22. carnackiArdent
    September 9, 2013, 3:56 pm | # | Reply

    I noticed that WhimsyCorp didn’t show her teeth when she talked in the drone. And we know the drone has teeth, or a reasonable facsimile, because Nick (as shown here) does show them when he talks.

    Kind of creepy, moreso than the wide eyes.

    • Tetra Valent
      September 10, 2013, 8:15 pm | # | Reply

      Out of 7 strips showing WhimsyCorp driving the drone, 6 show teeth.

  23. Frank
    September 16, 2013, 10:10 am | # | Reply

    *gasp* the Tinkerbell franchise… it all makes sense now

    • Storel
      November 22, 2017, 6:31 am | # | Reply

      Yes, I just finally got it when I saw this strip: “Mender-fairy” = “Tinker-bell”, because a tinker was someone who mended pots!

  24. JET73L
    March 6, 2015, 1:52 am | # | Reply

    I wonder if WhimsyCorp’s logo from the early-to-mid ’90s had Mender fly over the Whimsy House and dot the “i” with a little puff of, *ahem* “starlight” from her wand.

  25. reynard61
    January 28, 2017, 9:31 pm | # | Reply

    I *love* the way that this webcomic can seamlessly mix conversation about cute animatronic characters and possibly lethal nuclear radiation! I’m glowing with…um…pride? (That is pride that’s causing me to glow, isn’t it? ISN’T IT???)

    • Storel
      November 22, 2017, 6:39 am | # | Reply

      Yes, of course it is!

      …On a completely unrelated question, how’s your supply of iodine pills?

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