Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2019-01-07
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2019-01-07

by shaenon on January 7, 2019 at 12:01 am
Chapter: The Iron Man
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Discussion (50) ¬

  1. Robert Nowall
    January 7, 2019, 12:04 am | # | Reply

    They’ve gone rogue. So why should Sweetheart be in charge? (Perhaps she and Gavotte can fight it out for it.)

    • awgiedawgie
      January 7, 2019, 12:23 am | # | Reply

      They may be rogue, but they’re not anarchists. Somebody’s got to be in charge. And until now, Sweetheart was as good a choice as anybody (and, in fact, a better choice than most of the people on board). However, I have often got the feeling that while she likes the power of being “the boss”, she doesn’t like the responsibility that comes with it. That’s one reason why she is more than happy to hand over the reins to Gavotte – that, and the fact that Gavotte kind of terrifies her.

      • dornbeast
        January 7, 2019, 1:07 am | # | Reply

        I’m inclined to go with “Gavotte terrifies her” over “doesn’t want the responsibility.” I can’t wait to see if Gavotte does what I think she will; I’m betting that she wants Sweetheart to run this operation, and is a bit disappointed that Sweetheart is rolling over without even being prompted.

      • M. Alan Thomas II
        January 7, 2019, 7:33 am | # | Reply

        She clearly feels that Gavotte out-alphas her.

        • Ruggs
          January 7, 2019, 1:14 pm | # | Reply

          This.

        • Bruce A Munro
          January 7, 2019, 4:58 pm | # | Reply

          Gotta say she’s being realistic (for once).

  2. Nahuel Méndez Diodati
    January 7, 2019, 12:05 am | # | Reply

    Didn’t Unity just see Dr. Lee carrying Nick?

    • awgiedawgie
      January 7, 2019, 12:08 am | # | Reply

      That’s kinda what I was thinking. But then Unity does tend to have a rather short attention span. It’s quite likely she already forgot.

    • Owlmirror
      January 7, 2019, 1:08 am | # | Reply

      [weak retcon 2] Maybe Unity didn’t pay attention, and it was Tip who responded?

      [weak retcon 3] Maybe Unity figured that Dr. Lee has moved, with Nick, since boarding, and will find out where both of them are now?

      [retcon 4] Maybe the mental effort of resisting the lure of BRAINS was enough to wipe the (very short term) memory of having seen the brain in question?

    • ebonysable
      January 7, 2019, 6:15 am | # | Reply

      Does Unity know what the word “whereabouts” means, especially as she’s not on brains?

    • D. Walker
      January 7, 2019, 7:07 am | # | Reply

      I think this is yet anothe case of the comics going up in the wrong order.

    • shaenon
      January 7, 2019, 3:11 pm | # | Reply

      Argh, I forgot Unity was there when Lee came on board! I suck. I’ll fix it.

      • awgiedawgie
        January 7, 2019, 3:24 pm | # | Reply

        You coulda stuck with “Unity forgot”. You didn’t have to be wrong. 🙂

        • Candace
          January 8, 2019, 12:42 am | # | Reply

          I agree, awgiedawgie. Unity is easily distracted when not recently having consumed brains. It’s not hard to imagine that she might, in her “normal” state, have fairly poor short-term memory. She was also deliberately distracted from the situation by Marcie, to prevent her from doing something she would certainly regret later. She could have been so overwhelmed by the smell of coffee-infused brains that she totally forgot what just happened.

      • Rimwolf
        January 7, 2019, 5:29 pm | # | Reply

        You don’t suck! Even Homer nods.

    • Owlmirror
      January 9, 2019, 1:27 am | # | Reply

      For those wondering about this who didn’t read when it was first posted: The text in Sweetheart’s speech bubble in the first panel was changed. She originally asked if Dr. Lee knew “Nick’s whereabouts”. Unity’s response about asking doesn’t make sense, given that she had seen Nick with Dr. Lee shortly before, and she would reasonably have just answered that Nick was with Dr. Lee as a naked brain.

      However, Unity wasn’t there very long. While she might have responded to the revised question about Nick’s status with “he’s a brain in a box now”, it also makes sense to get more information about why he’s that way.

  3. casimir
    January 7, 2019, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    Unity just likes using the pneumatic tubes. Shoot, who doesn’t?

    • casimir
      January 7, 2019, 12:07 am | # | Reply

      @ Nahuel

    • Robert Nowall
      January 7, 2019, 12:48 am | # | Reply

      “I’m feeling good from my hat to my shoes / I know where I’m going and I know what to do / I’ve tidied up my point of view / I’ve got a pneumatic tube…”

      • casimir
        January 7, 2019, 2:56 am | # | Reply

        That was just awful. Congrats.

        • Robert Nowall
          January 7, 2019, 7:27 am | # | Reply

          It’s not mine. I saw it on “Perfect Strangers.”

          • Manifesta
            January 7, 2019, 1:59 pm | #

            A. That’s really funny.
            B. Oerfect Strangers callback FTW!

  4. thejoemoose
    January 7, 2019, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    Oh noes! It will be the battle of the century, dog vs. bees. Who will win the leadership?

    [places 100gil on Sweetheart]

    • awgiedawgie
      January 7, 2019, 12:10 am | # | Reply

      My money’s on the bees. Dogs always forget that bees can sting.

      • woozy
        January 7, 2019, 12:21 am | # | Reply

        Then there’s the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you…

        • awgiedawgie
          January 7, 2019, 12:25 am | # | Reply

          …if the bees haven’t stung their tongue first.

          • Towering Barbarian
            January 7, 2019, 12:28 am | #

            Eh, I’d say that the fight has already been decided by the fact that Sweetheart has clearly inprinted upon Gavotte as Master. ^_^

    • Morfos
      January 7, 2019, 12:40 am | # | Reply

      Dogs can roll in mud. Provides secondary armor, and doesn’t do any attached bees any good.

      • Robert Nowall
        January 7, 2019, 12:45 am | # | Reply

        Oh, good, another mud fight!

  5. Owlmirror
    January 7, 2019, 12:58 am | # | Reply

    Sweetheart wasn’t consulted about Dr. Lee coming aboard; her permission was not sought; she’s being informed, after the fact, by someone not actually involved with taking Dr. Lee aboard. . .

    Y’know, I think this whole “Sweetheart being in charge” thing was a fantasy that Unity was enabling going along with. Gavotte pretty much burst the bubble simply by showing up.

    • Regret
      January 7, 2019, 6:15 pm | # | Reply

      If you team is fixing problems before reporting to you about them, you have a great team. Don’t ruin it by micromanaging and just be content running interference at the officer/manager level. Your people got this, just make sure they inform you eventually.

      • Candace
        January 8, 2019, 12:44 am | # | Reply

        This.^

  6. Theris
    January 7, 2019, 1:12 am | # | Reply

    I’m not sure what’s going on : does Sweetheart hates being a leader so much she tried to hand over the reins to Gavotte first chance she got, or is she so afraid of her she went full “oh-god-im-sorry-you-are-my-master-please-forgive-me” the moment she appeared?

    • Owlmirror
      January 7, 2019, 1:15 am | # | Reply

      I think it’s the latter. Sweetheart likes being in charge, or thinking she’s in charge. But Gavotte is the ALPHA in Sweetheart’s mind.

      • awgiedawgie
        January 7, 2019, 9:35 am | # | Reply

        Sweetheart likes giving orders, but she doesn’t like actually being the one responsible for how things turn out.

      • Shadowmehr
        January 7, 2019, 9:43 pm | # | Reply

        This is a classic example of Pavlov’s Reflex. She has been trained over her career to see Gavotte as In Charge, so when the bees arrive, she automatically turns over the reins. If her conscious mind starts working again, she will backtrack with all four feet.

  7. Owlmirror
    January 7, 2019, 2:21 am | # | Reply

    In fact, Sweetheart is so submissive to Gavotte that it didn’t even occur to her to inquire, “Ma’am, what exactly happened with those e-mails promising raises to us but setting us all at cross-purposes while you were all supposedly post-swarm silly? Was the goofiness all an act? Why were we set up to fail?”

    • awgiedawgie
      January 7, 2019, 9:32 am | # | Reply

      I have no doubt those emails actually were sent out by Ira, and Gavotte didn’t know anything about them, so she wouldn’t have an answer anyway. He needed the files scanned so he could collect them later, and he needed Nick’s sonic weapon – originally to get all the humans out of the way, but it turned out to be useful for making it easy to collect Gavotte.

  8. freezer88
    January 7, 2019, 2:41 am | # | Reply

    Oh, Sweetheart. You were born to be a beta. (probably literally) Embrace your middle management nature. We all know you were happier being a lieutenant than a general.

  9. Duth Olec
    January 7, 2019, 7:49 am | # | Reply

    After reading the comments, it is my conclusion that:
    -Sweetheart is just submissive and immediately assume Gavotte is above her and would want to be in charge
    -Unity just forgot she saw brain. I mean Nick.

    • Khno
      January 7, 2019, 9:44 am | # | Reply

      Are you sure she know the brain is brain’s. I mean brain’s. I mean Nick’s.

      • awgiedawgie
        January 7, 2019, 9:51 am | # | Reply

        She knew it at the time. Whether she remembers it now is another question.

  10. Robert Nowall
    January 7, 2019, 10:17 am | # | Reply

    Annex was abandoned for a better building,
    Broken and condemned at last.
    Annex left its place in DC swampland beltway,
    For a rescue mission fast.

    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, Annex, go on.

    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, Ann!

    Sweetheart was a dog who thought she was a leader,
    But she was too hard to please.
    All the world around her said she was succeeding.
    But she gives it to the bees.

    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, Sweetheart, go on.

    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.

    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, go rogue, go rogue.

    Go rogue, with Skin-Horse.
    Your future’s waiting for you
    With some high-yield booze you’re a low-tech fretter.
    Go rogue, you better.

    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.
    Go rogue, go rogue,
    Go rogue, you’re right where you belong.

    —from “Get Back,” The Beatles. “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we pass the audition.”

    • Manifesta
      January 7, 2019, 2:02 pm | # | Reply

      I bow to you.

    • Candace
      January 8, 2019, 12:49 am | # | Reply

      You passed the audition. With flying colors.

  11. Paul The Grey
    January 7, 2019, 12:21 pm | # | Reply

    A bit of an aside, but some thoughts on Unity’s situational superintelligence: UNITY is fundamentally a swarm of nanites wearing corpses. The nanites are *her*, but they need flesh to inhabit in order to interact with the world or process information beyond a certain point. The nanites will readily and aggressively colonize any organic material they come in contact with-what if that includes brain tissue she eats? Eating brains gives the nanites more “hardware” to think with, and Unity’s mind grows and develops to fill it- until her digestive system does it’s thing.

    • Regret
      January 7, 2019, 6:16 pm | # | Reply

      That makes sense.

    • Trivena
      January 7, 2019, 7:42 pm | # | Reply

      That’s pretty much exactly what I’ve been thinking for a while now.

    • awgiedawgie
      January 7, 2019, 11:18 pm | # | Reply

      I think that explains it pretty well.

  12. Ruggs
    January 7, 2019, 1:16 pm | # | Reply

    Does Gavotte have the same Bureaucracy teleportation powers that Sweetheart does?

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