Tip has hit on men, women, cyborgs, and prehistoric protoplasm. The only challenge will be Tip worrying about going after more than one member of the same family. There are limits to decorum after all, if not ability.
Possibly three, depending if Gamma has been born (decanted?) yet and if she’s decided to go for the improved sanity treatment. Or if she’s visiting from the future right now as she tends to do.
What? It’s been some time. Sometimes Dave and Helen want to play “Gender-Reversal Ray” and sometimes they want to play “Hive Mind Clone Harem.” On both sides. With complications. They don’t have to explain themselves to you! You’re not their dad!
I’m pretty sure it was implied during Narbonic that Helen Alpha was by no means the first in the Narbon line. Besides, even if she weren’t cloned, she’d somehow go back in time and change history such that she was her own clone, if only because that’s the kind of thing that mad scientists do.
I paraphrase here, but at one point Helen Beta was asked whether there was a control group for the Tanaski Study:
“A control group? You mean dozens of young women released into the wild to slowly go mad, only to be hunted down and vivisected by my mother? Just as I myself would have been if I hadn’t bought myself a rifle? Why Mel, that would be HIGHLY unethical.”
@ pdp15,
Well, shoot! If I thought that sort of thing were an option I’d be looking around for a webcomic titled “Towering Barbarian” or maybe one named after one of my friends in the hopes that I could pick up some useful spoilers. ^_^
It’s been a few years since the end of Narbonic. How old are Helen Beta Narbon’s children? Did one of them get named Helen Gamma Narbon, despite not strictly being a clone?
For that matter, we know she had “natural” children (for whatever version of natural applies to children gestated by their cissexual father) but that doesn’t rule out cloning a Helen Gamma *as well.*
If you don’t mind,
If I may ask,
Are you a thing that your mom
Mixed in a flask?
Built by the clones …
No, I don’t mind,
Yes, ma’am, you may …
Yes, Helen Narbon cooked up
My DNA …
Narbons are clones,
The Helens are clones!
Head full of brains!
Bod full of brawn!
I was concocted by Miss Helen Beta Narbon!
I was a gerbil when in my original shape;
Transmogrified
Into an ape!
No need to blush,
No need for guilt …
We all have issues with how
We all were built!
My folks were clones …
Narbonic clones …
They’re mad to the hilt!
Hey, it’s not on this comic, but there seems to be a writing in the URL occasionally. Is this GOTON at work? I just noticed it, although I can’t seem to keep track of it.
I’m sure there’s a slime mold that could come up with a polite way to say it.
That, or he’s already submitted the question to it and it hasn’t answered. Wicked bonus points for the reference by the way.
Keep up, Tip.
Pretty sure his family has LESS issues than most.
Granted, that’s only counting issues with one another, but still.
Expecting Zeta to show up any day now. I wonder whether Tip will react to her.
Tip has hit on men, women, cyborgs, and prehistoric protoplasm. The only challenge will be Tip worrying about going after more than one member of the same family. There are limits to decorum after all, if not ability.
You know, Dr. Lee could have just said, “There are two mad scientists out there named Helen Narbon. Just like there are two Dr. Dres.”
Possibly three, depending if Gamma has been born (decanted?) yet and if she’s decided to go for the improved sanity treatment. Or if she’s visiting from the future right now as she tends to do.
I’m pretty sure she’s the product of gametes from Helen Beta Narbon and Dave Davenport meeting. Now, who provided which? That is an open question.
Or possibly thirty-seven.
What? It’s been some time. Sometimes Dave and Helen want to play “Gender-Reversal Ray” and sometimes they want to play “Hive Mind Clone Harem.” On both sides. With complications. They don’t have to explain themselves to you! You’re not their dad!
Clones? Plural? So far from Narbonic we only know about one clone (plus the original).
I’m pretty sure it was implied during Narbonic that Helen Alpha was by no means the first in the Narbon line. Besides, even if she weren’t cloned, she’d somehow go back in time and change history such that she was her own clone, if only because that’s the kind of thing that mad scientists do.
I paraphrase here, but at one point Helen Beta was asked whether there was a control group for the Tanaski Study:
“A control group? You mean dozens of young women released into the wild to slowly go mad, only to be hunted down and vivisected by my mother? Just as I myself would have been if I hadn’t bought myself a rifle? Why Mel, that would be HIGHLY unethical.”
You know, I still love the fact that apparently to keep Helen Alpha away you only need a rifle.
Well, you need to have a rifle and also be as badass as Helen.
It’s all a question of what you LOAD it with…
Well, now we know that Tip never read Narbonic …
@ pdp15,
Well, shoot! If I thought that sort of thing were an option I’d be looking around for a webcomic titled “Towering Barbarian” or maybe one named after one of my friends in the hopes that I could pick up some useful spoilers. ^_^
Shaenon exists in the Narboniverse, right? I think she’s done some background cameos.
Shaenon has also put her hubby in the background as a cameo, too. I’m waiting for MEL to show up, and have some sort of smack-down with UNITY.
Pretty sure Mell has showed up already in the background, see http://skin-horse.com/comic/were-all/
It does look like her, doesn’t it?
The family has fewer issues than most, but one of them is Helen Narbon Sr. I think that works out to be a pretty major issue.
It’s been a few years since the end of Narbonic. How old are Helen Beta Narbon’s children? Did one of them get named Helen Gamma Narbon, despite not strictly being a clone?
For that matter, we know she had “natural” children (for whatever version of natural applies to children gestated by their cissexual father) but that doesn’t rule out cloning a Helen Gamma *as well.*
Assuming that Dave and Helen had their daughter no more than a year after the end of Narbonic, she’d be about five by now.
Technically, that should be “Helens Narbon”.
Only if we take Narbon as a modifier to Helen, rather than part of one name.
Ah! Another one! Welcome to MY tribe, fellow pedant!
Collective naming – I think they used that with a cloned line of medical doctors in a Bujold Vorkosigan book. Mirror Dance perhaps?
Generally altered the gender from instance to instance, and the first name. The Collective was referred to as the Doctors Durona.
I don’t think so. Sure, historically that would be correct, but it appears that they’ve shifted to Narbon being a name, not a description.
(TUNE: “Send In The Clowns”, Stephen Sondheim)
If you don’t mind,
If I may ask,
Are you a thing that your mom
Mixed in a flask?
Built by the clones …
No, I don’t mind,
Yes, ma’am, you may …
Yes, Helen Narbon cooked up
My DNA …
Narbons are clones,
The Helens are clones!
Head full of brains!
Bod full of brawn!
I was concocted by Miss Helen Beta Narbon!
I was a gerbil when in my original shape;
Transmogrified
Into an ape!
No need to blush,
No need for guilt …
We all have issues with how
We all were built!
My folks were clones …
Narbonic clones …
They’re mad to the hilt!
I’d think one of Artie’s goals is to come up with the polite way to ask if someone is an abomination of mad science.
Would it be clearer we reinstated the preposition? Helenas de Narbon?
That was supposed to be a reply to John Beattie.
I wonder if this will manage to be a reply to myself.
Hey, it’s not on this comic, but there seems to be a writing in the URL occasionally. Is this GOTON at work?
I just noticed it, although I can’t seem to keep track of it.
http://www.ci-n.com/~jcampbel/skinhorse.txt
Virginia blushes – 21. Wow, she blushes a lot in this storyline!
OK, the comment system doesn’t like comments that start with a digit. Revised count – 22.
Could we call them the Helens Narbon?
So, I think this was the strip that led me to do a (very) little bit of digging and discover Narbonic.
I hope you didn’t need to dig at all, since there’s a link at the top of the page.
It was a fairly shallow excavation.
It’s more that I realized there had to be a real backstory behind these references and finally bothered to look.