2014-08-08
Art for today brought to you by Dazhbug! You may check out a higher-resolution version of this strip over on the GoComics mirror!
Skin Horse
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Art for today brought to you by Dazhbug! You may check out a higher-resolution version of this strip over on the GoComics mirror!
Wait, so they are connected at the mouth? That seems rather weird.
Yeah, traditionally you would make a rat king by tying the tails together.
Yes, well, it’s particularly hard to make a long chain of rats/mice with all the tails tied together.
Think outside the box. Just graft an extra tail onto each mouse, and problem solved!
Oh, you can actually do this without even modifying the mice. If each mouse’s tail is tied at its end with another mouse’s tail base, you could make a chain (much like a coat hanger chain).
However, this method (and yours) severely limits the range of the chain, and since only the end-mouse of each tendril needs to be active at any time, is also unnecessary.
Looks like mouth to mouth, then tail to tail, then mouth to mouth, repeat…
Ah do believe that there is more than one definition of daisy chain
At least it isn’t mobile – Unless sections can split off to act independently. . . .
Is there some form of minimum number of units necessary to maintain the ‘Daisychain’ intelligence in a stable fashion? (Yes, probably over-thinking this, but still taken with literal SCSI mice. . .)
Would you rather have a Mouse Centipede?
So wait, it was the big bad from The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents the entire time?
Yep, they called it and my hats are off to them.
Wait, no, that’s the psionics. Darn it Daisychain, I LIKED that hat.
At least it wasn’t the brain rats from Planescape: Torment.
Cranium rats. They’re called cranium rats, and in this case they look like they’re fused with Ilsensine* its own self. Very disturbing, but still neat in a way.
*LE god of mind-flayers, often pictured as a three-story tall green brain, whose neuro-fibers extended from its own realm across the planes, gathering information. Yes, I am a Planescape geek, why do you ask?
For a slightly more meta level, Ilsensine was suspected of creating the cranium rats in the first place. I’m beginning to think Our Dear Authors play the same games I do.
I’m sure the DM from the other day loves having a picture to go with the hypothesized ideas.
Murial Centipede.
Mouse king! Where’s a nutcracker when you need one?
Assembling his clockwork soldiers as we speak.
Prince Kutuzov Nutcracker Lowdown VII, a Von Neumann machine built by Tigerlily Jones.
I am COMPLETELY IN FAVOUR of this.
(TUNE: “If I Only Had A Brain”, Arlen & Harburg)
As the USA we’re cruising,
Our free will we are losing
At this motel in Maine …
We’re not rebels or truants,
We’re just under the influence
Of a multi-rodent brain!
In this room so dull and lousy,
We met up with a mousie
Whose name was Daisychain …
Well, we weren’t too observant
So we soon became the servant
Of a multi-rodent brain!
Now, Jonah is a fan
Of snacks of dessicated meat!
But he won’t let the Man
Say what he can
And cannot eat!
Yes, this mouse conglomeration
Will face annihilation
By methods inhumane!
Like that novel by Pratchett,
So let’s go and take a hatchet
To that multi-rodent brain!
Good, good, but which novel did you have in mind?
Probably the Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.
I think they just put that warning on the packets for CYA purposes. Food-grade silica gel isn’t really dangerous to eat, though it might cause an upset stomach.
Given the kind of food that’s packaged with silica-gel packs, I just always assumed the “DO NOT EAT” label was there so you could tell the “food” from the dessicant.
Apparently the earliest mice eventually sublime into pink goo to form the cerebrum
No, those are the tails of the core, GIANT mice that have been turned into a gordian knot.
I am super-double happy that this was somewhat evident! I had a lot of fun designing the Mousie-Brain.
Any chance of Skin Horse coming back? This new comic stinks.
If you can’t say somethin’ nice, dun say nuthin’ at all. Please.
Don’t mind him, he’s been trolling since the chapter started. Just ignore him and he’ll go away.
Aaand Captain Kickass is in moderation for being sarcastic and rude after having the situation explained several times. Come back when you can knock this off.
Ooooooooh, nice, feeding tendrils made of mice!
I kinda hate to bring it up, not knowing how “family” this board should be—but, what the hell, there have been some pretty raw things in the main strip itself, so…
You guys do know what connotations the term “daisy chain” has, don’t you?
If we had to not use any words that have been at some point coopted to describe some sexual thing, I think we would quickly start running out of words.
Especially considering the nod-and-wink principle* allows us to employ literally ~anything~ as a sexual innuendo.
*I’d ‘nod and wink’ at THAT, if you know what I mean!
Actually, there are few, if any, phrases that don’t connote some unnatural practice. Makes innuendo so easy.
Vassar has a charming century-old tradition wherein some of the sophomore girls are selected to carry a garland of daisies at the senior’s graduation ceremony. It is, of course, called the Daisy Chain.
For the record, I was nominated for Daisy Chain as a sophomore but didn’t make the final cut. Story of my life.
Didn’t know you were a Vassar girl. I’m from Poughkeepsie, myself…many years ago…
We do know, but have been politely ignoring it. For the sake of a civil forum, please do the same.
On reflection, it was only a matter of time before this comic featured a rat king, and I’m just relieved I wasn’t the one who had to draw it.
Surprisingly, that panel was probably the easiest (and the most fun) to draw. I’ll take sentient rodent hiveminds over actual humans, with their HANDS and their ACTIVE POSING, any day of the week!
Besides, if it’s not adorably horrifying (or horrifyingly adorable), then it’s not really Skin Horse.
Well obviously if you had to draw it, you’d rewrite it as a gerbil emperor.
I imagine mental powers + limited mobility means a lot of it’s diet comes from mind-controlled insects, [1] with things like nuts brought by susceptible humans being a relatively rare treat.
Hmm. Can it control the weirdness-blind, or is it unable to communicate its wishes to them? Do the weirdness-blind find themselves pushing nuts down a hole for no apparent reason and later just recall it as somehow having been a good idea at the time?
[1] And to get a bit more disturbing, mind-controlled regular mice and rats
I bet it’s more innocuous, like they don’t finish a bag of peanuts or leave half an apple sitting on the dresser absentmindedly.