Just once I want the last words of the dying megalomaniac mad scientist to be something positive, like, “Always eat your salads” or “A little vinegar will clean that stain right up”! But noooo it’s always “don’t trust anyone!”. Blah.
I seem to have written a filk. It really belongs in the “Choose” story arc, with a reference to “Railway Children” at the end, but it got into my head now, and now, I hope, it will be in someone else’s head instead.
“Anasigma” To the tune of “Anatevka” from Fiddler on the Roof (I’d put that in italics if I knew how.)
Anasigma, Anasigma,
Dangerous, treacherous Anasigma,
Where our director’s never seen.
Anasigma, Anasigma,
Secretive, clandestine Anasigma–
Just what the hell is “Mr. Green”?
Eyeball razor chimps may be as nice as pie,
But there are way too many ways to die
At Anasigma . . . !
I belong to Anasigma.
Hazardous, perilous Anasigma.
What does our Mission Statement even mean??
Well it’s not all that surprising. Skin Horse is specifically supposed to (on the surface, at least) slot non-humans into human society. Collodi wants to do the exact opposite. Stand to reason that he wouldn’t like it even if it *isn’t* a front for some other agenda.
That said, this would a great bargaining chip against Gavotte if it wasn’t almost certain she already knew about it.
I think you got it. The human hard-liners should be thankful that some of the non-humans are more moderate than themselves, because an all-out fight would be a mismatch.
Also, I think Dr. Collodi’s daughter is actually a he. I won’t explain the details of my ingenious theory now, but it all makes perfect murder-mystery sense and reinforces one of the strips’ motifs, and like most murder-mystery theories is probably wrong.
And the contents of the drum are doubtless what led him to conclude that the project is untrustworthy, assuming it’s not as simple as them keeping a defanged Mustaschio as a receptionist and forcing sentiments to integrate into the mundane world rather than force the world to adapt to them.
mmm not sure about that.
He said “don’t trust”, not “Don’t subvert them from the inside”. Still… bio, not mechanical.
I’m still on team Little House. I’m betting the house itself is the corp, or the heart of it, and that it is his Daughter.
The writing’s been on the wall (heh) for a couple of plotlines now, but I think with this week we’ve just passed a critical point. I remember when Narbonic hit this- when Artie found out about the Tinasky study, maybe?
Except when Artie found out about the Tinasky study, the audience already had knowledge of the surrounding facts and so knew that his discovery would have a lasting impact on the overall plot.
All we know for sure right now is that Collodi didn’t trust Skin Horse, not his reasoning or its veracity or validity. We don’t know if his paranoia will impact the overall plot of the story beyond simply advancing this plotline.
This seems like as good a time as any to ask a question that I’ve been wondering about since the beginning. As all feds know you work ON a project and FOR a department (or one of it’s subunits – committee, office, bureau, etc.)
So who do the skin horse team work for? What does it say on their paystubs?
Well, that’s where a lot of the black ops funding comes from, isn’t it?
“I don’t understand, where does all this come from? How do you get funding for something like this?”
“You don’t actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?”
-Independence Day
It could be worse than being paid out of the furniture budget. Furniture at least counts as “Durable goods”.
Try being paid out of the “Sundries” budget.
Sundries- pens, paper, sticky notes, disposable cups, contract workers….
Presumably right now they’re organized under HHS or DHS. Since they’ve given no indication of any right to work with entities that are not in or from the US, I’m inclined to go with Health and Human Services. The Department of Irradiation is clearly DoD, since no one else would want to do something like that.
There isn’t a formal US Gov’t Department of Radiation Hardening, but the government does employ scientists who do that. I am declaring it Fan Canon that the Irradiation and Radiation Hardening divisions regularly oppose each other in both literal and figurative tug-of-war contests. One year, the Department of Irradiation destroyed a 1-ton transformer targeting an otherwise ordinary radiation-hardened mouse; the mouse escaped after its cage melted.
General Services Administration, which tends to be a lot of agricultural consultants and a lot of heavily-armed-and-ride-in-black-helicopters “agricultural consultants” who go places and do things, some of which actually do involve soybeans and lentils.
The video is “for the princess” but talks to the daughter. I’m trying to sort out what that means.
–He could be planning a nice princess avatar for the daughter. But I don’t see Collodi as a “vacuum out the brain” style mad scientist.
–The daughter is the intended princess?
–The daughter is still asleep, awaiting true love’s kiss. But why is he talking to the princess and not her.
I think Collodi expected his daughter to be the “princess”, but seems how no one knew who she was or where to find her, they had to create one to be able to get to the reel. Basically, it didn’t go according to plan.
Okay, stupid question time: Who developed this reel of film? It’s not, given the condition of Dr. Collodi, the good doctor’s work. Developing a reel of film from exposed to something you can project is not something that happens without a bit of careful effort and timing. I know there were automatic processing methods available, of course – but still, someone had to place the film reel on that pedestal. Given the behavior of the various Little House residents I doubt it was any of them.
So there’s another player involved here. Who is it? (If this weren’t Jeffrey and Shaenon, I’d assume such details weren’t important. But they like Chekov’s bricks far, far too much for me to accept that, here.)
(Unimportant details are like wondering what was done to protect the film from the effects of the high levels of contamination and ionizing radiation in and around that vault in the time since it was placed there.)
Actually, unless we see/”hear” him die, one must assume there’s still a chance he lives through this one. It’s might be the next mob after that gets him….
Also, I think the issue of the reel surviving the radiation while in the vault was discussed pretty well on the strip where Nick twirls in front of the mirror. I think the jist of it was that type of film reel should remain largely unaffected by most forms of radiation, or at least what ever type is going on there. Can’t remember exactly.
Also, looks like someone accidentally posted their comment for today on yesterday’s. I’ll bring it forward for all to see.
Zebediah
August 16, 2013 at 7:43 am | # | Reply
Those preparing for war will often remind you not to trust peacemakers — one never knows whose side they’re on, or what profane compromises they may suggest.
Well at least he doesn’t mean them, because they are new to the company, he meant those that have been in the project since it’s beginning.
(now I’m imagining Collodi fighting against Gavotte – a mad scientist with a ray gun against a swarm of bees with tiny afros (besause 80’s))
I’m not sure exactly what this means; one thing we can be sure of is that this is revealing that Skin Horse has been around since the ’60s. Other than that, well – they weren’t exactly considering this guy as being “on their side”, were they? It’s not like they thought the message was to them either. All I can think of is if they were planning to find the daughter and deliver the message to her, this complicates that a little. Kind of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern” in a way.
Well crap.
That’s fairly disturbing.
Time to run for it.
And now, the Benny Hill montage!
Just once I want the last words of the dying megalomaniac mad scientist to be something positive, like, “Always eat your salads” or “A little vinegar will clean that stain right up”! But noooo it’s always “don’t trust anyone!”. Blah.
I seem to have written a filk. It really belongs in the “Choose” story arc, with a reference to “Railway Children” at the end, but it got into my head now, and now, I hope, it will be in someone else’s head instead.
“Anasigma” To the tune of “Anatevka” from Fiddler on the Roof (I’d put that in italics if I knew how.)
Anasigma, Anasigma,
Dangerous, treacherous Anasigma,
Where our director’s never seen.
Anasigma, Anasigma,
Secretive, clandestine Anasigma–
Just what the hell is “Mr. Green”?
Eyeball razor chimps may be as nice as pie,
But there are way too many ways to die
At Anasigma . . . !
I belong to Anasigma.
Hazardous, perilous Anasigma.
What does our Mission Statement even mean??
Welcome to the Dark Side. Here’s your ID card and complimentary coupon book.
And we have cookies! Chocolate chip oatmeal, but they are evil.
Well it’s not all that surprising. Skin Horse is specifically supposed to (on the surface, at least) slot non-humans into human society. Collodi wants to do the exact opposite. Stand to reason that he wouldn’t like it even if it *isn’t* a front for some other agenda.
That said, this would a great bargaining chip against Gavotte if it wasn’t almost certain she already knew about it.
I think you got it. The human hard-liners should be thankful that some of the non-humans are more moderate than themselves, because an all-out fight would be a mismatch.
Also, I think Dr. Collodi’s daughter is actually a he. I won’t explain the details of my ingenious theory now, but it all makes perfect murder-mystery sense and reinforces one of the strips’ motifs, and like most murder-mystery theories is probably wrong.
We will continue with Act IV after a brief 15-minute intermission.
Welp, talk about a Friday cliffhanger!
(Can’t wait for tomorrow’s.)
Yeah, this is one of the better ones.
So who from Skin Horse in the 1960’s is still around? I’m not sure mustachio would remember without the proper memory drum.
Which is in the vault here at the Little House, apparently…
And the contents of the drum are doubtless what led him to conclude that the project is untrustworthy, assuming it’s not as simple as them keeping a defanged Mustaschio as a receptionist and forcing sentiments to integrate into the mundane world rather than force the world to adapt to them.
Sentients? Sapients would probably be better.
Sorry; used to do a lot of proofreading as part of my job.
It’s hard to keep all the words straight after zombies have eaten your brain.
I think we’ve officially entered the home stretch of this mindfuck.
Oh my gosh, it’s the plot from season one of The Alphas!
I guess that rules out Gavotte as his “daughter”, even if her bees do turn out to be animatronic.
mmm not sure about that.
He said “don’t trust”, not “Don’t subvert them from the inside”. Still… bio, not mechanical.
I’m still on team Little House. I’m betting the house itself is the corp, or the heart of it, and that it is his Daughter.
given his mechanical focus.. what do you want to bet his “daughter” was an android.. and Nick’s new fembot body is an exact copy, sans AI brain?
Meaning Dr Lee built the Violet Bee drone based on Collodi’s daughter’s design whom Anisigma captured some time ago? Possible.
I briefly misread the first line as “Sorry. Angry kitten mob here” — well, it’s not outside the bounds of reason in this comic.
Yeah, me too. Angry kitten mob.
…Can we have them wear little suits and fedoras?
Led by Mew-er Lansky and Kitty Luciano?
I demand an angry kitten mob.
If anyone can draw an angry kitten mob, it’s Shaenon.
Go for it Shaenon! Wall Paper!
Now I’m remembering the demonic kittens from that _Sluggy_ story.
mew.
Well then.
The writing’s been on the wall (heh) for a couple of plotlines now, but I think with this week we’ve just passed a critical point. I remember when Narbonic hit this- when Artie found out about the Tinasky study, maybe?
Except when Artie found out about the Tinasky study, the audience already had knowledge of the surrounding facts and so knew that his discovery would have a lasting impact on the overall plot.
All we know for sure right now is that Collodi didn’t trust Skin Horse, not his reasoning or its veracity or validity. We don’t know if his paranoia will impact the overall plot of the story beyond simply advancing this plotline.
Well, crap.
This seems like as good a time as any to ask a question that I’ve been wondering about since the beginning. As all feds know you work ON a project and FOR a department (or one of it’s subunits – committee, office, bureau, etc.)
So who do the skin horse team work for? What does it say on their paystubs?
Furniture?
I’ll shut up (maybe).
Well, that’s where a lot of the black ops funding comes from, isn’t it?
“I don’t understand, where does all this come from? How do you get funding for something like this?”
“You don’t actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?”
-Independence Day
It could be worse than being paid out of the furniture budget. Furniture at least counts as “Durable goods”.
Try being paid out of the “Sundries” budget.
Sundries- pens, paper, sticky notes, disposable cups, contract workers….
Presumably right now they’re organized under HHS or DHS. Since they’ve given no indication of any right to work with entities that are not in or from the US, I’m inclined to go with Health and Human Services. The Department of Irradiation is clearly DoD, since no one else would want to do something like that.
A lot of “fun” nuclear research goes under DoE instead of DoD.
There isn’t a formal US Gov’t Department of Radiation Hardening, but the government does employ scientists who do that. I am declaring it Fan Canon that the Irradiation and Radiation Hardening divisions regularly oppose each other in both literal and figurative tug-of-war contests. One year, the Department of Irradiation destroyed a 1-ton transformer targeting an otherwise ordinary radiation-hardened mouse; the mouse escaped after its cage melted.
General Services Administration, which tends to be a lot of agricultural consultants and a lot of heavily-armed-and-ride-in-black-helicopters “agricultural consultants” who go places and do things, some of which actually do involve soybeans and lentils.
The video is “for the princess” but talks to the daughter. I’m trying to sort out what that means.
–He could be planning a nice princess avatar for the daughter. But I don’t see Collodi as a “vacuum out the brain” style mad scientist.
–The daughter is the intended princess?
–The daughter is still asleep, awaiting true love’s kiss. But why is he talking to the princess and not her.
And is Unity eating the Thorazine apple?
—
I think Collodi expected his daughter to be the “princess”, but seems how no one knew who she was or where to find her, they had to create one to be able to get to the reel. Basically, it didn’t go according to plan.
Okay, stupid question time: Who developed this reel of film? It’s not, given the condition of Dr. Collodi, the good doctor’s work. Developing a reel of film from exposed to something you can project is not something that happens without a bit of careful effort and timing. I know there were automatic processing methods available, of course – but still, someone had to place the film reel on that pedestal. Given the behavior of the various Little House residents I doubt it was any of them.
So there’s another player involved here. Who is it? (If this weren’t Jeffrey and Shaenon, I’d assume such details weren’t important. But they like Chekov’s bricks far, far too much for me to accept that, here.)
(Unimportant details are like wondering what was done to protect the film from the effects of the high levels of contamination and ionizing radiation in and around that vault in the time since it was placed there.)
Actually, unless we see/”hear” him die, one must assume there’s still a chance he lives through this one. It’s might be the next mob after that gets him….
Also, I think the issue of the reel surviving the radiation while in the vault was discussed pretty well on the strip where Nick twirls in front of the mirror. I think the jist of it was that type of film reel should remain largely unaffected by most forms of radiation, or at least what ever type is going on there. Can’t remember exactly.
Bleh, bad no edit… It’s -> It
Well… crap.
Also, looks like someone accidentally posted their comment for today on yesterday’s. I’ll bring it forward for all to see.
Zebediah
August 16, 2013 at 7:43 am | # | Reply
Those preparing for war will often remind you not to trust peacemakers — one never knows whose side they’re on, or what profane compromises they may suggest.
dun Dun DUN!!!
du-du-DUUUH!
Well at least he doesn’t mean them, because they are new to the company, he meant those that have been in the project since it’s beginning.
(now I’m imagining Collodi fighting against Gavotte – a mad scientist with a ray gun against a swarm of bees with tiny afros (besause 80’s))
Except the film is from the 60’s….
O.K., bees with long hair, and faceted granny glasses – oh, wait…
Plenty of afros in the 60s.
Maybe so, I don’t know. But his comment was because of the “80’s”.
The plot thickens.
Aaaand cue two straight weeks of guest strips.
But… but…. that’s EVIL!
:p
This may be a good time to admit to (remind?) the locals that they’re not here on strictly official business.
Hmmmmm. My “shit’s about to get real” senses are tingling. I wonder why….Perhaps we’ll find out tomorrow.
You can almost hear the gears stripping in all four of their heads (literally, in Nick’s case).
Now’s a good time to check the rest of the Archive. There needs to be data to either back up or dispel the paranoia now curdling in the theatre.
I’m not sure if the proper sound effect here is “dun Dun DUN”…or the Sad Trombone.
I’m not sure exactly what this means; one thing we can be sure of is that this is revealing that Skin Horse has been around since the ’60s. Other than that, well – they weren’t exactly considering this guy as being “on their side”, were they? It’s not like they thought the message was to them either. All I can think of is if they were planning to find the daughter and deliver the message to her, this complicates that a little. Kind of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern” in a way.
Man, this was one hell of a twist back in the day.