Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2014-07-03
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2014-07-03

by shaenon on July 3, 2014 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Grillo Parlante
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Discussion (47) ¬

  1. Moe Lane
    July 3, 2014, 12:07 am | # | Reply

    Man, having two parents that were weirdblind when you’re not must be uniquely frustrating in that universe.

  2. Manifesta
    July 3, 2014, 12:29 am | # | Reply

    Okay, I thought the same thing yesterday: Nera’s mother doesn’t sound like Mell, but she sure sounds like Helen. Could there be a Gamma out there?

    • Daniel
      July 3, 2014, 1:23 am | # | Reply

      An intriguing thought, but the Narbons are all blond.

      • BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
        July 3, 2014, 1:24 am | # | Reply

        But Davenports aren’t.

        • Mental Mouse
          July 4, 2014, 6:47 am | # | Reply

          If she was a “composite” of the two, she wouldn’t be Gamma. The Anonymous Barfly presumably is a composite who happens to favor Helen.

          • Rex Vivat
            July 4, 2014, 10:36 am | #

            Not quite anonymous. She’s called Rosalind.

          • Malicron
            April 5, 2016, 9:41 pm | #

            But Rosalind’s a blond like her mother.

    • BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
      July 3, 2014, 1:24 am | # | Reply

      That would explain why she’s in to programming, considering who the father is.

    • jdreyfuss
      July 3, 2014, 7:28 am | # | Reply

      Call this a sticking point, but I thought Nera was either Latina or Italian-American. If she’s Italian, she could be Helen’s cousin of some degree. I think she just comes from a family of nerd and in the Narboniverse, nerds seem to have a lesser degree of weirdblindness than the population at-large.

  3. irdburns
    July 3, 2014, 1:17 am | # | Reply

    Man, we’re all reality blind by implication. Reality blindness should be considered a worse condition than Walton’s Disorder…

    • Smurfton
      July 3, 2014, 1:56 am | # | Reply

      The one hope that we have for not being reality-blind is that we read fantasy. I have a feeling that the 20% who are reality blind refuse to read fantasy and science fiction; the story is impossible, so what’s the point?

      Also, it’s possible that some of us aren’t reality blind, but just haven’t seen any weird stuff.

      • BRGR
        July 3, 2014, 4:29 am | # | Reply

        They’re not going to follow what you’re saying at all.
        They impugn and appall in the scope of their gall
        As you hide in your room in disgust with the lights turned out.

        • edddddthemadgenius
          July 3, 2014, 8:59 am | # | Reply

          well, actually it only implies that you, specifically, are reality blind. You dont know what the rest of us in the comments here can see >:)

          • Tetra Valent
            July 3, 2014, 1:58 pm | #

            “I paint what I see, child.”

      • Rex Vivat
        July 3, 2014, 11:04 am | # | Reply

        You haven’t seen any weird stuff? Ever? I wonder how you can manage that while you’re on the Internet… you must really be reality blind, then.

        • Towering Barbarian
          July 4, 2014, 12:04 am | # | Reply

          Rex,
          Keep in mind that SF draws people with a high weirdness threshold and to such people Lensmen, Sparks and catgirls all constitute normal.

          Hmmm! Come to think of it, I suppose it’s possible to have a high weirdness threshold and still be reality blind. It’s just that the high weirdness threshold serves to both compensate for and obscure the other issue at the very same time. @_@

    • oneuniverse2
      July 3, 2014, 10:59 am | # | Reply

      As humans, we are reality blind because of our limited senses. However, if the criteria is the ability to recognize wonder in everyday circumstances, 80% of the population is blind. Those of us reading Jeff’s and Shaenon’s work are probably in the less-blind? group.

  4. Manifesta
    July 3, 2014, 1:23 am | # | Reply

    Jeff, here’s a filk in honor of your taking over the writing duties during Shaenon’s well-deserved parental leave:
    tune: “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” Sting, The Police, Synchronicity, 1983

    I became enamored of Narbonic
    So I wrote a fanfic un-laconic
    Twenty parts, the art she could not finish
    Though the story’s charms did not diminish

    It was called “A Brief Moment of Culture”
    Shaenon glommed onto it like a vulture
    Thought “Now here’s a guy who’ll do my bidding
    Writing Skin Horse.” Boy, she wasn’t kidding!

    “He’ll be wrapped around my finger”
    “He’ll be wrapped around my finger”

    TV Tropes calls me “Promoted Fanboy”
    That’s just Part One of my evil plan, boy
    Shaenon thinks I’m her collaborator
    Soon I’ll be creator, then dictator

    She and Andrew think they planned this baby
    But was I behind the timing? Maybe
    “I’ll step in, don’t worry”—words beguile ’em
    Soon I will be “Running the Asylum”

    Shaenon may not like the change of leaders
    ‘Til she finds I’ve gained a million readers
    Then she’ll know that I’m a brilliant schemer
    I’ll make ev’ry character a lemur!

    • Jeffrey C. Wells
      July 3, 2014, 9:53 am | # | Reply

      SHUSH

      DO NOT REVEAL MY SECRET PLANS

      (Seriously, thanks! My own song!)

      • oneuniverse2
        July 3, 2014, 11:01 am | # | Reply

        Aren’t your plans so far advanced there’s no stopping them now?

      • Shaenon
        July 3, 2014, 2:04 pm | # | Reply

        I demand a recording of Jeff singing this in his resonant baritone.

    • oneuniverse2
      July 3, 2014, 11:03 am | # | Reply

      Good grief! Now I’m glad I didn’t submit MY fanfic! The last story arc sorta blew up my plot, anyway. So, I’m going back to re-read Narbonic (again); I’m only up to Helen twiddling her eyeglasses at Dave, so the joy is only beginning again.

  5. BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
    July 3, 2014, 1:27 am | # | Reply

    In the mortal words of Tom Smith, “You may not have a hope in hell, but at least you’ve got a clue.”

    • oneuniverse2
      July 3, 2014, 11:04 am | # | Reply

      And body organs.

  6. orcurrentresident
    July 3, 2014, 2:26 am | # | Reply

    Organs have rights?

    • jdreyfuss
      July 3, 2014, 7:31 am | # | Reply

      No, but you currently have property rights over yours.

      • orcurrentresident
        July 3, 2014, 10:11 am | # | Reply

        Property has rights… and organs are property, so doesn’t organs have rights?

    • oneuniverse2
      July 3, 2014, 11:05 am | # | Reply

      Since SCOTUS gave corporations the rights of human beings, I’m going to incorporate mine.

    • Ser Pentrose
      July 3, 2014, 5:54 pm | # | Reply

      The sapient ones, yes.

  7. anonymous
    July 3, 2014, 2:37 am | # | Reply

    Hair dye’s not that hard to find.

  8. ngmatt8652
    July 3, 2014, 2:51 am | # | Reply

    I take it back, she is hands down one of WORST people to do this kind of thing with.

    • Saberbeam
      July 3, 2014, 12:36 pm | # | Reply

      ngmatt8652: I’m assuming that somehow Jonah and Nerah are going to keep ending up in these kinds of situations, despite their (or at least Jonah’s) best efforts to avoid them. If this is the case, it couldn’t hurt for them to have someone that can bring in a few assault rifles when things go wrong, even if she likely causes half the problems to start with.

  9. Sora Hjort
    July 3, 2014, 5:32 am | # | Reply

    Is the answer to that statement “Yes”? I feel the answer is “Yes”.

    • Shadowmehr
      July 3, 2014, 9:07 pm | # | Reply

      The question is framed as an “or” statement, but it really should be an “and” one. So while the answer is definitely positive, it’s not quite a “yes”.

  10. Eddurd
    July 3, 2014, 6:38 am | # | Reply

    (TUNE: “Suicide is Painless” (theme from M*A*S*H), Johnny Mandel)

    As Nera’s mom takes me away
    To explore the USA,
    My parents think that it’s OK,
    And hearing that, I’ve got to say …

    That Mom and Dad are clueless!
    They surely couldn’t do less
    To save my butt (and organs) if they tried!

  11. Kimbal
    July 3, 2014, 9:03 am | # | Reply

    There’s also Zeta which would mean the girl is part Gerbil not Latina

    • Rex Vivat
      July 3, 2014, 11:08 am | # | Reply

      That’s not how Zeta usually acts. Also, Nera was talking about Foot as if she didn’t know him.

  12. Windy Wanderings
    July 3, 2014, 11:00 am | # | Reply

    Nera’s mom is probably a just a mad scientist who we haven’t seen before. The question is if and when Nera will go mad. Hopefully not in a small contained space with other people in it like say, in a car on a road trip.

  13. Frank Hightower
    July 3, 2014, 1:16 pm | # | Reply

    The clueless don’t know

    and the clueful don’t care

  14. shaenon
    July 3, 2014, 2:16 pm | # | Reply

    Nera’s last name is Vivaldi, which certainly sounds Italian, but I’ve always pictured her as Hispanic. She looks not unlike tireless colorist Pancha Diaz, only super tall.

  15. Robert Nowall
    July 3, 2014, 3:12 pm | # | Reply

    Find out if his organs are Wurlitzers.

  16. Windy Wanderings
    July 3, 2014, 3:57 pm | # | Reply

    Also, I wonder if having a Reality Filter is genetic or just dependent in the particular person’s mindset. If both of Jonah’s parents have one and he doesn’t it would suggest the latter.

    • Rex Vivat
      July 3, 2014, 4:13 pm | # | Reply

      Well, it’s been stated that Dave’s brother Bill has one of the worst cases of Reality Filter… while Dave is Dave. It’s been implied that Bill developed his RF to cope with his Dave-exposed childhood.

    • Windy Wanderings
      July 4, 2014, 1:46 am | # | Reply

      Ooh yes I forgot about Bill and the cancelled Traumatic-Event-In-Dave’s-Childhood plot point. That certainly does point to it being dependent on the psyche of the person.

    • NoTime
      January 1, 2021, 7:42 pm | # | Reply

      Reality filters take many forms some genetic in the sense that the brain preprocess what your visual sensors pick up. Much literature on optical illusions, blind spots and additions/subtractions to viewed scenes. This last one tends have the most individual variation.
      Some referential: Take the cover of a machine, people with no experience just see a formless blur. Much different than what a technician sees.
      Then there’s things like flat earth and geocentrism.
      Politics has pretty much made a science of exploiting peoples reality filters. Some literature on this as well.

  17. Jonathan Fisher
    July 4, 2014, 12:12 am | # | Reply

    Being a bit of a time-traveler myself, I have to unfortunately inform you that Monday’s artwork is 30% less fun than Shannon’s, at least for Skin Horse purposes… dunno how well it works in the original medium.

  18. WJS
    July 12, 2019, 4:32 pm | # | Reply

    …OK, maybe he does have something to worry about after all. Organ rights? “Tests”? Is Nera’s mum a Madgirl?

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