I think the problem here is his strength is proportional to his size. He could reach the latch just fine, but pulling it back requires the use of a muscle equivalent to his entire body mass.
I guarantee that if his expansion occurs with enough force to create “meat spaghetti”, the carrier would break apart long before that point – unless it’s secretly made of some absurd magic alloy that makes it impossibly light and strong.
(Because it wasn’t unlikely enough that they just so happened to have cat carrier on hand, but it also is made out of super materials too, for some reason.)
Really, the question is mostly one of the rate of expansion more than anything. If it’s “roughly” instantaneous, that’s kind of a problem – but if it occurs over the course of a short period of time, say half a second… that’s far less of a problem.
The plastic carrier will definitely rupture upon his expansion, it’s just a question of whether the cat next to him will have to deal with a situation akin to being briefly sat on (unpleasant but unlikely to cause more than brief discomfort), or a situation akin to setting off a car airbag two inches away from someone’s face instead of two feet.
A “slow” expansion gives the flesh of both critters time to compress and deform without causing permanent damage. A “fast” expansion is like a bomb going off.
Well…because they’re an ANASIGMA monster-hunting squad. Think about the general level of competence they’ve displayed throughout.
Latest example? Sending a bunch of muscle in to search a genius-level monster’s lair without thought of booby-traps or similar dangers, resulting in a house explosion.
Our cat carriers are held together with five galvanized bolts and wing nuts on either side. Explosive growth would blow them apart, but they’d put up enough resistance that whatever was in them would take some damage too.
Whereas ours (almost the same colour as that one) is held together by 6 plastic toggles. Cinnamon is almost heavy enough on her own to cause them to fail, especially if she started jumping up and down.
Has that actually been consistently maintained? Or have we actually seen him forget things? It seems like such an easy detail to forget while writing strips.
Having an eidetic memory doesn’t necessarily mean that he pays attention to everything in it. After all, the bigger the picture you have to look at makes it that much easier to miss little details, even though they’re right in front of you.
Took a look (in my copy of “Narbonic”) at the one M mentions…whereas it kind of looks like Artie busted out of a cage, it doesn’t actually say so. So it’s up for grabs.
Of course, even if they manage to somehow bust out of the carrier without either of them being spaghettified or suffering any other serious injury, they will still have to deal with the heavily-armed A-sig goon who is carrying them.
Unless the carrier is made out of something other than plastic I don’t see a problem here.
All Artie has to do is chew away either the plastic holding the door bolt in place.
Alternately, the plastic holding the hinge holes.
A little applied intelligence will go a long way.
That is unfortunately one common problem for those with high intelligence. They tend to overthink things and make them more complicated than they really need to.
Your the playdough in this scenario cat, whatever your name was.
Yeah, if the carrier isn’t too strongly built Artie might bust out relatively intact: the cat, not so much.
Stringamon?
Cinnastrand?
Squishy?
“Cinnastrands” sounds delicious! 😉
Like really thin churros!
Cinnasghetti?
Yeah, that’s the only argument that could possibly make a *cat* dislike the idea of meat spaghetti. Still-twitching, blood-warm meat spaghetti.
“Still-twitching, blood-warm meat spaghetti” sounds delicious!
Steve’s a good soldier, not allowing a little explosion to interfere with following orders.
He works for A-Sig. If he let himself get flustered by every unexpected explosion, he’d never get any work done.
Cat, his entire arm fits through the mesh right now
(I do love the name “thumb tech” though)
Agreed. Fantastic term for fussy little bits that need monkey claws to operate properly.
I think the problem here is his strength is proportional to his size. He could reach the latch just fine, but pulling it back requires the use of a muscle equivalent to his entire body mass.
I guarantee that if his expansion occurs with enough force to create “meat spaghetti”, the carrier would break apart long before that point – unless it’s secretly made of some absurd magic alloy that makes it impossibly light and strong.
(Because it wasn’t unlikely enough that they just so happened to have cat carrier on hand, but it also is made out of super materials too, for some reason.)
Really, the question is mostly one of the rate of expansion more than anything. If it’s “roughly” instantaneous, that’s kind of a problem – but if it occurs over the course of a short period of time, say half a second… that’s far less of a problem.
The plastic carrier will definitely rupture upon his expansion, it’s just a question of whether the cat next to him will have to deal with a situation akin to being briefly sat on (unpleasant but unlikely to cause more than brief discomfort), or a situation akin to setting off a car airbag two inches away from someone’s face instead of two feet.
A “slow” expansion gives the flesh of both critters time to compress and deform without causing permanent damage. A “fast” expansion is like a bomb going off.
They’re an Anasigma monster-hunting squad. Why wouldn’t their carrier for class C small monsters be made out of absurd magic super-alloys?
Well…because they’re an ANASIGMA monster-hunting squad. Think about the general level of competence they’ve displayed throughout.
Latest example? Sending a bunch of muscle in to search a genius-level monster’s lair without thought of booby-traps or similar dangers, resulting in a house explosion.
Our cat carriers are held together with five galvanized bolts and wing nuts on either side. Explosive growth would blow them apart, but they’d put up enough resistance that whatever was in them would take some damage too.
Whereas ours (almost the same colour as that one) is held together by 6 plastic toggles. Cinnamon is almost heavy enough on her own to cause them to fail, especially if she started jumping up and down.
Your cats are either smaller than ours or much better behaved.
Better behaved. I don’t even use the carrier to take her to the vet.
Didn’t Artie once bust out of a cage that way back when he first got his human body?
I think not?
It all started with a dick joke. http://narbonic.com/comic/april-4-9-2005/
Yes, before he was able to control the transition: http://narbonic.com/comic/june-27-july-2-2005/
Solid catch.
Side note, but I was reading forward from that point a bit, and I had forgotten that apparently Artie has an eidetic memory.
http://narbonic.com/comic/august-1-6-2005/
Has that actually been consistently maintained? Or have we actually seen him forget things? It seems like such an easy detail to forget while writing strips.
Having an eidetic memory doesn’t necessarily mean that he pays attention to everything in it. After all, the bigger the picture you have to look at makes it that much easier to miss little details, even though they’re right in front of you.
Took a look (in my copy of “Narbonic”) at the one M mentions…whereas it kind of looks like Artie busted out of a cage, it doesn’t actually say so. So it’s up for grabs.
Except that Shaenon does say so in her commentary on the one M mentioned.
Darn. Now I gotta take another look.
At that size, he’d be julienned. The wire mesh isn’t nearly tight enough to make spaghetti.
No, it’s the little holes in the sides of the carrier that would make spaghetti.
Those holes are a bit too large to make spaghetti. Bigoli maybe, or something even thicker.
Of course, even if they manage to somehow bust out of the carrier without either of them being spaghettified or suffering any other serious injury, they will still have to deal with the heavily-armed A-sig goon who is carrying them.
Pretty sure Artie could take him in a fight. He would certainly have the element of surprise in his favour.
He was so traumatized by the chair incident that he is still not thinking clearly.
http://narbonic.com/comic/july-4-9-2005/
Unless the carrier is made out of something other than plastic I don’t see a problem here.
All Artie has to do is chew away either the plastic holding the door bolt in place.
Alternately, the plastic holding the hinge holes.
A little applied intelligence will go a long way.
Which is the problem. Artie has a lot of intelligence, which means he might miss the simpler solution.
That is unfortunately one common problem for those with high intelligence. They tend to overthink things and make them more complicated than they really need to.
Thumb tech also includes can openers.