Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2022-01-28
‹‹ First ‹ Prev Buy! Comments(57) Next › Last ››

2022-01-28

by shaenon on January 28, 2022 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon
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Discussion (57) ¬

  1. Ladon
    January 28, 2022, 12:05 am | # | Reply

    Nick, I don’t think you’ve got enough guns for this one.

    • dornbeast
      January 28, 2022, 12:14 am | # | Reply

      The question is, does he *need* guns? This may be a situation where “make love, not war” is actually the solution – as long as it’s Nick and Gin making love.

      • Rex Vivat
        January 28, 2022, 1:10 am | # | Reply

        That… might just work.

        • Serios
          January 28, 2022, 10:38 am | # | Reply

          I don’t know if I should be more impressed with the Author (who has it potentially foreshadowed) or the commenter if this turns out to be the solution. Gin and Nick’s hanky panky em field completely slipped my mind.

        • Duane B.
          January 28, 2022, 10:55 am | # | Reply

          I would try it, even if it doesn’t work.

          • awgiedawgie
            January 28, 2022, 11:52 am | #

            True. After all, if you’ve got to go out, you might as well go out enjoying yourself.

          • Shadowmehr
            January 28, 2022, 1:04 pm | #

            If you gotta go, go with a smile!

            I wouldn’t normally take the Joker’s advice, but it does fit the situation.

        • Dewy
          January 28, 2022, 3:56 pm | # | Reply

          Go out with a bang? I’m helping!

      • On
        January 29, 2022, 12:35 am | # | Reply

        This might indeed be the perfect time for Nick to finally give a flying f*ck.

  2. David B Huber
    January 28, 2022, 12:35 am | # | Reply

    This looks bad. Very bad.

    Time for Pavane to intervene with the Mothership!

  3. LordFuzzy
    January 28, 2022, 1:00 am | # | Reply

    This is Nick’s territory,
    He is one of 3 Entities near by that Should be able to take a hand in hacking those things

    • Candace
      January 28, 2022, 1:44 am | # | Reply

      That was what I was just wondering – if Nick could somehow hack into their systems. There are a lot though…

      • skullthetroll
        January 28, 2022, 10:20 am | # | Reply

        He doesn’t need to hack. His brain is specifically designed to interface with A-Sig aircraft.

  4. JoB
    January 28, 2022, 1:53 am | # | Reply

    Well, if those are just refurbished Predator drones, maybe the robot army should try getting futzy with their RC link instead. Armed drones with an obedient AI installed into them, now that would be bad news … we can only hope that Mr. Greens aversion against NHI kept him from following through with that.

    • Bubble181
      January 28, 2022, 4:37 am | # | Reply

      If they’re just regular old refurbished Predators, Tip could easily and quickly stop the attack with a single command. So we’ll have to assume they’re not being remote controlled by human operatives.

    • Aname
      January 28, 2022, 8:52 am | # | Reply

      Tips just gotta change the targetting. Worked for Dan Akroyd in “Spies Like US”

      • s854
        January 28, 2022, 5:27 pm | # | Reply

        I wouldn’t rely too much on Tip here.

        We don’t know if the drones are commanded by anyone who reports to him, or if he can get in touch with them in a reasonable period of time even if they do.

        And it wouldn’t take much for someone in HR to find out that he lied about his qualifications to get a job there, after which he may not be able to help much.

        • awgiedawgie
          January 28, 2022, 7:37 pm | # | Reply

          Step one: fire everyone in HR.

        • awgiedawgie
          January 28, 2022, 7:45 pm | # | Reply

          I thought of this the other day, but kept forgetting to mention it…

          Yes, Tip made his meteoric rise to the top posing as Chris Sanders. But all that he would have needed to truly be at the top was to make sure that his final promotion said Dennis Wilkin instead of Chris Sanders. Then, not only would Tip be at the top, but Chris would also be just one rung below him – which would ALSO be above Ira on the org chart.

          Alternately, “Chris Sanders” could just hire Dennis Wilkin as his administrative assistant.

          • Robert Nowall
            January 28, 2022, 8:42 pm | #

            Tip was saying he was going to turn the job over to Sweetheart, quit, and go off with Tigerlily Jones.

  5. Robert Nowall
    January 28, 2022, 4:49 am | # | Reply

    Pfft…wedding crashers.

  6. Esteis
    January 28, 2022, 4:58 am | # | Reply

    Here come the flying monkeys!

    —

    Also, there’s something I’d like to thank the other commenters for. This strip has many lovely references and parallels, 90% of which I wouldn’t have noticed myself — but over the years there have been many wonderful and erudite people in the comments who pointed out the allusions, and so I could enjoy them, too. So if you’ve ever pointed out a reference over the years, you can now know that I read your comment and it improved my day. Have some warm fuzzies!

    • OneUniverse
      January 28, 2022, 7:34 am | # | Reply

      Flying monkeys indeed!

      I also send warm fuzzies to the erudite, the hilarious, and the musically inclined commentators. Everyone here adds something to this Narbonic community.

    • David B Huber
      January 28, 2022, 7:35 am | # | Reply

      Oh, a most excellent observation, Esteis! I didn’t see that.

    • paulagee66
      January 28, 2022, 8:12 am | # | Reply

      Can I add my own thanks, and warm fuzzies please

    • kiralamouse
      January 28, 2022, 8:26 am | # | Reply

      OH. In the book, Dorothy finds the control mechanism for the flying monkeys and recruits them before freeing them. That makes for an interesting and logical direction for these…

      Now I’m wondering if “Dorothy” will successfully do that, or if Nick will step in with the Power of Love and Transceiver.

      • Dewy
        January 28, 2022, 4:02 pm | # | Reply

        Who’s to say Nick isn’t the Dorothy of this story? There are a lot of parallels….

        • Robert Nowall
          January 28, 2022, 5:02 pm | # | Reply

          Nick is the Tin Woodman. Unity would be Dorothy if she wasn’t the Patchwork Girl.

          • awgiedawgie
            January 28, 2022, 5:16 pm | #

            We’ve known for a long time that the parallels are not one-to-one. Unity can be Dorothy and the Patchwork Girl (she does hang around with a scruffy little dog, after all). And sometimes Tip has been more like Dorothy than any of the others were. And don’t forget, back at Whimsy World, Nick was the Princess. That’s hardly a job for the Tin Woodman.

        • kiralamouse
          January 28, 2022, 7:19 pm | # | Reply

          I think Nick is *a* Dorothy in this story – as awgiedawgie says, it’s not a simple one-to-one. After all, both Leo and Sweetheart are clearly Cowardly Lions at different points. I tend to favor Tip as Dorothy more often than any other character, though, and certainly right now, as the most active on-site character in dismantling the man behind the curtain (with Sweetheart playing Toto, removing the curtain).

          But the biggest reason I’m casting Nick opposite Dorothy rather than as Dorothy right now is that I think Nick’s job as Tin Woodman is about to be more important. Unity’s brains defeated HT; I’m inclined to think Nick’s heart will defeat the drones.

        • 5-tons-of-flax
          January 29, 2022, 9:44 am | # | Reply

          Unity needs brains. Which makes her the Scarecrow.

  7. John
    January 28, 2022, 8:00 am | # | Reply

    Destroy?

    • awgiedawgie
      January 28, 2022, 11:53 am | # | Reply

      Destroy.

      • Rex Vivat
        January 28, 2022, 11:55 am | # | Reply

        Destroy!

    • Robert Nowall
      January 28, 2022, 3:31 pm | # | Reply

      Destroy.

      • Duane B.
        January 28, 2022, 5:32 pm | # | Reply

        And by that we mean, of course “Destroy”

  8. Robert Nowall
    January 28, 2022, 8:47 am | # | Reply

    Is that Remy and Mme. des Souhaits at the left of Panel Four?

    • Candace
      January 29, 2022, 2:00 am | # | Reply

      Might be.

  9. Owlmirror
    January 28, 2022, 9:09 am | # | Reply

    Sudden horrible thought: What if the reason the attack can’t be called off is because the drones don’t know that they are attacking anyone? That is, what if the drones are being controlled by extirpation victims, who, in the VR, think they’re doing something innocuous, like flinging a couple of walnuts at a bunch of targets on walnut trees?

    Ooh, what if the VR seaside place that Gavotte was trapped in is the reward?

    “Whoever hits the targets wins two weeks’ vacation in a lovely beachfront resort! It’s big enough for all of you! You can all win!”

    • David B Huber
      January 28, 2022, 10:49 am | # | Reply

      THAT is a truly fiendish thought, Owlmirror!

    • Candace
      January 29, 2022, 2:03 am | # | Reply

      Oh, dear. That does seem very A-sig. After all, Virginia was working for Anasigma when she recruited Nick, and schlorped out his his brain and put it in an Osprey without him ever knowing it. He thought he was playing video games.

  10. Tiff Hudson
    January 28, 2022, 11:34 am | # | Reply

    Oh! OH! Nick is, metaphorically, the KING of the flying monkeys. Now where’s the MacGuffin (I think it was a crown) that allows someone to summon the flying monkeys three times.

    • awgiedawgie
      January 28, 2022, 11:56 am | # | Reply

      You mean like The Crown – that software that makes you do what we want you to?

    • Robert Horton
      January 28, 2022, 1:37 pm | # | Reply

      Hey, Nick! The password is “ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke, hil-low, hol-low, hel-loh, ziz-zy,zuz-zy, zik!”

      • Robert Horton
        January 28, 2022, 1:39 pm | # | Reply

        And for a nominal fee, I’ll tell you how to stand while saying it!

      • Trivena
        January 28, 2022, 11:47 pm | # | Reply

        I tried “xyzzy”, but nothing happened.

        • Robert Horton
          January 28, 2022, 11:52 pm | # | Reply

          Careful, you almost summoned the Flinging Monkeys- three guesses what they fling!

          • Robert Nowall
            January 29, 2022, 7:10 am | #

            Any of these related to the Eyeball Razor Chimps?

  11. Oz
    January 28, 2022, 11:47 am | # | Reply

    Well that’s just a big ‘ol pile of whoopsie doodles.

  12. bergerjacques
    January 28, 2022, 12:15 pm | # | Reply

    Oh, isn’t that sweet. A-Sig agents all want to attend Nick and Ginny’s wedding and each has their own shadow government issued drone.

    • Rex Vivat
      January 28, 2022, 12:17 pm | # | Reply

      Their presents may be in bad taste, tho.

      • Andy4Hire
        January 28, 2022, 9:14 pm | # | Reply

        The drones understand the connection between missiletoe and kissing; they just misheard when someone told them about it.

  13. Robert Nowall
    January 28, 2022, 12:38 pm | # | Reply

    The camera is found, but behold! Some Predators bring a payload. Two Hellfire missiles and they’re in the abyssal, so the caterer is now on hold.

  14. davidbreslin101
    January 28, 2022, 2:45 pm | # | Reply

    This would be an excellent time for some aliens to arrive….

    • Robert Nowall
      January 28, 2022, 3:30 pm | # | Reply

      At least one—Gavotte—is already there.

  15. Andy4Hire
    January 28, 2022, 9:10 pm | # | Reply

    Are the drones Machine Union? Maybe they could be talked into a strike.

    Wait, no. A drone strike is what we’re trying to avoid here. Hmmm…

    • sietsebb
      February 3, 2022, 3:41 am | # | Reply

      A belated but very hearty chuckle here 😀

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