Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2021-05-17
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2021-05-17

by shaenon on May 17, 2021 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Off to the Fair
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Discussion (32) ¬

  1. Towering Barbarian
    May 17, 2021, 12:16 am | # | Reply

    Oh, oh! What worse menace to Baron can there be then the prying eyes of Cute Genki Girlfriend? 🙂

  2. Daniel Kelly
    May 17, 2021, 12:42 am | # | Reply

    It’s really weird that Lovelace is so casual about deleing AIs, given her own experience getting deleted, even if she doesn’t remember it…since she’s a copy of the original Lovelace, restored from backup. Maybe that’s the reason. She was deleted, and she’s fine now, sort of!

    • Frank
      May 17, 2021, 2:34 am | # | Reply

      calling it sinister makes me think she’s suddenly not fine with it again

    • soft
      May 17, 2021, 6:25 am | # | Reply

      TBH, I’m not entirely sure the other Barons are true, sapient AIs.

      • Pygar
        May 17, 2021, 10:35 am | # | Reply

        You mean he wouldn’t make real competitors? How rude!

    • D. Walker
      May 17, 2021, 12:13 pm | # | Reply

      Lovelace has long had an aura of menace to her, lurking beneath a facade of civility. She has a cold detachment that she covers up with clever social manipulation. She’s more or less a high functioning psychopath, and has been ever since she was murdered after a lifetime of enslavement to a mad scientist.

    • BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
      May 18, 2021, 7:51 am | # | Reply

      He may not have been an AI. He may just a string of automation scripts complex enough to fake it (under normal conditions). Like the bastard offspring of a voice assistant and an NPC.

      By the way, check out “The New Frankenstein” by Ernest Edward Kellett (from the collection A Corner in Sleep; And Other Possibilities ) for one illustration of automation posing as AI. It was written in 1899, but as far as I understand it, they get the distinction pretty much exactly right. Also right up the Skin Horse crowd’s street, now that I think about it.

  3. David B Huber
    May 17, 2021, 12:56 am | # | Reply

    Very clever! I wish I’d thought of it!

    Prediction: Baron will be in his “Noble Steed” persona, working furiously to save Aimee’s kingdom from the clutches of that nefarious interloper Lovelace, whom he believes has seized throne and Crown alike!

  4. Kathy
    May 17, 2021, 12:57 am | # | Reply

    Completely unrelated to today’s comic, I just have to say how thankful I am Skin Horse is back. It’s like a little gem of happiness to read it every day!

    • SVGeezer
      May 17, 2021, 7:05 am | # | Reply

      Happiness? What Planet are you on?

      Cheerful, and entertaining, Madness is more on cue.

      • David B Huber
        May 17, 2021, 7:51 am | # | Reply

        I’m with Kathy. Not only does it bring me joy, but to paraphrase Sweetheart “And yes, it is better than what’s going on out here.” 😉

  5. awgiedawgie
    May 17, 2021, 2:34 am | # | Reply

    I think Nick doesn’t want to find out what Baron does away from prying eyes.

    • Efogoto
      May 17, 2021, 5:06 am | # | Reply

      I also felt a great trepidation at that wording. I look forward to being scandalized.

      • soft
        May 17, 2021, 6:26 am | # | Reply

        Me too!

        • Chrisn
          May 17, 2021, 11:49 am | # | Reply

          Yeah, his filtered swears were always funny

    • Shadowmehr
      May 17, 2021, 1:05 pm | # | Reply

      Yeah, this isn’t going to be pretty. Funny, sure, but not pretty.

  6. Frank
    May 17, 2021, 2:35 am | # | Reply

    Have I mentioned I love how the hair moves?

    • Author X
      May 17, 2021, 1:46 pm | # | Reply

      It is great! Movement is a great away to show action and characterization, and Shaenon is great at using hair to show how characters are moving.

  7. Ray Radlein
    May 17, 2021, 3:20 am | # | Reply

    Gonna lay down a marker that, away from prying eyes, Baron is doing something entirely contrary to his public persona. Something genuinely refined, or earnest, or childlike. Listening to Sufjan Stevens and learning to paint landscapes or some such

    • Daibhid C
      May 17, 2021, 5:33 am | # | Reply

      Yeah. Setup, twist.

    • sneakernh
      May 17, 2021, 5:44 am | # | Reply

      Nah, it’s fantasy football.

    • StClair
      May 17, 2021, 5:49 am | # | Reply

      “happy little trees…”

    • mickeyjf
      May 17, 2021, 10:06 am | # | Reply

      Wholesome, even.

  8. Robert Nowall
    May 17, 2021, 7:04 am | # | Reply

    Wasn’t Baron M. writing self-insertion “Ducktales” fanfic? Would you want to do that in public?

    • SVGeezer
      May 17, 2021, 7:08 am | # | Reply

      How many of us would want to do that in private?

      Or even know it exists? (shudder!)

      • BMunro
        May 17, 2021, 11:51 am | # | Reply

        You actually think that’s anywhere _near_ the bottom of the fanfic barrel?

    • awgiedawgie
      May 17, 2021, 2:00 pm | # | Reply

      Are you kidding? He’s in his own little world – literally. He’s probably created said fanfic in the basement, and is presently living out his fantasies with Mrs. Featherby.

  9. jdreyfuss
    May 17, 2021, 12:17 pm | # | Reply

    I just noticed that they set these three up as the classic power trio, except in this case, the logical one is the id and the empathetic one is the superego. It happens, but not all that often.

  10. Robert Nowall
    May 17, 2021, 1:40 pm | # | Reply

    Whimsey squirrels just seem to come out squirrely,
    Now they get some more with verbal bile.
    A unicorn who’s always in a hurry
    Has built a VR world in Vegas style.

    Fate comes right, a little louse gets horny.
    I guess all abnormal refuse looks like lice.
    And he makes a part to make it dirty porny
    Given to a jerk whose work is sold as vice.

    So he holes up in the dead zone for deceivin’,
    Where cameras will not send a heavin’ sound.
    But we knows where he’s goin’ for deceivin’.
    He is headed for the keepin’ silent pound.

    You can hide from pryin’ eyes
    Go hog-wild in your paradise
    So anyhow, you can devise,
    There is a way to hide from pryin’ eyes.

    —from “Lyin’ Eyes,” Don Henley and Glenn Frey, sung by The Eagles.

  11. Author X
    May 17, 2021, 1:43 pm | # | Reply

    I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess Baron is doing something entirely harmless, but too sincere for him to let other people see because he loathes sincerity. Maybe reflecting on how he’s let people down, maybe just playing video games with a virtual Nick because he’s afraid the real Nick was stolen away by dames or driven off by Baron’s own misanthropy. Or maybe he’s just got a virtual Collodi and he’s reliving old times before the mob.

    Either way, I get the feeling he created this solipsistic Vegas simulation first, but realized he couldn’t run from his real problems there, and retreated further.

  12. Pygar
    May 17, 2021, 6:27 pm | # | Reply

    Why am I picturing the Klingon Embassy?

    • Pygar
      May 17, 2021, 6:36 pm | # | Reply

      From Futurama, I mean!

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