Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
  • About Us
  • Cast
  • Store
  • Extras
  • Sponsors
  • Original Art for Sale
  • Our Patreon
RSS
2013-08-28
‹‹ First ‹ Prev Buy! Comments(49) Next › Last ››

2013-08-28

by shaenon on August 28, 2013 at 12:00 am
Chapter: My House Is Me
Comments RSS

Discussion (49) ¬

  1. Evil Midnight Lurker
    August 28, 2013, 12:23 am | # | Reply

    And now you two are truly stretching the limits of my ability to empathize with hypothetical nonhuman intelligences.

    I mean, talking dogs? Keen! Unity? I just have to try not to smell tasty. Robots and hamsters and hive-mind-ecosystems, no problem.

    But my default reaction to a sapient corporation is FIND FIRE THAT CAN KILL IT AND THEN KILL IT WITH FIRE.

    • Wolfmanjim
      August 28, 2013, 1:22 am | # | Reply

      Leveraged buyouts work so much better.

    • Moor
      August 28, 2013, 1:23 am | # | Reply

      Sapient Corporations are people, too!

      They can be distinguished from normal corporations by actually having morals.

      (Other non-standard sapients (eg. Animals) can be distinguished from their non-sapient counterparts (animals) by the capital, but that isn’t so good a distinguisher for corporations.)

      • =Tamar
        August 28, 2013, 1:38 am | # | Reply

        WhimsyCorp has, so far, failed that test.

        • Glenn
          August 28, 2013, 10:46 am | # | Reply

          But what sort of morals would a sentient corporation have? Seriously, it’s species-ism to assume they’d have to be compatible with our (meat-based) ones.

          • jdreyfuss
            August 28, 2013, 11:19 am | #

            Presumably the difference would be that the sapient corporation would be able to choose to exercise its duty to its customers over its duty to its shareholders, whereas a nonsapient one is supposed to place its shareholders’ interests first.

      • reynard61
        August 28, 2013, 3:36 pm | # | Reply

        “Sapient Corporations are people, too!”

        I’ll believe that sapient corporations are people when Texas starts forcing schools to teach them Creationism.

    • Natasha Yar-Routh
      August 28, 2013, 1:42 am | # | Reply

      No no nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure. Given that it’s probably a multinational corporation there might be some collateral damage and we might get our hair mussed up bu it wouyld be worth it.

    • Ysabet
      August 28, 2013, 12:00 pm | # | Reply

      Ehh; an entity is not required to be what other entities picture it as. I mean, look at pit bulls.

    • JET73L
      August 15, 2018, 12:59 am | # | Reply

      As far as we know, she’s just a hive mind, by default no worse (and no better) than Gavotte. Being a business owner/business operator/business or most of her components being humans shouldn’t change one’s opinion.

  2. Anderson
    August 28, 2013, 12:34 am | # | Reply

    I notice he’s had to call in the others since he still hasn’t managed to unplug all those cables in order to do this properly.

  3. TPman
    August 28, 2013, 12:49 am | # | Reply

    Man, I wanted to see something like this since I read The Raw Shark Texts.

    • Noaqiyeum
      July 11, 2016, 7:48 am | # | Reply

      I still need to read that.

      However, you may be interested in Simon Green’s Something From the Nightside, which features Abomination Incorporated.

      (Also Suzie Shooter, the Harrowing, Merlin Satanspawn, the Unholy Grail, Lilith, St. Jude’s of Lost Causes, an empty house, and Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor.)

  4. Moe Lane
    August 28, 2013, 2:03 am | # | Reply

    I… that perhaps some emergency punctuation should be placed in the last panel.

    • Moe Lane
      August 28, 2013, 2:04 am | # | Reply

      Put ‘think’ between the ‘I’ and the ‘that.’

  5. WuseMajor
    August 28, 2013, 2:57 am | # | Reply

    …I thought we’d already established this.

    • Blayzeing
      August 28, 2013, 5:08 am | # | Reply

      Same.

      • David McKenney-Barschall
        August 28, 2013, 9:16 am | # | Reply

        Yeah, I thought it was pretty clear after they found out it was talking by taking the first words of emails.

        Bizarre intelligence, or giant Rube Goldberg consipiracy? In this ‘verse, I’m going to assume the former — it’s just simpler, and quite possible.

        • soft
          August 28, 2013, 10:35 am | # | Reply

          I think UNITY figured it out, and we figured it out, but Nick wasn’t privy to Sweetheart and UNITY’s conversation. Also, based on Sweetheart’s reactions to UNITY’s comparison, I don’t think she fully understood or got it herself at that time.

    • mnementh
      August 28, 2013, 11:50 pm | # | Reply

      I called this like what… a month ago?

      Shaenon must be up to something; this is mere sleight of hand to set us up for some OTHER weirdness.

      Like maybe Anasigma is actually operated by Whimsy as their “Operational Branch” or they actually have a working portal into MemeSpace…

      mnem
      smeg.

  6. Altarboy
    August 28, 2013, 3:08 am | # | Reply

    Annie Mouse? Annonymouse? Anonymous! An entity with people as its parts. That created anonymous?

    4chan?
    No, just no.

    • jdreyfuss
      August 28, 2013, 11:21 am | # | Reply

      Animus. Latin for “soul.” Though your speculation made me realize that, so thanks.

      • Altarboy
        August 29, 2013, 2:15 am | # | Reply

        I was just riffing, playing with the words until I found something awful to end on.

  7. TFC
    August 28, 2013, 7:39 am | # | Reply

    I don’t get the last dialogue.

    • Manifesta
      August 28, 2013, 1:31 pm | # | Reply

      As I read it, Annie Mouse (a Minnie Mouse cognate, but see the “animus” discussion) is a particularly cloying Whimsy character whom we have not met. Nick is saying that the world is better off if anyone who could invent such a character only creates virtual children, instead of procreating the usual way.

  8. Norman
    August 28, 2013, 8:05 am | # | Reply

    Actually, Nick, I would rather picture that. I could at least assume that it was consensual.
    If WhimsyCorp is a sapient entity, then it has a right to exist.
    If the parts that make it up are people, they are sapient entities, with a right to sever their association (i.e., quit, dump their stock, whatever.) While WhimsyCorp may be large enough (in terms of people, not capital) that the problem is psychohistorically unlikely to occur, it is still a possibility that enough of its parts will leave to cause it to be an ex Sapient Enitity.
    I see no way that these rights (to exist, to quit) can coexist. If WhimsyCorp is to defend its existence, it must limit the ability of its parts to leave, and that is slavery.
    So, step one: Break any brainwashing. Step two: Wait and see. If, absent brainwashing, Whimsycorp continues without breaking laws, then there’s no problem. But that’s a big if.

    • Sheik
      August 28, 2013, 5:48 pm | # | Reply

      You do realize that what you just described is a Sapient Government, since all governments are themselves corporate entities that control their “people parts”, don’t you?

      • Norman
        August 28, 2013, 7:18 pm | # | Reply

        Just because governments do it, doesn’t make it right.

  9. Patera Silk
    August 28, 2013, 8:46 am | # | Reply

    No one’s been forcefully made part of WhimsyCorp. If you choose to watch the movies and get those damned songs … oh damn, think of the little children.

    • Norman
      August 28, 2013, 9:22 am | # | Reply

      And I rather doubt that there were warnings at the beginning of the movies or the front of the rides: “Warning: May Cause Loss of Free Will”

      • soft
        August 28, 2013, 10:33 am | # | Reply

        Wasn’t some of the… umm, rioting?… against Dr Collodi because of brainwashing? He said something about people getting upset about that during the filmstrip….

        • commodorejohn
          August 28, 2013, 1:11 pm | # | Reply

          Yep. But on the other hand, not all products of evil mad genius are mad/evil themselves.

          • soft
            August 28, 2013, 10:56 pm | #

            Oh, I know. I’m just commenting on the “no one’s been forcefully made part of WhimsyCorp”. They were if Collodi’s brainwashing was a first step to creating it….

  10. soft
    August 28, 2013, 10:36 am | # | Reply

    Nick: “We’re a bunch of cheese-eating horseheads.”
    UNITY: “Thank you!”

    roflmao

  11. the1trueian
    August 28, 2013, 12:18 pm | # | Reply

    Fun fact: Presently the wording of Vermont’s law Is such that corporations can get married since marriage was a union of any to legal persons and corporate personhood Is in effect. Additionally, everyone realizes that discrimination against sapient corporations is racism right?

    • JohnBobMead
      August 28, 2013, 1:39 pm | # | Reply

      So, instead of doing a hostile takeover by buying lots of stock, I could move to Vermont and see about marrying one of their corporations? Consent, how do I prove consent absent a stockholders meeting? And for the biggy, are they a community property state? What’s Delaware’s current situation, they have lots of corporations, yes? Actually, wouldn’t a hostile takeover be a forced marriage, which is considered a no-no? Hmm…

    • TPman
      August 28, 2013, 11:03 pm | # | Reply

      Hmmm interesting, but how do I get Microsoft to agree to marry me?

      Also, it’s not racism to discriminate against corporations since they’re not a race. It’s not speciesism either. “Entityism” might work, or “thingism” if we want to be sure.

  12. MJBarr
    August 28, 2013, 1:26 pm | # | Reply

    As I said before, Corporations are people my friends!

  13. Benedict
    August 28, 2013, 2:55 pm | # | Reply

    So, wait. If the pattern holds and this gestalt entity is mysteriously disappeared just before the team can extract vital information from it… what does that mean? How could Anasigma kill WhimsyCorp, short of killing its employees? Would buying them out suffice, or would they have to replace its staff? Would replacing its staff even change anything, or would it be a Ship of Theseus situation? Where are a corporation’s vital organs?

    (I mean, not that they’d bat an eyelash at killing WhimsyCorp’s employees. This IS Anasigma we’re talking about.)

    • Rex Vivat
      August 28, 2013, 10:17 pm | # | Reply

      Covertly purchase the company, make bad financial decisions on purpose (probably “helping” your own in the process), declare bankrupcy. It’s been done by companies a lot of times in the past to weed out competition, so it should be a breeze for Anasigma.

  14. Saberbeam
    August 28, 2013, 3:30 pm | # | Reply

    Well I only managed a few verses and had to take some liberties with the rhythm, but here it is:

    To the tune of “Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley

    Well Nick was thinkin’ when he realized,
    Collodi’s daughter’s corporation-sized,
    He commenced to running, yelling “Listen to me!
    We’re dealing with a gestalt entity!”

    (Chorus)

    She is a gestalt entity with lots of moving people parts,
    Gestalt entity with lots of moving people parts,
    Gestalt entity with lots of moving people parts,
    The Spirit of Whimsy (Gestalt?)

    Well Sweetheart thinks that this is perturbing,
    using people to exist seems downright disturbing,
    Nick says “Know what’s more disturbing for me?
    Thinking of kindly, old man reproductivity.”

    (Chorus) Entity?

  15. Dave
    August 28, 2013, 3:46 pm | # | Reply

    Aw yeah, it’s like R.O.D. and Dokusensha’s billion-person committee! (the anime, not the manga) That’s so many kinds of awesome!

    Yes, I am a geek.

  16. PDP15
    August 28, 2013, 4:09 pm | # | Reply

    This should make the Supreme Court feel a whole lot better about “Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission”.

  17. Shadowmehr
    August 28, 2013, 7:56 pm | # | Reply

    Corporations have been ruled to be considered a person in of themselves.

    This is simply the evolution of that idea to the logical extreme.

    Who knows, WhimsyCorp might want to “absorb” the Violet drone simply so it doesn’t have to speak with them through the special effects medium it’s been using so far.

  18. Shadowmehr
    August 28, 2013, 7:57 pm | # | Reply

    Companies as people.

    This is simply the evolution of that idea to the logical extreme.

    Who knows, WhimsyCorp might want to “absorb” the Violet drone simply so it doesn’t have to speak with them through the special effects medium it’s been using so far.

  19. Maki P
    August 29, 2013, 1:15 pm | # | Reply

    The Fact that Whimsy Corp is a living thing is supposed to be a revelation? because I already knew that (“My House is Me”?).
    But it does surprise me that she is Collodi’s daughter

  20. SotiCoto
    August 22, 2014, 5:19 am | # | Reply

    The Thousand-Eyes is Real!
    THE THOUSAND-EYES IS REAL!

  21. WJS
    July 9, 2019, 5:36 pm | # | Reply

    Where did Nick get the idea that the daughter was the one talking through/was WhimsyCorp? Nobody ever said so, and WhimsyCorp told Unity to find the daughter, which implies the opposite. Did I miss something or is this a plothole?

    • awgiedawgie
      July 10, 2019, 12:18 am | # | Reply

      It does seem to be a contradiction. When the apparition told Unity to find Collodi’s daughter, it also said “I did not authorize the destruction of my birthplace.” That suggests that it was in fact Collodi’s daughter talking, but without a corporeal body, she needed Skin Horse to “find” her.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

More by Jeff

  • The Scrivnarium

More by Shaenon

  • Horror Every Day
  • Li'l Mell
  • Monster of the Week
  • Narbonic
  • Shaenon.com
Creative Commons License
Skin Horse by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.skin-horse.com.

©2007-2022 Skin Horse | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑