Stupid Hormones 2014-12-16

[Sgt. Howard]

I am reminded of my Grandfather, a veteran of WWI- sitting on the front porch with an old war buddy, they both watch a well-shaped teenaged girl go bouncing down the sidewalk in a flimsy Summer dress (I was witness to the same spectacle).
Grampa Roy : "Silas, remember when they put the saltpeter in the mashed potatoes to make us forget the girls?"
Silas: "Yea, what about it?"
Grampa Roy : "I think it's finally beginning to work,"

Actually, Gramma Kay mixed up that very brew on a routine basis to 'settle th' nerves' of us wound up kids... all I could do after a dose was sleep. Gramma and Grampa both hail from north-eastern Tennessee. Gramma taught my brother and I how to make soap, butcher chickens and play harmonica.

Now, if that stuff would knock the starch outta my willy, I honestly couldn't tell you... I was too young at the time to worry about such things. And even if I WAS aware of these things, my concerns woulda' been negated by sleep.

[illiad]

well, if you believe snopes, it did not happen... http://www.snopes.com/military/saltpeter.asp

Just exhaustion, barracks life, etc knocking it outta you... (other names are bromide, Potassium nitrate)

[AnotherFairportfan]

Kathy was smart enough to get the tea brewed for Sali which was good thinking. Now was Kathy smart enough to realize that since Sali is getting interested in boys enough to stat dating Sali will need to be on birth control?

Sirens may not be cross-fertile with species other than incubi.

[jwhouk]

Kathy was smart enough to get the tea brewed for Sali which was good thinking. Now was Kathy smart enough to realize that since Sali is getting interested in boys enough to stat dating Sali will need to be on birth control?

Sirens may not be cross-fertile with species other than incubi.

If you were in Katherine's shoes, would you want to take the chance that that might be wrong?

Especially when you see Shelly Wahnee driving down the street on her Indian?

EDIT: After a second look at the strip, I notice that Nadette was still struggling a bit to "maintain form" - take a look at her "nails" in the first panel.

[zachariah]

Kathy was smart enough to get the tea brewed for Sali which was good thinking. Now was Kathy smart enough to realize that since Sali is getting interested in boys enough to stat dating Sali will need to be on birth control?

Sirens may not be cross-fertile with species other than incubi.

From all the mixture of paras running around I think the cross fertility is a given. Shelly is a titian-sphynix-human hybred. Sali is a siren-incubus cross. Tina is human-titian. Pickle is also another mixed breed or which the only part we know of is blackthorn. If there are these kinds of crosses why not siren human, or whatever the boy is?

[AnotherFairportfan]

Especially when you see Shelly Wahnee driving down the street on her Indian?

What's his name?

[Yamara]

Well she did have collective memories and consciousness of the entire Lanthian civilization go through her mind. . .so there's that . . .
Young? yes. Stupid? no. Naive? not as much as she lets on. . .

There seem to be some very real limits to the memories she processed during that incident. They didn't help her understand her own first experience of sexual arousal.

...

It's also possible that when the Library offloaded these memories from Atsali (and apparently erased or suppressed them so that she wouldn't go mad herself) whatever memories of sexual experience were included were also erased.

The Etheitians were in no condition to "help" Atsali. She managed to "process" some critical pieces of information out of them, possibly with Bia herself intervening to hold them inside Atsali (the symbol in the eyes) until the little thing could return them securely to the Library, i.e. outside the Grid where Bia was free to operate at the time.

I kind of doubt a siren is usually capable of holding that much data, that many souls. It brings the issue of what an "incubus" is in Wapsiworld that much farther forward. They aren't Wapsi demons, and they (presumably) are mortal. We know what their legend is, but they seem to be outside their native mythos here. Not unlike golems.

In any case, they seem to have been excellent parents to Atsali while they were alive.

I suppose it's possible that the collective memories and consciousness she experienced, simply didn't include much in the way of sexuality. The Lanthians had been stored in electronic form (conscious but bodiless, isolated and helpess) for thousands of years. They were all stark, raving loonies by the time Atsali channeled them. Their memories of their own physical sexuality may have been lost, or just buried under so many layers of raving madness that they made no real impression on Atsali.

Poor kid... she got all of the agony and horror, and (probably) none of the up-side wisdom and understanding which might have come from sharing thousands of years of experience... let alone anything which might have been fun.

Aunt Jin and G'ma Lily have their work cut out for them.

Narratively, it's a powerful metaphor for descendants trying to carry on civilization while wrestling to understand the evil gibberish of their ancestors.

[Thor]

Can't find the strip where Atsali's exact lineage is discussed.

Link, please?

[Yamara]

Can't find the strip where Atsali's exact lineage is discussed.

Link, please?

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/know-what-this-means/

[Thor]

Awesome, thanks.

Also...where's today's comic?

[Opus the Poet]

Is it just me or does Nadette always look like a flat-chested Shelly?

[Thor]

Is it just me or does Nadette always look like a flat-chested Shelly?

Not true. sometimes she looks like a hat, or a balloon animal!

Also, the characters' faces are getting a bit templatey, so characters with similar body structures and hair colors are going to look similar. Anime has this same problem, hence the wildly different hairdos on each character in a story.

[Catawampus]

Well she did have collective memories and consciousness of the entire Lanthian civilization go through her mind. . .so there's that . . .
Young? yes. Stupid? no. Naive? not as much as she lets on. . .

There seem to be some very real limits to the memories she processed during that incident. They didn't help her understand her own first experience of sexual arousal.

I suppose it's possible that the collective memories and consciousness she experienced, simply didn't include much in the way of sexuality. The Lanthians had been stored in electronic form (conscious but bodiless, isolated and helpess) for thousands of years. They were all stark, raving loonies by the time Atsali channeled them. Their memories of their own physical sexuality may have been lost, or just buried under so many layers of raving madness that they made no real impression on Atsali.

There is a difference between having knowledge and having experience. While she might have generally intellectually understood the idea of what goes on, that doesn't mean that she'll recognise it when it happens in her own life. Especially since she's right in the middle of living her own life, so has all the other distractions going on simultaneously.

Besides, it seemed as though the knowledge that the Lanthians gave her had to be consciously "looked up" and connected to, it wasn't just automatically presenting all relevant information instantly. Sort of how even if you were to be in the Library with all of that information in all of those books, you still won't know what the books say unless you go get them off the shelves and read them. The information is there, just not accessed.

Sali is very easily turned on and her body reacts very strongly to that as well. Unless Sali has VERY strong will power even on the first date she will have trouble controlling herself.

And Atsali can in turn influence whomever she is with. There's the potential for a very unfortunate positive feedback loop there.

At least Atsali's "family" can provide her with some rather effective chaperones.

Sitting in the movie. Jason's arm goes over Sali's shoulder. Sali starts sipping like crazy. The boy bought her an extra large popcorn with extra salt!

Then Jacob storms out, upset that this Jason person is horning in on his date.

And then the rest of the Argonauts show up, and the whole situation breaks down as everybody starts battling against walking skeleton warriors.

Hey, this is a setting rooted in various myths. . .

[MerchManDan]

And then the rest of the Argonauts show up, and the whole situation breaks down as everybody starts battling against walking skeleton warriors.

GODDAMN!! They're everywhere!!

[Yamara]

Sitting in the movie. Jason's arm goes over Sali's shoulder. Sali starts sipping like crazy. The boy bought her an extra large popcorn with extra salt!

Then Jacob storms out, upset that this Jason person is horning in on his date.

And then the rest of the Argonauts show up, and the whole situation breaks down as everybody starts battling against walking skeleton warriors.

Hey, this is a setting rooted in various myths. . .

Since Jacob is the lad's given name, I think I see Mr Taylor in the act of making a sexy pun...


...and speaking of angels--

Can't find the strip where Atsali's exact lineage is discussed.

Link, please?

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/know-what-this-means/

Awesome, thanks.

Of course, an incubus is usually a male (or the male form of a) succubus.

Which makes this conversation rather compelling:

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/a-few-favors/

No. Not as naïve as she looks.

[Thor]

Since Jacob is the lad's given name, I think I see Mr Taylor in the act of making a sexy pun...

Hopefully this Jacob isn't too much like the Jacob of myth, who was--among other things--a conniving liar. (Then again, almost everyone in the Old Testament is pretty awful at some point.)

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/know-what-this-means/

Of course, an incubus is usually a male (or the male form of a) succubus.

Which makes this conversation rather compelling:

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/a-few-favors/

No. Not as naïve as she looks.

Either that or the author forgot what he had written earlier when he declared Atsali's father to be an incubus. It's hard to tell exactly, since we know almost nothing about Atsali's parents and how they met their demise. I'm hoping we get clarification is both the lineage and the earlier mention are accurate, or a ret-con if the earlier one (or the later one) are a boo-boo.

[illiad]

Or Atsali has the life experience of the ethetians, and is like most of us 'been there, done that, got the tshirt {yawn}' type.. The siren stuff is new, so she is subtly trying it out...

[jwhouk]

No, she has always been a siren. "Sirens are normally a sedentary creature, but not me! I read books!"

Judging by her comment here, her dad may not have been on speaking terms with her paternal grandparents. It's also possibly the reason why she was sent to the orphanage and not out to live with her dad's parents.

[illiad]

No, she has always been a siren.

thats like saying you always been human... What changed, is she hit puberty!! you must have talked about 'adult stuff' when you were only 10???

"Sirens are normally a sedentary creature, but not me! I read books!"
ahhhh, Atsali when she was just an innocent kid

[jwhouk]

Well, she's 16-17 now, so...


I just had a horrible thought: what if Atsali decided she wanted to get her driver's license?