Stop Right There 2015-04-24

[Sgt. Howard]

A montage comes to mind- starting when Berdine got überschmecked on the island by Atsali and Nadette is watching, enthralled- slide show to Nadette getting 'shorts mooned' over the internet and every time she has tried to get something going with Atsali- ending with what will happen next week, which I suspect will be Atsali putting her foot down.

Background Music- "Long, long time" by Linda Ronstadt


... meanwhile, I am STILL waiting in my bunker for a confrontation at some damn pool.... and the potato chips have gone stale... my guitar needs new strings... and Annie is yelling that SOMEBODY needs to do the dishes, whereupon both boys vanish... and she is looking at me and tapping her foot...not good... COMING, DEAR...

[meisdadoo]

Cue wing, ear and tail boners in 3...2...1...

Since this Friday, Paul will let us think that until Monday then it is que wing, ear and tail boners in 3....2.....What are you two doing?!?! (says Pickle in her loudest most interrupting and embarrassing voice, followed by) Lookie my new phone has a better video camera. . .
(Que the mad scramble to get the phone and play the yakkity sax sound track. . .)

Or as they used to say in Rome "coitus interruptus en flagrante delicto" (throws a rooster and a masonry unit into the pun jar. . .)

[eee]

This might not end as well as Nadette expects.

Nadette's a Seer. She may know what's coming.

Or she may not. She seemed to know where Atsali and Jacob's relationship was going before it even started, but she didn't seem deliriously happy about it. So one could assume it's not going end up with the bird coming to rest against her heart. And yet, she's continuing to all but hand 'Sali a 'Ticket to Ride'. Her actions don't add up, unless there's going to be a development that none of us foresee.

[MerchManDan]

....rrrgh. Atsali was instructed - in no uncertain terms - that she must be extra-careful with her words and actions when around Nadette. Has no-one given Nadette the same lecture? The cub is setting herself up for heartbreak. Again.

[Akeche]

....rrrgh. Atsali was instructed - in no uncertain terms - that she must be extra-careful with her words and actions when around Nadette. Has no-one given Nadette the same lecture? The cub is setting herself up for heartbreak. Again.

Yeah I mean.

Lemme put it this way, might even be some parallels with how Jet acted with Monica for me but... The body language, choice of words... It all screams, forgive the language, "I wanna FUCK you" instead of "I wanna be with you!" Best thing to do if you got the hots for your friend? Keep being their friend, not let yourself get all super amorous.

[Dave]

....rrrgh. Atsali was instructed - in no uncertain terms - that she must be extra-careful with her words and actions when around Nadette. Has no-one given Nadette the same lecture? The cub is setting herself up for heartbreak. Again.

It's possible that lectures don't work on Nadette. Her blunt Seer nature/powers might leave her with only two choices: be straightforward and honest, or shut up entirely.

[Thor]

I think the most interesting part of this is how calm and rational Atsali is being about this whole thing. In this situation, you would expect something on the line of "WAHHHH! HE DUMPED ME! WHY? WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME?? WAHHHHH!!" But instead, the reaction we are getting is clinical detachment with only a slight hint of concern. "Hey there, Nadette! I really need to talk to you about something. I know that you'll get what I'm talking about." That's not the wounded cry of a teenage girl agonizing in the throes of heartbreak looking for support and consolation from her closest gal-pal. That's more like an executive calling for a meeting to create an after-action report on a product campaign whose performance did not meet the projected figures. I mean, we know what Atsali looks like when she gets extremely upset, and this is not it.

And today's comic confirms that. "I'm okay. Well, maybe not so okay that a muffin and coffee wouldn't help." Perhaps her infatuation was with the imagined ideal of what a boy like Jacob might be like, but in talking to the real Jacob, she was underwhelmed, and her ardor started cooling immediately, leading to this "Oh, well then" type of reaction? After all, even directly after she badgered him into going shopping with her, she wasn't squealing that "Jacob is going out with me! Hooray!" but rather "I did it! I asked him out!" as though performing the action of asking him out was the important thing, rather than the results of performing the reaction. Or as Nadette was thinking in the same comic "Atsali finding the courage to talk to Jacob has set her on the path to happiness." (emphasis mine)

And after more than four months (our time) we still don't have an answer to the question of whether Atsali has any sexual proclivity to her own sex that could possibly lead her into a relationship with Nadette, or whether Nadette is simply tilting at windmills. Atsali's inner dialogue has been (deliberately?) concealed from us for quite some time now. The last time we got a thought balloon from her was here, just after she first met Cricket, back in June of last year (our time). All we've had to go on ever since Nadette has started trying to make her move on Atsali is Atsali's actions and spoken words, and those have been maddeningly ambiguous and inconclusive.

[Dave]

I think the most interesting part of this is how calm and rational Atsali is being about this whole thing. In this situation, you would expect something on the line of "WAHHHH! HE DUMPED ME! WHY? WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME?? WAHHHHH!!" But instead, the reaction we are getting is clinical detachment with only a slight hint of concern. "Hey there, Nadette! I really need to talk to you about something. I know that you'll get what I'm talking about." That's not the wounded cry of a teenage girl agonizing in the throes of heartbreak looking for support and consolation from her closest gal-pal. That's more like an executive calling for a meeting to create an after-action report on a product campaign whose performance did not meet the projected figures. I mean, we know what Atsali looks like when she gets extremely upset, and this is not it.

I suspect that a big part of this, is that Atsali was already deeply and consciously involved in a quest to figure out "What does it mean, for me and my life and my relationships, that I'm a Siren?"

She already knows that she's not a "normal girl" (or a normal paranormal paramour girl, if you wish). She's obviously known for years (since long before puberty) that the sexual interplay between a Siren, and, well, just about anybody else, would certainly be different than standard teen (or adult) dating-and-mating practices.

So, my guess is that she would have gone into the "early dating" phase of her relationship with Jacob with a very tentative outlook on how it might work out. Yes, she's clearly attracted to him... but she was aware that any attraction she might receive in return could easily be suspect ("is it me, or is it my mojo?") and that there could be complications and complexities. It's almost as if she didn't expect it to go "as usual".

As you say, she seemed to be more focused on the fact that she was following conventions (i.e. asking for a date in a fairly conventional fashion, rather than just humming a come-hither) than she was on who she was trying to date. It seems to be about the process, for her, rather than the specific destination. And, even when she reacted most strongly to thoughts of Jacob, it seemed to be more of a purely physical arousal than an emotional crush... I don't see any sign that she was/is "in love" with Jacob (limerance).

She's acting like a researcher, applying the Scientific Method, with herself and her life as part of the experiment... not like somebody head over heels with an emotional infatuation.

[Warrl]

PS- having now seen the new comic I recall the old saw; "I feel like a Lesbian, trapped in a man's body..."

I've been there. Very literally. Sometimes it's painful.

And I'm mostly-neutral genderfluid. Not transgender. I know my gender dysphoria will go away in an hour or two and probably not return for months. Transgender folks typically have it to some degree pretty much all the time, plus they often have social complications I've never had to deal with, and the results are not pretty.

[illiad]

PS- having now seen the new comic I recall the old saw; "I feel like a Lesbian, trapped in a man's body..."

I've been there. Very literally. Sometimes it's painful.

And I'm mostly-neutral genderfluid. Not transgender. I know my gender dysphoria will go away in an hour or two and probably not return for months. Transgender folks typically have it to some degree pretty much all the time, plus they often have social complications I've never had to deal with, and the results are not pretty.

well, its not as bad as the guy who was almost all the way to 'becoming a girl' .... he had the full course of hormones , etc, for weeks.. But found all the mood swings, depression & anxiety far too unnerving, so he gave up and went back to being a man!!!

[Warrl]

well, its not as bad as the guy who was almost all the way to 'becoming a girl' .... he had the full course of hormones , etc, for weeks.. But found all the mood swings, depression & anxiety far too unnerving, so he gave up and went back to being a man!!!

Having raised two daughters through teenager-hood, I can definitely sympathize.

(Another source described the first several months of hormone therapy as going through a second puberty. Everything I've heard about it is consistent with that.)

[Wyvern]

Nadette's a Seer. She may know what's coming.

Pablo says she can't see her own future. That may be for the best, as illustrated by the romance of the prophet in the Atomic Laundromat web comic. For those who don't read it, she foresaw meeting the love of her life, and that they'd be wonderfully happy together, and that he'd die young and leave her behind...all before she ever met him.

[jeffepp]

As I understand it, she sees happiness in the future for bird-girl, and her self. Whether that is happy together, or no, may not be in her vision. But, she wants to be with Atsali, and thinks that is what will make her happy, so she is running with it.

I imagine a seer walks through life, seeing the world full of "levers" that will start people down certain paths. Push this way, and success happens, push the other, and failure. But, she cannot know what is down that path, until she goes down it, herself. Dune conveyed a great metaphor for this, with paths who's ends would be seen, but lead down into blind valleys, where the correct path to safety could not be made out.

[TazManiac]

(You Guys recall '300', right?)

THIS. IS. WAPSI!

[GlytchMeister]

Can somebody tell me where that pic came from? I keep thinking it's from El Goonish Shive, but I'm not sure. I don't remember Ellen's breasts being that big... Nor do I remember the word balloons being fully colored in.

And now it's bothering me, and I can't sleep, and I don't want to archive binge that massive archive just to figure this out...

[shadowinthelight]

Can somebody tell me where that pic came from? I keep thinking it's from El Goonish Shive, but I'm not sure. I don't remember Ellen's breasts being that big... Nor do I remember the word balloons being fully colored in.

And now it's bothering me, and I can't sleep, and I don't want to archive binge that massive archive just to figure this out...

I've looped through the EGS archive enough times to know it isn't from there. Don't let that stop you from another read through, though.

[GlytchMeister]

I've looped through the EGS archive enough times to know it isn't from there. Don't let that stop you from another read through, though.

Well, at least that's not gonna bother me all night. Still wanna know where that pic is from. But not in a keep-me-up-at-night way.
I sent a PM at Jeffepp, hopefully he'll see it. I dunno if he lurks a lot or if he just isn't very active.

[Mark N]

Can somebody tell me where that pic came from? I keep thinking it's from El Goonish Shive, but I'm not sure. I don't remember Ellen's breasts being that big... Nor do I remember the word balloons being fully colored in.

And now it's bothering me, and I can't sleep, and I don't want to archive binge that massive archive just to figure this out...

The image in question is from Shotgun Shuffle a web-comic from Chris Rusche.

[GlytchMeister]

Sooo...
I first read your post about an hour ago, Mark. I'm already up to my eyeballs in an archive binge. And I just finished Two Lumps. Literally, just finished that archive about 2 hours ago, and now I have a new one.

I don't know if this is a good thing or a problem. Imma call it a good problem.

Edited because I was typing while distracted by webcomicy goodness.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Sooo...
I first your post about an hour ago, Mark. I'm already up to my eyeballs in an archive binge. And I just finished Two Lumps. Literally, just finished that archive about 2 hours ago, and now I have a new one.

I don't know if this is a good thing or a problem. Imma call it a good problem.

Have you tried Darken, Spinnerette or Exiern?

{And, after you finish Darken, you might want to try her new (and current) comic, Widdershins.}