Made You Flinch 2016-08-29

[lake_wrangler]

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/made-you-flinch/


Woah... Talk about a grim outlook on life...

Understandable, but grim...

[Hansontoons]

Dayum. Time to get real and realize it's not just parlor tricks. The kid needs sincere hugs and understanding.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Well, we see now at least part of where this

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and this

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come from.

[DilyV]

*sighs* Poor Pickle...

[FreeFlier]

Castela's keen sense of smell is well established . . . I wonder if she smells through her skin, like Sergeant Schlock?

--FreeFlier

[Dave]

Dayum. Time to get real and realize it's not just parlor tricks. The kid needs sincere hugs and understanding.

Yeah... "soothing syrup" and the blowing-of-sunshine-up-the-ass aren't going to cut it. She's much too smart for that.

The truth is... is that the truth is scary and disturbing, and Castela knows it. The only way the adults can help, is acknowledge that truth and try to help her deal with it.

Tweenage angst and the "who am I, really?" stage are tough enough even for us mortals. To go through that, knowing that you were deliberately built as a tool for destruction... ugh.

[FreeFlier]

A lot of the time the soothing bullcrap works on kids because they want to be reassured . . . and Pickle is too smart for that.

...

Hmmm . . . I wonder if her threatening appearance later is because she's trying to look dangerous as a warning, so people won't corner her . . .

--FreeFlier

[oldmanmickey]

Dayum. Time to get real and realize it's not just parlor tricks. The kid needs sincere hugs and understanding.

Yeah... "soothing syrup" and the blowing-of-sunshine-up-the-ass aren't going to cut it. She's much too smart for that.

The truth is... is that the truth is scary and disturbing, and Castela knows it. The only way the adults can help, is acknowledge that truth and try to help her deal with it.

Tweenage angst and the "who am I, really?" stage are tough enough even for us mortals. To go through that, knowing that you were deliberately built as a tool for destruction... ugh.

Add to the the fact you can make beings with godlike powers flinch because they aren't sure of your power takes it to a whole other level. Show her love, compassion and maybe a job offer for the future.

[Atomic]

It's time for a solid discussion about assertiveness, aggression, self-defense, and appropriate levels of force. The ability to do harm is not authorization to do so, nor to extremes. A trained combatant can defeat an attacker -- a skilled combatant can neutralize them.

The order of battle: Avoid, Evade, Deflect, Reflect -- in that order. It's time to start regular training.

[Dave]

A trained combatant can defeat an attacker -- a skilled combatant can neutralize them.

The order of battle: Avoid, Evade, Deflect, Reflect -- in that order. It's time to start regular training.

I think that could help, and it should be done... but she's still bearing a burden that most don't. She didn't ask to be a combatant, trained or skilled or otherwise. She was made as one, through no choice of her own. She has power that she probably never wanted - the power of life and death over most those she meets - and is stuck with the responsibility of keeping it under control. I doubt she knows whether it's even possible for her power to be "a power of good", or whether she's just the equivalent of a walking bomb.

Like Atsali, she's being forced to grow up rather too soon.

I'm reminded a bit of what Michael Garibaldi told Delenn, during the Rebirth Ceremony. "The thing nobody knows, is that I'm always afraid... of what might happen if I ever let go."

[meisdadoo]

A trained combatant can defeat an attacker -- a skilled combatant can neutralize them.

The order of battle: Avoid, Evade, Deflect, Reflect -- in that order. It's time to start regular training.

I think that could help, and it should be done... but she's still bearing a burden that most don't. She didn't ask to be a combatant, trained or skilled or otherwise. She was made as one, through no choice of her own. She has power that she probably never wanted - the power of life and death over most those she meets - and is stuck with the responsibility of keeping it under control. I doubt she knows whether it's even possible for her power to be "a power of good", or whether she's just the equivalent of a walking bomb.
."

Probably want to start the training with someone that is immortal, say a newly minted sub-titan like Aunty Monica. You might be able to ruin her clothes, but you couldn't kill her if you tried. Since all tweens struggle with their inner demons, who better than the demon shepherd to help you learn control. It's not like she wouldn't know anything about being made into something that you didn't ask for . . . I don't recall her asking to become the demon shepherd . . .

[Gyrrakavian]

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/made-you-flinch/


Woah... Talk about a grim outlook on life...

Understandable, but grim...

Maybe she should visit her Blackthorn side of the family.

[ShirouZhiwu]

And thus the downside of being able to read emotions. Some people are hiding their emotions for your benefit on the account of emotions frequently being stupid. Especially if you are a tween or dealing with one. She's in good company though. Several members of her family were fabricated to be super weapons. She doesn't even qualify as the most powerful of them. As soon as they can get Pickle to understand that and see things from that perspective, she will be better off.

[illiad]

A trained combatant can defeat an attacker -- a skilled combatant can neutralize them.

The order of battle: Avoid, Evade, Deflect, Reflect -- in that order. It's time to start regular training.

I think that could help, and it should be done... but she's still bearing a burden that most don't. She didn't ask to be a combatant, trained or skilled or otherwise. She was made as one, through no choice of her own. She has power that she probably never wanted - the power of life and death over most those she meets - and is stuck with the responsibility of keeping it under control. I doubt she knows whether it's even possible for her power to be "a power of good", or whether she's just the equivalent of a walking bomb.
."

Probably want to start the training with someone that is immortal, say a newly minted sub-titan like Aunty Monica. You might be able to ruin her clothes, but you couldn't kill her if you tried. Since all tweens struggle with their inner demons, who better than the demon shepherd to help you learn control. It's not like she wouldn't know anything about being made into something that you didn't ask for . . . I don't recall her asking to become the demon shepherd . . .

problem is, Monica is NOT 'truly immortal' like the golem girls... She can be 'reset', yes, but then she loses all the 'physique' she has build up since the last time ... ... people like bud can survive a nuclear bomb, and then calmly 'poit' a sundress to look 'normal again...

[lake_wrangler]

And thus the downside of being able to read emotions. Some people are hiding their emotions for your benefit on the account of emotions frequently being stupid. Especially if you are a tween or dealing with one. She's in good company though. Several members of her family were fabricated to be super weapons. She doesn't even qualify as the most powerful of them. As soon as they can get Pickle to understand that and see things from that perspective, she will be better off.

As far as I'm concerned, her power level has not yet been determined... we don't know if the GGs are actually more powerful than Castela, yet, as we have not seen either at full strength (nor would we want to, I expect...) Their abilities are different, but they may very well be at the same power level, or she could be more powerful but we'll never know, because the only way to know would turn the whole area to glass...


I think Castela needs to take a lesson from Superman... (with a lesson at the end, that no matter how powerful you are, you can still get hurt...)

[FreeFlier]

And this flinch test isn't completely valid . . . if anyone reaches towards my face unexpectedly, I tend to flinch.

--FreeFlier

[sheik]

And this flinch test isn't completely valid . . . if anyone reaches towards my face unexpectedly, I tend to flinch.

--FreeFlier

It is completely valid.
One of the things one will learn in Armed Forces Basic Training, especially Army and Marine Corps, is that killing is easy, but Surviving is a hard full time occupation that is not always successful.
You don't have to be Pickle for a four year old to kill an adult.
I agree with the conversation above. Training is in order to allow Castela to understand that she is the Captain of her Soul.

[Warrl]

She didn't ask to be a combatant, trained or skilled or otherwise. She was made as one, through no choice of her own. She has power that she probably never wanted - the power of life and death over most those she meets - and is stuck with the responsibility of keeping it under control.

Which makes it, if anything, more important that she learn lesser means of combat... including those that she can use in a crowd, without blowing the masquerade (as she would if she turns into a sapient, mobile blackthorn thicket in public). The average person with no training or equipment can't casually kill people. Pickle can.

It's important to note that when she vaporized those rocks, in each case her hand was immediately adjacent to the rock - and didn't burn.

Atsali also can - she knocked a cave-bear unconscious with a blow to the head; and in one of the fanfictions she kicked an attacker three times pretty much demolishing his lower jaw, doing life-threatening damage to his chest, and probably rendering a vasectomy redundant - without changing forms.

As I had another paranormal tell Atsali: "You and I are deadly weapons. I can shatter a man's skull and crush his brain with one hoof. You nearly killed that thug without really trying. Why teach us how to do more damage? Instead, would you like to learn how to do less, yet still protect yourself?"

[FreeFlier]

And this flinch test isn't completely valid . . . if anyone reaches towards my face unexpectedly, I tend to flinch.

It is completely valid.

It is not valid as a test if Shelly is especially afraid of Castela, as it is likely that Shelly would have flinched if anyone suddenly reached towards her face.

One of the things one will learn in Armed Forces Basic Training, especially Army and Marine Corps, is that killing is easy, but Surviving is a hard full time occupation that is not always successful.
You don't have to be Pickle for a four year old to kill an adult.

Exactly.

I agree with the conversation above. Training is in order to allow Castela to understand that she is the Captain of her Soul.

Of course training is in order.

--FreeFlier

[Armorlord]

I'm reminded a bit of what Michael Garibaldi told Delenn, during the Rebirth Ceremony. "The thing nobody knows, is that I'm always afraid... of what might happen if I ever let go."

After the arc with Psi-Corps messing with him, that line hits even harder. That show was just so good at planting seeds early.


I think a good heart-to-heart with the trio would be good for Castela. They truly are constructed weapons that didn't choose the life that they have, and unlike her they were weapons that unleashed horrific destruction. They have to deal with that and guard themselves against unleashing too much power pretty much all the time, and went yet still live relatively healthy lives.