Horns Are Showing 2014-12-29

[Elvis]

Ok, i am betting on Satyr.



also:

[TazManiac]

- Fry Bread: In (at least) Northern California there is a thing called an 'Indian Taco'. It's based on a Fry Bread base w/ ground meat and the usual lettuce / tomato toppings. This, that is, is the most generic version of course.

Being a great fan of (East) Indian NAN, I see a great amount of promise w/ Fry Bread in general but it's going to take some politicking, so to speak, (and speaking gastronomically), to get it out of it's niche.

- Jacob: I don't think he is a Demon based character. Demons are hardly ever corporeal enough (in the Wapsiverse) to have children running around. It'd be more likely he's related to Pickle, which I strongly doubt, but is more likely.

Now, what has Horns? While Demons have horns, most times, even Antelope have Horns. [<--even after two re-writes, thats a clumsy sentence, even for me...]

I'm leaning toward Bull or Ram based were-beastie.

- Avocado Trees: Surprisingly, they can grow enormously large. I do recall the wood is oily in nature, but don't recall any being used for furniture. hmmmmm...
(I'm not saying Paul mentions furniture, it's just got me thinking...)

- Honey Dipper. Sail w/ it, you Shippers, you.

[oldmanmickey]

We have what sounds like a similar dish we do in our family. Its corn meal mixed with water or buttermilk and the pan fried. Its real good with peas or any type of bean. If you dont want to fry it then get a cast iron pan fill it part full of grease mix a bag of cracklins in with the corn meal mash and bake. Cracklin bread is simply to die for, damn i'm getting hungry now.

[Leak]

Did anyone bet on incubus yet?

I don't think we've yet had one in the comic, and given Atsali's heritage - why not?

[jayessell]

I thought it was stated that was a coffee shop for mundanes.

Maybe that's the majority of their clientele? (Even at Tina's?)

Are we sure the existence of paranormals is a secret in the Wapsiverse?

Phix goes on about it all the time.

[zachariah]

From Nadettes and Randi's comments their families have know each other for awhile. This suggests a Native American connection. Styar's are not in that traditions. This makes it much more likely Jacob is also a morph type for a different animal. From the horns I'm guessing Bull. Demon is out as they do not go to school or normally leave their person. Satyr is possible but they mainly are Greek, or roman, connection and the horns curl. Incubus is possible but I think unlikely as they don't have horns, or I don't think they do.

So this is a set up. Now we know what the snerk was for.

[zachariah]

opps, sorry about the link. My bad

There is no bad about this. If you want to put it in, put it in, if you don't then don't! While some have agreed to do it, it is not a forum requirement. Nor is it really necessary for the proper usage of the forum. If we don't know where we came from to get here, why are we here. I always keep the strip open the first time I read it so I don't need a link back to it. Besides once comments reach the second or third page what good does that link do? SO don't worry about it and just create the new thread as you want according to the requirements.

[TazManiac]

I thought it was stated that was a coffee shop for mundanes...

I'll bet it is, but Atsali is a heavy influence towards breaking his undercover status...

You recall something called an 'Involuntary Response'?

[Atomic]

Faun is a possibility also (half goat/human), which is less sexyish than a full Satyr. Pan was a faun, not satyr, for example. So, maybe he's a nice guy and not a sex fiend!

[Grantwhy]

I am shocked and dismayed at this forum.

Upon reading the last panel of today's strip, I expected a 'horny' comment in either the first or second post.

but to see it first mentioned in the sixth post

*mock horror*

sure, there is only six minutes between the first post and the sixth, but still

(yes, I'm joking in my mock horror)

[jwhouk]

Here I was expecting someone to make a comment about Paul's decision to turn the strip into a satyr.

I guess it didn't pan out.

(Drops a copy of Disney's Hercules in the Pun Vault.)

[Akeche]

I've got a particular little joy that some people seem annoyed that the pairing is being shipped by the sister/best friend combo. We'll see how it fares, even if he and Atsali don't become a thing it'd be cool to keep him around.

[Yamara]

I thought it was stated that was a coffee shop for mundanes.

Maybe that's the majority of their clientele? (Even at Tina's?)

There isn't legal segregation of them, if that's what you mean. Keeping closeted members secret and safe spaces safe in an era of outing and aggressive trolling must be a helluva challenge for the MIB, though.

One bad faith lawsuit where a bigoted human org used civil rights laws to demand access to paranormal businesses, and "the balance" could quickly unravel.

Are we sure the existence of paranormals is a secret in the Wapsiverse?

Phix goes on about it all the time.

Both James Randi and fundamentalist Christians have been cited as existing in Wapsiworld, so yes.

Phix's parameters of The Balance to the rule-breaking Queens of the Earth:

0) Don't Show Off because:

1) Some humans disbelieve in paranormals
2) Some humans actively hate paranormals
3) Some humans quietly coexist with paranormals

It's an interesting political philosophy from an atheist author, though its consistency is seen in that humans are the ones with the deciding power in the relationship. This doesn't mean humans are the most powerful species, it just means they are the most feared. The most dangerous of all, since their capacity for evil means no action is off the table for them.

It does mean enforcing ignorance to reality as the prime method of keeping an otherwise integrated population safe. The real world parallels abound, but the ethics and abuse of those methods is what creates so many of our real world's problems. Because ignorance is bad like that...

[eee]

Well, so much for my suggestion Jacob might be a mundane. I didn't have much hope for the idea, but didn't want to make unwarranted assumptions. The horns rule normal humanity out, though.

(If that happens every time he is confronted by a beautiful girl, no WONDER he's shy! That would be embarrassing. Maybe Atsali needs to take off her amulet - her jacket, first - and show him SHE'S got a similar problem. It would certainly give them something to talk about.)

I agree, Nadette and Randi appear to have set this up. Sneaky, sneaky. Maybe they're girl friends. Or - considering this talk of fry bread, and giving honey to a bear - co-dependents.

[Grantwhy]

As for Jacob, I remember doing a bit of research^ on what kind of paranormal he might be

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1767&p=39553&hilit=jacob+cat#p39553

my guesses were:

• Cat Sith --> Come to the Dark Sidhe Coffee Shop, we have cookies ... ok, not a serious guess , was going on the cat paranormal theme

and

• Mishipeshu (or Mishibijiw) aka Underwater panther or The Great Lynx

and, speaking of horns ...?

• 
  Pictographs of a mishibizhiw as well as
  two giant serpents and a canoe, from
  Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
  Attributed to the Ojibwe.

^ 5 minutes with google is research, yes?

[Dave]

It does mean enforcing ignorance to reality as the prime method of keeping an otherwise integrated population safe. The real world parallels abound, but the ethics and abuse of those methods is what creates so many of our real world's problems. Because ignorance is bad like that...

Yeah... it's an inherently unstable situation. As you and others have pointed out, maintaining ignorance/unawareness in a large population, in the Internet age of rapid communication and heavy interest in "fringe" phenomena, must be a huge challenge and a constant fire-fighting job.

It's a tough challenge. The breakdown of ignorance (the collective "oh sh*it" realization that there are Weird Strangers among us) could easily be enough to trigger panic and violence. Unfortunately we're so tribal a species that it doesn't take a sudden revelation to trigger this... fear/dislike/envy of even a slightly different human social group easily turns to hatred, to violence, and then to nothing but bones (as one of Spider Robinson's characters put it) even when the two groups have coexisted for centuries. Consider the Middle East, or much of Europe's history, or... pick your place

Paranormals would be facing a mix of racial fear and "Methuselah's Children" envy. Not good.

(If that happens every time he is confronted by a beautiful girl, no WONDER he's shy!)

That's one reason I'm thinking "faun" rather than "satyr". Fauns are the original goat-people and had a reputation for being shy and retiring... this sorta lines up with what we've been shown of his persona.

[Dave]

- Avocado Trees: Surprisingly, they can grow enormously large. I do recall the wood is oily in nature, but don't recall any being used for furniture. hmmmmm...

Large, yes! My wife and I rented a house in Venice (Califrnia, not Italy) for a while, that had a medium-sized avocado tree in the back yard... only about 30' tall. Yummy!

Apparently it's fairly llght wood (not as light as balsa, but less dense than other fruitwoods), "variably knotty", and as you say it's somewhat oily. Not a great combination for furniture as it would not glue up easily and might not be rugged enough... and one description was "somewhat ugly greyish-brown". It's been used as a substitute for spruce in making violins and guitars.

It "turns like butter" on a lathe and is easy to carve... so, it could be perfect material to lathe-turn into a honey dipper.

[meisdadoo]

If he is a Minotaur, and I'm not saying he is, then they may have already met in the library as Atsali flew down the hallway with Kathrine. The blew past a minotaur that said "What was that momma?"

Probably wasn't Jacob, but you never know around here when a plot twist will rise up and smack your logic silly. . .

[Warrl]

Being a great fan of (East) Indian NAN, I see a great amount of promise w/ Fry Bread in general but it's going to take some politicking, so to speak, (and speaking gastronomically), to get it out of it's niche.

In the northern part of metropolitan Seattle there is a small chain of very large supermarkets called Central Market. Their seafood section is about the size of most big-city supermarkets' entire meat section, their olive bar the size of most restaurant salad bars, their salad bar comparable to vegetable departments, they have more varieties of cheese than most specialty cheese shops...

I'd pick up some naan and then hit the salad bar for some cilantro chutney, diced ham, onions, mushrooms, a bit of spinach (salad bars can be cost-effective when you use SMALL quantities, and larger quantities would just spoil)... take it home and make a pizza.

I thought it was stated that was a coffee shop for mundanes.

It was.

Maybe that's the majority of their clientele? (Even at Tina's?)

Probably; but you know, there are mundanes and then there are clueless mundanes.

Are we sure the existence of paranormals is a secret in the Wapsiverse?

I don't think it's strictly secret, I think it's more that they want to keep obvious paranormal activity down to a level where those mundanes who prefer to remain clueless (or are so bigoted they should be kept clueless) can easily do so.

(If that happens every time he is confronted by a beautiful girl, no WONDER he's shy! That would be embarrassing. Maybe Atsali needs to take off her amulet - her jacket, first - and show him SHE'S got a similar problem. It would certainly give them something to talk about.)

Bad idea. Jacob's horns can be written off as a trick of the light and/or his hair misbehaving. Atsali's wings are rather more conspicuous.

Oh, and apparently Jacob was already aware of Atsali and, at a minimum, recognizes her as a girl from his school. I doubt that he'd talk about his horns, even while they are visible, to some random presumably-mundane girl.

[lake_wrangler]

If he is a Minotaur, and I'm not saying he is, then they may have already met in the library as Atsali flew down the hallway with Kathrine. The blew past a minotaur that said "What was that momma?"

Probably wasn't Jacob, but you never know around here when a plot twist will rise up and smack your logic silly. . .

That minotaur struck me more as an elementary school age being, both for his speech, and for the shorts that he wore. His grandma's (mom's?) reply also indicates that he was too young to understand certain things... So definitely not Jacob, even if he is a minotaur (which I don't think he is, I might add...)