The Sound of My Voice, 10-8-2014

[sheik]

Atsali "Brick" Gilchrist is showing her integrity again.
She's got a whole laundry list of impediments to having an honest relationship with her yet-to-be significant other, including outsized boobs, insanely alluring singing voice, and paranormal royalty for family.
It's enough to drive a good girl bad, _very_ bad.
And she _knows_ it.
It's going to take a boy who is wise beyond his years to break through her defense.
Either that or one who is so clueless he's simply unaware of her impediments.

[kingklash]

Surely they have SOME respectable professions...

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

Think about it. A Siren's song could probably halt almost any small conflict, by entrancing all those within range of the Siren's voice.

Dealing with the aftermath of a mass entrancement would probably be a delicate issue... "don't try this at home, these are trained professionals"... but it might be workable.

Hostage-situation negotiators, talk-them-down-off-the-ledge suicide counselors... I do think there are some possibilities here.

Man: I think it was, "Blessed are the cheesemakers"!
Gregory's wife: What's so special about the cheesemakers?
Gregory: Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturer of dairy products.

[jwhouk]

Not a single person noticed I had something hidden in plain sight of my last post, hm?


It would explain so much.

[illiad]

the cheese???

[illiad]

Of course, what with Kids These Days, she has a perfectly safe route to explore a fellow's interest without accidental acoustic interference-- text messaging.

My kid exchanged upwards of 200 messages with another student before their first "date"... & we know Atsali has a smart phone, since the sprout was taking videos of her with it.

Hey, some kids get so worked up and anxious, even just thinking about it stalls them into inaction...

[Dave]

Of course, what with Kids These Days, she has a perfectly safe route to explore a fellow's interest without accidental acoustic interference-- text messaging.

Perfectly safe, as long as she's careful not to message him a custom-recorded ringtone

Man: I think it was, "Blessed are the cheesemakers"!
Gregory's wife: What's so special about the cheesemakers?
Gregory: Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturer of dairy products.

The tofu makers and almond-beverage brewers have just gone out on strike in protest of your having excluded them. And, believe you me, they're going to milk it for all it's worth.

Not a single person noticed I had something hidden in plain sight of my last post, hm?

It would explain so much.

Didn't notice it at all until I tried quoting your earlier message. Subtly done, jwhouk - you got the color just right.

Have to think about that possibility for a while. I think you may have over-estimated the bloodline percentages (it's way less than "half" in the former case, at least, based on what was actually revealed on the island).

[scantrontb]

i think this might back-fire on Atsali, you DON'T want to piss of a SHAPE SHIFTER!!! ... Atsali probably thinks she's just going to siren-song her and make her do some silly stuff out there on the island for a bit to demonstrate as to WHY she's not pursuing the boy in question and how her interest could be misinterpreted and afterwards eveything between the three of them goes back to normal.... But..., i think Berdine is going to take it the wrong way, be offended and pissed off that Atsali, her (maybe soon to be ex)friend "Used the song on me!"... then to get even, she's gonna shapeshift into Atsali's form, do some stupid shit, probably with the boy in question, and then let the Real Atsali take the heat for it... almost everyone won't believe Atsali's protestations of innocence and her rep tanks... one question is whether Nadette sees the stress her sister Berdine is under over this issue and if she will keep silent about it since it's her sister, or maybe Nadette will put two and two together and reveal the truth about what happened, but by that time the damage has been done, and not much can be done to save the situation.... either way, it'll be fun for us to read about!... Confusion Corner here I come!

[lake_wrangler]

I get the feeling that Atsali is going to hate herself later for even having to give this demonstration.

It will be interesting to see whether that is the case or not.

She certainly seems to already feel that way about her siren nature.

I don't think it's quite the same: she hated the fact that she inherited all her mother's siren traits, because she was afraid of the things people would say or think about her, making insinuations that are not true, based only on stereotypes. One such fear would be that people would either suspect or expect her to use her siren powers to get what she wants.

In this case, she is using her power on purpose, but not in order to get a guy, or something else that she wants, but to drive a point across. Namely, she is demonstrating, in a forceful way, the power people may assume she used, if she ever gets a boy to like her. She decided to use her power, because no matter what she said about her fears and reservations about relationships, Berdine just wouldn't get it. But that doesn't mean she has to like it...

So yeah, she may or may not hate herself for using her power, but at least she is not using it to get her own way.

[Dave]

i think this might back-fire on Atsali, you DON'T want to piss of a SHAPE SHIFTER!!! ... Atsali probably thinks she's just going to siren-song her and make her do some silly stuff out there on the island for a bit to demonstrate as to WHY she's not pursuing the boy in question and how her interest could be misinterpreted and afterwards eveything between the three of them goes back to normal.... But..., i think Berdine is going to take it the wrong way, be offended and pissed off that Atsali, her (maybe soon to be ex)friend "Used the song on me!"... then to get even, she's gonna shapeshift into Atsali's form, do some stupid shit, probably with the boy in question, and then let the Real Atsali take the heat for it...

Maybe... but I think that would be out of character. That would be Berdine, doing pretty much the same sort of thing that she recently raked Calista over the coals for doing. Berdine seems to have been genuinely outraged by how Cricket humiliated the girls that had offended her... I'd be surprised if she turned around and pulled that sort of humiliating stunt on Atsali. (and I'd be surprised if Paul "used the same trick twice" in the strip like that).

My guess is, Atsali has already "done what she was going to do" to Berdine. Berdine has now been on the receiving end of the Siren's Song - we'll probably see her short-term reaction, and then a quick recovery in the next day or so. She'll have felt what it's like to be Siren-fascinated - Alsali won't have to make her "do silly stuff" to make the point.

I must admit I'm very interested to see how Berdine reacts (both immediately, and when the mojo wears off).

[jwhouk]

And Nadette's reaction will be, "Told ya."

[jwhouk]

Didn't notice it at all until I tried quoting your earlier message. Subtly done, jwhouk - you got the color just right.

Have to think about that possibility for a while. I think you may have over-estimated the bloodline percentages (it's way less than "half" in the former case, at least, based on what was actually revealed on the island).

I had to use WhatColor to get the right shade.

The percentages are likely "just enough", IMO. It would explain why her dad apparently got out of his drug charges, though.

[Grantwhy]

It's going to take a boy who is wise beyond his years to break through her defense.
Either that or one who is so clueless he's simply unaware of her impediments.

Or someone who can't/doesn't hear?

I don't know if that would be seen as taking the 'soft road' storyline wise, but it would give Atsali someone she knows that her song cannot affect?

[Skywatcher68]

Another thought I had was that it would probably be difficult for someone to love an ursamorph for "who they are", when "who they are" is so malleable...

I can picture something like this, happening:

- Honey, you know I love you, but... do you think you could make your chest a little bigger?
- Bigger? Bigger? HOW'S THIS?
*increases bust to beyond Atsali-esque, while ranting wildly*
*boy runs off in fear*

I wouldn't

'Course, I'm weird.

[TheCollector]

I gotta say, that siren song's working on me through the computer screen, cause Atsali in that panel, hot damn.

[AnotherFairportfan]

I gotta say, that siren song's working on me through the computer screen, cause Atsali in that panel, hot damn.

Remember - she's fifteen.

[TheCollector]

I gotta say, that siren song's working on me through the computer screen, cause Atsali in that panel, hot damn.

Remember - she's fifteen.

I know. But at the same time, it's art so y'know, not real, no matter how much I do care about certain characters.

[My2Cents]

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

Blessings on the peacemakers, for they shall be shot at by both sides.

Especially when the compulsion you used wears off!

[My2Cents]

Remember - she's fifteen.

Remember, she had 6+ billion sets of memories run through her head, that probably left some residue. Atsali is more like 15 going on 2000. The saying "Too soon old, too late smart!" may not apply to her.

[TheCollector]

Y'know, not speaking in terms of attraction, just stating a fact, but this comic made me notice something I hadn't before, Atsali is nicely filled out, and I don't mean her upper body. And it made me realize that all 3 of my favorite characters, Cricket, Suzie and Atsali are all like that.

[oldmanmickey]

Didn't notice it at all until I tried quoting your earlier message. Subtly done, jwhouk - you got the color just right.

Have to think about that possibility for a while. I think you may have over-estimated the bloodline percentages (it's way less than "half" in the former case, at least, based on what was actually revealed on the island).

I had to use WhatColor to get the right shade.

The percentages are likely "just enough", IMO. It would explain why her dad apparently got out of his drug charges, though.

salute sir, that was slick. i had to use quote as well