12/08/08 [DMFA #954] - An abundance of girlfriends

[Caswin]

A man has to have his priorities.

Dang, a whole week? 

[Lucheek]

I already liked Abel, but this just earned him a billion more points.

Vantriliquism is an awesome skill that I'm seriously looking into learning.

[Jairus]

Indeed. Go Abel. Totally worth it. And SAIA sounds awesome if it has a ventriloquism course. And seduction courses... actually, for a race of Stupid Sexy Cubi, it makes sense to learn how to channel it better.

It's the Rant-o-the-day that really interests me. Consider me very interested, Amber.

[Zedd]

Well it's all easy if you remember how to throw your voice in the proper direction...

And onto other notes...I wish best of luck to anyone wins the bidding and Amber keep looking up and remember to take your time, We will always be there for you!

[superluser]

If Amber keeps bringing the subject of Abel's love life up, we'll eventually start finding things out or it will get very, very boring.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Heheheh.  Although dumping a girl at SAIA seems to be a reasonably hazardous activity.....


I wonder if those bangles on Jyrras shine through or magically wrap to be over his gloves. *weird*

And the oven mitt. It's been occupying me for the past few strips. 952, Abel is mixing something. In 953, he puts it in the oven, wearing one green mitt on his left hand (paw?) and a red one on his right. Now, in 954, he's put the red one on the table, while the green one somehow got onto his tentacle/wing to use as his "claw".

But how did he shift into something with claws without breaking the mitt? And how did he get it behind his back or whatever without Jyrras noticing? Why aren't the two mitts matched?

I'd go on, but I've probably annoyed the Mods enough with my "annoying geeky questions that really aren't supposed to be asked" already.

[Naldru]

But how did he shift into something with claws without breaking the mitt? ANd how did he get it behind his back or whatever without Jyrras noticing? Why aren't the two mitts matched?

In my experience, women are much bigger on things in kitchens matching than men are.  This is Jyrras's kitchen, and he's the kind of fellow who wouldn't even think about a need for things in the kitchens to match.  As for changing the position of the glove, it doesn't seem too complicated.  Drop the glove to the floor and shape change the hand to look like the glove.  Then grab the glove with the tentacle.   Furthermore, cubi are able to magically change the appearance of their clothes.


Of course, the engineer in me notices that shape changing would be useful in that changing the size and shape of the larynx and sinus cavities would be of great utility in changing the nature of one's voice.

[techmaster-glitch]

But how did he shift into something with claws without breaking the mitt? ANd how did he get it behind his back or whatever without Jyrras noticing? Why aren't the two mitts matched?

1: Occam's razor; Cubi can make and shape materials, though that can be difficult, it's not impossible. Abel morphed the mitt with his -tentacle- (which it clearly is), which he made a claw on.
2.The tentacle snaked behind Jyrras while he was distracted with talking.
3. Why should they be?

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

I thought altering clothes was a magical ability, not shapeshifting per se. And for some reason I thought they were in Lost Lake, although they could have easily gone to Jyrras's place while the "camera" was directed away from them. I would have thought Jyrras's kitchen would have appliances and cabinets more easily accessible to someone of his height though.

And this comic establishes Jyrras as someone who strikes me as unlikely to have non-matching oven mitts.

Lastly, the "gratuitous economic lecture" strip I thought established it as difficult to shift clothes from one shape to another, even for 'Cubi (Except Latex). Abel's eyes arent funnily colored, which they usually are when he's casting a spell.

[AmigaDragon]

But how did he shift into something with claws without breaking the mitt? ANd how did he get it behind his back or whatever without Jyrras noticing? Why aren't the two mitts matched?

1: Occam's razor; Cubi can make and shape materials, though that can be difficult, it's not impossible. Abel morphed the mitt with his -tentacle- (which it clearly is), which he made a claw on.

Even simpler just shapechange the tentacle without the mitt. This includes color-changing the tentacle.

This is Jyrras's kitchen

It is? I missed where the location was identified. It could just as well be Lost Lake Inn, unless Alexsi has banned either of them from her kitchen (which I haven't seen yet). And besides, why would Jyrras have a stocked kitchen if he can't cook?

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Now playing on Winamp: Zoltan Kodaly - Hary Janos Suite: Intermezzo (Classical Minnesota Public Radio)
via FoxyTunes

[Tapewolf]

That was an awesome misuse of shapeshifting.  I'd be hard-pressed to choose between that and the pacman headwings.

[Ren Gaulen]

That was an awesome misuse of shapeshifting.  I'd be hard-pressed to choose between that and the pacman headwings.

Nah, pacman headwings are still superior. One can't beat pacman headwings. But I have to admit, that was neat. Some way to use shapeshifting (and ventriloquism) indeed.

[Goatmon]

A week?

Seriously?

[Howl]

It would have been funnier if he'd made his hand like a certain succubus, and said two words...

Shiny. Bishounen.

[Alondro]

*Charline hmms*  Actually, it would've been awesome if his girlfriend had been... ME!!     The I coulda eaten the Jy-squeak!   

*Charles whews*  Well, thank-goodness you're not in the comic.

*Charline grins*  But I could be... *points a clawed finger at the rant*

*Charles erfs*  B-but I don't have enough money.   

*Charline grrs fangily*  In that case, you need to think about your priorities:  Which would you rather have, enough money or enough internal organs? 

*Charles is thinking*   

[Tapewolf]

*Charline grrs fangily*  In that case, you need to think about your priorities:  Which would you rather have, enough money or enough internal organs? 

Oh, I see... Charline is intending to donate Charles' organs.  Sneaky!

This should prove to be an interesting auction.  Pity the exchange rate isn't so good at the moment.

**EDIT**
I don't remember seeing multicoloured speech text in a DMFA strip before.  Anyone care to correct me?

[Alondro]

*Charline grrs fangily*  In that case, you need to think about your priorities:  Which would you rather have, enough money or enough internal organs? 

Oh, I see... Charline is intending to donate Charles' organs.  Sneaky!

This should prove to be an interesting auction.  Pity the exchange rate isn't so good at the moment.

**EDIT**
I don't remember seeing multicoloured speech text in a DMFA strip before.  Anyone care to correct me?

*Charline hmms, taps her chin with a claw*  Actually, I was planning to rip Charles' guts out if he didn't try to get me in the comic... but selling his organs on the black market is a good idea too!   

[Tapewolf]

*Charline hmms, taps her chin with a claw*  Actually, I was planning to rip Charles' guts out if he didn't try to get me in the comic... but selling his organs on the black market is a good idea too!   

If he respawns, you might as well.

[MT Hazard]

Five years to learn ventriloquism? Well I guess this the guy who take grass growing classes, he's an expert in dragging things out.

Also not buying Abel boast.

It occurred to me that that Abels tea based reaction to Dans pac man head wings could be "How the hell did he do that? It took me years to make my headwings do that!"

Could Dan have a hidden talent for shapeshifting? Could I be over analysing this? Will I stop asking theoretical questions?

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

You know, I remember somewhere in these forums Amber stating to the effect that a typical education at SAIA takes a bit over 400 years.  We also have a statement of Fa'Lina in the 'Cubi abilities section that Cubi tend to have short attention spans.

Now, if we assume for the moment that Cubi are no more or less intelligent than humans, and thus learn at similar rates we have a few interesting conclusions.  I mean, consider, the purpose of SAIA is supposedly to train the 'Cubi to have enough skills that they can survive outside of the protected environment. I don't know for certain, but I have the feeling that learning to use the 'Cubi abilities is mandatory, and you probably have to learn at least a skill set that could be applied in a vocation, even if that vocation is hunting down peasants, eating their dreams and taking their stuff.
Now I don't know about you guys, but unless these cubi abilities are insanely hard to master (and lets face it, Dan Ti'Fiona is hardly the brightest bulb in Furrae, and he figures out the headwing shift in about 5 seconds after it's explained to him; so that's an unlikely prospect) or Cubi are hardly the most dedicated of students. I mean come on, the scenes we've seen in SAIA show a lot mroe partying, fraternizing, and random mayhem than actual studying. I know, I know, you could point to campuses here, or at least sections of them, and say the same thing, but generally people do learn some practical, applicable stuff in a mere 4 years for humans.

So my hypothesis is simply that what we would call accute ADHD is kind of normal for 'Cubi. They move into and out of things at whimsy, and rarely dedicate the sort of focus and attention that would be necessary for real scholarly work. A shapeshifting class might have a guy attend for a week, and then take off for a month for a massive HALO tournament, only to come back and have forgotten half of his lessons, and to take the entire course, on average takes a *long* while.

This is all a *very* circituous way of saying that maybe the reason it took Abel five years to learn ventriloquism is that he moved into it and out of it a lot. And he's probably pretty normal at least among 'Cubi in that respect.

[Tapewolf]

That may be, but personally I think they simply learn more stuff than a normal human would.

In our civilisation, we tend to specialise so that a single person can spend decades in pursuit of a single skill.  If you're a 'Cubi and you need to be able to masquerade as someone - or indeed, kill and replace them - you aren't going to be able to do it unless you can take up their job as well.  That says to me that you're going to want to get reasonably competent at a variety of Being-level skills, simply to widen the types of people you can successfully become.
(In my FH series, Dorcan has some basic motorcycle skills from SAIA because 'Cubi who can't drive are crippled in a world where the target they're replacing can )

Also, I suspect that magic is closer to electronics than most people would like to think.  IIRC Hennya was studying a single aspect of charms as a whole course.
I've said this before, but electronics and similar sciences have a lot of prerequisites.  For example, to do successful VLSI design you'd need at least some experience of maths, physics, chemistry, RF engineering, materials science, computer science and probably a bunch of other things I don't even know about.  With magic, I imagine it's quite similar.

For what it's worth, Amber has said that the courses typically range between <100 years and >800 if you're studying something really deep: Link, from the wiki.

All this is not to say that the two basic ideas are mutually exclusive.  They could very well be crappy students with a heck of a lot to learn.  Personally, I think Abel spent 5 years learning ventriloquism so he could become really good at it 

[MT Hazard]

That is an informative and well thought out answer, well done Corgatha Taldorthar .

Also Tapewolf post, while I was trying to post, (yes I'm jealous that these people can articulate themselves better and faster than me) has good points.

[Tapewolf]

On a related note, having a skill-set 15-30 years out-of-date might blow your disguise as a 'Cubi.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

At least, if DMFA is in line with most fantasy worlds, magic changes comparatively little over the years, and the rate of technological progress is glacial.

[Tapewolf]

At least, if DMFA is in line with most fantasy worlds, magic changes comparatively little over the years, and the rate of technological progress is glacial.

The vibe I'm getting is that technological progress has been glacial, but has recently entered a period of rapidly accelerating growth somewhat akin to ours, and this has been throwing Creatures for a loop.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

In which case the 'Cubi have at least a few generations before they need to panic, since everyone else will have a bunch of old skills that aren't really applicable anymore


WARNING! ANNOYING ECONOMICS SPECULATION AHEAD

Actually, the state of technology was always a bit confusing to me. There seem to be laptops and computers already, which implies systematic literacy, and if they have the internet (or at least livejournal) than they have ways of rapidly communicating. Social organization is enough to have shopping malls, implying that there is enough disposable wealth to shell things like clothes, entertainment, psychic predictions, etc. With all those "modern" social norms and technologies that are directly applicable to research, it's kind of odd that weapons development has lagged behind, especially if there are big nasty creatures waiting around to eat Beings who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Alondro]

In which case the 'Cubi have at least a few generations before they need to panic, since everyone else will have a bunch of old skills that aren't really applicable anymore


WARNING! ANNOYING ECONOMICS SPECULATION AHEAD

Actually, the state of technology was always a bit confusing to me. There seem to be laptops and computers already, which implies systematic literacy, and if they have the internet (or at least livejournal) than they have ways of rapidly communicating. Social organization is enough to have shopping malls, implying that there is enough disposable wealth to shell things like clothes, entertainment, psychic predictions, etc. With all those "modern" social norms and technologies that are directly applicable to research, it's kind of odd that weapons development has lagged behind, especially if there are big nasty creatures waiting around to eat Beings who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

*Charline grins*  The Creature Council tends to make sure Beings don't get their hands on anything that could give Beings a chance in hell.  Those who invent weapons we feel are dangerous enough are quickly... disposed of.   

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

And the people who make cell phones, computers, factories, dams, etc are any less dangerous? Historically, organization and ability to mobilize economic resources has been far more indicitive of a nation (or any political unit's) military capacity than the technology of their armament. Look at the Franco-Prussian war, where French rifles having a range that was two and a half times that of their adversaries proved little use against a force that could rail it's troops from hot spot to hot spot quickly and keep their logistical train at the same pace of their army.

[Sunblink]

I think Abel didn't use the oven mitt, actually. I think he just used his tentacle. You can see it in the last panel.

But seriously, Amber? If you do a cameo auction, you'll be a millionaire by the time it's over. XD

[Alondro]

But seriously, Amber? If you do a cameo auction, you'll be a millionaire by the time it's over. XD

I'll bid as much as I can, but I know I'll get blown out of the water.  I prolly couldn't manage more than a few hundred.  I gotta keep the bills paid for the household. 

*Charline meh*  And besides, people will outbid Charles just to make sure I can't be in the comic... cuz they hate me!   

*Charles watches Charline cry with distinct pleasure*  At last, she's the one suffering!