9/11/09 [PF#78] White Bloods aren't Undead, you idiot!

[ChaosMageX]

It's true.  They're just 100% prosthetic.

They are the non-magical version of undead, just as androids are the non-magical version of golems.

EDIT: I would have said 98% prosthetic, but Joshua doesn't have his original brain anymore--it was splattered all over the research lab's floor, if I remember correctly.

Also, on a side note, it's surprising that someone as paranoid as Ashford would hire a cubi in the first place...

Unless his "situation" is reacting to Keaton being a cubi instead of Josh being 100% prosthetic.

And, on yet another note, Keaton appears to be having mood swings.
First she's pissed off at Ashford, and now she finds him amusing.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Nothing unusual about mood swings in a Cubi.

Although I think she's amused because she's just been given Joshua to eat his soul... unsuccessfully, mind, but even so...

[Tapewolf]

Although I think she's amused because she's just been given Joshua to eat his soul... unsuccessfully, mind, but even so...

Pretty much.  She's unable to prevent herself sniggering at the crap Ashford is spouting, then she focusses when given a job to do, though it's not actually a soul-stealing.

Firstly, even Ashford isn't that sadistic, and secondly it would probably have worked.  What Ashford has told her to do (which the wall-of-text is trying to make clear) is remove the spell keeping him animate, which obviously hasn't worked because he's not actually an undead.  If he'd actually ordered her to eat him it would have been worded very differently, and Keaton's reaction would have been even more delighted.

For the record, I'm not entirely sure whether undead in DMFA smell particularly bad or not - I'm assuming not since Hannah was able to masquerade as one of the living.  Ashford doesn't even believe they're real people so anything he says should be taken with a pinch of salt.

EDIT: I would have said 98% prosthetic, but Joshua doesn't have his original brain anymore--it was splattered all over the research lab's floor, if I remember correctly.

Yes.

Also, on a side note, it's surprising that someone as paranoid as Ashford would hire a cubi in the first place...

The relationship between them will become clear in the next chapter.  It took a lot of inspiration from DMFA around strip 718, though it is noticeably different in several major ways.

Oh yeah, Amber?  Just be glad Keaton didn't win the cameo auction.  Seriously, even a cheetah character would just be a matter of mechanically filling out a whole load of spots - Keaton has all these patches and whorls and stuff (I'm simplifying her a lot here).  I just know I'm going to forget the eye-crescents one of these days (they were deliberately left out in Being-mode).

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Pretty much.  She's unable to prevent herself sniggering at the crap Ashford is spouting, then she focusses when given a job to do, though it's not actually a soul-stealing.

Firstly, even Ashford isn't that sadistic, and secondly it would probably have worked.  What Ashford has told her to do (which the wall-of-text is trying to make clear) is remove the spell keeping him animate, which obviously hasn't worked because he's not actually an undead.  If he'd actually ordered her to eat him it would have been worded very differently, and Keaton's reaction would have been even more delighted.

Ah. Yeah, point.

For the record, I'm not entirely sure whether undead in DMFA smell particularly bad or not - I'm assuming not since Hannah was able to masquerade as one of the living.  Ashford doesn't even believe they're real people so anything he says should be taken with a pinch of salt.

It's unclear if that was Hannah masquerading, or merely Dan being inattentive. My money is on Dan, though I grant you the point of being able to do so.

And... Yeah. It's clear to me that Ashford isn't terribly connected to the universe at large. ;-]

[Tapewolf]

Ah. Yeah, point.

I'll happily accept suggestions for clarifying that in dialogue, as long as it will fit  

**EDIT**
By the way, Keaton's profile is up on the cast page.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I think it's more me making assumptions than the dialogue being unclear. But I'll think on it anyway...

[Zedd]

It's amusing that it still that some sign Josh is being cared for in some ironic way

[SpottedKitty]

Heh, nice. In the first panel, though, I can't quite tell if Josh's just looking PO'd at Ashford, or if he's tossing a you're-not-helping look at Keaton.

[Gabi]

The dialogue was clear to me. He was basically asking her to cast "dispell undead".

Nice cast page. Is there going to be one for Ashford too? Since he's on her Facebook and all.

Just one thing: where it says "children are are sacred" (on Keaton's cast page), I think you meant to put only one "are".

By the way, what's Schadenfreude?

[Tapewolf]

Nice cast page. Is there going to be one for Ashford too? Since he's on her Facebook and all.

Eventually, yes.  I haven't assembled the art for it yet.

Just one thing: where it says "children are are sacred" (on Keaton's cast page), I think you meant to put only one "are".

Well spotted.  That should be fixed now, though owing to an unfortunate combination of the server aggressively caching things and the PHP script, you may need to use:

http://www.project-future.org/cast.php?name=Keaton

...to force it to display correctly.

By the way, what's Schadenfreude?

I believe it refers to taking pleasure from others' misfortunes, but I could be wrong.  It was taken from her DMFA wiki page.

[Madmann135]

The no scent thing could be easily handled with technorganics that grow synthetic skin.  
Unfortunately that tech is a ways off going by what I have seen.


And by going what I said Terminator had it right, in some areas.

[techmaster-glitch]

By the way, what's Schadenfreude?

I believe it refers to taking pleasure from others' misfortunes, but I could be wrong.  It was taken from her DMFA wiki page.

  "There's an old Earth word. It's called schadenfreude--the feeling of elation that comes from learning of the suffering of others. Like when you hear that a rival newsman suddenly was caught cursing in front of a live mike, or that a particularly corrupt alderman just stepped in front of a garbage truck. It's elation accompanied by that twinge of guilt for feeling so good, and the quiet, fervent prayer that something that bad never happens to you.
  With the Protoss and Zerg biting deep into Confederate territory, we had schaudenfreude in buckets."

--Michael Liberty, StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade

[ChaosMageX]

The no scent thing could be easily handled with technorganics that grow synthetic skin.  
Unfortunately that tech is a ways off going by what I have seen.


And by going what I said Terminator had it right, in some areas.

In the Terminator movies, dogs were used to detect infiltrators because even though they had human skin, they still somehow lacked the odor of normal humans.  This leads me to believe that the glands that produce scents were not replicated properly.

A remedy for this would be an artificial olfaction and scent reproduction system.  There used to be a piece of vaporware called the iSmell that was a test to see if tele-olfaction could be achieved by combining a set a 250 primary odors to replicate any smell the human nose could detect.  Of course, this tech fell short of expectations, but I still believe that tele-olfaction may still be possible.

It would be a short step, using the right nanotechnology, to detect scents at concentrations lower than 1 ppm, and replicate these odors using nano-factories for molecular synthesis.  This would allow an extremely advanced terminator with this equipment to sneak past the dogs at the front gate and go on a killing spree in the refugee camp.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

You know, something just occurred to me. Joshua, when he was a guest of Jakob Pettersohn, freaked out at the very thought that he might be in the same room as a 'cubi.

And now he finds out his own boss employs one. What would it do to morale if that got out? And how come Ashford's obvious paranoia isn't triggered

[Tapewolf]

You know, something just occurred to me. Joshua, when he was a guest of Jakob Pettersohn, freaked out at the very thought that he might be in the same room as a 'cubi.
And now he finds out his own boss employs one.

Spot on.  That is one of the big reasons he's totally freaked in the bottom-left panel.  To quote the original story:

He rose, and then glanced to his secretary.  "Keaton?  Dispel it, please.  Then have the remains interred at his grave with full honours."

"Yes, commander."
The jackal sighed and arose as well, her wings and headwings appearing as she did so.  Joshua started in terror... he'd never suspected she was anything more than a normal Being and his fear of 'Cubi, diminished by his stay with Jakob, suddenly returned at full strength.

What would it do to morale if that got out? And how come Ashford's obvious paranoia isn't triggered

Of that we shall speak later...

[Amber Williams]

GRIM N DARK.

GRIM N DAAAAARK.

[MT Hazard]

I'm quite curious to see if Joshua has the strength to break out of those cuffs, after all the other synthetic broke a man's neck fairly easily.

[Tapewolf]

I'm quite curious to see if Joshua has the strength to break out of those cuffs, after all the other synthetic broke a man's neck fairly easily.

Only if they're not designed to restrain Demons.  And only if Joshua has his previous strength back, instead of being set to something more Being-like.

[MT Hazard]

I'm quite curious to see if Joshua has the strength to break out of those cuffs, after all the other synthetic broke a man's neck fairly easily.

Only if they're not designed to restrain Demons.  And only if Joshua has his previous strength back, instead of being set to something more Being-like.

71 suggested he has being reset to full power, but you would be more likely to know than me. Plus rule of drama and all that.

[Madmann135]

Besides wouldn't it be Joshua's discretion when and when not to be set from being strength to full power in the field?

[Tapewolf]

Besides wouldn't it be Joshua's discretion when and when not to be set from being strength to full power in the field?

Only if he has the equipment to reprogram his config settings.  Setting the limiters is not something he can do himself just by thinking about it.

[Amber Williams]

I'm half tempted to make a joke about how the females in the comic are either background elements or subserviant lackeys to THE MAN.

[Ren Gaulen]

I'm half tempted to make a joke about how the females in the comic are either background elements or subserviant lackeys to THE MAN.

Dooo eeet..

[Amber Williams]

I would....but these Ashford/Joshua fanfics aren't gonna write themselves yanno.

Now where is my thesarus...I need to come up with a similar word for "throbbing"...

[Tapewolf]

Now where is my thesarus...I need to come up with a similar word for "throbbing"...

Pulsating.

[Jairus]

Now where is my thesarus...I need to come up with a similar word for "throbbing"...

Beating, pulsing, pounding, thudding, throbbing, palpitated... I'll stop now.

[Amber Williams]

I love this thread so much.

[Jairus]

I love this thread so much.

Me too.

Incidentally, I do have about, oh, a sentence-worth of an Ashford/Joshua fanfic that I wrote on a whim. Nothing about clearing desks off yet, but something about "mechanical precision." Good gods what is wrong with me?

[Tezkat]

I would....but these Ashford/Joshua fanfics aren't gonna write themselves yanno.

Now where is my thesarus...I need to come up with a similar word for "throbbing"...

"Tumescent" seems to be popular in slash fanfics. Don't ask me how I know that...

[Jairus]

I would....but these Ashford/Joshua fanfics aren't gonna write themselves yanno.

Now where is my thesarus...I need to come up with a similar word for "throbbing"...

"Tumescent" seems to be popular in slash fanfics. Don't ask me how I know that...

A little purple-prose-ish, isn't it?