Reading Loroi Expressions and Cold reading the Loroi
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:57 pm
Now, this is both an observation and a lead in to a couple of questions towards Arioch.
The greatest comic artists have a saying: Don't tell when you can show. I have to say that the comic does a great deal of showing.
Let's start with the beginning of of Chapter 1 where Alex wakes up screaming at page 19. The first reaction we see is from Fireblade and her expression coupled with the body language is a mix of surprise and confidence. Meanwhile the other Loroi in the room are a mix shock and fear, especially Beryl who may have quickly moved herself behind Fireblade for protection. All of the Loroi must have screamed WTF? in Sanzai at that point.
At page 20 we see Fireblade looking sideways towards Beryl taking an expression of mockery towards the fear of the others, undoubtedly reminding them that Alex is restrained in Sanzai speak. In the third panel Fireblade stares at Alex with a somewhat threatening expression, probably reassuring Beryl in Sanzai as Beryl speaks to Alex.
At Page 21 in the second panel Beryl's body language is still weary but has a small degree of confidence. I love the expressions at panel 4 between Beryl and Fireblade, the whole panel screams that their exchange in Sanzai is something along the lines of 'You got to be kidding me'.
Now I believe that the next big show is with the first introduction of Still-Storm at page 22, her whole demeanour screams of confidence and authority, with some hints of cold heartedness. It's a great first introduction but something feels off with the way she commands her guard to stand at the door. The gesture of pointing at the ground is very human, that gesture of 'stay here' is something that a human would easily understand but the Loroi have Sanzai, that gesture is somewhat extravagant unless of course Sanzai has similar limitation to spoken speech in which case too many words spoken in Sanzai would be cacophonus and given what was happening in the med bay it's easy to guess that there were a lot of Sanzai speaking going around. Giving an order through gesturing would be better in such a case.
To finish this, let's jump to page 25 when the order to mind probe Alex is given. Beryl looks back with regret as if saying goodbye; Fireblade is composing herself while the purple haired unseathed has a particularly determined expression. Stillstorm is of course angry in this page but in page 26 when we see her back we do see a degree of tension on her (unless I am imagining it). All of the above of course pass the message that what was about to happen would be nasty but the details are making me ask this:
If this mind probe happened at a non human would it be lethal to the recipient?
The medics leaving the room, the expressions of everyone, the tension on Still-storm's back, even the expression of resignation Fireblade had in the first panel of page 27. Did Stillstorm order the Unsheathed to kill Alex in order to get answers?
If this is true then the Unseathed are far more dangerous since they can fry someone's brain if they touch that someone's head. If true this also gives an other meaning to the psychokinetic incident at the lift, a subtle reminder to Alex that she can still kill him with her brain, after failing to kill him before. The fact that she is unarmed would also be an addition to this, as in passing the message to Alex and other Loroi that she doesn't need a weapon to take care of him.
Of course all of the above are my suppositions and the real question I wanted to ask after thinking all of the above is this:
Alex was able to read part of the above situation because humans have the inherent capability to subconsciously do a partial cold read of other humans. Loroi have the same expressions as humans but their Sazai ability allows them to quickly read the moods and feelings of other nearby Loroi, they never needed to develop cold reading for themselves. The diplomat caste may have some cold reading tricks since they regularly speak with aliens but are those tricks to the same level to human trained cold readers?
If true the Loroi are at a disadvantage in their interactions with humans since their expressions would be read easily and their inability to read the expressions of humans would put them way behind in future negotiations. In short, do humans have it easier to bluff Loroi than other humans?
The greatest comic artists have a saying: Don't tell when you can show. I have to say that the comic does a great deal of showing.
Let's start with the beginning of of Chapter 1 where Alex wakes up screaming at page 19. The first reaction we see is from Fireblade and her expression coupled with the body language is a mix of surprise and confidence. Meanwhile the other Loroi in the room are a mix shock and fear, especially Beryl who may have quickly moved herself behind Fireblade for protection. All of the Loroi must have screamed WTF? in Sanzai at that point.
At page 20 we see Fireblade looking sideways towards Beryl taking an expression of mockery towards the fear of the others, undoubtedly reminding them that Alex is restrained in Sanzai speak. In the third panel Fireblade stares at Alex with a somewhat threatening expression, probably reassuring Beryl in Sanzai as Beryl speaks to Alex.
At Page 21 in the second panel Beryl's body language is still weary but has a small degree of confidence. I love the expressions at panel 4 between Beryl and Fireblade, the whole panel screams that their exchange in Sanzai is something along the lines of 'You got to be kidding me'.
Now I believe that the next big show is with the first introduction of Still-Storm at page 22, her whole demeanour screams of confidence and authority, with some hints of cold heartedness. It's a great first introduction but something feels off with the way she commands her guard to stand at the door. The gesture of pointing at the ground is very human, that gesture of 'stay here' is something that a human would easily understand but the Loroi have Sanzai, that gesture is somewhat extravagant unless of course Sanzai has similar limitation to spoken speech in which case too many words spoken in Sanzai would be cacophonus and given what was happening in the med bay it's easy to guess that there were a lot of Sanzai speaking going around. Giving an order through gesturing would be better in such a case.
To finish this, let's jump to page 25 when the order to mind probe Alex is given. Beryl looks back with regret as if saying goodbye; Fireblade is composing herself while the purple haired unseathed has a particularly determined expression. Stillstorm is of course angry in this page but in page 26 when we see her back we do see a degree of tension on her (unless I am imagining it). All of the above of course pass the message that what was about to happen would be nasty but the details are making me ask this:
If this mind probe happened at a non human would it be lethal to the recipient?
The medics leaving the room, the expressions of everyone, the tension on Still-storm's back, even the expression of resignation Fireblade had in the first panel of page 27. Did Stillstorm order the Unsheathed to kill Alex in order to get answers?
If this is true then the Unseathed are far more dangerous since they can fry someone's brain if they touch that someone's head. If true this also gives an other meaning to the psychokinetic incident at the lift, a subtle reminder to Alex that she can still kill him with her brain, after failing to kill him before. The fact that she is unarmed would also be an addition to this, as in passing the message to Alex and other Loroi that she doesn't need a weapon to take care of him.
Of course all of the above are my suppositions and the real question I wanted to ask after thinking all of the above is this:
Alex was able to read part of the above situation because humans have the inherent capability to subconsciously do a partial cold read of other humans. Loroi have the same expressions as humans but their Sazai ability allows them to quickly read the moods and feelings of other nearby Loroi, they never needed to develop cold reading for themselves. The diplomat caste may have some cold reading tricks since they regularly speak with aliens but are those tricks to the same level to human trained cold readers?
If true the Loroi are at a disadvantage in their interactions with humans since their expressions would be read easily and their inability to read the expressions of humans would put them way behind in future negotiations. In short, do humans have it easier to bluff Loroi than other humans?