Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

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sunphoenix
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by sunphoenix »

Karst45 wrote:
sunphoenix wrote:Alex was kept in isolation for his own good and for security and for future diplomatic necessities. I would not put it beyond the pale for the demonstrably aggressive, and assertive Loroi females to not consider taking a few 'unsanctioned' liberties with the attractive male in their presence.
If that true, why didn't the guard "fell a cope"? If i was the only guard of the alien elf-chick... i would probably try to be friendly... maybe more considering the "several week" he spend in isolation.
Answer - Stillstorm's orders and professionalism. She at least does not trust the 'likely Umiak plant', but she certainly does not want some biological agent introduced to her crew or the Loroi populous in general. The best she can do with the annoying fact that Tempo has declared the "entity" a 'diplomat' and the fact that their previous examinations have not revealed any agent or virus that their current science can identify as hostile is isolate him and make sure he is well-guarded.

On a modern U.S. Navy ship if similar situation such as an exotic and demonstrably lovely young woman were on board... the captain would likely post his most reliable and dependable guards to make sure the passenger was not unduly harassed or molested. You don't put a soldier to guard the Admiral's daughter who has a reputation for being a horny-dog around women!

Same principle holds here... possibly.
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by NOMAD »

Answer - Stillstorm's orders and professionalism. She at least does not trust the 'likely Umiak plant', but she certainly does not want some biological agent introduced to her crew or the Loroi populous in general. The best she can do with the annoying fact that Tempo has declared the "entity" a 'diplomat' and the fact that their previous examinations have not revealed any agent or virus that their current science can identify as hostile is isolate him and make sure he is well-guarded.

On a modern U.S. Navy ship if similar situation such as an exotic and demonstrably lovely young woman were on board... the captain would likely post his most reliable and dependable guards to make sure the passenger was not unduly harassed or molested. You don't put a soldier to guard the Admiral's daughter who has a reputation for being a horny-dog around women!

Same principle holds here... possibly.
That whole still storm angle of keeping a cautious make to most sense to me, but i would also see the "loroi-male needs protecting" angle as well, given that most of the younger loroi crew has probably had its drilled into them and/or culturally to protect the rare males.


as well, Alex isolation was also an attempt to keep all the rumours of a Loroi like race down within the fleet ( from 51st SG angle), but it could also means still-storm is not sold on Alex being human and still being a Umiak plant ( especially after kitiki-27 boost of finally ending the war)

I just hoep everything is ok at Seran ( Will fireblade being anxious i wonder ?)

@ Arioch, thx for answering the question, can't wait to see what ship Alex ends up on
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by fredgiblet »

Muttley wrote:Mr moderator fredgiblet sir, you clearly have sources of information that I have not been able to find. Stats pages for the Outsider characters in some kind of game. Are they canon, and where are they located?
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by DevilDalek »

NOMAD wrote: That whole still storm angle of keeping a cautious make to most sense to me, but i would also see the "loroi-male needs protecting" angle as well, given that most of the younger loroi crew has probably had its drilled into them and/or culturally to protect the rare males.
Thats going to be interesting when the Human male 'protect the females' instinct comes to the fore!

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by Michael »

Yay new page! as awesome as ever Arioch, will wait with abated breath for next page :D
bunnyboy wrote:
ed_montague wrote:I have read at least one "moustache fanfic" posted on /tg/ involving...well, it didn't quite involve Beryl's basement dungeon of love--the main Loroi character in that one was Fireblade...

It was simultaneously arousing and terrifying. May God have mercy on my soul.
It was best fanfic ever!
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by NOMAD »

DevilDalek wrote:
NOMAD wrote: That whole still storm angle of keeping a cautious make to most sense to me, but i would also see the "loroi-male needs protecting" angle as well, given that most of the younger loroi crew has probably had its drilled into them and/or culturally to protect the rare males.
Thats going to be interesting when the Human male 'protect the females' instinct comes to the fore!

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i do wonder what would happen if a human and a loroi share a fox hole, during a mortar barrage ?

you get out,
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dammit, you need to go
please, you first

guess which one is the loroi ?
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fredgiblet
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by fredgiblet »

NOMAD wrote:guess which one is the loroi ?
Both of them.

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by NOMAD »

:lol: and facepalm
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junk
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by junk »

Okay that was a lot of advances on beryl's part.

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by NOMAD »

well, she is VERY interested in Alex, and it can be written that she could go to third base, ah fanfic, selectively avoiding realty and installing plot holes for fun's sake.

but, on the serious note, I have read some very good fanfic in a few different universes, but the fun one can still be enjoyable :D

( author note: if I missed the whole meaning of below, please tell me, my mind is numb from all the mech piloting)
junk wrote:Okay that was a lot of advances on beryl's part.
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discord
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by discord »

or fourth or FIFTH base(marriage) for that matter, in the name of SCIENCE!

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by NOMAD »

yes as long as their is no G.L.A.D.O.U.S, or portal devices, i think fan fic shall live on to infinity
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by Muttley »

fredgiblet wrote:
Muttley wrote:Mr moderator fredgiblet sir, you clearly have sources of information that I have not been able to find. Stats pages for the Outsider characters in some kind of game. Are they canon, and where are they located?
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z206 ... ryl2-1.gif
Thanks - I should have replied earlier :oops: I've now got all three GURPS sheets to look at.

Developing the discussion further, I wonder if any medical tests were done on Alex before he came round in the medical bay, or after he passed out during the telepathic interrogation attempt. Specifically, if they've tested to see if he's interfertile with Loroi. . . .

If he is, and they didn't test for it, we could see a Babylon-5 Delenn/Sheridan situation developing - rampant rishathra resulting in unexpected consequences.

On the other hand if he isn't, and they know it, there could be some telepathic jockeying around to see who will be first to - er - see if he can scratch their itch. After all, Beryl's earlier comments indicate that single-sex crews of Loroi ships suffer from something similar to the crews of sailing ships on long voyages, so the mere appearance of Alex, close enough to a Loroi male, must set some pulses racing.

Oh dear. A whole new set of meanings for First Contact Protocols.

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by javcs »

Muttley wrote:
fredgiblet wrote:
Muttley wrote:Mr moderator fredgiblet sir, you clearly have sources of information that I have not been able to find. Stats pages for the Outsider characters in some kind of game. Are they canon, and where are they located?
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z206 ... ryl2-1.gif
Thanks - I should have replied earlier :oops: I've now got all three GURPS sheets to look at.

Developing the discussion further, I wonder if any medical tests were done on Alex before he came round in the medical bay, or after he passed out during the telepathic interrogation attempt. Specifically, if they've tested to see if he's interfertile with Loroi. . . .

If he is, and they didn't test for it, we could see a Babylon-5 Delenn/Sheridan situation developing - rampant rishathra resulting in unexpected consequences.

On the other hand if he isn't, and they know it, there could be some telepathic jockeying around to see who will be first to - er - see if he can scratch their itch. After all, Beryl's earlier comments indicate that single-sex crews of Loroi ships suffer from something similar to the crews of sailing ships on long voyages, so the mere appearance of Alex, close enough to a Loroi male, must set some pulses racing.

Oh dear. A whole new set of meanings for First Contact Protocols.
I'm quite certain that there's Word of Arioch that it's impossible, as Loroi are Soia-Liron biologies, and don't use DNA.

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by fredgiblet »

Muttley wrote:Developing the discussion further, I wonder if any medical tests were done on Alex before he came round in the medical bay, or after he passed out during the telepathic interrogation attempt. Specifically, if they've tested to see if he's interfertile with Loroi. . . .
javcs wrote:I'm quite certain that there's Word of Arioch that it's impossible, as Loroi are Soia-Liron biologies, and don't use DNA.
I (EDIT: GAH! meant to have "don't" in here)remember him saying they don't use DNA, but they definitely aren't going to be fertile either way. Outsider may not be diamond-hard Sci-fi, but it's not THAT soft either.
Muttley wrote:On the other hand if he isn't, and they know it, there could be some telepathic jockeying around to see who will be first to - er - see if he can scratch their itch. After all, Beryl's earlier comments indicate that single-sex crews of Loroi ships suffer from something similar to the crews of sailing ships on long voyages, so the mere appearance of Alex, close enough to a Loroi male, must set some pulses racing.
Maybe, probably not. The Loroi are highly xenophobic in general and the females are used to going long periods without sex (in peacetime there's probably a lot of females who NEVER have sex with a male for their entire life). Human sailing ships were crewed by people used to having sex available pretty much whenever they wanted. Add to that the fact that Alex doesn't look much like a Loroi male and I bet that most of the crew aren't that interested.

It's fun to imagine they are though.

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by Razor One »

javcs wrote:I'm quite certain that there's Word of Arioch that it's impossible, as Loroi are Soia-Liron biologies, and don't use DNA.
o_O

How do their cells code for proteins then?

I'm fairly certain that Loroi, and any form of advanced carbon based life for that matter, would have DNA. Just not DNA that's compatible with ours. It's possible that it's just biochemical differences (left handed molecules vs right handed molecules), or it could be that they use a different genetic alphabet from ATCG.
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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by Solemn »

Trying to create a plausible-sounding alternate biochemistry is always a huge can of worms.

Like trying to create a form of FTL or inertial dampeners or space stealth and then trying to make them sound plausible, but moreso (imo) because those sorts of violations of physics have become ingrained into our expectations, whereas relatively few works make an earnest attempt at making alien biology that is both genuinely alien and genuinely grounded in biology.

As I remember it, the actual Word of Arioch was that the Loroi might use DNA or might not, but if they do use DNA it's still part of a system which is different enough from ours that the end result is still something different enough from us that, for narrative purposes, it might as well not be DNA at all. So for example we can't just splice an allele from the Loroi genome here into the human genome there and expect similar results; the gene for yellow eyes or whatever amongst the Loroi might make us grow more hair on our genitals, or, much more likely, might just cause cancer.
Razor One wrote: o_O

How do their cells code for proteins then?
We earthlings use RNA for that purpose, sir. Not DNA. DNA codes for RNA, RNA codes for proteins and also acts as an enzyme in certain circumstances and also does a few other things and is awesome.
Razor One wrote:I'm fairly certain that Loroi, and any form of advanced carbon based life for that matter, would have DNA. Just not DNA that's compatible with ours. It's possible that it's just biochemical differences (left handed molecules vs right handed molecules), or it could be that they use a different genetic alphabet from ATCG.
Different bases make it into a different molecule.

I know someone is likely to try to point to GFAJ-1 as something that pokes a hole in this line of reasoning.

Don't.

It might be really close to our own long-term storage solution, or it might be very different. If it's very similar, still a deoxyribose acid, we'd probably call it something like sDNA (Soia deoxyribose nucleic acid) and refer to our own as tDNA (t for Terran)... but there may be other ways to code for RNA.

Look into older theories on the pre-DNA world and you'll find a lot of proposals for alternative, non-DNA means of coding for RNA. Look up pre-Watson and Crick proposals for the structure of DNA and you'll find a number of once-plausible assortments of our own base pair sets arranged in formats that are very unlike the actual double helix model, sufficiently so that if we encountered something similar to those arrangements in an alien life form we might decide differentiate between those forms to the extent of not even calling the alien form "DNA" in order to make sure the distinction is as clear as possible.

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by Arioch »

Solemn wrote:As I remember it, the actual Word of Arioch was that the Loroi might use DNA or might not, but if they do use DNA it's still part of a system which is different enough from ours that the end result is still something different enough from us that, for narrative purposes, it might as well not be DNA at all. So for example we can't just splice an allele from the Loroi genome here into the human genome there and expect similar results; the gene for yellow eyes or whatever amongst the Loroi might make us grow more hair on our genitals, or, much more likely, might just cause cancer.
That's pretty much my position. There is a slightly more detailed discussion of the subject in this post, but the conclusion is: Loroi and Humans are not reproductively compatible.

To answer the earlier question: yes, the Loroi did extensive tests on Alex before reviving him, and they are well aware of this incompatibility.

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

Whether or not it is intentional, I get the feeling that Beryl is testing his reactions. The Loroi seem to have a rather strong sense of personal space, quite possibly reinforced by their dislike of touching strangers. Fireblade may toss Alex against the wall for violations of personal space, but Beryl doesn't seem to have quite the same problem with proximity.

Prolonged periods of isolation are very detrimental to humans, but you can expect that most people chosen for work in deep space are going to be on the side of the bell curve that is better suited to coping with isolation than the others. It may not be the case for Loroi, but in many places, long periods of solitary confinement are considered tantamount to torture, so it is perhaps not without risk that they subjected him to those conditions. However, I think the reason for isolating him has more to do with the rest of the Tempest's crew rather than any kind of concern for Alex's well being, for better or worse.

The Loroi as a whole are rather xenophobic, and Alex's very existence calls into question deeply important conceits about Loroi superiority. So whether or not he is physically attractive, his presence is almost certainly an unwanted distraction at best and a detriment to morale at worst.

As for why Beryl wasn't allowed to go see him. She already got into an argument with Stillstorm once on his behalf, and Loroi are not the kind of beings who know a lot about tact. Stillstorm doesn't like being opposed, so she probably isn't keen on the idea of crew members becoming attached to the strange pink alien. Especially if she's going to have to start exterminating them in the near future.

Dang, Beryl is adorable in panel 3 though... :P

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Re: Page 101: And I will take VERY good care of you!

Post by Absalom »

Solemn wrote:Different bases make it into a different molecule.

I know someone is likely to try to point to GFAJ-1 as something that pokes a hole in this line of reasoning.

Don't.
Actually, if the GFAJ-1 arsenic thing had turned out then it really would have just been an alternate molecule for the same base, and thus still should have counted as DNA. Thus, it wouldn't have impacted on the "Different bases make it into a different molecule" bit, and your line of reasoning would have held true anyways.

Not that it matters, since that apparently got disproven.

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