Page 126: Oh my~

[Chekist_Felix]

I probably can guess what's gonna be most discussed topic about this page...
But seriously, three pages in a month! How cool is that?

[sunphoenix]

I probably can guess what's gonna be most discussed topic about this page...
But seriously, three pages in a month! How cool is that?

I know right!?!

Hehe... an impromptu lap-ride! I think poor Alex may reveal ~ unconsciously, just how arousing the lovely space-elf amazon women are to human males! hehe!

[Turrosh Mak]

/slow clap

Well played, Beryl. Better than a handshake.

[Razor One]

**rises from grave**
**reads latest page**
**that last panel**

OTP! OTP! OTP! OTP!

Are we sure that Beryl didn't just wish very hard?

[Victor_D]

Ah, inertial dampers fail just a tiiiiiiny little bit to make things interesting

[dragoongfa]

Yep if Arioch hadn't made it clear that things wont get romantic I would be saying OTP! as well. With Fireblade as the Tsundere and Tempo as a potential Yandere because who knows what Mizols have at the back of their heads.

EDIT: I hope that the pilots won't be stupid enough to stay with the shuttle once it runs out of fuel.

[entity2636]

Wow Arioch, thank you for yet another masterpiece!

Hehe... an impromptu lap-ride! I think poor Alex may reveal ~ unconsciously, just how arousing the lovely space-elf amazon women are to human males! hehe!

Down boy!

LOL poor Beryl, she's probably going 'OHMYGODNO I'm gonna hurt the ~male~! Tempo's going to kill me!'

Love Talon's and Spiral's attitude towards the Admiral, hotshot pilots

By the way, inertial dampeners much, or they did something like 're-rout auxiliary power to engines'?

[Dorfington]

That last panel is quite exploitable. I hope no one creates an altered, deviant version...

[ShadowDragon8685]

This is gonna be funny. Probably Beryl's going to be terrified that she's gonna hurt the man - until she realizes that he's got his arms around her and is holding on with as much beefy noncom strength as Alex can muster (which is to say very little, since he was not Enlisted,) to restrain her from cracking like an egg against the aft bulkhead.

And no, I don't imagine Alex is gonna wind up getting an erection whilst holding Beryl in his lap. Even assuming the acceleration would permit it, there's basically nothing sexy or fun about this situation, so Alex Jr. is gonna stay right where he belongs. Whilst thinking about it later, maybe, but still doubtful. He's trying to prevent someone he knows and probably likes, at least a little bit, from getting seriously injured. That's slightly less sexy than having one's testes examined by ultrasonic imaging, and for what it's worth, my anecdotal experience from having that performed (thrice) is that regardless of whether the tech is hot, it's not remotely sexual.

[boldilocks]

In B4 beryl makes a comment about human males apparently not being larger than loroi after all.

All though, if this is going the bawdy 70s route, then I'd have thought "grab onto something" would have had a rather different outcome.

[Username]

All silliness aside, THANK YOU ARIOCH!!!

I love Beryls expression, I just love everything about this page honestly.

[dragoongfa]

This is gonna be funny. Probably Beryl's going to be terrified that she's gonna hurt the man - until she realizes that he's got his arms around her and is holding on with as much beefy noncom strength as Alex can muster (which is to say very little, since he was not Enlisted,) to restrain her from cracking like an egg against the aft bulkhead.

From my experience men severely underestimate their strength and how much their strength increases with even a small amount of exercise. If Alex can do 20 pushups and 20 pull-ups (which should be a baseline for any short of military and paramilitary organization) he is far stronger than the average Loroi provided that Loroi females are as strong as human women.

[Excellion]

- And it's also not like a story about a lone male swimming in a sea of hot female space-elves really needs a whole lot of sexing-up.
- Many of the Loroi will be expecting Alex to behave like a sex-crazed Loroi male; if he were to suddenly grab Beryl, they would make him stop, but otherwise it would probably be laughed off as silly male behavior.

(Source: Forum Quotations Collection)

There have been multiple statements that Outsider won't head into romance territory but somehow evidence to the contrary keeps popping up - no complaints about that though! Really looking forward to the next couple of pages as this can be continued in so many ways, with plenty of potential for awkwardness as neither Beryl nor Alex have much cultural background to work with here. I expect that the next page will be highly amusing attempts to smoothen over this little incident with neither party being entirely aware if the other party is insulted and if so, why.

Beyond this I'm wondering - what would a male Loroi do in this situation? We're all reading more into this than just "Inertia caused fall and collision with other person" so I can imagine the Loroi males connecting the same dots (Seeing they are overcharged Human males in some aspects). The Insider also contains multiple examples that indicate Loroi males have less social inhibition against sexual behaviour than Human males. Would they "seize the moment" so to speak or would that be a no-go (Or does it depend on the specific male)?

But seriously, three pages in a month! How cool is that?

Hear, Hear! I set my Patreon limit to three pages a month as a safety valve while assuming that we'd never get close to that amount. Seems that needs some adjustments now.
Also, i'll be daydreaming about "Outsider - A full-color web-based science fiction comic by Jim Francis (Updates Weekly)" now.

[boldilocks]

But seriously, three pages in a month! How cool is that?

Hear, Hear! I set my Patreon limit to three pages a month as a safety valve while assuming that we'd never get close to that amount. Seems that needs some adjustments now.
Also, i'll be daydreaming about "Outsider - A full-color web-based science fiction comic by Jim Francis (Updates Weekly)" now.

I agree. Mine's set to four pages, but may have to adjust if this carries on.

[entity2636]

Aside from the fact, that Beryl hasn't even made touchdown yet, I second the points that there is nothing truly sexual about this situation. She lost her balance and Alex and his chair just happened to be between her butt and the floor, even if he catches her and holds her while the shuttle keeps accelerating. I can see Beryl attempting to get up, and Talon snapping at her to just keep sitting where she is so as to not, as in ShadowDragon's colorful remark, crack like an egg against the bulkhead should the shuttle make a course correction or something. Then there could be some mutual excusing for falling/touching, reaffirming that noone's hurt and so on. Now, assuming Beryl or the others don't freak out and she remains sitting on Alex's lap for a while longer, it may get a bit awkward, but, considering Alex's position in general and the situation taking place outside, sex would be among the last things a sane person, human or loroi, would be thinking about.

That being said, later in the story, when and if every major life threatening problem has been solved and assuming the group get to know each other better on a personal level, friendships or more could eventually develop. As it is now, Alex's primary concerns almost certainly are survival and establishing contact with TCA. The loroi's - survival and making sense of WTF is actually going on.

@Excellion - LOL I'd imagine a loroi man would be scared sh!tless for his life and crying for his pseudo mom first, assuming he was able to comprehend the situation (well, I assume he should, they aren't uneducated idiots, on the contrary, they are supposed to be philosophers, psychologists and counselors, not just sex workers), and screaming in pain second, after someone fell on him. I mean Alex, not being the strongest man around, would still find even such a small girl like Beryl falling onto him, unpleasant, doubly so since Beryl's wearing an armored uniform and thus probably isn't soft all around

[icekatze]

hi hi

Woot! Good on the Captain of the Clearbrook for not leaving anyone behind. It is one thing for the Loroi to tell an alien ambassador that they have concern for the lives of others while the Umiak are content to throw them away as disposable, but it's another thing to actually prove it through action.

I know that if I were in that situation, I would be devoting as many neurons as possible to the task of not dying in a fireball of death. Bumping into someone while under unexpected acceleration may be awkward, but for all of Alex's impertinence, he is a trained professional. I'm honestly more interested to see Beryl's reaction, especially after the way Fireblade reacted to the possibility of unexpected contact during an unexpected acceleration in the lift. As much fun as shipping is, the Loroi seem to have some taboos about physical contact.

Come to think of it, Beryl's reaction to Talon and Alex shaking hands makes maybe a little more sense in the context of the Loroi taboo on physical contact. And it makes Talon's reaction a little more curious.

On the topic of how a Loroi man might react, I get the feeling that the reality is more complicated. They may be treated like children, but I would not be surprised if we found out there are Loroi men who aren't entirely content with their station in life.

Also, in terms of Loroi strength, given that they are an engineered species, it is not unreasonable to assume that they might have better strength to mass ratios for their muscles.

[Excellion]

Now, assuming Beryl or the others don't freak out and she remains sitting on Alex's lap for a while longer, it may get a bit awkward, but, considering Alex's position in general and the situation taking place outside, sex would be among the last things a sane person, human or loroi, would be thinking about.

Yes, true. I should have clarified that i was wondering about instances where there was not a fleet of murderous insectoids after them - I'm not an expert but i suspect that might ruin the mood somewhat. That said - the insider paints the male Loroi as emotional, somewhat scatter brained and rather focused on reproduction. Quoting the insider again:

How often do they have sex (males with their caretakers)? Is it even allowed ?
It happens -- if one of the lecherous little buggers grabs you, you're not supposed to say no -- but there are rules

To me - when combined with the previous quote - this suggests that the Loroi are rather tolerant or even indulgent of behaviour that would be quite not-done for a human male. At the same time there are - as you mentioned - philosophers, psychologists and counsellors among the Loroi male ranks who i can't imagine as functioning correctly if they are constantly metaphorically "following their tails". Seeing the first Loroi male in the comic will be interesting. Right now i have two conflicting images in mind as to what a Loroi male really is: Part of me thinks of them as being rather frisky with a layer of social behaviour applied on top. On the other hand i consider a somewhat more emotional human male who just happens to have a responsibility to breed added to his list of tasks.

Since Beryl's wearing an armored uniform and thus probably isn't soft all around

... Now this wins my prize for the most fascinating observation i read today. I suspect the inertial dampeners will have taken care of most of the acceleration force but even so... Beryl weights about 52 Kg (115 Lbs to be precise) not counting armor. That amount of metal-plated weight hitting you at any speed will likely be unpleasant at the very least, and painful or injuring at most.

[dragoongfa]

Also, in terms of Loroi strength, given that they are an engineered species, it is not unreasonable to assume that they might have better strength to mass ratios for their muscles.

Unless the Soia-Liron species have a radically different approach in how their muscles are actually made up I doubt that it is physically possible to put out more strength with the same mass of muscle tissue. Maybe the Soian's could somehow make muscle tissue more durable and less prone to strains and fatigue damage but the way muscles are built and work don't give any wiggle room to the basic principle of bigger = stronger and judging by the muscle monsters that are the Barsam I doubt that the Soians had any more size efficient alternative.

EDIT: Regarding the fact that she is wearing armor and the collision will be painful for Alex, by the looks of things she will be landing on his legs and torso. The impact will be unpleasant but it is still not as painful as it would be if she lands on his privates. That would hurt even if she wore the softest clothing imaginable

[Krulle]

The comic continues playing with the expectations of fans service being served next, while all to clearly not going that direction!
Well done, Arioch.
Wonderful page, thank you.

This one jumped straight into my favourites.

[Username]

Like I do once every new page goes live I went and read this chapter from the beginning, and I couldn't help but notice a slight inconsistency.

On page 124 Beryl is clearly on Alex's right side looking over his shoulder at the terminal, then on the next page we get a close up of her looking at the screen. You can tell she hasn't moved from her spot because of her sight angle in relation to the door behind her. Yet on page 126 she has apparently moved to Alex's left side because she is immediately falling into his lap.

I'm fine with rationalizing that away, maybe she went to that side to look at something in detail, (dunno why should would be but w.e)or perhaps she was on her way to another seat that was on the left. I just couldn't help but notice.