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Is it just me or did Spiral change a little? In her original appearance she seemed quite "bubbly", young and her speech was off, as if she didn't very well know how to speak that trade language they use.

Now, she seems rather mature and her speech is fine.

ewaggin wrote:In the last frame, Spiral's left hand seems to be missing. Also, her head appears (to me) to be at an odd angle to her torso. Anything out of the ordinary going on there? Bionic head removal, like the Borg queen?

I think her left hand is still inside the sleeve of the pressure suit. It looks like the suit in question comes in two halves, front and back. The front of the suit is being removed and is closer from the perspective of the "camera", which might explain the awkward angles in respect to Spiral's torso. It looks just fine to me, though.

Arent wrote:Is it just me or did Spiral change a little? In her original appearance she seemed quite "bubbly", young and her speech was off, as if she didn't very well know how to speak that trade language they use.

Now, she seems rather mature and her speech is fine.

She's only said four words in this page. In the previous page she only said seven. "Again hello, Enzin!" is pretty backwards and still bubbly-sounding to me.

ewaggin wrote:In the last frame, Spiral's left hand seems to be missing. Also, her head appears (to me) to be at an odd angle to her torso. Anything out of the ordinary going on there? Bionic head removal, like the Borg queen?

Nope. The lighting and coloring makes it a bit difficult to see, but she's just getting out of her semi-rigid outer armor shell. You see her in the same sort of thermal lining Alex wears now.

And, want it or not, she does look like she's making a show out of it....

novius wrote:

ewaggin wrote:In the last frame, Spiral's left hand seems to be missing. Also, her head appears (to me) to be at an odd angle to her torso. Anything out of the ordinary going on there? Bionic head removal, like the Borg queen?

Nope. The lighting and coloring makes it a bit difficult to see, but she's just getting out of her semi-rigid outer armor shell. You see her in the same sort of thermal lining Alex wears now.

And, want it or not, she does look like she's making a show out of it....

Possible. Also possible she's stretching because she's just spent hours in a semi-rigid outer armor shell. Though I suppose there's few things that make me chase the ladies like several hours strapped in a chair while wearing a glorified diving suit.

Spiral: *stretches luxuriously* *soft sigh* (in relief)

Jardin: *gulps*

Spiral: "Apologies for not being able to greet Enzin properly earlier. Spiral is ready for Enzin's hands now."

...

Being a straightforward Loroi, she means what she said, literally. OTOH Jardin thinks of something else. Hilarity ensues.

boldilocks wrote:Though I suppose there's few things that make me chase the ladies like several hours strapped in a chair while wearing a glorified diving suit.

Thing is, even scientifically-minded Beryl was quick to simply assume that Alex follows the same biological imperatives as a Loroi male. I wouldn't be too surprised if they all simply expect Alex to get somewhat handsy after giving him a little bit of incentive.

(Addendum) Loroi males could very much be obliged to provide for some relaxation to tired warriors, and a warm massage - and to Loroi Alex's hands would have inbuilt heaters - would work wonders to limber up stiff muscles. So yes, it could be possible that they expect similar services from Alex.

And, seeing pg. 158 and 159, their looks do seem to be somewhat expectant/curious.... And even if Tempo is sending towards Beryl, she casts a somewhat worried glance towards Alex. As if already waiting for a diplomatic incident to happen?

Well, for one, we don't really know how Fireblade views Alex. Sure she was assertive and a little aggressive at the start, but her pride might have been hurt when she could not interrogate him. On the other hand, there have been a few times when she has been, less stand offish, almost genial.

https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider072.html
https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider091.html

if you look at the last one, that is a compassionate, non-aggressive face, unlike Stillstorm, who has an aggressive and contemptuous face.

Now for the rest of the crew, in the Loroi have a somewhat reversed culture when it comes to genders. And you have a bunch of young females, who have spend potentially years on the front line, just out of combat, and who have not been around a member of the opposite gender in... who knows how long. Yes, they might be rather... hopeful, at least some of them.

What is going through Tempo's mind, and what she was telling Beryl, that is what I am curious about.
https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider159.html

asaenvolk wrote:almost genital.

snerk

I'm thinking you mean genial.

asaenvolk wrote:unlike Stillborn

I'd say Stillstorm pretty much looks alive to me....

I blame autocorrect

Hey, you never know, 'genital' might be more accurate in the long run.

While you could be correct, I don't think that is the main thrust of the story.
More Alex is something of a hothead, and may be holding a grudge he shouldn't be.

Alex had been mindraped, with her spearheading the assault, then she plays her part in the 'good elf, bad elf' routine on him, physical assault included, and he was chucked back into the brig for one week and pretty much forgot for the whole time until they tried shipping him off to Seren, with food that made him sick, next to the jumps.

Definitely not an environment conducive to forgive and forget. And given the recent warning, it is understandable if he tries to avoid her as much as possible.

A fair assessment, but other than her displaying force once, and seemingly to make him take her seriously, she has not been overly aggressive with him. That said, of course he could be miffed at her, but Stillstorm seams more likely to have been the one to put him in solitary

This does make me wonder about something that's crossed my mind before. The human brain is in a very different state when it's undergoing REM sleep. We don't know what's going on with it, but the leading theory is that REM is the brain's "cleanup mode" where it undergoes what is effectively messy data parsing and sorting. It's almost as active as when we're awake, but faster and much more "fluid" for lack of a better term.

Every time a Loroi has tried to initiate contact with Alex he's either been in a coma, or awake. They've never been in close contact with him while in what might well be a human's most telepathically-vulnerable state. And if everyone is huddled close under a blanket to make use of the human space heater, something interesting may happen.

Loroi environmental systems must be very efficient if the shuttle is going to chill down. I understand that on human-occupied spacecraft a more common problem is getting the waste heat out.

Loroi pillow forts, regrettably, seem to be lacking in couches which makes it hard to get the proper tent-like effect. Depending on how long they’re going to be hiding, they may all wish for a nice comfy couch to get them off the freezing deck.

Finally, I hope Spiral doesn’t put her knife back on before bedding down. It looks like a safety hazard.

I don't think that is a knife, not sure what it is. Though her handing it to him might have implications we are not aware of.

kiwi wrote:Loroi environmental systems must be very efficient if the shuttle is going to chill down. I understand that on human-occupied spacecraft a more common problem is getting the waste heat out.

Heat is a major problem in Earth orbit due to our proximity to the Sun. In #129, it's mentioned that this is a white dwarf system, which is basically a dead star. There isn't going to be much in the way of solar input in terms of heat here.

Plus, presumably the shuttle is designed to keep its occupants comfortable when its thrusters and power generation are operational, both major heat producers. As neither of these are running, well, you get the picture.

Personally I'm disappointed that Arioch didn't take this chance to force all characters to strip.

hi hi

Incinerator wrote:Heat is a major problem in Earth orbit due to our proximity to the Sun. In #129, it's mentioned that this is a white dwarf system, which is basically a dead star.

White dwarfs still put out a fair bit of radiation. Some have enough output to have a habitable zone, though it'd be closer to an orbit of 1 million miles than 93 million.

That being said, the shuttle is currently shooting beyond the jump point at break-neck speed. Without a rescue, I'd wager that the bigger problem with heating and cooling is for them to mimic the cooling profile of debris while maintaining a livable atmosphere inside. The exterior of the shuttle may have been flash-heated by the near miss, but in a couple of days, the Umiak that are camping the jump point might look at their sensors and say to themselves, "Huh, this chunk of debris is a different temperature than all the stuff around it, I wonder what it is."