Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

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SaintofM
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by SaintofM »

Alex: What's this?"

Beryl: A mouth cleansing tool and paste. Your breath still smells of the last food item that did not agree with you.

[2 minutes later]

Alex: What's this?"

Beryl: A Cleansing powder for the body. You have an odd smell.

[2 minutes later.]

Alex: Do I want to know?"

Beryl: It is a dog leash. She says it is time for you to go for a walk.

boldilocks
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by boldilocks »

Alex: So why exactly am I in this hole?
Beryl: It is for our convenience. Here is some lotion. It goes on your skin.

boldilocks
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by boldilocks »

Arioch wrote:
boldilocks wrote:Are related loroi (mother/daugher/aunt) made to serve on separate ships?
Nope.
Head canon achieved!

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icekatze
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

Time to play everyloroi's favorite game, groomin' the hoomin'.

Shoe girl Cloud continues to be awesome, top tier background character for sure.

(I like how the comb is designed for maximum weight reduction, that's a nice touch.)

novius
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by novius »

And, noticed something else? Even with the handshake all of them still kept a respectful distance, with one exception.

Beryl asked for his permission to touch him just once, but she's definitely using her newly acquired leeway to get into his private space up to the hilt.

Not that she had many qualms about doing so even before that, though.

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CrimsonFALKE
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by CrimsonFALKE »

novius wrote:And, noticed something else? Even with the handshake all of them still kept a respectful distance, with one exception.

Beryl asked for his permission to touch him just once, but she's definitely using her newly acquired leeway to get into his private space up to the hilt.

Not that she had many qualms about doing so even before that, though.

Her interest could be xenophilia or she is giving him a sort of protection similar to a child

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Werra
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by Werra »

When she met Alex again, Beryl figuratively said she'll be literally mothering him from now on. You can see it whenever Alex asks something. Beryl keeps giving him these very obvious answers, as if his species doesn't have combs or knives. I don't think she sees him as an equal (yet).

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Arioch
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by Arioch »

Werra wrote:You can see it whenever Alex asks something. Beryl keeps giving him these very obvious answers, as if his species doesn't have combs or knives. I don't think she sees him as an equal (yet).
Well, to a certain extent that's just being scientific... you can't assume that an alien understands the same baseline references that you do.

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RedDwarfIV
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Arioch wrote:
Werra wrote:You can see it whenever Alex asks something. Beryl keeps giving him these very obvious answers, as if his species doesn't have combs or knives. I don't think she sees him as an equal (yet).
Well, to a certain extent that's just being scientific... you can't assume that an alien understands the same baseline references that you do.
It seems obvious to us that a comb is for combing hair.

Aliens might use a Plumbus or something.
If every cloud had a silver lining, there would be a lot more plane crashes.

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SaintofM
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by SaintofM »

RedDwarfIV wrote:
Arioch wrote:
Werra wrote:You can see it whenever Alex asks something. Beryl keeps giving him these very obvious answers, as if his species doesn't have combs or knives. I don't think she sees him as an equal (yet).
Well, to a certain extent that's just being scientific... you can't assume that an alien understands the same baseline references that you do.
It seems obvious to us that a comb is for combing hair.

Aliens might use a Plumbus or something.
We need to sit down and go watch Disney's Little Mermaid. More specifically the scenes involving the pipe and the fork?

On a more serious note, even though humans throughout the world are the same species the cultures are vastly different. While many things are more homogeneous then they were a hundred years ago, or two or three, there are some drastic measures.

Nudity Taboos. Fashion. Forms of Currency. How many wives are expected a man of position to have, and if he only has a limit of 1, then how many mistresses?

Heck, I spent three years in Idaho, and there is a world a difference in the part next to the Brigham Young University than there is in my Native East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The only thing both Alex and Beryle can be sure of is that they know two things: They are dealing with a potentially hyper violent murder happy race of aliens, and the Shells are creepy.

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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by Murph »

Sounds like one of my daughters sleep-overs. The girls end up doing hair-things such as braids, etc. Could this horrifying fate be in store for Alex?

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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by Sweforce »

Murph wrote:Sounds like one of my daughters sleep-overs. The girls end up doing hair-things such as braids, etc. Could this horrifying fate be in store for Alex?
:oops: :D

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Ithekro
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by Ithekro »

"Truth or Dare" is another traditional game of such events.

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GeoModder
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by GeoModder »

Ithekro wrote:"Truth or Dare" is another traditional game of such events.
"Captain, how many... mating encounters... did you have en route to Naam?"

"Uh... It pains me to think of the... crewmates I lost..."
Image

Murph
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by Murph »

Ithekro wrote:"Truth or Dare" is another traditional game of such events.
True. So is Alex going to face the peril of "Truth or Dare"? I just wonder what Tempo's game is at this point? Is she going to get involved or is she the manipulator behind the scenes to get Alex to let his guard down? Does she know that Beryl and Alex had a "close encounter", or will she allow another attempt or perhaps Fireblade will give him her favorite blaster pistol?

Krulle
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by Krulle »

Playing truth or dare with a bunch of girls, some of them from the intelligence collecting educated bunch, who are telekinetic, may prove to be a very extremely unwise decision.

I wonder how often the bottle would end up pointing towards Alex with a "Truth"-task.
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novius
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by novius »

RedDwarfIV wrote:
Arioch wrote:
Werra wrote:You can see it whenever Alex asks something. Beryl keeps giving him these very obvious answers, as if his species doesn't have combs or knives. I don't think she sees him as an equal (yet).
Well, to a certain extent that's just being scientific... you can't assume that an alien understands the same baseline references that you do.
It seems obvious to us that a comb is for combing hair.

Aliens might use a Plumbus or something.
Alex already had that moment where he could have stumbled into a big social blunder, when talks moved towards the gender ratio. Both he and Beryl took away the lesson that there are some marked differences between Loroi and Human, even in things they take for granted.

It has tines, it has something that could be a handle, so it could be used as a comb. But he got handed a piece of a bone blade which has been kept as a memento by Spiral just moments before - so he had enough reasons to just make sure of this particular device's intended purpose and meaning.

And directly asking what this actually is is a better choice with Loroi, since they might not understand the subtext of a question like "Is this what I think it is?" (well, Mizol might get it, but the others I'd be not so sure)

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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by kiwi »

novius wrote: And directly asking what this actually is is a better choice with Loroi, since they might not understand the subtext of a question like "Is this what I think it is?" (well, Mizol might get it, but the others I'd be not so sure)
I suspect the answer to that is "I don't know, I can't read your mind."

Loroi theory of mind must be a bit different to human theory of mind, because they are used to a certain amount of mind reading. Humans only get access to physical information, which makes this whole series a bit of a challenge for us readers because we're missing half the dialog.

I keep wondering: is Fireblade:
  1. a soulful woman who's been bashed about by the vicissitudes of fate (she looks quite gentle at times),
  2. a violent pain in the arse who's been bashed about by the vicissitudes of fate (she looks quite satisfied after throwing Alex into a wall)
  3. just not good at regulating her emotions?
We haven't 'heard' any of her dialogue, so we all make inferences from what we can see and hear. And our inferences might be wrong. I'm keenly awaiting more from her.

boldilocks
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by boldilocks »

kiwi wrote:I keep wondering: is Fireblade:
  1. a soulful woman who's been bashed about by the vicissitudes of fate (she looks quite gentle at times),
  2. a violent pain in the arse who's been bashed about by the vicissitudes of fate (she looks quite satisfied after throwing Alex into a wall)
  3. just not good at regulating her emotions?
"A rival living a lie"

Murph
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Re: Page 163: Mysterious hair grooming device

Post by Murph »

I think she might end up being the strongest ally for Alex among the group other than Beryl. If for no other reason than her sense of duty. She was ordered to protect him, so she will.

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