Grrl Power #1020 – I dream of genealogy
Don’t worry, this isn’t another ten page tangent on Dabbler’s genealogy. (It’s two, I promise.)
I bet a lot of doppelgangers are like “I bet it’s awesome being king.” but about three weeks after replacing one, they’re bummed out by the amount of administrative stuff they have to do. And then the king gets mysteriously ill, and one morning he’s laying in his bed, looking like he died three weeks ago. Then the doppelganger is like “I bet it’s awesome being a moderately successful merchant.” but then he realizes how much work that guy has to do, so he wanders off and becomes a peasant farmer, and even though that guy works all day as well, he’s not spending all day politicking or wheeling and dealing, but then a noble comes along and disrespects him, so he replaces that guy only to learn that Viscounts do more work than the king, and he’s like, “Shit! How about a dowager, huh? They can just sit on their wealth and read all day, right?”
If a dark elf’s wealthy husband dies, does that make the widow a drowager?
I’m assuming most doppelgangers are just looking to inherit someone else’s wealth and then just… hang out all day. But, maybe some of them have political aspirations, or want to work hard at becoming a mage or something. I don’t want to stereotype them.
I haven’t actually decided if Dabbler knows what T&A means. I’m leaning toward no, but she has a keen ear for double entendres. She can also get into the internet on her cybernetics, so she’ll probably have figured it out by the end of the elevator ride.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update: It’s done!
Seriously. It’s done! 210K words of weapon building, dinosaur fighting, harem satisfying, lumberjacking, moderate diplomacing, bad guy chopping action. Also some humor.
January’s vote incentive is going to hang in there just a few more days. Between getting TE:2 out and recovering from Covid, I’m a little behind this month. Admittedly, I usually am, but at least this time I can point to things and go “See!?”
Nude versions available over at Patreon. Along with a bonus comic page.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
So, very pressing question:
If a doppelganger copies a super, do they get the powers?
Well not according to the very first two pages of this comic :-).
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/gp0001/
They’re playing something like D&D doubt that it applies.
Based on the phrase “power stunts” I strongly suspect they’re playing HERO system :)
Or Marvel Superheroes! Or Mutants and Masterminds!
Probably not.
Surface level appearance and knowledge is Probably easier than copying all of someone’s biology.
Doppleganger features, called it
Well, Dabbler’s has had her (approximate) genealogy known since the first Cast page:
“She has a complex heritage, suffice to say she is roughly 1/2 succubus, 1/3 doppleganger, and 1/6 some unidentified alien species.”
The triple helix makes the math on those fractions work out better, but I think that means either her father was half-succubus, or her doppelganger parent was half-succubus and her father was half-doppelganger?
Note that she also said “One of my biological mothers”
So… Either clone-baby for super-succubus program, or succubus-source orgy-baby.
Could even be a combination of the two.
The super succubus program is probably a orgy. Most succubus teamwork probably is in some way.
Could as easily be some still-not-mentioned TNA editing capability. Like our recombination, only deliberate, probably helped by MagiScience.
As adaptive as succubi are designed to be, it’d be no surprise to me the whole TNA setup is designed to pick up the desireable bits of the male DNA and integrate them into the female line, then rinse-repeat over generations.
With two female strands and a male contributing every generation… That’s a *massive* increase in adaptability even just relying on random chance over our two-strand setup.
Or possibly a species which requires three individuals to mate, such as a Pierson’s Puppeteer.
That’s assuming roughly proportional amounts of inheritance from each parent. Which is the case for Humans, but apparently not for Succubi. The system as described here actually makes those fractions make more sense: the Succubus base code as implemented through the Doppelganger mother, with selected edits-in from the ‘Unknown’ father.
Indeed her T & A has been public knowledge all along. Funny, I’m not sure what was distracting us from that…
I’m shocked that nobody mentioned that the succubus had cunning linguist abilities.
And once Sidney runs out of T&A puns she’ll start in on the Doppelgangbanger jokes.
I for one look forward to more Sydney puns. they are immune to the ninja squads that have helped keep my house warm in this stupid cold weather in Texas.
Ice with crunchy snow on top. accumulates on the roads of course….
The worst thing about ninjas? They can run on top of the snow without sinking. Other, similar assassins would have to shovel your sidewalk before they could get to you.
Thawsome!
Just because Sydney is immune to the ninja hit squads doesnt mean you are, buddy!!! (Shakes fist)
Except for fashion ninjas lol!
I doubt Pander is immune to fashion Ninjas.
I am not. Like most people, including Sydney, I do not expect fashion ninjas.
Nobody expects the fashion ninjas! Their two weapons are surprise, tape measures and the ability to warp time…
but can they read a bus schedule?
can they ride double decker busses?
… And counting is not one of their weapons?
Stops the pirates too. They get icelocked in the harbour
That is why they spend winters down in New Mexico, according to the Arrogant Worms.
I thought they went to Boston.
Only for tea parties.
Please stop complaining about the cold. Do you really miss 114 degree heat? Wear a sweater, you baby.
Agreed. I’d far rather be cold than hot. In a cold environment you can always put on more clothing, while the workplace and most public spaces have conventions or outright rules which make the reverse untrue.
And even on your own property there are for some silly reasons limits to how much you can remove before the neighbors begin to either complain or spend an inordinate amount of time visiting along your shared property line.
In some (most?) jurisdictions, anything you can see from the premises boundary (usually the road frontage) is considered as “public”. Thus, if a bedroom window was NOT curtained or shuttered, then the bedroom is a “public place”. For the same reason, any frolicking on the front lawn could see you in court on a morals charge.
I grew up in Northwest Ohio and am far more comfortable in cold than I should be. I’m not complaining about the cold, other than building codes in Texas are really bad. I suspect the last time an occupied house in Ohio needed to let the water drip to keep the pipes from freezing was 1978 (that was a fun winter- I was too young to shovel snow)
imagine paying 4 figures for rent and opening your undersink cabinet and feeling the cold run out like water and the back of the cabinet is the back side of the exterior wall. yep 0 insulation. none, nada, and who has to pay for the heat?
The one snowfall I get this year was absolute crap, no snowmen, no sledding, no snowballs, just slipping and falling. I had even found my gloves.
well, one good thing I haven’t lost power so far.
Yes, would rather have the heat than the cold, had frostbite as a kid, and now get chilblains and worse every winter (still recovering from last winter, and it’s mid summer)
The Dabbler banter is actually really fun when it’s not trying to dunk on her. I like this page.
Some people want action over substance. Or at least for the substance to be delivered mid-action, like Deadpool and his bestie, Peter Parker
Pretty sure most people would rather dunk IN her
I dabbler once again makes no note of how quickly Sydney can change her mental gears.
Well, these two ladies are both members of Team Ooh, Shiny, so Dabbler can keep up with the gear changes, but others may have more challenges. Those with limited mental flexibility, such as Lorlara, will just confused.
In grad school, one post-doc and I were both “team-oh-shiny”, and had sufficiently similar backgrounds that we once had a conversation where we jumped from topic to topic, each usually 3 or more internal associations from the previous one. Bystanders where _very_ confused.
Anyone else notice she said “*one of*” her biological mothers?
Is this new info? Also was Xuriel adopted?
She explained before that succubi are basically Frankenstein style assemblage, but more on a gene level
her tri-helix is made of a dna amalgame of different women (mothers) and a control third helix from their creator (father)
succubi aren’t born, they are fabricated
the originals were,
and honestly if not for one guest character cross-over we could assume this was still the case, but we have evidence that they do reproduce now and go through a puberty phase.
so at some point between the final product and now at least some Succubi have obtained reproductive status
She’s mentioned a secondary biological mother before. Succubi reproduction is still a bit unclear, but apparently the father doesn’t have to interact directly with the secondary mother, so presumably one mother passes genetic material or tissue to another, somehow.
I’m still suspecting a relationship to old myths about succubi collecting sperm from men, and then impregnating other women with it.
Well, it just goes to show MiB pointed me in the right direction: There are a LOT more genders wandering the Universe (therefore, by inclusion, Earth) than we are prepared to imagine. Personally, I REALLY DON’T want to know what part some of those genders play in reproduction.
But two biological mothers and an indeterminate Father-person… Yeah, it makes sense… If the Doppelganger can change gender like an Earth fish… and the Father-person mates with both women… And the zygotes retroform to gametes but NOT diploid… and the Doppelganger changes gender back to male… And we do the third movement… and the male TNA helices preferentially unite with each other before binding to the two female helices which repel each other. OK, 3 genders: male, female and Doppelganger. Not really weird at all.
One of my biology profs said something like (when discussing what certain frogs do with their DNA) “If you can think of some crazy way to do it (control gene expression, replicate DNA, save a full genome for progeny, etc.) there’s some creature in Nature that does it that way”. So sort of the original Rule 34. Congrats on inventing/discovering Succubus TNA replication! (Rule 35)
I believe Robert Heinlein was discussed on a previous page’s comments… in “Time Enough For Love,” an AI desperately seeks to become human, in order to enjoy a sexual and romantic relationship with a particular human. Her friends create the necessary body for her to upload herself into, and later in the book Minerva proudly informs a gentleman that he’s one of her twenty-some odd parents, one of the many people whose genetic code was used to give her the appearance and capabilities she was seeking. (and then reassures him that there’s no risk of harmful recessive genes being reinforced in their progeny, if he’s interested in making love to her. Because as much as she loved riding Ira bareback like a wild stallion, it was still a Heinlein story)
Meanwhile the vacant hardware she’d been generated from gave rise to a new AI, Athena. Who was less interested in any particular male, and more interested in… all the males. “Wait until I get MY body. I want the defloweration to take three days! I’m compiling a list of gentlemen I want ready for it. You’re number 76 on the list.”
Its been a long time for that book. Athena was Lazarus Long’s AI, He somehow kept her from growing up supposedly. I’m going with Athena being obnoxious for the quote you gave. Minerva was the governor of the planet who apparently did not realize what he was doing with Minerva, Lazarus was kind of smug about that as I recall. (Lazarus was smug about a lot of things and a right asshole) the two occupied Lazarus’s ship as computers for the emigration to the planet they ‘colonized’. something about a sledgehammer and flies. it was on that planet that Minerva became flesh. Athena later woke Adam Selene from ‘the moon is a harsh mistress’ in a ‘cat who walks through walls’. I still am in awe of the ‘to sail beyond the sunset’. Heinlein managed to make Mother-Son incest look justified. Later Heinlein was a trip. maybe that’s why I never felt like drugs.. I was finding them in the library.
No, you’re mixing up your AIs. His ship’s AI was named Dora, and he did his best to discourage her from being interested in sexuality. The closest she came to being into sex was when she staged a mutiny and essentially forced Lazarus to have sex with his cloned sister/daughters.
I believe this is where we put the gif of a guy saying, “yes, but that’s so much worse. You get how that’s worse, right?”
And yeah, MY complaint with “To Sail Beyond the Sunset” was when Heinlein essentially possessed his own characters to speak through them. Maureen Johnson is supposed to be the ultimate MILF, a loving and sexy earth mother… and suddenly she starts mocking the very idea of suicide prevention. (Even though her own son had been saved from committing suicide in a previous book :p )
yeah I remember the is it Incest or Masturbation ending. oh and lets not forget that clinches Lazarus’s superior status.. he has no bad recessives. Ishtar approved it, so its OK.
remember that when they prevented Lazarus from suiciding it was a Big Honking Deal. quite a few people on the staff of the clinic walked out when that order was made.
I always just kind of accepted that Maureen was a gender bent author insert. So was Lazarus.. so he was playing with himself. I need a squad of ninjas to distract me. actually processing these memories makes some of the porn I’ve seen look tame.
you are probably right on the AI’s it makes more sense that there are three of them.
Selected DNA from the father indicates she was created or a species involved can tailor their offsprings DNA as a natural ability.
Science is all about telling mother nature where to stick it. We’re getting close to that point; imagine making a baby using DNA from any two (or more) adults that want to contribute, then gestating the fetus in a nice safe uterine replicator with a perfect feed of hormones and chemicals for optimal development.
if we ever actually invent a uterine replicator I know a few organizations that should be forced to buy and operate the machines.
Dabbler knows what “eskimo sisters” means, which is considerably less common than “T and A”. She knows what T and A means.
I know what “eskimo sisters” means and I don’t know what “T and A” means
So I’ll take the leap for all the other ignoramus out there.
.
What’s T & A stands for?
Are you familiar with the porn reference to T&A? If so, you’ll know ;)
Fords! Model T’s and Model A’s make great hot rods.
Some models T’s and some models A’s make some rods hot! Greatly! ;P :D
Ok I have to admit that was a good one.
‘Trans’ and ‘Airlines.’ While ‘W’ stands for ‘World.’ Unless you aren’t thinking of the old airline, TWA. But what are the odds of that?
tits and ass/arse, to end this guessing game
Thank you! :-)
TNA, won’t get you a job, unless their yooooours! ( A chorus Line).
She lost her hat
I guess they all dehatted when they went inside.
Sydney’s hat is probably in her left hand, off frame.
Und any plan where hyu loses hyu hat iz?…
girl genius jager monster “a bad one”
VE HUNT!
Open tu bein redimd if hyu gets a nyu hat?
I wonder if the artist reads El goonish shive (webcomic). Aliens in that can learn (and teach) languages in the same way.
It’s literally in the sidebar as a “comic I like”.
Speaking of the sidebar, misspelled Oglaf irks me for years.
Still speaking about the sidebar, Outbound seems to have been abandoned, it’s just junk advertising now.
It’s also directly mentioned in one of Dabbler’s Science Corners.
So YES, he reads EGS.
Aren’t we supposed to EAT egs? reading is for BOOKS!
The tentacle comes out of the right human ear and out of the left doppelganger ear. This ear will morph into a human ear and the tentacle will them come out of that. But then why is there already a left human ear on the doppelganger’s head? THIS INFURIATES AND CONFUSES ME!
Because the doppelganger is partway through assimilating the guy’s appearance.
He’s transforming the doppelganger ear hasn’t retracted fully yet notice the entire left side of his head is still his natural state like the squid/cuttle fish and octopus camouflage it’s not instant or all at once.
Because there is no need for Doppelgangers to only have one pair of ears. They can have as many or few as they want. This doppelganger decided to morph their flesh like this, maybe they like asymmetry?
Great. Now I can’t stop hearing that filk song “Mom never talks about THAT orgy…” based on the second to last panel.
Dabbler’s eyes close by moving the lower eyelid up, rather than the upper one down.
That’s just the anime-influence sneaking in, it doesn’t really mean anything
Am I allowed to nerd rage about how this is not the way the structure and chemistry of DNA works? I’m not a professional doctor, nurse, or biologist, but as someone who passed their high school science classes the use of the word “haploid” in Dabbler’s explanation looks plain wrong, and the rest looks like Star Trek-y nonsense tech-babble.
It is true in a certain way. Dabbler basically has a diploid genome (succubus genes) and a haploid genome (from the father). It wouldn’t work according to how our DNA works, but succubi are the product of intelligent design, so who knows where the limit is there.
The father’s genes are just what the sperm cell donates, and the succubus egg cell seems to have a diploid genome already, ready to incorporate the DNA from the sperm cell
technobabble- goes with the territory. yes a triple helix that works the way Dabbler describes requires space magic to work.
the wizard who loves cats did it. I forget his name.
Graham the wizard who likes cats, if we’re talking about the same thing
YES, someone else who has seen Future Me. Hail Momo.
I’m triggered by the use of “T”. The “D” in DNA stands for “deoxy”. Now, I may not know what that means, and I’ll thank you for not trying to explain it, but I know it doesn’t mean “two”.
Normally I like the effort made to put good science into such an absurd comic and premise, and I’ve learned a surprising number of things here, but this is a language thing. 9.75/10, recommend with reservations.
Though looking this up I learned that DNA is the full helical molecule, not the individual nucleic acids. Bonus 0.25 points, so 10/10.
As I understand it, DNA gets ripped in half, rather appropriately like a zipper being undone, and each half interacts with RNA and some handwavium resulting in it being duplicated. In mitosis, both the original two halves and the copies marry up with their counterparts yielding copied DNA. I’m not sure how you get from there to having two sets of all the other cell machinery. Also, when a sperm penetrates an ovum there must be something else going on to account for the variability of progeny. If we have a biologist reading I’d be interested in some search keywords to learn more about that.
It’s weird that i don’t understand half of the words you used but i still understood what you tried to say lol!
A LOT of science has happened since my college genetics course. Dave is mostly playing with the words to get a T&A joke but I guess what is happening with a succubus is in utero gene splicing. It would be like two female cells merging to produce a full set of genetic material and then the male cell provides genetic material that is selectively spliced into the zygote. The female cells provide sufficient genetic material for a viable zygote and whatever passes for a Y chromosome in the male cell is left behind, thus all succubae being female. With this model a succubus could have anywhere from a vanishingly small percentage to almost 50% of her genetic material coming from the father. Given the ability of a succubus to mate with almost anything I would expect that there would have to be a mechanism for preserving the succubus specific genetic material. Otherwise it would eventually get diluted out and no more succubae. I used the terms male and female cells since given non-human biology there is no guarantee that gametes would even remotely resemble a human ova or sperm cell.
I think what’s going on here is that DNA is usually found intercalated with other molecules, not bare. In Succubi, that role is served by the sucubus genetic strand, presumably not DNA, forming a triple helix. So the sucubus genetics turns on and off the host genes, as well as contributing some functionality of its own.
TNA also seems to have a carbonic acid in place of the ribose sugar (?) – who knows when you add magic…
That would account for Dabbler’s effervescent personality.
What makes you think the standard rules of Terran biology apply to Dabbler’s alien/demon biology?
Okay so I have a genetics degree and this seems like as good a place as any to use it… (Warning: MASSIVE oversimplifications ahead)
The the trinary helix shows up in a lot of bad sci-fi because of two things people know from pop-culture:
– The shape of the double helix
– The fact that we get approximately 50% of our genetic material from each parent.
Together it’s very easy to imagine that the two halves of a double helix each come from a different parent (So a hypothetical third parent would add an extra strand). But this isn’t how it works at all.
A double helix consists of two strands, each is an identical mirror of the other and it’s how DNA is accurately replicated. Both halves of the helix come from the same parent (plus or minus a few point mutations and a bit of transposition.)
We as humans have multiple chromosomes and each pair of chromosomes comes from one of each of our parents. (Which is why we have two sex chromosomes).
For better sci-fi you have a few options:
The Shadowrun version: Metagenetics.
Succubae egg cells contain additional organelles which have their own genome and they alter genetic expression of what would otherwise be a fairly normal example of its species.
Companion Chromosomes –
Normally you can’t reproduce with anything that has a different number of chromosomes to you.
e.g. Other great apes all have 48 chromosomes (24 pairs), humans have only 46 (23 pairs) which is one of the main (but not only) reasons that humans and other ape species can not breed true.
However if succubae are specifically created with this in mind they could come with additional “accessory” chromosomes which don’t follow the normal system of cell division and simply breed true. In a similar way to the Mitochondrial genetics of women which are passed by a mother to all of their offspring and the Y Chromosome which is only passed to male offspring.
given their artificial origins and just assuming Dabbler is practicing (lies to children) to simplify the explanation so we don’t get fifteen comics to explain ten paragraphs of appendix notes from Dave’s doc files (although it would be nice if he utilized his neglected Deviant art account to post some of those that are past where they would be spoilers, like the also neglected/dropped Dabbler science corner concept);
that is, assuming the artificial origin and the above there, I will assume Succubus genetics is kleptogenesis enhanced with protein based magic nanites *flesh golem sex doll origins so finger wiggles implied*, to selectively utilize gene transfer and code clipping as needed to make it fit.
That said a Doppelganger added to this had to be a parasitic genetics conflict of interest given how Doppelgangers in fantasy and sci-fi usually work. The fact Dabbler’s shapeshifting is extremely limited and her Succubus charms, specialized eye of the beholder glamor, and tantric feeding are all expressed traits being what makes her identify as a succubus rather than as a Doppelganger…unless we get some Trojan horse genetics (changeling factor) as some Doppelgangers are where to keep the cover they can have children with any target species they turn into but the Doppelganger genes will trigger at some point giving this away *usually puberty…although seen much later in life*
so either her Succubus genes are just that dominant, one of the other aliens genes is suppressing this, she has artificially suppressed the Doppelganger traits beyond her psionic link tendrils due to identifying as a Succubus so suppressing these intentionally, or worst for her due to the indefinite life span elements of her succubus traits the Doppelganger expression is much slower to awaken. Maybe one day instead of a glamor she just turns into someone and is just “wait…what? Since when could I do this?”
Thank you for raging so I didn’t have to. This really bugged me. I much prefer “magic” as an explanation for stuff rather than poorly understood science.
Also, Silverdreamdancer’s explanation is good. I’m always kinda surprised by what *isn’t* just general knowledge.
So it’s basically the opposite of Uryuom antennae from El Goonish Shive.
“I wish she wouldn’t do it in public.” Maxima’s constant mantra when dealing With Dabbler.
Lol. In hindsight, sounds about right.
…why the hell would Dabbler not know what T&A meant?
To be fair, i Don’t know either.
Boobs n Butts.
Butt not Air BB&B?
Butt not Air B&B?
Edit to depopulate the B hive :[
I think that’d be what rabid fangirls flashed at the lead air guitarist of their favorite band.
Are the fangirls of Air Supply called Airheads?
I am given the impression she does and is playing along.
Course she does, Dave. Dabbles is the Queen of innuendo. HUR HUR. Far more surprising is the lightening up of the fabulous furry freak sister.
Does this makes Dabs kind of OP or does it just adds to her “jack-of-all-trades” power set?
B.
Had she been able to pull more valuable secrets out of them than their language it could have been destructive pretty fast, but as always 3 3’s are better than one 9, so her “I’ve a talent for languages, but copying anything else takes considerable effort” allows for a vague, but hard restriction.
A thing though: she speaks about effort and not hard limits, which does mean that she could at least be used as a threat in interrogations.
Doesn’t Dabbler already know what T&A means from page 495, when Pixel strips in her were-jaguar form to infiltrate Sciona’s warehouse? There’s that little “Dabbler Approved T&A Pose” stamp.
That came out a little more nerdy and “well akshually” than I intended. I remember that page because its when I learned what T&A means. Also, “en-dat-ass-en” is right up there with “ka-bun” for funniest onomatopoeia-type thing.
Much of Dabbler’s recent lore-dumping regarding Succubi doesn’t quite seem to fit in with what we’ve seen in the comic thus far. For example, the revelation that all Succubi are slaves with magical leakage problems is hard to jibe with Tamatha, the young succubus we met a while back, who apparently hadn’t known she was succubus for most of her life.
Given the speaker, it’s difficult to know if Dabbler is speaking very generally (ignoring any special cases), deliberately spreading misinformation, or if the lore paradigm shifted without a clutch somewhere along the way.
I have a theory about that. I think Tamatha is sort of succubi mutant/hybrid where she doesn’t suffer from mana leakage and she’s kind of hidden from the other succubi and demons due to it.
Also Dabbler is not a typical succubus, as she has mentioned a few times. :)
Well, it’s been stated that the ability to reproduce was something the sucubi invented themselves, so they probably made some provision in it for the kids to not need a “plug” until they got old enough to be using significant amounts of manna.
It’s also been stated by DaveB (albeit in comments rather than top-post) that the magical leakage problem develops from puberty or thereabouts, and only becomes a major threat at about the age of majority. Tamatha’s just at the start of that run, so she’s a few years yet away from needing a ‘master’ to plug the leakage. And it’s not clear how long she’s been Decollette’s protegée, so that may have come about as a result of her nature becoming apparent.
It’s kinda irritating watching so many people speculate about things the author has provided answers for. I get it that this particular answer is buried in a comment thread on a page, and thus not particularly easy to find… But still, I expect people to either ask, or go digging, rather than complaining that things don’t make sense or are contradictory when they really aren’t.
You’re not wrong.
Dopplegangers would not figure out how tedious being king is after three weeks. They’d figure it out during the scan, think “Nah, not worth the effort” and let the real king continue being king and look for a different hobby.
Maybe they are thinking, ehh can’t be that bad and then have regrets after? Kinds like a bad date?
Yeah, like they are thinking “It can’t really be that bad, right? Maybe they are just terrible at it.”
Shouldn’t it be Trioxiribo Nucleic acid to directly follow DNA?
I have a very hard time believing that Dabbles hasn’t overheard T and A on those ears in mention to herself and looked it up to make sure she’s affecting the right thing.
I ignored it on the WLU’s comment, because they asked me to, but I must respond to this: RNA -> RiboNucleic Acid, “ribo” refers to the “ribose” sugar ring that’s part of the sugar-phosphate backbone. DNA -> DeoxyriboNucleic Acid , same, but the sugar ring is missing one oxygen (actually, a hydroxl group OH, but who’s counting protons) so is “de-oxy”. (This is why DNA is a little more stable in water than RNA, BTW) So if you want the TNA pun (which of course we do!) you gotta go the way Dave did Tri-helical WFM! I’m more intrigued that, given the use of nucleocarbonic acid, Succubus genetic matter may not use phosphorus, the way human does. Or maybe it does, and that’s just the name thier equivalent of IUPAC settled on. (Naming things is both hard, and full of historical accidents)
What Shiny Said…
some days you should just say, point blank range “a form you’re mind can grasp and understand”. And have the fuck done with it. For Context, a higher functioning diagnosed autistic, who has had the discernable advanttage of social training of where I was blind as fuck on the social situations around me due to my own different as fuck brain wiring, the one reason I learned better was my parents, decided all of the following knowing exactly what they were choosing and what price would be demanded of them. 1. They would teach me how to get by in a society who’s brain wiring more often than not would have nothing in common with my own.” And before you even try to rant at me about wearing a false mask, ask youreself this” in truth how often do you, you’reself ask of the higher functioning autstic mind frame of refrence, in terms of paying rent, of not going to jail because of how normal humans could misread the fuck out where you’re mindset actually was as you did the things you did. Think on that before you’re too harshly judgemental of someone who’s branwiring is fundamentally alien to you’re own.
This requires some editing before it becomes easy to understand.
You seem angry for no reason I can discern.
Context is capitalised so I assume it is a name. Who is Context? Or is the following sentence missing a subject? I can tell from later sentences that the subject isn’t you, but then who is it?
Your list seems to contain only one item.
Is false mask redundant for emphasis, or do true masks exist? If so, can you explain the distinction?
I initially assumed that T was for ‘tantric’ but hadn’t worked out a theory on the rest before getting to the explanation.
Look who she’s standing next to: she knows exactly what it means and is hoping to get a rise out of Golden-rod by playing along with Sydney
Lorlara looks a little perturbed. Maybe she is thinking these two are trying to out-shine the glory that is Deus.
She’s wondering why the express elevator is taking so long, and if it will go faster if she keeps pressing the button :D
Drowager huh? Gonna have to pack the rat-tail towels and getcha, Dave. That was gawdawful bad.
I’m kinda wondering what Anvil’s face is like at the elevator conversation.
Hey, Dave, maybe you should do some… ‘illustrated literature’? Like page of prose, single/dual image to accompany? Like the old picture books.
I think you’d be able to world build a lot more that way maybe even broaden the ‘staff’ a little in terms of writers who could probably assemble different plots… with your oversight of course. Might be a way of tackling things you probably won’t be able to fit in any time soon. For example things like the B-Team, team Cora or whatever.
oh they are in an elevator. I realized that only after I read the authors words. XD fancy elevators are more like a hall to me.
Only the last panel is in an elevator, but yeah, they are waiting outside of the elevator in the panel above it.
That Alari in the last panel looks miffed. Good, that smug grin was getting unbearable.
At a guess, Dabbler doesn’t know the specific meaning of “T&A” (yet), but knows it’s borderline sexual content due to “porn sense.”
So where does the four arms come into the mix from? I can think of a few options but they all are drastically different sizes and builds to her.
i don’t, but “haploid” and “diploid” are specific, technical terms that refer to chromosome counts, of chromosomes made of normal, double-helix DNA. “Haploid,” does not have anything to do with a single helix of genetic material added into some other, double helix structure, it’s about chromosome counts.
In the case of humans, the zygote and regular body cells have two sets of 23 chromosomes, for 46 in total, unless there’s a chromosomal anomaly involved (*). Haploid is what the spermatozoa and the ova have after meiosis, which specifically splits up that normal, double set of chromosomes into a half set that then combines with the other kind of gamete, with its own half set, to make a zygote with a new, complete set of 46 chromosomes.
* Three well-known such anomalies are down syndrome, xyy syndrome, and klinefelter syndrome.
Yeah that terminology is just weird… also DNA is a double helix, yes, but both sides of the helix contain the EXACT same information. It’s just that there are 4 base pairs. A, C, G, and T. A pairs with T and C pairs with G. So what happens is that when sequencing a genome, they just sequence one side of the two helix, because the other side ends up being paired. Any time you have an A, you know the other side is a T. Any time you know one side is a C, the other side is a G. If one side is a G, the other side is a C, and if T, the other is A. This is why I say it contains the exact same information. If you run down the other side you can derive the original side from the same info.
A TNA structure ought to work much the same, otherwise there’d be nothing to bind to. There’d be base triplets instead of base pairs. The base pair letters in DNA are named after their molecules but let’s just say one of the base triplets would be X, then you’d know the other two in the same place in the TNA would be Y and Z, and same goes for Y and Z, you’d know it’s X and Z for the other two if it’s Y and you’d know it’s X and Y if it’s Z. There’s 3 assuming there’s only 3 letters of course. The problem ends up being that you can’t have four letters, nor 5, because that would allow for rampant copy errors. It would have to be in multiples of 3, so you’d need 6 letters with the other 3 having the same rules about knowing what the other two sides are.
So… RNA is a single helix, and it’s also 4 letters. Being multiples of 1, it can have as many letters as we want. We’ve also created more than just those 4 AND we’ve created more than 4 for DNA as well. We called those letters X and Y. So that if you had an X, you’d know the other was a Y, and if Y, you’d know the other was an X. This has been encoded into an ecoli bacteria and they’ve gone on to replicate with it. It was a bit of a trick though, as it’s not the most metabolically efficient thing to do to keep those letters, so they had to code it in a way that the ecoli cell would die without the genes containing the X and Y letters.
This field of research is known as “UBP” or “Unnatural Base Pairs”. The thing is the molecules for these basepairs can occur in a “primordial soup”, but they don’t occur in nature (as in they don’t naturally occur in terrestial life). There isn’t much known as to why, but some of them require amino acids that a bit more complex to create and that’s probably why for some of them.
As for Kleinfelter Syndrome and similar variations on karyotypes, as I understand it it’s not generally caused by an extra, distinct sex chromosome, but rather by one of the chromosomes being copied… So instead of both Xs from the mother plus the Y from the father for Kleinfelter, it’s one of the Xs from the mother, but doubled, and then the Y from the father.
While we’re on Kleinfelter Syndrome (XXY), there are other versions of XXY that are genetically FAR more interesting (no offense to anyone with Kleinfelter Syndrome), as there is a case of a cis-woman (assigned female at birth) with XXY… Thing is, her Y chromosome was SRY negative, meaning it did not contain the gene to flip genes in the X chromosome to prevent her development as female. What’s more, she’s given birth to a daughter with the same condition, but last time I tried to check up on the case, it was unknown if her daughter is fertile.
Without even getting into Swyer Syndrome or de la Chapelle Syndrome, I’ve recently encountered medical literature detailing XO (the O signifies there is no other chromosome, it’s just the one X in the karyotype) which is usually Turner’s Syndrome, which leads to development into a female, but in this case the XO individual was born male. There was another case, I think it was an XYY (usually born male) where both Ys were SRY-, meaning born female…
Things are getting mighty weird the more data we gather about human genetics and the variations. It’s gotten to a point where we can’t just brush all this off as “birth defects” or “rare cases not worthy of consideration” and start acknowledging that genetic sex has a lot more variation than previously thought possible.
and wow that turned out to be a much larger data dump than I intended, sorry
TL;DR is genetics is a weird science, and the way genetics is used by nature is not exact. Rules we once thought were written in stone have turned out to be quite a bit more like general guidelines or “rules of thumb” than actual rules hat one can use to infer specifics with 100% accuracy.
No, don’t be sorry. I learned things here:
1. Nature can pull it off in a muddy puddle, but
2. WE better have a clean kitchen at the very least.
Nature buys ALL the lottery tickets.
I would have been more impressed if she had ‘gene banks’ which would be artifical or magical centromeres that could attach useful allelles to until such time as they needed to be read. TNA is just… no. That’s not how chemistry works. And waving ‘magic’ at it doesn’t change that it’s bad chemistry.
[Studying for med school:]
“Uh… haploid, monoploid, triploid, and … dip … diploidocus.”
“Right, right, wrong, and almost a dinosaur.”
anyone else think of this scene during that last panel(couldn’t find just a clip so get a time stamp)
https://youtu.be/rbor4bNVhp8?t=23
Bayonets for days!
Maxima in the first panel — her face looks a bit odd.
No more than the rest of the characters in the first panel. It’s just unusual for Max to show up in a silly-art panel.
Actually, she has looked like that a few times in the past
Clearly her dad was Mr. Blue Lips Damodar from the Dungeons and Dragons movie.
When space travel is at all in any way shape or form possibly a reality, grasp that so called ” normal human norms may equally without bias at best have a 50/50 chance of disgusting the being you’ve just met, that or turning they’re veiw point in you’re personal favor. In other words if someone has been raised on a world other than earth, unless and untill proven otherwise, assume there’s a Hell of a lot that can be be fucked over by misinterpratations , or conformational bias clouded veiwpoints on the earthling’s part,vice versa, so if you really actually do want to be good at diplomacy, assume some, possibly on you’re own side are moles, but before shooting first asking questions later, check verify, and recheck.
I was reading back through the comic and passed through the part where in-comic they start discussing the star ship-adjacent functions of the orbs we’ve seen so far like had been discussed for some time prior in the comments section and started thinking: what if the orbs really were part of a star ship at some point? I’d started thinking about the Marvel super-villain the Mandarin and his rings. He stole them from a crashed alien spacecraft where they were an essential part of the warp-drive for the ship and wore them since they looked like rings and let him somehow access at least some of their functions. Maybe the orbs were built into a ship at some point that was destroyed but they could link with an organic creature like Sydney (maybe the ship was organic in nature, hence not needing hands to hold the orbs to use them and why no remains found of their original owner) but were never originally meant to work that way.
yeah that has been one of the fan theories going around the comments since then; like a bio-ship interface, the bio-ship is gone but they could interface with other organic systems, like Sidney.
due to a bias reason I still hedge my bets on Nth level civilization toys, but wouldn’t be surprised if they were part of a bio-ship.
-likewise wouldn’t be surprised if Maxima’s symbiote was a crew member of that same and the geode was a malfunctioned life pod requiring the crew member to bond with another life form.
This would help explain why they get along so well.
Why did I just now notice that Dabbler was dressed as Lara Croft?
You always emulate your betters :D
I thought doppelgangers were a predator that preyed on humans.
That’s drop bears.
And bunyips. Be very wary around water-holes. Paranoid even.
in most series yeah, Doppelgangers are human mimics, either treated as a racial super power trait, cuckoos, imposters, or mimic predators taking on human form as their specialty.
in fact of all the supernatural beings whose names are used in fantasy and sci-fi I think the Doppelganger is one that has never to my knowledge been used in its original folklore namesake form; at least not while also being called a Doppelganger.
the closest things in folklore are changelings *which only applies to the cuckoo version(, the shapeshifting “nameless horrors” that lurk on the fringes of society and shapeshift into people…along with various shapeshifting monsters that lure people away some place safe to eat them (these two are basically the same thing just the former from cultures with the superstition not to name things or it draws their attention and the later from cultures that love to name and categorize everything)…and then gods…as in think gods like Zeus who love to shapeshift into everything including a woman’s husband away at war.
to hammer this point,
the original Doppelganger was a German folklore belief of a ghostly apparition that was the exact double of a person, and seen only by that person, that was a spiritual omen that they were soon to die. So think hallucination of yourself down a hallway standing there staring back before vanishing.
Monday I bet Dabbler will whisper in Sydney’s ear and let her know that She KNOWS what Sydney is refering to with her “T&A” remarks. Plus I love the look on Max’s face as she wonders how long Dabbler is gonna “mess with Sydney’s head”.
Triple helix means Dabbler had (at least) three parents, huh? (She did mention “two of her mothers'”)
That’s not entirely unheard of, even in real-world human history…After all, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, he claimed to be 2/3 god.
That must’ve been one wild night in the bedroom, huh?
or they can store genetic material from multiple partners in their bodies for a prolonged period of time before choosing to become pregnant and mixing them all together. They are artificial in origin so enhanced kleptogenesis and horizontal gene transfer is in order along with postponing pregnancy.
So… Evolved kangaroos, eh?
among other animals that can pull this off, some turtles can as well, armadillos, ect.. (the delayed pregnancy anyway),
kleptogenesis is rare to see outside of a few amphibians and some others; but nothing warm blooded *known*. horizontal gene transfer though is usually a parasite trait.
Ummm. Much to… cogitate.
If… The “other mother” is an androgyne… and can “reprocess” the sperm from the Father-person, definitely some horizontal gene transfer… And then use her alternate organs to deliver the results to the “actual mother”… Nothing weird at all.
But, no Doppelganger. Unless the “actual mother” is a Doppelganger. That preserves symmetry, for storyline reasons. Doesn’t matter really which one is going double.
Is it kleptogenesis if the chromosome donor is aware of the purpose of all this frolicing?
Aaaahhhh, what is going on wth the time-stamping here? Here is the sequential list of posted timestamps:
February 5, 2022, 12:52 am
February 5, 2022, 4:17 am
February 5, 2022, 4:32 am
February 5, 2022, 4:45 am
February 5, 2022, 7:25 am
We seem to be using a 12-hour clock, but why are all the timestamps *in*the*morning*?
Of Course. The groundhogs are innocent (for once).
It’s Meatloaf and Steinman showing how the Time Warp SHOULD be done.
That’s how it works: midnight is 12 am, noon is 12 pm
Oh, and the time is local for DaveB
Time stamp is around 10pm on Feb 5th, but it’s around 5pm, Feb 6th for me
Yes but: …11:59 – 12:00 – 00:01…
I’ve never seen a 12-hour readout that counted UP from 12.
It’s definitely the Time Warp…
What exactly is confusing about this for you? 12:52 am? I’m curious where you’ve seen a clock that didn’t display the time in that way. Most of them do.
I have a couple of analogue “electronic” mechanical wall-clocks, but all my real clocks are 24-hour. Have been since… since… DOS? C64?
… I have to perform an unnatural act with this computer… just… summon the courage… Pray for me. And the computer.
I set all my clocks to 24-hour time… all those that can be set that way. But there are several that can’t, and I see plenty of other 12-hour clocks in my daily life. They all work this way.
EEWwwwwww :[ Blechchchchch. P’tf p’tf p’tf.
Ohgodhowdisgusting. HOWDOIUNSEETHAT???????? I’ve tried EVERYTHING. I washed my eyeballs and brain in 80% Sodium Hypochlorite and I STILL SEE IT. There is a taste of raw sewage in my mouth I can’t wash out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel violated. I AM violated. Thatissoantiquatedwhatisitstilldoinginthiscentury? It belongs in 2000BCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even Microsoft Works is more advanced!
HUUUURRRRRRK! BLAAAAARGHHHHH! Azathoth comfort me in my misery!
Those timestamps are all on the same side of 12:00, and all ‘am’. Do you have any comparable series that straddle 12:00, either midday or midnight, to see whether that’s when they swap from ‘am’ to ‘pm’? It’s unusual to list times in the first hour of the day as 12:xx rather than 00:xx, but I can see where they’re coming from at least.
And the timestamps are, as previously noted, in the time-zone for DaveB‘s server regardless of the poster’s local time.