Grrl Power #1292 – Pod psychology
You see, it’s like the Odd Couple, except one of them is like My Favorite Martian, and the other is a relentlessly ravenous amoeboid covered in eyeballs and teeth. I speak of course of Pirpo the Enlightened Loves Azbblethog the Jubilexian. It’s funny if you enjoy sophisticated, layered humor and obtuse references. Plus there’s a ton of fart jokes. Don’t worry, Pirpo does fart at least once. It’s not totally racist against Jubilexians. Though to be fair, their language is called Flatulese.
I’m not saying Garamm was a therapist before turning to mercenary work, but it’s possible he has a minor in a Mental Health field. Or possibly he just has a subscription to Brain Fancy magazine. A favorite among psychologists and Illithids.
There have been plenty of shows and books with Space Doctors, but imagine being a space psychiatrist. I don’t mean like Deanna Troi. Calm down, she was a counselor. She was a psychologist at best. I mean like having to deal with different brain chemistries, or like, some Starship Troopers bug scuttles into your office and is like “I just don’t feel as connected to the hive mind as I should be. I had an independent thought the other day and it really scared me.” Or having some race that goes into heat, except it’s not sexual heat, but a compulsion to bake pies or lick the knees of as many different species as possible. Managing those prescriptions would require a supercomputer.
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Dabbler went somewhere tropical, in a very small bikini. As you might guess, it doesn’t stay on for long, which of course, you can see over at Patreon. Also she has an incident with “lotion,” and there’s a bonus comic page as well.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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I can understand the resentment, but I also sincerely hope it just turns out they’re all super excited at the prospects this brings – even if she’ll be ahead of the curve.
She even has a good excuse. “As a member of ARCHON I was given the opportunity to test bleeding edge limb replacement. I can’t really talk about it but if it continues to go well the VA will be very busy in the future.”
But this is a sticky and complicated situation and I completely understand Peggy’s very mixed feelings on the subject. Most prominent is probably guilt that she can get her leg back and, to her mind, much more deserving candidates with much more serious loss can’t.
Some people might be supportive, but you know not everyone will be.
Fellow amputee: So, Peggy, does that mean you will appear to slow way down when you start running?
Peggy: No Terry, it’s not bionics, but that would be cool too.
I always had issues with a guy with a bionic am and legs, but a human spine, was able to lift a car with ease. I think it would have gotten about an inch off the ground and a second later he would be writhing on the ground.
There will probably be a lot of both before generally settling into excitement after it’s widespread even for poor veterans to afford.
It seems problematic that in a rich society that someone who literally risked life and live should ever want for medical care in that society.
It is!
But it’s so much cheaper if they just die and you replace them with more poor cannon fodder!
In some ways, it’s actually more damaging to an opposing nation to maim their people than to kill them, because they will have to expend resources caring for people who may be disabled by their injuries. Caring for new children is an investment that eventually returns far more than was invested in them, but a disabled person is now a cost on society, unless they can somehow pivot to a new role that is unaffected by their disability.
I LOVE Peggy’s facepalm in the last panel.
That happens all the time around Halo. ”Maxima, why is your forehead red?”
Max’s forehead does not go red, it goes BRONZE.
Me too. It’s perfect
Yes, but is it a, oh God a Sydney moment or a thank God for a change of topic.
Why can’t it be both? Embrace the power of AND! :-D
I’m not completely surprised that Sydney’s knee-jerk standing up reaction is faster than the orbs ability to auto-adjust towered her head is.
Correction, to where her head is. Bloody auto correct.
Too much knowledge about a subject that shouldn’t even exist in an advanced alien society.
Limb loss may be a temporary setback in such a society (albeit not necessarily – sure, they have access to the tech, but that doesn’t mean everyone can afford it), but there may be other injury-caused disabilities that can’t be fixed (or at least can’t be fixed for anyone but the ultra-wealthy), and he’s extrapolating from there. Or he’s just considering how people born with such disabilities (there’s nothing to regrow, like for Cora who was born without limbs) cope with it, and assuming that, in a society without the relevant tech, people who lose limbs to injuries will take a similar approach.
Assuming her leg was grown using the best techniques, it’s still not “lose a leg and get it back 10 minutes later”.
It’s more “lose a leg, get it grown in a month or more, get it reattached, get some form of physiotherapy to readjust”.
Don’t get me wrong; that’s infinitely better than “lose a leg, learn to live without it.”
But I bet there’s still infrastructure in space-society around people waiting for replacement limbs.
Or you could do what Cora did and just get hard light versions. But I suspect that costs a lot, and space society doesn’t seem to do the “we don’t have money anymore”. Which never made sense to me anyway – money represents allocation of resources, and you always have limited resources even if its only energy.
His girlfriend lost her body more than once, and he saw how just the prospect of not being able to replace it left her
Cora specifically had such a condition.
I think it would be even more prevalent. Being able to instantly replace a limb with an advanced prosthetic or even a biological identical one still means you lost that limb and your mind will have hooked onto it. Plus there will be a process to get used to a grown limb which will feel off in a million different subtle ways no matter how close it is to the old one. Missing scars, off color, muscle placement, what all.
but if that type of medical procedure is prevalent in that society and has been for a long time, you probably don’t think that way. sure its an inconvenience but you also know its a temporary situation.
“there will be a process to get used to a grown limb”
Cue up ‘Eye of the Tiger’ in the background and a multiple quick cut montage of Peggy at the gym.
Good job distracting from the awkward by bringing the crazy, Sid. *headpats*
I just love the descrition of a helicopter.
“A helicopter is a V.T.O.L. conveyance with an unenclosed rotor wing, they dont DO upside down.”
There’s like, 3 different layers of condecension for the primitive state of technology there.
V.T.O.L. convayance, like this is such an antiquated mode of transport they don’t even have a term for it anymore, like calling something a “motorized contraption”.
Unenclosed rotor wing; enclosing such a dangerous mechanical part is just common sence, but they didn’t. Like an unshielded electrical wire.
They don’t DO upside down, yes all the V.T.O.L.s we have can go upside down just as easily, bu this technology is so primitive it CAN’T.
There are Helicopters that can perform aerobatics like ‘Loop-de-loops’ and even ‘barrel rolls’.
So technically there are Copters that Can Do upside down, just not for very long like most aircraft.
Just like any vehicle can be amphibious once, Any helicopter can do upside down once.
The Westland Lynx Helicopter did aerobatics displays at Airshows that included Loops and Rolls.
So, not only could it go upside down more than once, some days it did it so often it practically lived upside down, and all without crashing.
You ought to see some of the stuff that can be done with remote control helicopters. Clipping the grass while inverted is a warmup excercise. I understand that Westland has a full size design that can briefly hover inverted but scaling up supermaneuverability has problems with power to weight ratio and strength of materials.
Helicopters can do upside-down Very Well. It’s the other stuff that’s hard.
She could be going by Halo’s memories on her description of it.
I don’t think it’s condescending.
I think it’s an excellent dictionary-type description of a helicopter for someone who’s familiar with the terms used.
Kudos to DaveB.
How would you describe it succinctly without being condescending?
y’know those weird seeds we saw around the maple tree? Yeah, a helicopter does that. motorized.
Garamm’s deduction of Peggy’s situation suggests that this situation is far from being exclusive to Earth and The Human Conditon and instead a rather common mechanic of sapient and social beings throughout the Galaxy of the Grrl Power universe.
Garamm is overqualified to be a lacky.
FYI, it’s ‘lackey’. I was looking around for something lacking there…
Frix in last panel: “That’s my girl.”
About counselling , I come from a country with a psychoanalysis mafia – the Lacanian ones the fundamentalists* – psychoanalysis could be counter productive , not only for high-functioning autistic people.
If the lunatics are their business they could be described as their first customers.
* Lacan’s followers treat Lacan’s writings as “holy writ”, an combined with obscurity, arrogance a “cult of Lacan” resulted. It’s an “incoherent system of pseudo-scientific gibberish” …
The study of mental health and psychological development seems to often be characterized by competing schools of thought. My own experience is that it is worse in academia but even in the more practical realm of health care there are a lot of people who will slavishly defend their particular theoretical basis. I’ve seen clinical discussions between psychiatrists escalate nearly into fist fights. As a person who earned their degree in the U.S. I don’t recall any particular attention being given to Lacan in my classes on theory or counseling. I do recognize some of the concepts associated with that school of thought but I think they are more from popular culture or outside reading rather than coursework or continuing education. I hear what you are saying about pseudo-scientific gibberish. It seems like if you say it loud enough and with enough conviction, someone will buy into it. Most of it wont stand up if you do any real scientific analysis of it.
Theoretical basis? Sometimes it feels more like a theological basis.
Some people do tend to treat it as words from God’s own mouth. On one hand , you do need a consistent framework for making decisions but on the other, some folk substitute the framework for decision making.
I’m French the Lancan followers had an heavy influence on the treatment, or more accurately the lack of treatment , of autistic troubles , the Bruno Bettelheim Refrigerator mother theory – aka Bettelheim’s theory of autism – was popular until the 2000’s in my country.
Garam: “I showed you my socio-economic awareness. Respond.”
He’s a bit of a goof, isn’t he?
LoL, De-Ham… That’s our Halo, so random even the orbs are caught off guard.
And that is why Friz loves her!
And just like that, the moment is ruined. /s
This guy is fast becoming a favourite of mine in this comic. He’s definitely an good asset for them to have off world. He’s probably *very* practical so buying him off would be pretty easy if they don’t jail him or hand him off to Extragalactic authorities.
In another reality, Peggy lost her leg when a stray mortar blew up the Mess Tent where she is a cook in an Air Force kitchen unit….!?
in the One Piece reality, Peggy cooked that leg and served it to her unit
mm, long pork…
In panel 3 Lapha’s head looks like an incense burner.
What? It isn’t?
Does Sydney really want to watch alien sitcoms? I mean she gets embarrassed easily and the aliens seem really open about sexuality.
Given how formulaic Sit Coms tend to be, I’d bet you could find essentially a carbon copy of just about any Earth Sitcom somewhere out there. Like Alien versions of “Three’s Company”, “All in the Family”, Lots of versions of “Mork and Mindy”, but probably from the alien’s point of view going to a primitive planet, “Laverne and Shirley” and so on.
Not to mention that they would probably view some of our shows as “Sitcoms” that we wouldn’t (Twilight Zone, The X files, Star Trek (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY), Stargate SG1, Firefly….
Mork and Mindy was a show about an alien going to a primitive planet, told from the alien’s point of view.
I’m reminded of a comedian who went to China shortly after Nixon, and when a high Chinese party official tried to shake hands the comedian did the Mork split finger handshake and said “Nanu, nanu!“
Shazbot
By “From the alien’s point of view” I meant like, bringing the locals onto their spaceship and they have no clue how to use the food replicators or the space toilets.
From the look we have had of aliens I suspect they would be closer to the porn versions.
Shouldn’t be a problem, Peggy could say she’s testing new tech from alien to humans compatibility and its a tech thats coming out in a while, but it aint disclosed yet, Archon could just ask such tech from Lapha/Korra/Dabbler or Deus could do the same from the (i forgot the name) whole bunch of aliens he already has… damn, can you imagine the amount of funds that could provide Archon? they could go “Power overwhelming”
oh, intergalactic laws? what they gona do? stop the superpowered team that stopped an invasion by the (i forgot, but pretty sure was Flood related) and with no effort at all? Good luck… humans and supers are already in the galaxy… plus i bet they would love to change some TV show rights for such a “basic tech” in the galaxy
The Fel? Not sure where you got “Flood” from that…other than it starts with an “F”?
I’m pretty sure that limb replacement technology is pretty low on the “Don’t show monkeys how to do this” scale compared to Warp Drive and fusion power, which is a feline that has already escaped from the flexible container, given the donation of a fairly low tech spaceship for reverse engineering in exchange for disposing of the Fel spaceship properly to prevent Earth getting infected by evil Fel energies.
at the very least, you can probably expect advanced cybernetic replacement limbs to start becoming available outside the Mad Scientist labs of Verne-class supers soon.
Gentlemen, we can rebuild her. We have the technology (finally). We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic woman. Peggy Kesler will be that woman. Better than she was before: better, stronger, faster.
Maybe I’m nitpicking, but “foreign” languages are depicted horribly in Hollywood-based media, and panel 2 is just that, in my view.
Why would Lapha and Garamm speak english between them? Doesn’t make much sense to do so in this context. Their discussion is semi-private, and I doubt they have this level of courtesy as to speak the language of the rest of the company when engaged in a semi-private conversation between them. I would have expected Lapha to have provided the exposition to Garamm in standard galactic or whatever, and then MAYBE tell everyone non-fluent (i.e. only Peggy) that she did so. No risk of translators messing up. She would just say “leg lost when a VTOL with an external rotor wing crashed on top of her.”
This is more of a pet peeve of mine, TBH. For instance Stargate (the movie) did it RIGHT (up to a point. I can barely suspend my disbelief when a modern american linguist manages to actually speak it with a “native speaker”, but at least the abducted people didn’t speak modern english, and that’s something).
I don’t think that it would be difficult to assume that the translator would be either set to the local language during their stay, or to whatever most people in the conversation use.
Alternatively, they might have had Dabbler forcibly set and stuck their translators to English to de-incentivize covert conversations.
Finally, Lapha might just be minding her manners given her current situation with ARC.
They’re using translators (go back 3 pages or so and you’ll see Garamm talking about them) they’re probably not going to turn them off for a brief aside
The translators have already been noted, but honestly Lapha is probably just outright speaking English here, considering she became fluent when she lived in Sydney’s head (and is now probably somewhere in the 99th percentile for knowledge of swear-words). And there really wasn’t a reason for them to change to a different language when speaking to each other – they weren’t saying anything they didn’t want others overhearing (plus Cora’s crew all have translators, and Lapha knows that Sydney’s glasses have a real-time translation function, so they’d only be leaving Peggy out).
As for Stargate, keep in mind Daniel Jackson actually is fluent in Ancient Egyptian, and the language of the abductees, Abydonian, is basically Ancient Egyptian with many syllables pronounced differently. Once he caught on to the shifts, he was able to at the very least speak it well enough to be understood. That might be a bit much for a typical bilingual person, but Daniel Jackson was a polyglot with a real talent for language. I’d imagine someone like Tolkien (a real-world polyglot with a talent for language) would have been able to adapt similarly to such a situation, provided he were already fluent in the “base” language.
I always wondered about that fluent in ancient Egyptian thine. I can understand how he knows how to read it, but how would you learn how to pronounce an ancient language?
Educated guesswork. I think it’s a combination of looking at how things are pronounced in surviving descendent languages, potentially finding contemporary accounts of how things are pronounced, etc. It’s not going to be perfect by any means, but may be enough to get by if you find yourself somehow speaking with a native speaker – or to adjust if you find someone using markedly different pronunciations, once you catch on to what they are.
So you are saying that:
– Lapha actually spoke English thanks to memory hijacking. I can get behind the fact that she can, but why would she?.
– Lapha spoke english to Garamm because why not. I find it harder to get behind that, considering that the answer to the “why not” part is “because the translator might mess up”. Plus with Sydney and Cora &Co present, any chance of hiding a covert discussion behind a foreign language wall is out the window. So I’m still not convinced.
– Lapha spoke english because she is being polite. I won’t get behind that. A street-urchin that grew up to be an outlaw mercenary doesn’t strike me as someone with that kind of mentality.
On the contrary, based on Lapha’s background, I would expect her to have a mentality of being concise, accurate and no-frills-get-to-the-effing-point as much as possible, and that would be “tell Garamm what you know in as direct a way as possible” (so galactic standard).
I didn’t remember a lot about Daniel Jackson, it’s been more than 2 decades since I last saw the film, I just remember raising my brow (in a good way) when the abductees spoke non-english. So it’s good to know that there was more background to him justifying his quick adaptation.
How about:
Lapha spoke her native language and the translator automatically repeated it in English because it’s the local standard and she wouldn’t bother to turn it off for the sake of a single utterance in a conversation where that’s the primary language.
Garamm’s translator heard either the English or Lapha’s language and automatically translated it to his native language because he wouldn’t turn it off lest he not understand *anything* that’s being said (which also applies to Lapha).
A good reason is because, if there’s a concern about the translator getting it wrong, it’s going to be much more likely to get it wrong when it translates what she said into English and then Garamm’s translator converts that translation into a language he knows. She’s also drawing on Sydney’s memories for describing a helicopter, so it may be easier for her to speak in Sydney’s language. I know if I had a device that translated my words into a language I was already fully-fluent in, I’d probably just use that language myself to avoid mistranslations (also to avoid the disconnect of hearing my voice speaking another language than the one I’m actually speaking; that’s not so difficult if you don’t understand the language it’s being translated into, but I’d imagine it would be distracting otherwise). It’s also possible they took away her translator to avoid potential misuses of it, although I suspect that’s not the case (she could just as easily misuse Garamm’s, and taking his away isn’t an option).
That said, it’s certainly possible she spoke a different language and her translator simply turned it into English.
Unintentional on Sydney’s part, but she is very good at defusing awkward situations… at least the ones she didn’t cause directly. Maybe defuse isn’t right. More like… derail.
*insert “I found this humerus” joke from Peggy in the future.
When I was in my twenties I thought about regenaration and figured with longevity being a part of that, regrowing a new set of teeth every few decades would be essintal.
I’m 65, and my current teeth are still fine after half a century. They really do last a remarkable amount of time if you brush regularly, avoid sweets, and don’t grind your teeth.
So, maybe regrowing them every 80 years or so?
Imagine being a doctor in Star Wars. There are literally hundreds of alien species from different planets all coming in, whenever and wherever. Do you even speak their language let alone know if caffeine is a mild stimulant or a fatal toxin? It’s no wonder that all of the doctors we see in the movies are droids.
And even then, they just dunk them in a bacta tank and replace with robotic parts whatever doesn’t regrow…
Yeah, keep in mind that even in Star Wars, almost everybody just stays on their home planet, surrounded by members of their own species. Just because the story follows people who get around a lot and spend a lot of time in ports doesn’t change that.
Of course, even under those circumstances all the doctors would be droids because, hey, once you have medicine worked out, why would you spend 15ish years training a human in it, when you could just plug a memory chip into a droid and be good to go?
Is doughnut vet a cameo?
Is Lapha ducking the hairpin explosion or the spit-take?
Interestingly, the best sit-coms come from planets where the inhabitants never developed a sense of humor. They have no awareness of the unintentional comedy that spontaneously infuses their dramas.
About that hairpin explosion……. seriously, did the author have her put her hair up for the last 7 pages JUST for this moment?!? I checked, and her hair was NOT pinned at the end of the fight, so it happened between then and getting to the breakroom for food.
I mean, awesome if he did… just wow, going to have to refer to it as the Spanish Inquisition from now on.
Menu:
Meat
Not-meat.
This is staff canteens everywhere. Although slightly surprised you didn’t have ‘spam’ with a line through it to show it was off-menu.
Is it odd that Garamm and I agree on this? I somehow feel that way.
“There have been plenty of shows and books with Space Doctors, but imagine being a space psychiatrist.”
You don’t have to imagine it in a vacuum, the psych department of James White’s Sector General series is an important element in most of the books and several of its staffers are POV characters for entire novels. If you haven’t read those books, you’re really missing out.
Doctor: So, what appears to be the problem?
Patient: I was in the park, minding my own business, when this Insectoid Queen asks if I can watch her kids while she pops into the shop for a minute. I say no problem, and before I can even blink, she’s only gone and oviposited her larvae straight into my right eye!
…
Doctor: I was talking to the larvae.
Bonus points if her first piece of alien content is SpaceTube video of herself eating ghost peppers on the space station…
Bless you, Sydney.
Trust Sydney to get to the important stuff in every conversation.
IIRC Peggy has a below the knee prosthesis, so there is a segment of tibia remaining to graft the replacement to, it’s the replacement muscles that need to be reconnected to her nervous system that need to be adapted to during rehab. Source: I just got back from rehab for a spinal injury.
I REALLY like seeing “dumb muscle” characters being depicted as three dimensional and whole. I’ve dealt with so many stories – movies, TV shows, books, etc – where the actual cast is quite limited, to just a half dozen or so. Simply because everyone who isn’t one of the main characters is just a glorified prop. I’m looking at YOU, “Dark Knight.” (seriously, that bank robbery scene… what, NONE of them thought to walk away or circumvent the plan?)
Didn’t they tho? The first guy didn’t, but after that, it seems the next guy got surprised and the guy who was to end up hit by the bus was on his way to kill Joker as he thought Joker was supposed to kill him. The bus driver may or may not have known he was killing anyone.
The bank robbery scene in The Dark Knight was about compartmentalization of data. Each man involved in the robbery had been given a different “plan”, several of which involved offing other members at opportune times. Each death was in the killer’s best interest – it meant he’d get a bigger share of the loot – so none of them were deincentivized to deviate from their plan. The fact that all the plans put together resulted in only one man standing wasn’t obvious to anyone but the Joker.
Except for the second to last guy (not counting the Joker himself).
“Let me guess, you’re supposed to kill me.”
“No. I kill the bus driver.”
*bus driver backs into the building killing the one guy*
Yes, but every single accomplice was okay with killing one of their own? And after the first few killings, none of them said, “wait… if this keeps going, they’re going to kill ME at some point?”
Don’t believe they had the time (or the mental capacity) to think it through, that’s why they were chosen in the first place
That last panel. *Chefs kiss!*
Gotta love how Peggy’s facepalm is faster that the reaction from Sydney’s orbs.
Her reflexes have been trained by months of hanging around with Sydney.
That was an impressively sensitive insensitive exposition. In character, too. As is Sydney’s breaking the mood by focusing on the wrong detail. Which, given the awkward silence likely to follow that outburst, may actually have been surprisingly sensitive on Sydney’s part. Well written.
If they were he friends, they’d be happy for her. Someone also gets to be first with new technology and it looks like it could be her.
I can’t believe there would be many if any who wouldn’t take the chance at replacing their lost limb, if given the chance.
If they were her friends, friends who had spent any time with her, would understand how difficult a choice it is for her
The longer someone goes with a missing limb, the harder it is to contemplate getting a replacement
Halo’s new nickname:
-Belto. Belto of asteriodorbs.
Could be worse! At least the orbs aren’t at boob-height, the puns would NEVER stop if THAT happened.
it would be a much easier name transition than that. Halo – Hula
For a funny/tragic take on Star Trek jobs/psychology check out Steve Shive’s Star Fleet jobs. I was reminded of the Guidance Counselor skit on your mention of Troi only being a counselor. Lower Decks does a good rip on this with Migleemo, also a counselor, who is incompetent and overuses food metaphors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcYYq-s2lW0
Peggy’s biggest problem with a ‘real’ leg would be that she couldn’t detach it and use it for a rifle rest anymore.
Or, detach it and hit someone with it
“You thought I was disarmed? i’m never disarmed when I have dis-foot!”