Grrl Power #681 – Babelfishing
This is one of my favorite pages in a while, as if features Sydney at peak Sydney. You have to forgive her for forgetting to lead with English, but she got excited about breaking out her vast repertoire of fictional alien greetings.
As a first contact protocol, shotgunning a bunch of different languages probably isn’t the best strategy. Especially if, like Sydney, you only know a handful of words from each one. Sydney is properly fluent in Klingon though, and while Qapla’ isn’t actually a Klingon greeting, I thought it would be easier for you guys to recognize than the actual word, which seems to be “nuqneH.” I vaguely recall hearing that in an episode or two, but if there’s a single word that means “Yo, what up, Klingon here.”, it’s Qapla’.
This particular page features a pair of cameos. One of them shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. The other one is preeeety obscure, I think. I’ll probably blab about it one someone guesses it, cause it’s from something cool I saw when I was a kid. Weirdly, and I didn’t know this until a few years ago, but it was my first exposure to the Cthulhu mythos. That’s all the hints you get. :)
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“I”m sorry, but I don’t speak Welsh”
If this was an English-only alley then it would be OK if all the aliens spoke English. Suppose they are lined up for alien sex tourism –the Veil might protect their forms, but language is another matter. They will need a common tongue at their destination, and English makes as much sense as any. That Sydney did not pick up on that is still another problem, even with the hint that Elayne Boosler’s relatively famous skit (“Live Nude Girls”) has been copied for local consumption.
Depending on the tech level there are the options of everyone there using translators or else a translation field around the area if they are really advanced.
Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason Sydney isn’t able to read ALL the signs or understand everyone could be her own ADHD is interfering with the translation field’s effects, causing the affect to take longer.
I mean, the guy on the right is clearly the flying spaghetti monster, but… I dunno, I’m not sure who the left guy could be.
Scaroth
Its Jagaroth From Doctor Who Tom Baker area The episode is The City of Death.
Ah, good old Count Scarlioni. It seems he was scattered further through the multiverse than even the Doctor and Romana suspected. Much kudos for this cameo.
“Spa Fon, gentlemen.”
At first I wanted to say the One Punch Man Konbu Infinity, but the monster had two eyes and this alien has one… The hat makes me think Cousin Itt from the Addams family… He never had visible eye(s) to my knowledge though… and there’s no sunglasses… So unless it was meant to be an augmented Itt, I’m stumped.
Wait, Cthulhu mythos? Cyaegha is the closest I know for that appearance.
all I want for Christmas is a vote incentive peek inside that establishment in the background of panel 1.
Dave gave it to me in private. Here you go (sorry for betraying you Dave).
Whoa, look at the joint action on that babe! Such smooth gearing! …Sorry, I know that’s kinda not appropriate language, sorry sorry… (*not sorry)
Wow, totally nude!
As a female with ADHD, struggling to pay attention to the effects and efficiency of my medication…Sydney is definitely running low on her meds. There’s a point before you hit the slide down into bluerkjfghsville where your brain pushes to try to reach for the most complex answers to questions that should first be given simpler solution attempts.
I call it the “subconscious fear of teh dumbz” where you’re stressed, you’re tired, and your subconscious (because it’s not always realized consciously) is afraid of running out of mental capacity, so it tries to give one last big push to Solve Problems.
Prediction: DaveB will probably have her zoning out a little, then she’ll remember to take her Focus Pill.
…Which is indicted for most of her species as a controlled substance, but so long as she has the RX label on the bottle, or in the same pouch that she keeps the pills in, she’ll be legal.
(*Keep in mind that these meds will have been dispensed BY a branch of the government as an official part of her field kit/dress, as mentioned being necessary on a previous page (insert archive dive here: ____ ). She WILL have the RX label on hand… but whether she remembers to TAKE one is entirely up to Sydney. >.>* )
(…As someone for whom the time-release ones do not work, as they rob me of sleep (not a good thing), I have to remember when I can take mine, versus when I cannot take mine, if I want to be able to get to sleep on time. This is not easy, as it’s not always easy to notice the slide into teh dumbz.)
I understand. I’m supposed to take blood pressure meds, but I can’t remember most of the time, and I don’t remember to eat either (I don’t feel hunger) and if I do eat, I have to plan it out ahead of time because I black out every time I eat anything- have to be home and have nothing planned (which I can’t remember my schedule to begin with) for at least three hours (20 mins to eat, 1 hour to black out, one hour to be able to regain consciousness).
My way to remember things like that is just to make it part of a routine. Keep the pills next to my keys, so that when I am going out I pick up the keys that reminds me to check if the meds need taking.
Whilst my brother sets an alarm, and stops whatever he is doing, whenever it goes off, to take his pills.
As for remembering to eat, nothing works better than having a cat or a dog. Mine remind me that they need to eat, and I prepare my food at the same time.
Would keeping the blood pressure properly regulated help reduce/prevent the blackouts?
Mum use to have several bottles and packs of medicine, butt a few years ago the chemist started putting her prescription into ‘blister packs’: four weeks’ worth of pre-sorted daily (for her) medicine, makes it easier for us to see which ones she’s had (still miss a day sometimes, butt it’s still easy to spot and less chance of doubling-up)
My ADHD is so monumentally bad that I can’t build routines. I do nothing on a daily basis. Some days I get so distracted that I forget to eat. The only things I absolutely do every day are those things my body demands I do every day… and even then, I’ve been known to not drink water because I’ve gotten so distracted by the world.
Nope. Blood pressure meds is to lower my blood pressure- without my meds, when I’m relaxed it’s 200/110.
My doctor showed me the results of my blood glucose test. Six hour test:
Hour 1: (before doing anything) 112, followed by drinking that super sweet gross stuff
Hour 2: 74. My blood sugar dropped that far within one hour. Blacked out in the office lobby.
Hour 3: Regained consciousness in one of the medical rooms. Blood sugar said 117
Hour 4: 112
Hour 5: 112 (or close to it)
Hour 6: 112 (or close to it)
I tried eating steak, which caused me to black out. Tried eating spaghetti, also blacked out. Whether my food has sugar or not, I’m going down. I’m not able to walk by myself most the time, and need a wheelchair but my front porch has stairs, so that’s not a thing. So, I don’t get to go outside on my own and even walking across my living room gets my legs to collapse under me from nerve problems, let alone potential dizziness due to starvation (accidental or otherwise- can’t continue writing my comic, roleplay, or book if I black out while I have the ‘ball rolling’.)
My doctor said that it can’t be cured, but to treat it, I need to eat 6 small protein-rich meals per day, and can’t avoid fats since fats help regulate sugars. However, since I get $158/mo for food, one meal a day is all I can afford, let alone six times that with each meal being more expensive. So there’s just nothing to do. Since I live alone, and have no one I can ask for help, there’s a guarantee that I’ll continue collapsing and blacking out daily, until eventually I don’t recover.
I do have the paperwork to get an “emotional support animal”, which will be either a Rose Hair Tarantula, Mexican Red Knee, or Bird Eating Spider (avicularia) since they’re friendly and big enough to pet. Thinking of their food, as you say, would help me consciously think of my own. So far the pet stores haven’t gotten their orders in, but I do contact them once a week or so to see if they’re in yet.
@SJ-Chan same. Until my doctor told me what she did, I was worse off. “Since you have eating disorders that stop you from eating even when you remember, and you need protein, and you play video games a lot, get beef jerky and unconsciously snack on it while not paying attention and 3 or 4 sodas a day would be enough liquid intake.” I asked her “Are you a doctor or a genie? Did my doctor seriously just suggest I watch cartoons all day in a lounge chair in my living room snacking on junk food?” But mechanically, well, this is a good thing for me personally. Until I had surgery and lost all my teeth and can’t eat it anymore.
I think it was 4 or 5 months ago (guessing) that I wasn’t around here for a few days? That’s because I had help cooking snacks for my landlord and neighbors, but couldn’t eat it myself. That weekend, I realized “Hey its Saturday and I didn’t eat since Wednesday” so I got up to make a sandwich, and that’s when the dizziness hit. I wasn’t around because I had blacked out and collapsed, hit my face on the brickwork and bled out of my face for awhile until I regained consciousness and crawled partway to the fridge, blacking out a few more times until I got there. Then I drank some soda, which let me stay awake a little longer the next time I woke up, until I was eventually able to eat something. Once I woke up from that, I was able to regulate.
@Guesticus: I have my daily pill bottle thing sitting right in front of my monitor (separated for one thingy per day for the week) but since I can’t remember if I actually took it that day, or when I filled it, I worry about overdosing, so if I can’t remember if I took it or not, then I don’t. Then it turns out that my pharmacy says that my meds are ready and I realize the bottles are still full. I wonder how many days I miss…
@Oberon: I tried that- right now I’m still in a new house, so I have to finish with my furniture so I can have a calendar on my wall. And yeah- when every day is the same, you don’t have a mental frame of reference for what day/week/month/year is what. Cyber Monday I’m going to try to get a big screen TV, and then with the other money I’ve saved, I’m going to Home Depot and buying some wood and corner brackets and things to build a few tables. I’ll go to the fabric store to buy the foam and cloth I need to hand-sew some cushions- I already bought some paper and a clip-board and drew up the dimensions and schematics for building my own couch from scratch. Cheaper than buying it otherwise and a guarantee of being comfortable. Once I do that, I should be able to have somewhere to put a calendar.
Well I can give advice on how to spread out eating. Being on zero income and needing to nibble constantly, I have a similar situation to yourself. You just need to abandon the traditional concept of a meal as being a steak or something that you have to eat in one sitting.
You need to prepare yourself something that can be split up into eight portions, so that you can eat each throughout the day. And you will definitely need to set yourself up regular alarms, to remind yourself to do so.
I say this because I already lost one close friend to similar circumstances. In his case he was epileptic but chose to live alone, so that he would have his independence. Leaving him at risk of suffocating if he had a fit and ended up in a position where he could swallow his own tongue or otherwise have an obstructed airway. Which is what happened.
In your case simple unconsciousness can have exactly the same result. And with it happening regularly it is only a matter of time. So I believe it is vital for you to find a way to make do on your budget.
I can give a suggestion, based on how I cope with my needs. Hopefully it may be good for you. If not it may inspire you to do something more to your tastes.
I bulk buy noodles, like Ramen noodles. Although I buy whatever brands are cheapest. Plus I wait until it is on special, then empty the store’s stock, as they last a long time.
Of course noodles are carbohydrates, not protein, but it bulks out the food, so would make each of the meals feel filling. Make up a big bowl full of noodles (all you need to do is add boiling water and wait a few minutes) and your preferred protein, in as small pieces as you can. I find that shredded tuna and other cheap fish works well. But you can chop up anything really.
Then simply split it into eight portions, eat one and pop the others in the fridge, for when your alarm sounds.
Importantly though is to also buy a variety of strong (so they last) sauces. Just so that each time you make a dish like this you can flavour it differently. Plus you need to keep up the variety and interest with other meals using a similar principle. For instance making up a batch of sandwich filler, so that you have enough to make eight sandwiches.
Don’t just sit back and wait for the inevitable. Eating on a small budget is a huge challenge. But buy economically, when the opportunity arises, and spread whatever you can afford out into the portions you need.
It’s nice advice- maybe someone else could use it. I don’t like getting into it, but since I fired my psychologist a couple weeks ago and we’re on the subject…
I have two eating disorders. One is related to knowing my medical problem with food, which causes me to fear it. What if I’m doing really well writing my second book, and then decide to eat? I’ll wake up with no recollection of what I was writing, and have to read it then start all over again and hope I made decent notes, but it’s not the same.
The primary eating disorder I have is related to one aspect of my PTSD. My mother would take others out to dinner or other meals, and if anyone told me there was food or they were going to get some, then they’d get yelled at to ensure they’d never tell me again out of fear (minor inconvenience). Part of what would happen with me is that I’d be screamed at and have guilt trips thrown at me, and whenever I think of myself eating, the words (hooray for schizophrenia) echo in my head, but in my own voice: “You aren’t worth feeding!” “You don’t deserve to eat!” are the most common.
Even after I was an adult, my mother kept me in the back yard, unable to get out to even spend my own food stamps. If I asked for transport to the grocery store, then things went like this:
“I haven’t eaten for a couple days, is it okay if I go to the store with you the next time you go?”
“I’M BUSY!”
“That’s okay. I’m not in a rush- just the next time you go I’d like to go too.”
“What, so I’m supposed to stop everything I’m doing?”
“No, I’d just like to go to the store when you have time.”
“Are you going to pay me back for my gasoline cost?”
“I have a few dollars left, so yes.”
“Are you accounting for the wear and tear on my vehicle for the drive to and from the store?” (I mention its around a mile, sorry for non-Americans I don’t know KM so just assume 2 KM)
“If I check my bank, I might be able to afford that.”
“Oh so I’m supposed to be at your beck and call whenever you want just because you want to go somewhere? How rude can you be?!”
Then I wouldn’t see her for a few days. Also note, I only saw her that much because I looked in the window in the back yard that looked into the kitchen and would see her sometimes. Usually that window was closed so she couldn’t see or hear me. If I saw her though, and I had no food, or was running low, then I’d ask. Otherwise, I’d leave her alone.
So yeah. I don’t feel hunger, and when I think of getting food for me to eat, I just hear “You aren’t worth feeding” screamed at me in my head in my own voice, and I can’t disagree with it. Even if it’s food I bought myself in my own fridge. I give it away to neighbors, because I often can’t bring myself to consume it.
I’m a really good chef, and I like feeding other people so they’re happy, but it takes tremendous strength on my end in order to eat anything myself. Eating more than once per day is impossible. Once per few days is more realistic, but not like that’s healthy either.
If that psychologist was not working for you then please find another one. I
hadhave an eating disorder too, but came to realise that I could not beat it on my own. It was only after deciding that I needed the help, and sticking with the advice they gave and carrying on seeing them for years, that I managed to get on top of it.With your PTSD, and all the complications that come from having to cope with more than one condition, you need the help even more than I did. Especially with it being life-threatening!
I do agree that it is impossible for you to eat more frequently. But only whilst you fail to get help. With the assistance of a good professional you will be able to find a way. It will just take considerable effort and conviction on your part. Accepting that you need the help is the first step, without which the rest of the journey cannot occur.
I knew I needed help years ago, and started getting it right away. The most recent psychologist I had I fired because every session she kept bringing up that all of her other clients see her once every two weeks, not weekly like I did, and that insurance wouldn’t want to pay for it. I’ve been doing this for more than 4 years, so I know what my insurance will and won’t do already.
Plus the most recent time I saw her she said “I won’t let you change subjects anymore”. You don’t treat PTSD with force or a newbie’s concept of timeline. You treat it at the client’s speed of capacity. My case manager said he’d help me find a new one if I wanted, but I said that since I haven’t found any compatible ones in this state (Kansas) I’d only like help getting a peer support, and see them at home every week instead. I’ll wait until I go back to Pennsylvania to get the therapist I had before- she was good and helped me a lot. Plus I’ll get my old doctor too, and I’ll go to my disability advocate every couple days just to get out of the house and do some socializing.
Less than one year from now, my Section 8 goes nationwide, and I can move anywhere in the USA and it’ll only cost me around $128/mo of my $740/mo for rent. My advocate in Pennsylvania already found me phone numbers of the various landlords that own the cities around there, which are mostly ghost towns. They already agreed to do the paperwork so the gov’t can pay them for my house. Also I’ve been talking to my bank lately, and they admitted (when I asked) that they did get a lot of worthless foreclosures when they bought the local bank- and they didn’t tell me ‘no’ when I asked if they’d do the same paperwork, and I’d just rent- also I brought up a few things I know about them and the local area they’re oblivious to that they already have a foothold in, and they are willing to fund my company.
Who knows? Maybe instead of just me trying to write my comics on my own while I rot alone and forgotten, I’ll be able to hire an artist and give them a rent-free home. Just draw and you don’t pay rent. My bank as my investor and owner of my home is fine to me. I won’t live long, and have no one to give anything to, so it might as well just remain in the same ownership the whole time.
Sounds like you have a plan, which is (possibly) the most important part
Hope things stabilize for you
I second Guesticus‘s sentiments.
Just do what you can to minimise the risks until you manage to sort out your alternative arrangements.
Perhaps just getting stacks that you can carry around with you and nibble on regularly, might be an interim option? Snacks are rarely the most healthy option, but if it cuts out the risk of blacking out it may be worth considering, if that is something you can do psychologically.
That is the single biggest take-home I had overcoming my own condition. Make sure that you are happy with what you are eating. Whilst I could change my diet to fit anything suggested, it was only sustainable, in the long term, once I found options that I enjoyed.
Scrape together the coins for a timer pill bottle cap. It’s a godsend for me for some of my meds, because I can’t always remember, either.
Just make sure you get a brand for the pharmacy bottles you actually use; I have a cvs cap on a wallgreens bottle and it doesn’t always fit perfectly…but it was on sale, and it mostly works. *shrug*
I sympathize with you. I take some meds daily and the sameness of it makes it easy to forget if I’ve taken them already. So I keep a log. That guarantees that I won’t take a double dose, but I’ve found that if the log book isn’t in a prominent place where it is always noticed that it can still allow for a missed dose. So no tucking the log book into a book rack or the like, it needs to be in plain sight and seen so that it can be easily checked and easily updated. Just a simple calendar log with check-boxes works fine, nothing fancy is needed.
Pere Mal-Fait? from Kolchak, yowza that’s ancient. Richard Kiel in a Spanish Moss suit.
Or, as someone else mentioned, Angus from Lost in Space, although I think they thought of the episode “The Raft” where the monster had two eyes rather than Angus from “The Astral Traveller”
Unusable spear.
Vote incentive cringe.
There’s a dick joke to be made here, I just know it.
Explain
I’m not them, but looking at it, there’s several potential issues. The spearhead appears tied to the side of the pole, not mounted at the tip of it, the force of hitting something with the tip would not be pushed directly onto the pole, it would tug directly on the bindings. Further, the spear tip looks sharpened along the entire edge, including the bound areas…so if you stabbed someone, there’s a fair chance the tip would come off one way or the other.
You really can’t see enough to make that call. The slight knapping lines at the rear of the spear head don’t mean much, (and that’s *aside* from one of the ladies in the series basically having the “shape stone” super power), since you can always break off a sharp edge, and knapping is how you form and shape obsidian and flint whether you need razor edges or not. You just break those edges off and rub bevels into them on the areas you don’t want sharp.
You also see only one side, so you cant tell if there is a slot down the stick, with a nice channel cut out, so those vines (which are probably a form of pseudo-drider spider silk from yet another character, not just random vines). So its possible its a tight well supported friction fit with tight protected ties holding it all in place.
That said, the stick is a little on the thin side for a thrusting speak, and if its a throwing spear, it might only need to get one good throw out of it.
Dry wood that thick? I’d trust it to be about as strong as a couple pencils tied together. Arrows and single use throwing spears is all i’d Trust it for.
Green wood, under compressive forces? I’d trust it at that thickness for basic shabby spear, but not a proper pole-arm. And I’d want a backup weapon, not just a second spear like the first.
The stuff however looks like bamboo. I’m not sure how strong that is. Strength per weight I expect is very good, but something that small won’t have a lot of weight to get strength from.
I agree that the spear is too thin. Way too thin to hold that head. Unless the head is actually a lot thinner than we might expect from napping stone.
Of course it could be some exotic wood that is a lot stronger than Earth wood. If so then it could withstand the forces used in a fight or hunting. But the head would still need to be fitted in the shaft, as you speculate, or those lashings would not hold out.
I should probably note – when making a spear, you use the supplies you have, which are not always the supplies you want. I’m sure the hero there would love some high-powered rifles to help him deal with the menace posed by dinosaurs … but alas, spears are one of his better weapon choices for the time being.
Yeah, and seriously doubt they were hunting dino’s in the first place
Can see your point now, butt, like Tailor said, we can’t see enough to properly make a judgement on it’s overall effectiveness (or not)
As Torrenal said, it looks like bamboo, and depending on the species, those things are pretty strong and sturdy (Asian countries still use it for modern scaffolding)
Unless you have actually read the book (which it seems Tailor has, or at least other books in the series) we don’t know the situation they are in, butt judging by the tatters of what is considered her ‘outfit’ it looks like they don’t have much in the way of an alternative to a ‘primitive’ thrusting spear, and, if they were fishing, they wouldn’t really need much more than that (no way they would have been hunting that lizard creature, in the water, with just that pokey-stick and a net)
oh come on sydney, with the number of direct refference to earth culture hidden here and there you could easily avoid that problem…
Art from Pickman’s model?
Naked Gun Taxi Scene?
Wasnt there a doctor who episode with the other guy too. Vines of doom or some such nonsense. I think it was a lot larger though.
Seeds of Doom. Krynoids FTW.
No sure, but the second one looked like a larger sized Cousin It from the Addams Family.
Itt’s name had two “t”s
Somehow I’m picturing multiple inter galactic incidents springing up
“She said the weapons are up your nostrils”
“Get your tentacle off me you *.*&”
“Ohh baby”
“Wait, that was the wrong trans…. what the crap are you.. AGGHHH”
“Security to deck 2. a ‘*.!) is playing bongos on a trylarian.. or trying to mate”
Well “Klatuu Berata Nikto” basically translates as “Go home and don’t kill anyone” (From “The Day the Earth Stood Still”)
So “Klatuu Berata Necktie” translates as “Go home and don’t wear a tie”?
Wasn’t Klatuu the guys name? Or was it Berata? o_O
Basically, he was saying “My name is…”
I thought it meant “Come get me”, but now I think it meant
“Klatuu said you should go where he is, bring him to the
spacecraft and reanimate him.”
We have a winner! He was having her say Gort! to get his attention, then his name, Klaatu, and saying the code/language for retrieving and regenerating him.
IMHO
Knew it had something to do with the dude’s name
Clatoo, Verata, Nectarine!
Take me big guy!
Klaatu was the name of the owner, correct. My understanding of the phrase’s meaning was simply “Klaatu says stop” – simple wording to minimise the chance of mispronunciation or misunderstanding – but I’m not sure whether that’s official.
Come on, Sydney. Universal translator. Just assume everyone’s got one.
I was expecting a barrel of them by the entrance door, but we were never shown that.
Having a ‘Magic’ Translator in the mall like Free WiFi is a more elegant solution.
Going through the comments, it looks like DaveB has confirmed who the Cyclops is, Scaroth from Dr. Who.
the sea weed Cyclops however remains a mystery; and I blame the fact that sea weed/vine monsters are pretty common, especially in old b movie low budget shows and movies, a full body costume, monstrous, the one eye thing not as common, but seen a few.
A link, just for funsies. Walk with me Sydney.
Wilbur’s brother from ‘The Dunwich Horror’
Wrings hands ominously and cackles with glee while proclaiming ‘Yog Sothoth!!’
(Wrings hands ominously and cackles with glee, proclaiming ‘Yog Sothoth!!’)
Perhaps she should have tried Galstandard West? It’s Been abused enough by English that she might have made some real progress…
*dives into the water and starts speaking*
Blurble bubble bubble blurp bobble.
[Translation: Sorry I only speak Galstandard Peroxide, so that I can chat with dogfish]
Oh the trying and the failing. The water, it flows with its silencing rush, rending your speech without voice.
(translation: There is an unreadable accent in your peroxide).
This reminds me of the scene in Red Dawn where one of the girls is trying to question a Soviet soldier they have taken prisoner. Getting no response to her question in English she says “Sprechen sie Deutsch?” One of her fellow rebels says “So what if he does? You don’t.”
Seriously, who tries to start a conversation in a language that they know only a couple phrases of? Sydney isn’t that stupid, but she is being made to seem that way. And why didn’t she notice the English language sign behind those guys advertising for “Liv nud gurls. Artifisal nud gurls?” If you’re looking about in a foreign nation, believe me when I say that a sign in a familiar language really jumps out at you.
Many people, put into a comparable situation, would be in shock or even be breaking down. Sydney is using her habitual coping mechanisms to try and keep functioning. She may not have chosen the most logical options, but at least she was attempting to communicate.
Typically it would have actually worked. It does not matter what language you attempt to speak in, usually the other person will attempt to respond in either their native language or one that they guess you are familiar with.
Of course here it failed for comedic effect.
Correct. In fact, she’s doing extremely well, given what she’s been through in what to her was only one very long day.
Scaroth. Huh. And here I kept thinking left guy was a “cleaned up” version of Crud Puppy from UserFriendly. I obviously need to get my Who on.
That thought crossed my mind as well, but the one eye didn’t look correct for Cruddy.
I was saying that first one to my SO the day before this comic came out. SO was like “what the hell are you going on about” and I’m like “universal greeting?” “What?” “It’s the universal greeting from G1 Transformers”… And then the next day, Sydney’s doing it here…
A couple questions… Why is Scaroth here, why is he simply missing his mask like at the end of the Doctor Who episode, why does the alien suddenly don an earth trilby? About Scaroth, I don’t really understand why he’d never attempt to re-don his full disguise, or just remove it entirely. I get that it’s meant to be a recognizable cameo, I’m just thinking about this from an in-universe perspective.
I’m actually surprised Sydney didn’t break out a Tantalog (Stitch’s language) greeting… something like batookah if she wants to be formal or ohufi for a casual greeting.
I’m frequently compared to Maxima IRL by my friends, as in all the nerdiness and seriousness. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if Maxima had been with Sydney here, if she broke out the Tantalog because Sydney forgot it.
Kassogtha?
Bah weep grahna weep ni ni bong to you too Sydney! That one alien looks a bit like Cousin It but with an eyeball. Or maybe he’s a one eyed flying spaghetti monster. I dunno. Anyway love this comic so much. Can’t wait to see what happens next every time I read it and what art makes me go ‘woah’.
I’m pretty sure it’s Kassogtha… It’s not just tentacles and an eye, note the mouths under the tentacles. Alternatively it could be Yog-Sothoth. However, Yog-Sothoth would be highly unlikely as he dwells at the center of the universe, does not like to be disturbed, and most certainly would not be fraternizing.
Given the apparently male identity, Kassogtha doesn’t make much sense either. Nyarlathotep has a thousand forms, and some of them are quite tentacular. In fact, it might even be the Crawling Chaos form of Nyarlathotep… also Nyarlathotep is friendly enough to rub elbows were lesser beings, on occasion.
Hmm… possibly Nyarlathotep’s The Wailing Writher form?
I mean, out of all of the Lovecraftian entities, Nyarlathotep is possibly the second most friendly and second least likely to kill you, seeing that some of his forms eat people. Some of his forms help people… it’s said that he’s responsible for teaching humans how to form thoughts, and make technology.
The only thing in Lovecraft’s world more friendly than Nyarlathotep would be the Yith… who are… basically a highly advanced civilization with a moral system similar to humans. They are quite well acquainted with humanity by way of swapping minds with humans, through vast stretches of time. They have also occasionally intervened on humanity’s behalf to stop the awakening of Cthulhu.
You see, the Yith aren’t that much different from humans in every way except physical… also they are highly psychic beings capable of swapping minds with other creatures from hundreds of millions of years distant from them in time… But other than that psychic power and their physical structure… mentally they’re not much different. The only thing making it hard to befriend a Yith is the fact that in our time, they’re extinct. So the only contact we can have with them is when they swap minds with one of us from the Cretaceous period.
Anyway, point is, the thing could be Nyarlathotep… Kassogtha is distant secondary possibility, but she’s not very friendly to humans… she’s Cthulhu’s sister and mate (Cthulhu’s family tree is… disturbingly unbranched)
Yog-Sothoth was in Doctor Who, which is the likely way a kid was introduced to the Cthulhu Mythos. He’s been identified as the Great Intelligence. Other Lovecraftian Old Ones have also made appearances in Doctor Who too, like Nestene are the children of Shub Niggurath.
Oh come on, look at the Hat its Cousin It from the Adams Family!
Come on, it’s clearly The Pervy Tentacle Monster. I mean, just look where they are at.
it’s a shoggoth.
Too few eyes, too static.
There’s literally a glowing sign written in English on the wall behind the two aliens.
At least in whatever passes for English in that neighborhood.
The Universal Greeting doesn’t work unless you also offer them an Energon Goodie, Sydney!
Everyone knows that one-eyed, tentacled aliens speak Rigelian, which by an astonishing coincidence is exactly the same as English.
Do you know how hard it is to find a green one eyed tentacle monster when you actually need one? Funny thing was I found a lot of no-eyed ones, multi-eyed ones, the majority was two eyed-ones. One-eyed ones with wrong shape, features, scale, color, proportions, # of tentacles etc.
A few more guesses:
* The Trollenberg Terror
* Fendahl – Dr Who
Ah yes… Sydney’s oldest and most powerful super power…
… her unyieldingly nerdly power of being a complete and utter blithering jack-assed idiot. :-P
I think it was Billy Barty in a Sigmund the sea monster outfit dressed up as Cousin It. If not, both of the ‘others” look like they were guest monsters from Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
Obviously, Sydney doesn’t know ….. EVERYBODY understands English – you just have to speak it very loudly and slowly…
That may be your opinion but felis silvestris have a very different opinion on the universal travel language and, if anything, else theirs seems to work better.
Not my opinion. Just a humour-intended reference to a meme once fairly commonplace in the English-speaking world.
Check out some old movies, for example – never seemed to matter just how little English someone knew, they’d ALWAYS understand when English was spoken to them s-l-o-w-l-y and very loudly.
Let’s see the Magical Translation Field catch Deus say something to
Vale in English, confident that the aliens around him can’t
understand it.
He’s wrong.
On second thought, that’s more likely to happen to Sydney.
Despite being in a breathable atmosphere, let’s see Sydney grab
the AirOrb for a hit of good old American air, thinking it will
clear her head.
If she thinks it does, no harm done.
If anyone asks about her Orbs, Sydney might say that
they are her servants and she is their prisoner.
I would think the aliens would be too polite to ask such
a question, and that they see weird sh** every day.
Scaroth and Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos?
This place, vibes more Las Vegas than a Stargate civ.
Well it is the stargate which connects to a major sex tourism planet, so that makes sense.