This kind of response is probably what incited them to hybridize the Blackthorn in the first place. I suspect that some of those in the know aren’t happy knowing that humanity lives at the mercy of creatures that could easily drive us to extinction if it suited their fancy.
Well, Astali is old enough to read and talk, so that means she would have a few years on Pickle if she’s still in the Nursery (if that is who they are talking about)
Atsali is ten years older – when we meet them, she’s fifteen and Castela is five or so; after Katherine adopts them, she starts kindergarten.
Perhapsshe was a later result of the project – which didn’t get 100% shut down at this point, or perhaps she was kept in some form of suspended animation for years.
Atsali is not reading – she’s “wook’a book”; she’s still in the potty-training stage, and she doesn’t have all her baby teeth yet – maybe three at this point.
Atsali can’t be much over two, by human standards. I’ve heard two-year-olds speak clean English. It’s not unusual for human beings to read at the age of three. A super smart para like Atsali might read at two. You reckon?
I assume it took Castela a couple of years her to do more than just watch the sun drift by. She probably started developing mobility trying to follow Atsali to school then tack on a few more years to get the hang of that. A lot of that time would have been spent watching people not noticing her.
Mmm, http://wapsisquare.com/comic/life-strategies/ , so she has been in her current form for five years. Maybe this is the time when she picked up life strategies figuring out the animal game.
She was mature enough to kill a couple of fairy soldiers who tried to rescue her from the government lab, thinking they were bad. She obviously matures slower than human or other creatures if the disparity in age now is so obviously between her and Atsali, but it’s also hinted that some of this is an act. Pickle might be able to make her human looking form look any age and prefers being this young.
It might not all be an act. Castela is still quite young and has not had that much life experience yet. Still she’s a blackthorn, and it has been implied that they are known to be very wise. If that is genetic memory or she’s able to draw on the experiences of all blackthorn past and present then that might be what makes her appear so mature at times. If this is it then she probably chose to not use that in her daily life in order to live a mostly normal paranormal life. When she accesses the blackthorn knowledge it’s probably a bit like asking an elderly relative to help her make sense of things.
This might explain how she came to kill those fey sent to retrieve her. She asked about the fey and learned that they can be formidable threats and quite malicious. She didn’t ask about their feelings or how to know why they were there but allowed herself the childish pleasure of taking revenge on the perceived bullies.
I’m not saying this is a bullet proof theory, actually it’s got more holes than the chair little Atsali was sitting in, but it’s one way to explain how Castela can switch between innocent 5 year old and a mature version with knowledge far beyond what is normal for a child.
Or, it’s more likely she felt threatened, and lashed out inadvertently killing royal fey sent to help and slash or protect her, when you have been bred (literally in Pickles’ case) as a weapon, you don’t need to know what you are doing when confronting a perceived threat
Haven’t really seen Stela display any knowledge beyond her age that any one that age could not have picked up naturally (most adults tend to dismiss children all the time, until they repeat something they probably shouldn’t have heard), she is possibly smarter than most human kids of that age, heck, she is probably smarter than most adults, but that doesn’t mean she herself is older than she looks (or even is able to tap into the wellspring knowledge of the Blackthorns)
Don’t know who he is, but that’s one of the best “I’ve seen too much of this sh!t, and I don’t want to see any more, but I know that I will” faces I’ve seen drawn.
Given that Castela is ten years younger than Atsali – which, at this point, would be about minus two – i think this is an earlier stage of the project that doesn’t get shut down completely – perhaps like AIM, which was a HYDRA off-shoot in the original comics, and continued on as an independent organisation after HYDRA was apparently destroyed.
Considering by age 2, 3 max, a child would (normally) have ALL of their baby/primary teeth, does that either mean Atsali is ridiculously slow at development due to being a Para Hybrid or…is she way younger?
Well, you’re assuming a normal human development rate for a para, which Atsali has already shown (by overnight “blossoming” among other things) is not the case. Also note that many times through the comic not all the characters’ teeth have shown because they were not relevant to the panel. Like drawing every brick in a wall – it’s not necessary when all you need to know is that there’s a wall there.
I had forgotten, and my calendar ninja skills are lacking. Could someone post a link to the dates with discussions of the blackthorn and its relationship to Castela?
I’ve been trying to find them too. I know Cricket talked about what she was and her history at the school when pickle stomped on her and was educated on why fairies aren’t evil.
depleted uranium? in a HANDGUN? seems a bit overkill..handgun pressures would never get it up to the speed where it ignites. a tungsten penetrator in a sabot would do the same job at about 90% cost savings. and if it’s the radiation effects they’re looking for..add radium or some other cheap radioactive material to it instead of using the expensive DU.
besides,10mm went out in the late 80’s when the FBI dropped it. it’s fairly rare..the only place I’ve seen them is in certain pistol competitions. now, .40 S&W, which is “10mm short”, that’s around in abundance. it’s a common law enforcement round now. and all you need is a barrel change to turn a .40S&W to .357 SIG.
I don’t suppose it needs to burn. The point of burning DU is to create secondaries by igniting fuel and munitions. It it went through an armored wall, it’s a wonder it didn’t fan out as sharp shrapnel. But I guess a safe room wouldn’t be as armored as a tank.
I was thinking the mildly radioactive effects of DU might have some sort of effect on paras. I’m not sure if that’s ever been discussed. if radiation damages paras in some way, or bypasses some natural immunity to high velocity bits of copper-and-lead, then the DU might have a purpose here.
no, there isn’t anything wrong with 10mm..if it’s good enough for Col. Cooper, it’s good enough for me. but being rare, that reduces the ability of these ninjas to resupply “in the field” if needed. sure, they have big $$$ backing them…but if something goes south and you need to fight your way back to base, you’re not going to stop at the local hardware store and pick up some 10mm. .40S&W, 9mm, .38/.357, .223, .308, .30-06, 30-30…sure, no problem. but not 10mm.
…Possibly specialist ammunition – 10mm case with subcaliber DU sabot and +P load for added muzzle velocity – basically a runt-sized tank-rifle shell. The kinda exotic shite you’d see from the special forces of evil eccentric billionaires… 🙂
Another reason depleted uranium rounds are used is the greater mass of a given size of round. Assuming same velocity, more mass equals more stopping power. These shooters were interested in seeing that whatever or whomever they knocked down, stayed down.
Wasn’t meant to be rude, just that Sali possibly doesn’t know who her dad is (or was), could be many reasons for that, least of which being that he simply left before she was born and her mother never spoke of him
No, Mad Max said the only survivor was Leu’s daughter, implying that she died as well (it’s possible that she is the one under the sheet, but haven’t check to see if there is a page between this one and Leu stabbing that attacker in the head)
Cas might still be just a seed in the “nursery” at this point. She may have to sprout and grow to a certain size before taking on animal characteristics. Some plants could take several years to get large enough.
Since there’s been no mention of an out and out war between paras and humans, and given Phix’s remarks about the fragility of human/para relations, i’d guess tht either she was speaking metaphorically/blowing off zteam, or else someone with a bit more self-control countermanded it.
Well. We now know that (Gaelan) Marius was the first to show up – and was the one who found Atsali and “the Blackthorn”. Interesting he says “nursery” in quotes.
:0
Wow.
I think that is an appropriate response! If it happened more often, it might not be needed so often.
This kind of response is probably what incited them to hybridize the Blackthorn in the first place. I suspect that some of those in the know aren’t happy knowing that humanity lives at the mercy of creatures that could easily drive us to extinction if it suited their fancy.
Say, what’s going on with the site. The comic shows up as a thumbnail in a column to the right side now in Firefox.
I use Firefox. It shows up the same as always for me.
Also Firefox user, and also not seeing any problems with the comic today.
If I set my default font size in Firefox too big, I get that problem. It’s a catch 22 if you need the large font to read it.
So… Atsali and ‘Pickle’ are approximately the same age?
Well, Astali is old enough to read and talk, so that means she would have a few years on Pickle if she’s still in the Nursery (if that is who they are talking about)
Atsali is ten years older – when we meet them, she’s fifteen and Castela is five or so; after Katherine adopts them, she starts kindergarten.
Perhapsshe was a later result of the project – which didn’t get 100% shut down at this point, or perhaps she was kept in some form of suspended animation for years.
Atsali is not reading – she’s “wook’a book”; she’s still in the potty-training stage, and she doesn’t have all her baby teeth yet – maybe three at this point.
Atsali can’t be much over two, by human standards. I’ve heard two-year-olds speak clean English. It’s not unusual for human beings to read at the age of three. A super smart para like Atsali might read at two. You reckon?
I assume it took Castela a couple of years her to do more than just watch the sun drift by. She probably started developing mobility trying to follow Atsali to school then tack on a few more years to get the hang of that. A lot of that time would have been spent watching people not noticing her.
Mmm, http://wapsisquare.com/comic/life-strategies/ , so she has been in her current form for five years. Maybe this is the time when she picked up life strategies figuring out the animal game.
She was mature enough to kill a couple of fairy soldiers who tried to rescue her from the government lab, thinking they were bad. She obviously matures slower than human or other creatures if the disparity in age now is so obviously between her and Atsali, but it’s also hinted that some of this is an act. Pickle might be able to make her human looking form look any age and prefers being this young.
@Jerry Costlow
It might not all be an act. Castela is still quite young and has not had that much life experience yet. Still she’s a blackthorn, and it has been implied that they are known to be very wise. If that is genetic memory or she’s able to draw on the experiences of all blackthorn past and present then that might be what makes her appear so mature at times. If this is it then she probably chose to not use that in her daily life in order to live a mostly normal paranormal life. When she accesses the blackthorn knowledge it’s probably a bit like asking an elderly relative to help her make sense of things.
This might explain how she came to kill those fey sent to retrieve her. She asked about the fey and learned that they can be formidable threats and quite malicious. She didn’t ask about their feelings or how to know why they were there but allowed herself the childish pleasure of taking revenge on the perceived bullies.
I’m not saying this is a bullet proof theory, actually it’s got more holes than the chair little Atsali was sitting in, but it’s one way to explain how Castela can switch between innocent 5 year old and a mature version with knowledge far beyond what is normal for a child.
Or, it’s more likely she felt threatened, and lashed out inadvertently killing royal fey sent to help and slash or protect her, when you have been bred (literally in Pickles’ case) as a weapon, you don’t need to know what you are doing when confronting a perceived threat
Haven’t really seen Stela display any knowledge beyond her age that any one that age could not have picked up naturally (most adults tend to dismiss children all the time, until they repeat something they probably shouldn’t have heard), she is possibly smarter than most human kids of that age, heck, she is probably smarter than most adults, but that doesn’t mean she herself is older than she looks (or even is able to tap into the wellspring knowledge of the Blackthorns)
I’d say just a couple years difference, but not a lot
Is that Bruce Campbell in panel 2?
I don’t know who he is, but he’s the coolest looking guy to ever appear in the strip.
No, he doesn’t have The Chin, more like Mad Max circa “Thunderdome”
I thought he looked like a cross between Reid Richards and Nick Fury.
If I shave off the Van Dyke, and take off the Spectacles, well, that could almost be me…
(Naaaw, my upper and lower lip are a bit larger…) Still, I’ve grown into the classic Reed Richards hairdo.
Don’t know who he is, but that’s one of the best “I’ve seen too much of this sh!t, and I don’t want to see any more, but I know that I will” faces I’ve seen drawn.
Poor pickle…it’s sad to hear them refer to her simply as “the blackthorn”.
From earlier things Cricket said, I think Pickle is the hybrid mentioned in panel 1, not the blackthorn itself.
Yeah, didn’t Cricket say that Pickle was the ‘child’ of The Blackthorn?
Good points. If that is the case, then we are getting the full story of how Castela came to be.
This seems to be when Atsali and Castela met. http://wapsisquare.com/comic/three/
Given that Castela is ten years younger than Atsali – which, at this point, would be about minus two – i think this is an earlier stage of the project that doesn’t get shut down completely – perhaps like AIM, which was a HYDRA off-shoot in the original comics, and continued on as an independent organisation after HYDRA was apparently destroyed.
Oops – make that “minus seven” at this point, since Atsali must be about three, given her teeth, speech and apparent stage of potty training.
Considering by age 2, 3 max, a child would (normally) have ALL of their baby/primary teeth, does that either mean Atsali is ridiculously slow at development due to being a Para Hybrid or…is she way younger?
Most of us are figuring she’s about two or three.
Well, you’re assuming a normal human development rate for a para, which Atsali has already shown (by overnight “blossoming” among other things) is not the case. Also note that many times through the comic not all the characters’ teeth have shown because they were not relevant to the panel. Like drawing every brick in a wall – it’s not necessary when all you need to know is that there’s a wall there.
Except they showed all of her gums with just a few teeth sticking out of them
Has anyone else not seen who Blackthorn is meant to be?
Well, yeah, most of us figure we know, which is why we’re discussing relative ages.
I had forgotten, and my calendar ninja skills are lacking. Could someone post a link to the dates with discussions of the blackthorn and its relationship to Castela?
I’ve been trying to find them too. I know Cricket talked about what she was and her history at the school when pickle stomped on her and was educated on why fairies aren’t evil.
depleted uranium? in a HANDGUN? seems a bit overkill..handgun pressures would never get it up to the speed where it ignites. a tungsten penetrator in a sabot would do the same job at about 90% cost savings. and if it’s the radiation effects they’re looking for..add radium or some other cheap radioactive material to it instead of using the expensive DU.
besides,10mm went out in the late 80’s when the FBI dropped it. it’s fairly rare..the only place I’ve seen them is in certain pistol competitions. now, .40 S&W, which is “10mm short”, that’s around in abundance. it’s a common law enforcement round now. and all you need is a barrel change to turn a .40S&W to .357 SIG.
these were some odd armored ninjas.
Paul’s generally been pretty accurate on his ordnance, i think…
I don’t suppose it needs to burn. The point of burning DU is to create secondaries by igniting fuel and munitions. It it went through an armored wall, it’s a wonder it didn’t fan out as sharp shrapnel. But I guess a safe room wouldn’t be as armored as a tank.
Also, this would have been about sixteen years ago. Ten mils might have been found. Or manufactured, if we’re talking billionaires.
Yeah. I don’t know for sure that the burning was intended – it might be one of those “Oh, that’s nice” unintended effects.
I was thinking the mildly radioactive effects of DU might have some sort of effect on paras. I’m not sure if that’s ever been discussed. if radiation damages paras in some way, or bypasses some natural immunity to high velocity bits of copper-and-lead, then the DU might have a purpose here.
Who says that the cabal is logical and reasonable? Their CEO heard something somewhere that depleted uranium is awesome, so DU it is.
And there’s nothing wrong with 10mm; it certainly packs more punch than Short&Wimpy…
no, there isn’t anything wrong with 10mm..if it’s good enough for Col. Cooper, it’s good enough for me. but being rare, that reduces the ability of these ninjas to resupply “in the field” if needed. sure, they have big $$$ backing them…but if something goes south and you need to fight your way back to base, you’re not going to stop at the local hardware store and pick up some 10mm. .40S&W, 9mm, .38/.357, .223, .308, .30-06, 30-30…sure, no problem. but not 10mm.
…Possibly specialist ammunition – 10mm case with subcaliber DU sabot and +P load for added muzzle velocity – basically a runt-sized tank-rifle shell. The kinda exotic shite you’d see from the special forces of evil eccentric billionaires… 🙂
Another reason depleted uranium rounds are used is the greater mass of a given size of round. Assuming same velocity, more mass equals more stopping power. These shooters were interested in seeing that whatever or whomever they knocked down, stayed down.
well, there’s how the holes in the wall happened…
Is it me…. or do the lighter haired women here look awfully familiar from the girls school?
You mean the bad coach who got kicked out for putting Sali on the murder-field?
I think this woman is already older than Coach Adler when she appears at school.
Aww D: i wanted to see Atsali’s dad ;_;
So does she…
Rude!
Wasn’t meant to be rude, just that Sali possibly doesn’t know who her dad is (or was), could be many reasons for that, least of which being that he simply left before she was born and her mother never spoke of him
I wonder if the short dark-haired woman is fae.
i wonder if one of the two women there isn’t the Queen, ie Cricket’s mom?
Doubt it. I get the impression that the fae generally go their own way and don’t co-operate much with the other races.
Well, she never speaks.
But what about the kid?
Does this mean Atsali’s mother survived somehow? couse i don’t see her dead body somewhere.
No, Mad Max said the only survivor was Leu’s daughter, implying that she died as well (it’s possible that she is the one under the sheet, but haven’t check to see if there is a page between this one and Leu stabbing that attacker in the head)
Cas might still be just a seed in the “nursery” at this point. She may have to sprout and grow to a certain size before taking on animal characteristics. Some plants could take several years to get large enough.
Paul always has played a bit fast and loose with the timeline. I think he writes on the fly as ideas pop into his head and sorts things out later.
Given that bullets went though the walls of the “safe room”, I’d call it more like a “not quite as unsafe” room…
The bullets were depleted uranium armor piercing rounds.
This wild shit is like MIB meets Game of Thrones; Paul, you are REALLY getting deep, my friend!
That last speech. Is the woman just shooting her mouth, or was that an order?
Since there’s been no mention of an out and out war between paras and humans, and given Phix’s remarks about the fragility of human/para relations, i’d guess tht either she was speaking metaphorically/blowing off zteam, or else someone with a bit more self-control countermanded it.
Guy in top panel, does he look alot like Dietzel?
that would be a hell of a plot twist…but yeah a little bit.
So – is Marius the one in the second panel, or the first?
Well. We now know that (Gaelan) Marius was the first to show up – and was the one who found Atsali and “the Blackthorn”. Interesting he says “nursery” in quotes.
Oops, that’s what I get for not remembering what my Gravatar e-mail is…