Clever. So the answer (for today, anyhow) was to not answer (or to postpone it, perhaps. I'll just have to see if the next few days bring clarification...)
Just occurred to me, that whatever fazed (dictionary confirms that that's the correct spelling, or at least a correct spelling, for composure-disturbing, though everyone nowadays seems to use "phased" for some reason) Calliope in Friday's comic, was more disturbing than, say, Noelle the flying seal whose appearance caused Prisca to faint.
Hrm.
-Eric Schissel