30Sep05 The boy's slippin'...

Andrick · Post by **Andrick** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 9:44 am

Pierce may have won, but it still doesn't change the fact that he left one valid ball on the table (14 "thunks" for 15 viable balls).

Nyamaza · Post by **Nyamaza** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:01 am

The boy's definately he mother's child. Actually, other then the bisexuality, we haven't seen alot of Volair in Pierce.

Likewise, Rhonda seems to be taking after Rick more then Jake... at least the evil side leans her that way.

Sylvain · Post by **Sylvain** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 3:24 pm

Both kids seem to have inherited physical characteristics from both parents, so it would make sense that they should have a mix of personnality traits as well, in addition of having developped their own.

Allan once gave the percentage for producing offsprings betweem different species. Has science advanced enough to increase those rates? I wonder how common hybrids are in this timeline.

Is a panda/fox mix like Pierce now a common sight? Rhonda's appearance is less striking, but a considerable amount of help must have been required for her conception...

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:01 pm

FACT: Both Pierce and Rhonda required significant genetic engineering.

FACT: This is fairly common, and in fact two very major characters are slated to show up some time next month who are also genetically engineered "wuzzles".

FACT: Rhonda has Jake's mitochondrial DNA.

Nyamaza · Post by **Nyamaza** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:32 pm

PROPOSITION: That would make Jake one of the few males in history ever to pass their Offspring. Bot jsut to Rhonda, but to all the generations to come.0

That reminds me, is it Rhonda Miller, or Rhonda Hundecoph?

Sylvain · Post by **Sylvain** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 3:07 am

One of these days, we should all gang up on Allan and get him to write a comprehensive guide to the Umlaut House Universe. I know that he has an enormous amount of well thought background information that never actually made to the strip itself.

Things like the fact that soap there is almost always in liquid form (it's easier to use when you have furry hands) and that racial discrimination was less of a problem in that world than in ours. They've also had their own Marylin Monroe, but she was - litterally - a mink.

Details like that are, in my opinion, much more interesting than mere technological advancements and it would make great reading.

Andrick · Post by **Andrick** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 7:06 am

allan_ecker wrote:... FACT: Rhonda has Jake's mitochondrial DNA.

"Jake's genetic metabolic predisposition," Allan. Though mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell it is the larger chemical/enzyme actions of the physiological metabolic process that determines overall characteristics like Jake's bod. Unless you are doing something different for your world, there is no difference in the mitochondria of mesomorphs, ectomorphs, endomorphs, runners, body-builders and couch potatoes.

Marilyn Monroe was a mink, huh? Methinks Allan was influenced by a certain TDK portrait. Yeah, Allan has that common affliction to serial writers: Reader Shared Insight to Everything Syndrome. Reader SITES is the assumption on the part of the author that an audience knows what is in the author's mind and, therefore, needs little or no prompting information to get a plot point across using some bit of esotera that is previously undefined or poorly explained in the work. Reader SITES is made worse by the presence of an active forum where an author will elaborate more on the work itself, thereby gaining the impression that he or she had explained the esotera sufficiently for its use. A more debilitative variant of these symptoms covers major character information and motives that are poorly explained or wholly unintelligible due to an inability of the author to introduce those elements inside the work. It is undetermined as of this time if this is an advanced version of Reader SITES or a whole new symptom.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 8:17 am

Yes, well.

First off, I didn't mean to imply some sort of special genetic "link" between Rhonda and Jake over and above normal parantage. It's meant as a bit of trivia concerning how the Zygote was constructed. The Egg involved actually contained Jake's mitochondrial DNA rather than a third-party donor. If I wanted to have some real brain-warping fun I could've always given Rhonda Saundra's mitochondrea, which would make a lot of sense with her as a plausible egg donor, but I decided to go with something yet another jab at Jake's masculinity by making him, in yet another sense, Rhonda's "mother".

As to SITES, I'm trying, really, really TRYING to do this (and all comics) without exhibiting too severe a set of symptoms. Unit Zero represented a near-fatal bout of SITES.

I'm actually making at least an attempt to do UH2 in such a way that a reader doesn't need to have read Umlaut House to enjoy UH2. Yes, it's a problem. But I'm working on it.

Sylvain · Post by **Sylvain** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:05 am

We have almost reached the point in our world where it will be possible to screen for which genes go into a child at conception. Dad's eyes, Mom's hair, Grandpa's ears and such.

In a furry universe, this gets even more interesting. I wonder how much discussion Saundra and Volair had before they agreed on whose tail and fur colour Pierce would end up with!

Likewise, Jake and Rick must have had a long after sex chat when came the time to "design" Rhonda. How was she born, by the way? Third party carrier mom? Artificial womb? Or did Rick use his gender switching machine to temporarely turn Jake into a female?

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:43 am

Ever seen the movie "Junior"?

Andrick · Post by **Andrick** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 10:23 am

Poor Jake.

Sylvain · Post by **Sylvain** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 10:40 am

Ever seen the movie "Junior"?

The one where Arnold Schwarzenegger gets pregnant? Yes, I did. I don't quite remember how they covered the delivery aspect though!

It definitely would have sent Jake's weird-o-meter off the scale, and shows a lot of love and devotion that he would be willing to go through THAT...

Micro_Fur · Post by **Micro_Fur** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 1:24 pm

Equivalent of a C-section. I'm sorry but that movie HAD to have been Arnold's lowest point in his carrer. *Shakes head in dissapointment*

Micro_fur - Wishing there was a way to selectively remove meomories form his mind.

Sylvain · Post by **Sylvain** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 1:48 pm

Ouch! Oh well, I suppose that if the surgeon followed the line where the fur changes colour on Jake's abdomen, then the scar would not show too much. Still...

Kesh · Post by **Kesh** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 8:01 pm

Back to Peirce: that boy's ability to do complex physics in his head frightens me.

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 8:32 pm

Well, to me it's really not even that so much that he can do the physics in his head, but that he then knows how to use precisely enough force at precisely the right angle. I mean, I know his dad was a superspy and all, but to have that sort of perfect motor control... O.o

--RS

Sylvain · Post by **Sylvain** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 2:18 am

It would seem that when Saundra and Volair decided which genes Pierce should get, they did a little editing as well! I wonder if Rhonda has any similar hidden talents?

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 7:53 am

Well, UH2 isn't -quite- going to be a superhero comic, but it will have a number of power-fantasy related themes.

Alfador · Post by **Alfador** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 2:39 am

1) Perhaps he left the 8-ball in a cool position in relation to the cue ball, just to show off.

2) AutoKeen (or whatever it's called now) is being a bad boy again.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 5:56 am

Why, you may ask, is Alfador covering for me?

Because he proofread that strip.

Comic Genesis Forums

30Sep05 The boy's slippin'...

30Sep05 The boy's slippin'...

Shortest post by me, EVER!