page 1264 – you stop that
Don’t you hate it when the characters in a series become self-aware enough to start doing the shipping for you?
Also, I’m not gonna lie, my original intention for this page was basically for Avi to make a really obvious scene as a means to the end of poking fun at my own phobia of stating characters’ ages. You know, just a meta-gag. It wasn’t until I’d written it all down that it suddenly occurred to me that this actually DOES work on its own as something Avi would do in-universe. He can’t just sit by and let Miss Layla keep paying attention to ol’ Goldilocks over there instead of HIM, right? I mean, I still would have run with the gag even without that added justification, but I’m glad at least SOME part of my brain was paying enough attention to give this bit to Avi instead of, say, Hiro.
And speaking of not paying attention, YES. I forgot to do a TWC Voting Incentive again last week. In fact, I wound up getting so bogged down on Patreon stuff that I even forgot to do any kind of bonus St Patrick’s Day comic on Friday! For shame, me! Thankfully, this week I don’t have QUITE so much Conventional Wisdom things on my plate, or at least not as piled up to be done all at once, so I think I might really get my act together this week. I’d sure better, because at the end of NEXT week is April Fools Day, and I absolutely refuse to allow Far Out There to miss THAT tradition. (For the record, I actually already am working on the extra page for that as we speak.)
EDIT: SUCCESS! New TWC Voting Incentive actually achieved this time!
Y’know, Layla, perhaps we ought to be asking YOU that very question, considering this is the 2nd person after Ichabod who has independently noticed that same tendency….hmmmmmm?
*runs and hides from Layla’s reaction*
And, of course, the ironic result now ought to be that Avi’s little tantrum gets him the “Attention” he craved…just not from the cute girl – as the crusty old space Cap’n quickly drags him off to the sickbay for immediate treatment (it’s his job – can’t have the super-rich passengers getting injured on ship, bad for future business). Or, alternately (even worse), Vengeance shows up and drags him off for treatment – as Ichbod offhandedly remarks (as exposition) that Vengeance is actually a highly knowledgeable and skilled medical expert in human anatomy – got to know those critical pain and lethal damage points for the human body after all!
(OK, of course neither of those will happen since he narratively has to be there for the remainder of the scene, but karma says they ought to happen!)
Option three: Tarkus gives him some eye drops that are specifically designed to interact with whatever’s on his eyeballs and harmlessly wash it away… but that stings to high heaven if you just drop it directly into eyes WITHOUT anything in them. And that’s when we find out Avi had his eyes closed when he “spilled” his drink and was faking this whole time.
Karma agrees this is also an acceptable result 😉
The thing is, I don’t see Layla as a “Shotacon” (someone specifically attracted to young boys). I see her as wanting to take on a Mother Role, but has trouble creating the emotional bonds to gain that role naturally (and would probably dislike looking after newborns. As in, I see her being the type to say “they only become cute when they get the ability to talk and go to the toilet on their own consistently”).
Basically, I see Layla as the type that could be a good teacher, but would take quite a bit of work or some sort of special circumstances (such as being rich) to ever persuade her to leave the “forever alone” status.
Remember, when Layla “raised” Trigger, there was a bunch of robots to do all the actual hard stuff for her.
Also, let’s not forget how Layla’s rocky relationship with her own mother just might be influencing her own Mamma Bear ambitions.
And of course Patti’s parenting being a direct result of her own parental catastrophe as a kid…bad parenting is the gift that keeps on giving for many successive generations, usually.
Given current trends in RL of the ever increasing number of parents who want to leave the hard parts of parenting to “someone else”, I strongly suspect that having robots do that part is far more the norm than the exception in the distant future. There’s probably the <1% or so that wants the hands-on bonding experience with their kids who are considered complete weirdos by the 99% of normal robot users.
…which then only leaves the question of how much "hands-on" parenting Tabitha's Mom did??? 😀
You have no earthly idea how many ways I’m having to bite my tongue on that last bit.
Any comment that results in tongue biting on the part of the author is deemed a Successful Comment! 😀
*pats self on back*
Yeah, having robots take over all the biological necessity responsibilities would be a good starting point, and having the child be birthed (if not outright conceived) via something like an artificial womb would be advantageous, too.
…honestly, I just see Layla as someone who hates being objectified, with the singular exception of her being able to abuse the objectification into screwing the individual in question out of a LOT of money, by her own AND their standards, for her benefit and their dismay. Basically, she’s only willing to be objectified if she’s setting up the person doing the objectification for turn-from-planet-owner-into-a-pauper levels of trouble.
What does that last paragraph have to do with Layla’s Mama-Bear Affiliations? A few things, starting with “children are simple”. Even if they objectify her appearance, their reactions are more on the “gain her attention and interest” side of the scale, over the “treat her as your property” side. Which means they aren’t objectifying HER, so much as they have a secondary reason to want her attention, and will pay attention to her wants and needs.
Secondly, “Children are cute” does a lot of heavy lifting for Layla, and we know that Layla has a preference for cute things. Traumatised or sexually abused children can’t really be considered children anymore, here, as well. The specifics would vary depending on the individual, but usually they would be, in the best cases, small adults, or, in the worst cases, a set of psychological issues that make a dozen half-starved feral cats shoved into a bag look friendly.
And I’ll also add the fact that Layla seems to be the type of person who wants to look after others, but can’t get past her business-basis upbringing. Children provide an outlet for that, with minimal potential trouble from her more business focused activities due to their young age. There would, of course, be exceptions, but they’d be rare and easily scoped out ahead of time, when relevant.
There’s also the fact that Layla is short, so she naturally gravitates to people who literally are physically incapable of looking down on her.
No wonder Castral and Iconal are drunk all the time…everybody they meet is always looking down on them 🙁
Well, to be fair I don’t think either Ichabod nor Tabitha actually sees Layla as any sort of shotacon – they both are smart enough and know her well enough to know better than that – they’re just trying to get under her skin – Tabitha in a friendly-kidding-from-someone-with-a-poor-sense-of-boundaries way and Ichabod in a semi-malicious Ichabodish way, so for different reasons, but both in jest. (Also, from a purely nitpicking standpoint, I don’t think their ages are different enough for it to be considered shotacon anyway, although I’m not sure what the technical cutoff there is.) Layla probably wouldn’t be nearly as horrified by Tabitha’s suggestion if Ichabod hadn’t said it first.
This whole paragraph is true, but that last sentence in particular is true PLUS (which is at least 75% more truthful than regular strength true)
Ed8, while Marshall might be close enough to Layla’s age that he should be technically treated as a Shotacon, it’s easier, faster and more accurate saying that than the potential “Shotababa”, which would be less understood.
For clarification, “Lolibaba” is a term mostly used for anime characters. Specifically, the centuries-old-woman-who-looks-like-she’s-12-at-most type of anime characters. Taking Japan’s word for “young girl”, which is “loli”, and the “Baba” from either “Baba Yaga” of Slavic Folklore, or “baba” meaning Grandmother in Slavic countries (which is likely a part of why Baba Yaga’s name includes the word).
I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard/read ‘shotababa’ but I suppose that would be the spear counterpart of lolibaba…I’d google it but I really don’t want to know what would come up 😮
This page’s comments are probably already attracting google search engine hits that they shouldn’t 🙂
I will note that on tvtropes, lolibaba has 2 pages worth of hits but shotababa has none, so even for anime apparently it’s a rare trope indeed!
I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard/read ‘shotababa’ but I suppose that would be the spear counterpart of lolibaba…I’d google it but I really don’t want to know what would come up 😮
This page’s comments are probably already attracting google search engine hits that they shouldn’t 🙂
I will note that on tvtropes, lolibaba has 2 pages worth of hits but shotababa has none, so even for anime apparently it’s a rare trope indeed! (with shotababacon being an even rarer subtrope, I suppose)
I used it because “Shota” is the male equivalent of “Loli”, as you worked out, so I thought that it’s a logical replacement. The alternative would probably be something like “Shotadeda”, because the Serbo-Croatian word for grandpa (Deda, according to google) fits the tempo best, or “Shotasofu”, because “Sofu” is Japan’s word for “Grandpa”.
As for the prevalence of Lolibaba’s, with the lack of the male equivalents, there’s explanations for that. The first is “Male-Focused Dominated Market”, as the males are more likely to buy the figurines, books, and the like.
The second is “Everyone cares more about female appearances than they do the males”, and get’s it’s own paragraph, because this can be talked about. Now, this doesn’t mean that male appearance doesn’t matter, it most certainly does. Pretty boys get away with more from girls simply due to their appearance. But pretty girls get away with more from everyone simply due to their appearance, and are effectively taught to abuse that fact as they grow up. In exchange, they’re held to a higher standard of appearance, and have a more standardised “optimised appearance” (in order of social positivity, thin waist, big chest, big booty, pretty face). You can have exceptions, for male’s it’s more personalised, with the “optimised appearance” being having low enough body fat to have a theoretical hint of a six pack, and a pretty face. “Subtly” visible muscles, just enough to imply strength without being over-the-top like for Body Builders, could be on there, but is a far drop in importance from the male’s pretty face, and is only about half as important as the female’s pretty face.
Oh, and, looking it up myself on TV Tropes, Lolibaba’s and the equivalent are considered to be covered under “Really 700 Years Old” if they’re past a human lifespan, or “Older Than They Look” if they aren’t. Probably because TV Tropes has cleaned itself up significantly since it’s heyday, merging the “similar, but more specialised” items into a singular line.
Also, I’m surprised it had not occurred to me earlier, but this particular subject area of slightly older girls potentially interacting inappropriately with younger guys is probably an area of conversation that Tabitha should actually stay waaaaaaaaaay far away from with Layla and not remind her of…because…THAT THING THAT HAPPENED….
https://faroutthere.com/comic/page-890-surprise/
There’s a reason Layla’s response has a period instead of a question mark. It’s not a question, it’s a statement. She already knows the answer.