Grrl Power VIII: Hotter Than What's In Sydney's Lunchbox

[lord_khaine]

Slightly dodgy. That's a bit of an understatement. She wouldn't have bothered putting herself into this miserable state if she wasn't trying to cover up a potentially huge blowup that could have seen her sister arrested.

I continue to be shocked and amazed at the hoops people are ready to jump through, just to justify a personal dislike of someone.
When the simpler explanation "she does it because she care for the team" basically screams at you.

And it overlooks a massive key point.
That what made Dabbler sick, was keeping the aura up, after Max had made her verdict of "fine it was an accident, but your banished from the base".
If she only cared about her sister, she could have gone to bed then. Since she cared for her team, she spend all night riding up and down an elevator.

And as a side point. There was absolutely zero chance of Parfait getting arrested for this. At worst detained for an evening until pickup could be arranged.
But Parfait is simply to well connected to get in actual trouble for a honest mistake. Daughter of a Succubus Matron.
Sister of Dabbler. Slave of the Demon Lord Tom. Either of those 3 have the influence to bail her out.

[Dragonus45]

I continue to be shocked and amazed at the hoops people are ready to jump through, just to justify a personal dislike of someone.
When the simpler explanation "she does it because she care for the team" basically screams at you.

If she cared about the team she wouldn't have spent all night chugging mana portions to manipulate them into brushing off their mass sexual assault. That's not jumping through hoops, I barely even needed step very far.

And it overlooks a massive key point.
That what made Dabbler sick, was keeping the aura up, after Max had made her verdict of "fine it was an accident, but your banished from the base".
If she only cared about her sister, she could have gone to bed then. Since she cared for her team, she spend all night riding up and down an elevator.

No, that is literally not what happened. I'll link the page so everyone can refreshed on Dabbler admitting she had been "Burning My own 'Hey that was just what I needed.' aura" for at least that entire meeting, possibly even before hand as well. She kept it up through the night to make sure the effects stuck.

And as a side point. There was absolutely zero chance of Parfait getting arrested for this. At worst detained for an evening until pickup could be arranged.
But Parfait is simply to well connected to get in actual trouble for a honest mistake. Daughter of a Succubus Matron.
Sister of Dabbler. Slave of the Demon Lord Tom. Either of those 3 have the influence to bail her out.

That doesn't make this better that she might have been just too well connected to face any consequences for this even if Dabbler hadn't intervened on her behalf to cover everything up.

[Reboot]

Meanwhile, Lapha starts to find out what living in Syd actually means, she'll be begging to get out within a few pages.

That said, the beat with Max swinging round to look at Dabs and back to Syd was horribly executed. And I think Dave B knew it, given the bright blue arrows that look like a last-minute addition.

[Kantaki]

New comic

These people are evil.
Monsters.
That stuff isn't safe for rocket fuel, much less (human) consumption.
Lapha really should leave now, before Sydney has a bite and decides she wants seconds.

[Shogo]

Given their puppeteer nature, seems like something of a flaw if she can't be selective about what sensations are shared and when. Oh well. They have to get her out somehow, and you can't have that with competent puppetmasters.

[TeChameleon]

Given their puppeteer nature, seems like something of a flaw if she can't be selective about what sensations are shared and when. Oh well. They have to get her out somehow, and you can't have that with competent puppetmasters.

If I'm remembering right, her people weren't really designed as puppeteers, so not being designed well for a job they weren't designed for at all can probably be forgiven.

And, while maybe a bit predictable, the (potential) solution is still funny.

[AvatarVecna]

Spoiler: vague thoughts

Show

This sequence feels a bit weird. Not because she "should" have the ability to turn off undesired sensory input, I think that's making a big assumption about her capabilities. But at least my expectation is that she's experiencing things via Sydney's senses, and that makes this a weird solution in my mind. Like, if I was being body-controlled into forcibly eating something insanely spicy, yeah I'd probably not enjoy it, because my taste buds can only tolerate spice up to a certain level. But here it's not Lapha's taste buds that are experiencing sydney-level spicy, it's sydney's taste buds, and they're up to the task of handling it. It'd be like if you took...idk, the AI from a sentient roomba, and stuck it in a hot-rodding car. Yes, if a roomba was accelerated to 300 mph, that would probably damage it because its hardware isn't really ready for those conditions. Thus, the AI from a roomba being put in a hot-rodding car would be understandably frightened of extremely fast speeds. But it's still in a hot-rodding car, which is built for those speeds. It would be a scary experience, but not a painful one.

And the author's note seems to both agree and disagree?

Honestly, it seems to me that Lapha would like or dislike whatever the host liked, at least in terms of “if they have that gene that makes cilantro taste lightly lemony and not like if you mixed bitterness incarnate and a bag of fresh lawn clippings up in a transporter, and also maybe some soap.” Lapha would likely have some independent thoughts about texture and wiggling stuff like gagh, but the genetic stuff would be determined by the host.

In the case of spice, I guess I’m implying that heat tolerance is something that can be trained. While Lapha might be enjoying the presumable deluge of endorphins the dish is triggering in Sydney, she can’t get over what feels like Sydney gargling a mouthful of yellow-hot iron filings.

But I feel like arguing about how much this preparation is physiological (the brain has learned that this particular mouth-pain is good instead of bad from repeated exposure) versus mental (the mind knows the spicy is coming and is bracing for it) is getting into philosophical arguments. We can't really have a set answer on this kind of thing, because minds and brains are currently inseparably linked, so we can't know for sure if putting a different mind in someone's brain would be able to tolerate the same spice level or not.

The previous comic seems weirder to me, though. Like yeah, it takes time for thoughts to get into short-term memory, and Lapha only has memory access...but it shouldn't have been a surprise to Lapha, cuz the plan is based around long-term stuff that would definitely be in Sydney's memory. Idk like today's comic can provoke an unanswerable argument about separation of mind and brain, but I think it's really weird that a memory reader who hears that there's a plan involving "the food named after me" could not then check the memory about "food named after me". I'm also not sure why it matters to keep the plan secret from her. What's she even gonna do about it? She's completely physically restrained, we already know she can't turn her senses off, and even under the author's assumptions that you can train your mind to handle spice, that would still take repeated exposure. If they had said out loud "we're going to feed Sydney the food closest in heat to lava", Lapha would not be any better at handling it than she is now - a 13.5 minute peptalk to herself should not matter, and yet the comic acts like it would. It's weird.

[Traab]

I would point out that despite her enjoyment of it, sydney is very clearly effected by all that spice. Bright red, tears flowing, snotty etc.

[Yuki Akuma]

People who can tolerate really spicy food and enjoy it are not somehow less affected by the pain. They simply like the pain.

Lapha and Sydney are feeling the same thing, but Sydney enjoys the sensation, and Lapha does not.

[AvatarVecna]

People who can tolerate really spicy food and enjoy it are not somehow less affected by the pain. They simply like the pain.

Lapha and Sydney are feeling the same thing, but Sydney enjoys the sensation, and Lapha does not.

And this directly violates my own personal experience. I've shared food with my bro and dad, both of whom have far more spice tolerance than I do. I'm able to handle spicy food well enough, but there comes a spice point where I'm having the "intense sweating, uncontrolled crying, sinuses gone haywire, face turning pure red" reaction you'd expect from a cartoon character, and they're both fine, looking perfectly normal as they enjoy the same thing that's giving me malaria symptoms. It is not just a mental "they enjoy the pain more" difference, their bodies are straight up not having the same physiological reaction that mine is.

I would point out that despite her enjoyment of it, sydney is very clearly effected by all that spice. Bright red, tears flowing, snotty etc.

This is a far more plausible explanation. "Sydney isn't any more resistant to spice than most white people are, biologically speaking, but her whole family is really into super-spicy food so she's been mentally associating it with good feels since forever, so Lapha is getting all the suffering without the history of personal experience making it enjoyable".

[Shogo]

Well, in real life the ability to handle spicy food is both genetic and as a result of building up a tolerance. There are actually physical mechanisms behind it.

On the genetic front, you could just flat out have fewer capsaicin receptors than other people. The less of these you have, the less you'll feel the burn even if you're someone who doesn't normally eat spicy foods. Conversely, people who are especially sensitive to spicy foods would have more of these receptors. (A related receptor is why mint can have a "cold" taste.)

On the tolerance front, if you consistently expose yourself to spicy foods then the receptors will be overstimulated and actually reduce their sensitivity to capsaicin because they don't "like" being overstimulated. Which of course means you won't feel the burn as intensely.

So the people best able to handle spice have both a low receptor count and consistently expose themselves to capsaicin to reduce the sensitivity levels even further.

I believe it takes about a month to build up your tolerance, but only takes about a week to lose it if you don't keep up with eating spicy foods.

So yeah. If she's experiencing things through Sydney's senses, this shouldn't really be agonizing unless this is way higher than Sydney's usual tolerance for spiciness. And, yes, Sidney could also just be masochistic enough to enjoy the burn if this is supposed to be way more spice than she usually indulges in.

[Radar]

So yeah. If she's experiencing things through Sydney's senses, this shouldn't really be agonizing unless this is way higher than Sydney's usual tolerance for spiciness. And, yes, Sidney could also just be masochistic enough to enjoy the burn if this is supposed to be way more spice than she usually indulges in.

Considering all the physiological reactions from Sydney, this food is way spicier than what she had eaten so far in the comics. While a lot of it was played up in a very comic fashion, the "stop, drop and roll does not work" reaction might suggest she actually likes the pain that goes with super spicy food.

[halfeye]

On the genetic front, you could just flat out have fewer capsaicin receptors than other people. The less of these you have, the less you'll feel the burn even if you're someone who doesn't normally eat spicy foods. Conversely, people who are especially sensitive to spicy foods would have more of these receptors. (A related receptor is why mint can have a "cold" taste.)

There are hot foods that contain no capsaicin, it is perfectly possible to have a very hot sauce that contains none.

Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana, syn. Cochlearia armoracia) is a perennial plant of the family Brassicaceae (which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, cabbage, and radish).

...

The distinctive pungent taste of horseradish is from the compound allyl isothiocyanate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseradish

Pepper gets its spicy heat mostly from piperine derived from both the outer fruit and the seed. Black pepper contains between 4.6 and 9.7% piperine by mass, and white pepper slightly more than that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pepper

[Rydiro]

There are hot foods that contain no capsaicin, it is perfectly possible to have a very hot sauce that contains none.

I heared that Sichuan pepper activates yet another type of receptors giving pressure-wave-like tingles.

[JeenLeen]

From my personal experience, I feel negative physical sensations from spicy food (sweat, tears, etc.) if it's spicy enough, but I still generally enjoy it. So I can put a hat in the "experiences the pain but is okay with / enjoys it".

I'm not really sure if I enjoy it, or just enjoy the spiceyness enough that I put up with the unpleasant physiological elements.
There is definitely a spot where the spice is so intense that I just completely dislike it and can't discern the taste, but the sensory-overload where I freeze up a second or two after that first good dose of wasabi is a... overall negative physical reaction yet enjoyable in a way.

Recently discovered I like putting some hot chili flake oil on hummus.

[halfeye]

Not all spices are hot, cinnamon is a cool spice for example.

[Radar]

Not all spices are hot, cinnamon is a cool spice for example.

Yes, but the word "spicy" means hot for some reason.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Yes, but the word "spicy" means hot for some reason.

Because non-hot spice is just altering/enhancing flavor and taste, and "hot" already has a relevant meaning for food. Which I think just leads to people having to guess from context and ask for clarification like "spicy as in hot?" or "hot as in spicy?" when it's unclear. Basically the reason is English is dumb. :P

[Radar]

Because non-hot spice is just altering/enhancing flavor and taste, and "hot" already has a relevant meaning for food. Which I think just leads to people having to guess from context and ask for clarification like "spicy as in hot?" or "hot as in spicy?" when it's unclear. Basically the reason is English is dumb. :P

English is a kitchen sink of a language - for better or for worse. That being said, words with ill defined meanings exist in other languages as well. It is kind of inevitable as there has to be a finite set of words (so we can remember and recall them when needed) and the list of possible meanings to convey with them is likely infinite. So words need to have a range of meanings.

[Sean Mirrsen]

English is a kitchen sink of a language - for better or for worse. That being said, words with ill defined meanings exist in other languages as well. It is kind of inevitable as there has to be a finite set of words (so we can remember and recall them when needed) and the list of possible meanings to convey with them is likely infinite. So words need to have a range of meanings.

True, but there's different ways to go about it. Like you can tell from context, most of the time, which of a myriad meanings of the word "set" is intended in a given sentence. And even in cases of terms with multiple applicable meanings there's usually enough separation for it to work (like you don't normally ask what a "cold weapon" is, because it's normally clear from context whether it's a magical cold, a physical cold, or a "manual power" cold sort of weapon being meant). So in this case the "temperature hot/spicy hot/spicy flavor" trichotomy is fully on whoever thought of using 'hot' the way it is, because there's plenty of food that can be either "hot hot", "spicy hot", or both at the same time. Russian language, for instance, uses "sharp" (as you would say of a knife) for the same purpose, and there's far less semantic crossover there.

[Radar]

Not much to discuss, but I really liked today's page. The joke was pretty funny (and way too relatable), the focus transition between panels 4 and 5 as well the choice of showing opening of the pantry from the inside were solid and sold the joke well.

[Traab]

It honestly took me a bit to catch the joke. i figured at first it was just "Oh god, that milk has been in the fridge for a month or two, its gotta be bad." But to learn it got left in the pantry for that time? Hoo boy.