The Triceratop is basically one big “Somebody Else’s Problem” field covering the top half of her body. And since a pair of legs wandering around without a perceptable torso would also generate a SEP field, Dina would thus be completely invisible except to onlookers who knew to look for her.
This might also explain Dina’s uncanny hiding ability in other circumstances.
It’s almost splitting hairs, but not quite. Perceptible means able to be detected by the senses (as opposed to being indiscernible). Perceivable is not only detecting but consciously understanding the sensory input so as to know what it is.
An observer would see the actual physical form of the Triceratop but, because of its almost magical deception properties, would not make the mental connection that there is a person inside it. And, as the original comment continues, seeing only a pair of legs walking around is itself an unfathomable situation and would be mentally not perceived (mentally ignored) as well.
Wasn’t that an early dilbert strip? Dinosaurs didn’t go exitinct, they just hid behind peoples furnitures (and were later used for gags about obsolete programming languages)
Maybe she *doesn’t* have to be stealth! She just needs to get Raidah to notice her, and comment on her “special-ness” in front of Jacob! Raidah might mention meeting Dina at the mall, and Dina might correct her on that whole debacle, mentioning the slights. In front of Jacob.
Oh, thank you, I knew there was a reason I keep thinking of Raidah as a condescending bongo along with REALLY needing to grow up but couldn’t think of where it was.
Yeah she seems like the kind of sanctimonious judgemental bongo that expects everyone not exactly like her is defective and needs help or condemnation while thinking she is “saving them”
I bet if she found out one of her friends was being sexually abused by a parent she would be all “you just don’t understand how affection works”
I don’t think so. She doesn’t understand neuro-divergency, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand sexual abuse. Don’t put that on her. She’s awful, but she’s not horrible.
I wouldn’t even go so far as to call her awful. She was actively pleasant to Joyce and quick to shut down her posse’s mockery of Dina; ignorance of and inexperience with neuroatypical folks is pretty common and perfectly curable.
The only thing I hold against Raidah is her certainty that Dana was doing as well as she pretended.
Hmmm, that is the first time I have seen or heard “neuroatypical”. I like it. I am not considered neurotypical (or “ordinary”, as I sometimes say). I may try that moniker on for size. Sounds better than my alphabet soup diagnostic label.
Even that is likely a self-defensive mechanism. Dana HAS to been alright and Sarah HAS to have been a backstabbing bongo because if Sarah was right than she fucked up, she fucked up BAD. She doesn’t want to acknowledge that so she doubles down on the belief Sarah was wrong and bullies her harder.
After finding out the full back story, going back to reread all the times where Raidah bullied and bongoed at Sarah does not make her any more appealing as a character
There’s a good book about the science behind that titled Mistakes were made but not by me. Humans rarely backtrack and change their position on anything. Too much cognitive work. Easier to just double down. You often have to wait for a generation to die to change mass opinion about something.
Yeah but she was hella condescending. She declared Dina mentally-challenged after exchanged just one sentence with her. I’d add to what Dina said: Raidah probably thought she was keeping her friends in check more than she actually was.
Man, this is pretty much built for failure every step of the way.
Dina’s doing the spywork, but she’s not exactly great at interpreting social stuff. A lot of the nuance of what she hears and sees is gonna be lost on her.
But then once Dina’s gathered the information, we’re gambling everything on Sarah’s ability to actually capitalize on any of this. Sarah’s not exactly a charmer. This is really playing outside of Sarah’s strengths.
Eh, maybe if we just handed off the job to Joyce entirely. Had Joyce charm Jacob to date her instead of Raidah, leaving Sarah out of the picture. Joyce is pretty good at winning people over.
Don’t think a wingwoman’s enough to cover Sarah’s inadequacies here though. Sarah’s really woefully incapable. She couldn’t nab Jacob when there wasn’t another woman in his life. She had Joyce’s help back then too. Dina’s gonna come back with a lot of information like “They love shopping together” and it’s all gonna be useless in Sarah’s hands.
Actually, this batch of strips is about Dina being awesome, so I think she’ll manage somehow. And let’s not overestimate Joyce’s ability to win people over. Don’t forget that Jacob has…actually met her. And hard numerous stories about her peculiarities
I don’t care if it’s moral or acceptable. And quite frankly Raidah’s earned some punishment. Especially if it’s nothing more than simply showing him how terrible she is to Sarah.
Actually in the Lost World book, they show a Carnotaurus that does the same thing. At least I think it was a Carnotaurus, I don’t remember exactly what species and I have no idea where I left my copy of the book.
Specifically she’s Jason Todd or possibly Stephanie Brown. Given what happened to Jason and Stephanie in the pre-One Year On Batverse, this is not a good thing to be.
I have to say that’s the worst kind of kindness. The kind where they’re kinda condescending in their kindness. Kinda like reverse racism but it’s reverse kindness.
Ya know, I looked up reverse racism and couldn’t find a non-confusing answer as to what it actually is? Also, I think reverse kindness would be cruelty, or in other words, being a meanie :p
I’m quite curious to see how well this plan works.
I never thought Sarah actually cared how Dina talks. It seemed pretty clear to be that she was nitpicking to avoid an uncomfortable topic.
I don’t think it matters how a person talks as long as the person is able to make him/ herself understood. My own verbal skills seem to fluctuate. At times, I manage to present as articulate. At other times, I stumble over my words, run words together, say words in the wrong order, leave words out, leave syllables of words out, leave sentences unfinished, switch gears mid-sentence, etc. My brain likes to be random and inconsistent like that. When I’m in the latter mode regarding verbal skills, I’m not always successful in making myself understood by other humans. Dina’s infrequent use of contractions don’t seem to preclude her being understood, so I don’t see an issue there.
Raidah is getting her karma when she least expects it, probably didn’t realize that comment about Dina being “middle school” and then talking down to her like a kid would come back and haunt her, did she?
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You mayyy find yourself slightly more noticeable as a dinaceratops.
Yeah… I don’t think I could ignore dinaceratops if she was following me around.
But Dinaceratops are the ninjas of the dinosaur world, everybody knows that.
Radiah: did you here something?
Jacob: don’t worry it’s just a harmless triceratops
Do not doubt the sneakitude-ness of Dina.
The Triceratop is basically one big “Somebody Else’s Problem” field covering the top half of her body. And since a pair of legs wandering around without a perceptable torso would also generate a SEP field, Dina would thus be completely invisible except to onlookers who knew to look for her.
This might also explain Dina’s uncanny hiding ability in other circumstances.
*percievable. Sorry, it’s gonna keep bothering me otherwise. ^^”
Aaand of course I typoed perceivable. *shakes fist at self*
The only thing that’s the matter with ‘perceptable’ is the spelling: it’s ‘perceptible’. Why do you say it ought to be ‘perceivable’?
It’s almost splitting hairs, but not quite. Perceptible means able to be detected by the senses (as opposed to being indiscernible). Perceivable is not only detecting but consciously understanding the sensory input so as to know what it is.
An observer would see the actual physical form of the Triceratop but, because of its almost magical deception properties, would not make the mental connection that there is a person inside it. And, as the original comment continues, seeing only a pair of legs walking around is itself an unfathomable situation and would be mentally not perceived (mentally ignored) as well.
I didn’t know perceptible was actually a word in English. ^^”
Only on Saturdays and alternate Tuesdays. 😀
That Hitchhiker’s Guide reference though~
Unless she starts playing cricket.
Heyyyyyy. First comments are Jen’s job!!
And this is getting olllllld.
Yes, it is..
Oh come on, everybody needs a day off now and then. She got a temp to cover for her.
Dinaceratops didn’t survive for millions of years by being easy to detect. They still roam the Earth today. See? You didn’t even notice them!
Wasn’t that an early dilbert strip? Dinosaurs didn’t go exitinct, they just hid behind peoples furnitures (and were later used for gags about obsolete programming languages)
Dinosaurs
didn’tgo extinct. They’re flying all around in the trees.(I could’ve sworn the “s” tag meant “strong”. Oops. That’s why we need either preview or edit features in these forums.)
Where’s the fun in that?
You probably want b for bold, or maybe i for italics.
Maybe she *doesn’t* have to be stealth! She just needs to get Raidah to notice her, and comment on her “special-ness” in front of Jacob! Raidah might mention meeting Dina at the mall, and Dina might correct her on that whole debacle, mentioning the slights. In front of Jacob.
“Sick’em Rex err I meant Dina!”
“That was just a way to get you to stop talking about me!”
Is Dina the new Ninja Rick?
“Do not presume a woman does not have DINAS at her disposal.”
“Dina’s sword will not be sheathed until it tastes blood!”
Dina should start hiring herself out as a mercenary, that was pretty much ninja ricks deal
But Ninja Rick never had any sneakiness, his ninja skills all involved swords, so far Dina has shown no sword skills
Who needs sword skills when you have raptor skills?
She sure has rope + hook skills: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/return/
Oh hey, I forgot about this! … Man they really coulda used Dina over in SP! – before the class 1-9-9-7 anomaly that is.
Dina is extra adorable here, and also using her ninja skills for good.
Dina’s at her most detectable right now! This is not a good time for covert ops!
That’s the best time for covert ops! It tests your skills to the limit!
Its time for Cover’cera’tops
Bad pun. No, seriously, way too convoluted to be a “good” pun.
lol these two are totally gonna end up besties, aren’t they? 😉
Dina is Sarah’s Dobby spying on Sarah’s Malfoy.
Actions before contractions, Dina! It’s go time!
Yes, that is how pregnancy works
Darn it gkheyf, I’m a ninja, not a doctor!
Is that why you lack super-strength?
http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/1p17/
I need to find a way to work “actions before contractions” into conversation.
More like “Actions leads to Contractions” am I right?
Sarah’s face in panel 4 as she sees Dina coming back: +1 +1 +1
Dina’s presence is so well hidden that we didn’t even notice her spying on the comments from the last comic! Seriously fourth wall, make an effort!
…wait, is Sarah shouting that across the lunchroom in panel 3? that seems a little… attention-attracting.
Amber scream at the to of her lungs flipping table barely got noticed
Never overestimate the attention span of college students
Sarah throwing her tray and yelling does seem to be a bit more conspicuous.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/coffin/
I really love Sarah and Dina as a team! 😀
For those curious:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/challenged/
Oh, thank you, I knew there was a reason I keep thinking of Raidah as a condescending bongo along with REALLY needing to grow up but couldn’t think of where it was.
*snickers* Shows how often I post that I didn’t know about the censoring here!
Oh yeah, I forgot how it was literally after one sentence that Raidah declared Dina to be mentally-challenged. Real nice.
Yeah she seems like the kind of sanctimonious judgemental bongo that expects everyone not exactly like her is defective and needs help or condemnation while thinking she is “saving them”
I bet if she found out one of her friends was being sexually abused by a parent she would be all “you just don’t understand how affection works”
I don’t think so. She doesn’t understand neuro-divergency, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand sexual abuse. Don’t put that on her. She’s awful, but she’s not horrible.
I wouldn’t even go so far as to call her awful. She was actively pleasant to Joyce and quick to shut down her posse’s mockery of Dina; ignorance of and inexperience with neuroatypical folks is pretty common and perfectly curable.
The only thing I hold against Raidah is her certainty that Dana was doing as well as she pretended.
Hmmm, that is the first time I have seen or heard “neuroatypical”. I like it. I am not considered neurotypical (or “ordinary”, as I sometimes say). I may try that moniker on for size. Sounds better than my alphabet soup diagnostic label.
“neurodivergent” is the more common term as far as I know.
Even that is likely a self-defensive mechanism. Dana HAS to been alright and Sarah HAS to have been a backstabbing bongo because if Sarah was right than she fucked up, she fucked up BAD. She doesn’t want to acknowledge that so she doubles down on the belief Sarah was wrong and bullies her harder.
Tl:dr- “What have I…what has she done!?”
And now she may never be proved wrong.
After finding out the full back story, going back to reread all the times where Raidah bullied and bongoed at Sarah does not make her any more appealing as a character
There’s a good book about the science behind that titled Mistakes were made but not by me. Humans rarely backtrack and change their position on anything. Too much cognitive work. Easier to just double down. You often have to wait for a generation to die to change mass opinion about something.
Yeah but she was hella condescending. She declared Dina mentally-challenged after exchanged just one sentence with her. I’d add to what Dina said: Raidah probably thought she was keeping her friends in check more than she actually was.
Quick Dina! Find all the door hiding spots!
Luckily, Jason and the Target Lady will be hanging out in a part of the school decorated in nothing but yellow and green.
And with lots of doors within earshot.
With this hood over my face I am even less likely to be noticed! Dina thought, as several people stopped to boggle at the triceratops-girl.
They might notice she’s there but their infantalising of her will cause them to dismiss her presence.
You said it right the first time Dina; the extra emphasis on the word, “not”, was appropriate.
In most cases I find that she uses emphasis that would drop away in a contraction
Man, this is pretty much built for failure every step of the way.
Dina’s doing the spywork, but she’s not exactly great at interpreting social stuff. A lot of the nuance of what she hears and sees is gonna be lost on her.
But then once Dina’s gathered the information, we’re gambling everything on Sarah’s ability to actually capitalize on any of this. Sarah’s not exactly a charmer. This is really playing outside of Sarah’s strengths.
Time for her to invest in social skills beyond snark, insight, and intimidation, then.
But Sarah has people now, if Sarah can’t use the information then she can get Joyce to work it into a friendly conversation.
Eh, maybe if we just handed off the job to Joyce entirely. Had Joyce charm Jacob to date her instead of Raidah, leaving Sarah out of the picture. Joyce is pretty good at winning people over.
Don’t think a wingwoman’s enough to cover Sarah’s inadequacies here though. Sarah’s really woefully incapable. She couldn’t nab Jacob when there wasn’t another woman in his life. She had Joyce’s help back then too. Dina’s gonna come back with a lot of information like “They love shopping together” and it’s all gonna be useless in Sarah’s hands.
Actually, this batch of strips is about Dina being awesome, so I think she’ll manage somehow. And let’s not overestimate Joyce’s ability to win people over. Don’t forget that Jacob has…actually met her. And hard numerous stories about her peculiarities
Sarah’s not trying to seduce Jacob, she’s simply trying to stop Raidah from having him as well.
Dina will likely discover that their relationship is fresh and shallow, easily destroyed by letting him see her nasty side.
“Simply trying to stop Raidah from having him as well” as if that were a perfectly moral and acceptable thing to do.
No, it’s a simple thing to do.
I don’t care if it’s moral or acceptable. And quite frankly Raidah’s earned some punishment. Especially if it’s nothing more than simply showing him how terrible she is to Sarah.
Morality often takes a backseat when revenge is on the line.
Didn’t someone predict this last strip?
Oh right! I think we’re supposed to be rooting for this to go well, right? Kinda hope it doesn’t?
Drama and catastrophe in this strip? Surely not, sir!
Reminds me of assassins creed no mater how unusual your guy in the hood looks he can’t be seen by the enemy in a group of people.
Yes indeed. Sarah and Dina. Excellent together.
Sarah might actually now have a ‘real’ friend.
OH NO WHERE’S JEN ASIDE IS SHE DEAD?!
It’s freaking me out too! Does anyone know anything?
Remember that Jen had to traverse vast and alien deserts every day to reach an internet hotspot and make the post
Her(?) counterpart in the other dimension must have made the first comment because I didn’t see the Litch version of me.
Yelling across the cafeteria: good way to get your spy noticed.
It depends on how noisy the cafeteria is. One woman yelling amongst many is no give-away.
Additionally, Dina’s dino-hoodie may serve as a Somebody Else’s Problem Field generator.
“…Emitting seventeen tera-SEPs, that’s Someone Else’s Problem units. The high number of SEPs are a product of…”
“She can camouflage!”
-A movie Dina would have hated.
All the likes to this 😉
Why would she hate it? She’s already aware the series is highly innacurate.
Actually in the Lost World book, they show a Carnotaurus that does the same thing. At least I think it was a Carnotaurus, I don’t remember exactly what species and I have no idea where I left my copy of the book.
I keep seeing the Slipshine ad and going “Wow, Walky and Mike finally got together? Excellent!”
Pretty sure that’s Sal and the maths lecturer.
I know, that’s why it’s frustrating.
Eavesdropping in a dinosaur attire BRILLIANT!
This isn’t going to end well. this never was going to end well…
That depends on who’s defining “well.”
*opens bag of popcorn*
THEM: Dinaceratops aren’t sneaky
ME: Have you ever seen one in public?
THEM: Uh….
ME: My point exactly
Panel 4 – invisible cheeseburger
Lololol
I think this relationship will be good for both of them.
This is going to be quite good.
Dina is learning about social interaction from Amber.
It seems like she is learning about how to right wrongs from Amazi-girl.
That is problematic in so many ways, but there is one undeniable upside.
Dina is Robin.
That… but…
[Collapses in awe at the correctness of the metaphor]
Specifically she’s Jason Todd or possibly Stephanie Brown. Given what happened to Jason and Stephanie in the pre-One Year On Batverse, this is not a good thing to be.
Dina’s already been dead and come back so we can skip that part.
How are they not going to notice her Tricera-Top™?
It’s not about not being noticed, it’s about being ignored. Dina is seen as unthreatening so people ignore her when she’s around.
The same way people don’t notice her T rex hat I presume.
I have to say that’s the worst kind of kindness. The kind where they’re kinda condescending in their kindness. Kinda like reverse racism but it’s reverse kindness.
Ya know, I looked up reverse racism and couldn’t find a non-confusing answer as to what it actually is? Also, I think reverse kindness would be cruelty, or in other words, being a meanie :p
I’m quite curious to see how well this plan works.
I never thought Sarah actually cared how Dina talks. It seemed pretty clear to be that she was nitpicking to avoid an uncomfortable topic.
I don’t think it matters how a person talks as long as the person is able to make him/ herself understood. My own verbal skills seem to fluctuate. At times, I manage to present as articulate. At other times, I stumble over my words, run words together, say words in the wrong order, leave words out, leave syllables of words out, leave sentences unfinished, switch gears mid-sentence, etc. My brain likes to be random and inconsistent like that. When I’m in the latter mode regarding verbal skills, I’m not always successful in making myself understood by other humans. Dina’s infrequent use of contractions don’t seem to preclude her being understood, so I don’t see an issue there.
i actually forgot that dina had met her before this.
guess i’ll have to go back and re-read that bit.
There are links in the comment thread above.
Second panel: Dina is more socially perceptive than she gives herself credit for.
Dina is nearly my favorite character. If she keeps up being this cool.. I won’t be able to object.
For the late crowd :
she’s probably stealthy only when she’s not trying to be.
Only just realised that the voice I gave Dina in my head is a more calm version of Styx from Sonic Boom. It seems to fit.
Raidah is getting her karma when she least expects it, probably didn’t realize that comment about Dina being “middle school” and then talking down to her like a kid would come back and haunt her, did she?
i think the “mentally challenged” comment probably is playing into it as well.
Dina’s last question, in the form of a statement:
“I should’ve said ‘She wasn’t kind to me.’ That’s what I’ll do next time.”