Walky: In my defense, there was just a whole storyline about girls doing hanky panky, complete with a porn, so I’m pretty sure nobody even remembers that NightGuy was a thing.
Jennifer: What?
Walky: Oh, come on, like the plot about starting a webcomic isn’t already meta, I’m owed a 4th wall break.
That’s a lot of really interesting stuff other people were doing, What was Walky doing that whole time, and if he was somehow omnisciently reading the comic like us and breaking the fourth wall not only is that a badass power (Gwenpool anyone?) but I’d ask for his opinion on the Liz storyline. How does he feel about that? Cause I felt it was fun, but kind of dragged on a bit at points.
Luck is a very convenient superpower. Kind of telekinesis, but instead of exerting force according to your will or directed by your thought, the power acts independently in your “interest”. Like imagine what has to happen before something can push a roulette ball out of its way to end up on the right number – first the power has to determine the context it’s acting in which probably involves absorbing and managing information on a level physicists laugh at like they laugh at speedsters. It has to basically “understand” what a roulette wheel is, the way humans construct concepts. And then determine what number it should hit, what you personally need from it, which, where does that information even come from? Any luck power as written will be able to do things like these even if you don’t know yourself what outcome you want, or that there is an event with an outcome that could be in your favor, like if a hailstorm forms above you and it needs to push some hailstones out of your way. There’s so much work involved in making good luck happen, saying Gods and angels exist who’ve decided to look out for this person is probably the “most” reasonable explanation.
Just something I’ve been thinking about for a few months.
JBento
What kind of stupid super power is “luck”, anyway? Do you fire luck lasers or something?
Shadowsnail
I think Jinx throws some sort of luck plasma balls out of her hands (when she isn’t busy smooching Cyborg).
Z
Deadpool 2 is an excellent example of this and it’s glorious.
Walky’s a terrible superhero. Not trying to be mean to him, but forgetting you’re a superhero is pretty bad. He also got in the game for the wrong reasons. He doesn’t even have a tragic backstory.
Depends on how you look at it, I guess. He certainly has a better life balance than Amber did during her tenure, so in some respects, he’s probably doing a good job, even if he’s obviously not as proactive or skilled as Amazigirl.
Oh, he has one, he just hasn’t realized it yet. Give it five years for him to realize “oh god, my entire personality is a bouncing shiny bauble meant to distract myself and my racist, emotionally abusive mother from the fact I have an undiagnosed developmental disorder, because deep down I’m existentially terrified that if she finds out she’ll start treating me like my sister”.
It probably does. Imagine being allergic to your furniture.
keithcurtis
We are all vulnerable to wood. Let me demonstrate with this club…
Agemegos
One time long ago a friend of mine was designing a vampire-themed character for a Champions campaign and wondered briefly how many points “double damage from a stake through the heart” would be worth.
Yes, caffeine of any sort. It stimulates the neurons, which perks up neurotypicals, but it the way ADHD works, stimulating your neurons actually slows you down.
For me at least, I don’t think I get too stimulated by it, but I do get the dependency going where quitting is agonizingly painful and awful to my mood. I’ve straight up drank large ice cappuccinos and gone to bed an hour later, though this was before I started adderall. Since then, I don’t mix well with lots of caffeine and did get some brain fog when I started qutting altogether.
ADHD guy here, and addicted to caffeine since I was prescribed it by my pediatrician in 1st Grade.
I think of it as a control rod in my internal reactor. In my case it works as both a calmative and an antidepressant.
It’s weird. Just a couple of weeks ago, at the end of a dinner-party, a few even-more-elderly friends and I shared a reminiscence that up until the Seventies everyone had after-dinner coffee and a mint thin last thing, whereas now nobody drinks coffee after noon for fear of disturbing their sleep.
My sister pointed out that up until the Seventies we all went to bed drunk.
Funny thing with me, there actually was a point when drinking coffee WOULD wake me up, but regardless of whether that was just the Placebo effect at work or something else, these days it always consistently makes me tired, regardless of how many times I tried to reset my tolerance, so I just quit altogether. Neurodivergence is strange that way I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Would it make a difference if I microdosed caffeine? Have any of you ADHD-havers tried that?
If you have ADHD and caffeine only serves to smooth you out, micro-dosing won’t do anything. It will probably do even less–it’ll just either make you feel slightly less tired than it would have if you took more, or might help you focus a little better, calm anxiety, etc, but will not wake you up.
It has nothing to do with your tolerance to caffeine and everything to do with your natural brain chemistry, which changes over time–which is probably why caffeine no longer works for you as it once did.
Tolerance for Caffeine can be retrained. I used to do it every summer when I was out of school and my need for emotional stability wasn’t as dire. Usually by August all I needed was a single dose every day, nominally a cola at lunch or dinner. Maybe a chocolate before bedtime. I rarely went cold turkey but there were times I could.
As the apparent odd one out, coffee does help me stay up, but not to any sort of elevated degree. It just tells my brain I’m not sleepy enough to pass out and gives me the shakes after a certain point. I’ll drink a whole pot and never get either manic or drowsy.
It’s not that drinking coffee makes and ADHD brain tired, it’s that it can make you feel relaxed.
ADHD brains are chronically under-stimulated, which is part of why they are constantly grabbing onto any and all possible New Things in order to make even a dent in that under-stimulation. It is NOT like mania, where you’re so overstimulated that you have a lot of energy to do All The Things, and appear ‘hyperactive’. People with ADHD are not really ‘hyperactive’, what they are is restless, bored, and desperate to generate literally any kind of stimulation at all. Thus the fidgeting, and flitting from thing to thing, impulsiveness, and inability to focus.
Coffee works similar to how ADHD meds work, as a stimulant, compensating for under-stimulation chemically to bring the brain closer to a more ‘baseline’ state.
Severity of ADHD varies from person to person, so how severely understimulated your brain is as a baseline will have a large effect on how coffee effects you, as well as whether or not you’re medicated. Some ADHD folks use caffeine to self-medicate and help them focus, reduce fidgeting or restlessness, etc. For some ADHD people, if their medication is effective or their severity is otherwise low, coffee can work on you about the same as any other person.
And for others, coffee is such a drop in the bucket that all it really does is make their brain slightly less frantic for stimulation. Slows down racing thoughts, which can make it easier to sleep.
Anyone know about ADD and slow executive processing speed?
Joyfulldreams
I’m not sure what you mean, do you mean ADHD’s effect on executive function? (ADD is an outdated diagnosis btw, ADD is now more likely to be ADHD-Inattentive Type now.)
It’s not really ‘slow processioning speed’ so much at is an impairment in your ability to direct your own attention. The impaired ability to start a task, maintain focus on a task, switch between tasks, or prioritize/plan, as well as impairment in working memory.
Geneseepaws
Ja, except if it’s dinosaurs or drawing dragons, in which case it’s razor focus. I like my brain as it is, I just don’t understand it’s Robles.
First off, gotta’ say that, as far as diagnostics goes, I have no known divergent conditions. However, as far as reality goes, there’s very little doubt whatsoever that I might qualify for a decent handful of different items. So, take that for what it is.
I have always felt that coffee helps to focus, because my mind is flying 100% too fast, and the coffee helps bring everything into the same speed. However, that’s with a limited intake of coffee (about one cup every two or three hours). If I start chugging the stuff (which is very easy for me to do, because I love it), I start having the more jittery, energized effects usually attributed to coffee- but usually around 2 cups an hour* to get to that point.
TL:DR, limited coffee is very calming, excessive coffee can wind up being an energizer/exciter.
*Yes, these intake volumes are fairly common for me. I can easily drink an entire pot of coffee on a regular day.
Sounds like caffeine addiction. If it is a problem, you might want to try cutting back a little bit on caffeine each day until you are down to nothing, then only drink coffee on a limited basis. If it is not a problem, then ignore this post.
Needfuldoer
It’s not a problem. Caffeine is the nectar of the gods who are cranky in the morning.
(I also live in the Eastern time zone but run on GMT. Those 1:30 AM posts of mine? That’s not staying up late, that’s getting up early. Yay, third-and-a-half shift…)
Well, her big clue with Sal=Amazi-Girl was hearing Walky call Sal a hero after she stood up to Ruth (coming together with a lot of random other details, like Sal’s penchant for self-defenestration and randomly disappearing for hours at a time). So what clues are here to misinterpret?
There aren’t all that many, really — Billie’s been mostly isolated from the rest of our crew, making occasional cameos but not hanging out enough to sponge up a whole bunch of random details that would make narrative sense for her to misinterpret.
110 thoughts on “Hijacked”
Ana Chronistic
“That was so LONG ago… like… two days!”
Doctor_Who
Walky: In my defense, there was just a whole storyline about girls doing hanky panky, complete with a porn, so I’m pretty sure nobody even remembers that NightGuy was a thing.
Jennifer: What?
Walky: Oh, come on, like the plot about starting a webcomic isn’t already meta, I’m owed a 4th wall break.
Sirksome
That’s a lot of really interesting stuff other people were doing, What was Walky doing that whole time, and if he was somehow omnisciently reading the comic like us and breaking the fourth wall not only is that a badass power (Gwenpool anyone?) but I’d ask for his opinion on the Liz storyline. How does he feel about that? Cause I felt it was fun, but kind of dragged on a bit at points.
RassilonTDavros
…oh, the shenanigans that this leads to are going to be beautiful.
Agemegos
If Walky takes up Nightguying again he is likely to get badly hurt.
newlland(Henryvolt)
Unless he gets very lucky and since being lucky is a big character trait of his next to having no filter he should be fine.
CrazyJ
I think when Stan Lee was asked what super power he would want, he said it was luck.
Amelie Wikström
Luck is a very convenient superpower. Kind of telekinesis, but instead of exerting force according to your will or directed by your thought, the power acts independently in your “interest”. Like imagine what has to happen before something can push a roulette ball out of its way to end up on the right number – first the power has to determine the context it’s acting in which probably involves absorbing and managing information on a level physicists laugh at like they laugh at speedsters. It has to basically “understand” what a roulette wheel is, the way humans construct concepts. And then determine what number it should hit, what you personally need from it, which, where does that information even come from? Any luck power as written will be able to do things like these even if you don’t know yourself what outcome you want, or that there is an event with an outcome that could be in your favor, like if a hailstorm forms above you and it needs to push some hailstones out of your way. There’s so much work involved in making good luck happen, saying Gods and angels exist who’ve decided to look out for this person is probably the “most” reasonable explanation.
Just something I’ve been thinking about for a few months.
JBento
What kind of stupid super power is “luck”, anyway? Do you fire luck lasers or something?
Shadowsnail
I think Jinx throws some sort of luck plasma balls out of her hands (when she isn’t busy smooching Cyborg).
Z
Deadpool 2 is an excellent example of this and it’s glorious.
Ana Chronistic
Ask Gladstone Gander
Reltzik
Nah, Billie will see right through him. She’s just got great intuition.
Sirksome
Walky’s a terrible superhero. Not trying to be mean to him, but forgetting you’re a superhero is pretty bad. He also got in the game for the wrong reasons. He doesn’t even have a tragic backstory.
Thag Simmons
I think Walky is a great superhero, albeit for the same reason William Henry Harrison was the best president
Z
“William Harrison, how do you praise? That guy was deadin 30 days.” -Animaniacs
Doctor_Who
With his diet, he’s got a pretty tragic backside-story.
DailyBrad
Depends on how you look at it, I guess. He certainly has a better life balance than Amber did during her tenure, so in some respects, he’s probably doing a good job, even if he’s obviously not as proactive or skilled as Amazigirl.
not someone else
Oh, he has one, he just hasn’t realized it yet. Give it five years for him to realize “oh god, my entire personality is a bouncing shiny bauble meant to distract myself and my racist, emotionally abusive mother from the fact I have an undiagnosed developmental disorder, because deep down I’m existentially terrified that if she finds out she’ll start treating me like my sister”.
StClair
Beats being vulnerable to wood, I guess.
not someone else
It probably does. Imagine being allergic to your furniture.
keithcurtis
We are all vulnerable to wood. Let me demonstrate with this club…
Agemegos
One time long ago a friend of mine was designing a vampire-themed character for a Champions campaign and wondered briefly how many points “double damage from a stake through the heart” would be worth.
The Wellerman
A tragic backstory that I can definitely relate to ?
Reltzik
…. aren’t there a LOT of superheroes who get amnesia about being superheroes?
Shadowsnail
Nightguy’s nemesis (The Responsible Adult) must have zapped him with an ADD ray.
Reltzik
But that’s not something a Responsible Adult would do!
…. the name’s ironic, isn’t it?
The Wellerman
Ha!!!
If ANYONE’S gonna be Nightguy’s nemesis, it’s gonna be an alien parasite like me!!!
And it could really help him too! From what I heard, some ADHD-havers have an “urgency” trigger for their hyper-focus abilities!!!
The million-dollar question is, does Walky also have this?
Only one way to find out!!! HA HA HA HA!!!
??? ✌️?
*plays “Hypnotik” by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Hacked Muzak*
The Wellerman
I know the feeling Walky. So many interests but you just can’t focus!
Speaking of ADHD symptoms, I’ve heard it’s an ADHD thing for coffee to make you tired. Is this true?
True Survivor
I don’t know. I don’t have ADHD but I feel that ‘dress up in pajamas and get into fist fights with felons’ would be memorable To Do list item.
Jeff K!
Yes, caffeine of any sort. It stimulates the neurons, which perks up neurotypicals, but it the way ADHD works, stimulating your neurons actually slows you down.
Spencer
It can do that to us, yeah.
For me at least, I don’t think I get too stimulated by it, but I do get the dependency going where quitting is agonizingly painful and awful to my mood. I’ve straight up drank large ice cappuccinos and gone to bed an hour later, though this was before I started adderall. Since then, I don’t mix well with lots of caffeine and did get some brain fog when I started qutting altogether.
Stephen Bierce
ADHD guy here, and addicted to caffeine since I was prescribed it by my pediatrician in 1st Grade.
I think of it as a control rod in my internal reactor. In my case it works as both a calmative and an antidepressant.
The Wellerman
You have ADHD too Mr. Bierce? Neat to know you’re also a neurodivergent! ?
Woah, neurodivergents are like Stand Users — we have this interesting way of being drawn towards each other…
not someone else
Yep. Used to be some days it was the only thing keeping my anxiety managed.
(Nowadays I need something stronger than any safe dose of caffeine…)
Agemegos
It’s weird. Just a couple of weeks ago, at the end of a dinner-party, a few even-more-elderly friends and I shared a reminiscence that up until the Seventies everyone had after-dinner coffee and a mint thin last thing, whereas now nobody drinks coffee after noon for fear of disturbing their sleep.
My sister pointed out that up until the Seventies we all went to bed drunk.
Geneseepaws
As I remember, the 50s were one long smoke-filled cocktail party.
Agemegos
I don’t remember the Fifties, and struggle with the details of the Sixties. A bloke went to the Moon, IIRC.
Geneseepaws
Three went, two walked on it, third guy didn’t get to dance — he just sat in the parking lot.
Agemegos
Unlike Walky, Society was not ready for poly.
The Wellerman
Thanks for sharing!!! ?
Funny thing with me, there actually was a point when drinking coffee WOULD wake me up, but regardless of whether that was just the Placebo effect at work or something else, these days it always consistently makes me tired, regardless of how many times I tried to reset my tolerance, so I just quit altogether. Neurodivergence is strange that way I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Would it make a difference if I microdosed caffeine? Have any of you ADHD-havers tried that?
Joyfulldreams
If you have ADHD and caffeine only serves to smooth you out, micro-dosing won’t do anything. It will probably do even less–it’ll just either make you feel slightly less tired than it would have if you took more, or might help you focus a little better, calm anxiety, etc, but will not wake you up.
It has nothing to do with your tolerance to caffeine and everything to do with your natural brain chemistry, which changes over time–which is probably why caffeine no longer works for you as it once did.
Stephen Bierce
Tolerance for Caffeine can be retrained. I used to do it every summer when I was out of school and my need for emotional stability wasn’t as dire. Usually by August all I needed was a single dose every day, nominally a cola at lunch or dinner. Maybe a chocolate before bedtime. I rarely went cold turkey but there were times I could.
Delicious Taffy
As the apparent odd one out, coffee does help me stay up, but not to any sort of elevated degree. It just tells my brain I’m not sleepy enough to pass out and gives me the shakes after a certain point. I’ll drink a whole pot and never get either manic or drowsy.
Joyfulldreams
It’s not that drinking coffee makes and ADHD brain tired, it’s that it can make you feel relaxed.
ADHD brains are chronically under-stimulated, which is part of why they are constantly grabbing onto any and all possible New Things in order to make even a dent in that under-stimulation. It is NOT like mania, where you’re so overstimulated that you have a lot of energy to do All The Things, and appear ‘hyperactive’. People with ADHD are not really ‘hyperactive’, what they are is restless, bored, and desperate to generate literally any kind of stimulation at all. Thus the fidgeting, and flitting from thing to thing, impulsiveness, and inability to focus.
Coffee works similar to how ADHD meds work, as a stimulant, compensating for under-stimulation chemically to bring the brain closer to a more ‘baseline’ state.
Severity of ADHD varies from person to person, so how severely understimulated your brain is as a baseline will have a large effect on how coffee effects you, as well as whether or not you’re medicated. Some ADHD folks use caffeine to self-medicate and help them focus, reduce fidgeting or restlessness, etc. For some ADHD people, if their medication is effective or their severity is otherwise low, coffee can work on you about the same as any other person.
And for others, coffee is such a drop in the bucket that all it really does is make their brain slightly less frantic for stimulation. Slows down racing thoughts, which can make it easier to sleep.
Geneseepaws
Anyone know about ADD and slow executive processing speed?
Joyfulldreams
I’m not sure what you mean, do you mean ADHD’s effect on executive function? (ADD is an outdated diagnosis btw, ADD is now more likely to be ADHD-Inattentive Type now.)
It’s not really ‘slow processioning speed’ so much at is an impairment in your ability to direct your own attention. The impaired ability to start a task, maintain focus on a task, switch between tasks, or prioritize/plan, as well as impairment in working memory.
Geneseepaws
Ja, except if it’s dinosaurs or drawing dragons, in which case it’s razor focus. I like my brain as it is, I just don’t understand it’s Robles.
The Wellerman
I envy you!
I used to be able to focus like that on science, but now im not able to focus on or enjoy ANYTHING. It feels AWFUL. ?
Jamie
…that would explain a lot, yes.
Mano308gts
Hmmm.
First off, gotta’ say that, as far as diagnostics goes, I have no known divergent conditions. However, as far as reality goes, there’s very little doubt whatsoever that I might qualify for a decent handful of different items. So, take that for what it is.
I have always felt that coffee helps to focus, because my mind is flying 100% too fast, and the coffee helps bring everything into the same speed. However, that’s with a limited intake of coffee (about one cup every two or three hours). If I start chugging the stuff (which is very easy for me to do, because I love it), I start having the more jittery, energized effects usually attributed to coffee- but usually around 2 cups an hour* to get to that point.
TL:DR, limited coffee is very calming, excessive coffee can wind up being an energizer/exciter.
*Yes, these intake volumes are fairly common for me. I can easily drink an entire pot of coffee on a regular day.
Reltzik
In my case, I can’t stand coffee. But black tea can lull me to sleep sometimes. (Mt Dew keeps me awake, though.)
Needfuldoer
ADHD here, caffeine keeps me awake.
I need my two cups of coffee every day or else I get a pounding headache by mid-afternoon.
OBBWG
Sounds like caffeine addiction. If it is a problem, you might want to try cutting back a little bit on caffeine each day until you are down to nothing, then only drink coffee on a limited basis. If it is not a problem, then ignore this post.
Needfuldoer
It’s not a problem. Caffeine is the nectar of the gods who are cranky in the morning.
(I also live in the Eastern time zone but run on GMT. Those 1:30 AM posts of mine? That’s not staying up late, that’s getting up early. Yay, third-and-a-half shift…)
The Wellerman
Fascinating. If I may ask Needful, just what is your job?
Needfuldoer
I help make TV happen. Somebody’s gotta be there to tell the early birds what the weather’s going to be and how bad the roads are backed up!
Nono
So if Jennifer thought Amazi-Girl was Sal, who does she think Nightguy is gonna be? Joe? Booster? Howard?
Doctor_Who
Galasso.
Thag Simmons
Probably Sal, honestly
Sirksome
That would actually be closer to the truth than she’s ever gotten. Jen’s really growing into that journalism degree!
Thag Simmons
I’m not entirely convinced that she doesn’t still think Sal was Amazi-Girl
King Daniel
I’d be shocked if she doesn’t still think that tbh
Nono
She knows Amber was the one who stabbed Sal through the hand now, though. I think Amber = Amazi-Girl may be a bit more common knowledge now.
Thag Simmons
She has been outright told that Amber is Amazi-Girl multiple times. I am still not convinced she knows.
Reltzik
Well, her big clue with Sal=Amazi-Girl was hearing Walky call Sal a hero after she stood up to Ruth (coming together with a lot of random other details, like Sal’s penchant for self-defenestration and randomly disappearing for hours at a time). So what clues are here to misinterpret?
There aren’t all that many, really — Billie’s been mostly isolated from the rest of our crew, making occasional cameos but not hanging out enough to sponge up a whole bunch of random details that would make narrative sense for her to misinterpret.
Thag Simmons
To be fair, Sal is one of the more reasonable guesses you could make.
It just happens to be the wrong one
Keulen
Lucy. Nightguy actually being a girl is the best cover, clearly.
AGV
Nightguy has some catching up to do
DailyBrad
You know, I briefly forgot that, too.
Sirksome
Kind of like how Liz is tagged in the comic even though that’s Lucy! April Fool’s everyone!
C.T. Phipps