Grrl Power #858 – Tutorial level
Sydney’s training is starting to pick up. I skip over a lot of it, especially the classroom stuff where she’s learning the law end of being a superhero. But with her recent improvements to her aim, they want to see what happens when they cut her lose with a loaded gun in a maze full of targets.
Don’t worry, Doc Chevy is on base today. There are a few standing bets as to whether her skills will be needed.
Originally, I had actually planned for Sydney to actually do the cake or death gag in on the course. By “originally,” I mean there’s a draft of this page in my notes that’s probably six years old. She winds up getting yelled at after getting icing in her gun, but I guess both Sydney and myself have matured very slightly since then.
But the fact that she showed up with a sack of cupcakes mean she was still planning on goofing around, but she’s starting to get the idea that these military guys are actually pretty serious about weapon handling. Character growth!
Cake or death, for those of you unfamiliar.
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Ah, yes. The Smurfy Veronica.
I wish it were possible to upvote comments <3
+1
I throw my updoot into the ring!
I actually managed to get a picture with Eddie Izzard when he came do do a show in my country last year
Wow, it’s gonna be all downhill from there.
Like, they say that getting married is the happiest day of your life, but c’mon. Will Eddie Izzard be there?
What if you married The Izzard? :thinking:
The cupcakes should be on a tray, so she can hack at the neck with the thin bit
I thought she was going to bribe or distract Seneca with the cupcakes at first.
Probably, until she found Pegs back on duty, so had to come up with something new on the fly
Or she was needing to take her meds when she passed the muffin shop on the way to work.
OK Sydney is now movie quality. Lets whip up a team of animators and get an Oscar for Grrl Power!
Emilia Clarke?
Amelia Earheart?
Is Seneca a super? If so ,is her power to be able to consume an incredible number of calories in the form of carbohydrates without any of the excess being stored as fat, and a pancreas with infinite durability?
Cause, sure seems like it.
Based on how she’s ALWAYS eating, I’m assuming she has to be a super at this point. Seeing as Supers burn more calories just by existing, as previously referenced in a comic I’m too lazy to find, the constant food is pretty necessary.
No, she’s not a Super
Love to break it to you, some people can continuously eat and not gain any weight (and that includes muscle-mass)
I used to be one of those. You hit your mod thirties and the freak metabolism drops and suddenly your pants don’t fit.
+1!
I wore the same pants for 30 years… Then finally my metabolism changed. I was going to say then Chicago became slightly more polite but that’s Covid’s fault.
Had a neighbor in high school that was bird-thin in spite of regularly eating as much (or more) than the guys nearly twice her size. Strangers would come up to our table at food courts to tell her how proud they were of her for overcoming her anorexia and warn her about bulemia – she’d just say “thanks for the concern, but I’m good” and pound more pizza and soda until they walked away.
My mom used to be a “Twiggy” all through college, and was actually put on diets to *gain* weight. Then they found out her thyroid was to blame, and they killed it off. Now she has a lifetime of pills to regulate what her thyroid used to do (I guess?), and has trouble losing weight because to her you still eat more when on a diet! ♀️ That was before they discovered anorexia and bulemia were things, though; pity it took Karen Carpenter’s illness and death for them to seriously look into it.
She has not demonstrated any super powers, but I don’t recall her saying that she does not have any. I suspect that she just has a less useful power, that has not been needed yet.
DaveB Himself said it, in her Who’s Who entry
I would love to have a sugar powered super power.
Rikido Sato Hobby: Baking pastries, for obvious reasons.
Yea, Robin DeSanto is pretty awesome.
I just realized today that one of the reasons Cora gave Sydney those glasses is because she already have some orbs that might be Nth level tech, which make those glasses look pathetically simple
I was thinking more specifically that missed shots go random places, and considering Syd’s firepower it’s probably best if she doesn’t miss any more often than can be avoided.
After all, Cora has friends who can be expected to be nearby when Syd is shooting. And if that’s not enough motivation, maybe she gives a shit about important buildings not falling down on Earth even though she doesn’t live here full time.
I’d like to note that Sydney actually looks pretty hot in the second panel. Part of that might be due to changing art style… but I think a lot of it is because Sydney has indeed been getting a lot of exercise and growing both physically and mentally. She’s definitely getting a “badass geek tomboy” look to her, which is awesome.
The glasses upgrade may also be to do with identifying friend or foe at range beyond normal glasses vision correction especially as we don’t yet know the max range of her firepower, but given the causeway option of her movement at higher levels the range has to be significant, one of these days a mosquito or something is going to to be on the receiving end of the PPO, just by matter of the glasses enhanced telemetry/future positional co-ordinate forecast targeting.
I literally was watching an Eddie Izzard special while I read this comic.
It made me feel impossibly happy and impossibly old all at the same time.
He played an astonishingly good Edward VII in “Victoria and Abdul”, ( when he was still PoW ).
Oh? Which one/do tell? Also, have you seen Force Majure yet? (Dvd wasn’t released to US, but it’s on YouTube (picture is cut, though).
Kept forgetting to mention: nice touch showing the hint of Neca’s bra in panel one
And the frosting on her lips in panel eight
This is both awesome and unsettling….. This is the most perceptive i think i have ever seen from sydney. (she has been super nerd perceptive before, but it was always in response to something happening , instead of before she is doing something)
I mean if you actually are gluten intolerant there is not way in Hell you’re giving up cake forever so pretty sure cake is still preferable :).
This kinda brings up a weird train of thought: How old is Sydney, anyways? I always assumed somewhere between 19-21, and double-checking her profile…Yeah, she’s 21. Eddie Izzard was irrelevant by the time she would have been old enough to even comprehend his comedy, DEFINITELY irrelevant by the time it would have been age-appropriate. I mean it’s not like the guy was a big deal like George Carlin or someone like that, he was kind of a niche flash in the pan.
Not saying it’s impossible that someone would get into a comedian from outside their era, just saying it’s odd. Like it highlights how this was written by someone older than Sydney and that this bit was written several years ago.
But that’s comics, it’s like a time warp sometimes, weird little artifacts that make it a little hard to place the actual time when a series takes place, like how by the story timeline Obama was president less than a year ago.
Love to point this out to you: The Izzard is still doing shows
As for when this story is set? It’s late 2011 (and how can we know? the rego sticker on Sydney’s car at the start, 5/11)
Also, on-demand video streaming is a thing, while live TV and cable are rapidly declining, and I can totally see Sydney being into someone ‘niche’ like Izzard. I regularly watch comedians (and movies) from before I was born, and have little interest in “what’s on today” because I can pick whatever I want, whenever it’s convenient, with only minor downsides.
Clearly, if the cake is a lie, it is calorie free. And gluten free, for that matter. With no artificial colouring or flavouring. And guaranteed to have no allergen provoking substances!
No dear puppy, the cake is fake, not a lie
Irrelevant?! It was 2009 when Eddie Izzard ran 43 marathons in 51 days for charity! (Despite being, as the news article puts it “a once well-upholstered comedian”.)
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8256589.stm
Technically doesn’t this still take place in like 2010? meaning the “Dressed to kill” reference is only 12 years old instead of 20?
Neca isn’t good with dates, and she wasn’t giving an exact time of when it was first used
My suggestion for adjusting the timeline was to say (since Obama has appeared in the comic) that Obama was elected in 2016 instead of the Donald. He was Hillary’s VP from 2008 to 2016. If you hate Hillary, substitute someone else from that election.
After all, the Grrlverse is an alternate universe with some contemporary features, like Obama and wassisname, Neal DeGrasse Tyson and the like.
For the sake of keeping real world (ugly) politics out of the comic and discussion, I’d almost prefer that DaveB used a made up politician. Shouldn’t be hard to come up with, they’re all pretty cookie-cutter anyway. XD Still, his baby, he can put anyone in he wants to and I’ll still read it, so long at it doesn’t involve a hardcore sex scene between Hill-dawg and the Trumpster. Nobody deserves to see that.
It’s a Flashback, Obama’s still in office.
Love Seneca’s “ooh, cupcakes!” reaction.
Man the crap we did while in the military was definitely unprofessional. Except with live ammo, sim rounds is a different story. Sim rounds are real bullets but use plastic instead of lead. They hurt. One time a senior NCO dared another NCO to shot him in the ass. Well he did a 3 second burst from an MP5. Even being plastic he couldnt sit for several days.
Agreed, “It is all fun and games until live ammo gets involve.”
Although, they did start cracking down on safety for the sim rounds. We had a guy in my unit whose rifle blew up because of them.
Day before a live-fire target range, they were using the sim rounds. Someone screwed up and did not clear the soldier rifle with a rod. (standard safety practice, range safety person did not do their job.) A plastic round was stuck in the barrel and when he shot the first round the receiver exploded.
He was lucky and did not get hurt. They later said that if he had been left-handed, he might have lost some fingers or a hand.
Didn’t your bloke check the weapon himself? This sounds lke military-ish, so checking the weapon they hand you should have been mandatory, you simply cannot afford to trust other people. Even at school, in the rifle-shooting team, we got hammered if we didn’t at the very least take a look-see down the barrel from the breech. And let me tell you, this is not easy with a Mauser lever-action!
The only way for you to clear the weapon like that is to stick a long rod down the barrel. That would be impractical for every soldier to carry around. Honestly, a Sargent rodding the weapons is (supposed to be) standard practice. So that range really dropped the ball.
The only other way is to look down the barrel, and that is considered extremely dangerous.
I can not find a video of them rodding a rifle. Most videos start just before, and stop after the shooting is done. I can not even find a “range cleanup” video.
Takes me back sooo many decades… Dad was driving us back from the shops, when we passed the police station. A group of Askaris were tidying themselves up, and I saw one looking up the barrel of his .303… “Why is he doing that, Dad?” “He’s trying to die.” My Dad spent most of the War as a CSM in the Pioneers.
I wasn’t worried about your bloke actually clearing the rifle, not his job. But if he had stripped the bolt out and looked down the barrel, he could have seen there was an obstruction. (Of course, on an auto-loader, maybe not the time to do a field-strip, especially if he wasn’t familiar with the weapon.) Basically, I see this as no more than a pre-start on a ute. It is the driver’s responsibility.
No doubt there is significant variation between firearms but our cleaning kits included a weight, a string and a roll off cotton “pull-through” soft cloth for cleaning the barrel. If the weight failed to fall through the barrel we would have immediately field-stripped the weapon and even a time pressed range sergeant wouldn’t object, although with unfortunate timing you might find yourself departing the range with a bag of parts.
There are reasons to look down the barrel but you do it from the breech with the breech block in your hand.
Normally, you would clean your weapon after every range.
But with “Sim”, the are not gunpowder rounds instead they are CO2 powered. So there was no extra cleaning.
An aluminum casing, with a plastic paint-filled tip. Just replace the bolt-assembly with a special one that can only fire the Sim rounds.
This link is not what we used at the time, but the same idea (probably the same company, just newer better version) https://www.simunition.com/en/
Sadly, they won’t let civilians buy these. Military and police training only.
my standing bet is that Sydney will shoot Ralphy’s eye out. He’s one of the pop up civilians, right? Holding a BB gun?
Heads up that people who medically must eat gluten free food take a dim view of constantly dissing it. It’s like making a joke based on someone’s name when you first meet them; they’ve definitely heard it before and aren’t enjoying it.
Also, a lot of modern gluten free baking is great! The local gluten free bakery my partner is obliged to shop at is also my favourite in the city (the remaining problem is that their stuff costs ~50% more than equivalent goods at another bakery…)
Seneca must exercise like a MOTHERFUDGER to keep the weight off.
Either that or that’s her superpower.
Nope, she be one of the cursed, those who can eat and never gain an ounce (and that includes muscle)
Or also takes Addreall.
Probably why Sydney is so tiny. Only massive amounts of food will get you weight.
I remember Eddie Izzard saying,
“You can’t just shout ‘Microwaveable Canned Haggis!’ at someone and then pretend to be surprised when they take it as a threat.”
I thought it was incredibly funny. I was with some people who thought it was annoying. I think it was part of a standup routine, but I can’t find it anywhere.
To be fair, some people do find microwaveable canned haggis to be offensive.
So, in-universe… how old was Sidney when Ol’ Eddie Izzard did this bit?
(Checks the cast page)
Ah, 1 year old. And here I was wasting my time at the 12 month mark playing with colourful plastic shapes. Sidney apparently required more complex entertainments. :P
I stare at nothing, giggling for no reason, drooling on myself. And you think my entertainment isn’t complex? Hmm.
When was YouTube invented? Or, DVD’s?
Plenty of ways for Sydney to have seen (or heard) The Izzard
“Could have,” sure. “Likely would have,” probably not.
The amount of entertainment media produced increased exponentially. There are 10,000 more recent vids to come up in her feeds before that extremely specific one.
Now, Dave, our writer, on the other hand, is most likely old enough to have seen that bit back when it was new, recent, a hot topic, etc. THAT’S our real explaination! ;)
I wasn’t born when the original Star Trek aired, but I’ve still seen it. There are 10,000 other things to watch (more like 10,000,000,000) but Star Trek: ToS is still better than 9,999,999,985 of them, so it’s far more likely to get watched than other things.
Sydney is as fluent as she is with pop culture stuff because of her dad. Something that will probably get a mention at some point in the comic.
Also, Sydney is what, a b cup now? c?
Is there an A Team anymore?
She was it, but then she started upper-body workouts.
Peggy was the originator of the A-Team, remember?
It was Sydney and Peggy. Peggy was the one that said “A team” when she was finding clothes that Sydney could wear to the press conference.
Probably just a variation in how she is drawn. Even with a little more muscle mass Sydney isn’t going to jump from an A to a C. A down side (depending on your tastes and point of view) is that some women even lose breast size with exercise.
Well yeah, breasts are composed of various types of fat cells. It makes sense some of it would go away if the pectoral muscles were used.
How has she been carrying the cupcakes in a sack and still has the frosting still only on the top of the cupcake?
Magic.
Or aliens … it is always aliens!
Is that what the last orb does?
Orb of Keeping Frosting Where You Desire It To Be Regardless of Interaction With Other Objects is…
going to be difficult for Dave to put in the Who’s Who.
Through the evil that is “fondant”. A hideous substance which is only technically edible, (In the sense that it has calories and won’t actually poison you.) but in all properties except appearance is utterly unlike frosting.
Huh, turns out fondant was actually the result of Arthur Dent describing frosting to a shipboard food dispenser.
I don’t know what you think fondant is, but I’ve never seen fondant splatter like that when thrown.
That post script reminds me of a farcical book entitled “‘They Taste Just Like Regular Cupcakes’, and Other Vegan Lies”.
Interesting note, in the previous arc of “One Piece” one of Big Mom’s powers was a direct reference to “Cake or Death”.
I can just imagine Sydney going up to the Alari trying to invade and asking “But do you have a flag?”
Honestly, with the right mix, gluten-free cupcakes CAN be just as tasty as regular ones. Unfortunately, GOOD gluten-free cake mix is either stupid expensive (3-4x regular cake mix), or VERY hard to find. So it’s MUCH easier to find half-assed GF cupcakes (or other dessert-type breads/pastries), than decent ones.