Grrl Power #304 – A wild Harem appears!
It’s a little odd that Sydney agrees that “boy stuff” is dumb considering she’s a bit of a tomboy herself. I assume she’s thinking of stuff like talking about sports or cars or which actress they’d “do.” Sydney’s knowledge of sports talk starts and ends with “Did you see that ludicrous display last night?”
I almost had Olivia comment that she’d seen The Watchmen movie and was confused by it because even though it was a comic book movie, the only guy with obvious super powers was “the blue guy” and everyone else playing superhero just seemed like sociopaths in masks. That was kind of my reaction to the movie since I had never read The Watchmen before. I wasn’t confused by it mind you, I just think Moore was telling a story about people, not superheroes, and that most people are assholes no matter what they call themselves. Really the only character in that movie I identified with was Manhattan, cause he looked around the world and was was like “Welp, humans suck, I’m out.” The thing that did confuse me was that none of the people in costume had any powers, at least not in the movie, maybe except Ozymandias who could catch a bullet. I don’t recall how often, if at all, the word superhero was used in the movie (again, haven’t read the book) so maybe it’s my fault for thinking since the source material was a comic and there’s definitely one guy with powers, therefor anyone in a costume is a superhero/villain. They were vigilantes at best, and The Comedian was a straight up psychopath.
I decided to cut mention of the movie because it’s obviously a huge tangent that could go on for many pages. Still, dialog like that is fun to write, and especially if it’s a bunch of superheroes sitting around talking about superhero movies it seems extra appropriate for this comic, so maybe I’ll use it to lead in to another scene some day.
The book Olivia is holding is Sunstone, by Stjepan Šejić (no idea how to pronounce that). I hate to even mention 50 Shades of Grey in the same breath as this book, but the easiest way to describe it is “50 Shades of Gray, only not sucky BDSM Twighlight fanfic with all the vampires edited out.” That is to say it’s about two women that end up in a consensual bondagey Dom/Sub relationship with fantastic art and great writing and characters. So really except for the bondage element they’re nothing alike. Yeah forget I mentioned 50 SoG. A side note on Stjepan, if anyone is more prolific than Fred Perry, its him. In addition to being a professional comic artist who’s worked for Image, Marvel and others, he has two Deviant Art accounts, both of which are updated frequently. One is under the name Shiniez which is mostly NSFW, and you can find the entirety of Sunstone published there. (Obviously pick up the book to support him if you like what you see.) The other one is Nebezial where he posts other comic work and lots of funny vignettes about mostly DC characters but he draws everyone.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
According to comicbookdb.com his name is pronounced approximately “STYAY-pahn SHAY-yeech”
By “his” i meant Stjepan Sejic.
That’s still not very helpful, though… I mean… it just doesn’t… head hurts…
Степан Шеич. Is ←this better?
Oddly, yes. For me, anyhow. Thanks.
All I remember of my Russian lessons is how to pronounce the letters but it still comes in handy a surprising number of times.
I was just wondering something… How do any reporters know that Dabbler is a succubus? I didnt think it was mentioned in the press meeting. Did they somehow overhear it during the fight with vehemence?
They don’t. Their question was “Is Dabbler a demon?” Which is natural enough. As Arianna realised, at the time, Dabbler’s cover story of having a ‘battle form’ does not do much to disguise the fact that, in said form, she has cloven hooves, horns and a demonic appearance. All of which has been captured, on TV, when she was fighting outdoors.
So the question is natural enough. But does not imply they know she is a succubus, in particular.
Mind you, if they remember the stirrings they felt in her presence, they may suspect that.
That’s just the thing Yorp. She DOESNT really have a demonic appearance. She’s purple with stripes and weird looking furry-ish ears. Plus in the press meeting, she had her glamour on so no one could even see any of that. It would seem weird if they jumped to ‘demon’ rather than ‘alien’ as the first guess of what she is, even if they saw video of her fighting in the super fight (which I’m assuming they must have).
Don’t you think the hooves and horns make her look just a little demonic? All she’s really missing is the tail.
It’s the color and stripes and 4 arms that make her NOT look demonic. It’s just I don’t think people would look at her and think ‘demon!’ – they’d look at her and think ‘alien!’
And it’s not like most people would automatically think ‘alien AND demon!’
In her introductory speech (“Grrl Power #153 – Xuriel Tantalis, friend to conspiracy theorists”), she also described her abilities: “[…] and I can transform into a battleform which looks suspiciously like a purple, 4-armed succubus.”
Good point
Although I sort of thought that last part was said ‘under her breath’
Saying things under your breath doesn’t help too much when you’re using a throat mic
Good point again.
The picky side of me just has to point out that she is ‘connected to Archon by cybernetics’, and doesn’t use a throat mic.
Do I get a good point?
8-)
.
Sorry Electronbod, no. The good points are only given for points about why the reporters would know or even reasonably guess that Dabbler was a demon, when ‘alien’ would be a lot more likely for them to guess, and ‘alien + demon’ would be highly unlikely for anyone to guess.
But apparently, Yorp gave you a period, which is sort of like a point in mathematics. Kudos to you :) You’re the only guy in the world who actually wants a period.
What do you think I am, some kind of American? I do not use periods to end my sentences. I come to a full stop.
But, when making a point, I always aim for it to be a good one.
Ah, there’s a thing: it only took one reporter to ask that question. Maybe he or she is a secret ‘fantasy’ nerd, rather than sci-fi, and their mind went straight to that genre.
There could have been others’ alien-related queries that we didn’t get to see.
And I appreciate Yorp’s sacrifice in making such a short comment just to give me a point, however I must politely decline the offer of your period.
Dangit. Are you sure? Could you at least take the mood swings? It’s like a lawn activity playset for your brain.
How people interpret things is very much down to their cultural background and personal experiences. Clearly you are heavily into science fiction, hence your interpretation of Dabbler’s looks. However I guarantee that your average Amish will not jump to the same classification.
Likewise many other cultures and individuals around the world. Her appearance does match descriptions of demons from very many sources. Unsurprisingly. There is a common link underpinning both DaveB‘s art and, in Grrl Power universe terms, the origin of those legends.
The best that Arianna can hope for is to maintain plausible deniability. And/or the gradual dissemination of propaganda that ‘demons arn’t so bad’.* Unless, of course, she has reason to believe that Dabbler is the exception to the rule. And we have had a hint that that may well be the case!
* She aught to hire the same public relations experts that the vampire communities, of our world, have. Maybe get Hollywood to make succubi all sparkly, and angsty, to appeal to the teen audiences.
hey Yorp did you know if you look at your avatar in a different way it looks like a fish is taking a selfie with its mouth wide open?
*blub blub*
Yorp recovers by starting to doggy-paddle.
*transforms into a dogfish*
Arrrgh! Watch out Yorp! I see a school of catfish approaching!
That’s all right. I am cat-friendly.
Yorp: me too. I’m a fan of these cats…
Fortunately, most of their output is in English.
To Yorp:
Sounds like something a dog would say to lower a cat’s defenses.
I just can’t help but think that the “average Amish” watching video feed of said events may have bigger concerns, and a personal religious crisis to deal with :D
My own view is that, if she doesn’t draw attention to it (which, of course, she did) most people would have gone: “Oh, there’s a gold one, there’s a stretchy armed one, there’s a purple four-armed one, there’s a creatively foul-mouthed one, there’s a hot one.. etc” Hidden in plain sight, and all that.
Outside of Star Trek style laziness/constraints, I’d think Demons would look more human than aliens.
Well, in a universe where both exist, Demons would be as likely to look like aliens as humans, but that would still put them in a sort of middle/average spot between the two.
Ari may be able to keep up the “battle form” cover for awhile longer. “You know like Batman; strike fear in the heart of the enemy.” But her prepared fallback has been set up. “See the kooky inventions? Alien from out there. You know like in ‘Childhood’s End’; Xuriel just needed time for everyone to get used to her real look.”
Well technically speaking she IS an alien.
That she’s a trandimensional alien doesn’t really make much of a difference.
Except the part where she probably has some common ancestors or stuff with earth-humans, since alien+human compatible physiology doesn’t usually spring up in completely unrelated biomes, much less planets, much less frickin universes that may not even have the same laws of physics.
Let’s hope she’s composed of atoms, at least. o.o
maybe she’s composed of Eves instead of Atoms? (you’ll get it, give it time)
I got it, and you can keep it! =P
Perhaps an apple will change your mind?
*offers adamas some forbidden fruit*
get out of my garden you two.
*curled around a tree* Why mussst you be sssso heartlesss?
“Walks by eating the other forbidden fruit”
Yeah but the thing is on those questions to Sydney, there were questions asking does the fact that Dabbler was a demon mean there’s a heaven and hell. I’m just trying to figure out how they jumped to the idea that Dabbler was a demon (rather than an alien, which seems a lot more reasonable, since she isnt a ‘stereotypical demonic look’). She doesnt have wings. She’s purple, not red. She has four arms. I mean, was there some part of the press meeting of something someone overheard about someone actually saying Dabbler was a demon or succubus?
She did effect the audience with her lust aura, so they may have gotten the idea of Succubus quite easily after thinking about it.
In her introductory speech (“Grrl Power #153 – Xuriel Tantalis, friend to conspiracy theorists”), she also described her abilities: “[…] and I can transform into a battleform which looks suspiciously like a purple, 4-armed succubus.”
So, basically, she herself said “Hey, I totally look like a demon, but I’m totally not one.” People obviously didn’t buy “but I’m not one”-part.
the question said, is she a demon, not since she’s a demon
I don’t think “Alien + Human” is in there. He’s part Doppelganger (the D&D kind, which can take any humanoid shape and has psionic talent, though she only got the psionic talent and uses illusions to fake the transformations), part demon (succubus, specifically, and those are probably compatible with anyone) and part alien (but given that the other parts are doppelganger and succubus, it doesn’t matter what kind of alien).
*she, not he. Typo.
The implication of Henry‘s statement is that there has been breeding between humans and succubi or humans and doppelgängers, in the past. Which I think is a very fair and plausible suggestion.
Thus he was not commenting as to Dabbler’s immediate heritage. You point out her parentage correctly. However, those parent’s ancestry might well include human in the mix. As such, on top of everything else, Dabbler might be part human too!
Not to mention that she is ‘part something else’. Which could be human or… um… I would say something really odd, but she pretty much has that side covered already!
Has anyone checked to see if she has two heartbeats? And she has demonstrated that ‘hammerspace’ technology. We we need to check if the ‘ship’ she arrived in is bigger on the inside.
+1 +1
If Dabbler’s “ship” is painted blue, we might have a winner here…
Knowing her? Purple with green racing stripes, just to pi$$ off her bosses.
And what would it look like on the outside? Not a police box anyway. Either something weird and random or sex related.
It probably looks like an Orgasmitron, a one-person sized booth that made an appearance in the Woody Allen movie, Sleeper. Dabbler’s version is bigger on the inside, so it can handle a full-fledged orgy.
It wouldn’t look like a police box. If her projector broke i’m sure she would take the time to fix it. Somehow I sense a little bit of vanity in her.
It is always wise to have a default form that will be assumed in the event that the projector does break though. A police box is peculiar to a narrow slice of history. But it does represent a useful property, within that period. Namely that it is something that one would expect to see in a public space.
Further you would expect to see people coming in and out of it. A more general phone box would cover a broader period of history, but has pretty much already seen it’s hey day. Every year it is harder and harder to find one, for those of us who do not like cell phones.
But there is an obvious alternative.
You mean like the Syreen ship from Star Control?
I agree with the various points you make. As regards this one though, I do have a couple of additional things which are worth considering.
Firstly that sexual compatibility is possible without there being any offspring involved. A sexbot, for instance, could be physically compatible with humans, but lack any means of producing offspring. Without a factory involved, anyhow.
Secondly magic and ultratech can both bypass genetic incompatibility issues. So they might have evolved in completely unrelated, in compatible, biomes. And yet still be capable of bearing offspring, by the means of inherent* (or artificial) technomagic.
* Technology can be considered inherent, for these purposes, when it becomes self-replicating. In this case being assumed to be in parallel with the reproduction of the host biological organism. Cyborgs do not have to be born non-cyborg,** once that technology has been developed.
** I do love blurring the boundaries between traditional classifications that furrless apes like to impose on the universe. “Animal, vegetable or mineral” – pah!
I dealt with this a little bit in Divine Blood, though I haven’t published the answers I have yet.
Basically, I assumed that if a sentient species hit “Major” status (meaning that they could be found all over the globe and were by far the most common sentient on the planet) then the other species would tend to evolve methods to appear as the major species. This might start with frequent use of transformation rituals and break from there into shapeshifting abilities. As to cross genus breeding, every sentient species is psychic even if they aren’t aware of it, and their little bit of psychic ability is enough to tweak the reproductive system to accept DNA from another species especially in cases of close physical resemblances due to shapeshifting or transformation.
That said, all the species in Divine Blood are terrestrial in origin. So they evolved along similar lines and influenced each other. (There is probably not one single mortal in Divine Blood that doesn’t have at least one ancestor from some other sentient species than the one they appear to be.)
Clever way of handling it. And it would also be a useful way of explaining innumerable films and TV series, where the non-human species all look suspiciously similar to humans. Other than the practical one of ‘it is easier to hire humans and put on a bit of makeup, than build a space ship and go out into the galaxy searching for extras.*
* Possibly there might be other less-costly variants, on the latter technique. But still being more expensive than slapping on a bit of facial latex.
Nebezial is awesome
Woooooooooomb!
Yes. our exposed midriff is what gives us our true power. And a greater power lies upon our exposed cleavage.
uterus power if i remember correctly
Does anyone suppose Sydney is genre savy enough to realize she might be in a comic herself?
That is the greatest mystery. If you are in a comic world then that is the entirety of what you know, therefore all the weird and comic-ey things that goes on are normal. Now if you have a reference of what is not a comic world then you can easily realize that you are in said comic world and possibly use that knowledge to your advantage.
Therefore it would be difficult for her to realize that she is in a comic world but if she does then watch out, she will have the knowledge of how to beat anyone and everyone.
It may be difficult to get people to understand that they are in a constructed universe. In ‘Last Action Hero’ the kid Danny drops into a movie world and tells the hero that his world is fake. As an example he brings up the fact that if all phone numbers start with 555 then there are not nearly enough for even one city, let alone the whole country. The hero’s response is ‘What do you think area codes are for?’
The villain, however, did realize it and tried to get into the ‘real’ world where villains can win. So if anyone sees a large bald man with glowing tattoos walking down the street, please report it to Dave B.
Actually, 555 in real life IS a real prefix. 555 only is kept for fake numbers between -0100 and -0199. A lot of the 555 numbers are actually reserved for actual people and businesses :)
For example, 800-555-1212 is the real number for information (411) :)
Might be safer to just go the other way, besides they had a TV series where the villains in a video game came to life becoming real and the creator of the game ended up having to track them all down including the master villain of the game. Actually their are several, but the one I was thinking of was called Deadly Games. The creator of the game makes it to mirror reality in which he puts all the people he dislikes or has issues with into the game as villains then through one of his other experiments accidentally brings the characters of his game to life with both devastating and intensely bad results. Great show if you can find a download or a watch from the series on the net.
I quite liked the Star Trek episode where Professor Moriarty got out of control. And especially enjoyed the solution.
It beat the rather tired “lets get Geordi Laforge to reverse the polarity of the oojamaflip” to solve this week’s problem.
And there has been more than one storyline, from various different sources, where Sherlock Holmes has been elevated out of fiction. I had him as a character in my GURPs campaign. Where he simply allowed Arthur Conan Doyle to re-tell his adventures, in suitably disguised format.
Which we have seen done since in mainstream works. But, at the time, it really tickled my players, when they were time travelling (in a close to real world setting) and found out that Sherlock Holmes actually was a historical character, in that world.
And of course, it gave them real problems. Not wishing to mess up the time-stream, they were trying hard to conceal their origins. Very much in vain. Their disguises were not period perfect (far from it). And “no matter how improbable” there was only one conclusion he could draw from the various lapses he observed.
I thought she already had the power to beat anyone and everyone?
I would hope not. It’s one of those things that starts getting taken to far and tends to ruin the character, like Deadpool.
Now, Dave might beable to keep it reigned in, since he won’t be the writer who gets replaced by another writer and have the desire to one up the last one, but still, it would be a risk that he might want to take it farther.
Hissssssss! The only thing that “ruined” deadpool was ryan reynolds portraying him in x-men origins… Deadpool is frickin awesome…
But there was no way to have the “real” Deadpool and keep the same movie. Deadpool is such a huge personality that he would dominate any movie which showed his “real” persona.
So if they were going to make the movie which they made, with the already overly large cast of characters, having Deadpool be a mute “end boss” was at least a reasonable way to go about things.
Sydney has spoken to us, through the fourth wall, on more than one occasion. Clearly we should take that as artistic license. But I would be incredibly surprised if she did not consider that she might be the character in a comic book (or other story). I certainly have myself.
My readers must really like the ‘slice of life’ stuff. Because they do not get much in the way of Hollywood style action! Unless, of course, they keep popping into my visions of the worlds above, beyond and around us. Making me just the narrative vehicle, which ties them together.
*waves to audience*
I actually own The Watchmen, the comics and the DVD. The word ‘superhero’, while thrown out every so often, is almost never used. They’re either referred to as ‘heroes’, their own individual names/titles, or the name of the group that they happen to be a part of. Personally, I agree that Manhattan was the only real ‘super’hero, but let’s look at it from a different angle. Batman, Huntress, Robin/Nightwing, Green Arrow, and more I can’t think of right now. They were all considered superheroes, but not one of them had any powers. I’m not saying that the characters were superheroes, quite the opposite in fact. I can really only file Manhattan and Rorschach into that category. And Rorschach was more anti-hero then superhero. The rest were assholes. I mean, seriously? Let New York burn to create world peace? Like DaveB said, Manhattan at that point pretty much said ‘Fuck you all, I’m leaving.’, but Rorschach was the only other person who actually spoke up and said that the method was wrong. And I just realized that this whole comment has pretty much turned into a rant. Um… Nice update?
With all this talk of Watchmen, I’ll just drop this here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w
I can’t tell from this perspective but is Sydney face planting into the blond girl’s boobs?
She does seem to have written across that girl’s cheek.
Heh, nonomohe.
Aaak, “Henohenomoheji” — I was close
ومن الغريب سمعة مختلط التي لديها إمحوتب. وبصرف النظر عن اتخاذ الحراس، وشخصية تاريخية، لديك العديد من الإصدارات الأخرى أيضا. أبرزها المتناقضة يجري الزنزانات والتنينات تصويره بأنه إله الهندسة المعمارية والهندسة. مقابل المومياء (الفيلم)، والذي يصور في دور البطولة، وأسوأ من ذلك، كونه أتى من نهاية العالم!
That’s easy for you to say.
What about Dwayne Johnson?
Fallen good guy. It happens.
Now, is that Gibberish, or real text? i dont recognize the words but then its been years since i tried translating anything.
I tried replying in Ancient Egyptian, but HTML seems to lack the hieroglyphs. So I had to settle for Arabic. Watchmen’s nearest translation was guardians.
It’s not HTML that lacks heiroglyphs, HTML can display any unicode character. It’s that most computers lack fonts which display in the heirglyph range of Unicode which was added fairly recently.
That would include mine then, no doubt. I think it’s processors are a combination of clay tablets and teeny abacuses.
Just in case you are wondering what that may have to do with the software running on it, it is because those things are really fragile. Updates always irritate the hell out of me, because stuff always ends up going wrong on my PC, whenever there is a major one. So I turn off all but the essential updates.
And changing that policy? That’s where the fragile components come in. They probably would not survive the process of getting thrown out of the window, due to the inevitable technology frustration!
Is that the Dog Walking lady from way back in Marketing 101? She sure has a tendency to be startled by Halo-related events…
Nope, doubt it is Yorps friend
No, the woman walking the dog was much hotter. God I can’t believe I just said that :)
She is a nice lady. She likes giving long walkies, lots of petting and nice scooby snax.
But is not the same one who Sydney is marking, above.
…
BUY COMICS!!!!!!!
I am waiting on Sydney responding by grabbing an orb and “BADGERS”
Looking at her autograph one could assume here name is the mighty sideways T.
People should check out the latest “Goblins” to see how DaveB could have handled talk about Sydney’s balls
I don’t think calling Syd “Nuts” would get quite that big a laugh.
Was talking more about how the human is taking offence at the dwarf touching his balls :p
And how they are both unaware at what they sound like :D
Her autograph reminds me of this: https://i.imgur.com/qPRR5Ek.png
:D
[spelling nazi]
2nd panel : (…) give me flack (…)
Isn’t that “flak” as in Flugabwehrkanone instead of “flack” ?
[/spelling nazi]
Flak is anti-aircraft shells, ack-ack, creates shrapnel.
Flack is crap you give someone, creates friction.
[/choice of words nazi]
[etymolonazi]
Flak is the most correct spelling for both the military and criticism definitions (consider being subject to criticism a metaphorical bent on catching military flak), while flack, as so defined, is simply a variant stemming from misspelling of the same. The original usage of flack is completely different: “one who provides publicity; especially : press agent” (Merriam-Webster).
[etymolonazi]
[/etymolonazi]* orz
Onelook to the rescue!
flack intense adverse criticism
flak intense adverse criticism
Also, the former is “artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes” (as well as “a slick spokesperson who can turn any criticism to the advantage of their employer”), while the latter is “bullets or bombs that are shot at airplanes from the ground”.
So if I wrote a song which rhymed “flack” with “flak”, would it still count?
only if you believe rhyming “Homer” with “homer” counts.
Wait… a wild Harem appears?
Should we catch them all?!
Five Harems to rule them all, Five Harems to find them,
Five Harems to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Maxima! I choose you!
Don’t worry Sydney, I would always treat you like a person, and would never confine you to an inescapable prison, and only let you out to do my bidding!
Whee! I got a Deviant Art ‘favourite‘! And a lama. Not such a big deal for established artistic types. But quite a thrill for little ole me.
Shame the only way I had of finding an outlet for my ‘artistic’ vision was the compositing of two other artists’ work, mind. :-(
But I am pleased that I found a way of expressing it visually, rather than just via words. All thanks to suitably inspiring sources mind!
*wags tail happily, and curls up for a nice long nap*
*dreams of chasing bunnies and eating evil squirrels*
lama has 2 L’s
Maybe yorp meant the dalai lama? :)
Either that or he’s waiting for a “rama”, a “ding”, and a “dong” (as in the sound) to complete the set.
Hey, some of us have to shell out money to realize our artistic visions by hiring actual artists to do so and negotiating commercial rights so that we can use it in our writing projects.
Being able to describe my vision to somebody and have them bring it to life, without having to go through the legwork of years of art college, or the like, does sound nice. The money bit though… that would be a problem. Unless I could find somebody willing to be paid in freshly caught mice.
Or promises of a share of the action. Working for speculative gains, from an untested source? Mmm, the mice sound more viable.
Olivia’s skin tone looks off, too pale, wrong shade,wrong hue slightly.
particularly in comparison with the who’s who and her earlier pages
DaveB‘s art has improved slash changed since then, just compare… pretty much everyone with how they appear now and when they first appeared (well, those who appeared with the first year or so)
I don’t know about you guys, but I think Sydney does her H weird. I draw mine doing the sides first THEN the middle line.
That just means that you are weird, not Sydney
“No offense taken…as a superhero. But as a nerd and comic store owner, I’m OUTRAGED! RAAR!”
i think that pen broke the fourth wall
Syndey’s crazy. I mean, who actually writes an “H” in vertical-horizontal-vertical stroke order? Doesn’t everyone go vertical-vertical-horizontal?
Sydney is a rebel.
Perhaps when she attempts to focus it makes her very linear for however long it lasts?
Not everyone.
Didn’t think anyone did it that way
Well, I go V-H-V as well, and I also write ‘6’ the wrong way (starting with the loop).
Can I sue my teachers for their betrayal and neglect?
*sniff*
I write my H’s the way Sydney does. :/
Insanity!
Well… insanity and rebelliousness.
You might consider it insanity, but the Rebellion will overthrow the evil H empire! The Dark Side will be overcome and we shall use the force to write our H’s the right way.
Found it again. His wife’s work. https://sigeel.deviantart.com/
Called “Blood Stain”. I’m not all caught up but the last time I was it was shaping up to be more my type of story than her husband’s Sunstone stuff.
OCD activate!
×flack ○flak
…and it’s bugging me that Sydney was signing that paper up in the air at an angle unnaturally facing the camera instead of just using the glass counter convenient in front of her.
On the other hand, I like how she manages to draw a line across her fan’s face upon being startled :P
For some reason Ctrl+F failed to find the nazi post above orz
That is because it got deleted. Anybody who still has it appearing can get rid of it by clearing their cache (eg using Ctrl-F5 with Chrome). There would be no point leaving it there to offend folks.
He was given fair warning. A glance at the title roster will always show Anvil. She is one of the core characters here. As such it should be fairly obvious that the comic will attract a broad, and racially tolerant, following. Commenting in a way designed to be offensive, an provocative, to the majority of the community is downright rude and counter-productive.
Not that we would want to alienate anybody, even somebody with such extreme views. We just ask that they not be forced onto us, when we have made it clear that they are not welcome. Other posts that contribute to the comic and community, in a positive way, are welcome.
We do occasionally dip our toes into politics and some other pretty heavy topics. But if it gets too heated, or offensive to folks, we try to cool things down, and prevent it from causing more discord.
Above all this is a comedy comic, and we want to keep the comments enjoyable for everyone.
I meant the ‘spelling’ nazi post :P
Oh, those are fine. :-)
Just remembered something about one of the first few pages; something about vampires and sunlight and how that was a valid argument that a transparent shield doesn’t stop lasers. But here’s the kicker: vampires burning in sunlight isn’t a light-based effect.
Undead+Holy Symbol=Charred Corpse. This is an established fact and vampires seem to be the most vulnerable (see: zombies in church crypts but never vampires, except some of the more cult-like religions). The sun is the single largest and most prominent symbol of the single largest and most prominent religion in existence: Sun worship. Millions, if not billions, of people wake up every morning and say “Lovely morning” or comment on how nice the sunrise is. Many mainstream religions also have sun symbology coming out of basically everywhere; even the Christian cross started out as a pagan symbol of the sun, and the Star of David? I don’t know enough about the symbology of other religions to comment on them, but I’m fairly confident that they tie into sun worship on some level.
If that’s not enough, sun worship is also the single oldest religious practice in human, and probably alien, history, and we all know the older the magic the more powerful the magic. Something this powerful, widespread and ancient, and inherently tied in to banishing darkness (i.e. night) is guaranteed to vaporize vampires, not because of UV rays but because of the sheer divine energy. It’s like tying the vampire down in the middle of a Buddhist mandala in the center of the Vatican and on the sacred rock in Jerusalem, and Mecca, while every religious leader in existence blesses the creature. Times a thousand.
Before any arguments are made saying that the moon also an ancient religious symbol, 1) moon worship has died down over the past couple millenia and 2) it has always had conflicting facets; does it symbolize evil or good, or neither? In the end it seems to have settled on breaking all but the most powerful illusions, and having little effect otherwise.
Sounds like a fair argument to me.
If I could be arsed to do the legwork, I could even research some corroborating, or disputing, information locally. Given that the last Bulgarian vampire hunter is reputed to have retired to MY village. Whether that was in living memory or not, I have yet to ascertain mind. But there is a well-stocked, if small, library and a local historian. So, either way, there might be some juicy titbits to be … err… dug up.
It is always worth trying to filter out the Hollywood and romantic writers’ additions from the folklore mind. Let alone the outright errors. For instance don’t fall for using a wooden stake! There have been hundreds of archaeological digs, which have unearthed vampire burials* in this region (including the surrounding countries). Identifiable by the decapitated heads and IRON stakes through the heart.
Have a think about it. Pop them in the ground with a wooden steak in their heart, and there is a pretty good chance it will rot within a few years. At which point you have a pissed off vampire digging his way out, and having quite a personal grudge against you! So historically only those without easy access to iron used wood. Unless they thought they were dealing with a weak vampire. Iron will hold good at least long enough that it will not be your generation who are bothered by the angry dead!
* Yes, being serious, the digs are fact. Oh, and pointy fangs? Check to see what the experts say.
Plus, Iron already has it’s own following as harmful to creatures of darkness; like a cheap silver. Also: see porphyria, a group of closely related genetic defects surprisingly similar to traditional vampiris, complete with excess body hair.
*searches frantically for an edit button to avoid a double post* *fails*
I still prefer the method of dealing with undead mentioned in Reaper Man, by Terrry Pratchett, especially how the wizards deal with Poons.
the problem is vampires and sunlight is a fairly modern invention; note Dracula, carmila, or the blood countess- all were weaker in sunlight, but uncooked… there power came from darkness and shadow; it was the lack of such that made them weaker, not the sun.
That’s Hollywood for you: what starts with “the undead destroyed by holy daylight” ends with “Jessica Biel slicing vamps in half with an ultraviolet laser”…
Holy Symbols (you get a ‘plus’ for not limiting it to the Cross) do not equal Charred Corpses, it is simply a barrier, but it is really the faith of the holder that matters
I love the scene in the Mummy, where the weasely guy goes through his collection of holy symbols, trying to find one that would deter the mummy. That got a huge laugh in the cinema. And it tickled me that what actually worked was him using the various associated languages.
Very clever scripting. It did not break legends about mummies by introducing something new, just because it was convenient for the script, so that the guy would not be killed. Rather it handled it by having him act wholly in character, and yet, believably stumbling on something the mummy actually needed. A translator.
The fact that it was all done whilst maintaining a real feeling of dread, and then, unexpectedly throwing in the comic twist. Genius.
Too many comments to scroll through to see if it was mentioned, but I think the, “Face/forehead whack” reset Sydney did earlier worked. Instead of punching Harem in the face, she dove for cover…
That is a fresh observation. And not a bad one. Sydney’s way of kicking her old habits.
It might also be her picking up a bit of combat awareness, from surviving last night’s battle. Given that she was under orders not to go whacking things, the diving would be the instinct that she would have heightened, out of the normal choice between ‘fight or flight’.
Mind you… she can fly. But, I guess indoors dive would be less likely to result in a headache.
Or at least fewer ceiling tile counter attacks.
Wait a second, I’ve looked at this comic several times over the weekend however, is it my imagination or….. Did the blonde getting the autograph get a marker streak across the side of her cheek as Harem showed up while Sidney freaked and lost her grip on the marker?
she did
Another way to describe sunstone? A perosn who liked BS&M saw 50 shades of grey, got pissed, and wrote a comic “This is what BS&M is actually like, jerks.” Safe, sane, consensual.
Better description of Sunstone is “What 50 Shades SHOULD have been like, only with a lovely lady in place of the creepy stalker rapist Grey.”
The funny thing is I read 50 Shades, thought it was just OK*, and then realized that Christian Grey is a textbook stalker and control freak… and that if Anna had any idea about BDSM, she would NEVER have subbed for him. If she’d had any friends who were into BDSM, 200 Quatloos says they would have steered her away from Grey and over to a _real_ Dom/me–one who understands that consent does not mean “subtly pressure the inexperienced sub to go farther than he/she is ready to.”
*For those who like BDSM, and want to read good novels on the subject, go check out Anne Rice’s “Beauty” series or Exit to Eden. Not only does Anne know her stuff, but the BDSM in her novels is done the way it should be! Tell anyone who likes 50 Shades to go see what a REAL author can do with the subject!
What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on that early?
Glad that lady wasn’t holding a drink!
This is why in Harry Potter it’s considered polite to Apparate just outside of someone’s property and walk the rest of the way.