Grrl Power #453 – I am The Refiller!
Assault is named badly in the legal world. It’s the threat of violence, not actual violence. I mean, if you’re in the military, and you’re planning an assault on an enemy base camp, it doesn’t mean you’re going to call them up and say “We’re gonna kill you so bad with bullets and grenades, and you’re going to be dead all over the place so n’yah!” You can see why Sydney has her terminology mixed up.
Having blood regeneration would obviously make someone quite the item with vampires. Wolverine would do pretty well with the vamp ladies. But now I have to wonder with anyone who regenerates… if you cut off a finger, how much of them would regrow from that finger? The whole finger, part of the hand? Obviously it depends on how powerful their regeneration is, but in the case of a vampire drinking the blood of someone who regenerates, if it was insanely powerful, a vamp could potentially stay topped off for a long time on a single ingurgitation. Yeah, just learned that word. Of course, if the person’s regeneration was truly bonkers, they could potentially regenerate a clone of themselves every time they got a nose bleed, but that would probably be pretty bad for a vamp to sup.
“Executive Patrons” get to cameo a character of theirs, or themselves, or even themselves as a super, and this is what we came up with. Tom H. C.’s original idea was that he could refill anything, including stuff like bank accounts or empty stomachs, but that seemed like there was a lot of potential for abuse with a power that basically worked on semantic chicanery, so we compromised. By the way how mad would you be if you blew a wish on “refill small amounts of liquid.” I guess in the “maybe it’s a flashback and maybe that’s just what Sydney’s imagining” panel 3, the djini is a beginner, so she couldn’t have fulfilled a big wish anyway. Maybe she was limited to cantrip wishes. Actually I guess as incredibly minor wishes go, that’s not a bad one. The ability to never lose stuff, or never get lost would be nice. Perfect vision even when you’re 97. The ability to remember what page you were on in any book without needing a bookmark. Man, that doesn’t even qualify as a minor power.
I have two cool webcomics to share with you guys.
One is a fast moving comic with lots of lore and colorful art that sort of reminds me of Sergio Aragonés/Groo. Less cartoony, it’s just because of how busy the background and details are. In fact the creature designs and backgrounds make me a little self conscious about my gray stone council chamber populated with silhouettes, but I’ll swallow my pride and share the good stuff with you guys. It’s called Kill Six Billion Demons. Based on the health of their Patreon, some of you might have already found it, but good comics could always use more eyes.
The other one is topical to the current storyline. It’s called How to be a Werewolf. It’s about human looking robots replacing people in a space colony… no, I’m kidding, it’s obviously about werewolves. Specifically a werewolf girl raised by her human parents and none of them know anything about being a werewolf. That’s the premise anyway, read it to find out what happens.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon as soon as I get up. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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.
The other reason they like him is because he drinks (booze) before they drink from him. Better than vamp bar hopping.
But then some vamps take it to far and have to join AAA meetings (addicted to alcoholics anonymous).
:-D
One fang at a time.
This was used as a gag in Love At First Bite, too. Count Dracula was flapping his way around New York, decided to snack on a wino, and ended up pretty drunk himself. ☺
“Vhat vas that man drinking? My mouth tastes like the Volga River at low tide.”
Have you been reading Spider Robinson recently?
AA is for quitters
Anything indistinguishable, by both sufficiently advanced technology and magic, is Amazeballs!™
Say WHAT?!
• Amazeballs!
I like the one by the engineer Florence Ambrose of the web comic Freefall “Any Technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don’t understand it”.
(Though my favourite quote of hers is “Everything makes sense when you look at it right. It’s just sometimes you have to look really, really cockeyed.”)
Does it work on medication?
If it’s a liquid, yes
Imagine a fight. He pokes a guy who is hassling him in the chest and refills the guys bladder, twice.
Somehow I knew that someone would mention that trick.
Better yet, fills his bladder with blood >:)
Fills his brain stem with spinal fluid?
Fills his lungs with a mixture of liquid nitrogen and oxygen? The lungs would show the terrible damage from the freezing temperatures, but the liquids would become gaseous, escape out the nose and mouth (doing freezing damage along the way I am sure) and there would be no real evidence of exactly what had happened. Witnesses might see the liquid being coughed up as the poor victim died, but then could only report a fog or mist (as the cold liquids condensed any water vapor in the area) which dissipated quickly.
Or liquid gold, if wanting to make an example, and not caring about evading the consequences.
Actually, a little grim, but fill cells with liquid wax. you get a perfect anatomical model. Several artists (and the Nazi’s) have run around doing this one (the artists used recent cadavers. obviously. (It should be equally obvious what the Nazis used. Yes, they were often alive at the time. bastard Nazis)).
Having said that, I get the impression his power lets him refill a container (of a certain size/at a certain rate) with liquid, not fill a container with any fluid.
to put a disgusting spin on that, does that me he has an almost constant need to pee? Urine’s a liquid too after all…
Only if the refilling is involuntary — since we don’t see him drooling by the bucketful, he probably has to want something refilled.
on the other hand that probably means he could also refill other peoples bladders if he wanted to, I’m trying to decide if that’d be even remotely helpful compared to how icky that is.
It is even more icky if you realise that, when considering the most likely way he acquired his power,* that would require that the liquid had just been used as a drink!
Which makes the version, which he appears to have, much more appropriate, as a cute minor power. No poofing up “KA-ACID” rain above an opponent, for instance. Which you could do, if capable of “creating any liquid” (or even duplicating one, which you could do by carrying drop-sized samples, of any liquid you might want).
The “refill” part is critical, to maintaining the balance (if wishing to minimise the potential for abuse). Because that prevents just filling up (as I would be tempted) a cup with “liquid gold”. Although others have pointed out that there is a work-around, which (relatively) simply requires filling it up, with the desired substance, draining it, and then refilling.
That though would require having a container holding the specific liquid desired, in the first place. Which would, in the case of liquid gold, also need the metal to be heated, considerably, in order to liquefy it.
But that can be prevented, if it was a wish to “refill drink”. In which case it needs to have been “drunk”, in order to “refill”. Unless you find someone capable of drinking acid, liquid gold or liquid helium (at −269 °C) , all those options would be out. Of course, any of those are possible, in the Grrl Power Verse. But it does make it harder to abuse the super-power.**
“Here, drink this cup of acid, so I can refill it, and throw it at him.”
“We don’t have time, just throw that one!”
* “I wish I could refill drinks, at will”.
** A cup which is drunk from, then refilled, becomes a “refilled cup”. Emptying it out though (by means other than drinking) just makes it an “empty cup”, not a “drunk cup”. The power described would always require an act of drinking, in between each refilling, if taken absolutely literally. Which wishes tend to like doing.
It’d be useful (almost) any time he has to stand in line. Long lines at the bank, grocery store, amusement park, etc.? Ting! Ting! Ting! … and everyone in front of you has to suddenly rush to the restroom.
Long line at the restroom? … Oops!
Pretty sure I’d be doing stuff with these liquids if I had that power:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/higgypop/top-10-most-expensive-liquids-on-earth-6qcr
I find great amusement at the 9th item on that list being what it is, in relation to your comment. Thank you.
So…. I had an idea…. If someone brought this man a bucket that had molten gold in it…. Would he be able to refill the bucket with liquid gold? What about Titanium or Tungsten? SO MUCH POTENTIAL!
Been mentioned, yes
Titanium is hard to deal with because its melting point is close to its combustion temperature. It will spontaneously react with the atmosphere and slowly start turning to ash. If it started actually burning it is like magnesium can not be put out by water.
P.S. A bucket of molten tungsten would be about 6200 degrees F. I would not stand too close.
I didn’t catch it, but are genies part of the counsel? Or are they part of the demon contingent or don’t really exist in this reality, or are really rare?
Well, if he got his ability from a Genie, then they have to exist in their reality, no?
But as you said: would they be part of the Demon contingent or their own separate one?
I don’t think it’s been revealed yet. This one genie might just be a figment of Sydney’s wacky imagination, or that scene might be a real flashback! Either way, this is the first time we’ve seen anyone who was smoke from the waist down.
Or in this case, from the boobs down . . .
Sydney doesn’t know about his drink refilling powers at the moment of that panel so it’s either a flashback or a screwup.
Or a lucky guess.
Some things we should not place undue emphasis on. An artist has to try and compose the order of the panels to convey the scene, to best effect. Nobody has complained that they do not understand the flow of the narrative here. Which will have been subtly influenced by things, such as deciding to place that panel, at that point.
This is not an action scene, where, for instance ‘who started the fight’ may be important. So, for this kind of page, I feel we should just interpret it as a whole.
In this particular case Dave has deliberately left it open, to our own interpretation, as to whether it is a flashback, or imagination, as per his blog. This gives him the leeway, to deal with it in either fashion, later, should there be a specific need. So the order really does not matter.
Seeing how Sydney believes it is just blood regeneration in panel four, implies that the flashback is Crimson’s, not Sydney’s
No. If it is a flashback it is Thomas’s. He is present in it, Crimson is not.* Crimson is only the narrator, retelling what she knows. Do note that Dave has specifically indicated that it could either be a flashback or Sydney imagining things.
If it is her imagination, then all she is doing is speculating on how he gained his power. Not what the power is.
Which is one of the reasons why I feel the panel sequence is irrelevant here. Dave is giving us the various clues. One of which is that the power may be restricted to ‘drinks’ only. But if you get your knickers in a twist, about the panel sequence, you would need to disregard that option.
Folks are welcome to do that, of course, but I think the ‘drinks only’ hypothesis fits very well. So I am not going down that path myself. The fact that Thomas says “Actually I can refill any liquid” I consider to be compelling support.
* Obviously she may be present, but just out of sight. But it is best to restrict ourselves to the facts we know, for sure, if we want to have the best chance of correctly interpreting things.
It could still be a flashback, to what Tommy told Crimson, but the fact Sydney believes it is just blood in the next panel leads credence to it not being a Sydney-fantasy (other wise her little fantasy would involve Tommy being in an accident and seeing his precious body fluid draining away, or in a hospital and a loved one in need of a transplant, but both of which would be too complicated for a single half panel like that)
I’d actually think that (what I was thinking earlier) eldritch abominations and genies would be in the “other” or “etcetera” class.
Only one problem… if he can refill any liquid with a touch why doesn’t he refill the blood in their bodies without having to be almost drained every time
Because… vamp drinking doesn’t work that way, they suckle on the people (and animals) for food, like some people do with McKing Donuts
Less fun!
This is a problem which would be solved by the genie having granted him powers to refill any ‘drink’, as posed on earlier pages of the comments. Bearing in mind that we do not know for sure whether genies even exist, as that might just be Sydney’s imagination.
However, if that is the case, then he himself is ‘a drink’, due to having the vampires drinking his blood. They however are not. Vampires do not feed on each other, so cannot be classed as drinks by the terms of such a wish.
I guess the best way for him to profit from his power would be to refill printer ink cartridges, as printer ink by volume is apparently worth more than gold!
He would be a good support for tech based heroes. Like refilling Spidey’s web fluid.
I wonder if he can do that stuff inside Cadbury Creme Eggs… *drools*
The original gooey filling (made on ancient machines in the deepest dankest Dunedin), or the crap replacement made on the newer machines in England?
Kind of reminds me of one of the marvel novel short story anthologies. A mutant ran a coffee shop. He pulled in a bigger profit because he could turn any liquid into coffee. Can’t remember exactly how he made up the difference since profits and expenditures are accounted for in audits.
One day he got ticked when a superbattle ripped up an area in front of the shop. almost damaging it too. A few of the villains developed sudden onset of all coffee in all parts of the body with blood flowing. Nobody figured out it was him.
Hot or cold coffee in their veins? And, umm, wouldn’t that kill them?
They didn’t survive the experience
And from what I can remember. The coffee he made had to be boiled like normal after the liquid was changed into it.
So, he has the power to turn any liquid, into cold coffee? Any particular type of coffee? Or that Starbucks crap?
I honestly can’t remember anymore lol. I think he had to buy cheap crap too because some people liked it better than what he created from any liquid
No accounting for taste then :p
This was early to late 90s short stories in an anthology sold on bookstore shelves. I’m surprised I remembered as much as I do about the character
Ladies and gentleman, allow me to take a brief moment away from the wild and wacky antics of the Grrl Power Universe to offer a sad goodbye to the late, the great Gene Wilder. 😢
https://variety.com/2016/film/news/gene-wilder-dead-dies-willie-wonka-young-frankenstein-1201846745/
Yeah, heard about that yesterday: he didn’t want his condition to be known while he was alive because he couldn’t bare the idea of even one sad thought because of it :(
In which case, instead of being sad, we should think back to some of his funny roles. And be glad that we can rewatch his legacy, in perpetuity.
I felt that he was at his absolute best when teamed with Richard Prior. They made a perfect comedy duo!
Of course, like said, he just didn’t want to be the bearer of sadness, at least not while he was alive
And so we bid a fond farewell as the Waco Kid rides off into the sunset.
https://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w44/spottedwhitehorse/cowboy_sunset-1.jpg
It’s pronounced “Frahn-ken-steen”.
A legend is dead. I loved him in Blazing sadles and Young frankenstein.
He was a genius on stage even in those less god films he was in he still lifted the show.
Nobody has mentioned World’s Greatest Lover.
That’s some One Piece level semantic superpower. It could be horribly abusable if he put his mind to it.
Kaizokuo ni ore wa na ru!
Dave said earlier that there was some book that had heroes with seemingly dumb/useless powers making the most of them, but you’re totally right.
on the other hand. a good one trick medic. If someone’s lost a lot of blood. He could possible counter it.
I’m sort of surprised that ARC hasn’t signed him up in connection to FEMA – disaster hits, you fly him out, and you have an infinite blood supply. Even if you don’t want him to refill spent blood bags (and medicine bottles) due to contamination fears, he can, at least, supply to those of his blood type, and an infinite supply of A- might not be perfectly handy, but it does mean you can save your O for the pickier blood situations.
Other powers are not used to their full potential since it would imbalance the story. Take telekinesis. Comic artists like to show people mentally picking up things and throwing them since it has good visuals. A more efficient way of using it in battle is to simple grab hold of someone’s heart and squeeze (or if you don’t allow manipulation of non-visible objects, then their chest or neck). There is no counter to it since there is no object to pry off the victim. However, having someone just gasp and fall over does not make for exciting action scenes. (‘lack of faith’ notwithstanding) The same technique could be used as an untraceable assassination tool since there is no weapon or finger prints. You would only need to avoid any cameras or witnesses in the vicinity that put you at the scene. To make it look like a stroke, just gently pinch the carotid arteries until the brain runs out of O2.
If we assume visability is a limiting factor then flipping your cape over your head would save you from being force choked and the invisible woman would suddenly be a lot more useful.
There is also, however, the idea that, since telekinesis is basically you imposing your will on things, it can’t be done to anything with a will of its own.
The human body is a well-oiled and fine-tuned machine created from millennia of evolution(or by god, you choose), but throw a wrench in the works and it breaks just like every other machine.
But not unless you can take the cover off. That well-oiled machine has lived this long because it has ways to protect itself, from outside interference.
If we assume that psychic powers exist, and always have, then evolution will have capitalised, on any survival traits, which would provide some measure of protection against such.
Oh, there are storylines where Sue Storm is badly pushed, or there are evil twin shenanigans involved, and then she’s a beast with her powers. Using forcefields to choke and crush is the most common, but then there are things like making your eyes’ light receptors perfectly translucent. Also, if an object is made of forcefields rather than atoms, only your focus limits how fine you can make the edges. (sadly I can’t seem to find the comic scene where she managed to solo a brood queen with a sword)
True dat. She took out the rest of the Fantastic Four by herself when under the mental influence of the Fear Monger and made it look easy. And that was with her subconscious working against her using attacks that would be inherently lethal.
Granted, she had a mullet-like haircut at the time, so she had the latent rage to spare (do mullets cause rage or does rage cause mullets?).
I don’t recall that one, but I do recall one where Sue cleft in twain one of Doc. Doom’s robot imposters. Just bisected it with quick thought, no real effort. Threatened to do the same to Doom as well. actually flustered him. it was a great moment. A second scene had her choke out the Hulk (this was dumb Hulk who really couldn’t figure out he was running out of oxygen)
Or, maybe it was the smart Hulk who knew to stop the loss of oxygen is to stop the Storm
I do. among other things, she put a force bubble in Mr Fantastic, and expanded it; blew him up like a balloon (see the side note, that she was picking non-lethal attacks subconsciously – which is why Johnny wasn’t exploded into chunky salsa by gastro-intestinal force bubbles)
Or as one person has effectively, well in fiction. shown in a fanfic on the site twisting the hellmouth https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-28614/DianeCastle+The+Secret+Return+of+Alex+Mack.htm
A person with telekinesis can end half the battles he/she is in by simply squeezing the carotid artery until they pass out. And if the person perfects it over time, they can multitask in battle when there are some that won’t affect.
Dianne Castle is a long-term member of our community.
I love it when my memory actually correctly makes an association, with a name. That so rarely happens for me!
*wags tail excitedly*
She’s everywhere…
You did not make your awareness role. You wrote “there is no crime for battery’. The correct way to write that sentence is “there is no CHARGE for battery”.
Roll again. All you need is a 2 or better.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/ER95N95R4/mobius-1-sided-die
Sorry, misplaced reply post. Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.
lol
So wait, then the legal term for sexual assault should be sexual battery? Or is sexual assault technically only the threat to rape and the actual thing is sexual battery or just plain old rape?
Misreading now brings to mind how exactly someone would charge a Sexual Battery
Barberian just needs a week, or two, to recover.
The question is fraught with complexity, because we are a global community. The answer varies depending on where you live. Plus is specially complicated, in the context of the comic, as it is set in the USA. Where every state has its own laws.
So the question can only be correctly answered when dealing with a particular jurisdiction. We (the readership) made generalisations about “assault” and “battery”, which DaveB has incorporated into the comic, in the form of the mini-comics, underneath. However they are only correct in some states. Sadly not including the one they are presently in. New York does not have “battery” as a crime, only “assault”.
As such, here is the penal code for New York, as regards sexual offences. As you can see the pertinent crime is listed as “Predatory sexual assault”. However there are also various others, including various classes of “rape”.
That’s because, in New York City, Battery is a public park :P
“The Bronx is up, and the Battery’s down”
That’s from the Depp “Sleepy Hollow” movie, isn’t it?
The Kelly “On The Town” movie.
Shoulda known the musical :(
CHARGING: In this case I’m thinking of an electronic device and exactly where/what part of the body it would have to be plugged into in order to not interfere with the sex which would power up the battery for future use.
And what exactly someone would use an electronic device sexual battery for
Or in simpler terms. I wasn’t thinking of charges in court brought against someone for it. I was thinking weird electronic device being charged by something
Possibly DaveB will have Maxima make the above clarification, as a third mini-comic, if he has picked up on this. I have a mental image of Sydney freaking out, at the concept of having to know all this!
Fortunately she does not. Although we just think of ArcSWAT as being ‘cops’, they are, in actuality, Federal agents. They have to be, in order to have national jurisdiction, in the USA. As such they are not required to know specific laws for each and every state. It is their job to enforce federal laws. However, due to them also providing super powered support, nation wide, as required, they will doubtless be called upon to assist local law enforcement, even in non-federal matters. From time-to-time.
Under such circumstances even Maxima is subordinate to the local officer, in charge of the scene or case. In terms of making calls, on whether a crime is actually being committed, or if an arrest need be made (as opposed to Maxima being obliged to otherwise follow their orders). Simply because they have been trained in the complexities of the law in their particular state.
Of course if both Federal and State crimes are being committed then that is a different matter. I imagine that most of the time Federal officers take precedence. But, as we can see in TV and movies, it can cause dispute over who has jurisdiction, if one side or the other is not inclined to cede control over.
Which brings us full circle back to succubi.
Yup, that makes zero sense given that assault means only threatening.
On the plus side, with a power like that, you’d always win pissing contests. So long as they’re literal pissing contests, that is…
I wish I could say “… but piss is not a drink, and therefore his power does not affect it.”
Two words: Bear Grylls.
(I wish people would stop giving Bear so much grief over the fact that he did that. They’re like “Oh, he’s a fake!”. No, he isn’t. And yes, you can drink your own urine. It’ll stave off dehydration for another two or three days. Problem is, you can’t do it for more than two or three days, or you’ll start suffering from the same effects as kidney failure. Your kidneys’ job is to get poisons out of the blood stream; by drinking your own urine, you’re putting those poisons right back in.)
Bear is simply a giant douchey tosser
Read a story years before Bear crawled out of his hole, about soldiers somewhere in Asia during WWII having to drink their own urine (or the others’ urine), not sure how Grylls did it, but the soldiers filtered the urine through sand placed in one pair of shorts (with the legs tied off to stop the sand escaping)
Personally, major problem have with Grylls, is he never does any of his ‘survival’ shows without a full film crew, there is another guy who does his own camera work (which typically means doing twice as much work, as he would have to walk somewhere, place the camera, then back track so you can see him walking in the distance, and then of course having to go back and retrieve the camera)
The reason he does that, is because in a real survival situation, you’re probably not going to be hauling 60 or 70 pounds of camera equipment, spare batteries, etc. In fact, that’d probably be the first thing you’d ditch, unless there was something that you could use to help you survive.
Oh, and I know who you’re talking about. Les Stroud, aka “Survivorman”. But unlike Bear, who probably knows nothing about actual filmmaking (aperture, f-stops, etc), Les is a professional musician and filmmaker as well as a survivalist.
Possibly, there was one time, in a simulated winter survival, he was forced to end it early, he also simulated having an injured arm but had to abandon that halfway through and that’s possibly why he was forced to abandon altogether
Drinking urine works short time. Long time its deadly, but if you filter it using sand ash you can lessen the poisen and make it less bad, still bad.
Still dead days or dead in a months if you drink piss.
The really bad effects come if you continue to drink your own urine without adding water, so the poisons are concentrated and make the job for the kidneys that much more difficult.
The Romans used to drink urine to whiten their teeth. The acids in the urine provided the whitening effect. I’ve read both drinking and brushing with the urine, so I’m not sure which or possibly both are accurate historical accounts. I’m also puzzled by exactly how this property of and use for urine would have been discovered…
Flavius: Damn, my teeth are all yellow.
Urinus: Here, drink this. It’ll whiten them right up.
Flavius: Damn, that has the worst flavius!
Urinus. Yeah, that’s because it’s me.
Don’t try this at home, kids! Toothpaste does a much better, and more hygienic, job.
MAXIMUS DECIMUS MERIDUS: Legionnaires Flavius and Urinus, you are hereby charged with taking the piss!
As a matter of interest, here is a list of federal charges, in the USA.
Assault is on the list (specifically excluding touching another person). Battery is not.
This is a paradox, on face value. But if we look at the purpose of federal authorities, it is primarily to deal with crimes which have an affect across multiple states. If someone is being physically attacked, then both parties are in proximity to each other, in the same state.* So this is clearly better handled under state laws. Whereas threats to kill can be made in one state (or nation even) but affect individuals in another (or many others).
I would interpret this as the crime being out of Arc-SWATs jurisdiction. Touching is taking place, by virtue of the vampires striking Thomas. Which precludes it from being considered the federal crime of assault. Although it would fall under one of the state crimes.
* Barring a fist fight leaning over the state line, for example.
Or if it takes place in front of the courthouse here in Texarkana. “State Line Avenue” really is the state line. If you’re going south, you’re on the Texas side. If you’re going north, you’re on the Arkansas side.
You can’t see it at this angle, but there’s a photo stand next to the sign. You can have your photo taken literally with “one leg in each state”. If a fight were to break out, it would cross state lines. On the other hand, both police departments and the FBI all have adjuct stations in that courthouse (and the main police departments and FBI office are within five city blocks.) So someone would be onsite pretty quick to break it up.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-xe4r1Mhyx1k/U2l7hmXE8CI/AAAAAAAAkyQ/sIyw27jROGg/s640/TexarkanaMPO.jpg
Kansas City has a State Line road (or maybe Avenue – been years since I’ve to Mizzou). The workaround for the various cities affected by cross-state crime / flight to evade took longer to figure out than expected. Cross line, inform city and state authorities vis dispatch, keep following crook – once crook is caught, turn over to authorities in the city where caught and immediately file extradition request.
Complicated, but it seems to work.
Yeah, there’s a standing deal here too. If you’re in hot pursuit, you can continue your pursuit. To simplify extradition, the twin cities built the Bi-State Justice Center. So the process of extraditing someone from Arkansas to Texas (for example) is as simple as walking the inmate from this side of the jail to the other side of the jail (which is on the 5th floor).
Oh, and yes, we’ve had a handful of escape attempts (three, as I recall). But very few inmates are slender enough to slip out the miniscule window (which does not open, so has to be broken out), and with both police forces having their HQ in the Bi-State, escape on foot is unlikely. Especially when you break your ankle, which happened to one of them.
Conversely, there’s two other local jails; I remember someone tried to break in, to deliver some contraband. Well… he was caught, arrested, and put in the same jail. He wanted to get in, but I don’t think that’s what he had in mind. ;)
That brings up visions of how they might expedite justice!
Don’t fall into that mindset puppy
MSpears led me there, I claim entrapment!
Still there aren’t I?
*pounds paws on mental cell, in an attempt to escape*
as an Australian, i confess to not being 100% on the details of the whole federal/state crime thing. but i would have interpreted it as “can the state authorities deal with it?”
since “it” in this case involves vampires, I’d say it’d be arc-swat’s problem
The simple version is that you have four levels of government in the U.S. In descending order of priority:
1) Federal
2) State
3) County
4) City
If the federal government doesn’t make a law about something, the state can make one.
If the state hasn’t made a law about that thing either, the county can.
If the county hasn’t made a law about that thing either, the city can.
Take alcohol, for example. The federal government does not regulate if a community is “wet” or “dry” (whether or not alcohol is allowed). I live in the state of Texas. Texas also does not regulate if a community is wet or dry.
However, until recently, Bowie county has been a dry county, thanks to county law. Only recently has it been changed; packaged liquor may still not be sold (at all), but packaged beer and wine may be sold between 7am to midnight M-F, 7am to 1am on Saturday, and noon until midnight on Sunday.
On the other side of the city (my hometown straddles the state line between Texas and Arkansas), packaged alcoholic beverages (of any kind) cannot be sold on Sunday or on Christmas Day, but may be sold between 7am and 1am the rest of the week. So anyone looking for packaged liquor just drove over to the other side of state line and bought it there.
On the other hand, in 1984 the Federal government set the minimum age for drinking alcohol to 21. The state, county, or city can pass a law that makes the minimum age higher in their territory, but not lower, because the federal law takes priority.
Please note that this is a very simplified version, and may even be over- simplified. The point, however, is that Federal law > State Law > County Law > City Law.
This story from Iceland shows that the Fey community can get ornery when provoked. A construction crew buried their sacred rock under debris, and then:
“the road was subsequently flooded and a colleague of Zophoniasson who came to clear the route was injured. Then industrial machinery began to fail and a journalist who came to cover the growing chaos fell into a mud pool and had to be pulled to safety.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/iceland-unearths-rock-appease-angry-elves-195326271.html
I have a three-legged pussy cat sleeping on my lap at the moment. I just want to take a moment to apologise, where some of my comments may have been a bit brusque recently. Likewise for where the posts have been overly-long and too numerous. I have been trying to keep myself awake, beyond my normal activity cycle, looking out for this kitty. As always, the community provides an excellent way of doing so entertainingly!
The cat has a grievous wound and, sadly needs to be put down. So I am just waiting until the vet comes, in the morning. This is not Feral Cat, who I mentioned before, just a friendly cat that visits from time-to-time. Although Feral Cat’s territorial nature has made the vigil much harder. Having driven off this cat, a couple of times, that I know of.
But, not wishing for this to be a downer, for others, the cat has been getting all the treats and pampering possible, and is resting comfortably, at the moment. Hopefully, in a day-or-two, I will have managed to catch up on the lost sleep. So I will be back to my average levels of overbearing and/or irritating posts, rather than as extreme as I have been, of late.
My apologies to anyone, who I may have offended, or who felt fed up at seeing the pooch everywhere.
Poor kitty and poor Yorp.
You are showing your good heart by giving the kitty comfort until the vet arrives to do what must be done.
You’re a good guy, Yorp.
Don’t personally like cats, but still sad to hear when things like this happen, specially if it is a friendly cat (really hoping that the injuries are not due to deliberate human actions) :(
My heartfelt condolences. I’ve always felt pretty awful about the fact that my first dog died all alone in our backyard with nobody around to comfort him. In that regard at least, your cat is very lucky.
Thank you all for your very kind words and sentiments. Sorry, still not slept, and have edited this post down, as best I can, in this state. It is still long, so sorry again. But you might find it worthwhile, by the end…
Feral Cat has indeed adopted me. So would be “my cat” (very loosely, given it will not even let me pick it up). But the other, injured, cat is clearly a domestic cat and (other than its injury) was obviously well fed and cared-for. During my protracted vigil, to spot it again, I had consulted the vet (there is only one in this area) and he confirmed there was nothing that could be done to save it. So wanted to put it down a.s.a.p. but, as I did not have it, that had to wait.
However I did ask around everyone I knew nearby, to see if they knew who owned it. With no joy. Barring, eventually, one comment “I think I know who’s cat it is, but if it is theirs, do not check with them. I know that all they would do is hit it over the head, with a rock, to kill it!”
Given that friends have seen that being done, in this village, I took that conclusion seriously. Not finding anyone else, even after involving the mayor, I arranged with he vet to come out immediately (or first thing in the morning, if at night), once I located it. Then kept looking out for it.
Unfortunately, as it turns out, when I got a message to him, in office hours, after it turned up, he was actually working in the city. So would not be back until tomorrow morning. It was too late, at that stage, to catch the state bus. And the private bus does not allow animals, even in carry-boxes. So I had no alternatives, but to wait (I could either afford to pay for a taxi or pay to have it put down, but not both).
I needed to take my dog out for her walk though. She had been very patiently staying on her sofa, but needed some exercise, or would start patrolling the house, and I could see serious conflict in that. So I had to coax the cat into the carry-cage. Just so that we could open the door without it squeezing out and escaping (which it kept trying to do, whenever my dog needed to go out).
So we just took a walk to the local post office, and decided to ask the post-office mistress to spread the word, so the owners would not be left wondering what had become of the cat. She got all excited at this, as did her daughter (who has been with her mum, at work, a lot, due to having a broken arm). It turns out that it is her daughters cat “Tommy”!
Weirdly, given that they live half-way across the village (and the village is very spread out, having once been a substantially sized town, which has become depopulated)*. Far beyond where I had been making enquires. Being a former mayor, and the post office mistress, she is one of the very few people in the village who may be able to afford to have the extensive operations done on the cat, which could save its life!
None-the-less I did tell her that the vet has advised putting it down. But she is adamant that (somebody who’s name I did not recognise) will be able to save it. She indicated that the pet is very much loved, and she would not consider having it put down.** So it looks like Tommy will live! And, conveniently, he was already in the carry-cage, so they could take him with them immediately.
I did though take the precaution of asking her to call the vet, who I was expecting, to cancel him coming to my house. Given her job, she knew that I have to make my calls from the post office, so was fine with that. Importantly though, it will give him the opportunity to talk her plan through, with her, and make sure it is viable. And if she fails to call him, and he turns up at my house, I will take the vet around to her house, in person, to check up on the cat!
Sorry, this has been very off-topic. So your kind words, despite that, were much appreciated, especially for the support they offered.
* Hence why we have so many cemeteries, but so few living residents.
** Setting my mind at ease, over any envisioned rock-related scenarios!
Good to hear your little friend may yet survive! 😸
I love the fuzzy-wuzzies! My family has always had at least one dog and one, sometimes two cats, and most of them adopt us. They just show up on our doorstep from out of nowhere and steal our hearts and none of our neighbors admit to knowing anything about them and no one responds to the signs we put up.
And sadly I know someone like your guy with the rock, too. One of my coworkers will talk casually about drowning unwanted kittens in a bucket. 😢
Your coworker had better hope the police/SPCA never find out… as of 2014, animal cruelty is a felony offense in all 50 states!
Great to hear the wonderful news puppy ☺
Did you plan on walking to the post-office? Or did Buffy take you there knowing who the owner was? ☺
Ignoble: a similar thing happened with us, about 30 some years ago: we use to have cats in our old house, and one mother cat decided she was going to eat her new-born, one managed to survive but was injured, but after a day of careful care it gradually started to move and crawl (back legs were probably broken, or the spine) but Brother-dickhead-in-law decided to take it out side and dispose of it!!!! :(
Weirdly enough, Buffy did!
But only because I told her [spoken in the same exaggerated tone of voice as I use in saying “Walkies!”] “Parcel, Buffy, Parcel!” Buffy knows this to mean there is a good chance she has received a parcel, at the post office. So will head there, with her tail wagging!
Just to show you how smart Buffy is, once we have the parcel, she will give it a cursory sniff, and feign indifference. Despite picking up on all sorts of assorted yummies, inside. This is because she knows that the parcel only gets opened once we go back home. Whereas she wants to carry on on her walkies!
So it is only when we get back inside, after having had a nice long walk, that she will be sniffing around the parcel, and getting all excited, with her body language conveying “come on, open it up!”
For information, I had been in Bulgaria for over five years, without a single parcel. Once I got Buffy though, we had one sent out every month or two, ever since! They are even addressed to “Buffy”! Which always amuses the above mentioned post mistress.
WOO HOO! Free printer ink 4-eva!
YES!
Honestly, I really don’t blame Crimson and Scarlet.
Talk about being topical: Chris “Douche-Drinker” Brown has just been arrested for Assault With A Deadly Weapon
Yep. And made bail.
DAMNIT!!!!! >:(
I wouldn’t worry. I don’t think he’s got the brains to be a flight risk. Especially since he was claiming that this was a police overreaction / police harassment. He’s gonna want his day in court to try to prove it.
Tommy Blood-bringer had better hope his ability doesn’t get ‘leaked’ to a non-Counsel member vamp…
So that’s what happened to Squints after the Sandlot.
I did wonder how I got addicted to Coca-Cola, last year?
*snorts indignantly*
Amusingly enough, Coca-Cola originally had ecgonine (an alkaloid in coca leaf that can be synthesized to create cocaine) as one of its ingredients, from 1885-1929.
Of course, as technology improved, the amount had been declining for years prior to finally becoming completely cocaine-free; in 1902, it was as little as one part in 50 million. So for every 25 million gallons of Coca-cola syrup, at most you’d find 0.006 of an ounce of cocaine.
And even back in 1885, there wasn’t enough cocaine in it to give a fly a buzz… but it’s amusing that 130 years later, cocaine was found in a Coca-Cola factory in France.
I suspect that this is the sort of mistake that will get someone in the drug cartel fired . . . at . . . with a large caliber gun . . . if they’re lucky.
News just came out of North Korea this week that a cabinet minister was recently executed using an anti-aircraft gun. Reportedly because he fell asleep in a meeting with Kim Jong Un.
One word of advice to surviving ministers: ‘No-Doz’.
Well at least they gave him a quick but messy death.
Not that all reports of North Korea executions (mostly disseminated by the South Korea intelligence service) should be taken as completely reliable. One of the most recently ‘executed’ officials has since resumed official duties!
I suspect that Snowflame https://comicvine.gamespot.com/snowflame/4005-73164/ is behind this!
I wonder why he only got the one official appearance? :-D
I don’t like the art on this page.
Yeah, I see what you mean. Dave just can’t do toenails right.
lol no xD but I loved your reply. I meant the first and third panel… they just feel weird. I should have been more specific.
Well, for panel 1, I do grant that, if pretty girls are in shot, it is a shame not to have their faces visible. But, beyond that, all of the components necessary to understand the image are present and readily taken in, at a glance.
The advantages to it are that it puts you in a perspective that an observer, standing there, would actually be in. So it gives the feeling of being in the room, in person. And intimately close to the principles, at that.
Perhaps this is the underlying cause of your disquiet? Especially given the corpse-like appearance Thomas has, in that panel. You may be subconsciously shying away from being associated with that. If so, that says positive things about you. It is a disturbing image, after all.
The only thing I find disturbing though, about panel 3, is that the genie’s eyes appear to be very slightly vacant or glazed over. But not unrealistically so. It is a familiar look, speaking of someone at the end of a long, exhausting, shift. Resulting in her staring into space.
Which can also be interpreted as the genie staring into space, whilst figuring out how to grant the wish. So this adds narrative depth and/or interpretive options, to the scene.
OK maybe a girl with smoke for her lower body might also pass muster as ‘disturbing’. But necessary for a genie!
As for the dream-bubble type composition, it is very important for the comic to continue depicting such, or something similar. I think it is wonderful that DaveB is experimenting with conveying imagined, or remembered, scenes in a visually more distinctive way.
This is to be encouraged, for both panels. Finding new angles, and techniques, keeps the art interesting and fresh. So long as it conveys the intended meaning well, challenging our conservative expectations, on composition and content, is a very healthy thing, for art to do!
No, that’s just Tommy, they don’t keep him around for his looks :P
Dave: You may have given Kill Six Billion Demons more eyes than they could handle–the site went down because of bandwidth issues….
Maybe it was the demons’ plan all along, i mean they are demons right?
Oh noes! DaveB forgot the sheer power present in his words!
[spoken in a hushed voice]
He who can kill Six Billion Demons, with his words alone!
DaveB no longer needs the Weirding Module!
“Grrl Power is a comic about a crazy nerdette that becomes a superheroine. Humor, action, cheesecake, beefcake, ‘splosions, and maybe some drama. Possibly ninjas.”
I think this needs updated.
Updated to what? What needs updating about it? o_O
Perhaps ReaperD is refering to the fact that we had a lot of supernatural creatures like werewolves and vamps lately?
Yeah. The closest reference to all this is “possibly ninjas” which is far from giving information about what’s actually there.
Ahh, you want spoilers in the adverts? Odd. Those put me off watching the product being advertised.
Literally and with actual effect. I used to go to the cinema once or twice a week. With the sole exception of things which were already on my ‘must see list,’* if a trailer laid out the entirety of the plot, along with a scene clearly at the end, I would not go to watch it. Nor was I alone. Either I, or one of my mates, would say “nice mini-movie, no need to go an see the expanded version”, which would then get a unanimous round of “aye”, “yup” or “waste of time”, “no point forking out, to see that!”
The ‘maybe ninjas’ provides warning that it is not ‘just superheroes alone’. Whilst it could say ‘and maybe some other stuff too’, even that much can ruin some stories. 6th sense, for instance, is much better seen without the hint that there is a major plot twist.
Importantly we are (principally) following the story of Sydney. She lives in a world where supers were known. And it is intrinsic to her character that she ‘always expects ninjas’. However to give the readers clues that she does not have, is to lessen the experience of empathising with her. Loosing the joy of discovering these things, at the same time, as she experiences them.
Mind you, I must confess that I have had the same thought as you. So it is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask. However the above is the conclusion I came to, upon thinking it through.
* Which would have me shutting my eyes, and generating white noise in my ears,** to block any spoilers.
** Can other folks do this, on demand? I never though of asking that before. I assume it is just making the blood rush, or somesuch. Creating a rumbling type noise, like tyres on tarmac.
SO… Guy can refill any container by touching it.
Maxima gained her powers, which are as of yet unsurpassed, by being splashed by a liquid from a magical geode.
How long is it going to be before Guy touches the magical geode in Money Bag’s possession, and we suddenly have an army of Maxima powered corp goons?
Yup, that is a very real possibility.
Not guaranteed to work mind. All it would require is that the museum has cleaned it, with some liquid, in the intervening years. Which is more likely than not, if it was used in any display. If even a drop of that pooled, in the bottom, refilling it would give cleaning fluid, not geode water.
Also – it is uncertain if the geode-water was in some sense sentient – if so, if he refilled it, would the new liquid be willed, as well, and is that needed to give the powers involved. For example, if the geode-water held a nanite colony, the refill might not, or the nanites that resulted would be “unprogrammed,” or would be programmed and thus refuse to turn anyone other than Maxima (“Maxima, MAXIMIZE!”)
It would still allow for the study of Maxima creating geode water, which could make whoever could do that make giant jumps toward creating Maximas
The more I think about this the more I want that power. Even if he couldn’t do the volume required by the oil companies he could still refill his own tank.
Okay, I don’t drive, but I do sell essential oils for a living. Even at wholesale we spend a few hundred dollars on them each time we order. If I could product an endless supply it would lower my expenses and we could even lower our prices. I could also refill my family members’ tanks and likely come up with other uses.
Still one of my favorite powers would still be self cloning like Naruto or maybe Harem. Then I could work a bunch of jobs and still have fun all day. Then again what could beet making gold. Then I wouldn’t need to work if I could make even one bar ever so often.
Yea, I had the refilling the car in mind. One problem being if he does turn out to be restricted to ‘refilling drinks’ (which is not explicitly stated, so it may not be the case). But, even then, if a vampire can make Thomas’s blood be classed as ‘a drink’, then the same ‘wish logic’ might extend to a car drinking fuel, from its tank.
If having no restrictions on liquid creation, then liquid gold would provide you with your final power, whilst still having all the perks of the initial one. Which is something I would certainly use, with that power!
Harem-style replication would be awesome, even without the teleportation. I would not want a cloning type one though, with each having separate identities. The universe is only big enough for one of me. No impostificators will be tolerated, on pain of death!
Well essential oils seem to be more expensive then gas, some of them anyway. I do see your point with liquid gold. I wonder if people would buy rose or sandalwood essential oil if I sold them for cheep. If I had the refill power I could sell what would normally be quite an expensive for very little and still make money. However $20 or $30 dollars for 1/2 oz of either of those two would be questionably cheep if you had any idea how hard they are to make.
On the topic of clones, I favor Naruto’s version as they are expendable, so I don’t have to worry about losing them, or even having them walk back home. They also have independent minds but still follow orders so I can send them out of jobs and they could pay attention to what they are doing, even if I don’t know what they are up to. I would also remember everything they did after they dissolve.
That said I still wouldn’t mind Harem’s version. Still looking through five sets of eyes might be a bit much for me. I do see some perks. Also, can some of the Harems sleep while others remain awake? I wonder if she can remain active 24/7 if they sleep in shifts.
As regards the last, yes, Harem can remain constantly active, by sleeping in shifts. It explicitly states so, in her cast details.
In GURPs terms, Harem would be required to pay character points for both “Recipricol rest” and “non-recipricol damage”. Albeit that both of those powers normally apply to one person with multiple different forms, the rules do allow for such a being to have those forms simultaneously.
Harem may choose to keep them mostly looking the same (barring hair style, clothing and tattoos), but they are each distinct bodies, with their own separate biological needs, wounds and functions.
The one thing she can’t do is have one of her bodies offer, to another body, ‘let me take a crap for you’. So every body has to sleep just as often. Should there be some kind of teleportation blocking device (similar to Sydney’s shield), an isolated Harem body could only keep running for so long, before needing to take a nap. Just the same as anybody else. Even if her other bodies had all slept during that time.
Why does the notifier bot keep sending me emails even though no one has posted anything to this thread?
Although the question is phrased as “Email me when new comments are added to this thread.” it would be better for it to say “this page”, as that is the functionality. So any comment, on this page, will get an email.
For info, for that reason, and the volume of posts, I normally do not click on that check box until day two or three after the comic has gone live. Although I do try to make sure I do so for every page, at some point. So that I am aware of comments added months or years later.
Sometimes late commentators do actually spot something new. Or provide an update, where real-world events have had some kind of impact which is pertinent to that page.
In some states, Alaska being the example I found, they replaced Battery with multiple degrees of Assault, which covers a wide variety of violent person-on-person crimes.
Source: https://www.touchngo.com/lglcntr/akstats/Statutes/Title11/Chapter41/Section200.htm
Yea, Texas and New York do the same. If talking nationwide or the wider (loosely speaking English-related) legal systems though they are in the minority.
As a Federal agent* Sydney needs to be aware of the general law (and be aware that exceptions, such as this, do occur), but she does not need to know each state’s specific laws. It is not their job to enforce such, rather that falls to local law-enforcement officials.
* The comic has not stipulated this but, in practice, for Archon agents to have nationwide jurisdiction, they must be Federal in nature.
I would love a clone of me every time my nose bled… but that would be too much Multiplicity.
How about refilling Maxima/Deus’ Geode….