Grrl Power #459 – Throw pas
Actually they’re both wrong, the 4th wall is usually behind and over the shoulder of the last person who spoke, so the camera can catch the reaction glance. Of course the 4th wall is just the camera (at least in TV/movies, not plays obviously) and the camera could be positioned anywhere. Heck, you could have a 4th wall throw to a super powered zoom lens on a satellite if you wanted.
This is an odd page, cause in my head, a 4th wall gag is something that takes a half second of time out of a show, but with Sydney’s mistake and the follow up, it takes up nearly the whole page. If I had more time I probably would have dropped this gag to instead expand on the whole “people basically got supers but some people were like “eh” and some didn’t believe it but in any case they didn’t go bonkers over it” bit which is really the point of this page rather an important point overall to this part of the story. As I was drawing it, I got down to the last panel, which was just supposed to be Maxima doing her own 4th wall bit, but decided I was leaning on that gag a bit hard and bottom 2/3 of the page is really just one joke (though I think Sydney suddenly having anxiety about B.O. because of werewolf noses and who knows what else is amusing) so I broke that panel up and made it so the elf caught her glance, since he’s sitting perpendicular to where Max and Sydney are and… I don’t know if he’s hitting on her or just pre-hitting on her. You know, testing the waters a bit. And Max is like “Is he hitting on me or is that just an Elf thing?”
I’m not sure that all comes across, ideally I would have established on this page that the Elf was sitting across the table from Max and Sydney, but what would have taken up even more of the page for the whole gag.
Anyway, the first panel. Max actually was in track and cross country in high school, but when she came back after that fateful summer vacation and posted 100 meter dash times on par with a crossbow bolt, she hung it up since that would obviously be wildly unfair.
This page colored by Keith.
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 :)
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Them last two panels kill it!
I can’t tell if it’s supposed be interpreted in a mocking way, or a flirting way. I’m getting mixed signals.
Why would it be mocking? The elf has almost identical ears. Plus there is no apparent reason to mock Maxima just for the sake of it. And many good reasons not to!
Sometimes a compliment is just a compliment. Although, if intending to flirt, such is a good icebreaker. So we will encounter that quite frequently, in life too. So I think the only mixed signals are between the latter two issues. Is he intending to flirt, or just pay a compliment?
Bear in mind that he may well have heard Sydney’s interrogation of Maxima, about her ears, earlier. If he is a kindly sort, he may just be showing solidarity with her, for that. Which would also explain his mouthing of it, to avoid bringing Sydney’s attention back to them.
Flirting though is the more likely, of the two scenarios. Hence Maxima’s less-than-enthusiastic look. That being one of her pet peeves. Namely unwelcomed advances from men, based solely on her looks.
MOst likely flirting. And I’m with the svartalf–she does have cute ears!
It does rather fall flat, following the gag, agreed. The author’s blog, above, does explain why it ended up like that mind. Whilst it does not sit easy there, and that feeling is enhanced by the awkward moment, given Maxima’s tepid response to the compliment, it does have some merit.
Maxima’s gaze had been drawn in the elf’s direction, hence his response. Hinting that he may have been wanting to make eye-contact before, but Maxima had been avoiding it. As we might assume she habitually does with any men, who might make advances towards her. Unless she has reason to interact with them, of course, such as with Ingsol.
Plus, of course, it does show that the elf has interest in Maxima (be it for aesthetic reasons or because he fancies her) and we get to see Maxima’s technique for becoming a lonely old cat-keeping spinster.
Personally took the ‘kill it’ comment as a positive (similar to ‘nailed it’) rather than a negative (‘stopped the gag dead’)
Oh, and Maxi won’t turn into a lonely old cat-keeper spinster, she will totally be a ferret-wrangler (plus, she doesn’t know how to spin :P)
“XD” to Guesticus’s extended appraisal and flip of the cat-keeper cliche. But, yeah, I just like the nonchalant sub-plot thrown in there out of nowhere. And thanks for clarifying my comment for anybody who might find it ambiguous.
Is it just me, or is Inggie looking crossly at Crimson?
As in “Vhat have you been telling her?”
He does look kind of like that, but I think it’s just a case of “Huh? What is Halo looking at Crimson for? Does she have a bit of blood left on her chin or something?”
Of course, but not as fun
Agreed.
He should have offered a handkerchief…
Oh no, I’ve reached the current page, my “discover a new comic binge” is over. I just discovered the comic on Monday, and have spent a decent chunk of the last 40 hours or so reading it through. I’m enjoying it greatly thus far, and plan on adding it to my regular webcomic rotation.
Congrats and welcome to the comments section.
Now, go back and read all the comments (you may be tested on what you find :P)
Both in what you read & with your sanity… :p
Naturally
Hmm, between being a lifetime weirdo of sorts and in a medical career, I’m not sure how much sanity I have left to test in the first place.
Welcome to the comic and the community. Don’t worry, sanity is strictly optional here.
*brings a nice pair of fluffy guest slippers, in mouth, and puts them at your feet*
*wags tail welcomingly*
Woah, woah… that’s no way to treat someone new… At least tell him he’s going to want to spend a couple weeks doing it. He’s a binge reader (by admission), and no one can take that level of concentrated weirdness in a single sitting… not to mention the word count is nearing War and Peace levels.
Take the comment section SLOWLY! Get used to the fact that your fellow readers are some of the weirdest, and brightest, readers of online serial art to be found anywhere.
Didn’t say how quickly they had to read the comments
Hee Haw!
That’s how donkeys say hello!
::waggles his ears in a welcoming way::
Thanks for the warm welcome all. I must say I was a bit surprised to see Yorp and Weatherheight reply. Most animals seem to be able to innately sense veterinarians and stay away :P
*trembling*
It’s OK, we have bronies, lawyers, the lot here. All are welcome.
*sprints off and hides*
In truth the fourth wall exists wherever the creator want it.
…which just so happened to NOT be where Sydney wanted it…
Well Dave is the creator her not Sydney.
Isn’t it? She was looking over the shoulder of the last person that spoke. According to the creators definition, she was addressing the fourth wall. It just wasn’t where are the creator said that it was at the time.
Exactly. The forth wall is from where we are looking at them. Even lampshaded in a Kim Possible where at the end Ron Stoppable is talking to us, then switch to another angle and the others are questioning him as to “who are you talking to? The fourth wall is always invisible.
Sydney should have just looked for the camera that has the light illuminated, on the top. Then, when the light goes out, smoothly glancing around, to find which camera the director has switched to next, and make eye-contact with that.
He is SO hitting on her. But in a polite manner. I hope. >.>!
Elves ears are erogenous zones, what he said is basically the equivalent of “Nice [Primary/Secondary sex characteristics] Lady!”.
I will be surprised if he is not smacked.
Why smack him? Guys tend to take it in stride or pride if some woman says they’ve got a cute butt.
Because it is one of Maxima’s hang-ups. She dislikes getting hit on. So how other people take it is irrelevant.
Which is, incidentally, how you determine such things legally, for instance in workplace harassment tribunals. The primary consideration is whether the victim finds it harassment. Obviously applying common sense to that, so if they feel saying “hello” to be a sexual advance, then they need therapy not compensation.
Not that we have ever seen her getting physical, so the slap is purely figurative. And Maxima appears to be dubious, about his intent, in any event.
That depend on what type and or from where you taken the elfs.
dnd, myth, lordofring, elfquest, and read a endles number of names of games and books that has elf in them.
A argument can be made that Vulcans from star trek Are space elf just look at the ears, long life, telepaty (space magic) And they even have there own version of dark elf the romulus. Klingons = orcs.
i now run and hide for 8hour (go to work no internet)
Ears are not a “sex characteristics” as far as we know. They have comparable ears.
It’s more in the sense of nice abs or nice legs.
I just noticed that Halo has a little halo banner behind her.
The angels are looking over her.
Literally.
There’s gotta be something special about pointy ears, cause Hortas like them.
Well, at least the mother Horta likes them. She never communicated directly with anyone else.
Come to think of it, did Spock really think of the Horta as a MILMM (Mother I’d Like to Mind Meld)?
For roughly the third time. Pretty sure she’s sat in front of the angels intentionally.
Argh, misplaced comment.
If she levels up here would the vampires dust?
They are fine here, under artificial illumination. And we have no indication that such would be a problem for them in any event. Barring ultra-violet lights, potentially. In which case the neon-like glow, from the levelling screen, should cause them no problems.
Of course if Sydney accidentally activates the PPO, in the process, then they might turn into dust.
If indeed they “dust” when they die. Won’t happen in “The Strain” unless the primary sire dies then they will dust all over the world.
The Veil clearly intrudes on free will :-\
Free will intrudes on free will
And so does having a conscience and/or morals… local, state, federal, and international law… and physics!
None of which are magical interventions preventing you from perceiving or talking about people and events.
Well, it doesn’t stop you from talking about it. It just stops other people from taking the subject seriously.
Yet there are analogous non-magical things within the sets of things listed. For example a ‘gagging order’ which prevents the press from reporting on a particular story, ‘in the public interest’.
These are done for moral reasons and have exactly the same result. The public do not get to find out about something, until it is deemed to be safe for that to happen. And transgressors, who attempt to circumvent the mechanism stopping that, get punished.
dont make me start mum jokes in the comments. we’ll be here all day.
Mal, your mum is soooo fat, when she walks around the house, she walks AROUND the house.
(•_•). ( •_•)>⌐□-□. (⌐□_□)
Check… and mate. (MIC DROP.)
A lot of things intrude on free will. Laws, for instance. Within setting, the mere existence of supers that are able to physically restrain a person from acting. Keeping Vehemence in a constantly drugged state to keep him from gathering vehemic energy actively intrudes upon his mind’s ability to function and form coherent decisions.
Free will is valued, but not sacrosanct. Violating it can be justified and moral under certain circumstances. The question at core is ‘what does this violation exist to prevent, and is the consequence of the imposition a greater ill to all parties than the consequence of failing to intervene’. In the case of Vehemence, for instance, the consequence of the intervention is that one person (he) is being subjected to the ills of imprisonment and drugging, while the consequence of no intervention, by his own admission, would be large scale conflict in which peoples free wills are intruded upon (by his aggression aura) and destroyed (because war has casualties).
Comparatively, the Veil’s intervention, while widespread, is small; most of the population will not encounter the scenarios that cause it to trigger. What few do retain the knowledge they gain, and retain broad choices in what they can do with that knowledge. Mostly, from what we see of the Veil’s operation, it seems to inhibit belief in specific instances of the implausible without personal experience (which most people probably wouldn’t need a nudge for, because the implausibility of these things has already been long considered to be very high), and emotionally influences those with proof not to share it if possible… probably by increasing the individual’s inclination to consider the consequences of widespread propagation of the information, both to them and to the world at large. Because of these minor targeted intrusions, entire species are allowed to live in peace with humanity, rather than living under constant threat of genocide.
I like this post. Not sure I fully agree with everything in it (social contract is a tricky thing, for example, and one can have free will within a given framework provided one is willing to fully accept the consequences of one’s actions), but this is… exceptionally compelling writing.
It’s making me think. Neat.
That’s what happens when I’m writing a paper for a grad level class in educational psychology, and I get distracted by forum posts.
The thing that’s tricky about the social contract (at least in my general estimation) is that none of us signed it. We all got grandfathered in by being brought up under it, and have more or less had to live under its ‘abide by these standards or face the consequences’ without having an individual opportunity to exercise free will or otherwise opt out. You’re right that in all, it’s not a HUGE imposition on free will, and an individual derives more benefit and ultimately a broader range of choices than an individual separate from society enjoys… but it’s still bigger than us as individuals, and imposed itself upon us from birth.
Likewise I like both your original post and this follow up. Bravo.
“We all got grandfathered in by being brought up under it, and have more or less had to live under its ‘abide by these standards or face the consequences’ without having an individual opportunity to exercise free will or otherwise opt out.”
But there is the choice to reject the social contract, albeit there are always consequences. One can choose to change a law or make law, as all laws are public knowledge. You can go to city council, make petitions, etc. These are things that you have the choice to do. (You also have the choice to break a law, but that’s a whole ‘nother bag of worms.)
The Veil, however, is something that’s being kept secret from billions of people, and is affecting them without their consent. That’s just wrong.
Say you’ve got someone who walks out of society and in every reasonable way rejects the social contract. Eventually, other people intrude on his territory, and he attacks them violently, possibly killing one. Do you honestly believe that, once those events came to light, society would not drag him back into itself for the express purpose of imposing what it considers a legitimate and reasonable consequence?
The social contract can be modified to an extent. It cannot be escaped with any kind of reliability.
The Veil provides Cryptids with privacy, which is critical to their survival. They have a right to that privacy explicitly because their lives depend on it, and they wouldn’t have it without those mystic controls. That makes it right. They are preserving their right to exist in the most practical and humane manner they have been able to develop.
People keep saying The Veil prevents genocide, but it doesn’t. We’ve already been shown that cryptids have historically slaughtered other cryptids en masse.
“Comparatively, the Veil’s intervention, while widespread, is small; most of the population will not encounter the scenarios that cause it to trigger.”
Conjecture and speculation. The Veil is affecting billions of people worldwide simultaneously. Why does anyone think this is okay?
We have seen one example of The Council “doing more than just ‘policing their own'”, there have been no reports of mass cryptid slaughters
Besides which, the genocide generally being referred to is the prospect of humanity rising up and driving cryptids into extinction.
The thing about Cryptid-on-Cryptid violence is that the odds of it leading to extinction events for any particular Council species are pretty close to nil, while an unrestrained conflict with a humanity suddenly confronted with literally every monster and boogieman it’s ever told stories about to scare its offspring into submission would inevitably involve mass casualties on both sides, and there’s no assurance that humanity would pull back and let the Council recover.
Drawing on Dave’s familiarity with Vampire: the Masquerade and the degree to which he seems to be framing a more inclusive variation of its setting, it’s quite likely that the Veil was created explicitly because of a rising acknowledged threat of such genocidal mobilization. Within Vampire: the Masquerade’s setting, vampires had such an experience during the Inquisition, finding themselves steadily rooted out and executed by the Church… which alarmed them, because up to that point the Church had reliably been a political structure they could manipulate for their benefit. With that singular historical event, the vampires of the setting came so close to extinction that their social order collapsed and had to be restructured by influential elders, enshrining the policy of the Masquerade (which is unarguably harsher than the Veil, as vampire society considers murder in preservation of the Masquerade to be entirely justified, so long as it’s done in such a way that the chain of evidence stops) as their highest law.
If you think the Council is objectively evil, remember that it’s downright gentle compared to the Camarilla and the Sabbat, whose moral compasses don’t vary much on the good/evil axis as much as the order/chaos axis. That’s what I’m inclined to do; if I had to choose between living in a world with Vampire: the Masquerade’s supernatural sects or living in a world with the Twilight Council… I’d far and away rather live under the controls of the Veil. In being more effective at concealment, it actively makes vampires less dangerous to bystanders who might otherwise become security risks.
“The Veil is affecting billions of people worldwide simultaneously.”
The Veil is MONITORING billions of people worldwide simultaneously. It doesn’t have to affect them in order to monitor them. We accomplish the same goals with satellite surveillance, at least for varying purposes of the word ‘monitoring’.
The actual instances of choice-interference appear to be targeted; we have word directly from Dave that it doesn’t blanket-blot all memory of Council species, or force everyone to think those species are purely mythical. He’s flat out said that there are small populations who are ‘in the know’, and the Veil doesn’t interfere with their knowledge or beliefs.
Because we have an indicator that the Council itself is not the most populous grouping of sapients in the world in the mere fact that it chooses to operate in the shadow rather than use a combination of superior numbers and superior power to subjugate the planet, this isn’t mere conjecture, but reasonable inference. We also have indication (from the comic, where the Veil was brought up when Sydney was speculating about the possible exploitation of glamour-dependent Council species) that a number of Council species are able to ‘pass’ by various means without the Veil’s help… so only a minority OF a minority is entirely dependent on the Veil for anonymity. Those that are not entirely dependent may occasionally use it as a safety net… but we know that its operation isn’t about destroying a person’s knowledge of the supernatural so much as preventing propagation to the uninformed, so someone who ‘just happened upon the truth’ wouldn’t necessarily be impacted by it, depending upon individual intention.
With the available information, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that the number of people who actually trigger the Veil’s control protocol is only a small percentage of the billions monitored. Presumably, because preserving the Veil is a concern, and we know that concern is being addressed through active policing rather than passive protection of the Sigils, it’s likely that the MECHANISM for choice control is likely not perfect; if the Veil couldn’t be overcome by a sufficiently heavy weight of evidence, active policing would be less efficient than maintaining a strong guard presence on all Sigils; preventing evidence from accumulating would be silly if evidence accumulation meant nothing.
Of course, if the Veil can be overcome with a sufficiently large pile of evidence then free will is intact; those looking to enlighten others merely need to gather a critical mass of evidence to overcome the enchantment… assuming those policing elements don’t beat them -to- said evidence to take custody. That’s a hypothesis that obviously needs more evidence, but it does fit the facts.
I almost wonder, though… We’ve been operating on the basic assumption that the Veil is in some sense a telepathically aware enchantment, able to scan for information and monitor how people use it. It’s not the only possible mechanism. It may operate more like a series of interacting illusions and sensory distortions, targeting words so that the ones spoken aren’t consistent with what their originator had in mind. Sounds and light travel through air, and conceivably can be intercepted on roue. There isn’t a violation of Self in such a case… although it might lead to the person feeling like they’re being gaslit, which is a form of emotional abuse.
An astute deduction, now borne out by the most recent comic update.
As regards your final paragraph the simplest mechanism is that it affects people mentally. Substituting the mental conclusion ‘this is a dangerous monster I have sensed’ with ‘this is something perfectly normal and harmless I have sensed’.
All of the evidence matches this well. Barring one of Dave’s blogs, where the final paragraph* would most logically be interpreted as a physical change being made. However it could still be read as a mental one (because the viewer of the photographic evidence could still mentally correct what they are seeing to the safer version).
* Talking about how photographic evidence, such as Sydney’s photoshoot with the vampire and dire werewolf, can be changed.
Not denying that mental manipulation is the most likely, just saying that it’s not the only possible mechanism by which the Veil could be operating.
I don’t think most people think it is “okay”.
I think they think it is better than the alternative, which is assumed to be all out war.
That could be a faulty assumption, but who wants to test it?
To an extent, I think you are right. In most other comics, using a mass mind altering device to alter the perceptions of humanity would be called out as explicitly evil, and the ARC equivalent would be laboring to remove such devices, regardless of the consequences.
I find the alternate perspective in this universe intriguing.
A question: suppose it turns out that ARC is working to get the Veil taken down by slow diplomatic means, means that could take years of negotiation to implement in a manner to minimize human casualties.
Would that modify your view of the situation?
Oh well, I will stop posting. Have fun you all.
What? How come? Was it something we said? 😕
Was just thinking that as well
Personally know what it’s like to be ‘ostracised’ from a couple of webics, don’t believe that is the case with this one (majority of the posters are very nice)
Honestly think it’s more “stop posting on this specific page.” He’s done like thirty or so.
If that were the case, I would have been banned ages ago! Neither the author, nor the community (barring one or two exceptions) have any problems with frequent posts. Certainly not when they are as insightful as Duende Sociopata‘s! Obviously mindless spam would not be welcome, but that would not describe the comments in question.
I hope that this is not a permanent decision, for whatever unknown reasons there are behind it. I have looked through all of Duende Sociopata‘s posts, over the last couple of pages (both comic and comments) and found them all to be both helpful and welcomed. I did not spot anyone complaining, for example.
Unless it was some personal issue, unconnected to the comic, my best guess is that some posts may not have gone live? I was having the same problem myself, last night. However as I was suffering from a very bad ISP problem, giving me cripplingly slow/intermittent upload speed, that was not surprising. I just had to keep going back to the post and re-trying the “submit comment” button, until the post eventually went through.*
Possibly there might have been a comic server problem too, but then I would expect other posters to have commented on it, so I doubt that to be the case. So if you were having posting issues, it is likely that it was just a problem at your end Duende Sociopata.
Unfortunately if you have a slow connection (or one that is breaking up) then the error messages you get get tend to give the impression that it is the comic server which is creating the problem. For instance “server did not respond”. Basically your machine sent the data, but it the server did not respond. However that was because the information never got to it.
Either that or you simply get no message at all (usually the case when you have a very slow connection speed, in my past experience). Which could give the false impression, that the comments were being blocked or the user banned. That I guarantee is not the case!
Please come back Duende Sociopata, you are most welcome here!
* It is worth mentioning that some links will cause specific messages to fail. I have not spotted the pattern yet, but it seems to be tag-altered links to some specific sites such as tumbler or flicker (however they may be misspelt). Sometimes just doing the raw link will fix that. Other times the message still fails. Just try an alternate link, where available, or delete it entirely. At which point it should go through.
Wasn’t meaning he’d get banned, more that he might’ve just felt he’d said enough for this particular page ;)
*Scritches between Yorp’s ears*
*wags tail happily, but distractedly*
*looks around, hopefully for Duende Sociopata*
Post more! Hypnotoad compels you!
::waggles his ears in a rhythmic fashion::
The Ears demand it!
::mutters something about being told this would work better::
Are you taking lessons from Yorp?
This may be my imagination but are her orbs getting brighter?
They look normal to me. Do bear in mind that Keith did the shading for the last couple of pages, and he favours slightly more pronounced shadows. This would create the impression that the light sources are brighter. Given that the orbs are the most obvious light source, it may be giving the subconscious impression that they are getting brighter.
Not that I would want Keith to get a complex. I feel he has been doing a good job of matching DaveB‘s style closer and closer (barring that one point) so deserves credit for that. I think part of the problem is that Sydney has a slightly different drawing style, which Dave is experimenting with, that is compounding the above effect.
this webcomic is way too fun to read and the comments certainly add to it
Who lives near DaveB and can whip him a bit so he writes/daws/posts more and faster?!!
->[] (allready out)
Heh. Burnout is a thing in webcomics, and so is RL complications. Always remember to treat the talent with loving care and kindness. Frankly, twice a week seems… ambitious given the quality of the art and story.
But yeah, I totally get the idea you’re espousing. I just keep reminding myself to sit on my front hooves and enjoy the ride.
::attempts to sit on his front hooves and goes down in a tangle of legs and tail hair::
It’s not as easy as you might think…
Sydney’s slow but constant art evolution has just really been hitting me hard of late. I think the hair do change is the reason cause it took a big chunk of what was left of classic Sydney away.
And it seems like the loss of that hair do is doing something to how the artist sees her cause her evolution has been picking up speed of late. In this one her face is so wide and oval with her chin melting towards her lower lip. The glasses have been getting slightly bigger and higher on her nose for a while now but it seems that its gone to the ultimate level of that with this version (I hope its done anyway).
Its getting a little powerpuffy. (though I like that show… ) *shrugs*
Yes, you can easily tell by comparing with her mugshot: the glasses have gone from having the cross-bar nose-piece being towards the top of the glasses (resulting in the glasses themselves being lower down) to being towards the base of the lenses forcing the glasses higher, also the arms of the glasses are now attached lower
Overall, the look of Sydney, after she entered this Council Chamber, seems to have, well, deteriorated in quality
You two might not want to too critical of her appearance. Remember that she is already working on breaking the fourth wall and has access to a PPO!
Besides, we know the hair style change doesn’t take. This is the past of the first strip, after all.
I’m assuming the glasses change was either because Dave doesn’t wear them and it took a while to realize the first way was wrong, or because he does and didn’t think thru how they actually look until later (like me).
The first way, everything above roughly the height of the forehead is constantly out of focus without draining the neck; the second way, the lens is much better centered over the eye and only peripheral vision is continuously out of focus.
If I ever need glasses I’ll be getting prescription goggles. I’d rather have no peripheral vission than have a sudden jump in focus toward the edges of my vision.
Honestly, you don’t notice after like an hour of first putting them on.
That was not the case with sunglasses, why would it be for the other sort?
Because prescription glasses are working with the way that eyes are designed to operate, whereas sunglasses do not have a corresponding (desired)* equivalent analogue in our biology.
If necessary the brain actually rewires itself to ensure that sight works optimally (taking days).** However normally you just get used to it through use, rather than that process being necessary. Which would be measured in minutes or hours, depending on what you are doing.
* Cataracts, or similar conditions, can obscure the vision. So the brain has evolved mechanisms to compensate. But such are trying to correct a problem, not optimise normal operation.
** You can permanently wear glasses which flip the incoming image upside down, as an experiment. Within a few days (no more than a week, if I remember right) the brain will have re-wired itself, so that the image is viewed the normal way up! Until, of course, the glasses are removed. But that will correct itself gradually, in the same fashion.
Huh, ok. Not sure that particular study is a direct analogue but I’ll take your word that the same thing happens.
You are right that it is not an analogue. Or at least was not intended as one, anyhow. It is just to point out that the brain has very sophisticated mechanisms for handling changes, as regards sight in particular.
As someone who does wear glasses I can only wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. Ever since I first started wearing glasses, I’ve always needed them include as much of my peripheral vision as possible or else I get debilitating headaches.
Dave is trying this to see if it helps with drawing her at certain angles (or something like that). If he likes it I think all bets are off. (but I really hope he sees what you wrote and goes with it!)
Yeah, I’m not fond of her current look either.
I found Pixel horrendous, and Sydney seems to be mutating in that direction.
But this, too, shall pass…
On the fourth wall bit in the third panel, I thought that they were both looking at Crimson (?) in reference to “Crimson and the Bloodletters”. The Veil being the reason why no one had heard of them.
Also brings up the interesting point of Fame vs Supernatural. Will the Veil allow a Vampire Elvis?
We all remember his famous hits:
Heartstake Hotel
Hunk o’ Burning Ash
It’s Now or Forever
Don’t Step on my Blue Suede Cape
Let Me Be Your Teddy Bat
Yes, please.
And more. :D
I’m reminded of the Terry Pratchett character Imp Y Celyn ( translates to English as Bud Y Holly), who, apparently, everyone thought was pretty near to being ELVISh…
A vampire Elvis? I would think so, yes. Presumably, the veil wouldn’t make him invisible so much as it would make him look to us unsuspecting mortals as a normal guy.
And it may be that Crimson and the Bloodletters are actually fairly well known. All we really know is that Sydney hasn’t heard of them. Who knows? Maybe Pixel is their biggest fan and has already hit Crimson up for an autograph.
It kind of makes me wonder if the original Elvis may have been an Incubus. His concerts could have been group feeding sessions of all the lust energy he worked up in his fans. It might have worked out too well. All the extra feeding energy seemed to have caused him to put on some extra weight there at the end.
Wilt Chamberlain claims to have slept with 20,000 women. That gets my vote as a likely veiled Incubus. Even his name was a clue. Has ‘lain’ in ‘chamber’.
“…make him look to us unsuspecting mortals as a normal guy.”
No, he was far more than merely “normal”…
“He was the King.”
~That French “Insurance Guy” in the Godzilla remake.
Have you read any of the books in the late Robert Asprin’s book series about Phule’s Company? By the time of the future it shows us, there’s an actual religion based on Elvis Presley!
Heh, can remember reading at least one book in that series: the one where they meet this alien race that communicates with images, one scene in particular that stands out is him trying to give his name, it basically comes across as “No, my name is *clown image*, not *clown image*”
Is that second panel an ominous bit of foreshadowing, a play on Sydney’s hero name, or just comic happenstance?
Equal parts 2 and 3. She’s sat in front of the angel division and has been for a while now.
i r not observant. :P
So has anyone noticed that elf has noticed Maxima?
So that’s a yes just surprised it wasn’t commented on more!
I have noticed that you have noticed that he has noticed Maxima.
Whispering should get him a who’s who. I nominate him as Presley, A.K.A. Elvish Presley.
Elfish Parsley – it gives you a +4 Charisma Bonus for 2d4 Turns but it has the side effects of twitchy feet and lifts one corner of your lips.
You can even grow them in your garden:
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/House:King_Parsley#axzz4KvFSFPau
Only robots are there. I proved I was a doggy and it told me I was forbidden!
I hate to be a pain but she is running the wrong way on the track :(
If you mean Sydney, she has jumped the track, and plowing a new course through verdant forests
If you are doing one person speed trials, you can go whichever way round you want. Maybe the sonic boom kept breaking nearby windows, when on the other side of the stadium? Or perhaps they just approached the track from this side, and set up there.
By the way, the author indicated, on the first page of comments, that he could fix it, by flipping the image. Except it would require re-drawing the stop watch. Personally I think that would be more hassle than it is worth.
Is it just me, or does Sydney’s head look kind of weird throughout this page? (I know she’s got the hairstyle change going on, but I don’t think that’s the whole story.)
Ninja’d by Observer, oh well.
I think it’s just you…
::let loose a silly whicker::
Wow, this page is actually pretty clever and funny. Not that this comic wan’t before, but this page to me stands out as remarkably polished and well executed.
N-I-C-E E-A-R-S
Lol.
Nice to have an explanation for that, fleshes things out nicely. Incidentally, I wonder if Young Maxima had to work for those muscles or if they only became that defined after her mutation.
She was already something of a track running star so I’d expect at least some definition pre-transformation. How much is unknown.
Does nobody else notice that in the track part, Maxima’s right leg appears to be folded up like a half inflated one of those tube balloons they make balloon animals out of? And that it’s cut off?
Ok, good to know that she doesn’t actually have medium awareness, even if she thinks she does.
Has anyone pointed out the “Halo” behind… well, Halo, in the second panel? : /