Grrl Power #1052 – Dateus interruptus
Some mixed opinions on Deus’s extra-judicial cleanup crew for the last comic, though we can see here that Deus does have some fairly strong feelings on the nature of thresholds, vis-à-vis innocence.
The thing is, while Vale isn’t… entirely capricious when it comes to killing, at the same time, she’s also the kind of person who might not remember each and every single person she’s killed. So imagine Deus sitting her down and making her watch an hour of video about a little girl growing up impoverished in some African village, hiding a coloring book under a piece of scrap corrugated siding so she could look at pictures of animals she’d never seen before, barely surviving measles due to endemic childhood malnutrition, then struggling through school, joining one of those “keep other criminals out of my neighborhood even though my gang does some crime but it’s pretty mild compared to some of the other gangs which is how we justify it to ourselves” gangs, yadda yadda yadda, and Vale impatiently tapping her foot, demanding to know why she has to watch this, and juuuust as she is barely starting to root for the young woman, the video cuts to a picture of Vale slicing her in half.
Not in some sort of collateral damage incident, but in a capricious, “get out of my way, brat!” way during an incident when she was chasing down some guy who emptied an AK-47 at a Doctors Without Borders convoy that Deus was meeting with.
And then to really twist the dagger in Vale’s side, the video says “Now, let’s learn more about little Najwa’s short life.”
I would initially question where would Deus dig up 10 hours of footage about some girl living in some extremely poor village, but as he’s been steadily improving Galytn for a decade, by now most of the tiny country does have electricity and most citizens have cell phones. Not like, the $1,200 top of the line latest Galaxy Ultra Pro Xtreme or whatever, more like the ones that are $300 but still do 90% of what the top end do, they just don’t have 9 cameras built into them and they have 4GB of ram instead of 256.
My next question would be, did he put the presentation together himself? Cause running multiple businesses and developing a country and running a war or two, plus Alari diplomacy and presumably wining and dining US Congressmen or whatever else goes on in securing business interests all over the place probably keeps him pretty busy.
The real question is, why would Deus put up with a henchman who capriciously kills innocents if he’s a stickler for not killing innocents if at all possible? Well, she’s fiercely loyal to him for reasons yet unknown, and is insanely dangerous. And let’s be realistic, it’s the same reason you don’t brig Maxima for breaking some soldier’s hands before handcuffing him (possibly but almost definitely not an accident given how strong she is) when she caught him mid-rape. She has the same value to the military as an entire naval battle group, so she gets a little extra leeway, no matter how vociferously some people in command yell “give her an inch…” Similarly, Vale is one of Deus’s special projects. He’s hoping to focus her more psychopathic tendencies and aim her at appropriate targets.
Also, if she had killed a little girl and not some slightly morally gray gang member, it would have gone down differently.
On a lighter note, while looking up regional Mozambique foods, I came across piri-piri sauce. As that area of Africa has echoes of Portuguese colonization, piri^2 sauce can be traced back to there. I ordered some from Amazon on a whim. It’s… okay? I’m not a big hot sauce eater, mostly because a lot of hot sauce is 95% vinegar and sodium, and the sodium I can do without, and I don’t ever put vinegar on food unless it’s malted vinegar and the food is fried fish. Piri piri is smokier. It’s better than tabasco, but I don’t tend to eat a lot of food that would really benefit from hot sauce outside of the occasional bit of tex-mex, and I have taco sauce or salsa for that. So I have a 4-pack of fairly mild hot sauce with nothing to really put it on. Ooh! I know, I’ll make red beans and rice. That’ll be a good use for it.
The May Vote Incentive is up! This month it’s Warsyl, from Tamer: Enhancer 2! I’d say “spoilers,” but the book has been available for 5 months now. Anyway, this pic doesn’t have a zillion outfit variations, partially because her armor took longer to draw than I thought it would, but mostly because she just has an armored form, and an unarmored form. The latter being available over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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.
Considering what Vale IS, making her cry is quite impressive. I wouldn’t have been sure she was physically capable of it.
That was literally my first thought too.
Yup you make an eldritch abomination cry you deserve some sort of award, that or a warning tattooed on your forehead.
There’s literally a giant X
Dues’ X
+1 for making me lol
This gave me Worm finale flashbacks…
Right? Top ten shocking moments in the comic so far. And a good sign where her and Deus are concerned
We don’t actually know what she is … for all we know she was born human and had a run-in with some artifact that changed her body.
on the list of possibility is just being a super, Sciona may have said, “you’re not a super”, but that could just mean Sciona had never run into a super like her before.
although later reactions would imply Sciona has some idea what she is and backs down, thus further enforcing the hypothesis she is an eldritch, astral planer, or similar sort of being Sciona or the Alari are familiar with to some degree.
> on the list of possibility is just being a super, Sciona may have said, “you’re not a super”, but that could just mean Sciona had never run into a super like her before.
That’s eminently possible, in fact, when I said “artifact that changed her body” I could have added “like Maxima.”
> although later reactions would imply Sciona has some idea what she is and backs down
What are you referring to? I don’t remember anything except “she isn’t a super”. Sure, from this she seems confident Vale isn’t a super – but maybe she just assumes supers still have solid bodies.
Backing down makes sense for Sciona from simply observing Vale is much stronger than her and no-sells mechanical attacks.
the slightly later sex scene when Sciona referred to Deus as mortal and Vale reminded her to be careful throwing that word around as she is just slightly harder to kill than a human.
but yeah its not a strong implication and could again just be Sciona convinced Vale is something else without knowing what specifically. Heck the fact Alari have those soul batteries could have Sciona convinced Vale is some kind of advanced version of that (but not a given she is, a character’s first impression assumptions should rarely be considered absolute canon).
This is Vale speaking, I don’t think this says anything about Sciona’s opinion – her silence probably just means she can’t argue Vale’s point (she’s still killable, therefore mortal) as well as registering the threat and not feeling up to challenge it.
On Vale’s part, it could just mean “don’t be arrogant, you die mostly like everyone else.”
Although it does suggest Vale has experience with Alari, which probably means she’s older than she looks.
Someone should have collected a few drops of that.
‘Tears of a Demon’ (or whatever the heck Vale is) has to have some powerful Alchemical properties.
That or it’s Hydrofluoric acid.
tears of an eldritch (warning keep in sealed container until use, keep away from pregnant women (may result in reincarnation of a dark god through the fetus), do not consume *side effects may vary, none pleasant*, when using stay at least 20 km away from any living thing you care about, out of seal may cause suicidal depression, homicidal rage, or uncontrollable sexual lust for trees and grass in humans and other animals.
-do not mix with vampire blood, angel feathers, or pineapple.
I guess we’ll have to see what is up with that dagger here shortly, I doubt it’ll be a full story arc but you never know
We already know about it
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-566-surprise-billionaire/
It’s the Epimorph
It’s the Epimorph… a dagger which can change a person’s appearance. Given what Cthilla looks like, it’s obvious why she wanted it.
But… do we know she(?) wants it for her(?)self?
And if she(?) does change her(?) appearance, would she(?) still have the look that kills?
Probably like a normal woman. From her past dialog, she does not seem to like that she is too hideous for anyone to look at.
And yes, Cthilla is a woman if I remember correctly. I recall her saying that or someone referring to her as ‘she’…. I will look for the link when I am not on my phone.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-531-the-gangs-all-here/ Dave’s text below the comic confirms Cthilla is a she.
Was referring to her power, not her physical appearance
If she changes her appearance and becomes a ‘normal’, will she get Mystique’d like in the movie when she became hyu-mon and was no longer ‘one of them’ (aka no longer a mutant)
If it removes her power as well, I’m not sure she would care. Sort of like how if Medusa was turned back into a normal, beautiful woman, she would not care that she no longer can turn people into stone by just looking at them. Cthilla does not seem to be a super. She’s something else, and for all we know, what she is could be a curse to her. A lot like Medusa.
You have my interest with Piri Piri…
The best delegators have assistants that handle tasks just the way they would, Vale and Cthilla are probably under the “/If/ he could…” tab. Does he have AIs of himself to do the special tasks of moral alignment check speeches and video presentations and such? I don’t think a flesh and blood assistant could do that to his satisfaction and he is a very busy bee unless he can warp time.
With his super intelligence, it’s entirely plausible that Deus wrote an actual AI.
And it’s in a pyramid located in the greater Seattle area?
I thought this was a stretch, then the name of the character in question clicked. >.<
I would not be. at all supprised if he had an AI to prepair his presentations for him to his satisfaction. Though I could see him scheduling a time block to give the presentation himself for his special projects. After all, we know how much he like to talk.
Recall, he didn’t know for sure how to delete a slide from a (non- trademarked) power point, so it’s entirely possible he wrote one to learn shit he didn’t feel like doing.
That’s the look of a man who’s about to very politely yet firmly tell whoever’s calling him to eff right off.
it’s like he’s listing all 4-6 possible calls out of thousands that might be worth taking at this moment, hoping for one of the thousands but prepping for one of the few
His car warranty.
(Oh man! If only! It would be the last one ever!)
So, like all of us when the phone rings now. “I know it’s almost certainly a telemarketer, but it might be that call I’m expecting this week so I’d better get it anyways.”
Dude, I honestly pity any telemarketers who manage to call Deus. I imagine any phone they get for the rest of their lives will ring every five minutes with a reminder that they should not get into telemarketing.
more like: thank you for your interest in working for Deus~X corp, currently your employment situation is being automatically re-routed to [mechanical voice: Antarctica:] please press 1 if you agree to this location. Press 2 if you desire to hear about all our other offers..{telemarketer hangs up phone} )phone rings again and just continues on( you have pressed 2, a large van is now pulling up to your driveway, please choose your preferred method of travel…
“War is hell,” but so are marathon-length presentations!
Okay I am again confused as to whether the mercenary from yesterday was involved in ‘rape safari’ actions and not just ‘preaching that condoms are evil’ which would again let me defend Deus and praise him as perfect. Because today’s strip is implying the missionary did a lot more than preaching to ‘deserve it’ when Deus is saying ‘rape safari’ and mayhem as a description of who Vale is “dealing with.”
Part of the talking-to Deus wanted Vale to give last update was a speech directed specifically at the rapists. That was her trigger to go “hell no, murder time!”
It was a list of crimes, I think the death penalty has more to do with “Directly contributing to the spread of several…” which in the context of “teaching young girls about the evil of condoms” means he raped multiple children while carrying multiple STDs.
Dave confirmed it was two separate groups being executed at the same time. One was a missionary, two were mercenaries. Dave is only telling Maxima about the mercenaries.
Oh, and Dave also confirmed the process was extra judicial, so I was right, again.
Can you show where he said that?
I searched through all of his posts on the previous page and don’t see anywhere that he says the executions were the result of something extrajudicial, al though for all I know it might be. I just don’t see where DaveB said that. I mostly see where you said that, and a few people said they were concerned if the executions WERE extrajudicial.
Here’s all I found about what DaveB said about the legal system in Galytn regarding this.
“As far as the legal system in Galytn goes, citizens are in pretty good shape. The entire legal system is free, because as soon as it’s not free, IMO, it stops being about justice and becomes hugely dependent on who has more money. There’s no death penalty for Galytn citizens except for extreme circumstances, like war criminals, but at the moment, if you’re caught doing some big no-no’s and you’re not a citizen? For instance if you’re a mercenary hired by a foreign power to blow up hospitals or something, welllllll… Then you get to see Vale, and she’s been armed with long winded speeches about why you’ve been a naughty boy.”
Which I’m guessing could imply that non-citizens are not given trials in the same way that citizens have one, but he didnt actually write that anywhere.
I can see someone preaching about the evils of condoms and then using their power to take advantage of young girls while not wearing a condom. The “rape safari” and the preaching aren’t mutually exclusive, especially since we also have the line “contributing to the spread of”.
My assumption was that there were three different things Vale was discussing (although I didn’t catch if Dave responded): 1) the terrorist/mercenary/rapist manifesto 2) a Deus speech on being a mercenary/terrorist 3) a Deus speech on mercenary/terrorist who also decided rape was a fun side project.
Deus is a wordy magnificent bastard: his speech for Vale to read is meant to be function as propaganda for any bystanders, survivors, or any of his own men serving with her. Thus it starts with the host of lesser ills that are done with the same malice as the greater ones, before damning them for their most evil acts. If you start with the heavy stuff, the bystanders/underlings don’t make the connection that the lesser ills are the derivative tools of the greater evils. Counter propaganda is vital to making sure he is both eradicating unsuitable mindsets/morals, as well as being seen to apply his moral standards equitably: if he doesn’t damn the smaller derivative ills, then the message being sent is ‘don’t let me catch you crossing this line’ rather than ‘don’t do anything like this at all’
The speech was written knowing that this group Vale is lecturing has done some raping, so he knows they will die anyways, it’s just about spreading a message and (of course, this is Deus) dramatic moral grandstanding
also also, can you imagine what these kind of speeches and operations would provide Deus during a magically or super powered interrogation? He has oodles and oodles of good deeds and ‘for the greater good’ and plausible deniability built in just by making sure to order that people captured be told why they are being punished before doing so
Except that it was extra judicial and secret, it is unlikely that there were any bystanders or people not with the black-ops team who weren’t scheduled to be executed. It is possible though that the speech was meant for the black ops team though.
It -probably- was extrajudicial but not definitely. There can be secret trials (and sentences carried out) that are not extrajudicial as well (like the FISA courts in the US for foreign intelligence surveillance. The US doesnt do secret sentences though, far as I know. Though if they did I wouldnt know about it, since they’d be secret. ;)
in the US if they did have secret sentences, well those who know won’t be able to talk about them.
would a secret sentence have verb noun agreement? or to further encrypt it would the verb and noun disagree?
“in the US if they did have secret sentences, well those who know won’t be able to talk about them.”
I mean unless people file an FOIA request. But at that point, if they don’t show the secret sentence, the government would be doing something blatantly illegal.
Again that doesnt mean it might not happen. Just that it would not be legal for it to happen. But secret courts DO happen, and are implied to be legal according to SCOTUS (much as I disagree with that ruling) in FBI v. Fazaga.
“would a secret sentence have verb noun agreement?”
I don’t know what this means.
“or to further encrypt it would the verb and noun disagree?”
I have no idea what this means either. You can’t legally encrypt court documents. If it’s not allowed to be made public for some reason like national security, they are blacked out – not encrypted – until the informaiton no longer threatens national security or is ruled by the court to not concern national security issues in a legal way.
If the Sentence was classed as Secret (thus a secret Sentence) an FIOA request would be refused as its Classified. thus only those with both a clearance and a need to know would know about it.
I should have known that joke/pun would bounce off your defenses. Judicial sentence/Grammatic sentence.
also Secret/Classified Data is encrypted when transmitted.
warning- I am prepared for your Icy stare.
Dude, the *mercenaries* were doing the rape safari, the *missionary* was talking about condoms.
Yes but what I’m not clear on now is if the missionary, after talking about condoms, was also taking part in the rape safari, if they’re all being hired by an outside influence trying to sow discord within Galytn. I wish it was a bit more clearly presented in the comic.
“Being an asshole” could be explained as a medical condition…
The thing you can trust Deus to do is honour the word of any kind of contract or agreement he makes with you. That being said, be very careful how you word it.
I want Deus to Suffer The Consequences Of His Hubris, but I have to applaud his dedication to making sure his henchmen care about collateral damage.
We have a few places that do piri-piri chicken in Australia, including at least a couple of chains. So that might be worth a try, unless you’re pescatarian.
He made Vale cry? &@#%ers got some stones on him!
I’m gonna be so bummed if she dates this douche canoe.
Unless this counts, I’ve had a cell phone for 30+ years and haven’t touched Social Media yet.
Yeah I could of done without that image in my head thanks LOL
And no I would explain what image that is but I try to keep at least a PG-13 in my comments lets just say it was a sick pickup line that some arse tried to pickup my GF right in front of me and she retorted she wasn’t into miniatures and winked at me to which I busted out laughing for two reasons I won’t go into ;)
The “Long and Short of it?”
“,,,by now most of the tiny country does have electricity and most citizens have cell phones.”
NOoo. It’s a trap! Cell phones lead to social media, social media leads to morons, morons lead to suffering (mental anguish), suffering leads to arguing, arguing with morons leads to brain damage.
Yep, Social Media. Yet another of the “Great Filters” to civilization, and we have failed it horrendously.
Doomed we are, doooommed I tells ya.
/points at all the posts… so social we are..?
/nods, yep we’re doomed…..
/recalls bulliten board flame wars…. war, war, never changes…only the delivery system….
I would imagine that Deus has tech that’s better than Disney at recreating faces digitally
Is Nandos not a thing in America? I wouldn’t have thought piri piri was rare in the states
There are a couple dozen, all around D.C. and Chicago.
It’s one of the few things that make me wish I lived near DC or Chicago. >.<
If you can do without the salt, why, just get some hot peppers to put in your food. (Fresh, dried, flaked, powdered, etc.)
I’d imagine Deus’ portfolio includes public relations companies, and those could probably do the research required and put together the material in some sort of possibly dramatised “mockumentary”.
Apropos of nothing: Had some comments on the previous page but they got the INTERNAL SERVER ERROR treatment.
I get that internal service error problem very often as well.
I’m surprised that wasn’t the “borked” x-ray.
If you want hot sauce without vinegar, check out The chilli Jam Man.
He makes jam from chilli peppers so he uses sugar instead of vinegar. As an additional bonus, he occasionally applies a sense of humour. For example, the pepper mill filled with bhut jolakia is called the Bhut Grinder. :D Butt jokes never go out of style. I personally love the Scotch Bonnet jam. Oh, and don’t get the Reaper’s Revenge jam unless you want to hurt yourself and others.
I occasionally make a home made ice cream using candied Thai hot peppers. They’re really fruity once you get past the heat, and candying them moderates the heat. The poison and the antidote in one delicious package!
Well that face is a face that has been well and certainly “dealt with”. The lips drawn back and bared teeth looks like the soul removal also took most of the water inside him as well.
Well, the Epimorph does alter your body as it’s power, it makes sense that it needs to extract raw materials, too.
Apparently it also removes gags. Considerate, though I don’t know if that guy can really appreciate it.
Maxima, handcuffs don’t work if their hands are liquid.
DaveB needs to try ‘The Generals Hot Sauce’. Hooah Jalapeno, Shock snd Awe, Grunt Green, Dead Red, Danger Close or Maple Mayhem. The bottle is shaped like a hand grenade and it comes with a set of military dog tags. Plus it tastes really good with Red Beans and Rice or on buffalo wings.
https://www.amazon.com/Generals-Hot-Sauce-Super-American/dp/B08M6FX37P/
I’m sort of tempted to send a bottle of it to DaveB.
Not sure if that would be weird.
The majority of the ingredients in the General’s Hot Sauce are actually just peppers (red cayenne and habanero mainly), but it does use white vinegar as a base as well so I’m not sure if DaveB would want that, given what he said about vinegar.
Hehe, Nando’s chicken is big here in South Africa. I personally like their black pepper sauce, even though I enjoy spicy foods and the pepper one is super mild.
Their (Nando’s) ads are also really good, usually putting a comedic spin on the local regional political disaster.
The trouble with “name” brand foods is that are only minimally seasoned to,
1) reduce production cost
2) be palatable to the LCD {lowest common denominator} consumers
and
3) acknowledge that autocondimentors will put more spices on what they eat, no matter how spicy the food initially is; so it is pointless to actually make the food tasty.
Nando’s do ads? Aw, man. All we get here are memes about “cheeky Nando’s.”
[I ordered some from Amazon on a whim.]
The important thing is, now that purchase was research for your web comic and you can write it off on your taxes.
Piri-piri was the fad flavour a few years back, it seemed like it was in everything you saw in the store.
Rotisserie chicken, sandwich meat, all sorts of sauces and pastes, even potato chips; it wasn’t all that bad but I don’t care much for the taste of most hot peppers unless they’re in curry or tandoori or the like. The heat doesn’t bother me, just the taste. The curry flavoured chips on the other hand were atrocious.
I’m sure the actual dish would be much different than any artificial flavouring added to junk food and bottled sauces but there’s no place around here that makes it so I’ll probably never know ;)
So we finally learned about Deus’ plan for recharging the epimorph. Turns out it wasn’t a loophole.
I am wandering if he thought there was one, but the thing ended up explicitly needing human/humanoid life energy as it morphs humanoids.
Very funny face in the last panel.
I’m sure Deus would love to add Max to his little black book but he has other reasons to “date” Max mainly to get her support (and the USA’s) and maybe to get her to join him (yeah good luck with that) lets face it she’s a one woman army/air-force alone. I’m surprised he’s not talked to Sydney as yet but she is loyal and hard to figure out so yeah maybe a additional reason for his focus on Max? Sydney idolizes Max and she has a fondness for Sydney so a 2-for-1 deal?
Or just making sure the peace between him and the USA holds for now. If that means he can also have some fun flirting with Maxima that is a welcome bonus.
Is Deus out to blackmail Max due to her past career “highlights?!?”
Blackmail requires the people relevant tot not already know the information.
At most he could threaten tot exposé it tot the public, but the public already knows she is aggresive and opiniated.
Pretty sure Deus hires the right people to put those presentations together *for* him. I can see any number of people agreeing with his principles & ideologies, especially at the level of pay Deus is *smart* enough to offer. He’s dorky, not dumb.
No! You missed the opportunity for going “TO THE MAX!”
You should’ve called it Dateus Maximus Interruptus.
That’s it, I’m switching team.
Deus is the actual hero through unusual subterfuge.
If you like piri piri, try crushed calabrian pepper paste. It’s medium hot, quite tasty, and generally includes no or minimal vinegar. It comes in jars, not bottles. I put it on so many things…
Trader Joe’s has a version that they call “Italian Bomba hot pepper sauce”, although it’s a paste and not a traditional “hot sauce”.
It’s available from other sources as well, and there’s at least one liquid hot sauce based on it. Search for “calabrian” or “calabria” pepper products.
So that’s Deus’ insidious super power. He can hit you right in the feels.
If your adversary were invulnerable to a high degree ‘Hurting their feelings’ is a valid move.
A Hero with a broken heart might be incapacitated long enough for a villian to escape.
Wait, piri piri is from Mozambique? It’s so common down here thought it was Asian
Wait, when was Maxi about to agree to go on a date with him? She was not about to agree
If she want’s to try piri piri, can’t she do that on her own? Or with someone that doesn’t make her want to vomit looking at?
Yeah not remembering everyone you killed is a thing with people in fiction. Especially villains.
“Tell me! To undo your injuries, how many innocent lives did you consume?!” “I don’t know… how many loaves of bread have you eaten in your lifetime?”
“You killed my teacher, my friend!” “You’ll have to be more specific, lady. I’ve killed a lot of people.”
Also I think we’ve all seen Deus is nothing if not a thorough researcher. It puts you on the advantage when engaging with people.
Bison: I’m sorry. I don’t remember any of it.
Chun Li: You don’t remember?!
Bison: For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me… it was Tuesday.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9FNbo50HpRU
which inspired this comic moment with Darth Vader
https://preview.redd.it/muy09uegm8py.png?auto=webp&s=3a02eb090437d596201c50b12dd00ffbfb0e06f9
Also Blight (Derek Powers) from Batman Beyond.
Derek Powers: Who are you?
Terry McGinnis: You really want to know?
Derek Powers: Yes!
Terry McGinnis: You killed my father.
Derek Powers: …Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?
https://youtu.be/zlrXJUSxpWY
And, of course, the most classic:
“For me, it was Tuesday”
But for Deus it was Tuesday.
Could we please get away from Deus? He’s so “awesome” it’s sickening.
What, she doesn’t trust Penzey’s authenticity?
I feel like Deus would have “In the Arms of the Angels” played excessively during their presentation.
Hey Dave! Try the Piri-Piri on some baked Tilapia or Swai fillet, with some of that red beans and rice.