Grrl Power #1085 – Attention deficit handshake protocol
Sydney did react poorly to her first demon, but she’s been remarkably nonchalant about meeting para, meta, and otherwise extra-humans since then. Well, that or overeager to the point of passing out.
I’ve often wondered about how meeting an actual non-human sapience would go for most people. I mean, assuming you were at a party or something, and a friend introduced you to a being that was definitely not human, and not a situation where it was stalking you through the woods or invading after destroying a number of famous landmarks or anything. Of course there would be a lot of people who would freak out no matter the circumstances, but honestly, I feel like movie FX and CG have gotten to the point where we could largely skip over the adjustment period. Like most of us are kind of used to seeing weird stuff like that by now. Obviously if it was right in front of you, that’s very different than seeing something on a screen, but I still think some of us would be quicker to get to the “this almost seems mundane” stage than we might have been 30 or 40 years ago.
That all goes out the window if the thing we’re introduced to triggers some sort of fear response, like it features a lot of exposed vertebrae and ribs, or has a heavy spider vibe or looks overly fungal or is otherwise seemingly designed to hunt us. I’m talking about aliens/monsters that are “spitting distance from humanity” but are more than some pointy ears and a prosthetic forehead. Think Garrus or the Hellboy 2 Troll Market or The Creature Cantina.
Anyway. By the time Frix returns to Earth, everyone he meets is going to be like “Hey I hear you have a huge crank.” (alternative vaguely relevant image)
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she’s just like me fr
… I love that dork x)
… … And sadly, yes, this is all things I might’ve said in her place
Congratulations on your boyfriend.
Sadly I could have said that, more probably with “girlfriend” because boys icky, but only in jest. :(
Syd really has to get more task focused at times
Uh, that can very hard for people with AD/HD. even with meds. I speak from painful personal experience.
Yes, she should become more task oriented.
CAN she? We shall see.
You’d think the fire would help
ADHD is one hell of a thing my guy. Just imagine trying to focus on something while five people are screaming at you from all sides. At all times. And those five people aren’t people, but your own thoughts. That is what ADHD is like
For me, it’s always been more like a constantly changing tv channel.
Basically, unless I’m fixating, it’s hard to focus on one thing for longer than about five minutes. The channel just changes, and suddenly I’m off on some other damn thing.
…honestly, this is probably why trucking is the best job for me. City driving allows me to keep shifting focus with each new turn, and long haul requires so little focus that channel surfing my thoughts doesn’t cause any problems.
Trucking sounds really cool. :)
It can be.
But I’ll tell you what I tell everyone.
It isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle. And it can be a really, really hard lifestyle.
It is almost always _supremely_ unhealthy. The food is very bad for you, you spend most of your time isolated, you have no regular schedule and planning for anything is a trial.
But the pay is good, and if one happens to be an introvert, then it has the great benefit of keeping you mostly the fuck away from people, and out of any office politics.
I dont think she has enough marshmallows for everyone. She needs to go shopping very quickly.
Yes, this. My ADHD means that, when an emergency comes up, I am very good at dropping literally everything and focusing on that task. But then squirrel, and I’m very good at literally dropping dealing with the emergency and focusing on squirrel.
Sigh.
I wish I could contest this but….. a good portion of my kitchen got fire treated because as I was putting out the fire I saw my best cooking spoon was down between the fridge and the counter and decided I needed to address that first….
ADHD is a helluva thing.
She is really not the ideal type of person for the job as a super soldier. That’s the joke.
Remember grrl-power-768-late-to-the-party? Where you said, and I quote: “I thought just to mix it up, it’d be fun if you guys wanted to pitch some lines for Sydney that hopefully make more sense. I’ll update the comic with the best one.”
Cthilla is immune to Sydney’s penchant for tangents. Not even Max is more than resistant. That’s interesting. On another note, Cthilla sounds quite a lot like Cthylla, a character from Lovecraft’s mythos… just saying
more like he has no intrest of her BF’s “size” …….
Cthillia is a she, always has been
Is that the shadow-demon? Or was she Greek?
Cthylla is Cthulhu’s daughter.
Cthilla is Cthulu’s niece, Cthylla is her cousin. Cthilla’s mom is Cthulu’s sister, Cthurleene. Seriously.
Which one is a literal shadow demon? Very similar name
Far as I know there are no shadow demons with a name like that, and the only one that comes to mind that might fit that status would be Ithaqua. And even then, that’s a stretch. Aside from him, the only one I know that has a name that’s similar would be Cthugha, who’s a fire spirit.
Maybe she was just made up for Wapsi Square :(
Ctheriously?
/em grabs popcorn, waits for punnishment ninjas to retaliate
Cthis is the way.
Also, turns out I don’t actually have the dojo’s number – they always come to my place.
I prefer this version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c8O2n1Gfto
In the end, somebody’s getting laid…
Hey if you want to pay for them go ahead! I’ve been putting over two dozen ninja family’s children through college with what I spend on the rest of you people! Got covid right now so in my fevered haste I did one bit of wordplay!
:)
Get well soon. Take care.
Thanks. I’m on paxlovid. Basically feels like the worst flu ever.
Don’t worry, the ninjas are being paid on a non-contact basis.
This explains both your punning and your recent spike in posting. :/
Hope it passes quickly and easily.
Basically it feels the crappiest flu ever, and the paxlovid makes your mouth taste VERY sour the entire time. Other than that I’m mostly sleeping and just using the computer at home. Got a few weeks off. Plus I lost my voice for a while which obviously means I can’t even do video conferencing.. at least for the time being. Not working at all feels weird to me.
Could be worse – didn’t lose my sense of smell or taste, although I can’t really eat much because my of a raw throat from all the coughing.
Fortunately the ninjas aren’t going to bite the hand that feeds them anyway for my momentary lapse in sanity. Little Bobby Ninja Jr just got accepted to Ninja U. and the tuition payments are a killer. Like literally. If you don’t pay the tuition at Ninja U, they kill you.
I’m proud to work with you in supporting both small business and an educated populace.
Chturleen? Well kiss my tentacled grits.
Hey, do YOU want to be the one to question Cthulu’s PARENTS?!?
its lovecraft reference? for some reason i thought it was referencing scyllia from greek mytholygy, the wall of snakes
Can’t it be both?
Depending on scene sometime Sydney looks beautiful and sometimes just like a frog.
( ＾◡＾)っ
Yeah the art style is varying like someone is experimenting with software settings maybe? Frankly the Original Halo was much closer to Fred Perry’s art style and why many liked the comic.
I for one, like the artists style!
You should look up the actress Sara Miles. Same effect.
She is easily distracted by random subjects. Glad there is someone else besides Max that can help her refocus.
Yeah. Her ‘attention deficit-OH SHINEY!!!!’ is actually pretty well portrayed.
If someone records this, could it be said to be Sydney’s first snuff film?
Looks like Sydneyis letting fame get to her….!
If anything, Sydney seems to forget she is globally famous at times like this.
As Cthillia has to point it out to her.
” A person is Smart, people are dumb panicky animals”
Agent K
the squirrel is less depressing than the world burning. though there are days when burning down the world to get rid of squirrels seems justifiable.
just be extra careful of the burning squirrels
Don’t mess with the squirrels Morty!!!
We have a possible Doolittle…
You could always try putting out the squirrels by pouring energy drinks on them.
well yes that causes the squirrels to disappear. somehow every birdfeeder in a 50 yard radius is suddenly empty. I cannot believe that is coincidence.
Oh, an energy-drink-boosted squirrel can do a lot more than just grab snacks in the blink of an eye.
yyyaeaaahhh they’re going to be friends. or something Friend-Adjacent. Cthilla already cracked before the Sydney-expectant-eyes look…and that was with forewarning and preparation.
Cthillia might also be very used to people fearing or hating her as a very visible monster who the veil does not completely cover (at least from whet I can tell with her interaction with Coot). Other than Deus and people who work for Deus, its quite possible she isnt treated nicely by anyone else, which might lead to a pessimistic view of friendship with humans and wanting to use that dagger to change her body/face.
“and wanting to use that dagger to change her body/face.” That has been my thought, also I think she is a Cockatrice!
Well she can kill with a look just like the cockatrice so it’s a good guess!
I should have Cockatrix. :)
SQUIRREL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrAIGLkSMls
and…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpxX9Ls9rX0
look a three-headed monkey!
Bad move Lia: telling Sydney you don’t want to be friends is just going to make her even more annoying in her attempts to get you to like her
If I was introduced to a non-human, I would be extremely curious.
I’m not too worried about humans finally meeting non-human intelligences. I’m sure we’ll treat them just as badly as we treat other humans.
We’ll treat them like celebrities at first, when they’re still unusual and interesting.
Once they’re fully integrated into society and a regular part of life? That’s when the ‘fun’ starts.
“DEY TERK ER JERBS!!!”
That’s the part that worries me. o_O
We treat other humans with LOT of different responses. It doesn’t seem likely we would be able to develop a new response for non-human intelligences even if we tried.
Also, humans behave very differently. It’s very unlikely all will respond to non-human intelligences the same way.
Of course, the ones who will want to treat them badly would be more visible.
idiots like to scream
Only until you cut out their vocal cords
Random aside because of the link to pg 443: Was it ever clarified who the Odeyssians were?
You mean, other than Classic Greek beasties? As portrayed in that great Club Med novel: “Odyssey: or How Not to Spend Ten Years Lost on the Mediterranean.”?
I can tell you how it would go.
Many would treat them like gods
More would react with a spasm of xenophobic hatred
Political leaders would use them to encourage bigoted loyalty
I expect this would be true at first. We’ve pretty much been exposed to the idea of alien cultures for over a century now. I think a lot would depend on the circumstances of contact and how likely you were to actually run into one in your day to day routine. Appearance might be an issue. They might be super nice but if they have fangs, claws and numerous spiky appendages it might provoke those hardwired predator defenses.
The term you are looking for is hysterical response. Several studies have been conducted with truly alien mockups. And whatcha get is everyone loosing their shit in unpredictable fashions. Some people attack, some run, some bluff, and some drop dead. Which is why they don’t do those experiments anymore outside Russia.
Hysterical response is a thing. In my previous professional life I had to deal with it or the fallout thereof on a regular basis. It has overlap with what I had in mind. Instead of predator defenses I could have said predator early warning system. It seems to be atrophied in many people (see people who feed wild bears)but we do still have some biologically based awareness of predators. I’m fairly certain that I’ve seen this as a plot device in a science fiction story where the peaceful benevolent aliens had an appearance that poked all of the human’s “this is a predator that will eat you ” buttons.
You’re being naïve.
Tell me something, Tsath: what has happened every single time a vastly more technologically advanced civilization has come into contact with a vastly less technologically advanced civilization?
Civilization. Limiting to Post Writing and agriculture.
Depends on the circumstances. Advanced Refugees could be overcome potentially, integrated, and possibly aid the preparation and advancement of successive encounters. Invasion, leading to either subjugation and eventual repulsion, or conquest. Sometimes cultural or literal extermination.
On some islands, Volunteer laborers exchange service for food and trinkets. And develop religion variants that idealize the return of the sky people.(WW2 the advanced civilization visited due to trying to fight another advanced civilization.)
Pathogen transfer happens regardless.
Is it a good idea to shout “fire” at a distractable person with a big gun(ball)?
I’d say that’s VERY doubtful❗
So, there’s only purple glass (and vegetation?) on one side of that pipe-facility-wall-thing? Was that always there? Or was it constructed super-fast around the purple glass field?
My brain says the former, but my heart wants the latter and its implications.
Deus has his supers just throwing up massive infrastructure projects around the battle zone so that the Archon team has to talk about them in their after-action report. This would make Galatyn look a lot more developed than it is and win him more military contracts. Canon accepted.
Generally, whenever I’ve met non-human sapients at parties, things have been pretty chill. That said, they’ve always been very well disguised and I’ve never pointed them out to anyone.
Also, I never go to parties. They tend to be too loud.
While it’s not the first thing she did, introducing yourself to a new partner is emergency 101. It establishes rapport with a new teammate and lets you say something more specific than Hey you! when something is about to explode.
Oh yes SOP my first 2 alarm I had 4 other firemen from the other station introduce themselves while we were off-loading the hoses mostly by shouting our names and ranks in the firehouse. It was crazy but it did help a lot! I have ADHD myself and it’s not that hard to focus on the task at hand Sydney is a VERY severe case. I learned how to use it in a similar way that she has like she did with Kevin just not with super villains LOL.
Let’s see. Argon? No, it will get blown around to much. Of course! Krypton! [ Starts humming the John Williams Superman theme ] That should be heavy enough to settle down there.
There’s Xenon, the heaviest noble gas that isn’t radioactive.
However I’d worry that it would displace oxygen but not disperse quicly.
Perhaps pool in depresions like a poison gas or those lakes with CO2.
Guess Sydney’s medication has worn off.
Also hey, I just noticed the spikes poking out of Cthillia’s jacket at the shoulders. Deus keeps an eclectic support staff.
if you look back at her prior appearences, all her jackets are that way.
Oh what a cute blush
I would probably take a note from Sydney’s overeager book. even at the most extreme cases… I do brag about having the monster lover/fucker card for a reason, at this point is more about what I would not be eager for.
I bet that’s a conversation that Cthillia didn’t think they’d be entering into in any capacity that day.
She knows SmugD, he has books on ‘exotic’ chicks he’s banged, for “research”, plus, he likes to brag, but in a way you don’t realize he’s bragging (but he totally is)
Oh dear… Sydney’s fallen prey to that Dave Barack Meme.
YOU KNOW.
DAMN WELL.
WHAT MEME!
If I were to meet an alien or demon or whatev, I’d like to think I could make a careful assessment is it real or a costume. Depending on whether I’m looking at catgirl or xenomorph, I’d either say:
“Can I pet you?”
OR
“DON’T EAT ME!”
There’s an entire Humans are Awesome story about how humans are unique in the universe due to their penchant to pack or pair bond with almost anything, even very dangerous creatures. And one alien says to another how the crew was in horror at the types of ferocious creatures that humans kept as pets (great games, pitbulls, snakes, any cat at all, etc)
.
Also how one human picked up an alien to hug him even though he was some sort of battle-hardened war hero ruler.
Checking if I can find the story.
Can’t find it on the phone but did find this one:
https://thereasontherumisgone.tumblr.com/post/180136236355/humans-pack-bond-with-anything-pt2
Great danes.
Stupid autocorrect
My all time favorite HFY story involves a largely out of practice college track guy competing in the intergalactic games, and blowing away the entire competition by virtue of A, humans being essentially a set of lightweight load-bearing rods & organic elastic, and B, sweating.
Three cheers for persistence hunting. ^_^
This may be my favorite-ever summary of human biology as engineering concepts, can’t wait to slip it into casual conversation with my neighbor the anatomy professor. ^_^
Sydney’s ADHD is clearly world famous just like she is. Even during the Battle of the Steakhouse, the semi-leader of the bad guys was telling them to distract her with something shiny.
That doesn’t make it any less annoying for Cthilla, of course.
I certain series of books I read, they use a talking dog as a test on new people.
Is that Callahans? I seem to recall it was something like if someone was polite to the talking dog, they were OK.
Do worry if Ralph’s german accent gets stronger and apologize as soon as you can.
(The Lady Sally books say it a bit more then the Callahan Crosstime Saloon books)
Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real head.
See, THIS is why I hated the premise and core argument of “Men in Black.” The claim that we need a government agency to keep important information away from the voting public because “people are idiots and you know it.” No, what I know is that’s a lie. Humans are inherently adaptable, and “the shocking and bizarre” becomes the new normal amazingly quickly.
What would happen in the REAL WORLD if humanity discovered the existence of aliens? People might panic… for a few days, a week at most. Then a child would offer an alien a can of soda as a gesture of friendship. Then an adult would offer an endorsement deal as a business opportunity. And then it would be back to business as usual, albeit with a much larger foreign market.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, people assumed that there were Martians. They also assumed that there were dinosaurs living on Venus. It had no effect on day to day life.
It’s not about what the best people would do, or even what the average person would do, but what the worst people would do. We already have horribly xenophobic people doing horrible things to other humans, and trying to make their behavior into government policy. I don’t doubt that it wouldn’t be more widespread with actual aliens.
Science just announced an experiment that managed to trigger the universe to produce something from nothing, and no one seems to care. Same with UFOs, it all depends on how much influence the discovery has on daily life, and even then there will still be enough people that think it’s all holograms and different governments with bad history magically working together to make the conspiracy work to conquer people they already govern.
The problem is how long it takes for the ‘shocking and bizarre’ to become the new normal, and what happens until it does
Well, we had the USAF formally acknoledge the existence of UFOs (though not saying they are alien, simply that they are unknown) a while back. The collective public response was… a shrug?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/pentagon-ufo-videos.html
Humans are adaptable, yes. We are also often very self & short-term focused, and as many have said inclined to ignore whatever doesn’t immediately impact us. (Even when we really shouldn’t, but that would be a whole other discussion).
Probably because the public have (un)officially known about the existence of UFOs for decades
And, as you pointed out, simply means they are unidentified (and sometimes even weather balloons filled with swamp gas)
The bigger ‘problem’ is when we don’t ignore things that we have no business having our noses anywhere near in the first place
The real problems begin when rumors start about things like “If you cut off their nose it can be used as a potent aphrodisiac” or that their bones can be used in mystic rituals to summon demonic servants that grant your wishes.
Amazing how quickly Sydney accepted the potion Dabs made her I just hope she’s got a decent supply for his next visit. I doubt she’d need any if her and Leon get to that point though!
A thought, the green orb is still classified, so now Deus and his team of mercenaries are going to know it makes gas, which given their backgrounds will no doubt make the same instant kill silently potential that those in the comments here the last few pages made.
The more time we spend with Cthillia…the more they remind me of Mr. Snake, from the Bad Guys.
…we’ll see where that goes, I hope.
I also now find myself wondering how an interaction between the were direwolf and the official Best Boy, Space Woof would go.
I really need to watch that movie. :)
I do like Cthillia and her interaction with Sydney. Like she is going to reluctantly become Sydney’s fruend because Sydney can be just so lovable when she is being all innocent and sociable.
One gets the impression that Cthillia’s walls are up to protect others, as much as Cthillia.
The fact that Cthillia wants to use the Epimorph is fairly telling.
…what I _don’t_ want to see, is Sydney doing a Friendship Speech, and thusly Cthillia is redeemed and suddenly becomes comfortable with that body which is, clearly, a source of distress.
Cthilia seems like she cares more about actions than words anyway. Probably a big reason that she respects Deus and follows his orders. So a mere friendship speech wouldn’t do much, just like she doesn’t care if what Sydbey asked was racist. Words alone are not that important to her – actions and keeping your end of a deal show a person’s true character. Given that she has probably been called monster so often in a negative way that she instantly assumes it’s a barrier to people being her friend, I wouldn’t be surprised at her having a very thick skin when it comes to hurtful words being directed at her.
That being said I haven’t gotten a very big “evil” vibe from her in the first place. More morally ambiguous, with the exception of being willing to kill whoever just to get the epimorph full again. But she does wind up being willing to do it Deus’s way instead, which involves a lot fewer (or none depending on your view on that missionary guy) innocent lives. So clearly she is willing to lean towards morally good if all other variables are neutral.
This page makes it explicit that Cthillia’s not a super, though we were earlier told that she’s unique. My suspicion would be that she used to be something else, probably human, and that something happened to her to make her into what she is. Even as something unique, if she were related to something in the supernatural world, she would presumably have some kind of support structure, and be more comfortable with who she is. “Monster” seems to carry more meaning to her than it does to many of the characters that might be described as such. That she wants to use the Epimorph suggests to me that she has something specific in mind.
It’s already been explicit that Cthillia is not a super, back when Coot was introduced. She was already described as a monster to Coot, albeit ‘a monster that wanted to off herself once they’ve cleaned house.’ Also not one of them akbar types (go jesus), although she was still a fan of traps.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-532-monster-hunting/comment-page-2/
Just because shes unique does not necessarily mean she was originally a human. There are many monsters who would be considered ‘unique’ – the cockatrice, the basilisk, the loch ness monster (she’s obviously not that since she hasnt asked for $3.50), the karkadaan, the pegasus, Amalthea, the Medusa (although that WAS a human originally like you suggest, although Gorgons themselves were not unique – there were three of them of which Medusa was one – the other two were Stheno and Euryale), typhon, Echidna, the Kraken, Scylla, etc.
That being said, it’s a good possibility that she could have been a human that was turned into a monster, like you suggest, which would be a really good reason why 1) she wants to look human and needs the epimorph for htat, and 2) she would consider being a monster to be a barrier to having any friendships, despite how other monsters DO have friendships. It could also explain why the veil doesnt work to shield her from other people’s eyes like other monsters are shielded. That does imply there might be some sort of curse on her. We’ve seen other Monsters who look VERY monstrous who seem quite fine with fitting in with humanity as long as the veil is active. :)
The fact that the veil covers Chorius, who represents all the miscellaneous races that don’t have enough population to merit a seat of their own, but does not cover Cthillia, suggests that she’s not just unique, but distinctly different from other unique monsters. And yes, she feels alienated from the rest of the world in a way that the races represented by the Twilight Council do not.
Yes exactly :) Hence why when people have suggested she might be a human cursed to look like this, I’ve thought ‘that’s not actually implausible as a theory.’
Plus while Doctor Chuckles describing Cthillia as a ‘self hating monster who wanted to off herself’… I’m not so sure it was ENTIRELY a lie for Coot to join. She doesnt want to off herself, but she does seem to not like herself all that much, at least insofar as how she looks like a monster.
Its not racist its insensitive you smoothskin, will you ask this question to person with psoriasis?
Knowing Sydney? Yes, yes she would
Okay is Sydney flying under her own power, standing on something that we just don’t see or is she being floated by the power of the fellow super? I simply can’t tell cuz if she’s flying to her own power she stopped needing to use the orbs at some point and hasn’t realized it yet.
Flotilla is flying them.
Is Flotilla officially his name then? :)
NO!!!
I dunno, DaveB just referred to him as Flotilla…. :)
the author just called them that so…
the joke previous being they had taken an English name thinking it sounded cool, but is now realizing that native English speakers hearing won’t likely automatically associate it with the type of ship. I know I wouldn’t. Calling yourself Carrier would make me think you have some kind of disease powers as well honestly.
Its like a guy stringing together some cool sounding Japanese words, or taking part of a ship’s name and finding out that this piece by its self ends up meaning tiny fish or something.
“Here comes Halo, looks like she’s being carried by… woss-his-name, it’s something foreign. Little Floater? Floaty?”
Floaty McFloatface
+1 … no, +2 internets
Something most people miss this one, but one of the things that would matter, a lot, when introduced to a non-human, is the smell. Even if looks like Bambi (harmless/cute), anthropomorphized with your favorite sexy bits, and doing their best to be affable – with proper tutorials on what that means with humans – if they smell like a food dumpster that’s been full for a month in high summer, it’s not likely to go well. Most people will become violently ill or flee before friendly contact can actually be made. Anyone with a functional sense of disgust will form significant negative opinions with almost no capacity to resist (because most people don’t pay attention to what their own brains are up to) or input on the matter – a first impression that will be immensely hard to override. Main point – our sense of smell is pretty conservative, uptight, and works directly on our hind-brains even when we don’t actively notice what its telling us, coloring a lot of interactions without our awareness.
In the Star Trek Enterprise series it was mentioned that Vulcans (mainly females) found humans to be extremely foul smelling. In the other trek series set in a later century it was never mentioned again. Maybe they got used to it, or humans in the early days of space exploration used a lot of Axe body spray.
Probably already said on the previous page but Flotilla under Sydney’s shield basically represents a free orb to her.
Her fight against squidward would have been over so much faster if flotilla was with her :)
I’m finding it SO difficult to not look at panel 2 and hear “Smell my finger”
with Sidney’s face I keep imagining her lapping at her finger like a small dog.