Grrl Power #1091 – Deck the private
So finally we get to the page I decided to delay until after showing Maxima returning to base. You can see why I delayed it, as I’m depicting evening in Galytn now, so it would have looked like Maxima’s return trip took a lot longer than it actually did. Galytn is 7 hours ahead of Archon HQ, so Sydney and crew haven’t missed out on the data recovery operation, it just looks like they’ve been hanging out for a while. They’ve been hard at work in the interval, however. Most of the focus was on extinguishing all the fires at the edges of Sydney’s little art project, but some of the helicopters that attacked with Darude pushed on past the factory and struck at infrastructure further in. Given Galytn’s population of supers, they didn’t make it very far, but still managed to leave quite a bit to cleanup afterward.
Yes, the sunset is super orange because of the fires – which are largely out, but the air is still smokey.
I guess Vale is feeling sassy, as she usually just looms menacingly and doesn’t usually score off the boss like that. Or maybe it’s a routine the two of them have to “humanize leadership.” Hard to tell with them.
I just realized I drew Sydney way too short in the middle two panels. Dabbler is 5’10”, so the top of Sydney’s head should be about lip-high to Dabbler? Oh well. I guess Sydney’s sitting on something that shaves a few inches off her height. I was going to say one of those cement highway divider things (which I just learned is called a Jersey Barrier or a Jersey Wall) are like 32″ tall… Hmm. I think if she was sitting on one of those it might actually make her slightly taller. Bags of cement then. Doesn’t really matter. She’s been using the orbs non-stop for hours so she’s allowed to be a little run down.
The September Vote Incentive is still up!
Enjoy variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
I don’t know why the new one is taking so long. Honestly I might need to switch up my ADHD medicine. It’s possible I’m spending half my art time staring slack jawed into space and don’t even realize it. :/ I’ve got the nudie version almost done, but then I have to do clothes and the background. The BG will probably be simple like drapes and sheets, so maybe it’ll be ready for the Thursday comic?
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Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Sydney must now face her worst fear. The terror of public speaking.
Oh my, Deus is unleashing Sydney’s verborrhea upon unwitting personnel. He truly is a supervillain.
And here I thought Deus wouldn’t do that to his own peons…err, citizens…because he want’s to maintain a good PR rating with them. The most loyal servants are the happy, willing kind.
Funny thing is, I talk a LOT when I’m in public, so a lot of people assume that I’m an extrovert. The truth is, I’m actually an introvert and nervous as hell in social scenarios, so I power myself through it, and turn into a blabbermouth. I realize that Sydney is probably a genuine extrovert, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she gets just this chatty as she did with the first reporter, and then later cringes when she looks back on how that conversation went.
You. Get. Me.
Uhh… I’m not proud to say this but i don’t get deus’s last words.
They don’t make sense to me, can someone help me understand?
In longhand “You understand me so well”.
Deus and Sydney are both genre-savvy supers and enormous nerds. While Sydney dove into the role of superhero, Deus decided to go the Lex Luthor route and be a supervillain. For a genre-savvy person, there are many reasons; any nerd worth their salt can give you an hours-long dissertation and still miss a few points on why.
Truthfully, while Deus’ actions are morally dark gray, most of it seems performative (which arguably might make it more evil). The muscles and working out, the nation building, the Alari politicking… it’s all just games and theater for him. He WANTS to look like a supervillain, especially if he can clear out bigger evils (technically an anti-hero) and enrich himself in the process. Being CALLED a supervillain by someone who’s just as much a super-nerd as he is would be considered the greatest compliment for which he could hope.
Vale can probably see it, which is why she acts like an exasperated sibling, but she also knows she gets to have her brand of fun by following the thread of Deus’ existence.
Even moreso, actually. Being CALLED a supervillain by someone who’s just as much a super-nerd as he and she is ALSO called a super hero, makes the combination perfect the perfect compliment. Having a random street-level super-nerd wouldn’t have the same level of complimenting as the superhero super-nerd calling him a supervillain.
He’ll probably mark this day on his calendar, and mark her as best frenemy forever.
I’d say this would add her to his “to-bonk” list, but his attitude towards her is more one of respect, I feel.
…Although Deus has his priority set on Maxima, as a “frenemy with benefits.”
She sees what he did there and he is appreciative of her understanding.
As I understand it, “get” can also mean “understand” depending on context.
“DO YOU GET ME!!?” == “DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!!?”
Deus has a theme going on – something he is going for. That theme is being a supervillain like Lex Luthor. Suave, intelligent, plans within plans within plans. While everyone else just sort of accepts and ignores the stuff like the “lightning generator” Sydney will react appropriately. This time, she called him a supervillain, and he has the cheshire cat grin because of how pleased he is that Sydney “gets him”.
Personally, very much NOT an extrovert. I get through public speaking just fine, and then go off and have my teeth chatter for a few minutes.
The fear of public speaking is also shared by a majority of the human population. Deus didn’t forget to mention that, it was quite intentional, and Sydney only realized it too late.
Nice touch. Making a medal from the glazed glass of the sand Sydney, well, glazed. And he is soooooooooo a villain!
I’m impressed at the turnaround time on this medal. I mean, he does have alien fabbers, but someone still had only 2-3 hours to grab the obsidian and cut/polish it, design the medal and 3D model it, run the fabbing job, get it into a presentation box (probably had those in stock?), and put it in Deus’s hands before the ceremony started.
Money might not be able to buy happiness, but it can buy most anything else, and Deus has quite a lot of money at his fingertips. Given his xeno-social contacts, I’d be surprised if he *didn’t* have someone (or a team of someones) in mind for crafting medals out of the disk’s obsidian within minutes of seeing it.
One advantage of a true all-aspects super-intelligence.
You see ‘ooh, pretty, we should do something with that’, he’s already mentally multitasking the appropriate list of artisans to make the medals within moments of seeing it.
Money might not buy happiness but if you’ve got enough of it, you can rent happiness for a long time.
I had to go to the Cast page to remind myself who Sgt. Cassidy is.
Only to see her marked as 1st lieutenant.
Then remembering updates to ranks were not reflected in the Cast page.
Also definitely an evil move, Deus. Sydney has your number.
Glad I wasn’t the only one. I figured, but just to be sure …
The official name for those concrete highway barriers is ‘K-rail’. But they are so ubiquitous in some areas that I can see the nicknames for them.
I assume Bostonians have some terribly foul curse designation for them that would make even Sydney’s hair curl.
Actually, we just call them Jersey barriers. Or occasionally baby-rails.
‘Jersey wall’, ‘Jersey barrier’, ‘idiot blocker’, ‘divider’, ‘massive annoyance’. I have seen them called lots of things.
‘I’ call then ‘Jersey walls’ since that is what my parents called them.
I’ve never heard them referred to as anything other than a “concrete divider”, even on local news broadcasts. I’d assumed that was it’s official name.
They’re also referred to as K-bar. I believe it is derived from concrete barricade. (K)oncrete (Bar)ricade = K-bar. Yes, I know concrete is not spelled with a K, but the C has a K sound in concrete so they use K. K-bar is, usually, used when referring to the ~20 foot sections that can be installed temporarily. A permanent, continuous, installation is called a concrete divider.
Down here, a k-bar was a lolly, about two inches long, haven’t seen them in years though :(
I hear K-bar, I’d just think the classic Marine combat knife.
Yeah, that makes looking for the lolly (candy?) harder
ok, the last tiny panel is the awesomeness that pulled me into following this comic.
I’ll be needing a bigger version of that last panel, please.
Deus is just about as genre savvy as Sdy,which actually makes him a significant threat.
Dues looks so super happy that Sydney called him a Supervillain in that last tiny panel :)
Cast page shows that she’s an LT, not a Sgt.
SmugD doesn’t know Kenya’s real rank, he barely knows her real name
He’s spoken to her before, and the cast page is known to be outdated / inaccurate. I didn’t know her last name, I’d say he’s doing fine.
As Dave has pointed out as early as the 4th comic, the cast page does not always reflect the current ranks of individuals.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-4/
The discrepancy has already got good, logical explanation. From about the 4th page onward, this whole story is nothing but Sydney’s flashback, several months after the actual events. Those first few pages are the only current events in the comic.
Yes I understand that. I was just saying that the Cast page and the storyline are not always in sync.
DaveB has stated that she’s a sergeant several times in the author blurb. I can’t remember if the contradiction with the cast page was ever addressed.
I predict Halo will meander through half a speech before stubbing her toe or something and spending the rest of her stage time in swear-ranting mode ;)
Or Halo gives a speech that suddenly becomes a Redd Foxx routine…!
Aww…now I’m sad. (=<
*misses Mr. Sanford*
I love the last panel. Since their first interactions, there’s been a very funny/weird ‘big brother/little sister’ vibe between the two of them and this just cements it.
I just cracked up at the last panel.
You.
Get.
Me.
Pure brilliance!
Speeches are only willingly done by “important” people so they can feel exactly that way. Individuals with value rarely have one prepared, and if they do, it’s rarely about themselves. In this instance, yes, he’s a supervillian, one, for forcing it, two, what will inevitably come out of her mouth that will scar the heavens… forever…
Heh epic purple jokes Begin.
First, and I love everything about this.
So you see, that’s where the trouble began. That smile. That damn smile
The medal’s super cool! I think it’s Sydney’s first medal? Deus sure knows how to rope people in.
Didn’t she get one during Graduation?
Ah, I forgot that – thanks!
Sydney got the Archon Commendation Award just after she graduated from the Archon Academy.
Oh that’s true! Dunno why, but this ones feels special. Probs because it’s made from her own obsidian.
It’s nice when your peeps give your recognition but it’s special in a different way when it comes from the outside world.
seriously no one is going to comment on how she blushes when she sees anvil’s boobs in panel 4
She’s blushing because SmugD is saying nice things about her, panel three she is looking sad because she thinks people will blame her for the damage
What? When she realises Anvil’s boob is as big as her head?
Six foot plus woman with proportional boobs in DD+ has very large boobs, that’s just life (and super females).
I’m pretty sure she’s blushing about Deus calling her up.
Considering Sydney has in the past had a thing about her size (overall and breasts), and considering the framing changed from just Dabbler and Sydney with a glancing of Anvil to almost half the frame of Anvil’s torso, focused mostly on her large breasts and Sydney’s eyes pointed in that general direction, it reads to me Sydney looking away in embarrassment gave her something bigger to be embarrassed about.
I knew Anvil was a non-comm…! Probably was in the Marines and join Archon upon being promoted to Gunnery Sergeant.
the Jersey Barrier represents the state’s penance for being the ones who built the first traffic circle in the U.S.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how Sydney’s head is about the same size as Anvil’s breasts. Sorry but in panel four without her head in view, its all you can see…
Gigantomastia is indeed a real thing.
He’s just so happy to be appreciated
“Deus had an idea, an awful, wonderful idea! He would put Sydney on the spot to see which words came out!”
Do you think it’s because his underwear is three sizes too small?
I wonder what would happen if he whistled for Max.
With her ranged energy attack she can disassociate large amounts of matter in a very short period of time. And that’s just one of her powers. So it can be accurately said that Max’s bite IS worse than her bark…
My strong suspicion is that she would glare at him.
Dave’s comment said “She’s been using the orbs non-stop for hours so she’s allowed to be a little run down.”
So, does using the Orbs (I so want to call them Orbies) cost energy from Sydney? I mean beyond the ‘running around doing things’ energy of a normalish active life.
No, not directly, DaveB simply meant she had been working non-stop
Not from what we know, she does not drain a “pool” to use her orbs.
Even with the orbs, she doesn’t have super physique. She should probably be grateful for all that PT she did (does?).
Sydney still has to concentrate and make decisions about how to use the orbs. The brain sucks up huge amounts of energy so not surprising she’s wiped out.
Medical researchers have figured out that the human brain takes up 30% of the overall minimum daily requirement of calories & nutrition.
Now recall, if you will, what kind of “nutrition” she prefers to ingest…She’s a real firebrand, she is.
(Hint: DaveB made scoville her very *name*)
Was wondering what that weird shape was above Dabbles head in the first panel, and then remembered: Tom
Is Pannel 6 a refence to Pretty Woman when she tries to touch the neckless in the movie?
Kinda in the movie he did that to startle her as a joke in this case Deus did it so she couldn’t take it until it’s cleared by the powers that be.
Glad I’m not the only one who got a Pretty Woman vibe from that panel.
I’m a grumpy old man myself LOL.
I LOVE their interactions. Sydney and Deus are always hitting it off like old pals meeting at a con. Which, for them both, is essentially what the rest of the world is like.
For the record, “I KNEW it! You ARE a supervillain!” and “You. Get. Me. >:)” is the perfect way of showing it. Hell, that’s how my friends and I interact when we’re being dumbasses. We may even have said these two very phrases some day.
Yes, a lot of viewer have said it’s confirmation that he is a supervillain,
no this is just friendly banter, like calling a good friend an a-hole and they just reply “You know it!”
I still say he’s not a supervillain, just a very smart businessman doing his best to improve lives without too much resistance or blood loss.
Sydney may run into trouble with her superiors on this. A little-known clause of the United States Constitution: Article I, Section 9, final paragraph.
“…no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
Of course, I don’t expect anyone there to remember that right now, but Arianna might notice and throw a yellow flag.
Dang, Arianna’s lawyer and public affairs roles would be in direct conflict here.
Anvil’s a Lieutenant, and she’s right there. She might be able to clean this up.
Anvil is a Sergeant, and Dave really needs to fix the cast page.
Which is why it’s being held until her chain of command can seek the proper authorization.
Which will probably be forthcoming, as the Defense Committee is _really_ going to want access to to what Deus is selling.
Yeah, she shut down a hostile super that had previously exhausted Maxima of all people with nothing but clever use of her powers and initiative. I’m sure Sydney’s chain of command will get all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed on their end, this is definitely a win-win situation as far as the US military would be concerned – someone who previously embarrassed their absolute best just got metaphorically jersey’d and atomic wedgie’d by someone who’s barely out of the recruitment office. Sure, there was some extreme property damage, but that’s nothing the US military isn’t used to papering over already – only difference is the exact nature of the property damage.
With “the Consent of the Congress”? For a private, who’s been on the news already?
Getting Congress to pass legislation for just this will be extremely difficult. Unless they slip it in as a rider on some appropriations bill. Just saying.
that is a really fancy medal. A stellated faceted obsidian is really pretty, but is obsidian supposed to shine this eery purple glow?
It’s reflecting/refracting ambient light, not glowing from within.
It was formed by an Nth-tech energy ray, who knows what properties it really has.
In 3 years this medal will turn out to have superion interactions and be the key macguffin in bypassing some horrible machine built on top of the obedisk.
and we will need an obscure part of a game console from the 1980’s to open a door.
You misspelled SLAP.
I would guess if nothing else it could be reflecting her orbs since she leaned in to look at it.
That eerie glow was added by SmugD, because SmugD doesn’t do non-eerie creepy shit
I was going to suggest just saying Dabbler was wearing a killer pair of heels, but then I remembered she has hooves. *Then* I remembered she’s a Succubus and not having traditional feet is no reason to miss out on wearing platforms that match her “Sexy Construction Worker” cosplay.
I mean, we’ve seen her “wear” and take off heels if we look back to the club scene on the roof were we discover Dabbler is an alien princess(totally legit)
The obedisk now has a better name, and shall henceforth be referred to as the SLAP.
Sydney’s
Little
Art
Project
Indeed.
seconded.
During the next couple battles she will briefly experiment with, then discard, the catchphrase “don’t make me SLAP you.”
I think it more likely to be used in-house, as a cautionary phrase.
“That could work, but this a delicate situation, and you remember the last time Sydney gave someone a SLAP.”
this meeting is/will be cannon. bonus points if Sydney or Dues is actually present.
Sydney is slouching as she’s feeling some regret about her choice of actions due to their consequences. Dabbler’s standing tall, so she looks taller relative to Sydney than normal.
“Jersey barriers” or – on the West Coast – “K-rails.”
Dave, you now have to make the medal and ribbon set available as mechandise.
I can’t help but wonder how many “level up” points Sydney will have after all this. And perhaps the discovery of the last orb? She did figure out how to adjust the environmental orb as she did with the PPO and the flight orbs. I have little doubt Sydney’s powers will grow considering how often she’s been using them. At some point she may have to take some time and go somewhere to explore each one in detail.
Wondering how many folks caught the ‘Pretty Woman’ jewelry box *snap* reference
l love that last interplay between Sydney and Deus
One thing I find amusing is that most of the supers are only doing good because they’re soldiers and/or it’s their job. It allows them to use their powers legally, as well.
Sydney is just happy with the joy of being a ‘goood guy’ and actually likes being one to live out her fantasies of being a superhero.
Maybe they are called Jersey Barriers out east, here on the west coast we call those K-Rails.
I’ve only ever heard them called Jersey Barriers and I’ve lived in California my whole life. Weird.
The general idea was used in the 1940s in California, but the standardized designs came out of New Jersey in the ’50s and were adopted by other state DOTs. K-rail is a specific brand name that became genericized in some areas where they were the dominant supplier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_barrier
When the temporary dividers are used, they are called K-bars. This is derived from (K)oncrete (Bar)ricade. Concrete is not spelled with a K, but it has a K sound so K-bar. When it is a permanent, continuous, installation, it is just called a concrete divider.
To me, K-bar is a marine knife. I am a civil engineer, and when those concrete barricades are discussed, they are Jersey barriers.
That’s what I knew them by too. I had a buddy that was in Vietnam and that’s what he called his knife. Evil looking thing too I could see where his was setup to attach to his M16 barrel.