Grrl Power #1173 – Meeting meetup
The werewolf mafia is actually a cabal of several different therianthrope species, as well as some other supernaturals, (and plenty of mundanes on the street level) but they decided that calling themselves The Wereweasel mafia didn’t sound as cool. The Wereowl Mafia was briefly considered, but people kept pronouncing it “Were Wowl” and some people heard “Were Wow” and that sounded like an after school club for Lycanthrope kids in the 80’s, so they stuck with Werewolf.
FYI, Ms. Tantalis is Dabbler, Mr. Zoeng is Zephan, Master Gault is… well, Master Gault, the head mage of the Twilight Council. Mr. Lockwood is Gregor, the Dire Werewolf. Lord Ingsol… I guess Ingsol is his last name and when you finally hear his first name it sounds weird because you’re used to thinking of him as just “Ingsol.” Like Ellen Ripley. It’s fine, just a little jarring after getting used to think of her as just “Ripley.” Still, better “Ellen” than something that would totally pull you out of the movie, like if her first name had been Trixibelle, Derfla, Boomquifa, or Schartzmugel.
I’m not sure what nationality Ingsol used to be, so I haven’t decided on a first name for him. Ingsol sounds like Ingersoll which can vaguely be traced back to Old English, but also could be related to “Ingvar” which is Old Norse. So his first name could be something cool like Ælfgar, or it could be something nerdy like Ægenbeald, Earnweald, or Cuþberht, because even though those names are still pretty metal in today’s world, if you’re hanging out with Ælfgar, Beowulf, Cynewulf, and Godmund, the guy named Earnweald definitely gets picked on.
And yes, the Senator there does rather look a lot like Michael Peña. I decided to use a model instead of coming up with some generic looking male face, so now the senator looks like Michael Peña.
Oh, and Sciona/Escorpia isn’t supposed to be Sydney short in that first panel. I messed up the perspective. She’s like 5’5.”
The June vote incentive is finally up! Maxima is prepping for her night out.
And in the Patreon variants, she gets (un)dressed and takes a look through all the makeup options.
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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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“She’s not short. She’s at the bottom of a short stretch of stairs.”
I thought it was the camera angle that created that perspective.
To be fair, werewolves would likely make a very stable criminal organization with the pack hierarchy.
In the wild wolf packs are families, the leaders are the parent pair and the other are their children of the last ~ three years. After that the now adult wolves leave to found their own packs.
And the mafia usually refers to its members as … family.
Yeah, with the first name, Ellen Ripley just doesn’t sound believable.
Neither did Dweezil Riddick in Pitch Black.
Is Sciona gonna try something with these people? Because somehow I don’t think that’s gonna work the way she wants it.
I think she’s going to try to sell them something overpriced to establish a business relationship to be able to compromise them in some indirect way later. She knows she’s not ready to take Max head on. She has, however, tried to get influence in the US government, and well here she is now.
I’d expect her long term goal here at the moment is to cut Archon’s funding but that won’t come up in this arc.
Would not be surprised if she tries to pull some body snatcher move here. be even less surprised if Deus already knows that’s her. Heck he probably has some Alari soul detector up his sleeve. Heck the Alari probably have something like that if their agents on their planets can pull this little secret invasion tactic just so they can confirm who is and isn’t one of their own.
I hope that click was for some sort of comical ACME type device.
Only if doorknobs are comical. Although she is looking devious in that panel.
hmm… it looks like the door has a long handle in the first panel, but the ‘click’ comes from a sphere. it could just be a continuity error but my first thought was that she had some sort of device too tbh
I noticed that too, a handle is hard to draw from that angle and how close it is to the frame, so a knob makes it easier to spot.
DaveB explained on Patreon that they’re two different doors. They’re traveling through a hallway in the first 4 panels.
The Azazothian Makeup Inc. cartel can’t be any worse than Estee Lauder or Chanel.
What sort of make up?
Just the basics that every eldritch horror need. A little liner for those extra eyes, tentacle tint, Color Out of Space nail and talon polish
It’s nothing with out a decent Foundation of Terror.
About the blurb under the comic:
Oh yeah, there’s also the Cult of the Emperor in Yellow.
And the Scanners (these guys are a *real* headache to deal with).
Always fear the Yukinko Yakuza.
How much worse would it be to be named Eginbeard?
Now I want a tee-shirt that says “I just have resting simmering-resentment face.”
Just a note but if Sciona’s “passengers” are all looking for superpowered bodies to possess (and honestly, why fly coach when you’re on a planet that has seriously first-class bodies available), then getting in on this venture makes a lot of sense for them.
Start out with the supposedly-controlled danger where supers are going to be placing themselves at risk, introduce one or more dangers that are unexpected and completely out-of-tier, move in on the fresh corpses and when the victim er excuse me I mean reincarnated Alari bloodmage excuse me I mean “hero” emerges not only do they have a first-class body but they also have a position of trust and access to all kinds of opportunities to exploit.
Just sayin, as evil plans go, it makes a certain amount of sense.
maybe the army works differently but allowing only one private company to participate in a government program is not monopolistic and a violation of the law on public procurement?
Yes and no. It could be a violation of procedures, unless there is literally only one company that is read-in on specific classified items. Deus has significantly more control of his company than most CEOs of major companies do, as they are rarely 51%+ stock owners. So other companies would require having a lot more decision-makers read in before they’d even be in a position to make the bid. If the security of reading in as few people as is feasible is weighed high enough, it can override the normal bidding process.
Monopolistic is N/A, it’s not an entire market.
God I love her sass sometimes.
That was one of them.
By Monopolistic i mean monopolistic practices. I understand Deus is the best bidder but its because he has classified knowledge goverment dont want to spread. I mean if goverment dont want private sector to “know” then dont reward somebody who “know”. Its rub me like when Stark Industries sweeps all public tenders related to aliens
Tichonrius: oh for the last time! I’m a Dreadlord, not a Druglord!
Escorpia: i can be both.
So a bit of a random, Sydney-esque, question. If someone went after Maxima with a pair of drum-sticks, could they play her like a steel drum?
Also, how much HAS Sydney progressed physically since she joined ARC? She’s been running laps and doing a bunch of training so I doubt she’s as weak as she was when she started, but I also won’t be shocked if she’s not THAT much stronger either.
In all likelihood, her cardio-stamina has gone up the most, with some improvement in her coordination. While strength would have increased noticeably, with her build she’s probably still building up muscle-stamina much faster than she’s increasing her max rep or anything.
With focused training, a small, wiry person *can* build bulk and power, but her training isn’t focused on that, nor should it be. That would be a lot of time spent on a minor improvement to her overall skillset, compared to spending mroe time practicing with her orbs or such.
That would be really interesting to see; her noticing the improvements in her physical capabilities and stamina in comparison to how she was before.
She’s a LOT more ‘sane’ than she was earlier on too.
I don’t know if anyone else mentioned it but does the guy who explained why Deus is there look like John Leguiziamo.
Nonono it definitely looks like Michael Pena
Definitely Michael Pena – that’s what I was coming to the comments to say.
Well, I was going to make some kind of reference to that character he played in Antman (his best part to date, IMO), but I probably would have flubbed it, anyway, so this probably better.
Okay but in my defence those two look a lot alike. Seriously look them both up if you don’t believe me.
Well, that’s hardly surprising, when the author admitted to using him as a model in his blurb.
Had to read that last mob name 3 times (not out loud), it’s not orc and Tauren blush and foundation, it’s cosmetologist lies dreaming of tentacles.
Their best-selling line is called “When The Stars Align”……
Now I’m doubly saddened. There was a webcomic called “Peter Is the Wolf” that would have been PERFECT for a crossover at this point, with the “Werewolf Mafia,” including how the multiple therianthrope types get along and interact (including lingering bad blood between werelions – who are of course black, and from Africa – versus other lycanthropes who had been living in the American South). I’d have loved to have seen a crossover…
…Unfortunately that’s not going to happen. The comic is on indefinite hiatus. Their longest running illustrator (who had the best art out of all of them, IMO) parted ways with the writer in an explosively final fashion, after the illustrator made some politically charged comments that offended… well, pretty much everybody.
Huh. I wondered why it had suddenly reappered and disappeared so quickly.
At first I thought there should be a webcomic production drama comic. Then I wondered how many webcomic production drama comics there have been. There certainly seems to be inspiration out there. I had the benefit of growing up around some successful businessmen. One of the lessons learned is that you can believe whatever you like but if your business depends on the goodwill of the public you can’t go round pissing people off.
The problem is that it has become increasingly difficult to avoid paying off some segment of your audience, because one segment will get pissed if you don’t piss off some other segment. Any direct appeal to any segment is sure to piss off some other segment. There isn’t much neutral ground left. People want you to pick a side, and if you don’t pick theirs, then you’re the enemy by default.
Sometimes I think people survive mostly because other people assume their own experiences and opinions are universal and obviously true, and that anybody who doesn’t display overt signals of being on the other side can just blend in.
“pissing”, not “paying”. This is why I almost never comment from my phone.
Heh, still check “PitW” every now and then
So she’s basically Neia Baraja. “Resting Glare Face” is the key.
https://overlordmaruyama.fandom.com/wiki/Neia_Baraja
I assumed everyone was going up some steps…
Also is it me or does that guy next to Deus look like Michael Pena?
It is not just you; I literally just looked up “Ant Man” on IMDB because I couldn’t remember “the name of that guy from Ant Man” and it was Michael Peña.
You could have just read the Author’s Rambles to find that out…
One of my friends had a key feature of his D&D campaign be that every new NPC was defined as looking like [insert star name here]. The BBEG looked like Bruce Willis.
Which version of The Willis?
Moonlighting, Die Hard, Fifth Element?
i dont know why but something about a unicorn cartel just scares me. do they peddle horn shavings, trade in virgins, fund neckbeard revolts. its just scary for some reason
They also enhance their protection rackets by poisoning the water supply, offering to generously cleanse it for an appropriate fee. And if they discover investigations into them, well, they’re holding several important peoples’ virgin children: any move against the cartel and they’ll bring in a consultant from the Tentacle Yakuza.
NOBODY expects the UNICORN CARTEL!
Clearly it was a hit by the Mermaid Mafia paid off in Leprechaun Gold. The Unicorns were the masterminds behind the scenes.
don’t forget, unicorns still exist, they’re hiding in zoos with signs that say ‘Rhinocerous’
The guy in the second to last panel looks like Michael Pena. :3
The guy in the second-to-last panel looks like Michael Pena! :3
You don’t say! Might have been intentional. Author might have even mentioned it in his blurb below the comic.
*Gregor’s ear twitches when Deus mentions the Werewolf Mafia*
So, Max probably can’t be affected by Scorpiona’s sparkly drug touch, due to her weird skin. Deus can, but his brain will probably let him think through it. Will it work on vampires and werewolves?
Vampires are undead, so lack the requisite biology to be effectively drugged, and lycanthropes are typically portrayed as being so redonk in the fortitude/stamina/metabolism department that it may well be completely meaningless.
As I posted in the Patreon, “please tell me Sciona is not stupid enough to try this.”
She probably will be, and inwardly be wondering why the fuck it didn’t work, and be annoyed at Earth for once again being an unpredictable pain in her ass.
If she hasn’t used the intervening months to figure this shit out, then she is a failure as a villain.
Also, still putting my money on “explicitly on Deus’ payroll, inasmuch as he already outlined his ‘totally not blackmailing elected officials’ plan.”
Also, I am increasingly certain that X is already aware of Escorpina, even if not specifically aware of Sciona currently squatting in that particular real estate, which seems increasingly less likely the more I think about it. At a _minimum_ it seems like he’d have gotten Specs to observer her, and likely Dabbles as well, and I feel certain that between these two at least, something would have pinged, prompting further investigation. In fact, given that we already know Sciona was in the shit with the Council, and Deus is almost certainly aware of the fact that Arc-Dark has likely sniffed her out, this whole meeting seems increasingly structured to lock the bitch down. Almost everyone present will have a counter to her borrowed power, she’s outclassed, and with both Zephan and Gault there along with Dabbles, I suspect her blood magic isn’t going to get any traction, either.
Which isn’t to say they won’t also be legitimately discussing the subject of building a farmable dungeon, but you know how it goes with birds and stones.
Hell, I expect Big D probably proposed the whole damn setup.
In fact, I’m highly suspicious that either that Senator isn’t actually that Senator, or that Max isn’t actually that Max. He’s bloviating a bit much for a closed-door meeting, and she always wears slack with her dress uniform, because flying and up skirt shots. Also, putting Max in reach of touch-based mind controller without first getting some sort of a clue about how resistant she would actually be would be a big operational no-no. Better to put in someone who has a demonstrated ability to ignore that kind of thing.
Why would Specs or slash and Dabbles do shit for SmugD?
Maxi is wearing slacks… Not sure what you are meaning by that
Not for Big D, but for X.
Also, I see you’re correct about her slacks.
I plead tired eyes after driving overnight with a load of bananas.
Bharda:- “So, I says to Mabel, I says….”
Bananas are good listeners…..
Must suck for Scicorpia to look up at those she looks down on :P
Bet she’s missing her ogre bod now :)
Sydney was not invited to a meeting involving dungeon diving. Words will be exchanged.
…and the Bar Association.