Grrl Power #1256 – Antici… pation
Sydney’s comment about bisexting was legitimately a typo, then instead of fixing it, I was like, “No, I can totally see Sydney saying that. No idea what she was thinking about at the time, or what bisexting might actually be, but yeah, I’m going to write around it.”
Assuming it’s a portmanteau, bisexting would just be… well, normal sexting that a bisexual person would do. Or sexting, but at least one party is a hermaphrodite? But if it’s more of a descriptive word, then… maybe it what you’d call a guy banging a girl so hard that she’s walking around bow legged the next day. Like he was trying to bisect her, but, get this… with his dick.
Detla somehow hasn’t heard the expression “I’m afraid [blah blah blah]” but she’s familiar with “two for flinching.” Then again, she’s been hanging out with a bunch of military types, mostly non-coms and civilian specialists… Well, specialist. Really just Math. She doesn’t hang out with Dabbler all that much other than to eat the occasional lunch together so they can commiserate on missing out on their favorite space foods that aren’t readily available on Earth. Detla also hangs out with Jabberwokky to form an occasional thrupple along with Math. So non-coms, Math and ex-reprobate Jabberwokky, a group of people about as likely to look for an excuse to punch each other in the arms as any Frat house or a bus full of middle schoolers playing punch buggy.
Max doesn’t have any specific phobias. Like she never going to be all “Why did it have to be snakes/balloons/a bar of soap with a bite taken out of it?” Certainly she has a concern that one day she’ll either lose her powers or her golden skin will… consume her. There’s some evidence that some of her internal workings aren’t completely human anymore, but it’s a difficult proposition to prove as she can’t be x-rayed and she’s never been cut badly enough for someone to get a good look in there. Though her blue blood is probably indicative that something is going on in there. Certainly there are some people in the government concerned that if her internals are slowly being replaced that it could eventually impact her personality, or even supplant her consciousness with an alien one, and there are some very secretive plans to mitigate that potential threat. Fortunately, in another bout of me flirting with utter fiction, the government of Grrl-verse USA didn’t appoint a panicky racist to that position, so no Henry Peter Gyrich’s or Amanda Waller’s. At least not yet.
The new vote incentive is up!
Every so often I get the urge to try and draw Maxima all properly shiny, and this… isn’t my favorite attempt if I’m honest. I’ve been sitting on this for a little while doing little tweaks, and decided to finally publish it cause I’m already behind on these. The next one will (almost definitely) resume the trend of including a little mini comic to extend the scene a bit.
As usual, Patreon has some outfit variations as well as sans flagrante.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Surprise skycrane wedgie of doom, lifted off one’s feet by your underwear at a shocking rate of speed.
Lapha gets two of them.
At some future point.
Brittany Diggers would be proud.
Here’s a frightening idea. Deus thinks he’s figured out the (completely arbitrary, nonsensical) configuration of DNA that causes an organism to interact with the “Superion Field” and thereby gain superpowers. But that completely arbitrary, nonsensical configuration has no selection pressure in favor of its emergence. There is no gradient where “a little bit of it” is good, there’s no evolutionary curve to climb – no way it would really emerge unless it were done on purpose somehow.
And AIUI, it’s arbitrary enough to be pretty easily adaptable to any DNA code. In theory, it is as likely to emerge when a pigeon is hatched as it is when a human is born. Unless whoever or whatever is doing it on purpose just isn’t interested in pigeons, which (from an admittedly human-centric perspective) seems likely.
So that’s all a little bit scary. The idea that “whoever or whatever” seems likely to have been the same people who developed Syd’s orbs is a little bit more scary.
But Lapha is an Aetholith. She gets to arbitrarily edit her own DNA every time she has a new body made. If she discovers what Deus has worked out, she is one of the first entities we’ve seen (except maybe Krona) who could straight up hack the system. And that’s a little bit scary in its own right, isn’t it?
Here’s the final scary part. We suppose that whoever or whatever is doing this, is interested in humans and not, eg, Pigeons. How would it react to a non-human, eg an Aetholith, deliberately crashing its game?
You have the kind of twisted creativity that, when found in a ttRPG GM, would make for a VERY fun game.
Maybe, but now I want to see what a pigeon would do with superpowers. Assuming the writer didn’t just go the “Boring and Easy” route and give the poor thing human intelligence as one of its powers.
“I flip the table and go Berseker Drone!” said WhoEver Or WhatEver or WEOWE from the ceiling vent.
Gonna put two horse heads in Lapha’s bed instead of one. Too bad she doesn’t do horse gambling though…
I would assume that bisexting means “bidirectional sexting”, i.e. Sydney and Lapha sharing sex memories.
I guess Delta also has “the list”?
But it is probably a mental storage device or hud type deal.
I doubt that MOST people who wrong Detla live long enough to be put on a list.
I wouldn’t call Amanda Waller a panicky racist. She’s a sociopath and often extremely heartless (at least until the future in shows like Batman Beyond… for sure but ‘panicky’ and ‘racist’ are not things I’d see her being described as.
1) Panicky – she has stood up to Batman and he’s even backed down a few times. And she regularly deals with superhumans where they give her a wide berth. She talks down to 5 star generals. :) Not really panicky. Although she goes have anger management problems when people don’t follow what she says (no matter how heartless and awful her orders might be on occasion, like in Suicide Squad with Starro). I think it’s more anger and needing to be in control than panic though.
2) Racist – I think Waller is very equal opportunity in who she will use and threaten to kill / actually kill. Black, white, asian, human, metahuman, extraterrestrial, sane, insane, rich, poor, any nationality… she’ll use anyone as a puppet for her means. :)
I think he means that that the positions that Waller has held were created by a racist, panicky president/government?
Ah okay. It didn’t really read that way.
“the government of Grrl-verse USA didn’t appoint a panicky racist to that position, so no Henry Peter Gyrich’s or Amanda Waller’s.”
The way I read it was that a panicky racist was appointed to the position of someone like Amanda Waller (or Gyrich, except Gyrich WAS racist against mutants, whereas Waller was not racist against metahumans or superheroes or supervillains – they were all pretty much tools to be used to counterbalance for the safety of the United States and the world by any means necessary, including some incredibly immoral means).
I am only really familiar with the “Justice League” Cartoon Amanda Waller (Also JLU) and a bit of her “Arrowverse” avatar. To be fair, I can really understand anyone’s concern about the Justice League’s powers. They have an unassailable (with standard human technology) orbital weapon, capable of precision strikes; one member is a telepath, able to control anyone or get almost every secret out of one’s brain, and also a shapeshifter, able to appear as anyone; you have powerhouses than can juggle whole tank regiments, speedsters that can fly/run so fast, they literally stop time; a conspiracy nut with a vengeance complex who happens to be a billionaire, capable of inflicting heavy financial damage if he so chooses to a nation’s economy. And that are just the core members (well, there is also Hawkgirl, but she is by far the weakest in comparison.
Of course they will try to create a Plan B. But that plan was subverted by Luthor and drifted waaaaay to deep into morally questionable territories, then took a right turn and went straight to evil.
But Amanda Waller is neither blinded by racism (if you count superhumans as a race) nor cowardice or hatred. She sees it as her duty and she’s about to fulfill it, no matter what. That sense of duty also brings about her actions in establishing “Batman Beyond”. By then, she has come to see the supers as a necessary “evil” and even understands them a bit. Also she has realized that some supers (in that case especially Batman) are so morally unassailable, that her old fears are not that pressing enymore.
In JL and JLU you can see a developement in her to that point through the seasons. When at first she has no regrets about her actions, that changes (a bit). Mainly, because she sees some of her co-commanders as possessing that aformémentioned blindness due to hatred or racism (Gen. Eiling) or having their own little plans (Luthor).
“To be fair, I can really understand anyone’s concern about the Justice League’s powers. ”
Season 4 of Justice League Unlimited was one of the best seasons for a cartoon ever. Up there with shows like Exosquad and Mighty Max for good storytelling.
“To be fair, I can really understand anyone’s concern about the Justice League’s powers.”
To quote Amanda Waller to Batman:
Waller: “Did Superman ever tell you that in order to get Luthor’s pardon, he had to tell us about your parallel universe adventure? ALL about it? We started to wonder what would happen if you took the same action that the Justice Lords did. So I had my people run some computer simulations. If the Justice League ever went rogue, what do you think would be the result?”
Batman: “That’s moot.”
Waller: “Humor me. In every single scenario, you beat us. Badly…. But that was before Cadmus. Now we have the technology to defend ourselves.
Batman (trying to be all bat-glare and scary to Waller): “Whatever you think you’re doing, if you present a threat to the world, the Justice League will TAKE YOU DOWN.”
Waller: “If WE present a threat?! You have a spaceship floating over our heads with a laser weapon pointing DOWN! In another dimension, seven of you overthrew the government, and ASSASSINATED THE PRESIDENT! WE’RE the good guys… Protecting our country from a very real threat. YOU!”
And Batman walks away after that because he can’t refute what she said. And later, he tells Wonder Woman and Superman that Waller is right – that they have a right to be afraid of the Justice League.
Oh, and she stands down Batman while she’s just gotten out of the shower and is just wearing a bathrobe.
Later, even people like Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter say that the government may be right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2U5BHxBRMI
Martian Manhunter: “We must also consider the possibility that Cadmus is right to be afraid of us. AND there is strong evidence of Cadmus having LEGITIMATE connections to the government.”
and
Green Arrow: “Hey, I’m the only guy in the room who doesn’t have superpowers and let me tell you – you guys scare me. What if you DO decide to go marching down there, taking care of whoever you think is guilty? Who could stop you? Me?”
Supergirl: “So you WANT the government to have a bunch of superhuman weapons just to keep US in check?”
Green Arrow: “No. I don’t know….. Yeah!”
Supergirl looks shocked, Superman looks ticked off.
Green Arrow: “Look, I’m an old lefty. The government must do for people what people can’t do for themselves. And the people sure can’t protect themselves from the likes of us.”
—-
Also Batman didn’t tell Waller this, but Batman has his own contingency plans for every member of the Justice League in case any of them go rogue (which Vandal Savage then stole and used in a more lethal attempt in Justice League: Doom)
—-
And then there’s what happens in Earth-3 (Crime Syndicate in both Crisis on Two Earths and Crisis on Infinite Earths 1 and 2)
Which is why Batsie said “That’s moot.”
Good old gyrich, one of the biggest villains in the Marvel Universe yet too many fail to see that because he appears as a government flunky but he’s really something of a villain mastermind motivated by his twisted hatred and possible jealousy of super-humans. He spends his time plotting how to eliminate every super-human on Earth thinking it only belongs to the normal humans and completely, totally blind by choice to how the Earth would have been enslaved or destroyed dozens if not hundreds of times in various encounters but for the bravery of super-heroes. Heck right after they saved Earth from the Dire Wraiths he immediately attempted to depower every superhuman in the world who just fought the Dire Wraiths in front of him in a battle that normal humans would have lost without question. This verse is definitely far better off without someone like him running around.
Detla has very quickly become my favorite character. Also, oddly, the most relatable for me if she kind of keeps along as she is so far. As much as I have enjoyed watching this comic unfold over the years, there hasn’t really been a character that I liked above the others until her.
While I really like almost all the characters, I’ve had several characters I’ve liked more than others (Chimyriad, Krona, Lorlana, Math, Goose (Duke Nukem), and obviously Deus since he is quite clearly the best ever, all praise Deus amen)…. and I’ve had one or two who I really disliked (mainly Hench Wench) but I’m pretty sure that the Garamm/Lapha interaction is going to be added to that list since I already LOVE how they are with each other (especially Garamm, with Lapha being the straight man to play off Garamm’s quirkiness).
Well, some reptiles have 2 penises, so maybe the slip was because of the wet dream she had before.
Fun Fact: According to Plato’s “The Republic”, a democracy is a degraded form of government, located just above tyranny and immediately below oligarchy. So from his perspective, the American governmental system wouldn’t be eroding into oligarchy, so much as rising up to it.
(Note for clarity, the terminology of Plato’s time seems to have “democracy” more equivalent to today’s “anarchy”, and his highest idealized form of government was an aristocracy, which was more of today’s “meritocracy”, especially when lead by his philosopher-kings.)
Actually that’s why one of the big reasons that the American system is a Republic INSTEAD of a democracy. It’s the attempt to prevent things from falling into tyranny (of the majority, of an oligarchy, of cult of personality, etc). The Founders did not like the idea of a pure democracy because of how close it is to tyranny (ie, a posse getting together and hanging a man without a trial is ‘democracy,’ whereas having a trial with rules to protect that man’s rights is a ‘republic’).
Not to praise the movie since I’m not a fan of Mel Gibson, but there was a good line in “The Patriot” where Benjamin Martin asks “Would you tell me please, Mr. Howard, why should I trade one tyrant three thousand miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away? An elected legislature can trample a man’s rights as easily as a king can.”
A key reason for the entire structure is too slow things down, force people to talk and to listen. Frank Luntz is correct. as a people we no longer want to listen. and the young are watching the adults and learning that they don’t have to listen, and nor should they. I wish I believed that the powerful people that this BS serves would be trapped in this country when it explodes, but money/power always escapes. as bad as the Force is (Kreia is absolutely correct) many times this place is worse, because closing the book and reading something funnier is impossible.
Nice points. :)
And not a single pun during that entire post.
I dunno. Bisexting suddenly reminded my of Sydney’s boyfriend issues sans Magic Potion. Bisexting indeed. Owwie. I may be a size queen, but…owwie.
Wonder what happened with the TWC. In just a couple of weeks it went from always being #1 or #2 to suddenly being #22.
TWC?
Top Web Comics.
The popularity list to which the vote incentives are meant to entice us to contribute.
The lack of vote incentives might be a/the reason for Grrl Power’s ranking slip.
Not that DaveB should feel obligated to provide them just to maintain that ranking. It’s just a list.
As long as he’s getting what he needs to keep providing us with this comic, that’s OK with me.
His irregular Incentive schedule has always been an issue, but the ranking tended to be pretty consistent. In the years I’ve been watching it regularly, I never saw it go below 3rd place for more than a week. Then it suddenly dropped to 15th near the end of last month, 22 last week, and now it’s still only back up to 21. I didn’t see any new heavy hitters on the list that I’d think would destabilize things. My best guess is that some of the regular voters here stopped for one reason or another. Most likely those that would vote every 24 hours, so their being missing would have an outsized impact.
The rankings tend to get messed up at the start of the month, when points get reset back to 0