Grrl Power #1263 – Serendipity-doo-dah
Sydney’s Law of Might-as-Well-Have-Been Intended Consequences states that a superheroine in her civvy disguise tagging along on a first responder’s call will absolutely cause the situation to escalate, forcing her to choose between revealing her identity, doing nothing (which is not really an option unless the super in question is more of an anti-hero,) or ducking behind a port-a-potty to break away and do superhero stuff, then be forced to try and come up with a lame excuse like “Oh, I got separated during the excitement and couldn’t find you.”
It’s not a pithy law, but it is the law. At least if you believe anything Sydney says.
At some point, Max has to come clean with Rowan about her identity, at which point, Rowan will realized he fully grabbed Maxima’s ass and came away unscathed, which puts him rarified company. I have a scene with them that I really want to do, but… I honestly don’t see how to work it out because it would require Max to remain mum about her identity for longer than she should. I’ll have to give it some thought.
I looked up fire codes for this page. I didn’t see a Code 11 anywhere, and the ones I did find didn’t seem to get as specific as trapped “limb,” but I it’s possible dispatch is putting 2 and 2 together, especially if a certain address is a repeat offender. I assume there are regional codes for certain parts of the country that wouldn’t come up elsewhere, like Code 53; Maple Syrup Tsunami, or Code 71; Armadillo Swarm, or Code 86; Hipster Riot due to Infinity Scarf and Flannel Shortage.
The new one is well underway, I’ll try to have it up with next Monday’s comic.
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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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
A “10-56” (intoxicated person) would seem to be more accurate, especially if Rowan recognizes the address and the Code 11 add-on. Obviously this person is one of those “Hold My Beer” Texans who regularly watches Jackass-style shenanigans on YouTube.
So a Regular Texan. <_<‘
10-31 is “civilian needs aid, non-medical”. Which can be a lot of things but “Someone is stuck in something” is certainly a common one even ignoring the location.
10 codes vary by location specifically because they are meant to obscure the call information for privacy and security of the officers. There are no ‘universal’ codes. Usually the people who generate the codes have no sense of humor. The local code, back before our public service comms were encrypted, for something of this nature would have been “10-52 park bench” for the police, but “appendage srtuck in a park bench” on the EMS paging system.
Yes and no. Lots of local variations exist, especially in fire. Police have a standard set by APCO in 1935 (and revised in ’55 ’67, and ’73.) On a police band, 10-31 would be “crime in progress” generally followed by a letter for the type of crime – A for burglary, C for homicide, D for a kidnapping, etc.
It’s all for brevity of communication. The ’10’ part is redundant, because older radios tended to always swallow the first syllable unless you hold down the button a full second before speaking, which people were trained to do but didn’t always, especially in an emergency. Saying ten first was a more consistent way of conveying the important numbers.
Though there is an exception to the all-numbers scheme. 10-Max is “rogue officer.”
As far as fire-codes, Stroth is using the New York code, but so does basically every fire department East of the Mississippi, so it really depends where the department (and by extension Archon HQ, they’re almost certainly in the same city) is located.
Healthy interpersonal interaction!
Warms the heart.
Max probably has VERY LITTLE EXPERIENCE with this sort of thing. She got her powers as a teenager. Her pre-ARCHON career was extremely classified Darker-Than-Black-Ops that didn’t give her a lot of opportunity for normal socializing.
She’s also got the whole “World of Cardboard”/”Woman of
SteelGold, Man of Kleenex” issue, so assuming Max isn’t, in fact, a virgin, A case of “penis stuck in something” might’ve been significantly more traumatic/.Max was seen in a flashback doing flying keg stands, so her military career still had normal (for a certain definition of “normal”) socializing at least within that world, and she has nearly perfect control of her power balance, so she could easily put all her “points” into defense or energy blasts (and not use them) to be close enough to normal human strength not to break anyone by accident. She might not always have had perfect control, but dumping everything into or out of a specific one was probably always easy enough.
All this, plus elite-unit soldiers and firemen (the whole carrying-a-body-down-a-ladder thing is real), while [i]significantly[/i] below Max’s toughness level, are hardly “tissue”. The odds of a full heterosexual with admitted attraction to members of the opposite sex, constantly surrounded by a prime selection (high physical attributes, mental attributes, and/or both) of members of the opposite sex not experimenting with a game of hide-the-salami at least once are very slim. Especially a powerful woman in a male-dominated career, who doesn’t have a dedicated monogamous partner.
There might be a former soldier with a disability discharge because of “classified” (he tells his friends he took a bullet to the groin), but surely she’s tried it.
“All this, plus elite-unit soldiers and firemen (the whole carrying-a-body-down-a-ladder thing is real), while [i]significantly[/i] below Max’s toughness level, are hardly “tissue”.”
On the Superman/Maxima scale? You’re right – they are hardly as strong as tissue.
Not even kidding. The forces she’s been shown to be involved in would turn normal human beings red mist (or other “no longer human shaped” things) instantaneously.
The reason that’s problematic in these kinds of situations is that sexual fulfillment involves some involuntary muscular activity.
Superman and Maxima powers might seem similar at first sight but are very different.
Superman is always super, he just are very good at controling his strengh (he would kill Lois the moment he has and involuntary muscle movement).
Maxima has a pool of “energy” that can add or subtract from a series of “powers”. So se can in simple terms depower herself to not cut male genitalia for involuntary vaginal muscle movements.
Max’s pool adjusts her already superhuman baseline.
Her “minimum” is still more than likely sufficient to tear flesh, and shatter bones.
Yes, but Maxima can go below her baseline, “overcharging” another attribute. For durability it was described as “probably still tougher than a human”, which probably ranges into “close enough to human to not have to worry about accidentally hurting them”.
Reference, please? It is always references as a pentagram with selector arrows. Never once have I seen a negative arrow.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-283-tectonic-uppercut/
You can see the “baseline” pentagram (light blue) retreating, leaving a (dark blue) shade of the normal baseline pentagram visible, as strength breaks the bounds of the outer pentagram.
Contrast with https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-273-power-drain/, where defense is maxed and no shade of the baseline is exposed.
The description in #283 is “probably still tougher than a human, but downright mushy relative to his strength.”
In #273, it’s “Force her into a high armor state and she’s only able to bring her default strength to bear”, and it equates it with default toughness after a strength dump, described as: “It would leave her only slightly tougher than a really butch tank”.
Voyager’s completely right. We saw it during the Vehemence fight when she punched him in the throat with even ABOVE her maximum, which meant the rest went even below her base minimum.
Awwwwwww so the nose smudge was just a drawing error? Or did it exist inuniverse? If so, did it just come and go? If so, how long was it visible? Did Rowan even notice? Will it appear again? Will it appear in the same spot? will it have the same dimensions/shape/color?
So. Many.Questions…
It was a descendant of the fly that Belloq ate in “Raiders”.
Glith in hologram? If she moves too fast, the illusion can’t keep up. Remember that this thing has been highly adjusted to make Max look like a normal, if tall, human.
Far as I can tell (by zooming in on the Patreon post) it was just two lines to demarcate the turn-up part (for lack of a batter way to put it) of her nose tip. Why he didn’t have it on previous pages with the same angle, I don’t know.
nub, tip, jump, point, mogul
Ironically a rather nice couple as they are allowed to be stupid together without fear of being embarrassed.
Transition between panels 5-6. Kills me everytime I stop laughting. XD
hmmm.. I want a porno sense scan. I think Rowan is getting close to something.
max is getting too nervous. yes the ‘penis getting stuck in something’ is defiantly something the girl should say. the guy is thinking it… always… snake has mind of its own.
Well, he’s not wrong. I definitely wouldn’t say that….
Unrelated:
If you type “serendipitously” slowly into google translate it is funny to see how many words in different languages it thinks to recognize.
In french “par hasard”
par (latin per) : by
hasard (castilian* azar, from arabic az-zahr, the dice): Circumstance of an unforeseen or unforeseeable nature whose effects may be favorable or unfavorable for someone.
*castellano loosely described as Spanish (español), ask the Basques or the Catalans…
’10-codes’ inevitably take on a life of their own, especially if the radio traffic isn’t being recorded and/or some lawyer doesn’t get wind of what they really mean… a ’10-17′ for ‘acting like a dickhead’ is great if you can have plausible deniability i.e: ‘never write them down’.
A lawyer once tried to use a log book against a Officer in a nuisance complaint about ‘harrassment’ when he wrote “so-and-so presents as A/H”, the Officer said on the stand that it was shorthand for “Angry and Hostile” not ‘AssHole’ and the lawyer was almost laughed out of the courtroom.
The vast majority of complaints are from someone who got their feeling hurt when they were held accountable for their actions and felt that the law shouldn’t apply to them so obviously the Officer was being racist/sexist/some sort of ‘ist’, for daring to make them stop interfering with other people’s lives in a criminal manner.
The Navy had Falcon Codes for phrases that you would not want to say over the radio. Google the term and you’ll get a few lists of them, although they seem to vary as to which number means which phrase. “CAG” is Navy-speak for Carrier Air Group, the detachment of aircraft and pilots that are assigned to an aircraft carrier at a given time.
Yes, there is no history of police ever targeting and harassing minority groups…
and NHI didn’t stand for No Human Involved
In the vein of “hilarious codes”, public pools tend to have “Code Brown” and “Code Pink” reserved for “Accidental Fecal Release” and “person/s found acting in a manner beyond frisky”
Those of you familiar with the Laundry series of books would know of the “CASE NIGHTMARE” Rainbow, where each color corresponds with something really bad happening. Green is literally “The Stars Are Right” and the one that the protagonist/s of the books tend to be worried about. Stross (probably jokingly) revealed that CASE NIGHTMARE PINK is “Invasion by the forces of Equestria”. Unsure if he knew about the Conversion Bureau universe of fanfic.
It also does not help that whenever somebody gets their incantation, I mean math, wrong, they get possessed by eldritch horrors and the first sign of that is that green light starts leaking out of their eyes.
There’s also the decidedly non-rainbow Nightmare Code Black, but I do not recall that ever being explained or even alluded at other than the name. Given that Nightmare Green is the earth travelling between the spiral arms and being discovered by the Infovores that hide in there away from the light, it must be something truly horrifying (or a noodle incident, that is of course always a possibility).
Other than that, the Laundry Files is a HIGHLY recommonded series :)
Deeply disturbing, yes, but highly recommended nonetheless.
Maybe Max should stop hanging around Sydney and maybe keep her head out of the gutter?!?
Be glad Dabbler wasn’t there…!
More than ever now I like them as a couple, unfortunately there’s going to be the drama of how they’d actually work. Although I’d see Deus being annoyed by being beaten to the punch about someone else being a potential partner for Max he’s the kind of antagonist who knows that any action by him would sour him forever in her eyes. More than anything I don’t see Deus as the Big Bad of this Story because that would be very boring. I think the ultimate Villain of this story will be something like a Alliance of the bad guy Guild and that evangelist type we saw way back at the beginning.
Deus have admitted that greed is what drives him so I can imagine him being very jelaous. On the other hand he is pragmatic enough to swallow his pride.
I don’t see Deus as being the jealous type. Jealousy is the apprehension of rivalship, and I don’t think Deus is apprehensive of rivals – rivals are apprehensive of him. As they should be. All praise Deus, amen.
And to quote Homer Simpson:
“Jealousy is worried that someone else will take what you have.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmx1jpqv3RA
Does Deus really strike anyone who is worried? He covets. :)
Honestly, the comic may not ever really have a “Big Bad.” Whenever a bona-fide villain/villain group shows up, they seem to be taken down in short order. Vehemence attacks with a bunch of rubes, he winds up in custody. The Ascensioners (or whatever the mask-and-cloak people were called) lasted longer, having first shown up when one of them tried to kill Sydney and got Unwound, but once they actually attacked Archon they were largely annihilated within 24 hours (some of them escaped, like the duplicator who was never there in the first place, so they might show up again in diminished capacity). Seneca attacked the Council while Archon was present and had that attack repelled with little difficulty, their corrupted guardian stood no chance against Archon, and within short order she wound up having to retreat through her portal (which got messed up by Archon and sent her several months into the future). The Fel tried to attack and wound up one-shotted by Maxima (granted, their empire still exists). Honestly so far the only thing that seems like it might be in the running is whatever wiped out the Alari, which are also the only ones thus far that appear to possibly be able to get through Sydney’s shield (as they actually strained it enough to redshift it). But overall GrrlPower seems to be a Slice-of-Life superhero story with a bit of deconstruction going on and a few subplots running in the background (like Deus’ slow takeover).
Thankfully, that was not Corporal Seneca, but Sciona, who attacked the council meeting at the worst possible time. “I can kill them all, simultaneously, in one attack!” turned into “We can combine our abilities to defeat your assault in so many unique ways.”
That attack on the council on one hand had better chances of success if Maxima was not there as the initial shots would surprise and decimate the members. Aside from that, killing off the council was at most a bonus – not the main goal of the attack. It was just to trigger the council to turn of their magical Internet which let Sciona ransack the underwater vault.
Also important, Sciona is very much alive and at large. And her current body has a rather dangerous superpower.
> Also important, Sciona is very much alive and at large. And her current body has a rather dangerous superpower
She also has an army of wraiths who can take over dead bodies. And she performed a successful infiltration into political spheres, so whatever her plan is, it seems to be proceeding well and our heroes will likely encounter it sooner or later.
I do like how Sciona has become less of a two-dimensional villain, and now has a more detailed plan of attack against a superior force, by gaining strength where her opposition is weak or where it relies on her (ie, the political sphere).
It’s intelligent. It didn’t fool Deus (likely, but this is Deus we’re talking about, all praise Deus amen) but it definitely has fooled everyone else.
Sciona has always been a sophisticated planner. Remember how the council attack turned out to be part of the set-up for her vault heist?
True, although when she was back on Alar before she saw that her planet had been decimated, she did give a very standard villain monologue.
But you’re correct – she HAS always been a more sophisticated planner, so I shouldnt have said ‘two-dimensional.’ Instead I should say that she has learned to not attack head on with groups like ARCHON out to get her (like she did wen she was getting that device from Wyrmil/Cooter, which put her on the radar for ARCHON to spot her and Maxima to attack), and instead use other non-physical forms of attack, like she used misdirection of her true motives to beat the Council (after nearly getting decapitated the first time she went up against the Council).
Armadillo Swarm would be a great band name.
“Flock of Tapirs” or “Herd of Capibaras” have their ring to it too.
“At some point, Max has to come clean with Rowan about her identity, at which point, Rowan will realized he fully grabbed Maxima’s ass and came away unscathed, which puts him rarified company.”
It means he is officially stronger then Dabbler. She did not get away with it.
“Hello, 911? It’s Quagmire. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It’s in a window this time.”
“911? Giggity. Uh, box fans are not what I expected. Please hur-ur-ur-ur-ry. Oh man.”
That was my first thought too.
Florida probably has some VERY specific codes….
Thanks to Florida Man.
Btw, that’s a real address :P In Pittsburgh.
Snrrt* Dork.
I’m glad to see Max is not only into Rowan, but able to make dirty jokes with him! I hope this means she’s going to lighten up a bit, I get that she’s a Colonel, but even they need to get laid and relax now and then. If Max wasn’t a super, she’d be chugging Maalox like beer. I hated the 10-codes, I spent the last 20 mins trying to remember what 10-31 stood for at the station and came up blank. Back then we kept a chart with their meanings by the “hot phone” and radio. I hate getting old and senile… I had to quit in ’97 and I’ve forgotten so much….
A quick google says that 10-31 is “Assist Civillian (non-medical)” for Fire & Rescue.
Interestingly, it is apparently also Police for “crime in progress”.
I could be wrong, but some of those codes change from state to state, Like a code for skyscraper fire wouldn’t be used in northern Montana, but search and rescue is another matter.
What? A superhero not coming clean about their identity until *long* after they should have done so? TBH it’s a great trope, partly because it provides so many opportunities for shenanigans (e.g. the scene you’re considering). I wouldn’t overlook it unduly.
Maybe what Max needs is tips from Anvil.
At least it’s not an 11-350, an illegal chinchilla farm
I honestly never thought we’d see Max do the shy girl look.
Nice.
It’s been pretty clear since Sydney was introduced but I love that these scenes with Rowan show what a dork Maxima actually is.
For a moment there, I thought Max’s phone buzzed in her back pocket a moment before the alarm went off…
For a moment there I thought Max’s phone buzzed right before the alarm went off…
Curséd unclear-if-the-post-made-it-ness
Layer 8 error or chair desk interface error is also a type of error referenced by network engineers …
It’s an allusuin to OSI seven layers theoretical model.
For the true jargon geeks :
Layer 10: Government or legal compliance
Layer 9: The organization.
Layer 8: The individual person.
1 to 7 sever are the “true” OSI layers
7. Application layer
6. Presentation layer
5. Session layer
4. Transport layer
3. Network layer
2. Data link layer
1. Physical layer
Layer 0: Funding. “Because we should always start troubleshooting from the lowest layer, and nothing can exist before the funding.”
And it’s pretty complete
I haven’t this version before. I can see some subdivisions of the higher layers, so of like level 2 and get split into 2 parts.
8.1: User observation issue: “I can’t find the power button on my computer. It got really dark in here when the power went out to the building.”
8.3: User comprehension issue: “No, Enter is a key on your keyboard not a button on the screen. Please find it and press Enter.”
8.3.1: Over-the-head problem: This is a technician problem when talking with a less experienced user.
8.5: User action mistake: “My laptop stopped working when I wiped it down with the disinfectant.” I had a user report that near the beginning of the pandemic. Although this might be a subcategory 8.5.2: “Water and electricity do not mix well.”
My usual version is the PEBKAC error: The problem exists between the keyboard and chair. There are several variations on this theme.
I want to ask for some kind of proof of the 8.1 error example. I want to, but then what will I do if there is evidence that someone did that.
PICNIC – Problem In Chair, Not In Computer
I’m used to PEBKAC, and “I D Ten T” Error. ID10T Error.
We used to use ‘Alternate I/O Error’. As in the standard I/O Error is Input/Output. The alternate version is Idiot Operator.
I’ve always heard that as the ID-10-T error.
I forget… does Max’s disguise handle tactile sensations? Because otherwise I imagine she’d feel like warm chrime?
Max’s skin reacts to impact, so the harder she’s hit, the harder her skin is. Other than that, like what Sydney said when she hugged Max after returning to Earth, “I thought you’d be cold and hard but your warm!”. Only drawback is what Rowan is going to feel if he gets too “energetic” when he and Max start to get really close. I’m better pelvic bone damage…
I’d think her body is as soft as a normal woman’s (of her build, i.e. lots of muscles, little bodyfat except in the right places), just more durable, i.e. you only notice a difference when using enough force to break something otherwise. Maybe slightly more resistant, especially at high level, but that also could be the flight power: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1123-thats-one-way-to-support-the-troops/
The difference is in texture (perhaps also mouthfeel, depending on how far Rowan got) of her skin, which is smooth like glass and was feeling “weirdly silky and slippery” according to him with the old version of the glamor. With the latest version, it has been fixed.
She got Dabbler to fix it to do that in exchange for not asking why Dabbler was being wierd.
Is it me, or does Max look really skinny in the bottom frames? I know she was a ‘beanpole’ in her previous ‘incarnation’, but she always had more… substance to her frame than we can see here.
Incidentally, LOVING the “serendipity doo-dah” line.
I was about to comment the exact same thing. Max is normally better rounded, and pretty muscular. She looks weirdly skinny there.
As a female Super she possesses normally unattainable and mutually exclusive supermodel/fitness model/swimsuit model proportions.
As I understand it the disguise collar is altering coloration only and not hiding her abs. Just not visible from this angle at this distance.
What you are trying to not say is “I expected her to have a bigger posterior.” Me too. I’m sure she did in other scenes. Hey Dave! Fix this! No guy likes a flat one!
I thought it was more like “expected her to be wider and with a generally bulkier build rather than stick thin”.
Yeah, the arms and waist are what seem too skinny.
I really like these two as a couple.
Panel 2 – yes, my initial read on it on my initial scan was that it’s a fart joke.
And yes, I’m stupid.
Somewhere out there, Dabbler just did a projectile spit-take, and she’s not quite sure why.
That’s it. That’s my script for today’s mini under-comic. Dabs accidentally sprays Heatwave with energy drink.
“Why did you do that?!”
“…I don’t know.”
You do a good job of writing Max as genuinely happy and more relaxed than usual here.
Hahaha, these goofballs. <3
You could follow the Fred Perry (of Gold Digger fame) and do a series of «What didn’t happen» side stories that are non-canon.
Yeah, naw, you don’t have to mix the A and B parts of lube to make it work.
So I don’t understand Rowan’s response… just me?
Max ended ther conversation with “Maybe we can get a penis stuck in something” meaning in her, Rowan lost it because he was thinking the VERY same thing, but was trying to be polite and not say it to her. As Rowan is finding out, Max does not beat around the bush on some things…
There is a beat around the bush joke here somewhere….
I believe it was established that supers, or at least the women, don’t have bushes anyway. Apparently, the “ideal form” they all conform to lacks any sort of body hair. I believe the men are in a similar boat, but I think it was only discussed in regards to the women.
Ah yup, thanks!
“Getting stuck is easy if you mix up the lube and epoxy”
Shades of American Pie 2 there… I about died watching
that scene! VHR porn tape glued in one hand, his pecker
glued in the other, on the roof, cops show up…
Try explaining THAT to you mom! 3 words: nail polish remover.
I expected the reveal escalation to be about tagging along to a fire with slow escalation of help (she is openly strong, fast, and well coordinated) until she takes a risk to save a civilian life, waves it off «it’s not the first time I do a stunt with fire and odds were good» in public, then admits to Rowan what was the actual largest fire stunt she has filmed (for the news not movies)
Yeah, even if Maxi dials her strength down as low as it can go, Rowan is still gonna risk limb amputation if not a simple ‘mangling’
Why do you think that? Obviously Maxima is able to dial her strength down low enough to not hurt people from interactions, and able to dial other things down like her armor enough to appreciate a warm shower, etc. Assuming Max’s strength lowered down to absolute minimum is still that of a peak human being strength of her age, Rowan is likely in good enough shape as a fireman to not be mangled or other risky stuff. I doubt that Maxima would be even doing anything with him if she thought that was an actual risk – she’s rather responsible with her powers.
The problem usually referred to in these situations are involuntary muscle contractions – as in during orgasm some of the muscles will tense at maximum pressure regardless of how carefuly the person in question is trying to be.
If Maxima’s lowest isn’t very, very close to the human baseline max that means tearing of skin, sinew, and flesh, as well as the breaking of bones.
except that her strength is defined as zero range telekinesis. the is how she can pick up an ambulance by the bumper and not rip the bumper off. Its more plausible that since two back beast mode is more of an internal function the telekinesis will not apply. and to be fair- if this is going to be a problem its going to obvious before we get to genitailia touching each other as poor Rowan will be trying to touch and interact with a body made of stone. men have enough trouble finding the clit, imagine digging it out of granite. this will make several foreplay moves very difficult. in effect if she’s going to do the dance, her shields need to come down about the time the underwear does. in the meta it depends on DaveB because S*X isnt funny, frustration is. so what’s he going for? it does not look like hes going for the comedy.
I suspect that its not as simple as we think it is- there’s probably some instinctive feedback loops during the dance of the two backed beast. otherwise there would have been some injuries already just from unfortunate extremes trying things. now there a question for the YouTube S*X educators. (yes they exist) (yes my feed has some weird things in it)