Grrl Power #1322 – Headboard room dealings
Sciona’s bootynm might be “Vaguely Threatening Platinum Latina”
Platina? Yeah, I’m a sucker for a portmanteau. “Vaguely Threatening Platina.”
Honestly, I think Sciona might be just a little bit sweet on 6x Guy. She as much as said there would be a second time. Also she didn’t take all his blood. The fact that she was conspicuously “the last one seen with him” usually isn’t a factor for her, but she’s managed to position herself fairly high and somewhat publically in Earth society instead of lurking in the shadows like she used to. Granted, her half-an-Alari-head on top of a Troll body look was not optimal for the public sector. (Actually it was an orc body but had a slurry of blood in it that had useful properties.)
As I was writing this page, I was trying to think how Alari culture would function, given Sciona’s derision of the “extant administration.” So the Alari don’t have a president or king or emperor. They have houses that more or less declare their own nobility when they have sufficient political, military, or fiscal power to make it a hassle for other houses to reject their claims. Houses then ally with each other on various issues, but those alliances swing wildly depending on matter. Several houses might form a mutual defense pact on one continent of a given planet, but could be at each other’s throats on a different world, or agree on limiting a trade deficit with one species but disagree on mineral rights for an asteroid. It makes for convoluted politics, but importantly, most of the negotiating takes place privately, and by negotiating I mean bribes and favors and assassinations and political marriages and all that. To Sciona’s sensibilities, all this lobbying out in public is crass and lacks wit and subterfuge. But she’s appreciative of the unlimited dark money certain governments (not naming names) allow for. Only because it enables her agendas, not because it allows for any level of sophisticated intrigue.
The new vote incentive is up! (Finally.)
I’m revisiting a panel from a recent page, but I included some comic reactions and a few outfit swaps, so hopefully you all enjoy it. I also plussed up the art from the comic version a bit, though I suspect that despite the time I spent on that, not a whole lot of people would immediately notice that, so I’m gratuitously pointing it out here.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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That societal description sounds an awful lot like the Drow from DnD. Which… explains a lot.
Indeed. Or organized-crime groups coexisting in a cooperation/competition dynamic within a larger framework. Both analogies fit the ruthless character of their civilization to a T. But then again, the Alari basically are Space Drow in a setting w/o active gods.
Sounds like family-owned corporations.
At this point the Earth politics are easier than the original plan… Especially when your status is broken survivors vs a world stuffed with super powered individuals. Just act like Dues as card carrying super villains that may be ‘evil’ yet they are not ‘insane’ so to speak.
After all. As long as your the reasonable villain they will trust you more than the monster (space alien, crazy super, ect) that thinks mass destruction and senseless violence is a good way to go.
Especially since we saw how much trouble she had when she was going with the world conquest by might tactic before.
That’s one thing that’s always got me about certain stories where a character is exposed to such a crazy situation.
You don’t have to kill them off as the situation is so crazy that if they told anyone they’d either sound like a conspiracy nut or like someone suffering from serious mental health issues that would require long-term professional help.
If the character’s smart, they’ll realise this and keep quiet. Hopefully until telling it has the desired effect.
No doubt recent personal experiences (new life in a new body) and defeats at the hand of Archon and the Twilight Council, not to mention the sobering lesson of her people being crushed into a few refugee survivors, has been driven Sciona to embrace a more moderate M.O. and nuanced mindset even if her supervillainess and alien invader goals and personality remain the same.
Sorry, I meant to answer the guy above you.
Heh. I imagine that Archon has a whole room of people taking crank phone calls from people reporting that their neighbor is a supervillain.
Relevent xkcd: https://xkcd.com/693/
That is so true.
But with the amount of knowledge proven, what else to do then become a scientist ?
And now he gets bragging rights that he got it on so good with her that her hair turned white from the shock of it.
Yeah, American politics went in the dumper big time back in 2013 with Citizens United. And deeper in when “Gratuities” were legalized in June of last year.
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! No really, the second first day of the idiocracy is the 20th.
Be honest, lobbying by corporations (Protected by the Constitution!) has been a big problem for a lot longer than that. It’s hard to tell exactly when that became such a big thing, but probably sometime around the 1970s.
Blame Nixon and Reagan
Actually it started back in 1881. Thanks to a crooked lawyer, Roscoe Conkling, and a corrupt Supreme Court judge, Stephen Field, the US Supreme Court declared that corporations were people and had all their attendant rights and which manifests today as “freedom of speech” and “freedom of religion”. Corruption and greed have a long history in our “democracy”!
See https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/corporations-people-adam-winkler/554852/ for details.
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What do you expect? When small tweaks to regulations or the tax code can mean the difference between profit and bankruptcy, of course businesses are going to try and influence the government. And what some call bribes could just as accurately be called protection money. Legislators’ campaign organizations routinely reach out to “donors” to casually remind them when a vote is coming up on some legislation that could affect them. The only way you’ll ever take money out of politics is to get politics out of money.
As P.J.O’Rourke correctly observed, “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators”.
The Left *loves* government regulation of the economy, and the “redistribution” of dollars and resources, and *that’s* what fuels the kind of corruption people (correctly) abhor. Hell, in that kind of environment it’s stupid *not* to devote major efforts into having a say in the government’s clumsy meddling into all that money. As Willie Sutton famously said when he was asked why he robbed banks, “because that’s where the money is”. But limit government’s ability to play God with the economy and then watch how fast people of the unscrupulous variety find it pointless to influence politicians (because the politicians will no longer be able to anoint winners and losers, nor bestow billions with the stroke of a pen).
No, Citizens United just put another nail in the coffin. U.S. democracy has been bleeding out since Buckley v. Valeo in 1976 and First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti in 1978.
It’s connected to that chart that’s been doing the rounds showing worker productivity and hourly compensation diverging starting around 1973 and that study that shows the connection between policies implemented and donor wants and the disconnect between policies implemented and voter wants (Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens) and they both trace back to the Powell Memorandum of 1971.
(More correctly titled Attack on the American Free Enterprise System… basically a rallying cry by a former tobacco industry lawyer and soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice for big business to push back against “communist” stuff cutting into profits, like the EPA and Ralph Nader’s efforts to shackle companies like General Motors with safety regulations.)
In France the anti lobist act is the “LOI n° 2016-1691 du 9 décembre 2016 relative à la transparence, à la lutte contre la corruption et à la modernisation de la vie économique” in english
Act n° 2016-1691 december 9th 2016 relating to transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernisation of economic life
It
Create a lobbyists register.
Definite a whistleblower
“A whistleblower is a natural person who reveals or reports, in a disinterested manner and in good faith, a crime or an offence, a serious and manifest violation of an international commitment duly ratified or approved by France, of a unilateral act of an international organisation taken on the basis of such a commitment, of the law or regulation, or a serious threat or harm to the general interest, of which he or she has personal knowledge. Facts, information or documents, whatever their form or medium, covered by national defence secrecy, medical confidentiality or the secrecy of relations between a lawyer and his or her client are excluded from the whistleblowing regime defined by this chapter.”
The act protects the whistleblower: any employee who has reported an alert, in compliance with the conditions provided for by law, may not be subject to a dismissal procedure (article 12 of the lact), be excluded from a recruitment procedure, be sanctioned or be subject to a discriminatory measure (art. L1132-3-3 of the labor code).
Citizens was correctly decided and hardly the disaster so many make it out to be. For starters, most corporations aren’t GE or Exxon-Mobil; many small and medium sized businesses are organized as corporations. Second, the decision also protects speech by other organized groups such as unions and non-profit advocacy groups all over the ideological spectrum. People don’t forfeit their rights just because they choose to act collectively.
Thank you. The Left likes to make Citizens United out to be some big scary bogeyman, but I have yet to hear any of them make a compelling case for that assertion, nor explain why the court decision wasn’t both obvious and correct.
The left in US don’t exist , what the US categorize at left , Bernie Sanders for exemple is a labor party in EU, and EU labor parties , are for a third way regulated capitalism …
In European sense leftist are social democrats ( green politics could fit in this trope ) and Marxists…
Labor is center left.
In France like in the US the politics are bonapartist – advocate for an authoritarian centralised state, with a strongman and charismatic leader, support for the military, and conservatism –
For Macron a politic equivalent to an average democrat , his party Renaissance is his property in the same extend of Republicans are Trump property since 2016.
Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon La France Insoumise ‘France Unbowed’ folow the same trope his polical party is is property ..
La France insoumise is left and with a guilty indulgence for Muslim fundamentalist – they compared HAMAS a terrorist Islamo-Nazi group “Hitler was sent to punish the Jews for denying the Koran” with the French resistance – for electoral gains
Rassemblement National – National Rally – This party is the private hunting ground of the Le Pen family , at the begining it was the charity for the former SS ( Pierre Bousquet, Léon Gaultier were founding member former 33. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Charlemagne (französische Nr. 1) ), in the 201… they banned openly nazi speeches to dediabolize.. But in January 2025 they had commemorated the death of their fonder Jean Marie Le Pen who was a staunch nazi supporter – and founded the party with the former SS -.
National Rally is also famour for his hereditary sucession Marine Le Pen was the Daugther of Jean Marie Le Pen.
The green politics are not bonapartist but they are two scattered to be a political force.
Reconquête ! is a party founded by Éric Justin Léon Zemmour a french far right douche – he dodged the military service like Trump dodged e draft during the Vietnam War – to be resumed Zemmour ideas are the xerox of Charles Maurras – monarchist, anti-parliamentarist, counter-revolutionary, anti-communist, anti-Masonic, anti-Protestant, and antisemitic*- and the goal of his party is to transform France into a copy of Francoist Spain.
He is funded by a billionaire Vincent Bolloré , who had supported his candidature by his media empire ( newspapers , magazine , Tv channels ) …- feeling of déjà vu ?-
This scumbag was invited for the Trump investiture – Birds of a feather flock together -…
*ironically -“I’m barely Jewish, I’ve denounced all the others”, is a good moto for Zemmour behavior-
Citizens United also protects the right of unions and NGOs to make donations and produce speech.
It’s not just corporations.
I now have a new favourite word: bootynym. I’m probably never going to use it but I don’t care.
I am glad I am not the only one who came to the comments to express my appreciation for that specific term.
Defense contractor…
So she wasn’t just having fun, she was networking.
Sounds quite efficient, doesn’t it?
It does, but it is also a lucky occurrence she found someone that is good as a business contact, prime material for satisfying booty calls, and clever enough to understand he needs to keep her secrets confidential or else.
Vaguely? What was vague about her threats?
Well, like the rest of her post-‘rebirth’ new M.O., they are relatively tame and nuanced in comparison to what ‘old’ Sciona would have said and done. At least Sciona learned how to threaten like a mob boss instead of a serial killer.
And ‘vague’ or ‘subtle’ is relative–Alari in general seem to view tact as something for other species.
“Have you actually heard of tact?”
“Tact is just not saying true stuff.”
No no, as a transformers fan getting named sixshot in a woman’s contacts would be a badge of honor. I’m actually much more ok with the body politic being laid bare like this. I’ll take an honest plant over searching for moles any day.
i mean, both of them are villians in their respective fields… their only difference is the PRESENTATION!
As it turned out, this scene does not really look like a sex one to me. You have two people the morning after a one-night stand discussing their background, relationship status, and future dealings while they dress up and before they part ways. Sure, among other things, they talk about their recent and future sexual interactions, but in such a way they could say and do pretty much the same things fully clothed and having breakfast in a diner (well, except Sciona spilling out her secrets). The previous scene involving these characters had them hooking up in a club, and then a discretion shot took place to cover all the horizontal gymnastics.
This is no softcore porn, this is standard narration in mainstream fiction and a vanilla talking scene since the Sexual Revolution made OK to leave no doubt in the audience that two characters had sex. The most shocking thing that happens is one character getting a bleeding scratch. This is PG stuff.
Yeah, this is a PG comic because it’s available unrestricted online, as DaveB has explicated previously. What’s your point?
Does Sciona have any contact to the Alari refugees on earth?
Or Deus?
Or is she hiding from both?
Unknown on both counts, except we know Deus recognized her when they met, or at least acknowledged she was an Alari in disguise. However, it is very likely she is keeping herself and the group of Alari ghosts she rescued and (partially) re-housed in human bodies separate from the other Alari survivors tied to Deus. Chances are the Alari survivors on Earth are reorganizing themselves into two main groups, ‘House’ Sciona and ‘House’ Deus. It would be the natural thing for them to do, given the factional and Might Makes Right way their civilization worked.
Sciona is so awful about her sexuality and I love it. Honestly I do kind of respect it as well, yeah on the surface it may seem scummy but she is candid, she is not leading him on and told him what he is to her.
I could build a relationship on that foundation of honesty. It might not be a standard relationship but it would be far more healthy than one built on lies.
Never heard the term Bootynym… did you just coin that?
Greater minds create their own words.
This solidifies it! Sciona is now my second favorite, after Deus.
Also; “Vaguely” threatening??? She is scary af! XD
‘Murica has a surprising amount of legalized bribes. From lobbying all the way down to posting bail.
Is anyone surprised anymore that the ultra-rich just do whatever they want?
You’ve made this villain more interesting than some of your heroes, I hope you know that, right?
So you’re saying the Alari had a Parliamentary Feudal system? Interesting. Solves some of the issues of centralized inherited power, as well as some of the issues of decentralized term-based power. At the cost of a lot of backstabbing and assassinations.
In all likelihood, in their biological/cultural evolution Alari were individually so strong and tough that they only needed to develop mid-functioning-sociopathy levels of cooperation to succeed as an interstellar civilization. The average empathy levels of puny humans were never necessary or convenient for them. Ofc, in the light of the massive shock and sobering lesson of their near-extermination, chances are the survivors shall evolve a more moderate and subtle social standard, even if it is exceedingly unlikely they shall ever become anything in the same neighborhood of bleeding-heart humanitarians given their starting point. We can see this process unfolding at an individual level with ‘old’ vs. ‘new’ Sciona, who evolved from serial killer (low-functionaing) to mob boss or corporate oligarch (high-functioning) levels of sociopathy.
Somebody, anybody, please tell me you have found an effective workaround for the 403 forbidden bug and kindly share the secret. It is driving me nuts. I only manage to post a comment by using the Anonymox extension, and even so it takes me a half-dozen attempts and juggling between several proxy servers.
I’m a tor browser user and subject to the same problem.
The only solution I found is to wait a month, not read through the archives and post no more than 3 posts par day
You’ve essentially described AnCapistan, on an interstellar scale.
Bootynym. Thank you.
As a joke:
Pseudonym is an alternate name, like a soldier’s “nom de guerre”, or war name, or an author’s “nom de plume”, or pen name. Mononym is a single name. Anonym is a fake name. Should a number saved on your phone for hookups be called a bootynym?
Platinum blonde / white blonde has always worked for me.
I blame Gina, from Junior High school, nearly fifty years ago.
Did she model her hair after Sephiroth? Because that feels like foreshadowing
So, the Alari are basically the Tudors?
So, Sciona’s bootynym’s three first and three last characters…
isn’t that a Sephiroth hair style in the last panel. Heh :-)
Here this would indeed be ridiculous and impossible to get taken seriously, but in a world where hostile aliens stalk the earth and are proven to have strange powers and actively attacked the USA this isn’t the case, especially since he has enough information to start an open source information search that will probably confirm everything.
Compare photos of known criminal supers to photos of the around 300 people that have her position, follow her raise to fame, etc.
He gets to live. that’s a plus
gotta hit the gym to work on those hip thrusts, might be his lifeline from now on
test 403
If you get a 403 forbidden message, try it with a VPN. It seems to bypass whatever’s causing that.
Doesn’t have to be to a different country either.