Grrl Power #1335 – Hare brained?
The concrete setting guy’s actual power is to accelerate any sort of chemical reaction without any weird side effects. I mean, no weird side effects like weakening the chemical bonds of the end product. And yes, that would make him insanely dangerous if he used his powers on humans. Fortunately, “organic chemistry” is a little trickier for him to mess with. I put that in quotes because I didn’t mean in in the literal dictionary definition, i.e. chemistry involving carbon compounds. I meant organic like messing with living things. Which… a whole lot of living thing chemistry is going to involve carbon, granted. But I mean like, making someone metabolize all the fat in their body in 30 seconds is way, way harder for him than, say, making the propellent in a bullet cartridge expire like it’s sat on the shelf for 200 years. Though he has practiced giving people insulin crashes. Not to a fatal level, just giving them that shaky, “Ooh, I need a Snickers.” feeling.
I’ll probably include some dialog to this effect on an upcoming page, but everyone at Archon goes through “Spot the Mind Control victim” classes. Not just Archon. In this world of Supers, Secret Service, FBI, CIA – almost anyone in a field Intelligence position does. And even a lot of analysts. It’s one of those courses that walks a fine line between “look for inconsistent behavior” and “don’t be a paranoid idiot, sometimes people are in a bad mood for no apparent reason or had double their normal caffeine or half their donut intake that morning.”
But weird memory lapses or sudden reversals of opinions might get you on a list for potential scrutinization by organizations like Arc-LIGHT or even Arc-DARK.
I’m going to try something with this new vote incentive.
This month, I’m closing on a new house, selling my Mom’s house, finishing packing Mom’s house, moving city to city to the new house, forwarding mail, canceling utilities, all that. And after that’s done, I get to start the process of selling my old house, which needs a little work before it can realistically go on the market.
SO. I’m going to try and do this vote incentive in stages. Currently it’s just pencils. The TopWebcomics one will update with colors and detail until we get to the no clothes versions, then that will continue over at Patreon. Also there will be a comic or two in between each version to fill out the story.
I know it’s hard to tell from just the pencils, but this is Heatwave and Jiggawatt. The comics will explain why they’re doing what they’re doing. Although I feel like even saying that much makes it easy to guess, but hopefully the journey will still amuse.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Oh, GOOD! The adult has entered the field. ^_^
Memory holes. All three of them have dilatated eyes. Deus is involved.
Yeah, that’s going to attract attention… grief, Deus set this up.
That’s why hes’s needlessly prolonging the conversation. He wanted Max to observe him and Sciona (and his bodyguards). He’s train wrecking whatever Sciona’s doing while shifting all the blame onto Max.
They are also scarfing snacks like a trio of hotboxing stoners.
Five stoners. Katrina is being gentle, Sydney nomed her standard bag and a were-dino making a party bag vanish.
Adult who’s skin is likely impervious to contact drug secretion super power… ingested may be a different story.
Achilles would be immune to both. (And though legally adult, Achilles seems would still be more vulnerable to non chemical “Adult” seduction methods.)
Hubris, thy name is Sciona.
There is a probability-approaching-zero that this doesn’t land on X’s desk in less than twelve hours.
Honestly, I’m somewhat disappointed in Syd for not going to grab Dabbles immediately and say ‘hey, something is weird with that one, can you magically probe her in a non sexual way? Although if you want to do that afterwards, that’s between you and her.’
Do we know if Dabbler is on the site, she doesn’t appear in any of the previous pages. Sydney also wasn’t sure if something was up or not and was still working things out when she was caught. And to be fair, that was mostly Slam’s fault.
The main awkward side effect of accelerating concrete setting, (There are additives to do that!) is that concrete setting is exothermic, it generates heat.
If it sets too fast, it gets so hot that it damages itself. When they built Hoover dam, they actually had to embed cooling pipes in the concrete to pull out the heat, just so they could lay the concrete faster.
So, you’d actually want fast setting additives and some guy who can suck the heat out of things…
Anyway: Yeah, Sciona really screwed up by telling them to completely forget her.
So Heatwave could help do the job. She can move heat around.
I recall she officially stated that it “feels weird,” to pull heat out of things.
She stated that it feels ‘ooky.’ :)
You think that’d stop the army brass if they want their concrete set a.s.a.p.?
I could make some concrete puns here but I think we already did that once.
Heatwave has zero experience doing that. The odds of it working well the first dozen tries are against her.
I learned about the exothermic part in the context of a video of a poor protestor who didn’t know about it, and was giving themselves concrete shoes to try to make their removal more difficult. Apparently, quite the hot foot.
May I bring to your attention any of the many videos and texts about the construction of the Hoover Dam?
The concrete needed cooling pipes.
“Biochemistry”, perhaps?
Nice Community reference.
I bet that Slam the dino girl is allergic to salt, and Sciona’s command will royally backfire on her.
That would be a bit karmic since it was her lack of self control that got Sciona suspicious of them in the first place.
Absolutely nothing in Earth’s biosphere is allergic to salt, since life apparently originated in salt water. To this day, we still internally maintain the salt concentration the oceans had at the time life originated.
It would be like being allergic to water.
Not allergic to water, but can’t drink it, it makes me ill (any water, not just tap)
Don’t even like the smell of it (and yes, even fresh water has a scent)
This will cause numerous health issues later in life. Unless you drink a flavored version.
I know people personally who are allergic to THE SUN and BEING COLD.
…I hear water allergy exists. I BELIEVE IT.
There are cases where people turn out to be allergic to themselves (or something their body produces). Seems like people can be allergic to pretty much anything.
Also while googling if one can be allergic to salt (extremely rare but not ruled out as impossible) it also gave the name of water allergy via a related search topic: Aquagenic urticaria.
Though as I recall, it’s not allergic to water itself so much as allergic to the ions that always form in water no matter how pure. Sufficiently impure water (i.e. one’s own body, aka “bag of mostly water”) does not trigger the reaction.
Did we have comic page to reference when they met the senator before? Or was that off screen?
#1172-1180. The scene when Deus, Max, Dabbler, and various Twilight Council representatives met with a prominent US Senator to discuss the dungeon project. Katrina was present as part of the TC delegation and Sciona in her cover identity as Chief of Staff of the Senator.
I mean… Jigga did bang Heatwave’s husband, so I guess Dabbler’s solution was for Heatwave to bang Jigga.
Can’t argue with that logic.
Wasn’t the solution to put Heatwave under the effect to see if she could understand why her husband wasn’t faithful?
Even though the aura apparently isn’t mind control, so it shouldn’t be an excuse anyway.
– everyone at Archon goes through “Spot the Mind Control victim” classes. Not just Archon. In this world of Supers, Secret Service, FBI, CIA – almost anyone in a field Intelligence position does
Just call it “Master-Stranger Protocols” like everyone else who’s read Worm does.
Was here to say that! That story set a new level on well thought super stories.
Bit of a jump for Max to immediately get suspicious rather than just assume they weren’t really paying attention.
Thought the same thing
Yeah, Max immediately getting suspicious seems rather contrived since Katrina might well have failed to notice the Chief of Staff (Sciona in her guise played a minor role in that meeting) or to remember her (he character does not register as the brightest young woman in the world). However, in the end it matters little since it is increasingly evident that Sciona is getting plot-railroaded into being outed by Archon.
She got hit by an ever more contrived sequence of unlikely events (Sydney accidentally zooming her glasses on Sciona’s texts from afar, Sciona blurting the one comment that could get Sydney suspicious, Sciona using a suboptimal mind-control command in a hurry, Max showing up soon afterwards and getting suspicious about Katrina’s memory lapse).
I find the situation very similar to a nasty DM in a TTRPG session that keeps piling up increasingly unlikely and outlandish events to screw your characters no matter what countermeasures they might deploy and force the plot to go according to their wishes. I am increasingly persuaded that even if Sciona had done everything optimally and to the best of capabilities, Deus Ex Machina events would keep occurring to screw her up and out her to Archon.
You have to get the process done in seven panels or the “the plot’s moving too slow” police will come out. On the other hand, Max is like, “You don’t remember the memorable person from the memorable event that we both remember attending?”
After going back to check out where Kat met her, I think Max would be suspicious even if that was a comment from Sydney. Recall that they were at the (presumably extended) meeting where they all–including the senator, with his aide by his side–discussed the details of creating the dungeon in the first place. So between:
(1) the distinct likelihood of Kat being in her position in large part because of her occupational competence,
(2) Maxima knowing mind altering powers exist and what the symptoms might be,
(3) the fairly distinctive look the aide had, somewhat out of sync with the environment, (imagine a two-hour meeting with a young but typical-looking pastor inside his church and NOT remembering the deadly-serious deacon with a buzz cut and a wraparound neck tattoo always hovering behind him,) and
(4) it being someone as by-the-book as Maxima,
I’d say noticing the slip would be a given, and simple suspicion would be justified. Presumably she’ll probe with further questions to make sure her colleague wasn’t just on medication that day.
Her getting outed as a super instead of just Sciona could/would make sense. Remember the whole bombshell body thing is a sideeffect of powers.
Max: *Suspicion*
SYNDABLOKK is that you? She’s t talking about?
Alternatively, Cementoss, AKA Ken Ishiyama from My Hero Academia.
Considering how paranoid you can get with theoretical super powers and someone having a comic book shop… I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone had to take a class to separate what is ‘only in comics’ and ‘what to do in reality’ as a two hour class… With the second hour being ‘what to look out for’.
And considering our golden girl is also a fan of the geeky stuff… She probably has enough knowledge to question things.
As for the failed mind control blunder… Common mistake further not helped by Dues getting her focus on him as he watches the scene play out behind her.
Not everyone can remember stating a general command and forgetting it affects everyone in the area rather than one person… As she normally does it one on one rather than three in a panic… Further not helped by the ‘were-effect’ which essentially acts like a super hero costume mask.
Having some background… (scratches chin, sips coffee) More like semester as an introductory class with an option for both 2yd degree up to full doctorate though the pysch dept and science dept are likely to have a genuine knock down drag-out fight at the next luau that the art dept and philosophy dept have planned. But, Yeah way more than some forgettable middle management Power Point torture. (10th ring of hell)
Max isn’t stupid, if I knew someone talked at length with someone and then strangely “forgot” them, I’d wonder too. Sciona has really screwed up, her arrogance has outed herself again. Changing her hair color to match her old bodies is a red flag, it matches the rest of the Alari’s hair color, and that sudden of a change would catch any “cop’s” attention. Sure, women change hair color all the time, but what I’ve noticed, it is VERY hard to go platinum blond. My kid sister tried once and it came out as strawberry blond. I’m grey-haired, but mine is more translucent than grey. Alari hair is like that, so if a human tries to bleach their hair to that level, it breaks off or falls out.
While the color change stands out, there are numerous excuses that could be used in the fantasy world.
As for “if I knew someone talked at length with someone”…Kat is never shown to talk to her, really. Sciona calls the party into the chambers to discuss dungeon making(greeting only the “important people”) and then spends the whole of the meeting lurking in the background and/or giving one note to the senator.
Kat meanwhile eats and discusses dungeon stuff with the people actually at the table, several of whom are eye-catching(as are multiple non-Sciona observers). And the whole meeting is abridged due to the senator “having another commitee meeting to get to”, not long.
Kat neither really had time, not excuse to study Sciona.
I do think Sciona is the one lady who really appreciates having big boobs. It’s that it’s a primary character traits for a supervillain. “Loves massive having massive honkers. I think she and Sydney would like each other if Sciona hadn’t nearly killed her that one time and wasn’t super evil.
Uhm don’t they know where Concretia is? She manipulates rock including tarmac, cement, and concrete.
Concretia manipulates already set concrete. That’s different from making it set quicker.
“everyone at Archon goes through ‘Spot the Mind Control victim’ classes.“
Sounds like DOD’s Insider Threat slide deck needs updating. Ooo, have Jeff from the Cyber Awareness Challenge give the briefing!
*flashbacks*
I had a several year period of being both in the ANG and working for a government contractor. I had a security clearance for both positions, but everything is tracked separately and they have different versions of the courses anyway.
All the yearly training regarding that stuff? I had to take it twice a year, just in different formats.
Blehg.
Picture junior enlisted with ADHD or caffeine-induced zoomies having to sit through those briefings… Sydney would be bouncing off the walls!
Woo, called it! Though I expected it would be noticed with Sydney as, well, main character. And not within minutes of it happening.
Setting cement quickly sounds like something that could be in Krona’s repertoire with her “reality hacking”. Find the “state” variable for the cement, adjust for “volume”, store heat generated in separate variable that can be offloaded elsewhere via a different subroutine. I can see it happen
I feel like this would fall well within Concretia’s set of powers. She’s a geomancer of sorts.
I suppose that “Forget what you know about me.” command had some far reaching consequences. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1330-order-of-order-operations/
Okay, this is a complete copout: just because E-Sci went to a hairsalon and Kat forgot meeting her, Maxi is immediately suspicious?
I think Max was already suspicious that her overwatch team isn’t watching, and instead has simultaneous munchies. The question about Sciona was her probing to confirm her suspicions.
With a side of “what the **** has Sidney gotten into this time?”, and a dash of “the kids have been quiet for a bit too long”.
Sounds more like a temporal effect rather than a chemical one… and THAT would warrent significant investigation and research
As a molecular biologist I can see why and how the concrete-accellerator guy would have problems with “burning all your fat in x minutes” .
It’s one thing to control a couple of basic reactions in quick-setting concrete, it is quite another to control, at its most basic level, *dozens* of reactions, which must happen in the correct order and are in equilibrium with Other Stuff you might have to tweak to … not cook the person involved instantly.
It’s a scale/complexity problem. Even a Super can control only so much at the same time.
*thinks* given *how* fat is actually burned… The person affected would actually be near-instantly asphyxiated and dehydrated/mummified in one go, before going up in flames from the heat generated.
The concrete-setting thing sounds like something Chemical King (or, later, Chemical Kid) of the Legion of Super-Heroes could do. His power was exactly “control chemical reactions”. The writers often didn’t know how to cope with this and the character was underused and often underwritten. The point made upthread about the heat of the reaction is interesting; I don’t think they ever explored points like that in the comics. Could he make the reaction happen faster without the heat? Could he redirect the heat usefully? We’ll never know.
I was thinking Alchemy myself. If he worked on it he could be one of the most powerful supers out there, he’s already becoming one of the richest, and nobody can call him a cheater because he earned it.
Why did Sciona do that to her hair? I know the mind wipe was a screw up, but long grey hair on someone her body’s age sticks out. Of course that’s not the only thing sticking out. She’s drawing lots of attention.
IIRC long white hair is her default look, I think she’s trying to get closer to that as she gets more settled in this particular body. Also, it’s a bit more discreet than partial shave with a very distinct & visible tattoo.
Now I wonder if she blood magicked the tattoo away when she changed her hair. Seems like something pretty easy for her to do.
It’s considered fashionable in some circles. Gray hair comes early in my family. One of my nieces was completely silver by the time she was thirty. For years people would ask her who did her hair. But tactically speaking, yeah, she is drawing way too much attention to herself. It’s one of the problems with being a solo villain. You don’t have anyone to say “Maybe you didn’t think this through enough.”
She could excuse it as visiting a super who’s power was minor cosmetic changes. I imagine that probably exists. Also some people dye their hair that way.
You know what they say: The coverup is worst than the crime.
This reminds me of the whole comic run in Spider-Man where Doc Ock took control of Peter’s body. All of a sudden, Peter is acting like a completely different person, not remembering people and things that he had known for years, refusing to discuss his “memory lapses” or be around anyone that could peek into his mind.
In-universe, it couldn’t have been more obvious if he had hung a sign around his neck reading “Help, my body has been hijacked by a super villian!” And yet, for plot reasons, no one said anything or figured out that something was wrong. It was a pretty bad run overall, but that was by far the most infuriating thing about it, IMO.
Nice to see in the Grrl-verse where super hypnosis and mind control explicitly exists, people actually pay attention to stuff like this.
To me “Senator’s aid with scalp tattoo” would be a giant red flag to begin with.
red flags are some folks’ kink, I’m sure
I’m not quite to Sydney’s level of Neurodivergence, but I can attest that those of us who aren’t Typical would play bloody hell with the “Spot the Mind Control” people. ARCSwat’s gotta be twitching any time they’re in a room with her for more than about 20 minutes.
That guy who can control chemestry should be called alchemy or something like that because depending on his level of perception and control he could be one of the most powerful supers out there, and it sounds like he’s already becoming one of the richest without anyone calling him a cheat because he’s working for it while improving his technique. And we all know that being able to do something more more efficently multiplys effectiveness.
While I wouldn’t use the words “Really doesn’t ring a bell”, had I been in Kat’s seat(probably, “sorry, I’m bad with faces”), with Sciona looming in the background of the meeting… I would not remember her.
Max spoke directly to her and was close enough to her to see the tattoo(arguably her most memorable element), Kat was not shown to have so much as conversed with her(maybe they did and it wasn’t shown, but that’s a bit like a detective show making a callback to something the detective witnessed, but the audience didn’t, to solve the whole case), or even heard her speak, beyond the call to the meeting. Sciona was also not the most visually distinct person there, between the Demons(both Scourger and new appearance Dabbler), Alari and Deus(not to mention all the other visually distinct people, since she’s familiar with those).
I’m no good with faces. Standout features, maybe, but Sciona’s doesn’t stand out that much, especially when accounting for the other people in the room. Had I held a conversation with her, I might recall her voice. Maybe her name, if she gave it(which it doesn’t look like she did). Maybe Max has training to help her, but considering Kat probably doesn’t(she’s “new” as a were and thus as a council member, and thus likely has little special training… assuming she’s in a field that needs any), Max’s concern here seems over the top.
Like, I know it’s her job to be paranoid, but there’s paranoid, and then there’s *paranoid*, and I think “You don’t recall someone who spent 95% of a meeting– with much more interesting people and a riveting topic you were actively involved in discussing –looming in the background? Suspicious!” feels over the top.
I don’t know… This just has… “things have to go wrong for the villain, to derail things, so she takes extreme actions to justify the coming scenes” energy, mixed with “Batman being given stuff to excuse why he figured something out the entire police force missed” energy. Maybe things will turn around, but this whole scene feels very weak, compared to, well… the years of content leading up to it.
Has there been any explanation as to why Kat look so dramatically different from her “Who’s Who” pic?
Reducto: “I’m tilting my head to the side like I’m thinking, hmmmmmmmmmmmm.”
-paraphrasing from Harvey Birdman