Grrl Power #1338 – Shadowcraft
Sciona’s managed to get herself on Maxima’s “More info needed” list. She’ll pass on her suspicions to Zephan about it he’ll assign someone to investigate further.
It’s got to be a party foul when you’re hanging out with people who can see in perfect darkness, and you light a cigar by emitting plasma from your fingertip. That’s quite a bit of contrast all at once. Of course, beings that can see in pitch black may not be doing it with some sort of visible light enhancement. They’re probably using infravision and, oh yeah, plasma is like 50,000 degrees. So, that would probably scar a Yautja’s retinas. Geeze, a lightning storm would blind whole cities on their world. (A yautja is a Predator, BTW.)
Oh, and Max didn’t exactly “shrug off” the 125mm round. Not that should couldn’t do it nowadays, but the T-72 event happened earlier in her career, and for P.R. reasons, she describes it as “shrugging off.” That scene may eventually be explained in the comic, but probably not as extensively as Peggy’s flashback.
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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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Yeah, I gotta agree that was pretty inconsiderate. A quick “I’m lighting up” only takes a second or two, Maxima.
Between that and the smell (in a place that has no wind too), it’s about as considerate as a punch to the face.
A normal punch, not a Maxima super-punch.
A super holds up a finger to their unlit cigar. If you fail to anticipate what comes next, that’s on you.
If they’re viewing through infravision they might not even properly recognize what she was holding until it was too late to react.
That’s not really fair. Supers come in many different ways and only a few of them can make fire or light from their fingers, so you wouldn’t really expect it. Also it’s not like you couldn’t have heat without light or only a bright as a matchstick.
Also it’s dark and we’re not quite sure how detailed their darkvision is.
At the very least turn around a second so your body is between the assorted eyes and the sudden source of light. Especially if you can reasonably assume they are looking toward your face and you’re going to put the source of light directly in front of your face.
Well that is one way of lighting up a conversation.
Accidental rizz.
Happens to supers all the time. Comes with the job.
Geeze, come on Max, there’s a “No Smoking” sign right there, can’t you see–oh, wait.
Ironically, given that Maxima still needs to breathe and a lot of the damage from smoke comes from all the garbage that get deposited into the lungs and then stays there, smoking very well actually kill her in the same sense that filling her lungs with sand might kill her.
Her super-lungs might be immune to damage, but if the oxygen can’t actually get close enough to the breathy bits to exchange molecules with her blood she may well expire from lack of oxygen getting to her brain one day.
It’s kind of fun to imagine that smoking is so goddamn hazarduous that not even genuine physical invincibility makes you completely immune to it if you still need to use your lungs for breathing. Hell even Achilles, if he needs to breathe and doesn’t have a regeneration factor that can actually transport the stuff outside his body, might eventually start struggling to breathe as his lungs fill up over a few decades.
Wait, did I say fun? I meant horrifying.
Achilles is canonically also immune to asphyxiation. Somehow. ^_^’
His superpower is, again, canonically, “annoying invincibility.”
Maybe if her lungs are invincible to damage she could inhale acid mist that could melt the gunk down into something that can be coughed up/out or something? I ain’t a chemist.
Or he just goes into some sort of torpor
The last time I had a lung x-ray the doctor looked at me and said “You were a farm kid, weren’t you?” He then went on to point out the dust that had collected in my lungs 20 years earlier. Some things just don’t cough up.
Yeah, I got the same thing: Some kind of “fungus ball” that you only see in people who’ve inhaled manure dust.
“manure dust fungus ball” sounds like a punk/grunge band name
Yeah, 20 odd years of breathing in lead, carbon, beryllium and aluminum dust, among other stuff, still make for ‘interesting’ chest x-rays.
I’m guessing that it depends on how much her internal organs have changed from the geode water. We know that her eyes, hair, lips and blood have changed though, so it’s possible that her internal organs, including her lungs, have as well. It’s also possible that they haven’t, since she’s been shown to require an oxygen mask when flying at high enough altitudes, or when scuba diving – so her lungs could very well be a vulnerability.
It wouldn’t be for Achilles though. They’ve already said, in the FAQ, that “Achilles can’t be poisoned, suffocated, starved, irradiated, crushed, cut, pierced, burned, frozen or injured by any method yet discovered.” I’m assuming that suffocated also means asphyxiated from lack of oxygen. At best, he might go into a type of torpor until there’s air again, but it’s quite possible he just won’t bother to breathe at all and still can function normally, since he’s also done ‘deep sea welding.’ And I’m betting he doesnt bother using a deep sea pressure suit.
He not only can’t be hurt physically, he can’t even be hurt psychologically. He’s totally immune to mental trauma, too! Drop a mountain on him and he doesn’t even worry about never being found until it erodes away 100M years later.
Lucky for him because sooner or later he will be lost in space.
Perhaps her super-cough can impart so much pressure that it cleans out things that a normal cough couldn’t clean.
I don’t think we’ve seen any evidence of Maxima having any sort of super-breath. Especailly since her most dangerous enemy (other than Vehemence), Darude (I think that’s his name, right?), was so deadly because he could prevent her from being able to breathe via sandstorm, which is why she required an oxygen face mask, and the first time they fought she was hacking and coughing afterwards exhausted, and didnt seem like it was helping all that much.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1060-define-trouble/
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1055-lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-eccentric/
Good catch, but on the other hand, Darude also has telekinetically controlled sand that’s probably more difficult to remove than normal sand.
I’ve been thinking Maxima should have super-cough because that’s just a matter the muscles controlling her breathing being stronger. Also her touch based telekinesis gives her extra control, but maybe it’s weird inside her body.
From how Dabbler described it, her Zero-range TK was more like Superboy’s Tactical TK in DC comics, where she can telekinetically move stuff with her superstrength as long as she is TOUCHING it. She isnt likely touching her lungs or the stuff in her lungs. Might also have something to do with her “screwy” (according to Varia) skin.
Depends how “touching” is defined
She’s not sticking a finger against her lungs but they’re a part of her and in contact with other parts of her body
Burying Achilles under a lot of stone didn’t seem to harm him, or even make him uncomfortable. It was mostly tedious to dig out from under. I don’t think particulates in his lungs are going to do anything.
Superpowers are kind of annoying like that. “Only consider obeying physics if it’s funny, or not boring.” seems to be the attitude.
Yes, it’s possible that superpowers are sentient.
I WANT SPIDER-THING ATTEMPTING TO COURT MAX!
*imagines Dr. McFireman attempting to deal with this situation*
…
*completely immature giggling*
SECONDED!
“Please don’t develop a crush on her”
“Please DO!”
I, for one, think they’d make a cute couple.
You want her to cheat on Fireman Sam?
‘Cheat’? No. ‘Share’? Yes.
Maxima doesn’t exactly strike me as polyamorous. :) Even less so than Sydney who could barely handle a goblin girl hitting on Frix.
Rowan :)
No, we want to see Dr. Rowan McFireman dealing with Spider-Thing trying to court his girlfriend.
We _especially_ want to see the hijinx that Shio and Friends get up to, trying to dissuade Spider-Thing, in particular because it would probably involve them all being more pissed and protective than terrified.
Due to the veil thing wouldn’t spider person look like regular person to everyone except Max.
Potentially the weirdest love triangle in comics between Maxima, Spider-Thing Yautja, and Rowan the Fireman/Pediatrician.
After getting used to the dark a bright light in your face would demand at least 30 minutes to get how it used to be. At least for human eyes.
I also want Spider-Thing to attempt to court Max.
As someone who’s spent a lot of time outdoors at night (camping, hunting, star gazing) and in a photography dark room (before everything went digital), I rate what Max did as well beyond a “party foul”. Drive up late to a star-party with your headlights on bright, then stepping out with a flashlight, and you’ll never be invited to another one.
It takes 20-30 minutes for human eyes to get to maximum light sensitivity. It isn’t just the pupils opening; it’s an actual chemical change in the retinas as they switch from photopic (low sensitivity, color) to scotopic (high sensitivity, little to no color) vision. You may think your eyes have fully adjusted after a few minutes, but you’re still a long way off.
Unfortunately, going the opposite way is much quicker, and low-light vision can be lost in an instant. I assume that vampires and whatever the other guy is can recover lost night vision more quickly than humans, but still.
That purple color you see with a flash of light at night? That’s literally your color vision seeing the purple photosensitive pigment your eye uses for low light level vision, *as it’s being bleached away by the excess light*.
That’s why it’s called ‘losing your purple’ when you get strobed at night. :)
third paragraph.. ? she ?? “Not that ‘should’ couldn’t do it.”
Can we quit with this bullshit? We know you have already decided (with flimsy proof) to out E-Sci, so, just cut the crap and do it already
Why are you even bothering having Maxi doing this ‘investigationing’, just plant the ‘evidence’ and move back to focus on Sydney picking out flavoured condoms (or some other Sydney-ism) for fifty pages
But then we wouldn’t have gotten a sentient spider-like creature gushing over getting a compliment.
Sez who? You saying Maxi would have no other reason to go down into the Deep?
Pacing. And a bit of trope aversion.
Basically, the standard way to handle the situation that Sydney discovered Sciona would be to contrive either some reason nobody believes her (which would be difficult – while she’s quirky, the team does tend to trust her judgement in these situations) or some way for her to forget (which is the route Dave took) and then go back to the status quo with minimal repercussions. The alternative would be to have Sciona revealed to the group, wrecking her plans and forcing either a confrontation or her to retreat.
Immediate revelation would wreck the pacing, but Dave seems to enjoy subverting tropes, so we have a case of memory erasure that does have notable repercussions – Max noticed the alteration (interestingly, of Kat’s memory rather than Sydney’s), and is going to start an investigation into it. This gives the author a “Reveal Sciona’s identity” card without further contrivances, while also showcasing Max’s abilities (and methodology – note she doesn’t immediate confront Sciona or Deus) and giving us some more information about Kat*. We also got a spider-dude (spider-lady? Being hornt for Max doesn’t really narrow it down) out of it, so that’s neat.
*So… a skilled (potential) female detective whose name is some variant of Catherine, is adept at kicking ass whilst unarmed, and got lycanthroped against her will/knowledge? I can’t help but be reminded of Kate McAllister, the main character of the Paradigm Shift webcomic. And while Kat might have preferred to have wound up with Kate’s (very impressive) wolfish form, she should count herself lucky she exists in a setting where lycanthropy is apparently a lot easier to control.
If you’re not having fun, you can just go, you know? Dave doesn’t owe you anything.
Preach!
Dude, who the fuck pissed in your Cheerios today?
You don’t like Dave’s comic, telling his stories, in his way, at his pace, then feel free to fuck off down the road, and keep fucking off until you get to the fence with the sign that says, “no fucking further.” Then you can dare to dream the impossible dream, get the fuck over it, and keep right on fucking off into the distant, distant sunset.
…jesus fucking christ, you are abusive.
I can’t guarantee that it’s happening here, but for some people, they only joy they get in life is in hatred.
I’m reminded of when I recently decided to look at the subreddit for Questionable Content. I discovered that r/questionablecontent is filled with nothing but people that read the comic religiously and then go online to whinge about every aspect of it.
I cannot wrap my head around that.
I used to read SinFest religiously. I loved Yoshida’s work for years. Then he started going down the weirdo transphobic obsession pipeline, and…after a lot of personal disappointment, I had to walk away. That was…however many years ago, now. I haven’t been back, not even to check, and while I miss what I used to enjoy, I can’t fathom hanging out and reading a comic that makes me angry enough to rage at the creator & try to tell them how to do their job.
It’s just bonkers.
So you dislike both the current plotline (because it results in your waifu being ‘outed’), AND the overall set-up of the comic, which has been established since the start of it? Yeah, that might be time to realize you’re wasting your time, here.
I know that people in general are more likely to comment, here or elsewhere, when they have a complaint, rather than praise. And I recognize that I have a tendency to approve silently, and only engage to argue. If this comment system had some kind of voting or reaction mechanism, I’d leave a lot more positive feedback on people’s comments. I just hate to reply to someone just to say “me too!” or “Haha, very funny!”. But I’ve tried to make a conscious effort to correct that, and communicate my appreciation when someone who I usually am combative with has said something I thought was well-written or funny. I know I’ve criticized you specifically a lot in the past, and I think you’ve gotten a pretty negative impression of me. But sometimes you’ll surprise me, and I’ll think maybe you’re not all that bad, and again, more recently I’ve tried to communicate that when it happens, rather than just thinking it, and only saying the negative things.
All that said, what do you like about the comic? My impression is that you criticize it more often than not, and that you frequently complain about most of the cast, particularly Sydney and Maxima, who are basically the main characters. And yet I’ve seen you defend the comic and pacing from other people complaining, and gotten the impression that you do understand and appreciate the kind of comic DaveB is making.
So please, take this opportunity to express what it is that you do like, what it is about the comic that interests you and keeps you coming back. I’d invite all the other regular complainers to do the same, but again, I think you “get” the comic more than the other frequent complainers do, so I’m more interested in reading your perspective on it.
God bless you and best of luck with the move. Having gone through that several times while in therapy, I have some council that may help. You are going to feel stressed; this is NORMAL. Multiple therapists have confirmed for me that moving is in the top four stress events most people experience (a couple of the others being deaths in the family). I found it very relieving to not worry “why am I so stressed. Other people don’t seem to be.”. Whether they seem to be or not, they are.
Hmmm, where does Max hide that cigar? Related to the story line, I think this is just Max using the cigar as a plausible reason to pop a light and have a look around before she makes her exit. .
I’m sure the spider guy wouldn’t be the first to develop a crush on her. Frankly, I kind of wonder how many in the base secretly have one on her. Bet Dabbler has more than a few especially with the blanket ban on no sucking team mates dry.
Not even the first non-human. There’s also Valen the council fae, who’s into her ears: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-579-deflection-even-genji-would-be-proud-of/
Dabbler has a crush on stairs, she doesn’t count.
I wonder if the stairs thing counts as a disablity, or a super ability… *ponders blondly*
I wouldnt call Dabbler’s interest in Maxima merely a crush. :) That’s like calling Mount Everest a slight incline.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-877-ray-tracing-amputation/\
“Release my boss and future lover!” :)
Hiro probably has a thing for Maxima as well, but she has a thing for him also. It’s the difference in rank that had prevented anything from happening there. Pretty sure Amorphous only has eyes for Heatwave (except apparently when juiced up with succubus aura and Heatwave isnt around). Harem probably has a thing for Maxima as well given how she got so distracted when Maxima lost her clothes and had to use a leather jacket too small for her bust. Math has a thing for any good looking woman who is breathing. Arianna’s only thing for Maxima is a mutual desire to annoy each other. Peggy does have a crush on Maxima probably, although she blamed it on the concussion she had just before being recruited. Awww. Halo does not have a crush on Maxima – but does seem to treat her like a big sister and Maxima treats Halo like a little sister, pretty much. Anvil definitely does not have a thing for Maxima – they’re just BFFs. Havent really seen any indication of a crush by Goose, Achilles, Heatwave, Stalwart, Jiggawatt, Gwen, Zephan, Faulk, Pixel, Lucas, or Specs.
Officer Friendly! Hah! I don’t think I’ve heard, read, or in any way come across that since the turn of the millenium. *chuckle*
Oh, but lighting up in pitch black without warning? I understand it’s for the gag, but that was surprisingly rude of Maxima.
Middle of the ocean on a cloudy night is about as dark as a cave. Flicking a bic in front of somebody made him worthless as a lookout for about 10 minutes. Was hilarious.