Grrl Power #338 – Bawdville act
They’re only doing it because you react to it Sydney. It does look like she may be loosening up there towards the end.
I had established in the comic that succubi can detect arousal like how sharks can sense electrical fields, but Dabbler’s “Porno Sense” as Sydney dubbed it, can curiously also detect “rompy” situations. Even if no one directly involved is aroused, it’s a fair bet that if there is some sort of soap suds overload incident in the laundry room, or a clothing eating bacteria is on the lose, Dabbler will be the first to know.
I took the time to draw water splashing off Sydney’s orbs, but then the word balloons or water streams mostly covered it up. :(
Dabbler’s partner is one of the lead inventors for Arc-SPARQ. Her name’s Digit, we’ll see more of her later. With some of her gadgets she could potentially hang with the field personnel in Arc-SWAT, except, she’s not allowed to do field work after one or two significant incidents involving some of her bonkers and impractical gadgets. She’s still useful to have around, especially with others to take a second or third swing at her tech and iron out the… quirks.
Thank you for the continued votes. The race for 1st is getting pretty tight. I will definitely try and have a finished version of the picture by the time the next comic goes up. These shower scenes are surprisingly time consuming to draw. Coloring people without clothes definitely saves some work cause there are fewer colors and selections to have to worry about, but then there’s all the specular highlights on the skin, shower streams, steam, soap suds. I think this page actually has the most layers I’ve ever used.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
It’s the best.
Yup. Appropriate userpic forthat comment too.
Digit, eh? It’s good that we’ll se more of her, I rather like the Girl Genius types ^_^
Gadget?
[spoiler]Yes, I went there.[spoiler]
She doesn’t look squirrelly :p
But yes, was thinking of Ms. Gadget as well :D
Funny I was thinking Gadget Hackwrench rather than Agatha Hetrodyne
Well, I’ll be damned. Don’t see too many people who recognize that name.
Used to watch “Chip ‘n’ Dales Rescue Rangers” ‘back in the day’ (although can’t remember the name of their fly :(), and have been reading “Girl Power” for a number of years
I think the green fly was called Zipper. And the mustached mouse, Monty?
Ch-ch-chhhEEEESE! =D
His name was Montary Jack.
Monterey. Like the cheese.
he was also a rat. not a mouse. Gadget was a mouse.
They were both mice, Jack was just bigger.
*Girl Genius
The Wrench Wench is an established trope that fits perfectly for Grrl Power. :)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WrenchWench
I was thinking a gender-swapped Digit from the Dragon’s Claws squad.
You mean mousy?
She doesn’t look squirelly but her gadgets sound like double squirelly…
those damn tags.
https://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_links_w3schools
here is “try it editor” if you are unsure if something works, you can try it.
spread the word!
also, i think you should add a “/” between the second “[” and “s”.
I will admit there is a bit of homage to Gadget going on. :)
I was wondering if that was supposed to be a spoof of Agatha. Go, go Gadget … Hackwrench!
Dabbler looks SO happy in that last panel. Like a kid who just heard the ice-cream truck’s bells on a hot summer day…….
Now I wanna see how Dabbler eats an ice cream cone…
She wraps her extra-long and extremely-prehensile tongue around it, then swallows the entire thing in a single gulp.
And yes, that is definitely a double-entendre.
Verbosity aside, I said I wanted to see it…
Thanks anyway, for trying.
Fairly sure have seen something like that, either from a movie or a web comic
This is somewhat similar (though admittedly not a cone). And the rest of that site (the top result) is NSFW, obviously.
Ack! … You’ll need to edit the url to make that search. Perseverance is its own reward.
Not quite, but you get the visual :D
Um….YAY!
I wish I had a porno sense. Instead I just have a spider sense. Not the kind like Spiderman, the kind where I just have a sense that in some area around me there is a spider crawling just to freak me out.
You might need to watch out for Vance then.
whimper I want porno sense, too . . .
you mean like the one you missed on your Shoulder?
That is utterly, utterly evil.
Indeed…
…I like it… XD
statistically speaking, if one does not account for the interference of walls or floors, then you are never more than five meters in any direction from a spider.
Up?
Probably better stated as “five metres in some direction.” The spider within 5 metres of you, upward is in your attic.
Or under you, in the floorboards. Or beside you, in the wall.
Or crawling on THE BACK OF YOUR SHIRT!!
Last week a spider dropped off the ceiling and landed between my sunglasses and my face. At first I thought I had an errant hair blowing in the wind but realised what it was when the legs reached around to where my eyes were.
Love how much the orbs reflect on Sydney’s hair when it’s wet.
Also amused by how quickly Sydney switches to retribution mode! :D
Greenie seems to reflect weirdly though, since it’s on the opposite side of Sydney’s head in panels 2 and 3.
I think that’s the blue orb reacting with Syd’s yellow hair giving the green colouring.
Psiberkiwi is correct. That’s exactly it. Blue + yellow = green.
Not quite. A yellow surface reflects yellow light, and yellow light is perceived by the eye as a combination of red wavelengths and green wavelengths.
Or to put it another way, a yellow surface is yellow because it absorbs blue wavelengths, so shining a pure blue light on a pure yellow surface would not illuminate the yellow surface at all, and it certainly wouldn’t reflect green wavelengths.
Given that neither the orb nor the hair is pure, the small amount of red and green from the orb light would reflect from the large amount of red and green color in her hair, making it subtly more bright in the red and green wavelengths, and the large amount of blue light in the orb would reflect from the small amount of blue color in her hair, making it subtly reflect in the blue wavelengths. The small amount of reflected blue, green, and red would combine into a small amount of white light, which would slightly brighten her hair, generally washing it out, and maybe giving it a slight blue cast, if her dirty-blonde hair is dirty enough.
Applying all of the above to the other orbs, the yellow orb would brighten the hair almost as much as a pure white light, making the hair even more starkly yellow. The red, orange, and green orbs would add strong red, orange and green casts, as shown, and the violet orb would add a not-quite-as-strong red cast with the slightest of blue tints.
Ugh. HTML fail.
Well, there’s got to be *some* reason the blue orb is making her hair appear green in panels 2 and 3, even if it’s just artist error. Or, rather, colorist error.
Something about the shower scene (like maybe the pure artist effort involved in making it…) is making Syd cuter. How the #%#@% is that happening?
It’s completely unfair to all of us real guys out here.
Looking forward to seeing more of Digit.
Sort of a wacky inventor for the supers?
(Dabbler does her own.)
Other than Q (the 007 one), who else makes gadgets that the heroes don’t want
but it turns out that’s exactly what they needed?
Seriously, I spent almost the whole of Skyfall waiting for Bond to say “you know, an exploding pen would’ve been really useful right now…”
I love Digit’s goggles. I know from DaveB’s comments that she’s meant to be a lot like Gadget from Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers, but I keep loving that I have a pair of goggles that look really similar, albeit more steampunky.
Which makes sense for me, since I bought them for a steampunk costume-themed party years ago and I will never get rid of them! Therefore Digit is now one of my favorite characters despite never having seen her in a scene except this one panel.
Basically like these goggles:
https://s28.postimg.org/i8dpzdjn1/goggles.jpg
https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/612upcMO1qL._SL1000_.jpg (they’re like this but have little rivet-like things around the frame).
Amazon.com. Costs like $8. :) Ultra cool
So, Digit is basically a gnome from WoW? She even looks the part.
I was thinking she’s like Kasey from Zap! She is from an alien race called the Stickle whose inventions accidentally destroyed their first six “too flammable” homeworlds and now reside on Sticklebat 7.
Page with her below.
https://www.zapcomic.com/2003/12/20040721/
Nah, as noted above, she is a human Gadget from the “Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers” :D
Nah. She’s the grand niece of Bloody Stupid Johnson.
Nah doesn’t have the ears like Kasey (Reminds me, I have not read Zap! in about a year)
The comic ended around Sept last year (assuming you don’t know it’s ended). The last page is just a non-spoilery poster thing, so you can probably check the archives to find the spot where you left off.
I find that I like comics with characters that have purple hair. It’s sexy. :)
Wow, hey, thanks for the link. I was reading that comic years ago but lost track of it. Now I can finally finish reading it.
I was going to say she reminds me of one of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurences’ Clankertons.
Porno-tinglings, the infamous 69th sense.
You have just won the internet. All of it.
That’s a lot better than the joke that goes: What’s 6.9? A perfectly enjoyable thing that’s ruined by a period.
Does anyone else think that Digit looks like a human version of Gadget from Rescue Rangers?
I can see the similarity, yes.
It’s the goggles on her head and her hair color. Also, similar name and occupation. The rest is your subconscious filling in the details.
And the fact that she obviously rambles when she’s thinking. Remember that Gadget did that a lot… she’d start talking in scientific terms really fast when she got excited.
i think rumbling comes with the “mad scientist” job.
also you know, if you put too many points into 1 skill ,tinkering, you wont have enough for others like sanity, manners or forethought.
Well said, sir. Well said.
rambling comes with being a mad scientist.
the only time there is rumbling is if you make an error in your calculations (especially when dealing with chemicals).
or if you make an machine to cause earthquakes i guess…
The earthquake machine causes rumblings. What is being said after the chemistry mishap is actual quickly reciting the safety protocols to get everybody evacuated and clean up initiated if practical.
Dave says in response to another comment that “I will admit there is a bit of homage to Gadget going on. :)”
How much does Sydney actually need her glasses? She seems to manage fairly well without them.
Well, she definitely doesn’t suffer from “Hollywood Blindness”. On the previous page, several people theorized that she’s farsighted, and actually only has a mild prescription to help her read. She just overplays it to make people underestimate her.
She actually behaves more like she is mildly near-sighted: close things are clear, but things that are more than a few meters (sometimes a few inches) appear indistinct. She definitely needs to wear her glasses when driving or using the PPO. Reading a foot from her face should be fine.
If she couldn’t identify people at that range her eye sight would be quite bad
Anything past a couple inches just turns into blurry blobs of color for me without my glasses. I can tell that there’s _A_ person there, but not who it is (unless there’s some distinguishing colors, like a red hat or something).
So yeah, it’s entirely possible that eyesight can be that bad. But then again, people who are that nearsighted tend to keep their glasses basically glued to their faces when they’re not sleeping.
I am one of those people.
I assume there’s a “code blue” crash cart available for Math once he hears about this….
Or a large ice bath.
And restrainrs. Lots and lots of restraints.
I think it’d be more a Code; Gold. As in if he goes anywhere near it, a certain gold Heroine is gonna have something to do with it…
Water splashed orbs. One more reason that you should let us see your pages without word balloons. I still want a wallpaper of the top panel of page #297.
I didn’t realize that that was Varia before I looked at the who’s who. Where’s the distinctive Boston accent? :-)
DaveB might have decided to stop writing it. It’s hard to consistently write an accent. Just use your imagination. :)
Knew it: people kvetched about it when DaveB first introduced her and her accent, and others are kvetching now that he stopped
Can’t win for losing sometimes, I guess.
Reminds me of Might & Magic 8. People were kvetching that 3DO used the exact same graphics engine (with very minor upgrades) for 5, 6, and 7. So 3DO decided to use a fully-3D graphics engine for 8 (specifically, the “Lithtech 2” engine from Monolith).
What happened? People started kvetching because it wasn’t the same graphics engine as 5, 6, and 7…
Figured I’d better add this, because some people may not have heard of 3DO (they were almost bankrupt when writing Might & Magic 8, and went out of business shortly after)…
It’s “Three Dee Oh”, not “3 Dough”.
Have most of the M&M series: can’t remember which one, but one decided to go ‘3D’ and used ‘real’ photos for faces, but the heads were still ‘flat’ (as in, no nose ‘bump’ or cheek ‘dips’) and the look was really terrible
I can’t remember which one that is, either. I’ve only played 5 thru 8, and as far as I can recall, none of them used ‘real’ photos for faces. (Although, if I really wanted to, 1 thru 4 are available from GOG.)
Maybe not ‘real’ photos, but like early days of 3D: taking a photo and wrapping it around a ‘head’
Have the boxes for VII and IX nearby, and the screenshots on the back look ‘normal’ so possibly VIII
No, definitely not. I was wrong, by the way. It was 5, 6, 7, and 8 that used the same graphics engine. Might and Magic 9 is the one that I think we were both thinking of.
(Might and Magic 8 was my favorite, out of the ones I’ve played.)
Screenshots:
https://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/16/15688/4.jpg
https://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/25267-might-and-magic-ix-windows-screenshot-npc-in-bar.jpg
Yup, that’s the one, IX was the one where you wanted to kill everyone, just to destroy their faces!!
Remember, though, that it came out 13 years ago. At the time, we didn’t have the video cards capable of rendering billions of polygons per second… on top of that, you don’t want to alienate most of your market by making the graphics so good that only the most state-of-the-art computers can run the game at a playable speed. If only 1% of the computers can run your game, you’re cheating yourself out of 99% of your profit… which is not good when you’re already on the verge of bankruptcy.
Anyway, what they were doing was stretching a texture over a low-poly “head”. They just didn’t have the horsepower for more. Today’s computer games can have as many as 120,000 polygons per character (at least for the main characters), whereas back in those days you were limited to around 3,000 polygons for the entire screen, or the frame rate would drop to unplayable levels.
Yeah, but they should have just stuck to how the previous games were, or do what they did with the player character faces
Remember what I said earlier, though. People were complaining that they had been using the same graphics for four games already! That’s why they decided to go to a true 3D engine.
(And then the game came out and people started complaining that they didn’t use the same graphics…)
I haven’t forgotten about it, but Bostonian really only shows up on a few words without trying to really force it. It’s mostly “ar” becomes “ah” and only on soft a’s, so “spare” doesn’t become “spahe” and she didn’t have any other “ar’s” in her dialog on this page.
I figured you just really played it up when she first spoke to screw with us and Syd.
Thank you
Typo. The phrase should be “on the loose.” I
Unless the tile is heated, I find it difficult to believe that anyone would lean on it in such a manner as to let their breasts and nipples touch the relatively cold tiles of the shower partitions.
Look closerer (you know you want to anyway :P) but neither of those are touching the tiles: both Var and Har have their arms between their delectable flesh and the tiles
Nope. I thought that, but there should be some boob bulge over their arms, considering how well-endowed the ladies are, or else the nipples are touching those cold tiles.
Their boobs are I think perky enough (yey super boobs) to not touch the tiles.
Actually, I’d say it’s more like they’re too tall. Their breasts are actually above the partitions that they’re leaning on with their elbows.
This confirmed.
Could be they don’t mind the cold. They both seem pretty kinky.
So, the cold doesn’t bother them anyway?
No! Just, no.
I have such a crush on Elsa.
I admit it.
You know what cold does to nipples, right?
Enable them to cut glass? o_O
Does this means that the tickle laser that Harem stole from Dabbler will come into play?
Chekov’s Gun has already been introduced…It MUST be used!
Gun? I thought he carried a phaser.
Pavel Andreievich Chekov
Chekhov’s gun
Frank Quitely, that is a total pile of Shrek-waste, propagated by either hack writers or lazy editors (or both)
Something that certain Fantasy writers with a love of overdetailed writing need to hear sometimes though.
Like Anne Rice, who once spent three pages describing a sunset.
(She has gotten better over the years, though.)
meh, someone else has that beat… Laurell K. Hamilton took two CHAPTERS!!! to describe ONE sex scene in her PNR book “Micah”… the sex scenes in her “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series were getting longer and longer for a few books before that, but that one was the final straw for me, i stopped reading the series after that one, i didn’t even finish the book it was that stupid…
Yeah. You want to know why her books suddenly took a turn into, essentially, furry/vampire porn? Because she divorced her husband and married one of her fans.
After that, her books started taking a turn for the worse. Basically every time she wrote herself into a corner (which was frequently), a sex scene was the answer. The last Vampire Hunter book that I started but never finished had thirteen sex scenes in it… and I was shocked to learn that she’s had two or three more Anita Blake books since then.
What really was the last straw for me was when she snapped at one of her fans, “I don’t write this for you.” My immediate response was, “well, maybe you should stop publishing, find another job to pay the bills, and keep your porn to yourself and your fanboi husband.”
Well, obviously there are still lots of people buying that stuff. As long as the money is rolling in, why would she stop? Self-respect can’t buy her a Mercedes, that’s for sure. ;)
Ah, Micah… 13 year old me stole that book from my mom’s bookcase and enjoyed it greatly.
Ah yes, Anita Blake: Vampire Humper. Seriously, that woman gets impaled by more wood than the vampires do.
BWAHAHAHA! That’s exactly what I’ve been calling it for several years… ‘Vampire Humper’. I like where you said she gets impaled by more wood than the vampires do… I’m gonna have to remember that, and use it sometime. :)
Remember that Peggy is somewhere in the shower room right now as well. Think she’ll object to all of this horseplay . . . that’s not happening in public . . . or while anyone is in uniform? Will there be more running in the future for Sydney?
Somehow, I doubt it.
Heh.
Like DaveB said: Yes, it’s more horseplay. But it’s not in public, and it’s definitely not in uniform. xD
Aw, give Harem & Varia a little slack here. They’re just trying to teach Sydney how to be more of a girl & a bit less of a tomboy. It seems to be working, at least a little bit…
In fairness, I was giving everyone plenty of slack. The little “Heh” there at the end was supposed to signify that my post was tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be taken seriously. Sorry for the confusion.
In reality, I expect Peggy is busting a gut laughing at all of this.
I’m pretty sure Peggy isn’t going to object, as long as super powers aren’t used. It’s a joke that is turning into a bonding experience.
Ha! So there are gadgeteer supers!
Who else would make all the fancy gadgets for the ones who can’t shoot rainbow sparkles out their butts?
And now I finally understand why the uniform designer needs superpowers.
Ok… now THAT’s an image…
Why, oh why, does that remind me of Mr. Toots, the unicorn gun in Red Faction: Armageddon?
In-game footage: https://youtu.be/Hzx8u8gQ6D0
Yes, Mr. Toots can destroy buildings with the power of his, um, rainbows…
Mr. Toots was enjoying that way too much! o_O
Ya know, I can’t help but think about how well the rigorous physical training is gonna might do for Syd’s, sure she’s no supermodel amazon like most of em but still…
I’m amazed Sydney didn’t say to Varia and Harem, “You two should stop watching those women-in-prison films.”
Who’s that with Dabbler?
DaveB mentioned in his blurb: she’s one of the SPARQies, have to be high up the rankings (and slash or personally trusted by Dabbles) to be working with Dabbles
when reading dave’s comments you can learn a lot.
like the name of that new girl in the last panel is “digit” and she works for ARK-SPARQ.
also, why she is capable of surviving a field mission, she is banned from going on one after… an incident involving one of her gadgets.
I am not totally happy with the name of ‘digit’ for her. She looks more like an analog kind of person.
Now Leon on the other hand…
Hmm…
I believe it would be better if dabbler’s porno-sense have jagged wavy lines coming out of her head to portray that it is tingling.
That… isn’t where the Porno Sense is located ;)
*snrk* You know, Mountain Dew really stings when it shoots out your nose. Thanks for that. :p
Heh heh, you are welcome :D
What flavour Dew was it? o_O
Whatever flavor is might have tasted like, it most likely smells like pain…
Just the regular stuff. Though none of the other flavors are really bad… I definitely don’t hate them (except for Pitch Black. The convenience stores practically had to give that away to get rid of it… we’re talking 25 cents per bottle.)
If I can’t get regular Mountain Dew (store’s out of stock or whatever), my second choice is Live Wire, followed by Code Red, in that order.
I loved Pitch Black. It sold like hotcakes around here, couldn’t get someone to buy Livewire to save your soul though.
Depends on which “Pitch Black” you’re talking about. The first one sold really horribly down here in northeast Texas. The second one, where they switched to a “sour grape” flavor, was definitely better.
Throwback or nothing!
Overrated, and surprisingly hard to come by. Not sure if that’s due to it being a limited-production item, or because people have gotten so used to HFCS that they find it hard to go back.
How the hell did my comment turn into a conversation about Mountain Dew.
Furthermore, I consider that the classic is the best Mountain Dew flavor.
Isn’t it amazing how conversations can go off on a tangent like that? :)
(As for Mountain Dew, I agree. The classic flavor is the best.)
I prefer the normal Mountain Dew, but diet. For some reason it tastes better than regular.
Code Red is pretty good too. Then again I don’t have either all that often, but when I do, Diet Mountain Dew.
Diet Mountain Dew is one of the only diet drinks I can stand (the other one being Diet Sprite). Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it, or maybe it just doesn’t have a nasty (or not as nasty) aftertaste like most of the others.
That’s a strange way to confirm the fact that much of our sense of taste is linked with our sense of smell…
Respect the partition!
Hm. I’m going to need to remember that one for later. This is far superior to… lots of other alternatives, as the use of a three syllable word for ‘wall’ reminds the other person you have command of the English language and refuse to respond in a juvenile manner.
we are only 1200 votes ahead and the damn goblins are closing in rapidly! EVERYONE GO VOTE!!
THIS IS THE MONTH OF GRLL POWER!!! DON’T LET ANYONE DENY IT!!!
on another note, its been kind of bugging me for some time, but… their muscles are a little bit too visible.
just take a look at panel one. its fine with anvil since she is supposed to look muscular, but for the rest…
Don’t see anything wrong with their well-toned… muscles
I may be lapsing in to old habits. Varia is a bit more buff than the average heroine, but scaling back on her arms might be in order.
Just something to remember is unless a person is specifically flexing or straining, they will look (and be) ‘soft’. So yeah, the arm will have a little extra material at the bicep region, but it’ll go smoothly into the side and elbow and shoulder, etc.
Look at the arms of powerlifters during and before/after their lifts, or see if you can get pics of bodybuilders who aren’t showing off or working out, then compare them to their ‘official’ pictures.
That’s where pencilers and inkers get into trouble. Without using a ton of cross hatching, the only tool they have to define an area is a line, so muscular cuts tend to be quite emphasized. Since I’m my own colorist (usually) I don’t have as much of an excuse really, other than I’m personally attracted to fit physiques.
Nothing wrong with that. Personally, it’s damn refreshing to see women with visible muscularity in the superhero genre. Usually there’s just supermodel slimness with painted-on spandex. Worst case of it I saw was a pic of She-Hulk where she looked the same as Jen Walters, just taller and greener, with no real difference in build.
indeed, there is nothing wrong with muscles, and it would make sense that if you are fighting supervillains all day, you would have to be fit. and when talking about someone like anvil even more so, since she is a close combat heavy hitter. however, just as “too little” can be a silly extreme, so can be “too much”.
it may be an exaggeration but they look like someone stripped them from the skin, and then painted their huge muscles into a skin color (or atleast made their skin VERY thin)… disturbing.
Actually the passive separation between muscles become more or less visible depending on muscle volume, muscle tone (*) and subcutaneous fat. If you have the right combination, your muscles can look always defined not matter what.
Since the superheroine pack include “not having an ounce of body fat” (which is almost impossible to reach for a normal person), I will bet that they need not so much in the other parameters to have a “hard edged” muscle aspect.
* Muscle tone is the always present level of contraction and can be increased by exercise.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with women having a fitness model physique. Especially superhero women who have already been described as having an ‘ideal human physique.’
Either Peggy is hiding, or she did a soak/soap/rinse/run and is gone already. I never really mastered taking a quick shower, in the Army. Even during Basic Training I would get up early to take my shower. This allowed me plenty of time to scrub down without bumping butts, and let me get as much hot water as I liked. Once you threw a dozen guys into the showers, and rotated more through as quickly as possible, the hot water ran out quickly.
Be glad you didn’t have to try a submarine showers. (I was in the Air Force, not the Navy, but one of my friends was a submariner, until he got medically discharged for a problem with his right leg. That’s how I know about the Navy showers.)
It goes something like this: Turn on the water. Get wet. Turn off the water. Soap up. Turn on the water. Rinse. Turn off the water. Usually you only get one or two minutes of water. Oh, and by the way, don’t touch the shower walls. Sure, it gets scrubbed daily, and you’re not supposed to masturbate in the shower stall, but… well, let’s just say that even a sperm bank doesn’t have that much semen.
A nuclear submarine can make its own fresh water and oxygen, but most of that water is needed for drinking, cooking, and keeping the reactor cool. That’s one of the reasons you never ran the water longer than absolutely necessary. Even the water faucets automatically shut off after a few seconds.
Interesting, I was under the impression water on nuclear subs was essentially limitless, as they had more than enough excess power to made as much fresh water as needed.
It is essentially limitless, but they can still only make so much water per day. The way they used to do it was with an evaporator… basically, the sea water is boiled, and the steam is condensed into pure (drinkable) water, and even purer water for the power plant. They’ve refitted the submarines and replaced the evaporator with a Reverse Osmosis filter, which simply filters out the salt and impurities in the seawater.
There are a lot of other differences, too. For example, the sub needs to discharge its sanitary tanks every so often. On the older classes of sub, like the 688 (Los Angeles class), they pressurize the tanks and blow them overboard. Never, never, never flush the toilet while the tanks are pressurized. It’s very messy. (Let’s just put it this way: If you did this while still sitting on the toilet, you would be on the receiving end of a high-pressure enema. If that doesn’t sound bad enough, think about what was in those particular tanks, which will now be all over you… the ceiling… the floor… the walls…)
Then there’s the food. They have a long shopping list. Remember, you’re feeding around 130 people for at least 75 days (sometimes longer). For example, they might take on 500 pounds of coffee, 800 pounds of butter, and 22 thousand eggs. The first thing you’ll run out of is fresh fruits and vegetables – you’ll notice when the salads disappear from the menu. Milk used to be next, but these days they use irradiated milk which stays fresh essentially forever.
The menu can get really interesting if they have to stay at sea longer than originally planned. My friend told me about one deployment where the sub that was supposed to take over their patrol had a mechanical failure, so they had to stay at sea two more weeks. They had pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper every single day for those two weeks.
Thanks for the inside info, it is very interesting. I would have assumed they would have some kind of lockout system, so you can’t flush while pressurized. that would be a very, very disgusting event to be subjected to. You describe it like it has actually happened.
Yea, I can see food being an issue if the mission is extended, they likely cannot carry as much food as an equivalent crew sized surface ship, and resupply is probably not a viable option.
The newer subs do have a lockout system on the toilets. Or something, anyway, that at least doesn’t result in a big mess if you flush while the tanks are pressurized. My buddy Chris wasn’t able to give me any detail on how the lockout works.
And yes, it has actually happened. He tells me that despite the signs on the bathroom door, somehow, at least once, almost every single patrol, someone forgets not to flush while the tanks are being pressurized… (usually new guys fresh out of Navy training).
Cracked did a lovely piece on Submarine living, but even they missed the difficulties of the limited water supply. https://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1276-6-things-movies-dont-show-you-about-life-submarine.html
She’s in there, I sort of ran out of time to fill in everyone in the background unfortunately, and Peggy takes longer to draw with all her tattoos.
Just mention that she is in the stall behind Sydney, and seeing how they are about the same height and general size, it’s easy to imagine Peggy is simply being obscured (specially by the distance between the camera and that stall)
Okay, we know Harem is up for anything, but does this mean Varia is at the least bi*? Or is she really just messing with Sydney? Don’t really see why she would be, certainly not this soon after meeting her
*Not liking to put labels on anyone
I have heard somewhere that women are more naturally ‘open’ to that sort of thing. It could just be a case of her as a girl being more comfortable about making those sorts of jokes.
Then again, I have straight buddies who make homoerotic jokes involving themselves, so it’s a bit of a whatever.
Yeah, society has arranged things so women are made to feel more comfortable making sexually-suggestive banter than males, who are in turn made to feel uncomfortable with doing so because it’s “gay”.
Yeah, but she has only just met Sydney, how would she know that that would annoy and not attract Sydney? What would she have done if Sydney showed interest in ‘filling in’ for one of the Harem? Or maybe making it six bodies?
I think considering her body language on entering the showers, varia may have made a good guess that she is sorta body shy and might be easy to tease like that. Or its possible it came up with harem or even peggy talking “off panel” as it were, about how she reacted the day before.
I like the glow effect on Sydney’s hair.
Why doesn’t Sydney tube the orbs when showering? I get a mental picture of her shoo-ing them out of the way as they interfere and yelling at them to scatter, but they slowly drift back into their standard orbit over Sydney’s head, and the scene repeats. Kinda like trying to get rid of cats who are intent on sleeping on you while you are watching television. “Stupid cats, don’t you know that it is 90 degrees and humid…Hmmm, Buffy’s looking particularly hot this episode, speaking of hot, why am I sweating like a pig? How the heck did these cats get back on me without my noticing? GAAAH! Stupid cats, don’t you…”
she could use them to sit on so she didn’t have to wear shower sandals.
She’s shown before great control of her orbs, like when she fought Math, or during the battle royale
That’s simple: the orbs are waterproof, the tube isn’t. So if she tubes them she has to keep the tube close, and the tube likely gets wet. Since she can control the orbs when she wants to, all she has to do is think “spin faster” and they spin-dry.
The tube doesn’t have to stay that close to her. Check out the scenes right after the failed faux bank heist.
Because she has to keep her balls clean, duh.
Clearly Dabbler’s porno sense works through the 4th wall to detect reader arousal. It’s the most logical explanation.
I just like how all the girls seem to be going out of their way to cover up while talking. Do girls actually do that while group showering? I know its so the comic doesnt get an nc-17 rating, it just looks a little forced to me is all. Im a bigger fan of perspective censorship. Like a boob being hidden by water spray, and another is seen behind sydneys head, that sort of thing. Im sure thats harder to pull off, so no big deal really. Speaking as a guy who went through basic, I dont recall any talking in the showers, just get in, get out, get dressed, so I cant really speak for if guys would cover their junk while chatting nude. :p
*shrugs* I’ve never been in a group shower, but maybe it’s because those are the ‘hidden by bikini’ areas. Thus, everyone at the beach can see everything except for those spots, so whilst in the shower, those spots shall remain hidden. Or it’s covered so that they are protected from a prankster throwing heavy shampoo bottles at them… (not in the case of supers here however)
Either that, or it’s to let our readers focus on the speech bubbles instead of spots. Hehe… spots.
But a question for the military folk here – why don’t the shower walls go all the way up? I can sort of understand not having shower doors for easy exits and assembly, but no walls makes this person nervous. A brotherly/sisterly pack thing perhaps? So that the troops can see their commander’s face (I’d be just fine with hearing the voice)? Steam distribution? This reader is rather baffled… :)
I could give you a ton of logical answers, but the real reason is no one wants to get in a stall and find a fully armed enemy standing in there and stealing their water. …Damned aliens!
Hey, not all of us want your water…
…Mind you, I have discovered the pleasure of the massage head. Really gets into the joints & between panels nicely… OK, Daniel the Human is laughing at me, usually that means what I said has other meanings of something like that…
Aliens? If you’re referring to Dabbler getting into the showers…Well, four-armed is fore-warned.
Actually, it could be because of Peggy. Unless her artificial leg is one of the waterproof ones, she’s going to need to take it off. Even if it is one of the waterproof ones, she’ll probably want to take it off anyway… the leg stump needs to be cared for, too. Having short walls gives her something she can lean on, rather than forcing her to balance on one leg.
Very unlikely. Beside being obviously not a suitable support, in federal buildings the mandatory accessibility in showers is specified in detail in special documents, and include grab bars among other installations.
What I’m wondering now if it could be mandatory for the handicapped personnel to use the special stalls. Seems a logical rule to enforce, both to avoid accidents and/or legal suits.
Peggy was wearing her leg when they came into the shower room, and there are possibly seats in at least a few of the stalls if not all, or she could simply have requested Blondini to get her one
In basic we didnt have walls, just a big open shower area with like a dozen shower heads. So no clue why, other than easier censorship, these ones have even short walls.
Probably because it is cheaper to build, and easier to keep clean.
and it’s so the D.I.’s can tell at a glance when somebody is hiding out in the shower to avoid getting tasked with doing something, because they usually tell the first person they see to do it… it’s kinda eliminates the “if they don’t see me, they can’t task me to do crap i don’t want to do…” mentality. same reason that the shitter stalls don’t have doors either, that way nobody can hide out by just lifting their feet up.
Toilet stalls had doors in basic for me. This is air force though, not sure what the variance is from branch to branch.
Or he could have drawn them boobs-out, then used the word bubbles to cover the nips’n’tips.
Plus that way he’d get to keep his orb-splashes.
Yea, I understood why they were being drawn with boobs covered in every panel. I just found it amusing to see the work it took to stage the poses so it worked with the story and still look natural.
Yup, that takes skill and talent
D’awww! Look how big Dabby’s eyes are!
I have noticed that change in her look in recent panels. She is being drawn looking younger (youth-en-ized?) since her roll in the hay with the Barberian. No confirmation yet on whether she actually gets younger from her dalliances, or if this is just a change in artistic style.
Maybe it’s just to show her excitement/happiness when her porno-sense tingles. Kinda like a cat hearing the box of cat food being opened. She had similarly a cute expression here in the 4th panel as well:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1694
a half-chib?
Well, more than a few readers (of both genders) are getting at least a half-chub from this page
Yes, thank you for dragging my pun behind the barn and shooting it.
Sydney looks hot in the 5th panel. And by ‘hot, I mean ‘guy hot’. I saw that frame and thought – wow, if Sydney was a guy, I’d totally fall for him. Digging those huggable pecs and looming, determined eyes! <3 And whilst I'm at it, I'm going to ask if there's any fanart of Sydney as a guy out there. Maybe Maxima as a guy too.
(This is what happens when I watch too much anime where the guys look like girls and the girls dress up as guys).
Sydney definitely had an edward elric “IM NOT SHORT” style rant look on her at that point. :p
Ah that’s it! So that’s the source of my thoughts! Yay Ed!
It’s official. I have the hots for Shower-Ed-Sydney. <3
I didnt see her orbs at all, her arms were… oh right, never mind.
Porn-sense superior compared to spider-sense.
…Which would be good news to Vance…
I just gotta say, I know it’s for the story and hey I like it, but I find it spurious that Sydney would choose the spot between two women when there were other stalls available.
Why would it be spurious that Sydney would pick that stall? We know that Heatwave was using the one opposite Blondini, maybe Peggy chose the one beside Heatwave?
Sydney clearly has a problem with the no curtains – either a) being seen or b) seeing others. She didn’t make a big deal of seeing others before, at the A-Team meeting.
It would make logical sense that she would go as far from the others as possible, or at least just be next to one. Standard urinal procedure.
I suppose it’s at least possible that she actually did pick a spot away from the others but that Harem and Varia – who are clearly having a good time pestering her – came over to get on either side of her.
This doesn’t seem likely though since the entrance can still be seen beyond Harem in panel one. She certainly seems to be in the same place she was in the last comic.
No, Har and Var are in the same stalls they were in when Sydney and Peggy entered
DaveB said in comments that he ran out of time to draw the persons in the other stalls.
Also, I find the lack of Peg… disturbing.
You’ll see Peggy again. Keep the faith.
Also also, Extra Tears Formula: For When You Hate Your Kids, But Still Want Them Clean.
Also also also, Dave, is that vehicle inspired by the animated Batmobile?
Not intentionally. It’s really just something to fill the background, but I was thinking those slats were what the driver saw through, not an air intake.
Looks to me like one of those Chrysler cruiser things
The fly’s name was Zipper, if memory serves.
That was it, thank you :D
…Zipper? the fly?
ahahaha
I guess they couldve called him Button, but it wouldn’t work as well.
Dave’s blog: “It does look like she may be loosening up there towards the end.”
Loosing up? Or simply getting fed up? Hmmmm? :D
I also notice that, even while wet (no pun intended here…Aw, who am I kidding?), Sydney’s bangs are still trying to defy the laws of physics.
In panels two and three, I thought for a moment that a couple of Sydney’s orbs had suddenly grown tails for some reason. It turned out to be clothes hooks on the wall behind.
Excuse me. That should be shower heads on the wall behind.
Oops.