Grrl Power #375 – Intergalactic waitress of mystery?
Of course it’s almost immediately after Zephan has his revelation that Sydney starts to discover something is up. I guess that sort of thing could happen all the time in the real world, it’s only because we’re third party observers that we’re aware of the serendipity of the timing. So for those of you who guessed it would have something to do with her truesight, you get a know prize!
Now that Sydney is cluing in on something, she has to figure out what it is. I shall refrain from my own pseudo speculation as it would likely all be red-herrings anyway. At least she didn’t try and hit Jeanie with a chair.
Obligatory Amazon referral link for you guys. I may post a bit more in my comment later but I didn’t manage to get this up till 3 am. Last minute art fixes and driver issues. :/ And Fallout 4
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Is she an alien? Does Jeannie have a shirt that says “I came all the way to Earth, and all I got was this T shirt”? Because then we would know for sure.
I’m more aligned to the “aquatic alien in a robot body” theme myself.
As for the t-shirt, I don’t think DaveB is going to make it that easy for us.
A better question would be … would you buy that t-shirt if DaveB made them?
I would indeed.
Since the truesight orb cannot see through paper, seeing through a robotic bodysuit is also unlikely.
Yea, yea, like I believe you are not a Ninja!
Sydney has not seen through the robotic swimsuit, it looks like a green alien, with gills.
ALWAYS! EXPECT! NINJAS!!
Yeah, like Ninja & Yorp said (I think), I don’t think this is a suit, I think the Orb-Vision green skinned version is the actual Jeanie (watched I Dream Of Jeanie flying in?) in the alien flesh. The blue parts could be gills, but if you look on the SIDES of her nose, she does have nasal openings. I hear some Earth animals have both lungs & gills, why can’t she?
Looks like what a female Drell from Mass effect could conceivably look like… Sidenote: If that is not intended, this is still now my headcanon for female drell.
i’m getting a female-mode Drac vibe from her instead.
Yup, Amphibians.
He really is Not a Ninja. Just ask any ninja you find & they can confirm that ninjas don’t exist.
;)
I think she might have a shirt that says “nothing to see here, native born human ” so people will say “oh, I guess it’s skin art or something.”
Think I could get one? I mean, Pretender Armour is awesome, but a shirt saying I’m Human would work even better, right?
…Why is Daniel the Human laughing again…?
As seen in the bottom middle panel here. :)
That shirt in particular was designed on the same principles of the S(omebody) E(lse’s) P(roblem) Shield. As long as she doesn’t act threatening, dangerous or non-human behavior, the SEP Shield continues to keep her inconspicuous.
where is the triple a battery lol
Someplace that she doesn’t particularly want to show to strangers…
I hope she comes with batteries included.
Shes one of the lizard ppl that control the world via the illuminati
AH, yes… the Vrill… they’ll get their comeuppance in Iron Sky 2: The Coming Race…
That’s what I let them think.
Saves me alot of trouble in the long run.
I think the shirt would say, “ArcSwat lets me live here but, I ahve to wear this t-shirt”.
OMG!! I’m totally going to print me one.
Shachar
Well i think dabbler may know her :) i mean a succubus in a bar? it like a all you can eat buffet on young stud that just get drunk for an easy picking… not that a succubus would have problem picking boys.
Or maybe all the powers origin comes from alien DNA. They’ve been on earth for so long, their DNA entered the gene pool and when 2 seemingly normal humans (but with alien ancestry) have a child, that child has a higher chance in developing super powers.
Not the first illegal alien to work a minimum wage job.
Club like this i think that waitstaff most likely makes more then minimum is tips :)
Tips don’t count when speaking of wage, only the hourly paid by the establishment. Despite that, waitresses often make far below minimum, ~4/hour, because they are expected to get those tips.
I can’t bring myself to understand a culture where it’s considered normal to expect patrons to pay a big part (if not most-) of the employees’ income in form of tips, and even less the practice of going *below* the minimum wage by using “they are going to get most of their income from tips anyway” as their excuse, it’s the employer’s job to pay their employees’ wages, if you can’t afford it, raise your prices, in restaurant/bar business if you have to keep your prices low in order to stay in business, maybe you should rethink your business model…
Technically the way it works is you’re paid a short wage (varies from state to state, here in NC it’s $2.15 an hour, some other states its more) and the restaurant is required to document your tips received. If your wage plus tips for the pay period totals less than real minimum wage (7.25 an hour in NC) they have to pay you the difference to assure your total take-home is sufficient. The thing is, if you’re not making enough to cover the difference, you will get canned, as no restaurant wants to have to pay the difference and chances are if your tips are that bad either the place is super overstaffed or your not suited for the job. From my experience, I’ve never come close to having to worry over the difference, but I have friends who’ve worked for a chain steakhouse that’s really bad about cutting it close by not giving you many tables per shift and requiring hefty tip-outs to the bar and the bussers (that’s not to say they don’t deserve it, just that when a place is overstaffed AND you have mandatory tipouts, there will be nights where you leave with less money you came in with even if your pay for the period evens out. It really sucks. Plus, many chains make you tip out based on a flat percent of the bill regardless of your actual take, which means when someone fails to tip they literally cost you money for the privilege of putting up with their cheap behinds.)
again not the patrons’ job to pay the employees’ wages, tipping started as way of thanking for especially good service & that’s how it remains in most countries, but not in America, at this rate one day instead of employers’ paying shitty below minimum wages, they will be demanding a cut from the tips as a payment for the privilege of working there…
Brother, drop it. You arent going to get them to concede, its normal over here, ive seen far too many people from other countries come over here and gripe about it, or refuse to tip, or act like jerks over it, or get into huge arguments that go nowhere and no one walks away happy from.
Save yourself some trouble, you arent gonna convince us or change our ways any time soon.
Well, it is still a [relatively] free country so people are free to be jerks and others are free to be as stubborn as a donkey with respect to their opinions to the contrary despite the evidence.
A lot of things used to be “normal”. It took how long to get rid of slavery, or give women the vote, or gay rights, or prohibition?
At least America is ahead of a number of other countries on those points, even if those countries are “allies” or “business partners”.
Eventually you will get rid of the other anachronisms like unpaid internships, the death penalty, corporations as people, open season on non-citizens, etc etc etc
So yes we will keep egging you on and poking you in the ribs and having arguments on the subject every now and again until you do change your ways. Americans may be slow to change culturally and may not be happy about other bringing up the subject but you will get there eventually and we have a pat on the back and a hug of congratulations waiting for you once you do.
well being a jerk about having to tip isn’t right either & IMO the expected tip should only be witheld if the service was terrible, it’s just that I half-expect that should I ever visit America and forget to tip, *the waiter/waitress* would be jerk about the matter. I wouldn’t blame them for it, but I certainly wouldn’t be too happy about being told off for an honest mistake, I have read way too many “not always X” -entries to not expect something like that happening…
To be fair, it isn’t expected everywhere in America. There are some restaurants (unfortunately few and far between) that have chosen to eliminate tipping, and simply pay their servers a living wage… sometimes as much as $20 per hour or above, if I remember correctly.
If it’s in doubt, never be afraid to ask the server about the store policy on tipping. For example, some places automatically add a 15% gratuity to your receipt, and any additional tip that you may leave is for service “above and beyond the call of duty”. While I dislike the “automatic 15% gratuity”, I understand the purpose of it. It’s a way of compensating for jerks who refuse to tip (which is not limited to just foreigners… there are plenty of Americans who refuse to tip, either just out of principle, or just because they want to be an arsehole.)
The store policy on tipping will also be printed on the menu, usually on the back cover.
Had some comments from a friend who waited tables depending on tips:
“It will make you racist, it will make you sexist, it will make you a horrible person, because that’s where your pay comes from. Nobody wants to wait the table with group X, because “they tip badly”, and so get ignored. When I stopped being a waitress I became a much better person.”
If you eat out in a country which uses an expected-tipping model, it IS your job to tip the waiter/waitress, unless service was so bad you want to cost them money. If you don’t like it, don’t eat out, or eat out somewhere you bus your own table.
This is entirely separate from the question of whether tip-expected restaurant systems work better or worse than moderate salary high expectations restaurant systems. If you’re inside a tip-expected system and prefer other systems, you comply with the tip expectation while working for a change if it’s worth the effort to you. Doing otherwise hurts the waiter/waitresses, who don’t deserve it.
(As for which system is better, I don’t think it can be evaluated independently from the rest of society — and consequently, the ideal system can change as society changes. Does your society value conformity and eschew confrontation? Then you probably don’t want to encourage people to leave a variable tip. Does your society value eccentricity and accept confrontation? Then you may want to leave the waiter/waitress’s potential eccentricity to be judged by the customers. Are your waiters/waitresses making a career of the job? You’re more likely to want to have a steady salary and high expectations. Are your waiter / waitresses working part-time while putting themselves through college, and are just marking time before getting their “real job”? You’re more likely to want a steady supply of on-the-spot incentives. I personally believe that we have the right system for twenty years ago, and that we have it *because* it evolved out of the social order of the time. Whether it’s the right system for *now* I’m agnostic about … well, agnostic with a bias against change without a clearer argument that the change would be an improvement than I’ve yet seen for eliminating tippage.)
One problem with the tipping system here in the U.S. is that tips too frequently depend on the perceived level of service rather than the actual level of service. Wait staff usually don’t like extra-busy days because despite working harder, they usually get crappier tips.
A bunch of us (umm, six or eight people where I work) went to one of our regular restaurants one day, and waited for what seemed like forever after being seated. My colleagues were grumbling about crappy service. I said, “Actually, I’ve been watching the waitresses, and they’ve been running around like crazy. I’d estimate they’re short by two people today.” Everybody turned and watched, then shut up about it. A minute or two later a waitress finally hurried up, a bit breathless, and apologized for the wait. I just nodded and smiled and asked, “Somebody call in today?” Turns out two waitresses had called in sick.
Hah! Nailed it. I got to be smug, and to be fair, my colleagues tipped generously. (Granted too that I pointed out the terrible tips she’d probably been getting, see above.) But the point was that even this bunch of admittedly pretty smart people didn’t even think to pay attention to what was really happening; they just knew they were waiting too long. I probably only had a clue because I’ve dated some waitresses and former waitresses and had my own nose rubbed in reality a few times.
Personally, I’d prefer to pay a flat fee for the food and the service and not have to bother with the tip. But this is how it’s done here at this time, so I at least try to do right by people.
Actually in most strip clubs dancers pay to dance. Either a flat fee or a percentage of their tips are a combo of both.
I can’t stand my waiter/waitress having to share tips with others. I don’t drink alcohol, so the bar has no part of my service. Bus staff should be paid min wage, no tips, unless they clean the table for another course to the same customers, and at a buffet type restaurant that’s usually handled by the wait staff. I’m tipping my waitress/waiter for the service to my table, not everyone in the building. When I did frequent bars, I couldn’t stand it when they had a single tip jar for 3,4, or more bartenders plus the waitresses to combine tips and share out at the end of the night. Again, I’m tipping my server, not someone who has neither prepared nor served me anything all night. >_<
I certainly have no objection to tipping as a thank you for good or excellent service and can be kind of generous in that regard, too. My problem lies in those places that now put the tip on the bill. This means that even if the service is lousy, they get the money anyway! I can make up my own mind about how good the waiters and waitresses are, thank you very much.
It’s not a gratuity any longer if they are making you pay it. If your staff isn’t getting enough in tips, then maybe you should take a look at how they are handling the customers. If the problem isn’t with the staff and the clientele are just stingy and miserly, then raise the prices a little to pay your crew a better wage.
Neither do I. I simply want the tip I leave, to go to the person I left it for. :)
the pricing vs wages issue is probably more due to competition and underselling then a bad business model. the club selling the same quality for less is always going to be the preferred, even if it means they have alot of staff entirely depending on tips to get by. it’s like the idea of using crowd-funding like steam’s early access system for a project, if you don’t pull enough attention somehow, you sink.
Oh its a great business model for the business, not so great for those who do the work. Then again they have been getting away with this for years so why stop now?
Truth is government needs only to keep the playing field fair for everyone and enforce what rules there need to be to play the game fairly.
As one of my college professors put it so succinctly. A businessman won’t urinate in their own cornflakes but will be more than happy to urinate in yours if it makes them a buck.
The tipping is quite well explained here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_vivC7c_1k if the3 link gets eaten look up tipping and collegehumor at YT
I have to agree. It’s almost barbaric. Pay people for their work. Silly Americans.
One would expect the employer to pay their employees, not someone else
Unless the employer is taking their employees out to a meal. Then you would expect them to pay someone else, for cooking and serving it.
What makes you so sure she’s illegal? For all you know “Greenie” could have her green card.
No reason why she can’t be an American-born citizen, with a perfectly legal birth certificate.
Exactly: https://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=412
Aside from the hair, she reminds me of a Drell from Mass Effect.
Yeah smart thing would be to find and consult with Dabbler ASAP.
Hey, I thought the exact same thing! That ribbing is a giveaway.
I am glad you enjoy a good ribbing. You have come to the right comic for it.
Ribbed……for extra pleasure
which is why xurial is in the employee lounge with jeanie’s brother making questions from sydney a problem.
I like my ribbing with BBQ sauce.
Worry when Sydney isn’t tripping balls…
… because that’s when the fertilizer has already hit the fan, and it’s about to get crazy?
She was acting strange even in the middle of the huge fight.
‘Fertilizer hitting the fan’ clearly does not make her stop.
Chances are the true reason to be afraid when she’s acting ‘normal’, is that it’s so out of character it’s probably a sign that she’s not herself (at the very least, she’s probably got something prescription-grade affecting her, and more likely she’s straight-out being ‘influenced’ by someone with a power)
that was addressed and nothing prescription strength can make her act normal in addition to the terror of a restrained behavior syd (check start of the interview).
No nostrils and gill slits in her cheeks and neck. Aquatic species of course but fresh or salt water? Maybe a siren? Would explain the human shape and the glamour or illusion spell.
Playing “Devil’s Advocate”, here…
…I see a dark areas on either SIDE of the nose, so maybe her nostrils face OUTWARD, rather than forward? They seem to extend back to her eyes, so they may also act as “targeting sights”, like the markings on a cheetah’s muzzle. A long, slotted nostril also supports your “aquatic” interpretation, because that shape of hole is easier to clamp shut when you’re submerged.
Meanwhile…
– if the cheek/neck markings turn out to *NOT* be gills, then perhaps this skin-texture indicates some specialized band of muscle-fiber?
– Or perhaps it filters the poisonous OXYGEN out of air (because she needs NITROGEN to live)? In which case, she inhales ONLY thru the filter, & speaks out her mouth.
– Or maybe it’s an artificial filter that she WEARS, rather than a skin-texture?
(…so many possibilities to speculate upon…)
Well, I’m not sure where you get poisonous nitrogen from. It’s a noble gas. It also makes up 78% of our atmosphere.
By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen,[1] 0.93% argon, 0.039% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth )
Um, helium and argon are noble. Nitrogen isn’t. It reacts with all sorts of things. It’s generally inert in relation to Earth life respiration, though.
Molecular nitrogen is generally inert in relation to most earth life. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are an exception.
Other molecules containing nitrogen, not so much. The stuff features prominently in such non-inert chemicals as nitroglycerin and trinitrotoluene (both quite explosive), as well as nitrous oxide (laughing gas).
nitrogen is not a noble gas, and is actually reasonably reactive! Your chemistry teacher is probably crying right now. Feel ashamed! Imagine their poor tearful face and feel ashamed!
He meant he oxygen might be toxic to her, not the nitrogen. To her oxygen might be toxic like carbon dioxide is technically toxic to us.
THAT’S IT… THAT’S where i see a similarity now (ignore my other guess in a different post)…
Abe Sapien from the Hellboy comic!!… He’s the stick-in-the-mud book-worm, compared to his sister Jeanie’s outgoing personality (I’m pretty sure you’d have to be in order to be willing to be an employee in a night club like this)
i think this would have been even more hilarious if she had been using her AmazeBalls before she joined Arc. i could guess that Jeanie is a random alien, but this feels too much like MIB giving cover identities to aliens who just want to live and work here. although i was honestly wishing for less humanoid aliens.
Humanoid aliens bug me as well. I understand on TV shows, you generally need an actor under makeup to achieve the effect, or else you need to call in Henson studios (at least back in the day – now a days you could get WETA or someone if you had the budget)
I have a page written where Sydney asks about how humanoid she is, but it’s in a very rough draft form at the moment because the shortest answer Dabbler can give doesn’t seem satisfying, and anything longer is just a wall of text, so I’ll probably save it for later when it won’t feel like I’m running a scene too long.
I Defenetly want to see that…. And a alien in disguise who each and every one of the waitress in a restaurant is a tendril of his
Or non humanoid aliens riding around in human shaped robots.
Octopi can fit in reeeeeeaaaally cramped places. …
And they have the advantage of multiple limbs capable of fine manipulation. Even a normal(?) Earthly(?) Octopus has enough intelligence to figure out how the screw-on lid of a glass jar works AND the manual dexterity to actually open it.
Hmmm…Now that I think about it, should I be saying “manual dexterity” or rather “octopal dexterity?”
Manual dexterity is a play on using dexterity to Manipulate objects
That said, Octopi can open that jar from inside the jar so that’s a pretty special indicator of both dexterity and problem solving skills in and of itself.
on screen aliens have to be humanoid, yeah. but i enjoyed the occasional alien that was described offscreen with different features (Vilix’pran sounded interesting, but was only ever part of Promenade gossip). my overall favorite creator of alien species also happened to be a biologist, Julie E. Czerneda; she got into lots of detail concerning alien tourism, how warning signals would be in yellow instead of red for some species and why, and how reproduction is a rare right-of-passage thing for most species. i’ve read other good fiction where the “alien” species were just humans who had used genetic engineering to adapt to alien environments, such as Joan Slonczewski’s work, which allows us to suspend disbelief. Earth must be one of hundreds of worlds to choose from, whether you’re an alien anthropologist, a tourist, or refugee. so i suppose they choose the planet on which they CAN feasibly blend in. but still… ok fine. i just really like biology and alien biology speculation. i’ll read books with whale-sized guinea pigs that communicate with via swapping bodily fluids. if there was a sentient alien flying cuttlefish in this comic i’d die happy. *end geekout*
Oh the cuttlefish as sentient alien could be very interesting to try an communicate with.
They are very visually oriented. I bet they would consider languages based on only sound to lack nuance and color in the literal and figurative sense. Their communication may even involve texture.
Now how they would record anything is something else again. Do any speculative linguists have any ideas on how records would start and then develop into full blown recorded languages in a marine environment?
Cetacea already have distinctive languages, dialects and oral histories. But we only know a few words of it.
Their most likely path to recorded language is with our assistance. If we can resist eating them all, before we get to understand them and their culture.
However, keeping to the spirit of your question (let us assume that humanity went extinct), Octopoda would be more likely to develop a written language than dolphins or whales, given their manipulatory appendages.
Plus some of the family have a real advantage, they can produce ink! So could use their beaks to score markings into some durable surface, then stain it with their ink, to make it stand out.
Ah, some would say they already have evolved written & even verbal communication…
how about ones that communicate via Sonar?… in the Into the Looking Glass series by Travis Taylor, the good guys encounter one that does that… as a LAND DWELLING Mammal (or alien equivalent) and he’s got at least at least three, non-bipedal sentient species that we’ve been introduced to so far, (still waiting for any further books in the series…)
So, is Sydney going to start using her Yellow Orb more frequently? Looking for more Alien Easter Eggs hidden in the crowd?
I’d think that if Sydney looks for more Easter Eggs, she’ll find more bunny rabbits than aliens…
;)
Intelligent life would likely develop similarly shaped bodies to us. It would need to have limbs entirely unnecessary for locomotion, a strong source of calorie intake and the ability to survey its environment in a superior manner than other species. Humans fit this by being bipedal and omnivorous. A similar path to fuel cognitive growth and survival opportunity would be needed, so omnivores with a tall stature and free limbs are the most logical result, be it two arms and legs or six.
Unless you happened to evolve on a gas or oceanic planet, for example. Or a very windy one.
Correction: Intelligent life COULD develop similarly shaped bodies to us.
…. And a major reason we have our shape is because we evolved from a long line of vertebrates that consistently had a head, spinal cord and four limbs. No reason why, as one example, a centaur configuration wouldn’t be perfectly viable. Or, for that matter, something like a Pierson’s Puppeteer – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierson's_Puppeteers (arguably a good balance of the physical traits needed for an intelligetn lifeform). .
At this stage all we humans can do is speculate about the bodyforms of other sophonts. All we have to draw on for direct comparison are our own kind (primates), dolphins and (arguably) certain birds and (if we REALLY push it) perhaps some quadruped mammals.
Do those have limbs for manipulating tools though? Tools are without a doubt a requirement for a space fairing society.
Their heads are on long, flexible, necks, so they would be able to manipulate things with their mouths easily. The fact that they have two heads would allow them to compensate for the lack of an opposable thumb.
Intelligent life would be nothing like us. Humanity isn’t known for its intelligence. I mean, look at our historical record.
yes the old standard build something idiot proof the world builds a better idiot.
Hunamoid aliens bug you? Awww. Well, not all of us Cybertronians are Humanoid, & almost all of us can transform, usually into things far from humanoid. I hope that’s OK Mr DaveB… *attempts puppydog eyes…
*…Fails miserably…*
Only Yorp can pull off the puppy dog eyes routine :)
At least, pull it off successfully.
Mind you, Kim Possible did a more than passable Puppy Dog Pout.
“Hands Screwball a pair of puppy eyes”
Now try it.
*Tries* Ahhh, too squishy. Oh well…
What I found amusing on a Discovery Channel documentary I was watching recently was that all these “experts” on what potential aliens would look like were coming up with reasons why they should all be humanoid in appearance with excuses such as “well they would need to be upright initially to be on the look out for predators” (Funny how many 4 legged predators have 4 legged prey that happily looks out them), then the eyes facing forward for reasons of better to see prey we are after and also avoid it…err wrong, we actually have one of the poorest visual range in the animal kingdom, then onto appendages and the opposable thumb for gripping and manipulation of tools…….again creatures like the Squid have way more dexterity and manipulation with their tentacles. Its almost like they are trying to condition us that “Aliens already walk among us”.
Why do humans so easily accept the idea that aliens must be humanoid?
Because humans are incredibly self-centered.
When you only have 1 example to compare against, it’s perfectly acceptable to think every possibility looks like that example
I very much agree. Mind you there is something, in this particular situation which might be giving it a bias. We know that there is a galactic civilisation, comprising multiple races. If there turn out to be many races, then there will be a large variety of types to choose from. So, if needing to infiltrate a planet (for instance to study their society up close), it would make sense to pick member species who could blend in, with less difficulty.
I envision it as looking at Reality thru glasses that are HUMAN-colored, rather than rose-colored.
Protagoras is quoted as saying: “Man is the measure of all things”.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protagoras]
…which I take as meaning that Early Man would use himself as the ‘measuring-stick’, against which the rest of the Universe was compared.
“HOT” = “hotter than I’d want to touch”
“TALL” = “…-er than I am”
etc.
Ahh, Protagoras, the proto-philosopher.
*nods wisely*
I prefer Diogenes,* for being less human-centric. In particular, he thought a lot like me.
https://www.rover.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/i-think-therefore-bacon-dog-philosopher.jpg
* Sorry, the website is not letting me link two things, on this comment. So am trying this without the Wikipedia link to Diogenes of Sinope.
Yes, he’s most famously depicted as walking the streets in broad daylight with a lantern, “searching for an honest man”.
God, I LOVED Farscape. Such unique aliens.
Babylon 5 did good as well, at least the show TRIED to get more than Bog-Standard Human’s-with-a-funny-nose-and-haircuts aliens than Star Trek had to deal with. also, Star Wars did a bit better as CGI tech got better, but in the beginning.. nope, more haircuts and costumes for their aliens
Could just include it with the debrifing she gets from the good doctor tomorrow. Maybe just a text doc those interested can download and read. Maybe make it a mini comic where we can submit our own guest strips explaining them and the cover jobs they get on Earth.
It seems that illusionists (or shapechangers) are rather more common than Deus thinks. Either that or serendipity (or mystery orbs) are drawing Halo to them.
Well, at least our alien infiltrators are pretty hot. This must be that “higher than her paygrade” stuff they were talking about back at ARC.
*Starts pulling a few poses* Why thankyou. I’d like to say I work out, but this is all natural…
I know I’m warming up my “Oh yeah, I was right” moment. Seems to be getting quite close now, just needs to be confirmed…
Page not found error…
Only alien infiltrators can find that page.
Ah scraplets, did I like to in infiltrator’s page AGAIN?! Oh well, let’s try this again, shall we? After all, gotta be ready for my moment… :p
“CLAPS”
Hey, she may be a semi-aquatic alien, but I’m still think she’s kinda hot!
How much you wanna bet that Maxima is already flying as fast as she can to the club, taking off just as soon as she understood what Zephan had been worried about. If she gets there fast enough, perhaps she can head off the next Sydney Moment.
I like your thinking.
I suspect Maxima is smarter then that.
Run to the ON DUTY Heram. Use her to communicate FTL.
Trouble is Maxima words only travel at the speed of sound. Let alone the time taken to speak a sentence. Whereas Maxima can fly faster than either.
If they had the same problem in a Martian club, sure. But in the same city, Maxima can actually fly faster than Harem can collect her thoughts.
Maxima may be able to fly very, VERY, fast, but assuming the club is as far from arcswat as the bank, then it’ll take up to five minutes that way.
Then again, all this stuff might not be in Harem’s pay grade, Knowing one of your teammates is an alien seems much less confidential than knowing that “Men in Black” was right.
Well, we did learn it was only a 5 second delay, and Harem & Arianna only had time to say “Uh, what’s the delay on these live broadcasts” “Usually anything from 5 seconds to 5 minutes” before Max turned up during the “Why ever do you ask?”, so she’s pretty fast. Plus don’t forget Harem has to hear it & probably THEN pass it on, depending on if she’s learned to say things as others say them or not. You know, those annoying meatsack spawnlings who somehow say what your saying AS you’re saying it. If Harem’s learned that, that would speed things up…
Maxima cannot fly to where Sydney is – inside the club which at ground level in an urban area – faster than Harem can get there. Because breaking the sound barrier in such a locale is a bad idea except in extreme emergencies.
Sydney has that problem. Maxima might be able to avoid it. Her force-field is extremely flexible, given that it encompasses every cell, in her body, individually. So, with training, Maxima might be able to do the following.
When flying, and her force field encounters air under greater than one atmosphere pressure, rather than pushing it aside, have the force field enclose it, compress the air slightly, and move it around Maxima’s body, to release it behind her.
Thus she would not generate a bow-wave, in the air, and no sonic boom would result.
It may be that Max would prefer to tell Sydney herself. Possibly this is considered to be above Harem’s pay grade, too. Or maybe, if they know she’s playing double agent and she’s not actually a triple agent, they don’t want her to tell Deus.
Hey now, noise making it difficult to read is a valid excuse. It’s an actual real thing that can happen, sound disturbing your ability to take in what you see.
They may be a problem with some types of aliens doing a walkabout on Earth. Their disguises need to be physical instead of just illusion based. Humans have put security cameras just about everywhere and even your mall-cop level staff are bound to pick up a non-human when they see them on camera.
This could explain the popularity of events like Comic-Con. These give the aliens who can’t disguise themselves the chance to visit Earth and hang out with their other aliens friends without causing suspicion over their looks.
The use of Cosplay as cover for non-humanoid aliens, well it really stated getting big around the turn of the millennium…. Also any socially awkward body movements could be attributed to physical awkward geeks, or being drunk.
I would have thought hoop skirts would be another point. Large expanses of cloth at almost tent like expanse, top it with an advanced animatronic puppet, you could hide all kinds of smaller non-humanoid aliens.
I can confirm this is what cosplay is really for.
Theory seems legit.
Hmmm, maybe I can get Daniel the Human to allow me to go to an Anime conventions with time then, Pretender Armour stowed away? Sure, I may be only 3 feet tall, lanky as they come & look like nothing a Human could fit in, but I could say I’m just Cosplaying, right?
Daniel the Human just said he could put fishing line from my limbs & head to a plastic frame & say I’m a puppet, but then I’d have to behave. I can make that work, I can behave…
..Scrap it, Daniel the Human just burst out laughing AGAIN & I still don’t know why…
you mean that ACHMED the Dead Terrorist is REAL!!! and that Jeff Dunham is part of MIB?!?!
No, Dunham is an unnatural growth on Achmed’s ass…
Jeff Dunham actually performed at the University that I attended, back in… 1990 or so? Before he had Achmed. I remember that he offered to have Peanut act out an emotion. So he asked the audience to name an emotion, and the first one up was lust.
Jeff: “That’s a tough one. Peanut, can you do lust?”
Peanut: “Not with you I can’t. I know where your elbow is, but that don’t count.”
I think we (and the owners of the night club) should just be glad she didn’t immediately leap to “I am here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubblegum.” Apparently her headdesk reflex reset worked.
Not every alien has to be a super. Jeanie probably has no special powers. Her parents immigrated to Earth centuries ago, to escape persecution on their home planet. They use holo-emitters to blend in, but are otherwise pretty normal people. Except they lay eggs. In water.
And their living room TV faces the swimming pool-sized bathtub.
They really came to the wrong planet then if the want to escape persecution, look how much goes on this rock.
It wasn’t so bad in the 1700’s, humans lacked the tech to be all surveillance-state. America was a land of freedom and social tolerance, and had wide stretches of frontier where they could live fairly isolated lives. They’re probably not thrilled about humanity’s growing xenophobia, but by this time, it’s home, and they don’t want to leave. Jeanie (yes, it’s her real name) may be second- or third-generation, completely culturally adapted to living among humans.
if her parents put an adapting holo field or glamour spell on greene when she was a baby she may not even know she’s alien.
i have an anime that’s on my shelf-to-be-seen-as-time-permits that has a future city where a friend of the main character is an alien, but doesn’t know it and in an attack by somebody else she gets mortally wounded, and her blood is blue, but she keeps insisting that she’s human right up to the point where she dies… I’m pretty sure it’s the anime: Raxephon, but it’s been a while since i last saw it, and only a few episodes at that…
RahXephon.
Sounds sad. Don’t think I want to see it. :(
When/how do you tell your kid she’s an alien? I imagine it’d be a tad more difficult than telling them they are adopted
[Deanatay]:
Your comment reminded me of Zenna Henderson’s lovely collection of stories about “The People”, which formed the basis for this TV-movie (with William Shatner & Kim Darby):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People_%281972_film%29]
To Sydney’s credit, she didn’t go into a spinning freakout when she saw this. Earlier in the week, she’d be fending the waitress off with a chair, demanding the girl not try to eat her face.
Earlier this week,may deny would have left the orbs in tubey, and fail to notice anything.
Is she actually an alien, or is she a mutant super that just wants to live a normal, non-super, non-mutant life? I can see ArcSwat helping out someone in that situation.
As per the who’s who: She’s a green skinned something in disguise
The big reveal.
Sydney actually lives in one of the few mostly-human enclaves on Earth. The majority of the world’s population are actually aliens, of various sorts. But they maintain a polite fiction, for the natives, so that the appearance of human society can be maintained.
Fuck.
THEY DISCOVERED US, GUYS.
YORP is actually M. Shyamalan. What a twist!
Quick! Fetch the baseball bats and small glasses of water!
Ooh, we going to play a game of fetch? A big bowl of water is more practical mind. Best not eat the bats though, various species are listed as endangered. And a few African ones carry Ebola!
Bats also carry rabies. Not wanting to darken the mood or anything, but there it is.
no, don’t say that…. *cocks shotgun* …now i have to shoot the dog.
Noooooo! Don’t shoot. I is an innocent doggy! I am most definitely not that nutter!
*holds paws up*
I am a completely different one.
“There’s a wormhole in my comment, dear Liza, dear Liza…”
Ah scraplets. Least I got me a great place to hide, an awesome bottomless-goodie-bag to haul my stuff in & a Spacebride to make a quick get-away with. Alright, it’s Megatron’s Spacebridge technically, but I got hardwired remote control over it… }:D
Boy, do “I” need to get my mind out of the gutter… at first, i thought you said that you had a space BRIDE to MAKE OUT with.. up until i had cognitive whiplash at the thought of MEGATRON getting MARRIED!!… then i went back and re-read the sentence correctly…
There is definitely a spacebride mentioned there, which makes me very jealous.
LOL I meant Space BRIDGE. Stuck with an older keyboard, the keys don’t always work.
…That said, I would mind a Space Bride to make out with. While all the ladies love me, they stay away from me to resist the urge to jump me…
…And Daniel the Human just hurt himself falling over while laughing. Primus, anyone got any ideas why he keeps doing stuff like that…
Yes.
You open mouth and insert pedal extremity to locus of posterior opening.
And they come from a world with a higher average temperature, so they are the actual masterminds behind the whole global warming process.
The final word on the matter, by the one who knew:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/523634-it-s-amazing-how-good-governments-are-given-their-track-records
XD I think I’m stuck with that Human. His sister has called him “Bigfoot” & “Shaved Yeti” more than a few times…
That is one of the funniest things I have read in quite some time
Walks by muttering and making copious notes”
Paper falls to ground
“Simulation failing need to strike set and move salvageable subjects to new locus.
Activate subterranean mind control nods, route through porcine interface web.
Send forth velociraptor and spider crews to remove unsalvageable subjects”
Maxima, it sounds like your team have their second assignment! Allow me to offer the services of my penguin army. They love spiders, because they taste just like prawns.
Nonononono, subterranean mind control doesn’t work. Don’t you know ground blocks the waves?
That’s what I wanted you to think.
“Second piece of paper”
List of notable contributors to this comics comments with orders to capture alive.
For complete live brain dissection.
should I be adding extra resurrect charms to the items I hide on there bodies?
If you want to.
She’s just working there. And happens to be an alien. What’s the big fuss? It’s not like she can just go around looking all non human without people freaking out.
Also, I want hot wings now. It’s 3am. Damn it.
Build the wall!
I’m more interested in the oontz going yellow. Is that representing it fadining into the background, as an effect of truesight helping her focus, or is it perhaps filtering out something, suggesting that there was, say, something subliminal in it, but she needs to add the dot that equates to super hearing first to process it?
They not yellow when she’s holding it at the end, so I doubt it.
Interesting point, to both pick up and your speculation on it.
It may just be co-incidental though, as panel 4 has the previous shading, yet Sydney still has the true-sight orb in hand, at that point. Likewise, after re-yoinking, the sound shading remains as before.
Personally I put it down to artistic licence. The yellowing occurs mid-panel, after Sydney’s “!”, so (like her rainbow aura radiating out, a couple of pages back) it helps convey her surprise. Not that this discounts your theory, I just lean away from it.
No conspiracy here, the yellow OONTZes are OONTZAs. Just a variation in tempo.
Ahh, darn. That works too.
Glad to see the DJ is really catering to everyone. But for my money (and I’m probably showing my age here), nothing gets em on the dance floor like the classic “boots and pants”. Even though I was a little bummed when they turned sell-out for that Geico ad.
Far better if it is so exciting that they get on the tables!
As someone who’s 24: I have no idea what you are talking about
So far we have a number of theories explaining the waitress. Including being an alien, a hidden Terrestrial species, a human, a mutant/super and more. With one highly notable exception.
Ninas!
Not to be confused with the even more notable:
Ninjas!
one of the obvious options people have being missing out until now is: could be a demon, Dabbler is Alien and Demon, but we could have Earthling Demons, multiple different races even, nothing is written anywhere saying “all demons must be colored in the warm color spectrum and grow horns”.
plus, the big bad boss demon that hate dabbler now know for sure she is around, he could be sending demon spies in the town. HE doesn’t know that Sydney can see through glamour disguises
Nope that’s the Next story arc.
If the story was about a bunch of refugees from a dying planet who built a ship to save their species that they then used to come to Earth, then it would be an ARC Ark arc.
Bark bark bark!
*clap clap clap*
Why is it that, in appreciation for an entertaining performance, the audience gives the clap to the performers?
And if they were Canid, it could be an ARC Bark Ark
You mean it would be the Ark Bark Ark Arc?
My theory was Alien refugees, maybe airport style customs, like in MIB. But I guess that counts as alien, huh?
Would they still count as aliens, if they were born on Earth? Or would that just become racism to call them aliens, like some of you human meatsacks tend to do…?
Well, Yorp has given his seal of approval.
Yes because this is all theory crafting and speculation. Ninjas are not a part of this discussion because Ninjas are not theory. They are fact.
(thus the Inverse Ninja Law as opposed to the Inverse Ninja Theory)
And are to be expected. Always.
(Its one of the few effective defenses against them as they prefer to appear where/when you don’t expect them)
So of course its a ninja. We are merely attempting to discern what manner of ninja.
We are ninjas. We do not forget. We do not forgive. Expect us.
My cadre of invisible ninja rats with explosives are waiting for you MD.
And my cadre of <a href="” title=”ninja squirrels”> is waiting for them…
Yeah, that’s right. I am the overlord of your Squirrel Overlords.
figures I’d mess up the link (which should be to )
or even harder to discover nunjas
Sydney knows how to evade those though, with her Three Stooges routine.
Hypothetical, if you were a human super chameleon who began changing gradually in your teens, but developed full power illusory camouflaging ability first. Would you even know that your skin, eyes, and hair had changed color? Would it be possible that the outwardly projected mental self-image would fool yourself? Even after discovering the “super power” to change your own appearance in limited ways (avoiding the expense of makeup).
If she was projecting a mental image as a teen that she did not know of, then she was in for quite a surprise on school picture day.
Habaneros may be hot, but they taste gross.
Why does everyone assume alien, when she could be a refugee from a parallel Earth?
Because ‘alien’ covers that too. If she is not from this planet, she is an alien. Even if it is 99.9% the same, she is not from here.
Apparently, “Alien” means anything/one from foreign lands. So, you visit another Earth-Country, you’re an alien to them. It just seems to be used usually to mean something different…
Ooh Oh, I’m an alien,
I’m an illegal alien.
I’m a Cybertronian that. eats. Pork… :P
It is one of a family of evolving words. As our horizons grow, our language adapts. So context is necessary to determine if using the older, more restrictive, meaning. Hence why, in another thread, I had to rule out the context of ‘illegal alien’.
However in this conversation every use of the word is fine. If she is from another world, she is an alien. If she is from another country she is an alien. If she is from the ‘same country’, but on another world, she is an alien.
Because it is not really the same country, it may just look the same, and have the same name. But it is not actually the same. Not least because the closer the two are to each other, the more likely it is that there is another version of her here.
So, for legal purposes, is is vital to recognise that she is not entitled to the things that the version born here is. The birth certificate applies to our version of her, likewise ours is the one who has been paying taxes, and so on.
Because to a lot of the humans (the average probed redneck for instance) they would “Always expect Aliens!” in the same way the others “Always expect Ninjas!”
Fromage my point of view she is a human frog, look at her eyes and skin color.
Sadly we did not see her legs
Sacre bleu, you could brie right! Perhaps Sydney should tell her to hop it?
Sing along now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE5sEYwF36A
XD Scrap I love this crazy planet!
It’s not easy being cheesy.
Especially when you can cut it.
Now that’s some Sharp Cheddar…
So we now have confirmation of Sarnothi in Grrl Power?
What’s she doing as a waitress? Shouldn’t she be in congress or the Media?
THEY LIVE.
the sub-comic reminded me of a time when Michael Waltrip crashed out of a race and when they got him out of the car a reporter was asking him some questions and one of the commentators said”no folks he didn’t hit his head he always sounds like that.”
Doubtful that any of the lower level members would know of any Alien Relocation Program since Harem and Dabbler know about the Com-Ball’s True Sight and they know how Sydney reacts to surprises so if they knew the waitress was an Alien/Mutant they probably would have warned Sydney.
Dabbler likely knows but didn’t mention it because it didn’t cross her mind like all of the other higher ups.
Has no one noticed haw strange it is that Sydney’s in a public place, yoinking (& even unyoinking) her balls under the table?
What is more strange, holding a ball in your hand and whipping it out of sight, below the table, when your waitress serves your dinner? Or six other multi-coloured balls orbiting around your head?
They may be in “one of those clubs” where whipping out and playing with your balls in front of the waitress is fairly common place.
To be honest since they introduced Dabbler I’ve been wondering if there were other “non-human” people out there on Earth. I really am not surprised to discover aliens
This lady is obviously mammalian: hair, breasts, etc. She is clearly a local, that is Earthling. It is just that her species is not well known among most humans. The probability that an actual alien will look even remotely human are just way too low. The other forms of intelligent life that we know (cetaceans and cephalopods) look so little like us and the whales are even fellow mammals.
We just have so many human-like aliens in our science fiction movies and television shows because it is easier to find human actors who can play them.
And now in the Grrlverse we can have real aliens earn a living by playing fake aliens in movies and TV. Think of the savings in production costs! And it would help to keep their cover if Hollywood were to play along. If they made someone of Jeanie’s race a character on a Sci Fi show and she is ever seen in public in native form, then instead of causing a panic the person would say “Hey, you must be a really big fan of ‘Galactic Guardians’.”
It worked for Leonard Nimoy. Right up until the end everyone thought he was a human.
got it backwards nemoy was an enlightened human it was shatner that needed to get back in the mothership.
Don’t forget the elephants! They have not forgotten you.
Yet another example of long-lived intelligent creatures that look significantly not like a human, yet this one is a mammal too. Mind you, elephants only get two mammary glands, like us, but not in the same position.
Elephants are really quite enlightened, personable in conversation & readily agreeable to most peaceful activities. Indeed, it’s easy for them to agree working for peanuts.
I can no longer think of our friends the pachyderms without thinking of this moment:
Lord Melchett: Gray, I suspect, your Majesty.
Queen Elizabeth I: I think you’ll find they were orange, Lord Melchett.
Lord Melchett: Gray is more usual, Ma’am.
Queen Elizabeth I: Who’s Queen?
Lord Melchett: As you say, Majesty. There were these magnificent orange elephants…
Sooo…Orange is the new black?
Orange is the new gray.
So then, we now have “Fifty Shades of Orange?”
I forget what the exact policy is about this anymore, but Greenie/Jeanie is not in the Who’s Who.
Just observin’.
Ooh, good point. Hers might be a one-off appearance (or maybe not), but she has been introduced, by name, and had a speaking part. I imagine DaveB will add her, in due course.
The policy is that it was 3 am when I posted this and I forgot. Not really a policy per se. Anyway she’s included now.
There’s an extra “is also” in there.
Is she a regular waitress in that bar, or someone new that was sent there to infiltrate and poison the Arclighters?
Yes.
you forgot your Vorlon Voice Synthesizer… that should have been [Kosh] YES [/Kosh]
I guess that’s what happens when you rock out with your comm ball out.
I don’t think she’s an alien, could be something else, something out of myth and magic. Tho the goat eyes are throwing me off.
Kind of reminds me of a question someone asked, what happens to gods, when no one believes in them anymore? Do they adopt normal lifestyles?
Anywho, she’s just trying to make a living, like anyone else. Zoeng seems to know about her, sounds like the location she’s working in too, he is there spook in resident.
I think someone’s going to get a phone call, or visit before things get too out of control.
Or story time…
They go to alien planets to wait for Captain Kirk.
nah, they become tour guides and night-guards for the local museum
Some of them work at Starbucks.
I remember that one, made me wonder, what a god needs for food, so, don’t go to the light…..
Actually, one of the true ways for a god to die, is to lose all followers, at least, that is what happened in the Merlin mini series (the one with Sam Neill)
My first thoughts on seeing this “oh is that the general’s daughter/granddaughter?”
So now the question becomes are they harbouring them to the level of E.T. (a few), District 9 (a city’s worth) or MIB (every other human = not)?
Bah, us non-humans way outnumber y’all, to start with.
Some of us aren’t even pretending to be Humans… }:D
But you seem to be pretending to be intelligent.
Aw, but, I…..You….Scraplets…
Daniel here. Screwball tried writing a reply, but kept stuffing it up so tried to get rid of it. He is now standing in the corner muttering to himself. I think I might just find out if Cybertronians cry. Thank you thank you thank you Dr Revenge, this is the quietest he’s been in ages… :)
Your welcome.
An alternative explanation is that Sydney is hallucinating.
No, I really don’t think so, but thought it should be tossed out there.
Anyhow, keep using your Truesight Orb ALL the frackin’ time, and you have to expect stuff like this to happen eventually. Question is whether the experience (however it goes) will make Sydney use that Orb more often OR less often (“What I don’t see can’t freak me the hell out …“).
Sometimes, ignorance really IS bliss – do you really WANT to know all the gory details of your favourite food, for example?
I don’t think she was intentionally using it in this case. As a person with ADD I can tell you that messing with things is instinct she likely is just messing with the orb in her hand and the true-sight orb is the most harmless one to mess with.
Unknowns are not harmless.
Point well-taken. It’s certainly better that Sydney fiddle compulsively with THAT Orb rather than, say, the one that melts tanks.
Unknowns are not ALWAYS harmless. But, sometimes, too much information on the arguably harmless stuff can be more of a hindrance than a help.
what I meant to convey in that last part was that Until it’s effects are known if cannot be classified safely as harmless.
Re_”Unknowns are not harmless.”:
I’m pretty sure that;s what every trapdoor spider would WANT you to think…
…just sayin’…
Nope – not paranoid…
…nope-nope-nope-ity-nope-nope…
(…attempts a casual whistle…)
Worse than that.
Everything from the flash-back is simply the result of hallucinations, caused by Sydney skipping her anti-psychotic medications.
But that makes no difference to me. I like her world and how she behaves in it.