Grrl Power #424 – The curse of curse ain’t no curse of course
The attentive reader might realize this class has been a while coming. Part of the reason I put it off was I couldn’t think of good funny content for the class itself… Well, I could, but I’d rather have that stuff show up in the comic as actual faux pas Sydney commits on camera, hence skipping the class in the comic.
She doesn’t put a dollar in the swear jar (AKA “The Vault”) for every bad word she says, instead she sticks a five in for each tirade. It’s quite a bit cheaper that way. While this system was initially designed by her mother a punitive measure, she uses it now as a sort of savings account that she cashes out once a year, the way some people use their tax return. She can always tell when she’s had a frustrating month because she’s reduced to eating ramen the last week of the month as her discretionary monies swell The Vault. At least that used to be the case. She’ll probably keep it up now that she has a considerable superheroing income, but she might up the penalty payment a bit.
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This has happened in real life.
I’know i used too deliver pizza one **** payed with is bad word jar allways
So…If that guy happened to swear while you were delivering the pizza, did you get a bigger tip?
;)
That,s beside the point the bag of coins where heavy. :) and yes his boy 6-7year often tried too get his dad too say bad words.
Sydney; a living example of “Crude, but effective.”
HA! Very nicely put
And whether or not Arianna recognizes that Sydney’s question WAS relevant, albeit only indirectly, it was still relevant…It got Arianna to recognize Sydney’s need to control her use of “colorful metaphors” while in public.
Sydney’s swear jar could exceed the GDP of several small nations.
I think you captured the spirit of a very empty lecture room pretty well, with everyone sitting in the back
So, I’m planning on writing a GrrlPower/Worm crossover. Where either; Sydney is sent to Wormverse, or Skitter is sent to Grrlpowerverse.
Dang it posted before I finished.
Anyway, I cant figure out when in Wormverse to add Sydney or take Skitter.
I’d go fairly early in wormverse, where they are both finding their feet.
Or if you really want them allied, you could set it after weaver appears, again, I’d do it fairly early.
Depends if you want to deal with the accumilated baggage, or just have them meet.
Sydney falls out of a mid-air portal fairing on Skitter’s first night out, and accidentally takes out Lung.
Contessa is perplexed as to why the PtV is suddenly providing weapons-grade curry recipes, and Coil discovers his power is defeated by “super-ADHD mode”
So you’ve got an issue here.
On the one hand you’ve got Sydney in Worm, and all the problems that entails due to how a lot of the big strong potential threats in Worm are likely to focus on anything new and alien which the orbs most definitely are. Stuff like Scion, the Endbringers, and Cauldron would all be interested in seeing if anything can be done. That leads to potential problems. That and Sydney’s likely to just join straight up with the Protectorate so at best you’ll be having to do a bunch of character development for them and the PRT and Taylor and the Undersiders and the like should probably be side characters.
On the other side you’ve Taylor in Grrl Power, and actually this has tons less issues for the most part, with the big thing being the relatively minimal world building that’s gone on. Not to say there hasn’t been a decent amount, but in comic time we’ve covered only a couple of days, there hasn’t been time for all that much yet. Although Taylor (or a lot of superheroes really) running into a superhero setting that actually comes down on vigilantism could be an interesting way to lead into things, however Taylor due to being a minor is likely to be unable to do too much due to legal restrictions so you’d want one from towards the end of the series to help get around that. That comes with it’s own slew of problems however, a post-canon Taylor gets sent to Grrl Power instead of coma/dead/whatever theory you subscribe to optionally with her original powers pack could get around most of that and work. She’ll be even worse for PR than Sydney though given all the ruthlessness she picks up over the series.
Do you like mixing oil and water? IMO, very different styles, power sources, world backgrounds, etc.
Ever seen a chip Pan fire?
It makes things a lot more interesting.
But makes for a decent salad dressing if there is enough acetic acid in the mix.
I’ve been following a MLP/Worm crossover which started off pretty neat, but recent chapters it’s just degenerated into an amiable floating party – Twilight just orbital-friendship-struck the real monsters, leaving the rest of the cast as fodder for friendship problems. Amusing, but increasingly Not Worm.
Worm’s tricky to mix with anything more comedic, either you betray the sensibility of the more comedic element, or you lose the borderline-nihilistic grimdark which is the driving force in Worm plots.
You said it better than I did. You would loose the “feel” of both both worlds in a crossover.
Had to get me on this thought.
Sydney in Wormverse is pretty powerful but might not be up to the level of some of the deadlier beings. Endbringers being one of the ones that jumps to mind. But her basic creativity means she would be a more loose cannon version of Skitter.
Skitter in the Grrl Power verse. Well this is far less of a dystopia than her world. She would more easily work with Arc than she would the PRT, even early on. Especially since her loyalty and sense of responsibility would compel her to return to take care of the people she feels responsible for. Archon would likely note her powers and that despite the relative weakness. Max in particular I see as appreciating how Skitter is clever about application.
Well, introducing Skitter into the Vehemence fight could work; she would initially be yet another cape that was pulled into the fiasco. Character interactions (and let’s be honest, why else do people read crossovers than for those?) would then start with Skitter in ARC custody where she can make a deal to join the team or whatever else you want.
On the other hand, that will require more work from you in the long term as Grrl Power has far fewer established threats and events for the characters to encounter. You will have to come up with threats on your own (perhaps introducing additional Worm elements? Dimensional travel is a thing in that setting after all.)
Finally, some thought will be needed for how powers interact between settings, particularly powers that act upon a cape’s shard. Would Jack Slash get his charisma bonus vs. capes against Maxima? She might not have a shard, after all. Would Glaistig Uaine be able to claim powers from Grrl Power capes? What if Harem kills Butcher’s current incarnation? Just things to consider
At last the media prep course! I see(strawberry) Harem’s arm is all wrapped up.
The equivalent to the swear jar is the curse jar.
No, that’s the jar that Dabbler puts a five into every time she accidentally Curses someone.
Oh god… now I can’t get the bat shit argument out of my head. As someone who rather advocates freedom of speech, I do rather find the argument of “swearing” rather offensive. I grew up around airmen and they come up with swearing and such that is just comical. No one bats and eye if you say SNAFU, but let’s be honest here, it’s inherently a swear word of sorts. People apparently don’t get what the F stands for. >.> Swearing is not about the words in question, but the intent behind them.
Sorry Air Force can’t even begin to top the swear words that will come out of Marines or Army mouths. 16 years and counting in Active Army can attest to that.
It’s not only the words, how they are said is vital. I hear the USMC has a two-year training program just for that (senior non-coms only).
Young ‘uns trying to effectively use swearwords just end up being sadly disappointing mosat times. You know someone is hardcore when they can make even an innocuous everyday sentence sound like it should be bleeped out.
so, is it a good sign, or a bad sign, that i, as a 15 year veteran of various kitchens, and NO armed service experience, made a Marine Light Infantryman duck with a couple of particularly creative sentences, and then take notes?
Well he was only a Light, but I see it as a positive.
The Tao of Gordon Ramsey, eh?
Well, let’s see. saturday night? check. consumed enough caffeine to give an orca a heart murmur? check. read the dictionary out of boredom as a kid? check. naturally hyperactive, despite being 6’6″ and about twenty stone at the time? check. open kitchen, so proper four letter words must be used sparingly? yeah, let’s just say, someone had to look up the words “syphilitic, fishwife, thrice-emasculated”, and a few choice anatomical terms. as did the first three rows of tables outside the kitchen door…
my voice carries, it seems.
Hey, the NAVY ain’t any kind of a slouch in the swearing…We’ve got a whole Department Branch for that!
…Damm Straight!…
Eh, no, it’s definitely about the words.
Officially, the F is for “Fouled” in all services. OFFICIALLY.
LOL Air Force PR used to try and convince the world that the B-52 nickname BUFF stood for Big Ugly Flying Fellow!
Or, for that matter, “screwed the pooch”. It certainly sounds funny, in the “you had sex with a what?” kind of way…
but (on the off chance that anyone here doesn’t already know this), the actual meaning is a lot more grim. It means that either the pilot messed up or something went badly wrong, and he augured his aircraft into the ground, usually in a very fatal way.
I suspect “Screwed the Pooch” fell into the grim humor the flying community often have as a way quickly assessing that their buddy is gone, rather than sharing all the gruesome gory details of an aircraft crash.
Less fatal, but badly damaged is FUBAR: F’ed Up Beyond All Repair, as in “Lieutenant Numbnuts forgot to lower the landing gear. That jet is FUBAR!”
Even though I served in the Air Force for 8 years, I never did think too much about the origin of “Screwed the Pooch”, so I’d have to say… you probably hit the nail on the head. That’s probably exactly it.
Never was “officially” involved with the military [twitch] but did fly RC aircraft and one of the reasons you start with a “held together with rubber bands and chewing gum” training aircraft is the unintended practice of randomly “digging post holes”.
I was brought up in a household where swearing was not exactly “forbidden”, but it did need to be justified. For example, when I dropped a hammer from the roof onto the running AC unit and managed to somehow dent the protection screen just enough to allow the blades to hit the screen and pop the hammer towards the kitchen window (which it missed, thank all the stars), I did not have to justify the “God dammit!” that sprang unbidden from my lips.
Had a bit of a problem with calling my Uncle a bastard, though. :D
Couple of questions.
Since we have seen Maxima smoking a Cigar.
Does she actually get anything out of that? Or is she just doing it for the +3 Badass rating it gives her?
Who are the members of the team that can beat Math? Dabbler and Maxima, obviously but who else?
What is the Super/Non-Super Population breakdown?
There’s still the taste of the cigar. Just don’t inhale or you’ll be spending the next day on the shitter
I whould say a lot of them have a good change agenset math if they went all out
Sydney with sheald up and light hook – if she gets the sheald up in time
Heatwave – to hot for math the get close
Harim – uses Luther self’s as lookouts and uses her power to keep out of range will long ranging with a gun
Peggy – sniper with a bultet that out runs the sound of the gun shot
Achilles – keeps getting up till mathat is out of energy
I whould say most of the team can beat math if they know he is coming
According to Maxima, only Maxima’s ever beaten Math in a fight without involving magic.
So we can assume that the only people to have ever beaten Math in a straight-up fight have been Maxima and Dabbler (using ‘sticky air’ apparently).
note straight-up fight meaning no weapons ect. a straight-up fight is heavy in maths faver
To me, a ‘straight-up fight’ means a real fight, not a ‘sparring match’ or a ‘friendly’ fight like between Anvil and Math where he removes his boot and oh-so smelly sock and tickles her
This is actually potentially indicative of two different things.
(Meaning it could be that only one of them is true, but it’s also possible that both of them are true.)
1.) Math is just that good, which in this context means that he moves fast enough that most people simply can’t react in time to either block him OR dodge it. And while in our universe I’d call bullshit, I find it not only entirely plausible, but actually statistically probable, that people like him would exist in the GP universe. The most prominent reasons for this are:
__A.) With actual superpowers being known to exist for quite a while in the modern era, it is likely that they have in fact existed (albeit in much fewer numbers) since ancient times, and possibly even since prehistoric times. As a result of their existence, and due to how human psychology works in concert with our instincts and especially the ‘reptilian brain’ portions of our minds, it’s thus nearly-guaranteed that if they have existed for thousands of years, then there have probably been groups of people who have been systematically training themselves to try to achieve those same levels of power. (I also make the assumption that it’s only recently that people have begun to understand that Supers are genetically different somehow, and that for much of their existence, they were simply assumed to be something akin to ‘holy’, ‘magic’, ‘godtouched’, ‘demigods’, etc.)
__B.) We already know that there are powers which alter how the body is affected by Adrenaline, so it’s not that much of a ‘leap of faith’ to presume that there are also ‘levels’ of powers, in that some powers seem to be ‘highly-evolved-human-level’, like Ren’s ability, while others seem like ‘human-transcendant-level’, such as Jiggawatt’s powers giving her the ability to not only become living lightning, but also the ability to generate seemingly-limitless amounts of antimatter — there are abilities which would fall on even-higher levels, such as Vehemence’s or Maxima’s powers, which arguably would make them viable threats to nearly any society they encountered, regardless of technological progress. (Vehemence’s especially: if he’s able to gather enough ‘inertial vehemic energy’ that he can get his metaphorical ‘train’ under full-steam power and over the top of the mountain, then, so long as he has targets to fight, he essentially becomes capable of sustaining his own powers indefinitely. (In fact, the only “hard-counter” I can think of to his ability would be if only living beings give-off vehemic energy, in which case Constructs could be useful in fighting him.))
__C.) IRL, there are Martial-Artists who have practiced the same motions enough times that their muscle-memory/nervous-systems have been strengthed and reinforced to a degree so extreme, that they can quite literally throw a punch in the time it takes a regular person to blink. And that’s objectively not a superpower. It is however, objectively badass.
2.) The PowerStunt-Awareness level is alarmingly low for those members of the team whose powers operate at least partially outside their conscious control, and/or who are able to react faster than Math, but who don’t have the skillset to match him in a fair fight.
__A.) Stalwart’s power seems to have to do with either altering his body’s mass, or the way it interacts with gravity. Regardless, he should be able to at least STALEMATE Math in a fight, because there’s no way Math can lift the space shuttle.
__B.) Anvil should arguably be able to take-on Math, even if he does nothing but counter her attacks, dodge her moves, or use throws on her, because she can build-up kinetic energy from any motion.
In short:
Sydney’s genre-savviness re: Power Rules-Lawyering will honestly probably end up being as much of a contribution to the team as Sydney’s orbs already have been.
“Regardless, he should be able to at least STALEMATE Math in a fight”
Yes, the statement didn’t say that Math beat Stalwart or the various other supers, it just said the Math didn’t get beaten. The fights could have ended up many other ways than a Math victory: finished a time limit with no damage on either side, Math won on technical points, mutual agreement as a stalemate, Math out-endured them, etc.
I can agree that Peggy could snipe him from a distance, but I’m pretty solid that Heatwave would get beaten. While you might be able to theoretically use her powers to defeat him, it just wouldn’t happen. And Achilles…well, Math knows his power, so would just seek to immobilize him to get the victory.
If Heatwave gets ‘fired up’, then how is Math going to get close to her? Her flames are hot enough to melt bullets!!
The only way to immobilize Les is by literally burying him
Methinks you are underestimating Math’s abilities. Maxima has five-star reflexes/speed and we have seen her move faster than Harem could teleport. Math is just below that capability, at four-star. He too can probably just lean out of the bullet’s path, or bat them out of the air with his hands!
If you have seen a trick being pulled off in a martial-arts movie, then Math can probably replicate it. And I have seen both those being done. If you have someone able to move faster than a bullet, then no humans sniper would stand a chance to hit him, unless they attacked him without him being aware he was in a fight. Picture the lobby in the Matrix movie, for how that would go down when he knows there is a fight.
As for staying beyond his range, he is an ultimate martial artist. He can turn any object into a deadly projectile. And don’t forget all those martial arts movies where the fighters can leap over buildings, trees or even from mountain top to mountain top. His range is greater than you suspect!
PUPPY!
You has returned.
YEAS!
Nice to feel so welcome. I have often mentioned the comic and community in my enforced absence. I very much missed it.
*sniffle*
We missed you too.
Matter of fact, we missed you more than most other people would miss Waldo or Carmen San Diego.
That’s because more people actually care about finding Yorpie :P
Here I am, here I am!
*runs around in circles, chasing own tail*
YAY!! Who’s a good dog?? *scratches behind ears*
*leans into the scratching, and wags tail languidly*
We’ve been told it’s actually only Maxima who can beat Math in a straight fight, even Dabbler needs magic to do it, and Dabbler with magic seems to be able to match Max who is in the most powerful supers on the planet category. Here. In a non-straight fight? Math is still really, really good, it’d be a lot harder to be sure but in melee they should still be a powerhouse capable of beating the team, martial arts greatly limit their ability at range so anyone who can surprise him with a gun would naturally work. Out of the members of the team we know powers of? Max, Dabbler, Jiggawatt (electric body OP), Harem (via surprise range attack) could probably beat him, maybe Halo too if she can get away so probably a win there too, for the rest? They’re pretty much all melee fighters, and even in the case of someone like Heatwave Math is good enough I’d fully expect them to be able to close the distance and win, maybe Anvil could pull something? Stalwart is probably a solid attrition option too actually as he should be able to do an immovable object impression quite well with his mass manipulation. Achilles, Adrian, Hiro, and Heatwave are all definitely likely to lose though, particularly the first two.
For super/non-super population breakdown we were told during the press conference, about a one in a million figure (Here), note however as of the Vehemence fight they’re less sure of that due to the large amount of supers that showed up. While Vehemence’s mind control powers combined with the portals do help a lot it’s still probably best to take that with a grain of salt.
It all comes down to if they want to win, or WIN!!!!
Your formatting seems weird.
And that statement that only Maxima has beaten him in a straight fight is perfectly valid, and while maybe with Dabbler flashing Math would be way, way down near the bottom of the list of options. Plus I literally linked the panel where Maxima says that only she’s beaten Math in a straight fight and even Dabbler needed magic.
Yeah, there’s no edit feature. So one misplaced / and there goes the formatting.
Actually. case not dismissed. Math is currently undergoing, *ahem* special training to overcome that weakness. I’d suggest calling it a Focused Acclimatization Protocol Promoting Immunity to Nubile Glamour. but, i think it might need abbreviating :p
I love you so much right now.
thankyou :)
that has actually made my day (and it was already a good day!)
Okay… That’s a cute acronym (+1 “like”). Mind if I ‘borrow’ that from you? I can think of situations in the pen-and-paper games that I run on weekends where I might be able to use it. :)
Gladly!
But if you can improve on it, then a) please do, and b) please let me know. I was a bit unsure about using Glamour, but couldn’t think of anything better. Still, it was better than the ‘Gynoids’ i originally had…
Hope the weekend game goes well. I’ve been out of (regular) pen and paper for too long as my players are now spread across the world, but am slowly writing a system for a real-world historical setting that should be fun. if educational :p
Well… technically it isn’t pen-and-paper. More like Skype-and-iPhone these days, for the same reason as yours. When I was running Dark Heresy a few years ago, I had a 22-hour spread because one player lives in Hawaii, and one of the other players lived in New Zealand.
I’m currently working slowly on an RPG setting based on the Skin Deep webcomic. (https://www.skindeepcomic.com/) Once I get the blog fully set up, I will be recruiting volunteers who are familiar with the setting to help me fine-tune it. It’s strictly not-for-profit, so I can’t give out cash rewards, but I do plan on setting up some sort of reward for the people who send ideas that actually get used in the finished product (maybe allowing them to submit character(s) that will be residents of the new Avalon, or something like that.)
Math’s amazing in a hand-to-hand bout but he would probably be helpless in the face of even a low powered Telekinetic. If he’d gone against Vektor in the Grand Melee, he would have been in a lot of trouble since all you have to do is lift him a few centimetres off of the ground and he’s powerless. Also, anyone with an englobing shield is out of his reach. He might have trouble against speedsters just because they can move faster than he can react. Obviously anyone with mind-control powers can deal with him fairly effectively (Or just women/women-oids who are willing to act seductively/lasiviciously). He might have trouble with Robots, since a lot of grapples, pins and joint-locks depend on the human body not bending certain ways or having no strength in certain positions which might not be true of an artificial bodies. Non-corporeal bodies are beyond his scope, naturally. Also, people with some sort un-touchable element like electrified skin might be a problem without special gear.
Maxima smokes cigars partially because she thinks it looks tough, seriously. I assume there’s something enjoyable about actually smoking them, so let’s call it 50/50.
I don’t smoke, but I do smoke about a dozen cigars a year. One on New Years Eve to bring in the new year, and then whenever I get the jones for one. Anytime I change doctors and I’m asked if I smoke I explain my ‘habit’ and I’m told that isn’t counted as being a smoker. But as to the taste, I smoke madura and other more flavorful cigars. A bland cigar has nothing to offer me, it’s all about the taste.
Everyone seems to be missing the point about fighting Math.
The statement was about a “straight” fight i.e. no powers.
The moment an opponent who knows how to use their powers effectively engages Math he is in trouble.
The example of Sydney using Forb and Molestorb is a prime example.
Now the brawl at the restaurant is not a good example.
Math was fighting wannabes who thought just because they had powers they could stomp non powered with ease.
I agree, up to a point. But do bear in mind that even in the mass-brawl, against multiple super powered opponents, he was just toying with the supers he faced, dispatching them with ease. Further not even break into a sweat, until he met one worthy opponent.
The clincher being the cast list. It clearly indicates the power levels. Obviously it excludes any rock paper scissors vulnerabilities, and only operates on an average playing field. However that rating is for the super-powered playing field, under full combat conditions, not just sparring. And Math rates 7 stars. Which is equal to Super Hiro and Dabbler, and only exceeded by Maxima.
Although sparring has codified rules, limitations on actions and objectives/victory conditions, they do so to symbolise those which exist in real situations. A highly skilled martial artist can negate an opponent’s strength advantage and defences. And Math is more than that, he is a supremely skilled (i.e. cinematic) martial artist.
For example, see him wrestling with Anvil, in the common room. She has both super strength and invulnerability to physical attacks. Yet she could not affect him (until he got cocky taking his selfie). Conversely he could have tied her in knots, or thrown her through the window, to the pavement, far below. Ok she might not have died, but she would most definitely have been defeated and taken out of the fight. Their respective ratings reflect that.
Super Hiro has comparable capabilities to Anvil, but he also has flight. Meaning that he could remain in the fight under circumstances where Anvil would fall. Plus powerful flight and super strength combined give options that could potentially overcome Math’s martial prowess, more easily, than just strength alone.
You forgot one thing, Anvil isn’t just strength and durability, she also has kinetic energy absorption which is one of the things that would make a proper melee fight much harder. Like Hiro, Dave has mentioned before characters tend to be more than just bricks, Hiro has some currently poorly explained ability to perform sonic attacks which could help a lot too.
But yeah, we really need to see more of Math to figure out how he got martial arts good enough to get that ranking, I mean he’s rated as one of the least durable and strong members. That four out of five in what looks to be speed or agility is very interesting though, as based off things like strength and durability scores a four out of five is comparable to something like lifting a hundred tons, just how agile is Math?
Interestingly Math has one of the very few fives too, the only other non-Maxima members to have them being Sydney with her shield and kind of Achilles with his six in durability. But that six is effectively a perfect power with no weaknesses things, a six in any other category is likely to be utterly insane. Enough strength to shatter planets maybe?
So, you don’t count Dabbles ‘magic-tech’ as being ‘powers’? Or that Maxi can ‘shut down’ all of her powers (she can’t reduce them all to a One, they have to go somewhere and that somewhere is other powers)
Both Sydney and Gothamer have beaten Math: Sydney balled Math in the face (and Math’s claim that he knew about the balls is simply him trying to save face: he had no way of knowing who Sydney was or about her balls) and Gothamer broke a pool-cue over his head after he escaped from Anvil’s mighty grasp
Well, either Maxima is smoking to be one of the guys, or she is inadvertently outing a weakness. Of course, if it’s the latter, well, everyone present is probably high enough ranked to have the clearance to know how to kill her.
If you get any stimulant effect from tobacco, then you are vulnerable to poisons — the difference between a recreational drug and a deadly poison is dosage. If you are invulnerable to poisons normally but smoking them makes them affect you, then nerve gas is not your friend.
okay SINCERELY…this make up on Arianna just scared the SHIT out of me.
It really is that bad…..
For someone who is supposedly a PR professional she doesn’t realise just how bad it really is…
She’s still compensating for black eye?
What make-up? You mean the subtle eye-liner and subdued lipstick? She barely even has any blush on!!!
In the super brawl she ended up fighting Suzy “News” – she’s got some bruises and I think a black eye under the makeup.
Thank goodness I wasn’t the only one. Those eyes look creepy.
Yeah, I’m still waiting for Arianna’s eyes to shoot deathrays or something.
She’s supposed to be doing a frustrated stare. You know the “I’m mad at you and my eyes are the only part of my face betraying that fact” look. I spent a lot of time on her eyes and I’ll admit they still don’t look right.
Well, it IS partially Arianna’s fault for accepting Sydney as a challenge…Much to General Faulk’s sympathy.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/939
Try putting some “frustration creases” between her eyebrows.
I know I get them when I’m dealing with an exasperating person.
https://imgur.com/yyxTW1G
death stare okay but…that eye shadow just makes her look CREEPY AS SHIT sorry.
What type? Like, was it badger? Dolphin? Bat, even?
Well, karmakat is a lion, so doubt it would be Dolphin :P
To me she looks like someone who just got off a double shift and has to train a bunch of newbies how not to fuck up so bad she has to deal with it. But that could just be my experience talking.
Her jacket also seems to suffer from a case of Unmoving Plaid.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnmovingPlaid
I love how Sydney thinks she’s being complimented in panel one!
Oh, I am sure she knew it wasn’t a compliment it was just a politely sarcastic response.
I sugest 10 bucks a second of swering. That will be rewarding. … And heavy
I (and a few others) use guano loco.
Bixa Loca is a good one as well (damn, just looked that up, always believed it meant “Crazy Bitch”, it was a RNGed for a character in “Star Wars Combine” and loved the name)
Sydney has a swear Jar?? How does she afford that??
Secondly it’s a jar, and not a 44 Gal Drum(or several) Seriously, the way she swears, a weeks worth of swear jar would require a forklift
Read. The. Author. Post.
Here I’ll Quote.
“She doesn’t put a dollar in the swear jar (AKA “The Vault”) for every bad word she says, instead she sticks a five in for each tirade.”
And, a bad month reduces her to eating noodles for the last week (or two)
As long as those noodles have hot sauce on them (and don’t slap her in the eye), I think she’s good with that.
Use to eat Maggi 2-Minute Noodles all the time, not because that was all we could afford but because they were a great snack, specially when hunting gunboats in SWG
Do they make the drums smaller now? When I was dealing with them they were 55 gallon drums and full ones could crush a pallet if not handled correctly. Luckily paper money doesn’t weigh as much as tomato paste.
At the risk of starting back up the units of measure argument from last week, 55 US gallons is approximately 44 Imperial gallons.
Wait there are different Gallons now? How do you people not already lose your mind?
Makes sense. Didn’t know that.
On a side note the drums are actually worth a good chunk of change. We had to lock them up or they’d get stolen.
Word – very few things in life as flexibly useful than 55 Gallon water/oil drums.
A similar volume of duct tape? The same mass in gold? A rucksack, and webbing storage, with a comprehensive survival kit?
It wasn’t a ‘snide sentence’, and it shows that Sydney was actually paying attention
Can understand Daphne having to attend this course, but why specifically Berry? Was it because she is now technically the youngest of the five? Or is it because she has spent the least amount of time with Sydney and the other four ‘volunteered’ her? :D
Might be it is because you only have to listen to the lecture and not actually have to do anything, meaning she can give her recently healed wrist some rest.
Or maybe Strawberry went straight from the doctor’s office to the lecture hall while Blonde finished her talk with Sydney and tagged out once Sydney went to the lecture hall.
Or some other mundane and not really interesting reason.
Hmm, the first is probably likely, maybe was just looking for more than what was there
Probably because she’s the least useful of the five at the moment with a messed-up arm.
That too (still like the idea the other four ganged up on her and sent her as some sort of penance for spending the least amount of time with Sydney :D)
As fun as that mental image is, that would suggest each of her bodies has some level of individuality going on that could go against ‘the main group’. This is not the case however, all bodies are one person and they don’t have their own private thoughts or something of that matter.
The fact they each have an individual appearance, kinda sorta does lead credence to having some sort of individuality
It’s more like an actress with 5 accents or roles she can play at any time without effort. We have Word of God that she has only one ‘mind’ and that means there is no discussion going on about who does what. And also no benefit to it in any case, since the others of her who aren’t there physically are still there mentally.
Maybe Daphne has Multiple Personalities
I believe Dave commented somewhere that the differences in the way they dress and decorated themselves were all done to customize the different bodies, and also as a way to show the different sides of her. Might be it was also a way for her (and others near her) to easier differentiate between body X and body Y.
Did you ever think about growing out a beard, or shaving off a beard, or just trimming it different? (Assuming you’re a guy at least.) Harem didn’t have to make such choices. She could use one body to dye her hair black, another blonde, one cut it short and another to grow it long. While her outward appearance is different for each body, her inner workings, her mind or soul or whatever are all still one person.
Because I haven’t drawn her in a while and I wanted to draw the green and brown jacket again, and also show her with the wrist brace. In reality she should probably go take a shower.
Yea, she’s fresh and smelly out of a super brawl. Didn’t think of that
Manure
I guess people could say “manure” instead of “bullshit” But saying “I call manure on you!” doesn’t have the same impact and would make some people check their boots.
Obviously your point was that there is another word for a specific kind of poop. I thought about that while I was writing, but Sydney’s understanding of manure is “anything that comes out of a farm animal” and not the poop of a specific kind of animal. The online dictionary actually defines it as “animal dung used for fertilizing land.” So I guess Sydney’s still kind of right (even though guano apparently applies to bats and seabirds, which I didn’t know.
It could also come from the fact that bat shit (and bird shit) in your belfry or attic is the cause of a lung disease called histoplasmosis which can cause fever, chills, headache, body aches and delirium in severe cases. Hence making someone literally batshit crazy.
I would note that bats only hang out in the belfries of abandoned churches. Church bells are loud and bats really depend on undamaged hearing, so colonizing active churches is right out. So, to have bats in one’s belfry implies that one is not all there.
And yeah, prior to this comic, I don’t think I’d ever come across a reference to bat shit as “guano” without specifying the bat part, and I’ve seen big piles of bat guano in situ. It’s a real object lesson in why one shouldn’t trust the water in underground streams. I was in a canoe, paddling by it.
Picard has been known to use the french version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc_cGueuZoA
I’ve been known to use the German version, referring to someone as a “scheisskopf.”
Maybe they say ‘bat shit crazy’ because Guano isn’t an English word, and also, ‘bat shit‘ leads one to think of ‘Bat Man‘, and everybody knows who psychologically imbalanced he is
Also, guano does not exclusively apply to bats. From dictionary.com
1. a natural manure composed chiefly of the excrement of sea birds, found especially on islands near the Peruvian coast.
2. any similar substance, as an artificial fertilizer made from fish.
Yeah, the book version of “Dr. No” had Dr. No buried under a mountain of sea-bird guano
And the girl walking out of the ocean was naked, rather than in a bikini.
Although that *ahem* might have just been in my head. I have not read that since well into the last millennium, so might only be recalling my … improved version.
No, fairly sure your memory is correct
You are quite correct, Miss Honeychild Ryder was wearing her birthday suit when she and Mr. Bond first met.
And rather than cover her…top half…. when she noticed Bond she covered her face, because it was her broken nose she was more ashamed of him seeing.
It’s like the joke about the streaking religious men (there were at least three of them, different ‘faiths’ and slash or denominations), when they came across some elderly female townsfolk, two of them covered their genitals and one his face, you can (hopefully) figure out the why
It has to do with the toxins present in the fumes given off by bat shit. Breathing it will kill you, but before it does it will drive you beyond the normal run of insane.
We use the phrase “Bat Shit Crazy”, because bat’s shit while hanging upside down, and you’d have to be crazy to think that’s a good way to take a shit.
No, Sydney’s query was “why say ‘bat shit’ instead of ‘guano’?”
I know that, what I was saying was the way in which bat’s shit it a crazy way to do it.
Hence, Bat’s Shit Crazily, or Bat Shit Crazy.
This doesn’t work for guano, because you’re not talking about the bat shit itself, but the way that bat’s take a shit.
Well Guano is the stuff on the floor. Batshit is what comes out when they are shitting. It’s like Lava vs Magma
Disclaimer: I’m full of guano here
Well, there’s “bat shit crazy,” and then there’s “spider shit crazy.”
https://lolworthy.com/funny/restroom-spiderman-comic/
Hmmm… There is a difference between something being shit and something being bullshit.
Different types of shit must mean different things!
Slow as shit must be snail shit! Fast as shit must be cheetah shit!
There are small populations of people who do some really crazy shit…The proof is in the insane asylum sewers.
Especially if any of the inmates have Shitzophrenia.
…A particular form of insanity that manifests as willfully-induced diarrhea…
In hindsight, that’s not that funny when you realize that starting in the 1600s, bleeding, vomiting, and ‘purging’ (induced diarrhea) was used to try to ‘rebalance the humours’.
Though I can think of ‘psychological treatments’ that were far, far worse. I won’t give examples here, but if you really want to know, look up New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum (later Trenton State and now Trenton Psychiatric Hospital) and its original director, Dr. Henry Cotton. The concept of “surgical bacteriology” squicks even me out (and I have a high tolerance for squicky subjects).
IIRC, “bat shit crazy” is an expression for the simple reason that the vapors from concentrations of guano arising from colonies of bats living in attics literally causes erratic behavior. Hence also “bats in the belfry”, “batty” etc. Severe concentrations of the vapors from decomposing guano can be lethal.
Yes, but why not say ‘Guano’?
Probably because the originators of the term did not use the term “guano” much. Also, batshit probably grew out of bullshit linguistically, mixing with the “bats in the belfry” saying.
Lastly, “bat shit crazy” rolls off the tongue a lot better than “guano crazy”. We say “bullshit” instead of “manure” when swearing.
I think you’ve got the closest to correct result here, please feel free to move your comment to the top of the pile
I would have commented the same thing and add that “Guano” is not a common use term so not everyone would understand it. If you say “Bat Shit” everyone knows exactly what you mean if they have any English language exposure at all. While classroom languages may not cover swears one of the first things you will hear in any language is swears.
I’ve heard ape shit crazy. So bats and apes, despite sharing nothing more than being mammals (afaik. Well, they both have teeth, right? Warm blooded, and all that shit? Crap! There it goes!) do share some crazy shit.
Crazy ape bat shit! Ape crazy bat shit! Shit, ape crazy bat! Just mix the words in any combination! It still sounds cool!
Interesting – I usually hear it as “ape shit”, which is synonymous for being so angry you act like a angry primate to the point of seeming crazy but you are not actually bonkers.
But now that you “say” it, it does flow trippingly, doesn’t it?
‘Ape-shit’ (and presumably ‘Monkey’shit, if anybody every uses that) =angry enough to start throwing shit?
Gorillas are the most impressive, when it comes to getting angry. Interestingly they can also talk about it, as they can be taught sign language.
Here is an anecdote, told by one of the researchers working with such a gorilla. Unusually, the gorilla shared accommodations with a pet cat. The scientist left the pair of them alone, for a while, and returned to find the sink had been ripped off the wall!
RESEARCHER (to gorilla, in sign language): What happened to the sink? Why is the sink on the floor?
GORILLA: The cat did it!
I like what Robin Williams said about Koko.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TICFnQK1tAc
Oh those filthy lying gorillas..
No, wait, that’s not right..
How does the line go again?
Did anyone else look at the whiteboard behind Arianna in the 4th panel and think, “Meme prop? They discuss memes in Media Relations 101?”
Mimetic propensity?
And yes, looking at how viral things can get is probably a good thing to look at when trying to inform a room of people who are now massively in the public spotlight just how damaging put word choice could be.
Almost certainly. You’ll notice it leads to what looks like “Internet” and “Media”.
“Meme propagation” is what she was writing. Basically talking about how stuff can snowball quickly among many media channels.
Isn’t it called “bad rep”, short for bad reputation as opposed to “bad rap”, when the lyrics just don’t flow? Or is it specifically so for this phrase?
Bad rap, as in “rapped across the knuckles with a ruler”, not reputation.
While the two are similar, they are not synonymous. Although both can be given to one who is undeserving, one cannot earn a bad rap like one can a bad rep.
Always understood it to be a ‘rap sheet’ for criminals, not a ‘rep sheet’
Isn’t that sheet music for rap artists?
Why not? There’s certainly plenty of rap artists that include a Rap Sheet as a big part of their qualifications.
I always thought “a bad rap” included the idea of a bad reputation that was worse than the person actually deserved.
“Poor Joe, he was sitting in the bar, minding his own business, and he still got arrested for the robbery that happened there.”
“No kidding, that was a bad rap.”
I could be wrong of course.
Anyone else remember the Budwiser Swear Jar commercial?
https://youtu.be/iaswudWsIhU
Hah hah, that’s pretty good.
:-D
It’s the Yorpie-one!!!!!!
*wags tail happily*
*places a plate piled high with Yorpie-snacks
Fresh from the ovens, extra spicy :D
Yum yum *munch munch*
That is hilarious, thanks for sharing
We do also have a single-word term for otter-shit: “spraints”.
And only a few species leave fewmets behind.
I looked at this page at work and had to make very, VERY sure I didn’t just burst out laughing. That last panel is just too funny!
Do we see Sydney’s car in the background of the last panel? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/182
I know superheroes get their origin story told. I didn’t know their cars got one as well.
Oh, THAT explains why there’s still an Element on a Honda showroom floor. Didn’t realize we were looking at a flashback.
Yeah, no orbs at the dealership.
One other thing about Sydney’s car. Dave mentioned she was having money troubles before. She should have put a sign for her comic shop on the side of her car. Then she could have deducted driving it around as a business expense. She could still do it now, except with a slightly different message.
Boldface: “Come on down to Event Horizon Comics and have a SUPER* time”
Fine print: * Actual supers may or may not be present on any given day
I always thought bat shit crazy was derived from ‘Bats in the Belfry’ because bats would invade any tall semi-enclosed space that could and the people having to deal with it tended to get less sleep and be crankier than those that didn’t. So were considered to be less sane than average. Batshit crazy is a way of saying this person has totally snapped and is uncontrolled now.
‘Bat shit crazy’ is alliterative which makes it funny. The phrase ‘Slick as owl shit’ is also funny, but for a different reason, as is ‘Faster than a striped assed ape’ and ‘Crooked as a dog’s hind leg’. Then there’s ‘Lower than whale shit’ and ‘Crazier than a shit house rat’. Lots of animal shit comparisons to choose from which makes swearing interesting as well as fun.
Uhm. I thought alliterative was when all the words used began with the same letter? Like how they used to name people in comics. J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker, Green Goblin, Dynamic Duo, etc.
Arianna looks really weary in the 4th panel.
I’m pretty sure I’d be as well if I had to put Sydney through a media relations 101 session… *shudders*
I know I’d look weary after having to endure a media relations 101 session – under any circumstances.
I used to work in the Australian public service, and repetitive courses (all absolutely different – allegedly) on similar subjects every few months seemed the norm. You can FEEL time stopping and the life force being drained out of you in there.
Forget waterboarding or electric shocks, those damn courses would break the most hard-core terrorist within hours.
Doesn’t getting to use the money from a swear jar for something one wants defeat the whole purpose of having one in the first place?
The purpose is to make you think twice when you do something you should not. At the time when committing the act. Humans are good at dealing with things which have an immediate penalty. They are dreadful at dealing with things which only have long-term consequences (good or bad).
Electric shocks can be used in the same way.
Water Spray Bottles are also surprisingly effective.
*lays ears flat on head and whines*
*paces around in random circles, looking warily about*
HEY! No scaring off Yorpie, he only just came back to us >:{
Yeesh, just mentioning a … uhm … you-know-what got a reaction?
Better put that back in the cabinet.
No, no, I meant on people!
I would never use a You-Know-What on doggies.
Cats, on the other hand…
Cats! Aren’t! PEOPLE!!!! Unless they are people named ‘Cat’ :P
Bird shit crazy.
Sydney is intelligent, she can control her swearing if she so desires. Every time I went on active duty, in the Army, I would swear up a storm, because that is the norm, but then I switch to non-swears like; Sunny-Beach, Sunovabeehive, Farts, Crap-doodles, etc… It can be done. It is just a matter of wanting it. Of course, Archon could just fine her for swearing while in public, and donate the proceeds to charity.
Hmm… looks like the most effective way to get Sidney to use more G-rated swearing probably would be “What would Batman do?” Or some other form of comic book related challenge.
With a cool bonus for every day/week she succeeds. Probably a field-trip type of reward. Or getting to meet a specific person. (Ariana could easily collect interview requests like that)
F$£K Batman!
There’s also the matter of not giving a shit about your swearing
*waves paw*
Hi y’all, I am still not dead. And have enjoyed catching up on all my much-missed Grrl Power fixes. Still as good as ever!
I have been hanging around clergy a lot, having a need to debate philosophical stuff, and not being able to chew the fat with y’all. Trouble is I was finding that I had the same problem as Sydney, namely being unable to find the off button for my swearing.
On the plus side there is an easy fix for that. Just ensure that you restrict yourself to chatting with clergy who swear as much as you!
P.S. sorry no word from me, for so long. I was without internet for several months, until I was able to get a new company to hook me up to the net. Then found out that my PC had died off in the cold! Sadly my no-income lifestyle makes it hard to replace things like that. Fortunately I have finally managed to come up with a solution, and should be getting mine sometime next week.
Looking forward to chatting again, albeit that it might be limited by beach season starting up.
*doggy-paddles off into the sunset*
WB, Yorp! *pets*
*wags tail happily*
DOGGY! To reprise a line from a certain movie: I’m so pleased you’re not dead!
Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. And thanks :-)
And here I thought you were quoting the A.I. robots on Freefall. (Caution: Very large archive.)
And worth every second one loses being lost in it.
True dat :D
DOGGY!
::scritch scritch scritch::
Aww, thanks, here share some Scooby Snax with me!
Scooby Snacks? do you know what’s IN those things??? (Does anyone?)
That’s why we feed Yorp fresh baked Yorpie-snacks :D
Scooby DOOBIE snacks.
Scooby Snacks – the little green dog biscuits you don’t need to be a dog to need!
H.R. Puffinstuff!
Her Comes the Grump!
Late 60’s & Early 70’s children’s programming was chock full of … references, you dig?
I do recall “Seaman Stains”, “Willy” and “Master Bates”, from the series “Captain Pugwash“. Allowing the option of dialogue such as “Willy, Master Bates, clean up Seaman Stains.”
Frankly Seaman Stains, I don’t Give A Damn!
…An off-button for swearing?…
Being an old Navy Vet, I didn’t even know they existed.
EEEeeeeek! A VET!
*scarpers for the hills, with tail between legs*
Calm down! I’m not that type of a Vet. Same difference as Dr. Doom not being a medical physician.
*voice carrying faintly, from beyond the hills*
So you are as much down the mad scientist route, from a vet, as Dr. Doom is from a doctor?
*clanging sound of a bunker door slamming shut and being locked*
Well, Now that I think about it, there is a similarity. I DO have a scalpel…A large one in fact. Most people refer to it as a ninja-to.
So how are the neural jacks working out for you? =OP
You seem to have misunderstood.
I… hair tied back is a good look on that Harem.
So Sydney has turned something meant to DIScourage cursing into something that motivates her TO curse instead, due to looking at the accumulated money that for some reason she can’t save without such a set-up and seeing it as a good thing. Her mother must be soooo disappointed.
No
actually, there’s names for quite a few types of animal shit:
https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/250/is-it-true-every-type-of-animal-dropping-has-its-own-name
This is the sort of thing that makes the internet worthwhile.
Obscuria and arcana!
Obscuria and arcana!
That’s pretty much a good description of The Straight Dope as a whole.
…Should that URL read more like “www.straightdoodoo”
???
Where’s Sydney off to next? Maxima’s office to be informed that Dr.Chevy has filed a complaint against her and blonde Harem?
I don’t think Doc Chevy is the type of person to file a complaint. They’ll just hurt you a little on your next check up.
Nothing deliberating, or can be proven by anyone, but you’ll recognize it for what it is
Well, the Hippocratic Oath does say “first, do no harm”. However, it says absolutely nothing about how much pain they can inflict, as long as it doesn’t harm the patient…
“Now this won’t hurt a bit.” (snigger)
They’re actually telling the truth. It won’t hurt a bit… it’ll hurt a lot.
…and it doesn’t hurt them at all.
Sorta reminds me a of joke about the guy who was afraid to go to the dentist. Once he got in the dentist’s chair & the dentist pulled his stool up nearby to start working, the guy firmly but gently grabbed the dentist’s crotch…and said, “Now we’re both going to try very hard to NOT hurt each other, aren’t we doctor?”
Which, in turn, reminds me of a spaghetti-western, where the hero goes into a town for a shave. But, anticipating that the barber might either cut him with the cut-throat razor, or betray him to accomplices, he takes a precaution. Covertly sticking his gun into the barber’s crotch. Which, unsurprisingly, works wonders.
At the end of the movie the scene is reprised, but this time it turns out that he did not even bother using his gun, simply poking the barber with his finger. As his hand was concealed by the sheet, previously wrapped around him by the barber, the ploy could work just as well.
Sounds like a Terrence Hill & Bud Spencer movie :D
Spot on! Although technically the initial scene was a co-star, the reprise was indeed Terrence Hill.
Darn it, the first link should have been to this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVaq2kAlSLY
In Sydney’s case, I am thinking that she does not have the down payment in there; she has enough money to buy the car outright, after the cash discount.
Oh, where is the Mythbusters clip where one of the “Deadliest Catch” captains confirms the myth about swearing like a sailor? We know that Sydney can beat that, but it would make for a good comparison.
The comments for this strip is like the episode of South Park where they say “shit” over 100 times, and it kind of lost all meaning. :-/
I love when words lose all meaning. Like the person watching a particular animal in a zoo using a computer screen which has the image broadcast by a camera could be called a:
Monitor monitor monitor monitor.
That was an amazing episode. :D
Personally, I kinda liked the episode when Cartman discovered the Brown Note…
Hippo shit crazy.
Since Hippos are the only animal that’ll use their tails as a propeller. Then make a literal shit storm, to announce their presence (territorial markings), and for mating.
Or Hoopoe shit crazy.
https://www.cracked.com/article_19184_the-8-most-disgusting-animal-defenses_p2.html
These birds will turn around, then use anal leakage as a projectile weapon. Right in the face of their opponents, and if that doesn’t work will poop all over themselves as a defense mechanism.
That…definitely should be used for you know the tin foil hat kinda crazy rumours and such that spread like wildfire despite being being often not true.
Ain’t that the truth. Or people who have troll logic. Both of those are rather fitting, and just as useless as well as nasty XD.
Remarkable bird, the Hoopoe. Beautiful plumage!
As well as beautiful aim, and dedication to all it does. It’s no wonder such a beautiful bird became the national state bird of Israel. Almost as awesome as Twilight Sparkle being the national state animal of Scotland (well it’s a “unicorn”, but Twilight Sparkle was the most unicorn-y unicorn of all unicorns. So much so that she ascended to a Super Sayjn Unicorn that also naturally produces Red Bull to give her wings.)