Grrl Power #436 – Muppetosis
Ok, now before anyone rushes to post that drugs take longer than that to take effect, or that Muppet Vision isn’t a side effect of Adderall, one, a-doy, two, this is Sydney we’re talking about and three, you know, the weakness on the webcomic format is that you have to wait for the next page, at least if you’re reading along in real time. Of course, the strength of the webcomic format is that you guys can comment, speculate, and share your favorite slow cook recipes in the meantime, so have at it!
The difference between a fanny pack and a proper “utility belt” is that the utility belt should be properly packed so it doesn’t rattle in case stealth is needed. Even her little pill carrier isn’t just a hollow tin clamshell, it’s got a foam bed in it with slits to hold the pills securely so she doesn’t sound like she’s running around with a box of tic-tacs in her pocket. Of course that means she can only fit a dozen in there instead of like 30, so she’s got probably 2 extra Adderalls, some ibuprofen, a couple allergy pills, some proper painkillers, and other assorted over the counter drugs. Her first aid kit though, has a collection of antidotes to various poisons, which Sydney is absolutely not allowed to get in to yet cause she has no training with that stuff, and if your face is sliding off your skull cause someone slipped weaponized leprosy into your waffles, reading the little booklet that comes with the antidotes may not be an option.
By the way, this belt isn’t her full loadout, it’s literally just a belt with some pouches that Sydney’s stuffed with goodies she’s imagined needing. You’ll notice for instance it doesn’t include her sidearm (which she wouldn’t be carrying anyway until she’s certified) Her full combat loadout includes a tactical vest with a crossdraw holster, ammo pouches, etc. I imagine it will be suspiciously similar to this design.
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Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Oh heck, I just noticed the little “who’s who” section in the top of the sidebar — and that it covers the characters in the current comic! That’s really, really nice for people like me who have trouble keeping track of characters. Thank you!
And the great part: no spoilers! Go back to the first few pages and see :D
I like Sydney’s hair pulled back like that. Nice to see her full face.
That’s her eatin’ hair!
I think taking harmless liberties with reality for the sake of comedy is acceptable.
Agreed.
*offers Eric a Yorpie Snack™*
I saw some mention of using the Com-ball, it would be interesting to see if true-sight works on hallucinations.
i think it would, cuz what’s the difference between a hallucination and a glamour and an illusion? one is from your mind, and the others are put INTO your mind, so in all cases it’s not real
Nicely argued.
Well that depends on the order… a hallucination is a failure of the brain to process information or processing information that isn’t there. A glamour is a false input.
1. stimulus <-Glamour
2. reception <-Glamour
3. processing <-Hallucination (possibly also glamour)
if we surmise that the com-ball works by creating a separate receptive and processing step that allows her to see hidden things where would that step go? 2.5? We've never actually seen a glamour spell cast directly on Scoville before so we don't know that she'd be immune to attacks that mess with 3. We can't assume that the com-ball would bypass all 3, especially since her projection can't see through stuff (if I'm remembering correctly), so the projection lacks the ability to prevent problems with 1&2 and/or once the information has been passed from the projection to Scoville Prime she would have to do her own processing (3).
Well countered. Don’t forget though that the fly ball provides protection against vertigo. The same thing might happen, for the true sight aspect off the Comm Ball, as regards a psychological hallucination.
In this case, Sydney’s hallucination is Drug Induced, even if it’s just a side effect of medicine she normally takes. If the Comm Ball can see past this type of hallucination, does that mean it can do the same with other drugs?
Let’s say someone slipped some PCP in her drink [this is just hypothetical], if she was holding the Comm Ball, would it neutralize the hallucinogenic effects of the illegal drug?
Possibly only for as long as she is holding the Comm Ball (but that should still be enough to get her to a doctor to properly counter the drug) because the anti-Vertigo stopped as soon as she let go of the Florb
Though highly possible another consideration is that she somehow separates an unaffected part of her conscious into the orb which allows her to negate glamours and illusions because the orb strengthens her perceptions like the sword of omens sight beyond sight. And its also possible that projected sydney is that piece of consciousness
I have my eye on Pixel. Other than Maxima herself, Pixel was the only one wearing anything concealing enough to have any merchandising material hidden in it. I bet impersonating Maxima’s voice is one of her party tricks.
One Maxima puppet, and a desire for vengeance, over the way she was treated, by Sydney, when they first met. Leaving Pixel just to wait for a moment when Sydney was away from the table! I bet she brought Gwen along to be in on the gag too.
She’d need to be a mind reader to time her prank so perfectly with Sydney’s chant of “no side effects.”
That will have just been a bonus. Sydney was already literally falling asleep, when they met, earlier in the day. The nap she had will have only recharged her a bit. So Pixel would know that Sydney will be below par at the moment, and easier to hoodwink.
Pasta Fagoili
Ingredients
1 lbs ground beef or turkey, 2 lbs if you like it meaty.
1 small onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (16 ounce) can red or white kidney beans, drained
16 ounce beef stock or broth
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoons pepper
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)
1 (14 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
4 ounces favorite whole grain pasta
Instructions
Brown meat in a skillet.
Drain fat from meat and add to crock pot with everything except pasta.
Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.
During last 30 min on high or 1 hour on low, add pasta.
White, yellow or red onion?
Whatever you prefer. I used vidalia onion tonight but have used red too.
Yea, I had to.
Awesome. and a tasty recipe. thanks for sharing
I love the Calvin and Hobbes dance reference there. Thank you :)
That dance she’s doing looks suspiciously like something that Calvin and Hobbes did.
I dunno, the one time I tried changing up my medication it messed me up pretty bad. There is a definite difference between plain old Ritalin, and time release Adderol. I didn’t get muppet vision, but it was certainly more like what speed is supposed to do to people.
Sundays…
Three paws since the last comic…
Another paw until the next one….
Together that makes….
*collapses in a heap on the floor*
… me really depressed.
Everyday is like Sunday. Everyday is silent and grey.
As far as I’m concerned, Mondays are the worst because they can pop up any day of the week. I’m even considering to circulate a petition to present to calendar-printing companies that they just print every day as Monday, just to remove all doubt.
And yet, no matter what day winds up being another Monday during the week, I’d bet that even Garfield would like Mondays better, if he just knew that Grrl Power exists.
;)
Thankfully this Monday is a Holiday!
Happy holidays to our American cousins!
*sniff*
We do miss you. Feel free to rejoin the Kingdom anytime you want! If you find the regime of a Union to be too onerous, you can always hold a referendum, to cede from it, in these more enlightened times.*
Without me even teasing him to suggest it, I already had a Texan friend say he would like Texas to follow the example of the U.K.!
* Not that I am necessarily advocating such as being the wisest course, mind. But precedent has been set. Relevant constitutions permitting, of course.
Thankfully, that’s not how it works. States cannot cede from the union at their own discretion. That is why the USA had a civil war in the 1800’s: the southern states tried to leave and weren’t allowed to. It takes an act of congress to approve a state’s secession from the union. look here for more details.
Ooh, so I see what you are getting at! Read through that and you realise that unilateral secession from the parent country has no legal basis. So the USA is STILL PART OF THE UK! ;-)
Thanks bud, you haz made my day!
*happy little doggy dance*
It is ironic, is it not, that the USA only exists because it illegally ceded from Britain. Yet it thinks that because it has made a law saying that it is illegal to cede, that it prevents such from happening to itself?
By the way, I am not subtly advocating succession by force of arms. Laws can be changed, if there is the desire to do that peacefully. Although there is an even better way to ensure that a minority gets to self-govern, without having to gain independence in either of these ways. For those who look for new solutions.
Hmm, you know really going in line with the comic, it makes more sense for one of the unknown orbs to be a storage item, it fits the idea the orbs being a utility device, and it wouldn’t have any obvious effect when you hold it, however if you held it and touched a pip on the orb and it sucked an item into hammers pace that would be fairly useful, and solve Sydney gamer horder problems, with a few scene of her having to dump a pile of stuff out of her storage to find that one thing at the bottom.
Conversely if the orb could scan and duplicate items (set it on a table and hit the scan pip, then set it on a block of wood and it copies the stored table, that could be very useful as well
*shocked look*
You wan’t Halo to become an art thief, don’t you? Copy the objet d’art and put the original into hammer space!
*shakes head*
I find that most characters I create, if able to choose powers, tend to end up with fabricator abilities, of some sort or another. Be it by spell, super-power or portable nano-factory. So would be akin to your suggestion on the previous page of comments.
Yeah I thought I replied to that, my phone sometimes makes a new comment instead of replying to one.
You should talk to it about that.
*starts to look up “community mental health care advice” and “my friend follows orders from ‘the voices in their phone‘, help!”*
Anyone else notice that puppet Maxima’s outfit is not the same as the one she is wearing the panel prior?
I think its likely not just some hallucination effect from the medicine, and if it was a really good glamour spell, it would likely take into account the new outfit and match it, assuming a competent spellcaster.
Thus I think it really is a physical puppet of Maxima that someone pulled out while Sydney was gone, because with that sort of thing, you are likely to not be able to change the outfit on the fly.
Thoughts and counterarguments anyone?
Mentioned her jacket on the first page
I voiced a similar suspicion above. But your argument does have more depth than mine did.
It is worth noting that it is the same jacket Maxima wore to the photo-shoot. Ego it is likely to be what any Maxima merchandising will look like, at this stage. Plus anything fabric related (such as a puppet) could be whipped up fast by Ashley (/Iron Cloth) the super tailor.
Although another suggestion I made, on the previous page, would also remain viable even with your deductive reasoning. One would expect an alternate Earth to have slight differences (actually it is required, if following the mathematical model that seeks to prove their existence).
Jacket off, metallic skin in one Earth. Jacket on, plushy skin, in another. Subtle differences, but the trained eye can spot them.
… or maybe Dabbler has gotten really bored and thought she was being cute with this? I mean, why not? I’d totally do something like this given the chances and resources.
It certainly matches her mischievous personality. And would be making fun of both Maxima and Sydney, so I can very much see that appealing to her. Although Dabbler has shown great restraint with Sydney, to date, she does have some payback due, for being bonked on the head with an orb!
You are right about the resources of course. Dabbler can do this many ways. Her illusions being the most obvious. But she could be using a marketing prototype, just as proposed for others doing the same trick. With either the option of summoning it from hammerspace (aka teleporting it from her lab) or even just having been carrying it with her invisible pair of arms.
Dabbler could justify using a puppet (forked tongue in cheek) by saying that it was to test if the True Sight orb could penetrate mundane deceptions. Whilst noting that Dabbler was not privy to the conversation, between Peggy and Sydney, which reveals that Sydney already knows that it does not.
Called it!
I’ve only just now noticed that Sydney’s halo of power spheres actually produce light that her hair reflects.
Yup. Even more impressively, when they are close enough to do so, you will find that to be the case on every page in the comic!
Good of you to clarify Muppetosis as not a side effect of Adderall. Otherwise people would be knocking over pharmacies to get some! LOL
And Sydney has NEVER been sexier than panel 3.
Anyone else reminded of that episode of Angel?
https://youtu.be/l0tNqwNpGGQ
A lot of people, across the three pages of comments.
https://www.crock-pot.com/slowcooker-recipe?search=true&rid=3051
buffalo chicken wing soup
I’m legit dying.
Might be time for syd to consider med adjustment i kniw there are some used with a 12 hour cycle (i know cause i was on one)
You know, you just a dispenser incorporating a spring for space-efficient storage of the pills without rattling; sort of like a pez dispenser without a ridiculous head.
I carry a cylindrical container with a screw-on cap for Life-Savers mints, and I glued a spring to the lid — no rattling until I’m down to like my last 3… >_<
You know, honestly, Sydney having a ‘light’ loadout for everyday basics like a decent knife, multitool, first aid, flashlight, and extra meds in case she gets stuck somewhere annoying, and a ‘heavy’ one for when she actually expects trouble is a pretty good idea and I’m surprised Maxima isn’t 100% on board.