Grrl Power #443 – League of extra-atypical gentlemen (and ladies)
So yeah, the Twilight Council basically opens up the Grrl Verse to basically anything I want to throw in the world. (Though still there are a limited number of super science tinkerers because of how quickly the world would diverge from ours if someone, for instance, invented a power source and instead of using it to power armor to rob banks, he used it to power cars, which would in turn devastate the oil industry, and a good portion of the economy, diverge, diverge, etc, etc.)
“Miscellaneous” are races that don’t have sufficient population to have their own seat. I was going to put that in the comic itself but I needed to cut it for space. Also cut – after Maxima introduces Decollete, she says “Who, yes, [demons] are technically aliens but there’s enough of them to warrant their own representative.”
I only recently learned the word Décolletage. I’m sure I had heard it a bunch of times, but never quite groked its meaning. If you’re in the same boat I was, it’s basically a fancy French way of saying cleavage, but really it refers to the neckline of a dress/shirt and all the skin left exposed on the neck, shoulders, back and cleavage. Basically a dresses “negative space” and is considered part of the overall ensemble. Decollete is the adjective form of the word, so “a decollete dress shows off a woman’s décolletage” As soon as I read it, I thought Decollete would a funny name for a succubus, I mean it sounds like a name anyway. If only I can resist writing about it here in the comments, then only so many people will get it and they get that special “in the know” feeling like when you’re the only one who gets the obscure reference when watching MST3K with a group of friend. Unless I’m the only one who didn’t already know the meaning of those words. So, uh, don’t read this if you didn’t already know that.
Not to be confused, by the way, with “decollate” which is a verb meaning “to behead”
I also literally just learned as I’m writing this that “grok” wasn’t invented for that infamous SNL sketch (someone can probably find a video of it – the links I found on youtube were mostly videos of people talking about the sketch instead of the sketch itself), it’s actually a word coined in Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land back in 1961, meaning to understand or empathize with. For the longest time after seeing it in the sketch, I just thought it meant like/love/dig/groove on, and people saying stuff like “I grok your pain.” were either misusing it or just being jerks and trying to fly under the radar.
The picture of Sydney in panel 2 is one of my favorites in a while. The pinched, pursed lips is a weird art thing that’s evolved fairly recently. Not with my art specifically, I mean broadly. I think it started in manga, and you can see it in stuff like Empowered and Rick and Morty a lot now. I think it’s cute of done right, but honestly I’m not 100% sure what expression it represents on a real face. Semi-duck lips? But not obnoxious selfie ducklips, it’s more like a combination thinking and confused expression? I don’t know, but I think it’s cute on Sydney.
This page colored by Keith.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon as soon as I get up. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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.
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Should I know what Odyssians are? Seeing how they are big enough to not just be misc?
I have the same question. If the root concept is the Odyssey, then that covers a lot of stuff, from gods to monsters to sorcerers, etc.
I’m going to assume it’s related to The Odyssey.
Oh yeah, meant to put that in my post. They’re beings from Greek and general Mediterranean legend that don’t fit in to other categories like undead.
Oh, that kind of makes sense. The sort of oddballs Odysseus ran into while lost at sea. Clever.
Like… Circe and her fixation with turning men into little piggies? o_O
Circe was punishing the sailors for invading her place and acting so rudely to her. If they are going to act like pig, let them be pigs.
They didn’t exactly ‘invade’ her place, nor were they rude to her: they were lost and stumbled across her island, they had no way of knowing it was inhabited and when they found the food just laying out their, naturally their starving and parched minds didn’t stop to consider why the food was there nor who it was for
Next time you have been lost for months on end with very little provisions, let’s see if you can act with decorum when you find food
In most tellings of the legend not meant for TV, the men found women with the food, who they raped. In Greek society, women were venerated, but only if they were in positions of power to begin with. Any man could just plow any servant girl he found, even if he was married. So the men didn’t think too much about *who’s* servants they found. Just that they were the first women they’d seen in over a year.
Yes, I suspect that part of the tale was rather “cleaned up” by the time it made its way to me in grade school.
It wouldn’t be the first nor the last. Most fairy tales got similar treatment.
Yeah and centaurs, satyrs, minotaurs, harpies, hinds, etc
I’m guessing the Olympians are part of the Odyssians?
I’d assume they’re well known enough to require their own thing if they were there
Centaurs, Minotaurs, whatever. Eh, they’re all Greek to me.
(I actually said something similar in jest to my teacher of a mythology course I took in college. Medusa would have been proud of the glare he gave me with that one.)
So if it wasn’t Medusa, you weren’t stoned at the time?
Is she a representative of AFTAOMAIBAC?
I might have used Hellenics, since many of the ones we tend to think of come from the Hellenic regions (Peloponnesians is just too much of a mouthful, and Grecians just make me think of Grecian Formula [the hair coloring/dye]). The term also typically indicates a time period prior to Alexander the Great. Alexander can arguably be called the crux point between mythological and rational Greece (conquerors tend to remake the world in their mindset).
The Peloponnese is a pretty small part of the Hellenistic world, and a name like that wouldn’t make much sense as a general name for “weird creatures of the Mediterranean.” Odysseus traveled wide and long, so “Odyssian” makes more sense as a catch-all for creatures from around the region.
Nice name.
Is “Aegirs” made up too? Google returns just the name of a god and variants.
Wouldn’t they be Old Aegirs?
Ahh, I theenk you are referring to Señor City-Zen, the writer of “Zen and the Art of City Maintenance”?
Yeah it’s derivative of Aegis obviously. The Aegirs adopted that name cause they didn’t like titles like Automotons and “Clockwork Men” especially since most of them are things like golems that don’t have gears in them.
Called it!
So would Bubo the clockwork owl be classified as an Odyssian because he was created by one of the Greek gods, or an Aegir because he is mechanical?
Yes.
You are correct.
Psst!
Has anyone figured out yet how that opening comment was said, despite silentguy‘s lips being zipped up?
Ventriloquism. Or Telepathy. Or he merely typed it into a device using some sort of input component. possibly one with letters on it.
He said it from the other end?
Um… he typed it. Duh. We ARE in a comments section.
I guess the reason Sydney is told about something like this, thats lightyears above her paygrade, is that they want to avoid an unlucky episode if she randomly manages to penetrate someones disguise.
Though they could of course just have told her not to freak if she saw someone weird, but i guess the author wanted an excuse for showing this off :P
That’s… a good catch. It’s a good tie-in with the club scene.
Setting up this scene was largely the point of the club outting.
This was actually foreshadowed a while back, when she went clubbing.
At the time, I was expecting only aliens.
I thus missed out on a major point in the comic: magic exists, so magic-related demi-humans and non-humans should also exist (or are at least plausible).
Was definitely estblished in a couple of places that Magic doesn’t simply exist, it comes in (figuratively speaking) a wide variety of shapes, colours, sizes and flavours.
It’s just that Dabbler, by herself, fits all of your descriptions…
:P
That, and they want to ask the fully assembled group if anyone has ever seen or heard of anything like those orbs. There’s a silly range of experience on display there.
And all of them say “Nope. Never saw those before.”
Except, you just know, that someone else will pipe up and say “Hey, don’t they look like {insert name here}? You know, from your {insert location}?” just to drop someone in it deep
Hmmm…Probably not. At least not yet. I think DaveB would like to stretch out Sydney’s curiosity & anticipation for a while as it concerns those orbs. In the general comic book genre, something that has that big of a potential for drama at a critically life-changing moment for Sydney works better as part of a cliff-hanger than as an early, sudden revelation.
That was only in response to someone claiming no knowledge, and having one of their friends (or rivals) calling them on it
Or we will heard a sudden terrified scream and someone in the back will try to run away thru a window (yes, an underground window, shut up).
Ahh, oubliette defenestration. Such a timeless classic.
Irradon: Oh, so that is where those got to. I know the species that made those and their umm, technology? is not suitable for exposure to your species. I also know that asking for the return of the orbs is not going to help once they are bonded to you. There is really only one thing that can allow those orbs to be returned to the originating species at this point. I would say two, but you would not likely survive that planet’s environment for very long if you and the orbs went there.
Sydney: So other than me getting on a warp-capable ship (which humans are not allowed to even know about, let alone get on one), and going to their home world, what would allow these to be returned?
Irradon: [ Starting to walk away, to go talk to Max ] It is in your wedding vows, I believe.
Sydney: Hmm, let’s see. To have and to hold? Well that is definitely true; they have quite a hold on me. Oh, until death do us part. So these guys are with me until I die. I can live with that. Say, iRadon! You wouldn’t have a copy of an instruction manual for these things, would you?
Given her reaction here, perhaps it is for the best she gets the freak out nerdgasm ut of the way in private rather than public, yes?
I think desensitizing her to their existence through introduction will be far more effective than simply telling her not to react in her case. Otherwise you pretty much hit it I think. That True Sight orb elevates her need-to-know level about certain things above normal recruits. That and her rather spontaneous nature.
While possible, all they would have to do is tell her that what she saw was just another super, extraterrestial, or extradimensional when (and it is when, not if) she did so.
Sorry Dave, but this sequence completely broke my Suspension Of Disbelief. It’s not the existence of vampires, or lycans, or aliens, or fey, or constructs, or anyone else present. It’s not the existence of their council. The really utterly unbelievable part is that anyone in the ARC command structure would entertain the notion, even for a second, that Sydney ought to meet them. A first-year trainee whose vast discipline and discretion problems are universally acknowledged.
Of course, the press conference and various other social interactions were pretty huge operations management fails too. So I guess I’ll just have to accept that although the physics in Grrl-verse is fairly coherent, the psychology follows cartoon law.
Sydney has proven herself to be a natural tactician, ideally suited to the super environment. Had it not been for her actions, Maxima would be dead, and Vehemence would have defeated Arc-SWAT. Further Halo’s truesight orb is an unparalleled resource that nothing else on Earth can come close to replacing it.
The downside of Sydney’s quirky behaviour does not negate the above factors. In fact her charming personality often offsets the negatives of her more bizarre actions.
Of course, in an ideal world you would not place such responsibility in the hands of an erratic recruit. But one has to play with the cards that are dealt. And Sydney is the only Joker in Maxima’s hand. As such Maxima is looking at the big picture.
I feel it is entirely believable that a veteran commander would accept the risk of Halo pissing off some members of the council, as being a trivial price to pay for potentially unmasking a faction, as duplicitously hiding their true identities. If Sydney can see that they are puppets for a Cthulhu-like dark old god, she may well save Earth from being dragged into the pits of Hell!
Good points. Also, Sydney is sort of an adult version of a classic children’s book protagonist: a young person being introduced to much powers and authorities for whom she is potentially important, and having to cope with them and with their problems. That’s not a bad thing.
And given the fantasy premises here, it is practical for Max to do this.
“much older and greater powers and authorities” I should have said. Anyhow…
The opposite version of the child who is overcome with wonder as being the ‘chosen one’ (Narnia, Harry Potter, etc.) would be the cynical adult who thinks he is too cool to be amazed by all the unusual things going on around him (Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child, Will Smith in MiB)
We are on, what, day 4 in comic time? It does seem like too much too soon for Sydney to be trusted with something like this.
As other have (repeatedly) stated: if Sydney was any other recruit, even a literal Wondrous Super Woman, she wouldn’t be here, she is here because she saw through Dabbles’ ‘illusion’ and because they are attempting to find out where her balls came from, and what they are (they already tried with Zephon and Gwen with identifying, to no positive outcome), she already ‘outed’ Greenie and that guy dancing with Anvil
It’s not clear at all what (if anything) her true-sight will show for beings who are not hiding with an illusion. Yes she knows there are aliens walking among us, that doesn’t mean she would discover all these other types of beings by random true-sighting.
The Council could certainly discuss the orbs without Sydney being there, they have plenty of video to look at plus whatever info they’ve already gathered, someone either knows about them or they don’t. If they decide they need to see them in person there is plenty of time for that.
I just think realistically it would be several months at least before the command chain could all be convinced she needs to see all of this. Maybe Max has gone rogue.
The press conference clearly indicated that Archon has been delegated with the responsibility and authority to deal with all matters pertaining to extraordinary threats. And the head of Archon, General Faulk, has shown that he has faith in Maxima’s judgement, on one paw. Whilst, on the other paw, he may well be the one who called the shots for this.
Which would take a simple conversation with Maxima, as opposed to months of debating or procrastinating. On top of which we know Maxima to be in direct communication with the President.
So I believe we have every indication that Maxima is acting both within her authority and with the full knowledge and consent of the executive branch.
The sheer number of different types, and the implied greater numbers that they represent, make it highly likely that she would do just that, sooner or later. And possibly under circumstances where the secret would be let out to the public prematurely.
And let us not forget that Sydney has already unmasked one such individual (of unknown type) when flying above the Grand Canyon. Albeit that she failed to notice him, at that time.
Thus proving the saying “There’s one in every crowd.”
I’d add that with the TrueSight orb, they cannot keep it secret from her. They can only either let her discover things on her own randomly, or choose to introduce her to them under controlled circumstances.
The controlled circumstances seem like the safer choice to me.
Remember when they said Sydney would need to be “read into some things” thanks to her true sight? Yeah, they aren’t doing this because they necessarily trust Sydney more than others, but rather because she was going to find out eventually, so better to get her adjusted in an environment where an OMG FLUFFY WEREWOLVES reaction could be… Contained.
Well put, both Don Edwards and MrInsecure. Mind you suspension of disbelief is a personal, subjective issue. But hopefully these points are ones that MrInsecure may not have considered initially, and our comments could thereby help restore that suspension.
Darn it, the second MrInsecure should read Foobar.
I really should avoid posting when operating on less than two hours sleep….
… but the comic is irresistible!!!
Heh heh, you fubar’ed Foobar‘s name :P
:-D
I think that would take it ‘beyond recognition’.
It’s not obvious at all that her truesight would uncover a vampire or werewolf, because those aren’t disguises or illusions – the vampire would be in their natural state, and the werewolf has to undergo a transformation. What exactly would she see differently if she looks at a vampire with truesight?
The only testing which has been done is on disguises (which it fails to penetrate) and illusions. However going by legend (which in the Grrlverse seems to be more likely to be accurate than not) true sight reveals the true nature of those observed. This is not to say the original form, as you suppose.
The true nature of werewolves is that they are shapechangers. So you would expect to see a ghostly version of their alternate forms. Vampires (depending on their type) may also be shapechangers, which would be similarly revealed. However, more importantly, their true nature is that they are not amongst the living.
Those with ‘the sight’ are reputed to be able to tell such things by looking at their aura. Notably the aura of the undead is significantly different to that of the living. We do know that the True Sight Orb does actually have capabilities similar to this. Think of what Sydney saw, when she pressed the appropriate icon, and looked at Vehemence’s aggro aura.
Really, of the bunch, only the automatons would be ‘unmasked’ by Sydney’s true-sight orb. That is, if they were trying to operate in the open without revealing their nature to the world. Maybe the vampires, if they all look similar to Ingsol and need to appear to be living. The rest are human enough in appearance, or at least can be in the case of the werewolves.
Pretend there was a closing italics right after the word ‘maybe.’
Your reply is only examining the ability to see alternate forms. But ignored the potential of examining auras. Such is meant to be able to do a whole host of things. Such as seeing how healthy a subject is. With diseases distinctively changing an aura. And even personalities area meant to be distinguishable.
So a sadistic murderer would stand out as being a dangerous individual, even if looking like a friendly vicar. Even more apparent would be somebody possessed by evil spirits, as both auras would be visible. So evil cultists (as an example) would likely stand out in various ways (malign personality, use of dark magics and possible possession).
But, let us assume that the icon Halo pressed, that unmasked Vehemence’s power, is not quite that all-encompassing (just to err on the side of pessimism). It clearly however was able to detect an active super power (or spell depending on how you interpret the various scenes, personally I favour the former), and give an indication as to its extent.
In due course hopefully Sydney will be able to interpret the symbols, or at least recognise the different classes. For the moment though, she will be able to spot individuals who are using such powers. Which, in itself, could expose, for example, an attempt to covertly attack Maxima (say through charming or mind-control).
Likewise if the next group Halo is introduced to claims to be alien-built teleological robots, yet radiate a magical/super-power aura, she will know they are more than they seem to be.
Finally I am pretty sure that werewolves would easily be unmasked by the true sight orb, regardless of the current form they are in. We saw, at the disco, how it reveals things that are more than they appear to be, to normal eyes. But, I concede that it may not work the way that I assume, if IHeartComics has called it right about the orb revealing the original form only.
We don’t know that it does reveal ‘true forms’ or ‘original forms’ only that it can see through illusion spells and alien image overlay technology. Which would mean revealing any demons, aliens, and presumably many Odyssians.
As to Extra-Living and Werewolves, I think you are right about the aura, though I think her aura sight will only show the use of magic, not all super powers. But since vampires and werewolves use a form of ‘instinctive magic’ it should still show up. This would also likely show up for any magically animated constructs among the Aegris.
There is, however, another reason I think she is being brought in that I haven’t seen mentioned. She is one of the most powerful supers known, with a suit of powers. Even just her shield orb would put her in that classification. Yes, there are drawbacks, but they haven’t yet found a suitable testable attack that can even shake her shield, and it blocks magic and teleporters. That is enough that the Shadow Council would want her under observation. People are going to be after her to use her or to ensure she isn’t used against them. She was brought into Arc-Swat to protect her and to protect the world from her. The fact that she is super useful too is a sweet cherry on top.
And she’s inquisitive. She will follow the odd clues, she would discover them eventually, and it would likely be a disaster and break her trust with her superiors. She’s not raised in the military mindset of superiors always hiding things. If she loses that trust they could lose her. Maxima is already trying to teach her to accept that not everything will be explained, but she’s doing it slowly. This is one step in showing Sydney that they trust her. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something like: “Look, we trusted you with knowledge of the Shadow Counsel. You know how crazy the stuff we deal with is. So trust me when I tell you, that I can’t tell you about this yet.” I mean, taken together, this is a cheap price for them to pay to earn her trust; showing her a HUGE SECRET (that she would have discovered on her own eventually).
Plus, Sydney is known as an FRPG’er, and will soon be so on a far and wide basis, so any slips can potentially be written off as her talking about a gaming session.
After they told Sydney not to freak at something weird, did they tell the sun to stop being so bright? Either one is as likely to actually change the behavior.
LOL. Yea, ecstasy overload, of the nerd variety.
And Odyssians. So do the gods do walk amongst mortals, in the Grrlverse? If the heroes of legend do, who are all intrinsically tied up with gods, it sounds like that may be the case. Perhaps some species of aliens, with god-like powers? Or even full-blown world creating gods? No wonder Sydney took a floor nap!
Yep, nerdgasm. To be fair, this should give anyone a WTF moment. The real question is:
Exactly how are all these people successfully hiding? With all that going on, you’d think they would have slipped a few too many times.
Maybe they’re not so much ‘hiding’ as they are ‘relying on the fact that most of the population doesn’t believe that they exist.’ If the number of supernatural entities is low enough, they could have kept out of the public eye for a long time.
And as for now? “Yes, yes: I know that I look like a vampire, but really I am… Captain Goodfang, Defender of Justice! I apparently watched too many Hammer films as a child, or something.” He’d still have to explain the blood thing, but as long as the vampire was not actually eating people it could still be managed.
tl;dr: People don’t wanna believe in vampires and werewolves, but in a supers universe they’d probably accept a few vampire or werewolf-derived superheroes.
You be surprised what people are subconsciously able to ignore, and to what degree they can do so, when they refuse to believe that what they are seeing is real.
To be fair to Sydney, I highly suspect that if I was shown a Revelation of such magnitude, I’d either have to sit down for a couple of minutes or, like Sydney, be forced to lie down whether I wanted to or not. My guess is that Sydney just couldn’t make it to a chair in time…
I like to think that every single one of these supernatural beings, and even most supers have an innate ability to project an SEP field aka Someone Else’s Problem, which, according to Douglas Adams, is the most effective cloaking device in existence.
Dabbler has shown us how she hides. Any Succubus (and possibly any demon) will be able to do the same*. But Dabbler has also shown how she can deal with any slip-up. By casting her forget spell, and bonking them on the head with the hammer.
Now recall that Dabbler just dips her toes in other existing fields, to gain her abilities. Which means that spell-casting, and likely forget spells, are in use by at least one, and likely several factions. Plus the spell-casters may also use illusions, shapeshifting and other ways of concealing their true nature. Albeit that different factions (and individuals within factions) may use different techniques.
Doubtless there will be technological solutions too. We are on the cusp of invisibility technology ourselves. Ego much more advanced races almost certainly have sophisticated cloaking devices. Holographic disguises also seem likely. Also Mission Impossible type disguises (or Star Trek type surgical alteration). And do not forget that even Archon has managed to acquire something like this, in order to disguise Achilles and Mr Amorphous, as bank robbers.
Plus, with an organisation like the Twilight Council in existence, there is the possibility that they enforce secrecy. Refusing entry to any individual who does not have robust means of concealing themselves. Or, if sponsoring factions approve of their reason to visit Earth, supplying one or more of the concealment means listed above. Teaching a spell, for those capable of using magic, or providing a cloaking device, for others, for example.
Given the sheer numbers involved and the clear success that they must have (despite the occasional Bigfoot and Nessie sighting), I think the latter is likely.
* The author has commented that Dabbler is not a strong illusionist, ergo her illusionary disguises must be racial abilities in nature. As confirmed by her surprised reaction to Sydney penetrating it by saying (something to the effect of) “Succubus glamours are the most powerful”.
By which we can also infer that, if other demons also have the ability to racially disguise themselves, then they will not be so good at it. Perhaps granting visual and audible illusions, but not tactile ones? When Dabbler was dancing we saw that her partner was unaware of her invisible arms, so we know Succubus illusions incorporate that much.
Oh, you mean like that guy, played by John De Lancie, which harassed Picard and Janeway a few times (even Sisko once), maybe of the same species at The Squire of Gothos? He can definitely be considered a trickster god to many lesser cultures.
Q. They called him The God of Lies.
And they meant it “affectionately”, according to him.
I actually like Q…He’s silly.
:)
Which Q? Anyone from the Continuum is a “Q” and the various Captains have run into up to a half dozen over the years.
I like the one that pestered Picard & the Enterprise. He was something of a “rogue” even among those in the Q Continuum. And even your question is a bit off-track, as every individual that’s a part of the Q Continuum is the same as everyone in the Q Continuum…Every “member” has all of the knowledge & ability of all other members, combined.
So, does that mean Daphne is part of the Q Continuum? Or the progenitor of the Harem Continuum?
Only those of the Q Continuum are Q. Those of the M Continuum are M, who we meet in a couple of books, but I know most from I.Q., and we have also heard mention of the P Continuum and the Z Continuum, but it’s not clear if M and Q were joking when they said that. This is a joke the writers came up with because Q and M are on ‘opposite sides’ of a QWERTY keyboard, and P and Z are on opposites from each other too.
Sounds like somebody was taking the ‘p’.
I am thinking the M Continuum (to contrast the Q Continuum) are tongue-in-cheek references to James Bond’s boss and quartermaster respectively.
I’ve considered the possibility of a link between the Squire of Gothos & the “Q Dimension.” In one episode of the Next Generation series, Q was showing Riker that he was going to be accepted into the ranks of the Q Dimension…Which implies that the natives there can & do add to their own ranks. I figured that the Squire of Gothos could have (at that time) been a “new recruit” that still needed to be trained on how to get used to it…
There was actually a Star Trek TNG novel (name I’ve forgotten) in which it was established that the Squite Of Gothos was indeed a Q.
Q-Squared. I just finished reading it.
I never heard of it until now, but I’ll check it out. I formed my theory quite a few years ago.
John DeLanci got very close to outright postulated this theory in a Sci-Fi Channel special airing of the “Squire of Gothos” hosted by Lenard Nimoy. Very close, but not quite. He was hinting pretty heavily with all his comparisons and how he tried to emulate the Squire in the episode with Riker almost becoming a Q. It was also cool hearing from the actor who played Squire Trelane and how the props department initially had the wrong judge’s wig, but he insisted that one aspect he loved about Star Trek was how they tried to get details right, so it had to be corrected.
Don’t remember if it was fan-fic or a tie-in novel, but I did read a story where The Squire of Gothos was Q’s illegitimate son.
Q was his Godfather (or the Continuum’s equivalent anyway)
Which would not be the same as the (apparently) male & female voices heard at the end of the “Squire” episode.
;)
I’d say that a Q would certainly be capable of making his/her voice sound like whomever they dang well want – whether Pavarotti or Donald Duck.
“…making his/her voice sound like…Donald Duck.”
True, true…But the Q Continuum really should avoid working with someone with a speech impediment.
(Brief callback to a Daffy Duck quote from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”)
If you read the book “Quote Squared” it states it bluntly.
Though Trelane is a child by the standards of the Q race.
He was a child by the standards of his own race as well.
He was a spoiled brat even by Q’s standards
You, of course, know that Q’s real name is Discord.
No, Discord was just Q’s chosen manifestation in Equestria, just as a human form was his chosen manifestation in the Trek universe.
Aww, I love how Sydney and General Faulk have managed to attract a strong My Little Pony contingent, to the readership. You’re so FLUFFY!
*hugs J. Michael Looney and Josh*
I’m betting 35 Yorpie snacks that, upon awakening,Sydney demands a unicorn.
And it had better be fluffy!
I think the unicorn might have something to say about that.
I think the unicorn will find Sydney to be perfectly acceptable (panel 5).
Grok is a perfectly cromulant word
Ahem. Cromulent. With an e, not an a.
And since I have Guyon’s Canal syndrome in the wrist, and have to two finger type with one hand and touch type with the other while wearing an immobolising wrist splint on the syndrome wrist, you can imagine the number of typos I made typing this, compared to your piddly one. Sigh. So much effort, for so little humorous effect.
But informative. Prior to your post I would have answered “Somewhere in Guatamala?” if asked to place where you would find Guyon’s Canal.
Hey, Guyon’s sensitive about his weight. If he catches you saying his butt is big enough to have a canal he may sit on you!
Ahem. Guatemala. With an e, not an a.
…did you feel a change in the Matrix?
Guatamala is about six days walk from the Emerald City. You might need to go to Kansas, to catch a connecting flight.
The Matrix changes to accommodate my feelings.
Stop messing up my Sims game.
Not in Guatemala now :P
Grok is the Martian word for the verb “to drink”. It implies – and this may be understating it – understanding as well as empathizing.
To “grok” something or someone is totake the concept into yourself, add if imbibing it. I agree; great word.
Thank you! I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that, but when I went to verify my memories about “to drink”, the first thing that pops up from Google is Dave’s definition. I sent Google the correct information.
Geek overload! Someone read her a tax form, bring her down to normal.
Demonic, but no angelic rep. Are they too powerful for this mortal world, is this keeping with pop culture view of heaven as a ‘hands off’ sort of place, or is it simply to avoid certain comments among the readers? Not trolls or the thin skinned, but those of us who adjust our glasses and point out some of the truly strange forms angels usually took.
Well, seeing as how you brought it up, if you look at the biblical descriptions of angels, whilst thinking “how would primitive humans describe aliens and/or alien machines” a lot of the descriptions make sense. If something is flying, and has anything sticking out of it (be it solar panels, ‘air saturation gills’ (external lungs), stabilisation devices or whatnot) they would most likely be described as ‘wings’.
Presumably aliens originally used remote probes, and/or suited personnel, for Earth exploration. Back before they developed flying saucer technology. :-)
Well, Maxi hadn’t finished introducing everyone, and if you look closely at the background images, there are several extra rows of indivuduals
We already see in the first row that not everyone would be ‘Counselors’/’Representatives.’ Ingsol’s ‘children’ Scarlet and Crimson, and Gregor’s daughter Clover. And then there’s Dabbler, who would presumably be represented by Decollete, despite demons also being ‘extraterrestrials.’ I guess they make up enough of the population to get their own rep rather than relying upon Irradon to represent their interests on Earth. All I’m saying is, don’t expect all of those background faces to be ‘Representatives’ of any new group.
Didn’t say they would, but it leaves it open for every other group not already mentioned
…Yeah, I’d pay good money to see what would happen if Sidney ever encounters an In Nomine Kyriotate in its celestial form.
That…would be several forms of hilarious. Mostly because she’d ask to be possessed at least once, for geek cred.
I thought it was that liquid plastic, like extra thick shiney varnish used in crafts.
That’s decoupage, which also describes the artwork created by using it to glue paper to objects instead of painting them.
Not to be confused with dressage. Which is what rich folks get up to with horses. Getting them to wear dresses, and prance around.
Hehe. I guess nothing is obscure to the group mind.
I wasn’t sure anyone would make that connection,
But it did take 20 hours.
My group mind is so much smarter than my individual one. I am very proud of it!
I have to wonder how lycanthropy and vampirism is transmitted in the Grrl Power-verse. Various fictional settings have had to address that making it easy to become either a vampire or werewolf (or anything that spreads) may lead to rapid, uncontrolled growth in population. That’s one of the things the horror of a zombie apocalypse rests on. Without it, Earth becomes Werewolf World or Vampire World too quickly simply because of math*.
I’ve seen werewolves who only passed it on by genetics. I’ve seen werewolves who could choose who among their bite victims became werewolves. Vampires have ranged from simply being bitten to an exchange of blood or to becoming a vampire only upon natural death. Etc.
* – The discipline, not the in-universe martial artist.
—
Second topic:
Is Pixel a supernatural or extraterrestrial creature? Adhering to the trope of “Most Common Superpower”, probably no. Which therefore leads to the conclusion that she’s some sort of occult investigator.
Is Zephan a mage or just an investigator as well?
Pixel is probably an Aegir… unless digital entities who’ve uploaded into the real world count as something else.
I believe the correct term would be “sprite”.
Heh.
Math is incredibly powerful.
As best we know neither Pixel nor Zephan have powers, or are anything other than normal humans. They are both artefact users or experts though. My best guess is that Zephan uses the magical flavour (as we saw him assisting Gwen with what looked to be a spell, in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park™).
Which would leave Pixel as the technological one. When we see the girls flying in the Halomobile, everyone assumed that Pixel was playing a game. But she had been introduced as the expert studying the orbs. So I think it most likely she was following technical readouts, of whatever monitors she had set up, for the journey.
This, in turn, would explain why Dabbler was interested in checking the results out, at the end of the journey. Whereas, if Pixel was a magical artefact user, you might expect her to either cast a spell, or (more likely) use some kind of divination device, to examine the orbs.
If Pixel is a normal human what does it take for her not to be, or least not look, bored?
Don’t forget that she is the leading expert on artefacts in Arc-Light. Which, in turn, is the organisation which is tasked with finding out about the hidden lore of the world (or at least the parts of that which could prove to be a danger). As such she is likely to have found out about all this before Maxima did.
Is she looking bored? Or is she looking at Sydney, and trying to figure he outr (and/or her orbs)?
What about Zombies? Do they have a representative? Perhaps in a cage in the corner making requests for brains.
Ingsol represents the living-challenged, which would include zombies.
Although, in more cosmopolitan areas, where people with life disabilities are not discriminated against, they can also be represented by super market and fast food unions.
I thought zombies tended end up at the DMV?
Moreso if they are zombie sloths :P
This is so cool! Now I’m wondering what slot Syd is supposed to represent here… she’s so new at everything. Could be that Max needed another voice for superheros, in which it seems she has even more respect for Sydney’s brain than even we knew. Or, Syd could have been chosen to represent ‘prop comedian’ supernaturals, since that’s the main thing that makes her different from this bunch.
Ah! Or Max might have brought Syd here to tap the group’s experience… by pointing at the Halo balls and asking, “Anyone know what the hell these things are?”
This.
I want to see Sidney point to the orbs and say, “I’m not giving them back, but anyone got any idea what these are and where they came from?”
Mind you, in a more snarky and humorous fashion than I’ve used.
Or they annoyed Max enough at a previous meeting that she now unleashes Sydney on them.
Heh… we know Max isn’t the most diplomatic of people either. This could be her way of saying “if you think I’m bad… this is the deputy who’s taking my place next time you annoy me”. :)
Sidney would love that job. I actually wonder if Max secretly likes that particular one, too: she is, after all, a nerd herself.
Sydney is there to find out what her balls are and where they came from. She does not fit into a ‘slot’
But it looks like you answered that yourself
Well, having been born & growing up as a girl, I think it’s understandable that Sydney would be curious about her balls. After all, they are a recently-acquired addition & permanently attached to her at this point.
… You made the obvious joke, I see no reason to add anything to it.
Don’t forget she has more balls than most people.
I’d never heard of the SNL sketch, I’ve only heard of the word ‘grok’ in reference to Heinlein.
Sod off autocorrect, grok is too a word.
No robots? Or do they come under the Aegir banner?
Hmm, always believed it to have come from 2000AD, the home of Judge Dredd
That would be Drokk. https://judgedredd.wikia.com/wiki/Slang
Funny, I remembered that as dreck. Yet that turns out to be Yiddish (and ‘middle-high German)!
Yeah, realised that mistake further down the page (very long time 2000AD reader, only stopped last year when the only comic store been going to for the last 15+ years was closed)
With Chrome anyway, if enough people use a word on a page it won’t be marked as incorrect any more. Grok, grok, grok. Nope, no error squiggle.
Interesting. I must propagate the use of goldium, enough that Chrome recognises it as a real word, globally. I shall earn my footnote in history! I refuse to have my only entry being “76th most unusual way of dying”!
I’m all for Goldium Pressed Latins.
+2
(+1 for the pun, +1 for the ST:DS9 reference).
Eew, you can keep your STDs, all nine of them!
+5 (how did I not see that before?!?!)
::rolls on the ground braying, all four legs flailing::
Have you heard about the new Star Trek TV series? Star Trek: Discovery, there’s your STD again :P
To boldly go where Kirk has gone before.
Get the best antibiotics possible.
Independently functioning AI driven robots fall under the super technology umbrella, and Earth tech in the Grrl Verse is still very nearly identical to our actual tech level.
But what about sentient alien robots? Wait, I’m an alien, so that’s that box ticked by Irradon, but I’m also a sentient robot life form so does that mena us Cybertronians also fall under Icon’s Aegir’s faction too?
There could be cybertronians around. They are very good at hiding you know. At least untill they start fighting eachother.
Yeah, true. I even got armour that makes me look Human. “Pretender Armour”…
Wait, Gwen & Pixel are there too…
I hear “Pixel” is an unusual actual name for a Human…
But many Cybertronian names are strange to a Human…
PIXEL IS A CYBERTRONIAN PRETENDER TOO!! WOOOO!!!
WAIT!!
Autobot or Decepticon?!?!?!
Cutiebot.
Cutiebot or Lolicon?
I’ll accept cutiebot…
So nobody knows what Dave is talking about? Come on, I’m dying to know.
SNL sketch.
• SNL —–> Saturday Night Live, check
• sketch —–> Check.
• Mars —–> Check.
• grok —–> *clears throat* rock, check.
Jeez, do I have to do everything myself?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqb4V9GxaBo
How unrealistic! This historical document clearly shows what really happens at conventions.
Oookay? o_O
I think the door handle halved in size and changed position…
first off, this is so cool!
second, i don’t want to be nitpicky, but are (i assume) scarletts hands supposed to be that small?
if there is something of a backstory behind that i’m probably making an ass of myself, otherwise they just seem disproportionate to me..
Maybe she’s related to Trump?
“Really, the man has freakishly small hands…”
It’s very mean-spirited, but every time John Oliver points out that Donald Trump has small hands, it just makes me giggle a little… mostly because I get a mental image of The Donald fuming each time.
Not like getting the World’s Angriest Tangerine is terribly difficult to begin with.
Then again, he’s only a “threat” if you have Twitter.
Unless folks put the case, with the red button, in his tiny hands…
Keith! Keith is back!
He was already back, on the previous page. But that is testimony to how good his shading has become. I likewise missed that, until reading Dave’s comment at the end of his blog. And that was after having been discussing the comic for a couple of days!
Your nerd has suffered an overload and has gone into standby. Please reinitialise nerd, and bring them a tumbler of gin and a fainting couch. Note, nerd has retained a dangerously large quantity of geek juice, and may suffer an uber-grade fangasm upon regaining consciousness.
Maxima is closer to my age than Sydney. But I would not be a good partner for Max. I find Max can (sometimes) be far prettier, like above, when angry, than when laughing. That would not be healthy, when combined with my temptation to tease. Any thought of “I better not say that, it may irritate her” will be negated by “ooh, but that will make her look gorgeous”.
It’s never a good sign when someone’s instinct for comedy & appreciation for humor overrides the instinct for survival. It tends to lead into something…messy. Hilariously messy.
Like letting yourself get hit by a pie thrown by a Killer Klown.
…with the creamed topping laced with a potent contact nerve poison…
or being turned into a humanoid rabbit…
Or a rabbitoid human
Yeah, but did you see Rogers girlfriend?
It is nice that Jessica genuinely liked a good sense of humour.
One of Britain’s leading comics (who is reasonably good looking) did a routine which pointed out the discrepancy between the frequency that personal adds indicate “woman seeking man with good sense of humour” and them following through with that.
“If it were true, I would be the one to know! Do I pull more women than a pop star? No.”
This is making me think of that Simpsons Illuminati song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSpOjj4YD8c
“WE DO! WE DO!”
As a huge nerd of science fiction, im surprised anyone doesnt know where it came from, martians are cool.
But, thats what i get for reading the complete works of most of science fictions grandmasters.
Tho’ I prefer Willis to the Old Ones.
I also liked the Martians in Double Star, even though that was in a different multiverse…
…any chance we can get an info page for each of these various races? Some of them are pretty easy, but others aren’t quite as known, and it would be nice to have a page where we can see a couple of variations of what they can look like, general powers/weaknesses, personalities, etc.
When you start getting into entire races of things, it does make it hard to keep track of the differences without a reference sheet, and you just introduced about 10 more (more depending on how close to NATO you plan on getting) and if you don’t use them for a long time it’s going to be a pain remembering what you wrote all the way back here over the next few pages.
Plus, I like reference sheets. They are nice and clean and easy to refer to. I’ve made several of my own while planning various stories.
Maybe when Maxi continues her introductions…
We do have a Wiki, which we could input what information does come out, during the story. But none of us have gotten around to setting anything up.
I did have a stab at it once. Up until it got to the “now create an account” part. At which point my enthusiasm waned. I have problems remembering names, which includes passwords. So that strictly limits the number of accounts I can use. Should I manage to reduce the ones I currently have to maintain, then I can add another. But that is unlikely to happen any time soon.
That’s what password managers are for.
I have never felt comfortable with the concept of placing all my eggs in one basket. I have had one instance of espionage (political, rather than criminal, in the opinion of appropriate experts) intercepting my communications.
Therefore I have no intentions of making it easy for any curious spooks. If they want to investigate me, and are too rude to bother asking directly, then they will have to hack each program separately. I can well see that password managers will be near the top of the list of programs that intelligence agencies will have back-doors for.
The one thing that they will not be able to hack is my brain. Not for some time yet, anyhow.
My original vision of it involved Sydney walking up an interacting with each of the member races and learning more about them, and probably unintentionally antagonizing them a little. But I realized while starting to commit this story arc to paper that as originally envisioned, my original version of this scene would take like 40 pages of just Sydney hobnobbing, so I’ve been editing it as I go. She’ll get some interaction with them, but I’ll wind up abbreviating a lot of it to keep the story moving. I don’t want to cut it all out though, as Sydney being Sydney is one of the main selling points to the comic. :)
The Twilight Council has been updated in the grrl-power wikia. Please edit as you see fit.
Whoo! Thanks. :)
i think it’s called a “Glee faint”
probably where i would have appeared if i hadn’t had to stop my patreon after all those months…
“Sirelings” is odd. “Sire” refers to a male parent. In vampire stories, if you are “sired” by a vampire, it means they are the ones who created you. So to have it refer to two females gives a contradictory message. Either Ingsol has two vampires, who co-operated in “siring him”, which seems odd, or he has created two vampires, but calls them something that means “fatherlings”.
Sire can also be a verb – ‘to sire’ or create offspring. Add ‘-ling’ and it’s something like ‘Young created offspring’
Yup, in vamp-lore, a ‘sire’ is simply the one who ‘turned’ you, male or female, but ‘sirelings’ implies he turned them, believe another term is ‘progeny’
Um I think it’s might br more Akin to the equivalent to siblings as in they all share the same sire.
Yes, that sire being Inggie
Yes as confirmed by DaveB about an hour and a half after this post.
i think dave meant he sired them.
I thought Dave meant they were sired by Ingsol. But the other way around might be interesting. What if it takes two vampires to sire a vampire?
Ah, like bishops…
Don’t you mean a king and a castle?
I think according to White Wolf games, a vampire offspring is called a “Childe” which I didn’t care for, so I went with Sire/Sireling instead. So to be clear, Crimson and Scarlet were vamped by Ingsol.
in the french version of vampire the masquerade, they used ‘infant’ instead of ‘childe’ to designate vampires sired by an older vampire – mainly because of the french term for a child – enfant. I guess the term infant is designing a bit too much newborns in english to be usable for vampires in english ;) (as a thousand years old childe could hardly be considered a newborn anymore ;)
The problem is this is like the overlord / underling relationship, but instead you are calling them overlord / overling… which is just weird. Worse, it implies the opposite relationship than the one that exists. If I introduced someone as my fatherling, they would think he was my father, and I was making fun of his height, not assume that I was his father.
Childe is traditional, and non-gendered, and describes the correct relationship but you don’t like it. Could easily tweak to Young or some other synonym.
Younglings would combine your idea and the above, but was forever ruined by an unfortunate movie… plus it sounded stupid in the first place.
Going back to traditional vampire terms, he could simply introduce them as members of his coterie.
Offspring could work, non-gendered and suggests the correct relationship, but just makes me think of the band.
What about Progeny?
I like Progeny as it makes the maker a Progenitor, which is cool sounding word.
I feel the urge to research pre-White Wolf vampiric fiction for which words were used to describe vampiric lineage now.
Yea progeny is a good preexisting word. If DaveB does have second thoughts though, another worthy alternative is “scion”. “Scarlett and Crimson are his scions.” Rings true. More importantly though there is no ambiguity, plus, as a preexisting word, if anyone is not familiar with it, they can simply look it up.
Whereas looking up “Sireling” will not yield a result, and the nearest root word is ambiguous. But it does have an advantage in having an unique ring to it, as a result Plus folks can always look through the comments if their confusion or curiosity drives them enough, and they think to do it.
People, looking through the comments to get answers to something that puzzles them?
What magical world does that happen in? When, 75% of the time, they won’t even check to see if someone has asked the same question they have just asked (and that’s when the comments are less than a full page), sometimes the duplicate question is two or three posts above theirs
That said Progeny is the best term I’ve heard for it. Even though I know better I think the car when I hear scion. Something sounds off-putting about childe. While I can see what DaveB was trying for it can be a bit hard to parse.
Agreed, on all points. Progeny does have an advantage over my suggestion, in that it is in use in this context already. I can recall at least two separate vampire stories using it, and there are likely more that I have not come across (in particular in vampire novels, as I never got into written horror, despite going out of my way to see such in film).
‘Childe’ is pronounced identically to ‘child’. If there’s something offputting about the former that isn’t offputting about the latter, it’s because it’s not being pronounced correctly. It’s just an archaic spelling.
Progeny is a good universal term that’s still uncommon enough that those in the know will understand that it is chosen for a reason, and it leaves the relationship between sire and child clear. It’s a natural fit.
Fun fact. The terms ‘Childe and ‘Childer’ (White Wolf’s terms for vampiric progeny) are simply old English words. Aside from the silent E falling off, ‘child’ and ‘childe’ are identical, and are pronounced identically (although I tend to put a slight bite on the last letter in the vampiric case, just as a subtle cue). The plural (childer) is kind of an odd duck, because it was the original plural term for ‘more than one child’, but apparently somewhere along the line we decided that it wasn’t plural ENOUGH, and borrowed a second suffix to mark the plurality from somewhere (hence ‘children’).
Aside from being slightly archaic in the case of the plural term, they’re just English words, and don’t require any funny pronunciation games, or odd suffixation.
So is Lethane the one in front of Chorius? If so, who’s that in front of Katarina?
That’s Gregor’s daughter Clover, apparently.
That would be Clover, Mr Barkley’s daughter (‘actual’ fruit-of-his-loins offspring or ‘sired’ offspring?)
Yes, Lethane is the one in front of Chorius
Ah, I thought Max was referencing the person on Irradon’s right, got the name mixed up, with the person correcting Max on it.
Relevant question: if there are demons, are there Angels?
Maxi hasn’t finished introducing the rest
We saw one in that flashback to Dabbler’s high school, remember? Didn’t Dave say it was canon?
We saw one individual with angelic looks. Whether that was an angel or a demon though, we do not know. Do note that Lucifer was a fallen angel. So the most impressive look I have seen for him was a full-on white-winged angel.* Albeit that most interpretations have it that he lost those, on ‘falling’.
And, yes, Dave confirmed that it is canon.
* Although my favourite portrayal was in Constantine. Note the following link is hugely spoilerific. If you have not seen the movie, do not click. It is a superb film, so get hold of a copy and watch it!
Link.
Just in case you do not speak foreign, here is a version in English.
The quality of that version sucks, try this one
And here is link to another depiction of Gabriel
Interesting to note how, so often in these movies and TV shows, the ‘angels’ are the arseholes and going against their Father’s wishes (the movie and TV series of “Constantine”, “Supernatural” and even the TV series “Lucifer”)
The Devil has good advocates and, it appears, spin doctors.
Yes, though I haven’t decided if that’s what they call themselves. I’ll probably stick with Angels for clarity, though I do like the idea of actual angels being as they’re described in the bible, terrifying wheels of wings and fire, and not pretty people with wings. But again for clarity if something like that shows up I’ll give it a different name.
You could call them what the various Scriptures call them. Each one it’s own, distinct thing. Seraphim, Cherubim, Grigori, etc.
And Cherubim are not the same as Cherubs
Chayot Ha Kodesh, Ophanim, Erelim, Hashmallim, Seraphim, Malakim, Elohim, Bene Elohim, Cherubim, Ishim, Iyr (AKA Grigori, Watchers, or )
Side trivia: Lucifer (AKA Heylel) was a Cherubim like Gabriel until he became an Iyr. The term Satan comes from the Hebrew term for adversary. Devil comes from the Greek diabolos (accuser or slanderer) which was their closest translation to ha-Satan (the adversary).
Iyr (AKA Grigori, Watchers, or Fallen Angels)
You could always make one or the other Seraphim.
Or Madeline L’Engle’s works, as well. :D
As a weapons- and armour-nerd I feel I have to point out that there’s no such thing as “plate mail”. “Mail” is the correct term for what most people know as “chain mail”, which is thereby redundant. For plate, you either say “plate armour” or for specific specimens “a suit / harness of plate (armour)”.
Nerd mode – off.
Well, it’s possible Maxi is being a bit rude when describing Icon
Or it’s the other way: If a living armor tells you he’s plate mail, you tend to accept it without complaining there’s nothing like that.
Especially when Golems (which an animated suit could be considered) tend to have weights measured in at least half-tons
Or she only knows about it second-hand.
She misspelled. “Platemale”
:P
It was sometimes useful to first don a layer of chain mail, then strap on plates to help deflect pointy weapons. There’s a phrase that corresponds with the use of a long, thin dirk which was used to “pierce him betwixt plate and mail.”
Maybe his preferred form of movement is mailing his plates.
Or the plates are interlinked just like mail is.
Or he’s plate on top and mail underneath. Not the wisest choice of his creator if he was originally intended as real armor, but it does make some sense for a standalone unit. Whatever power it is that keeps him alive, more physical connections between the pieces will probably help its flow.
Hey, quit making fun of Alphonse Elric. He is self conscious enough about himself as it is.
https://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Alphonse_Elric
Of all the characters on the page, I’m least happy with Icon’s design. I knew he was going to be challenging to draw as I’ve never drawn plate… armor before, and all the designs I liked while googling were either ridiculous suits from video games or intensely ornate and therefore impractical to draw.
I didn’t realize there’s no actual thing as plate mail though as I’m a nerd who came up on D&D and video games and not any kind of historian. Perhaps Icon will correct her if I ever get to that interaction.
There have been studies done of how many characters readers can keep track of, in a story. Interestingly enough, analysis of Agatha Christie’s novels showed that she consistently had just over this threshold. Which probably contributed to making it hard to figure out who the culprit was (or, at least easy to loose track of the one she is leading you away from), but without having so many characters that the reader feels overwhelmed.
I think this latest batch of characters is punching through that ceiling. Many folks will not be able to place a character name, if it is from one of the peripheral characters, and we will find people getting them mixed up much more, than with a smaller cast.
Given my inherent problem with names though, I am not the best person to judge this mind. So it is probably advisable for everyone to have their say on this. But if the consensus agrees, it may well be worth taking time out from comic updates, to update the cast list. Perhaps doing the comic on Mondays, and cast-list updates on Thursdays (as I suspect it will take some time to get it all up to speed).
Thursdays could have a place-holder notice informing that an update of the cast list has gone live. Assuming DaveB, the patrons and readership, at large, all think that this is a good idea?
Apologies, this comment went to the wrong place. If you wish to reply, please do so to Dave’s post below, rather than here, to avoid compounding my error.
For a real test of your ability to keep track of characters try reading Wheel of Time. One fan counted and there were 1600 named characters (about 1/3 of which start with ‘A’).
Try “The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)” by John Varley.
https://www.varley.net/Pages/Manhattan.htm
No, seriously, try it. It’s a very short, very unusual and very acidic nuclear war story that reflect what to live in the atom-bombs-any-moment-now era was.
Use google images and look for “Pennsic war”, SCA. Lots of stuff of people wearing all sorts of armor that works and isn’t, normally, overly ornate.
DaveB, try googling “German gothic armour” or “Milanese armour”, you’ll get suits that are not all that ornate, if at all, but highly practical and badass-looking. I favour the German gothic style for its sleek and elegant shapes and the nice fluting. Made my own harness in that style.
Strictly speaking, it should be “plate and mail”, but sometimes slang overtakes grammar and beats it into the dirt, screaming, “I’ll teach you to be all snooty with me!”
Humans abbreviate because words are imprecise. :D
Ya lingo abbrev.
TL:DR – choppy choppy short short.
Ah Scraplets, anyone understand that?
I don’t know… ‘scraplets’ sounds like a derogatory term for metal golems.
Scraplets, little bug things that like to eat Cybertronians. Think little flying living-metal-eating piranhas…
Make for good cursing tho… :p
A new twist on The Bard, ‘Cromeo and Tooliet’ The epic tale of wattage regulation during the feud of rival families the Metalhues and Scraplulets…
I bite my thumb, in your general direction.
Figuratively speaking of course.
*looks at paw, and sighs*
*thumbs nose in silence*
No representative for A.I. representative? Or would that fall under Icon?
Fairly sure “golems, constructs, and other enchanted sapiens” would include Artificial Intelligences (considering Flo from “Freefall” is considered an A.I.)
I had a similar thought, but the “enchanted” there may only specify artificial creatures made from magic and not technology. Of course, I could be wrong.
This would be something I would like explored too. With all these “fictional” beings being real and the super science about, I would think there would be sentient computers/robots by now.
Kinda could see the magically created constructs being offended at being categorized the same as modern A.I. machines. Could see the differences of nature wide enough for distinction.
If Max said “CREATED Sapiens” instead of ENCHANTED then an android like Data or EDI would fit in the group.
Mr DaveB has already responded to that here… (Thanks to Yorp for the original link)
Still trying to figure out where us Cybertronians go tho, with the Aliens or with the Golems, Constructs & other enchanted sapients…
On the cast page I would like to see a sub page with ranks in order, what’s the difference between silver and gold rank, bigger power symbols with names. I would also like to see rank symbols and ability’s for the other cast.
I’d love to update the cast page, actually totally overhaul it at some point. :/
Darn it, my reply about names was meant to be here, rather than in the armour thread. :(
Honestly, I found it hard to remember who the less frequently featured cast members were before. Except Mrs. B, anyone who prepares food with a gas mask is memorable enough.
Since there are no new graphics involved with the Cast Page, why not delegate that portion. See if you have a friend or relative that would be willing to do it on the cheap.
Nice! Now I’m imagining a really cool Grrl Power MMORPG with all these races and characters. It would be awesome.
But, Dave, you might want to hold on the Eldritch Abominations for a while. Those tend to suck up all the drama and pathos.
“Those tend to suck up all the drama and pathos.”
It all depends on the author…
Better keep Daniel the Human away from it then, some of the creations he comes up with…
…he certainly fulfills the quota for a “Spark”…
if there are no dragons, i will be disappointed xP
They were probably too big to fit into the room and/or build a chair for them to sit a representative here.
;)
They may have shapeshifting ability and are part of the Fey contingent or was about to introduce them when Sydney clocked out.
If Sydney touches the true-sight orb, she is going to have to make an acting roll, at -10, to avoid giving away what she can see, just by body language and facial expressions. Then a willpower roll at -12, to avoid blurting it out directly.
I think Sydney will get a +8 circumstance bonus, on the latter, due to an intense desire not to make Maxima feel disapointed with her again* tonight.
* Maxima called her Scoville earlier, which Sydney is clued-up enough to recognise that Maxima is not happy with her behaviour.
Fairly sure everyone on the Council knows who and what everyone else is, so Sydney blurting out “There be Dragons!” would not be revealing anything they didn’t already know, may or may not even be considered ‘rude’
Mmm, I think the relationships will be more complex than that. Just look at the one between Archon and Machina Industries, as complicated by Maxima and Deus. And I very much doubt that Maxima will let such a wide body of potential threats know a highly classified secret (without a very good reason).
Oh, you were referring to the Tru-orb as being the secret, not dragons
Can we please keep shapeshifting dragonkin out of this?
As far as I am aware, the only basis for this trait is in occassional references to dragons’ “hypnotic visage”, a non-magical facial structure which utilizes human and animal instincts to trigger fear instincts and make the creature behind in feel far more menacing than it actually is.
As far as I am aware, the creature in question has no control over the feature and uses it solely as a defense mechanism to draw attention mouthwards, thus preventing an assault on its flimsy belly.
Or maybe it’s because people had weird fettishes but couldn’t fathom the logistics, IDK, shapeshifting dragons are stupid.
How else do you explain something which used to look like this, but now looks like this?
I never said that less mythical dinosaurs weren’t prone to shapeshifting :p.
I think it was more the Raptors which learnt to fly…
I don’t know about the idea of a new power source ruining oil. Oil is used in a lot more than just gasoline. A new power source for instance would not reduce our need for plastics as an example. Though such a power source is also resource controllable if it requires a relatively rare material in its construction. Roll out would take a while. Many people would be unable to convert to the expensive new car type and support for them limited. Part of why all electric cars are still on the rare side. Infrastructure takes longer. So a Reed Richards inventing something new is not all that world breaking. It would be a footnote for a few decades at worst.
Depends on price and convenience. Electric cars are rare because the difference in price of electricity and oil over whole expected live of the car is near the difference in price of cars, and it’s less convenient because you need to recharge more often than you fill tank with oil. And you can’t fly on electricity. Power source usable for flying and allowing cars to go thousand miles without refill and still cheaper would only need year to nearly halt production of new gasoline-based cars and planes. Power source which would “just” make electricity cheaper (would be too big or expensive to use on car), well, that would make move to electric cars faster but might really take decades to replace gasoline-based cars.
And about the “other needs for oil”: Yes. Ignore global warming. The REAL reason which SHOULD be enough to convince anyone with half a brain we need to stop burning oil ASAP is that we need oil for plastics AND that we are possibly just years to make FOOD from oil.
Slight correction if I may: the price of electricity is actually quite cheap. In electric cars, the problem is storing enough to make it practical. Once one is past the cost of the vehicles, it costs less to travel a hundred miles using electricity and paying by the kilowatt-hour than it does to travel a hundred miles using even just a couple gallons of gas.
Of course prices of both electricity and gas vary by region, so I’m going by national averages.
Also, I do know of at least 1 all electric aerobatic stunt plane out there. Electric motors or turbofans to drive an airplane is entirely feasible. You could use an electric turbofan to drive a jet ligner. The problem is storing enough electricity in a light enough package, or other method of generating/supplying the electricity to make it feasible in larger aircraft that fly for longer periods than 30 minutes. Given time, and we may yet solve the problem of storing electricity. Solar cells are getting more efficient, electricity conversion is getting more efficient, motors are getting more powerful and lighter and more efficient, and work on storage continues.
Researchers were working on developing an unusual gold and titanium battery, when they discovered the new alloy goldium*, which is four times tougher than any other metal which could be implanted in the human body.
Just as well they had this accidental discovery mind. I cannot see many folks wanting to buy gold and titanium batteries, unless they give half a year’s worth of smartphone charge.
And even then you have to factor in the costs of six months wages for your porter, to carry them, and the security guards, to stop them being stolen!
* With the far less catchy scientific designation of beta-Ti3Au.**
** Which does not have a Wiki page for it. I must resist the urge to create a “Goldium” entry. I must….
Willpower failing….
My only hope is procrastination…. and …ooh a bright shiny object!
Why oh why could this discovery not have been using, say, silicon and hydrogen (obvious chemistry/physics points aside)?
“Hey, Bob, we’ve found a new super-strong material!”
“That’s great! What’s it made of?”
“Gold and Titanium!”
“I’m not made of money over here, Rick…”
And yes – Goldium shall be its name, if only here. I not only support but endorse this designation.
I spy a plothole! There is no way a shiny object of any designation would distract someone from goldium alloy. It’s gold and titanium combined, it’s got to be a seriously good looking metal!
It is so bright and shiny, and so precious. Yes, yes, this goldium is mine, all mine!
heh, Gollumium
*Golluminum – It glows when heated.
It wouldn’t ruin it, but if in a decade all cars and buses switched to a new fuel source, it would have widespread economic impact.
Only a negative one towards the Oil Sheiks
Not nearly so simple, I think.
The discovery of oil in Pennsylvania caused a huge depression to hit the New England area when it made whaling obsolete. They recovered fairly quickly because no one tried to stimulate the industry or protect jobs, plus regulatory burden was lower then so the workforce was able to be absorbed faster.
There would be a similar disruption of the oil industry if a truly radical new source of power arrived, though the disruption would last longer as modern political instinct is to protect and subsidize while holding back absorption via taxation and regulation.
That came at a critical time in history though. Had the remote whaling stations not become abandoned, at that time, then the Aliens, which escaped their Predator foes, back in the wooden whaling ship era, would have been able to establish a sizeable Arctic colony. Which, sooner or later, would have taken ship, to the rest of the globe!
But on the other hand, if we keep pumping out too much CO2 the ice around the predator hunting resort will melt and release the Aliens very soon! Since they can swim well and we dont have power loaders yet I think humanity would be doomed. There you have another good reason to use your bike more.
You can’t tell these new players without a scorecard!!! Hopefully we’ll learn about these..uh..people along with Katarina?!?!
Why are Aegirs named that? Aegir was a Norse sea god, a jotun who occasionally threw drinking parties. Why would constructs be named after him?
Probably for the same reason the “Odyssians” are named after “The Odyssey”
Try Aegis “the shield of Zeus/Athena” for the root of their name
It also means being under the protection of someone.
Actually, “décolleté” is both cleavage and the part of the dress that shows the cleavage, wether it is front or back. We rather use “dos nus” (naked back) for big back cleavages, but little ones can be called “décolleté dorsal” too. And yes, the fact of substracting fabric is a choice of design and is part of the dress.
So “décolletage” isn’t a word we use in this meaning at all. Wikipedia says that it’s the process of usining a metal bar to turn it into a screw. Apart from this very specific occurence, the word is unknown to french people.
Yours truly, with baguette and amour,
Loïs (Atrus)
Interesting. I found a number of definitions online, and what I posted was my own amalgamation of them. I think in the US, when it’s used it probably mostly refers to cleavage, neck and upper chest/collarbones. The most recent use of it I remember was on the West Wing, one woman was wearing a fairly conservative dress, and the first lady, who was wearing a lower cut top than I believe most actual first ladies would ever actually wear told the other woman something like “a little more décolletage wouldn’t hurt” which was basically the most polite way to say “put them goods on display.”
Neat thing here… everyone’s right.
In FRENCH, Atrus has nailed the meanings.
in ENGLISH (which has this nasty habit of mugging other languages for words, and then abusing them however it wants), DaveB is using the words properly.
…Although I did have to look up decollate, to verify. I was of course familiar with decapitate… decollate is an archaic usage, but means the same thing. …It still sounds like a fancy way to say “52 pick-up” to me. :P
Also, the main bout of English mugging French for non-technical words ended about 700 years ago, and both French and English have evolved during the intervening centuries. Generally not in the same direction.
(There is even an instance where English took one word from French twice, centuries apart, and the derived English words are antonyms.)
“Come here, little adjective.. Lookit the pretty candy.. No, no, I won’t hurt you…”
I know that your PTSD (Pinata Traumatically Stressed Donkey) makes life hard, but you should avoid turning to mugging innocent languages.
That would be Deck-Collate, silly.
I think I would pretty much have the same reaction as Sidney “Delight overload”.
Isn’t this universe supposed to have few super-powered beings?
With all of this and the public unaware of the differences, there should be a lot of (for lack of a better word) incidents?
No?
Hence the need for Archon. “Yes, there are aliens on Earth. Hey, have you seen this device? It emits a little red light that does something to the brain, like this. Flash Sorry to disturb you ma’am, but you will have to move your car from this No Parking zone. Thank you.”
Believe you are getting confused with ‘super-powered’ humans, none of those introduced are human (some may be former human {in the cases of Scarlett and Crimson})
It’s already been established, in the Parking Lot Brawl, that Archon has seriously underestimated the number of superhumans in the world.
Actually, the existence of Supers does tend to seem more rare when you have quite a few of them who would rather live privately & anonymously (quietly going about their lives instead of showboating by taking up law enforcement). When you also consider how history has been treating the “supernatural” side of Supers, that would tend to drive more of them “underground” & anonymous…So the presence of Supers probably seems to be more rare than it actually is.
That actually makes sense.
Thanks, good reasoning.
Especially when you consider the number of super powers which are passive, or nee ot be activated, and otherwise don’t provide any kind of physical hint to their existence. On example would be Wolverine. Both of his special abilities (Super Healing, and Claws) are completely hidden. Until either is invoked, he looks just like any other muscle bound ruffian. Otherwise human. He could work a construction site for probably several years with no one even knowing he has some extra special abilities.
Then also consider the potential for a number of supers with relatively minor and inconsequential abilities which keep their ability hidden.
In my supers game, there are vampires and werewolves and such, but after the beating they took in the Victorian Age when those Romantic poets and authors blabbed all their secrets and the uppity livestock started getting all tactical with the wooden stakes and decapitations and silver weapons, they moved to a more “low-key” approach.
They’re still out there, but they do not attract attention to themselves and suffer extreme social consequences from their peers if they do.
Ditto for most “powered” people (regardless of the origin of the power set) until the Edwardian period, when they first began to be more accepted (thanks mostly to Wells and Verne – Poe and Lovecraft weren’t so helpful). Things really took off in the 1920’s and again in the 1950’s when science fiction reframed the whole “powers beyond the ken of man” thing.
I haven’t yet decided if Wells and Verne were fabulists, documentarians, or propagandists. :D
This so reminds me of the vote incentive picture showing many women of colour (Or is that women of many colours?) having drinks. This group can get a little more serious than that one, especially as many of those characters are trademarked by other people/organizations.
If I recall correctly, “Grok” literally means “to drink”, but even in the original Martian that use is somewhat archaic compared to its modern usage, understanding something completely and thoroughly.
You recall correctly. We don’t learn that until fairly late in there novel. _Stranger in a Strange Land_ was essentially an SF treatment of the Jesus story. I read it literally decades ago, and have no idea how well it would stand up to re reading today.
It holds up very well, especially if you stick to the later “restored” extended version, published after Robert A. Heinlein died, through the efforts of his (now-late) widow, Virginia. I read it about once a year, on average. N. B. : the smaller mass-market paperback, ebook, and audiobook versions I’ve gotten are all the originally-published, drastically-shortened version. The extended version is, as far as I can tell, only available as a larger-format trade papaerback, or as a hardcover (possibly out of print).
Waiting will fill.
Okay, had gotten ‘Grok’ and ‘Drokk’ mixed up ;(
Drekk!
No, he some alien nob from MiB
-10 to your geek credit score for not knowing the reference.
Which reference? Looked it up and it said Drekk was from the MiB animated series (Frank’s former cell-mate)
Drekk = @%#& in FASA’s Shadow run game.
Another -10 for needing it explained.
Never heard of it, and neither has Bing
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun
To be fair to Guesticus, google only returns the MIB “Drekk”. Even more, I have actually played Shadowrun (albeit one-off adventures at Gen-Con), and cannot recall such a term being used!
It was in the novels and the fluff in the game
Which Gen-Con did you go to Yorp?
And will you be at this years?
All of the Gen Con UKs for many years, up until its demise. Plus two US ones, in different cities. Sadly none for the last decade, I just can’t afford it. I sorely miss convention going mind, but the same problem applies this year too.
Flying across the Atlantic would be totally beyond my means nowadays. I was toying with attending a UK convention this year though. Up until my PC died.
But chatting here does fulfil one of the pleasures of convention going. Namely hanging with other like-minded people. Which helps to make up for the lack. If you are going to one, I hope you have a smashing time!
Gen – con 49 is august 4-7 with precon party on the 3rd.
Got my ticket and room reservation in January.
Oh, I always opt for the full five day experience. Never waste precious gaming time, queuing up for registration, or finding your accommodation! Likewise having a leisurely scout around, in advance of everything kicking off, means you will not miss out on things by getting lost, or simply not knowing about things that may not appear in the guide.
Not to mention that I am friends with some of the game designers, so will lend a hand with them setting up their displays. Which also gives me a chance to check out the trade hall, even if it happens to be otherwise off-limits, at that time.
Most of all though is just enjoying the atmosphere. Knowing that there are thousands of like-minded people around you. That you can strike up a conversation with any of them, and you will have a huge overlap of points of reference and favourite interests. Plus meeting up with all the friends you have made, over the years.
Similarly that any bar you go into, if you fancy a quick ‘pub game’ (especially if it is one of the new ones, you just managed to pick up), you will have a table full of partners, eager to play, within moments.
Ooh I especially dig Icon out of this bunch. One of my favorite things is living empty sentient armor, kinda like Alphonze of Full Metal Alchemist, and apparently the category of that is large enough to warrant a specific representative.
Curious as to why one vamp daughter is pale and the other is tan.
Maybe because Crimson was originally from Africa, the reason it is ‘tan’ is because her natural skin colour has blanched after being ‘sired’ (what? you didn’t believe her hair colour was natural, did you?)
It may even be by choice.
If you look back Ingsol seems to be a little pale but well with in human norms.
While Scarlett has the WHITE skin thing going.
It could also be too that the one with the white skin is a NATURAL Redhead (with the Blonde bits being dyed highlights) and her skin is (was) just that pale to begin with.
Having a Redhead for a mother (Yes, she was part Irish), they do tend to be paler than normal. So having an Irish Vampire with skin coloured like an Albino would not be too far off the mark. (Though I couldn’t see freckles paling out enough to be unnoticeable. Maybe I’m wrong on her origins. *shrug*)
To have skin that white, she would have needed to be an albino before her conversion.
I’m still not clear on what it means to be a “demon”. Are they supposed to be from some actual dimension that souls go to after death?
Also, I notice that both Ingsol’s “sirelings” are hot women, making me wonder if we shouldn’t view vampire-making as a parent-child thing but more as an STD.
Before monotheism, Greek “daimon” just meant “supernatural being.”
Yah–basically the class of beings that existed in between gods/greater powers and humanity, often serving as a go-between or buffer.
Which definition includes angels, incidentally.
Considering that the early vampire lore considered the spread of vampires likens to a plague/disease, you’re pretty close to the mark on that…
;)
Then again, Life itself could be considered as an STD (transmitted sexually) which has a 100% mortality rating (it may take a long time, but no one survives it).
Scream al you want – no one gets out alive.
People always say “look at the beauty factor, it’s obviously about sex” but really in a way Vampires should be considered the peak of designer children. After all, you’ve got all of humanity it choose from for your gift of eternity, so it only makes logical sense you’d choose the best ones. That humans value beauty isn’t a revelation, so it would always be one of the selection criteria. The fact that it should never be the ONLY criteria means I expect a TONNE of hidden depth from those characters.
They have pretty hair.
*wags tail decisively*
“Demon” is a collection of races from other worlds, most of which are hereditarily intertwined, which is to say there’s interbreeding and a common ancestor, not just “any alien with horns.” They are aliens properly, but have obviously visited Earth and gotten themselves woven in to certain mythologies.
Please refer to Robert Lynn Aspirin’s “Myth” series.
I’m sure DaveB was only making references to how aliens could have been victims of Myth-taken Identities…
Imps, Deveels, and Pervects…
Klads?
Klahds, I think that was.
Well I wish there were some Trollops around.
Hey, Dave?’
It’s probably been said – but just to add to ‘grok’ – the concept is the idea of /Jungian/ understanding. That is, complete and total empathy and comprehension, without all of the existential and experiential filters between people. To “grok” something, then, is to truly understand a thing, at all levels.
A coder who “groks” a language understands it intuitively, speaking it like a native speaker speaks english. If you grok someone’s situation, you understand everything about it – not only everything that happened, but how it affects them.
Just a great word all the way around. :)
That’s the best anyone here has put it.
When we learn it’s literal meaning (fairly late in he novel) it subtly adjusts our understanding if the word and shifts the meanings we assumed, which may have been the less deep “understand” or even “dig”.
Or at least it may. I read the book nearly twenty years ago.
Few questions:
1. if irradon represents non terrestials, then what role does Dabbler have there?
2. Someone mentioned pixel above as being an ageir? but shes there because she’s I GUESS an occult detective whos familiar with artifacts? (pixel being the pink haired girl next to dabbler)
3.You. mention deccolete as being a demon/succubus, but isnt dabbler ALSO both of those too?
4. I notice gwen in the background talking to the vampire (whos name escapes me) is she there as a representative of magic? Would there even BE a representative for magic users (please let it be a version of dumbledore IF SO)
Their repesentative/liason/agent/etc in ArcSWAT?
Dabbler is there as part of Archon, probably as part of the team investigating the orbs, just like Pixie. None of Archon, with the possible exception of Max, is actually on the council.
True though there is nothing to say Dabbler joined Archon at the suggestion of Twilight Council or Decollete in addition to Max’s asking her and her own personal reasons to join in. One doesn’t actually need to be a member of that type of body to work for them.
Vampires apparently have an issue with being called ‘undead’. I wonder if they ever try to verbally get back at the persons calling them that by referring to them at the ‘pre-deceased’?
I’m assuming you haven’t read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. Specifically, Reaper Man. There is a character, Reg Shoe, who fights for zombie rights. I think it was to the tune of ‘Zombies are people too! Un-dead, not un-person..!’
Differently Vitalic.
4. No, that’s not Inggie, the hair is wrong and so is the clothing
I think that the man Gwen’s talking to is actually Zephan Zoeng, one of the Archon higher-ups that Maxima, Halo, etc. were talking to at dinner.
Yup. Although his jacket seems to have lost the bright swirly pattern on it. Perhaps it is still visible at patron resolution? Alternatively, as he is a known artefact user, it could just be an enchanted jacket that can change its pattern, at the user’s desire.
My coat can do that too, albeit restricted to one of two choices, and with seasonal restrictions.
*parades around in a circle, showing off fancy summer coat*
Yeah, was thinking Zephan, but doesn’t he normally have glasses?
He does have the chin smudge, and maybe the distance is making the glasses not visible
Just wanted to say, the Odyssian and sireling thing threw me too, but the comments pretty much cleared that all up. And Sydney in panel 2 is very funny, reminds me of David Willis’ art style.