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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I would be so happy if it turns out that Zeus is persona non grata in this universe as well.
Not Deus?
#teamThor
‘Yeah, we let him in for a while but then there was that thing with the Swan people and… yeah, he isn’t allowed back any more.’
When a swan is your swain there will be some pain
Is that your swan song?
Not fat enough to sing an aria.
In my own universe, the Gods are looking for ways to punish him within their laws and the Demons would just grab him and stick him in the Abyss if they could catch him outside of Nirvana. So basically he’s a crime boss living in a country that wants him in prison but doesn’t have evidence with a non-extradition situation with a country that does have evidence against him (or else just wouldn’t care)
So with all the Supers and such being revealed to the public, I would have to think this bunch has to be considering at least preparations to at least slowly come out to the public as existing. With the increase of super powered activity gotta wonder how long such secrets can be kept.
Unfortunately, with the historical repudiations of many of these groups, their revelation to the public would probably lead to a sudden rise in torch and pitchfork sales.
Meh, they can just do like Dabbler and pretend they’re just ‘regular’ supers.
Dabbler being a sub set of deamons that like pretending to be human. Others may find it to be insulting..
Humans or daemons? o_O
Heh. The first time past, that post didn’t parse well.
Second time, it made perfect sense.
Go figure.
Humans as a whole would likely be okay, but there would be a very violent and militant reaction to such a thing that would end poorly and snowball.
Better to let the ‘super humans’ take the first wave of xenophobia, since they are just ‘humans’ with powers. Once that is blunted you drip feed in Golems and Aliens, since they are fairly non-threatening, at least to those who aren’t cripplingly humanocentric.
Only then do you unload the direct human predators, the Werewolves, Vampires and Demons. Cos yeah, those three will be a PR nightmare no matter how you spin it.
We are traditionally against species that like to eat us after all.
Including humans (don’t forget, humans like to eat other humans)
Would you like to come to my citadel for diner?
It’s about time you invite him. After all, he’s already on your Guesticus List.
And my cook has some new recipes to try out.
That is sort of the process being taken by Psyche in Divine Blood. They are currently sponsoring some light-hearted entertainment as well as some serious “research” into psychic phenomena (read setting experiments for scientists that they know the results of). They’ve got a sizable portion of the population believing in psychics (though a lot of highly public frauds have been spreading incorrect information for their own purposes, usually involving money). They intend to reveal the sorcerer families, Psyche’s tendency to act as law enforcement and the existence of non-humans after revealing supernatural stuff in general.
The problem is that they are moving too slowly…they’re operating on population data that does not take into account the Gods and Demons (whom they have no contact with) or the non-humans and extra-dimensional humans migrating from portals via the US Navy funded Socrates Group (whom no one takes seriously) or the various groups of non-humans living outside the Community proper and their own upswing in populations.
Similarly, Gods assume they have another 200 or 300 years before they need to make contact with human authorities and Demons are assuming 50 to 100 years.
Would Sydney be classed as part of the Misc section herself. She isn’t really a super, just someone who has stumbled upon something alien and had it attach itself to her. Like Maxima really.
Nah. This group covers “extra-human species and the otherwise supernatural”. Sydney is neither, even if you take into account her orbs. That’s why Archon noted that Sydney herself doesn’t actually have powers.
Gregor has Sydney figured out…..
So basically they are the U.N. for Fantasy and Sci-fi Creatures.
Also, Are there any Dwarven representatives in this council?
What would a modern age dwarf look like anyway?
Would they still have long beards and drink a lot of booze?
Just make sure you sit the Dwarven representative on the opposite side of the table from the Fey contingent…Most genres describe some level of antipathy between the two races.
O.o
And some describe them as a subset of Fey. Kind of a coin flip on that.
They could be classed as a subset of Fey and still have antipathy for the rest of the Fey.
It usually depended on who you were talking to & which side of the Seelie/Unseelie divide they were.
This… or would it be funnier to have a perfectly normal little person at the table, who can then get faux-offended when Sydney misidentifies him/her as a dwarf, while everyone around her goes ‘tsk tsk, why would you assume that?’
Rather than introduce a short character, just for that gag, it would be more simply accomplished by having Lucas segway into the chamber. Sydney would be torn, looking from the Faye, back to Lucas and dying to say something. But maybe will remember Peggy’s previous intervention, to save her.
Perhaps we would get to see Sydney lost for words…
They’d probably look a lot like Torbjørn from Overwatch.
The community for this web comic is great. Great, informative comments that I actually want to read. It’s a little tide pool of the internet that avoids the giant, sweeping waves of sh*t.
Ditto, ‘cept they’re so damned prolific, it can take F’EVAH to wade through all the commentary!
Adding this post just to add another post.
::whistles nonchalantly::
*Follows Weatherheight playing a tuba*
*opens up the banjo case*
*Invites trumpet, trombone, and accordian players* Now we have a parade!
I can read the internet’s litterary diahorrea in no time, it’s the fact that the content is varied and worthwhile that makes grrlcomments take time.
There are three tiers of rows seen in the last panel. Are there a bunch of non-representatives present or are there just that many species?
It is a round table with some people sitting / standing behind it.
Not quite, look at the backgound of the last panel. There’s a fucking Galatic Senate back there.
…That’s going to be a confusingly over-crowded poker game…
And no hand-rails. Why do galactic architects and engineers never consider safety? No seat belts, fire extinguishers, emergency exits or child-proof locks on the garbage disposal chutes!
You’ve never seen Nar Shaddaa, the Hutt moon, have you? Let’s just say that if the OSHA ever saw it, the entire moon would be condemned in seconds. No OSHA Compliance indeed. Overlapping with No Product Safety Standards, No Seatbelts, No Bridge Railings, Malevolent Architecture, Dangerous Workplace, Crapsack World, and half a dozen other tropes.
“That’s no moon! That’s a Hutt’s butt!!! Reverse thrusters!!!! REVERSE THRUSTERS!!!!!!!”
The pursed lips look good. Totally made that panel better. Thanks, Dave : )
When I saw that, for some reason, the first thing I thought of was: https://www.tumbleweeds.com/lotsaluck.html
Maybe it’s because i’m french, but the name Decollete feels really strange to me. I don’t know if i’m supposed to prononce it “de-Colette” or like “décolleté” (wich I always considered to mean cleavage -well the other way around, anyway). I also never ever heard the word “décolletage”, neither in english nor in french, but that doesn’t mean much given how much i know about fashion.
Just be glad that it’s not related to the “cleavage” that might be associated with a guillotine…
:P
+1! Comment made me lol.
You probably never heard it because it doesn’t exist. (Hello, french too here ! :D) I exaggerate, it still exist in some old dictionnary, but it’s not used in actual french at any rate. (From the French Acamedy Dictionnary of 1932-1935, it is say that “décolletage” is the action to “decollete” a garnment.)
It’s not even fancy in actual french, it just doesn’t exist anymore for this usage. We just say “Un décolleté” (a cleavage).
(Funny thing : Decolletage seems still used for the action of cutting beets, and for some kind of industry thing that I’m too lazy to translate. The word seems still used in its original meaning in english.)
(What I mean by that is : Don’t go ask french-speaking people about “décolletage”, it will not work.)
Seems quite natural reaction of any geek/nerd e.t.c. if they were presented that these things exist like this.
I love the rest of the strip, but the highlight for me was the throwaway joke about Sydney insisting that Max close her quote. Sydney is my kind of woman :-)
All the beings in the shadow, are they also representants? Or are they just the assistants to the representants at the round table like in the UN Security Council? If the former, this comic is becoming crowded. I hope they are not on-off mentions.
And with ancient mythology confirmed, super-powered people are not a recent thing. How could Archon underestimate the number of supers? Every other Greek dude had powers.
Because the rise of human supers is relatively new, or maybe just in the US
“How could Archon underestimate the number of supers?”How many supers can you identify in our world? This is pertinent because that is the setting the Grrlverse is in. Barring the one exception that the previously discreet and hidden supers have recently, in their world, become prevalent enough to become public knowledge.
Humanity has a dreadful track record of atrocity against those who are different. Hanging, burning, drowning and crushing accused witches, just to name one class of such abuse. In either world, anyone who is significantly different would be wise to be discreet about it.
Sydney herself is the ideal example. She kept her secret for months. With the very reasonable fear of being ‘whisked away’ to detention and experimentation. As such no estimate that Archon could make would include her in their figures (barring the one hint of a suspicious forest fire, which does not really give much to go on).
I believe she actually passed out from pure Joy
There’s a lot to love about this page, but I think my favorite thing is Sydney’s inability to accept unbalanced quotation marks. (‘Tis the coder in me.)
Yea, a lot of people (myself included would find that really frustrating.
Represents a primal, disquieting feeling in all of us when closure is
Isn’t it a little early to introduce Sydney to all this?
If she were a normal recruit maybe, but considering her ability to see through all manner of disguises (except purely physical ones), Max is probably thinking its better to get her in the know now, than have her loose herself with excitement on encountering a real vamp or other creature out in the world.
Encountering dabbs has tempered her a little bit, but that still didn’t stop her from reacting to the vampire or the werewolf, or fainting. Get her introduced in private so she gets it out of her system and then she can temper her reactions out in the world.
Heck as a recruit, she technically wasn’t supposed to know about dabbs yet, but again, True Sight orb kind of elevated her need to know level about certain things above other recruits.
Something less than “Need to Know” security clearance & more like “Impossible to Not See It Eventually.”
Way the hell back in the day, I got my “Secret” security clearance while still a E-1 (i.e, the lowest ranking private, normally some one with less than 6 months in service). Of course my school right out of basic training was for classified radars, so there is that.
My point is that rank and/or time in service has little to do with what level clearance you have. It’s based on need to know. Syd can see non-normal sophots when using her yellow orb and has shown, several times, in the presence of Arcon officers to use it at random. Once with Peggy, once with Max, that we know of. This puts her squarely in the “need to know” zone, otherwise her ADD mind is going to run away with weird ideas, and if there is any thing a security officer hates more than a security breach, it’s a half ass security breach, where the overall big picture is more or less right, but the details are way the hell of course. Example, Area 51, aka Groom Lake. Yes, it’s a secret USAF base. Yes, it’s closely guarded. No, there are not any UFO there, it’s where we test secret airplanes until we decide to use them for real.
Not to mention, on a tactical level (rather than indulging her personal quirks), she might be the ONLY one on location that could track some of these individuals, and they can’t be trying to info-dump what sort of “trail sign” a vampire might leave that’s different from the doppleganger they’re looking for.
But on the Area 51 note… they are flying, and being prototypes would make them unidentifiable… so doesn’t that indeed make them UFOs?
It…depends.
It’s not how people use the term, at minimum.
I’ve been in conversations with people:
People: “Have you ever seen a UFO?”
Me: “Yes.”
P: “You’ve seen an alien ship?”
M: “No. I have no clue what it was. I don’t think it was a streetlight reflecting off my glasses, and there was nobody standing on roofs playing with a glow in the dark frisbee across the road. Alien ship is highly unlikely, ad exaggerated best. It was out of sight before I had the chance to focus on it.”
P: *not amused that I’m using UFO literally*
I mean, it coulda been a firefly, those mess with my sense of perspective, but this was New Mexico in the 6000 ft elevation desert. I’d almost consider aliens more likely than a firefly.
Air Defense, my former branch of the army doesn’t use the term UFO for any reason. “Unknown” is enough. We assuming, if we are looking at it that what ever it is is flying and is an object. Of course with with old radars, it could be a rain cloud. They really don’t show up the same way on radar, but the do give a return. Heavy enough rain and the wrong sort of radar and you might as well be jammed by hostiles.
Most likely explanation is low flying birds at night. I once saw a flight of four oval objects in a diamond formation flash overhead at incredible speed, maneuvering at insane rates. Fortunately I remembered Arthur C. Clarke mentioning that low flying birds made the most deceptive UFOs he’d ever seen, and my brain reclassified them from alien space ships at 5000 feet to light colored duck bellies at 50 feet just before they passed out of sight, and once I knew what to look for I could just make out the wings beating. If I had never read that book I would still be wondering what I saw.
I stand by my complaint from a previous page. The orbs were found underwater, so the assembly really should have a representative from Atlantis to get their input into this matter.
There might be a potential issue with getting certain attendees to pay attention to the matter at hand. If the Odyssian group brought a satyr along and he meets up with Dabbler they might go off to a room together and we may not see them for DAYS.
Budget Aquaman? Fish guy? And now I’ve got that Red Dwarf clip in my head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc20oTkd1S4
How about a Pseunami?
Maxi. Hasn’t. Finished. Introductions!!!!!
Blame Sydney for fainting just as Maxi was about to introduce Flipper
Just so.
Besides which, there is nothing to say that this meeting is to discover things about the orbs (although that may be part of it). All Sydney has been told is that they are here for a poker game.
Maybe they use dolphins, instead of kittens?
Why would Flipper be there of all places? Didn’t all of the dolphins leave Earth just before it was to be demolished to make room for a hyperspace bypass?
Shh. That hasn’t happened in this world yet. Don’t go alarming the natives. There is nothing they can do about it anyhow.
Time to grab my towel & stick my Thumb out for a ride…
So… how close are Crimson and Clover?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv7yZkHGHqk
Ummm…That close, maybe?
…Well, we can hope, can’t we?
Given what fashion of clothing they are wearing, non cover version might be a better choice.
But yeah, that would be cool.
And you just got to love 60’s video special effects.
Because they were assuming everyone watching was high :P
For that style of effects, “tripping” not “high”. Acid rock, at first, wasn’t a version of hard rock, it was rock you listened to while, well, on acid.
Or so I’ve been told.
Nice.
💕
Over and Over…
They…are doing the same hunched position.
I know I’m gonna get a lot of negativity on this, but this feels like a cop out to me. I mean, Dave admitted that he did it because it “basically opens up the Grrl Verse to basically anything I want to throw in the world.”, which is fine, but it kind of seems like a lazy world-building. You can use anything you want that already exists within mythology and fiction with merely the barest of explanations. I’m not gonna stop reading or anything, it’s just kind of dissapointing. :/
But in the same sort of way using modern-day earth is also a cop out. He doesn’t have to build the political and socio-economic atmosphere or show the morals of the world because it can already be implied with the knowledge we have of our world.
This isn’t uncommon for superhero settings. Both Marvel and DC continuities have aliens, mutants, magic, gods, etc.
Glad to see I’m not the only one a bit disappointed.
I wouldn’t call it a “cop-out” but it does strike me as a “jump the shark” moment.
My problem with all of this is that this sort of thing always falls short on discussing logical ramifications. Using the Big Two as examples:
Why do police in the DC universe still only use revolvers in Metropolis when every fifth crime is done by someone with some degree of super strength and invulnerablility?
Why hasn’t Forge’s neutralizer become standard equipment for SWAT teams in the Marvel universe?
Obviously, this happens a lot with webcomics as well (Questionable Content comes to mind as a strip with a almost complete lack of thought on it’s post-singularity premise.) so it’s not really an issue of readability. This update just strikes me as the moment where the comic shifted into “anything goes” mode where all our previous discussions on “how/why does this work in the depicted society?” get chucked into the same bin that Marvel long ago did with their universe.
Because the cops still deal with normal human criminals
I seriously doubt you will face that problem here. one of the author’s comments strongly implies we are going to be learning a lot in here, given that he is trying to edit it down from 40 pages!
It’s the difference between X-Men and Twilight.
The “fantasy” side of things (vampires, werewolves, elves, pixies, etc) are less interesting to me than aliens and at-least semi-technological explanations for things instead of magic.
For example, it’s been established that the supers don’t know where their powers come from, and how they work. An explanation involving nano-ized widgets turning people into super weapons would be much coooler IMO than if it is being caused by a weakening of the inter-dimensional barrier between our world and a magical realm.
I guess what I am really saying is, please don’t turn this into Twilight. :D
Twilight is a great game, however I suspect you don’t mean Twilight:2000.
Actually the backstory for TW:2000 is a bit grim, let’s not go there either.
Because for the most part they’re not criminals, and just want to live a peaceful life, staying under the radar? Supers have just been introduced to the world proper, and this now allows the shown ‘species’ that have lived on the outskirts to be brought into the world as well. But obviously my view on it is different, sorry I can’t see how it’s a ‘cop out’ as you put it.
Which it would be. Barring the fact that Dave works extremely hard to integrate the hidden elements seamlessly into the greater visible whole.
Look at the various discussions that Dabbler has already had with Sydney. Explaining that aliens are really not interested in Earth’s water, when ice is readily available elsewhere, and is both unguarded and unclaimed. Telling her about the diverse differences of Succubus culture. Anticipating that alien technology could adversely impact Human society, and keeping it out of their hands.
Even telling Sydney about her school days (which we got to see graphically and canonically). All these indicate great depth to the story-telling and world-building. Weaving it into the real world, and trying to factor in the huge variety, that Dave has now introduced, makes it that much harder.
And Dave has never shied away from doing the hard work to develop it.
Second-to-last panel names seven beings, but I only see six.
Gregor, having been introduced earlier, is off-screen rather than represented visually, the same as Ingsol in the panel before.
Ahh, thank you. That answers my confusion on the next page of comments.
So, now your demon sisters (from panty and stockings) duo are complete lol, dabbler and decollete
We have an abundance of creatures of mainly European origin. No kistune or kirin?
And remember Sydney, if the meeting goes past midnight don’t feed the mogwai.
Note that Maxima had a number of introductions she hadn’t gotten to, but stopped because Sydney had keeled over. Maybe the representatives from European factions tend to sit together because they’re more familiar with each other, and there’s a similar cluster of Asian factions.
AfaIK, Kirin/Qillin are generally considered non-sentient and may or may not just be giraffes. Neither of those suggests that they should have a representative, though Kitsune would make sense.
Also, if demons are specifically a subset of *horned* aliens, that would make the Naga a seperate entity worthy of mention. And trust me, as a species that share their name with the original ghost pepper growers, they would be worth mentioning.
There definitely needs to be an homage to “Special Unit 2”.
What I’m wondering is why they were let out of the to attend this meeting?
O.o
Messed up the use of coding for the link, but it still works right.
Sydney’s in her own personal heaven.
I don’t think you grok grok completely yet.
grok : to drink.
I thought that was grog…
::capers merrily away::
No, Grog is a Goliath Barbarian who travels with Vox Machina. Do you know nothing?!? ;)
https://geekandsundry.com/shows/critical-role/
“Grog” is “drink”, “grok” is apparently “to drink”. Subtle but a world of difference.
Originally, ‘grog’ was watered down rum, you can grok grog, but only if you are desperate enough to drink almost anything
Indeed. Rum gradually replaced beer and brandy as the drink of choice among sailors after 1655. Given to the sailors straight, some sailors would save up their ration for several days to drink it all at once. Due to the disciplinary problems that this caused, they started diluting it at the rate of a quart of water per half pint of rum (so 4 parts water to 1 part rum), and allowed the crew to purchase sugar and limes to improve the taste.
The idea that they deliberately added lemon and/or lime juice to combat scurvy is a myth. Lemon juice did not become a daily part of the naval diet until 1795. When a few years later Spain allied itself with France and lemons became unobtainable, West Indian limes were substituted. (Hence the nickname limeys.)
The official British Navy recipe for grog (before it was discontinued in 1970) included lemon juice, water, rum, and cinnamon.
I now understand. I have been mishearing it for decades!
“Transform this decayed form… to Mumm-Ra, the extra-living!”
Which also ties in with Sydney, back at the club the other night, making use of the “Orb of Omens” to “give her sight beyond sight.”
;)
Stranger in a strange land is such a wonderful novel, I can only recommend everyone reading it. The allusions to religion are obvious, but at the same time not offending. Also, adult content – *hint*hint*.
I started a few other books by Heinlein, but these didn’t have the same lose-yourself-in-that-world-feel and I dropped them.
Red Planet is a pretty good one. Practically a prequel to Stranger.
I do enjoy his some of his earlier stuff (Starship Troopers, Moon is a Harsh Mistress), but these were clearly written by a younger man and have a much more pulpl-y feel. Not a bad thing, just… more summer blockbuster than winter oscar bait if you catch my meaning.
I’ve yet to get to reading them, but I’ve been told the Lazarus Long stories are damn entertaining if a bit mind-f***ery. Sort of the proto-Philip K. Dick style.
I have yet to read anything by Heinlein that I haven’t liked, but he’s had some swings in the readability of his writing.
My favorite line from a Heinlein book (roughly – been a while since I read the book): “You monster! You killed a kitten!” from The Cat Who Walked Through Walls (which, incidentally, only tangentially has anything to do with the actual cat and the word “walls” has several meanings it touches on).
I had read every book he wrote, by the time I was twelve. Loved them.
haha nice one for the demons, decolette. pretty sure you went for “cleavage“ . the best temptation out there lol
Since there isn’t a representative for celestials (even though we saw an angelic cheerleader in a flashback) it appears that either the celestial population on earth is much lower than demons and/or they aren’t social enough to be on the Twilight council (maybe they start throwing divine fire at the demon and “extra-living” reps).
Could also be that they sort of CAN’T be part of the council. Assuming they at least THINK they’re operating under an omniscient with some very strict rules on interference and/or intel sharing, they would just sit their making strained faces at everyone.
Also imagined angels are sort stuck in the Star Trek situation with the Prime Directive (Divine Directive?), Directly acting in the world could be seen as both denying us free will AND denying “God’s Plan”, so imagine them more as observers, with specific missions and goals that they accomplish through more gentle nudges.
But then… they see something hella messed up, leave their senses for a bit and just say “screw it”.And that’s how we get stories of angels saving people from plane crashes and stuff.
OR
Saving a given person is directed by the Almighty and is an essential part of that plan, which seems a bit unfair to those of us without omniscience (everyone’s got a story, Grace…).
There’s a fair amount of different takes on angels out there. Stephen R Donaldson has a short story where angels get sent but can’t act until they are given permission to act, thus preserving free will (leading to the unsettling notion that most of the time when we suffer, it’s because we’re too proud to ask for help – this has resonance for me and my life). Avenging angels are pretty common. The TV show “Saving Grace” has angels as generally confidants and advisors, rarely if ever taking action (and, incidentally, usually being just as in the dark about The Plan until they need to know, going back to the “Need to Know” discussion earlier).
They do present a logic problem, those angels… at least, based on our limited/incomplete data set and perceptions on what is “The Universe”.
They became too annoying from the handing out of pamphlets. OR the firecode would not permit their flaming swords.
Lucifer is an example of how divine interference might work.
Great series (so far), and next season gets even more interesting :D
Always giggled at the “Reed Richards is useless’ and “Cut Lex Luthor a check” tropes. They always hand wave it with the “in the wrong hands” or “no one but I could possibly understand how to work it”, but the reality is that Iron Man could stop 1,000x more crime by making just the Arc Reactor publicly available. I mean… OPEC would certainly be displeased, but by making the tech open source, it would allow them to at least trade over without going COMPLETELY bankrupt overnight.
And I guess decollate is just cleavage of a different sort.
This is your comic, so you run it how you want, buuuuut…. OH MY GOD CAN THERE PLEASE BE MORE GOLEMS?!
I love golems and golem lore so much, but there’s so little of it out there in the sci-fi/fantasy world.
Just a tip: You might want to look up the RPG “Promethean: the Created” by the now defunct game studio White Wolf. ;-) That its maker collapsed may be a good thing: a more limited collection of (game) books to collect.
Heh. RPGs. Even if you don’t play, they make for really engrossing reading.
Was never a fan of the game system / rules set, but White Wolf truly did amazing campaign settings. Reading a White Wolf rulebook is almost as pleasant as reading a Legend of the Five Rings rulebook.
Or a novel. :D
Have you read The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker? (the title characters in early 20th century New York–a good read)
or The Golem’s Mighty Swing by James Sturm (a graphic novel about baseball. And a golem)
or The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Alternate world Siegel and Schuster, maybe?)
That’s all I can think of right off the top, aside from the late Sir Terry.
Just a small nitpick, but shouldn’t “sirelings” be childer? Sireling sounds like a small sire or a sire under the purview of another sire.
DaveB addressed this in page 1. He was trying to figure out a good term for a vampire created by another but wanted to avoid “childe” from the Vampire: the Masquerade RPG.
Most people seem to look at “sireling” and see the noun form of sire, not the verb. Taken from the verb, a “sireling” is a young/recently sired, not a young sire.
I never knew I wanted this, but of COURSE I WANTED THIS.
Other fun “de”-words:
DECIMATE: literally, “To reduce something by a tenth.”
DEFENESTRATE: literally, “To throw out a window.”
So decimation can get chillingly and selectively bloody–the Romans used it to discipline disgraced legions, killing every tenth man–while defenestration can merely involve an over-enthusiastic housecleaning (although historically there have been a few rather enthusiastic assassination attempts involving opened windows and gravity).
Technically, “decimate” isn’t a “de” word, it’s a “deci” word.
Er… someone get Sydney a pillow? And some tissue for her nose? That’s a LOT of blood…
Let us hope not. Not with at least three vampires in the room!
In the alien contingent we need to have a representative from Bajor. Their religion has nine orbs that each produce a specific effect when interacted with. Each one also has a specific color. Maybe they can give some insight for Sydney’s group.
https://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Orb
https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/database/bajoran_orbs.htm
Dang you Dave, I do NOT need a Grrl Power – Wapsi Square crossover running through my head right now!
(The demons are the only big issue. Wapsi demons are much different and, with very rare exceptions, do not have independent existence in the normal physical world.)
Except for Tina, sort of
And Connie.
I always mix up grok with grep (the unix command to return the line that contains the following text).
I still remember in High School hearing the Computer Lab teacher (who ran the school server) say to the student Sysadmins, “I grepped the ‘e’s out of the password file, fix it.”
Yeah, email was down that day.
I keep reading Ingsol’s name as Ingsoc…
For those what don’t understand, read 1984.
*Bump
#Grok
I’m still wondering what an Odyssian is.
I too feel a bit stupid for not intuitively knowing what an Odyssian is – I’m guessing some sort of “Wandering Pan-dimensionalist” / Planeswalker (a la M:TG CCG), but that’s pure speculation.
Official verdict is “They’re beings from Greek and general Mediterranean legend that don’t fit in to other categories like undead.” Something of a general cop-out, IMO, given how gorgon powers seem to fit into the scope of the grrlverse “Demons” and there is very little besides location tying these “Odyssians” together.
It comes from the Odyssey, the second oldest piece of Western literature. Odysseus is familiar to most of us through retelling of his journey, slaying the medusa, taming Pegusus, and so on. As such we should read it as covering any beings out of Greek mythology. As confirmed by Dave, near the beginning of the fist page of comments, for this comic.
in Greek mythology Perseus killed Medusa, Pegasus was born from her blood. None of them are in the Odyssey, which is the story of Odysseus taking the scenic route while returning from the Trojan war.