Grrl Power #455 – Pre-position
Now we’re starting to get to some of that plot stuff I keep hearing about. Really the explanation Ingsol is about to drop should be fairly self evident, given what all you guys know about the things Sydney has seen, like at the club (and even some of the things she’s missed, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
It’s weird in a lot of shows I’ve seen that the supernatural elements get by on nothing more than simply not getting caught. A lot things can mess with their victims’ memories, but that would be an increasingly unreliable method of escaping detection in an age of camera proliferation, be they cell phones, traffic or dash cams. Yes, sometimes creatures futz with electronics too, causing brown outs or having mini EMP auras or whatever, but an agency motivated to catch such creatures could pretty easily track those sorts of disruptions. In other words, their primary means of escaping detection would actually become a liability when facing a properly equipped foe.
The Veil is a more comprehensive solution, but it’s hardly something some Clurichaun hiding in your cellar or a Leshi hiding in the woods could ever enact, (yeah, I can google obscure mythological creatures) much less the Bunnicula in your pen.
I’ve updated the vote incentive with some art I was practicing with. I’ve tried several methods to color the comic. The basic one is just pick colors from the palette and color away. Effective but not super efficient. Lately I’ve been putting in flat colors, then doing a multiply layer for shadows and an add layer for highlights. Slightly more efficient but the colors tend to look a little samey since everything is tinted similarly. I’ve gotten around that by going back in and adjusting the hues of the multiply later in certain areas, especially skin tones, but that doesn’t help with the efficiency. This latest version involves painting in all the tone values in black and white, then slopping some color overtop of it, mostly in a soft light layer. This is my first attempt with the technique and I think it came out ok, I’ll have to do a few more tries with it to see if it’s a practical choice for the comic, but if for no other reason, I like it because it’s really easy to do stuff like add a little red to noses and blush on cheeks without losing the tonal values. Granted the eyeshadow on Harem (that’s supposed to be punk Harem with a different haircut – I followed my reference picture a little too closely) makes it look like she’s been rubbing her eyes or something, but like I said it’s literally my first attempt with the technique. More to come hopefully.
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 :)
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It’s who you know and what you can do.
And in some cases, what you know and who you can do. =OP
Don’t even get me started; I’ve got too many places to see, things to go & people to do to have time for this.
Sounds like “The Masquerade”. :P
Yup! Although I don’ think the Camarilla would be nearly as pleased with a human who could see through Obfuscate.
off to the blood bank with this one.
and not the donor bank. the weird storage building blood bank bank
Such a human would quickly join the Camarilla. They are not ones to waste resources.
Remember: This is NOT the World Of Darkness, so I doubt the Camarilla or the Sabbat exist.
Shit! You’ve beat me to it.
Goddamit, Daemion….
Funnily enough, “The Veil” is the exact term the V:tM sister-game Werewolf: the Apocalypse uses.
https://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Veil_(cWOD)
Yup, I wonder if it works the same entirely.
Not quite the same.
The Masquerade is a propaganda program that’s been in action since the beginning of “The Age of Reason,” as a wide-spread denial of anything supernatural (particularly. vampires).
The Veil is centered in the human psyche. As the Garou enforced the Imperigium (deliberate culling of over-expanding human populations), the human mind became fearful of the wilderness as a form of self defense. Over succeeding generations, this translated into the modern form of “rationalizing away” an encounter with a werewolf (if the person survives it). It manifests as the human tendency to sub-consciously alter the person’s own memory into something that doesn’t include the existence of werewolves.
Actually, what you’re talking about- the psychological effect- is the Delirium. The Veil is the resulting assumption and rationalization of humans that werewolves and the supernatural don’t exist. While the Delirium is an automatic reaction among humans, the Veil is something that has to be maintained by the Garou.
Expanding on that, the processes of that Veil-maintenance often directly parallel Masquerade maintenance. In fact, under the right circumstances (IE under threat of immediate exposure), that’s one of the few things that can cause the normally contentious vampires and werewolves to cooperate.
Yeah, when the Delirium is resisted, the Veil has been penetrated.
Huh, I didn’t know that. There’s only so many names for face coverings though. :) Maybe I should rename mine to “The Domino Mask” or “That sort of half mask thingy the Phantom of the opera wore.”
What about The: Guise, Seeming, Film, Pother, Scud, Nebulosity? Down the rabbit hole of Thesaurus.com!
Noseeums
Fooledya
Nuttintaseehere
Somebodyelsesproblem
Thewaywedo
All the good ones have been used like “The Masquerade” etc…
Maybe if it was done by a spell you could give it a funny DnD type name like, “Maybelline’s Universal Concealer” (their actual products already sound like spell names anyway: Maybelline® Instant Age Rewind << real name)
Perhaps if you chance the metaphor context from ‘people wearing masks’ to ‘players on a stage’. Then, the processes of the concealment could be discussed in terms of acting or scene design rather than costuming. ‘the curtain lifts… and the world people see is the one that we constructed for them to see. They understand only the world of the production, and leave us unmolested behind the stage.
‘The curtain’ works well. Very well. It derives from the medieval Latin “cōrtīna“, in which it is metonymically* associated with the covering of the Tripod of Apollo.
And from the ancient Latin “cohors“. Which is, in turn, Compound of co- (see cum) and -hors (see hortis). The first part of that compound being:
Again this is most apt if the term stems from antiquity, where those-in-the-know use it to refer to their great magic (or whatever the reveal indicates shortly), which keeps humanity from observing the hidden world too closely.
I commend this to DaveB, should he wish to change the term, to avoid the associations already mentioned elsewhere. Unless, of course, other folks point out that “the curtain” has likewise seen significant use. Which… would not be surprising. But hopefully such connotations will not be as closely associated as “the Veil” is with the White Wolf products.
* A figure of speech, or something which is not referred to directly. Which is really really nice, if seeking to show that “The Curtain” is something which has existed in ancient times, is associated with things of great power, yet is so important that one does not refer to it directly but purely by alluding to it!
‘The Obtusity’ would be a great name.
If he had called it the curtain, DaveB would surely have found a way to work in that famous line from The Wizard Of Oz:
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
To be fair, there’s only so many terms that mean ‘concealment’ that doesn’t come off as overpretentious or unpronouncable.
The viel.
the mist.
the darkness.
the labyrint. (This would be a effect that guide the humen mind on tje wrong path, just a dog carring a papper not a wearwolf reading the papper.)
plenty of alternative
Exactly what I was thinking.
I believe the Masquerade is basically just a code of silence. It doesn’t appear to involve illusions as far as I can tell.
It’s really just an umbrella-term for any effort by the Camari- erm, I mean the whole of the vampiric race *coughcough* to keep their existence a secret. That includes a “code” of silence, the usage of magic, clean-up crews, bribes, murders….pretty much all the natural and supernatural has to offer to maintain it.
Well if you called it “The Mist” you would have to avoid Sydney asking if Percy Jackson was real. Of course other contenders include Harry Potter’s “Veil of Secrecy”, Brandon Mill’s Fablehaven series which also has a “Veil”(I think it’s called that), and the varied by species abilities portrayed in the Mercy Thompson series. Depends on how “Nerdy” Sydney wanted to get.
Meh. “the Veil” as a PASSIVE always running effect that duplicates the …
“dont look here too close” and or “see what you think you should to see” “nothing to see here move along” “anything but a monster”
… effect is fine. WoD may have made the trope famous but its such a really good idea it just makes too much sense for it to not be in any supernatural-esque Story.
Whether its an innante ability that a monster cant loose. Like the werewolves in WoD
Or its a convenient mask that one can sometimes inconveniently loose. like a Predator’s cloaking device.
Creating some vast centuries long “conspiracy” that has to actively run around and “fix” things when something gets found out (il-loom-in-naughty confirmed?) via (mass?)murder, kidnapping, bribery,being the Authority, destroying/discrediting/mindwiping any witness/evidence etc. can work but only in a setting that comes after an Age of Reason and before an Age of Instant Mass Communication. (social Media).
Even then it is so much complex work that pulling off such a trick without error is even more unbelievable (given suficent amount of time) than the spooky things such a trick is meant to hide.
World wide “someone else’s problem” field.
Yeah that’s why I like the Mercy Thompson approach of different species going about it in their own way. Fae have Glamour, Vampires are hypnotic and Werewolves have a spell like effect affectionately referred to as “look at me not”.
The Changeling book has something more on point than the Masquerade or the Delerium. Changelings on Earth have The Mists, which cause humans with a high enough banality (which is most humans) to be incapable of seeing the fae for what they are. Young children are sometimes exceptions to the rule though, since they’re frequently more imaginative and less ensconsed in banality than adults. Also, insane people tend to be able to see through the Mists as well.
The Masquerade WAS a code of silence back in the Dark Ages (talking WoD in-setting history). Then, the code wasn’t enough. Enough people slipped up at keeping mortals in the dark that the Inquisition kicked up (along with its real world causes), and in the aftermath of the Inquisition and the Anarch Revolt’s mad scramble to restructure vampiric society in the wake of some poorly managed survival strategies, the Masquerade was expanded into a larger coherent network of influence and media management. Individual breeches still need to be directly patched and addressed, but the largest effort is just in getting humanity to stop thinking of vampires as real things that are definitely real (but they won’t tell you if they are on), and to start thinking of vampires as fake things that are definitely made up (so you should feel silly for thinking your neighbor might be one).
*if they are one
My laptop keyboard is annoying about missing keystrokes sometimes.
Good call for Maxima. Once Sydney gets stuck like that, she’s going to take that train of thought and ride it out completely.
Also good call on that Sydney is (normally) quite good at figuring things out, and she came very damn close, and figured out the reason why they went with THE VEIL! as opposed to Vale, who went with Deus
The reason Sydney could not figure it out is that her new magic hair band is emitting a low level confusion spell to muddle her thoughts. A ploy by the demons to prevent her from discovering their TRUE AGENDA! (click. click.)
Dammit. This thing isn’t working again. KRAKOOOM!
Jokes on them, because such a low level of confusion is insignificant next to the regular levels of confusion already present.
You can’t fool me, because I’m a moron -The giant
Straight to the derailer just before the end-of-line block.
Well, it’s already evening & maybe even fairly late, so Sydney might think about a dose of her meds right now. It could be why she’s focusing on a tangent, rather than sticking to more direct-line thinking.
She took her medicine at the restaurant not too long ago. Don’t you remember Puppet Maxima?
She took “generic” short term medication, which have side effects of making her loopier than normal. I’m assuming that means a smaller dose than normal of Adderall.
Generic has to be just as good as the name brand it replaces. Legal requirement.
The generic could be a duplicate of a different drug from her morning dose. Rittalin vs Adderall vs Dexedrine.
For most people it’s important they take the same amount at the same time every day, allowing it to build up in their system and reach set amount. Start playing with your dose and your levels will fluctuate for days, especially if you miss your morning dose and try to compensate with a double evening dose. For people with attention problems, this is usually worse than not being on the drugs at all.
I would point out the ‘as good’ requirement can be damaging as the off brand does not need to have the same ingredients and if it is a drug you have to build up in your system. Then you just lowered your dose on the first one and are now beginning to get the new drug in your system. This is why medical insurance shouldn’t just decide which version you are getting this refill.
By law the “active” ingredients have to be exactly the same and thanks to copyright and other shenanigans in the industry the other ingredients may or may not have an affect on the effectiveness of the active ingredients or the patient in some way.
What you need is a good pharmacist and not listening to the name brand owners [and their propaganda] whose only interest is separating you from your money [including future earnings, house, education, food] as quickly as possible.
I work in this messed up industry and here in N.A. profit is the highest priority and patient health and well-being are very low on the list, just bellow getting tossed in prison by the FDA.
When was the last time a CEO, CFO, board member, investment capitalist was tossed in the slammer for destroying lives for profit?
Early on in my mother’s dementia, one of her dementia medications was very VERY expensive, so on the pharmacist’s advice we tried an optional generic. Came to find out that one of its inactive ingredients reacted with another medication she was taking and the by-product was one she was very sensitive to (known allergic reaction, for which we tested after we twigged something was up).
Back to the the brand name, problem solved. Also, pharmacist asked if we would be willing to provide docs for her to send in to… I want to say the FDA. Could have been the state version.
Then again, my whole family is odd when it comes to meds. I’m very morphine resistant (takes a double dose appropriate for my body weight to even kick in, fades completely in about 30-40 minutes) and I don’t react well with blood pressure meds, one brother is extremely allergic to pretty much any topical pain killers, another brother processes antibiotics at a ridiculous rate, and my sister can take the same dose of most meds and get wildly different reactions each time.
We are not well liked at the doctors office.
As someone who takes it, all forms of ritalin/adderall are identical.
My box just says “Methylphenidate”, not even a brand name on it.
Yeah ok…Point conceded.
@David Nuttall
As a conductor, I get and appreciate that reference. :)
You lead a band playing music? Cool.
The veil is….. Denial
A giant “Not My Problem” field?
I believe the proper term is actually: “S.E.P. Field” the Somebody Else’s Problem” Field… can’t remember where that originally came from… Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy maybe?
Yeppers.
Personally prefer “NIMBY”
NIMBY is a ridiculous looking donkey headed dragon….
and is an exclusionary process used on:
S.E.P. is more the proper term. the catch is that it can be defeated…by careful and rapid vision manipulation. I suspect the Veil is… more robust.
You calling Weatherheight a dragon?
Not In My Back-Yard you don’t!!
I have one in my front yard, with Feral Cat. Err a dragon that is, not Weatherheight. That would be ridiculous!
Although I would be happy to have such a respected commentator here, needless to say.
thank you for illustrating NIMBY.
but yes there is a donkey headed dragon named NIMBY out there, but he is not as he appears to be….
Upside: Wings! Yay!
Downside: Very, very, VERY bad breath and scaly tail. Boo!
Long silky tail beats scaly bum.
And Nimby is no relation – Momma said so.
Fire breath is totally an upside. Unless you’re prone to hiccups.
::mumbles something about not getting enough kisses at it is::
I thought I had the term wrong! Thank you.
Actually, it’s an SEP (Somebody Else’s Problem) shield, as described by Doug Adams.
;)
That’s basically what The Masquerade is, according to V:tM. After so many decades (maybe even centuries) of “reasonable, rational” people openly denying the existence of the supernatural as a “propaganda program,” people learn to simply dismiss anything out of the ordinary or try to rationalize it away (the Werewolf side of the game, known as the Veil). People tend to get very comfortable in their own paradigm of how they view the world & they’ll go through a lot of mental calisthenics to keep their viewpoint intact.
Um, technically, the Maquerade is not the same thing as The Veil.
The Masquerade is for avoiding that minor, seemingly normal things but not really, gets through the Veil, and then appears as fridge logic afterwards.
Remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer? At the end of “The Harvest” – Giles: People have a tendency to rationalize what they can and forget what they can’t.
It can become an evolutionary trait. Kick up a fuss and say things like “we are all just cattle being harvested!” and your genes will be promptly removed from the gene-pool! Plus dwelling on that-which-cannot-be-changed, just leads to loss of productivity, depression and suicide. All of which will lessen propagating genes which encourage that behaviour.
So, in a dystopian world, where humanity is on the bottom half of the food pyramid, having a natural inclination to rationalise away the truly horrific, would indeed be prevalent in society.
Bit late, but, isn’t that in De Egypt? o_O
Some people merely think that life is like a documentary. Halo actually narrates.
Now quick, get her in and out before she starts asking to pick up another template, class, or trinket.
Ingsol tends to transpose the pronunciation of his W’s and V’s. (Was/Vas, Very/Wery)
When he said Sydney’s powers allow her to pierce The Veil, was he trying to say The Whale?
The Whale… Yes. Giant 11th Dimensional Space Whale Magic. Imp’s shard gets a real workout.
And the Petunias
And the ones who talk about the conspiracy are just the ones who have the required Thinker powers?
“I’ll let him explain, himself”
“Eeeeeeeee eeee eeeeeeeeeee eee e e eeeeeeeeee”
DaveB missed an easy setup where Ingsol could’ve said Whale when he meant to say Veil, and the whole next page is a huge miscommunication between him and Sydney about killing Whales.
“Vhen you hold that orb, you pierce…The Whale.”
*Sydney glances at the PPO* “You want me to kill Shamu?”
“Vhat?”
“What?”
Ahh, it iz maintained by ze veil-vearing vale, in vales. In Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
yorpie, i thought you were forbidden from returning to wales… something about whiskey and bicycles and Yorpie Snax?
Don’t leave out the rubber duckies and the marmalade. That was the best part!
::wiggles his ears humorously::
It only happened the once! And they rebuilt the vicarage, with no problem!
The vicarage was not the issue.
It is the fact that the pub still smells of wet dog, 6 month old onions, an irate gerbil, and 5 politicians making a back room deal.
And just what does an irate gerbil smell like?
Ask your father.
How does an assembly line robot smell?
With optional olfactory sensors and plug ‘n play software.
01001001 01110100 00100000 01101100 01101111 01101111 01110011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110
He smells of elderberries.
“Vhere do you keep your cetacean wessels?”
“Cartesian Weasels? What?”
“NO! Cetacean wessels!”
Courtesan whales? No no the Free Willy movement stopped that.
Chartreuse Weasels? We keep those by the Black Foxes and Scarlet Pimpernels! Be careful though, one of those is a Red Herring.
Red herring? And here I thought it was a crimson kipper.
Not until next week, his cape is at the cleaners.
Don’t ask Ace, he will just want to smoke it, and maybe have it for breakfast
I’m thinking more he probably had that idea, and cut it, to move things along.
There’s always room for a mini-comic below the strip, to fit in throwaway joke.
Whales! only if you an improbability drive
Yeah, he said that word correctly, which is a far cry from how Sydney wanted him to say “nuclear vessels.”
:D
Yes, but it comes and goes as needed for humorous effect. Plus I didn’t have room on the page for the
“The Wail”
“The Whale”
“The VvvWale. Vvvw…vvveil.”
Joke.
Not to mention The Well.
He said it in a fancy script. That usually trumps any accents, speech impediments, etc.
Is it anything to do with the (inappropriately named) Mandella Effect?
Don’t get me started on my personal experience that implies the past isn’t what it used to be!
(In the early 1980s….)
It is far better to focus on the here and now, and convince yourself that such changes do not happen. If you examine them too closely, and you think too much on how reality only exists because of your memory telling you that it does, and then realise how fallible memory is… things can start to go ā̡̡̛̖̹̼̥̘̭̹̖̀̌̔̌̀͋͊̚ļ̞̫̰͈̼͇̘͌̑̋̍́̅̌̒͐͘͜ͅļ̢̛̞̠͕̼̥̻̟͔͐͆̄̆̀̉̈́͛̕ ̳͈̥͉̬̼͇̪͎̟̏͌̋̓͗͒̓͌̓́ẅ̢̢͓̖̫̱̯̅̄̿̅̎̓͛͛̚͜͜͜į̛̩͓̻̬̞̳̺̠̥͆̔̾͗͐̃̄̓̑b̡͈̝̗̣̖̞̠̦̯͐͐̐̈́̿́̊̽͘͠b̰̭͍̟̲̮͕͚͇̆͆̀̀͆̾̀͒̚̚͜l̛̦̯͍̣͍̞͙̟̘̑̆̊̑̋̅̋͗͜͠y̙̝̳̠͔̟̼̻̗̔̄̽͆̔̉̎̕͝͠ͅ ͇̣̯̟̼̠̩̙̫̤̏̈̑͑̏̇͌̌̓̒w̧̬̫̣̺̳͈̝̰͎͑̏̇̊̄͑̑͑̃͊o̡͙̬͙̹̬̺͙̳̙̐̀̅̊͋̀̋͛͒͠b̛̮̙͓̥̳͎̳̟̳̈́͒̒̃́̂̚͘͠ͅb̧̩͈͍̤̖͓̭̖̦̀̀͂̈́̂̀̿̇̈̉l̢̟̬̱͖̪̞̭̬̆͒̿̍͊̆͑̌͘͜͝y̨̖̠̼̼̞̰̹̺̎̌͌̈́͌̍̔́̕̕ͅ!
H͍͍̹̣͙͚̬̯͚͟͠e҉͉̪̬̦͘͞ ̴̨͉͎̕c̴̮͕̝̤̻̣͢ͅo̩̠̯͉̝͕m̴̵͇̪̼͈̣̟͎ę̧̭̫͍̲̖͔̞̲͍s҉̱̫͍̖͈.̵̧̦̪͎̱̲̤̟ͅ.̨̹͚̺̹̮̦͙͓̀͠.̪̼͟
How the hell did you two do that to your text?
Enjoy Zalgo
Oh, good (well, at least better). I thought I was the only one seeing that.
Aww we missed a trick. We could have denied it and blamed it on their browser, or the apprentice of Tͦ̓̌͋͂̔̔̚H̐̾͑ͫ̌͊͑̐̏̎́̇̎̂͛̂̎͆Eͤͤͦ̓ͪͧ͌̔ͫͤ̍͋ ̊ͪ̉͂̃̑ͭ͐͒̄̉̋͋̅͋̂D̎̎ͭ͐̀̊͗ͤͥÄ́͗͊̏̄ͦ̃ͤ̿͊̚R̂̇̇̾ͮK̿̍ͬͫ̎ ͐̉̽ͬ̓̔͊̉̋̎̚O͋̉̌ͥͬ͌ͯͫ͌̑̎̿̈́̓̍̍Ǹ͒̀͑ͧ͒ͬ͑͑̄̑E̐̐͐̍̿̌̅͐̌̆̊̾ͫ
😈 😱 😈
😧 😈 😧
😈 😱 😈
That’s what he said, voice dripping with s̛͙͈͙͔͓̻a̟͉̹̞̹̲r̷̤̗̳c̨̜ḁ͙͡sm̰͕̩͍̹
Just as long as you don’t blame in on any out-of-date meds I may or may not be taking….
In technical terms, they’re using Unicode combining diacritics. Eg. instead of writing ê as a single character, you can write e^ using special version of the ^ character and it combines visually to ê even though it is multiple symbols. There’s no limit to how many marks you can pile on a single character and there are a lot of combining marks across all the languages covered by Unicode…
So what you’re saying is that Unicode is evil? =OP
More Evil-Integration-Compliant than actually evil.
I was kinda hoping that it was actually that there were places around the world that were set up as communities for not fully human and non-human species, that allows them to live in peace. They would be set up in places that people don’t generally go to, like Wyoming.
Or the Upper North Side in New York City
Not too familiar with that area. Never made it out to New York. So I’ll take your word for it.
Never been further than Las Vegas personally, not even American
Getting in is easy. The trick is escaping. Make sure Snake Plissken is on your side.
and keep up. It’s very important to keep up.
You might nee a surfboard, though.
Although Plissken (call him “Snake”) had this disturbing tendency (in both movies, no less) of getting shot in one of his legs.
Avalons, then?
A Bunnicula in my pen, is that a thing? I rather thought of a Fornit, even though they live in type writers (and probably compuputers) rather than mere pens.
Third panel, left banner displays the Konami Code. Did not notice until closer inspection after reading the whole page. Well played!!!
That’s the banner for AI’s, robots, holosapiens, and other such technorganics. Pretty sure Pixel is one of them.
Pixel is human, and a member of Archon
Vance qualifies on one of those counts too.
Depends on how much truth speaks with billions of palps
That would explain why she looks bored most of the time.
The cheatiest of all the cheating cheaters.
[Inserts New England Patriots joke]
Responds with a Hillary Clinton comment.
Laughs not because it’s a Hilliary Clinton joke, but because the term is more apt describing another presidential candidate of a different leading national party than it is of her. =OD
This is going to be something like the Percy Jackson/Scion/Urban Arcana solution where most people just see a normal person, I’m expecting.
I’m actually not familiar with any of those. I mean, I’ve listened to bits of some Percy Jackson audio books in the car while going home for Thanksgiving, but I was reading something else on my Kindle (which is challenging let me tell you) so I only caught bits and pieces, but I don’t recall a cloaking thing. But that’s probably to be expected since I only caught like 20% of the books.
It’s a fairly common thing.
In Scion people tend to not quite believe the supernatural. I mean, stories told empower the supernatural in that setting, so some see through it and tell the actual story, or exaggerate it (resulting in your legend increasing and getting more powerful if you’re a scion), but when most people see a giant or oni or cyclops they’ll just see a tall guy and not really notice he’s like ten feet tall. Bigger giants might get mistaken for being trees or the like. Fenrir pups will get seen as rabid dogs or wolves…etc.
Percy Jackson is similar.
Urban Arcana again, lots of D&D type races such as drow ending up in the modern world and most people see them as ordinary types. A pack of goblins look like a gang of young thugs. A drow lady looks like a somewhat dark skinned slender woman…most don’t see through the shadow but once they do they always see through it.
Lots of settings use something similar.
In my case, most of the surviving sentient races in Divine Blood look human or can look human and most individuals lead boring, mundane lives. So they just don’t stand out. Sydney would be disappointed.
And for the very obscure “the truth is out there right under your nose” game reference…
Bureau 13 is a government agency that is actively monitoring / regulating / policing the supernatural in the US. A big part of their job is not only stopping disruptive supernatural events but also covering them up, often with somewhat-implausible-but-typically-conspiracy-theory-like “excuses” (“I just saw you guys fight a Dragon!” “Swamp gas. Nothing more.”)
They also use spells very much like the “Men in Black” Neuralizer (preceding such by decades).
The thing with Scion is that there are supernatural types who can effectively ‘fly under the radar’, and there are supernatural types who can’t. Dwarves, for instance, being essentially muscular but proportional short people are often taken to be human. A ten foot tall blue skinned giant, however, won’t get the same reaction because there’s something obviously inhuman about him (the blue skin). People encounter a Nemean Boar, and start telling stories about Hogzilla. There are often efforts to rationalize the ‘weird’, but it does register as weird, and there isn’t a perception filter in operation keeping anyone from noticing the obviously impossible.
Honestly, the fact that the classical gods and myths are experiencing a resurgence and that the rest of the world isn’t going to be able to keep ignoring it is one of the core conceits of Scion as a setting.
Well, as ominous fonts go, that one isn’t bad.
In an unrelated note, Maxima in the 5th panel, looks like she has bags under her eyes as 1 gets when he/she doesn’t get enough sleep.
Papyrus is my favorite.
It sure as heck isn’t a bridal veil!
Oh go on, think of the possibilities. I bet you would fancy Chorius, in one!
Thank you for that. My mind shall now hold an aversion to Hell Girl until the day I die.
If the second is a bridal veil, I’m assuming it’s a very interesting wedding… and possibly an even more interesting marriage.
I doubt it has any connection but, is the veil related to anything Dragon Age-ey?
I suspect not. Dave has already indicated a leaning towards the White Wolf settings, so the suggestions further up the page are more likely. But I often miss nods that Dave has, so maybe.
A nod is as good as a wink to the drunken sailor-mouse
I think that it is more akin to the “Mist” from Rick Riordans mythology books
Isn’t the Veil where the geth tend to hang out?
Good memory! The Perseus Veil, specifically (a nebula of opaque gas and dust that separates geth space from the Terminus Systems.)
When I read “The Veil,” my mind immediately went back to the one in the video game Wolfenstein. The game though describes that Veil as a sort of barrier between our dimension and another.
While realizing that the person in panel four only exists in Sydney’s mind, is that supposed to be a Dryad?
Looks more like an Ent
Which would explain Maixima’s comment that Halo was “off on a tang-ent”?
I was thinking , until I remembered Magic not Alien.
Flora colossus.
I’ll blame that on unfamiliarity with this particular comment system’s tag syntax.
I’m thinking more along the lines of
https://shifters.keenspace.com/.
We really need an edit function on this comment-section :)
“Starts unpacking the trophies” AGAIN!
I am glad that Sydney failed to deduce the correct method, on her own. It keeps her feeling human, rather than omniscient.
And also like how keen she looks, in the final panel.
Although it does make me think of her contrast to Blade Bunny’s “I don’t want to hear your boring backstory!” and Zintiel’s “Look… that sounds boring, but you obviously want to tell me, so…”
She may have gotten the correct method wrong, but she did figure out the flaws in the other metho which led to The Veil method
Sydney probably would have gotten there, though . . . eventually. Yes, she got a little distracted here and, yes, she might have needed a little nudge to get her back on track, but if Maxima had been a little more patient then she surely would have gotten there.
Perhaps those mages they were waiting for are finally turning up and Max felt the need to hurry this along? ☺
Surprise, surprise. The Veil in an actual veil they all wear when out in public, that makes people see a normal human.
And so they don’t need to wear their veil when at home, but don’t have to have to curtains drawn 24/7, they employ a slightly less portable version on every window, known as The Voile!
But does the veil match the cuffs?
If so, that is a kinky couple, behind the curtains.
It seems that the Veil is no match for Sydney’s Truesight orb…!
when i think veil i think a literal one (of sorts). If this works in the way I think it does, imagine something like the “birthday suits” from codename K.N.D or one of those personal use shower curtains. Like, its a ring you put on your head and the curtain sorta floops down and covers your body in a circle. Except, in this case the “veil” is invisible obviously.
No, that would fall under “trinket”.
Presumably, the Veil is a worldwide spell or effect, sort of like the Mist from the Percy Jackson series.
The VEIL!
The vile veil of veritable villainy!
Verily!
Veracifed!
)
Love the new vote incentive! I vote every day anyway but it’s nice to see new art, especially of this quality.
👍
Just wondering: who is the invotive? Is it the hither-to un-mentioned sixth Harem?
Oh, finally managed to see the name of the file, wonder what powers Ms Shading has :p
Sez DaveB:
To be honest, I didn’t recognize her either.
Only just read the Authurb (Author Blurb), usually read it earlier if catch the Update closer to time
The new haircut didn’t throw me off enough to fail recognizing those freckles…
;)
Totally recognized her; totally love it. Looks very good, Dave – I hope it’s faster/easier for you to do, too.
Second classic gag used in a great webcomic – today’s Girl Genius has Crunchy Frog from Monty Python in it…. https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160905
The art looks great. I wonder where the plot is going, maybe the villain interfering with The Veil(tm), that would give our heroes something to do. I wonder if White Wolf used the term veil for something back in the day. It sounds familiar in a supernatural sort of way.
Possibly, but it looks like the reason Halo is there is limited to her true sight orb’s ability to see through it.
I’m guessing it’s something like the Mask in Changeling: The Lost.
This could explain why in an era of technology with automatically focusing cameras every picture or video of things like UFOs, ghosts, or Bigfoot is without exception blurry as hell.
In panel 2 we get a new group insignia. This one looks fairly easy to decode.
It is a green ‘Banner’ with a purple ‘T’ (as in trousers)
Obviously the Hulk contingent.
Im guessing its a large scale aoe spell thats up permanently, like a world wide ward or some such thing. Maybe one for each nation or whatever scale they have to work with. I fully expect to see the wardstone soon.
it’s either a mass glamour spell with physical properties, or a giant SEP field as others have said.
I keep picturing Sydney suddenly saying that in a turn of the twentieth aristocratic english accent in that last word bubble.
What I’m wondering is how ominously, or portentiously, or whatever Ingsol said, “The Veil,” in order to get thatkind of font!
Casting director, for Grrl Power the Movie, please take note. We will need someone with a powerfully emotive voice. This is not something we want to resort to special effects to replicate, as it would degenerate from a portentous comment, to an off-key comedic one.
We will have to bring back Christopher Lee from the other side of the… Veil…. May he rest in piece until such time…
Damn, he would have made an excellent Ingsol.
Thinking of getting Christopher Walken to play Ingsol.
Sydney’s hypothesis reminds me of the comic Fable. In that world, odd-looking fables had to rely on witches’ spells to disguise them, which caused problems. I vaguely remember characters that couldn’t go outside because they couldn’t afford the spells and such.
Are we going with Discworld’s sensory overwrite, or whatever it’s called, where the creatures don’t even have to try to hide, the adult brain and “common sense” does it for them?
Your gamer cred is confirmed.
Oo, ooo! I know! “The veil” is a general stupidity cloud, cast over the general populace. it causes them to ignore completely outrageous things right in front of their eyes!
like vampires.. werewolves.. top government officials “losing” emails…
It explains SO MUCH!
So I was wondering . . .
Is there any such a thing as a cold Diggity? 😋
Sorry, but it had to be said. Please don’t hit me!
Sounds like something maybe The Straight Dope could answer.
I have a friend whose dog hates the cold. Said Dog’s name is Diggity. So, provisionally, depending on the season and relative space-time location…
Yes.
::notices a patch of clover and wanders over to consume it::
Be careful with that clover! I’m sure I saw Diggity squatting over there! 😨
Come and try our salad bar instead . . .
Is it a three-leaf clover that I’ve overlooked be-three?
anyone else notice the Konami code in the background. on one of the standards.
Not until you said something. Good job!
It has been mentioned on every comment page on every comic page since it first appeared
I am going to need more trophies.
and some of them may possibly be wives
the best trophies are Other Peoples Wives
:-(
to say nothing of them being both stuffed and mounted
Well, that is the plan :saucy-wink:
Well, a secretary isn’t a fixture until she’s been screwed on the desk.