Grrl Power #523 – Field flirt
I guess this is flirting, but it’s hard to tell if they’re actually being a little insecure or just circuitous since it can’t happen while she’s his CO. In any case, good job Anvil?
Amaranthine means unfading, ceaseless, or everlasting, but can also mean purpleish, so I’ve decided that Dabbler will henceforth refer to purple haired women as amaranthettes. I am unaware of another word that’s been commonly adopted for that purpose within fiction (since purple hair unfortunately doesn’t exist in nature.) I came across this while searching for a word that meant “constant and oppressive” but couldn’t find what I wanted and this seemed like a word Max might know.
I really really wanted to do a page leading into this one with numerous panels showing the different ways guys look at boobs, or try to not get caught doing it, to show that Max isn’t coming totally out of left field when she gets grouchy any inappropriate attention since it’s something a lot of women have to deal with basically all the time – but 1) it would have required some subtle and difficult angles to draw. I wanted to do it all from a girl’s first person perspective (or even Max’s but it would be hard to tell it was her if it was first person), and as most women are shorter than most men, it would require drawing rather challenging low camera angles of faces. (Note the questionable high angle shot in panel two.) And 2) a lot of these would work far better if they were animated, even if it was just the eyes, and I don’t have time to do that. Besides I’d have to relearn how. The last time I animated something was probably on my Amiga.
So instead, here’s the list I came up with. Feel free to contribute.
- The “Almost Caught” or The Fly Up – This is when a woman looks away, and when she looks back at the guy, she catches his eyes flicking back up to her face (from her chest or her butt.) This would have been one of the ones benefiting from animation to catch the flick of the eyes.
- The “No, I was looking at something behind you, honest” – When you’ve totally busted the guy, and you both know it, but he leans slightly and focuses his eyes past you. “Oh, what’s going on outside of the window? That’s what I was looking at the whole time actually.” Weirdly this actually works some of the time. She turns to look and he gets another look at your boobs. Actually I think women usually know what’s going on but don’t want to be confrontational about it.
- The “What does your shirt say?” – He realizes he’s been caught, but you’re wearing a graphic tee and he doubles down and reads what’s on your shirt, and probably comments on it. “Coca-Cola? I’ve heard of Coke.”
- The “Oh My God” – The poor guy, usually younger, who forgets all decorum and just stares wide eyed, lost in the hypno-cleavage.
- The Dart – You’re having a perfectly normal conversation with a guy, but he has this weird tic. His eyes keep twitching downwar… oh, right, you’re wearing a deep V.
- The Sweep A.K.A The Assessment – This isn’t so much boob centric as much as it’s that full body look over, down then back up.
- The Leer – This is the one that prompts the “My eyes are up here.” The non-stop lock on.
- The “I am a lion and your breasts are gazelles” – Basically the same as The Leer, but more intense and usually from further away.
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Hey! What happened to the scary enemy? The Ogre one…
I guess she cast a forget-about-me spell
Depowered via nosebleed
It exploded, which is why neither Hiro nor Maxima have proper, intact clothing any longer.
Joe Guy is referring to Sciona, by using the term ‘the ogre one’. As opposed to her construct, which is the creature they just blew up.
Sciona was last seen underground, in the Mars building opposite. The one that Pixel got thrown into, and where we last saw her getting treated by Harem. So it is most pertinent to ask what she is doing at the moment.
Seriously! What’s with this “sit around while the half-head bad guy gets away” stuff?!
To be sporting they are giving her a ‘head’ start.
Time to split for Sciona. No doubt she is headed elsewhere soon.
Enough time passed, during the fight with the construct, that Sciona could have easily escaped. Plus this comic is mostly concerned with the stuff that happens outside of combat. The personal interactions and the little enjoyable things in life.
As such it operates on the principle of ‘talking is a free action’. They can have as much personal interaction as the mood takes and nothing significant will change. If Sciona escaped she is long gone. Whereas, if she is still loitering, then the action will kick off again soon enough.
To be fair, Hiro & Max are NOT the only members of ArcSWAT there. In any kind of combat zone, neither the commander or the second-in-command are the ones who carry out recon maneuvers…Someone else is without doubt already doing that. Max & Hiro’s jobs at this point are to be in a central location to receive reports from the recon so that they can plan & give orders as necessary.
Somewhere near, presumably innocent people are being drained of their blood.
Yep, as mature as the characters are being now, they aren’t being professional… unless they got lots of manpower there already and are waiting on recon results… or unless this is the wrap-up… or something like that.
That’s being dealt with as the next page will show. Limitation of the webcomic format that you can’t just flip the page and see right away.
I guess the Council’s own specialists are called in to deal with this?
There are probably a lot of magic traps, so I’m going to guess that that’s a smart move.
There’s a short span of time between the last comic and this one. I’m assuming, during that time, other teams have been called in, Peggy has been scanning the site from above, Syd was directed to use telepresence to check on the other prisoners and confirm the absence of the blood mage (who presumably took off as soon as her lab was compromised), with Harem, Anvil, and Pixel have begun working physical rescue, assuming the site is stable after the explosion. Hiro and Maxima, being nekkid, are sitting operations out pending the arrival of underclothes. I’m sure Max has her pool tipped over to speed so that, if there’s a sudden need, she’ll be able to respond (buck-ass nood or not).
Meh, not tripping my shipping senses. Granted, not the ‘oh god no’ that Mr supervillain suit brought on, but just seeing last and little else. Might be the lack of screen time Hiro has gotten other than ‘supernaturally hot’, might be that he’s established to sleep around and she most certainly doesn’t.
Still, so long as we avoid any thought bubble of his involving the words conquest, or prize, idle flirtation on how smoking hot your teammates is a go.
When was that established? I know he was dancing with the Super Groupies at the club, but enjoying public attention and indulging in private attention are two different fields.
He brought both super groupies back to his room for the night.
Yeah? And so did Peggy and Dabbles
Also mentioned in his cast page, noted as “Something of a lad”.
All your points are right.
Just to add one extra element though, that does weigh the scales a lot the other way (and ignoring the whole boss/subordinate issue). Namely that flesh and bone bone breaks easier than concrete.
Both Maxima and Hiro actually have a very limited pool of people that they can ‘let themselves go’ with. Whatever Hiro may have gotten up to with those groupies he would have had to have been extremely careful and constantly on the alert.
Whereas with Maxima he can just have fun, and her with him. That is a good starting basis for a relationship. Especially when they compare it to any relationships which failed for related reasons. Many men would feel intimidated by a tall woman (which is Anvil’s big problem), however some who is always super strong* will make even big tough guys
feelbe inadequate by comparison.I bet that Maxima will have had more than one relationship either fail due to that or fail to get off the ground. So finding someone who finds her mutually attractive and who she would not accidentally kill, if hit them when yawning and stretching, would be a godsend.
Obviously there is a risk, with him being a ‘ladies man’ and if he did keep that up it would kill the relationship.
Like you I do not think that Maxima would be keen on that side of his behaviour. However he is her second in command, so she does know him extremely well. If she found him to be dishonourable I doubt that he would have won that position. Likewise if she observed him two-timing women, I think she would not consider him enough of a prospect to make the comments she has above.
Hence I would not be as concerned about that point as yourself. The career issue is a far greater barrier. It is not like the major can work his way up to command some other super SWAT team. There is only the one, and it has most of the countries available combat-capable supers on it already.
However Dave mentioned that Archon would want to set up separate teams, to make it easier to cover the separate coasts, for example. So if they do get the capacity to do that, then Hiro has the potential to get out of Maxima’s chain of command, and make the relationship viable.
Or he could just resign his commission and become a house husband! (Or work in the private sector, But I would advise not doing so with Deus.)
* Which Maxima is, even when she dials it down to her minimum.
If the two of them are on separate coasts, it would make the relationship that much more difficult to sustain. But I’m just pleased with the flirting that they’re engaging in here. It’s very cute to read, especially Maxima’s giggle.
Less of an issue for a couple who can fly at supersonic speeds without an aircraft. Plus they can probably pull off high-altitude flight to reduce the noise pollution issues related to that.
Further Maxima is likely to stay on at Archon’s central HQ, ‘somewhere in the middle’. So halving the problem you propose. If they found a place to stay midway between those two points they would halve it again. Allowing them to actually live together yet still have a reasonable commute to work.
I would consider this kind of interaction Sport Flirting. Meaning that both parties know that it is not going to go anywhere, and are participating just to keep their flirt game in top shape.
Source: NCIS Season 10 episode 2: Recovery
Even so, they’re flirting as far as regulations can allow…They’re consistently reminding each other (& themselves, quite possibly!)) of the consequences if they pursue the discussion much further.
Did a speed reading course in high school that really helped train my periphery vision. Side effect: I can now look a woman in the eyes and check her out simultaneously, so long as I’m not standing too close.
This, but via …practice, not training.
I would prefer to use braille techniques.
Sometimes…Just sometimes, blindness could actually be counted as an advantage.
“I have such sights to show you.”
~Pinhead
True.
As for the other times though.
Hiro seems like a good match for Maxima. Not just because his powers should allow him to somewhat keep up with her, but also due to his courteous but still playful behaviour here with her.
Math, as much as I like him, would’ve been a red smear on the ground at this point.
Math would have dived behind Sydney’s shield, most likely using his head as Anvil’s boobrest
Sorry, we need to derail the action for a minute to discuss the oppression of the privileged, and genital-stare trading.
Yes. This is what we’re here for.
Oh, well. At least there’s a character moment in there too.
Considering that it’s been established since almost page 1 that that sort of thing is a big deal for Maxima, this does not feel forced or unnecessary considering what’s happened in the last few pages
As StoneDead says, no matter what your stance on modern feminism is, Maxima overreacting to anything even remotely like a sexual advance is a well established part of her character. This scene did need a resolution and one that didn’t result in major fallout is a pleasant surprise.
^this. Her overreaction tends to make her one of the less likeable characters, and this page here (where she’s finding the humor in the situation and defusing the embarrassment by semi-kinda flirting with HIro) helps humanize her quite a bit.
I don’t find Max unlikable. She’s occasionally a bit shouty, but she actually seems very easygoing and nice. She puts up with the weirdos on her team quite well.
I find most people of a high enough rank (pretty much anything O-3 and above on the officer side and E-6 and above on the NCO side) to be pretty shouty. This comes from having to deal with all different kinds of people, a good number of which, from the higher ranked point of view, couldn’t find their ass with both hands and a map. It just gets built in. This is even more true for those with combat experience such as Maxima. They don’t realize they’re doing it, and it becomes built in.
Well put.
“Shouty” doesn’t bother me. I’m from a big damn Italian family; volume happens and can be completely divorced from actual content of the words being yelled in your ear. I just don’t like being around people with whom I have to watch every little thing I say or they either go off or start doing a slow burn preparatory to going off, and that’s the attitude I get from Maxima as written. Like I said, this particular strip (panel cluster? Wall-o-art? Biweekly issue?) shows her having the ability to laugh at herself a little and to smooth (instead of shout) her way out of an embarrassing situation, and that makes her a more rounded and more interesting character.
Damn, must be pretty lonely at the top. Hell, that goes for the both of them.
Well, technically she can have relationships with people outside of the military command structure. HAS had them, although I can see many conflict-of-interest issues with Deus. Civilians tend to be… fragile, though. That leaves supervillains… and contractors?
I’m well aware of the regs involved. My parents had that particular issue for most of my life. As you noted, outside of the military you’re looking at contractors, also have some conflict of interests issues there depending on what they do, and civilians. Also as noted, non supers tend to be… squishy… by comparison. Being at the top in this regard is particularly harsh as even among supers it can leave the potential selection pool pretty sparse. Disregard gender for a moment and look at just the arcswat team over all. Hiro and Max are easily at the top, but it’s a bit of a jump down in a lot of areas by comparison to the majority of the over all team.
Maybe shorten that last one to “the Song of Solomon?” :D
The Sweep. According to my girlfriend, it is something every man does every time any girl walks into a room. The men usually don’t even know it.
Woman apparently don’t even realize it themselves, until they step into a gay bar and suddenly the guys are NOT sweeping. And the girls are the ones sweeping.
I wanna be there when some straight woman walks in, notices that, then freaks out and yells “I’m not just a PIECE OF MEAT, you mysogynistic…. errr … oh. Umm…… “
“… Bitches? … Man, that sounds weird…”
Then, her boyfriend follows her in:
“Hey, babe, I… *shiver* Wha – what was that? It was like a hundred pairs of eyes just… felt me up…”
“Welcome to the world of the male gaze, sweetie.”
I think it’s safe to says that Hiro has among the most powerful wills on the planet; He should be a Green Lantern
*rubs smudge off monitor*
Ahh, “wills”, I was wondering what the Green Lantern had to do with that boast.
DaveB – add to that list:
The “Looking at your tats, not your tits”
for ladies with ink that perks out from around the edges of clothing.
I’d like to mention that, when I am looking at your tats, I really am looking at your tats. I’ve no shyness about starting a conversation over them (and requesting as much reveal as is appropriate), either. Not that it’s my end goal, because I love great tats, but I’ve got quite an eyefull on many an occasion. I’m not particularly body shy myself, and under sincere and honest circumstances, I’ve found quite a number of people willing to share their inkwork … sometimes with even more enthusiasm than I would ever have intended.
Raises an interesting question in my mind, though. I do wonder if Max can lower her personal protective field enough to get inked. I don’t really see her as the sort to go full Peggy (for in-story example). However, I can see Max getting one very personal, meaningful & discrete tat just because she can as one of her few options given her powers. Curious if Pixel’s laser claws might be required, or even an option for pierced ears or somesuch.
remember the guy with skin that couldn’t be cut (he thought) and claws that cut anything? maybe he could do a Polynesian tattooing method with his finger claws?
You mean Lee Press-On Claws?
It would require a super-assisted tattooist, as you suggested. Maxima has a minimum level of defense that she is unable to negate. We can infer that it is the reason why Varia was unable to establish a gestalt with Maxima. Despite Varia attributing it to “Maxima’s screwy skin” it will have been because the cellular force field was preventing skin-to-skin contact.
We did see Maxima bleeding though, in the fight against Vehemence. So a strong super attack would be able to penetrate the force field, and minimising her defense will allow a more modest, controllable, one to do so.
Getting the ink to fix though is still a problem, due to the same force fields We do not have any comparable analogy to a cellular force field, though, in order to be able to predict whether that would interfere with the process or not. Possibly it may work, but just have a weird pattern, or effect, due to the force fields affecting the way the ink is pooled or distributed?
I don’t know about US military regs, but in the UK military it’s fine to have a relationship with someone of a different rank as long as they aren’t part of the same train of command. Perhaps if ARC expands, one of them [probably Hiro] could request a transfer?
*chain of command
Nope. I’m sticking with Train of Command.
Does it make a stop at petticoat junction?
It’s just down the road a ways by Hooterville.
I think ARC did a sweep through that area back in the ’60’s looking for a potential super with mind control powers. They heard of some guy named Haney who could talk people into buying just about anything.
Nice chain of thought.
Train-chain-train-chain. Now I thinking about that girl chained to the tracks and the guy in the white hat rushing to save her, silent movie style. I even hear the piano. Thanks guys, I guess.
And now I’m picturing Ahnald Swarzenauger in the white outfit, and Kirk Douglas in a black outfit, using Wile E. Coyote tactics to get the girl (and failing, Coyote Style).
“Could you grab these for me?”
Woops, “Would you mind taking hold of these please?” is the line. The entire move is on youtube, I find out.
Heh to actually answer your question…(At least as of ten years ago I’ve been out awhile).
The general rules are outside Chain of Command AND no Officer/Enlisted relationships. Also higher rank enlisted (E-7 through E-9) don’t fraternize with E-6 and below. HOWEVER big loopholes. 1st loophole and a very understandable one prior relationships don’t count as Fraternization. If two juniors marry and one of them goes mustang and becomes an officer nobody is gonna demand a divorce. 2nd loophole and a worse one in many ways. Enforcement is normally at Command level….so technically the enforcement of the rules has often been spotty or inconsistent. This also leads to case such as the Commanding Officer of Diego Garcia thinking he could have a relationship with lord I think it was actually the most junior person in his command and getting away with it. Things may have changed though since I last had to deal with that stupidity. I was Navy but served in a lot of Joint Commands…the Air Force officers kept trying to get me to “relax” and call them by their first names….very weird. And my Ex-Brother-Law (also Air Force) saw nothing wrong him and another officer taking a ” camping trip” with a junior enlisted so yeah….I like yours better.
I think her cleavage in that jacket may be more distracting then being topless.
Boobs are like hydrogen atoms. They’re pretty powerful on thier own, but when you squeeze them together things start getting really hot.
* I think her cleavage in that jacket may be more distracting then being topless. *
NO.
With all respect.
Well, if you take the typo literally, then it really is. First the jacket, then being topless.
than? Irregardless my grammers treble.*
To each their own on what they find sexy. I’m of the mind that a lady in lingerie is sexier than one in the nude. Things left to the imagination, and all that.
*(Yes I did that on purpose. )
You forgot the classic ‘Sunglasses’ wear sunglasses and be it from far away or close up the head is tilted to look at the face while the eyes are locked on to the boobs.
I must admit, I am guilty of doing the sunglasses
I’m almost 75% sure that woman still know exactly when a man is doing the Sunglasses.
Either the head isn’t tilted as normally as you think, or they can just tell.
There is an easier way to tell. If the guy has a real guide dog and cane, then he probably is not checking her out. Otherwise…
More litterally, amaranthine means that the thing described bears one or more of the traits of the amaranth, a mythical plant of the amaranthus genus which is said to be unyeilding in its beauty and eternally in bloom, as if completely unaffected by the passage of time.
Whether the genus or the everbloom came first I cannot say but both they are related in more than just name, with the glorious pink flowers of amaranthus genus grains being said to strongly resemble that of the fictional flower. In fact, sources seem to disagree on whether it’s colour is an incredibly luscious pink or some variant of royal purple. It could be either of the two, an interesting blend or maybe, just maybe, irridescent enough to be both at once.
Regardless of what the answer is, I think Maxima’s hair is a little on the blue side to truly be “amaranthine” and use as “ceaseless” without referring to beauty directly seems curiously novel to me but, while it seems like a stretch, I think this situation fits it.
Oh and you may also see some amaranthus genus grains listed as “amaranth” and sold as a health food. They, quite obviously, aren’t the real deal. They’re like what the Jesus lizard is to the mythical basilisk.
HOT Damn! Their engines are Puuuuuurrrrrrr-Rrrring in beautiful unison.
She can fly so…I’m sure there’s an Island somewhere they can go ruin…
You remember that Futurama episode where Lrrr from Omicron Persei 8 wants the Human Horn from Fry?
“Uh, you’ll wanna retreat to a safe, 500-metre radius!”
Meanwhile nearby a cloaked Dabbler is getting high on the flirting.
It reminds me of Buffy (she who loiters in graveyards) and Spike. When they had a good time, there was not much left of the building other than rubble!
Dat panel #2 … Max being a coy, shy girl.
* I am died at my keyboard from adorableness. *
Y’know, uhm, @DaveB ……. If you wanted to do a quick & easy Vote Incentive update, you could just post that final panel (sans dialogue) in the highest resolution you are comfortable sharing with us ….? Seems like it won’t be large enough for a wallpaper, but it would still be quite sweet to have.
On further examination, I suppose panel #1 is a candidate, or even panel #6 is quite interesting … but the final panel captures a great, casual & relaxed smile out of Max that caught my attention.
Guess I’ll use this space in this extra post to contribute to The Game:
“There’s Something In My Eye” — wherein the person performing the checking out thereof gets more or less caught out, but has just enough warning to blink and rub their eyes with enough plausible deniability that all parties involved accept the maneuver. Everyone being careful, of course, not to crack a smile and give the little bit of performance theater away.
Despite all the tension between men and women nowadays, this is how one properly deals with it: by talking in a civil manner.
Also, you forgot the “I’m wearing sunglasses, so you don’t know if I’m staring or not”.
Talking on a personal scale, tension between couples is nothing new. We can see in personal correspondence going back to antiquity that arguing is just a normal part of relationships, which has always been around.
Whereas on a social level all that has happened is bringing abuse and oppression out of the shadows, through shining a light on it. So whilst it is raising public awareness of the issue (and thereby creating the perception of tension that you refer to), by gradually reducing the incidence of rape and inequality the real level of tension is being reduced.
In other words, for those who were unaware of the problems, their tension has increased. But for those who have won freedom from subjugation and inhuman treatment, their quality of life has vastly improved (thereby reducing their tension). Many more remain oppressed, but the hope that they can do likewise will, I feel, make them less tense than the alternative of never being able to picture themselves as being free.
Once having achieved that though we reach the state that you mention, where we can resolve issues by talking. So you exhibit an enlightened attitude. Sadly some people still don’t get it!
I was hoping Max would borrow Anvils shirt instead. Because of reasons.
I think I speak for many of us guys when I say that I am a Dart kind of guy.
I hope the others are looking for Hiro’s clothes,otherwise…..
Hiros clothes are vaporised. The others are taking a long time looking for clothes as a favour to Maxima.
Well, remember, despite Harem lending Max her jacket, Maxima’s pants have also been shredded – that’s why she’s seated in the rubble. She still needs new garments, as well.
ok,, not a comment per say,, but dave, do you have any way to send you a picture other then facebook tweeter and the likes,, maybe a good old fashion email,, causei dont have a facebook or the like and i wanted to send you a pic i found while lurking the net,, one of maxima and dabbler together.
Max and Dabbles in front of a mirror? Seen it, and fairly sure DaveB has as well
Oh, and fairly sure he has an email around here somewhere for people to contact him that way
actualy there is no mirror,, its dabbler embracing and groping maxima frombehind with her top arms while the lower,invisible ones, and taking off her shorts,, and i looked yesterday,,and havent found any email,, or contact button other then faceboo, twitter and such
Oh, he’s aware!
If you look on DaveB’s DeviantART page, he’s actually posted it there: https://davebarrack.deviantart.com/art/NSFW-Maxima-and-Dabbler-by-Mikiron-610695960
This begs the question….. What color are Max’s nipples?
Her lips are red, so I’d assume red.
You think she puts lipstick on her nipples??
-About the looks. I have actually stared at a T-Shirt (The detail on that dragon was fantastic and it took up most of the shirt) and realized only after she was gone that I made a girl nervous.
You’d think they’d be blue, given the colour of her blood, but I guess she produces enough pheomelanin to hide that.
Human lips are also red because the skin is lighter, and the red blood shines through. So not even the part of her body that normally takes the colour of blood is the colour of her blood. So I doubt her nipples are blue.
Actually there is an additional complication. Human skin specifically blocks the colour red quite well.* This is why varicose veins appear to be blue, as the non-red aspects of the blood are showing through thin skin. So pure blue blood would stand out easier in places where red blood does not.
But Maxima’s skin is golden and has other properties that render that all moot. I have always assumed that Max’s nipples have a permanent colouration like her lips (although I would not expect them to necessarily match her lips).
* My guess is this is an evolutionary thing that happens for the same reason that bandages are usually white, so that if the red stuff leaks out, from where it should be, it is easier to spot and do something about it.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/413
She doesn’t use lipstick
I like to read, and I read a lot, and when I see something printed on a t-shirt (which is often in an unusual font, or arrangement, or accompanied by a picture) I try to read it, irrespective gender which often involves a prolonged stare. Rarely do I realize if it’s a woman or man, and if I do, I move my eyes elsewhere because it’s rude.
But then I don’t get to read the shirt, and this irritates me.
This is why you either learn to read faster or strike up conversation about said shirt the moment you first take interest. The latter comes off as breast stare number 3 if you’re too slow though so be careful.
Yeah, but the thing is, I don’t want to talk to these people (they’re usually late-teen-early-20s, and often have very little of interest to say – just like me when I was that age). I just want to read their shirts. And it’s not about the boobs. I can look at boobs, covered or not, much more easily on the internet within the comfort of my own home.
And I do read quite quickly, but when it’s a combination of odd font, folds in the shirt (which are pretty much inevitable since the shirt is sitting on top of…topography…) and sparkly letters/odd image/tiny font+ big font…it’s like it’s a trap.
I long for the cyberpunk future where people just come accompanied by virtual tags that let me read their shirts without having to ogle. Maybe I should get a shirt that says “Not a pervert, I just want to read your shirt.” Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Wearing a shirt yourself that said, “Not a pervert, I just want to read your shirt.” would just get you more trouble from women who would automatically assume that you wearing it is meant to be a deception. Like the sunglasses thing [which I don’t do].
It would make them more suspicious, not less, sadly, even if you absolutely mean it,
I usually wear plain t-shirts myself, or one with a pattern, rather than text. But a particularly clever one appealed to me enough to buy it. A picture of a man, leading a T-Rex, and throwing a stick ahead of them, with the dialogue “Walkies!”
That aside, if making the choice between a shirt that did not appeal to me (say a plain one of a colour, or pattern, which I did not like) or a nicer one with the clever text about wanting to read, I would opt for the funny one.
Not that I disagree with your assessment mind. But it is a useful feature. I genuinely do appreciate the prospect of a partner with a good sense of humour. That T-Shirt would be a simple (albeit therefore fallible) means of separating those women who are both open minded and have a good sense of humour, from those who are more suspicious and less inclined to enjoy a good joke.
Disclaimer: Relationship advice, from someone who has been single most of their life may not be the best to follow.
Reminds me of a t-shirt I saw in a major department store chain once. It had a picture of a condom on it and the phrase “Cover me, I’m going in.”
I thought about it… and thought about it some more… and then laughed so hard my sides hurt, because I knew I’d never have the courage to wear something like that.
By the way, I have seen a study (I can’t find a web link, unfortunately) that suggests that women in general prefer plain white or mostly-plain white t-shirts on men.
I find I can give excellent advice because I see what is my instinctive actions are and suggest a better alternative for others to do aka they learn from my mistakes arrangement
Awww, a happily ever after potential, on the far horizon.
*warm fuzzy feelings*
Or equaly said potential for heartbreak and tragedy.
Whats the one thing the evil emotimancers do when they see you’re a super couple? Break you up.
One villain already powers up on Emotion we could see a theme building there…
we also have incubi in the mix and on the horizon, one of them could wreak havok just being that “rebound guy”.
*puts paws over ears*
Tra la la.
Happy Maxie and Hiro flying through the clouds, into the sunset.
*doggedly wagging tail*
Okay, so just a quick point for you Dave, unusual hair colors are usually (in my experience) referred to by gemstone based derivatives. So green = emeralettes, blue = sapphrettes, purple = amethettes. Not sure about pink. Used to call the unnatural bright reds rubettes though.
I have never heard of this before and I can’t say I like the sound of most of those. I prefer the punnier “blunette” and refer to those with actually red hair as red heads. I don’t know about the others though.
Redheads are also called “ginger” and pink exists as “strawberry blonde” so more food based. So maybe purple would be “plum?” And I’ve heard blue haired people referred to a blueberries…
Given Charlie and the Chocolate Factory exists, blueberries seems a tad iffy but I like the way this is going, even if “strawberry blonde” is actually just a mid shade between blonde and ginger.
So maybe raspberry then?
Add to the evidence for food based names: salt-and-pepper hair.
‘Ginger’ is more of an ‘orange’ than a ‘red’
The term “ginger” as a hair colour actually derives from the flower of the plant. Apparently, before the word “orange” entered our language, we actually saw the hair as pink. Isn’t it weird what vocabulary does to our vision?
And there was no ‘blue’ in ancient Greece. The less astute think that this is just a linguistic foible. Without realising that they did not have blue skies. When they described them as bronze coloured they were being literal. It will be a number of decades before scientific evidence backing this up will be found.
Then future schoolkids keep on going on about how dumb people were in the 21st century!
“Why did they not believe written histories? Despite the ancient Greek literature and philosophy laying the foundations for Western civilisation, they still refused to accept what was written as a truth!”
[we told you put the time-machine down now!]
I generally prefer “Bluebelles” for blue, and “Violettes” for purple hair. I think I mentioned this before about Krona and stuff.
But what if their shade is more lavender?
Lavender is still blue. Periwinkle, however would be tricky.
Only favoured by butt-sniffers, if Sydney’s banter is to be believed.
Maybe my reaction to this is odd, but this seems like a break in the usual themes. No action, no Sydney craziness, no Dabbler / Harem flirting, just two people carefully acknowledging a previously awkward moment and agreeing to be cool about it. This is actually quite refreshing… and now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Good point. I enjoy the sillyness, fanservice and stupidity of this comic a lot but this was a nice change from the usual. Someone acts kind of normal for a adult for a change.
For next page, how about martians attacking with cloth disintegrators?
Dude, this comic is TOTALLY fanservice – just for romantic shippers, rather than for skin-hounds.
All entertainment is ultimately fan service. If stories do not tell things that the audience are interested in then it has failed in its objective. Conflict, drama, success, satisfaction, excitement, poignancy are all things that can occur either within war or personal relationships.
The latter can either emphasise the love or the lust, when telling them. However if there are naked bodies around the audience do not tend to listen to the plot very much, so usually it is wasted on them.
I’m with you. Adulting can be nice. It’s not like the comic does this all the Time but with and name like “grrl power” and with so many female characters, you kinda expect it to happen.
It is enjoyable. I’m glad it does not do it all the time though.
Well, no kidding. If we were into adulting all the time in our literature, we’d be reading out of the “fiction ” section of the book store, not the graphic novels and certainly not the science fiction/fantasy section.
This comic IS mostly about social interactions in extraordinary situations. I guess this counts.
And….Now I ship it. Thanks. Just what I needed.
Some time ago I remember reading that there was an experiment done that men will look at anything that jiggles at the same frequency as breasts. Apparently it’s hardwired into the nervous system.
Surely breast jiggle frequency is a variable thing?
They are mostly fat, and fat has a certain density.
So I’d assume there is at least some consistency.
Though probably a range, depending on cup size. So if it matches the specific jiggle for the specific size (or just falls within the range), it’s a match.
I think even that is overcomplicated. Other studies that I have seen show that the criteria for instinctive behaviours is much more rudimentary. Various small prey species have responses to predatory birds flying overhead. Be it freezing, or running for cover, as the case may be. Using techniques such as flying a basic shape overhead, they can narrow down the things which trigger this.
It turns out that you do not even need to make it vaguely realistic to the thing it is representing. A simple triangle (pointy end first) will do the trick.
Likewise the killer bees that are expanding from South and Central America into the USA have instincts to attack humans (amongst others I guess) in the eyes. They have several mechanisms which support this. Such as smelling and homing in on exhaled carbon dioxide.
As regards their responses to visual stimuli, they will attack anything vaguely round that has eye-shapes on it. It does take both triggers though. A scarecrow is safe. But add a source of carbon dioxide and it will get stung, in the face and particularly the eyes, hundreds of times!
So for breasts it is probably any jiggle that attracts the attention (like the carbon dioxide for killer bees) and the shape which determines what is focused on.
And anthropologists speculate that the similarity in shape between butt-cleavage and breast-cleavage is not a co-incidence. In other great apes, the males are stimulated when behind a female. Whereas human males are whether in front or behind. Humans are odd.
Not sure. Should research.
Even man parts?
They will attract the attention, but lacking the appropriate shape (which that specific instinct triggers on) it will not keep it. In my opinion.
There is an evolutionary advantage for males to have children with as many females as possible. Whereas a female, who usually ends up with the task of raising the child,* tends to get more of an advantage by being more selective.
So we can see why males would thereby evolve more instinctive triggers, to initiate procreation, than females. Or have been granted them, by the hand of God, for those who prefer a religious rationale.
* Speaking from an evolutionary perspective, rather than modern social ideals.
As someone who is actually rather worried about a potential killer bee appocalypse, thank you ever so much for that information.
Knowledge gives you power. Mind you having the Atlantic in the way does give you a fairly good barrier. Although another bug has just been reported as having made just that journey, and is successfully colonizing, so you are right to be concerned.
If they do get close to your area though simply invest in a rigid plastic face mask. Easier to carry around than a full bee suit, but it will protect the most endangered and critical parts of your body, whilst you make your escape.
The other thing to bear in mind is that diving in water will not help you. They will wait in the area for up to fifteen minutes, looking for you. Their patience is longer than you can hold your breath for. So bear the pain and just keep running.
Plus it would not be much of an apocalypse, in any event. South America has been infested with them for years, and life keeps chugging on as always. There are quite a few deaths each year, but only a trivial amount compared to traffic accidents or heart attacks. Not to mention the fact that they are way way better at producing honey than regular honey bees.
So you will have quite an enjoyable apocalypse when it reaches you.
If you remain particularly concerned though, there is one way to deal with the risk. Create a more placid bee (via cross-breeding or gene splicing) that has even better reproductive capabilities than the killer bees. It is this aspect that is allowing the killer ones to replace the regular bees. So just replicate and improve upon their own technique.
Of course if you get it wrong then you risk making the killer bees even more prolific. And, given the unintended side effects that resulted in the killer bee, in the first place, you can expect Sod’s Law to do something even worse. Maybe they will acquire lasers on their stingers, to penetrate face shields and suits?
In the chase, Predators dont see the savanah. All they see is a jumping antelope and a ton of stuff doing a bad job at getting out the way.
If the algorythm aint broke we need not fix it!
Technically, Hiro only needs to pick up one more rank. That would make him a Lieutenant Colonel and within the “Peer Group Range” of a colonel.
Majors are the weird rank among the officers. They’re WAAAAAAY too busy, WAAAAAAY too lazy or WAAAAAAY out of the way (usually stuffed into a dark corner where the rest of the unit never has to see them again).
Max is also a Lt Colonel (check the cast page) but convention usually shortens this to just “Colonel” for simplicity when possible. So, he’s only one rank behind her.
The issue is more that she is his direct superior – if ARC-SWAT was split into 2 squads, lead by Max and Hiro, with them both reporting directly to General Faulk, then they would probably be good to go.
Max is also a lieutenant colonel, so if Hiro got promoted they would be exactly the same rank.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/989
ninja’d!
My brain just will not let me not do the Dart. It notices cleavage, the eyes go down. It usually takes less than a second for me to realize it, and I refocus on the face, but the damage is done. Stupid male brain :/
Yes, correspondingly there is the “I am staring fixedly at your face because if I relax for one moment my autonomic boob-looking system will kick in”.
If you see men staring at something up in the air there is often a cleavage close by.
When my boss bends over paper work at her desk everyone tries their very best to look everywhere else.
We tend to fail spectacularly though. One time we giggled like a bunch of little girls. The boss asked what the giggles were for and we all stared off into the distance claiming we’d seen a whale.
I hope that your office overlooks the ocean and that your boss is not overweight. Otherwise your collective career prospects might have been harmed!
On the first count, yes, our office does look over the ocean wherein we actually do see whales from time to time, at a distance of maybe 1.5 km away?
On the second count she is Suzy Chen shaped with a tendency to pop her bending. The results are oppressively spectacular if that makes any sense? like I said, we fail spectacularly.
Heh, I get your gist.
Although I am sad to say that you failed on your analogy. When likening someone, it is best to compare them to an especially famous person. When googling that name I get a disparate collection of normal people. With nobody who appears to be famous or otherwise noteworthy enough to stand out or even appear much more frequently than the others.
Most of whom actually are quite pretty and shapely, so ironically your point still worked. Even if I still have no idea who you specifically meant!
Ooh ooh. Did you mean Suzy News? If so, she is Suzy Wen. And sorry about being slow on the uptake if that is the case. I am not good with names, so even a near miss confuses the heck out of me. I even had to do a google search of grrlpower.com just to see if it was someone who I should know, just in case my brain was withholding the information to tease me.
Nope that was my bad, I mixed Suzy Chen with Suzy Wen and I seriously dont know why. Can’t even blame autocorrect as I reread that paragraph twice. But yes that was my analogy. Good on you for working it out.
Respect to Sydney, by the way. Not only was she shipping Hiro and Maxima (albeit indiscreetly) Sydney actually called it right too!
A few months back, I decided ‘plumlock’ was what I would use for purple hair. And azuretop for blue, because ‘bluette’ and ‘bluenette’ are _far_ too close to ‘brunette’ _and_ too cutesy. I’ve been using ‘jadetress’ for green, but I’m thinking ‘verdetress’ might be better.
I don’t think the leer is just the long stare at the boobs. Having seen it and been the recipient of such, the leer is far more dehumanizing than just the staring at the boobs. There’s a bit of a sneer in it and an stance of assumption of… I don’t know? Right to the woman’s body? Pure objectification for certain. It definitely reads as some level of intent to assault. There are of course different levels of intensity. But the long stare is just insulting, not threatening. You still don’t want to be left alone with the guy, but you’re not feeling an immediate threat to your physical and mental well being.
Yup, a ‘leer’ is a ‘stare with intent, and a sneer’
Real military, it’s officers and enlisted can’t mix. As a colonel and a major, Max and Hiro could, but Sydney would be off limits to both
Wouldn’t the problem be that Max is Hiro’s direct superior?
You are correct, but I thought both reported to some non super guy in a uniform? Sort of thought of them as closer to equals under another boss.
Major Hiro reports to Lieutenant Colonel Maxima who, in turn, answers to General Faulk. Yes they are close, but no they are not equals. If Maxima give Hiro an order, even a potentially fatal one, he is obliged to carry it out.
In actually the fact that Hiro is Maxima’s immediate subordinate makes it worse. If Hiro were to have a relationship with Faulk, then if the general attempted to abuse his position, he could only do so via Maxima. So there would be some degree of insulation.
Although this is only for routine situations. A general can give direct orders to anybody who falls under his chain of command. So whilst this would provide some protection, it would still have the potential for both injustice and disrupting the operational effectiveness of a unit. Hence still being unethical.
Which is also why it would be unethical* for Maxima to have a relationship with him. Theirs would not be a pairing of equals. Exacerbated by the fact that Maxima is literally more powerful than Hiro, rather than just socially so.
Whereas if Maxima were to have a relationship with Faulk then the respective discrepancies in power would serve to counter one another. Although it would still contravene military regulations, unless one or the other were to move to a position where they were not directly in charge of one another.
Perhaps the general aught to take Sydney’s advice (to the comix fan) and work out more?
* As opposed to immoral. Provided no attempt is made to abuse a position of power, then such relationships are not intrinsically wrong It is unethical though, even if behaving well, as there is always an implicit threat involved. For instance should the relationship sour, then there would be a temptation to take unfair advantage. So a fear of that might always be present in the underdog’s mind. Consciously or otherwise, as the case may be.
Officers and enlisted are prohibited from having “personal or business relationships” between the categories, but fraternization regulations also encompass any relationship that is, or may reasonably appear to be, prejudicial to fairness and impartiality in command. So, so long as Max is Hiro’s CO, a relationship between them would be extremely risky.
Of course, ARCHON does appear to have more flexibility than regular military, which seems a natural consequence of their relatively small size – in the army, if a potential conflict of interest arises from attraction or financial dealings between a grunt and the NCO they report to, one of them can always be transferred to a different squad – the army is big enough that a lot of problems can be resolved just by transferring personnel around. ARCHON doesn’t have that flexibility – and they also don’t have as much freedom to kick people out as the regular military either – it’s hard to offer an alternative to vigilantism if you turn away or wash out half of your recruits…
Also, there’s a lot more variance in the abilities of supers than of mundanes – Peggy would be missed but there would be other snipers who could replace her. Drop Maxima, Sydney or Dabbler, and you make a big hole in the team’s lineup.
+1
What exactly is the difference between the “Oh My God” and the Leer? I’m guessing the emotional expression: The former looks stunned, and the latter looks pleased.
I think MCM summed up the Leer pretty well- it’s much more aggressive. The “Oh My God” comes from an implicitly subordinate position, and could be attributed something like gratitude, whereas the Leer conveys the opposite- a sense of entitlement.
While the OMG might fantasize about rubbing their face on boobage, the Leer practically conveys intent to grab a handful.
Kinda doubt Maxima would be so cool with situation if Hiro was an average looking guy.
Methinks him being sturdy enough also has something to do with it.
Your comment reflects the truth that A’s tend to pair with A’s. Whilst B’s may want A’s they often have to contend with B’s. Likewise C’s prefer A’s, would be happy to win a B, but usually end up with a C.
Yet any of them might fall in love with a D. Usually you only see an A and a D if the D is a billionaire. But I have seen the occasional exception.
Which also shows the flaw in making your statement an absolute, rather than a probability. It is true that Maxima is more likely to be attracted to an A. But if she is not then the A’s attentions are unwelcomed.
Dabbler is an A, yet Maxima does not like her advances.
Not purple, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranth_(color)
If you keep scrolling, there are other variants that are fairly consistent with “purple”.
Of which the deep purple one is what appears in the dictionary of colour cited. So Dave is using it linguistically correctly.
Quite often the way words are used to categorise things are not used in the same way in every day speech. “Redhead” covers a wide variety of shades, such as orange. People described as “black” are often brown, even if some are black. Whereas those described as “white” are typically pink. Or more amusingly red, when they misjudge their tolerance to sunlight.
“I’m Not Staring Down Your Shirt, I’m Trying To Read Your Ink.’ The young lady in question had a big ol’ motto in hard-to-read cursive right across her upper chest… and a low-cut shirt.
Way I figure it, after a certain point of “Please look at me!” you’ve got no complaint coming if folks do.
I kind of wonder… If the stare is accompanied by beetled brows and an intensely focused (though not predatory) look… Is it not clear in that case that they’re trying to read, as opposed to just watching?
I like reading clever comments. Which t-shirts often have. So if I cannot make out the end of such a message, then I will walk around the person to finish it.
If they happen to have breasts that does not change my behaviour. How they choose to interpret my actions is up to them.
I am still single mind.
What about the quickie/stealth glance? The “I wanna see ’em but don’t want to get caught staring” thought process.
Think that falls under The Sweep.
Not really.
You forgot the “wait, did you even look?” when the person looked but stopped looking before you could notice they looked. Its the respectful way of looking, I must say most people have not mastered that one. Its sometimes hard for people not to get caught gawking.
That’s sort of part of the Sweep. Most people sweep automatically, and subconsciously.
Ironically, once I got caught, but I was honestly just trying to read what was on her shirt. It was written in English designed to look like Japanese at a glance, so it was difficult to make out what it was saying, and I compulsively want to know what shirts say.
good save.
now i want to make a t-shirt that just has arrows pointing to the back, and then an emoji of a pair of breasts.