Grrl Power #537 – Cake exchange
Don’t forget that Varia has that thick Bostonian accent. It’s just that she’s not saying anything particularly afflicted by it on this page. I suppose I could have had her say “Can I ahr um, help you?” she doesn’t talk like JFK.
It’s weird, panel 1’s POV shot seems really gratuitous, and it kind of is, but only if you’re a guy, right? Any woman can look down and get an eyeful of… well, woman. (Ignoring Xochitl’s uncommon level of fitness obviously. Very few people have that line running down the middle, much less all the ripply bits to either side.) I don’t know, maybe it still is gratuitous, just because it’s a mundane vista to half the population doesn’t make it non salacious.
I remember when Trespasser came out, (the ambitious but janky Jurassic Park game) the HUD was minimal, and the healthbar was a tattoo you had to check by looking down. And it caught a bit of flack for that. But I think that was mostly male reviewers (the game came out nearly 20 years ago) being offended for women? I dunno. At the time I was like “heh heh boobs” but now I’m just like, that’s what half the population sees if they look down. (If they’re wearing an appropriate top. Or not wearing an appropriate top.) I’d be jealous, but obviously were I so equipped, as I said earlier, the vista would be considerably more mundane.
See, now I’m curious how many readers did a boob check while reading this. I imagine women have to do that a few times during the day anyway to make sure their bra isn’t popping out or the right number of buttons are still fastened. Still, I bet money a few male readers did it too. I did it while I was writing this.
Oh and this page it totally gratuitous, who are we kidding? I felt like drawing sweaty boobs and abs and I did.
BTW also going on in panel 1, Sydney is a surprisingly good swimmer, but not that good. She’s holding the flight orb and dolphining. Probably making squeaky chirps and being a general nuisance.
Edit: Changed Varia’s dialog in panel 3 to she doesn’t sound like she has a skin condition or something.
If you want to read Xochitl’s book, you just might be able to in the double res version which will be posted over at Patreon. (Or just google dirty romance novel excerpts) $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Something for the girls, ok.
They deserve a little something too I think.
…Even if they’d like to actually see a big something…
Theres big and then theres “oh god i cant walk, call a doctor”
And then there was “The Size of Vehemence.”
hm – slight tangent, but thinking of Vehemence & co. made me wonder.. does anyone else want to see what would happen if Math (always x moves ahead and self-confidence to match) ended up in a one on one fight with Mr. Perfect Defense, aka For Whom The Bell Tolls?
Hm…doesn’t
FWTBTthat guy with the dumb name just counter powers? IIRC Math doesn’t HAVE powers, just incredible martial arts. Unless Math’s super power IS incredible martial arts.It wasn’t just power-countering, he also deflected a body that flew in his direction.
Didn’t he just bat it out of the way? Implying some super strength or martial arts capability, in addition to his super power? I am not sure if the panel was clear on the matter, from what I am remembering. I think the zip lines indicated a deflection, but the cause was indeterminate. Possibly mundane, possibly the power at work.
His power was to counter anything thrown at him, according to Sydney, and there was evidence of him resisting a purely physical attack (when Anvil put him in a choke hold, which he ignored). So even if he works by using his power he can still react to straight up vanilla kinetic damage.
I agree that is probable, especially with two examples. One point for the outside possibility though is that super strength, paired with super toughness, is actually the most common power in this setting, and is found in supers with other powers too.
So it is still plausible that he has enough toughness to shake off a her attack. It would have to be quite high, mind, as Anvil is pretty strong.
Thinking it through though, the weakest point in that counter-proposal mind is the fact that (other than the one potential ‘batting away’) he did not deploy his super strength. If he had it it would make sense to use it at the point when he was trying to provoke his enemies to attack him.
He ignored the chokehold, but he actively countered Anvil’s punch (that was what knocked her out: her drained her entire kinetic energy)
Varia drives a hard bargain
The guy don’t have equal tonnage of double quasispherical flesh to show… Varia is being nice.
She gets four guys to ogle, Math gets one woman to ogle. Pull the other one.
…is that Sydney doing a flight assisted dolphin leap in the background?
Yup. Check the last panel. She and Max are under water.
I don’t think that them being in the water was what was confusing; regardless, yes, Sydney is doing a flight-orb-assisted jump, according to DaveB in the blurb under the comic
As per Dave: BTW also going on in panel 1, Sydney is a surprisingly good swimmer, but not that good. She’s holding the flight orb and dolphining. Probably making squeaky chirps and being a general nuisance.
I would love to see an animation of that.
+1, Dave next panel set just make a bunch of underwater shots by Dabblers perspective with her intent to make Halo laugh while underwater to see if the orbs react to it.
Great idea!
…BUT BE READY to get Sydney above surface level quickly!…
Otherwise, yes. Good idea.
Thanks, I missed that :)
I almost want to hold up a large ring for Sydney…
And then, when she “jumps” though it, say that “You’re welcome for all of the fish.”
What?
I never got the chance to say it when the dolphins thanked us.
YEEEESSS! ^^^ This ^^^
:-D
After all, what could we say, except “you’re welcome”?
I know what movie I’m watching once I’m done reading comments.
Man from Atlantis? Patrick Duffy in the buff is still hot
“Extra! Extra! Read all about it!”
The whole story is complete in the five-book trilogy (yeah, that’s a whole different matter) written by Douglas Adams.
Was making a (not-so) funny :(
I know. I used to watch that show on TV. I saw your reference to the show & raised you by a book series & 2 movies.
;)
You forgot the radio show that started it all
Actually it was some laboratory mice, running psychological tests on Douglas Adams. He just got suspicious when he managed to overhear them discussing the results, and their implications.
before you watch the movie, please watch the old BBC series of it. You’ll see a guest appearance in the movie that’ll make things a lot funnier afterwards.
Is Sydney using her orbs or is she that good a swimmer naturally ?
I can only count 6 orbs for sure. there’s a seventh in the same arc, but it could just be a flagstone at the published resolution.
Dave mentions in the comments that she’s using the Fly ball to do the dolphin leap.
Looking at gratuitous beefcake and reading girly porn. Any guesses what Varia will be doing later?
She might be in her bunk. Optionally with one of the guys. Or girls.
Or one of each?
Or more than one.
Pretty sure I will not be there though. :-(
One, but all 5 of them.
Casual sex must be a challenge for Varia, as she takes a risk every time she touches someone she doesn’t know. DaveB has loophole’d the power so that it doesn’t hurt her or the other person, but that doesn’t rule out accidentally setting the room on fire, or some such, by gaining a power she has no experience controlling, whilst simultaneously being in a state where losses of control are somewhat par for the course.
You are making two assumptions:
1) Touching automatically grants a power. It may not, it may require Varia consciously activating it. None of Heatwaves powers activate unless she want them to. Why would Varia be any different? All she has is a ‘range of touch’ limitation. We have nothing to say that ‘it automatically activates too’.
2) That the power automatically activates. We know that this is not the case, because Varia ‘normally gets a feeling about what the power can do’. Thus has the option of not using it (or being cautious about how to use it).
Finally, the very fact that Varia is allowed to walk around, in public, without wearing an isolation suit supports that she does not have powers going off at random. Especially visible with her current state of dress. Archon do not consider her bare flesh to be a health and safety risk.
Very good counters, but Deanatay specifies during sex, during sex most people lose control at some stage (if they are doing it properly, specially women)
Most people spent some time touching before getting to the point of sex where they are losing control. She only needs to verify what power will the person give her before having sex with them, can’t be that hard.
It’s not about figuring out what the gestalted powah is, but having her losing control of it while in the throes of a raging orgasm
Yea but the same argument would apply to all potentially dangerous superpowers. Can Heatwave not have sex because she might burn her partner, at the moment of orgasm?
Generally speaking GrrlPower super powers work without such problems. Krona’s issue was using her power ill-advisedly, without properly understanding its nature. As opposed to it being intrinsically dangerous.
Mind you we have only been exposed to those supers who do fall in this state. I am sure there will be ones with hazardous powers, for various reasons. But we are unlikely to find them serving in Archon, whilst in that state.
I wonder if Vaira touched Brooke, if she would get the ability to cool things off? That way Brooke wouldn’t have to drain the heat away and feel yucky when attempting to put out fires.
This has been answered within the comic and the answer is yes, she gets ice powers.
1) Because Varia has a whole different kind of power than Heatwave. Achilles doesn’t have to consciously activate his power either for instance, and FWTBT had a reactionary power as well that didn’t need him to activate it.
2) She said that while already touching Sydney, and made a point of first explaining to Sydney just what her power is. It could just as well be interpreted as meaning that if the gained power isn’t immediately obvious that she still has some idea of what it might be.
There is a bit of different meaning in ‘activating a power’ though. A mental power such as the magnetic power she gets from Jiggawatt is consciously controlled, however her body changing such as the ‘lightning golem’ she turns into via Ren seems to happen directly.
DaveB‘s reply, further down the page renders our speculation moot. He has stipulated that Varia’s power activation is automatic, but that she can control it.
Your reasoning stands up well in its light.
If she gets 3 of the guys she can recreate the scene in the book. Or at least Dave and Ringo, none of those guys seem like they would be ‘reserved’ enough to be Andre.
She’ll be “Expanding her gestalt”?
With Dabbles fuming, again, how she’s not allowed to ‘play’ with her teammates
The way you write Boston accents sucks anyway. Better off to keep it simple.
Just add an extra ‘aitch’ in there, usually tagged with a vowel (specially an ‘aye’)
did you mean sucks => shucks by “adding an aitch”? just woke, am still quite dense.
Yes, for the ‘aitch’, no for the placement
Bostonian is simply a nominally non-rhotic pronunciation. Rs, in many situations, go away. The add on is that they do pop up in other places occasionally (usually on the ends of words that end with a vowel sound. i.e. Idea=idear.) And then finally there are some dialect words, bubblah for water fountain (rare these days), boilah for all hot water heating devices whether they actually boil or not, etc.
Hmmm… how deep is this pool anyway?
judging by max’s hight (6.1) my estimate on her hair length (approx 18 inches) and assuming max is standing on the pool floor
the pool appears to be 8 to 10 feet deep
The pool is at least 6.5 feet deep. Maxima is completely submerged with her hair kind of floating. I wonder if the building’s designers considered the mass of a small swimming pool in their load calculations. (I sure hope so!) Each floor is probably 10 feet, so 3 feet of structure under the pool is required to help distribute the weight of the pool to the load-bearing structure of the building.
Man, can you imagine the kind of cannonball Stalwart could do if he powered up mid-jump? All the weight of the space shuttle in that small a package? Small being a relative term there.
not as much as you think in atmosphere falling can only speed you up to 52 feet per second per second and his volume (and as such how much water he displaces) doesn’t change.
His terminal velocity will go up. Air friction remains the same at a given speed, since his surface does not change. The accelerating force of gravity increases with mass. So the equilibrium will be at a higher speed.
Damn, I completely misread your comment. Ignore me.
It’s not just the velocity.
Force = mass x acceleration
So a space shuttle mass hitting the water will create a much greater cannonball splash than a human mass at the same acceleration. With “much greater” probably meaning that he goes through the bottom of the pool and several floors of the building, if not the entire building depending on if Archon had it built specifically for a superhero team or not. Which the mall and other concessions makes doubtful, since that kind of expense would be fairly prohibitive just to house an Orange Julius and a Juggs shop. Unless he halts his movement using his flight, of course. But that cannot be inertialess. Well…In a superhero world, I guess it can. But if he can accelerate* his mass instantly then he is a lot more powerful than we have been shown. Because again, force = mass x acceleration.
* accelerate and decelerate mean the same things here. It is the delta which is important, not the direction.
Ha! Stalwart can’t fly. If he assumed his maximum mass in mid cannonball the building is going to take significant damage.
even if he can’t fly, if he dove up from a diving board and Decreased his mass going upwards, then Increased it coming downwards, could he not conceivably go higher then plummet faster?
Go higher (than without increasing mass)? Mmm no, I do not think so. Not if he decreases it after leaving the ground.* All of his molecules will be going at a set speed, so decreasing their mass will not make him go faster. If you were wearing a rucksack and dropped it just after jumping, you would not go any higher than if it stayed on.
Gravity would still be acting on both you, and your rucksack, so attached or separate both will continue to be affected equally.
The same would probably be true going down too. Especially as (if you ignore the presence of air for a moment) a more massive object does not fall any faster than a light one. On the moon a feather will fall at the same speed as a cannon ball.
Air resistance does affect feathers on Earth mind, but they are optimised for that. Stalwart is not, so the air resistance would not have an appreciable difference, when compared to the other forces at play.
There is one thing which would give him a significant jumping advantage mind. He is the strongest member on the team. Maxima can beat him, but only if she dumps all her spare power into strength. So on average he is stronger than her. Which means he will be able to do Hulk-like leaping.
Plus he has comparable defense (both are rated at four stars), so should be able to survive any fall from a height that his strength can propel him to.
Here he can pull a trick similar to the one you were proposing, but the opposite way around. Leap normally to the peak of his jump, then decrease his mass, until he is as light as a feather.
Then he can gently float down. Bearing in mind that he would be subject to the whims of the wind. But if he checks the prevailing wind direction, he can take advantage of that to glide in that direction. If he checks before jumping, he can even compensate his initial jump, to ensure that the drifting fall will take him closer to where he wants to be, upon eventually landing.
* Before though, and you are correct. His muscles will be able to propel him higher if there is less mass to overcome. With the exception of if he overdoes it and finds that his mass is insufficient to overcome the air resistance. So he would need to keep heavier than a feather (relative to his size anyhow).
You are right (I think) in that decreasing his weight won’t make him go faster once he’s already off the ground, but it will make him able to go higher.
Once he’s launched up, he’ll slow down by the air resistance and gravity till the vectors cancel each other out, which is the peak of the jump. Without additional means to keep going gravity will then pull him back down.
Gravity however will affect him much less if his mass suddenly decreased, meaning it takes longer to lower the upward vector till it is cancelled out.
I suggest you reexamine your proposal with my rucksack example in mind. If dropping a weight allowed you to jump higher, there would be rules to prevent high jumpers doing that at the Olympics.
Gravity acts equally on all matter. If some of it goes elsewhere (be that a rucksack being detached or every alternate atom of his going into hammer space) that makes not one bit of difference to the parts that remain. They will still have the same kinetic energy and will still be affected by gravity in the way that Newton predicts.
Your supposition is using logic similar to ‘if I jump just before the falling elevator hits the bottom, will I survive?’. Mythbusters did that one, and you go ‘splat’.
(I can’t reply directly to Yorp because we went too far in so I reply to myself to continue this.)
I know jumping in an elevator doesn’t work (though from what I can find mostly because a human leg can’t generate enough upward momentum to make a noticeable difference).
I did keep the rucksack example in mind, however as I figured in that example the (potential) energies get divided between the body and the now detached rucksack.
The difference in our ideas, as often happens in discussions applying real world physics to fictional abilities, is based on what we think happens when his mass changes.
… And while I’m looking up some things I suddenly wonder if it is actually his mass that changes or merely his weight (and yes, those two are different).
If he changes his weight by changing his mass (by stuffing something in or pulling something out of hammerspace) than you’re probably right that it doesn’t affect his jump by much just like the rucksack example.
If he changes his weight via a personal localized gravitational field (like what Maxima did when picking up the ambulance but for him he can only apply it to his own body) than it changes how much gravity is pulling him back down and it would extend his jump.
Adding to what I wrote above, I just now thought of checking what it says about Stalwart in the Who’s who and there it states he can increase his weight and density. If that is a hard AND (both increase and decrease at the same time, not separately) it gives more credence to his mass changing.
As such I have to concede that his powers probably won’t let him jump higher or further in the way I first thought.
I was able to skip mentioning the different ways that the comic physics could be approached, because I felt you could be relied upon to pick that up, and continue to champion the other option that way.
So I am pleased that you did so well. And by the fact that you found supporting evidence, that I had neglected to even check. So I am lucky that it strengthened my argument. But even more pleased that it allowed us to come to a definitive conclusion.
I had originally typed ‘amicable conclusion’, but the ‘amicable’ part was a given, with a good debater, like yourself (and many in this community).
Reducing his mass would allow him to achieve a higher altitude, but he’d have to do it before he left the springboard.
Call Stalwart’s resting mass X.
X determines the flexion of the springboard, and how much energy it stores. And then when it snaps back that energy is transferred back to Stalwart. If he reduces his mass right at the point of greatest flexion then the springboard will be imparting all of that energy into a lass massive object, which will give it a greater initial velocity.
But can he reduce his mass? Or is this just a thought exercise?
If he can reduce his mass, and if he is real good, he could increase his mass to the point before the springboard will break, and then reduce it for his maximum initial velocity.
However, I’m not sure if a few feet or even a few hundred feet would make much of a a difference in the damage he would do upon impact. We’re talking about 2,235 tons compressed into a human sized volume.
Yea, in my footnote I acknowledged that reducing his mass prior to jumping would allow him to get to a greater height. I forgot about the springboard, so was just looking at it from the point of view of a standing jump. Your points on that are very well made.
For some reason the cast list is not working for me, at the moment. The surrounding stuff (like adverts) are populating the screen, but it is behaving as if there is no cast list right now. But, going by LordViking‘s (possibly paraphrased) quote from it:
Logically he must therefore be able to reduce it too, otherwise he would permanently remain at a higher weight and density, and the comment would be superfluous.
Of course we do not know if he can reduce below his starting point, so that is indeed speculation. But it is reasonable speculation. Whilst there may be a fundamental reason, due to the way his power operates, that it cannot reduce below his base level, equally there may not.
In which case it could just be a matter of consciously using his power in that manner. We do know that the Grrl Power setting does support power stunts (the comic actually started with a discussion of such, and Dave has mentioned the capability of doing that outside of just the table-top gaming).
So, even if he cannot presently become as light as a feather, he may have the potential to develop that, in due course.
2,235 US tons = 2,027,558 kilograms
2,027,558 kilograms falling one meter would generate 19,870,068.40 joules of energy
2,027,558 kilograms falling 100 meters would generate 1,987,006,840.00 joules
of energy
To rephrase it would be approximately 20 million joules for the short jump or 2 billion joules for the higher one. Precisely two orders of magnitude greater.
Wow. That conversation went far deeper (pun intended) than I expected. So I have a followup scenario with Stalwart. One of his listed powers is extreme resistance to knockback, and he proved he can use that ability while in motion, both when kicking the tank and walking through Vektor’s TK/stone storm.
With that in mind, what would the physical reaction be if he did the aforementioned springboard jump into the pool, maximizing his mass at the appropriate time for highest amount of energy, and instead, does a bellyflop and exerts his full resistance to knockback upon impact with the water. Would he just hit, then sink? Or would the water be pushed back by his power? Does his resistance to knockback just negate the incoming energy? Or does it provide a countering force to stabalize him?
It gets very hard to say, when messing with fundamentals of physics. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction is the norm, so putting a not in there changes how things work big time.
Personally if I had to make the call as a games master, I would not try to work through the physics, on this one. Simply because resistance to knockback has a very specific intent.
So to keep to the spirit of his power, that should only affect him (although things which he may have been knocked into would be spared damage too).
If a super power’s physics (extrapolated from the way it appears to work) remain within the boundaries of the spirit of the power, then Dave runs with them and tries to match science. When it does not though, he (very sensibly) reverts to ‘it is a super power, this is the way it works’.
Hence why I would go with the simplest route here, as a best guess. he is not being attacked, so the knockback resistance would not kick in and everything would work as it otherwise would do normally.
The fact that there is little difference in physics between him hitting an object and an object hitting him we can simply ignore, or have fun trying to rationalise an excuse. Personally I would go for the former at this stage (otherwise there are too many exploit power stunts that just would not fit Stalwart’s image).
21,799,296 N, assuming a mass of 2235 tons (Google gave me the mass of the space shuttle) and an acceleration of 32ft/sec^2 (this is Earths gravitational acceleration).
Building is going down.
About the building, remember that the mall is in a separate building precisely for defensive purposes, even though they look like a single building. So, the pool could be over a very sturdy building.
Sturdy enough, I don’t know, but definitely not a flimsy one… :-)
Because you are dealing with an inelastic collision the energies must balance. not forces. so it 1/2m v squared you are dealing with. (this is derived from the differential equation that is f=ma). since stalwart can’t fly hes stuck with the same acceleration. his speed would not be that different than normal. the issue would be once his new mass comes into contact with the building. this is really a transient problem. where massing the same as the shuttle would change things is in his rate of sinking ( it would be much much faster as the water will not slow him as much as normal,) and subsequent impact with the bottom. water can be modeled understood as much thicker air at the mass/volume ratios in question. so his splash would not be much bigger than normal… but the subsequent whirlpool as he hits bottom and keeps on going almost instantly would be spectacular. Murphy would dictate that the next room down be a meeting room in which something important is discussed.
Like Ariana’s ballroom, with all its expensive woods etc. (and cracked windows).
Most pools with a diving board are at least 12 feet at that end. Ones with a high dive are often even deeper. So not excessive.
Congrats, you’ve drawn four guys with one nipple between them. (Or it’s an artists mistake.)
Maybe that’s a thing like how all super women are hairless. Male supers don’t have nipples?
Does that mean superwomen don’t have nipples either? Creepy for both genders.
So much for using her breasts for their primary biological function. I call missing nipples on the guys as artist’s oversight, or just simplifying his drawing to get things done on time.
Well if she does then that’s quite the padded bikini.
What nipple? Males in comics don’t have nipples, ever
Except for some occurrences of Batman’s body armor. but then again, it was the armor that had the nipples, so what you said is still correct.
And that was a movie, not comics or cartoon
Really? https://adudesguide.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/purple-nurp.jpg
Not canon :P
They got the haircolours swapped, unless Thor is pretending to be Herc, and Herc is repaying Thor back by making him sore
It is canon. Thor was temporarily exiled from Asgard, so Herc pretended to be him when the queen of the Dark Elves started making trouble, then Thor had to step in disguised as Hercules. It was a two-part Incredible Hercules story.
Oh, okay, did not know that, thank you (totally explains the wrong hair colours, but, Herc managed to purple-nurple Thor? o_O)
(Lisps) By making Thor…thor?
nah, the nipples on all of them are just hiding out under the creases of their pecs
I don’t even see the one nipple you’re referring to…
Far left, from our perspective, on stalwart. Very edge of that pec.
I’m… Pretty sure that that’s not even a nipple, but instead, just the same creases we see on the opposite side, half hidden due to the angle we’re seeing it from…
Oh I did forget those. Maybe I penciled them in but forgot to ink them
6/8 are visible in the 2x resolution one (faint circles anyway no colour change).
You could also add belly buttons – unless they are all clones or whatever.
SHHHHH!
That’s supposed to be a secret.
Yeah, belly buttons have been acceptable ever since Barbra Eden sneaked in a few navel-shots during the course of filming I Dream of Jeannie. Network censors back then made them redesign her costume so that it covered hers, but she managed to sneak it in.
so…who’s the chocolate guy?
My guess is Ren.
Ren, the newbie with the super-adrenalin
OH YEAH, and if you wonder about the nickname I used to point him out. I just find it more appealing than the racist abused regular word
You mean black? Chocolate seems fine, but I don’t think I’ve heard black abused in racist speech in the last century.
well in my surrounding, it’s been used in A WAY TOO RACIST WAY, spit added when said.
Not that I’m against disusing racist words, but eventually we’re going to run out of monikers. Gotta just stop the racism! To me, “chocolate” seems way more abusable than the color black. You can shorten it to “chocos” (cho-kohs) or “chocs” (chokes) or just “hocos” (ho-kos) like t’em racists so enjoy doing. *dubious laugh*
This is a big barrel of no-good just waiting to explode so it’s with some trepidation I write this post. My take on this is that whatever word we use someone will figure out how to abuse it. It’s happened repeatedly ever since some wise ass felt he was a genius for inventing the N word.
There are a few variants that hasn’t been abused to the degree that they are unusable because of it, but they tend to be controversial for entirely other reasons.
I really don’t have a solution, other than picking a few names, and stick by them no matter what. There is no way to stop people from being assholes, but we’re not required to recognize their right to dictate the language. Words can hurt, it’s unfortunately very true. But at the same time these particular words are the low hanging fruit. Anyone who need to use them to degrade someone doesn’t show a lot of imagination or intelligence. It’s not much consolation but it’s all I can offer.
I’ve heard some claim that we don’t need these labels, but I think that is impractical. There are the situations where you have to describe someone, and skin coloration is really one of the most visible attributes.
Yet when someone says ‘that white guy’ suddenly there’s an mistaken outrage, as if people who normally wouldn’t react at all are offended someone MIGHT be racist against whites.
Where the other way ’round kneejerk reactions have been falling off socially speaking.
It’s one thing to say, “We shouldn’t let assholes dictate the language” but that rhetoric usually comes from the lips of people who don’t want to be social flak for using verbiage that they know pricks something sensitive in many people. While this doesn’t seem to be you especially, I’ve noticed the same argument a lot in more… conservative circles.
The problem with freedom of speech is that you can’t control what someone else finds to be offensive. No matter who you are, no matter what you say, someone will be offended by it. That’s one of the risks of freedom of speech, but those who can’t handle it can exercise their own right to just turn around & walk away. What they DO NOT have is any right to stifle someone’s speech, unless they are also fully prepared to accept that someone else can stifle them in turn..
Mahapo! Shaming him by association for belief that the common diction should be mediated by non-assholes? Hmm… Your argument is quite evil! I approve.
You realise that the ‘N’ word comes from a country: Nigeria
Which is bordered by the republic of Niger, and (along with Guinea, Mali, Benin, and Nigeria) plays host to the River Niger – weird how a regional nickname becomes a generic racial insult used for degradation, which then becomes a symbol of social rebellion against that. I’d imagine it’s similar to how Limey for Brits, or Frogs for the French, may have been used in the past?
It’s weird, but – having grown up as a minority in Africa, I did not encounter one half so much racial sensitivity as I did once I moved to the first world – the concept of every form to complete having a section for race & religion was a surprise, as was how every person in the news seems to be described by their race at some point.
In my childhood race did not matter a tenth as much as political and sometimes tribal affiliation. We were aware of the concept (both from history, and as it is used a lot in politics in an attempt to justify various actions, along with claims that America and the UK are trying to re-colonise Africa), but the notion that skin colour held any relevance to competence or character is regarded as patently stupid & easily disproved. That is not to say there aren’t relics of the past who refuse to admit things have changed, but they are a real minority.
Although, quite sadly, the state of regional politics and economics is actually being used to lend them some credence again.
Limey for Brits came about from their use of limes to combat scurvy when other naval nations used lemons, and ‘frogs’ because of the alleged French penchant for eating frog-legs (they could just as easily have been called “Snails”)
Don’t forget ‘Yank’ and ‘Pom’ (although ‘Pom’ should truly be assigned to the Aussies, as that is where the term came from: Prisoner Of Mother England)
Oops! Yeah, forgot about both the country and river Niger :(
Speaking as a Brit I have never found “limey” to be derogatory. It is just a nickname. Likewise I would not be concerned about using “yank”, because none of my American friends would be bothered about it.
It would feel weird though, because I have rather more southern friends, than northern. I am not generally inclined to use nicknames, as I have difficulty even remembering the basic ones. But when I do I would like to know that they fit well.
Yorp: It’s mostly southerners who are bothered by Yank/Yankee, which is a relic of the war between Billy Yank and Jonny Reb.
Northerners mostly don’t care, though the word is assigned to increasingly smaller regions:
Southerner > Northerner > New Englander > Vermonter > Guy who eats pie for breakfast.
Yeppers, hence why it would make me feel a bit off using it. My southern mates just laugh at stuff like that. In this case it is not the southerners who mind, it is the Brit who knows too much history. :-D
Actually the so-called N-word is most likely a phonetic corruption of the word negro..
This o0ccuring over several generations due to the southern drawl.
you could also take a look in the dictionary under ‘niggardly’ which has nothing to do with race at all.
And is also, etymologically speaking, not related in any way to the racial slur.
But still, I do not recommend using the word, because:
1) Some will not know what it means and arrive at a wrong conclusion;
2) Some will know but will want to make a case out of it, knowing that those who don’t know will arrive at the wrong conclusion;
3) Some will know and think that you might be trying to be a veiled racist (or a not-so-veiled-racist), regardless of the context you use. Or trying to “get away” with using the slur without actually using it.
There’s no way to win, even if your intentions are pure. So best to just avoid it entirely and let the word die for lack of use. Stingy suffices just fine.
Or from the Latin/Spanish/Portuguese/Some other Romance language word for “black…”
Ah yes, the old euphemism treadmill–where perfectly good words go to die. We gotta stop doing that.
Personally, as a menanin-challenged individual, I’d prefer to be known as”white.” I’m not a European-American, because I’ve never been to Europe, and it’s been three generations since the last of my foreign born ancestors arrived here. Caucasian is even siller, I’ve no connection to the Caucasus at all. Anglo-German and its variants are useless for the same reasons as European. “White,”–a simple, visual description is by far the most useful and neutral term.
Seems like the same thing should be applied to any other group. “Black” and “brown” skin is no different than “blue eyes” or “red hair,” and thus should be a far more neutral description than something that makes assumptions about ancestry, or relagates them to the status of hyphenated Americans–which would also require an additional assumption that they’re Americans at all, which may or may not be true.
But needless to say, if someone expresses a clear preference–use it. But beware the euphemism treadmill.
I use ‘black’ the BBC uses ‘black’. It is a valid descriptor for the various reasons you said.
I do not let the overly-politically correct dictate to me what language I am allowed to use.
You could have easily said “other” or “unidentified”.
Testing all the orbs underwater? The PPO might be problematic in the office swimming pool.
If she uses the shield orb we’d find out if the shield deployment starts at the surface of the orb and rapidly expands outward, or if it pops into place fully sized instantly. If it expands, you could use it to slosh all the sunbathers.
And the lighthook would be fun to use underwater on other people’s swimsuits, if you were across the pool from the target and enough people were present that you could hide in the crowd.
If it expands, since we know that it is gas-impermeable, Sydney would be standing in a vacuum and would quickly die if she did not drop it immediately. Since that hasn’t happened, we know that it does not expand from her.
That said, we haven’t seen the embiggener function in action, have we? Just the results from the Maxima blast testing. It also should not expand, for the same reasons. And so it must drop the smaller force field and erect the larger one, hopefully rather instantly.
Heh, I said “erect.”
Dave has indicated that Sydney can expand the force field, without having to drop it. The orbs compensate to avoid dangers from decompression or compression (when going in the opposite direction). I do not recall him stipulating how. Very sensibly.
It might be surprising how much energy a few tonnes of water can absorb. Even firing the PPO sideways from one wall to the opposite wall in the pool should just increase the temperature by just a few degrees. (That’s one of the reasons this stuff gets used for fire-fighting) If there is a shock-wave from the PPO, the water will transmit it to the surface and cause a mini-tsunami and soak everybody poolside. If it was contained, the water-hammer effect would be enormous.
And cooling nuclear power plants. Which is also a stop and think moment about how much energy is really required to raise the whole planet’s ocean temperature.
And also a stop and think about global warming. I’ve had conversations with people who have said “What’s a couple degrees C?”
I’ve explained to them the actual energies involved. One calorie is the energy needed to raise the one cubic centimeter of water by one degree centigrade. Now imagine the volume of water in all of the oceans (1,338,000,000 cubic kilometers) being one degree centigrade higher, and then imagine the amount of energy that actually involves. It is a vast amount of energy, despite sounding trivial when described as “just a couple degrees.”
Which is why hurricanes are so much more potent when they are over warmer water, because the hurricane is drawing energy from that water.
+2
The distribution of the heat difference is not uniform in the oceans. Below a certain depth (I don’t know what that is), the extra heat from the top will not increase the temperature in any significant way.
Mythbusters did a test on firing bullets into water – do they zing leaving a trail of bubbles like hollywood thinks? Nope, high powered rifles can only shoot a few feet before the bullet stops altogether. iirc, less than 10 feet (~3 meters). low powered bullets went farther (counterintuitively).
It was more of a material stress reaction than inertia. The slower rounds held their shape and traveled farther due to being more aero..hydrodynamic. The high speed rounds reacted to the water like they hit a solid and just fragmented into shrapnel.
Astronauts encounter a similar effect when descending from orbit & enter the atmosphere…If they’re traveling at a high speed & enter the atmosphere at too steep of an angle, it can be like hitting a solid barrier.
Water reacts like a non-newtonian fluid when impacted at high speeds. After a certain height, hitting water is just as bad as landing on concrete.
Yup. Don’t trust the movies. If you jump any significant height into water (and many of the cliff/bridge/etc dives they like to portray go above that) you will go splat, like hitting rock, even if you only hit water.
That’s why cliff-divers end up in hospital all the time
Speaking of Mythbusters, they also tested that statement and declared it Busted! A couple of pigs were trussed up in duffle bags (to keep everything together and less messy) and tossed from a helicopter high enough that the piggies would reach terminal velocity before impact. The one that landed on the parking lot took a lot more damage than the pig that landed in the water, as determined by an orthopaedic surgeon looking at x-ray images taken on-site. Oh, sure both pigs received injuries that would have instantly killed them (if they weren’t already dead), but the pig on the parking lot fared far worse.
Water acts as a Newtonian fluid even with high impacts. At high speeds the moderately high viscosity of the water does not allow it to flow out of the way fast enough and that leads to some very strong forces applied back to the object hitting the water (Newton’s 3rd law of motion).
I am disappointed that Mythbusters would choose to risk lives, by weakening a useful safety message, by taking something intended as a loose (but reasonable) analogy and taking it literally.
Doing that with “can you polish a turd” is both funny and entertaining. Whereas doing it with a life-or-death warning, risks the dangers of Chinese whispers distorting any caveats they might air.
Seeing even one person die because they trusted someone saying “Mythbusters busted that”, without waiting to hear the small-print, would not be good.
How about this? “From a certain height or above, whether you hit concrete or water, you die just as quickly, that is pretty much instantly.”
Just testing the two “fuck them anyway” orbs to see if they react in any way in different environments.
Although testing the other obs in the same environments while you’re already there would be a pretty good idea. We’ve already seen the interaction of a huge blast of sand and the shield orb. :-P
We have? What we witnessed was the Flight Orb and PPO at work, then she let go the PPO and grabbed the Shield Orb when the sand scattered from the PPO blast attacked her. The shield would have protected her from the sand if she’d had another hand to hold another orb.
That’s the interaction I am referring to: Not “protect me from an incoming sand blast” but “put it up in an environment full of flying sand.” That’s the kind of interaction which might reveal how the obs operate in cases which aren’t just green field i.e. just using them in a vanilla, ordinary environment. One that they will probably be used in most of the time, but you really want to know if your force field just won’t go up under water, for example. Not that I suspect that to be the case, it is just an example.
Or, in some sort of gas attack: will it enclose the gas inside with Sydney and possibly others, or will it filter the potentially harmful gas out?
That’s a good point with that example the shield would probably go up with water inside. With a scuba suit you could use it to scoop up water to fight forest fires.
That idea could have helped out by the Mars building that Sydney and crew were supposed to watch.
And we have seen the florb gives her Submariner agility (which makes sense, seeing how he can also fly through the air, via those tiny wings on his ankles… )
If the boys are not allowed there the water may start boiling from Maximas rage. If they are allowed there it may start boiling from Halos…. I don’t know what… but I’m almost 100% sure there is gonna be some kind of water explosion happening.
That’s an easy bet, since Halo’s underwater with 7 super-powered orbs. She’s bound to do *something* without thinking it thru.
Yeah, fairly sure Maxi would be called out big time if she tried to pull some segregation crap, specially female and male only areas (outside the locker rooms)
I think the point is that Sydney and Maxima are obviously here to test Sydneys “fuck them anyway” orbs. We can see them both in the pool in the last panel. Dabbler, Pixel, and the multi-eyeglasses-girl (with all kinds of different visions apparently) whose name I forget might be expected to be here to see if they can catch anything that others might miss.
But Varia, Harem, and the rest? They have no powers, skills, or talents which can contribute to this exercise. Obviously just getting some sun or relaxing at the pool. So what are they doing here, out of uniform, on an extended break, when they should supposedly be on duty and earning their exorbitant pay? Unless it is the highest building around, you can bet that they are under observation by news organizations. They just debuted a few days ago and should still be fairly big news. If they are the highest building around there could still be news helicopters swinging by for a look as they cover traffic etc.
Someone is going to be wondering why they make so much money when they are clearly involved in leisure activities in the middle of a work day.
And if this is Saturday or Sunday, and assuming that they get weekends off in this military outfit, then Sydney and Maxima shouldn’t be here doing actual relevant work that just happens to take place in a pool.
So Lucy has some ‘splainin’ to do.
How could you forget the name of Specs? o_O She doesn’t have multi-eyeglasses, she can simply alter her vision to see different spectrums
And how dare they have some downtime when they are not actually on a case
You expect them to be sitting around, in full uniform, twenty four seven?
We have one of the Daphne’s and, as per Maxi’s orders, one of her is probably still in uniform doing some sort of ‘official’ work (filing triplicated paperwork doesn’t get filed by itself)
Most of them are fast enough (even if not at Maxi’s superspeed) to get kitted up if something comes up that requires the attention of the Super SWAT
Let me just say that I was never at a pool relaxing and taking in the sun while my superior officer was in the pool with a recruit, working. Not once.
Perhaps your experience was different. Navy?
I did once run into a drill sergeant at a mall. He was with his wife or girlfriend, I was with another guy in our unit. Our interaction consisted of “Hi, drill sergeant.” “Hi.” and then we both moved on fast.
Contrast that to firemen on shift for half the day. They will not be working for all of those twelve hours. Some of the time is for socialising. But they are restricted to doing that in close proximity, as they all need to be ready to dive down the slippery pole and jump onto their fire engines.
Archon have similar constraints. They do have the recreation room. They probably have a separate officer’s lounge somewhere. But the building only has the one roof and the one pool.
If it is good sunbathing weather and there is not a crisis on, they just have to be practical about it. Maxima could fly off to a private pool somewhere. But the delay in returning, should the team be scrambled, could loose precious moments, in a crisis.
Similarly aircrew can be composed of very different ranks (in some countries), yet they have to work together, in a small team, in close proximity. So they tend to be much more relaxed about such issues than the other services. Again the small size of the Arc-Swat unit will tend to encourage this sort of behaviour.
Plus Maxima is using (an admittedly unorthodox) tactic of bonding with her new recruit with friendship. If swimming with her can keep her loyal and prevent her going rogue someday, that is a sound tactic.
Providing, of course, that Maxima can find a way of compensating for the discipline issues. There is a reason why this approach is unorthodox.
Please don’t compare volunteer firemen with the military. It isn’t even close. Not to take anything away from firemen, but they have a much looser organization than the military.
it fits better than comparing Archon with regular military
besides the whole subject is emergency response teams
Yorp never said anything about volunteer firemen
Yea, the ones I am familiar with, in the U.K. are all full-time professional firemen, rather than volunteers. How it may work in other parts of the world I do not know. Within the U.K. though there are some other volunteers amongst emergency responders mind. For instance the coast guard has a large proportion of volunteers within their ranks.
I saw a heartwarming story just the other day of a schoolgirl having to leave her classes mid-lesson, because she was responding to an emergency alert. If I recall correctly she is record-breaking, due to being so young (17 or 18 ish)
Obviously, as per that example, such volunteers (to the best of my knowledge) just go about their normal day-to-day activities, rather than being stationed for a 12 hour shift waiting for a call-out.
Although I bet there are exceptions, if you cast the net wide enough.
She most definitely has multi-eyeglasses. I may have forgotten her name, but I didn’t forget the visuals.
No, they simply changed to reflect what spectrum she was viewing Sydney’s balls in
Change, multi. I think we are speaking the same language but still not communicating. As is often the case between you and I.
+1 for a diplomatic answer.
I have no opinion on the subject under debate, but do appreciate it when a differences are aired in a manner which avoids flame wars.
What a frustrating place to work in if you are bi. Too many distractions.
not personally, but then again, i’m more of the “doesn’t care what’s under the skirt” camp.
I think most supers being 10/10 by default (if not more) would have very little sexual frustration which makes Math’s behavior very interesting, is he a letch because he has difficulty getting laid (doubtful) or because there’s some other psychological impetus for that behavior? To me it seems like attention seeking behavior, like he doesn’t care whether he gets in trouble or not, either way he gets what he wants, the attention of his target, specifically women. I’m going to take a stab in the dark here and guess he was separated from his mother (or equivalent figure) in his formative years resulting in poor development of his animus (his concept of women and the female mind). Now on some level he knows he wants their attention (tenderness/affection) but has no idea how to go about this, complicating matters is his ego, he’s disgusted by what he perceives as his weakness (the desire for tenderness/affection) hence the sexually predatory behavior, asserting/reaffirming his masculinity. I’m sure he gets laid a lot but his internal conflict between his pride and his desire to be loved means he can only let someone superficially close before he feels compelled to push them away.
Where did you say you got your Doctorate in Human Psychology?…
O.o
Uh… the back of a cereal box? :D
Sounds a bit like Barney from How I Met Your Mother
Math ain’t a Super
I don’t buy that, even his description states that he’s “preternaturally skilled” and any martial artist will tell you it’s as much a matter of mental discipline as physical conditioning, if Math goes up against a practitioner of Mushin he should get his ass kicked because he just doesn’t take fighting seriously enough. But I don’t think he would, the very fact that he’s considered to have mastered martial arts despite clearly lacking the focus of a true master of martial arts (not that I am but come on “easily distracted” is indisputably a trait of his) proves that there’s something else going on there, maybe some superpowers are simply subtler than others, it’s not like anyone really knows how to identify a super beyond the fact that they’re doing something impossible.
Preternaturally skilled, through training, not a gift of puberty, just like Peggy
No, that practitioner of Mu shu-pork would have their ass kicked: Math doesn’t take most fights seriously because most challengers are not, in his opinion, much of a ‘challenge’, which is how Maxi managed to entice him into signing up
Fighting is one of the things that Math does take seriously. The issue for Math (other than having an eye for the ladies) is that pretty much everybody else is at a much lower skill level than he is at. This means that for most people, even supers, Math does get really challenged.
After you have been playing a video game for a few months at “Master” level, switch back to Novice and see how board you are again. The son of one of my clients played a soccer game last summer so much that he became too skilled at the game. Even at the highest level, he found the game easy enough that he challenged himself by seeing how often he could score using his goalie!
This is what it is like for Math; most fights are over before they begin because Math is just that good (and bored with low-skill opponents).
Math got distracted by a femme’s (Heavenly Sword?) boobage in a fight, thus getting almost killed. Max ordered him to stare at boobs ONLINE until it bored him. So he’s not exactly following orders here.
He is testing, in the ‘field’ so to speak, how effective it has been so far, and so far, it seems to have worked (he is aware of both Wart and the fact Maxi is behind them, wet)
Jabberwokkey (or Jabberwonky). Possibly Jabberwokey if she’s aware enough.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1432
Im removing one internet from your life account for using the word woke :)
i woke up this morning
what about Sydney’s leaving a wake? (she’s awake, leaving a wake, but not at a wake.)
Don’t tease a pander. They have a mighty swipe and strong claws! We could end up attending your wake.
Actually, his distractability makes sense, in a way. If he is a mortal with that level of martial ability, then he must have dedicated his entire life to study and training. Pretty much to the exclusion of almost everything else. Especially to be that good as young as he is. He could have had a sequestered upbringing. You know, temple of all male monks hidden in the mountains, type thing. Or something similar. So now he’s out in the world, prime of his life, and now having the time and exposure to realize what he was missing. And being that naturally fit and strong, could mean a LOT of testosterone. So he’s like a 12 year old boy just discovering what woman are all about…taken to a comical extreme.
It’s a good theory, he doesn’t seem very monk-like but there’s no reason to think once a monk always a monk.
Math’s lechery is an homage to the old trope that all martial arts masters are dirty old men who ogle women (but also due to their code of honor never act on it).
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DirtyOldMan
Question about Varia. Can she choose to have her gestalt power kick in or is it automatic? For example if she were to bump into jigawatt by accident would she manifest a power? If so wearing exposing clothing is a dangerous endeavour.
my guess would be that she has no choice on the gestalt but has control over the powers gained from it. as such no more dangerous to a pool full of bystanders than jigawatt herself
Yeah, power activation is automatic, but she controls it.
He he. Glad I included that option in my deductive reasoning above.
I wonder, what were to happen if she were to bump into someone with an effectively always on power. (do those exist in this world). An example would be Cyclopse. His eye beams are technically always on, only his eyelids or special lenses can stop the beams. Even in his universe I think he is a rare case as most other powers need to be triggered unless its a passive power like fast healing. Still, could be a hazard. Obviously she’s safe with her teammates as she knows their powers and they are all of the have to activate variety.
Cyclops suffered from a concussion before he gained his power during puberty. He has brain damage in just the right place that would have allowed him to control his eyebeams. His lack of control isn’t due to the power itself, it’s from injury.
Most of Maxima’s powers are always on though. Fortunately not her energy attack mind.
I’ve been assuming she has to choose to copy for a few reasons, most notably that it greatly simplifies things for Dave if he doesn’t have to make sure she can be touching her teammates while also making sure to never touch her enemies. Remember that anyone she’s getting a power from is unaffected by her powers (unless that’s her power).
Though that’s not always a downside, not every power is offensive after so the enemy being unaffected isn’t as notable, but it would definitely complicate things for example if say, a taser touch power is effectively useless as actually touching a target makes them immune via bringing them into power group.
So far we have nothing to say how 3 way gestalt powers work. It feels like a substantial leap of logic to assume that person C is immune to powers obtained from person A if she’s in physical contact with both.
Varia doesn’t actually copy a power, she gains a power that’s varied from an actual power (& even gains some kind of power from normals who have no powers). The power she gains may be related to, or a variant of the power of another super. It’s more of gaining a potential than it is gaining a copy of something.
Nice way to slip in some female soft porn, Dave *chuckles* And nice to see Math continuing to obey Maxima’s orders “in frame.”
Yes, Math is NOT letting his lecherousness distract him from keeping himself aware of the rest of his surroundings. He may be focusing in one direction, but his overall radar is NOT being impeded.
If Dave ever finds a way to have soundtrack play along with his comics we definitely need to have this one playing in the background for this page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG_6CopW9GQ
P.S. I feel in a petty mood today, so I would like to say ‘Called it!’
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2542/comment-page-2#comment-541602
Varia looks like she’s speaking normally,and she’s from Boston and,like I mentioned a while back,maybe her mother is from Texas originally?!?
Am I the only one who, for just a moment, thought Varia’s “I have a condition” line meant something like “I have a skin condition”?
You are not. I read the comic three times with no clue what was going on. In fairness, it’s Monday, I haven’t been sleeping properly, and I hadn’t had any coffee yet.
Probably her ‘condition’ is her gestalt powah: entering the water with other people could cause weird things to happen
Nope, got me too. “I have one condition” maybe better?
That makes sense, but personally don’t feel the line in the comic should be changed, because the content explains things: if Math wants to ‘observe’ her, Vahriah has an equitable condition, having some beef for her to be looking at
Yeah that could be read both ways. :/
Well, she does have a skin condition :P
No, it was perfectly clear. And the last panel should have cemented it for anyone who somehow missed it.
I read it that way too. Was very confused for about 10 seconds. Maybe “On one condition” would be less ambiguous?
The amusing thing there is that her condition turned out to be one of skin. :)
I read it both ways at the same time, but i just happen to have a ‘this is what was meant by that’ filter in my head that works at very high speed.
it doesn’t work with sarcasm, though, so it might be faulty.
:)
Seriously?
Where are the penis outlines on the trunks? I am quite average, but I spot an outline in such pants…
No nips on the men either….
I think Dave’s biases are showing through XD
Just wait untill Hiro enters the scene.
When Dabbler exits the pool (given what she is almost wearing), the nips and penis outlines may become apparent. :)
ok,, is that book that dabbler lent to varia with such a title , because it is bound to draw attention or is it a test to see if anyone looks up from her body long enough to see it?
Why would it have to be a book from Dabbles? She didn’t invent bodice rippers (unless her name is ‘Mills’ and slash or ‘Boon’)
https://davebarrack.deviantart.com/art/Demon-Stuff-465575803 is why it is thought the book is from Dabbler.
Oh, hah, I have used that joke before. :)
Had forgotten that :(
“Deducts 10 points from Guesticus’s internet score”
Making fun of the mentally impaired is cruel :(
I don’t think Dabbler gave Varia the book, but Dabbler might want to borrow it later.
In response to the topic of mundanity of view…
I barely registered the panel as being what it is, then moved on. The thought was something like “This is obviously what Varia sees” (with the name assigned thanks to a later panel).
For me it was pretty darn mundane, even though I lack any reason that I can think of for that.
I also didn’t do a check.
….
Am I boring now?
After reading the comments I did a check and my spontaneous thought was “I guess supermales don’t have chest hair?”
It has already been stated that Supers (male and female) don’t have hair below the neck (unless they are from a culture that views the hedgehog as a god of fertility, with Jon Reremy as one of their living saints :D )
What is that platform in the middle of the pool?
Sun lounge for the swimmers so they don’t get the poolside seats wet?
Hot tub under a roof on the other side of the pool.
I doubt it, you can see it isn’t a full circle and in panel 1, you can see the pool going around it.
It’s a gazeebo (or just a covered area) with an outdoor semi-circle couch and a fire pit table facing out.
It’s got really high damage reduction, doesn’t it. Has anyone tried Magic Missile?
IT’S A GAZEBO!
Nice.
I’d like to re-purpose that gazebo into an in-pool bar. Those things are cash cows, especially if you have a bartender in good enough shape to wear swimwear.
I will attack the gazebo, with my longsword!
I attack The Gazebo with a giant termite.
Doubtless someone has already done it. However the next time I have a gaming group, I will create stats for a gazebo monster. It will be a relative of the trapper, that likes enticing victims to sit in its mouth, by having a comfy looking swing-chair.
In Dungeons and Dragons Online they pay homage to Eric and the Gazebo in one of the quests.
In the quest Good Intentions a gnome wizard has invented an ‘animatronic’ (robot) which he hopes will free people from mundane labor and bring about a new age of inventions. Unfortunately things go awry, as they always do, and the animatronic goes around animating many mundane objects which then attack the party.
In the end fight the animatronic is standing in a gazebo, and once the override the players have carefully collected the pieces for while being attacked all the while by the animated objects fails, the animatronic animates the gazebo and attacks the players with it inside.
DDO is a free to play game with paid content you can unlock via ‘favor’ you can earn by playing or by purchase or by a ‘VIP’ subscription. Any D&D fans who haven’t given it a try might want to look into it, because it is free to test drive.
At first glance, I thought Varia’s “bikini top” was drawn upside down.
Okay yeah, don’t really like the new look for any of the guys
I like the pleated swim trunks.
Meant the guys themselves, specially Les, and poor Wart is starting to go bald in just a week after meeting Sydney
Stalwart is not going bald. He keeps his hair very short. Check his cast photo or other appearances.
As for Les his hair is brushed back and is showing he has a naturally high hairline.
Yes, but compare his mugshot with this page: on this page, there is a definite reduction of side hair
Was actually referring to Les’ face, not his hair, his hair is actually the same
compare to
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1060
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1204
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1500
And don’t forget
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1562
Show Stalwarts hair very similar to the latest episode
Umm, no, none of those show quite as much of a side fade as on this page
I used exposure therapy to cure my arachnophobia.
No Tarantula Woman, I do not want to get snugly!
As a swarm of talking spiders say in the game “Folktale”, spiders are very cuddly and like giving hugs, but since they don’t have arms, they use their fangs. Don’t you feel better now, buddy?
Actually I quite happily let spiders walk over my bare arms. Ones that take me by surprise or are fuggly ugly will get squished mind, if they are in my house. Or flipped away, if elsewhere.
Don’t bring your pet tarantula into my house mind. I only took my aversion therapy so far. Those will find a heavy book dropped on them. if you do not remove them fast!
So you hung out with Vance, then?
…The original Spiders-Man…
Stalwart having pleated swim trunks is one of those little touches of genius that I love so much in this comic.
Where did Maths shirt disappear to?
Dabbler used her cloth disintegrator sniper rifle.
He had time to change position (to the “Van Damme”) and call in the Boys, plenty of time to ditch the shirt
Not I. What do you think I am? It is not even as if it is Thursday. Mind you I do agree that the comic situation does sound equitable.
+34
+86
+302
Yeah… that last one has to be photoshopped. The fabric and boob physics are not reacting to the puppy’s mass at all. (or the wiggly momentum of said puppy) How do I know this? Because I know someone who did a similar photo with a kitten. (don’t worry – kittens love snuggling like that)
It would be freaky if there was nothing under Math’s left leg, but I’m sure that’s beyond his skills (or anyone else’s who can’t fly).
He’s good, but not that good (even Van Damme needed something for both legs, even if it was a boxing ring ropes)
Actually VD pulled it off in one of his early movie appearances.
I think the movie was called “The Red Hawk”
It starred Sho Kagosie.
VD was a Russian commando who was trying to kill Sho.
Sho Koshugi
He did a horizontal split balanced only one side? Have seen him do it vertically
Until proven otherwise I consider Math to be in the same lineage as folks who can walk on sword edges, flimsy branches, run up walls and leap from rooftop to rooftop. Why? Because his speed is listed as being just one category below Maxima’s.
To pull that off, the dude needs to have oriental cinematic martial arts powers, rather than the somewhat more realistic end of the spectrum that Jean-Claude Van Damme represents.
Yes, but Math isn’t moving in the last panel, thus he has to have something under both feet
Physics would seem to say so yes. But if .DR.REVENGE says he saw a documentary showing such, then that is good enough for me. JCVD would not fake it, I am sure!
:-O
Besides which, Math may just be leaning against Ren, on one side. Whilst maintaining a pose that makes us think he should have something under his foot, but not actually needing that.
;-)
Ren is behind Math though…
He is behind Math’s leg, but if my playful hypothesis is correct, then he is next to his torso. Which would require Math to be leaning back somewhat, at an angle. And the art even appears to support that.
Although I am fairly sure that the intent is for him to be strictly vertical, it is possible to interpret it the way I have suggested.
Imagining Sydney going “Eek! Eek! EEk!” while moving backwards half out of the water, just to annoy Maxi (after being prompted by Dabbles) :D
Poor Max is the target for everyones pranks. The chains of command in a group like this I guess.
She’s just an easy target, but maybe being around Sydney more and ‘lighten up-ing’ may shift some of the focus to someone else (not completely, and Dabbles may never give up until Maxi gives ‘it’ up :wink: )
By the way, in reference to DaveB‘s comment about Trespasser… actually, if you used a mod that allowed you to change the camera position, you would find that the only part of your character that they modeled were your right arm and your breasts.
That’s right… you’re playing a woman with no head, no legs, no left arm… in fact, nothing below the breasts. A literal floating pair of boobs. (They assumed that since the arm and the breasts were the only thing you’d be able to see, there was no point in modeling the rest of the body. They never accounted for the creativity of modders.)
To be fair, that IS a common thing for first-person games. Even the first-person perspective for Skyrim and Fallout are just floating limbs.
That’s true, but only in first person. If you use the console and enter the TFC command (“Toggle Free Camera”), you can swing the camera around and find that the entire character IS being modeled, as opposed to Trespasser, where the only part of the model that exists are the boobs and one arm.
Let me clarify what I just said. In Skyrim and Fallout, the parts of your body that aren’t rendered because they’re off-camera still exist. Two arms, two legs, a head, and a torso. In Trespasser, you are an arm and a pair of disembodied boobs, and nothing else.
That game could barely run with what was already in it. If they tried to model legs walking around too, it probably would have barely barely run.
maybe that is why they did what they did. with big boobs in the way you don’t have to animate or even model and texture legs and still be able to look down without breaking immersion.
Probably not a real order, but still pertinent, considering his weakness.
Which is why he said not to confirm it with Maxi :D
…There has been a lot of unnecessary gratuitousness lately. Since the end of the not-robot fight, really. I think you’ve been getting carried away, Dave.
May be gratuitous, but it has been equal-opportunity with been both kinds of cake on display: cheese and beef
I don’t see that that excuses it.
Didn’t say it did (or that it even needed excusing), was just giving an explanation
Hah, just now saw what the back of her book says.
Yes, but have you actually read the page she is on? Steamy doesn’t cum close!! >_>
But the back cover is revealing too.
“So. Much. Sex.”
He he. Check out what Sydney is doing, underwater, in the final panel.
The first panel, as confirmed by Dave, she is using the flyball to make an impressive dive into the pool. But in the final panel we can clearly see the blue orb has been released. Plus there is a bubble trail leading from the halo of orbs, down to her hand. Indicating a new orb has been chosen.
I was getting worried, from having identified all the others, that it might be the PPO, but then made out the red tinge to one, that I had thought was one of the two purple/pink ones. Leading me to realise that the tentacle orb was not actually above her.
Then I realised that what I had interpreted as an orb’s wake, from coming down, is probably actually the tentacle. Especially as it wraps around and goes below the height, in another arc, that would confound my initial impression.
The only question is, what mischief is Sydney going to get up to, with the tentacle?
Well they were going to be testing the unknown orbs.
Three word book review: “So. Much. Sex.”
I guess that’s better than a two word album review: “Shit sandwich.”
or the one word review of ‘crap’.
Figures Achilles would get right into showing off for Varia. The man has no filters.
I’m pretty sure that one of Varia’s conditions was a display. Thus the Achilles bicep flex. The other two do just fine standing there…
Hey, so long as there is something for both sides, it’s all good.
Thanks for pointing out Syd was in this comic, I somehow never got past the
boobsgratuitous display of unrealistic womanhood.it’s not unrealistic, honestly, but I’m not going to suggest here that you Google Norma Stitz.
Math’s hair in the last panel kind of reminds me of a certain anime character. Just Saiyan.
It always has
As funny as I find this page, I’m also very curious what Syd and Max are doing underwater behind all that.
Also Varia’s swimsuit is a wardrobe malfunction waiting to happen, doesn’t seem like it’d be holding up very well after a small jump for example : /
I had been thinking Anvil and Sydney myself. But you have probably got it right, the dialogue supports that (Math’s in the final panel).
The silhouette is bulky enough that I automatically thought ‘Anvil’, and moved on. But Maxima could fit the bill too. She did not pass my mind though because Sydney’s orbs are visible, so I assumed the shiny Maxima would likewise. Even though her body was fully covered, her head was exposed, when we last saw her.
But things are different underwater, and they are shadowy silhouettes, so there is indeed no reason why Maxima would be reflecting in this direction And the orbs are both translucent (so would not create a solid silhouette) and create their own light in any event. So they are not a like-for-like comparison against Maxima’s skin.
Not really. Math says “Don’t bother checking even though she’s right behind us.”
But even though “checking” sounds so easy when said like that, if that’s Maxima in the water then she’s not really “just behind us.” “Checking” with her would involve either going into the water and trying to communicate your question underwater, or signalling for her to come out of the water so you can ask her the question.
Maybe their communications collars allow them to communicate even when one of the people in a conversation has a rebreather in their mouth (Sydney has a miniaturized version but it was the first one issued by Deus), dunno.
I think it is Maxima in the water, but that makes Math’s statement a bit off, unless being underwater with a rebreather in your mouth is no barrier to their communications.
Math’s answer has nothing to do with Maxima’s location, in actuality. That is just a tongue-in-cheek red herring, on his behalf.
He has been very… liberal… in his interpretation of Maxima’s orders which were (paraphrasing) “go and look at boobs on the internet until you stop being distracted by them”. As such he is stretching those orders, almost to the breaking point, by applying them to this situation.
Judging from the way he has phrased this, he is very much aware of this, but is choosing to be cheeky.
He knows that Maxima would probably go ape at him deliberately misinterpreting her orders, as an to ogle Varia. But his hormones, and supreme martial artist bravado, means he just does not care.
His saving grace is in conceding to Varia’s condition. With that the situation does become … equitable. So even though Stalwart is suspicious, he can see no harm is being done, so probably will take the veiled hint, that Math has just made, that querying the order, with Maxima, would be… disharmonious.
“as an to ogle Varia” = “as an excuse to ogle Varia”