Grrl Power #566 – Surprise billionaire
Sciona is obviously good at long term planning, but there are simply some scenarios no one is going to predict, like an obtrusive billionaire and his squad of femme fatales showing up in the middle of your heist.
Even if you could actually predict all possible outcomes, there are still limitations on preparation time, like the actual time it takes to prepare for those outcomes and the material resources required to overcome, for instance, the leviathan making the vault its nest, or being met by your future self here to wave you off this course of action, or the shapeshifter pretending to be your future self, or the neutron star that gained sentience and wants to take you for its wife. In a universe full of superhumans and supernaturals and cryptids and aliens, “all eventualities” is an absurdly large possibility space.
It really comes down to managing probability. The neutron star thing? Well below a 1% chance of happening. Like… 0.000000000001%. Actually something which has never happened before is probably impossible to predict, so it would go in the “probably don’t need to worry about it” column. The Leviathan taking up residence in or near the vault? Maybe worth considering, but only to the degree that you prepare in a way that would allow you to deal with any number of large obstacles. Like, I don’t know, a grenade launcher. That’s the only practical way for someone like Batman to operate. He may not have a specific solution for dealing with Solomon Grundy in his belt, but as long as he has a batarang that can pump 50,000,000 volts through someone, he’s probably covered.
I found a great webcomic to share with you guys. It is totally NSFW, but despite being quite explicit on some of the pages, it doesn’t feel sleazy. All the sex is pretty casual and friendly. It also has fantastic art, and is well written and there’s like, a plot and characters and everything. It has the slightly odd name of “I Roved Out in Search of Truth & Love”
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $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.
All that work, and he makes it look easy – hello from Spain!
well, he pretty mush sais, “oh, you removed the ward for me? how kind of you!” sciona pretty much did everything for him.
Hello and have a nice day, from Bulgaria.
“Deus Ex Deus.”
When DaveB wants the “Go-To Guy” of villains when he wants to pull a Deus ex Machina for the story…
;)
Just wait till “Ex” and “Machina” show up. Do really want to see something incredible—-and dangerous? Human abomination.
For someone who isn’t bulletproof, Deus seems really careless about talking to powerful people…
We don’t know if he has any powers. And even if he doesn’t, he employs a lot of people that do, and probably some mages as well. He’ll have loads of defences.
Just look at his toy aisle.
I doubt his suit is anything remotely close to ‘off the rack’. Its probably good against most small arms and his accessories would make the average technophile or magus salivate.
As others have noted, there’s no reason whatsoever to assume Deus isn’t bulletproof. But, even if he’s not, he’s given every indication that he’s smart and resourceful enough to be very sure that he’s not putting himself in unreasonable amounts of danger by porting into that situation. (As DaveB notes, you can’t account for *every* contingency, but you can bet that Deus has anything more likely than 2% covered.)
The are generally two kinds of people who are arrogantly indifferent about personal safety. One is the guy who thinks he’s a baller, and needs a savaging to remind him what mortality is, the other is the guy goading you into taking the first swing.
This may just be me, but I’m eagerly awaiting Deus’s savaging. Maybe one that reminds him what mortality is a bit *too* thoroughly.
Meh, Deus certainly acts like a villain but I don’t see it. If anything he’s a villain more reminiscent of Dr. Eggman than someone sinister. Plus based on his appearances so far he’s not going to get a beatdown anytime soon, if they try to attack him he’ll probably do a “show of power” where one of his subordinates blocks the bullets only to cue him freaking out about it once he leaves. That or he comically dodges all the shots (though this would mean he probably has some form of luck based power)
Naw, I’d say Eggman is definately more evil. (Thinking SatAM Eggman, Archie comics eggman, or the game series eggman, not … that other.. cartoon… I don’t know -what- that is.)
Deus is more of a True Neutral than a Villian. He’s freed people from tyrants, but also hunts & steals artifacts from their rightful owners, and both for his own benefit.
I know good aligned supers are generally called superheroes, and evil aligned supers are generally called supervillians… what’s a neutral aligned super to be called? Anti-heroes could be considered neutral, but they’re not necessarily superpowered as they are just… toughguy emo grunge? And he’s not the anti-hero type as far as I can tell.
Super antihero? Super everyman? Super antivillian? Super Hillan? Super Vero? Bob?
I know what to call him.
TROUBLE.
Sociopath
I don’t know what his code is, so I can’t say he’s (the best alignment, mine) Chaotic Neutral, but your points suggest Neutral Evil. Everything he does is for his own benefit, whether by breaking a law, working within it, subverting a law, or restructuring a government and telling them what laws to keep/add/erase/change.
The term like in worm is rogue
“Magnificent bastard” seems to be the default descriptor for Deus. He’s a vaguely antagonistic, morally dubious background figure.
In a plot sense, he’s written like an “arch-villain.” But that could go different ways.
He certainly loves playing the part.
But there again he also is enamoured with being the boyfriend of an apex superheroine.
Whilst the two are not mutually exclusive, it does make for an interesting mix.
Miss Match is a villainess in “Evil Inc.”, and she’s married (secretly) to one of the top heroes (they even have a couple children, although one is from an alternate universe)
I have previously heard Deus described as an “anti-villain”. That seems an especially accurate summation of his methods and general outlook.
that’s why I said eggman instead of robotnik (I know they’re technically the same but he was a lot less villainous while his “official” title was eggman)
I suppose bowser from the mario rpg’s might be a better comparison
And then there’s the guy who has various forms of subtle, personal safety already in place, but isn’t inclined to tell you about any of it…
For one example that stands out so far, Remember that fashion-taylor that did ARC Swat uniforms? He doesn’t work exclusively for Archon…He does that in conjunction with his normal business. Who here would not be surprised to learn that Dues’ entire wardrobe hasn’t been purchased from him?
O_o
And further enhanced by his Q+ division with magic, alien technology and other super powers.
He at least has Archon grade tailors.
The fact he is there indicates he has interests in powerful items also.
Add almost limitless cash and hired supers, his involvement and intelligence gathering together. I’d say it’s safe to assume he either has powers or is researching how to get the powers he wants.
As that tailor also works for the high profile private sector, Deus probably gets his stuff from him also.
Is that the Heavenly Blade? From the super brawl?
Either Deus used that roster as a recruiting list, or some of them weren’t as innocent as we thought. Or both.
He also had Vekter (spelling correct?) as part of his merc/security detail in his own African country.
we already knew some of those who showed up for the brawl were working for Deus, like Mr Portal and Opal, it would not surprise me if Heavenly were on his paycheck too, however seeing as Heavenly is currently incarcerated from the brawl I doubt that is her.
Is she imprisoned? Opal was, because she has a record that needs proccessing. If they have nothing on Heavenly, she’d probably have already been released.
Opal was the one doing the portal-ing. Are you thinking of Vekter maybe? He was right next to her constantly but is a telekinetic.
If Heavenly Sword had no prior record, she would have been let go. Maxima stated as such before introducing Jabberwokky to the team, so I’m assuming this included HS.
And Dues is the kind of guy to work for to help make sure you have no prior record.
So archon may now have a spy in there ranks on top of the tech support being done by a villain.
Archon already has spies in their ranks, that seems to be what Arc-dark is for (with X being the only known member at the time). I don’t see Opal or Heavenly Sword spying for Archon on Deus though if that is what you meant.
If you mean there is someone spying on Archon, it has already been revealed Harem is passing information on to Deus.
Maybe Faust meant Jabbers
Jabbers had prior records though, that is why she was forced to join as a form of community service or something.
Hm. I worry that I didn’t answer your question, or at least not directly. That’s rude. :-/ I apologize.
Yes, that’s Heavenly Blade (or Heaven’s Blade?).
Also, as to your other concern: I don’t think that he looked up people from the brawl as much as he’d been keeping himself aware of people who have superpowers. While more and more people are turning up with metahuman abilities, I’d guess the pool is still small enough for Archon, Deus, the Twilight Council, etc., to run into the same characters. Vekter and Cthillia would be other examples of that.
At least Heavenly has changed her outfit to one that doesn’t get transparent when wet. (Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is up to the witnesses.)
You’re thinking of … Lightningbug? Glowbug? Girl with electricity powers at least. Heavenly Blade was the one with the keyhole chestwindow (which is a shame it was lost).
Oh, you’re right. Good catch.
That was Glowbug.
Her name is “Heavenly Sword” and it’s definitely her. #214
And Sydney inspired her to loose the keyhole?
Well, I’m pretty sure that Heavenly’s outfit is not magical or nigh-indestructible like Spinerette’s. But, if it is, then what Heather’s roommate said applies here also: “You have a costume made of nigh-indestructible material, and you want to put a hole in it right over your most vital organ?”
I’m glad I’m not the only one to spot her! Makes me wonder how long she’s been on his payroll.
It would not surprise me in the least to find out that she’d never even heard of Deus until after that brawl, and it would surprise me even less to find out that Deus used that brawl as a kind of Super-Power Recruitment Drive.
“Archon and being constantly on the record and in the public eye, or me and you keep your anonymity as much as possible, and oh yeah, WE WILL MAKE COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF CASH.”
I should actually add them to the Who’s Who even though they have no dialog on this page since it’s been so long since we’ve seen them.
Right, I just remembered that Deus talked to Maxima about having Opal released into his custody “for help with is country”
He really knows too much. Clairvoyance? Useful for running an enterprise/ a country.
And he’s fast at recruiting supers.
Also what exactly is meant by “down here because too useful not to use?”
the blade is a really powerful weapon that is locked away because otherwise you would be too tempted to use it due to it’s power
They could destroy it, but it’s powerful/useful enough that it’s worth keeping around in case they need it. As compared to things that are harmful, but for whatever reason can’t be destroyed.
Might be he has Cthillia tracked when she is not doing jobs for him, to make sure she isn’t selling him out to another contract, and that way discovered Sciona’s plot and decided to tag along.
Or he just realized the true plot at work when the veil started weakening. He probably had his eye on the vault for some time, and was keenly aware of how they use the veil to communicate (since that’s one of it’s weaknesses), while the council had simply forgotten about it.
It’s not Cthillia alone. He knows about the council, the vault, Maxima’s origins and other supers Archon does not know about. Even with a lot of money that knowledge is hard to come by.
I was reading this buffy fanfic that was based off a real life magic the gathering style “game” when they learned that was how the mayor stayed in power so long. He had all the seers, oracles, voodoo witch doctors and haruspex he could get under his control doing little but scrying, foretelling, and fondling chicken entrails to learn what his many opponents were up to at any given moment. It would shock me greatly to learn that Deus DOESNT have anything of the sort on his payroll.
Link, please? Sounds interesting.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7815543/1/Slayer-Magic If that link doesnt work, do a search for Slayer Magic by Perfect Lionheart. It is unfortunately not complete but its an interesting story that I think was written around “Whats the most broken Magic deck I can come up with and how can I exploit it to the fullest?”
Wyrmil really looks like a Salarian, to me. One that went renegade.
…Which is cool. I’d love for a Salarian to be the player character of the next Mass Effect game. The Salarians and the Yahg are probably my favorite aliens form that series.
Salarians are badass funny mad scientists. A salarian player character would be great.
Deus to the rescue!
Time to save the world!
He he. I hope that when the team get in there they find the baddies all tied up with Deus and Co guarding them.
OK probably won’t play that way. But would be interesting.
Deus probably likes the shadows to much for that. I doubt there was even any conflict between the 2 groups. Just some almost hostile banter, and then mutual raiding.
No one knows he was ever here, except for the people that would never inform the council. This situation works just fine for him, even if he doesn’t get to take everything he wants.
I dunno, if I were sciona (or deus for that matter) having a patsy to aim evidence towards would be priceless. The fact that they were both actually THERE and DID in fact take stuff, just means it would work even better.
just becaus nobody made the joke yet.
Deus ex Machina, Much?
Do you mean Deus ex Maxima? ;-)
Deus of Machina Industries ships Deus x Maxima
Is that Opal on the far left, or a different female we haven’t encountered yet? If it is her portal style looks different from before. Art-upgrade or a difference between short range and long range portals?
Not Opal. She look completely different. I doubt Opal is the only super who can create portals
Must be Opal, just without makeup and cap. It’s the same hairstyle.
Opal, super ninja, and heavenly sword.
I have to say, I really like Deus as a character. Smart, cunning, and if he does indeed not have any powers of his own, so much better (though I doubt we’ll ever get full confirmation there. Dave is to savy a writer to throw the mystery away like that).
Just stopping by a super heist like this fits right into his ally. He probably would never have pulled the trigger himself, was just passively watching, but did have a list of things he’d love to have fall in his lap. He probably had a plan for this very thing happening (someone breaking in), tweaked with recent information about changes to the veil
At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some kind of information gathering power, though I suppose he might just have such a person on his payroll. Money is it’s own power.
I don’t think he is going to stop the heist. I think it is more of a “I’m taking this and be off.” situation.
“Don’t mind me, I just have a shopping list. You taking this? No? Exxxxxxxcellent.”
I would call those human powers. Intelligence, physicality, charming (silver tongued) and other human abilities that are on the edge of their highest levels. Why Syndrome was a super villain and Edna Mode was a super tailor for the other supers. Beyond genius.
Can we just appreciate just how much arrogance it takes to call oneself God?
Or maybe his parents gave him that name. In which case THEY’RE arrogant.
Either his parents were extremely optimistic, or he’s arrogant AND had his name legally changed in court…
“So, the son of Katas has passed. Unfortunate.”
“We just called him ‘Kami’.”
“Oh, so he calls himself ‘God’. Pretentious prick. …Nail!”
“What?”
“I shall henceforth be known as: ‘Super Kami’.”
“Yes, Super Kami.”
“No, wait! ‘Super Kami Guru’.”
“Can I just call you ‘Guru’ for short?”
“Super Kami Guru allows this.”
“That’s the only practical way for someone like Batman to operate. He may not have a specific solution for dealing with Solomon Grundy in his belt, but as long as he has a batarang that can pump 50,000,000 volts through someone, he’s probably covered.”
To be fair, Batman also shifts his loadout if he has reason to believe he’ll be dealing with a specific threat, which is why he often loses against villains the first time they pop up or come up with something new and then wins the rematch*. Because, like you said, he can’t carry everything all the time. So he tries to cover as many general eventualities as possible but is quite capable and willing to narrow his focus when necessary.
*Well, that and the laws of drama, but it actually makes sense in universe.
In regard to the batarang, I need to point out the old saying: “It’s not the volts that get you, it’s the amps.”
Or as I was once told:
“The volts jolt, but the mils kill.”
Volts fry, Amps roast.
A slight grammar mistake. Since you are indicating movement or an action that is happening, it should be “…teleportation into this place.”
Oh, and if anyone has an explanation how Deus and company were able to teleport (apparently blindly, but it probably will be clarified later…?) without any disastrous side effects (e.g., a wall embedded in one’s head), please share. Usually, teleporters have some type of limitation that affects their ability.
Same way I suppose how Sciona and cronies were able to teleport in. Knowing the location they want to go to and a secondary ability within Opal’s powerset that prevents the portal from cutting through a solid object.
Opal makes portals, she doesn’t teleport directly. I assume she has a similar “danger sense” that Harem has, in that she can feel whether the exit is safe, though this is pure speculation on my part :-)
Or makes a small portal, takes a quick look, then opens a larger one to step through
Or it could simply be that, when one opens a portal wherein the other end is inside solid matter, then tries to go through, the effect is like trying to walk through a solid wall. The solid matter simply stops you from going through, as though the portal on your end was just a portal-shaped wall.
Its entirely possible the portal was sent to cthilla and so much like sydneys shields, they open in the nearest available space without destroying things.
Maybe it is near impossible to materialize in solid objects. The nuclear forces binding the metal and stone push the energy-to-matter stream out into open air. Or he used a means of apporting between dimensions to step into the enclosed space. There is much one can do to speculate till the answers in universe come up.
I love loki’s mask there in the background as well as the holy grail. Seems a bit strange for both to be in the same room though.
And the Hellraiser box. https://hellraiser.wikia.com/wiki/Lament_Configuration
The floating read blob may be ‘red matter’ used to create black holes.
https://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Red_matter
If you ignore the lower part of the face in panel 2, I think Sciona could have been quite attractive. A bit of a softer expression on her there.
Also, yay for Heavenly Sword! I was hoping she’d show up again some time.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2529
shows what she might have looked like before her head job.
True. And I think the silver skin and unusually coloured eyes add to the look she now has.
I admit it. I’m loving Deus’ smug little smile here. The guy is growing on me more and more each time he shows up. :)
His smug, pompous, egotistical and trollish style is great fun
Oooh, speaking of ‘trollish’, maybe he can get a hit of troll blood from Sciona to help with a certain facial scar.
You can’t regenerate something once it has formed scar tissue, because then it is healed, so there is nothing to repair.
Just cut all the scar tissue out and let it regenerate from scratch.
Though given that regeneration powers at that level are essentially “magic” (ie: works however the writer decides they want) that’s just assuming that something that can, say regenerate a severed arm can also regenerate a big chunk taken out of your skin and the tissue directly beneath it. And that the effect is “heal to to what your DNA specifies” rather than “heal to the body configuration when you acquired the powers.”
Now I’m wondering if one of Sydney’s orbs’ side-effects isn’t “keep body image constant” – but that now that she’s acquired them she’s actually a super and her body is struggling against them to grow a few cup sizes sizes. I’m quite certain that’s not true – but I’d love to see Sydney’s reaction if she could be convinced that was the case.
Eeew ewww eeeeew!
.
.
.
.
.
.
EEEEW EEWWW EEEEWWW!
Sydney isn’t a super herself. She has objects that give her those powers so she won’t be changing her body unless the orbs allow it. Hell, it be good if one of the orbs has the ability to once at least totally resurrect her. Like in a game when you have another life. Like the Star Trek transporters it updates and keeps all of her in its memory bank. Like I said it only works once. After that no more new lives. Depending on how long between updates, she might forget something. Sure its like a dues ex machina. But it fits my hypothesis those orbs are alien tech.
True, she’s not a super herself…but that doesn’t stop her wild, ADD/ADHD-fueled imagination from conjuring up said image at some point. I could see her becoming anxious about choosing the wrong (or right) path for adding a “level-up point”, resulting in her going up a few cup sizes, instead of something more “practical”. Not that it would actually happen, just that her anxiety about the idea would give her pause, likely at a very inconvenient (read: “plot-convenient”) point.
Yeah, he’s the kind of villain that grows on people…Much like a wart. Some people might call it a “beauty mark,” while others recognize it for what it is (a virus).
I think it’s partly because he isn’t simplistically villainous- a lot of the time, when writers try to be too realistic, it ends up in the Uncanny Valley because it seems like the motivations are tacked-on. With Deus, they are realistic enough to seem to be literally real- you could see a Deus actually occurring in RL (and some would say that there are people that fundamentally are Deus in RL)
The whole cast are real. It is just that the Veil conceals the more … exotic ones.
Just look around at the people you know, in real life. I bet if you strip the super-powers from the equation, you will recognise familiar behaviour from more than one of the cast.
So, morphine in magical knife form?
I see Loki’s Mask in the background of the last panel! (All righty then!)
Also the Hellraiser Puzzle-box…EGAD.
I Roved Out is the besssssssst. Frickin’ dying for a new chapter, here. *checks for a new chapter* Yep, still dying.
I had a hunch Deus was going to do something. Cant wait to find out what is going to happen.
I do like the description of Deus, “…comes across as a bit shady at times.” He’s more shady than a dye factory for Ray Ban branded parasols!
Epimorph. Beyond the meanings in regard to minerals or medicine… Skin changer?
Are Sciona and Cthillia about to get full body makeovers/attractiveness upgrades?
Unless Deus & Co. kill them, that is.
what? why the hell would they?! sciona went in, sciona went out. plain and simple.
now if deus kill them… who went out?
Granted, the data is still scarce, but that is the interpretation of the epimorph I am leaning towards as well. 99 lives seems a bit steep, but for whats effectively a limited wish I suppose it fits.
And its a big vault, filled with lots of goodies. The odds Dues and Co want the exact same item as Sciona and Co are slim.
Sciona’s reasoning is “I got one problem, but 99 lives ain’t a bitch to me.”
I really miss the character page. At least the right menu bar shows some of them, but in the last few months there were quite a few times where I wanted to look up how much is already known about the persons in the current strip, because so many new characters kept appearing.
It’s kinda like in Order of the Stick: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1094.html
(And they could really use a character page, too, or at least link to their wiki, which is a thing grrlpower could do as well.)
Grrlpower actually has a (very meagre) wiki:
(I hope that tag worked this time…)
Dangit…
https://grrl-power.wikia.com/wiki/Grrl_Power_Wiki
Yeah, when I wrote “which is a thing grrlpower could do as well” I meant “link to the wiki”. :-)
And it’s meagre indeed, i.e. there is no Sciona and it could really use longer explanations of Arc-XYZ, especially Arc Light.
Or having precognition. Being able to predict what is about to happen is a powerful ability. And the more advanced the power the longer the warning period.
Then you get down to whether destiny is immutable. Hopefully not, otherwise it is a crap power to have.
But, in a universe with variable destiny, you then have the issue of ‘how variable?’ And do you just foretell the one future, or can you sense all the different flavours? Perhaps the more likely ones are clearer and the outside chances are so faint as to almost be unseen?
One thing though, the more variability there is the less reliable the longer-range forecasts would be. Just like weather forecasting.
the problem with claivoyance, is that whatever you see, is either a self fulfilling prophecy, immediately cancelled just by you knowing alone. if your enemy notices you preparing for the ambush, they will do something else. surprise surprise.
That never happened to me.
The concept of destiny goes against a quantum universe. Though in each parallel will have the final fall of the possibles into a reality. But you can never fully predict it.
So, if there is a singe provable example of destiny, then we do not live in a quantum universe. Interesting.
Shame I can only prove it to myself.
since i havent seen anyone mention it (although some got close) i think i probably should mention it.
well, in previous pages i mentioned using some technology to send signal, instead of just magic. well…
Now that deus appeared, i have a question. who helped build this vaul? because while deus might not have had the specyfic resources for warding, or other magical aspects of the vault, he is still a “trusted” suplier of archon.
How old was the vault again? I did have a look though past few pages, and didnt see any reference of it.
if i missed it, link to the exact page would be appreciated. The vault does make use of technology, so it can’t be that old./’
The vault is probably MUCH older than Deus. It was mentioned before BombCoot arrived, that it hadn’t opened for 30 years.
huh… the key pad came from somewhere through… then again, its not a particularyly advanced tech. no retina scanners or other biometric devices so i gues that’s fair.
With the addition of aliens on the council, there is no reason they had to wait for keypads to be invented before installing one.
Or it might just be a recent update to security.
I see Vale,but who are those other two??
Girl on the right seems to be Heavenly Sword, from the Superbrawl (girl that can make energy blades, fought with Dabbler).
No idea who the girl on the left is.
on the left seems like Opal (Portal girl from brawl, who was imprisoned under pressur until she was processed) without her make-up
… Waaait. Ninety nine lives, but what kind of lives? Do animals count? It’s always that detail that bugs me with all these sacrificial needs. I mean, suuure. Sciona isn’t above killing humans and others, but going over to a cattle pen seems like much less hassle.
well, obviously, souls of sentient beings are more powerfull than souls of some beast that go on instinct all their lives.
that said, unless you are willing to slaughter… actualy, screw the explanation. have a vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOtEZKfGiH0
You mean sapient. Most higher order animals are sentient, humans are the only ones that are sapient.
That’s difficult to prove. Quite a few cetaceans, elephants, and various cephalopods are quite cerebral, even if they don’t have fire and construction technologies.
Yup. Humans only use such terms to try and elevate themselves above other animals and to give a veil of moral justification over exploiting and killing them.
and also some of the Crows…
Yup. Not to mention the fact that Neanderthals may have actually been more intelligent than Homo Sapiens, per recent research.
E.C FIELD OFFICER: Two thirds of the near-Earths have lost all sentient life to these animals.
E.C. MORALITY ADVISER: They are sentient too. Just look at their tool use and fire-building
E.C FIELD OFFICER: Bah, they rely on tools for everything. You don’t see them stepping between worlds, or walking on the clouds. And their music is absolutely dire. Their best has but a tenth the ability of even a toddler!
E.C. MORALITY ADVISER: Still they may evolve to better things. And we do see them practicing other arts, where they are our equals. But I agree that the Explorer Corps must step up and worlds untainted by their kind. The time required for them to evolve would end up with us either out-bred, assimilated or killed.
E.C FIELD OFFICER: Which is why we should remain here, and supervise them!
E.C. MORALITY ADVISER: That would just make them slaves or pets. No they must be allowed to find their own path. And if they destroy this world, all the populations we evacuate will be safe, as well as our greatest cultural works.
E.C FIELD OFFICER: A damned lot of trouble, and loss, for such filthy apes!
Neanderthals don’t exists any more, so at least they don’t matter in this case.
But yes, Homa Sapiens advantage was the ‘breed like rabbits’ part. Also we were more adatable, having spread out across the entire planet, rather than staying in Europe.
Correction: They are no longer on this planet. Unless you have omniscience you cannot say whether there are any on alternate Earths or other planets elsewhere. Ooh, ooh, or hanging around with the dinosaurs, in that hollow bit inside the planet…
… um… not helping my cause with that last bit, am I?
Anyhow they are still here. Or at least a percentage of their DNA still flows in humans’ veins. Apart from the pure breed homo sapiens of Africa. The rest of humanity has between 2% and 5% Neanderthal (varying in different regions of the world).
I wonder whether Adam was Homo Sapiens or Neanderthal? Somehow the depictions of Eve would seem a bit off if she had the overhanging forehead.
The average European has 4% – 6% Neandertal DNA. Since they were able to study the genome of them after finding 8 well preserved specimens recently.
Adam and Eve? Puuulease! You forgot Lilith. And a whole heck of alot of other places where humans were modified.
First some of the Pak made it here around the Miocene or so. Cro Magnon modified into Homo Sapiens by the humanoid aliens called Igig in Mesopotamia. And here we are!
Sciona used a human bomb. From which we can take it that either she does not care, or that human sacrifices are more potent than animal ones. Which certainly ties in with historical sources on sacrifice. Humans have traditionally been valued more highly.
For unknown reasons.
*scratches back of head with hind-paw*
The really annoying part about recharging it is the incantation you have to recite while killing them.
“99 lives for the blade for the blade to absorb. 99 lives for the blade. Take their soul. Make the blade whole. 99 lives for the blade to absorb.” STAB!
“98 lives for the blade…. “
LOL. Actually LOL
+1
LOL! +2
+ 3 and add another LOL
If Sciona has to skip or dance while chanting this song, even better!
…and what happens when you lose count? Do you have to start over? If you accidentally skip…say, “72”…do you have to go back to that point instead, or just chant “1” or “0” a couple extra times? If you lose track and repeat a number, does the spell complete when you get to the correct number of repetitions, or do you still have to get to “1”, to actually enact it?
(Am I sounding enough like Sydney, yet?)
Eh, any random high population area would do. Humans tend to clump like ant colonies for some reason. An average Walmart would supply all the lives she needed.
Depends, the average Walmart customer might not qualify as having a soul… or being human for that matter.
Definitely sub-human. Although they might count, on a 2-to-1 basis, or some such.
If there’s a loophole, Sciona probably knows it already, or otherwise experimenting might be risky because using it in an unintended way might do something horrible to the user.
Potential options:
1) Intelligent, massive animals
Cut a deal with Japanese whalers to finish off the catch and see what happens. Maybe worth a lot, who knows?
2) Cloned embyos
This was definitely not an option when the thing was made. This has dicey political implications though.
3) Harem???
Even if a body counts as a “life” and she can replace them, I seriously doubt she’d appreciate being “farmed” and having to experience death repeatedly.
wouldn’t work with Harem. remember anything that happens to one of her all of her experience. even if that one Harem was cut in the Restaurant brawl, all of her would’ve experienced the pain and trauma (and possibly physically as well)
killing one of her could feasibly kill ALL of her through sheer trauma alone.
or even just killing krill.
Easier than killing 99 Krull.
The resurrection power shown in the delightful short lived series “Pushing Daises” found he had to pay a price if the resurrection went past 60 seconds. Some balance of death must happen which includes all kinds of life up to humans and larger. He had 60 seconds to cancel it out. Once done it can’t be undone. The evidence shown that once resurrected barring accidents one could live forever. His dog he resurrected as a boy was still the same dog. No older. However he could never touch the dog again without means of blocking his power. Blue spark to bring to life, yellow spark to render them dead again as before.
Been hanging out over at Wapsi Square, has hr?
Looks like — Khal Barrack has used “poit” before. Relatedly, in a recent Wapsi Square comic, Mr. Taylor used “vorp”. I love very much that these guys are apparently fans of each others’ comics.
Isn’t that just typical, you meet a well dressed billionaire, and you’re covered with blood.
Well, on the plus side, you do have the perfect gift for ‘the man who has everything’. A unique artefact.
Wait, is that Deus’ power? He knows the unknowabke
No one expects the Deus imposition!
If you knew the unknowable, how you you know that you knew it, you know?
Ni! He will demand a shrubbery!
Because you would know that nothing is unknowable.
nothing is also impossible. that is to say, the existence of nothing is an impossibility, there must always be something
Unknowable and nothing are not synonymous though.
“Alas, poor Coot, I knew him well.”
“Really?”
“Not at all, but he was a trigger-happy redneck on several Federal watch lists. Occasionally, this sort of information comes in handy.”
to know the unknown doesn’t mean that much to me, how the universe began, what the future holds, what dreams really mean. (stops music) had to.
Meh, I know all of those. Barring one.
I always thought when you want to have some scientifically not completely stupid way of predicting the future, it needs to be a process that produces probabilities pretty much directly.
And then you might either look for outcomes you want to happen, and see how you get there from here, or else you change your behavior based on the predictions and watch what that does to thr probabilities.
Except …
In this system, there’s a fairly strong prediction for your behavior, because it’s based on the predictions – which means that once you go looking, the probabilities have already shifted. There’s never an answer to “what would I have done if I hadn’t known the probabilities”.
Which may well mean that the most favorable outcome for you is already associated with your most probable behavior.
vs. The Scowling Women.
Solomon Grundy want pants too!
https://youtu.be/eGQEAiZJMco
Deus’ documented powers so far
: Golden Ticket, Silver Tongue, Brass Balls.
And “Annoying Knack for Knowing Stuff He Shouldn’t”
So, going back to your list, does he clang as he walks?
No. He has special, custom-made underwear. (Okay, really…he’d have that anyway, even without “brass balls”.)
♫♪ “You gotta keep ’em separated.” ♫♪
Hey speaking of, when are we gonna get that bonus of Glowbug from back on #232? We must needs it!
If you are thinking of a wet-t-shirt wallpaper, that is unlikely to happen. Given that Glowbug is a cameo of one of the comic’s patrons.
well, unless she’s okay with it. but that’s doubtful.
Epimorphisis
A form of development in segmented animals in which body segmentation is completed before hatching.
Alternatively, it’s a form of pain medication
I wonder what the Epimorph does.
It does the same thing that it always has, except due to the new ownership it costs 6 times what it used to.
Epi means ‘outer’ and morph means ‘change’. Sciona wants to use it to reshape her current body to the one she originally had.
Good point. Weird function for a blade though.
Tell that to a cosmetic surgeon.
Actually, I doubt she’ll use it to turn into her old body. Probably a new body that the council doesn’t recognize.
She will have difficulty finding one as hot as her old body though.
Why? Because it’s in… HELL? (KRAKOOOM!)
Sorry, Deus lent me his lightning button and I wanted to try it out.
Naa, take a look at her eyes. Pre-op she was a pretty. Well pre-debodystration too, obviously.
One minor point. We have a view of the vault interior from multiple vantages. Where is the big chunk of door that they blasted into the room?
Next to Wally.
Doesn’t he usually hide in crowds? There are only about ten persons here.
“Two’s company and three’s a crowd.” Ten is a very big crowd.
wall-e. (bot drives up and offers sciona a plant)
Heh. That movie drove friends of mine crazy. Their kids watched it over and over again. For years.
The Cryptids vs. the Sanguimancers?
I wonder if Maxima or Sydney will be quick-witted enough to get a message to Harem once they know the teleport field is down. She could pop in, grab the sword, and pop out to an undisclosed location while Deus and Sciona are arguing.
Don’t forget that this is a flash-back,* which started when the good guys found the room full of blood and gore. The clocks then rolled back to when the baddies were in the same room. At the point the above scene is taking place the heroes might still be at HQ, gearing up to go out on their mission.
But, if the two events are close enough that they do get to catch up, and observe the villains, then that is a good idea. Although Maxima could grab it herself quicker than giving the order.
Grabbing artefacts that you do not know the properties of though can be a bad idea. Put it this way, with hindsight they might decide that Cooter got off easier than the grabber. There are fates a lot worse than just being ‘sploded over the walls.
So, yea, Max is better off getting Harem to do that part. ;-)
* Not to be confused with the flash-forwards that the comic started with.
Don’t worry, this flashback within a flashback will likely only cover a few days’… time…
…uh oh. ;)
This is not happening when Sydney and her Mystery Crew are in the vault. This is part of the flashback requested by a nauseous Sydney when she saw the remains of the cooter-plosion.
If it can just be removed from the socket like that. Which I doubt.
You forget that Harem’s on Deus’s payroll as well.
And this comes as no surprise to me. As soon as I saw Cthillia on Sciona’s crew I knew Deus would be showing up at some point.
I think most of us expected Deus to be involved with the operation though. This is a good subversion of that.
Deus may be shady but I have a hard time seeing him as evil so I didn’t think he’d be working with Sciona. Part of the reason I think this way is because we’ve all seen how badly he wants to get into Max’s pants and being actually evil would sink any chance of that.
max would kill him if she found him stealing her pants to wear.
Deus seems buff enough that he could be a hidden super. We have no idea if he is, or what his power set is, but “Knowing Stuff” could explain a lot. Although not his maniacal laughter condition.
Superior planning ability is a known cause of such an affliction.