Grrl Power #587 – Good thing the Food Network isn’t doing calamari week
Sydney’s comment about Trent being male makes me wonder if there’s ever been a transgender Tentacle Monster. Or even if they have a gender at all, really. I guess I’ve given a lot less thought to tentacle monsters than I have to succubi. Well, I’ve known about succubi a lot longer. I don’t even know where I first heard of them. Must have been the original Monster Manual. Tentacle monsters are a more recent creation.
Sydney maybe could have pursued Cooter, but what would she do once she caught up with him? She needs both the force field and the flight orb to maneuver and not be crushed and drowned and all that pesky stuff. If she let go of the fly ball to grab him with the lighthook, she’d bob straight up to the surface. She could maybe drag Cooter along with her, but he might pop on the way up. The team knows nothing about what protections Wyrmil would provide him. Though hopefully for Coot’s sake, some sort of cold resistance is part of the package.
Maxima would be the best choice, as she can survive the cold and pressure and still fly around underwater, but it’s really dark at that depth. I mean if it was daytime outside, there’d be like 3% of sunlight penetrating to 1,000 meters? But it’s night time anyway, it’d be pitch black. She could make her hand glow like she was about to deliver an atomic bitchslap, but that wouldn’t penetrate very far.
Trent looks really small there on the couch compared to the volume he appears to occupy in the vault. It’s safe to assume he can squeeze down a bit, but also there’s like 400 square feet of floor space occupied by tentacles, just out of panel. :)
Oh and if you don’t follow me on twitter I do occasionally tweet stuff related to the comic. This one is just me showing the flats of the first panel compared to the nearly finished shading, for those of you interested.
So Patreon. I should make a bigger post about this at some point but it’s late and I can sum it up in a few sentences. Well, first off, I should say to all the people supporting me there, thanks so much as always! It’s incredible I get to work on this comic full time, almost entirely because of you guys.
That said, Patreon is making some changes to its billing. I don’t think it’s gone live yet and it’s possible they’ll recant these plans because there’s been a fair amount of grumbling about it. The short version is that each pledge processed will have a $0.35 processing fee, and I think a 2.9% fee on top of that. The bad part about this is the fee is charged to the patron, it’s not taken out of the money coming to the people you’re supporting. On its face, that would mean more money going to creators – you pledge a dollar, we get a dollar, but it means you pay $1.35 (plus the percent amount but that’s pretty small so let’s ignore that for now for the sake of easy math.) As someone who supports one or two people myself, I don’t mind that. If they do stuff I like I can swing a few cents more. The issue some people are having with this new system is that if you support 20 people to the tune of $1 each, now you’re paying $7 extra a month, which starts to add up. That’s like a monthly streaming service subscription (not Netflix, but like, Britbox, or I think the CBS one). As a creator, I’d much rather eat the processing fees. 1,000 people dropping a buck a month in the tip jar is more stable feeling than 20 doing $50. Not that I don’t love the high rollers too. :D Plus, you know, I just like knowing so many people are enjoying the comic. It gives me the fuzzies, much like a wedge of blue cheese that fell behind the fridge.
Anyway, the point of writing all this is to let you guys know I’m aware of this stuff and while I’m not going to ditch Patreon, I am keeping my eye out for alternatives, especially ones that work better with low dollar pledge amounts. Kickstarter is creating a Patreon competitor. (I’m shocked it took them this long) and there’s one or two others I’ll look into as well.
Huh, I guess that was more than a few sentences. What? Dave’s being super verbose? How weird right? :P
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this scene reminds me of that one webcomic of a bar with a portal in the basement that leads to the underworld, one of the regulars resembles Trent, in that the regular wears a trenchcoat and fedora and seems to mostly consist of tentacles; i can’t remember the name of the webcomic unfortunately, but like it had a werewolf who did carpentry and repaired stuff around the bar like the front door that some thugs for some Templar-type group kicked in; there was also a “cat” that could make its’ mouth very VERY large but otherwise looked like a normal cat
Stick in the mud :) – And it must be mister blueberry you are referring to.
After a while,Trent will want to go back to where he was originally….!
Kansas.
“A whole world covered in writhing us.” does not preclude it being an alternate Earth, but with tentacles rather than any other kinds of population.
I guess those tentacles must give them an overwhelming reproductive advantage!
Summoning spells and artefact powers probably manifest as a tornado, on their world.
Is Dabbler’s true name pronounced as “Ksuriel” or “Shuriel”? I don’t know how to read the “X”.
Like a ‘Z’…
+1
No not plusoneriel!
Would still enjoy being her ‘plus one’, twice, thrice on a Wednesday :P
I always pronounced it like a zh, myself.
Shore-iel? Not quite, closer to ‘Zurich’, but ‘eel’ rather than ‘ick’
Ksuriel because “Z’s are for pussies”
I pronounce it like “Juriel” (like french j)
Oh, I dunno, DnD has had plenty of tentacled nasties for a long time: displacer beasts, otyughs, illithids, whatever Lovecraftian creatures they statted, etc. Just not the naughty kind of tentacles ^^
Addendum: can’t believe I forgot to mention krakens and giant squids/octopi, too. And Japan has been aware of the naughty potential of cephalopods since at least Hokusai (so, beginning of the 19th century)
Lovecraft would be proud…
Note that a ‘tentacle monster’ such as Trent is a very distinct subset of ‘monster with tentacles’. I’m not up on the Monster Manuals, so I can’t really comment on whether that subset does or doesn’t make an appearance (with or without their famous taste in attack strategies).
Is Sydney going to date the tentacle monster? She already dreams about it.
Heck if Sydney is receptive to creatures from another dimension, there are other alternatives…
*puts best foot forwards*
*then second best foot*
*then third best foot*
*faceplant bellyflop forward*
Hmm, a regular, polite, fun TV-loving guy who’s naive about Earth customs and who’s hanging around the base yet without the complication of being part of the Arc-SWAT unit does sound like Sydney’s perfect match. If one day goes by without Trent officially joining the team I’m calling it.
Oh, and I forgot “damage resistant”.
Has Halo tried taping one of those orbs to the bottom of her foot, to see if she could control it through that limb? If it worked, imagine her wearing a special pair of elevator-type shoes in which she could insert an orb as wanted, contacting a bare foot-sole, and lock it into place. Other parts of the interior of the shoe could give her enough support for ordinary walking around. The problems pointed out regarding pursuing Cooter would be a lot less problematic if she could “handle” 4 orbs at a time.
“Has Halo tried taping one of those orbs to the bottom of her foot, to see if she could control it through that limb?”
Yes. And every other version. The two-orb limit is there to make the story more interesting. The mechanics are therefore purely there to enforce that restriction, rather than to provide a puzzle for folks to find a work-around.
Doubtless being chosen because they provide a visually interesting way of determining the powers being used. Although the extra mechanic of loosing the use of whichever hand(s) are holding an orb, for instance preventing using them to hold a weapon, does add a further dimension to the limit.
Halo will have a vast array of powers, once her skill tree is fleshed out, and is no weakling even now. So providing effective restrictions is vital to prevent her becoming boring.
She tried her foot, her forehead and her butt among other body parts, IIRC :P
And holding it between her thighs is how she discovered how to activate the Hentorb (and when those ‘dreams’ started :P)
If you didn’t bring up Sydney trying to do one of Connie’s… (dang you, Brickleberry)
… well I would have.
No idea who ‘Connie’ or ‘Brickleberry’ are
Which is why her weaknesses are mittens and being riddled with bullets.
Don’t forget… paper cuts!!
Yah, after posting that other msg I went back and reviewed her interview per joining ArcSwat, and saw where she had tried a foot. Too bad she doesn’t have 4 arms like Dabbler –which is actually why I brought up my earlier question. I have no reason to think those orbs can only be used by humans (assuming they become available to a new user after current user dies), and so it means some species would have a natural advantage over others, regarding using them, by simply having more hands.
So, new question: What if Sydney holds two orbs in one hand? Can she still use both?
Also, we haven’t seen what happens when a random person grabs one of Sydney’s orbs. While I expect it *could* be unpleasant for that person, what if Sydney can grant usage-permission? We already know multiple people can be carried inside the shield while flying, so if one of those people could use the comm orb or the weapon orb ….
Finally, a speculation about the last and unknown orb: what if it can do medical-type stuff to its user? In terms of “space ship” analogy described at one point in the comic, a “sick bay” is quite an important part!
Nope. I say this with certainty because Sydney and I are both hardcore game players and she is very intelligent. Having had the orbs for months before the comic started she will have tried every mundane technique such as this. We see her showing off with her orbs on a regular basis but she has never done this. Even when it would be important to do so.
The few images we saw, of her experimentation, were just examples to show the extremes she went to. Two orbs in one hand would have been tried and failed sometime in the first hour of experimentation. Resorting to her butt crack is probably near the end of the first month.
The things she will not have been able to try involve anything which Sydney did not have access to. So she could not test to see if her orbs could detect magic, as an example. Nor could she try getting someone else to try using an orb, as she was keeping the secret even from friends and family, to protect them.
She will give them a slap. Unless they have bought her dinner first and asked her permission.
This would need to have some complex reason why Sydney has not been able to use it before. Hardcore gamers would test each orb for healing capability within the first few minutes of gaining them (if capable of inflicting a minor wound on themselves). Sydney has an issue with papercuts though, so that would have had to wait until she suffered some random injury. But she has had a number of those and it is inconceivable that she will have never tried to heal them.
So, if it is a healing orb, there must be something she needs that she is lacking. One simple possibility is her lack of a licence to practice medicine. A medical orb may have a safety preventing it from working for anyone not trained in medicine. Another may be that it is only designed to work on the species which created it, and that Sydney could not heal herself because it was not made by humans (or gamers).
https://i.redd.it/no05zxl3zgmz.png
Whew! Good to know.
I find it funny, that Arianna suspect it was Sydney’s idea to bring him “home”, and not either of the succubi… (Or just simply Dabbler, after all, Decorum is not part of ARCHON.) xD
The more pressing concern is whether or not Halo sent hentai links to Arianna or not yet. If she did, and she watched them, then this meeting will be more fun.
Why do you think Ari is just wearing a robe? o_O
This is probably inappropriate but… how does Trent use the bathrom, hes just yes and mouths.
He is also tentacles. Tentacles have ends to them. Those could well have an orifice which is not easily visible unless up real close.
I can’t advise getting that close to check mind.
For info some critters do crap out of their mouths. Oh and have tentacles too.
Yes, that’s really my website. We do steampunk art and accessories – it has nothing to do with Mr. Trent Tickles.
RE: the patreon debacle. I have no problem with Patreon charging a SMALL amount to cover the charges and make sure that artists get a little bit more, but the way they are doing it is RIDICULOUS. There is NO reason for them to charge the $0.35 per TRANSACTION. If you support 20 artists, as mentioned, that’s $7 more. Why not charge $0.35 per MONTH to take out all the charges totaled, at once, that a patron must pay to support their favorites? Yes, some people charge on a more irregular basis for items as they publish. Those artists should be able to either go back to the monthly model, or tell Patreon to charge them for every .35 after the first one per month, or something. I wouldn’t mind one .35 charge per month to withdraw from my payment method the total I am going to pay a month. The more people I support, the smaller a percentage of my donations that will be per person.
But to charge .35 per individual donation – that’s stupid, it shouldn’t be necessary (that’s what computers are FOR – to add numbers!) and it will have a damnable affect on the very service they are trying to provide. At this rate, someone who has a cap on how much they can afford to donate, will have to cut out some of the artists they patronize. .35 is about 1/3 of a dollar. For every 3 $1 donations they make, they will now have to cut out a fourth to pay for the fees, to end up with about the same total per month. IE, this will likely result in the number of donations dropping by about 1/4, unless a significant number of people decide they can afford to pay 1 and 1/3 of what they used to pay.
“No unitaskers”? Hoy! Has Trent discovered Alton Brown’s “Good Eats”?!
Yes. Although whether he fancies eating the food or the host remains to be seen.
I know of one female tentacle monster, dubbed ecchi-chan IIRC, who is a recurring minor character in the manga parody comic “Strange Candy.” We first learn that it’s female when it chases down one of the antagonists and “molests” him.
Hopefully Trent does not see the calamari episode of Good Eats.
Good eats reference ftw! (Do people still say FTW? I feel old.)
I love the nose-and-glasses disguise Trent is wearing in order to fit in!