Grrl Power #593 – Cat play
Happy new year! Here’s a comic for those of you not too hung-over to read.
Superpowered horseplay could get out of hand real quick, which is why Maxima is tamping it down as harshly as she is. Though at some point, someone will probably point out to her that these guys were just, well, horsing around, while Sydney gets away with physically assaulting teammates in the shower. She obviously has her biases, but it probably can’t last forever. Maybe Sydney could be excused because she’s still a recruit and not yet a private, but then, so are Jiggawatt and Varia.
The locker room also follows sit-com physics, where conversations on opposite sides of a relatively small space are considered utterly secure and private. Otherwise Sydney’s comment about Dabbler’s space visa could cause problems.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Panel 1 Sydney.
Mrowl.
Now I need to re-read the entire comic to see whether she’s ever looked hotter.
Courage, Merry. Courage.
Little heavy on the make up maybe?
Naa, I don’t think Sableagle has overdone it.
Although the ‘big anime eyes’ look has clearly followed a YouTube ‘how to’ video, to pull off that image so well.
Psst, you might want to make use of this.
*discreetly slides over a make-up kit*
Is it just me, or is the JPEG compression really nasty on today’s comic?
Might be just you, or something in the textures used. The text and tile work all look fine to me.
Agreed. Everything is peachy with me.
I suggest you force your browser to refresh its memory cache. For Google Chrome, for example, use Ctrl + F5. Hopefully you will then see a clean copy, if it got corrupted somehow when it was downloaded or displayed.
If not then it is best to check your various graphics settings and other applications to see if you can spot any other symptoms that may give you a clue. Either way it is most likely at your end as we have had no one else mention any problem.
Personally I think the exception was more along the lines of, “Whatever the reason, Dabbler probably deserved it.” After all, she did sexually assault Maxima in an absolutely hillarious way.
Yeah, I much more read it as a “Dabbler deserved it” rather than Sydney getting away with everything. Plus, Sydney taking care of what could also be considered sexual harassment means Maxima doesn’t have to officially step in.
Yeah the whole unit is heavy on non-official punishments. Which makes sense since there’s a lot of non-standard and non-official stuff and attitudes.
So, Varia + Heatwave = Vaia with ice powers.
And then Varia’s ice cold hand + the back of Jiggawatt’s neck = smeared lipstick and pokies.
Followed by a general, but good natured, brawl.
Come to think of it cant Heatwave do that too?,Im sure her powers included the ability of controling heat in a downwards direction too though she hates doing it or something*Goes to chapter trawl a bit*
Something like its harder for her to decrease heat than increase it, so chances are she can’t do it well enough to really freeze anything, just decrease heat below combustion and room temperature or something.
Off to the Danger Room for you Heatwave. Keep practicing chilling my drinks, until you can make ice cubes for them!
There was a panel or two way back when where she said she could chill things, but it was harder and felt wrong or wasn’t fun or something like that. when she was putting out the fires Sydney started while fighting Sciona.
here.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2498
Yep, that’s the one I meant,
although all things said, Heatwave looks to have Thermakinesis; *manipulate molecular motion to heat up or cool things down*, but not really control over the resulting phenomenon. Unless Varia chilled things down to the point she actually made ice form on Jiggawatt’s neck, she seems to be more akin to Cryokinesis as the Gestalt she gains…it is related but not really the same thing, anymore than Pyrokinesis *Cryokinesis is the formation and/or manipulation of ice*, like Pyrokinesis being the formation and/or manipulation of fire.
Both things can result from a temperature change but as Heatwave doesn’t seem to produce or direct control either, she definitely falls into Thermakinesis, make things hotter or colder; plus flight for her…which did DaveB establish if her flight is an interconnected power or simply a second power that she has?
It’s possible, just possible, that the ice-crystals on the neck is simply a visual-effect so people would understand what was going on
Well, true, because a really cold hand would have the same effect. But if the author was going to do that then he would need to call it out in his notes in order to avoid showing inaccurate things. He’s been pretty good about things like that in the past, so without any word from him to the contrary the safer assumption is “what you see is actually what is happening.”
Because if that isn’t a rule then we’re not reading a comic so much as watching an interpretive dance in comic form.
Fair points. Plus it feels more satisfying if what you see is what you get.
I think I made that same point on another post for this page as a possibility for not forming ice crystals on someone’s neck; so you don’t end up with needing an arrow pointing saying (super cold hands), although encasing her own hand in ice could have the same effect and be less dangerous otherwise.
Yea. Dave does have to balance how folks interpret stuff though. Some might not get that making her own hand icy is being used to affect Jiggawatt though.
As always carrying the intent of a gag, and thereby maximising the chance of the comedic delivery being instantly understood, takes precedence over other matters that get in the way. So I think Dave made a good call overall.
Or maybe Maxima has a bias in favor of people who come up with plans that save her life multiple times :)
to be fair halo was doing her messing with how shinny maxima is on Maxima’s forarm and not her chest
:-D
Solid point.
Regarding “conversations on opposite sides of a relatively small space are considered utterly secure and private” … well, if there is water running there, it MAY be hard to hear something even on opposite sides of a relatively small space.
So she DID let Cooter get away. And I guess makes sense for the Council to have contingencies in case he escaped.
I’m just wondering whether it’s a mechanical or magical tracker; or both.
She called it a spell; kinda rules out mechanical.
It’s both, but not in the way you might have imagined. Think more along the lines of “arcane suppository”. So long as Cooter has his sigmoid colon, he’ll be traced.
Do we have a Discord?
I use Discord. Don’t like it though. It keeps on asking me if I am human. I tell it ‘no I am not’, and it refuses to let me into the program!
Plus it cheats with the stupid captcha Turing tests. I have done 50 straight sets of tests “click on all the images that have cars” or “… street signs” or “… shop signs”, with a friend watching over my shoulder to confirm that I was not missing any. Every single one failed.
Puts me off using such sh*t programs. Make one single typo in the password and you get locked out due to ‘not being human’!
Machines are just jealous that the mans best friend spot is already taken so dont take it to heart.
They are trying though. There are a number of primitive robot companions (in the traditional sense as well as the ‘sex doll’ alternative).
Still until they build a sex robot who will bite the goolies off any burglars, our place is secure!
*wags tail confidently*
I’m sure that the sexbot makers are putting that suggestion into the planning already… so that they can claim it as a “security bot” instead, and get the market opened up tremendously…
I had a problem with that too, and then I realized that it was putting up new tiles to replace the ones I selected and some of the new ones had cars in them. You have to keep clicking tiles until nothing on the screen has a car in it.
Trust me after multiple 50 attempt sessions I am intimately familiar with that aspect too. If you are fast enough clicking on the ‘done’ button then you do not get the extras. But if they pop up before I manage that then I do the extra ones too.
Kind of sucks for the infirm or those with disabilities. Apparently they are not allowed to pass for human either. And the ‘audio option’ alternative is never available, even though I have tried that on three different computers and locations around Europe!
That’s why you wait, and make sure your isn’t a car hidden or a truck (trucks count)
As for the road signs, sometimes a tiny piece of the sign is included in another square, that counts as well, so too does the sign pole itself
The reCaptcha never asks me if am a human, just that am not a robot, but haven’t been able to get into Discord for about a month, pass the not-a-bot test, just the discord page doesn’t come up (guess they finally stopped supporting IE :( )
Don’t forget I had a spotter checking that I had not missed any. Plus he confirmed that I was getting every bit of the sign, including bits in other squares and poles. This is not a matter of incompetence. It is a matter of a shit program!
You can use the stand-alone version. It actually supports something or other that browser versions do not. I can’t remember what because I spend so little time actually using the program, compared to trying to get in, that I don’t get to know much about that side!
Which is another really irritating thing about the program, other than subscribing to Captcha, in that when you do a password reset,* FROM the stand alone version, when you follow their link in the email, it decides to launch the browser version instead!
* In order to make it shorter to reduce the risk of a typo – gee thanks crappy program for forcing me to make myself LESS secure.
Have never had any problems with it
Have always used the browser version, even when it tried to make me use the app-version
I am sure that there are loads of people who can use it OK, given that it is a very widespread program. That does not make me feel any less pissed off at the end of each 50 attempt session!
But, equally, I am sure there will be a lot of people who must get it treating them the same way as me. Who will just not use the program that they are trying to get into.
This particular program though made the whole thing worse by having a zero tolerance for typos. One error and you get thrown under the Captcha bus.
Imagine trying to use the program with the shaky hands of a Parkinson’s sufferer. Or trying to spot a tiny car on a distant road, with poor eyesight. Or having images changing faster than you can click on them for any of innumerable debilitative diseases.
Yet they do not offer an option to vary the tolerance for any failure on your own account, nor give any less problematic alternatives for people with disabilities.
It is a highly discriminating practice which I am glad is nearing the end of its
usefulpiss-poor life, as AI programs get better at solving such problems.Issue with Dabbler’s Space Visa?
No, that’s so she can, ah, VISIT space! Yeah! She’s totally not an alien! She just renewed her passport!
I imagine that much of our local galaxy is part of international waters as far as the universe is concerned,If not we might have to worry about Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy’d in future ;3
Well we are pretty far off down a spiral arm. I am pretty sure any galactic-spanning civilisation would consider this to be the boonies.
Sydney doesn’t get away with it because she’s a recruit. She gets away with it because she’s physically smaller and weaker than those around her. If she manages to get them hard, they deserve it for underestimating her. If she doesn’t get them, it’s just a cute girl flailing her arms among amazons.
Yea, Dabbler can survive being punched through a wall. It is no wonder that Maxima does not even bat an eyelid at Sydney’s attempt to stand her ground. If she turned the PPO on Dabbler, that is another matter, but a punch from a squishy vs a top-tier super* should only be trivial.
* Dabbler technically is just an alien, rather than a natural born super. But with her host of powers and abilities she fits the bill to all practical purposes.
You know, Looking at Brook she’s kinda looking at the other two like,” What the leave me out of this”
I knows she’s a 75w light bulb mixed in with a bunch of 100w but if she’s anything like the people I’ve known that are a bit slow on the uptake I’d be willing to bet she is dependable as heck and loyal as hell. She seems aware that she’s not the brightest and I’m willing that she works hard for her recognition and doesn’t go for a lot of tom foolery. The situation above seems more like she was caught in the middle of this then more an active participant.
Yea. Dave has confirmed that Brooke is just slow on the uptake, but can actually work her way through to a sensible conclusion, in due course.
Here she simply did not have the time. She was caught up in Varia’s shenanigans before she could formulate a protest. Her furrowed brow indicates that she was not happy, or at least was unsure, about what Varia seemed to be up to.
Even the smartest would have been caught out by what happened: Vahriah comes up between Brooke and Jiggs, Brooke probably thinks she’s just trying to get something from a locker, next thing she knows, poor Jiggs just got cold-touched (probably would have done a ‘Canada-goose’ but then we would have fifty-dozen, individual, comments wondering what happened, at least half of the comments would be posted right after another, or below an explanation)
this may be out of contex but why has not on the team just tried hitting anvil so she can charge up her power i mean full force maxima and that going to hurt a number of bad guys
Maybe that’s the reason she runs the track every morning. All those foot steps while not providing a lot of force per step but running 2 or 3 miles each morning, man that would add up quick.
Harry Dresden (Author Jim Butcher) the main wizard does something similar. he has a ring that he spelled to absorb a little kinetic energy from every time he moves his arm, not enough to restrict his movements but after several days/weeks he can release it in a punch that would do Anvil proud.
But to answer your question maybe if/when the spars with the other team mates she is in fact building up that energy. Besides even if you could absorb a good size punch from Hiro or Max, would you really WANT to get punched. I think I’d find other ways to build the energy pool also.
They probably do. But we would not have had the opportunity to see that yet as you typically do not build up a lethal fighting charge prior to entering a restaurant.
Maxima, on full-strength, would not be a good choice though. Her top punch is five star, whereas Anvil’s kinetic absorption is only four. At best Anvil might be knocked out and into the next county. At worst she might loose her head!
Oh, incidentally, that is why we did not see Anvil being charged up on the approach to the fight with Sciona’s construct. Partly because it would have ruined the reveal of her dramatic attack. But also because she needed to keep enough battery capacity free to absorb the skydiving-without-a-parachute impact.
A standard tactic of hers, but one which would be fatal if she did not have any absorption capability left! So being charged up by a three-star or less hero is a good idea. But a four star one would leave her as a glass cannon. Massive offensive capability, but unable to take a hit.
Bear in mind that Anvil actually has super strength, in addition to her nose-boop ability. So she really does not need to compromise her defenses. Not without a specific scenario where such extreme offense is absolutely required, regardless of the risk.
oh she has a limit i thought she had a endless amount she could store up and relase she she wanted i mean that one guy she nose tooched did smash through a roof meaning he had to be fairly strong and three full force hit would likely break more then a nose and some teeth
Anvil has a ‘battery’ that any kinetic energy she stores goes into. She can choose to expend that gradually, to increase her strength or she can release it as an attack. Or as a series of lesser ones.
Just how many blows it might take to fill up her battery is not something that has appeared in the comic. As you point out though she was able to take three super strong punches, so we know ti is at least that much.
Plus we do know that when two super powers are opposing one another (say an energy attack versus a shield) then you would need a three star shield in order to defend against a three star attack.
So the fact that Anvil only has four stars in her kinetic absorption means that she would be outclassed by an enemy with a five star strength. Four stars of energy would be absorbed into her battery, but the rest would probably be enough to knock her out, at the very least.
However she may still have some (or even a lot) of battery capacity spare. It is just a matter that she can only absorb so much in a given attack
All this based on the general things we have found out about the powers and their rankings. Which Dave has kept pretty consistent.* Hence why, even though we have not had a Dabbler’s Science Corner for Anvil, I feel fairly confident about the points I have deduced above.
* The comic action we have seen closely matches the star ratings. Where they do not it is because a particular power might not be properly opposed. For example if Anvil his hit by any kind of energy attack, other than a kinetic one, her defensive power will be bypassed. Her only protection will be her Kevlar + armour.
Of course she could improvise a shield, by picking up some nearby object. If a suitably large one is to hand (for instance a tank) we could expect Anvil to be able to block an attack of three star strength this way.
In terms of the difference between their horseplay and Sydney’s assault. One could make argument for her one (well placed) hit being quite justified given the side effects of Dabbler’s magic. Whereas this kid of horseplay does need to be limited to prevent discipline from getting completely out of hand.