Grrl Power #602 – You’ve got a little something on your cheek
Again, this is more than I wanted to show of Vale at this point in the comic, but it’s fine. I suspect this little reveal might present more questions than answers.
Vale makes a good henchwoman because not only can she literally ignore being impaled through the skull, but she brings significant creep out factor to the table. Intimidation is important for bodyguards, and most people who see that will probably give her a wide berth. Also she seems pretty loyal so far.
I’ve found a new book series I’m enjoying immensely. Star Justice. The short version is; Space Marine gets experimented on and essentially turned into a were-tiger. Hilarity ensues. Actually mostly violence… and technically it’s a harem setup, in the sense that the main character is male and nearly every other significant character he meets is female, many of whom join him on his adventures, and most of whom express sexual interest in him to some degree. Well, okay, that doesn’t sound like I should be saying “technically” at all. That’s flat out a harem setup, but I feel like there should be some sort of asterisk on “harem” because the female characters are significant and important parts of the story, not just notches on his bedpost – and they’re all likeable (IMO) either straight away or after some initial antagonism is resolved. The sex scenes are terse and non-graphic which is really my preference in novels. I like it when characters I like hook up, but I don’t really need the gory details.
I won’t spoil anything, but one night I went to bed planning on reading a few chapters, and I got to a point where there is a rather significant turn of events, and I wound up finishing the book and reading like 30% of the next one before I had to quit because it was 5 in the morning. :P
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed it a lot, maybe you will too. This sort of thing is hugely subjective.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like!
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SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
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Very Unexpected, and Very Interesting. At first guess I’d think that she is a construct of some kind, but we will have to wait and see. This also hints at just how formidable Deus is. At first he seemed like just a rich guy that could afford all the toys and hire a bunch of supers (a la Lex Luthor). Then he somehow knew about the vault. That could have been explained by wealth and connections, but this could indicate something different. This hints at the possibility that Deus is not entirely normal (or human) himself.
Hum! If Vale is a (Medium) Great Old One, she could know all sorts of things – and pass them on to her employer.
Maybe she is a (Extra Large) Great Old One? They can do stuff like squeeze something reaaaly big into something medium.
But, yea, it would explain a lot of Deus’s omniscience.
Yeah, I’m fairly certain that Vale is really just the part of Vale that can readily interact with the mortal world; something Deus probably enabled in order to obtain her complicity.
After all, most of the names in this comic directly relate to some characteristic possessed by the character, and the word vale is synonymous with phrases like “mortal coil”.
Yeah the M-Body system *Avatars, manifestations, there are other options like a reincarnation that doesn’t know its part of the greater whole, but that doesn’t look to be the case here*,
Even Eternity (Marvel) has had smaller bodies much weaker than his whole in order to interact with mortals, heck in Lovecraft Yog-Sothoth created a human incarnation that was able to reproduce with mortal women.
I think Yog kind of possessed the creepy cultist who summoned it… who was also the father of the woman he sired the two kids with.
So yeah, many levels of squick.
I kind of suspect Deus is a god hiding as a human, Mammon perhaps, or Zeus. When the worshippers all fall away, what happens to the god afterwards? That might not apply to Mammon, money seems to be as worshipped as ever. OTOH, it’s not worshipped THROUGH Mammon, if you catch my drift. Zeus, however, doesn’t have any worshippers nowadays.
Oddly enough he may have millions of inadvertent worshippers.
Back when the first depictions of Christ were being made most of the world only had very crude art. However there was one image that stood out as creating not only a realistic face, but also one that captured the essence of divinity. Which was a Wonder of the World, as a result. Namely the Statue of Zeus.
Some scholars have shown that early Christian artists may well have drawn upon this as the inspiration in depicting crucified Christ. The very first Christians did not depict Christ at all, so there were no original images to copy. So the face that we see today may well be that of Zeus, not Christ.
You know that bit in the Bible, about ‘not worshipping false icons’? Millions of Christians today could be directing their prayers towards an image of Zeus!
Could be. For that matter, I’m told there is a great deal of difficulty in finding the difference between late sites of Mithra and early Christian sites. Same symbols, etc. Plus Mithra is reborn every 2000 years, and Christ happened along at the right time. The wise men were probably hunting for the child Mithra.
This is one of those things you don’t discuss with evangelical relatives.
Zeus trolled the world.
His fetishes hang in museums as works of arts, his likeness stands in for Yahweh/Jehovah, we named the largest planet in our solar system after his roman name, and his name is the stand in for God *Deus*…Zeus.
and he’s not the only one, the Greek gods especially got one over everyone, Norse behind them, unfortunately while so many other European pantheons are almost entirely forgotten or changed in such ways to try and preserve them from Christian persecution that they are no longer recognizable and their original forms lost to history *Basque and Georgian mythology is practically gone, and the Celtic gods and myths so encoded as “historical kings, queens, warriors, and fairies” that the original stories are hard to tell how they went.
Sooo… Looks to me like the “person” Vale is just a sort of case for whatever the “being” Vale is. Something to allow her to walk around unnoticed. I’m wondering if it’s something she makes herself, like an exoskeleton of sorts, or if it’s something Deus provided her with that will now need repairing.
I doubt Vale would have casually turned her back in a fight, if that risked putting Deus out, by having to repair it.
You do not needlessly disturb the Throne!
Given the “floaty” nature of the bits in the second to last panel, I’d say she is meant to look like she is already regenerating her (shell) right there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLs0V8T5AA
Also nice to see Sciona with a genuine “oh crap” expression on her face.
She thought she going to slice up Pee Wee Herman, only to find out she just picked a fight with She-Hulk…
it is a trope,
“Mugging the monster”
https://modernculturalreject.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Gowther-punching-Dreyfus-Things-You-Didn%E2%80%99t-Know-About-The-Seven-Deadly-Sins-Characters.jpg
or more mainstream:
https://tarstarkas.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/godzilla-marvel-19-03-600×450.jpg
https://i1.wp.com/guardiansofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Godzilla-shrunk.jpg
https://tarstarkas.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/godzilla-marvel-19-04-600×424.jpg
Gojira seems to be a teeny bit smaller than I last saw him.
Sadly the first and last links just return ‘404 not found’.
the problem with google image searches, sometimes they page link instead of just image link. Eh, the first was the muggers eyeing some targets, and last was Godzilla roasting them.
yeah, this is from the Marvel comics run of Godzilla, Hank Pym tried to shrink Godzilla to stop him, so we had a set of comics of Godzilla slowly growing big again, and people trying to control him. Marvel has always been a fan of mugging the monsters, The Thing, Magneto, Wolverine, almost every episode of the Incredible Hulk tv show.
It is why I enjoyed creating tiny girl characters in City of Heroes. About half my characters were either maximum or average size males or inhuman-looking creations based on a male frame (monsters, robots and so on).
The other half were minimum size girls, precisely because I enjoyed that effect. OK a number of them had monstrous and inhuman aspects too. But all had at least one outfit that covered up the worst aspects, to make them look innocuous. Or a deliberately cute outfit, for those who were not inherently scary.
Plus I ended up just really enjoying seeing the world from that perspective. It even had advantages in PVP, as a smaller silhouette was easier to hide. Even though you could always pick out a character from their name, if they were smaller then the name would appear lower, so it was easier to ‘keep your head down’.
Which I further capitalised on for my only made-for-PvP character. By choosing her name as “‘z'”. All the single-character names had been snapped up. And it did not allow a name purely with special characters. So that was as unobtrusive a name as I could create.
Along with that she had one ‘cute’ outfit (kinda – she was a scary blue pirate, so she was only cute at a distance, until you got to see some of the unsettling details), plus a sort of camouflaged outfit. Again the character broke through and it had piratical aspects to it. But still it worked well in blending in with the typical terrain in the PVP zones.
Not that I played much PVP, but she was a pretty successful build for when I did. Good in solo (she had enough debuffs to take down tanks, albeit with difficulty for PVP built ones) but coming into her own in a team, as she had a bunch of AOE stuff that allowed her to slow, debuff and damage large groups. Likewise to buff teammates, as well as herself (her priorities were selfish, but there were a number of powers which allowed both).
Fortunately because I did not use her much, and thanks to the fact that she was so inconspicuous, I got great benefit from the ‘innocent girl hanging out with a bunch of scary monsters’ effect.
Ooookkkkay! You’re a bloodmage with a sidebar of serious slashing damage. Your opponent is a superstrong blood-less liquid/gel in a containment vessel. Time to take the deal or run for it.
Good point. On a previous comments page I was listing various reasons why Sciona could reasonably conclude “She is not a super”. Yours trumps all mine.
Vale has just spilt what blood-like substance she has. Sciona is aware of any characteristic differences in at least one super’s blood. Namely Pixel’s. And whatever has just spilled out of the Vale-suit does not register as super, or likely blood of any sort.
Looks like swirling about tendrils of eldritch flames gathering and reconstructing the pieces of her shell-face that broke off. So yeah…no blood, or remotely human.
I was right-ish!
Great. A female Alucard, Eyes and All. Now I want to know how Vale teamed up with Deus, more specifically, was the equivalent of a glove involved?
I dunno – she seems like an Old God-type to me, rather than something from this level of reality.
But hey, I could be wrong.
Plus Alucard was a vampire. Whereas Vale clearly is not. Although I appreciate that it could just be the power level that is being alluded to.
However the pecking order has already been established in this setting. Sciona used an elder* (and thereby hugely powerful) vampire as a snack box! Whilst Vale is unconcerned enough about Sciona to not even bother looking at her in a fight!
So, whatever Vale is, she is as much above Sciona, as Sciona is above a powerful vampire.
* During the discussion on relative power levels (putting elder vampires on a par with average supers) it looked like Ingsol was an elder one. Whilst Sciona’s pet was one of his peers, in the undead delegation, whilst Ingsol was in the Council leader’s chair.
So is presumably (but not categorically) of comparable power. Given that we know the Council’s politics do include literal in-fighting, including sometimes in the chamber itself. At the very least he would need to be a capable combatant, if not one of the most powerful in the world.
I’m fairly certain that was a hellsing reference where they tie alucard to some pretty eldritch horror type stuff. – huh. Puts the authors intent behind the work in an interesting light.
to be fair though in Helsing Alucard was a “true” vampire, something that most the vampires in the series had never even known existed and came across as *the bigger fish* for them. Stand alone his transformations and his true form would make it hard for the average person to see him as anything but an eldritch horror, at least at the child of the black goat level if nothing else.
The way you talk about harems says to me you don’t have much familiarity with the genre. Actually in harem fiction the harem members are never notches on the bedpost. They are often as important or more than the harem fulcrum. They usually have much more vivid personalities and the story is more often than not driven by their conflicts and history.
That depends on whether you’re talking about harem comedy anime and manga or American harem serial fiction, where the object is often just to acquire as many waifus as possible.
Plus, a good bit of harem fiction is meant to be ridiculous slapstick comedy.
There is one elephant in the room that should be brought up when discussing if Vale is a super or not.
*also taking that just because a character says something, doesn’t make it true. Especially if they aren’t in any position to actually know the backstory of someone or something else. That’s right my view of most scientists and random people in so many sci-fi, horror, and fantasy series is that they are either very lucky or full of it.
Anywho,
the elephant in the room: Concretia.
Her power allowed her to take on a spirit form that possessed inanimate material to build a golem like shell around her body. Even a high powered shot to the head didn’t kill her just destroyed her host form.
So as of right now, while I’d love to jump to (Vale is an eldritch horror, god, djinn, celestial being’s avatar, using a human shell like form and Deus somehow has her in his employ), this other option is still on the table that she is a super, just one like Concretia only more complex/powerful.
Hence my thought that it might be misdirection. Whether or not she is a super, it’s to her advantage to keep everyone guessing. It’s hard to counter something when you don’t have a clue what it is or how it works, and that’s what makes it scary.
These are valid arguments, and may well prove to be true.
We have even seen that some characters must be mistaken, as they hold contradictory views. Some indicating that there is a hereditary influence to super powers. Others that studying supers for generations has failed to reveal their nature at all. Whilst there is some degree of wiggle room between the two (such as when we observed a hereditary influence to some cancers, whilst otherwise knowing sod all about them) they were treating their respective views as being the defining ones.
The other thing that affects this is what individuals view as being a super. Some people would not class Halo as being a super, but just someone using items that she found. The Twilight Council is an organisation that only accepts members of the supernatural.
Yet many readers I am sure would consider that Krona appears to be human and that her power seems to be closer to a super power than a supernatural one.
However, for good historic reasons, the council (and likely Sciona) have a distinct view polarising the world into humans versus the supernatural (any non-human people).
With super-humans being a sub-category of human. So having Vale revealed as being distinctly non-human, Sciona’s mind would naturally re-classify her within the supernatural camp. Even if she just turns out to be a human who has diverged due to the nature of her super powers.
Why on WHY!!! Do people who get bitten, graced, dammed, immortalized, ect…. Suddenly assume they are better/superior to base line humans??? We as a populace contain so many scary “Hidden Dragons/Crouching Tigers” that sneering and discounting humans is literally a good of getting your ads handed to you…..
There are a lot of humans who assume they are inherently superior to one another for phenotypical reasons *won’t go into that discussion as the world has shown it to us*; but it doesn’t end there.
We have seen humans assume superiority because they have nicer clothes, better cars, a higher paycheck ect…
So yeah, a human suddenly having supernatural powers and being told by the ones that turned them *you are now part of an exclusive club, old and secret, better than humanity as they are our prey*; is very likely going to jump into that superiority complex mindset.
Which makes it all the better when they get smacked down for their hubris.
Deus is big on one of a kind exotic things, and I’m betting on her being from a far, far star system…
at least he’s no trying to sleep with her because that would be weird
He seems to like weird.
You need to meet some of my ex-girlfriends to find out the true meaning of weird, and crazy too…
I have been in a little grocery in the Middle East, and listened to the proprietor flirt with a woman in a burka. If you’ve got weirder than that, I’m sorry for you.
Can Concretia only do stone? You could get a similar effect by using a gel-filled stone shell. You could do a lot worse too: if Concretia can do any solid, a lead containment housing nuclear waste would be the perfect deterrent: “Punch me, I dare you!” If she can only do stone or similar, it is still possible to do something similar, just a bit more difficult.
Most metals are originally mined in ore form. Even if Concretia can only do ‘rock’, she can probably handle ore OK. From her becoming part of the carpark, so being composed of aggregate, tarmac and paint, it seems she does not have a problem with impurities. So I see no reason why metals would be excluded. Although there may be a proportion above which she cannot go.
Still there are some pretty nasty ores out there, which are radioactive and/or poisonous. But, all that said you still get people mining them. The lucky ones get protective gear. Others just have to live with their gums bleeding, and their hair and teeth falling out, and bracing themselves for an early grave.
I love how Sciona has the “Hah hah hah what the fuck” look that Vehemance literally voiced back when he fought Max and at first all his hit did was maker her stand back a bit:
Also, my GOD it’s been 3 and a half years since this panel:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1508
I just realize possibly again in that Comic maxima is trying to decide between deepest thank the moon or speed to avoid. And the is she chose to think it simply to try make a point. Yeah the wings on the ankle I presume for maxima equate to Mercury the messenger God.
GOLEM! Love golems. They’re such interesting characters!
Much better than those nasty hobbitses.
Although only a rock troll could really appreciate the gastronomic comparison.
Sciona looks way too cute in that last panel. She’s supposed to be evil, and blank eyes are supposed to be creepy. No fair that she looks like a puppy!
Agree on the cute, butt those are not ‘blank eyes’, her pupils have narrowed to the same size her sphincter just did
I noticed a visual flaw in the second-to-last panel. Looks like some blue and black ink smeared and the perspective on Vale’s right (our left) eye looks off.
I wonder if Dave will fix it or if he’ll incorporate it into canon somehow?
I don’t see it,
do you mean the aether eldritch glow indicating motion towards her face as the floaty bits look to be reassembling?
No, everything looks as it should, her eye looks ‘off’ because it too was ‘shattered’ like the rest of her face
Am I the only one who suspects that Deus’ “price” will be a date? Given that Vale thinks Sciona’s acceptance hinges on her “proclivities”? Also given Deus’ history. And personality.
Possibly.
Plus Deus clearly fancies Maxima, even if he denies having tried to date her. Other than anger-management issues and both being powerful, I do not see much that would put Sciona in any similar camp to Maxima.
Finally yesterday Sciona was mostly a male orc. Even a really cosmopolitan guy would probably take a bit longer to get used to the transformation, before trying to coerce a gal into a date!
If Vale is an Eldritch than that makes this page so much funnier than it already was.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2044
It doesn’t look like she broke that button. That in itself is impressive.
O yes Sydney scoville junior scaring badass powerful people since her 1st week of recruitment. You’re right though it would be a nice new spin on that panel. Part of it can simply be that she was not allowed to harm a guest so long as the guest was wracked being physically destructive or attacking people.
It might also lend extra depth to Vale’s anger at being asked what her deal is, if she’s a Medium Old One trapped in a contract situation which she finds unpleasant.
As an Eldritch Abomination myself i wonder what Deus’ going rate is. I’m super bored and could use a job.
I hear youtube reviewers might want eldritch assistance.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqjZ0OJvyk7k5NEtPev_MA
Vale could be a Bio Armor / Street Justice….
Hey Dave –
1st – Thank you for creating a comic that is very enjoyable to read and is something I look forward to every morning (yes, I do check every morning).
Soo.. I will look into that book series that you posted.. in return – Here is some highly suggested reading – in case you need some more fun things to read –
[Spoiler]
Monster Hunter International (https://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/mhi-sample/)
(Has absolutely NOTHING to do with the game series)
– Or –
Humanity, Fark Yeah! (Yes I misspelled it deliberately)
https://hfy-archive.org/book/deathworlders
[Spoiler]
I am not responsible for you being late to functions / appointments or missing them altogether, addicted to reading late into the night or going over your bandwidth use because you need to read more.
I’m a big fan of MHI, and they could fit right in…
I am betting Vale is some sort of Eldritch Golem or sommin’ similar. And Deus holds the key, probably literally. Which means even if Sciona COULD defeat Vale, would require knowing what kind of golem, what it’s vulnerabilities are, what to use against it, etc…all stuff Sciona has NOT prepared for. Also, two unmoving rods, a wall of iron, and a good throwing arm make for hilarity.
I think it unlikely Vale is a golem.
Sciona is an artificer. I’d expect her to be more confident of her chances upon having identified Vale as a construct.
Agreed. Unless she recognises that the golem is far more sophisticated than hers. Given that Sciona’s have the potential to defeat the most powerful super in the world (barring a bit of bad luck) that would be daunting.
Consider how awed Krona was to see the code behind the Orbs. Like her reality manipulating programming language, but even more profound. Awe is appropriate for seeing an ally who is stronger than you, in your own speciality. Whereas Sciona’s expression is more like trepidation. So suitable for having a similar realisation about an enemy.
However, that is just playing my usual Devil’s Advocate. Had Sciona identified Vale as a construct, she would likely have thought that (rather than simply excluding the possibility of Vale being a super).
Yorpie, when you said awe was an appropriate response, I have to put an asterisk beside that. Awe is appropriate only if you’re not already a one-trick pony.
Say all you’ve got is some kind of energy blast, and it’s the only reason you’re on the super team. And you’re not even on the A-list because of it. And for years you’ve been training with that energy blast, learning everything you can do with it. Along comes the new kid on the block who not only has a more powerful version of the exact same energy blast that you have, but has already come up with a dozen different ways to use it that you never even dreamed of. In fact, the newbie outshines you in every way.
If you can only do one thing, and suddenly someone comes along who does it better in every way, awe is not the appropriate response.
Jealousy, anger/hatred, depression, feelings of worthlessness, insecurity, etc.
Yea, good points, which I agree with.
Although the distinction depends on the character of the person. If you are someone who can feel good for a friend doing well, then awe is still appropriate. But I grant that jealousy is more likely for most people.
In Pixel’s case her awe was, in honesty, more from seeing the programming underlying the universe. If Sciona were in a similar situation she would be exhibiting jealousy that someone else had it, rather than herself. But Pixel was not bothered with that (at that moment of revaluation anyhow).
… Krona, not Pixel the super were jaguar …
Thanks. Any page that does not have one or the other’s who’s who up leaves me vulnerable to mixing up their names. Often enough that I have to double-check every time.
Clearly I needed a treble-check this time.
Question that came to my mind is.
Was Vale like this before she started working for Deus? Or was… this… his price for whatever she got in return?
Good question.
Another is ‘who is working for whom?’
Deus uses the head of a country as a puppet. Who is to say that is not mimicking the relationship between Vale and her pet? Just like I will make a nice mousey toy for my kittens to play with, we saw Vale providing Deus with his thunder clicker. And the rest of the time she is always in the room, seen or unseen.
We assumed as a bodyguard, and that is certainly the role she is assuming. But I protect my kittens too. Allowing them to otherwise lead their lives and interact with other cats as they like.
Up until something they are doing is inconvenient for me, or I have other plans, of course.
That is both interesting and highly disquieting.
“I want to give you everything you ever wanted.”
“What’s the catch?”
“I have no concept of ethics or morals, and no interest in understanding anything you do, are or want.”
“Then why give me everything I want?”
“I’m bored. At least I’ll have something to do.”
Deus understands ethics and morals, he just doesn’t use the pesky things himself. Bad for business don’cha know…
My little discussion goes Vale — Machina — Vale — Machina — Vale, actually.
Sounds like the plot to Death Note, at least Ryuk’s motive. He just gave the note book to a random highschooler just to see what he would do.
That, and so he could eat the apples of the mortal world.
and then we learn Vale’s motivation is she can’t grow strawberries in what passes for soil in the dark netherworld; and is getting them from Deus. She’s get a different job and buy them herself but she is surprisingly shy and uses her death glare demeanor to avoid the disarming awkwardness LoL
Well… some take cosmic/old gods eldtrich abominations as “waifu” … having one as a bodyguard is much more reasonable.
On the plus side, Vale’s eyes are a lovely colour.
Hey there, Cthulhu, down there in your sunken city
You´re a billion lightyears distant and the stars look really pretty
form R´lyeh.
So close and yet so far away
ia ieh
-Eben Brooks
Hmm so that bodyguard is more then she seems, I have a funny feeling that something is going to happen to that bloodmage an it ain’t pretty.
She is a dead-defying Blood Mage of unknown origin would banded together with a slew of different monsters in world where there are so many (albeit in hiding) different Monsters, Aliens, Otherworldly, Constructs etc. that they have to put them in groups… and she is surprised that her opponent is more than she seems? :o
Yes. Because she thought she knew how to identify all the key players. There are ways to tell if you are facing a mage, or a vampire, and so on.
Plus she is arrogant, so would not expect somebody in the role of an assistant/bodyguard to a mere human to actually be more powerful than her. Despite Deus telling her as much, up front.
It’s also that she needs to know the players. Presumably she’s shanked allies before Wyrmil, so she needs to know who’s what and what they’re capable of if she wants to keep her new bod.
Something tells me *such as getting the top half of her head cut off* that she has underestimated her opponents before, and apparently learned nothing on doing that. Although one can suspect she thought to catch the human in the day time *when most supernatural creatures are at their weakest* off guard and unprepared.
She may have expected supers, but something greater and darker not even acknowledging her attack…well I think Sciona’s expression and the *oh crap scared* expression lines and drooping wings speak volumns. She may actually be recognizing what Vale is…and not as something she can handle or would ever have tried to had she known.
Also if Vale is an Eldritch…well this could not only reveal how Deus knew about the vault, but also give a reason for wanting to take some artifacts. Remember what Dabbler told Sydney, some of the artifacts down there can’t be destroyed because their power is a secondary function and their primary purpose is to either seal or prevent entry into their world by some eldritch being or another.
Why stop at one Vale? Why not release her sister as a second body guard? Or part of the deal to allow more of her body to come through the tight little hole in their reality allowing this much of her to manifest, ect…
Mind you any of us might be sub-par if we had part of our brain sliced apart! Even if she has been fully healed, following that experience, that may only have been the physical damage. Lost memories, formative emotional moments, and the like, may all have been lost forever!
Unrelated to the comic but I know these guys advertise a LOT on webcomics so be careful: DO NOT BUY FROM GAMISS.COM, they sent me children sized clothing passing it off as XL and not providing any sort of avenue for returning the merchandise (no address, phone, email, broken online form) so even Visa will not refund me because I can’t ship back this junk.
Thanks for the warning. They haven’t advertised here yet… or if they did, DaveB deleted the post before anyone saw it. (Or the WordPress filters caught it.)
Always check seller reviews before you buy anything online. A quick Google search for GAMISS turned up two review sites on the first page of results. There is one caveat to be aware of: Some sellers like to post fake reviews. In the case of GAMISS, I found one site that had 34% 5-star reviews and 48% 1-star reviews (out of about 1250 reviews). Less than 10% of the reviews were 3-star or 2-star.
Ignoring the fact that almost half the reviews are 1-star, any time I see something like that, I’m instantly suspicious. In my experience, it usually means that the company is using puppet accounts to post 4-star and 5-star reviews, and the real reviews are all the 1-star ones.
For the record, GAMISS is a “drop shipping business”. They have no actual product; any time someone places an order, they contact one of their suppliers (all in China) for shipment. This is why it takes so long to get your order; sometimes months, if you get it at all. You could’ve gone to Alibaba and ordered the item directly from the source.
Homunculus!!! That’s what she reminds me of.
Dullahan with a prosthetic head? Smokey the Shoggoth? . . . I got nothin’.
I love Sciona’s facial expression in the last box! kinda of like Sydney’s *”eww, why did i have to know that”* look!
is it just me or is Sciona actually like, really adorable looking?
just me? okay, i’ll see myself out.
I would not say so for panel 5. Rather too evil for my tastes. But the last panel, sure.
Kind of baby-grey-alien meets puppy-about-to-get-run-over.
nah, tot ally adorable in panel 5! she’s less evil and more pouty that it’s not going her way! its cute! WHY ARE THE VILLAINS SO CUTE!
i don’t know if anyone else said this, but my guess is that Vale is either some kind of gaseous entity or an ethereal being of some kind, but either way her natural form is contained within a shell that looks like a human female. if that’s the case…i wonder if she can change bodies the way other people change clothes…
Sounds plausible.
Maybe she can change at will. But, if so, she seems comfortable with her standard option, as we have seen her quite a lot and consistently the same.
Aw c’mon Sciona! Now Vale is going to have to get a new outfit, or find something else that goes with those boots so well! :( Unless she’s like the cartoon characters and basically has ten of the exact same outfit in her closet. Or Dues has something that repairs fabric to look like no damage was done (I know a few people who would definitely pay for that ind of tech…).
Love Sciona’s expressions in this one! Totally getting the pin-eyed/O_o/WTF look in the last one! :D
Side note: Thanks for the link, I kinda want those boots now. o_o
What happened to Sciona’s eyes in between panel 5 and panels 6 & 8?
Did she lose her iris/pupils, or am I just missing them?
I believe you’ll find that happens when she’s manipulating her wings. Something similar happened to me in a previous meat suit. When I wanted the hair not to be tiny tendrils of fire, the fingernails turned into glowing green pus that oozed all over the…
HEY! Wait! I’m not done responding to this guy po-
Her iris’s are retracting in fear, similarly to how her sphincter is reacting
Sciona is not human. We can see that her eyes can behave differently to theirs. So in this case we can just take it as being an emotional response. Namely fear, trepidation or something of that ilk.
I’ve been playing D&D, Pathfinder and M&M for years so I’ma throw my hat into the ring and guess that she’s a doll animated by Cthulhu set free by Deus.
M&M? I think you are mixing that up with skittles. Easy mistake to make, if you are peckish and trying to type a list of things that you play.
Stay strong on your New Year’s resolution, and keep off the confectionery!
Really loving Sci-fright’s expressions in this page
Panel 5: Gotcha, bitch!
Panel 6: How is she still talking? o_O
Panel 8: WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE!!!! ._. (those are supposed to be tiny pin-prick eyes) Mommy? I’m scared now, I think I made an accident in my pants!
Something I just realized after going back looking at pages around Vale’s apperances.
Something from the comments a few pages back *regarding the legal issues of Deus being direct with Archon that he has artifacts from the vault*
Maxima told Sydney that Deus knows about the supernatural and aliens *but not everyone in his company knows* is implied. So while not affecting the legal things too much; it does also imply his standing with Archon and his other connections can see another behind the scenes side.
one line among a bunch of dialogue:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2084
*sets up a screen, between chair and monitor*
*pokes a couple of eye-holes, in screen*
Thanks for the warning bud!
yeah he would have more move around if he could pretend he just *found* the vault and had no knowledge of the supernatural. However the fact Archon knows he knows about such things really hurts his option of feigning ignorance on the issue.
Well they currently only know that Sciona has been in his office. But the implications from their conversation should allow them to fill in the dots.
Suspicion is not proof though. So feigning ignorance is an option. If he does so though, I suspect it will only be for short-terms laughs. He is far safer playing it under the assumption that they will find supporting evidence, and have everything legally in order for that eventuality.
Well, I got long odds, but …. a) green marble pillars, b) Marble Maiden is green marble, c) Vale is not your average super, Conclusion: Vale was/is Marble Maiden, until hooking up with /getting hypnotized by Deus. The pillars are a s-u-b-t-l-e clue that every supervillian must have, in order to taunt the hero.
Like I said, long odds. Sydney, we need your chart again.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1873
Interesting theory. And possible. Not seeing any hint of marble in her though. But clearly your implication is that she transforms somehow, so that is not an issue. It is just that we are lacking a clue other than ‘she was standing near green marble’.
The other problem being that Vale has been with Deus for years, having been there when he originally took over his African country. So she cannot have been recently recruited. If she is Marble Maiden then she has been moonlighting (or worse doing so at Deus’s behest). Either of which would be putting Deus and Machina Industries’ reputations at risk, should she be unmasked.
That’s an offhand thought I’ve had as well, but not necessarily because of the pillars. I do get the sense that Vale is more of a showoff than she wants to let on.
Until proven otherwise I am hedging that Concretia and Marble Maiden are the same person, she possesses marble then glues on the costume to that form. She just ended up using a less superheroine form during the brawl as she had enough of a mindset not to go into that fight in her most recognizable form.
She can’t possibly have a secret identity. Neither form wears glasses!
*wags tail decisively*
Hah, this page raises my opinion of Sydney even more. Not even eldritch horrors know how to deal with her.
Messed up the link
Messed up the link. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2044
Yea. Kudos for Sydney for creeping out an eldritch horror!
For some reason, your links are redirecting to the final page. With comments.
Somehow I see Sciona coming out of this as a junior partner/senior henchman for Deus. Someone we can see in lively strategic discussion with the boss, offering startling alternative insights much as Halo does for Dabbler.
When she’s not getting jobbed to build cred for Deus or his extended power structure, she seems like she has the right stuff for senior management. She’s pretty much just had the heady rush of having her body back and the sense of invincibility that conferred scrubbed off her face with a wire brush. She evidently spent quite a while doing far more with far less, and once she puts down her abraded ego, that box of tools is still there. She may very well bring a whole portfolio of assets to the table that are outside Deus’s existing reach. For all that Vale is a beast in single-site conflict, Sciona’s force multiplier value through planning and artifice makes her far more grand an actor.
“What do you want? Not as part of this negotiation. In the long term, I mean.”
“Why would possibly I tell you?”
“We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. Twice. I’m considering facilitating it for you. As a gesture of good will.”
I wonder if Deus is actually a tank (as in the massively multiplayer concept, rather than a water storage device)? Except that he has chosen not to put any of his optional development into progressing his defences. He still has only his default toughness. Rather he has dumped everything into taunting!
Making it so strong that it is irresistible. Increasing the duration from merely a few rounds of combat, to lasting days. And, of course, his own speciality, ensuring that the taunt does not end up provoking an attack on himself, but on a designated target of his choice!
What kind of MMO tank? There are two kinds: the kind that is basically just a meat-shield (takes the damage butt can’t really dish it out) or the tank-tank (heavily armoured and heavily armed)?
Either. Not having developed it that would not make much of a difference. Should his taunting ever fail, and his bodyguard does not do her job, he would be squishy versus any decent super attack.
I was envisaging pure tank though, rather than one adulterated with offensive capability. Having some survivability versus splash attacks, or environmental damage, or other hazards that a bodyguard may not be able to guard against, is useful.
Whereas any default attack is unlikely to be useful against anything other than the very weakest opponents. As such Deus would be far better off making use of some of the toys that his company produces.
Yeah, ‘tank’ versus ‘meat shield’ is one of those things that gets to me, like the difference between ‘newb’ and ‘noob’