Grrl Power #604 – Rooftop relationship roundup
If it isn’t totally clear what Max and Harem are referring to there in the last few panels, imagine that it might be cleared up in the next page or two and it might just happen!
I made up the term Silk Work because as far as I could suss out, there doesn’t seem to be an actual term for seduction spycraft. Wetwork being the term for anything involving the spilling of blood, usually used by spies (at least if Hollywood has taught me anything) so Silk Work seems like a logical continuation of that theme. Hopefully that didn’t completely throw everyone. It’s weird that a term like it doesn’t already exist. I know the term honey trap, but that seems like it’s more for a sting or a grift than an embedded operative.
Obviously, it’s something Maxima takes umbrage with. She’s not ignorant of how the world works, but it doesn’t mean she has to like it. Dabbler would, of course, be quick to point out that silk work and prostitution and strippers are all evidence of women’s power over men, but Maxima would rebut that in the real world it really doesn’t work out that way as men (hashtag NotAllMen) do everything they can to take that power back. There are far more male pimps and strip club owners than female ones, and those people take a huge chunk of someone else’s earnings while providing minimal support, if any at all. And the two of them argue long into the night and everyone regrets inviting them both to the same party.
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She’s also got 5 life experiences, so she’s over 100, really. Max is over 9000, see what I did there?
She may have ‘100’ years between her dupes, but her actions clearly show she does NOT have 100 years of wisdom. In fact, I don’t even give her a wisdom quotient of a 20 yr old.
That may be because she’s only 19…
but in that respect she has a leg (or 5) up on us mere mortals by being a 19 yo with 5 years of experience at being a 19 yo.
So thats potentially 5x the regular amount of “teaching moments” and “learning experiences” than the rest of us get in a similar amount of time.
And just as likely 5x the opportunities to make the same mistakes over (and over) again until the lessons sink in.
either way she is gonna be insufferable.
Agreed.
She’s only LEARNING from her experiences if she’s PAYING ATTENTION to them.
In a Harlan Ellison short-story, he has a character make a distinction between “100-yrs. of experience” vs. “1-yr. of experience, repeated 100 times”.
I may be mis-quoting, but Harem seems to be living-up to (or down to) an old Mae West saying:
“A mistake that’s done right is a mistake that’s worth repeating.”
100 years of no responsibilities will do that to a gal.Wisdom comes from more life experiences than kicking back and partying.
Wisdom comes from fucking up and learning from the mistakes
To (slightly) paraphrase Lao Tzu: “To become intelligent, learn something new every day. To become wise, every day be willing to give up some hard won certainty.”
Usually by being wrong about something
If that were true then you should be the most wise person in the world.
Thats certainly one way but theres many many more that happen too.Trust me I know plenty of guys and gals whos lives are a smorgasboard of eff ups and they still have the wisdom level of a drunk housefly.
That seems to describe Guesticus rather well.
Now now, be nice.
Because she’s carefree and lives a comfortable life?
Where does it show that she lacks wisdom?
Mostly when she is doing that whole “double agent for the fun of it” thing. I mean, it doesn’t sound like something that just might backfire, does it?
Nice to know: Unicode smileys don’t make it into the comments :(
From the sounds of this page, that “double agent for the fun of it” is an act
Is a double-double agent a quadruple agent? Would even fit her character, though she’d have to send one of herself on holiday.
Quint-agent
And if she changes her mind, she becomes a reagent.
Does she get one paycheck, or five…how do they work out leave? If one of her is un-teleported due to injury…does it use up sick leave?
My guess: unless they get Congress to change labor laws specifically for her situation, it’d be easiest to treat her as 5 employees, and to not notice which one is out (of this universe) sick or injured and which one fills out the timesheet. Corporations treat rare talent much differently than common, and managers (commanders, in this case) have a lotta leeway in taking care of details like this.
Didn’t DaveB state that she was closer to like 50 in terms of time alive? First duplicate at like age 5, then another at 10, and 20? So that makes her like 20+15+10+5+0 years old (assuming she’s 20 now).
… I’ve met some 100 yr old people, I can’t say that they’re guaranteed to be wise at that age. Some are, some definitely aren’t.
She didn’t always have five bodies.
Yeah, she’s only had five for about a year
I’m calling it now. Harem is going to lose one of bodies, and that loss and the aftermath is going to be the most devastating things we ever read here.
It’s difficult to kill one of the Harems. As soon as an injury happens she can unteleport that body and keep it in that state indefinitely (we saw this with pink-hair’s broken arm). It’s possible someone could do it sufficient one shot damage that resuscitation is unlikely, but Harem is entirely capable of existing in denial of that for the rest of her life (look at her difficulty bringing pink-hair back, and that was just physical pain). If there’s no body, how do you declare it dead? In some ways it parallels cryonics, in that by one argument the body is dead, and by another it’s just waiting for the trauma medicine state of the art to catch up.
This is just wild speculation, but her physiology lets her have up to 5 bodies. It is possible that if she loses one another new one would be ‘born’ to fill the vacancy. For her own sanity let us hope that is not true. If it were, the top brass would continually send her out on suicide missions with the justification ‘You’ll only be dead for little while.”
What, 9000? There’s no way that could be right!
(I know, I know…)
Heard a good one about that…
Nappa – What does the scouter say, Vegeta?
Vegeta – One thousand and six. Kick his ass, Nappa!
Nappa – Oh boy!
Nappa attacks Goko. Nappa gets his face punched. Nappa gets his stomach punched. Nappa gets his face punched again, and by ‘again’ I mean many times.
Nappa lands in a heap at Vegeta’s feet.
Vegeta – Oh, Nappa?
Nappa – Whaaaat?
Vegeta – I had the scouter on upside down. It’s over 9000…
Also – where does Vegeta think he’s gonna get another scouter?
Dragonball Z Abridged, Episode 9
“one of you is on duty at all times… at the base…”
Does that mean that the Harems sleep in shifts so one is always awake?
Usually, yes
Does Harem dream? Do the waking bodies get distracted by this?
Do Harems dream of duplicate sheep?
Oh, that’s quite good.
Interesting. This ties in to the previous of wisdom. I f Harem is both sleeping and awake at the same time the whole world might seem like dream-like and not real. And if things aren’t real then there aren’t any real consequences and one can do whatever one pleases without worrying.
+1 Internets
I’d imagine only if one of her bodies has a very strong nightmare reaction. But at this point she’s lived with sleeping selves long enough that it’s likely something she’s adapted to.
Now one of her having sleep paralysis would be really distributing.
Nah, military duty days mean that you’re on base and available. You still get time to eat/sleep/shit, but you’ve gotta be sober and ready to work at a moments notice.
If body A is intoxicated, is body B mentally affected?
Given that we know that Harem is feeding intel to Deus, I think that Max is right to be worried. Of course, Harem thinks she’s the one in charge of the relationship, when she clearly is not.
That whole ‘feeding intel to Deus’ is part of what Maxi is talking about with the “You’re supposed to just be keeping an eye on Dues” line
If she really is working for Archon in the end, than she should feed Deus table scraps just to keep him from suspecting. However, if she is telling Deus everything that is going on then that means she actually works for Deus and is fooling Archon. Or trying to at least. I assume they have every article of clothing bugged to hell just in case she switches teams.
i don’t think that’s exactly right. we may have a Dumbledore-Snape-Voldemort situation here. remember, Deus is smart. if she just feeds him small stuff, he’ll think something’s up. in order to maintain the ruse, she’ll have to give him some pretty good info to keep his trust in her up.
but at the same time, that leads to exposing the enemy to valuable information, and leads to the Snape-Dumbledore situation where (SPOILER) Snape kills Dumbledore. Also, apparently Deus wants Daphne to be a triple agent for unknown reasons.
Actually, Im wondering if this is even a valid spying tactic. Are there any known instances of spies giving the enemy what they want, only to trap the enemy later?
Back in WWII the Americans were intercepting some coded Japanese radio transmissions before the battle of Midway. They knew that the Japanese had code names for various American bases and they were planning an attack on ‘X’. The Americans sent out an uncoded transmission saying that Midway base was out of water and needed resupply. The Japanese then sent out a coded message to headquarters that ‘X’ was out of water. This let the Americans know that it was the target of the coming attack and gave them the time to set up an ambush.
Harem is only a Corporal*, and Maxima is constantly on her about teleporting into closed door meetings and her limited need-to-know. She has a ready made excuse for why she doesn’t have the most stunning of secrets to feed to Deus, and it is the best kind of lie: One firmly backed by truth.
* And yes, I’m aware that rank isn’t tied to security clearance. You can have a Private with a TS and a Captain with no clearance at all. It is job/task/assignment/posting dependent, independent of rank. But it is still accurate to say that a Colonel with the same clearance as a Corporal is probably privy to (as in, has been ‘read into’) far more sensitive information than that Corporal.
In this case, I would suspect that Harem’s Corporaldom is a strong product of the fact that she’s too immature to be given the responsibilities that would also be associated with a higher clearance. In particular, you have a nasty chain-of-command problem if your clearance ever exceeds that of your chain of command. If a supervisor were to lose their clearance, the best they could hope for would be an immediate transfer to HQ assigned AFO (Awaiting Further Orders) until it was restored. In different units, sure though.
Thought it was more to do with the fact she’s only physically 19 (maybe 20)
Old enough to die for her country. Yet old enough to drink. But still over the age of consent.
Not a girl
Not yet a woman
For the record, Christina Aguilera has a much better voice. This is coming from the objective point of view of a person who is no fan of the music of either of them. It is a simple fact.
Both sound the same: awful! :P
Don’t worry. You need not link to Britney Spears videos to prove how young and virile you are. Just tell us that you are hip and down with the younglings, and we will get the message!
Oh, this is rich.
If you think for a single minute that I was trying to be “hip with the younglings” with my statement that one vocalist had an actual vocal talent compared to another who was just a dance routine with no vocal talent, then you can suck it like the asinine idiot you are. You suck a lot.
Sorry, I could not resist the urge to tease you.
I did put your preferred one’s YouTube mix on and she served as adequate backing music for quite a while. I did tire of her in the end, but that is normal for me, regardless of the artist.
Her best redeeming feature is that I only gave a thumbs down to one video (a particularly rappy one). And only at the point when she had another vocalist who’s voice was grating my nerves enough to distract me from my work. As such no reflection on Christina Aguilera’s talent.
If she’s loyal to Archon and serving as a double agent, then she should only be telling him things that they’ve approved she tell him. People can and have gotten life/death sentences for disclosing information to allied powers without approval.
Of course, she is feeding declassified stuff that Archon doesn’t mind Deus having, so he can independently verify her information as valid, if of limited utility. Some of it may be hard to verify until future events occur. That way, when Archon wants to start feeding him some false info, he will believe Harem’s lies. Mind you, she might not even know they are lies, just more stuff X has told her to tell Deus.
I miss X. I hope we see him again soon.
He was in the council meeting room and he was there during the vault examination and during Cooter’s debriefing.
Since we only see him when he screws up or someone penetrates his cloak, I suspect he’s been “in frame” a lot more than we know. I’m guessing without evidence he was present in the middle of the parking lot battle, feeding info to Arc-whatsit for updating databases and those doomed info “sunglasses”.
This is actually a really good explanation of how they were getting some of that information. What’s interesting is if he was there there, how as the “Agro-field” affecting him. He’s been affected by Dabblers lust-field before. Maybe he just has really good self-discipline.
Zephan and other Arc-light were ‘on-site’, mainly because they were at the dinner as well
Remember she told Deus about Sydney’s true sight ability
Which is CLASSIFIED!
Credible counter espionage means sometimes letting juicy info go, too. Or not acting on juicy info that is absolutely reliable. Here’s an unconfirmed example of how appalling counter espionage can be (I call it “counter” because (allegedly) inaction was chosen to protect an info source)
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11486219
Actually. If the Spying is done with Archon’s intent.
The act of revealing that information would have been to maintain Harem’s cover.
If for example they didn’t reveal the True Sight ability to Dues, then later Dues or something related to Dues “but not”, is caught thanks to that ability and its made clear due to that ability cause of Sydney’s excitement or something.
The act of failing to reveal that information to Dues via Harem would put her position in danger.
“feeding declassified stuff that Archon doesn’t mind Deus having”
You got proof that she’s authorized to disclose it? Governments are very picky about giving information to outsiders, even allies. And the defacto president of a foreign nation does not qualify as an ally, even if he’s a contractor who sells to the government.
Proof :: The last few comics show that they are 100% aware of Harem’s act of communicating and spying on Deus, they know what she is doing, as Max is talking to a different Harem than that of the one that is normally connected to Deus, the short white haired Harem vs the purple haired Harem. Thus any information that Deus is being told is under the instructions of Archon. AND if you remember, They are NOT part of any Government.
Also take note that Deus is counting on the fact that Archon is having her play a Triple Agent act.
You are both making fair points. Do note though that Maxima has only indicated that Harem is to observe him. That is a very different action to supplying confidential or secret information.
Obviously if she is meant to socialise with him, then they need a certain amount of lassitude in her talking with him. Telling him about funny stuff that has happened in her day’s work is therefore probably OK, even if it may be able to give him clues about where she was (assuming that is classified). They know that she is indiscreet, so would have been foolish to expect her to guard leakage of incidental information.
But outright passing over of top secret or classified information is another matter. Each instance of that needs to be authorised. And if she has to reveal something, due to extraordinary circumstances (e.g. “don’t approach that person she is actually a dangerous monster!”), then she needs to advise Archon immediately.
So even with Harem being authorised to spy, it is still entirely possible for her to betray Archon by giving away information she is not entitled to pass on.
But you guys are missing the point that.
1: Harem is a Spy for Archon on Deus.
2: Harem is a Spy for Deus on Archon.
3: Archon is aware of what Harem is doing.
4: Deus is aware(counting on) that Harem is acting Triple Agent against him.
Deus has SHOWN that he can get what he wants, when he wants and gets it in way he can. So therefore the information that is shared to him via Harem would have been discovered by Deus at some point. The act of giving over this information is a trick in itself. Or a trick attempted by Archon. Simple case of misdirection, they have Harem leek information A while keeping information B hidden. What is information B? Who knows, BUT they considered A being small enough of a dropped info that they could go with it being known.
Deus isn’t the type who would sell this information either, look at how he has been handling Sicona. Like Deus is gonna share to her that the new kid in Archon can see through her illusions, BUT as we remember, Deus stated after discovering it that there is nearly none that would require this skill. Something that Archon would also know…
Then again. Its a Webcomic.
3: Archon is aware of what Harem is doing.
Incorrect, this should read:
3: Archon is partially aware of what Harem is doing.
The whole point about this page is that Maxima is finding out about things that she was not aware of and which were not authorised. Importantly the military do have the right to say who their personnel can and cannot date. Likewise they may not get married without permission, where such restrictions are in place.
Finally, just because you are an authorised spy does not mean that you gain carte blanche to do anything you fancy. Spies can and do get executed for choosing to pass over information that they were not permitted to share!
Nevah! It is a true chronicling of events!
Just not in our world. Close though.
*places paw on monitor*
I can almost reach it!
Ahhh Maxima….When are you going to learn that no matter how much you yell the world will never line up with your ideals?
New it was all an act :D
Though I confess I like that channeling Sydneys turned into slang for asking grossly inappropriate questions XD
Just boyfriends?
Maxi didn’t ask about her girlfriends :P
… Or, for that matter, any entities Harem liases with that are NOT categorized by her as “_____friends”.
When you come to think about the ramifications here, that means that for every Harem we see “on screen,” as it were, that means there’s probably at least one of her getting…schtupped…at the same time. So basically, her attitude & demeanor that we witness is while her libido is…stimulated.
I think I’ll go back & re-read the parts of the story where Harem appears…While in my bunk.
0.o
…With special attention to that time Max gave her the atomic wedgie…
Yeah, we never saw (or heard) the reaction to Blondini, just Bodie, Berry, Gothamer and Abby (in that order, and yes, didn’t even have to check out the page, just needed a few seconds to remember the fifth Daphne :P)
I hate to break that lovely idea.. but as evident many times, all five feel what happens to one of them… if one of Her was being “Schtupped” we would be aware.. unless her Bf was an under performer….
Go back to the Maxima-Wedgie page, count how many Daphne’s appeared
The implication of this page seems to be that all her boyfriends are underperforming.
Odds are Harem’s…experimented with Dabbler by now with at least one of her selves. That’s probably ruined most normal experiences for her. Then again, that raises the possibilities that somewhere in Dave’s NSFW art vault there’s a progression of HaremxDabbler… encounters.
“So, what are we doing tonight, D?”
“I’m thinking futa and tentacle polymorphs for all of us…”
“Neat! Are we using the pool?”
“No, I have a tank of raspberry Jell-O waiting.”
As I recall, the last time it was brought up was after the massive battle. As of that time, she had not experimented with Dabbler yet.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1913
And the reason for fluster https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1917
Ooo, that page also explains Gothamer’s new ‘do :D
Harem’s VR porn is RR porn. (Real Reality)
Maybe since then Harem has skipped the stage of experimentation & jumped right into full-scale research?
Dabbler is the one I suspect Harem has not indulged with. Firstly Dabbler is banned from doing so with members of the team. Now, for the purposes of allowing individual headcanon there are exceptions possible. They may have, for example, paired up before the ban was introduced. Which could have accounted for the ban in the first place!
However the second, and actually main reason, is that there is one scene where Harem seems positively daunted by Dabbler’s sexual behaviour. Whilst it was just my interpretation of her facial expression, and the context, it conveyed the impression strongly enough that I concluded they have not yet.
Sadly I cannot remember the details of the scene, so there would be too many spots, in the comic, to make it viable to go hunting for the page.
What if every time one of Harem’s words in drawn in [b]bold[/b]…
If so, things happened twice during this page.
If that is the case, then he(They) is definitely an under-performer.. only a small squeek for a single word?
‘Satin Work’ might work better, to avoid connections with paratroopers (do they still have them? in the modern armies?)
a definitiv yes to that question. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paratrooper_forces
Cool, just never really hear of dedicated Para-regiments anymore
Normandy showed that large-scale parachute drops aren’t really practical – with any wind at all, people get scattered all over the place. Modern forces generally use helicopters instead.
Yeah, that’s why wondered if they still had Para-regiments, rather than simply abseiling from a helicopter (it is still called abseiling if you are falling from a helicopter on a rope, isn’t it? rather than down the side of a building or mountain?)
Yes, they do still have them. The helicopter units are called “Air Assault,” as opposed to “Airborne” which do the parachute drops. In the US, the premiere airborne unit is the 82’nd Airborne, the air assault is the 101’st Airborne. All the special forces do parachute and helicopter drops.
And, as someone who has watched air drop practice, it’s a beautiful thing to see.
Not, I suppose, if you’re actually on the receiving end during an actual engagement. Then it’s more a terrible thing, I’d suppose.
“it is still called abseiling if you are falling from a helicopter on a rope, isn’t it?”
Abseiling or rappelling if you’re fastened to the rope, but there’s a shift over to fast-roping where you’re just holding it and sliding.
That was the word was looking for: rappelling, thank you
Paratroops in WWII were at the mercy of vague airplane navigation and round chutes – which can’t target a landing spot very well. Airborne forces use some kind of flyable chute/paraglide tech these days, and can damn near land in formation. At the very least, they can all land on the same herd of cows in the dark. Takes cow-tipping to a whole new level.
They might be called “cow-punchers” except paratroopers are supposed to come down feet first, so it would be more accurate to call them “cow-kickers.”
;)
Oh yeah. That reminds me of a song…
Ever hear of these chaps?
https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/infantry/parachute-regiment/
Not English, so, no
The most recent combat paradrop I’m aware of was in Mali five years ago when 2e REP (Foreign Legion 2nd Parachute Regiment) airdropped into Timbuktu during Operation Serval, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ElySEd8MOw at 3:30. Prior to that there were combat paradrops into Afghanistan (US Rangers) and the entire US 173rd Airborne Brigade was landed into northern Iraq in 2003 (950 by parachute, seizing an airfield to bring the rest of the brigade in).
Certain modern materials are used for parachutes instead of silk these days.
True, butt most people of a certain age remember silk-chutes
they have been nylon for a while now, at least they were nylon in the 80s.
I’d guess they’re probably using some secret synthetic spider silk these days. That stuff has had the benefit of modern chemists’ attentions since chemistry became “modern”. It’s perfect for secret military development. It can be done in windowless labs, has lotsa applications beyond parachutes and body armor, is ignored by conepiracy theorists ad uninteresting, is intensively marketable by corporations who get to keep control of “trade secrets”, etc. Also, corporations discovering chemically related neat stuff along the way thst the military didn’t contract for get to keep those products, also.
Most military parachutes are still made of nylon. There’s a bit more complex chemistry in the treatment that goes on after the fabric’s been woven, but nothing overly exotic.
The military can be very conservative when it comes to safety-critical single-failure-point items, as can the manufacturers whose reputation is carried on every canopy.
Remember, we’ve got to make this stuff by the thousands of metres in order to produce enough canopies for what’s required. Even a small run to demonstrate the technology would probably need several hundred metres, several months of machine time to make and test, and tens to hundreds of kg of material. There is a ‘valley of death’ between what looks good on a gram scale in the lab given the researcher’s direct attention, and what can be run at kg or tonne scale in commercial semi-automated kit – and that’s without considering the price difference between something radically new and something with most of a century’s optimisation already done.
Even space probes usually come down on nylon canopies. They’re on the other side of the durability/mass and scale/cost trade-offs from the military ones, but very seldom to the extent of needing to use exotic yarns. The multi-mach bit of the requirement comes from the design, usually involving multiple canopies for different stages of the descent as speed decreases and air pressure increases.
We do make some canopies out of Kevlar, but those are predominantly for brake-chutes. It responds far better to being dragged along a runway at several hundred knots: you can use a canopy more than once, as opposed to scrambling to pick up the pieces before they get drawn into and damage an engine.
The wonders of rip-stop nylon and a little Kevlar! Only NASA makes an entire parachute out of Kevlar and Spectra, because the stuff is expensive and the military does not tend to drop their paratroopers at multi-Mach, unlike robots being send into the atmospheres of other planets.
yup, most are considered rapidly mobile units/divisions. US can deploy one of these Airborne (rapidly deployable) units/divisions anywhere in the world in 24 hours or less. Still a thing, but is a risk and you are a target on the way down. If they have an airfield they will land them, jumping into enemy fire is every old WW2 movie where you see them dead in a tree, shot on the way down.
they still train that way, but you try not to waste people any real world jump is a risk. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/01/us/winds-suspected-in-chute-accidents.html
3rd MAW did a lot of that at Al Asad about eight years ago, there’s a bit of geography there that blocks winds very effectively, so it’s a good location for that kind of practice.
The proper spycraft term(s) for a seduction agent is “Sparrow” after the Russian school that cranked them out by the thousands during the cold war period 1950-70s. The term for their USE was ‘Honeypot’ or ‘Honeytrap’. The Allies apparently had no actual SCHOOL to produce them, but some agents just enjoyed the work…
I thought it was swallow (as in the birds).
In 1990, a friend of mine met his uncle for the first time in his life. The uncle, while deployed to Berlin, had been tricked/seduced by a East German woman, and was captured by the East in 1960’s. He’d served time for his “crime” and had lived behind the wall until it came down. He had to relearn English, came “home” to a country he hadn’t lived in most of his life, met his updated US family, introduced them to his E German wife and kids, and went back – but to West Germany, not East. I don’t know if he was married to the woman who tricked him; I suspect not. My friend had a shocked look as he related all of this about a man his whole family thought dead.
I think Maxima might be secretly envying Harem
What ever happened to the cast page. It has vanished.
Not ‘vanished’, it’s been broken for a couple years now, there is a wiki page around somewhere (anyone checked the Honduran Embassy for any leakage?)
Meh…there isn’t a real euphemism for that for the simple reason you don’t need to speak obliquely about that. Nobodies gonna charge you with “Seduction in the First Degree”….though Dabbler might make a run at it.
Seriously though…most terms come from a separation factor….standard field agent spywork involves seduction to one degree or another. Wetwork is special case stuff really. Heck the killing of people is actually relatively unusual as an op. Well …the KGB did it a lot…but they were the bad guys…8-P
I think we just know more about the murders of the KGB as they got there archives opened. I bet you that the CIA has a long bloody list of murders.
Oh I didn’t really mean the CIA didn’t have people killed….they just hired out more. And did it less…..the KGB and the GRU before got a nice head start on us.
You seem to forget the OSI was around since 1948
*Sigh* I really didn’t want include ALL the name changes for the Russian spy agencies. They were a little paranoid. But I AM including their previous incarnations as the “Registration Agency” and the “Cheka” . (GRU and KGB respectively).
Actually, OSI is American…
Yes and was part of the CIA…HOWEVER….The two agencies I included STARTED in 1918 and eventually got “reformed” into the two later agencies. Unless you meant the OSS which was during WWII only. We had a gap in our intel services from 45-47.
Not to burst anyone’s bubble but they are still on deuse’s property there’s a good chance that that area is under some pretty hefty surveillance
@Dave “having to doing” is not correct. it should be “having to do”. You could reformulate the sentence to also to “having a member of my team to do silk work.” Also I don’t think that the scheduling would be all that hard for a teleporter. With all the time one usually spends on driving from a to b. Also she is rich enough to go out eating and stuff. I mean if she rotates the one at HQ, that means <5h shifts a day per body/33.6h week. Keeping a relationship up is not hard with that.
That’s not the only typo: second bubble, fourth panel “She didn’t
chosechoose a boring career”well grammar is more obvious then a missing o.
Not to some people :P
Harem gives rise to some curious questions, as in : Did they sign up all five of her? Do all five get separate paychecks? Just what ARE their schedules/jobs? Do they all have the same fingerprints/random bits of DNA? Does she have to have all five sleep at the same time to rest her mind or not, given she’s one mind in five bodies?
On the job thing, there are jobs in military where you have massive briefings between shifts, so the shifts are ten hours long to allow for an hour brief before the next shift starts – base defense fire control when forward deployed to name one off the top of my head. Harem doesn’t need a brief, if she’s just taking over from herself. She’s got advantages they’d be using, or so I’d think.
There is only one Daphne, she is just able to be in up-to five places at once
She gave them 5 separate names as someone pointed out so even she needs to keep track of them somehow. As for the debriefing, it isn’t necessarily just for the person taking over but it’s also for your chain of command. In that case she would actually need to do a debriefing at the end of her shift that says what went on because I doubt she’s just standing around for those five hours. Also don’t forget she’s really auditing the intake with Sydney which should still be going on.
The brief for the BDOC is usually an email, they aren’t going to be present unless you’re actually in a firefight situation, in which case they would (hopefully) have the sense to keep quiet for the most part.
Under normal circumstances the brief (in my example above) would be about whatever the last 8 hours had ongoing, plus what is expected or forecast for the next 8, what activity is being seen locally, indirect fire, activity monitored from the aerostat or satellite, etc. The BDOC gets the email, the guy taking over gets both email and verbal, plus much complaint about taking things offline to log in again. Harem doesn’t have to log out and then test everything again, she’s using the same password – which is utterly unique in service and gets her around AR 25-2 very neatly. LIke I said, unique advantages.
And, as I’ve said before, I’m not military, I’ve just lived cheek by jowl with the US military for a very long time now. Going to retire soon, which suits me, I’m getting too old for what I was doing and am feeling a bit old in every way.
Just be careful on the day before retirement, especially announcing that it is your last day. That tends to be when the bad guys show up and the retiree meets their untimely demise.
Actually, fairly sure Daphne just refers to all her selves as ‘Daphne’, DaveB was the one who started using differing names to tell them apart, butt personally didn’t feel they sounded like ‘names’, so came up with ‘Berry’ (the ‘vanilla’ self), ‘Bodie’ (short hair, purple with the pink tuft), ‘Blondini’ (long blonde hair), ‘Gothamer’ (the one on this page) and ‘Abby’ (white hair, primary interface with Deus), most people just continue using DaveB‘s names
As far as security is concerned, she’s probably 5 different people with the same name, and 5 different badges/IDs.
As far as payroll is concerned, she’s one very well paid individual.
As far as operations is concerned, she’s got wicked cool powers.
I really like the art on this page. But the transition from last page is puzzling me a little bit.
I was going to comment on today’s artwork also.
My compliments to the chef.
I can see why Daphne brought a parasol. Maxima in sunlight really puts out a lot of glare.
I think DaveB is really getting the coloured lines to work now. And after a few strips last year where her face was softer, it looks like Max has her cheekbones back. This version of her face works well in the new style. It’s not just super-angular old school Max nor the more recent soft-round-cute face, but a strong athlete’s face that resembles both to some degree.
Daphne’s face seems to have a little more distinctive shape now, even if the freckles are lighter. It works well on Gothy (Gothne?) here.
(Fans call this body ‘Gothamer’.)
It would be nice if DaveB extended the Who’s Who text, for Harem’s entry, to include the nicknames Daphne give her bodies. Including her given name, callsign, each of the five official nicknames and the other five fan-created ones that would be a dozen names to remember for her!
Or a baker’s dozen if you throw in her surname. I have difficulty even remembering one name for a person!
This is particularly relevant now that we know Harem has different boyfriends. So each of them will hang with one particular body. Thus we would need to keep track that Deus should only be seen with whats-her name, who is currently in his office.
Otherwise fan conversations about these topics will get very confusing for all concerned. Not to mention all but impossible for me to follow.
boyfriends —–> boyfriends/girlfriends.
Seems to me, Maxi’s problem is more that ‘Satin Work’ is needed, rather than the ‘work’ itself, oh, and it’s not just females in that job (and yes, Maxi has a ‘problem’ with that as well)
Unless Deus is bi Maximas opinions on one of the more reliable ways of getting intel from unsuspecting partys doesnt matter for much.In a way were really getting to see more and more how being a base brat has given Maxi a very black and white view on things and to be honest given that she mustve been fasttracked bigtime through the ranks its actually good that she in Archon since it will teach her more about mental flexibility than shes ever experienced before.
she must have joined up at 18. with a degree(officers track after all). It’s safe to say that she didn’t do much in the real world.
Maxi’s world view has nothing to do with being in the army (and there has been zero indication that she comes from a military family, so not a ‘base brat’)
Like said, believe (and this is just POO) that Maxi has a problem with requiring the sleeping with suspects to get information more than the actual sleeping with the suspects
Also, didn’t mean to imply that they also have a male member sleeping with Deus, just that it’s not a female-only position
Im not good at archive dumpster diving so ill just shrug and admit its possible that im wrong but im sure it was implied somewhere that shes from a military family.
Maximas just got a feminist ship on her shoulder so big that if she didnt have superpowers shed be crushed under its wieght so dispite her best efforts it pops up from time to time and lets admit it if she wasnt budget superman shed probably would have grown up to be a lot less mouthy to people in general(Its kind of nice seeing intentionally or not the side effects that powers can have on a personality-In Maximas case shes essentially immune to consequences so shes never afraid to speak her mind and according to Dave would literally quit her job on principle if Donald Trump was president in this universe).
Didn’t say she didn’t have a certain world view, just that it had nothing to do with being in the army
It’s also possible that her world view stemmed from becoming the Golden Elf of Doom, peoples’ attitudes changed because of how they perceived her, probably including fellow school students, same students she had known for years
Picture the attitudes towards girls who hit puberty over the summer break (or have puberty hit them, hard), now multiply that by teen Maxi’s new colour change
My big problem here is that Max should not be the one handling the Deus-spying-mission. At ALL. Not only has she just shown that her ultra-feminist hangups are causing her to berate and dig for personal information in one of her subordinates that she never should have asked, period, she is Deus’ ex-girlfriend and it would seem continues to hold some small measure of tsundere-as-fuck affection for him.
The conflict of interest here high, and this page constitutes what I imagine to be a huge breach of protocol. Plus it’s ooky to have the man’s ex-girlfriend try to chew out the woman spying on him for sleeping with him.
Except… Maxi and Deus never actually dated, and Gothamer just admitted she wasn’t sleeping with Deus
There are substantial security matters at issue here. Worthwhile to look as some of the other threads. Yes, M’s world view is showing more than it should, not to mention the security problems of having the conversation in an unsecured location, but the breach is much more the latter than the former. I feel like this a confirmation of my speculation that her rank is a function of the military’s needs of her rather than anything that she “earned” in the usual way
On the other hand, Max’s “hangups” are basically expressed here as “I refuse to have my subordinates assumed to be obligated to do humiliating shit “for the job””, which, you know, is pretty laudable.
If anything, Max’s view here should be more common, not less.
Yeah, Maxi objects to her subordinates basically being required to sleep with targets as part of the mission
And of course, if they start to develop genuine feelings for the target, that could compromise things as well (that’s how the enemy state tends to ‘flip’ agents)
Spys have to do a great many things that arent pleasant to get the job done,Its why theyre spys,If Maxima has a problem with people doing these jobs maybe she shouldnt be commanding cloak and dagger operatives anyway.
As is she berating an undercover agent right on Deus’s roof where lord knows how many directional mikes are recording their chat and potentially blowing her cover completely though the ceiling.Thankfully Harems in a unique situation where everyone knows shes a spy and has already factored it into their plans.
To be honest Arcswat probably shouldnt have anything at all to do with the espionage side of things.Though it would be funny if Harem was only allowed to play espionage cause she was being used as a decoy to keep the real spys within Deus’s organisation from being noticed.
Arcswat probably doesn’t, butt Maxi is still Daphne’s commanding officer
Both you and Guesticus make good points. In real life though the rules bend when you are dealing with special ops forces. They very often have to go under cover, conduct spying or sabotage missions and otherwise blur the lines between ‘military’ and ‘spy’. Likewise, on the cop side, when you look at the FBI. Except there we use ‘detective work’ and hope that they leave any sabotage to the CIA.
The closest unit to Arc-SWAT, in real-life UK would be the SAS. And they do get called upon to do spy-type activities. In fact during peace time they do that more than they get called upon to do hostage rescue or other more combat oriented roles.
There’s undercover work and then there’s under cover work…
“Honey Trap” might be the closest term I know of.
I mentioned this above, but the proper spycraft term(s) for a seduction AGENT is “Sparrow” after the Russian school that cranked them out by the thousands during the cold war period 1950-70s. The term for their USE was ‘Honeypot’ or ‘Honeytrap’.
The Allies apparently had no actual SCHOOL to produce Sparrows, but some agents just enjoyed the work…
According to a friend in the “Know” Honey Trap, Honey Badger, Swallow, Sparrow, and Swale are all terms used for various aspects of “Silk Work”
Fun fact in Scandinavia (I think) they had they’re first openly gay female prime minister and one of the first laws she put in place was that you can’t make money off someone else’s nudity, so you can be a prostitute but can’t be a pimp. Same goes for lap dancers you can higher one for a party but can own a strip joint.
What if the prostitute keeps her clothes on? She’s not naked
What if the strip club stops short of full-stripping? They are not naked
Scandinavia isn’t a country in itself, it’s a group of four (or is it five? do they count Lapland as a separate country yet?)
I haven’t checked, but I’d put money on it that it’s Sweden. They seem bent on turning into a country made of left-wing stereotypes.
Case in point, this law would also make it illegal to make pornography. Or any kind of print and film media involving nudity, regardless of consent, probably costing many actresses and models a lot of work.
Winner seems to be Iceland and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
“Women’s rights and ban on striptease
In 2010, her government banned strip clubs, paying for nudity in restaurants, and other means of employers profiting from employees’ nudity – the first such ban in a Western democratic country. Jóhanna commented; “The Nordic countries are leading the way on women’s equality, recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale.”[36] After the decision was made she was hailed by her fellow feminists with Julie Bindel claiming Iceland has become the most feminist country in the world.[37] Asked what the most important gender issue today is, she answered “To fight the pay gap between men and women”.[38]”
I find it interesting that there are male strip clubs and nobody seems to get bent out of shape about it, and male prostitutes as well. I think the real problem is with pimps.
Entirely true, Just_IDD. For all the talk of equality, general equality is and has been had. Surpassed, even, women get a lot more consideration legally than men tend to. Feminists are mostly against social issues of injustice, yet act like it’s a gender-wide problem. Yes, there are individuals who see women as inferior. If they are not making life-altering decisions for women based on this, so what? Fighting them like they are doing now is thought-policing, and a far more heinous crime – which has only caused an upsurge in anti-women sentiment, I’ve noticed. Sexism from males was slowly on its way out, but some people are too impatient to understand that this sort of thing won’t die out in their lifetime, they want to be treated ‘better’ NOW so they can reap its benefits. And in doing so they’ve screwed the next few generations.
Yet in that same social arena where there are individuals who consider women inferior, it seems there are just as many women who consider men inferior. The double-standard at play here is not equality, because feminists are crying for equality they already have, but rather because they call it equality what we have is sexism towards males. What about the male strippers? The single fathers? The gigolos and Johns? The sexually-harassed guys in the workplace? The jokes and media where it’s hilarious when a man is abused by his wife mentally, emotionally, spiritually, PHYSICALLY, sexually – but when it’s the man doing the same thing to his wife it’s a gross violation of humanity and the most vile and repugnant of joke or media, worthy of being crusaded against? The men who are falsely accused of rape? The lives of men ruined by feminists who were just trying to defend themselves or others – getting them fired, putting pressure on said male’s family until he’s alone, usually divorced and left behind? The men who are raped by women?
Nothing. No justice for them. Some of those are responded to with laughter, or disbelief, or scorn. Issues where women receive outraged indignation on their behalf, where they have support groups willing to accept them, judges to rule in their favor, police who HAVE to look into the issue for them. As long as that double standard stands, there is no equality – and I’m not talking about the ‘wage gap’.
Iceland is a Nordic country, but it’s not part of ‘Scandinavia’ mainly because it’s in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
For some reason a song by Gorepot came to mind: “Is Raping a Hooker Considered Rape or Shoplifting”
My mind goes off on the strangest tangents sometimes…
okay the prostitute one is just silly…you don’t need to be nude to have sex….
dammit ninja’d
:D
I’d think something like “pillow work” might indicate sex better, because secrets told in bed are “pillow talk” or maybe “Honey Work” – silk seems kinda like a spider and has scary connotations. :D
Currently reading Space Witch (book two of the series mentioned), and it is a nifty little series. I have Kindle Unlimited so far the books are on the list of what I can read for free or “all you can read buffet” style on Amazon. I’ve been binge reading LitRpg lately. So this is a nice break into more standard sci fi action adventure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexpionage
Got any good LitRPG recommendations? Already read Project Alpha, Otherlife, Super Sales on Super Heroes, Alpha World, Last Horizon, and Adventures On Terra.
I would associate silk with silkworms and silk fibres, which isn’t that scary.
But silk does have a long history of military applications, not only for things like parachutes but for armour (a layer of silk will help stop arrows from penetrating a cavalryman). So “pillow work” would be a lot clearer.
Then again, maybe the less clear word makes a better euphemism.
Satin sounds better (silk sheets sounds nice, until you have to actually sleep on them… wait, or is it the other way around? never actually slept on either so don’t know personally :( )
The silk doesn’t stop the arrow going in (to any useful extent), but it does make it more survivable. It gets caught around the arrow and pulled into the wound – reducing the likelihood of infection by limiting contact between dirty arrow and squishy bits, and providing a smooth interface to make pulling it out easier.
I think a bit of Sydney’s personality is starting to rub off on Max. And please, refrain from making jokes on my use of “rub”.
Rub-a-dub-dub, five Daphne’s in a tub :P
I am surprised that Max didn’t ask “When do you spend time with your boyfriends?” instead of asking about sex, because Max should be the first to agree on the fact that there is more to relationships than sex. That must’ve been some heavy channeling of Sydney and quite possibly Dabbler if Max of all people focuses on sex, especially when Harem already told her just seconds before that that kind of information is classified.
But I don’t consider it out of character, because literally everyone in real life has moments where they seem to act out of character, for one reason or another. I’ll just assume that it’s because Max is jealous of Harem having sex with Zeus.
The reason Maxi asked that question that, because having an orgasm while in a briefing with the Top Brass would be more of a distraction than simply sharing ice cream
“I’ll have what she’s having.”
:D
Pretty sure jealousy doesn’t enter into it here. It’s just that the idea of having a member of his team feel forced to use sex on the job she herself ordered to do squicks Max out something fierce.
Which, you know, is entirely reasonable.
Yes
Strangely enough the most successful operation of “silk work” that I know was using male spies to seduce civilian women. Back in the Cold War, one of the East German spy masters, Markus Wolf after being exposed to the idea of using sex as an intelligence tool by the KGB (in his own words, the Russians were a bit obsessed with using sex as an intelligence gathering tool) hit on the idea of training East German men to seduce a number of West German secretaries for politically powerful men and organizations. He talked about it in his book Man Without a Face.
It was a wildly successful operation in many ways and remains the one of largest such operations known to the public. Again, he only used men, because back then all secretaries in West Germany were women, all unmarried and working long hours and often loney. It was also often used against male homosexuals, as for much of modern history being outed as gay would be very dangerous to the man in question. The Soviets tried this in 1957 against Joseph Alsop, a columnist for example.
Now to be fair women spies were often asked to do this but frankly I think I’ve pointed out that men were asked this often enough as well. So I would argue that Max is letting her stereotypes do her thinking if she thinks this some special danger unique to woman spies.
Note how Maxi said “I won’t abide a member of my team having to do silk work”, meaning she doesn’t want either gender being forced to do it
Fairly sure she wouldn’t have a problem with her members having sex on their own terms, just not if it is a requirement of the job
if you quote you have to include the grammar error. But yes she is just against this kind of work, not only when done by women.
I’m sure she would object to any of her male team members being in the same situation, but her statements “Long history of female spies having to compromise” suggest to me that she might believe that this is something that happens to women spies more than men. Frankly it’s a common belief that male spies get to be James Bond and woman spies have to try and sleep with James Bond so I could see how she might come to that belief honestly. I was just pointing out that Max is not correct in that statement.
Yeah, was agreeing with you :D
“Honey Pot” is a common term for what you describe, and is separate from Honey Trap. Also used in IT for machines put out to lure in malware attacks that can then be analysed.
Apparently gents using seduction for intelligence gathering purposes can also be called a Swallow, for females, and Raven for men.
https://www.spymuseum.org/education-programs/news-books-briefings/language-of-espionage/#s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recruitment_of_spies#Love,_honeypots,_and_recruitment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexpionage
Nice parasol!
She needs to keep up her ‘Goth’ look :P
Maxima gives Harem’s goth look the once over and would maybe say…
Maxima: The next time I see you,you’d better be out of that goth outfit and in uniform!
maybe an other one of her is in uniform. so she technically is. I’m not sure how regulation works on people that can be in and out of uniform and at multiple location at the same time.
As long as one of her is in uniform, Maxi doesn’t care, and right now, that would be Bodie
Always liked the idea that part of her ‘body customising’ included given Gothamer a different nose :(
are you sure that is not just inconsistency?
With this page, yes, before it had always been Gothamer who appeared to have a different nose
Who is she dating? Harem I mean… I don’t think I saw it anywhere…
Never been mentioned before now, butt most likely to not be anyone at Archon
As she would say, “that’s none of your business.” And who says that one of her is only dating one person at a time. She could be dating polyamorously. And as long as everyone is being consensual and safe, and not violating various requirements of her service with Archon, that’s her private affairs.
There are functionally four of her roaming about when not in crisis mode, as one has to be on base. And those four can teleport.
Picture Arianna lecturing Harem AND Sydney about the reputations of supers and both are a little annoyed by that! So who’d have the honor of saying to Arianna:
“What do YOU know about that you…ambulance chaser?!?!?”
That’s… a little harsh, just because Ari isn’t a Super?
But “silk work” is such a beautiful term.
Alas, coldly considered, I have to agree about “satin work”.
…why don’t get the idea Harem is a virgin?
Stupid autocorrect.
“Why do I get the idea that Harem is a virgin?”
Huh. I wouldn’t have thought so, but now you’ve got me wondering.
She does talk the talk. But there has been at least one other scene where Harem looked to be just as flustered as Sydney can get. So maybe.
It would seem hard for that to be the case mind. Daphne is pretty, shapely, athletic, smart, has lived forty odd years, much of those being in hormone rich environments, such as schools, and in multiple different situations,* and has super-powers.
Of which only one would be problematic, and that is her super strength. But Daphne only has relatively low super strength most of the time (due to preferring to keep all five bodies out). So she is not as dangerous as Maxima, Stalwart or Super Hiro.**
Plus she does not seem to be as bothered about morals.*** Or at least thinking about them. But if she has had a bad experience, in the past, I could see that having an effect on her, despite her carefree bravado.
Where I do see hope in Harem though is that she seemed genuinely distraught, when Sydney was under attack by Shadow Boxer, due to not being able to teleport, through the shield, to help.
* I imagine that this goth body likes going to appropriate music concerts, whereas Harem might theme the tastes of the other bodies according to their assumed personalities.
** Anvil can cheat with her kinetic absorption, to ensure that no partner can get hurt. You may recall the first guy throwing punches, in the Steak House fight, felt like he was punching like a baby. And due to equal and opposite reactions, in physics, that cuts both ways (although when discussing her powers Anvil seems to be able to selectively bypass that if she chooses).
*** This not being a judgement on Daphne, in this page, where she comes over quite well. She has a non-mainstream lifestyle, which is fair enough in its own right. But also has a problem from her super power which contributes to that.
If she’s taking the long (and somewhat old-fashioned) view, she could save one of her bodies’ virginities for her someday spouse, and go to town with the rest.
I was reading Star Justice a few months ago, apparently before Dave one, so a few comments might be in order.
It is, in a sense, a harem story, but it’s not the usual harem comedy routine. (You could say exactly the same thing about Stranger in a Strange Land, for that matter, and be perfectly correct.) The multiple women theme is, however, a major theme of the books, and is actually fairly important to the plot development as you move along (nope, not doing spoilers).
They are primarily action stories and the buildup to a vast confrontation is slow but is moving forwards. IOW, it’s not going to be 18,000 pages to get there, and I don’t think it’s going to be all in his head, either. (And any other whale readers know I’m referencing Wheel of Time by Jordan as taking forever to get to the point, and then putting the action inside the protagonists head.)
If you like spaceship battles, epic fights and a general who LIKES being on the front lines, you’ll like this series. Not grand literature, but a decent read nonetheless.
One – WAS for pity’s sake. How did that happen?
Doesn’t it seem like Max has her priorities severly screwed up here? I mean, yes, she’s a feminist against forced sex work – but shouldn’t she be MORE worried that one of her team is banging her assigned ‘watch’ target voluntarily? Seems like a massive conflict of interest. If I assigned a spy to watch over a Russian diplomat, I’d be pretty worried if said spy went out of their way to date that diplomat, and not relieved that she DIDN’T do it because of a sense of duty.
Given how trivial Harem’s relationships seem to her, I don’t see the problem.
The Russian foreign intelligence department used to run a “School for Swallows”. Female agents trained to gain intelligence through non-violent personal interactions. So you could term it Swallow Work or a Flocking Swallow. I make no alusion to their oral skills, just the need for good aural.
Gives new meaning to this little ditty :P
The intelligence gathering operation is a ‘Honeypot’, the agent is a Swallow, after the Russian school of that name.
The terms have since also moved over into Defense IT work as well, to indicate a phoney target mainframe intended to help decoy and capture the methodology of hackers, and an IT defense agent pretending to be a hacker is called a swallow or a queen bee.
Typo, second panel: “having to doing”
– That Guy
I have acctualy heard it called silk work before
I have actually heard silk work refer to prostitution along with Undercover prostitution stings being referred to as also “Under cover” work. No I don’t know about anybody else but usually the covers come off.
Way to go Max! Tell her she doesn’t have to be a whore, then insinuate she already is in the same sentence. Sydney of course, will point that out to you as bluntly as possible if given an opportunity.
Note to self: have coffee and clean tablet surface before trying to post.
I still think she’s rather hurtful to Daphne.
If she is, it’s not being deliberate, and she did apologize and attempt to explain her reasoning for asking (and again, she wasn’t looking for explicit details)
OK that has narrowed down Harem’s situation. Mmm. So she has not been tasked with feeding Deus false information, just to keep him under observation.
Possibly Harem has just been lax enough, when talking about things with Deus, that he considers that she is supplying him confidential information, as a spy. When she is just being careless. This would be consistent with her blabbing about Sydney’s special diet. So careless, and possibly criminally so, but not intentionally betraying Archon.
Alternatively she is not giving him any significant information, and Deus is just reading more into the situation than there is. We have seen that he had a different understanding of the ‘dating’ with Maxima, than she did. So this is a credible option. Albeit not highly so as he should be able to distinguish between Harem just chatting about her everyday life, versus doing so in a way that is giving away confidential information.
The more worrying alternative being that Harem is full out giving Deus government secrets, and has no remit to do so.
She told him about Sydney’s “truesight” orb, which she didn’t name to the press because it was a secret.
Basic spycraft thing here.
If she is to remain a credible source of info to Deus, then she has to actually feed him some “good” data now and then. Preferably nothing hugely significant, but if all he ever gets from her is useless trivia or stuff that proves (via any of his other sources) to be absolute crap, then he WILL get suspicious.
I am not saying that is necessarily the case here, but it is something to think about. The funny thing about self-advertising as a source of confidential data is that you will sometimes be expected to provide same. It really is that simple.
Apparently *agents* using seduction – my kingdom for an edit button :)
Here you go.
I hope it is a nice kingdom, with a pretty princess or two?
Ooh, ooh, this means I will be able to appoint knights and wave regally at parades!
My apologies if someone pointed this out already but “having to doing silk work”, seems quite wrong.
If it makes any difference, I certainly didn’t bat an eye at the term “silk work.” I instantly knew what was meant, and it didn’t raise any of my eyebrows as a “suspiciously made-up” term or anything.
I…actually wonder from Harem’s reaction whether she’s actually a virgin who’s claiming to be “getting a lot” as a rep thing. There is a significant portion of Western culture that treats being chaste or virginal as a mark of shame, as something mock-worthy. And Harem certainly projects a party-girl image. She clearly buys into that subculture where the “ideal” is free love and constant partying. If she’s actually not “doing it” at all, she probably would claim to be too much for anybody to keep up with and that she’s “always” “getting some.” Logistical questions that she doesn’t want to answer might be because she never thought of the actual logistics, not because she really cares about it being overly personal.
I mean, she’s no Dabbler, but TMI to get people to stop looking is still more her style than taking offense at the personal nature of the questions.
The phrase “silk work” fits. I’ll have to remember that.
Daphne’s hands in the last panel look really small in proportion to the rest of her.
Plus it’s the same mind for the 5, in theory, one of them could get all the sex (only limited by transportation issues a teleporter still have some of) 24h per day.