Grrl Power #636 – Promises promises
So we don’t know the details of why Sciona was on Earth in the first place. It might have been for being a jerk. But if you’re exiled, when you come back, it’s good form to bring an offering. Like access to a planet with powerful beings that can kick the shit out of exiled blood mages even if they’re doping on super juice.
There’s probably something to be said for a global government, but it’s probably not ideal when an alien race is offering compulsory administration. And no matter who’s handling the paperwork, it’s probably impossible to do without gradual cultural homogenization. I guess it makes some sense that Klingons are the warrior race, and Ferengi are the capitalism-gone-mad race, because they’ve had a single world government for hundreds of generations. Or maybe they were a bunch of warring tribes/houses who all spoke the same language and had the same culture to begin with, and it was just a question of who bends the knee to whom. Whereas, at least in Star Trek, the Earth still seems to have 200 languages and countries, despite a global government. That or what used to be countries are now like federated states or something. I’m actually not sure what the arrangement is, but in any case, they haven’t had a single government long enough to wash out all the sociological distinctiveness.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
AWESOME third panel!
Yes she looks absolutely badass.
She looks really attractive
Great art. Although I prefer Dabbler in panel 1.
Max in panel 5 is decidedly Uncanny Valley territory though.
Yea, she does not look her normal self there.
Plus I keep getting the urge to offer dusting some more of her cosmetic grit on her.
Less uncanny valley and more Maxima with Dwarfism.
Yeah, Sciona’s looking positively ravished lately…
Yeah, Sciona’s looking particularly ravished lately…
Weirdly enough, I couldn’t get my first comment there to show up at all, even after reloading my browser…Then I put in the second comment & had to refresh it. That’s when they both showed up at once.
Yea the server has a lag problem, since the (presumed) GDPR patch was put in place. Refreshing client-side does not get messages to display. You either need to wait ages, or trick the server into speeding up the update, by going to another page and back.
*presents card*
You can also try sneaking up behind it and saying “BOO!”, but you need to know where the server is physically located.
Hey, she plagurized my monologue!
“Plagurizer” sounds like a great supervillain name.
The bane of all Professors.
I like the idea of a supervillain name being a mis-spelling of another negative term… Plagiarize, plagiarist…
Miss Spelling, the terrifying sorceress who curses us to misspell.
All due to having daddy issues with Major Pedant.
Ha, reminds me of a short story from one of my favorite authors. One of the main character’s gifts is that he can hear spelling and punctuation; somehow it’s not the skill that any of his peers value.
I have that power.
Seriously!
I sometimes get this feeling… and I’ll ask the person how they think a word they said is spelled. Turns out they would have misspelled it if it was written. Smite!
All of those Pedan Ticks, nasty little blood-sucking buggers…I hate ’em. Still, they’re only slightly better than the humongous Major Pedan Tick, large enough to suck an elephant dry in 22 seconds flat. Poor elephant, having all of its sense of humor sucked out like that…Always a fatal condition.
Clarification: The regular Pedan Tick feeds on blood, the Major Pedan Tick feeds on humor. It’s from these creatures that the doctors of old times mistakenly practiced the Theory of the Four Humors & their use of leeches on their patients. The poor saps.
Heh. I had a necromancer in DnD named that, she had a combination dyslexia and tourettes… End result, she once aimed a ‘greater raise dead’ at a graveyard and hit the fast food dumpster next door.
Ever meet a filet o fish golem? ;)
No, but have you ever encountered a Flint Golem in a room full of leaky oil barrels? As the GM, I had fun with that one…
OK team, rogues and druids to the fore! Fighters and clerics, strip off your metal armour fast. Everyone switch to your non-metallic weapons.
Mages … no fireballs! Not even a little spark cantrip.
Yorp, you clearly don’t play DnD much.
The solution is to ALWAYS light it on fire. Even if this is a bad idea and might wipe the party. You always light it on fire.
Always.
I never vote TPK.
Okay time out while everyone on the good guy team listens to the genre savvy recruit.
She’s holding the Comm-Ball, that’s a good idea; see all the things!
Yes she is and her genre savviness is probably what lead her to use light be for the the detect dangerous traps and so forth ability of hers in the first place
Remember, she can only see and hear normally through the light bee. Though she can teleport to the Light bee…Something we are still unsure of she mentioned to Max or not. Just holding the comm ball allows her to use true sight.
Hmm. I wonder if Light bee can go through the portal and transport Sydney..
It is better to distinguish between ‘the light bee’ and Sydney’s projected image, because the two modes have very different sensory capabilities. Whilst in light bee mode (with no image), Sydney has absolutely no sensory capability (not even her own body’s) other than the ability to tell if there is something blocking the light bee’s path.
From this we can infer that it does have a sense of direction, and Sydney will be able to maintain a mental map, in order to plot her route to her intended destination (or, at a minimum, know that ‘I want to go in that kind of direction there’).
Halo was able to find her way to the hostages pretty fast. So either she was really lucky, or those rudimentary capabilities are pretty good. I think the latter is the more likely given how advanced the orbs are in other respects.
Whereas what you are describing is Sydney’s sensory capability when in projected mode. Which is correct. Touch and taste would require a physical body. Smell is probably something she is deprived of too.
*tries not to choke up*
Specifically only with her real body. Halo mentioned, in the ballroom interview, that it does not work when in projected mode.* Plus Sydney has to activate a glyph. Holding the true sight orb, and looking at Vehemence (just prior to projecting her image over to him), did not reveal the aggro aura. It was only later that she activated that, and saw the whole thing.
When Sydney was in Club Oontz, she did her whole ‘mystic omens reveal to me’ thing (and presumably pressed the relevant glyph at that time). Likewise, when she was at the grand canyon, and scanning for invisible flying saucers, she must have pushed that. Otherwise the blue skin of the alien, in the crowd of tourists, would not have been visible.
However, once that sigil has been pushed, I agree that just holding the orb should be enough. Sydney continued to scan things at the club, without us seeing obvious ‘button pushing’ going on. Possibly it may even work as a toggle. Which, if set to on, would allow Sydney to set it to use true sight whenever she grasped the yellow orb, so matching what you say.
* Although I would love to know how Sydney determined this. What had she encountered, before that day, which could only be detected via true sight? If it penetrated disguises, then she could have tested it on anyone with such. But it cannot do that.
The only thing which springs to my mind would be some kind of mirage. If she lives in Texas, or some other hot part of the US, then heat hazes are something she may have encountered. However the conditions necessary to produce an actual mirage (seeing some remote place as if it was close) are fairly rare (if an ocean is beyond the horizon, a mirage may make it look like a nearby lake). Although a heat haze which looks like water would be more common.
Well they do have different modes for her vision Powers the typical just holding it seems to show her true sight truesight and actually seen through spells would be two different things. For some reason she can see magical or words and true sight but she cannot see when something is projecting area-of-effect type of magic not well.
One thing I’m uncertain of is whether or not she can only see through the projection while she’s using the projection or if she can see with her normal truesight version from her normal body while using the projection the comic the brings up her not being able to used truesight while and projection mode only says that her projection version can’t see through Illusions it doesn’t say whether or not her real body is even aware and seen through the Illusions or not https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/660
Attacking a magically revealed demon (Dabbler) got her to flail wildly (much to our enjoyment/love of Sydney, which Xuriel agreed with us) so it was probably then. She hasn’t had an “initiative bonus” since then when seeing new aliens/demons/invisibots since.
She did tell Dabbler to put her glamour back on so she could see if Projected Sydney could see through it when still in the ballroom.
Which time? If it was at the Steak House bathroom, that dialogue would not have been necessary, because Dabbler was in her illusionary human form.
I was referring to the one I Linked In my previous post where was in the ballroom and she becomes the green skin woman off of a Sci-Fi show because she pulled a mind reading trick to decide what glamour form to use. The time you’re referring to if you remember right after the helmet screw and she was trying to figure out what was going on she grabbed her like feet or and was like thank goodness his pants or not illusionary and after playing with it she was able to see the magical seal or whatever it was that he was using to bring people back to Consciousness and make them fight I would link it but now it’s more trouble than it’s worth to do that on my phone
Ahh, I missed that Viirin was referring to the scene in your link, so it makes sense now.
One odd thing though, to do with that scene. Which I had not picked up on before. Which is Dabbler’s dialogue for picking who’s fantasy to read, in order to optimise her illusion.
Matching that to the individuals, we can see that Peggy could have been chosen “eeny”. Dabbler decided to skip Maxima (very sensibly). But when she gets to Sydney, she says “Already did you”?
Dabbler certainly did not replicate Sydney’s fantasy (Wolverine or Eddy the Alchemist), as she kept the same form she entered the room in. Which she had assumed since before she even met Sydney.
So presumably, when Dabbler was checking out Sydney’s orbs, she was also scanning Sydney’s sexual fantasies, at the same time? And did not fancy taking on a Wolverine illusion.
Honestly I’m not sure. Also I did archive crawl in the hours since I post it and picked up the link where we see the difference between her true sight which lets her see through illusions and the mode which lets her see magic auras or spells here is the link. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1564
Gotcha. I was misremembering that. I agree that the pushing activates the aura sight, but that mere grabbing is fine for seeing invisible/illusions.
I doubt it would be a heat haze that revealed the Truesight ability. That’s a purely physical distortion of the light path, and as such I’d class it alongside Peggy’s Mask of Concealment as far as the orb is concerned. From what’s been shown, I’d expect the Truesight to be limited to seeing through illusions created by Magic and/or Powers. It’s still an automatic breaker for the fancy stuff, but ignores Baseline effects as ‘just light acting normally in the circumstances’.
Option A: There are a lot of Siona’s frends here, so maybe let’s not taunt the villain
Option B: There is literally noone here, Sciona was out of the loop for a while and everyone left or something
Option C: This area is super warded and attacking Sciona could do somethign really bad
Option D: The portal is unstabile and is sucking her whole base into this world, and the bombs will probably go off so take cover
I would say Sciona has no friends there …likely she was banished to earth instead of going willingly
I’m saying B/E: Her entire race is dead/living the good life elsewhere.
Option E: “Sorry Sciona, but my commball says that this world is dying, and we need to just get up and leave right now before this whole quantrant ceases to exist.”
It looks like they sent her out for milk and bread, and then changed addresses.
:-D
Note pinned to the fridge:
“
Dabbler, take a sample of the cookies so you can determine what kind of poison is in them. It might be useful later.
So she is Invader Zim äh Sciona.
Yknow this place looks remarkably deserted. I have to wonder if there’s even anyone left here.
Well, Sydney has ‘new information’, presumably it’s from whatever is going on from Harem.
[Distressing theory]: The portal sent them into the future and Harem, being quantum connected to her other selves who have been buried for millennia, is rapidly aging to death off panel.
It’s got Sydney worried enough that she’s using the CommBall to try and get everyone’s attention instead of running over a few yards?
Even without Harem ageing, she could have looked out a door and seen wasteland and the equivalent of a certain torch bearing statue half burred in the sand (which may be what this building is to Sciona).
They could all get back through and shut the door (hopefully with the portal tin opener on their side) they can forget about her.
They don’t even have to worry that she will die in a day without supplies as she won’t actually die for several billion years from the perspective of home.
The CommBall can also see magic and invisible things. There are a pile of sigils on the ground.
I beg to differ, those sigils are very orderly. Tossing sigils in a pile willy-nilly is one of the first things you learn not to do in blood mage kindergarten.
*screams in horror*
If so, then Sydney could have dived behind the statue, to get out of sight. Hence why she does not have the shield up, as it would give her position away.
A lot of places appear empty or deserted after hours
I don’t think a global government would lead to cultural homogenisation on the scale we see in typical Sci-fi aliens. That’s just lazy writing. Just look at the UK, we’ve been one country for centuries, but Ireland, Scotland, Wales, North, South and London all jabbed their own distinctiveness still.
Culture groups will always exist, even if we do away with the idiocy that is 195 different sets of paper that all say “don’t kill each other nor take each others stuff”
The appearance of an advanced alien race, or galaxy wide network of advanced aliens would massively unify humanity. If for no other reason than, we would have a new “other “. Most people and nations love to blame their problems on “the other”. Every Strongman Leader and every Social Justice Warrior has based their power and influence around exactly that. Humans look for differences between ourselves and then used those differences to hate on each other as a way of avoiding dealing with our own problems. If there was a full on ALIEN race to blame, then make no doubt, Humanity would seize upon them for the blaming, and would slowly stop using skin color and religion and nationality and sexuality as “reasons” to hate on other humans.
Just because there would be a whole new alien race to hate on does not guarantee that humans would stop hating on each other. Grudges are often irrational, long, and deep. Even if people are forced to unite to face a common threat, they could still screw each other over in the middle of the fight, no matter how self-destructive that is.
Maxim 29: “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy, no more, no less.”
Yeah.
Plus, there are the whackos (I mean) alien worshippers that would embrace them no matter how openly hostile they are (Brunnen-G decided that upon hearing their immortal race would be slaughtered by energy weapons, they started worshipping their upcoming demise. The people at the beginning of Independence Day) or friendly they appear to be but aren’t (as seen in Twilight Zone’s “To Serve Man” or an episode of Stargate SG-1).
No matter what, there will ALWAYS be supporters and detractors of EVERYTHING even if (scratch that) especially if it doesn’t make sense. There are black people who support the KKK. There are homosexuals who deny equal legal rights to gays.
Yup, for example “slavery was a choice”.
Actually, yes, slavery was a choice, if the alternative was complete annihilation
You have a great point, but i disagree that it is automatically lazy writing.
It probably is to an extent, but:
1: England has mostly used oppressive tactics to have their way, and shit like that enforces differences rather than bridging them.
2: When you pick out your frontline or your best, you do not pick representatives for each language, each culture, and each religion, you send teams that consists of individuals that may or may not have different origins, but that can work together, with the result that aliens might think that you are all the same …
There might exist Klingons that tries to follow a more peaceful route, but you won’t exactly find them in the klingon fleet, would you?
And some Ferengi may hate the guts of the money-grabbing scum, but as they are not as likely to bring wealth (or so the main ferengi may think), they are not likely to be among their tradesmen.
Ancient Rome did pretty well with hostile takeovers by introducing a common culture, while allowing some (relatively) minor local customs to continue. Britain was just too dang far away to be assimilated properly. :) Much of the former British Empire still clearly bears its mark, even though the locals weren’t happy about it.
Great point about selection bias as well.
Klingon: Like the obese klingon that sang opera at Quark’s?
Ferengi: Like Quark & Rom’s father?
I’d wager that the differences among the various British tribes and subcultures are more apparent to you than they are to me, a Yankee. And I’d bet that the difference is completely lost to the average Chinese citizen. How much could the average Westerner say about the cultural differences between, for instance, the Han people and the Mongols?
Perhaps all those Ferengi are showing their obvious political, religious, and other differences to each other and we outsiders simply miss the nuances or perceive them as personal differences.
Another point – in the US differences are not as strongly tied to geography, because of our recent history of rapid dispersal (invasion!). Hispanics and Anglo, car tinkerers and gardeners, bodybuilders and Big Mac addicts, secular humanists and Mormons are not identified with a particular region.
And, in fact, each of us are members of various groups such as those listed. Teasing out all of those overlapping cultural Venn diagrams are hard enough for local folks; for people from another planet it could require decades of living there.
There are still regional differences though. North v. South. East coast v. West coast. Add in state to state differences and you still get variety that can be noticeable and arguable. Though some of the spreading has smoothed some of that in just my puny lifetime. But is that culture spreading or knowledge due to the internet?
Probably related to that, but more likely international business.
The thicker your accent, the less likely someone can understand you, even with your own language. Try being from Thailand (I teach someone English from there per her request) trying to understand middle-America English (what we present to others and train ourselves with) then try and recognize that Cajun is the same language.
Get rid of your accent, sound average and easily understood, and you can be far more likely to succeed in business endeavors. It’s like “check your privilege” but if you have a Southern Bell accent, then someone would probably be too enamored with the beauty of your voice than listening to what you’re trying to sell, so they aren’t listening. If you speak in a more presentable British (see: English) accent, then they might think you’re fancy or pompous and they might worry about not having the money to afford whatever you’re talking about, or feel you’re being condescending or oppressive. Racism is a thing, and certain accents from certain other countries might make people think you’re dirty or attacking and that won’t help your business either. An example is the new Doctor, who is a good actress (see: Attack the Block) but her accent is so thick I didn’t think that was English, and I found somewhere online to watch it with subtitles.
With the trained middle-American accent, sure everyone thinks you’re probably a giant asshole, but they also think you already conquered most of Earth, have connections, know how to make money even if the way you do it is wrong, and like people to show up and both cooperate and compete with them. Listening to those people might be worth your time so you can get some money too.
You will find all kinds of people in all the places.
That said there are certain cultural Norms that are particular to certain areas
Being familiar enough with North America I can tell you this. Depending on whom you ask; when you compare the voting records of every county, there are anywhere from 5 to 11 Distinctive cultural regions within North America that would for all practical purposes be separate Nation states easily the size of most countries on the planet.
if it were not for the fact that they all share a common written language (English) and a few spoken languages (Regional variations of Spanish, French, English)
2 Shared currencies (and to a lesser extent economies) that somehow have the same name.
and have no definitive borders to speak of. This is that smoothing you speak of.
(In point of fact these borders between the areas are so very blended that the Borderlands are themselves culturally distinct enough from the regional cultures they separate to be their own Nation)
To be fair, Mormons are primarily a Utah thing.
14.8 million strong, and growing.
Probably faster now that they have changed to a monogamous breeding policy. That is more efficient than polygamous marriages, if looking at both long term population growth and genetic diversity.
Although not quite as useful for tempting male converts, I imagine that is offset by the female side of the equation.
…and this is where we find out(Mon) that Sciona rolled a natural 18 on 3d6…
OK time out While everyone on the good die team listens to the genre savvy recruit
Not just genre savvy, she is holding her comm-ball in passive mode, she is seeing something with her Truesight that is worrisome enough for her to interrupt Maxima.
In March 2017, I wished for benevolent aliens to take over the US government and spare us this travesty of reality show government. By September 2017, I no longer qualified that wish with the adjective “benevolent.”
I think I may put my vote on the Robot Party instead. They already do most work better than us humans.
Vote Chtulhu next time!
“Why settle for the **lesser** of two evils?”
It was that kind of thinking that got us our current president in the first place…
The Zombie Party will guarantee work for everyone.
A brain in every pot!
The Demon Party promises equal rites for every Body. Their mottos include, “possession is nine-tenths of the law”, and “let’s put the ‘Ex’ back in Exorcism”
The Werewolf party promises equal animal rights to everyone.
The Chimera party has something for (from?) everyone.
Procrastinators Unite against all others…tomorrow.
Vote for Hindsight in 2020!
Ya know, there’s a good chance that T-shirt will probably be funnier in about 2.5-3 years time…
I would offer an opinion on that, Chronocidal, but I don’t have 20 20 vision.
The Xenomorph Party promises free eggs for everyone.
The Talking Animal Protection Party is running on the right to arm bears.
Heh. Anymore, I’m not sure if The Cheeto-in-Chief would qualify as *lesser*. Less powerful, sure, but yanno…
Lol. If only.
Honestly humanity is a bunch of hate obsessed, entitled, revenge monkies.
That and even with selective engineering, we’re nowhere near the strongest, fittest, nor better creatures on the planet. We’re just great at tool building, and if they want tools to do work they have better tech.
Rather than a species that takes 18 yrs to develop, prone to breaking down, long time to heal, and even with benevolent races are highly xenophobic and prone to prejudice, violence, and self destruction.
So … Yeah would want to say I’m with you …. But the chance any alien race would want anything to do with the race who still has religions and cultures built off murder and rape of others and governments known to backstab and murder under banners of peace. Would tell other races that humanity isn’t too dangerous to save.
Well … Exept for the truly driven humanophiles … But I doubt we’ve broadcasted enough anime, comics, manga, and things designated as super cute, addicting to watch, or psychologically made to grab positive attention enough.
Well that and humans don’t use beams of quantum particals, nor chronotrons to stream data fast enough / faster than radio waves.
* is too dangerous to save. Sorry typo, and the site doesn’t have a edit feature.
We’re too morbidly fascinating to kill off. “Crying out for love… a parasite… he lifts my spirit… a loathsome, offensive brute – yet I can’t look away.”
Just as a side note, have you ever heard of Deathworlders? It’s a novel(ish thing) written on Reddit about a universe where humanity actually is the strongest/toughest sapient species in the galaxy, simply because our world is so inherently hostile compared to the worlds of other sapient species. Domestic cats are considered bioweapons, alien “heavy weapons” are roughly as dangerous as a body blow from a hockey player, and simply having a human present in a ship without the appropriate innoculations can potentially kill the rest of the alien crew from exposure to all the microbes we carry with us.
I just bring it up because it’s a neat twist on the idea that humans are super primitive/super weak compared to other alien species. Also, now that supers are a thing that apparently doesn’t exist places other than earth, it might be a factor in Grrl Power as well.
Alan Dean Foster wrote a trilogy with similar themes in the late 80s/early 90s called The Damned.
But given Dabbler and that the events of Wereworld are canon in the Grrl Power universe, that’s obviously not the case here.
And humans beating the tar out of advanced ancient alien civilizations while still having 20th or 21st century tech is nothing new. How many times has Earth in the Marvel Universe fought off the Kree or Skrulls?
I don’t think my thinking about aliens is consistent with the HFY genre.
My decision to speak up was probably inspired by Sciona’s threats. Give me an honest villian over alternative facts like “vampire predation is free health care, combining the age-old benefits of acupuncture and bloodletting.”
Humans are just really smart apes who are still running an the same basic software we had when we were hunting Mammoth and the height of technological advancement was a napped Flint spear head. We’re hardwired to live in tribes of around 150 individuals who we recognize with ten to fifteen people we consider close. These instincts haven’t changed because they’ve made us the most successful large mammalian the planet in terms of sheer numbers. There are actually other animals with brains as large as ours that show amazing intelligence. What we seem to have that other species don’t is an ability to think outside the moment and think about possible futures. That’s given us an ability to not just use tools, but to invent new technology. One of those technologies is civilization. The structure of civilization is designed, through thousands of years of trial and error, to effectively override the basic human instinct to go to war with everyone outside their immediate tribe. The mechanism for this is the Super Tribe. Religions, sports teams, nation’s, all are examples of a super tribe. The basic components are fairly simple. You need a slogan or ideology that can be boiled down to a simple phrase or sentence, a symbol made up of two or three colors and a mascot or icon that is simple and immediately recognizable. It’s an imperfect system, of course. But the alternative is what ammounts to constant gang warfare. It also helps to realize that civilizations are like organisms in that they have finite lifespans. They grow, mature, blossom into their respective golden age sand then decline and collapse. This is no more avoidable than the passing of the seasons.
‘It’s got to have bounce. And rhythm. Like “Whadda we want? Dum-dee-dum-dee. When do we want it? Now!” See? You need one simple demand. Let’s try it again.
That entire book actually has some quite good satire on historic uprisings and government overall. And is a delightful read even without thinking too much about the deeper issues.
I was thinking of Desmond Morris and The Human Animal when I typed all that out, but Pratchett was a genius in his own write.
Same.
Also Apophis (meteor), Cthulu, or the sun just deciding to skip 50,000,000,000 years and just explode today.
Whatever Sid is about to say, it will result in this fight taking weeks to resolve. Sciona has been to much of a pain for this to resolve with a bait and switch.
Sooo…. what is Sydney spying with her see everything orb?
She has looked into the fog, and seen that it is not empty
And the
voidfog looked back.And licked it’s multiple lips :D
“Who ordered home delivery?”
MAGIC
I’m guessing the runes on the ground do more than provide soft light.
Sydney: I spy with my little eye…
Maxima: Recruit! Not now!
Sydney: Something that begins with…
Maxima: Don’t taunt the bad guy!
Sydney: (projects holo-Halo)
Dabbler: *one eye raised, looking out of the corner of her eye*
Sydney: (all four of her middle fingers go up are aimed at Sciona)
Wait, if she is an exiled blood mage, what negotiating power does she have? “Hey guys! I found a planet full of super powered beings where one super could level an entire city, and I have led a hand full of them to our door step with no way of controlling or capturing them!”
Ya, thats going to go well.
Also, who wants to bet that the “Mighty Alari Empire” is completely gone/destroyed.
Who said she was exiled? o_O
You haven’t looked beyond the border of the fog, have you?
Dave hints at it in the paragraph below the comic, but you are right. We dont actually know if she really is exiled, but I wouldnt be surprised if she wasnt the Invader Zim of the Alari
Or the Great Gazzoo.
More like a Roger (American Dad).
They told him it was a really important mission and he was to be the scout to see if Earth is worth inhabiting. After finding his ship with Stan, he found out (from a message the ship gave to Stan) that the alien corpse (they assumed he would die) was simply a crash-test dummy.
That could have been a double-bluff
That would explain SO much about her plans and inability to use common sense for longer than 3 seconds XD.
Sydney is currently looking beyond the magical fog, that’s for sure.
Ribbit
Yes I’m wondering if that’s the case too!
[Cobra Commander]:
I did — on #1 of the previous page!
It was my 2nd-of-3 posts, about halfway down-or-so, where I offered 4 possibilities.
Reminds me of the Zulf in Bastion
Brings the one man army into the enemy base, didn’t end well for him.
By the by, kudos on the artwork this week. It looks like you tried something different, and I think you pulled it off.
Global government is the line at the DMV for permission to buy food this week. Forever.
Go ahead, Sciona. I dare you!
The sooner something along the line of your plans happens, the higher the chances are that Armageddon shall arrive with Jesus as the Horseman of Victory & Conquest shall lead the other three Horseman (War, Plague & Pestilence, Death whom is in-turn followed by Sheol/Hell/The Grave) and a army of actual Angels to destroy the current System of Things in the name of his Father, The One True God, JEHOVAH, who will then bring forth the Resurrection and begin to restore the Earth into the Paradise he originally envisioned for Humanity to live in forever.
F.Y.I I didn’t make any of the up! It’s all in the Book of Revelations. Read The Bible sometime, it’s not gonna kill you
Surely you realize that as crazy as that sounds, it’s just as likely the Flying Spaghetti Monsterwill show up to laugh at all the chaos instead, right?
Anyone’s fictional mythology is as good as anyone else’s, pal. Number of people who support an argument is just the Ad populum fallacy, also known as the Bandwagon fallacy.
But, no offense, believe whatever the hell you want. Kindly don’t try to peddle it here to me though, capiche? I get enough of this shit in my small town in Texas.
I pray to a few gods myself. To each their own, I say.
First this is fictional (much like your religion) and Dave B is the prime motivator and creator in this universe. Dave decides what happens. Second Jesus is not part of the 4 Horseman who actually are led by the anti-christ. You should actually read the bible yourself if you want to use it to prove anything.
First of all, calling Christianity fictional is highly insulting, do you wanna go up to a Muslim a call their faith fictional? There’s a reason the debate on whether or not God is real is still heated, it’s because there is a lot of information to go through and people come to their own conclusions based on the facts they come across
Second, The Anti-Christ as referred to in 1 John 4:3, 1 John 2:18-22, 2 John 7 & so on, isn’t a singular being but rather those who either:
A) Deny that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God
or
B) Are a False Prophet and spread false teachings about Jesus, God & The Bible
And the Four Horsemen are clearly stated in Revelation 6:1-8 to be sent out by The Lamb which is a title given to Jesus Christ, and the First Horseman is called The Word of God in Revelation 19: 11, 12 which is another title of Jesus’s
Fellow Christian here, and honestly your tone is just begging for attention and ridicule. I really can’t tell if you’re deliberately trolling, but regardless, a) the Book of Revelations is generally accepted as partly/mostly allegorical. And b) if you’re serious – are you really expecting to enlighten anyone by screaming random parts of one of the weirder parts of the Bible into an unrelated conversation on a comics forum like a crazy hobo with an ‘end of the world’ sign on a street corner? No one can possibly take that approach seriously.
Take serious religious discussion to an appropriate venue, if that’s really what you’re looking for. It’s completely out of place here.
Titan, per the link provided, appears to be “… one of Jehovah’s Witnesses”. As such your point a) would not be persuasive, given that they do not allow the opinions of others to sway their interpretation of the Bible. Notably including that Revelations is not considered to be allegorical.
Further that Jehovah’s Witnesses have some sort of special insight into understanding it. Which does make general debate into the matter rather pointless, as the only way to gain true understanding would be to convert. Which this is really not a suitable venue to attempt.
So I agree with your conclusion. Plus I am rather surprised to find one of Jehovah’s Witnesses being so pushy. All those who I have met before tend to be much more circumspect about discussing such matters.
It is far better to understand the more widely held opinions, and approach such a topic from a perspective that people would have sympathy with, rather than to leap in with a minority opinion and assert it as fact. Whether or not it is the truth, that is more likely to alienate people, than persuade them.
Yeesh, so sorry if I came off as push, honestly other than the last line of the first post, I was just having a bit off fun at Sciona’s expense. The last line was just to help pique peoples interest and maybe, actually get them to crack open a Bible. The other uses of text styles were just to avoid a bland wall of text.
My response to Gamesman was just me correcting in-accurate statements of his. Hence why I mentioned Bible verses and didn’t link to any JW articles, so that it would be clear that it was what The Bible actually said and not something JW’s made up. Though the line of “Deny that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God” being in Bold was purely accidental, a result of a typo with the tags
The reason I do this is not only to try and give people an accurate understanding of The Bible, but also cause when I see how everybody portrays it, even the ones that claim to be Christian and well researched, I just can’t help but notice the glaring inaccuracies with very little, at best, gotten right, like this skit by American Dad, where they clearly skip parts, oversimplify everything & quite likely deliberately misinterpret it, and based the whole thing just on what’s seen in pop culture
And honestly it’d be funny if it wasn’t so common. Basically I’m saying it’s like being a scientist and having someone discuss Evolution, but they’re only going by what they saw on Pokémon. You just can’t help but think; For the love of all that’s good, read the source material!
If I had a time machine, and could only make three stops, they would all be nerd-related (IMO). I’d keep history as it was written, but I could still do something useful. What I’d do, in no order:
1. Save the original texts that each of the books of the bible were composed of (I didn’t capitalize it because I don’t consider it to be a proper noun. See below.)
2. Rescue the books/scrolls/manuscripts from inside the Great Library of Alexandria, but let the library itself burn.
3. Rescue the books and documents from the Aztec library, before it was burned. It was as great as Constantine’s, from what I heard. Let the library itself burn up.
I’ve read multiple bibles from cover to cover (not easy) with various publish dates. It’s hard, but I have been able to (on my own intellectual pilgrimage) find legitimate bibles written before the King James version, and some after. They significantly differ, so there is no such thing as “The Bible” as it’s just a collection of translations, mistranslations, and intentional political edits with the same published title.
Yeah, but people are making archaeological finds of some of the original texts, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, and are making corrections to any in-accuracies
You are going to far puppy: it’s not about Witnesses not allowing the opinion of others to sway their interpretations, for one thing, it’s just that “an interpretation“, they will, and do accept opinions of others in assisting in their deeper understanding of the bible
The other name for the JW’s is “Bible Students”, in other words, they study the bible, and one way to do that, is to get ‘outsider’ opinions
As for that rubbish about Witnesses not considering Revelations to be allegorical: utter nonsense
Sounds to me, like you have had a few bad run ins with nutters alleging to be Witnesses
I sit corrected.
Incidentally, just so that I do not leave the impression that I would rather that those of religious view points did not discuss their faith, I have an unusual world view, where I hold all faiths to be equally valid (including the beliefs of the purely secular). Not from a ‘live and let live’ perspective, but where they are all literally true simultaneously.
This is much easier to explain to audiences familiar with quantum states, where things can simultaneously be in two (or more) completely different states. So I have no difficulty with there being simultaneously: God, no God, many gods.
Likewise to those who understand relativity. Because that shows us that, in reality, many things are subjective to the viewpoint of the individual. And if some aspects of the universe work that way, why not all of it?
So for a person who truly believes in one true god, that is how the universe works. For those of a polytheistic faith, there are multiple gods overseeing matters. Whereas for a secular individual, it functions purely according to the Big Bang, universal laws and their consequences.
This is compatible with the Bible. We have Jesus telling Peter to walk across the water:
Faith is necessary. Without which Peter behaves as the secular world would expect him to. He sinks. The same would apply when dying. Hence the need for the Bible to stress the importance of having faith, in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Note though I do not have to try and figure out which faith is the correct one. They all are. Relative to the person who sincerely holds that faith. A secular person does not sincerely believe in the Spaghetti Monster, so it would not hold sway over them.
Meanwhile the Bible admonishes us not to worship false gods. But it does not say that they do not exist. A key distinction. So, even though the Bible strongly disapproves of other gods, it does so to ensure that worshippers do not compromise their faith.
Meanwhile secular folks need not fear this philosophy, as the world functions without the existence of God or gods. And, whilst they remain sincere in their faith, no evidence or sign of God or gods would ever be apparent to them. Anything which may point otherwise they will be able to find a scientific rational explanation for. And will be corroborated by any test or experiment which they conduct.
Unless their secular faith fails of course. Then other options become available.
“You’re right. With an omnipotent being, there doesn’t have to be a single fixed reality. You might see a ball as all white. I might see the same ball as all black. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. We’d both be right because the ball can exist in both states simultaneously.”
… Florence Ambrosie explains Omniquantism
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me”
“Other gods”
By the way, my Ubu, stop gaining my respect! You’ve already got all of it.
I have a similar belief system, made up of multiple conflicting and incompatible belief systems.
So, nothing is real. Nothing anywhere. “Oh well certainly something is because if this was a simulated reality as you suggest, a computer somewhere-” Nope! I’ll explain.
Books, dreams, video games, half-finished writing projects in class, nightmares. They’re all true and real realities. Let’s say Dave imagines Sydney (we gotta get back on topic but this is compatible). So, Sydney Scoville Jr. is real, as well as her entire reality. Just that isn’t our reality, or maybe it is but elsewhere. I don’t know if it’s actually other realities or every galaxy is a different entire universe that we can see light from. Anyway, Sydney exists, as do the rest of the people/aliens/sapient robots/etc. They have imaginations, they have worlds they came from, those species evolved to get to be what they are. There are a LOT of characters not written about. They shouldn’t be either- look at our species. How many of our ancestors are WORTH writing about? Very very few. Anyway.
Who is to say that in Sydney’s imagination, she didn’t imagine Dave, and create the reality we’re in together now? They are both gods, and neither are. Both realities are true and false. True to the ones living there, false to the ones who created them.
Going further, like I said, all realities are fake ones, and you aren’t real, and neither am I. I’m the protagonist in a book someone is writing, hopefully. It would explain a few things. Why is the world so exciting and annoying and otherwise hyper-eventful for some, and boring and neutral for others? Someone is a PC, the others are NPCs. If the story isn’t worth reading, then the universe doesn’t need to exist anymore. But once existed it always will- so sure one or multiple gods could be real. But it doesn’t mean they’re paying attention or still care.
Are you still following along the storylines of the imaginary friends you made as a toddler?
Black holes, since we’re still not sure what’s actually in there (if anything), and wormholes exist but only submolecularly, it isn’t impossible to say that our universe eats stuff from this universe, and spits it simultaneously into other ones. Those universes in turn eat stuff from their own and feed ours. The parent creates a new universe which creates it. The parent is given birth to by its own offspring. There is no beginning or end.
Thoughts, directional evolution, matter, energy- all on an infinite and closed cycle. If you look at the trajectories of galactic clusters (like ours is Local Cluster), and the size of the observable universe and the shape it seems to suggest, it looks like three things:
A sponge
Veins in an iris
Human neurology
Wanna be inside a god’s eye, literally? You are. Wanna be in their thoughts always? You are. Want to be in their heart, always (if Big Bang / Big Crush are right and time is a circle) then you are in a divine beating heart.
Why were there miracles and magic before, and not now? Sure you can chalk it up to just lack of education, and insane people yelling idiotic nonsense (A werewolf stole your baby? Actually it was human farmers encroaching on wolf natural hunting territory and keeping their livestock safe but not their kids and you didn’t want to admit you’re a crappy parent so you imagined magic sleep dust but it was really just the kid was already outside ‘cuz you didn’t pay attention or they left on their own ‘cuz that’s what curious kids do and eh well) that people believed because they could “other” someone into a “someTHING” instead of self-reflect and take blame. However, it’s also possible that each of us is an avatar of an entire universe, and everything that can happen does happen, so you perceiving one thing and me another even though we both bore witness could both be valid, but we don’t live in the same universe so the events really did unfold in every way anyone says.
It is interesting when you transition from viewing the world as a singular, fixed object, but consider that it conforms to our subconscious expectations.
When you have a dozen witnesses to, say a car crash, there are a dozen different accounts. A number of which may be contradictory. A fairly routine situation for crash investigators. We expect them to sort through the contradictions, and find ‘the truth’. The way it actually happened.
However if every person in the area was experiencing their own reality, shaped according to their expectations, then the event could have actually unfolded slightly (or radically) differently for each of them. One person distinctly hears the squealing of tyres, before the crash. Another only hears the crash.
Another sees the car swerve to avoid the impact. Whilst an alternate witness determines that the swerve was towards the victim.
The investigators would examine the scene, compare the physical evidence, to the witness statements, and find the most likely scenario. Which, by the various processes that the legal system follows, in due course becomes ‘the truth’. What actually happened.
Even though they are just cherry picking from the most common overlaps of reality.
Here is an interesting thing though. We have conditioned ourselves to accept this process. Barring those most emotionally invested in the outcome of the investigation, and/or any trial, we recognise that a different perspective, or hearing something instead of seeing it, may cause the divergent statements. And that some folks might flavour their testimony according to their expectations (separate to lying, as they believe themselves to be correct).
So if it is found that something else happened, we might go ‘oh, I was mistaken’ and insert whichever rationale matches the situation best.
If this is a sincere change in the belief of what happened, then that individual’s reality has changed. The past is no more fixed than the present. That person could go to look for additional evidence, to substantiate their new belief, they could find tangible clues, such as skid marks, which backed up that.
Clearly though we know that folks often have mistaken beliefs, which are not substantiated in reality. One reason for which would be the discrepancy between our subconscious expectations and our conscious ones. I may convince myself that I will win the next lottery jackpot. But subconsciously I know that I will not.
The other alternative though, when looking at other people, who have clearly delusional beliefs, is that their reality is simply more disconnected from ours.
Usually we compromise our beliefs, if we agree with what others tell us. If the doctor says ‘this pill will make you get better’, we believe that, and our personal reality shifts to make that more likely. This is substantiated by the placebo effect.
Other individuals though will detach their beliefs from outside influence. We often hear the phrase ‘he is living in a world of his own’. This may be a literal truth.
That bloke who is convinced he is Napoleon. In his mind he certainly is. And if he is seeing generals obeying his orders, and troops marching into battle, at his command, that is his reality. Even if we just see him in his pyjamas strutting around talking to himself.
I should point out that my philosophy allows two possible ways of seeing things. The safe and comfortable one. Where everything we experience day-to-day is completely the same, regardless of the mechanics used to achieve that result. Thus meaning that we simply deal with the practicalities of ‘other people believe different things to me, so behave in a disparate manner’.
Whilst they believe something else, they are treating it as if it were real, regardless of whether I (the hypothetical individual who’s perspective we are seeing the world from) think they are correct or not.
If their belief endangers my life, it is wise to treat that belief as being a real thing. Because failing to respect that could have tangible consequences. And this philosophy shows a way to not just pay lip service to doing that, but can actually prove that their viewpoint is equally valid to mine.
The other way is that the universe is completely fluid and subject to change, relative to how we sincerely believe that it works. However our inherent desire for the world to be stable and consistent, is what keeps it that way.
Essentially the former model is a sub-set of the latter one. But it works on its own. So pick whichever you believe is the right one. And you will be correct. It is. And if you think neither is right. Well, that is correct too. My philosophy does not require you to believe in it. If you are certain that the world works a completely different way, you are 100% correct.
*nods head, in complete agreement with your world-view*
I’d rather believe in Odin, he promised to rid us of the Ice Giants. I don’t see any of THOSE around.
Plus his sons’ movie careers are pretty hot right now!
Ha! Good one, I’ll have to remember that. All this time I’ve been telling people I follow Thor: I’m sure you know the joke that comes next.
I thought I thor what you were aiming at.
Here is some propaganda material for you. Although there are quite a few variations, on the theme, if you want a different one.
Or it could go down like this:
1) Humans pursue Victory&Conquest and end up with War, Plague and Death as a result. Humans create Hell on Earth. We have already done it 1000 times, no literal Horsemen needed.
2) In understanding this some Humans try to bring about change through compassion, selflessness, and humility. When they are acting on this higher plane of understanding they are “Angelic”. Mother Teresa or the Guy in Paris who saved that kid from falling off the balcony, never grew actual wings but they were “Angels” to the people they helped.
3) Enough Humans act this way consistently enough and in a critical mass to create a wave of truly systemic/cultural change that eventually sweeps the globe. Treating everyone with compassion and love becomes the new normal in the world. An “army of angels” brings about “Heaven on Earth”.
“Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven” = God’s kingdom will come about when selfless compassion is the normal way which people treat each other.
So go out a be a kind, humble and compassionate with everyone you meet. THAT is how to be an instrument that Jehovah uses to bring about Paradise.
*** I know this isn’t a religious forum, but Christianity is an action, not a mistranslated old book. I try to correct that misperception when the opportunity arises. ***
It would be nice, but I believe in a dystopic utopia. What do I mean:
Everyone is truly happy all the time and safe and whatever. Everyone’s dreams come true, and that too.
But you are drugged, or have mind-rewiring, get exterminated if you don’t, have adrenaline production bred out and constant dopamine/seratonin forcibly produced for you without you being aware, maybe just having your entire media and art pieces you ever see or hear are strictly controlled so you think what you’re given is the best ever and have no interest or desire to see anything else. Maybe all of that. “When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed.”
I bet you anything we’re gonna find out next page that they’re surrounded by a totally destroyed world, like crumbled cities, skeletons in the street, all that jazz.
Jazz music starts playing as they see destroyed city
My vote is the whole civilization’s dead and buried.
“Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Hm, is Sydney not supposed to have pupils?
Also her jacket seems to be white/light gray now instead of having a pattern
If she had pupils, would that make her Sensei Scoville?
Sensei Scoville is a truly terrifying thought.
What happened to Sydney’s clothes? She was wearing the ArcSWAT blue camouflage uniform, now her sleeve looks pale grey/shadowed white with no mottling at all? And her torso below Max’s fist appears to have something like tiger stripes instead of digi-camo mottling.
Also, I called it about Sciona’s plan. (Smugness +1).
(I’m sure Karma is going to bite me in 3… 2… 1…)
Great sense motive check. :)
Karma is currently sneaking up behind Sciona’s butt, so you are safe.
The clothes are likely just an art omission on Dave’s part, unless it is a precursor of whatever info Sydney is about to impart.
More importantly though, I hope that Sydney’s other hand is on the Forb. Because I cannot see her force field (but its distinctive edges may be out of shot).
well, if it’s an art omission there is also new material around the elbow, so….. maybe we see a hint of what has happened. The gray color is more or less consistent with the Arc-swat shirts they’re generally are wearing, so this shirt could be part of the a.f.d.
So when Sidney changed into her field dress (the one that’s bulletproof) she maybe also changed shirts.
Consider also the fact that a.f.d’s are passively enhanced by Ashley’s powers.
Then what Sidney may be trying to point out is the fact that if her a.f.d. is gone that may also be true for the superpowers of the team.
This also ties in with the fact that she probably has dropped the force field.
Then I guess that means the base garb was prison black-and-whites, and the camo+defense enhancements were both Ashley’s doing?
An interesting angle. Sydney is the only one in battle fatigues, in that shot. Odd that neither Hiro nor Harem were wearing the camo versions, given that they all had time to prepare for the mission. If though the gear they are wearing has the same properties, then Dabbler’s look may be checking either or both of them out, and noticing something odd going on.
A couple of points running contrary to that though. One is that the author assures us that there are no general-purpose super power dampeners, in the setting. As such the implied power dampening is unlikely. Not impossible mind, as Dave does reserve the right to change stuff he has only mentioned in blogs or comments. So only if it appears in the comic itself is it strict canon.
The other though is that Halo’s orbs are still hovering contentedly around her head. So there would need to be some explanation why those super powers are still functional, whilst others are not.
Maybe it is just that there are Alari ninjas around them, nicking any super gear that they can get their paws on? The orbs, of course, would not cooperate with that.
Where was it ever said that Sydney’s detached balls were a super power? o_O
Page 4 of the comic.
That’s not the same thing as her balls themselves being a super power as opposed to High Tech
Splatman also plays at being a super hero (psychotic delusional deranged playboy-vigilante is closer to the truth), and yet he has not one bit of super in him (except when he sleeps over in the Fortress of Solitude)
That would indeed be a good reason why something which suppressed inherent super powers only, but not technological ones, might exclude Sydney’s orbs. Now that you have clarified the intent of your statement, it makes good sense.
Such a countermeasure would still not feature in this setting though, unless Dave changed his mind about prohibiting general purpose suppressing powers. I do not think just excluding ‘technological super powers’ would be sufficient to escape that principle.
It is just as well that you used code to describe he-who-imitates-a-flying-mammal, otherwise your description of him would earn the ire of both Sydney and Pander! They consider him a super, despite his lack of inborn powers. And, whatever their origins (they may very well not be technological) Halo’s orbs do make her a super hero.
Always felt that Dave’s comment was about general-purpose suppression devices known to humans on Earth, not that those things don’t exist at all
Didn’t say either weren’t super (one is dooper, the other creepy :P), just they don’t have typical super powers themselves
“Known to humans on Earth” is indeed a fair assumption for most statements which deal with either the limitations of knowledge or the availability of resources. And it is highly pertinent to the context that Dave said that. Namely that containment facilities, in super prisons, would require customising to the powers of the individual prisoners.
However if the Earth authorities learnt about general purpose suppressing powers now, and thereby gained the potential to copy them (or, at a minimum, steal the working copies they got their paws on) then that would not be much of a limitation on the setting.
So far they only have two supers in prison that we know about (Vehemence and Victor, or whatever the guy with the metal balls was called) and maybe a few others (some of the mass fight folks who may have broken previous parole conditions, for instance).
Therefore the period pre-generic super cells would have been a very limited one indeed! Unless, of course, humanity had no way of using captured Alari technomagic, nor of replicating it.
Ok, let me try to predict what happens next *clears throat*: She’s been away from her homeland (home-dimension?) for so long that no other Alari knows who she’s anymore, let alone remember her. And they’re no longer conquest-crazy (if they were in the 1st place) and therefore with no reason to follow her at all. But knowing Dave, he probably has something totally different and better already planned.
“Yeah the way we conquested in your time is over. Then we switched to something else that made males that mate with our females become pregnant and give birth to alari wingblades-first. The births were natural, but not painless! Also this works for our entire species retroactively. Unfortunately, you need a treatment to stop it from functioning and you’re behind schedule. You don’t pose a risk, do you?”
*Deus sneezes*
I think Deus might be worried about which route the Alari baby, he is going to give birth to, will come out.
Deus already took an anti-Alari-birth contraceptive before having sex, because he thought of that, like he thinks of EVERYTHING.
Well, that cant be good (either for Sciona or everyone else, really….).
Also let me add to the praise, the artwork these past few comics was excellent!
Behind her the Alairi welcoming committee:
“We greet you in friendship and harmony!”
“We bring you synergy!”
youtube.com/watch?v=GyV_UG60dD4
“We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.” *runs away in terror*
“The weak shall perish” and “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” are also pretty scary.
The scariest ones are those which just get on with their extermination program. Those are the ones who do not even consider humans to be worth talking to.
When was the last time you talked to a tick or a flea? And no, that big blue bumbling buffoon and that weird guitarist don’t count :P
“I’m sorry, were you talking about me?”
Well, with my blurry eyesight I always took you to be wearing a top-hat. But, looking closer, you appear to be more of a red car, than a tick or a flea. Are you one of them new fangled transformers?
“Welcome to CostCo, I love you”
+5 Internet points if you recognize the quote
Brawndo: It’s got what plants crave!
Somehow I feel like I just lost 5 IQ points.
Yeah there’s something to say about global government:
Seig Heil
Boy does she have a bad case of bed-head.
for the love of god, and the love of lemmy too, JUST DIE ALREADY!
You are talking about GoldenTits, aren’t you? o_O
Did you just turn into Cooter?
+1
Nice tactical use of the truesight orb.
Cliffhanger speculation, true sight reveals that:
1. The portal room has invisible demonic guardians, who look like Dabbler’s fiendish foe, from her flashback.
2. Sciona’s current form is shapechanged or an illusion. Her true form is a guy with brown hair, an old-fashioned parting and a toothbrush moustache.
3. Ninjas. All over the place.
4. Eldritch horror taking a bath
Alari, very quickly and quietly packing to leave before Sciona notices them.
and one going “Crap, the little one saw us!”
2. They need to make sure they tell Deus about this.
3. Always expect them.
Harelip ninjas.
Probably just me, butt DAYUM! Sci looks hot in panel three!!
What sort of info does Sydney have??? Is that they’re stuck in Sciona’s dimension or what?!?
They are not alone, which is why she’s telling GoldenTits and JigglyBits to chill out with the return threats
Nah. My guess is one of the following:
(1) The portal led straight into a prison for Sciona;
(2) The rest of the Alari are all dead (turning it into a literal case of “You and what army?”);
(3) They’re all de-powered on this side of the portal, including Sciona. Natural/inherent powers only.
They’re not mutually exclusive, either. Could be #1 and #3, #2 and #3, or all the above.
My Guess, Everyone is already dead.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Kenshiro have already been here.
And suddenly they realize that the city is empty because the magic blood users were murdered by something else… Or humanity already killed them ages ago.
Aw. I had such hope for you, Sciona. Mu… how disappointing.
WARNING: this cannot be unseen
In the last panel Maxima looks like she has been transformed into a Little Person. Probably about 3ft tall.
I realize it is because of her head size and foreshortening of her arms due to perspective, but still. Maxima looks wee.
How many more pages before Sciona discovers that her world is dead and she is possible the last of her kind now?
One page after Halo holds her up by the throat with her Lighthook while using Starbeam (is that okay for the beam of PPO and not the Lighthowitzer?) to ‘stop existing’ her from head to toe because of what she did to Maxima somehow.
What you say is not completely computing for me. Did your post get glitched up somehow?
What exactly has Sci done to Maxi? Other than get blood on her pristine(ly tarnished) golden hands?
TWb was asking “How many more pages before Sciona …”, thus inviting speculation on the forthcoming events. Given both Sciona’s past behaviour, and her present threats, it is entirely reasonable to presume, for the sake of a line of thought, that Sciona will do something unpleasant to Maxima.
Just for the sake of completeness though, Sciona has done stuff to Maxima which would warrant Sydney seeking revenge. For example trying to:
• blow up Maxma (and Halo).
• (and possibly succeeding in) killing one of Maxima’s subordinates (Sydney herself).
• kill various other of her subordinates (including putting a girder through Pixel’s chest, and knocking Krona off a roof, both of which Sydney felt guilty about, potentially amplifying any resentment towards Sciona).
• mesmerise Maxima with some kind of mental attack.
• slam Maxima through a wall (albeit not as successfully as Maxima returned the attempt).
Dabbler: “by the way, the Alari Empire was wiped out a few centuries ago.”
Hopefully the ecosystem is sufficient to support Redtailed Hawks.
(Sound effect: Redtailed Hawk Screech)
(Which is the current ‘Sound of Silence’.)
Sound of Silence
One of the largest owls in the world, is currently on the loose and rampaging around countryside, near where I used to live, once upon a time! It screams like an eagle.
And its escape from captivity is no poultry matter, as it is predating upon local chickens!
Okay making a prediction here: Sciona lifts her arms to call for her people but the only answer is silence and a tumbleweed. HER PEOPLE ARE EXTINCT AND SHE’S THE LAST OF HER KIND.
Being trapped on earth spared her from the end of her world.
Exactly the idea I had when reading this page, she teleported in an ancien mausoleum, and outside there’s some kind of nuclear winter devoid of any life.
Probably the only one who believes (or wants) this, next page shows the fog receding showing Sci’s army, and they are not happy at the appearance of their leader and the one’s who caused it
Maxima catch interdimensional mumps in panel 5?
There is a difference between cultural homogenization, and a monoculture, though…but it’s certain that a world government would produce a MAJOR cultural homogenization. (America is the former. Communist Russia approaches the latter.)
…This would almost CERTAINLY be the latter. See…the only way to keep a monoculture…is through tyranical oppression.
“There’s probably something to be said for a global government…”
Yes. How about ‘no’ or even ‘HELL NO!’. The only thing that keeps the numerous governments from becoming even more unpleasant than they already are is competition between the nation states; if they screw up too much they become a laughing stock or a pariah amongst other governments. One world government will degenerate into rule by a remote self-perpetuating oligarchy in a generation or two, then we really will have Orwell’s “boot stamping on a human face – forever”.
Except that we already have a single unified governance, and have had one since, oh, the early 17th century.
What, you say that con’t be true? Well… the thing is, the ‘formal’ government is a chimera, existing solely to satisfy certain biological imperatives. The real government is something that emerges spontaneously, and is pretty much mechanical in nature – the real decisions are made by either vaguely-defined traditions (against which there is no appeal and no ability to deliberately alter, even though they shift constantly of their own accord) or by hordes of data analysts and bureaucrats who individually have no real voice and are mostly unaware of the consequences of their actions. In either case, there is no actual appeal against the society’s actions, and no ability to deliberately alter, even though they shift constantly of their own accord.
All the other stuff? Legislatures, kings, presidents, dictators, judiciaries, etc? None of those actually do anything. They exist because human beings need to thing someone is at the top of the pile, and because society has to give all the assertive/extroverted types something to stay busy with.
I appreciate the reply, but I think you’re twisting the term ‘government’ so far that it loses any meaning. In general usage it refers exactly to what you dismiss as “other stuff”.
Except that we already have a single unified governance, and have had one since, oh, the early 17th century.
What, you say that con’t be true? Well… the thing is, the ‘formal’ government is a chimera, existing solely to satisfy certain biological imperatives. The real government is something that emerges spontaneously, and is pretty much mechanical in nature – the real decisions are made by either vaguely-defined traditions (against which there is no appeal and no ability to deliberately alter, even though they shift constantly of their own accord) or by hordes of data analysts and bureaucrats who individually have no real voice and are mostly unaware of the consequences of their actions. In either case, there is no actual appeal against the society’s actions, and no ability to deliberately alter, even though they shift constantly of their own accord.
All the other stuff (in or out of government)? Legislatures, kings, presidents, dictators, judiciaries, CEOs, business owners, NPO administrators, etc? None of those actually do anything. They exist because human beings need to thing someone is at the top of the pile, and because society has to give all the assertive/extroverted types something to stay busy with.