Grrl Power #682 – Encounter at Fracture Station
Not a ton to say about this page, other than it’s a little weird that it looks like Sydney could just be walking through an alley in New York and not on a pulsar Dyson warpgate station. I mean, you can’t see the sky all the time.
Admittedly I’m a little disappointed with my alien architecture skills. Ideally this whole place would look more like the interior of the Death Star, but on the other hand, there’s no reason some of the surface of the station or the buildings couldn’t be built out of stone. The accretion disk around the pulsar is full of crap that can be mined, like asteroids and whatnot.
The material the station is built out of manages and harnesses the gravity of the pulsar so that the surface of it is livable. That also hugely affects the density and speed of the crap in the accretion disk, so it’s not like it’s a maelstrom of death traveling at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, but there’s still plenty of stuff out there to mine for building materials. Even if there weren’t, it’s a massive trading hub. You can get just about anything in the universe at Fracture Station.
I didn’t see that anyone got the second alien on the previous page, but there were some outstanding guesses. Apparently a pile of tentacles with an eye on top is sort of a common thing for the special effects guy to make for a show.
Someone on the Grrl Power facebook page got it though. It’s from this old ass TV show called “Under the Mountain.” It was imported from New Zealand, and broadcast on, of all channels, Nickelodeon. Remember this was a show based on Cthulhu mythos, but I guess Nickelodeon nabbed it because the main characters were a pair of kids who, I don’t exactly recall, used magic stones to wish the monsters home or something?
There was a movie remake of it a few years ago starring Sam Neil. I don’t recall much from it, but it probably has special effects than the show, which are old-school Doctor Who level mostly. Plus the only videos I can find on it are… poor.
Anyway, it really stuck with me all these years, I think probably because it was the first truly macabre thing I’d ever seen. I was 9 when it was produced. Not sure when it was aired in America, but the creatures in that show were definitely my first tentacle monsters.
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Refugees!
Also, notice Halo is actually scared – I think that first encounter scarred her…
Well, duh…
If your first/main encounter/s with people of a certain is highly negative or hostile, then of course your going to be wary of anyone from that group. Though, of course, if you run into some people from said group and it’s clear that their not a threat, you aren’t going to be scared (Though whether or not you end up being polite to them or a cocky asshole, generally depends on what type of person you are)
But considering that Sydney can tell these Alari are in need of help, she could strike a mutually beneficial agreement with them: They help navigate this place and find a portal home, and she uses her connections to help them get refugee status on Earth
If that’s a refugee aid station, Sydney is almost in the right spot to
receive lost-traveler aid.
Does shooting up the creatures that shot up the Alari homeword
make her their hero?
Sydney sounds like she’s hungry if she’s looking for the food court.
Refugee aid stations are usually not in back alleys. But, when you’re hurt, homeless, penniless (or whatever passes for space money) and your kids are asking “Mommy, I’m hungry…” you’ll likely do some pretty sketchy things in some pretty sketchy places.
They are probably not in a back alley.
Sidney was just walking through and exiting a tunnel or passageway, which may go under some kind of motorway, through a building, or just to connect two streets or minor market squares.
Some of the dark Alleyways may be for the benefit of those beings who evolved under cloudy atmospheres and or dim Stars.
They could be a valuable source of information if they are survivors of the attempted genocide. :(
You get killed by someone, see how seeing them makes you feel.
Being wary of someone who is similar to the person is one thing, writing off a whole race because one or more hurt you is asinine. Ask the Douwd on Delta Rana IV.
On the other hand, I might make an exception for squidwards….
To be fair about the Squidwards, Sydney has only encountered a military unit on a specific mission. Granted, that mission was genocide but if Sydney met a “civilian” squid, then relations may even be cordial…But maybe not if they scan her balls upon first contact. I know I would be likely to feel a bit apprehensive of meeting somebody new if the first thing they do is to scan mine…
Alari refugees?
I don’t like Sciona’s way of working (she’s an awesome character though), but this? Can’t help but feel sympathy.
I’m with you.
DaveB has captured “heartbreaking” pretty well.
I like this – it is defying the ‘World of Hats’ trope, as if every alien on a planet is a bad person just because one alien is a bad person. It’s sort of like an alien trying to say that every human on Earth is Mussolini or Hitler if their first introduction to humanity was propaganda from World War 2. The movie ‘Contact’ sort of subverted that trope too, actually.
It is hard when you are dealing with such alien things as the Cthulhu spawn as to all of their personal motivations if they have any other than their gestalt Cthulhu. But there are certain things that do not change like food, place to live, expand more of themselves farther out and into other dimensions. I like to show they are not monolithic robots either. When a species gets so advanced that just one of their lowest ones can alter your planet and be hard to kill that is power. Even ones closer to us but have some different values because they have both gills and lungs and starships. And yet be motivated by the same drives and even concepts.
L. Neil Smith and his Lamviins are as alien as they come yet you can only tell when body parts are referred to since they are not humanoid at all but sound very human otherwise.
I really like those weird energy wings, such a novel concept for a race
Are those wings sharp or intangible or it depends on the situation?
Having knives on your back all the time seems like it would be a hassle.
Having virtual wings sounds more convienent than
Vamperella’s that retracted like the landing gear of a B52
or the roof of a fabric top convertible.
Depends on the situation.
Note: the little girl doesn’t seem to have wings. Perhaps they develop with puberty?
I was thinking that, but it could also be gender-related. Like the (maybe drow male) character next to them could be drow male, but could also be alari male, so no wings. The child might not have wings due to puberty, but it could also be that they aren’t cis-female, like a hermaphrodite, chimera, or biologically agender.
Or perhaps the wings are created by magic or some technological process? So, much like needing to have driving lessons, before being allowed to own a car, Alari might need to learn flight safety rules or even use a simulator, until they have proven their airworthiness?
So probably much the same result. Young Alari would not have wings, but would probably get them at puberty or later school age.
So, she’s basically in Sigil?
As the center of everything, all roads lead to Sigil.
Yes, I’ve got the Manual of Planes (1st Edition) & the RPG of Planescape: Torment.
I kinda went mad for Planescape stuff… got all the boxsets and most of the books for 2nd Ed…
Glad to see this avoids Star Wars racism. “One Twi’lek is a dancer? That means all Twi’lek are dancers.”
Good to see that not all Alari are blood mages.
Hans- you dont know that she ISNT a blood mage- maybe those kids are her next sacrifices…. *runs away*… :P
You can be a mom and a bloodmage, it’s just a lifestyle choice
“Welcome to my channel!
Today I’ll be preparing my newest spell!
I gathered all the ingredients here on my kitchen table – and today my daughter will assist me!
[…]
And this is how you conjure any cake by sacrificing a bit of blood!
Daughter: Please don’t forget to like, subscribe and to share – oh. And don’t forget to click the bell, too!”
I already know blood soup and blood sausages. Blood cake is new. Where can I try?
I don’t know whether that’s an actual thing, but if it were an actual thing it’d probably involve hematogen. Not sure how well it could be made into a cake, and whether it by itself would qualify for a “blood cake”, but it’s a thing and it’s pretty neat in moderate doses.
In a hospital. In the childbirth section.
Does Blood Pudding qualify? At least it’s another kind of blood based food.
Blood Pudding is a sausage shaped like pudding.
Kiszka, (혈액 소시지)Hyeol-aeg sosiji, Hurka, Marag Dubh, Black Pudding…
My family really loved grossing me out in the middle of a meal, as these were the most common blood sausages available, and none were prepared enough alike for me to figure it out.
Still like them, it’s just harder to find these days where I now live.
parts of Italy used to make a blood pudding in the semi-liquid concept of pudding..
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/sanguinaccio-dolce-chocolate-blood-pudding
Blood pudding is just awful :)
Plus as a lawyer, I prefer my blood to come from the veins of the innocent.
But if you really want to draw blood, consult the IRS.
Yeah but they’re sloppy. When they draw blood, they also siphon out a little bit of your soul.
Well yeah, but what do you expect when you extract blood with a splitting maul?
Your wisdom makes you a credit to this comic forum, Viirin, and I thank you. :)
Blood is an effective substitute for eggs, and a viable clarifying agent for butter, so there’s that.
Makes terrible coffee, though.
Scandinavia, oddly.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-blood-pancakes
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/blood-pancakes
you can also go to Chile and find blood-jelly: https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/nachi-blood-chile
https://www.atlasobscura.com/categories/blood-food
How about a Swedish blodpalt?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blodpalt
It’s a cellular peptide cake… with mint frosting.
Might be a touch trivial to use the word “racism.”
Discriminating based on race is the definition of racism.
And the term “Individuals of race X don’t have any choice than to be Y” does exactly that. We are talking about intelligent races here that do have a choice. Not animal races that are bred for a special purpose.
Interesting that graffiti is an intergalactic problem. Nice touch.
and so is refugees that come after some powerhungry nutjob from home screwed it for everyone.
Graffiti most likely is the first way of expressing creativity in most cultures – heck, we start out as wall smearing toddlers, we cant differentiate between paper, ground, wall.
First a civilization draws on the cave walls to show what they did in the last hunt. What the gods are like. What they had for dinner.
Then when trade emerges: prices for the wares. What they want to be hunted. What is hot and trendy.
Finally… when terraforming the surface of a planet – why not write “gli’P Xrk-da was here” with a mountain range!
Robotical races might express it with punching a grid of holes into your wall however. Try to not let them do that.
I remember reading somewhere that the oldest example we have of written [alphabetic, not ‘Linear B’] Greek is actually graffiti carved into an Egyptian monument: Something along the lines of “Achilles was here”…
^_^
Those who design a very nice Norwegian fjord deserve to put their name on it.
Slartibartfast did put his name on the fjords. We just don’t know how to read the Magratheain cursive script in the Norwegian coastline.
…And i was just waiting for THAT reference ….
^_^
Arthur Dent could read it, but only because he still had the Babel Fish.
Apparently, there is a cave with some writing that is nearly inaccessible. When the archeologists finally got up there, they found, in Old Nordic, “This is very high.”
I like that the smiley has 3 eyes.
And back in 2001 you thought it was just a movie. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGZjNDUxNjUtOTZhYy00NDc2LTlkMTktMTNlMWY2NzY4YzhmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDcxMTk4Mzc@._V1_.jpg
[engaging Seinfeld mode]
And what’s the deal with every alien species in the galaxy always trying to take over Earth? Seriously, pick a planet. Any planet. You have billions to choose from.
Yeah, was thinking of that movie :D
And, they do pick a planet, it just happens to be infested with a virulent strain of a carbon-based lifeform that has continued to be extremely difficult to eradicate
Then they aren’t looking very hard. There should be no reason to invade a world with indigenous intelligent life. And then there is the problem of those who are fearful of any kind of invasion so they keep quiet hide themselves so no big blasting bursts of intelligent communications. Most of what we have sent out are in very poor shape after a light year. Not much different from the static.
don’t want to live like a refugee
It’s usually better than the alternative.
Don’t have to live like a refugay-ay…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFnOfpIJL0M
Ah, handwaveium the favorite material of any author that has written himself into a corner.
? Which part is handwaving?
Well not sure what your on about.
It’s already strongly hinted that somehow the screwed up portal sent them into the future.
(assuming you are talking to me and not OP, sorry if I’m wrong)
Hinted, but not guaranteed. A lot can happen in “a few days” and there are a few different ways Harem could receive “scattered” “echoes”, not the least of which is the malfunctioning portal giving her issues without time manipulating. Also, in thoery, were they to have gone future-wards the ship (attemping) recovering Sydney would have likely missed Sydney on account of having arrived too soon, and wouldhave been there when the whole party arrived (since it’s implied that travel time to the Alari homeworld is low).
Regardless, I don’t see what that has to do with handwaving on this page, as none of that would stop an Alari survivor who somehow escaped (or an Alari vagrant who doesn’t live on the homeworld) from being on this planet post homeworld destruction.
(assuming that is what you are arguing against, since your comment is incredibly vague, sorry for all the assuming)
Actually, it’s been all but confirmed: Vale ‘collected’ the Skybreaker in the night Maxima & Co. came back (or maybe one or two nights after that, but Archon was still searching for something or someone on that mountain. Then, presumably the next day, we saw her land in Galytn to give it to Deus. At that moment, the second thermal exchange tower was less than half completed. But a few episodes back, when Deus opened the stargate, we saw it was completed and apparently operational. I don’t know how long it takes to build one of those, but I doubt you can do it in less than a week. Meanwhile, for Sydney it’s still the same night she got stranded on Alari and fought Squidward. She hasn’t even slept or eaten yet, so it seems almost certain Scion’s incomplete wormhole displaced them some time into the future. Also, we know Sciona had been in contact with her world only days ago and had no inkling anything was amiss, and that gold-skinned officer on Cora’s ship mentioned something about their arrival being late because their encoutner with te Fel screwed up their angle of entrance into hyperspace or something like that? All in all, I think it’s likely that when Sydney gets back to Earth, she finds several weeks have passed for the others, and they have all but given up hope to ever see her again.
Ah, yes, the te Fel. A race whose most significant export is non-stick cookware.
Heh. Okay, that one was well done :)
There’s also the page from a few days ago where the second solar tower is still under construction, and even before that you have the retrieval and flight montages,
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2927 To https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2956 took probably most of a day, or at least long enough that Sidney has had a chance to get hungry….but so far we have not heard from her on that, so either she had a snack with her, or? Never mind that we don’t know how long it takes to finish that second tower. So already we do have some hint that time has been seriously dialated probably by the first, and or posibly also the second portal that Sidney used, and or also posibly by the one used by Deus. Or heck even by the fracture itself
Time dialation always gives me a headache.
Heh, good point on the solar tower actually, I forgot about those pages (or rather, I forgot it about the second page, and assumed the first was foreshadowing for something unrelated in the future, oops). It should be noted, I am one of the people who supported the time travel option when it first happened, I just like to keep my mind open to possibilities (Mayhap the flight and tower were completed in one day, the only reason the second wasn’t completed being resource management, the first a proof of concept. Unlikely, but possible).
I would assume she packed a snack bar or something (I mean, if she has room for cars, she has room for food), but I can attest to the fact that snack bars really don’t last you long, so I think you’re both right on that account, though the several weeks in VGer’s estimation seems a bit much (also, communication devices can probably be used once she is located, to let Dabbler know).
Well argued, both of you.
Though I’m still curious what OP meant by handwaving.
I did not mention Dablers freind, Page 674 because his coment about being late because technomagic babble is kind of meaningless, he could simply be indicating it took slightly longer and we don’t know, relatively, how long ago Dablers message was sent, relatively speeking.
TVtropes warning.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AppliedPhlebotinum
I assume you are referring to “The material the station is built out of manages and harnesses the gravity…” Honestly, I don’t think it’s about writing yourself in a corner. It’s just a necessity of certain types of sci-fy writing. From an engineering and material science perspective, we are probably thousands of years from anything like fracture station. If you want to write about anything you can imagine, you are going to have to accept some hand waving on the technical side. The alternative is to alter things to be more in line with what would be technically possible given today’s technology (e.g. the station is enormous). But really, I don’t see that as necessarily more realistic anyway. From the Earth to the Moon (1865) is a great example of where that leads.
There’s also the weird conundrum that because time exists, gravity, and because gravity exists, time, because suposedly if you could actualy negate gravity time would not exist.
See Headake.
Oh and I forgot, you know how gradeschool textbooks (At least when I was a kid) described how nuclear reactors work? pfffft.
This came up in one of the 1632 Reddit’s, when someone wondered why the author had stated no nuclear reactors for over a decade. First off the short list is that yes they have a couple of textbooks that describe nuclear reactors. You could in theory use them to make something that looks like a nuclear reactor, even with the tech base they have by 1636. Please do not fuel it however. If your lucky it will just sit there and stay Warm, even if you manage to actualy enrichment Uranium.
If not…. well let’s just say they got lucky with Chernoble. And yes I know what happened there. Turns out Enritchment Of Fuel in itself is tricky, in that you need to know what degree of enritchment your dealing with and what the reactor is designed to use, never mind the purity of all materials in and around your reactor. Finding out that A supplier failed to warn you of the degree of boron contamination in the graphite your useing may leave you with a mildly warm 37 + ton paperweight, as the Russians, Chinese, Indians and others found out with some of there early builds.
Just because you can’t figure out where the author is going, doesn’t mean he isn’t going somewhere.
Ahhh shit! I loved the under the mountain series growing up, and I didn’t pick that alien, though after the giveaway it’s bloody obvious.
It been so long i didn’t remember what the Aliens looked like in the show, it the book the loom more like Gain Slugs, it not Based on Cutholo mythos, it based on a Children’s book [that I had to read in school]
The kid will be the first person at (in?) The Fracture to speak to Sydney.
“Your balls are pretty.”
“Zai, don’t talk to strangers.”
“Um, hi. Excuse me. My name’s Sydney. Can you understand me?”
“Wha? Oh, of course. This area does have a translator field. Your species looks familiar, but I can’t place it.”
“I’m human. Wait! A translator field?! This area has a universal translator?! Just floating in the air?”
“Well, not universal, but it does allow communication between most languages of the biological species that come here. You don’t know of it?”
“SQUEEEEEEE!”
“Mommy, is she broken?”
“We are all having troubles. I think this is how her species handles the kind of problem she is having.”
“No, I am telling you Vale, the instructions were to turn left, go 3 blocks, turn right and find the yellow door on the left, but you saw, there was no yellow door.”
“That was because they said to go left, walk 4 blocks, turn left and find the yellow door on the right.”
“I clearly understood what was said. It was …”
“Excuse me ma’am.” [ Sydney dashes off to the source of the last two lines ] “Yes! English. Real English! Wow, it’s you! What are you doing here?”
Vale: Well American English anyway. What are you doing here?
Sydney: I … kind of got lost.
I guess it isn’t clear in hindsight (note: proofread before hitting Submit), but the line that begins “No, I am telling you..” should be in said in baritone.
My only objection is the lost opportunity for Vale to come up to Sydney and quietly say, “Hi Sydney” nonchalantly. :)
Considering that elevator scene where Sydney made Vale sweat & want to escape…? I don’t think Vale wants to be stuck chatting with Sydney any time soon.
Spam that button.
Then there’s always the translational problem between “right” meaning straight ahead and “right” meaning to the right. In Spanish, derecho/derecha; in English, right on/right.
“Right on” is also 70s slang for “yes” and/or “awesome” or their equivalents.
Sciona has shorter hair,this is probably a member of the same race as Sciona….!?
This is definitely the impression DaveB is giving. Sydney will be realizing that not every member of that species is an evil blood-mage, bent on world domination, at least until she makes herself known to those people.
“Mommy, look! Do you think she has the right kind of blood?”
“Yes! We can use her life-force to finally conquer this shell! You two, quick, grab her and bring her to me.”
Of course, Dabbler and Deus have both indicated that Alari have a conquering bent, and that actual angels are not amused with Alari pretending to be angels.
Perhaps development of a conscience was considered a defect and a weakness on the little lamented Alari homeworld. That could have compelled many Alari to form enclaves in exile across the centuries.
If so, then assuming the homeworld is eventually restored to inhabitability Sciona’s little band could eventually return to find themselves unwelcome and vastly outnumbered.
… i think you can say humans have a conquering bent too.
With humans the tendancy is scattered, appearing in one culture, but not in another.
Humanity has never come even close to having a unified culture, and the hardest pushes towards enforcing the establishment of one always lead to more fragmentation than there was before.
A bent towards ever more exclusive tribal subdivision is the closest human cultures ever get towards having a universal trait.
Umm, no, every human culture is bent towards conquering, it’s just in some it is dormant because they are in the process of being conquered, butt the instant they get the chance, they return the ‘favour’, whether to the ones who were conquering them or some other weaker culture or group
Silliness denied. Isolationist cultures do exist, and always have. They will fall prey to a conquering culture if they encounter one.
The Shakers come immediately to mind.
Depends on the cultures such as the Shakers didn’t have a martial philosophy like say Sparta. Depends on them and how isolated they really are. I have created a hybrid culture that are both global spanners and traders and yet at home they are very careful who gets in and who doesn’t. The Japanese did that for awhile and they weren’t conquered.
Only by the grace of the gods. They were completely outmatched by the mongol horde. Had it not been for ‘the Divine Wind’ sinking their fleet, whilst anchored offshore overnight, they would have easily been conquered.
The thing which stopped other countries invading them, despite their isolationist policies, was the fact that Japan is an island. England had precisely the reverse policy, setting up diplomatic relationships and trade around the globe. But, again, it was their island status which gave them the necessary protection from Spain, France and Germany, in the respective eras.
Their non-isolationist policies though gave them the economic strength, diplomatic alliances and military might, to be able to make full use of the advantage the Channel afforded. Whereas the Japanese fell short in all of those categories against the Mongols. They just happened to draw a ‘get out of invasion free’ card, at the right moment.
I hope she starts listening to what the other aliens are talking, maybe she’ll recognize a language
You’re over thinking it again Sydney. Just keep your eyes and mind open.
Is it really still racist to get confused due to everyone of a race looking similar at first glance? As a European I am used to distinguishing people by e.g. hair color and eye color, so when I look at a bunch of Koreans playing Starcraft 2 or a group of ebonic people, I’m having trouble distinguishing them, unless they stand out, e.g. when someone is very fat or thin or old or young. But that’s not racist, it’s just a fact. You can get used to it over time. Your brain adapts and looks for the more subtle differences.
(Also hurray for Serral from Finland who defeated all the Koreans and became SC2 world champion last week-end, after 20 years of Korean domination.)
I don’t think it is racist if you can’t distinguish the looks of a people you never had contact with.
It becomes racist when you start acting upon they are all the same cause they look all the same. And make no effort to learn the differences even though you have to deal with them.
And I don’t blame Sidney to be spooked by an Alari. She only ever met one and that was not a nice person. At least she correct herself at second glance. A racist wouldn’t do that. (And I cought myself in the All Racists Are The Same trap here.)
My problem is that I have a hard time differentiating faces of all races, even my fellow Caucasians. Something about the way my brain is wired. Probably connected to my Asperger’s. My ability to recognize someone improves if I see them very frequently, but fades away again if I don’t see them for awhile.
When I was in the Army serving in Germany, I went over a year without seeing anyone from home. My Mom flew over to visit me, and I didn’t recognize her when she first got off the plane. Thankfully she knew of my facial recognition issues and recognized me.
I’ve had a lady I worked with call me a racist once when I failed to recognize a black lady I’d only met once before. I didn’t even bother to explain my facial recognition problems to her because I’d worked with her enough to know she was an idiot and was incapable of understanding that some people’s handicaps aren’t physically obvious.
Sounds to me you have Prosopagnosia (Face Blindness) a very real condition.
That doesn’t seem like it’s due to Asperger’s, but a far more serious issue(Kiddo and I are on the spectrum here, though they’ve cropped out AS for assistance, so our diagnosis is presently more vague.).
A lot of folks that don’t understand invisible conditions aren’t able to accept it, because they cannot see it, so getting the word out is important.
It doesn’t make them an idiot, even if they flat out refuse to acknowledge you have a not readily visible condition, only ignorant and rude.
Interesting! I’ve been diagnosed with Asperger’s myself, and I find I have trouble reading body language and facial expressions. It explains something I’ve been wrestling with, namely, I tend to find black people distant and threatening at first glance because black skin makes people even harder to read, so they seem somewhat alien to me at first. It’s always made me feel bad because I’ve believe people are people, no matter what they look like. When I was growing up there were almost no non-white people in my neck of the woods, and I’ve been wondering if I would perhaps have less trouble reading black people if I had known them better when I was developing my social skills (such as they are).
I have similar difficulty with interpreting body language. If I consciously pay careful attention to a person’s body language I can pick up on some things. This is not however an innate skill, it actually took years for me to learn what comes natural to most people. Even now I still have problems reading body language when I am a part of the interaction. I find it much easier to pick up on things when I’m observing other people interact and I myself am not part of the conversation.
That graffiti – does that mean “Bad wolf” in alien writing?
According to my translation software it says ‘Supersurf 7’ with the local Smiley symbol.
(Chopper sported a Smiley on his powerboard and used it as a logo when wallscrawling)
Fracture Station looks like a perfect place for a Supersurf. Unless they also have grumpy authoritarian super cops there.
A thought occurs. The US government was known for taking in refugees and in the comic’s current timeline the Obama administration is still in charge. It would really delegitimize any later takeover attempts by Sciona if they offered to take in the Alari refugees. Many refugees, if well treated, end up being more fanatical Patriots of their new home than most people born there.
In another take on this, if I were Deus, I would be attempting to recruit any Alari scientists, engineers, or mages I could find. Their’s was a race that possessed advanced technology and magic enough to change Galatyn from burgeoning economy to technological superpower.
It wouldn’t need to be Deus who recruits highly educated Alari. The United States government has a history of recruiting former enemy scientists and engineers, ala Operation Paperclip. That was how Werner von Braun ended up working for the American space program after the end of WW2.
Sydney is obviously suffering from a lack of Sci-Fi genre RPG experience. Maybe she will remember some of her Alan Dean Foster first encounter readings.
I remember that show. I loved it when it was on. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Instead, I thought of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.
I need to find this show now just for the sheer curiosity. It sounds like the strangest thing to be on kids programming and even stranger for Nick to have picked it up.
DaveB – Completely unfounded speculation time… Remember that little orphan node on the Comm Ball where Sydney spent her first point? UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR!
Bets anyone?
It’s already been established that this was what turned on the teleport function.
That seems unlikely.
It’s like having a car’s A/C on the Shifter.
The Space Mall has Universal Translator like our malls have free WiFi.
Oddly enough my ac controls are also on the steaming wheel. Not sure why.
Space aliens
Probably to cool the steam… *ducks*
Actually, I really doubt that someplace like Fracture would have a public translation field. Even if it’s some sort of area effect. If the sound vibrations can be picked up and re-broadcast, even if very precisely limited to the original position and volume, they can be recorded by whoever is running the system.
No one is going to come trade in an area that has the potential for continuous global recordings. Unless that’s actually a service they’re selling as a venue, but Fracture doesn’t seem like that kind of place.
Why not? If the Fracture is supposed to be a place that hosts members of multiple species who speak multiple languages, having a public translation field makes every sense
Since the two parties don’t know the other’s language, it could be hard to check the accuracy for doing business deals. We could get complaints from customers along the lines of “I ordered a gross of self-sealing stem bolts, I what I got was a hovercraft full of eels.”
I hadn’t even considered the accuracy / reliability (huge potential for abuse there), I was just thinking of the privacy. Black market dealers tend to take an active dislike to having their conversations recorded by the authorities, and even legitimate businesses and private citizens aren’t fond of it.
That’s easy enough to fix; there can be sound-masking generators that foil microphones trying to detect and record speech, zones where there specifically aren’t any recording devices (along with signs proclaiming “Abandon all thoughts of police help, all ye who enter the Subsection 7, Floor 2, Granach Corner, UpperWest Quadrant Free Trade Area,” or even just a case of a local friendly service machine stating, “Insert 100 Yeets (or 1 smallish googly eye) to have 10 zircs (approximately 1.5 minutes eac) of unrecorded translation service within 10 glips (about .74 yards each) of this kiosk.”
Shows that no matter how bad your own situation is, you can always find someone who is worse off. Sydney may not know how she is going to get home, but at least she has a home to go to.
Could be even worse for those Alari, If there world WAS sanctioned for entire species termination I doubt those two are getting any aid anytime soon for anyone. There might be wanted poster like adverts stating something like shoot on sight for any of this race…and harboring could also be a crime for any would be protectors.
On the flip side not that Sydney would know, but if mama there IS a blood mage of any sort it might not be a good idea for them to go to earth. A bunch of Alari spirits did make it to earth. Tell me if you were orphaned on a strange world and had a chance to bring back a bunch of your people you wouldn’t take. World domination or otherwise
So, a group of phantoms from a doomed planet who were released from some kind of technological holding facility are now on Earth and are bent on conquest. I wonder if ‘Zod’ is a common Alari name?
Logically, someone has to have it worst of all. Or tie for that distinction.
Not necessarily if the subjective impression of “bad situation” differs.
Does a lot between different humans.
Now curious about next Monday’s page, as everyone seems to be looking at something off panel.
And now feel bad about being biased against Alari due to Sciona. Would be far from the first system were there was a ‘real piece of work’ ruling class over fairly decent common folk.
Hmmm… there’s a real long-shot possibility here. if Sydney could convince the Alari refugees that she had smacked down several of their enemies, she could become friends with the Alari. Knowing Sydney, she isn’t going to be able to just walk away, so the fastest way to get the Alari on her side would be “enemy of my enemy.” Did Sydney perhaps take trophies? Selfies on top of the squid corpses?
Except it’s possible these Alari got exiled by Alari’s government even BEFORE the attack happened.
Wowser, what a political hot potato. It is now possible there are a LOT of Alari that escaped/left etc . I would see if there is ‘galactic council’ that needs to know what happened to give guidance on how to proceed. Earth is kinda the extreme newbie on intergalactic politics.
You know if groups did find out there would be support. With The Supers in general it could also be a way for Earth to establish it’s ability to help people in need. I sorta see those Squidwards being able to figure out where Sydney went.
Ah, so one of my possibilities was right. It is a close-fitting artificial shell around a pulsar, providing the necessary gravity allowing for its outer surface to be habitable.
And, therefore, NOT a Dyson Sphere.
I see a little cultural bias in the last panel. Here on Earth we have lots of thing called trees. We grind them up into mush as a cheap source of fiber to make sheets of writing material. In a space station with no natural biosphere, sheets of pressed tree mush would be a rare and valuable commodity and not something to plaster randomly on walls.
But then, I may be mistaken. Their fiber source may be from algae tanks fed by the local waste processing facility.
Not necessarily… there is a company that makes “stone” paper. I’ve seen the ads pass through my FB feed more than once. So it”s possible that “paper” is made from local materials that are not even cellulose based.
OK then, maybe “Soylent” paper? :)
Yep, Soylent White… I just wish my Google-Fu was good enough to find the video of it from SNL…
For all we know, there could be a whole region of the surface allocated to an introduced biosphere for the express purpose of producing display materials.
I wonder if the Alari seen in the last panel is a subtle nod to the movie the Dark Crystal.
Jen: Wings? I don’t have wings!
Kira: Of course not. You’re a boy.
But the Alari are a lot taller than Gelflings, though they WERE originally going to have bluish skin.
I suspect wings do not manifest until adulthood. It could be a real danger with razor sharp wings in childhood….even if not razor sharp, flyaways might be a problem.
Since the wings appear to be a kind of psychic manifestation (not attached to the body, energy wing thingies) it’s probable you have to actually train your mind to manifest them.
Wonder if there’s a market for “training wings”?
Cause you could take some of those fairy-princess wings marketed to little girls on Earth, and maybe re-sell them for 5 times the Earth asking price.
I like that the mother is actually hurt here. She’s got a bandaged leg with a blood-stained bandage and blood stains on her flesh.
Heh. It would be interesting if Sydney ends up bringing the Alari refugees back to Earth because “they looked so pathetic and need help! I figured we can help assimilate them like the other aliens hiding here!” :) It’s a rather Sydney sort of thing to do.
It also looks like said bandage was made from the tails of her dress considering the ripped edge on one side. eg a hurried escape. I also wonder if the one just to the right is related to her. They look kinda similar for skin/hair tone, clothes styles and jewelry. it would sorta make sense if there was an entire group there.
That kid looks really scared too – judging by human norms
I am embarrassed that as a Kiwi (New Zealander to the uninformed) who has seen both the TV series and film versions of Under the Mountain (and owns a copy of the book on which both are based) that I missed the similarity to the Wilberforce aliens that DaveB drew his inspiration from.
I don’t recall if Maurice Gee (author of the book) drew any inspiration from the Cthulhu mythos for the aliens, but the idea for the book came when he was walking around Auckland and saw Rangitoto rising up before him and got the idea of “what if there was something underneath the volcano?” (Rangitoto is one of the large number of volcanic cones in the Greater Auckland area, and gives its name to the island on which it sits.)
The stones the two children used were not to send the Wilberforces home, but to lock them and their mega-worm mounts (think Dune worms in size) into a permanent stasis so that they could not continue destroying the universe as they had been doing in centuries past. An error by Theo caused a power imbalance and, instead of the stasis, caused one or more (depending on the media) volcanoes to erupt.
Can remember seeing the original series when it first aired, couldn’t remember what the Wilberforce’s looked like in their natural state either :(
Well I can’t blame Sydney for the jump scare on suddenly coming up behind an Alari woman. She just had a pretty bad experience with an Alari and thinks that their entire race was genocided, so she jumped to a conclusion that it was Sciona. But it’s pretty obviously not, and she has a kid with her, so I’m expecting Sydney to approach them, hear their sad tale of escaping the destruction of their world, and then offer to help them get refugee status on Earth if they help her figure out how to get there.
And I notice she has TWO kids…the young boy and an infant. I’m pretty sure Sydney would feel obligated to do whatever she can to help them.
Good that she just jump scared instead of firing on them.
On the minus side, she did NOT go for her force field orb, “just in case” like Maxima tried to get her to do when startled.
Holy cow, the Alari “mom” has two kids she’s taking care of. One infant in her arms, and the other gripping her badly wounded leg.
Dave B. Excellent work showing that the Alari are not all a bunch of power-mad jerks.
Interior of the Death Star? Lots of nearly endless pits and the walkways have no guardrails? Did you include the guardrails? Didja huh?
Hehehehehehe
Force shield reactive safety systems.
Nope, we asked for guardrails, but management said we might lean on them.
I have to sinker here. It’s the same with guard rails on roads. in Colorado with the mountains and high roads within easy reach of Denver, a lot of the high roads do NOT have guard rails. natives go roaring up them, and we scare the tourists. Some of the roads go along a hogback, above treeline and not a guard rail in sight.
However; in Michigan they put guard rails up if the side of the road drops more that 5-6 ft.
Am I the only one who is perplexed by the fact that she doesn’t need her shield up to maintain proper oxygen? She flew right into that place without seemingly having to pass through any atmosphere like Earth’s.
Maybe just over speculation on my part -shrug-
This is a world with both technology and magic. The Council could maintain a 1 atm pressure vault in the deep sea, I think the Fracture can probably make sure their air doesn’t leak right into the pulsar.
Panel 5, just a tiny bit in shot, Male Alari? I note the lack of hardlight wings.
Alari wings can also retract. Sciona’s did when she did the horizontal mambo with Deus.
Ahh, well remembered!
Thanks. That’s what I’m here for. Legal information and extreme minutiae from past strips :)
I do my best.
Well this is a chance encounter that offers a twist. Here I was waiting for Sid to bump in to Deus X or Vale. What information will she glean off this poor Woman? After she discovers that English is spoken here of course. Perhaps not all the Alari are dicks. Could spawn a whole story arc on the other Ghost Alari that escaped into the wormhole.
Question is how did this refugee get here? Pretty sure she doesn’t have an Aetherium Causeway at her disposal.
Please get Sid something to eat, I am starting to feel bad for her.
I just noticed something about the graffiti on the wall – the smiley face has three eyes… like a Toy Story alien.
Or like the smiley face from the posters for the film Evolution.
Well some interesting possibilities here.
Sydney learns that sci-fi planet of hats is BS; that not all members of any species will be exactly alike, possibly the Alari had different political factions, and/or the every day Alari were just trying to live their lives and many barely manages to escape.
She may learn the name of the species that attacked them.
She may accidently name drop Sciona near a military personnel member and get the low down; and also likely reveal she did take down at least “one” of the invaders herself…although a second is iffy as they had a weakness; but she was forced to flee. Although chances are even if the Alari did figure out the weakness of the squid-kaiju mecha men, that doesn’t mean the Alari could exploit it, they may not have had any short ranger teleportation options. Portals and teleporters aren’t always the same thing, and in a fight you would need short range and instant.
If anyone (else) is interested, here’s the trailer to the movie version of Under the Mountain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8IHJoPUFZw
That second alien was a Wilberforce? Saw the original series as a kid, had forgotten what they looked like without their meat-suits on
Hope her impulsive nature takes over and she tries to strike up the convo–as far as she knows Sciona knew Englihs. maybe others will. and curiousity.
BACKSTORY!
Syd ‘s gotta love that.
but will her impulse override it
Rather than the wing-less Alari being a male, maybe the wings are a sign of maturity and develop during puberty
Or Alari wings can retract, which we know they can do because Sciona was able to retract hers after Deus showed her the skill of lovemaking that only Deus could.
Nah, going to go with the wings being a result of puberty, and that other figure a different species entirely (we have seen Drow before)
Both guesses are possible. Just saying, as a fact from past comics, that Alari wings CAN retract.
Aww, they’re not all extinct…
err … I mean, awww, how nice, they’re not all extinct! Yes, it is a good thing. Definately. Don’t accidentally activate the PPO Sydney. Children are not combatants
until proven otherwise.Yorpie…. when I was 9, a german shepherd bit me on the leg for no reason. His name was uninspiringly ‘Rover.’ Had to get stitches and a rabies shot. When I was 13, a different german shepherd chased me when I was on my bike for 2 blocks until I fell off and broke my arm. His name was Petey. Petey didnt bother to attack me once I fell but just walked away, as if his nefarious job was done.
Yet I still like german shepherds :)
I’d like to present this into evidence.
I like to tell people that spiders aren’t aggressive, they’re very friendly but don’t have arms, so they have to use their fangs. Is this why so many dogs have bitten you?
I have found just the dog for you!
Heh, do a similar thing in EQ2 every Halloween: combine a rat pushie with a spider plushie into a twelve-legged abomination :P
:-D
There was a prank about something like that with a a cute little doggy in a spider costume running out when there were scenes of horror staged. It’s hilarious :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmaD6L8KRrU
I wouldnt consider two dogs ‘so many’ but no…. those dogs in particular were just mean jerks. And a poodle that once bit my finger when I was 6. But it was this little yipping poodle and that was probably my fault because it didn’t want to get pet or something. The two german shepherds though? I wasnt doing anything – they just went at me. I don’t think they were trying to be friendly, judging from the snarling. I’ve been around other German Shepherds that were wonderful doggos though, and had a couple too.
Plus I like virtual dogs too (nudges Yorp).
Main point was most of the time, an entire species isnt going to be bad because one is bad. :)
*wags tail happily*
*wags tail and looks friendly*
That’s adorable.
More cuteness now.
https://g.redditmedia.com/Cn9UxbzjGttaa-fs76fI5v3Ez1ujmi1Zxn8DUgf9lGE.gif?fm=mp4&mp4-fragmented=false&s=0db549f7cf0f7fdb2cf5cfb7bf9847fa
My late Jack Russel used to be adored by just about everyone in the village, in particular the kids. And, of course, as new ones were born they got introduced to her. Whilst she could be very wary of adults, she was incredible with toddlers and would put up with their inept fumblings, ear pulling or the like. Wisely she would tuck her tempting tail under her body to avoid the inevitable.
But there was more than one toddler who got a good face licking, in the process.
That’s because baby hyu-mons taste great :D
D’awwwww! :)