Grrl Power #687 – A friendly tongue
My favorite thing about this page is that we break into this conversation midstream, so you need to realize it took Sydney that much longer to realize the other girl was speaking English. I don’t know what she is. Demoness? Tiefling-adjacent? Whatever. Obviously Gray-gal there suggested Sydney have some more of that supposedly dangerous-to-human spicy food so she could film it for her universetube channel.
There’s obviously other ways onto the station. People can beam down or take shuttles, but you’re supposed to use the starports if you dock, otherwise there’d be ships landing all over the place. There are some races than can fly using various methods, so they can just hop out of their ship and float down wherever they need, but they still need to park their ship either at a port or put it in orbit. Gray-gal can’t fly and doesn’t have her own personal shuttle, so she was being a little absent minded when she said there wasn’t any other way on to the station.
Also, there are travel gates all over the station (basically human scale stargates) but unbeknownst to most of the station’s populace, there are some gates that lead to weird places. Technically they’re shut down and not equipped with information kiosks, but it is still quite possible to get onto the station and miss the amenities.
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.
Well at least we know that Sydney isn’t going to need to do a Dine-And-Dash, what with the peanut gallery picking up the tab for the Grakz. Now she just has to worry about Fracture Station’s police coming after her for sneaking onto the station. The expression on her face in the last panel has a real “Busted” look, so I’m half expecting Sydney to react to Cora the same way she reacted to the bank robbers. Cora may be prepared for almost anything, but is anybody ever really ready for Sydney’s startle reflex?
That’s why her current reflex has been retuned to “shield”
I don’t think it’s actually illegal to sneak into the station.
But Sydney doesn’t know that. As far as she knows the starports and travel gates are the only legal ports of entry onto the station.
Two words, Government vivsections
two more words: nerve weasel
That’s painless, right?
Oh my, no.
Oh no! its absolutely painless, you will need it done someplace with sound proofing your screams will awake the neighbors, or dear me Yes.
And make sure you have some good throat drops also! Screaming is hard on them vocals cords!
Actually, that’d be a hilarious sort of interrogation technique- Something that stimulates the scream reflex without actually causing pain. Just… makes you scream.
Yesssssssssssssssss!
But that is not Sydney fears. She fears the old “Poke’n’Prod”.
Two more words: “Bagers” startle.
Considering this is the gateway nexus, I don’t think they have much security besides being allowed to use the gates, especially since there’s almost no way to get here without them
Every port with that much traffic and markets will have a lot of security, just to keep the tourists in line and enforce regulations( or tax the criminals, depending on how the station is run).
my bet’s on Sydney wasn’t exactly trying to be stealthy when she landed, and Security is aware she’s here, and doesn’t particularly care, other than she’s another blip in the ocean.
Let’s just face facts that Sydney isn’t stealthy full stop even when she tries to be. She is like the 6 mile wide asteroid crashing into a planet kind of stealthy as opposed to small grain of dust hitting the atmosphere over Antarctica.
She is probably less stealthy when trying to be stealthy. It’s possible when she isn’t, she can accidentally be very stealthy.
I’m picturing Bluto pantomiming stealth as he crosses the sorority house lawn, or Silent Bob emulating Bluto as he prepares to break into an animal research lab.
I am *so old*!!!!
It took me a minute to realize you meant the John Belusi Bluto
and not the Max Fliesher one.
Nah, you’re young yet.
I thought of the character in the old black and white Popeye cartoons.
Close but no Segar.
No footfalls. That’s the trick to being stealthy.
Sydney uses a shield orb and fly ball. Shield apparently blocks some effects, so may be absent from radar, probably show up on liar or similar.
Sydney flying has no footfalls.
As to security – fair bet most here haven’t heard of 9-11, so security might be somewhat relaxed. Then again we’ve not heard of the Gregarix Expansion,and they have, so they are quite possibly paranoid of ninja gerbils.
Always. Expect. Ninja’s.
Granted, you may not expect them to be GERBILS…. but you should expect some sort of NINJA at the very least.
Nah, no such thing as ninjas. Just ask one & they’ll tell you so.
She might be able to fly silently, but she can also cause a sonic boom if startled.
… and that’s only gotten worse since she got the orbs.
Does that mean we get to see Sydly tongue throw Cora?
( Knowing the past association of Dabbles and Cora, it is most likely not the first time.)
Well, I do still remember how she reacted to Dabblers true form.
While I’m not sure what her startle reflex will be, the fact that Cora knows her name will probably be significant as soon as Sydney is able to apply some thought to the introduction.
Since people with ADHD tend to focus on the last thing told to them, she will be focusing on the fact she entered “illegally”. This means her reaction will be more of a jump away and saying “I’m sorry I didn’t know! Please don’t arrest me! Then some side note of “By the way, I’m a cop too”. I don’t think she will be swinging or running away from touching her like that, just not wanting to get in trouble.
Busted! Or – rescued….
OK, Opening bets on Sydney’s next action…
I’m putting $5 on Sydney impulsively attacking Cora
I put all the space bucks on that same outcome.
All my zorkmids on Sydney interrupting her own reflex in time so cora doesn’t blast her to smithereens with her ray gun.
*digs up a packet of googly eyes, sells a few* …Okay, I’ve got 7,500 Yeets on Sydney flinching and whipping around, but only to demand some variant of “How did you know that/know my name??”
And *sells some pipe cleaner animals, as “rare Earthling artworks, very delicate”…I’m putting up another 14,500 Yeets on her hugging Cora when she realizes she’s being rescued. (It’s a longer shot, so…)
I wager 10,000 quatloos.
I call “puppy-dog eyes” with a phrase similar to “Can I go home now, please?”
Followed immediately by “wait, if you can take me home, you can take me anywhere! I can go home any time but how often can I tour with a space pirate?! Just tell the team I’m okay then let’s go sightseeing!”
Or wondering if she’s one of her freshly acquired fanbase
I’m going to guess that Sydney’s going to demand how Cora knew her name.
I don’t know. If she sees Cora,s coloring, first…
I’m hoping Cora lies and says she knows how to read minds.
*Sydney turn to look at Cora*
*Looks at her eyes, face*
*Looks at her chest*
*Looks back at her face*
“Friend of Dabbler’s, am I right??”
I’m betting on a swift turn around and beg for mercy to station security – “I did not know that you had to register at the entrance!”.
I would say that this is the most comical, and therefore most likely, outcome.
Knowing how strong the Nerd is with Sydney, I can see her spinning to face Cora and blurting out the line, “It wasn’t me!! It was the one armed man!!” and in the moment of confusion from everyone, booking it for the nearest dumpster to hide.
Maybe but she reset her reaction remember ;)
Hmm… most of the obvious ones are taken, so I guess I’m going with Sydney breaking into an “evil alien bounty hunter” fantasy, leading to either glee at the idea of already being well known across worlds or “careful” analysis of the situation for a way out (everything except the true nature of the person talking to her now).
I’m betting a shiny penny on her reacting in a thought out and collected. I’ll clean up if I’m right because no one else will bet on that outcome.
Her next action should be a grab of the flight and force field orbs. The crowd may be friendly in general, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is friendly. And knowing her name could either be a very good sign or a very, very bad sign. Discretion is always her best bet if she wants to remain alive as a non-rugged superhero. As the captain so wisely said in the last comic when asked if she was expecting trouble: “I’m alive, aren’t I?”
Blow your nose, Sydney.
Miss Scoville I presume?
“Only if you buy next round”
How was she going to pay for the first round?
I’d be curious about that, too. At this point she either has paid for what she has eaten or knows how to pay for it, telling from how the conversation goes.
I mean, the aliens all know what a human is, aliens backpack to Earth routinely, no one blinks at seeing a human at the
space mallFracture (until she starts eating a likely fatal amount of capsaicin, that is – seriously, a million Scoville is a sixteenth, and a sixteenth of a bowl that size would be far beyond the LD50 of about 2.6 grams for a 55 kg woman), and business magnates apparently take regular trips there – despite Sydney’s initial incredulity, they probably do take dollars, and maybe even Earth credit cards. (Or they might charge after the meal, like a sit-down restaurant, and she’s either planning to dine and dash or hasn’t thought that far ahead.)Could have just swapped him earth local handicrafts – earrings or whatever such she was carrying. Or her knife.
There’s always a collector market for uncommon local production.
My guess a sheet of Googly eyes are worth more then gold here.
We’ve determined the value depends on the size, but yes, a whole sheet of googly eyes would be worth tens of thousands of Yeets. Not sure about zorkmids, tho. The people who use those tend to eat googly eyes (which is why they’re so rare and valuable).
“a million Scoville is a sixteenth”
a sixteenth of what?
I’m guessing of a lethal dose but I don’t think the scoville scale translates that way. Something that’s 1 million scoville is 1 million scoville no matter how big the dish but the LD50 is based on mg/kg.
Pure capsaicin is 16 million scoville but she’s not eating a bowl of pure capsaicin so I doubt she has 100-150mg of it in each bowl.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resiniferatoxin
People misunderstand that scale though.
Incidentally like the wiki link indicates they think 10 grams of pure Resiniferatoxin is a lethal amount. But again that’s it’s not capsasin.
Whatever it is that makes it hot doesn’t have to be Capsaicin. There’s more than one thing which can create a hot/spicy taste on earth, and probably more than that in the universe. Maybe whatever it is has a weak effect on humans but stronger on many other species. The same way that cap essentially doesn’t work on earth birds.
Imagine how exciting it will be when Sydney returns from her trip with a shaker of that Grakz; I’ll be disappointed if we aren’t treated to a frame of hazmat suits and EOD robots carrying a spice-shaker.
Well this is not the first time Sydney have done something without thinking first.
Actually, Sydney has been there since Grrl Power #677 – Xeno economics October 22nd, 2018. So technically she is correct…
Also… Gray-gal is a mammal since she obviously has nursing sacs. A physical trait found only in mammals.
Well, only found in mammals on Earth. They could be a case of convergent evolution. Meaning her species nurses but isn’t mammal by other definition.
Or they could be something utterly different that just happens to look like nursing sacks.
Heh heh. ‘Utterly’.
Udderly. I’ll just see myself out.
I’m wondering how grey girl eats with that mouth structure. Her upper teeth are outside of her lower lip and her lower teeth are inside. I’d think she would bite her lower lip a lot when eating.
In humans that’s called a huge overbite :P
Freddie Mercury had an overbite. Grey girl’s overbite is in a class by itself.
Learned recently that Freddy had 4 extra teeth on top. Even after becoming rich, he didn’t want to get his teeth changed for fear it would mess up his voice.
Thank you for posting that link. Very interesting article.
Looks like a mask to me
Could be that grey girl is an Intergalactically famous web celebrity and is operating in disguise so she doesn’t get mobbed by fans. She might be quite the PYT when she’s not going undercover.
I’m wondering how an enterprising human would be able to make out with her with that mouth structure. What? It’s just a hypothetical!
She does seem to be chipper, so who knows what she eats… Wood/Metal chipper maybe?
*exits stage left*
The side view of her face suggests that she may be able to dislocate her jaw like a snake, in order to swallow large ‘food items’. Those teeth were not designed for chewing: they are more suited to dispatching prey and making sure food keeps travelling in the right direction afterwards.
Yeah, about the answer I was going to give, between the shield-horn/upper face, and those slicing teeth structure, my guess would be her face OPENS UP, a bit to slice off chunks of her food to be swallowed, like some fish.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she has a second set of teeth and/or jaws beyond that outer one.
She may be able to Unhinge her jaw.
I have seen Venom sacks, hydration humps, inflatable displays, armor plates (not as soft looking ), or vestigial glands from an ancestor species (usually human though).
There are also camel-type humps.
that would be what I was implying with “hydration humps”, granted that’s not 100% accurate for camels but there it is.
Fembots got guns!
Well they’re a mix of moderately-covered and flaunted, so the clothing suggests that it’s advertising for something done in private.
A mammal, is defined as a mammal, because of mammary glands;, since a platypus, doesn’t have mammary glands, they are not considered mammals.
The platypus DOES have mammary glands (and is in fact a mammal), but it doesn’t have teats. The milk comes out through pores in the skin and pools in folds in the abdomen.
Her hair is also a mammals-only trait. Also, her overall structure definitely looks like a tetra-pod vertebrate, like most of the other on-lookers. The horns are too far forward on the face to be used in defence against predators or actual combat for mating rights (which is the case when the male has horns, antlers, etc., but the female does not), but I am pretty sure big-brained mammals would not want to be banging their heads together. Hmm, maybe “she” is actually a “he” and the males feed the babies in his species.
probably that’s what the author felt like drawing, and she doesn’t have a species
We don’t know that it’s actually hair. Could be hair-like feathers, as some flightless birds have. Or part of her exoskeleton, like the hair on bees or tarantulas.
And those horns might actually be sensory organs, or assist with thermal regulation, breathing, or vocalizations.
All very good points.
Considering how many species have some kind of display feature on or around their heads its no unreasonable other life forms would evolve some sort of display, heck I find it freakier (stream line or not) how many creatures evolved dorsal fins like…I can get it being in the DNA of fish from the start, but for mammals and reptiles to go marine and THEN develop that ONE piece of triangular flesh on their back is just….weird.
This alien also has a little hologram floater thing between her horns. Which between that reminding me of a suppression sigil on the lines on her body is taking my imagination by storm to imagine this alien is shrunken down and suppressed so she can move about among other species and for their safety. I have seen some *hentai mostly* aliens with lines like those down the breasts and limbs that could expand their bodies…yep not breasts BUT tentacle sacks or extending suction cup mouths.
Great, her true form (face extends out like an eel, hair turns into anemone tendrils, body expands, breasts have teeth line mouths inside them and arms stretch out really long and sharp. Also I did just describe actual hentai I have seen online. Can’t remember what specifically off the top of my head though.
The horns might’ve looked differently on her ancestors who actually used them but changed shape meanwhile while the brain grown.
Has anyone considered that “Gray Girl” might actually be “Gray Guy” and that means you are gettign hot and bothered over…
Don’t matter if it’s Arcturan!
Such “nursing sacs” are modified sweat glands. So do they have sweat glands? Humans like drawing aliens to resemble sexual dimorphism in humans. Though we can guess as to what sort of biology she has. Morphic resonance? Not considered real so far in our science, of course. Just the fact that evolution has brought us two versions of endothermal control, body covering in birds and in mammals. We can also discuss marsupials and monotremes as early versions reptile-to-mammal evolution on our world alone. So many examples. Imagine megapodes developing a sapient line? Intelligent kangaroos.
(The monotremes do have some active reptile genes that give them some unique characteristics yet they are still mammals. They produce milk, but not from mammaries. You can always look at Nature for ideas of how some problems have been solved. And maybe come up with a few ideas of your own.)
sorry, but the first panel makes me wonder if we lost something somewhere.
like ‘okay’ to WHAT?
at this point, we don’t even know she if she agreed to be on an intergalactic TV SHOW OR WHAT?!
We’re hopping into the middle of the conversation.
According to the description under the comic: The grey gall asked to film Sidney while she was eating.
well, let’s say it.
she was WAY MORE polite than the others. lol
But how do we get home, we don’t have a warp gate on earth!
*Deus walks past*
Heh, yea – she should know, that by now she basically has all the cosmic 4th wall powers at her disposal.
“Heh… what’s next – I’m a space princess?”
~
“Royal message for a Sidney Scoville Jr.”
~You have been chosen as the next Miss Universe, congratulations!~
“oh.”
So, Sydney becoming Halo and discovering her 4th-wall powers (before ultimately losing the orbs) is really just the backstory for Gwenpoole? I like it!
Little Halo found.
Well honestly I can’t say that she’s all that wrong after all her friend hired someone who could find her rather than finding her herself. Yeah this is going to be quite interesting I can hardly wait for the next comic. Honestly I’m wondering how many questions Sydney answered before she realize she was talking to someone who seemed to be speaking English to her
I know it’s Cora, but that that last panel reads like “Station security. You are under arrest.” Sydney seems also to get that, or/and is shocked that somebody knows her name.
Are ‘shoulder spikes’ a Manga convention I’m not familiar with?
Used to indicate being startled like a cat?
Lucky for Cora whatever reaction Sydney provides won’t be Orb based.
Oops. There is the being Bonked in the Head as Dabbler was.
I forgot for a moment that she has short range position control.
A few loose strands of hair are also sticking up (or attempting to anyway)
The “shoulder spikes” are often used when someone is touched and surprised or touching somthing gross (Spirited Away – when Chihiro receives the mud drenched money of the “fowl god”/river god). It is to visualize the sensation of a cold shiver running down your spine. In real life you can see startled people often twitch and get their hair to stand.
Not sure about manga but Dave uses them consistently that way.
That design could also be seen in classical cartoons as well, the jaggedness tells the reader that the character is startled, that stiffing up moment/goosebumps.
Station Security aren’t going to have any major problem with her.
She’s behaved in a civil fashion so far. At most they will want her to work out how to pay her tab and ask her to fill in some paperwork.
As has been seen here, she is both well-fed and dealing with surprising events (seeing an Alari) with a relatively restrained response.
She’s also got her shield and is in the company of people whom she’s getting along well with (grey girl), so I imagine that the worst that she would do would be to put her shield up and demand people explain themselves, which isn’t too unreasonable.
In her shoes, my first guess would be either.
A: Telepath followed by a response of “its rude to read people’s minds without their consent”
or
B: Tourist who was on Earth and saw the news while there. Chances are any aliens on Earth in the last week would be aware of the first publically declared team of superheroes and thus Sydney.
I’m going to guess Dabbler’s friend doesn’t conform to the universal standard size and will just absolutely tower over Sydney.
Well Sydney is shorter than almost everyone she hangs out with.
Sydney is sitting down at the lunch counter. That’s why (presumably) Cora appears to be “towering” over her.
Huh, guess I’m the only one so far to notice the little tongue sticking out on Gray-Gal’s flame/jewel thing. Also I’m not certain but I’m pretty sure it was an eye on the last page…
It’s still an eye, not a tongue, it’s just half-lidded in panel five
In a way it’s an eye, it’s the video camera. The dome shape looks quite similar to the recent 180 and 360 view cameras on the market. If you’re going to film everything that happens in front of you, where ‘she’ had it was a pretty good place. I put she in quotes because how do we know for that species the male doesn’t have the nursing sacks. Human guys have nipples because the Y chromosomes don’t kick in until about 6 weeks and by that time nipples have formed.
Good thing she had all that training otherwise our dear captain may have had a Sydney meets teleporting Harem moment.
WHOA!!!
Knowing someones True Name has POWER!
Cora didn’t take long getting to the Food Court.
Time to prepare meal and eat, probably 5-15 min per bowl, so anywhere from 15 to 45 min.
If her ship does have a time travel type ability, she may have been able to fly to when or slightly before the bridge opened. Then it would have been a case of waiting for her to show up, then trying to keep track of her, after all did she have/take time recover her Sensor array? Or would she have deployed it in there for reasons? (Like a local regulation of no excessive scanning or else)
We don’t know how long it took to traverse the ‘Aetherium Causeway’ compared to the ‘hyperspace jumps’ that Cora’s ship is taking, and also, how long did Sydney spend taking in the sights and flying towards Fracture?
I bet the ship is capable of moving faster than she is in normal space, so they could have landed moments after her, or even passed her on the way in without realising it.
(No one said that two events shown on the same page in a comic has to happen simultaneously)
Taking both StevenThomas’s calculations on the food prep and the time mention in the comic, add in… say 30 minutes flying to Fracture, staring in awe… add in… 5-10 minutes of Aetherium Gateway travel… between 90 and 170 minutes passing since the jump was initiated.
That period would have given Cora plenty of time to catch up with Sydney (using various forms of sci-fi canonical engines like Star Trek’s warpdrive, Star Wars’ Hyperdrive, Blade Runner/Heavy Gear’s Tannhuaser gates, etc)
A few days before Christmas, at the Amundsen Scott_South_Pole_Station,
there’s a knock at the door….
one thing I thoink everyone is overlooking. I do not think that they know that the guy has the “stargate” if they did. since they were aboe to tell the captain where to go. then if they knew he had it. they would have gone there first.
Some sort of scaly chitinous demon with sacks to show off.
Wonder why the Chef didn’t have a translator? Maybe he just assumed everyone that would show up would have one.
I may be wrong, but I think the translator is “ongoing” only: it translates what you hear for you, hence why you place it near your ear… and why you don’t hear two voices at once when the other person is speaking. (this also matches with the language library: if you translate for the other person, you have to identify their language first, which would be impractical; and it would be particularly horrible when speaking to a crowd: speak to ten or twelve people from different races and you have a one-person cacophony)
Note also that he has no difficulty answering Sydney’s questions, so he understands her.
Chef may have a translator, but it may be one way only, or it(?) has trouble with speaking English language.
I could not see something that resembled that translator on the Chef, or ears in a very different location?
Glad to see that Sydney finally finds a way home. Also glad that she still knows how to suppress her reflexes in the last panel.
If Dave doesn’t know (yet) who gray girl is I say she’s a fairy, because while here on earth her look is associated with evil races I want to believe that it’s the other way round on her home world. Just for the heck of it. :-)
I hope the Captain doesn’t try to convince Sydney that she can read Sydney’s mind….by that I mean I hope that she does.
Also a word to the wise don’t tell people your friends don’t know where you are when you are on a strange station or planet that you’ve never been on before. That can lead to some very unsafe circumstances
She took out a squidward squad and and a large flight mass. I don’t think Sydney has to worry. (Of course the corollary is that Sydney should try to remember she’s the equivalent of a gentle giant now, and be more aware of how her reactions could cause problems…
I’m just looking forward to what Dabbler has to say to Sydney once she gets back.
“Sydney, Cora tells me a lot of things I’m having trouble believing.”
“Yeah, it was a pretty wild time.”
“She says she found you working on your seventh bowl of grakz.”
“Oh, is that what that’s called? Yeah that stuff was AWESOME.”
“At the FRACTURE.”
“Is that what the space-station thingy is called? Sure.”
“That’s eight thousand LIGHT YEARS away from where we left you.”
“Oh, cool. I was wondering how far I’d traveled.”
“She says you magicked up a virtual spaceship.”
“That was just my orbs. Flight, shield, air.”
“That can make AETHERIUM CAUSEWAYS.”
“…. I have no idea what that is.”
“Meaning you can make aetherium causeways WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THEY ARE.”
“I guess? I ground XP and leveled my flight orb a couple of times.”
“You ground XP… YOU FOUGHT THAT THING???”
“And three of its friends.”
“You fought FOUR of them?”
“Well, fine, I fought one. Then three showed up after I killed it and I ran.”
“You managed to KILL that thing?”
“Two of them, I think. The best escape route from its reinforcements was through one of their eyes.”
“You made an aetherium causeway THROUGH ITS EYE?”
“No, that was just the PPO. …. though what you said just sounds super-cool! That means I can weaponize the theory-M causeway, right? I’m going to HAVE to try that sometime soon!”
“Naxioleh maito xuwell….”
“Now that’s just RUDE. Oh, hey, check out this universal translator thing I got! I can speak Welsh now!”
…. it’s just possible that Max won’t have the clearance to read Sydney’s report.
Also, this is why they will never make Sydney an officer. Because her operating independently, without a CO on hand, is the most terrifying thing in the universe.
heh heh heh
I doubt anyone but dabbler could debrief Halo… no not THAT debrief … pervs all of ya!
Wait until she unlocks more orb abilities, lol.
Can’t…find… Like button… Must jury-rig one using a paper clip, a legal pad and five teaspoons of butter!
Real butter is the secret to good things
This is the best comment ever posted
If only I could up vote this.
Ahhhh… That shiv made me laugh.
Strong work.
I’m hoping for an authoritative, in-comic scene similar to this soon, but if not I am more than satisfied with your version. You may have my entire ration of internet points for today.
Yeah, if nothing else this should make Dabbler (which given the stereotype of super smart aliens not to believe in serendipity and happenstance) suspicious of Sydney’s claim of humanity; when left alone she fought back thousands of ships, possibly killed two giant planet wrecking kaiju *Cora’s scanners should have had time by now to go over the planet wide data of recent combat activity to ascertain if/no doubt Dabbler described the thing they were running from; was cut to pieces and three more (one minus its head) were down there and recent combat in low orbit…coupled with the apparently ultra tech Aetherium Causeway, and then…going to a well known *but not by humans* station/nexus port, and finding the spiciest thing possible for lunch.
Yeah, if I were in Dabbler’s shoes too I’d suspect Sydney of being “something else” just playing at being human.
I suspect a LOT of people suspect Sydney of being something else just playing at human. :)
… actually, that explanation would make the orbs just decoys that she is pretending are the source of her (actually innate) power.
Have to admit I read your whole comment, and laughed twice :)
If she don’t get on earth really quickly, NOONE would have clearance to read her report.
“Oh wait, I almost forgot!”
Cora, facepalming, peeks between her fingers warily. “…What, exactly, did you forget?”
“I took out like, five, six hundred of their little fighter squadron ship things! They were like grays to me, though, no xp for them, so that’s why I went after the big guys. That, and they were annoying me. That tractor beam was so rude of them!”
“Wait…you got free of a tractor beam?
“Well, yeah…can’t you?”
+10 internets for initial comment…
I find the judderingly titanic bazongas in panel 3 to be incredibly distracting. I can’t explain why. More research is needed.
DAVID! DRAW MORE PROFILE BOOBIES! FOR SCIENCE!!!!
It seems like Dabbler is not the only one with hypnotic boobs. All hail the hypnoboob.
I too am a fan of the hypnoboobs, but I have to wonder why they have seams as shown in panel #5,
Bra cup seams. Or environmental suit seams, because there are seams all over her visible torso.
I think those are scales.
Or they aren’t boobs really and her humanoid form is just for show and those seams are actually lip slits and her body can open up…seen some weird hentai let’s just put it that way.
Dave has done plenty of…science… back before he started Grrl Power. Its still out there on the web.
But where? There are so many nasty, nasty website. Where should I look if I want to evade them? Like, an URL or two, just to be sure I will never find them accidentally.
That’s one thing I love about this comic is some of the obscure links. Like InCase art (the Puazi girl)
NSFW peeps:
https://hentaihaven.org/
https://hentaihaven.org/residence-episode-1/
https://www.hentai-foundry.com/pictures/user/InCase
https://buttsmithy.com/archives/comic/p1
I wanna know what Sidney is saying o.k. to in the first panel.
“Obviously Gray-gal there suggested Sydney have some more of that supposedly dangerous-to-human spicy food so she could film it for her universetube channel.”
Nothing quite like a bit of friendly tongue at the end of a busy day, and boy has she been busy.
Dabbler would agree wholeheartedly!
Looks like some being there knows Sydney…!
TACTICAL ERROR! TACTICAL ERROR!! TACTICAL ERROR!!!
Do not approach the strange alien from outside the range of its visual perceptors! Do not touch strange alien when said alien is unaware of your presence! Especially when strange alien has unusual and powerful artifacts!
DANGER! DANGER!! DANGER!!!
Yeah, one would expect experienced bounty hunters like Cora wouldn’t underestimate their targets this way …
It’s likely, even probable, that the bounty hunters have not under-estimated anything this way.
If lions to you are like cute kittens that can bite and claw a tiny bit roughly, you’d think nothing of spooking one from behind by popping a paper bag. Might even think it’s hilarious. Whereas people who only know lions as dangerous man eaters would call you crazy for sneaking up on the lion with an inflat3d paper bag and a funny grin pasted to your face.
In re Grey Girl’s dental configuration, it’s quite possible her ancestors consumed live prey necessitating getting a good grip on it in order to feed. Evolution being what it is, their current dining habits are less violent, but the dental structure remains, albeit in a modified form. Her fun bags could be a form of food storage or energy reserves and she really lays eggs like a bird. Hey, it’s a big universe out there.
Strictly speaking the reason human females evolved breasts is because human males found them attractive. So the only thing needed for any alien species to evolve something analogous in appearance is for other members of their species to find them sexually attractive.
They wouldn’t need to find them attractive for the same reasons humans do either. They’d just need to find them attractive enough that members of the species possessing them gain a significant advantage when it comes to courtship and/or procreation.
And it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that a sapient species would have evolved to consider ‘breasts’ attractive with at least one gender’s physical form evolving to possess them. Because it’s already happened once that we know of.
The way I heard it human females evolved breasts was as a substitute for our primate ancestor’s mating signal. They walked bent-over, displaying an engorged rump during mating season but when we became bipedal our rear-end became less pronounced and the best way to have sex became lying down & face to face.
Ever notice how much a close-up of cleavage can look like a butt crack?
I think there is big time gap between becoming bipedal and having sex face to face …
No, the ‘Missionary’ position is not the best way to have sex, and laying down face-to-face is not a good survival tactic: for one thing, you are both laying down and the position of the eyes and the structure of the neck makes looking up very difficult
OK, the “having sex lying down & face to face” was a bit of a stretch. It’s more likely the face-to-face interactions that precede sex were the deciding factor. If you’re both standing up when you’re deciding if you want someone for a mate it helps if the sexual signals are on the front where you can see them.
That is “sexual selection” and it has happened more times with humans than you know.
Its also why so many species have features that don’t aid (and may even a hindrance) to survival like big tails and the like.
On that note: the butt/boobs thing isn’t a real theory, its from a manga and I have not found any credible source that says otherwise. Humans however unlike any other primate stay in heat year round so parts of the body that would only inflate at those times stay inflated, that includes breasts, which other primates have, which also become bigger when breeding and/or nursing. Its not just the butts (which are big on males and females), if the butt-boobs thing were true then men would have big boobs as well as male primates’ butts also get big and colorful in many species.
On that note, considering how many humans have smaller, distinctly not butt like chests it kills the theory pretty dead honestly. If not for bras and corsets most women’s chests would bare very little resemblance to butts…so you have European fashion…inspired by the state of the human body when infected with tuberculosis of all things (thin, pale, rosy cheeks, ect…) to thank for the raised chest with pressed cleavage. A human busom left alone without support doesn’t really look the same way.
Now sexual selection, North Eastern USA men having thin thumbs on average is a good example of sexual selection in humans. Women accepting suitors who were men with thinner thumbs due to a messed up law where a man wasn’t allowed to beat his wife with a rod any thicker than his thumb. So the thickness of a man’s thumb became a focus for marriage. Same too has affected eye color, hair color (based on superstitions) being more or less prevalent, xenophobia towards certain traits,
heck even how sweaty some populations are relative to others resulted due to the Great Depression where a man who was sweatier was considered a hard worker, and heavier set women were considered healthier and wealthier.
…okay some of that sounds reasonable, but I’m really gonna have to see your sources for thin thumbs and propensity to sweat a) actually being measurable things and not cultural stereotypes, and b) having any statistically significant hereditary meaning when any selection pressure only existed for a very short time, e.g. 2-3 generations at most after the Depression.
Scrap the Rule of Thumb and Sweat thing then. The rest still stands on its own.
Apparently quoting a professor is a bad idea when its a debated issue for historians.
The plumage and the fact human chests DON’T look like butts without support are observable facts though. *and the fact the whole butt-chest thing is from a manga and not evolutionary science*.
Someone’s gonna get punched next page.
How would that translation gizmo work?
Specifically, how would it cause an alien to make sounds that Sydney would understand as English?
Grey Girl may not have the anatomy to physically produce the sounds necessary.
I could understand it if the gizmo translates what it hears into your native tongue, which means Grey Girl can understand Sydney, but how does the reverse work? What if there are 5 different aliens, do they all hear their own native language at the same time if they don’t have gizmos?
Clarke’s First Law, I guess.
I imagine that the translation gizmo has some type of speaker that can output the correct language whenever it picks up the user speaking. Since other aliens are speaking in their native tongue around Sydney, I could totally imagine she’d miss the fact that grey-gal is speaking her native tongue and getting it translated moments later. (As for setting the translation gizmo to English, Sydney’s been speaking openly in front of them & they seem to be able to recognize humans easily enough.)
For why the food vendor hasn’t been speaking English… I imagine that they might have a cheaper “hear-only” translator with the assumption that most customers would have the same.
It would somehow have to suppress the sound coming from the alien, otherwise you would hear two conversations in two different languages at once, which would be very difficult to follow.
And what if there are 5 other aliens in the conversation? Do you hear 6 languages at once?
Pretty impressive little gizmo if it can project translated language to the correct recipient while suppressing the original sound coming from the talker, in multiple languages simultaneously.
I was going to say that the translator might just transmitting sound to the wearer only via bone conduction, but then remembered that can’t work if Sydney is hearing English, so the translator must be transmitting sound. My new best guess is that the wearer learns to subvocalize (mouth the words without actually speaking above the tiniest whisper), and the translator picks up that and emits the translated version at normal speaking level.
In this case, Grey Girl is transmitting English, although it’s debatable whether that was a) consciously selected, b) her umpteenth try, or c) automatic as the most likely match for an Earthling.
We have on Earth (tip of the tongue) thought controlled audio devices for disabled individuals who can’t speak *still working on the bugs but last I saw they were pretty far along*. So a translator that can hear, translate, and then project back based on your intended words as a speaker without the individual needing to externally verbalize isn’t outside the realm of possibilities.
Granted this has all turned out to be significantly less advanced (not knocking it, still pretty advanced) compared to the early page theories of a translation field around the station.
Give us a couple hundred year, less maybe, and we very well could have this technology too.
Directional sound-waves, aimed directly at Sydney could mean that no one else would hear. Some type of audio cue could be used to switch languages quickly. I could see about 10 different ways it “could” work “in Theory”.
But it still comes down to the difference between Science and Magic. Science is just Magic that has been studied and is now understood.
It’s a failing of ‘advanced’ intelligence/technology. You assume and take things for granted. like the fact that the translators are probably everywhere and ubiquitous and more than likely free. in a market it would be advantageous for everyone to understand your ads :)
funny thing is you really only have to translate for the incoming languages not the outgoing. From what the Gray girl said, I interpreted that as ‘she can talk English, but it’s not her primary language’ I bet most of the beings there were just talking in their native language.
Best way to learn a language is converse with it.
I also bet that now that the other aliens know she does not have a translator, they might accommodate as needed, or get her one.
I’m sure they have questions.
If the translator device is implanted and it grows to the proper areas of your brain. So to you it is like speaking and spoken to even if both of you are speaking your own language which you can’t hear. Better to flash learn it then work out pronunciation. Unless you deal with too many languages to do that for all of them. And some aliens may not be adaptable to you and yours to them. Delphinese was created as a cross bridge language between humans and dolphins back in the 1970’s by Dr. John C. Lily in his dolphin communications experiments. Configured to both types of morphology an sound creation. I don’t know how well it worked.
It looks like big boobs are the standard among aliens as well as humans in this universe. Sydney is one of the exceptions.
Let’s see. Big hug or big punch? Maybe just big shield.
Shield useless against someone touching her.
Use the Lighthook as a Light truncheon?
(Like the Futurama NNYPD?)
Batter Up!
god this is about the worst cliffhanger you could leave a page on
.. you could have an end-of-arc, guaranteed to blow up whatever it hits, giant death laser firing at earth and it still wouldnt be as intense as trying to guess how sydney is going to react.
I dunno, the Screwship suddenly showing up and threatening to cleanse the surface of the Fracture with nuclear fire unless they “Surrender Dorothy” er, I mean “Surrender the Glowy Orb Girl” would be a pretty big cliffhanger.
No, Sydney would hero up and go out to meet it. She knows how a real hero responds to such a thing.
Welp that is interesting but I wonder if Sydney can keep herself calm now that help has arrived, also why DIDN’T she find information to get a translator? I mean they are probably not expensive at all considering its useful to understand any and all languages.
She missed the ‘Don’t Panic’ Kiosk with the Bablefish(tm) logo that had the translation dodads.
I hope you are joking cause that sounds like a slap in my face insult.
She flew straight down onto the station. Bypassing the space port and gate terminals.
This does a number of things, it makes the serendipity that she passed within a few blocks of Deus even more astonishing, as this also means this area isn’t likely an area that guests to the station are directed to by the station operators.
She’s getting the real The Fracture experience as the locals see it as opposed
to the glossy touristy section seen in the brochures.
well the area where we thought was refugee line thinking about it yea there was refugees but that was not the soup kitchen line but the entry port and information kiosk xd
I’ve always hated the idea of a universal translator for a couple different reasons.
1. It’s always presented as people speaking english.
That’s not the issue. The issue is it should be an echo of english at the end of the statement, at best. At worst you would have a context based language that a machine could not make heads or tails of the references to.
As a messed up example, Imagine a language somehow made up entirely of references to 80’s cartoons and conjunctions. The word for water could be aquaman in one sentence and seahorse in the next depending on how it was being referenced, and seahorse could mean submarine in the next sentence.
It might seem outlandish, but there are examples of similar context based languages on earth, They do not reference cartoons of course, but the whole structure of the language can change depending on the subject matter.
It addition, imagine languages where the Verb comes at the beginning or the end of the sentence, always. Translation this would like Yoda screw up.
The Echo part would leave me almost catatonic though. Let’s hear it for ASD!
2. Universal translators are always referenced in one of three ways.
a. Translate instantly from a dictionary, wouldn’t work, see above.
b. Translate in the brain. Ex. Babblefish. This offers slightly more promise, but it would require a receiver as is seen in HHG2G and Farscape. It would not overcome the echo issue, but it would make the translation more realtime. It does however create two additional issues.
1. Lying would be essentially impossible as would secrets. It requires a receiver, not a broadcaster. It will pick up any stray thoughts. You could actually use this as a burglar alarm. If the system detects thoughts from an unauthorized brain, call the police. No one really wants that, at most they want it with no one else having the capability.
2. What I like to call the tower of babble issue. This capability, if you could find a way to limit it, is too useful. Use it on your cat, use it on your dog, use it on your baby so you can figure out how to get him to stop crying.
Language skills would cease to exist. Why learn a language when you can communicate at a rudimentary level from birth? You could have a PHD and never learn to communicate on your own at a level above a grunt.
It would be awesome! We could finally find out if Trees are conscious and if bugs care. Forget the philosophical nightmare that that issue leads to and ask yourself one question…
What happens if it stops working?
Civilization ends.
Now for universal translators in general, well:
First, I know you said it isn’t an issue to you, but I also know others do find it an issue: Display in English make sense is you view the translator applying to the reader too, and the author is expecting a primarily English audience. When I read books in French, I get those translations in French instead. Also, I’ve seen characters in some stories who have different native languages express surprise that they hear that one, even though it is portrayed in English to the reader.
As for the echo, well as I mentioned in my other (apparently unattached) reply, I imagine the effect would be like re-dubbing a show. The mouth movement would be off but you wouldn’t notice an two speeches. As for the time lag, well, depending on the world, I’d either expect magic or science so good it can imitate actual human translators, including cue reading, emotional context, ability to determine what content is actually important, strong understanding of both languages and the ability to talk and listen at the same time.
Some people I’ve met seem to do the last one so efficiently, I sometimes feel like they CAN read minds.I, myself, have held multiple conversations in multiple languages before without issue, though my translation tends to be, at minimum, a few words or, more often, a full sentence behind.
That said, I agree context dependant language would be an issue, as would metaphorical language, but I guess that would just mean a delay is necessary.
As for the “Tower of Babel” issue you mention, well, I often assume that the translator, magic or tech, requires an actual language to translate. Therefore a baby could not be understood, but if barks have a pattern and carry more information than we believe, a translator could work on those. Communication with flies would likely require reading of non-vocal cues and trees would require mind reading though, both outside of the realm of most translators (barring sign language interpretation, which I can’t think of a show or book that portrays that).
That said, am a big fan of the idea of communicating with tree and bugs as you suggested :) And the idea of losing communication ability is a scary one indeed.
THe primary language issue is why having the translation always come out as english isn’t a problem for me. I speak English, translating into Klingon would be useless.
I suppose a lot of people would not have an issue with the mouth movement. I would be ready to jump off a bridge after 10 minutes of that if I didn’t go catatonic trying to piece it all together. But what really concerns me is the Star Trek version.
Literally no one noticed on that show. No One. How would that be possible? The dud’s mouth could not be moving like that and making those sounds at the same time! I’d be calling the national Guard!
The baby thing really is an observation of Farscape. They injected translator microbes into a guy who’s language they had never heard or cataloged. Viola! Everyone speaks English! That’s not a dictionary, that’s direct translation of the intentions of an alien species to the thoughts of other alien spices using an alien technology.
There is no reason to believe the technology could not work on a baby, perhaps a plant would be a problem, but if it works on a baby, a cow should work.
But there’s more!
If it fails the end of civilization.
If it works, it’s the end of Lunch!
What if a Cow is capable of poetry? What if a Soy Bean is?
All things considered, I think C3PO is the translator for me.
An universal translator would only really work if it could read your mind to find out what ideas you wanted to relay.
Eleven did claim to speak fluent Baby – maybe the idea’s not so far-fetched…
I’m sure that you realize that the universal translator thing is done in order to cut the time needed to communicate way, way down. That’s the same reason in The Martian that after spending 10-15 minutes showing us the “octal-ish language, probe spins it’s head to point at things” method of communicating that they just punted and went with “Matt Damon hacks the firmware and now we can just communicate at regular speed.” I don’t think they even did the speed of light time lag right, and for the same reasons.
Yeah, but we all really want one.
The reason why it is presented as people peaking English, is because the viewers speak English. If you had it speaking Russian in American, you would need subtitles
The UniLator is set for whatever native language the hearer understands (or at least most comfortable with)
While these issues may be the case in some versions of Universal Translator, on this case I imagine it just operates as though it’s a translator (the occupation) but with the ability to “dub over” the person it’s translating to you.
The fact that is has a library of languages means it doesn’t understand everything, meaning thar children and animals would still go un-understood, and otlmit would require being fluent in at least one language. It would also mean lying isn’t an issue, since you can lie to a person translating for you. It could, of course, make metaphorical language a challenge, but, assuming it translates faster than a person can, and has a better knowledge base in each language, it still shouldn’t be a major issue.
You would still have the echo. . thst or you would look like a movie dubbed in a foreign llanguage.
The latter is what I was implying.
@Seabear70 // re: the echo
You HAVE heard of noise cancellation, yes? Generating a waveform that is identical in amplitude but 180 degrees out of phase in comparison to a target sound (i.e. a lifeform’s voice)? Coming from slightly different points (someone’s mouth vs their shoulder), it wouldn’t be absolutely perfect, but if our technology can be very good at making a noise disappear into the background, I’m sure with an appropriate level of processing power, and perhaps force field manipulation, someone could make one able to almost completely erase a noise.
If you are concerned with a person’s voice only being cancelled out for a particular conversational partner, I would direct you to another technology, that again, would be hard for us to fit into a sub-cubic-inch package, but with sufficiently advanced processing and force manipulation, would probably be doable. You might not be quite as familiar with ultrasound-based sound projection e.g. an “Audio Spotlight”, but it can project multiple directional ultrasound waves toward a target, which, when they impact the target, will interfere with each other in a specific way so as to generate a desired audible pattern in the target area (the person’s ear).
Both of these concerns are largely solved science for humans and have been for quite some time. It would only be a matter of scale to incorporate it into a universal translator.
I’m hoping that before Sydney leaves with Cora she remembers to stop by one of those information booths and gets a translator to go. A girl who has her own atherium causeway is definitely going to need a translator a lot.
Please, oh please let there be another tongue-grabbing ninja flip!
That only worked because she applied it Corporal Stretcho
Sydney may have made things bad for the next Earth group to arrive here.
“Another human? Break out the grakz and start filming!”
Another human? What are the odds of that happening any time soon? I’m sure all the excitement will have died down before anyone else from Earth visits this star system.
You mean, asides from Deus?
I hope he doesn’t buy lunch on his business trip :p
>inb4 guesticus hopes that he does.
Leading to the invention of “The grakz challenge,” in the same manner as “the cinnamon challenge” and “the ice bucket challenge.”
I’m seriously surprised that none of the idiots who did the cinnamon challenge didn’t fill their lungs with cinnamon during their convulsive coughing.