Grrl Power #732 – Party pauser
This is a weird page because it kind of exists just due of the layout of the base. Granted, the hallway outside the elevators they were talking in for the last few pages was sort of a non-euclidean phantom zone. I mean if you look at the walls with all the different angles the camera points at in the various panels, I’m not sure there’s a way out of it. There was an elevator door but no hallway.
But – back in 3D space, the elevators are in a hallway behind the lounge area, and there’s no way into the rest of the building from the elevators without going through the lounge first. As that’s the only practical place to have the welcome back shindig (possibly besides the one big lecture hall) this page had to come before the next page. Just… topographically speaking.
There are more people around the corner there. I just ran out of time to draw them. Also more food. It’s more than just the one table with cake pops and a cooler of tea.
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I keep saying it… Procedure for returning from such a monumental event such as that isn’t get a prank pulled on you, common sexual partners, and then have a party. It’s get debriefed first… THEN all that other stuff… For all we know, what happened should be such a high clearance level that not even Maxima should be told about it. I know that seems absurd, but that’s why you debrief immediately.
I’m sure Arianna and General Faulk will have [DATA REDACTED] SCP-speech very [DATA EXPUNGED] public.
I mean, if I wanted to go into detail I’d at least mention [EYES ONLY].
Though on the other hand, [LEVEL O CLEARANCE REQUIRED].
“[Eyes only]” Damn, how’d he know I don’t have eyes
Because if you did, they’d probably have to reclassify you as D-class.
And that’s never a good thing.
I was thinking that if Sydney’s phone and choker recorded her adventure then General Fauk may be reviewing that during the party, with the interview afterwards.
After all, which would be more reliable?
That doesn’t give Sydney’s assessment of what happened, nor does it inform her of what she can and can’t say.
No, butt it does give them time to review what actually happened before Sydney’s ‘colour* commentary’ gets added
Sydney’s standing orders should be “No speaking to
the pressanyone without talking to Ari or Maxi first, EVER!!”(*colour typically ‘blue’)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-666-demon-stuff/
Remember, Archon has assumed that if Sydney survived it would be by running and hiding. Not a critical debrief on that.
Except it’s not running and hiding, it’s out for blood now. She sick her proverbial D in a proverbial wasp nest full of mountain sized angry wasps.
Also the refugees in board Cora’s ship…
Archon kinda needs to know these things.
True.
But the mistake being made is being made because the command could not imagine Sydney being capable of taking those things on.
And we don’t know that the genociders are after Sydney specifically.
They could have just been following a predetermined rule of engagement to slaughter everything on the Alari homeworld.
A galactic seek and destroy mission against a powerful outside force isn’t reasonably the best response, particularly as for all they know there could be an intergalactic empire of beings wielding orbs.
Come to think of it, DaveB could have equipped Sydney with his universe’s equivalent of the Green Lantern’s ring. There just might be an Oa somewhere.
Cora and Dabbler should have already made a reveal, of course. But those two maybe holding their cards close and deciding what to advise earth to do regarding the refugees. I imagine if the refugees stay earth would lose its protected status, and there would be negatives and positives to that which earth needs to consider.
No, it’s not the Squiddies who would be running and hiding, it was believed that that was how Sydney was going to survive
Of course you have to be debriefed before that stuff you say about common sexual partners and parties …
but don’t you think Sydney is a bit shy to do that in public?
Or taking your comment on the serious side, don’t forget that Sydney has come close to emotional melt down more than once, since joining Archon. The most notable scene being at the pool side, when Harem teased her.
So Maxima will have done her planning not from a traditional military point of view, but from the perspective of trying to shield Sydney from the emotional trauma of having been abandoned (albeit unintentionally) in the middle of a genocidal war zone, on an alien planet! Even from the traditional view point it would be vital to try and minimise the PTSD which may be incurred.
Yes gaining military intelligence is vital, but (as has been mentioned by others) much of that will have already been downloaded by Archon’s intelligence team (Luke or whatever his name was) and will presently be in the process of being analysed by them and Arc Light, Arc Dark and anybody else we do not see here. Which Maxima will get a briefing on, before deciding how to proceed with HALO’s debriefing.
We have had more than one scene where Maxima (and others, such as General Faulk) have expressed concern about Sydney, enough that we know they are concerned she might flake out or, even worse, go rogue! If a regular recruit does that then the military has weeded out a weak link, who can easily be replace. Halo though is literally irreplaceable. She has powers that nobody on Earth, not even other supers, can replicate (her True Sight to name just one).
Therefore ensuring her emotional stability is VERY RIGHTLY Maxima’s number one priority. Even viewed from a strictly military point of view (no comic genre allowances necessary). Throwing a welcome home party, and getting Sydney to feel that she is safe, amongst friends, and able to wind down, is a most sensible option.
And once she’s calm and full of cake-pops, then ask her ehat happened and she won’t stop talking for the next 6 hours about her time off-planet… then pass out. On a couch, possibly leaning against Kenya, Max, Pixel or one of the Harems.
Arc Light, Arc Dark, Arc Quark…that last is a small department, but they have at least 2 of them…
Strange, truth and Ferengi.
Theoretical Physics jokes about quarks.
Charming but Strange how you think Up stuff like that off the Top of your head, but I’ll get to the Bottom of how you thought it up.
Now you are just meson with us.
What the heck is going on with Anvil’s proportions here? Seriously her arms are tiny and her legs look like they contain her entire bodies muscle mass.
The whole party wide screen is drawn in toddler vision. I’m uncertain why. There’ve been a lot of comments on the previous page, but nobody had an answer. I figured it would be seen here more readily than there.
(By toddler vision, I mean the zoom is somewhere around knee level, so all their upper bodies are drawn as if they’re more distant. It’s a common enough art style it probably has a more refined name, but I don’t know it.)
Sydney is short.
Randy E. Newman song lyrics not posted
(They’re too tacky even for me)
Agreed. Plus do not forget that Sydney suffered vertigo from seeing Anvil the first time. Now she has both her and Ren, and Stalwart, and Mr Amporphous and Achilles and … well most people in the room towering over her.
The rest of us may be used to a more average point of view, but this is how Sydney sees life, and she is our window into the scene.
Yeah.
I had an extremely late puberty, and was four foot two inches tall and weighed fifty-six pounds when I started high school.
My endocrine system is still screwed up.
No strings for the balloons?
The Amazing Spider-Vance has them all kept in place with near-invisible threads of silk.
*paw print of approval*
Is that Jiggawatt? She changed her hair if yes.
Math looks kinda bored over there.
No Harem… but hi Varia!
Pixel :)
I also see Heatwave and Achilles, is that Mr. Amorphous?
Maybe we can call Ren “Thoughtspeed”?
Harem is in front of Wart
Yup. Dave said that Jiggawatt changes her hair often. So with Sydney being gone for a month(ish) that would make sense.
Always good to see the crew :).
DaveB, don’t sweat the lack of doors. This is a high-security base. You have to have clearance to even be able to see the doors, which are all concealed (like behind bookcases, but without needing bookcases). They open and shut via a combination of facial recognition software, RFID badge chips, and other security measures.
(Do try to stay on ARC-Light’s good side, because they’re the ones that can get back at you by teasing the door starting to open, then snapping it shut, making you late to report for PT…and if you think you can get around it by flying, who do you think opens the skylights for the flyers, hmmmm? (At least, they can do that to the lower-ranking ones. Maxima, they know better.))
Why can I imagine this scene.
*Rookie hero running to class/PT, door slides open an inch, slams shut… reopens an inch, slams shut… repeats for five minutes*
“LEON!!!! DOOR 7’S DOING IT AGAIN!!! I SWAER IT HAS A VENDETTA AGAINST ME!!!”
Leon (over intercom): “Then maybe you shouldn’t have punched it. Say sorry to it.”
Rookie: “… Sorry Door 7.”
*Door slides open really slowly*
In order to get through the door behind the bookcase you need to remember to move the candle.
Beware the consoles in the armrests of the easy chair and the couch or else you end up on a very interesting ride into a vehicle cockpit with engines prepped for launch.
I wonder when Sydney is going to remember to tell Archon about the Alari gift package she has waiting in Cora’s ship? Could that be what she needed to do before she was distracted?
Those Alari are not staying
At the moment we don’t know what the final disposition of those refugees will be. Applying for refugee status in the United States may be, from their viewpoint, the best option available to them. The government may also wish to offer them special immigration status depending on what knowledge and skills they may bring in with them. There is historical precedent for this.
They were never going to be dropped off on Dirt, Sydney ‘persuaded’ Cora the play taxi-driver and ferry them to an Alari colony world
If anything, they will most likely head to Africa and join SmugD’s new
slave-labour force‘citizens’Possibly. We never did find out exactly what Sydney requested, other than to pick them up. Their final disposition we have yet to find out. I suspect that, now the secret of aliens is out, the USA might want to improve their international (/intergalactic) standing by taking in the refugees (publically, whilst behind the scenes gaining a bunch of citizens who are hopefully familiar with alien super technology and/or magic will be more than enough inducement).
However there is the issue that some race is out there trying to commit genocide on the Alari. So harbouring them does pose risks. But the planet is already at risk from the Alari refugee ship that you mentioned. So it would still make sense for America to get some advantage, rather than just share the collective risk that everybody will be in.
When I was a kid, the US Govt settled 25,000 Viet refugees in my city, thousands in my particular part of town. BTW, Anyone who says immigrants are a threat is fulla crap – They settled in, got jobs, and have been quietly productive members of society (as much as any other demographic) ever since.
Anyway, the Alari may be welcome, but it definitely depends on the policy of the current administration.
They don’t need to worry about the general public’s response to the refugees. Once Sydney attaches gigantic holographic wings to the Statue of Liberty, the public will begging for the Alari to stay. ;)
Of course, there will be the problem of wingless supremacy groups popping up here and there.
[enter sarcasm mode]
The Arari could actually end racism as we know it. Nothing brings people together better than a common hatred of the different. Why hate your fellow human because his skin is a different color when you can both join together and hate the blue skinned winged people?
[end sarcasm mode]
There is also the Alari themselves.
We have those who were able to get a ship of their own and get the heck out of dodge and then we have those who managed to get out on whatever was available. No idea on how many or who did not make it at this point. Based on the sampling of one recognized member of their society and the opinion on the races attitudes in general, I would have absolute confidence [60% of the time 9 times out of 10] that there is a great deal of intolerance from and within their own society.
This page made me laugh out loud!
Not that I know anything about post-mission protocol or procedure, but you must remember that all they think that Sydney has done was hide on the original planet and duck the big-bads (doing lots of running away) until Cora arrived to pull her out…. meaning there isn’t “much” to debrief from her, so a little friendly gathering might seem just the thing for “poor” Sydney before she gives her litany of running and hiding…. and when she tells what she actually did on Alari the collective sound of jaws dropping will probably shatter windows.
There’s probably going to be a moment where they say to Sydney something like,
“It took the entire Alari Planetary defences to take out one of those big things, so don’t feel bad about not getting one.”
“What do you mean ‘That’s Okay, I took out three of them. I think.’?”
“You can’t remember if it was 3 or 4 you killed! I need to sit down now.”
Sydney took out maybe two of them, plus dozens of grunt-fighters, then she ran and didn’t stop until she reached Fracture
She DEFINITELY took out two of them. The first one, she blew up into chunks. The second one she basically blew up its entire head and left a gaping hole right through it. That’s pretty much a kill. Plus dozens of fliers
Yes, she took out two, butt, unless we know for sure that the head is their ‘seat of power’ (or at least for that Squiddie), then we don’t know if the second was taken out permanently
And she didn’t ‘blew up its entire head’, she simply blew a hole through it, even hyu-mons have survived something like that
You don’t think that Cora, when she messaged ahead to say that Halo was being brought back, told Dabbler where she had found Halo?
Possibly. But even she did not witness Sydney fighting, so JBChrome constructed a perfectly plausible scene. Not to mention one that (combined with Gawain‘s reply) had me chuckling (it does have ‘the ring of truth’, for how it could play out).
Bear in mind that we should not assume too much about what an alien may or may not do. Even though she was partially teasing Maxima, Cora clearly does have some distinctly different social views. Plus is apparently not beholden to any organisation, so may not be in the habit of calling in with a detailed report.
So given that either option is plausible, but the initial comment can play well for laughs, I think it is sound.
…Baking cake pops like it just doesn’t matter.
Max to Sydney: “As a special treat cadet, Cora called ahead and arranged to have Dabbler bake the cake pops in some flavor called ‘Grakz’.
Dang it, I said cadet instead of recruit again. Let me reset my brain. (Wham!)
Heh. Somehow I think the super villains would love it if she did that. Putting the entire team in hospital though might not go down too well with Max!
Make it big!
How does Sydney’s head keep changing shape so much? O.o
Secret Superpower: Comic facial expressions.
Yup. Sydney is officially drawn in anime style (in contrast to most of the rest of the cast). Part of which includes all the considerable variety of expressions, chibis and the like associated with that art style. Combine that with this being a comedy comic, and Sydney being the principle comedienne, means that DaveB can take full advantage of the gamut of variability needed to depict that.
Somehow, he seems to get our gravatars posted at different slightly off-levels, I don’t know how. Is it just me? Is it gravatars on any site?
Am I confused? (Another question that answers itself)
Well observed. It is not something I had noticed before. It looks like an intentional decision made by WordPress/Comic Press, as there is a consistent pattern, rather than it just being a bit wonky all the time. Each post alternates between the gravatar being tilted down to the right, being level then finally tilted to the left. For whatever aesthetic reason they may have had.
So this is unlikely to be consistent across all gravatar uses, as other sites might place the gravatars in very different places (such as user information pages) where tilting may have no purpose. But other similar comments pages, using either of those programs/companies, may do the same.
*attempts to straighten out wonky gravatar*
Grrr!
Where’s Jabberwocky,unless she’s tied up and locked up somewhere!?!?
Well, the viewing angle doesn’t show the whole room.
Yup. The author confirmed, in his blog above, that there are other people present, but not in sight on the above page. Who will likely be revealed next week, unless Sydney gets distracted enough not to stick her head around the corner.
oh dear, some grab SIDNEY’s Emergency ADD meds!!!! ;)
Once again, I missed the page where DaveB said, either in Comic or in Comments that Sydney failed to carry an adequate supply of meds and ran out after only two days away from base/home, or failed to take them, especially considering the last time she ran out. Could someone post a link?
Don’t worry, she’ll calm down once she gets 6 cake pops in her mouth. And, the sticks will make her appear to have whiskers. (which will make Frix happy)
She’ll tell everyone the crucial details of her journey, but only Dabbler, Cora, and Cora’s crew will be able to understand someone talking with so many… round objects in her mouth.
Who is that behind Ren & Varria?
Crimson, the youngest vampire from the council meeting.
She was the one who got tazed trying to sneak into Archon.
Oh well answered! I was having difficulty answering that one, and was trawling the previous page of comments for an answer.
Which begs the question … “why is Crimson still hanging around?”
Have they got an exchange program with the Council? Is there anyone from Arc-SWAT (or Archon generally) currently embedded in their VI teams? It used to be Pixel, but she is in the scene above, so presumably her tour is over (it seems unlikely that she would have been recalled just to say hi to Sydney, especially as she is back unexpectedly early).
Crimson seemed to have grown attached to Sydney (like a lamprey :P), wouldn’t be surprised if Barkley and Inggie weren’t both invoted, butt due to The Veil restrictions, were forced to decline the invitation, Crimson has been to Archon-HQ before so was able to go on behalf of them
Sydney is only an hour early
I just stumbled upon this comic, and read it whole since yesterday. 732 pages.
And I have like the biggest exams in my life in three days.
So good job, Author, Thank you
~You might just ruin my life~
But still, thank you
:-) OL
(Smiles out loud)
Welcome to our community.
Thanks!
Now going to catch some sleep, before my eyes start bleeding
(if they did not yet, dunno, kinda feels like it)
Grrl Power is very good at making hours of a person’s life disappear rereading large chunks of the comic. I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to how many times I’ve reread the Battle of the Restaurant Parking Lot. I look in the archives trying to find a particular page just to refresh my memory about a certain scene, and the next thing I know I’ve fallen into the trap and it’s an hour or two later.
Sounds like what I did. At about the same time, too. I keep coming back to story and rereading all or parts of it. Just getting slowed down to take in the text and the comments now.
Damn those thighs. Uh…Anvil can call me…
Maybe Spiders-Man’s power is the ability to communicate with other insects? That would make his ability to spy on people vastly beyond everyone else’s. That could make them supers, right? (He isn’t a him, he’s a them since he’s a swarm.)
That all depends on how he thinks. Firstly, expanding my reply on the politically correct* angle, if Vance thinks of himself as a “him” then that is what he is (regardless of what gender(s) his collective of spider bodies have). Secondly his consciousness may be an emerging property and he may literally not think as individual spiders.
To explain this, to anyone not familiar with swarm behaviours, I am just extrapolating (super hero genre style) from what science has already discovered about flocks of birds, swarms of insects and schools of fish. Their behaviour when in a swarm creates very complex appearing patterns and seemingly carefully coordinated responses to threats.
When trying to analyse these scientists were initially hampered by the way our society controls similar situations, such as by creating centralised control systems (e.g. air traffic control). But it was only when they realised that these hugely complex results could be explained by each creature having very simple instinctive rules to follow, that they made their breakthrough.
Predators chasing a swarm/flock/school/herd think as individuals, so have a hard time anticipating the behaviour of a collective mind. No individual in the collective is directing how they respond. They are simply instinctively avoiding any threat near to them (as one response) and adjusting their relative position to their neighbours (as another response), to pick out a couple of the key rules they follow.
If we work on the assumption that Vance’s spiders simply ramp up this principle and have a much more complex set of instinctive rules, and some way to convey the results of any simple thought this generates (it would be inconvenient to have to do waggle dances, like bees, so lets simplify it to something telepathy like), this allows us to visualise how his much more complex swarm behaviours could equal human level of self-awareness and cognitive behaviour.
We are not aware of the thought processes of the bit of our brain which understands speech, or the other part which recognises faces, or the bit that integrates these, we are aware of the conclusion that it comes to, such as “Anvil is speaking”. Similarly Vance may not even know which spiders are responsible for what part of his thought process. Unless one gets squished and he suddenly finds himself unable to recognise faces!
And if he sends one out on a scouting mission, it may be directed by his greater mind (if not busy with other things) or it may just fall back to its basic spider instincts, but with a mission programmed into it as a simple instinct-like behaviour.
* I greatly dislike over political correctness, which I firmly believe harms society, but taken judiciously it is a very good and important feature of society. And this principle is an important one for people (in general) to take to heart. It makes dealing with gender identity issues much easier for the general public to understand and cope with.
And, there is the other aspect to consider: Vance is actually a collective of trolls (those little ones with the oddly coloured hair)
Good to see Anvil again… I’ve missed her.
You must have bad aim, to miss a target that big!
Oh … wait … the other kind of aim. Nothing to see here. Move right along!
I have a theory. One that many a person has speculated already. Wait, no. Never mind, only an idiot would come up with this theory. I had a theory that maybe the final ball had something to do with he time leap but Sydney would have had to hold it and it would probably make more sense if the Aetherion gate caused a ti-di effect. Ah well back to the drawing board.
Ok, Anvil’s pelvis might have gotten mixed up with Sidney’s at some point.
I want to know what Sydney needs to do more than I want to see the next episode of GoT.
Warn them not to be alarmed if her butt starts to glow and emit dancing lights?
Announce her engagement to Woof?
Invite them all to attend the official opening of Event Horizon’s (and Humanity’s) first store opening on a Dyson Sphere built around a neutron star. And, well, their first offworld store ever.
Warn them that a fleet of genocidal planet-razing warships might be following her?
Introduce them to her adopted Alari children?
In the first picture, Anvil is anatomically incorrect: very wrong proportions of the legs to the rest of the body…
Not just Anvil, Hiro too. Well, practically all of them, it just shows up the worst on those two.
I just realized Ren (Blulk) is as tall as Kenya (Anvil) if not a teensy bit taller. Wow.
No, Ren’s head is at the same place on the page because he is standing farther away.
Compare the locations of their feet.
Which means he’s even taller
NINJA! SENSE! TINGLING!
It would be so awesome if you could see a shadow reflected on the upper balcony glass.
hmm balcony is not the right word… overlook perhaps? i never know what to call those.