Grrl Power #739 – Swear jar II – A filthy boogaloo
This is the most rich person thing Sydney’s ever done. She’s been… well, not rich exactly, but well on her way every since she got her first paycheck, but she has yet to actually spend any money in a flagrantly irresponsible manner. My question is, is she just going to leave an open jar in the middle of the lounge with ten grand in it?
I know I didn’t actually show Sydney launch into some kind of filth blitzkrieg for all the times she recounts here. It’s not like I’m never going to show her going on a Yosemite Sam-esque rant ever again, but I’m also not going to show each and every one, either.
I think Max’s top keeps getting smaller and smaller on each page I draw it on. It was already a bit of an odd top for her to wear around the base, but at this point it’s downright out of character.
I may have to change panel 2, because honestly I don’t know how military do. I wasn’t really sure what to google either, like “if someone needs some petty cash to buy some stuff for a military base, who do they see?” I mean, I’m sure a big military base has some sort of financial chain of command. Like an accountant and a list of approved vendors, but what if you’re out in the desert somewhere in another country, and the squad decides it needs to run down to the Baghdad Home Depot and buy a bunch of tarps? Like, they’re not close enough to the base to go get them, but they definitely need tarps. Does the squad commander have a platinum Visa on him, or a stack of Benjis? Or do they just take them and tell the manager to call the base for reimbursement? Probably that one, come to think of it.
Anyway, the team is domestic, so they’d probably operate a lot more like a domestic military base. My point is, somebody at Archon manages the phat stax, because sometimes you just need cash in hand. If someone has a better suggestion than “Bursar” I will change it.
Edit: Hah hah! Whoops! I forgot to add in the orbs on this page. I will do that after I get some breakfast.
Edit 2: Okay, Sydney is enorbened.
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Thinking about all of the secret stuff Sydney could have blabbed here, … this is relatively fine.
This is more or less just a brag at this point. She’s not talked about her new abilities, the variations in the enemies, the drone fighters, Fracture Station (definitely not a secret overall, but a secret to the people of Earth), the Alari on Cora’s ship, …
I suspect that even at one dollar per word, Sydney could have racked up the $10k just from trying to go from the Alari homeworld to their moon. We didn’t really see a lot of that, apart from a couple of point frames and a time lapse.
Of course, she doesn’t have the authority to determine that this bit is unclassified info (I’m sure the whole thing is some level of classified, but probably the others in the room would have been cleared for this eventually.)
But, overall, this is a poor way of saying she needs to be debriefed urgently, but a great way to get debriefed urgently.
Seems to me like its a really rich way of saying she needs to be debriefed urgently…
It definitely beats just saying, “Max we need to talk privately as soon as possible.” and also probably fits with her desire to sneak out of the room after no longer being the forced center of attention while not actively having to ditch everyone on her own.
I want to hear the ENTIRE debriefing. I don’t care if its in text format. I want it ALL! This will be grade A popcorn material you’d have going for you.
Yes, finally! I want Every. Last. Word. But really; not being able to see Max’s face in parallel will take some of the fun out of a all-text version.
It would obviously require the questions and responses of the others in the room as well. It couldn’t just be Halo talking on and on, no matter how good she is at it. I just doubt she’d be able to keep it grounded, even with Maxima slamming it back down every now and then….just imagine if she wasn’t.
The thing is, I think they are going to shit a collective brick when they realize that:
a) Sidney’s orbs constitute a McGuguffin so powerful that (some) galactic powers won’t think twice about reducing Earth to rubble to obtain it (the Alari certainly wouldn’t, and I assume you can add whatever entity trashed the Alari homeworld to that list).
b) Sidney has revealed this information to multiple extra-solar nationals, over which Earth cannot exert any control (not without risking serious consequences, anyway) and who can reveal both the existence of said McGuffin and the location of Earth to any third parties they may choose.
The Alari are in such disarray that I doubt they pose even the slightest threat. They are in foreign lands with no connections (bar the certain owner of a country we might know about :P). They are too busy trying to stop their populace from going extinct.
I think that the only person outside of ARC who might understand how powerful Halo *might* be is also the only person who understands that it needs to stay within human hands, at least for the foreseeable future. Especially since the destruction of the planet would deeply wound his wallet size, and possibly damage some of his stuff.
If you’re talking about who I’m pretty sure you’re talking about then I don’t think he understands Halo’s potential. If he did he’d be trying to add her to his sketchbook. And probably getting hurt in the process since I’m pretty sure Sydney wouldn’t take kindly to his particular brand of seduction.
Cora does though, and so does whoever was controlling the things that curb stomped the Alari. And possibly anyone who happened to be standing nearby while Cora and Sydney were talking about it on the space station.
Okay, WOW I misunderstood that at first. Cora’s enjoyment of some of the finer things in life led me to interpret “Cora does though” as “Cora would take kindly to his particular brand of seduction”, and once I was on that track, the sentence just kept getting weirder…
It’s because of Cora’s gimp suit, am I right?
At least a two page debriefing. A third page for puns!
The last time there was a debriefing it was after the super-fight way back when, and consisted of 3 months of people sitting around in a room talking.
It was pretty boring, IMO.
So I don’t really want to see an extended debrief done in comics.
If your talking about https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-358-fair-trade-photography/ to https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-369-cant-knock-the-rock/ that was more of a daily breifing, and even then the first three pages was just Sydney goofing around.
‘…You’re going to need a bigger jar.’
THERE IT IS!!! THERE IT IS!!!
Daniel the Human and I KNEW this was coming, and THERE IT IS!!! Yeah, few others guessed it too, but let me have my victory…
Yes, I know I posted this already kinda, but that went as a reply, this is meant to be it’s own post…
After that debriefing,Maxima puts Sydney on latrine duty or tending bar in the Archon Officer’s Club(probably no such place and if there was,it’d be combined with the Enlisted Club!?!?!?)
Personally I think Sydney should get full pay for the time since she technically lost that time of her life due to her job she will never get those months back
As far as Sydney is concerned, she was only away for two days, that’s why Maxi and Ari compromised with half-compensation
From Sydney’s perspective, her business was neglected for two months due to Arc Swat.
If Arc Swat wishes not to pay and the reduction in pay was not contractually stipulated (and we know they had never even thought about this) then Sydney can and should Request Mast until the problem is corrected.
Archon looked after her business during that time
And that’s not ignoring her business partner and co-owner of the store
Sydney’s perspective doesn’t matter. Federal employees are paid according to the passage of time at the base of operations for whatever branch they work for.
Yes, that’s actually a law in the US. Blame NASA, space travel does weird things to time.
Oh man the actuaries are gonna be SO pissed when they invent time travel. :)
I was waiting for that “WAIT… WHAT? DEBRIEF NOW!” Moment… you did not disappoint. Thankyou.
I love the creative way that Sydney initiated the, “Hey, Maxima, you REALLY need to talk to me about what happened instead of just lounging around.” Creative, very Sydney-esque.
FINALLY!
This is what I’ve been saying… You’re supposed to debrief before the party or things might slip…
Yeah, I’m not a military expert. My excuse for the comic’s sake is that Archon is a really atypical military unit. :)
They are definitely much closer to a special forces or elite unit, which tend to have much more relaxed regulations binding them. That said, debriefing is not one of those…but for supers, I can definitely see it. The stuff Halo has seen and done in those two days is beyond anyone’s expectations to have predicted. Maxima’s expectation that she would’ve been on the run during that time is well within the realm of believability and her shock at hearing what actually happened…yeah, I get the feeling that debriefings will be more prompt in the future. Also, I get the feeling Halo will be getting another crash course on how stuff needs to be handled/what to do if stranded
And really Archon didn’t even expect 2 days – they (presumably) scheduled Cora to pick her up the instant the portal closed and taxi her home, so Max was probably expecting a Back-to-the-Future-esque pickup. “Oh no, there goes my ride!” “Hi I’m from the future, I’m here to give you a ride.”
Max is probably just now about to learn that Cora was a couple hours (or whatever) late.
In the military when we need money we go to the First Shirt and they make a note that we are bad with money and try and direct us to a reputable lender.
If we were missing for a year due to enemy action we’re actually entitled by law to all the pay we’ve missed out on and any promotions related to time in service, which for a recruit or cadet would be none promotions, a Lt. Colonel would not be high enough to deny that, in fact she’d probably already have the money in her bank account.
Sydney, who is enlisted according to Grrl Power #4, would be entitled to about $3199.80 for two months if you were going to use US military pay scale. Yes, I know. We’re very poor. Call your congressman.
At a higher pay scale Sydney would have received disbursements through whatever method she’s set up. Direct deposit or checks in the mailbox. She would probably access this with an ATM.
If for whatever reason she was underpaid or unpaid she would need to get reimbursed from the finance office. Something that tragically happens a lot and is often missed. Don’t join the military kids, it sucks. Mostly not in cool ways.
$3199.80? Sydney? Heh. Hehehe. Hehehehe. No. I don’t think they’ve ever given an exact amount, but her first bi-weekly paycheck was more than she’d previously made in a whole year. By that logic after two months she’d be entitled to at lesast a hundred thousand dollars. Probably a lot more, given that she apparently was making an actual livable income before joining Archon.
As for calling my Congressman because of that ridiculously low pay for servicemen, the bastards have never listened to me before. The one time any of them have bother to respond to me at all it was a form letter explaining why they were going to do what they wanted and didn’t care what I had to say about it. There might be a reason I usually vote against the incumbents in Congressional elections.
The standard is to assume that each caller represents 1000 like minded voters, since most people don’t bother to call.
Plus, Max seemed to be operating on a couple of assumptions:
First, that Cora arrived at the planned time (thanks to Harem, they knew how far forward the wormhole tossed them, and so knew fairly exactly when Cora needed to show up to extract Sydney. If all had gone to plan, Sydney would have been rescued almost immediately after the wormhole closed. Max didn’t necessarily know about the delay that Cora mentions, that nearly caused her to miss Sydney entirely (picked up the traces of the Aetherium Causeway just as Sydney caused out of system (if you gate through a gateway, you cause through a causeway, right? Maybe?)). If I was Cora, I might have glossed over the bit where I came withing a hair’s breadth of not rescuing Sydney when I talked to Max.
Second, Max seemed to have assumed that Sydney would do the reasonable-seeming thing and try to avoid the NSKT (Nightmare Shadow Kaiju Thing). That’s only reasonable if Sydney knew help was on the way, though. Leveling up the orbs to hopefully gain access to an ability that would help get her home or help her call for help is reasonable if she assumes no help is likely to be able to arrive in time.
Also, knowing there’s a “reasonable” course of action and assuming it’s going to be the course that Sydney chooses is weird for someone who’s actually met Sydney.
: roll•eyes :
That may be what you’d do if you were IN Cora’s PLACE, but if you WERE Cora you’d do EXACTLY what Cora did ~ because YOU would BE ^Cora^!!
:-þ
Im pretty sure the shirt thing has stayed steady at 2 rows of abs
Yes, it does seem that Max’s top keeps getting smaller. I blame Dabbler… or perhaps thank her. The jury is still out on that one.
It could be Krona. We know that she can change people’s clothing pretty easily.
It’d be a bit out of character for Krona. Dabbler, on the other hand, could happily make Max’s top vanish in a puff of smoke if she thought she could get away with it, so if she has them means it probably was her.
That’s what I was coming here to say. Maybe Dabbler is very slowly altering that top to see when Max notices. Maybe Max has already noticed and is waiting for the proper time to pull rank. Maybe the drinks at the party have prevented her from noticing. Yet.
Aside from those two, who else would be at this debriefing? I’d speculate that Dabbler and Cora would be present to clarify what Sydney is talking about, as well as Ariana, if she’s still at the party, to be in the loop. As Ladyofthemasque said, Sydney would NEVER mention the “Grakz Incident”, but Cora could possibly say that she was on her third serving when they met. I couldn’t imagine the look on Dabbler’s face when she hears that. Of course, Sidney would probably request that be redacted information.
As a Chilihead, it should be pointed out that if Archon can’t stop her, she’ll likel be sneaking back to Fracture for more (albeit smaller helpings) Grakz.
In three years she will have developed the tolerance to eat three bowls at a time. And belch embers.
I doubt that eating it would be something she would avoid saying. After all she would enjoy knowing other humans would also consider trying it. The repercussions of eating it she would keep to herself.
At the very least, General Faulk and Arianna would be there, and probably Dabbler to, as you said, clarify some of the alien stuff. Cora would not be invited, since she’s not a member of ARC and, as such, would not be invited to a confidential meeting like a full debriefing. After all, classified information (or information that would be classified after the meeting, like her powerups) will be revealed.
Ah yes, they could debrief Cora separately. I still would like to see the look on Dabbler’s face when she finds out how much of what Sydney ate.
To save time, Dabbler could debrief Cora while she’s de-briefing Cora. A really probing, in-depth debriefing.
Of course, she might want to rope in Cora’s crew as well (with actual rope).
I really liked this page because I was really curious why she wasn’t de-briefed the minute she got back. I get they missed her and all, but it was still weird. Then this reminded me that everyone assumed she just ran away.
So much for my idea about automatic monitoring of the newest recruit through unsuspected equipment functions.
Maybe they didn’t immediately debrief her because they were reviewing the feed they pulled from her neck-cam via Bluetooth. Oops! Sorry for not mentioning the invasion of privacy Syd. Should we mention that the collars all contain a concentrated explosive, just in case you go rogue?… no… maybe we should table that tidbit for later.
If they did have such monitoring on her person, it maight have observed Deus when she passed right by him on Fracture station. That would be interesting.
I had conjectured that at the time.
I’m sure her bracer on her forearm contains more sensors than they bothered telling her. No doubt everything on mobile phones and more. G force / inertia, atmospheres of pressure, sat nav etc. Anything for divers or space travel and other more diverse (Geiger counter) sensors are likely integrated.
Given the size of it it’s almost guaranteed. I doubt most of it is constantly recording though.
There is always a risk in writing for a situation that you know nothing about of really blowing “cover”. Max has been real military for more than a decade, so here’s how things go if you don’t want a plot hole:
1) Medical examination under quarantine. Ironically, this step is in fact quasi-skippable if Cora medic is rated for Earth medicine. He did it on ship.
2) Debriefing. Under the circumstances, it would be defensible if Max pulled her aside for a “quick chat” as soon as they were inside to see what the priority would be for a full debriefing. This is particularly important given Sydney’s spastic nature (ie: loos lips).
A simple and short “Welcome back cadet! Before we get to your welcome party, is there anything of critical importance you should be debriefed about?” would suffice… But considering Cora must have been vouched by Dabbler, and seems like a competent captain, Maxima assumes that no world ending threat is incoming in the next few hours.
Cora is not competent enough about Earth’s capacities to either call ahead for explicit instructions or to just know to come in stealthed.
This is a plot hole. These things happen when you lack a team of researchers.
Welp since no one else did it, I went and counted. I counted 31 curse words if we include Halo’s long stream of words at the first monster’s range attack. So what $100 a curse? So $3,100. Or is she doing 1k per curse?
She’s also putting in off screen cursing. As she said, she “cut loose” when the portal closed.” And invented a few new ones when the other three showed up.
I’m just imagining Maxima saying, What kind of trouble could Sydney get into in just two days, and someone responding, “Did you really just say that with a straight face?” Someone new this time (it was the general last time, wasn’t it?)
oh this… this is so very appropriate. if dave b doesn’t do it… maybe some fan art?
They should just hand her back the jar after debriefing. All swears were justified.
And more to the point: no swears were heard by anyone in her chain of command. Or anyone on Earth!
The swear jar belongs to Sydney. It’s her way of saving up for major purchases.
can you provide documentation to that effect? or at least point out where you came across it?
How military do: In a warzone and on base there is something called an eagle cash card. It withdraws from your bank account a limited about of money then you can use that like a credit card to buy stuff. Alternatively there are ATMs on most bases in the states. If you are looking to trade in cash for lower prices at markets overseas and your base does not have one, have a family member mail it to you. Often times getting mail out to soldiers is a high priority. Does not mean it will always make it (When I was over there the plane carrying the mail met a fiery end due to a bad landing), but it’s one way to trade with people that do not have the machine to use cards on.
(Sorry for the rant, did not see an answer in there so I figured I would provide a few options.)
In this situation I want to say ATM would be what does the trick, but then again I also doubt her credit card allows withdrawals of 10k. Either they have an extremely local (in building) bank, or they somehow found a bank that works 24 hours (its pretty late at this point, during the press meeting that was going on when Sydney arrived the stars were out). I wonder if the bank Sydney was first caught at was open….
Realistically? There would have to be a bank. ATMs wouldn’t be able to give that amount to a single person. Getting cash back from the cash card no store you have the right amount to overcharge that kind of money. And no matter where you get it a transaction of 10k would draw a lot of attention and you would probably need to do it person to person.
That being said, if they are on a base and not just in a tower there is likely a PX, if it’s a large PX there is likely a bank inside of it or near it.
ATM’s might give that much depending on the account and account holder, butt they don’t issue them as a bundle (stack? wad?) like that with the wrapper
I laughed. :)
If the swear jar gets donated to charity when it’s full, that would be worthwhile.
Hell, it could probably be enough to fund the curing of several forms of cancer.
We so need a cameo by Michael Peña to do the recap a la Ant Man.
Quartermaster is the term that comes to my mind, but I’m not a 100% that it’s applicable here. Sounds cooler than Bursar though.
Quartermasters issue combat gear.
Belts, harnesses, cantines, armored jackets and helmets.
All that stuff.
Not money.
I am assuming paymaster is no longer a title in these days of electronic funds?
On the delay in debriefing Sydney until now: As we know from the conversations we saw between Max, Dabbler, et.al. earlier, they assumed that her debriefing would be a long and (for Sydney) embarrassing litany of Sydney running for her life and/or hiding. They assumed that they knew what she did and a debriefing would just be the details. Add-in their relief at Sydney rejoining them after a (for them) extended absence and I can see why they put it on the backburner.
Actually I realized just today that they weren’t expecting Sydney to have anything to report at all, other than “you guys disappeared, I turned around and there was Cora with a ride home.” Harem was hard-linked to a future self, and probably able to give them almost the exact minute the portal closed, so Sydney was supposed to be picked up immediately.
But Cora was late (probably at least an hour or two given the extent of Sydney’s battles) to the pickup, and ended up finding her on a different planet, neither of which has she had any reason to disclose to anyone so far. Possibly not even Dabbler, but even if she did I can see Dabbler sitting on that info for the final 1-2 days to get a laugh.
I’m not certain that a swear jar counts as spending money. I mean, it’s not like that money’s actually going anywhere usually.
And in Sydney’s case I don’t think $10k would be enough.
The 10K is probably just a down payment. Particularly if she was inventing her own swear words.
(See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5q3TG5yCG0 )
Yay! Finally back on story and not just look at all the bare torso.
So happy
Max is already de-topping and now she wants to be de-briefing too? kinky…
Most large military bases have one or more banks on them, even smaller ones usually have ATMs. Unlike what was stated in a prior comment, these banks have WAY more than 10k on them. How do you think they would be able to pay out the cash withdrawals on payday for several thousand military members? Only thing that would be a slight hiccup is that in America, any withdrawal or deposit of 10k+ in cash has to be reported, so that takes a few extra minutes.
well to shed some light on things. the office and office holder is dispersing office and the dispersing officer.
two they are not in the public areas of the base so Max and her sports Bra are fine. as for a military unit they dont really fall into that sort of category. how are you going to enforce a rule when the person breaking the rule can rewrite the world and make the rules whatever they want and no one other than themselves would ever know? or force a person to wear a uniform if they “A” dont fit or “B” can take out most of the military single handedly?
this is the problem with the super concept the only good guys would be those who had a firm moral and ethical base independent of social programming. with the power levels whos going to make a super be law-abiding? ARKON might be intended to be the police but like the police in the real world unless those in it are following the letter of the law then they are no better then a bunch of mafia enforcers on the public dole.
In the US military we called it The Paymasters Office,
And English speaking language, really. Universities have bursars, not armies
Actually, They would likely have a Navy-Fed Type Credit Union amongst all of the ‘Mall’ options in Achron headquarters (just like the Pentagon). And her pay would be direct deposit anyway. Most ‘purchase cards’ have a few thousand limit before you start doing electronic payments to vendors. Between Military agencies there are a couple of different systems, similar to interdepartmental checks, that cover everything from about 10 grand to 100 billion.
Honestly, I don’t think “athleisure” style clothing is out of character for Maxima, since those tend to be both comfortable and practical and you could totally have a superhero fight in them if the occasion called for it. (This is assuming that the top is meant to be kind of a sports bra type of thing)
The only thing I would say would be a possible adjustment would be that, even if you have a truly extravagant rack, something that hugs you that tightly and is made of moderately sturdy fabric will squish the boobs in and flatten them a bit. Which, considering how Maxima feels about people staring at her body might actually be an intended effect. Since we know that Max’s shiny flesh is still malleable, the shirt should be flattening her out a bit.
Not much, obviously, since it’s a top and not a super heavy duty sports bra or binder, and even then a heavy sports bra can only do so much on the keeping the girls contained front. But the front would be a little flatter, and the amount of stomach exposure would probably be about the same as its shown here.
Plus I seem to recall in a flashback panel of a younger Max, we do see her in a similar get up, I’m pretty sure. Sports bra and shorts? I’m too lazy to dig through the archive can anyone confirm?
Is no-one going to comment on the fact we just saw a Spongebob Squarepants reference?
I saw it but like any good pun I thought it best to let it pass un-remarked.
I’ve never been impressed by Sydney’s swears. They’re just word salad, lacking creativity or rhythm.
I’ll be happy for DaveB to prove me wrong.
(The new look — randomly tilting the gravitars doesn’t make the site look trendy. It makes it look broken.)
Agreed… Most of the instults are word salads, For example I much prefer Mom from Futurama creative insults. My wife has a favourite swear string that translated would be something like “By the filthy cu*t of the fu**ing naked cow w*ore and her thousand spawns”… See? Creative!
The real reason for the debrief is so they can get/use all those new swear words Kappa
I choose to believe Sydney isn’t just doing a bit, here—she’s actually using her newly-gained ranks in the Responsibleness skill, letting Max know there is some Shit which has Gone Down.
…By way of a bit. Because Sydney.
Here’s the relevant page with the Swear Jar I episode/flashback scene thing.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-424-the-curse-of-curse-aint-no-curse-of-course/
I’ve been thinking that by the end of her first year in Arc Swat Sydney will have enough full Swear Jars in her closet to buy a private island.
Of course, she’s a workaholic so she only buys comics and cosplay stuff most of the time. With the comic shop in the black she won’t even have to prop it up.
Oh yes you DO want that 3day debriefing: Just so you can have a SPONGEBOB-esque “THREE DAYS LATER” panel..
What ever happened to her holographic wings she bought at the space station? Were they a limited use item? I was thinking they were more of a ‘rechargeable flashlight’ kind of deal, but she only used them for two pages before seemingly forgetting about them.
I would wholeheartedly accept a ‘whoops, I guess I just forgot about them’ as an artistic gaff. It happens, and in the long run they didn’t matter all that much. I was just hoping for a scene where she bugs the rest of Arccon with her rapidly deploying holo wings.
Would confuse the heck out of the normal human populace, at the very least
I’ve kinda been assuming that Sydney forgot about them. Possibly a space squirrel flew by as she was taking them off.
She’s been back for less than an hour and hasn’t gone flying.
I suspect that they will put in an appearance when Archon evaluates how fast Sydney flies now.
Honestly, it was rather naive of Maxima not to assume there’d been shenanigans…
As has been mentioned, had Cora’s ship not been delayed by an encounter with the Fel, Cora would have been there to pick Sydney up right after the portal closed.
Maxima has been unaware that Sydney spent more than a couple of minutes on the Alari Homeworld after the departure of the Arc Swat team.
What we have here, is a failure to communicate.
And so you get what we had here fifty-three days ago. Which is the way she wants it.