Grrl Power #785 – The cat’s still in the bag
There are probably a large number of people who are extremely nervous that a not-yet-even-a-private knows crap that a whole bunch of extremely high ranked people don’t. There are three star generals don’t know a thing about the Twilight Council. (They get read in if needed, but it’s need to know.) Generally speaking, most politicians aren’t in the know about that stuff either. Obviously the president and select members of the cabinet know, but the Council has veto rights in case, I don’t know, a president ever gets elected who is… not up to their standards.
In those cases the Council just deals with the heads of security agencies, and the at the time ARC agency, which before it was formalized into ARCHON, was like, Zephan and half the people who are organized under Arc-LIGHT now, working with Pixel and five or six supers they knew, sort of like an X-Files meets the BPRD.
In case you’re wondering how The Veil works here, in this case, Olivia sees Pixel’s human face, and will wind up misremembering how tall Pixel was when they shook hands. Things that can screw up The Veil’s effect are the little stuff, like if Olivia was wearing earrings that always catch on her collar or swing against her neck when she looks up, she won’t remember Pixel being a foot taller than her, but she might remember her earring. The Veil just can’t account for all those weird one offs. One incident won’t let someone pierce The Veil, but a number of small ones can start to add up. (The damage Sciona did to the sigils that mange The Veil had been repaired by now, BTW)
#MakeComics: When I wrote this page, Pixel initially returns Olivia’s compliment about her jacket by saying “Thanks, I like your, uh, arm socks.” Then when Sydney says “Was that rude?” Pixel interrupts her with “I don’t know what those are called. They’re like opera gloves but they don’t cover the hands. Arm warmers?”
But I had to cut it for space. Stupid word bubbles taking up space.
Repercussions (Wearing the Cape Book 8) is out! WtC is one of my favorite superhero series. In case you’re unfamiliar with the books, it’s not a harem series. I know I recommend a lot of those. Nope, female superhero, book 1 starts with her getting her powers and learning all about them, which is my favorite sort of superhero storyline when it’s done right. Although, at this point in the series, she’s got quite a lot of experience under her belt, and this book promises to have… well, if the title doesn’t hint at it, repercussions for a lot of stuff that’s gone down in the books so far. Here’s a link to the whole series, and the first book is free if you want to check it out but haven’t yet.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. 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.
Ok, so now I have to pose the question of what exactly she did see? In Pixel’s case, that’s a pretty staggering size shift. Did she see Pixel as a 7ft tall Pixel or did she see her tiny self?
considering Daves explanation in the description, im guessing a regular Pixel
So I guess one of the options in the Veil control panel is ‘adjust pixel size’.
::stand poleaxed in awe and admiration::
::slow claps::
+10 Internets…
If you take her picture while she’s in werejaguar mode, the veil makes sure it comes out highly pixelated.
Only when she was hungry
Okay everyone. We just saw the pinnacle of internet posts. No need for any of us to ever use the internet again. Move along now people.
You win the internet, OB Juan Kenobe.
When she sees short Pixel, the Veil will probably ‘neuralize’ Olivia’s memory so she thinks she remembers Pixel standing up-ramp from her, on a box, etc. Our brains are already pretty good at molding what we see based on our expectations or other requirements.
Fun example: both eyes have a blind spot (because, for some reason, the optic nerves connect from inside the retina, so there are no cones or rods in that spot), but our visual centers mask out the spot by editing in a sort of average of the surrounding info. It’s tricky, but you can see it in action: focus on a uniform image (a blank sheet of paper or a decent-sized blank space on a web page will work), close one eye, point your index finger on the same side toward your other side, and move it slowly across your field of view at eye level. The tricky part is not to shift your eye toward your finger. As it crosses the blind spot, the tip of your finger will disappear, since your brain is set up to assume what’s in the blind spot is the same as most of what’s around it (in this case, white space). Once it’s through to the other side, your brain goes “oh, ***, that was a finger,” and correctly extrapolates what your finger looks like into the blind spot . . . but you’re still not actually *seeing* that part of your finger.
tl;dr: Eyes are wired stupidly, and brains are already wired to are trick people into thinking they’re seeing something they’re not.
I’ve done something similar since I was a kid.
Remain entirely motionless, sitting down is best. Have your arm in front of you, resting on your lap or a table or something. Maybe just where you are in front of your computer. Stare at something besides your arm, maybe an inch away from your arm. Don’t focus your eyes, using passive vision and no eye muscle strain.
Your arm will become invisible after a few minutes.
Maybe you just have the superpower of invisiblity, but only when other people are not looking at you, and only when you’re not looking at yourself in the mirror, or looking directly at part of yourself. Like that guy on The Mystery Men. :)
Denude? What part of her was nude?
All the parts that didn’t need to be depilated.
Begs the question tho: Where does the hair go when she changes forms? Is it absorbed back into her body? Does it fall off? If the latter, wouldn’t that be taxing on her regeneration? Is regeneration and shapeshifting magical and defies the laws of conservation of mass and energy, or is her shifting from someone who’s shorter than Sydney into a seven foot tall muscled giant an effect of super-efficient biology? Were physiology is an unusual animal, that’s for sure.
I’d assume that the fur went the same place all the extra body mass went, and comes back from the same place. Maybe the Aetherium?
Marvel comics did something like that with Pym particles, which interacted with multiple planes of existence and could transfer traits of size, strength and density of mass between them. One of the planes was the Microverse (a “sub-atomic” world that required shifting almost all of our universe’s mass in order to cross the barrier — the Quantum Realm in the cinematic version), and the other was the Macroverse (or Overspace), the level of reality where abstract and conceptual entities take on pseudo-physical forms to interact with the material universe.
They also had Vision’s density powers, Wonder Man’s strength, and Wasp,Giant-Man/Ant-Man/etc., Goliath(s), etc. size-shifting powers all use that same method/source, though only Bill Foster (Goliath, discovered the extra-dimensional connection), Janet van Dyne (The Wasp, discovered the Microverse connection), Henry Pym (Giant-Man, discovered the Overspace connection), and Scott Lang (Ant-Man, figured out the size/mass/strength connection) figured some or all of that out.
tl;dr: comics are weird.
Probably the magical aspect of the lycanthropic “curse”.
In most, if not all, mediums that include lycanthropy, it’s a magically based condition.
lie can throw pea lucky charms, they’re a magically based condition! (how it sounded in my head when you said it)
Mostly the comics just ignore things like this. But then occasionally you’ll get a writer who decides to explore just where, as another actual example, does the mass come from when Bruce Banner Hulks out. And I think that it was just left as a vague “another dimension, which is limitless.” So theoretically the Hulk has limitless strength. And since he also grows as his rage and strength increases, limitless mass and size.
Yeah, it’s been long stated that if Hulk keeps getting angry, he will keep getting stronger and become unstoppable, their workaround to prevent that from happening is Banner, he makes it difficult for Hulk to maintain the rage, the few times Hulk has remained ‘in control’ and unstoppable is when he has gotten rid of ‘puny Banner’ (usually “What if…?” or alternate realm stories, like “Old Man Logan”, the comic, not the movie)
Hulk is the physical embodiment (manifestation?) of Rage
I think Hulk’s strongest form, so far, has been World Breaker Hulk (who was stronger than either Maestro OR Mindless Hulk, and I think he’s pretty much the same as the Green Scar).
Unless you include stuff like Space Punisher Hulk, which is just dumb. Because according to the artist/writer who made him he’s ‘as powerful as I need him to be’ and goes around killing Watchers and celestials like nothing.
Mostly referring to “Old Man Logan”, where Hulk got rid of Banner and bred an entire clan of inbred Hulklings with his cousin (because she was the only one strong enough to survive the breeding process)
Doesnt Hulk die in that though?
Well, spoiler alert, but when you eat meat that regenerates it occasionally goes bad for you.
Ann Rice did the same thing in The Mummy, in which Ramses, made immortal and ever regenerating by some process, sees if he can eradicate hunger in his kingdom by treating a few cows the same way. Anyone who ate of the cows died a terrible, painful death. Ramses had the cows wrapped in chains and dropped into the ocean, where they are no doubt still living today.
I’m sure you haven’t spoiled a comic that came out over 11 years ago. No worries.
I thought that had been explained as his gamma mutation converting energy, primarily gamma radiation, but also other forms, into mass. And what Guesticus said as well. That might have just been the ill recieved Hulk movie tho, I never much got into Hulk comics.
Adam Warlock tho? He da man! XD
According to the official Marvel wiki, the transformation triggers an “extraphysical process” that draws mass from, or returns mass to, somewhere else. Since his literally limitless potential for physical strength has to have some source for all that kinetic energy, it’s implied to be tapping into that same extraphysical source. The Hulk’s particular source of mass is usually left nebulous and undefined, though.
That’s not uncommon in Marvel — Hank Pym’s “Pym Particles” are often part of the explanations given (subatomic particles that are involved with the properties of mass and density in the normal universe, interact across dimensional layers, respond to the will of sentient beings, and are even somehow involved with abstract beings like Eternity, the In-betweener, and (kind of) Galactus taking on forms when they need to interact with the material world).
It’s a quirk of the English language but “denude” doesn’t mean ‘to un-nude.’ It means – to strip (something) of its covering, possessions, or assets; make bare. And in this case Pixel’s covering is her fur.
No part of her. Denude means to strip of covering, or make bare.
Or in this case it’s a magic full bodied wax job to remove her fur…because it’s not like a real full bodied wax job….I had one of those way Back in my 20s. My only one. Just thinking of someone as furry as Pixel was getting a non magical Full body wax job has me wanting to curl into a ball.
Guys though, seriously if your SO gets a Wax job, give them something Very nice.
In our case, the one being depilated is me. I didn’t get significant body hair on my chest, back, neck, and thighs until I was in my midfourties. It still feels gross to me, but I can’t afford electrolysis.
Geeze, that’s gotta be disconcerting. Most of us hairballs had it gradually manifest, and I *still* occasionally find new follicles in places where there previously weren’t any. Still, nothing more annoying than discovering a giant furry patch at the base of your spine one day that coincides with the slowly growing bare patch on the top of one’s head. XD
As my chemistry teacher once said. “You don’t lose hair, it just rotates.”
There’s one hair I have that’s in the middle knuckle of my left ring finger. Hair is supposed to be over the first knuckle (connected to the hand), not the second. But I’ve got one.
Mrs. the Poet has taken to trying to take the “threads” off my back that are where the back hair has gotten tangled together and looks like threads hanging off my back. I keep asking her to shave my back, but she refuses.
Tell her if she shaves your back, you’ll purr like a walrus
Bear, I purr like a bear, because I am a bear. I even have the flag somewhere but I never fly it.
Sweet Family Guy ref
Something nice, like a thorough tongue lashing. Which is ordinarily not a very nice thing at all. But in this case, it is.
Like shelling a crustacean means taking its shell off, and skinning an animal means taking its skin off.
Which brings us to the humorous juxtaposition that if you denude a furry’s fur, you can leave them nude.
Denude (verb): “(to) strip (something) of its covering, possessions, or assets.”
A collar with a bell on it? Now I want to ring her bell.
Giggity.
You can ring my bell ;)
That’s a good one :D My mind went to this one
My internal voice mispronounced “denude”, and I immediately thought of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPqwy6gv0KQ
I am genuinely shocked that your link wasn’t this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6120QOlsfU
I won’t lie, that’s where I mentally went to right after, but it sounded more like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm-jzCuG0PY
Well, at least Sydney is aware that she is a huge security risk………there is a lot of people I have met over the years that are quite oblivious to that.
People keep telling me that too, but I asked the aliens and they said it was fine to talk about their space ship. The government is so weird. Ah? Why is this man with a black mask in my roo
The greys have no problem with it, because it adds to their established mystique and does a good job of promoting their control instances in the DNC. The reptilians would have wiped your memory, to avoid drawing attention to their control avatar, Trump. The Arcturans are all New Agey and are all about blithering, so it’s not them either. If there was a space ship, it wasn’t the mole men. No call for secrecy leaves out the Elnivore and the Koonigh. That means you were probably abducted by oh look a squirrel.
I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but supers are real. I mean how else do I explain how many times I have been hit by/with cars and trucks and not only am I still alive, but I’ve only been to the hospital once after getting hit. Not to mention the guy that took a swing at my head with a baseball bat, that left a dent but didn’t knock me out or even down. Apparently my skin isn’t as sturdy as the rest of me, because my cats leave me covered in scratches when they get “cuddly” with me. I can get cut, but my bones and internal organs are super sturdy.
Don’t like the new paint job on your car?
Need someone to punch in frustration?
Can’t afford new crash test dummies?
Blunt Trauma Man to the rescue!
I am on Spironolactone, and a medicine, to help control high- blood pressure. All my body hair fell out, except for pubic hair. It also has a slight Progesterone effect. When it was tested on men they started growing bigger boobs.
All my transwomen friends swear by their spiro, except when they swear at it. Spiro is classed as a potassium-sparing diuretic when treating hypertension, and chemical castration when used by transwomen to grow their boobs. I was prescribed when I stopped riding long distances on my bike so I stopped eating bananas several times a week and my potassium levels dropped like a stone in still water.
Seems strange. Presumably there was some reason why the doctors wouldn’t just ‘prescribe’ a resumption of bananas? (I realise not all reasons are suitable for publication, so any details are strictly at your discretion.)
Ok it took me a bit to realize she ment her jacket not her actual fur!
Ohh new book! That makes two for the backlog. Not of this series. The other is a history of tanks.
PEOPLE VOTE GRRL POWER ,MAKE IT NUMBER ONE
Halo for president!
I voted today (well, yesterday, November 5) at my local election station, but Grrlpower was not on the election ballot. What the heck?
You forgot to write in your candidate of choice, they don’t even have to be actually running.
Nevertheless, Vote Scoville 2020!
There is nothing at all that I do not love about your post. It is perfection.
On the plus side, people probably would pass comments like “I forgot about..etc. etc” as Sidney just being Sidney.
In this case it’s probably covered by Pixel being in intelligence too since it might just seem like Sidney though Pixel’s very existence was something she wasn’t supposed to see :)
Definition of denude
transitive verb
1 : to deprive of something important
a: to strip of all covering or surface layers
b : to lay bare by erosion
c : to strip (land) of forests
I was thinking well, you’ve got denude. And destilllife. And delandscape. And dewatercolour…
Well, what Pixel is wearing is generally is called a jacket,
so I take it the term ‘coat’ is used to make it possible for Sidney to ask the coat vs pelt question.
If Sydney is a security risk,then maybe she should resign from the team???
If Sydney is a potential security rick, then she’s a risk who’s controlled by Archon.
If Sydney is not part of the team then she’s a potential security risk who’s NOT controlled by Archon.
Best she stays on the team…
That wouldn’t prevent her from seeing things others are not supposed to see. If you remember way back, one of the reasons why she is on the team so that they can keep an eye on her. Or There’s no unleashing, the point with the training is the leashing.
Heh, forgot the General’s wording – for a minute I thought you were speaking Galstandard Peroxide.
She just needs sequestering for training (for real this time) she can learn.
It is also entirely possible that Olivia knows more than Sydney is aware of.
Though, it is equally likely that Dave just wanted an opportunity to make of the double meaning of the word “coat”
I’m sure that the normal procedure would be for her to have completed her training along with getting a background check, and given security briefings before being exposed to anything like the Veil. Or, sent out on actual missions. Unfortunately for ARC Swat, the way she was recruited and that her set of powers made her to useful for missions (and a few oops! ones), means that they’re going to be chasing after Sydney to remind her “don’t talk about that” a lot.
Sydney was never “exposed” to the Veil. The Veil is everywhere, there are aliens in hiding all around her. She randomly spotted an alien while at the club. It was impossible to isolate her from it, save for actually isolating her from the world.
“She randomly spotted an alien while at the club”
She was using the True Sight Orb.
She was rolling the orb between her palms while going “boo deboop, boop deboop,” looked up, and her waitress was green. Less “using,” more “coincidentally touching.”
They probably could have rolled with the “there’s lots of brands of personal disguises on the market in SPAAAAAACE” half-truth Dabbler told her, but considering Sydney’s reaction to unexpectedly seeing a demon first-time was Crouching ADHD, Swing Chair style martial arts, they probably figured reading her in on the whole deal was probably safer for all involved.
Also, considering that the first things she said to the national press were “I am not a pirate!” followed by “Serendipitous Tumbleweed Activate! . . . is . . . not one of my powers, apparently”, she’s probably got a level of public credibility on par with the “Aliens? Experts say it’s possible” guy on the ‘History’ channel. So whatever she does blurt out might not be taken entirely at face value.
Pixel’s big,, but not that big in a world with Anvil in it. Surely it would be less taxing on the veil to not mess with her height?
The Viel knows somehow that Pixel has two forms.
One that needs total obsubtication and one that merely tweaks the ears.
It has to use the same image for both or she wouldn’t be recognized as one person.
I think the ears here are her being half-way changed, normally she has human ears.
The Veil could have a set of parameters of what a normal human should look like. Anything that deviates from the norm would be altered to fit the normal parameters. The trick with the lycanthropes would be the fact that they can be much taller in their other forms, so the Veil would also need to adjust their image size to fit their human form.
But in this case, I think panel 7 is just her in mid shift. Other than the hair, her human form is within standard parameters.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-491-leading-a-double-er-quintuple-life/
The world is a truly better with more anvil.
https://youtu.be/Ex7h_uvIFZE
“WTC Repercussions” – bought.
I have trouble coming up with accidental security risks greater than an ADHD blabbermouth quicker than her brain in fan mode overdrive. I honestly am amazed that Maxima let her know anything beyond “need to know” in the first place, though I imagine it might have something to do with her “True sight” orb making it difficult to hide all that much to begin with.
Still waiting for the second crossover where the TMH is on Astra’s turf.
Talk about security risks there!
trouble coming up with accidental security risks?
How about high ranking gov’t officials who hang on to brieifing notes *outside* of their briefcases where the press can take photos of it? Or a Prez who keeps talking points on index cards easily photoed by the press? Or a prez who refuses the security organization’s recommendations to only use secured cell phones? (actual facts only here, not politics!)
Oh, I can think of a lot worse security risks than Sydney.
Yep. When was the last reasonably secure US administration? Bush 43, right?
Obama was pretty good about device security. He gave up all his personal electronics and changed his passwords to gibberish and everything else. It wasn’t until halfway through his second term that private Gmail addys were considered as “not secure enough” since that was when they made government e-mail servers more secure than Google’s.
Probably closer to Lincoln.
I can’t think of any with Bush himself but that era was just when computers were used everywhere but most people weren’t aware of what was needed for security so they had quite a few breaches during that time.
My favourite was they “redacted” some documents by putting a black box over the text in a digital document. The people reading it could just turn it off or delete it and the text was still there.
No, the military computerized in the early eighties.
Of course at that time much of it was proprietary and not interconnected but by nineteen eighty five it had evolved to a pretty standardized setup.
She has been let in on secrets beyond her pay-grade, because her abilities, are so useful.
And because her abilities include “Accidentally reveal secrets above my pay grade” and reading her in is less hassle than her freaking out.
She sure is.
Most people do indeed call them arm warmers but some just call them sleeves. The ones I am familiar with are popular with runners and other athletes that train in cold weather, especially the women, as they are easily removed if you get too warm without removing your shirt, making them especially popular with women. Detached sleeves can be much tighter than integral shirt sleeves for muscle support because you can roll them on and off like a sock. They have to be tighter anyway in order to stay up. “Fingerless opera gloves” sounds much cooler, though. Pixel would have a hard time wearing them over her fur because they’d literally rub her the wrong way. Imagine hat head along your entire arm.
Arm warmers typically apply to tubes that cover the lower arms only (the same way that leg warms do for legs)
Detached sleeves or just sleeves would be more correct.
(the upper arms and thighs have enough muscle mass in them that under normal conditions moderate activity is enough to keep them reasonably warm.)
… and suddenly I realize why I’m fine wearing a kilt and long socks on cold weather where I might otherwise be seeking pants…
I have heard of them being called “Hae Sleeves” or “Half sleeves” “arm wrap” cept they don’t wrap they sock. also “Arm Hose” Hae or Ha’ Sleeves are detached sometimes maybe a suggested link to the torso cover with thin strings or ribbons. (ie half sleeve(d))
It was a way to keep shoulders bare, save seamstress stress after each wash (they used to take clothes apart to wash them way back and then sew them back up), also ventilation in hot and humid environs, yet offer cover from sun burn for the most part and insects.
Seems this item of clothing was created in several different cultures at same time or in differing eras w/o cross contamination…so it was a practicality item as well -eventually- fashionable.
We cyclists use arm warmers because we need layers and arm warmers fit in a jersey pocket pretty easily and jackets don’t. We also have the same thing but in a different fabric that has a spf of 100 and are also wicking to keep cool for summer, because sunblock also just makes the sweat just lay on top without cooling us off. Seriously, if I was fair skinned as my wife and daughters I would be in serious trouble by now, as much as I used to ride. Like I used to ride 120 miles round trip to have lunch with my ex when she was stuck in a nursing home, 2 or 3 times a month if it wasn’t raining. The picture in my gravatar was taken in the winter when I needed long sleeves to stay warm, but I also have numerous short-sleeved jerseys and several pairs of arm-warmers and one pair of sun sleeves for when they are appropriate.
As the great Demetri Martin points out, a leather coat is considered cool but a leather vest is not – therefore, cool is all about leather sleeves.
Ok, I know she regenerates, but c’mon Pix, smoking? You’re a superhero. You’re supposed to set a good example. Not to mention (but I’m mentioning), being a were already means you’re a badass. You don’t need a ‘tough’ act. Plus, how long does it take a being who regenerates to flush the nicotine from their system, thereby negating the stimulant effects?
Also the Nicotine in a 7 foot were jaguar suddenly in a petite female human
doesn’t sound safe or pleasant.
The werehoney badger also smokes. I wonder if that’s a were ‘thing,’ since they apparently CAN safely and thus WILL because cigarette smoking is PLEASANT and no I don’t miss cigarettes at ALL after fifteen years on the wagon, why do you ASK?
But Pixel isn’t a superhero. She hasn’t been recruited to the team and wasn’t part of the introduction.
She’s a member of the Twilight Council, which is a whole different thing and definitely not a superhero thing.
I was almost expecting her to smoke with a cigarette holder, to further push her Pink Panther vibe.
Oh fuck off
Who the fuck said Pixelicious is “supposed to set a good example”?
Not everyone who smokes develops cancer, or even lung cancer
Dad had health problems after working as a security guard at an aluminium smelter, butt because he also smoked they wouldn’t do shit, and grandmother (or was it great grandmother?) smoked all the time and lived into her 90’s with no health problems
Smoking is bad for you at the margins, but the simple truth is that there are people who drew the short straw genetically, and who are just screwed regardless of how well they live, and there are people who drew the long straw genetically, and will live to 90 or a hundred smoking cigars and washing their bacon down with whiskey.
But for the 90% of the population in between those two extremes, avoiding smoking IS a good idea.
It should be an individual and personal choice
I’m perfectly ok with anyone doing individual choice of smoking as long as they are far enough so I don’t smell it.
Same.
I consider it the right of people to choose to smoke–it’s a choice which they make knowing the consequences of it so they have the right to make it. (And, heck, I write plenty of characters who smoke specifically because they have powers giving them impunity towards the consequences because if you can smoke without the health risk downsides to it, I can understand why you would.)
I won’t disassociate from someone for smoking, either; it’s something I don’t care about…
…As long as they’re doing it out of range of my nose. Cigarette smoke is the most appalling smell to my nose; it is the smelling equivalent to my misophonia triggering on chewing/smacking lips and nothing triggers me more than smelling cigarette smoke.
Someone lighting up a cigarette near me is enough to send me fleeing at a full sprint as far away from them as I need to be to not smell it. But someone who smoked a cigarette ten minutes ago coming near me won’t bother me at all if they finished it and no longer are near the expired cigarette.
Fair enough
The one rule we had when we moved house was: no smoking inside, brother and nephew have abided by the rule butt older sister has always felt it didn’t apply to her
I agree to your statement, the more individual choices without negatively affecting others the better. I’m kinda in the opposite court as bree I enjoy most woody smoke smells, kinda makes me hungry. However I don’t smoke because I dislike the feeling in my lungs. What does bother me is how some jobs handle smoke breaks, where it’s semi acceptable to do less work to go smoke. Rather than gaff off for 15 to 20 minutes which will usually get you yelled at.
Believe ‘smoko breaks’ is a holdover from the time when workers weren’t allowed to smoke in the workplace or at their station, so they were issued two(?) periods other than lunch in which they could (if they so chose) to go outside or designated area to light up, usually five to ten minutes, sometimes fifteen
You didn’t have to smoke if you didn’t want to, you could use that time for whatever you waned, as long as you returned to work at the end of it
In order for it to be a personal choice, you:
– Can’t litter with the butts (as most smokers do)
– Can’t smoke anywhere near any other living thing (that includes canines, felines, etc, which can and do get cancer from people smoking near them or eating the butts)
– Can’t be seen smoking (impressionable people are impressionable)
– Can’t smoke indoors or in a location where wind current might plaster the exhaled tar into/onto a building
I mean if you wanna injure yourself while also lighting your own money on fire, then just do that.
Ok, here we go:
1. Pixel’s not a superhero. She works out of the spotlight with ARC-Light as an expert on artifacts, and is a member of the Twilight Council, the very existence of which is a high-level secret. As far as anyone outside of those groups knows, she’s an “example” of herself — just Pixel being Pixel, doing Pixel things.
2. No one else on Earth, imaginary or real version, is required to attach the same value judgements or symbolism to smoking that you appear to be doing. No one else has to see it as bad, a negative example, or something someone does to look tough, and no one else necessarily does. She’s not necessarily doing it for the reasons you attribute, other readers aren’t necessarily seeing those implications, people are individuals with their own lives and histories.
3. This is, of course, a fictional setting, wherein a person who is at best human-adjacent is smoking what we’re assuming is tobacco. The effects of any aspect of that on a were-jaguar who has superpowers in two of her three potential forms is so far into the region of “who even knows” that it’s pointless to draw parallels to a real-world human smoking. We don’t know if nicotine effects her like a human, like a jaguar (catnip has different effects on humans and cats, nicotine . . . who knows?), like a superhero (again, who knows if there’s even a baseline for that), or a mix of those, or something else entirely. Do wounds, drugs, etc. transfer between forms? If so, to what degree? Would Pixel get high as balls if she drank tea with catnip in it (a mild relaxant sometimes used in herbal teas) and then transformed into one of her were-forms? We just don’t know.
Sorry to trip the light pedantic there, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way when people seem to be jumping from fictional point a to nonfiction point z without the intervening complexities and differences being addressed.
Pixel is a super, she’s just not contracted with Archon. I honestly doubt Archon has a rule about smoking since when you’re dealing with superpowered humans… you pick your battles. As was implied when discussing whether Archon was under the military or police forces.
Pixelicious is only a Super in her hybrid and were forms, not in her hyu-mon form (butt she is super in all forms ;) )
Technicalities indeed, but most humans can’t see her were forms. They’d just see a human smoking.
Sorry, that wasn’t as clear as I intended. Pixel is a superbeing (an inherent condition; has super powers in two of her three potential forms — hybrid and fully animal). She is not a superhero (a chosen profession; signed on with Arc-SWAT, publicly known to have powers).
I meant pointing out the distinction between out-front Arc-SWAT and behind-the-scenes Arc-Light to express that she is not being put in the public eye in a profession where a certain sort of “role model”/”kids look up to you” expectation might pertain (like a real world celebrity athlete, for instance).
Oh, my mistake then. Thanks for clarifying.
Any athlete who goes into it with the intent on being a celebrity, or worse, a ‘role model’, is not a real athlete and only in it for the fame and what comes with fame and typically isn’t an athlete for long butt remains a ‘celebrity athlete’ for way longer than they should
Personally would rather be a ‘cautionary tale’ than a ‘role model’, and, so far, succeeding :P
Note the difference between ‘already famous for something else, sport as a sideline’, ‘sport as a career, good/memorable enough to be famous for it’, and your described ‘sport as a deliberate means towards becoming famous’. Either of the first two descriptions is far more common than the third, and more likely to be what Woodrobin meant by ‘celebrity athlete’.
Actually Pixel is a unique case and is both a super AND a werecreature.
Now she realizes. Also I completely forgot about the Veil.
Because she’s a redhead, Pixel has a ginger veil.
The big problem with Sydney being a security risk and booting her from the team would be that she can’t be held accountable any longer if/when she does reveal things. She can pierce the veil (even if it re-envelops her), and she can reveal much more simply by looking and talking about it. Plus, her classified abilities won’t be considered as classified any longer, as Archon couldn’t even order her to pass the salt at that point. By retaining her on the team, she can be trained and will be held accountable, exactly as Max mentioned before.
Yes, Sydney is at least capable of that “Oh Sh*t” moment when you realized that you almost made a grievous mistake. Sydney will need repetitious overlearning but she will get there.
Also, as has been noticed before, Sydney NEVER passes the salt. She is The QUEEEN.
I bought Repercussions to add to my eight other novels and a short story by Marion George Harmon. I’ve read it twice so far, once for fun and once for comprehension. Next reading is for proofreading – I’ve already highlighted a few errors.
I haven’t even started it yet, bought it off the link in Harmon’s blog and have it on my cloud reader.
I’m about a third of the way through. I had been rereading the series but was only on the second book due to some cool biographies.
I’m sure calling it a pelt would be rude as that implies she was killed and had her skin removed.
No.
Pelt is used as a synonym for fur, when it is still on the animal which grew it.
But always with the implication of an object that can be removed, so it would never be polite to address someone with a reference to theirs.
Not at all. Listen to people who go to pedigreed dog and cat shows talk about colour patterns.
What of the types that actually do remove it, like selkies?
We need a story arc that fleshes out how the Fae function in the Grrlverse.
Vampires and Weres both had some time in the spotlight (and mages have as well, to a lesser extent)
I have Emphysema, from second-hand smoke, from birth. I never got a choice. BTW Emphysema, is a fatal disease, I may only have a few years left.
Such as the hair on humans.
In defence of Sydney, Pixel should know that Sydney would say something like that, she’s Sydney. Pixel should not have show up in the fur, regardless of if the veil conceals her or not.
My brain kept trying to read that onomatopoeia as “depixelated”, which is both punny and thought provoking – which version is the “real” Pixel, and which is the version being de-Pixelated when she shifts away from it?
I would think “depixelated” would be the non-onomatopoeia (nonomatopoeia?) for when she turns invisible in her full-jaguar form. That would be removing the pixels being displayed, as it were (no pun intended).
So how does one get on the Vale exclusion list? Like is it a literal list? Did they have Sydney put a hand print on a mysterious dodad and say some magic words or what?
She is on the Veil exclusion list due to the fact she can see through it when she holds her balls tightly
Being on the Vale exclusion list means she doesn’t invite you to go shopping with her or to watch crappy cartoons
I think she might have been whitelisted explicitly in order to attend the Twilight counsel meeting; She was apparently seeing everybody as they were without using her true sight.
No, she has to actually use the Tru Site orb to see behind the Veil, as shown in the Untz-Club when she spotted Greenie the moonlighting alien princess waitress
But that was before she was told of the existence of the Twilight Council and the Veil. It’s reasonable to imagine that the Veil might not bother trying to affect the perceptions of someone who knows what the Veil is and how it works.
You sure? Thought the Untz-clubbing was after…
before. Maxima called her and told her to not use the orb until debriefed on a few things; and not long after Sydney was taken to the Twilight Council and the Sciona arc began.
Oh right, it was during that the club that she started to see things she shouldn’t, and then either received a call from or sent a call to Maxi and The General
Seems to me that this is yet another hint that the Veil is going to be coming down relatively soon.
It has already suffered extensive damage, and after the sudden arrival of a lot of aliens (with large-scale combat), that part of the cat is definitely out of the bag.
If you read Dave’s notes. The Sigils have been repaired.
No indication as to whether or not they are going to update the operating system as Dabbler suggested or not.
They told her about all these other secrets (because they had to) but nobody’s sat her down and briefed her on the remaining aspects of the topics in question. Knowing she’d been excluded from the veil could’ve been important, no? Incomplete knowledge is more dangerous than ignorance.
Max did tell her she’d been “read in” on the Twilight Council, but she was never shown being explicitly told that meant she’d been exempted from the Veil. Sydney’s train of thought runs more often on the set of rails shared by the Hogwarts Express and the trolley on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood than the ones used by Southern Rail or the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Assuming she’s gathered the same info from a shorthand version of an explanation as someone else might have is probably not wise.
Exactly right.
She already knew that, once you pierce the veil that’s it, it has lost its hold on you. Individual glamour and disguises are required at that point for Sydney not to see them now. Just like on the other end once Supers went public the veil lost what little coverage it had given them as well; which had been tenuous at best to begin with.
Just Sydney forgets easily, and it really has been for her a much shorter time than it seems, so “oh yeah I can see this stuff now, and not everyone can” is still new. Especially since right after all the supernatural stuff she was thrown into alien stuff which mostly works a tad differently and became public upon her return (the existence of aliens, not how many are on Earth just yet).
The veil piercing works on concepts and groups of people; it doesn’t stop working simply because you know about werewolves. It specifically says on this page that Sydney’s been excluded. She wasn’t made immune by proxy. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to see the various species at the council meeting when she hadn’t yet been informed any of them existed.
Ugh, I keep getting Pixel and Peggy mixed up. Dang pink hair.
In Sydney’s defense, I’d forgotten about the veil too. Yay, adhd.
….you completely miss the massive amount of Tattoos, the massive facial scar and the prosthetic Leg.. and the fact Peggy’s about two feet taller?
Peggy is 5’4″, Sydney is 5’0″ and so is human-form Pixel (Sydney lines up and does a head and eye height comparison when they first meet). Hybrid-form Pixel is literally head-and-shoulders taller than Sydney, and leans down a bit and still glares down at 5’8″ Harem, so I’d say 6’6″ (she seems about as much taller than Sydney as Leon is, and we know he’s 6’6″).
Ain’t nobody 2 feet taller than nobody in that group.
Wouldn’t be able to see the tattoos under a leather jacket, but the cross-hair shaped facial scar on a sniper should be a handy mnemonic device, you’d think.
The veil gets stretched a little later on in the night when Pixel and Olivia walk by each other.
Olivia: Pixel, oh, I thought you were taller when we first met. I did not realize you are actually shorter than Sydney.
Pixel: I get that a lot. I was standing on some steps and you were on the ground. So that’s why I looked taller.
Olivia: Oh. I get it. Thanks.
I’ve met people with ‘presence’, that makes them seem bigger out of context, and it’s always shocking to see them around taller people than them.
even with seeing her as pink panther form it probly be the least surpriseing thing shes seen all week with reveal of aliens and magic orb powers and so on. probly with thought of “welp this is life of Sydney ” *cue sitcome jingle*
She’s a Were jaguar, not a pick panther. Jaguars are not part of the panther family.
Jaguars are pretty similar to Old World leopards. Both are considered “panthers,” by one definition, being big cats that roar; but they are different from cougars.
So whether they are “panthers” or not depends on whether you mean “panther” as in cougar (no), “panther” as in leopard-like big cat (yes), or “Panthera” the genus of big cats that roar (yes).
Panthera Onca! Represent!
Seems to me that the Council having veto rights on the President having knowledge of top secret information would be highly unconstitutional, actually. That was actually the big part of Independence Day that I had a major problem with. And it’s likely a good reason why the NSA head was fired by the President in that movie – he did something which you can go to prison for – not giving the President all the information for running the executive branch of the government. Plausible Deniability is not a thing that can be used to exclude the President from knowing EVERYTHING about what’s going on in the military. He or she is the commander-in-chief. That means knowing everything about what he or she is commanding. Also, letting a foreign government have direct control over the US executive branch would be highly illegal for a treaty, and that treaty would either become void or the part of the treaty that said that would be voided (treaties are basically contracts, and an illegal contract is no longer a contract).
Question: How about black ops and Senate committees for black budgets? They do exist, I doubt all presidents were aware of much of these. How does that work? Genuinely curious.
Senate is the legislative branch. The Presidency is the executive branch. The Executive branch constitutionally must be in the know for the execution of ALL laws, administrative actions, and anything with military involvement. So yes, anything in Black Ops is going to be something the President MUST be made aware of. If you are doing an action without presidential authority, you are committing treason. Also, treaties are part of the Executive Branch as well – Article II, section 2. You can’t have a treaty that says the President will not be made aware of the treaty. That would also be unconstitutional and an illegal treaty.
Btw, Black Ops is military. So has to fall under the Executive. And yes, the President is made aware of ALL ongoing and past black ops in security sesssions as soon as they are sworn in. They cannot make executive decisions in a vacuum of knowledge.
Black Budgets are account expenses and spending related to military research and covert operations, and are thus part of both the Legislative branch (for the power of the purse) AND the executive (Commander in Chief). The President must be made aware of any and all black budgets, although he or she cannot necesarily DO anything about the granting of that budget… just the spending of it.
In short anything remotely military or involving a security clearance is something the President MUST be made aware of in order for it to be legal.
There’s a world of difference in the Executive having theoretical “on-demand” access, and having actual “explicitly informed re-approval” awareness. The only way for a President to function is to delegate heavily, and that includes giving various branches implicit permission to mostly operate how they see fit, subject to oversight from appropriate committees, relevant laws and treaties, etc. And that very likely includes being fairly hands-off Black Ops amongst the various military and intelligence agencies.
I’m sure the President is consulted explicitly for many ongoing discussions of national security interest, like Obama’s involvement in planning and approving the Bin Laden strike operation, but no way is every new president taken into briefings on every active (let alone historic) Black Ops budget and operation plan.* They have advisors to meet with the liasons that coordinate with the actual program directors.
They’re just too dang busy dealing with a million other things, and the small army of advisers and staff surrounding the President has to filter a lot of it. If the relevant Cabinet member is okay with whatever the relevant agency head has briefed them on, the President probably never hears about it until his awareness and/or approval becomes absolutely imperative – which it rarely would if all goes smoothly.
* Nor every active treaty or the historical context for every single international relationship, but that’s another thread…
Snapping turtle, hippo, orcaScandals, trade deals, agricultural subsidy, foreign aid requests.Yeah, El Preso usually only has to be read in on things when they get fucked up
It’s the reason for “Plausible Deniability”: if said Black Ops gets found out, El Preso can say they had no idea what the fuck was going on butt they would find out (and then a lot a butts start clenching because they know heads are going to roll)
No, the President has to be read in on EVERYTHING as soon as he or she becomes President, Guesticus, Do not base real life presidential authorization on the movie Independence Day.
Base it on Stargate SG-1. Day 1, the President is always told all the most secret information. :)
May not be terribly smart, butt do know the difference between fictional movies and equally fictional TV and reality (interesting that you dismissed a movie butt endorsed a TV show, when they are both fictitious)
Because… SG-1 is a more realistic take on politics. Keeping the leader of the armed forces in the dark on critical military matters isn’t just stupid, it’s nonsensical.
Actually, insofar as the President is made aware of all black ops projects, yes, it is more realistic. Actually Stargate SG-1 has a lot of stuff based on realistic concepts. It’s harder science fiction than, say, Star Trek or Star Wars at least on the Moh’s Scale, and probably the same level as the Mass Effect level of science fiction hardness.
Some don’t even consider Star Wars to be “Science Fiction”, it is more a Fantasy Space Drama. As it doesn’t really explore the concepts and workings of its world just changes out settings from a traditional fantasy setting to an outerspace one.
I’m just basing what I said on the existing ‘Mohs’ Scale of Science Fiction Hardness’. It’s sort of a play on the ‘Mohs Scale of mineral hardness’ that Wired magazing made up and ran with until it became an actual trope.
Level 1 is ‘Science in Genre Only’ – examples are like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, anything in DC and Marvel, Futurama, etc. Although they do have occasional exceptions (ie, Batman figuring out that it’s difficult to understand letters in dreams, Futurama occasionally using real science to mock Futurama Science with Hubert, etc).
Level 2 – World of Phlebotinum – Where, even though the science really makes no sense when you know ACTUAL science, it’s still nevertheless consistent in universe. For example, Star Wars with the Force (until the sequels which basically said ‘screw what little constency we have, lets go down to Science in Genre Only’ level). Or Star Trek The Original Series. Or Neon Genesis Evangelion or StarCraft.
Level 3 is Physics Plus. Where the author justifies things that cannot exist in real life with some philosophical exploration of real life physics (or physics theories that have since been disproven). Like Space 1889 (which relied on the Aether Wind being real), most of Arthur C Clarke’s stories, old stories like Flatland
Level 4 is ‘One Big Lie’ – Where the author creates one (or a very small number) of fake physics examples, and tries to see how the real world would work if that one (or few) physics theories were true. For example, Mass Effect, which uses real world physics with ONE exception – the Mass Effect itself. Usually in these stories the one big lie is whatever makes FTL travel possible for the ships.
Level 5 is Speculative Science – where there’s no actual ‘big lie’ but the science in the story is a speculative POSSIBILITY of real science being used as if it’s definitely practical. Gattaca. A lot of stuff that Jules Verne wrote (for his time, it was Speculative Science). Babylon 5. Stargate SG-1 tend to float between Speculative Science and One Big Lie (the big lie being na’qua’da), but a lot of other times where na’qua’da is not being used, they use speculative science. Also the movie ‘The Martian’ is on the VERY high end of Level 5, teetering close to level 6.
Level 6 is Real Life. Basically anything that can definitely happen in real life. Basically no longer science FICTION – it’s now science non-fiction. Apollo 13 would be a good example.
Yeah, that sounds right for Star Wars.
My own stuff tends to float around 4 and 5 when exploring science aspects and explaining magic; it is also mainly fantasy and horror more so than science fiction so its not really explored in-story mode so much as background elements to keep things consistent.
“The only way for a President to function is to delegate heavily,”
In order to delegate anything, you have to be AWARE OF ITS EXISTENCE FIRST.
Seriously, does no one else see the problem of a President having his or her subordinates hide necessary information from him or her? You HAVE to tell the person in charge everything. Period.
“but no way is every new president taken into briefings on every active (let alone historic) Black Ops budget and operation plan.*”
You’d be wrong. The President IS given a briefing on everything. including existing black ops budgets and plans. Because you NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THINGS EXISTING IN ORDER TO MAKE DECISIONS OR DELEGATE RESPONSIBILITY.
“They’re just too dang busy dealing with a million other things, and the small army of advisers and staff surrounding the President has to filter a lot of it.”
Again, no. The President, constitutionally, must be made aware of everything. Do you think FDR was not made aware of D-Day before it happened? Or more on point, Bill Clinton stated in an interview that he had been briefed on things like Roswell and, upon being briefed, had ‘all the Roswell papers reviewed.’
The subordinates were not the ones elected to leadership, and they do not have LEGAL control over what the President does and does not get to hear. They most definitely do not get to withhold information from the President, especially when it’s directly associated to the functions of the military. And Archon is a function of the military. Did people forget the whole ‘military briefing’ that Sydney barged in on earlier in the comic? There was a certain person in attendance there that was a President.
Apparently shortly after he reviewed the Roswell Papers, Clinton also declassified them. Just checked. :)
The whole point of delegating responsibility, is because you trust that person to be responsible with what ever they have been delegated with without having to run everything by the one doing the delegating
Mores the point, you trust them to tell you when and if there is anything that you need to know
And it’s the whole point of Clinton releasing the Roswell papers that is the reason why even the President is kept in the dark about certain things
What’s the point of having Black Ops or Top Secrets if the President can just reveal it to the world on a whim (or when they are nearing the end of their term, or needing something to hide some other dirty little secret)
Presidents come and go every four to eight years (or less), butt the Top Brass usually stay
There’s actually, you know, laws, about declassification… Sigh.
Again Guesticus, no, the President is NOT kept in the dark about things. ESPECIALLY not things involving military matters. At least not if you’re doing something legally. If you keep the President in the dark, you will be fired, and most likely arrested, when it’s found out.
“Aware of its existence” does not necessarily mean “aware of its details”. Given the workload involved, I would not be at all surprised if the formalities were satisfied with one-sentence descriptions, which could lead to some … creative use of language.
For example, if I had wanted to minimise FDR’s knowledge of the Enigma intercepts, I might describe the project as “analysis of intercepted communications by electromechanical means”. Gives a basic idea of what policy areas are involved, without telling him anything sensitive that he might accidentally reveal. If he’s interested enough to ask for details then he can have them, but otherwise it remains compartmentalised.
This can of course cut both ways. The Laputa Institute’s project for “a new means of renewable energy storage using green science” sounds great, as long as you don’t ask for the details. Extracting sunlight from cucumbers. Professor Swift’s team has been working on it since 1726.
The US Constitution puts treaties at the same level as the Constitution itself:
” This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
It is possible for a treaty to be made that would be unconstitutional if it contradicted a provision or amendment, but there is no amendment or provision that states that the POTUS must be appraised of the existence of every group, country, or sovereign group.
Tell that one to the Cherokee and the Sioux.
Because it’s a lot easier to break a treaty than make one, yes. Also based on the Constitution. :)
No Marquar, treaties are not at the same level of the Constitution. The Constitution is above ANY other statute, law, or treaty. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, Article VI, Clause 2, establishes that the Constitution, federal laws made pursuant TO the Constitution, and treaties made under its authority constitute the ‘supreme Law of the Land’ and take priority over conflictingstate laws. But if there’s a conflict between the Constitution and a federal law, or the Constitution and a treaty, the Constitution takes priority.
Treaties can be broken. Federal laws can be overruled. The Constitution cannot – it can only be amended, and it takes a LOT to even amend it.
So no. It is NOT possible for a treaty to be made that would be unconstitutional. If there is a conflict between a treaty and the Constitution, the Constitution takes priority, and the treaty is invalid, or the portion of the treaty which is unconstitutional is invalidated.
And yes, there is a provision that states that the POTUS must be appraised of the existence of EVERY treaty and military action – Article II, Section 2 grants the executive branch expansive powers to the President to preserve civilian supremacy over the military. There have also been numerous federal statutes which have further expanded these powers, like the War Powers Act. In short, to paraphrase Maxima to Sydney, you cannot withhold strategic information from your commanding officer.
Please think about what you’re saying. You think that it is possible for a President to make a treaty which would be unconstitutional. The President, like anyone, is still bound by the Constitution (as is everyone in government) – the document which grants him or her their executive powers. There’s no way to bypass that.
One key factor which is relevant to the issue:
The twilight council has been around for hundreds of years, yes? (Okay I need to go back and fact check that to confirm, admittedly.)
They presumably predate the formation of the United States of America.
It is quite possible that, sayyyy, some of the founding fathers of the USA made treaties with the supernatural element of the world before there even WAS a constitution. And, under that assumption, might’ve made an ‘not written in any official documents’ section TO the constitution factoring in the twilight council and so on and so forth.
While this world is ~98% identical to our own world, there ARE differences in it due to the presence of supernatural elements, supers, aliens, and whathaveyou on earth throughout the millennia. All it’d take for the twilight council to have the constitutional right to not inform the president of the united states of America of their existence, is for that to be one of the 2% different in this world compared to ours.
Good catch (wait for the lawyer to counter that in three, two… )
And it’s quite possible that the Twilight Council helped with the Constitution
Three, two, one. :)
“They presumably predate the formation of the United States of America.”
Regardless of whether the Council predates the formation of the USA (which they do), they are incapable of predating a treaty with the USA. You cannot predate a treaty with a country from before that country existed. The UK predates the US as well, but we have treaties with them as well. And those treaties need to NOT contradict the Constitution in order to be valid.
“It is quite possible that, sayyyy, some of the founding fathers of the USA made treaties with the supernatural element of the world before there even WAS a constitution.”
Nope, any treaty or other written document before the Constitution is no longer legal upon the formation of the Constitution. We don’t still have the Articles of Confederation, for example. It was annulled upon the passing of the Constitution, because of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. The Constitution takes primacy over other laws, and it forms the basis of the nation. A treaty with a group that existed BEFORE the nation is not a treaty with the US.
In short, the Constitution leaves no room for secret laws in general, and even if someone was to argue it does (FISA courts, for example, which were already shown to not be legal to operate in secret based on the USA Freedom Act) and the Constitution ESPECIALLY leaves no room to keep laws secret from the person who is charged with EXECUTING THE LAWS.
“And, under that assumption, might’ve made an ‘not written in any official documents’ section TO the constitution factoring in the twilight council and so on and so forth.”
Then it would again be illegal. We are a republic. Our laws are not just in the aether. There has to be an official document or treaty or it is not a law or treaty, and any spending of US funds or military endeavours involving another government would be illegal. Even if it’s a secret law or treaty. It’s still a law or treaty, written SOMEWHERE, which people with the highest clearance would have access to, which generally means the President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Intelligence Committee in Congress.
“All it’d take for the twilight council to have the constitutional right to not inform the president of the united states of America of their existence, is for that to be one of the 2% different in this world compared to ours.”
That’s a rather poor argument. “The reason why this thing, which is not legal by any stretch of the imagination based on any and all laws and history of the United States, is because in that world, it’s not illegal, despite the author going out of his way to stress realism in all aspects other than the one ‘mass effect’ factor or the existence of the supernatural and supers.” It’s why DaveB keeps subverting tropes. To stress how comic books leave out a LOT of things that would happen in real life.
Look I know people don’t like Trump, and I am assuming that’s the reason for the statement of saying the Council might have something saying the President doesn’t have to know (despite the constitution itself saying he would have to know) but remaking an entire fictional world to be able to exclude one person that you don’t like, because otherwise the real world elements of the law don’t fit? That would be quite a bit off.
PS – Guesticus, even if the Twilight Council helped with the Constitution, I’ve read the Constitution. I wish a lot more people did, honestly. And I’ve read it quite thoroughly. I’ve taken entire courses based on one or two clauses IN the Constitution. I’ve written peer-reviewed papers on different aspects of it. There’s nothing in there saying they can keep something military secret from the President, whether it’s Obama, Clinton, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Trump, or even if Vermin Supreme (google him) was elected. No one gets to change the Constitution based on personal dislikes.
I think a lot of this law mangling originates from the following statement from DaveB:
“Obviously the president and select members of the cabinet know, but the Council has veto rights in case, I don’t know, a president ever gets elected who is… not up to their standards.”
Their so-called “veto right” would be storming U.S. intelligence agencies and destroying affiliated documents. There’s no way a powerful modern U.S. would seek or maintain a treaty which puts itself below the interests of a deeply-divided and severely weakened power cabal.
I believe DaveB didn’t think this one through, which makes me think he has a touch of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Heh. I gotta hand it to Trump; he has some of the brightest minds in our society still thinking he’s an idiot. I was duped for about 2 months until I realized… He’s the f’king president. Even if he’s a twat in everything else, he’s clearly smarter than the vast majority when it comes to politics. He won the presidency with <50% of his opponent's spending. I don't think anyone else did that in the past century.
Yes, exactly. The reason I started typing anything was because of that one sentence. It would not be a legal treaty if it was involving giving a foreign government veto power over the way the US government functions constitutionally and, in addition to the treaty being made void, every government worker involved in keeping the secret would be arrested, and military officers would be court-martialled.
Do not be confusing a Real Life Constitution with a Fictional Constitution, written with the input of a Secret Cabal of monsters and extra terrestrials
Like Pander said, the constitution is public, so that’s a poor excuse. And like I said, a modern powerful U.S. would not subordinate itself to a severely weakened power cabal. It has no reason to do so; magic or otherwise. It’s been shown the U.S. has some powerful mages of its own.
It’s quite obvious Maxima alone could wipe the floor with most of the Council, and even then, it’s unlikely individuals like Pixel or Krona (who would pose the most serious threat) would bother to oppose Archon. I could even see individuals like Chorus and Krona defecting to Archon. Unless Chorus was posing as a fake intellectual, he appears to be one of the most intelligent beings at that meeting. Krona is more of an academic than a fighter. Several of the other parties either didn’t engage or fought unwillingly (or just poorly).
The council is deeply divided and very overtly political. So many of these types are gonna know what’s up with the power balance. Especially after seeing Maxima wipe the floor with those constructs. I think with the exposure of supers and aliens in quick succession, we could even see a dissolution of the entire council within the comic canon.
Did you read the quote from the actual Constitution that says that treaties, the Constitution, and the laws made to support the Constitution are all the supreme law of the land? I’m guessing you didn’t.
Also, your “logic” seems to be based upon the fact that the Constitution is a natural law like gravity or conservation of matter. It can be broken just like a treaty can be broken. Laws and treaties can certainly be made that are unconstitutional. The point of the Constitution is to have a set of rules against which laws can be compared, it doesn’t prevent bad laws from being made.
Also, I have a hard time taking anyone seriously who doesn’t know that it takes both the President *and* two-thirds of the Senate to make a treaty.
“Did you read the quote from the actual Constitution that says that treaties, the Constitution, and the laws made to support the Constitution are all the supreme law of the land? I’m guessing you didn’t.”
Yes I read the quote. It’s one of those things you read when you’re taking Constitutional Law in the first year of law school. Which I did. And I’m guessing you didn’t. And the treaties are still subordinate to the wording in the Constitution itself. Simply put, as much as you don’t like Trump or do not understand how the law works in the US, you cannot have a treaty which counters the duties in the Articles of the Constitution, or the Amendments of the Constitution. It takes primacy over everything else – including over all federal statutes and treaties.
“Also, your “logic” seems to be based upon the fact that the Constitution is a natural law like gravity or conservation of matter. ”
No, my logic is based on knowing what is actually written in the Constitution, the case law on this and the federal statutes which support this.
“It can be broken just like a treaty can be broken.”
Ummmm no. It can’t be broken like a treaty can be broken. Changing the Constitution is MUCH more difficult. It requires proposing an Amendment by a 2/3rds vote in BOTH the House and the Senate, and THEN you have to send it to the states for a vote, upon which it requires 3/4ths of the states to affirm the proposed amendment. That’s a ridiculously high standard. And NONE of the Amendments have ever been able to undo one of the Articles in the Constitution. Because the Amendment-making process IS ONE OF THE ARTICLES.
Article V, specifically.
“The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”
Lets compare that to what the constitution says about treaties shall we?
Treaty Clause, Article II, section 2, clause 2. Of the Constitution.
Anyway here’s what the treaty clause says, since you clearly do not know.
“[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur…”
That’s all that’s required to make a treaty. A lot less than an Amendment.
And when we’re talking about BREAKING a treaty? It’s EVEN EASIER.
Reid v Covert. 354 U.S. sec. 1. Argued against by people who are like you, who did not understand the basic idea that the Constitution is the Supreme law of the land. The Supreme Court ruled that treaty provisions can be unconstitutional and void under domestic law, the same as any other federal law in conflict with the Constitution.
Also, Congress can, ON ITS OWN, modify or repeal treaty by subsequent legislative action. Case in point? The Head Money cases (112 US 580 (1884)), aka “Edye vs Robertson.” Whether the President can break a treaty on his own is another question, since SCOTUS has refused to say so every time it’s come up (Jimmy Carter terminating a defense treaty, George W Bush terminating an ABM treaty). Whenever SCOTUS has been asked, they’ve said, and I quote: “The issue at hand … was essentially a political question and could not be reviewed by the court, as Congress had not issued a formal opposition.” (that was said specifically by Justice Brennan).
Go read the case law in question and the statutes, then you can get back to me about who should be taken more seriously about how the law works. :)
“Also, I have a hard time taking anyone seriously who doesn’t know that it takes both the President *and* two-thirds of the Senate to make a treaty.”
I have a hard time taking someone seriously that doesn’t know that it takes more than that to make an Amendment, and a lot LESS than that to BREAK a treaty.
Oh, also there’s only ever been one time anything has ever been REMOVED from the Constitution – the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). Every other of the 27 Amendment, save for the 21st, has been to ADD to the Constitution. Although I suppose the 22nd Amendment is technically not ‘adding’ to the Constitution insomuch as it’s specifying a limit that was not described in the Constitution (the limit of 2 terms for the Presidency).
There’s a reason for that. Because adding Amendments is ridiculously difficult. 17 in 200+ years (if you do not include the Bill of Rights).
And of that, only ONE has ever been repealed (21st).
Compare that to the number of treaties that have been made – approximately 374 that have been ratified, not including almost a thousand treaties made with American Indian tribes (of which 500 were easily broken, changed, or nullified, usually with just the Congress deciding to do so).
^^^
Umm, wasn’t it the 18th Amendment that was repealed, not the 21st? o_O
How do we even know if there even was an 18th Amendment in the Grrlverse?
And that would be just one example of ‘minor’ deviations between the two universes
As Pander also mentioned, DaveB has kept the Grrlverse close to the real universe. Mostly to point out how comic writers change reality on a whim for no purpose other than to ignore the real problems that would be created by their storytelling. Removing or altering the various amendments would be doing exactly what DaveB himself has mocked in the past.
What I meant was there was only one amendment that was ever repealed (the 18th, by the 21st). Minor correction that Guesticus caught.
But again Guesticus, the Grrlpower universe is INTENTIONALLY very similar to the real universe. Saying ‘yeah but it’s not in this thing which would otherwise not make sense even though no one’s said anything about it in the comic ever’ is a lame excuse, and poor reasoning if that’s the only way you can make your argument work.
Basically exactly what Denied said :)
Laws don’t matter to the Council- they’ve been in operation for a vastly longer time than any existing sovereign state has existed.
Laws matter to the Council if they signed a treaty with the US and want to be able to tell the US government what to do. The Council doesn’t control the US government and what the US government has to tell the President.
I am wandering if they could legally have a “well its a lot to try and debrief so we left them access to the reading material. They just had to request the file to read up it” and there being tons of top secret projects potentially that the go to method is to hide in plane sight and trust the average president is simply too busy or doesn’t care enough or think its important enough to go to a federal archive and request to read everything.
In short, we didn’t lie to you, we just didn’t tell you, but if you had asked….
They still have to give a briefing of it first. Which is usually a cliff notes summary. Like Clinton with Roswell. What they CANT do it omit key elements from the summary, like….. “vampires and werewolves and aliens and demons and fae and mages exist and we have an existing treaty with them.”
I am going to be honest, the likely reason you are seeing so much resistance to this is because the current president is Donald Trump, a man I had sworn during the debates was just the Republican’s rodeo clown there to distract the news outlets who focus on ratings from looking into anything seedy on the candidate they really wanted to push…
if this were Obama, Bush, Clinton, heck it could be Bill Gates no one would doubt you one bit; but the fact a self centered reality TV star (which I swear as much as he brings up ratings as his reasons for doing things I think he has dementia and believes he is starring in a tv show right now…) but any who; the fact he has access to and would be debriefed on anything important…although he has fired, and refused to listen to intelligence briefings so…there is that….any who; is the idea that there is no way if he knew anything as juicy as supers, aliens at Area 51, government has treaties with the cthulhu star spawn illuminati; that he wouldn’t blabber it out at some point. It really kills the X-files fantasy and shows just how mundane the real world government really is; they painted you a picture of dark secrets when its really just a bunch of old farts yelling at each other and trying to get one over on each other.
No aliens, no vampires, no mutant crab men from the bottom of the ocean. Just plain old boring reality, because there is no way this president if he knew about that stuff wouldn’t have blathered it at one of his rallies like “I’m the best, I’m the smartest, that’s what I get to talk to the space men…oops”
There was a meme on that with a guy sitting up in bed realizing that, was going to link to it, but too many memes, can’t find it without knowing what site it was specifically from.
Yes. I know that’s why I see so much resistance. It’s just bewildering to me, and I’m not sure if the people arguing against what I’m saying are self aware of what they’re even saying, or if they hate Trump so much that it just skews the rest of reality (like the meme of ‘If Donald Trump cured cancer, they would hate him for putting oncologists out of business).
But with me, I’m JUST talking about the law. Not politics. I’m not even a Republican, not that it should matter one way or the other – the law isnt supposed to change depending on your political affiliation anyway.
If we were talking about any other President, or any other politician, I wouldnt be getting these sort of arguments (and they’re sadly poor arguments too, which makes it even more bewildering). But just because they don’t like this particular President, they think that reality itself must alter itself, and the very Constitution upon which all laws are based must not only change, but must have always BEEN different than they are. It’s a bit ridiculous. You HAVE to be consistent about laws if you want a stable, long term government, whether you like the person or not.
PS – if Trump was made aware of faeries and vampires and werewolves (oh my) and he started talking about it, does anyone think the media would actually believe him anyway, or would they say (Okay, Trump is clearly insane, remove him from office for THAT reason). :) Although to be fair, Clinton and Carter both talked frequently about UFOs and no one removed them either :)
the weirdest thing is…would he? Like what if his family owes its wealth to those underground gold mining worm things;
or maybe he wouldn’t because he is so self centered that talking about anything that would divert attention off of himself is something he couldn’t stand happening.
See we can come up with better excuses than the law must be illuminati space crabs and the president isn’t the real president.
-or just ya’know, the fact he ignores and walks out of intelligence briefings as a descent mundane excuse.
They were probably involved in writing the damn Constitution, and included a clause that they may not dictate who becomes El Preso, butt they can dictate what secrets they are told, specially if it involves the Supernatural community
If they were involved in ‘writing the damn Constitution’ then they sort of screwed themselves over because the damn Constitution says that the President is the Commander in Chief of the Constitution. As a result, he or she has the highest possible security clearance for all matters military, and has to be apprised of anything involving the laws which he or she is faithfully supposed to execute. You cannot execute a law of which you are unaware.
Show me where, in the Constitution, or in the Amendments…. or heck, in ANY federal statute, that it says secrets can be kept from the President, or anything about the ‘supernatural community.’ Obviously it doesn’t. Would be a pretty poor secret then if it’s in a publicly available document which EVERYONE IN THE US HAS TO DEAL WITH.
So what…. you think there should be unwritten laws which control the government? What a horrific idea that would be, that goes against the very concept of the formation of the United States and a Republic in general.
Show me the Grrlverse Constitution
If they were written laws, they wouldn’t be very good at controlling squat, now would they?
Look at the real Constitution. That’s also the Grrlpower universe Constitution.
If you’ve never read it, here. I’ll post a link to it for you. I think everyone should have access to it so they’d actually understand the basis for EVERY LAW IN THE UNITED STATES.
https://www.senate.gov/civics/resources/pdf/US_Constitution-Senate_Publication_103-21.pdf
“If they were written laws, they wouldn’t be very good at controlling squat, now would they?”
If it’s not written, then it’s not a law. It’s fascism or the divine right of kings. I’m hoping you don’t support the idea that laws do not need to be written down so everyone can know WHAT THE LAWS ARE?
“… because the damn Constitution says that the President is the Commander in Chief of the Constitution.”
: rolleyes :
That sounds like what the G(od)E(mperor)O(f)T(he)U(nited)S(tates), along with the loyalists in his administration, and supporters at his rallies, think the `Constitution says he is!
Uh….. no, it doesnt matter who is President, Roger. The President is ALWAYS the Commander in Chief of the military in the Constitution. And yes. THE CONSTITUTION DOES SAY HE IS.
Geez, I’m patient on teaching how basic constitutional law works but at least do the minimum of reading the subject matter.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 1, first gd sentence. :)
And btw, if Hillary Clinton had won? She would have been the Commander in Chief. And since the Grrlpower universe is few years behind RL? Here? Barack Obama is Commander in Chief. This is a BASIC definition. And if your argument is that only Trump loyalists in his administration and supporters at his rallies think this is true, then you’re saying they know a LOT more than you do about the Constitution. You’re complimenting the people over which you are trying to mock with some sort of TDS.
Congratulations, you just played yourself.
I love how Pixel lights her cig with the laser claws. I’m guessing that’s why she was shifted… pity she appears to lose the cig immediately… damn that’s some seriously stretchy coat.
I didnt even notice that!
Darn it, Pixel, the only superheroes with an excuse to smoke are super-rapid healers like Wolverine.
Remember what happened during the Wars Warehouse Wumble? Pixelicious got impaled on a steel fucking girder, and her only complaint was that laughing made her hurt
Guesticus is correct on the Pixel-is-a-super-rapid-healer point.
There are also people with invulnerability (ref. Maxima smoking a cigar in <a hreaf="https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-113-secret-meetings-in-smoky-wood-paneled-rooms/"113: Secret Meetings in Smoky Wood-Paneled Rooms), people who can’t get cancer or emphysema at all (constructs, ghosts (and probably other undead), demons (I’m assuming they’re less susceptible to smoke, flames, brimstone, etc.), and people who don’t really give a **** whether someone thinks they need an “excuse” for smoking (ref. General Faulk smoking a cigar along with Maxima on panel 113).
Gah . . . I code html as part of my job and still managed to typo a hyperlink. grumble-mumble-razzle-frazzin
Werecreatures ARE super-healers, Steve :)
So I know what will be produced in that small african country by our buddy Deus; it will be mass produced cheap sunglasses, based on alien tech recently acquired, to be sold on youTube 24/7 to earth’s populace.
As designed by John Carpenter, oops so much for that Veil.
I… did you just make a “They Live” reference?
Just don’t ask them for a stick of chewing gum :P
Unless Pixel has a spare pair of shoes in her coat somewhere she is still running around barefoot.
Plus if she is strolling on a beach and changes from one form to another, the Veil may keep her appearance disguised from view, but her footprints will still change shape from/to human and animal. These are visible to humans, as based on all those Bigfoot hunters and their plaster footprint casts.
She tends to use jandals: easy to slip on and off and just as easy to carry
And the veil probably causes people who see that to assume she has novelty sandals that leave animal prints. Which are a thing.
Or at least you are convinced they are a thing.
They’re definitely a thing.
Just be careful if they are a thong, and please to be noting which country you are in when asking for one: one goes on your feet, the other creeps up your buttcrack
Anyone else find Pixelicious extra licious in panel seven? Of course you do, just look at her!
TBH, I’ve found Pixel to be “licious” almost since her debut.
Yes, butt panel seven is extra :D
But… why would Pixel just stand around in her hybrid-form? Because she likes it? And because the Veil keeps people from seeing that you’re a werecreature anyway?
If so, makes me really realize how people take stuff like that for granted. And I mean that even in a real-life, non-superhuman, non-fictional sense. All the stuff we have that keeps us safe or is even just convenient, we take for granted.
The Veil has a don’t get suspicious component to it when dealing with those protected by it.
So when in her Hybrid form , not only does she look normal, she “feels” normal to the environment, nice for intelligence work.
She shifted to light her cigarette (shown happening in the first frame) then in the seventh frame she is shown shifting back to human.
Yeah, because shifting and using her laser-claws is easier and quicker than using a lighter or matches
Are they entering an underground
fightnightclub? o_OOh great. Taking a giant cat into a club that has lasers shining moving patterns all over the dance floor. :)
It could be a horror-movie themed bar owned by a vampire. You know, a Fright Night club. :-)
(The secret passphrase is “You’re so cool, Brewster!”)
The place where they are standing isn’t their destination. Pixel asks Sydney if she is ready to go. The crowd Sydney runs with now can afford to rent high end parking, so possibly a garage with locking bays, maybe even rented from an expensive mechanic who always has every part on hand for repairs.
When I was a kid one of my friend’s grandfathers had an early model Corvette he kept like that at a mechanic near his office downtown.
Was referring to panels five and eight, where you can see guard rails going down (in panel five) and Pixelicious going lower than Sydney (panel eight)
Are they meeting at a warehouse or something???
Around the corner from the comic shop. Look at a church from unflattering side and its often just a big ugly brick square.
Wonder how tall she saw Pixal..?
Also..
Sydney seems to have busted up over the course of her adventure. Or perhaps she’s just standing more straight/taller than last time saw a similar angle. Though I’m inclined to think bust up considering her “comrade!” moments with certain other indivisuals we’ve had better “shadow” sights.
…what a weird thing to comment and weird thing to notice.
Sydney. You’re lucky you’re well known for foolishness and random nonsense talking. She probably asssumed “intellegence” was what she wasn’t suppose to know
No, she’s about as busty as she is in the Patreon image
Now I find myself unable to wait for the other ladies night guests to arrive… I’m just hoping she didn’t invite every one of Harem’s selves, though seeing her explain that one would be funny
Not much to explain in Harem’s case. Harem is publicly Harem. It was just the whole were creature / non-public super exposure of Pixel that Syd suddenly realized was an issue.
Yeah, Supers are public knowledge, ‘monsters’ and aliens are the ones Veiled, otherwise Maxi would just appear like someone with a bad orange suntan…
“Orange tan?” Great. Now I have the Chavs’ “In Me Burberry” earwig.
https://youtu.be/iuBxsYB1IJY
Thought that was a fairly obvious reference, guess not :(
Harem is as many people as she wants to be (1-5) so inviting one is inviting five.
Oh my, she is indeed a huge security risk
On the flip side, Archon knows exactly who to go to to spread misinformation.
Daphne
Sydney. Anything she says, half the time people won’t be sure if it’s real or if Halo forgot to take her meds this morning. :)
Daphne’s good at blabbing personal secrets though :)
Like if you’re keeping it a secret that you’re a vegetarian.
Or at glomping on to your guy, and leaving her lipstick all over him.
She does that.
Yes. Though she only does that when someone repeatedly jostles her around by shaking the ambulance that she’s in. Daphne will be willing to ‘crank the pranks.’ :)
The point was spreading misinformation, not revealing secrets