Grrl Power #796 – Cinq-o de bail-o
This page is important because on the page I’m drawing right now, Sydney is eating fried cheese, and without this page, you guys would all be like “Wait, where’d she get the fried cheese?”
Decollete’s primary income is in the fashion industry, but this nightclub is a regular evening haunt for her because, well, she likes the atmosphere, but it’s also a low effort source of tantric energy for her. Really, any (mature) succubus has little trouble picking up playmates, but in this environment, she can pretty much pick and choose them as she likes.
Sydney, as previously mentioned, isn’t the kind of girl to go trawling for dudes. All her boyfriends she met through mutual interests, and Frix was really her first “I like your abs and want to see more of them” encounter. Even having popped the seal on a mostly physical dalliance, she’s still a long way from being the kind of gal who would just sit down at a table with a bunch of hot guys and try and have a conversation with them. Besides, guys like that, what are really the chances they’d be into hearing someone talking at length about why 3.5th edition D&D is superior to 4th edition, or why Stargate SG-1 is better than all the Star Trek TV shows with the possible exception of DS9?
I mean, the stereotypical behavior of guys tells us that they will put up a with a lot if they think it’s going to get them on base, but most people are running an investment vs. time calculation in their heads.
Granted, I and a lot of people reading this comic would probably be thrilled to engage in topics like that with some potential partner at a social gathering, but three hot dudes like the guys Decollete has in her sights? I somehow doubt they’d be into topics like that. But you never know. You roll the dice anew with each encounter, and if that encounter is into discussing why the bell curved Hero dice system is better than the flat probability of D20 systems, then you know you’ve rolled a critical success.
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Is it bad that I am now more curious about whatever plot mechanism REQUIRES Sydney to be eating fried cheese, accept no substitutes, on Monday than I am about six-armed mysterious silhouette?
And as I am in Wisconsin, home of the fried cheese curd, I heartily endorse her appetizer choice.
It’s not easy being cheesy ;) I second the motion, checking in from Brewtown, here.
3.5 isn’t superior to 4th in any way except the ability for the DM to more easily kill players ignominiously and accidentally.
I still think Munster 3.5 is sharper, although Havarti 4.0 is smoother.
Heresy! Sacrilege!
For the record, I consider heresy and sacrilege to be good things, even when I don’t agree with the details.
You *think* you’re more interested in the fried cheese. But wait until you find out that they are, in fact, one in the same?
(As in, the reason she needs the fried cheese, accept no substitutes, has to do with six-armed mysterious silhouette. Not that the six-armed mysterious silhouette is fried cheese. Just to be clear on that point, because I know people who are easily confused. Like me. I mean that as for example, not as an order.)
The reason for the cheese is because it goes with Grakz and makes her less gaseous.
Sydney has been sneaking off for Graz ever since she got back, and has now developed such a tolerance and has eaten it so often that she belches plasma floaties.
That exploded nightclub?
Sydneyzilla. Spidertoast will be collateral damage.
I could actually see that. As a serious pepper head, there’s no way Sydney wouldn’t keep going back for more.
Plasma gas and all that alcohol on the premises? Yep, that’ll cause combustion. Speaking of alcohol, those are a LOT of shots those guys have lined up and I’m wondering how many are for them and how much for the ladies.
“We gon’ drink drinks and take shots until we fall out
Like the roof on fire”
Interesting rainbow of shots though. What are they?
There’s only 10 that we can see. That would be 2 shots each if Sydney joined in and slightly over that since she hasn’t.
It’s a race. Start from one end and drink, one at a time, until you reach the end, or pass out.
“The Rainbow Dash”
Its probably to stop another handbag incident where they have to explain it on the page after or in a weirdly placed speech bubble why a plate randomly showed up. It seems like this was a quickie page to make up for a possibly long page or possibly intensely artistic (i.e. the page where they drew the huge ship at the space station)
SOOOO…. not to jinx anything… but we seem to be building towards some “fighty good stuff” in an interesting setting… AND it’s only 4 comics to 800… dun dun DUNNNN… :D :D :D *grabs popcorn*
It wont be the sort of “explosion” Decolette is used to in a nightclub that’s for sure.
How about having Halo and company reform criminals.
Uh, they already are… sometimes even against their will.
Work-release and community service aren’t “against their will” per se. Jabberwocky basically got a choice between community service possibly leading into a hugely high-paying job vs. her criminal record being taken into account when deciding what to charge her with after the Vehemence attack. Not 100% free will, but since, unlike Vekter, she didn’t have Deus lobbying for leniency, it is a pretty sweet deal, as plea bargains go.
As far as Dabbler’s charm kiss not wearing off when expected, I don’t think “reforming” was on the list of things that gets used for . . . maybe performing (various sex acts, some requiring six arms per pair of partners), deforming (various parts around various other parts, diagramming of which may require 11-dimensional math). The only time “reform” would enter into it (no pun intended) is if Dabbler decided to play a game of “Reform School Girl and Strict Headmistress” somewhere around hour 16 of the marathon session she had planned to wear out Jab’s energy to dispel the charm.
I keep wondering why she doesn’t just use the amnesia hammer. It worked on the stylist.
If one of your magic spells has had an unexpected (and very serous) effect on someone, it’s probably not a good idea to hit them with another one of yours.
If one of your magic spells has had an unexpected (and very serous) effect on someone AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHY, it’s ASTOUDINGLY BAD IDEA to hit them with another one of yours.
Beowulf Shaeffer’s first rule of space exploration – if you don’t understand why something is happening, it’s dangerous.
Which makes Maxi’s stance of “no contact” even more astoundingly stupid
Get Anvil and Hiro (and the Not Space Marines) to act as ‘security’ and let Dabbles (and Not Gadget) sort out what the fuck went wrong and fix Jabs (no, not that sort of ‘fix’)
The Hammer worked on the Barberian, because all it needed to do was fuzz up normally-deposited memories to prevent a fixation. Setting up the encounter didn’t involve any direct magic (beyond the usual general perception aura), so there wasn’t anything specific to undo. In contrast, Jabberwokky was the target of a direct magic, which appears to reach beyond the limits of memory in its driving effects. While the Hammer might work to fuzz the memory of the magic being applied, it is a targeted tool – great for affecting the memory in a calibrated way without messing up anything else, but by the same design not effective against an effect that resides in the ‘anything else’.
The commentary reminds me of the time some friends and I met a couple of hot girls going our direction while trail hiking, and while we were chatting in camp one night, my roommate and I started talking about RPG stuff. And our more socially-ept friend was all, “Ixnay on the talking about nerd stuff in front of the girls!”
But then it turned out that the girls played D&D with a guy we knew from college, and we had a lovely time talking about nerd stuff and mutual acquaintances while our friend sulked.
Thank god DaveB explained why there will be fried cheese in the next page. Because I tell you what, if fried cheese appeared and I had no way to know why, that would probably be a problem of epic proportions! :)
But seriously…. liking Decolette a lot. Wondering what’s going to happen with that shadowy figure though even more.
And again, nice artwork :)
Truly,
Showing fried cheese without first explaining where it came from MUST lead to fanboy temper tantrums that will make the internet meltdown over The Last Jedi seem tame by comparison…
The slightly worrying idea is that there is an ever so slight possibility that Dave knows some of his fans better than we do and add that little remark out of self preservation…
By the way, Stargate SG-1 is MUCH better than Star Trek: DS9. DS9 just has the noteworthiness of being the best of all the Star Trek TV shows, however. With only a few stinker episodes (Sanctuary, Move Along Home, Profit and Lace, Meridian), most of DS9 is REALLY good. And Section 31 and the Dominion were great additions to Star Trek.
Agree. One of the best episodes for me for SG1 has to be the Groundhog day one “Window of Opportunity”. Just seeing O’Neil and Teal’C playing golf through the gate was hilarious, not to mention the duet of juggling. Take that Star Trek!
Btw, if you like both of those shows, i STRONGLY recommend watching Babylon 5.
Babylon 5 was great also (as were the movies/specials) – although Crusade was …. not that good. Not because the premise wasn’t good. The premise of that show was fine. But they centered waaaay too much on the technomage stuff in that show, while in Bablyon 5 it was relegated to a single episode which ultimately was a minor side-issue to the greater storyline.
But the main show? Great.
The movies? Thirdspace? River of Souls? The Lost Tales? The Gathering? In The Beginning? And ESPECIALLY Legend of the Rangers? Those were great. Legend of the Rangers should have been the spinoff to Babylon 5, not Crusade. It could have been a good pilot for a new series.
Plus it had all those great lines by G’Kar.
“Every spacefaring race has two things in common. First, they have a food identical to what humans call ‘Swedish meatballs.'”
“Minister Kafta, this ship is being held together by little pieces of wire and good intentions. If we land in this condition, assuming we do not have an unpleasant encounter with the ground on the way down, I doubt very much they could take off again. They would be trapped with us, and the ship looking for them would find it, find them, find us, find you, a brilliant cascade of cause and effect. Isn’t the universe an amazing place? I wouldn’t live anywhere else.”
“Of course. LOVE to say, can’t, have to go, kiss-kiss, love-love, bye!”
And my FAVORITE quote by G’Kar:
“‘We live for The One, we die for The One.’ Interesting that you put all the emphasis on the second half of that sentence. Is it not just as honorable to live for the One as it is to die? It doesn’t just say we die. It says we live. Dying is not honorable. It only relieves you of an even greater obligation.”
That last line was my favorite because he said it to a bunch of arrogant Membari and they were pretty much stymied and unable to come up with a retort to that when G’Kar was defending a Ranger who survived an attack because of a strategic withdrawal from a fight because, in that ranger’s words “We live for the one, we die for the one. But we don’t die stupidly.”
“And they made a very satisfying THUMP when they hit the floor.”
G’Kar gets all the good stuff, and a *massive* amount of character development.
Though Dellyn’s “Why not?” (you know the scene, not saying more because spoilers) still gets me every time.
The one thing stopping me from watching it all again is that it will make me depressed, because the political commentary is far too close to reality.
LOL. “Why not” was one of my favorite scenes in the whole series.
To be fair, Londo and Vir got some good lines too. Especially Vir.
Morden: “What do you want?”
Vir Cotto: “I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this. *gives a cheerful finger waggle* Can you and your associates arrange this for me, Mr. Morden?”
And he was the ONLY person to answer Morden’s question to get what he wanted WITHOUT ANYTHING BAD HAPPENING TO HIM.
“We do not retreat, whatever the reason” is an incredibly stupid strategy. Makes it easy for the enemy to defeat you in detail. I mean, IRL, they actually have to trap a small group to destroy it. If you’re dumb enough not to retreat in the face of overwhelming odds with nothing to lose by retreating, that’s just awesome for the enemy.
That’s why G’Kar was able to thoroughly destroy that part of the Ranger creed in front of the Membari :)
I’m trying to remember a quote about making the enemy die for their beliefs, but my memory has failed me.
– Gen. George S. Patton
Next time:
Sydney and crew are sitting at their table as Decollete approaches, a lone shuriken strikes the table with a note attached.
“We have taken your succubus princess; if you ever want to see her again either pay us a hefty ransom of fifteen enchanted items and 3 million cash; or else go on a journey to rescue her across 8 different thematic worlds each with its own appropriately thematic boss…except the one where SOMEONE thought they were being clever; Jerry, seriously an ice golem over a volcano? What were you…wait…is the magic paper still writing what I’m saying? son of a…”
Everyone looks over, Tamatha is still by the bathroom as the six armed kidnapper is very slowly lowering down like a spider behind her; and is easily over taken.
Important lesson, leave your ransom notes after you’ve kidnapped someone, not before; or during.
It is true though. 3.5 is better than 4th Edition. Funny enough running a 3.5 session soon.
ANYTHING is better than 4th Ed.
Amen.
Pathfinder utilises the 3.5 open source rule set and is more flexible with the class archetypes. Love that system.
Sydney will be heading back to her friends and maybe that appetizers…!?
And the comments made from the DaveB “Sydney, as previously mentioned, isn’t the kind of girl to go trawling for dudes. All her boyfriends she met through mutual interests, and Frix was really her first “I like your abs and want to see more of them” encounter. Even having popped the seal on a mostly physical dalliance, she’s still a long way from being the kind of gal who would just sit down at a table with a bunch of hot guys and try and have a conversation with them. “. demonstrates why how he portrays Sydney’s character development as being “off the rails” as she wants to have a boyfriend dating another girl at the same time. THAT is a significant jump over her previous sheltered life, no matter what people say. Nope. Sorry, I came back and thought there might be some improvement to this with Sydney, but I don’t see it. DaveB draws great, but his main character jumping down that rabbit hole, especially after suddenly jumping into a furry situation was too much for me. Good luck with the comic and the fan base.
It’s really not as off the rails as you seem to insist. DaveB is establishing Sydney as someone who is more interested in the person than the package. If the person be right, she can overlook a lot of packaging. Apparently this can also extend to a package which may include another person. It helps that said other person is also someone Sydney would choose to spend time with.
The way to Sydney’s heart is through her stomach.
And anyone suggesting the use of surgical tools will have me to answer to!
I find that a bone saw and rib spreader works well too… ~runs~
The way to Sydney’s heart is through her VR1 receptors and you know it, silly puppy.
Sydney has good taste…for once. Fried cheese is the closest mortal achievement to ambrosia.
I must learns more about hero dice system, before I die.
It’s available in .pdf.
After 4th edition they began dumbing it down to help Game Masters who were careless in examining character sheets control power gamers. I would look at 4th edition and buy the .pdf version because dead tree copies will be so old that the bindings are likely to fall apart.
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/630-champions-the-super-role-playing-game-pdf-4th-edition/
Second Edition AD&D is, and will forever be, the best version
Just from the way Decolette is smiling at Sydney at the last panel, I think Decolette may like Sydney more than she lets on. Or more than Sydney realizes. May not get too far, but Sydney may amuse her highly.
no matter how many times i read this comic over it’s great. i love the characters. Amazing comic :D
Is it just me, or is Sydney becoming both ugly and uncanny valley style creepy? Did the glamour make her appear non-human?
No offense intended, I basically love every page of this comic, but I’m really not digging Sydney for the last few weeks.
She is in the “Agnes Tuttle” disguise created by Archon for clandestine purposes.
She is supposed to be incognito except Succubi can distinguish people by their unique tantric signature so Decolette didn’t even have to try to see through it.
Remember; incognito is incognifty.
Quick! Stop whoever is drinking the Infinity Shots before he drinks all 6 and gains unlimited power!
I believe that drinking infinity shots produces ultimate comic drunkenness. The recipient becomes more and more of a drunk over time and finally winds up with a primordial hangover at an old saloon in the Wild West.
You do get the precipitous tumbleweed ability however.
I’m really impressed with how natural the gold top looks. Weird thing to be impressed by maybe, but fabric that isn’t tight is such a b$#@# to get the look right (judging from outside, I have no artistic talent). Shiny gold on top of that is a real feat.
Why the hell is a web comic on TWC that I never even noticed before suddenly ranked first with 14+k votes. WTF?
Same reason why “Two Kinds” use to be leagues ahead of second place: bought votes
What are bought votes?
Doesn’t have to be literally bought votes, just when they get votes through non-legit means, like stuffing ballot-boxes with votes from dead people
Okay in the morning we should find who spots SpiderKali first.
Will it be one of the Succubi (although if it was sent after a Succubus it may have no libido and only breed at the end of its life.)
Will it be Sydney (she was drinking earlier and is near the restrooms.)
Will it be Specs (because enhanced senses are her thing.)
Will it be one of the Werewomen (because they have animal senses and I wanted you all to hear the Linda Carter transformation song playing in your head but with Werewoman instead of Wonder Woman)
Will it be Elspeth (because as the high mage’s apprentice she probably has the broadest range of potential if untrained magic, and she pulls all kinds of guns out of a cursed book)
Will it be Scarlett? That sure doesn’t smell like human blood.
How about Krona? What can she not do at least temporarily?
Will it be security? ( Five pressure plantes in the rafters and on the non load bearing walls have tripped but nothing shows on camera – the last one was near the boss. Better check it out.)
And what about Marble Maiden?
Where is Thothogoth?
Anyone hear from Sciona lately?
Where are Sydney’s parents?
Ignore, just testing something
Sydney is not at all immune to succubus boob-taunt.
ST system (World of Darkness) is the best; as for D&D while 4e is ass, 5e is an excellent attempt at fixing many issues of 3.5, while adding cool new things. Still wanna try a 5e warlock.
As for the establishing thing, why’s that an issue? If this was a movie, you wouldn’t need to establish that she’d ordered food. She’s in a bar/club, drinks and food shouldn’t need explanation, I’d think…
A good argument in the rant on why I have never met a succubus. Why snack on me when she could go downtown and pick up an athlete who still has a full head of hair and no excess body fat.
3.5 was the worst edition of the worst roleplaying game.
sydney actually looks human in panel four, keep it up!
@Allison – Literally got the most people ever (at the time) to pick up TBRP, so you are not only objectively wrong but kind of a jerk.
4th edition had it’s problems but with a bit of work it could be a lot of fun. My DM let us use the ‘powers’ in skill challenges and the like and also let us do fun things with them outside of combat. If you can teleport in combat, you can do it out of combat, basically. Even if it was part of a power for a class that didn’t teleport often. Had a paladin ‘get over here’ power that I used to save people from falling a few times.
It took work, but it has a special place in my heart since I had a really good campaign with it.