Grrl Power #830 – The new hire
So I invented Lorlara for this page, because I realized that someone like Deus would definitely have one, if not several administrative assistants, and I’ve never shown any of his staff. Lorlara’s first draft was a mousey, slightly terrified secretary who was clearly in over her head trying to learn her job, English, and Terran social norms, but… Dabbler did describe the Alari as “Imperialist dickbags.” Obviously no race is completely monolithic… Except the Borg or Cybermen or whatever, but so far, the only Alari characters we’ve seen are Sciona and the refugee woman on Fracture Station. Sciona’s clearly a dickbag, the refugee was clearly not. Or maybe she wasn’t simply because she wasn’t in a position of power.
Anyway, I got halfway done writing this page and wanted a decisive swing back in the other direction. In my mind, the Alari were sort of “vaguely not nice,” but I hadn’t solidified exactly what form that took. Now with Lorlara ranting about consolidating power and expanding influence, their whole society has more or less snapped into focus now. It’s tempting to think of them as a bit Drow-like, but that’s mostly because of their color scheme. They’re not necessarily matriarchal, and they’re not beholden to any arachnid themed deities. They have a multi-tiered caste system, with nobles, military, labor, and a few others. All the factions are pretty much obsessed with advancing from tier to tier, and in some ways, their society is remarkably merit based. But it’s also terribly cutthroat, especially the higher a house or an individual within a house climbs.
Anyway, I’m so glad I changed my mind about Lorlara’s personality, because she’s suddenly my favorite character du jour. I’m considering modifying a few upcoming scenes to include her.
On a semi-related note, I think having white eyelashes would be awfully distracting. Obviously, if you just woke up white eyelashes one day, they’d be distracting. I mean I think you’d get glare off them in sunlight and stuff like that.
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The USA is going to be sorry they didn’t take those aliens in.
Or wait, did they ever get a chance? I seem to recall a crew member reassuring whatshername who ran the ship that brought Halo home, that the refugees were a secret….
The crew member reassured Cora that the refugees had not seen the battle where ARC-Swat swatted down the Fell and their assault carrier. They already knew about the Alari in Deus’ pet country before they landed. That’s why they basically landed on the front lawn instead of following the original plan (supporting the half-truth (if you squint hard) that Sydney had been sequestered for training). As Cora said, “the genitals have been unveiled” (the cat’s out of the bag).
I’m definitely getting a Sontaran vibe off LorLara. Less comical than Strax, but still, there’s a definite vibe from where I sit. Not a bad thing mind you, but it feels like a thing anyway.
Strange that the Sontarrans were actually a scary enemy originally. Like I saw the very old episode they first appeared and they were straight up murder/torturing humans for experiments.
Sontarrans are scary whenever they are WINNING. They’re only humorous because we’re seeing Strax out of his natural habitat. He’s INCREDIBLY scary when he turns evil again.
Also, Strax…MAY have suffered brain damage…
Sontarans, Drow, Klingons, Battletech Clanners… the list goes on.
Space Elves!
More space orcs, space trolls, space drow perhaps.
Space Elves tend to be those flower punk isolationist species that end up being more technologically or militarily capable than they let on, like the Nox from Stargate.
Hell yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking.
Completely over the top, as if conquering others is just normal behaviour. Less polite than Strax though.
I love Deus more and more. Hiring refugees that just came to the planet into respectable and well paying positions.
I have high hopes for this Businessman. He will help lead Earth into conquering the stars through trade and negotiation.
And he seems to have speed learned their language given the above.
“Staring imperiously out of the window” time is now added to my work calendar.
Yes, I need to do more of that.
“Staring imperiously out of the window” is on the list
– One Day Later –
List amended to “Staring imperiously out of the window, WHILE WEARING PANTS””
Dues values forthright observation it’s true. From what I can see he also values cleavage deep enough to generate an echo.
Who doesn’t?
I’m in the group who find large breasts to not be super attractive. I like them well enough but given a choice between A and larger-than-D-cup, I’ll take the A cups. I’ve had my neck sprained too many times by getting hit in the face by an errant super-boob to see them as sexy anymore.
I prefer a smaller cup size also. I’ve never had your experience with being beaten up by a boob, but smaller breasts are more resistant to the ravages of gravity, age, and skin elasticity. Smaller breasted women are typically able to be more physically active, at least without having to resort to some serious restraints, than big breasted women, and a physically fit woman is just more attractive to me.
It also seems to be enough of a psychological issue for some women that they are willing to undergo expensive, painful elective surgery, and so fake tits are enough of a clue to me that there’s possibly something not quite right with the woman. I can completely understand breast reduction, for purposes of comfort and/or health, or mastectomy and reconstructive surgery for purposes of health (cancer risks, etc). But elective enhancement I don’t understand well at all.
Talking about elective enhancement, perhaps an eon or two of fertility idealisation has that effect. We note that all fertility idols have D-cup as the smallest boob-size, and this translates to the males’ choice of mates. Bigger was better in those days.
Those idols did not reflect male preference in terms of female bodily proportions. They were deliberately exagerated in proportions. What they intended to convey as beauty ideal was not large breasts as such but specifically breasts swollen with milk, and smaller cup sizes that are lactating fit that bill. Also, the girth of the waist or rump on those idols was no reflection on “voluptousness” but rather idealising pregnancy.
There is also the idea that they where carved by pregnant women about their changing self image.
I also like smaller breasts if I can get them <_<
My amazing girlfriend is unfortunately very well endowed, but I don't hold it against her… Her husband, though, loves them, and at times she will apparently smack him around with them. And he definitely looks for that – his girlfriend is even more well endowed than my girlfriend is!
Polerbear, you have implied a sufficiently dramatic made for TV group of relationships in your post. Nice work, and I’m surprised there were no comments about “my girlfriend… her husband.. and his girl friend…”
Do write for soap operas?
Or just a boringly mundane poly relationship with no drama at all ;)
I guess it could always be A LITTLE more mundane than it is – there’s some drama, largely because my girlfriend’s husband doesn’t communicate really well (with either of his partners from my perspective) – leaves a lot of things unsaid a little too long, and there’s a little baggage between her and him, so… well… anyway…
Enough laundry for a technically public forum
Also, is there actually such thing as a poly relationship with NO drama? Or was that supposed to be dripping with sarcasm?
Here’s a primer set to a catchy tune, Tom!
Polerbear
So you’re part of a polycule, as well, then?
Yeah – being stretched a bit with this virus stuff, but reasonably happy for the most part
Orberon, you are in the minority.
the best example comes from tax court. (making taxes sexy!?!?)
a performer had an enlargement done (her second) to F cup size. this is past the back pain permanent disfigurement level. she saw, just like the first time she got enhanced, a significant rise in income. of course the public harassment of both her and her spouse was significant. the case revolved around can she depreciate her enhancements or otherwise deduct them as a business expense. normally you can’t do this with surgeries and so forth because it enhances the health of the individual. in this case however… she was allowed as she had demonstrably made her health worse. Leonard French covered this case at one point. it was fun listening to him avoid The Words You Cannot Say On You-tube. no word on weather she presented the assets as evidence.
I’m with Opus and Oberon.
Bad porn has distorted many people’s view of what’s normal for a healthy, non-pregnant female.
I have known many females with genuine big ones. Naturally, some were pregnant or recent mothers. But many were simply unhealthy – overweight or obese. A few were genuine, and most of them wished they were smaller.
And ye gods and little fishes, protect us from the fake boober. Only a teenager is fooled by them. The minute they move, they look fake, fake, fake. I would never trust a girl with fake boobs, any more than I trust a man who wears a wig. (After I shake hands with a wig man, I count my fingers.}
I’m not sure you can blame porn, bad or otherwise. I’ve read that the average cup size of a woman in porn is B, which is almost certainly a natural breast.
On the other hand
…
Ooookaaaayyy, many nude images from the Classical/Romantic eras show women who seem to have not-quite-by-a-tiny-margin made it to a B-. Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” is a very good example.
Certainly — perhaps I’m not looking in the right places — most of the porn I see runs along C and D. Along this line, however, Australia has mandated that any pic/video/”manga” of A-cup women will be prosecuted as child-porn.
Perhaps “in the other hand”?
That’s just bizarre. They are equating a small breast size with age, and the two are not an absolute correlation. That’s just as bogus a legal definition as is the US federal government classifying marijuana as a narcotic. It isn’t, and the classification only sets up a legal fiction which allows for more punishing sentencing to be handed out.
Politicians :(
Flat is Justice
Amen to the A-cup.
Errant Super Boobs would be a great garage band name.
Eh, there’s definitely a market for small breasts. For instance, I have two separate ‘types’ I find attractive, one of them fairly slender and flat, and the other reasonably but not excessively plump with breast size to match–disproportionately large breasts (say, a D-cup on a stick of a woman, as an example), or breasts that are super duper big due to the woman being excessively obese, are a turnoff for me. Some level of plumpness is sexy, so being slightly overweight on a BMI scale’s no problem, but excessively fat is just…well, fat, and it doesn’t look sexy at all. Same for breasts.
My rule of thumb is that a woman is not fat if her waist is smaller than her hips. That’s more in the voluptuous category.
So basically, the Alari are black Romulans with fairy wings.
Oh you just had to bring race into it. Well the wings are a mark of heritage! And shall not be denigrated!
Black is a colour.
Right. I wasn’t commenting on the colour.
=^_^=
(It was a joke, a switch and bait, the later sentences revealing they meant the wings being called “fairy wings”.)
Huh! I hadn’t noticed the wings until you mentioned it.
I appreciate the fact that Deus probably does have “Staring Imperiously Out Of The Window Time” on his schedule. If he went far enough to get the Ominous Thunder Button for his evil laughter, he’d definitely structure his Evil Overlord Activities accordingly.
Considering that he has proper PowerPoint files detailing his world domination schemes and timelines…and even named them very obviously as such….
Well yeah, you’ve got to practice until it looks totally natural to really pull it off when someone is dragged cowering into your office. Otherwise you risk flubbing the line in front of your new thrall.
Sontar ha!
Imperialist dickbags… One of my favourite authors is Rudyard Kipling. Kipling’s work has been denigrated in recent decades, “because it’s too imperialistic”. But has anyone here read “Gunga Din“? It’s about the routine treatment of a native water-carrier by the British troops… “The finest man I knew / Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din.”
On that note, we take notice of “German” culture through history. Germans were not regarded as being the nicest people on the planet, and we’re not talking Nazis here. However, one of the oldest known protest songs, “Die Gedanken sind frei” can be traced back to the 12th Century when the lyric poet (“Minnesänger”) Dietmar von Aist sang “Die Gedanken, die sind ledig frei”. In a culture which places a high value on music in general and folk music in particular, this song stands in the proudest tradition of German Volkslieder.
I’ve never seen a culture that wasn’t a picture of my own. Some are cruelly brutal thugs, while others devote their lives to helping others. Lorlara seems to be a person from a “military” family, succeeding in her efforts to impress Deus in the only way she knows how, understanding there is only one way to go, and it’s not down. Maybe she might tone down after socializing with Vale? I picture Deus as being more impressed with “Silent Achievement” rather than formal bombast.
speaking of german protest songs, “Noin en noinzig luftballoons,” (spelling by memory, I may have it wrong), was a huge part of the anti-nuke movement. (english speakers would know it as 99 Red Balloons)
“Neun und neunzig luftballoons” going off my 2 years of college German that I never got to use and so mostly forgot.
Neunundneunzig Luftballons is the right spelling. Yes German loves it’s compound words.
Great song, especially in the original language. The translation looses much.
I love in general all the original Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) from the 70s/80s, not only Nena. Other great NDW songs protesting nuclear power were Euroschima and Besuchen Sie Europa, both by Geier Struzflug.
How about Kraftwerk and Rammstein?
Both have some great songs and many rubish songs, in my opinion…But it annoys me to no end that it sometimes seems like those two are the only German bands that are cited, or even known, outside of Germany. All in all, I can’t claim to be a fan of either without lieing.
My favorite songs from Ramstein are “Ich will” and “Engel”…I always thought “Die Flut” was also Ramstein, but I seem to be mistaken there.
From Kraftwerk, “Wir sind die Roboter” is an all-time classic.
Who couldn’t not love a song that references Captain Kirk :D
Do you need to clean up a double negative there cobber?
Nope :)
Kipling’s work is certainly a reflection of the bias and imperialism it was created under, but it’s still fantastic literature on its own merits. Gunga Din is a classic.
Read “The Tomb of his Ancestors” and “William the Conqueror”
for the British work in India.
Germany during its 1871-1918 Empire period had its rough spots, but it was largely the progressive ‘new kid on the block’ compared to its neighbors.
Kipling wrote about his time and people. His people, at that time, were in fact imperialistic. But people who hate Kipling because he wrote about the Raj era he lived in are sort of making the same mistake that people who hate Mark Twain because he wrote about the racist slave-holder American South that he lived in.
Both writers depicted their world accurately. Both invited people to think about all the ways in which it was unjust and deplorable. As far as I can see they were good people facing societies that didn’t make sense, and being honest about it.
Any see the look on Vale’s face? Trying to keep from laughing at her boss!?
Panel 5 was definitely a trollface.
I took panel 5 to be an indication that it was Vale who informed the Alari about forthright observation.
Specially when you note Loli looking in her direction, clenching her fists :P
At her boss, or at Lorlara. More likely the latter, I would think – Vale has been working with Deus for a while and got used to his eccentricities, but Lorlara’s overenthusiastic style hasn’t yet had time to go from endearing to tedious.
And it’s nice to see a progressive business-man like Deus has already mastered Alar. It speaks volumes for his readiness to engage productively with the Galaxy.
And more topically with the Alari now in ‘his’ country. Given their societal structure, its probably easier to integrate himself at the top of it with them speaking their language. Sure, on the outside he’s human, but he obviously embraces ‘our’ way of doing things.
I’ve been wondering how long he’s been working on speaking Alar, given his black book discussion with Sciona. Certainly longer than the 1-2 months the Alari have been on Earth, if he’s this fluent already.
Probably learning at least a dozen archaic and alien languages at this point.
More likely, he has one of those galactic universal translators.
He was off planet, he probably acquired a translator when he was there.
I’ve heard that once you’ve learned more than one language, it becomes easier to learn more languages past that one. I believe Deus might’ve shown the ability to speak other languages already (could be mistaken, would need to delve into the archives to confirm), so it does make a fair amount of sense.
Once you know how to learn a language, it’s just a matter of putting in the time and effort to learn it, and Deus being Deus, he’d certainly have the drive to learn a new language if it suited his interests, so it makes a lot of sense.
Plus, there’s always the chance that he could have some kind of technological shortcut. (Something to accelerate the learning of the language, or translator technology, but I’m guessing that this isn’t translator technology and is probably either entirely or mostly natural.) Or maybe even a Super shortcut.
By that, I mean, he’s filthy rich with access to an abundance of resources and if there’s any truth to his claim from last page of having more supers available, there could be a Super in his employ who has a power like, “Can, upon touching you, let you learn any language”, or, “can, upon touching you, let you learn at an exponentially faster rate”, or any number of similar superpowers which would allow a Super under his employ to allow him to learn the language at an accelerated rate.
Of course, he doesn’t need any technological or superpower means to have learned the language; Deus is, explicitly, a genius. He’s smart. He’s skilled, he’s driven, he’s got the time, effort, resources, and environment where he could just have learned it on his own, but it just makes a bunch of sense for him to have picked it up. If he can speak Alar to the Alari, then the Alari will feel far more welcomed and appreciate his earnest effort to learn their language and understand them as a people.
My eyebrows are white (along with most of the rest of my hair, these past few years…)
I don’t notice them. They’re not actually in my field of vision. Even if I look upwards, all I see is the skin on the underside of my brows.
Who can actually see their eyebrows without a mirror?
eyelashes* <– that's what @DaveB was talking about anyway
My eyelashes are very very blond and long. The sun will glitter gold on them if I stare directly at it like a loony draftdodger-president, in which case I would have other problems, from y’know staring directly at the sun. Or if I sideways glance a sunrise (it happened once)? But mostly they are recessed into the orbits of my skull like everyone else’s and neither the sun or adventurous room-lighting-systems affect them.
My eyelashes are also really long, but they’re also poker straight, and damn near turn downwards, so yeah, I can say that in certain lighting it can be distracting. Thankfully, whenever I’m out in the sun, I usually have mascara on.
also really *blonde*, my eyelashes aren’t that long.
I can see my eyelashes, but because they’re so close to my eyes, they’re out of focus. Since they’re so out of focus and so much thinner than my pupils, I can see around them; so they just look like a very slight blur across my whole field of view.
I can. A lot of people can, if they’ve got good peripheral vision and bushy eyebrows.
I’m just impressed by the speed Deus learned Alar, a language with almost no connection to any Earth languages. What little connection exists is purely by coincidence. But Deus is functionally capable in what must be at most a few weeks.
Probably not that difficult. I’m trying hard to think of any language on earth that has connections to Earth languages… Think of the Spanish invading Central America: somebody had to learn Spanish, and somebody had to learn Aztec (or whatever). Or the Poms coming to Australia: there is a multitude of tongues here. But if you can see anything which can be thought common to both of you, there is a way of learning the lingo.
The English officers that traveled to Australia were told to attempt to communicate with the natives, but not to dominate or attack. They tried for months with no response, so the commanding officer decided to kidnap a native and keep him at the camp until he learnt English and they could communicate. The English officer learnt a lot of the native culture, and vise versa. If you are surrounded by people talking an unknown language for enough time, you will learn that language.
Maybe he’s using a gizmo from his secret shopping trip.
Or….
Super alien Rosetta.
Deus has known about the existence of the Alari for long enough that he has a page in his “bang list” encyclopedia for that race. I suppose it’s possible that he learns languages really fast, but that doesn’t seem likely for someone who needs to ask someone else how to create a new page in PowerPoint (or whatever it was that had asked Vale about previously). Someone who can learn a language really fast should be able to translate that into fast learning of commands in a software package, which is very much like learning a language.
Oh how I love optimistic people!!!!!!!!!!
However.
I’ll give you one guess who wrote PowerPoint — and it’s not IBM Lotus, theirs is Lotus Freelance.
I recall an occasion when we updated our email client, M$ Outlook… Oh dear God what have they done to the Menu?????? We made arrangements to get a different client on that day. Learning commands for a software package is not like learning a language, it’s just training the muscle memory in your hands.
Learning a language is learning the history and culture of the people.
I assure you that when an infant is picking up their parents language they are in no way “learning the history and culture of the people.” A little bit culture I will allow, bit not in the way you intended it.
Nope, it’s a lot more like training the muscle memory for your mouth.
Quuite correct on two counts. Small dudes are learning two of the most difficult tasks in the world: fine motor control of their vocal apparatus, and fine motor control of their core muscles so they can stay vertical. History and culture come later. This also includes multi-language in many lands, Switzerland for immediate example where many people absorb up to 4 languages simultaneously as toddlers.
But even a kid at school faced with classes in a strange language has no immediate referents for guidance. As our French teacher told us, “Don’t even think about addressing a girl as ‘Mon petit chou’ if she is not your wife.” But it’s OK to call “Garçon!” if you need the waiter’s attention… Which would be quite insulting if we called “Boy!” in an English-speaking restaurant. And when should you use “si” rather than “oui”?
But yes, learning how to pronounce these strange words does indeed strain the muscle memory, regardless of age.
Learning the history is essential. You and I both speak English, and we both share some knowlege of our historical roots. However, neither of us know the history of, say China. So what is going to guide us when we want to say “How are you?” in Mandarin? And why is it that way?
For me, learning some Latin, poorly, has allowed me to make my way amongst a pile of Latin based language speakers. In Italy when the priest asked, in Italian which neither of us spoke, my wife if she wanted to go to confession, she said “Si”, and was being led away by him. I then said “Laura, the good father has asked you if you would like to go to confession” and then she said no, as she did not do confession. Later we laughed about it, and she said that had he asked her to go to the slaughter room she would have said “Si” all the same…
I told the priest that we were in the church to hear the word of God, in a mix of broken Italian and Latin, and led her away to the pews. I figured that if he didn’t attack me that I probably hadn’t insulted him or his family line, but you never know.
And yes, I know that I’ve presented myself in these forums as a rabid atheist. And I am. But laughing at those foolish beliefs does not require me to ignore the historical significance or the beauty of their architecture.
Or maybe he just picked up a more advanced version of the translator on The Fracture….
Deus knew about the alari and probably heard from harem that their homeworks got trashed. Given he also knew scions was trying to move in to the earth he probably had months, not weeks, to learn the language.
There’s multiple possible explanations for this. Starting with the mundane:
Deus is very very smart, and incredibly driven. He’s probably a natural genius, who in spite of having some quirks to him, is genuinely very intelligent, with a knack for learning and adapting to situations. (He couldn’t pull off the plans he did without having an intuitive grasp on others.) He’s skilled, he’s driven, he’s got the time and effort to invest in learning the language and good incentives to do so. Beyond that, he’s got the resources and the environment to have a head-start on learning it–he’s known about the Alari for a long time, long before they landed, and ever since they did, he’s been surrounded by them, which give him the edge necessary to have learned it naturally.
This is especially true if Deus was already multilingual, because from my understanding, once you have learned a second language, it becomes much much easier to learn a third, and once you learn a third, it becomes much much easier to learn a fourth, and so on and so forth, and this applies even if the languages have no ancestral similarities to each other. (I could be mistaken on that, but I believe that’s true to science? Where it becomes easier. Still not easy, but easier.)
That is a 100% entirely mundane solution.
Entering into alternatives, first off, the superpowered solution: Deus is rich, with the resources to find and hire supers from across the world. This, not even going to if his claims from the previous comic are true and the population does have a disproportionate number of supers, he has access to all of them.
We tend to think of flashy superpowers as being the sort that we see, but there are plenty of entirely mundane superpowers that he could have access to that could help him. There could be a superpowered individual whose power is, “Upon touching you, you will have the ability to instantly learn a language”, or a superpowered individual whose power is, “Upon touching you, your ability to learn is immensely accelerated”, or any number of similar superpowered, which would allow Deus to pick up Alar quite quickly.
Then, there’s multiple technological alternatives as well. The cliched one would be some sort of universal translator that Deus has picked up at some point, allowing him to be speaking Alar to the Alari–I don’t think this is the actual solution, but it’s easily an option.
The second technological alternative would be a technology which works similar to the superpowered versions above–maybe there’s a technology that instantly beams the ability to speak a language into your brain. Or technology that allows you to have a “year inside, hour outside” type of accelerated learning where you spend an hour of time in a machine that simulates learning for a year where you spend alllll the time in the world, to take the time to learn something at a vastly accelerated rate. Or any number of similar technologies which result in accelerated learning capability.
Deus has proven resourceful in just about every sense of the world, so none of these are out of the realm of possibility. Entirely natural studying on his part, learning with the help of a hired superpowered-individual, or learning with the help of some advanced technology. (Heck, it’s not impossible to be some mixture of all three!)
Do you see your nose? It’s a
trick the mind plays on you, so you don’t notice it unless it’s pointed out to you
…I don’t think he’s gonna let her come to any of his live interviews in the near future.
White eyelashes are not the problem you imagine. Either (or both) chemo or genetics have left me with white eye lashes. I only notice them when I look at myself in a mirror. Now these are not long luxurious lashes, that might make a difference.
I think she might be able to talk over Asta from Black Clover!
My Samoyed thinks that white eyelashes are just fine. ;)
I don’t know anything about Alari physiology, but any human that intense going into a position like that is going to die of a heart attack by 40.
Every Admin. Assistant owns a CEO briefcase in their wardrobes.
The Alari seem similar to Star Treks Mirror Universe Terran Empire
Where did Deus take the Alari refugees in? I forgot about that, I thought Dabbler’s friends dropped them off somewhere while hauling off the relic and the destroyed mothership?
Read from here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-718-mundane-majesty/
Different Alari refugees, I think. There were a bunch that showed up on Earth during the time Halo jumped forward over. I think those were the ones Deus welcomed. The ones on the ship were a different group that somehow ended up on that station.
nope. the ship in page #718 were a large refugee ship that came to earth.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-718-mundane-majesty/
this is the group Deus took into his pet country.
given their large ship and the fact they went straight to earth they were probably an official evacuation effort.
but there was a smaller group of refugees on The Fracture in page #830.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-683-observe-and-ignore/
they had just a few shuttles and were a fairly small group. probably an impromptu effort after the official effort left.
this group Sydney convinced Cora to help relocate.
if as i suspect the ship tat went to earth was part of an official evacuation effort, those refugees were probably from the upper ranks of Alari society. the populace most likely to buy into the “imperialist dickbag” mindset. so Lorlara there would thus be representative of how their society encourages people to ask.
the refugee group on The Fracture would likely have been the lower ranks of society, the common workers or possibly even oppressed minorities. these people would be less likely to buy into the leadership’s party line.
I got that impression as well, though the colony ship claims it landed on Earth for emergency repairs. I do wonder if that was a white lie. “What we really need is (mumble) gallons of blood to power all the systems.” or if all the ruling caste ships are telling every planet they come to “hey we need repairs, can we park here for a while?” (The fools, we will conquer them from within!)
I have a feeling the Fracture refugees would have “nope!”ed out of there on the spot if they were offered to settle on Earth and found out the ruling caste ship was also on the planet…
Generally, I like her.
Well as a drow/dark eldar she is polite.
Please make sure you make lots of threats and keep you primary group in a small area away from any human city this message brought to you by the Following
Russian SMF
https://eng.mil.ru/en/structure/forces/strategic_rocket.htm
U.S. Strategic Command
https://www.stratcom.mil/
UK Royal Navy – Vanguard SBMS
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/the-equipment/submarines/ballistic-submarines/vanguard-class
And all others Earth Nuclear Forces
https://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2018/06
SIPRI is incomplete.
Just as the Israeli nuclear arsenal dates back to the early fifties but didn’t become generally known uotside of military circles until much later, Taiwan has had a nuclear arsenal since the late seventies.
While it’s not listed by SIPRI, the communist mainland was having fits in 1982 and 1983 when Taiwan test detonated several warheads at sea.
LOL
I like her.
I think Lorlara doesn’t seem to take her duties quite seriously enough, almost as if she really doesn’t want this position; she’s certainly putting up a good front to portray a high level of dedication, I’ll give her that much. If she were really dedicated, then she should have been able to anticipate that Deus already was working on getting Max into the fold through clandestine means (your best servants are those who serve willingly, after all) & shouldn’t have bothered mentioning it directly to Deus.
Ah well, I suppose there’s really only one Radar O’Reilly after all…
Hugh would like to have a word about the idea that the Borg are one monolithic culture.
I’m not sure you can claim that a culture isn’t monolithic when the exceptions are a tiny fraction of 1% of their population. And some of those exceptions yearn to rejoin the majority…
I wonder what Lorlara looks like when she’s not frowning.
And now I’m wondering if I even want to know what situations would make her not frown.
She’ll discover Terran elephants, and their history as war mounts.
And she will want one as a pet :D
It’s distressing that Dave resorted to the “sassy bpack lady” stereotype this early in his promising comic.
What’s the Alari lifespan like? It makes sense to be more proactive if you can’t count on positions opening up because of retirement. Add some social rules about your position determining the number of kids you can have, and you’ve got a recipe for, well, Alari society.
Good question. The pet anthropologist I keep in my left elbow also wants to know how long the Alari have been a global community? This would answer the question of how long Alar has been a global (universal) language.
In this Halo-parental Universe, the thought of a global common language (say, English) is at least 5 or 6 millennia away, which would indicate most Galactic civilisations (FTL & all that) have around a minimum of 25,000 years of accessible history: ours might be around 10,000 years. (“Accessible” => clearly demonstrable, with artifacts.) At our current situation, several languages could turn up to become “universal”: Mandarin, Spanish (!), Russian, Hindu…
They are referred to as an empire, which implies several different planets. I suppose that technically you could have a single world government made up of one empire ruling over a few subordinate kingdoms, but that isn’t typically what you find in science fiction references to an empire. So if it is (was, I guess) an empire made up of several star systems that it had conquered, that implies a fair amount of time. Decades at the bare minimum, with centuries being far more likely.
Yah, the multi-planet empire is cool, it goes to answering the question, which I guess is as I thought, somewhere in the 15 or 16 millennia to achieve global domination on the home planet. Of course a lot depends on leadership and “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”… It could be only a couple of millennia, then sit back and start developing some non-magic technology like FTL space-ships.
I’m leaving out any thought of “blood magic” here, just because Sciona is a “blood mage” does not mean the… art… is common practice.
There is the soul battery as a kinda hint that the entire culture does blood magic. I mean, it’s not a given, but the two kinda tie together.
Look closer. Alara is actually Dark Blue, sorta like Yaphet Kotto. Besides, there are Fifty Shades of Black. Heh.
Poe’s Law strikes again
I find it implausible that Dabbler’s pejorative vocab would include the word “dick”. More likely she would find a bag of dicks a highly appealing notion.
“As sharp as a bag of dicks”, maybe.
a bag of dicks. appealing? wouldn’t that be rather bloody and gross?
Depends on if the dicks were detached from living owners or reproductions made from some lifelike material. And also the recipient’s aversion or compersion to blood and other bodily fluids.
Years ago there was a short story (it might have been in Phil Foglio’s Xenophile) where a bunch of women lived on a world where dicks grew out of the ground like clumps of grass.
“I was told you value forthright observation!” Next panel makes it pretty clear who told her this. Dat smirk.
I love the subtle tit-for-tat between Deus and Vale. She’s obviously far too powerful to be comfortable in the role of a subordinate, so she vents by playfully tweaking her boss from time to time. Deus takes it in good humor, and tweaks right back, respecting her without backing down. I have so many questions, and yet the relationship seems a strong one.
Well, she hasn’t granted his third with yet, so she is still bound to him. And yeah, while she is stuck on Earth, he is generally fun to be around.
I mean, cultural attitudes are very much present in most jobs – especially with things like corporate monocultures. Same thing with cultures believing differently what is appropriate for a secretary or a diplomat. There’s an obvious difference between news reporters of various cultures, despite them having the same job.
What’s the Alari lifespan like? It makes sense to be more proactive if you can’t count on positions opening up because of retirement. Add some social rules about your position determining the number of kids you can have, and you’ve got a recipe for, well, Alari society.
This a completely slightly wise-ass nitpick. But would a society that appears to have the same average cup size as most of your cast develop the chest slam salute, no matter how badass military fascist it looks?
Hmm, when casting for the TV show, several actress will have a big bra to fill. (Look that up on TvTropes. I dare you!)
I do not see it as a salute, more like her arm position after cuffing Dues for planning to “conquer” Maxima.
I imagine that the kind of person who aspires to work directly for the ruler of the country might have prior experience in this sort of work. Considering the culture of origin, that means someone sitting beside one of the most imperialist dicks around.
A new comic? Wait a minute… that means it’s Thursday. How did that happen? How long have I been trapped in this house? Oh man do I ever hate this pandemic.
if given a chance or betters will have this happen a lot. suspending basic rights is popular with them.. deus is a caricature to be true… but caricatures start somewhere
/paranoia off.. or at least set to lower.
Conquer Maxima? She was basically unharmed when an explosive belt wrapped around her or when a tunnel collapsed due to a different explosion causing a cave-in (and then she dug herself out). Later, she did a one-shot kill to an alien battleship that was scaring the seasoned star-ship captain and the Prime Directive police chasing the thing. I don’t think conquering Lt. Col. Leander is likely any time soon.
Some conquests are not won by force of power. Water and wind can grind down a mountain that even the mightiest meteor strike won’t level.
This aphorism needs to be adjusted. Firstly because meteors by definition only strike the atmosphere, and secondly because we shouldn’t be teasing Lucifer’s Hammer.
Deus is hoping for a “conquer” that doesn’t involve explosives (at least not THAT kind)… fireworks maybe, at least one “discharge” for sure.
Ah, so basically he is looking for a “Woman of Gold, Man of Tissue Paper” scenario? What a way to go!
“You bellowed, my Liege?” Hee, Hee.
I like Alaria. Brusque, militaristic, sassy, efficient, ambitious, aggressive, yet amusingly subservient in a cynical sort of way. The Roman Legionnaires “Ave, Caesar” salute was a nice touch as are the wings. She’s definitely a keeper.
Reminds me of the running gag in Happiest Millionaire, where the butler keeps calmly responding to his master’s shouting with “You yelled, sir?”
Recently saw “To Be Or Not To Be” on streaming.
SCHULTZ!!
Vale’s smirk in panel five makes it pretty clear where “Deus values forthright observation” came from. I don’t think Lorlara’s deliberately sassing him, she’s just taking cues from one of the comic’s contenders for leading lady of sass. (To be fair, it’s a pretty long list…)
I’ve always thought that conquering Maxima was on his to-do list. She should never have let him keep that geode, and Sydney should really respect her foreshadowing instincts more.
Yeah I really wonder why Max didn’t take the geode. Granted Deus wouldn’t have offered it if there was still a chance of deriving anything useful, but even aside from getting it out of his hands wouldn’t she want it as a keepsake?
She didn’t want anyone else figuring out that there was a connection between it and her powers, whether they used that knowledge to find a weakness or replicate them. And Max does apparently trust Deus, at least with some things.
Alari are now officially Adrowable.
“…Except the Borg or Cybermen or whatever…”
The Borg ARE the Cybermen…just with a bigger FX budget!
Oh, and Guinan is a Timelord…
Guinan’s a Timelord?!?
How have I never thought this before???
Just like when seeing the trailer for Tron: Legacy – when someone produced the Light Jet, my jaw dropped while
I simultaneously said “Oh, of course” in excited-disappointment (disappointed at myself for thinking it up first). :)
*not thinking it up first