Grrl Power #844 – Dagger shrimp!
They would deny it because they didn’t. Remember Deus’s shopping trip?
I was getting a little bored of drawing Max’s face with her boring bun sitting in the booth, so I tried a close up in those first two panels for a little variety, but then I wanted it to be obvious she was reading Deus’s list of goodies, and now it kind of looks like she’s nearsighted. She’s not. I guess she’s… looking at the fine print?
Granted, a boring bun is a lot easier to draw than a bunch of wavy locks spilling all over her shoulders, but buns are about the least sexy thing you can do with long hair (besides white person dreads). The only thing buns are really good for is taking your hair out of said bun and then doing the slo-mo hair toss.
Not that anything military is designed to be sexy. I do think it’s weird that women are allowed to wear their hair long though. Aren’t the two major points of having short hair easy maintenance and not giving an enemy something to grab on to? Granted, the US military doesn’t tend to throw women at the front line so, I guess it doesn’t matter if a woman has shoulder length hair while manning a radar station. Still, if I was a woman in the military, I’d get the G.I. Jane and would throw all the other female recruits around by the hair while sparring until they all went buzz cut, or more likely, they’d all pile on me and do that thing where they beat you up with bars of soap. Or whatever the modern equivalent is. Soaking tampons in pepper spray or something.
The loose bun, however – potentially very sexy. Also quite a bit harder to draw. There’s probably some correlation there.
What was I talking about? Oh, right, the comic. Anyway, Deus’s shopping trip might have seemed like an unnecessary ordeal in retrospect, but it’s not like he could have predicted that an advanced alien race would be in need of a parking spot when he set up his like not-a-stargate. Plus, it puts him in a better bargaining position with the Alari, because he’s not as thirsty for their tech.
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I do feel Lorlara is missing some of the subtleties of eating etiquette, especially in this place.
In fact I think she is missing all parts of polite eating in any context on further thought…
“missing subtleties” seems to be her defining personality trait.
Another potential Grrl Power spin-off comic: the adventures of Lorlara navigating the corporate office enviroment with all the subtlety of Genghis Khan :)
“Lorlara – ISP Tech support” is an idea that makes me chuckle without seeing a single panel, so you’re on to something there!
Take Note DaveB.
Despite how it may be depicted half the time Genghis Khan was a lot more well versed and mannered socially than you would think. Dude may have beheaded more than a fair few “honored” guests but that was always on their fault for slighting him and his kin, he did not care for being dishonored in his own home. Now if you are thinking Atila the Hun I would absolutely agree, no subtlety there at all.
For Genghis Khan hospitality was sacred, he would never harm a guest no matter how rude they were, unless said guest tried to harm him first, and he would expect the same of others, in fact this fact led to one of the greatest massacres Genghis ever caused, where he annihilated an entire tribe of people down to the last man woman and child.
The reason for this was that the tribe in question had welcomed Genghis’ men as guests, his general in command had accepted and he and his men had behaved as their Khan expected of them, extremely well and politely, then that night the tribe set about murdering as many of Genghis’ men as possible in their sleep before fleeing, needless to say killing his men made Genghis angry, but to do so while being under the protection of hospitality was what sealed the tribes doom as Genghis set an entire army on them with the sole goal of annihilating the tribe utterly.
As I recall, Attila the Hun was the very definition of Hun social graces… who were, in turn, much of the source of our idea of barbarians all lacking social graces. (Much of, because there were also the Vandals.)
It’s my impression that Temüjin is most frequently depicted to be more or less Attila the Hun, but he was really quite different from that.
I know a few knife collectors/makers and most of them would look at you funny for whipping out your fancy dress knife when there are perfectly good utensils on the table.
On Alar, that was high society etiquette.
Is that a fish-scaler serration I see on the backside of her blade? Yes, yes it is! This girl is prepared for anything! Like a Girl Scout!
*Human 20/21stC “let’s pretend we’re actually Blueblood Nobs even though we’re just commoners with lots of cash” etiquette borrowed from 19thC books treated as the Holy Bible…
For all we know Lorlara’s culture has an etiquette exactly as shown, and not unlike we had in Europe right up to the 19thC: one utility (or dress) knife, one spoon.
She *does* make the universal and official sound of proper Bacon Worship, which nullifies any perceived faux pas anyway.. Such is its power… ;)
Exactly. Most “etiquette” was invented for the sole purpose of excluding people who weren’t part of an insider group.
In reality, it is easy to eat a meal without a fork. Forks are a very recent invention, and many cultures worldwide do not use (or need) them. I could manage very well without one, and I only use them because it is socially required.
A nice medium rare Newport steak? Without resorting to fingers? Not to mention the baked onion side?
Was just going to ask a similar question, unless that’s what the spoon is for…
Why a spoon? Why not an axe?
For holding it down, not cutting
People think the spork was replacing the spoon, and they would be wrong, it was returning the spoon to its proper place and kicking the fork the road (where it belongs)
A Newport steak (in period) would be roast whole, and carved and served to you like roast beef slices, even in the fanciest of settings..
The carving is what (two-tined) forks were used for. They were cooks’/servants’ implements, not table cutlery.
People would be offended if they simply got a lump of meat dumped on their plate with the idea of sorting the carving for themselves..
And yes… people used their fingers as easily as knife and spoon. Opposed to the general Myth about “hygiene” and lack of such, it was extremely impolite not to wash your hands before showing up to the table and between courses. Be it at Court or at a farmers’ table.
One day we will get the Kitchen version of the zoological binomial nomenclature system. I live in Oz.
My local butcher sells “Newport Steak” cut from the bottom of the Bottom Sirloin sub-prime cut. It’s not a roast.
In some places it’s called a Santa Maria steak. Given the thickness, maybe some fancy restaurants probably would slice it before serving, though at 1 – 1½inches it’s easy enough to slice it yourself… if you have a fork :)
Exactly. Steaks have evolved because of fork use – not the reverse.
If you do not insist on cutting up your own lump of meat, you have almost zero need for a fork. And that is the experience round the world.
I cannot imagine trying to eat spaghetti without a fork.
You could try with two sticks… :)
Aha I wondered when that trip would come in handy…
However, I’m still wondering how he PAID for the stuff he bought…
Probably porn. That was conjectured in the comments at the time.
Deus brought luggage full of (what appeared to be) bars of precious metals. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-679-spree/
Fracture merchant: Hey, the market for silver and platinum is a little light right now, but those edibles you brought last time were a real hit with some of my customers.
Deus: Oh, which ones?
Merchant: I think you called them, let’s see, oh yes, banana chips, gorp and the nackos with kaso, but the diary product was not as big a seller. Can I get them without that goop next time? I have another genetic resequencer; I could sell it to you for say your mass in banana chips and the same again in gorp.
Deus: What about the portable magnetic resonance imager I asked about last time?
Merchant: Sure, I hooked up with a manufacturer. They want metals for some of the wiring, so I get it for you after you bring me a block of gold the volume of your head, and your mass in copper as well as your mass of nackos; just the crispy parts, not the white gooey stuff.
Deus: Well, is the another another item that often goes with nachos, called guacamole. It is generally green with red pieces in it. I can give you a sample next time I am through. See if it works for you.
Gorp? o_O
Good Old Raisins and Peanuts. Trail mix.
Thank you, hadn’t heard it called that before
Our trail mix has chocolate in it
Obligatory link to the Troy Rising series, which starts with maple syrup as a powerful intoxicant for xenos, thus being far more valuable to the galactic community than art or precious metals.
Ah, oops… maybe the spoiler tags work like this?
So in that series, Canada owns the universe?
The guy who figured out the maple sap value quietly but rapidly buys up all of the maple orchards he can, coordinating with the current owners that he thinks will play along nicely, and locks up a monopoly on all the reserves and viable land. He then restores much of the trade imbalance and gets most of the world’s “treasures” back since the aliens didn’t really want them all that much. Then, by the end of the first book, given his linchpin position with the traders that dropped into orbit, he negotiates a much better position for humanity while still profiting quit a bit himself. So he doesn’t control that much in the larger galactic stage, but he single-handedly takes Earth from getting sucked dry to being a recognized player.
I haven’t had time to get to the rest of the series, that’s all I remember from the first book. Hopefully that makes everything crystal clear.
If Canada gains control of the world, we’ll ALL be sorry…
ಠ_ಠ
Yes, but you’d also be polite and have your healthcare covered. ;)
Many Canadians travel to the U.S. for healthcare because Canada’s system is universal, free, and massively underfunded. Waiting times for healthcare mean people die while waiting to be seen by a Doctor.
Doesn’t make you wonder?
If the taxes are so high to pay for healthcare but it’s so woefully under-funded, then what else is the government doing with that money?
This isn’t how “that trip would come in handy”.
This is how Deus covers that he got Tech past the Customs Dept of the Xevoarchy on Fracture Station on that trip.
He knows they’re going to show up at some point, and probably sooner rather than later at that, so he wants to be able to have ‘plausible deniability’ when they do show up (and freak out).
He probably had a different plan to do so before the Alari ship showed up in Earth Orbit looking for a place to land and do repairs. And considering Galactic/Xevoarchy views of the Alari (Dabbler thought that Genocide via Orbital Bombardment by them a little far, but not outside the realm of possibility, due to Alari actions with regard to the rest of Galactic Society), Xevoarchy diplomats making the same assumption that Max just did about the Alari “citizens” of Galytn. So hey, new and better plan that also lets him port the tech into Earth’s global economy via a “trusted trade partner”…. ;)
In Phil Foglio’s work, humanity’s contribution to the Universal Civilization, is popcycles.
Frozen flavored water on a stick. No one else ever thought of it, that’s all.
*Popsicles
I want to agree with the most important statement on this page:
“BACONnn”
BACON! nom nom nom nom ……………………………… She’s just Beggin’ for it!
Al right, I admit that it was a dog of a sick joke, but still…………….
As a Alien who has also tasted bacon, I second this agreement. If I’m doing this right…
The best part is she almost seemed to be stalking the bacon ………. just look at her face!
Best Bacon combo’s
Mine would be bacon wraped with black forest ham.
Wrapped around an Oreo.
Shipwrecked on a backwards planet, I’m sure SOMEONE made sure that the
food was safe to eat.
It would be awkward if Lorlara was allergic to shellfish.
Whatever you do – don’t tell her that Human tastes like pork.
Ah, the magic of bacon!
“The only thing more dangerous in the shies – is you”
I suspect Deus isn’t up to date on Sydney’s latest performance
LOL! In the case of Sydney her air to air [and ground to air, air to ground, and possibly orbital to ground] combat capabilities are so heavily classified that possibly Sydney doesn’t know what they are! [Possibly because she hasn’t come up with them yet………]
I’m 100% certain Deus is up to date on Max blowing a hole through an alien warship. I’m also certain that, if he knows the prices, inventory and shop locations on the fracture, he knows exactly where that places Max in the intergalactic pecking order.
Strange thing about that pecking order. Destroying a spaceship is a lot easier than building one. Yet the one who destroys is higher up than the one who builds.
That’s why I like factory ships.
Get the ship, inflate an huge asteroid, insert ship into asteroid.
There you go. A mobile factory you can hide.
Have you read John Ringo’s books about exactly that?
As he points out, you can’t actually hide them.
An almost perfect stone sphere, with a few highly refined and localized metal structures (hatch hinges), radiating heat, is really hard to mistake for an ordinary asteroid… Admittedly, you have to be looking at the asteroid belt, but they’re hardly hidden.
Shut down production, what heat?
Well, if you’re not going to bother with the camouflage of a non-spherical shape or stone-capped hatches…
(Of course, given the size of radiators needed for power generation and industrial processing, they may be such a beacon in the IR that the camouflage is useless. Still keep the stone cladding, though, as it’s a cheap radiation shield.
Sydney had nothing to do with the Fel ship, she arrived too late to the party (but not too late for Clean-up Duty)
1 spaceship (Ma ), or several of those alien kaijū drones plus space-fighters (Sydney) , I wonder how they compare…
Didn’t Sydney also put a hole in the Corkscrew ship?
Nope. In #655 she Zorches about a thousand… drones using her newly invented “robotech” technique, and in #657 she figures the numbers are not in her favour, so decides to ice Squidward.
Personally, I thought Syddles may have had enough power to badly tickle the mothership, but I admit she did have a lot on her plate at the time.
Thank you, was sure she put a hole in the ship before the Triplets dropped
I think she was a victim of Lack of Battle Experience, aka Battle Training, which you can’t get from playing D&D.
I cannot be the only one who wondered why she didn’t just wind up the Pew-Pew to maximum and aim for something that looked personal on the ship. OTOH, she probably never had the pleasure of being unceremoniously thrown (literally) in the deep end of the pool.
Still, for ADHD she did do remarkably well, considering that this was in fact the Deep End..
the ship was also the size of a continent, and had an alien design, she wouldn’t know if she was firing at the weapon ports, engines, gravity control, the bridge, or some dangly decoration the aliens put on it.
It doesn’t work like that.
Knowing the details of the Fel warship and knowing that Max took it out with one shot only tells you that Max can take out something of roughly that class of ship with one shot.
It tells you nothing about where Max ranks relative to others who can pull off that same feat.
Also, at the low end of those who could take out that ship with one shot, there’s some interesting comparisons with some other groups who can’t manage to take out a Fel ship with one shot, but have impressive defenses or maneuverability to compensate for it.
Basically, it’s kind of complicated, and it’s very easy to be over-confident about what you know.
That said, if I’m right about what super power Deus has, he probably does have a very good idea of where Maxima stands on the galactic power scale. He likely knows much less about Sydney.
Yes, how many are able to have that much firepower and have that much defense and manoeuvrability?
With others, it’s one or the other, with Maxi, it’s both
If SmugD is able to know where Maxi stands on the galactic power scale (when the only members of the galactic community he has met are the Alari Refugees and the merchant on Fracture), then he would know everything about Sydney
Sydney may be faster than Max (theoretically, remember we don’t know Max’s top speed), and possibly more destructive than Max (again theoretically, Sydney’s PPO is more of a slicing beam whereas Max’s destructive capability includes a large area of effect), but when push comes to shove Max has learned her tactical plans from military training and many actual warzones. I’d say that defeats Sydney’s tactical plans coming from from comic books.
Sydney’s tactical plans coming from comic books are what won the restaurant fight, not Max’s tactical plans from military training and many actual warzones. In a comic book universe with comic book powers, the comic book tactician is going to be superior more often than not.
max’s tactical plans only work against people that fight in the way MAX is used to.
just being “militarily trained” doesn’t mean your tactical view are the right ones in all cases. it means you were taught to fight the way the us military likes to fight against the types of combat the us military has fought before.
the way Sydney fights is unlike anything Max would have fought before so a lot of her military training is going to be more of a hindrance then a help.
The Vietnam war showed the problem for big armies like the US forces. If the enemy doesn’t stand and fight head to head, massive power is useless. Later, both the USSR and the US had the same problem in Afghanistan.
Against a dedicated guerrilla force, willing to take extreme casualties, massive power is useless. You end up massacring innocent villagers (look up My Lai) bombing the shit out of their homes, and carrying out reprisals. And to no one’s surprise, each massacre and each bombing raid and each reprisal creates more guerrillas who hate your guts.
And one day your voters insist you stop the body bags coming home.
That’s oversimplifying what happened beyond the point of uselessness.
In the US Revolution, Viet Nam, and Afghanistan (Russian & US), you had a competing power “propping up the resistance” / conducting a proxy war (France, China, US, Iran). Without that support, the guerrilla fighters can be ground down. See “Eating Soup with a Knife”. Also see US westward expansion, England in Scotland, Rome in Gaul… About the only time that a resistance has succeeded without outside support would be the Maccabees.
If big armies always lost to small unit actions, the powers would have figure that out quickly and changed tactics.
In Viet Nam, in particular, your Chinese-backed “resistance” made a policy of human rights violations while the US avoided the same. That’s a recipe for military disaster.
Lurker, you’re fooling yourself if you think the US didn’t violate human rights in ‘nam, a LOT. ESPECIALLY with their use of Napalm and Agent Orange. Hell, the US even tested a far far worse version of Agent Orange called Agent Purple on a Canadian Military Base (and the Canadian government LET them) and pretty much all those troops had cancer within a decade.
Also, FYI…. the only way militarily you get rid of Guerilla Warfare is by bombing the entire country into Black Glass if you’re the “Invader.” An outside source supplying Guerillas HELPS, but it hardly stops armed resistance. Look at Afghanistan and everyone who’s invaded the area for the past 5000 years. It literally plays out the same way it did for the US, USSR and British every. damn. time. “Someone invades, Locals harass them till they leave.”
This is why winning hearts and minds is so important, and why every trigger-happy idiot with a gun who shoots a civilian tends to get severely chewed out if not dishonourably discharged.
Lurker – Examine why Ireland became independent at the start of 20th century.
The British army was one of the strongest in the world. But everything it did with that power simply encouraged the guerrilla forces. It massively enlarged their popular support.
Research the “Black and Tans” and Auxiliaries if you genuinely believe resistance can be ground down. They thought so too – even burned a city. The Irish Free State appeared shortly after.
North Vietnam had a huge army. The Vietnam war was far less about the enemy “not standing up to fight,” because they certainly did, and far more about the US deliberately tying one hand behind its back in the conduct of the war. A policy of slow escalation and measured responses is not how you win a war.
Johnson refused to allow attacks on Hanoi, and limited US engagement in many other ways. He also liked to play soldier boy and ran the war himself instead of allowing career officers to conduct the war as they saw fit and using Johnson’s strategic goals as their guidelines.
Of course, the implied threat of Deus’ new fighter plane is that if the US doesn’t buy it, someone else might…
But of course! Implied threats are ……. well ……………. implied. Or at least hinted.
Yes, but Cora is currently trying to get a spaceship for the Americans to reverse engineer. I would imagine the government stalling to buy them till their ship comes in. Literally and metaphorically. Also, for some reason, I have the strangest feeling that Sydney will ruin his plans with her new portal making power
So Deus is producing advanced fighter aircraft… One wonders where he sources — for example — avionics.
We not that (in the real universe) the USA has forfeited the manufacture of electronic stuff to SE Asia, as only SE Asia has an education system that pumps out hi-tek factory workers of high enough quality in sufficient quantity to meet global needs.
It is quite possible that 20 years is long enough for the Galytn state to develop primary, secondary and tertiary education. But to keep this under the global radar… Surely somebody would have noticed?
More like advanced fighter airo-space craft. Something that can go into high orbit to intercept those pesky aliens before they can get into the atmosphere.
The avionics are provided by Machina Digital Controls, a division of Machina Electronics, which is a subsidiary of Machina Industries. Machina Digital Controls produces specialized control systems and embedded systems for all sorts automated and semi-automated machines, including industrial manufacturing and processing equipment, aircraft, marine vessels, emergency management and disaster recovery vehicles, construction equipment, and so on. Machina Digitial Controls has design and production faculties in the United States, Galytn, Germany and Japan. Please see our website for more details and to request a quote for your exact needs.
I get the feeling that Galtyn has been funneling most of its manufacturing capabilities (other than benign export chachki’s) into its own infrastructure, building the machinery that would allow them to build the machinery that would allow.., modern rail and road systems, energy grids, stockpiling to expand all of these into new territorial *cough* acquisitions..
Wakanda, without being the ‘we’re the rich folks’ gated community it was for centuries.
it would be impossible for Deus to build these aircraft.
first he’s only had the alien tech for about a month, sure he could have designed the craft in that time but thats the easy part. sources all the materials to make it would take massive orders form around the world. and don’t get me started on how long it would take to make the tools, to make the tools to finally make the tools necessary to make these high tech craft in the first place.
in any logical story it would take decades to even have the ability to do anything with that tech
given it is labelled the ASF-X2a, which is clearly an internal designation not a service one, i’m not sure we can say for sure whether he could build them or not. the “2a” designation suggests that there were preceding ASF-X designs. which suggests that his company had probably been designing a fighter aircraft even before his obtaining advanced tech. very likely even before taking over Galtyn. we know his company can rapidly intergrate technology and rapidly produce working models (look at how fast he was able to build his “stargate” device after obtaining the space cutting knife) so depending on the technology involved it may not have been difficult for him to take existing designs for an advanced aircraft (one that likely leveraged a fair number of advanced human technologies as it was) and fit selected alien-tech systems to improve it further. at a guess, probably energy weaponry (we already have efforts underway to put lasers on aircracfft IRL, and fitting lasers built using alien tech enhancements and an alien tech auxiliary generator to power them probably wouldn’t be difficult. likewise an alien tech that might be useful is whatever passes for inertial dampening.. the biggest limitation in combat aircraft IRL is the G-force issue of human pilots. with inertial dampening you can use more powerful engines with high accelerations, while also allowing the fighter to be super maneuverable without causing the pilot to black out from the g-forces.
very likely he already had factories being set up to produce fighter aircraft, the addition of alien tech to the capabilities would just be a way to make the product more attractive on the market.
A lot of ‘state of the art’ aircraft are sold before the companies in question can actually make them. The company (or joint venture project of several companies) makes a demo model that mostly works, demos it, and gets orders that they then have to fulfill in a year or so. After that, they hustle to work out all of the problems.
While Deus talks like his primary asset is being a billionaire, I get the feeling that his biggest asset is really information, and to become a billionaire and work on becoming a trillionaire, he’s actually a lot more hands on than he would like anyone to know. Much of that time is as a trainer, but…
Wait a second. Shit. His power works *both* ways if he wants it to. Though, he probably has control of exactly *what* flows the other way. And suddenly, Lorlara’s surprising fluency in English makes sense.
Not to mention impractical. When you make an aircraft for sale you typically want the buyers to state some design goals that you’ll be meeting. No one just makes an aircraft and only then hopes to find a buyer. I suppose if the price is right and the performance superior that an exception might be made, but the kind of investment it takes to roll out an air superiority fighter is staggering, and no sane company would do so on a wager.
Positing the US of A does, Deus is setting up an arms race where the only source of those arms is Galtyn.
Munny munny muunn-y
That reminded me of Pete Holmes money song, in the middle of this telemarketer sketch.
the problem with this the arms trade is big business and very important to the GDP of many first world nations. they’re not going to take lightly to someone take that form them and even if they did then most countries won’t have the money to buy from him.
So what? Deus/Galtyn are well beyond caring what the rest of the world (or the USA for that matter) think of the deals. Cough up – or be left behind!
Lorlara seems to like bacon wrapped shrimp. It looks like she likes it so much she would go to a banquet honoring the Somali pirates, if they served bacon wrapped shrimp.
Swanson!!!
Swanson is a dick!
Irrelevant and unnecessary.
I want to see her face when she bites into the sliver of jalapeno pepper that properly belongs in the center of such a snack.
There’s no guarantee that the neurochemical effect of “hot peppers” would work at all on alien biology.
Heck, it doesn’t even work on all earthly vertebrates. Birds seem totally immune to it, it appears to affect only mammals. In fact, that might be “intentional” (evolutionarily speaking) — a substance in an edible seed pod that deters mammals while not deterring birds would be a great way to boost the spread of the seeds, as birds travel farther, faster, and wider.
if you want to keep squirrels out of your birdseed, for feeding outdoor birds, toss some cayenne in it. the squirrels will leave it alone, and the birds will get extra vitamins.
they actually sell bird feed blocks like that now. and the birds in my feeder LOVE IT, a berry block can last a few days (and that’s with the squirrels licking at it), but a pepper block I’ve seen vanish in a few hours, starlings apparently go crazy for it.
Given the existence of the alien spicy noodle dish, and the fact that it seemed to be equally regarded by all of the various aliens present, I think it’s a fair bet that humanoid aliens in the Grrlverse are exactly like humans in all regards save their appearance.
We have evidence of this, with all of the various aliens on Cora’s ship being all clearly capable of engaging in sexual congress with both Cora and Sydney. And also Cora herself with at least two members of Archon. And then there’s Dabbler, with just about anyone.
That most Humanoids have similar food responses, yes. But we don’t know whether there’s any difference in how intense those responses are. Something that tastes fairly hot to a Human may be only mildly spiced to one species, while another might find it near-intolerable. (Not that Sydney is a typical Human for purposes of this particular comparison!)
Deus’s catalog/wishlist seems to have lost its spine in Maxima’s gentle hands. Which is kind of a nice metaphor, I guess.
We can note these high tech fighters didn’t make an appearance when the Earth was very briefly facing an alien menace. I can see three possible reasons:
1) They may not have been combat ready yet
2) Deus was holding back rather than show his hand, risk an asset for no immediate profit and provoke diplomatic fuss, especially since Maxima et al would likely have the situation well in hand
and/or
3) They simply didn’t have time to put together a response before the situation was dealt with
Overall, I’m leading with 2 as the likely reason, but given how recently he acquired the tech, 1 also deserves a mention.
You mean during that attack with the Alien warship hovering over ARCHON HQ, which then had their butts handed to them by the occupants of said building? That happened in North America, the United States of America to be exact, while his drone fighters are being built in Galytn, Africa, 2 rather distant continents. It would have had to go REALLY BAD for drones from Africa to be deployed over a event that happened in North America…
Even if the fighters had been equipped with teleportation they would have been hard pressed to respond to the situation before Max used the “Hand of Goddess” to smack them down.
Actually option 3 is the primary reason, along with the fact that the US National Guard doesn’t own any of those aircraft yet.
Sorry, its pre option 1… He doesn’t HAVE them. He’s offering to develop and build them, but if they are even beyond a Stage 1 design document he’s still just begun working on them.
Maybe those are his superpowers? He knows amazing amounts of stuff that there is simply no way for him to know. And everyone in his research, design, development, fabrication, and construction departments works at 10x maximum human speeds. Let me tell you why…
He told Sciona EXACTLY where to find an object that he had plainly never heard of within hours (if he’d known it existed, he would have had it and denied he knew anything about it). Proof: she flew STRAIGHT to him.
Within 6 weeks of learning about it, he designed, fabricated and constructed a means of using it. If you had already an already finalized design, had pre-fabricated all materials and components, and pre-prepped a site in the US between a major highway, a large airport and a rail line… The ENTIRE Army Corps of Engineers MIGHT be able to assemble it correctly in 6 weeks.
And if he built it stateside? Then his legal and permit departments work at 20x normal speed. Ask anyone in construction: you can die of old age waiting on that last, absolutely mandatory, permit…
Augghhh… No edits. The him at the end of the last sentence in paragraph 3 is Cooter.
Aaaahh, nope. Deus probably doesn’t have more than 4 or 5, but he absolutely does have 4 or 5 working demonstrable aircraft. In Galytn.
Clue: “ASF-X.2a”… That means “Version 2, 1st sub.” That means that there are certainly a few “X.1” versions in hangars someplace as well.
So yes, he actually “doesn’t have them.” At least not the numbers needed by an genuine buyer. But he can spool up and meet a reasonable deadline, and supply pre-training as necessary.
We can — of course — invoke the “rule of comic/cool” here, however that also “rules” out much in the way of constructive debate.
There’s a pretty solid precedent of fudging your ID numbers to make your organization look like it’s bigger than it is. It’s just a naming convenience, no reason your prototype can’t be the “Mark 7” on contract bidding paperwork.
There’s lots of people take the paperwork at face value :)
Actually Deus’s shopping trip must had most likely happened AFTER Alari landed (even if it was planned well before).
1) it was at same time Sydney was there and her trip to Earth from there took max. day (bath+sleep+food)
2) Alari landing related crimes as shown thwarted by Maxima before Sydney arrived AND world news commentaries could be that recent, but even then it would be too much coincidence to happen in so short time window
Alari arrival likely allowed bit faster technology release as there is this kind of explanation from where it could appear + possibly some shift in what he did shop for
I think you’re right. Also, I think there was a lot of shift in what he did shop for.
Assuming Deus has a way to get massive amounts of information from at least some of the people he encounters… he probably didn’t have the greatest intel on Fracture station. Sure, he’s known Sciona, and he’s probably encountered a few other aliens before. I mean, he knew *what* an Alari was in time to be able to show off that knowledge to Sciona. But he probably had not had nearly as much access to aliens as he did after they landed in his country. I’d guess that allowed him to map out the place a lot better. It may have even helped him calibrate his not a stargate to actually get the right destination.
Ummmm… mmmm…
“2) Alari landing related crimes as shown thwarted by Maxima before Sydney arrived …”
Er, what crimes as hown thwarted? Please give us a page reference, and I doubt that #717 is it.
Bacon, a universal language.
Soldiers can have long hair. If you can hide it under your hat you can keep it.
I swear Lorlara looks at bacon the same way I do. Another thing that confirms the fact that I consider her a dark reflection of Sydney (who’s vegetarian).
plus there is vegetarian bacon. not really sure what it’s made of, tho
I’ve heard of it but I haven’t try it though.
Don’t. Ever. I’ve tried 4-5 kinds, and it is a vile, filthy snack. They only gives it to us because they stole our precious! Wicked, tricksy, false!
Here is an excellent documentary detailing the sole use of and disposition for vegetarian/vegan bacon.
On the dangerous rating, I would want to see the list of Supers he’s claiming his fighter jets are superior to.
It strikes me as unlikely that they could match the pew pew beam for a length of time or without frequent reload/recharge/refuel. Their main advantage over someone like Sydney’s powerset is that she’s limited to two powers at a time, so she can’t maintain her flight, shield, and offense. Although, for a strategic or bombing strike, this becomes moot since Sydney could effectively alternate between flight and pew pew while maintaining her shield full time.
That also brings up the function of the craft. Since it’s an air superiority fighter, it’s expected to engage other aircraft, so he could just be using a mixture of stealth/detection systems to extend his weapon systems well beyond visual range. I don’t think we’ve seen Maxima use super sight or similar that would let her shoot her finger beam at a fly ten miles away in a dust storm, so Deus may be averaging the raw damage potential Maxima can put out against her ability to apply it against other air born threats. Stealth means dick if the entire sky is on fire.
Keeping with above, I would posit that while some supers will be able to act as some serious close air support, most of them don’t have a good powerset for air superiority short of your Flying Brick + Energy Blasts. Heatwave for instance would be mincemeat.
on the civilization scale the Alari were just above Earth, like just right over the FTL line.
Also doubtful anything the Alari weapons have can compare, remember the GigantaFel (or whatever they are who just looked like Kaiju sized Fel but had different ship designs), exterminated the Alari homeworld, with the impression their military didn’t stand a chance. Yet Sydney when scanned by their *whatever its called when you leave a unit behind to watch for more enemy forces* freaked it out enough to call for back up that acted with extreme force right out the gate. So chances are Sydney’s upper limit on the PPO is going to make any Alari projectile weapons look like pop guns.
Two things…
The Alari refugees reached Earth in less than 60 days. Is that possible if your just “right over the FTL line”? Cora’s modified top-of-the-line ship took most of a day. And it managed the trip from the Alari homeworld to the Fracture (including landing and ground travel) only 45 minutes slower than Sydney. So both of these places are far closer together that either are to Earth.
You MIGHT be able to make a case that whatever is attacking the Alari homeworld is some kind of ur-Fel… But the Fel conquer and corrupt. The attack on the Alari homeworld looked more like a very successful attempt at obliteration of the entire species. Assuming the less that 40 Sydney found of the Fracture and the ship (or two, no exact numbers) aren’t ALL the corporeal survivors – and figuring about 10 billion initial population – you have maybe 0.000001% escaped. Short of destroying all space installations and all vessels not on planet, destroy all transport rune fields (like the one everyone arrived at – assuming that was, in fact, what it actually was), then novaing the star, and shooting anything attempting to flee until just before the blast wave hits you, I’d have a hard time coming up with a more complete annihilation.
The Alari had a multi-stellar* empire. Do we know if all colony planets were extinguished?
* They had FTL. No way they were content to terraform only their local solar-sytem planets.
Being “just right over the FTL line” does not imply any particular level of competence in FTL design or manufacture: it simply acknowleges that the Alari have FTL capability.
Too many years (nay, decades) of Star Trek. To me, “just over the FTL line” means something like “I can get 50 people to Alpha Centauri in a week, without serious advance preparation”. A speed of 1/60th of the super advanced ship Cora flies when sneaking out of a war zone simply doesn’t fit the description, in my mind.
Where are we getting the Alari were “just over the FTL line” from anyway? I thought Sciona fairly heavily implied they did mass invasion thru blood magic gates…
Speaking of interstellar travel, and Sydney’s presumed inability to remember certain details (or at least remember to report them)… Sciona and the batteryed souls have been here longer than the Alari who arrived by ship. Did Sydney remember to report the mass of weird green/black stuff that entered the portal when she couldn’t?
“Where are we getting the Alari were “just over the FTL line” from anyway?”
From @Rhuen above, 1st response to @JoeScmhoe. However, I also inferred Alari FTL capability from DaveB’s (I think) comment that the Alari had a multi-stellar empire.
Sciona and her batteryed souls only beat the Alari ship by a matter of weeks at most, depending on exactly how long Syddles spent on Alar, Fracture and Cora’s ship. This seems to be 53 days, and the Alari ship was well-established in Galytn as Cora made planet-fall, so possibly only 5 or 6 weeks.
I saw no evidence that Syddles reported the soul-vortex entering the portal, but I also assume Maxi et al also may have seen something. Of course, with imminent destruction threatening them, just maybe any vaporous clouds could well be attributed to the general air of destruction. And we must accept that some things do happen off-comic.
Blood Magic gates would honestly imply below the FTL line as that is not tech that is magic. Its like calling Out World technologically advanced (note I haven’t played MK since 4, so if they are now I have no idea),
however we did see ships at the Fracture and the colony ship. However we also learned from Dabbler that the Alari are considered below the major interstellar empires level (yes they have an empire, but one made by invading less advanced worlds through magic portals and battle thralls like its World of Warcraft invasions), the Xevoarchy, which are solid at the 2nd level of civilization (Galactic Federation/Empire) are stated to be capable of just bombing the Alari back to a pre or just at industrial level of development. So this empire of theirs is clearly below 2nd level.
the just over the FTL really is because their ships from what we seem don’t seem all that advanced relative to other ships seen, and the whole needing to set up a giant blood portal thing to march their armies through is again, not tech, but magic.
Magic Portals capable of servicing distant stars raise hard questions.
Given the sheer size of the Milky Way Galaxy — we’ll go with 150,000ly and 100×10^9 stars — the art of scrying for useable civilisations will be testing, to say the least. Part of the scrying will be the need to establish the position of the target within the Galaxy, and get some idea of the target’s local orbital features. At the moment, we Scryers don’t know if the target is actually on our side of the Galaxy or not, nor do we know how fast the target star is moving relative to the Galactic flow… This could take some centuries. Do we really need subject worlds 40,000 or 50,000 lightyears away?
I’m going to ignore Arthur Clarke here, it seems there is a disconnect between “Blood” Magic and real (science-based) technology. Given that DaveB states that Blood Magic is the provenance of the High Ranks, it is logical that there are relatively few of them. Thus it is likely that just maybe all the Alari expansion would have sprung from the loins of FTL in the first place, with target stars much closer to home. This makes them quite easy to see with decent telescopes, thus the Scryers can get an accurate fix for the Portals to aim at. The rank discrimination also allows us to postulate a religious aspect, entrenching a fear of science which could be used to overthrow the ruling classes.
… entrenching a fear that science could be used to overthrow the ruling classes.
I still think she could probably pull off dragonball style flight by *standing on* one or two of her orbs while directing their path, and still use two others. At least, it hasn’t been ruled out yet.
Hasn’t it been established that she can only use two orbs, one in each hand? She can’t use them with her feet, tuck one inside her shirt or anything else?
she can only USE two but she can still control how the others movie. the imply answer is to stand on two or more unused orbs while using her two active orbs
I think she would just fall off, at least if she tried to pick up any speed.
Plus, if the orbs move relative to her, then that falls under “bootstrapping” – i.e. you can’t fly by pulling your bootstraps to lift your shoes off the floor
Remember that the Flight Orb provides immunity to vertigo. Also, there’s no way balancing herself on orbs is going to achieve the flight speed she had even before upgrading.
The unknown orb in a backpack modified to work like a jetpack. Controlled with her mind to move left right up down forward backward. Not sure how to turn.
That’s kind of what I really imagine: Her uniform gets modified to include support straps, and a series of pockets she can put her orbs into, so that they haul her around while she’s using two of them.
Probably nothing remotely like the flight orb performance, which seems to include inertial cancelation, too. But at least she could do controlled hovering and a modest degree of flight while actively using two orbs.
Really, as an experienced RPG player, she should be used to the idea of gaming the rules, and have already tried that.
you are all assuming a level of lift for them she hasn’t demonstrated.
She can command the direction of their orbits around her when not in use and speed of the orbit, but so far they have when not at rest or in use in her hand retained an orbit. So the question would have to be, can she command them to stay in a relative spot to her “under feet” or move in a single direction away from thus pulling her with them via a back pack like a Thor’s hammer throw type of flight; without them having to turn around and take laps (an orbit) around her at the same time.
at best its possible she could get them in a back pack and make them spin her around as they try to orbit her, maybe. The only way shown so far the pulled along tactic might work is if she orders them into the tube or back pack, at rest, and then someone like Maxima lifts and flies off with it and Sydney allows herself to be pulled along with them through the air.
Which could be used tactically, but in a way no different than if Maxima was just carrying Sydney, and the question if some can be carried along in a pack while Sydney uses two others allowing Sydney to be dragged along so she doesn’t need the flight orb freeing her up to use two separate orbs. But again, its over complicating it that way when it would be the same as just being carried by a super strong flyer.
It’s over-complicating it, if your flyer is holding Mr. Tubey in their hands. But if they’ve got Tubey across their back then they’ve got their hands free to do other things, while still having Sydney dangle beneath with both her hands free to do other things.
hmm gotta wonder what happens if she hears about Long Pork
How much of the press briefing about aliens has reached Deus?
I mean sure no one saw the actual take down, but the press did see the Fel Battle Cruiser approach, and would be told after the battle Archon took it down, and they’d likely have captured footage of the craft either in the air or downed, most likely downed as they may have been taken to safety before it got that close.
but given the Fel are basically the Borg of this world chances are any aliens seeing that footage would recognize it. The refugees weren’t allowed for some reason, but what about Deus…also mole(s) in Archon to tell him.
on that note Archon and thus the US government is going to get some space tech thanks to the bounty on the Fel ship courtesy of the Xevoarchy…and while no one knows it yet the Xevoarchy thanks to Mushoshi and…pun not found other alien, of the galaxy police are aware one certain golden individual single handedly, even with a single hand in fact, blasted the Fel ship out of the sky.
Kora disposed the contaminated Fel ship and artifacts and promised the
USA some tech in exchange.
The Space Police saw the battle (such as it was) and reported it to thier
HQ.
‘Mostly Harmless’ my ass!
It is mostly harmless, so long as “mostly” does not include Archon.
It seems that Deus is unaware how deadly Sydney is in the air
That’s because nobody outside, and damned few inside of Archon, have even an inkling of what she can do now with her orbs.
Specifically, Sydney, Max, Faulkner, and probably about as many others.
Of course they will deny it, because they haven’t shared shit with you, you bought it offworld using illegal (and stolen) means
Stolen yes, but illegal? Is it illegal to use (or possess) a brane ripper? Especially since legislating agencies don’t know it exists?
It’s illegal for Earthican’s to trade with advanced societies
Illegal per the Xevoarchy, the UN has no such restrictions and isn’t a party to any intergalactic agreements.
At least that we know of, someone has to be overseeing Earth’s space tourism industry but that could easily be without human input or knowledge.
Turns out the UN doesn’t have jurisdiction on Fracture.
That way his shopping trip was worth it.
He now has the technology AND everyone will suspect he got it from the Alari AND these are in several factions who will suspect each other AND the Alari will rightfully deny it AND Alari don’t have a good name anyway.
I expect that Deus managed to get *some* stuff from the Alari, though he’s probably not going to be able to actually *use* that portion of his advanced tech anywhere they can see it until *after* he’s convinced them that he has stuff at least as advanced as theirs. Or he’s managed to get everybody to join house Deus, but I suspect the initiation process is one he’s pretty selective about.
we see a problem. The Fracture shop said the equipment Deus bought was state of the art (implying by Fracture and Xevoarchy standards),
the Alari while having an interstellar empire, is an empire made of less advanced worlds they invaded through magic portals (as stated by Sciona) and battle thralls. Also stated by Dabbler was that that Xevoarchy could have once getting tired of the Alari’s antics just bomb them back to their industrial age; which means to the Xevoarchy the Alari are like third world dictators invading stone age islands on the relative scale.
So it can be assumed if any aliens with enough tech knowledge (Dabbler, Cora, tourism board, Xevoarchy enforcers coming for a visit because Earth) get a good look at the portals and such Deus is making they may notice the technology is significantly more advanced than what the Alari have.
Deus would have to pull a long game, possibly multi-generational, gamble to keep it secret by releasing reduced versions of the tech closer to Earth and Alari levels (which he probably should anyway for the purposes of mass production and understanding how it works); its one thing to put an advanced 3-D printer on the market able to rearrange the material at a microscopic level and bond it as alloys. Its another to just throw out a molecular reassembler that can convert any mass into any other mass by rearranging the atoms themselves.
or ya’know a warped space FTL drive that allows you to bypass light speed and make hyper space or ether dive jumps to shorten a trip (think Guardians of the Galaxy MCU jump points, which I think Cora mentioned jump point. Is something he could put out, and seems to be what the Alari have as their portals are magic and not the star gate type portal Deus used (yes modified a potentially magical artifact which likely why the Fracture didn’t detect the unauthorized portal as a hybrid of magic and tech) and the Fracture has (star gate type portals). Which are instant special bypasses from one point to another.
ya’know the mile stone markers that get real suspicious if you leap over them.
“I wouldn’t dream of compromising your integrity in such a crass manner… so I will just use your name without paying you.”
That’s pretty much exactly what he’s implying. He’s telling her he’s going to infringe on her personal brand without her permission, and insinuating that she should be happy about it. She shouldn’t be, but she also doesn’t have to protect the integrity of her brand identity herself either. That’s what Arianna is for.
When I compromise your integrity it will be with style and class!
OhhhhhKAY so Deus here might be taking the first step in getting his country destroyed.
Because a smart general doesn’t rely on weapons technology to win a war. You win war at the operational and strategic levels. If you’re hoping a superweapon will save your ass, it can’t do that if you send it to the wrong place at the wrong time or fail to keep it maintained and supplied. Superweapons are good for empires that want to subjugate rebellious elements on the outer edges of their society; they’re not good for full-scale war when resource questions are critical.
Also Deus is running into the other problem with a sudden spike in weapons technology: if they’re just being handed to you from an alien source then your military won’t use them as well as they could. Partly because your country doesn’t have the industrial capacity to supply and maintain the weapons; partly because they create friction with the existing social order, thereby inviting fatal distrust and discord within the military; most importantly because that military’s structure of internal leadership is unfamiliar with the weapons, so they have no idea how to run the logistics they need, nor how to bring them to bear most effectively.
There’s a lot of countries in Asia where the king bought a bunch of muskets to equip his army and then lost against the British anyway because his military’s internal structure wasn’t designed for the weapons they were using — so they got into a fight they only thought they could win, instead of playing to their strengths. (See for example: The Battle of Assaye.)
You can’t buy yourself a good military. You have to grow it. You can buy yourself a mercenary company! But then they get paid off by someone with more money.
Deus here is either trying to buy himself a better army, OR he’s waving weapons technology around to scare people deliberately. If it’s the former, he’s not actually as smart as he wants people to think, and he needs to create a proper officer corps pronto. If it’s the latter…that’s still a risky game. Maybe he thinks it will convince everyone to back off so he can buy himself more time? But they might decide to just erase him now before he gets to be too much of a problem.
No, Deus is saying “Look at all the cool stuff I have for sale!”
“Look at all this cool advanced stuff I have, and you can’t prove how I got it was illegal!”
No law whatsoever was involved in how he got it. Law was simply not relevant.
There was no law, on Earth or Fracture, against his entry to or exit from Fracture.
The sale on the Fracture was legal. It would have been illegal for the Fracture to have gated that stuff home to Earth, but they didn’t.
So it was a completely legal illicit sale.
I’m pretty sure it was still illegal to take it through a private gate to Earth. It’s just that Fracture Station didn’t have any method of detecting or preventing that in current operation.
(It is possible they had the capability to detect it or prevent it, but if so, it was off at the time for whatever reason. Maybe it would’ve been courtesy of some faction they didn’t trust. Maybe because it would foul up so much other stuff on the station. Or, on the detection side, it would be so full of false positives it would be useless. I could also see the possibility that they had the tech to do it, except it wouldn’t actually work *there*, either due to the proximity of the pulsar they were built around, or because of the massive amount of anti-gravity they were using to make the place be livable.)
He’s bragging about his new productions lines, so supply and maintenance is likely covered. Training his military on the new equipment takes time, but he’s already trying to buy that with his ridiculous claims to the UN. If he manages to wave a big enough carrot in front of the US or Russia then the UN is never going to intervene either, which would explain his sales pitch.
Also, it depends on the super tech for how effective it would be. An army that can fly, ignore bullets and punch holes in tanks is going to be wildly effective, even if yesterday they only had old AKs.
I agree on Lorlara’s assessment of bacon-wrapped shrimps.
First of all, I contend that hair buns are actually very sexy!
Also, as to why female soldiers allowed to keep long hair – it’s because the militaries tend to be realistic and know that, due to cultural reasons, hair are much more important to women than to men. So, expecting women soldiers to get compulsory buzzcuts would be unnecessarily hard on female recruits.
I’ll also note that US military is actually quite strict when it comes to female hairstyles – if a woman has long hair, she needs to put it in a bun etc. Compare it to my country’s military, where female soldiers are allowed to have freely-hanging ponytails.
In the US military, in boot camp, all female’s hair is cut to a short bob if it’s longer than that. This is done for sanitary and health reasons. After boot camp, it all depends on the individual woman. But yes, if it’s longer than a bob, it has to be in a bun.
another point of cutting long hair is because in hand to hand combat you’re trying to deny the enemy a grip on your head which then makes it easier to cut your throat or break your neck.
So honestly your hair length post-boot would probably also depend on just how capable of kicking ass in CQC/CQB you are, too.
super exemption on hair pulling. Given Maxima’s durability her hair could end up slicing someone’s hand open like silica blades, also they’d have to be pretty strong to yank her hair back.
Its like the hair and uniform exemption for spell casters, do you dare try to sneak up behind and pull the witch’s hair if you know her hair could come off, penetrate and slice into your skin and muscle tissue like a spiral blade, grow and wrap around your skeleton to forcefully operate you like a puppet, or else just grow and transform into a monster exploding from your body..or simpler electrocute, turn into flames, snakes, ect…
for Maxima of course that’s more the, how strong and durable would you have to be to even get that grip and try it? Still I suspect her hair given her skin and how she can harden up probably becomes like quills, like Zelgadis from the Slayers anime.
On the continuing subject of Sydney – Lorlara similarities: note that Lorlara’s attitude towards bacon seems to mirror Sydney’s love to all things spicy!
manic pixie girl specific food fixation trope.
So the Alari ship turns out to be a convenient way for Deus to cover up his ‘shopping trip’ thanks to their settling in his country, as likely few would be able to figure out that their technology and the technology he releases don’t actually happen to be that well related.
Dabbler might. She is a tech specialist herself AND she is (somewhat) knowledgable about the Alari (at least she recognized who they were right away).
Harem most likely reported the time skip and Cora’s impending visit to Deus, who may have had some plans in the works already to import tech from Fracture. Knowing Sydney was about to be returned via spaceship, he could have realized that Archon would have to (internally at least) acknowledge the existence of ETs in the very near future, and ramped up his generator project to be ready.
The Alari could have been a lucky break for additional coverup, or he may have worked through some ET connections to invite them to Earth specifically. Which I think makes more sense, just a little too serendipitous for Deus for them to pick a backwater pre-FTL planet and also accept his offer (likely among at least a few others) as the first to establish exclusive relations with.
He may have learned about the Fracture from the Alari, or may have learned earlier… but they don’t know he can get there. They arrived after Sydney left and before Sydney returned.
Wait until Lorlara discovers fried pork belly nuggets. (cajun spices optional).
Or Chinese Pork belly cooked in rock candy and cherries.
Or Southern Pig Roasts, BBQ, Smoked meats…sausages…
Or the Bacon Bomb Burger. which is High end steak ground with pork belly and stuffed with smoked Gouda or provolone (smoked too) and a slice/square of 1″x2″x2″ fried pork belly that’s been marinated in ginger/garlic/soy/and a touch of sesame oil (like 2-3 drops- stuff is strong).
The BBB (or B^3) is dredged in five spice for the chinese version or thai pepper for the thai/southern US fusion version.
It’s like exponentially better than the Grease Bomb Burger or a Juicy Lucy.
WHen I had it in Vegas (Mid 90’s) it was nearly 2lbs of burger (w/bun etc) the salad on burger was thai herbs lightly pickled red onions and fancy mayo with southern spices in it.
Splosion of FLAVOR and juice. (they precook the middle and cool it before insertion in the high end meat) It was 15 bucks back then. Probably a 50 buck burger now.
I’ve made my own since twice (hard to find pork belly whole round here) and ungh….
But I have made the cherry pork belly rock candy many times…takes a special cast iron pan for it. (can’t use for frying or cornbread because remnants will cause carbon sticking) I use that pan specifically for the sweet sauced meals w/fatty meats.
So… when she discovers a BBQ fest… Or Food that fights back CHILI COOK OFF?
The Gustatory Adventures of Lorlara the Alien On FOOD CHANNEL… “I WILL CONQUER ALL THE FOODS!”
Her favorite shows are battle cooking… “BLAST HIM! HE IS WINNING! IT IS OBVIOUS HE IS WINNING HE BROUGHT OUT THE SPECIAL BACON!” She would make an awesome guest commentator…
Hell DaveB that would make for an awesome Monthly incentive comic. Lorlara at the judge’s table as a guest (PR move by Deus) for Battle BBQ or Battle BACON…or maybe Battle Scallops…
I think she would be a very critical judge. “The bacon you presented is six degrees too cold! You have brought shame upon yourself, and all the people you know, and all the people they know!”
Chicken nugget noodle stir fry is nice. Maybe some yakisoba on that?
Harsh but fair, 6 degrees is the upper limit when it comes to Bacon.
If she brings Dabbler she’d expose the source of tech right away…
“Oh that’s Xxxxxxxx tech, no doubt about it. It’s cover is changed, but you can’t change the energy signature without making it not work. No Earth tech can detect that signal though…any succubi could though…it (looks at Maxima) gives usa special tingle…”
I take it that Maxima has to apply pancake makeup before playing cards? Because you can just about read that thing by looking at her face.
Only if she holds her cards close enough to smell the ink
I think I have figured out the reason for Lorlara’s bountiful bosom. In an aircraft you need to roughly balance the weight of the airframe over/under the wings. The mass of her legs would keep tipping her flight path up. Her grand tetons basically serve as ballast to keep her flight level.
Yes. I’m sure that’s the reason lol.
“Soaking tampons in pepper spray or something.” You are a monster, Dave. A monster.
No one’s mentioned this that I’ve seen.
FANTASTIC JOB with the pages/writing mirrored in Max’s cheeks!
Oh of course, he’s using the Alari for “plausible deniability” – people will assume they gave him the tech, the Alari will say they din’t, no one will believe that, and Deus can keep his “not a stargate” a secret.
Deus already had a lot of plausible deniability operating a multinational high-tech corporation which even ARCHON partners with, but yes, this gives him ADDITIONAL excuses and plausible deniability, while not even once having to tell even the slightest fib. Praise be Deus.
The hair thing is more about good order and discipline than it is about combat practicalities. The reality is, unless you’re some kind of super high speed special operator, if your hair length matters in a fight then lots and lots and lots of other shit has gone very, very wrong already and getting a haircut wouldn’t have helped you much anyway.
Is it me, or are Deus’s eyes and mouth getting smaller?
I don’t remember exactly but I don’t think Sydney saw Deus off planet. Did she meet someone who did? Could she have befriended someone who did, setting up the revelation that Deus has been planet hopping?
Sydney did not see Deus. Deus likewise did not see Sydney, although he did HEAR her and thought it sounded like a familiar voice.
I doubt that Sydney met anyone who will be pointing out Deus. The only people she really met was Cora, the two aliens who she unsuccessfully tried to communicate with who had english accents, the Grakz merchant, and anyone who was buying her food and putting it on the interwebs because of a human eating 3 bowls of Grakz. And like Cora said, there ARE humans in space – just not Earthling humans in space. The only person at all who seemed to know Deus was from Earth is the person who sold him the tech.
Once again, I must point ou how brilliant Deus is in his very specific way of speaking. He does a lawyer proud.
“I predict they would deny that.” It leaves open the idea that they DID share technology, and he didnt need it because he already innovated it (or actually just bought it on fracture himself, in reality) without having to state that. It gives him more plausible deniability, plus the questions which Aura Defender had brought up with me about Deus a few days ago, which were already where Deus was on firm legal and moral ground since he is not a member of the Galactic Council anyway, is even on FIRMER ground now, since the Alari are ALSO not members of the Galactic Council any more than the Fel are, and the US was fine with the idea of using Fel technology had Cora not bargained them into a starter FTL ship instead.
And of course, he did not lie AT ALL. He did not say they did. He did not say they did not (and frankly they might have ALSO given him technology, on top of what he already had from Fracture AND from his high-tech multinational corporation).
His lips in the top right panel look very….off.
Maxima is not looking /at/ the fine print,
she is looking /for/ the fine print.
Not undesstanding that with Deus the fine print is subatomic in scale.
So as to cram more of it in that final dot on the document.
I appreciate the attention to detail wit showing the reflection of the document in Max’s skin. :)
Deus looks like handsome squidward when he pouts his lips like that
“The only thing more dangerous in the shies – is you”
Sydney would probably like to contest that claim.
The GI hair cut was invented by Dr. Benjamin Rush during the US Revolution.
“Chiggers can’t hide in the soldiers’ hair if you cut it all off.” {taps head knowingly}