Grrl Power #88 – “Restraint” generally not a word used to describe her
Sydney’s obviously spent some time testing out the orbs, but as we see on this page, that sometimes proved hard to do without drawing attention to herself. She knows their basic functions but still has a lot to learn.
Speaking of learning, you guys get to suffer along with me while I try my hand at different angles. That low shot of Max isn’t terrible but it could be better. I think I spent about an hour on the pencils for just that panel and her mouth still looks a little weird. Oh well, learn by doing.
This week’s superhero fix to tide you over till next Monday is the League of Super Redundant Heroes. Basically, there’s heroes, then there’s sidekicks, then there’s the guys that didn’t quite make sidekick, and then there’s these guys.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
XD I can’t help but to pity Arianna.
Where as I am going to giggle myself silly over her impending horror.
As well, the sub comic is the perfect finishing touch to today’s strip. I love Dabbler more and more. And of course, Max’s complete deadpan, PERFECT!
What’s Hentai? does she really wanna know?
it probably says a lot about the Japanese and even more about the people who watch it, read it or play those sort of games
well she did set up the fake robbery at the bank that united them with Sydney so Max is just returning the favor, and not all hentai involves tentacles
Yeah, “Hentai” just means “Pervert” (More literally “weirdo”, because “Hen” is “weird”, and tacking “Tai” on the end makes it descriptive of a type of person.)
Fun Fact: “taihen” means “Very Weird” or “Super Weird” – so would “Taihentai” mean “Super-Weirdo” or “Super Pervert?”
Duh, I thought
hentai = porn
ecchi = dirty/pervert
It’s the other way around. Ecchi, Engrish for “H”, is a general tag for adult things, much as X and AO are used in the States. Hentai, being an actual word and not a malaproper, is used as “pervert”. Because of this, and the lack of awareness of ecchi as a thing until recently, and it not being a thing until somewhat less recently, Hentai became the catchall for weird cartoon Japanese porn in the minds of Westerners. When ecchi migrated to the States and beyond, it was worked into the vocabulary to mean “softcore” weird Japanese porn, while hentai became “hardcore’ weird Japanese porn.
The more you know? Maybe?
Wow talk about an interesting discussion about hentai
10 points to the first person to name the 7 flavors of hentai!
Trick question.
There’s more than 7 flavors.
Vanilla, black cherry… uh… missionary?
Seriously though, ecchi, hentai (vanilla), BDSM, tentacle, yuri, yaoi… hmm. Guro? Damsel in distress?
I’m sure I’ve seen it, just don’t know the name.
Futanari, trap :D
A friend of mine runs an ecchi site and all the pictured do have closed people in them. So no real nudity but definitely not for kids.
Oh and not all anime fans are perverts. I am an anime fan and I prefer the cute anime like chobits and sailor moon and card captors. Although if you are not careful when searching for any of those you can easily find hentai.
You are a girl(one presumes). when a 50 year old man watches cardcaptors, it’s perverted. What’s worse? they targeted the show to that demographic (once they realized it existed)
Yes I am a girl.
I am interested in what clothed ecchi looks like. Mostly girls in towels and undies or what?
lingerie, pantsu shots, ribbons, rope-work, girl sleep over meme, upskirt shots, wet-T look, Containment strained or skimpy bikini looks that leave nothing to the imagination… these are used as manga covers, game covers, and promo shots for major characters in mangas, games and tv anime a lot. Many fan based fan-fic based art is also of this genre of hentai. A lot of this type is usually sent by one artist/group to another site/manga as a gift for reaching a milestone as a way to say, welcome to the gang/business too- You’re good enough to make us want to draw your stuff too! But look what we do with your characters. Challenge sent! —
In America hentai has come to mean anime/manga smut, but you have to be careful with the word in Japan. If you happen to see a “hentai” artist at a japanese comic or doujin convention, don’t ask for a hentai commission, they could take offense at that. Apparently the word means something more along the lines of “deviant.” Or really “pervert” only in the US, people use the word pervert in a semi-kidding manner as a positive thing. Imagine some old church biddy using the word pervert and that’s closer to the meaning.
Although considering some of the stuff I’ve seen that falls under the umbrella of hentai, deviant is too mild a word to describe it.
Yes there is a lot of nasty hentai out there. It is too easy to find too. It is like darn it I was not searching for that. Do to some of it some anime fans are considered pedophiles. Although some might be but not all. Just like not all people who play violent video games are violent.
Henti, if it didn’t make your eyes bleed, you’re not doing it right. ;-P
true, there’s some that’s basicly love stories..just with explicit sex.
Which has become harder and harder to find. I have a decent sized collection of the stuff; and prefer the older softer stuff (not that I don’t delve into some of the freakier stuff from time to time); but about five or so years ago after returning about six different titles I had picked up for *crossing the line* for me I basically just stopped bothering. I mean way too much of it available is rape, people being ripped apart; blood, urination, and so on from there…and it gets really “grim dark” in far too many. I always prefered those like “Elven Bride” which were funny and sexy at the same time, tentacles are a hit or miss for me (usually miss); it is rare for me to see one I actually liike.
Pity? I don’t. :)
Looks like Arianna needs to work on her geek lingo and geek PR skills. ;-)
I got a giggle out of the hentai part.
Here comes the tentacle jokes.!
That explains a lot about Dabbler. I don’t want to meet her friends.
But there was this one planet that bipedal females were warned to stay away from.
***Shudders***
It wasn’t to safe for males ether. :o
That world, they just call it porn.
Or maby vacation videos.
Love the little cartoon under the comic.
Looks like Maxima is already aquanted with hentai.
She used to be a nerd, remember? ;-)
Yep.
SAY! THAT! WITH! PRIDE!
Being a nerd is kind of like being a marine. You never REALLY stop, you just leave active duty.
AWESOME!
Side note, Mr DaveB, I think you look at the same demotivational pages that I do. :)
EVERYONE VOTE! WE HAVE SLIPPED TO NUMBER 6!!!!!!!!!!!
That is all.
The poor homeless squirrel
the tentacle monster thing from hentai… i was wondering if that was going to be mentioned
Funny as usual. I do wonder though, why is Sydney’s left arm suddenly made of wood?
They can make her invisable of course.
Couldn’t be that he just forgot to shade it in his rush to get this comic out on time.
give it a few hours. I predict a patented “Son of a —” from DaveB.
Nice catch on panel 9. It’s an art mistake.
i was thinking the same thing
Son of a… ®
Apparently it’s patented now. I saw that while I was coloring it and then immediately forgot to fix it. :P
Oh, come on…you’re suppose to say something about how it’s intentional and how using the tentacle orb makes her arm go wooden and then, when no one is watching, change it and remove your comments, deny ever saying anything like that and so fort :p
He admits when he’s wrong.
Good thing to be able to do, don’t you think?
I was just teasing our author there :P
I think it is a very good thing.
I agree, teasing our author is a good thing.
But I’ll leave that job to Artimisia, who is cuter than I and can get away with it. ;)
“…using the tentacle orb makes her arm go wooden…”
Using the orb too much? Is that like the urban legend of guys getting hairy palms?
Mmmmmaaaayyyyyybbbeeee…..*looks around suspiciously to see if anyone notices her*
I see you!
Apparently, using the tentacle can even give a girl wood.
That one’s right up there with the saying that it’ll cause blindness too. Which we all know is just plain false. *adjusts glasses*
It’s a side-effect of a mental bandwidth limitation. Baseline brains of whatever species (I’m presuming these aren’t Human tech) aren’t wired to keep track of more limbs at once than they’re born with, so activating the Pseudopod Tentacle Thingy Orb means it takes over one limb’s connections, and as a safety feature renders that limb ‘cloaked’. Unfortunately, this particular one has a glitch: it occasionally cloaks the wrong limb.
Turning mistakes into backstory since 2005.
You rembered the lanyard!
and forgot part of sydney’s arm in last panel…
I think Maxima is enjoying this a little too much. And that low shot is pretty good. Maybe the mouth is a touch too wide? *shrug* No complaints here.
I pity the squirrel in panel six.
Ahaha! xD Maxima’s loosening up the more she’s around Sydney!
Seriously though, the restraint has been impressive..
Question: As we begin to delve into Sydney’s orbs, what gives Sydney her high Power Level? Is it the raw power of her orbs or the versatility they give her where she can access 2 of 7 different powers at a time? If the power of her PPO and the tethering between her and her orbs is any indication (strong enough to fully resist Max’s super strength), is it both?
High power level in an individual power is of course how strong that individual is at that power relative to others with it. High power overall is probably rated by how many high end powers you have and/or how effectively they can be used.
The orbs themselves have a lot of potential power, but it will take Sydney a little while to learn how to use them to their full extent.
with High level power comes high level responsibility ;)
Or high power highjinks.
Powerful enough that it moves Sydney’s hair, I’d say that is pretty powerful indeed.
MAx and Arianna don’t seem to like each other very much! Syd educating Arianna in hentai will provide entertainment for the others in ARC if nothing else. Mind you, I’m sure you could write an entire mini-series about Syd’s misadventures just finding out what the orbs do, let alone using them. I’m guessing that they’ll have to take Syd somewhere safe so that they can see what she can do with ppo – blow a few tanks up, that sort of thing! And we still don’t know where she acquired them, what they actually are, were they made, do the original owners want them back, all sorts of things!
They probably have a facility for that, whether in the building or at a military base. Superpowers aren’t exactly things you can be careless with, while ARC is all about the super-powered.
Fort Sill in Lawton, OK isn’t all that far a flight from DFW. I’d think an artillery training base would be perfect for testing that orb.
Local military base big enough to have a place to test fire artillery. Reasonable to assume ‘pretty powerful’ will be at least the equivalent of a tank cannon or howitzer.
I’m guessing that Syd tested PPD before she found the one that did her forcefield.
Sorry, PPO.
Aha! You’re not hip! :-D
Hey – they are hip, just easily confused by similar TLAs.
Mind you it could be easily interchanged with a PPD if you are talking the massive damage catagory.
You did know that the ISC carried a “plasmatic pulsar device” on their larger ships right?
You didn’t?
License to nerdish hipster-ism revoked!
Sorry, too thoroughly versed in real weaponry – for me a PPD is an early Soviet submachinegun. A formidable weapon in its way, but no way it could blow a tree to splinters!
They have some truely awsomly powerful ammo out there nowadays.
Seen that movie The Expendables? That shotgun seen was very CGI but I’ll lay you odds there are shells out there that would blow you up on contact.
Yes, that was a prairie dog; and, yes, it turned into vapor.
Google this and you’ll find very powerful ammo.
Ever heard of a punt-gun? Shotgun for duck-hunting. Longer than a man’s height.
I don’t know about ‘blow you up on contact’, but you can certainly get grenade rounds to fire from a shotgun. Mind you, it seems you can get just about anything in 12-gauge if you know the right armourers, so there may well be some kind of demolition round out there.
One word: Firequest
*blinks*
the potentual to replicate Mass Effect’s ‘i loaded HE rounds in my shotgun…. For Awesome!’ option would be ALMOST enough to actually get me interested in guns.
almost.
(sniper rifle with HE rounds and the ability to actually hit stuff (me and aiming don’t go together too well) might Actually do it… It always amused me that that combo actually had a higher damage output than the Mako’s main cannon once you loaded up some rail extensions. only downside was that the mako could handle a couple of hits from the largest Geth… guy on foot could not.)
Well, there’s always the cheats for super-gun and super-armor…
The modern “Dragon’s breath” shotgun shell is an incendiary round so hot it can turn the weapon into a one shot. The fire only reaches about 20 feet though, so despite it’s heat it isn’t considered that useful.
Auto assault 12: Purpose build 12 gage automatic combat shotgun,
Specialty ammo: The frag-12, a grenade round build to be fired from/by a 12 gage shotgun. other ammos include various grenade mods like door penatration/non-impact explosion, flares, and a mini cam.
Discovery channel: It is your information friend.
The Russians have a asault shotgun called the M 20, You can fire it at full auto with one hand. Has a stabalizer built in so the recoil is dampened. Saw it on u-tube with this Russian guy who likes to show off weapons.
Sorry, its called the AA 12.
look it up on u-tube under FPSRussia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ebtj1jR7c
this is discover channel ‘episode’ which has the discription of the frag 12 rounds.
True, but a PPD fires .30 Tokarev pistol rounds. The bullets are too small to put a lot of goodies in.
. . . an a Firefly reference.
woohoo,, another one caugh it :)
Was wondering if anyone else caught the Jane quote and “Jayne is a girl’s name” “Jayne ain’t a girl! If she starts in on that girl’s name thing, I’ll show her good and all I got man parts.”
Clear grey one = flight/ optimal gravity feild
Red cracked one = blaster
Pink one = telakenetic tentacle
pink one with a tentacle inside,, iof you look back the other pages you’ll see what i mean
Looking back, I think those are lightning globe discharges rather than cracks, and they are a Good Thing. That one really needs to be as recognizable as possible.
What I don’t get is: Why was Sydney so reluctant to reveal herself to the ‘official’ supers? Is there some reason why she wanted to stay under the radar instead of going on a crime fighting spree? :) As nerdy as she is, I think that would have been the first thing that came to mind?
Remember her dissection fears? She figured they’d haul her away and experiment on her. It’s not like she knew she’d be actually getting this welcome a treatment from the authorities. Even as she was brought in by Max, she was wondering if she was being arrested and detained. They had to reassure and explain to her that she was just being invited in and could only do stuff to her through legal means.
Thanks for reminding me, that slipped my mind somehow. Though I still find her fear a little….genre-blind. Especially for a comicbook nerd. :)
I think Syd was actually being “realistic”. You can expect comic book characters to welcome fellows with open arms, taking them at their word that they’d use their powers only for good. Practically speaking, “real world” (as far as the term is applicable) government agencies wouldn’t be so trusting.
Yeah well, how real is the world of Grrlpower? ;) But this isn’t something I want to seriously discuss. But again, thanks for reminding me of something I had forgotten about. :)
That’s why I used quotation marks and the parenthetical note. I had to be careful in that area. ;-)
Basically it’s exactly our world, only there have been supers around for about a generation, even then, not many of them. There isn’t crazy tech like force fields or flying cars or invincible alloys. There is magic as well, but as with our world, most people don’t think it’s real.
You know, for a very long time I’ve wondered about worlds where people could fly, shoot energy beams out of their eyes, or all the other various superpowers that generally exist but magic was something that was considered “different.”
Humans have an amazing capability for self-deception.
Everything they don’t want is blended out. Just ask The Doctor.
The new series has space-ships crasing into Big Ben, asteroid-ships hovering over London, armies of aliens invading London, aliens actually stealing Earth away… and still there are people not believing it.
Or look at the Transformers movies. How dumb do you have to be to not see that a car proves not to be a car?
And then they rebooted reality and none of that ever happened :p
No, I mean why is magic treated as being different from any other superpower? What makes it so special? Most of the time magic using characters aren’t doing anything that’s significantly different than what non-magical superhumans can do, they just tend to have a slightly larger bag of potential tricks that aren’t terribly closely related to each other and a general lack of defensive related boosts (they’re generally about as squishy as average humans unless they use protection spells). The difference between the two is mostly arbitrary.
Technically breaking physics by having funky genes is no different from breaking physics by saying funky words, from the perspective of those of us in a universe where the laws of physics do not break (damn it!)
From a story perspective however they are very, very different. Super-powers are usually not something you have a choice about. You are born with the X-gene, or handed the Cosmic whidjimawhosis by the Guardian of Roxxor or you find a set of alien dragon balls in your cracker jack box and they bond to you. The story is about how you respond to handing the powers fate has thrust upon you, do you remain a moral being when the risk of consequences has been removed. (The invisible man says: No.)
Magic however is not handed to you on a plate, in most magical fiction is it something you have to persue and and great cost. It is power you must strive and bleed to aquire and you may end up beholden to powers who regard human morality like you would regard a black velvet clown painting. The sotries are about what kind of man is willing to pay those prices, and what he does with it when he has it.
And that would differ from being a Herald of Galactus or a member of the Green Lantern Corp how? Both the Silver Surfer and Green Lantern were chosen for their position by beings with power beyond that of mere mortals.
The only reason I see for having a difference is because we’re told that there should be a difference. From a functionality standpoint, the magic superpowers vs non-magic superpowers lacks any significant distinction.
Being a “super” requires a certain biological predisposition (which means that technically Sydney is not one, neither is Dabbler). Magic is a means of manipulating the environment, and in theory anyone could do it, including supers. They both belong in the category of “it gives you powers” but they are distinctive.
Games like Champions break it down like this:
There are Mutants, whose genetic makeup gives them superpowers. (Too many examples to count really)
There are Magicians, who gain their powers by learning spells. (Doctor Strange)
There are Science Origins, who got their powers through some laboratory accident or other non-replicatable scientific means. (Spider Man, The Flash)
There are Tech Origins, who use gadgets (Iron Man)
And there are “Naturals” who are just very good at what they do, and only count as “Super” when compared to the average schmo (Batman, Green Arrow)
There are, of course, lots of hybrids and those who don’t fit neatly into a catagory. Halo, for example, uses “Gadgets” which may be either technological or magical in nature, but otherwise is without powers. This would make her a Focus-using Natural. Since the orbs appear to not be steal-able, they wouldn’t get the focus bonus in champions, and would just be a special effect for a “Magic Orb” power pool.
I think microraptor’s point is that functionally, magic is just another powerset, with variant limitations. And the Champions examples just reinforce that.
Functionally, it is certainly true.
Since most people haven’t seen much in the way of powers, or magic, in this world, it will be mostly true for them as well. They’ll be like, “Whoa, you can FLY!” and won’t care much how the effect is achieved.
The real difference is, once people consider it, unless it turns out only some people are genetically predisposed towards being powerful magicians (like Harry Potter, or how Marvels X-gene means mutant powers), the existence of powers from magic implies that anyone can learn magic. With enough training, etc. Whereas no amount of training will make someone into Hulk. So someone could found a “Hogwarts Academy” right now in this world and get in on the ground floor of a new movement of magical attainment. Probably a whole new set of stories could come out of that. Hmmmm….
And while I am talking about magic and Harry Potter, I should mention “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality“. It is a retelling of Harry Potter if he had been raised by an Oford Professor instead of Dursley, and was a genius to boot. There are other changes as well, which you will find as you go. It is much better than the originals, in my opinion. Chapter 5 is a hoot; if you don’t like it by then, stop reading…
Always with the flying… begs one question:
How do they keep flies, dirt and stuff like that out of their hair, clothes and mouth?
There may be significant distinguishing features to magic in a particular author’s world. If there are people who use Detect Magic and Dispel Magic, this matters much more to Dabbler than it does to Maxima.
Well, if you are referencing the “Real World” [tm] in some way the “Not Trusting” bit is more polarized towards the faceless agencies, and with all too good reasons.
I call it the theory of fear. Basically even if there were people with higher end “abilities” than those seen on shows like (Stan Lee’s Superhumans) and (Ripley’s Believe it or not); they have been reluctant/fearful to come forward for several reasons.
1: Unless you are bullet proof, no matter what your powers are that is reason enough not to be a vigilante.
2: Media effect; with comic books about mutant hate groups, super-human registration, as well as movies for the last thirty years depicting much the same as well as secret government agencies people with powers could be reluctant to come forth out of fear of being hounded by such things. On another end if there are Omega and S-class types out there they might feel revealing themselves would but those lower power folks in danger as they’d be easier targets for hate groups and such that may also spring up. (you know if people found out anyone, a neighbor, kids in the schools with their kids, might have the equivalent of deadly weapons built into their bodies it would make people nervous and nervous people gather in groups too reassure each other and then its just a slippery slope to hate rallies and wanting the government to weed them out and segregate them).
3: Real world precidence; during the Cold War America and The Soviat Union were “acquiring” individuals they believed to have psychic powers an experimenting on them; and trying to weaponize them (there is even an account of a Soviat Hypnotist who escaped captivity and fled that country who they were after; he made the guards think his cell was full of diamonds and locked them in…not kidding, that actually happened).
Thankfully with the onset of technology such programs were deamed pointless; after all spy planes and satelites had to confirm what a distant viewer was saying anyway so just use the distant viewer. A trained spy using a sniper rifle or poison was preferable to a drafted civilian who may or may not be able to cause someone to have an anarism or pinch an artery or vein.
*but even with our modern weapons; I wouldn’t put it past the government to still want someone who could walk into an area or be captured by terrorists just looking like an American tourist in the wrong spot who is harmless but can actually unleash a “Devastation Wave” (molecular and particle breakdown energy wave) or other destructive powers with out the need for clear and obvious weapons.
Fear of the Secret Black Op’s Agency’s that would either try to steal her marbles, or turn her into their slave.
Threatning friends, family and imprisonment if you don’t join is in effect a form of slavery.
Black ops? Don’t you mean any institution that has power over you? They don’t have to be Black Ops to really mess up your life.
Got that right.
Love Sydney’s face in pannel six.
Understatement
Pretty powerful.
And Max is becoming interested. I think good old Sidney is going to get along well with Max.
I agree. Maybe deep down inside, Max finds a kindred spirit in Sydney. You can give the nerd a hot, super-powered body, but you can’t take the nerd out of that body. ;-)
Now compare: a couple of strips ago Arianna was happy about Syd freaking Max.
By now she’s pretty upset about Syd and Max is the one laughing.
One of her stones has to be bashing out karma
One of her natural talents. To fluster and piss people off, to the amusement of everybody around her.
Can someone identify the Symbol on Sydneys shirt in the flashback?
I think it’s Space Ghost. I’m not sure though.
I’m pretty sure it’s Space Ghost’s.
Yup. In fact I just went to the comments to toss in a “Nice Space Ghost shirt!” message.
So, Wonder Woman and Space Ghost shirts. I’m sensing a theme. ;-)
Given that the various Arc folks have symbols on their neck pieces, and with ‘H’arem and ‘H’eatwave already using their first initials – perhaps Sydney will be getting that SG logo on hers?
Give the girl a Starcraft shirt!
She has also been depicted wearing a Power Girl shirt, and everyone asked Dave when did Sydney get boobs…..
Yep. More of Sydney’s t-shirts on a theme: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/163
I think it is a variant of the Jean Grey Phoenix symbol, which is probably exactly what Syd would want to wear testing her new superpowers…
No bird in the picture. Understand why byou would think that though.
She asked for it. She totally asked for it. ^^
Anvil’s reaction was funny Harem’s reaction though, I figured that would happen.
I thought that was Heatwave, myself…
Heatwave is over on the far left with her hand over her mouth, I think. I have a hard time telling characters apart when they’re drawn chibi.
I’m sure that’s Anvil. She’s bigger than the others, and her skin color is darker.
Yeah Heatwave and “vanilla” Harem are a little hard to tell apart. Heatwave has fire engine red hair like Anvil, Harem’s got strawberry blonde hair (or as I color it, kind of a creamy mauve) and freckles. Anvil, Heatwave and vanilla Harem do all have similar hairstyles though. Maybe I should have given Heatwave some other distinctive characteristic like a scar on her cheek or an eyepatch. :)
Special hairstyle, but only for the chibi versions so we can tell them apart?
mmm, was gonna say the clothes usualy tell them apart but i went back a saw that kenya and brook both wear pretty much same thing,,, but so far daphne doesnt wear stuff that look like either of them
Field guide to redheaded Super heroines (so far):
Anvil (Kenya Cassidy) is large, muscular, and deep brown in complexion. Heatwave( Brooke Falls) and Harem Basic (Daphne DeSantis, in her least modified form) do resemble each other, but Heatwave’s ID collar is red and Halo’s is blue.
Here endeth the lesson.
Harem’s is blue. Halo’s doesn’t exist yet, and anyway, she isn’t a redhead.
Also Heatwave and Anvil have true red hair, Harem Basic is a lighter, less intense color.
I vote for the eyepatch, Dave. Those things always look badass.
If the Dallas/Fort Worth setting is used, or even if it isn’t, Brook could become a habitual cowboy hat wearer. Somehow that doesn’t fit with my idea of Daphne, but it works with Brook.
All of a sudden I caused a bigger reaction then I thought I would. o.o
You can tell Arieana is someone who is totaly someone who lives only for her work, and advancemet.
Also that she is in her fourties,
The following question is the result of the problem of drawing comics: unless you explicitly assign a panel to an event or detail, it’s glossed over by the flow/action of the story.
Question: Does Sydney have to reach up and grab an orb, or can she command them to fly to her hands mentally?
Looking at her hover upside down made me wonder what would happen if she were to somehow let go of her flight orb. Could she manage to catch it in time to save her from hitting the floor?
I think DaveB should be the one to answer that one.
That should be answered in the next page or two.
Or check out panel two. That is a subtle indication that Sydney can affect the orbs without touching them. It apparently takes her a full grasp to access their powers. but I would guess that with practice she might be able to activate a power set mentally without touching the particular orb it relates to. Like, years of practice. Maybe. Or maybe not. I have a lot of guesses, about a myriad of things.
For instance, my guess right now is that the orbs are are alien artifacts on the order of the lantern’s rings.
I’ll be curious to see how far off I am if back-story about them is ever revealed…
Was that “I’ll be in my bunk!” comment a reference to Jane from Firefly?
It’s Jayne, and yes it is :D
This is totally my favourite web comic by miles ..More More
I also now def. do not have a mental image of Harem/Syd/Max et al experimenting with the tentacle thingy.
Must not think of elephants………..
who knows what Sydney gets up to with her tentacle thinggy
No wonder she doesn’t have a boyfriend. She doesn’t need one. ;)
She’s got a guy she’s intrested in. Pages 17 – 22.
Interest not the same as need. Some social interaction is always welcome just meant she doesn’t have to seek out guys for purely sexual gratification. Thingy takes care of that.
Maxima is realy enjoying this interview.
She’s starting to let her nerd flag fly.
Like how she shapes the TK Tentical like a ballon.
ok,, about the mini comic,,,, love kenya’s OMFG face,,, love also arianna’s shocked blanked expression,, loved the firefly quote from daphne,,expected as much from dabbler,, but max,, bravo for hentai resistance,, but if you look not realy well enough her left arm seem to,,,disapear,, inside her pants,, wich it does not if you look carefully,,, but
It’s her hand in her pocket. That would be from her bending over, and NOT taking her hand out.
I half expected Dabbler to say something like “Hey, I used to date that guy!”
I was going to put “I think I recognize him” as in, she recognizes the tentacle monster, but then I thought it’d read like there was a tentacle monster molesting a guy in the picture – which now that I think about it would probably be something Sydney would look at.
Personally I cannot wait for Sydney to meet Dabbler. Although I expect even Sydney is going to need about 3 brain reboots in the initial meeting.
On a side note, the changing banners at the top of the screen are practically telling their own stories at this point, and some of them are hilarious.
:)
i dont know,,, i think she may end up blushing often,, but i can see her nerd instinct taking over brain freee,, and in fact i can easely see dabbler beeing the one taken aback by sidney’s reaction,,, unless dabbler proposition sidney for some,,, personal in depth research :)
Fun fact: the hardest hentai to find is a female tentacle demon monster molesting a man.
(don’t ask how I know this) LoL.
Hentai “Tentacle Porn” was originally a form of Censorship believe it or not. Showing man/woman intercourse was illegal at the time so some makers of hentai substituted tentacles to get around the restriction. Now it’s considered it’s own genre, go figure. :)
considering there are some classical Japanese paintings of women being molested by octopi I don’t think it was 100% just for that.
(I do know it was illegal to show the man’s penis, and any body hair on a woman for the longest time; hence the problem for westerners thinking the woman was meant to be younger than she was; and the whole invisible phallus thing which became a joke in its self for a while).
I love Sydney’s thought balloon remembering herself trying the “PPO”. The hazards of experimenting with unknown powers! :D
This update was pure awesome in a cup.. THANKS!! I LOLed TWICE >_<
I think the low-angle Maxima turned out well; her mouth doesn’t look weird, she looks like she’s amused by the situation.
As per usual, I’m in gigglefits over this. Especially with the little chibi-style comic below the regular one. You go, Max, let her find out the hard way!
Last panel: for when you need an extra finger-waggling hand.
I notice that Sydney landed and took her hand off the flight orb before using the tentacle one. So right now we don’t know if she can handle two orbs at once … insert Hentai joke here.
Actualy, she grabbed the pink orb with her other hand. I’m not sure if she let go og the other orb yet.
Sorry, I was wrong, she was upside down so I thought the flight orb was in her right hand.
As best I can tell, all her orb-work so far has been with her right hand – I believe we can conclude from this that either she is right-handed or a Princess Bride fan…
D’oh! I was confused too. She does point at the PPO with her left.
However, she doesn’t use it, just manipulates it a little…
Still, I guess we can’t conclude much from that…
Actually, Max looks surprisingly like one of my cousins from that angle (being younger than her, she was taller than me when we were kids). At least, when displaying that sort of emotion. I love the panoply of expressions Maxima goes through, too. (Somehow I suspect she’s feeling a headache coming in on that last panel…)
“Pretty powerful.” I think that could be followed by “Remember that forest fire last month? Really it was an accident.”
“Pretty powerful.”
Tunguska, anybody?
Just as long as it isn’t Tambora powerful.
Earth-Shattering Kaboom!
You took my P-238 space modulator!
“Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator”, shirley ?
That looks like Bazooka to Panzerfaust level damage. To be taken Very Seriously Indeed, but not earth shattering. Note that this is a three star power on the cast page. If PPO has a decent recharge rate, it would allow Sydney to take on a Main Battle Tank as a fair fight, but not obliterate an invading army.
notice that there is a very big crater near Sydney spreading out from about her feet would have been if she was still facing the way her “blast” went.
I have a feeling she targeted something near her feet at the lowest power setting she could think she could summon from the orb…
Let’s say that it left a crater similar to a low angle meteor strike w/similar thermal bloom effects downrange.
Effects in cloud are similar to what you’d think a volcanic plume would be like, which means that whatever she destroyed is still very HOT and moving away from her… likely she found out that one of the orbs protected her automatically or we would be seeing a toasted chibi version of Sydney here.
If I was Daveb I might have drawn that scene with sydney having blown off her pants and most of her clothing for comic effect and given her reverse raccoon eyes from ash in the outline of her glasses… plus a farmers tan that is later revealed to be on her front only (which since she is who she is, she explains to her co-worker/co-shop owner as being from aliens… It would make her recollection even a little bit funnier, but I’m a writer not a cartoonist or webcomic artist/writer. So I can do as silly as I want with words and let the reader’s mind draw the scene better than I could ever do by hand or computer tool.
Then again, there might be another scene when she does a full power test out in the desert late one night and that blows her skirt/pants off (into ashes) and only the emergency protection orb saved her butt. Making her want to be a lot more subtle and the Orb’s laughter in her mind being what put them on her list that first time….
Also you know Sydney is gonna see Dabbler and once she’s met her/been warned about her. (Max is likely to make that intro before any other Super- just so she can tweak Sydney and then we get to see how that gets flipped on her instead…or Arianna.(BEG (that’s big evl grin for those who don’t know that acronym)) — Four arms? Hentail like sexual attitude? A tail? Having sydney imagine what Dabbler could do with four or more orbs in her hand either will make her panic or grin evily…that is until someone clues her into the Orbs Dabbler keeps around for fun… (Oh I have some TK balls too…they are [I] Wonderful! [/I], can I borrow that pseudopod one? It’s movie night and I want to have some fun!” (with whom or w/herself left unspoken and all the funnier for leaving Sydney to imagine the results herself…) – though she might go to dabbler to find out who the tight asses are on the teams (and to pay back the bumbling bank robber once she finds out who they are and who was behind it.
Sydney, “I am soooo gonna have to get them back for that. I missed making my deposit and work because of that. Being on TV is cool, but they Shot at me!”
Dabbler, “Hmmm? I know where they sleep. Let’s talk to Heatwave, she’s a bit pissed about the lipstick thing. I don’t know why though. She knows his room’s codes…I have some suggestions…Can you hold one orb in hand and keep the others in tube?”
Sydney, “Maaaaaaybe.”
Dabbler, “Cool, you can show me what this “Kancho” thing is all about. I’ll get Leon to tape the episode.”
Sydney, “So you’ve done this before? Won’t we get into trouble?”
Dabbler, “That makes it more fun, doesn’t it? And yes I almost have enough for a movie now.”
Sydney, o.0 !
(The truth is out there…really really far out there when sydney is telling the story though. Especially if it involve her or her secrets. Neh?)
She was flying above the trees when she tested the PPO. I probably should have drawn her scuffed up a bit though, it was obviously more powerful than she was expecting.
Depends on the episode the one mine came from was alluding to atomic energy specifically Plutonium 236. Later they changed it.
Yes! Love the Firefly reference ;D Jayne is amazing :3 And so is your comic lol
Yes, the totally intentional Firefly reference?
What Firefly reference?
firefly was a jewel of a serie,, and it deserved more then it got from fox,, even tough i do like that they did a movie afterward,, and they made a tabletop rpg setting,, and comic books,,,,i would so have loved to see more of that show,,, must have watched every episode a good fifty time if not in the hundreds,,, and i have to say Malcom Reynolds is in my favorite starship captains,, alongside jean luc picard and capitaine charle patenaude of the romano fafar :)
and for referencing to that awesome serie i remove my hat and bow my head to you!
The DVD set is awesome and for the gals total back nudity included (from episode ‘Trash”) of Capt. Tightpants.
I guess this is the reference?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrFaTjcNzZM
Ah, I guess that’s where it’s from. I was thinking of the episode of Friends where Rachel and Monica kiss for a minute (off camera of course) and the next scene is Chandler and Joey storming into their bedrooms.
Actually there are 2 scenes with that quote the before scene and the after scene.
I have watched Firefly many times and I didn’t catch that. I thought it was more along the line that the hentei scene was a little toooooo steamy for Daphne and she was going to her room to take care of business.
That’s what the saying implies. “off for a wank”
you know you can make that a long term joke, simply by having the noise Dabbler’s tail makes when she’s really happy or curious be, “Fap, Fap, Fap!” as it slaps against something. All sorts of misinterpretations, embarrassed outbursts, denials etc could be forthcoming from this noise filling in the silence or happening in the background…worse yet. Dabbler would likely have practiced and knows which objects to tap her tail against to best make that noise with. Just to see reactions of her teammates and to tweak them psychologically or sexually into admitting something or a Pavlovian response.
(big evil grin)
That would require Dabbler to have a tail.
I just noticed that badge around her neck wasn’t in the last comic and that it apparently defies gravity when she’s “flying” :P
DaveB forgot to put it in on the last page.
The orb puts some kind of gravity feild around her so any way her feet are is down. That’s why her hair and the rest if the things on her body don’t go flying all over the place when she’s spinning around.
I have a running list of things to fix. :P
Totally willing to overlook experimental angles and such ’cause the story is so interesting and clever.
Firefly should have never been canceled! i got the entire series box set on DVD :P as well as the Serenity Movie. *starts to sing Fruity Oaty Bars song* anyways i love the update, sadly didn’t catch the Firefly reference in time because it just sounded like something Harem would say regardless. Now if one of the two orbs she doesn’t know about yet turns her invisible and the other makes her phase through solid objects then we would have some interesting stuff going on too :P
I have both the “Fruity Oaty Bars” and the Firefly Theme song on my computer and ipod.
I thought I’d add this just for fun! :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7idn3PcKBM